Archive for December, 2009

Sad news this week with the passing of a gentleman I feel is a true legend … Jim Rohn. I can’t begin to tell you what an enormous impact Jim had on my life when at the age of 22 I first started listening to his audio programs. I remember clearly how his philosophy set me on a new course in my life. Jim will be sadly missed and leaves behind an incredible legacy with his work in the personal development field.

One of the greatest lessons I learnt from Jim was that it is not the winds that blow that determine the course of your life … its the set of your sails. And who gets to set your sails? Of course you do. That simple philosophy shaped the course of the last twenty years of my life. When I realised that anything I wanted to be successful at in life I could be as long as I set my sails. As a result I have been committed to life long learning and being prepared to invest in myself and the knowledge needed to achieve the goals I set.

This weeks article is one of my favourite Jim Rohn articles titled ‘Formula For Failure and Success’. While the article talks about success in general it could just as easily be the ‘Formula For Failure and Success in Small Business’. I think you will appreciate it.

The Formula For Failure and Success

- by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day. Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day?

The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn’t result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn’t seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year… because it doesn’t seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices – choices that didn’t seem to matter.

Failure’s most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don’t seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents’ warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It’s a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don’t more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn’t seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success – a few simple disciplines practiced every day – is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence – not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

This article is kindly reprinted from Jim Rohn website. Please visit Jims website at http://www.JimRohn.com

Popularity: 17% [?]

ATTRACT CLIENTS ONLINE <<< WEBINAR

Are you a Small Business owner frustrated by not getting enough new clients from your website?

If so then you will want to watch this WEBINAR on how to ‘Attract More Clients Online’. In it I show you my step-by-step BLUEPRINT on how to turn your website into a cash producing machine that brings you a stream of new clients.

You can access the webinar here:

http://www.AttractingClientsOnline.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

Competition (if you believe in it) is everywhere!

The barriers to entry for getting into business today are lower than ever before. It doesn’t really matter what business you are in chances are good you are not alone. Even more likely is there are others looking to set up in the same business next door to you in the coming months.

So what is your competitive advantage?

One of the most important marketing decisions you can make is choosing your competitive advantage and developing a marketing strategy around it.

There are essentially seven different categories for developing your competitive advantage. As you begin to make plans for 2010 give consideration to which of these seven makes the most sense.

The seven categories for developing a competitive advantage are:

1/ Price – The first area you can choose to compete on is price. Being the lowest price for your product or service is one way to gain market share quickly however there are many downsides that go along with this. The biggest challenge with a low price strategy is that you need a higher number of transactions to achieve your revenue goals. This means your marketing and fulfillment costs will be higher and ultimately your profits eroded. Plus once you are known as a low price provider you will always be seen this way.

At a seminar recently I met a lady who was selling a commonly available commodity items and she was telling me that she wanted to be one of the lowest price providers yet offer a high level of service. My response was that this might be possible while you are in start up mode and you are doing everything but as you scale the business up the low price strategy means you will not be able to fund the higher level of service and make a profit.

Personally I would never recommend to a client that they choose this strategy.

2/ Results – If you are able to produce RESULTS above and beyond your competitors with your product or service then this could be one of the most effective strategies for you to compete on. After all that is why your customers and clients come to you … they want results.

If you are going to compete on the basis of superior results then you must provide an abundance of proof to this effect. So make sure you start to gather lots of case studies, testimonials, and video testimonials.

3/ Service – Recently while I was in Atlanta I was staying at the Sheraton Hotel and the service was outstanding. You could not walk through the foyer without at least two of the staff welcoming you. Every interaction with the staff was incredible. They provided a high level of service and as a result they were really quite memorable. So much so that I am now telling you about them.

Competing on service has always been a good strategy for winning and keeping customers and clients. To effectively compete on service you need top quality staff and ensure they are well trained.

4/ Uniqueness – One of the most effective ways of competing is to make yourself UNIQUE so that you stand out. Its easy to be just another business in your category and get lost amongst the many. If there is something about you and your business though that is UNIQUE you will be memorable.

You can make yourself unique just by redefining what your business is about. Alternatively you could develop your own unique process or system for getting results. Profit Minute use this strategy. Instead of marketing ourselves as just another marketing consultancy business we developed the Attraction Marketing System and positioned ourselves as ‘Attraction Marketing Specialists’. This makes us stand out and get noticed.

One of the key reasons we like and recommend becoming UNIQUE is that you are not compared on the basis of price. If you are truly unique then who would they compare you too?

5/ Quality – Next is quality … being the best is always a good strategy as long as you price your product or service to match. Providing a quality product or service today is almost a given yet many of your competitors are probably not up to standard in this area.

6/ Cutting Edge – If your product or service relies on technology and you are the cutting edge then this can give you a unique competitive advantage. You want to promote the fact that you are breaking new ground with your technology or that your systems and processes are utilising this cutting edge technology.

Warning though … make sure in explaining your cutting edge technology that your market place understands what you are talking about.

7/ Premium – The final way of competing is to be the premium provider in your business category. This is a combination of results, service, uniqueness, quality and cutting edge all rolled into one. As the premium provider you will no doubt be the most expensive so you will want to straucture your marketing in a manner where it appeals to those customers and clients who must have the best.

Being the premium provider makes sense if you have an advantage in a number of the other areas we have just spoken about. Good news is you will need fewer transactions to reach your revenue goals, and likely be more profitable in the process.

Deciding on which basis you are going to compete is one of the most important marketing decisions you will make. Choose carefully and give consideration to who you want as a customer or client. Not all customers and clients are equal. The competitive advantage that you go to market with will determine which types of clients you will attract.

Once you have determined your competitive advantage then your next step is to develop your marketing strategy around this. A topic for another week.

Popularity: 61% [?]