Last October, we hosted a Fashion Show to raise funds and awareness for our charity partner, Hands Across the Water. Some of our fabulous members volunteered their good looks and dancing skills to model clothing designed and made by the charity. At Business Blueprint, we’re not just pretty faces! We’re multi-talented bunch!

 
We’ll be riding 500km through Thailand again in 2019 to raise more funds (we have raised over $1.4 million over the years with the help of friends and BB members). The money goes towards supporting orphaned children in Thailand, giving them hope for a brighter future.

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Once you’ve watched the video please leave us a comment in the space below. Also, we strongly believe in sharing the amazing work of Hands Across the Water.

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As a small business owner I’m sure you’d agree there are so many things to focus on: marketing, sales, systems, I.T., finance, B.A.S., recruitment, stock and inventory control, just to name a few! So it is no surprise that for many small business owners the topic of ‘Customer Service’ fades into the background and is something we only think about now and again.

If you want to build a great business however, then you need to see your customers and the service you provide, as the epicentre of your business. After all, your customers are the people that pay you money and keep you in business.

Furthermore, by focusing more on the customer (and even stepping into their shoes) you will:

• Create a greater level of rapport which is the basis of all successful relationships
• Be remembered by customers which will lead to positive word-of-mouth referrals
• Make better decisions and ensure you only sell things that your customers want
• Uncover opportunities for up-selling that you might have overlooked
• You’ll be able to charge premium pricing, which leads to more profit

It’s clear: great customer service offers huge rewards. So here are five powerful principles to get your focus back on track and help you achieve your business goals even faster:

1. Be Present

As business owners we are so often thinking about either the past or the future. Our heads are swirling with all of the things we need to do. The first stage of great customer service however, is to be present. That is, not to think about what you’ve just done or what you need to do next. Instead focus only on the person in front of you and how you can create an exceptional experience. By doing so you’ll make people feel acknowledged and appreciated, which they will love you for.

2. Ask Questions

People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care

One of the biggest criticisms I hear about sales people is, ‘they talked too much’. When sales people get an inclination that I might be interested in something, they proceed to tell me as much as they know about their product. There is an old saying I like, it is: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” And what is the best way to show someone you care? Ask them questions first before you jump in. “What made you come into our store?” Or, “When it comes to a home printer (for example), what’s important to you?” There is no set formula. Just be genuinely interested in them and ask questions, rather than show off your knowledge. Then, once a person feels understood and that you can help them with the right advice, the sale will take care of itself.

3. Match Energy

Some people say, you must always be excited and act enthusiastic. Sure that might work for some people but it will also turn others off. Instead great customer service is all about being flexible and willing to adapt your approach to match the other person. If a customer is talking loudly and fast, attempt to do the same. If they are calm and more centred, slow down and think more about the words you say. Remember: “People like people like themselves.” So extend your range and allow your customers to guide the type of service they want from you.

4. Discuss Constantly

I have sat in on a lot of business meetings and rarely does the topic of Customer Service come up. It’s always about new marketing campaigns or sales targets for the month. Sure these things are important, however you must always ensure that the topic of Customer Service is discussed in all meetings. For example, you could have everybody share what was their best customer service experience of the week. Be warned, the first time you do this you’ll probably get blank looks (because people aren’t yet being present). However keep asking because people will soon start becoming more conscious of their interactions and over time they’ll have loads of positive stories to share.

5. Recognise Effort

There’s an old saying, ‘what gets recognised gets done’. So to further expand on the point above, consider introducing some new awards for your staff. You might already have ‘Staff Member of the Month’, which recognises work ethic and performance. But you should also add ‘Customer Service Champion’. You can call it what you like, however make it special and people will soon start becoming competitive and will strive to achieve it. More importantly it will keep people focused and conscious about feeding back Customer Service stories, which provide great training opportunities for the rest of the team. In addition, these stories will prompt testimonials, which are a massive asset to your business.

In closing…

So there you have it – five powerful principles for taking your customer service to greater heights. It’s true that business is a juggling act, but Customer Service is one ball you can’t afford to drop.

The post 5 Steps to Better Customer Service appeared first on Business Blueprint.

