Rick Mapperson
The risk of being too nice in business
Having good relationships with your clients is critical to overall business success, making it important that everyone you’re directly associated with sees you as a ‘people person.’ Despite this, being too nice can lead to low productivity and smaller profits.
The risk of putting your head in the sand
Have you ever buried your head in the sand in an attempt to ignore a problem or evade an angry client? We’ve all tried it. But does it ever work?
The risk of not getting a second opinion
It’s vital small business owners find ways to get a helpful second opinion, Rick Mapperson blogs. “One of the greatest lessons I have learned in the 20 years of running my own business is to never hesitate to get a second opinion. Just because we may be experts in our chosen field of business, it does not mean that we are competent or have expertise across all aspects of our business.”
The risk of getting into a price war
Rick Mapperson blogs about the danger of entering into a price war with your competitors. “As a general rule, the only person who ends up winning in a price war is the consumer. Competing on price or reducing your prices, even if spending is down, is not always the answer.”
The risk of not looking after yourself
Rick Mapperson blogs about finding out the hard way it’s vital you take good care of yourself. “Have you found that if you are working long hours trying to get through a large task, that if you put it aside until you have had a good sleep, that you can complete the task in half the time?”
You are not a superhero
As a small business owner it can look as though you’re a superhero, and sometimes you can even feel like you’re superhuman. The cold and hard fact is you’re not.
How to make big decisions
Rick Mapperson blogs about tackling those big business decisions. “Decisions involving money or long-term investments are always hard. For you that might mean increasing your business’ marketing budget, purchasing property, altering your budgeting or spending, agreeing to take out personal insurance, committing to an ongoing donation to a charity or taking on a new project.”
Technology risks in business
Rick Mapperson blogs about the risks to business of a heavy reliance on technology. “Ask yourself an obvious question: ‘If the technology that I use in my business were to suddenly become unavailable, for whatever reason, would it affect my ability to do business?’”
The risk of losing important records
Rick Mapperson delivers a timely reminder about securing important records and documents in your business. “The solution is to switch to electronic record keeping. It is the safest, easiest and most efficient way of maintaining the necessary records for your business.”
The risk of making rash decisions
Rick Mapperson explores the danger rash decisions pose to your business. “We need to understand our own emotions and how we operate so that we don’t make a decision that we will later regret.”
Do you run away from sales pitches?
Rick Mapperson blogs about how our natural reaction to sales pitches may mean we’re missing valuable business opportunities. “Sometimes a bad sales pitch is in front of a very good business.”
The risk of the ignoring the elephant in the room
Rick Mapperson blogs about the need to address the ‘elephants in the room’ that may be impacting your business. “In your business it is an obvious problem or risk that no one wants to address or discuss. Instead, you pretend it is not there and occupy your time with other issues rather than deal with the looming big one.”
The risk of being discouraged
Rick Mapperson blogs about effective ways to deal with discouragement in small business. “We have goals, expectations, dreams, demands, pressures and risks. This combination will always lead to disappointments, and if we are not careful, those disappointments can lead to discouragement.”
The risk of being anonymous
Rick Mapperson of Rick Mapperson & Associates blogs about the importance of personal branding. “Let people know who you are, what you do and WHY they should do business with you. People need a reason to contact you. What are your unique selling points?”
The risk of losing focus
Rick Mapperson blogs about how to keep your business goals in sight amidst the chaos of running your SME. “For your business to achieve long-term success and growth that outlives external changes, it is necessary for you to regularly check your focus on the bigger picture.”
Use your competition to grow your business
Rick Mapperson blogs about how we can use our competitors to get ahead. “While you should not run your business constantly looking over your shoulder to see your competition, it is important to understand the market in which you operate and what your ideal customers are looking for.”
Happy staff lead to happy customers
High staff turnover and disengaged, unmotivated, overworked or disgruntled staff can be the cause of a slow and painful end to a small business. Blogger Rick Mapperson gives his top tips to keep your staff, and ultimately your customers, happy.
The risk of an unbalanced life
Blogger Rick Mapperson shares some excellent advice on not letting owning a business take over your life and makes the point that money is nice but it isn’t everything. Learn from his top tips to achieve a balanced life.
When legal action is a business risk
Legal action—whether warranted or not—is a very real risk to businesses, including SMEs. Even if people do not have an honest claim to make against you, the cost of legal assistance to prove your innocence can be devastating to your business. Also, the toll it takes on your time and emotions can seriously hurt your business and personal time.
Is your business unique?
To achieve a competitive edge blogger Rick Mapperson challenges business owners to think hard about what makes their business unique.
Matters of life and death: tips for small business owners
Not something we want to think about too often, but still a part of the “admin” of our lives: planning for our demise is especially important for business owners, though it may be last on the list of things to do. Blogger Rick Mapperson offers some advice for small businesses.
How to adapt to risks and threats
I once heard a store about a bookstore owner who had the misfortune of being located between two giant bookselling competitors.
Don’t sweep problems under the rug
I used to have the cleanest office in the world when I had a horrible or uncomfortable task to do. It was always easier to scrub the floors than it was to address a problem, or an elephant, in my business. However, by allowing our businesses to work around a big elephant in the room we are losing money.
There’s an elephant in the room, do you see it?
Take a look over your shoulder. Do you see the elephant in the room?