Helping You Prosper With What You Have!
Planned Action Breeds Success!
11:12 am
Action Breeds Success
It’s amazing that once people get off their butts and follow proven systems, all of a sudden they get results.
There is an old saying that goes something like this “the only time success comes before work is in the dictionary” which is true, but we also need to start with a plan.
Unfortunately most people just move “forward”, not knowing where they really are heading – do you.
Absolutely Amazing – NOT!
4:35 pm
You’d never guess. Just had a phone call from Telstra, my phone provider. I got an automated message saying it wasn’t a telemarketing call and asked me to hold.
After a couple of minutes, they hung up – must be their new level of customer service, show you how you will be treated if you dare ring them and complain.
It’s bad enough copping this sort of treatment from massive phone companies, but why does small business imitate the same stupidity.
Perhaps they don’t do exactly the same, but a lot of them come pretty close.
Maybe we all should run our businesses like that? I think not!
What Drives You?
4:07 pm
I’m sure you have done this at some time in your life.
You have either seen on television or read in a paper
or may have even been told of a real tear jerking
story of a very disabled or injured child and thought
“what am I whinging about in my life.”
I know I have, but why must we wait until we see something
like that to make us appreciate our life and what we do have.
For me, every day that I can get out of bed and see
myself in the mirror is a bonus . . . in fact I even say to
myself “it’s great to see you.”
So what drives me is knowing I have a choice, that I
also have the knowledge to do whatever I choose and that
I can make a difference every day.
How about you?
Hire Slow, Fire . . .
7:28 pm
I’m sure every business owner on the planet should have done this and still should be doing it.
I can’t count the number of times I have come across a business owner whinging and complaining about “that useless so and so I hired”.
After a quick bit of digging, I find the new employee was hastily hired or there was no recruitment structure in place to make hiring a deslection process where the applicants are made to jump through numerous hoops over a period of 3 weeks.
Personally, I have have times when no-one came through the process – “great”, I said, I didn’t hire the wrong person.
For detailed advice on how to hire slow & not have to fire fast, send me an email steve@stevebakers.com
Steve
Choice . . . It’s not just a magazine!
9:26 am
I believe there are 2 key words in our lives.
Choice and knowledge.
We have a choice to take in knowledge and we have a choice what we do with that knowledge – that is, either take action or not.
It’s all just a choice – what’s your choice?
Steve
Why Do The Most Important Things Always Seem The Hardest?
12:10 pm
I just finished a coaching session with a client where we talked about the importance of keeping track of what is happening in their business.
We discussed figures, and she assured me she knew her profit & loss & balance sheet, but unfortunatly, she didn’t know the figures that actually dictate whether she made a profit or not.
The figures I meant were the ones she reckoned were too hard to gather, you know, how people found out about you, how many bought, what % of inquiries bought etc etc. because all of her staff and her would have to write the results down manually instead of relying on the computerised till -”oo hard and time consuming” she said!
These figures can make such a big difference on any business.
Lets look at another client I had. I asked him his conversion rate and he told me about 80%, however when we measured it, he was shocked to find it was only 37%.
Over the next 3 months we worked on improving their sale conversions and he ended up with nearly a 20% increase to 44%.
This virtually meant a 20% increase in profit without spending 1 extra single cent. It was just like turning on a money tap.
Is it time you really get to know your business.
Steve
It’s All About Communication . . .
5:02 pm
I have just attended my high school reunion, 37 years after leaving school.
When I arrived at the venue, I only recognised 2 class mates and then spent the next hour or so playing “guess who I am”.
During the night we talked about how so many of our class mates weren’t there and how nobody knew how to contact them.
The next day I was thinking about the previous evening and how my sons (22 & 24) are still in touch with nearly all of their class mates and then it dawned on me (duh!).
It’s All About Communication – when I left school we didn’t have email, mobile phones, sms, Skype, MSN or any of the other tools available to my children and their mates (and all of us today).
Business is the same. We now have all of these tools to keep in touch with prospects and clients – all you have to do is use them . . . all of them, because with the busy world we now live in, it’s so easy for you to be forgotten.
Garbage in garbage out!
7:39 am
I have been visiting my elderly parents for a few days and sat down at my laptop to do some work.
The problem is that they have the radio on all day – they say it keeps them company which is fine, however when I wanted to do some creative writing, the crap that was on the radio destroyed my creative thought process.
I kicked myself for not placing myself in a quiet, creative atmosphere that allows the juices to flow.
When I am home in Hervey Bay and want to create, I go down to the beach on an incoming tide and the ideas flow in very freely.
