Taxes will, therefore, be paid

The National Budget for 2018 has been announced. The much spoken about tax brackets (at least in the social domain), from presumptive, withholding, and other direct taxes were announced. I wish I could say these events have come and gone, but alas, they do not come so as to go. They are announced, and they stay, long after the excitement and hullabaloo of the social media have quieted. As a business entity, our focus is not on what is said about taxes. Neither will we linger on the new, much talked about Statutory Instrument 205 of 2018. Gazetted on October 12, it  introduced the Finance Regulations 2018 — Rate and Incidence of Intermediated Money Transfer Tax. As a popular adage goes,only two things are certain on this earth — death and taxes. Taxes will, therefore, be paid, and it is business as usual, even if you decide to employ a look and see approach.

In today’s short discourse, we are going to share a few insights on how to get the business from where it is, to a place that is ideal. What drives that is your ability to move fast and reposition your business in the face of a shifting fiscal or any other landscape. When your customers see you responding faster than your competition, they value you and will ultimately allow you to be a preferred spending ground for their hard earned money.

As a matter of fact, consumer-based research has shown that  between 35 percent and 50 percent of all sales go to the vendor that is more responsive to the prevailing environment at any given time (all in the customer’s interests of course. Not just responsive in terms of upping prices).

In order to get the desired share of the market, you need to invest in your team. Spend more on the sales teams to get more out of them. Business Review published that over one trillion dollars are spent on sales enablement globally. As a growing business, it is your duty to reposition your brand and sales teams and command an expert’s eye in your industry. Growing business as used here does not refer only to very small start-ups. There is always room for growth.

Without being deep, simple tools and business practices will get you in the front line of the customer’s mind. Your sales team and business need to read everything you can get your hands on to keep abreast of industry trends, developments and forecasts.

Create customer and business sector reports. You can have all sorts of people give it out as a bonus. It is about grabbing attention and getting all the free publicity you could hope for with the only costs incurred being writing and printing, unless you choose to go online. Through such initiatives you update, up skill, and educate your customers.

Put on seminars throughout the area your product or service seeks to solve customer problems so as to remain relevant. Business activations also follow in this class. A classic example is always witnessed time after time with accountants who collaborate with financial planners and management consultants to do seminars on how entrepreneurs can protect and increase their wealth.

This can be topped up with buying time on radio stations as informational or sponsored programmes. The weight it carries is the privilege of allowing the brand to be seen in areas where it is invited to show case its value. Press releases also add to a major hype of the brand as it positions itself in the fore front.

The flip side of this will be while it is critical to move with speed, scaling of some businesses will not be as easy especially when pricing seems to be a critical value driver. Another key idea would be to decrease your overheads. If you are working on a tight budget or where inflationary tendencies drive the business, it is important to maintain or reduce spending.

Please note that this has nothing to do with shutting down shop, rather monitoring spending habits. Typical Fortune500 companies are known to have silent/quiet periods which allow them to stop spending routinely for part of the year.

Rather, they only avail spending on certain gatherings for business times.  For instance, they may make such a move as cutting all hiring expenditure in the third and fourth quarters of the year.

If short on cash flow and need to cut back, do not cut back on your marketing budget. There are obviously less critical expenses that can be cut down or out first.

Cut all excess inventories. Put all your available dollars into marketing and pay a supplier 105 percent or 107 percent in exchange for having him keep inventory accessible. Do not spend any marketing dollars until you know the marginal net worth of your customer.

Once you know the marginal net worth of your customers, then convert your advertising strategy to buying customers instead of just writing radio or print adverts.

The more advertorials you run, the more the possibility you have of accruing a bigger customer base.

All energy and efforts should be directed to promoting and selling the top-producing product lines. Your teams need to zero in and take aim in order to survive, and you cannot do that if you are promoting too many different lines.

Decide which products or services you want sell more of, taking into consideration the profit margin, and work them until you can not  possibly sell anymore. Then, and only then, move on to the next product/service until you can’t possibly sell more.

Look for segments of your business that can be framed production, storage, and delivery resources. This strategy is especially good for fledgling businesses and seasonal companies.

In the next instalment of this article,  we will  conclude on the placement strategies discussed.

The views given herein are solely for information purposes; they are guidelines and suggestions and are  not guaranteed to work in any particular way.

Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his personal capacity. Comments and views: [email protected] twitter@robert_gonye