One minute wisdom

From one of my favorite spiritual teachers/ writers, Father Anthony de Mello:

"Plunge into the heat of battle, and keep your heart at the Lotus feet of the Lord"

BatchBook: Blue Paper: Social Media for Small Business

BatchBook: Blue Paper: Social Media for Small Business

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Tom peters... 48 pieces of advice for small business

I came across this from Tom Peters..... wonderful advice and thoughts.... love them... I trust and hope that Tom Peters is pleased with having them republished on my blog....

Tom Peters
22 February 2009
Queenstown New Zealand

The Heart of Business Strategy: 48 Things That Matter

We usually think of business strategy as some sort of aspirational market positioning statement. Doubtless that’s part of it. But I believe that the number one “strategic strength” is excellence in execution and systemic relationships (i.e., with everyone we come in contact with). Hence I offer the following 48 pieces of advice in creating a winning strategic that is inherently sustainable*:

• “Thank you.” Minimum several times a day. Measure it.
• “Thank you” to everyone even peripherally involved in some activity—especially those “deep in the hierarchy.”
• Smile. Work on it.
• Apologize. Even if “they” are “mostly” to blame.
• Jump all over those who play the “blame game.”
• Hire enthusiasm…Low enthusiasm. No hire. Any job.
• Hire optimists. Everywhere. (“Positive outlook on life,” not mindless optimism.)
• Hiring: Would you like to go to lunch with him-her. 100% of jobs.
• Hire for good manners.
• Do not reject “trouble makers”—that is those who are uncomfortable with the status quo.
• Expose all would-be hires to something unexpected-weird. Observe their reaction.
• Overwhelm response to even the smallest screw-ups.
• Become a student of all you will meet with. Big time.
• Hang out with interesting new people. Measure it.
• Lunch with folks in other functions. Measure it.
• Listen. Hear. Become a serious student of listening-hearing.
• Work on everyone’s listening skills. Practice.
• Become a student of information extraction-interviewing.
• Become a student of presentation giving. Formal. Short and spontaneous.
• Incredible care in 1st line supervisor selection.
• World’s best training for 1st line supervisors.
• Construct small leadership opportunities for junior people within days of starting on the job.
• Insane care in all promotion decisions.
• Promote “people people” for all managerial jobs. Finance-logistics-R&D as much as, say, sales.
• Hire-promote for demonstrated curiosity. Check their past commitment to continuous learning.
• Small “d” diversity. Rich mixes for any and all teams.
• Hire women. Roughly 50% women on exec team.
• Exec team “looks like” customer population, actual and desired.
• Focus on creating products for and selling to women.
• Focus on creating products for and selling to boomers-geezers.
• Work on first and last impressions.
• Walls: display tomorrow’s aspirations, not yesterday’s accomplishments.
• Simplify systems. Constantly.
• Insist that almost all material be covered by a 1-page summary. Absolutely no longer.
• Practice decency.
• Add “We are thoughtful in all we do” to corporate values list.
• Number 1 force for customer loyalty, employee satisfaction.
• Make some form of employee growth (for all) a formal part of values set.
• Flowers.
• Celebrate “small wins.” Often. Perhaps a “small win of the day.”
• Manage your calendar religiously: Does it accurately reflect your espoused priorities?
• Use a “calendar friend” who’s not very friendly to help you with this.
• Review your calendar: Work assiduously and mercilessly on your “To don’ts.”—stuff that distracts.
• Bosses, especially near the top: Formally cultivate one advisor whose role is to tell you the truth.
• Commit to Excellence.
• Talk up Excellence.
• Put “Excellence in all we do” in the values set.
• Measure everyone on demonstrated commitment to Excellence

New Business Health Check Survey now online

As some of you may know I have been working for the past year and a half with the other founding members of the Institute of Small Business Coaching to create and formalise the Peak Performance Business Coaching Program.

All of us are really excited about the outcome and the program and all of our clients have noticed the impact of it during the last 1.5 year.

