Focus on Your Liquidity

Are Private Bankers Poor at Describing What They Do or Simply Just Anti-Social by Nature?

2011-11-11T11:20:00.001+11:00

Last night I attended a private reception for Financial Services Professionals (FSP) specifically focused on private bankers, investment bankers, hedge fund managers et al and a few of the companies that service them. As I moved around the room I’d ask ...

Me: “What do you do?”

... to which I received the response either

FSP: “eh ... what do you mean?”

... or they proceeded to recite the entire glossy corporate brochure by heart. Every one was wearing name tags with their name and the company so you knew where they were from and unless you were a complete industry outsider (in which case you wouldn’t be at the reception anyway) you knew what the company did. So I’d ask again,

Me: “Yes, but what do YOU do?”

FSP: “eh ... what do you mean?”

... I remained tight lipped and allowed a pregnant pause to ensue ...

FSP: “eh ... well I’m a XYZ Manager” or “I work in the XYZ department”

Me: “Let me ask it differently; what do ***YOU*** do that adds value to your clients?”

The majority of the responses to this were along the lines of ...

FSP: “What do I what?”

In all fairness there were the occasional good ones, possibly proving the 5% 95% rule.

For now forget the question about value though and go back to the original question, ‘what do you do?’. What I found amazing was that these people all seemed to identify themselves as part of a corporate machine that does ‘something’, as opposed to being able to articulate what it is that they do within that environment that differentiates them as a person, an expert in their field, or a professional who makes a difference.

Remember that this was an industry reception so there was no need to tell peers what their company does ... everyone in the room pretty much knew what each of the companies did. I would have thought it more important to tell your peers what makes you the big swinging dick of your company or your department, blow your own trumpet, beat your own drum, and don’t bore me to tears with your corporate slogans.

Certainly this type of reaction is not exclusive to the financial services industry; I have seen it at other more generic neworking events and receptions. What stood out for me on this occassion was the number of people who seemed firewalled from the reality that they work in a service industry and that their right to survive (at least should) depend(s) upon the value they bring to their clients. Clearly the financial services companies they all work for are not creating a work environment that fosters this understanding; or am I simply over-reacting?

Warmest regards,

Paul

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul J. Lange is a business mentor and business performance coach who helps small to medium enterprise and entrepreneurs to apply big business, enterprise disciplines and solutions to gain a competitive advantage and increase profits.

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Paul is also one of Australia’s most connected management consultants, and leading business strategists, with a passion for helping corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners who are committed to achieving outstanding results.

Paul’s support will help you to develop strategic direction, implement it, execute and make more money. He will have you starting to work on your business, instead of in your business, right from day one; and if you have already started down this path, he will help you to complete the transition to business owner from business manager.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

11 Key Leadership Attributes for Restaurant Managers

2011-08-25T08:01:00.001+10:00

Much of the following can be applied to almost any industry. In this article though I’ll use the restaurant and hospitality industry as an example, as it is one in which the lessons are particularly pertinent.

Your value to your brand as a leader in the restaurant and hospitality industry is derived from your ability to manage various metrics that contribute to excellence in service and profitability of the venue. These metrics include but are not limited to costs for food and labour, and table turnover. Staff engagement and training, and production efficiency also form part of your commercial brief. All of these are areas you are expected to manage and monitor, and improve!

Note above that I have not said you are responsible for managing the staff, but you are responsible for staff engagement and training. Some restaurant managers believe that they are responsible for the day to day management of the personnel; however effective managers know that their brief is to manage processes and things and to lead the people in their charge. The following points offer some important traits of good leadership that every manager who seeks to improve themselves, their people and their venue should master:

1. BE STEADFASTLY COURAGOUS - A leader’s courage is based upon their knowledge of their subject matter, confidence in their abilities, and understanding of their functional role within the venue. You will find that the venue personnel will not tolerate being told what to do by a manager who does not possess self-confidence and courage. Employees are intelligent and will cease to follow such a leader, even work against a weak leader, quite rapidly.

2. ALWAYS MAINTAIN SELF-CONTROL - A restaurant manager must always be in control of his/her actions, especially in pressure filled situations. Without self-control you cannot hope to lead your staff effectively. Good self-control sets a shining example for your personnel and you will find that they will start to emulate you. This is a case of do as I say AND do as I do!

3. BE CONSISTENTLY FAIR & JUST - All employees expect to be treated fairly. If they do not have a sense that their treatment, indeed the treatment of the staff generally, is measured, fair, and just they will not pay you the respect you need to be able to lead through either difficult or good times. Good restaurants will have an operational manual and policy handbook for personnel. The policy handbook provides you with a reference guide that is known to the employees what they may expect when an infraction occurs.

The policy handbook will be helpful in maintaining consistency in respect of the consequences of unacceptable behaviours, and consistency is the key. Also remember that an effective leader must not ever play favourites. At the same time, you will forge relationships that could lead to the perception of favouritism. If the need arises to redress an infraction with someone where the perception of favouritism is likely, be on your guard to also not over react in a kind of affirmative action in an attempt to set an example that you are not playing favourites. If you do you will weaken your powerbase and circle of influence even more .

4. CLEAR AND DECISIVE DECISION MAKING - The restaurant manager who is unable to take decisions and wavers when a decision is required broadcasts to the staff that he or she is not sure of themself. Such a manager will find it challenging to obtain buy-in from his staff. Be clear, be decisive, take a decision and stick with it. You may not always make the correct decision, but you will be respected for your strength of character in taking the decision without hesitation and following through. Staff who smell weakness will quickly lose respect and an indecisive approach will lose you respect very quickly. If your motto is ‘I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure’ then be a follower and don’t aspire to leading.

5. EFFECTIVE PLANNING - You’ve probably heard the famous quote “The failure to plan is planning to fail. “. Although this is attributed to a great many people it is originally from Joe Paterno, a famous American football coach born in 1926. Any leader wishing to succeed in his role of restaurant manager must plan his work, and then work his plan. A restaurant manager who works reactively and predominantly by guesswork (most of the time delusional and calling it instinctively) without practical and definite plans, is comparable to a plane without landing gear. It will land but the result will be everything from bumpy to disastrous and fatal. Every restaurant should use systems that assist and structure the planning process.

6. OVER DELIVER ON EXPECTATIONS - A good leader will always lead by example. People don’t care as much about what you say as they care about what you do and how you go about doing it. A leader must be willing to do more than he demands of his staff if and when required. As a restaurant manager you must you be able to manage staff training on top of being able to step into and perform any of the functions in the restaurant, at least to an adequate level. This is different to some industries where the leader can remain above the operational aspects of the business but in a restaurant or hotel the leader must be able to lead by example and assist when necessary.

7. PLEASANT DEMEANOUR - Being rude and overbearing is not a quality or trait anyone should have at the best of times. As a restaurant manager this type of behaviour will contribute to your failing quite rapidly. Leadership demands respect, both of others and of you. Staff will not respect a leader who does conduct himself in a socially acceptable manner and exhibiting a pleasant personality.

8. BE FIRM BUT BE EMPATHETIC AND UNDERSTANDING - If you wish to be successful as a restaurant manager you must have empathy for your staff. How your personnel perform has a lot to do with the success of the restaurant. A leader must understand his people and their problems; if necessary he/she must also be ready to come to their rescue, for example with a difficult guest. Remember the guest is always right, except on those occasions when they are WRONG. As their leader there will be times when you must step in and defend your staff. A good leader will recognise such occasions.

