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What’s your bully?

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Business coaching Brisbane

One of the reasons that people can’t make New Year resolutions and achieve personal goals is that they can’t extricate themselves from difficult situations they are already in.  It is hard to move on when you are trapped.  In this case I am talking about being trapped at work by a bully.  So this year, I am going to use this blog to shine a light on workplace bullies.  Together we are going to identify, shame, and prosecute a few.

Workplace bullies come in all shapes and sizes; commonly male but not always.  I have seen quite a few and it seems to me that they all have one thing in common.  That is, fear.  It is an inbuilt ‘fear of lack’ developed over a long period of time.  It comes from feeling insecure about some personal attribute – e.g. wealth, status, intelligence, competence, looks, height, popularity, libido.   It probably goes deeper than that but I’m not a psychologist.

Probing and knowing the cause doesn’t excuse the misery bullies cause but it does suggest how fragile they would be if we could strip away their props – e.g. the power, authority, and status symbols, not to mention eradicating that traditional festering environment called the average workplace.

It is my view that most workplace environments enable and empower bullies.  They are simply built for it.  The same structure that supposedly elicits the best work results is the one that causes most misery to its people.  It simply allows relationships that don’t exist elsewhere.  The age-old hierarchical structure and the master-servant relationships of the workplace are tailor made for the underachiever looking to slip the collar of self control and respect for others.

Send me your bullying stories and let’s act.

Establishing a positive focus

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When it comes to achieving your goals, your mindset needs to be a positive one, extending forward into abundance.  It really helps to overcome inertia; and to generate positive action, movement and momentum.

You can’t afford to sit in a puddle with your mind dwelling on the negative, focusing on retreat, cutting back, making do, substituting secondhand, doing without and stretching every dollar as far as possible.

Repeating a silent plea for more money is not focused, positive thinking.  It is merely wishing; born out of desperation.  There is not one positive action that supports it, and people can smell desperation a mile away.

Own the solution, not the problem!!  If you don’t, you will drive yourself nuts blaming others for your misfortune or lack of achievement; somehow justifying to yourself that you are a special case; convincing yourself that you are trapped in poverty and every door is closed to you.

If friends and colleagues also share your misery, find some new friends.  Like attracts like and misery loves company.  Your first step to freeing your mind is to talk to someone who sees the positive side of life.

If you would like to read more about Aikido in everyday life, check out my blog at http://aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

It is never too late!

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Business coaching Brisbane

Following the powerful mind development principles of Aikido

Learning the art of Aikido was a sea change for me! When I learnt how to relax and maintain a calm mind under pressure, I discovered the ability to think very clearly.

For the most part, stress gradually became a thing of the past as I slowly worked out how not to put pressure on myself. Maintaining a calm mind under pressure is a much easier thing to do when you don’t feel pressure in the first place.

As a result, life became much more enjoyable. I worked through and solved some health problems and am still actively on the path of becoming healthier than I have been in a decade.

Even the process of making money changed. It is now a much more enjoyable activity because I go with my own flow and choose what I want to do and who I want to do it with.

Real wealth started to flow in my life when I learnt to relax my mind and stay calm. Aikido was 100% responsible for my change of mindset. By real wealth I mean wellness, happiness, family, good friends as well as money.

Real wealth is so much more of a well rounded concept than the mere pursuit of money. It’s hard to believe before you have experienced it but when everything else is aligned, money just happens.

If you want to follow the same path I did, then stop fighting against yourself.  Be happy with who you are and quit resisting the perception of others being luckier and things not going your way.  Find your peace and develop an ethic of calm positive action.  If you do, you will find that the money flows.

In business terms, money is not the strategy itself it is the result of the strategy. When I feel relaxed and I am in a calm frame of mind, I find that money just flows. Worry and stress throws it into reverse and puts money further out of reach.

If you would like to learn more about the powerful principles of Aikido and apply them to your business, check out my blog at http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

Business coaching Brisbane with a difference!

Call Gary on 0408 756 531 or send an email to gary@garyweigh.com

Your success saboteurs

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Business coaching Brisbane

Following the powerful principles of Aikido

Opportunity is often waiting for you to get out of the way!    Subconsciously, it is easy to get in the way and sabotage your own success by doing your best to keep everything the same.  Your two friends ‘fear’ and ‘self doubt’ are the culprits, so you need to find ways to silence them.