One of the components of the Peak Performance Business Coaching Program is the new and improved business health check survey tool, and I have just managed to get it online on my website here

Feel free to go and have a look at it and take the survey why don't you.... when you do I will send you back a nicely presented 1 page report and graph that will show you quite clearly where the strengths and challenges in your business are. You never know, it might give you some pause for thought...

Any feedback is gratefully accepted as well of course.

Drop me a line or call me if you want to have a chat about it.

Have a great month.

And by the way, I am getting really serious about all the social networking options that are available now.... come and follow me on twitter for example at http://twitter.com/coachbusiness or lets get connected on linkedin...click here for my profile and I am also experimenting with weird things like Plaxo and Squidoo and Twine and more... Soon I am going to put up some videos on Youtube as well...

"Putting Small Business Owners back in Control of their Life and their Business"

See you in the brave new world soon.

Warmest,

Roland Hanekroot

10 Golden rules to survive the Global Crisis in Small Business

Global crisis.....Local Bonanza

10 Golden rules to survive the Global Crisis

Roland Hanekroot New Perspectives Business Coaching http://www.newperspectives.com.au email roland@newperspectives.com.au, ph 0404490012

Ominous Clouds gather on the Horizon, the talk is of Doom and Gloom, an enormous Storm is heading this way, and one thing seems quite certain... there are no certainties for the coming year in small business.

Anyone can make money and have a successful business during the good times, but now that the rug has been pulled out from under us, courtesy of the insane behaviour of large institutions around the world... You are about to find out how good your business really is.

The Paddlers
In any financial storm there are lots of shipwrecks, but you will always see three groups of people during and after the storm:
1) Those who freeze and drown
2) Those who cling on to a piece of flotsam hoping they will be rescuedAnd then there are those who go looking for the upturned rowing boat, manage to right it, find something to bail the water out with and paddle to shore
3) by themselves.

Who do you want to be?
The paddlers don’t just survive; when the sun comes out again they are the fittest, the healthiest and they may even have gained strength through the ordeal. The paddlers are best able to take advantage of the new opportunities when they arrive back on shore.
Long term successful businesses have usually come through several storms, not by clinging on and hoping for the lifesavers to arrive, but by making it happen themselves.

How do you get to be one of the strong survivors?

These are 10 Golden Rules to ensure you come through the storm as one of the paddlers:
1) Get very very clear on what your Core Business is, and what your competitive advantage is... and focus on it... totally.
2) Slash overheads, slash debt, wherever you can.... Cash is king
3) Collect, collect, collect and collect some more... Cash is king
4) Ruthlessly Cut away the dead wood, the hangers-on, the time servers... but…
5) Really generously and personally look after the people you want to have with you when the storm clears.
6) Make it as easy as possible for your favourite Customers to continue to support you (that doesn’t mean grovelling by the way!)
7) Be on the lookout for Opportunities to expand after the storm... there will be plenty of competitors who are dying for a helping hand.... give it to them... it is the right thing to do and there is nothing wrong with building up your stock of favours.
8) Don’t panic... take your time... assess calmly... negotiate.... everyone is going through the same storm.
9) Plan for the future, Planning is key.
10) And finally... don’t try and do it all by yourself...now is the time to get all the support you can get... Now is the best time to talk to your accountants, your mentors and to get a business coach by your side.

Please contact me to arrange a valuable free consultation about how to prepare for the heavy weather ahead, and how to ensure that you will be one of the Paddlers.

Roland Hanekroot New Perspectives Business Coaching http://www.newperspectives.com.au email roland@newperspectives.com.au, phone 0404490012

Hard work never made anyone Rich!

Hard work never made anyone rich

Or the lessons I learnt from a fallen tree

By Roland Hanekroot, New Perspectives Business Coaching
I went for a big bushwalk by myself recently. One of the reasons for doing so was because I felt stuck writing this article. While listening to the birds, enjoying being by myself in the bush and giving my brain some space away from my business, I found the missing link that allowed me to become unstuck.

Walking along in the National Park, I stumbled on an enormous fallen tree, blocking the path ahead completely. It was muddy everywhere, but I felt like a rest so I decided to sit down on the tree. As I was eating my apple I noticed that the tree had been down for a long time and it had become a whole ecosystem in itself of lichen and moss and fungi and ants and beetles. The more I looked, the more fascinated and inspired I became about the system of life and abundance in and around the tree.

