Who is driving the bus?

Do you find yourself losing steam half way in the effort towards realising your personal or business goals? If you are facing this problem, STOP and take the time to reassess the reason why. Our unconscious mind may be telling us something important such as the possible internal conflict in regards to the goal we are striving for. When we are striving to attain the  goal, we are pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. We cannot stand still and hope that we will succeed.We may need to learn  new sets of skills,  perhaps acquire new knowledge, form new beliefs, values or cultivate the right attitude. 

There is a popular phrase which I learned from the NLP founder Richard Bandler  "Who is driving the bus?" Picture your  life as a “bus.” Who’s driving? Is it you or someone else? Where is the bus going? Who chose the route, the destination, the speed? Who are the passengers? What about side trips along the way? (You know that side trips often enrich the journey!)

Personally, this metaphor question is about who is in charge of your life? Fear and  false beliefs often grip us from moving forward in our life. This could be due to our conditioning during our upbringing, cultural influence or social expectation.

Is your belief preventing you from the lifestyle you desire?

5 key points in making a powerful business presentation

Making an impactful business presentation is very critical in getting the grant or attracting the investors to support you financially in your business. Often key business presentation is not more than 10 minutes as they are busy people whose main focus is getting good returns for their investment. For the investors time is money.

1. Idea-  Open with a powerful statement, visual statistic, news headlines, about what kind of problems your idea is going to resolve. Based on evidence collected on the size of the targeted market in monetary terms and potential growth.  
2. People - Build your credibility to succeed by identifying key people in your team who is able to execute the business plan. 
3. Marketing- Give an overview of the marketing strategy in reaching out to the market. 
4. Money - Breakdown estimate cost including  marketing budget, salaries, capital expenditure , monthly burn out rate and etc.
5. Timeline - Realistic projection of return of investment

The only way to do well in presentation is to practice, practice and practice. One of the most effective ways is to sign up for Toastmasters International. You will have a better chance in delivering an ourstanding presentation if you keep up with the club's education goal. I think it's worth the time because you will never know the cost of delivering a bad presentation. A 5 minutes business presentation can stand between success and failure in business.

Difficult times as a test of your character

Sales meeting was long as usual, we started at 9 AM in morning and concluded around 7.30 PM. I was physically and mentally drained from the session, however a renewed spirit to make some changes in the way we do our business. 

Most companies are already facing the heat, such as the computer related industries and oil & gas related business , it is scaling down it's operation and refocusing on more profitable revenue. The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) is forecasting more than 12.4% drop in new registration due to factors such as inflation. fluctuating commodity prices, customer buying pattern, foreign exchange rates, government policies and the global economic impact. The lowered automotive sales will be a domino effect because a lot of vendors and suppliers are involve in the making of a car.  Most of these vendors and suppliers and also providing their goods and services to the other global brands. It a way, we cannot be too happy if our competitors are facing difficult times as we are all interrelated. If the vendors do not have mass order than the cost of manufacturing would rise and thus making the cars more expensive.

I know some companies are starting to implement customer retention strategy and re-evaluating the business as a whole. Some are restructuring the organisation chart to better improve the speed of delivery. Another common strategy is outsourcing services, which seems to be a good idea to keep the cost under control and level and this have expanded to all departments with high operating cost. Departments such as marketing, IT, training and etc.

I believe that difficult times is like a fire test for the company and the individual. Golds and silver under extreme heat can be moulded into beautiful jewellery. Like wise, our character and potential are tested so we too can become someone even better than before.

My GM told me , that it is important to "open your mind to all possibility". I agree with that as a limited mind closes all doors to new ideas. it is the bankrupt of ideas that often lead to business failure.

 

Generate ideas using Mind map software

I'd came to know about mind mapping from reading Tony Buzan book and have been using this method ever since. I found it to be an effective way to expand ideas quickly while having fun at it. Recently , I came across a mind mapping software from Sourceforge.net 

The software is user friendly, just do a little reading on the FAQ and then you are on your way to generating many ideas. I hope you will enjoy this free software from SourceForge.net as I have. please click on the following link for the download.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=freemind&filename=FreeMind-Windows-Installer-0.8.1-max.exe&use_mirror=transact   

As I am not the originator of the software, kindly refer to the terms and conditions from sourceforge.net before installing the software.

Going Back to Basics

While U.S  is still haggling over the price tag it has to pay for the stimulus package, more and more people are losing jobs everyday. Companies closing down daily and this becomes  a domino effect across the other continent as most countries are dependant on U.S market as the major trading partner. Basically, when the consumer market  plunge so will the demand for imported goods. we are very much interconnected globally through our trading. 

