SOLO NEWSLETTER

Number 26

February 2009

From Albert Wright

020 8343 8558

Copyright www.successfulsolo.com

Albert Wright

This month the Outstanding Person is Malcolm Gladwell, author of several books including Tipping Point and Blink, which was discussed in a previous issue of SOLO.

This month my focus is “Outliers, The Story of Success”. 

As with Blink, I am not convinced by everything he writes, but he makes you think. The ideas I liked most are where his comments on how people and what they do or don't achieve, must be seen in context of time, place and family background; the idea that to achieve mastery you need practice and experience and that people like Bill Gates don't leap fully formed from the womb and the idea that a slight advantage can, over time, turn into a major advantage making a major difference.

This last matter may link into another of his books (which I have not read) called "How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference." 

Gladwell looks at successful sportspeople, particularly hockey players in Canada and Czech soccer players. By analysing their birthdays he concludes those born between January and April have a disproportionately high chance of being the most successful in their chosen career. 

The theory suggests potentially top class players are identified at a very early age, around age 9 to 10. Looking at the playing year in hockey in Canada that runs from January, the boys that look the best are the oldest for that season when they start playing seriously and scouts go on the look out for talent. 

They are the best because the oldest at nine or ten, born at the start of the seasonal year have had the most practice, (up to 11 months more than those of the same age in that year) and are the strongest, tallest, fittest - simply by virtue of being the oldest.

Once identified as the best, they get the best trainers, coaches, and support. They go into the best teams in the best leagues and by the time they are late teens / early twenties, they have become the outstanding players of their generation.

The initial small advantage they have at age nine becomes magnified over the years and builds up to a massive superiority if they respond well to the special treatment and support they are offered.

This concept fits with the idea that the best way to become rich is to be born into a rich family and be the first-born. It fits with the way that in societies where early streaming in Maths and English exists, it favours the older children who may appear more able but are simply more mature. 

If true, this reduces the impact of individual effort, putting it in a context of time and relative opportunity, which probably have a more important influence on the success or not, outcomes.

Gladwell concludes, "Success is what sociologists call accumulative advantage".

In his chapter entitled "The 10,000 hour rule" he puts forward the theory that to achieve excellence in any field generally requires at least 10,000 hours of practice first. 

He examines the early careers of Bill Joy and Bill Gates from the IT sector in the USA and several world-class musicians including the Beatles, to prove his point. 

This makes effort, persistence, application and experience important in the development / creation of genius.

He then does an analysis of the 75 richest people in history and attempts to show (with, for me, only moderate success) that the year of birth makes you "lucky" / successfully rich because of wider factors in society at the time. His list of greats neatly slot into birth periods of 1831 to 1840 and 1953 to 1956, both of which rule me out.

Other chapters address the concept of "enough intelligence" in IQ. 

With the average person scoring 100, Einstein 150, most people between 130 and 170 have enough IQ to do well and those with over 200 might have too much, because at that score, many people have personalities that lack other types of intelligence in enough measure such as emotional intelligence or practical intelligence. 

This fits well with my own theory that all things are only true within a defined range and at the ends of the range "node" points come into play that make the assumptions and expectations we have cease to be true. 

For example, when heating and cooling water, what we expect to happen to the water between 0 degrees C and 100 degrees happens, but at 0 degrees C water freezes and at 100 it turns into steam, which is not what we would expect, until we know differently. 

I believe most of life is like this, true up to a point, but we don't always know the points of change. 

For example, in the context of battered spouses, the battering can go on dozens of time before the victim escapes in someway, sometimes by killing the aggressor after hundreds of incidents of battering. In queues on the motorway, at some point many people pull off the motorway rather than staying in the queue. With bank lending to sub prime clients, at some point the bubble bursts. 

We should not be surprised at the fact that a "node" point, or tipping point has been reached but we may be surprised at the timing. 

Everything is appropriate in the right context and time and inappropriate in the wrong context and time. 

Other issues investigated include the affects of different types of parenting on children's academic and social performance, the coming to prominence of some types of Jewish lawyers in the USA at a specific time in history, the role of "demographic luck", herdsman culture versus cultivation culture, the ethnic theory of plane crashes, Hofstede's Dimensions with his "individualism and collectivism" scale of national types linked to the "uncertainty and avoidance" index plus the "Power Distance Index" and the importance of being rice growing Chinese if you want to be good at maths and have a better memory.

All fascinating stuff. So what did I get out of this? 

