The recent cold snap in the UK has ground many transport links to a halt, closed hundreds of schools and impacted the normal running of day to day life greatly. If economic times weren’t tough enough already this extended period of snow has delivered another blow to business and in particular small firms.

Whilst the full cost of the impact is to be fully calculated (as it’s still rising), the anecdotal evidence highlights a tough environment. Small businesses have felt the impact of workers unable to get into the office because of transport chaos, or issues with child care more so than some larger businesses.  A downturn in the volume of transactions due to customers staying in their homes during the poor conditions, or the difficulty of managing the supply chain due to transport issues have meant few companies have escaped.

Of course if your company imports and retail sledges and skis you might be seeing an unexpected boom. There is also a case for independent retailers and grocers seeing customer footfall increase as consumers ditch the car journey to the supermarket in favour of the 5 minute walk to the local shop.

What level of impact and exposure your business has to the weather conditions will of course vary greatly from others depending on the nature of your business, your communication infrastructure, your geography and that of your workforce.

Whilst it may now seem a little reactive and probably too late, now would be a good time to look at contingency plan for your business. This plan should look at issues such as the recent cold weather but also other problems such as postal strike, power failures or viral outbreaks such as Swine Flu. Now we’re not saying you should have a plan as detailed as a 1960’s government nuclear fallout strategy but it would be worth thinking about some of the following…

1. Supply Chain – do we have a back up if our 1st route to market is lost (ie: Royal Mail postal strike)?

2. Remote working – Are we capable of running our business if access to our premises is blocked and/or our workforce are unable to get here? – access to web-mail, cloud software. etc.

3. Do we have an alternative method of selling our products? Traditional retailers who can’t operate their store may be able to maintain some level of sales via an on-line operation.

4. Can our business operate on a workforce attendance less than 50%? What changes can we make to allow this?

5. What is our recover plan/options? If you can’t operate the business what levers can you pull to get back on track?

Limeminds recommends you take sometime to pull a 1 page document covering these areas and any others that may impact your business. Any areas you feel exposed in should be made a priority.

If you would like Limeminds to work with you to analyse the company’s position and provide a clear solution plan we can be contacted via consultants@limeminds.com

All at Limeminds just want to wish our customers and readers a Happy New Year hope you and your business have a great 2010

There is no doubt that 2009 has been a tough year for the economy and an even tougher year for small businesses. Reduced consumer spending, increased cost of borrowing, less credit available and political uncertainty have all contributed to making it a tough year for those in business.

2010 unfortunately looks to be just as tough if not worse as taxes look set to rise and credit still remains thin on the ground. Consumer confidence is low and as food prices start to increase, the reality of inflation will start to hurt people’s contracting wallets.

For some businesses however the year will be a bright one. Those firms who position themselves correctly by having a clear strategy, reduced cost base and a determined management team will do well as their competition struggle. History shows that those businesses who invest in tough economic times thrive and grow, often to become powerful companies in the stronger economic period which follows.

Investing in a company can come in many forms, it may represent an upgrade of IT systems or manufacturing equipment. It may mean recruiting some high-caliber personnel or investing in training to enhance your skill base. It can also mean investing in the goals and direction of your business through a strong, clear and focused plan of attack.

Any business with strong leadership and a clear goals always outperforms one without but often taking time to evaluate your position and future direction is the last thing on your mind when the day to day challenges consumer all your time. Help is at hand…

Limeminds are offering the best value investment you can make in your business through our recession busting Business Report E-Package where we will evaluate the health of your business and most importantly provide a clear strategy for 2010 and beyond. This fantastic offer is only £66.00 including VAT and is available until 31/01/2010.

The E-Package contains:

• 5 Page Business Report – evaluating current sale and financial performance and provides a suggested plan for success in 2010. The report will highlight the strengths and weaknesses within your business, areas to make cost reductions and high growth opportunities you can utilize in 2010.
• 2 months of free E-consultancy to help implement the plans in the Business Report
• Future discounts on a range of our services and products

As an E-package you will not have any consultants spending weeks walking around your business which can often interfere with the day to day running. Information required to complete the report can be submitted when you want rather than needing to arrange meetings during your busy working day.

