Business and Money Tips

Over the past few days, I poured over 20+ pages at IRAS website and managed to sniff out the 7 changes to this PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) Scheme .  Know them and you'll be able to take advantage of them.   If you are ignorant, you will lose out at least $375,000 .  The 7 Key Changes are: PIC is now extended to 2017 (originally to end in 2014).  This means that companies have more time to plan and take full advantage of this very general and generous scheme; Cap for Tax Deduction claims are now increased from $400,000 to $600,000 a year, effective for years 2013 to 2017.  This new scheme is called PIC + .  For cash payout, the cap remains at $100,000 per year; Website design and creation, including the registration of domain names, now qualify for IT claims, also effective for years 2013 to 2017.  Note that Search Engine Optimization (SEOs) will also qualify for this if SEOs are done as part and parcel of website creation . This m...

In our training and coaching sessions, a question people often ask is: what is the first step to take if you want to improve your performance at work?  My answer is: Realize that Your Boss is Not Crazy. Many people often feel that they are not in control of their destiny at work and believe that it is their bosses that determine everything at work. Even if this is true (of course we don't for a moment believe in this), you can still control your fate at work.  Just start to realize that you are in control and you can do something about it. For example, you can improve your performance by becoming more efficient and more effective.   Efficiency is doing things right while effectiveness is doing the right things . You can put in more hours or even come back on Saturday/Sundays to clear the backlog .  Or you can take up some training to improve your skills, knowledge and attitude .  You can also seek help from your seniors. In fact there are countless of...

This small artist monopolised the entire Chinatown.  Yes, micro players can always monopolize the market if they do things differently.  Yes, a micro like You can become the Microsoft of your industry today.  This is because the market is not absolutely homogeneous and is heterogeneous, that is, each segment of the market is actually different.  Many small players do not realize this and make the mistake of following the market leaders blindly.  They end up with no business because customers would rather play safe and go with the leader than an unknown brand. The following are the 7 ways that any small player can monopolize the market easily: Do Things That Nobody Does .  Like NEXT Computer (1986 to 1998), it focused on the education market and avoided the rest of the market dominated by IBM-clones PCs powered by Microsoft's operating system.  In fact NEXT was so successful that Apple had to use up all its available cash to buy it over in 1998 to...

As an employee, it is your wish to earn more but work less this year. Otherwise, how are you going to improve your quality of life and work life balance?  Unknown to many people, it is possible to work less (really work less hours) but earn more (from promotion, bonus and incentives).  The following are the 5 most common ways that we teach to our clients: Higher Skills - either move up to management level or become even more specialized and be an expert in your work.  Higher skills also mean skills that are of higher demand , like leadership, sales and communication skills.  Studies in Australia show that if you attend at least 2 courses in a month (totalling 8 hours), your chance of getting a promotion in this year increases by 43%.  One of the fastest and free ways to acquire skills is to sign up for corporate training.  Your company will be happy to pay for them because they can get $15,000 cash under the PIC Bonus scheme.  Be More Skilful...

Mention the word training and most people would think of going back to school. Some will equate training to those long sessions into the nights where you would be challenged to do the impossible like cutting a cane with your neck.  There are some who think that training is for people who are not up to the par, high performers, they say, do not need training. Recently, most people know that training is a competitive tool to outsell your competition, for the government's PIC scheme gives 60% cash or 400% tax deduction for training. Yet we know deep inside use that the purpose of training is not the accumulation of knowledge and skills, but the use and application of such knowledge and skills to bring about change withi n us .  For when we change, then would our teamwork and organization change.  The teachings of trainers is to help us develop a good mindset so that we can think and act skilfully, not randomly.  Then the productivity and profits of the organizat...

In this age of high land cost and high staff cost, how can companies increase their sales at the least cost?  Are there proven ways that you too can win new customers effortlessly ?  By 'effortlessly', we don't mean without effort but things that you do with your heart that it seems like effortless , like when we update our status on facebook, watch videos on youtube and play games on iPad Air. There are 7 Ways that companies can win new customers effortlessly: Referrals , because what customers say are more believable than what salespeople say .  Referrals have 7 types: word of mouth referral, testimonials referral, word of social media referral, word of print referral, referral by action, referral by suppliers and referral by enemies.  Phone-Mail-Phone Marketing .  Yes, the Personal Data Protection Act, which takes effect on 1 Jan 2014, does not include marketing to companies.  That means that you can still market to companies via the phone but ca...

As we know, the job of a manager is to get the highest performance from its available people.  Bosses often expect managers to be coaching and guiding their team, and turn people with negative mindset into positive mindst.  In our courses , we teach the 8 Ways to Turn People from Negative into Positive Mindset as follows: Give Incentives, especially monetary incentives , for display of positive attitude.  This always work, even if the amount is small, because people appreciate such tokens Train them, coach them and educate them. If you cannot do this on your own, it makes sense to send them for external training Give them 2 choices , and let them know of the consequences of their choices.  People often prefer the positive attitude choice as they shun the negative consequences Peer pressure always work, for no one wants to be the odd one out.  Like in wedding dinners, peer pressure will turn non-drinkers into drinkers Assume that they are positive, and ...

