Posts Tagged ‘Product’
Friends and business was first published on Women in Focus
Women in Focus is a recently launched website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
As a self employed business owner of many many years, I have gathered some experience along the way and wisdom tends to come from walking a path barefoot, strewn with broken glass. It’s almost a right of passage to have a scar or two. So the subject of doing business with friends has come up a lot. For some it’s almost a mantra “never do business with friends”. And what about doing business with family? That’s a big one and a whole other blog.
Do women find it harder to do business with friends than men? Do we always regret it when it gets too hard or we feel we are about to lose our friendship because someone is getting the better deal and we feel resentful? We have all heard of mates rates but what does that mean for our business?
I was very lucky to see George Michael on Friday night, something I had looked forward to for many months. I hoped it was going to be fabulous, that it would live up to all the moments that I had played his songs through the milestones of my youth and my not so youth. It was beyond fabulous.
Now this may seem a strange blog topic, not very businessy on the surface. But while I was standing and clapping and singing and going nuts along with the thousands of others, I began to think about his market. I know it sounds as if I should have been too busy to think, but I guess I can’t help myself. I looked at this lone man on stage - yes he had back up singers & a band, but they were not the focus. They were behind and away from him. It was all about him, and so it should be, but it also meant that he was going to sink or swim alone. That the satisfaction of his customers depended solely on his delivery of his product. Success or failure was on George Michael. No gizmos, no half naked troupe. Just him and his history. And the fact that the market had just been shredding Whitney, we would not have been shy on our verdict about him. Does a successful past automatically give you a successful present? Not if your name is Whitney. Read the rest of this entry »