Professional Business Partnerships – Are Your Partners just there for the ride?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Partnerships are an effective business model for professionals such as lawyers and accountants. It is a great way of raising capital and provides an exit strategy for older partners as new partners buy in to the business. While partnerships can be a highly profitable, with partner turnover, the entrepreneurial spark can be diluted or even lost.

Small Business New Year Resolutions

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Do you have a plan to get off the treadmill and make sure that this year will be different? Here is a starting point for your plan.

2011 Top Small Business Articles

by Dr Greg Chapman


Thank you to all the visitors to this blog in 2011. Below are the top 3 posts (as ranked by Google) for the Australian Small Business Blog:


3. Incentives for Small Business Employees- The Qantas Model

2. Pricing Strategy – Public Accountant Magazine Interview

But number 1 with 35% more page views was:

December Newsletter - Who's been Naughty and Who's been Nice?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Subscribe to Newsletter Here

It is only natural that at this time of year we look back and think about what worked well, and what could be improved. It is also a good time to think about your customers. Who were your Best Buyers, and why were they your Best Buyers?

Social Media - Christmas Treat

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

This has been very much the year of social media. We don't seem to be able to get enough of it. So to finish the year off, a little Christmas Treat - a Social Media spoof. Are you maximising your use of social media?

Selling a Business

                        By Nicholas Lowther

Selling a business is much different to selling a property, a car, real estate or anything for that matter. The process can be relatively simple and seem easy though this is where most people go wrong.

Business Brokers charge fees upwards of 5% and have been known to charge 5k plus in initial marketing. This is where most small business owners decide to take on the role of selling a business by themselves.

Ad of the Year - Schadenfreude

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

I think it is always a good thing to end the year on a positive note. So here is your feel good ad of the year with a bit of schadenfreude thrown in. For those unfamiliar with this term, it is a German word meaning joy at the misfortunes of others you don’t like. In this case, the departure of unloved dictators.

The ‘hero’ of our ad of the year is

A Small Business Owner Christmas Gift

by Dr Greg Chapman

So you have worked hard all year for everyone else. Isn't it time someone looked after you? As one of the unthanked heroes of the Australian economy, we here at the Australian Small Business Blog want to thank you. Small businesses contribute 30% to the Australian GDP, punching way above their weight.

Great work in 2011. This is a little Christmas Gift that I hope will help you to achieve even more in 2012. You deserve it!

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

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.

Share This Article: A Small Business Owner Christmas Gift

Tweet
Promote Your Business on our Facebook Fan Page

The Australian Small Business Blog

To send this article to a Friend, click on one of the links below.

The Secret of Business Success

by Dr Greg Chapman

As business owners, we are continually bombarded with unbelievable promises of get rich quick schemes. It seems, every day someone has discovered some amazing secret formula that they are willing to share with you, which will make you millions, for just $99.95…plus tax, of course.

You know, if I had a secret formula on how to make millions, I wouldn’t be selling it for $99.95 (many of these schemes just show you how to sell to others what you just bought!)

November Newsletter - What People Say is Not What They Do

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Subscribe to Newsletter Here

People say they love the Vegemite brand, and were upset when it was sold to an international food producer. In fact Vegemite is consistently rated as one of the top brands in Australia. Only one problem, people don’t buy it.

Building Commission Registration – Who needs it?

                                  By Anne O'Brien

In Victoria, only Registered Building Practitioners are legally allowed to carry out domestic building work of value over $5,000.  

So who needs to be a Registered Building Practitioner?

If a person is in the "business of building" then more than likely they must be registered with the Building Practitioner’s Board (BPB). Here is a partial list of building components that require Building Commission Registration:

Ad of the Month - Case Study

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

In advertising, a case study is is one of the most powerful techniques. It is a form of social proof that what you are saying is true. Buyers can put themselves in the shoes of the Case Study 'star' and see how what worked for someone else could work for them. For author Aaron Shapiro, events transpired that created the perfect demonstration of the truth of the message of his book.

The Economics of a Sales Pipeline

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA


Subscribe to Newsletter Here

Last month we examined how to understand the numbers (the Mathemetics) in your Sales Pipeline In this article the intent is to understand the economic efficiency of your Sales Pipeline.

More at Hotfrog Small Business Hub....

Incentives for Small Business Employees – The Qantas Model

by Dr Greg Chapman


While there were many cries of “Shame – Shame” at Qantas’s CEO Alan Joyce receiving a 71% pay increase while shutting down the airline, Joyce’s biggest mistake was not greed, but rather poor PR. In fact, his remuneration model may be something that small businesses might want to consider for their staff. Of course I am not talking about million dollar bonuses, but understanding the principles of the deal without the hype.

Pricing Strategy – Public Accountant Magazine Interview

This is a transcript of an interview for the cover story for the October 2011 edition of the Public Accountant Magazine with Dr Greg Chapman.

PA: How has the GFC impacted businesses and their pricing strategies?
Dr Chapman: Businesses have become risk adverse. They have been hesitant to expand and to hire new employees. During the GFC businesses had their employees working fewer hours, rather than letting people go. Due to this workplace flexibility, unlike previous recessions, Australia was able to avoid high levels of unemployment seen elsewhere in the world, but now people are working longer hours as businesses recover.

October Newsletter - Customer Service - Two Stories

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Subscribe to Newsletter Here

Whether your customer service is good or bad, people will talk about you. Here are two very different experiences of customer service. Neither is about bad customer service, but both are about how the service was delivered.

Ad of the Month - A Retrospective

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

This month rather than look at a recent ad, I want to go back to an ad that was made in 1984. This is a classic ad by Apple and the late Steve Jobs. I had just written another post on Steve Jobs, and a masterclass by him on branding, a few days before he passed away, but when it came to choosing an ad for this month, I thought a retrospective was appropriate.

The Apple 1984 ad, was one of the most important ads for the computer industry. Before this time, the elephant in the industry was IBM. Home computers were just in their earliest stages of development. The IBM brand was ubiquitous. There was even a saying that “No-one ever got fired for buying an IBM”. It was the safe choice of the corporate world.

The Mathematics of a Sales Pipeline

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Subscribe to Newsletter Here

There are two key components to a sale: the technique and the numbers. In this article, we will discuss the second of these components, the numbers.

More at Hotfrog Small Business Hub....

An Upsell too far? Do you want vitamins with that?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

A joint venture between Blackmores and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to recommend ‘companion range’ dietary supplements to patients who were purchasing common prescription medicines has been axed. The idea was the pharmacist should recommend relevant supplements that might be useful for patients with particular conditions suggested by the prescribed medicine.

Clearly if a pharmacist suggests a particular supplement with the medication, this would be considered compelling to many purchasers due to the trust people place in the professionalism of the pharmacist. Is it an abuse of their position of trust?

When Illness Strikes a Business Owner - Thank God I Had a Stroke

Barbara Gabogrecan

When we have a serious illness we seldom think that we are lucky. But in my case I had two serious health issues occur at the same time and I could honestly say ‘thank God I had a stroke’ because when I did, the Doctors also discovered that I had a brain tumour pushing against the brain stem. The seriousness of this tumour (as it was not malignant) was in getting it out, as it was 7 centimeters deep within the brain. The stroke was relatively mild; the tumour was life threatening.