Although there are many businesses today falling under and closing down, have you also noticed how some really are booming? People are starting new businesses all the time still, and sometimes they they are doing brilliantly!

But then of course, there will always, for all time be businesses doing well. But how do you tell how to make a business work, what to do to turn a business around and make the most of your ideas. Here at Enigin Plc we have a work ethic that keeps this business going. We work hard, together to be there for our customers and deliver the best possible service you can.

In reality there probably isn’t a fool proof dos and don’ts list for business entrepreneurs. It is partly down to experience, ideas, networking and most importantly really, cash flow. Although at times that really can’t even help. It is no benefit to constantly pump money into a business of nothing is coming back out.

Money won’t last forever, it would run out eventually.

I am sure there are many people out there who wonder how and why does it happen. I know I do! It seems as things work in a domino effect, it only takes a small problem to escalate into larger ones, financially. IT you have a business who maybe has made a wrong decision and therefore struggling with cash. Then that business perhaps starts missing some payments to another company. That company then starts to fall short of money as they are owed by others. A so the domino effect falls.

And so it must take a lot of planning, hard work and time to ensure that these things don’t happen. However, despite saying this, it can still sadly happen. At the moment there seems not to be much of an answer to such things. And, as we will discuss next time, business can still be booming around all of this!

It is pleasing to be working at Enigin where we can produce substantial savings for businesses through reducing their energy costs, a cost that benefits the bottom line and can have a real “saving” effect for the future of a business - saving jobs and dreams. So contact your local Enigin Distributor now, they can help you save money and your business.

Here at Enigin we deal with businesses and organisations through our Enigin Distributors and Enigin Partners. but we are delighted to share some ‘domestic’ tips with you for your home.

There are many simple ways to reduce you home energy consumption all year long without a lot of effort. Once you make them a habit, saving energy will be second nature. Here are the second four tips of eight:

• Turn it off: Make a conscious effort to turn off electronics or appliances when they are not in use. If no one is watching TV—turn it off. Try using a power strip as a central “turn off” point for easy access in powering down multiple pieces of equipment—such as a DVD player, a Blu-RayTM player and a television—all at once. Once you develop this simple habit, you’ll achieve savings the rest of the year.
• Count on the small things: When possible, use the smaller appliances in your kitchen, like your microwave and toaster oven, especially when heating or re-heating small portions. You could use 80 percent less energy using these appliances rather than a conventional oven.
• Clean and consolidate: Clean your refrigerator coils—located underneath and behind the appliance—and repair any loose seals. Dirty coils and loose seals make the refrigerator work harder, causing it to use more energy. If you have a spare refrigerator that you only use occasionally, consider unplugging it or having it recycled.  Your spare refrigeration may be costing you $18 a month!
• Look for the star or rating: If you are thinking about replacing electronics or appliances, look for the ENERGY STAR label or similar Rating in your country. These units have advanced features that improve energy efficiency.

Here at Enigin we deal with businesses and organisations through our Enigin Distributors and Enigin Partners. but we are delighted to share some ‘domestic’ tips with you for your home.

There are many simple ways to reduce you home energy consumption all year long without a lot of effort. Once you make them a habit, saving energy will be second nature. Here are the first four of eight tips:

• Watch out for build up: One of the easiest things to do is remove build-up in your clothes dryer’s lint trap before every load. Removing built up lint not only reduces the risk of fire but also will increase drying efficiency and could save you up to $34 per year. Also, consider consolidating loads, drying loads with similar fabrics together.
• Keep your bills out of hot water: Identify—and fix—any water leaks in your home. Leaky faucets and showerheads, for example, can be a big source of waste. Repairing these fixtures can save you up to $100 per year. And, don’t forget to inspect your hot water heater for leakage. At a rate of one drip per second, your home can waste gallons of water in a short time, costing you money.
• Seal the gaps: Air leaks can occur in some unusual and out-of-the-way places—crawl spaces, attics, overhangs, garages, porches and other architectural features, to name a few. Be sure to have a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® contractor investigate these problem areas and make recommendations on how to make your home’s openings air-tight. By sealing and insulating your home, you could increase your home’s energy efficiency by up to 20 percent.
• Improve air flow: Rearranging your home furnishings can lead to year-round benefits. Organize your furniture and rugs away from registers and heating return vents. For optimal comfort, make sure the connections at vents and registers are well-sealed where they meet the floors, walls and ceiling.

