People That Say “I Am Just Always Late” Are full of BS (Belief System)
We all know those people. They might be friends, they might be colleagues, they might be potential partners. They are chronically late! Not by a couple of minutes but by 15 – 30 or even blowing off the meeting at the last minute because something “important” came up.
If this is you, pay attention:
– You are about to get fired
– You are about to get dumped
– You are going to be ghosted
I have a friend of the family who is chronically late. ALWAYS. The story I tell myself about that is, that we are not important to this individual and, therefore, let’s just stop getting together. You see, I have a belief system that says if I am on time, I am late. So, when you are late, you are saying this is not important.
There is a colleague of mine who is on the cusp of getting fired and they don’t understand why. They feel the “boss” has it in for her. The reality is she continually is either late or misses meetings because she has other issues that come up. If you have a meeting with the boss, unless someone is bleeding, or the business is on fire you better show up.
Time is like inventory. If it’s wasted, it is gone forever and executives are not willing to lose that kind of time.
I am going to assume that if you are late it’s not because you are just being a jerk. It’s probably because you do not know how much time things take. Here are some tips.
- For a week, keep a time diary. Every 15 to 30 minutes jot down or type into your device what you have been doing. And how long it took. For example, If you are meeting someone for lunch, time the time it takes you to grab your keys, go out to the car, drive to the location, park, and enter the building. Do not stop timing until you enter the building.
- When you sit down to write your blog posts, time it from start to stop including edits and proofs, how long does it take?
- When you decide to set five appointments, how many calls did it take and how long did it take you to schedule five?
Too often people say they will do something and be someplace by a certain time. And their alarm goes off either at the default 15 – minutes prior or at the time it was due. If you are going to a meeting at 9:00 and you get up from your desk at 9:00 to head to the meeting…you are late.
Don’t lose a job, a client, or a friend because you can’t manage your time. If you would like some help, check out the resources available at https://ras-squared.com
This was originally posted at johngies.com
Your Most Important Appointment of The Week…The One with Yourself
Most entrepreneurs are doers. They get up and go do. They get the job done. And then they burnout, they get stuck, they are working harder than they ever did in a “job”. This is often because they do not schedule Time To Think (TTT). To self-reflect. To think about the business, the future, their history, and where they can make adjustments. I can hear you saying now, “Who has time to self-reflects. I’ve got stuff to do.”
Once you build this habit, you will find it to be the most valuable use of time, in terms of money, fulfillment, and ease of operation period… full stop.
Let me suggest a few ways to create this habit.
- Consider and experiment – to find what works for you. For some people it is when they are running, journaling, or weeding the garden. For me it is journaling. I free associate in my journal every morning and just write whatever comes out. This typically reveals what is lurking under my conscious thinking so I can address it.
- Ask
good questions to get more focus
- What went well?
- What would I do differently? (This is not “What went wrong.”)
- What was I uncomfortable doing?
- What will I commit to doing moving forward?
- What was your process to pursue your goals?
- Commit to the time. I have a one-hour block of time on Sunday AM where I review the week. What worked, what did I get done? How did it work? What would I change? This week it is updating some slides in a presentation that I did not like the way they flowed. One hour might be daunting at first. Maybe commit to 15 minutes at the beginning of the day or the end of the day. I have some clients take just a moment before they cross a threshold to ask:
- What outcome do I want from this?
- How do I want them to feel?
- Who do I have to be?
Just asking these question’s shifts the way we interact with each other.
I can promise you that if you take this time on a regular basis to review your business, your progress, your obstacles, and your insights…Your business will be transformed.
On September 25th we launch the Profit Accelerators Circle. This is a committed group of small business owners that are out to transform their business. It is business fundamentals. It is execution and it is accountability. If you are ready to stop waiting to see how this Pandemic is going to play out and you are ready to create your future click here to see if you qualify for the program.
Stop Discounting and Start Creating Value for More Profits
Product bundling is a great strategy to use when you want to create additional value for your business. Product bundling is simply the process of grouping together certain products to create ‘packages’ which you then sell to your clients. If you’re in a service-based industry then “discount books” do the exact same thing. At the heart of all value-added propositions lies the need to help make your clients’ decision-making process easier.
Many people are very indecisive by nature and will often prefer not to make a decision at all rather than make the wrong one. Product bundling can help people make easier decisions. Consider these examples of product bundling to stimulate your own thought processes.
A dentist could offer 30% off a teeth-whitening program after each visit by a patient. A person is more motivated to buy this product having just gone through the physical and financial pain to have their teeth look great, and naturally they’ll want to keep them looking that way?
