Why join the navy if you can be a pirate. Steve Jobs ~ #poster #quote #SteveJobs #pirate #business #taolife
Posted: March 29, 2013 Filed under: Business, Gaye Crispin, Join, Navy, Pirate, Quote, Steve Jobs, taolife | Tags: be, business, gaye crispin, join, navy, pirate, poster, quote, taolife, why 1 Comment »
Why join the navy if you can be a pirate.
Steve Jobs
#poster #SteveJobs #pirate #business #quote #taolife
~
The art of life is kindness, so live kindness ~ Gaye Crispin
#taolife #EcoOrganics #Chatuccino
Profit comes from repeat customers ~ #quote #business #profit #customers
Posted: March 29, 2013 Filed under: Business, Customers, Gaye Crispin, Profit, Quote, taolife | Tags: business, customers, gaye crispin, profit, quote, repeat, taolife Leave a comment »
Profit in business comes from repeat customers.
#quote #business #profit #customers #taolife
~
The art of life is kindness, so live kindness ~ Gaye Crispin
#taolife #EcoOrganics #Chatuccino
The Importance Of Being Earnest – With Your Business Ideas
Posted: May 23, 2012 Filed under: The Importance Of Being Earnest | Tags: business, business ideas, business plans, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurs, gaye crispin, the importance of being earnest 38 Comments »The Importance Of Being Earnest – With Your Business Ideas
by Gaye Crispin
Like baby sea turles, absolutely everything a new business hatchling encounters can be life-threatening.
New business startups are like baby sea turtles trying to make it to the ocean. Whether it be something as innocuous as a piece of driftwood, or lethal as a sand crab, everything in the path of a baby sea turtle has the potential to spell its demise.
So too, absolutely everything a new baby business hatchling encounters can be life-threatening to the idea or business plan.
No stage of business is more vulnerable than when the business idea is transitioning from being a safe twinkle in the entrepreneur’s eye on to the drawing board, or into the board room.
And this stage is especially dangerous for the idea if the entrepreneur doesn’t appreciate their idea’s potential future value, and secure it accordingly.
Timing Is Everything
Fledgling entrepreneurs need to understand the importance of taking time to research the most secure ways to go about sharing their business idea or business plan with others when it comes time to progress it.
This is a time that needs to be given serious consideration in advance. And the entrepreneur needs to decide who will be trusted with the idea or business plan, and when the right time will be.
Entrepreneurs be warned: a bad choice in people or timing will demand you have a good supply of aspirin handy.
T”
“There’s Gold In Them Thar’ Hills”
Gold miners, entrepreneurs and many new business owners will often invest everything, do whatever it takes, work long hard hours – all in the hope of striking it rich.
Mark Twain immortalised those words by Dr. Matthew F. Stephenson in his book ‘The Guilded Age.’ But would anyone shout it if they really knew there was gold in them thar’ hiils?
Imagine a winning business idea as a vein of gold still in the ground, and the entrepreneur who brings the idea to life as a gold miner.
Do you think any seasoned gold miner would broadcast, “Hey, I’m going to dig over by that tree because the feasibility says that’s where the gold is.”? Of course not!
And especially not if they hadn’t secured the mining rights! And not until after they’d hired armed guards to protect their site…… usually from fellow miners.
I’d love a dollar for every story I’ve heard of an entrepreneur or new business owner who had their idea stolen by an unethical angel investor, business planner, business coach, networking group owner, or even some online business planning software provider they confided in.
There are many so-called ’professionals’ who make a living by stealing and on-selling ideas and business plans that come across their desk when they are consulting or speaking with inexperienced entrepreneurs. One of my rules of thumb is: if you don’t know ‘em, don’t show ‘em.
The Social Media Coach
Not all Social Media coaches are created equal.
You’re In Control Of What You Divulge
A client of mine recently engaged an online coach to help with the social media side of a new business venture. The coach was briefed with certain information about the business, including my client’s new business name and mission statement.
A few weeks later my client happened across a site where the coach had begun using my client’s mission statement as their own, and all without my client’s knowledge, permission or consent. Naturally, the situation turned quite ugly.
