Not just now. Now now!

Seven wonderful tips from Axios (you can read them here).

With unemployment in South Africa at monstrous levels entrepreneurship is on the rise. Many entrepreneurs identify opportunities which have a low capital cost of entry, have easy to learn technical skills, don't require certification, and don't need an office or warehouse factory.

One of the oportunity spaces which match these criteria are in technical services to households. In general terms this would be providing "home handyman" services which would include, at a basic level, solar trouble shooting, home security installations, basic electrical and plumbing work, painting and general repairs.

I recently had an issue with my electric gate. After a web search I called up a company and had them come round to check out the problem. But as the process unfolded I became increasingly nervous (unnecessarily it turned out) about their capability.

Why?

1. While they had a company website, they used a funny Gmail account.
2. They insisted on communicating via Whatsapp messaging.
3. Their technical team wasn't able to phone me as they had no airtime.
4. Their car was an old skorokoro.
5. They insisted on sending MS Word documentation via Whatsapp.
6. Their quotation was badly laid, was grammatically terrible with abysmal punctuation.
7. The same issues were in their invoice (I ended up editing it and laying it out properly for them).
8. Their warranty was really bad which had to be renegotiated.
9. After sending their invoice, I received hourly requests to pay (they moved from being a contractor to a debt collector — but perhaps this is the nature of doing business in South Africa).

In the end they did a good job. They were fast and professional and did good work. But they needed to up their game a bit. This is not difficult to do:

1. If you have a webiste, have an email address (not a Gmail).
2. Whatsapp is great for quick information such as "be there at 10:00am", but it is not the right medium for documents. Send these via email.
3. Make sure your team has the right tools. Including being able to communicate with the customer (airtime!).
4. If you can afford it, don't look like you've picked up a technical team from outside a hardware store.
5. Use a template for your quotes and invoices. These come with MS Word. Use AI to get your invoice and quotes reading professionally. But also be careful when using this tool.
6. Project confidence in your work by providing a proper warranty.
7. Give your client some space to pay.

These are all simple things. But will go a long way in projecting that your company IS THE COMPANY.

There is no doubt that AI is a useful business tool. It can assist with brainstorming, writing standard letters, or even generating a business plan (and more!).

AI is, I believe, also a wonderful tool to help people to correspond in a second language (e.g. Farsi speakers corresponding in English).

Recently we received an introduction from a Saudia Arabian company who wanted to distribute our solutions in their market.

The letter was perfect. Good English. Good structure. But — and this is not a criticism — it looked like a form letter generated by an AI.

But the real giveaway that it had been generated by an AI was this:

Thank you for considering our proposal. We eagerly await your response and the opportunity to discuss the way forward. Please contact me at [Your Contact Information] at your convenience.

Always, always review your AI generated content before you distribute it. And definitely fill in the blank fields the AI has generated for you.

Our office rents a copier/printer/scanner. These are not the most reliable and two of them needed to be replaced.

(After trying various printer brands I just stick to HP. They always work. Are Mac compatible. And, besides charging an excruciating amount for replacement cartridges, just work).

So what's the problem? These new machines work fine. But the old one's? A few weeks later both are still sitting in the office corridors. Taking up space; advertising that the supplier— ITEC— is either incompetent, lazy or just plain crap.

If you're going to replace a piece of shit. Quickly remove the old one so you don't look like shit.

As a customer you need to feel that your business is important to your supplier.

So when you have to chase your manufacturer/retailer/supplier for updates or service and they say "we are so sorry, we've been really busy". It just makes you feel that your business is really not that important to them.

So here's a case. I wanted to get some shoes that I had purchased from Veldskoen resoled. So I sent them a note. And I received a really great quick response. They told me what the price would be — R350.00 including collection and delivery (which is excellent) — and asked me to send them some pics to make sure they could be resoled.

And then, just nothing other than a standard auto response "we will come back to you ... etc. etc." email.

So I chased. And chased. And then used their Whatsapp service. And received a response which was: "My sincerest apologies for the delay. Our team has been extremely busy in the store and inundated with our Father's Day queries." (however, the initial enquiry had been sent at the end of April not the end of June).

But these are not the only guys guilty of this. It happens all the time!

If you value your customers, don't tell them you've been too busy to pay attention to them. Just apologise.

And make good.

There's a misconception that keeping knowledge to yourself will make you more essential and thus unfirable.

When you share your knowledge, you help your coworkers learn and grow. This makes the team stronger, more resilient and more capable of achieving its goals.

By being recognised as a key person in building a strong team you make yourself more marketable. In today's competitive job market, being able to contribute and build strong teams is a valuable skill.

Whereas in the old days, the individual genius was celebrated and courted, today corporate and individual success comes from strong teams.

Just look at football, rugby and basketball (Michael Jordan wouldn't have been as great without Pippen and Rodman).

Not good.

Why?

We sold our business because we needed to grow faster and needed the resources that the acquiring company can leverage (sales force, contacts and a client base ripe for cross selling opportunities). But 20 months later our majority shareholder has not grown our business by a single RAND (let alone DOLLAR).

Naturally we're not particularly happy. But, fundamentally, this is our own fault. So what did we do wrong?

Historically, through the years of our association, our majority shareholder hasn't helped us grow our business. Yes, there are one or two individuals who have been supportive. But the company as a whole has not made a growth contribution. Initially we thought that this was because they didn't want to add value to our business as an acquisition would then make us more expensive to buy. But, to be honest, they just haven't had the energy and determinism to make growth happen.

So why did we then sell? Or why didn't we take this pretty fundamental precedent on board?

Well new management came on board. Younger people. Who, actually, got a bit cross with us when we pointed out that the acquiring company had never grown our business. Their argument was that they were a new team and we shouldn't bring up this issue again.

So we didn't. And we sold.

And this is not successful.

(Surprise!!!!).

So what are the lessons?

1. We should have demanded a review of their growth strategy for our business. They promised to grow the business. But we should have made them fess up on their integration and growth strategy. Personally I don't think they had one.
2. Don't be rushed. The business is yours not theirs. We were pressured into making a fundamental decision based on their time-lines. We should have ignored that pressure and insisted on them answering the "how" question.
3. Trust your gut. One of the people leading the acquisition had indicated that they would not support the growth of the business if an acquisition wasn't on the table. This is basically unethical and should have raised a big red flag as to their culture and values (which were, obviously, misaligned with ours).
4. Don't do it if the CEO is not actively engaged in the business and gets upset when challenged about the lack of growth (which was promised). And don't be calmed with a "I'm standing away because you guys are running the business". That's not the point, the Group CEO is supposed to drive the growth strategy. And not just let things slide.
5. Have a good lawyer. Thankfully our super smart very experienced lawyer put in a "breach of sale" clause which basically said that if the acquiring company "by design or neglect" failed to grow the business, then we could call them out for this specific breach.

Finally, always remember what you are fighting for! This is your money, your retirement, your holiday, the education fund for your children (and grandchildren). Even your expected medical treatment.

Being nice and patient and not fighting is not going to get them to fulfill their commitment.

As a small business, it is in our nature to partner and support other small businesses. After all, we are both in the same boat, understand the challenges, and are flexible with a "gung ho" attitude.

So we've done this a couple of times. The first business went into liquidation. The second lost 50% of its staff in one week (there was a single resignation from a two man band).

No matter the promises and the commitment, small businesses often don't have the resources to ride through a crisis (manpower, cash flow).

If you can, use the small guy to assist with New Product Development, but don't risk your whole business supporting them.

This is also why big businesses don't often use small businesses. The risk of non-delivery (or delays) is too high.

It is quite fun to have a funky brand name. And many major brands do: Google, Yahoo, Orange, Apple. There are probably a lot more. Like "Goop" (which I actually quite like).

But these brands either have lots of money, celebrity or were founded when they essentially were the category.

I've written about this before.

Personally I think it's better to brand your product or company with name which says exactly what you are.

Like The Singleton.

It's clear that The Singleton is a single malt whisky. And there are other impacts which talk to the product's uniqueness.

The other advantage is that having a brand which tells everyone what you are, creates an opportunity to own the category.

It's always tempting to stray out of your lane. This is not always a bad thing: as long as your supplier relationships and project management skills are up to scratch, you can learn new things, build deeper customer relationships, and push up your revenue.

