Business Process Outsourcing - Yes or No?

Are you looking to outsource any of your business's processes? Read this before making a decision.

Social selling 

Outsourcing is not just a strategic option for large international corporations, small and medium sized firms can benefit too from the efficiency, functionality and cost savings of outsourcing. Outsourcing simply means "contracting out" various functions of your business. A common misconception is that outsourcing is always done overseas. Moving your IT help desk to India can save a lot of money, but there are many providers in the UK that can provide an IT help desk that is cheaper than having an in-house support function.

Cost Savings

By outsourcing functions that were previously performed in-house, businesses can reduce their employee levels and related costs such as recruitment, salaries and benefits. By outsourcing a capital intensive function, you can also reduce the costs of equipment obsolescence and depreciation.

Quality of Service

Because your firm is the outsourcer's customer, they will want to keep you happy. You can therefore benefit from a more “can-do” approach, which may not always be what you get from an in-house team.

State-of-the-art Technology

Outsourcers have to spend time and money on the most up to date equipment and on employee training to remain competitive. By outsourcing certain areas like website hosting, virtual desktops, social media or email, you are ensuring that your firm will always have access to the latest technology platforms. Taking IT as an example, an outsourcer is likely to have more up to date technology such as the latest servers and software.

Price Stability

By signing a contract to outsource, you will be able to lock the supplier in to a pricing agreement. This gives the business certainty in terms of costs. As a result, the firm will be able to budget operating expenses and capital purchases more accurately, while reducing the likelihood of unforeseen costs.

More Time to Focus on Core Business Activities

If your firm is to be successful and profitable, the management team needs to spend time planning and directing the company's business strategy and not wasting time worrying about managing administration, payroll, IT or HR. Outsourcing these functions allows the business to focus its management resources on driving the business forward.

Outsourcing isn’t for Everyone

Some might argue that outsourcing creates loss of control, less flexibility, questionable savings and the risk of over dependence on external vendors.

• Signing up to and implementing an outsourcing arrangement takes considerable management time. 
• Finding and selecting the right outsourcing company can even take months. 
• Outsourcing companies need to be given overall direction and guidelines in terms of what needs to be done, and therefore, some level of supervision by management will ultimately be needed. 

It is important to be careful when deciding what business functions to outsource and to whom. The management team needs to be clear in terms of its expectations and the cost savings must be attractive and worthwhile for the business.

How to build an Ethical Business?

The new generation of professionals is concerned about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and wants to work for ethical businesses. 

The ethics of any firm are determined by its actions. If bending the rules results in rewards for some people as a result of increased short term revenue, or other perceived benefit, then many in the business will rightly believe that ethics don't matter, performance does. In other words, the end justifies the means. There will almost always be a tension between doing the right thing versus prioritising short term gains.  

Here are some tips to help you to build a more ethical business.

1. Be someone who you would want to discuss business with

If someone has a history of unethical behaviour, you will probably decline the opportunity of doing business with them. Sacrificing ethics usually means that someone (a supplier, for example) is getting a rough deal. Do you want your firm to be associated with this type of behaviour? Is it worth the potential reputational damage?

2. Accountability

Everyone in the business should be accountable for their actions. Management should lead by example and should own their mistakes as well as their successes, earning the respect of staff. Unethical behaviour should not be tolerated.

3. Values

Business leaders must take time to understand their own personal values and those of the team, what the value statements of the firm should be and identify gaps that exist between aspirational goals and current behaviour. To ensure buy-in and commitment from the whole firm, try to include members from various levels across the business to help create a "Code of Conduct" that is aligned with the firm’s ethical vision.

4. Establish Trust

Build an environment of trust with employees in order to create a business culture where employees feel free to discuss ethical dilemmas and issues with management.

5. Communicate 

The management team should ensure that the vision and code of conduct are communicated to everyone within the business. This can be done through policy manuals, training, internal newsletters, team meetings, etc. Efforts must be made to gather feedback from across the business in order to identify employee concerns regarding the ethical environment within the firm. This should be a continuous improvement process to identify concerns and improve the overall ethical direction of the firm.

