Business and Money Tips

As we know, social media marketing is about social first and marketing second. Same for Sun Tzu Art of War: it is about art first and war later.   'Art' in Sun Tzu Art of War refers to how we do things, while 'War' here refers to winning in the business battlefield. Social media marketing is about how we do and not what we do.  For example, it is not about how nice your photo is on FaceBook but how you post your photo: do you post it with a positive or negative angle? On the surface, Social Media is a 201x thing, while Art of War belongs to 2,500 years ago. Yet they both share a common origin: the Yi Jing (or Book of Changes) written 5,000 years ago: life is about evolution. Social media is always evolving, while Sun Tzu Art of War is too evolving with the times as Sun Tzu advocates flexibility as the key winning strategy. Today I shall look at the 5 Elements of Sun Tzu Art of War and they can be applied in our Social Media Marketing.  Know Yourself Know Your...

"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,...

Why do people queue up to buy iPhone when it sells for double the price of other phones and is one to two times the average monthly income of most people?  Why when internet companies launch free mobile apps people download them immediately but baulk when they are asked to pay for the apps? Welcome to the world of psychology, in this case, customer psychology. Human beings are highly complex creatures and most people don't even know themselves, let alone know what their customers think and want. Because of impermanence, un-satisfaction and focus on self, people are not only highly unpredictable but also highly eco-centric. From years of training, consulting and coaching people in 15 countries from U.S.A. to China and Maldives, we at Asia Trainers have come up with the following 5 factors that make people think, decide and buy from you. Whether you are now selling to individuals or corporates, if you too want to get ahead of the pack and outsell your competitors, you need to...

Questions are the answers, and smart people don't ask smart questions but empowering questions, questions that give you more power.  So on this first day of 2017, I ask myself these 7 powerful questions: Do you truly want 2017 to be  better  than 2016?  If so, do you have the plans to make it happen?   Are you  committed  to doing things that you find uncomfortable, but will bring you results for 2017? Are you working on  strategic  opportunities, or are you still looking out for transactional opportunities? Is your  boss  going to help you get what you want?  Can you ask your boss for more?  If you are the boss, is your  team  helping you to achieve your goals?  Can you get better team and ask for more results from them? Are you resolved to spend your valuable time and resources with truly good opportunities for  improvement ? Will you  listen  more to your customers, your boss, yo...

Everyone knows the Art of War 孙子兵法 by military strategist 2,500 years ago Sun Tzu. Not many know that Sun Tzu's grandson, Sun Bin 孙膑, was one of the creators of another military classic, called Secret Art of War 秘密兵法, now known as The 36 Stratagems or 三十六计. The 36 Stratagems details the exact tactic to use in 6 different situations. The first step is to assess your current situation and next is to select one of the 6 stratagems in your situation and apply them accordingly. Many Chinese believe that The 36 Stratagems provides answers to all the world’s problems . In fact our company Asia Coaching Training has since 2013, offers free 30-minute consultancy to our selected clients. The 36 Stratagems book is so secretive that until today, no one knows the author of this book. The form that we see today was only officially published in 1941. In short, although it is an ancient book, it is also a modern book. In the business world, the most common tactic used by many is stratagem no...

Like most people in the corporate and business world, I used to behave in a competitive and driven way. People that know me know that I am one that go all the way to fight to win. Whether it is in business, people management, social or family, I am always goal driven and will go to great lengths to get what I want. Although I am not the extreme 'winner takes it all' and ultra aggressive guy, I am always ready for battles and believe that to win, I must fight hard until I win. But I fail. This method of fight hard to win is not working. Feedback from my working partners reveals that they find it tiring to work with me. My friends confide in me that I am too short-term oriented. Although I may achieve what I want, the achievements often come at the expense of relationships and friendships.  I have few duplication of success and each project is getting more and more difficult. Most importantly, I am not happy inside.  I fail. In 2010, after learning about the Art of War by ...

I have not been to China since 2005, and in particular, have not been to Guangxi province since 1986. Needless to say my recent trips to China have been real eye openers and the following are the 5 shocking facts that I find interesting about China: 1. Despite China having severe labour shortage problem, things get done Everywhere I go, be it banks, restaurants, office, factories or hotels, there are not enough people working. Service is slow but we can get things done. Often there will be just 2 people working in a small eatery that sits 30 people. The bank branch that I visited to open my bank account has only 3 people working: a security guard that doubles up as the internet banking advisor, a bank manager working behind the counter, and a counter girl who helps customers in all banking matters. Despite having staff shortage, things do get done, provided one has no language barrier issues. Service standards become not important, as what can you expect from staff that multi-...

