Tag: NOTHING

No Credit to New Clients, Other Ways to Charge and Collect

Getting Paid Means No Credit to New Clients UNLESS it’s a Major Company

MANY of us have been ripped off in the past. I can honestly say I have only had it happen to me twice in 28 years, but advanced technology should certainly make it easier for us to get our money these days.

There is NOTHING worse than completing the work than being lied to and misled about the check being in the mail etc.

The worst part is like a fool, you are waiting for the mailman for a check that the client KNOWS is not coming.

You can save yourself from this by doing a few simple things. First: Always have high esteem when it comes to your business.

By high esteem, I’m not saying “Arrogance” I mean believing in your business, knowing your VALUE, and having an appreciation for what you do. If you show signs of weakness, potential clients can see that, and they will take advantage.

Here are five tips for collecting your money in a timely fashion without chasing cash.

Ask for the Money Up Front

This is simply the best way to do it. However, you can’t blame them if they are suspicious and wonder if they will get what they have paid for. Nevertheless, that’s not for you to worry about, IF they came to you.

If you go to them, then this method may or may not work. Imagine you ask someone to support your business then give you the money before you do the work, that’s kind of an insult, and it looks like you are desperate for money. Treat each situation accordingly

Offer a SMALL Discount if they Pay Up Front

I would not give them more than a 10% discount. Keep in mind whatever you offer them is what they are going to expect each time

Tell them New Clients Have to Pay up Front

This is a good rule, but only if they come to you. If you go to them or if it’s a corporation, you should not expect to be paid upfront. You can offer independents a “new client discount” if they pay upfront.

Ask them if they use Paypal, Cashapp or Zelle

Technology is changing the face of business

(Thank God) now you don’t have to pay outrageous fees to have someone pay you with a credit card. You can just use a small device on PayPal called the PayPal Card Reader and charge them over your cell phone.

There is a small fee, but PayPal also offers pay by email and more features, and they don’t have to be a PayPal client. Did I mention I LOVE PayPal, Cashapp and Zelle?

If They are New Clients, they come to you, and they Can’t Pay upfront…

Don’t walk… RUN. And run as fast as you can. This is a sure sign you are about to get ripped off and you will be chasing money. That will disrupt the flow of your business. Avoid this at all costs.

They Come Back After Being a Slow Pay the Last Time?

Tell them you have to collect upfront. Remember, have esteem in your business. Your bill collectors do not want to wait to be paid after they provide a service, so why should you. You have obviously made a good impression on them if they come back. Now it’s their turn to show good faith for their mistakes. If they can’t pay upfront, at least get half or walk.

Avoid Small Talk Get Straight to Business

If someone comes to you for business, MAKE IT BUSINESS avoid small talk at all costs, you are a busy entrepreneur.

The small talk is a setup to ask for a MASSIVE discount or some kind of deal that’s gonna work more in THEIR favor. Don’t fall for it. If they can give you small talk to get the business, they will BS you when it comes time to pay too.

April 18, 2023
Skimping on Services? Customers Know the Difference

I left Buffalo, New York some 30 years ago and once I moved to Atlanta then Los Angeles after that and worked in radio as a DJ for many years there was no turning back. The new environments opened my eyes to all that I had missed growing up on the East side of Buffalo. Nevertheless, there is one thing that is foremost in my mind on the few occasions when I return, think or talk about Buffalo… the food. Without question, my career in the music industry has afforded me the opportunity to go to some of the best restaurants in the country but none of them compare to Buffalo’s still famous food spots.

Tale of Two Legendary Restaurants, One that still is and what that WAS.

