Do Business Well

Some businesses reach the size or position where a great deal of internal communication and contact are necessary. Hand in hand with the increase in necessary internal communication grows a plethora of less necessary and even superfluous communication. A business may reach a stage where the extent of internal communication and reporting has got out of hand.

1. Eliminate unnecessary internal communication and reporting

People could be asking for information for the sake of it. It may take five minutes to read a report but it may take the writer and secretary hours or even days of research to produce it. They are expensive people — don’t waste their time. Continue Reading »

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At some point you may receive a bill for legal costs that seems staggeringly out of proportion to what you had originally envisaged. Unless you keep a close watch on the situation you may find that, having put a certain matter into the legal system, the various aspects that can be pursued soon add up to a heavy bill. Having started on this process, it may become difficult to back out, with the result that, what was at first deemed to be a fairly minor exercise develops into a campaign, each stage of which incurs more cost.

So, we should judge the merits of taking legal action or of using the services of the legal profession in the same commercial way that we would purchase other goods or services for the company. Unfortunately we don’t usually do this because we just don’t know what is going on behind the legal scenes. Consequently, we tend to accept professional charges as being fair for the job carried out, relying on the solicitor or lawyer to invoice according to the time and costs he incurs on our problem. Continue Reading »

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10. Curtail your advertising agent’s spending

An agent makes more money, the more you spend. He’ll be happy if you go for a bigger, more expensive, more frequent advertising campaign. It could be worth monitoring that expenditure does not exceed the agreed budget figure.

11. Buy publicity-related services direct from the supplier

Advertising agents will usually make a profit on any service, however small, that they arrange for you. Search for opportunities to go direct for some of these services. In quiet times you may well have the capacity to do the work yourself. Continue Reading »

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Expenditure on advertising etc is very often simply a matter of personal judgement. You can argue for more expenditure; you can argue for less expenditure. You can argue that the recent advertising spree has resulted in more sales; you can argue that greater advertising would have increased sales even further. The advertising budget is a subjective decision, but the publicity and advertising staff are certainly capable of achieving high spending levels.

1. Keep a special watch on the big spenders in the camp

If your company has a big spender, he could well be in the publicity department. It may not be his fault, however, because he is often under pressure from all sides to improve the company’s image. Because of this pressure the publicity budget is often overspent, so a firm resolve to keep within budget is needed. Continue Reading »

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