Setting Goals in Life

I was fortunate enough to have my parents bring me to the USA when I was 10 months old. We all became United Sates citizens in 1967, I was eleven years old. My Dad made raised me to believe that hard work, honesty and commitment to my God and family will pay off greatly because we are in the land of opportunity. A day that I will never forget is when my parents decided to buy a house. I was about ten years-old and came home from school to find them taking cash out of coffee cans and counting it. I always knew there were lots of coffee cans in the house; I just thought that my folks really liked coffee. Little did I know that all of the coffee cans in the kitchen cabinets and closets were full of cash! After a lot of counting, my brother, my parents, and I took three large burlap bags full of cash on a bus to downtown Cleveland, Ohio to buy a house. That day in 1966, my parents bought their first house for eleven thousand dollars cash. A few days later I had an opportunity to see our new home. I was thrilled because we actually had a yard with a lawn that we could play in. Of course, it didn't take long for my dad to rip out the lawn so he could plant a vegetable garden. My protests were dismissed by my Dad yelling, "We don't need grass. We aren't raising sheep!" Not long after that my dad acquired a hog and several chickens. Needless to say, we had some major confrontations with some city officials who made sure we didn't raise farm animals in the city. Just like my Dad, I love the USA and am very thankful for all of the opportunities this country has offered me. I now know that my dad was right. Through hard work, dedication to God, my goals and family, while striving to maintain integrity in all that I do, anything is possible in America. God Bless America and everything it stands for. Without it, I could have never reached my dreams and I believe that if I can do it, anyone can.

Employees are NOT created equal

I've managed hundreds of people during my career and I can tell you one thing for sure, people are definitely different! An organization may have one person who is hard working and highly productive but has terrible interpersonal skills. On the other hand there may also be an employee who is great at communicating but has marginal technical ability. Their personal goals and motivations may be all over the place also. I found that the best business leaders are those who understand these differences and have the ability to lead, motivate and coach all types of employees who may have many different personalities. I believe there are three employee types; Minders, Finders and Grinders. The "Minders" are the folks who have organizational and process skills. These people are highly skilled at motivating coaching and getting projects completed. "Finders" are sales-driven and in many cases become CEO's or presidents of businesses. Most of their energy is focused on producing for the future. The "Grinders" live for today. Key attributes of a Grinder are they like to work only in the present, often dismiss the past, fear the insecurity of the future, do not like to delegate, like doing one thing at a time, and will do as instructed, are very skilled at their jobs but rarely generate new ideas. Most of us have a few attributes of each in us, but those who are exceptionally strong in one area are usually very weak in the other two. The key to success when managing people who have strong specific talents is accepting the fact that they are strong at one skill and properly adjusting their tasks and responsibilities so that their great talents can be used for the most benefit of the business and their own personal job satisfaction. I wouldn't put a strong grinder who may have great technical skills and limited interpersonal skills into a job that requires a lot of customer contact. Then again, I may have someone who is a strong finder that is great at sales yet limited technical skills. This person may not be considered highly productive technically, but they can really do a great job selling. The variety of personalities and skills in any employee team may be quite diverse. Understanding these differences, adjusting for the needs of the business and matching them to the types of employees will not only gain great results for the business, but also create a more motivated and satisfied team members.

Busy Does NOT Equal Success

Since it started getting fairly warm here in Kentucky, I've asked several people "how's business?" They usually respond with something like "We're really busy" My next question is, "okay, so are you making good money? . . Be honest!" About half of the time I get the real answer. . . "No, I'm not making good money!" I usually ask why that is, and I get the same stuff: Competition is killing me on price People are demanding discounts Labor costs Fuel costs Economy It's just tough out there! (whatever that means) I have to take whatever is available cause I have to eat! Do you agree that no matter what, there is someone always lower priced than you? So accept that as a fact and talk about why you are better than everyone else and of course it costs more! You can't expect a filet mignon at the price of a generic hotdog! Duh! If you were to raise your price by 10% and lose 15% of your business, you would still probably be doing better. To find our more and if you want to learn more go here to view my video on increasing profits now: http://nordyneu.com/PaidTraining/IncreaseProfitsNow If you haven't raised your price in a long time, you need to consider it now, especially when you are busy. Simply because of the fact that you are busy means that you must be doing something right, because people are doing business with you. In any other business in the world, they increase price when demand increases, it is just good business! Every time we turn around the price of something we buy has changed. Even simple things like milk and bread change from day to day. Yet I still meet people in the contracting business who haven't changed their price in more than five years! Stop measuring your success on total sales and whether you are busy or not. Being profitable equals success. Measure on your net profit and profit margins. You are not Walmart so being the low price leader and trying to make it up in volume is the stupidest thing you could do. Personally I would rather not work seven days a week and sixteen hours a day to pay my bills. Raise your price to a level that makes your life comfortable, focus on customers you can serve well and stop killing yourself needlessly trying to take care of the bargain price shoppers, they are usually the complainers anyway.

Is Business Like Baseball?

