Luanshya District Business Association

15/04/2023

29/04/2022

"If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!”
~ Alan Scott

Today’s Tip

Several years ago, a very interesting experiment was conducted.

In the off-season, a basketball team was split into 3 groups for a month. The first group practiced shooting free throws for 30 minutes per day. The second group didn’t practice shooting free throws at all. The third group also didn’t physically practice shooting free throws at all, but this group spent 5 minutes per day visualizing themselves shooting free throws and getting them in the basket.

The results: The first group improved their free throw shooting by 24%. As one might expect, 30-minutes a day of practice led to improved performance. The second group had a 0% average improvement. Once again, as you would expect, by not practicing, the players didn’t improve their performance.

The most interesting result was the third group, who increased their free throw shooting by 23%. This group improved performance by virtually the same amount as group one. And they didn’t even take a single practice shot. And, they only spent 16% of the time (5 minutes visualizing vs. group one’s 30 minutes of actual practice) trying to improve.

Now, I’m not saying that people should never physically practice things to get better at them. No, real practice is essential to success. But, when you add visualization, your success can go through the roof.

Visualizing yourself achieving success is also known as “mental rehearsal.” And mental rehearsal has been proven to improve performance in a variety of situations from job interviews to presentations to sales calls to athletic performance.

28/04/2022

HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

“The Team! The Team! The Team!” Bo Schembechler

TODAY'S TIP
Hiring the right people is crucial for the success of your business and that's why entrepreneurs should have a formal hiring process in place when looking for new staff.

By putting time and work into finding the right people, you will improve your chances of hiring the best performers and avoiding costly and painful mistakes.

Many entrepreneurs have good instincts about whether someone is right or not for the job. But you shouldn't rely just on gut feelings. The recruitment decision should be founded on solid, objective factors.
When hiring people you have to:
1) Determine the work that needs to be done in your business

2) Write job descriptions that specify who is to do what

3) Attract suitable applicants and then interview and select the right workers

4) Finally, help the new worker to settle in and to understand your business (orientation)

21/04/2022

Hiring Right

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?”
~ Robert H. Schuller

Today’s Tip
As you grow your business, the less “doing” (e.g., building the product or providing the service to the customer) you will do and the more “managing” you will do.

So your success will be put into the hands of those you hire. Spend the time to hire right and to train them well.

And if you ever have the concern, “what happens if I train them and they leave?” then think the opposite, “What happens if you don’t train them and they stay?”

01/04/2022

Make Your Clients Feel Welcome!

"When the customer comes first, the customer will last."Robert Half

Today's Tip

It costs five times more to get a new client than it does to keep an existing one. Existing clients are often strong opportunities to provide referrals for your business. But, how do you continue to provide them with great customer experience?

Making your clients feel welcome is an important component of positive customer experience. Rest assured, modern technology combined with good manners will place you at the top of the list in today’s competitive market. The good news: It costs next to nothing and can be easily implemented with a little planning and coaching.

How can you make customers feel welcome?

Try this:

1. Smile in person.
The number one thing you can do to make clients feel welcome is smile. Even if you are stressed out, distracted or upset, put a smile on your face when clients come in. Putting the client’s needs ahead of your personal concerns is the hallmark of a true professional.

2. Say “thank you”.
Thank each client at the end of a transaction or communication. Let them know you value their business and that you want to see them again. They will be more likely to return, assured that their business is appreciated.

In short, follow the golden rule, "treat your clients like you would like to be treated". Be courteous and gracious and put the client first.

31/03/2022

Too Many Ideas...💡

"Customers, I realized, don’t care about functions or specific activities that occur within our organization. The end game is whether they are getting the right product at the right time at a competitive price.”
~ Max Guinn

Today’s Tip
The other day an entrepreneur asked me an interesting question as follows: “I have 17 different business ideas; how do I decide which one to go after?”

This is a common issue. Both for new entrepreneurs who are still figuring out which business to launch and for entrepreneurs who are already in business and are trying to figure out which new opportunities to go after.

So, I gave the entrepreneur my 3 criteria for answering this question:

1) Which idea are you most passionate about? To succeed as an entrepreneur, you’re going to have to work hard. And you’re going to enjoy the hard work the most, and thus be most successful, if you go after the ideas that you are most passionate about.

2) Which idea best leverages your strengths/skillsets and/or the strengths/skillsets of your team? Kalusha Bwalya was perhaps one of the greatest football players ever. But when he tried his hand at Tennis, he was mediocre at best. The point is that you will be the most successful when you do what you are naturally best at and most gifted at. So, take stock of your strengths and the strengths of your team, and figure out which idea will best leverage those strengths.

3) With which idea can you get traction the fastest and without requiring outside capital? Raising capital is very hard work and takes time, time that you otherwise could be used to grow your business. Likewise, it’s more challenging to raise money when you don’t have traction. By traction, I mean that you’ve started to prove that your business will be a success, and ideally means that you have customer traction (i.e., customers have voted with their wallets or their time to buy or patronize your products and/or services).

29/03/2022

Don’t Sit On It.

"If you want to reach a goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”
~ Zig Ziglar

Today’s Tip

The WORST thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to “sit on it” or sit on your ideas. Rather, you must act on them. If not, someone else will. There are simply too many other entrepreneurs out there.

The saying “the richest place in the world is the graveyard” is really applicable here. Why is it the graveyard? Because that’s where the billions of ideas go that were in the heads of entrepreneurs who never acted on them.

If you have an idea for a new business, you must take the first step. Or you really can’t call yourself an entrepreneur — you’re just a “dreamer.” Sorry to be so blunt about this; but it’s the truth.

So take the first step.

We believe the first step is to develop your business plan. The business planning process forces you to really think through your idea, prove it’s viable (or not), and create an action plan for transforming your idea into reality starting now (not later).

So, if you’ve been sitting on an idea, STOP. Take action now. Don’t “sit on it”.

Have a restful night!!!

27/03/2022

Customer Loyalty 💯

"The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers."
- Shiv Singh

Today's Tip

A long-term customer relationship means that you work on building a relationship with your customers to create high-level loyalty for your company. That’s the best that your business can get on the road to success.

Long-term customer relationships can boost your sales, increase the number of customers and improve your overall business potential energy. So, you need to start implementing strategic decisions to build long-term customer relationships.

If your business has a large customer base and they stay as customers, they will become more and more profitable for your company. That is something that will bring exponential growth to your small business. Think about the possibility one customer can bring to your company if you have a long-term relationship with him. For example, that one customer trusts you and starts recommending your brand, products, and services. Let’s say that he can bring three additional customers to your small business. If you continue to build a long-term relationship with them, and the results of such a process are the same as from your first customer, you will get nine new customers. If you continue with the same math, you will understand why I say that you will achieve exponential growth.

As a business owner, how can you create Customer Loyalty? We challenge you to brainstorm seriously on this aspect of business.