9. ATTENTION TO DETAIL - The successful leader of a restaurant must pay attention to detail and more to the point have a keen eye for it. In the restaurant and hotel industry, perhaps more than any other, it is important for you (and your staff for that matter) to see the restaurant through the eyes of the guests. You as the leader also need to see the restaurant through the eyes of your staff. Remain vigilant and look for ways you can both improve the guest's experience and make the functions and roles for your staff easier to perform.

10. THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU - ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY - To be successful as a restaurant manager you must assume full responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings of your staff. Do not try to move responsibility or you will very rapidly be deposed as leader either actually or effectively as you will lose the respect of the people working for you. If one of your followers does make a mistake and/or shows himself to be incompetent, as the leader you must consider how you can prevent the situation from happening again. This is of course referring to genuine mistakes and not wilful acts with malicious intent.

11. COOPERATION IS KEY- A good leader is in service of his people. You have probably heard this before but may not be quite sure what to make of it. If you think the concept is rubbish then you are probably not yet ready to lead. A successful restaurant leader understands the principle of cooperation and applies this consistently. He uses cooperation as part of his standard operating procedure and through his example causes his followers do the same willingly.

Do not confuse cooperation with weak command and control. On the contrary, a leader who is a strong commander and in control of his people will have the cooperation of his people without force. A weak leader will only ever gain cooperation begrudgingly.

In Conclusion

As a restaurant manager you should continue to invest in yourself and attend leadership training and leadership development courses. There are many great courses to take including from Dale Carnegie Institute and Franklin Covey as well as a large number of more boutique training programmes offered by exceptional individuals. Look in your city and I am sure you will find them. These course and continued education will prove invaluable to your effectiveness as a leader. If you are serious about developing yourself as a leader, whether to continue in the restaurant and hotel industry or to branch out into other industries, consider also finding yourself a good mentor and/or coach to be a guiding light and to assist you with your career path.

Although the above list is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it, it provides a solid basis on which you can successfully develop your own style of leadership as a restaurant manager that your staff will respect and follow. If you do not have the ability to lead, you will rapidly discover that there is no one following you. As my grandfather used to say, if you are leading but there nobody is following, we call that taking a hike.

I trust this has been valuable.

Paul

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

An Entrepreneurs Insights into Family Office Data Base Trends

2011-08-24T14:08:00.001+10:00

The fast growing and rapidly evolving Family Office space as a separate vertical industry is a phenomenon not to be underestimated. This article is intended to highlight some of the top trends that affect the creation, use, and expansion of Family Office data base resources. Whereas this space was hitherto below the mainstream radar, there are daily more competitors jockeying for position and for the attention of Family Offices so that they might gain access to the very large pools of concentrated wealth that these organisations manage.

Some of the top trending items within the Family Office space include:

Trend #1

Frequently more fund managers from large fund management companies and middle to large investment banks are committing to monthly or annual subscriptions to ensure they regularly receive the latest updates to their Family Office data base resources. Given the amount of money involved for these people and organisations, they clearly have prioritised the need to have the most up-to-date information possible, the instant it is available.

Trend #2

I discussed in a recent article that spamming of any kind is never a good thing, especially not with Family Office lists that you purchase. Clearly that message hasn’t yet filtered down to some hedge funds that are still making the mistake of sending spam, or mass emails, to ultra high net worth (UHNW) wealth management firms. What’s surprising is that they are still not surprised by the low rate of response they receive from their canon full of buckshot campaign. Ultimately this will only serve to hurt (what is left of) their reputation within the industry.

Trend #3

The Family Office database product has almost become a mainstream list product. It’s not quite as mainstream yet as buying a list of people who are in the market for a holiday within 12 months, but if this trend continues it will go down that route. The major difference however will remain quality. There is an increasing number of media companies and individuals who offer Family Office directories for sale on the open market. The volume is at levels never seen before. Certainly, this growth will reflect the number of ultra high net worth (UHNW) families out there but a lot of it is opportunistic and mostly not worth the pixels it is displayed on the screen with. As a result you must perform thorough due diligence before acquiring a Family Office database or list.

Trend #4

The more sophisticated hedge fund managers and private equity fund managers have turned their attention to using the contact details of multiple Family Office lists. They deploy a complex multi-modality marketing method aimed at raising more capital. The basic principle of their methodology is to send out mailings, send emails, place phone calls et al that are all sequenced strategically to maximize the response rate, and over time convert more leads to funds. I have very little doubt that more fund managers will take this up over the next few years and the practice will grow. The irony is that the concept is already outdated, and the reality is that the true innovators and early adopters within that sector of the financial services industry, which targets Family Offices, are already deploying more intelligent multi-modality marketing automation to their processes.

Trend #5

You can still find Family Office databases for less than $1,000; if you look around you may event find a couple that are worth the purchase price, or more. The simple fact is that many Family Office database sellers are increasing their prices, and that is understandable to some degree as these resources do cost a lot to maintain and keep up-to-date year-in and year-out. What can you expect to pay for a Family Office database of reasonable quality? Your budget should start somewhere around $2,000, and ultimately expect to pay anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000 on the top end.

Years ago it would have take the Hubble telescope connected to a super computer to find a lot of detail on the Family Office industry and identify trends or patterns in the way the industry players are interacting with the resources that are available to them. These days it is much simpler. The information is out there if you look in the right places. The question is, with this new knowledge what are you going to do?

By watching trends and changes in specific parts of the investment industry you can discover how to use Family Office databases significantly more effectively. Who knows, as a result perhaps you will be able to fund, or be at least be a part of launching, the next great discovery that serves mankind.

Kind regards

Paul

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

How to Choose the Right Family Office Database

2011-08-22T07:59:00.001+10:00

As I have discussed in other articles there are many different Family Office list resources to choose from. Many are quite worthless, some are very good, and a few are outstanding. I trust the following will provide you with some guidance on how to tell which family office database resources are worth your investment, if you are looking to use them to compliment your efforts to raise capital, or perhaps enhance your marketing activities, within your company.

Here are some basic criteria to watch out for when choosing a Family Office database resource:

Reject web-only resources. If you cannot export to a common spreadsheet format such as Excel or even basic CSV it will cause you a load of additional grief to be able to exploit the data. With web-only resources you lose the ability to upload the data to your customer relationship management (CRM) system. For this you will commonly need XLS(X) or CSV. Also, depending upon how solid the company is that you purchase the service from, if it is web-only you risk losing access to the data altogether in the event the vendor goes belly up without warning, or if you miss a subscription payment you will most likely find your account suspended and your access to the data is denied. For my money, why even risk it? Go with a company that provides the data for download in a common format.

Avoid companies that insist on sending you a CD or a DVD with a code that locks the use of it to one computer. Seriously, where do we find these people? This is so archaic that it should not rate a mention but I have come across a few dinosaurs like this. Information must flow freely, and frequently. CD’s & DVD’s are neither and typically anything that wants to lock use to one system can be a costly technical nightmare when you realise that this is impractical.

Always work with an organisation that displays their team publicly on their website with biographies of all of the team members; or at least the key team members. Also expect to see phone numbers, possibly email addresses, and most certainly a professional looking website. Bottom line, ask yourself whether they look like they are a real business; more specifically do they look like they are a real business that has the skills and ability to develop, maintain and update a Family Office database resource seriously?

Always consider the refund policy of each company you are evaluating. You might not expect it but the terms and conditions of refund can differ dramatically from one vendor to another.

