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Answer Upon - The Seven Deadly Business Sins
Many people who choose to explore the culinary arts sometimes have a pre disposition for Culinary Arts Training, and some do not discover their interest and talents for this field until later in life. It is necessary to have creativity if you want to be a chef. You will need to be creative with the recipes and ingredients as well as plate presentation. One thing a chef is responsible for is coming up with new and exciting dishes. A great sense of creativity can help accomplish this and help you find new ways to prepare old standards. You will also need c
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attenti
Details (yuck!) are the bane of a sales professional’s existence.None of us wants to crunch puny little numbers throughout the day. Save that for the accountants who eat that stuff up.Let us be free to sell, sell, and sell some more. The only puny numbers we’re interested in are numbers like ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’, as in the number one followed by lots and lots of zeros. Give us a nice round number like $1,000,000 … that’ll put a smile on the faces of just about every professional who sells!Ah, but here’s the rub … those puny, little num
You may recognize some of these sins in others. If they make you feel uncomfortable, good. Take action now to correct the problems standing in the way of your success. In ascending order of importance they are:
7. Not using your professional team
You’ve got an accountant, a lawyer, a banker, an insurance agent, and probably a financial planner. They are a resource that you can choose to use or ignore. These are knowledgeable professionals whose expertise is invaluable, if you use it wisely. When I hired my lawyer, I told him I expected him to keep me out of trouble, not defend me after I got into trouble. Make them members of your team. Keep them informed and get feedback before you make any major decision or commitment.
6. Lack of Systems and Procedures
If you were in an accident and unconscious for three days could your business run without you? Do you have an operations manual? Even if you can be at your business every day, would you hire a fox to guard the henhouse? Of course you wouldn’t. You’d even keep an eye on your trusted dog. So why would you let a single employee control all your deposits, write all your checks, or provide pricing to customers without a second pair of eyes checking the transactions? As President Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Put procedures in place to protect your business.
5. Failing to plan
Some businesses succeed by accident and some people win the lottery but most who consistently succeed in business do so because they develop a good plan and then follow that plan. Sure things change, but if you don’t know where you want to go it really doesn’t matter which road you take. Failing to plan is planning to fail! So, plan the work and then work the plan.
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attentio
I once worked on a company funded by Pierre Lamond, veteran Venture Capitalist at Sequoia Capital. During the interview, Pierre asked me, “How old is your father? What does he do? Is he retired?” I explained, that my father (in his sixties) is an entrepreneur, and will never retire, because he still has too many things that he wants to accomplish, and that he will die trying to get through as many of them as possible, and not run out of things to try. Pierre nodded and said, “I don’t understand 50-year old executives who want to play Golf all day.”
7. Not using your professional team
You’ve got an accountant, a lawyer, a banker, an insurance agent, and probably a financial planner. They are a resource that you can choose to use or ignore. These are knowledgeable professionals whose expertise is invaluable, if you use it wisely. When I hired my lawyer, I told him I expected him to keep me out of trouble, not defend me after I got into trouble. Make them members of your team. Keep them informed and get feedback before you make any major decision or commitment.
6. Lack of Systems and Procedures
If you were in an accident and unconscious for three days could your business run without you? Do you have an operations manual? Even if you can be at your business every day, would you hire a fox to guard the henhouse? Of course you wouldn’t. You’d even keep an eye on your trusted dog. So why would you let a single employee control all your deposits, write all your checks, or provide pricing to customers without a second pair of eyes checking the transactions? As President Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Put procedures in place to protect your business.
5. Failing to plan
Some businesses succeed by accident and some people win the lottery but most who consistently succeed in business do so because they develop a good plan and then follow that plan. Sure things change, but if you don’t know where you want to go it really doesn’t matter which road you take. Failing to plan is planning to fail! So, plan the work and then work the plan.
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attenti
A use case details a flow of events that are executed in order to accomplish some business task. A use case can be as simple as documenting how a help ticket gets escalated or as complex as defining how a customer gets charged for shipping parts of an order to multiple addresses.The term "actor" is used to define a role that a person or some object plays in executing a use case. The actor might be a Customer Service Representative who is processing a refund request, or a server that processes credit card transactions.Writing usable use case
6. Lack of Systems and Procedures
If you were in an accident and unconscious for three days could your business run without you? Do you have an operations manual? Even if you can be at your business every day, would you hire a fox to guard the henhouse? Of course you wouldn’t. You’d even keep an eye on your trusted dog. So why would you let a single employee control all your deposits, write all your checks, or provide pricing to customers without a second pair of eyes checking the transactions? As President Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Put procedures in place to protect your business.
5. Failing to plan
Some businesses succeed by accident and some people win the lottery but most who consistently succeed in business do so because they develop a good plan and then follow that plan. Sure things change, but if you don’t know where you want to go it really doesn’t matter which road you take. Failing to plan is planning to fail! So, plan the work and then work the plan.
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attenti
My email inbox is out of control. So is my mailbox. And there’s that pile of newspapers and magazines sitting over there...Some days I can barely skim the subjects of my emails, or flip through my mail. It makes me wonder if my email and marketing messages are getting read, or lost in someone else’s stack.Whether you’re sending out a marketing message, or simply corresponding with a client, your message has to get read. But how?It’s your personality.Most of the copy I read is full of jargon and lacks warmth. The images
5. Failing to plan
Some businesses succeed by accident and some people win the lottery but most who consistently succeed in business do so because they develop a good plan and then follow that plan. Sure things change, but if you don’t know where you want to go it really doesn’t matter which road you take. Failing to plan is planning to fail! So, plan the work and then work the plan.
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attenti
If you hold information you hold knowledge and power and it is worth something, but how much? Well we know from intrinsic valuations that something is worth whatever someone else will give you for it. But how much will they give you? Ah ha, now you see why selling information can be such a tricky job and why it can be such a lucrative career. The key is to finding who needs the information most and what they are willing to pay you for it. Then you must make protect the information so you can sell it again.Selling information can be a difficult end
4. Ignoring your customers
Have you told your customers lately that you love them? Unless you are the only business in town, your competition is trying to convince your customers to become theirs. Research has shown that for the majority of consumers the intangibles like customer service, quality and convenience are more important than price. If your business is like many service businesses, you probably get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers. Invest 80% of your attention in your best customers.
3. Doing, not leading
Many people spend too much time working “in” their business instead of working “on” their business. Leaders determine the goals and the direction of the company. Managers implement that plan and employees do the work. You are responsible for setting the tone, not doing the work. Get the train moving and then control the speed. Don’t shovel the coal. Ask yourself, “What is the highest and best use of my time?” Focus on the important things in business and life.
2. Not collecting receivables
I had a client once who said, “Billing is one procedure, Payment is another.” He believed in one but not the other. The majority of businesses that fail do so for lack of cash flow, not debt burden. Make sure your customers understand and agree to the price and terms and then follow up with them before payment is due to prevent problems. Recognize and reward prompt payment.
1. Making your business the most important thing in your life
Okay, I admit that this will probably not result in the failure of your business. As a coach I have to ask you to think about it, though. Why are you in business? What’s the purpose? What’s your goal? If I asked your friends and family what’s important in your life, what would they say?
Committing these sins won’t guarantee your failure, and renouncing them won’t guarantee your success. But, as a business owner, wouldn’t you prefer to invest your time and money in something that is more likely to pay off? Business owners who embrace good practices are much more likely to achieve their goals, experience less stress, and enjoy a more rewarding personal life.
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