APJ Accountancy

☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com 

How to Train your Team to be More Resilient?

Why do some people bounce back from difficult situations more easily than others? How is it that they are more resilient? Training can help. Managers can help their teams to become more resilient and confident. Training your people to handle difficult situations helps them to respond appropriately.

Letting people fail

Allowing people to fail builds resiliency. People need to try, to risk, and then try some more. This comes from failing a few times along the way. Resilient people are not people who have never failed. They are people who have learned from trying, failing, and trying again. Richard Branson for example, has failed several times along the way to becoming a billionaire business leader. Steve Jobs failed - he was pushed out of Apple in 1985 even though he was one of the founders of the company. He returned to the firm in 1997 and it is now the worlds largest company by revenue. One of the issues today is that people are afraid to allow for mistakes, and they want to protect others from failure. However, every good manager knows that if we never fall over, we won’t learn how to get back up again.

Teaching your team to solve problems

Solving problems doesn’t mean solving them all yourself. The most difficult task a manager has is to resist doing something themselves even though they may be able to solve the problem more quickly. Instead, managers need to step back and ask their people: "What is the next step?" or "What do you think you should do?" It is really hard watching people make mistakes without stepping in, but your team will never learn if someone else is doing their job for them. It will pay off in the long term as your team becomes more capable and confident.

Focus on the big picture

It is easy for your team to get discouraged if they only see the failures. Teach them to consider the big picture. They should be encouraged to see every step of the learning process as being a step towards success, even if that attempt doesn’t result in a solution to whatever problem they are facing. Getting it wrong along the way should be ok in the grand scheme of things. Equally when they get it right, encourage them to see how this has contributed to the overall success of the business.

Accountability

Making allowances for people to fail does not mean that people shouldn’t be held accountable. Failure without a lesson is failure in its worst form. By contrast, failure with a lesson is a learning process. Encourage your teams to consider what went right and what went wrong, and to note what lessons have been learned from the process. Your team should take note of the failures and figure out a way to avoid failing in the future. They should be encouraged to accept responsibility for the problem and move to create a better outcome.

A problem versus an inconvenience

Problems are serious issues that are a real threat to the business. Inconveniences are when you get stuck in traffic on the way to the office, for example. You and your team should focus on letting the inconveniences go and focus on solving the real problems.

Contact us for all your Business Building needs!
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6 Easy Tips to go Paperless at your Business!

Many businesses recognise that going paperless is the future. Converting physical into digital files and storing them in an organised system has multiple benefits, not least protecting the environment. A firm can also benefit from reduced operational costs, increased working efficiency and protection against data loss as electronic files can be backed up quite easily.

1. Don’t go paperless too early

Going paperless is a big change for any business. Don’t make the mistake of rushing to buy a scanning solution and rolling it out across the business without preparation time. Take time, plan out filing systems and map processes with your management team. A working group should be established and tasked with understanding how best to implement a paperless solution that works for the business.

2. Include management and employees in your decision

The working group should present its plan to the business and ask for feedback. The employees who will be working with the paperless solution should be involved in the planning process and management needs to champion it. Explaining the time and money-saving benefits to staff across the whole firm will go a long way in ensuring the project is adopted.

3. Map out a process for new paper and electronic documents

The working group should create suitable plans for the paper that is currently in the office or stored off-site. The group should also create processes that cover new paper and electronic documents that come into the office after the document management system has been put in place.

4. Rolling out the solution in a phased manner

Attempting to go paperless in all departments or locations at the same time can be problematic. Most businesses find they gain additional experience and knowledge as they fine-tune their programme during initial setup and use. The working group should outline, as part of its plan, how the rollout will come into effect. The group should regularly ask managers and teams for feedback so that systems and processes can be continuously improved upon and refined as the rollout progresses.

5. Use the right scanning solution

For most document imaging applications, scanner speed is going to be an important driver of efficiency.  Ideally, the working group should speak with a knowledgeable consultant before purchasing any scanning hardware. If your business has an IT department or an IT manager, they should be fully involved in this conversation.