Be quite particular and consider carefully the future update process. How will you ensure the Family Office directory you purchase today is kept up-to-date into the future? Obviously you and your team could update the list internally, but if you have chosen the right vendor, it will be much more cost effective to subscribe semi-annually, annually or bi-annually for automatic updates. Check whether your Family Office resource provider offers this service and subscribe. In reality, it isn't that you are not able to maintain and update the Family Office list yourself. It is simply that the vendor is probably better positioned to do it and if, as said, you have chosen wisely they will be expert at updating and maintaining Family Office lists. A subscription could save you and your team hundreds of hours.

I trust that you will ultimately connect with a vendor of a higher quality for your Family Office database, and when you do, and start to use it, I wish you the very best of luck in your fundraising activities.

Kind regards,

Paul

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

How to Make Hotel Investments

2011-08-21T09:20:00.001+10:00

Emerging markets such as India and China are augmenting an otherwise lack lustre global travel industry. The reality is that the upswing in recent years in the hotel industry is due mainly to travellers from these too massive regions . It should therefore not come as a surprise that hotel investment experts are excited about the trend and the potential growth it can bring with hotel owners, hotel operators and industry investors all being prompt to pounce on new acquisitions.

At the same time though, investment in the hotel industry is still plagued with all of the normal complications and commercial risk. There is always very large amount of capital at stake, and this requires meticulous planing and considerable expertise by and of the investor. Investors should upon expert opinion, and often do, before finalising a decision for an intended investment. Several points that should be considered, and indeed re-considered, prior to outlaying any investment funds in a hotel are outlined below.

Always Inspect, or Have the Property Inspected

The property may be useless for the purpose you intended upon completion of the deal; this can occur, and does occur often, despite the hotel displaying all of its best attributes during the negotiation and paper due diligence process. The most common reasons are often:

underground environment pollution
interior mold infestation, and
structural damage from termites and rodents.

You should only ever finalise a deal once you have completed a thorough physical investigation of the property yourself or by your trusted advisors and professional service providers. Remember though in the case of the latter they too can ‘get it wrong’ and their contracts with you will indemnify them if they do, so you are still left holding the bag. That said you should certainly engage an engineer to check for the conditions mentioned above and authenticate that the property does not present any of these problems. Such authentication will usually be something you can rely on at law and is necessary for you to be sure that the investment property complies with all building codes.

Familiarise Yourself with Your Hotel Management Company

If you are contemplating engaging a specialised hotel management firm to oversee the operations of your hotel business, reassure yourself of that company’s capabilities via several sources. Look into and consider its operational performance, and also run some cross-checks with other properties that it has under management. Look closely at and analyse its track record with regard to maximising revenues and managing expenses responsibly.

Analyse Where Your Visitors Come From

The hotel should have a good mix of visitors across various market segments including commercial, group travel, business travelers, and leisure or vacation travellers. If the hotel depends on a single segment, unless you have a very specific and focused niche you should reconsideryour investment as such properties rarely do well throughout the entire year. Properties that attract visitors from across several or all segments of travelers are able to bridge slow periods in one segment with increased traffic in another.

DO NOT Depend Upon a Single Business for Your Hotel

Amazing as it seems this happens a lot. Hotels cater to a single client and when that client takes a dive, so too does the hotel. If your hotel exists to service visitors from one company, you are relying on that company’s ability to perform and grow. Frankly you would be better putting your money into the S&P500 or similar. Properties that depend upon obtaining visitors from an airport, another company, a business park, or an amusement park, can go crazy when these businesses cease to generate the income they once did, or worse they shut the doors completely.

For example, with airports, when less people travel by air and the airlines are hurting, your business will suffer the knock on. In regional areas an airport maight be relocated or a new larger regional airport my be created elsewhere. Either way if your hotel is relying on traffic from the airport you will feel the pinch very quickly. Similarly if the business on which you are relying for your visitors decides to change its headquarters, or the business park starts to loose clients, or the amusement park is hit with heavy competition from a better, your business will fall. It is important that you look at your revenue sources so that if one segment hits on hard times, it does not impact you to the point of distinction and you can progress through the tough times keeping the hotel fires burning.

When is the Hotel In-Season?

Your new hotel should have an in-season of at least eight months of every year. If it doesn’t then, unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances, it simply is not an option worth your consideration. If the in-season is shorter than eight months your hotel will need to have premium rate occupancy during the in-season to cope up with annual operational costs. The in-season months should also be consecutive lest you will most likely experience lower than potential revenue.

Some Obstacles You May Face

Some markets already have extensive land allocations that are zoned for hotel development and acquiring land in these markets can be relatively simple. Subsequently, when requirements for obtaining finance are made easier through pre-zoning and pre-development approval, these markets will experience overcrowding with a large amount of competition going up around your hotel. If a market has barriers that make entry for the hospitality trade difficult, the possibility of over-population and/or overcrowding of other hotels is less likely.

In general, it will more often be preferable to invest in a market where the barriers of entry are higher than average. A word of caution though. Approach this carefully. You do not want to be the trail-blazer who did all of the hard yards at exorbitant expense to enable a market to be opened for your competitors to flock to and reap the reward of your hard labour..

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid ... ‘it’ in this case are the Terms

Every investment should have an exit strategy. Hotels are no different. Always consider the eventuality that you will sell the hotel at some point in the future. Your hotel acquisition should be planned with this or some other exit strategy in mind. The Management Contract and Franchise Agreement should be designed with clauses that permit termination without having to jump through hoops. There are a number of ways you can maintain a more dynamic and flexible capability with your hotel investment. For example, assign or prepay the mortgage, buy out existing partners and use a good industry experienced chartered accountant to assist you to minimise your tax exposure.

Take Care to Choose the Brand for Your Hotel Wisely

Like with any business, how you brand your hotel will have major implications on the type of visitors you attract. In the hotel industry most people don’t invent new brands but reach an agreement with an existing brand subject to a variety of pre-conditions, quality and other control parameters.

The established brands are generally safer than newer brands seeking to establish an identity and a footprint in the market. However newer brands may be more dynamic, and easier to deal with than the more established brands. Irrespective of whether you choose an established brand or one of the new kids on the block, look to the visitor demographic attracts.

Are the visitors to your hotel more likely to be travelling for business or leisure?
Is the brand better known as a business hotel or a vacation lodging?
How does the brand fit in the area where you are considering your hotel investment?

These are just a few of the questions you sould consider.

In Conclusion

The above is simply a guide to assist and is by no means a complete plan on how to ensure your hotel investment is a successful one. I do suggest that if you consider the above and take action on at least these areas before any funds change hands, you will certainly be better positioned to expect a better outcome and realise dividends from your investment.

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Paul is also one of Australia’s most connected management consultants, and leading business strategists, with a passion for helping entrepreneurs and business owners who are committed to achieving outstanding results.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

How to Value a Family Office Database Resource - What to look for before you buy

2011-05-24T21:30:00.001+10:00

I’ve discussed these elements before in other articles but a recent stream of questions from people in my network has prompted me to reiterate these points in a more summarised way and all in one place ... eh ... blog. I trust this blog will help you to establish a value for a Family Office database resource you are considering purchasing, and also hope that as you explore family office databases you will quickly learn what makes them worth acquiring or not. More specifically I hope to provide in this summary basic insights into how to value specific Family Office lists and database resources.

Here are some of the components that make a Family Office database worth the asking price. Ask yourself and/or the vendor these questions:

How often is the Family Office database updated? It should be at least semi-annually. If not what is the reason behind it and does the reason make sense to you?

