Setting Business Objectives

I speak at approximately 100 events every year. At the beginning of just about every speech, I ask the participants the following question: "Before I begin my presentation, I would like to know what you would like to be able to change in your life, or business as a result of attending this session? In other words, what can I do, as a presenter, to make this time worth it for you?" At this time I actually take comments and list them on a flip chart. Once everyone is done telling me what they would like, I put this list up on a wall and use it as my class objectives. Throughout my career I've been goal oriented and managed businesses with specific objectives in mind. I believe this is the primary reason why I have been very succesful at what I do. Even now when I work with a business owner, I focus on setting goals, putting together a strategy and marching forward. From the years of 2002 through 2007 I coached my stepson's little league baseball team. at the beginning of every season, I would establish a set of objectives for the team and focus on those for each individual player. When we transitioned from playing in the 12 and under to the 13 and up league there was some significant changes in the way the game was played. For example, the length between bases went from 60 to 90 feet. The pitchers mound to homeplate went from 46 feet to 60.5 feet. Basically we were playing in a field that was as a major league baseball field. The most significant change however was that runners were now allowed to lead off bases and steal. In preparation for these changes, I spent a lot of time watching the 13 and older boys playing to get a "feel" for their strategy. I quickly realized that stealing bases would result in almost half of the runs in a game! I knew now that if I could limit the amount of runners from stealing bases, we can win more games. So my objective for the preseason was to make sure we practiced picking off runners and anyone trying to steal a base. This resulted in a lot of infield practice just doing the same things over and over again. That was the first year that we had an opportunity to make it to the state championship. We also became known as the team who wouldn't let anyone steal bases. Designing a winning strategy, setting objectives and putting in a process to make it all happen will cause any business to become a winner. It just takes a bit of planning and some practice! If you would like to have me speak to your team, help you design a winning strategy or just want to talk to me, give me a call at 888-538-5383. Best regards! Frank Besednjak

Try Actually Listening to Your Customer!

When I decide to get some work done from a contractor, I usually take a few minutes and search the net, just like most people do, to get an idea of how others' experiences went. If I see a company had comments like; "they were rude", "unprofessional", "wouldn't call me back" or "showed up hours late", I consider it a deal breaker and won't do business with them. Of course I see price complaints too, but usually just ignore those because I believe you get what you pay for and someone had to approve the work so how can they still complain? Personally, I believe a price complaint is usually the result of something else not going well and not actually the price being the problem. For some reason after everything was done, the customer didn't think it was worth it. I've spoken to business owners in the past who have had negative comments about their employees attitude or lack of professionalism from their office and I'm shocked to find out the situation could have been handled easily by just refunding some of the money or offering something else free. I find the owner or manager of the business reluctant to budge and is just sticking to his guns because he is unwilling to "give in" to this complainer. Okay, so in response it is better to lose a few hundred potential customer due to the bad review online than to give up a few hundred dollars. Really??? Duh!!! Recently I've added a new segment to my Business Strategies workshop titled; "Managing Your Customers' Journey". The course is designed to set up systems and processes within your business to reduce and eliminate errors and problems. I believe that if you control every aspect of the customer's journey and manage their responses, you will make more money, have happier customers and get more referrals. Disney World does an excellent job of managing your journey and the way you respond. Think about it, you spend over $100 per person to go stand in line in the heat, pay way too much for food and drinks, stand in another line, take a bunch of pictures, get exhausted, stand in line again and eventually pass out in your room, then brag to everyone about what a great time it was. A few years later, you go back. Walt Disney was a genious and knew how to manipulate his customers and make their experiences worth it. My recommendation is to make sure that someone in your organization regularly searches the net looking for negative reviews. They will tell you a lot about what you are doing wrong too. Also, set up a system to keep your customers from going on line and venting to the population of earth about you. I recommend you send them to your own review site and let them vent there. Yes, here comes my commercial. . . I run a business called Customer Care Plus. We measure customer experiences for you using the most powerful and cost effective system anywhere. You get instant feedback and have the ability to resolve issues before they get out of hand. All of this with limited effort on your part. How much? Only $99 per month! Want more information? Go to Customercareplus.net or just call me at 888-538-5383, and we can have you up and running within a few days. Don't lose control of your customer experiences. Keep them from going online and complaining and turn them into referral machines who keep bring you more business.

Stop Whining and Get to Work!

