Articles for Business Development

Are you getting overwhelmed with all the things you have to do in order to make your business profitable? Building the list, running campaigns and so much more? They are all important, I can assure you. And, sometimes it’s good to go back to basics and ask yourself, how many clients do I really need in order to be profitable? How many and which programs do I really need to run in order to make the money I want? Sometimes we over complicate things when what we really need to do to get our goals is just so simple.

Ok we probably all know what it’s like to go through periods of growth where cash is tight and we just need those extra clients right now to fund the expansion or just to fill in the gaps caused by a lull in sales.

Business growth is often more about consistent cashflow than it is about the overall income. When the cash dries up then things stand still.

Today's Small Business blog post answers a business mindset question from Caroline in the UK, who posted this question at www.AskLisaMurray.com:

"I am relatively new into running my own business, having worked in a large corporate previously. How do you overcome the mental challenge of that little voice that says - you aren't good enough or - what if you advise someone and you get it wrong etc!"

In the course of my somewhat chequered career in marketing and sales, I worked for a range of small – medium businesses.  One of the oft quoted platitudes from business owners was “we’re family  here” – mostly said to entice employees to work enormous hours for no extra cash, to make unreasonable demands rather than requests and to create a general sense of guilt – as in: ‘we gave you a job…you owe us everything’ .  This approach is often coupled with vague promises of future rewards.