Email treadmill

Email is very useful.  It also can be a huge time waster for an executive/leader; and time is what I value most.  I can’t let anyone just indiscriminately take it from me.  So – I try not to give out my email address when I buy things (I wish I tried a little harder).  If I have to have a two-way conversation with someone, I call, rather than starting a chain of endless back and forth.  I try not to support jokes and cute stuff by getting in on the game.  

Use email on others in your marketing dept.  Don’t let them use it on you.

"Attention Division Insanity"

Once you are successful, or perceived as such, people come to you with all kinds of things on their agenda that they want to be on your agenda.  Opportunities galore, and they want to sell you everything, and want you to support them in all kinds of ways.  

The more things you have to think about, the closer to “attention division insanity” you get.

Protect yourself.  Just say no.

Customers X avg sale = gross sales

Leads X Closing Ratio X Avg Sale = Total Sales

Leads X Closing Ratio X Avg Sale + Repeat Sales = Total Sales

Inquiries / Appt Set ratio x Closing ratio X Avg Sale + Repeat Sales + Total Sales X Profit Margin + Profit

Walk in traffic X avg sale X profit margin = profit.

Sales – cost + profit – taxes = net income.

You’re in the arithmetic business.

Bad news = profit

Most businesses make money on others’ bad news.  The muffler shop, the dentist, the fireman, the basement waterproofer (me!), the pothole filler, the body shop, and millions of others.

What problems do people have that you take away?

Rent people

Hiring people is renting their abilities, talents and behaviors. There are an infinite number of behaviors you can rent!

Hire people that multiply you.

Bad people

You’re never going to do a great deal with a bad person.  They will never be great friends, employees or customers.  

The dishonest, disloyal, greedy, sneaky and mean – remove them from your business and life as soon as possible.

Moving on…

Quit

As an Owner/Leader, there are roles you play in your company – jobs you do.  You need to quit them as fast as possible by getting someone else to do these jobs.  Once you get someone else to do one of those jobs, then quit the next one.  Quit them all until you have only one job left – leader.  

What’s first?

How much should you charge?

The formula for how much you should charge for something is based on your ability to sell it.

Thus, if you are not good at sales, you can’t charge much; you have to sell it by having a cheap price because you have low sales skills.

If you are good at selling, you can charge more because you have the ability to sell it at that price.

Are you (and your sales team) good at selling what you sell?

Nothing is automatic

You wouldn’t expect any of your employees to deliver just the kind of great results you want them to without training, would you?

Do you?

Working smart – and longer.

If we take all the time out for eating, coffee, driving, personal phone calls and personal business, socializing online and offline, and other unproductive activities, most people don’t work much – maybe 2-3 hours of productive time in a whole day.  That’s not enough to be in the top 10% or even top 40%.

In this blog, I often talk about how to get more done in the same or less time.  That idea is paramount to this one.  But one strategy that can be used (especially) early in one’s career when you don’t have a lot of other resources to leverage, is to pack more hours that count in a day. I did that, and I still do. People ask me how I get so much done. There’s what you choose to work on, what you don’t do, and what you delegate.  I pay attention to all of those things.  

I’m not advocating workaholism. But to “work all the time you work”, and start a little earlier and end a little later – these habits will multiply the results the average person gets over time.

Combine working smart with working longer and you will get results faster.

Pick your priorities.  If work isn’t the vehicle to your goals, the same ideas can be applied to your hobby or sport or non-profit. Right?