Business and Money Tips

If you are like most people, you find that you are not happy with where you are right now. You think that you can do much more, but you are hampered by many factors, including yourself.  We know that having a Coach will help you to achieve success faster and easier. The only issue is how can you afford to pay someone week after week, month after month, year after year, a coaching fee that takes up almost half of your take-home pay?   Contrary to most people thinking, you yourself can be your own coach . All you need is to learn 7 Key Strategies and Tools. They are: Know Your Mind , Live Your Plan , Be Confident, Weekly Review , Leverage on Others, Enjoy the Adversity and Tap into Your Subconscious Mind.   We know that Coaching is about Asking Questions.  So Start Questioning Yourself and you'll be coaching yourself to success.  There are 3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself:  Ask Questions that Open Up Possibilities , not open up problems. When you can...

As a person that has gone through many formal (e.g. MBA) and informal training, I realize that very few teach us how to manage the business in a downturn. Turn open the newspaper and you'll find talks advocating "how to build a brand that lasts", "how to increase sales easily" etc. Most of them are talking about how to do things in a normal economy. But we know that currently the economy, especially Singapore, is in decline. There is no growth in the July to September 2013 Quarter. In short, hang cheng pai or 行情坏！ In bad times, here are the 5 things you must do to manage your team: Need not use money as a motivator - because everyone is cutting bonuses, if you just maintain last year's bonus, you're already paying higher than market!  Leadership is most critical . In good times, even if you have a lousy or absent leader, the business will still grow. But now if your managers are a little ineffective, you can see all the ill effects in the business. ...

Buddhism officially came to China in 67 CE. The Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor Han Ming sent special envoys to India to invite Buddhist monks to come to China to preach. Since most South-East Asia Chinese came from China, to the Chinese Buddhism is almost 2,000 years old. Buddhism in that period was regarded as an Educational System and not as a religion. Indeed in many ways Buddhism is considered as an education and not religion, primarily because Buddhism is not about faith or belief, but about seeing the world in the right way . It is about questioning everything, including the teachings of Buddhism . Only when one has wisdom can one question, thus Buddhism is an education. This is the unique thing about Buddhism as compared with other faiths, religions and schools of thoughts. Not only that, Buddhism is also about the how to live the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama who ‘founded’ the religion of Buddhism in 563 BCE in North-East India that is Nepal today. Commonly referred as ...

Your purpose as a manager or employee is to get things done, not to impress your boss. But we know that to get more things done you need to impress your boss so that he will trust you and pass to you more things. Here are the 7 Easy Ways that Anyone Can Impress their Boss Without Licking his Boots: Be Frank and Open . Admit mistakes. Never shade truth.  This is key to gaining long term trust Help Your Boss to Be Right . This is not being subservient or time-serving, but means you support your boss in whatever ways so that he can be right.  For example, you help him to improve his writing so that he will not be mis-understood.  Respond Fast or at least Show him Enthusiasm .  Show a Can-Do attitude, not 'See-What-I-Can-Do' style Handle your personal problems well so that he knows you can be trusted to handle the organization's problems. For example, don't have frantic calls from your family members frequently. Protect him with your willingness to take the ...

Among all natural laws (i.e. not man-made laws but laws governing all nature), the Law of Action and Reaction is the most prevalent. This is also called the law of Cause and Effect, or Karma to some people. Simply put, for every action, there will be a reaction. That's why good beget good and bad beget bad.  But the point to note that there is no direct relationship between cause and effect , i.e. you cannot pinpoint a particular action and say for sure that it will precisely lead to another action.  Also, results do not arise in the order in which their causative actions have taken place . What this means is that other causative factors also come into play and often it is their combined effect that determines the result . A single cause cannot produce a result, much less many results, nor can many causes produce just one result. How does it apply to training then?  From my over 17 year of training (including part-time 1996-2001 before becoming full time since May...

Yesterday my blog about how to solve problems the SAD Way (See-Address-Do) Way has made some people sad. Today I'm going to make you HAPPY: the proven way to Build Great Teams: H - Harmonize the team, conflicts should be put aside first A - Align the different goals of the team to that of the organization. P - Purpose : find a common purpose for all P - Path : create the path to achieve the common purpose Y - Get people to say ' Yes ' to commit and do the path created above A typical team-building session using HAPPY would run like this: Harmonize : Get everyone to write down their differences and agree to harmonize, i.e. work through the differences; Goal Alignment Session t o align the different goals to the organization's goals.  Eg Sales Department goal of 20% growth must be aligned to company's profit goals Purpose : Find a common purpose that will get people charging. Like to beat the competitor; Path : here will be the detailed Road Maps and...