6. Consider legal and regulatory compliance matters

Before signing off on your paperless plan, you should consider any legal or compliance obligations that your business must adhere to. Most businesses are regulated in some way or another and you should consider seeking legal advice to ensure that you comply with regulations relating to customers records, filing, financial data management and data protection laws. It is important to be proactive in this regard as non-compliance can prove to be an expensive mistake for any business.

Is your business paperless? Let us know your experience, thoughts and comments below.

Marketing Messages - How to make them stand out?

Regardless of the type of business that you run, your customers will have one thing in common.  As a result of technology, they are bombarded by marketing messages. Customers are more time-poor than ever before so if you want your marketing communications to stand out, you should consider cutting down the length of your messages and getting to the point.

Identify the message that matters most and make sure it's memorable.  Marketers have known for decades that there's value in identifying and driving home the most important point or benefit. It goes all the way back to when the best businesses began to identify their unique selling proposition (USP) for every client.

The difference today is the way that viewers and readers consume media. Today's reader or viewer is overwhelmed with an astounding number of media choices and channels. In fact, consumers are exposed to so many messages that they notice fewer of them.  Here are a few tips to help you get your point across.

1. Focus on what is most relevant to your customers 

Focus on what your target audience see first and outline what is most important and relevant to them. Avoid the temptation to use that first impression to deliver what you or the management team finds most interesting, unless you're also the target audience.

2. Write active rather than passive sentences

Active sentences are more vigorous and put more life into the message. Here's an example: "We deliver shipping services to clients nationally." This is much punchier than saying "Shipping services are delivered by us to clients nationally."

3. Avoid jargon

Try to avoid formal, overly corporate language. Where possible avoid using big words with several syllables. The business world is now very much a global market and English may not be your customer’s first language.

4. Make it about them

Use the words "you" and "your" much more than "I" and "we." If you catch yourself saying "I" and "we" a lot, then you're talking about yourself too much. Get back to being focused on your reader and their needs and concerns.

5. Be concise

If you can say something in 10 words don’t use 120 words instead. Cut out the fluff and keep your message concise. Remember, your potential customer is time-poor so you need to keep the message relevant.

How to Write a Perfect Press Release?

A well-written press release should be short, to the point and contain all the essential information in the first paragraph.  Most importantly, it should be a complete story that could be published without too many changes, as all the facts are there and the content is well structured.

Here are a few tips to help you to put together a good press release.

Put in the most newsworthy information

Who, what, when, where should be at the top, with the least important information at the bottom - this is called the inverted pyramid model and it is how journalists are trained to write.

Facts and photos

Boost your story with relevant data and good photos (ideally taken by a professional photographer, not taken on a smartphone). Include one photo and say “more available” rather than clogging up journalists’ inboxes with big files.

Call a spade a spade

A journalists’ job is to untangle professional jargon before it reaches the press. You can make their life a bit easier by avoiding technical terms and writing in plain English.

Quotes

Quotes are important but they need to add something to the story without repeating information contained elsewhere. Try to avoid being “thrilled” “honoured” or “excited”.

Don’t attach your story, put it in the body of the email

Don’t send one line emails saying “See Attachment”. It may not be opened. Always paste the press release directly into an email so it can be easily read on a smartphone or tablet.

Give it a good headline

Your headline should tell the story even if a person doesn’t actually read the rest of the article. If you want ideas on how to write a good headline, just pick up a newspaper and have a read. Which headlines catch your eye and why? Now try to write a similar headline for your press release.

Are you ready to write your business Press Release yourself? Let us know your experience and the response. Also share with us if you have any more points to add.

Strategy Versus Tactics - What to implement for your business?