From Bloomberg news dated 23 November 2016 (abridged version) Two years ago, Oppo and Vivo couldn’t crack the top five in China’s smartphone market. Now they outrank everyone after elbowing Apple aside, thanks to people like Cheng Xiaoning. Cheng runs a thriving electronics store in the rural town of Miaoxia, tapping into her WeChat social media account to promote the brands that pay the biggest commission, and in her case that’s Oppo and Vivo. While such payments start at about 40 yuan (US$6), they escalate for more expensive handsets and reach almost 200 yuan for Oppo’s high-end smartphones. “That’s why I like to introduce the Oppo R9 Plus to potential customers,” she said. “Business has been perfect, actually never been better.” Cheng and tens of thousands of like-minded boosters form the vanguard of the pair’s  charge  against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Working with the local stores that dominate sales in China’s far-flung provinces, Oppo...

The world’s oldest printed book is not the Bible but The Diamond Sutra or translated as Diamond Cutter. In chapter 1 of The Diamond Cutter, it talks about the concept of Emptiness. Emptiness is not empty but full of meaning. Understand that everything that is happening in your team and organization, including the things that you like or dislike, is empty. They are not pleasant or unpleasant things, they are just empty. This is because what is success to one is considered failure to another, that's why things are empty by themselves. It is the meaning that we give to things that has meaning. For example, you see your team fighting among each other as bad. But to the your team member, the fighting is for him to succeed in his promotion, not his colleague. Whatever we want our team to do as a leader, we cannot succeed by telling them what to do. We can succeed only by planting the right seeds. The seeds that we plant in our mind are called karmic seeds. The seeds lay deep inside our...

SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE POWER COMBINE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH SALES STRATEGIES AND ACHIEVE UNBELIEVABLE SALES   Date: 20 Dec 2016 Tue  9 am to 5 pm   Venue : The Plaza 02-346 7500A Beach Rd      Fee: $298 each, $199 each for 2 and above, $149 each for 5 and above (with PIC 40% grant)   Your team has been working very hard and your company products and services are quite well accepted in the market. Your company has also invested heavily in marketing and systems. Yet you find it a challenge to keep up with the ever rising customer expectations and sales targets.   Make no mistake: all sales activities must have power or you will lose business to your competitors. Whether you are new or experienced in sales, if you too want to make this year the best of your career, come for this high impact 1-day course...Sales Power...   Power-packed Contents Include: Problem with Most Salespeople: Lack of Service ...

Due to labour shortage, most companies are like beggars when it comes to hiring people. Because there is so much work to do, and because you have a limited budget, you are quite happy to take anyone who is willing to work with you. The hope is that let’s just go ahead and get him on the team, and we’ll teach him on the job. However, having the wrong person in that role can be far more expensive! You may not even realise he is a misfit, because your employee will always have a ready excuse for why he has failed to deliver as promised. He will blame the limited budget or the competition, but when you finally do figure out that he is the wrong person for the job, you are reluctant to fire him, because terminating someone is very hard to do. No one likes unpleasantness and therefore you try to put it off. You hope that with training and guidance he will improve, but when this doesn’t happen, you are in a quandary. Your first response is to try to push him into an alternative role – one w...

Many people never achieve their goals because they set bad goals.  EXAMPLE #1: GET FIT BAD GOAL: “I want to get fit" or  “I want to lose 10lbs.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to eat 3 healthy meals per week and go to the gym 2 times a week for 15 minutes each.” Notice how we’re focusing on the   process   at first, and starting off conservative: Anyone can eat just   3 healthy meals in a week . And anyone can go to the gym for 15 minutes. Set yourself up to win. EXAMPLE #2: MONEY BAD GOAL: “I want to save $1,000 this year.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to have $200 per paycheck automatically transferred to my vacation savings fund for 1 year.” EXAMPLE #3: SOCIAL SKILLS BAD GOAL: “I want to work on my storytelling so I’m not so awkward at parties.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to complete the Udemy online course it in the next 4 weeks.” We need to create a SMART Objective. SMART Objectives are: Specific Measurable Attainable Re levant and Time-oriented ...

If you want to be successful in your business and career (and who doesn't?), it's important to know whether you're driven at work on a day-to-day basis .  The following are the 8 signs that you are bored at work and need more drive: You spend more time searching for where to find the cheapest parking for your event after work You look out at the window and admire the scenery every day, even when it is raining. "This is called living in the moment" as what you would say if being asked what are you staring at. The problem you find hardest to solve is where and what to have for lunch You're the first to respond to every group chat. Let's be frank: you are the one that started all but one of the group chats.   It takes you an hour to read through a short document or excel file You begin to wonder why the pantry lady is not here today as you seem to visit the pantry every hour You join your colleagues for smoking breaks, and you don't even smok...