No-one Ever Got Fired for Choosing IBM

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

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Have you ever offered your services to a large business who decided that it was safer to choose a larger supplier to provide the service, possibly the elephant in your industry, even though their prices were higher? More.....

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and Price: How You Can Charge More Without Losing Sales.

Married to the Business – Who’s the Boss?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Married to the Business is a series of posts about a couple who together run a building business. Mike is the builder and Lyn runs the office. (See earlier posts here.)

Up till now, Lyn had just ran the office. She would pay the accounts and issue invoices and pay the staff. She would balance the books and manage most the other office paperwork.

Mike met the clients, did the quotes, organised the onsite staff and contractors, co-ordinated the suppliers and oversaw the works. Almost none of this could be managed by Lyn as she did not have the technical background, but even she could see that things never seemed to go to plan. There was a lot of wasted time and fixing of mistakes, which Lyn believed should never have occurred.

Small Business Answers - How much money should my business be making?

Dr Greg Chapman answers the question often posed by small business owners:


How much should my business earn to be financially viable?

Increasing Prices Without Losing Clients

An interview with Dr Greg Chapman by the Sydney Morning Herald

SMH: What are the key considerations when businesses set prices?

Ad of the Month - Used Car

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Last month their was a terrifically well written ad for a used car on Gumtree. Unfortunately it was a heavily plagiarised copy of an original ad that shot to fame on Craigslist a few years ago.

In the same way that Porsche likes to associate its buyers with a particularly desirable stereotype in its target market, this ad does so in its. It is just a little less subtle! Magnificent copywriting.

Accountants Are You a Business Advisor or Bean Counter?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

[This article was originally published in National Accountant Magazine]

Almost every small business owner has an accountant but how many actually use their accountant as the primary source of (non-tax) business advice? When an owner first starts their business, they are usually very dependent on their accountant for advice. They are seen as knowledgeable, independent – someone they can trust. They help them set-up the business, suggest the right structure and who can help them do the many things a new business owner must do.

However, this dependence does not last.

Google vs Facebook

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

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With the advent of Google+ evidently Google sees Facebook as its biggest threat, but is it? Certainly Yahoo, Bing and MSN are almost nowhere to be seen in the English speaking world (although Yahoo is big in Japan and Badu in China).

While Facebook has now overtaken Google in terms of Page Visits in the US, in terms of revenue it is still less than 10% of Google’s. One key reason for this is that advertising on Facebook is more problematic.
More.....

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and Price: How You Can Charge More Without Losing Sales.

Married to the Business - Priorities

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Married to the Business is a series of posts about a couple who together run a building business. Mike is the builder and Lyn runs the office. (See earlier posts here.)

Mike is always busy, with clients calling him all the time about changes, things that need to be fixed or just progress updates. Inevitably this means that what he plans to do each day and each week get delayed. Mike will often finish a day tired, but feeling he has not achieved anything.

The first thing their new business advisor did was to review their Profit and Loss statement, which at first glance showed a healthy turnover, but on closer inspection revealed hidden cross subsidies in their business.

Builders – Survive the Building Downturn

                                  By Anne O'Brien

With the regular reports of a decline in the building industry builders are starting to feel the pinch and clients are becoming more demanding. This has forced many builders to cut their margins just to keep their team together and stay busy.

If things were not tough enough, the reputation of the industry is also being negatively affected due to a few unscrupulous builders, and the patchwork enforcement of claims by the regulator. This makes clients even more fussy about who they deal with.

Ad of the Month - Do you want Technology with your Pizza?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

My son who has long since left the comfort of the nest, often recommends ads for these posts, and I have in the past used some of the ads he recommends. This is one that I think says a lot about him- he loves both technology and pizza! (I don’t know where he gets it from – it must be from his mother.)

Managing a Star Employee with an Attitude

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

In any business there are 4 types of employees. If you understand these types and their key attributes, how you manage them becomes much easier.

March Newsletter - Are Your Sales Costing You Money?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

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The sales process always contains an element of emotion, even if it is a structured tender, because for every purchaser there is a risk. As all small business owners have to be sales people, it is very important we understand this emotional side, but we also need to look at the numbers.
More.....

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and Price: How You Can Charge More Without Losing Sales.

A One per cent Small Business Tax Cut

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

There is much current debate on whether small business should receive a 1% tax cut, and the benefit to small business.

So what is the true value of this benefit? Firstly, you may not even be eligible for any benefit.

Ad of the Month - Eye-catching

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Everyday we are bombarded with over 3000 commercial messages, so to get noticed you have to stand out from the clutter. If you can come up with something eye-catching, that makes people stop in the street just as they were going to pass you by, you will at the very least get people talking about your product, or at best to drop into your store and take action.

Married to the Business - Reality Check

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Married to the business is a series of posts about a married couple who together run a building business. Mike is a certified registered builder and Lyn runs the office for Mike. In the last post Mike and Lyn realised that they needed advice on how to run their business.

The first thing their new business advisor did was to review their Profit and Loss statement, which at first glance showed a healthy turnover, but on closer inspection revealed hidden cross subsidies in their business.

Builder Licence Applications – Who Can Help You?

                                  By Anne O'Brien

There is much confusion on whether applications for registration with the Victorian Building Commission for a Builder’s Licence or Certification must be completely prepared by the individual applying.

Some assert that if a third party prepares the application for you, it will be rejected by the commission and you will be failed in the exam. Is this statement true? Yes and No.

February Newsletter - Loyalty

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

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Loyalty programs are a common marketing strategy for businesses of all sorts. From frequent flyer programs for airline, to cards with stamps that mean your sixth cup of coffee is no charge.

These programs work as they encourage you to continue to use the services of a single supplier rather than to spread your purchases around, which may, in fact, be more convenient for you. The business then recognises this and rewards the customer for their loyalty.

Married to the Business - Should we just get jobs?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Last month, we met Lyn and Mike, who are married and together run a house building business. Mike is a highly skilled builder, certified by the Building Commission, and Lyn runs the office.

Every week Lyn has a pile of invoices to pay. Not to mention making payroll for their staff, and then from what’s left they draw their own wages. Sometimes there is nothing left.

Ad of the Month - Seriously?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

An ad was recently banned because it ‘encouraged the use of electronic goods in water’. The ‘good’ in question was a laptop running on battery power. The person operating it was wearing a suit in a hot tub, with his boss half a meter away who was on the phone to him. The hot tub was in an office, which had a suit of armour as part of its décor. At the end of the ad, the boss pulls two ice creams out from under the water, tastes one, and then hands it to his poor colleague and says “this one is yours”.

Why I Like Real Estate Agents

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

With the weak housing market, auctions are experiencing low clearance rates. As a result many vendors are taking a DIY approach, going the private sale route in the belief that they will come out ahead by saving money on agents’ fees. However, this view just looks at the cost and not the value side of a real estate agent’s services.