Many of us remember those famous words from the movie “Jaws”, but, what does it have to do with business?

Recently we were in conversations with a potential client.  The discussion was centered in a marketing promotion effort to increase customer awareness and exposure.

After the meeting was over we made a rapid assessment of their company, service offering, value proposition, business image, and benchmarked their key competitors.  Our findings were staggering:

• Four companies offered comparable services in the area.  One visible leader, and three following from a distant behind at a similar level.
• Two competitors had facilities in prime locations, high traffic, high visibility.  Our prospective client was a few miles away from downtown in a less transited area.  We attempted to find their offices but we were unable to find them easily, no signs or ads leading to their facilities.
• Key competitors’ websites were vivid, colorful, modern and mobile-friendly; descriptions were clear and easy to understand.  Our prospective client’s website was outdated, lacked e-commerce capabilities, and was not mobile friendly.

We immediately realized that this client needed more than advertising.  Our rapid assessment showed areas that required immediate attention in order to drive client interest and conversion.  Investing in promotional marketing alone would very likely result in little or no economic impact.  This was the moment when we thought “You are going to need a bigger boat…”

The day after our initial meeting we discussed our findings with the prospective client, and after some consideration they decided to evaluate and expanded scope to their anticipated marketing plan.  These included business image and branding, services positioning and segmentation, pricing strategy, and client retention strategy.  We also identified opportunities in their physical address location and accessibility.

Our proposal was more elaborate than the client had originally envisioned; however, they understood the principles and by reviewing actual data they felt comfortable pursuing our recommended path.

Is your company currently considering investing in advertising and marketing? before taking this action explore the key elements of your business delivery model.  What is your business readiness to leverage the results of your campaign?  Is your product/service positioning clear to your customers and adequately differentiated from your competitors? Is your website ready to handle the increased traffic? Is your team ready and adequately prepared to address client requests or inquiries?

If you would like assistance answering these and other questions please contact us.

On November 18, 2015 Edmundo Torquemada, General Manager at Kellerworx introduced Beecose.com to a tight community of entrepreneurs and start-up business owners at Idea Works FW.  Following the presentation Edmundo addressed questions and also discussed ideas and recommendations from the audience on how the application could be improved.

1Million Cups is a weekly national program designed to educate, engage, and connect entrepreneurs.  Developed by the Kauffman Foundation, 1Million Cups gives participants the opportunity to present for a maximum of 6 minutes a recent or soon to be launched venture.  The presentation is followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers.

Most recently, on January 5, 2016 Edmundo introduced Beecose.com to more than 100 members of the Dallas community of entrepreneurs gathered at Dallas New Tech.  Following the presentation and as customary, Edmundo responded to a variety of questions from the audience.

Dallas New Tech is a monthly showcase event for new and exciting companies/technologies.  Entrepreneurs and people interested in start-ups gets together to socialize and check out the hottest developments in tech from local companies around the metroplex.  Dallas New Tech is organized by LaunchDFW, a start-up incubator based in Dallas, Texas.

“Beecose is a great way to uncover skills that otherwise may go underutilized” said Michael, one of the event participants

Dallas New Tech presentations last 5 minutes, and are followed by 5 minutes of questions and answers.  To view Edmundo’s presentation follow this link.

Kellerworx is a business consulting and application development company based out of Keller, Texas.  Information about Kellerworx’ services and applications can be obtained using this contact form.

Amid all this uncertainty, what can you do as a manager to prepare for a potential slowdown?

As mentioned in prior deliveries, anticipate!  On your financial equation there are two elements, one you can’t control: revenues, but there is another element that you can control: costs.

Cost are represented by several components: cost of goods or services sold, direct labor, sales, general and administrative (SG&A) costs, and other discretionary expenses.  Assuming that you are not planning to reduce headcount your focus will likely start on all other items.

A strong culture of continuous improvement and innovation will help you improve your production costs, reduce manufacturing floor-plan, increase up-time, shorten set-up times, minimize use of consumables, and achieve other factory-related productivity gains.

Next in your list will be your cost of goods sold.  Your commodity team will be instrumental in adjusting your COGS position.  In some cases, a candid conversation with your key suppliers will help you improve your cost base; in other situations, dual-sourcing and Request for Proposal events will be key levers that will help you achieve your goals.

Last to evaluate will be SG&A expenses (excluding labor).  In many industries this category will represent a significant opportunity and first in the list to reduce costs.  Categories such as travel, sales expenses, marketing expenses, consulting and other outside services, among other can be managed more quickly than any other spending buckets.

Where to start?

The answer is, it depends.  Rapid results are usually achieved in SG&A and other discretionary expenses.  Manufacturing and Production productivity initiatives may take longer to execute.  Naturally its always best to start with the biggest opportunity, which may vary by industry and by company.

