When two companies put a deal together, it’s usually the bigger, more established company that puts the contract on the table. That’s because they know from experience that if they take the time to write it up, they can write it in their favour. There Are Two Perspectives To Every Contract Any clause in a … Read more
You have to be careful when you’re doing business with big companies. Even big companies have to be careful when they’re dealing with other corporate giants. Especially when they’re playing in that company’s back yard. The Brand If you know anything about fast cars, you know the name NOS (Nitrous Oxide Systems) which is a … Read more
Negotiation is a cornerstone of success in business. Let’s start with the understanding that business is simply buying and selling. In order to successfully buy low and sell high to generate a profit, you need to be a good negotiator. If you have a small business, negotiation skill is what enables you to get the pricing you need … Read more
You know when a salesperson has got a sale locked down and then they keep talking when they shouldn’t and say something that loses the sale? This is sort of like that. When you have an important, complicated, or multi-party business deal in the works, it’s best to keep it isolated. Control over who’s talking … Read more
There’s a right way to cut costs. And a wrong way. The technical definition of bootstrapping has a lot of history behind it. Today, the popular definition simply means to cut costs and leverage your assets to the max. Most companies go into bootstrapping mode for one of two reasons; Either they’re a new startup … Read more
The power of the human fight-or-flight instinct is a good way to understand how immediate challenges dominate our actions. As a business, your immediate challengers are the competition in your industry. The people that do what you do. But there’s a bigger picture as well. Ultimately, you’re competing with every other business on the face … Read more
The absolute measure of what something is worth is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. The lower the price of anything, the more people you’ll find willing to buy it. It makes sense then that pro forma costing needs to start with the market price. The price that customers are willing to pay. … Read more
Smart people make money when times are good. Rich people make money when times are bad. The housing market has been doing great for the last few years. When it starts going down (as all things that go up eventually do), two kinds of people will emerge; those that have sold and moved on to … Read more
Business is simply buying and selling. That’s all it is. Whether it’s retail, manufacturing or servicing, everything to do with conducting business can be categorized as either buying or selling. Expenses or revenue. From this perspective, there are three things that you can focus on to build a successful business: Create value Adjust the ratio … Read more
The expense of business software can add up. And up. And up. Today, you can get pretty much everything you need to run a business from open sources. Sometimes the success of a new business is dependant on it’s ability to bootstrap (keep costs way down). Not all the software listed here is open source. … Read more