Are you running your business or is it running you?

This is a question you need to ask at all times.

Why is it important? It is because if your business is running you, you are admitting that you are almost out of control. I say almost out of control to give you the benefit of the doubt.

What do you do if you are in this situation?

• First of all realize that this happens at times, but it does not have to be a habit.
• Secondly create some goals that will bring some balance into your life.
• Thirdly hold yourself accountable to your objectives, and evaluate your progress as you move toward a more pleasurable life.
• Finally, celebrate your successes.

Isn’t celebrating your life what you’ve always wanted?

Have you bought into the pack mentality?

The pack mentality is when you agree with everyone about what is going on?

This is a tragic mentality especially in the world as we know it today. The pack mentality allows us to be swallowed up by the bad news we hear. The solution is a very simple one to write, but very hard to implement.

The solution is to take responsibility for your life and your thoughts. You need to understand that your future depends on you. If you are with people that are always bringing you down to their level, it is time to move on. If you are in a business that can’t quit talking about how bad things are, you have three choices. Firstly, try to change the atmosphere by asking questions that cause people to think about their negativity. Secondly, prove all of the negativity wrong by doing all you can to make your particular area of the business wonderful. Thirdly, and this is a drastic one, leave the business.

Are you equipped to now escape from the pack mentality?

Have you ever asked your client’s about their experience with you or your business?

This is what is called the ‘user experience’ test.

The user experience test can have great rewards for you or your company. No matter what you sell if you have a follow-up discussion with those that have bought from you, it will be a great experience. I write that because if you have built up enough rapport with your client’s and ask the right questions you can learn how to improve your products or services due to this discussion.

Are you willing to take the next step in the growth of your company? Are you willing to take the risk to find out if your clients really like what they bought from you?

When will you take action on it?

What do you do when a bad situation occurs in your business?

Do you just put out the fire and let it go?

I hope not! I say that because if you just let it go, you will have shown that you haven’t learned from the situation. It is the learning from the situation that will make all the difference in the on-going growth of your business. Recently I came across this quote from author Brandon Mull; “Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.”

So how can you learn from experiences in life?

I believe there is a 4 step process to learn effectively. The steps are as follows;

• Decide on the experience you want to learn from
• Review what happened in the experience
• Itemize the conclusions you’ve learned
• Create a plan from what you’ve learned.

When can you put this learning model into action?

Do you live in the ‘only if’ world?

This world is a scary place, so pay attention.

The ‘only if’ world is where we don’t accept any responsibility for our actions. It is when you say ‘only if __ would have treated me better, things would have turned out right’. The ‘only if’ world is a world where you blame others, make excuses and deny you did anything wrong.

Do you go to the ‘only if’ world at times during your week? If you do, what purpose did it serve? I don’t believe it helped one bit. I say that because if you are not being responsible for your actions or the situation you are in, you have no one to blame but yourself.

When will you take action to avoid the ‘only if’ world?

Are you using industry jargon in your conversations with clients?

If so, this blog is something that you need to read.

The use of jargon or slang can be a total turn off for people that don’t understand what you mean when you are using it. Over the years I’ve been in a number of industries and I’ve fallen prey to this. In one of the industries we used the abbreviation B.R.P., which stood for balance rock pitched. Can you imagine being in a conversation and somebody throws out B.R.P.? Talk about confusing someone, isn’t it?

This morning I was talking to a web-site host company and the man I spoke to started throwing out numerous initials and terminology in his explanation to me. I stopped him and said “I think you are speaking to me in a foreign language.” This got his attention and then he started to explain things to me in my terms. I believe that he was lucky that I stopped him. But how many times have people forgot to stop you and they just decided to do business with someone else.

I hope that you would consider my ‘rant’. It is for your own good.

The question is; when will you take jargon out of your conversations with clients?

Is your company as innovative as it could be?

Are you introducing new and creative ideas on a consistent basis in your business?

When most people see the word ‘creative’ they panic. They think it is other people that do the creative work. That is why I like the word innovative. I like it because being innovative is taking something that is being done in your industry and making it more your own.