To access this package please email us at consultants@limeminds.com before 31/01/10, you will then be sent a business questionaire to complete and receive a call to discuss your current position. This package can also benefit those businesses in the pre-startup phase just as much as a business which has been in operation for 20 years.

Putting a supply contract or service agreement out to tender is a popular process these days, with many private and public organisations utilising the tendering method. The reasons for this line in aspects of negotiation, which essentially a tender is part of.

For the reasons of simplicity this article will refer to the organisation who has put the contract out to tender as the Tender and the organisations who are applying to win the contract as the tendees.

The Tender gives themselves a number of advantages through the use of this process, two of which are the fact that Tendees see themselves in competition, a bad thing as competition oftens lures people to pay more or sell for less than either the true value or what they can afford. The Tendees mentality in a competitive environment is to win and at all costs.

The second major advantage is that this competition is directed at other Tendees and not at the actual party they should be negotiating with… The Tender. By deflecting the focus away from themselves the Tender can stoke the feeling of competition between Tendees even more. In fact an unscrupulousTender could feed the Tendees false or exgrated information… “Party A is significantly lower on price then yourselves in the first round, they are in pole position at the moment”… If the Tender went to both parties with this information they could stimulate un-required price drop on both sides.

If you don’t believe that rational business people allow the element of competition to drive them to irrational decisions that don’t make commercial sense just look at the results of the UK 3G network license tender. The headlines are as followed…

The British Treasurywanted to sell off licenses for the 3G network to the highest bidder, they set a number of ground rules for this process all of which where designed to prevent collusion and to stimulate an environment of competition between the telecoms company’s. The result was the sale of the licenses are levels far above the estimation of the either Government or the telecoms firms. So high in fact that it was fairly non-viable as a commercial deal once the numbers were crunched. The company’s involved where some of the largest in the UK with some extremely intelligent and competent managers, they simply became distracted and wrapped in the element of winning at all costs.

So if you find yourself in the process of being a Tendee try to focus on the following:

1> Work out your break points – what is the level which you can not sell below or pay more than.

2> What are your alternatives – Often there will be a cheaper/better alternative out there. Knowing these options willl also help you work out your break point.

3> Avoid being competitive – Remain objective, focus on your business not others. Always think does this make commercial sense. Ask someone else who is impartial before submitting your bid.

If you would like advise about a tender or negotiation please contact Limeminds via email consultants@limemind.com

Nearly all of us at some point in both our personal and business will have to negotiate something, whether it is a better price, more sales volume or which program to watch on TV.

The majority of us will go into these negotiations wanting to win, to get the best results for ourselves, but this is a fundamentally flawed approach to negotiating. Whilst we should always look to maximise our profit in business when negotiating the win/lose mentality limits our ability to achieve greater results.

Why? Well because simply looking at the cake and seeing how it can be divided so that I get the biggest piece normally develops an air of conflict and competition. Few agreements are reached under such conditions and often when one is reached one party feels hard done by. Whilst leaving your counterpart reeling from the loss may work if you never have to deal with them again or anyone they may know. It certainly doesn’t develop long term business relationships, or bode well for repeat business.

Win/Lose is a zero sum game and its better to create more options and variables than to haggle over one or two. Instead of splitting the cake, make it bigger. Whilst Win/Win doesn’t really exist the feeling of mutual win is the key. Both parties should feel satisfied and both should look to make concessions in order to create that satisfaction within the other party.

When approaching a negotiation try to look at it in other ways then the simplistic sporting analogy of we win they lose. In the end you should find you actually gain more and will find people enjoy doing business with you.

For more on negotiation please read some of our other articles, we also have worksheets and short courses available through our Academy which you can download.

Do we as a general population seemingly detest Bankers and all that surrounds them simply, as many of them of claim due to an outright jealousy and a British attitude to dislike those more successful than us? Or is it a more complicated and deep routed than that?

Of course recent press highlighting the fact that even during the colossal failure of the banking system many city executives where receiving huge payouts and that so soon after the event the banks are seemingly returning to the big bonus culture doesn’t aid the levels of sympathy the general populace feels for them.

