But first, here’s this weeks snippets;

Have you ever been to a website to check out a certain product or service, then noticed that same business advertising on other websites you’ve visited over the next few weeks and months? It’s called Re-Marketing and it’s a popular way to stay ‘front of mind’ of your customers.

Here’s how it works;

You set up an advertising campaign – similar to Google Adwords and then insert a small piece of code on your website.

When someone visits your website, a cookie is installed on their computer which tells Google they have visited your site.

Now, when they surf the web, Google will show your business ads to those people from their network of advertisers.

Very clever right?

You can even show different ads depending on the page they visited.

As an example, if someone makes a purchase on your website which ends on a receipt page – you could target those customers with a special ‘return off coupon’ giving 5% off their next purchase. Only those people that saw the receipt page will see that coupon offer.

This digital marketing tip was brought to you by Digital Domination

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this weeks podcast, I wanted to share a few reasons why the Typical Business website hasn’t seen much of an update recently and why there’s a gap in the podcast episodes.

To all of you who regularly return to check out the site, I’m sorry.

The reason behind the lapse? Infusioncon. Plain and simple.

While I was at Infusioncon I realised there was an opportunity I was missing from my bricks and mortar business Your Building Broker. So, I decided to get that right before I did any extra activites – that, and working through a flu which hung around for too many weeks left a bit of a hole in my Typical Business blogging and podcasting. I guess a lot of that was inspired by one presentation by David Allen about getting things done.

The good news? We’re back. I’ve got a lot of inspiration and ideas to share with you all and I can’t wait to do it.

This episode has a lot of information and ideas that you can use in your business and rather than try to copy everything here in the notes, I’d encourage you to download the podcast episode and take in the information that way.

The one thing you might want to reference from the show is the 4 Step Time in Motion Process.

1. Identify the areas you want to test.

Do this in two ways;

a) Your most common repetitive tasks

b) Your less frequent, but regular task that takes the most amount of time

2. Measure those tasks.

This will help you understand the amount of hours you spend on each task.

The formula is; The # of times the task is completed each week TIMES the # of people completing the task TIMES 52 weeks = Total hours each year.

3. Apply a Cost Analysis

Calculate what the average hourly rate is for the staff who complete those tasks, then multiply the hourly rate by the Total hours each year (that you worked out in step 3).

4. Consider Your Solution

Now that you know what the real cost for your business is, you can look at alternative solutions.

One of the solutions both Myself and Jake have implemented for a number of different things is Infusionsoft.

If you’d like to look at Infusionsoft, I’d recommend you click the banner below and take a demonstration of the software. As I mentioned in the podcast, the wonderful thing about Infusionsoft is it will inspire you with new ideas and ways you can become even more successful in your business.

The post Making Your Business More Efficient Using A Time In Motion Analysis appeared first on Typical Business.

But first, here’s this weeks snippets;

Have a look at Google Analytics and find out what your 3 most viewed web pages are. Now think of ways you could enhance those pages to create more sales.

Ideas like;

• Adding a special limited time offer
• A free trial
• A link to a successful case study page.

This will encourage your website visitors to take further actions which will benefit you in the long run.

A lot of consumers shop around on price only. But that doesn’t mean you should let pricing be a reason why people won’t deal with you. You can take some simple steps to provide immeasurable benefits for clients to deal with you over the competition.

As an example;

• Track Record; “ We’ve won the customer service award 5 times – and our priority is to keep you happy so we win it again.”
• Passion; People want to deal with others that are passionate
• Expertise; Display your expertise. People love it.
• Make it Fun; When work becomes fun it becomes easy.

For our feature story about Dave the Designer you’ll need to listen to the podcast audio.

Leadership Trait #1 – Allow others to voice their opinions

• Don’t feel threatened
• Other opinions don’t equate to a vote of no-confidence.
• If a direction you’ve chosen is proven to be the wrong direction, don’t be too pigheaded to change. We all make the wrong decision from time to time. The best leaders make adjustments when they need to.

Leadership Trait # 2 – Great leaders mentor others

• First, realise that most people want to grow. If you’re insecure in your abilities and position, you’ll stifle others to keep them beneath you.
• Getting involved with others is another trait of strong leaders. but it means getting your hands dirty. It might also mean getting involved emotionally.
• You’ll also have to get intimate with others. You need to really understand their motivations, fears, obstacles they need to overcome. More importantly, you need to be able to address them and not hold anything they confide in you with over them.

Leadership Trait #3 – Communicate Your Expectations

• I asked this questions on linkedin “What are some of the traits shown by Bad Leaders” and the NUMBER 1 response was Poor Communication.
• You MUST give clear instructions for others to follow
• You MUST provide accurate feedback (good or bad) so your staff know exactly where they stand.
• Don’t play games. Don’t expect others to just ‘get it’. They won’t.
• Instead of complaining that staff aren’t showing initiative, show them an example of how to take initiative and give them opportunity to do the same.

Action Points

This week you should choose do one of the following;

• Change direction if someone has given you a better option – and let them know it was because of their good feedback.
• Choose someone to mentor and spend 1 hour with them this week discussing the way forward.
• Identify who might be struggling, then speak with them and give them clear instructions and feedback

Don’t be pigheaded. We all make mistakes. Great leaders make adjustments when they need to – via @typicalbusiness

What are your thoughts? Have you felt uncomfortable as a leader when your leadership has been challenged? What did you do about it?

The post Three Traits Of Leadership You Should Embrace appeared first on Typical Business.

One of my favourite tools is my Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner with OCR which I love for these reasons;

• Small, doesn’t take up much space.
• Allows me to scan everything quickly then shred the originals.
• Allows easy editing before I archive the document.
• Can set it up for character recognition for easy search later.

This book addresses a lot of ideals about business and challenges them and puts them in a new light.

Some chapters include;

• Learning from mistakes is overrated.
• Planning is guessing.
• Start a business, not a startup.
• Ignore the details early on.
• Meetings are toxic.

My rating – 5/5 stars. Everyone in business should read this book.

I share a few tragic stories of people I’ve known who heavily identified themselves with their work, without giving enough regard for their life outside of work. Unfortunately, in these cases it resulted in their demise.

I don’t want to get preachy on you, but I felt it was appropriate to share a great scripture from the bible that says ‘What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?’

Your soul is better defined as your heart. It’s the place where you feel love and affection for others. It’s what holds all of your dreams and passions. It is, in essence, YOU. Who YOU are and what YOU believe.

So if I were to rephrase this scripture I would say; “What good is it to attain your financial goals, but in doing so lose everything else that is dear to you.”

One of my friends and mentors used to say;

“There’s no prize for being the richest man in the graveyard” – Laurie Fitzgerald

So what adjustments can we make to have a better work life balance?

If you’ve identified that work life balance is important, here are my 5 recommended steps that will help you;

Step 1: Spend time with the people you care about.

Q: What is the most important thing in life?

A: People.

So your first step is to work out how to invest more of your time with the people you care most about outside of your work environment.

Step 2: Consider those less fortunate

This step helps us stay grateful for everything we currently DO have. This is really important for Step 3.

Step 3: Step back from the rat race and Ignore the Joneses.

You know what I mean right? The rat race is where we’re all scurrying to get somewhere in a hurry – with lots of outward pressure. That pressure often comes from our peers or, the Joneses.

I say Damn the Joneses! What they think doesn’t matter!

Step 4: Cut down your working hours to a reasonable amount of time.

There’s always more work to do. Don’t kid yourself – you could work 24/7 and still find there’s more to do.

Your working hours as a business owner is a choice. It’s YOUR choice. Choosing to spend time elsewhere is healthy.

Step 5: Give time to a hobby.

If you don’t have any hobbies, that’s also fine. But be sure to give time to something else that might interest you or that you enjoy.

This is really ‘you time’. And it’s vital to keeping your work life balance in order.

“There’s no prize for being the richest man in the graveyard” – Laurie Fitzgerald via @typicalbusiness

I hope this podcast answered why work life balance is important. Most of all, I hope these 5 action steps above will help you create an identity beyond what you do for a living.

So help us out… does this relate to you? Are you struggling with your work life balance? Perhaps you’ve worked out your own priority system – share it with us in the comments below.

The post Why Work Life Balance Is Important And How You Can Make Adjustments appeared first on Typical Business.

