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.

Within two months many businesses began laying off staff and those that remained were being paid less than half what they were getting previously. A growing trend became evident within many of these businesses where there were sharp declines in revenue and customer service took a real hammering. It wasn’t surprising when businesses started to go to the wall and more and more people were put out of work. Clearly there were worrying signs for all businesses, however there were also opportunities and lessons to be learnt from what was happening. Initially we looked at cutting staff as well, however we were also aware that by taking advantage of the staff through the exchange rate was only going to cause bigger problems in the long run.

Communication in these circumstances was critical and without that we would have gone down the road that many of the other businesses found themselves travelling. Keeping staff informed on the plans for the business and how we were going to get through this and reassuring them that we would be paying them as per normal helped alleviate a lot of the tensions at this stage.

One area that was carefully covered was theft. Stealing from the casino was not going to be tolerated and that we would be monitoring the tables for this and in return we vowed that we would pay staff as agreed. When faced with issues like this there becomes a need for creativity and it was decided that as the Ruble was devaluing at such a fast rate we would pay the staff in US dollars thus alleviating the erosion of buying power that they were experiencing.

This had a flow on effect to the moral of the staff and became the difference between closing the doors and thriving in uncertain times. Of course there are other factors besides this that I shall cover in the future, however the ever present threat of theft from within the business is relevant to all businesses.

One area that I haven’t touched upon again is systems and in particular, systems to deal with inventory. I can hear you now, how many other areas are there for theft in my business?

Great question.

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.

Now, as for the topic of theft, what I was hinting at was that we may spend a lot of time looking at the persons on the other side of the counter and failed to look within at our own staff. Yes there is the question of trust and this might be a good time to find out whether your staff really trust YOU. How well do you communicate with your staff? Are they fearful of losing their jobs? Just a couple of questions we might ask ourselves towards knowing whether there is potential for theft to become a problem within you business.

I shall post again in a couple of days with further information on dealing with some of these issues.

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.

Now in the first instance I have been talking about the potential threat to your business from theft by persons doing it a little tougher than normal. What systems do you have in place to alleviate this threat, how well are your staff trained in looking for telltale signs surrounding theft?

One business that I am associated with at present is in the service and entertainment industry, where we are positioned to monitor patrons through surveillance systems with personnel trained to look for these particular threats. Often they are able to pinpoint certain persons acting in a suspect manner prior to there ever being an issue and we are positioned to act immediately, thus reducing the amount of incidents recorded. All too often we need to be aware that the theft may not be from us but may be from patrons that are visiting our establishment. Pick pocketing has been highlighted recently as a factor faced by the larger businesses where the patronage is a little higher, however this can happen just as easily in a small shop.

These factors then become an opportunity for your business to grow its loyal band of customers, through the action of making your business a safer place to do business. It only takes a small amount of bad publicity for the word to spread about your business and before long your visitation numbers are in decline. Of course you would be aware of this, because you do have a system for monitoring visitation numbers at regular intervals in place, right?

How many avenues of theft could there be?

Give me a few more days and I shall go through some more.

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.

Risk management is a whole new ball game with the different compliance applicable. We are often left wondering have I done enough to manage the different scenarios that may occur in the business and are my processes best practice.

The best thing is that part of the Seven Business Blocks of Business course contains a checklist on risk management and a section on reviewing your business processes.

The business risk checklist contains areas such as, human resources, workplace injury, debt control, computer security, disaster management and insurance just to name a few. How many have you got covered?

Here are a couple of questions on reviewing your business processes to get you started;

How can I improve the system to achieve a better result?

Are we reinventing the wheel or has this process be done before?

Can we perform this process faster?

Only the beginning of a campaign to improve your business processes, which is something that should be reviewed and actioned on a regular basis. The best thing about all of this, is that, Module 7 of the FREE course contains some great information to get the ball rolling. Grab your FREE course NOW.

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.

Previously I have mentioned the tools that are in the Profitune Toolbox draws, and how there are copious amounts of information at our fingertips at any given moment. These tools in themselves can make a real difference however it’s at that moment where the real system comes in to play. The piece of the puzzle that ensures all steps are taken, utilising this information in a structured environment to fully realise the potential of the business and those persons we are working with.

What that credence is, is that we keep you committed to your success. A critical factor in the whole equation is, “your success” and by utilising the tools and resources available, you are well on your way. Business improvement and business coaching are just some of the tools we use in ensuring we get the best for businesses that we work with.

Part of the processes I have created, revolves around Seven Building Blocks of Business, which is a new mini-course in business. This course is delivered over the interenet through seven different lessons in five day intervals. For a limited period I am providing this information for FREE with an additional bonus valued at $79 thrown in as well. The real test is what you do with this information, and I can safely say the whole package is valued in excess of $200, so what have you to lose by taking action and grabbing it whilst it lasts. Do you need to own a business? I would say to get maximum value from it, yes, however there is something in it for everyone, so go to seven building blocks of business now for further information.

Until my next post, have fun, Bryce

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.

The question on most peoples lips is when will this happen. Various commentaries have all sorts of predictions and to really place trust in any of them may be a recipe for disaster. If we were to believe a prediction of the next few months will see the worst of it, we may be sadly mistaken and sadly many businesses will be in dire straits should this economic downturn continue for another 2 years. They will be in such disarray at this time that when the up-turn comes they won’t capitalise on the opportunities that will avail those businesses that have positioned themselves before hand.

The benefits that will be derived will sadly slip through their fingers because they never took the time to have their respective businesses in a position to ride out the storm.

What would it take to have your business prepared?

A great question and one that I shall elaborate on in the coming weeks. A few people have been wondering where I had gotten too. A part from working with some of my long term clients I had shut up shop to most new business.

Why would I do that? Well I ended up setting up in a multi-million dollar business to assist them in setting up systems and structures so that they would be in a position to grow the business during the past 12 months. This recognition by management has them positioned to capitalise in the future, something that makes me proud to be able to assist in.

Stay tuned for the exciting new developments that I will be releasing over the coming months that will be beneficial to all businesses from the one man business up to the BHP’s of this world.

Till then, Bryce

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!

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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!

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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.

Was there ever a plan?

A plan that exists only in ones mind is no plan at all.

Bad marketers are unprepared marketers.

So sit down, grab a pen and paper and prepare yourself to go back to the basics that will allow you to create a plan that will serve you in being able to better market to the customers that count.

The recipe for success is in the planning.

And, in today’s 5 minutes and 4 seconds of Profitune Minute we will reveal the first of these seven steps that will determine who your target market is and what steps you need to take.

Are you ready?

Then listen now!

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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

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