Don't ask me!

Have our inquisitive minds died? There was a time when we wanted to know what the four legged thing that people sat on at the table was called. 

We asked our parents tirelessly "What's that"? Mom would say, "A chair". Then we changed our gaze to the cat and asked "What's that". Then we pointed to the TV and again asked the same question. This could go on for hours as we learned the basics in communication.

We were learning and our parents had all of the answers. Somewhere along the way our moldable brains didn't want to be molded anymore. We felt it was more safe to learn on our own than to ask intelligent questions. It was like asking a question revealed a weakness. 

I think it's something primal. In our genetic past, if we showed weakness, someone would beat us over the head with a club and feed us to the sabre tooth tigers. Survival of the fittest. 

So genetically, we've learned to hide our weaknesses so no one will feed us to the tigers. 

Questions are the key to the answers. As I grow older, I've learned that I don't have to know all the answers. No one will beat me over the head with a club. No sabre tooth tigers are lurking in the bushes. I don't have to be the smartest person in the room. 

We need to be inquisitive like a child again. It's ok to ask lots of questions. Don't ask because you feel you have to. Ask because you want to. 

The 12 year old who thinks he knows everything is a lack of maturity. But we carry that lack of maturity through to our adulthood as we continue to pretend to have all the answers. 

Admitting to not knowing all the answers is another step on the maturity ladder. 

With age, we stop asking questions, even though they are still there, waiting to jump out of the sheets of our consciousness to scream "Surprise".

Instead of knowing an answer for sure, we make assumptions based on experience, beliefs and what others told us.  We act as though there is only one universal answer to each question. We don't ask the question and hence we never learn that universal answers do not exist.

Asking loving, non-judgemental questions will force the ego to sit in the backseat of the car while your heart rides shotgun.  As your heart rides up front, your life will only experience love. 

When your heart's in the right place, all the answers will appear.

Riches to Rags

James had a major concern. His beloved son, William, was spoiled. He got everything he wanted. Flashy clothes, fancy vacations, beautiful bedroom with private bathroom were just a few of the things that William took for granted being a member of James' family.

James had accumulated so much wealth that William never wanted to work in school. William wasn't a good student. His grades in school were borderline acceptable. James sent William to the school where rich people send their rich kids. It was expensive because William didn't qualify for any of the scholastic scholarships James had received.

William liked to party at school. With his dad's money, William was a rock star on campus. With his nice car, tanned face, and party hearty attitude, he was a favourite with the girls. He was such a bad student that after one year, the school asked him not to come back. James thought that William was sowing wild oats and that eventually he would grow up. James offered him a position in his multi million dollar enterprise. The idea was that James would teach William what had made him a success so that William could carry on the family fortune.

William didn't understand why James was thrifty. Money was always available. It was like magic. Just when William needed more, it would be there.

James wanted to retire. His built his business so it could run itself. William could work in it and benefit from the same trees that James had planted.

Bad news followed. The doctor told James he had three months to live. All his hard work and he was never going to enjoy his free time.

Ninety five days later James was lying horizontal in life's death carriage. He was gone. William had full control of his dad's company. The party animal from school became a party beast. There were no limits on how much money William could spend. He took five vacations per year, with five different women. His dad couldn't tell him to curve his spending. The business needed attention so William hired some high paid employees to take care of it for him. He had no interest in his dad's business. He wanted the lifestyle.

One high paid employee stole $1 million from the company account and fled to Thailand. Crippling the company with a cash problem, William had to buckle down and get back to work. But he didn't know the work. Plus he didn't like to work. Work took away from his lifestyle.

Banks wouldn't invest in his business. So he refinanced his dad's house to keep the business going for the next 3 months. His friends dried up about the same time as the money did.

William was alone. His dad's business was bankrupt. His dad's house was going to be repossessed. He abandoned his dad's house, moved in to his cousin's mobile home, and handed the keys to the business to the bank.

He would run into family and ex party friends at the corner store. They sympathized for him and declared that he was poor.

He answered, "I was always poor, I just didn't know it".

Rags to riches

James was a little boy, who was born into a house of poverty. His parents loved him, but couldn't give him the things the material things he desired in his young life. While all of James' friends had new clothes, James had to wear old, out of style, hand-me-downs from his older cousins. He shared a bedroom with his younger sister in a two bedroom house. The house wasn't really a house but it was what James' parents could afford to make sure the children had a roof over their heads.

James wanted to be rich. His parents taught him that money wasn't everything. He knew they were right but he decided that money could definitely help get him out of his poor situation.

James was a good student. He studied people. He listened in class. And he could memorize entire paragraphs in any book.  He was such a good student, that wealthy people invited him to study with their children. At his new school, he learned that rich people's definition of hard work was much different than his parent's definition.

His parents worked hard with their bodies. Rich people worked hard with their brains. James' desire for riches continued through his education. Then one day, with his schooling complete, he was forced back into the working world. His parents told him to work hard with his hands. His childhood friends told him to play hard. His rich friends from school no longer had time for him as they went off to work with their rich parents. James felt alone.

