As your online presence increases, you will come in contact with all types of individuals. Timothy Ferriss, of 4-Hour-Workweek fame, gives some practical ideas about handling different types of people and situations.

In the blog post and video:
Tim gives his rules for comments on his blog.
Shares how he deals with the media and giving interviews.
Gives guidelines for dealing with negative situations in general.

Tim elaborates on his 7 Great Principles for Dealing with Haters:

1. It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do
2. 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it.
3. “Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.” (Colin Powell)
4. “If you are really effective at what you do, 95% of the things said about you will be negative.” (Scott Boras)
5. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” (Epictetus)
6. “Living well is the best revenge.” (George Herbert)
7. Keep calm and carry on.

Accountants, Corporate Attorney’s, Consultants, and other business professionals will learn how to use the Business Performance Analysis Engine to pinpoint SMB client weaknesses and how to convert those opportunities into additional billable hours and new consulting revenue.We’re going to show you how to:
   – compare your client’s business operating performance against other companies in their industry, worldwide;
   – identify the specific business challenges each of your clients is struggling with;
   – convert each client’s challenges into additional revenue opportunities (i.e. more billable hours);
   – project more credibility and expertise with your clients by having a complete set of holistic & comprehensive set of diagnostic data and management metrics;
   – get access to SMB operating performance data available no where else.This webinar features actual case studies and a complete introduction  to the Business Performance Analysis Engine (BPAE) from Mentoring Success Group LLC.
  
Register for a session now by clicking on this link: Webinar Information 
 
Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration
with information you need to join the Webinar.
 
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
 
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

There’s a very popular TV reality show whose motto consists of three words, “Outwit, Outlast, Outplay”. It turns out that this show is a fascinating competitive and ethical study on what people will actually do in order to reach a specific goal, and win a large cash prize. It’s interesting to watch these individuals strategize how they are going to achieve a specific goal, step by step. Do we, as business owners take the same amount of time planning or strategizing how we are going to achieve specific short term goals in our own business or personal lives? Do we even know how to develop a strategy for reaching a goal?

How many of us use sports such as football, basketball, or even a round of golf, to release our competitive nature for a few hours each week? But when it comes to operating our business, we easily become helpless, passive victims waiting for the phone to ring, for a customer to come through the door. For small business owners, nothing happens merely by chance. Today’s events (or the lack thereof) were enabled by specific decisions that we made yesterday, last week, last month, or even three months ago.

Here’s my basic rules for making decisions that successfully gain a competitive advantage, no matter what industry or line of work you’re involved in…

1. Define the rules for success. There needs to be a clearly defined, short term objective. On the reality show ‘Survivor’, the objective was to be one of two people remaining in the game at the end. For a football game (American style), the objective after 60 minutes of game time, is to have the highest score. There is a defined objective and a defined time period for it to be achieved.

2.You need information. On the game show, participants were aggressively out collecting information (and spreading mis-information) about other participants. Professional sporting teams collect detailed ‘scouting’ reports about the competition. What kind of information do you collect about your competitors? Do you even know who they are? What are their strengths and vulnerabilities? What are your strengths and weaknesses, and how do you use them to your competitive advantage?

3.Get a road map. Once you’ve collected the appropriate information (actually, you never stop this process) you need to develop some clear idea of how you will get from where you are now, to where you want to be (refer to point 1 above). There’s an old saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Without a well thought out strategy or ‘game plan’, that road might not be the shortest possible distance between two points. Consider the information you’ve collected in step two; how do you use that information to your competitive advantage? How do you exploit your competitor’s weaknesses, whether its over a game of golf, or in the business world?

4.Execute. Once you’ve defined the rules for success, collected the information you need, developed a detailed road map, all that remains is to ‘get it done’. Just a few important observations…

a.The devil is always in the details…often it’s the details that make or break the ongoing viability of a company. It certainly is the difference between a business that is a world class competitor and one that merely exists.

b.At key critical milestones throughout the process, establish specific interim goals and objectives so that you can easily measure your progress toward the final goal.

c.Allow yourself the ability to make minor adjustments on your strategy as required during your journey towards your goal. But remember, nothing gets done until you take that first step. You eat an elephant the same way you eat anything else, one bite at a time. So, stop waiting and get started.

