HOW TO FACE SLOWDOWN IN BUSINESS?

Recently everyone in business or job sector must have felt that we are going through a economic slowdown. All are hoping that this should be over soon. However slowdown can not disappear suddenly. We also hear that some businessmen did suicide because of the business borrowings and stress. Let's see what we can do to pass this difficult time and back to normal.

1.) LIMIT YOUR UNWANTED EXPENSES & OVERHEADS: In business or daily life to maintain particular lifestyle we are doing some expenses which can be avoided or cut down. It can be anything from light bill, movie tickets, eating out, birthday parties or marriages etc. It can be spending after online mega sale or mall offers, where you fall for these so called offers and end up buying unwanted things. If you calculate monthly expenses after recreation and non productive activities, that will add up to a big number.  You can start saving with small steps  which will give big results in future.

2.) DO NOT STOCK UP MUCH: Generally demand for everything comes down in economic slowdown. We saw recently that auto sector hit badly and companies like Maruti had almost 35% lesser sales in last month. When we stock anything our capital gets stuck and due to slow demand stock becomes idle for a long time. This way you loose the both way! You are not able to clear the stock and also your money got stuck up so you can't connect with new vendors or new products. If you have cash in hand you can always  buy whatever you want and you can also bargain as you have the cash in your hand. In slowdown cash is the king so rather than stocking in bulk, stock smartly and keep enough liquidity around.

3.) DO NOT  FALL FOR  INAPPROPRIATE  INVESTMENT SCHEMES /  HIGHER INTEREST RATES: If you have been smart enough and you have got liquidity with you then people might approach you with some investment schemes or higher interest return plans.Please stay away from them! If it is slowdown in economy then it is for everyone! No one can do very good business with your money and give you returns which are abnormally higher! In slowdown real estate, auto, banking and almost every sector is struggling. So don't get fooled by cheaters and offer them your hard earned money!

4.) STAY AWAY FROM SPECULATIVE STOCK MARKET TRADES & SPORTS BETTING : Recently I have come across many people who have done this kind of foolish thing. What their thinking is -  if business is slow and one is not making enough money then let's go for stock market or betting. I am not against investing in stock market but speculative trades and betting can never help anyone. I have seen many people losing everything they have while doing these silly things! If you are not regular with delivery based stock market investments, then just to cover you profits don't fall for speculative trades or betting. Sometimes amount lost is so huge, many people end up their lives when things go wrong.

5.) YOU CAN OPT TO SELL FOR LOWERED PROFIT MARGINS: Everyone wants to save their money. In slowdown this saving phenomena becomes very much important for buyer. So as a businessman you want to survive this difficult period the you have to learn offering a discount. To sell something is more important then not selling anything. Customer will search every corner of market to save whatever they can. So maintain the relation with customer and do offer them discounts.

6.) DON'T GO FOR LOANS, ASK YOUR SUPPLIERS FOR BIGGER CREDIT PERIOD: If you require a loan just to meet your business needs then stay away from loans. In slowdowns you will get calls from so many sales representatives for loans that you will easily fall for the loan! Loans are not bad but in slowdown when businesses are very slow and you have to pay high interests will not add up. In business there is always trust and relation between supplier and vendor. If you have a good image and you have never defaulted in your commitments towards your vendors then they will easily consider you for a bigger credit period. Everyone wants their money to be safe, so rather than selling materials to a new vendor, supplier will always prefer older and trustworthy vendor who has a good image. This way you can save the money wasted on paying bank interests.

7.) SLOWDOWN IS A MATTER OF TIME SO DON'T SEARCH FOR A NEW SOLUTION EVERYDAY: Economic slowdown is a big and complex thing. There are many aspects involved which can directly or indirectly affect economic slowdown. Everyday talking about slowdown on social media and discussing about it in free time won't help at all. Rather than wasting your time in non productive things like this you can go for activities like stock taking, discount sale or just talk with your suppliers and customers - this will improve your business.

