BizTipper

Category: Small Business Tips

5 Ways You May Be Killing Your business
Are you a producer, singer, promoter, blogger, writer… whatever kind of black entrepreneur you are this information can help you.

My name is Kevin Ross and for many years I was a DJ on several radio stations. Truth be told I was good at it but I hated it, I could not be myself and I saw a lot of dirty deals and many of my bosses were not in it for the love of the craft but they were crooks trying to make as much money illegally as they could. You can learn more about me later but to make a long story short, I took what I learned in radio and created a very successful industry magazine called Radio Facts then I morphed the magazine into a successful industry site Radiofacts.com. Thanks to Radio Facts, this June, I will be a seasoned black entrepreneur with a business that has lasted 18 years. That’s almost impossible for a small minority business in the music industry. There are MANY things that I have learned over the years with my first business that could have saved me a TON of Time a TON of frustration and a TON of MONEY. We have thousands of people on our mailing list, several with their own small businesses and I see the same common mistakes over and over and over…. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE being in business for myself and would not trade it for the WORLD but you have to make sure you are satisfying your passion if you are in business for yourself otherwise you might as well get a regular job.

The rules that generate success can often be very different for minority black entrepreneurs because we don’t often have the resources to build our businesses. By “minorities” I mean anybody besides white men. Because of our lack of resources, we often help and aid each other in business to remain alive and well in the world on black entrepreneurship. Nevertheless there are some HORRIFIC mistakes we often make that sabotage our businesses for years that we may not be aware of. This past June, I did a hardcore beta test of my business in every aspect using some of the excellent free tools to help my business grow and prosper. Using these tools, I’m proud to say, revenue has tripled over the last few months. To help you… I came up with several Great Tips to Improve Your business and Make Money from a minority business owners perspective. If you have ever wanted to be in business, I am confident these tips will not only help YOU they will greatly help your business. (click “Next” above or below to see the tips)

Kevin Ross – [email protected]
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1. Doing “Favors” and “Hook-ups”

The best way to destroy a money making business? Give product away for FREE. if someone asks you for a massive discount or services for free they are completely disrespecting YOU and what YOU DO. One of the BIGGEST mistakes I made with my business from day one was doing “favors” giving people things for free with the (mostly fake) possibility of them bringing business later. It’s the oldest trick in the BOOK. I call them “Carrot Danglers” because they treat you like a dumb science project, they dangle the carrot in front of you and string you along until you are exhausted with no reward in the end. Some of them are SO good they create the impression they are helping you by giving you the opportunity to help them. TELL ANYBODY COMING TO YOU FOR anything for FREE and MASSIVE DISCOUNTS to take a long walk on a short pier. Here are a few of the reasons you should not walk but RUN from these people:
- They are bad for the self esteem of your business
- They don’t have the money now but do you have the business now?
- It’s a win/lose situation and the “win” is NOT in your favor
- You are being misled, lied to and used moreover what if they tell other potential clients (and they will) they got your service for free or for a massive discount?
- The person will NEVER see the monetary value in what you do from the point you give them something for free, this is the same as sleeping with someone on the first date. They know the value of your BRAND that’s why they contacted you but they have screwed your business in order to get that value for free… what’s left?
- Is your rent or mortgage free? Does the bank give you “Hook ups?”
- Simply tell them “NO” and say “I have to go.” You don’t even have time to have a conversation with someone who does not respect your business. Respect YOURSELF and YOUR business and clients will respect YOU.
- Ask them to go into a Gucci store and ask for something for free. They will get a “free” trip by security and be shown the door.
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2. Chasing Dead Clients

This past year, I made a decision that I was not going to call clients or potential clients who didn’t return my calls after 2 tries. It’s a waste of your time and energy to pursue people who don’t believe in your brand or perhaps they don’t believe in you. MOVE ON. Ideally, your brand should be generating clients if you are reaching your target but if you have to make calls understand how this can drain you and your business. There are many people who will support you ONLY because they like you. That’s mostly how the entertainment industry works but other industries like online blogs and sites based their advertising on unique visitors, they may not even know the site owner but if he or she has enough “uniques” that qualifies for major advertising. I also talk about “Running From Some Clients” this details difficult clients in perspective.
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3. Corrupt Competition

Competitors can be ruthless and clients can have a bit of fun telling you what they are saying about you. My competitors for example, steal content and pictures from my site and take credit for it… I know everything my competitors say about me to my clients and much of it is absolutely idiotic. Two competitors in particular ask my clients “Why are you advertising with Kevin?” How stupid is that? Then they get cussed out and rightfully so. The competitors are idiots because they think by making my clients “aware” that they know they are supporting my brand will generate automatic support for them. Truth be told their brands SUCK but they are too lazy to fix THAT or perhaps they don’t know how and that’s why they are not getting support in addition the client gets pissed when being questioned about how they spend their budgets so the dumb competitor digs himself or herself deeper into the grave.

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4. Know Your Audience

This is OUTRAGEOUSLY important and believe it or not MANY black entrepreneurs DON‘T know their audience they target their audience based on their own thoughts or beliefs. Major mistake. Programming radio taught me how important it is to know your audience. I describe many ways you can discover who your audience is.
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5. Hire Duplicate “You’s”

You must and I can’t say this enough you MUST hire other people and you MUST delegate. The people you hire should be self starters. Excuses and flipping the script are not acceptable, if they can’t do the work you show them on their own they have to go. Find people who can mimic you and who think like you do. If you try to do everything yourself your business will never grow.