For business owners who aren’t experienced in business management per se’, developing a competitive strategy isn’t likely to be an intuitive process. That’s why we developed the Business Performance Analysis Engine at the Mentoring Success Group LLC. By accessing the BPAE at our website, we measure every area of your company’s performance, and compare it to the results in our database.

We not only show you where your strengths and weaknesses are, but we show you how well you compare against the competition worldwide as well. But that’s just the first step. The BPAE not only gives you this information, but it helps you interpret it as well. We show you what issues need to be prioritized in order to exploit competitors weaknesses. We help you to identify specific opportunities to excel, that have been ignored, overlooked, or forgotten. We can’t help you determine your personal goals and objectives, but we certainly help you get there faster!

The MentoringSuccessGroup Website is located at… www.MentoringSuccessGroup.com
Also, I just wanted to bring to your attention an exciting new series of one day seminars that we are sponsoring in fall 2008. We are gathering the best people in the business world to come together for one very full day, to specificly teach small/medium business owners how to get a competitive advantage. Everything you hear or discuss will be about “here’s what you need to know, this is why it’s important to you, and this is what you need to do about it.” If you could use a highly productive day like this to help you become even more competitive, check out the website at www.WeMentorSuccess.com
Running a business is the ultimate competitive sport. Get in the game.

Part of Charles Darwin’s theory about the ‘survival of the fittest’, is that each species must either ‘adapt or die’. 125 years later, a subset of our own species (entreprenuers and business owners) need to implement his advice: ‘adapt or die’. You see, I believe that during the economic recession that we’ve struggled with during the past three years, most business owners attribute many of their problems to the ambiguous ‘financial crisis’, issues like tight credit, sagging revenue, etc..

However, its my belief that a far more dangerous problem that we’re faced with are the catastrophic, gut-wrenching changes in the way we actually do business, and even communicate with each other. Who heard of Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter 3 years ago? Yet they, and the Internet platform that supports them, are responsible for dramatic changes to the entire media industry. Care to guess how many newspapers in North America have disappeared during 2009? How often do you listen to the radio anymore, when you have so many other choices of listening to the music you like, when you want it.

Still have one of those phones at home that hangs on your wall (or sets on a desk)? Now we carry individual cell phones with cameras, video, texting and more computing power than mainframe computers had 25 years ago. Heck, even the US Postal Service is flirting with bankruptcy; when’s the last time you wrote a personal letter (remember those?) or mailed a postcard?

Here’s the dilemna these market dynamics are causing…the technology revolution has rapidly changed the way we communicate with each other during the past five years. The problem is that the traditional methods of communicating via television, radio, newspaper, or even direct mail with our clients and customers is disappearing into the sunset. Meanwhile, the replacement channels or processes for a business to communicate with existing clients and prospective customers isn’t nearly as well defined or developed. In fact, implementing some of these same technologies such as texting, email, etc, can be either socially unacceptable, or downright illegal.

Given the current trend of media businesses like radio, and newspapers going out of business, my challenge becomes communicating my next big 50% off sale to my current clients and new prospects. How am I going to grow my business, or even survive if I can’t effectively communicate with my clients? What’s an entreprenuer to do?? Oh, I suppose I could give you some explicit advice, but it’d be obsolete by the time you read this. So instead I will offer three basic suggestions…plus one bonus!

1. Go where your customers are. If you’re looking in all the wrong places, any form of communication will be adequate. You likely won’t be selling snow blowers or snow shovels in Florida, so no form of communication will yield results. Does your product or service have a niche? Is there a place on the internet or in the offline world where they congregate to socialize or to network?

2. Once you find them, figure out the best way to communicate with them. Is it the internet? Direct mail postcards? Twitter? Don’t get too wrapped up in any specific method of transmitting your message, be flexible and adaptable to new developing methods of communicating.

3. What you communicate is always more important than how you communicate. Your messages to clients must always articulate the value, or they simply won’t respond; the silence will be deafening no matter what medium you use to transmit the message.