-
Not So Nice Networking
An acquaintance of mine joined his first business networking group last year. Over time he formed a business alliance with an established member of the group whose business was complimentary to his. The established member seemed credible, was a network meeting facilitator in the local chapter, and was personal friends with the network group owner.
What eventually transpired was an ugly but educational story where the other party extracted as much information as possible about my acquaintances business, and used that to add a new division to their own business. This new division wound up being competition for my acquaintances business.
It was hard not to see the whole thing as premeditated, but ultimately nobody knows for sure. The networking group owners were made aware of what took place and seemed quite indifferent, saying things like “that’s business,” and “business is survival of the fittest,” ”you will be better business person as a result,” or “you live and learn.”
Interestingly, there are many networking groups that encourage small business owners and entrepreneurs to share their business ideas with the group so the group can help them. Personally, I think this is a very naive and risky way to conduct business. My more experienced business owner clients have said they would never brainstorm a new business or marketing strategy at a Chamber of Commerce, Rotary or business networking meeting.
Business is a challenge, and that’s the fun part. There will be many times when you will need to share ideas with a wide range of people if the business is to advance. We need to understand this and also accept there’s never really any one sure-fire way of keeping our ideas 100% safe. Particularly as it gets closer to the day we start rolling our business out in the market place. But we can be wise and take certain precautions. I think we owe it to ourselves to play smart and do everything in our power to protect our ideas as best we can – because that idea may be ‘the one.’
Here are some basic tips that may get you thinking of ways to protect your business ideas.
1 - Remember we’re most vulnerable and exposed in business when we are a new business hatchling.
2 - Remember to be wise with who we share our idea with – the simplest idea may have serious dollar value to someone else’s business.
3 - Remember advisors, coaches and the professional services you engage are in business to make money, and some may be con men and women. Although not all highly charismatic and personable people are con men and women, most con men and women are charming, highly charismatic and personable.
4 - Remember marketing and business planners are paid to generate new ideas – make sure those ideas don’t come from you!
5 - Remember contracts and TOS won’t get your idea back once it’s out of the bag. And it takes a truckload of money to sue somebody. People who will take your ideas have usually already calculated in advance the risks of being sued by you.
6 - Don’t use free online business planning templates that promise you a free business plan if you submit your business idea information. Yes, many promise to email your plan through to you in a professionally structured format. But you don’t know who might be reading or copying your IP on the other side? It’s worth paying for business planning software. It’s very affordable and you’ll have peace of mind knowing the information is safely in your own computer until you’re ready to roll your idea out. Remember, just because someone offers something for free, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to cost you.
7 - When you have a new business idea, only share it with reputable people. Reputable people have skin in the game and
something big to lose if they breach your confidence.
Have your Non-Disclosure and Non-Compete agreements signed and witnessed before you go into any great detail. If you think you have a multi-million dollar idea, and you are willing to back the idea with your own time and resources, you would want to be careful, wouldn’t you?
Be aware: contracts can’t always protect you, although it’s always better to have one signed than not.
Be wise and take precautions. In business we owe it to ourselves to play smart and do everything in our power to protect our ideas as best we can – because that next idea may be ‘the one.’
-
How do you protect your business or creative ideas?
Have you ever had any business, marketing or creative ideas stolen?
If so, how did that impact on you or your business?
-
The Importance Of Being Earnest – With Your Business Ideas
Copyright Gaye Crispin 2012
=
Gaye Crispin has a Debt Collection and Credit Management Agency in Sydney, Australia. Gaye hears many gruesome business stories from her clients, analyses them, tries to learn from them, and sometimes blogs about them.
Here’s What I Think About ‘Acres Of Diamonds’
Posted: April 6, 2011 Filed under: Acres of Diamonds | Tags: acres of diamonds, business, gaye crispin, russell h conwell 12 Comments »
Here’s what I think about ‘Acres Of Diamonds’
Have you read Russell H Conwell’s classic talk, ‘Acres Of Diamonds?’ Are there acres of unmined diamonds in your business right now, but you’re too busy or blinkered to recognise it? How do you know you’re not sitting on an invisible million dollar business revolution? How many business trends have you recognised as obvious…. with hindsight?
