The Real Thing

After weeks of training, waiting and prospecting, last week I finally got the chance to taste the other side of the Expense Reduction Analysts business - digging into my client's invoices and procurement systems to try and identify potential for savings. Now I was no longer trying to convince the client to engage my services, but rather working with them as part of their team to help increase t...

We're Off!

Pop, fizz, thud! That was the sound of the champagne cork shooting out of the bottle and bouncing off the ceiling. Yes, the celebration is on - I landed my first client last week and what a great feeling that was.

When I told my wife that evening when she got home from work it brought a big smile to her face and I scored a nice congratulatory hug. She was very relieved that the business will...

Small Business for Dummies

 In my blog of 7 April, I talked about what I called the Competence Quadrant and how when we started our training I and my fellow class-mates were in the first quadrant (when you don’t know what you don’t know). The goal of the training was to move us from the first quadrant to the second quadrant (you do know what you don’t know). In my case. I feel that the training succeeded in its goal...

Redundancy is not the end of the world

Most people I speak to – and many articles I have read – point to the value of networks, a subject I wrote about in one of my earlier blogs. I recognised this fact some time ago, using my network to look for clients, but of course my existing network is not limitless so it has become essential to expand that network. Over the last few weeks, this has been one of my major goals, so I have...

Purchasing hits the headlines

The Government's use of a purchasing advisor at $2,000 a day is clearly causing controversy, in some people's eyes anyway. Critics are clearly focusing on the costs, not the savings. I can't help thinking that ERA's 'no savings - no fee' approach might be both more effective and less controversial. Opportunity knocks?

The ever-changing economic climate and volatility of the market in this...