Running business in the dark, without a map is bananas

Driving downtown Toronto on my honeymoon, I got lost. I am from the country and the big city scared me a bit. More importantly, as I was driving, my newest and lovely co-pilot couldn't navigate me out of the labyrinth of greasy streets and wall-to-wall cars. Before GPS, the ancient travellers used paper maps bought at a corner store for $3.99. This piece of paper was integral to navigate our lost souls back onto our chosen path.

That one dark afternoon on our honeymoon reminded me of the usefulness of a business map.

What do entrepreneurs use to map their business?

Unless she's a pioneer, someone has already been there.

If a person was driving a car, she''d pull out a map, phone or  GPS. Someone has already been there and tracked the route for everyone to follow them in the future, like my wife and I had done.

The pioneers created the maps.
Everyone else improves on them.

Business is the same way.
Someone has already drawn out the map.

So why would anyone try to do it alone?

American pioneers who didn't learn from other pioneers got killed.

Business people who don't learn from other business people get ideas and dreams executed.
85% of businesses fail in the first five years.

Maybe part of the problem has to do with the inability to ask for help.

The best entrepreneurs attribute their success to some other person.

Doing it alone is... well, lonely. And riskier than jumping off a bridge without checking the level of the water below.

The best entrepreneurs find the roadmap, find others who've already been there. They ask for advice and build upon the known path making the road a little more travelled.

No one can do it alone.

Which begs the question why anyone would try?

The whisper of time

Let's kill time.
I need to burn some time.
I can't wait until tomorrow.
Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day.

Time is all we really have. If you're like me, you sometimes take it for granted. Until one day it will all be gone.

Where has the time gone?
Time surely has flown by.

In a whisper, our lives are over.
150 years ago, people existed that none of us know.
Books tell us a story of their lives.
But do we really understand what they went through?

And in 150 years from now, the same will be said of our civilization.
Forgotten in reality. Remembered by youtube footprints.
Isn't it sad to think that youtube might be used as an accurate depiction of our lives?

And even then, youtube will be stored on computer libraries long forgotten by the future masses as they live their lives capturing memories on their futuristic medium.

Ask anyone in their sixties or older about time and they will say something like, "Where did it go?"

Is that what you want for your life?
Wondering where it went...

The only difference between an old man and a young man is his experiences.

Are you working for 40 years. Or are you working for one year and repeating it 40 times?

Time is whispering away, with each repeated experience.

The best cheapest, most efficient way to advertise a business

Growth in revenues is what we want in business. More revenues means the expenses get taken care of easier and the doors get to stay open.

Here's where most entrepreneurs stumble:
They think that a growth in revenues is determined only by attracting new customers to the product.

Attracting new customers is the hardest and most expensive form of revenue growth.

A new business, with no customers, has no choice to go down this road. That's part of the reason why 80% of businesses fail in the first five years of operations.

An existing business that already has clients isn't forced down that path.

There are three ways to grow sales:
1. Attract new clients
2. Increase frequency of purchase of existing clients.
3. Get existing clients to buy more each visit

Two of the three ways are attributed to existing business.

In my first year of business, sales had to be increased or the doors would be closed. We focused on number 2 and 3, without any outside advertising. Our sales increased by 42%. I heard a similar story of a Burger King franchise who increased his sales by 40% in one year by focussing on cleanliness and customer service.

Could it really be that simple?

So instead of investing valuable marketing dollars towards a yellow pages ad, newspaper ad, TV commercial, radio commercial, or whatever you might think about doing, understand that sales can be easily influenced by your current actions INSIDE your business. Fix your internal stuff and sales will grow.

Then, if you still haven't hit your sales targets, you can advertise.

Advertising speeds up the inevitable.

Don't allow the inevitable to be negative.

Dealing with employee morale

Ever work for someone who's self interests are greater than her interest in the growth of the team? 

It's demotivating. It's poisonous. The negativity vultures start circling, eyeing their prey waiting for the perfect time to pluck out thine eyes.

Don't give into the vultures. You have a choice. You can quit or you can change.

If you actually like your job, quitting is not the right answer.

So change it is.

