The Garfield disease
Growing up I used to watch Garfield and think man I wish I was a cat. Eat and sleep all day what a dream. Through high school I had similar sentiments, just get through another day and hit the hay.
Along came varsity, here where it got exciting because now I had access to car which meant I could get to the local fast food joint. Fantastic the dream was coming true at last, every day I would leave varsity rush off to mc D’s or somewhere grab some chow, head home and sleep in the afternoon.
Now don’t get me wrong sleep is very important, and I still love it but what a waste.
But it doesn’t stop there does it? Once you have Garfield disease it starts to infect your blood stream and finally your brain until you feel like sitting around and doing nothing is normal.
What I was finding was that my life was becoming a blur, I was very happy with doing nothing, and when I had to do something I found ways of prolonging the inevitable. In other words I procrastinated. Anyone who knows me well knows I was the king of procrastination. I would put things off till the very last second.
Admittedly I achieved very little in six years of trying to do nothing, living the dream I thought. I suppose I achieved exactly what I had set out to do.
When I got my job in sales, I was working for my friend’s dad, who hired me because he knew me, maybe he saw potential. I was quite nervous as I had never been in sales before and I did really know what to do. Whilst chatting to my friend about this he said something which changed my life. He said just do everything you’re told and do it as fast as possible don’t put things off. Now at the time I didn’t really realise the impact of this statement, but looking back...
I started the job where I was thrown into the deep end. These words constantly rang through my mind. As soon as I was told to something I did as promptly as possible. I knew myself if I didn’t do it then and there I would forget, slowly but surely I started to fight Garfield disease and I was winning. Every appointment I made brought me closer to beating it. I started applying the rule in my daily life, when someone asked for something I did it immediately, knowing I had done tasks required of me took pressure off my shoulders, I could relax more, The more relaxed I was the less I felt inclined to sleep.
After a relatively successful run in sales I left and moved to the big city. Here I was forced to be in a desk job. Again following the same rule, but what I found was that I wasn’t getting orders anymore it was up to me. But Garfield disease had almost been beaten out of my system by this stage. I started to plan my days, setting aside various amounts of time to perform tasks. I used a check list, enabling me to ensure my work was complete.
I stopped procrastinating. Admittedly my new worked help as they banned facebook. But this wasn’t a problem anymore I had realised how much time I was wasting, I was a new person a productive person, someone who made a contribution instead of just taking and never giving.
Think about these words. How much time have you wasted today?
Please let me know what you think.
Advice is welcome by adding comment below.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Saving Money on your Grocery bill.
A few tips for saving you some cash
Recently having moved out of my parent’s house into my own pad, I found that my grocery bill was seriously putting a damper on my bank balance. So I thought I would do some research into where my money goes, and give you a few tips on saving money.
The first thing I did was to keep my slips and add up in categories what I was spending money on. Now I’m not going to tell you where my money goes but what I am going to do is point out a few observations you can use to save money.
The first thing I noticed was how much I was spending on lunch, now I like my junk food, but when I added it up it just didn’t seem worth it, for example a Mc Meal will cost you about R24 now, this is pretty much the cheapest meal you can buy at a fast food place. 24 x 20 = R480 per month and like I said this is the cheapest, I don’t really like Mc D’s because it gives you that instant gratification and then makes you feel sick after. What I do love is the Wimpy or KFC now here we’re looking at +- R50 a meal 50 x20 = R1000 per month. So my first piece of advise is make your own lunch, Bread = 6 loaves per month = R60. Ham, if you like your ham R80 per month, Cheese R50 per month, Mayo R30 per month and butter R15 per month, total cost = R255 for lunch for the whole month. You could even add lettuce and Tomatoes into that equation and you will still be saving.
The second thing I notice was how much I was spending on Cold drinks, I’m a bit of a 24hour store junky. What I noticed was how much I spend on drinks at the local garage store; there were some weeks where I would buy a cold drink every day. These would cost close to R10, costing me an unnecessary R50 per week, or R200 per month. My recommendation is either pre-buy drinks from a hypermarket or drink water obviously this is the bigger saving and is obviously healthier, in fact a friend of mine has been doing this for years and he looks great. The same rule also applies for coffee, times are tough and looking cool is off the priority list; take a canteen to work this will save you a fortune.
Now another thing I noticed was how much it costs to buy food stuffs at a supermarket especially in current times. So my third piece of advice is to shop at a hypermarket it doesn’t matter which hypermarket obviously excluding specialised stores but generally speaking you’ll get the better deal when shopping at a hyper store. The reason for this is because the superstores are run by the store manager who sets prices according to the profit he wishes to make, where as the hyper stores prices are governed by the franchise. Also make a note what you’re paying, where and on what brand. If there is cheaper brand use it. Canned food is canned food.
The fourth piece of advice is simply create a shopping list and stick to it, if you find this difficult you could consider shopping online, this will allow you to compare prices and save on petrol. Also obviously you are less likely to buy from the temptations counter if you are not there. Another way to save money is to not shop when you’re hungry, this will only induce you to buy more.
The fifth piece of advice I actually got from Gareth but it applies in the context, we all need indulgences, so decided what yours is going to be for the month and have it once or twice, make the decision at the beginning of the month to not over indulge because then you can budget for it.
In saying this, the thought crossed my mind that you need to keep a budget, how can you save if you do not know what you’re spending.
