Archive for advice
How to Speed Up Your Company’s Progress
Posted by: | CommentsSales take longer expected. New employees, software and equipment all take too long to get up to speed. Isn’t that your experience?
To speed up your progress, install more systems.
One client followed this advice when he hired his last two employees. He had the old and new employees write down everything you need to know to do the jobs well. Checklist, systems, schedules and so on. One of the new employees suddenly needs to leave, but their documented systems will help his next hire get up and running in days – not weeks or months.
Your company’s systems are like a railroad track. Make them solid, clear and straight and your business will speed along.
Here are five steps for developing solid systems:
1. Write your outcomes. What will be different once this system is up and running? Focus on results, not activities.
2. Write out the steps. What must be done to move from A to B? WHO will be responsible for doing WHAT by WHEN?
3. Where’s the danger? Look at each step and ask yourself “What could go wrong here?” Think ahead and identify all the possible problems.
4. Add preventives; things you can do to prevent those problems. Add contingencies in case the problem crops up anyway.
5. Monitor your progress. Who will be making sure things are “on track?” How often? I what manner?
The biggest reason companies don’t do this is because they fool themselves into believing they don’t have time. A second reason is they don’t have a process like this to follow. So here’s a gift in the form of a more detailed template you can use for systematizing, and speeding up, almost any area of your business. Go to www.DovGordon.biz/systems.html to get it.
Who Cares? That’s the first question you should ask before you launch an idea
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Time and time again it pains me to see people launch businesses, websites, events and the like and as soon as I see the announcement I shake my head and say this is not going to work. How do I know that they are going to fail and why are they going to fail? Because they forgot to answer the one question that needs to be answered.
Who cares? Just because you think it is a good idea and you think it is a service you would like does not mean that everyone or even anyone else would share your passion or even pay for it.
People today are loaded down with so much going on in their personal and professional lives that time has become the greatest commodity.
Why should they spend time getting to know your product, site or to attend your event? What makes it worth spending time with you instead of with their children?
Before launching you MUST speak with your target market. Ask them if they like your idea, product or service. Ask them if they would pay for it and if so for how much. Don’t be afraid that someone is going to “steal” your idea. They won’t. It is not so easy to just hear about an idea and then do it yourself since passion is what will make you a success and it’s hard to become passionate about someone elses idea.
So before you go out and so whatever it is your going to do, go out and ask others if they care. A lot of times you may get some great feedback on how to make your product more valuable. You can findout that people would not care about your product unless… Unless what? Well you won’t know unless you ask!
Has any of my readers succeeded because they did some research before launching or failed because they did not ask? Please place them in the comments below.
Michael Dell’s Advice to Entrepreneurs
Posted by: | CommentsThere is no definitive time for “later” so “later” never comes
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- Image via Wikipedia
I think Jews & Israelis by nature are procastinators. We seem to never take action unless we have a deadline in front of us. For Shabbat observers it does not matter if Shabbat starts at 4:00pm or at 8:00pm we are always rushing to finish everything at the last minute.
When it comes to being an entrepreneur, procastinating is one of our worst enemies as there is always something else that must be done. Putting something off till later is not a great idea since there is no definitive time for “later” so later never comes.
To be a successful entrepreneur you need to set deadlines for yourself. For Example: I will finish the presentation by 3pm on Thursday or I will reduce my inbox by 200 emails by noon on Friday. You need to set not just goals, but actual deadlines or you will forever be playing catch up.
You need to look at your own set deadlines as if your business depended on it because in fact it does. Enjoy the video below.
Video: How can Business Owners and Customers in Israel both always be right?
Posted by: | CommentsI know you all know the saying “The Customer is Always Right”. Well that saying may apply in other parts of the world, but it doesn’t exactly work that way in Israel. Then again the idea that the Business Owner works for you and values your business is not always the case either.
Truth be told it should work that way and if you, as a business owner, can work that way and be successful, you would no doubt be successful anywhere else in the world.
One of the things you need to have as either a business owner or a customer is patience.
Imagine a customer comes into your store and is driving you crazy, asking you a million questions, touches everything and then walks out w/o buying anything. Now I know how this can be annoying, but imagine if you keep a smile on your face. Imagine if you treat this customer as if he is a billionaire. That is the mindset you should always have. Even if the customer walks away without buying anything all is not lost. You had the perfect situation and a FREE lesson in working on your patience and customer care. Try it, you’ll like it!
How to Make Your Products and Services Stand Out – Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsCLICK HERE FOR THE FIRST PART IN THIS SERIES
In Part 1 we pointed out that your customers will flock to your products and services only if they feel that you really get it; you understand them better than anyone else.
We noticed that many companies never create such a passionate following because they rely on surveys and focus groups which, even when well designed, are limited. There is a distinction, we observed, between Market Research and Market Understanding.
Today, we share some more insights for you to consider.
