 Service is a critical element of Supply which, while it is intangible and invisible, it also adds real or perceived value to a transaction for the customer and in return, help develop a sense of trust and loyalty between the business and the customer.
Exceptional Service has the power to entice customers to do more business with you and talk favourably to others about your business. It is highly effective in gaining more business for you by motivating customers to spend more money, more often because they receive that “something extra” that builds customer loyalty and can readily differentiate you from your competitors.
The Loyalty Stairway is a systematic approach to providing great customer service, improving customer loyalty and achieving continuing business growth.
A strategy to deliberately move your customers up the Loyalty Stairway will enhance both the size and quality of your customer base. A customer’s position on the Stairway determines the activities you need to carry out on their behalf, either to maintain their level or progress them to the next level. You may move customers up the Loyalty Stairway as follows:
1. From with the Greater Population, define the type of person or business you want to become your “ideal customer”. As a group of customers, they effectively become your “target market”.
2. Your “ideal customer” is the Targeted Prospect at whom your marketing campaigns should talk to. Your campaigns need to be created therefore, to allow you to have an effective “marketing conversation” with them.
3. The next stage of the Loyalty Stairway involves directing your selling strategies at developing worthwhile customer relationships with your Prospect. This involves adding value and delighting them sufficiently to achieve your first sale from them. Thank them for their interest.
4. Having made your initial sale to your new Customer, your relationship is maintained by ensuring you consistently meet the Supply basics. This includes providing good value and delighting your customer with your courtesy, acknowledgement and care. This is when you also introduce them to your loyalty program. Of course, you must always thank them for choosing to buy from you.
5. A Loyal Customer is one who keeps buying from you in preference other suppliers. Consistently meeting their Supply needs is essential to maintaining an effective relationship with them; such relationship being necessary before introducing your referrals program to them. This is a
process of asking your customers to refer your business to people they know who might also benefit from your goods and services. As always, you must thank your customers for doing this.
6. When a customer consistently refers you to others, they effectively become your very valuable Referrers. You will maintain customers at this level through the ongoing, consistent Supply of your goods and services and exceptional service to them. Giving thanks and recognition to these customers for their referrals is also essential.
7. At the very top of your Loyalty Stairway is your Representative. They are your best ever customer because, not only do they do business with you and pay you on time, etc., but they actually create business for you. They bring you customers and give glowing referrals because they are convinced your business provides the absolute best solution to their problems and best meets their needs in your field, such as the best restaurant, the best life coach, etc.
It really does pay to be the best!
It is important to realise that moving customers up the Loyalty Stairway relies on two-way or reciprocal loyalty. If customers receive consistent supply, great service, loyalty and great value from you, they will reciprocate with business, loyalty and referrals for you.
The Loyalty Stairway shows that by deliberately building relationships and adding value for your customers, the more value you will also add to your business.
If you need to know more about utilising the Loyalty Stairway, simply contact UltimateChallenge today at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 In difficult economic times, is it possible to grow profitability in your business AND give you back your life too? If it isn't just a pipe dream, how can we make it happen?
At UltimateChallenge, we say that it isn’t a pipedream and we recommend taking our 8 Points to Progress to achieve it. This is essentially a process of combining two of our existing programs, the Pre-PAR Review and Seven Steps to Momentum (7S2M).
Supported at all times by a philosophy such as the UltimateChallenge Game Plan where you START playing the game, develop the SKILLS you need to "play the game", apply INTELLIGENT INTENSITY to your task and ultimately build BELIEF in yourself, the 8 Points to Progress operates as follows:
1. Conducting a thorough “line in the sand” review of business operations.
The concept of improvement in business is underpinned by the principle that it won’t happen unless you first measure it. You won’t recognise the need for change unless your measures suggest a particular area needs to be improved in some way. After all, why change it otherwise?
The benefits of this process are threefold:
a) Identify areas of the business that present challenges and need to be addressed for the business to succeed.
b) Help you understand your own business more fully in terms of your financial position, business direction, planning, leadership, service, systems, etc.
c) To create a foundation on which to build your subsequent improvement and
growth.
You can find out more about this process at http://www.derekoconnell.net/tph-extra.html or contact UltimateChallenge directly at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
2. Set a Clear Direction for the Business (developing and implementing a Statement of Business Direction). Your Direction Statement would be based on your growth and profitability goals and principles of “PAR Excellence” and would include Business Purpose, Vision, Missions and Culture, Plans, Goals and Initiatives.
When your team knows where the business is heading, understand the importance of their individual and team roles and their support is enlisted, your chances of achieving your desired Direction will increase dramatically.
3. Develop the Managers and Employees (providing leadership, guidance and oversight to ensure all managers and employees) to take a load off you as owner and allow the Business Direction to be delivered whether you are there or not. This process seeks to gain compliance with Company Plans, Culture, Policies and Procedures
and for your business to be portrayed in the best possible light with stakeholders and the community.
Only through effective and deliberate leadership will achievement of your longer term goals be possible without you being involved so deeply on a daily basis.
4. Ensuring effective operations and exceptional customer service (developing a “purchase order to payment” process that delivers ongoing and consistent supply of the products and services offered by your business).
Important elements of this process include:
a) Reducing levels of operational rework
b) Largely eliminating requests for repeated intervention by you as owner
c) Fostering a strong service ethic towards internal and external customers
d) Achieving effective and efficient supply outcomes for the most important person in the business, the Customer.
5. Providing an effective fiscal framework for the business, including budgets, cashflow forecasting and financial reporting to ensure successful profit and cash outcomes which build on the existing financial strength of the business.
An important part of this process is having a deliberate and regular focus on KPI’s such as Prospects, Conversion Rate, Transactions per Customer, Average Sale Value and Profit Margins. By way of example, improving each of these KPI’s by just 10% will deliver an amazing 61% more profit, as shown in the sample Profit Analysis attached.
6. Building the Business’ Brand through effective Marketing and Sales (developing, implementing, measuring and reviewing a suite of branding, marketing and sales plans for new and existing customers).
Important considerations in this process are that:
a) It will become necessary to grow the existing customer base and expand into other market segments not currently being serviced but which show promise.
b) It is always cheaper to enhance existing relationships than to develop new ones.
c) It is necessary to build on the loyalty of all customers AND be more loyal to them.
d) Increased customer loyalty will ensure they buy more products more often and tell others about your business too.
7. Fostering effective business systems (continuously improve all business operations with an intelligent mix of formal and informal systems). Together, your systems need to be capable of “running the business” efficiently and effectively whether you are there or not. By having an effective suite of systems will markedly improve the future saleability of your business as a highly profitable and systemised going concern.
8. Ensuring team members can “manage the systems that run the business” effectively. Only when you have the “right people on the bus” and they are operating effectively and efficiently as a team on a daily basis will long-term business success be possible. This is achieved by:
a) Recruiting well,
b) Enhancing team member capacity,
c) Developing effective teams that work together for a common goal,
d) Showing a clear link from each person’s role to your customers (internal and external), and
e) Measuring and reporting on people’s job performance, etc.
If you need to know more about this process, simply contact UltimateChallenge today at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 Ever heard of OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Well, it’s one of
many mental or learning disorders now recognised by society. OCD is a label used to describe people who get obsessed (really obsessed) about things. Apparently, people obsess about all sorts of things and while most of us would consider the subjects of their obsession as inconsequential or strange, to people with OCD, they are a very big deal. You may have heard about people who constantly repeatedly wash their hands or lock their doors for example.
At the outset, let me say I am unqualified to discuss the psychology of OCD, but I do know someone who has jokingly diagnosed herself as having OCD tendencies. We’ll call her Mary (not her real name).
Mary has been struggling in her business lately, trying to get things going again after an enforced restructure and period of illness. Unfortunately though, she spends her time on “puffery” rather than creating a WOW for her customers. She is tinkering around at the edges of her business rather than getting stuck in to make it a success.
