What is your mindset?
June 10, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Traditional descriptions of successful people often include characteristics such as passion, self-motivation, vision, and risk-taking. It is true that successful people often have these characteristics or traits. They could be used to describe all of us at certain times, or in certain situations. These characteristics or traits are often a result of different life situations, educational backgrounds, and experience levels. All of these factors help to shape the mindset. The mindset then forms a preferred work style, or how we approach life.
So, what distinguishes a person who is successful from someone who is not? Being successful in business or life is not limited to one particular characteristic or trait. The key to being successful– whether in business, or in achieving your life goals, is to understand how to harness these traits and other important skills in order to meet the challenges, hurdles, or issues that life presents.
Thinking about Starting a Business?
April 19, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Questions to ask yourself…
1. Explain how the business will provide sufficient money to meet your minimum needs.
2. How long do you intend to work in the business?
3. How much of your time will the business demand?
4. What type of people do you work best with?
5. What kind of people will you be working with in the proposed business?
6. Is status and prestige important to you?
7. How much energy is required to get the venture launched and developed?
8. Explain why your stage in life is an asset or liability in the business.
9. How many years of productivity are needed to build the business?
10. Explain what will happen if you fail.
11. What does your significant others think about the venture?
12. Have you the educational background to run a business?
13. What are you bringing to the venture? (Do you have the expertise, money, and experience or do you need outside talent for your management team?)
14. In the end, what do you want from the business as an exit?
15. How much debt will the business need?
16. Explain why you will be an effective business owner.
17. Can you do this business on your own or will others be needed?
18. Will starting and running a business make you a better person?
Is your Business an Asset?
April 5, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
If you were to think of your business as an asset, it would be a model with the following traits:
- It can be operated by others
- It maintains impeccable order
- It has documented processes and procedures
- It provides uniform and predictable service to clients
- It always looks the same to outsiders
- It provides a consistent return to the owner
Who Am I?
March 16, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do might just as well be turned over
to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done and after
a few lessons, I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great people and, alas, of all failures, as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine
plus the intelligence of a person. You may run me for profit or run
me for ruin – it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at
your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?
I am habit!
Soigiuro Honda
Founder, Honda Motor Corporation
The Image of your Business from All Angles
March 9, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
A company caught my eye when I saw one of its trucks delivering meat to a restaurant. The driver was dressed very neatly with a company polo shirt and the truck was a clean aluminum and beautifully lettered. Their truck promoted shipping anywhere so I wrote down their website to see what they were doing with shipping. Boy, was I disappointed when I saw a completely different image….one that did not motivate me. The Website was riddled with spelling errors, there were alignment issues, the fonts were not reader friendly, and you could not order online but were directed to call a number. Obviously, there was a lack of follow-through with image and brand. Try looking at everything your client sees…including invoices! Are you pleased with the image of your business?
Afraid of Open Book Management?
March 2, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
One of the reasons businesses can struggle to make money can be as simple as their staff not knowing how to make money. Never assume that because your people may have degrees and have worked a number of years that they know how to make money in business. Where or when would they have learned that skill? Teaching your team how to look at the scorecard of your business – the financials and how those numbers are created will pay you back in big dividends.
Life Planning – Special Moment in Time
February 22, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
People who participate in Life Planning are ready for something different in their lives, and they sense that something might be missing. They are searching for what that missing piece might be. When I step into the process of facilitator, I continue to be in awe of those who are in attendance. It seems to always be a mix of people who are meant to know each other. A dynamic is created that produces a special energy. My honored role as facilitator is to get out of the participants’ way while providing a structure that will guide them through their journey of discovery. In many ways, I become the student.
Business Trends – A Leader’s Challenge
October 9, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Thinking in the future tense has never been more challenging or important to a business leader. Making this thinking and knowledge gathering a priority requires an understanding of how change in the fields of technology, economics, markets, demographics, and cultures will affect your business and your life. Knowledge will alter your perception as well as others as our society becomes more global and interconnected.
Skills required of the “futuristic” leader include real vision, mental models, pattern connectivity, energy, wisdom, self awareness, holistic values, agility, speed planning, real-time processing and tenacity.
• Execution of these skills requires a leader to ask more questions and make fewer decisions.
• Leading the organization from afar…virtual teams that are self managed versus controlled.
• Reducing work hours…producing more.
• Doing less with hands…more with voice and head.
• Focus on scarce resources to maximize the recipe for a successful business model
• Measuring success from a triple-net impact – people, planet, profit
A trend is defined in the dictionary as “a line of general direction or movement.” Leaders today must remember that success is an ongoing work in process and is evolutionary in nature. Revolutions are costly and tend to be non-lasting.