· The hands-down most powerful way to develop a deep understanding of your customers is to get out there to listen and observe. As often as not, the customer will say one thing, but their behavior will show something else. This isn’t malicious; they probably aren’t even aware of the discrepancy.
· Psychology speaks of the difference between our Espoused Theory of Action and our Theory In Use.* We often talk about what we want, and do something else. So both listening and observing give you a full picture. Ask open questions and then watch their behavior.
Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, was known for his non-stop visits to retail stores; his own and competitors. He would get down on the floor and measure the width of aisles, take note of the lighting and so on and try to understand how that affected the shoppers.
When Google was developing the now ubiquitous Gmail, they would sit and watch how different people used their email, taking notes.
The CEO of a local company that was going to soon be offering software for call centers, took a part time job at a call center so he could understand what the lowly rep really needed to do a better job.
Proctor & Gamble has learned that they will gain a deeper understanding by just following and watching a handful of typical customers over several weeks than they can by surveying thousands of people.
Does your company do anything comparable?
· Peter Drucker observed that knowledge is the “one and only distinct resource of any business. Other resources, money or physical equipment, for instance, do not confer any distinction. What does make a business distinct and what is its peculiar resource is its ability to use knowledge of all kinds – from scientific and technical knowledge to social, economic, and managerial knowledge…”
Your knowledge, or understanding, of your customer will give you a distinct advantage.
· What is it that you want to understand, anyway? You want to be able to write a page in their diary. It isn’t enough to say that you are looking for women between 40 and 65 or teenagers who like clothes or companies looking to save money on their operations. If you really want to be able to speak their language, to get them to sit up, take notice and say “That’s interesting. Tell me more!” You need to understand much more than how they use your product – or your competitor’s.
· In my own consulting business I’ve come to understand that the client whose business I can really help is not just the CEO of a growing company. I’ve come to see that I can be far more valuable when the owner or CEO:
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- Has their attention focused on one business at a time.
- Has a track record of both successes and failures.
- Has the maturity to appreciate that the wise thing is not to pinch pennies and do everything in-house, but to focus on results. And where those results can be achieved faster and more reliably with outside expertise, that’s a wise investment.
- Loves what they are doing and deeply believes that their company is a vehicle to improving lives.
- Has a healthy ego, not a big ego.
- Isn’t obsessed with growth for growth’s sake. Understands that if the company makes a bigger positive impact, the customers will reward them financially.
- Understands that it isn’t about big hits and big wins, but about small steps, consistently and persistently, over a prolonged period of time.
- Isn’t looking for a free lunch. Honestly and deeply believes in setting up win-win relationships with everyone they deal with.
· At the end of the day, the degree that your company stands out will be in direct proportion to how deeply your market feels you “get it.” Everything else can be copied rather easily. Acquire a deeper understanding, continually deepen it and you’ll always be a step ahead.
Is your market understanding deep and nuanced enough? What are you doing to continuously deepen it? To stay current with changes? Is it enough?
What questions do you have on this subject? Reply and I’ll do my best to answer them immediately or in a future article.
Are your customers excited about your products and services? Have you been surprised and perplexed by a low level of interest? We’ve found that the answers lie in taking bold small steps, again and again and again.
Be in touch,
Dov Gordon
+972-2-992-0396
PS – If you are involved in Pay-Per-Click marketing, Google Adwords and the like, you should check out Glenn Livingstone’s 17 FREE AdWords Cheat Sheets, Videos, and MP3s. I’ve learned a lot from Glenn and sent some of his free materials to grateful clients.
Glenn has a very strong business background consulting for dozens of companies like AT&T, Lipton, Novartis, Whirlpool,and many, many more. And, also unlike many of the Internet marketing “gurus,” Glenn successfully built 17 of his own AdWords projects in markets having NOTHING TO DO with internet
marketing. Glenn’s emails are one of the few I always read. http://www.PayPerClickSearchMarketing.com/r/a.php?MzYyj
* These terms were coined by Chris Argyris of Harvard Business School in the context of his decades of research into “learning organizations” and “action learning.”
Shekel and diming your customers in Israel
Posted by: | CommentsDo you shekel and dime your customers? Do you charge them for every little thing? Do you think your customers appreciate it? What if you did the opposite, give more for less. Show them that you care about their money. Then do you think it would make a difference?
One sushi place I know actually charges you less if you bring them your own tray. Now I don’t know how many people actually bring in their own trays or containers, but the fact that they offer that shows me that they care about my money.
Another take-out place has an item on their menu that if you want to order it for takeout they charge you a higher price because they want to make sure they have it in stock for sit-down customers. If it is such a popular item, why not have more? If I’m calling you as a customer, am I less important because I enjoy your food more at home?
How can you improve your offers? How can you go out of your way to stand-out from the crowd? What if you offered FREE delivery when everyone else charges? What if you through in a free item from your menu in the order or a bag of cookies with a note that said “Thank you for being our customer”? The cookies may cost you a couple of shekels, but the PR and Goodwill is Priceless.
