June 2008

I SPECIALIZE IN THE NORTHERN AREA’S OF JOBURG.

Fourways/Sunninghill/Paulshof/Kyasands/Honeydew/Laser Park/Strydom Park/Kyalami/Midrand.
If you need to sell your business, or want to buy a business, in the above area’s, and want the Aldes specialists to facilitate your mandate….please contact;
Kevin Foot - Cell: 082 553 0884. Email: kevin@aldesactive.co.za

THESE ARE A SMALL SAMPLE OF THE MANY MANDATES WE HAVE –

INTERNET 2ND HAND CAR SALES.
An 8 year old business. Attracts buyers and sellers to it’s web site/virtual showroom. This business has a unique name and an enviable reputation. Very focused on it’s mission – to attract sellers and match them with buyers. The web platform has been designed specifically for the owner and is easily updated as and when new sales become available. System, process and procedures – all there and working very efficiently. This business can be relocated anywhere. Opportunities for growth are good – franchise the model, or appoint “agents” in other parts of the city/region, or other provinces. The web site is built already, to accommodate this.

UNIQUE LADIES & GENTS FASHION OUTLETS
Fourways and Bedfordview area. 2 shops – buy individually or as one unit. Unique European fashions. Import source is secure. There is no competition in the particular centers or immediate area.

ICE CREAM FRANCHISE.
Centurion area. Famous brand with main outlet and also kiosk. Established I 1997 and still growing.

BRANDED ITALIAN RESTUARANT.
Fourways area. Giant brand – huge restaurant in upmarket shopping precinct. Profit in excess of R100k per month.

AUTOMATED GEYSER CONTROL.
Various area’s. This is a franchise for the fitment of the control units to domestic and commercial electrical geysers. Great work from home business and comes with all the required items and a vehicle, to start the business. R275k is the total price!

CHEMICAL MANUFACTURER
Lazer Park area. Makes non branded deodorant blocks and various cleaners and polishes. No sales or distribution to worry about! All thru existing distributors net work. Smal and easy to run business with soild reputation.

COOKING SCHOOL.
Northgate area. Trains and educates 220 domestic workers and private clients. Co-ordinates team building cooking classes/activities for corporate clients such as Wesbank, FNB, Discovery, Std Bank, Nedbank, Sasol, and many others. Income is 60% corporates and 40% courses. Goldcrest and Patley's are sponsors. Work from home if you have the space.

AUTO SECURITY AND ELECTRICAL.
Cresta area. 10 year old business with solid reputation and profits. Fits auto security systems, sound systems and also general auto electrical repair work. Long serving and very experienced staff – the new owner does not need to be an auto electrician.

FRANCHISE COFFEE SHOP
Fourways. Started early in 2007. Based in on the top floor of a busy Fourways shopping mall. Serves breakfast and lunches from an extensive menu. Closes in the evenings. The tenants in the center support the shop and there is going to be new tenant’s coming in that will increase foot traffic. Averages about R139kk per month – profits are low as the owner has been absorbing many set up costs. The forward look is that profits have the potential to double

DVD SHOP - RENTALS
Fourways. This business was started in October 1998 and has been with the current owner since 2000 and based in the same premises. The business has a loyal following and enviable position. It is one of 15 in this exclusive franchise and they all focus on the Northern suburbs. Based in a well known and upmarket strip mall. Little or no marketing spend takes place, a testament to the inherent success factors in this business. The Franchisor charges R4 000 per month and this is more than covered by the discounted prices of the DVD's that are bought. The shop has 7350 active DVD titles and 390 game titles. The franchisee is free to purchase from other sources
and this outlet has an impressive range of titles in the Arthouse and TV series arena. Probably its secret of its success. Hi turnover and hi profits – a premium business.

HEALTH SPA / DAY SPA / BEAUTY SALON
Rivonia. Started in July 2006, this is an owner run business based in the building of the Brand owner. State of the art establishment. The Spa has exclusive use of Matis, Guinot, Phytomer, OPI and Marycohr brands, in the area. Reception, 3 nail stations, 2 change rooms, 2 body treatment rooms, 1 dual room, 4 facial rooms, sunbed, bath, store and kitchen. The main building has a generator for essential power. The set up cost of the Spa was +R1,2 million, and selling below this value……….so there is real value waiting to be unlocked. The Spa attracts a variety of clientele –full Spa services are provided and non surgical laser services. 800 clients on data base.

FRANCHISE HEALTH SPA
East Rand. In existence for 5 years – present owner has had it for the last 12 months. This Branded Spa is in a superb location and enjoys regular and constant flow of passing traffic. Provides the full range of beauty and health treatments. About 50% of the clientele come from the immediate environment in which the Spa operates – the other 50% of customers are regulars from the immediate area. Marketing is done in the local paper, mags, flyers and notice board. Works well and is very cost effective. The overall complex has it’s own generator – therefore basic power is assured. 2 full time staff, one temp and the owner who also gives treatments.

FASHION ACCESSORIES BOUTIQUE
Fourways. The shop is situated in a busy and expanding area of a Fourways Shopping precinct. This is a boutique fashion/accessories/gifts outlet and has built a reputation of selling to a niche market. There is a steady clientele of regulars and also a lot of passing traffic. Extension plans for the center will see a growth in feet past the shops.
A fair proportion of the merchandise is imported from the East, and unique supply chain relationships exist. The owner will assist with the overseas sourcing and will continue a supply relationship with her own manufactured ranges of clothing. Dresses, jewelry, ornaments, gifts – an eclectic mix that makes this shop stand out. The owner has a very specific eye and talent for a unique look.

BEADS OUTLET
Fourways. This specialist outlet caters to the serious and amateur “beading” person. The only outlet of it’s type in the area – located next to very busy branded clothing store, a big coffee shop and popular restaurant – creates large passing traffic.

FRANCHISE - DOCUMENT IMAGING AND ARCHITECTURE.
Available for many area’s in Gauteng. Full training and superb back-includes training in the USA. Work from home – an ideal situation to get the most from your Small Office Home Office. Leaving corporate life and want a secure start in your own business? This service is aimed at, and geared towards the SMME and SME business – help them go digital for document storage and retrieval. Amazing input and support from the Franchisor. The business model indicates good profit potential very soon in the process. Priced at R350k, this is a great opportunity. Why not buy 2?

FITMENT CENTRE
Mid Rand location. This is one of the leading Insurance Replacement Centers in South Africa, specializing in car radios and allied equipment replacements, all household appliance replacements, dash repairs, auto electrical repairs, lock replacements for vehicles and home, vehicle security systems (has an area exclusive arrangement with one of the leading tracking companies) and auto glass replacements. The company has been in existence for over 12 years and its management has been doing insurance replacement business for over 16 years and has established an enviable reputation amongst all of the leading insurers in South Africa. This is probably one of the best quality businesses I have seen in a long while. Well managed – (you do not have to be a technical person to own this business – hi quality staff ensure it’s success) and with an excellent track record. Well priced and delivering +R40k per month on average.

PANEL BEATERS
Strydom Park area, this is a well established and reputable business. Known for it’s high quality work and recognized by some of the major insurance companies. An ideal opportunity for a BEE partnership. Priced at R4,5 million with operating profit of approx R 117k per month from a turnover of in excess of R500k per month. Step into a well run business and enjoy the rewards.

Contact Kevin Cell: 082 553 0884.
Email: kevin@aldesactive.co.za

APRIL 2008

How successful you and your organisation are, at accomplishing your objectives, is directly related to how the people with whom you work are feeling. Too many managers and leaders mouth the words “people are our greatest assets”, but they don’t put themselves in other’s shoes or take the time to fully communicate with employees.
We make all kinds of assumptions about what the people who are putting eight to twelve hours a day into the job are thinking, but we don’t ask them directly. You don’t have to be a psychologist to figure out what makes people happy. Most people work hard but aren’t very happy. The desire to be inspired, motivated, interested, and appreciated is universal. Those managers and leaders who consciously think about how to draw the best out of people are a rare breed indeed!
It is your responsibility as a manager and/or as a leader to think about your work environment. Take a minute and think about it. What words come to mind? Words like fun, freedom, creative, energised? Or bureaucratic, stifling, drab, pressured?
A lot of managers and even leaders don’t think to thank people for the jobs they do. That’s as sad as having, or being, a partner at home who is never appreciated. We all crave being thanked, appreciated, and recognised. Walk around almost any office and you are guaranteed to see the value people place on those handwritten thank-you notes – they place them in prominent positions to remind themselves that someone, somewhere, does in fact appreciate what they are doing. These are simple reminders to themselves that “hey, maybe I am in fact making a difference, maybe this is all worth it after all.” Ignore the simple things like knowing people’s names and asking about their children, and your organisation will suffer.
Don’t underestimate the relationship between a motivated workforce and good business performance. An athlete breaks down very quickly if the sport is no longer fun. The workplace should provide a quality experience – not just money in the bank at the end of the month!
Experience has shown us that there are certain inner drivers of the high achievers with whom we have worked. These drivers are equally applicable to most ‘driven’ people.
- Some are motivated by status, power, influence, and money.
- Some are out to prove themselves to others.
- Innovators strive to do something that’s never been done before – to turn an idea or insight into a commercial reality.
- Some people love turning companies around.
- Others are driven to produce excellence (yet most businesses aren’t excellent).
- Many leaders, and some managers, simply enjoy the intellectual challenge of business.
- The socially conscious businessperson wants to affect the lives of other people – customer’s and staff’s – in a positive way.
- There are even those people who are drawn to companies that have such strong brands and histories that they are heralded as pillars in the economy and communities in which they operate. These people see these companies as part of their heritage and want to have a hand in perpetuating that heritage.
- Yes, there are also those who are driven by dangerous revenge. We have experience of those who have been passed over for a top job, and it becomes a significant driver to kill the competitive company that didn’t give them the top job, or to plot the downfall of the person who took the job out from under their feet. This is dangerous play because you can become too narrowly focused, and a personal mission with a negative focus is certainly not a rallying point for good people.
As managers and leaders we need to get in touch with what turns our staff on. Everyone is different and everyone has different needs. What gets one person excited may leave another flat. A good manager, as with a good leader, figures out how to tap into the common mission that will become a rallying cry for the company. Human nature is such that we all need a worthy cause to fight for. Does your company have a cause that your people see as worthy of their unbridled support, commitment, and energy investment?
Maybe you should list what each of your colleagues would answer to the question: What turns you on about this company/department/your job?
Having a crystal clear cause for which you are fighting, one that you believe in, and one that has the buy-in from your employees produces powerful momentum within your organisation. Your cause must be a living, breathing state of mind that allows you and your staff to shed the shackles of self-limiting behaviours and allows you and them to soar. It will morph as life and events unfold – allow it to – don’t force the pace simply to appease personal egos.

