You hear it almost every night on TV.  Buy insurance direct and avoid the unwanted medicals.  Well here is the other side of the story – some business management tips, and tips for all individuals considering insurance.  When you purchase personal risk insurance through a licensed adviser, you will have a product recommended to you that suits your needs.  You will also have someone to explain the fine print to you, and to arrange everything for you.

So here is what really happens when you seek advice from an insurance adviser in Australia:

1. Very few people are required to have a full medical for insurance purposes
2. Most policies are accepted on the strength of your medical disclosure in the application and the report from your regular doctor (you agree to that in the initial application)
3. You do not have to go to a doctor and pay for medical testing to get insurance
4. If an insurance company wants you to undergo any medical test, they pay for it.  Because it is an expense to them, they try to keep all medical testing to a minimum
5. Occasionally a blood test or other test is required.  If so, a registered nurse or other qualified professional from a specialist insurance medical testing service will arrange to see you at home or at work at a time convenient to you.  It takes 5 minutes.
6. Most insurers have a tele-underwriting service where an underwriter will talk to you about your medical history over the phone in about 20 minutes.  You don’t spend hours filling in forms.
7. If you apply for insurance that is personally underwritten, you will get a very competitive price because the insurer knows exactly the risk you represent to them.  You will also know up front what you are covered for and not covered for.
8. Underwriting at application stage generally means that unless you fail to disclose information or you tell a lie, you are certain to be paid at claim time.  If you are not underwritten when you first apply, you may have the insurer asking these same questions when you make a claim.
9. Insurance medical testing saves lives.  Many people have had their lives saved by finding out through an insurance requested blood test that they have a serious medical condition

Yes it is true that you will pay a fee to an adviser or the adviser will receive upfront and ongoing commission from the insurer.  It depends on the adviser however, every professional is entitled to be paid for what they do.  However, you will not necessarily save that cost by going direct, and you certainly won’t receive unbiased advice.

Personal risk insurance is must for business owners.  One final comment in this week’s business management tips:

“Ownership of an insurance policy is a crucial issue.  In the event of a claim, the money needs to be paid to where the protection is needed.  That could be to you the owner or your family; or to the business  (company or trust) if your business equity or a key person in your business is the subject of insurance protection.”

Make your superannuation commission free!!

Why pay an adviser you never see?

The post Business management tips – risk insurance first appeared on Gary Weigh.

Business management tips Australia

In my view, there is an inverse relationship between number of meetings and increasing profit.  In other words, more meetings less profit!

A lot of time can be wasted each week with so-called business meetings.  I think meetings that don’t have a direct link to key financial objectives are useless.  They serve little purpose other than making participants feel busy and included.

It has been my observation that universities and public service organisations thrive on them.  Quite often an organisation’s entire decision making system can be based in a system of meetings.

Even though these organisations have to operate inside budgets and pay their way, no individual’s income is directly affected by the meeting outcome.  The only purpose seems to be one of accountability and equity.  That is, everyone knowing what’s happening; everyone having their say and keeping as many people as possible happy.

In the real world, a meeting where the underlying purpose is not somehow profit-driven is unproductive.  No innovative and profit-oriented business in the private sector can stand too many meetings.  In fact, most meetings tend to actively stifle innovation and therefore profit.  The larger the group, the less likely is change.  It called the comfort zone.  It is a worrying trend that this tends to happen when small organisations grow larger.

The only worthwhile business meeting is one where the income of one or both participants depends directly on the outcome.  Anything else is pure and unadulterated shooting the breeze and communication alternatives should be considered.

The post Do you attend too many meetings? first appeared on Gary Weigh.

Is there really a product or service that offers peace of mind?  In the conventional sense, there are plenty that represent one less thing to worry about.  But actual peace of mind – the type with calmness and peacefulness without dissension, distraction or self conflict?  Not so many!   Martial and meditative arts spring to mind.  Regarded as leisure sports and pastimes by those that don’t practice these arts, I would recommend them as first class ‘mind development products’.

More specifically, their practice actively engages a process of developing a strong and positive mind.  For me, the art is Aikido, a subtle Japanese art commonly referred to as the art of peace.  It is actually the art of not fighting – internally as well as externally.  It is an art so refined that it actually doesn’t work unless the mind is calm like a millpond and the body is relaxed under both stress and movement.  That makes it a hell of an art to master, or even to be reasonably good at, but it has some mind-blowing development aspects (pardon the pun).