Is the vendor active in the industry? e.g. does the vendor have a consulting business for Family Offices, or do they operate a Family Office association, an online or offline Family Office social network or networking group? If not, what qualifies them to create, maintain, and update a Family Office list?

Does the vendor offer a refund and what is their refund policy in respect of the Family Office list resource you are considering? At the very least there should be an accommodation for bad data. The best firms in the Family Office industry will gladly offer between a double and quadruple pro-rated refund for bad date in the Family Office resource. This keeps them honest and on top of their game.

What level of work and effort went into the creation of the Family Office list? Okay, so this is tricky ground. How can you determine that? Well, use a couple of basic pointers to the level of seriousness both of the company and the information they offer about the database resource.

What does their website look like?
How detailed is their FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section?
What level of statistics do they give you in respect of the list?
What do they say about their methodologies for creating, maintaining, and updating the Family Office database?

This next one is crucial to your productivity. Even if everything else is great this one can cause more frustration than it is worth.

In what format does the vendor supply the Family Office database to you? Here’s the thing. If the list is web-only, i.e. you can only access it via the web then you could lose access, for example, if the company goes belly up or if your subscription payment does not go through. How often does it happen that a credit card is nearing its limit because the accounts department hasn’t processed the expense reports? Or even more basic, the expiry date lapses, you forget to update it in the system, and the vendor doesn’t have an early warning system to remind you.

Make sure that you have a resource that can be downloaded (i.e. avoid CD & DVD based resources if you can) and where the format in which it is supplied is at least Microsoft Excel (.XLSX), or Comma Separated Value (.CSV) These formats are the most flexible and allow you to quickly and easily integrate the new data into your customer relationship management (CRM) system, for example Salesforce.com.

Value is a tricky thing and like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder. If you use the above suggestions to assess for yourself the value of the resource I hope you will make some good decisions. Ultimately the proof will be in the quality of the relationships you are able to build with the Family Offices listed in the database resource that you purchase. Until you have the list though you need to use your gut, some good common sense, and the above tips to figure out whether or not your money to purchase the list is about to be invested wisely or simply spent.

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Positioning Your Start-up Using Blue Ocean Strategy - Part 1

2011-05-22T10:58:00.001+10:00

By using Blue Ocean Strategy innovative start-ups can identify market spaces that have no competition, and in doing so render their traditional industry competition irrelevant.

The basic premise of Blue Ocean Strategy is that every market can be segregated into both a red ocean and a blue ocean.

Red oceans are consensus driven; more specifically a consensus that defines a default customer, the vendors and their expected behaviours and characteristics, and the type of product the market has to offer. You end up with a situation where everyone is doing the same thing with the same stuff, selling it to the same people; the result, commercial carnage with massive competition and paper thin profit margins.

Uncontested Market Space - the New Frontier

Blue Ocean Strategy is about breaking free from the bonds of traditional market thinking and realising new vast blue oceans of untapped resources. The first realisation of understanding Blue Ocean Strategy is like standing inside a large box leaning against the wall and suddenly there are no walls. You realise there is no box. Blue Ocean Strategy focuses entrepreneurs and business leaders in the direction of a new uncontested market space for their industry. They create a market niche where the venture is so uniquely positioned that competition is rendered irrelevant.

How does that work? How can one recognise these new market niches?

The answer: Value Innovation

Identifying market niches requires a thing called "Value Innovation". Value innovation involves seeing the values and desires behind peoples’ spending decisions. When you witness these patterns you can take a decision yourself to restructure your business resources to provide an alternative that is significantly better and which remains consistent with the values you have witnessed.

Let’s look again at Cirque Du Soleil. It seems to be the one that everyone quotes from the book Blue Ocean Strategy and it is an example I myself have referred to before in articles, blogs, and speeches. When Cirque du Soleil began the circus industry was on its tail. It had stagnated itself into virtual oblivion. Not exactly an industry one would imagine entering if profit had anything to do with the equation. Rather than creating yet another big top, or little top, circus, the founders of Cirque du Soleil looked at the overall value system of circus goers and the live entertainment industry more broadly so that they might understand what the people, who went out for the evening of entertainment, were looking for.

What motivates or persuades people to go to the theatre or the cinema, instead of going to the circus?

What they found was that the circus was viewed generally as low-brow, juvenile, even crude level of entertainment. The founders of Cirque Du Soleil found that the concept of the traditional three ring circus distracting, annoying, and off-putting to the majority of the public.

Also, public opinion was swaying away from the use of animals in circus. This was pretty dramatic as animals have always been a centrepiece of the circus experience. Driving this was the sensitivity to the possible abuse of the animals behind scenes.

Take Out the Trash: Remove That Which People Don’t Value

The result is Cirque Du Soleil, an experience that is world renowned for being very different to anything else that is out there; indeed since Cirque du Soleil start nothing has even come close to knocking them off their number one spot. The recipe was simple for the founders. They eliminated the three rings; they presented the entertainment more theatrically, more sophisticated and in the form of a narrative; and they removed the animals from the equation – which probably saved them a bundle as well.

By combining the popular and most valued fundamental elements of what people sought from live entertainment, more specifically from both the theatre and circus perspectives, and removing everything that was seen by the public as a negative of both, the founders of Cirque Du Soleil were able to create an alternative far superior to the original; an alternative that neither other circuses nor the theatre industry can contend with directly.

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Some Basic Tips on How Not to Use a Family Office List

2011-05-20T16:25:00.001+10:00

Many people make some very basic mistakes when interacting with Family Offices and lists of Family Offices that they acquire. It is as if by simply having these lists they feel connected, empowered, and invulnerable, and end up making some often irreparable mistakes. The reality is that you should conduct yourself with the same level of decency and integrity as you would with any other human being.

Hopefully the following will provide you with some basic tips on what not to do with a Family Office list, so that you can avoid making common mistakes often made by people seeking to raise capital via a Family Office. Obviously the best way to raise capital via a Family Office or individual Ultra High-Net Worth (UNHW) person is through personal relationships founded on trust and confidence. If you, like most others, are in the situation that you have to start out by buying a list as a first step, strive to achieve such a relationship over the long term and if your enterprises are good you may one day join their ranks.

Here are IMHO the top five Family Office list mistakes you should avoid:

After you buy a family office list you cannot simply send an unsolicited email or snail mail to them with your offer to them. This is still considered spam, and you are not permitted to spam, even after buying the list. This is not like a double opt-in list of people interested in blue widgets. You must first develop relationships with each group on the list and they must opt-in to receive communications from you; double opt-in if by email.
Don’t delude yourself that you have unearthed the Holy Grail and that henceforth capital-raising is going to be a walk in the park because you have bought THE list. Certainly, by obtaining a resource such as a Family Office List will make your capital raising efforts and processes more efficient. If used correctly it will save you an immense amount of time. But how effective you are will rely on other criteria. Capital-raising is essentially a challenge at the best of times. It can be a wonderful challenge that people such as myself thrive on, we love the process and every step in it. Realise that you have increased your chances by obtaining a Family Office list and accept that it will require real work and genuine effort. There is simply too much money at stake and too much competition for the investment dollars for the process to be a cakewalk.
Once you purchase a Family Office list, do not assume that you will receive a lifetime of free updates. These lists are expensive to update, maintain, and they take considerable time and patience to complete. Ask your list provider to see if they are included or not within your package.
Snatching up the first offer of a Family Office directory that you come across, just because it looks good enough is not really a good strategy. Be sure that you source the list from a legitimate company that has a phone number you can call and talk to real people. You know the ones. They have a pair of lips and a voice connected to a brain that gives real responses. Unless you have come across someone with terminal cancer and 30 days to live, do not believe people who tell you they have a boutique private list that they have worked with for the last 40 years or more. Such people exist, but unless the last item on their bucket list is to donate the list to some lucky schmuck you will not gain access to them. Go through a company that is reputable and has a real website. Before you buy anything do whatever you need to do to gain sufficient confidence that what you are buying is something of value.
Don't think you are smarter than the rest and use their list to create and sell your own Family Office list product. Apart from illegal (check the terms and conditions of your purchase) it is morally wrong and UHNW individuals have a way of smelling bullshit in the proximity. If you only have half a brain and do decide to take someone else’s list(s) to create your own, unless you are going for a smash and grab type of sale, how on earth will you ever maintain it? Be respectful, be ethical and use the list as the seller intended; hopefully to launch some great (new) product or service that will benefit many people and (at least by extension) society as a whole.