8.) SPEND TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY/ FRIENDS & TALK WITH THEM: This is the best thing one should do everyday. No matter slowdown is there or not but talking with your family and friends helps to release the stress. Sometimes due to negative things at business a person is loaded with stress and if this stress is not released, it will affect badly. Don't roam around with sad face everywhere, everyone has a problem of their own. If you have any problems related to your business share it with someone but don't stop communicating. Just a small talk with your parents, small play with your child or sharing a joke with your friend will have magical effect on your mind and body. You will stay away from negative thoughts and there will be a new positive energy will be around you.

These are the best steps one can follow to fight the economic slowdown. Whatever happens keep in mind that you have to fight this time and don't do anything silly which  leaves your family struggling rest of their lives. Ups and downs are part of business, don't let it go into your minds.

CAN YOU REALLY COMPETE WITH E-COMMERCE SITES / MALLS / BIG BRANDS???

Today every shop keeper or  a small business owner has one question in their minds, how to compete with e-commerce sites/ malls/ big brands who have deep pockets to market like anything and also they can offer huge discounts??!!! Can small business owner survive these strategies? or it is time to end or change the business?!!


1. Respect your customers : You will say what's new in this point, we know how to deal with customers! Many times our behavior leaves a negative impact on customer's mind when they come to shop for something. Customer has a right to check, compare and know all the things about the product they want to buy. A shopkeeper has to show him all the options available and without making faces and taunting him, one should assist him to buy what he needs! Sometimes a customer will end up the visit without buying anything, but this should never be the reason to disrespect the customer.  Sometimes owner is very well behaved but the staff is kinda rude towards handling the customer. Here staff should be strictly instructed about proper behavior with the customers. Remember if customer feels that shopkeeper or service provider is acting rude then that customer will be lost forever and he will tell this about others as well. So behave well with your customers.

2.  Offer discounts to the customers :  Most of the customer who buys online or from the malls have only one reason: "they offer discounts!" Yes that is true! Though in some cases there are no upfront discounts, some changes MRP and again its lowered to show it as a discount. But what we have to understand that humans like discount and when they give lower money than what they are asked make them feel good about it! Psychologically this might be boosting their ego and they feel like getting a victory in a war! so why not let your customer have that winning feeling every time when they come to shop. Let's assume that any business allows 5-50% of the profit margin. So can't we share small part of our profit with these customers? Remember a small discount offered to customer will  make him return to shop. So choice is yours!

3. Give your customer a experience rather than a business transaction:  Every time a customer comes to shop or sometimes just for inquiries , let them be comfortable in your business place. If customer does not feel comfortable, he will stop visiting your shop. You can give him something extra by providing a home delivery, extra carry bag, small discount, some credit if you are knowing him, free sample or just a smiling face! Is this very difficult? we have to understand that everyone expects to get something extra than what he actually pays. So let's not disappoint the customer and give them a great shopping experience.

4. Quality will never put you out of competition : Sometimes to attract customers, shopkeepers compromises the quality of the product to reduce the cost and increase the profits. However in long run bad quality or lower quality products will affect you negatively. It is better to educate customer about the quality and price of the product rather than giving him lowered quality product at low rate! This will build trust and customer will feel that he will never get cheated in your shop!

5. After sales service is not a rocket science : When customer buys certain products which comes under warranty they have a faith that local shopkeeper will be helpful when it comes to warranty or change the product. sometime customer can return the product after trying or may be size change is needed. So never let your customers down when it comes to after sales service. Let it be repairing or checking the product onsite, replacement or changing the part or whatever it  takes, stand with your customer if you want him to come again at your shop!

