You dont have to be a bastard..

Simon Goodrich, Melbourne based online entrepreneur says:

"I dont realy believe you have to be a bastard to get ahead in business. Noone likes nasty people, but it can be nasty out there in the business world. I believe more in integrity - this helps you through the hard times. It's easy to be a bastard, but how can you sleep at night?"

Its nice to know that one of the top Australian Entrepreneurs under 30 is leading the way in ethical business as he looks like one young man who is only going to rise.


(quote taken from Royal Auto, June 2009)

Seven Million websites deleted!

In case you missed the big event, on October 26th, Yahoo! has officially shutdown all GeoCities.com websites. IYou will notice the major search engines have also removed all links to these pages if you search for site:geocities.com in either Google, Bing or Yahoo.

The SEO impact of this shutdown is potentially huge. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• There were 7,450,000 GeoCities URLs indexed in Google
• GeoCities.com had around 10 million visitors in September
• GeoCities URLs ranked in the top 20 of Google for around 680,000 different keywords.

What are your thoughts?

Fast tracking blog traffic

When building your blogging database, offer genuinely interesting posts. Dont bombard with metatags and advertising. People will soon turn off. Talk about things that are either relevant, controversial, real "news"

Beware of software that will help you build large databases and get people to follow you.

Be ethical.

Be consistent.

Time and effort in offering posts to your readers is often the best way to keep the traffic that you've gained.

Happy blogging!

This is cute.. tinyurl

Now Im not getting any $$ for this. I just thought it was a nifty little tool...
It basically makes long urls short. You have often seen clumsy urls like:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?t
ype=3&campid=5336224516&toolid=10001&customid=tiny-
hp&ext=unicycle&satitle=unicycle

TinyURL changes it to :

http://tinyurl.com/unicycles

Which one would you rather cut and paste into your browser? But I think the best application is when you're chatting on yahoo/msn and want to send links.

And you can add TinyURL to your browser's toolbar

Click and drag the following link to your links toolbar.

TinyURL!

Once this is on your toolbar, you'll be able to make a TinyURL at the click of a button. By clicking on the toolbar button, a TinyURL will be created for the page you are currently at.

This is compatible with most web browsers and platforms as long as your bookmarks or favorites allow javascript. The links toolbar may not be visible in all setups and in most browsers, you can enable it in the View->Toolbars menu of your web browser. You can also put it in your bookmarks instead of the links toolbar.

Keywords - Important in emails too!

The Importance of Keywords in Emails

You never know when your email is going to be the key trigger for a future success. The email you send or receive today may be of key importance tomorrow. It is essential not only to group your emails, but also to have relevent keywords in the subject line for quick retrieval.

Make your emails easily recognisable when people are searching for the topic. Remember when you send multiple emails, to change the subject line if your subject of conversation changes, or add slight changes in topic in parenthesis after the main subject.

Dont be afraid to save the same email message in different folders if they apply. For instance an email from Express eMedia on affordable business cards might be be filed under your "Express eMedia" folder AND "resources" folder.

There are now many programs (ie Taglocity for Outlook) that help you tag important emails.

Do what you love doing!

Richard Branson suggests that your business should be in something that really matters to you.

"Ideally, since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours. If you're into kite-surfing and you want to become an entrepreneur, do it with kite-surfing. "


"Look, if you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you're just working. You'll work harder at it, and you'll know more about it. But first you must go out and educate yourself on whatever it is that you've decided to do - know more about kite-surfing than anyone else. That's where the work comes in. But if you're doing things you're passionate about, that will come naturally."

Just make sure that your enthusiasm for the activity feeds your enthusiasm for your work. Don't let your work kill your love of the activity. And remember - always have a backup (activity!).

Capture your customers!

When somebody goes into a supermarket, the longer they’re staying in that shop, the higher the likelihood of them spending more money there. It’s exactly the same thing with a web site.

So you want to capture interest?

That’s what copy does.

• Attention,


• Interest,


• Desire,


• Action and then


• Satisfaction ...

Your front page, whether its an advert in a magazine, or your website, must capture your audience's attention. The longer they look, the more likely you are to create sales.

How to set up a Bing listing

As many people are aware, Bing, the new visual search engine was released yesterday.

That in itself is not new (ie Nexplore and others before it), but the use of Silverlight has given this a competitive advantage.



How to set up a Bing listing:
By now, you’re probably well aware that Yahoo! and Microsoft have entered into a search deal which will see Bing become the default search engine on Yahoo.com. While it might take over a year for the switch to actually take place, there are a number of things you can do now to prepare your business for the changeover. One of these would be to setup a Bing local listing.

How to Setup a Bing Listing

If you’re familiar with how Google local listings work, creating an identical listing in Bing should take no time at all. Below are the steps to complete the process:

1. Visit the Bing local listing centre here: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
2. Enter your business name, phone number and address. Bing will then check if your business is already registered and prompt you to edit or create your business profile.
3. You’re then presented with all the usual business fields to complete, so remember to provide as much information as possible (text, links, images etc.) as this should help to get your business ranking higher.
4. Take advantage of Bing’s supplemental websites area to add extra relevant links to your listing. For example, a restaurant can add additional links to their menus, booking form, or even reviews on a site like tripadvisor.
5. Verify your listing. Similar to Google, Bing gives you the choice to do this via phone or snail mail.
6. You’re done!

Aside from being ready for the merger and increasing your online presence, getting in early with a Bing local listing might also help to give your listing more credibility and improve your ranking. We know search algorithms look at the age of website’s in their ranking formula, so if this also holds true for local listings it’s another reason to register your business now.

Update: As some of our readers have pointed out, Bing local listings are only available for US based businesses at this stage.

From Ineedhits blog Author : Matthew Elshaw

Marketing Reminders

Keeping Customers With Good Customer Service
Successful companies provide proactive customer service. Proactive customers service leads to increased business and loyalty.

Anticipate Everything
Please your customers by knowing what they'll appreciate before they know it.

Why People Buy
When you sell a product it's not only important to know who bought it, but also why they bought. Why they were motivated to buy your product over your competitor's product.

Limited Time For Motivation
A limited time offer can often move the skeptic and procrastinator from prospect to customer. Because putting a drop dead date on an offer frequently will move that hesitant person to action.

Following Up On Customers
What is the BIGGEST mistake made in marketing? Not following up on your leads or customers.

The Cluster Principle
People with similar demographic and psychographic profiles have a tendency to cluster together in the same geographic areas. Companies do the same.

Yellow Pages Strategy
Display ads in the Yellow Pages are different from those in most other publications since they are

Benefit Based Customer Focus
Begin evaluating every corporate task, policy and strategy relative to the actual amount of benefit the customer will receive.

Continuity In The Marketplace
You need to be in the marketplace on a regular, continuing, and ongoing basis. Not necessarily the same amount every week or every month, but on a regular basis.

Marketing Tips To Remember
To successfully market a product or service, you must first position your company in relation to the competition. Know how you want your company, product or service to be perceived by customers.

Commandments Of A Successful Entrepreneurship
So you're planning to start a new business, huh? Here's a few things to consider before venturing out on that financial limb.

Is Your Loyalty Program In A Rut
The objective of any loyalty program is to establish long-term relationships with customers so that they count on the program as they would a trusted friend.

Product Based Customer Focus
Begin evaluating every product development, product extension, product enhancement, and product revision activity in terms of actual customer purchases those activities will create.

On Ad Recognition
Advertisements bearing an 800-phone number are usually noticed by 20% more people than those lacking one.

Generation Y Lists
The teen market is growing in a big way, and today's teens are ready to buy through the mail. When introducing a product to the teen market, direct mailers will encounter several problems when making their list selections.

The Brand Name Game
The difference between a good brand name and a disaster isn't always clear. In addition to capturing the attention of customers, the name must be easily pronounceable and free of negative connotation in foreign languages.

Testing Your 800 Number
Although the 800 number has proved its worth over and over again, yours may be the exceptional circumstance. Why not find out?

Avoid The Trade Show Burnout
Working an exhibit is akin to a performance, and reps can't sustain energy without proper conditioning and techniques.

Maximizing Leads
Here are a few ideas that'll help you maximize your sales leads, and transform them from prospects into customers.

Only Seconds Till Impact
Creating an exhibit that makes an impression and that has stopping power is achieved via two important ingredients: booth structure and exhibit graphics.

Full Circle Strategy Improves Profit
The basic principle is that best prospects will always closely resemble your best customers. The best place to start is to analyse your customer base and determine key traits held in common by your top customers.

Don't Be Afraid To Go After Large Accounts
Although large accounts present special challenges, they are far from unapproachable.

Learn About Your Non-Buyers
Too many marketers spend all their research time and money learning who their buyers are and why they act as they do.

Know Your Product & Prospect
Do you know what you are selling? That is to say, are you familiar describing it to a customer, in user's terms, in intimate detail?

