Business and Money Tips

There are 5 things that every trainee is looking for in an external training program: Enhance their thinking , for it is the thinking capability that determines our work performance. That's why most trainers like to ask provocative questions to broaden the minds of the trainees.  Sometimes to make an impact trainers would purposely give the wrong information to ' wake people up ' Get Inspiration and Motivation .  As we know, the typical working life is full of stress and people usually get motivated when it's time for bonus or increment.  The fact that trainers help trainees to see things from another perspective will inspire people to do more.  Furthermore, trainers are external professionals that have no personal interest in the trainees, thus they can offer motivate people easily without being mistaken as phony Get Solutions to their Problems.  This is a very common and useful outcome of training, where trainees get answers to their current work problems.  Tra

Knowing the truths makes one wise, believing in the myths makes one unwise, so said my teacher Andy Ferrari Norman.  The top 7 myths and truths of training that few people realize are: 1.  Training will make me 'Get High' Truth: Yes, you may get very pleasant feelings of peace and tranquility but you should not get high or the trainer has just embarked on 'emotion brainwashing'.  Training will increase your self-awareness of your knowledge, beliefs and experience .  For example, people often told me that they didn't realize that they were using the wrong words and phrases in their work until they came to our training. 2. Training will equip me with 'Magic Power' In promotion flyers for seminars, they often use words like 'turn you from unmotivated to highly charged' and that gives many the impression that training has some magical power.  Truth:  Trainers are not magicians , they don't possess magic power to transmit them to you. But wi

Since yesterday's blog about Sales Training in Singapore, one person commented that trainees are more important than trainers, and good trainees can make trainers better and they will benefit the most from any training .  Today we talk about how to become a good professional trainee: First, realize that training is a key determinant of your career success.  A good trainee will put to use immediately what he learnt and help his employer earn more money instantly. Second, understand that as a trainee, your job at the training is not to learn as much, but to discover as much as possible about yourself .  We seldom look at ourselves, and most people live their entire lives without knowing themselves.  So go for training with an open mind, take what the trainer said seriously and examine your own strengths and weaknesses honestly in the training. Third, immediately after the training, jot down 3 key points that you want to teach to your colleagues, boss and team members .  The b

This is so shockingly simple and yet few use it because we were trained in schools to be one-sided in our social interaction.  My participant at this morning training just sent me an email saying that the training 'was very good and motivating'.  I replied him that I was just responding to the participants who were so hungry and eager to learn and they made me unconsciously and consciously go the extra mile.   Scientists today conclude that your mere act of observing something will influence that thing's behaviour .  So if I look at you with curiosity and enthusiasm, I will make you want to share with me more and motivate me.  On the other hand, if I look at you with prejudiced lens, my negativeness will make you become defensive and hold back giving it all in your performance.  So my friend this is the insanely simple way to getting high performance from your team: Look at them with an open heart .   When your heart is unlocked, your mind will be wide opened and wit

People often asked me how a good training program be structured. To me it should be 70/30: 70% hard, 30% soft.  Hard means the tactics and detailed how-to while soft means the motivational and inspirational aspects . For we know that without the motivational aspect, the trainees would not want to take action.  Without the detailed 'How-to', they too cannot take action, that's why you need both.  For example, our typical sales training (like How to Close Every Sale ) will include 89 tactics to overcome objections and close sales.  However, it also covers the inspirational aspect, the 'why' and purpose of sales closing.  Experience shows that this approach will satisfy 80% of the attendees, while the remaining 20% people need different structure.  No matter what, a good training program should cover the following structure: Current challenges faced and the root cause of the challenges Why this approach can help to resolve the challenges Definition of this ap

In another 2 months, the haze or smog will stay with Singapore and its neighbours for several months until the rain comes. We are told to stay indoors most of the time. Unknown to many people, your indoor 'haze' is actually more than the outdoor haze.  You see, a haze is defined as an unclear atmosphere suspended by fine particles.  In a non-weather sense, a haze is a state of mental confusion.   Many people are hazy about their future .  They are affected by the environment, what people say about them and about what they read about everyday in the social and print media.  People are even more hazy when it comes to work.   How many people can tell you straight in the face where their company is heading?   What's the company's vision, mission and goals?  When it comes for financial matters, hardly 1% of the population has retirement plans other than some insurance policies.  We at AsiaTrainers.com believe that our job as trainers is to help people to become mor

