Energy Action has an online calculator to help you estimate the impact on your business – just enter your current electricity and gas bills to get an estimate of your bills for the next 3 financial years.

The carbon tax is coming, power bills will increase and businesses have to deal with it.

In the fight to keep prices down but profits steady, I think adding green practices to your business can help. That is, if you can implement some changes that reduce your power bills, the carbon tax will have less impact on for expenses so you can maintain prices and profits.

As a test, I reduced my electricity consumption by 50 kWh to save $16.93 per month in 2013 and $18.71 per month in 2015. Prices jumped $3.55 per month in that period prior to my reduced consumption.

{I made up the consumption numbers just for interest and used Victoria as my state.}

Saving in business power

How can you reduce your power consumption by 50 or more kWh?

There are many ways to cut your energy consumption, but some I have done or am looking at include:

1. switch to energy saving globes
2. turn off lights, printers, copiers, monitors, etc at the end of every business day – and over lunchtime if everyone is out of the office
3. put on a jumper and turn down the heating
4. dress in cool clothes, use a fan and ensure circulation in the office so you can use the air conditioning less in summer
5. keep your equipment clean – dust in fans and filters can slow things down, risk overheating and therefore cost more to run
6. rearrange furniture to maximise natural light from windows to reduce the need for electric lighting
7. where possible, reduce the amount of sun hitting your windows in summer – plant deciduous trees outside or put up some shade cloth
8. only print what is necessary – many things can be read on your screen and stored on your hard drive. Saves in paper and ink costs, too
9. use kitchen appliances wisely – only add enough water in the kettle as needed but fill the dishwasher completely before use
10. where relevant and practical, encourage staff and clients to use manual doors rather than electronic doors and stairs rather than lifts – it’s healthier for them as well as saving electricity use

What other ways can you minimise the impact of the carbon tax on your business? Will you try to minimise the impact rather than pass on increases to clients?

Lady Gaga - more skilled at singing than most

Singing is just saying words in time to music, really. I even get requests to sing most days – Twinkle Twinkle and once I caught a fish alive are some of the most frequent requests. So it’s probably time I recorded my first album and gave Lady Gaga a run for her money isn’t it?

I know how to run, too – it’s like walking only you pump your arms and go faster. So I think I will join the Australian Olympic team, but can’t be bothered training much before London.

Do those ideas sound a little silly?

Obviously there are many things I can do (cook, draw, throw a ball, hammer a nail, first aid and dance just to name a few) but most of those things I can’t do well enough to call myself an expert or expect money or fame for.

So why do so many people think that because they know how to form letters with a pen or type, they know how to write to a commercial standard?

I have come across a lot of examples lately where people think they will start an online writing career for easy cash or because they like the freestyle lifestyle. And others who ‘offer writing expertise’ while demonstrating they can’t spell or write a coherent sentence.

It frustrates me – not because I feel they are any threat to me (my clients want quality and can tell the difference between poor and good writing) but because it cheapens the efforts of quality, skilled writers (like Paul Hassing, Sarah Mitchell, Lorraine Thompson, Desolie Page and Belinda Weaver to name a small sample).

It angers me when these same people put information out there that is wrong or easily misunderstood. If their readers don’t know any better, they could be lead into costly mistakes. Good writers not only write well but, for less known topics, research the material or get expert assistance on the content before posting any content online.

Writing well is a skill – aspects of it can be learnt (such as how to spell correctly and when to use a capital letter) but  much of it comes naturally and through experience. Reading and learning contribute to the skills of a writer, so even great writers can improve.

I can write well. I can sing – but only well enough to entertain my toddlers and enjoy myself (Lady Gaga need not fear me as competition!) I know the difference between those skill sets and use them accordingly. Is it so much to ask that other people realistically assess their skills, too?

Sometimes you will receive guest blog posts that are pretty good but not quite at the standard you want for your blog.

I know I have read blog posts that have great ideas and tips but are poorly written or posts that seem good but don’t quite develop the ideas enough to be useful.

