What My Failings As A Son Can Teach You About Business, Learn Sales From A Condom, The Latest News & More!

MATT’S CHATS: How me being a bad son teaches you the importance of removing friction to ensure maximum business success!

NEWS ROUND-UP: All the latest business news fresh from the Matt Haycox Daily website including tax cuts, the Lionesses World Cup defeat, AI intelligence, and Wilko’s discount heaven!

SEXY STAT: OnlyFans, the naked truth about HUGE growth!

PODCAST: Exploring Actress Sarah Jayne Dunn's 20-Year Hollyoaks Journey, OnlyFans Success, Stories from a toxic industry, and more - Tune in!

COOL TOOLS: ChatGPT is so yesterday! These are the AI tools you need to know about now.

THE BIG PICTURE: I bet you never thought a condom could teach you the a strategy to increase your prices and grow your margins! I’ll tell you how….

HEALTH IS WEALTH: You aren’t too busy to integrate these quick fitness tips in to your schedule.

LAST THING: Before I go don’t let me forget to say….

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I am a terrible son!

Yes, I have to put my hands up and say it—I've been a bad son! Well, to my mum anyway!

Ok, look, there is a bit of context to this; I am not all bad. Just when it comes to calling my mum on the phone. I must get three emails a day telling me to call and asking why I haven’t called. But it’s her fault! And there is something important you can learn from this story for your business.

So, a bit of background... My mum lives in Tunisia, where she has been for the last 4 or 5 years. She is a technophobe (I remember when she used to ask for her emails to be printed out and read to her!), and she has a prehistoric burner phone that is often in the repair shop, and the number for it (I think) is a Tunisian pay-as-you-go arrangement!

So when she asks me to call her, well, as you can imagine, it is usually a challenge to get through!

Now there is probably a secondary lesson in this too: phones call out as well as receive, and my mum could always call me rather than emailing me to ask me to call her! But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

The reason I don’t call her isn’t because I don’t like her and don’t want to speak to her (I promise, mum, I know you are reading this!), it is because she makes it difficult for me to do so by having such limited options.

I have one choice: call the Tunisian burner phone, hope it is working and not in the shop, hope the number connects, and hope she answers. Lining all that up is rarer than rocking horse 💩!

And this is what I see in businesses every day - they make it so difficult for a customer to do business with them. Sometimes it’s because of an owner’s personal preferences, sometimes it's because of a lack of understanding; either way, they are leaving serious money on the table.

There are three main areas that I see:

Communication Methods

I'm still on the theme of my mum here. What communication methods do you have to allow customers to contact you? I see so many businesses now that just have an email form with a contact box. They don’t even publish a telephone number. That is worse than my mum!

I get it - we are in the age of being streamlined and operating at scale - but if you don’t get your head around the concept, you will always miss out on sales opportunities.

If you try to get in touch with me, you could do it via telephone (multiple numbers and country codes), WhatsApp, BOTIM, email, Zoom, Skype, social media channels, etc. It is very easy to get in touch with me, to call me, or to send me a message.

Every one of the things I have mentioned is either free or very low-cost. They integrate with most systems and procedures, and all could be managed by one person when resources are at a premium. There is no reason not to be accessible by all those methods and more.

Every time you speak to a customer or lead, you have a chance to sell something to them. Don’t hide from people; take advantage of every communication opportunity.

Social media channels

It doesn’t matter that you aren’t a big fan of social media or that you think there should be a divide between business and personal life. It doesn’t matter that you don’t think your audience isn’t on social media—they are! And they expect you to be on there too.

And it doesn’t count that you have an old Twitter account whose latest post was a retweet from Donald Trump five years ago! You need to be on every platform. That’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok. And anything else that comes along.

Make it easy for people to find you. Make it easy for them to consume your content in a format they like. Anytime you impose your views or limit your audience, you alienate people and reduce your sales opportunities.

Payment options

I’ve saved the most important one until last. Well, they are all very important, but if I had to pick just one that is really costing businesses, it’s this one.

I really noticed this in action a few years ago when I used a private taxi service in Cannes. At the end of the journey, the driver let me use PayPal to settle the trip. Personally, I love PayPal; it’s just such an easy thing to use. I rarely have cash on me, and if someone doesn’t take ApplePay, then I am struggling.