By constantly creating lists, tidying up small areas of her work space and posting notes on her wall about tasks to be completed, Mary is essentially wasting her time. Sure, she feels better for a while, but her gloom returns when she realises nothing of any consequence has been achieved.
Whether or not she has OCD or something worse is for a specialist to decide and I’ve recommended she seek professional help if her situation is prolonged.
Of course, there may be something else at play here – Mary may have what I call Pervasive Inaction Disorder or PID. If she had this “fictional disorder”, her problems might have a psychological basis but by putting off important matters to another day, she is effectively making life even more stressful and her problems more difficult to resolve whenever she does try to address them. Essentially, she is procrastinating.
Procrastination affects people both inside business and out. There’s no use denying that, but the impact can be especially dire for business people because it can logically lead to severe financial distress and psychological stress for both them and those around them.
The greatest remedy for inaction is action and the most effective way to stop procrastinating is to adopt the Nike philosophy and “Just do it”, namely addressing your tasks one by one. Amazingly, you will also start feeling better because you’re starting to achieve something important by getting off your backside and addressing the issues of concern in your business.
At UltimateChallenge, we and our clients rely on “PAR Excellence” to do
just that. It's a process whereby you:
1. Gain a realistic, “line in the sand” view of your business (Pre-PAR
Review),
2. Create a Vision for where you want to go in the future,
3. Develop a Plan filled with goals to help you achieve that Vision,
4. Take deliberate Action to achieve each goal in a timely and effective manner, and
finally
5. Review the results of your Actions and the progress of your Plan and then you start all over again.
If you're like Mary and you need to eliminate puffery, get off your backside, stop procrastinating and get things happening, NOW is the time. Simply contact the UltimateChallenge team at blog@ultimatechalleng.com.au. Don't put it off until tomorrow or the next day. Do it NOW! Make it happen!
 In my last blog, I stated that “self discipline and commitment are huge parts of this process”. The
process I was referring to was “Reading PAR Excellence”, which I use when I’m not
reading purely for enjoyment.
It requires that I systematically Read, Plan, Act and Review the inspirational books I read so that I can get more out of them than just a good read or knowledge. Essentially, I use it to motivate myself to do something meaningful and worthwhile with my new knowledge.
If I want to share in what these amazing authors write about, I realise it simply won't happen without some sort of deliberate action on my part.
So yes, my ability to discipline myself and commit to changing things, are essential elements of what we might call "successful active reading".
I've recently read a number of extremely inspirational books and when I apply Reading PAR Excellence to them, they’re highly motivational too. Though none of these books is new, their power to inspire still remains true and strong and I recommend them highly.
The books are as follows:
1. “The Diary of Anne Frank” – not quite sure how I missed out this “awe inspiring classic” (my words) at school,
2. “Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale” – we all need to learn how to sell at some time or other, even if it’s just our point of view,
3. “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” by John Gray – I’ve always wondered what makes the different genders tick,
4. “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill – looking forward to applying Reading PAR Excellence to this one because last time I read it very passively and treated it as little more than “a good read”, and finally
5. “Don’t Die with the Music in You” by Wayne Bennett – Australia’s premier rugby league coach details what it takes to be a winner in life, whether as a sportsman, business person or anything else.
If you want to learn how to get a whole lot more out of your reading, contact us at UltimateChallenge today at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 It struck me recently that with so many inspirational books and self improvement training programs available for people in recent decades, we really should by now have solved virtually all the world's problems and improved every facet of our lives.
But has that happened? Unfortunately, the answer is NO!
In global terms, the success of this reading material and training activity in changing things for the better would at best be rated as “marginal”. Sure, some people’s
lives have improved and others have gained knowledge, but the benefits have
certainly not been universal.
In fact, I suspect many of the businesses paying good money for employees to be trained would be disappointed too, mainly because they expect their employees to gain more than just knowledge. I’m quite convinced they would want their employees to actually apply their new knowledge for the benefit of the business. After all, why would a business spend money on training other than to make more money in return.
So, what’s the problem? Why are benefits not being readily achieved? I suspect it comes down to the following:
1. A lack of clear expectation that improvement needs to happen,
2. A lack of commitment to do what is needed,
3. A lack of activity to change what is wrong, and
4. A lack of measurement.
Example: An employee was provided with training to improve her performance EXCEPT that she wasn't told. As she isn't a self motivated person, she saw no need to commit to changing anything either? With no expectations placed on her and a general lack of performance measurement anyway, is it any wonder there was no improvement in here performance? I don't think so.
Of course, the same scenario can apply to your reading too. If you don't deliberately commit to putting your learnings into action, they simply go into the "nice to know" category and never happen in your life.
All readers of this blog or my book, “The Profit Handbook”, will know that your chances of improving anything are almost NIL if you don’t first measure it. After all, why would you? It’s unlikely you’d even know you had a problem or, if you did, its full extent.
In fact, that’s the origin of our “PAR Excellence”, which stands for “Excellence through Plan, Act, Review”. Remember, this is the business improvement process where a Pre-PAR Review is conducted; a Plan with goals, expected outcomes and
timelines is created; Action is taken to achieve outcomes; and results of those actions are measured and Reviewed before starting all over again.
Having seen the benefits of PAR Excellence, I adapted it to come up with a new form of active reading called “Reading PAR Excellence”, and a more “results focused” training regime called “Training PAR Excellence”. Each utilises the PAR Excellence Process
described above.
I use Reading PAR Excellence when I’m not reading just for enjoyment. What I do is systematically Read, Plan, Act and Review my books to gain more than mere knowledge. After all, I see the purpose of inspirational reading as being to inspire and motivate the reader to act in the hope of making their lives better as a result.
My starting point for Training PAR Excellence is to ensure I place a level of expectation on the training. BEFORE the actual Train, Plan, Act and Review process begins, I ensure there will be a lasting personal or business benefit from the training and know what that benefit is. Only then do I see myself being in a position to measure the success of the training.
Unsurprisingly, self discipline and commitment are huge parts of this process. After
all, it will always be easier to be a passive reader than an active one. PAR Excellence, in any of its forms, requires someone to take deliberate action and in this case, that someone is either the reader or the trainee.
If you want to learn how to get more out of your reading or your training dollar, contact us at UltimateChallenge today at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 In one of the early blogs on this site, I provided a set of what I now call, Success Rules. The list resulted from my observations of a particular sporting team I was following.
Since publishing that blog, I've seen the principles of those Success Rules confirmed on many subsequent occasions, in many different sporting contests, in many different disciplines and among both amateurs and professional team.
By way of reminder, the Success Rules are as follows:
1. START playing the game (your business, etc..)
2. Develop the SKILLS you need to "play the game", being proactive in every activity you carry out, i.e. by researching, practicing and learning from any mistakes you make.
3. Be INTELLIGENT in the way you apply your skills – decide on your direction, set your goals, plan to achieve your goals and do it with great INTENSITY.
4. Build BELIEF in yourself. Only by believing it's possible to achieve something, will you ever do so.
Since the applicability of the Rules appears, to me at least, almost universal in sport and over the years, I considered that there may well be application within business as well. After all, over the years I've seen very many similarities between success in sport and success in business.
As such, I included them in this blog to help business owners bring these rules which was designed to help the business owner bring their business to success.
So how do you think I felt the other day, when a business owner that I know mentioned to me that there he was trying to avoid having "too much intensity" in their business? Now as you can imagine, this seemed to me to be a comment that was basically wrong.
This chap then mentioned a former colleague whose "modus operandi" was to was to create a sense of mayhem or "busy-ness" as opposed to business. He would apparently create a manic displays of intensity but failed to take account of meeting the needs of either his customers or his business.
Please note: This is not the type of intensity referred to in Point 3 of the Rules above. Manic action will almost always result in manic results and "busy-ness" is not the name of the game.
The intensity referred to in the Success Rules is that which is required to deliver the intelligently designed business plans, goals and vision. It describes a sense of unbreakable purpose, deliberate action and desire to deliver for both the business and its customers.
If you want to learn how to build belief, your business intelligence and your intensity, contact us
at UltimateChallenge today at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 Why ask a question like that? What's that got to do with success in business? How can I be unique anyway?
Rightly or wrongly, it is a fact of life that business is conducted competitively. To be successful in such a market, you will need your business to make profits consistently over time and at levels that ultimately provide for your personal needs.
To achieve that outcome, your business needs to successfully compete with other businesses for your customer's finite money resources and that's why what you offer needs to be sufficiently attractive for a customer to choose to spend their money with you rather than saving it or spending it with somebody else.
That's why we ask questions about uniqueness. It's because your business, its offerings and value proposition all need to be sufficiently different from and provide better value than your competitors, as to influence potential customers to spend their money with you.
If your business is well known in the market for being unique, effective and a provider of greater value than your competitors provide, you will achieve business success. But how do you achieve it?
You achieve it by directly and deliberately acting. You essentially need to create a winning USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your business and then ensure that you are able to really deliver on it.
The following information on the USP is provided in greater detail in my book, "The Profit Handbook", available on Amazon.com at http://amzn.to/VOaj5T.
The USP is a written statement which outlines what makes your business unique, is designed to help you sell, is effectively your sales pitch, defines your business WOW factor and breaks down the information about your products into a few clear, concise sentences.
Your USP will be most effective when the following USP Rules are met. Written in simple, direct, honest and tight language, the USP needs to let your customers know how different your business and products are, actually needs to be different, be customer-focused, provide a basis for future advertising campaigns, focus on what you want your customers to think of when your business comes to mind, get to what your business really stands for and its destination, focus on value, not price.
Here is an example of an effective single sentence USP which follows all the rules and adds elements of credibility, a great price, the implication of excellent service and an effective guarantee:
“With XYZ butlers, you get the same service the prime minister does, at the same price and with the same money-back guarantee!”
Of course, XYZ will need to be comfortable with each of these elements and be able to consistently deliver everyone the same level of service as the Prime Minister, the systems need to support the promised level of service, a profit needs to be generated at the stated price level, and the guarantee needs to be meaningful, workable, and (obviously) rarely claimed against.
The same will also apply to your USP.
To be truly effective, your USP must be "accepted" by you and your team, be fundamental to your marketing campaigns, improve your team’s understanding of what is expected of them and ensure customers actually receive what you promise.
If you settle on a USP that your business is not currently capable of delivering, you need to make changes in your business to make sure you can.
Your USP needs to show that your business actually does stand apart from your competitors and let you tap into the positive emotions that might have on your prospects.
Folks, if done properly, being different will pay you great dividends. Make it happen for your business today.
If you need help to come up with a "winning USP" for your business, please contact our team immediately at blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au.
 Last week, I wrote about being "fair dinkum" in how we approach life. Generally speaking, this "values-based" proposition requires a person or business to act ethically and live in accordance with their values on a daily basis.
This week, I was horrified to watch Australian ABC-TV's "4 Corners" report on the story of the disaster in the nine-storey Rana Plaza clothing factory near Dhaka, in Bangladesh. It was chilling to think that more than 1,000 very low-paid, mainly women workers could lose their lives and many thousands more could lose their livelihoods essentially because of man's greed.
I was confronted, saddened and disappointed at the lengths to which some well-known businesses in the fashion industry have gone to make a profit, effectively at the expense of other people. It showed behaviour and practices that were anything but "fair
dinkum", I'm afraid.
But, how could this still happen in a world where initiatives, such as CSR and the "Triple Bottom Line, have been introduced around the world specifically to ensure businesses act in a more "fair dinkum" way.
CSR or "Corporate Social Responsibility" is a self-regulating process by which a business not only monitors its compliance with the "spirit of the law", ethical standards and international norms, but deliberately works to ensure it complies.