The temptation is therefore to edit the posts so they also read well or make their intended point.

Is it ok to edit guest posts?

Yes and no!

If the guest blogger has made a simple error or two (for example you instead of your, busniess instead of business, or copywrite instead of copyright), then I would fix it for them.

A good writer would prefer you to fix that (or ask them to) then let them have public errors. And may not realise you have made the changes if they don’t go back to their original.

However, it is still polite to let them know you edited their work.

On the other hand, if the post has numerous and/or more serious issues, it is not ok to edit it without the author’s consent.

Remember that the guest blogger’s name will be with that piece so they have the right to know it is in their words – and you also enter into legal issues for what is called moral rights.

I think there are three ways you can get an edited post:

1. Return it to the author with an explanation of what is wrong and ask if they are happy for you to edit it – offering to get their approval before publishing of course
2. Edit it and return it to the author for approval before publishing it – make sure you introduce the subject nicely as some people will be offended at you doing this
3. Ask them to edit it (and ideally explain why it needs editing so they have an idea of what to change)

Some blogs have a policy stating that they can edit the post before it goes live. Even with such a policy, I would not advise doing heavy edits to someone’s work without giving them the power to accept/reject those changes.

If you submit a guest post, how would you like the host blogger to deal with your work if it contained errors?

For employees, it’s clear – they will get more super in their account which should help them in retirement. I do support the idea of people retiring with more money and having less dependence on age pensions and the like.

But who will pay the extra 3% SG?

In simplest terms, employers will pay more super into their eligible employees’ super accounts. The Government will give tax concessions to that extra money which is what the mining tax is supposed to go towards.

There has been a lot of complaint in the last week from employers and employer groups about the need to find this extra 3% per employee – many had apparently thought the Government was somehow going to fund the increase.

Maybe the extra will come instead of pay increases for employees. But workers unions don’t agree with that concept and think the small percentage can be absorbed by businesses.

I don’t know the final answer and am not taking any political stand point on this either.

Small business people

For the self-employed, I don’t think we’re going to win from this deal.

I am self-employed so my super account only grows if I choose to make it so (or if I treat myself as an employee with a regular wage) – there is no compulsory super for me which means a change from 9% to 12% doesn’t have to affect my super savings.

As a small business I don’t have huge profits that would make it easy to increase employee salary packages by 3% (or the 0.5% steps).

My options would be to

• reduce pay increases to cover the SG (so their pay over the following 7 years may not increase much regardless of CPI)
• somehow reduce hours for existing staff (and that wouldn’t be fun for anyone really)
• pay the extra out of my profits (meaning my take home pay is decreased)
• increase prices enough to cover the super increases (of course, if clients don’t like that option my business suffers)

I do feel for small businesses with a number of employees as this could cause a lot of stress.

But I do agree with increasing savings for retirement. So is this a necessary pain for a few years for the greater good?

If you have a small business, what are your thoughts on the increased SG?

image source: 123rf.com

So here are some of their mistakes that we can learn from:

• send out quarterly invoices at seemingly random times and vary the means of delivery (snail mail or via staff to members)
• never answer the phone and wait for at least 3 messages before returning any calls
• ask for a deposit for the following year then question why members pay that much less in the first invoice of the year – either admit it is an extra fee or understand that a deposit is deducted from the main invoice
• don’t answer emails
• if you do answer emails (and it’s taken over two years for this to happen in our case) do not put your name at the end of the email, just use a signature with the club name and address
• give out dates of major events (like the end of year performance) via wall posters 2 weeks beforehand – notices, emails and advance notice are overrated, surely?
• claim to leave multiple messages, but not speak to member when at the club each week, as justification for not communicating important information. If nothing else, maybe it was worth checking if the correct phone number was being used (as no messages were ever received by us)

I have heard people praise the location and facilities but only ever criticise the organisation itself. It is a pity to see people travel further than necessary because they want a basic level of customer service.

Of course, that is the key lesson from all the mistakes above – provide customer service and make things easier for customers.

