What does the outside of your business say about you?

“We are bland, boring, and just like everyone else on the block. Nothing here to see, so don’t even bother coming in.”

or

“Hey! You there! Look at this cool place! This is the kind of place that’s just right for someone like you. That’s right, it’s your place. Come on in, look around, see if you like it. I made it for you, after all.”

Get the picture?

Your outside needs to look as good as your inside (more on the inside next time). How do you do that?

Leave the store. That’s right, go outside and pretend you’re a customer. Do you know that most business owners almost never see their store from the front? Why not? Two reasons:

1. They usually enter their business through the back door, or
2. They usually enter their business while it’s dark, in early morning or at night.

Go outside, across the street, prefereably. Look at your business through your customer’s eyes. If you don’t like what you see, good. You’ve found changes to be made that will make your business a more inviting place your future customers will want to enter.

If you like what you see, ask somebody else. Like our children, it’s hard for us to see the defects in our own progeny. You need someone who will be honest with you, someone who will tell you the truth. A colleague, trusted friend, or, perhaps, a consultant.

The next step? Listen.

9-8-11: Think Further

Found Train Ticket, a photo by anastaz1a on Flickr.

According to Roy H. Williams, “rich people get rich because they think further ahead than the rest of us”.

Most people are sitting (figuratively) and waiting for the nxt thing to happen. It’s a behavior you sometimes see in dogs: “throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball.” Instead of waiting for something to happen, we need to be making things happen.

That’s right, MAKING things happen. And the first step of that, as in everything, is figuring out what you want. Really want. Then, work backwards, to where you are now. Map out the steps that will get you to that goal.

Then the hard part. Figure out HOW. The hows are probably the hardest thing of all, so I tend to fall back on what I consider to be one of the best things I’ve ever said (which, I admit, I probably didn’t think of first:

“The best way to be in the right place at the right time is to be in lots of places”

In other words, try lost of things. You will fail. Often. The interesting thing is, the more you fail, you will surely succeed. Paitence is more than a virtue; it’s a necessity. So is persistence. Most people, if they fail, they stop. Listen: If you stop, you fail. The trick is not stopping. Are there times when you need to “get realistic” and go do something else? Of course. But not nearly as often as you might think.

Now go do something.
Robert B. Wallis

Friday Thought

There has never, in all of human history, been even one human being who succeeded without screwing up first.

Everything I Know About Life I Learned From Mythbusters:

Failure is ALWAYS an Option

Follow These Simple Steps to Success

Follow These Simple Steps to Success

STEP 1 – VISION: Figure out what you want, in great detail

STEP 2 – EMOTION: Feel it – Be it – Live it. What would it feel like to already have what you want?

STEP 3 – PLAN: Start where you want to be and work backwards. Work out the steps to get there.

STEP 4 – GAIN KNOWLEDGE: “Do what the masters do and you will become a master.” – Joseph J Charbonneau, past director of the National Speakers Association.

STEP 5 – ACT: Take action every day. Ask yourself, “What can I do today to move me closer to my goal?”

STEP 6 – PERSIST: “Never, never, never quit!” – Winston Churchill. How can you give up when one more step could take you to success?

Today’s Thoughtful Quote

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.”
- Michelangelo

Experience vs. Cost

A colleague of mine who works in retail related the story of a new department manager who had management experience, but little retail experience. I have seen this happen in the past, and it always puzzles me, for a couple of reasons:

You have a leader who has no idea of how the business works. Just because someone knows how to hire and fire, it doesn’t mean they know anything about retail. I witnessed this in the restaurant business, where a manager was hired who knew nothing about restaurants (well, he probably was a waiter at one time, weren’t we all?), and proceeded to anger the staff at busy times by walking into the back and asking “What can I do?”

My philosophy is, if you don’t know what needs to be done, you have no business being a leader.

This can also affect the morale of staff. The thought goes something like: “why is this guy the boss? He doesn’t even know what needs to be done”

And yes, I realize that you don’t have to know everything about the operation to lead. But you do need to exude the confidence that you can lead, so that your staff does not feel like they are the ones running the show, and you are making all the money.

To your success,

Robert B. Wallis
www.thewallisgroup.com