I moved on again but the only way ahead was to climb across the tree. After spending 15 minutes observing the tree so closely I realised that I had to climb across it with great care and attention so as not to disturb and destroy the beauty of the tree. As I continued my walk I started thinking about the tree, its beauty and the important lesson I had just learnt by taking the time to observe this particular obstacle closely.

Nearly every time I work with my clients at some point we come across the same two obstacles on the road to continued business development: The number of hours in a day and the number of cells in our brains, and as in the case of the beautiful tree across my bush track, the only way forward is to appreciate the beauty of these obstacles and learn to see them not just as obstacles but as the most valuable resources in your business.

Juggling Jane
You may recognise all or part of this scenario: Jane, is the owner of JW Solutions: Business is growing, Jane is happily spending more and more time fulfilling her contracts and extinguishing the ever present number of brush fires. Her customers love JW Solutions and the personal attention they get from Jane… and Jane is pleased with herself for keeping all the balls in the air… she is buzzing.

And things progress apace… until… “Oops”… One of the balls crashes on the floor…”Bugger, I won’t fix this with a bunch of flowers… I suppose you can’t win them all… I just don’t seem to have the time to supervise properly these days… better start doing some of those non-critical things in after hour’s time… Focus on the guys delivering during the day… Haven’t had a holiday for while… ah well cash is a little tight anyway… next year…”

Slaves to the business
And so it goes, For Jane and for you; you work harder, longer hours, weekends…”Business doesn’t stop just because I take a day off!”

But in the back of your head you can feel this little voice that says: “Wasn’t this business supposed to be something that worked for you? Wasn’t it supposed to give you freedom? Instead, have you actually become its little slave?”

“Nonsense” says Jane, “I just don’t work hard enough… after all,
“No-one ever died from hard work… right?””

Right indeed, but no-one ever got rich from hard work either …

No, the most effective way to get rich in a business is not to work harder, but to employ more people producing more products or services. We all know that of course, it is one of the reasons we are in business in the first place. But as you develop your business on this model, you will at some point be confronted by those twin obstacles of time and brain cells and you may, like Jane and like many before you, get stuck.

How you manage to get unstuck and how you interact with those obstacles in the middle of your path determines where your business will get to and if it truly starts to deliver the freedom and personal reward you want from it.

Stop and observe
When you do come across these obstacles in your path, instead of running faster, pushing harder and yelling louder, I would like you to stop for a minute instead. Take a breath and observe the striking beauty of the obstacles, just like I did when I came across the fallen tree.

You see, the missing link I found while being in the quiet space of the bush is this: The reason these same two obstacles appear for you and every small business owner that ever was is that your time and your brain cells are the ONLY truly scarce resources in your business, you simply can never go out and buy some more of them. At the same time, your business can not survive without being constantly fed with your time and your brain. Therefore they are far and away the two most valuable assets of your business and at the same time their scarcity is also what causes them to become obstacles.

The work of the business owner
Scarce resources need to be protected and once you truly start to value your time and your brain cells, you will start to let go. Because with every demand on your time or your brain you will first ask: “Does this actually need to be done by me? Is there anyone else who can do this? Does this need to be done at all?” You will want to use your time and your brain only for the “Work of The Business Owner” instead of the “Work of the Business”.

This is how you will build the beauty of the tree into your business.
I appreciate that this is a big change for you. Most business owners never make this change, and they remain stuck.

Don’t think you have to make this change in one fell swoop though; all I want you to do from here, to set out on the road to becoming a True Business Owner… is to actually get ON the road and take the first little step.

Little Step 1: A good first little step to take to start on this road is to set aside 1 hr a week for “Business Owner Time”, during business hours, at the same time every week, blocked out in your diary.

Don’t worry about how to use this time… just block it out first. At the appointed hour, turn off the phone, turn off the email, turn off the mobile, you might actually leave the office, go to a café, or sit in the park, but do not take any calls, emails or anything else, (except from your spouse of course)

You can do this!

