Websites are now capable of allowing pretty much the full gamut of customer experience that a bricks and mortar business can - apart from that sheer ‘hands on’ feeling. But that lack doesn’t seem to be proving any hindrance to the popularity of shopping online.

What does act as a turn off for would-be shoppers is how secure they perceive your website to be and how diligent you are in guarding credit card details and the other personal details they hand over as part of the transaction.

For many businesses the process of accepting payment online is one that can no longer be ignored. Internet buyers expect a speedy, uncomplicated, full service transaction. Initially that meant doing away with the ‘print off this order, fill it in and post it to us’ approach to ordering and replacing it with an online order. Now it means the ability to use a credit card to complete the transaction by paying right now instead of going through the rigmarole of waiting for an invoice to turn up in the mail and then having to pay by check.

The process is advantageous to the seller as well because they can cut out extra processes of invoice production and mailing and at the same time minimize the waiting time for cash inflow. A number of innovations - both new technologies and new ways of doing business - have done much to make even small value transactions (micropayments) less expensive for merchants and extended the range of products that can be sold on a website.

But as transactions have become more ubiquitous, they have also become the targets of fraudsters. These days few buyers would be unaware of the dangers inherent in putting their credit card details onto the Internet. Even if they aren’t familiar with the technological tricks that fraudsters use to collect this information from the unwary user, they have developed a natural suspicion and wariness of openly providing their card details. As a trader relying on them to do just that, your site has to offer one major incentive – a sense of security. There are two areas that need protecting – the Internet connection and the data that ultimately comes to sit in the databases on your computer.

Providing a secure connection

Standard Internet connections do not provide a secure mechanism in which credit card and personal details, such as delivery address and phone number, can be transmitted. This information should only be transmitted over a connection that actively protects this data to keep it secure from hackers. The mechanism that allows this is called ‘encryption’ or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Enabling SSL requires special programming, special set up of your web server and a website certificate from a Certificate Authority (an organization that certifies that your business exists and that you own your domain name). Your ISP or web developer will be able to organize secure Internet submission facilities for you.

The way to recognize a site with encryption is in its url – it will start with https:// rather than the usual http:// and the web browser has a lock shown at the bottom of the screen (log in to your online bank site and check). Don’t rely on just those hints though. An obvious screen message telling your potential online shopper that your site is secure and that your online payment systems, such as credit card processing, are safe to use is also a must.

The reality of online transacting is that using SSL to transmit credit card details is less dangerous than handing over your credit card in a bricks and mortar shop. There, and at ATMs, fraudsters have come up with a range of methods to observe and capture people’s credit card details that can make transactions at these places more dangerous than over the Internet. However it is the perception – that online transactions provide the most danger – that you have to deal with. Installing SSL and advertising the fact should remove any hesitation on the part of the customer about going all the way online.

Protecting the data on your computer

SSL ensures that credit card details and other confidential information remains secure as they cross the Internet. But once it’s on your computer the data is open to hackers. In fact, while customers may worry most about the transmission of their data, really the data is much more vulnerable once it is on your computer. Hackers rarely have the ability or access facilities to reliably capture data on its way through the Internet, so their preferred target is the destination computer.

The only way to protect data from hackers is to ensure your website developer is conversant with the latest methods of building security procedures into the design of the website itself.  They may have a great talent for eye-catching design and making navigation around the site easy but in areas that will hold confidential information, pulling in an expert to build the code is essential.

In the online environment the ability to provide an end to end transaction is now a must have as far as customers are concerned. To make it work for you and them though you will need to put the time and effort into developing a secure procedure for both the transmission of customer information to your computer and for maintaining it securely in your database.

It’s very tempting in family businesses to hire from within the family group whenever possible. It’s not just a case of blood being thicker than water, or even of ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’. It’s often about wanting to get the preferred successor(s) involved so they can begin to get a handle on the business, the desire to help out a family member who can’t get employment elsewhere, or to avoid a family argument. A host of pressures can be placed on you to take on someone because they are ‘family’.

