A stupid open in a Linkedin Email illustrates the epidemic ravaging our inboxes and some unaware Entrepreneurs – huckster salesmen promising leads but delivering S**t. See a perfect example inside.
The Best businesses, the ones with the most profits and which give owners the lifestyle that many others envy are businesses that understand the difference between focusing on making a sale or focusing on making and deepening a customer relationship. Walk with me as I finally meet a printer who addresses an immediate need but does it in a way that makes it a long term relationship with me.
My friend’s client was beside himself with the disappearing stationary in his large business that was costing him every September. Find out what he did the implications for your business.
Ever been “assaulted’ in a networking meeting by inane drivel and someone desperate to all at all costs. I experienced it this weekend and it reinforced how now to try to stand out to attract customers or investors to your business
As the story goes, Eve was tempted by a Serpent and brought death to the human race. In our businesses we are often tempted by Serpents who promise easy and seductive solutions to our problems but which only end up lightening our wallets and doing nothing to bring us success.
: The Marketing Wizard returns with one of his automated follow up emails that proceeds to award me a fictitious certificate. It’s a cautionary example of even an apparently successful business trying to take a short cut and having it blow up in their faces.
Who are these time spiders that are trapping you and holding you back in your business and from living the life you want? Find out in the post below.
You can learn a lot by how a spider hunts its prey by realising we run our business day to day as if a spider has us as its prey. Instead of a web of silk we are trapped in web of time wasters and others who trap us and keep us from owning the business and living the life we want.
Lots of hype around AI but if you blindly follow templates and send out hundreds of inquiries.. well the results can be very funny to say the least..
Pricing is not easy but it’s so important to get right. You want to avoid leaving money on the tale on the one hand and being uncompetitive by offering too little value for what you price on the other. So though it’s not easy, it’s critical to tie it in with the solutions you provide. As a potential cleaning entrepreneur discovered over a 10 minute coffee conversation.
Pay in Peanut get Monkeys. The reverse of this saying is also true.. Pay your people peanuts and they will be no better than monkeys when dealing with your clients. And that will kill your bottom line or severely crimp your growth.
A Delivery company is facing the stress of rapid growth with concerns about future staffing and capacity and not overdoing it. A sellability / equity mindset will help them cut through the fog and make the decisions that will build both their income and wealth. And give them much better peace of mine while they continue growing the business.
Savvy restaurants will often ask you for your birthday. Why do they do this? Because they know you are likely to celebrate it with your family and friends and so gives them an opportunity to offer you a deal you can’t refuse and to celebrate with them. It’s also a clever way for a business you’d think is a fully retail “eat what you kill” sales type fo company to be able to add predictable and more “recurring” types of sales.
A wow personal experience in an optical shop shows the mindset of a business that puts customer first and which will pay them dividends on their 10 minute time investment – not only by me but by countless others who become referred to them.
I help business owners make their companies sellable but they often are not ready to act on sellability today. But here’s the thing. Starting today on sellability brings you 9 life changing benefits to your business that empowers you to dominate your competitors and make your business much more lucrative and easier to run. How many of these 9 benefits are you currently enjoying today
Many business owners fly blind when it comes to their companies and have little to no idea of how the business is performing daily, weekly or even monthly. They rely solely on bank statements or quarterly financials which can hide dangers that can crash the business.
Ever seen someone who hasn’t really grown up. You can often spot them with the bad style and ill fitting clothes. A business that doesn’t put in paths of growth often looks like one of these people who never grew up. And it’s not very attractive in either case.
Swiss Army knives are the epitome of practicality and a must have when going on a camping trip. But for business owners, trying to be a solution for everyone by offering a bit of everything is a recipe for disaster. You often end up offering nothing to anyone. Read more and find out where the real riches are.. If you know the cliché you know the answer.
Although it can be preached incessantly and annoyingly, the culture of your business should never be discounted or ignored. It determines whether you have a business that can grow on all cylinders or you have a business that might grow but at the same time spawns tough and effective competitors by staffing them with your employees after driving them out. One owner learned the hard way when to save $3,000 he ended up saving a competitor and transforming them into a multi-million dollar business.
Champions vs Losers in Professional sports across the years isn’t always about the best players. It’s often about the best systems to develop the best players year in and year out. It’s the same with companies. The perennial winners have the systems in place to make the business independent and valuable.
Replenish the soil is obvious to many farmers and gardeners today but was a revolutionary discovery in the late 19th century that not only revolutionised agriculture but whose principle of diversification and not relying on one market or customer is key business advice for today.
How is your capacity to scale up and grow the business? Are you fully tapped out today or could you handle more without having to invest more money or hire more staff. Which do you think is more attractive to potential investors and to your day to day existence?
The Numbers is something every Business Owner owns 100% but which is often pushed away or neglected. That only only affects a future sale but the PNL and cash you put in your pocket today.
Michael Jordan’s experience in the NBA is a great lesson for entrepreneurs on the struggles that come from trying to be a 1 man team and the rewards of employing a system that allow you to dominate and accomplish your goals and misson.
It’s funny how often governments wrap up initiatives by claiming a benefit to something everyone supports so that no one dares oppose the absurdity of what they are proposing. Wales is following this rulebook for a drive like a turtle law. In business, it’s often used to manipulate us – especially business owners. Stay aware and empower yourself to set the parameters when someone tries to pitch or sell you something.
The late Jim Camp who was a master negotiator always taught the importance of knowing your mission and purpose and being able to live in someone else’s shoes when in talks. He stressed the importance of building a vision as the opening quote shows here and the business lesson it can provide.
Some customers can sense a business owner is desperate to sell whatever he offers and they take advantage by demanding unreasonable discounts or making false promises of big riches beyond the horizon – if only they cut them a deal today. Learn how to avoid these zombies and put your business on a strong and sustainable growth path.
Avoid Prospects who demand unwarranted discounts as some sort of personal entitlement for them. It’s essential to differentiate between genuine requests and those who seek to undervalue your worth. Don’t let “Discount Zombies” haunt you.
As we become experts in what we do we can fall into a common trap. Treating prospects and customers as children because they are not a proficient in whatever niche we specialise. It can drive away lots of good customers…
Many business owners take the shortcut and use their tax description to describe to prospects what they do. That ends up commoditising them, opening them to the “google slap” (where prospects go on google and find thousands of others who do the same thing for cheaper) and putting them at the mercy of price wars and bad attitude clients. See how one conversation changed my client from this fate to something much better…
One of my first clients was proud of his spreadsheet. Massive thing. Hundreds of tabs. Colour-coded. Formulas nested inside formulas. He’d built the entire accounting
“My customers are different.” “My employees wouldn’t respond to that.” “My industry doesn’t work that way.” BS I hear these lines constantly. From owners in
A friend of mine owns a construction company. Every time I see him, he looks like he’s been dragged through a hedge backwards. Bloodshot eyes.
I once had a potential client who ran a logistics company. Smart guy. Built the thing from nothing. Knew every truck, every driver, every client
This week I told you two stories. The first was a man who threw a chair across a Greek café, danced a warrior dance, and
That’s how the conversation started. No excitement. No ambition. Just a man who’d spent years building a technology business and was ready to be done
This week I’ve been telling you about a friend who turned down an 8-figure offer for his business that happened to be seven times bigger
Yesterday I told you about a tiny café in a Greek village. A three-piece band. A warrior dance. A chair thrown across the room. After
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