Business and Money Tips

Every time I hear someone saying that so and so is stupid, I cannot help but wonder: if you give this person $100, will he be stupid enough to reject it?  If a person can survive until today, how can he be stupid?   As a educator, I believe that there are no stupid people in this world, there are only people that are ignorant, deluded and unsure.   Ignorant Most people are ignorant of the important facts of life (read 'The 7 Myths of Life' at here ) due to the being brainwashed by the mass media. For example, most people still expect things to remain the same when in life nothing stays constant and everything is in a state of flux at each passing moment.   Ignorance also means knowing but not knowing how to apply , and knowing how to apply but never apply due to delusion .   When people are ignorant, we an educate them, but we cannot force them to learn, for if they learn things unwillingly, they will not apply the new learning and will remain ignorant.   If people rem

A myth is something that we think is true because most people believe or wish that it is true. In reality a myth is just a lie .  There is a market for myths because people like to have a better world. The following are the 7 Most Common Myths in Life:  Newspaper is about history and not about news at all .  A news is something that is very new and has not been over yet. So all newspapers should be renamed Historypapers because they report what has happened in the past. In fact they are not history but distorted history, for they reflect the views of the people controlling the media.  In Singapore, there is this free newspaper called "TODAY", and this 'newspaper' is definitely not about today and should be renamed 'YESTERDAY'.  On the other hand, what you do now is news because you are in the creation process of creating something new.   Your Bank Savings Account is Actually a Depleting Savings Account .  This is because the very low interest that they pa

It pains me to see some people that are so talented and yet they did not achieve much.  In fact they have what we called 7 Fetters of Highly Effective People.  Face the fetters and take action today to remove them and you will be on a different path.  The 7 Fetters are: Having No Goals.  Alas, this is so old-fashioned but really if you have no goals, you will just be living your life on a roller coaster - many ups and downs but you end up where you begin - no improvement at all.   Having Too 'Ambitious' (Unrealistic) Goals.  This is the opposite of Having No Goals, but is more than that. These people are unrealistic, they are going for the moon when right now they can't even swim in the Pacific Ocean. Such people are not grounded, they live in dreams and often they are impractical. Having No Friends.  No man can succeed alone and friends can be a great leverage at the right time. Some people said that it is better to have a few enemies but many friends than to have

It was reported that the Government spent S$2.8 million to promote the S$4.3 billion MCE, Singapore's most expensive and newest expressway.  But it seems like most people are not convinced that the MCE is good for them, and many people are wondering if this is a design issue or a communication issue.  In other words, can the Government better persuade us that the MCE is good?  I think the government should SELL the MCE away; SELL is our newest method of persuasion: Suffering, Empathy, Lead and Let them enjoy the benefits. As a manager, executive or salesperson, you cannot don't persuade people.  For today no one wants to be forced into accepting another person's view, and everyone wants to have his say.   It doesn't matter who is right or wrong, what it matters is people want to be heard .  That is why social media like Facebook , Twitter and Youtube are so popular today, as they allow people to share their views freely and without censorship. From studying the

Today we look at a very useful concept that experts use to handle sales objections, it is called QUIET : Q: Begin with a Question U: Understand the objection (with more clarifying questions) I : Identify the reason behind the objection E: Empathize with the prospect's objection T: Test the objection. Q: Questions Our 1-day sales training SALES POWER , is taught 7 times a year. Often participants are given a test at the end of the course on how they can handle the top 10 most common objections. One of the most effective is to turn the prospect's statement into a question.  When the prospect says, "Your price is too high", you simply pause, lower your voice, and respond, "You mean the price (pause) is too high for you ?"  You are now asking further questions to clarify the prospect's objection so as to UNDERSTAND and IDENTIFY the reason behind the reason.  Usually the reason is not they cannot afford it, but they cannot see the value in what

Many working people tell me (in our training courses) that it's hard to keep the momentum going and they are feeling tired at work.   We know that if you are drained at work, your productivity will go down.  This will make you feel even more tired as you are not making headways at work.  If left unchecked, you will soon reach burnt-out stage.  Thus all employees, including bosses, must ensure that they don't checked out at work.  The following are the 7 proven ways that everyone can remain fresh and not get drained at work: Keep a Fresh Perspective every 90 days .  Every 3 months, take a fresh look at your job and its contributions to the society.  You'll realize that your work is not as stale as what it seems.  For we know that as long as you dig deep into your work, you will discover gems at your work. Take short breaks (5 to 10 minutes) every 2 to 3 hours  at work.  If this is too much for your boss, you don't have to take smoking breaks; all you need to do i

