The Million Dollar Business Quest

Handling delinquency

2009-06-26T15:29:00.003-04:00

It's a reality that every business needs to face. We all have to handle delinquency. I am luck that the number of delinquencies are fairly low but they do come up and every time seem to cause problems and wasted times.

Recently, I had to cancel my business credit card and wait for a new one because of some unauthorized usage. This caused some of my vendor accounts with automatic transactions to become delinquent. I found that one association that I was a member of had a particularly effective, hand off approach to handling delinquency. Since then, I created my own hands off system that consists of multiple e-mails, letters, and voice broadcasts.

Here's the keys to handling delinquency
1. Be nice - I wrote letters that convey a kind image and politely tell them that we realize it must have been an accident. As I get to 60 days past due, the letters are still nice but that it may effect their credit score.
2. Hit them often - If you pace it write, you should be able to hit them every five days.
3. Use as many methods as possible - Some people respond to different sources. You can use e-mail, fax, mail, and voice broadcasts. I will give a sample of our schedule.
4. Give solutions - In our case, we allow them to mail, e-mail, or stop at our front desk. You could also offer a secure website to go to pay off the deliquency.

Creating a schedule is fairly simple, we basically use the same letter for all sources. For example, we send an e-mail on day 1. Day 5, we send the same letter by mail with a membership change form. By Day 10, we do a voice broadcast reading the same letter. On day 15, the letter's tone changes slightly and the process is repeated like above.

We created this system so that we let the client know that we didn't forget and hit them enough that they take action.

Saying "No" is a positive thing in business

2009-06-01T09:13:00.002-04:00

The ability to say "No" is a great technique that has many positive benefits in your business. Your ability to say "No" will contribute directly to your bottom line.

Some benefits of saying "No"
1. Defending yourself against paying for unnecessary services - I have let some convincing salesman get me to accept their services only to find later that the service wasn't worth it or I didn't need it. If I had said "No" to begin with I would have saved money and the time it took to cancel the service.
2. Save money on service you want - Sometime, saying "No" can lead into discounts and other favorable desperate measures. This works great for getting discounts on advertisements and some services.
3. Saves time - Many times, I want to say "No" but deferred making a decision, by saying that I'll think about it. This just opens the door for more time wasted. It's easier in the long run to say "no" right away.

Have standards and criteria for say "Yes". Here's mine criteria.
1. If it doesn't save time or money, the answer is "no".
2. If it doesn't help increase revenues, the answer is "yes".

Now, we must be careful because it's easy for some coaching program to say they will increase your revenues or some advertisement to bring in clients. You can test these out but before starting, decide on methods and measure their performance. Fire them, if they don't perform.

The Lawn Mower Story

2009-05-28T08:06:00.003-04:00

I have an interesting story about my neighbor and his lawn mower. I feel this is a great analogy on personal effective and time management.

Our neighbor's lawn mower hasn't worked correctly for over a year. It sounds like it needs a tune up and constantly stalls. We have about the same size lawn that takes me less than an hour to mow. Because of the problems with his mower for the last year, he spends over 4 hours trying to finish his mowing.

He also spends additional time tinkering with the mower to get it to work. I joked with him, "It sounds like it's time to take the mower for service." He said, "Oh, it's old and I tried to fix it. We need a new mower."

My wife talked to his wife. We found that mowing the lawn and fixing the mower was a great accuse to get out of the performing more important activities around the house.

So how does this apply to our business and our lives?

How many times to we waste extra time because of ineffective habits or poorly thought out business processes? This is a killer on time. I run my business through checklists and prepared presentations. Since I know exactly what needs to be accomplished and I can do it right away without hesitation, I save tremendous amounts of time. Also, Never let an easily fixed problem create extra work.
What things are we wasting money on? My neighbor jumped to a conclusion that getting a new mower was the answer with finding out the extent of the problem. This mistake could have cost him an extra few hundred dollars. Get the mower properly tuned up by a professional is very inexpensive. If the professional tell you that you need a new mower then you know it's time.
How many times do we pick unimportant activities over important activities? This is a killer in business. Most business owners experience the E-myth's "entrepreneur seizure" and work in the business instead of working on the business.
How many times do we let poor motives undermine our success process? I find this is the number one reason that most people spin their wheels in life. They focus on wrong things. They let their self-limiting beliefs guide them. They defend their right to going nowhere and living poorly.

Don't let you life become like my neighbor and his lawn mower.

What do you do for a living?

2009-05-22T18:02:00.004-04:00

What do you do for a living? This is a common question someone you just meet will pose to you. Most people will answer back with a job title or their business name, but this is a perfect opportunity for you marketing yourself or your business.