But, more often, the reverse happens: you end up looking stupid, dishonest and lose your customer's trust (while being completely stressed yourself!).

Our business is food waste composting. And we've been doing this for over 10 years. So we know a lot. Our skill and knowledge are both broad and deep. And we're comfortable working in this space and, occasionally, expanding it a bit broader to encompass organic waste as a whole.

We have also successfully installed, with partners, an industrial effluent system using biological treatments (we know about biology and microbes). This installation promptly saved our customer over R400,000 (South African Rand) per month. So good result.

We were asked if could help with the composting of sewage output. This seems reasonable. There's a lot of stuff around "humanure" and we have come across composted sewage waste before (we've also quite happily used composting toilets). So we went to site to checkout how the specific plant worked, what was possible, and where the gaps in our knowledge lay.

We then put a report together which mentioned that one of our composting machines could work well for composting the output from the system. But, that we needed confirmation on a number of very important biological, waste volumes, system processes, and compliance details before we could prepare a project proposal (and proper quotation).

The report sat with our client for a few weeks. And then we were asked, with a deadline of the next day, to prepare a quotation as per the approach we'd outlined in our report back from the site visit.

We said "no". As we (a) didn't have the details requested, and (b) the deadline was too tight.

Our customer was pretty irate. They obviously had a tight deadline form their client (which they hadn't managed properly). We refused to budge as we also knew that their client was a major global mining company. And this customer was particularly demanding (we'd had some experience with them before) who would not put up with any excuses once a proposal had been made.

Especially, as would have been the case, if the proposal was half-arsed (or, just as bad, would need pages and pages of defensive exclusions and assumptions).

So the financial and reputational risks, for our business, were too high. And in the end, if things went wrong, it would be my company that was blamed (and not my customer pushing for a quote because they'd messed up on their deadline).

If you have limited time, insufficient detail, and the project is out of your field of expertise DON'T DO IT!

Or, as Harvey McKay wrote, say "no" (until your tongue bleeds).

If you're anything like me, you will have a vast number of emails still sitting in your inbox. You will have replied to them but, for some good reason, wouldn't have sent them to your trash box.

I recently decided to clear out my inbox. Some mails were from early 2019! Slightly embarrased I started an exercise of sending a note to the email contacts.

Hello John,

I am busy clearing out my inbox and I came across this pre-Covid lockdown correspondence.

I just wanted to reconnect, say "hello" and remind you of our food waste recycling services.

I hope that you and your business are well.

Best regards,

Gavin

While some people had left (or emigrated, given this is South Africa), I had a surprisingly positive response from this 'out-reach' including new business meetings and requests for new information.

My learning from the excercise:

• your old emails are still a great asset (even after three years!).
• people who've forgotten you, are happy to be reminded about you and your company's services. Remember, you're not top of mind in your customers business life.

And, above all, don't be embarrased about reconnecting with potential customers after a long time.

The same would apply to friends you haven't connected with in awhile!

(Apologies to the wonderful podcast "Always Take Notes").

When I worked in advertising the "contact report" was one of the top rules for client engagements. It was basically a record of the meeting — face to face or telephonically — and recorded the decisions made in the meeting. It was then sent to the client who had 24 working hours to make any changes to the note. If the client didn't have a comment then the contact report basically evolved into a contract.

This document was so important because if there was a dispute later, then it could be pulled out and consulted.

No-one was able to just make things up. The contact report kept everyone in line. And honest.

We recently sold a share in our business. A few months down the line we have a small dispute with our partner.

Luckily we have some emails indicating that what we were supposed to have said wasn't true.

However, I really do believe that we should have kept notes after every engagement. And not only ad hoc emails during the process.

The moden "contact report" can simply be an email after the meeting or engagement. But don't forget this discipline.

It will definitely get you out of trouble.

Just make sure you have a good filing system for your emails.

Every business relies on customers and suppliers. Whether that supplier is providing you with physical goods or a service, your supplier is crucial to your business.

As is your customer. Without your customer buying from your business your business wouldn't exist.

So what are you doing for your supplier and your customer?

David Ogilvy, the man who founded the global advertising network "Ogilvy", was famous for always supporting his client's products. So when Ogilvy had Rolls Royce as a client, he drove a Rolls Royce. When that business changed to Jaguar, he sold the Rolls Royce and bought a Jaguar.

(Thank goodness the agency wasn't having to advertise the Edsel!).

For Ogilvy, if the client was supporting your business you needed to support theirs.

(This is also part of customer service!).

The reverse also holds. Your supplier is a key part of your business. Their success ensures your own: as they become more successful, their products improve, their payment terms improve, and your business benefits.

Supporting your suppliers and recommending their business to your personal and business network strengthens your relationship.

By being part of the success of your customer or supplier, you will also rise.

We were doing some work at home and needed to buy some paint. Pretty special, hardwearing, outdoor paint. We settled on Dulux Wallguard and chose a standard colour.

The problem was that this particular colour was not readily available at our local Mica hardware store (I should have shares in this store!).

Being helpful, they recommended that I call "Fourways Dulux Paint Specialist". So I searched for them on Google Maps and gave them a call. They didn't have the colour. So I asked if they could recommend a store that perhaps would have the product in stock.

The response: "any Dulux stockist". "Yes, but I'm driving can you recommend anyone in the Sandton area?". "Just google it."

And so it ended.

What could this guy have done? Definitely be more upbeat in his tone. And for sure, he could have said "try XXX in Craighhall".

And, even better, he could then have sent me a phone number given that he could hear that I was driving.

Given that none of this happened, would I visit this store?

Not a fuck!

Instead I went to another Mica. What had they done? My wife phoned them and they quickly called their guy who was at the warehouse. They then called her back. Said that they'd have the product and would set it aside.

I collected the next day. Picked up the paint and purchased more stuff. Probably spent 60% more than I had planned.

Would I recommend these guys? For sure! Would I go back and buy from them again? Absolutely!

When Apple was in the shit (yes there was a such a time) and were losing customers (and only loyalists remained), Adobe shifted it's energy on the Windows platform. Suddenly Apple users were seeing their Windows colleagues getting all the cool Adobe stuff months (sometimes years) before them.

I can't find the actual reference, but Steve Jobs said something about never again being dependent on a 3rd party provider for critical services/products -- i.e. limit your supply risk. And Final Cut, Aperture, iWork etc. came out -- the logic being that if Microsoft/Adobe had to stop building software for the Mac, it would be OK because the Apple alternatives were really great.

I had a similar experience recently (and am still navigating the challenge). When we first started building our Earth Cycler composting machines we wrote our own software to run the machines on the Omron PLC platform.

This worked pretty well until my partner/supplier/friend decided to move to the USA to work on automation projects for Ford (shame, man!).

So we pushed responsibility for the full product to our fabricator. They'd do it all: automation, mechanisation, supply of all parts and components. And I didn't really care if they used Omron or, as they distribute this product range, Sigmatek (and Austrian PLC platform).

But then things took time. There were hassles porting the Omron process to Sigmatek. There were issues with load cells.

And it took longer. And the software is not 100%.

And now we have Delta (the variant not a automation platform), so things are taking even longer. But we're stuck.

Because we have one supplier.

And that's not good.

The other night we went out with friends and met some really cool new people.

As per normal they asked us about our business.

We went through the story: when we started; our products; some good and bad war stories ...

You know how it goes.

But they were really interested. Enthusiastic. Positive.

Wow. You guys are awesome. That's so great. We love what you do. And you're doing so well!

Obviously we were flattered.

When my wife and I arrived home. We looked at each other and mentioned that we too often forget about all the great shit we do.

Because we're too busy working on the business. Solving problems. Making payroll. Sourcing products. Building stuff. Delivering stuff.

So we forget.

Until we're reminded by someone else.

And that's another lesson: get out there!

I remember my father, who was an MD of a computer company in the 80s, saying that he loved it when his sales people took home more money than him, "after all" he said, "it means that our business is going well and revenue is growing!".![]

A company I know recently hired a new sales person.

We were chatting and then the hirer said "shit, but I'll be pissed off if she takes home more than me!".

I recalled my father's philosophy.