His willingness to use PayPal did two things. Firstly, it made it more likely he would get paid. But most importantly for his future, it made me use him for all of my journeys. This guy was overpriced! Quite heavily overpriced, but I liked him and I like simplicity, so I was willing to pay a premium for it. If he had forced me to use cash, then there would have been no point of differentiation, and I would just be using any old taxi for each journey.

Where does your business sit with payment options? Just like methods of communication, it is very easy and very cheap to get access to pretty much every type of payment service and processor in today’s market.

Cash, credit cards, and bank transfers are the obvious ones. But what about multi-currency? Crypto, Paypal. Klarna and other ‘buy now, pay later’ services There may be the odd business model out there where not every single option is appropriate, but in the main, that level of choice can be offered to all your customers.

You may not like crypto; you may barely know what it is! But I guarantee you that there are potential customers out there who would love to use you if only you let them pay in Bitcoin.

Earlier this year, I created a new option for my investors to invest with me in US dollars and euros, as well as the sterling we have always used. It’s a minor headache for me, and I don’t particularly like it. We have extra accounting entries, and we have to hedge the investment so as not to be exposed to a currency risk.

But since starting this, we have received over $3 million in that way. Money we would not have received had we only offered a GBP option. It isn’t about me. It’s about my customers. What can I do to make their lives easier and my product more appealing?

Communication Methods, Payment Options, and Social Media Channels That’s just the beginning. There are so many areas you can apply this logic to.

So, mum, are you reading this? Mum and fellow business owners! Always ask yourself, ‘What can I do to remove friction and make it easier to do business with me?’

And YES! Before uploading this column, I did call my mum!!

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I love a good advert! One that makes you laugh out-loud and that you tell all your friends about.

This ad from the condom king’s, Durex, doesn’t just appeal to their audience with humour, it uses a clever little technique called PRICE ANCHORING.

You will have seen this many times, and I am sure it has been used on you to lure you in for purchases that you may have made.

Price Anchoring is a clever sales trick where the vendor shows you a high priced product first to ‘anchor’ your mind on this. That becomes your baseline. So any lower priced item you are then shown now psychologically feels cheap.

You will undoubtedly have had it used on you by jewellers in the past. You may have had no intention of spending more than $2000 on an item, but then the jeweller starts of showing you a ring for $10000, he has ‘anchored’ you in to a different state of mind. Next thing you know you are walking out the shop with a $5000 item thinking you have saved a fortune!

Clever right? How can you incorporate this in to your sales technique to grow you margins?

Staying in shape while juggling the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship might seem like a herculean task. With a handful of tips, you can blend health (and your sanity!) seamlessly into your hectic schedule. Here are 3 ways to stay fit:

🏋️ Embrace Micro Workouts: Squeeze in mini workouts during your day. Knock out a set of squats while you wait for your coffee, do some calf raises during calls, or bust out a round of push-ups before your next meeting.

🥊 Go for Efficient Workouts: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a top pick for busy people like me. Short spurts of intense exercises followed by quick breaks mean you can wrap up a HIIT session in just 20-30 minutes.

🍌 Smart Eating and Hydration: When you're running about, keep snacks on standby – nuts, fruit, and my personal favourite, Grenade bars – to ward off the siren call of shit fatty foods. And don't forget water!

So, let's get this straight – you don’t need a gym membership to win in the fitness game. Trust me, nailing the balance between chaos and wellness is doable – just ask my PT. It boils down to small, intentional choices that add up to a happier, healthier you.

I have a lot more I can talk about on fitness from the perspective of a non-fitness expert, just someone who has tried most things and found what does and doesn’t work. So if you want more if this kind of content then reply and tell me!

Let's keep the excitement rolling and ensure I'm delivering the content you love most. It's playtime with questions! Here's one to get you started:

Now it’s your turn…..

P.S. If you liked the section on price anchoring, here is a video with a funny example of some famous twins using the technique to boost their earnings. Oh, and the host of the video is wearing pink headphones so it's definitely worth a watch!