Do you truly want to be a successful entrepreneur and see success in your business? Darren Lomman shares with Dale Beaumont what he has found to be the essential qualities of a successful entrepreneur. Be inspired by his story to success.

While at university, Darren invested over 4,000 hours in designing and building a hand-controlled motorcycle that could be ridden by a person with paraplegia. Dreamfit was then born and Darren continues to make people”s dreams come true through his passion.

What do you think are the essential qualities or attributes of a successful entrepreneur?

Dreamers and Doers: Entrepreneurs are ultimately dreamers and doers. They are always breaking new ground and developing new ideas. If you have a dream or a vision it becomes so much easier to put in the effort required to get where you want to be. I can picture in my head right now how I want Dreamfit to be in ten years’ time. It may not end up that way, but at least I have something to aim for. It keeps me focused on looking out for opportunities and people who may be able to help me achieve my vision.

Dedication and Commitment: Entrepreneurs are dedicated and committed to bringing their dreams to life, to turning them into reality.

Time and Support: Being able to leverage your time is an important skill to have or learn. My time was becoming a limiting factor in Dreamfit’s growth. I quickly realised that I had to get other people on board to help me achieve my vision. You can accomplish your dreams much faster with a team of ten people behind you rather than trying to do it all on your own.

Inspiration and Belief: Being able to inspire people is a vital quality for achieving success. But to inspire people you need to have total belief in what you are doing – be passionate about it, live it, breathe it, and have lots of energy and enthusiasm. If you can get other people half as excited as you are about your dream, you are halfway there.

Opportunity and Responsibility: It is important to give people the opportunity to share in your vision and become a part of it. We give the engineering students who work on our projects almost total control over the direction of the project. They’ve got real responsibilities and I place my trust in them. Even though mistakes sometimes get made, you need to be open to that and accept that it is part of the learning curve.

Communication and Networking: I consider having good communication and interpersonal skills as essential qualities of a successful entrepreneur. An integral part of running a successful business involves networking with other people and being able to communicate effectively with your clients, financiers and team members.

For more of this interview and essential qualities to becoming a successful entrepreneur check out “Entrepreneurs Under 40 Exposed!“

The post Essential Qualities Needed for Being a Successful Entrepreneur appeared first on Business Blueprint.

Bakous Makari is a successful business owner who believes there to be many common characteristics in both business leaders and wealth creators. Discover what these six characteristics are in this portion of an interview between Dale Beaumont and Bakous Makari.

In 1997, Bakous started Makari & Co, a business founded on the principle of “We See Opportunities, You See Results“. In the last few years he has helped his clients save millions of dollars in tax. His work has attracted the attention of Jay Abraham, who has actively endorsed Bakous’s wealth creation service.

You have often said that business leaders and wealth creators share many common characteristics. Can you describe some of these?

I could probably summarise it all in six qualities:

• Determination – The most important aspect of being a great leader is determination and persistence. This comes back to the story about the Symond family and what John Symond’s mother told me that night: every great business leader has had setbacks, but persistence and determination succeed where everything else fails. There are many things that can happen to you on your path to wealth creation, but people who are persistent and determined will see a worthwhile project through to the end. It is often said that many failures are experienced by people who gave up when they were so close to success.
• Focus – Successful wealth creators are very focused people. That’s not to say they’re not balanced, they do keep a good work/life balance. However, when they’re at work they remain focused on the most important things that they have to do. They are very good at prioritising in a multi-tasking world.
• Passion – This is something that is very easy to see. Business leaders believe so strongly in the business they are building that the passion manifests itself in the quality of work they do and the amount they can achieve. Their passion is contagious for their clients and for the people they work with.
• Strategic learners – Successful business leaders and wealth creators are very good strategists. While managers concentrate on doing a good job, leaders decide what needs to be done by concentrating on the big picture.
• Lateral thinkers – Wealth creators are able to think outside the box. Most of the successful businesses you see are doing something that is different to their competitors. This is related to their USP. To be able to create real value over and above what your competitors are doing, you’ve got to do things differently, and you’ve got to think differently. Successful passive investors are also willing to find new ways of using money. If you keep doing what everybody else is doing you become like everybody else and there is nothing to differentiate you.
• Inspirational – Successful people are inspiring people. They are motivating, not just for their team, but also for their customers. Often money is not enough to motivate employees, particularly in the modern age, and cheaper prices are not enough to motivate customers to keep coming back. So often we look at the inspirational nature of the leader to drive the business forward.

