4 Hurdles To Doing Business

I just visited a local graphic designer who had on her office door…By Appointment Only.

It got me thinking how, as business owners, we can have systems and structures in place that actually make it hard for people to do business with us. Here’s four that come to mind:

1. Not making your contact details freely available…they should appear on all your stationary, email signature, website.

2. Not being easily contactable. These days a phone number and email isn’t enough…let people know your Skype, Twitter, LinkedIn handles.

3. Accepting only one, maybe two payment methods…what about Paypal, Moneybrokers, EFT, lay-by, credit, payment terms?

4. Ill-considered opening hours…this is business dependent however I sometimes see a business that is closed when it should be open and open when it should be closed. I just drove past the local GPs and it was closed on a Saturday afternoon. Isn’t this a good time for those who work all week to get things done?

I call these hurdles because they get in the way. In this case, in the way of making doing business with you really easy.

What would add to this list?

2 Responses to “4 Hurdles To Doing Business”

1. Tweets that mention The Ideas Guy’s Blog » Blog Archive » 4 Hurdles To Doing Business -- Topsy.com Says:
   October 11th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by michael field and Carolyn Dufton. Carolyn Dufton said: Hear hear Tim. Couldn't agree more. RT @TimboReid: 4 hurdles to doing business successfully http://ow.ly/tN5P [...]

2. Get Business Online Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 9:48 am

   Good tips, Tim.

   Another major one is focusing too much on what you offer and not enough on your target market. Most of the websites I look at for clients are done from the business’ point of view, rather than the clients’ and it shows on the bottom line.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website