Banks lack human touch |
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Nearly half ( 47 %) of owners of small and medium-sized businesses ( SMEs ) claim the business advice they received in the last year from their mainstream bank had a negative impact on their business operations .
One in six ( 16 %) of these suggested their business is now in a worse position as a result . This is according to research by Amicus Commercial Finance , the specialist lender of flexible working capital to SMEs . The study also highlighted that more than half ( 52 %) of SME owners ignored advice they received from their mainstream bank over the last 12 months .
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‘ lack of human interaction available for SME owners
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that know the price of everything and the value of nothing . Unfortunately , customers who are very sensitive on price are often very unreasonable on other things too . You can do without them .
Mark Goodchild of Electric Call Ltd ( electric-call . net ) runs his business this way : “ If someone else has priced a job , I don ’ t bother quoting for it because I don ’ t wish to compete on price ”.
If you simply charge by the hour , make sure your hourly rate reflects all of the things you will do where you are not charging . These include holidays , sickness , training / certification , slack time and time spent buying equipment and materials .
If you do fixed price work , it gets even more complicated and you have to allow for time spent working on quotes . One tip is to review every job , see how much effort and cost it took versus your estimate . That way you will get better over time . Bad estimating and quoting too low are among the commonest reasons why installation businesses fail . Guy Hands of HandyMan advises : “ By reviewing jobs , I can look at my
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estimating and improve my skills over time . Sometimes because of thinking about how the last job was done , I upgrade my tools or try to do things in different ways in the future ”.
5 . Stand for something
As a sole trader , you will have a way of working that comes naturally . It will reflect your character and personality . If that is successful
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that ’ s fine , but if you are , for instance , a bit too slapdash and this leads to problems , you may have to work very hard to change . If you grow your business it will be hard to keep things consistent and you may need to be very clear on what your business stands for . One business I know always responds to call outs , day or night , however small the problem . That ’ s because it is the way they gain |
new customers . Another always tells prospects that they won ’ t be the cheapest up front . That ’ s because they always do a superb job and are slowly and successfully moving up market to richer customers . That now includes some premier league footballers , who only want the best . Remember if you don ’ t stand for something you will stand for nothing .
Final thoughts
Once you are running your own business , you have to master skills beyond simply doing the job well . Pricing and prioritising are two of the most important areas and a lot more could be said than has been covered here . However , I do hope that this has been a useful taster and will help you succeed in your business .
About the author
Benjamin Dyer is CEO and co-founder of Powered Now . Powered Now ’ s mobile app aims to make it easier for plumbers , gas engineers , builders and other trades to run their businesses .
www . powerednow . com
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Four in ten ( 40 %) did not rate the level of service they received from their mainstream bank as ‘ good ’. SME owners in the West Midlands ( 53 %) and North West ( 53 %) were the most disappointed .
The research also looked at the lack of human interaction available for SME owners when looking for working capital or overdrafts . The three most common grievances when dealing with a bank through a call centre were that they are time consuming ( 22 %), frustrating ( 17 %) and complicated ( 10 %).
Amicus Commercial Finance is offering an alternative by providing a revolving working capital facility which uses the latest technology and data extraction methodology .
John Wilde , managing director of Amicus Commercial Finance , commented :
“ We have taken a fresh , tech-driven approach that builds on some of the lessons learned in the fast-growing alternative finance sector . Our goal has been to combine deep sector experience with a high-touch personal service and cutting edge technology to make the process as straightforward and efficient as possible for SMEs .”
amicuscommercialfinance . co . uk /
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