Do you know the difference between strategy and tactics? Many senior managers who think they are talking about strategy are really focusing on tactics.   Indeed, many small and medium sized businesses aren’t very good at creating and executing a business plan at all. As a result, a lot of business owners and managers operate at a tactical rather than a strategic level; responding reactively versus proactively.  So, what is the difference? A simple explanation would be to say that strategy refers to the "what and the why" and tactical refers to the "how". Strategic thinking, planning and actions require the ability to look at the "big picture", recognise patterns and trends, establish priorities, anticipate issues, predict outcomes, and have strategic alternatives to engage as necessary. Strategic plans involve the vision, the mission, the guiding principles and the goals for the business. Tactical is the more hands-on or the "doing it" part of getting the job done, to ensure the strategic goals are met. The tactics are the detailed actions needed to meet the goals or solve a problem. An example would be, Strategy: Be the leader in terms of sales and percentage market share in the mid-market in our industry sector in the UK. Tactics: Offer lower cost solutions than our competitors, win 5 new contracts worth at least £100,000 each and expand our business by buying out two competitors over the next 12 months. When it comes to managing any business, having a good strategic plan and utilising good tactics are both very important. A business owner or a management team leader must know and use strategy and they must also have an awareness of their business's tactics. It is important to note that this does not mean that management should perform these tasks on a regular basis. The whole team has a responsibility to undertake the right tactics in order to deliver the company strategy. If the management team are truly aware of what "good tactics" are and are able to recognise them, they will become "tactically credible" in the eyes of their team mates.

It is critical for the owners and managers to  have this credibility in order to demonstrate to their team members how the tactical work helps the overall business to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

4 Strategies to Embrace Diversity in Your Business Place!

Diversity is an economic and legal priority in business. It increases the bottom line, encourages innovation and steers businesses away from legal issues. Business owners, managers and employees need to find ways to embrace and respect diversity. Diversity, in business, makes it more sustainable & successful.

Take a moment to write down what your biases are and how you can avoid these affecting the way you conduct yourself when you are at work. Here are 4 strategies to start with:

1. Language

Avoid language that demeans a particular group of individuals. Avoid being patronising and jokes that have religious or cultural inferences.

2. Invite input from people with different backgrounds

Not only does this show respect, it makes good business sense to have a diverse opinion.  Inviting people from many backgrounds and cultures will increase the pace and creativity involved with innovation.

3. Respect religious holidays

Most businesses respect Christian holidays. However, all important religious holidays should be respected for employees of that particular religion.

4. Recruitment

When hiring or promoting individuals do so on the basis of facts only. Skills, abilities, knowledge and results should be the only factors involved in your decisions.

Though there are a lot more, these help you start with implementing diversity at your work place. Embrace diversity in your firm and you are on the way to a more fulfilling and productive business.

The world is a mosaic of cultural differences and the workplace should be as well. Respecting your colleagues and employees is paramount to tapping the valuable diversity in your business.

What are your thoughts?

Contact us for further advice to have a diverse company culture!
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Half My Advertising Is Wasted, I Just Don’t Know Which Half”

I read an interesting (and disturbing) statistic recently from Forbes. It stated that 45% of CEOs agree that ‘marketing efforts are wasting money’.

Yes, I’m an accountant (and proud of it) but I’m also a business owner. In many respects I’m in a unique position. I not only have to run and build our firm, I also get to advise dozens of other business owners (our clients) on growing their firms, making sure their financial management is as good as it can be, and ensuring they don’t pay a penny more in tax than they have to.

However, we are different to most accountants because we take an active role in helping our clients grow. That’s why we invested a considerable sum to give our clients access to one of the world’s leading sales and marketing systems (the BGSvault).

But when I read that statistic from Forbes, it reminded me of a famous quote from department store mogul John Wanamaker, who said: "Half my advertising is wasted, I just don't know which half".

It’s fair to say I have this discussion regularly with a number of our clients. They don’t measure the results of their marketing, so they have no way of knowing what’s working and what isn’t makes my team and me very ‘number conscious’. We do measure everything. That includes our marketing. I want to know if I spent X on a strategy, what return did I get?

Why is that important? Well, it means I know which strategies to invest more of our hard-earned money into and which strategies to ditch or try and improve. It’s not rocket science, but as small-business owners we have to watch the pennies and leverage as many things as we can.

I also smiled when I read that statistic from Forbes. I wonder how many CEOs actually know what their marketing results are and which strategies work. It is highly likely they are just like John Wanamaker—they haven’t got a clue.

