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Archive for February, 2007

Time Management Tips to get more every day

Feb 27

Posted by Wayne Berry in Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development, Planning, The Sales Dept | 1 Comment

“I don’t have enough time”, “I have to work late tonight”, “I have to pick up the kids”, “I have to go to the supermarket”, “I’m too tired to get out of bed that early”, “I’m too exhausted after work”, “I think I need another rest day”, “I don’t have time to take a lunch break”.

We’ve all made these excuses at one time or another in our lives or careers.

We can all make these excuses today but if we are truly committed to achieving in life, we have to find a way to overcome this sometimes overwhelming hurdle.

As sales and business professionals, we all face challenges:

* The challenges of learning new business skills
* The challenge of overcoming the fear of rejection
* The challenge of moving to the absolute limit of our comfort zone.

However, one challenge that we are not all so apt at facing head-on, is something that we all must deal with no matter who we are and at what level of success we are currently achieving. It catches up to every one of us.

It’s the challenge of time management.

Here are a few quick tips on managing your time more efficiently and getting more done in less time.

1. Long-Term Goal Setting

This is the first step in proper and successful time management in any area. We need to set goals. We need to decide what we want to achieve so that we can set up a plan to get there. Once we know a desired outcome, we can gain greater concentration, constantly focusing on our desired future performance.

2. Short-Term Goal Setting:
Once our long term, large-scale goals are set, it is also important to set mini goals for ourselves along the way. This will help us to focus on our long-term vision by providing us with short-term motivation.

3. Prioritizing

Along with setting our goals on both a large and small scale, we also have to force ourselves to prioritize our activities and put them into our daily calendars.

4. Scheduling

In scheduling our days, we must consider what we can realistically accomplish in the each 24 hour block. We need to plan to make the best use of our time. This may mean giving up certain activities that do not contribute towards the achievement of our goals. Like TV, socializing and even sleeping as much as you may do now.

5. Attitude Assessment

Finally, we must also pay attention to our attitude and our commitment to our goals. Is there any part of our mindset that is holding us back or eating up our time? This is a problem that must be fixed before we can succeed. Is the goal something we really want to do? If so, then we need to get motivated. Go back to our original goal to remember why we wanted to accomplish this task in the first place.

Now we have no excuses. We know how to meet the physical and mental challenges of achieving our goals and there’s not much else that can stop us from success. With some goal setting, prioritizing, and a positive attitude, we can conquer the final challenge of time!

Have a great week. Make it a great week.

Words that get noticed

Feb 27

Posted by Robert Gerrish in Negotiation, People!, Planning, The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | 2 Comments

As regular readers will know, in my coaching and speaking business I put considerable emphasis on who is an ‘ideal client’ for me.
It’s only by recognising who that person is and being certain that the services I have to offer are relevant and needed that I’m able to tailor my marketing messages and actions.

Soloists who don’t know precisely who they want to target invariably waste time and money promoting dumbed-down offerings to audiences that aren’t listening anyway.

A good example is a web designer I met last week who basically told me he’d help anyone who’d pay his fees. Well, whoopee!

I just Googled ‘web designer, australia’ and came up with 4.5 million responses, which suggests a relatively crowded and competitive marketplace, wouldn’t you say?

If we’re going to stand out and get noticed we have to speak to, and connect with, individuals. Simply contributing more noise to the cacophony that already exists isn’t good enough.

So what’s your key message and who do you want to hear it?

Feed your self-confidence with knowledge

Feb 27

Posted by Tony Alessandra in Leadership, Negotiation, People!, Personal Development, The Customer Service Dept, The Sales Dept | No Comments

Self-confidence is the food that feeds our personal growth. It is an indispensable part of achievement. Self-confidence stems from the self-awareness of our intrinsic worth as individuals. We are blessed with an incredible amount of potential, most of which is untapped. George Santayana once wrote, “Man is as full of potentiality as he is of importance.” Santayana’s thought also implies that the choice is ours, which it is.

Self-confidence works best when based on your own knowledge and self-respect, rather than on comparisons of yourself with others. A wise friend once said, “Don’t compare yourself to other people because you will feel either pompous or bitter . . . and neither one is desirable.” So our self-confidence has to exist in a vacuum, which it can. It feeds on the knowledge gained from discovering one’s inner potential.

