Marstan Blog > Business Management

Any organisation providing professional services must get new Clients in order to survive. This is because you must replace Clients who have no further use for your services or who go out of business.

In order to sell professional services effectively, you must be systematic and consistent. You should always remember that there are some subtle differences between selling professional services and selling products.

This leads to a number of paradoxes:

1. Professional people are usually very poor at selling their services – particularly on the telephone AND YET the most successful method of selling professional services is to use the people who provide the service and it involves several stages of work on the telephone.
2. Sales effort takes a lot of time AND YET most professional people are very short of time.
3. Professional ...

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LinkedIn is a web-based system which allows you to keep in touch with all of your contacts. You will find it on www.linkedin.com.

You might think that if you have something like Microsoft Outlook or store your contact details in Google Mail or any other proprietary system, then it is all taken care of. Think again!

Here are 12 reasons why you should use LinkedIn:

1. It is another way of giving you a web profile, which makes it easier for people to find you.
2. You will find people who you may have lost contact with and they will find you!
3. If one of your contacts changes their job title or contact details, you will be automatically updated by email when they change their profile. You will never again have to check addresses when you do a mailing list.
4. You can use LinkedIn to update your contacts in MS Outlook, ...

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The top 10 tips for ensuring that an organisation is successful are as follows:

1. Prepare a strategy and business plan.
2. Create an atmosphere in which people can develop and flourish.
3. Recruit good people and give them ample responsibility.
4. Focus on your customer’s needs and provide a high level of service.
5. Constantly look at your competitors activities and make sure you are better than them.
6. Invest in good quality I.T.
7. Pay attention to communicating with your customers, staff, suppliers and the public.
8. Create excellent business systems.
9. Put considerable, focussed and consistent effort into marketing and sales.
10. Measure everything and make regular incremental improvements.

For further information on how to improve an organisation, see:

• Introduction to Business Management
• Business Strategy - Simply Put!
• Business Plans - Simply Put!
• Strategic Objectives - Simply Put!
• How to craft vision mission and value statements
• Business Administration - Simply Put!
• Business Finance - Simply Put!
• Profit and Loss Accounts - Simply Put!
• Balance Sheets - Simply Put
• Cash Flow - Simply Put!
• Marketing, Sales and Public Relations - Simply Put!
• HR Management - Simply Put!
• Contracts of Employment - Simply Put!
• Leadership - Simply Put!
• Methods of Recruitment - Simply Put!
• Executive Search - Simply Put!
• Business Processes and Quality Management - Simply Put!
• ICT in Business - Simply Put!

If you have put in a bid, particularly for something complex, such as extensive professional services, you will have had a lot of contact with the potential customer.

In the first instance, it may have taken you a long time to find them and the process of bidding may also have been time consuming as you find out more about their requirements and the professional solution that you might have to solve their problems. It is also likely that you will have incurred considerable costs.

It is inevitable that you will not only be extremely disappointed, but you might also have the following emotions:

1. “Hurt”
2. Rejection
3. Exasperation
4. Deflation
5. Worry
6. Anger
7. Desperation

Unfortunately, in the short term, there is nothing that you can do about it. The customer has gone through a process and has made ...

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Everybody would prefer to be successful as an individual but being part of a successful team is a very different and deeply rewarding experience because people not only take pride in their own work, but also get the satisfaction of knowing that they are part of something bigger. There is great pleasure in being part of the rapport of a team, where you respect other people and gain the clear respect of your peers.

There are a number of ways in which a manager or leader can maximise the motivation of a team and create the spark of magic that makes things go well.

1. Tell the team what they are being asked to achieve – don’t just give them a list of tasks.
2. Bring the team together and explain why you have put them together. Show your respect for each member of the team and give a head start to the process of them gaining self-respect.
3. Explain why the objectives are ...

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The benefits of expanding a business are detailed in an article “10 reasons that growth is good for your business”.

However, expanding a business is not always easy and caution is required as we explain in an article entitled “Business growth is not a panacea”.

There are a number of ways in which you can enhance your chances of expanding your business successfully:

1. Think positively. Expanding your business is an exciting thing, not a headache.
2. Think like a bigger, better company. You will need to employ more people and possibly have bigger premises. Become attuned to this and consider it as being necessary to expand your business, rather than a worrying increase in your risks. Expanding your business should be about decreasing your risks, not increasing them.
3. Build on what you already have. Your existing customers, staff and suppliers have ...

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In an article entitled “10 reasons that growth is good for your business” we explained the advantages of planning for growth in good times and bad.

