Bromley Business Club Member's Blog

Getting good website design and development can prove tricky especially when you can be blinded with science/technical jargon! Good communication between both parties is crucial to a successful project and it's sad when this breaks down.

Is your website only half finished with no obvious time scale for completion from your developer? Sadly this is a familiar story I hear from clients that come to me in need of help.

There's a multitude of reasons why this may have occurred, from poor website development skills, bloating of completion schedules, loss of faith in your developer or it being that they have moved out of the area and you would prefer to use someone locally.

This all goes to prove that getting the right developer from the outset is an important part of the process in getting your business live on the internet. Researching your developers capabilities is crucial to making sure your website is built correctly and delivered on time. Check the developers work, testimonials and their own site to make sure you have the confidence in their skills.

If your website still isn't complete and live after weeks of work then do not think all is lost. We've worked with many customers who have come to us with half completed sites and been able to work with what they have and finish the job.

There are many different programming languages that can go into building a website but as long as the developer has not deviated too much from standard practice then there shouldn't be the need to start from scratch. This does depend on the size and scale of your site and if the developer has used their own custom CMS or similar but in most cases this is not the case.

If you're in this situation then do get in contact and we can make sure your website is live and working asap. Do also check out and subscribe to our design communication blog for web design tips, social media marketing, all things internet related and jargon free.

According to the Law Society, too many smaller firms are failing to safeguard themselves against the problems posed by late payments.

Recent research has revealed that SMEs are having to wait an average of 41 days longer than the time agreed before receiving payments and a staggering £24 billion is owed to SMEs at any one time, with 37 per cent of late payers take between one and three months to settle invoices.

Additionally, the increase in VAT to 20 per cent is expected to squeeze cash flow still further for SME's.

The Law Society is urging small businesses to guard against late payment. Robert Heslett, the Law Society's president, said: "Average commercial debts caused by late payments are high in the UK, and for SMEs a lack of cash flow can be crippling. With credit less available to those businesses from banks, late payments have a far more serious consequence for SMEs."

We have spoken to a number of busiesses whose experience matches the published figures and we echo the Law Society in encouraging all SME's to review their credit policy and procedures to guard against Late Payments or at the very least, minimise the impact to cash flow and business security.

In our recent newsletter we published our top tips for tackling late payment:-

1. Put credit management at the heart of your business.
Good credit management is not a business function but a holistic principle of healthy business. It creates the expectation that all parties to a contract will do what they've said they will do. Make sure all your policies and practices are geared towards receiving your money on time. Discuss and agree terms and conditions up front when you sign the contract. Send out your invoices on time. And chase payment as soon as it is late.

2. Get buy-in from the top.
This way of working has to come from the top: a credit controller can chase payment, but if the director of the company isn't willing to enforce payment terms, then the stated consequences of late payment become empty threats. The credit controller might be the person who chases the overdue invoices, but responsibility for prompt payment should be a concern across the whole business, for the sake of future stability and growth.

3. Bring in a credit control expert.
Ideally, you will have someone within your business whose core responsibility is credit control - as opposed to somebody who chases late invoices as and when they have time (meaning they're often too busy to do it). If you don't have the resources to employ someone full time, consider bringing in an expert who can assess where you most need to focus your efforts, who can help minimise your losses from bad debt - and preserve that all-important cash flow.

4. Prove you are a prompt payer.
Sign up to the Better Payment Practice Code - a way of showing your customers and clients that you support best practice when it comes to paying invoices. You can use the logo in your marketing materials - and other companies can search a database for like-minded business owners who take prompt payment seriously.

5. Name and shame.
OK, maybe this is a last resort. However, if you don't want to suffer in silence, then you could go public via one of the business organisations that names and shames companies that consistently pay late - or who have changed their terms to disadvantage their SME suppliers. The Federation of Small Business produces annual league tables detailed which big companies are guilty of being late payers. And the Forum of Private Business publishes its Late Payment 'Hall of Shame'.

For more advice and coaching on making credit management work for you or to sign up to our newsletter, email me at sandrag@pscredit.co.uk or phone me on 020 8656 0088

Taking place in York between the 25th and 27th August, the MCT Summit brings trainers from all over Europe as well as some of the best IT experts from North America, Europe and Asia.

Designed and built by Netjib, the event website has already attracted over 2000 visitors and in the first month nearly 100 trainers had booked their attendance.