I've often compared business leadership to coaching baseball. They both have rules, each player has specific skills, everyone has personal goals and team goals. All players know what it takes to win and they all support each other. Plus hopefully they practice regularly. Just for the heck of it, let's compare the way a business operates to the way that you would run a baseball game. I would assume everyone reading this has a fairly good understanding of the rules in baseball. Imagine if the baseball game was similar to some folks who run a business with no goals, no specific rules and no basic plan for success. Let's say we decided to start a game the way this business was run and we had several individuals playing who are totally unfamiliar with the rules of how to play. So I'm at bat with no one on base. I happen to hit a ground ball to the third baseman. He catches it and instead of trying to throw me out at first, he instead throws it to the pitcher. I get to first and I believe I'm safe. One of the people playing who doesn't know the rules wants to argue that I am out because the third baseman did catch the ball. I argue that he has to throw it to first to get me out, and that I only would have been out if he caught it as a fly ball and not a ground ball. A third person wants to argue that I was out because the third baseman threw the ball to the pitcher and the pitcher caught it before I arrived at first base. We all get into an argument and the whole game never continues because there are too many opinions on what the real rules really are. This was just from one base hit, imagine what it would be like when we decide to keep score! I've been to some businesses where it seems like they are playing a game with no defined rules, no goals, no measurement and no one ever knows if they are winning or not. In baseball, everyone understands the rules of play. Every player knows the ultimate goal is to get the most runs to win while also trying to keep the other team from scoring. Each player has a specific role to play in order for that to happen. Everyone also knows how to handle their own role and objectives in most every possible scenario that could occur. Just so there is no misunderstanding, the scenarios are practiced on a regular basis in order to make sure there are minimum errors during actual play. The team that is most successful in accomplishing all of this wins the most games. Why can't you do the same in business? Business leaders need to make sure everyone on the team completely understands the rules of play and what it takes to win. This begins with making sure there are actually rules of play, like an employee handbook, business objectives, workplace guidelines and also an understanding of possible ramifications if the rules are broken. It may seem difficult sometimes to get everyone playing the same game and playing by the same rules, but if you don't start with communicating the fundamentals, you'll never win. Setting individual goals and overall business goals to win is essential also, every person must know how they could affect the outcome. More about this in future newsletters.

It's Time for Spring Cleaning in Your Business

While helping prepare dinner a few nights ago, I asked my wife, Brenda, what I should write about in my next newsletter. As usual, she responds to my question with another question. She says; "Aren't you doing something like spring cleaning your business right now? Write about that!" It was a wonderful suggestion, so I decided to write about it. I actually do spring clean my business every year. It's something I recommend everyone does. So here are 12 Spring cleaning ideas:
1. Look for things that waste time, energy and money and stop doing them.
2. Evaluate services and products offered to make sure it is consistent with what customers will spend money on.
3. Evaluate and eliminate any products or services that are not producing great margins.
4. Set new goals and guidelines that will get you closer to your final objectives in your life.
5. Look for any possible cost cutting ideas or productivity improvements.
6. Talk to vendors and suppliers who may be able to negotiate better pricing and rates.
7. Re-evaluate my marketing strategy including the website, advertising, trade shows, etc.
8. Research any new ventures or possible investments.
9. Get rid of clutter, not only off the desk, but clutter in business processes. Research any technology that could help.
10. Find something that makes your organization significantly better than the competition and make sure you make a big deal about it.
11. Look at your pricing strategy, is it time for an increase? (Most likely . . . YES!)
12. Ask others for ideas, input and recommendations and reward them! Remember, you don't know everything!

Franks 10 Rules on Keeping Customers Loyal

1. Never let personal needs, self-pride or prejudices get in the way of doing what is right for the customer

2. Appreciate the customers’ business – and tell them through your work, your attitude and communication

3. Pay attention to detail

4. Support your products, your team members, your company and your industry

5. Always look for ways to make it easier and more pleasant to do business with you (be compared to a five star restaurant)

6. Listen to your customers, get the details right

7. Script out and practice what you are going to say and how you are going to do it

8. You don’t know everything

9. Remember, nobody is perfect. Sometimes people screw up

10.Don’t ever be afraid to say “I’m sorry”, even if it isn’t your fault

Do You Do Business With People You Don't Like?

Recently I presented a Customer Satisfaction workshop in Las Vegas at the ACCA "Raise the Stakes" Annual Conference. There was probably 150 - 200 people in my class.

That evening at one of the social events one of the participants came up to me and said; "I was in your class today. You know I saw you speak on the same subject once before and didn't realize it was going to be the same material. I was considering getting up and going to one of the others, but I stayed till the end". I asked him why he stayed, and he said; "I like you and I like what you have to say".

After thinking about this, I realized that I need to add one more essential ingredient to the customer satisfaction pyramid. THE CUSTOMER MUST LIKE YOU.

Think about it, no matter how efficient the service or competitive the price, if you don't like someone, you won't do business with them. Just yesterday morning I called my new accountant's office and asked for a document to help me organize my taxes. The rep on the phone informed me that I am not in the system and she does not provide these documents if you are not in the system. . . leaving me no option for anything else. So naturally I just sat quietly on the phone waiting and she said "hello, are you there? I said yes. She said "Is there anything I can help you with?" I responded, "I don't know, I am not sure what I am allowed to do or say since I am not in your system." Then she asked my name again and now found me in the system. No apology, nothing. At this point, I am debating whether to do business with these people because, I do not like the lady that answered the phone. This doesn't have to happen.

Want to grow your business? Make friends and be nice. Get people to like you. Doesn't seem that difficult to me.