Try it sometime and watch your business boom!

The post A true peace of mind product first appeared on Gary Weigh.

The hallmark of the elite is complete calmness under extreme pressure.  When bullets are flying around their head, or a 20 foot putt stand between them and the green jacket of golf, a calm mind, iron-clad concentration and years of training is what they rely on.   Developing that elusive calm mind is a skill in itself, and also takes considerable practice.   It doesn’t happen naturally when humans are under extreme stress.  The usual adrenalin induced instincts are either ‘fight’ or ‘flight’.   Either can get you wiped out or have your income severely maimed if you don’t know what you are doing.  So either you get yourself some quality training from a quality instructor or you buy yourself some brown corduroy pants!

Gary 0408 756 531

gary@garyweigh.com

The post A calm mind wins the day first appeared on Gary Weigh.

It can be a very costly mistake to assume what customers want.  The smart strategy is to first find out what the needs are and then to set about finding a solution to satisfy it.  It is easy to fall into the trap of being a ‘supply pusher’, where you peddle what you have available to sell instead of responding to what customers actually want.

You wouldn’t be the first to launch into business with what you believe to be a good idea and then focus most of your thinking on the technical side of your product or service offering.  It is common to do everything else but make sales, believing that sales will just magically appear.

Unless you have some serious traction and some supporting promotion, it is a mistake to take for granted that simply by opening the doors for business, customers will magically seek you out and rush to buy.  This rarely happens!  The ‘build it and they will come!’ fantasy may have worked in the movie ‘Field of Dreams’, but it rarely works in practice.

Until next time

Gary

For more business management tips read Customers compete to buy, business should allow them

The post Are you a supply pusher? first appeared on Gary Weigh.

Understanding your customer is paramount and technology is beginning to play a bigger part in this throughout the retail sector.  For business owners looking for business management tips to improve customer targeting skills, and the bolster the bottom line, it is worth taking a look at the uses of IP cameras.

An IP (Internet Protocol) camera is not just a camera.  It is also a computer processor and web server. This combination of technologies makes it possible to record images, compress them and transmit them in IP network or to the Internet.

Each camera has its own IP address and is connected directly to LAN (Local Area Network) or Internet.  Each camera can work completely independently.

The predominant use of IP cameras to date has been that of surveillance and security.  However, they can also be used in retail environments to monitor selected products or aisles and records shopper behavior.

This information can be used to identify barriers to sale or missed sales opportunities for both retailers and product manufacturers.

IP cameras can assist can be used to monitor shopping routes, the amount of time shoppers spend in shopping precincts, in front of specific products, or particular shop aisles.

They can also be used to assess the direction in which a store is walked through, most and least frequented areas, how people browse shelves or how they queue at checkouts.

This ‘tracking’ and ‘dwelling’ information can be displayed to store managers in the form of digital maps.  These help store owners to increase their understanding of the way customers behave and think.

For more business management tips read The mobile phone website revolution is just beginning

Until next time!

Gary

The post IP cameras focus on better customer understanding first appeared on Gary Weigh.

Business Management Tips

Reports of bad service can be aired and multiplied rapidly across social media; and it has the potential to ruin Australian businesses in a short space of time. 

Whether Australian consumers are justified in their complaint or not, the communication power they now hold in airing their opinions can be devastating. 

An American Express dining study found that on average, people are 50% more likely to complain to others, than complain directly to the dining establishment. The study highlighted the popularity of social media as an outlet to air grievances.

An American Express global customer service barometer survey also found that Australians voice their frustrations more often and to more people than most other countries surveyed. 

On average, a disgruntled Australian customer will tell an average of 23 people about bad service compared to an average of 10 they will tell about good service.

It is interesting to note that Australian consumers also tend to avoid direct confrontation with a provider of poor service, but they are not slow in telling everyone else.

This business management tip should spell a warning to business to take good care of their customers.  The responsibility for customer care applies across the entire business, not just to front line sales people.  It also implemented through relationship management, service standards, terms of trade, returns policies and warranty policies.

Until next time!

Gary 

For more business management tips Australia, visit http://garyweigh.com/financial-management-the-key-to-home-and-business-success.html

The post Bad news spreads faster first appeared on Gary Weigh.