Business

Archived Posts from this Category

June 3, 2007

Mastermind Group

Posted by Joe Lee under Business, Inspiration
1 Comment 

Finally, I am involve in a mastermind group. After 2 years of searching for the right people to form the group, the right people appear.

I wouldn’t say I found them, rather they found me. Thank you Dennis and KL to want to form this mastermind group. I have a feeling that we are going to create very strong bonding among us.

This group exist not to support each other in business alone, but any personal stuffs or life challenges, we may even go down to darkest secret, things that our wives won’t know, how not to have strong bonding. Does it sound scary now?

I can really foresee the growth in this group in terms of our friendship, and the level that we are playing at. We want to support each other and at the same time ask more of each other. Furthermore if there is a need to call it or screw one another to get any member to grow, we’ll do it.

I am looking forward to our first meeting on Wed. This first meeting is not in a serious mode, but towards setting the context for the group.

I am visualizing how my life will change with the support of this group. I am feeling great right now with the birth of this mastermind group, and feeling excited for our Wed meeting.

 

May 23, 2007

Awesome Entrepreneurship Training

Posted by Joe Lee under Business, Personal
[2] Comments 

Past two days, I’m conducting Spirit of Enterprise Program, our core program for PRSS.

A total of 44 students in the class, with very good facilitators supporting this program. Without the facilitators, this program won’t be possible. Thank you Vasu, Kok Leong, Byron, Lynn, Yiming for being there.

This is one of the best program that I’ve done. Students were participative in all games, activities and debrief. I really enjoyed training this group of students very much. Thank you for allowing me to play a small part in your growing up.

Few things happened that touched me.

Firstly, when the whole team was down for lunch in their school canteen on the second day, some students greeted us when they saw us. That moment, I knew we had made an impression on them on the first day.

Secondly, one of the group (the all girls group) started to chat with me casually. They even greeted Jean very loudly in the class before the program starts. I knew bonding has been created and I am happy with that. Creating bonding with them, isn’t that all we want?

Thirdly, when I am done with my closing at the end of the program, the students gave a big round of applause. I felt appreciated, and it also means they enjoyed the program.

Fourth, some left comments like, “This program should be held for more days”, “Joe engaged me with his presentation style, unlike some other trainers who bored me”, “The facilitators are fantastic. They are able to relate their experiences to us”, “The lessons in this program can be applied to school and my life.”

I felt so much joy in doing this training. Thank you Mr Albert Neo for inviting us and arranging the venue, students and all the logistical support. Thank you for Seri for being a helpful and smiley librarian. Thank you for the students in PRSS, you gave me a wonderful experience.

Thank you facilitators:

Kok Leong: You are a darn good facilitator. Relating your experiences to the students, giving them a different perspective. You are also a freaking good upseller. Upsell and upsell and upsell. You added another dimension to the games.

Yiming: Awesome music person and timer. Always present in your task, never ever made a blunder. Tough negotiator in the game, I had fun seeing you negotiating as well.

Byron: Help us for many times, you know what is expected. Thank you for guiding the new facilitators. Your facilitating skill has definitely made a great leap forward.

Vasu: What can I say? With you around, there are laughter. You brought your experiences in business into your group. I will never be worried about you taking a group of students.

Lynn: You are everywhere. Always in present , ready to jump into any task given. Your presence always gave me a sense of support and encourage.

Jean: As always the most hardworking one, packing all the stuff on your own. Preparing all the logistics, ensuring the program runs smoothly.

Thank you so much everyone for allowing me to grow.

 

May 18, 2007

Making A Decision

Posted by Joe Lee under Business
1 Comment 

In my business, there is a decision I got to make, a major one. There is an option now to shift the business direction. Just like any businesses, changes is inevitable for the good of the business.

Do I want to remain in my comfort or make that shift to challenge myself into something bigger? I reckon that shift will require lot of energy on my part, I will definitely gain something out of it.

