Jessica Johnson recently brought the She Owns It business group up-to-date on some of her concerns. She is trying to determine which potential clients to pursue for her company, Johnson Security Bureau - and pondering what effect the elections might have on business.
“Right now, elected officials aren't doing anything because they're waiting to see who's going to win,†she said. Additionally, she said, “if they don't decide to raise the debt ceiling, they'll stop funding some programs on January 2.†Spending cuts, she said, would affect the defense industry, as well as ancillary industries like her own.
The cost of health care is also a concern because it affects the pricing of her company's long-term contracts. “If I'm pricing a project now that's going to go into 2014, then my prices are going to be much higher if I have to include health care,†she said. Her clients won't give her the opportunity to come back at a later date to renegotiate that cost.
So, she is including health care costs in Johnson Security's prices. “But just from this year to next year, the insurance company is telling us to expect a 16-percent increase,†she said.
“It's almost 20 percent every year,†said Susan Parker, who owns Bari Jay, which makes prom and bridesmaid dresses.
“What if you priced it with a health care kicker?†asked Deirdre Lord, the owner of the Megawatt Hour, an energy-related start-up. She suggested that Ms. Johnson offer a price that includes everything but health care and add that cost as more information becomes available. “Is that too complicated billing-wise?†she asked.
No, said Ms. Johnson, but in a competitive bidding situation, her company would lose out if it took this approach. Potential clients, she said, would probably go with the low bidder, not recognizing that in two years the low bidder could be out of business.
Like Ms. Johnson, Ms. Lord was waiting for potential clients to make decisions. Her company was gearing up for fall and working on a new technology release that will be easier for clients to use. It will include new features such as additional tools to help clients track energy use.
The conversation turned to Ms. Parker, who was less busy than usual. She said the last half of the year is slow for the bridal industry because most weddings take place in spring, summer, and fall. At this time of year, bridesmaid dress orders and shipping slow drastically. Additionally, she said, the market for prom dresses “dies†after May.
Most of Ms. Parker's responsibilities relate to preparing her company's dresses for sale. This includes choosing which ones to have the factories produce, and in which colors, and pricing them. The company's salespeople are now busy selling these dresses for 2013.
But the fact that she will soon have to give or ders to her factories for thousands of prom dresses was on her mind. “Where am I going to put them?†she wondered. “I still need to work on getting rid of last year's dresses and I'm not going to create more space for old dresses,†she said.
There is always some unsold merchandise to unload, Ms. Parker said. But last year she produced many more prom dresses than she had in the past because stores complained that they could no longer carry Bari Jay dresses if the company did not provide more stock. “Our prom orders were up double digit percentages in a time where most manufacturers and stores were saying prom was down big,†she said. She believes Bari Jay's prices, which are lower than those of companies that make comparable dresses, were a factor in the jump in orders. But she was still left with more stock than usual.
Beth Shaw, who owns YogaFit, said her new marketing person managed to clear out two-thirds of the unsold clothing in the company's warehouse by selling it to Ollie's Bargain Outlet at pennies on the dollar. Despite taking a loss, Ms. Shaw said she is glad to be rid of the merchandise.
With that addressed, she is wondering if there is a better way to track and follow up on tasks she delegates to her staff. She said she sometimes feels that, “It's up to my memory amid traveling and doing everything else that I'm doing.â€
“Do you have a C.R.M.?†asked Ms. Lord, referring to a customer relationship management tool.
Yes, said Ms. Shaw. But she needs a better one.
“We've been using what's basically a Google App called Insightly,†Ms. Lord said. The product is transparent, she says, and allows companies to follow business opportunities as they move through the pipeline. It is integrated with Gmail, which Ms. Lord and Ms. Shaw both use, and its features include employee e-mail tracking and contact categorization.
Alexandra Mayzler, who owns Thinking Caps Tutoring, has al so delegated tasks that don't get done. But her focus now is on finding a replacement for an office staffer who recently left the company. When determining whether a new employee is a good fit, she wondered about the best way to spot problems quickly and address them.
Ms. Lord suggested check-ins with the employee at 30, 60, and 90 days.
“Write that into the employment agreement or the offer letter,†said Ms. Johnson. Make it clear that you want employees to stay for a long time but that they must expect initially to be evaluated on an ongoing basis, she suggested. “It costs more to have the wrong person,†she said.
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