Starting Out
What you sell is not the same as what you do
Small businesses describe themselves by activity and are bought for outcomes, and the gap between the two…
· 3 min read
Arjun Nair
Contributing editor, Biz Wealth Focus
Arjun has written about starting out, pricing, cash flow for most of the last decade and is happiest when a piece answers the question completely.
19 articles
Pricing
Why the first price you set is nearly always too low
The first number a new business names is produced by a set of pressures that all push in the same…
· 4 min read
Pricing
When a buyer cannot judge the work, they judge everything around it
Most clients hiring a small business are not qualified to assess the work itself in advance, so they assess…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Pricing from the outcome is a claim you have to be able to support
Charging a share of what the work is worth to the client sounds obviously correct and only functions when…
· 3 min read
Cash Flow
Cash is forecast in weeks, because that is how it runs out
A monthly view of money coming in and going out hides the days when the account is actually empty, and…
· 3 min read
Cash Flow
Chasing an overdue invoice without losing the client
Most late payment is a process failure rather than a refusal, and treating it as one recovers the money…
· 4 min read
Clients
Handling a complaint when you are the entire company
Without a department to absorb it, a complaint lands directly on the person who did the work, and…
· 4 min read
The Admin
A contract for people who do not like contracts
A written agreement is mostly a memory device, and understanding that removes almost every reason small…
· 3 min read
The Admin
Insurance for a one-person business is bought against outcomes
The useful way to think about cover is not which policies exist but which events would end the business…
· 3 min read
The Admin
Obligations arrive on a calendar you did not set
Filing dates and payment deadlines are fixed by somebody else and take no account of how busy you are…
· 4 min read
Starting Out
Selling a thing and selling your time are two different businesses
Products and services tie up money at different moments, fail in different places and meet their limits for…
· 3 min read
Starting Out
Having two things to sell is a different kind of safety
A business built on a single offering is exposed to anything that happens to that offering, and adding a…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Quoting for work you have never done before
A price for an unfamiliar job is a guess wearing the clothes of a commitment, and the way to make it…
· 3 min read
Pricing
A small job costs more per hour than a large one
Every engagement carries a fixed cost that has nothing to do with its size, which is why tiny jobs lose…
· 3 min read
Cash Flow
Your suppliers’ terms are the other half of the cash cycle
Almost all attention goes to when customers pay, and it is the distance between that moment and when you…
· 3 min read
Clients
A proposal should answer the question the client actually asked
Most documents written to win work describe the seller, while the buyer is reading to find out whether…
· 3 min read
Clients
The person you are talking to is often not the person who decides
Selling to an organisation usually means dealing with somebody who then has to persuade a third party you…
· 3 min read
The Admin
Closing a business properly is a set of tasks, not an event
Stopping trading leaves obligations that continue after the last invoice, and working through them in order…
· 3 min read
The Admin
The paperwork a client’s own systems force on you
Larger customers pass their internal requirements down to their suppliers, and the cost of satisfying them…
· 3 min read