"You can make a great product, but you have to convince people that what you are selling is greater".   CEO John Sculley, in his famous speech to Apple Computer staff in 1983, said, "We are not selling computers, we are selling what people can do with computers.  A tool for the mind, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is limitless". Indeed, in sales, if you just sell a product or service, you are very much limited in how much you can sell.  But the moment you turn your selling into what your product or service can do for the customer, you can sell anything .  There is simply no limit in your selling.  Just look at the phenomenal sales of iPad and Samsung Galaxy phones and you will know what I'm talking about. The following are the 5 most common ways to be limitless in your selling: The Money that Can be Made with What You Are Selling.  As long as this money that people get is more than what they are paying, there is value in what you selling. The Money th

It's hard to imagine: South Korea was almost bankrupt 15 years ago in 1998.  Today it boosts the 12th highest per capita GDP ( Purchasing Power Parity ), way above rich countries like Canada, Australia, Belgium, Sweden and including, yes, Singapore.  South Korea also ranks 4th out of 183 countries on Goldman Sachs' Growth Environment Score, which means that they did not sacrifice the environment for growth. Bear in mind that this country of 60 million Oriental people is still at a state of war with its neighbour nuclear-arms infested North Korea.  Also note that South Korea was almost devastated from the 3-year Korean War in 1950-1953, plus the exploitation by Japan for 50 years up to World War II. How did the Koreans did it?  I was in Korea for a one-week holiday and from I gathered at the museums, streets and institutions, there are 5 factors that we all can learn from them: Self-Sacrifice - the Koreans sacrificed their personal belongings to rescue theie country from

As an employee, it is your wish to earn more but work less this year. Otherwise, how are you going to improve your quality of life and work life balance?  Unknown to many people, it is possible to work less (really work less hours) but earn more (from promotion, bonus and incentives).  The following are the 5 most common ways that we teach to our clients: Higher Skills - either move up to management level or become even more specialized and be an expert in your work.  Higher skills also mean skills that are of higher demand , like leadership, sales and communication skills.  Studies in Australia show that if you attend at least 2 courses in a month (totalling 8 hours), your chance of getting a promotion in this year increases by 43%.  One of the fastest and free ways to acquire skills is to sign up for corporate training.  Your company will be happy to pay for them because they can get $15,000 cash under the PIC Bonus scheme.  Be More Skilful , which means to be very mindful

How people think: if you have been having 3 boys in a row, you will think that your chance of a girl the next round will be high.  Truth is that the gender of your next child has nothing to do with the gender of the previous child.  This is because each sex has an equal probability independent of the last one .  The failure to recognize this is called ' Gambler's Fallacy ', which reflects how people make mistake in their decisions by mistaking that the past will predict the future . Anyone that try to foretell your fortune for 2014 will end up being wrong most of the time, simply because they base their prediction on the past. We all know the failures of companies like HTC, Nokia and Blackberry: they produce their products based on past demand and end up with excessive stocks. The truth is that everything that happen today is made up of many factors happening not just now, but in the past .   There is no one single factor that we can attribute to any success of fail

Salespeople are known to be a different breed of people, and top management often do not treat them the same way as they treat office people.  They say that you must give salespeople lots of freedom, just make sure that they achieve your sales targets and everything will be fine.  Is it so? From our experience in managing, training and coaching salespeople, there are 5 fetters that all salespeople must avoid if they want to be more successful: Sales as War - such a aggressive approach will imprison salespeople to constantly win battles with a 'out to kill' mindset.  If we were to examine closely, we discover that t he biggest war the salesperson need to fight is not with the marketplace but within himself . A good salesperson work on improving himself first before he can conquer the market . Sales as Entertainment .  Here the salesperson simply believes that all customers must be entertained in order to get the business.  We know that the focus on entertainment will mak

In this world of mobile phones and tablets, it is hard to be heard as people will hardly listen to you when you speak.  This is because everyone is so busy looking at their own screens that they will not hear your screams. Many people lamented that youngsters today have no respect for elders. Employers complained in our training courses that their employees often do not follow their instructions.  Salespeople talked about the good old days when customers would simply believe everything that they said.  Teachers increasingly find it difficult to get their message across, regardless of how hard they try. It seems that nobody listens anybody.  Is there something that we can mention so that people will listen to us immediately?  The answer is: Benefits. Benefits is the world's most common language.  It is read in the mind as ' What's In It for Me ?'  Psychologists said that the moment you mention benefits, people open up their minds and they will start to listen

All managers must avoid 2 deadly pitfalls or risk being redundant: 1. Control - Too little control or too much control is a problem. Too little control would mean not having rules, but most often we see rules not followed and management never do much about it. For example, many companies have rules on working hours, but ask yourself how many management actually work to ensure that people come to work punctually? Many people have got used to being late, and the common excuse is they work late, so they can come late for work. Many don't know that this is causing some issues in teamwork, e.g. if some people are not here by 8.30 am, how am I going to get certain things done without them? So as a manager, make sure that you set the rules of the game. A good rules of the game is Values. Values like honesty and 'Go Extra Mile' must be laid down and followed by all staff. 2. Losing Their Voice: It's easy for people to lose their voice after working in the company

