Take it from me, owning a Mini Cooper turned me from a passenger to a driver. Its compact, stylish, and overall fun design made driving exciting and an activity I truly learned to love. But that’s not the part that makes MINI a bona fide brand hero. It’s the purchase experience that blew our minds. From start to finish of our little baby’s birth we were continuously kept in the loop about what was going on. From where she was on the assembly line to where she was in the world! She was born in London, then traveled on a ship crossing the ocean, we knew when she arrived in Montreal, and when she crossed Canada until she was sitting here in Vancouver….waiting to be picked up.
Being a part of that whole delivery experience not only validated our purchase choice, but also instantly built our trust in Mini’s capabilities and service. Think about what little add-ons you can do to make a big difference to your customers. It’s worth it!
REWORK is easily the most engaging business book out there for entrepreneurs and small business owners. In an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand, straightforward language, the authors manage to impart simple information that provides huge impact. They break apart the old way of thinking around how to run a business and implant business success advice that is relevant and fresh to today’s growing business owner.
If you haven’t read this book filled with simple rules for success, then pick it up today! You won’t put it down ’til it’s done!
As you know, I am always on the lookout for resources to keep me focused and performing at my best. In business, it is easy to get distracted or to try and focus on too many things at once. Here is an excellent resource written from one of the best coaches in the world, our great friend and trusted mentor, Kevin Lawrence.
Kevin was our business coach for over 10 years and we would certainly not be where we are today without him. His e-book is a compilation of some of the best and most powerful business insights that helped us, and many other entrepreneurs, through the years and still does today.
Kevin is a leading strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and has published “Expel the Elephants and 19 Other Insights to Ignite Business Performance” as a free eBook. What I like most about the book (in addition to it being totally kick ass!) is that each insight is self-contained making it easy to follow, digest and put into action for immediate results.
So, what are you waiting for?
Start reading now!
Download yours here!
Weed Out The Time Wasters
By Faye Hollands of Outshine Consulting
The consulting firm McKinsey & Company are well known for their harsh but effective policy of weeding out the bottom 10 percent of performers in their business. Whilst this might seem drastic to some, it’s an approach which has served them well, and a concept that we can apply to our own lives in order to get ahead. Here’s how…
Shape Up Or Ship Out
Take a look at your to-do list now. If you’re like most, you’ll have a heap of things on there, some of which are minuscule and only there as reminders. Hopefully you’ve also got some much more important tasks listed that will make a bigger impact on your day when done.
Now imagine that the items on your to-do list are staff and you’re thinking the ‘McKinsey’ way – what tasks on your list are the ‘under-performers’? By that I mean the tasks that won’t help you achieve your goals or objectives. So for example, if you’re in a sales roles it’s highly unlikely that filing emails is going to help you reach your targets, and if you’re a pie baker you’d have to question whether updating your Facebook status is the most effective use of your time.
Be honest with yourself, and ruthless. Cut out the bottom 10 percent of tasks on your to-do list that don’t serve you well and get focused on the points that are actually going to make a difference in reaching your goals.
Leap of the Week:
How can you apply the same concept to other areas of your life:
Friends - are you spending time with people who sap you of energy and enthusiasm? Ditch the bottom 10%…
Email – what newsletters do you rarely read? Unsubscribe…
Books - are you struggling to get through a book you just can’t get into? Put it down, let it go and move on…
Social Life – do you say yes to too many things? Start saying no to the bottom 10%…
Finances – are you paying for things that you never use? Cut your spending by 10%…
Stop tolerating things that don’t fit well into your life. Humans are creatures of habit, so it’s important to take stock every now and again of the things you’re doing ‘just because’ you’ve been doing them for a while, and weed out the tasks and scenarios that are wasting your time, energy and focus.
Have fun spring cleaning!
The TV show “The Price is Right®” is a household name for many of us. I even bought the game several years ago to play with my daughter.
In the “real world” of business, determining the right price for your products or services can be tricky. From my experience, when businesses are in the infant stage, they stumble in determining the right price based on a balance between profitability and what is fair.
In particular, I have discovered that women who offer services such as massage or hypnotherapy, will often under-charge and over-deliver.
The first step is to be aware of what your competition is charging. The second step is to look at what makes your service or product different and, ideally, better than the competition. The third step is to clearly define each product, service or package of services (bundle) in writing. Write it out for yourself first to work out the details of what you are offering. By doing this you are outlining exactly what your clients or customers will be receiving in exchange for their payment.
In your write-up, be sure to include the actual deliverables – such as a 60-minute massage – as well as all the possible benefits they could receive in return (release of muscle tension, reduction of stress, better sleep at night).
Once you complete step three, determine your costs, i.e., time, receptionist fees, laundry, merchant fees, massage oil, rental or leasing of space.
At this point, you can then rejig your prices to be in line with your costs and the value you bring through the service or product you offer.
Leap of the Week:
What action can you take today to better leverage and communicate your offering to hear this statement out of your prospects’ mouths: “I would be an absolute fool to do business with anyone but you, regardless of price.”