I see many businesses that are facing hardship, where I can immediately see invisible opportunities which can transform into instant profitability. A retired multi-millionaire I worked for years ago loved to tell the story of how he acquired his fortune.
He’d had acres of diamonds embedded in his labour-intensive-barely-making-ends-meet business…., that was until his wife made two simple suggestions that, in hindsight, were obvious.
Her ideas were to create bundled packages and charge cash-up front. He was opposed and reluctant. “It’s not industry standard” and “ the customers won’t pay” were his initial responses.
After many arguments and much protesting he did as his wife suggested… and yes, you guessed it! It proved to be dynamite for their cash-flow. The fact that no-one in their industry had ever done it before wound up being their greatest edge.
As it turned out, their paying customers didn’t give a hoot about the change, and the plan worked brilliantly. And by the way, the market was the school and sports photo market.
Prior to this fellow implementing his wife’s ideas, the school and sports club photo industry fundraiser payment system was based on every child in the school, or every sports player in the club, being photographed first. The photos were produced and sent home for parents to keep on the condition that they sent the payment back to the school.
If the parents didn’t like or want the photos they were expected to return the photos to the sports club or school, and there was no charge.
The problem was that some parents not only didn’t pay, many also didn’t return the photos either.
This resulted in a huge amount of waste and loss for the photographer. And as he said to me, he had no use for any of the returned photos anyway. His labour, production and waste costs were through the roof prior to implementing his wife’s ideas.
If we look at what he did, he really didn’t make any great changes to his business or system. Actually, his staff wound up doing less work, and there was zero waste as all photos were already pre-paid.
The changes didn’t require having to buy anything, lease any more space, and yet it added multiple 000′s to his bottom line. All he had to do was face the market with determination, and then put his plan into action. Another positive spin-off was that the schools and sports clubs found it easier to deal with his business because they were no longer caught in a cross-fire between the shortfall in monies owed by parents to the photography company over non-returned photos. And the phographer knew that he’d received all payments for his photos from the school.
As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for all the other players in his industry to follow his lead.
His business became so wildly successful that he dominated the market for decades and eventually sold for it for millions of dollars. He was able to retire early, build his dream home, pursue all of hobbies and live happily ever after.
My question for you is: what small, simple ideas have you been thinking about but are reluctant to implement for fear of the market kicking back? My suggestion to you is: if you want to try something new but are somewhat fearful then test in on a small market segment first.
Or, if you’re short on ideas of how to mine for possible Acres of Diamonds in your business why not have a wild and fun-filled brain-storming bbq or supper with some friends where you jointly plumb the depths of your mutual creativity with a no-holds barred, any-ideas-a-good-idea attitude? You may be happily surprised with what you’ll unearth.
For those who haven’t read Russell H Conwell’s classic talk, ‘Acres Of Diamonds’ click here to read the full text which will help you explore the idea in detail. I hope you enjoy the read.
Have you ever read ‘Acres Of Diamonds’? Have you ever discovered an opportunity that had been lying dormant in your business - one that you’d never noticed previously? Were you looking for it when you found? How did you find it? Have you ever known anyone who walked away from a project or business because it seemed to have no potential, and who regretted it later?
Here’s What I Think About Brainstorming…The Power Of Many Eyes And Ears
Posted: April 3, 2011 Filed under: The Power Of Brain-Storming | Tags: brain-storming, business, collaborative, gaye crispin, seminars, small business 4 Comments »The Power Of Many Eyes and Ears
I often attend speaker conferences and seminars to gather ideas to grow my business, and I always try to not ‘go-it-alone.’ Not because I don’t like going to these events alone… because I actually do. I’ve always enjoyed being independent, free to come and go as I please, and could very easily travel through life alone. But I’ve learned it’s not such a smart idea in business.
You see, I don’t know enough.
Due to my own personal life-experiences, blind-spots, Prejudices-I-Don’t-Know-I-Have, and many more of my thousands of human limitations, I realise I can only take in so much, see so much, hear so much, and understand so much… at any given time.