This one simple act of measuring the results (or lack) of ALL your marketing is so simple, yet it will have a significant effect on the growth of your firm.  It’s your job to make   sure   you  put  in  place  a  mechanism that  gives  you this  data.  In   my   experience,  I can  tell you, it is TRANSFORMATIONAL!

4 tips to Optimise your Email for Mobile Devices!

74% of smartphone owners use their devices to check their email (Source: Gartner)

It has been estimated by Radicati that by the end of 2018, mobile email users are expected to total over 2.2 billion & 80% of email users are expected to access their email accounts via a mobile device.

Rather than the statistics, if you check at how you check your email versus how you were doing it just a few years ago, you will realise the importance of smart phone email compatibility.

Mobile Email Usage! Source: PanoramaStock

The rate at which emails are opened on a mobile device is rapidly increasing. So, when it comes to your business’s approach to email marketing, you need to make sure your messages look great no matter what size screen your audience is using.

Here are 5 easy but important tips to optimise your email so that it is responsive to both small and big screens alike:

Formatting

An easy way to make your emails more mobile-friendly is to use a single-column template. This will make it easy for people to see all of your information without having to click to zoom in. People consume information differently on a smaller screen. One of the biggest differences is how quickly they can scroll through and scan information. As such, you should format your email content for people who like to scan. Start with a short header message that sets up the content people are about to read. The copy that follows should be clear and concise. Replace lengthy paragraphs with short, snappy sentences that let people know what you’re doing, why it’s important to them, and what action you’d like them to take. You should also avoid lengthy paragraphs that can slow down the reader and distract them from giving your content the attention it needs.

Images and Branding

Include an eye-catching image that helps the reader connect with the message you’re sending out. Bear in mind that on many mobile devices, images won’t display automatically and some will turn off displaying images by default. As such, it is important not to overload your email with too many images and to always make sure you have text to provide the details people need.

Include High Resolution Images

High resolution images will ensure images are sharp and crisp. Readers will be pleased with the content present. More than that, it will improve the click-through rate of images' hyperlink!

Strong Call-to-Action

Now that you’ve set your message up to work well on mobile, the last step is to make sure your readers clearly understand the action you want them to take. If you want people to show up to an event, or call to place an order, it is important to clearly state what you want them to do and give them the information they need to take action. If the next action is online - to visit your website, register for an event etc. then you should include a link that’s visible and easy to click on any screen size. Remember that on mobile devices, your readers need to be able to use their finger to click or scroll. Avoid stacking multiple links or putting different links too close together. Whenever possible, add a button that’s easy to click from a phone’s small screen.

How to keep your clients happy? 8 Simple Steps!

Keeping existing clients happy is a lot easier than acquiring new ones. But that’s easier said than done.

Think of yourself as a customer. When you walk into a shop, you expect to be treated in a certain way - a smile, a small greeting, “Hello, how are you?” and you want to feel like you matter.

You don’t want to be treated as just another customer. Excellent service makes a difference to how you perceived the experience and if you return to that store again.

Opposite our office we have a coffee shop called Rise. If I ever want a coffee, I go there and wouldn’t think about going anywhere else. This is all because of their excellent customer service.

Even before you are at the counter ready to order, you’re greeted with a friendly “Hello” and the staff make you feel valued and appreciated. Here are a few ways you can keep your clients happy so they are amazed by your service and never want to leave…

1. GIVE FREE ADVICE

If you come across as only wanting fees from your clients, they’ll run in the opposite direction. Giving free advice shows that you care about your clients’ success. It doesn’t mean you have to be on the phone with them every day answering a list of questions, but if they know you’re available to give advice when they need it, you’re more likely to be referred.

Don’t think about trying to sell them other services - treat it as a form of developing the relationship with your clients.

2. UNDER-PROMISE AND OVER-DELIVER

We say this a lot to our clients, but it’s true! If you promise someone too much, you’re putting pressure on yourself just to impress.

If you can see them for one hour a week, but you tell them they’re entitled to 30 minutes of your time every single week—they’ll be blown away when you over-deliver.
 