Why does there seem to be this stigma about someone or a company making a profit? Don't these morons realize that the higher the profit, the higher the tax revenue? Isn't The Untited States the place where you can go and realize the dream of becoming successful and rich? That is why my family came here. I'm sick and tired of hearing people whine about how someone else is doing well and how they need to spread the wealth and it is not fair! Here is a concept you may not understand . . .How about creating your own wealth and coming up with something that people see as usefull and valuable? If you can do this, you can be wealthy too. Whining, complaining, blaming others for your failure and sitting on your ass is not anything that creates wealth nor is it anything that anyone else is willing to pay for. So, shut the hell up and get to work and stop taking money away from people who worked hard for it!

Getting Out of the Funk . . .

It happens to everyone. We develop a feeling of complacency, laziness, attitude of negativity. We just don't care anymore. Yes, this is absolutely normal, and the longer you've been doing something and working in the same job, the more often it happens. Even professional sports players get caught up in the occasional "funk". People pay big money to performance coaches trying to get a superstar out of his or her "funk". For the past 12 months, I've been in a major "funk". Finding out I had prostate cancer, having back problems, losing a parent and realizing I can't do all of the things I used to do proficiently 25 years ago. All were contributing factors to increasing negativity and the feeling of hopelessness in my life. I felt like I was running out of time, yet I was doing nothing about it. I'm sure most of you can relate to everything I just described and have encountered a similar "funk" yourself. At this moment, I'm sure you're thinking "So, is this whole column designed to get everyone depressed and feel sorry for Frank? Well, no actually, it is written to get me and anyone else who may be in a "funk" out of it. Here we go. 1. Make a plan of action with some short term goals a. Figure out something that you know needs to be done, that you like doing and do it! It will make you feel better, instantly. b. A short-term goal will head you in a direction that makes you feel good about yourself and what you are doing. c. Reward yourself when you have reached the goals with an experience that you really enjoy, like dinner at your favorite restaurant. 2. Organize your life a. Nothing gets me more in afunk than feeling like I have lost control. b. Schedule at least 30 minutes each day on cleaning off your desk, making a calendar of targets to reach for and rewards you will give yourself. c. Use technology. There are so many time management and priority management systems available. Try them out! 3. Ask for help a. One thing I hate more than anything else is going through my mail. Why? I have no idea, so I ask my wife to go through it first and she organizes it for me. Now I can handle it. b. You are not Superman or Superwoman. You can't do everything so find someone who is better than you and pay them to do things you aren't so good at or hate doing. c. Talk to someone. It could be a best friend, your spouse, co-worker or whoever may be able to give good feedback. Sometimes another brain is all you need to get you back on the right path. d. I don't consider myself a very religious person but God has played a big role in my life. Sometimes just realizing there is a higher power available to talk to helps immensely. 4. Make some long term goals a. Begin with the end. If we were building a house we wouldn't just start digging a hole and figure things out as we go, we would have someone lay out a floor plan and draw a picture of what it will look like when finished. Once you have this picture, you may now begin building a foundation. Life isn't much different, you need to know what things are going to look like before you start building, otherwise you may not have the final product built as intended. b. Involve your loved ones. They need to have input since they are there with you. c. Be realistic. Winning the lottery to retire is not a reality. d. Help others reach their goals and they will help you reach yours. 5. Realize there are things you have no control over. a. Worrying about things that are out of your control is a waste of our brainpower, time and talent. b. Spend your brain time wisely. Yes, there is a wide variety of issues we can all get together and complain about. How much influence do we really have? If you have no control over it, don't worry about it. c. Accept things for what they are, now how you wish for them to be. 6. Be Positive and do it! a. Getting depressed by spending my time thinking about how things suck adds no value to anything. b. Set a roadmap for positive things to happen and start heading in the right direction. c. Nobody likes a person who has only negative things to say. So stick with the positives. Go out of your way to find people doing something well and do it as often as possible. You cheer others on and they will cheer you on. 7. Avoid people who drag you down a. I've seen many intelligent, motivated and potentially very successful people ruin their lives because they've surrounded themselves with negative people. b. Look for happy and successful people and spend time with them. Success breeds success. 8. Become more physically active a. When you have anxiety or depression, exercise often seems like the last thing you want to do. But once you get motivated, exercise can make a big difference. b. Exercise helps prevent and improve a number of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis. Research on anxiety, depression and exercise shows that the psychological and physical benefits of exercise can also help reduce anxiety and improve mood. In conclusion . . . Yes we all get into those days, weeks and sometimes even months of "Funk". It doesn't have to be. Don't let yourself get dragged into the sludge of depression because a few things aren't going your way. Look at the situation, decide if there is anything you can do, decide if you need help or not and head into the right direction of working through it and reaching your goals, no matter what!