2012 June

4 Ways To Inspire Your Team Members Today

There is no doubt that as leaders, our job is to produce—to make more of our products or our services or our whatever each and every day. And as leaders, we have a tendency to get bogged down in our daily to-do lists to produce as much of our “whatever” as we can.

The problem? We also tend to forget that we don’t run our businesses alone. (Well … unless you’re a one-person shop. Then, of course, you do. Sorry. Didn’t mean to point you out and make you feel lonely … this is awkward … ice cream?) Most of us work with a team of people who are helping to grow our efforts.

Therefore, I will say, as I always do, it’s your job to make your team successful. Why? Because if you can, you have successfully duplicated yourself, along with about a dozen other reasons I won’t cover today. One of the ways to make them successful is to inspire them. When team members are inspired, they are more productive. Here are four quick ways to motivate them:

• Look at you!!! - Recognition is the fastest and easiest way to inspire someone. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, wants to be recognized for something they have done. Preferably, it’s something GOOD they’ve accomplished, especially in front of peers or leaders.

• Dear John - Or Sally or whoever your team member may be. Take five minutes and write a handwritten note of appreciation to them. It doesn’t take a lot of words to say, “I think you’re amazing.”  In fact, it takes four.

• Are you buzzin’? - Take them or send someone to go pick up some REAL coffee. You know, something other than the thick black stuff in the break room that you can peel paint or the lining of your stomach with. Go get some Dillanos.

• Is that a quarter behind your ear? – Or even better: Is that $50 in my hand as I shake yours? Giving someone a $50 handshake when they aren’t expecting it will blow them away. And trust me, they will produce more than that in the next 15 minutes because they are pumped!

Inspiring someone doesn’t take much. Just a few minutes of thought and a few more minutes of action. Give it a try right now and see what happens. Unless you’re reading this alone in your car as you’re driving. In that case, put this down and remember,  10 and two … 10 and two!

Question: How will you inspire a team member today?

Maybe I Can Save You 37 Million Dollars As Well

At a recent EntreLeadership Master Series event in Tucson, an attendee asked if he could spend some time with me discussing their company’s finances. So we grabbed a spot and I asked him to give me all the details.

We talked through what the company did, what the company earned, and so on. No need in sharing the whole conversation with you, so I’ll fast forward to the ending question. He asked me about moving the company forward by using debt. If they stayed on track borrowing like they had, they would be able to build considerably more assets. And like all who ask me this question, he wondered why he would get debt free if he could leverage and build more than he could with cash.

I started running some of his numbers in my head and came out with some incredible contrasts. So I asked him to go back to his room and run through some numbers himself. All I wanted to know was how much net profit they would have in five years if they paid off their debt and grew with cash, as opposed to continuing and growing considerably larger.

I knew the answer I had in my head, but I wanted to see his real numbers. He chewed on it for a while, talked to his partner, and sent me the following forecast:

You can click the the graphic for a larger picture.

In case you’re not seeing it, at the end of five year, paying off their debt, they will be 37 MILLION BETTER OFF!!!!!! Yes, they will have less assets, but they won’t have 84 Million in debt EITHER!!!! Instead, they will have an equity value of just shy of 90…..Million…….DOLLARS!!!!! I so can’t wait for my commission check!

You see, sometimes we focus on growth and revenue the way that the world does. Which is how big can we grow and how fast. Instead, we should be focused on growing the way GOD wants us to. His way. I realize your numbers may have way less zeros, but I think you can see that the concept is still the same.

Question: How does this hit you?!

Sales Lessons From A Caribbean Beach

No matter who you are or what you do, you are in sales. We ALL sell every day. If you’re a leader, you’re in sales by trying to convince your team to follow you. If you’re a team member, you’re trying to convince your leadership of your passion, skills and abilities.

If you’re a pastor, you’re trying to convince your congregation on your belief of what the Bible says. If you’re a mom, you’re trying to convince your kids that if they don’t clean up their room, you’ll count to three … and then they begin begging until you let them off the hook and they can go back to watching cartoons! Sorry, I got caught up in the lack of parenting I see nowadays.

No matter your “occupation,” you should have a sticker on your shirt that says, “I’m in sales. Ask me about it!” Selling is nothing more than trying to convince someone. That’s it. Now what you convince them of can be infinite—your product, your opinion, etc.

So why am I pointing all of this out? Because sometimes, OK quite often, I feel like people don’t understand the need for bettering their sales abilities.

Let me give you an example. I was recently on a tiny beach on the back side of Sint Maarten. There were only a dozen or so people there, and we were all on lounge chairs baking in the sun.

Side note: It’s really difficult for me to just sit there sun bathing. Anyway, within one minute of me putting my feet in the sand, a man walked up to me and tried to sell me a CD. Of what? I’m not sure. But I was pretty confident I didn’t want it, especially since I left my last-century CD Walkman in my other shorts.

Ten feet later, I was asked, “You want to buy a beer or some food?” To which I responded with a no thank you. About two minutes after I set my stuff down and laid back on the lounge chair, a lady walked up to me and asked, “Would you like to buy some gourds?” (I’m saying gourds because that’s what they were. Gourds on a string. But I have no clue what the word was that she used.) “I’m good,” I said.

This continued to happen for a few minutes with the last few “salespeople” on the beach. Surprisingly, I have no CD. I have no gourd on a string. And I have no braids in my hair, which would make for some very small braids, by the way. Why I was not sold on any of these wonderful products? Because walking up to me and saying, “Do you want to buy” just doesn’t get me giddy.

There were no steps of a proper sales process followed whatsoever. I won’t go into all of those steps because you can read them in Serve Don’t Sell. If your sales process doesn’t include persuading me, then you’re just wasting everyone’s time. The same goes for you as a parent, a teacher, a preacher, etc. If I feel like all you want is my response for your benefit, I’m out. But if you make me believe that I need your product, your opinion or your gourds on a string, then I’m in all of the way.

Question: What ways have you found best to “sell” people?

Can You Run A Business Debt Free?

“You can’t actually run a business debt free!” That’s a comment I hear all of the time. In fact, when I teach EntreLeadership, it’s  the one subject that tends to ruffle the most feathers. Why? It’s the same concept as student loans. People don’t know people who are going through college (or own a business) without debt, so it doesn’t seem possible to them.

I’m here to tell you, YES IT IS! At each EntreLeadership Performance Series event, I take a few minutes to ask how many people are running their businesses debt free. Every single time, it’s at least 30% of the room. Every time. I then have the rest of the attendees look around, and they’re always surprised that someone can run a business without a line of credit. They see that it’s not only being done, it’s being done successfully.

I’m passionate about making business owners realize they don’t need to accumulate a ton of debt. And on today’s EntreLeadership Podcast, we talk about ways to run a business debt free, as well as obstacles to avoid.

During the podcast, I also interviewed one of our in-house champions, Chris Hogan, about the things he’s learned in all of his years of coaching businesses on their finances. In the interview, we cover:

• What small businesses normally borrow for and how they can change
• Cash flow, retained earnings and lines of credit
• How badly debt damages growth
• How to feel safer financially
• The myth of credit cards in business

Basically, we tackle the myths that so many have been convinced are musts in business. It’s a super important podcast you are not going to want to miss. Click the player below to hear the EntreLeadership Podcast on Financial Peace for Business.

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If you don’t see the player, click here.

Question: What are your thoughts on running a business debt free?