It’s just like trying to make love with a dozen people in the room with you, not the right atmosphere.
If you want to create, be creative with your environment.
Steve
Are you ready to light up your bulb yet?
4:58 pm
How many times do we humans have something go wrong and then blame everyone else except ourselves?
When something does go wrong, isn’t it in fact a positive because you’ve now learnt how not to do it, which leaves you the oportuntiy to now do it the right way.
Thomas Edison
When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.
Are you ready to light up your bulb yet?
The only time . . .
3:21 pm
The only time Success comes before Work is in the Dictionary!
It amazes me the number of times I hear people say “he’s lucky” or “she must have inherited all that money”.
The amazing thing is that most of the “tall poppies” that are being torn down are multi millionaires that have made their own fortune.
The only “luck” they have is being someone driven to success, knowing that they must plan and work hard to achieve what it is in life they choose to have.
I have “once in a life time” oportunities fly past me all day (I can’t and won’t grab them all as I would never get anything done), yet I hear grumbles that there aren’t any oportunities out there – just get out and start looking, but before you do, have a look in the mirror because that’s where the problem starts with your own self talk (that’s another blog post in itself).
Steve
Tell me again why your restaurant is quiet?
9:43 am
The other night went took some visitors down to one of our favourite restaurants that has inside as well as foot path dining (I think there’s a fancy name for that but I can’t remember), anyway, for as long as I can remember, someone always greets potential customers at the entrance to the roped off entrance.
Their job other than welcoming diners is to snare potential diners that stop and look at the menu.
As we have thousands of back packers visit here, this job is very important.
So we rocked up and was given a nice warm greeting, then I stopped and asked why should we dine here (just doing a bit of secret shopping) and the reply floored me . . . “I don’t know, maybe the food’s good”.
Except for the fact that we knew the food was good, we would have kept on walking and during the night I noticed plenty of people depart after being greeted by the same young lady.
Whose fault is all of this, no not hers, rather here boss is to blame for poor training and followup. Next time I see him (if he is still in business, I’ll tell him)
As I’ve said before, “the fish stinks from the head down”.
Dum As . . .
11:00 am
Yesterday I went to my chiropractor for my weekly appointment (middle age is catching me). Anyway, she rescanned my back and we then discussed my treatment options.
Now you have to remember I coached chiros for 5 years in how to improve their businesses, so I knew what was coming, or at least I thought I did.
She mentioned her “Wellness Program” (I helped implement this into countless practices) and instead of paying $47 per visit every week, she was going to put me on a 2 weekly program at $32 a visit.
I can understand their way of thinking in that they are trying to hold onto patients as they get better, so $32 a fortnight is better than nothing. Unfortunately, they are devaluing their worth.
And to top it off, they include 2 body scans during the year.
Now this is good for the patients, but as a business model, it’s totally floored as Wellness care should include extras and the pricing should be higher.
The big thing they have missed is that a lot of consumers want the best and will pay a premium for it, plus the feeling that they are getting something others are missing out on.
Sure they will lose some patients, but the ones they keep will be better quality ones that follow instructions and refer.
“The Fish Stinks From The Head Down”
9:24 pm
It amazes me that particularly with the economy the way it is, how poor customer service is. Have you noticed this as well, or is it only me?
Now I’m no Einstein, but I would have thought business owners would be doing more in training their team . . . and I use that term loosely. No hang on, I just remembered an old saying I picked up off a very wise man (can’t remember who).
“The Fish Stinks From The Head Down”, meaning that if the team are giving poor service, they are a reflection of the business owner.
The sad thing in business is that most business owners were sick of working for a fool, yet became one themselves when they went into business.
Now don’t take this wrong when I say fool. I mean that they have picked up most of the bad habits the old boss had and transferred them to their own business.
The answer my friends is having a business coach on the outside looking in and advising where improvements need to be made.
Having a coach is the biggest hurdle most business owners face today as they don’t want to admit they don’t know it all.
A Lesson For Some Older People!
11:14 am
Just had a knock on the door – nothing special about that, except that it was a young lad, knocking on doors looking for any type of work.
Mowing lawns, washing cars, didn’t matter.
I didn’t have anything for him, but I did ask him to call back in a week or so and I will give him some work.
How many people do you know ( and even met in the mirror this morning) that have complained that life is not as good as it should be.
Who’s fault is that? The government, global financial crisis or yours?
W all have 24 hours in a day, it’s just that some (the successful ones) do something more efective with their time compared to others.
I don’t remember who said it, but it goes something like this – “Poor people have big televisions, rich people have big libraries”.
Rich people also read whats in their library and take action from what they learn.
Over to you . . .