For more of this interview and the characteristics of business leaders check out “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed!“

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Is there a significant quote or saying which you live your life by?

There are many quotes that I live by. Some are from close friends and family and others I have made myself. These are a few of my favourites:

• ‘Bulls and bears make money, pigs make shit.’ This quote is from our east coast USA importer’s father, Hal Sanders. It inspires me to play the game hard and seriously, or take my bat and ball and go home. I loved this saying so much that I named our Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon blend ‘The Bull and the Bear’ after it.
• ‘Hello costs you nothing.’ At the age of nine I was in the car with my father as we were driving out of a car park, and he spent a considerable amount of time talking with the car park attendant as we paid for our ticket. When we drove off I asked him why he’d spent so much time talking with the attendant, and he said, ‘Hello costs you nothing’. This shows the value of building rapport and how you can do it just by communicating with someone.
• ‘Business is business. Want a friend? Get a dog.’ I love this quote from my business partner, Richard Mintz. He is very good at making the tough decisions in our business and believes that tough decisions are needed if you want to succeed. In other words ‘This is business, it is not personal’.
• ‘Profit is not a dirty word.’ This one is from me. I love Australia so much, the climate, the culture, but I will never understand why people here tend to associate money with evil. You hear so many people criticise businesspeople for their supposed corruptness and their underhanded dealings just to make a buck or two. This is a gross generalisation and something that people need to get over if they want to succeed in life.
• ‘Good things happen to good people.‘ This is a quote that I hold dear to me. My friend Anthony Ingerson once said it to me and it made so much sense. It taught me that in order to have success you must be good to those around you.
• ‘Your first loss is your best loss.‘ I think this is an important quote in business and again it comes from Hal Sanders. It means that you are not going to win every time and it is important to set yourself up for losses and take them with dignity when they do come. Also, it’s best to make a loss when you are first starting out, which is quite common, but make sure you bounce back from it and don’t accept it as a failure and give up.
• ‘Leave something in it for the next guy.‘ My father taught me that you will be more likely to succeed in business if you leave some margin in the deal for the next guy. When you think about others, you find that your contribution to them always comes back to you in the end anyway.
• ‘Dance or get off the dance floor.‘ This one is also mine. What this represents to me is that if you are going to be in the field of action you had better start working. I would rather someone take action and make a decision, than stand around and think about it.

For more of this interview and business quotes check out “Secrets of Male Entrepreneurs Exposed!“

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Have you ever wished you could be a fly on the wall of a successful person’s home? Get to see the inside of what they do, how they do it and what has been the key to their success? Well, you have your chance. Find out first hand what the habits are that Kirsty Dunphey created in her own life that contributed to her success in this snippet of an interview conducted by Dale Beaumont.

At just 21, Kirsty co-founded and became managing director of M&M Real Estate. In 2006, Kirsty sold her share in her real estate company and is now an in-demand sales and service speaker and trainer performing around 30 keynotes presentations a year.

What habits have you formed in order to create a life of success?

I’m a spontaneous person by nature and yet I realise the need to form habits, routines and patterns to shape my business days. My daily routines include:

• Exercise on a daily basis. Now that I’ve been doing this for a few months I really notice the difference on the days I miss out – I’m not as relaxed and I don’t feel as healthy.
• Make someone else feel amazing. Whether it is a staff member, a client or my partner, it’s a daily goal to make someone go home with a smile because of something I’ve recognised about him or her.
• Learn something new each day. This could be anything from a new word from dictionary.com’s word of the day or a new business technique.
• Get inspired. I usually do this by finding quotes that inspire me, these are a few of my favourites:

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get. Ingrid Bergman

Focus always precedes success. Denis Waitley

Your attitude is either the lock on, or key to your door of success.Denis Waitley

It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you’re not. Denis Waitley

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. Zig Ziglar

If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. Erica Jong

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. Jim Rohn

For more of this interview and  habits of successful people check out “Secrets of Female Entrepreneurs Exposed!“

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Developing the motivation to achieve your goals can at times be a difficult task to master. In this portion of an interview between Dale Beaumont and Shelley Taylor-Smith discover the two keys to developing motivation and achieving your goals. As a 7-time World Marathon Swimming Champion, Shelley has overcome partial paralysis; several major and minor car accidents; a benign breast scare; a collapsed marriage and much more to become a highly in-demand speaker in Australia and overseas.