4. Don’t be pressured into quickly adopting new technologies to communicate with clients. 96% of the world’s inhabitants aren’t identified as ‘early adopters’ of new technology. Make sure that the new method or technology to communicate actually works for you, achieves some sort of measurable ROI before you jump in. Just because its there, isn’t a valid reason to include a new technology in your communications strategy.

A dictionary defines the word ‘problem’ as:

A question raised or to be raised for inquiry, consideration, discussion, decision or solution … an unsettled matter demanding solution or decision and requiring usually consider¬able thought or skill for its proper solution or decision …a perplexing or puzzling question.

Why is this definition hard to understand?

Many of my business management students have difficulty in understanding this. They don’t grasp the point that a problem is always best expressed in terms of questions. “Any problem is open to question.” I ask them, as I ask you, to state some of their principal problems. Here are some of the answers I have received

- The main problems we feel we will be facing in the next three years are: the economy, financing expansion, maintaining a competitive edge, and the recruiting of qualified productive employees.
- Cash flow
- Poor cash flow
- Slowing of the economy
- Encouraging the public into the store
- Employee reluctance to change
- Employee motivation
- Competition
- Development of personnel suitable to our type of business.

Show me the question

None of these statements gives us a clue about what to do to improve any undesirable situation that may exist. Not one statement is expressed as a question. All the statements leave us completely up in the air about what to do about the problems that the economy, poor cash flow, competition, etc. might be causing. Clues to management action are created when the manager asks himself what he can do in response to a question that is perplexing him. He reviews the situation, asks himself what’s what, what he wants to change, etc., and then he has something to work on.

For example, one manager simply said, “encouraging the public into the store.” What was the perplexing question? It might be “What steps must I take to increase the flow of traffic in my store from an average of 100 persons per day to an average of 200 persons per day?” This gives him at least something to work on. The manager who described the economy as a problem was right, I’m sure, but his description of the problem leaves him nothing to work with. He needs to ask what it is that the economy is doing to him that he can work on. He needs to break down his situation and circumstances and ask how can I deal with this or that circumstance so that I can achieve what I want to achieve in spite of the difficulties? What he will get will not usually be simple questions, but perplexing questions. That’s what problems are. If he doesn’t think up the questions how will he ever get the answers? To tackle your problems, first put them in the form of specific, precise questions.

What do I do next?

Managers and owners of small businesses who are ready for samples of problem solving questions are sending a blank email with “your first name + P/Q” in the subject line, yesdocmiller@gmail.com

Isn’t it just a joy to encounter someone in our business dealings who can see us as the individuals that we are? With 3 years experience behind me of working in the beyond fast city of London, I do know what the exact opposite of that feels like. Today I had a run in with a guy on one of the online business forums that I subscribe to where he basically rubbished one of my threads which undoubtedly had garnered some interesting attention. The essence of the thread was on the role of intuition in small business. Without even having seen my website, he said something like “It’s your train set. Make decisions based on fairies dancing at the bottom of the garden if it butters your toast. Good luck.”

“Uggghhh” I thought to myself. Luckily however, a few clued up forum members had the presence of mind to check the website and concluded for themselves that my business concept was not as “fruit loops” as that one guy would have people believe.

But this brings me to my point which is that in business, big or small, as in life, there are those of us who are “conscious”, those who are not and those who fall at every point in between. And that’s all fine, they are where they are. My particular vision happens to be helping other small business owners really find themselves and get in touch with the choices and expression that will really help them create a working life filled with joy, freedom and abundance. And I don’t buy that that’s a Pollyanna-like notion either because I have been able to create it myself…yes, together with the more tangible, practical aspects such as sound business and marketing plans, systems which focus heavily on customer satisfaction, proven business strategies etc.

I believe that we all have a choice in business about who we want to surround ourselves with, whether it be customers, suppliers or staff, and that this contributes in significant ways to your success and happiness and that of your business as a whole. It may seem like a simple example but it’s not really possible to have a business that stays afloat and nurtures all who come into contact with it if everyone involved is negative and apathetic, is it? We CAN consciously reach in every area of our businesses for experiences that are richer, more rewarding, and indeed a privilege for whomever it serves. And the funny thing is, there are so many small business owners out there who simply aren’t aware that this choice exists.