Dinner time treats are fun but you can save a fortune by preparing them yourself for example Pizza. I have a friend who makes fantastic pizza which can feed a ton of people and I can grantee it costs less than the current up to R70 a pizza. Sure it’ll take you longer but if you save R50 per meal it’ll soon add up.
This is difficult one for city dwellers, but a great way to save money is to avoid shops, if you don’t want to spend money don’t go to places where you can. Just stay away from the mall.
My second last piece of advice is a difficult one, but here it is; I used to be Mr Party, going out all the time to night clubs and spending a pretty penny while I was there. Now What I’m not saying is don’t enjoy yourself. What I am saying is put a limit on it, I barely go out anymore due to a lifestyle change and what I noticed is how much money I have to spend on things I actually want. If we look at the cost of going out and add it up, it gets scary. I’m going to be a cheap date and say a night out at the club costs R300 on average. If you go out three times a week that’s R900, x 4 weeks = R3600 now I know some people who live off that. Bear this in mind. Like I said I’m not telling you to not enjoy yourself, so set limits. Say to yourself you’re only going out once a week. This will already save you R2700 on average, another strong recommendation is just don’t take your wallet, I’ve heard countless stories of people pulling out their credit card on a night out and then crapping themselves in the morning when they see the bill. So set aside the amount of money you expect the night to cost or the amount you are willing to spend and go out with that, when you run out you run out, inevitably you’ll spend less.
And lastly although it has nothing to do with Groceries I thought I would add it anyway. Don’t pay for a gym you’re not attending. Why pay for nothing, because you might use it one day, well when that day comes you can join again, but go out and cancel your subscription if you don’t use it.
I hope this was a useful blog please provide me with comment, it would be much appreciated.
Recently having moved out of my parent’s house into my own pad, I found that my grocery bill was seriously putting a damper on my bank balance. So I thought I would do some research into where my money goes, and give you a few tips on saving money.
The first thing I did was to keep my slips and add up in categories what I was spending money on. Now I’m not going to tell you where my money goes but what I am going to do is point out a few observations you can use to save money.
The first thing I noticed was how much I was spending on lunch, now I like my junk food, but when I added it up it just didn’t seem worth it, for example a Mc Meal will cost you about R24 now, this is pretty much the cheapest meal you can buy at a fast food place. 24 x 20 = R480 per month and like I said this is the cheapest, I don’t really like Mc D’s because it gives you that instant gratification and then makes you feel sick after. What I do love is the Wimpy or KFC now here we’re looking at +- R50 a meal 50 x20 = R1000 per month. So my first piece of advise is make your own lunch, Bread = 6 loaves per month = R60. Ham, if you like your ham R80 per month, Cheese R50 per month, Mayo R30 per month and butter R15 per month, total cost = R255 for lunch for the whole month. You could even add lettuce and Tomatoes into that equation and you will still be saving.
The second thing I notice was how much I was spending on Cold drinks, I’m a bit of a 24hour store junky. What I noticed was how much I spend on drinks at the local garage store; there were some weeks where I would buy a cold drink every day. These would cost close to R10, costing me an unnecessary R50 per week, or R200 per month. My recommendation is either pre-buy drinks from a hypermarket or drink water obviously this is the bigger saving and is obviously healthier, in fact a friend of mine has been doing this for years and he looks great. The same rule also applies for coffee, times are tough and looking cool is off the priority list; take a canteen to work this will save you a fortune.
Now another thing I noticed was how much it costs to buy food stuffs at a supermarket especially in current times. So my third piece of advice is to shop at a hypermarket it doesn’t matter which hypermarket obviously excluding specialised stores but generally speaking you’ll get the better deal when shopping at a hyper store. The reason for this is because the superstores are run by the store manager who sets prices according to the profit he wishes to make, where as the hyper stores prices are governed by the franchise. Also make a note what you’re paying, where and on what brand. If there is cheaper brand use it. Canned food is canned food.
The fourth piece of advice is simply create a shopping list and stick to it, if you find this difficult you could consider shopping online, this will allow you to compare prices and save on petrol. Also obviously you are less likely to buy from the temptations counter if you are not there. Another way to save money is to not shop when you’re hungry, this will only induce you to buy more.
The fifth piece of advice I actually got from Gareth but it applies in the context, we all need indulgences, so decided what yours is going to be for the month and have it once or twice, make the decision at the beginning of the month to not over indulge because then you can budget for it.
In saying this, the thought crossed my mind that you need to keep a budget, how can you save if you do not know what you’re spending.
Dinner time treats are fun but you can save a fortune by preparing them yourself for example Pizza. I have a friend who makes fantastic pizza which can feed a ton of people and I can grantee it costs less than the current up to R70 a pizza. Sure it’ll take you longer but if you save R50 per meal it’ll soon add up.
This is difficult one for city dwellers, but a great way to save money is to avoid shops, if you don’t want to spend money don’t go to places where you can. Just stay away from the mall.
My second last piece of advice is a difficult one, but here it is; I used to be Mr Party, going out all the time to night clubs and spending a pretty penny while I was there. Now What I’m not saying is don’t enjoy yourself. What I am saying is put a limit on it, I barely go out anymore due to a lifestyle change and what I noticed is how much money I have to spend on things I actually want. If we look at the cost of going out and add it up, it gets scary. I’m going to be a cheap date and say a night out at the club costs R300 on average. If you go out three times a week that’s R900, x 4 weeks = R3600 now I know some people who live off that. Bear this in mind. Like I said I’m not telling you to not enjoy yourself, so set limits. Say to yourself you’re only going out once a week. This will already save you R2700 on average, another strong recommendation is just don’t take your wallet, I’ve heard countless stories of people pulling out their credit card on a night out and then crapping themselves in the morning when they see the bill. So set aside the amount of money you expect the night to cost or the amount you are willing to spend and go out with that, when you run out you run out, inevitably you’ll spend less.
