Is it really Business?
Over the last few weeks we have been undergoing change.
- Change in address.
- Change in philosophy but no change to vision or purpose
Passionate Purposeful Performers Learn
- Change in operational methods
- Change in ideas and positions.
Several things sparked this change.
The researching of “Stop the Success Thieves” and the writing of the book. The interviews around the book but more importantly looking at a new direction for our life by undertaking the Rich Dad Poor Dad Real Estate Coaching Program.
Now in looking at the program, two things stood out:
- The concept of Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad’s Guide to Financial Freedom
- And the systems required by every business for optimal efficiency.
In looking at the systems one thing we found – we are great at implementing them in other businesses, just remiss in implementing them in our own. So that changes NOW!
Want to know the key systems a BUSINESS needs?
Broadly they are
- Daily Office Operations Systems – need to do every day things like phone, mail, email, managing orders and delivery
- Product Development Systems – those things that you need to do to ensure you legally have products to sell
- Manufacturing and Inventory Systems – even in today’s online information products, what happens when your website goes down?
- Order Processing Systems – how do you take and fulfill orders
- Billing and Accounts Receivable Systems – unless you get the money in, your business will fall over
- Client Services Systems – what happens if there is a problem/
- Accounts Payable Systems – you need to pay your bills
- Marketing Systems – Finding out what people want and telling them you have it
- Human Resources Systems – getting the right people working for you
- General Accounting Systems – keeping track and paying taxes
- General Business Systems – how and why you do business
- Physical Space Management Systems – even virtually, people need to work somewhere and have the tools to work.
To find out more get yourself a copy of Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
So yes self employment is great but to move to a business person and investor, we are upping the game. The idea here is to share the journey and help you become more successful too
To your future
Roberta Budvietas
How to use Blogging to turn Ideas into $$$$s
Blogging helps you turn your ideas into $$$$s.
Blogging is a promotional tools that allows you to tell the story about your idea and still ask for the order. It is usually a subtle form of advertising but more importantly what it offers your reader is the opportunity to connect with you and see you as a person interested in helping them solve their problem.
In a blog, you can tell stories of how your product or service works. You can show video, do podcasts or just provide information that helps build a relationship. But a powerful tool for blogging is learning to Guest Blog. 
Over the last few months, I have been learning the importance of Guest Blogging from Jon Morrow.
Guest blogging can take several forms:
- You can be invited to guest blog. I have been privileged to guest blog with wonderful people like Lynn Brown of Learn It 2 Earn It plus several other Facebook friends.
- This usually means that your friend believes your content will be benefit their readers.
- You can volunteer to write blogs for your friends if your content fits their content and then they invite you to contribute.
- You can join sites that allow you to share unique blogs.
- Ask to guest post. There are dozens of posts on the market that depend on guest posters to post on their blog. Jon Morrow is one of the most successful in teaching how to do this. You can find out more by clicking the link at the side.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- Submit posts just as you would articles. While this is strictly not guest blogging, if someone searches Squidoo or Mashable and finds your blog then it has the same effect as a guest post just less directed and focused. You can submit your post to groups and if your headline is good enough or your friends are helping you, they will share your post, comment on your post or just generally help build your credibility. In 2009, I joined a group on Facebook that helped me take the blogs on Get out of Stuck Excel from an Alexa ranking of 5 million to under 1 million. Unfortunately since then, it has gone back up to over 1 million. (But working on that).
Why Guest Blog?
Thousands of blogs are posted EVERY HOUR of the day. Take a look at some of the infographics on Pinterest to see some of the infographics and numbers, especially the content Marketing Explosion Infographic.
This blog’s readership grows every day but blogs like Firepole Marketing, Copyblogger, Problogger or Stepcase Lifehack to mention just a small number grow even more because a blog with thousands of followers has a bigger pool to pull followers from.
“Some Simple Math”
1% of 100 blog readers = 1 new follower
1% of 1000 blog readers = 10 new followers
1% of 10,000 blog readers = 100 followers for your blog.
Learn about Guest Blogging.
Blog on your own website.
Blog on organisational and association websites (but make sure you follow their rules).
TELL the WORLD about how your product or service Helps
Blogging is replacing many different off-line communication tools. Blogging allows you to tell your story and help people LOVE YOU or your product!
Blogging is one of the least expensive ways of testing an idea, promoting your idea and building the fan base to have people FOLLOW and BUY your products or services.
Will you blog today? In the comment box, promote your blog and I promise to comment on your blog link.
Enjoy today
Roberta Budvietas
When Delivery Stops, what do you do?
What happens when someone calls you about a problem they are having with a service you offer?
Do you think first of how the problem affects them or do you immediately get defensive or do you just try to fix the problem?
Does dealing just with the problem rather than the person actually help the client feel that you care? Does it build a relationship?
Technology Meltdown
During the last week we moved house. We set up all our technology and found that the internet provider had yet to set up the service because of a backlog so we waited two days for the internet and were told that we would receive a call to tell us the internet was up. The internet came online 32 hours later (40 hours after the phone went live) and four hours before the due time for the call that never came.
48 hours later, the internet was gone again. Now began hours of phone calls to find out that it appeared that the modem had died. Since the box was less than six months old, we could get a replacement within the next week. Yikes, a week without internet. So we went to buy another router. And after a few hours fiddling, and a couple of phone calls we were back online.
Now that Netgear router replacement can serve as a backup unit – oh wait, the paperwork to return it and get a new one has still not arrived. More phone calls required
The Frustration
Most people I know seem to expect things to work when they need them. When they plug in that new appliance or even the old one, they expect it to work. When they turn the key to start the car, they expect it to start. When they turn on their gadget, they expect it to work.
And when they fail to work, they expect to get help and support easily.
Training for Customer Service
The training of customer service people has come a long way but…they forget that there are emotions attached to the problem. Customer service training teaches staff to ignore the emotion and get the problem fixed. And then move on.
Customer service training says,”the problem’s solution is all that matters”.
And to a certain extent they are right.
But every problem has a person or people involved and people have emotions and they often feel pain and frustration because of the “failure” of the service.
Is there an alternative to “solving the problem”?
Yes and it lies in “what will the world be like when the problem is solved?” Keeping in mind what the vision is for the solution to the problem, can ease the frustration that seems to arise from the problem.
When you provide service, you build on the relationships that help you succeed in business. But you need to deal with the whole person. You find that people remember how they felt that the problem was solved rather than the fact that you solved it.
I may be wrong so in the comment box, please share what matters more to you – just getting the problem solved or getting the problem solved by someone who cares that you may be suffering some frustration, possibly even anger, because the problem occurred.
Have we become too PC to recognize that anger and frustration are emotions that affect us as much as love and warm fuzzy feelings?
Relationships take ideas to $$$$s
Roberta
Change mentor
Community Is Key
Why does community matter to businesses success?
There are several reasons but the biggest one relates to trust. We trust experts. We trust friends. We trust those who are in our circles of influence. And our circles are communities.
Have you observed that communities who experience a common event – an earthquake, a riot, a parade or a festival, react in a similar way for a time. The event brings people together in either joy or misery. While most events are only for a short time, a community attitude grows over time.
There are many studies that look at how a community attitude affects a workplace and success and how the way we perceive community affects our business
The other day I was working with a unique business whose owners were very tired. Their business was flagging and systems and processes that they once had in place were no longer being used. One of the two owners was concerned that they would miss out on opportunities if they made a statement about who they were. Now in the same community, another business owner was thriving because their attitude was to lead the pack and create something different.
How to use Community for your business
Every marketing book says find a need but if you only look at the individual you miss the real need – the community need. NLP teaches about our need for connection and separation but my perceptions says that separation is only comfortable if first you are connected. When you belong to a community, you can then afford to be different.