But he made a decision. He was not going to give up until he achieved what he wanted. From his rich friends, he had learned that the best way to make money was by using other people's money. That was good news because James didn't have any.  He then convinced a couple of bankers that he was capable to run a business of his own. With money in hand, he opened his business.

He had a dream. Nothing was going to get in his way. For the next 10 years, James worked 7 days a week. When his poor friends drank on the weekends, James worked. When his rich friends vacationed in sunny warmer climates, James worked. When family got together to celebrate weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, James worked. When employees took time off and enjoyed their life, James worked. He worked and worked and worked. Some started calling him a workaholic. Some thought he was crazy.

There were days James thought he was crazy. He was doing exactly what his parents told him to do. He was working with his body, not his brain. He had a goal so he continued.

After 10 years, James didn't have much of a lifestyle. His style of life was work. And work is all he did. On his tenth anniversary, he sold his businesses and bought a huge house in the country. He stopped working with his hands and started working with his brilliant brain.  From the outside, James was retired. If you knew him, he was knew he had shifted to working with his brain. His poor friends who were drinking every weekend, told him he was lucky coming from such a poor background. His family informed him he was now rich.

James simply answered, "In my mind I was always rich".

Here's how to be a goal scorer in the game of life.

I've discovered a new method to help people focus on and achieve their goals.

The biggest problems with goals are:

1. People don't have any
2. People don't have a clear vision of where they want to go.
3. No definiteness of purpose
4. Lack of commitment causes inaction
5. Not SMART goals

It took me four years to figure out how to set clearly defined, actionable goals.

It starts with a clear vision of where you want to go. To get started, write on a piece of paper answers to the following questions.

Why do you think you exist?

What do you currently do that you love?

What do you currently do that you would like to eliminate?

What do you stand for?

What do stand against?

Imagine the world and your life as perfect in five years. 

Describe your perfection in detail..

Why is it perfect?

How much are you working?

If so, what's the perfect job?

What are you doing when you're not working?

How much money are you making?

Describe your relationships with your spouse, children, parents and friends in this perfect world?

What needs to be implemented into your life for this "dream" to be realized?

How do you have to change personally?

Annual goals

What can you do this year to move your life toward this vision of perfection?

In what ways do you need to change this year to move towards this vision of perfection?

Now that you've created a vision of your perfect life, you sleep on your answers. 

The next morning, without reviewing your answers from the previous day, you brainstorm all the things that signifies a perfect life for you in five years. Fill up the page. Write until you can't think of anything else. 

Once you put your brain back into the rhythm of a perfect life, it's time to write out five big goals that you want to achieve this year. The goals have to specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART).  Each time you write a goal, double check that it fits the SMART criteria. If not, restructure the words so that it can be SMART.

Detailing five annual goals, you then will break them out into chewable smaller goals for the first three months. What do you have to achieve in the next 90 days to move toward your annual goal? 

The reason most people don't have clear written goals is because they don't know where to be begin. To know where to begin, you have to think with the end in mind. Knowing where you want to go will give you definiteness. Accepting definiteness and not getting distracted is the magic in the attainment of all goals.

I wish you all success.

Small minds talk about people

I think there's a part of human nature to want to talk about someone else.

Let's face it. Talking about someone is easy. Having an opinion about someone's actions is even easier. We have experience with that person. Hence we can share our feelings, opinions, events of our relationship.

People mess up. We don't expect perfection from ourselves yet we expect it from others. We want them to act a certain way and when they don't, we use our tongues like poisonous needles piercing the ears of anyone who will listen to our strife.

To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Don Miguel Ruiz's book "The Four Agreements" discusses why humans live a hellish life on this planet and what needs to be done to transcend the dream-like state humans are in to enter a life of bliss.

His four agreements are broken down into the following:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

His first agreement is what is being discussed. It is not only what you say to other people, but also to yourself. Negative self-talk, talking about other people, other's actions, problems keeps us in a state of paralysis.

In finishing the book this weekend, it was easy to pay attention to my discussion with colleagues. It is disgusting how much my peeps and I avoid the first agreement. 

I met a new client with similar background as mine. We travelled the same circles, knew the same people but we had never met. It was easy to establish a rapport. Within five minutes, with both of our guards down, he confessed that his business was suffering. He explained what were the reasons for the decline. Then he gossiped for the next 45 minutes and spoke poorly about a number of people in our same industry.

Conversely, I spent 2 days with a group of people last week discussing visions, ideas, goals, and strategy. At the end of the "retreat", each of them had specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely goals.

The time spent with the group was intense. Each of us left the sessions with a fresh outlook on our business lives.

Ruiz says that we have to be conscious of our acts before we can correct them. 

Try this exercise for the next week. After every conversation, write down in a notebook any times you were not impeccable with your word. Then detail it out and write what you can do different next time. 

You can't fix it if you can't measure it. Measure how often you revert to small thinking. Then work toward reducing it each and every week.

It'll be hard. Anything worth it is always hard. 

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Marketing starts from the inside and works itself out

A client recently declared that he had a marketing problem. Asking a few questions, what he meant to say is that he had an advertising problem. His sales were steady over two years, but his costs were rising. His margins were shrinking. He wanted me to come up with a fancy, quick fix equal to a shot of morphine that could make the pain go away.