1. Be prepared – do the work.
2. Don’t wait for permission.
3. Have faith in your own abilities.

Subway repositioned itself, and a lot of marketing and advertising gurus are attributing the success of the Subway business to the repositioning. You can read more about my thought on the success of Subway and get the real 8 reasons why Subway is your typical successful business.

Your Marketing Sucks and You Know It (Exposed) by Mal Emery

The content is a little dated, but it is filled with a lot of good marketing techniques. I would have liked it more if he shared new ways of implementing these campaigns in the digital age. I think it’s probably a good book for many bricks and mortar businesses, and if you’re new to marketing it will probably open your eyes to better ways of winning business.

My Rating: 2/5 stars

Faizels Rating: 4/5 stars

This week we announced ‘The Decision Tree’ eCourse.

This course is very close to launch, and will help you free up hours of your time. It’s designed to help you make better decisions and get more done and gain momentum in your business.

We’ll give you more information when we launch the eCourse.

I competed in a Tae Kwon Do knockout tournament as a teenager. As it turns out, there were only 7 competitors in our age and belt bracket.

The above picture shows me as the blue and all the other entrants as black. I got lucky and got a first round bye as the other 6 had to compete. That meant I was launched straight into the semi-finals.

When the semi-finals came around, my opponent didn’t show up in time and got awarded a disqualification. All of a sudden I’m in the finals!

When the final was announced, my competitor showed up and I was finally going to fight. We were warming up and getting ready for the fight when his coach stepped onto the mat and spoke with the referee.

The referee beckoned for me to come out into the middle of the mats and he raised my hand and declared me “WINNER”!

Apparently my opponent was feeling too sick to compete because of the 2 hard fights he had before this fight.

In life and in business, we need to compete. Many people are nervous going out and launching their business but here are the three factors you should take into consideration;

I’d done all the work I could to get ready for this tournament. I was fit, agile, quick, had good technique, and I’d practised for a number of years including sparring with opponents. That training was what I needed to ensure I could be successful in the tournament.

If you’ve done the work, perhaps you’ve been in a business and basically running it for someone else. You’ve done the work – the preparation you need to step out there and compete on your own.

One of my regular sparring partners at my gym would beat me regularly. He was a giant. He went through an early growth spurt and was about 6 foot 2 inches at the age of 13 and could grow a full beard.

Unfortunately, his parents wouldn’t let him compete in the tournament – which as it turns out, he probably would have won.

Don’t wait for permission. We’ve been trained all our lives that we need to wait. You don’t. Get out there and do it.

It’s nice if someone pats you on the back and says ‘Hey, you can do it – I have full confidence that you’re going to make it’. Unfortunately, that’s probably never going to happen.

For good reason too. No one knows you like you do.

Your spouse, your friends, your parents – they haven’t worked with you. They’ve just seen you work and slowly climb up the ladder in your career. But they don’t really know what you’re capable of.

In fact, even those that have worked with you probably don’t know what you’re capable of. If you’ve never been given the opportunity to show your ability, it might still be lying dormant… just waiting for a chance.

“If you’ve done the preparation, you’ve got all it takes to step out and make it happen” – via @typicalbusiness

So tell me, what’s stopping you from going out and doing it for yourself? Leave a comment below and let me know what your biggest challenge is, I’d love to help.

The post Putting Yourself Out There appeared first on Typical Business.

I also found some workbooks that have helped me write my goals down and evaluate them better. This has helped me build 2 small profitable businesses PLUS start Typical Business and the podcast which launched late in 2012. The books were curated by Seth Godin and Zig Ziglar and I share a link to those at the bottom of this post.

But first, if you’ve listened to this podcast episode, you’ll have a better understanding of each of these points that Zig raises in his 3 part video below.

Zig Ziglar shares a great methodology that works when creating goals. Watch these 3 short videos for his own insight into setting goals.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Here are his 7 steps which will help you get serious and give you a greater chance for success.

1. Write it down.
2. Set a start date.
3. Listed the obstacles you have to overcome.
4. Listed the groups and organisations you have to work with.
5. Spell out a plan of action.
6. Set the time aside to complete those actions.
7. Identified the benefits.