A landscape gardener could offer a do-it-yourself garden maintenance kit after each job… including gloves, a spade, a rake, a broom, clippers, a compost bin and so on. This enables the client of the new garden to keep it in the same pristine condition. When added to the cost of the new garden, this bundled offer can be positioned to sound like an excellent investment.
What about a photographer? They could bundle enlargements, a photo album and a DVD of all the session photos taken. Customers are thrilled to receive this complete service and it gives them a permanent record on DVD for future generations.
A locksmith could provide an alarm system, roller shutters, a fire protection system, a car alarm, a personal attack alarm, exterior alarm warning signs and stickers and possibly an ozone detection system where appropriate. People often need a locksmith due to a break-in or fear of one, so why not offer them a ‘complete home-protection package’. Some people will definitely say yes.
By the way, most locksmiths aren’t qualified to install some of these types of high-tech systems. No problem… just joint venture with businesses that are qualified and work out a referral fee for driving qualified clients to them in droves. The locksmith can go ahead and sell the service as well as collect the revenue… then pay their JV provider the reduced fee.
Consider a home builder or remodeling contractor. If they build or remodel multiple homes every year (some builders construct more than 50 homes annually), they typically contract with suppliers and receive huge volume discounts. This is especially true for electronics.
Consider a builder or remodeler who agrees to buy multiple packages of a whole home entertainment and security system including a 42 inch HDTV, a complete high quality surround sound system, a complete home security system including surveillance cameras at all entry points to the home as well as a complete fire protection and monitoring system.
The retail price of this package would easily exceed $25,000 but the builder or remodeler could acquire them in volume for around $6500 since installation would not be part of their costs. Since the builder or remodeler will already have the home stripped to the studs, installation can be handled by their crew for pennies on the dollar.
Now imagine a builder competing with other builders in a moderately priced neighborhood. All the builders offer homes in the $250,000 price range. Our builder offers their home for $256,500 (includes the additional $6500 out of pocket expense to the builder) and it comes standard with a $25,000 home entertainment and full security system for FREE! Which builder would you buy from?
In fact, what if this builder offered that new home for $260,000? Do you really believe that additional $3500 would prevent anyone from buying this home? I seriously doubt it. And if it did, the builder always has the option of reducing the price. They could even maintain their original price of $250,000 and lower their profit margin on each home they sell. This would allow them to possibly double their normal sales volume and practically doubling their overall new profit every year.
The remodeler could use this same type of positioning for every remodeling job they bid on.
What kind of value Bundle can you Create? If you would like help looking to add value versus the discounting madness, let’s chat.
Do You Want to Sell Your Business? Is it Ready to Sell? Part 2
In the last post, we talked about the first three of the 7 areas you need to consider in your scaling to sell process. Here are all seven again:
· Primary Aim
· Strategic Objectives
· Organizational Strategy
· Management Strategy
· People Strategy
· Marketing Strategy
· Systems Strategy
These strategies will fine tune your plan for the ultimate level of success by providing the buyer of your business with a business that they can walk into. Today, we are going to cover the last four.
You might think of your initial business model like planting a tree. At first, it’s so small and weak you wonder if it will even make it through the night. As you grow and add revenue and staff, it is like you are watering, fertilizing, and nurturing it. Your ideas will grow the trunk and each of your strategies will extend out like the branches of your now strong tree. Finding your support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers and other relationships, will make your tree flourish with leaves and flowers.
Management Strategy
The way you hire and structure your management team is not only essential to your growth, but also the happiness of your employees, and ultimately, your customers/clients. This process means that your business is not reliant upon any one person. Rather it is creating a system that is repeatable and that makes it easy for someone to buy your business or, to open a new location.
A management strategy a set of standards for your business that includes goals, rules, a mission statement and other concrete things like job descriptions and policies that tell your employees how to act. They also inform your management team on how to grow your business and to deliver upon your vision and primary aim.
These should all be in perfect alignment with your business goals which in turn, support your primary aim.
Employee Appreciation
You want to put together a people strategy that demonstrates to your employees how you feel about their job performance and dedication to your business. They also need to understand “why” they are doing specific tasks. This helps them to personally connect to their job which in turn leads to better production and a happier workplace.
There are several strategies you can use:
· Feedback
· Development opportunities
· Contests that reward high performance
· Employee of the Month
· Performance/Holiday Bonuses
These are just a few of the ideas you can use. One of the best ways to appreciate your employees is by calling a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded. I can remember a call center where people valued the ability to wear jeans to work over a $25 gift card. Go figure. Keep it fresh and change up the strategy you use from time to time to keep your employees guessing. Once they get used to the prize, it’s time for a whole new approach. Sometimes it is recognition. I know one company gives their people the opportunity to recognize their peers. They do this by nominating them for a high five recognition for helping a customer or someone else. The person that won the award would get a reward.
