An Ultimate Objective of Your New Business
Issue #2119
- WEALTHY: 3 ways to get revenge - and make some green - on expensive oil (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: Counteract a deficiency in this vital mineral (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Zig Ziglar on having a mission
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Why, when, and how to pursue excellence (Michael Masterson)
- Wouldn’t it be nice if all your customers were smart? (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Good to Know… about trade with China
- Add "languor" to your vocabulary
Turn the Tables on Microsoft, AOL, & Time Warner!
Oh no! Yet another mandatory upgrade from Microsoft. On top of that, they say you probably need a new computer too. Then there’s your Internet provider hiking rates and fees again. Meanwhile, more time flushed down the drain surfing the web for endless hours.
There’s got to be a better way.
Shhhh… There is…
Let me take you on a trip to T.O.S.O.T.I.
- Patrick Coffey
The Upside of Spending More to Drive
Oil prices are taking off because oil companies failed to develop fields in the 1990s (when oil was cheap) and because demand is rising faster than supply. As painful as soaring gas prices are, there are three easy ways to make a few bucks from oil’s big price spike:
- Invest in alternative-energy stocks, such as solar- or wind-power companies. They stand to benefit a great deal from the price of traditional fuels going through the roof. My favorite solar company is a low-cost solar module-maker from China: Suntech (STP).
- Invest in companies that serve the oil industry, like field service, tanker, and pipeline companies. They all should grow right along with the oil sector.
- Invest in companies that have avoided being hit with rising fuel or energy costs, especially if the sector they’re in isn’t so fortunate. The airline industry, for one, hates higher oil prices - but a favorite company of mine - Republic Airways (RJET) - gets other airlines to pay for its fuel. It’s no coincidence that in the past 12 months Republic’s stock has increased a cool 30 percent.
Give stocks like these a try. You’ll see that you can more than make up for the extra money you’re spending at the gas pump.
[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR’s Investment Director, has authored several books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. A former professor of marketing and finance, he is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission."
Zig Ziglar
An Ultimate Objective of Your New Business
Prominent businessmen have long touted excellence as the ultimate corporate objective. And maybe it is - for Fortune 500 companies, that is. But most of the successful small-business owners I’ve known have grown their companies by pursuing something else.
Of the dozen-plus guys I know who have built multimillion-dollar businesses from scratch, many began with the "I can do that better" idea (which is a form of excellence, to be sure) - but none made excellence, in the abstract, a goal. More often than not, other ambitions - recognition, vindication, and cash flow - were predominant in their thinking.
When you are just beginning, you must pay attention to the critical financial issues:
- making sure your basic business transaction works
- making sure your basic selling proposition is profitable
- making sure you have the cash flow you need
Get the basics right first and worry about getting everything else perfect later on. That’s what I mean when I say Ready, Fire, Aim.
That being said, there comes a time in every entrepreneur’s career when the motivations that initially made him successful are insufficient. For his medium- to large-sized company to survive and prosper, he must figure out how to do things well and how to get a lot of people to work hard and well. In other words, he must pursue excellence.
If you expect to be proud of the successful business you will have one day, it’s not too early to make the pursuit of excellence part of your Master Plan.
Here’s how to make sure your new business is as good as it can be, without sacrificing your critical financial objectives.
- Start by hiring extraordinary people.
- Have them trained by experts.
- Give them the best business contacts you have, and encourage them to get more on their own.
- Set high standards for them.
In the start-up operation I’m currently working on, we interviewed all kinds of people for three positions. Some had a great deal of relevant experience. Interestingly, we selected none of those. The candidates who stood out - head and shoulders above the rest - were just one, two, and three years out of college. What these young people lack in experience, they make up for in other qualities. They are smart, hardworking, and driven to achieve.
This may be a secret of hiring: Experienced candidates will probably never be any better than they already are. If you are looking for improvement, you probably won’t get it.
To attract the kind of people we were looking for, we took a different approach to hiring. Instead of sending out an ordinary bureaucratic announcement of the openings, we used an expert copywriter to promote the jobs. Instead of focusing on salary and benefits, we stressed the challenge of each project, reasoning that the difficulty of the job would be a motivation in itself. I think it was.
So the first thing you need to do - if you want to make excellence part of your Master Plan - is to spend a little extra time and effort to hire excellent people from the beginning.
But that’s not all. You also need great product ideas, great marketing skills, a great product-development system, and great management - to name a few things. To get these things in your business, hire experts to come in and train your people. Look for experts you already know, people you can trust, and pay them on a per-diem basis to give your new employees intense one-on-one training sessions. You want to be sure that your inexperienced-but-excellent people know the best ways of doing everything - including the tricks and techniques of true experts.
Next, introduce your key people to key vendors and consultants in the industry so that when they have a problem they will have someone to call. Give them a pep talk on the importance of networking, and make some personal introductions if they’re a little shy.
One thing you won’t have to do if you have done a good job of hiring is pressure them to work hard. Excellent employees provide their own pressure. They just need guidance so they don’t go off on the wrong track.
You might want to hold special weekly meetings at which your new people can ask questions about anything they are at all confused about. If you can create a comfortable atmosphere - one in which inexperienced questioners aren’t made to feel stupid - you won’t have to worry about mistakes being made for lack of a simple bit of advice.
Finally, even at this early stage of your business development, consider making excellence itself a main objective - that everything you do and every way you do it should greatly exceed expectations… of your colleagues, your vendors, and your customers.
