Saturday 30 October 2010

Changing what’s normal - Business Building in the 21st century Part 3

I have a thriving business today because I have embraced 9 massive changes to business building strategies and tactics that have occurred over my 19 years in business for myself. See my 25th and 28th of October blogs for my insights on the first six changes. Today I am exploring the final three.

6) generalist to niche

Once I tried to be all things to all people. I learned the hard way that I can only truly serve people in certain niches. Are you open for business to everyone or are you the go to person for certain people?

7) provider to partner

I was once a provider of certain services and usually I was hired for a specific period of time to provide a specific solution or meet a particular need. Today I don’t provide my clients with solutions to their challenges or problems, rather I partner with them to discover their own solutions. A consequence is that I get paid for the value that I provide rather than the time it takes.

Do your customers/clients see you as a partner or a provider? If your answer is provider then it won’t be long before someone makes your customers/clients a perceived better offer and you will lose their loyalty. Being perceived as a partner is a key way to build loyalty and therefore retain customers/clients.

8) service to experience

Providing our customers/clients with great customer service is a given today. Provide less than high standards of service and people will simply go somewhere else. What kind of experience do you provide for your customers/clients before they buy, when they buy, and after they buy? Unless your answer is memorable across the board, then you are not building the business you could be and not only are you are missing out on significant income and profits, you are most likely go backwards.

9) strategic planning to strategic synergy

I have had to read 100’s of strategic plans over my two decades as business advisor and mentor, and for a few years I helped to create them. In the past decade I have partnered my clients to separate determining strategy from the plans to execute it. I agree with Alan Weiss that strategic planning is an oxymoron!

I define strategy simply as the big picture how to get from where we are to where we want to be. Tactics are the actions we take to execute our strategy. As a general rule six words are all you need to describe your strategy!

The great writer Ernest Hemingway thought the following were six of his best words: For Sale: Baby shoes, Never worn.

Inspired by Hemingway, my friend and colleague Kwai Yu, founder of Leaders Cafe, asked the following question on a LinkedIn discussion: Who are you? Could you tell the story of you in six words?

Kwai received hundreds of extraordinary responses which inspired me to think about a way I could best teach people about strategy! I now work with my clients to help them describe their strategy in 6 words and when this is accomplished it becomes one of the best engagement of people tools I have ever developed.

Could you describe your strategy in 6 words?

There you have it, 9 massive changes to business building. How do you measure up?

Complete the following fast audit and see where you are and then take massive action to get to where you want to be.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Thursday 28 October 2010

Changing what’s normal - Business Building in the 21st century Part 2

Much has changed in my two decades in business as a catalyst for changing what’s normal.

I have a thriving business today because I have embraced 9 massive changes to business building strategies and tactics that have occurred over my time in business for myself; spin to story, what to why, interruption marketing to permission based marketing, media to mass media, expert to thought leader, generalist to niche, provider to partner, service to experience, and complicated strategy to simplified strategy.

See my 25th October blog for my thoughts on spin to story, and what to why. Today I am exploring the next three.

3) interruption marketing to permission based marketing (my thanks to Seth Godin)

In the early days of my business I had to cold call. The biggest hurdle I had to overcome was the fact that people saw my call as an interruption to their work. Advertising of cause is the biggest way we interrupt people which is why many of us mute the ads when we are watching television. Today if we are seen as interrupting people it is unlikely that they will hear our message.

In what ways do you have permission to communicate your message to people. Do you have an electronic newsletter for example that people have opted-in to receive? Do you have numerous ways to collect people’s details and do they know what will happen on a frequent basis once you have their details?

4) media to mass media

When I first started my business, phone books, newspapers, magazines, radio and television were the media available to me, and most were inaccessible as I didn’t know anyone in the media, and I didn’t have a lot of funds to spend. Today we can use a multitude of media channels to add value and attract customers/clients, for free!

Are you blogging? Are you on YouTube? Are you using Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media sites to build relationships. Today one of the big questions we must ask and answer thoroughly is - What is our strategy for using social media to build our business?

5) expert to thought leader

I could easily validate my expertise when I first started my business. Today being a expert or being seen as having a quality product or service is a given. In order to thrive we must be seen as leaders in our fields of expertise or leaders in our product/s or service/s otherwise we get ignored. How are you perceived in your markets? Are you seen as a leader or just one of many? In all your business building activities are you positioning yourself as a stand out? And do you prove your standing in all your transactions and interactions with people?

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Monday 25 October 2010

Changing what’s normal - Business Building in the 21st century Part 1

I left the corporate world and started my own business in 1991, the year the internet became publicly available. That’s 11 years before LinkedIn and 13 years before Facebook!

I didn’t have my own website until 2000. In that year less than 500 people visited my website. Today more than 10 times that amount of people visit my website every month. The numbers have dramatically increased since I began blogging in May 2007, three years after the launch of Facebook.

Much has changed in my two decades in business as a catalyst for changing what’s normal.

