A Successful business is built around making customers ecstatic. Why ecstatic? Because ecstatic customers make your life easier. They engage with you, they help you help them. They pay well and gladly. Most importantly, they tell others. How do you define ecstatic? Start by thinking about times you felt ecstatic yourself? What was […]
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Category: Your Effortless Business
I’m Not Good Enough
I’m listening to Seth Godin’s Linchpin this week and this point really struck a nerve with me. We are trained to not make mistakes. School is all about getting high grades by not making mistakes, but you can’t make art by not making mistakes. No wonder we feel like we are wrong all the time. […]
Who Are Your Best Customers?
Happy custom Originally uploaded by One Planet Living in Sutton Who do you think of that makes you smile? Which appointments and meetings are the highlights of your day? Who pops into your mind when you are thinking about new services and projects to try? These are your best customers; the ones who listen to […]
Magic, Easy Decision Making Tool
decision 決定 Originally uploaded by grinapple We are faced with hundreds of decisions every day. Get up now or hit the snooze button, what to wear, pack a lunch or buy? Some decisions are easy and we make them on autopilot. Some decisions are much tougher, usually because they involve morality or other people’s feelings. […]
Finding your Strengths
It makes sense to work to your strengths, but how do you figure out what they are? You know you are working to your strengths when you feel energized, excited and happy doing a task. What were you doing the last time you felt like that? Break down the job into […]
March 2009 Working from Your Strengths i...
I believe in working from your strengths. Everything I’ve read about it is focussed on a work environment; usually a corporation. Not a one-person shop, not a 2 or 2 1/2 person business, net even a small group. Here’s how you can use this if you are just you, or you and a few: 1. […]
The Matrix of Business
There are 4 acknowledged pillars of business: marketing, production, human resources and finance. The theory is, if you can master each of them separately, you will have a successful business. Let’s look at this a different way. What if they are inter-related and the goal isn’t to master each separately, but to master the relationships […]
Hard Skills/Soft Skills
What do you call HARD SKILLS? Accounting (my fave), copywriting, inventory control, employee relations, sales, collections, purchasing, etc. These are acknowledged to be essential for business success. Then there are the SOFT SKILLS: listening, empathizing, being optimistic, problem solving, showing compassion. They are much more difficult to measure. They are not the focus of the […]
The Peter Principle
Most people start a business because they are good at what they do – bookkeeping, hairdressing, selling, fixing cars, cooking etc. They start off as self employed…(bookkeepers, hairdressers, mechanics ) and do fine. Over time they decide to grow their business. Soon they find they spend less time doing their business and they have to […]
Why do 80% of Businesses Fail?
The statistics tell us that 80% of businesses fail in the first 5 years. The reasons cited include: lack of basic business skills not enough good advice cash flow problems lack of sales losing focus pricing poorly not seeking help underestimating the competition and the market undervalueing promotion Usually the reasons are directly related to […]