Self sabotage presents itself as a sudden stop on an initiative you were enthusiastic about a week ago and making excuses for not continuing to act and follow through.  The most common excuses for not following through on initiatives and new strategies are bushfires at work that need urgent attention or other more routine things need attention.

Once procrastination sets in, you are back on business flat-line.  The opportunity slowly fades away; there is no new life and no growth.  You attempted to break out, gave it a shot and nothing happened.  How frustrating!  Everything is exactly the same.  Welcome to the world of self sabotage.

The way out of this inertia is to recognise your avoidance behaviour and kick-start some momentum.  A very easy way to do this is to set your self up for small successes.  This means setting incredibly simple and achievable goals, not going too far out of your comfort zone and taking very small steps forward.

Another sure fire remedy for fear and self doubt is to connect with positive people.  These can be business friends, favourite clients or your mentor / business coach.  Positive collaboration does wonders for the soul.  Networking with other positive business people is an ideal strategy.

Nothing inspires further success like success itself. So keep your momentum going!  When small successes are easily achieved, make the steps a little bigger.  Keep making positive connections with other people.

Watch out for negative people who seek to slow you down or drag you back.  After a while you will feel their negative energy as soon as they come near you.  Avoid them at all costs.

If you would like to learn more about the powerful principles of Aikido and apply them to your business, check out my blog at http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

Business coaching Brisbane with a difference!

Call Gary on 0408 756 531 or send me an email to gary@garyweigh.com

Do you lack business understanding?

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Business coaching Brisbane

If only business was as simple as buying at one price and selling at another to make a profit. It should be that, but most overcomplicate it due to lack of understanding. Nevertheless, it is this blissfully simplistic notion that will seduce you and many other new entrants in launching a business enterprise, blind to the reality of what lies ahead and riding high on the dream of wealth and riches.

It is easy not to pay sufficient attention to the customer and it is even easier to avoid some of the more mind-numbing administration issues such as finance, inventory, cash flow, leasing, employment, industrial issues, occupational health & safety, compliance, licensing conditions, taxation and superannuation. Such avoidance and neglect can quickly unravel a promising enterprise.

Few new entrants fully understand what operating a business really means and it is almost impossible to gain such an appreciation until you have stood by the cash register and lived on nothing else but the sales you make. A University degree will not provide a true perspective, only experience from time served in business can do that.

I guess that is why Winston Churchill said that “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”.

For all your professional business coaching Brisbane needs call Gary on 0408 756 531

What exactly is financial control?

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Business coaching in Brisbane

An important part of my business coaching in Brisbane is teaching financial control.  It is a fact that many small businesses fail because of poor financial management.

Financial control is about understanding the financial performance of your business and then taking steps to improve it.  To be effective, the control measures must provide financial information in real time. 

So what about your annual financial statements, are they of any use? 

Your accountant typically prepares an income statement and balance sheet several months after the close of the financial year.  The purpose is not financial control.  It is purely and simply compliance – the preparation of your business tax return.

Obtaining financial information via your tax accountant some 6-18 months after the event is useless for meaningful decision making .  Information that will truly aid your business decision making needs to be current.  That is, captured today, acted on tomorrow. 

There are a few key measures used by financial performance specialists that will reveal all about your business.  However, none of those can be calculated until you have a system that will capture current information about your business in a usable form.

So the first step is always to have a user friendly accounting system that is built to handle Australian accounting standards and protocols.  To make it work effectively though, you must set up the accounts properly in the first place.  This is the base upon which you will build your financial control system so it is important to seek professional help upfront.

Until next time!