And then said "but you're a shareholder, you want her to take home more money than you, because she's building value in the business.".

When you're sales person earns top $, it means:

• you've got a good product (otherwise it wouldn't sell).
• you've made a good hire (otherwise you wouldn't be growing revenue).
• you're a hero because, as the business leader, your business is going great!

Never begrudge your sales person earning more than you.

With the whole work from home thing (and the threat of lockdowns) we decided to mirror our NAS from work with one at home. This way we'd be able to work off the servers and all new and edited documents would be updated on both systems.

Yes, we did look at Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. but we (a) have limited storage on our computers (and Apple's new Macbook's are, disgustingly, not upgradeable), and (b) I personally hate subscriptions (especially if they are in US$ and we are living in ZAR-land).

We reached out to an IT company that gave us a quote and a timeline. So we gave them the job: supply the hardware, setup the networking, and do the configuration.

Being a bit of a geek, I was really excited. New kit! Yay! Even my boss was happy to have this done (after a bit of haggling).

So Bill arrived at my home with a couple of boxes (the NAS enclosure and the storage drives). Then Bill got started with adding the hard drives into the NAS without reading the manual. So this took ever so much longer (I read the instructions later and redid the job).

Know your stuff before you arrive at your client (practice at home). Even better have everything setup before arrival.

And then he started to configure the system.

Bill, obviously, hadn't done this before. Whatever his expertise was, it was definitely not in this area.

So this took longer. And longer. And longer.

Then I started chasing: "what's the status Bill?" and he'd reply "has the firewall been configured?". So I'd drop an email to the IT support team at my work copying him. A while later I'd drop him a note asking "is everything OK now" and Bill would go "let me check" and come back to with an answer in the negative.

And around and around we'd go (like the wheel's on the bus).

So I dropped him a note via WhatsApp:

why are you waiting for me to check and try solve this problem. this is what you were hired to do. please sort it and stop waiting for me to find out that the issue is still not resolved and the job is still open.

Eventually I wrote a note to his boss. Which moved things quickly along and the job was finished.

But will I be recommending this company to a friend or colleague? Probably not.

We know that, most times, thing are more complicated that what we think. Gremlins arrive. And challenges emerge.

But, the most frustrating thing is being left in the dark and having to chase the supplier for updates.

No matter what -- good or bad -- keep your customer updated on what's going on.

At worst you've learnt something about yourself and your pitch.

At best your business has moved forward.

A friend of mine called the other day. He'd just had a meeting with a potential investor.

The meeting had gone well. But nothing was signed. Another meeting was set up.

But he was on a high. He'd received some really great feedback on his business. His meeting had reaffirmed that his business actually was a business.

So, even if the investment doesn't come through, just the extra spring in his step had made it all worthwhile.

Never turn down a meeting; good even comes from the bad ones.

Earlier today I signed up to a salesguru "Mind blowing live event" sales course. I thought it would be good to receive some sales coaching.

And the name was right; I'd like to be a guru in sales.

Shortly after clicking on the "book now" link and sending an email, I received a phone call from someone in the organisation.

I was expecting an invoice from my email, not a sales call.

Then I got emailed some marketing stuff including a link to a YouTube promotional video.

Which I checked out. But sadly, I wasn't really sold on the guy doing the sales course (he basically repeated the sales spiel from the marketing stuff I'd already received).

I left YouTube and went back to the second email. And saw there was a booking form.

Why a booking form? Hadn't I already "booked" via the first email link?

But I started filling this in (the good thing was that it was a pdf form and easy to fill in). But there was still no payment mechanism.

I had been in, and was ready to pay.

But this organisation kept on making me do things.

And the more they made me do, the more I thought about my time (2.5 hours), other stuff I needed to do, and the price.

From being sold. I was rapidly turned into a doubter.

And then I just bailed out of the whole thing.

What should they have done to get me paid up and ready?

Firstly, they should have given me an immediate way of signing up and paying. Mailer #2 could have then just been a receipt and welcome to the course.

Secondly, stop asking me to do things and check things out. The hurdles made me think twice.

But essentially, they should have just made it easy for me to sign-up and pay right from the beginning.

Recently I purchased a Toyota Hilux "bakkie" (utility vehicle). I like it. It feels safe. It's big. The drive, for a bakkie, is good.

I took it to for its first service when it had reached 10,000km. This was fine and professional. But during the process came to truly understand the term "never stop selling". These guys (and I say this in admiration) found many ways to extract money from my wallet beyond my service plan: wheel balancing, a window crack repair (this is easy to do through your insurance and the repair guys will come to you).

So I left holding onto my wallet. Tightly. Zipped up. Chained to my waist. Like, in the old days, when you traveled in Italy and were terrified that you'd be pick pocketed or your backpack would be sliced and your valuables stolen.

Not great.

Yes, I understand this strategy is key to getting your margins up. And these guys are not dishonest. Just really aggressive sales people.

This post-sale strategy is not unusual. Think cheap printers and ultra expensive ink cartridges (probably listening to customer feedback, Epson and Brother have reversed this strategy and now sell expensive printers with very low cost of ownership using ink tank technology).

In developing our Earth Cycler composting machine we deliberately utilised standard off the shelf components in order to make the machine easy and cheap to repair (ironically, we wanted this to be the Toyota of composters - easy to repair because of part availability across Africa and repair/maintenance simplicity).

Spares for our Earth Bokashi bins are cheap. So cheap that we often give them away free (especially if a dog has chewed on the tap – we love dogs!).

Shit happens. Lids get lost. Taps chewed on. Bins dropped.

Because we are anti-waste, we also want to ensure that if something goes wrong with a part the whole unit doesn't need to be replaced.

We strongly believe in the right to repair.

Which is why I get really angry when I own a product which is specifically designed to exploit the owner when it comes to a repair.

In my mind this is what Zodiac Pool Equipment do; and specifically their Zodiac MX8/6 automatic pool cleaners.

These are expensive. But pretty cool. They work on tracks and don't make a "tok tok tok tok tok" noise as they do their work in your pool (we have a bio-pool with fish and were told that this noise would drive the fish MAD).

And they never get stuck in the corner of your pool, or against the stairs - they can work themselves free.

But when the break, or a part wears then you're in trouble.

Parts seem to wear easily and are expensive to replace.

But the most irritating repair I made was when a small little hose connector attached to the unit cracked.

So I thought: "no worries, I'll just get a replacement" and trekked off to the pool shop.

"No", I was told, "you have to replace the whole assembly and not just the connector". "How much?", I asked. "R730" was the answer. This is nearly 20% of the cost of a new unit!

And not only that, I had to then dispose of the whole old assembly.

So wasteful!

Do I still love my MX8? Do I like it?

Not as much.

Am I loyal? Would I recommend this unit?

Not anymore.

Cost of ownership is too high both in waste and cost.

If you want loyalty and good word of mouth, make sure your product is reliable and easy and cheap to repair.

If your business model is to make money on the services, then make cost of entry cheap. This way people won't feel ripped off when they have to make an expensive repair.

Last year we went to market looking for investment partners.

We presented to high net value investors as well as fund managers in Cape Town and Durban.

Our pitch was organised around three distinct information chunks:

• who we are as people (owners of the business).
• why will this business grow (the macro trends putting wind behind our sails).
• how we make money (the business model).

The sessions went really well: we were able to competently answer tough questions, we made people laugh, and the feedback from the investors was very positive

We had investors who, subject to due diligence, were keen to put money into the business.

Plus, the agreed valuation was good.

And then, after completing due diligence, nothing really happened.

Momentum was lost.

And the South African economy turned from a tummy ache into full on diarrhea.

The investment company tried to keep some investors "hot".

But now we had to deal with deal fatigue.

And then Covid.

And that was the end of that.

Why did this fail?

It just took too bloody long from the end of the road show to finishing due diligence.

Potential investors got bored, the positivity waned, they looked elsewhere, and then became risk averse and just sat on their money.

In any business momentum (and speed) is key.

As my brother says "slow is poison".

My friend Rob Campbell wrote a really great article on Challenger Brands recently.

What really struck me was his example of how, in the 60's, Avis (yes that company) posted their President's phone number on an advert.

(Hi-Tec Souh Africa also does this in their packaging - and I did contact Frank)

Now think about that for a moment. . . .

