Why a “No Apologies” mentality might work for your business.
Not too long back I had some miscommunication problems with a service provider.
I use the word ‘miscommunication’ rather loosely and euphemistically to be truthful. I’m trying to be positive about it.
If I was being blunt, I would say that they never listened to me. I was never heard. They attempted to make decisions on my behalf, and really, just never got to the point where they understood why I was so annoyed with them. Which leads to my second big issue in our relationship. Assumptions. In order to explain, I’ll need to digress slightly into some background on our company.
I’m an avid student of e-marketing, normal marketing, and any other kind of marketing. I devour article’s books, blogs, LinkedIn discussions and any other type of advice I can lay my hands on. This is a necessity, as a business owner, CEO and entrepreneur, I am the head of the marketing department. I have no formal training or education in marketing, so it’s really up to me and my own discipline to find out how to do things; and then make it work. Sink or swim baby. Sink or swim.
So I know all that stuff about the personal touch, how a handwritten note makes all the difference for example. Or congratulating someone with flowers when an event happens. If you’re a local or small business owner then you are perfectly positioned to know about these events, because you generally know a good portion of your clients personally, and behaving like a human being makes doing business with you a pleasant experience.
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Latest JustWorxs/PrintWorxs Release v1.11
Our Latest Upgrade to the software v1.1 was released earlier this week on 20-Jan-2014. Below is a list of all the features included in the upgrade -
# Changes in Menu
* The Consumers, Client companies and Suppliers have been merged into a single List called Accounts in CRM which can be further classified as Client Companies, Person Accounts (called Consumers earlier) and Suppliers.
* Products and Services item has been moved under the Sales & Quoting menu.
* Production menu renamed as Jobs and Deliveries. Accounts and Invoice List renamed to Invoices.
# Notes Added
Myth: Your time costs you nothing
Being your own boss is quite something. Challenging. Yup you betcha. Tough. Most Definitely. Tricky? Truckloads of it.
One of the most common, and most dangerous myths to believe, is that your time doesn’t cost you anything. I won’t go into detail where that particular misconception comes from, rather, I am going to take a quick look at why it’s a bad idea to think that way, and how to cost your time properly when your product is you, your skills and your services.
Know thy costs, know thy client
In a previous post, we briefly discussed what pricing on value is, and touched on why you should be pricing on value and not direct cost.
This post will dig down a little more into the 2 things you need to know before you start pricing on value.
The first is your cost of manufacture. It seems a bit counter-intuitive, and quite a few MIS and production software providers will tell you that super accurate costing in your quotes doesn’t matter. That’s because they either can’t do it, or they can’t do it at a price that works for a quick print shop. And you end up thinking - “If I’m selling on value, then I’m going to be way above my costs anyway, so close enough is good enough”
The truth couldn’t be a starker contrast:
Latest Dolphin4 Release
We've just released a new Dolphin4 Version on 22-November 2013.You can read all the release notes at this link. Speak to your distributor about an upgrade if you haven't had one in a while.
Also, anytime you need help with Dolphin4, we have a dedicated Dolphin4 help blog - http://dolphin4help.
The blog is also accessible directly out of the software by clicking on the help icon on the Main Home tab.
It's quite a huge release, which contains over 50 improvements and some bug fixes, and has taken a coordinated effort with distributors located across 3 Countries with well over 8 months of testing .
You can also sign up to our Dolphin4 LinkedIn Users Group if you want to follow the discussions with other Dolphin4 users.
Business Basics 101
A while ago I was having some miscommunication problems with a service provider.
I use the word ‘miscommunication’ rather loosely and euphemistically to be truthful. I’m still trying to put a positive spin on the whole experience.
Actually, they just weren't listening. They had made decisions on my behalf that I didn't agree with, and their communication style didn't suit me, or my business. And they never adjusted to suit me, preferring to rather make excuse after excuse as to why I , their client, should change everything about my business to work the way that they, the service provider wanted to do things.
Printworxs webinar (Oct 2013)
Watch the printworxs webinar in the below video.
Note: For best resolution, it is recommended to switch to full screen mode when the video is being played (by double click on the video or using the full screen button at the bottom right corner of the video). Thanks.
What is value-based selling ?
There's a major shift taking place in the world of Print, as many small print shops expand out their business into value-based selling, and evolving into marketing specialists.
This is a good thing, short run print jobs are in fact a speciality custom manufactured good. Selling on price, and constant undercutting has led to many printers either going under, or even worse , staying afloat long enough to seriously hamper the market for those who would do well otherwise.
It takes a massive mind shift to move away from a "Cost plus Markup" mentality. If you're the kind of person ( like me) where 1+1 =2 , it's hard wrap your brain around the concept that when selling on value 1+1 =3, or even 4 or 5 if you're in the right part of town.
The truth is, it's not hoodoo vooodo, or thumb sucking. The pricing is based on factors that multiply, rather than add to the price.
Here are the broad strokes, and we'll dig down into them in future posts.