In my free e-book “Start Business The Right Way” I mentioned that “business is not a cast on bricks, it is dynamic and things always change with time and you must understand what to do and how you will keep your balance in each phase of the transition. You are permitted to dream big and desire great things about your business goal, but you have to be SMART about it.”
To run a successful business, little things matters and these things have the capacity to turn your business around positively and prune it to success.

Here are 2 surefire ways to make your business a successful one:

#1 Go Beyond Customer Satisfaction to Customer Delight

Customer satisfaction is a concept based on perception of customers as against the performance of a business. It is about expectation, a degree of variation in how one business satisfy her customers in terms of service compare to another. But those who understand the trends realize that business has moved far ahead of the time where customer satisfaction was an exceptional factor in business. Today it is a minimum requirement.

Customer delight entails stronger emotion and a different physiological state than satisfaction. It goes beyond satisfaction to a state that can be best described as a pleasurable experience for clients. Delight shows the amount of extra effort made to make a difference in this competing market space. That little extra thing is what I call The Delight Factor.

Now, you may be thinking how do I delight my customer? No fret. Just think about it this way – some months ago The Nigerian Bottling Company, the manufacturer of Coke, they did something phenomenon the experience of their consumers. The concept of “Share a Coke with ‘NAME'” is an example of a delight factor and you will agree with me this approach touched something personal beyond the satisfaction of the usual refreshing feelings people have after taking the drink.

I remember someone that will never want to take any sweetened drink buying a bottle of coke just because it carries his name, which is what the little extra thing – Delight Factor – will do for your business. So, why leave your business success to chance of doing the minimum, when you can go for something phenomenon, a product or value added service that strike a chord of delight and turn your customers to raving fans.

Your delight factor approach doesn’t have to be expensive; it could be as little as a customized nylon pack on every purchase more than certain amount, or sending a text on your customer’s special days and more. If you need help to delight your customers without hassle, Contact me today and let's talk.

In the same vein employee delight is also very important. Every employee including you as a business owner have obligations and schedules outside work and the reality is today’s employees appreciate a boss who considers a work-life balance, they want a work environment that encourages personal growth. The success of today’s business is highly dependent on the people within her walls and I pointed out this fact in my free e-book.

#2 Project and Manage Your Cash Flow

“Despite the fact that cash is the lifeblood of a business, the fuel that keeps the engine running – most business owners don’t truly have a handle on their cash flow” – Philip Campbell, Author of “Never Run Out of Cash”

Quincy Miller also said “managing cash flow is one of the most important yet unappreciated challenges faced by small businesses”

These statements holds true. In business one of the innocent but dangerous mistakes business owners makes is that once there is cash to pay bills, it is a good indication that business is doing fine, but the fact remains that is not the right move.

Two years ago I got a deal to deploy a solution for one of my clients and it was a big one for me at that time, the deal opened up opportunities for other prospective transaction and that was a cool experience.
The contract paper was signed, all documentations completed, and business began. Few months after, cash starts coming in and I am happy but the moment would not last two years because of bad cash flow management.

As a prudent business person I made decisions that I believe will help position the business for other opportunities that comes with this deal but it was a surefire way to disaster, here are some of the decisions;

– For the first time I got an office space to portray a serious organization that we are

– Got few equipment that will make our operation easy and at the same time grab other opportunities, and

– We employed staff

Isn’t that a good thing to do?

Really, I couldn’t agree more that it is a good decision but the truth is there are no strategy in it and no proper projections based on the cash coming in. In business, you may have control over the balance in your bank account but you need a solid cash flow projections and most importantly strategy to manage the receivables.

Shortly after these decisions, the ball game changed. The client developed habit for paying late, and borrowing is inevitable to manage the situation and ensure the business decisions made are productive. To be frank with you, we overshoot and were pushed out of margin far longer than necessary. While managing the situation, the client threw the “bomb” of holding on the deal (temporary ban) and when I later found out what happened it was a similar issue; he has same cash flow management problem and unfortunately, at my end the interest on the loan accrued to almost the value of the cash to be collected.

Actually, the business is profitable on paper at that time even after making those decisions but experience has shown that is not a guarantee. A Geneva Business Bank survey found that “about 68 percent of businesses don’t conduct any cash flow analysis, and a whopping 70 percent of businesses that go bankrupt are actually profitable when they close up shop.” that is to tell you that cash flow management is beyond the figures in your profit and loss book.

A US company that provides small and medium sized organizations and mid-market companies with range of easy-to-use, secure and efficient business management software and services – from accounting, HR to payments, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management – Sage, in her latest whitepaper published on www.business.com, the largest resource place for small businesses, offers in my opinion the simplest and best approach to cash flow management in ten strategic ways and in four simple steps. I will state the four steps verbatim:

Step 1: Look beyond profit and loss – Remember, while profit and loss are critical to your long-term goals, your short-term successes and failures are more often defined by your cash flow. An inability to pay debts and avoid interest can spell disaster in a hurry, while a consistent, reliable cash flow—even a slightly negative one—will keep you in business.

Step 2: Improve receivables – Projections aside, you want to do everything you can to bring in as much cash as possible—now! In fact, for a small, growing business, hard cash in the short term can be far more beneficial than extra money paid later.

Step 3: Improve payables – It may seem best to pay your bills as fast as possible, especially if you’ve always been a conscientious consumer. But as you’re a small business owner, that mindset will cripple your growth! Expenses can quickly creep up on you, and you need to keep plenty of cash on hand for emergencies and unexpected costs.

Step 4: Weather the storm – Despite your best efforts, you may still have slow months and unexpected losses. It’s just a part of doing business. You always want to have plenty of cash on hand when it happens, but you need a few sound strategies for keeping your head above water when you don’t.

Final Thought and Game Plan

If you think nice office space, good location and more sales will bring your business success, think again!

Be creative, success in business is determined by values. Create much of it, you will succeed.

Ensure faster payments, through well planned cash collection policies, discounts and incentives.

Survive shortfalls by ensuring pocketful of emergency cash. That could mean the difference between bankruptcy and recovery.

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