Business and Money Tips

No need to go for counseling or motivational talks, just follow these 3 proven steps and you can improve the performance of anyone in this world, including yourself: 1. Find good now .  Regardless of how bad or good the performance is right now, say good things about it.   If currently, the performance is no good, say, "I feel that there is one more thing you want to do to be better, right?  By having this thought you are already better than many people". The will feel elevated that finally someone sees the good in him.  If he is doing well now, such praise is also welcomed The key is to do this sincerely and not just go through the motion 2. Ask if there is anything new that the person is attempting.   If none, say, "You are focused".  If there is something new, say you look forward to it 3. End your communication with another praise, the time round can be more specific and use the magic phrase, "I believe in You" The above has worked for myself and m...

"What is the number one result that you believe would bring you the biggest result in this year?" This is the question that I have, since 3 January 2017, asked my clients, this year. Not once but 7 times. People give me different answers, "I want to build my business to a new level this year", "I want to super-charge my career" and "I want to fire my boss" are the three most common answers so far. As the responses emerge, they reveal something important. Your answer to this question shows what you currently believe would give you your biggest return on investment (ROI) for the time, energy and money that you put in. I would next ask a powerful question, "Knowing what you know now, are you willing to break out of your comfort zone and do what is necessary to achieve the result you want this year?" This is where they will give me silence. Let's face it: most people are just living in dreams. They say they want something,...

Many managers and leaders, in their attempt to coach their people, often end up scolding or de-moralising them. If you are doing any the below 10 things, you are not coaching, but merely de-motivating people: Asking "What's wrong? " in a questioning tone Saying, " Let's talk" and look at them in a demanding way Offering your help , "Just see me any time you have problem" and then make yourself unavailable when they seek your help Asking Yes or No questions like, "Are you still in?" instead of asking questions that open up possibilities like "How do you find yourself inside this picture?" Becoming an expert and start giving advise before they ask for it Impatient, look at targets and nothing else Look at the negative side of things, like, "How come nobody volunteers?" and then start appointing people instead without giving people time to respond Picking up losers as examples Picking up winners as exam...

Yesterday my team member consulted me on what to do to close the 2 prospects that he has been following up with.  He asked me how to respond to their text messages.  I really got no time for him, so I simply replied, "Don't do anything". He was surprised, and when he called me, I simply asked him, "Is this really what you want?" That startled him, and he said that the 2 prospects are not really on top of his list. With that I get him to focus on prospects that are of higher quality, for this is the fastest way to increase his sales conversion. What I have just done is called coaching. It is for people that have no time. When you have time, you can slowly manage and teach him. But when you're short of time, coach instead. The most common way to coach is to ask questions, for questions will prompt the person to think for himself. That, to me is teaching people how to fish, rather than giving them th...

People in Singapore are willing to spend $3,000 to attend a 2-days course but unwilling to invest $300 for a 2-hour coaching session. Is coaching really just a MNC thing and local companies consider coaching as a waste of money?  In reality, people know the value of coaching, they just have not found the right coach... Common Questions and Answers on Coaching: 1.  What is the difference between coaching and mentoring ? To me, ignoring academic definitions, I go for the practical approach. Coaching and mentoring are the same except that the mentor is a person that is more senior, more knowledgeable and more experienced than the mentee. But a coach can know less than a coachee and still coach him. This is because coaching is not about teaching people what they don't know but digging out what they know and getting them to take action on what they know. For example, we all know about the benefits of regular exercise. So we don't need a coach to tell us why exer...

When your men come to you looking for answers to their problems, do you give them the fish or you teach them how to fish? When you give them the fish, they deprive themselves the chance to learn. Instead of leveraging on you, they rely on you. But when you teach them how to fish, they become leaders too. There are 5 ways to teach people how to fish: Look for obvious and most pivotal answers to problems . Don't beat around the bush trying to cure symptoms of problems. Instead go to the root of the problem and look for permanent solutions. Like the solution to sales is not to look for new prospects, but to improve your offering first Go for the kill, be daring and go all the way . Most followers like to do things step by step. But leaders know that it is more productive to take a few steps forward at one go than to take one step at a time and lose momentum along the way. Like in sales, the 3 steps to take to get more customers are to prospect more, prospect deeper and prospect ...

Successful managers use a very effective management tactic that wins people over easily. This tactic is actually a process that  manages people without managing people .   This is because a good manager never managers anyone, he simply  creates the conditions for people to manage themselves.    Transformational Leadership (TL)  is the latest buzzword in management.   This is how works: You find out what are the goals of people You share with them the goals of your organization You link how achieving the organization's goals will achieve their individual's goals You show them the step-by-step pathways to achieving the 2 goals, plus you offer assistance and coaching.   You see, when you do the above, you are not telling people that they must achieve your organization's goals.  You're  helping your people to achieve their own goals.   Asking questions helps you to find out what are their real needs.  You will be se...