Break Your Competitors Grip
You've probably run into prospects who are so comfortable with your competitor and his products that they won't even consider making a switch.

Free Is The Key
You should always present the offer as something of value and something of importance. Free is the key.

Review The Basics After A "No"
The buyer said "no." Now what do you do? Review the basics, because the basics will lead you to success.

Matching The List To The Offer
Offer and list must match. That is, the person receiving your mailing must be a logical perspective buyer.

Psychological Triggers To Target
Consumer's behavior is often consistent with their previous decisions. Therefore, if a customer says "yes" to an offer, make another offer that relates to the first.

How Important Is The Offer
How important is the offer? If you look at most direct mail pieces you receive - the offer doesn't seem to very important at all. Many either have no offer, a weak offer, or they hide the offer instead of making it the hero of the package.

Don't Take No For An Answer
Continue to "talk" to your prospects even after they say no. Often a "no" is really a "no now." Prospects sometimes say "no" just because the timing is wrong.

Ten Tips To Communicate With Force
Here are ten tips to get your message across effectively to your target audience.

Use Cross-Overs With Other Companies
Maybe you don’t pay enough attention to this powerful marketing technique. It is so simple, many companies just don’t put any faith into its true power.

Identifying Your Best Customers
The best prospects on any consumer list are those who make frequent purchases in significant amounts.

source: http://www.melissadata.com/tips/directmarketing.htm

Are you an Expert?

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that
can be made in a very narrow field.
—NIELS BOHR, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Who am I

Entrepreneurship

may be defined as

"an approach to management, defined as follows;
a pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled"
(Prof. Howard Stevenson, 1983 Harvard University)

Guidelines for effective delegation

Authority and responsibility go hand in hand.
When someone is delegated the responsibility for a certain task, they must also receive the necessary authority to complete the task well.

In other words, they must be seen by everybody to have the corresponding authority. Some managers have made the mistake of giving people extra responsibilities without really giving them the extra authority required. This leads naturally to frustration. It is also important to
communicate to others concerned that a certain person has been given extra authority.
Perhaps a small team meeting is in order.

Delegated tasks need to be clearly defined.
Spell out accurately what you are delegating - in detail.

Define what the responsibility is, what authority goes with the assignment and how success will be measured. It is important that someone with authority knows the level of performance
expected of them.

Rewards need to be provided.
Extra responsibility should really make a person's job more interesting and satisfying and lead to such rewards as greater recognition, more pay, or increased chances of promotion.

Those who seem unwilling to accept extra responsibility might
really be saying one of two things to their manager: "The extra work you are trying to
give me isn't interesting" or "The rewards you are offering aren't good enough." As a
manager you too have two options: To raise the bar and offer better rewards, or to find
someone within the team who equally capable of doing the task and who is happy with
the rewards you are happy to provide.

Training, guidance and follow-up are always needed.
People need clear guidance on what is required of them and adequate training for
the job. No one should be simply "dropped into it". It is also vital that those who have
delegated a job follow up to see how it is going.

Don't just delegate the lousy jobs.
It is unwise to always delegate the mundane or boring tasks. This can lead to
frustration and resentment in people who feel they are "always landed with the bum
jobs". Delegate in order to motivate.

Those who delegate still retain the ultimate responsibility.
While you might have delegated a particular area of work, you can't just wash your hands of the whole thing. Those who delegate are still responsible for the wisdom of their delegation.

Select people carefully.
Skilful managers know their staff.
They know who will accept extra responsibility and who won't, and the reasons why.

They also know that delegating managerial responsibility is different from delegating technical responsibility.They realise that technical competence does not necessarily imply managerial competence.

Keep communicating.
It is easy to believe in communication. It is another thing to practise it.

Effective delegation depends on good communication, clear and full instructions, plenty of scope
for feedback and patient listening.

Interestingly, delegation also helps foster a feeling of teamwork.
It is unusual to note that many groups which work in a business environment are not considered to be teams.

Many organisations seem content with group performance. Perhaps in this circumstance, managers have not thought beyond current accomplishments to what might be achieved under different circumstances.

If we can establish a culture where people are willing to give their best and work together in teams we can often dramatically improve productivity and job satisfaction.

So, we have communicated our company goals, delegated some duties and
motivation is slowly kicking in among staff.

Perhaps it is now time to instigate a team environment.

There will generally be four stages involved with setting up a team.

Stage One-Formation:

• When a team first starts, members are excited about belonging but concerned about where they fit in.
• Their roles have yet to be defined. Normally someone is in charge at this point and defines what the team goals and objectives are to be.
• A direct leadership style is okay at this stage as we need to create a common vision.
• Team members are usually quite enthusiastic about the task at hand. Productivity is low but morale is high.