Let me assure you, every business owner can do this and nearly every client I have ever worked with has tried to convince me that there was some special reason why they couldn’t possibly do this… but they could and they did… because it is an absolutely critical first step, and basic to the long term development and viability of your business.

Later you will need more than an hour a week but start with this hour first.

Little step 2: What do you do with this hour? This hour is business development time; It is strategic work; It is the work that no-one besides you, the owner, can do; and it is the best, most powerful use of that most valuable resource in your company…Your time.

To start with, just use the hour to think, sit and think, or walk and think, drink coffee and think, think with a piece of paper and pen or think in the park. Think strategy, think future, think big picture, think plans, think about where you want the business to be in a year, in 5 years…?

From here there is no limit to the projects you could turn your mind to: The coming recession and how to manage around that; Your marketing challenges; Your tendering processes; Innovation; Business Plan; etc

And I want you to treat this hour as absolute holy writ, come hail rain or shine…Tuesday morning from 10 to 11 you are not contactable, by anyone for anything…

Janes little steps
Back to Jane; Jane is actually a client of mine, and JW Solutions is her recruitment business. Jane found the obstacles, the tree in her path and she started with “Little Step 1”. Jane asked her PA for assistance. She explained to her assistant what she needed to do and that on Thursday morning every week, from 9 to 10 she would no longer be available for anyone except her husband or kids, and she asked her PA to help her manage that, and not to allow her to slip anything in her diary or answer any phone calls.

The first three weeks were tough but then Jane started getting into the habit. Things started to change for Jane, it was as if a weight was being lifted off her shoulder, and she started becoming clear about the things that needed doing in her business to move it forward. Now, a year and a half later, she has altered her approach and takes an hour and a half from 9 to 10.30 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and her business has increased its turnover by 30% in the same time. Jane truly appreciates the unique value and beauty of her time and her brain, and I believe her husband is much happier too.

Further Reading:

• The “E-Myth revisited” and other books in the series, by Michael Gerber
• The “One Minute Manager” series, by Ken Blanchard et al
• “Small Giants”, by Bo Burlingham
• "Secrets of small business owners exposed”, by Dale Beaumont
• “The Elves and the Shoemaker”, by the brothers Grimm

BLUE OCEANS AND CLEAR SWIMMING POOLS

Blue Oceans and Empty Swimming Pools

Or the business lessons I learnt in an Italian "Piscina”

A few years ago I spent 4 months in Italy looking for the answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. Sitting on piazza’s, sipping espresso, licking gelato and letting the Universe speak to me without distraction felt like a good idea. (By the way, it was a good idea and She did speak to me, but that is another story!)

One of the many exciting experiences I had while in Italy was going for a swim in a local swimming pool. I had taken up swimming as a serious strategy on the way to everlasting life a few years previous and was keen to continue the regime while waiting for the universe to send Her messages.

Most of us have some knowledge of Italian traffic; we take great delight to relate crazy traffic stories on our return from Rome or Naples. Italian traffic does indeed seem to operate along different rules than traffic in Australia, but the truly crazy traffic of Italy is to be found elsewhere, namely in the local swimming pools on any afternoon of the week. My first introduction to the council swimming pool in Florence was a heart stopping experience.

Bloodbath
There must have been 500 people in the pool, swimming in 500 different directions and all trying to find clear water. My pursuit of life everlasting took a backseat to my pursuit of life right then. I crawled out of the pool 10 minutes later with a bleeding nose, bruises and scratches all over my body, as if I had been in a pub fight.

I realised that I needed to change my approach to keeping my hard-won level of fitness during this summer of Chianti and Pizza. The competition was simply too fierce, there was only so much water to be found and everyone had to battle it out in the bloodbath that is the Florence Piscina

"How to make the Competition irrelevant"

I was reminded of this experience recently when reading a great book called “Blue Ocean Strategy; How to make the competition irrelevant”. In order to continue my swimming and fitness regime I had to find a pool where I could swim my laps, and zone-out without fearing for my life. I did; It turns out that Italians hate early morning exercise, it doesn’t fit with their life style at all, especially in summer, and so even though the pools open at 7.00 am, nobody comes near a swimming pool until about 10.30.