Think about how wonderful life would be if you could just phone a decision maker to sort out a problem.

But it's almost impossible. Who would ever think, now, of phoning the CEO of FNB (could be any bank or big company). It would be impossible. I don't even know his/her name let alone the phone number.

Nowadays we have to get really cross. Fill in forms. Send mails to customerservice@dontgiveashit.com which never get returned. And then we have to Facebook and Tweet and Hello Peter and ... still nothing will really come right.

Imagine your competitive advantage if your CEO, you, were accessible.

If you didn't hide?

No this isn't about cutting staff during a pandemic (or other crises).

It's about product development.

(Although, I do believe, that cutting deep and quick is better than a drip redundancy strategy).

Our bokashi business includes both a consumer and a corporate solution. The consumer bokashi solution involves the selling of an airtight bin which includes an internal strainer (to separate the solid waste from the beneficial leachate).

We invested in this strainer very early in the development of this cost effective food waste recycling solution.

The only problem, over many years, was that when a customer used too much force compacting the waste (in spite of entreaties to be 'gentle') legs on the strainer bent or broke.

Our initial response was to make more legs and then provide free spare legs to customers who broke or bent the ones that came with their kit.

Then we made some small changes to the design of the legs - our most radical decision was to chamfer the step at the top of the leg instead of leaving it square (apparently this would make it more difficult to shear).

Surprisingly this didn't really work (sarcasm intended) .

So we made other small changes.

And the legs still bent or broke.

So this week we had another meeting with our injection mould company.

And made a big change.

Which works.

My wife and I were chatting about this and I asked "why did it take so long to make this big, but relatively easy, change?".

"Because we fiddled around (with hope) instead of cutting our losses and being decisive." she said.

But why did we fiddle and not be decisive? Perhaps, mentally we thought the big change was too difficult (it wasn't). Or, we had some mental fixation on the more elegant (but less strong) design of the original legs? Perhaps we worried that making them thicker would have significant cost impacts as they'd use more material (partly right, but not significant). Perhaps we thought that the consumer would, eventually stop breaking them (they didn't)?

I don't have a proper answer.

But the lesson is there: simple, but big, problems won't be solved by iterative "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" changes.

Better to be decisive. Quickly.

Outside my WFH window a masked weaver has been building nests.

And he's become pretty good at nest building.

After building more than twenty nests (which were repeatedly torn down and then new one's built on different branches) he scored a mate.

His DNA will survive.

And he's still building nests - maybe polygyny is a thing in the world of Masked Weavers?

When we start a new business we think of the three key success factors: product/service excellence and differentiation (or the business idea); go to market strategy including promotion and financial; and execution.

But the fourth leg is perseverance.

No business just starts and is immediately successful. There are all sorts of issues that come up along the way. People leave. Competitors enter the market. You don't achieve traction quite as fast as you thought. Everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much (this is a universal truth - always multiply your time line and budget by two).

And during this journey you get tired. Sometimes very tired.

And you think: "why did I give up that job to start this? I wasn't happy but at least I had money to go on holiday and drink decent wine!".

And doubt creeps in.

That's the time to go back to the idea of the business. Do you still think, objectively, that the idea behind your business is still strong?

Yes!

Then you have to hou vas and persevere.

One can learn from marathon runners (not that I am one).

And a few years down the line, you'll look back and think to yourself "I did it!".

And that's the true secret of success: perseverance.

The products we love today, aren't what they were yesterday.

The first portable MP3 player I purchased for my daughter in 1998 was a Rio 600 (which could hold about 9 songs).

Then in 2001 Apple came along with their 5Gb iPod (which only worked on a Mac). I’m sure that Mr Perfection wasn’t totally enamoured with the device (although I was). But the next one was way better. And over the years they improved. And now they're great!

At one time – a long time ago – Toshiba made really great laptops. Their strategy was “live prototyping”. They’d put products into the market accepting the idea that some would not be hits but that the next one, based on real in-market experience, would be better than the previous one.

Toshiba has subsequently stopped making computers - maybe they thought that their dodgy energy business would make them more money.

In a small business time will always win. There will be that occasion when you have no more time and simply need to move.

Time inevitably competes against perfection.

While whatever you do has to be fit for purpose, initially it will most probably not be perfect. Because while you're in the design stage you'll learn things. And while you're in manufacturing you'll learn more. And when people use your product you'll learn even more.

In your heart and head, when you launch, you know that your product or service is not 100%.

But that's OK; you started. And that 100% is in your future (just not now).

I'm not Imelda Marcos but I do like shoes. I'm not fanatical, I don't have too many, but those I do have have been bought with purpose and consideration.

I'm also one of those people who really believe that, when it comes to shoes, you get what you pay for.

Perhaps it's a guy thing?

Hi-Tec is a UK brand with a strong South African following (I even thought it was South African). In South Africa Hi-Tec is well known as a hiking shoe brand. I've never owned a pair, but have seen them looking good on friends' feet. So when I was passing a Hi-Tec store last year I stopped in and bought a pair of walking/hiking shoes and a pair of vellies or veldskoene.

And I was pretty happy. No issues. They even made an overweight guy look like he was trying.

But then the walking shoes started cracking at the toe flex point. A little while later the internal heel support wedge broke through its cushioning and made the shoes unwearable.

And then the vellies heel seam tore.

So I dropped them an email. They were pretty friendly and asked me to take the shoes to a store (after showing proof of purchase and sending photographs). So I followed up and visited the store (where they again took photographs of the 'goods').

The store guys are really nice: friendly and, behind their Covid masks, I think are all smiles. I told them the story and indicated that, given Covid-19 lockdown regulations, neither pair had been worn that much or taken a dominant walking share within my shoe portfolio.

They sent the photographs to head office (first mistake, why aren't the people at the front line of customer experience not empowered, like at Ritz Carlton, to solve customer problems at their own discretion?). Head office told them to tell me that the shoes were out of warranty (true - but somehow I think they should last longer given that they're Hi-Tec and not an own-label brand sold as 'slightly damaged' from a Diagonal Street store) but they were willing to offer me a 30% discount on any new shoes I wished to buy - they offer the same discount to people who complete a brand survey!

Now why would a customer who's had a bad product experience spend more money -- even at a discount -- buying a product with which he or she has just had a bad experience?

So I walked out leaving one of the pairs with them to 'recycle'.

(Later they mailed me offering to replace the vellies, which I'll probably do when I remember or have the inclination or am in the area - but now it's really not something I'm rushing to do).

In my mind Hi-Tec is not living up to their brand promise of "Delivering durable footwear and apparel since 1974".

Which is why I'm cross with Hi-Tec. I have a standard which has been built up over years of shoe buying and by my +5 years worn shoes from Merrell, Adidas, RM Williams, Timberland and others. Even my Superga 'takkies' are still going strong (although a bit slippy now that the tread is smooth).

In our own business, we absolutely hate having an unhappy client. We've written about this here and here.

We will do everything to ensure that our client's issue is resolved to HIS or HER satisfaction (not our own). And we really really don't split hairs on replacing or refunding. We don't want an unhappy client who possibly would bad mouth our products.

We really believe in the LL Bean or Ikea "no questions asked" guarantee (LL Bean used to have a true "life" guarantee but then people started taking the piss and basically 'borrowing' their stuff on the way to a music festival or to go camping and then returning the items on their way back home).

So Hi-Tec have left me unhappy. Imagine if someone really famous with many many many Instagram followers left with the same unhappy feeling. And started posting about Hi-Tec letting her down, about the product not being durable, that the service sucked and even, in a fit of anger, publicly smashed them.

So what would I have expected from Hi-Tec (which would have cost them very very little)? I'd probably have left contented if they'd just said "we're sorry, and, yes, these shoes don't look great, please pick a replacement of your choice on us."

There are other things you can do when dealing with an unhappy customer.

If they'd just done a simple exchange, I'd still own a pair of Hi-Tec's in which I'd walk in the world. And, hopefully, I'd have a positive product experience and thus a good story to tell. Who knows I might even have bought a few more pairs of Hi-Tec's in the future.

Instead I'm writing a blog about a crappy product and service experience.