How do you change?

What you focus on expands. Focussing on your boss's inadequacies will piss you off more.

The only way to go to a positive place is to focus on the positive things about the job. 

Ask yourself what you're thankful for with this job.
Ask yourself what you love about this job.
Write it all down. 

If you're a team of one, you keep doing this. If there are others on the team, whether you're a supervisor or not, it's your time to lead. Your happiness depends on it. Can't do it? Then you should quit your job. Your happiness also depends on it. 

Quitting a job in this way is like running away from a problem. Unfortunately, this problem will resurface at another job someday. Ever notice that life is like a video game. Until you learn how to get past a difficult level, you keep reliving the same old mistakes.

Today, you're going to get past this difficult level. You're gonna go Jedi on them with this mind trick.

Get the team together on Monday morning and lead them to positive change. Ask them to list the five things they love about their jobs, the team, and working with each other. You write down their answers but don't let them write them down.

Every Monday, do it again. At first, some will push back. Keep doing it. It will get harder before it gets easier. Keep referring to each employee's list. Write down the new answers they give. And there will be new answers because they will forget their previous responses if they didn't write them down.

Happiness comes from gratitude. This tactic will force employees to remind themselves why they are grateful for their job and their coworkers.

Focus on gratitude, and what they love about their jobs. 

Happiness, gratitude and love will expand.

Balancing work and family

My kids were both born in the 22 months between my last corporate job and the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.

My son was born exactly one month before the first restaurant opened. I couldn't be the dad I wanted to be. I wanted to play with my boy. Teach him how to throw a ball. Go skating, play hockey, watch TV. But I was tired.

A full day of work will do that to a person. Adding to the fatigue was the stress of trying to make a dream come true, working with 30 other people who depended on me for their paycheques and all the other individual problems that come from hiring 30 people.

I made a commitment to my business that I would work 6 days per week to make it a success. With Wednesday off, it would eventually become known as Family Day.

Family Day was set up to be the one day where we would do stuff together, not answer the phones, play, go on a day trip. The goal was to just have fun.

People said I was going to burn myself out working 6 days per week. I didn't believe it. I know lots of people who go to a paying job Monday to Friday only to work their butts off on Saturday and Sunday with house chores. Clearly, I neglected the house chores. But I didn't like doing them and I was paid more at work than I was cleaning the garage.

But as the kids got older and started school, balance became more of an issue. Family Day consisted of just me and my wife, while the kids were off to the education factory.

When they were off, I was at work. Eventually, my wife got in the business and she was also working on Sundays. I only saw the kids at nights for a few hours between homework and bedtime. My wife got Saturday with them as she cleaned the house.

I hated it. The only balance we had in our lives started with IM.

I wanted to work.
I liked the work.

But the stresses got too strong. And everything started to bother us.

The marriage was strained.
Relationships with business partners went downhill.
The kids were being cared for by everyone but us.
It felt like our lives were built on a deck of cards, just waiting for the wrong move.

Until one day, we decided to sell everything.

Nothing was more important than us raising our kids. We had them because we wanted a family more than anything else in the world.

And even though I knew that, I kind of forgot about it as I pushed my business interests higher.

Balance does not exist when it comes to work and family.

It's more like a swingset. You push and then you receive, only to push again. While the swing goes up, you can do other things quickly so you can be there to receive the swing as it comes back down. You can ignore pushing the swing a few times as you focus on the other task. Eventually if you don't give it another push, the swing stops.

As we try to survive, provide and nurture, we drive ourselves crazy trying to be all things to all people. High school taught us that we can't do that.

What's sitting on your swing, work or family?

The key to hiring success

Talk to anyone about hiring and they will tell you to hire for attitude not experience.

Although it's a known fact, how many of us actually do it?

Most will say they do. But what they really do is take a small pool of EXPERIENCED candidates and interview them for attitude. They choose the best attitude amongst the experienced short list.

The cost to train an inexperienced employee is high. Yet the cost to replace an entire team decimated by an experienced jerk is obviously much higher.

