COVID-19 - Lock down

[ians]

Funny that people who are always saying how busy they are, are the one's who get the least work done?

I dont agree with you ...i was busy from the 6 December - 30 Jan this year ... I relocated half a factory and made sure it was ready to run when everyone arrived back at work... its a pity we didnt plan it for March ... I could have spent the 21 days in lockdown in the factory.

I have also found that if i am not busy i tend to "play" rather than focus on what is going to happen tomorrow.

People who know me ...know not to ask me if i am busy ... i am always busy ...busy working ...busy fishing... busy riding my bicycle ...busy typing crap on forums (my way to release from the pressure of work and other stuff).

As i have mentioned ... the problem is the system being taught ...if it was so great ... 98 % of businesses would succeed.

We all know what we do wrong... the stuff Adrian listed is pretty accurate for most of us small business.

i am seriously considering getting a PA ... rather than employing more staff.

[ians]

holy crap ...suddenly this forum has become another youtube channel... dumping adverts ?


You have to try find the content amongst the adverts


ooops looks like ad block went on the blink... reset and back to no ads... i didnt realise that ad block worked so well...until now.

[Greig Whitton]

considering the fail rate of business in SA is 50 - 80 % in the first 5 years and less than 2 % survive longer than 10 years... it tells me that business advice being shared is only 2 % correct.

Or maybe the business advice is 100% correct but only 2% use it.

[ians]

Or maybe the business advice is 100% correct but only 2% use it.

i didnt use it and i am part of the 2 %

anyone else who has been operating longer than 10 years been using the advice?

[adrianh]

Or maybe the business advice is 100% correct but only 2% use it.

Or 98% of "businesses" shouldn't exist in the 1st place because they were not viable to start with.

[Blurock]

I dont agree with you ...i was busy from the 6 December - 30 Jan this year ... I relocated half a factory and made sure it was ready to run when everyone arrived back at work... its a pity we didnt plan it for March ... I could have spent the 21 days in lockdown in the factory.

I have also found that if i am not busy i tend to "play" rather than focus on what is going to happen tomorrow.

People who know me ...know not to ask me if i am busy ... i am always busy ...busy working ...busy fishing... busy riding my bicycle ...busy typing crap on forums (my way to release from the pressure of work and other stuff).

As i have mentioned ... the problem is the system being taught ...if it was so great ... 98 % of businesses would succeed.

We all know what we do wrong... the stuff Adrian listed is pretty accurate for most of us small business.

i am seriously considering getting a PA ... rather than employing more staff.

There, you have said it. You are always busy, so you don't have the time to attend networking meetings or to subscribe to business courses to further your education. The answer lies in effective time management. Try to work out a schedule for work and play and do not get distracted while you are working. There will be times when schedules overlap or there may be an emergency to attend to, but try to prioritize and attend to the important things first.

Many of us are good at what we do, but what we have learnt 20, 30 or 40 years ago no longer applies. We now have cell phones, 3D printers, laptops and other technologies that did not even exist when we qualified for what ever we are doing now. What about new materials, chemicals and compounds?

Even food have changed. We now eat stuff that we we never knew existed when we grew up. My mother never knew about microwave, convention stoves or even blenders.

We sometimes have to take a break and sharpen the saw so that we can cut more trees.

[Theodore]

Thanks for the post ians. I think part of the problem is that those who give the advice are either not qualified, or not in the right positions to be giving advice in the first place. I mean there are instances where government officials are advising business owners/entrepreneurs how to go about building their businesses.

Secondly, sometimes the focus is on the wrong thing. Business owners know better than anyone what their business is about, what their challenges, and even, for that matter, how to solve them. The issue, and this is where coaching comes in, the solutions are buried under mental clutter and other challenges. So what's needed is critical and guided questioning to enable the business owner to systematically declutter his/her mind and uncover the solution that is already there. If it's not about finding the solution, then it's about helping the business owner to identify relevant and viable options, and create strategies to explore and implement those options. So it's not about giving advice about how to run your business, it's about helping you to uncover the solutions or options.

This is also the difference between coaching and consulting. The latter is about giving the solution, telling the person what to do to solve their problem. The former starts from the basis that the business owner is the expert on his own business, and thus has the solution, it just needs to be teased out. Hope this makes sense.

[Theodore]

Thanks adrianh. Look, I would encourage anyone to be critical because these days there's a lot of misinformation going around. Especially in the coaching industry. One of our biggest challenges is that coaching is still largely unregulated, meaning that anyone can call themselves a coach, even without a formal coaching qualification. So you are right to question.

However, you are also correct that there is value in coaching, when it's done properly. When you're the business owner, it's tough to separate yourself from your business, and take an objective view on what's going on. Also, there's an accountability factor. A coach can assist with both. A good coach can ask you challenging and critical questions that challenge you to self-reflect in a way that you otherwise cannot. A coach will also hold you accountable for the implementation of strategies and actions that you may come up with to help you grow your business, build momentum or overcome challenges.

So what about your business/admin/financial planning do you find most challenging?

[ians]

Or 98% of "businesses" shouldn't exist in the 1st place because they were not viable to start with.

that is exactly what my bank manager told me 29 years ago when i started the business... and why they wouldnt approve the hP for my 1400 nissan bakkie i wanted to buy.

