Posted by: polarisbis on: June 1, 2009
A little story here about when I was managing a casino in Moscow, Russia, and we had the beginnings of an economic crisis in August 1998. The Ruble devalued over night and the management of different businesses started to peg the wages of their staff to the Ruble. Prior to this we would pay staff in Rubles based on a salary in US dollars, for example if their wage was US$500 and the Ruble rate was 6 to 1, then we would pay them 3,000 Rubles. Overnight the rate went to 9 to 1 so their wage then became 4,500 Rubles based on the initial wage of US$500.
Part of the Russian business ethics took a real hammering at about this stage when management and owners started to look at ways to cut costs. As wages are one of the highest costs to a casino, this was one of the first things that many casinos looked at. Casinos and many other businesses throughout Moscow started to pay wages based on what they paid their staff prior to the devaluation. This created real erosion in the spending power of the staff and started a back lash within many businesses. The buying power of each person was reduced by 50% in the first wave of the devaluation of the Ruble and it had only just begun its slide. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: May 28, 2009
Following on from my last post, I left with the question of, “How many avenues of theft are there”?
With a lot of things we are always looking outside of ourselves for the answers when we really should have taken the time to look within. Before we start pointing the finger and blaming the economy, blaming theft, blaming the new business down the road and the list goes on and on, we need to do something. We need to take some time and ask ourselves some tough questions.
What am “I” doing that has caused all of these things to be perceived as threats to my business? This topic could go on and on for many pages which I may do at another time, however, to cut it short it all comes down to taking responsibility for our own actions. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: May 25, 2009
Recently we have noticed a spike in theft related incidents and just last night I saw a segment on television where shop lifting has risen nearly 8% over the past 2 years. This comes at a cost of millions of dollars to Australian businesses each year. When I say we have noticed an increase I am saying this based on hard figures that I collate on a daily basis. The real cost to business is never really known because of the lack of data supporting all aspects around theft.
How well is your business positioned to first, recognise when theft is an issue and secondly, what are your procedures for dealing with this potential threat? When ever the word recession is mentioned or the current unemployment rate, one turns to thinking, just how many more people are doing it a little bit tougher than previously? This leads to a change in habits displayed by different persons and before too long this can easily turn to minor bouts of theft. Desperate times lead people to resort to desperate measures and quite often they will do anything just to get by. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: May 14, 2009
Systems keep a business on the straight and narrow providing they are regularly reviewed and adjusted when required.
When was the last time you conducted an audit of your systems? Or are you like many of the small businesses out there that are flying by the seat of their pants hoping that the wheels don’t fall off before they land. Hey, this may be working for you and that’s great, however wouldn’t it be beneficial to have your systems in place just in case? How much pain might this alleviate if you had only taken the time to prepare. If you have the systems, great, when was the last time you audited them to ensure they are doing what they have been designed to do and are they still relevant in your business. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: May 10, 2009
What will it take to have your business prepared?
A question that I asked in my last post and one that will take a lot more than one post to answer. The tools required to make the necessary changes are all around us if we take the time to look for them and when we find them we have to use them. Like a lot of things in life we have to make a commitment to ourselves and those around us to follow through and do what we say we are going to do. All too often we start off with in a mad rush full of bravado, yet somewhere along the way we start to lose our focus and before too long we are back in that rut where we started.
What happens between that point of starting and falling back into that old habit? Is it the quality of the information, is it the people we surround ourselves with or is it the courage to ask someone for assistance? All great questions and to have the answers to all of these would be of immense benefit to those people we deliver our message to on a regular basis.
A great quote by Paul Spear that I read the other day, stated, ”as one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person”. Adding to this would be the statement, each of us can make a difference to the world one person at a time, if only we take the steps to make it so. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: April 26, 2009
Wow how time flies!!! It was only yesterday when I updated this site or so it seems and to say plenty has happened is an understatement. I only have to look back to a post from April 08 to see that what I spoke of has rolled into the shores of Australia and for that matter most of the world.
That post refers to a need to recession proof your business against a looming storm. Well, I can report some businesses have sort us out to implement various systems that will have them in a position to ride out the storm and to be in a position to capitalise on the up-turn that will eventuate sometime in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: May 2, 2008
In Today’s Profitune Minute Talkback I’m going to look into what it takes to stand out from the crowd and the steps to being noticed.
If you don’t know what you have that makes you stand out from your competitors, how in the world do you expect your potential customers to single you out? The point here is that you have to differentiate yourself in such a way that anybody looking for services or goods similar to what you sell will be drawn to doing business with you.
What is it that makes you unique and how are you exploiting this?
Today’s 6 minutes and 02 seconds of Profitune Minute will reveal the third of the seven steps to Creating Your Own Marketing Strategies.
Are you ready?
Then listen now!
Posted by: polarisbis on: April 28, 2008
In Today’s Profitune Minute Talkback I’m going to tell you how to work out the lifetime value of a customer.
Clearly by knowing the value of each customer we can build strategies into our marketing programs that will allow us to be better prepared to develop a cost effective plan around this information. One thing that a lot of business people fail to recognize is that it is a lot cheaper to market to existing customers than it is to get new customers.
Today’s 4 minutes and 39 seconds of Profitune Minute will reveal the second of the seven steps to Creating Your Own Marketing Strategies.
Are you ready?
Then listen now!
Posted by: polarisbis on: April 18, 2008
Are you new to marketing your own business or are you not sure what marketing means to your business?
Have you forgotten the basics of marketing or don’t you really know what they are?
Now, as with a lot of marketing it is ineffective because the basics were never really followed and had a few simple rules been adhered to, a lot of time and money may have been saved and effectively put into something that returned a profit on dollars spent. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: polarisbis on: April 11, 2008
In Today’s Profitune Minute TalkBack I’m going to show you a quick and easy way to leverage Strategic Alliances within your business.If you’re willing to put some thought into this, you could find yourself sitting on top of some great profits and lots of new customers to add to your marketing list.
Are you ready?
Then let’s do it.
In just 3 minutes and 33 seconds you will learn a simple way to leverage your strategic alliances.
So let’s begin
