Lawrence Fine

So many of us have huge demands coming from many different directions. Everything from friends and family obligations to work requirements to charitable requests. The more we say yes to things, the worse it gets.

The problem is, we are afraid to say no because we think we might be letting someone down or hurting someones feelings.

The reality is, the more over committed we are, the more we are letting people down. Many of us have so many obligations and commitments that we end up doing a poor job with them all.

There comes a point where we just need to say “NO”

No we can’t be a member of that committee.

No we can’t donate to yet another charity.

No we can’t attend yet another work related dinner.

No we can’t take on yet another project.

While you might think saying no is a sign of weakness, you will actually find that it takes a great deal of strength to say no to something.

Sometimes the options are being on 5 committees and not doing a good job on any of them because of a lack of time, or being on 1 committee and doing a great job because you have the time and focus for that one issue.

Rather than get to the point of not being able to do anything well, just say NO!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
1 Comment »

People spend a great deal of time organizing. Whether it’s organizing your closets, organizing your schedule or organizing your business, organizing is an important part of most peoples lives/

It’s important to keep in mind that before you organize something, you should first declutter it.

If your desk is filled with old and unnecessary paperwork, what good does it do to organize this paperwork when the reality is, your should purge (or digitize) most of it instead?

If your closet has a lot of old clothing which you never wear, what good does it do to rearrange these clothes when the proper thing to do would be to donate them to someone who will use it?

If your business has employees who don’t do a good job, what good does it do to restructure the organizational chart when you first should get rid of the people you don’t need?

We spend a lot of time organizing but most of us don’t spend nearly enough time decluttering first.

Get rid of what you don’t need, organize what you do need so they are utilized more efficiently and good things will happen

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

Many of us suffer from occasional bouts with anxiety or depression or other temporary periods that result in emotional discomfort. As an example, when I have to do any form of public speaking, I get extremely nervous. For years, I simply avoided all forms of public speaking however in the past few years, not only did I stop avoiding those types of situation, I went out of my way to create some. I stil get nervous (which might be the understatement of the year) but through the use of visualization, I can quickly calm down to the point where I’m considered to be quite good in these situations these days.

Before I explain how I use visualization to quickly change my emotional state, please understand, the most important thing to do is be prepared (or in my case, I prefer to over prepare so I can be prepared for any situation that might arise. Even if you go into a situation relaxed, you will get stressed out (for good reason) as soon as you realize you are unprepared, so step one is to prepare for almost any situation that might arise.

Once you are prepared and are starting to suffer from these anxious moments, close your eyes and picture yourself in a situation you find relaxing. If you find the beach relaxing, picture yourself walking along the beach enjoying the experience. When you can picture yourself in that environment, you will quickly relax as if you are actually at the beach, If you find it relaxing hiking in the mountains, picture yourself doing that and you will get the same result.

The great thing about this technique is it literally only takes a few seconds and works every time.

Not only can this be done to relax but you can also use this for other purposes as well. If you are experiencing a lack of confidence before a sales pitch, close your eyes and picture yourself doing something that reminds you of a successful experience.

The key to visualization is it requires you to not just picture the situation but to be able to picture yourself in that situation. So it’s not good enough to just visualize the beach, you must visualize yourself at the beach. Put yourself in the picture and it truly works.

It’s difficult to make others to practice visualization because if they don’t believe, it doesn’t work. However, for those who believes, it can help you do tremendous things!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

I was walking past a store the other day (it’s been open for over a month) and they have a temporary banner up instead of a real sign and the shelving in the store was very makeshift.

I went into the store and looked around (the presentation inside the store didn’t provide a warm feeling at all) and the owner struck up a conversation with me. I asked if they were still waiting on their signs and her response was “no, we are waiting to see if the store becomes popular before spending money on signage and decor”.

In other words, she is waiting for customers to make a commitment to her store before she is willing to make a commitment to the store. As a potential customer, I had no confidence at all that this store was going to survive. The temporary approach she was taking will most likely prevent any possibility of permanent success.

If you want others to take you seriously, you must first take yourself seriously.

Look temporary and be temporary. Look permanent and you will increase your chances of being permanent.

By the way, I didn’t buy anything from that store I walked into….I figure I might buy from the next store that is in it’s place.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

When competing (and let’s be honest, we all compete at something whether it’s in sport, in business or in life), there are three reasons we might not win.

The smallest percentage of losses is the result of it just not working out. As an example, two even competitors are competing and one of them has to lose. You didn’t do anything wrong in this case, sometimes, it just happens.

