Let's talk follow up!

Yesterday I was out with one of our salespeople and I was shocked at some of the comments that business owners shared with us regarding their salespeople and follow up.

I have personally experienced this with the folks that I lease my vehicle from, however I didn’t know that it extended this far. Countless sales must be lost each year because of this. What is so scary about following up? Years ago, I read a great book by Frank Bettger titled; how I raised myself from failure to success in selling. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to be successful in sales. Here are a few pointers to help you in the meantime:

1. Never, never go home without at least one sale
2. Never end your day without sending an email to the people who bought, those who you met, and those you did not meet but got their business cards
3. Always visit the businesses next door to the one you just sold, right after the sale
4. Do not count a re-visit sale for your sale of the day

Follow these simple yet disciplined rules and you will be guaranteed not only success, but prosperity.

 

News

Every morning, I go through the same routine. I check in with our CTO in Sao Paulo Brazil, I read my emails, respond to the ones I have to, and then I go to my Google News and see what's happening in the World and Canada. This morning's news titles looked a little like this:

• Charlie Hebdo row: Cartoons divide French press
• Recall of ground beef from XL Foods in Alberta expands
• Security forces ring rebel area in Damascus, arrest 100
• Viewpoints: Anti-Islam film and self-censorship
• India hit by national strike over economic reforms
• Israeli air strike kills two Palestinians in Gaza
• Majority of Canadians would pay cash to dodge tax: survey
• Paying more for less: Canada's shrinking living room Add to ...
• Study finds why antidepressants work better for some

As a matter of fact, I think this is the way it looks every morning, and I am starting to think that there is no "good news" anymore, unless of course you would consider this to be good news:

• iPhone 5 review
• Lindsay Lohan arrested in New York
• Air Canada to unveil low-cost carrier
• HTC, Microsoft unveil new Windows phones

However, at the end of the day it's all the same, with a different twist. So, in view of this, I decided to search Google for a site that actually printed good news, this is what I came up with:

• http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-news/
• http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/

So, there is some good news around the world, I guess it's just a little harder to find. For me, from now on, I would rather have a dose of good news in the morning to help me tackle my days, it makes me feel good, and tells me that "hope" is still the strongest motivator, have a great day!

The Cloud...

What is cloud computing? Many of us have heard about it, some of us use it (Icloud from Apple) however most of us are still in the dark as to what it is and how it can make our lives easier, yes. I said easier!

So what is cloud computing? Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user's data, software and computation.

Now in layman terms. It's like a harddrive located on a network (just like your home network) on the Internet that you can use. Let's try this, if you have an IPhone, and an IPad, and you want to make sure that if you lose your data you can recover it, you can back-up your devices to ICloud. If you want to sync your IPad (make them the same, share pictures and other information) with your IPhone, use ICloud. So basically Apple provides you with the ability to store up to 5 Gb of information for free on their servers. If you don't have an IPad, IPhone or other Aplle device you have other options, like:
 These types of available storages offer a multitude of options. I personally use both of them, one for pleasure and one for business. Why? Let's say I wanted to share some pictures wtih someone, or let's just say I wanted access to some files no matter where I was. I would simply create an account with any of these companies, and start adding files, photos, books, musics or videos to the folders I created. And, if I wanted to share some of these items, I simply would create a shared folder and invite someone to share it with.

My daughter lives in Ireland, so, if I took a few pictures around the house with my IPhone, or camera and tried to send those via email...good luck! If you are talking pictures in hugh resolution most of them will be over 1Mb in size and therefore could be rejected by the ISP, or web mail like Yahoo. And, because of their size, you could only send one per email, what a task. So instead, I have SugarSync, and I asked my daughter to also get a SugarSync account, and I created a photo folder that we share. Now, since that folder resides on my desktop (or IPhone, IPad, Mac, or whatever you are using) I can upload pictures there pretty quickly and, SugarSync will upload those to my cloud storage, and, my daughter can then go to her desktop folder and see all the pictures. We can do the same with books, videos, music and more.

Imagine the possibilities! Now, let me also caution you, these new storage methods only work if the Internet works. So, for safety measures, if you have important documents, back them up locally on something that you can take with you. I use the 690 Gb transcend, tough as nails, portable, and army tested.

Have a great day in the cloud!

Are we heading in the right direction?

Let me ask you, what is the lifeblood of a strong country and a solid economy? If you said, big companies, big profits, solid banks, high profits on the stock market, and anything that resembles that, well in my opinion...you failed!

Small business is the lifeblood and the strength of any country, of any city, of any culture, period. So why are we not helping them? Take a look at the news, more precisely the business section, what do you see? RIM this, Apple that, Google, Microsoft, and so on. What about the small companies? Banks don't help them, the Government doesn't help them, the investment groups, very little, but yet all of us wonder how to kick-start the economy. All of us wonder, how can we create more jobs? Yet the answer is right there, staring us in the face, help your local small businesses, entrepreneurs and startups and see what happens.

There are so many things that as a country, a province and a city we can do, however the first thing we need to do is "stop kidding ourselves". I read the blogs, the comments, and absurdities that people are posting and writing, come on! Give your head a shake as my mother in law would say. Some of you are starting to sound like politicians, I see growth, BS, what you are seeing is an oasis. Take a close look, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train heading straight for you. DON'T think that I am being negative, that is the easy way of looking at it. I am one of the most positive people out there, however, I am also a realist, and the fact is that we are not helping our small businesses to grow, we are impeding their growth.