Every business and employee on the fast track to success should have answer to this question that serves three purposes. First, create a positive image in the person's mind. Second, describe our jobs or business's benefit to a potential client. Third, be specifically targeted towards your best customer. If you're a business owner, we could add a four point which is make an offer.

Here's an example of what I say to people in they asked me what I do for a living.

"Well, have you every met a child with that gleam of confidence in their eyes? You know, that child that seems to have it all together – they’re able to communicate well, they are disciplined and responsible enough to get things done without being told, other seem to follow them because they are natural leaders. Just looking at them, you know, they’re bound for great success in college and their future career. Do you know a child like that?

Well, I teach at Maximum Impact Karate and that’s the type of student that we create at our school. We teach the success skills through karate that you don’t learn in school. Would you like to hear more about it?"

This pitch needs to be practiced to the point that you say it naturally and automatically. So what's your pitch?

Biggest Marketing Mistakes in a Down Economy

2009-05-22T08:36:00.003-04:00

Everybody has heard the news about the economy. It has struck fear in most people and business owners. In talking to most of my business owner friends, they are cutting expenses. Our business has been doing extremely well because we threw more money into our marketing efforts. During a down economy since most business owners are cutting marketing, your ads become more noticeable with less competition and cheaper as advertisers become more desperate for business.

Here's a list of three of the biggest marketing mistakes

1) Poorly Written Ads - Nothing is more expensive than a poorly written ad. A poorly written ad is a total waste of money. I squeeze four things into my ads to make them effective - Strong Headline, Body explaining how we can solve a specific problem, A call to action or offer, and testimonials

2) Lack of Consistency - Mistake number two is a lack of consistency. I've seen many business owners run an ad once and quit thinking that it doesn't work. Most prospects need to see advertisement 5 to 7 times before they take action.

3) Cutting Marketing Budget - In a poor economy, most businesses are tempted to cut their marketing budget. Cutting your marketing budget makes you almost invisible to your prospects, not a good thing in a poor economy. You should increase your marketing during a down economy to ensure that you are touching the people that are likely to buy.

Through successful marketing, you will continue to attract a wave of new customers. Also, making sure that you track the success of each source. We use separate trackable phone numbers for each ad source.

Reducing the Business Clutter

2009-05-20T08:32:00.002-04:00

Recently, I noticed that after 5 years at our dojo that we collected some extra clutter. My shelves on the mat had equipment that don’t use anymore. Our closed was stacked full with old inventory like kickboxing glove for a kickboxing class we canceled over a year ago. We pulled all this stuff out and sold it in our dojo at yard sale prices. For me, it was quite liberating.

It seems this clutter sort of creeps up on you – so slowly you don’t notice until one day “Bam”, you open your eyes and can believe all the stuff you collected.

I also noticed that I have alot of business clutter that I've been clearing out. I had many services that we don't use and coaching that was not helping me. I've been canceling any and all unnecessary services. It's unbelievable once you look at it closing enough how much money, I saved by clearing this clutter.

This is everyone's call to action to do some spring cleaning.

$1000 Worth of Business Coaching for Free

2009-05-18T11:12:00.001-04:00

Over the last few years, I have paid monthly for over $1000 in business coaching. Just recently, I dropped all of my coaching.

Why?
Well, at the beginning, I thought it was very valuable and made huge gains in my business. As I advanced and constantly improved my business, I found that most of the coaching was becoming re-runs of systems that I already implemented. It was like taking a 101 course in college over and over again.

Then, last year, I accepted a higher level of coaching that was business specific. They promoted the coaching as a masterminding session for like-minded individuals with a strict application process. I thought the idea was great, but the reality was different. I found that these business owners had the same problems as the lower level coaching, but were willing to pay more for the prestige of being a member of the group and them promoting your school as highly successful (even through, most of the schools were struggling). So there I was, listening to the 101 level stuff again but this time, I had a bunch of members asking me questions all the time.

Here's some observations that you can get the $1000 worth of business coaching for free...
1) Lower Level Memberships give the most value - It seems that the lower level memberships provide the most value, but business owners don't act on it. By implementing at least one idea a week, you will rocket your business to the top of the pack. I went from $1000 a month to less than $200 and receive the same value.
2) Participate in forums - There are many business forums out there. Start to participate in them with productive advise. If you find one with good business owners participating, you will receive tons of free advice to draw from.
3) Listen in on free business teleconference calls - Many of these are free because the facilitator is trying to gain business for paid memberships. I found that the information given on these teleconference calls is just as good as the paid memberships.
4) Watch the coaching advertising - Since getting high paying clients is difficult, most coaching programs have excellent marketing. If you are on their list, carefully study their marketing. Watch for the methods of contact and how each piece of marketing that makes you feel ~especially the piece that make you want to join. By replicating their marketing in your business, you will stimulate more business for free and receive valuable coaching on marketing.
5) Read Business Related Books - Since the goal of an book author is to sell books, they produce better content than any other source. My experienced showed that most coaching is attempting to sell you a higher level membership so the message and coaching is interlace with this purpose. Instead of getting your business rockin', they constantly promote the next thing stating that this system will make you rich.

