September 30, 2009 - A helping hand...our Ten Top Tips!

As local experts and having flourished over the last 25 years we felt it only our duty to share our top our Ten Top Tips on how to come out of the tiresome credit crunch stronger and leaner.

Credit Control

It’s especially important in these times to keep tight control of the credit terms you offer your customers. Insist that your new clients agree in writing to your payment terms. Invoices should be raised promptly. It is good practice to agree a payment date. Be prepared to generate electronic statements and copy invoices on demand and e-mail these to your customers as it’s surprising how many documents go astray in the post! A well configured reminder system and electronic document generation system are essential.

Customer Contracts

While no-one should normally expect to have to refer to contracts to resolve a potential dispute, having well written and legally correct contracts in place sends out a message that you mean business. Now is a good time to review these in the light of current legislation and circumstances and ensure that they meet your needs. They should be communicated to all relevant parties in appropriate ways. These include on your corporate web site and referred to or reproduced in e-mail footers and hard copy documents such as delivery notes, invoices, statements and the like.

Robust HR systems

It is vital that you, as an employer, have correct, binding and fair contracts of employment in place. Get them checked by a professional and most importantly follow the processes and procedures in them at all times. Much of the administrative burden of employing people can be relieved by an automated HR system allowing managers and supervisors to get on with their jobs and deal with issues on an exception basis.

Integrated Systems

One of the frustrations encountered in many otherwise well run businesses is that of double keying of information. This is a great time waster and demoraliser and leads to errors which can be costly to rectify both in terms of time and image. Try to ensure that IT systems can talk to each other and that the whole process from beginning to end flows seamlessly without too much human intervention.

Green Issues

Whilst the paperless office is still more an ideal concept than it is a reality in most organisations it is still a worthwhile goal to aim for. Large organisations can take steps to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the number of servers by consolidation and implementing print management policies. Smaller companies can do the same kind of thing by sending out and agreeing to receive documents such as invoices electronically. This can be as simple as an e-mail attachment or more sophisticated systems can exchange information using XML or other EDI techniques and protocols.

CRM

Staying in touch with existing customers is vital, it costs a lot less to retain a customer that it does to acquire a new one. Data collection and knowledge is invaluable to the growth of your business, get to know your customer in order to provide them with a better service. Invest in a solid customer relationship management tool, it is fundamental. There are plenty of off the shelf CRM databases, but if that doesn’t work for your business, it can be cost effective in the long term to have your own developed. Once in place ensuring staff use it effectively must not be forgotten. You’re only as good as your last customer engagement.

Web Site

Your website is your shop window, its imperative it’s not only up to date but relevant, effortless to read and concise. Devote time and money to your corporate image and branding, it adds value to your business and shows the customer you stand out from the crowd.

Accounts Reporting

80% of your profits come from just 20% of your customers/ products/contracts. But do you know which 20%? Unless your computerised accounting system is capable or set up correctly to tell you then you probably don’t know and therefore are unable to decide which areas of marketing to push.

Communication

Can you and your sales executives afford to be out of touch when away from the office? Blackberrys, PDAs and iPhones can all be set up to send and receive e-mails. A modern phone system can automatically route calls to you wherever you may be. Your mobile can act as if it’s your extension at work and you only need one DDI contact number. This is called unified communications.

Business Continuity

Nowadays it’s not sufficient to know that you have a back up of your data should the worst happen and your premises burn down. In a buyers’ market any significant interruption to your supply business will send your customers scurrying to your competitors. Therefore it’s imperative to have a contingency plan which guarantees that you can be up and running quickly following any occurrence which makes your primary place of work unavailable.