Lawrence Fine

You are hammering and hammering away and no matter how many times you hit the nail, it doesn’t go in any further. Why? Because it’s a screw.

You might have the best intentions but if you are using the wrong equipment you will most likely fail.

You might be texting someone and not get a response because you are texting…a land line.

You might be emailing someone and not getting a response because the recipient…doesn’t check their email regularly.

Make sure you are using the proper tool for communications just like you would use the proper tool for carpentry, it’s the best way to avoid failure

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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People and organizations gain and lose goodwill on a regular basis.

They do a favor and they have gained goodwill. They ask for a favor and it costs them goodwill. There is nothing wrong with doing favors (in fact it’s a nice thing to do) and there is nothing wrong with asking for favors but it is important to understand when you ask for too many favors it is costing you goodwill.

Those people who do a lot of favors for people and rarely, if ever, ask for favors tend to have a lot of goodwill and if there comes a time when they really need a favor people are happy to do it for them. On the other hand, those people who rarely do favors for others but regularly ask for favors, when they really need something there is a decent chance no one will be there for them in their time of need.

The unfortunate thing is the people who ask for a lot of favors rarely realize there is a cost for a favor. It might not be a monetary cost but the cost in goodwill could be quite high. These people rarely think that way.

The interesting thing is those people who do a lot of favors and rarely ask for anything also don’t think this way. They aren’t thinking about building goodwill, instead, they just like to help others.

Be careful about asking for too many favors, it might end up costing you a lot when you need something the most.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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How many times have you seen a chain of emails usually within a business organization with a bunch of “me too” or “I agree” or “thanks, that is great” type comments as replies?

Frequently this is an employee agreeing with the boss or a boss trying to be supportive of an employee. There are two main problems with these type comments. First, it’s wasting peoples time to send an email with nothing of significance in the email. Unless it’s a case where people are voting “agree” or “disagree” the content is pretty meaningless. The other problem is most people don’t realize that while they might have given just a cursory glance at the actual email, in their attempt at being supportive or they are actually attaching their reputation to the other persons email.

The simple “me too” might seem like a minor comment (two short words) but if that email proves to be incorrect not only does the original emailer lose some credibility but so do the me too’ers. Unless you are willing to do as much research (or maybe more research) as the original person the “me too” might cost you a lot more than the short time it took to type it.

Just something to think about

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s important to know who you are dealing with.

If you are explaining to a lay person the chemical makeup of a product you can use general terms but if you are speaking with a chemist you would use much more technical terms.

If you are talking to a soccer coach about formations you might use specifics but if you are talking to a soccer coach about the banking crisis you might use very general descriptions.

It’s extremely important to know who you are dealing with in order to tailor your presentation correctly. If you don’t know who you are dealing with it can result in a great deal of embarrassment for all concerned

Just something to think about

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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I have had two recent discussions with two different business people. One of them has had a very successful business with one main client. The client kept asking for additional services and was willing to pay. The problem is by taking on more and more work from this one client it resulted in them not trying to add more clients. Unfortunately, this one client has fallen upon bad times and they have cut back their services dramatically and are possibly going to end their relationship with this business person altogether.

The second business person has recently bought three pieces of property, each with a major franchise signed to long term leases with favorable terms to the owner. He has been asked by the franchise to consider buying more property with equally favorable terms but he has said no because he doesn’t want to be dependent upon one franchise in case they were to go under (it’s a very stable franchise especially in today’s economy).

Not many people are willing to say no to success but when looking at long term stability and survival it’s something people sometimes have to do. Other examples of the importance of being willing to say no would be when a small manufacturer receives a huge order (for example from WalMart) and in order to fulfill this type of order they have to short some of their long term customers or make major expansion plans which would be potentially disastrous if the large orders don’t keep coming year after year.

On the one hand one must be willing to take chances but on the other hand, being willing to say to success can result in long term success for your business.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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I was at a friends office yesterday helping them with a computer problem and when I went to demonstrate something by going to his companies web site he said “how did you do that?”.