A few options that I am considering.

1. A shift of target market. Moving away from the school market to a bigger market. This will also means I will need more resources. How do I get those resources?

2. A shift of core product. Changing our core product to what the market wants. That seems to be the way, but it also means I am competing in price.

3. A shift of location. Get out of my country. The market here is small as of now. I will need partners to venture overseas.

A change is definite. Changing to what is the question.

 

May 14, 2007

Adding value

Posted by Joe Lee under Business, Creating wealth
No Comments 

I am constantly engaged in training either for kids, youth or adults. At the same time, I am taking care of my businesses. At times, I faced a decision to say “no” to some trainings or meetings.

Some people do not understand why do I turn down some meetings or trainings. Actually the training fee is secondary, the main reason is how many people are benefiting.

I got to use my time wisely, as time wasted, it will not come back. If I lost money, I can earn it back, if I lost time, I lost it forever.

I must justify how many people will benefit with the same amount of time. Let’s say, I have a training engagement for 5 kids, most likely I will turn it down.

With the same amount of time, I can write an article or book that could add value to thousand of people.

This goes to those unfruitful meetings as well. Some of you may think that if I do not attend meetings, how would I know those meetings are unfruitful.

Well, after attended so many meetings, I developed a sense which I know some meetings won’t be going anywhere.

I would love to add value to as many people as possible in the same amount of time. One of the way is to build or own a website. A website is always there adding value to thousand of readers. You invest the same amount of time, but you are able to add so much value.

I am using Sitesell to build my internet business. Even if you don’t use this service, there are tons of information that you can gain just by reading the website.

Internet is a good leverage to add value to as many people as possible. You should not ignore the power of internet.

 

May 7, 2007

Bookkeeping for small business

Posted by Joe Lee under Business
No Comments 

Running a business can be a tedious work especially if you are new to it. From sales to marketing, to human management, budgeting and cash flow; you can be overwhelm by all the work.

One of my weaknesses in business is bookkeeping. Dealing with numbers, tallying the sales receipt and invoice has never been my strength.

Of course, for my case, I got a partner who is good in all these stuff who is a very responsible and capable partner in dealing with the numbers.

If you do not have any partner to do that for you, the internet has a vast amount of resource on that. One of that I saw, small business bookkeeping offers cheap and effective bookkeeping software and services for your small business.

They also offer program for payroll.

 

May 7, 2007

A good two hours

Posted by Joe Lee under Business, Internet
[2] Comments 

Taking my break from a non-stop two hours of work. Feel great about it. The last two hours was Forum marketing all the way.

Earning income from the internet is a new wave in this century. It’s very true that anyone can earn a good income from internet marketing, but some may misunderstood it for easy money.

Getting good income from internet marketing requires effort, time, determination and commitment. You got to sacrifice something to get something.

One of the marketing methods I practiced is forum marketing. I invest about three mornings every week to contribute in niche forums.

Contribution to forums allows you to put signature in your post. In your signature, you can place your website link which allow others to click on them, thus driving traffic to your site.

Check the terms and conditions in each forums; not all forums allow signature. Some only allow signature when you contributed a certain number of post.

Be in the forum to contribute, do not spam. You will just lose credibility if you do that. Be there to genuinely add value to others, you’ll be surprise how much traffic you get from there.

Whether you own a blog or a full website, you can adopt the forum marketing.

 

May 5, 2007

Screwed up admin

Posted by Joe Lee under Business
[2] Comments 

Been helping this company to train their kids on learning abilities for four months. I was pissed so many times by the admin support this company has been giving.

Logistics out of stock, haven’t print, lack of admin person. For goodness, stop making all these excuses. You are running a business, there is no room for excuses.

I feel shit when a new student came in, and I can’t give her a full set of workbook. You want to grow your business, clean up your system first.

There’s no trainer outside who collect money from parents. What kind of system is this? Getting trainers to collect money. In my years as a trainer, I have never been ask to collect money.

