Here are three quick tools to better your business today:
1 – Borrow better: we’re hearing that credit unions plus local and community banks are looking to do solid business lending. That sure beats the general bank environment right now! New add on April 7, thanks to Vistage International: SBA’s are lending actively now due to the stimulus package, too, up to $4 million, reportedly! Check it out at CDC’s: .
2 – Collect better: We’re seeing businesses collect better by being nice at first in their collection efforts, using a timetable they stick to, and then getting tough if necessary. See the other articles posted earlier below on collection and credit by our friend, WalkingBear!
3 – Motivate better: several companies are succeeding through greatly improved employee engagement by celebrating small successes with high-quality company-logo caps, shirts, or jackets that are personalized with the employee’s name.
Why not try all three now to better your business? And, please leave your thoughts under Comments Welcome below. Best wishes, Kraig
Tags: management tools, recession tools
Hi Kraig,
We’ve had a couple of great successes recently that I want to share with you.
1. Collections – for a customer who was at 180 days with no hope of improving we wrote up a separate, collateralized note. We moved all of the old debt to the note with small, weekly payments that spread out for the next 3 years. That allowed us to get the customer back to terms. Now that we are back to terms we don’t allow the customer to go past due even by one day. We receive the weekly payment for the loan and invoices get paid on time. It solved a problem that we were fighting for the past 12 years. All that the customer really needed was some structure.
2. Employee Motivation – In 2008 we came out with a “Company Coin”. I based the idea on the “General’s Coin” that soldiers receive from a General for doing something great. Our coin has our logo on the front. Each year we will change the back to show the one thing that had the biggest impact on the company. It might be a new machine, a product that we made, etc. We use these as “Challenge Coins” to determine who does the dirty jobs, etc. This has been a huge hit. You can find out more info about the coins at http://www.montereycompany.com
Thanks for all of your tips and charts. We get things done at Package Right because we measure them!