Read more about this project on our blog or visit the MCT website at http://www.mctsummit.eu

About us

Netjib is a web marketing agency based in Bromley, Kent. Our area of expertise in includes: web design and development, email marketing, search marketing and online advertising

I have been in business now since about the middle of March this year. Business has been slow, even though I have sent out letters, been to meetings, etc. I also became a life member of Raw Business Ltd, an on-line and physical networking organisation that publishes a magazine called "Raw Business Magazine" - obvious, of course.

I had been reading their magazine on line and also some of their on-line articles and found that the spelling in some of the articles was atrocious!

I grabbed my courage in both hands, decided to write them an e-mail, pointing out that spelling in the articles was bad and that they could well do with using my services. I was actually thinking of writing the articles for the various contributors.

After about a week, I heard back from them. Yes, they would be very interested in using my services as a proof-reader and we finally came to an amicable agreement.

Well, not having thought at all about proof-reading, it now looks as if I am going down that route.

Not only have they started to use my services, but I went to a BNI meeting the other day, mentioned what I did, and another firm has said that they would use me as a proof-reader. So it looks as if my business is beginning to go from strength to strength.

I print below the testimonial from Raw Business Ltd.

Testimonial for Gillian Woolcock of Woolcock Typing Services

Gillian proof reads our publication, Raw Business Magazine. She has always been polite, approachable; a pleasure to work with and her standard of work is a credit to her enthusiasm and passion for language.

Proof reading an entire magazine can seem a daunting task but Gillian approaches the task with dedication, drive and with a real wish to provide quality results.

Gillian returns completed proof read articles to us quickly and promptly and we are delighted with the results.

Thank you Gill.

Tom Mapes
Communications Manager,
Raw Business Ltd
www.rawbusiness.com

Last night, the flight back from Budapest was an interesting experience. British Airways is not known for in-flight services. On a three-hour flight in the evening, they will only serve you cold sandwich for dinner. If you ask for a second round of drinks, as usually happens on BA flights, you will be waiting indefinitely, and it will generally not come, unless you ask again.

Something similar happened last night. Quite a few fellow passengers asked for beer and wine after first round of drinks and sandwiches were served. My neighbour, an elderly gentleman, very politely asked for his second drink with “I would love another beer please”. Half an hour later, the drink did not arrive. He was not alone – there were several others around us who were also waiting, and no sign of the drinks! The cabin crew could be seen walking up and down the aisle, and I guess my fellow passengers were too polite to ask a second time.

I was a curious onlooker watching my frustrated neighbour. I hadn’t until then asked for a second glass of wine. Then as a flight attendant was walking past me, I looked at her and asked in a slow voice, “Excuse me…..(pause), can I get a glass of red wine?”. “Sure”, and she disappeared. After about five minutes, she appeared with my glass of wine. Although this did not surprise me, my co-passenger was definitely surprised. Of course it did give him a chance to ask for his beer again which he eventually got, although he was mystified by how I got mine in five minutes.

I did something which I have now learnt to do when I seriously want someone to respond positively to me. Here is what I did on the BA flight:

Excuse me (in a slow voice)…….: This got me her full attention.

A slight pause: She was now trying hard to listen to what I had to say.

Can I get a glass of wine?: Now when I began my sentence with a question (can I), this obviously needed an answer from her. Note that I did not purposely include the word ‘please’ in my request – a bit impolite, I admit, but it works…..! When you add ‘please’ the message when conveyed to the listener gets transformed to ‘could you please’, rather than ‘can I’. Now, there is a plot behind this syntax: when you say ‘can I’ to someone, suddenly the other person gets the message that he/she has power over what you want. But when you polish your request with a more courteous ‘please’, the meaning of the request changes to a very polite command. Now what difference does this make? Simple – my ‘can I’ (I am at her ‘mercy’) obliges her to at least give me an answer: most normally wired people will find it hard to say ‘NO’ when you make a ‘reasonable’ request (if I had made the same request just when the aircraft was landing, I would not expect her to give an affirmative answer as this would be a very unreasonable request). But when I make a seemingly courteous request with the so-called magic word ‘please’, her mind does not hear it that ‘polite’ – it comes across more as a command (‘will you?’). Worse still, when it is a command, the recipient may choose to remain silent (no ‘yes or no’) – it does not automatically require an answer. Only in time you will figure out whether or not your ‘command‘ has elicited an action. In my case, when I heard her say ‘sure’, I knew I would get my wine as she has made a commitment!

Try this next time when you want someone to comply with your reasonable request. Although I must add the caveat that human minds don’t work exactly as machines – so don’t be surprised if you do not succeed in every case.

And do write about your experience if you use this trick! Leave your comments on my blog at: http://resultsachievers.com