The BBC’s recent ‘Love of Money’ season and dramatisation of the collapse of Lehman Brother’s have no doubt helped re-enforce the belief that Bankers where self-indulgent, arrogant and more than happy to take, not calculated risks but clear casino-style gambles with our money.

The banking industry also appears painfully slow to take lessons from the events of a year ago in trying to build a system less exposed to the kinds of risk and foolish behaviour. Robert Peston the BBC economics editor has an interesting insight to this matter (click here to see) and it can be said that his blog on the general state of our economy makes intelligent reading (even if we don’t always agree).

Whilst the evidence against the Bankers may seem a simple open/close case, the issues and responsibility runs much deeper. Next in line are the regulators, their apparent lack of control or ability to understand what the banks where implementing is quite frightening but unfortunately nothing new. Since it conception it has appeared that the FSA has been able to have little impact on the activities of the banks and their employees.

The complication and convolution of the financial system has created an industry open to exploitation by those who are willing and perhaps lack a moral compass. At this point however it must be stated that whilst stories of corruption and misdemeanour make for popular reading. It can be said that the vast majority of people and companies in this industry are wholesome and live by the rules.

It must also be stated that whilst foolish and perhaps negligent at times not to address the actual risk or reality of the situation the action to create and sell CDO’s and other derivatives was not corrupt, and those doing it genuinely believed they where removing risk from these investment vehicles but I digress…

So the bankers, regulators and governments (as policy makers and part-regulator) all contributed to this financial folly but it might take a painful look closer to home in sharing this responsibility.

The general population exerted pressure and desire for ever increasing returns from our financial investments. We also looked for cheaper means of credit to satiate our ever growing need for consumer goods. Our love affair with the property market helped fuel this bubble even further and the fact so many of us over stretched our finances to achieve our housing dreams didn’t help.

So the Credit Crunch whilst led by bankers was able assisted by various parties and to be fair to bankers whilst we might hate them more than ever, there has never been any real great passion or liking for those in the world of finance. The roots of hate can be found much deeper than just the most recent of recessions.

Now I could be out on my own with the following opinion but here goes anyway. I believe and feel that whilst the headlines might be grabbed by the big salaried investment bankers, many of us hold a dislike for all things financial through our retail banking experiences. The problem starts with the term Retail Banking and the fact it in no way reflects retail as we know it. One bank makes a huge marketing campaign out of demonstrating their helpful side which includes having a phone number for the branch you bank at, opening on a Saturday and having the people you speak to based in the UK. Those sorts of claims will have large grocer retailers quaking in their boots I’m sure.

Dealing with banks on a daily basis can be a grinding process, foreign call centres, excessive charges, inflexible and unhelpful customer services, limited opening hours for branches and a bombardment of calls and junk mail for unwanted loans and credit cards.

Many Small Business owners know first hand of the intrinsic view banks take and their lack of compassion for people and their livelihoods when compared with their ability to look after their own bottom line. Yet in good times many would have been advised by their bankers to take credit, to leverage their business to enable growth. How quickly the hand which gives can be taken away and the bank’s general response? Those Small business owners should not have over-stretched themselves, and managed their finances more responsibly. Kettle, pot anyone?

It is this frustration that many of us feel towards banks about their inability to treat the majority of their customers actually as a people rather than a means to an end. This coupled to the on-going concern that as customers we continue to get raw deals from banks, such as high mortgage rates whilst interest rates are low, yet pittance on our saving, which I feel is really at the core of our distaste to banks and bankers. The Credit Crunch simply gives us another bullet to aim at this industry and its people.

The question is will this situation ever change? In the short term it looks unlikely, banks are colossal in size and clout, the regulators seem relatively weak and politicians who have now blown the budget need financial institutions on-side. There is no real need or desire from the existing banks to break the mould or over-invest in developing a truly customer led retail operation.

Change will only come through a step change in policy, giving the FSA true power in holding banks accountable and by a new entrant to the marketplace bringing pressure to the incumbents. A Tescos or Sainsbury’s bank could deliver this, but a background of a retail price war probably isn’t the right time. Until then the general population and media will continue to hate the bankers.