The only stock market to fall this week was the Chinese Hang Seng which fell by half of one percent on the week.

The main gainers were the UK stock markets, however Sterling has fallen against most currencies this week and in particular against the Japanese Yen and Australian Dollar.

Oil halted it’s rise this week falling back by 1.5% to finish the week at $72.88 per barrel.

End of the week saw:

There are many businesses that would argue their best source of clients is by referral and yet if you ask what they do about this ‘Best Source’, most would also say nothing.

Do you reward people for referring customers to you and do you have an organised program to encourage this form of referral?

If you answered ’NO‘ to this question then I would ask you to take a moment to think about your answer for a moment and to perhaps discuss changing how you deal with this aspect of your business with your business partners and employees.

Firstly, you could make a decision to reward those people that refer clients to you by way of a financial reward either with a cheque or a voucher. Alternatively, you could reward them with your own products or services, by way of a discount on future purchases or by giving items away.

However, I recommend discounts, as this would encourage them to buy more product or service from your business, which is a ‘win-win’ situation and best overall for your business.

Not only should you consider rewarding people when they introduce business to you, but you should also consider actively encouraging it so that people know beforehand that they will be rewarded for referring business your way.

The Internet has thousands of businesses that have been built in this way and are called affiliate businesses and you could even use this if your business fits that style of expansion, but if it doesn’t then at least think about doing this on a smaller scale and a start would be to put details of your ‘referral program’ on your website.

A question that many businesses should ask is “Is customer service more important than Product?”

A very good question and one that deserves some thought…I do not think that these two elements to a business are mutually exclusive in that you have to choose one or the other, but one thing that I would advocate is that businesses should not get too caught up in perfecting a fantastic product, whilst forgetting the all important ‘Customer Service’ aspect of the business!

Take McDonalds as an example for a moment and take a look at what their business is all about…well firstly, we all know they sell burgers and let’s face it, they are not the best burgers in the world. If their burgers were put into a competition against burgers from other businesses, they would probably lose big time. However, what McDonalds do have is a reputation for great service, but more importantly you know exactly what you are going to get, no matter where you are in the world!

So I would argue that McDonalds have focused most of their attention on customer service and the ‘Experience‘ that customers enjoy when they visit a McDonalds store no matter where they are.

Please do not get me wrong here, I am not suggesting that you try to sell shoddy products or services, because your business will soon fail if you do so, as you will certainly not get repeat custom if your products are not up to scratch…take a look at the UK-care industry and how this ended in misery, whereas companies like Mercedes have a great product and an excellent back up customer service too.

It is all about a balance and making sure that you keep a focus on every aspect of the ‘experience’ your customers have when dealing with your business…ultimately to make sure they come back time and again, which is just one of the 7-ways to grow your business!

Another mixed bag this week with Asia Pacific stock markets falling and European and American all rising on the week.

Oil has gone back to it’s rise again this week jumping by 9.5% as news starts to filter through that economies areending their recessions, which will lead to increased demand on oil again.

End of the week saw:

Failing to implement is what holds you back in business and is easier to do than to implement ideas, let me explain further…

There are thousands of people that have great ideas that remain as ideas and this is not just in the business world. Ideas that remain as an idea will never make you money and will stop you from moving forward in your business and in your life. The real problem here is the ‘Fear of Failure’, which is a real issue for most people and in most cases the fear is no more than an obstacle in your way.

You need to think in a positive way and have confidence in yourself and in your ideas and take the risk. If you are a business owner then you took the initial risk of going it alone, so don’t let your present fears stop you from moving forward. If you have an idea for a business or if you are thinking about buying a business and you are ‘Frightened of failure’ you are normal, but you need to confront this fear.

So long as you have done your homework and your research into your new venture then why not simply take the next step forward – think about the worst case scenario and if this is not all that bad, then why not try it. In most cases the fear you had will be shown up for what it is and that is an irrational obstacle that was totally unfounded.

To try and understand this a bit more it is worthwhile you understanding how your mind works. There are essentially two thought processes, which are ‘Logical Thinking’ and ‘Emotional Thinking’.

Where these two thought processes are in conflict, emotional thoughts will always win the day and your logical thought will always succumb to those more powerful emotional ones. Let me explain this by way of a common example. There are thousands of people that are terrified of flying, which is an emotional response to flight. When you look at this logically; flying is still one of the safest forms of transport, so you are more likely to be killed in your car on the way to the airport than in the plane going to your final destination!

It is possible to overcome this problem in business or in life by forming positive emotional images of the idea in your mind. Imagine the business working well and of how your life will be once you have implemented the idea or purchased the business. Use emotions rather than trying to defeat your fears using logical thinking, as this will be more powerful and ultimately more successful!

Is it best to be the cheapest or to be the best?

If you type in the word “cheapest” into any search engine you will be presented with millions or results of web pages vying for position as the cheapest flights, cheapest Disney tickets, cheapest hotels etc.

Is it good to run your business as being the “Cheapest service”? Well I personally don’t think so, but there seems to be a huge market out there for this.

The problem with competing on price is that if you are not cheaper than your next rival then you have no place to go other than to go yet cheaper still and so on.

Alternatively, if you compete on quality or the best service then so long as you deliver an outstanding service and/or quality products and services then customers will not only return to you, but they will also recommend business your way too.

Just food for thought for those business owners out there with the age old dilemma of trying to compete with the other businesses in your sector or in your street.

I will give you an example of how not being the cheapest can work from experience on one of my businesses.