Customers are demanding lower prices. Factories are moving overseas. How can salespeople survive?  These are tough times for salespeople. Customers are demanding more services and lower prices.  Many are purchasing directly through the internet and from manufacturers. Salespeople find themselves caught in the middle - doing more for customers, making less money and wondering about their paycheck. The solution is simple.  Salespeople Must Add Value. How?  Salespeople add value in many ways - before, during and after the sale.    These services include product availability, problem solving and technical support, just to name a few. But customers often do not realize how these services translate into dollars-and-cents value. Why? Because salespeople are generally not trained in how to calculate this value for customers. Beyond product training   Customers are interested in more than product features and benefits. They want to know how these ...

Often in my training courses, my participants would like to share with me their problems at work and ask me for advise. The advise I gave them is to solve problems in a 3-Step SAD way:  Step 1:  See the problem as what it is, not what you wish .  Reason is that if you  don’t exactly see what the problem is, you're going to perpetuate it.  Y ou are already in reality, all you need to do is to see it. All problems at work, be it sales, cash flow or people management, can be summed up in two words: Human Problems. Settle the human problems and you'll settle all problems.  Human problems can be in the area of motivation, morale, competencies, distraction, complacency, leadership, communication, inter-personal skills, teamwork and compliance.  Step 2:  You don’t lack ideas, strategies or solutions to your problems. S o stop blocking yourself and attend to what’s going on .   When you really attend to the problems, the soluti...

I learnt this very powerful 5-word phrase from Singapore's highest ever box-office movie ever: "Ah Boys to Men II". In one scene, the recruits were about to start their 3-day field camp.  Their Officer-in-Command asked them, "Before we moved out, anybody not feeling well?"  All the soldiers replied loudly, "No Sir!!!" "Gentlemen", continued the Officer, "Every time the training gets tougher, one thought comes to your mind, 'Why Must I Serve National Service?' "My answer to you is, 'If Not You, Then Who Else?'" Wow!  What a powerful phrase!  If Not You, Who Else may mean: You are the most suitable person, and we can't find anyone better than you.  This is appreciation at the highest level How can you push this responsibility to someone else? I am making a request to you specifically, please don't reject my request Can you find me another person more suitable than you? Please refer me anot...

Interview any customers and they will tell you that Over-Promise Under-Deliver is the number 1 reason that they don't trust and like salespeople.  In fact, over 55% of salespeople that we trained confessed that they have to resort to Over-Promise Under-Deliver in their bid to close the sale. If you too want to have long-term relationship in business, you need to avoid Over-Promise Under Deliver at all costs.  The following are the 7 Ways: Know Your Product and Your Customer's Expectations Well  and you will only be promising what your can deliver; Lead the customer and not let him lead you .  Many a times customers lead salespeople to say yes to their requests and that's how over promise happen.  Instead a salesperson could take back control by simply asking a question like, "What do you think?" Deliver + 1 , that is, over deliver on your promise and you'll end up with "Over Promise, Over Deliver" Go the Extra Mile , better than Deliver +1...

They say that the Singapore workplace is getting complacent due to our maturing economy and the tightening of foreign labour. In fact many bosses lament that employees are too comfortable and do not strive hard to do their best. Experts say that there is a lack of healthy competition at work. Unknown to many people, without a healthy dose of competition, work standards drop and soon your company may not be able to compete in the tough business environment. Just look at fallen companies like Nokia, Blackberry, Sony and Oracle and you will know what I am talking about. If you too want to make the best out of your people, inject healthy competition at work. Remember, if your people are not competitive, your company will be chased out of the market.  Power-packed Contents Include: 1. Test on how Competitive is Your Company in the workplace 2. Myths and Truths of Competition at Work 3. Five Steps to Creating Healthy Competition at Work: a. Get People ON b. Get ...

If I were to now transfer US$10,000 to your bank account, would you be richer? If you are like most people, you would say, 'Yes, of course". Yet we know that money by itself has no value . If I transfer money to you and you don't do anything to it, the total wealth has not increased. It is just merely a transfer of wealth from me to you, no difference to mankind's total wealth. Money has to be circulated in order for it to create value and wealth. Same for knowledge. What if instead of me transferring US$10,000 to your account, I ask that you transfer US$10,000 to my account? For that I'll give you the tools and resources for you to go on to create many times more than US$10,000. Is this a better deal? If you were like most smart people, you would say "yes" to this. Just like training. I have been doing training (part-time since 1996) and full-time (my own business) since 2001. I have paid thousands of dollars to acquire knowledge, a...

Another brief but value-packed e-book by Andy Ferrari Norman 1.      Sales is not a function, a goal or a number but an outcome, the outcome is customer satisfaction.  Regardless of how solid your product or service is, nothing happens without a sale.  If you did not make the sale, there is no customer satisfaction but instead lots of frustration for salespeople! 2.      Today customers are all suffering from Frazzled Customer Syndrome (FCS): a state of extreme exhaustion , that’s why they are not returning your call and give you the cold shoulder.  They are extremely checked out because of heavy workload, too many choices, rapidly changing market and past bad experience with salespeople.  How can we blame them for this? 3.      The result: customers keep you at a distance, brush you off, dismiss you entirely and stick with the status quo, no matter how undesirable the status quo is. Once you can...

