Tag Archives: Business

A Great Example to Follow in Business

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You know how some of us are always going on about providing a great experience for your customer? I am so happy to be able to share with you someone who models this for us.

I recently was on a teleseminar featuring “Bob the Teacher” (Bob Jenkins). He had a special promotion in conjunction with that teleseminar that I was considering. He had another promotion going for the same product as a special for those on his mailing list… which was an even better deal than the one on the teleseminar I attended. What’s not to like, right?

Well, I had emails from both promotions in my inbox. And, I managed to click the link from one that gave me a good deal (Silver membership – it was/is a good deal in and of itself.) But, I actually thought I was on the mailing list special promotion when I clicked it. (That promotion was a very temporary offer for a higher-level membership with more benefits for the same price as the Silver membership.)

After I had completed the transaction, I discovered my mistake.

I emailed Bob and briefly explained what had happened. When Bob saw the email, he immediately offered to switch my membership to the higher level. And, since that was my original intent when I signed up start with, I took him up on it.

Bob didn’t have to do that. And, in fact, a lot of business people – online and offline would have simply said it was my problem, so sorry. A few would offer to let me upgrade the membership for a reduced amount. And all of them would be within their “rights” as a business person.

On the other hand, those people are the people I keep trying to get you to NOT be like. Instead, be like Bob.

What’s the real-world result of this? Bob has a grateful, satisfied customer. A customer who will be very happy to do more business with him in the future. How much am I likely to spend with him over the course of the next two years? It is impossible to say with precision, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked back in a couple of years and discovered that I had spent 10 or 20 times the cost of the course… either on more of his products or on his events… or even his coaching.

So do two things for me, please. 1) If you are in business or have any influence with your company… emulate Bob’s example in providing customer service and satisfaction. 2) As a customer, do business whereever you can with businesses that follow put customers first and see them as the source of their revenue. If we all do this, we can make a difference in the world.

If you want to learn more about Bob and his method of doing business, then go to www.bobtheteacher.com.

Do you have your own example of exemplary customer service or appreciation? Share it with us.

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Prepare for Success

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So, have you gotten the revelation, yet, to prepare for success?

That question can mean different things to different people… what did you think of?

Did you think about your level of expectancy? Are you expecting to succeed?

Maybe you keyed in on the preparation part. Yes, it’s true, you do have to prepare. Success doesn’t just happen by itself.

Or maybe you got hung up on the term revelation. Did that throw you or make you think that you had to have some mystical experience in order to achieve success?

In future posts I want to talk more about the first and second meaning. They are important and I don’t want to leave them behind. …But I don’t have room to cover them here, today

Today, let’s talk about revelation. I’m not really talking about mystical experience, but I am talking about special insight. You know, that light-bulb-going-off-in-the-head experience where you are suddenly aware of something you were ignorant of before.

I had one of those recently… about being prepared for success (surprise, surprise.) My lightbulb came on when I was deep in the middle of a networking/marketing strategy. The strategy was a combination of online and offline networking. I was preparing information, and short presentations about the upcoming classes I was going to teach, and working with contacts to get some venues set up.

I was quite happy doing that, busy with the things that needed to happen. And then I got the revelation.

It came about as I was suddenly pondering what would happen if a couple of these strategies worked… very well… at the same time. If that happened, I realized that I didn’t have systems in place to handle them.

Now, I am not suggesting that you should make wild success your first priority, but you do need to put it into your thinking.

I did not drop everything and rush off to create systems (or hire them) to handle wild success. I did, however, make a note to visit that aspect within a few days to explore what I would need to have in place if it did start to come true. And, in a few days, I did do that exploration. I satisfied myself that I could quickly pull together the resources I would need (on a contingency basis) if things worked out really well.

I also revisited my plans for continued, incremental growth to make sure that was covered, too. (Especially since that is the more likely scenario.)

And with that adjustment, I am now better prepared to handle my business whether the growth is slow, medium, or wildly fast. And I like that. And I think my clients will appreciate it, too.

Now, how about you — are you prepared for success? Use the comments and share what you have done to prepare for it.

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Turn Your Mission Into a Business

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I have a workshop called Turn Your Mission Into a Business. The end result is the discovery of a business that you can do… doing things you love to do… in a way that makes money for you. (If this sounds like something you might be interested in, pop on over to the website.)  In the course of working with a participant, I said some things that I think you might find useful, as well.

Remember to keep the end in mind… a business that you love, that you love to do, and that will make you money (at a level that you find acceptable… whatever your definition of that is — which may change over time.) If you aren’t already loving what you do to make money (at least 70 percent of the time… higher is better), then you aren’t there, yet.

One of the reasons for finding/describing your business in terms of how it relates to your mission, is that your mission energizes you. There are plenty of things in a job and in business that drain you and drag at you. When your job or business is generally in alignment with your mission, the energy can transfer from the one and provide the impetus to help you get through the parts that drain and drag.

Are there parts of a business (or even a job, for that matter) that you won’t enjoy? Yes, certainly. Almost all small, startup business owners have to do almost everything related to the business, at the first. And, down the road, the goal is to be able to farm out all the parts that you don’t want to do, keeping the fun parts for yourself. Part of this process (of finding a business that aligns with your mission) is to help you figure out in advance what the fun parts are so you aren’t outsourcing 90 percent of the business… because some of the leftover will be administrative stuff, not the fun stuff. (And if you find the administrative stuff fun, then open a business just doing administrative stuff.)