Scottie’s Steak House popped on the scene in the early 60s in Buffalo (see video). Owner James Scott explains everything that we know it takes as entrepreneurs to run a successful business and get it off the ground. As a radio and music industry entrepreneur, I can agree even today with MOST of Scott’s points in the video but not all of them. He makes two statements that probably explain why his restaurant is no longer around today. He states that “Owning your own business is not fun” Says who? The old adage is true, ‘Do what you LOVE and the money will COME” an entrepreneur going into a business he or she is not passionate about is almost sure to fail. Running your own business that you are passionate about is like falling in love. Time slips away and you can spend endless hours doing what you do and not even notice you have been doing it for 10 hours straight. That is the bliss of doing what you love. Scott mentions on the video that he has worked 18 hour days. I know music producers who LIVE in the studio and can do it for several days straight with little or no sleep. I never hear them complain about how many hours they have been in the studio, they are more focused on the result of it. The number one rule is you NEVER go into business to make money (unless you have a great business partner who handles that part and you are the creative ebb and flow). Most of the people who I know and am close to today are entrepreneurs and they are all successful in their own right because they LOVE what they do FIRST and FOREMOST. Our creativity is at its peak when we love what we do and THAT’s what sells our businesses first.

In the years to come, Scottie’s Steak House experienced great success and it’s amazing how the video coverage talks about the local government in Buffalo giving small business loans to blacks back then who were smart enough to capitalize on the culture and what they knew best but how much did they love it? This is not a dig on Scottie because I have no doubt he faced many other obstacles that got in the way of him running his business as a black man. Restaurants in the black community were something that white business owners often failed at because they were not connected to the culture of black food. Like most cultures black folks KNOW when the right cook is in the kitchen and you better be connected to the culture the food is from if you want our business. (Thanks to Doug Ruffin who told me he stopped Canisius College from dumping many years of great Buffalo News footage and video in the trash after it was donated by local TV networks who were updating their studios. These videos are priceless.)

I’m not sure how Scottie got to his idea for the perfect steak sandwich, but he did. This was the MOST Crucial time for his Business

Scottie’s Steak house had the most amazing steak sandwiches. By far the best I’ve ever had to date. A childhood friend, Cricket, asked me to walk there with her one day and I wanted to go to see what the big deal was about Scottie’s. Everybody in the neighborhood was talking about their steak sandwiches and how good they were. Sure enough as soon as we walked in the door it was crowded and the smell was unbelievable. Cricket ordered a regular steak sandwich/sub and she gave me a piece of it. It was love at first bite. I went back on my own a few days later than again the next week and many times thereafter, I was hooked. Then something happened. I noticed (read more, click here) that the more popular Scottie’s Steak House became the sandwiches were changing. There was more vegetables than meat. I watched the girl make my sandwich one day and I noticed she was putting half the meat with the peppers and onions than I was used to. I thought this might just be a new employee and after a not so enjoyable experience with a “vegetable sandwich” I went back a month later and there was even LESS meat and the PRICE went up!!!! It appeared they were using what they once used for one steak sandwich to now make 3 sandwiches. Where the meat was once the main ingredient, it was now pretty much used for seasoning the sandwich like Lawry’s. I never went back and I noticed there was no
(click NEXT above or below post) crowd the last few times I was there and people stopped talking about Scottie’s like they used to.

On the other hand…Bocce’s Pizza

Bocce’s website states:

Bocce’s Pizza is one of the oldest and best-known pizzerias in Buffalo, NY. Since 1946, we’ve been proudly serving our customers some of the best tasting food in Western New York. Our fresh pizza is still made with the same sauce recipe used back in the 1940’s.

Our delicious food has touched so many lives throughout the years that we are sought out by many who had to leave the Buffalo area. We get phone calls and have customers come in all the time requesting a half-baked pizza or wings to take home to share with their new friends and family across the country.

Stop by or call today for an Original Bocce’s Pizza and let us create a delicious memory for you!

