Lawrence Fine

How quick is your organization to judge someone based on their appearance? Most of the people reading this will quickly say “we don’t do that”. However, really give this some thought.

Two people drive onto a car dealers lot. One is wearing cut off jean shorts and a t shirt and an older model vehicle. The other is wearing designer clothes and is driving a newer model Mercedes. Who gets approached by the salesperson first? In a large majority of the cases, the person wearing the designer clothes and driving the Mercedes will be approached first. However, in writing this, I have two maintenances in mind as these examples. The person wearing the cut off jeans and t shirt could not only buy any car on the lot, he could buy most dealerships with cash. The person wearing the designer clothes struggles to make the house payment and the lease payment on the car he can’t afford.

In a business forum I read occasionally there was a posting about one way to judge a persons success was to find their home address (usually a very easy thing to do online) and look at their house using Google Maps. In this persons opinion, looking at where a person lives would be a good way to judge their success. Using this logic, he could look up a person I know in Savannah GA and see he lives in a million dollar home but is most likely going to be losing it real soon to the bank. However, that fact wouldn’t be seen on Google Maps. Or, he could look up another person I know who lives in a small inexpensive home that is fully paid for as are that persons eight other houses. This also wouldn’t be evident simply by looking at the house

Around 15 years ago, I went to a car auction in a small town in Georgia. It was a rural community and many of these cars were only a year or two old. Many of the people at the auction seemed to be farmers or mechanics. None of them were the type that the typical car dealer would run to if they stepped on the lot. The bidding started and I noticed the winners of the various bids would go to the cashier and many of them would pull out a big wad of bills. Cars were being bought for $10k-20K a piece and people were paying cash for them! I will admit that I never would have imagined these people were carrying that type of money on them and judging solely from appearances, I wouldn’t have imagined most of them would have had access to that type of money ever.

Soccer coaches here in the US seem to like big players. They recruit big, strong, fast kids. Many college coaches would be hesitant to recruit a scrawny 5 foot 7 inch 148 pound male soccer player. They would judge him as too short, too weak and not able to handle the grind of a full season. However, this would mean they would miss out on Lionel Messi (probably the best male soccer player in the world right now)

When a person walks into your office, judge them for what they can do, now what they appear to be able to do

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Recently I was in a friends new car and after going up a big hill in 4 wheel drive, he tried shifting the car back into 2 wheel drive. No matter what he tried to do, it wouldn’t change back to 2 wheel drive.

Just before he was about to give up and call the dealer to find out what was wrong with the car, the friend in the back seat said “RTFM”. We looked at him and he repeated “RTFM”. After he repeated it the third time, he finally said “RTFM means READ THE ****ing Manual!”

How much time is wasted because we think we don’t need to read the manual and instead struggle to do things the wrong way?

While it might take a bit more time to start off by reading the instructions, long term, it will probably save time and frustration in the long run. I do realize that not all instruction manuals are well written but it’s better to try to read it and then ask questions then to simply ask questions from the start

Remember, when in doubt RTFM!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many companies have been operating the same way for years because it’s the way they always have operated. Since it worked 10 years ago, it will work now.

What if you truly rethought your entire business and redesigned the business model?

As an example, what if you ran a web design firm and gave the sites away for free? While that might not seem like a very effective business model, what if the sites were free but they had to be hosted with your hosting company (if don’t have a hosting company, maybe you should). If the sites are well designed, people will continue to use them for years and will continue to pay the monthly hosting.

What if a Realtor didn’t work on commission but rather was charging on an hourly rate?

What if a restaurant that serves spicy foods, gave the food away for free but charged more for drinks?

What if a hotel offered to rent rooms for 24 hours instead of from 3 PM to 11 AM? So if a person checks in at 7 PM their checkout would be 7 PM the next day?

What is a dry cleaner offered a retainer service? They would have some guaranteed income and people would do a better job of keeping their clothes maintained.

What if a clothing store offered a rental service (they do it for tuxedos so why not suits, formal gowns etc)?

There are just some random ideas. Why not take some time and really give some thought to where your industry is going and see if you can create a more effective business model

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Do you think there are degrees of honesty? If someone robs a bank, are they less honest than someone who only robs a convenience store?

If you feel the bank robber and the convenience store robber are both dishonest, what about the shop lifter? Are they less dishonest?

Most people would agree that these are all the acts of dishonest people. However, are there other degrees of dishonesty or honesty?

If you hide income from your business partner, your spouse or the government are you an honest person?

As a youth soccer coach, if you teach your players how to grab the opponents shirt in order to slow them down, are you an honest person?

Many people have been to a restaurant or shop and when they go to pay, if the bill is more than it should be, they are quick to point it out. However, do they do the same if the bill is less than it should be? If you knowingly pay less than you should, are you an honest person?

If you want your children to be honest, or your employees to be honest or the people around you to be honest, shouldn’t you get it started yourself?

So the question is, are you truly honest or just when it suits you?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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ALO stands for “A Learning Opportunity”. Those who want to progress in life will look for the ALO every chance they get.

Something good happens, find ALO

Something bad happens, find ALO

As long as you turn each opportunity into A Learning Opportunity, then it’s a positive experience.

Too many of us look for the negative in their experiences, instead, look for the learning opportunities and you will continue to grow!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Are you prepared for upcoming changes or do you wait for them to happen and then try to react?

To give a simple example, last year when gas in the US went up over $4 a gallon, people started to panic and looked into trading in their cars and finding something more economical. Then prices came down to under $3 a gallon and people stopped thinking about this anymore,

Do you really think prices wont be going higher sooner or later? This is true for gas prices or electricity or other forms of energy.

My point isn’t to be an alarmist who thinks the world is ending but rather, that people should prepare for the future and have contingencies for anything that might happen.

The time to prepare is when everyone isn’t panicing. Just as an example, if you wait for gas to go up to $5 a gallon and then start looking around for a more economical vehicle, it’s when everyone else is looking so demand will be up and supply down and therefore the price is up. Worse case scenario, you are “stuck” with an economical vehicle.

There are many examples of how planning ahead can benefit you if things change and in many cases, they will also benefit you if things don’t change.

At the very least, make sure you have plans for potential changes in the future. You might surprise yourself how easily you can prepare for them

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Because we live in such a rushed society we frequently don’t feel we have the time to be specific in our communications. Because of this, we end up spending more time then we should trying to figure out what went wrong then if we had taken the time to communicate effectively in the first place.

We could be much more effective and efficient with specific requests and instructions.

If you go to a doctor and say “I don’t feel well”, that doesn’t give them much to work on. They have to start asking for specifics because otherwise they don’t know if you have an upset stomach or a broken leg.

If you go to a Realtor and say “I want to buy a house” that doesn’t give them much to work on. They have to start asking about location, price range, size etc.

If you go to a computer programmer and say “the program doesn’t work correctly” they don’t know what exactly isn’t working properly without many follow ups.

The more specific you are in the first place, the quicker and more effectively you will get a resolution.

If you don’t have time to be specific with your initial requests, how are you going to have time to do all the follow up communications in order to get the specifics later on? I have found the more specific in the beginning the less confusion and communication later on

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Yesterday I was sitting in a hospital waiting room and while waiting, I was doing some work. A person sat down next to me and opened up a laptop. She started talking to me and mentioned she was a photographer and also a web designer.. It didn’t take long before she started talking about how bad business was and she can’t wait for the economy to turn around blah blah blah.

She mentioned that her company had a “real cool” web site and had done some direct mailings to local businesses to try to attract some new business but because of the economy, nothing seemed to work. There were some other references to marketing attempts including lowering prices, pay per click advertising etc.

