We Owe Jamie Dimon for teaching Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners a Valuable Lesson (and every other CEO as well)
Are you a small business owner or an entrepreneur? Are you the CEO of a midsized or larger company? We all really owe a big thank you to one of the most successful Wall Street CEO’s, Jamie Dimon, the current chairman, president and chief executive of JPMorganChase. No, this is not a roast of Jamie Dimon. It is not a skewering of Jamie Dimon article about what may or may not have taken place, or what he knew or did not know about his business. It is the opposite. We owe you one, Jamie.
Everyone who runs a business or a company should personally thank Jamie Dimon. For those who do not know, last Thursday, Dimon announced to various analysts, essentially to the world that his bank had lost $2 billion, yes a ‘b’, by taking a wrong and ‘stupid’ (his words) bet with a hedging strategy utilizing credit derivatives. (Excuse me but how do you actually ‘bet’ with a hedging strategy?)
The market punished the stock of JPMorganChase on Friday and Monday, essentially taking $20 billion in market value off the table, out of the house, gone. Forgive me if this topic is not your typical area of interest. It will be in a moment. You may find billions and credit derivatives to be of absolutely no interest to you. Fully appreciate your view. Here is why this is so valuable. So important, we must pay attention as business owners and leaders of our businesses.
All of us who run our companies need to remember to do one thing every single day. If you are only able to do one single thing – do this and only this one thing.
Do what we are good at doing, do what we are great at doing!
Just do that one thing and you will soar to the top in your field and run a most successful business. It is when we stray off track. It is when we stop listening to the advice of others and think we are the one who needs to give advice and not receive it.
It is then we are ready to fail. You think it is not true? You think this is not about you and your company? Take a look at your vision statement for your business. Read your mission statement for your business. Is this what you and anyone who works with you, or for you is spending their time and efforts on? If not, maybe you need to rework your vision statement and mission statement. Or is it possible you and your company have strayed? You are off track. The business is involved in other businesses and other areas which are off the mark.
Do what we are good at doing, do what we are great at doing!
If you feel you must have these other items done and it is not what you or your business does best – there is a single answer in one word – outsource. This is the solution for your excuses.
Get your business back on track. Just do the one thing you are great at. Contact Mitch Tublin today, to bring your business back to the one thing you do great, at info@thementorguy.com.
Are you a networker? Do you go out to specific events at least three or four times a month with the specific goal of meeting new people and connecting with them?
You may have read a recent article “Know Who Your Ideal Clients Are For Success in Business”… The discussion of who is your ideal client and how do you define the right customers for the success of your business is an important topic. One of the specific reasons this definition will have such an impact on the ultimate success of your business is it will begin to drive everything else you do. This definition will help to determine your marketing strategy all the way to how and where you network.
The next time you are speaking with your dentist, or your accountant, or your chiropractor ask where they go to events. Typically the events they attend are industry specific events. There will be other dentists, or accountants or chiropractors there in attendance. The only remote chance of seeing a referral from these groups is if someone they know is relocating exactly to your community and their office remembers who you are and where your business is located. In general, industry specific events will help you to discuss best practices within your area of specialty, learn new methods or technologies and potentially create a network of specialists who you might call if you are in a unique situation.
If you then ask your dentist, accountant or chiropractor where they generally obtain the majority of their new clients. Odds are good they would say referrals from current and former clients. This is where this gets interesting as none of them are actively networking to meet new clients.
These three examples are of professionals in private practice who have generally isolated themselves. Who will they turn to for example, with a business related question which is not an aspect of their specialty?
A networking strategy is important for anyone at any level of business. It is of significant importance to the solo- preneur or small business owner who must make each of these functions count. Look through your calendar and determine the exact types of networking events you should be attending.
Consider creating a strategy around your networking and intentionally form relationships which are mutually beneficial. Some of these relationships will be specific to your area of specialization. These conversations will keep you in the loop. Other relationships should be formed to add value to each other. You hope these will result in new connections and clients.
When you are in need of an answer to a business question, or you require an experienced professional to offer a second set of eyes and ears on a project you should consider the Thirty For Thirty offered by Mitch Tublin.
One of the subjects which transits across all types of businesses no matter the size, level, or years in actual business, is to know who your client is. Most of you know this fact, or have heard this statement before.
Is it possible you never thought about why this is important to the ultimate success of your business?
In the larger corporate setting have you witnessed a company which takes a direction that is not in tune with their ideal client definition, and there is a backlash against their ‘new’ product or offering? Some examples are Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Burger King, HP, and Blackberry (there are numerous other examples).
In the medium to small business setting have you seen a business partner with another business or create a business line not congruent with how they are thought of by their loyal clients only to have to rethink the entire strategy? A few which come to mind for me are the local waste removal company who started an accounting offer and tax preparation service, the restaurant owner who began to offer asphalt paving services, the high end clothes store which opened a discount maternity store next door.
In each of these examples, there was no natural synergy between the first successful business and the new start-up business. This is not to say that it is not possible to begin another business totally unrelated to your core business. It is important to recognize you will achieve little or no upside following from your current ideal client group to a new unrelated business, and you risk damaging your brand with another type of business unrelated to the core business which you are known for.
For a start up venture, or for a new or growing entrepreneurial company, the ideal client definition is absolutely critical. Similar to the above discussions, the following applies to each of the categories.
- How will you conduct your marketing?
- Where will you conduct your marketing?
- What is the marketing budget you have available?
All of these questions are impacted by your dialed in ideal client definition or your lack of one.
If you doubt this, consider how the internet has created the ability for anyone to rapidly reach their ideal client group. The definitions are there – age, sex, geography, education level, and much more. You now have the ability to hone in your message for your ideal client to see it. The words you utilize in your message must be written with your ideal client in mind. Otherwise the ability to utilize the internet will be lost with an unclear message.
Any type of business, and any sized business, must understand and define their ideal client. Are you ready to recheck your ideal client definition? Does your marketing and messaging need a review to see if you are reaching your ideal client group?
Contact Mitch Tublin today, www.thementorguy.com.
It is my assumption, that where ever you live, you are able to either purchase pizza or prepare your own pizza. In the area known as The New York Metro Area and the area around Boston, people are very loyal to where the ‘best’ pizza is to be found.
Is this true for where you live?
Consider for a moment the variety of ways pizza is sold in New York City. There are numerous locations which sell pizza by the slice. You may buy a full pizza pie or purchase by the slice as well. Just within this category there are small locations with a few chairs and tables all the way to a large restaurant style location with numerous tables and chairs. There are the national chains, where delivery pizza is their bread and butter. Then we go to the higher end and higher quality locations where pizza by the slice is not sold.
These are restaurants where pizza is prepared to order and only sold by the whole pizza pie. Across the board in each category, there may be other food selections or none. A salad may not be on the menu at a small pizza by the slice location for example. A meatball hero or hoagie may be on their menu. The smaller pizza restaurant may only offer soft drinks and beer, while the larger restaurant may offer a wine list as well.
What do these descriptions have to do with your business and setting up your business for success?
It does not make a difference if you are in a service based business or selling a product or products, the analogy is useful. You must consider your offering. Are you setting up a business model which will essentially sell by the slice? A low priced category where you need a high number of customers on a regular basis to purchase from you? Or are you setting up your business model to be more of a high end, higher cost business where the quality and attention will command a higher price point? Will you offer a number of other services or products alongside your main service or product? How many of these other items or services will you offer?
Each of these questions needs to be addressed and defined. If you begin to lose focus on why this makes a difference, consider the pizza analogy. When Domino’s first began their business it was to deliver hot, fresh pizza to college students within 30 minutes of the phone call or the pizza was free. Their business model is really not that much different today, many years after the business first began.
The basic business principles transcend the type of business. There are certain foundational aspects which must be considered regardless of the type of business you are in. Are you ready to define for your business, the model you will follow? Contact Mitch Tublin today for him to guide you and your team through the process, www.thementorguy.com.
 |
| Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
In the position of leadership, as in the person in charge of a company, do we discuss our personal value system? Is this of great importance to discuss? It is my belief that this is one of the critical foundational building blocks which has been missing for a number of years and is a contributing factor to the current leadership void which exists today in corporate America. This is not to say bring your religious beliefs or spiritual practices exactly as these are practiced into the workplace.
It is to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with openly sharing your value system. There are discussions and open forums on what is right and why, and what is wrong and why. How you live and how you expect your employees to represent the organization. Of course, there are legal boundaries which may not be crossed, and in many ways that is the point.
What does need to be said is: “You will not be fired for adding value to our clients and customers within the mission statement and vision for our organization, even if it does not result in a sale.” Even deeper, “You will not be fired for ending a customer relationship where the client or customer is demanding behavior from you or the organization which is not consistent with our mission and vision statements or our value system.” Or a statement of a similar nature which fits your culture.
Or a statement which says: “You are encouraged to surround yourself and hire people who are smarter than you in specific areas and know more than you do. Grooming new people into our culture should be encouraged, not discouraged.”
Be honest with yourself, will you even consider either of these statements? Do you believe your organization would be a better one with these type of behaviors in place? How far are you willing to go? A leader will talk the talk and a leader will walk the talk.
Do you behave in a manner consistent with the value system you are speaking about, and intend to ingrain as part of the culture of your organization? Does the team you have around you prove your point about the hiring practices you wish others to emulate in your company? These are serious topics to be considered. The positive actions taken toward creating a culture which places a positive view upon values within the organization will last longer and be more meaningful than one more sale or the next transaction. If you are ready to work on your personal value system and how to impart your values to your organization contact Mitch Tublin today, info@mitchtublin.com.
