Fast thinking and wisdom can work wonders, I saw this today and thought it’s well worth reproducing here, enjoy!
A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.
One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he’s lost. […]

Many of you know I have a business seminars listing service on another site, I have a bunch of events put in there as a service to the wider business community so people can find events in a “one stop shop” approach for aussie businesses.
I list only publicly available events and have done for about […]

Lets say you have done things right and you have a good service or product to sell, and yet people are not buying… What next? Well consider these three interlinked points and see if you can do something with this.
Firstly people start off as suspects, they move to prospect next, then when they buy […]

From an original article on various business success pointers, here are the individual “how to” possible options for you to explore.
Training to win/win
You and your staff should be trained to make the whole show win, then the customers can win too. A great position to get to and stay in.  For some the idea […]

I have been on about the Guy Kawasaki 10 - 20 - 30 planning device for a while now (since I found it in early 07) Well this week I had the good fortune to use it myself and have created a template to be used in Power Point.
Unfamiliar with 10 -20 - 30? It’s […]

Most of you will have heard of the term win win, meaning a positive outcome for both parties, I thought about it as I was pondering some marketing options for a business.
My thought went like this, what if a marketing Co (lets say a newspaper selling advertising) were to only offer win win advertising so […]

Have you ever thought about the activity and decisions that takes place in your business, or in your life for that matter? Let’s get a handle on things to explain more about what I mean.
Active and inactive - It’s either one or the other and not much in between, of course at the either […]

There are customers and there are CUSTOMERS! it can be very useful to know who you are deailing with so you can figure out the best way of working with them so they are influenced to purchase and deal with your organisation.
there are personality profiles, psyche profiles and marketing type profiles here is one we […]

For the Franchisor: How do you make the start up phase easy for the Franchisee?
For the Frachisee: How does the Franchisor make the start up phase easy for you.
This is the sort of question both parties should be asking themselves and for the Franchisor reviewing it often to make sure they have the best systems […]

Who is blaming whom? In the failed business stakes there are those with the crushed ego from the fall who want to blame anyone but themselves. They will claim the system failed them, customers failed them, area supervisors and suppliers failed them… then of course the franchisor failed them!
In all the blame game generally gets […]

When it comes to buying a business or starting out in a brand new venture, it is vital to do your “due diligence” so you can know if the business is right for you. In franchises its the same, however it is reasonable to expect the franchisor should be able to supply you with more […]

No this is not about Homer Simpson getting a helper monkey! it’s about the ideal clients we all want to chase, but hey there are issues about going for gold, its time, money and often our attitude.
Firstly the ideal customer “monkey” is at the top of the tree, try to climb it too fast you […]

In business there are many things to consider, but one of the most overlooked is the fact that you have to deal with people, staff, customers, suppliers, partners and support teams (accountants coaches and the like). The factor that makes or breaks the relationship that’s built is your attitude. But what is it, and specifically […]

Today you are doing what SPECIFICALLY…
- to make your business more profitable?
- to cause the staff to LOVE you?
- to cause the customers to LOVE you and your team?
- to cause your suppliers to jump through hoops to give you great deals (and LOVE you)?
- to ensure your workplace is the best place […]

If you are willing to learn how to listen, it will take hard work to learn the skills and constant practice to stay in shape. However, it is all worth it. Remember, people feel relieved when they find someone who understands what they have to say. Once you truly understand others by actively listening to […]

I have fielded a few enquiries over the past few months on how to market products and services and have noted there are a number of organisations that have started a business but had no ideas about the sales side, what tactics, strategies and or methods they will use to get people to spend $$ […]

“Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” (My Mother, ever since I can remember.)
Procrastination is like a virus. It creeps up on you slowly, drains you of energy, and is difficult to get rid of if your resistance is low. Procrastination is a close relative of incompetence and a first cousin to […]

During the 1980’s I had the privilege of working with an American speaker by the name of Roger Dawson. Roger is the author of a number of excellent books on negotiating and persuasion and he lives in California. I used to bring Roger to Australia to conduct his seminars and we’ve been friends for over […]

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 […]

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 […]

“The reason you don’t understand me, Edith, is because I’m talkin’ to you in English and you’re listenin’ to me in dingbat!” - Archie Bunker
Archie was right about finding a common language or wavelength, but it takes two to communicate– the speaker and the listener. Both need to make the effort to understand each other. […]

“Negotiating is the
most highly paid work
you will ever do. You
are generally making
more per hour when
you negotiate than
anything else you’ll
ever do!””
Wayne Berry

This situation is NOT the negotiation. It’s the end result of the […]

Don’t Make These Mistakes!
As I work with sales people and sales managers I see some  fatal mistakes being made as they negotiate.

May I share some of these here with you now in the hope that their “learning experiences” will benefit you and remind you of the importance of not falling into these “traps”.
Indeed, you may […]

Fear stops many of us from truly expressing who we are and achieving our dreams. Some of us are risk takers, all of us make mistakes and I would say all of us have experienced fear at some stage or another. In this article I am talking about the type of fear that stops us from moving […]

I love working with businesses as they are made up of people as the main part of the mechanism to make the organisation work, but all too often companies run into negative people issues and that can mean things may not go quite as planned some times. I developed this list in response to a […]