In my over 14 years of coaching experience, I notice that all my coachees come to me saying that they are suffering some kind of stress at work.  There is never enough time to do anything, and targets are always being raised, yet costs are still rising and profit margins are shrinking fast. Today I share with all how our coaching works, and how we have been using this method to coach people since 2001.  Feel free to share this with your friends, for the more we share, the more we have. First, I have my client define to me what their stress is really about.  But I never make the stress bigger than what it really is, nor do I dismiss their stress as 'nothing, many people have worse stress than you'.   Next, I will help my client discover the causes of his stress, which means he needs to examine some deeper, even unconscious, aspects of his working and personal life.  My purpose is to bring my client quickly into a mindful awareness of these causes and...

Managers are trained how to manage and lead their people, and some of them are proud of the fact that they can change people.  For managers who are commissioned to hit some aggressive sales numbers, coaching is the last thing on their mind.   But we know that all change must come from inside, and a manager can never push for results or attempt to change people overnight.   Real change happens when people want to change by themselves , and the way to do this is to coach them.   In order to coach people, managers must know the following 5 important facts of coaching: Surrender Your Agenda When Coaching . Coaching is about the coachee, not the coach or the coaching program.  The coach must go into the mindset of the coachees, not his own mindset.  Although the coach may have some objectives when he coaches his coachee, he must remain flexible and realize that the most important thing is not to complete his agenda but to help to solve the coachee's prob...

As a Business Coach by passion and vocation, our goal is to help business owners achieve business success through analysis and systems implementation. What this means is that we help the self-employed build a profitable commercial enterprise that works without them. After all, systems should run a business, not the owner. The first thing we do is to access the business by working with the business owners to determine where they are, where they would like to be, and then helping them implement systems and strategies based on what we find that would be the most appropriate for that particular business’s needs (increase profitability, systems, employee training, controls, etc.). Today let's assess the business in the five key profit generating areas: 1.  Lead Generation (no. of potential customers generated); 2. Conversion Rate (success rate or ratio of customers over leads generated); 3.  Average Dollar Sale (average invoiced value or average sale value in dollar terms); 4...

P eople often ask me as a trainer what new things I can impart to them.  When I reply that I cannot teach anybody anything new, they were disappointed.  Before they want to throttle me, I go on to explain that people do things for their own reason.  For learning to be effective, people must get to learn by themselves . There are 3 steps for people to learn anything: 1st Step: Awareness Most people are ignorant, deluded and unsure of what is right or wrong. That day in my training I asked my participants which apartment is near to town: Marine Parade Road or Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.  Everyone said Marine Parade Road is nearer. But when I ask them why is the Marine Parade Road's apartment selling at 30% below the price of the Ang Mo Kio's one, they start to give me other reasons like the Ang Mo Kio apartment is a newer one.  I told them that this could be true, but we must aware of the fact that if 2 things differ in price, one is over-price while the other is...

The desire to be happy is what drives us to whatever we do.  In fact, humans spend so much time in their waking moments everyday to be happy that makes us forget what are the things that make us happy.  For example, many people equate money to be happiness, when in fact money only makes us comfortable and not happy .  From coaching and training over 81,131 people in 12 countries since 1996, the following are the 5 conditions that make us happy: 1.  Hope for a better tomorrow Despite the generally accepted notion that the fulfilment of a wish brings happiness, I believe that a person who has hope can taste happiness before that hope becomes a reality.  For better or worse, the human being is always discontent with present reality.  It's okay to be discontented as long as you direct that discontentment into new hopes on a higher plane.  For example, if I am not happy with my Samsung Galaxy S4, I can direct my efforts to earning more money so that I...

I had a good conversation with my friend that day who complained to me how many problems he has: family, business, work, finance and health.  I told him that actually he has no problems because all his problems are created by himself.  At first he wanted to throttle me, but later when I explained to him calmly, his mind started to open up. At the end of our conversation he was so elated and thanked me profusely.  I promised him that I would stand by him no matter what happened.  He asked me to share what I taught him, that's why I created this post on my blog. People make problems out of no problems in 5 ways: Craving, Possession, Clinging, Closing of Options and Never Negotiate. Craving is the Beginning of Problems    People craved for things, which is not the same as desire or wanting.  It's okay to want or desire things, but when you crave for things you become so hard up that you become irrational .  You just want to have things beca...

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 ...