Setting Up A New Business

Setting up a new Business

Anyone can set up a business - Observation and experience has taught me that not everyone has the make up to do so successfully. Most professional Managers have come across those psychometric tests beloved of the HR people. Some people say they can manipulate them but I always wonder why you would want to do so. The corporate career world is full of people who are round pegs in the square hole of their employment and who are basically unsuited and unhappy with their lot. The‘Peter Principle’ pops up all over the place as people are promoted one step too far. Heaven help us when that step puts them in a senior position that carries such a bow wave of credibility that they are unassailable and too senior to be criticised. There are enough of them out there!  To read the full LinkedIn article, click here.

What's in a business name?

What's in a business name?

What name should you call a new business? Decide all the attributes you want an intended audience to attach to the name. Write down these qualities. When you hit on a name check it to see if it includes these points.

Try to avoid anything difficult to say or spell. You want to be understood over the telephone and elsewhere and you want people to relate to the name easily. A quirky spelling might be all right or it might mean no one can find you listed anywhere.

Avoid initials that sound like others. The phone test is a good one again. P’s sound like D’s Vs and B’s for example. Again, do you want people to find you easily or not? Click this link to read the full post, on LinkedIn

Several things to get right at networking

Several things to get right at networking

Networking may seem daunting, but it is an essential business skill. The best net-workers accept they are not on a mission with a sales pitch. The real point is to build up your circle of contacts and your influence out there. It’s a big mistake to think you are going to turn up and everyone will slap their foreheads in wonderment that they have somehow managed without your services until now. It is said you need to be in touch with someone seven times before they’ll start to consider you as a colleague for working.  “Kissing frogs to find a princess”, is the analogy that is trotted out to illustrate the point.

This post contains some essential advice to the art of business networking.  Click this link to read the full post on LinkedIn

Welsh Web Sites

New suffixes for Welsh web sites are in prospect. Should your business website wish to have .wales or .cymru on its domain name this will soon be available. I can see a point if the business trades on its Welsh heritage and is a localised attraction, particularly for a tourist market.

In general terms I think a business should think carefully. Within the UK Cymru is not known widely let alone pronounced properly. In the wider world Wales is not even well understood to be a Principality within the UK.

For all sorts of reasons the wider context for Wales is not well understood. It can be said that this is wrong, a pity and an undesirable position. However an essential aspect of the Internet and having a web site is the ability it has of being seen by people anywhere who otherwise would not have come across the business.

A compromise in many contexts needs to be accepted. If no one will understand your point, your message, you offering then it is not being delivered.

For similar reasons a business address in a clearly understood location (Pontypool, Pembroke, Abergavenny, Cardiff etc etc) has an edge where the business is looking for a wider audience.  Give your address as Ystrad Mynach, Ynys Ddu, Pontllanfraith, or anything considered 'unpronounceable' outside the locality and you immediately set up a barrier to be overcome. Unfortunate and undesirable of course, but realistic.

This has nothing to do with defending Welsh language, culture or heritage. There are plenty of contexts where this can be celebrated handsomely and with delight. Put up the barriers and you create an insular defensive position. Speak and use Welsh by all means but don't ignore the reality that everyone who speaks Welsh also speaks English and 25% of the populace in Wales was actually born elsewhere.  

Shysters Are On The March!

Do you spot frauds easily? Perhaps you've never been targeted. In fact you probably have but unconsciously turned it aside.
By now we all have seen those emails from Nigerian nobility offering a fat commission. We have all seen scam ('scam' not 'spam') emails just checking on the details on a Bank account you didn't know you had. Other approaches run close to the wire and while not being (maybe) out and out fraud definitely have elements that it is ill advised for you to respond to or take up in any way.
My background is in Banking which has earned itself an unenviable reputation in the public consciousness since I left the corporate environment and took up a consultancy role. Some of it I have been appalled at, some of it disgusted, and some of it resigned to as the way of the modern world. Whatever the case, they don't ask me about it first and I have to rail at it or deal with the modern systematic processes the same as anyone else.
What it did do for me though is imbue a sense of awareness about fraudulent scams. I saw some clever ones in my career and had to marvel at the sheer effrontery of the perpetrators.
I have been approached with several things in the last year or two where I have smelt a rat so to speak. Because Bob Shepherd Associates  deals with company investment and development finance as well as building businesses more generally, I see propositions wanting to raise finance perhaps more than some. What is it I pick up? Could it be a slight discord in the story? It's very hard to construct a false story that is perfect. Is there maybe a slight behavioural anomaly. A year or two ago I had an email from my new client from a different email address with a similar name, quickly followed by an explanation that one of the staff had composed it and sent it on my client's behalf. As the only dull note so far in the relationship I parked that explanation but went back to it shortly later when another discord occurred and I was looking for clues.
In another example I have seen a set of papers, business plans and other material purporting to come from someone whose co director had qualifications as an international banker. Sorry! Not good enough then!
On one occasion, I was paid a substantial amount in cash (that's okay in itself) and I knew the business had a large cash income, so okay. I accounted for it in my books and actually paid it into the Bank though I didn't need to do so, as it was more than I needed in cash. Some 2 years later the police rang me for details as the Director had issued a cheque (in the books in my name) for a similar amount and paid it to his wife's account, thereby double counting, skipping the taxes and abstracting money from the company. When I looked it all up and remembered the circumstances the police were delighted to have a hunch pay off. Bingo! They knew something was wrong but couldn't put a finger on it until they found my legitimate transaction had been hijacked.
The temptation is always there for the fraudster to make things bigger than needs be. If it's that good why are we do we need what we have in mind now? By the same token why would a provincially based consultant need to be involved? Because I am the best in the UK? (Of course!)
Sometimes it is all very subtle but usually you have a small nagging reservation or two at the back of your mind. Don't ignore it and never apologise for demanding corroboration. The temptation for the small business is to go with it as the promise of business is good.
So what are the Answers? Get paid up front, or at least enough deposit so that you are only down on time and dignity if it goes wrong. Always follow up the anomalies and require explanations. Check credit records if you can. Check on line with a search (and if there is nothing there at all, check why that might be reasonable). Ask for identification (passport/driving licence?) and photocopy it for your file.
The penalties are there if you are not careful. Damage to reputation of course, loss of income or expected income, costs in resources, but also possible infringement of money laundering rules or  investigation by authorities for your involvement.
Keep on the watch. Shysters are on the march!