The Value of One More Day

The value of one more day. If you were granted one more day, what would you do with it and what value would you place on it?

Value of LifeIt is an age-old question, “what is the value of a human life”? The calculation seems to be fairly straightforward, or is it? Back in 2008, Stanford economists demonstrated that the average value of a year of quality human life is about $129,000 vs. $50,000 for the insurance industry.

So, just take this figure and multiple it by the average life span in years, and there you have it – the value of a human life. However, real life doesn’t work that way and the answer to the value of one more day would certainly vary for each individual.

“When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.” – Dian Fossey

So back to the original question, if you were granted one more day, what would you do with it and what value would you place on it? Continue reading…

Relaunch of the Business Leaders Forum℠

Are You Passionate About Spending More Time Working ON Your Business And Learning Strategies To Help You Achieve The Results To Move Beyond Your Vision?

Growing a business in today’s challenging economic climate can be a daunting task for any business leader. Are you struggling to find the right formula for success to take your business to the next level and beyond? Do you need expert advice to help you …

  1. Develop a “game plan” to improve your sales and profits outlook, launch new products or services, and/or marketing initiatives?
  2. Change your business direction, enter new geographic markets or develop new sales channels?
  3. Get a new business venture started and develop the blueprint that will lead to future prosperity and growth?
  4. Develop new leadership skills and competencies, and discover YOUR personal plan for success?

The Business Leaders Forum℠ mastermind program can help you address these critical business challenges, and achieve the results to move beyond your vision in a balanced way!

I know what you’re thinking … here we go again with yet another hollow sales pitch that makes wild claims but delivers little to no value in return. Well, not this time! The Business Leaders Forum℠ is a proven strategic mastermind program first launched in September, 2009 that has helped numerous entrepreneurs, small business owners and business leaders over the past several years dramatically improve business performance, while helping them achieve their personal and professional goals.

NOW, we have incorporated the very best elements of this highly regarded mastermind program into a new, advanced business leaders’ series. Continue reading…

Prospecting: Like Hunting for Werewolves

Prospecting can sometimes feel like hunting for werewolves, particularly if there is no full moon. And what better time to talk about werewolves than at Halloween, right?

Yes, prospecting can be a scary, time consuming and frustrating process. There are lots of ghouls, goblins and things that go bump in the night out there that can derail your efforts to secure new business and achieve your revenue goals. If you don’t have a solid game plan to reach your intended targets, you can spend a lot of time, energy and resources chasing your tail, with little or no return on investment (ROI).

Werewolf Marketing

So, what is the best way to maximize the return on your prospecting investment, and avoid getting caught in the jaws of the prospecting beast? Continue reading…

Six Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change

Let’s be honest, we probably require a lot more than six ways to overcome our resistance to change in order to cover the waterfront. Each of us talks about wanting to change the world. However, in reality our greatest challenge lies in changing ourselves.

One of mankind’s greatest contradictions is that the majority of us are seeking changes in our lives, both professionally and personally. Yet, we fiercely resist change when it does occur. The first step to overcome resistance to change is to change our perspective.

Resistance to Change

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Continue reading…

No Secret Potion, Magic Beans or Fairy Dust

There is no secret potion, magic beans or fairy dust required to meet your 2014 goals.

Yes, it is getting close to that time of the year again – the dreaded fourth quarter. A time when many business owners review their financials and breathe a sigh of relief, or go into full-blown panic mode because the results are not there.

So, how is the end-of-year stacking up for your business? Are you feeling good about all you and your team have accomplished so far this year, or are you scrambling for a quick fix to try and salvage the final quarter?

If you are searching for a secret potion, magic beans or fairy dust to supernaturally improve things, then please stop! Review the May 13th and May 28th blog articles I posted titled, It’s Time to “Ante Up”! and Who Wants Customers For Life? You will find some great tips to help improve your top- and bottom-line results.

Magic Potion2

Next, if you are truly committed to building a profitable, scalable and sustainable business for the long haul, then invest more time, energy and resources into the following areas: Continue reading…

Building Your Sales Message

What would you say to a prospective buyer if you only had 30 seconds to make an interest creating remark to get that all important first meeting?

Well guess what … this is about all the time you have to make a positive first impression that will hopefully lead to future sales. In most networking and social interactions, 30 seconds or less is the standard to grab their attention. You see, we humans have rather short attention spans and are easily distracted.