The other buggers
The authors of Blue Ocean Strategy make a similar point about business and competition. Most of us business owners look at our competition and ask: How can we stand out from the crowd, how can we be better, quicker, cheaper than the other buggers? In other words, we go to battle with our competition for the same dollar, the same customer. But what might we see if we step outside that battle for a minute? What might we see about the market and our business in it? What other opportunities are there? And how can we access those opportunities? What can we do to find clear water in the pool, so we can focus on doing what we do best instead of spending all that energy trying to beat the competition?

It is tempting to engage with the battle right in front of us and become absorbed by it. But is it really the best place to direct our energy? Maybe we can find a different field to play in all by ourselves?

My own example
Let me give you a business example from my own experience. I normally refer to myself as a “Business Coach”. There is no accepted definition of what business coaching actually is, but there is a successful franchise company that also describes its services as “Business Coaching”. Because I also refer to myself as a business coach, I am by default in competition with this company and swim in the same pool with them even though my approach and services are very different from theirs.

For a while I was tempted to compete head-on with this crowd, to develop marketing materials and products, services and packages that were better, cheaper, quicker, faster than theirs. In other words I felt compelled to try to compete with them for space in the same swimming pool.
At some point I realised the stupidity of this strategy. To do so I would have to change my personal values, my philosophy and my approach to my clients. That is not a tenable proposition obviously, and it became clear to me that what I had to do instead, was to find my own swimming pool. Being able to settle into my favorite stroke without concerning myself what stroke everybody else was swimming and if I was about to be run over. It took me some time, but I have found that pool and I am so much happier for it.

Find your own pool
So this is your mission, should you choose to accept it: Go out and find your empty swimming pool, where you can swim powerfully on your own, being able to focus on your own stroke as opposed to everybody else’s.

To find this empty swimming pool you need to ask yourself a few simple questions:
1) Who are the potential customers of my services?
2) Which group(s) of potential customers don't buy (or virtually don’t) from my company or from my competitors?
3) What are all the factors that we and all our competitors already compete on with each other?
4) On which factors are none of us competing?

3 Case studies:

1) Financial planning for Gen Y:
A Financial Planning company I worked with some years ago went through a strategy planning process with me in which we asked questions like those above. The process turned up that all financial planners were trying to out-compete each other on the same factors and all aimed at the same clients.

The owner of the company saw a trend in society that indicated that young generation Y’ers were holding off buying their first bit of real estate and electing to continue to pay rent in the trendy inner city areas of Sydney. He suspected that when Gen Y’ers turn 35 they too start to think about having families and homes in the suburbs and that they would need a substantial nest egg to put down as a deposit. The other thing he noticed was that Gen Y’ers as a rule want nothing to do with financial planners, and vice versa.

He put these observations together and developed a really funky and smart offering aimed at helping Gen Y’ers prepare for the day that they do want to buy a home to raise their family in. Initially the fees they earned from these services were minimal but over time it has become a golden business, and essentially without competition. My client swims in his own pool and practices his own stroke.

2) Smart video productions:
Another client of mine produces video productions. To create his own swimming pool he has found a way to produce a professionally edited and cut 3 camera coverage of an event for the price of single camera operator. The difference this makes in quality is enormous. He is now swimming in a pool all by himself. For particular types of events (awards nights, school events, weddings etc) and a particular type of client, his competition is irrelevant.

3) Renovating Sydney’s terrace houses:
Finally I have another example from my own days as a builder in the crowded Sydney renovations market. We came to a realisation that 80% of Terrace houses fit in one of 5 design templates. At the same time most terrace house owners want to open up the back of the house to the light, bring the bathroom into the middle of the house and update the kitchen etc. Putting these two realisations together meant that we were able to offer a standardised design-and-construct service that nobody else was able to match. Very soon clients were knocking down the door and we stopped worrying about the competition.

Do your thing
If you would like to create your own swimming pool, your own golf course or your own private trout stream for your business, why don’t you come and have a chat with me. I can assure you there is nothing more fun and rewarding in business than swimming in your own pool.

The book I referred to is:
"Blue Ocean Strategy" by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne