Lawrence Fine

Do you give much thought to what your industry will look like in the future?

If you were the owner of a small book store 15 years ago, you might not even recognize your industy these days with the emergence of Amazon.com and the large book stores. Many small book stores have gone out of business but the ones who were prepared are still doing well.

If you were the owner of a “record store” 25 years ago, your industry has changed numerous times since then. If you planned on keeping the same business model as you had back then….well you probably are out of business. However, despite the emergence of new technologies and of digital stores such as iTunes, there still are some successful stores selling, records, tapes, cd’s etc. However, they are using a completely different business model then they did back then.

Most, although not all, industries change on a regular basis. Those people who plan for this type of change are usually the ones who are successful.

What will your industry look like in the future?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Frequently we make decisions based on how it will affect things currently. However, we have to understand that decisions we make now affect things right now but they also affect things in an hour, a day, a month, a year and a decade from now.

Obviously, I’m not talking about small decisions such as what flavor ice cream you should purchase. However, small things can affect things long term as well.

For example, getting a tattoo might seem like a small decision but it’s one that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The clothes you wear for a job interview can affect whether you get the job which might ultimately affect many other things long term.

When you make decisions, don’t always look short term, take into consideration the mid term and long term as well and be prepared to accept the long term consequences that come from these decisions.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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When looking to expand a business, we try to figure out ways to find new clients/customers or whatever they are called in your field. Too often, when doing this, we think about how we can work independently to find new contacts or to find ways to “steal” contacts from other organizations.

An alternative to trying to steal contacts from other organizations is to try to work WITH other organizations to increase each others businesses.

An example of this would be a web design firm. Rather than simply going out and marketing to potential new clients, the web design firm might partner with some advertising agencies. By doing this, if the advertising agency needs web sites done for their clients, they would send the business to the web design firm (after marking up the price somewhat) and if the web design firm has clients with advertising needs, they would send them to the advertising agency (again with a bit of a mark up).

A Realtor might partner with some general contractors (the GC might know when people are fixing their house to put it on the market and the Realtor might know people who need their house fixed up after purchasing or before selling).

A restaurant might partner with conference centers. Even if the conference center has it’s own kitchen and catering staff, the restaurant might be able to offer something the caterers aren’t able to offer (different style, higher end etc)

Not only does this possibly open your organization to new opportunities, it also might help “close the deal” on people who aren’t sure. A simple example is the person who was debating about coming to West Virginia in late June for 5 days of training. They saw a lot of pros and cons but the biggest con was they were planning a family vacation in that general time period and wasn’t sure how to get around that. The solution was to have their family stay at a clients hotel, show them things they can do in the area and then make arrangements for them at a white water rafting to spend a few days rafting, hiking, mountain climbing etc. It turns into a win/win/win situation because the person gets the training they need, the hotel gets additional business, the rafting company gets business they never would have had and my client signs the contract.

Look to form alliances whenever possible as it expands your client pool, adds additional marketing resources and also allows you to bounce ideas off of each other.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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There are many organizations downsizing, companies are cutting back, small businesses are struggling.

I hear a lot of people talk about the negatives but at some point, people need to step up and instead of dwelling on negatives, be willing to do what is needed to succeed.

The question that needs to be asked is “what is beneath you?”

If you have been working in a white collar professional position, are you willing to do blue collar work?

Even if you think babysitting is a job for a teenager, are you willing to do it to pay the bills?

If you have been working for yourself, are you willing to get a job working for someone else in order to keep your house?

The real question is, at what point are you able to get beyond what you believe you are entitled to and do what is needed to survive?

No matter how bad you think things might be, there are opportunities for people to work or opportunities for people to survive however, it just comes down to what are you willing to do (I’m not suggesting anything illegal or immoral)

Sometimes the willingness to check your ego at the door will allow you to accomplish great things

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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For years, the process an organization took when creating a new product or service was to do the research and development and then bring the marketing people in to figure out how to sell this product or service.

These days, if you follow this process you will most likely fail.

Marketing must be involved from the very beginning because not only do they have to figure out how to sell the product or service, based on their market research, they will most likely be involved in the creation of the product as well.

As an example, if you want to build a spec house to sell, if you build the house and then contact a Realtor to sell the house, there is a real good chance the house will sit on the market for a long time. On the other hand, if the Realtor is involved from the start, they would be able to tell you what type houses are selling, the best size, location etc. If you take this approach, you will most likely get the house sold quicker and more profitably than using the old method.