And lastly although it has nothing to do with Groceries I thought I would add it anyway. Don’t pay for a gym you’re not attending. Why pay for nothing, because you might use it one day, well when that day comes you can join again, but go out and cancel your subscription if you don’t use it.
I hope this was a useful blog please provide me with comment, it would be much appreciated.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
What have you done today?
What have you done today?
In 1910 a women by the name of Glades was born, she decided she wanted to be a missionary for the church, so she went on courses and trained in Ireland and India, until she felt she knew where God was leading her. After her training she went to leaders of the church and said I have three penny’s to my name, I’m going to build an orphanage. Well you can imagine what happened next. Now being a holy place I doubt they laughed in her face but I wouldn’t be surprised if they sniggered a bit. The leaders of the church told her that there is no way she could build an orphanage with three penny’s, it costs millions they said.
Her reply was simply, I can’t build a orphanage with three penny’s but God can, Glades then went off to work with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta India for fifty five years, where she eventually did get her Orphanage actually she got quite a few and raised millions for orphaned children worldwide. Before she died Mother Teresa won the Nobel peace prize.
This is just one more example of how one person can make a difference. She refused to listen to the negativity of her peers and persisted in following her dream. Now I’m not saying we are all meant to be saints or we must all stop what we are doing to help the poor or needy.
What I am really aiming at is that Mother Teresa had a goal, she set her sights on something and went for it, and it wasn’t easy it wasn’t fun but it had great rewards in the end.
What have you done today? Have you set a goal? Or are you just waiting for something to happen. Something I have learned over the years is that things don’t just happen; you have to work for them, if you want to be smart I suggest you start learning something, if you want to be a springbok consider not watching TV today and going to the gym.
I don’t claim to have all the answers but what I am sure of is that if you set goals and get off your bum and do something about them, you will achieve, it won’t happen overnight but nothing ever does.
Please let me know what you think of this latest blog by adding a comment on the bottom thanks.
In 1910 a women by the name of Glades was born, she decided she wanted to be a missionary for the church, so she went on courses and trained in Ireland and India, until she felt she knew where God was leading her. After her training she went to leaders of the church and said I have three penny’s to my name, I’m going to build an orphanage. Well you can imagine what happened next. Now being a holy place I doubt they laughed in her face but I wouldn’t be surprised if they sniggered a bit. The leaders of the church told her that there is no way she could build an orphanage with three penny’s, it costs millions they said.
Her reply was simply, I can’t build a orphanage with three penny’s but God can, Glades then went off to work with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta India for fifty five years, where she eventually did get her Orphanage actually she got quite a few and raised millions for orphaned children worldwide. Before she died Mother Teresa won the Nobel peace prize.
This is just one more example of how one person can make a difference. She refused to listen to the negativity of her peers and persisted in following her dream. Now I’m not saying we are all meant to be saints or we must all stop what we are doing to help the poor or needy.
What I am really aiming at is that Mother Teresa had a goal, she set her sights on something and went for it, and it wasn’t easy it wasn’t fun but it had great rewards in the end.
What have you done today? Have you set a goal? Or are you just waiting for something to happen. Something I have learned over the years is that things don’t just happen; you have to work for them, if you want to be smart I suggest you start learning something, if you want to be a springbok consider not watching TV today and going to the gym.
I don’t claim to have all the answers but what I am sure of is that if you set goals and get off your bum and do something about them, you will achieve, it won’t happen overnight but nothing ever does.
Please let me know what you think of this latest blog by adding a comment on the bottom thanks.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
What recruiters look for
What recruiters look for:
I’ve been a recruitment consultant for nearly eight months now, so I don’t claim to know everything about the field but I can point a few things that I have picked up and hopefully I can share some of this information in order to help you in your next interview. Bare in mind a recruiters job is to find jobs they are not going out of their way to ensure that you don’t get a job.
As a recruiter consultant it is my professional responsibility and obligation to find, assess and qualify candidates for positions provided for me by my clients or organizations. In order to do this I need to find my candidates first. I like all recruiters use the internet to source candidates CV’s who have the qualifications I need. Most in South Africa use http://www.pnet.co.za/ or http://www.careerjunction.co.za/
So my first piece of advice I can offer to you; is make sure your CV is very clear and legable, use tables to put in a skills matrix, the more detail you have the more likely someone like me will notice you. For example if I get a spec from a company that asks me to find a Java programmer with a small amount of experience, and you are a programmer who specialises in C++ but also knows and would consider the position but doesn’t put it in their CV, well if it’s not there I cannot consider you. So you won’t even make it to the interview.
Once a recruiter understands your focus, he/she will want to know if you have the required core competencies or transferable skills to accomplish the job. A thorough research of employer job descriptions will help you identify the core competencies your CV must feature.
You’ll capture and hold recruiter attention by including only those core competencies relating specifically to your focus. Be careful not to muddy up your personal marketing message by including extraneous skills. If you remember the all-important rule of relevancy, you’ll go a long way toward keeping the reader’s attention on your key skills.