The reason people make mistake is that they are unaware of the mistake.  But if you tell them and they still make the same mistake, that 2nd mistake is no longer a mistake but a belief.  Mistakes are not the same as Fraud in that they are all made unintentionally and are all 'honest mistakes'. When you make mistakes in PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) claims, you won't get fined but the IRAS will just simply delay the claim process.  So the more mistakes you make, the longer it takes for you to get your money .  The top 11 mistakes make in PIC claims are (in order of frequency) are: Wrong Y/A (Year of Assessment).  YA is always one year faster than this year, so for this year 2014 claims, it should be YA 2015 Include GST when the business is GST registered.  You have to take out the GST portion as you're already getting back the input GST in your monthly GST returns Include non-qualifying amounts , like warranty, consumables, finance charges and st

As we know, PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) scheme from Government also funds businesses that train their own staff internally, i.e. do not engage outside training vendors and use their own staff to train their own people.  You can claim this under Line 4(b) in the PIC Cash Payout Form "In-house training not certified by WDA or ITE". Businesses can claim the salary cost of the trainer, not the trainees .  For example, if the HR Department incurs 20 hours every 3 months to do staff induction and staff training, they can claim the 20 hours of salary of the HR department trainers. The maximum a business can claim for Internal Training is $10,000 a year.  Since Cash claim is at 60%, businesses can get $6,000 a year or $36,000 for 6 years from 2012 to 2017.  This $10,000 must be within the overall yearly $100,000 cap for PIC Claims.  Businesses that claim PIC more than $5,000 in a year can receive the PIC Bonus automatically, which is another 100% of the amount c

As of today, Russia has already formally annexed Crimea, which belonged to Ukraine for over 5 decades.  Such 'lawful' action was done under the nose of the mighty EU and the 'strong man' Barrack Obama of USA.   You may wonder what has this Ukraine's crisis got to do with your work or business in Singapore? Some people said that had the USA and EU got its act together, Ukraine will not be invaded.  Others point out to the political crisis in Ukraine as the main culprit.  Let's make it clear: Ukraine was invaded by Russia because its defence is weak. Imagine if Ukraine had a strong army like North Korea, would any foreign soldier, let alone any Russian army, dare to go inside Ukraine? In fact if you are not careful, you could be the next Ukraine .  Let me give you some very specific realistic examples: In business, if your company is weak in  sales and marketing , your competitors can easily invade into your business by luring your clients away with pric

By far the biggest difference between successful people and struggling people is that successful people know that it is the participation that matters.  Struggling people often ask what do they get from a situation, they did not know that it is what they give to the situation that matters.  In short, the only failure is the failure to participate , and it is your level of participation that creates success.  If you too want to participate for success, you must do the following 7 things at work: Work 2 extra hours a week without staying back an extra minute Before bringing up a problem, please think of possible solutions .  If there are no solutions, at least let people know what is your level of commitment, are you a passive spectator or a serious spectator? Always to go the root of the problem and not just solve the surface of the problem. For example, the root of lack of sales is not the market but salespeople not doing what they should be doing.  By taking action at the root

With the PIC Grant , companies can claim up to $10,000 a year on internal training, i.e. their own people conducting training for their own people.  A good example would be HR Department doing Induction for new staff.  Other than that, it has become something as common as buying stationery when companies send their staff for external training .  This is because under the PIC Bonus scheme, companies get 160% of what they spend on training.  Before you sign up for your next public course , or get the trainer to come to your premise to conduct an in-house training , make sure that your next training program has the following 5 key attributes: Mix New School with Old School .  If what the trainer is doing is to replay old school principles, there won't be much value in today's context as the world is changing rapidly.  A phrase we often use in our training in describing what needs to be today in 2014 is a "time tested tactics blended with time relevant concepts". Si

Yes, the lack of sales is not caused by the market, your competitors or even your boss.  Salespeople are the problems, and the big problem is that they don't even realize this.  By far the biggest problem is salespeople not realizing that they are the problem and justify their situation as 'everyone is also like that, right' thinking.  There are 7 ways that salespeople make themselves the biggest problem. Know them, eradicate them, and you'll be on the path to greatness in sales... Lack of Selling Skills , especially in doing sales follow-up and overcoming of tough objections ; Never Leverage on the Team , especially the customer's team and your company's support team; No Follow-Through and Follow-up on Leads , leading to no leads and thus no sales; Lack of Lead Generating Activities , resulting in no prospects to follow-up on and thus no prospects in sales; Never Listen to the Real Needs of customers , thus missing on the big picture and cannot clos

