Is This New Zealand’s Worst Company?

Need your car serviced?  Don’t go to Just Autos in Takanini, aka Auckland Mobile Mechanics 24/7, unless you are feeling brave. The only positive thing to come from my experience with Just Autos was a great blog topic of how NOT to run a company. I recently purchased a second hand Mazda RX8 on the…

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Don’t Forget To Celebrate Your Victories

Being the owner of a small business is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. As owners, you have no one to complain to, and you are constantly solving problems, often other people’s problems. It’s easy to get discouraged and frustrated with a sale you loose to a low-ball offer, mounting paperwork and escalating…

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What’s Your Envelope Plan for 2014?

So, it’s November already.  The year is fast drawing to a close and 2014 is just around the corner.  Scary, but also a chance for a fresh start and to really achieve better results than last year.  So what are you going to do different in 2014 that will actually make a change in your…

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Sun Tzu’s Best Strategy for War

I am being lazy this week and presenting a blog article by a fellow contractors coach, Joseph Hughes of Contractor Dynamics. I really like a lot of what this guy has to suggest for contractors as he shares many of the same ideals and ideas that I do, particularly in the marketing area.  Although he…

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Wise Sayings of Yoda

I’m not a great moviegoer, but even if you are like me, you must have heard the odd wise saying of the little winkly guy from Star Wars, Yoda.  I was at a client’s office the other day and we agreed on a specific action point that warranted making it into a calendar event, so…

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Maximise Trust to Maximise Sales

Who has put hours of effort into pricing a job only to loose it to someone else that the client says just, “feels better”?  Everyone, right?  This can be even more frustrating if the other guy has put in a higher bid!  Why didn’t you get the job?  Your price was competitive. You do quality…

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Lessons From Team Oracle

I never thought I would really get into the America’s Cup competition this time.  I had consigned it in my mind to “mega rich egos playing with the rules to suit themselves” type of carry-on.  Maybe it’s the fantastic TV coverage or the closer than expected racing at times on these ridiculous boats; but I…

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The Race to the Bottom

It was sad to read in the NZ Herald today that a roading contractor wins an industry award one day and the next day is put into receivership.  What’s up with that!?  How could an obvious industry best practice operator get it so wrong? Also, how could the judges of the awards get it so…

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Everyone Is A Pitch Doctor

Today at a networking breakfast I listened to a humorous, inspirational, structured and relaxed presentation on how to put a pitch together to win business.  It was by a local expert in the game, Hugo Meares from Sparkplug. www.sparkplug.co.nz The presentation itself was a pitch in its own right, as you might expect, but was…

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Goal Setting Does Work

I came away from a client meeting last week with a building company owner really pleased to hear that a new staff performance review system we had introduced had been a great success with the field staff.  There is always a risk of these more “corporate-like” processes being resisted strongly by the guys on site…

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