I have a thriving business today because I have embraced 9 massive changes to business building strategies and tactics that have occurred over my time in business for myself; spin to story, what to why, interruption marketing to permission based marketing, media to mass media, expert to thought leader, generalist to niche, provider to partner, service to experience, and complicated strategy to simplified strategy.

In this blog I explore the first two changes. I will explore the others in subsequent blogs.

1) spin to story

Authentic stories sell. Most people ignore advertising because they don’t see it as the truth about our product or service. People embrace real stories about real people which is why genuine testimonials about what we do and case studies about how we have helped people to meet their wants and needs are key ways to attract customers/clients.

What are people saying about your product/s and/or service/s? Are you using what people are saying about you as a key way to build your business?

It is accepted, sadly, that politicians make promises, fail to deliver, and then spin the facts to explain why they can’t deliver! To do this as a business person is to risk losing business, customers/clients, and our reputation. Please don’t spin the facts. Tell authentic stories. Such stories become viral by word of mouth, which is still the most powerful way to grow our businesses.

2) what to why

“Doing well by doing good” or enlightened self-interest is a key way to build our businesses which is why so many people have embraced the triple bottom line of environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and economic prosperity.

How good is your business for people, and our planet? If you are doing good for people and our planet it is likely that you are making higher profits.

Profit is not a reason for being in business, rather a result of being good at business. What’s your reason for being in business? Douglas Atkin, author of The Culting of Brands, asks: What’s your cause? What do you want to have happen? If you’re not out to cause anything then you might as well go back to bed.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Is the customer always right?

Many people I talk to believe the customer is always right and some say the customer is always right even when they are wrong!

I don’t believe the customer is always right and I don’t believe the customer is right even when they are wrong. In fact I don’t even believe in right or wrong.
I simply believe there are many different ways to perceive situations.

I do believe people are first; customers, employees, and everybody else.

I live the philosophy in ethics called enlightened self-interest which is commonly expressed as doing well while doing good.

Zig Ziglar puts it this way:
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

Get really clear about what you stand for. Seek out people who stand for the same things. Simon Sinek calls this Start with Why. And then find out what is the value that people who stand for what you stand for, demand, desire, and feel that they deserve from you. And then provide whatever these things are.

I don’t believe business is more complicated than this. What do you think?

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Albert Einstein

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Values must be verbs otherwise they are just meaningless words

You have seen the words below before. They are the most common values I see on the walls in foyers of head offices.


Values must be verbs otherwise they are just meaningless words.

In the following 5 minute story I ask, Are your values on the wall lived in the hall?



How well do you live your values?

Values must be verbs otherwise they are just meaningless words.

Until our values are virtues, signs on walls and other places demotivate people and are a major reason for disengagement.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Are you inspiring people to turn their aspirations into reality?

My definition of leadership:

Leadership is the art of inspiring people to bring everything remarkable that they are to everything they do.

My definition of management:

Management is the practice of making it easy for people to bring everything remarkable that they are to everything they do.

All human beings have aspirations. The major reasons leadership and management are essential is that most of us require inspiration and ease to turn our aspirations into reality!

Who will you inspire today? And how will you make it easy for those you inspire to turn their aspirations into reality.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Friday 1 October 2010

Will you become part of a movement and end starvation as a major cause of death for children?

Four years ago I was privileged to speak to members of the board of Oxfam Trading Australia. While waiting in their boardroom I copied down the words of a poster on the wall by Community Aid Abroad. It was headed ʻBasic human rights for all' and was created long before the concept of corporate social responsibility had gained any momentum. It read:

enough to eat

clean water

a livelihood

a home

an education

health care

a safe environment

protection from violence

equality of opportunity

a say in the future


Tears welled in my eyes as I read these words for they capture what I stand for and explain why I got up this morning and every morning and go out into the world to influence leaders in whatever you do to be doing it for the good of people.

That day in the Oxfam Trading Boardroom a seed was planted in my heart and mind that grew to become differencemakers community. Today we are over 500 members from 32 countries.

A key philosophy of differencemakers community and my personal passion is enlightened self-interest. Or simply put - doing well by doing good.

Recently I have joined with some differencemakers members to ensure one basic human right, enough to eat, is possible for all.

Today, like everyday, more than 16000 children around the world will die of starvation. That's 6 million children a year!

This is entirely preventable and yet despite billions of dollars and a lot of talk this problem remains unsolved.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others like them are taking amazing actions to end many of the worlds biggest problems.

Most of us are not in a position to do what Bill and Melinda and people like them do.  At least until now we weren't.

Some of my differencemakers friends and I have joined a movement which in the last two and a half years since it began has already provided 2.6 million meals to starving children; 1.6 million just in the last 8 months!   Considering this vertical curve we have a 'big hairy audacious goal' to increase this to 500 million meals a year in the next 7-10 years.

Will you join us?

Please watch this 6 minute video, and get in touch with me.


This is urgent.  

While you were reading this 11 children died simply because they did not have enough to eat.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit