A Status Report Doesn’t Give You All The Right Information
If you really want to understand the status of your business and how your employees are doing, you need to get away from relying on scheduled status reports. That doesn't mean to away with them, it means to not rely solely on them.
A scheduled status report is something that you ask for at regular intervals. This might be a sales report or a time sheet. The regularly scheduled status report has an opportunity for an employee to prep only the components that he or she knows you’ll be checking. It is like teaching a student how to prepare for a test. It is good to be done and often necessary, but it doesn’t show you anything beyond a certain predefined knowledge set.
So, how do we get the real pulse on how things are going in our business? continue reading...
Do Your Collection Policies Ruin Your Brand?
Earlier in the year, our van met with an untimely demise. We had just signed up with Farmer’s insurance a week before and they were great. We were very pleased with how they handled it (our insurance rates weren’t too happy, though).
About the same time, we returned our truck on lease end. Both vehicles were leased through Chrysler Financial.
The problem came when Chrysler Financial couldn’t get things right on the final payment. This is an amazing story that anyone should understand if you have to collect on any debt. I am going to tell this story in the form of what lessons should be learned. continue reading...
Businesses Don’t Fail Because of the Economy
People complain about the economy. People say that, “because of the economy businesses will fail.”
The evidence used to back this up are the high numbers of layoffs that companies make or lower of stock prices. In some cases, hundreds of people are laid off at a time. In some cases thousands at a time. Sometimes stocks plummet.
I argue that the economy isn’t the problem.
I argue that the real problem is business decisions. Business leaders make poor business decisions because they don’t understand their customers, don’t understand their vendors or just plain don’t understand their own business.
Let me give you an example that supports this. continue reading...
Are You Really a Business Owner?
Self-employed has many different meanings to many different people. Usually, people say they are self-employed when they are free lancers or run a very small company (usually with 1 or 2 full-time equivalent employees).
If you are a small business owner, I want you to think for a moment how you define yourself. Think for a moment about the question, “What do you do to earn a living?”
How do you answer that questions? Do you tell people that you are a freelancer, that you are self-employed or that the company you run employs you?
Does it really matter? I think it does.
Let’s first define the terms. I am going to over simplify them because the full definition isn’t what is important, but the marketing message behind them. continue reading...
Talking Takes Too Much Time
In our fast paced world, it becomes ever more important for us to get rid of the distractions that prevent us from doing what needs to be done.
One of the most common things that prevents tasks from being completed is the need to talk about every little detail on the task.
So often we feel that the instructions we give in writing aren’t good enough so we want to talk with the person on the phone or in person. I understand that sometimes a face to face or a phone call can communicate effectively, but in order for that person to truly understand what we want, they have to write it down anyway.
When we have simple questions or simple comments that need to be made, do we really need to talk so much? continue reading...
Your Stats Are Meaningless
Election season always bring various stats from polls, interviews and anecdotal evidence. However, you don’t need to look to politics to see meaningless stats.
Let me just give one example.
Xerox has a press release about receiving the “Best” in Annual Survey of Office Workers. The survey indicates that Xerox color printers and multifunction systems are the best. Period.
You can read the full release here if you are so inclined.
There is one key problem about the designation that is lost among all the rhetoric. continue reading...
Why Meetings Are Bad
I hate meetings. Meetings are a pain. Meetings tend to waste time. In my opinion, most meetings are the least efficient method for sharing and disseminating information.
I had a number of meetings today and as I was waiting for at least half of them to start (late), I got to thinking about why you should avoid meetings at all costs.
I am not naive enough to think that you can do away with all meetings all together, but not everything requires a face to face. As our world moves more to distributed teams and electronic communication, we are all going to need to find better ways to share information. I understand that some meetings are very productive. I actually had three of them today that I left glad I attended.
Here is my top 10 list of why I think that meetings are bad. Now, not all may apply to all meetings. But, if your meetings incorporate even a few of these elements, you shouldn’t have them. continue reading...
Have Fun With Your Product
Irreverence as a business model can be very effective. It can help you to create a buzz. It especially works when you have a product that lends itself to innuendo.
My sister used to sell piping systems to cities and water districts. The most common application of her systems was to revitalize old sewer pipes. So, she told everyone that she sold sewers. It always caused people to ask her to elaborate.
Why Your Arguments Fail to Win Hearts and Minds
I listen to people “trying” to be persuasive all the time. In politics, the democrats and republicans try to prove that the other person is wrong using the same rhetoric. They both use the same words to define why the other is wrong in so many cases.
“He voted for this 94 times.”
“Oh yeah, well he voted for that 123 times.”
When they don’t claim victory on the same topics, they argue their point as though it is natural to assume that everyone agrees.
“You’re American so you know that I must be right!”
Liberals try to convince the world they are right by spouting liberal logic and conservatives try to convince the world the same using conservative logic.
This doesn’t work because they never try to come to a common point of interest. They don’t try to illustrate where they agree and use the logic of the person they are talking to in order to sway public opinion.
Do you see the problem yet? Do you understand yet why your argument doesn’t win hearts and minds? continue reading...
You Always Have a Choice
How often do you hear people say that they simply don’t have a choice? They have to do something. They have to stay in their dead end job. They have do this or that.
The fact of the matter is that you always have a choice. You are never compelled to do something that you don’t choose to do.
Once you make a choice, you have to be prepared for the consequences. That really is the challenge of all choices. Something will happen based on the choice you make. Usually the consequence is beyond your control and reduces your options. If you don’t face your consequences, your choices become more difficult.
Many time people will find themselves in a position where they are being exploited, used or abused. The challenge that these people face is that they simply don’t know they have a choice. They don’t know that they have options. They don’t know that they can make a choice to change their situation.
Sometimes the options seem bleak. Sometimes the hard decision is the right one.
Always there is a choice. continue reading...