Never mind the naysayers. I came to understand a long time ago that they don’t despise me or what I do. They really despise that they are unable to have it themselves. I do view them with compassion, for like I say, they are where they are and could be in no other place. To others however, I say “Jump on board and together we’ll have a whale of a time”. Life is just bursting with rich experiences for the taking. What a joy to be in the company of those of you who can be grounded in solid business practice, staying awake at the wheel AND letting your real selves soar!

Check out more on my intuitive work in small business at http://www.intuitadmin.com
© Advanced Intuitive Administration, 2009

Caroline Diana Bobart
Virtual Intuitive & HotDesk Genie
Advanced Intuitive Adminisration

http://www.intuitadmin.com

We all know purchasing is buying the goods and transporting them to the production unit. However, when we want to take our purchasing process to the next level we need to consider thinking of ‘procurement’ instead. What’s the difference then?; well, procurement goes beyond the purchase, since it takes into account not only the external supply but the internal supply as well (i.e. purchasing and delivering to the production line on time). Procurement requires the good planning of the purchases and delivery, analysing the market after the suppliers and the needed products, quality control on the incoming goods, the payments, and so on.

So, what’s required to achieve good procurement processes?. Here we show you the ‘seven rights’ rule (7 R’s); a good procurer will stand in his/her process for (1) obtaining the RIGHT materials, (2) at the RIGHT moment in time, (3) with the RIGHT amounts, (4) delivered at the RIGHT place, (5) by the RIGHT supplier, (6) with the RIGHT service and, of course, (7) the RIGHT price.

Having the 7 R’s right can prove a very difficult task since different options have their pros and cons; for example, which supplier?, what about our strategy?, sales budget?, or the production planning?

This is so complicated that several requirements and skills are needed in the procurer, from quality management, cost-benefit analysis, to supply chain management. However, usually the procurement managers are blamed for being too price-focused. As a helping tool we propose another definition for ‘price’, in order to accomplish the 7 R’s; it is what we will call the ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO). It assumes the total cost the company is actually acquiring the good for; as an example, a simple TCO would consider the buying price, delivery cost, the wage for the QC inspector, and the goods that have to be rejected because of bad quality.

As a conclusion, TCO serves as a tool for measuring the REAL COST of the good X, bought from supplier Y, allowing us to make better and more accurate purchasing decisions.

Francisco Marco-Serrano is Economist/Joint Administrator of K|P|K – Key Productivity Konsulting (Spain); Business Administration Adjunct Professor at the University of Valencia (Spain), and Economics Adjunct Professor at the University Jaume I (Spain).

Let’s begin by being realistic about two things…first, this economic recession isn’t going to go away anytime soon.  I just came across a statistic this morning which stated that 40% of all American homeowners are underwater with their mortgages, meaning that they owe more on their home, than it is currently worth.

The effect of this issue is that for many homeowners, the financial safety net and the ability to finance significant purchases is gone.  Couple that with the sobering reality that for many people, retaining their job is a day by day scenario.  Discretionary purchases of things like new appliances, a new car, etc. have simply evaporated.  Recovery is currently being forecasted for 2010, but it may be much longer.

The second reality that I need to point out however, is that as long as there are two people inhabiting this planet, there will be commerce.  There will always be a need for urgent healthcare requiring supplies and services.  There will always be a need for food and products produced by the agricultural industry including products and services such as packaging and logistics services.

So what’s my point?  The economic downturn is going to impact each one of us business owners.  Don’t hide behind the “doom and gloom” attention the media is giving our economy. The ‘business of commerce’ isn’t going to disappear; it’ll still be there for the survivors.  Even during a difficult economic downturn such as this, there are so many opportunities available to catapult your business to the next level.  Make sure you are open to those possibilities to cross your path.

So here’s a few specific tips and strategies for those of us who want to do more than merely survive the economic setback.