Building Your Sales Message

So, what’s the secret to capturing a prospective buyer’s attention in a crowded room or a crowded marketplace bombarded by literally thousands of daily sales messages? Continue reading…

Make the Most of Yourself

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether it’s your business, health or life, the ultimate goal is to make the most of yourself. Making the most of yourself begins with good health – body, mind and spirit. For this article, rather than talk about business, leadership and related topics, let’s shift the focus to ways to improve your health so you can be the BEST YOU.

The steps to better physical health are not rocket science. The formula is simple –20140816_111324 healthy diet, eat smaller portions, exercise regularly, sleep 7- 8 hours a night, drink lots of water, and take it easy on the desserts and adult beverages. However, committing to and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are the biggest obstacles for the vast majority of us.

Let me start with a disclaimer: I’m not a personal trainer, fitness guru, dietician or nutritionist. I’m a business and leadership coach who has become more attuned to my health and fitness levels as I’ve grown older (I’ll be 66 years young in October). From my own experience, I want to share some exercise and diet tips, particularly with all the “seniors” out there who want to continue to get better with age.

“If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?” – Nancy Carson

As we get older, stuff happens. Our metabolism slows, we lose strength and muscle mass, the body starts to breakdown, and it becomes harder to maintain the activity and fitness levels we enjoyed in our 20’s. But that doesn’t mean we should just “veg-out”. Far too many adults (and children) in this country are overweight and out of shape due of poor diet, lack of exercise and lifestyles issues. It’s a $270 billion problem and a growing (no pun intended) human tragedy.

You don’t have to starve yourself or be a gym rat to get healthy, lose weight and stay in shape. All it takes is a little planning and intestinal fortitude on your part. Ready to get going? Here is an easy to follow workout program I designed for myself early this year to give you some ideas to get started and stay active. Continue reading…

Life is Like a Jukebox …

JukeboxLife is like a jukebox … let the music play on. And so it goes. Sadly, too often we don’t hear it, or it’s just background noise, because we are so ‘busy being busy’ with our daily routines.

It is not until we are awakened from our sleep walking by one of those life-altering defining moments (i.e. birth, death, illness, marriage, divorce, job change or loss, buying or selling a home, relocating, etc.) that we tune in to life and the world around us. It’s only then that we start to pay attention and hear the music loud and clear. Sound familiar?

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”

Given what my wife has been through these past 3+ months in battling cancer for the 2nd time, after being cancer-free for the past ten years, I’m not sure I subscribe to this notion any longer. Stuff happens, both good and bad, daily as life’s music plays in the background. And in this fast-paced world today, I’m starting to believe that life is a 50%/50% proposition. Continue reading…

Customer Experience: It’s a Journey

The customer experience truly is a journey. If your goal is to build customer relationships for life, then there are some logical steps to take to move those relationships forward in a positive way.

In the previous two articles we addressed ways to dramatically improve financial performance without major investments, and the importance of retaining profitable customers for life. Now let’s discuss how to establish those lifetime customer relationships.

Customer Experience

The life-cycle of any great business relationship begins with the initial contact and progresses forward from that point. However, the experience doesn’t have to be overly complex. At the end of the day we all want the same thing when it comes to the customer experience. Each of us wants to feel important.

How do we enrich the customer experience, and begin to establish those lifetime business relationships?

Continue reading…

Who Wants Customers For Life?

Más ventas y beneficios. Mehr Umsatz und Gewinn. Plures venditiones et expletia. Yes, in any language “more sales and profits” are the magic elixirs for a business. However, one of the most overlooked and misunderstood benchmarks for business success is the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a Customer.

In a May 2014 blog article I provided a number of ways to help business owners improve their revenue and profit projections with minimal additional cash outlay. In this article, we will focus on the importance of retaining profitable customers for life.

Who wants customers for life?

The short answer is … every business owner who wants to remain in business for the long haul. The chart below illustrates why retaining 100% of those profitable customers should be a top priority for any growth business.

Profitable Customers

Profitable Customers

When you look at the landscape of the majority of businesses, a limited number of key customers often dominate the profits achieved. In a typical business situation 20% of the customers’ can account for as much as 75% – 80% of the profits. This principle is called Pareto’s Law. Continue reading…