I am here to tell you this statement is the absolute truth. Bocce’s original owner was the son of Italian immigrants (cultural connection) and he saw many people come and go, some of whom even started their own pizzerias but they were loyal enough not to try to duplicate what the original owners did. Bocce’s did not have a great location as a matter of fact it was dilapidated and appeared abandoned (see image) but the pizza was all she wrote. That damn building could have collapsed while you were ordering your pizza and you would still wait for your order. There is nothing worse than going to a great restaurant with all the ambiance and an amazing dining room where the food tastes like crap. I have no idea what they put in that pizza but I grew up on it and I have had pizza at MANY retaurants all over the country. I have NEVER had pizza as good as Bocce’s. Nothing has ever come close. As a matter of fact, I’m going to order one this week, since you have me talking about it so much to make a point in this story. Bocce’s is still using the EXACT same ingredients and the same amount of ingredients that they have been using since they opened in 1946. They didn’t go from 50 pepperoni to 3 and the cheese and the bread and the sauce have never changed. No matter who works there, they are taught to make the pizza the same way and they do. Bocce’s Pizza is STILL around today and STILL successful in Buffalo and beyond because they KNEW what the customers loved about them and they never wavered in an effort to cut costs or make extra profit. People would have paid their rent for that pizza as long as it tasted the same. I KNOW MANY people, including myself who order that Pizza to be expressed or when they go to Buffalo to visit they bring it back with them. I even have one childhood friend who is a Vice President at a University who can only tolerate Buffalo for 1 day per visit, but she loves Bocce’s and she makes sure she gets two large Bocce’s pizza’s before she leaves and she brings a separate suitcase for her pizzas, takes them home and freezes them and enjoys them for the next month. We laugh about her process but she loves that pizza. If you want to know the whole story about how Bocce’s got started go here.

The overall point here is to be the MOST successful in business you must:

LOVE what you DO…FIRST.

Understand AND be a part of the culture that you are serving

Don’t sell your customers short or try to blind side their senses (in this case taste buds)

It’s better to charge MORE than to give less (and have the nerve to charge more)

Always be loyal to why you are successful and use that to GROW other products for your customers

The demand remains high as long as your brand remains loyal and you remain trustworthy

My best in business

Kev Ross

[email protected]

www.radiofacts.com

September 15, 2014
Entrepreneur Burnout: Most Important Things to Avoid it

Yep, first and foremost we KNOW it takes a GREAT deal of effort to hire someone in the first place, you are concerned about paying them and you have to take the time to train them. You wonder if it##Q##s worth it. The answer my friends is YES it is. You will KILL yourself working 14 hour days, the years will fly by and you will not have a life. I know MANY entrepreneurs who endure this on a day to day and it##Q##s not smart. You CAN hire someone and you DON##Q##T have to do the work yourself, you just have to find ways to pay them like hiring them a month at a time or part time. When we make money that is NOT the time to go out and treat yourself to a new car or some extravagant gift (though you should treat yourself) but this is the time to ease the tension and to fork over some of the day to day to someone else to free you up to focus on the things you probably have been ignoring like sales or billing. You will certainly hire the wrong people from time to time as I have and here are some suggestions to avoid costly mistakes in hiring… (click “NEXT” after each segment above or below)

June 14, 2013
How to Stop Wasting Time and Grow Your Business Td Jakes

I have included a link to an EXCELLENT video by TD Jakes about leveraging your time. What are you going to do with the time that you have left? In this video about repositioning yourself, I literally almost fell out of my chair when Jakes speaks about “the 10s” the fact that 10 is the multiple of all greater numbers and that small business owners often get stuck on the first level of 10s because we are afraid to go to the next level.

I have talked in this blog about being drained from people picking my brain and making me the go to guy for everything. For the longest time I felt I was getting nothing in return for my business knowledge and experience, people were using me and getting everything for free. Truth be told, certain people should not have access to you once you have reached a certain level in your business and if they do have access OF COURSE they want free information, it is not only an indication of your success, the fact that others want to align themselves with you, it’s also an indication that you HAVE NOT GROWN! That might be a hard pill to swallow but it’s not their fault they want information from us, it’s OURS for not growing. We need to keep challenging ourselves and to keep growing. Just because we can now do the business with our hands tied behind our backs doesn’t’ meant it’s time to rest. It’s time to grow. Clients can flip the script on us and competitors are always on our heels. Check out this video it’s a great way to judge where your business is. Video Link Here

April 25, 2013
Entrepreneur: Knowing When to Close Shop

I just saw a longtime friend be forced out of his business. He basically lost everything and had to even move back to his hometown to live with his parents. He told me that he is humiliated.

