Andrew Griffiths is an author and a business consultant. He has written 8 books which are selling in 45 countries. On the 9^thof July 2009, he was interviewed by Robert Gerrish for bNet Australia. In the interview, he talked about his latest book, “Bulletproof your business NOW.” Here, he shared ten tips that will be very helpful to business owners and those who are planning to build their own business. Andrew Griffiths was all about communication for a successful business and for businesses to withstand whatever comes its way.

Take action

He lives by the philosopy “plan for the worst and hope for the best”. What this means is that he urges business owners to take action instead of wondering and being fearful of what’s going to happen. Take the risk and prepare for the worst.

Share the burden

Andrew Griffiths explained how wonderful it is to have your family and close friends support you. As much as possible, it is a great idea to let them feel involved in the business because you would want someone who you can talk to and have honest conversations with. “Can I help?” is one question that can definitely lift your spirits up especially if you are experiencing some “low blows” in your business.

Get good advice

Getting good advisors such as business consultants and other people who can help you with your business will be great. According to Andrew Griffiths, it is always a great idea to get a second opinion instead of making a decision without thinking hard about it first. He also said to always take time to make decisions.

Cut costs carefully

Andrew Griffiths talked about the Hotel he visited and how disappointed he was with the facilities and even with the  hotel staff. He clearly explained that in every business, when you are about to cut costs, make sure that you do it very carefully and understand which parts of your business will be affected by it and you have to make sure that you can handle and your business can survive.

Have a confidant

A peer or a business colleague will be great. It is always nice to have an honest conversation with someone you trust and someone you feel safe with.

Be creative

In this part, Andrew Griffiths mostly explained about involving your staff in becoming creative and talking to your customers. Ask your customers for their opinions and have your staff brainstorm something new to boost the business. Making your staff feel a part of the business will lead to a loving and supportive staff.

Talk to suppliers

As he said, communication is very important and this applies to your suppliers as well. Interacting with them will lead to a better work relationship and both of you can work better together.

Be real about payment plans

You have to be honest and be real when it comes to payment plans. You have to set your limitations, your wants and your needs. Don’t get bullied into paying something that you simply cannot afford or way off your budget.

Make the hard decision

In a business, it is always expected that there will come a point when you have to make a hard decision such as closing a part of your business to removing a staff. Doing this is for the better and you should not be afraid to make this decision.

Don’t lose sight of your goals

Always keep your vision and enthusiasm. This will lead you to success and great learnings.

Andrew Griffiths has given helpful and very useful tips for every business owner out there through this interview. His books and other books are still being sold in the market today. Bulletproof your business now with Andrew Griffiths and reach success in no time.

A lot of businesses are thriving while others are falling down like water down the drain. Business may become unpredictable which can cause failure. A story about farmer opened the eyes of many business owners. The story goes about a farmer who lives in Hunter Valley and spent all his life on his piece of land. His dad is a dairy farmer that has established a cattle sale yard. However, the arrival of coal mining in Hunter Valley changed everything. This event led to the obstruction of dairy farms in the area. However, there have been agricultural land that remained but the land that was left was then touched by Queensland firms who ship their cattle to the south. If you look closely, you will notice that there must be something that the farmer didn’t do which led to business failure.

Is it because the change they have done is leading to failure or is it because they never allowed room for change?

Business owners must always be aware of changes that can affect their business such as the contraction, economic climate, technology innovations and even expansion due to a growing population. If these conditions took place the same way it had to the farmer who owns a cattle yard, then there should be a different direction and reconstruction or diversification which are mandatory. Instead of grieving for the loss of business which can only lead to despair, do something about it and be mindful of the changes that are taking place in, out, and around your business.

What do you do when your business is falling right in front of you?

Well, don’t just stare it going to shambles!

The first thing that you need to do is to be aware and get in-touch with your feelings. There is no need to be in denial and avoid what you’re feeling deep inside. It is very normal that you feel grief and disappointment when business failure happens. Allow yourself to feel grief and disappointment or even anger. Have yourself an outlet, if screaming would help, scream under a pillow or take a trip to the mountains and scream your lungs out. Once you’ve done this and you’ve finally let out of all the negative emotions, get over it and move on. There is no room for you to be mourning in grief for too long.