Don't be fooled by the Fed's and their funding proclamation! Don't be fooled by the provincial funding, these are political strategies geared at obtaining votes, not growth. We are presently dealing with much bigger problems then small business some would say. Things like "who is that person on our 100 dollar bill". Come on! Wake up Canada!

We have the ability to have the strongest country in the world, we have by far more natural resources than most countries, we have great people, strong ethics, and still we allow our Government to pretty well "dictate" how we will do things with our natural resources. The land, the resources use to belong to the people, now it belongs to the government. The government use to belong to the people, now apparently it belongs to people like Harper. And I continue to read things like, "I see vast improvements in many sectors", "I see the housing industry picking up"...really, really you see that?

I'm sorry for bursting you bubbles, but folks, wake up, take a look around, and if you want an economy that is strong, support your local businesses, your start-ups, your entrepreneurs, and your small businesses. It's a weird thing that happens when you do that...they start growing, they create jobs, money flows in the economy, people buy things and yes, we grow as a city, a province, and a country.

Should we have caps and limitations on companies that serve the public?

As an entrepreneur and self-employed person for many, many years, I have had some good times and bad times. Throughout those years, I have learned that no matter what times, you need to keep feeding your company if you want to be fed! When times are good, it is possible to get paid more, and save more, however, one needs to continue improving the materials and equipment’s that allows the company to grow and prosper.  So why does this not happen in publicly held companies?

A good example of this is the hydro companies both in Canada and the US. Just last week, tens of thousands of people in Washington and in Ontario where and some are still without electricity. Electricity when the temperature reaches over 90 degrees Fahrenheit is not a luxury it is a necessity!  Think of the food that will go bad, think of the elderly without air conditioning, think of the damages and lives this will cost. Who will be responsible? Will the CEO’s responsible for this show up in their Lear jet to request a bailout?

Last year in Ontario the CEO of Hydro 1 was in the highest-ranking echelon of pay, this year, the constant power outages are blamed on the old, inadequate, and outdated equipment. Does this make sense? Let’s see, death, discomfort, waste, versus, bonus, million dollar paycheck and penthouse office downtown Toronto. Something has to give!

To the Governments of Canada (yes I said Canadian Government not Harper Government) and the US, place caps, and limitations on every company that affects the public, now! Who cares what happens to Facebook, Google or Microsoft (yes, these companies employ thousands of people, but, how many will suffer without Google for a day, or Facebook for a week…try no water for 3 days, or hydro for 2 days, or even no natural gas for a week in the middle of the winter). Whatever affects the safety, comfort and needs of the public should come first, always.

Here’s what will happen this year, the CEO’s of hydro companies will start crying, the governments who are in no position to help will allow them a steep increase in rates, and the same people that had to suffer the consequences of power outages will foot the bill! Ironic, n’est ce pas? In addition, to top it off, those same CEO’s will get a hefty bonus for saving the day, what in the hell goes on in that “pea” brain of theirs?

Place limitations, regulations and caps on hydro, water, natural gas, fuel and all other companies that have a direct impact on the lives and safety of the people that actually foot the bill for the paychecks of millions of people that work for those companies. Do it now before it’s to late!

Why, What if…Whatever

Do words affect our behavior and our thoughts?

Interestingly enough, when we are of the speaking age we start with the word why. Everything (well if you’ve been a parent you know this) is why, why not, why can’t I, why, why, and why. As we grow up it becomes what if, what if I get caught, or what if I say this, or what if I did this. What if however, is the beginning of the negative and the positive outcomes. If I use what if I get caught, it relates to a negative outcome, if I use what If I win, positive. So we go from an inquisitive mind to a cautionary mind, which can go either way when it comes to the desired outcome. And recently, we’ve added a “whatever” word that really leaves us cold as to the outcome.

So, looking back at these three expressions, could one extrapolate the question, do words affect our lives? What do you think?

There is that old expression that goes; “you become what you think about most of the time”, but could we also say; “you live by the words you chose to use”? What is the difference between success and failure, could it be in our vocabulary? No, that would be too easy, and would make no sense at all. However, if you think about it, what is the difference between a successful business and one that is failing, both being in the same business. Could it be in the vocabulary that they use. The word whatever, is being used by many today, what if we become what we say? Would you allow your business, your life, your work, your love, your family be a "whatever"! Next time you’re out, look at the way people stand when they say why, what if and whatever, I can almost guaranty you that the posture of the whatever is indifferent and possibly slouched a little, now, tell me that words do not affect the way we live.

Are you in need of financing?

One of our most solid partners and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) experts, have been able to secure financing for corporate clients that have a balance sheet heavy in assets with moderate to significant working capital challenges. Capital is once again beginning to flow back into the North American economy. Many investors are concerned with the uncertainty of the real estate and the stock markets; they are seeking stable returns on secure collateral.

They have identified them and recently established several credit facilities for local companies in the form of
equipment financing, refinancing and other asset‐based lending instruments.. If your company meets these standards and requirements, please forward me an email with the particulars and I will put you in contact with them. They will charge a nominal fee of .5% up to 5% depending on the loan size and difficulty in obtaining it.

If you are interested, please email me and I will send you the requirements, my email is chris@cgallant.com, thanks.