I'm bored - free business advice! Come one, come all!

reply to post by ExCommando


I’m wondering as to how I can base my customer service and marketing as I will be the one and only running this business, until it hopefully takes off.

A website and a business cell is a must obviously. But is radio/TV advertising as well as the web a must? Just how expensive is it?


BTW, you started it.

Originally posted by ExCommando
reply to post by PatrickGarrow17

 

First, how they walk into the interview. You can tell alot about a person based on how they walk, hold themselves, and greet you.

Next, I only EVER hire on attitude - sure, they have to have the core skills to work within the role, but I've learnt, the hard way, that you cannot train attitude.

Everything else you can train, but attitude is either there, or isn't.

Truer words have never been spoken, Ive done extensive sales management (microsoft and att)

That is the number one advice I give to mangers when interviewing potential sales people, you can train skills, you can not train Attitude.

It is very hard to make some one who is not a people person to be a good sales person, it goes for most positions.

I can train a monkey the nuts and bolts mechanics of the business, I can't train them to do it with a smile.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by ExCommando

 

I’m wondering as to how I can base my customer service and marketing as I will be the one and only running this business, until it hopefully takes off.

A website and a business cell is a must obviously. But is radio/TV advertising as well as the web a must? Just how expensive is it?

You will be a jack of all trades until the business is generating enough money for you to outsource.

When I started, I was the marketer, the customer service rep, the cleaner, the admin assistant - everything. It was a 14 hour a day job.

Once we were kicking goals, I started paying other people to do it all. I truly believe you need to learn your business from the grassroots up - do all the dirty, boring jobs yourself.

Anything else is just laziness in my opinion.

I don't think TV and Radio are justified for a startup, you need to sink alot of $$$ to make it viable.

You're best off approaching your local newspapers / magazines, and sell yourself to them - see if you can snag an editorial / free advertising space. They want stories! As long as yours is interesting, you'll be in with a shot.

A webpage is obviously vital - and I'd probably suggest doing some decent SEO and maybe a pay per click schedule to drum up enquiry.

You are your brands ambassador - it's up to you to get the leads and push the business forward. There's no simple answer apart from hard work.

Originally posted by benrl

Originally posted by ExCommando
reply to post by PatrickGarrow17

 

First, how they walk into the interview. You can tell alot about a person based on how they walk, hold themselves, and greet you.

Next, I only EVER hire on attitude - sure, they have to have the core skills to work within the role, but I've learnt, the hard way, that you cannot train attitude.

Everything else you can train, but attitude is either there, or isn't.

Truer words have never been spoken, Ive done extensive sales management (microsoft and att)

That is the number one advice I give to mangers when interviewing potential sales people, you can train skills, you can not train Attitude.

It is very hard to make some one who is not a people person to be a good sales person, it goes for most positions.

I can train a monkey the nuts and bolts mechanics of the business, I can't train them to do it with a smile.

I love that saying "I can't train them to do it with a smile"

Spot on.

Originally posted by ExCommando

Originally posted by benrl

Originally posted by ExCommando
reply to post by PatrickGarrow17

 

First, how they walk into the interview. You can tell alot about a person based on how they walk, hold themselves, and greet you.

Next, I only EVER hire on attitude - sure, they have to have the core skills to work within the role, but I've learnt, the hard way, that you cannot train attitude.

Everything else you can train, but attitude is either there, or isn't.

Truer words have never been spoken, Ive done extensive sales management (microsoft and att)

That is the number one advice I give to mangers when interviewing potential sales people, you can train skills, you can not train Attitude.

It is very hard to make some one who is not a people person to be a good sales person, it goes for most positions.

I can train a monkey the nuts and bolts mechanics of the business, I can't train them to do it with a smile.

I love that saying "I can't train them to do it with a smile"

Spot on.

I see it all the time, people get hired based solely on the resume, six months later they wonder why it was a bad hire.

I had a mentor that taught me to look for people every where I went, an example was he hired a man from a gas station that up sold him on the oil he was putting in his car.