Try it and let us know how it worked for you.
When seeking a position in Israel come from a position of strength not weakness!
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A couple of days ago I was consulting a women who wanted to expand her skill set and perhaps take a job at a very low level or even for free in order to get her feet wet. I had a great conversation with her and I wanted to share with you some of the things I said. More and more I am hearing about friends and people I know that are losing their jobs in Israel because of the current global economic situation. It pains me every time I hear of someone else getting laid off since it is much harder to get a job in today's market. I read somewhere recently that for every job that becomes available in Israel, 5 people are trying to get it.
So how do you get it? How do you become the 1 that gets the job and not the 4 that doesn't?
Before we answer that I want to answer the question about why most people leave their jobs to start a company. Even if they are happy with their jobs they eventually realize one thing and that is why should I work 10 hours a day making someone else money when I can be making myself money? Now of course this is not the course for everyone since it is easier said then done, but that is the concept behind it. What I would like to suggest is applying that same attitude when looking for a job.
What do I mean? If you are looking to gain new skills in internet marketing, then why spend 6 months or a year working for a company to build them up? Why work for a few shekels an hour and start a blog, twitter account, or Facebook fan page for a company when you can be building yourself up. Build your brand and not your companies brand.
Below are some of the things I suggested to her to do:
- Start Your own blog and post everyday
- Get on to Twitter and start following people and offer value to get others to follow you
- Get on Facebook and LinkedIN, now more than ever it is important to build and utilize your network
- Get speaking engagements! Do it for free! Offer free courses or lectures about topics you are passionate about. Make sure to record them and post them on your blog or website
- Write articles! Write about what you know and get them printed in newspapers, magazines and on other blogs
- Read every post by Chris Brogan (www.ChrisBrogan.com) He is a master at self branding
- Do a search on Google for "Personal Branding" and learn everything you can about branding yourself
- Check out: www.synthasite.com to build a free website and blog
I said if you do this for 6 months then after six months you would have created an exceptional brand about yourself. Now when you go into a company for an "interview", you won't just be one of the 5, but in a league of your own. You can point out how you are a published writer, a speaker, how you have thousands of people following you on Twitter, that you have hundreds of posts on your blog that is being read by hundreds of people, how you have hundreds of people as fans of yours on Facebook etc. And now you can tell the company that you will do the same for them. Now you are coming from a position of strength and not weakness.
You may even decide to work as a consultant and work from home or you may just have so much fun building up your personal brand that you decide to do that full time and start to charge for your services.
Purple Pizza! Free consulting to a pizza place in Israel, shame they didn’t listen
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I get calls almost every week or meet people that ask me for business advice. I love helping out people and so even though my time is limited I always try to make time to help people out. So many times I see an advertisement and I shake my head saying what are they doing? Or I will see a business and think that if they would only do this. But because of time restraints and also because I have found that unsolicited advice is usually not taken very well I don’t often get involved. One time about a year ago an owner of a pizza place approached me and asked me if I had any connections for work in the States since his business was not doing so well. So I asked him why not concentrate on his business and made him an offer to sit with him and go over things which I did. After doing so I spent a few hours and wrote up a report advising him what he should do to bring up sales and differentiate himself from his competitors. I used the purple pizza method based on being a purple cow.In short I told him that he should be absolutely ridiculous about his toppings. Where his competitors offered about 8 different topping on average, he should offer 50 of them! And then I made up a list of 50 different toppings. His pizza boxes and advertising should list all 50 toppings and he should run a contest for most creative topping of the month award and each month feature that new topping along with a picture of the one who suggested it. He should create t-shirts with the 50 toppings on it and the phone number and give them out to kids. Toppings like ziti, pickles, falafel, pineapple, white sauce (think fettuccine), apple slices, pareve sausage, etc… I told him all he would have to do is keep a little bit on hand until he sees which ones are most asked for. Kids like crazy toppings and so if you were a kid and wanted to buy a pizza, guess which pizza place they would beg their parents to buy from? But unfortuntaley he did not take me up on my advice and he is still just trying to pay his rent. If you take the time, money and effort to start a business, be different!! Be a purple cow eating a purple pizza! Exspecially if you have competitors that are all basically selling the same thing. One of the best pizza places in Israel is in Modiin called Giant Pizza! I will take my family their for a couple of reasons.
- They have a mehadrin hechsher (opens themselves to more clients)
- They have a cool website (http://www.giantpizza.co.il)
- They have the biggest pizza slices I have ever seen!
- Their pizza is really good!
- Everytime I go there the owner is always there and he comes to shmooze with me and makes sure I’m happy.
- They make giant pizzas with pictures and even logo’s
They stand out! They are different! If only more pizza places in Israel would follow their lead, then the quality and chocies will get better which would lead to selling more pizza’s and creating happier customers!
Check out their video on youtube!
