Its like a jungle sometimes
Running a business is supposed to be hard. Running a business is supposed to be all consuming. Running a business is supposed to force you to grow, to learn and to sacrifice.
Is running a business supposed to be impossible, supposed to make you mean, distrustful and guarded? Is running a business supposed to take away more than it gives, make you fat, make it difficult for those around you to talk to you and to make you a pompous arse.
Owning a business draws a fine line around everything that you are, what people know as you and that which you think is you.
Outside influences, those around you, such as friends, family and even the dog often lose focus, not because they are any less important, but more reliable. Whereas the pressures put on us from customers, suppliers and even our employees take a greater importance.
The longer you are in business, the more people let you down, the more demanding people are and the higher concentration needed, the more time you spend on these aspects, plus that of the normal running of the business, after all, as they have already shown, who else is going to do it?
I could write endlessly about employees who only feel like they are succeeding when they’re helping you to fail, or the suppliers who never quite do, and yes, the endless stream of customers who seems to find the thrill of trying to take you to the cleaners. The truth is that I did, and then I decided to delete it all because, quite honestly, there is no real positivity brought by that and what I am trying to do with Hindsight Rated, is bring positivity and light, honesty and accountability.
let me lay out the biggest pain points of running a business in todays world as I see them.
1) Late Payment – An increasing tendency for customers to drag out payment beyond the agreed terms. They rely on what is seen as the correct B-C relationship model to keep you from putting too much pressure on them, for fear of seeming too pushy, getting a bad review or reputation, or heaven forbid, you might lose them as a customer!!!!
2) Non Payment – What is becoming the trend, where the customer has no intention of paying the invoice and knows that it could cost you more in reputation damage, if you pressure for your money “Too Much”, and the Lien process can be very time consuming and costly to navigate, and more often than not, even if this course of action was taken, the Lien would “Drop Off” after 12 months because you didn’t keep up with it.
3) Bad Customer Behaviour – Verbal, Mental and increasingly more common, Physical Abuse!
As business owners, we often swim though issues such as the ones outlined here. But just like water, they don’t simply disappear, they are still all around us, as is the pressure and the learned and practiced distrust, no matter how much we try not to let it affect who we are, what we do, and indeed how we do it!
We can interview new candidates to work within our walls, paw through resumés, cover letters and their references.
We can read the reviews, visit the offices to see first-hand the facilities, try to develop a good working relationship with the personnel, and if needed change supplier if they don’t perform properly.
Now, thanks to Hindsight Rated and through joining the Hindsight Rated community, you can do the same with your customers. Hindsight Rated is, in the truest sense, a Customer Accountability Management Tool (CRM), you can search past history via ratings and comments from other companies who have worked with a customer. Now you can make a more informed decisions on how to proceed with that customer and decide how and if you work with them. You can also develop a deeper relationship with your customers through the same rating process and that rating being passed on through a bespoke email or text expressing your 5 star love of your customer through a review of their performance.
Hindsight Rated offers far more than a Rating Platform, Hindsight Rated is the solution that brings your business peace of mind, greater customer communication, higher customer retention and the ability to navigate the less than wonderful customer.
The answer to the questions at the beginning of this post is of course, no!
It will change you. It will make you hard. It will make it difficult to talk to you sometimes. You will lose sleep and on occasion you will be a pompous arse, it happens to the best of us.
Running a business is supposed to bring us and those deserving, options. What these options are is down to the individual, but they should out way the effort to attain… Lets take every advantage.