Increasingly research suggests that, for most of us, receiving more money would not make us perform any better in our jobs. We are not coin-operated, in that sense. But it is accepted that in sales, money does motivate productivity.

The question is often the balance of how to motivate with money. A recent research paper by Harvard Business School professor Thomas Steenburgh and Yale School of Management’s Doug J. Chung and K. Sudhir attempted to explain the best combination of incentives - salaries, commissions and bonuses - that kick sales people into maximum overdrive.

They discovered that compensation design is an important issue. Get this wrong and bonuses can cost you sales.

Just ask Jared Franklin, president, of Chase Technology Consultants in Boston. He blogs on BNET about how his sales bonus system made employees complacent after receiving big payments.

The researchers outline a compensation scheme that spreads out rewards and keeps interest high among the sales team throughout the sales cycle. Here are two of their key findings:

• Quarterly bonuses increase sales force productivity when combined with annual rewards. Monthly bonuses, however, aren’t as effective. “In the absence of quarterly bonuses, a failure in the early periods to accomplish targets caused agents to fall behind more often…,” according to the researchers.
• Top performers tend to dial back after meeting their quotas, so overachievement commissions are effective at keeping them selling.

A credit crisis and subsequent meltdown could happen again.

What does this mean for your business - your Enigin Distributor energy saving business?

At Enigin we have discovered it means we all have to work harder - the business is still out there, and if anything firms and organisations need to reduce costs all the more, what better way thatn reducing energy costs.

But working harder requires sales professionals will face some heavy challenges.

So here are a series of posts to explain exactly what you should start doing RIGHT NOW to protect your present and future energy saving business sales revenues.

Here are the last two points:

• Decide to Enjoy Yourself. Everyone knows you should party when you pull off the big wins.  But when things are difficult, you need to give yourself credit and lots of it, simply for plugging away.  Your challenge is to keep enjoying yourself and your job, even though times are tough.  Decide to feel good and then do it.  If you’ve got the emotional moxie to stay calm when everyone else is going crazy at the water cooler, this could be one of most successful sales seasons of your entire career.
• Become a Leader. It’s going to be a LOT harder to make deals.  So what?  If you’re doing everything in the above steps, you’ll be outselling the competition, because your competitors will be busy fussing about the economy and wringing their hands.  There’s a saying that true leadership consists of being able to remain calm during a disaster.  This is the time for YOU to remain calm and make the best of a bad situation.

A credit crisis and subsequent meltdown could happen again.

What does this mean for your business - your Enigin Distributor energy saving business?

At Enigin we have discovered it means we all have to work harder - the business is still out there, and if anything firms and organisations need to reduce costs all the more, what better way thatn reducing energy costs.

But working harder requires sales professionals will face some heavy challenges.

So here are a series of posts to explain exactly what you should start doing RIGHT NOW to protect your present and future energy saving business sales revenues.

Here are the fourth two points:

• Re-qualify Your Customers. Do the same with your current customers.  Determine whether or not they’re going to be a victim of a collapsing economy and make sure that they’ll be able to pay you if they’re a victim.  To do this, introduce payment options that will make maximize the likelihood that your firm will get paid.  Example: If you think your customer will be unable to get a loan to pay off the rest of your contract, offer to accept a steep discount if they pay right now.
• Work the Numbers. Set up an ambitious schedule of working through the steps of your sales process.  And then follow it.  One of the best things about a sales process is that it forces you to focus on the mechanics of selling rather than your emotions about the crisis.  The regularity of making your 20 cold calls, or 10 referral calls, every day, like clockwork, is a great way to get a sense of accomplishment, even if your hit rate is (understandably) lower than usual.