Hopefully these tips will help you know what not do once you have obtained your database or Family Office list. I am sure you will realise that this is all pretty common sense, but as the saying goes, there is nothing common about common sense.

About Paul J. Lange:

Paul's 'Business DIET'© system has helped countless entrepreneurs and business owners around the world to launch start-ups, expand existing operations, and greatly improve bottom lines.

Web: http://www.paullange.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljlange

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pauljlange

Ecademy: http://http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Klout: http://www.klout.com/pauljlange

Peerindex: http://www.peerindex.net/pauljlange

Empire Avenue: http://www.empireavenue.com/pauljlange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

The BDSM of Business – Part 1: Introduction

2011-03-07T20:24:00.001+11:00

The BDSM of business for most people is Business Development Sales & Marketing. This is at least what most people would have guessed. However my exposure to the Adult industry through some unique clients has opened up other discussions as to whether there is another BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sado, Masochism) that is relevant to business, and how the principles of this might be applied.

After all there is the S&M of wealth and happiness from Your Money Mistress, Larissa Zed Zimmerman (www.yourmoneymistress.com). As ‘Your Money Mistress’ Larissa discusses openly the strategies and path to how to have sizzling sex and more money. This is not some fly by night get rich quick book attempt. It is actually solid stuff that every … well … secondary student (at least) should learn.

Larissa’s methodologies and processes are based on years of developing her own courses and coaching under a vanilla brand. These vanilla courses and her coaching have been delivered in both the corporate world and through the Australian government into public departments and schools et al. Larissa is now in the process of white labelling her courses for some of the larger financial services players.

Think of BDSM as an alternative SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). These map directly 1-to-1. In part two, I’ll discuss the BDSM/SWOT Analysis model and how to use it in your business for achieving greater focus and realising better results.

Be outstanding!!

Paul

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER

ASSURING YOUR SUCCESS THROUGH VALUE INNOVATION AND FOCUSED ACTION

paulj@paullange.com.au | GSM: +61 414 317579 | URL: http://www.paullange.com.au

Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Join my Blue Oceans Mailing List - for today's leaders and those who aspire to be
tomorrow's - http://eepurl.com/bKqO

Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes.
http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

HOWTO: Test Your Email Marketing Campaigns

2010-10-27T10:40:00.001+11:00

Have you ever sent an email marketing campaign only to discover it looks like crap when it lands in the recipients inbox?

Would it surprise you to learn that the greater majority of companies (from small to very very large) that send email marketing campaigns perform very little or even NO TESTING before they send?

I've seen it happen, time and time again.

What to do! There are many good subscription based systems out there you can use to test deliver-ability and appearance. Some of the better email marketing services include some level of inbox delivery and appearance testing.

Certainly always use tools provided as a first line of defence, however the most successful way I and my team have found to work consistently well over the last 16+ years of email marketing is to do real-life testing. Testing on real email accounts on real email services.

But do you know what to look for? Here are some handy tips for testing your email campaigns in order to improve the deliver-ability and appearance of delivered emails.

Before you send your HTML email campaign to your entire subscriber list, you should do some testing. All good email marketing systems will let you send tests to yourself.

Don't just rely on preview functions. These are at best a rough estimate of how your email would look in an ideal world. You need to actually deliver your email campaign to real email accounts to see how it works "in the real world."
Setup email accounts with as many email services as possible. There are many free ones out there. Use the most common services, like MSN, Hotmail, Live, Yahoo!, and Gmail. You might also setup an account with AOL.
Leave the default settings for those accounts as they are. Don't add yourself to the address book, or anything that would change the default configuration. You'll want to test whether or not your email campaigns are being filtered as spam to a typical setup configuration for the most common email services.
Setup a "test list" in your email marketing service. Some services will allow you to replicate your "real" list and import the test addresses.
Recruit co-workers, friends, or family to become testers for you. You need people you can rely on and trust. We use a team of Virtual Assistants (VA) that we have trained over several years. VA's are a very cost effective way for you to leverage resources. Ask me if you would like a contact to a reliable and cost effective VA service provider.
Trusted testers can tell you how your email looks across the many different email clients programs. If you have the resources, setup a testing computer in the office with multiple operating systems and email programs. Or set up a virtual computer online to do the same thing.
Do you give subscribers to your list the option to receive plain-text or a mobile version of your emails? If you do, you will need to subscribe one of your test email accounts to receive plain-text only emails and one to receive the mobile version of your campaigns.
Send as many emails as you can to your test addresses.
Did your email campaign end up in the junk folder or spam filter of any of the test email accounts?
Most email clients and online services (web mail) leave images turned off by default (i.e. you are required to click a link or button to display images). How does your email look with images turned off? That's the first impression people will have. If it looks crap, so do you.
Do you have "ALT-text" coded for your images, to persuade recipients to click the "show images" button? (ALT-text is the "alternative text" that is displayed when an image can't be seen in a web browser or email program)? By "persuade" I don't mean you should resort to sending spam-like, over-bearing sales text such as, "CHECK THIS OUT!" A really descriptive ALT-text is persuasive enough e.g. "Screenshot of our new gizmo"
Just in case people don't want to show your images (yes some people have legitimate reasons and others are simply über paranoid about everything), do you have a link at the top of your email, allowing them to view your message online, in their browser?
When you click "show images" for your email, do all the images work? Do they download and appear fast enough/in a reasonable time (a few micro-seconds would be nice but a few seconds is more realistic), or do you need to go back and optimise them?
Click on as many links as possible (yes, this is mind-numbing, but necessary). Do they all work? Are there any broken links?
Does your email marketing service provide click or open tracking? If so, enable this functionality, and then click and open some of your emails. Then log in to your email marketing service and check your campaign statistics. Is everything working properly? If yes, send!

Happy and successful email marketing

Paul

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER

ASSURING YOUR SUCCESS THROUGH VALUE INNOVATION AND FOCUSED ACTION

paulj@paullange.com.au | GSM: +61 414 317579 | URL: http://www.paullange.com.au

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Google can't keep it up!

2010-10-26T08:06:00.001+11:00

Google! Analyse this!

It is understandable that new services will fall over from time to time. They may even disappear completely. Google are after all the kings of the beta release, and as we know beta software is unstable. After all of these years Gmail is still in 'beta' or have Google perhaps trademarked the term?

