What Claudia Did Next

What Claudia Did Next

It’s been 5 months since Claudia went on the Success Online course and she’s meeting her sister Sarah for a catch up.

When she arrives-late as usual!-Sarah is already sat waiting at table.

Claudia greets her sister and hands her a card that she made earlier.

‘Its just to say thank you for helping me get my website up and running’

Sarah thanked Claudia but protested that it was Claudia who had done all the hard work and made the fantastic cards.

‘If it wasn’t for you though Sarah I wouldn’t have a website. I hadn’t even thought about selling my cards online until you mentioned it. It was you who told me about the business workshop that Clear Learning ran on Success Online which got me started in the first place.’

Sarah asks how the business is going now she’s got the website up and running.

‘Well, as you know,’ replied Claudia. ‘After I came back from the course I started selling things on EBay whilst I had time to think about what I wanted from my website and how I wanted it to look. That’s going really well and I’ve had positive feedback from customers which shows against my name so potential customers know I have a good reputation and are more likely to order from me’

‘I was going to try and put the site together myself but as I was going to be taking payments and I’m not that technically minded I decided to get the experts in!’

Claudia paused for breath and then was off again telling Sarah about her website, her passion clear for anyone to see.

‘One of the people I met on the Success Online course had given me contact details of a web designer he’d used and strongly recommended him, so its all up and running now.

And you know how disorganised I am so I’ve got timescales and procedures in place in terms of when I’m on holiday, customer service and maintenance of the site.

I got some stats through the other day and its amazing what you can find out about how people move through the site and where they’ve come from and where they go after visiting my site. Due to that and customer queries I’m going to branch out and do other products. I’ve already started on my Christmas line aswell!’ Claudia enthused.

‘So I just wanted to thank you for opening my eyes up to a whole new way of running and promoting my business.’

‘That’s great,’ replied Sarah. ‘It’s not just me who you should be thanking. It’s the Success Online course you went on that turned things around, so it’s also Clear Learning you should be thanking.’

‘You know what, I think I’ll do just that’ Claudia said with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘After all I really have had Success Online!’

Get Paid, On Time

We are noticing an increase in the amount of small business owners attending our Getting Paid workshops recently and it doesn’t really come as a surprise considering current financial trends in the UK.

All businesses are feeling the effects of the credit crunch and want to make sure that any credit they decide to offer is going to be honoured, in the time specified.
This goes for suppliers to; how do they know that your company is going to pay them on time?

There are a few simple things that companies can do to increase your status as a reliable customer, including:

-Making sure you file your accounts on time at Companies House (if you are a limited company)
-Maintaining a good payment performance by paying invoices on time, especially those owed to large utility companies.

A company’s credit score is greatly influenced by the two variables above and credit scores are one of the most common methods of selection used by businesses when deciding credit limits for customers.

Companies such as leading provider Experian calculate credit scores by using sophisticated scoring methodologies to derive a single score and there are many different factors taken into account (as many as fifty factors in some cases), such as:

-Size and age of a business
-Legal status
-Business sector and location
-CCJs’ and bankruptcies
-Companies House filings
-Track record of proprietors
-Payment performance.

For start-up companies, getting paid by customers will be the difference between success or failure in the first couple of years for business.

To learn more about our workshops, please visit our website or call us on 0845 880 9500.