Business Time Saver: Answering Service

2009-05-15T07:46:00.005-04:00

Ring, Ring! Does the sound of the phone strike fear about who’s answering the phone. Is training and developing high skilled phone staff taking all your time? Getting the phone answered is one of the most important functions in most businesses. Over the last year, I’ve been outsourcing many functions to save time and keep my staff to a minimum. I found that using an answering service has become my biggest time and money savers without sacrificing quality.

If your business is an appointment driven business like mine, finding a good answering service is one of the most cost effective and time effective services. My answering service provides 24/7 call answering and appointment scheduling for only about $150 per month. Before you wave off an answering service as something that your business can’t use or feel that you can do it better internally, read on.

Advantages of and answering service
Cost effective - For $150 per month, there’s no way you could staff your small business for answering the phones with that small of a budget.
24/7 answering – The great thing about an answering service is they answer your phone around the clock. My answering service has scheduled appointments for me as late as 10:00 at night. One of the most difficult things is getting a client back on the phone after they leave a message. This never becomes an issue because the phone is always answered.
No training required – Since answering services specialize in answering phones, they also provide you with trained phone staff therefore saving you the time of mentoring and training your own staff.
Better results – One of the major surprises of switching to answering service is that I experienced a better phone call to appointment conversion rate. Why? First off, the answering service is totally focused on scheduling appointments and strictly follow a script instead of your own staff providing two much information and kind of winging every phone call. Second, if the answering service does not immediately schedule an appointment, they get all of the prospects information for follow-up. This provides you a second chance for a follow up call.

Focus Internal Staff other more important activities – With the phones outsourced, my internal staff can concentrate on servicing student and working on upgrading memberships without being interrupted.

In my business, I answered most of the calls and inquiries. By going to answering service, I virtually saved eight additional hours of work per day. Almost overnight, I gained 40 additional hours to use on other high value activities. $150 is a small cost pay for so much more free time.

Wealth AhHa!

2009-05-13T08:39:00.001-04:00

My wife and I were at her company’s Christmas Dinner for employees. At our table was the CFO of her company. Well, during the conversation, he talked about how poor he was. Ester and I looked at each other in amazement because this CFO made a salary of about $300,000 plus bonuses. How could he be poor?

Then, the wealth AhHa! came to me…

Regardless of yearly income, we all feel the money pinch – rich or poor.

I guess the question remains whether your money pinch is lifestyle or wealth related.

Most have a lifestyle related money pinch meaning that they spend most of their income on that new car, bigger houses, and more stuff. These peoples spending balloon to the size of their income and carry credit cards debts. The lifestyle money pinch comes with great risks. Because, if you lose a job, your lifestyle remains the same – car payments, home mortgage, credit card payments, etc. The more money you make the higher the risk because you are able to build a larger lifestyle.

The wealth building money pinch is a different story. These people feel the money pinch because they are constantly using earned money to build additional wealth by investing in the future. It could be investing in your 401K or purchasing a rental property or investing in your education.

I must admit that I have felt the money pinch for years. I always had to watch my spending. For the first 10 year of my career, I saved and invested between 10 to 25% of my income in a 401K, an IRA, and a regular investment account. Later, I felt the pinch because I was investing in growing my new karate business. Now, 5 years later, I am still feeling the money pinch because I am preparing to purchase some commercial real estate.

Truthfully, my money pinch gives me a great piece of mind. I don’t mind forgoing the big car payments and oversized house to generate more wealth.

So what’s your money pinch is it lifestyle or wealth building?

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Those Annoying Door to Door Sales People

2009-05-12T08:37:00.004-04:00

It never fails. Everytime, I am at my business and rolling on the highly important items on my to-do list some sales person comes in to sell me another newspaper ad, coupon book, yellow pages, or mailing. It's not that I don't feel advertising is important, but it's the amount of time they waste and most of them create meager results for the cost.

It's best to just get good at saying "No". If you tell them you'll think about it, you open the door for them calling and following up with you, therefore wasting additional time. Saying "No" will thwart 95% of the salesman and send them out your door.

Okay, now for the other 5%. These are the more savvy salesman that won't leave on the initial "No". Sales training teaches these guys to find out what the objection is and they have a response to each objection. The idea is to elevate each objection so that you don't have a reason to buy their product or service. These salesman are great at wasting tremendous amounts of time.

How do you handle these savvy sales people?

It's as easy as not playing their objection game. When you say "You're not interested?" and they ask for the reason why. You can reserve the right to say "No". I tell them that "Sorry, but I don't need to justify my reason to say NO." This stumps them everytime.

If you do want the product or service, then say yes. If it's an advertisement, measure, measure, measure the results. I have separate phone numbers I use on ads to measure the results.

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We're Back!

2009-05-11T07:11:00.002-04:00

Last year, I stopped writing on this blog to concentrate on my businesses blog.

We're Back!!

This year has been the best year for my business despite the economic and financial climate. I have so much to share.

Over the last year, I took on tons of coaching and finally got rid of it all because it didn't help me at all. Most coaching is like get rich schemes where they continue to sell you the next big thing but never actually give you much value.

But on the other hand, many of the ideas that I had, generated great gains. I found that one of my best coaches was writing.

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Summertime of Marketing

2008-06-11T11:40:00.003-04:00

Wow, I am super busy and finding the time to journal is difficult. Most karate schools resolve themselves to the fact that summers at a Martial Arts Schools are slow. I have a totally different attitude.

Every summer, I don’t accept the whole slow theory. I see it as an opportunity to hit the pavement running and I spend my time marketing my school. Yes, that’s right. If you’re a school owner, don’t fret the summer – get busy now and you’ll have the busiest fall season of your life.

I feel the difference between success and failure is that…

The successful people always focus on tasks that will combat worries

Whenever I am worried about my student enrollments, the only way for me to elevate them is to perform tasks that will solve the problem –MARKETING. Instead of becoming a victim to my “poor-me” thoughts, I do everything in my power to fight back. I feel relieved when I write an e-mail campaign. Passing out flyers comforts me. Hanging posters reassures my soul.

What worries do you have? Focus on the activities that will produce the results that you desire and cast off the worries. Comfort yourself with the right activities and enjoy a worry-free summer.

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Wealth Secret – Money moves towards…

2008-06-04T09:34:00.002-04:00

I use to believe that money moves towards work. In other words, the harder I work the more money I make. This idea is self-limiting because we only have some much time available.

Later, as my tenure as a customer service manager, I realized that…

MONEY MOVES TOWARDS VALUE

This concept is true whether you are a business owner or an employee. The greater the value, the more money flows towards it. The concept is so simple and effective. The object is to add value to your business or job every day.

Adding Value for the Employee

Think like an owner – One of the biggest complains from business owners is that their employees don’t think like an owner
Create Measurable Results – The measurable results should involve a money impact. This could be creating a system that saves time (Non-value time saved), it could be increase in sales, etc.
No overtime – I found that people typically do overtime because of poor time management. Use the 80/20 rule (80% of the results flow from 20% of the activities) to determine the activities you focus on. Your 20% should be the activities that produce measurable results.

Adding Value for the Entrepreneur

Constantly look to add value – Improve every aspect of your business to add value for your customers. This includes the sales systems, marketing systems, cleanliness, service, etc.
Charge more for the extra value - Most of value is perceive by price. For example, two shops down from me is a bagel shop with coffee. The coffee costs $1.00 while around the corner Dunkin Donuts charges $1.70. I like her coffee (Green Mountain Blend) better than the Dunkin Donuts. I have heard her complain about the amount of income she’s earning. I always think to myself that she should raise the price of her coffee but I don’t say anything because I feel the price is great. If she raised the price to $1.70, I’d still purchase her coffee because I like it better, in fact, I would think that she got smart.
Don’t forget the importance of perceived value – Most people have a perception of value. Think about cars – if I talk about the Yugo, you think one thing and if I say Mercedes, you think differently.

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First Mastermind Conference Call

2008-05-16T17:59:00.002-04:00

My first conference call with my mastermind group was great. We talked about pre-framing customers at the beginning to upgrade into higher level programs. I learned a ton of information.

Today, I spend on the action items from the meeting. We needed to write four letters for the first four weeks after a new enrollment. Weeks 1, 2, and 3 talk about the benefits of their training and the added benefits of the Leadership program. The week 4 letter indicates that they may experience an increase in price depending on the plan they select.

I am super excited about this Peak Performers and believe it's going to help skyrocket make my school one of the top schools in the country.

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I joined the Peak Performers - Mastermind Group

2008-05-14T09:58:00.004-04:00

I joined a mastermind group. It's called the Peak Performers group.

So what is a mastermind group?
It's a group of non-competing school owners that get together to develop ideas to help each member out and hold each other accountable. I expect great results from this networking experience.