To succeed in business find the community need and then you can find the personal need.
For example, in education, the community needs certain skills – doctors, lawyers, social workers, political scientists, engineers, scientists, poets, IT specialists, refuse collectors etc. But on an individual level, the schools appeal to the nature of a person to study a certain set of subjects.
In health care, the community needs healthy people – accident free, disease free and mentally alert and yet everything the conventional and alternate medical fields deal with is problems, dis-ease, disaster, cancers and other growths that consume communities of people. Allergies, autism, depression, stress are identified every day by professionals and patients and the need that each “medical professional” attempts to meet is to cure or circumvent the “problem”.
The experts talk about building lists and affiliates to help you spread the word through their community. But the other day a colleague told me that engaged community was the secret to his success. And engaged communities mean people interacting with each other and the practitioner or business owner.
It means that collaboration and co-operation are becoming more essential for business survival.
We all know the saying - birds of a feather flock together but have you thought about who you have in your community?
And what are the community needs where your business is operating?
Are you trying to meet individual needs or the community needs?
Are you hanging out in a community of your peers or the community of your prospects?
Sometimes your peers will become clients but often your peers will see you as competition first and then only later as the source of assistance.
One last word on Community (for today)
Take a look at the community of the churches, the Network marketing companies, the cults and the country clubs. Can you see what they have in common?
Let me know in the comments about the communities you belong to and please share this blog with your community and see what they think.
Thanks for communing
Roberta Budvietas
Who do you trust?
Everyone talks about trust. Many people tell you to trust them because they are experienced or they hold the qualifications or they have the expertise. But who do you trust?
BUT trust is something you feel in your gut. Trust is something that happens or is destroyed by your experience of the situation.
Trust Sites
There are many trust sites-places that say this person or this deal is protected by some form of security.
But should we trust the trust sites?
Do you trust other people’s recommendations? Maybe recommendations help you make decisions but do you really trust them?
Or are you looking for the “red’s under the bed” as we used to say years ago.
Many people, because of their experience, trust no one. They see everyone out to rip them off. Everyone is out to destroy them or hurt them. And because that is what they think, they are absolutely right.
Would you allow a reference to stand that said you were incompetent? Maybe if the recommendation then said you fixed the job.
But we want others to see us in the best light. We only want to tell the world that we did good, not that sometimes we messed up and because of that we made mistakes. And when we made a mistake how did we handle it – blame, fix, refund or what exactly?
If you show me a perfect person, I will show you either God or someone who does NOTHING.
And someone who does nothing, why would we trust?
So who do you trust?
Politicians? Sales people? Your minister, preacher, teacher, doctor?
Yourself?
Your family? Your friends?
Everyone who you think is smarter than you? Everyone who you think knows more than you do? Everyone who you like?
Trust is subjective. Trust depends on many variables.
Small agreements
Many years ago, I learned the concept of small agreements. Trusting people who did the little things – arrived on time, kept their word, delivered on their commitments, put the toilet seat down, the cap on the toothpaste. People who intentionally acted in ways that did not stress me or annoy me. People who thought of me too when they acted.
Trust me. I always…
Well always is seldom possible. Always depends on too many external factors.
So in God we trust:
- - even when Sandi floods the basement,
- Katrina washes away the levies and wipes out our house,
- the earth quakes in Christchurch and liquifaction swamps the streets and your home,
- the ash of the volcano in Iceland grounds the planes for six days and you are unable to get home or away
- the tsunami in Japan, wipes out your cottage in Hawaii
- and so on…
Trust that this is the only moment you have. Trust that if you listen in your heart and gut you know the truth about the situation. And trust that this too shall pass so all you can ever do is your best. You can only keep your word and be the best you and be.
And then trust that this too shall pass.
In the comment, share what you trust? How do you trust others? And why should anyone trust you?
To your future
Roberta Budvietas
Maven Connect
CommentLUV
Guest Blogging with Jon Morrow