Job seekers must ensure that the contact information they provide on their resume is reliable. Your resume should be updated regularly. In response to one of our postings this week, one of our recruiters received a resume from a job seeker who had a disconnected phone number listed in the resume. The telephone is still a crucial part of the recruitment process; there have been other cases in which individuals are on the phone when we call, do not answer call waiting and allow the phone to continue to ring. Remember--if someone can’t leave a message for you, then they cannot offer you an interview or a position.
Bear in mind that recruiters although some of the more experienced think they are, are not mind readers. Or have special powers of any sort, so if it’s not there they won’t know it.
Now lets just say that you do fit the description they are looking for. You will get a call from a recruiter and he or she will set up an appointment to see you, the reason for this is firstly that they need to evaluate your ability and knowledge through a formal or for the less professional recruiters an informal interview.
The purpose of this is also to interpersonally evaluate the attitude and persona of the individual, this interview also allows the recruiter to evaluate whether or not the candidate fits the corporate culture of the organisation where the job exists.
So my second piece of advice is; come well presented you don’t often find a corporate company where you can dress in slacks and a T-shirt anymore, obviously computer programmers sometimes get away with it but even computer programmers must realise that if they want to work for a large high paying organisation they will have no option but to clean up and have a haircut, Now I’m not saying you can’t get a job if you like your grunge, but what I can say is if you do like grunge you do you need to change your style cause grunge is dead.
Another piece of advice for an interview is; be on time, if you can’t show up on time you obviously don’t really want the job and your commitment probably isn’t there. That’s not to say that you won’t be interviewed or make it through to the next round, but you set a bad precedent. which means, where the recruiter may have highly recommended you they will now simply send your CV if you are qualified.
Now What if it can’t be helped and you really can’t make the interview. Remember it is a recruiter’s job to do whatever it takes to try and fill the position they have been given so generally if you call and reschedule they will be understanding and set another time, don’t do this more than once, again it gives the impression that you are not that interested. Do not just not show up, the reason for this is should you want a job in the future that the recruitment agency holds you won’t get it cause they’ll have a record of your not showing up and marking you as a bad candidate.
Now you’re in the interview, obviously you’re nervous but bear in mind; if you don’t say it the recruiter cannot record it and if they cannot record it they cannot report back to the client. Also please from a recruiters' perspective answers the questions they ask you and not pre decided ones. So often I ask a question and my candidate replies with something that has nothing to do with the question, and in my case all my questions stand alone and thus if the incorrect answer is given, that section in laymen’s terms is failed thus reducing the chance of me providing good feedback to the client thus it reduces your chance of getting the job.
However it’s not as hard as it seems if you have the experience you say you do and you can communicate what you have done and experienced you have as well displaying a positive attitude you should have really good chance of getting the potential opportunity of a life time.
Good luck and happy job hunting.
Please give me any feedback you may have by posting a comment.
I’ve been a recruitment consultant for nearly eight months now, so I don’t claim to know everything about the field but I can point a few things that I have picked up and hopefully I can share some of this information in order to help you in your next interview. Bare in mind a recruiters job is to find jobs they are not going out of their way to ensure that you don’t get a job.
As a recruiter consultant it is my professional responsibility and obligation to find, assess and qualify candidates for positions provided for me by my clients or organizations. In order to do this I need to find my candidates first. I like all recruiters use the internet to source candidates CV’s who have the qualifications I need. Most in South Africa use http://www.pnet.co.za/ or http://www.careerjunction.co.za/
So my first piece of advice I can offer to you; is make sure your CV is very clear and legable, use tables to put in a skills matrix, the more detail you have the more likely someone like me will notice you. For example if I get a spec from a company that asks me to find a Java programmer with a small amount of experience, and you are a programmer who specialises in C++ but also knows and would consider the position but doesn’t put it in their CV, well if it’s not there I cannot consider you. So you won’t even make it to the interview.
Once a recruiter understands your focus, he/she will want to know if you have the required core competencies or transferable skills to accomplish the job. A thorough research of employer job descriptions will help you identify the core competencies your CV must feature.
You’ll capture and hold recruiter attention by including only those core competencies relating specifically to your focus. Be careful not to muddy up your personal marketing message by including extraneous skills. If you remember the all-important rule of relevancy, you’ll go a long way toward keeping the reader’s attention on your key skills.
Job seekers must ensure that the contact information they provide on their resume is reliable. Your resume should be updated regularly. In response to one of our postings this week, one of our recruiters received a resume from a job seeker who had a disconnected phone number listed in the resume. The telephone is still a crucial part of the recruitment process; there have been other cases in which individuals are on the phone when we call, do not answer call waiting and allow the phone to continue to ring. Remember--if someone can’t leave a message for you, then they cannot offer you an interview or a position.
Bear in mind that recruiters although some of the more experienced think they are, are not mind readers. Or have special powers of any sort, so if it’s not there they won’t know it.
Now lets just say that you do fit the description they are looking for. You will get a call from a recruiter and he or she will set up an appointment to see you, the reason for this is firstly that they need to evaluate your ability and knowledge through a formal or for the less professional recruiters an informal interview.
The purpose of this is also to interpersonally evaluate the attitude and persona of the individual, this interview also allows the recruiter to evaluate whether or not the candidate fits the corporate culture of the organisation where the job exists.
