Andrew Baird Blog

In Business and in life it’s as important to know What Not to Do as well as What to Do - often people fall into one camp or the other so work out which one you sit in and see if the flip side is a blind spot for you…

This post is for entrepreneurs who expect success to come packaged exactly as they expect with no need to join the dots.  No need to think outside the box - or work to make things fit.  In my experience this is a big What Not to Do that people often fail to see.

I needed to catch a cab in the city the other day and I didn’t have any cash on me - so I was intending on paying using EFTPOS (a debit card).  Open the first cab door “Do you have EFTPOS?”, “No…”  Shut the first cab door.

Open the second cab door “Do you have EFTPOS?”, “No, but there’s a cash machine just across the road - I’ll drive you there.”  Well sure I’ll jump right in.  Now this is smart on a number of levels - number one he’s thinking on his feet.  When I ask him a question and he gives me a different answer to the one I want he’s ready with a quick solution.

Secondly it’s making him more money - twice!  First he got the sale (versus the first guy who let it walk off) and secondly he’s driving me across the road (like 10 metres away) and turning on his meter earlier and making more money, fantastic!

Now maybe the first guy didn’t know that there was a cash machine across the road - but there were other ways he could have solved the problem.  Fact is he didn’t really want to be making money - the second guy did.  He used his ingenuity to come up with a quick solution to his customers problem to doing business with him.

So now it’s time to ask yourself the question - where is a lack of ingenuity costing you money?  Where are you not solving problems for your customers that allows you to provide them more value and put more money in your wallet.

Andrew.

P.S. If you fall in the same camp as the first guy and you’re going “Ouch - I don’t really want to be making money???”  Don’t beat yourself up about this - learn the lesson and get focused on what you need to do to make the money.  The point of this post is to help you come on over to the money side if that’s where you want to be.

So it’s been a while since I did a post, I even have four posts written that I haven’t put up yet so the question is why?

Well today is July 1st, which means we are now officially half way through the year - wow it’s gone quick! Kim and I have spent the last month focused on two things, the plan for the rest of the year and the Entrepreneurs Boot Camp I attended at Palazzo Versace. As part of the plan for the rest of the year we have been deleting things from our businesses that don’t make sense.

All too often as Business Owners it’s easy to get into the trap of being a “Yes” person and going with the flow. What I mean by this is saying Yes to opportunities that pop up in front of you - without questioning whether it is part of your Big Vision or plan for your Business.

One of my mentors calls these “Blow Fly” opportunities, meaning they’re in your face BUT you should shoo them away and not get caught up in them. And I can see that we have definitely done that at times in the first half of this year and we’re putting in place some practices to make sure it doesn’t happen in the next six months.

I highly recommend you take the time to review your business results in the first half of the year, both in terms of how much profit you’ve made - but also in terms these two questions:

• Is your Business becoming the money making vehicle you want it to be?
• Are you enjoying it and using it to create the life you want?

If you’re like me then you have dreams and goals, things that you want to achieve in your business and personal life. Today I’m going to let you in on a hot tip on how to turn them into reality, here it is:

Fall in love with the process, not the dream.

Now when I heard this I was stopped in my tracks, I went wow, that is profound. All too often we fall in love with want we want to have, whether it’s that dream job, that dream business deal or the old classic more money. The problem is if we’re focused just on what we want, and not what we need to do to get it then we may never reach it.

We absolutely want to keep our goals in mind as a reference point, but we need to be taking the actions to get us there. Plus here’s where this saying goes into overdrive, if you’re in love with the process of making the dream a reality is it easier or harder to do? Of course it’s easier, you’re going to be more in the flow and more aligned with what you’re doing.

Of course there will be obstacles on the way to our goal, but the more we can be in love with the process of achieving it the more easily we will reach it.

I wish you all the best in making your dreams come true.