10 Things to Help Your Business When Sales Are Slow During the Holidays

Feb 24

Posted by Alexandria Brown in Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Sales Dept | No Comments

Twiddling your thumbs and waiting for some business to come in? Why not use this downtime to set yourself up for greater success in the new year? Here are my 10 picks, but you don’t have to do them all. Even doing just one will get you another rung higher on your business ladder.

1. Evaluate your virtual team and make changes if necessary.

Are administrative tasks taking up most of your time and keeping you from working ON your business? Then hire a virtual assistant. (See my article on this topic at www.EzineQueen.com/everything.htm.) Are you paying too much in taxes? Meet with your accountant to talk about getting more aggressive with write-offs, or make appointments to interview new accountants. Same goes for your lawyer — do you love him/her? If not, take this time to ask around for referrals.

2. Learn how to get more leads and sales automatically via your Web site.

Would you like to be getting business leads and sales 24-7 using your website and email? Then finally take time to learn how it all can work for you. It’s really a simple process, and you can set it up for the new year! Either register for a live workshop to learn how (such as my Online Success Blueprint Workshop coming up in March 2006) or buy a home study course and follow it step by step!

3. Revamp your e-zine or launch an e-zine.

Remember that having a ready list of warm prospects is your goldmine, and having an e-zine positions you for more sales on a regular basis and for the LONG-TERM. The beginning of the new year is the perfect time to release your first issue! If you’re not publishing yet, get ready with all the great free resources at www.EzineQueen.com.

4. Clean out that e-mail inbox once and for all!

Unanswered e-mails, people to follow up with, information not recorded or filed in the proper places — need I say more? Delete e-mails that are more than a few months old. Set up e-mail folders to help you stay more organized in the future. And if your program allows, set “rules” to automatically sort incoming e-mails into those folders.

5. Clean out your filing cabinet, bookshelf, desk, etc.

Is your office a fire hazard? Do you have to rustle through giant stacks of paper like a large rodent to find anything? Will your spouse not even enter the premises? Put on some good music, start digging, and make piles. Make sure to have plenty of trash bags and cardboard file boxes on hand. (And a good glass of wine always makes it more fun.)

6. Upgrade or clean up your computer.

Your computer probably holds most of the information that’s crucial to your business, so take care of it! Now’s a great time to do an overhaul. Upgrade your operating system (do you STILL have Windows 95?), get rid of unnecessary files, archive old files to CDs, add more disk space for all those downloads, and do system maintenance. Not sure how to go about this? Find a geek-for-hire to come and help you out.

7. Let your clients know how much you are thankful for their business.

Whether it’s holiday cards or thank-you notes, this is a good practice for both your business and you. Letting the universe know you’re grateful for what you have will only bring you better things in the future.

8. Plan an upcoming teleseminar.

For a quick cash-flow boost, plan a paid teleseminar! These phone-based events are easy to do and can be great income generators. Either host it yourself on a topic you’re qualified to talk about, or invite a special guest to interview. To encourage holiday signups, offer special pricing for those who register before the new year. (Learn how to host a successful teleseminar at www.EzineQueen.com/teleseminar.htm)

9. Write down your 25 best accomplishments for this past year.

This simple exercise is extremely powerful. Time goes by so quickly that we forget to celebrate the good things that happen. First I light a candle and write down my 25 accomplishments. Then, taking each one in, I read them aloud. After the last one, I blow the candle out, and then IMMEDIATELY make a list of 10 goals for the new year. (After truly acknowledging all the amazing things you did this year, you’ll feel incredibly powerful and set even higher goals!)

10. Actually enjoy the holidays!

Yes! I realized that for the past few years I’ve been running around like a nut every December and suddenly the next year is here. Christmas and New Year’s blaze by like a freight train, and I’m back to the grind shortly thereafter. Where’s the joy, peace, and love?

Remind yourself what the holidays are for — to take a step back and appreciate what you have, to enjoy your family and friends, to give to others, and to be good to yourself. So take that walk in the snow, go to that tree lighting with your kids, get that massage, and plan a leisurely shopping day during the week.

Remember, we only have so many Christmases in a lifetime.

Does your business myth out?

Feb 23

Posted by Steve Gray in Human Resource Management, Planning, Risk Management, The Board Room | No Comments

Can I suggest you read the ‘E’ Myth by Michael Gerber. The book mentions creating an effective system of operation in your business, doing so can give your business a distinct edge over others who may be  throwing caution to the wind without a system of operation. Here’s the link to find the book…

E-Myth-Revisited

Think about it, you build a business to a certain point and then at some stage in the future you decide to sell it, retire or whatever. How will someone be able to step into your shoes and take it over?
What if you fall ill or you have to take a long earned trip and leave some one else to follow up?