The guy went on to earn 6 figures in sales, from a chevron gas station making minimum wage kid literally fresh outta high school that just had extraordinary people skills.

reply to post by benrl


100%. One of the guys I hired when I was working in London had ZERO experience - came in and got ME talking about my life and what I'd done.

20 mins into the interview I realised I hadn't asked him a question - but he knew all about my life and story.

Hired on the spot.

Originally posted by ExCommando
reply to post by benrl

 

100%. One of the guys I hired when I was working in London had ZERO experience - came in and got ME talking about my life and what I'd done.

20 mins into the interview I realised I hadn't asked him a question - but he knew all about my life and story.

Hired on the spot.

I know its a bit crass, but myself and other of the managers would place bets on whose employees would succeed.

It was a bit of bragging rights with some who had gotten the best Candidates (man has the job market changed) I tended to trounce the others, so much so I was moved to Corporate for ATT to run the sales training and hire process in our area.

All based simply on what you said, You can't train attitude.

reply to post by ExCommando


Thanks. You’ve pretty much confirmed my worst fears and best dreams.

I know that I will not get rich in my chosen endeavor, but if I can at least make ends meet doing what I love…I’m cool with that.

The story angle I had not thought about. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reply. I like to believe that attitude can rub off when enthusiasm and ethic is displayed at the top tiers, though.

Are there any books you would recommend on business leadership? I read John Wooden's "Leadership," and thought it was brilliant (he is the all time greatest college basketball coach, you may not have heard of him in Aus. but he's an icon in the American sports world). Also, I've skimmed through some new books called 4dx and charged which were pretty good.

Any good ones that helped you?


Edit:

Just read your post above that promotes the grassroots approach to starting and leading a business. Agree with that 100%.

reply to post by ExCommando


Great advise. Thank you again.
I hope you like being busy in your new retirement cause I think you might have your hands full with this thread.

One of the guys I hired when I was working in London had ZERO experience - came in and got ME talking about my life and what I'd done.

20 mins into the interview I realised I hadn't asked him a question - but he knew all about my life and story.

Hired on the spot.

That is an awesome story, lol.
Crickey! I clam up and blush in interviews No sales job for me!

Just for the record I think you are full of it. You hadn't replied to my post, not sure if you are ignorant or you just favour posters after me. But I am sure it is because you are TOTALLY BORED.

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011
How do you set up a company policy on wages paid to new employees? Also, if you hire them as subcontractors, how should they get paid for that as opposed to a regular 9 am - 5 pm job?

Hello mate - sorry I missed your post!

I'm sure you can see I've tried to reply to all of them, but yours was such a small post, it skipped my eye when I was reading through them.

I'm not really sure what you're asking - how to write a company policy? Easy - figure out when you want to pay staff, and write it down. I pay all staff dependant on their start dates - they are all paid fortnightly. So 2 weeks after they start, they get their first pay.

I don't hire contractors - the only contractor I have is on a commission only payment, so he invoices me for the work he has completed, and is paid on invoice.

Also, this is "free" advice - it's not like you're paying me for advice, have a little bit of patience!

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
Thanks for the reply. I like to believe that attitude can rub off when enthusiasm and ethic is displayed at the top tiers, though.

Are there any books you would recommend on business leadership? I read John Wooden's "Leadership," and thought it was brilliant (he is the all time greatest college basketball coach, you may not have heard of him in Aus. but he's an icon in the American sports world). Also, I've skimmed through some new books called 4dx and charged which were pretty good.

Any good ones that helped you?

edit on 9/18/2012 by PatrickGarrow17 because: (no reason given)

Edit:

Just read your post above that promotes the grassroots approach to starting and leading a business. Agree with that 100%.

edit on 9/18/2012 by PatrickGarrow17 because: (no reason given)

I've really only read 2 books - Bransons biography and everything by Donald Trump. He's a hard man, but he has loads of wisdom in his books.

reply to post by TDawgRex

Thanks. You’ve pretty much confirmed my worst fears and best dreams.