Stage Two-Frustration:
This is a stage many people with experience on committees are familiar with.

• Behaviour might include competition for power and attention, negative reactions towards leaders and other members, confusion, frustration with team members or a realisation that the task is more complicated than first thought.
• Some might think meetings are a place where you take minutes and waste hours.
• Like human adolescence, there does not seem to be any way to avoid team adolescence. It is usually the most uncomfortable stage of a group as people are jostling for position, morale is lower, and the goal seems much harder than it first seemed.

Some groups never make it past this stage.

• To move on, the team leader needs to work through the issues inherent in this stage.
• People need to be encouraged to constructively express their feelings of frustration and confusion so they can be resolved.
  
• Allowing people to mentally withdraw and clam up to avoid disagreement prevents the team from moving to the next stage.

Stage Three - Resolution:

• At this stage the group is learning to work together to resolve differences and develop confidence and cohesion.
• Productivity improves, morale increases and the leader's role starts to change from that of controller and provider of information to that of facilitator, helping the group control their own content and process.

Stage Four-Results:
Once the group reaches the results stage, they are truly a team.

They have it all together, enjoy each other and the work and the group can manage itself.

At this stage the manager's role is that of an educator. Control is hardly necessary.

Signs that the group has become a team are enthusiasm, cooperation, confidence, shared leadership, high performance and a positive feeling that the task is being completed.

One way to understand which stage a team is at and how to best help them perform is to sit back and observe, if only for a while. Look at what the team is working on and how they are working on it.
While we are socialised to take note of the content of group interaction, it is equally important for a good leader to look at how the team functions

• interaction between team members, power struggles, communication and how decisions are being made. If we ignore the process, teams meetings will happen outside the meeting, in hallways, car parks and restrooms.
  

Essentially, an effective team builder will:

• Select employees who can meet job requirements as well as work with others.

• Give employees a sense of ownership by involving them in goal setting,problem solving and productivity improvement activities.
• Try to provide team spirit by encouraging people to work together and to support one another on related activities.
• Talk with people openly and honestly and encourage the same kind of communication in return.
• Keep agreements with people because their trust is essential to the success of the team leader's success.
• Help people get to know each other so they can learn to trust, respect and appreciate individual talent and ability.
• Ensure employees have the training to do their jobs and know how it is to be applied.
• Understand that conflict within groups is normal, but work to resolve it quickly and fairly before it can become destructive.
• Believe people will perform as a team when they know what is expected and what the benefits are.
• Be willing to replace members who cannot or will not meet reasonable standards after appropriate coaching.

Communication is often named as the biggest problem in most organisations, relationships and communities. What is so difficult?
There are a few things which leaders should understand.

1. Firstly, words have different meanings to different people.
2. Second, non-verbal communication can affect the message.
3. Third, people have their own "red light words" which cause an emotional reaction, thereby distorting the message.
4. And finally, barriers to communication exist and are not always detected. It is no wonder we sometimes get confused, particularly when our intentions as leaders are well meaning.

Half the battle is understanding what those barriers to communication are.
Poor use of language is perhaps being used by the sender, feedback is not allowed, memos are
being used when verbal communication is needed, employees are being stuck with
information overload, poor listening technique is being employed by both leaders and
employees, or the leader is making unfair assumptions or evaluations.

Excessive niceness can also be a problem, there might be a bad atmosphere or cultural differences might not be respected.

Whatever the barrier, understanding helps us change our approach, try a different
technique or poach feedback from employees on what the problem might be.

We can sometimes be surprised by the difference between what we think motivates people in
our team and what actually does motivate them. Effective communication helps us judge personalities, understand their needs and apply motivational techniques which
will help improve productivity.

Contrary to popular belief, money is often not the major motivator for most people.
Rather, feelings of being valued or effectively utilised often come first in surveys.
( Sorry TJ - im still learning... )

Effective teamwork knows no level.
It is just as important among top executives as it is among middle managers, frontline managers or among the workforce.

The absence of teamwork at any level, or between levels, will limit organisational effectiveness and can eventually kill an organisation.

Not so easy ...

As the CEO of a Training Company, one thing I would not allow my trainers to say is "Its Easy!" to our clients. They were allowed to say "its easy - once you learn how!"

Why?

Things may be easy for you, but not for someone who has never done it before!