QUOTATION:
Culture, in the deeper issues, is no smooth, placid, academic thing. It is no carefully arranged system of rules and theories. It is the passionate and imaginative instinct for things that are distinguished, heroic and rare. It is the subtilising and deepening of the human spirit in the presence of the final mystery.
John Cowper Powys
PEARLS OF WISDOM
Look around you. You’ll notice that people who say, “I can handle lots of stress” will always be under a great deal of it! Usually it takes a crisis of some kind to wake up a stressed-out person. What you want to start doing is noticing your stress early, while it’s still manageable and easy to control.
Richard Carlson

ALL CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHTED BY THE NOMA ASIL SA TRUST. TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER GO TO : www.streetsmart.co.za

MARCH 2008

Every company, every product, and every person goes through life cycles over time. Understanding how these cycles operate can help you develop effective responses to changes and opportunities in your career and business.
To survive and prosper in this world that operates at a frenetic pace we need to master the various phases of growth, decline, and leveling off. These are characteristics of all dynamic undertakings!
If you observe them closely, you will see that ca¬reers and businesses follow predictable cycles, like the sea¬sons of the year. Most enterprises follow a cycle that resembles an “S” lying on its side, and this is known as the Sigmoid Curve. All new activities start out at the high point of the “S” on the left, then head downward during a learning phase, head back up as they experience a growth phase, then level off at the top before declining again.
The cycles described do not just apply to careers and businesses. They describe the life cycles of products and services, relationships, institutions, and the life spans of nations and empires.
Take a moment to assess where your life and your career or business is placed on the Sigmoid Curve. Do you find yourself in:
- Phase one, the Learning Phase?
- Phase two, the Growth Phase?
- Do you find yourself between phases two and three, in a period of Leveling Off?
- Or are you at phase three, the Decline Phase?
What you can expect to en¬counter in each of the phases is:
Phase One: Learning Phase - characterised by a high level of activity. As you launch your career or business, you confront opportunities and problems, take on new initiatives and absorb the lessons they teach you. You invest high levels of energy and time to achieve professional and financial rewards.
Most new busi¬ness ventures do not survive phase one. They lack either the will or the means to survive -or both. The high failure rate of business start-ups is testimony to the difficulty of phase one.
Phase Two: Growth Phase - if you have survived phase one, you will enter the heady atmosphere of the Growth Phase. During phase two, busi¬ness and revenues surge ahead, possibilities multiply, and the atmosphere is one of energy and exhilaration. This is an ex¬citing time in a career or business when opportunities present themselves at every turn and mistakes are merely chances to learn and grow, leading to new avenues for success rather than failure.
Phase Three: Decline Phase - careers and businesses experience a drop in sales, rewards, and excitement. The at¬mosphere mirrors the decline in revenues and is marked by a loss of enthusiasm and a dip in morale. The verve and excite¬ment that marked phase two has diminished. You may question whether you have chosen the right career, or business to be in.
Successful people learn to track the health of their careers or businesses by continually monitoring their positions on the Sigmoid Curve. They respond quickly and decisively to any changes that could affect their futures or the futures of their businesses.
In phase one, the qualities of courage and persistence help you hold onto the vision you have for your career or business. Flexibility in setting and executing strategy to at¬tain that vision is also a key trait during this phase.
During phase two, enjoy your growing success but keep a close watch on both the economy and the marketplace. Never allow success to make you complacent. Be prepared to make whatever changes are needed to keep your competitive edge. Your first responsibility to both your career and your business is to recognise and understand changes and influ¬ences in your market and continually adapt both yourself and your business to ensure continuing success.
While you are in phase two, take advantage of strong revenue and profits by building a substantial cash reserve that can serve as a buffer during this renewal process, which is often beset by unexpected challenges.
The consequence of failing to focus on changing condi¬tions is that change will overtake you and your career or business, and you will find yourself in the Decline Phase.
In this phase, old personal habits and business practices no longer work. If you do find yourself in phase three, the solu¬tion is simple. Ask yourself those essential strategic planning questions. Your goal is to transform phase three into a new phase one by reaffirming yourself and your career or business in response to changing external and internal conditions.
The stakes in this phase are high - you must adapt and move on or fail. The challenges in phase three can be daunting, but they offer a chance to expand your leadership abilities, revisit your vision for your career or business, and bring new life to your work. The adaptation and reinvention required of all careers and businesses that find themselves in phase three is a hallmark of life in the twenty-first century. It is a test all successful people must pass if they are to prevail in their careers or grow a profitable business.