And yet we still think we can take it all in… NOW!
How often have you read a book or watched a movie, and after discussing it with someone else who did the same, you caught sight of whole new perspectives that your heart, eye, brain and ears just would never ’get’ if left to their own devices?
Life has taught me that in trying to be different, expand our business, and extend our support community we’ll travel much further much faster if we have more than just our one set of eyes taking in the landscape. To think otherwise is extremely narcissistic.
If you’re like me, you hate to miss any of the good stuff, and want all that every situation has to offer.
Next time you’re watching a webinar, or reading a business or life book why not invite somebody else to do the same with you? And agree to create a brainstorming alliance during or after.
Or why not take someone else along with you to the next information session or seminar you’ll be attending? Someone who you can trust with your ideas, who will brain-storm and collaborate with you, and perhaps who also thinks and sees the business world differently to you.
I can assure you that by inviting other people to share experiences with you such as books, webinars, information and events that apply to your business, you will:-
- see further with greater clarity
- increase the peripheral vision of your business brain
- hear more and grasp more of the context and content
- understand author/speaker finer points in greater detail
- experience a greater awareness and knowledge of the subject
- generate stronger ideas afterwards
- create greater possibilities for improving your business
By adding in a brainstorming, collaboration, and de-briefing component afterwards you are, in effect, maximising your own thinking.
On the other hand, if you’re completely comfortable in the knowledge that you already know-it-all, have the brightest mind, keenest insight, and couldn’t possibly benefit from anyone else’s input, then this blog probably isn’t for you, and I’m left wondering why you bothered to read it in the first place.
So, are you a lone-ranger? Or are you a collaborative brain-stormer?
I’d love to hear how you maximise information-gathering from your reading. And also, what measures you take to ensure you capitalise on the events you invest time in watching and attending.
PS. Feel free to email me if you’d like to include my eyes and ears in the next event you’re attending, or article or book you’re reading.
Here’s What I Think About Bank Managers Pt1
Posted: March 15, 2011 Filed under: Bank Managers | Tags: bank manager, banking, business, business banking, business finance, gaye crispin, small business, small business support, support, women on top business planning Leave a comment »Here’s What I Think About Bank Managers. Pt1
What’s Your Bank Manager’s First Name?
I was having a discussion recently with a bank manager I was seated next to at an event. She said she found it odd that the only time people sought her out was when looking for a loan, or when they were in trouble with the bank.
What’s you bank manager’s first name? Have you ever asked your bank manager out for a cup of coffee? If not, why not?
Getting to know your local business banker or bank managers is one of the smartest things people in business can do. Bank managers are a very important cog in the operation and growth of many businesses, and therefore have many eyes that your business can benefit from.
Your business banker or local bank manager can be one of your greatest business assets. Especially when you’re just starting out, because initially you’ll need as many experienced sounding boards, and as much good advice as you can get.
Bank managers and business bankers are often completely under-valued as the true business assets they are.
A good local bank manager or business banker is probably more ‘in-the-know’ with what’s going on within your local business community than anybody. They have their finger well and truly on the pulse in relation to much of what’s happening in your business industry or community.
Your bank manager will bring a wide range of business knowledge, experience, assistance, support, connections and resources to your new or existing business to help it grow – if you ask for their help.
There are very few people as well connected and ‘in-the-loop’ within a business community than a local business banker. And even fewer who are qualifed, and willing, to sit with you and discuss the important issues your business is facing – at no charge.
I truly believe that business bankers and bank managers are the most under-valued business partners in the small business community, and that this could be either the result of never having it suggested, or it’s from having a ‘small business’ mindset. Just look at all the large, successful businesses and you’ll see that their relationships with their banks and lenders are some of their most valued relationships.
If you have plans to grow a strong, profitable business, then your bank manager is one of the first people you should be connecting with. Business growth and bank managers have a long-standing history and connection. Just look at the top-end of town to see if what I’m saying is true.
You never know, it could be the beginning of beautiful relationship that provides insight, connections, intelligence and support as your business grows.
To be continued……..
Gaye Crispin
Founder
Women On Top Business Planning
Here’s What I Think About Business Coaches: Part 1.