Ambitious people tend to give people the impression that they are too focused on their own success and will manipulate others to achieve their own goals.  Many such people, including some poor salespeople, tend to look upon every transaction as an opportunity to make a sale and get out. On the other hand, Empathy people are those that have a long term perspective. They always think of others before thinking of themselves. They do not think of closing the sale as much as they think of opening long-term customer relationships. A good salesperson balances between ambition and empathy.  Because he knows that if he is too ambitious, he will frighten away customers; if he is too empathetic, he will not be assertive enough to ask for the sale. There are 5 ways that good salespeople balances between ambition and empathy: Ask Questions and Never Make Any Assumptions .  When you ask questions and listen to the answer, you put yourself into the other person's shoes. ...

Mention the word 'branding' and most people will only think of international brands like Facebook, Google and Apple. In reality, we are each a brand, as a brand simply means what you stand for. Today we may be a not-famous brand, but tomorrow we could be reaching out to people we never thought of before, as long as we build our brand in 5 easy ways: Know What We Stand For.  Yes, what we stand for are usually our deepest passion and innate desire to help others.  Like me AndyTheCoach, people know that I stand for coaching and teaching, for I gave up a high-figure Director post in a Japanese MNC 13.5 years ago to go into full-time coaching and training.   Do That Few People Do .  It doesn't need to be something big, all you need is that you don't do what others do and you dare to do what others don't do .  Like Steve Jobs in 1997, when he took over the interim CEO position in Apple Inc, he took just a $1 salary but asked for huge amounts of stock options...

As we know, making money, especially making plenty of money, is the goal of everyone. But because everyone is focused on making money, other things like environment, morals and health are ignored. Just look at the rapidly deteriorating air and noise pollution in cities like Beijing and Jakarta and you'll know what I am talking about. Today the corporate buzzword is "Making Healthy Money". Like what Jack Ma, the founder of www.alibaba.com and www.taobao.com says, making healthy money will also lead you to making more money in a sustainable way .  And when your health is better, you can make even more healthy money and so the vicious cycle goes up .  By the way, ' healthy' includes not just physical health, but also mental and spiritual health. Here are 5 Ways that You Too Can Make Healthy Money in Your Job or Business Now: Use computer systems and e-commerce systems to reduce wastages, improve communication and excess stock.   Reduce negative stress among ...

We all know how hard it is to find a  good boss.  If you happen to be one, you can do the following 5 things that will make all your  employees  want to work for you without remuneration: Believe in them .  This must be the biggest reward for any person, for we often see doubters but hard to find people who truly believe in us. You believe that they can do beyond what you’re seeing now, that they are self-directed and can be trusted at all times. Such strong faith will turn all ordinary employees into extra-ordinary employees. Train them . Yes,  training  is considered a luxury in many smaller companies but all big MNCs over-train people. The 3 most important skills that you should equip your staff include  communication skills ,  people management skills  and  leadership skills . You must train people without condition.   Do not demand that they must return the benefits to the company, for doing so is ...

In our management and sales courses, we use this famous 4-Step RAST Model to teach our trainees in problem solving. I shall use the case of Getting Your Team to Achieve Their Goals as an example: Step 1: Recognize the Problem Recognize that there is a problem, and don't be egoistic or pretend that there is no problem.  The problem here is that our team is not achieving the goals, and we must not accept this as norma l but recognize this as a problem. Step 2: Actual Reasons for the Problem We need to find out the Actual reasons for the problem, and not be blinded by some non reasons like opinions and 'everyone is doing this' type of excuse.  We must be thoroughly objective in finding out the actual reasons, and not be swayed by some subjective hearsay.  In this case study, we find out that the actual reason for the team not achieving their goals is a lack of competency and confidence. Step 3: Solutions for the Problem With the actual reasons out, we can pi...

* This article is taken from Scott Dinsmore, who has given permission to reproduce here. I am sure we've all surely heard of the 80/20 Principle, or Pareto's Law as it's more formally known. It goes like this: 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. 5 ways to apply the 80/20 Principle to enhance your life: 1. Do the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results Track all the time you spend on projects each hour of each day for a week. How many of these things were necessary? How many got you closer to your goals? How many were a waste of time? How many could someone else have done?  Pick the 20% of your tasks that yield 80% of the results and outsource or simply discontinue the rest. Wondering what to do with your remaining time? Enjoy life. 2. Locate the 20% of your customers who drive 80% of your profits and fire the rest. Yes, fire them. The goal is not to work your life away. It is to make a good living to enjoy your life. If you must work mor...

