Getting Things Done – Bill Glazer Style

As you may know I subscribe to an excellent marketing newsletter from Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer. It’s posted to my office from the USA and it’s filled with very timely marketing and business information. One article describes how Bill Glazer as an entrepreneur gets so much done. Here is his response :

That’s great advice, unfortunately so few follow it. Many small business owners TRY to do everything which means THEY are the business and they are also the GOODWILL – it’s not a recipe for success. Being keen to find out what works and what doesn’t, I took the time to personally meet with dozens of wealthy business owners over the past five years – here’s what they had in common :

• They set business goals and targets. And targets for themselves and their staff.
• They allocate at least 2 – 8 hours per week to work ON their business not IN it.
• They take the time to improve their knowledge of marketing and business.
• They create good business systems so the systems support the staff (not the business owner).

It’s not hard to do. It’s more about mindset than anything else!

What’s Basketball Got To Do With Marketing?

A quote from Michael Jordan : “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed.”

What a great attitude and what a great man!

Isn’t fascinating that every great person has this type of winning attitude and ‘mindset’. After all, in sports and in business – no game or venture (or even every marketing campaign) succeeds every time. Even successful business leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Donald Trump have failed with certain ventures (read their biographies to find out what they were). But, these successful business people know that one or two ‘home-runs’ can outweigh ten or more failures and make them very rich.

If something doesn’t work, try and try again. If all possible, seek mentors or experts to achieve goals faster. Our expertise here at our office is ‘Great Business Marketing‘. Whether it’s business-to-business marketing (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) we aim to bring in quality leads (enquiries) into a business at the lowest cost possible. When it comes to business attitude, we found that the wealthiest business owners have a strong ‘marketing mindset’. They understand that more customers means more sales and more profit!

Are You a Marketer or a Shop-Keeper?

Everyone who is successful in business has a mentor (or mentors) and a coach – or should have! Even Bill Gates (once the world’s richest man) had Warren Buffett (the world’s second richest man) as his mentor. One of my mentors is Dan Kennedy. I receive his paid newsletter once a month and it’s a great way to improve my business and marketing knowledge. One of the topics in the newsletter was ‘Are You a Marketer or a Shop-Keeper?‘ As I have recently been talking to a number of small retailers I found this topic to be particularly relevant.

Out of 14 retailers who I spoke to in December, only 4 (28%) understood the importance of constant promotion in a retail store. I was dumbfounded! The other 72% held the belief that doing the same things they were doing (very little) was somehow going to lead to sales increasing in their stores.

I heard that Albert Einstein quoted this definition of insanity … "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

These retailers were silently praying for a few more people to come into the store, that staff won’t call in sick, suppliers won’t increase their prices, no competitors will open a shop nearby, and that the landlord won’t up the rent this year. Dan Kennedy calls this approach ‘passive marketing’ – which actually is doing nothing at all. He said "This person is a shop-keeper and an order taker, sticking up a sign, putting goods on a table, sitting and waiting."

The only way forward is being a marketer – constantly promoting to attract new customers, get them to spend more, and return more often. That’s how businesses really improve cash-flow and increase their value.

25 Things You Absolutely Must Do To go From Nothing To Self-Made Millionaire Within The Next 7 Years …

I came across this interesting article by Bob Bly. I have added my comments in italics.

THE 25 PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS SUCCESS BY BOB BLY:

1. Have a definition of success.
2. Live below your means – with occasional exceptions.

A good book to read about this is the Richest Man In Babylon

3. Learn a money-making skill that will pay you at least twice the national average income.

My suggestions would be : Sales, marketing, designing, copywriting, computer programming, speaking, writing

4. Improve your level of skill or the demand for your skill until you are paid twice as much — $200,000 a year.
5. Set a financial goal of a liquid net worth of $2 million excluding primary residence by age 50.
6. If you are going to have children, have them young.

Not so sure about this one – I’m 39 and I enjoy spending time with my young son very much.

7. Assign a dollar value to your time and outsource everything you can, except what you are great at, to people who charge less than your hourly rate.
8. Learn how to negotiate win win deals.
9. Be a specialist, not a generalist; focus on core skills, markets, areas – three maximum, no more than that.
10. Micro niche
11. Become an information junkie and be sure to read in “adjacent areas”
12. Modelling

Don’t re-invent the wheel. Another word for modelling is mentor. In almost every business situation – someone has been there, done that – find out who they are and learn from them.

13. The Real McCoy Strategy
14. Don’t lower price; add value
15. Do things that are important but not urgent
16. Little details count
17. Achieve balance between 4 success factors
18. Attitude of gratitude
19. Understand the best and worst investments you can make
20. Do something you love
21. Stop trading hours for dollars
22. Stop making excuses
23. Understand Robert Gibert’s success formula : SWL + SWL = SW
24. Put it in writing
25. ACTION

Lots of great ideas here – how many of them can you work towards this year?

The Real Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

Do you know a small business that has failed?

According to a Commonwealth Bank Of Australia survey 80% of new small businesses fail in the first five years. Why is this so?