Gary

#1 for business coaching in Brisbane

Call direct on 0408 756 531

Email gary@garyweigh.com

MLM business – go in with your eyes wide open

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For business coaching Brisbane call Gary direct 0408 756 531

Gary Weigh

Lesson #1 in my business coaching Brisbane practice is, “Go in with your eyes wide open!”  There are many things to think about if you are considering being a distributor in a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) organisation, including:

  1. Many people are going to cringe at the offer of an incredible ground floor business opportunity and relationships may be burned along the way.  However, if the products are good enough, customers should be asking you how to join as a distributor.
  2. Don’t be enticed by the perception of easy money.  Focus on the products and everything you do to satisfy and support your customers.  The product should be something of quality with high repeat demand.  It can’t merely be a cover for the flow of commission through a pyramid shaped network.
  3. Don’t be hooked by ‘the dream’ – the vision of wealth and lifestyle.  If you do, building a business may become a secondary consideration.  It is essential to set goals but keep your feet firmly on the ground and your head out of the clouds.
  4. There is a certainty (mathematically at least) that in time, your market area will become crowded with the very distributors you recruited; and by some you didn’t recruit.  There is no contractual protection of markets or territories.  It is survival of the fittest, so you must ensure that you and your business are the fittest.
  5. There must be a balance between selling product and recruiting distributors.  While many focus on recruiting only, someone somewhere along the line has to buy the product.  As in any business, your customers, together with quality products and quality service should be your primary areas of focus.

Understanding what you are dealing with is the first step in making your part of the MLM organisation a success.  Realise now that the majority of distributors will be unsuccessful.  Some will get caught up in the hype and will not focus on reality, while others will simply wither on the vine because they can’t sell product and / or can’t recruit distributors.

Those who start earlier or are nearer the top of the pyramid in their target geographical area are more likely to make money.  Those who start later and find themselves nearer the bottom of the pyramid in an area that is becoming distributor / product saturated are more likely to struggle.

So it will pay you to do some research in your target area before you commit.  Like any business, customer care and repeat sales are the keys.  They in turn depend on the quality of your communication and support, together with the strength of your relationships.

Note: I do not operate any form of MLM business, and I have no affiliations with MLM organisations.  I am an independent, professional specialising in business business coaching in Brisbane.  I am expressing my own views based on 25 years of coaching experience.  I have coached and advised clients who have participated in MLM business, and some who have sought advice before committing.   I have coached many more clients who have not participated in MLM business.  So if you would like an independent appraisal of any business opportunity, please contact me.

Use milestones on your goal journey

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Good goal setting can help you set up the whole picture of your business.   If it helps you, break down your main goals into bite size bits so that you can organise yourself around them.

To do this, insert some milestones along the way.  In other words, you may have to pass two or three milestones before you reach one of your main goals.

Milestones are signs along the way that show you that you are still on the right path and reassure you that your journey to the main goal is closing fast.  So instead of one main goal that takes months to achieve, you now have a multi-part goal that allows you to tick off completed tasks every month or even every week.

Example 1

For example, let’s say my main ‘build or create’ goal is “to start a specialist consulting business in the building industry by 30th June”.  My milestones along the way might be:

Milestone 1. Find an office space at desired rent by end of February

Milestone 2. Lease / buy equipment and fitout office by end of April

Milestone 3. Hire & train staff or arrange outsourcers by mid June

Achieve main goal. Open for business by end of June

Example 2

Let’s say my ‘customer attract’ goal is “to attract 200 customers by the end of year 1”.  I can simply break this down to what must be done each week – i.e. about 4 paying customers per week.

Example 3

Let’s say my ‘future exit’ goal for my consulting business is to build a saleable asset (i.e. my business) that has a value of $1M in 10 years time.

(For the sake of simplicity I am omitting the effects of inflation and the present value of future dollars)

So working backwards, I will need sustainable earnings (i.e. bottom line, before interest and tax), of say $200,000 per year.  That assumes my selling price ($1M) is the equivalent to a capitalisation of 5 times my sustainable earnings rate ($200,000).

(Be careful – the 5 times capitalisation rate I used is an example only and varies widely with the type of business, industry factors and economic conditions)

I will probably need to demonstrate 3-4 years of stable, sustainable earnings for my sale at year-10, so I will set the first time that I earn $200,000 net earnings as my year-6 goal.

Therefore, I will make my year 1 profit goal $50,000 and I will endeavour to add $30,000 to my net profit in each of the following 5 years to boost it to $200,000 by year-6.  This is as big as I want to grow and it is also the limit of my current service capacity.