So my second piece of advice is; come well presented you don’t often find a corporate company where you can dress in slacks and a T-shirt anymore, obviously computer programmers sometimes get away with it but even computer programmers must realise that if they want to work for a large high paying organisation they will have no option but to clean up and have a haircut, Now I’m not saying you can’t get a job if you like your grunge, but what I can say is if you do like grunge you do you need to change your style cause grunge is dead.
Another piece of advice for an interview is; be on time, if you can’t show up on time you obviously don’t really want the job and your commitment probably isn’t there. That’s not to say that you won’t be interviewed or make it through to the next round, but you set a bad precedent. which means, where the recruiter may have highly recommended you they will now simply send your CV if you are qualified.
Now What if it can’t be helped and you really can’t make the interview. Remember it is a recruiter’s job to do whatever it takes to try and fill the position they have been given so generally if you call and reschedule they will be understanding and set another time, don’t do this more than once, again it gives the impression that you are not that interested. Do not just not show up, the reason for this is should you want a job in the future that the recruitment agency holds you won’t get it cause they’ll have a record of your not showing up and marking you as a bad candidate.
Now you’re in the interview, obviously you’re nervous but bear in mind; if you don’t say it the recruiter cannot record it and if they cannot record it they cannot report back to the client. Also please from a recruiters' perspective answers the questions they ask you and not pre decided ones. So often I ask a question and my candidate replies with something that has nothing to do with the question, and in my case all my questions stand alone and thus if the incorrect answer is given, that section in laymen’s terms is failed thus reducing the chance of me providing good feedback to the client thus it reduces your chance of getting the job.
However it’s not as hard as it seems if you have the experience you say you do and you can communicate what you have done and experienced you have as well displaying a positive attitude you should have really good chance of getting the potential opportunity of a life time.
Good luck and happy job hunting.
Please give me any feedback you may have by posting a comment.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Time to share something you probably didn’t know.
Business planning
I worked in sales for eight months and only when I started my new job was I introduced to business plans. Selling like everything involves work, you get different types of salesmen but one thing I can tell you they all have in common, is that they all feel they are the best.
Being in a recruitment role however I have interviewed a lot of salesmen and I can say without a doubt that the most successful salesmen are the ones that do their homework. This can be done in the form of a business plan. A business plan can be useful in formalizing an initial business idea, qualifying a client, let me explain qualifying a client, a lot of sales people treat all the their clients equally and will make sales no matter how big or small or how time consuming. Good sales people qualify their clients, in other words they decide which clients are worth their while based on services or products they can offer, as well as basing their decision on potential gains.
The most common form of qualifying clients is using a business plan to formalise and evaluate clients or opportunities in business. Here comes the fun stuff.
Steps involved in formulating a business plan.
Step 1 Define a the initial concept,
Your concept could be any general ideal that you have or would like to implement for example a new product or service, a better product or service – improving on current products with improved quality, price, features, reliability, speed or convenience. Your idea could involve taking a product or service to a new geographical area to a new demographic that is currently underserved. For example 28 years ago a man named Grant started a franchise of Nashua in Bloemfontein today he is a multimillionaire using an idea that was not new or unique at the time, he simply had the monopoly in his area. Or you could use the concept of a client you wish to target, an element of the business plan I have become particularly familiar with and have found very useful.
Define your concept.
1. What do you plan to do
2. What need you plan to meet
3. What industry you plan to operate in
4. Why you are different or better than the current players
Obviously this will need to be elaborated on but I will leave that to you
Step 2 Research
The best sales people and businessmen in the world understand that research is probably the most important part of successfully realising your concept. Many people avoid the hard work and think that they know the industry or market enough.
Six factors to take into account when conduction your research. This can be implemented when researching a new business idea a target market for a band or client you wish to target basically, it can be implemented when looking to obtain a buy in from a specific target regarding a specific service or product.
The six factors
1. The industry, gaining an understanding of dynamic forces effecting the industry in which the business will operate.
2. The market, research the preferences and characteristics of of the customers you are targeting
3. Competitors, getting insight into the quality and quantity of competitors of the market in which you plan to operate
4. Collaborators, researching and understanding who you could work with/ partner with.
5. Your product or service, investigating how your product or service will be created and delivered and whether it will be truly unique.
6. Your company model, gaining insight into the options around a profit and operating profit model for the business.
While we’re on the subject of an operating model, I could mention, always keep to your mission. Don’t be afraid to evolve but stay focussed on your vision, don’t lose sight of where you come from and where you wish to go. This will not only keep you motivated but will also make it easier to market yourself and your concept.
Step 3 refine and re-evaluate
The next step is to take all your knowledge that you have gained through your research and redefine the idea minimizing risks, and capitalising on potential gains. This method can be used when dealing with clients as it can provide you with solutions to problem they may be faceing based on you service or product offering.
Here is a time you would focus on business opportunity within the industry, what are the barriers to entry in the industry, in sales you would say who are the gate keepers, what stops you from talking to the decision maker.
Here would be your time to go back to your vision using your new research ideas and tweak ideas.
Step 4 writing the business plan.
Once you have your concept and research under the belt, writing the business plan is pretty easy. Firstly however it has to be said that all the sections are interrelated and cannot be written in isolation, each should be written by people who are fully aware of the contents and intricacies of the other areas of the plan so that the different sections are integrated.
There are 11 headings to consider when writing your business plan, starting with a table of contents. Basically this contains the main headings of your plan. I’m not going to dwell on this it’s pretty straight forward.
