Blog - Sophiall

Customer Experience

Cringe Email…

As a professional, you should try to engage potential clients and partners effectively.
But sending out crappy, unsolicited emails isn’t the way to do it. Instead of generic messages, take the time to research your recipients and personalise your messages to show that you’re an expert and that you care.
Not only will this increase the likelihood of a response, but improve your reputation and credibility too.

March 23, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Easy Payment Terms – More Cash

To save on merchant fees, are you willing to delay payments by months or not even get paid at all? What does it cost you in terms of missed opportunity costs, working capital financing costs, etc?

Once money comes into your business, you have opportunities to invest it in your sales/marketing, service, or other opportunities which have an ROI much greater than 3%.

It’s not about the margin on every transaction, but the ROI and timing of it in your hands

March 22, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Save 3% but You won’t Get Paid For Months

Cash is king and your payment terms can sometimes be sabotaging your business by influencing customers to delay and extend the payments owed to you. This is part 1 of a situation that I came across about payment terms and cash flow, and how you can optimise both.

March 21, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

High Margins No Cash

Cash is King, and this is clearly seen by business owners who have great margins and profitable businesses, but for whatever reason, getting paid takes a while and so they face the stress of having to scramble to meet payroll and other obligations.

The answer is to introduce recurring revenue models where possible and provide incentives and make it easy for your customers to pay you as soon as possible.

March 20, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

That’s Insane

Ever been told you can’t bring a customer on board, or you can’t take the opportunity you dreamt about? If it’s from a non-business area of your company (such as the accountant or compliance) it’s worth pushing back 100% and having them give you a fully justifiable 100% reason why – and eliminating 100% risk so their jobs become easier is not a valid reason.

March 17, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Is Your Highway For Growth Paved Or Potholed

Is your path of success a nice paved multi-lane highway, Freeway, Potholed Freeway, street, dirt path, or pile of garbage no one can get around? Here is the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade and pave clear paths of growth for a future that can transform your life and one you would not have expected.

March 16, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

“I Don’t Want to Sell..”

Sometimes it’s best to hear directly from business owners on what it means to own a “sellable” business. I think you will find some of what my friend has to say inspiring.

March 15, 2023 No Comments

Dependency on Owner

Small Business Talking to Employees

Managing employees is a challenge, especially as businesses grow. It’s important to maintain good communication, productivity, and collaboration within the team. Thankfully, there are simple solutions that can help small business owners manage their employees with greater efficiency and success.

March 14, 2023 No Comments

Customer Experience

On a Scale of 0 to 10..

We have been talking about the purpose of business being creating customers who create customers. Here we show the math and the proof. What will it mean to your bottom line? What investment can you make that beats the return on providing an exceptional customer experience.
The exceptional experience gives you the growing and predictable revenue that makes scaling your business easier and better positions you to sell at your price and terms one day.

March 10, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Customer Experience Q&A: Part 2- Answers

In part 2 are the answers to some common objections to investing in the Customer Experience.
I stress customer experience because it directly leads to driving up your Customer Lifetime Value, your profits, and the enjoyment of owning your business.

March 9, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Customer Experience Q&A: Part 1 – Objections

Continuing with the Purpose of Business is to create customers who create customers.

An important aspect of that is investing your time, focus, and yes money to provide a superior customer experience.

For many business owners, they see customer service as an expense to be limited.. not as an investment like advertising or sales.

Some of the common objections are in this post… the answers in the next one ..

March 8, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Driving Business through Referrals..

The purpose of business is to create customers who create customers.
To do so, you have to provide a superior experience. Are your customers making more customers for you?

March 7, 2023 No Comments

Customer Experience

The Purpose of Business

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

– Peter Drucker

Taking Peter’s quote I found an expansion of that in one of Dan Kennedy’s BS books. It’s the theme of this short story and my following 3-4 posts.

“The Purpose of Business is to Create Customers Who Create Customers.”

March 6, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Grow Your Business, Not your Hours

Growing a business doesn’t always require more hours or resources; sometimes it just requires smarter strategies like automation, outsourcing, and delegation.
Automating to help make things more efficient at work. Outsourcing to free up your time to invest in more important activities, and delegating to utilise your staff better and take the stress off your back.

March 3, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

10x Your EBITDA – A True Story

Ever feel like you are a trapped in the trenches of a price war.

You don’t have to be.