How much poor or mediocre service will you put up with? Are there situations where it bothers you more than others?

Often because we are so busy or are comfortable, SMB people can miss opportunities to grow their profit margins. In Forbes this week, Bill Conerly wrote about two major factors leading to missed opportunities.

One factor is concentrating on revenue and forgetting margins. That is, worrying so much about getting sales and more money coming in that there is no assessment of actual profits (remember profits and turnover are very different terms, although related).

Bill gives the example of winning many jobs (so increasing revenue or income) at below-cost prices (so making no profit). My example is a freelancer who charges an hourly rate that doesn’t factor in costs such as running a website, electricity and administration – being the cheapest may win more work but doesn’t generate as much profit.

Written procedures and business opportunities

Further opportunities are missed through the lack of procedures.

“Written procedures can be an efficiency tool, which means better profit margins,” wrote Bill with a personal example of improving his own working methods.

Bill also quoted me with the following issues relating to a lack of procedures:

1. all the information in one person’s head means the business struggles if that person is suddenly unavailable - a struggling business can’t grab new opportunities or even cope with the current ones
2. training a new person is time intensive for those who know the operations whereas a set of procedures can give the trainee guidance to work alone sooner
3. a business is more valuable to a potential buyer if they can easily continue the service – it also looks more professional. You may not be thinking of selling just now but preparing to sell your business is a good strategy
4. going through your operations to write (or review) your procedures can give a different perspective and highlight areas that can be improved. For instance, whilst noting the procedure for updating a client’s website, I was able to remove double handling by staff and show them an easier way to do the updates – the time saved was an opportunity to increase their social media presence.

Have you seen any improved efficiency relating to having good procedures in place?

Establishing procedures in your business doesn’t have to be hard – just work on one at a time as you complete important tasks. My preparing procedures eBook is designed to help you through this process, or contact me with specific questions and challenges.

Don’t think that the only way to support local community is to give money donations, though. Even businesses on their own tight budget can help local groups, and all businesses can find a means of giving that suits their specific structure and products/services.

Here are a few suggestions – what else can you add to this list?

1.  do some pro bono work – a web designer could create or update their website, a plumber can put new washers in all their taps, food places could offer goods at cost (i.e. do the cooking for free) and an IT company could do a security check of their computers. I know I have written and edited various documents for community groups at minimal or no charge
2. offer good or services at discounted rates for events or specified periods – e.g. a bakery could offer bread at cost for their fundraising events and a mechanic could offer an annual car service
3. offer discounts to volunteers or members of the group – for example, a hairdresser may offer 20% off for people referred form a women’s shelter or soup kitchen volunteers get a free physiotherapy check up
4. make employees available to volunteer at a community group. This could be everyone is off volunteering together once a year or a roster of people helping once a month or fortnight. Think about what works for your business and for the group you’re helping (not all places have space for an extra 10 people at one time for example).
5. whenever you are upgrading (computer, phone, printer, etc) consider if it has enough value to pass onto a community group
6. offer to print their newsletter to save their costs – collating, folding and so no are also possible tasks you can offer
7. promote the group – put a banner on your website, link to their site, mention them in your newsletters, add their logo/details on the back of your business cards, add a donation box to your shop (or button on your website) and so on.
8. add a collection box in your office/shop
9. have a stall at their fete or other events – your fee and attendance will help more than it may appear
10. invite them to speak or have an information booth at your big events

What other ways have you seen businesses support their local community?

As well as wishing you well for the year ahead, I want to share some ideas for starting 2012 in a way that will establish a great business year. No matter what has come before, you can set some good foundations for your business (and life!) now and make your life a bit easier.

1. simplify and streamline

What can you get rid of – maybe there are time wasters you can stop or activities that would be better outsourced, or perhaps you offer a product or service that costs more than it brings in.
What can you simplify? A complex pricing structure may be unnecessary or perhaps there is no real need for some steps in your packing or ordering process.
Now is a great time to review last year and think about simplifying and streamlining your business

2. standardise and record

Having procedures in place saves you money and time, allows you to get more help and writing them often shows up improvements to your method. Consistency is important for many aspects of business, and procedures are the easiest way to ensure things are done consistently (as long as your team uses them anyway!)
Taking time to also standardise document codes and updating, repeated communications (think of those emails and letters you write over and over) and having clear terms and conditions will also save you time throughout the year, and probably give you a better result as well.