I can honestly say I haven’t used any of the techniques used by this persons company. In fact I made the decision a couple of months ago to not take on any new projects and instead concentrate on current clients and some of my own projects. Even before that decision was made I didn’t do any marketing. My companies web site is a bit dated (we designed it 4-5 years ago and didn’t really finish it back then and since then, have been too busy on clients sites to do anything other than occasionally update the portfolio page). We haven’t done any mailings or email blasts promoting our services. Never bothered with pay per click advertising or any other advertising.

So, the interesting part is while speaking with this person, requests for three new web sites came in via email. One was for a merchandising site for an internationally known comedian. One was for an annual event for a national sporting organization and one was for a local company. In each case, they were referrals from current clients and two of them didn’t even bother to ask about the price, they just want it done quickly and to high standards. The only problem with these new orders is they are behind 2 other orders from earlier in the week (also referrals) as well as behind current client projects.

Why does one company struggle while looking for new customers and another one gets customers even when not really wanting them?

I believe the answer is that I try to do the things I write about in this blog. Rather than trying to build the business from the outside (with new clients etc), I prefer to concentrate on current clients and they in turn bring in new clients. I try to help clients to move forward, make the best decisions for them. I’m not going to claim to always succeed but I have found, the more I apply what I write about, the more effective we seem to be.

Will this work for everyone? Probably not. Is this a technique to get big quickly? Definitely not. But if you are thinking long term, I do believe it will work for most.

How many of you who are reading this could benefit from writing this type of blog (or something similar)? How many of you would benefit from calling a current client and asking what you could do better for them? How many of you would benefit from networking with like minded individuals?

What is stopping you?

There is business out there, it’s just sometimes you have to do something different to attract this business. Personally, I don’t think traditional advertising is the answer. If you keep paying for big ads in the yellow pages and it’s working for you, GREAT. If it’s not working, do something different. If you are advertising in the local newspaper and you aren’t seeing any returns, put your resources into something more beneficial.

If nothing else, DO SOMETHING!

Have a great day!

Lawrence
PS, My disclaimer is that receiving three orders for new web sites in one day is VERY UNUSUAL and certainly not the norm, it just happened to work out that way. Also, I’m TERRIBLE about saying no so while I wasn’t looking for new business, we will take these clients on and find a way to work them into the schedule

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Owners and managers of businesses want loyalty from their employees as well as their customers. Some will go so far as to demand loyalty from their employees.

What these people don’t understand is loyalty isn’t demanded. Loyalty isn’t given. Loyalty isn’t associated with a title. Loyalty isn’t transferred from someone else.

Loyalty is EARNED.

Loyalty goes two ways.

Loyalty takes a long time to earn and a short time to lose.

If you want loyalty from your employees, start by showing loyalty to your employees. Realize they will make mistakes, they will make bad decisions, they will screw up. It’s in these times that you get to truly demonstrate your loyalty towards them.

Do you get rid of a person for making an honest mistake?

Do you scream at an employee in front of their coworkers or the customers?

Do you try to figure out how to get the most out of them and reward them with the least possible compensation?

If you want loyalty from your customers, start by showing them loyalty.

Do you reward new customers and not old customers (free trials, free bonuses etc to new customers).

Do you keep cutting back on services while continuing to raise prices?

Do you isolate yourself from the customers so if they have a problem or question, they get shuffled from underling to underling?

Before you ask for loyalty from anyone else, start by demonstrating loyalty towards them. You will find you will never need to ask because in most cases, it will be reciprocated in kind.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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When people are sick, or injured, or down in some way, those around them have a tendency to say things such as “if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know” or “you know I’ll do anything for you”.

If you say things like that, do you really mean it?

If the person needs money to pay their bills, will you sell your house? Will you take out a loan to help? Will you move to a new location to provide assistance?

If the answer to these questions is “no” (and let’s be honest, it’s the very rare person who could answer yes to any of these questions), then be honest and offer what you can.

If you can provide some food, or some transportation or some assistance be specific with what you are really offering.

Sometimes people think making these empty gesture offers will make the other person feel good. Truthfully, I think the only person it makes feel good is the person making the empty offer.

If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. If you do mean it, be ready to back it up

Have a great day

Lawrence

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