ALL CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHTED BY THE NOMA ASIL SA TRUST. TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER GO TO : www.streetsmart.co.za

January 2008

Your Personal Brand.
Just as building a powerful corporate brand is the key to differentiating a product in the market­place, and thus building a successful business, so creating a strong personal brand is the key to differentiating yourself from your competitors, thereby ensuring your own success as well as that of your business.
Your personal brand deter­mines how people respond to you, whether they listen to you, whether they buy from you, how much they buy, what they are willing to pay, and so on.
You are your most important product! As such, you already have your own per­sonal brand. You might think of it as your image or your reputation. It is how people perceive you; the values, virtues, qualities, and attributes they ascribe to you. It is not a ques­tion of whether you should have a personal brand image, because you already have one. Rather, it is a question of whether you choose to consciously create your personal brand or merely leave it to chance.
If you are running a small entrepreneurial business, your personal brand will have as much influence over the success of your business as will your corporate brand. You should very carefully think through how you would like people to think about you, and then make sure everything you say and do is consistent with this image.
There are two elements of personal branding: the promises you make (i.e., the image you project) and the promises you keep (i.e., your reputation).
Promises You Make
Your personal brand makes a promise: “If you buy from me, you will receive a specific value in return.” This promised value will be born from the values, virtues, qualities, and at­tributes by which you become known. For example, you may want to create a personal image - a brand - of a person who always operates at a high level of integrity, consistently walks the talk, is an exemplary leader, and goes the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction.
Your decision as to precisely how to brand yourself will have two bases:
1. It must be an accurate picture of the person you are, or the person you are committed to becoming.
2. It must reflect the kind of person who will elicit in a prospective customer a strong response: “I want to do business with this woman or man.” In other words, your per­sonal brand should reduce or eliminate any sense of risk in dealing with you in the mind of the buyer.
Who is your ideal customer? What values, virtues, quali­ties, and attributes will he be looking for in a supplier of your product? Do you match this profile? If not, do you have a burning desire to be this kind of person? Are you committed to transforming yourself into this kind of person? These are the key questions you must ask yourself when beginning to build your personal brand.
Be brutally honest with yourself. In any relationship, to try to fake who you are is a recipe for failure. To be authentic is to create trust in all of your relationships, both personal and professional.
Promises You Keep
Unmet ex­pectations are the arch enemy of any relationship. This is no less true in the relationship between you and your customers. Your brand as a person is determined in large part by whether you consistently deliver on your promises. Do you keep your word? Do you follow up? Do your words and ac­tions match with the image you want to create - that is, with the values, virtues, qualities, and attributes you claim as your own?
Constantly examine your behavior. When you slip, re­solve to get back on track. To build and sustain a powerful personal brand, your message must be an accurate reflection of you, the messenger.
The Whole Package
Pay close attention to your entire image. Of course, your character is of paramount importance. But you make an im­pact on people in other ways as well.
Your appearance - the clothes you wear, your personal grooming, your posture - has an enormous emotional impact on how other people see you, think about you, and relate to you.
Your attitude is vital. If you are genuinely pleasant and cheerful in your interaction with others, they will enjoy being with you. They will be more inclined to trust you and do business with you.
Your overall behavior strongly influences the impression others have of you. Be punctual for meetings and appoint­ments. Be absolutely reliable, always keeping your word and your commitments. Should you fail in this area, communi­cate with the other person as quickly as possible, offering your apology, explanation, and assurance that it will not happen again. Be responsive to the needs of your customers. Get back to them promptly. Develop a sense of urgency. Be­come a “Do it now” kind of person. Develop the reputation of being the “Go to” person when a customer has a problem or needs something done quickly and well.
Pay close attention to the quality of your work. In the long run, there is nothing that will so determine your success in building and sustaining a powerful personal brand as turn­ing out high-quality work, over and over again and over a long period of time.
There are seven laws of personal branding you must mas­ter, if you are to drive your business to new levels of excel­lence and profitability.
The Seven Laws of Personal Branding
1. The Law of Specialisation. Focus your brand on one specific area of achievement in your work. Avoid diversification. Do not try to be all things to all people. Select a specific industry, product, service, or skill in which you can excel.
2. The Law of Leadership. Become one of the most knowledgeable, skilled, and respected people in your field. Be the very best at what you do. Consistently strive to become better and better.
3. The Law of Personality. Your personal brand must be built around your personality, in all its aspects. The most important part of personal branding is that you be perceived as a nice and trustworthy person. Be pleasant, positive, and cheerful. Treat everyone well, no matter what the circumstances, and always do what you say you will do. Be sure your customers enjoy their interaction with you and know they can depend on you.
4. The Law of Distinctiveness. Once you have created your own personal brand, you must express it in a unique way. Everything you do must be part of the “package.” Sometimes a small factor, like sending cookies to a customer, can brand you in a distinct way. Why? Because no one else does it. Your goal is to be perceived as unique, thus differentiating you from everyone else vying for the attention of your prospec­tive customer.
5. The Law of Visibility. To be effective, your personal brand must be seen repeatedly and consistently. You must be busy and active. Join business associations in your industry and attend meetings. Introduce yourself and hand out business cards. When you call on a cus­tomer, introduce yourself to other people in the office. The more you are seen in a positive way, the more powerful your personal brand will be.
6. The Law of Congruence. Your behavior must be con­sistent, both publicly and privately. Everything you do behind closed doors should be consistent with what you do in public. People should feel that there is com­plete alignment or congruence between the public person and the private person. Both must be au­thentic, not merely a false persona adopted for the purpose of impressing or manipulating others.
7. The Law of Persistence. Once you have built your per­sonal brand, you must now sustain it. Never deviate from it. Give it time to grow. Stick with your personal brand through thick and thin until it sets like hardened cement in the minds of other people.
The time and energy you invest in building a powerful, positive, personal brand will pay huge dividends.
People will trust you and willingly accept your suggestions and recom­mendations. They will buy from you more readily, again and again, and even pay more for your products and services than for those of your competitors. They will gladly provide you with referrals, open doors for you, and create opportuni­ties not available to others. A positive personal brand will enable you to more readily secure credit and borrow money.
Remember, “Everything counts!”
Everything you do ei­ther enhances or detracts from your brand. Every word you utter either adds to or takes away from the quality of your personal brand. Your responsibility is to ensure that every­thing you do and say is consistent with the perception you want others to have of you. This is the key to building a powerful, positive, personal brand.
Tip:
Personal branding is not easy. Are you prepared to pay the price of creating such brand?
If you are, map out the things you need to do and start making them into habits.