For the last several weeks when logging into Google Analytics the system first asks me to sign up for Google Analytics again. Crazy! What's even more crazy is that nine times out of ten if I sign up again the old accounts are still there, I just have a new account in addition. Once in a while the system collapses completely and returns an error.

From what I can see on the Net there are many people suffering but nothing substantive from Google on the matter. Seriously with all of the resources and technology you have at your disposal, you have the ability to scan peoples WiFi connections and grab their usernames and passwords as your street view car drives around our neighbourhoods, you can handle billions of web searches a second, but you can't fix an access issue and worse you lack the customer service and relationship maturity to communicate with your user base.

I love Google, I really do but this sort of crap just pisses me off.

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER

ASSURING YOUR SUCCESS THROUGH VALUE INNOVATION AND FOCUSED ACTION

URL: http://www.paullange.com.au

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

2010-07-08T10:57:00.001+10:00

Tedtalks : Simon Sinek (2009 Tedx) Audio by Ted
Download now or listen on posterous

SimonSinek_2009X.mp3 (11084 KB)

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

To watch the video of the attached audio, visit http://bit.ly/bUzzFU

About Simon Sinek
In 2009, Simon Sinek released the book "Start With Why" -- a synopsis of the theory he has begun using to teach others how to become effective leaders and inspire change.

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Women's Lib was a Blue Ocean Waiting to Happen

2010-02-26T16:04:00.001+11:00

Remember the traditional style Christian vows? The man would promise to love, honour, and cherish. The woman would promise to love, honour, and obey. Regardless of your standpoint, the words spoken and commitments given have changed for ever.

Now check out this newspaper article. Given this type of public indoctrination, is it any wonder that the Women's Lib movement swept the globe like a massive Tsunami; leaving not one, but several massive blue ocean opportunities in it's wake?

Enjoy!

About the author:
I am a serial entrepreneur with business interests in venture capital & private funding, social media marketing, wellness, personal development, and online services. Together with a select group of C-Level executives, I also provide an outsourced interim board service. I am passionate about helping others to achieve success, and lead Mastermind Groups of people committed to bringing about a positive change in their lifestyle.
If you have an interest in any of the above areas and are seeking advice or support for a specific issue, send me an email with an overview of what you would like to discuss and we will schedule time to talk by phone or Skype.
PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER
Assuring your success through value innovation and focused attention.
E-mail: paulj@paullange.com.au
GSM: +61 414 317579
URL: http://www.paullange.com.au
Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange
Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes.
http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Social Media Seasonal Sewerage

2009-12-24T10:12:00.001+11:00

Are Social Media Christmas greetings the latest seasonal spam?

OK. I can understand that some people are genuinely well intentioned in their desire to wish all 1,000, 5,000, or 2 million people in their social networks all the very best for Christmas and the New Year. Personally it pisses me off!

If you intend to wish me anything, MAKE IT PERSONAL. This seems to be the main point that most people are missing in social media in general. Sure, we all let quite a number of general and generic messages from each other to our whole network slip through on a regular basis however when it comes to something like a greeting on ANY special occasion, personalise it for maximum acceptance, appreciation, and effect. Or risk being perceived as just another ignoramus social media slob wading through the social media sewerage pipes in an pathetic attempt to create awareness of YOU. Hey! Fella!! Here's a tip, it' not about YOU!!

It is the same as in the off-line world at Christmas time. The hand-written card or note, and I mean truly hand written not computer hand written like a certain network marketing company - initials S.O.C. - makes possible, is much better received than the generic cards that are sent by companies every year. If you read enough you'll discover oodles of people who have conducted surveys on this, or just simply know from the measured feedback they receive.

So do yourself and the rest of us a favour. Help reduce the noise to level ratios, and the inconvenient truth for all of the greenies out there, many of whom participate in this practice of generating as much social media seasonal sewerage as their CPU, RAM, and broadband will permit, is that you will be reducing your carbon footprint. Stop sending this crap to the network and instead invest a small amount of time in sending greetings to the people you actually know, and who you genuinely would like to know. Personalise each message and you will most likely be amazed at how much further your networking reach and influence extends in the coming year.

Now go and have a damn fine Christmas and a bloody fantastic New Year!!!

See you all on the flip side .... or sooner.

Be awesome!

Paul

About the author:

If you have an interest in any of the above areas and are seeking advice or support for a specific issue, send me an email with an overview of what you would like to discuss and we will schedule time to talk by phone or Skype.

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER
Assuring your success through value innovation and focused attention.
E-mail: paulj@paullange.com.au
GSM: +61 414 317579
URL: http://www.paullange.com.au

Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes.
http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

New Year's Drinks - AUS Ecademy Sydney

2009-12-21T13:53:00.001+11:00

2009 presented several personal and professional challenges for many of us. Some we overcome, some taught us valuable lessons, and from others we are still in the process of creating some valuable outcome.

Whether you are already officially back at work or still bathing in the sunshine of free time before kicking off the new business year, rock on up to the Bavarian Bier Cafe in Parramatta to meet other Sydney based entrepreneurs, business owners, directors, managers, and just some great people also interested in establishing mutually beneficial relationships and creating value.

2010 will be a great year. Personally it signifies the re-birth of some personal family traditions, a new focus on more quality time (work hard, play hard, rest hard), a commitment to help young entrepreneurial talent to develop, and more attention to building close and very personal connections with a limited number of dedicated and committed people in my new mastermind group.

I look forward to seeing as many of you in Parramatta on the 14th of January as can make it. If any company would like to sponsor the event, please contact me and let's make it an even more valuable evening for your business by showcasing what you do.

Be outstanding!!

Paul

Event Registration Link: http://bit.ly/7Y92Sg

Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes.
http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Clayton Responses

2009-12-18T10:54:00.001+11:00

Remember Clayton's non-alcoholic beverage that supposedly tasted like Scotch in the same kind of way that McDonalds tastes like a hamburger? The marketing slogan was that it was the drink you had when you were not having a drink.

Have you ever received one of those Clayton email responses from fruit cakes who like nothing more than to hear themselves talk, eh, see and read their pixels of drivel on the screen?

The type of emails I mean usually start with some superficially polite comment like

'Hi, how are you?'

... Yeh! Right! As if you could really give a shit you hypocritical S.O.B! ... or is this comment tainted by the fact that I spent a couple of years in New York?

What usually follows is some version of the following:

"Whilst your email doesn't actually warrant any kind of response beyond that of simple acknowledgment of its receipt,..." .... I am going to make a complete hypocritical dickhead out of myself and respond anyway.

I am convinced that more than half of these people are heavily medicated and keep forgetting to take their pills, and the rest are on the tail end of a continuous all night bender, or both.

If you were truly not interested you would uphold your honour and not respond instead of acting like a complete and utter twat about it. Let's face it. This type of email among respectable people is seen for what it is, a total f@(& off statement and we treat it as such. In the deluded and confrontational mind of the sender they are probably secretly hoping that there will be a response so that they can continue to seek the moral high ground of their diatribe. Alas, seek as much as they will the will never achieve it. Very little is impossible in this world, but that such people should ever achieve moral high ground in any conversation until they curb their ways (in which case they would no longer be such people) is one of those few impossibilities.

The quality of our lives is indeed determined by the way respond to any given circumstance. The time between an event and our response to it determines how we perceive ourselves and as a result how the world will be given the opportunity to perceive us. So next time you might be tempted to respond to an email that you consider doesn't warrant a response..... DON'T!!!!!!!!!

Be awesome!! .... Not an asshole!!

Make your day exceptional!!

