Insights on Business, Entrepreneurship, and Workplace Dynamics
Sales and Customer Relations
Karl: (You have to be very polite, give time to people, and never give up.)
Adam: (First of all, make planning. It’s a whole sequence, the day-to-day. Because to be persuasive, you have to know what you sell, the needs of the customers.)
Rob: (Being able to know how to communicate with clients, understand them, and know their needs, make them aware that you offer the best solution.)
Duncan: (The first thing is to build the relationship with clients, be someone trustworthy, be honest, and know their limits.)
Reasons for Starting a Business
Lisa: (Because in her own town, most specialist food shops had closed down, and there was nowhere you could buy handmade pasta.)
Naiara: (She was made redundant, didn’t have anything to do, so she bought a franchise with the redundancy money. You buy the right to sell the products of a large franchising organization. Each local is a small business.)
Matylda: (She was tired of being a secretary, was working very hard, and not being appreciated. She wanted to do something more exciting.)
Business Startup Course and Loan
He did a business start-up course. They were rigorous with the creation of his business and his business plan. He had to call people to answer questions about services. He has a small business start-up loan with one of the banks. He didn’t need much to start. He had enough income just to pay his most basic bills. For him, you have to be realistic about how much money you need, and also about how much you can afford to pay back.
Challenges and Stress of Meetings
Martyna: (You prepare the meeting a week before, and suddenly the boss doesn’t come, and also you have to ring everyone to say it wasn’t happening.)
Sasha: (Some meetings are so stressful, one day he didn’t go and told that he’d just forgotten it.)
Mei Lin: (Meetings are stressful because they never reach any decisions and everyone talks at once.)
Paul: (The trouble is, everyone’s so busy for meeting, he has to find a time they could all meet.)
Entering the Chinese Market
Barry: (How to be in the Chinese market.)
Sandra: (The first thing is to start by finding a distributor and visiting the country.)
Patrick: (Do some market research while they’re about it.)
Mark: (He is not sure; they don’t speak the language, that is, to market researchers.)
Sandra: (The distributors will have a good idea of the market.)
Mark: (The first thing is that an independent market-research firm to tell them what to sell and how to sell it.)
Barry: (They’ve got the money for it and they’d do.)
Patrick: (Let’s begin with market research.)
Mark: (Visiting the country.)
Sandra: (Different point of view.)
Opinions on Flexible Work
Linda: (She is all in favor if she can tie it into her work because it’d be great not to have to do any driving at peak times.)
Konstantin: (It’s going to take a bit of organizing and getting used to down on the shop floor, it’s worth giving it a try for cut down people going off on sick leave. On balance, he is in favor.)
Oliwia: (She thinks it’d be great because she’d have more time for being with the kids. She doesn’t see why her timetable shouldn’t be flexible; her boss works very flexible hours.)
Chung: (He doesn’t reckon much to the proposals, because he has to be flexible anyway, but he reckons that if flexibility keeps the staff happy, that’d be a good thing.)
Martin: (For him is a great idea, because he’d like to take some time out, he wants to have a break from spending all day with figures, balances, etc.)