3. review your prices

The financial success of your business obviously closely relates to how much profit you make from each sale so pricing is a critical balance between being acceptable to clients and generating enough profit.
When reviewing your prices, take into account new or increased costs (including flood levy, higher Victorian electricity rates and potential carbon tax impacts), competitor prices (don’t just copy them but take note of what others are doing), changes you have made (e.g. if you give greater value or have reduced costs maybe your prices need to reflect that), use of newer technology (including social media expectations and possibly updating your website for mobile access) and reasonable profit margins.
A price review can take time and it may be better introduced later (such as after the carbon tax comes into effect) but a new year is often a good time to assess things and make the necessary decisions.

4. simplify non-essentials, too

Remember to look at the support activities around your business as part of your streamlining. These tasks don’t directly bring in any income so reducing the time you spend on them gives you more time to generate income, and if you outsource them they will usually be cheaper services than things like design or IT work.
Hire a cleaner once a fortnight, get a junior in once a month for filing, get bulk stationery delivered, pay someone to run errands (deposit cheques, grab stationery, buy stamps, stock up supplies, etc) once a month, and so on.

Of course, if this time of year is quiet for your business, now is also a good time to think, get creative and plan for the next 12 months. Taking a week or two now to make adjustments and plan ahead is a good investment – don’t feel you have to be outwardly productive to be a good business week.

Enjoy looking at your business in a new way, have a fantastic 2012 and use your words wisely!

There are many ways to give, and it can be a regular thing or just when it suits, but volunteering in some way can help your business:

Top most is having an understanding that twitter is for communicating and building relationships – not for blatant ads like old-fashioned media (e.g. a newspaper ad was a one way message). I saw a few businesses tweet their ad at least every couple of hours with no other messages in between. For one business, they had 3 variants of it and ran them in succession once every hour or so during their business hours. I wasn’t their audience anyway but seeing it so often bored and annoyed me, and gave me an uncomfortable feeling about them as a business.

Next is to have one honest profile. It because obvious when 3 twitter users repeatedly sent the same tweet straight after each other – a number of times. It came across as trying to trick and con people, plus it seemed they were desperate for business rather than offering quality or showing a genuine interest in people watching their tweets.

The other behaviour that was annoying while I was on twitter a lot (I haven’t really seen it when just keeping up with people I follow on twitter) was an excessive use of hash tags*. To me it was like reading a blog post or webpage written to show off keywords rather than actually communicate something – boring, annoying and an insult if they think I am impressed by such actions. Adding # to key words within a message is fine, adding a keyword or two after the message is also fine, but the following wasn’t so fine:

• adding five or more hashtags after a brief message
• adding hashtags that were about advertising not the message (e.g. adding #santa after a message about a computer breaking down to get noticed for Christmas or adding #webdesign to a message about dreading a visit to the dentist)
• making the entire message hashtags with a link

Tweets are like any other content you write – make it about the message and people reading it, not about SEO and getting noticed by more people, as that is what will genuinely get your message heard and distributed.

I can’t say what results those people get from their tweets, but I know I would never retweet or follow them (and I’m sure I’m not alone). I can say that most of the retweeted Love Santa tweets were those based on replying to someone else – in other words, ‘talking’ to people was appreciated and earned greater exposure to other tweeters.

Twitter can be a great marketing tool but it needs to be thought of as a relationship tool with marketing bonuses to have the best impact on your business.

Or maybe you are happy to read tweets with some of the above characteristics? Or have found them effective for viral marketing?

* A hashtag is simply adding # at the start of a word (or group of words without a space in between) that can be used to highlight a topic and make searching for relevant information on twitter easier.