What is Leadership? To me leadership is the ability to influence. Is leadership important if you want to run a successful business? Of course it is! Why? This is because you will need to inspire, motivate and influence your team to run the system.
I learned from John C Maxwell the 5 levels of leadership
Level 1 - Position
Level 2 - Permission
Level 3 - Production
Level 4 - People Development
Level 5 - Personhood
Position leadership - People follow you because they have to and influence will not extend beyond your line of job description. In the long term, staff turnover will be high and morale will be low.
Permission leadership - People follow you because they want to and will follow you beyond your stated authority. This group of leaders also allow work to be fun. Staff are highly motivated but will be restless in the long term.
Production leadership - People follow you because of the results you brought for the organisation. Your success is sensed by most people and people like you for what you can do.
People Development - People follow you for what you have done for them. Your commitment will be to grow and develop leaders. Grooming leaders will lead to sustainable growth of people and organisation.
Personhood leadership - People follow you because of who you are and what you represent. You will consistently grow leaders and organisation over years. These type of leaders are larger than life. People like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Lee Kuan Yew and many others.
The next thing that I want to share with you about leadership is the Law of the Lid. What do I mean by Law of the Lid? People will follow you to the level that you are at. People will follow a leader to learn from them and they will most likely leave you when they can't learn anymore from you. This is why as a leader we have to continously upgrade ourselves.
One of the reasons why I decided not to retire is because I love to teach and I love to see my graduates grow and become successful.
Thank you for reading, see you next week.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Step 18; Marketing Skills
Another very important skill that you need to have to build a successful business is Marketing skills. One of the main reason why I lost all my money in my business previously is because I know next to nothing about marketing. I remember placing a 2 page advertisement in the newspaper where I received 2 phone calls and zero sales. It was really a disaster.
By looking at the advertisements placed by companies in the daily newspaper, I can tell which company will do well and which company is losing money. From this information, it can also help me to decide whether to buy their stocks if it is a public listed company. It amazes me to see so many "Enthrowpreneurs" in the market. These are entrepreneurs that are throwing away money with very poor marketing skills.
A good advertisement will have AIDA; Attention, Interest, Desire and a call for Action.
Attention- This is usually the headlines which must be able to grab your attention so that you will want to find out more.
Interest and Desire- This is where you show the readers the benefits of your products and services. It must be able to create a desire where they would want to take an action to find out more about your products or services.
Call for Action- It is amazing to see that some of the advertisement do not have a contact number or email address where you can contact them when you are interested. The call for action is very important because if they could not contact you when they are hot and interested at that point of time, you might lose them forever.
We teach Marketing in an action based and practical way in our Entrepreneur Action Program in Singapore. It will help you to understand marketing better through practical experiences during the program. You will also learn why you need to do test and measure. This is where you test your advertisement and measure your results. This step will help you save a lot of money and increase your revenue. We will also teach you how to pull in more than $10 for every $1 you invest in advertisement.
My advice to you is that you do not start a business without learning how to market your products or services. It can be very, very costly.
Looking forward to seeing you again next week.
By looking at the advertisements placed by companies in the daily newspaper, I can tell which company will do well and which company is losing money. From this information, it can also help me to decide whether to buy their stocks if it is a public listed company. It amazes me to see so many "Enthrowpreneurs" in the market. These are entrepreneurs that are throwing away money with very poor marketing skills.
A good advertisement will have AIDA; Attention, Interest, Desire and a call for Action.
Attention- This is usually the headlines which must be able to grab your attention so that you will want to find out more.
Interest and Desire- This is where you show the readers the benefits of your products and services. It must be able to create a desire where they would want to take an action to find out more about your products or services.
Call for Action- It is amazing to see that some of the advertisement do not have a contact number or email address where you can contact them when you are interested. The call for action is very important because if they could not contact you when they are hot and interested at that point of time, you might lose them forever.
