- Trust in your staff that they have the abilities to handle the tasks provided to them,

- Trust in your business partners that they do the right thing and not cheat you,

- Trust in business suppliers that they are able to provide their services as and when they are required.

Recently, I have been in situations whereby trust has been damaged or tarnished. The initial reaction will always be one of hurt, denial and anger. And lets face it …. you also kick yourself saying why am I so stupid!!

What do you do? Do you stop trusting people? Do you become hard nosed and question everyone’s motive?

It’s a hard question to give an answer to.

On a side note, I was speaking to a client who does a lot of business to one customer in Japan. In fact, the business from this one customer had helped him grow his turnover from thousands to millions. One of the things he said to me was that even though he has a very good relationship (ie: trust) with this customer, he can never for once take anything for granted. He said the culture in Japan is such that this customer can and will easily decide one day not to buy, he will not provide a reason nor warning of not purchasing from you. He will just not buy end of relationship …. FULL STOP. It is with this knowledge that everyday he looks at every opportunity in building and growing the trust he has and always trying to think from the customer’s point of view to provide a better service.

Back to the question, what happens when people break your trust. Well, don’t be stupid and trust these people again. It is up to them to build trust and gain your trust. Secondly, have to be wiser in future. Cannot give 100% trust to anyone. Trust is earned not bought. It is something the other party must be prepared in fostering, not something you give.

Juen Phie

www.juenphie.com

www.juenphie.com.au

www.juenphie.co

www.juenphie.info

www.juenphie.org

www.juenphie.net

www.juenphie.biz

Let me share with you some of the tools I use in my day to day life which I try and technology for for me, be a friend not a foe. Essentially, be a tool for me to gain productivity, make more money and spend more time with the family.

Blackberry smart phone

Ipad + tablet pcs

Wireless networking

Remote access terminal server

Screen sharing technology

Teambox online collaboration

Dropbox file sharing

Googlea pps

Skype

Mozy remote data backup

Websites / email

Online freelancers

Data securiry

No doubt there is many more that I cannot think of. Ill add to this list as I go.

Juen Phie

www.juenphie.com
www.juenphie.com.au
www.juenphie.org
www.juenphie.net
www.juenphie.info
www.juenphie.co
www.juenphie.biz

One such question I asked was “Whats the best business to own?” Or, “if a good business opportunity came across our desk one day, what kind of business would it be?”

The following dot point summary is what I came up with and the reasons why :-

1. Cash business
- don’t want to have debtors
- don’t want to chase customers for payment
- businesses go bankrupt because customers don’t pay when they are supposed to, yet creditors demand payment immediately
- want to receive income in cash
- want the ability to pay creditors on terms (ie: 30, 60, 90 days)
- great on cashflow

2. A ready market & strong demand for your products or services
- Having a ready market and strong demand for products and services means you should have a Regular and Steady Income which require little or no marketing
- Theoretically you can “setup a shop and sit and let money come to you
- Running a business is hard enough, you don’t want the added stress of continually worrying about getting customers to cover overhead costs, etc
- Any extra marketing that you do choose to do isn’t driven by survival but for  growth
- Making money should be simple and easy. There is a saying “when you want to climb a mountain, do it on a sunny day, not a rainy day”.

3. Expandable
- This is the ability for a business owner to capitalise on the existing infrastructure of the current to generate additional income
- This could be through “spin off businesses” or “marketing innovation”
- This concept of expandability is based on a quote attributed to Albert Einstein  “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
- If a business owner inspires to achieve greater results from the business, he or she will need to do something different.
- Likewise, if a business wants to achieve a better result than other businesses in the same industry, they need to something that the industry as a whole isn’t doing
- The marketing guru Dan Kennedy regularly talks about how a business can create simple marketing breakthroughs by “borrowing ideas from a different industry”
- The ultimate responsibility of a business owner is to control the marketing function

