Where are the books for the Rest of Us?

Image by k-ideas via Flickr

Where Are The Books For The Rest Of Us?

I was at a Chapters last night, killing time and I wandered over to the business section, as I typically do, to check out the new titles.

While leafing through one or two that caught my eye, I got hit by one of those Blinding Flash of the Obvious that sometimes occur to me.

These books are written by CEO’s of large businesses and multinational corporations. Where are the books for the the heart and soul of business – the small business owner. In other words the rest of us?!?! When was the last time Warren Buffet had to go cold calling or Bill Gates go knocking door to door to get clients? These guys haven’t had to get in the trenches of the business for decades. The average small business owner has to figure all this out as well as clean the washroom on a Friday night. Can you see Jack Welch cleaning the toilets at GE? Not on your life.

All of the top sellers, all of the eye-catching ones, all the Indigo MBA picks, Heather's Picks, etc, etc, are written by the big boys and most people don’t realize how these books are all geared to people who work for large companies that rake in millions, if not billions, a year. There are all kinds of books about Warren Buffett, & exactly 0 books about that small coffee shop down the street that everyone in the neighborhood prefers or the local auto repair shop or that unique boutique store in your favourite trending shopping area.


The weird thing is-- Buffett already has his money. (And more power to him.) But it's those small coffee shops that drive our economy with a large percentage of poeple working for small as opposed to big business.

As I looked further at least 99% of these books are not applicable to the small business owner. If he took one of these books and attempted to incorporate the ideas in these books they probably wouldn’t work.

That is the best thing about having an ActionCOACH business coach. They see your business, & what it needs. They do not compare you to Microsoft or Amazon & expect the same results from you. Bigger is not always better: just ask Toyota. I know people at these large companies & they are always telling me horror stories about their inability to make good decisions, because the board is always reading the business bestsellers about life at Amazon or RIM or GE, & all their successes, &why can't we have that?

Simple answer: because They are not GE! There's no harm in aiming big. At ActionCOACH we train our coaches closely on this point: coach to the client's needs, not some vague idea. This is why we look for people with small business experience who want to be coaches.

I Pad and Your Business- Need vs Want

The announcement of new technology is great but when you are thinking of applying it to your business you have to be very careful about balancing the needs vs the wants.

Does your business need to have this? Or do you just want it because you think it will put you ahead of the competition?

The IPAD is very interesting, but it certainly won’t solve any problems for you, especially if you don’t have any solid systems in place. It’s not going to help you develop a team, or be a place to store vital information, (its memory is about that of an IPod) so when you think about it do you need to spend your profits on something that might not be beneficial to you or your business?

At ActionCoach, I have the opportunity to work one on one with a lot of businesses who are right now wondering about implementing new technology into their workplace. If you would like some great answers to these types of questions visit my website at www.actioncoachcanada.info and I’d be happy to help you!

Hiring an Untrained person for your business

So, is there value in hiring an untrained person to work in your business? Yes there sure is. But there is no value in keeping an untrained person on your team- that will cost you a lot of money.
Yes training takes time, but in the long run you are going to end up with a valuable team member, one that might actually want to stay on and help run your company.
So how do you train someone?
Well, there are various types of training courses you could consider, and the type of training you give depends on what type of business you run- for instance- you could offer- Technical training, Communication or Supervisory skills training, or Conflict resolution or Computer skills training. Then you have Financial and Management training right down to the basics of Telephone, Sales, First Aid or Emergency training.
The list is really quite endless.
The key to all of this is that you have to know what your options are and invest time in building new people into your business and management system.
Want to know more about teamwork? Visit me at www.actioncoachcanada.info and I'll give you some tips!

Business Coaching Award- second year running!

Hi everyone, and thanks for reading- I won the ML award for the second year running and it was a fantastic feeling! Here I am with Brad Sugars (on the right) receiving the award that recognized that Alberta was the top territory in the Americas. The event was held in Las Vegas and several of my team members were also acknowledged. It was a blast! Thanks to everyone who came to the conference and hung out for the week. 2010 is going to be great!

Tough but Necessary Decisions as a Business Owner

Tough But Necessary Decisions

In a recent survey by the Harris Group, featured in the Financial Post, * 29% of the employers polled said they plan to hire new full time staff this year. This is good news.