I started my business broke... i had to sell my motor bike to buy a cheap golf... a set of roof racks and a 6 ft ladder ... my tools i had were from the railways were i was an appy.... the first job i did i under quoted by R4000 ...back then it was a lot of money ... i learnt that it is literally impossible to rewire a house alone ...but i tried...and i tried and i tried ... i only billed the customer what i quoted and i believe he was so impressed with my determination that he never stopped telling all his mates about me...within 3 years of really battling no money ...no food ...but I was determined to make it work... I started designing...building and installing water treatment and waste water control system all over the country... we were looking after all the swimming pools at schools and municipality ... i eventually got the a contract with special lighting every year for 10 years ...i did lots of factory relocations ...and wired up many engineering companies... sealy beds ...edblo you name it and even repaired stoves and geysers... been involved in massive projects like Alusaf hillside smelter... we were one of the only company which didnt get penalties at the end...just to mention a few of the things i have done since starting this business broke... no one believed i could do it.

[adrianh]

that is exactly what my bank manager told me 29 years ago when i started the business... and why they wouldnt approve the hP for my 1400 nissan bakkie i wanted to buy.

I started my business broke... i had to sell my motor bike to buy a cheap golf... a set of roof racks and a 6 ft ladder ... my tools i had were from the railways were i was an appy.... the first job i did i under quoted by R4000 ...back then it was a lot of money ... i learnt that it is literally impossible to rewire a house alone ...but i tried...and i tried and i tried ... i only billed the customer what i quoted and i believe he was so impressed with my determination that he never stopped telling all his mates about me...within 3 years of really battling no money ...no food ...but I was determined to make it work... I started designing...building and installing water treatment and waste water control system all over the country... we were looking after all the swimming pools at schools and municipality ... i eventually got the a contract with special lighting every year for 10 years ...i did lots of factory relocations ...and wired up many engineering companies... sealy beds ...edblo you name it and even repaired stoves and geysers... been involved in massive projects like Alusaf hillside smelter... we were one of the only company which didnt get penalties at the end...just to mention a few of the things i have done since starting this business broke... no one believed i could do it.

Commendable, but you need to remember that very few people have your guts or stamina to beat the odds. That said, many businesses are simply not viable because people are unable to do the math correctly. Hundreds of people spend thousands on laser cutters because they see it as an easy income without considering basic business principles. I've seen lots and lots of people hand in the towel because they do not understand basic costing let alone making a profit after covering overheads.

[wogan]

So, about those resources

FNB launched a new application process for the R1bn SAFT today (on the online banking), but it's a heck of a survey - I couldn't get all the way through it before giving up. The big 4 (Absa, Nedbank, FNB, Standard) should all have launched similar surveys today.

There's also the government's own portal at http://www.smmesa.gov.za/ but I don't know what the benefits actually are. It looks a lot more like a lead gen program for the Yellow Pages than anything else.

[Justloadit]

Commendable, but you need to remember that very few people have your guts or stamina to beat the odds. That said, many businesses are simply not viable because people are unable to do the math correctly. Hundreds of people spend thousands on laser cutters because they see it as an easy income without considering basic business principles. I've seen lots and lots of people hand in the towel because they do not understand basic costing let alone making a profit after covering overheads.

Had a partner in another business, who always complained that he needed more income, as the current income was insufficient, yet he could never answer my question - "So what does the business cost to run per minute?"
This was mostly a service orientated business, and was always under quoting.

If you can not get working feel of what your business costs per minute/hour/week/month, then how can you quote on the labour part of your job?
Take all your running expenses per month, wages, rent, insurance, medical aid, telephones, petrol, expenses that are there every month irrespective if you work or not, not material expenses, and divide that value by the number of hours you work per month, then divide by 60 to get cost per minute.

Once you have this number, now you can apply it to your next quote.

I like the minute part as I do manufacturing/assembly work, so the cost per minute makes my calculation of job costing easier. If it takes 15 minutes to fully assemble and 10 minutes to test, then you already have the business cost for that particular job. Now add material costs into the mix, and you have a value to start your quote. Now all it needs is to add the profit margin.

Use this number for everything, even for traveling time, the fact that you are not working, does not mean it's not costing you money.

In fact I have been thinking about an issue, where I have to quote on new jobs, usually R & D, and once I have taken the time to do the quote, I practically have to do a virtual design, which requires research into what is available on the market, read up about it to see if it will work, maybe even tinker with some samples, and then I decide if I want to take the job on. I then tell the client the reason for not doing the job, or may lose the job because the price is too high to to the level of difficulty to do the job. The client now has the information to abandon the project, or go somewhere else and get it cheaper, and the reason for this is that I have already done the ground work to solve the problem. I may have lost a few hours, and in some cases days or even weeks.

This is work time with no income. This year I will be introducing a new way of doing this. I will be charging a Discovery/Feasibility fee, paid upfront for doing the research, and if I get the job, this will be discounted from the development fee.

Just think about it, how long does it take to do a quote, and the customer then rejects it as too expensive and walks away. This becomes more prevalent in complex jobs, as one first has to check up what is buggered and what it will take to correct, both in time and materials.

[Blurock]

holy crap ...suddenly this forum has become another youtube channel... dumping adverts ?


You have to try find the content amongst the adverts


ooops looks like ad block went on the blink... reset and back to no ads... i didnt realise that ad block worked so well...until now.

Ian, I need your help. How do I stop the annoying ads on the Forum? I do not get ads in any other site.

[ians]

Ian, I need your help. How do I stop the annoying ads on the Forum? I do not get ads in any other site.

ADblock plus ...my hard drive is full so it keeps dropping the adblock ...or it could be the old windows 7 playing up ...either way if i dont see the number rising in the top right corner ...i know the ad block is not working ...i restart the computer and do a disk clean ... i never thought i would fill a 5090 gig hard drive.

A mate of mine was showing me something on his computer ...man i dont know how people do it... every page he loads there just ads everywhere on the pages.

one catch with using adblock ...in some cases some pages will not load because of the adblock ...i just close them and move on ...i dont do cookies and adverts.

[ians]

I was watching the adblock as i open the forum page ...it looks like there 8 ads per page you open.