How can people develop the motivation necessary to achieve their goals?

There are two keys to developing motivation and achieving your goals:

• Know what you want;
• Know why you want it.

Far too many people know what they don’t want and that takes them nowhere. In fact, you may even find that the things you don’t want keep attracting and creating. How many of us have committed to finding out what we want? I knew I wanted to get out of a wheel chair and win gold medals, I knew I wanted to survive chronic fatigue and live – just live. I knew I wanted to live when doctors told me otherwise. Sometimes it takes ‘reality checks‘ like that to find out what we really want, but you don’t always have to go through them to do so. An easier way is to sit down with yourself, your family and loved ones and simply choose what you really want in life. If you are prepared to do whatever it takes, you will achieve it. You may experience ‘character building’ time but you have to maintain focus on your goal. In my experience we always get what we focus on in the end, whether it is the negative or positive. So stay focused on what you truly want. Knowing why you want it is what drives you when it’s too hard, too late, or too cold. It’s what keeps you going when everyone else quits.

For more of this interview and find out more on motivation to achieve your goals check out “Secrets of Great Public Speakers Exposed!“

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Success doesn’t just come about on its own. It takes hard work and effort to bring about success in any one area of life. In this excerpt from an interview between Dale Beaumont and Joseph Chou find out the essential qualities that have had a big hand in Joseph’s own success. CEO of Ironfish, an integrated financial services company, specialising in teaching other to create wealth.

What are some of the qualities you think have been essential for your success?

• A burning desire to achieve.
• A child-like naivety to believe that everything is possible.
• A willingness to work extremely hard.
• Never being satisfied with the status quo.
• A fundamental belief that tomorrow is better than today.
• A genuine humility expressed by hiring people who are more capable than me.
• Never giving up.

Years ago I heard an interesting story about an African tribe whose land suffers from drought. To get rain people in the tribe have to dance, and when they dance it rains. When Western tourists ask the tribal leader about this magical dance he says, ‘It’s not that when we dance, it rains. It’s that we keep dancing until it rains!

Learn to set goals and never give up. For me, goals become a non-negotiable commitment. I will keep at it until it is achieved. When you reach the top of the mountain, the view is the same no matter how long it takes to get there, but if you stay at the bottom, you’ll never know what you are missing.

For more of this interview and the essential qualities for success check out “Secrets of Male Entrepreneurs Exposed!“

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Do you want to become a successful person? Take a look at this excerpt from an interview between Dale Beaumont and Michelle Duval and find out what Michelle has found to be essential qualities of a successful person. Michelle became a pioneer by founding Equilibrio, one of the very first coaching firms in Australia. Since then she has also co-developed the international Meta-Coach Training System®, training professional coaches in 35 countries.

What do you believe are the essential qualities or personal attributes of a successful person?

Successful people:

• are living examples of their own personal philosophy for life and success
• use rituals and practices to experience joy and the fulfilment of their philosophy
• have developed solid ego-strength
• will demonstrate agility and flexibility in their thinking
• possess a curiosity and hunger for learning, a passion for living, and a genuine comfort and joy in not knowing something
• are motivated beyond safety, security and belonging to the actualisation of their talents and abilities
• nurture a faith and connection with a power greater than themselves
• use their personal ability to manage their own mental, emotional and energetic states for vitality and wellbeing
• accept themselves and their abilities, while simultaneously contributing to their families, workplaces, and communitiesinspire by simply expressing and living as their authentic selves

 For more of this interview and on qualities of successful people check out “Secrets of Great Success Coaches Exposed!“

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