It would be wrong, however, to think that growth is the answer if a business is riddled with structural or operational problems. It is important that problems are resolved before you expand the business. In fact, the planning and implementation of an expansion programme should be used as the catalyst and opportunity to resolve the inherent problems.

WARNING - If you do not resolve the problems before you start growing, your business will be worse, rather than better. In these circumstances, growth can even affect the very existence of the business.

Before setting out on an expansion programme, you should consider the following:

1. Growth rarely results in an instant increase in profitability. You may have to invest ...

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Even in tough economic circumstances, it is beneficial for every business to think about growth. You can be sure that your competitors will be looking to obtain your customers or your share of the market.

There are many reasons that growth is beneficial to your business.

1. Greater profitability by spreading your overheads. You may need a telephonist whether you have 10 or 20 people. The more you expand, the greater the value you will get from each item on your list of overheads.
2. You will have more customers. This will give you greater security. If some customers switch to your competitors, you will still have a larger volume of business.
3. With more people in the business you will have much more experience in your workforce. They will come with knowledge of things which work well in your competitors and can be utilised to improve your business.
4. If ...

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As the business environment changes or if a Company grows, it is easy for the headcount to grow too large or the organisation structure to become "out of shape". From time to time, it is worth looking at an organisation from first principles, to ensure that it is constantly revised to ensure that it remains efficient.

There are four steps to take to maintain an organisation at its optimum efficiency:

1. Calculate what staff are required in the "front-line" to deliver your service or produce your goods.
2. Assess what administrative staff and other support staff you require to ensure that the "front-line" staff can work efficiently and without burdening them and the Company with unnecessary overheads.
3. Determine the minimum management team you require to ensure that the front-line team and support team are managed efficiently.
4. Create an organisation structure which has clear lines of responsibility and the shortest lines of communication.

In ...

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An employer-employee relationship is both a financial and a social contract. All employers rely on the skills and endeavour of their employees, who are prepared to give up their time and energy in order that they can earn a living. Effective employer/employee relationships are those which are based upon both the spirit as well as the letter of the employment contract.

Good employers have the following attributes:

1. They think strategically to protect the business and the people that work in it.
2. They understand that people need to be kept informed about how the direction that business is planning and how it is performing. (The livelihoods of their families are at stake and they will appreciate being treated like adults and being given an honest account. Employers who do not provide information will find that people fill the gap with bad news.)
3. They care about people and they demonstrate it by actions rather ...

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The second half of 2008 will be long remembered as the period when the world's financial systems came close to collapse.

The reasons for this series of events are not yet clear and it may take both the passage of time and the efforts of historians before any real light can be shone on the subject. What is clear, however, is it is only the injection of tax payers' money which has saved the majority of financial institutions.

It is worth noting that financial institutions take much the same line as politicians; when times are good it is due to their valiant efforts, but when times are bad, it is always circumstances way beyond their control.

In the financial crisis of 2008, we even saw the invention of a new language to explain these “unprecedented” events. We had the term “toxic debt”, which replaced the terms “bad debt” or “reckless lending to people who were unlikely to pay it back”. It makes it sound as though it was accidental and the banks were somehow ...

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It just means treating people like individuals and talking normally

In July 2009, the UK Government released a report, entitled "Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement", by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke.

I welcome this report and it seems to me that this will apply in equal measure to large businesses and small ones. However, in the UK economy, 97% of businesses are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). There are 4.7 million of them and I wonder how many of them will become aware of the report. I also wonder how many of them will wade through a 152 page report which does not have an Executive Summary.

In any business which I have run, this has always been very high on the firm’s agenda. In my experience, there are 7 important aspects of employee engagement:

1. The company needs to sincerely believe that employees have a right to know what it is ...

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Whilst many people try and defend the indefensible, some people are above it all and have true integrity and depth of character. Those are the true leaders and heroes even when things may have gone wrong.

The best example I have seen appeared in an edition of “IT Consultant” in July 2002:

On Sunday, Commander Farrington's ship hit Wolf Rock near Lord Howe Island, north of Australia. The Royal Navy are investigating how a guided missile destroyer with top-notch navigation equipment came a cropper in well-charted waters on the world's largest rock. What sets our man apart, though, is not the sheer scale of the mess, but his good grace after the event.

Although he could have used the fact that he wasn't on the bridge at the time of the collision, or cited any number of possible technical faults, Commander Farrington took his impending court martial 'like a man'. He is quoted as saying: “It is ...

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