Put on your most confident smile and brave the world. Doing this will drive all the negative feelings away. After expressing those pent-up frustrations, you will definitely feel better and see the world in a new light.

Now, the grieving period must be over at this point. It is time that you put on a new perspective on what you left behind. Then start asking yourself questions such as:

1. Is there an opportunity in this business failure?
2. What did this failure taught me?
3. How can I improve my business and not let this thing happen all over again?
4. What are the opportunities that I can grab that I wasn’t able to see before?
5. What are the needs out there that I can attend to?

A lot of great entrepreneurs have gone through a business failure once in their life or even a couple of times but they have managed to pull their selves back up and get back to business. These questions will make you become more oriented in making up solutions instead of drawing up problems and getting yourself too deep in these problems. Dan Kennedy and Donald Trump are two of the most successful entrepreneurs today and they have wonderful stories of business failure that led to rising up again and getting their feet back up. This is because both entrepreneurs share the same important truth which is: business failure does not mean failure of their own creativity.

I just learned a very important lesson about spending habits in a time of recession from someone. He is a US sales expert and his postulations made me realize of all the practicality of his ideas.

The said expert is no other than Neil Rackham, who has been responsible of one of the most extensive study of sales calls. He pointed out that during recession times, people do not chase after cheap wares; rather, they go after reliable and durable products. During these hard times, the concern is not anymore on how much are we spending but whether everything is worth the cost. His postulations are practical to apply even in our own small businesses, which tell us to optimise our revenues by minimising our costs without compromising the necessary factors. Here’s a few:

Get rid of your obsolete computer

Using a computer for more than 3 years already is not a good way of minimising your cost. You are taking a great risk if you do. If your obsolete computer breaks down in the middle of completing a major project, you might risk incurring a detrimental effect on your business. Go get one good unit of computer.

Upgrade your image

You have to put up a very good business image to your potential and current clients. You can start by securing impeccable and well designed business cards, pamphlets and websites. This is not so hard to do these days with the advent of technology, it does not even require a huge amount of money for you to employ this, so why not do it anyway?

When your image projects success, then success will indeed follow wherever you may go.

Dress up your office with the right hardware

Buy the best furniture in town. Furnish your office because if you plan on putting so many hours within its confines, then you better dress it up the way you want to make it liveable. Purchase the most comfortable chair you can find. Do not go cheap on chairs, as you will be seating on it for hours. Buy the ones that could really provide you the most comfort. There are so many ways to buy a good product without having to pay its full market price. Shop around.

You might also want to consider putting up a good lighting system to create a work-conducive environment.

Do not go cheap on labour

If you intend of seeing your business flourish with a solid reputation, there’s no way you could do it at the expense of your employees. Cheap salaries produce cheap work. You need not be unnecessarily extravagant, but at least be fair. Pay in proportion to the kind of work you delegate. Find the best employee you could afford, and then start treading your way to success.

Use advances in technology to your advantage

Nowadays there are so much technological advances that could really help you cut down cost on your business.  You can always use it to your distinct advantage to maximise your profits.

If you have anything to share about practical business cost savings, please let us hear it out.

Business owners should always know how to increase their work productivity. All they need is a vision. Having a vision is very important and this is also the reason why a lot of companies have their “vision” framed in their offices. However, if you look at things closely, having a clear vision doesn’t necessarily mean that your time is under control and you realize that you still don’t get things done the way you’d want it to be. What is the reason behind this?

If you experience this, it is very possible that there is something that steals that time away from you. What could it be? It may be the priorities of others. It is very often that your time is taken up by attending to the imperative needs of others like a phone call, an e-mail, a text message and other means of notifying you that there is an emergency you need to attend to. Now, think about it, that emergency or urgency is not for you but for someone else which is why it is very important that you keep your priorities straight and at the top of your list.

Draw the line

To overcome this situation, you must learn to draw the line. Set boundaries or limitations. This will help you not fall into the trap of other’s priorities. You have to make choices. You have to manage the time on how much you are available to others and how much time you need to spend in your work.