The Bigger percentage is because the opponent is simply better than you. It might be the case of them being bigger, stronger, faster or smarter but most of the time you compete against these people, you will lose. There is nothing to be ashamed of when when losing in this type of competition because we almost all have someone we simply don’t match up well against.

Sadly, the BIGGEST percentage of losses is our own fault. Everything from lack of preparation to poor mental attitude. The reason this is so sad is the BIGGEST percentage of our losses is in the one category we can control.

The good news is…..the biggest percentage of our failures are within our control! Short term, it’s difficult to get much bigger stronger or faster but we can control our preparation, we can control out attitude, we can control our discipline.

The even better news is when we start taking responsibility for our own actions, not only will this BIGGEST category get much smaller but the small category (which some would call unlucky) will also get smaller. This is tied into the golfer who, after making a great chip shot and someone tells him it was a lucky shot responds, “it’s amazing but the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get!”

No matter how much you prepare and how much your attitude improves, with very few exceptions, we all will have some encounters with opponents we don’t match well against (the Bigger group). However, we can significantly lower the size of the BIGGEST and the small groups and this will result in much greater success, whether on a field, court or in boardroom. So much will simply depend on whether you really want to win or whether you simply say you want to win (there is a BIG difference).

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

You have a great deal of potential! How do I know this? Because almost everyone has a great deal of potential at something.

You can accomplish great things!

You can be almost anything you want to be!

You can make a big difference in this world!

You can help many people!

You can help others while also helping yourself!

Creating a win/win scenario where everyone benefits is not only possible, it’s easier than you think!

So the one question is…what is holding you back?

No one can prevent you from achieving your potential (except you)

No one can stop you from doing something great (except you).

Stop making excuses, go do something special…achieve your potential!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

In order to do big things, it requires a big belief in order to overcome the naysayers. While others are afraid of failure, the truly talented are willing to take chances others are not, in order to do something truly remarkable.

While these people who are willing and able to do the remarkable are invaluable to an organization, the truth is they do come with baggage. As great a player as Michael Jordon was for the Chicago Bulls, while he was responsible for many wins and many championships, dealing with someone of that level brings problems as well. In order to be that successful on the court required a large ego and while some might not feel it’s worth it, others understand that the rewards (in this case the championships) were worth the risks.

Are you willing to have people in your organization who have big talent but also big egos OR are you more concerned about maintaining a harmonious environment at the risk of losing the big talents?

If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment to check out my new book at http://lawrencefine.com/sales.php

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

At first, it might seem impossible to sell something for less than you bought it for and still make a profit but if you really understand pricing and expenses, it most certainly is possible.

An example would be a book I purchased recently through Amazon.com. I found the listing for the book and then looked at the options for buying a used copy of the book. There was a copy listed for $0.01 and when I looked at the reviews of the seller (used books frequently are sold on Amazon.com through independent book stores) they were almost all positive. I went ahead with the purchase and paid the $3.99 for standard shipping for a total of $4.00 This shipping price is standard for sellers on Amazon.com so it’s not a case of them charging an exorbitant fee for shipping. I received the book five days after ordering (including the weekend) and the book was in excellent shape. When I went to the sellers web site, I found that they would buy this same book, in the same condition for $0.25 and pay for shipping to them.

The key is to look at all costs to see how they are able to do this. When they purchase books, it’s an automated system where you go to their web site, enter the ISBN number and it lets you know how much they are willing to pay for that book and also how many copies they will buy. There is a minimum of $10 they will pay so in most cases, you would be sending them multiple books. All the seller has to do is put the books in a box and print out the shipping slip and drop the box off at the post office. The shipping slip takes care of the postage and once the books arrive the company evaluates the books to make sure they are in acceptable condition and then sends payment.

When they make a sale (mainly through amazon.com), they ship the book via USPS media mail which costs them $2.74 plus the cost of the shipping material which is around $0.07 based on the quantities they are most likely buying. Including the cost of the label and ink, total shipping cost is around $2.85. They buy the book for $0.25 for a total cost of around $3.20 and make a sale for $4.

You might wonder if it’s really worth doing this for a profit of around $0.80 but then I looked and found that in the past year, they have received over 18000 reviews on amazon.com so they made at least that number of sales (and most are for more then $0.01) and I’m sure it’s many more than that because that is just the people who bought from them and then did a review and I’m sure there are many more who didn’t bother with the review.