With people using their smartphones (and tablets) on average over 3 hours a day, that's even more than the amount of time people spend on their home computers and TVs.  But only 9% of the time (16 minutes) is on talking, the bulk of the time (72% or 2 hours) is on instant communications, especially group and private messaging on Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook , Line and WeChat).  Many people wonder if we have become slaves or addicted to our smartphones as many people carry them even inside the water closets.  However to us, the smartphone is just a tool, it is neither good or bad.  We can make ourselves smarter with our smartphones in the following 7 ways: Learn something new every day by reading blogs , seminar write-ups , news analysis, commentaries and TED videos;  Become a Guru instantly by broadcasting to others our unique thoughts on current events .  For example, I posted on my facebook the biggest disappointment of the year: the Samsung Galaxy S5 and immediately got reco

Sun Tzu Art of War uses tactics to achieve maximum results with minimum resources.  One of the most used stratagem is "Kill with a Borrowed Knife" or 借刀杀人。Unknown to many people and unreported by the media, our Finance Minister Mr Tharman used this tactic in pushing the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit). You see, Mr Tharman had a tall and challenging task.  How can Singapore 250,000 companies, of which over 95% are small and medium enterprises, reduce the reliance on cheap foreign labour and use higher skilled local staff and automation to increase productivity?  So he came up with the PIC scheme in 2010. In 2012, Mr Tharman enhanced this scheme and increased the cash subsidy from 30% to 60%, payable quarterly instead of yearly.  But he has another problem: how can this scheme be pushed out quickly to the most number of SMEs without the government hiring a big public relations team?  The answer lies in making use of vendors. You see, vendors doing training , I

Note: click here for PIC training As we know, the PIC ( Productivity and Innovation Credit ) scheme has been in place since 2010, and has just been extended till 2017.  Under this general and generous scheme , the government gives 60% cash or 3 times additional tax deductions to businesses that invest to innovate and up their productivity. The 8 types of expenditure eligible for PIC Claims are: Training , IT Solutions, IT Hardware, Software, Automation Equipment, R & D, Intellectual Property Rights and Singapore Design Council design projects. Many employees that we talk to feel that such a scheme only benefits their employer and they cannot see any benefits accruing to them. In fact some employees told us that making PIC Claims only adds up to their already heavy work load.  It's just a government's gimmick, right? Make no mistake: the Government is serious about making Singapore's employees more productive . When employers receive money from the gover

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 means that companies can invest

Note: The next How to Be a Great Boss is confirmed on 9 Dec 2014 Tuesday 2 to 5.30 pm.  Limited seats, register via text to 8201-4347 now. If you don’t like the title of this article, read on. By ‘ boss ’ here, I am referring to a person that an employee reports to. That reporting boss can be a customer, the shareholders, superior and in some cases, the government. Today I shall focus on your superior, that is, someone that you report to in your work. Most of the time this person is a manager or supervisor. Whenever an employee has a performance issue, most managers will assume it is the lack of training. As a trainer with 18 years of experience training 81,131 people in 14 countries since 1996, I know that many a times it is not the lack of training . It may not even be the lack of skills or attitude. The biggest obstacle to an employee not performing well is not about not knowing what to do. The biggest obstacle is Interferences from Bosses. The following are the 5

Yesterday I talked to someone who told me he wish to learn how to close sales, but he is only free next week.  When I told him that we have a course How to Close Every Sale on next Friday, he was shocked.  I told him that he can attend for half price too as he is my friend.  I would expect him to say yes immediately.  Imagine my shock when he told me that he wanted to 'think about it'! Some people dare not commit anything and never live life in willing ways.  The way to test them is to give them whatever they wish, and 99% of the time they will not bite .  That's what I called living life in wishful ways.  When you live life in wishful ways, there are 7 negative consequences: You never realize your dreams Life is always incomplete and you'll have more and more wish-list as time goes You will miss opportunities and will miss the boat Life will seem happy but deep down you will feel a sense of emptiness or incompletion There are always suffering of un-satisfac