You may be growing now, but your crappy system will bite you when the time is ripe.

Clean up your freaking untidy cupboard. I took ten minutes to find a worksheet. You mentioned you have a system in the cupboard. My foot! All those are useless things that does not help trainers with their effectiveness.

 

April 24, 2007

Speakers’ website

Posted by Joe Lee under Business
No Comments 

As a speaker and trainer myself, I am always looking out for opportunities to learn from other speakers. That’s the way I grow all these years when I became an entrepreneur, trainer, speaker.

However to find good speakers to learn from is not easy. There are many who claim to be speakers, or high profile position in Toastmaster. But honestly speaking, not all who claims they are good are that good.

I was invited to sit in for a workshop. The trainer claims to be somebody in Toastmaster. Holy cow, he couldn’t control the class, unable to enrol them and catch their attention.

There is a website where I find many motivational speakers. I can read their profile in there to understand them better.

It’s actually a site to find speakers for any of your events. And they classified to different categories according to price charged. It’s easy to find the suitable speaker within your budget.

You can find many speakers in there including Anthony Robbin, Jack Canfield etc.

You may also want to join the network of speakers by joining the site. The terms of joining is stated in the website.

This site is a great resource for speakers and those looking for speakers.

*This is a sponsored post.

 

April 18, 2007

Giving more than what you are paid for

Posted by Joe Lee under Business
No Comments 

Take care of your clients’ interest, giving more than what you are paid for, in return, they will take care of you. We have heard this so much but how many business owners actually practice it.

Most business owners measure their giving by the amount that they are being paid. This make sense. Why give more than you should? The clients pay this kind of price, they should receive the same value of goods or services.

In pure monetary terms, that make sense. So do you lose anything by giving extra?

Two examples in that happened in my business.

1. Happened 1 month ago. In the agreement with a school, it was stated that we are giving 9 training sessions. But we realize it was not enough as we want to deliver more to the kids. We extended 2 extra sessions for them with no extra cost.

Result: The teacher in charge was extremely satisfied with our company. She got us back to be the mentors of their kids.

2. Happened yesterday. I was doing a sales presentation. After the whole presentation, the teacher in charge and myself is discussing some administration procedure.

I asked if there is anything I can help to reduce his administration workload. That simple question turn his whole perception about us. He already has good impression about us, because we did the same training for them last year. He took over the training for entrepreneurship this year. The last teacher said some good things about us.

And that question elevate our image in his mind. He was taken by surprise on that question. He mentioned that it was very kind of us to take note of the teacher’s workload.

Result: He wants to have long term relationship. He wants to have us back again for the next training project.

In my business, I will practice what I learn from all the masters. Add values to my clients. Always asked how can I add more value to them. I felt that’s me, totally in congruent with my value.

 

April 10, 2007

Good news

Posted by Joe Lee under Business, Personal
No Comments 

Actionpreneur was conducting an Innovation workshop for St. Anthony Primary School. If you have been following my blog, you will know what I am referring to. If not, visit Innovation workshop to find out more.

Anyhow, I received an email from the teacher in charge. In my opinion, she’s a passionate teacher, interested in holistic growth for the kids.

They are sending 3 out of the 5 projects that the kids developed to competition. It’s a huge boost to the trainers’ effort and to the company.

She requested me to continue mentoring the kids who are involved in the competition. Of course I obliged. How can I reject this kind of invitation?

One of the trainers is so charged up that she is offering to mentor her group without pay. I am bless to have such passionate trainers.

Now the whole project is alive again. We got our feet back to the school.

What did we do to get this good news?

We gave more than what we were paid for. We offered to have additional training sessions without extra cost to our client. Our objective is to add value to the kids, making sure they meet their objective.

Under promise and over deliver. All extras sessions are not included in our contract. However, we felt we should give as long as there is a need. Giving them as much as we can. There is no holding back.

 

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