The restaurant industry is no different. Because restaurants are on the front lines of business warfare, this challenge comes up often. Hire for skill and try to untrain bad habits or hire for attitude and try to train skill. In restaurants, the time required to train skill is short compared to more skilled jobs corporate jobs.

Hiring an employee in a restaurant is a pain in the ass. It's not like the trainers don't have anything else to do. It's not like business likes to pay for the extra cost of training labour. There is no HR department...

Yet hiring is still necessary.

Here are two tips that I learned for hiring success in the restaurant industry.

First of all, get referrals from existing employees. Not only do birds of a feather flock together, but now you have a mentor, a training buddy, a support team for your new employee.

How often have you seen a new employee get plucked to death by the team? A friend won't let this happen to the new recruit. A friend will bring the employee under her wing and protect her from the predators while feeding her advice and tips. 

The other phenomenon I witnessed in these scenarios is the creation of study buddies. The friend trains the new recruit off company time, which saves valuable labour costs.

You don't always get enough referrals so you may have to advertise the position or review the pile of resumes in the file. Trying to get through the bullshit that resumes dish out, a decision is made who will be interviewed.

The second tip for hiring is more ninja style.

Hire for attitude. But hire for a specific attitude. Look for someone who has the ability to CARE. 

Trying to find an employee who cares can be difficult. Everyone cares about something. Look specifically for someone who has a deep desire to help others.

How do you assess that?

If you're hiring a part-time employee look to university, college or high school kids. More specifically hire students who are studying or wanting to study Education or Nursing. 

If you're hiring a fulltime employee, ask them if they had to do it all over again and had to go back to school, what field of study would they take. Again, look for the Education or Nursing answer.

I know it's crazy. I stumbled across this in my third year of business. I never had one bad hire using this methodology.  You can end the interview after this simple question. Nothing else will give you more information.

It worked for me and I'll bet it will work for you. Just saying...

No longer employable

Entrepreneurs don't make good employees.

Some companies look for entrepreneurial employees. What they really want are employees who are ready, willing and able to take initiative.

Employees who are entrepreneurial are risk takers. They will work hard. But they may not spend a lot of time in the office. They may be networking, shaking hands, and looking for opportunities for both their employer and themselves.

These people are not employable. They seek new challenges. They can't be pegged down. Don't ask them to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week. You'll kill them and more importantly their spirit.

Don't ask them to work bank hours. They may start working at 5 am to go golfing at noon with some prospective clients only to be seen two days later. They may be gone for days, knocking down doors of new clients.

Be clear on the goals in the beginning. If not, the entrepreneurial employee will set his own goals, which will probably not be in line with corporate objectives.

An entrepreneurial employee will disrupt. If the current systems don't work for him, he will change them. He will do whatever it takes to find success.

Don't allow the disruption, and he'll suffocate. Real entrepreneurs don't work for money. They work for fun, the thrill, the fight, the challenge. Money comes because they are so damned good at it.

Piss him off and he won't think about quitting. He'll pick up his stuff and leave. He's a spoiled brat that way.

You will never, ever, ever be able to control these people. So you have two choices: don't hire them or hire them and get out of the way.

The most powerful form of marketing

No one will question this. A friend talking about a new product, getting excited, will sell us on the idea that we should buy that same product a million times faster than some 30 second television commercial.

Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing that exists.

It's also the slowest to achieve any substantial results.

A friend recently asked me about the power of referrals. His idea is to create WOM marketing for his new business. But he wants it to happen fast, which is like asking an elephant to tiptoe gently (impossible).

He has a business that he wants to pay a referral fee to customers who generate new business for him.

Here was my response.

Money will motivate some people to give you a referral. Agreed that profit margins are good enough to afford referral fees. However keep in mind that most will gladly refer for free if you do a good job with an amazing guarantee. The reason most people don’t refer companies to their friends isn’t because they aren’t paid. It's their friendship credibility that's at stake if the friend has a bad experience with the referred company. To most, credibility is way more important to them than a few bucks.

Think about the other side of the equation. If I’ve been referred to your business by a friend in which I spend a significant amount of money. It doesn't matter if I like the product or not, if I found out that the friend made money in converting me to your client, it makes me feel used. 