2. Executive summary, This is probably the most crucial part of the business plan, as many business plan readers will read the executive summary and then decided whether to proceed further or discard the plan. It is important to keep in mind that the executive summary should be written last and should not exceed two pages. The executive summary must summarise the most important points. For example what, where, when, why and how much.
3. General company description, when doing this for sales use this section to write about the company you are targeting. The general company description is used to give a high level overview on the company and the business it engages in.
This should include the name of the company the type of legal entity who are the owners and what significant assets it is holding. It should also include a mission statement, the companies goals and objectives, the main features of the industry and the most important strengths and core competencies.
4. The opportunity, industry and market, the section of the business plan requires you to communicate how you are planning on entering the industry, the market and the opportunity from the systematic research you conducted before writing you business plan.
For the opportunity you would look at factors like where is the gap in the market, what has given rise to the gap, how was the gap identified and how will the gap be filled. Obviously this is particularly important when trying to obtain buy in for a service offering or product you are trying to sell and if you are making money you are selling a product this applies to all aspects of life.
For the industry it is important to focus on what are the barriers to entry, are the speed bumps in the road, How much power do the customers have, how much power do the suppliers have, are there substitute offerings for product service, who are the competitors and how strong are they, what are the major changes effecting the industry.
For market it is important to keep in mind the size of the market, how fast the market is growing what percentage share of the market you will have and what are the major trends in the market.
5. your strategy, it is important to communicate how you would compete in your chosen market, this is an important factor in sales as it allows you the opportunity to put forward ideas regarding benefits of your service or product. For your strategy it is important keep in mind the focus of the business: broad mass market of a specific niche. And to put emphasis on how your business will succeed in the market. What is unique about your business or service offering? What added value does it bring?
6. Business model, the business model is the profit making engine of business. Here the are five factors to take into account:
1. The source of revenue
2. The major costs involved in generating revenue
3. The profitability of the business
4. The investment required to get the business up an running
5. The critical success factors.
7. Team management and organization, this section requires you to describe the people behind the business, this is particularly important in sales as it provides you with a source of contact details, who are the correct people to talk to i.e.: the decision makers, however for looking at starting a organization this section is where you would put detailed descriptions of the organizations structure, the founders and who is in charge of what.
8. Marketing Plan, Gareth pointed out in his blog recently that marketing is the most important factor of running a business, there are various factors of marketing so lets not forget that we need to market ourselves. However focussing on the formal aspects for marketing these are the factors one needs to keep in mind.
The marketing plan defines all of the components of the marketing strategy; it must draw on market research. Factors involved are: The product, why does it add value? The target market, who are they? Where are they? etc. The positioning of the product or service. The pricing strategy, I was watching the apprentice the other day and price was the factor wthat got one of the contestants fired they just didn’t understand their market and the pricing required.
9. Operational plan, this is where you explain the daily operations of the business, it location, equipment, people processes and surrounding environment. This is a great tool in sales as it enhances your opportunity to make sales by understanding you customers’ environment. This understanding can also assist you to build better relationships with you customer.
10. Financial plan, is a reasonable estimate of your company’s financial future, Key factors here are: start up expenses, a 12 month profit and loss projection, a 12 month cash flow projection, a projected balance sheet and a break even calculation.
11. Appendix, the appendix includes additional documents that the reader may want to refer to.
So there you have it another exciting addition to my blog, hope you found this interesting please give me feedback as I am still evaluating which direction I would like to take this.
I worked in sales for eight months and only when I started my new job was I introduced to business plans. Selling like everything involves work, you get different types of salesmen but one thing I can tell you they all have in common, is that they all feel they are the best.
Being in a recruitment role however I have interviewed a lot of salesmen and I can say without a doubt that the most successful salesmen are the ones that do their homework. This can be done in the form of a business plan. A business plan can be useful in formalizing an initial business idea, qualifying a client, let me explain qualifying a client, a lot of sales people treat all the their clients equally and will make sales no matter how big or small or how time consuming. Good sales people qualify their clients, in other words they decide which clients are worth their while based on services or products they can offer, as well as basing their decision on potential gains.
The most common form of qualifying clients is using a business plan to formalise and evaluate clients or opportunities in business. Here comes the fun stuff.
Steps involved in formulating a business plan.
Step 1 Define a the initial concept,
Your concept could be any general ideal that you have or would like to implement for example a new product or service, a better product or service – improving on current products with improved quality, price, features, reliability, speed or convenience. Your idea could involve taking a product or service to a new geographical area to a new demographic that is currently underserved. For example 28 years ago a man named Grant started a franchise of Nashua in Bloemfontein today he is a multimillionaire using an idea that was not new or unique at the time, he simply had the monopoly in his area. Or you could use the concept of a client you wish to target, an element of the business plan I have become particularly familiar with and have found very useful.
Define your concept.
1. What do you plan to do
2. What need you plan to meet
3. What industry you plan to operate in
4. Why you are different or better than the current players
Obviously this will need to be elaborated on but I will leave that to you
Step 2 Research
The best sales people and businessmen in the world understand that research is probably the most important part of successfully realising your concept. Many people avoid the hard work and think that they know the industry or market enough.
Six factors to take into account when conduction your research. This can be implemented when researching a new business idea a target market for a band or client you wish to target basically, it can be implemented when looking to obtain a buy in from a specific target regarding a specific service or product.
The six factors
1. The industry, gaining an understanding of dynamic forces effecting the industry in which the business will operate.
2. The market, research the preferences and characteristics of of the customers you are targeting
3. Competitors, getting insight into the quality and quantity of competitors of the market in which you plan to operate
4. Collaborators, researching and understanding who you could work with/ partner with.
5. Your product or service, investigating how your product or service will be created and delivered and whether it will be truly unique.
6. Your company model, gaining insight into the options around a profit and operating profit model for the business.
While we’re on the subject of an operating model, I could mention, always keep to your mission. Don’t be afraid to evolve but stay focussed on your vision, don’t lose sight of where you come from and where you wish to go. This will not only keep you motivated but will also make it easier to market yourself and your concept.
Step 3 refine and re-evaluate
The next step is to take all your knowledge that you have gained through your research and redefine the idea minimizing risks, and capitalising on potential gains. This method can be used when dealing with clients as it can provide you with solutions to problem they may be faceing based on you service or product offering.
Here is a time you would focus on business opportunity within the industry, what are the barriers to entry in the industry, in sales you would say who are the gate keepers, what stops you from talking to the decision maker.
Here would be your time to go back to your vision using your new research ideas and tweak ideas.
Step 4 writing the business plan.
Once you have your concept and research under the belt, writing the business plan is pretty easy. Firstly however it has to be said that all the sections are interrelated and cannot be written in isolation, each should be written by people who are fully aware of the contents and intricacies of the other areas of the plan so that the different sections are integrated.
There are 11 headings to consider when writing your business plan, starting with a table of contents. Basically this contains the main headings of your plan. I’m not going to dwell on this it’s pretty straight forward.
2. Executive summary, This is probably the most crucial part of the business plan, as many business plan readers will read the executive summary and then decided whether to proceed further or discard the plan. It is important to keep in mind that the executive summary should be written last and should not exceed two pages. The executive summary must summarise the most important points. For example what, where, when, why and how much.
3. General company description, when doing this for sales use this section to write about the company you are targeting. The general company description is used to give a high level overview on the company and the business it engages in.
This should include the name of the company the type of legal entity who are the owners and what significant assets it is holding. It should also include a mission statement, the companies goals and objectives, the main features of the industry and the most important strengths and core competencies.
4. The opportunity, industry and market, the section of the business plan requires you to communicate how you are planning on entering the industry, the market and the opportunity from the systematic research you conducted before writing you business plan.
For the opportunity you would look at factors like where is the gap in the market, what has given rise to the gap, how was the gap identified and how will the gap be filled. Obviously this is particularly important when trying to obtain buy in for a service offering or product you are trying to sell and if you are making money you are selling a product this applies to all aspects of life.
For the industry it is important to focus on what are the barriers to entry, are the speed bumps in the road, How much power do the customers have, how much power do the suppliers have, are there substitute offerings for product service, who are the competitors and how strong are they, what are the major changes effecting the industry.
For market it is important to keep in mind the size of the market, how fast the market is growing what percentage share of the market you will have and what are the major trends in the market.
5. your strategy, it is important to communicate how you would compete in your chosen market, this is an important factor in sales as it allows you the opportunity to put forward ideas regarding benefits of your service or product. For your strategy it is important keep in mind the focus of the business: broad mass market of a specific niche. And to put emphasis on how your business will succeed in the market. What is unique about your business or service offering? What added value does it bring?
6. Business model, the business model is the profit making engine of business. Here the are five factors to take into account:
1. The source of revenue
2. The major costs involved in generating revenue
3. The profitability of the business
4. The investment required to get the business up an running
5. The critical success factors.
7. Team management and organization, this section requires you to describe the people behind the business, this is particularly important in sales as it provides you with a source of contact details, who are the correct people to talk to i.e.: the decision makers, however for looking at starting a organization this section is where you would put detailed descriptions of the organizations structure, the founders and who is in charge of what.
8. Marketing Plan, Gareth pointed out in his blog recently that marketing is the most important factor of running a business, there are various factors of marketing so lets not forget that we need to market ourselves. However focussing on the formal aspects for marketing these are the factors one needs to keep in mind.
The marketing plan defines all of the components of the marketing strategy; it must draw on market research. Factors involved are: The product, why does it add value? The target market, who are they? Where are they? etc. The positioning of the product or service. The pricing strategy, I was watching the apprentice the other day and price was the factor wthat got one of the contestants fired they just didn’t understand their market and the pricing required.
9. Operational plan, this is where you explain the daily operations of the business, it location, equipment, people processes and surrounding environment. This is a great tool in sales as it enhances your opportunity to make sales by understanding you customers’ environment. This understanding can also assist you to build better relationships with you customer.
10. Financial plan, is a reasonable estimate of your company’s financial future, Key factors here are: start up expenses, a 12 month profit and loss projection, a 12 month cash flow projection, a projected balance sheet and a break even calculation.
11. Appendix, the appendix includes additional documents that the reader may want to refer to.
So there you have it another exciting addition to my blog, hope you found this interesting please give me feedback as I am still evaluating which direction I would like to take this.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Setting goals and working backwards
Introduction
Eight months ago I was working in clothing sales as a sub agent; man I was going to make it rich this was the big time my first real job. The big break! So knowing nothing about clothing sales I tried to soak up as much information about sales as I could, I was going to do it I had found my niche, I was a born salesmen this was what my whole life had been building up to.