QUOTATION:
The will to win is important, but the will to prevail is vital
Joe Paterno


ALL CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHTED BY The Noma Asil SA Trust. To subscribe to their regular newsletter go to : www.streetsmart.co.za

Keep your customers - November 2007

Today’s business climate is ever more competitive, and customer acquisition costs - that is, the price you pay to gen­erate new customers - are increasing at a rapid rate.
Sales and marketing budgets can consume an inordinate amount of cash. Prospecting and cold calling can consume an enor­mous amount of time. For this reason, a customer who is referred to you by an existing satisfied customer is a jewel to be sought and treasured.
The higher you rise on the customer satisfaction scale, the more success you will achieve. The aim of every business is to reach the fourth level of satisfaction, where it continually amazes its customers. Your job as an executive or entrepre­neur is to get and keep customers. The highest level of customer satisfaction (amazement) will enable you to do just that.
A major hurdle in the selling process is that of earning the trust of a prospective customer. When you have been re­ferred by someone the prospect trusts, you inherit part of that trust. As a result, you stand a much better chance of getting in the door. You will also be much more likely to move through the sales process quickly, as the rapport-building stage will be far easier and the objections far fewer. At the end of your presentation, it will be far easier to close the sale. In fact, it is often said that a good referral is fifteen times easier to sell to than a cold call.
To gain a huge competitive advantage, to assure yourself of a jump-start in growing your business, commit yourself to devising a sound strategy for developing a “golden chain” of referrals. Your goal should be to reach the point where you never have to cold call again, where you sell by referral only.
Your most likely source of referrals is your existing client base - specifically those customers who are delighted or amazed with your product or service and therefore represent the highest level of customer satisfaction.
It is said that a truly effective marketing strategy is evidenced by the fact that customers come ‘knocking on your door’. We have already given you the four basic rules of customer satisfaction, so now we want to deal with three basic aspects on which to concentrate before we give you insights into building such a strong referral system (our next letter) that customers no longer have to be ‘sold’ – they buy!
- Keep Customers: Just as a referral is fifteen times easier to sell to than is a cold call, it is said that a satisfied customer is ten times easier to sell to than is a new customer. Satisfy your customers! At the other end of the spec­trum, 90 percent of dissatisfied customers will not do business with your company again.
- Build Your Business Through Referrals: There is a very real and tangible benefit in making sure that you retain your existing customers. Not only is the “delighted” or “amazed” customer the best source of referrals, he/she is also highly likely to be a repeat customer. Rarely will a person who has reached this level of satisfaction with you, your company, your people, and your product or service jump ship and move to another supplier.
In psychological terms, people move away from pain and toward pleasure. A satisfied customer already experiences pleasure dealing with you and your company. A move to one of your competitors represents a risk of possibly experienc­ing pain, if only because of all the unknowns involved in such a change. Will the product work as well as yours? Will it be as reliable in yielding predictable results? Will the after­ service be as dependable? Will the customer enjoy interacting with your competitor and its people as much as with you and your team?
There is an axiom well known to the expert bridge player: “When in doubt, pass.” This same principle governs the behavior of customers. When they are highly satisfied with your product and service, why risk switching? In most cases, even when presented with a persuasive argument by your competitor, the highly satisfied customer will pass. He will remain loyal to you and buy from you over and over again. This is your goal.
- Customer Service: This is a vital key to Customer Satisfaction. Clearly, you must make every effort to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction possible. In a previous letter we focused on developing strategies to move your customers up the continuum from merely meeting or exceeding customer expectations to delighting and even amazing them. Revisit and revise these strategies regularly. Strategies that work today may be outmoded or copied tomorrow. They must be continually revisited and frequently revised.
Customer service is an important key to ensuring cus­tomer satisfaction and, therefore, to attracting and retaining customers. In fact, it is said that the sale only begins when the customer says, “Yes.”
It is not unusual for a customer to go through an emo­tional dip after the sale is closed. Typically, the time of sale represents a “high,” as the customer looks forward to enjoy­ing the benefits promised by your product. Shortly, however, he may begin to question his decision, perhaps wondering whether he might have found a less expensive provider, or whether the product will perform up to his expectations, or whether he even needs the product at all, and so on. You need to recognise that this “buyer’s remorse” is normal and predictable, and then make every effort to move the customer through this phase.
One way to reassure your customer that he has made a wise decision, to remove any lingering doubts with respect to his decision to purchase your product, is to be extraordi­narily responsive to his needs after the sale has closed. A brief thank-you note immediately after the sale - even after each call during the sales process - helps lock in the sale. A follow-up call to check on his experience with your product is a strong signal that you care - not about the sale, but about him!
If you receive a message that your customer has called with a question or concern, respond quickly. This will rein­force in his mind that you are committed to his complete satisfaction with your product.
Your total commitment to customer service is absolutely essential in creating customer satisfaction and customer loy­alty. This is the first step in the process of establishing repeat business and the foundation upon which to build a powerful referral system.