6. Be a friend to your customers: eCommerce sites and big brands have CRM where they remember all the important dates of customer like birthday, anniversaries etc. A person will feel good  if he/she gets a message and special offer for shopping on their special day. There is no need for important software for this. You can use calendar feature on your phone and set a reminder of every year. See the magic

7. Arrange expo once in a while : A different set of vendors can come together and can organize a exhibition kind of thing in festive season or off season so customers can come and they can have feel of shopping mall and get all the items under one roof. shopkeepers of food stuff, clothes, cosmetics, jewelry, grocery etc can come together and give customer a feeling of mall culture. Vendors can keep this exhibition in bigger halls or banquets. This will beneficial to both customers and vendors. Every vendors will get other vendor's customers and all the customers will come in contact with new vendors. They can market this expo well in advance with newspaper ads, pamphlets etc so customer won't go to malls especially in festive seasons or off season sale.

8. Vendors can buy together for bulk quantity and discounted rates: Nowadays people can use new ideas to increase profitability in business. Particular vendors of a region can come together and buy products together so they can negotiate better with the upper level and ask for additional discount. This will increase the profitability and they can compete with malls and eCommerce sites. This is not very simple but if once can implement this effectively it will give them huge advantage.

In this way any shopkeeper can survive the difficult time where Ecommerce sites and malls are ruling the market. They can try implement above pointers and see themselves what is the difference they can feel. Nothing is permanent and nothing is impossible. If you have a will and you don't mind going for an extra mile for your customers then no one can you throw out of your business!

Cheers!

Why some well doing business have to face shutdown?

We have seen many business around us which were doing quite well before 10-15 years, but suddenly with the time they lost their charm and fade out slowly. We keep wondering that how come a well doing business was suddenly out of business r shut down?! Most of these business are traditional business which are operated by generations of family! Let's see what happens in these kind of cases?

1.  Humans do not like "CHANGE" : Let's agree that generally we don't want any changes in the practices we follow. Let it be business,habits,lifestyle or anything. We have a feeling that every change will be burden and will ask extra effort from ourselves. Not all changes are bad for our business. It might take extra effort and time from our side but it will be very much beneficial  for our business in long run! You have to be flexible and you should accommodate all the positive changes if you want to grow your business.
   
2. Not adapting to new technology for business: When business is running successfully, that is the best time to do experiments. When computers introduced, they changes the entire way of business operations. From stock handling to accounts, taxes to invoices, ERP to CRM everything was changed. This made business much easier. However one has to welcome these technology with positively.It takes time and effort to learn this. Either you can learn or you can hire a person who knows this stuff else surviving in business world for long run seems difficult.
   
3. People working for you are not the decision maker: Generally in traditional business there is no such practice where people working for you get up-gradation in their knowledge and the kind of  the work they do! People have a feeling that if they make their staff 'smart' then they will learn all the secrets and takeover the business! This one thought is enough to kill all the benefits one can have if their staff keep updated with knowledge and new business practices. If you have smart staff then you can give them more responsibility and you can involve yourself in other activities which grow your business. but this thing doesn't happen in most of the cases.
   
4. New generation is not trusted or not given enough opportunities : When a next generation join their family run business after studies, they have lots of new ideas which they think to apply to their business. However in mos of the cases elders give advice that they don't need any new idea or technology for this business as their business already doing well. If they do something new, that will harm their business. Also when there is time to take important decisions, new gen people are not asked what they feel or their opinion is ignored before evaluation. Thus slowly decision making power and will goes low and this affects business very badly.
   
5. People fail to anticipate change in govt. policy : Govt. policies play important role in any business. Successful people always keep an eye on what is happening with the govt. policies like tax, export-import duties, surcharges etc. Sometimes a small change in these policies make a huge impact on the business.So it is better to be aware rather than struggling later.
   
6. Don't neglect your competitor and the competition : When your business is years old and very well doing at that time you should not be over confident about competitors and competition. A good businessman never underestimates competition.Though today competitor's size is small, but with coming years he can also grow and make you run for your money. 
   