At one time he was very successful but a change in the economy and for what he was doing brought a whole new set of challenges before him. Could he have saved the business? Sure he could have but his ego wouldn’t let him. He considered himself an expert in his field and refused to listen to others. In addition, he failed to pay attention to changing trends, the fact that he was getting older in a youthful business and that he was losing touch as he failed to surround himself with the right people in his business. He went from a hugely successful business to barely keeping his head above water to drowning and watching the eminent death of the business he had built from the ground up. He literally broke down in tears.

As entrepreneurs, we can only do so much and we don’t have all the answers. We have our strengths and we have our weaknesses but we are not Supermen/women, fortune tellers or money trees. The first sign of a failing business (yes, even in this economy) is a cash flow problem. People will say, isn’t that EVERYONE’S problem? No, it’s actually not and we need to stop comparing our businesses to everyone else and limiting ourselves to what we assume is the norm. Why can’t we have a business that does NOT have a cash flow problem? There are several businesses that don’t worry about paying bills and/or making payroll. There are owners who take extravagant vacations and there are owners who are not begging for business. You would be amazed at how they are often very frugal (that’s another post) but it’s certainly very possible. While this can’t be all of us it’s certainly achievable (depending on what you do and how valuable customers perceive you and/or your product). The first and most important step is we must always think BIGGER and understand we don’t always just have 1 passion. That’s what makes us “Entrepreneurs” and the very reason that we don’t work for others. We have the ability to create our own destinies. Notice I said “Destinies” as in the plural form.

I have to admit, It was very difficult to see a man so broken. He is depressed and he feels like a failure. I can sympathize with him because I have been there too. Many of us look at our business like a relationship. We nurture it and watch it grow and if it dies on us it’s no different than losing a valuable relationship with someone. It goes back to the “train-on-the-tracks-and-paralyzed” theory I was talking about in another post. There are those times when business has its ups and downs. Of course we want the ups to remain for the longest period of time but unfortunately, outside factors beyond our control can take precedent often preventing that from happening. What do you do when the down periods last TOO long or appear to be lasting longer than usual? You have to evaluate the business, how you feel about it, the economy of the business, trends and where you are as far as your passion to do it.

An entrepreneur certainly can experience wonderful highs but those lows can also make quite an impression on us. We are MARRIED to what we do as entrepreneurs and if your relationship with your business has soured it’s time to do one of two things: Morph it or Divorce it. Sometimes we are behind the trends and so busy with the day to day that we are missing something. Perhaps our business has lost its appeal to us and it has now become a “job.” One that, like most people who work for someone else, we don’t look forward to doing everyday. For an entrprenuer that’s a double whammy because we can change our situation. To run a business that we don’t like doing is a recipe for disaster.

I can tell you I have experienced that true passion in my business or rolling out of bed with a huge smile on my face and I’ve also experienced that low of sleeping an extra hour or more to AVOID running my business. It’s the greatest of feelings to do what you love doing, getting paid for it and you own it. The old saying is true: Do what you LOVE and the money will come.” I have never heard anyone say “Do what you HATE and the money will come” (laugh). I read a very interesting story of a man in black enterprise who was an attorney, mostly because his parents wanted him to be one. He was successful but he hated doing it. He wanted to bake cakes. When he told friends about this some laughed but people who sampled the cakes he made thought it was a great idea. He left his attorney job and has one of the most successful cake businesses on the east coast. Another attorney, I was reading about in the LA Times left his corporate job to use an old beat up church as a place to create counseling and to show interest in at-risk youth bound for gangs. He went from cushy corporate job to mopping smelly urinals and sweeping up huge dead rats to build and achieve the business for his passion and he LOVES it. What is your passion…. NOW? Is it the same as it was a few years ago. Do you look forward to running your business? Is it taking it’s toll on you? Just know that if you started and succeeded at one business, you already have the tools to do it again. Don’t wait until you are completely discouraged because you are so burnt out on what you are doing, save that energy to light the flame under your next venture. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Use your down/free time to make the necessary moves to start your new business and look forward to the day when you can (for the first time or once again) leap out of bed with the greatest smile on your face ready to face a great business day with customers coming to YOU for your services in droves. it IS possible!
Wishing you the best in Business

February 24, 2012