We teach Marketing in an action based and practical way in our Entrepreneur Action Program in Singapore. It will help you to understand marketing better through practical experiences during the program. You will also learn why you need to do test and measure. This is where you test your advertisement and measure your results. This step will help you save a lot of money and increase your revenue. We will also teach you how to pull in more than $10 for every $1 you invest in advertisement.
My advice to you is that you do not start a business without learning how to market your products or services. It can be very, very costly.
Looking forward to seeing you again next week.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Step 17; Selling skills
My apologies for the late posting for this week. Was in Guangzhou, China, and did not know that you can't access to Facebook or Blog.
One of the most important skill that you need to have to be rich is 'selling skills' When I talk about selling, I am not referring to hard selling but rather heart selling. The first step is to find out what your prospect want or need. You can only do that by asking the right questions. Sell only when the prospect has a want or a need that you can provide.
Your job is to solve their problems and not to make them solve your problem. I realised that a lot of sales people sell because they want to make the commissions to pay their bills and therefore make their prospects solve their problems.
Selling is also a numbers game, you can't sell to everyone because if Jesus cannot do it, if Mohammed cannot do it, if Buddha cannot do it, why do you want to even try? Always remember that not everyone will need or want your products. You just need to go for the numbers and don't be afraid of rejections. Always remember that they are not rejecting you but rather your service or products.
Selling is also required if you are looking for an investor for your idea, convincing an employee to work for you, asking a supplier to give you goods on consignment or on credit terms. Even if you are looking for a job, you will need to sell to your would be employer why they need to hire you.
Whether you like it or not, you are selling everyday, even asking someone to accompany you for dinner or asking your child to take his or her meal. Since you need to sell everyday, may as well be very good at it. I suggest that you polish that skill by reading up or attending some seminars on sales training. I would like to recommend 2 books to you; "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie and "Questions are the Answers" by Allan Pease.
See u next week
One of the most important skill that you need to have to be rich is 'selling skills' When I talk about selling, I am not referring to hard selling but rather heart selling. The first step is to find out what your prospect want or need. You can only do that by asking the right questions. Sell only when the prospect has a want or a need that you can provide.
Your job is to solve their problems and not to make them solve your problem. I realised that a lot of sales people sell because they want to make the commissions to pay their bills and therefore make their prospects solve their problems.
Selling is also a numbers game, you can't sell to everyone because if Jesus cannot do it, if Mohammed cannot do it, if Buddha cannot do it, why do you want to even try? Always remember that not everyone will need or want your products. You just need to go for the numbers and don't be afraid of rejections. Always remember that they are not rejecting you but rather your service or products.
Selling is also required if you are looking for an investor for your idea, convincing an employee to work for you, asking a supplier to give you goods on consignment or on credit terms. Even if you are looking for a job, you will need to sell to your would be employer why they need to hire you.
Whether you like it or not, you are selling everyday, even asking someone to accompany you for dinner or asking your child to take his or her meal. Since you need to sell everyday, may as well be very good at it. I suggest that you polish that skill by reading up or attending some seminars on sales training. I would like to recommend 2 books to you; "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie and "Questions are the Answers" by Allan Pease.
See u next week
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Step 16; Review and action
It is time to review your goals and ask if you have taken any action towards achieving your goals.No point having all the knowledge and not applying them. Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your feedback and let me know what would you like to know or learn. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at jerome.eap@gmail.com please indicate that you are from Living on Wealthfare blog
cheers
Jerome Tan
I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your feedback and let me know what would you like to know or learn. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at jerome.eap@gmail.com please indicate that you are from Living on Wealthfare blog
cheers
Jerome Tan
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Step 15; Business skills
Some of the business skills that you need to have are, selling, marketing, networking, team building and system building. If you have these skills, you would be able to succeed even with a mediocre product.
When we talk about selling; it includes selling your idea to investors to fund your business idea, selling to your suppliers to give you goods on consignment or credit, selling to your employees why they must work with you, selling to your loved ones why they have to support you in your new venture. So it's not just about selling to your customers.