Two Critical Factors - November 2007

People who run companies know that there are really only two critical factors in business.
One is to make money
and the other is to generate cash.
As long as these two factors are consistently present the company is going to be secure in spite of the inevitable mistakes that are made along the way.
Everything done in business is a means towards the end of making money and generating cash!
This simple rule applies to every business but unfortunately, at most companies, people are never told that the survival of the company depends on doing these two things. Sure, they are told what to do in the eight hours they are at work, but no one ever shows them how they fit into the bigger picture. No one explains how one person’s actions affects another’s, how each department depends on the others, and what impact they all have on the company as a whole. No one ever tells them how to make money and generate cash. Ninety percent of the time people don’t know the difference between the two!
Most people in companies operate within narrow silos and never get to see, and therefore understand, the big picture – they are in fact operating blindly and as a result are oblivious of what is really happening around them. This mode of operating stifles the performance of any company because people are not encouraged to get together and work toward common goals.
Ignorance relating to the ultimate objective, and how to make it a reality, is the source of great frustration. It is essential to get everyone to pull together as a single team, and to do this the barriers that separate people have to be broken down. Like it or not, great divides exist between people, with the biggest one being between workers and managers. Ignorance lies at the core of these relationships:
- The ignorance of top management who assume that people down the ladder are incapable of understanding its problems and responsibilities.
- The ignorance of people ‘on the floor’ who usually have no idea why managers do what they do and attribute every mistake in the company to greed and stupidity.
- The ignorance of middle management means they are continuously torn between the demands of top management and those of the workforce. It is middle management who has the worst task because they have to please two masters. If they side with their people, they’re seen to be against top management. If they side with top management, they’re seen to be at odds with their people. This allows them no room to please themselves!
The underlying cause of ignorance in business is that most people in business don’t understand how this Game Called Business is played. They have all kinds of misconceptions:
- They think profit is a dirty word and that the owners of the company just slip it into their own bank accounts at night.
- They have no idea that a huge percentage of the company’s profits go to the Government in the form of taxes, and are shocked when they learn the true figure.
- They have never heard of retained earnings and have no idea as to why these are so important.
- They can’t conceive how a company might be generating profits and yet have no cash to pay its creditors, or, for that matter, how it might be generating cash yet operating at a loss.
To really get people working together as a team in any business you have to overcome ignorance. Eliminating it though is a tough call because most people find the intricacies of business incredibly boring. They don’t want to hear about profits and cash flow. Making money for someone else does not excite them at all. They want a ‘job’ they can count on to give them money at the end of every month, but beyond that they’d rather not get involved because everything they’ve ever heard about business makes it seem complicated, confusing, hard to understand, abstract, and maybe even a little unethical.
To eliminate ignorance in business you have to teach people that it is a game like any other team sport - and no more complicated. Sure, the stakes are higher because how you play the game is going to have a big impact on whether or not you can support your family, put food on the table, and realise your dreams. You don’t need to convert your people into entrepreneurial geniuses, but you do need to encourage them to learn the rules of the game, master the fundamentals, and play together as a team – you need to involve them in the game! You need to show them how to keep, and follow, the score, how to follow the action as the game unfolds, and how to see the impact their actions have on the performance of the team as a whole. To achieve these objectives you need to flood people with the necessary information and then teach them to speak, think, and interact in the language of business – numbers!
If people are kept in the dark they won’t understand what the right things are to do and as a result they will automatically blame top management when things don’t work out. They’ll believe that you have been conning them all the time by telling them what a great job they have been doing but then suddenly turn the tables by telling them that the results are not there and that you have to lay people off or are unable to pay the bonuses that they have been working towards. Naturally they are going to question where all the money has gone! They quickly learn to distrust you and it is unlikely that you will regain that trust very quickly – if ever!
We always make excuses for the situations we get into – it’s human nature. We blame the company. We blame other people. We blame external factors. We don’t look at ourselves! If you want to run an effective company, department, or team, you have to remove all opportunities for excuses to take root and flourish! You have to create an environment where people can’t blame anyone else for the situation they are in – where they see they make a very real difference, leaving no grey area.
It’s very easy for people to think they don’t make a difference, and this is one of the biggest problems in business today. The bigger the company, the bigger the problem! When we don’t ask people to make a difference - in fact insist that they make a difference - and then show them how whilst creating the environment for them to do so, we simply compound the problem.