An example is driving stick shift (manual). After having driven that way for years, it comes as second nature. You don't have to think about it. Your mind and body just drive automatically. But can you remember when you learnt? All the bunny hops? The cars banked up behind you at the intersection because you stalled the car? (maybe that was just my experience...)


If you tell people its easy and they can't grasp it, they feel stupid. Do you want your staff or customers to feel stupid? NO!


If you tell a customer that its easy to fulfil a consignment and you don't - how does that make your company look? Let them know that you are confident that you can fill their order but dont undervalue your efforts by saying "its easy". After all, if its so easy... why are they paying you?

We we do want is for our client experience with us to be easy!

If i knew then ..

It is better to know nothing and do a lot,
than to know a lot and do nothing.
(Theres no correlation between intelligence and wealth.
Action is a critical ingredient in success.
What you do is far more important than what you know)

Everyone falls over.
(The difference between winners and losers is in the response.
Winners get up again and bounce back)

Do not blame another person, circumstances or yourself.
Just learn.
(Mistakes are more than "an acceptable occurrence". They are essential.
If you blame yourself, you are hurting someone who you
should be spending energy to nurture - yourself.)

Don't burn your bridges. Bomb them.
( but don't burn the people on the other side)

Be wary of gurus who advocate getting a passive income.
(Business and property is fun, scary, rewarding, exciting, energising, exhausting and
much more. But I have not yet experienced the process as "passive".
The income itself might be considered in technical terms as passive, but the process involved in
achieving it is definitely not. To the contrary, it is bloody hard work!
The satisfaction in all this business and investment stuff is not about the money, rather the adventure.
To simply aim for passive income seems to be missing the best bits.)

You don't have to be an expert at anything.
(We do not have to know anything in particular about the business we are in to be a success.
We should have some knowledge of the industry, but there is always the option to attract good
people to work with you. They can be the experts in their chosen field.
The key is not rocket science.
Hire good people, point them in the right direction,
get out of their way and help them when they need it.)

The secret to success.

Try stuff.
Some of it works. Some doesn't.
You learn.
You try more stuff.
You have fun.

"If I knew I could not fail, what would I do?"

So, what steps are
there between now and then?
~ Anthony Robbins

What are the things I love to do that I would do if I did not have to work?

What are the 10 ways I could make money by providing something of value to
others by using those interests?

What do I love to do more than
anything else on earth?

What would I do if I had a billion dollars and 15 years to use
it?

Before I grew up, what did I want to do when I grew up?

Who would I spend time
with if I could work or study with anyone on earth?

What comes easily and naturally
for me?

What did my parents, teachers, friends and grandparents encourage me to pursue?

How do I feel about their advice at this point?

If I could make a planned and organised change in my situation over the next two years, what would I do?

If I created a life that perfectly reflected my values and my most important skills and strengths, what would my life be like?

What's the best thing about my situation as it exists right now?

What is this situation teaching me? What am I learning about my world and
myself?

Who can help me? Who could advise me? Who do I need to contact?

And, when will I pick up the phone and call them? If not today, when?

Where can I find the opportunities, skills and people I need?

Bill Gates reveals 11 secrets of success !

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault , so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

What the world needs now...

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.

Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Howard Thurman

I, Ching Ching

To attain knowledge, add things every day.

To attain wisdom, remove things every day.

Lao-Tzu

POD

Design a Business that Can Do Something that No Other Business Can Do!

Make your business stand out with a point of difference. Be the best, the fastest, the most exclusive - THE ONLY...!

Are you a Star ?

“Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I’ll move the world.”
Archimedes

The growth share matrix
is a framework first developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the 1960s to help companies think about the priority (and resources) that they should give to their different businesses. Also known as the Boston matrix, it puts each of a firm’s businesses into one of four categories. The categories were all given memorable names – cash cow, star, dog and question mark—which helped to push them into the collective consciousness of managers all over the world.

The two axes of the matrix are relative market share (or the ability to generate cash) and growth (or the need for cash).

• Cash cows are businesses that have a high market share (and are therefore generating lots of cash) but low growth prospects (and therefore a low need for cash). They are often in mature industries that are about to fall into decline.

• Stars have high growth prospects and a high market share.

• Question marks have high growth prospects but a comparatively low market share (and have also been known as wild cats).

• Dogs, by deduction, are low on both growth prospects and market share.

The conclusions drawn from such an analysis are to transfer the surplus cash from a conglomerate’s cash cows to the stars and the question marks, and to close down or sell off the dogs. In the end, question marks reveal themselves as either dogs or stars, and cash cows become so drained of finance that they inevitably turn into dogs.