Some of the OTHER topics covered:
- Why your business won’t Grow
- Why it’s best to walk away from some Clients
- Find out what competitors are saying and doing behind your back
- Ways to grow your business and rise above competitors
- Now that you’re making money Do THIS ….
and more, order your copy early for this eBook “Make Money: Learn the Ways to EARN.” It will be $10.95 next week. If you pre-order now, you will get a link via email with the eBook next week (March 1, 2012)

Kevin Ross
https://blogwallet.com
May 24, 2020
10 Ways to Get Paid Faster from Clients

Get Paid Faster from Clients? When a client takes their time paying a small business, it creates enormous stress on the business owner who is probably already behind.

Get Paid Faster. Asking for money from slow paying clients can be tricky. We want them to keep doing business with us but we also want to pay our bills.

We can all trade war stories on how hard it is to get paid from clients and how frustrated it makes us. I certainly understand. I also know that we, sometimes, are a part of the problem as well. Here are some tips for avoiding late pays so that you can get paid faster.

1. Set up auto payments directly to your bank account.

If it’s a major corporation, you can literally get paid faster by five times by connecting your bank account to their payment system. Ask the client if they can connect you with the proper department to set up. This usualy involves filling out a couple of forms.

2. Send an invoice to the client AND the assistant.

You need to befriend the assistant but the invoice that you send to the assistant will probably have better legs than the one that you send to the contact which will probably gather dust on the desk. Get paid faster by IMMEDIATELY sending the invoice once the order is placed and VERIFY they got it. Some clients will tell you ”Send me the invoice NOW” and we often ignore the request because we want to start working on the project or something else. Truth be told, we should adhere to their request. This means they are ready to sign it. They are telling us that because it is foremost in their minds at the time and they are ready to submit it. Once a couple of hours pass they get bombarded with other stuff.

3. Become friendly with the assistant

They take a lot of crap all day. Treat them like they are important and even send them an occasional gift (Starbucks card, Barnes and Noble card etc). The assistant is directly connected to your contact and serves as a great backup when you don’t want to bombard your client with calls about your past-due invoices.

4. Follow up with the Accounts Payable Department the next week!

Most of us wait for 30 days or after a couple of weeks just to be told: “We have not gotten the invoice.” As you all know this is so frustrating but when you think about it, it could have been avoided if you had followed up the first week to make sure it had been handed over to Accounts Payable to get paid faster.

5. Don’t be intimidated to call the client when too much time has passed

This is often very hard, you don’t want to bug them because you want repeat business…however, you have to have faith in your abilities and realize you will get more clients but you MUST respect your business and get paid faster to run it. Your client gets paid like clockwork every 2 weeks so asking you to wait longer is already an inconvenience. More than 30 days warrants a call. You can make it matter of fact but be firm and friendly at the same time. Don”t tell them your personal business or that you are desperate, that’s none of their business.

6. Offer a discount if they can pay in advance…

Look at it like this, would you rather be paid less now or the full amount much later when all your bill collectors have added fees to your past due to balances and you are borrowing money from family members and friends to buy groceries and you are totally stressed out? If you get LESS> pay NOW you also have the time, energy and motivation to move on and to garner new business stress-free!

7. Don’t Turn Away business!

Look at it like this, there are some people who can’t afford to pay your premium prices…but do you still have bills to pay? An att0rney friend of mines gave me the worst advice once. He told me to set my price and never waiver. I did for the first half of this year and I can’t tell you how many thousands of dollars I lost because I turned down independent companies etc. Truth be told, in this economy, that extra money can go a LONG way when things get tight and your major clients are taking too long to pay you. Also, the extra money can really add up to an interest-bearing ING account, groceries, bills, insurance, gas… etc. The ADDED benefit of these smaller accounts is you can ask to be paid UPFRONT as part of the discount. NEVER give credit to a company (small or independent) that you have never worked with. Also, get a PayPal account and a debit card with it. I can’t tell you how much I LOVE PayPal. Let me add.. don’t let independent clients take advantage of you either. That’s another coming story.

8. Don’t be afraid to solicit new business…and have a “Sale”

It really works, when your money is tight and you are having a hard time collecting.. why not offer 1/3 off or specials for new clients (no more than that) … retailers do it ALL THE TIME from Wal-mart to Saks, EVERYBODY has a sale when things are slow. Why not you? Make sure you make it with a time limit like for the month of June or “For the next two weeks.” Also, make the potential client feel special. I learned a long time ago there is no need to announce it to my entire database… just follow up with those people who have expressed an interest in the past. In addition, the smaller clients want to feel special too. If everyone knows what they paid… you get the picture.

12 REASONS YOU SHOULD NEVER HIRE FRIENDS

9. Pull Away Sometimes

How many times have you driven yourself insane for a late-paying client and the check comes as soon as you stop thinking about it?

The stress of maintaining a business and collections for an black entrepreneur can be EXTREMELY overwhelming. Ironically, all of my friends are also black entrepreneurs. I didn’t intentionally seek them out we came across each other. We all agree that running your own business is a never-ending hustle… but you HAVE to give yourself a break and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Get a massage, have a day where you treat yourself to a nice restaurant for lunch or dinner, play golf, go swimming do something that will take you out of the stress for a minute and when you come back you will feel invigorated and ready to get back into the grind. Shit, take a NAP if you have to that works too.

10. Stop Complaining…

Have you ever given any thought to the fact that EVERYONE is a potential new client in some shape, form or fashion? They may not be related in any way to your clients but they may KNOW someone who is. Moaning and groaning will not get you ANYWHERE but more stressed out. It’s OK to talk to other Entrepreneurs but CERTAINLY not clients about your business problems.

Check out our entertainment site Rffocus.org

February 24, 2012