And now it's highly unlikely that a new pair of Hi-Tec's would join my pairs of Timberlands, Merrels, adidas, Freeway vellies or the Superga's.

Update: On the 5th of October I was in the area and so dropped by to take them up on their offer. Service was great (they remembered me, even with a mask). So I ended up purchasing a more expensive pair of shoes, plus two pairs of socks and, to my wife's horror as we have 10 sets, a suede and nubuck cleaner. So I walked out happy. But during the two/three weeks of not wearing a pair of Hi-Tec's I ended up turning into Imelda Marcos and bought two additional pairs of shoes: a pair of Merrel's and a pair of hiking shoes from Decathlon - that money could have been theirs.

I hate going to a shop (and especially loathe going into a mall). So I tend to buy most stuff online.

So I found a really good deal for a Bondic Liquid UV Laser Welder Evo Kit (basically a thingamajig for welding plastic together). I made my order with no hassles.

After making my ordeer the online store sent me some information via a text message which didn't really give me any information like "your order is ready for pick up" so I decided to give them a call.

The first thing, the guy who answered the phone worked for "ABC Tools" and not "CDE Online Tools" - while it seemed like it is the same company, why have a different name for your online channel? Or at least make it obvious that ABC Tools is the major company that owns CDE Online - but no-one should have to go through all this hassle in the first place.

But more irritating, the guy who answered the phone had never heard of CDE Online. He had literally no idea what I was talking about and kept on asking me which person had taken the order (even when I offered to give him my order number)..

So that was the first issue. And then he told me to phone back after 1.00pm because everyone was on lunch. Yes. True. So I pushed a little bit and asked "is there no-one in admin who can help me? I just want to check on an online order.". "No" he grumpily replied, "phone back after 1.00 O'clock".

So, as instructed, I hung up. And I haven't phoned back.

If you're going to add an online business to your existing physical business, make sure that at least the people who answer the inward coming from your website.

Perhaps even have two phone numbers so the receptionist (if you have one) can answer with the correct company name. Then make sure that, if someone phones during lunch time, the person who answers the phone can semi-intelligently nicely indicate that he can't help you but that "someone will phone you back, please leave a message and your phone number".

And then make bloody sure that someone actually does phone the customer back.

Update: I went and collected my order this morning. Great company and really nice people. But still at the front desk when I informed them that "I've come to collect an online order" they still asked "who took your order?"

So the other lesson is: train, retrain, train again and keep monitoring.

There's always the "no worries, absolutely, anytime, sorted, definitely tomorrow, I'll call you back" (yes, usually a man) salesperson.

And (somehow, someway, anyhow) we buy Donny's bullshit. Because Donny is cool, friendly, dresses well, smiles a lot, knows someone I know, and talks tech like an expert, and is just really really Telly Tubby enthusiastic.

So we pay him a deposit. And then he becomes the Invisible Man who is always running out of air time, or battery or cell phone signal, and whose Whatsapp always shows that he is "available" and messages "sorry I can't answer your call right now, I'll call you back later".

But never does.

Until. Until your savoir faire is so dented you, unusually, lose your temper. Your eighty-six year old Mother further adds to your embarrassed irritation when she comments "Clive, I've never ever heard you speak to someone like that?" (and you're in your late 50's).

But you've paid the deposit. And Donny will definitely, absolutely, no worries, guaranteed be there tomorrow (you hope).

And SURPRISE he does arrive to drill your borehole (or paint your house, fix the plumbing, thatch the house, waterproof the roof, deliver compost, trim the tree, install the solar, fix the stove/dishwasher/fridge, service the tractor). And the work starts.

CRAAAAACCCKKK.

Inextricably the drilling has fractured your and two of your neighbours' houses (this is a true story).

Now this isn't necessarily the fault of Donny. No-one you know (or anyone) has seen or heard of this happening. But because Donny's a dick, it is his fault.

Most definitely ... hopefully.

Now we feel a gnawing pain in our gut: by appointing the wrong person, by believing the bullshit, by paying that deposit. By just accepting his world (and bullshit) on face value.

And now we take on the emotional responsibility.

It IS now our fault.

And we feel like shit. Even though it's not really our fault. But we trusted Donny.

We are always inclined to take on the responsibility of the fuck ups which arise from our choices.

So to avoid this use this checklist for your own "Donny":

• how prompt is he in responding?
• does he keep he keep his promises?
• if he doesn't, is it reasonable?
• and how often does it happen?
• does his 'talk' make you comfortable given the above?
• does his company have insurance (if you're doing major stuff).
• does his words sound like falsehoods?

Does he feel a little too smooth?

Call his references (and check out the above on the referees).

Ja. It's a bit of work.

But if you want to avoid the pain - the stress, the cost, the guilt, the worry, and the criticism - trust your gut.

Trusting your gut might not always save you money.

But it will definitely save you pain.

(And probably also a lot of money).

Earth Probiotic, the business I founded with my wife Karen, develops and manufacturers its own automatic composting machines.

Karen and I sit down, have a glass of wine and then chat about stuff. And an idea pops up. So we work out a basic design and then chat to our engineering partner. Who then will be tasked with manufacturing the first machine which, if it works well, we'll sell to a customer.

That's the ideal process. Unfortunately product development is not that easy. We have been struggling to develop a small commercial composter for a few years now - and have spent a lot of money in the development and prototyping process. One of our engineering partners basically liquidated during the process and we ended up with a clump of raw steel and electric motors (which we sold for scrap).

But the biggest mistake we made was sending a unit that was not properly tested to the Seychelles (we ignored our own dictum of "if it works well").

The process was complicated as we appointed a new local manufacturer who, while they said they could do the job, turned out to have very little engineering experience to fabricate the composting machine (and as the process dragged their interest in the job quickly waned).

Even now I have heart palpitations thinking about the machine, the literal shipping deadlines, the regularly missed deliverables, the promises we, and our fabricator, made and couldn't (or didn't) keep.

We did try and delay the shipment (a little push back):

While we are committed to trying to accelerate the composters production time, our initial quotation indicated 8-10 weeks for manufacture. We are now sitting on 6 weeks from date of receipt of deposit. After discussion with my partner we feel that this accelerated timeline leads to too much product reliability risk.
Machines that travel outside of South Africa need to be 100% bullet proof prior to shipping - without the time for proper testing this currently cannot be guaranteed. Unfortunately we thus need to stick to our original 8-10 weeks production timeline (maximum 4 weeks to go).
We really don’t want you to spend money and effort and then end up with a machine that doesn’t work to either of our expectations. If you feel that this is unacceptable we will need to return your deposit. Let us know how you want to proceed?

But our fabricator kept on misssing deadline, after deadline after deadline. And the job pushed pushed and pushed. And we didn't get the chance to properly test the composter. So it shipped.

And, suprrise!, the composter didn't work as envisaged. Couplings broke. Mixing paddles got stuck. The torque setting on the motor was incorrect which caused the machine to trip.

Basically we had shipped a very very expensive piece of junk to a key client.

So we built a new one. Which has been properly tested. And is working really well (it ships this month).

But this new one is free to the client. The piece of shit we sent to the client is being replaced at our cost.

Which is painful.

Don't ship if you're not ready to ship. Rather miss the date. Take that pain.

Because if you don't, you'll have to take a lot more pain (and expense).

If someone asked me for my list of greatest brands and slogans, I'd go "Nike: Just do it", "Apple: Think Different.", "Lexus: The relentless pursuit of perfection.", "BMW: Sheer driving pleasure." and a few others.

And I love these slogans. They talk to me. To my ambitions. Some to my very soul (ok the last bit is going a bit too far).

But they're all crap.

Because only BMW actually made you a promise. The rest needed explaining. And now these slogans are GREAT and iconic, but only because billions of US$ were spent explaining, demonstrating, inspiring and m a k i n g s u r e we all understood what they meant.

But most of us don't have $1000,000,000 in our bank account.

So rather tell people what you do.

I made this mistake with my own business. Fresh out of advertising, I was thinking BEEEGG IDEA, and we called our business Earth Probiotic (because, you know, our products fed beneficial nutrients back to soil and were, like you know, a probiotic medicine for soil). And our slogan was "Enriching Earth" (because that's what our product physically did, was a call to action, a guide for our own behaviour, and met the idea of a what a great slogan should be).

