Business and Money Tips

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 Peop

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 empathize how customers feel, you can help them to improve and get out of this

"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 hired

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 don&

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

You've heard of Handshake to Success, but have you heard of "Headshake" to Success? In this rapid world of instant connectivity, we have to say No instead of yes if we too want to be successful. There are 5 things that we must say No to: Say No to Procrastination . Just do it now, and better still, do it yesterday. Napoleon Hill in his latest book "Outwitting the Devil" revealed that procrastination is the number one killer to success in this world. It doesn't matter that what you are not perfect, all it matters is that you start first and the rest will follow. Say No to Follow the Market.  Steve Jobs did not follow the market, he created the market. He also spoilt the market by giving customers more than what they asked for: instead of just a phone, he gave them an MP3, Video Player, Mini Computer, Camera, Video Camera and Photo Editor.  Say No to Dreaming.  Dreaming is having dreams with no timeline and action plan, a dream is a dream with timeline

Of course here we are are talking about a boss that is not easy to manage, like micro-managing, bossy, very demanding or frequent change in temper.  There are several practical steps that you can take to Manage Your Boss with Ease as follows: Look for Patterns - watch for behaviour swings, like Mondays or month-end or quarter-end when the boss is under tremendous pressure to perform.  Be prepared and don't do things that will add pressure, like applying for leave or asking for day off.  Pre-empt Needs. Once you know what triggers them, it's good to be pre-emptive by flagging potential problems before they escalate and offer solutions. The simplest way you can be pre-emptive is to ask the question: "What are the one or two things that I can do to make your work life better?" Show Empathy . Your boss is under pressure to produce and if you understand this plight that he is facing, you will be more understanding and there will no issue of how to manage your bos

Never underestimate the power of star power.   Jay Chou has star power, even if he cannot sing properly and you can't hear what he is saying, he is still the no. 1 singer in Asia (other than Psy).   So my advise to friends is: acquire star power yourself. There are 5 Ways in which Anyone Can Acquire Star Power: 1. Be good in something, even in simple things like parking and finding carparks; 2. Be passionate in something, and really show it in what you do, like helping people find parking; 3. Be Generous in giving, like giving up your parking lot if you think that someone is more desperate than you; 4. Reach out to people, and the best way to reach out is not via facebook or twitter, but with your hearts. Like this blog I'm now writing on Google's Blogger (or Blogspot), I used my heart to pour out the letters here; 5. Lastly, Be Consistent.  Don't blow away your chances by being blown by the wind easily. by Andy Ng, Chief Trainer Coach

Me teaching the audience the Jim Rohn's 5 Puzzles of Life  Like you, I as a Coach and Trainer am also human and very often are concerned of what makes me feel good that I sometimes forget what makes me great. Yet I know that a successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, and not chasing the dreams of others. I also know that Character is not made of sunshine and roses. Like steel, character is forged in fire, between the hammer and the anvil. So I find the ‘Thick Face Black Heart’ concept by Chin-ning Chu so useful. Because Thick Face Black Heart is not about ruthlessness. It is about adapting and adopting non-destructive ruthlessness, to gain the freedom in action necessary to achieve effectiveness in the execution of your task. We all have the innate power within us: Thick Face is the Shield while Black Heart is the Spear. A Thick Face person has the ability to put Self Doubt aside. His confidence instills

My Teacher Sun Tzu Made All Leaders Redundant Sun Tzu 孙子 (or Sūn Zǐ in pinyin) was a 500 BC Chinese general, military strategist, and author of  The Art of War  孙子兵法, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. Many great leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan study his work and became legendary leaders. Many corporate leaders paid thousands of dollars to attend courses to learn Sun Zi's secrets. We at Asia Trainers believe that you too can learn this master's secret with just three hundred dollars. This is because we take the key essence and compile them into a 4-hour course that will leave you with just enough materials to lead your team to greater heights. Since October 2010, we have trained over 373 leaders coming from countries including Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar and even China.  The next run of Leadership with Sun Zi is on 5 Sep 2013 Thur. 9 am to 1 pm. Limited seats are available, click here or call Priya at 6225-1784 to re