This methodology is what I use with the Pick Four workbooks which are available on Amazon;

Here’s some tips to help you get started:

• Small steps work – Don’t give yourself long or large tasks. Instead, break them down into smaller, bite sized chunks that are easier to achieve. Momentum will really help you stay motivated and feel a sense of accomplishment.
• Consistent effort works – chip away at your goal regularly. That consistent effort all adds up and before you know it, you’ll achieve your goal.
• Group support works – if you can rally some additional support around you, do it! This helps hold you accountable, but your support group can also keep you encouraged.

The one consistent rule that is followed by all successful people – Do it now. Don’t put it off. Start NOW.

“Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. Be effective and accomplish your goals instead!” – via @typicalbusiness

The post Steve & Ryans Tips On How To Set Goals In 2013 appeared first on Typical Business.

When interviewing people, even as a skilled interviewer you will miss things.

• Candidates are well trained when applying for jobs.
• Resume’s are often cookie cutter and embellish the truth a bit.

Psychological Assessments however help reading between the lines and give a better overview of staff. They are also excellent for those staff who perhaps don’t interview too well, maybe because of cultural traits, but could be a real asset to your business.

If your business is outsourcing, psychological assessments can still translate well even with cultural differences.

We discuss how cultural differences can play a part in how we relate with each other. We both agreed that Jerry Seinfeld gives a clear cultural example that can come arise when a close talker crosses cultural boundaries.

“Emotional Intelligence is the missing link that explains why some very smart people don’t always function well in society” Dr Ilona Jerabek

Dr Ilona explains; Have you ever had a gut feeling? Most people try to suppress their gut feeling as they think it’s a little unreliable. However, every cell in our body stores memory – not just our minds. So as an example, when you’re making a stressful decision, your gut feeling is telling you something based on your experience in the past, or based on instincts – but either way it’s probably telling you something important.

So here’s a big thing, are you rationalising away your emotional intelligence? I know I’m guilty of it, and even Ilona admits there have been occasions where she has done the same. I just recently wrote about listening to that small inner voice – which I suppose could also be called your gut feeling. So perhaps I’m not as emotionally retarded as my friends say

Check out some of these stats relating to Emotional Intelligence (Note: These stats come from Ilona’s Emotional Intelligence Test page at Psychtests.com);

• 98% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 77% of those with low EIQ) enjoy learning new things.
• 82% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 43% of those with low EIQ) carefully think through decisions before moving forward.
• 82% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 38% of those with low EIQ) believe that they are useful to their company and know exactly how the organization benefits from their skills and strengths.
• 94% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 52% of those with low EIQ) continuously look for ways to improve their performance at work.
• 93% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 34% of those with low EIQ) have complete confidence in their abilities.
• In the face of major challenges, 81% of those with high emotional intelligence (compared to 23% of those with low EIQ) become even more determined to succeed.
• 46% of those with low emotional intelligence (compared to 8% of those with high EIQ) are not satisfied with their work unless someone else praises it.
• 39% of those with low emotional intelligence (compared to 2% of those with high EIQ) rely on others to “push” or motivate them.

The last stat in the above list just blew me away. As someone who outsources a lot of work, I want staff who show initiative in their work and are self-motivated. It just highlighted to me the need for the EI testing in my own recruitment process.

“Most people make emotional business decisions, but they just don’t realise it” – Dr Ilona Jerabek via @typicalbusiness

Watch Bridget Jones’ Diary (Just kidding).

1. Be conscious and self aware of where you are personally with your own EI score.
2. Recognise strengths and weaknesses
3. Work and exercise your emotional intelligence in real world situations.

Recognise that testing like this is an inexpensive exercise but even more importantly, recognise that not implementing testing like this could be costly. Tests are priced between $15 – $45 which could easily be used for your short list of candidates to help you split the difference between them.

If you look at the cost to your company when changing staff, read this blog where I break down those numbers a bit further. It’s almost embarrassing that I haven’t been using these tests for every hire!

You can find out more information from Dr Ilona Jerabek and about her company Psych Tests by visting Archprofile.com

The post How Emotional Intelligence Could Be The Missing Link In Your Business appeared first on Typical Business.