I guess a measure of a businesses effectiveness in the long term could be gauged by this, the handover factor. How long would it take for someone else to take it on and get it up to speed?

Systems are also invaluable to assist the company to build on its strengths. Having a system to work with and ‘tweak’ will give your business the edge against most of your competitors. It can assist you to find loopholes and areas for improvement.

Of course all of this will only work if the staff have an input into it at some stage.

One business I know of spent a few weekends of hard slog by the management team to develop a system to be used by all the staff, before long the staff had let aspects of the new system slip, simple because they did not value it as they had not played a part in developing it. All the time that went into developoing the system went out the window for a while and caused some ’staffing hassles’

A smart organisation is a learning one, and this team learnt the hard way. Ask yourself this, If we could have a better system of operation, what would it be, what would it look like? How would it feel… and how would we include everyone in it so they ‘buy in’ to the process (new team members buy in easily, they have to accept the system as it stands).

In time bringing a new system in to being can be time consuming, so consider how best to implement it. Could it be done section by section? Could the staff be delegated some ‘downtime’ to focus on the developing the systems tasks? All in all, getting the results can be exhausting, however only if you let it. Of course remember planning to do this is half the battle, failing to plan can get you into hot water very quickly.

Checklists and other systems of operation are only going to be useful if they are valued by all that use the system, they can be easily followed by a new employee or business owner, and is set up in a manner that ensures it can be easily, readily and regularly reviewed to ensure it adequately reflects the organisations development. In the end, which would you prefer to buy a businesswith a system or a business without one…

Their service sucks!

Feb 21

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, The Customer Service Dept | No Comments

Do you have a mobile phone… is the provider any good? Mine wasn’t so I changed, I went elsewhere.

What surprised me the most was that there was no contact from the original provider as to why I had left. If they had called me I would have TOLD them about their many failings. It’s the 1% factor, the many little things that add up, the negative compund interest if you like.

Here’s just a SMALL sample of how they stuffed up.

• It was challenging to pay the prepay service I had with them, if you rang to make a credit card payment there were so many layers in the phone menu to get through and even then they would tell you it was the wrong extension, when they went to put you to the right one, you would end up in the wrong place… If you went to the store to pay, they would look at you stupid and actually say “Errgh, why don’t you just call them?” (Even when I told them about the hassles, they would roll their eye’s…)

• It was the changeover, I wanted to get out of the prepay and move back to an account… sure that’s easy… but why do you want to change? “So I can get an invoice for business purposes”. “Oh Okay… here’s the new SIM card, wait until the old one stops and then put the new one in.” The old one did not stop until 8 months later!, THEN the new one did not work. (funny that…) but the free calls in between were useful, thanks!

• It was the attitude of the staff, “Yeah whaddaya, want…” the girl looked like she was a real sad sack… and I got the same one three times in a row. When they are not happy, neither am I.

• It was the hassle of it all, even changing to another provider was fraught with hassles but I won’t go there.

In all it was the little things… too many of them, what really gets me is the fact that they could have called and run through a few points to figure out where to improve things.

Moral of the story, ask people why they are moving away from what you provide, keep in touch to follow their progress, your companies progress, your people’s progress. Be a customer, send in mystery shoppers, GET the FEEDBACK to know WHY and HOW etc. your business could be better. DO the RIGHT THING so I and others like me don’t have to get so frustrated at BAD service.

What’s your job?

Feb 21

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Risk Management | No Comments

You run the business, you worked your fingers to the bone to get it up from zero to hero, you finally leveraged your way to add in some employees, and after all that you are starting to make the whole thing pay for itself handsomely. Well done.

So what’s your job now… In the begining you were everything to that business, boss, worker, marketing manager, operations manager, planner, ohs manager and the list goes on and on!

Now that you have some staff, and things are ticking over, it’s time to reflect, where are you and where do you want to be… In the “job” stakes are you doing what you want to be doing? Are you leading the organisation to do what it should do and do it well?