Why did I join?
Well, I am finding the more successful our business becomes the more resistance I receive from the people around me. If I want to change the curriculum, I am told that I am going to cheapen the art. Later, I do it and find that it produces better students and student outcomes. If I believe we are undervaluing our tuition, I am told that I will price myself out of the market. Only to find that raising the tuition has no effect on the number of students and a huge effect on the revenues.

These are all self-limiting beliefs. I need to get around people that are all ready producing the results I want. This is what a mastermind group is all about.

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Thoughts on Mentors

2008-05-09T13:53:00.003-04:00

I have an organization attempting to court me into their business mentoring services.

Common knowledge states that you NEED a mentor or coach in order to be successful. The interesting thing is that the same people professing this wisdom are interested in signing you up for their coaching services.

Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

In my experience, the more expensive the service the less value it seems to add. It's lots of Hoo-RA and no practical knowledge. Also, I think paying for these services hits a point of diminished returns.

What is a business owner to do?

Well here's some better and free options as opposed to spending a fortune

Network with Other Successful Businesses - Make sure that you only listen to business owners more successful than you. I keep in touch with a friend that owns a school like mine but is twice as successful. You better believe that I listen carefully to everything he says. One visit to his school gave me enough ideas to work on for a whole year. Each idea added thousands to my bottom line.
Have clearly defined goals - Define your goals for the next year. With these goals, create monthly goals that align with your yearly goals. Finally, work off of a daily task list that is created from looking at the monthly goals.
Take massive action - Most people hire mentors as a magic pill for their own laziness, only to find that they still need to do the work in improving their business.
Be a forever learner - Reading is one of the best and cheapest forms of learning. I glean more ideas from one good business book than any other source.
Look for one good gem - Suspend your judgment of other peoples ideas and listen. Even if 99% of their ideas are off base that one gem may generate endless amounts of revenue.
Boost your Marketing efforts - Marketing is one of the best tools for boosting your income. Most businesses market themselves too little.
Raise your prices - Constantly look for ways to increase your perceived value to your customers. Most people vastly underestimate the amount that customers are willing to pay for a product.
Find a Niche - This relates to #7. The better you define your target customer the more you can cater to their needs. The end result is commanding a higher price point.

There's my list of eight things to do instead of paying a mentor.

Can you think of more? Please leave us a comment.

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The Method IS The Message

2008-05-01T09:24:00.001-04:00

In direct response marketing, experts always talk about the headline, the message, and the offer. The message dictates why someone needs or wants your service. I find that in most services, you find that the message is outlandish claims and maybe a few great testimonials (I always wonder if the best testimonials would have received the results anyway).

With all of these outlandish claims, I wanted to discover how our school could be different and unique from our competitors in delivering our message. Well, I believe…

THE METHOD IS THE MESSAGE

What does this mean? How we living, think, and eating – The method - becomes our message. I am talking about personal branding here. Living in a small community (~2500 people), I understand that almost everyone knows who I am. People call me the “karate guy” or if they know more about karate, “Sensei”.

I could create any slick piece of marketing but everyone knows me. So if I didn’t living the Martial arts way, people would realize that my message is garbage pretty quickly. Blogging is my way of being transparent and accountable. By journaling, you are building your personal brand.

What is my personal branding? I stand for frugality, the environment, and simple living. I also strive constantly for personal excellence in everything I do. I maintain a healthful diet and a high level of physical fitness. I found the karate was my best vehicle for living my message.

Everyone who walks in our dojo will in someway experience my personal branding because it’s unavoidable. I built all of the schools systems so they naturally reflect my attitudes towards life.

Okay now it's your turn.
What is your personal branding (what are you all about)?

What is your method for delivering your message?

Is your journaling in-line with this message?

What systems can you put in place to deliver your message?

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How to run a successful business without being business obsessed

2008-04-29T10:17:00.002-04:00

I liked the martial arts business because I felt that it had the potential to be run only less than 8 hours a day. I said potential too… because when I first quit my regular job to pursue my karate business I found that I was working 12 hours a days. I was business obsessed. I thought the more hours that I worked the more successful the business would be. Instead, it burned me out and hurt my bottom line.

I see now that being business obsessed is a huge problem. I needed to work smart, not harder - to make a business more effective. This idea started me on the path of working towards reducing the number of hours but at the same time increase my results. Now that we're $10,000+ a month business, my business makes more money, but I actually work only about four hours per day.

