RS Accountants

Do your customers know everything you offer? Here’s some ideas to start the conversation…

by Russell Smith | Apr 5, 2012 | General

You’ve heard of the elevator pitch? This is the practice of describing your business in a few short sentences that will entice potential customers to know more. At my networking group we do something similar but have 60 seconds and have to request referrals to...

How to get rich – in 9 words…

by Russell Smith | Apr 4, 2012 | General

My blog today could potentially save you lots of lots of time. If you would like to know how to get rich there are many books out there that can tell you how. Most of these books will be between 200 and 300 pages and will take you 4-5 hours to read. If you read two...

Another golden rule of selling – don’t lose control of the sales process

by Russell Smith | Apr 2, 2012 | General

Did you know that if you responded to a prospect who called you within 2 minutes you increase your chance of winning a new customer by 4 times! Being a very impatient person myself, I always value speed in my suppliers and I think the world generally is at a faster...

5 things to do this week that are neither urgent or important

by Russell Smith | Apr 1, 2012 | General

I’m writing this watching the ITV production of Titanic (hey, I’m on holiday) which to be honest is okay but isn’t great. I think Stephen Covey would class this as a ‘not important, not urgent’ task (in his book ‘7 habits of highly...

How to review your financial year – the benefits of remembering and reflection

by Russell Smith | Mar 30, 2012 | General

The most popular company year-end is 31 March – FACT! The reason being because it ties up with the tax year (I had once promised to tell readers of my blog the story of why the 5 April is the tax year, I haven’t done this as yet which I can only apologise...

Getting cash from your customers part 5 – direct debits: what are they and what they can do for you…..

by Russell Smith | Mar 29, 2012 | General

My mother hates direct debits. I believe she pays for all her bills by cheque – phone, gas, electric. Despite the powers that be at the utility companies with all their marketing brain power coming up with various enticements to get my mother to switch to direct...

How not to have an average business? 5 questions to ask yourself this weekend…

by Russell Smith | Mar 23, 2012 | General

People who start their own businesses are effectively radicals. They have turned their back on normal employment and chosen a path of insecurity and insanity. Some of these new business owners would have had supportive family and friends and some would not have. In...

Can you run a business from a spreadsheet?

by Russell Smith | Mar 22, 2012 | General

A few years ago I was having a meeting with a very successful entrepreneur who said to me ‘but Russell, you can’t run a business from a spreadsheet!’. I knew what he was getting at. Business growth requires drive, determination, ambition, innovation...

Its the most exciting day of the year for me – the budget 2012: here’s what could happen…

by Russell Smith | Mar 21, 2012 | General

After 70 consecutive blog posts every single day, I missed yesterday! Huge apologies to everybody who logged in to find that for once, I had NOTHING TO SAY! Actually, what happened was I was so overcome with excitement for today’s budget that I fell ill and went...

The one number you should be looking at the most

by Russell Smith | Mar 13, 2012 | General

If you sit me down in front of the profit and loss account and ask me to tell you how to increase your profit, I would spend 50 minutes talking about one number and 10 minutes talking about a few other numbers. What’s the number? Sales. Here’s why….....