7. Stakeholders are not valued : People who make business alive are its stakeholders. Suppliers, customers, staff and many other people are directly or indirectly connected with the business. When business is operating well, owners seem less worried about their stakeholders and take them for granted. They feel that their business is gonna permanent and stakeholders will stick to them even if they don't value them! This is a big misconception which drives away all the stakeholders. This is the key point which makes your competitor more powerful.
   
8. Not depending on marketing and E-commerce : Generally people have a feeling that they don't need any marketing. People will come searching for them! This happened few years ago but  today everything is available at everywhere. Even E-commerce is making things easier for customers. So it is very advisable thing to market your product/services. Though you will spend some money, but it will grow your business if you market efficiently. you can also use E-commerce for selling your product/services.
   

These were the few points which are not taken in consideration in traditional business or family business. And slowly business is reduced or shutdown with the time. It's better to work hand in hand with the new generation who wants to join the business and take it to the new heights. The combination of experience and courage of new ones will definitely take your business ahead.

Why you should sell online?

Many of us have this question in our mind, “Should I sell my products online?” And also there are few other questions arise with this. Today we will see what the benefits of selling your products online are!

    1.   Easy process

Most of the websites and marketplaces including Kutchkart have very easy processes if you want to sell online. If you knew few basic things on computer or mobile you are ready to sell online! Most of the good websites have their dedicated team to help new vendors to come online and assist them 24x7. You can call them, email them or chat with them while uploading your products to their platform. Nowadays there are service providers available who manage all the product upload part and charge you for that

    2.   Free

Yes you heard it right! Most of the sites allow you to upload your products for free! They don’t charge you a single rupee for listing your products. This is really big push for all who are trying online selling for the very first time! Websites charge you commission only on the basis of your products sold! So you don’t have to worry about extra costs while selling online.

3.   Huge reach

When you have a shop in particular city, you cater to a people of particular city and tourists coming to that city. However when you are selling online there are no boundaries to your business! People sitting in any country can view and shop your products online. Just imagine the exposure you will get when you come online.

    4.   Place of business is not important

When you are doing business offline and having a shop then your business will depend very much on where your shop is! If your shop is in prime area people will visit your shop else you will go unnoticed. We can see how people are spending huge money to go in prime area and then also because of heavy costs they earn less. When you go online it doesn’t matter in which corner of the city you are located! If your product has market and people like it then they will buy it! Also you don’t have to spend on furniture and interiors to keep your place trendy. You can operate from go down or warehouse also. This will bring your costs very much down and you can compete with anyone out there!

    5.   No Holidays, no dependency on staff

When you are selling online, your shop is open 24x7! There are no holidays and no time limits! People can come online and shop for the products anytime of the day or night! Also you don’t have to depend on staff or salesmen to sell the products! Once you have uploaded the products with all the pics and perfect description, you don’t need to provide any other assistance to help customers. They can decide on their own.

    6.   Economical marketing techniques

Online marketing is much cheaper than traditional advertising mediums like newspaper ads, pamphlets, banners etc. You can start with as small as 100 Rs and market your products on social media. After marketing you can trace back the effect of your money spent e.g. how many people saw your ad, gender, age groups, cities etc you can analyze and take further decisions based on these results! You can always hire digital marketing people to help you if you don’t know about this.

    7.   Your money is safe and so is your product

All the well known marketplaces like Amazon, flipkart, Kutchkart etc have good track record for transferring your money into your account on time. Also you don’t have to worry about your products if you have chosen option where you are storing your products in their warehouses for faster deliveries. You get statements after every sale where they will show what you’re earning and their commission on your sale!

After all of the above mentioned points it is not about offline or online but it has to be combination of offline and online together to achieve success in any business. No matter how well you are doing in offline business, now is the time to go online. Start with one marketplace or website at a time and list your product/services to sell online. It will open a new vision and scope of your business.

Thank you!

Jaimin Doshi

Director - www.kutchkart.com

(If you want to sell your specialty products across the world, please write to us at support@kutchkart.com)