Eight Steps to conquering business obsession and working fewer hours
Step 1: Automated billing – This step alone saved tons of hours. Chasing after people every month for their tuition is no fun. Automated billing makes collect tuition a cinch. We require this for every student. Okay, I hear someone saying that I will lose customers with these strict billing terms. Actually, I found this helps qualify good customers. If a customer does not like these terms, in essence, they are saying that they really cannot afford your services.

Step 2: Train your staff – For every hour of staff training, I free up about two hours of my time. A good staff multiple your effort ten-fold. In addition, you need to avoid the temptation to do tasks for them. During the day, I could easily finish the administrative tasks for my student manager, but I remind myself that it’s not my job. I use to do this and watch my student manager sit at the front desk bored out of her skull.

Step 3: Forward Business Phone to Cell Phone – During the typical day, we receive very little phone traffic. Most of the phone traffic is at night after people return from work. I was hanging out at the school all day, but found this added to my burn out. In addition, the only walk in traffic I received was time wasters like sales people attempting to sell advertisement or local vendors looking to chat. By forwarding my phones, I can work from home and still answer the important phone calls during the day.

Step 4: QuickBooks Integration - My billing company offered the option to integration my billing system with QuickBooks. I paid for the upgrade. Now, I push a button and in a few seconds, I’m done. The extra money is well worth the hours of time saved. As a bonus, I save money in accountant fees too.

Step 5: Website Opt-in - Here’s another upgrade I paid for. My website allows customers to Opt-in. The website opt-in automatically enters their information into my system for follow up. This saves the effort of manually entering their information and puts them in the cue for automatic follow up e-mails and our monthly newsletter.

Step 6: Create our own customer list – When prospects coming to my school or call, we get their address and e-mail. It’s easier than you think. This way, I can put them on my mailing and e-mail list. If they don't sign up right away, we consistently try to reconnect on a regular basis with them through mailings and our e-newsletter to entice them to join our school.

Step 7: E-newsletter – We had a newsletter that we printed and mailed every month. It was time consuming, expensive, and ineffective (not to mention wasteful with all the paper). Instead, we e-mail a monthly e-newsletter. No paper, no stamps, and it’s easy to put together. Customers can unsubscribe automatically (I don’t want to spam them). I blend elements together to easily make the newsletter. Feedburner Buzz Boost is great for this. With Buzz Boost, I create an automatically updating calendar of events, blog articles, and school announcements. I post this newsletter on our student section website too. All these elements create a synergistic effect because I use the same messages in many forms.

Step 8: Write a Blog – My personal blog at http://timrosanelli.blogspot.com gets more hits than my school website, therefore, casting a larger net for capturing the attention of potential students. In addition, you’re creating an atmosphere of being the obvious expert in our community for the martial arts. Currently, I have hundreds of reader following my own and schools adventures at the blog. Since not everyone is in my community, it also creates the opportunity to generate other products that you can market to these remote students.

Next steps: I generated more ideas to maximize my results and minimize my time. I plan to implement them by the end of the summer.

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Rapport Building - Gaze into my eyes

2008-04-16T14:44:00.008-04:00

In business, your success hinges on mastering rapport building skills. One of the best ways to build an instant rapport with someone is through eye contact and a smile. This will lead to a relax and friendly conversation. People will feel an instant connection to you - almost like you are an old friend.

But... most people feel uncomfortable and don't know what the appropriate level of eye contact is.

Well, here's a cool drill that will help.

I love little drills that you can basically practice through the regular course for the day. When you say "hi" or greet someone, just make a mental note the color of their eyes. It's so easy and works like a charm. Recognizing the color of their eyes will give you the exact proper amount of eye contact - about two to three seconds.

I found this work for one-on-one conversations, and also for groups when I teach my classes. You know, most of rapport building happens through non verbal communication. That little eye contact with each of my students during class makes them feel that I am paying attention to them. They also seem to listen better because it makes you more engaging.

At first, you will find yourself thinking the colors of their eyes - blue, brown, hazel, etc. but in time, I will become more natural. Give it a try for a week and see how it goes...

Do you have any good rapport building drills? Please comment below.

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Sending Post to Blogger via Jott

2008-04-13T18:49:00.000-04:00

Hi everybody. I just discovered the coolest thing. A few weeks ago, I was talking about this service called Jott. I found out that you can have Jott add a post directly to Blogger. It's the coolest thing. Right now, I'm just walking my dogs as I'm,well, making a journal entry into my this blog. Isn't that really cool? Okay, we'll talk to you soon.

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New Special Needs Karate Classes – Opportunity Knocks

2008-04-04T09:13:00.004-04:00

A few months ago, I had the idea of starting a special needs class for children Autism Spectrum Disorder. I spread the word about my interest to students, prospect, and members of the community

I thought teaching the class on Saturdays right after our leadership training would be a great opportunity for our leadership team to get some hands on – one on one – training. This would give a high student to teacher ratio – a win-win for everyone.