To combat that, you can make a better deal - an insider’s deal or a friend’s and family deal.

Offer this instead:

If a client knows anyone else who might also like the product, not only could you give a referral fee, but you could also give the referred customer a percentage friend and family discount. Now everyone wins and no one will feel taken advantage of by a friend.

Remember, the deflector shields will be up. How do they come down? When we are able to help others. A pay it forward discount to our friends will be seen as helping others and not taking advantage of a client's personal network.

Social Media is a form of Word of Mouth marketing. It can speed up things significantly. But the credibility factor will remain. Most won't share in fear of hurting their own social standing. They will protect their network, and their credibility unless they know without a doubt that you won't let them or their friends down.

The Deflector Shield and Selling

If someone you don't know, tries to sell you something, you put up what I like to call the Deflector Shield. First of all, the person you're talking to doesn't have any credibility with you, so you immediately question motives.

Credibility is everything.

The Deflector Shield is the same shield that young women use in nightclubs to protect themselves from young bucks trying to sleep with them.

What's the easiest way to lower the Shield? Instead of exposing your true intent, you need to approach in Stealth Mode.

How do you approach in Stealth Mode?
Ask for help. Literally ask for help.

Most people don't want to be sold to. But they are more than happy to help.

Imagine a young buck approaching Lady Enterprise. "Hey baby, your daddy must've been a jeweller because he placed two diamonds in your eyes".

Ugh. That stuff only works on the weak and desperate.

Now imagine this happening all night to the same Lady Enterprise, who is in full Deflector Mode, when a more sophisticated young buck approaches and says, "Hi, my name is XYZ and I'm wondering if you can help me out. I just bought this new shirt but I don't have much of a sense for style. I have four brothers at home and I'd like to get a woman's opinion. What do you think?"

Bye bye deflector shields. Maybe a conversation develops and maybe it doesn't. But the second guy has a much better chance of converting the sale once the shields are down.

Take that same idea over to the business world. Most salespeople use the first approach telling us whatever we want to hear so they can get into our pants.

But when someone comes along and asks for our help, we generally lower the shield and listen to what the salesperson has to say. When these people get into our pants, it doesn't feel as icky.

We are all in sales. So the next time you need to sell something, whether it be a product, service or idea, try asking for help instead of coming on too strong.

There's a bigger chance of success and a lesser chance of being a douche.

There are losers in life

People can actually lose at this game called life.

It's not what you think.

It's not necessarily the guy who pokes needles into his arm or the girl that needs to satisfy her addiction by drinking a 40 ouncer before leaving the house.

It might not be the person who could work but decides to stay home and live off available social programs like free housing, free food or free money.

It doesn't have to be the person who never achieves their dreams.

It's probably not the homeless guy begging for spare change on the street.

You can only lose at life when you stop laughing.

As long as you continue to laugh, you have found some level of happiness.
As long as you find happiness, you cannot lose.

Happiness is a choice.
By choosing happiness, you win.

We all know people who's face looks more like their assholes. The pierced lips that just sucked on something sour resembling the anal's orifice.

Don't be that person.

Be the opposite of that person. A laughing person is an attractive person.
Be the opposite of that person. A laughing person is a magnetic person.
Be the opposite of that person. A laughing person makes others laugh.
A laughing person makes other people happy.

And that's the greatest gift anyone can give in this world.

And that's how we win at life.

We only lose when we stop laughing...

Nature is a bitch

It's only natural.

Be one with nature.

We are supposed to respect nature. Yet, nature can be such a bitch.

I agree with the overall premise of respecting our natural neighbours. But I saw an ugly side of nature yesterday. I was cutting down a few dead branches, when the soothing trickle of a stream whispered for me to come closer. 

As I approached, I saw the weight of the snow from this past winter had bent the alder bushes into the stream's path. Mother's source, water, was being blocked by stubborn trees not wanting to die, but not having enough life to rise again.

I was sad. 

In the coming years, these bushes will block the waterflow like a beaver's dam and I will lose the laughter of the joyful water.