Being available by those who needs your support is indeed, commendable but keep in mind that it is also a great strategy that you allow yourself to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Be in control of your OWN time

Here are some tips to help you stay in control of your time:

1. Appoint deadlines and make yourself responsible to them
2.  Keep in mind that there are more things to do and there is a possibility that you won’t get all the things on your list done
3. Appoint a recoup schedule for your e-mail program
4. Know how to say no to absurd customers and requests

Keep up with modern technology

Also, great thanks to the kind of technology we have today. We are so fortunate to be living in this technology where there is a constant flow of devices or gadgets that can help improve the productivity of our business. That is why whether you’re a soloist or not, it is always important that you keep up-to-date with the latest technology today because you’ll never know, that particular gadget or device can help you boost your business productivity more. Don’t let that chance pass you by.

Here are some of the most important technologies that can boost business productivity

1. Smartphones – According to recent research, this particular gadget is the most sought-after gadget of many business owners. The best thing about a smartphone is that it has all the fundamentals of a mobile phone and at the same time, it has e-mail and internet capabilities. This simply means that you can still check your e-mail and send e-mails and also go online with the use of a Smartphone. This kind of mobile phone also allows you to take advantage of your time especially if you’re stick in traffic or waiting for an appointment, you can do some small tasks that are business-related wherever you are.
2. Computer hardware – your computer or laptop must always perform excellently. It is very important that you won’t encounter any glitches while you’re working on your computer as much as possible and to attain this, you must have a tailormade computer hardware that will perfectly fit your needs.
3. Online tools – get yourself some online tools as this can really help you a lot. You surely don’t want to stick to papers and jot down information such as projects, invoices, etc. These online tools will keep you organized and there is no need to bother anymore with a truckload of papers.

To put everything in a nutshell, in order for a business to perform well and have a well-boosted productivity, every business should go with or keep up with the times. Take the modern path and you will surely increase your business’ productivity and you’ll end up happy with the outcome.

In our modern technology today, there are now new applications and software to help increase business productivity. However, getting all the updated applications, software, a faster processor and a faster internet connection can cost you a lot of money. Many business owners or soloists are willing to spend money just to boost the productivity of their business but having so many options can be so overwhelming and confusing. The best thing to do so you won’t be caught up in all the new technologies today is to create a simple plans and elucidate actions.

Our days are full of work to do but there are times that you realize that you’re losing time. Think about where you’re losing time and as much as possible, have a notebook in handy so you can list down your schedule and analyze it to prevent yourself spending time on less important things.

Repetitive tasks that takes away your time

Ponder on the tasks that you do repeatedly as these are the things that you do over and over again. You have to be very aware of your actions and be on guard.

What takes away your time?

The next thing that you should think of is the things that take away your time. These are the palpable periods where you’re just waiting for the results to happen. Usually this is the time when you just pace back anf forth or waiting for people to get back to you.

Distractions? Good or bad?

Now, think about the things that distracts you. These are the things that pull you away from your actual work. To be able to handle this, you must know the reason why these distractions are happening. However, don’t think that distractions are bad, there are some, while there are good distractions. You might be surprised that that distraction will help you be more energized and more focused todo your work which can sometimes lead to more productivity.

BRAINSTORMING

The next step in planning your productivity is to brainstorm. Gather ideas to help you find solutions. At this point, don’t expect to find answers – yet. Create ideas first to resolve the problems you’re having that hinders you from being more productive. In this step, you must first focus on what you actually need instead of focusing on what’s available in front of you. Remember, your needs are more important than anything else and this can be a great reason for you to be even more productive once you determine what you actually need.

Solutions, solutions, solutions

The third and last step is to look for the solutions. The previous step should have given you thoughts or ideas on what you actually need and it’s time to hunt for soloutions. You may find solutions that are very straightforward while there are some solutions that can be done physically through administrative tasks.

Always be eager when you’re looking for answers, and consult your network and ask help from people around you. Being busy ais not the secret to success, keep that in mind.