Building business « Small Fish Business Coaching

The myth of what customers want

There’s a simple formula to business success: Do what your customers say they want, they’ll reward you with money, and everybody will be satisfied.

The problem is that it’s not true.

Fake bus stop helps Alzheimer’s patients

I heard about a very interesting idea tested by the owners of a rest home in Düsseldorf, Germany. Worried about Alzheimer’s patients who would wander off, and not wanting to make the home feel like a prison, they simply placed a fake bus stop outside. As they expected, disoriented patients would calmly wait at the bus [...]

I’m a Small Fish!

I’ve been a bit quiet on this blog recently, but there’s a good reason.

I have just signed up with a coaching services firm, Small Fish Business Coaching, based in Australia. This is a huge leap forward for me and my business, because I’m moving away from working totally on my own, to being in partnership with a rapidly growing group that is intent on improving the plight of small business owners, one at a time.

Continue reading I’m a Small Fish!

Selling

I’ve been reading an excellent book, Wombat Selling by Michael Hewitt-Gleason. The core idea is elegant in its simplicity:

You don’t close the sale with your customer. The customer closes the sale.

I imagine this strikes you either as confusing, or as “duh!” obvious. Let me expand further, because it can entirely change the relationship you have with your customers.

Continue reading Selling

Be patient building the relationship!

I was on a great discussion hosted by Kim Clausen today which got me thinking about how one develops relationships over time.

We all recognize the stereotype of the desperate date – the one who’s so clingy and pushy that you look for any way out of a relationship.

Business relationships are like that too. Continue reading Be patient building the relationship!

Matching the job to the employee

We spend a lot of time talking about how employees match up with their job needs: hiring the right people for the job, training them, and so on. But let’s think about the reverse for a minute.

The process for doing this is quite straightforward:

Continue reading Matching the job to the employee

Is employee satisfaction impossible?

I subscribe to a number of discussion forums and newsletters so I can keep in touch with and contribute to the state of the industry.

The LinkedIn group Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group) has a lively discussion underway this week, exploring the question: Is employee satisfaction impossible?

Continue reading Is employee satisfaction impossible?

Show me the value!

Inside a company, all investments should be justified and evaluated based on the value they return. Coaching, education, facilitation, and other “soft” investments are no different.

The problem is that many times it’s difficult to translate these into hard dollar amounts. But think about it this way: There’s many decisions you make which don’t immediately turn into dollars of revenue or profit.

Continue reading Show me the value!

The impending crisis in employee retention

ToExit I’ve been looking for indicators of an emerging trend in employee retention issues, and a couple of recent studies reported in Workforce Management and The Wall Street Journal are putting it on the radar screen.