I believe being innovative is achieved in the following ways;

• Being confident in your approach to innovating. In other words don’t fear the results.
• Understanding that time should not be a factor in innovation.
• Being playful with any and all ideas.
• Realizing that just because something has been done for years does not make it the only way to do it.

When can you put innovation into action in your business?

Are you a leader in your organization?

If so, are you leading by example?

Over the years I’ve witnessed business leaders that continuously pumped up their employees. While I like what I saw, I now wonder if this is as effective as it could be. The reason I question that is because if you get people all excited, there is a tendency to fall back to their original state after a time.

What I’ve seen of those that lead by example is exceptional. Their fellow workers admire how these ‘leaders’ keep focused. The workers have an infectious buy-in to what the leader is doing. Isn't that what you want?

Is it time you re-evaluated your actions as a leader?

Are you concerned about only what happens today?

Or are you focused on the long-term?

The approach you take can have a significant effect on your actions in business and with potential clients. If you are only concerned about today and making a sale, you will not be deeply interested in helping the client get what they really need. If you are focused on the long-term you will be focused on helping your clients get exactly what they want, then follow-up the sale with a long term view of customer service. In other words you will stay in constant contact with them.

This makes sense, doesn’t it?

What does it take for you to get and keep attention?

Why should you care?

If you are speaking to anyone about anything they are easily distracted due to the world that we are living. So how do you keep their attention? I believe keeping a person’s attention can be achieved in the following ways that I outlined in earlier blogs;

• We must remember that people get bored very quickly.
• In order to keep people interested depends on two emotions: joy and surprise.

To give you a real life example, I would suggest you view this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw

How can you use what you’ve just learned?

What is your approach to business?

Is it ready, aim, aim, fire?

You may wonder what 'ready, aim, aim, fire' means. It is lots of preparation, followed by adjusting the fine details, then re-adjusting the details, then taking action. That was the way to run a business in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 21^st Century you need to take the approach of – ready, fire, then aim and fire again. This is because if you spend so much time aiming or adjusting the fine details your competitors will be ahead of you, all the time. If you spend so much time trying to get it perfect, you are never ever going to be ready.

You got to realize that there is nothing wrong with mistakes as long as you learn from them.

What can you do today that is out of the ordinary that will move your business forward?

How long does the window of opportunity stay open?

Are all opportunities always available until we are ready?

I don’t believe they are. The reason I say that is because your time is always limited. Many of the times that window of opportunity is only open briefly. This is because when people present an opportunity to you, they are not going to sit back and wait for only you to make up your mind. That is why it is so important to keep developing and exercising your decision making muscles. So how do you do that?

I recently found a site called Psyblog. This site has a wonderful article called ’13 Ways to Quickly Improve Your Decision Making’. The link follows;

http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/05/13-ways-to-improve-your-decision-making.php

This article will give you some very unique insight into how your mind works and how to make better decisions.

You know you want to make better decisions, don’t you?

Would it be upsetting for you to realize that your focus in life was ineffective at best?

What if your focus was destructive at worst?

You and I know that we need to have a laser like focus in order to achieve anything. I see the challenge that this brings is that we take that laser-like focus to extremes. Take for example you get a degree in Pharmacy. You did that so you could serve others. After a number of years as a Pharmacist you are unhappy, but keep on doing something you don’t enjoy anymore. It appears that your focus has shifted.

What can you do?

1. Realize that with your potential you can use your knowledge to find ways at serving people in other ways.
2. Use your innovative mind to figure out a way to take your knowledge of your trade or industry and create a new aspect that is not being served adequately.
3. Understand that your passion or dreams don’t need to lead you to one thing all the time.

What can you today to re-align your focus, thus revitalize your life?

Do you know all the answers?

I hope not!

I really hope that you don’t, as if you do you will come off looking as if you are a ‘know-it-all’. The biggest challenge with being a ‘know-it-all’ is that you look arrogant. When you are arrogant, there is a tendency to drive people away from you. The reason for that is people want to work with interested people.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say someone approaches you and asks you a question about if your product or service could do a particular thing for them. Instead of answering in the affirmative immediately, what would be wrong about asking them a few questions before giving your answer? Yes, you may know it will work, but by asking a few questions you show your deep interest in helping the potential client.