Marketing is simple but unfortunately not easy. The heavy lifting to turn a company around is usually more complicated than getting more customers. More customers translates to less customers in the long run if the business under delivers on its promises. 

Marketing is just a promise.

The unfortunate thing about our client was that his margins were shrinking due to improper cost controls. His business was stagnate because of a lack of systems and controls on product and service standards. An inconsistent product made the company a liar in its past promises.

The client wanted us to show him how to increase his sales by 30%. Instead we told him he had to plug the holes in the bucket before he went after more customers. We guaranteed a fix but it wasn't what he wanted to hear. He got his morphine from someone else. 

And that's ok. For us to help a patient, we need the patient to recognize our expertise.

Marketing starts at the top of any organization. The leader's relationship with the whole team will allow for a collaborative, team-oriented approach or insular, everyone-for-himself mentality. The leader needs to build systems that the team can experience personal and financial growth. 

An environment where everyone feels they have an opportunity to voice their opinions makes it family like. Motivation, morale, happiness and profits exist here. 

You don't have to do this. The alternative is cranky, unmotivated, backstabbers in which absenteeism, and productivity is always an issue. 

We all want profits in our business. 

There's a simple solution. It doesn't start with more customers.

Leadership and vision finds, trains and motivates happy employees. Happy employees serve customers who eventually become loyal. Following Pareto's Law, 20% of customers generate 80% of the profits.

 

Increasing profits starts with the leadership and vision. It's not an outside problem. Lack of profits is usually an internal problem. Before you spend too much money on advertising, fix the internal stuff and revenues will start to shift. Once the problems are fixed, advertising can then be used. Otherwise, increased profits will take time because word of mouth is the slowest form of advertising.

So if you have money to spend on advertising, spend it first by fixing the inside of your business.  

Advertising only speeds up the inevitable. A sucky company goes out of business faster with an increase in advertising budget.

Value versus Price

What's it worth to you?
Isn't that the definition of value?

The question that gets asked is, "What's it going to cost"?
That's the wrong question.

So much emphasis is placed on price these days. I tell clients that price, on the most part, does not matter. When we think about pricing a product for sale, the only question that needs to be answered is what is it worth to someone else.

Most entrepreneurs try to compete in the marketplace with a reduced price. Being a low cost provider is a poor strategy for most businesses. Notable exception being Walmart.

You're probably not going to be a Walmart type business in your category any time soon. So don't be the cheapest in your category.

Here's why.

1. Price is the easiest thing to copy and improve on. Competitors pay attention to others pricing strategies to copy them or beat them if they perceive a loss in market share. This is called a race to the bottom in which there will only be one business standing when it's over. And the one standing will be the one who is the most financially secure at the start of the process.

2. If the product or brand does not have qualitative differentiation in the marketplace, the product is dangerously promoted as a commodity. In the commodity marketplace, the only thing that matters is price. Whoever is cheapest wins the customer's business. It is not a sound strategy to have customers who don't care about a company. Customers who switch to competitors the minute prices are lowered are not good, nor loyal customers.

3. When the commodity game is played, loyalty is non-existent. Margins are miniscule as the entrepreneur lowers prices to remain competitive. If margins are halved, entrepreneurs have to work twice as hard to get reasonable profits. Working much harder in a low price environment with less financial rewards seems ridiculous. For example, would you rather sell a cup of coffee for 50 cents or for $5.00? There will be less customers if coffee is sold for $5.00. But at an average cost of 10 cents, profit is $4.90 for every cup sold versus 40 cents in the former option.  At 50 cent coffee, 12 coffees have to be sold to every one at the $5.00 option. Don't question the expensive coffee as an entrepreneur. Ask what value has to be given to get the customer to believe that $5.00 coffee is worth the purchase.

My wife is a sales shopper. Her favourite stores have trained her to wait for the special. She no longer believes the list price is the worth the value of the item based on periodic sales promotions. There are many like her who wait for the product to be discounted before they buy.

Discounting is an excellent way to encourage people to buy. If you're trying to move old stock, perishables, or discontinued items, discounting can be a great way to get it sold. Discounting is also the lowest form of marketing. It works. Discounting strategies bring customers in to buy. But at what price? If used incorrectly, customers will quickly learn that the value is less than the list price and wait for the discount, thus slashing your expected annual returns for short term profits.

Good entrepreneurs are long term growth visionaries not short term profit oriented junkies.

XYZ cement company was trying to figure out how to charge more for their bags of cement, when all the competitors were selling it around $5.00 per bag. The product was a commodity. Everyone knew it. With no competitive advantage, the braintrust of XYZ increased the price of their cement to $1000 a bag. At that price no one would truly buy their cement if the value in customer's mindset didn't increase. So XYZ increased the value proposition by including architect consulting, access to an engineer usage of computer drawings to aid in the design of the structure. Every bag XYZ sold was equal to 200 bags from their competitors. They became the leader in their area. They were extremely profitable and demolished two competitors in the process.

Value is the only thing that matters when pricing your product. He who provides more value to a customer will be positioned to thrive.