Another example would be the author who writes a new book. A large portion of books written never go to print because the author can’t find a publisher who is interested in the book. An equally large portion of books that go to print sell very few books because the author has written the book with the idea of “if I write it they will buy it” or “the publisher will do the marketing so I don’t have to worry about it”. Unless the author is a big name, if they are looking to do this as a for profit venture, they must figure out the target market and how to market to them before and during the writing stage.

The attorney going out to start his own practice would need to figure out how they are going to market themselves before they open up their practice.

The school starting a new field of study would need to figure out both how to market to get the students and also how they will help “sell” the students when they graduate.

Whether you are a big organization or a one person operation, make sure the marketing part is taken into consideration from the very start and things will go much smoother for you.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s amazing what can be done these days with technology.

I have been traveling a lot recently and while on the road, clients can still call me on my regular phone (it forwards to my cell), email me and I receive it right away (and can reply right away), text me, or even instant message me. Worse case scenario, I can turn my laptop on and with the use of an aircard, have full internet access as well.

This gives me the freedom to not be at my desk all the time yet still be available when needed.

On the other hand, this also means that people can call, email, text or IM me any time, day or night.

Today’s technology is wonderful in that it gives us a lot more freedom however, it’s important to keep in mind, that if we aren’t careful, it also can take our freedom away from us.

It’s nice to be accessible when needed but it’s also nice to be unavailable at other times. Keep in mind, it’s your choice.

Technology is wonderful, just not all the time!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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I received an email from a friend with an interesting quote regarding the economy. They copied from someones Twitter posting and that most likely was copied from somewhere else so I’m not sure who said it originally but the quote was:

“WINNERS in every recession are those with CASH and COURAGE: cash to buy up real bargains and courage to make fast decisions.”

All I seem to hear are negatives regarding today’s economy. People losing jobs (which is both unfortunate and true), businesses going under (which is both unfortunate and true), houses being foreclosed upon etc.

However, for those with a little bit of money and a lot of courage, this can be a great time to be in business. Prices are down, opportunities are up and with cash and courage great things can happen.

A simple example is the local restaurant who realized they were doing more business in their lounge area than in the dining area. Rather than complaining about it, they did some minor renovations, expanded the seating in their lounge area and have increased business. It took a little bit of cash to do the renovations, a lot of courage to make changes when most others are maintaining the status quo and good things happen.

The opportunities are out there for those with a bit of cash and courage. It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say “I think I’m going to wait this out” but the winners are the ones who are being proactive.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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One of the most important things you can do each day, shortly after you wake up and shortly before you to go to bed is to stop and relax.

Too often we start our day thinking of everything we need to get done, thinking of what we should have done yesterday etc. Then we have a stressful day and end up going to sleep with our minds going a million miles a minute.

Take a few moments, stop and relax. Some people might call it meditation, some might practice yoga and some might call it visualization.

Just a few seconds of relaxation can make a world of difference in your life

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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How much time and energy do you waste on the emotional parts of issues even though you know it wont do you a bit of good?

Do you beat yourself up over things out of your control or things that have happened in the past?

Do you spend so much time worrying about things when instead of worrying, your time could be used more effectively actually doing something about it?

If you could emotionally remove yourself from certain situations, would you be more effective?

Now for the big question, would you want to be able to remove yourself emotionally from many situations?

Just something to think about

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s important to understand how to price a product or service because if you don’t, you might make a lot of sales but lose money on every sale.

For example, if product A costs $10 to produce, some might think selling for anything more than $10 will result in a profit. However, there are other costs that have to be taken into consideration.

Is the amount of research that was done to create the product factored into the cost? If it cost $100,000 in R and D to create this product, those costs must be factored into the actual cost of production
Is the amount of marketing being factored into the costs? This is not only direct advertising costs but also the time spent designing the campaigns.
Are the administrative costs being factored into the cost? This could be everything from order takers, managers, secretaries, office space, supplies etc.
Is the opportunity cost being factored into the cost? This would be the lost opportunities because you devoted your resources (money, time etc) to one project and not another. For example, if you can sell this $10 product for $12, you might see it as a profit of $2 but those same resources might have been able to bring in $20 doing something different. So, while some might see this as a profit of $2, others might see it as a loss of $8

While there are other factors to take into consideration these four factors are a good place to start.

A manager of a retail store once jokingly told me that they lost money on every sale but made it up in volume. I think he was kidding…but the chain is out of business.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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