Credit Matters Newsletter
In This Issue
- What's New At Credit Matters?
- Quote Of The Month
- Monthly Business Observation
- Monthly Business Conundrum
- This Month's Business Inconvenient Truth
- Latest Blogs & Readings
- Special Topic
What's New At Credit Matters?
Later this month, or early next month our new publication The Human Sins of Technology in Business should be available at the special introductory price of $5.00 + GST until 31/12/2022.
The attachments with this newsletter include updates from the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman plus another from Enable Workplace Consulting advertising their upcoming online training Crisis Response in the Workplace.,
Kim is available to help with your questions and concerns if you need any assistance, and as always, the first chat is free of charge or obligation.
Quote Of The Month
"There's nothing like working to improve your own skills," Buffett has said. In particular, self-development of interpersonal and communication skills and amassing relevant knowledge are robust to changing economic conditions and cannot be inflated away. - Warren Buffett.
Monthly Business Observation
Warren Buffet’s quote above applies to all of us within the business environment, irrespective of what your business’s situation is within its marketplace. This is especially true in today’s ever-changing world. It goes without saying, one of the core survival and growth tools available is knowledge.
It would be terrific if the business owners or managers of your business funded these costs of development, and also applied the same rules to themselves, i.e., personal development to become better owners and businesspeople. Unfortunately, this development hope is often missing in real business life.
At the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility always falls on you as an individual to better yourself by working on your own self-development. You just cannot always wait for some other party to offer you the money or opportunities to improve your skills and knowledge. At times, it is up to you to take action and look at what you can do for yourself. Even for the poorest amongst us, there are opportunities for self-development which will help you to become more employable, or have an increased chance of gaining a job. As the old saying goes, “The harder you work, the luckier you are!”
There are many strategies you can take and investigate, which might start with asking for help with costs of self-development from within your own business, or by offering to take up a new project or job within the business. Outside of your business, you could search for any support from government and their agencies, or from other specific training organisations.
At the moment, there are many businesses willing to take on untrained or partly trained people to fill jobs within their businesses. At times, we all have to leave our comfort zones, whether that be by choice, or by the change being forced on us. In either case, if a businessperson is willing to give you a chance to learn and gain knowledge and you get paid at the same time, why not take it? After all, if you don’t take up an opportunity like this, the person who loses out the most is you.
In today’s ever-changing world, one of the core survival and growth tools available to everybody is knowledge. Waiting for some other party to pay for your education or give you an opportunity to learn more, is not a positive strategy. At the end of the day, it is always our own responsibility to ensure we have the knowledge required to survive and grow our careers.
Monthly Business Conundrum
In the consumer credit environment, individuals who take on debt are constantly advised to consider whether they are using credit for a valid reason. For instance, good credit is considered as a housing loan and using a credit card to buy the staples of life is bad credit.
In business the same principles apply. For instance, good credit might involve buying land or essential machinery, whereas bad credit could be having an overdraft, or buying another business without due diligence.
In business, there is another form of debt which can also be classed as good debt and bad debt. Good debt is providing credit to customers who pay their debts in a timely fashion. Bad debt is the granting credit to known bad payers or those with poor relationship backgrounds.
In the current and forthcoming periods where granting credit to customers will be increasingly fraught with dangers, greater care will be required. In such environments, is granting of credit to known businesses of doubtful integrity, or new customers without a credit history, still valid?
The simple answer is yes it can be! It is a perfectly valid business option to take on risky customers, with the proviso it is done completing a proper due diligence exercise and realising that potential is a two-way street.
If done correctly with due diligence, backup systems of control and good disciplines, it will be one of the positive strategies for surviving and growing your business. The secret is to know your customer and what other benefits can accrue to your business in case the full debt is not paid. Regretfully, few businesspeople bother to correctly calculate and prepare a proper business case for taking on risky customers.
The problem all businesses have these days is following the principle of good credit from bad credit. Furthermore, when desperate for sales, a business may not follow established business disciplines and calculate the full consequences of taking on customers of doubtful integrity. Yet it’s this later group, which may be the basis of your business surviving or growing in the coming years.
This Month's Business Inconvenient Truth
The reality in business is that no two business are alike, not even if they are in the same industry. Furthermore, if all businesses operate in the same way, how does your potential or existing customer differentiate your businesses from your competitors?
Perfect examples of industries where it is often difficult to tell the difference between one business and another are in health, banking, technology products, competitors within specific areas of retail and so on. For the businesses in these industries, if is often difficult to identify the difference between their product types, quality of customer service (often awful), access to employees with adequate knowledge of products and services etc.
In many other businesses, there is often little thought on how they sell their products, for example on credit or cash. The fact is that the benefits and disadvantages, and the costs of providing each type of sales offering is rarely calculated.
When selling on cash or on a payment upfront basis, this alleviates the problems and costs of operating a credit department, bad debts and raising of small dollar invoices for minor product quantities. Saving on these costs may allow you to offer cheaper prices and make your sale prices more competitive.
Meanwhile when selling on credit, this can lead to opportunities to sell more product and open a new range of customer types, plus saving the costs of handling cash.
Ultimately the best option will vary from business to business. Both strategies however may be of value moving forward to capture every possible “profitable” customer. After all, that “R” word is increasingly being bandied about these days and finding profitable strategies to sell your product to these customers will be paramount.
Latest Blogs & Readings
September is our last month for the special price of $5.00 + GST for all our features which are currently available for sale. These features offer wonderful insights to various business factors which are relevant today.
Credit Matters is a financial risk management resource centre for the Australian business community. If you are in business, Credit Matters is your ideal source of financial risk management solutions.
Future Opportunities & Possibilities
Credit Matters is continuing to grow and provide marketing and knowledge about financial risks to the Australia business community.
Futhermore, we invite marketing and knowledge ideas from our readers and contributors on how we can assist our respective firms grow. If you have any ideas, please contact me at info@creditmatters.com.au.
If you are interested in finding new ways to reach your marketplace, why not try Credit Matters. Our prices for advertising are very reasonable and advertising packages are on offer to make any cost, even more affordable. So if you are interested in reaching your customers at the right price, please contact Kim at info@creditmatters.com.au for options.