So there!

(I spoke about this here).

But you know what? No-one gets our name right. We always have to spell it out (thrice).

But 10 years later it's too late to change.

Perhaps if we'd kept it simple and found a name that told people what we do, we'd be further ahead.

So when you're setting up your business, make your brand name easy to spell and memorable. And if you want a slogan -- and we all do -- then, rather than being fancy, just tell people what you do.

Like this one from Leatherman: The Pocket Survival Tool.

A few years ago a friend recommended that I buy the best car in the world!

Yes. A Subaru.

He's a guy I trust and he's never owned any other car brand.

Even his kids drive Subaru's.

How cool is that type of loyalty!

So I did it (and the geek back story of Subaru also appealed).

And the car was lovely.

But I didn't feel joy.

I didn't get as excited about this car as about my boxy X-Trail (yes, I'm not a petrol head).

The Subaru was better, had a great sound system, had a enough power, was comfortable, had more leg room for passengers in the back. So it was all good.

So what was the problem? The dealer just sucked. And because they sucked they removed my joy of owning this lovely (and expensive) car.

And then I needed a replacement part. Wasn't expensive, around R450.00 and I paid a deposit. When I collected the part they forgot to invoice me. And then they chased me like I was a criminal. It was crazy. I half expected them to send Mike Schutte after me.

Then it suddenly turned out that my motorplan had expired (while I'd owned the car for less than 3 years, it had originally been registered 6 months before I purchased it) and they hadn't bothered to remind me. But just tried to sell me an new plan (but I'd have to pay for the 60,000km service).\

So I sold it via Weelee. And bought a Toyota bakkie.

All because the Subaru Bryanston dealer sucked.

And because the dealer sucked, he missed out on me upgrading, buying a new motor plan, recommending the car to friends etc. etc.

(and writing an article like this).

Don't suck.

Work to keep the joy alive.

There are definitely horrible people in this world. I would include those really stupid "wearing a mask undermines my constituional right to freedom" (but not dumbness) Trump supporting Americans.

In business we (and you) deal with these people pretty frequently.

It's important not to Become One (the whole Neuro Linguistic Programming - or NLP - mirroring strategy will absolutely not work in this situation! ) with that customer.

Rather be nice (grit your teeth).

We've found that making a mistake is really an opportunity to shine. By fixing mistakes and over-delivering creates loyalty.

A customer wrote to inform us that he was returning his purchase to the online store where he had purchased it, and was asking for his money back (be grateful for these type of customers as most never write to you, and instead just complain to their friends and never buy from you again).

So we wrote back:

I’m so so sorry to hear of your troubles with our product. We’ll be happy to replace your purchase with new pre-assembled units which we will ship to you gratis. I know that this assembly can be very difficult (my iPhone still won’t recognise my thumb-print after assembling about 50 of these). We have purposely made the fitting very tight so that no glue is required. But obviously too too tight sometimes! Our contact line is a bit erratic at the moment as we are working on a restricted basis at our offices. But please feel free to call me at 12345678.

And received this note back:

I'm very impressed by your response and appreciate it very much. Just as a positive side note... I lead an e-commerce website design and development agency servicing medium-size to enterprise companies internationally, and I sometimes wish my clients could commit to offering as good customer support as you do! It really puts an online business a cut above the rest, so my compliments on that. I really appreciate the offer for a pre-assembled replacement and I'll gladly take you up on it!

In the end we organised one of our agents in his area to personally deliver our product to him (so she gained a client and he has his own local supplier now).

I received the replacements, thanks, and Takealot collected the others. Natasjia came to drop them off. When she dropped them off, she also gave me a ton of advice and insight about using your product and I was so impressed with the service... you guys obviously have a very well put together team and are doing a lot of things right. Once again, thanks for the help! I'm happily using your product now and very happy with the product and the end result. Going to leave a very nice review for you on Takealot today. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do, too — it's not often I find service this good. :)

Yes. We lost some revenue (the returned product plus the free replacement), but we now have a happy (more than likely loyal) customer. Who will recommend us to his friends and colleagues (and write us a good review). And this will lead to mutually beneficial relationship.

This would not have happened if we'd chosen to be horrible. Or more commonly, just shrugged our shoulders and thought "oh well, he's just one guy".

Your complaining customer is never ever "just one guy".

Your complaining customer is a connected megaphone who can help your business.

Or sink it.

Be nice.

When we first started selling online (before Payfast made this all easy) we needed to accept online payments. In order to do this we needed a “Merchant Code” from our bank FNB.

OK. That should be easy. All we do is apply and hey presto all will be done.

Instead we got caught in email hell (read e-hell for short!). There were lots of FNB people involved in our case. The only problem was that they were all busy cc’ing each other. The result? No-one did anything.

So I had to threaten them with social media (it does work - for some reason this little public shaming is very effective: perhaps because FNB's CEO at that time was very very active on social media).

“This is totally infuriating. Is there not ONE person at the BANK who can take responsibility for this instead of passing the problem to everyone else (isn’t CC a wonderful way to cover one’s backside so one doesn’t have to actually do any work?). Now I’m sure that all of you are going to get onto the “CC everyone pass the buck to someone (not me) email” fight and not take personal responsibility for anything. I wait with baited breath. This is such a brilliant example of how my bank is not helping my business. And the whole email evidence chain is going to make such a wonderful twitter story with @MichaelJordaan [FNB's CEO at the time] tagged into the conversation”!".

Success quickly followed as the “cc-ers” boss got involved and made it happen. So thank you Billy!

But this CC hell is an opportunity. Don't be a CCer, be a DOer: take the problem, own it and be the Boss!?

We are all stuck in email hell. And most of that hell is of our own and our colleagues doing.

Email is great. But when abused is worse than computer generated phone calls from insurance companies (or youngsters who want to have a detailed conversations via Whatsapp or Slack). So I thought, in the interests of sustaining sanity, that it would be a good time to provide some hints on how to use email and get things done.

MAKE YOUR EMAIL SHORT

Email is a tool for action or information. No one likes to read long emails. So make them short and to the point. If you want someone to do something “tell them”. If you are sending information “send it” and tell the recipient why they need to look at the mail.

Your first paragraph needs to contain the essence of what you're trying to communicate (a lot of people only read the first paragraph, so if you haven't 'got' them here, you risk your message being missed).

Paragraph properly and use short sentences.

DON’T USE CC UNNECESSARILY

cc only people that are relevant and involved in the discussion/subject. Don’t cc. someone just to protect your ‘behind’.

This is the same for “reply all”. Make sure that you only reply to people you directly want to communicate with. Sometimes someone has simply passed on the job. They don’t need to follow the project as they’re no longer involved in it.

SIMPLE GOOD. ‘CREATIVE’ BAD

Use simple text. Don’t put funny effects. Funny effects make you seem unprofessional. Remember email is a tool. Not a creative vehicle. Use plain text. Avoid HTML or other fancy effects (not everyone can read them). This also applies to fonts (typefaces). Use generic fonts such as Helvetica or Arial. Never ever use Comic Sans!

USE EMAIL SPARINGLY

This is obvious. Don’t use email if you can chat to someone directly. We are all guilty. We send an email to someone just across the room from us. Do this if it is an instruction. But not if it’s simply FYI.

And it’s really not necessary to send emails (or Whatsapp's) saying “thanks” or “ok” or “got that” etc. etc. It’s a waste of time. And not necessary. It might seem like good manners to do this. But in the end you’re just wasting someone’s time.

REMEMBER THAT AN EMAIL IS PUBLIC

Emails – like Twitter – have a habit of spreading beyond the people involved. Either by mistake or on purpose. So don’t insult people. Don’t complain about clients or colleagues. Or discuss confidential information. Your email will get out there. Never ever insult someone in an email!.

The more vicious your complaint or insult or gossip the greater the chance of your email being spread (after all, it's newsworthy!).

FORWARD WITH CIRCUMSPECTION

Not everyone will appreciate the joke you received. Some people might even be insulted. So don’t forward. Especially don’t mass forward.

AVOID ATTACHMENTS (ESPECIALLY LARGE ONES)

If you can avoid your recipient having to open up another application then just put the text in the body of your email. This is quicker and easier.

