Over the last few months I have begun to experience a rising number of hostile telephone sales calls and some very agressive face to face encounters. As a teacher of the art of business and the protocols of running a business and a business owner I have very strict standards. However recently the students I work with are being put under more and more pressure to sell by any means possible.
Can we condone this style of honesty just to get enterprise moving? I think not.
Here is my reply to lear…
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Added by Mark Trotter on April 14, 2009 at 10:15am —
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Well today sees the launch of my enterprise training programme, Accredited in the UK and designed to get new ideas into the market place.
So where do you begin:
1 Know what you can afford - before you start any project that involves time and money or earning potential you must understand just what you are risking. The calculation is a simple process of understanding what you really live on, commitments and the business start up requirements
2 Create a timeframe to launch and work backwards -…
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Added by Mark Trotter on December 5, 2008 at 5:29am —
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Development planning is always difficult at this time of as peoples minds turn to holiday and gift buying so now is the time to create an alternative work pattern, become flexible and generate interests in new market areas. Use the time to settle on reading and absorbing information applying to what you want to achieve in the next year.
So a receipe for December the month of giving.
1 Take three weeks and set a simple number of work hours, in this case 45 per week
2 Add new contacts
3 use 10 h…
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Added by Mark Trotter on December 2, 2008 at 4:21am —
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It brought down the mortgage and money markets, it is set to take new victims, business without product or service is no business, and a market without real people has no future.
When the young child shouted he is naked the masses ignored him until it was obvious, so lets look at the real scene.
Manufacturers created product that no-one was buying so it sits stock piled in storage all around the world.
The products that were bought were bought with invisible money and one day someone is going…
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Added by Mark Trotter on December 1, 2008 at 8:12am —
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Three reasons to use this panic and fear in the system to build your skills portfolio.
1 New information excites the creative pocess - rather than continually racing around to find business you create and air of quiet confidence, the new skills clearly enhance your organisations ability to meet customer needs and produce improved quality - (for those who say we are the best we can be a word to explore [complacent])
2 Opportunism - increased information always offers new horizons for the active…
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Added by Mark Trotter on November 30, 2008 at 5:07am —
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In times of economic uncertainty and people cutting prices everyday to just to create volume the poem 'If' has to be our receipe for creating growth and success.
Keeping your head in times of crisis is critical to survival, price cutting shows two things
1 Too much stock or that you had profiteered overpricing because you thought the market could stand it, but it does question your moral base and decision making ability
2 A lack of confidence in your market strength, and your positioning, it…
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Added by Mark Trotter on November 20, 2008 at 4:52am —
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To rehearse the detail would be painful for many people but Starbucks is reported to be exercising its right not to provide coffee in a military zone because they don't agree with the war.
This is a two edged marketing tool, I found the failure to contextualised the reason for the war and Starbucks alleged response incongruent because the purpose of the war was to enable people to exercise the right of self determination, escape the tyrannical jingoistic approach to government control.
So all…
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Added by Mark Trotter on November 18, 2008 at 4:38am —
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In business you often get to a point when a client or customer gets to the point that they have made their decision but they are just aware of it. As the intutitive business person you are you know when that has happened.
Ofte because of the negative tells we reach the point where we know we have not acheived everything we hoped for but could that tell be the chance to open the door wider?
As a teacher I know when someone has closed their mind to the subject often a direct response to that int…
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Added by Mark Trotter on November 6, 2008 at 10:06am —
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I have tried hard to get my head around the problems of mofdern economics, the macro-issues that affect countries are accellerated at a local level by a lack of confidence in the market place and for a capitalist society that is undermining the whole system. So to balance the whole thing out interventionist, psuedo socialist principles have to be adopted.
Government and business leaders have to come to recognise that there is only a finite level of wealth and we can't borrow from an uncertain f…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 21, 2008 at 6:35am —
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Banks are forever failing business communities around the globe because their vested interests are solely based on their own profit margins.
For small businesses this has happened before and created more and more extrotionate involvement of banks in the everyday affairs of businesses. So what is the solution?
Tax payers money is being pumped into a leaking system, last year more money was stolen from banks by their own employees than Iceland earned. Rough Traders in financial houses owned by b…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 14, 2008 at 10:38am —
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What a turbulent week in world economics, but do you know a something really silly I keep reading and listing to the information we recieve but can't help thinking that there is something they are not telling us.
Economic meltdown? It is possible but it implies that somewhere someone has done something to create a bigger hole than Sub-prime Debt. Iceland is on it's knees, as iare so many African nations, oil rich countries consolidate their position and people go on losing in the simple stakes…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 13, 2008 at 5:20am —
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IN difficult times getting the whole plan into a realistic shape and presenting a programme for investment or growth is a real challenge.
Working within the Voluntary/charity sector embeds the concept of realism because you can't get by or let your plans be based on thin air for too long. Yet in the private sector experience indicates that many create plans based on hope rather than evidence.
Realism in planning can be difficult and challenge the basic view that we will succeed. So what are so…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 6, 2008 at 2:56am —
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What is a paper tiger? Wikipedia defines it thus:
Paper tiger is a literal English translation of the Chinese phrase zhǐ lǎohǔ (Chinese: 紙老虎), meaning something which seems as threatening as a tiger, but is really harmless.
The current climate is making so many businesses run for the hills, allowing the banks to threaten them into submission well step outside the limiting system and beat the crunch. Before I begin I thought I had better answer a questions I recieved after a previous blog, 'Why…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 3, 2008 at 10:04am —
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In my experience one of the most difficult things to achieve is customer loyalty when you are just starting out. Often this is because you are carving a niche in an already crowded market place.
So to build that relationship not only to you need to supply a quality product but you nee to go the extra mile. Most of the time as we start out we are prepared to put the time in but really that art of maintaining that customer base is in the detail.
A recent opportunity presented itself to me when a…
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Added by Mark Trotter on September 25, 2008 at 8:24am —
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