The "Triple Bottom Line" has its focus on “People, Planet and Profit” and recognises that to be socially responsible, an organisation must balance the short term desires of its shareholders for consistent profit growth, against the impact of that profit on people inside and outside the business, and on the environment.
Generally speaking, you might think that a business satisfying the rules of CSR or Triple Bottom Line would also be seen as "fair dinkum”.
But how many businesses in the Bangladesh disaster have actually "passed" their CSR and Triple Bottom Line? How highly would they rank on the following criteria:
Business Values – Having a strong base of ethics and values which the people in the business seek to live by them every day.
Business Integrity – Consistently trying to do the right thing, not just for their business and their shareholders, but for any stakeholders in their supply chain (employees, suppliers, and customers), and for their community too.
Honesty – Demonstrating honesty daily and being managed by people who are honest in what they say and what they do.
Real – Being transparent businesses where "what you see is what you will get”.
Try – Both allowing and
encouraging people to “have a go”. If they feel something
really needs to be done in an area they’ll try to do it themselves and not
wait for others.
Fairness – Being fair in all their dealings with others and supporting other people’s rights and attempts to “have a go” too. They avoid a "growth at all costs" philosophy because they recognise it will generally be at the expense of someone else, namely a supplier, employee, customer or smaller competitor.
Directed – Being clear and having a generally agreed sense of the Direction, Purpose and Vision as to where the business is going. The sense that all involved know where they’re going and why is both palpable and supported by all.
Intensity – Operating with a level of intensity that suggests nothing is to be left to
chance in order to achieve the Business' Vision.
Hardworking – Supporting an ethic of "hard but intelligent work" and rewarding people who demonstrate it.
Persistence – Balance the competing needs of a short term reporting cycle and what is needed to perform well into the future in each bottom line element (people, planet and profit).
Reliability – Being managed by people who do what they say they're going to do and follow up consistently, such that these are businesses which can be relied upon to deliver on their promises.
The crux of the matter is this. The businesses mentioned above certainly need to do much better. There's little doubt about that, but our own businesses need to do better too. And we are customers too, of course. In that guise, we need to do better too, by paying a fair price for our products; a price that allows the person making the product to earn a "living wage" and work in a safe place. In return for that, the businesses we buy from MUST make sure that person actually receives those things.
But, if we assume we need to introduce the “fair dinkum” business into today's business world, how do we do it properly? There's probably a few steps, including:
1. Demanding that the businesses we deal with are all “fair dinkum”,
2. Publicly recognising and rewarding the "fair dinkum" businesses,
3. Aiming much higher than the "lowest common denominator" or "single bottom line", which is profit, and
4. Accepting that we are all in this world together and to avoid more Rana Plaza
Disasters, we all need to change.
I'm currently working on THE FAIR DINKUM PROJECT and if, like me, you see the need
for more “fair dinkum” businesses in this world of ours, I’d really appreciate your suggestions. I ultimately see this turning into a "movement for improvement",
Of course, if you want your own business to be more "fair dinkum", simply contact me today at blog@ultimachallenge.com.au and we can get started on that “fair dinkum” project, immediately.
 Now there’s a question for you. After all, what does “fair dinkum” really mean and does it matter anyway?
Let’s explain. “Fair dinkum” is an Australian term of uncertain origin. Some people suggest it comes from an aboriginal term, others think it relates to “fair drinking” (interesting), others infer an Asian influence relating to “gold nuggets”, while others think it is from the Latin, “Veras De Cum”, meaning “with the truth”. True, when you shorten it to “Ver De Cum” and run it all together, it does sound a bit like “fair dinkum”.
The truth of the matter is that no one really knows and worrying about that misses the point anyway. Where it comes from is not nearly as important as what it means today and could mean for you in the future.
To be “fair dinkum”, I think a person needs to demonstrate the following character traits:
Values – They will have strong personal values and try to live by them every day.
Integrity – They should consistently try to do the right thing, not just for themselves but for their families and the community too.
Honesty – They should be honest people, both in what they say and what they do.