Marketing is where you leverage on the media and sell to many via advertisement. Knowing how to advertise is very important. One of the main reason why I failed in my previous business is the lack of this skill. I remember placing a 2 page advertisement and had 2 phone response and zero sale. As you can see, this is a very expensive lesson. I have improved my skills a thousand times since investing in a seminar on marketing by the renown marketing guru, Jay Abraham.
Knowing how and where to network is also very important in business. Going to paid seminars is where I network with people with the same mindset and commitment to succeed in life. This is were I realised that the rich are life long learners and they are humble and open minded to want to learn from people who are more successful than them in different fields. Monkey see, monkey do, just do what the rich do and you will be rich eventually. I tap into their mindset, learn from them, stay positive like them, network with the people that they network with and do what they do. Most of them have the right information to help you to be rich. If they trust you, they will share with you Yes, it is that simple.
Team building is where you can leverage on other people's expertise and let others leverage on your expertise. One of the keys to succeed as a team is TRUST and it takes time to build trust. I am really blessed that I have found a team of people that are committed to our cause and that I can trust. It takes time and many learning experiences before you find a good team.
Once you have the right people, you have to put them in the right seat and build a system around it. Everyone has a role to play in the system. I only do what I am good at and let the rest do what they are good at. As a team we are able to add a lot more value to people and in return, we get paid very well.
We teach all the above skills in our Entrepreneur Action Program in Singapore, if you would like to attend a free preview, you can call my office at 62210090 to register.
See you next week.
When we talk about selling; it includes selling your idea to investors to fund your business idea, selling to your suppliers to give you goods on consignment or credit, selling to your employees why they must work with you, selling to your loved ones why they have to support you in your new venture. So it's not just about selling to your customers.
Marketing is where you leverage on the media and sell to many via advertisement. Knowing how to advertise is very important. One of the main reason why I failed in my previous business is the lack of this skill. I remember placing a 2 page advertisement and had 2 phone response and zero sale. As you can see, this is a very expensive lesson. I have improved my skills a thousand times since investing in a seminar on marketing by the renown marketing guru, Jay Abraham.
Knowing how and where to network is also very important in business. Going to paid seminars is where I network with people with the same mindset and commitment to succeed in life. This is were I realised that the rich are life long learners and they are humble and open minded to want to learn from people who are more successful than them in different fields. Monkey see, monkey do, just do what the rich do and you will be rich eventually. I tap into their mindset, learn from them, stay positive like them, network with the people that they network with and do what they do. Most of them have the right information to help you to be rich. If they trust you, they will share with you Yes, it is that simple.
Team building is where you can leverage on other people's expertise and let others leverage on your expertise. One of the keys to succeed as a team is TRUST and it takes time to build trust. I am really blessed that I have found a team of people that are committed to our cause and that I can trust. It takes time and many learning experiences before you find a good team.
Once you have the right people, you have to put them in the right seat and build a system around it. Everyone has a role to play in the system. I only do what I am good at and let the rest do what they are good at. As a team we are able to add a lot more value to people and in return, we get paid very well.
We teach all the above skills in our Entrepreneur Action Program in Singapore, if you would like to attend a free preview, you can call my office at 62210090 to register.
See you next week.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Step 14; 2 Wealth Creators
The 2 Wealth Creators are Business and Investments
If you look at the top 10 richest people in the world, are they employees? Obviously not, they are either in business or investment. Results don't lie! Don't kid yourself that you can be rich working for people. Of course, there are a few rich people working in top management for very big organisations.
If it is so obvious that all the rich people are either in business or investment, why is it that most people want to be rich, yet they still want to keep their job? There are 2 reasons, fear and comfort zone.
Let's talk about FEAR, FEAR actually stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. You see, we have been programmed, when we were in school, not to make mistake and everytime we make a mistake, we get punished or get branded as a failure. But let's face it, all of us make mistakes in life, it is how we deal with the mistakes, learn from it and move on. One of the main reason why people dare not venture into business is because of the many stories they heard about business failure or they may have one or two bad experiences themselves.