"My fellow Americans, ask not what America can do for you, ask what you can do for America.  My fellow international friends, ask not America can do for the world, ask what the world can do for America".  Such were the inspiring words of President Kennedy. "My fellow team members, ask now what the company can do for you, ask what you can do for your company. My fellow customers, ask now what this company can do for you, ask what you can do for this company".  Such were the inspiring words of my boss. Indeed, what can You as an employee do for your employer?  There are at least 5 things that you can do: 1. Give your employer a good name , and never leave a bad name in whatever you do 2. Give your employer a fair good 8 hours of work , not 7 hours of work and 1 hour of facebooking and twitting. 3. Give your employer the respect that they deserve , like treat the company's assets with care. 4. Give your employer a chance to prove to You that they are a g...

5 Ways to Make Your Selling Irresistible: State your price using the smallest unit of measure , like per month, per week or per day. Courts always use this method, but just stating the weekly instalment at $14 for a Samsung Galaxy S4, (spread over 24 months), their actual selling price is as high as $1,456! Do not compare your price with your competitor, instead compare your price to Do-It-Yourself or something totally different but offers the same benefit . Like people don't compare Mercedes with BMW or Audi but swimming pool, for the rich man's consideration in buying another Mercedes is should he install a swimming pool instead? Pre-empt the Price Objection , and once you warn people of the price, people cannot give you the objection. Proving Financing . Yes, instead of outright sale, why not sell via leasing?  Not only is there no more downpayment, but the customer get to replace the machine when the lease expires, a win-win for all. Be a Irresistible Salesperson. H...

As we know, the workplace today is very different from the workplace of yesterday, yet how many people are doing the following 5 right things? From hierarchies to a more flattened structure , so there are less people doing work and one-man-operations is very common. There is no more such thing as senior people or junior people but people that interact and people that don't interact. Obviously those that don't interact are losing out as no one is helping them! From hoarded information to shared information . Yes, instead of managers holding some privileged information, information are now shared instantaneously on What's App, Line, twitter and facebook. In fact even SMS is dying. If you are still using your smartphone only for reading e-mails, you are becoming another Nokia. From fear-based leadership to Empowering and Inspiring Leadership .  Smart leaders understand the concept of following from the front, not just leading from the front.  Following from the front mea...

Selling is base on nothing but needs and wants. A need is something that is basic and cannot be done without with, i.e. a necessity. A want is a preference , something that can be done without with but because it is preferred, it is considered important and often become a necessity, i.e. a want becomes a need. Like smartphones, it is not a need but a preference, but who can live without a smartphone nowadays?  If you sell base on both needs and wants, you have a customer. If not, you have a prospect. There are prospects in prospects. Using SNAP Selling, you can sell anything to anybody with the following 4 steps: 1. Situation . Find out what is the situation of the prospect now, what are his concerns, problems and issues that need to be addressed now. Like my prospect now has high staff turnover that is bothering him. 2. Need . From the situation, you uncover his need. So my guess that my prospect needs to learn how to hire the right people and retain hi...

This is very common: You've given clear written or verbal instructions to your team and they have repeatedly done things in their own way and not follow your instructions.  Should you give up or fire them up? Based on training and coaching over 81,131 people in 13 countries, we found at www.AsiaTrainers.com that there are 5 reasons why people don't do what you said: They don't understand the importance of following your instruction .  They think that doing things their own way is okay because you as the boss, manager or leader may not know or bother about it.  Your Action: Educate them that it is not okay to not follow instructions and you will bother about it all the way.  There is no negative consequence for not following your instruction . Because it is more comfortable for them to do things their own way, they will naturally not follow your instruction. This is human nature! They don't buy-in to the benefits of following your instruction . In short, they d...

To sell is human and everyone is a salesperson, because selling is about not selling but moving people. Most people are in non-sales selling, that is, they are not defined as salesperson but their job involves communicating, influencing and persuading people. We call these Moving People. Moving People is not about getting your way with others but helping others to get their way. And when others get their way, you'll get your way too. Moving people is not about how much conviction you have but about conveying your conviction to people. Moving people depends more on the creative, heuristic, problem-finding skills than the reductive, algorithmic, problem-solving skills. From Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor. We've moved from a world of cavet emptor (buyer beware) to caveat venditor (vendor beware). This is because of the information age we're living right now, buyers have more information than vendors and thus buyers will mislead vendors more often than the other ...

Every boss has some expectations of you but may not let you know. With a little heart and determination, you'll can meet the following 5 common things that will go a long way in your career: Volunteer to report work status and never wait for your boss to ask you about it.   Take Criticism positively, not personally.  See the criticism as a well-meaning challenge to bring out the best in you. Use your own money for the company and don't let your boss know about it.  Be helpful. Teamwork is a key factor that every boss is looking for in an employee. Never repeat your mistakes. Remember, 2nd mistake is called Careless, whereas 3rd time mistake is called Intentional while 4th time same mistake is called Sabotage. By Andy Ng of Asia Trainers