There was a King in ancient India who had four wives.  Naturally, he loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with all the riches in life.  He thought that she love him too. The King was also very proud of his 3rd wife and always showed her off to neighbouring kingdoms. The King's 2nd wife was his confidant.  She was always kind, considerate and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem, he could confide in her, and she would help him get through the difficult times. As for the King's 1st wife, she was his loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom.  However, the King did not love the first wife, that's why he married 3 other wives.   In fact he hardly took notice of her! One day, the King fell ill and he knew that he was going to die. He thought of his 3 wives (except the 1st wife) and wish that they will follow him so that he can continue to enjoy life with them in the other world.  So he asked the 4th w

We all have this experience: there is dispute between us and another person.  If we insist that we are right, they will start to dislike us.  Soon there will be quarrels and exchange of bad feelings. We also know that it is hard to find agreement or consensus immediately. If we let such bad feelings linger on, relationships will be affected. Whether we disagree with people, or they have complaints about us, if we want to diffuse tension and move people towards us, we must make them like us immediately. The strategy is very simple: make yourself same as them . Psychologists told us that once people see sameness in us, their hostility towards us goes down immediately.  Sameness creates rapport, with rapport there is trust. And if your tonality is warm, they will like you instantly.  Like this morning, I received a complaint call from a person that received our email blasts.  She was angry but I told her that it must be a computer error, for our computer was too affected by a v

It's strange but true: those that are very concerned of being right often end up being wrong most of the time!  You can see such people everyday: they are so focused on being right (efficient) that they end up being wrong (ineffective).  We call such people busy for nothing!  When you're concerned of being right, your focus is on yourself and not on serving others.  You'll become selfish, and people will dislike you for that.  Also, to be right means that you cannot be wrong, and it means that you cannot take risk.  We know that those that never take risk end up never being wrong: because they just simply didn't do anything!  So by not taking risk you will end up doing nothing! Furthermore, people that want to be right often close their minds to alternatives.  As a result, they are dogmatic, inflexible and often lose touch with modern times. People that want to be right plan very well, but their plans often fail because they didn't consider other issues, e

Mention the word training and most people would think of going back to school. Some will equate training to those long sessions into the nights where you would be challenged to do the impossible like cutting a cane with your neck.  There are some who think that training is for people who are not up to the par, high performers, they say, do not need training. Recently, most people know that training is a competitive tool to outsell your competition, for the government's PIC scheme gives 60% cash or 400% tax deduction for training. Yet we know deep inside use that the purpose of training is not the accumulation of knowledge and skills, but the use and application of such knowledge and skills to bring about change withi n us .  For when we change, then would our teamwork and organization change.  The teachings of trainers is to help us develop a good mindset so that we can think and act skilfully, not randomly.  Then the productivity and profits of the organization can improve

Yes, everybody work for a living but we need to be happy at work or we will be working like slaves.  Whether you are working for a large MNC, local SME or medium-sized company, if you too want to get ahead and get the promotion and bonus that you desire, you need to have high work satisfaction. You'll know that you have work satisfaction when you can keep on working and never feel tired.  If not, you are having work frustration and not work satisfaction.  The following are the 5 Cs ways to have high work satisfaction: Competency . Make sure that you have the capability to do your work well. If you find that you always struggle at work and have to be reprimanded frequently by customers or bosses, it means that your competency is below the passing mark. Get trained by your company or sign up for external courses .  The 3 most common courses are communication , management and sales . Create Value.  You must not just work but really create value in your work.  The way to see i

In this age of high land cost and high staff cost, how can companies increase their sales at the least cost?  Are there proven ways that you too can win new customers effortlessly ?  By 'effortlessly', we don't mean without effort but things that you do with your heart that it seems like effortless , like when we update our status on facebook, watch videos on youtube and play games on iPad Air. There are 7 Ways that companies can win new customers effortlessly: Referrals , because what customers say are more believable than what salespeople say .  Referrals have 7 types: word of mouth referral, testimonials referral, word of social media referral, word of print referral, referral by action, referral by suppliers and referral by enemies.  Phone-Mail-Phone Marketing .  Yes, the Personal Data Protection Act, which takes effect on 1 Jan 2014, does not include marketing to companies.  That means that you can still market to companies via the phone but cannot do that to c

As we know, human beings are capable of doing anything and if we don't set rules, there will be chaos at the workplace. Just look at the number of politics fighting in the office and you'll know what I am talking about. In our trainings , we teach 5 Precepts to follow . By the way, there are no penalty for not obeying the precepts, but if you follow them, you will be protected from harm at work.   Value Work , that is, treat your work seriously and don't do anything that will jeopardize your career, like taking things home from the office Respect the Happiness of Others, which includes not to create unhappiness among colleagues like spreading rumours Respect for Personal Freedom, that is, the right of a person to say 'No'.  Many a times this precept is ignored and we see supervisors forcing employees to do overtime. On the other hand, we also see employees asking from their employer for the sky and cannot take 'no' as the answer Refraining from F