Paul

About the author:

Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au

Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes.
http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Rudd's Latest Apology ... who asked him?

2009-11-18T16:00:00.001+11:00

First the aboriginals, now the lost Australians, perhaps Kevin 07 should make a point of apologising to someone new every day from now on until his sorry butt is kicked out of government. Kevin if you are listening, here are a few suggestions:

Apologise to every child who was never allowed to stay up late and watch the late movie
Apologise to every husband whose wife ever had a headache
Apologise to every wife whose husband couldn't last more than a few minutes, or worse still couldn't get it up at all
Apologise to every person who ever had a delayed departure at the airport
Apologise to every person who ever missed an appointment because the bus was too late.
Apologise to every Australian that you were ever born

Seriously, with the exception of the last one, all of these apologies would be about as relevant as the one to the aborigines and so-called lost Australians.

You play the cards you are dealt. Over time, you will start to notice that the cards you are dealt become better. Or do they? Perhaps it has more to do with your increased confidence and greater skill at playing the game. Life works in the same way. Stop playing to the weeping and whinging wimps who refuse to take responsibility to make the best out of what they have and create a better life, and who instead would rather blame everyone else but themselves for their situation.

I don't see Silvio Berlusconi apologising to most of Europe and the region for the Roman Empire!!! And although the Germans politicians are still pretty sensitive about their recent history, many Germans rightly feel that it is time to move on.... and it is ... also in Australia. The current generations are not at fault nor are they to blame. The people you need to vent your anger at are six feet under so if you want to connect with them, either find religion or slash your wrists.

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Freedom suffers thanks to closet sex workers

2009-11-18T09:48:00.001+11:00

Every time some out of control judge or politician (let's face it that's most of them) takes it upon them self to make a pathetic ruling or push through some ridiculous legislation, our freedom is reduced a little more. Regrettably this happens hundreds of times every day; even more regrettable is that we rarely hear about it until we need to defend our rights in the same legal arena of lunacy that creates the problem.

A recent ruling in Victoria demonstrates again clearly that all legal professionals really are just glorified sex workers in the closet; they screw everybody indiscriminately and hide behind a veil of self-fulfilling legal protection. If they had any guts whatsoever they step out into the real world and contribute something good and creative to the community instead of pontificating from their pulpits and dressing in robes to mask their insecurity; but like Linus holding on to his blanket, their shortcomings are abundantly obvious.

Erin Maitland of the Three Sisters travel company wanted to create a women only tour company, catering only to women. And why not? I say!! The masons are men only, Fernwood fitness centres are women only, the Amazons are women only and undoubtedly there are many other examples of groups, organisations, and businesses that are specific to one gender or the other. In the ruling against Erin Maitland and her Three Sisters company, the judge (Let's call it 'Voldermord', i.e. the one who must not be named lest they come after me for some ridiculous reason) refused to grant an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act, ruling that Ms Maitland had not proved it was reasonable or necessary. Seriously!! Reasonable or necessary to have an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act. Why in God's name should one need an exemption anyway for this??? GET REAL!!!

One might think that the judge was some woman hating male chauvinist. But no it was a member of the sorority, a sister in arms. So what is the motivation? Does this person simply want to prove that she can measure herself with the men? Is she so insecure, more so than the average legal professional, that she doesn't have the chutzpah to allow common sense to prevail (not that there has ever been much common sense or reason or logic to be found in the legal community anyway)? Or is she just trying to make an even bigger name for herself?

Ether way, this decision is another classic example of legal lunacy. As Australians, and simply decent members of this and global society, we have a right and indeed a responsibility to ensure that this type of madness is halted.

Recently the economies of the world have been re-aligned. Thankfully someone hit the reset button. I suggest it is now time that we hit the reset button on the legal community before they lead us into total annihilation.

About the author:

I am a serial entrepreneur with business interests in venture capital & private funding, social media marketing, wellness, personal development, and online services. Together with a select group of C-Level executives, I also provide an outsourced interim board service. I am passionate about helping others to achieve success, and lead Mastermind Groups of people committed to bringing about a positive change in their lifestyle. If you have an interest in any of the above areas and are seeking advice or support for a specific issue, send me an email with an overview of what you would like to discuss and we will schedule time to talk by phone or Skype.

_______________________________________________

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER

Assuring your success through value innovation and focused attention.

E-mail: paulj@paullange.com.au

GSM: +61 414 317579

URL: http://www.paullange.com.au

Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn. http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange
Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.paullange.com.au
Connect with me on Ecademy - real people, real business, real outcomes. http://www.ecademy.com/user/paullange

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Freedom goes further down the gurgler

2009-11-09T15:48:00.001+11:00

20 years on, different continent, different circumstances, same old story. Australians need to wake up and smell the stench of over-regulated bureaucracy that is killing freedom in this country. Marius Müller Westerhagen said it well back in the 80's in Germany in the song 'Freiheit' (Freedom). Hopefully Australia will wake up before it is too late and we grow totally numb to the impact that the lunacy of overly-social, cover your ass, and everyone-is-responsible-just-not-me politics and social behaviour is having on the formerly pragmatic and have a go mentality that made Australia great.

Given that Australia is hailed as a multi-cultural society I won't bother translating.

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Die Vetraege sind gemacht
Und es wurde viel gelacht
Und was Suesses zum Dessert
Freiheit, Freiheit.

Die Kapelle, rum-ta-ta
Und der Papst war auch schon da
Und mein Nachbar vorneweg

Freiheit, Freiheit,
Ist die einzige, die fehlt.
Freiheit, Freiheit,
Ist die einzige, die fehlt.

Der Mensch ist leider nicht naiv.
Der Mensch ist leider primitiv.

Freiheit, Freiheit,
Wurde wieder abbestellt.

Alle, die von Freiheit traeumen,
Sollen's Feiern nicht versaeumen,
Sollen tanzen auch auf Graebern.

Freiheit, Freiheit,
Ist das einzige, was zaehlt.
Freiheit, Freiheit,
Ist das einzige, was zaehlt.

- Marius Müller Westerhagen

Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Too much communication, not enough connection!!

2009-11-08T08:41:00.001+11:00

We build big networks without ever really knowing the people in them!

We subscribe to each others blogs but rarely read them, we read each others tweets ... or not!

We subscribe to each others mailing lists and auto-filter them into archive oblivion in a folder we never open again or they are simply trashed!

We instant message each other and play IM ping pong, or leave voicemails for each other in a game of phone tag!

Sometimes we talk, but rarely if ever do both people in the conversation have a desire to listen, absorb, and contemplate how they can contribute to the other person. Quite often at least one participant has the dominant desire to explain everything there is to know about what is important to them, and they do so in the most minute detail until they achieve information overload.

As a society, in both business and personal affairs, we have reached a noise to level ratio that is communication overload, and it is time we start to understand that less is more. If you want to make a difference in your own life and the life of others, don't communicate ***at*** each other, ***connect with*** each other.

As my good friend Paul Dunn says, we need less communication and more connection. When we connect with people we create action, and through action we gain traction, which in turn leads to attraction.

For those who don't know Paul, he is truly an awesome bloke and deservedly the recipient of the nickname the Wizard of Wow! If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, connect with Paul and find out for yourself. Paul is the chairman and co-founder of Buy1 Give1 Free (http://www.B1G1.com) so he is really easy to find. B1G1 is an example of how when people connect they can create great things. B1G1 connects people who have a desire to contribute in a meaningful way, directly with people who are less privileged and who, with literally the change you might pick up off the street, can benefit in ways that seem surreal to people like you and I.