There are many dead-end jobs in this world but there are no unimportant ones! Every position has an impact on the scorecard of a business.
Get people away from focusing on the specific mechanical things they do by devising a system that will explain to them the impact they have. Do it in such a way that it makes sense.
Remember that internal misjudgements are six times more likely to cause failure than external factors. Success in business, as in life, is all about getting the fundamentals right … and the actions you take!
Makes you think, doesn’t it!

cc : www.streetsmart.co.za

October 2007

OCTOBER 2007
Many businesses hold as their mantra “The Customer is King!”
Applied blindly this is a very dangerous approach to business because some customers drain your resources and need to be forced into exile.
Generally we attract these ‘Bad Kings’ when we allow the ‘Sales at any cost’ mentality to creep into our businesses.
Don’t make the fatal mistake of misinterpreting the true meaning of being customer-focused!
Lets take a look at ways to develop a customer-oriented mental­ity in your career or business. The purpose is to help you identify the ideal customers for what you offer and develop effective strategies to attract more of those customers to your business activities.
Customers come in two categories:
- Internal Customers: This is anyone who depends on you for his or her success and anyone upon whom you depend for your success. Following this defini­tion, internal customers include your colleagues and your staff. Professional advisers, such as attorneys and accountants, can also be considered your internal customers. In fact, everyone around you whom you help, or who helps you, is in some way an internal customer.
- External Customers: These are those people and companies who buy what you produce. External customers are the focal point of all busi­ness success. Your ability to accurately identify this cus­tomer - the one external customer whose satisfaction determines the success of your business - is at the heart of every element of strategic planning.
Before you can successfully identify this crucial customer, you must answer several questions. How does your customer define value? Can you list the specific benefits your products or services deliver to this customer? Probing deeper, do you know what your customer really wants and needs from you in order to be completely satisfied? Can you say how your product changes or improves your customer’s life and work?
The twenty-first century is being referred to as the “age of the customer.” The customer is at the center of business transactions as never before. Your success and your rewards in life will be determined in large part by your ability to iden­tify and satisfy your key customers. To ensure that you keep your focus on optimising the benefits you bring to customers, optimizing your profitability in the process, consider adopting the following approach:
- Project forward: If current trends continue, who will your customer of the future be? If you were to change your product or service offerings, who could your customers be? If you want to rise to the very top of your field, who should your customers be? What expectations will this customer have that you can sat­isfy by upgrading your knowledge, your skills, your abil­ity, or your offerings?
- Examine existing relationships: With the benefit of hindsight - drawing from your current knowledge and experience - can you name any cus­tomers in your career or business with whom you would avoid working today? Does your current customer list in­clude any names of people or businesses that should not be your customers?
- Drain the sediment from your Customer tank: Group your customers into high-value and low-value seg­ments. To do this, begin by identifying and analyzing the characteristics of your very best customers. Sort all your cus­tomers according to how they stack up against the best per­formers. You should be able to see quickly who your highest ­value customers are. Today, many companies follow this pro­cedure in order to focus more and more of their time and attention on their highest-value customers and on acquiring more customers like them. At the same time, they spend less and less time on their lower-value customers. In many cases, they encourage their lower-value customers to do business with other companies.
The story of a successful entrepreneur illus­trates this concept. He applied this sorting process to his customer base and determined that a small segment (20 percent) of his customers contributed a very large share (80 percent) of his sales volume and an equally large share (80 percent) of his profits. His response to this was to “fire” the 80 percent of his lower-value customers that contributed 20 percent or less of his revenues. He identified other compa­nies in his industry that he felt could service them better and handed off those customers one by one. He was then free to concentrate all his attention and energy on his higher-value customers. Within one year, his business and his personal in­come doubled. Would this strategy work for you?
Here are some focus questions that will help you to meet the requirements of your most important internal custom­ers, recognise your key current and future external custom­ers, and free up time and energy by identifying those customers with whom you should stop doing business:
- Internal Customers:
o Who are your most important internal customers?
o What are the special requirements of your internal customers?
- External Customers:
o Who are your most valuable external customers?
o Who could be your external customers?
o Who should be your external customers?
o Which external customers are you going to “fire” - that is, which should you stop doing business with?
Can you identify your Customers? Do you know who you have to satisfy in order to survive and thrive in your career or business?
The only certain things in life are Death, Taxes, and Competition! There are steps you can take to extend your life and minimize your taxes. In this letter we have given you a strategy to follow to minimise the effects of competition by keeping you focus squarely on the RIGHT customers. The success you achieve in doing this depends on what actions you take, so … What actions do you commit to take immediately as a result of insights gained in this letter?