I have some experience when the company I worked in face with the economic crises. Back in 1998, I was working in the general insurance industry. MAA ( Malaysian Assurance Alliance) was the third largest composite insurance  company back then after Great Eastern and AIA . During this period when most other insurance company was consolidating their resources and cutting spending. The MAA president then decided to embark on a daring expansion  program called STAR (Small town and rural) development. we nickname the strategy STAR WARS to spice up the campaign. We were entering into the smaller town that have potential growth  and the strategy worked well in bringing in additional revenues to the company after deducting the expenses. The whole ideas was that when the economy picked up so will the revenue generated. In a way, people will be more appreciative because we were around during the bad times. Interesting and relevant strategy for a certain period. The last I heard of it, everything when into reversal by closing of branches and relocating of staff in the STAR program. The strategy was good but it did not last long. The failure in the strategy on the later part was lack of sensitivity to the changing business environment. One of the common challenges faced by big corporation is the speed to change.

I am a firm believer and practitioner in "Going back to Basics". when times are good, our head swell with pride and forgotten to prepare ourselves for the worst . We begin to think that we are already big enough to weather any financial challenges. Arrogance can be a fatal mistakes for any business. Based on observation , the economic cycle is every 10 years. In other words , when we get out of this difficult times, the next cycle of recession would be in the coming 10 years. However I am not an economist and this are my assumptions based on my experience and observations. 

Going back to basics is all about returning to the fundamental of every business. Here are some of it.

1.) Customers are the reasons your business exist so treat them right.

2.) Your employees are the most important assets so focus on employing the right employees and ensure they are motivated to work with you.

3.) Cash is King

4.) The core values of the company is very important to drive the people within to realise the vision.

5.) Change is inevitable so "Always be prepared" as my ex boss Mr Richand Wong puts it. 

Do you have any further input on this, be glad to hear from you. 

7 tips to zest up your day

One of the reasons that people get bored is because they relive and do the same thing everyday. It seems that we are automated by our internal programming to do so.

This reminds me of one of my favourite movie Groundhog days which I have watched at least 5 times. It is about a weatherman name Phil Connors (actor Bill Murray) who was covering a story of a town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania on their annual tradition where the groundhog forecast the length of the winter season. As he was covering this story for the fourth time now, he was bored and wanted to get it over quickly. Unfortunately they were unable to get out of the town due to the blizzard and had to check into a motel. Here, he woke up every morning at 6 AM to the same tune "I got you babe" over the radio and was trapped in an endless time loop. He was reliving the same event everyday until he learn to give up his selfishness and became a better person. Interesting and funny movie and has a powerful message. We all have our groundhog days. Personally, My insight to this movie is that by focusing on helping others, developing new skills and making every minute counts will make life become more meaningful.

I want to share 7 tips on how to zest up your day, TODAY. This tips has help me to break away from the monotony of life. It is about breaking the routine that we have grown accustom to.

Tip 1 Take a different route to work
I began to be more alert of the things along the journey. Sometimes new building seems to pop up because I was not aware of it earlier on.

Tip 2 Do something wacky
There are times when I just go to the market, buy some fresh chicken meat and seafood and go to the beach and have a barbecue. Unplanned and out of the spur of the moment. It is truly exciting.

Tip 3 Google and search for your dream vacation
This is dream possibility activity. it is an exhilarating experience to find out more about your dream vacation that you wanna take. Forget about the cost and any boundaries that you may have set in your mind. Just have fun exploring it with google map and website reference.

Tip 4 Tune in to a different kind of music

Being a musician myself, I find that different music conjure different feelings and emotions. Listen to other type of music just for today. If you are rock fan, perhaps tune in to the country beat.

Tip 5 Test drive a latest model of a brand new car

There is so much fun to test drive a brand new model. Walk up to the showroom and pretend to be a potential buyer. Ask the salesman about the car's uniqueness before taking it for a spin. It takes at least 3 years from the sketch on the drawing board to the car production. Not too forget hundred of millions spend for the research and development.

Tip 6 Try out new food

One of life's pleasure is to delight the palate with variety of food. If you haven't tried Italian cuisine make an appointment to savor authentic Italian food.

Tip 7 Tell 3 persons that you appreciate them

Making others feel appreciated can make your day.

Do you have any tips that works for you to zest up your day. Please share, I am interested to know.

Building a profitable business

The "Leverage Game" is a fun simulation game in learning the business concept.

I just completed a workshop on "business momentum " organised by Action coach international at Wisma WIM. The seminar is about setting ,running and automating business to provide a sustainable income. The founder Brad Sugars define the business as " A commercial, profitable enterprise that works without me" This insight is a truly liberating for me to understand the ultimate purpose of building a business. Sitting through the seminar, I have learned that many areas can be worked on to make this a reality. For more information on how to build a profitable business, you may look it up at www.actioncoach.com