Our assessor went to see a potential new client who were considering 4 other companies in addition to ours. We were well prepared and we showed that our set up was obviously much better than our competitors – the reason I know this is because we got the job and we were some £100 per week more expensive that the rest – these people were prepared to pay an extra £5,200 per annum more to get a professional quality service.

So providing the cheapest prices is not always the best in business.

A mixed bag this week on the world stock markets with the majority falling but some have risen on the week.

In the UK the FTSE 250 rose again where as the FTSE 100 and the All-share index lost ground on the week. Stock markets in Asian Pacific rose with the Australian ASX 200 rising by 3.8%.

Oil halted its rise this week falling back below $70 per barrel which is a fall of 4.8%.

End of the week saw:

In order to have a good business you need to learn how to delegate tasks to your employees.

Delegation is one of the hardest things for business owners to do – the thought of relinquishing control and allowing someone to do your work is out of the questions – surely?

In fact it is not hard at all and is one of the best things you can do in business. There is a saying that even if your employees do things at least 80% as good as you do then this is better than you doing it 100% right.

Take a look at your work for the following week and decide on which day you want to take off every week and then stick to that. Then take a look at the tasks you would need to delegate from your work load so that things will not fall behind because you are now only there for 4 days instead of 5 (don’t tell me you work 7 days or even 6 days – if you do then take at least one of these days off and even better two of them).

Now decide which employee or employees you can then award your work load to. You may need to spend a bit of time training them – but you will soon find that they will be quite happy to take on your work and they may even do a better job!

You can then sit back and enjoy that day off each week and every week in the knowledge that your employees are working hard for you. If you choose a Friday as your day off, then you have just created long weekends for you and your family on a long-term basis.

Once you have got used to taking one day off for pleasure purposes you should then take another look at your work load. Review how to delegate another days-worth of work so that you can spend that extra day working ‘ON’ the business instead of ‘IN’ the business…let me explain…Working ‘ON’ your business involves looking at the bigger picture and strategic planning of where the business should be heading. You should be looking at ways in which you can expand the business and how to grow the business.

By learning how to delegate task in your business will give you more free time and your business will become much more valuable. A business is much more valuable if it is less dependent upon the owners and as you will be spending more time on strategic planning and on building your business it will also be more profitable.

For the third week in a row world stock markets have risen on growing optimism that the world is climbing out of recession.

The US S & P 500 rose above the 1,000 mark and the NASDAQ rose above 2,000 this week! Back here in the UK the FTSE 250 saw the biggest rise climbing 5.3% to close at 8,421.46.

The price of oil has now risen above $70 per barrel again as it continues its rise as world economies improve and the price per barrel continues to reflect the improving demand for this commodity.

End of the week saw:

The questions around the minimum wage are always going to create a heated discussion and in my opinion is just another way for governments and usually socialist style governments to control the economy and turn things in to a nanny state!

What is a minimum wage?
The minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to their employees. Minimum wage laws also prevent workers from selling their labour at an amount which is lower than the minimum wage level. Those that defend and advocate a minimum wage say that it increases the standard of living of workers and also reduces poverty.

Whereas those that that are against minimum wage say that if the level is set high enough to be effective, then it increases unemployment and in particular among those workers with very low productivity due to inexperience or handicap.

Minimum wage history
It seems as though the origins of minimum wage were in Australia and New Zealand as far back as 1824 and became law in 1910, when Sir Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the UK. Statutory minimum wages were introduced in American back in 1938 and all but five states of America have a minimum wage level.

18 out of the 27 member states of the European Union have minimum wage laws with the likes of Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria not having any such laws. In most cases the minimum wages are being set and manipulated by the unions. It can be seen from the success of countries like Germany that the arguments for a minimum wage do not hold and as far as I am aware poverty is no higher in Germany than it is in other European States.

The implications of minimum wage laws

In my opinion there should be no minimum, as things usually settle out in a capitalist economy – in my previous article on ‘are multi-million pound salaries ever justified?’ these high incomes are arrived at through market forces. For example if society no longer likes something then they will no longer buy and the company will then go out of businesses. If someone writes a book and there are no people that like the book then it will not sell! Equally, if a company sets their pay too low and there are other similar jobs with a higher pay rate then employees will simple vote by where they go.

The problem with most people is that that expect too much and they are not prepared to work for what they get. It is like employees that go on strike for example, the recent strikes at The Royal Mail, instead of striking, why don’t these employees simply move job or set up their own business? The answer is that they feel they are owed!

It was their choice to work as a postal worker and they knew full well what the pay was when they started – these businesses need to modernise or else they will simply join the dust pile like Woolworths. The UK’s car industry was destroyed by the unions! Employees just could not see that their selfish action destroyed the very company they were working for - their continual striking became the ultimate down-fall of Rover and of British Leyland.

Employees need to sit down and ask themselves the question “would I prefer to be in a job earning a wage whilst the company goes about modernising, thereby ensuring the future of the business so that there will be jobs now AND in the future?”

Employees tend only to see the Here and Now and not that in order to survive, the company has to look further forward. Change and investment in essential for any business and especially in today’s world with the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Also, those that want a minimum wage and those that are advocates of this system, should be prepared to move jobs in order to earn their preferred salary, instead of imposing a false wage level on businesses which in some instances the company cannot afford to do so.

The UK does have a current minimum wage and the government will increase this each year, normally inline with inflation, so businesses need to cope with raising minimum wage year to year to avoid any penalties.

Governments in the major world economies such as the UK and America need to carefully consider the effects on businesses from raising the current minimum wage level, especially in the current economic climate.