I started off this blog by asking ‘Do you know all the answers?’ The key to remember is that that you need to know the questions first.

What can you do today to improve your approach so that you are more approachable?

Does storytelling give you a competitive advantage?

Let me rephrase that; does storytelling about how your business started give you a competitive advantage?

In the past month I’ve noticed that when I introduce people to what I do by way of a story, the acceptance of what I say has been increased massively. I know the reason for that is because everyone likes to hear a story, especially one that they can relate to.

How do you create your story? You must first focus on what the listener would like to hear. Secondly it must not sound like you are bragging. Thirdly it must be honest as the listener will be able to tell if you are stretching the truth.

When can you start to tell your story to the world?

What is one thing that keeps your competitors scrambling?

What is the one thing that you do, that your competitors wish they could do as well as you?

Recently I read an article by Kim Bhasin in Business Insider. She wrote about how McDonald's has what she called a trump card. That is their ability to dominate over their competition. What is that trump card? It is their breakfast.

Every one of their competitors is trying very hard to compete with them but they are having a very difficult time doing that. Isn’t that a situation that you would love to be in?

What is one thing that you can do or create that will make your business an elite brand?

Does your business operate as mutually supportive?

In other words are you there for each other? Do you help each other grow?

I am a member of Toastmasters International, and one part of their Mission Statement is about being a mutually supportive organization. Now if a volunteer organization can be mutually supportive, why isn’t your business more like that?

I don’t believe that an organization has to tell people to be mutually supportive. I do believe that it starts at the top though. Can you imagine how much better your staff would feel if they worked in a mutually supportive business?

If you are a one person army, you can do this as well. It is done by not being overly critical of yourself. It is finding ways to encourage yourself in tough times.

When can you start a campaign on being more mutually supportive?

When was the last time you fed your mind?

There is big difference between feeding your mind and feeding your body, isn’t there?

When I talk about feeding your mind I am talking about educating yourself. This is all about reading business books, listening to audio programs and watching videos that will help grow your business.

I am sure there is one of you reading this saying, ‘But I am to busy.’ What a poor excuse! If your business is important enough, you will make the time to feed your mind. I believe that any successful person works half days. Yes if you want to be a success you need to work 12 hour days. For it is what you do after the ordinary people leave work that makes the difference. In my personal library I have between 250 and 300 books. All of these books are gems to me. They have helped form me into the person I am today.

What can you do today to feed your mind?

What is the perceived value of your product or service?

When I say perceived value, I mean your client’s view of what you offer.

Is it perceived as high or a low benefit to them?

The way to understand your client’s perceived value is by stepping back and viewing how they approach your product or service.

• In their initial approach are they only concerned about price? If so, you need to re-consider the marketing of your product.
• Is after you’ve spoke to them, their focus is still based on price, what is the problem? Is your sales process based on price? If so, maybe it is time you reviewed how you sell?

The key aspects to increasing your client’s perceived value for your product or service are;

1.      Raising the trust level in your business actions.

2.      Using a ‘sales’ process that is based on helping the client.

3.      Creating a product or service that gives value for the client’s investment.

What can you do to improve those areas of your business?

Is your life like an emotional roller coaster?

It appears that this may be good for your clients.

No, I am not telling you to treat your clients poorly. What I am writing about today is from some research that was conducted by Thales Teixeira and published in the Harvard Business Review.

It appears that when people are watching marketing they pay attention for only a short period of time. They found out that ads that put viewers into a stable emotional state are not effective in keeping them for a long time.

What they did uncover though is that if you build an emotional roller coaster into your video advertising your viewers will continue to watch. The article went on to say that this fits very closely with our ability to adapt to different circumstances.

This is done with movies, so why can’t you do it with your marketing efforts?

So what can you do to be more effective in your approach to marketing to your clients?