Digg it UP - Business

Outsource Your Veterans!
Corporate America is missing a HUGE opportunity! Most companies, regardless of the improved economy, are still searching for ways to reduce their costs and become more competitive.Many companies have outsourced several functions to reduce costs. Of course, the most obvious outsourcing activity has been the customer relations call centers. How many of us have tried to call a customer service number only to find that we have difficulty understanding the person at the other end of the line.Now, here’s the opportunity that has been wasted. The largest customer for most of our Fortune 1000 companies is the Federal Government. Ask any

ighly organised and could easily undertake the tasks required.

Gary’s Story

Gary is the Sales Manager of a building company. He manages a team of 15 people. Gary began coaching with me last year. One of his key goals was to finish work by 5.30 p.m. each day. At that stage he was commencing work at 7.00 a.m. and going home at 7.30 p.m. at night. Not much fun right? He had no time for his life. Working these hours he was overstressed, overweight, unwell and the long hours took their toll on his family life.

Client Management and Striving for Perfection - A Message to My Friendly Competitor Consultants
As a consulting firm, your company should strive for perfection on every project that you engage in. Your purpose and intent should be to provide real value to your clients. Your position on providing value should never be compromised. However, striving for perfection does have its limitations and can be directly proportional to cost effectiveness on both sides of the equation. Cost effectiveness in relationship to your client’s price point and cost effectiveness in relationship to your time investment individually compared to the time actually billed. Think of the fill rate scenario. It is easy to go from a 97% fill rate to a 99% fill rate. All you have to

It’s great to be multi-skilled…be able to type your own correspondence, do your bookkeeping, answer all phone calls, prepare your PowerPoint presentations, organise your own travel, seminars, pick up and send your mail, pack orders, do your own marketing, do all the photocopying, ring your clients and prospects. However it may not leave you with enough time to focus on what really matters.

When you first start out in business, you will no doubt do most things yourself, yet to continue trying to keep control of every task that needs doing by handling everything yourself, you’ll never be able to grow your business successfully. You’ll run out of time and also be limited by your own skillset.

The same applies when you commence a new management role, you want to make a good impression and show that you are capable of handling all your responsibilities without asking for any assistance. That’s fine if you can manage doing that effectively and maintain your sanity. However, if you are having difficulty and suffer in silence, other people…your team, colleagues and clients will eventually notice anyhow.

If you are a business owner or manager with a team of people, you’ll go crazy trying to do everything yourself without some form of assistance…and being a good manager, your role is to manage and develop your people. Together you will achieve more… more productivity and profit or whatever your purpose is.

When you have people working for you, you’ll find that managing your people will take up a lot of your time.

When you’re at this level you do need some form of assistance whether it be a Virtual Assistant (personal assistants who work off-site in their own business and whom you can hire on as ‘as needs’ basis (see www.asecretary.com.au) or hire a person to assist you on-site whether it’s part-time or full-time.

You may also have a suitable candidate in your office right now who is ready to step in…just make sure they have the skills you require. It’s no good recruiting within your organisation unless the person has the attributes needed unless you are prepared to invest additional time and money to get them up to speed... and even after all that effort, they may still be unsuitable.

One of my clients decided to utilise their company’s receptionist to help him with his workload as she had spare time at certain parts of the day. This lady was a typical sanguine personality which meant she was bubbly, full of life and excellent ‘people person’… perfect for her role. This type of person is generally allergic to details and can be disorganised…the opposite of what my client required.

I knew it wasn’t going to work but he was adamant to give it a go as he didn’t want to invest in additional staff. It didn’t take long for him to realise he had made a big mistake and that no amount of further training would bring her skill level to where he needed it to be. Within 4 weeks he hired a trained personal assistant who was highly organised and could easily undertake the tasks required.