Family members can be just what you need in certain circumstances. At startup they might be the ones with the motivation to work hard and long for small returns to get the business established. Ongoing they might be valuable as part time help for your rush periods or when they are between jobs or on college breaks. And it’s estimated that about half of all spouses play some part in a family business, from sharing management responsibilities, to doing the bookkeeping, to just helping out occasionally.

Nevertheless, for all the positives that can be argued for employing family, it’s equally possible to argue the opposite side of the coin. Family loyalty is great when it’s working but family feuds can be more bitter, divisive and ultimately harmful to the business than any worker-to-worker dispute could be. Employing family can create expectations about their future role in the business that may not be in line with what you had in mind when hiring them and the disappointment can rupture relationships. A family member can easily feel slighted if one of their relatives is given a pay increase or a promotion. And the decision to fire a family member is unlikely to be anything short of a major trauma.

For positions in the business that require expertise, talent, and real commitment, hiring family members whose only qualification is that they are family is not a businesslike approach.

The ramifications go way beyond the fact that hiring in a family member who can’t demonstrate the requisite level of skill for their position will create immediate feelings of resentment among those employees who have won their position on the basis of merit. If you don’t apply the same rules when hiring family members as you would to any other employee, you can find yourself with serious morale problems that are likely to effect productivity as well. So it makes sense when considering hiring a family member to put them through the same process you would an outsider – make them apply for the job, do an interview and go through the same induction any other employee would.

In some cases it may be better to resist the temptation to bring family direct from school or college straight into the family business and insist they do a period of work in another business where they are just another employee.

Working elsewhere provides family members with an education in how other companies think and operate and removes the safety net of family privilege so that when they do enter the family business they'll bring with them wider experience and more real life perspectives on working relationships. They may even decide that the family business is not what they want and that is a decision better made earlier than later.

When family members do come in to the business they should be treated as much as possible like other employees. Visible signs of favoritism will ruin morale. They’ll have to understand that their relationship to the owner doesn’t extend any special privileges during working hours. Like any other employee, a family member should have specific goals to accomplish and be given tasks with measurable outcomes. They’ll need a clear description of their job and details of their responsibilities.

Where the family business is large enough to provide a career path through a number of roles, promotion up the ladder should only be on merit, the same as it would be for any non-family employee. That protects both your relationship with those other employees and the viability of your business – relatedness is no substitute for aptitude in keeping a business financial and competitive.

The potential for family relationships to inappropriately influence business decision making makes hiring, managing, and maybe having to fire relatives, one of the most difficult issues the family business owner faces. To approach it in anything less than the professional manner you would adopt in managing an outsider is to invite serious longer term problems for the business and maybe for family relationships as well.

Getting other people, your customers, suppliers or other business associates you have dealings with, to recommend your business to others is one of the most economical ways to grow trade. A referral comes pre-qualified as a hot lead because of the positive recommendation they have received about how good your product or service is.

Encouraging referrals should be an active process. You can do nothing and just hope people will refer you - or you can work on making it happen. Here are some ideas on how to make it happen.

1.    Make it easy for people to refer you

Make referral a convenient and simple process. Instead of requiring referrer businesses to keep your details in mind or go to a directory to find them give them some materials such as a bunch of your business cards or a small brochure to display.

Now you don’t put your referrers on the spot over explaining what you do or why you do it or how to contact you – it’s all there in the brochure. Brochures and business cards out on display also keep you front of mind with the referrer.

In professional services firms one of the best strategies is to let potential referrers know exactly what sort of person you would like referred to you. The person being asked probably doesn't have a clear idea of what a great referral would look like for you and so don’t feel sure about who to mention you to. Think up a short clear statement describing the type of client you service best. For an architect it may revolve around the type of work they are best at - building dwellings or factories; doing sensitive restorations; creating energy saving homes.

2.    Reciprocate - prudently

When another business person refers someone to you a tacit understanding of reciprocity is set up. They will likely expect referrals from you in return.