As we know, the job of a salesperson is not to sell but to create value for his customers. For only when he creates value for his customers that he will get real business for now and future . There are 4 Ways that a salesperson can create value for his customers: 1.  Let Customer See Problem that is Not Obvious Like they still use Windows XP, which will be phased out by Microsoft in 4 months time, after which there will be virus attacks that will not be protected by Microsoft updates. 2. Let Customer See an Opportunity that is Not Obvious Like it's not obvious that able to save 12% of their staff cost and increase 31% of their productivity if the customer can use the latest tools and techniques. Better still, the salesperson can provide training at no cost 3. Let Customer Be the First to Enjoy the Benefits  When you sell, you must sell on an exclusive basis, meaning other companies in the same industry of your customer will not get to enjoy the benefits of your...

To be meaningful, any change in life or in business has to be dramatic. Minor change is easy to accomplish but results in only minor differences. To increase the sales in your business by say 150% in three months will take massive changes in both your thinking and the way you do things. In order to HAVE anything in life we all recognise that we have to DO something to achieve it. If you want wealth you must invest. If you want love you must first give it. If you want respect you must earn it. No matter what you want, you need to DO in order to HAVE. But DOing is not the only thing you need to change in order to HAVE. You must BEcome the person who would have the things or persona that you desire. You must develop the identity, beliefs and values that the person who has those things has. We’ve all heard of the Lotto winner who, within three years, lost the several million he won. He didn’t become the “millionaire”. Let’s talk a bit about BEcoming. Everyone has an identity...

Over the weekend, I learnt a very powerful lesson from Simon Sinek at TED: the WHY HOW WHAT model of high performance   Most people are very good in explaining WHAT, like a manager telling his team member what are the things to do to get a job done right.   Many managers are even better in detailing the HOW, like all the SOPs and procedures to do the WHAT.   Almost no mangers bother to explain the WHY : the purpose and reason behind the reason for doing the task.  We all know that without a strong WHY, there is little push for a person to do a job well.  That’s why many people produce mediocre work: they just go through the motion and getting all the steps done right but you as a manager know that something is missing .   It’s the little thing that’s missing that is causing performance to be average and not great. That little thing is the WHY.   You sell, Apple's Steve Jobs did not go out to tell people what are its...

Sounds strange, isn't it? The first step to lead better is to recognize that you're Not a leader.  In fact you are not defined by any title you may have, e.g. Manager, Director, Specialist.  As a Leader, You Are NOT a Leader.  You Lead .  Short and simple.  If you keep thinking that you're a leader, you will miss out the important things in leadership, which is to be  alert to what's happening . You need to  listen well, know how are people feeling, and really get to the bottom of issues .  But you can't do this unless you get rid of the thinking that you are the leader.  You must not have the mistaken belief that you are your job. Because such thinking only clouds your thinking and distracts you from leading.  When you lead, you  let go of any self-ego   that you may have and you can be authentic, knowing who you are and where you are.  It's only when you are where you are that you will become more curious about oth...

Everyone spends two-thirds of their waking hours working, including commuting to work and talking and thinking about work issues even if they are off work.  It's thus paramount that people must be happy at work or life would be so miserable.   The sad truth is that happiness , like all phenomena, is impermanent. It lasts for only one moment : if the next moment doesn't have peace of mind, concentration and mindfulness, happiness will disappear.  Just talk to the man who was happily drinking and driving until an accident happen and you'll know what I'm talking about.   The happy truth is that since happiness is impermanent, it can be renewed . And it can be r enewed by anyone, at any time, at any where and everywhere .  Most of the time, renewal is costless.   All you need is to have the right thought.  The secret to happiness at work is to have renewals of happiness . Everyone has plenty of ideas how to renew happiness, like sing song...

Let me go straight: You need to Know What's Most Important so that you can focus your resources on this, otherwise you would be losing focus and getting less than what you want.  No matter what, don't turn back, just keep on moving forward... 1. If You're a Big Company (with more than 100 staff): ENTREPRENEURSHIP . The bigger the company, the less risk adverse are the people as most of them would be concerned with their own career rather than the company's growth. Also, the company's structure makes it difficult to do things that are outside the company's policies and procedures.  Hence most employees would play it safe and inside their comfort zone.  Thus the company's management would need to lead the staff in comfort zone to be more entrepreneurial, take risks and try different things.  Otherwise, the company would end up like Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola - all former top 3 in mobile phones now occupying less than 15% combined market ...

Sun Tzu in the Art of War stated that all war is based on deception.  Does he mean to cheat?  Of course not. What Sun Tzu means is that we need to adjust the enemy's perception so that 'when able to attack we must seem weak, and when weak must appear to be strong'. The reason is that people simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are, or the way they should be. Also, our attitudes and behaviours grow out of these assumptions.  In other words, we are not really seeing, but perceiving. Pick up the phone now and call your own company pretending to be a customer.  How are you treated?  If you are going to adequately manage other people's perception of your company you need to know what that perception is. This is not an exercise to catch people out but to find areas of improvement.  Like my seminar clients, you'll be surprised that the way your people answer the phone is not every business friendly! In business it is imperative...