Posted: March 11, 2011 Filed under: Navigating the "Business Coach' Maze | Tags: business, business coach, business coaches, business coaching, business coaching standards, coaching industry, gaye crispin, small business, women on top business planning 2 Comments »Here’s What I think About Business Coaches – Navigating the ‘Business Coach’ Maze: A business coach dialogue. Part 1.
Are you confused about how to find a great business coach? Does the world of business coaching ever have you befuddled and confused? Do all business coaches appear to “look the same, sound the same and blog the same” to you? If so, then welcome to the “I’m Confused about Business Coaches Club.” My name is Gaye Crispin, and I’m the current President of this Club.
I’ve been looking at the world of business coaching as an outsider, and I’m seriously questioning everything I see and read.
My goal is to source innovative and original coaches, who are at the forefront of their game, to refer my clients to. If a coach isn’t occupying that space in their industry, how can they help my clients occupy that space in their industry. Sound too simplistic? Why does it? Sound heretical or offensive? That’s a shame, because it’s not.
I’ve recently been on a journey to try to discover what makes for a good business coach, and how to identify them.
This is an important journey for me. If I’m going to recommend any person or service to my clients, friends or associates I need to be 100% confident that the people I’m recommending are up to delivering a superior quality product or service that’s in line with my own.
While trying to identify good business coaches I’ve trawled through possibly hundreds of coaching blogs and posts, and guess what I’ve discovered? Most of them say the same thing, just in slightly different ways.
That was useful in establishing what coaches obviously consider are important points, but too many of these blogs were too similar.
That alarmed me and raised issues in my mind concerning originality of content:-
- Are the similarities simply unoriginal thinking? If I suspect so, then I won’t refer that coach.
- Are many of these blogs and websites simply ‘copy, cut and paste’ from other people’s blogs and manuals? Well, I’m certainly not recommending those.
- Are some of these ‘coaches’ actually students in training, working through similar coaching material? I suspect so.
This type of thing is common in many unregulated industries…but in business coaching too? Unfortunately, it would seem so.
That could mean the coach may only ever be just one step ahead of the client, if we’re lucky. Now that’s a worry! It seemed the more I read, the more I was seeing re-shuffled wording taken from someone’s hard work. But whose?
So how are we, who don’t have the inside running on this unregulated industry, supposed to know how to locate the real McCoys in this high-dollar ‘Sea-of-Sameness?’ I’m still not 100% sure, but a picture is emerging.
With any unregulated industry, and particularly business coaching, where anybody can open shop we need real disclosure:-
- Real disclosure on their business and coaching experience, and
- Real disclusure on their client testimonials and success stories, and especially before paying over enormous coaching fees, or investing any time and/or money based on their leadership or ideas.
We need legitimate successful coaches to lead the way in providing greater transparency in relation to their own results and claims to fame.
We, the consumers, have a right, and a duty to ourselves to investigate the validity of the claims of testimonials made on a website or blog. We need to begin to investigate them thoroughly.
The business coaching industry owes us the truth if it expects any small business to pay multiple thousands of dollars for a brief meeting/weekly phone-call/webinar service… which doesn’t guarantee tangible returns.
I believe this industry needs a regulatory body, and there needs to be consequences for false and misleading advertising.
Currently, the business coaching industry seems to be writing its own rules.
Apparently a good coach charges quite a few hundred dollars an hour, which is fine if they achieve superior results. But we need to remember that’s a highly professional fee, and is as much as a good lawyer charges.
Plus, a good lawyer studied for years, had to qualify in a very heavily regulated field, work their way up the ladder, continue with professional development, and abide by certain scales of fees according to their experience and expertise.
From what I’ve been able to gather, many coaches have just come out of nowhere after failing in a business or two, read a few books, set up a coaching practice, created some testimonials or had their friends write them, and began charging an ‘industry standard’ of a few hundred dollars an hour. And it seems many in the industry know this, are quite happy for this to remain the case, and are quite happy to remain silent about it as well.