Those bushes don't have the energy to rise up. They are not trees. They don't have the DNA of their tree cousins. Their lot in life is to populate the land like a disease. They don't have aspirations of beauty. 

So enter the chain saw. 

Their doom is told by their unwillingness to reach for the stars. Their complacency is their ultimate destruction.

They will eventually die a slow drowning death.

Drowning has to be the worst way to die. 

Nature is allowing them to suffer.

Nature is allowing them to think they are still alive.

Their fate is sealed.

And nature knows it. 

What a bitch.

Murderer. Killer. Slaughterer.

The chain saw cuts the throats of those poor bushes in an instant. The pain is over. The sadness is gone. 

The brook rejoiced.

The children cried.

The fish laughed.

And nature sat back in her rocking chair contemplating her next dick move.

What a bitch!  

Little Girl

Little girl, saddened heart
You can hide behind your smiles
We still see your pain
You can try to hide it
It hurts to watch you
It hurts to see you
It hurts to know you

Little girl, sorrowed eyes
You can hide behind your laughs
We still hear your pain
You can try to run
It hurts to hear you
It hurts to listen to you
It hurts to know you

Little girl, broken spirit
You can hide behind your actions
We still feel your pain
You can try to numb it out
It hurts to talk about you
It hurts to think about you
It hurts to know you

It wasn't your fault
Nor was it mine
It's just in the stars
The fault lies with them
Little Girl
Hide, run, or numb
The pain will never go away entirely
It will fade with time
Like every other memory

You're right...

I was a conference last Friday for a Multi Level Marketing event.

I'm not a fan of MLM. Although for some "the business" can very lucrative, it's just not my idea of a good time. And I want to have fun when I make money.

I didn't go to this event because a friend convinced me to go. I went because of a coincidence. I love coincidences. There's something unnatural about them. They feel like a chaotic series of events that should have no relevance together, and then BAM, it all makes sense.

I've learned opportunity never knocks. It whispers in your ear. One form of the whisper shows up through coincidences.

Let me explain.

I was having a conversation with a business partner about Napoleon Hill. When I hung up the phone, I had a text from another friend telling me about a speaker coming to my town who was a Napoleon Hill certified speaker. The text came in about the same moment the first discussion took place.

I called back my business partner and told him about the amazing coincidence. I bought a ticket to the  event, knowing full well that it was a sponsored event by an MLM organization. He decided to come to.

They had some product for trial. I wasn't a fan. 

The speaker was ok. He lost me at one point because he said something that contradicted one of my beliefs about money. An audience member sitting behind me asked him what he meant by getting money to work for you. His response had to do with creating groups of people who would sell more product. I whispered to the friend, that's not money working for you, that's people working for you.  I fundamentally believe he was wrong. He was promoting his MLM scheme.

Early in his presentation he spoke about never getting into an argument. He said that whenever a disagreement surfaces, he goes to his safe place by saying, "You're right". A fight needs at least two people. Someone not willing to fight squashes the debate.

Fast forward a few days and it was my turn at speaking on stage. I was presenting marketing and business strategies to new entrepreneurs.  Someone in the audience said something that was absolutely ludicrous. I knew he was wrong, but he was so adamant, I could not win. I even gave him an out and he didn't take it. I wanted to pull up Google to show him when I'm on stage I don't rent the stage. I fucking own it. 

But I didn't. And it bothered me for the rest of the day. Not because some smart ass was stealing my thunder. It was because my ego was telling me if this bastard shows me up here, then everything else I am speaking about comes into question. This was the only thing he said all day. And I let his words hurt me.

I still have a lot of learning to do... 

PS. The coincidence was no random act. Not only did I live on two sides of the same argument, I was bored at the event. I started brainstorming on a name for a new project I'm working on. The energy in the room was strong enough to inspire me with it. I shared afterward with my business partner. He loved it too. I'll give you one word - Gladiator. 

Stay tuned...

The secret ingredient to happiness

I will be happy when...insert expectation here...

I will be happy if...insert condition here...

Happiness is not based on expectation or conditions.
Happiness is not an event. Nor is it dependant on the future.

Happiness can only happen in the present.
So what's the secret?
Why does it allude some of us, yet get attracted to others like flies to shit?