And remember, most servers reject large attachments. So avoid sending large attachments. As a rule anything bigger than 4Mb is a problem. 2Mb is OK. 100kb is best.

FOR MASS MAILINGS USE BCC.

If you are sending something to a large group of people who don’t all know each other send via BCC. That way no-one can see who else has been included. And it also avoids people mining the addresses for other purposes. But most importantly this stops people from automatically clicking the “reply all” button and creating a mass of emailing spam.

DON’T USE CAPS (UNLESS YOU MEAN TO!).

CAPS MAKES IT SEEM THAT YOU ARE SHOUTING! Only use CAPS for emphasis. Or for standing out when answering a question.

Remember that most people think that their intention and tone will be understood. But most recipients misinterpret the tone of the message. This leads to conflict and fights. So be careful what you say, AND HOW YOU SAY IT.

Again keep it simple, short and clear.

STAY CALM.

If someone makes you angry, don’t get into an email flame war. Wait 24 hours. And then talk to the person in person.

Never email anyone if you're drunk or stoned.

WATCH YOUR GRAMMAR

And finally, be professional and polite. Check your spelling and grammar. Just because your email is probably not going to be printed out doesn’t mean you can be sloppy.

Yesterday I got into trouble.

It started when Fred, a guy I know, indicated that he could source some equipment for our business. Fred was also transparent about taking a commision. I wasn't unhappy. Price was still good. And he wasn't trying to tenderpreneur the price.

So I pitched the product to my client. And it took months and months.

And during those months Fred basically disappeared. I heard that he had emigrated.

Then my client asked me to confirm the quote I had sent many months previously. So I approached Fred's supplier directly. Price was confirmed and the order came through.

And then, Fred reappeared. He had been in the process of emigrating. Everything was approved. Then lockdown happened. So his plane never took off.

And Fred stayed.

So almost exactly 12 months later the product was delivered to our factory. Right in front of Fred (he even helped unload).

But he was was pretty angry.

Because, essentially, he was no longer part of the deal.

It was precisely twelve months from when Fred had initially quoted me on this piece of equipment.

I feel bad but not guilty. But should I have kept him informed when I'd heard that he was leaving South Africa and not around? Should the supplier have informed him? After 10 months should I have called him to check if he was still around?

(opinions are welcome!)

I called Fred and apologised as, quite honestly, neither the supplier or I had deliberately worked to exclude Fred from the deal (we're not talking a price inflation steal from the poor South African Covid-19 PPE tender here).

The problem was that we'd both forgotten about Fred. He'd disappeared. And business had continued.

I called him to explain how the deal had happened. During the tough conversation Fred rhetorically asked me: "do you stay in contact with everyone you ever quoted!?".

"Of course." I replied, "initially a few follow ups, then every two weeks, then monthly, then quarterly, then yearly, and after that an occasional email to remind them that we're still around."

You can never predict when your service or product has now, unexpectedly, become the right thing at the right time.

Never let anyone forget you.

There's always some genius in marketing who has a line extension idea.

And often it is a good idea.

And then the accountants or procurment get involved and ask: "where can we source these really really cheaply?".

And the execution of the idea turns it into shit.

Here's an example. In South Africa Cadac is THE portable gas BBQ brand. They manufacturer and distribute reliable well priced gas outdoor appliances including braais, skottles, lights, heaters. And other good stuff (I also really like their "Live the braai life" slogan).

So it made sense for them to start selling refillable gas lighters.

Except. Except.

Except that these lighters are really crap. Don't last. Irritate. Are just junk.

They undermine the quality and durability associated with the Cadac brand.

If you are going to line extend, or sell product related tchotchkes, don't let poor execution undermine the product values you've worked so hard, over many many years, to build.

My brother, Joe Heron, is a pretty successful entrepreneur (he's started and sold three businesses in the USA). Over a few drinks (at a bar) he sagely looked at me and said:

Ideas are free!

What!

Ideas are everywhere and commonly found at a bar after midnight (or, if you worked in advertising pre-COVID, in a bar at 5.00pm on Fridays).

Some of the ideas are great. And these great ideas are always 'copied' by a company in another country far far away by someone you've never met and you say: "hey boet! they stole our idea!." And you go for commiseration drinks and have the "if only we had started we'd be millionaires just like the paper clip guy" conversation.

I really admire my friend Erik Forster. He's a photographer that used to do a lot of events. But couldn't be in three different places at the same time. So he built an automated photo booth. Then when this was business was locked out because we were locked in, he designed, built and is selling a 'desk' which helps you work on your lap, in bed, in your car and, now, standing up.

Ideas only have value when they are actioned.

Ok. I’m not a guru, and don’t claim to be one. But I started a business 10 years ago with my wife (boss) which is still surviving. During these 10 years I've seen companies behaving badly and companies behaving well.

We know to whom we regularly give business. And from whom we receive regular business.

(and to whom we never give business)

These are my lessons (but really observations).

A lot of these lessons come from the Coca-Cola idea of always being in arms reach of a customer (trust me on this, when I was working as an anthropologist I walked for two hours in the blazing African sun just because I knew that there was a small shop with a chiller that served cold Coke. It was the best bottle of Coke I’ve ever drunk!).

In no particular order, here are the 8 things you can easily get right in order to build a better business.

1. Make it easy for people to call you.
2. Don’t fucking start a telesales call with: “hello? [pause] how are you?”.
3. Have a decent website.
4. Make it easy for people to buy from you.
5. Make it it easy for people to pay you.
6. Make your solution ubiquitous by making it easy to use.
7. Look after the little guy.
8. Don't let the accountants run your business.

I'll go into more detail in separate blogs on each one.

I've worked with some great Finance Directors. People who assisted in turning a business around and helped keep it running properly. But they weren't running the business. They were partners. There to support and help fund growth (and keep a handle on the money).

(I've also worked with FD's who thought they were creative geniuses. Outside of the money, they weren't).

Accountants are accountants for a reason. They like numbers and get really excited about developing financial models (for some reason they always call these excel workbooks "business models" or even, such is their hubris, a "business strategy").

As soon as you let your accountant run your business, you're in trouble.

It's interesting how, once you let the accountants take charge of your business their department grows like athletes foot in a boy's boarding school. Before you know it you have gone from 1 or 2 properly motivated people to ten, and then you look around and there are now thirty glum unhappy people in the office.

And worse, to keep costs down, the finance department has put a hold on the hiring of business development people, operations executives, and R&D.

Now your business basically slows down, your clients hate you, your suppliers − because of a very clever (i.e. dumb shit) delayed payment strategy − now insist on upfront payments, and your business has shrunk.

And your star performers have left for greener pastures.

Sure you need a Finance Director. They are essential to help you manage your business and, the best ones, are fantastic in helping you execute your strategy.

Unless your business is financial services or accounting or auditing (where they also do a shit job), don’t put them in charge.

There's nothing worse than trying to guess why someone has interrupted your day. And who doesn't have the courtesy to introduce themself.

This is the way it usually goes:

Phone Rings/ Me: "Hello, XXX Co, Gavin speaking."/ Them: "Hello....How are you?"/ Me: "I'm good, and yourself."/ Them: "I'm good as well."/ Me: "Great. To whom am I speaking?"./ Them: "John."/ Me: "How can I help you John?"./ Them: "I'm phoning from XXX Co. and etc. etc."/ And then we get onto the topic at hand/

When someone calls and starts the conversation with a "hello ...... how are you" I immediately get cross and don’t want to talk to them. Why? Because why the fuck are you wasting my time? Other than it being bad manners, if you had to tell me why you are calling we could (a) do business, or (b) not do business with one another (then you haven’t wasted my time, and I haven’t wasted yours).

I also don't have to lose focus on what you're trying to sell me by trying to guess who you are!

When you make a sales call to just say who you are, which company you represent, and the reason for your call. We can always become friends along the way.

Simple!

Your website is the gateway to your business. Don't make it look like you're a shitty business who doesn't give a fuck.

I’m a totally convinced that good looking websites generate more enquires than crappy ones. If you have a crappy website the impression you deliver is crap.

It’s not difficult to have a decent looking professional website (and it doesn’t have to have AI or some other high tech stuff in it). Just make it easy to navigate; have a list of the products/services you offer; and have an easy to find product and contact page (and an easy to find phone number).