Suddenly last week, I got an e-mail from a caseworker, Ashley, at the Penn Foundation. She heard from a client that I would be interested in teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorders – PDD, Asperser’s, ADHD, etc.

I called her and she said that there’s a huge interest in a Karate Summer Program, but no one provides such a program for special needs children. What a great opportunity I thought!

Martial Arts Schools usually experience a summer slow down. Well, I found out that these children receive a summer program grant (no price resistance) and for one class a week – 12-week program, I can set a tuition rate that approaches my elite program rates!

I had a modest goal of 10 children. I wanted 10 children because it would give me the opportunity to fine tune the program and fill our school with enough students to makeup for the students that leave for the summer. In less than a week, I have two students signed up and five prospects. It looks like I may need to open another class.

If you’re school slows down for the summer (and you do not own a school in close to mine – LOL), you may want to look into this idea.

Sensei Tim Rosanelli
Maximum Impact Karate
(215) 249-3532
www.maximpactkarate.com
timrosanelli.blogspot.com

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Breaking the Paid by the Hour Paradigm

2008-03-26T08:46:00.002-04:00

One of the main reasons for my interest in starting a business was that I hate the Paid by the Hour idea of work. Once I became a salary employee, I hated that even more because your boss expected you to work overtime without extra compensation.

A business pays you by the results.

Good results mean good money. Poor results mean poor money.

I set out to create a business to unleash me from the paid by the hour paradigm. In other words, the old saying states “time is money”. This is a very paid by the hour thought.

After reading the The 4-Hour Workweek, I decided that I want to change the “time is money” to “the least time for the most money”. I am constantly looking for new ways to get greater results on less time.

I graduated college with a science degree so I am constantly experimenting. The experiment is to see if I can gradually start reducing my work hour to only 4 hours per day, five days a week.

So far, I’ve been very successful. I found that I was easily able to reduce my work hours from 10 to 12 per day, to about 5 hours per day. I am looking for people interested in teaching and eventually, I hope that I’ll be able to take some days off.

I’ll let you know how my experiment continues.

Tips on Cleaning from the Fly Lady

2008-03-19T10:28:00.004-04:00

I believe in running a school with white glove cleanliness. To make it easier on my staff, I wanted it outline each responsible. I am always looking for the most effective and efficient way. In my research, I run across the www.flylady.net.

I used the Fly Lady concepts to organize the cleaning at our business.

The Fly Lady’s concepts in a nutshell

Create Zones – The first area is to divide your business into zones. I divided our school in 5 zone: Entrance, Mat Area, Front Desk, Waiting Area, and Bathrooms
Make a Control Journal – The Control journal is where you store your basic routines and basic weekly plan.
Set Basic Routines – For each zone, you make a basic cleaning routine. The basic cleaning routine is a checklist tasks to finish the zone.
Determine the Weekly Plan – The weekly plan determine each day which routine and zone to cleaning.

Creating the control journal with a checklist of tasks and a schedule makes training and implementing with a staff easier. The bottom line is that your students reap the benefits. Most people don't want to train in an area that smells like a gym locker and they especially don't want to send their children there.

If you want to organize your business or home, I suggest visiting the www.flylady.com and set up your routines today. Next task to organize my home.

Eight Tips to Setting up your Small Business

2008-03-07T08:25:00.001-05:00

“Are you Crazy!?” are the exact words that came from my wife’s mouth when I told her that I wrote a business plan to start a Martial Arts School. She was reacting to me telling her that we would require about $50,000 for start up costs and the first few months of operating costs. Back to the drawing board, I went. I tweaked my plan so that we were able to start on less than a $1000. In less than 4 years, our business grew to a six figures income.

In those first three years of operation, I learned many important lessons that drove our business to success. Here’s some tips to setting up your small business.

Eight Tips to Setting up your Small Business

1. Start small first - . Most people dream of that cushy retail spot with plenty of space that will bring in many walk-by customers. Beware… a prime retail spot comes with a huge price tag, think small at first. Ask yourself, “What is the quickest way to make money?” For example, my original plan calculated the cost for a prime retail spot. Instead, I found an alternate location at a church auditorium. This decision suddenly made starting a martial arts school affordable because the monthly rent was ten times less than a retail spot.

Starting small had many advantages, too - It provided us time to build better systems, find a niche, grow our customer base, and create an income stream to reinvest in the business without the risk. Yes, after a year, we got that retail spot but only after our idea proved itself and we earned enough capital to move without worries.