Ron Holt shows the power of standing out, scaling up and ultimately selling at a premium.

By standing out he could charge what he wanted. That funded his growth which then made him attractive for a high premium offer.

March 2, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Wokezis, Books and Business

Trolls beware! Don’t mess with my wife’s 20 years of experience as a teacher and senior leader in the British Curriculum.

When it comes to phonics, she has literally transformed hundreds of children from struggling readers to confident ones.

A reminder that when you’re choosing mentors or resources for your business, don’t be fooled by ideologues who preach without getting results.

Go for the real thing – those who take the time to get to know your unique situation and help you reach your goals

February 28, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Work, Life and Profits

Working hard is great, but don’t forget to rest and rejuvenate too! Maintaining a good work/life balance can be a key to success.

Taking regular breaks to relax and unwind can help you mentally, physically and you’re your creativity – all of which are essential for growing your business.

So take some time off, let your mind and body recover – you’ll be glad you did.

February 27, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Should They Trust You

People do business with those whom they like and trust. Do the following to help people feel comfortable trusting you and doing business with you.

When they trust you and you exceed their expectations, you gain repeat customers. The ones who will keep buying from you, referring you, and funding you to help your business grow.

February 24, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Blessed are They That…

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most famous and influential speeches in history. And if you look at it from a “business perspective”, it’s a masterpiece in showing the power of communicating benefit and transformation. In short, how to stand out from your competition and communicate it effectively.

February 23, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Confused and Returned

Every try to assemble something when the instructions are pure ****. Best is EU purchases where the only instructions are in 15 different languages and they are warranty cards.
If instructions are included, often it’s written by engineers for other engineers and as useful as just telling us to ask the Cat how to put it together.

But here’s the thing.. purchases that do not get consumed get returned. So why deal with refunds because instructions are not clear. Start there and see what happens…

February 22, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

When Mr. Ed Crossed the Mob

Knowing your audience can be a force for good or evil.
For good so you can provide the solution that can change people’s lives into their hands.
For evil, like poor Mr Ed….

Regardless, knowing your audience makes it possible to scale your business because they are more likely to listen and buy from you.. that is if you know how and when to speak to them…

February 21, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Grow on Principles Instead of Fads

Five principles of direct marketing can help lift your business out of a rut by helping stand out and stand up and scale to the next level.

February 20, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

The Cost of Being A Rookie When Growing A Business

Sometimes Schools can give us the best lessons on how to grow a business outside their classroom. Just look at how they are run…

February 17, 2023 No Comments

Uncategorized

Win a $1 million Deal with $1 dollar Sushi Dinner?

Being successful in business is about understanding the core desires that drive your customers and providing solutions to fulfill them. We can learn a lot from two very different restaurants – one aimed at impressing clients for business deals, and another for throwing a 3 year old’s birthday – on how to create the right atmosphere, understand customer desires and price accordingly.

By doing this, you can outsmart your competitors and attract the customers you want and charge the prices you want. At the end of the day, it’s not about prices – it’s also about understanding and fulfilling customer desires.

February 16, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Kuro Maguri Sushi with Sliders Please

This headline is ridiculous because pairing blue fin tuna sushi with sliders doesn’t have anything wrong with it logically, but rather awkward from an emotional aesthetic point of view.

it’s about atmosphere and how it reflects some of our deepest core desires.

February 15, 2023 No Comments

Scaling the Business

Stand Out

Ever wonder why you go to the restaurants you do?
Do you only go because you are hungry?
If that’s the case why go out and not just deliver?
What restaurant would you take a client to win a critical project?
How about 20 3-year-old children to a birthday party?
Pick the same place? If not.. why?

February 14, 2023 No Comments

Business Value

Discount from a Thief

Ever get a call from a company that only cares about price? it’s like a robber calling you to offer a discount on buying back what he just stole from your house.

February 13, 2023 No Comments

Van Gogh if he painted vito corleone holding a phone

Scaling the Business

Being A Real Business Owner Man (Or Woman)

“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man”
– Vito Corleone

Tips to be a real man or woman and build a business by freeing your time.

February 10, 2023 No Comments

a dragon watch showing the monster of time

Uncategorized

How to Maximise Your Time as a Business Owner

As a busiess owner what does it mean to “maximise” your time? There is lots of hype and cliches around.. but here are some practical steps the hero in our story took to maximise his time.

February 9, 2023 No Comments