Category Archives: Business planning

Tailoring your offering to suit the client

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Jon Stow

Package deals In many businesses, including my general area, it is customary to quote package prices. For example, there might be a price for a tax return, and then a price for self-employed accounts and a tax return, one for … Continue reading →

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Purchasing mistakes for small businesses

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Jon Stow

My salad days, when I was green in judgement Remember when you started your business, whether it was a few months ago of a few years? You wanted to buy computers, tools and gadgets. You needed to buy in services. … Continue reading →

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Short-term business follies

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Jon Stow

Sometimes I meet people who do not so much have a business plan as be after just making a fast buck. They try to follow every trend, or start implementing a strategy they just thought up in the middle of … Continue reading →

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Small business: doing, not being

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Jon Stow

One of the advantages of having my own business is, I have always thought, that I am doing something I enjoy and having responsibility for my own working life. In fact, having responsibility for all of my life. In employment, … Continue reading →

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Poor customer service on the carpet

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Jon Stow

The long wait We have an apartment for sale. We don’t live in it. It was my Mother-in-Law’s home but sad-to-say she is no longer with us. The flat is empty of furniture and redecorated, but the carpets need cleaning. … Continue reading →

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Adapt, change or your business will die

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Jon Stow

I have had my own business for nearly eleven years. It hardly seem possible. However, it is not the same business I started. In the beginning I hardly used email to correspond with clients. It wasn’t that I was an … Continue reading →

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Broken tools, new toys and business

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Jon Stow

Sometimes tried and trusted methods stop working, and we hardly notice because we carry on out of habit. That is what happened with me and breakfast networking.  It took a while for it to dawn on me that I was … Continue reading →

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The magic of being different

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Jon Stow

The way to get noticed in business is to be different. Of course you may offer the same service as many other businesses, or at least the same type of service. It is the way you present it and market … Continue reading →

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“Experts” versus specialists

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Jon Stow

The other day I tweeted in exasperation: “Hate the word “expert”. None of us knows everything. We specialists do know how to find out what we don’t know when asked to.” I don’t know about you but many people who … Continue reading →

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Your most important business asset

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Jon Stow

Do you know what is your most important business asset? Is it your car or your office or your technology? No, your most important business asset, the one you can’t do without, is you. Let me tell you a story … Continue reading →

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