I read recently that happiness is a derivative of gratitude. If we recognize all the things in our life and appreciate them, then the crappy stuff that eventually happens will carry less weight on our emotional state.

I take the good things in my life for granted. I think we all do from time to time. It's only when I sit down and take stock that I realize how fortunate I am. Happiness is a drug, like a swig of gin as it creates those good feelings. Unfortunately, like a drug, the more I try to consume, the sicker I get. The more I search for it, the further I stray away from it.

And like crack, each hit is less and less effective- so I'm told...

We all want to be happy. We search for it in the pursuit of things and events. The momentary attainment of events and things can be addictive. It's a hypodermic needle filled with chemicals. Something more addictive than heroine and harder to find than a two peckered billy goat. The happiness drug is dopamine. And dopamine is created by our brains.

I know this sounds stupid, but happiness cannot be found. It's a state of being. It's a choice.

When you're hungry, you eat.
When the happiness tank is empty, you fill it with dopamine fuelled by gratitude.

If happiness is inside of us then it will be where you are, when you're ready to receive it.

I conducted a personal happiness experiment recently. Every morning, I took a minute to think about all the good things in my life. Then at supper, before the kids scoffed down their food, we had a gratitude moment. At first the kids thought it was stupid. We didn't know what to say, so we'd say the first thing that came to our minds. To get more original in my answers, I started to notice the small pleasures in life so I could share them at supper.

As I paid more attention to the small things, I caught myself giggling multiple times a day.

I dropped my phone and it didn't break.
A friend bought me lunch.
The insurance is going to pay for the damages to my pool.
A friend asked for my business advice.
My son gave me a hug this morning.
The whole family went fishing together.
Mom told me she loved me today.
I was speeding and the cops flashed their lights but didn't pull me over.
I learned something new.

And then the best one...
I was drinking a breakfast smoothie in the car, when a dollop of yogurt escaped the top end of the straw and strayed downward toward my clean white shirt. I was all dressed up for an important meeting and was scared to look down. To my amazement, the liquid landed perfectly on the shoulder harness of my seatbelt. It never touched my shirt. I was saved, giggled and thanked God for his gracious generosity.

I challenge you to go on your own personal gratitude journey. For the next 21 days, write down three things that happens for which you are grateful.  Read them out loud before you go to bed and when you wake up. Then look all day for three new things you can write at the end of that day. And repeat for 20 more days.

You'll surprise yourself.

You'll be happy you did it.

What are you feeding yourself

What do you eat in the morning?
What about over a week?

Have you ever written down every last thing you put into your mouth over a seven day period?

Garbage in, garbage out.

I am not in great shape. For the past five months I have missed only three days of exercise. I'm proud to say that even in those three missed days, I doubled up the workout the following day.

Why am I doing it?
I don't like my weight.
I think I could stand to lose another 25 pounds.

It's not that I'm overweight.

My over-fit friend says that weight is lost in the kitchen, not in the gym.

I lost 15 pounds from the workouts, but it's been two months that I'm hovering around the same weight.

I think I eat pretty healthy.

But there is something I must be doing wrong.

I started monitoring everything that went from fingers to mouth.

Holy shit.

That's my problem.

I am treating myself too many times a week. It's ok to treat yourself, just not everyday.

When I wrote everything down, I was getting a treat everyday like a little dog that didn't pee on the floor.

Now apply that same thinking to what you're listening to, watching on TV and reading.

How much TV do you watch? You probably don't watch a lot. But write every hour down, including the show, the time. If you have the TV on in the background while you're cooking, that counts. Count how much TV you watch a week. How much of it is educational? Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil doesn't count as educational. They are informational, but their hooks are still based on entertainment.

Do you read? What are you reading? Facebook status updates don't count...

Do you listen to radio DJ's laughing and telling jokes, nonstop commercials trying to sell you shit, or do you listen to instructional audiobooks on your way to work?

What are you feeding your brain?

It's ok to treat yourself, just not everyday.
Are you treating yourself too many times a week?

Garbage in, garbage out - just like food.
Guaranteed...