When you're struggling financially as a company, small or large, the temptation, always, is to cut costs through cutting staff. This never works: just ask the airlines.

Even better is the news that 42% of the employers said they plan to get rid of under performing staff, & replace with better people.

This sounds harsh, but businesses have to do this, & really, it's win-win.

Most of the time, these 'non-performers' are in the wrong job. Transfer them to a better fit in your company. Everyone wins when this happens; you'll get better results from a happy employee.

But--in those cases when a transfer won't work, & the employee simply has to leave--that is good in the long run too. If you're not happy with someone's performance, the odds are good that she's not thrilled either. A layoff, or even a firing, is the best way to go.

Sounds harsh, I know. But 99% of the time that person is better off. Not at first, I realise. But ALL of the people I know who have been laid off or fired from jobs have ALWAYS found something better; usually it's a case of a better fit. A man I know in Vancouver, who was laid off from a major chain in 2004, now thinks of that day as the best thing that could have happened to his career.

So in 2010, when you're looking at your roster of employees, ask yourself if you're thrilled with their performance. Sometimes they can be coached to do better. (see actioncoachcanada.info for tips) And sometimes a transfer, or a layoff, is the best for anyone.
*http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=2391730

Apathy is killing Canadian Business- How to be a non-apathetic owner

People for the most part think that the government will take care of them, so they don't need to aspire to be entrepreneurs. What has happened to make business owners like this?

Business, by its very nature, is risky. It requires guts & courage.

A lot of people don’t have that kind of guts, & that’s fine. They make excellent workers elsewhere—in government, private/public corporations like Canada Post, blue chip companies that see little change from year, seasonal work, or workers in industries that have perpetual supply problems, because of the lack of qualified workers.

(In fact, a recent survey I commissioned revealed that is a big complaint of many industries. They’d love to hire, but can’t, because the people they are looking for aren’t out there yet.)

But these days, even business owners seem to be taking it slow. They are apathetic. They wait for gov’t to solve their problems.

To be fair to these businesses, they have every reason to expect help. When large companies fail, & fail big, the taxpayer, every time, is forced to help them. No gov’t can risk losing that many votes. Nor can they really let the large banks collapse.

So smaller businesses see this & expect help. They probably won’t get it, unless they represent a lot of votes. Most business owners don’t. How can I be a non-apathetic owner?

1)      Anticipate. Look for trends that are hurting sales. Fix them now if you can.

2)      Call your key customers, or, better, see them in person. Say you hope they are happy, but if not, is there anything you can do to improve service?

3)      Advertise where it does the most good. If your customers don’t read the newspaper, don’t buy space there.

4)      Be the kind of business that replies to every email or call from a cust, no matter how trivial or small. People notice things like that.

5)      Go the proverbial extra mile. Provide the kind of service that people notice. Customers get crappy service all the time; believe me when I say they notice the difference.

6)      Thought about hiring an actioncoach? It’s amazing what a little advice can do, esp. from someone who’s been there.

Is Twitter Any Good? Yes And No. Mostly Yes

The beauty of Twitter is that you meet a million people you wouldn't otherwise.

Here's how to get started: You can start with using search.twitter.com see what people are talking about that relates to your industry. See what they’re linking to and mentioning. This can lead you in the right direction. If you start a dialogue or start to follow someone then you can weigh in on topics and offer your expertise.  You can slowly build your followers using your other social media tools, especially your blog. You can get rich content from followers including links, commentary, and a view on what your group is saying to each other and others.

To be fair, some of what is on Twitter is totally useless- you really don’t need to be told if someone is brushing their teeth or what time they are going to bed; but no form of interaction is 100% valuable. You just need to balance what matters and what doesn’t. According to Business Insider, Twitter is moving towards being able to accurately determine where the tweets will be coming from. With location tracking, the quality of targeted marketing expands exponentially and allows for easier transitions to offline meetings as well.


With Twitter you can send microblogs from the web or your cellphone through text messaging. People can follow their updates, and people can discover their Twitter account through keyword searches on Twitter.

Twitter DON'Ts: There are several things you should avoid doing on Twitter because it is generally frowned upon by the community:

1. exploiting new client news

2. straight out traditional pitching

3. sending random things specifically to people or journalists you don’t know

Remember that even if you want to promote your business you don’t want to be a Twitter spammer just pushing your own stuff. Show that you can be part of the community.