You want to build a community within your organization. You want support, appreciation, and respect. The more an employee feels they “belong”, the better they will perform and the higher their level of loyalty.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing is, of course, essential to the success of any business but it also must work with the other strategies you’re using. There are two major pillars of a successful marketing strategy – the demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.
The psychographic tells you what your customers are the most likely to buy based on their emotions, their desires, and their concerns. The demographic tells you who they are, their income, age and other physical characteristics, which can help you learn why they buy specific items,. You must know your market.
Systems Strategy
There are three types of systems in every business:
· Hard Systems
· Soft Systems
· Information Systems
Hard systems refer to an inanimate system or systems that have no “life”. These could be processes, manufacturing spec’s, or programming steps. Soft systems are those that could be living. These typically involve people and they are called soft because people are not binary. They can be a little messy. Information systems which are, of course, everything else including customer data, product information, financial…anything with data and numbers.
All three systems are essential to the success of your business and while they all have their own very specific roles, they all must work together to get the job done. This also goes for your entire business development program.
Let’s take a moment to recap these ideas.
7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:
· Primary Aim
· Strategic Objectives
· Organizational Strategy
· Management Strategy
· People Strategy
· Marketing Strategy
· Systems Strategy
Use our FREE Test Drive to learn how you can apply these and other ideas to grow your business without spending any more money on marketing or advertising.
Do You Want to Sell Your Business? Is it Ready to Sell? Part 1
Too often small business owners create a business and then want to sell it. But they have not taken the time to think through what is valuable in selling a business. When you consider scaling your business and eventually selling your business, it is helpful to think about how you will make it easy to step into. One way to think about this is the franchise model. There are 7 steps to consider as you scale. They are:
· Your Primary Aim
· Strategic Objectives
· Organizational Strategy
· Management Strategy
· People Strategy
· Marketing Strategy
· Systems Strategy
Today we will explore the first three.
Your Primary Aim
It’s essential in business development to set goals and see a vision for the future. This needs to go beyond the business. You also want to think about what you desire out of life. If you are just thinking about the business, you might as well be in a job. What do you dream about? How do you see your success unfolding? Who is with you to celebrate your success? What is the impact of success on you, your customers, your employees your family? Understanding these things will give you the momentum to get started and the stamina to see it through. Now take a minute to write them down and tape this to your desk for a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.
My primary aim is to create a business that helps the business’ on Main street thrive so that regardless of what happens on Wall Street our community thrives. To do that I help a number of small business owners create millions of dollars in new revenue without spending more money on marketing or advertising.
The Strategic Objectives
These are essential in taking your business from surviving to thriving. These objectives should offer a path to get to your primary aim. There are many things you can use to set strategic objectives, but here are a some of the most popular:
- Money: Setting income goals is a simple way to see how you are doing at any point in the game. It’s easy to measure and easy to find adjustments to help meet this goal.
- Worthy Opportunities: When considering partnerships and other business opportunities such as new product or service development, you want to think about whether they will help you reach your primary aim. Those that will are the best opportunities to seriously consider. All too often I see small business owners distracted by the next shiny thing.
- Customers served: Tracking the number of people your business has served. I have a colleague that wants to reach 10,000 women through her work. And in the process of serving, you create a business.
The key to setting standards and goals is not to limit you or stress yourself out. You need to find some quantifiable things you can use to measure your progress toward your primary aim. I know one business owner that uses bananas as a measurement. You’ll have to ask me for more details. 😉 These are just a few suggestions, but make sure no matter what standards you set you are paying attention to the details, as these are one of the biggest keys to your success.
Organizational Strategy
The strength of your organizational structure can make or break your business, so it’s important to take the time to put together a solid structure for your business to grow from. Generally, a company is organized around the roles and responsibilities that need to be taken care of daily and the personalities that need to fulfill those roles. These might be:
– Finance
– Operations
– Sales & Marketing
It might even be helpful to create an organizational chart and slot people in these roles. Even if it is a business of one right now. Understanding the roles and responsibilities of the roles will move your business forward. No matter what roles and responsibilities you’ve defined for your employees, you must always keep your own personal primary aim separate from your company’s primary aim or mission statement. Once you’ve identified the primary aim for your company, it will be easy to set up a position structure that will work.
Don’t forget to put together position contracts. Your employees should sign a statement of their roles and responsibilities. This leads to a key distinction that often causes strife. Expectations versus agreement. All too often people have expectations for their partners and employees. But they have not reached an agreement with those parties. Having a contract helps make this an agreement and it makes it easier to hold each other and ourselves accountable.
By now you can see how these areas all work together to build a solid structure on which to build your business. If you need help defining any of these areas, you can check out the resources and tools and then check out our FREE test drive.