1.    Get to the bottom – right away

If your business has been, or continues to be impacted by the economy, plan ahead and get to the bottom of your worst case scenario right away.  Nobody likes to lay employees off, but they can read the writing on the wall just as well (if not better than) you can.  When you fail to act, their sense of safety, of working for a management team that is in control, becomes threatened.

But even more important, is getting to the bottom once, then bouncing back.  Continually laying off more employees month after month destroys morale.  ‘In which month will my number come up?’ Employees operating in this environment are far more preoccupied with their safety net than with yours.

2.    Long Range Planning

Put a bit less emphasis on your long range planning.  For many of us business owners and entrepreneurs, the severity of this economic downturn is uncharted territory.  Who can safely predict when a recovery will take place?

In February 2009, General Motors sold 127,296 new vehicles, a 53% drop in sales.  Did it occur to anyone that if the automotive industry continues stringing these 40% and 50% sales declines month after month, that in February 2010, General Motors will sell a total of 62 new vehicles (assuming they’re still in business).  Will that actually happen?  Probably not. But no one predicted this lengthy string of monthly 50% sales declines eight months ago either.

Short term planning is much more important than long range strategy with this economic environment.

3.    Take advantage of opportunities.
As you downsize and streamline your business, be very aware of the opportunities that are created in your industry by competitors who are in worse shape than you are.  Take the right opportunity to go after market share, to improve your sales force by recruiting your competitor’s best people.  For shrewd business owners, more money is made on the ‘back side’ of an economic recession than at any time.  Know when the time is right, and position yourself for the eventual recovery.

4.    Risk management

It is important to identify the key risks your business may face and develop the strategies to eliminate or reduce them. This will make your business more flexible and more able to withstand volatile and unpredictable market conditions.

Some of the more common risks include:
•    losing customers and failing to attract new ones
•    increased competition
•    poor cashflow
•    failure to anticipate problems/inability to adapt to changing market environment

5.    Customers and competitors

You must have a clear strategy for identifying and looking after key customers and growing relationships with them. It also pays to plan for certain worst-case scenarios which might arise, such as losing a major customer that owes you money. Try to expand your customer base as soon as possible – then the loss of a major customer will have less effect.

6.    Keep that cashflow healthy

Cashflow is the balance of money entering and leaving a business. It is important to anticipate cashflow problems as early as possible, so that solutions can be found before the problem is urgent.

At all times you need to know how much money your business has in the bank, how much it owes and how much it is owed. If you regularly update your financial records and develop forecasts showing likely sales, profit and loss, you should be able to identify when additional funds might be required.

With a tough economy, some companies may be tempted to sit back and wait for business to turn around. Smart B2B marketers know that prudent management of their marketing dollars is essential, but doing nothing will result in short and long term problems. After past economic downturns, media measurements consistently show that those marketers who continue to focus their marketing efforts will be the first in line for rapid growth during the recovery.

7. Increase the volume in your sales pipeline.

A sizable number of medium sized companies – 60%, have reported increasing sales cycles according to Scott Gillum, Sr. VP Financial Services at MarketBridge. In other words, it’s taking longer to close a sale.   If you can increase the volume of sales activity going into your sales pipeline, do it!

8. Other action steps you can take during this economic downturn include:

♦ Keep your sales force focused on building relationships with new prospects.
♦ Analyze your direct competitors to identify your sales and  marketing strengths and weaknesses.  The analysis system at www.MentoringSuccessGroup.com is an ideal way of measuring these opportunities.
♦ Look for ways to partner with other companies.
♦ Continually analyze your industry to determine what new marketing trends are developing.
♦ Examine your own brand to make sure your value proposition is stronger to your customers and prospects.
♦ Review your pricing strategy; see where you can you can make various offers at different price points.

I’ve got a great gift  for the first 50 entrepreneurs and small business owners who want a great opportunity to learn more about themselves, their business, competitors, and their future.

Hello everybody. This is Tom Tubergen, editor and publisher of the ‘Your Competitive Trends’ newsletter and the ‘Help-My-Business’ blog for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

The economic environment is difficult right now for most of us and it seems like we spend most of our day simply fighting to survive. But in addition to working hard, did you know that the most important ingredient to business survival success is access to relevant information?