How To Learn From Old Business Mistakes
September 24, 2016We all make silly mistakes even at the best of times and when running a business and facing your customers, the best corkers come spilling out. The thing is, we're only human and we all do it at times so don't beat yourself up about it because in the years to come, you'll laugh about it. Some things are just what we've learnt not to do and things to remember to do the next time we're in that situation, but these are all growing points for us and our businesses. Here's what some Barnsley Fashion Creatives admitted to..
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Emily Roberts of Emi B Designs, "At the start of my business I wasn't very organised at keeping everything in one place, such as writing down what I'd sold or keeping all my receipts in one place. It meant I had to hunt high and low for all the bits of paper with this information on when I needed it ! Now I am much more organised."
Here's a few things you can take from that, get a receipt book where it duplicates everything and then you have a record of everything you've sold, the day it sold and your customer gets a copy of it as well! In my own dressmaking studio I have a 'receipts tin', everytime I buy fabric or some other items to run my business they went in that tin until the end of the month when I log everything into my accounts and then go into monthly envelopes.
Nicola Whitfield Make-up Artist, "I Forgot my make up brushes on a photoshoot once, fortunately I had time to nip to the shop and pick up some to use, now I have a checklist so when I pack my kit up and I know I've not forgotten anything"
Lists can sound tedious to some people but are definitely an effective tool when done well (and you don't loose that list!). There's many ways to do list-making such as apps on your phones or tablets, special notebooks specifically for lists, a plain old pad or the ever favourable, post-it notes!
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Laura Fletcher of Something New-Wedding Specialists, "I do remember going to a dress fitting without my tape measure lol... the bride had to borrow one from a neighbour!"
If your business has a few main tools that let you do what you do, it's always good to have spares and stuff them in places where you're likely to be when you need them. For example, stuff some tape measures in a pocket in your car. Or have a couple in the zipper pocket of your bag. If they're small things that always come in handy, why not grab a few extras next time you go shopping.
Sandra Hill, "I used to just randomly pluck prices out of the air when I first started. No working out costs, profits etc, I've had to be more methodical in the business side of things."
This is always a tricky subject when working out your prices. Do you work at a cost that your customers will pay? Or work it out perfectly adding in all your costs and profits and hope that it's still an affordable price? It's a hard decision, but one thing you should remember is to never work at a loss! Make sure you are at least covering the material costs, otherwise you aren't doing business.
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Kellyann Garforth of Klue by Kellyann, "The only one I can think of is always forgetting my business cards and having to write my email down on random bits of paper, but then I still do this now "
Ok, some daft mistakes are still alright to happen and they aren't the end of the world. Like I said, we're only human! Do you have any things you used to do and have learnt from? Silly mistakes that you laugh about now? Comment below or drop an email to hannah456@hotmail.com
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