An understanding that context makes a difference, that the debate over the affects on individual performance of nurture and nature will never end and that working hard and focussing do have a role to play in achieving success. 

Do you find it hard to focus? Could you benefit from goal setting? 

Would you like a free copy of the Nightingale Conant Personal Goal Setting Template: the 7- Step process to defining and achieving your personal goals with absolute clarity and conviction plus a FREE 30 minute session on how the template can best be used - then email info@successfulsolo.com or phone me on 020 8343 8558. 

Millionaire Coaching Academy – update 5

Using Existing Millionaires to Accelerate Growth for New Millionaires 

All readers will receive their first copy of the Millionaire Coaching Academy News by the end of February 2009. 

Albert's Five Key Questions. 

1 What do I want? What do I really want?

2 Why do I want it? What makes me want it? 

3 How much do I want it on a scale of 1 to 10?

4 What am I prepared to pay to get it?

5 What will I do when I have got it?

If you would like a little work book we are putting together featuring “The Five Magic Questions” that pulls all 5 questions into one place, provides additional commentary and examples and space for completing your own answers, then simply email Andrea with 5 Magic Questions in the subject box at andrea@successfulsolo.com and we will send you a copy as soon as it is ready. 

Next months OUTSTANDING PERSON will be Richard Denny.

SOLO NEWSLETTER  

Number 27 

March 2009

From Albert Wright

020 8343 8558

Copyright
www.successfulsolo.com

Albert Wright

This month the Outstanding Person is Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy will have to wait and Richard Denny is featured in our first Millionaire Coaching Academy News, see below.

The book in focus is “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

When I saw it suggested on Amazon I felt sure I had already read it, as it’s mentioned so often in the articles and magazines I tend to read. You probably think you’ve read it too, or at least think you know what’s in it, like me.

Think again and actually read the original. Published in 1953 it really is one of the all time greats.

It’s full of good advice, not only from Carnegie himself, but the many authors and students he quotes.

It should please the NLP fans as his advice is centred on modelling the habits and actions of Carnegie’s contemporary and historical life and business heroes including Abraham Lincoln (Obama fans can rejoice) J D Rockefeller, Generals from the American Civil War, Presidents Roosevelt and  Hoover.

The advice is based on what works and is littered with the way his students adapted the principles he taught to their daily activity with great success. As for teaching and education, his belief is none of it has value unless it is turned into action.

He comes up with 3 fundamental principles when handling people, 6 ways to make people like you and 12 ways to win people to your way of thinking.

They include:

1 Don’t criticise or condemn people or complain about them.

2 Give honest and sincere appreciation as often as you can, within reason.

3 Arouse in the other person an eager want. (The only way you will get someone to do something is to get them to want to do it and this usually involves getting them to see how doing that thing will help them – not you.)

1 Become genuinely interested in other people and you’ll be welcome anywhere.

2 Smile. A simple way to make a good first impression.

3 Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Use their name frequently.

4 Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves and thereby you will be seen as a good conversationalist.

5 Talk in terms of the other person’s interests if you want them to be interested in you.

6 Make the other person feel important – do it sincerely.

1 You can’t win an argument and get people to like you. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

2 Show respect for the other person’s opinion. Never say “you’re wrong”.

3 If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

4 Begin in a friendly way.

5 Get the other person saying “yes, yes,” immediately.

6 Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

7 Let the other person feel and think the (your) idea is their idea.

8 Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.

9 Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.

10 Appeal to the nobler motives. (I am not sure about this one today)

11 Dramatise your ideas, use a bit of showmanship.

12 Throw down a challenge to other people to persuade them to do what you want.

By way of example: If you’ve ordered chips with your meal in a restaurant and the waiter brings you boiled potatoes, rather than “Hey (idiot) I ordered chips!” he suggests you try “ I like boiled potatoes, but today I really fancy chips, would you mind changing the potatoes?”

This is based on the idea people don’t like to be criticised (even if they have made a mistake or are factually incorrect) and generally criticising others doesn’t get the result you want.

I tried my own version when people sent me an email without an attachment. Instead of my usual blunt “You forgot attachment”, or curt “no attachment”, or demanding “send again” my reply became “I was unable to open the attachment, could you please send it to me again. Thank you.”

The difference in tone of the replies was sometimes remarkable and I would like to think that people’s impressions of me as a “nice guy” got better.

It seems what Carnegie is suggesting is we treat other people as fallible human beings with easily damaged egos / self confidence, concerned about their own self impression, desperate for “love”, appreciation, recognition and praise.