Someone once said to me, “I don’t read the articles on blogs as there is nothing of value and I am always feeling like someone is selling to me.” My thought was, maybe you need to upgrade which blogs you read!
Let’s add some value today!
Right now, without thinking about it, write down ten habits you have. These would be ten behaviors you have, which you conduct each day or each week. Now go through this list you just created. How many of the ten habits either add value to you, your family, your business, or to people you meet? The ability to achieve success or not is solidly aligned with the habits we have created for ourselves. Specifically the intentional habits created which will add value each day to us, to our families, to our business, and to the people we come into contact with.
The ability to create habits that are moving you toward success is open to anyone at any level of education and any level of business. It is one of the great tools to level the playing field. If you are confused or not understanding what you might change here are a few options for you to consider:
- First, is to begin each and every week with your goals for the week. Actually write out these goals for the week on Sunday evening. Take your time and consider what you wish to accomplish this coming week.
- Second, write out the top five habits you need to have on Monday which will provide you with the best opportunity of meeting the goals you have set for the week.
- Third, at the end of the day Monday, review the list of goals for the week and see if any changes or adjustments are needed. Check off any goals which have already been reached.
- Fourth, write out the top five habits you need to have on Tuesday which will provide you with the best opportunity of meeting the goals you have set for the week.
- Five, repeat this process each day.
When you have conducted this practice for at least three months you will be on the verge of creating a habit. Do you already feel how powerful this process will be for you?
A word of caution regarding the use of your laptop or other electronic devices instead of writing: There is something unique and empowering which takes place when we write out by hand our goals and intentions. If you wish to electronically track yourself after you handwrite these out, great. The Sunday and each day process should be hand written out first. The study to prove this is not at the top of my mind right now, possibly one of the readers will offer the study in a comment to prove the power of the hand written statement of goals and intentions.
If you would like Mitch to work with your organization on Goal setting and creating habits for success, contact his team here: info@thementorguy.com.
Did you have an April Fools’ Day trick or joke pulled on you? Possibly you were responsible for pulling a prank on another person or two?
How far do you allow humor, tricks, pranks and these activities to pervade your business or organization? For example, professional speakers for years have been opening up their talk with a humorous story, as they expect this to allow a better connection with their audience. Does the same work in your business, to help develop teamwork and camaraderie?
Where is the line drawn?
Consider a regular behavior that takes place in small and medium sized companies and organizations. The owner, founder, CEO or possibly a few of the leadership team attend a two or three day workshop. This is attended by other senior executives from other small and medium sized companies. Upon their return to the home office, like clockwork, meetings are held and a new method, process, software, you name it, becomes the mantra. Many of the people leave the meeting feeling like they are participating in another cruel April Fools’ Day joke. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This will become the ‘hot’ topic for the next few weeks, until the reality of being back ‘in the office’ fighting the daily fires again, and the materials from the two or three day conference are placed up on the shelf or filed away somewhere, never to be heard from again.
None of these statements or actions are to mean that the content or workshop materials were not of value. What is does mean is something much greater. The leadership team is not prepared to honestly and critically review where they are in their business and where they expect to proceed. The leadership team recognized, when they were removed from the day to day activity, that some action needed to be taken. They may have discussed why the content or materials from this workshop were the solution. The actions they took upon their return were not set up for success. They took an action just like a person telling an April Fools’ Day joke.
The personality of your organization will develop from the leadership team and their personality. Creating this personality should be by design. The same is true for the path you take for your business. It is never a straight line to success. This is not to mean there is not a planned line or course to follow.
Are you ready to bring your business or organization to a new level of leadership? Contact Mitch Tublin, www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/mitchtublin.
Have you ever had your fingers caught by a car door closing on them? Man oh man, it hurts! The very next time you are in a car, are your fingers anywhere near where they were when they were slammed by the car door? Do you consciously think about it and make certain your fingers are nowhere near that spot? How about the next time you are in a car?
Why do we think we will achieve different results from our business, when we keep doing the same exact things which have not worked before? We attend the same networking events. We give the same two minute elevator speech every single time. We make the same phone calls, eat the same lunch, and frequent the same restaurants every single day. Why do we expect different results?
Do you hear that? It is the door closing on the first quarter of the year. How are your business results so far?
To be successful in business we have to be willing and open to change, to learn, and to grow. It does not have to hurt like your fingers getting crunched by the car door for you to change your habits. There are numerous quotes and inspirational messages to grab from and share here. One which you may find to be helpful is:
Successful people make just as many mistakes as anyone else…they just learn from each mistake.
-Paul J. Meyer
Why this quote is meaningful is, we get stuck. We develop a fear that if we change, we may fail or mess up.