So in year-1, to achieve a $50,000 net profit, my sales will be $150,000 at a gross profit margin of 60% with fixed overheads of $40,000 (example only).

To achieve $150,000 sales I must sell my services to 200 customers at an average of $750 each (example only).  At a 5-to-1 strike rate, I will have to make 1,000 calls in the year which is about 20 each week or 5 each working day.

So starting at your ‘future exit’ goal and working backwards is another way of arriving at today’s ‘customer attract’ goal.

By breaking down your goals and adding milestones, you are creating a ‘goal journey’.  Now you can decide before you start whether your goal journey is achievable or whether it sounds a bit too hard.

Until next time!

Gary

Business coaching Brisbane – read my previous post for more on goal setting

Interested in the art of business peace?

Check out http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

To learn Aikido in Brisbane visit http://www.griffithaikido.com.au

In 2011 set a goal to start your journey

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In goal setting, every journey starts with a destination in mind.  Operating a business is a major life journey that is rivalled in time and commitment only by your major life relationships.

One of the real risks of rushing into business without adequate planning is that if you don’t control your business early, it will control you.  There are so many forces and influences that can pull, push and buffet you all over the market place.  So it is good to start as you mean to go on.  That is, in an organised way, with you at the helm!

It is critical to start the control process early by having control over what you ultimately build and where you take it.  That, in plain English means starting out with a plan; not a 300-page business plan full of boring detail, but a brief and to-the-point chart of your journey, as you know it now.

I would argue that the most important feature of your plan is your goal setting.  Although dreaming up a few goals sounds easy, this is the part of business planning that most people struggle with.

What goals should I set?

If you are stuck for ideas, try formulating these three (3) main goals:

    1. A ‘create and build’ goal
    2. A ‘customer attract’ goal
    3. A ‘future exit’ goal

The first two goals are self explanatory but the last goal sounds as if it doesn’t belong.  Why worry about exiting before you have even started?  Because ‘future exit’ means eventually extracting the ‘value’ of your business in cash by sale or other means.

Therefore, you need to concentrate on building up that value from the start.  The value you build up is a function of assets purchased, goodwill built up, and profits made over time.  ‘Future exit’ is a great way to bundle all your financial goals.

How do I set goals?

Your main goals need to be AAA goals.  That is:

  • Attractive (you must truly want to achieve it)
  • Achievable (it is within your grasp)
  • Action-linked (it must link directly to actions on your action plan)

A word of caution!

In setting your goals, you are preparing to live your truth.  That means you will achieve your goals only if you truly want to.  If you set goals that deep down you are not motivated to achieve, then you have set the wrong goals.  You are setting yourself up for a fall.  Set your heartfelt truth as your goals.

This is why I bang on about starting a business for the right reasons.  If you are in it for the wrong reasons then achieving goals is going to be the world’s biggest chore.

Until next time!

Gary

Internet Marketing

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The internet has become the source of information on products and business for users around the world. Mastering even the most basic concepts of internet marketing can increase income for any online or offline business.

Being able to market a product, service or information, globally online, to the demographic of your choice is very convenient and ideal for those on a tight budget.  The use of internet marketing still does not appeal to all businesses or all customers, mostly for security reasons.

However, it can attract a whole new segment of online customers and enhance any business.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an aspect of internet marketing that allows any business to advertise their product and business by focusing on the search facilities of major search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc).

Whilst there is a lot more to comprehensive art of internet marketing, SEO is a cost effective strategy for every static web site that hangs out in cyber space with no passing traffic.  And there are millions of them!

Whilst SEO is not simple and requires the services of a skilled technician, it has been far more cost effective for my clients than the offline equivalent of renting offline advertising space on roadside billboards.

I dare say that internet marketing will also spell the end for printed book-form directories.  Even now, my clients are giving me feedback that they are expensive and largely ineffective.  The reason is that every body searches online.  So why not go where the customers are?

Although internet marketing provides global reach in a very cost effective manner, it does come with its own disadvantages.  These are mostly to do with the perception of poor security as the result of the rising incidence of cyber-criminals, mean spirited hackers and the prevalence of PC viruses.

Until next time

Gary