In his book, Small Business Management, Michael Ames gives the top reasons small businesses fail (in no particular order) :

• Lack of business management experience
• Insufficient capital (money)
• Too much debt in relation to cash-flow
• Poor sales
• Poor location
• Poor inventory management
• Over-investment in fixed assets
• Poor credit arrangements
• Personal use of business funds
• Unexpected growth (sounds like a good problem to have, but too much growth can lead to lower quality product or service, more returns, mistakes, hiring of unsuitable staff, overspending on stock, cash-flow problems, etc)

My thoughts on this that out of the list above ‘Poor Sales’ should be the the top of the list, though I have personally seen business fail for the other reasons too. I would re-arrange and group these reasons for business failure as such :

1) Poor sales. Including poor location.

2) Lack of management experience. Including insufficient capital, too much debt, poor inventory management, over investing in fixed assets, poor credit arrangements, personal use of business funds, unexpected growth.

Both of these two main areas of business failure can be addressed by hiring experts and for the business owner to invest in their own continual business and management training.

Time Management Secrets Of Successful Business People

Once of the most common responses I get from business owners is about time – “How do I get time to work on my marketing?”, “How do I find time to systemise my business?”, “I just don’t have time to think about my strategic plans”

Hundreds of books have been written on the subject of time management and most have good suggestions, tips and ideas. But the simplest way to find out how successful people manage their time is to ‘model’ what they do. I have copied (modelled) my work habits around successful businesses people in my industry and these are ones that I have found to be the most successful :

1) Creating a daily to-do list with 3 top things to be done. Doing your best to complete those 3 tasks – usually by ‘blocking’ out time without interruptions (from staff, no phone calls, reading emails, etc). You are essentually making an appointment with yourself (or have your PA do this for you). Any uncompleted tasks are rolled over to the next day.

2) Creating a 30-day to-do list. These are tasks to be completed this month – you pull your daily top 3 from here.

3) Focusing on high leverage tasks, rather than on medium and low leverage tasks.

4) Delegating, training, systemising and giving staff the authority to make decisions on their own – so your business can run without you!

Here is a list of high leverage business tasks (this is where you should be spending most of your time)

• Strategic planning and vision for the business
• Marketing planning
• Utilising media (press releases, advertising, direct mail, etc)
• Developing business systems (admin, legal, IT, staff, service delivery, supply, marketing, sales, etc)
• Developing information material or products (every business whether wholesale, retail, service or professional services needs these)
• Working on business uniqueness
• Reviewing financials and ensuring a good return on investment
• Creating Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances
• Promoting the business – developing presentations and speaking at seminars, trade shows or networking
• Reviewing staff performance, feedback and suggestions and developing staff systems for your General Manager
• Organising customer research or reviewing customer feedback
• Meetings with your ‘Mastermind Group’ – peers in business
• Meeting with your ‘top’ staff – financial controller, marketing, sales and general managers (these many be shared roles in a small business)
• Delegation : Staff and outsourcing

Here is a list of medium leverage business tasks

• Sales (of products and/or services)
• Providing the service that the business sells (auto servicing, computer servicing, chiropractic care, financial planning, etc)
• Supplying products that the business sells (wholesale, retail)

Here is a list of low leverage business tasks

• Bookkeeping and Accounting
  • Paying bills
  • Payroll
  • Invoicing
  • Following up outstanding payments (account receivables)
  • Tax preparation
• Inventory
  • Ordering stock
  • Receiving and inventory of stock
• Administration
  • Staff admin
  • Opening the mail
  • Filing
  • Basic computer stuff
• Supervising and training staff (you should be working on staff systems instead)
• Answering the telephone
• Deliveries
• And so on … you get the idea…

The four time management procedures (daily list, 30 day list, high leverage, delgating/systemising) are simple to understand and easy to follow. All it takes is a bit of self discipline initially and then it will become routine. If you have staff there may be some resistance to change as they may be used to ‘bugging you’ everytime they have a problem – but, don’t ignore them – document their frequent questions and the answers – that way they can consult training or company procedures instead. Soon you will quickly notice how much progress you have made ‘working on your business’ and not ‘in it’.

Creating Wealth by Adding Value!

Make me rich!

Everyone wants to be rich (or at least have a good disposable income). It’s human nature. Often this desire comes out of the ‘frustration’ of the daily grind (the rat race). Getting rich quickly is even more desirable, hence the search for the ‘holy grail’ of being able to create wealth the easy way, but in reality it involves some exchange of ‘value’ for money. This got me thinking – so I grabbed a few books from my personal ’success’ library.

Here is how wealth is able to be created (in broad terms) by an individual or by a company :

• Creating / Inventing something (e.g. Apple iPod)
• Producing / Manufacturing something (e.g. Apple iPod)
• Improving something (e.g. Newer models)
• Providing a service (e.g. Settlement agent, Financial Planner, etc)
• Repairing / servicing something (e.g. Auto vehicle servicing)
• Selling (e.g. selling own manufactured product)
• Trading (buying and selling)
• Holding something (it becomes more valuable the longer you hold on to it).

