Business and Money Tips

As we know, nothing happens by itself and everything has a cause and an effect.  This causality is explained as Dependent Origination, which means that  something is always depending on something else, and without the origin of something, something will not happen .   The reason is nothing is absolute or permanent.  Everything is relative and impermanent.  Nothing exists on its own, but arises from something else.  Things continue to exist and transform owing to the  coming together and dissolution of factors .  This natural law can be simply stated as:  When A arises, B comes to be.   When A does not arise, B does not come to be. Similarly, when A ceases to arise, B ceases to come to be. In short,  without A, there is no  B.  With A, there is B.  So this explains where your business come from.   Understand that there are  multiple causes , i.e., many As and Bs.  All these factors interact wit...

You wouldn't believe this: as much as 60% of small and medium enterprises are struggling to survive in Singapore when the economy is growing at 3% to 4% this year.  In fact not just SMEs some bigger companies (including MNCs) are also doing badly.  People often asked me: are there ways to turn around this? Companies that do well usually exhibit the following 6 attributes: They treat their staff well, not just in salaries but also in development and opportunities for growth They allow people space , i.e., they don't squeeze until the last drop of juice.  They make sure people work hard but are not workaholic They invest in marketing and sales , for they know that having the best products will not sell unless the selling and marketing are good They tapped into the expertise of outside vendors, like trainers and consultants.  They use their expertise often and multiply their intelligences multi-fold They are not in sunset industries (e.g. traditional printin...

Read 'How to Add Value When Your Price is Higher' at here As we know, the world cannot live without selling. Yes, we can live without the internet and smartphones but ultimately someone must sell something for the ball to start rolling.  Selling is defined as the offering to exchange an item of value  for a different item.  The original item of value being offered may be either tangible or intangible.  The second item being exchanged must be seen by the seller as being of equal or greater value than that being offered for sale, otherwise there is no exchange.  Of course the second item are mostly money but it can also be another item, tangible or intangible.  If you sell something in exchange for something other than money, it is called barter trade. The 7 most common types of selling that we teach in our sales courses include Attraction Selling, Team Selling, Consultative Selling, Relationship Selling, Action Selling, Hard or Push Selling and Heart...

Either you fire them up you'll have to fire them is at here My background in retail sales since the tender age of 5 has taught me one important lesson: never take anything for granted.   Never believe anything at first instance, not even your own percep tion. Whether you're dealing with staff, candidates, voters, suppliers, contractors, customers, children or bosses, the first step to getting anything done is to understand your customer .  Customer here refers to people you're serving now, which could anyone of the preceding statement.   To understand your customer, you must open your mind fully to what he says and how he says it .  To do this, you must go beyond your own experience, knowledge and skills.  You must get confused.  When you are confused, you will seek clarification, and you will ask questions.  Like, "What does that mean?  Why is he doing that?  What's going on?"  That's confusion! Confusion is a state of learni...

Many courses teach people to communicate well, have good teamwork and be efficient in their work.  There are many trainers that teach employees to take initiative and how to work smarter, not just harder.  Some bosses requested that employees must be trained to be high contribution employees or they're just a cost, not a value contributor. To train your people to be high contribution employees, you need to equip them with the following skills: How to think the right and only way - value add, not just work Working well as a team , especially coping with colleagues that are slower or faster than you The do's and don'ts of contributing more to your employee Six ways to boost profits or value of your employer:  Increase sales, Lower Cost, Increase Productivity, Improve Cash flow, Reduce risks and Improve Profit Margins Creating Sustainability in your efforts - how to de-stress and re-energize How to Get More Customers and Get Customers to Buy More  without...

This parking charges appear to be cheap when in fact it is dear An irresistible offer is one offer where no one can resist it, unless you are the seller. There are 7 ways to create an irresistible offer without dropping your price: Relief - frighten people first with a higher price, then announce your price, which is so attractive that it gives people instant relief  State in the smallest term - per half-hour instead of per hour, per second instead of per day Huge benefits - where the benefits are so huge that any price will be considered ridiculously low. Like our courses where you can get PIC 60% cash back , plus guarantee on results Alleviates Pain and Satisfies a Deep Desire - The deeper the pain and the desire, the better. That’s because all good offers are emotionally driven. People don’t buy things for logical reasons — even the most logical purchases include some driving emotional reason underneath Social Proof - based on results and testimonials of others. ...

Everyone says the best leadership is leadership by example. So I see some bosses go all the way down to the ground, and many even below the ground.  They work, suffer and toil as hard as the workers.  Some think that leadership by example means the boss accepts the same pay as the staff.  Others say that the leader has to arrive at the office earlier than everyone and leaves later than everyone. There are some who assert that a leader is leading by example when he is there to solve all the team's problems and assumes all blames. If the above principles of leadership by example is true, who wants to be a leader?  The leader is the worst of all, he suffers the most and enjoys the least.  No wonder many people in Singapore are afraid of stepping up as they fear leadership by example.  Truth be told, leadership by example is none of the above.  If you follow great leaders like Genghis Khan, Steve Job and Sun Tzu, you'll realize that leadership by exa...

As I learnt from Master Hsing Yun: A loser is one whose passion lasts only five minutes.  A winner is one whose passion lasts through the final five minutes. When it comes to business, many define making money as success and losing money as failure.  Scientists define success as proving a theory.  When Argentina lost the World Cup to Germany, some called Argentina losers as they believe that the winner takes it all and the loser stands to fall.  At least the above beliefs are still better than those who believe success of failure lies in geomancy, destiny, supernational power or some other people's bad intentions.  In reality the condition of achieving success or failure lies in us - whether we are fully competent or not.  The businessmen who does market research thoroughly has rich capital resources coupled with good opportunities will undoubtedly yield good profit.  A staff that is well trained who works diligently and passionately with a ...

A good manager or leader is one that  makes people work hard, not make people's work hard .  Working hard is indeed a virtue, but in today's world of smartphones and smartness, many equate working hard to be not working smart.  This mistaken belief arises because most people treat work as drudgery and an necessary evil.  If you treat work as enjoyment and play, you would work hard because working is playing .  Understand that working hard is actually diligence, but it is not blind diligence, which is simply being a workaholic and work hard until work becomes very hard.  Those who know will tell you that  if you really work hard, work is not hard at all but very easy .  Those that find work hard are those that are not working hard enough to find the joy in their work. There are 7 situations that you too can work hard and yet have an joyous time: You work on your Passions , whereby every working minute is actually passionate and full ...

With government giving 60% cashback or 400% tax deduction under the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit), it is a no brainer to send your staff for training.  However, many people are holding back not because they don't see the value in training, but they are afraid that the staff will not apply the learning in the workplace.  In short, they still can't see the tangible benefits of training.  Truth be told, unless you do the right steps, most staff will not apply learning to the workplace .  This is because most people see training as a welfare and not a part and parcel of their work.  In fact many bosses do not even do post-training review, and if there is no such review, why would the staff bother to apply the learning?  The following are the 4 Right Steps to Apply Learning in the Workplace: Before the training , let the staff know that the training is intended to make their life better, not just life at work.  Let them be aware that what...

Are you a good boss?  Given a chance, would your employees want to work for you?  Most importantly, are you able to make people better than themselves, or make people better for just yourself?   Make no mistake: the best bosses could also be bad bosses at times.  The key to being a good boss is how to Be the best, and learn from the Worst .  Taken from our all-time best-seller new course How to Be a Great Boss and books from Robert I Sutton, there are 5 things that you have to do: Don't Crush the Bird .  Managing people is like holding a bird in your hand.  If you hold it too tightly, you'll kill it. But if you let loose, you'll lose it.  Indeed managers that are too aggressive will damage relationships and managers that are too passive and not assertive enough will get people climb over their heads.  Like salt in a dish, too much will overwhelm the dish; too little is similarly distracting; but just the right amount of salt will lea...

Just changed your smartphone and want to quickly transfer all your data like Contacts, Messages, Photos and Music from one phone to another?  Whether you're switching from Samsung to iPhone or from Samsung to iPhone, download this app called "Smart Switch" and you can easily transfer files in just 3 simple steps: Activate Smart Switch app on both devices Select what you want to send from one device to another Send the data and check on the receiving device if everything is in order How about transferring of learning, whether from training courses or from teachings from experienced staff?  Just follow the following 3 simple steps: Make sure both have the same software, which in this case means both must have the same mindset.  Like in our courses How to Be a Better Manager and Sales Power , we told the participants at the beginning of the course that the only mindset to have to ensure you can transfer learning to the workplace is " Just Do It ".  To m...

In dealing with difficult people, you wonder if the strategy of service from the heart ever works.   Indeed there are 10 kinds of difficult people and they include: Slumper: Person who doesn't care anything ('bo chap' in Singlish) Dumper: People who offloads tasks and dirty work to you all the time Jumper: One who has no scruples, takes credit for others' work and is a 2-headed snake Grumper: People who complains ALL THE TIME and impossible to please Bumper: People who takes kudos when all goes well but blames mistakes on others Trumper: Always has to have the first and last word and be one step ahead of everyone else Thumper: Bullies and intimidates others and gets his own way by being aggressive Demander: Customer who demands 200% and yesterday's delivery for today's last minute order Smiling Tiger: One who laughs at others and pretends to give you a helping hand, only to stab you from behind Sabo King: ...

I realized from our How to Be a Better Manager  and Sales Power  courses that most people need a shortcut on the 5 most important concepts at work.  They are now summarized as follows: 1.  Customer Service Customer Service is not about niceties or doing everything to please the customer.  It is also not about over-servicing until the business makes a loss.  Services that are way beyond your core business are not considered customer service but  entertainment service .   Successful companies will tell you that customer service is nothing but  s olving customer's problems and make them feel good  with a profit .   It is about  service from the heart and not serve from head to toe.  2.   Teamwork Many people thought that if the staff get along well with little conflicts, teamwork is good.  Some people even think that if they go for offsite teambuilding training, teamwork will be improved automatically. Ther...