He advocates that we communicate in a more positive way on the grounds that you get more out of people this way than by criticism and they will like you more too, which is essential if you want to lead and manage effectively.

Carnegie reminds us that getting results is about others, not us. About customers, colleagues, friends, relations, strangers.

He is a strong supporter of smiling.

But he warns against insincere flattery, unjustified praise and self serving manipulation.

He quotes Disraeli “Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours”.

He tells how Ben Franklin did not become successful until he stopped telling people they were wrong.

To make what he writes about stick, he suggests you read each chapter twice before moving on (Mr Hurry here ignored that advice), underline and take notes (I did) and put the ideas into practice as soon as you can (I’m trying to), keep a diary of successes and where you might have done better (I might) and re read the book / your notes every month (perhaps).

He proves, for me, that it’s the “not doing” that damages potential success, that for many of us (including me), we really already know what we should do to achieve success – we just don’t stick with it and do it- because this takes effort, means we can’t go out, watch telly or whatever it is we do to fritter time away instead of spending time on achieving our goals.

I think I feel a coaching session coming on to get me on track again.

If you want a “confrontational”, challenging, persistent coach (who can do support as well when needed) give me a call on 020 8343 8558.

To summarise, Carnegie makes you think and encourages you to act. His suggestions are based on what works for others and with sensible adaptation should work for you.

The message I liked most was there is no point in trying to change people’s ideas and attitudes through logic and facts; it must be done by appealing to their beliefs, emotions and self interest.

Do you find it hard to do what you know you need to do to get the results you want?

Is the reason you are not succeeding to do with having an inappropriate goal that is not right for you or using unhelpful ways to achieve an appropriate goal?

Could you benefit from coaching?

If you run your own business involving 5 or more people you may be able to get £500 of my time for free.

Email info@successfulsolo.com or phone me on 020 8343 8558.

Millionaire Coaching Academy – update 6

Using Existing Millionaires to Accelerate Growth for New Millionaires

If you would like to go on our mailing list for the Millionaire Coaching Academy News, please email Diane and Andrea at info@successfulsolo.com

Albert's and Rapid Results’ Marketing Fixes

Now that we have finished looking at the Five Key Questions relating to Goal Achievement, I want to turn to the equally practical subject of how micro (and larger businesses) can fix their Marketing Mistakes.

Over the next few months I will share the Mistakes and the tried and tested ideas that should Fix the mistakes.

They will only work for you if you actually implement them.

Mistake 1

Not giving Marketing the Time and Expertise to ensure our Marketing gets done and works.

Running a micro business needs such a mix of skills and knowledge there is never enough time to do everything or enough money to buy in the expertise.

Let’s face it, doing the Vat return, the book keeping, delivering our products and services, planning, responding to complaints, hiring, firing, motivating staff, chasing suppliers .....the juggling of work priorities never ends, let alone making time for family and friends.

I’m surprised more people just don’t simply give up.

However, at the route of every business we have sales and customers. Without them we can’t survive.

If we neglect marketing, eventually we have to stop trading.

We know having a successful business is about attracting new customers, getting them to buy for the first time, then come back again and sell more each time they visit.

But what is the best, the most cost effective way of recruiting a customer, how do we persuade them to buy, then come back, how do we, in the jargon, “cross sell”, “up sell” and maximise the lifetime value of a customer.

Frankly, most of us only have a few clues. We are not seasoned professionals in this area. There are so many options, even with advertising – should we use Yellow Pages and / or Thomson’s, have a web site, (how do we get people to visit) put an advert in the local paper (which one?) the regional or national paper, use radio advertising, or even TV, use hoardings or have a poster (what sort?) on a bus, tube or train?

What about strategic alliances, joint marketing campaigns, leaflets, posters, business cards, stationery, signage? Will money spent on them produce better results than the advertising?

Can we rely on word of mouth recommendation? How can we increase these referrals?

Is live networking any good – which breakfast outfit should we join, BRE, BNI, and BRX? - should we join a social network – what is ecademy, Linkedin, Plaxo, Viadeo, how should I know?

It’s all so daunting.

How do we know the right things to spend time and money on so we don’t make too many mistakes?

Marketing Fix 1

Use Other People’s Time & Proven Knowledge To Speed The Rate At Which Your Business Grows.

You need good advice. One place to start is by clicking the tabs on our localbusinessadviser email newsletter. For a copy email info@successfulsolo.com and ask Diane or Andrea to send you a copy.

Useful websites include www.businesslink.com and business websites hosted by the major banks and organisations such as BT or Microsoft. They all have sections on marketing and doing marketing plans.

