Actual for You - Business

Teaching Employees To Lie
As always, the grand creator puts things in my path to point in which direction my column should take each month. It is laid before me in such a manner that I become passionate about writing the experience in detail. Because many publications allow only 700 words, I have to chop my column to fit the criteria, yet in my books I let it flow naturally.I recently made a trip to a well-known drug store to purchase a few items and browse through their new store. I permitted my two teenage sons to accompany me so they could peruse the new establishment as well.

ss Handler Action: With your team, identify the “naysayers” who are keeping you from excelling. Is it industry experts, competitors, the economy, suppliers, little voices inside your head, or some other things that are getting in the way of your taking control of growing your franchise business? Here are five ways to help you figure out those inhibitors and get to work overcoming them today:

1. Tell your team about the last time you didn’t act on an idea…and what stopped you.

2. Have team members share stories they’ve heard recently from suppliers and customers.

3. Talk about the things they’re seeing on the news and reading in the

Are You Content With Your Sales: White Space Marketing
From Newspapers to Magazines to Internet, sales and advertising creates brilliant designer details, but what sells a great ad? In flipping through a recently released magazine I found something interesting. The most effective ads had space around them.Considering that I can generally fill up a room, or a page, with more than most people might want in it, I seriously looked at the pages, to see why they were so effective. They all seven major details that gave the reader a clear idea of what the product was.1. Clear – bold headlines. The headlines

As a senior in high school, he paid cash for a BMW with money made by selling newspapers. In 1983, as a college freshman, he sold custom-made PCs and parts out of his dorm room…hiding them behind his roommate’s shower curtain whenever Mom and Dad visited. A year later, with just $1,000 in start-up capital, he dropped out of school to focus fully on his expanding business. It took him just eight years to become the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company.

Today, he is one of the richest people on the planet, with a net worth estimated to be greater than $14 billion. His company employs nearly 60,000 people, and Fortune magazine ranks it as America’s most-admired.

Michael Dell’s vision as an 18-year-old is now legendary, and he continues to believe in the same basic principles: manage inventory, and listen to and respond to customers. “Being an entrepreneur wasn’t on my mind,” he once said. “What was on my mind was the opportunity I saw ahead, which was so compelling.” Dell understood at a young age that knowing where you want to go is as important as knowing how to get there.

Success Handler Action: What is the vision for your franchise business? In working with our coaching clients, we discover many haven’t taken the time to determine the opportunities before them. They’re too caught up in the day-to-day trials of just running their business. Others tell us that, while they know their vision, they haven’t necessarily shared it with their team. After you finish reading this E-newsletter, use these questions to focus in on your vision, then gather your team and let them know where you’re heading together:

~ Where do go for quiet, introspective moments, and have you been there lately?

~ What is your core business, and how does this benefit your customers/clients?

~ When was the last time you took a big chance and implemented a new product/service?

~ Who are the visionary leaders in your industry, and what are they doing better or differently?

~ Why are others still entering your industry, and what new ideas do you think they see?

In giving the commencement address to the 2003 graduating class at the University of Texas, after first telling his parents they still wouldn’t get to see him take home a degree, Michael Dell said, “When Dell got started, it didn’t come with a manual on how to become number one in the world. We had to figure that out every step of the way. And with each new product and new market, the industry ‘experts’ said we’d fail…And as always, we did it our way, with customers – not the experts – in mind.”

Success Handler Action: With your team, identify the “naysayers” who are keeping you from excelling. Is it industry experts, competitors, the economy, suppliers, little voices inside your head, or some other things that are getting in the way of your taking control of growing your franchise business? Here are five ways to help you figure out those inhibitors and get to work overcoming them today:

1. Tell your team about the last time you didn’t act on an idea…and what stopped you.

2. Have team members share stories they’ve heard recently from suppliers and customers.

3. Talk about the things they’re seeing on the news and reading in the

What to Say When the Media Calls
If the media were to call you today for an interview, would you know what to do or say? That question was posed during a recent conference on small-business ownership and micro enterprise creation, which was held here in Paris. I watched the reactions around the room, and it occurred to me that for most small-business owners, the only thing more frightening than conducting a follow-up phone call with a reporter is having that same reporter actually interview them.There is only one way to overcome the fear. You have to simply adopt and apply an old U.S. Ar

erica’s most-admired.