4. Not restricted by specialised skills & training
- Tongue in cheek “a business which even a monkey can do”
- When I reminise back in the days when I worked in McDonalds, I now appreciate the SYSTEM which they had developed. They had a perfect system whereby at the crux of it all you had a business owner who employs an 18 year old who manages a group 15 year olds who has no prior experience in making hamburgers!
- A business which you can only do if you have specialised training or 20 yrs worth of experience is a very difficult business to grow. It’s very difficult to duplicate yourself. You just run out of hours in a day.
- If you want to expand you need to hire and train employees to run the business

5. Simple operations & systems
- A system for a business owner is ultimately the ability to employ staff to replace yourself
- World renowned business guru & author Michael Gerber coined the concept of “working on the business not in the business”
- A simple system is how you achieve this

6. Owners Profit
- Money is important
- Not only must the business be able to meet your current needs but there should be enough of it to reinvest in the business to expand and grow

7. Must be creating an asset
- To laymen, an asset is something which has a value and you can sell
- For many business owners, you build a business which you ultimately want to sell to someone for a profit
- The worst business to be in is one which doesn’t have any goodwill, or that goodwill is inherently connected to the individual owner.  Once the owner leaves, the customers or goodwill leaves to.
- Examples of common business assets are:-

• Plant & Equipment
• Licenses
• A customer database
• A prominent brand
• Loyal customers who are attracted to your brand
• A unique marketing system
• Advertising mechanism
• A Distribution channel
• Regular and recurring revenue (ie: management fees, rental, subscriptions)
• The list goes on and on

8. Utilise leverage to grow and succeed
- Leverage is the ability to achieve more with little or less effort
- A businesses which can be easily leveraged can be grown faster than one which can’t
- Common forms of leverage are:-

• Leverage money & cash flow
• Leverage time
• Leverage skills & resources
• Leverage marketing
• Leverage a system

9. Can EASILY obtain bank funding
- One of the biggest forms of leverage a business owner needs is the leverage of money
- The most common way to leverage money is through bank finance
- Banks will not readily lend against a businesses goodwill (especially not in todays economic crisis!)
- There are a few good businesses which banks do still lend against

That’s enough of day dreaming, lets get back to reality

Juen Phie

www.juenphie.com
www.juenphie.com.au
www.juenphie.org
www.juenphie.net
www.juenphie.info
www.juenphie.co
www.juenphie.biz

- Is business fun or war?
- Does someone need to loose for you to win?
- Are you out to win at all cost?

What is business to you? Many people has different philosiphies and these philosophies drive you every day in your day to day decisions.

If business is war or to win at all cost you are out to be deceitful, cunning and then to crush and kill. You will not feel satisfied unless someone loses. You get a thrill by killing by conquering. Business to you is a fight, every day to you is a fight. If you do not fight one day you do not get a satisfaction.

When I think about business and what business is to me, these are my thoughts:-

- Business is a game,
- Business is fun,
- Business is to help people,
- Business is to add value,
- Business is to create value,
- Business is to over deliver,
- Business is to create customers who are trulely satisfied and come back to you willingly,
- Business is to make a long lasting impact into people’s lives,
- Business is friendship, transform clients into friends,
- Business is because I want to do not because I have to,

Business to me is a vehicle that allows me to create value for clients, and clients pay me for the value that I created for them.

Business to me is a vehicle that allows me to spend my time and money for my family.

Business to me is not the be all and end all of life, it is merely a vehicle to enjoy life.

I do business because I truely enjoy it. I enjoy the smiles it brings to my clients. I enjoy sharing life and the laughters that my clients experience. I enjoy when I help clients achieve good results, create more profits and enjoy their life.

It allows me to feed my family and spend time with my family. It allows me to watch the children grow. It allows me to help others who needs help.

Unfortunately for me, it is very difficult to separate life, business and family. To me the 3 are so personal and interwoven that when I get a new client, I feel as if I get a new friend and someone new to share life with.

I sign off by quoting a mentor’s words, Life is too short not to enjoy it, make the very most of each day. What is life if you are not touching (in a good way) the lives of people around you.

Juen Phie

www.juenphie.com
www.juenphie.com.au
www.juenphie.org
www.juenphie.net
www.juenphie.info
www.juenphie.co
www.juenphie.biz