James was previously a General Manager of a Mercedes dealership in Sydney. He started initially as a sales person and was promoted to sales manager then general sales manager and finally as the GM before leaving and forming his own business.

That experience provided a great grounding in business skills, working with a high level brand.

James learnt his own sales techniques that made him the #1 sales person at BMW. However, he later learnt an even more comprehensive selling system called ‘Road to a sale’. This system held each step you would go through from the moment a prospect walked in, to the moment they drove away with their new car.

The Steps:

• Meet and greet
• Handshake
• Exchange of names
• Business cards
• Offer of tea, coffee or water
• Sitdown to discuss requirements further
• Demonstration
• Test Drive
• Wrap up session which included;
• Finance
• Sales Manager if needed
• Finally, taking the order

Subtle elements you could delve into during the discussions;

• Negotiation
• Body language
• Test drive evaluation
• Delivering news about the price

Customers motivation beyond the basics (trigger points or hot buttons);

• Safety
• Performance
• Appearance
• Comfort
• Economy
• Durability

All leads were tracked – in depth.

In the podcast, James provides a clear 9 step roadmap for implementing your own sales system in your business.

First – commit to building your own sales system, then build your own Write Up sheet;

1. Who is this for?

If the decision makers aren’t in the meeting, then there’s no point going further.

2. What car are you trading in today?

This gives you clues as to the reasons they bought that car in the first place. Did they buy it new, second hand? Did they finance it? How did they buy it, were they a spreadsheet shopper?

3. Ask the main reason for this purchase?

This is the hot button.  You’ll find out the driving reason for this decision to purchase.

4. Ask for the specific features required?

This is where you make sure you’re solving the problem properly.

5. Ask a timing question, when is this required?

This makes a big difference in some cases as to if the product will be available.

6. What type of vehicle is required? 

Get the specifications right. Go through the nuts and bolts and make sure all the details are covered.

7. Is there anything else?

This is where they’ll respond with comments like “this is going to come down to price” or “this needs to meet a certain safety requirement”.

8. Right now you should be able to show them beyond any doubt that your solution is right for them.

Demonstrate that this is the ideal solution from proof, testimonial, pictures etc… to show them this solution is perfect for them.

9. Ask for the most reasonable commitment. 

This might be an order for the product or perhaps booking in the final appointment.

There are a few subtle differences with online sales vs offline sales. First of all, you’ll need to anticipate questions more carefully as you are unable to react to prospects responses. So build your websites as client focused.

Online Sales Tip – “Don’t be high pressure, tricky or manipulative” – James Schramko via @typicalbusiness

Showcase your product well on your website.

Don’t be short-sighted. Recurring customers are key to your business success. They also require a lot less effort and add to your profitability.

Keep the focus on solving your customers problems and not your own problems and you’ll remain successful.

Here’s what James recommends you do with your online presence.

1. Look at your website through the eyes of your customer. 

Provide benefits for your customer – don’t worry about telling people how good you are, instead, solve the customers problem and give them a benefit (at no cost) by offering something your competitor doesn’t.

Ask yourself honestly ‘Is this doing something for my customer’? If not, you need to change” – James Schramko

2. Beef up your website and put really useful information and services that help your customer get to know you better and see some value.

You might consider offering some kind of experience free.

3. Tell people about your website.

You’ll need to put some effort into promoting your website. This might be done through a lot of different methods like;

• Creating a facebook page
• Putting a video up on YouTube
• Writing a Press Release
• And others…

In the podcast Steve discusses how “The Ultimate Sales Letter” by Dan Kennedy helped him re-focus his web presence and increased his sales online.

The high priority are those customers who are on your website right now. If you can increase your response to those online customers, you’ll grow your business significantly. Those customers who are in your store are already semi-captive.

Create seamless checkpoints on your website, in the same way you have seamless checkpoints offline.

Be fast to respond online – also having a human on the end of your online sales enquiries will increase sales conversions.

Gerry Harvey admits a lot of people going into the store have previously researched online.

“Create a non-negotiable sales system in your business today” – James Schramko

If you’d like to know more about James Schramko and his business, visit Superfast Business.

The post Developing A Successful Offline & Online Sales System With James Schramko appeared first on Typical Business.