But it’s we, the consumers, who pay the price for any incompetence, and also for this conspiracy of silence, because we are none the wiser of the real quality of a particular coach till after we’ve paid. Surely this alone needs addressing. With so many small businesses struggling, and failing, I’m hoping there’s no correlation between that and the sea of green coaches I’m hearing about. I know from my own business and experience that my clients who have coaches are just as troubled as the ones without coaches, or they wouldn’t have called us.
Then there are the so-called ‘testimonials.’
Testimonials are traded like cattle everyday of the week. Don’t rely on them! Whenever we see testimonials for a coaching service that don’t provide contact details, these need to be seriously drilled down into and questioned before doing business.
If no satisfactory answer is forthcoming, these testimonials should be dismissed as fabrication, rubbish, and the coaching service dismissed as questionable.
Coaches, please name names and businesses.
How often do we see and hear coaches telling us how well their clients are doing? Sorry coaches, I want proof. I want to see the history: the before and after. A lawyer can’t falsely claim to have won a case they lost, and remain lawyer. A financial advisor has to ensure everything they advise is supportable.
Business coaches are actually in the business of influencing people . If there is an incompetent coach influencing business decisions, and even controlling business owners thinking, currently it doesn’t look like they can be held accountable or responsible if the business goes belly up. This seems wrong, and is another reason why I think the industry needs a thorough overhaul.
Any coach who is advising, guiding, influencing (call it what you like) people in business should have to measure up to some agreed minimum standard. And there needs to be consequences. One ‘cowboy’ can do a heck of a lot of damage in a short period of time. I repeat, I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t a correlation between the sea of coaches out there and number of businesses in serious trouble. Poor coaching is a serious cash-flow drain on any business, but would be a killer for an already struggling business.
The coaching industry really appears to have no rules to abide by other the ones they agree on amongst themselves.
We need to be aware of that, and demand that when coaches offer testimonials as evidence of their expertise, which is usually all they have to offer, that they can back up these success stories with legitimate bottom-line, actual results.
We have a right to insist on seeing the business figures of their clients, signed off by the accountant, if a coach is using such client success stories in their marketing materials (or face-to-face) to try to win our business.
Mr or Mrs Coach, I need to know that the results you are telling me you achieved are true, and that they came about as a direct result of your coaching. I want to see something concrete before I hand over $1,000, $10,000 or $25,000 a year to you. This is not too much to ask.
I would happily recommend any coach who was able to support his or her claim of their coaching being directly responsible for doubling a small businesses bottom line in a year. Hey, I’d probably even engage the coach myself.
But you don’t always get what you pay for – and especially in business coaching.
I know this because of some of my clients horror stories with business coaches… which is why I embarked on this journey in the first place.
I heard one horror story where a young graphic designer, whose business was obviously failing, bought a coaching franchise for around $25K, hung out her shingle and began selling her coaching services. A woman I know engaged her services based on how impressed she was with the information on the parent company’s website.
The monthly coaching fee was $2,000 a month, and she was locked into a 12 month contract.
This coach missed their first appointment and didn’t call to re-schedule. There was no 7 day cooling-off period in the contract so the client couldn’t get out of the contract. Another appointment was set and the ‘coach’ missed this appointment too. That wasted 2 weeks of the client’s first month into the contract.
I suggested she take her complaint to the top, which she did.
In trying to explain away and excuse this young coaches unprofessional conduct the area manager of the franchisees explained that this girl was new to coaching: had no experience: had been a graphic designer: was young, etc etc. This is appalling. Why didn’t they tell the client this in the first place?
This franchisor’s policies are appalling, irresponsibly signing up ‘just anyone’ who has $25K to spend and a franchise, and not subjecting them to serious, qualified training.
There are many more horror stories I could share but I won’t. What I will say is this, I’m determined to understand how this industry operates, and how to identify a good coach.
If you’ve been searching for a good business coach, and my words resonate with you, I’d love to hear from you.
If you are a good business coach, and can help me understand how to identify and qualify a good business coach, I’d love you to leave a comment and share that information with us.
Next week I’m uploading a dialogue I had a couple of weeks ago with a few coaches. It was a very interesting conversation that touched on a few of these points, so I hope you’ll stay tuned.