I wasn’t sure what he meant because I simply started typing the domain into the address bar and then clicked on the full URL and it loaded. He repeated, “how did you do that?”. He then went on to explain that he didn’t know how I ended up on his companies web site.

I explained that I went to the address bar and…he interrupted and said “the what?”

From there it went well and I showed him what the address bar was, how to type the URL into the address bar and how to pick a URL from the history if it was there. It ends up the only way he knew to get to a specific web site was to either find it in his bookmarks or, if it wasn’t bookmarked, to go to google.com and search for it and then click on the link in google.

Next he asked how I was able to send a link in an email so that the receiver was able to click on it and go directly to the web site. I showed this and then set a time for next week to do a quick (or possibly not so quick) tutorial on how to use a computer and the Internet.

The point of this email isn’t that this friend doesn’t know how to do things but rather, why aren’t we teaching people how to use a computer more effectively? Those of us who have adequate computer knowledge make the assumption that everyone has this knowledge but the reality is there are many very intelligent people who are wasting significant amounts of time. They aren’t wasting this time because they want to but rather because they don’t know any better. It’s not that they wont ask questions but they don’t know what is possible so they don’t know what questions to ask.

Take a look around your organization, are there people in your groups who could be more efficient and more effective with some simple training? If so, why not provide that type of training since it will help all involved?

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Have you given any thought to where you want to be in 10 years?

If you haven’t given this much thought, how do you plan on getting there?

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to create a plan on achieving something if you don’t know what you want to achieve.

If you don’t know where you want to be in 10 years, chances are you will be right where you are now. For some, that might be fine but realize, while you stay in place, all around you are moving forward.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s important to gather important information about your organization or project in order to make an informed decision. However, there will come a time when it’s best to shut down the flow of information and be willing to operate in a vacuum.

If you are constantly getting bombarded with suggestions, criticisms, comments etc it’s very difficult to stick with your beliefs and make progress on your project. You must know when to accept the comments and when to stop them and operate in the vacuum.

If you are the manager you must be willing to let your employees have the freedom to operate without constantly micro managing them.

Knowing when to operate in a vacuum and when to allow for feedback frequently comes from trial and error but realize, we all have to be able and willing to allow feedback at some point and also to work in a vacuum at other points. It’s a fine line but once you understand when and how to do this, you will be more successful

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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For many people and businesses the old way of getting financing is no longer available. Bank lending is more stringent and requires better credit ratings and more guarantees than previously.

Does this mean it’s impossible to get financing for new businesses or new ventures? Not at all, however, it does mean you might need to be more creative.

When buying property rather that being dependent upon banks to provide the capital, see if the selling is willing to do some form of seller financing.

When looking for financing for a business, realize you might have to give up a larger percentage than you might prefer or you might need to give up more control than you might like if you go through a third party (for example, an angel investor or venture capitol). The thing to keep in mind is 100% of 0 is 0. A smaller percentage of something is bigger than one hundred percent of nothing.

Also realize the more risk you are willing to take yourself, the more an investor is willing to consider working with you. Too often the person with the “idea” or the person putting in the “sweat equity” doesn’t feel they should have to take any of the financial risk. Even if they are willing to take on a small amount of the risk, being willing to take on some of the risk is worth a great deal to others. If you have no stake at risk, it’s easy to make a half ass effort or to waste time and money because it’s not your money. If you are going to lose if the venture loses, in many cases your actions will be quite different. One thing to keep in mind with this is the “lost opportunity” doesn’t count as assuming some of the risk. It’s true that you might not make what you hoped if the venture doesn’t work but you might act quite differently if you are risking the ‘opportunity’ as well as your house.

Financing is available for those willing to be creative and those willing to take on some of the risk themselves. The alternative is to go with the bank and if they turn you down, you have your built in excuse right there…even if it’s not a legitimate excuse

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Is your identity based on who you are or what you do?

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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