Identify your target market
Fish where the fish are biting! One of the questions we ask businesses when helping them plan, is, do you know the ROI (Return on Investment) on your advertising and marketing spend? The answer is almost always the same, No. And, do you know your…
Negotiation 101: The 6 Principles
We all negotiate something at some point of time every single day.This is especially true if you are working in procurement or sales. The idea for this post came as for quite some time we have noticed an unfortunate recurring pattern, more than 80% of…
Launching a new venture? Here’s how to beat the odds
By Clark Gilbert & Matthew Eyring for the Harvard Business Review “For nearly 20 years the case study used to introduce Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management course has been Howard Stevenson’s “R&R.” It looks at Bob Reiss, an entrepreneur who launches a venture in the board-game…
Are you using the 7 C’s of Communication? Or is it 10 C’s?
What makes for great communication? According to the methodology outlined in the Mindtools video below, clear and concise communication (oops, spoiler alert!) requires 7 C’s: Clear. Concise. Concrete. Correct. Coherent. Complete. Courteous. Watch the video and let us know what you think – is this…
15 expert tips: How to write a great business plan.
Writing a good business plan can be a make or break step for a SME Business in the fast paced New Zealand market. A strong business plan gives your investors, stakeholders and your team insight into where you have been, what you have learned, the…
Seven Tips to Mining Gold within your Customer Base
Written by Prime Strategies Business Advisor Craig McCulloch. Did you realise that every small business is sitting on a gold nugget that is often neglected by owners? So many businesses focus and spend enormous amounts of money and energy on trying to increase enquiry and…
Pricing Strategy is Crucial for Small Business to Maximize Profits
In general, small businesses tend to under-price their products and services – or they price haphazardly. By not pricing effectively, this effects their profits, reduces the available capital for future growth and sometimes risks business survival. One of the fastest ways for small businesses to…
Are your decision making skills hot enough?
Business Management is full of decision making – and the ability to make a good decision, in a timely manner, using the available information is vital to business success. It would be easy if there were one formula you could use in any situation, but…
6 Steps to better Productivity
By Meridith Levinson for CIO Workplace performance expert Jason Womack says changing the way we do our work to improve our productivity is hard because our processes have become habit, and in many cases these habits have made us successful (even if they drove us to the…
9 smart ways to get the most out of meetings
Veteran financier Ray Dalio has been in every kind of meeting: the good, the bad and the ugly. Here’s how he keeps his meetings focused and productive. In 1974, Ray Dalio founded the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, and it’s now the world’s largest, managing roughly $160 billion. Here…