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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