That’s a lot better than making promises you can’t keep (even though your intentions are never to break them).

3. COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH CLIENTS

If there is anything clients like - it’s to be kept informed, even if you have some bad news to tell them. Don’t let months go by without speaking to them. And this goes for your team too. Make it part of your team ethos to regularly keep in contact with clients about their workload. No matter how small the situation may seem, if a client’s work changes, they should be informed. 

It will go a long way in creating excellent customer service. 

Feedback emails are a great way to check in with clients to make sure they’re happy with the service provided. Ask your team to send an email to clients every few months making sure that everything is running smoothly. (This is a great way to keep your firm moving forward.)

4. BE AVAILABLE

Similar to point 3, communication is key to developing a strong relationship and making sure everything runs smoothly. 

You can’t be available every hour of every day, but there’s nothing worse for a client than not being able to get in touch with their accountant. Set aside a few hours a day when you are free to chat to clients if they ever need you and let them know that you’re unavailable any time outside of these hours.
 

People don’t like to be left in the dark about things, and if they haven’t received a response back from you within a few days, then they will lose confidence that you care.

5. DELIVER WORLD-CLASS WORK

This goes without saying really, but if clients aren’t satisfied with the service provided, they will cancel.
The primary reason clients came to you is because of the service you provided, and not how great your customer service is. Keep track of any work your team might do for clients, so you are always aware of the status of their work.
 

If your service isn’t up to scratch and they don’t see results - you can expect a cancellation.

6. ASK YOUR CLIENTS QUESTIONS

The only way to know what your clients want is to ask them. Feedback emails (as mentioned earlier) are an excellent way to over-deliver. And it goes a long way that you made the effort to ask.
 

Ask questions about their company too - find out the best times to communicate with them, what excellent customer service means to them, what their goals are and more. Establish what their expectations are and exceed them. Treat this as an opportunity to get to know your clients too.

7. MAKE EVERYTHING PERSONAL

People like personalisation and not being treated as just another client (think back to what I said about Rise earlier). This means every moment of truth with the client should be personal - from their name on letters to a personal touch to emails.
 

Make all of your clients feel appreciated. If you’re holding an event - invite them along. Invest time in building a relationship with each and every one of them.

8. UNDERSTAND THEIR POINT OF VIEW

Your clients are busy people and you won’t always get a response from them as quickly as you’d like. If you know that you need something from them, then asking the day before isn’t sensible. You have to put them first. 

Put yourself in their shoes. If they’re upset with how a member of the team has spoken with them, empathise and do everything you can to turn the situation around. Get the facts from your team and see the situation from the client’s side. (This doesn’t mean they’re always right, but look at things from their side)

PJ

For Accounting, Marketing, Business Building help, contact us:
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The Huge Pitfalls Of Reducing Your Price & What To Do Instead!

As the economy struggles to recover, and competition gets more and more fierce, we thought it was important to bring to your attention the problems you encounter by reducing your prices in the hope that this will bring you more sales.

One of the most common and most costly traps business owners fall into has to do with the perception that the quickest way to increase cash flow when sales are down is to have a ‘sale’.

On the surface, the concept itself seems to make sense. We need more sales, so we lower our prices.
Lower prices will attract more buyers who will purchase more of our products at the reduced prices. And we’ll make up for the money we’ll lose with the lower prices by the increased number of sales.

But the reality is, rarely is this strategy a success.

Having a sale, reducing prices in order to attract more customers, can often be the kiss of death for businesses unaware of the bigger picture.

In reality, there is rarely a good reason to reduce your prices. No matter what you think, most people do
NOT buy on price and price alone. In fact, research over the last 6 recessions has shown that only between 5% and 20% of people buy on price. Most people think it’s the other way around! So let’s take a look at the effects of reducing your prices...

Let’s assume, for illustration purposes, that your business operates on a 30% margin and you want to reduce the price to increase sales. If you lower the price just 10%, you’ll need to increase the number    of sales you make, or the number of customers you sell to, by 50% just to maintain the original profit.

