Keiserism of the Day

Feed the Dog Meat, not Catnip.

In other words give your customers what they want not what you think they want.

Fact of the Week

According to the SBA there is an estimated 25.8 million small businesses in the US.

Other Business Statistics

Book Recommendation of the Week

Jeffrey Gittomer's Little Black Book of Connections

Question of the Week

What have you done to market your company today?

Related Article: Marketing your business

Quote of the week

"Ask yourself the easy questions and you’ll have a hard life, ask yourself the hard questions and you’ll have an easier life!" by Peter Thomson

Related Article: General Douglas MacArthur's Principles of Leadership

Ism of the Day

Normally Friday is the day we deliver the Keiserism of the Day. However, last night Jeffrey Fox of Fox & Company (guest speaker a The Entrepreneur Circle's monthly meeting) delivered such a wonderful talk to our group that we thought we would use a Foxism instead.

The SW Rule Some Will, Some Won’t, So What.(Jeffrey Fox)

Other interesting Key Points from last night's talk:

1. If I were the customer why would I buy from me?
2. Spend 60% of your time getting and keeping clients, 30% doing the work, and 10% on administrative tasks
3. Do something everyday to get and keep a customer
4. Write a factual statement to use in advertising and brochures
5. When sitting down with a prospect, tell them "We won't even take you as a customer unless you can see a 10X return on your investment"
6. Ask potential customers "Will you just judge the facts and decide for yourself"
7. When talking to potential customers:

• 
  Talk Benefit
  Quantify it
  Dollarize it
  Use Facts: "Based on our experience our clients experience ...
  Find out "How much money will we get the customer?"

Book recommendation of the Week

Growing a Business, Paul Hawken

Paul Hawken Bio

Question of the day

Do you try or do you Do?

Related Article: Say Goodbye to Why and Try

You Tube Video: Michael Phelps wins 8th gold medal

Magic pills, wands, and pixie dust

A few weeks ago I posted an entry

"Magic pills, magic wands, and gurus are best kept in the Fairytale books. The tools you need to grow your business are Leadership, knowledge, and self-discipline."

I found this video to illustrate my point. Enjoy

Mad TV Eat Less, Move More Video

Quote of the Week

In spite of your fear, do what you have to do.

Chin-Ning Chu

Related Article: Put Fear in Perspective

Keiserism of the Day

Planning a business is very much like planning a road trip without a map resources and working tools it makes it difficult to reach your destination.

Example:

Trip to Boston (Hartford CT - Boston MA)

Person 1 we will call her Doris: Doris Decides she is going to Boston, immediately jumps in the car and starts to drive. Twenty minutes into the drive she runs out of fuel and has to wait for AAA to help her. After that ordeal she realizes she is hungry and has to stop for food. Two hours into the trip Doris realizes that she doesn't know where Boston is but knows that she will get there eventually. Four hours later realizes she is in New Jersey, asks for directions, stops for fuel, gets another bite to eat and arrives in Boston many hours later.

Person 2 we will call him Alfred: Alfred decides he wants to go to Boston. He sits down calls his sister to let her know he is coming. Before his journey he prepares a list of things to do.

1. Purchase a GPS
2. Visit Jane the mechanic to check his car
3. Get Gas
4. Go to ATM
5. Get food for trip
6. Buy sister a gift
7. Clean out refrigerator
8. Unplug appliances
9. Wash clothes
10. Shut off Water
11. Notify the Mailman

By the time he has finished his to do list, Alfred realizes he is too tired calls his sister to let her know he will be there tomorrow. He is so exausted from the day before he oversleeps, and by the time he is ready it is once again too late to travel. Three days later he arrives at his sisters place only to turn around and go home, he used up his vacation days and must return to work in the morning.

Person 3 we will call her Mildred: Mildred wakes up decides she wants to go to Boston. She makes hotel arrangements with Expedia, packs a bag, and gets directions. She hops in the car, makes 2 stops the gas station, and the grocery store to get some food for her trip. Two hours later she is at her hotel talking with the consierge about things to do and where to get dinner.

Mildred will have the most productive trip of the three. She made a decision, put a plan together, took action, and then modified the plan when she arrived. Planning too much or lacking a plan in any situation can be detrimental to the success of your journey.

Interesting Fact of the Week

The average business user spends 2.6 hours per day reading and managing their emails.

Related Article

Book Recommendation of the Week

Transforming The Organization Francis J. Gouillart & James N. Kelly

Question of the Week

When was the last time you looked at your business plan?

Related Article

Keiserism of the Week

Magic pills, magic wands, and gurus are best kept in the Fairytale books. The tools you need to grow your business are Leadership, knowledge, and self-discipline.

By 2010 $13.9 Billion per year will be spent on self help techniques. Although I am a firm believer in self development, it is frightning to see how many of us invest large amounts of time and money on finding the secret to their success and happiness. For some it can become an addiction, going from one self help book, seminar, retreat to the next. Your happiness and satisfaction lie in your accomplishments. Think of all the happiness and satisfaction you would have achieved if your were as committed to having it as opposed to achieving it.

I recently watched the movie "Into The Wild" Christopher McCandless went on a quest to seek the truth, he thought the magic pill would be found in the Alaskan wilderness. He paid the ultimate price to find something he already had.

Fact of the Week

The American Automobile Association was founded for the sole purpose of warning motorists of police speed traps!

Related Article: There is Security in Change ... but use caution

Book Recommendation of the Week

Today’s book is……………

How To Become a CEO by Jeffrey Fox

Question of the Week

Would your company survive if you lost your best customer tomorrow?

Just Do It

Yesterday I was engaged in a wonderful discussion. The common theme was "Just Do It". We allow ourselves to wait for the right time to do all kinds of things, but usually the time isn't right because we choose to procrastinate instead of act. There is comfort in procrastination, we make ourselves feel good with the idea that we plan to do something. We create the story that it isn't the right time or there isn't enough time, or whatever else we want to believe to be true. The truth is NOW is always the best time to do something.

I most commonly hear this when the topic of having a business plan comes up. For some reason there is a lot of resisitance to writing and following a business plan. Robin Bienemann (Chariman's View) recently spoke to our members on this topic. Robin explained the fundamentals of putting a plan together. Below are some exerpts of her talk.


What is a Plan?

1. Executive Summary (Mission of the company)
2. Company Description (What do you do)
3. Product or Service(describe your product)
4. Market Analysis (who are your customers)
5. Strategy and Implementation (how will you reach them)
6. Management Team (who will help you accomplish this)
7. Financial Analysis (How will your company support itself, and it's team

Who's the audience and what's it look like?

1. The Audience

• You
• Stakeholders - spouse, family, etc
• Investors - new or existing
• Suitors (potential buyers)

2. How Long? - depends on the audience

• Executive summary: 1 Page or less
• Investor summary: 4 - 5 pages
• Business Plan for a serious investor: 5- 10+ pages
• Internal/personal plan: 2 - 3 Pages Robin Bienemann(Chariman's View)

Unfortunately, it's the entrepreneur that doesn't have a business plan is the one who has the simplest one to write. We feel overwhelmed by the project, think we don't need one because we have all the information in our heads, business is growing to fast to keep up with it, ETC... You fill in the blank.

Whether it is writing and implementing a business plan, or something else on your To-Do list the best time to take action is NOW.

Keiserism of the day

The best time to implement your marketing plan is 5 years ago. The second best time is NOW!