For recommendations on how to start a cost reduction program you can review our summary presentation “Reduce expenses, five steps to implement a discretionary spending reduction program”  located in our Education Center.  You can also visit an abridged version in Slideshare.net.  For additional details please contact us at your convenience.

Part of the answer is in the hyper-connected nature of the world’s economies and financial markets.  In Greece situation, we are contemplating the potential default of €1.5 billion to the International Monetary Fund¹, which are due today June 30th.  An additional €25 billion to multiple creditors are due in the balance of 2015, mainly treasury bill holders, the European Central Bank, and the IMF.  A potential default by Greece would touch far more than just their economy.

Another element of the answer is described by the potential chain of events that would follow a default, which could include separation of Greece from the Eurozone, re-adoption and subsequent devaluation of the Drachma, inflation, and general unrest in the country.  Commerce with other nations would be affected, even tourism.  As these events unfold the investor confidence would significantly drop, not only in Greece’s financial market, but also in the European market and its ability to maintain an economically stable, integrated Union.

Yesterday’s market reaction was just an anticipation of the above.  The Dow Jones lost 348 points, S&P 500 lost 40. The investor confidence is impacted, risks increase and automatically adjust the value of financial instruments, including bonds, stocks, currency, even commodities.  The big question is, if Greece does indeed default, how would it affect your business?

Global corporations have, and are affected by international sales.  When foreign markets are affected US based corporations see this impact in their bottom line.  In meeting financial goals corporations will take measures to compensate for any negative impact, including cost reduction and discretionary spending rationalization.

If your business sells to global corporations it is possible that any cost reduction initiative may affect you directly, either through reduction or elimination of business, or just by generating pricing pressure.  If your business does not sell to corporations but to medium-size businesses you could still see an impact if your customers’ customers are large corporations.  Even if your business sells only to consumers a drop in our financial markets would affect you indirectly; your average consumer might reduce their spending and with that reduce your sales.  

What to do next?  anticipate!  In the same fashion as the investor community is anticipating the consequences of a Greece default you can anticipate the need for cost curtailment.  A few ideas include:

1. Evaluate your cost structure, assess where can costs be rationalized, what is optional, and what is critical for your business operations. Examine with detail your discretionary expenses.

2. Be ready to contact your key suppliers and request price concessions.  Describe the situation and seek support.

3. Explore alternative sources for your raw materials, goods, and services.  This may be a good opportunity to test the market for new suppliers.

4. Challenge your team to reduce operating costs.  If  you have manufacturing operations explore more efficient production methods.  If you deliver services, challenge the team to deliver more efficiently to your customers.

5. Diversify your customer base.  This may be a long-term project, but it is always a good business practice to have balanced sources of revenue.

6. Refresh your “What if” plan². 

In conclusion, could Greece affect your small business or start-up? the answer in many cases might be yes.  Can you prevent it? probably not, but you certainly can anticipate and proactively prepare for tough times.  Start today, develop a plan, and prioritize the actions that will best support the needs of your customers.

¹  WSJ.com

² “What if” plan is a set of scenarios describing risks, impact, mitigating actions, and contingencies.

This is certainly an excellent initiative.  From our own experience, it took us a few days to complete several basic steps including name search, registration at the State level, registration at the Federal level, obtain franchise tax contributor number, then register for sales and use tax, and more.  It sounds too good to be true; to be able to do all this in one day, in one website, but all seems to indicate that this will soon be a reality.  As of June 28 eleven cities have pledged to this initiative.

For more information visit the SBA website, Start-up in a Day

Naturally, not anymore with Netscape, but with an estimated three billion people accessing the internet on a periodic basis¹ anyone with basic internet connection has the opportunity to reach a never before imagined amount of people.  With these super-powers there are also super-opportunities, specially for those delivering products and services.

One of the greatest opportunities for traditional brick and mortar businesses is to develop an online presence and transition to a mix of traditional and e-commerce model.   With few simple steps almost any business can create an on-line store and almost overnight expand their market reach.  For businesses whose target audience is the millennials this is more important than ever; sources indicate that 4 out of 5 millenials shop directly from mobile devices² meaning that those businesses who not only have an online e-commerce portal but also a mobile-friendly e-commerce portal will bear an additional advantage over those who don’t.

Now, is e-commerce a silver bullet? a one-size-fits-all solution? certainly not.  Many elements must be considered before starting an e-commerce site, including how to respond to the potentian increased activity (supply chain, production capacity, logistics and distribution), the selection of social media channels where the business will participate, newsletters if implemented, and the corresponding responsible owners.  These factors and others combined characterize the e-commerce readiness of the business.

With all these considerations and several others not mentioned above, is e-commerce right for you? unfortunately the answer to this question is beyond the scope of this article; however, is something that our team can certainly address.  Contact us at your convenience to schedule a discovery session, no commitments.  We will be happy to assist you in making this important decision.

¹ http://www.internetworldstats.com

² 2014 Millennial Survey, Instart Logic