Even ‘holding’ onto real estate is adding something .. time (which equates to more demand as the human population increases).

When we provide our knowledge and skills to something we are paid. For example, accounting, bookkeeping, hairdressing, auto servicing to name a few. We are paid in direct relationship too how many people can provide the same thing, the skill and expense required to attain those skills (e.g. medical degrees, etc), and the demand for those skills. How can you do ’something’ that few other people can do (which is in demand)?

For example, someone that can touch their nose with their tongue might be neat, but how is that going to make them money? (Apart from appearing on television as a novelty).

The big money question is ‘How can I add more value, quicker and easier, and to more people?’

This is one strategy…

Use leverage

The definition of business and financial leverage is using less of your resources (time and money) to create a bigger end result (Return on Investment). Here are some of the ways you can use leverage to obtain a bigger result.

• Your Skills
• Your Knowledge
• Your Money
• Your Time

Some examples may include :

Your Skills

• Employing staff, delegating or outsourcing.
• Applying your skills to bigger projects for a bigger reward
• Creating information products (books, audio and video recordings)
• Creating business systems

Your Knowledge

• Creating information products (books, audio and video recordings)
• Creating business systems

Your Money

• Purchasing income-producing assets
• Utilising media to communicate your marketing message (e.g. advertising, direct mail, email, etc).
• Re-investing in the business (e.g. marketing systems, technology)

Your Time

• LABOUR : Employing staff, delegating or outsourcing.
• TRAINING : Training staff so they can perform their functions well.
• SYSTEMS : Introducing systems to ensure the job is done right the first time and consistently.
• TECHNOLOGY : Using technology (e.g. using video conferencing instead of travelling to a meeting).
• MARKETING : Developing lead generation systems to reduce time spent acquiring leads one-by-one.
• GROUP SELLING :Speaking and selling at seminars rather than speaking to prospects one-on-one.

Hopefully the strategies mentioned above have given you some ideas. You can also have a close look at your chosen business niche or investment area (residential real-estate, commercial real-estate, stocks, etc) and see how other successful business owners or investors have added ‘value’ or used leverage to create wealth. It’s not worth re-inventing the wheel. Find a way to copy what works and improve on it!

Attitudes (Mindset) of Successful People

Most people have a desire to be rich or be successful, yet so few attain prosperity and great wealth. This is something that I have pondered for over twenty years. So, I had a close look at my mentors and other role models like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Anthony (Tony) Robbins and many others. I observed personal success usually occurs from a number of behavioural patterns and certain ‘attitude’ traits. Here are some of the reasons why many individuals are successful in their field of endeavours.

1] They have a life purpose or vision of what their company or life will be like in the future.

All great accomplishments begin with an idea and a vision. It’s purpose and vision that drives and motivates them.

To help you define your life purpose, click here.

To help you create a vision for your business, click here.

2] They have written down goals.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you’re going to get there? I know many people in my own life (including family members) that just ‘float’ along in life without direction.

Studies have shown that written down goals have a higher probability of being achieved.

Try our goal setting forms, click here.

3] A burning desire to succeed.

Think about how competitive it is to be good in a chosen field these days. You WILL encounter set backs and challenges. I like to look at these challenges as a test to see if I’m serious about achieving my goals or not.

This is where written goals help. They will highlight what you have achieved so far and will give you the extra boost to keep going.

Having a good ‘friend’ to talk to when you feel a bit ‘blue’, helps too. Ask them to be your ‘Success Buddy’.

Read about other successful people and what challenges they overcame.

4] The acquisition of specialised knowledge to achieve your goals.

I enjoyed reading about the life story of Henry Ford. He continually learnt more about building motor vehicles, hiring talented people and investing in research.

To achieve your goals you will need to master certain specialized fields or skills, such as book writing, public speaking, writing and publishing press releases, becoming an expert in engine repair, etc.

If you can afford it, hire the best skilled people you can find.

Want a shortcut? Find people that have achieved your goals and just ‘copy’ them. It might cost you a few thousand dollars, but you will reach your goals quicker with lower chance of failure.

Read, watch videos, go to seminars, conduct tests and experiments, observe all you can about your specialisation.

5] Being decisive in nature.

Successful people know how to take advantage of opportunities that come up and they make a decision very quickly. Sometimes the decision will be the wrong one, but not making a decision is really a ‘no’ decision anyway.

Rich people surround themselves with experts who assist in making informed decisions. What ‘experts’ do you have around you?

6] Utilising mentors or being a part of a mastermind group.

As already mentioned in point four and five, surround yourself with experts and also have another group of people who share similar goals as yourself.

I currently meet with my ‘mastermind’ group every week for two hours. We’ve been doing that for over one year now and the benefits are enormous.

The outcome?

There are no guarantees in life (unfortunately), BUT, I have seen (personally) many of my wealthy mentors ‘live’ the attitudes mentioned above and I strongly believe these are some of the main reasons they are so successful. Now, how can you apply them to your journey?