However, doing your marketing plan on your own, particularly the first time, can be a bit like pulling your own teeth – something you could do, which might be better done with someone else alongside.

Free or heavily subsidised help may be available from your local enterprise agency. Go to wwwnfea.org to find your local provider. If you are in Barnet north London, you will find our sister company, Small Business Solutions Ltd.

You can also attend seminars on marketing – one of the best is from our MCA strategic partner, the Directors Centre – www.directorscentre.com . The direct link for booking is
http://www.thedc.co.uk/lets-talk-booking-form.php

You could also read books on the subject, three of the best are Robert Craven’s Bright Marketing, available from the Directors Centre, details above, Albert Wright’s own book Doubling Your Sales and Profits and the Rapid Results eBook Why Most Marketing Doesn’t Work and How You Can FIX IT, also available as a printed booklet.

For the last two email Diane or Andrea at info@cushiontheimpact.co.uk

The next Marketing Mistake we will look at is Sharing Your Marketing Message With The Wrong People.

This can be fixed by Defining and Targeting the Right People.

Next month’s OUTSTANDING PERSON might be Brian Tracy.

SOLO NEWSLETTER

Number 28

April 2009

From Albert Wright

020 8343 8558

Copyright www.successfulsolo.com

Albert Wright

This month the Outstanding Person is Robert Craven. The book in focus is

Beating the Credit Crunch - How to Survive and Thrive in the Current Recession.

Robert repeats the message; a successful business is about Marketing, Operations and Finance and the greatest of these is Marketing. Operations, doing what you do and how you do it, are only important if you have customers delivered by marketing. Finance is the numbers that result from the marketing and operations

It’s a book with possibly a short shelf life, yet an everlasting message. “Find out both what is right and wrong with your business, take action and improve.” Abandon fear, trade your way out of the credit crunch, and make money and get on with your life. The book shows you how to use the FiMO technique to diagnose your current state and provides potential solutions to your current problems by offering options for action arising from the analysis. By scoring your business with points out of ten for Finance, Operations and Marketing (FiMO) you can see where you are starting from and what you need to do better. It is a very good reminder of business basics and the importance of Action.

The marketing message is be different and get noticed. You must give customers a reason for using you. You need to stand out from the crowd.

At Successful Solo we do this by having a clear target market, solo professionals and one person led micro and small businesses, with sales of over £75,000 a year, involving at least one additional person to the owner, who wants to improve profitability. We target such people via newsletters (such as this) promoting our website, networking, authoring, public speaking, using case studies and asking for referrals. Our point of difference is we help clients get to profit targets faster and fitter than they could on their own and provide a guaranteed return on their investment in choosing us through our Fee Guarantee, which promises we always charge less than the value we add.

What reason do your customers have for preferring you to your competitors?

 Robert shows that for most businesses, trying to trade your way out of difficulty by lowering prices makes you a busy fool. He does the numbers and shows you the results. In general, putting up prices does reduce sales in unit terms but increases profit.

Lowering the cost of sales is the next best way to improve profits.

Small percentage reductions in cost combined with small percentage increases in price, customer frequency and customer spend per visit plus losing fewer customers can make a dramatic difference to profit. Robert gives you the numbers and describes the case studies for you to adapt and adopt. He also throws in simple to apply theories like Ansoff’s Matrix (see page 55) Pareto’s 80 / 20, checklists and action points.

The advice is based on what works and draws on real results from real clients. All in all a slim book with bags of content: theories, tips, suggestions, examples, questionnaires to fill in as you go, tools for business self-analysis and more.
To summarise, Robert encourages you to act. His suggestions are based on what works for others and with sensible adaptation should work for you.

I think it’s the best, concise book on business available on the market today.

Priced at £20 it will repay the investment a thousand fold if you do the analysis and take the action. With a few copies available from the website at £10, it’s also a great bargain. Go and buy it now

Is the reason you are not succeeding to do with not taking appropriate action? Are you stuck in a rut?

Could you benefit from coaching?

 If you want a “confrontational”, challenging, persistent coach (who can do support when needed) give me a call on 020 8343 8558.

If you run your own business involving 5 or more people you may be able to get £500 of my time for free.

Email info@successfulsolo.com or phone me on 020 8343 8558.

Millionaire Coaching Academy – update 7

Using Existing Millionaires to Accelerate Growth for New Millionaires

If you would like to go on our mailing list for the Millionaire Coaching Academy News, please email Diane or Andrea at info@successfulsolo.com  

Issue 1 of MCA news is now available.