Another side benefit of turning your mission into a business is that your mission statement is already written (almost). Since the business will be a subset of your personal mission (life purpose, aim in life, calling, whatever words you choose to call it), the business mission and statement will be a subset, as well. (Check out the article Do You Have a Mission Statement? on one of my websites for more about mission statements and what they can do for your business.)

Have you found your mission? Is your business a subset of your mission? Tell us about it (use the comments box.)

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Keep on Persisting

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As I mentioned previously, I was working on one of my books (Starting Your Creative Business) and I wrote about three prerequisites you need to have before you even start.

As I did, I realized that you really need those three things (Passion, Persistence, and a Plan) throughout your whole business life (and can make the case for throughout your whole life – business or otherwise.) So, I decided to share about them briefly here even though you may have heard these before, because, if you are like me, an occasional reminder is in order. Yesterday, I talked about Passion. Today, I want to cover Persistence and tomorrow, a Plan.

Persistence

Ever since I discovered the quote by Woody Allen, I have loved it. And I am guilty of referring to it… some might say too much. If so, it is only because I find so much truth in it and so much applicability. Oh yes… and I keep repeating it because current culture and society tends to ignore it.

The quote?

“Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” Woody Allen

One reason I like it so much, is that it makes success seem easy. Now, success takes effort. And other things, too. But most of us stop too short because it seems too hard. We give up… especially when things get boring… or tiring… or difficult… or our Attention Deficit Disorder kicks in. (Note that most of us have some level of ADD even if we don’t have the clinical diagnosis. It comes with being human.)

But just showing up seems easier. Now, it can be REALLY hard when you don’t feel like doing whatever it is that you are supposed to show up for. But it goes a long way to taming the ADD beast within us. “Hey, how tough can it be to just show up? It’s not like you have to do anything once you show up.”

And that is the wonder of it. Because once you actually show up, it is almost impossible to not do something… constructive. And once you do something constructive, you are making progress. And consistent progress (in the right direction – we’ll talk about that tomorrow) leads toward success. (No, it doesn’t equal success… there is more to it than just showing up… but that is the other 20 percent.)

I have no idea if Aesop’s Fables are still being told to kids. They may be too slow for today’s culture. But they persisted for thousands of years because they carried valuable life lessons. Lessons that are still applicable because humans don’t change much. And for all our technology and sophistication, the core of life still hasn’t changed. Every time somebody comes up with a new theory or scheme that makes it all obsolete, it turns out to be just that… a scheme. (For instance: Enron, Madoff, the “new economy” of the tech bubble of the 90s, mortgage-backed securities, your favorite here.)

The fable that fits this post is that of The Tortoise and the Hare. In the race between the tortoise and the hare, the hare gets off to an early lead (no surprise) but is afflicted with the ADD we all have (along with a touch of arrogance) that lets him get distracted. He sidelines himself while the tortoise just keeps plodding along. Ultimately, the tortoise crosses the finish line before the hare.

There are lots of stories, myths, fables, examples, and quotes about this subject… all illustrating and encouraging persistence. Books could be written on the subject (and have been.) I am not going to drag them all out for you. Instead, I encourage you to keep your eyes open for them… you will run into them nearly every day if you are looking for them.

In the end, it is persistence more than talent (or genius) that determines success. (And I say that as one who is talented but learned the persistence lesson the hard way.)

In your business, keep persisting. Keep going after new customers. Keep working to make your existing customers happy. Keep doing the fundamentals in your business. Keep growing. Keep on keeping on.

What strategies do you use to show up? How have you kept on in the face of difficult times? Please use the comments and share with the rest of us.

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Passionate about Passion

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As I was working on one of my books (Starting Your Creative Business), I wrote about three prerequisites you need to have before you even start.

As I wrote about them, I realized that those three things (Passion, Persistence, and a Plan) are also things you need throughout your whole business life (and can make the case for throughout your whole life – business or otherwise.) You may have heard of these before, but, if you are like me (and most of us), an occasional reminder is in order. And so, let me just touch on them briefly here. Today I will talk about Passion and post the other two over the next couple of days.

Passion

Passion is the driver that keeps us going. I find it interesting that one of the hallmarks of depression is a lack of passion (in just about every area). We are built to be passionate about something (and sometimes more than one something.)

In terms of owning and running your own business, you need a passion for the point of your business (not a passion for business, but for why you are in business.) You need that passion

  • to stay connected with the business
  • to provide the “oomph” to keep going on the days when obstacles arise
  • to enjoy the business
  • and to point towards your mission in life.

Passion is the underlying driver behind a sense of misson – first personal mission and, later, business mission. (If you haven’t found that passion or your Mission in life or for your business, I encourage you to check out the Mission Discovery webpage at my site… you can find your mission AND live it.)

(By the way, if your business mission isn’t a subset of your personal mission, I can predict a lack of success for you. A business should have a mission (and a clear mission statement). If your business doesn’t have a mission, then it is like a ship without a rudder – drifting wherever the tides of the economy sweep it — usually to the rocks of ruin. If the business mission isn’t clear and a subset of your personal mission, then it is like a ship whose captain has ADD – always running after the latest rumor of treasure… and never arriving at a destination.)

There are some people who can’t point to a particular passion. Sometimes it’s because they have multiple passions and sometimes it is because their passion has been beaten into submission. The former have to simply choose one for their business (okay, technically, some people can have two or three businesses at once… but not most of us). The latter need to find help and therapy to rediscover their passion.

When things get tough in your business, your passion can see you through. Are you passionate about your business… or at least, the point of your business?

How has passion played a part in your business? Or have you lost that passion? Tell us about it.  Use the comments box and share that passion (or lack of) with us.

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