Category Archives: Relationship

It’s Time To Build An Ark

“Predicting Rain Doesn’t Count. Building Arks Does”

-Warren Buffett

Buffett’s quote applies to life as well as to business. He is referring to preparing for adversity, hiccups in business and in life that can take us out if we’re not prepared.

Often we only begin to build the ark after the rains come. This is not the best plan. With some reflection, you can discern what backups you need in preparation for what might happen to seriously stop your business or prevent it from performing at an optimum level. I am not talking about the major disasters either. I think it’s better to have backups for the small daily details of your how you effectively run your business.

If you think about what you do in your business daily, and what props you use to perform even the smallest tasks, you will begin to see areas where having backups is vital to be open for the day. Simple things like, telephone lines, internet connectivity, keys to open the door. Yes, simple things like that. Nothing is more frustrating than turning on your computer and the line is dead or picking up the phone and line is hissing. Then what do you do? Do you have a backup plan?

Here are some suggestions about what I have and use. This list is designed as a way to prompt you to think of what is necessary for you to run your business.

Keys hidden in top secret places in case I lose my key.
Two land lines, cellular lines and 3 different internet connections.
I know business people in different areas of the region who will let me use their internet and telephones, if mine go down.
Two different independent VPN networks.
Google voice mail and land line voice mail
Two independent printers
Passwords I frequently use in a paper list format in two locations.

This is just the short list of ways I have to “build the ark”. I am sure that you could add to this just by reading through it.

The most important back up is to have relationships with people who you know you can call or go to for support if a system goes down. We don’t always think of people who we can count on to be there for us if we are in trouble. It is important to build the relationships before you urgently need them. For instance, have you built a professional team of people including a lawyer, a business coach, banker, accountant and computer technician? If not, please do that now. That team will be there for you when and if you have an urgent challenge.

Please use this blog as stimulus for building your own “ark”. You will be very happy you did—even if you never need it.

How To Make Lemonade Out Of A Sour Lemon – A Business Lesson

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The disaster began with a telephone call. The caller told my client that the primary insurance product my client sells, was not paying the caller’s claims. He went on to say that the insurance company was being black balled by a major medical service provider. When he asked the caller, “Why?” all he got was, “I really don’t know.”

My client was devastated. Almost immediately, several users of the service started canceling their memberships. He was presiding over a train wreck. And with each cancellation call, he was losing money. He did what he knew to do—he started writing emails to the insurance company to see what happened. They did not respond. He then began a chaotic downward spiral of useless activity. He started looking for a new product sell. Then, finally, he contacted me.

After listening to what happened in detail, I suggested that his first step was to step back. There was something about this scenario that didn’t make sense to me. It was all too sudden. What I suggested that he do is to check out the current ratings of the product’s performance on the internet. And, talk to someone who could make a difference at the company to see from their point of view what happened to make the end user blackball the service. His reply was that he did email them. I repeated what I said, talk to a decision maker at the company. Stay on the telephone line until you reach a decision maker. Do not leave a message; stay on the line.

My client did what I asked him to do. He talked to a decision maker at the company. The man was aware of the problem; however he did not know that his company was being blackballed by the user. My client’s action caused a turnaround in the company. The decision maker could see that he needed to take immediate action in order to resolve the end users complaints.

There is not yet a conclusion. However, there will be a change in the relationship between the two companies. It was caused by my client. He was willing to take a stand for his product, and he had the courage to demand that attention be paid to the problem.

So what’s in this for you? You have the right to stand for what you believe in. When something is not right, you have the right to bring attention to the problem and ask that it be fixed. This is how good business practices happen.

When NOT To Use Email

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Think about this the next time you send out an email: there are 294 billion messages per day, which means more than 2.8 million emails are sent every second, and some 90 trillion emails are sent per year. Around 90% of these millions and trillions of message are but spam and viruses. The genuine emails are sent by around 1.9 billion users. (Source: Radicati Group)

And yet, it only takes 1 email to ruin your day or week. One email that shouldn’t have been sent. One email that was misread or misinterpreted can ruin a relationship or keep you up at night worrying about what you said or did not say in the email.

I know I don’t have to preach to you about being appropriate when you write an email. You are professional and smart, and caring about your relationships. And yet as a coach I frequently hear about a devastating aftermath of the one sent or received email that has ruined your business day and your relationship with someone you work with or work for. I think it’s time to stop the email torture.

What I suggest to you is that you think about how you are using email and what you want to accomplish with it. Email is tremendously useful in setting appointments, exchanging information, photos, and commenting on ongoing projects. It allows for rapid information giving and receiving. It allows us to go around the world in a few seconds. What it isn’t useful for is handling sensitive and/or important topics that require your presence. By presence I am talking about you listening and exchanging ideas with another human being.

If you have something sensitive to say, give people the respect they deserve by either meeting with them or by calling them on the telephone. When you talk to someone in person there is something about being present, and even on the telephone, that can soothe hurt feelings and also give both parties an opportunity to work with each other instead of against each other.

–Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net