One of the reason why I am successful is that I "DARE TO FAIL" (It is also the title of a book written by my friend, Billi Lim) To be honest, I have failed many times in my life, business, investment and even relationships. Did I give up? Obviously not! So how do I overcome failure? I treat it as a learning experience, learn from it and ask myself how can I do it better the next time. To shorten my learning curve, I pay and learn from successful gurus. Learning from them save me a lot of money and time.
From the many businesses that I started and the many that failed, I learned what to do, what not to do, who to work with and who not to work with. With the many experiences that I had, it becomes easier and easier to succeed and making money becomes easier and easier. The simple step is to continue to do what works with the same people and keep repeating it.
Comfort zone is another reason why people continue to have what they have. They are not willing to learn new things or to change their belief system or they doubt what they learned from successful people, especially after a few minor failures. The key here is to participate fully in life, keep learning, keep finding a better way to do things and never give up.
Next week I will talk about the necessary skills that you need to have to run a sucessful business and will share more about investments in later steps
If you look at the top 10 richest people in the world, are they employees? Obviously not, they are either in business or investment. Results don't lie! Don't kid yourself that you can be rich working for people. Of course, there are a few rich people working in top management for very big organisations.
If it is so obvious that all the rich people are either in business or investment, why is it that most people want to be rich, yet they still want to keep their job? There are 2 reasons, fear and comfort zone.
Let's talk about FEAR, FEAR actually stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. You see, we have been programmed, when we were in school, not to make mistake and everytime we make a mistake, we get punished or get branded as a failure. But let's face it, all of us make mistakes in life, it is how we deal with the mistakes, learn from it and move on. One of the main reason why people dare not venture into business is because of the many stories they heard about business failure or they may have one or two bad experiences themselves.
One of the reason why I am successful is that I "DARE TO FAIL" (It is also the title of a book written by my friend, Billi Lim) To be honest, I have failed many times in my life, business, investment and even relationships. Did I give up? Obviously not! So how do I overcome failure? I treat it as a learning experience, learn from it and ask myself how can I do it better the next time. To shorten my learning curve, I pay and learn from successful gurus. Learning from them save me a lot of money and time.
From the many businesses that I started and the many that failed, I learned what to do, what not to do, who to work with and who not to work with. With the many experiences that I had, it becomes easier and easier to succeed and making money becomes easier and easier. The simple step is to continue to do what works with the same people and keep repeating it.
Comfort zone is another reason why people continue to have what they have. They are not willing to learn new things or to change their belief system or they doubt what they learned from successful people, especially after a few minor failures. The key here is to participate fully in life, keep learning, keep finding a better way to do things and never give up.
Next week I will talk about the necessary skills that you need to have to run a sucessful business and will share more about investments in later steps
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Step 13; 3 buckets
Knowing how to invest the money in your financial freedom jar is very important. I divide my financial freedom money into 3 buckets;
1st bucket - 6 months living expenses,
What do I mean by monthly living expenses? It is the minimum amount that you need to get by in a month for food, accommodation, utilities, family needs etc, etc. If your monthly living expenses is $3,000, then I suggest that you put $18,000 into a savings account that gives you the highest interest rate. I put my money into an Australian term deposit that gives me 5% interest per annum. Why Australia? This is because I believe that Australia is a rich country with an abundance of natural resources and their currency is pretty stable.
This is how I put my money in term deposit. Let's say my 6 months living expenses is $60,000. I will split that into 6 portions and deposit $10,000 into 6 consecutive months and the term period will be for 6 months. With this method, I will have $10,000 liquidity on standby every month. If I don't need the money for that month, I will renew my term deposit for another 6 months. This is to make sure that I will not be penalise for withdrawing before the maturity date.
2nd bucket - Buy & Hold,
For this bucket, I am looking at positive cashflow from my properties and dividend yield from my stocks. When I buy property, I always look at the rental yield first, unlike most people who focus on capital gains.
Most people will buy a property and hope for capital gains over the long term. There are many things to look at when you invest in properties. I suggest that you educate yourself in this area before investing in any property. Our company conducts a seminar call the Property Investment Program, you may wish to call my company at +65-62210090 to register yourself for a free preview to know more about property investment.
