BUSINESS LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15685, 12 August 1914, Page 10

BUSINESS LIFE.

CREDIT.

The test of a sound credit policy cornea when business is slow. If prosperity has permitted a lax system of collection, loss of trade makes it doubly evident. So with tho minor wastes in doing business. The small percentages of loss charged into costs in dull seasons bear a larger ratio to the lower sales' total. The retail merchant sees credit from two angles, on the one hand his relation, to the wholesaler and manufacturer, on the other to his customer. BIG BUSINESS. Big business usually makes broader and deeper preparation for the little things. Big business peers into the future with the trained eyes of engineers. It unites the efforts of highly-developed, specialists who study infinitesimal conditions; study them as they used to be, as they are, ond a* they aro going to be. Having studied them, these specialists draft rules and specifications to cover almost every conceivable contingency. They • practise "organised imagination" to an amazing dogree. And in that direction—along the line of foreseeing and foreplanning, directed by well-organised imaginationlies the course for the big firm which would continue to grow, and for tho small business that would become healthfully big. WHAT IS A WORKING DAY? i . - Tho Lord Mayor of London recently gave his views on duty. He said that "a working day" was a vague and . indefinite term, which only suited or fitted people who did not want, or moan, to do any more than they were absolutely forced to. He had seen 39 years of London's busiest life, of its great successes, of its most celebrated men in every sphere —professional, commercial, social. As a result of bis knowledge and observation, he had no hesitation in saying that tho man who always intended to limit his hours of daily work to a certain small prescribed number was not the man who would ever mako any notable mark or success in life. When work had to be done, it must be done! This was the only safe and sound maxim for leading one to excellent results and abiding success. SALESMEN HELP BUYERS. Courtesy in tho handling of salesmen naturally develops co-operation, A man who sells a line of material is thoroughly familiar with it and can help the buyer in many ways. In addition, he is able, through his rubbing against salesmen in other lines, to know a groat deal about other men's business. The representative of a paint firm discovered that one of his customers bought largely of black iron wire from the mills in standard length coils. This was afterwards cut into short lengths for use. Tho salesman learned that a certain mail-order houso bought short ends from the same mills, 50ft or 100 ft long, put them up in hundred pound coils, and sold them at approximately half tho market price. He told the buyer of this, who thereby saved many pounds a year on his wire..