Try and keep a balance between the number of people a business refers to you and how many you refer to them. Where one person is  getting all the referrals without reciprocating a ‘trade deficit’ occurs and can generate bad feeling or even dry up the flow as they swap their referrals to other businesses who do reciprocate.

On the other hand be sure you really do trust the quality of service of businesses you refer people to because if they happen to fail the customer your business will suffer by association.

3.    Reward your referrers

Because referring is a reciprocal obligation and sets up a social bond between the referrer and the referee it helps to cement the relationship by observing a few social niceties. When a customer tells you they have been referred to you by Business Y take the time to thank your contact at Business Y. Where your referrer sends a lot of business your way an occasional gift or even a referral fee might be in order. For major customer accounts it might mean sending them a birthday card or personal note about the birth of a child.

Don’t become complacent about your referral sources. Make the people who refer to you feel appreciated and they'll want to refer you again and again.

4.    Build your network of referrers

Everybody is a potential referrer for your business including family members, friends, business associates and current customers.

Think through who could be a possible referrer for you and how you can make it your name that comes to mind when they are thinking of advising someone about a business that could service their need.

For many small business owners a consistent flow of referrals has been the basis on which they have built their entire business. In professional services firms referrals can be the most productive source of clients. People want to do business with other people they know, like and trust and when that person refers them on to you, some of that trust automatically attaches to you.  That’s why referrals are so valuable - having someone’s trust is the very best starting point for making a sale.

All businesses have weaknesses. If you want to sustain and grow your business it's vital to address them before they threaten your chances of long term success.

In many SMEs the manager, while usually acutely skilled in their particular profession,  has only a problematic understanding of the wider range of  management skills that are essential to business continuity and growth such as strategy development, financial forecasting, marketing, information technology and so on.

While their own specialist skills often provide the major strength of the business it’s the lack of experience in all those ancillary aspects of management that create dangerous vulnerabilities and that can bring a business undone. For a business to survive or grow, all the different parts have to be working and meshing smoothly.

Managers often become aware of their limitations only when something starts to frustrate their plans or a crisis looms up. The business has grown to a certain point and now there is a lack of focus or strategic direction and they don’t know where to take it next; or operational inefficiencies are starting to show and there is increasing waste and delays in production; customers are leaving for no apparent reason and they can’t seem to win new ones; there are performance issues with employees that they just don’t have the knack of coping with to get things back on track; there’s confusion about what technologies might improve production or how to implement them.

Since no small business owner/manager can be expected to be on top of all the managerial skills that go towards making a business operate profitably what can they do to know what they don’t know?

Working with a business advisor to help them analyze how the business is currently performing over all its critical operations – often referred to as a business health check – is an essential first step. A business health check is a short, highly focused question and answer review. A comprehensive diagnostic survey will enable you to identify the areas of your business that need improving and the areas that offer the best opportunities for profit growth. A good business advisor should be able to perform this service quickly and provide you with a detailed report on areas that need attention.

At this stage you have the equivalent of a diagnosis – you have identified what’s wrong and put a name to it. But as with your personal health checkup, while there is some comfort in having identified exactly what is wrong, what you really want is a cure. Good advisors can do more than just diagnose. They have enough knowledge of business basics to be able to offer advice and suggest specific actions to improve the areas of weakness whether it be how to improve the return on investment in marketing spend, improving customer profitability, reducing waste or improving cash flow. And as a bonus, along the way you become more familiar with general management principles and gain more insight into how your business works. Being able to make informed decisions hands you more control over taking the business where you want it to go and improving its competitiveness.

There are many facets to managing a business successfully and you really can’t afford to ignore any of them. A business health check is a painless exercise that can identify your operational strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats that exist in your industry and market. An objective assessment by our experienced business advisors could make a huge difference to your business. It will provide a greater understanding of the issues underlying poor performance and deliver concrete suggestions for how to go about improving things.

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business. 

Derby Brown