Real – With these people “what you see is what you will get”.
Try – These should be people who “have a go”. If they feel something really needs to be done in an area they’ll try to do it themselves. They don’t wait for others.
Fairness – They should be people who are fair in their dealings with others and support other people’s rights and attempts to “have a go” too.
Directed – These folk will generally have a clear sense of direction and purpose. They’ll know where they’re going and know why they’re doing so.
Intensity - They should do what they do with a level of intensity that suggests nothing is left to chance.
Hardworking – They should be prepared to work hard for what they get and essentially, expect nothing in return for nothing.
Persistence – They need to be able to “hang in there” to achieve what they want.
Reliability – They need to be the sort of people who do what they say they’ll do and follow up too.
So, does the concept of the “fair dinkum” person have a place today, whether in Australia or anywhere else for that matter?
Yes, it most certainly does. Any of the above character traits will help you become a better person and all of them together will almost certainly set you up for success. Imagine the greatness and success that could be achieved by having a whole team of “fair dinkum” people.
Am I “fair dinkum”? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. I aspire to it and I do try. What about you? Are you fair dinkum?
If, like me, you see the benefit of being more “fair dinkum” in your life or in your business but you're not quite sure how to go about it, you could join me on the FAIR DINKUM PROJECT by simply contacting me today at blog@ultimachallenge.com.au.
The results could be amazing.
Till next time.
 I have recently come to realise that the general standard of business education in the community, is somewhat limited. What’s worse, it even extends to some people who own businesses. Through no fault of their own, they too have little business knowledge beyond the day to day of their own business.
So, why is this so and what's the impact on business generally?
Being able to place people in jobs is used as an almost universal indicator of success for a school or university. So pervasive is it in fact, that the notion of a student wanting to run a business is such an extreme exception, that the likelihood of them learning how to actually do so successfully while at school or university, is very remote. That is very sad.
From kindergarten to university, our formal education system adopts a “one-size fits all” model which trains people only to “get a job”. “Running a business” is more of a "non-option", meaning it's hardly even considered. The only way people learn HOW to run a successful business in a formal way therefore, is to qualify for a post-graduate MBA or the like. My suspicion is though that few MBA holders run their own business anyway and are more likely to use it to qualify for "an even better job".
This needs to change right from the start, namely at kindergarten when a child’s future prospects are limitless. With parents and teachers engaged, we may avoid the mistakes of the past, where limits are placed on a child’s potential before they even start.
Now, It will be no small task to turn around this universal “job mindset”, but it is my own personal ultimate challenge to make a big change over the next 5 years. to that end, I'm currently developing an approach to take to schools that will help turn it around. If you have any thoughts in this regard, I'd very much welcome your contributions to my cause.
Of course, that's all very well for the future, but what about the “here and now”. We also have to help today’s business owners and I have already written a business education eBook to help people running a business now or wanting to do so in the future. The book is called, "The Profit Handbook" and among its many topics and many tips, are answers to 3 very big questions:
1. Why is making a profit in business so important,
2. Why is EXCEPTIONAL customer service so critical to success in business, and
3. How do you go about making enough profit in business to reach Profit Paradise?
Of course, to do any real good, the book needs to be read widely by today’s business owners and its strategies need to be acted on. Why not take the opportunity to buy the book for the benefits it can bring YOUR business, AND to forward the Amazon link other business owners you know so they might also benefit from it.
The book is available on Amazon.com for just $US 9.97 at the following link, http://amzn.to/VOaj5T and can be yours in minutes. It is a Kindle eBook, but can also be read on your computer or digital device, thanks to the FREE Kindle Apps available from Amazon.com at http://amzn.to/XwXnRD).
If you buy the book (as evidenced by the Receipt will email you) you will qualify for a complimentary Business Analytics Appraisal from Ultimate Challenge. Normally worth over $200, it is FREE for you or someone you nominate. I look forward to hearing from you soon on blog@ultimatechallenge.com.au. .
Now! Back to the schools “Job Mindset” thing!!
Thank you very much.
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