JLM & Associates offers personal development counseling to help you take control of your personal and business success. Learn how to seize the kind of income you deserve and achieve the successful future of your dreams.

Monday, May 28, 2007

The Secret To A Business' Success

When I hear people talk about successful businesses I often here them say things like, “That's a great company” or “That's a smart organization. Most people view successful businesses as a living entity with a mind of its own carrying all people who work for it with it.

People often forget or don't realize that behind every great business, there are people directing its destiny, deciding upon the courses of action, choosing products and product design, working out marketing and advertising campaigns and carefully instituting quality controls to make certain business will continue to be good in the years ahead.

It's people who make a business succeed or fail. Any business, no matter how large or small cannot succeed without good people. With good, talented and dedicated people the sky is the limit, but without good people the business is doomed no matter how good its product is.

One of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of the world, Andrew Carnegie, once said, “Take away my mills, my mines and my factories, but leave me my men and in a short time I'll have them all back again.”

It's the minds of men and women that can turn a downhill course into an uphill climb, and this cannot be automated. There never has been and never will be a computer that can think and plan and come up with new ideas for the future.

And while much of this is done in the conference room and in committee, it is still the individual mind of the individual person that works the miracle of a good idea; an idea that can result in a better product or service, provide jobs for thousands of working people and keep the economy rolling along in high gear.

So, no matter what size the business is that you happen to think of, remember the whole thing started with one idea in the mind of one man or woman. And from that point everything that happened has been accomplished by people, quietly working away, thinking, planning, building, testing, trying, failing and trying again until something works.

There's no way to thank these people, most of whose names and faces you'd never recognize, for what they've done for our society and economy. But they don't need our thanks. Their rewards and satisfactions come from successfully doing what they're doing.

The next time you reach for a product that bears the name you've learned by experience you can trust to do the job it's supposed to do, and do it well, you might find it interesting to remember that the name is really a collection of people, as is the business that produced it.

It's all people. The measure of a product or service is the measure of the people who produce it, just as the way you do your work is the measure of you as a person. It should be better this year than last and better next year than this year.

I believe that really great men and women are known by three signs, generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success. You'll find people with these qualifications behind every successful business.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

The Definition Of Success

“What Is Success?” is a question that I often ask people at my seminars and on my recent trip to Europe it was a question that was asked of me many times.

The truth is it doesn't matter what country you live in, most people don't have the foggiest idea as to what success is. They equate success with something such as a college degree, the neighborhood in which a person lives, the type of car a person drives or the type of job he or she has. This is ridiculous! These luxuries are nice to have, but they don't necessarily have anything to do with success.

Who is successful in today's society? To answer this, you must first define your terms. What is success? The best definition I've ever found for success is from the Author and Radio Personality Earl Nightingale who once said: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

Success consists of deciding on what it is you want in life and then spending your days working toward its achievement. What you decide upon is your business and has nothing to do with the ideals or goals of the people around you.

Success is doing the best you can at what you decide to do with your life. It may involve being a teacher. If may be becoming a lawyer, doctor, an engineer, an architect, or starting your own business. Or it may be none of these things.

For example I met a man at my seminar earlier this month in Bonn, Germany who is a painter. He told me how he has followed in his father's footsteps by always showing up at the house he is going to paint at 8:00am and he often brings fresh vegetables to the people he is working for from his garden. This man was happy. He loves his work and he had a wonderfully contagious positive attitude toward life and it showed because he is busy the year round.

That is what success is all about. I consider myself successful, because I love my work and I feel that I'm very good at it. But I'm not more successful because I happen to have a higher education degree than the man I met in Bonn or that I have won many awards in my profession.

Successful people are happy in what they've chosen of their own free will to do. The people who are not successful in life are those who haven't found themselves, who don't have any goals toward which their working to achieve every day.

It's really that simple and it should be left to every person once they are an adult to make their own decisions as to what they want to do with their own life. Remember every decision we make has consequences and we have to live with the decisions we alone make as individuals.

Success in life comes from knowing what you want and then committing yourself to it completely. Whatever it is, it's your decision.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

The Real Boss

The American Marketing Association recently conducted a study of over 500 businesses in the United States from different industries and found some interesting results.

The study found that on average, for every 100 customers lost to a company, one is lost due to death; three are lost because the salesperson calling on the customer left the company; five are lost because they began buying from a friend or relative; nine left to buy at a lower price from a competitor; 14 are lost because their complaints were ignored; and 68 are lost because the of the company's indifference and lack of interest toward them.

That adds up to 82 customers out of 100 lost because of inefficiency on the part of ownership. I say on the part of ownership because that's where the blame belongs.

I have a client in small southern town who, has owned a hardware store for the past 25 years and is still going strong despite the competition from larger worldwide companies. What's his secret? The owner makes sure that no one who works for him ever forgets a customer.

Within a few days after a purchase of any item, the customer receives a handwritten thank you note. Then, the company stays in touch with customers on a regular basis by mail or email with a newsletter and specials going on at the store. They never forget a customer.

The world is full of nice people who will never tell you why they stopped doing business with you. They'll come into your place of business or visit your Web site, make a purchase quietly and leave. But if they're not treated the way they feel they should be treated, or it's too complicated to navigate around your Web site, they'll never come back.

This is the customer you lose without being aware that you're losing him or her. This type of loss can add up into thousands of dollars, and in the case of big companies, millions of dollars a year.

This is why in-company training must be a never-ending process. It's as important to keep a constant training and reminding program going on inside a business as it is to advertise to the consumer. It has been proven many times that those businesses that hold regular weekly or monthly training meetings for their employees have a much higher bottom line that those that do not.

I have another client who owns a phone survey and customer service company in Chicago. On the desk of every employee is very attractive framed verse which reminds them that it's the customer who pays their wages and, thus, pays for their homes, vacations, the education of their children and their medical bills. They are reminded to smile and be especially courteous to every person they talk to.

It's been proven many times that most employees feel their paychecks come from the company they work for, and that the customer is something of a bother, an infringement upon their time.

This is why training, endless training, is essential if you're going to stay in business in today's competitive global market.

So it seems that better than 80 customers out of 100 are lost because of indifference and complaints that are not dealt with. It's tragic, but it sure makes for a wonderful opportunity for those businesses with owners who care about their customers.