NEXT ZERO
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Failure is not a prerequisite for success
Every successful business story seems to have a few failure stories attached to them. It almost seems to be sold to startups that you have to fail a few times before you can succeed. Failure is thus glorified as a badge of honor. Result: When things don’t go to plan we are quick to label it as failure and move on to something else. Failure is not a prerequisite to success. Let’s get this message out instead!!!
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Don’t die chasing deadlines
Working in a deadline driven industry teaches you a thing or two. Pipeline is always full of potential opportunities and work would never end. One deadline will follow another and then another. To stay sane and take time for life you need to block your calendar out for various times of the year and get away from it all.
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Its not the end of the world
So you might: Loose a client Fail at achieving something Not meet a deadline Not get promoted Not be as rich as you dreamt So what!? It’s not the end of the world. It’s part and parcel of work and life. Fear not, complain not and get on with it!!!
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Give your ideas a chance.
We believe in providing services to our clients that help them with something (peace of mind when their obligations are in order, increased profitability, better processes, etc). Needless to say that our success then depends on what we can do for our clients. Our minds are always looking for ideas and things that might help us help our clients. Every now and then an idea would pop out in our heads and we would give it a go. Result: Some ideas that we thought were great in our heads, don’t work in real world and some ideas we were not too sure about worked wonders in the real world. Our…
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Standout in the sea of sameness
Try scattering a few colourful toys around a toddler and then put a delicate item (mobile phone, remote control, reading glasses, etc) somewhere near by. I am no child psychologist but the chances are the toddler would not go for the toys but the other delicate item because in the sea of the sameness, (s)he sees something different. Same applies to the world of business. There is nothing wrong with being the same as every other business or product in your industry, but then don’t expect to have better results than them. In the sea of sameness, if you want to give your business or product the best possible outcome,…
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What happens to customer service when we are pressed for time?
“We are not an information centre, why don’t they just Google it up” said an Australia Post employee as soon as the customer was out of the hearing zone. I was at a post office and while I was being served, a customer at the next counter had bought what she needed and just asked the attendant what direction a certain street was in the suburb. A colleague answered the question and the customer thanked them and went away. A bad day for the employee perhaps but that just brings to attention the bitter truth of “customer service”, everyone is so busy that to be able to do their job,…
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“WE” vs “THEM”
English wasn’t my 1st language and thinking about it wasn’t probably my 2nd or even 3rd language I spoke but the words we use in a business environment are so critical. Yesterday I had to call icare NSW because I had emailed them the change to my business name and email address over a month ago and they still sent an important email to my old email address. I explained what had happened and the friendly customer service person says “They are really behind with taking action on the emails they have received recently.” There was the word again “THEY”. I am calling icare NSW and its simple as that. If you…
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People not robots
Treat your team members as people not robots and see if it makes a difference in their attitude to work. People you know the ones who: Can have bad days here and there Have kids and may need time off here and there to look after them Get sick every now and then At times can get late because things dint go to plan in the morning or have to leave early at times to take care of some things in life Need to go on holidays away from work to get rejuvenated (without emails and calls) Might need to travel overseas or interstate for events they have no control…
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Increase your bank balance by not focusing on your costs
CLIENT QUESTION: I want to increase my bank balance (profits). How can I cut down my costs (expenses)? OUR ANSWER: There are lots of people out there who think that the only way we can increase profits in a business or bank balances (if you are an individual) is by cutting down the expenses we incur. This whole idea is flawed because it just focusses on expenses. People don’t seem to realise that there is only so much you can cut down in expenses. So instead of focussing on the expenses shift your focus to your income. Now income doesn’t have any upper limit does it? If you are making…
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What is the worst that can happen?
Fear and lack of confidence holds us all back. The fear of what would happen if you do something or lack of confidence in yourself knowing something can be done but not believing in yourself to be able to do it. We all have ideas that we are not sure would work or things that we don’t bring into motion as we are uncertain if they will be successful. Next time you have any of these thoughts, just ask yourself “What is the worst that can happen if I do this?” As long as the answer to the question is not “You will die”, then go ahead and do it. Have an idea that you…