While there are other fixed costs in this (the cost of the warehouse, the cost of the web site etc) most of these costs aren’t affected by one more book or one more sale. The key to this type of a business is for them to truly understand all costs involved in transactions in both directions and to automate as much as possible. It wouldn’t work if they had to look up the price manually and give a quote over the phone because the cost in terms of time would be too high. If the shipping labels had to be hand done, it would cost too much so the more they can automate, the less they can charge (assuming they have enough business to cover the costs of the automation in the long run)

Other examples of selling for selling an item for less than it costs would be razors. The actual razor frequently costs more to manufacture than they sell it for. However, the profit comes from selling the razor blades so they can afford to sell for less than cost knowing that future purchases will make up for the it. Another example is video games. The video game systems frequently cost more to manufacture than they are sold for but the profit comes from the software (the games) that are sold as a follow up.

The question for you is whether you truly understand the costs in your business? Can you break things down to the point where you know where your profit truly is coming from as well as where your losses are coming from?

Too many people ignore the numbers because it’s not the “glamorous” part of the business but while not glamorous, it’s vital to the success of your business

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Customer Service, Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

So many people think short term when it comes to dealing with their customers or clients. They think in terms of making the sale and being done with it, as opposed to actually developing a relationship with their customers and making many more sales in the long term.

An example would be the Realtor who sells a person their very first home. Too often, the Realtor sees this as a one time sale so will do everything they can to make sure the buyer picks the most expensive home since that will result in the biggest commission. However, if the Realtor thinks long term, they will realize that if they help their client pick the best home FOR THEM and not necessarily the most expensive home, chances are, a number of years later, when the client needs a bigger home, or they need a better location, they will use the same Realtor. Having treated the client well the first time will result in the initial sale going through as well as the listing of the home later on, plus the commission on the next sale as well. The Realtor who only thinks short term might make a larger commission on the first sale but will probably not get the future listings or sales. The smarter Realtor thinks long term and this results not only in happier clients but also greater revenues.

Around 6 years ago, I was running a soccer web site and was sending out over 100,000 email newsletters a week. There was no cost to these newsletters and rarely any advertising (the only advertising was when I would announce a new book or a sale on soccer field equipment that I was selling). One day, I received an email from a subscriber who very politely asked me why I was writing these newsletters. He wrote that he appreciated them and learned a lot from them but didn’t understand why I took the time and effort to write these newsletters each day. While I didn’t know this individual, the name sounded familiar so I looked through my database and first I came across some records of some books he purchased from me. Then I saw where he had, over the course of the previous 2 years, purchased over $15,000 worth of soccer goals from me for his club. While he saw the “cost” of the newsletters as being $0, I realized that without the newsletters, he never would have bought these products from me. In his mind, the lifetime value of him as a subscriber was nothing while in my mind, the lifetime value of him as a subscriber was around $8000 (and growing).

Companies such as Amazon.com do a great job of increasing the lifetime value of each of their customers. If you purchase books from them, they will send follow up emails (if you give them permission) of other books you might be interested in purchasing. These aren’t random recommendations but rather, are related to the fields of your previous purchases.

Think short term and you MIGHT make one sale. Think long term and you WILL make many more sales.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »

Why are people convinced others want to hear their opinions on matters they know nothing about?

I’m not referring to things like politics or the weather (because lets be honest, if only people who truly understood either politics or the weather were allowed to speak on those subjects, it would be AWFULLY QUIET) but rather why do people comment upon products they have never experienced?

I was researching a product, trying to determine whether to try it or not (the product itself isn’t important but it deals with green living). The reviews were 60/40 in favor of the product which led me to question whether it would be worth purchasing. However, the more I read the reviews, the more I realized that the positive reviews were almost entirely people who had purchased the product while the negative reviews were almost all people who had NOT PURCHASED THE PRODUCT but didn’t think it would work.

If someone has purchased a product and had a positive or negative experience, I think that is extremely relevant. On the other hand, if you have never purchased the product and just assume it’s going to be wonderful or you assume it’s going to be awful, that is certainly your right but why would you share your uninformed views with others as if they are the gospel?

I realize there are exceptions (for example, a doctor might not have to try a medication to know it wont work if he is well educated on the ingredients) however, the general public should be more open minded when it comes to various products.

I’m not asking for censorship, just hoping that at some point, common sense will prevail and people will understand when their opinions should be kept to themselves.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Tags: Uncategorized by Lawrence Fine
No Comments »