As for stocks, I like to buy monopoly stocks that has got few or no competitor, good management team and consistent dividend payouts. Some of the stocks that I bought in Singapore are SMRT, Comfort Delgro, SPH and Suntec Reit, just to name a few. Besides the dividends, I also lend out my stocks thru' CDP for an additional 4% rental yield per annum. My average return is about 18% per annum. Knowing when to buy is also important in stock investment. I usually wait for a crisis before I move in for good stocks that are selling below their intrinsic value.
80% of the money from my FFJ are park in my 2nd bucket
3rd bucket - Momentum
Make sure you fill up the 1st and 2nd buckets before you consider the 3rd bucket. This is where you look for high returns but it does come with high risks. I invest not more than 20% of my FFJ in this bucket. Some of my investments in this bucket include land banking, bird nests farming and some small businesses with friends. I am prepared to lose everything in this bucket and if that happens, it is not going to affect my lifestyle in anyway. However if the investment bare fruits, it is a bonus to me.
Let me share with you that some property investment comes under the momentum bucket, this is because many "uneducated" property investors lose their pants investing in properties. Worst of all, they don't even have the first 2 buckets as insurance. Getting educated makes a big difference.
To me, any investment that promise high and fast returns comes under momentum.
Next week I will talk about the 2 Wealth Creators that you will need to create wealth for yourself.
1st bucket - 6 months living expenses,
What do I mean by monthly living expenses? It is the minimum amount that you need to get by in a month for food, accommodation, utilities, family needs etc, etc. If your monthly living expenses is $3,000, then I suggest that you put $18,000 into a savings account that gives you the highest interest rate. I put my money into an Australian term deposit that gives me 5% interest per annum. Why Australia? This is because I believe that Australia is a rich country with an abundance of natural resources and their currency is pretty stable.
This is how I put my money in term deposit. Let's say my 6 months living expenses is $60,000. I will split that into 6 portions and deposit $10,000 into 6 consecutive months and the term period will be for 6 months. With this method, I will have $10,000 liquidity on standby every month. If I don't need the money for that month, I will renew my term deposit for another 6 months. This is to make sure that I will not be penalise for withdrawing before the maturity date.
2nd bucket - Buy & Hold,
For this bucket, I am looking at positive cashflow from my properties and dividend yield from my stocks. When I buy property, I always look at the rental yield first, unlike most people who focus on capital gains.
Most people will buy a property and hope for capital gains over the long term. There are many things to look at when you invest in properties. I suggest that you educate yourself in this area before investing in any property. Our company conducts a seminar call the Property Investment Program, you may wish to call my company at +65-62210090 to register yourself for a free preview to know more about property investment.
As for stocks, I like to buy monopoly stocks that has got few or no competitor, good management team and consistent dividend payouts. Some of the stocks that I bought in Singapore are SMRT, Comfort Delgro, SPH and Suntec Reit, just to name a few. Besides the dividends, I also lend out my stocks thru' CDP for an additional 4% rental yield per annum. My average return is about 18% per annum. Knowing when to buy is also important in stock investment. I usually wait for a crisis before I move in for good stocks that are selling below their intrinsic value.
80% of the money from my FFJ are park in my 2nd bucket
3rd bucket - Momentum
Make sure you fill up the 1st and 2nd buckets before you consider the 3rd bucket. This is where you look for high returns but it does come with high risks. I invest not more than 20% of my FFJ in this bucket. Some of my investments in this bucket include land banking, bird nests farming and some small businesses with friends. I am prepared to lose everything in this bucket and if that happens, it is not going to affect my lifestyle in anyway. However if the investment bare fruits, it is a bonus to me.
Let me share with you that some property investment comes under the momentum bucket, this is because many "uneducated" property investors lose their pants investing in properties. Worst of all, they don't even have the first 2 buckets as insurance. Getting educated makes a big difference.
To me, any investment that promise high and fast returns comes under momentum.
Next week I will talk about the 2 Wealth Creators that you will need to create wealth for yourself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)