Don’t believe it? Let’s walk through the numbers…

Let’s say that you sell an item for £100, and that your total costs to acquire that product and get it out the door comes to £70. That leaves you with a net profit of £30 on that item.

Now, let’s say that you reduce your price by 10%. You now sell that item for £90.

You didn’t do anything to reduce your product costs or your expenses. All you did is reduce the amount you charged your customers.

If you subtract your £70 costs from the £90 sale price, you net £20.

Now, if you subtract this £20 from your previous profits of £30, you end up with a £10 difference. Divide the £10 by £20, and you get 50%.

So to get back to the same profit level that you were enjoying before you lowered your prices, you’ll have to sell more items  or the same number of items to 50% more customers.  Now, here’s another problem most businesses fail to take into account. No one knows you’re having a sale unless you tell them about it.

So you need to advertise or send something out to let everyone know you’re  having a sale.

And if you expect to attract more customers and sell more goods, you may need to beef up staff, salespeople, delivery, packaging, money processing, accounting, stocking, signage and any number of additional things that you may not initially consider and all of which further increases your costs.

So when you look closely and carefully at having a sale, you may have to sell considerably more than the 50% to even come close to breaking even.

IMPORTANT
REDUCING PRICES IS THEREFORE SOMETHING YOU NEED TO THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT. REMEMBER, VALUE AND PRICE ARE LINKED – SO PROVIDE MORE VALUE AND YOU’LL STILL GET THE SALES!

The Value Of Increasing Prices

In our estimation, we believe that 90% of ALL businesses charge too little for their products and services.

Often people are scared to increase their prices, and business owners rarely test different price points (do you?). 

But having carefully targeted your prospects and customers (like we always advise you do), you are in a position to charge premium prices because you are seen by the market as THE go-to company for their specific requirements.

And there is no quicker way of increasing your profits and the success of your business than by increasing your prices. Let’s take a look...
Using the same 30% margin as in our previous example, instead of decreasing prices by 10%, you raise them by 10%.

The result?

You can now maintain the same profit margin with a 25% reduction in sales volume… either in the number of items sold, or in the number of customers sold to.

You could actually lose one out of every four customers and still make the same money.

Now, let’s compare two identical businesses which sell exactly the same products. Business A lowers prices by 10% and Business B increases prices by 10%.

As was pointed out, Business A has to sell 50% more, and Business B can sell 25% less, and they’ll both make the same profits as before.

While the owner of Business A is working his/her tail off just to break even, Business B owner is cruising along without all the stress, worry and other problems, and yet is making the same net profits.

Furthermore, what is often surprising to business owners is that when they do increase their prices, the opposite of what they expect actually occurs. Instead of losing customers, they actually gain more customers.                                   

Why?

Because the higher prices are met with the perception  that your products or services are worth more and therefore this perception of ‘added value’ gives the business a welcome influx of sales it would previously never have received.

We have numerous examples of this. For instance, a photographer was charging just £450 per day for his wedding service.

With very little change to the way he carried out the service, he increased his prices to over £3,000 in three months.

A restaurant owner increased her prices by 20% and saw an immediate increase in bookings .

A jewellery store increased prices 15%, resulting in an increase of £25,000 a month in sales.

These are not isolated incidents. If you get your target market right and you deliver a good-quality product or service, increasing your prices and increasing your sales is NOT a pipe dream.

So what if you’re selling a commodity-type product or service, whereby people can easily shop for the best price? Well, it’s no different. What you have to do, though, is create a level of service that is unmatched by any of your competitors.

This includes offering superior delivery times, quicker service or using a powerful guarantee which no other competitor offers and creating ‘premium’ products or services that customers will be happy to pay more for.

So even if you’re reluctant to increase your prices, concentrate on giving more value and you’ll still get many more sales.

As long as you create a gulf of value between you and the competition you’ll be able to increase your prices.

Believe us no matter what you sell, increasing your prices is something you should look at doing now.

Of course, don’t just make a wholesale increase right across the business. Increasing your prices is a tactic that should be approached like all your other tactics. Test small and then roll out when you have sufficient evidence that it works.