What will happen if we fail? Doesn’t this really move us closer to success? The more we fail the closer to success we are?
If you are doing the same thing every single day in your business and you are not getting the results you desire
You must change. It is the only way you have any chance of meeting or exceeding your goals.
What are some of the action steps you might consider doing right now to shake things up?
- Start with your week. Begin to write down what you and your team (they may record their own for you) are doing every fifteen minutes of each day for a week straight.
- Critically review your recorded list. Circle every item which is not a direct client contact or marketing effort. All of these items need to go. Either someone you hire needs to do them, or someone already working for you needs to do them from now on. Just not you any longer.
- Clearly write out your goals for the year. There are nine months left to go. Share this information with your team.
Follow these action steps immediately. The payoff is virtually guaranteed.
Do you or your team know you need to hear tips and techniques just like these directly from Mitch Tublin? Increase your level of productivity and your business results immediately contact Mitch Tublin here www.thementorguy.com.
Do you recall a recent interaction you may have either been a part of or witnessed, where one person was clearly communicating some information and the audience clearly did not understand what was being said? The speaking person, sooner or later, realizes from the puzzled looks or the questions being asked, that the message was not being understood. So the speaker starts again and says the same exact words, just more slowly and louder. Does this work? Does this method ever work? Of course not!
What is going wrong? It has been written in Harvard Business Review, “The number one criteria for advancement and promotion for professionals is an ability to communicate effectively.”
John C. Maxwell said, “It’s not enough just to work hard. It’s not enough to do a great job. To be successful, you need to learn how to really communicate with others.”
Before you assume this has nothing to do with you, my suggestion is to conduct a reality check for yourself.
The next time you are either giving some type of instructions, or speaking to pass on some information of importance, ask the listeners to repeat to you what they heard. Do not warn them beforehand that you will be asking them to do this or you will negate the test. They will listen closer and be more aware of your words.
The results of this little test may provide some insight for you. This will be across your life from the board room, to the charity committee you sit on, to the eight year olds on your Little League team.
Now that we are all in agreement, this may happen to any of us and it does. What do we do?
This is the topic of an entire course, Effective Communication.
Here are a few easy ways to begin your walk down the path of communicating and connecting more effectively.
- Become a great listener
- Ask excellent questions
- Understand what is important to your listeners
- Speak about areas important to you which match your listeners
- Based upon the above items, create a relationship with your listeners
These are not meant to be easy and quick solutions. You will need to put in the time and practice. With all tips and techniques which are intended to create positive change the habit of utilizing the techniques must be created.
Each of these when utilized and practiced will bring forward results that will be obvious to you and your listeners, especially if the people are the same people who you have previously spoken to. Now you will be speaking with them and they will notice the difference.
If you and your company, group or organization is ready to take your communication to the next level, contact Mitch Tublin specifically for his workshop on “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect” info@thementorguy.com.
Each year there is the favorite storyline in the business section announcing the lost productivity in business during March Madness. For those who do not know, March Madness refers to the NCAA Basketball Tournaments for men and women that begin each year in March. There is a large group of teams that play each other through a defined bracket toward the ultimate Championship Game. The main draw is the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament. There are other tournaments for Division 2 teams, Division 3 teams, and invitational’s such as the NIT.
There are official studies conducted by real companies that go into great detail describing how their studies support their numbers of lost productivity in business. The numbers are staggering as some studies reflect $100 million to $200 million in lost productivity.
The standard comeback is, “Seriously, you don’t think your employees and workforce are on the internet at work for personal use anyway?” Let’s not explore this discussion. A leader of a company will set the tone and the culture of the work environment.
The larger the workforce is, the more difficult it becomes to place your leadership finger print across the organization. As part of normal business practice, a variety of workshops and seminars may be conducted to bring your teams together to work better with each other. Keynote speakers are brought in to inspire and motivate your employees at all levels of the organization. Why not take advantage of the opportunity where so many people are involved in selecting and predicting the winners in the tournament brackets?
Why not create an environment where this interest among many people in your workforce can be utilized to teach team building and bonding?
Rather than a three day retreat, or a team building workshop offsite, you might create bonding and team building experiences through game viewing lunches or group bracket selection parties. Have speakers around connecting the dots so the teaching moment is not lost. If this is a way of life, why not embrace and work with the flow of energy devoted to this activity? Why not help create an environment and a culture which people look forward to being a part of every single day?
Yes, your dissenting voices are being heard, “But we don’t all care about this nonsense! It is a sport. It’s just basketball! When are you, people going to grow up?”
In my next article the topic will be about creating support groups within your organization. So don’t worry…I’ve got you covered.
Are you interested in inspiring and motivating your employees and workforce? Are you ready to create the type of culture where people want to show up and give their best every day? Contact Mitch Tublin today, www.thementorguy.com.