Albert's and Rapid Results’ Marketing Fixes 

How micro (and larger businesses) can fix their Marketing Mistakes.

 Over the next few months I will share the Mistakes and the tried and tested ideas that should Fix them.

They will only work if you actually implement them.

Last month we looked at Mistake 1: Not giving Marketing the Time and Expertise to ensure our Marketing gets done and works.

The Marketing Fix suggested was to Use Other People’s Time & Proven Knowledge To Speed The Rate At Which Your Business Grows. 

One place to start was by clicking the tabs on our localbusinessadviser email newsletter. For a copy email info@successfulsolo.com  and ask Diane or Andrea to send you a copy or contact your local enterprise agency at www.nfea.org.uk  to find your local provider.

You can also attend seminars on marketing – one of the best is from our MCA strategic partner, the Directors Centre – www.directorscentre.com   

The new series of half-day Barclays Bank supported Let’s Talk …Marketing. Profit, seminars delivered by Robert Craven and his team, starts in May.

The seminars, which include free refreshments, a buffet lunch and networking and promotional opportunities to around 100 people an event are worth over £250, but readers of this Solo newsletter can get free tickets.

The direct link for booking is http://www.thedc.co.uk/lets-talk-booking-form.php  

I can recommend them from personal experience.

Marketing Mistake 2 is Sharing Your Marketing Message With The Wrong People. 

This can be fixed by Defining and Targeting the Right People. 

Too many businesses fail by trying to reach too many customers. Read that again...too many customers!!

It doesn't seem to make sense. How can you have too many customers?

Well, having too many customers, real buying customers, is just the challenge you want but, paradoxically, having too many potential customers prevents you getting the actual customers.

Trying to market to too many potential customers is costly and most small businesses run out of money or stop marketing, because they get such a poor return on investment, before they have enough real, paying customers.

The clever businesses focus. They have a clear target market of dozens or hundreds, perhaps a few thousand, but not tens of thousands or millions. 

As small businesses they will more likely make millions by concentrating on hundreds of customers spending thousands of pounds than millions of customers spending billions of pennies. 

By adopting a focus, having a clear, small target market, you stand a better chance of becoming a specialist, an expert, a market leader, sought after rather than lost in the crowd.

Successful Marketing requires repeating your message to the people most likely to buy.

You dilute your effect if you only communicate once to 10,000 people, it's better to communicate and concentrate on reaching 1,000 people 10 times. This way you maximise the impact of your marketing money.

 Less becomes more. By targeting fewer potential customers more often, it becomes easier to convert a higher proportion of them into actual customers compared to the scattergun approach.

You are more likely to get 10% of 1,000 = 100 by communicating with them ten times, than 1% of 10,000 =100, by communicating with them once.

I am reminded of a men's hairdresser client in London who insisted in advertising in his local regional newspaper, distributed in 3 boroughs covering almost 700,000 people, at a cost of around £1,000 for one advert. 

How many regular customers does a local, high street based, hairdresser need and where are they likely to come from? With 500 men coming once a month paying an average of £8 a time you get £4,000 a month, £48,000 a year - why market to 700,000 people. Some will be the wrong gender, some the wrong age, many 15 miles or more away - it doesn't make sense to me when you want 500 men with hair who are likely to live or work within 500 metres of your shop and want to get their hair cut in less than 40 minutes, including travel time.

Marketing to the wrong people is wasteful of resources. 

Your ideal target market, or niche will:

1 Want your product or service, ideally at least 10 times more than the average person.

2 Be able to afford your product.

3 Be easily reached and influenced by your marketing. 

4 Belong to a clearly defined group, possessing similarities that can be easily identified. 

When marketing to smaller groups, it is easier to get the message right, to use the right words and images that will connect with the target customer.

Evidence indicates that an accountant who segments his target market into 3 groups: start ups, micro businesses and small businesses and then uses appropriate, focussed messages to each segment will do better than one who sends a more generic message to all 3 sectors at once.

To learn more about how Targeting the Right Market is the Key to a Marketing Campaign's Success get a copy of Marketing Fix It by contacting Diane or Andrea at info@cushiontheimpact.co.uk  


Next month Mistake 3 Most Marketing Material Lacks the Power to Influence Because it doesn't Match the Conversation Going on in the Customer's Head.

Matching the Material to the Message and the Market is part of the answer.

Next month’s OUTSTANDING PERSON might be Brian Tracy. 

Enjoy the Easter break.

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