You might have to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a “site builder”. Yes, you will need to find a host (I can’t recommend domains.co.za more highly and I’m not getting a commission; more on my domain hosting experiences in a future blog). Just keep it simple, clean and easy to navigate.

please please don’t get your step-boet’s china’s cuzzin’s squeeze's friend's son to do it for you!

Your website is mission critical to your business.

Own it.

It's the little guys that are flexible enough to get you out of the shit! Treat them well and they'll always be there for you.

Yes they might not have the legal might of a public listed company, but these are the guys who will sit in the battle trenches with you. These are the companies which -- because they’re small and nimble -- will deliver in 24 hours. Who will come through and fix something because you’re in trouble and need help.

Look after them.

Don’t be that arsehole large company who has a deliberate strategy of delaying payment.

One day you, BIG COMPANY, will need urgent help. And that guy who used to help you in the past will, at best, ask for prepayment, or, at worst, no longer be in business. Because YOU BIG COMPANY squeezed them (for no good reason).

There are definitely some suppliers who don't want to do business with you. Hopefully they're honest and can simply state that they can't help you because they sell through distributors (or you're too small; you're asking for stuff that they can't really supply; etc. etc.).

Then there are some customers who just — for some weird reason only known to themselves — make it really difficult to buy from them.

The more seamless you make the buying process the more business you’ll get (and the quicker you’ll get paid).

Our quotations are based on some specific volume calculations; we have simple spreadsheet that helps us quickly put out a quotation (which can be done within a couple of minutes).

Quicker still is giving the spreadsheet to the client and they do their own quotations and just send us a PO.

But some suppliers make it extremely difficult to buy from them (to the extent that you feel insulted and will never buy or recommend them again).

An example: a client of mine has discretionary purchasing authority up to around R10,000 using his company credit card.

He wanted to buy goods of around R7,000 from a supplier. The supplier didn’t have a credit card facility and wanted to be paid upfront (my client had already spent around R250,000 with this specific supplier) via EFT (which now would involve supplier/purchase requisitions, trade references, vendor application forms, etc. etc.).

So my client asked me if I could do the purchase for them (we are already on his suppliers vendor list). “Sure” I said. And the nightmare started. A buyer application process that took weeks. Trade references required (inpsite of us already having purchased from them). In the end I apologized to my client and told the supplier to fuck off.

So my client offered to buy them a credit card machine. He even said that they could add this to his bill – they refused A basic Yoco card machine costs around R799.00!

They’re no longer his or my client. He went and purchased the product he needed elsewhere. And, given the wide ranging nature of his role, they’ve proably lost a R250,000/annum client which will never come back to them.

And, of course, they’ve also lost my referrals.

Yes make sure that you’re not going to be exposed to bad debt. But for heaven's sake make it easy for people to give you money!

It would be really unusual if you were in an essential business with no competitors. If you are not the only player in your category, make it really really easy for your customer to speak to you (not email, not WhatsApp, not tweet).

People are busy. And your business is probably a very small part of their day. Don’t make it difficult for them to call you.

So on your website make sure that the “Contact Us” menu item is at the top. Not hidden (nested) in an obscure difficult to find small little footnote link.

If you are sending emails have a signature with your direct contact number! You’ll be really really surprised at how many business emails I receive which, other than the email, don’t have any contact details. Like many, I get distracted, and then forget to search for your contact number on your website (by doing a Google search).

The chances of me calling you would have been much higher if your phone number was easy to see.

These days we rely far too much on communication through email (or worse, Facebook Messenger).

Your email signature doesn’t need to be fancy. But show me your phone number – and not just the company switchboard. You’ve contacted me and maybe I’d like to have a personal chat.

Your signature shouldn’t be a JPG image. If it’s a JPG your respondent has to refer back and forth to the number (a hassle for an old guy like me or for people who find it difficult to remembere phone numbers). And, AND, because your JPG contact details can’t easily be added to a PC's address book the chances are that your details will remain, sad and alone, in the email which, sometime or another, will be trashed and lost forever.

You'll be really really surprised by how often your supplier makes it difficult for you to pay them. This is a detail thing. But, because we're in business, really really important.

This seems really obvious. But we often receive an invoice and there are no bank details on the invoice!

Yes, it’s true.

So what happens? At best, your customer sends you an email asking for your banking details. In addition to wasting time it’s also really embarrassing (or should be!). At worst your invoice goes into the “I’ll get it done later” list.

When your invoice is in that pile you suddenly realise that you’re being paid in 60 days not 30 (or that you're spending a lot of time chasing payments). Your cash flow becomes problematic. And it’s your fault!

The other bad thing is payment links. No intelligent person clicks on a link in an email. So Sage, or whomever, might think that they’re being clever. But they’re not. Clever people are aware of viruses and phishing scams and are reluctant to click on email links.

Finally. Just get the details right! Name of company. VAT number. etc. We often have to go back to suppliers to get our company name right (it's not "Gavin Heron" it's "XXXX (Pty) Ltd.".

Keep it simple. Make it easy for people to pay you.

This is the Coca-Cola lesson: be in an arms length of desire. Some service providers make it really difficult to use them. And then there are others — like Payfast — who make it really really easy to use their services (and so become the default solution — and deservedly, I hope, make lots of money).

If you want to start an commerce business there are two key services that you need for your site: a payment gateway and, if you're selling physical goods, a courier service which enables live delivery estimates.

Payfast is absolutely brilliant. You will find an easy to install plugin for whatever ecommerce platform you choose to use (I've tested Zencart, Opencart, Prestashop and Shopify). Payfast, I assume, totally dominate the online ecommerce payment environment in South Africa.

The plugin is free. As, cleverly, they've worked out that making it easier for you to install and use their service will deliver more revenue (they take a cut on payments).

The opposite of this is the courier service Fastway (we use them). There is no plugin for Fastway and they make it difficult for a normal person to install one (we've purchased a plugin for our Opencart platform). They don't provide a plugin (instead they have an API which then requires registration as well as a developer which costs you money).

What's more you can only contact the local franchisee (less one!). Totally useless.

BTW, Shopify is not much better. You have to pay a high monthly fee to use a courier service plugin.

So what are we doing? We are actively looking for another courier service which has a plugin for our ecommerce site (or at least testing one).

Other than lessons around social distancing, washing one's hands and wearing masks in public, the coronavirus pandemic has underlined the need to be nimble and act fast.

In early January I sold my Subaru Forester in order to buy a Toyota Hilux 'bakkie'.

(Subaru Bryanston were so shit, that they basically vacuumed away any joy that could have come from owning a Subaru).

But I wanted to change my stereo head set for something more modern (even a Datsun Go's stereo system is more sophisticated that the piece of shit that Toyota put into their bakkies!).

Anyway I did some research and found a replacement from Navshop in Cape Town and we did a deal. Then China locked down. So, OK, that's something that can't be helped. It took awhile but they received stock and indicated that the unit will be shipped to their Jo'burg installer at the end of the week. That didn't happen. And then lockdown happened. So this was not going to work. Then level 3 came by. But now Navshop's Jo'burg installers had disapeared and new one's needed to be found.

Six months later no stereo.

Just a refund (good on them! But I still would have preferred that stereo system).

During this time there were gaps where stuff could have happened; when the stars were aligned, when business was a Go.

In an unpredicatable world one needs to move fast. Regulations change. People change. The environment will change. Technology will definitely change.

Have your shit together, but don't fuck around. Move fast.

Only the fast will survive. And beat the slow.

When I worked in advertising, we were always really pissed when we had to turn work around really quickly but the approval seemed to take forever.

When I left advertising I realised why this was so: your business represents a tiny fraction of your client's "shit I need to get done today" list.

Don't be shocked when you lose their business if you are continually pushing them to buy something 'award winning', ignoring their brief, not being on strategy ("because it's boring"), missing deadlines.

And don't be even more shocked when out of the blue, your client has done work which is fairly pedestrian with no cut-through. But does the job.

Your ex-client has probably started working with people who just make their lives easier.

And these 'non-creative' people will suddenly start getting more work from your ex-client.

And then, because working with those guys is easy and they're trusted, suddenly great award winning work starts coming from your ex-client.