ExCommando is spot on. Rep, cleaner, administrator, telemarketer, toilet cleaner and general dogs-body is the life of the self-employed. But it's the only way to learn every aspect of your business.

Pay attention to the customer service side. It's how I've held my head above water for so long.
If the client is happy - that is all that matters.

I know that I will not get rich in my chosen endeavor, but if I can at least make ends meet doing what I love…I’m cool with that.

That's what it's all about.

Your thread has earned a star.

My question to you is, what are you going to do?

Where will you invest(time and or money)?

reply to post by ExCommando


Contrary to many, who believe the economy is stagnant and low in opportunity, I think it is a pretty good climate for start ups. I think people are looking for new products and different ways of doing things.

Do you agree, or are you still reserved about the overall market direction?

everyone knows that it takes money to make money... however, what would you advise someone to think about doing who has no money, or very little money, but a huge amount of drive and determination?

great idea for a thread too, your people-person is showing through, which is probably a huge part of your success

Hi,

I recently moved back to the UK from Australia after 4 years, one of the main reasons was due to the lack of employment and other personal reasons...

The last 17 years I have been working in the community within housing and welfare homeless projects, drugs and alcohol projects, employment and training and sexual health programmes. One of my main attributes is being able to present/teach groups of people from all age groups in a manner that is informative, well constructed and also humorous....

Do you have any employment openings at the moment for a real hard working professional who may be able to assist you with corporate events and the like?

Or any jobs at all would be good........

Cheers davethebear






I hold a permanent residency visa, any chance of a job?

I'm willing to take the risks needed so any advice you can give will help me.

So I'm looking to start a business selling, herbs and salad crops (as well as seasonal veg) to local restaurants.

My USP (unique selling point) would be that the herbs and salads are grown using an Aquaponics system and obviously I'll be trying to source hard to find varieties of veg and herbs that you can't just pickup at the local wholesaler.

Basically Aquaponics is just using fish "poo" to feed the plants and the plants in turn clean the water for the fish. I guess the system use's little water as well as not having to use synthetic (maybe oil based) nutrients.

I'll set up a website that they can use to order the goods and I will pick and deliver within the hour, so fresh as you like.

I'm not looking to make a forune and just want a piece of the pie really so I'm willing to charge "normal" prices for what would be classed as an organic product grown in a unique way and completely fresh.

I guess what I'm wanting to know is what's your advice for getting this off the ground. Where do I start, do I dream big and setup big systems to produce as much as possible and they look at shifting it when it's done or do I start small and build up clients slowly. Obviously the "dream big" is more risky but will have a bigger payout if sucessful. The "start small" option would be less risk if it wasn't sucessful but the business would grow very slowly.

I'm also low on funds really so I'm going to have to look at grants and funding etc, any advice is that department. Do I put together a business plan now and approach them or do I put the idea onto them and work with them to create a business. If that makes sense.

Thanks in advance, I like people who are out to help. I mean I'm not even sure if I'm asking the right questions but basically I just want to run my own business selling good quality honest food to resteraunts (or people if that fails) at a fair price. I'll be happy if I'm just paying my bills but happy to go to work everyday.

Originally posted by ExCommando

Originally posted by followtheevidence
I want to start my own house-cleaning business (using environmentally friendly cleaning products) - any pointers?

And thanks for offering your services - this is why I call us the ATS family

S&F!

Tricky one - I'm assuming you are based in the states?

Do people appreciate value for money, or environmental issues when they engage a cleaning company?

Your best bet would be to do a relatively easy survey of 100 - 300 people - ask them if they would pay "slightly" more for completely environmentally friendly products etc.

It will help to build a database, plus it will answer your question prior to you sinking $$$ into the business direction.

Also, new parents in the upwardly mobile sector should be factored into your survey. Environmentally friendly products are usually baby safe products. You can't stress that point enough in providing a service. People with new babies, are very tuned in when it comes to what their children are exposed to, especially in their own homes. That will bring you a lot of new business, business you know will grow as people aren't going to stop having babies anytime soon.

Just my .02 cents....

Des