[Ed. Note: Michael Masterson and his team of business-building and marketing experts will be revealing their strategies for getting a brand-new business of the ground… and making an existing business grow like crazy. Reserve your spot at this fall’s Info Marketing Bootcamp- Making a Fast Fortune on the "Other Side" of the Internet - today.]
Let the Demise of the Dollar Lead You to 1,000% Gains
As the dollar continues to erode, so will the accounts of those who rely solely on the usual stocks and bonds. But the demise of the dollar won’t be a calamity for everyone…
Click here if you want to learn how to protect your wealth… AND make the kind of gains that most people could never dream of… returns like 5,131% in just 30 months!
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- Rasheedah Mwongozi
Oakland, CA
[Ed. Note: How has reading ETR helped you - maybe even changed your life? Send your comments to ReaderFeedback@gmail.com. Include your name and hometown… and we may print your e-mail in a future issue.]
How to Deal With a Dumb Customer
Customers can be dumb. Take me, for instance.
I recently had to call a company to find out why I hadn’t yet received a replacement for the telephone I’d returned because it didn’t work properly. In response to my questions, the customer service representative started using terms I didn’t understand in the context she was using them. (CS Rep: "Oh, the paperwork you enclosed is a duplicate." Me: "A duplicate of what?" And later, CS Rep: "I’ll send the claim to be reprocessed." Me: "Does that mean I’ll get a new phone?")
Instead of being patient with me, the customer service rep got frustrated. She understood what she was talking about, why didn’t I? She started raising her voice and making loud sighing noises into the phone. She obviously thought I was an idiot.
Now, thinking of a customer as "dumb" is a really bad idea. Even if you don’t mean to make your frustration obvious to the customer, you probably will. That makes the customer uncomfortable, embarrassed, even angry. And an uncomfortable, embarrassed, angry customer is one who isn’t likely to buy from your company again.
Problem is, customers can be dumb. Maybe "uninformed" is a better term. So how can you handle an uninformed customer without conveying your irritation?
Sharika Kellogg, ETR’s new Customer Service Manager, suggests that you:
- Take a deep breath and repeat what the customer is saying. That way, you can be sure to address everything they need. ("Okay, Mr./Mrs. Smith, let me make sure that I understand what you are asking. You want me to cancel your order but keep you on our mailing list?")
- Put yourself in the customer’s position. What questions would you have if you were the one with his particular problem?
- Take your time when responding. And make sure you ask the customer if they understand your explanation.
- If you feel yourself getting frustrated, put the call on a 30-second hold "to review the account." Take a few seconds to scream, take a deep breath, or laugh - then compose yourself and go back to the customer.
Whenever you speak to a customer who’s a little "slow" to understand what you’re trying to tell them, take Sharika’s advice. You, your customer, and your profit margins will be very grateful.
[Ed. Note: Learn the keys to handling difficult situations in business, at home, and on the road. Just pick up your free copy of ETR’s Unscrew Your Life e-book and get 223 pages of our most practical insider information.]
Go Nuts for Selenium - Brazil Nuts, That is
By Jon Herring
Selenium is a trace mineral that is vital to your antioxidant defense system. Without it, several enzymes your body uses to destroy free radicals don’t function properly. The incidence and mortality rates of numerous cancers are higher in those with low levels of selenium. And adequate selenium levels also reduce the risk of heart disease, increase immunity, and dramatically boost male fertility.
But there’s a good chance you’re deficient in this vital mineral. That’s because the amount of selenium in foods is dependent on the amount of it in the soil. And because most of the nutrients in our soils have been depleted, so have the nutrients in most of our vegetables. But there is one highly potent and very convenient source of vital selenium: Brazil nuts.
In fact, one unshelled Brazil nut has an average of 100 mcg of selenium. That’s more than what is in most mineral supplements. Brazil nuts that you buy already shelled are a good source of selenium too, but only have an average of 15 to 20 mcg per nut. So you would need to eat from five to seven of them to get the same amount of selenium you can get in one unshelled nut.
[Ed. Note: An investment in your health is the single most important investment you can make. And it can be surprisingly easy. Sign up for ETR’s FREE natural health e-letter. Our panel of medical, fitness, and natural-health experts will provide you with practical strategies and real-world scientific discoveries that can help you melt off the pounds, pack on muscle, and eliminate the underlying causes of disease.]
It’s Good to Know: Trade With China
In 1986, when China began its policy of allowing its citizens to trade freely among themselves and with the outside world, its exports to the U.S. were $4.7 billion. Today, Chinese factories ship that much every week. Total Chinese imports to the U.S. in 2006 were $278 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
You Already Know Fortunes Are Made from Trading. The Question Is: WHAT Are "They" Trading Most? (And It’s Not Shares or Commodities!)
… Thirty times more trading going on than the stock market and mostly investment banks doing it. Ummm… Maybe "they" know something you don’t? Click here to learn more…
Word to the Wise: Languor
"Languor" (LANG-ur) - from the Latin for "to be faint or weak" - is mental or physical weariness or fatigue, especially the listlessness felt by someone who is satiated by a life of luxury or pleasure.
Example (as used by Thomas S. Hines in William Faulkner and the Tangible Past): "Outside the window, New Orleans… brooded in a faintly tarnished languor, like an aging yet still beautiful courtesan in a smokefilled room, avid yet weary too of ardent ways."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007