Subsequently it was not all as wonderful as I had expected, When you get into sales you are told that in sales there is generally a three month cycle, to find clients make a sale and three months later you get paid, well thirty or sixty days depending on the contract. Now you’re also told that you make your money in commission. No problem, who needs a salary I’m going to be great at this. But it’s not all fun and games.
Yes you make commission but then you use that commission to pay for you phone allowance and your petrol before you know it you’re earning nothing. Now I was expecting this and thus it did not perturb me because i thought all I needed to do is get the ball rolling and this will gradually get better, which they did in fact.
But was it good enough?
After eight months of just making a profit over my expenses, I started talking about the possibility of making a move to the big city Johannesburg. I mean here I am an educated, well spoken, dangerously good looking healthy young man earning less than a waiter. Now although this may be a hippie’s dream it certainly was not mine.
So I decided it was time to make a move, get a fresh start make it happen for myself, remove the safety net that my parents were offering. My next challenge was a direction, not geographically but what did I want to do, what was I good at. I wasn’t bad at selling but it wasn’t working for me in Cape Town what would change if I did it in Johannesburg? I needed something new, so I sent out feelers, started to e-mail my CV everywhere I could, and I got a few responses from various sales positions but coming from the dark place I was, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. Then a few responses came back regarding estate agencies and I thought maybe I could do that I mean it doesn’t take a genius and I had had some exposure to it in the past.
Then finally through a series of fortunate events I was offered a job in recruitment. I bit the bullet and took it not thinking twice, I turned out to be quite a good venture for me as I seem to have a bit of a talent for it.
From this experience however I realised it doesn’t really matter what you do you need to put in the work unless you a model or something.
My point is arriving here in a new city in job I knew nothing about, I realised I had no option I had to set goals and ensure I achieved them or I would be in deep trouble financially and emotionally cause nothing crushes your spirit more than being unemployed with bills to pay and no safety net.
Fortunately I had someone who worked with me who took me under his wing and taught me all about goal setting. I must admit I had never done this before even in school my goal was generally to do the least work possible, but life isn’t like school, you can’t just float by. So first he said what are my goals? Now you start this on a large scale mine at the time was to get my flat furnished and buy a new car. In order to do this I would need X amount of money. So in order to aquire that amount of money I would need to complete X amount of deals a month at work, in order to do that I would have to market and sell to X amount of people per week, per day and I would need to perform various tasks every X amount of hours. In other words I works backwards well it’s been six months since I had this told to me and I now have a very nicely furnished flat and a very nice new car.
Give it a try it works
Set goals and work backwards!
Eight months ago I was working in clothing sales as a sub agent; man I was going to make it rich this was the big time my first real job. The big break! So knowing nothing about clothing sales I tried to soak up as much information about sales as I could, I was going to do it I had found my niche, I was a born salesmen this was what my whole life had been building up to.
Subsequently it was not all as wonderful as I had expected, When you get into sales you are told that in sales there is generally a three month cycle, to find clients make a sale and three months later you get paid, well thirty or sixty days depending on the contract. Now you’re also told that you make your money in commission. No problem, who needs a salary I’m going to be great at this. But it’s not all fun and games.
Yes you make commission but then you use that commission to pay for you phone allowance and your petrol before you know it you’re earning nothing. Now I was expecting this and thus it did not perturb me because i thought all I needed to do is get the ball rolling and this will gradually get better, which they did in fact.
But was it good enough?
After eight months of just making a profit over my expenses, I started talking about the possibility of making a move to the big city Johannesburg. I mean here I am an educated, well spoken, dangerously good looking healthy young man earning less than a waiter. Now although this may be a hippie’s dream it certainly was not mine.
So I decided it was time to make a move, get a fresh start make it happen for myself, remove the safety net that my parents were offering. My next challenge was a direction, not geographically but what did I want to do, what was I good at. I wasn’t bad at selling but it wasn’t working for me in Cape Town what would change if I did it in Johannesburg? I needed something new, so I sent out feelers, started to e-mail my CV everywhere I could, and I got a few responses from various sales positions but coming from the dark place I was, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. Then a few responses came back regarding estate agencies and I thought maybe I could do that I mean it doesn’t take a genius and I had had some exposure to it in the past.
Then finally through a series of fortunate events I was offered a job in recruitment. I bit the bullet and took it not thinking twice, I turned out to be quite a good venture for me as I seem to have a bit of a talent for it.
From this experience however I realised it doesn’t really matter what you do you need to put in the work unless you a model or something.
My point is arriving here in a new city in job I knew nothing about, I realised I had no option I had to set goals and ensure I achieved them or I would be in deep trouble financially and emotionally cause nothing crushes your spirit more than being unemployed with bills to pay and no safety net.
Fortunately I had someone who worked with me who took me under his wing and taught me all about goal setting. I must admit I had never done this before even in school my goal was generally to do the least work possible, but life isn’t like school, you can’t just float by. So first he said what are my goals? Now you start this on a large scale mine at the time was to get my flat furnished and buy a new car. In order to do this I would need X amount of money. So in order to aquire that amount of money I would need to complete X amount of deals a month at work, in order to do that I would have to market and sell to X amount of people per week, per day and I would need to perform various tasks every X amount of hours. In other words I works backwards well it’s been six months since I had this told to me and I now have a very nicely furnished flat and a very nice new car.
Give it a try it works
Set goals and work backwards!
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