2. Create a detail plan – Most people ignore creating a detail plan in favor of just starting the business. A detail plan will help you identify a niche and determine how you will get customers in your door. Ask, “How is my business different then the competition?” and “What methods will I use to get customer in the doors?”

Your plan should detail your break-even point. The break-even point is the amount of money required to stay in business. Brainstorm on how you will meet this break-even amount.

3. Get professional advice - Before you open your door for business, seek the advice from a qualified accountant and lawyer. Your accountant and lawyer will become important members of your team to help you reach your business goals, assess risk, and hold you accountable.

4. Find a niche - You definitely do not want as Dan Kennedy says, “to roll around in the mud with Wal-Mart competing for the lowest price” This is a losing strategy for any business instead look for a niche – a special area that has little or no competition. A niche market resonates with specific customers – they want your product or service because it’s special – different. Niche markets enable you to charge a premium for your product or service, therefore maximizing your business revenue.

5. Market like crazy – Don’t let anyone come within 5 feet of you without telling them about your business. Constantly, paint a picture of the benefits of what you offer. Along with traditional marketing – flyers, ads, and mailers, the best marketing for small businesses comes through referrals and networking. Building referrals systems will assist in your businesses grow exponentially. Prospects referred from existing customers will purchase more and give less price resistance because their friend sold them on your business before even walking through the door.

6. Test your idea – Put your product or service in the market on a limited time basis. You could mail a simple test advertisement, set up a table at convention or festival, or offer it through a website. Stimulating interest in this way will provide valuable feedback so that you can tweak your product or service to fit with the public demand.

7. System driven business – Once your business is up and running, focus on creating a system driven business. Michael Gerber’s states in his book, The E-myth, that most business owners are technicians that one day suffers an “entrepreneurial seizure”. Instead of thinking about technical part of doing the job, build systems to drive the business. How will you greet the customer? What do you say when you answer the phone? What is your system of creating referrals and repeat business? What is your sales presentation? Every aspect of your business needs to be a written down procedure that you and employees follow consistently. The system can change but test each change and measure the results. With excellent systems, customer will applaud your efforts and you will save time to spend on the most important activities in the business.

8. Become the Obvious Expert – Do you want customers to flock to your business? Yes. Then work on becoming the obvious expert in your field. There are many methods of becoming the obvious expert. Here’s some quick ideas for you to boost your status to the obvious expert - writing article for newspapers, create a blog, give free talks and seminars, provide valuable free resources on a website, or publish a book or e-book

With a little brainstorming and perspiration, you can start your own small business. If you play it smart, you too can start your successful small business with little or no capital.

5 Essential Environmental Self-Defense Techniques

2008-02-21T08:23:00.001-05:00

Today, you are going to earn your white belt in Environmental Self-Defense. Just like in the martial arts, I teach 5 basic blocks for white belt. We're going to talk about 5 essential techniques of Environmental Self-Defense. Once you implement these 5 essentials into your school – congratulation, you earned your white belt in the new martial arts style of the Green Warrior.

Why start with these 5 techniques?
I have organized the information so that the first five techniques are the easiest to implement and give the environment and your wallet the biggest impact. So, let’s get start! Shall we?

Checklist of 5 Essential Environmental Self-Defense Techniques
1) Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) – Replace any standard incandescent bulbs in your business used more than 15 minutes per day with compact fluorescent light bulbs.

2) Programmable Thermostat - Did you know that you could save over 33% on your energy bill by getting a programmable thermostat. You create a 10% energy saving on heating or cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours. 10% means, instead of setting you’re heating to 68, you set it to 62 or for cooling; you set the thermostat to 78, instead of 72. Programmable Thermostats make this easy by programming a schedule to turn your thermostat back when you are not there.

3) Water Heater Insulation - Water heating accounts for about 13% of your total heating costs. Reduce your impact by turning the thermostat down and insulating your water heater.

4) Recycle – Businesses are one of the biggest producers of garbage but also, business are less likely than individuals to have a recycling plan. Green you’re school by providing recycling bins. Place them in high traffic areas for example, by the entrance, by the front desk, in the parent’s waiting area, and by any vending machine. Make sure to clearly label the recycling bins and communicate with your students regularly about the importance of recycling.

5. Weather Stripping Doors – Tremendous heat loss occurs at the entrances and exits. Adding weather stripping to your doors will minimize this heat loss - especially focus on the often-neglected emergency exits. Weather stripping will not only assist in reducing heat loss but it has the added benefit of making the room more comfortable for your students and families by reducing drafts.

Once you mastered these 5 Essential Environmental Self-defense tasks, you can consider yourself a white belt in environmental self-defense. Your Green Warrior journey to a black belt in Environmental Self-defense has begun…