Gary’s Story

Killer Techniques to Get a Job in the Film Industry!
Getting a job in the film industry can be very challenging. It is not like other industries, which are based upon how well your resume is written or how well you interview. Industry jobs are very lucrative and highly sought after. This is in part because they can be very rewarding experiences presenting the opportunity for travel, glamour and fame. Although not advertised, most of these positions are secured through social networks, referrals and word of mouth. So being a social butterfly can be to your advantage.Most people in the industry are looking to employ dependable, honest and hard working people. It is not an industry that is conducive to w

management role, you want to make a good impression and show that you are capable of handling all your responsibilities without asking for any assistance. That’s fine if you can manage doing that effectively and maintain your sanity. However, if you are having difficulty and suffer in silence, other people…your team, colleagues and clients will eventually notice anyhow.

When you have people working for you, you’ll find that managing your people will take up a lot of your time.

Gary’s Story

The History of the Franchise Business - Learning about Business Opportunities by Looking at the Past
Hair care has been around as long as humans have been on the planet. The earliest record of personal hair care dates back 2.5 million years ago, when brushes used to create cave paintings in Spain and France were adapted for use in hair grooming. Interestingly, many of the innovations in hair design that are still used today originated in the late 19th century.According to 2002 statistics, there were 1.4 million personal care services in the United States, 313,000 of which were beauty and hair salons. The hair salon service industry alone had revenues of $55.9 billion, while salon product sales were $5.5 billion. Coloring alone brought in $10.4 bil

aging your people will take up a lot of your time.

Gary’s Story

My Twenty Cents Worth
Back in mid-October of 2002, my husband Andy borrowed my Ford Taurus to drive to work. His truck was in the shop for the day, and since I stayed at home with our baby, I relinquished my car to him.Andy’s everyday route to work involves a short stint on the New York State Thruway, and the toll for this ride is twenty cents. Lucky for him, the benevolent Thruway Authority provides something they like to call E-Z Pass, wherein you place a sensor square on your windshield and are given permission to proceed through a special toll lane, sans human operator. A machine reads the sensor and charges your account, ostensibly saving the Capital Region’s commute

Gary’s Story

Relationship Leadership
Jim Cathcart developed and characterized “Relationship Selling” as a system to describe and teach the paramount importance of the interpersonal relationship in business and the conduct of business around the world. Mr. Cathcart has transformed the business world by instilling the values of simple human kindness and contact back into the conduct of the business day. Too bad Mr. Cathcart doesn’t teach disaster preparedness.When I look at my market today, I am as amazed as Jim Cathcart was decades ago when he looked at his market and I draw the same conclusion, what is needed are relationships. I know that those in healthcare value relationships with cu

ighly organised and could easily undertake the tasks required.

Gary’s Story

There were a range of other issues affecting Gary’s productivity…the key ones were his poor time management skills, his inability to say ‘no’ and not having competent staff to delegate to. The staff issue was directly related to Gary’s time management skills. When new people joined his department they were left to their own devices with no on-going training. The staff turnover was a direct reflection of his management skills. His regular team’s performance wasn’t monitored and they never experienced any further development. In other words, Gary wasn’t an effective leader.

He had no dedicated personal assistant to delegate basic administrative tasks to and to assist him directly with his role. Gary had to look after clients and suppliers as well as his own team. The ‘people’ issues took up much of Gary’s time, therefore he extended his working hours to catch up on his own tasks… many of which could have been delegated to a competent personal assistant.

Through using our Weekly Planner to record where he was spending his time, Gary discovered he was wasting a minimum of 15 hours a week on administrative tasks which could easily be handled by an assistant. Gary’s time was worth $200 an hour and here he was wasting $3000 worth of his time minimum per week which could easily be delegated to a personal assistant who would cost his company $800 - $1000 per week.

The crazy thing about this was he procrastinated for weeks about hiring a support person. Once he saw the real truth, he quickly got off his butt and took action.

The Final Word

If you want to have more time to focus on what really counts in your business/organisation, then consider letting go and find an assistant who has the skills you need to help you be the best you can be.

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You've probably been taught not to stereotype people based on race, religion or sex. But when you make a career or business decision, do you still make decisions based on stereotypes?

It is very easy to kill ideas by highlighting their weaknesses. However, this will often 'throw the baby out with the bath water'. Even the silliest, weirdest or most impracticable of ideas will contain one or two per cent of potentially viable material which can can be used as what de Bono referred to as an 'intermediate impossible' - a stepping-stone to other, more directly usable ideas.

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