Take a good look at all your customers:
- Who are your most important internal customers?
- Who are your most important ex­ternal customers?
- Which of your low-value customers should you be throwing overboard?

Sept 2007

Big man, bad manners?
When you reach the top, don’t forget where you came from.
Behave properly. Set a good example.

Most of us spend the best part of our working lives Struggling to get “there”, reach the top, achieve financial stability, have an old age free of money worries and with
enough to pay for the inevitable medical needs of a
failing body or mind.
Some are fortunate enough to be born with wealth.
Some acquire it on the way. Many never do.
Those to whom life brings reasonable fortune and prosperity have a special responsibility as role models.

Do they understand this? Do they fulfill that responsibility?

The answer is... sometimes.

Sadly, nobody is ever consciously taught what is expected of them. Did you learn at school or university how to behave when you become successful? Of course
not.
Yet, it is extremely important that you should. Passing on your behaviour as an example to the next, or even the present, generation shapes the future of entrepreneurship. I’d go further and say the future of society.
If you misuse your position, you will find that you are taxed more, followed less. If you do not show how achievers should pay back to society something of what they have gained from it, you are not worthy of the gain.
What we should pass on to the next generation is not money but standards.
One of the tragedies of our modern world is the cult of celebrity. There have always been celebs. The growth of the mass media has allowed the cult to develop beyond what is healthy.
Celebs do not make the world go round. They contribute to our enjoyment of it, of course.
In moderation, they are an innocent bit of fun.
When they reach the status of a demi-god, they cause harm, mostly because their behaviour is bad.
Drugs, promiscuous sex, a fixation with personal publicity, the flaunting of excessive wealth — all these are dangerous, not just for the celeb but for society as a whole.
They send the wrong signals about what matters in life.
The problem is not confined to celebs. In our day to- day lives, we know that once we become confident it is a small step to becoming over-confident, and that means arrogant.

It’s a fine line between the two.
Ever noticed how you can find yourself turning into a bully because you feel so secure and then something happens to shake your security? Suddenly the very people you were bullying become important friends whose favour you need.
What happens in this case is that there is a natural check on most of us when we start to throw our weight around. It’s often described as “pride comes before a fall”.
This is fine for those who don’t make a fortune or reach the heights. But wealth and position can put you out of reach of these natural checks. Then you need background and education (in the proper sense of the word) to help you behave.
There are some tests you can apply.
If you want to know whether you are behaving properly in any given situation, try the People Test .

Ask yourself:
1. Would I tell my mother? If I did, would she approve?
2. If I was hoping to become close to a particular girl or boy, would they be impressed by the action I am proposing to take? Would I even tell them about it?
3. Would I like the subject to be put on a notice board at work for my colleagues to see?

If the answer to any of those questions is “no”, think twice about what you are going to do.
Your behaviour is not satisfying your own standards.