For many business owner operators and even for some CEO’s of large businesses they have the role thrust upon them of being the leader. So for you, are you leading well? Do you have the right attributes, attitudes etc to make a fantastic leader or just a Manager of the team…

So, if you are at the top of the organisation, I beleive it’s very useful to review what you are doing and are you doing it well. You wouldn’t send a boy out to do a man’s job would you? Exactly, so step up to the plate and become what your organisation needs, clear cut decisive and committed leadership, after all who else will…

The bigger picture

Feb 20

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

Are you like a lot of people, busy with the little things in your business? Are you finding that although things seem to get done, there is little change to your business performance and or profitability?

In a recent Blog I wrote about to do lists and focussing on getting things out of your mind and on to paper. All good and well, however for a lot of people they are stuck with how to make the “bigger picture” work for them.

To start with its like the smaller to do list, you had some ideas of what needed to be done and you jotted them down, it was probably to do with things that needed ordering to complete a job for a client for example. In the bigger picture you can go up a level and say, what if I was to work on the profitability? the marketing? or management or operational tasks…  and there will be various subtasks within each of these areas.

Now take each of those headings and start to compile a list of what you want to do… Up the profitability (by how much?) improve workflows (by what degree?) increase customer loyalty (How loyal are they now?) and the list goes on…

You get the picture, look at how  you want the business to perform and then make a list, make it, change it, set dates to each of the points, make another list when that one is done or at least update some of the points.

The bigger picture is all about the goals you set around the things you want to achieve, in the long and medium term. Now make up a calendar (plenty of templates to download from the internet) and start to write in the things you have listed and when you want to achieve them by… Then look at what’s required to make them become a reality by the time you have set.

Breaking the task down into chunks like this can make the impossible seem very achieveable. Go on give it a go, aim high and stretch a little!

and….. ACTION!

Feb 19

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Planning, Risk Management | 2 Comments

So what’s on your action plan for today?

Do you have small things, big things a mixture of both perhaps?

Whatever you have on your action plan, is probably what you will achieve. The shorter term things (usually the easiest) will probably happen without too much drama, the mid sized things you may well chip at bit by bit… and the big ones, well hopefully all the efforts on the small and mid sized ‘bits’ will make the big ones easier!

Here are a 7 questions to ask yourself about your to do lists…

• What on my list is going to make things in the workplace easier, better etc?

• What things relate to marketing for future customer attraction?

• When do I write this list… At the end of the day to unwind and unload… or at the start of the day?

• When I want the list at any stage during the day, can I find it easily? Or does it get buried in the paperwork?

• How many of the things on the list can I delegate to others (outsource etc.)?

• Dos a list work for you? If not who can you delegate the list to, so those in your organisation that do follow lists, can follow what’s happening?

• Do you encourage others to have a list? If not and they are away sick or on holidays, how does anyone know where they are up to?

There, just a few thing sabout lists you may find useful… Remember “if its not in writing it never happened”( say the legal eagles), but in our case “if its not in writing it MAY never happen!)

Five back office essentials

Feb 13

Posted by Robert Gerrish in Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

If there’s one thing that can get in the way of a smooth running solo enterprise, it’s the lack of an organised back office. Sadly it’s not unusual to see a business that fronts up well yet is a disaster behind the scenes.
Here are my Top Five back office essentials, see how you stack up:
1. Always be ready for a new client
It’s all well and good to be marketing and networking, but meaningless if you’re not fully prepared to accept a new client.
Always have blank files at the ready; welcome letters drafted; contracts and agreements in draft form and invoice templates set to go.

2. Start as you mean to go on
Get things off to the right start by taking and staying in control. Make sure you explain fully what you’ll deliver and when. Giving a new client cause to chase you up is not a good look.
3. Have help at hand
What are you going to do if the breadth of a new assignment expands rapidly or if additional work lands in your lap? Don’t automatically take on work that will prove a burden. Instead, be ready to recommend other service providers. Or outsource to a trusted ally. As soloists we need to have a strategy to accommodate these situations. What’s yours?

4. Be clear about money
If you frequently find yourself in uncomfortable financial situations, it’s almost always due to a reluctance to confront the mechanics of money. But it’s simply not enough to tell your client how much you charge and leave it at that. When will they be billed, is it at the beginning or the end of a project? What are your terms of payment? What happens if the original brief changes and more/less work is required? Get the language right and this angst will dissipate.

5. Keep everything physical in order
If it takes you an age to lay your hands on a file when your client calls, the anxiety this causes will be sure to come across in your voice.
Keeping your back office tidy and well-organised ensures the engine of your business runs smoothly. After all, you may intend your finished canvas to look beautiful, but if you’ve left the lid off the paint overnight you’ll not be creating any masterpieces.

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