A credit crisis and subsequent meltdown could happen again.

What does this mean for your business - your Enigin Distributor energy saving business?

At Enigin we have discovered it means we all have to work harder - the business is still out there, and if anything firms and organisations need to reduce costs all the more, what better way than reducing energy costs.

But working harder requires sales professionals will face some heavy challenges.

So here are a series of posts to explain exactly what you should start doing RIGHT NOW to protect your present and future energy saving business sales revenues.

Here are the third two points:

• Research Your Pricing Options. Because the economy will probably suck for a while, this is the perfect time to figure out as many possible different ways to finance a deal.   Work with your CFO or other financial gurus on alternative financing plans, delayed payments, subscription fees, discounts, whatever… Because the customer might be having cash-flow problems, you want to be able to walk into EVERY sales situation with a bag of tricks that will allow them to make the smart decision and buy from you.
• Re-prioritize Your Opportunities. A financial crisis will change business landscape very quickly.  As a result, a company that three weeks ago looked like a hot prospect might be a dead loser today.  Therefore, you must run though your entire list of leads and opportunities and, based upon what you know and can learn with some research, prioritize your opportunities, based upon likelihood to buy and ability to pay quickly.  Put your long-term “strategic” opportunities on hold.

A credit crisis and subsequent meltdown could happen again.

What does this mean for your business - your Enigin Distributor energy saving business?

At Enigin we have discovered it means we all have to work harder - the business is still out there, and if anything firms and organisations need to reduce costs all the more, what better way than reducing energy costs.

But working harder requires sales professionals will face some heavy challenges.

So here are a series of posts to explain exactly what you should start doing RIGHT NOW to protect your present and future energy saving business sales revenues.

Here are the second two points:

• Communicate Your Stability. As the economy tanks, your customers will be worried about many things.  You don’t want the viability of your firm to be one of them.  So NOW is the time to communicate the stability of your firm in a way that the customer will understand and believe you.  Take the time, RIGHT NOW, to share enough detail about your corporate financials so that your customers know that you’re viable, even if the proverbial hits the proverbial.
• Emphasise Risk Reduction. Your customers — like everyone else in the business world — will be afraid. Therefore, to make sales, you need to position your solution so that buying lessens the customer’s fear.  This is not the time for messages of of high risk that emphasize inspiration, empowerment and innovation; it’s the time for messages of low risk like protection, security and stability.  Show how your product will protect your customer contact’s job and you’re 90 percent on the way to a done deal.

A credit crisis and subsequent meltdown could happen again.

What does this mean for your business - your Enigin Distributor energy saving business?

At Enigin we have discovered it means we all have to work harder - the business is still out there, and if anything firms and organisations need to reduce costs all the more, what better way thatn reducing energy costs.

But working harder requires sales professionals will face some heavy challenges.

So here are a series of posts to explain exactly what you should start doing RIGHT NOW to protect your present and future energy saving business sales revenues.

Here are the first two points:

• Calm Yourself. You may be worried about the economy, your job, and everything else, but you can’t let those worries rule your thoughts and actions.  Rather than focusing on the “big picture” of a collapsing economy (if that indeed is what’s happening), think about your current situation as if you’re starting a new sales job that presents some interesting challenges to overcome.  Remember: even during the worst of times, some people (especially sales pros) end up winning.  Let’s make sure it’s you.
• Assess Your Firm’s Viability. Take a realistic look at your own firm. How vulnerable is it?  Will it go under if it becomes hard to get business loans?  What if those loans are at a much higher interest rate? Stand back and look at your firm as if you were a customer.  Would you want to do business with you?  If the answer is no, then find a job in a company that’s not so vulnerable. Today.  Right now.  Make it your top priority. However, if your firm is basically sound and not at much risk, it’s probably smarter to stay put and try to weather things out.