Did you know that for USD$0.01 you can give a child clean drinking water for a day or for US$12 you can give a family in Kenya a goat that will help them to earn an income for a year?

This is crazy stuff!!!

B1G1 takes nothing out of the donations and 100% of the money donated goes straight to the charity. Most of the time you would be lucky if 40% of your donation made it to the charity but B1G1 is different. VERY different!

Also, the B1G1 system is based on either transactional based donations or impact based donations. That is to say, donations are directly related to the sale of one or more of your products or services. Imagine the impact when you sell a cup of coffee for $3.50 and donate $0.01 or $0.10 or more to provide 1, 10, or more children with clean drinking water for a day for every cup of coffee you sell. Imagine the difference you can make if you have a hotel, and for every room night you sell you provide a person with a roof over their head for several months, or if you sell sunglasses or prescription glasses, or televisions or digital cameras and with every purchase you give a child the gift of proper vision.

Alternatively you might simply elect to donate a lump sum for the purpose of contributing to a specific activity that will impact the life/lives of a person, group, or community, for example building a school, community centre, providing education, food, water, shelter.

Irrespective of whether you prefer to use transaction based donations or impact based donations, using B1G1 you are creating a direct connection between the sale of your products or services and the betterment of people less privileged.

In a few weeks I am proudly co-hosting a webinar with Paul to assist people in understanding how, through connecting their products and/or services to a worthy cause, they can leverage the B1G1 system as an awesome marketing tool for their own business and at the same time make a significant contribution to improving the world and it's economy, one child, one family, and one community, at a time.

When I last spoke to Paul a couple of days ago, he said to me, "Paul, we don't care how much people give, so long as they give.". Remember givers receive, so join Paul and the other great giving companies that have joined B1G1. Be someone that gives.

When we communicate ***at*** each other we achieve little more than a dry mouth, or RSI in the wrist, and a headache from the noise. It is far greater and abundantly more effective to connect, take action, create something through your connectivity and contribution, and then leave OTHERS to communicate ***about*** what you have done as they are inspired by you and what you have helped achieve.

Be awesome, and help some one feel the same way today.

All the best,

Paul

About the author:

I am a serial entrepreneur with business interests in venture capital & private funding, social media marketing, wellness, personal development, and online services. Together with a select group of C-Level executives, I also provide an outsourced interim board service. I am passionate about helping others to achieve success, and lead Mastermind Groups of people committed to bringing about a positive change in their lifestyle.

If you have an interest in any of the above areas and are seeking advice or support for a specific issue, send me an email with an overview of what you would like to discuss and we will schedule time to talk by phone or Skype.

--

PAUL J. LANGE – BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER
ASSURING YOUR SUCCESS THROUGH VALUE INNOVATION AND FOCUSED ACTION
paulj@paullange.com.au | GSM: +61 414 317579 | URL: http://www.paullange.com.au
Most Connected Management Consultant in Australia on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljlange
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Posted via email from Blue Oceans

Detecting Fraud: A close relationship with suppliers

2009-09-14T14:17:00.001+10:00
Accountants and bookkeepers generally have contact with the budget managers in a company. The budget manager is the person who will be able to supply all the supporting documentation to the accountant – if it is requested. A budget manager is also one of the people who is in the best position to commit fraud.

One of the ways budget managers commit fraud is to have a close relationship with a supplier, and use that close relationship to gain access to kick-backs, or some other form of payment. This usually occurs when the budget manager asks the supplier to overbill for items. He/She then has the company pay the invoice – a real invoice – and the supplier receives extra money. The supplier then splits that money with the budget manager, and they both end up with more than they had before. The only way to tell if this is going on, for sure, is to track what has been paid for various items over the years and watch for unexplained increases. This is unlikely to be within the power of an outside accountant.

However, one indication that this is occurring is when the budget manager has a close relationship with a supplier. This can mean extra calls, visits, or simply being nicer to them than they are to others. This can be seen by an outside accountant who visits their clients on occasion. If you as a business owner, bookkeeper, or accountant, suspect fraud, or if you are another internal or external resource under whose authority this falls, and you suspect fraud, you should make a few random visits to the budget manager – especially if you can time your visit so that you can watch the budget manager interact with the suppliers. Let your instincts guide you from there.

About the author, Dominic Lambrinos, Anti-fraud Expert, Avanti Partners Pty. Ltd.
Dominic Lambrinos is a recognized specialist in the area of detecting and combating all types of fraud, especially tax fraud and internal corporate fraud. Based of Sydney, Australia, Dominic has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry internationally. His company Avanti Partners Pty. Ltd. has overs in major caital cities around the globe.

Landmark Hospitality Business in Sydney, Australia (from receiver)

2009-07-23T21:59:00.000+10:00

Landmark Hospitality Business in Sydney, Australia (from receiver)

Amount: AUD $7 million

A landmark hospitality business in Sydney has just gone into receivership and is ripe for the picking. Although many banks in this country are dumping their hospitality assets, the St George Bank (owned by Westpac) is expanding its portfolio aggressively. Obviously this business was not with St George :-)

Just prior to the receivers coming in, an information memorandum was produced by a local entrepreneur seeking to purchase the freehold and the business with the intention of commercialise the IP and expanding the operations over a 5 year period. Albeit parts of that IM are no longer entirely accurate (for obvious reasons), the opportunity still exists and indeed is an even better investment proposition that was previously being put forward.

Anyone interested in further information please contact me at investor@paullange.com.au and I will make the relevant introductions, respectively send you further information.

Kind regards,

Paul J. Lange
CEO, Focus Liquidty

Nano Technology - Australian Government Contracts Pending

2009-07-23T21:54:00.001+10:00

Nano Technology - Australian Government Contracts Pending

Amount: USD $1 million - USD $5 million.

A unique ground breaking nano technology developed over the last 7 years and still several years ahead of any potential competition is seeking funding to capitalize the business as well as retire some shareholders who are currently under personal financial pressure.

Please note that the company is valued by Directors at US$150M and up to 60% of the company will be offered to incoming investors. Investment of minimum US$1M can be made by individuals and minimum of US$5M by syndicates or corporate.

This is a so-called "Locating, Identifying and Security Technology" with multiple government, civil defence, defence force, and commercial applications ranging from Apparel to Zoology is seeking funding . I understand there are also Australian Government contracts pending (e.g. for the printing of bank notes).

Anyone interested in further information please contact me at info@focusliquidity.com and I will make the relevant introductions, respectively send you further information.

Kind regards,

Paul J. Lange
CEO, Focus Liquidity

An Opportunity in Retirement & Health Care

2009-07-23T21:51:00.005+10:00

An Opportunity in Retirement & Health Care

Amount: AUD $5 million.

The property investment capital (ca AUD$100 million) for this business will be raised by Merrill Lynch and/or the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) through their respective private client base. The capital sought is to launch the business and engage the key executive resources required to drive this business in what is a very unique and specific industry. The plan enables the company to pay out the $100 million in 3 years whereupon the company will own the property free and clear.

Anyone interested in further information please contact me at investor@paullange.com.au and I will make the relevant introductions, respectively send you further information.

Kind regards,

Paul J. Lange
CEO, Focus Liquidity

Business Hell to Business Heaven - Free Networking Breakfast : Ecademy Marketplace

2009-07-20T14:20:00.001+10:00
Business Hell to Business Heaven - Free Networking Breakfast : Ecademy Marketplace

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