Ever had that feeling?
2:23 pm
Have you ever had that “gut feeling” about something and didn’t act on it? Well it just happened here in the office.
Mick was working on a large job for our product launch on the computer for over an hour when I had this feeling, “he hasn’t saved at all and needs to”.
So I turned around and asked, “have you saved”? I was met with a blank look and the very next second the program crashed.
Dam really doesn’t explain his reaction to realising he lost an hour’s work.
So the lesson is two fold.
- Listen to your gut feelings
- Save your work and often
What’s the worse experience you’ve had?
Are you a hampster?
10:23 am
I was doing a call last night with my good friend, Dr Jo Martin from London about training speakers to actually make money while speaking, not just an appearance fee, but real money by selling their information products or services.
Anyway, this call that went for over 2 hours left me with many gems and I wanted to share one with you today.
It is very apparent that most of us humans get stuck in a rut (a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out) and internet marketers fall into this category along with the rest of us.
Here’s the thing. A lot of them have developed a product to sell online and do battle with millions of competitors to first attract people to their web site and then have to convince them that they are telling the truth and it’s safe to pull their credit card out.
Whereas with speaking on the stage, your potential customer can see and hear you and so long as you are genuine and connect with them, the chances of a sale increase dramatically, plus they are alos in your marketing funnel . . . it’s a win win situation.
The best part is, you just rock up, do your presentation and leave with your orders and as Jo said, it’s a lazy way to market.
What to do when it all goes wrong
12:10 pm
Have you ever found that sometimes you use a favourite piece of software that is superceded by newer versions. Well, that happened to me.
I like version 3.8 of Skype, can’t figure out the new version. Anyway, my 3.8 version decided to play up and I had to uninstall it and download a new copy – version 4. Well that didn’t last long, so time to uninstall it and find an old copy.
Straight to www.brothersoft.com and there was skype 3.8 So simple.
Steve
How good are you with a calculator?
2:04 pm
Pick a number between 1 to 10
then multiply by 2
then add 5
then multiply by 50
if you had your birthday already this year, add 1759
if you have not had your birthday already this year, add 1758
then subtract your birthyear eg 1961
you should have 3 digits left – the first one is the number you picked
- the second is your age
Now get back to work
Steve
Why Is 1 The Most Dangerous Number?
9:42 am
Those of you from my vintage will remember a song that goes something like this “1 is the loneliest number . . . ” and it’s so true, especially when business is concerned.
In all of my years as a business coach, it astounded me the number of business owners that relied on “1″ super salesman or “1″ great way to get clients.
For instance, when I was at Mal Emery’s Platinum event recently, I met a guy who was a visitor to the event (invited by one of the members) . He had a very profitable business making profits in the high 6 figures. So what’s wrong with this you may ask yourself?
The one big thing was number “1″. He had one super salesman who generated the vast majority of the sales . . . and profits.
So if the salesman left him, retired or was incapicated, this business would be down the drain.
The same goes for lead generation, so many businesses, both off & online only have one method of getting new clients! It may be yellow pages or adwords or whatever.
The solution, train more than 1 super salesman and at the same time, have more than one lead gen strategy.
Steve
Is it just me?
5:11 pm
Last week I was at Mal Emery’s Platinum Mastermind intensive event where some of the brightest and keenest minds in the country gather to learn and share information – or so I thought until I had the “pleasure” of a conversation with an ex-client of mine who after exchanging normal greeting, proceeded to explain her dilema.
She asked a coach what to do and he told her to do a flyer and get a particular, wellknown copywriter to design it for her. The copywriter told her to go back to her database and work it first – great advice I thought and she asked me my thoughts.
I agreed with the copy writer and she then informed me that she had our reactivation pack and used it once and got an 11% response rate. That’s a great result! I then asked her why she stopped it and was given a heap of stories and excuses.
When I asked her why she is afraid of success, the reply came back “don’t give me that mumbo jumbo” and she then blamed Mal for not having “someone” to make “everbody” as she put it implement stuff.
For crying out loud, how about a bit of accountability? Is it just me or did she miss the whole point of the conversation and why some people take an idea and run with it and others are left in the dust?
Until next ramble,
Steve
A New Life!
1:09 am
After many years of hard slog, Deb & I have taken a new direction and just working from home. That doesn’t mean I’m stopping helping business owners continue to improve their businesses, write to the contrary.
I plan to write a marketing book based on all of the knowledge I have accumulated over the last 25 years in business and present it in the most easy to use format possible so readers can take the strategies and put them to work immediately.
This and many other projects are in the pipe line, but for the moment, a well earned rest.
Steve