Author: Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

Categories
Work Life

Working Harder vs. Working Happier: What Research Tells Us about Success

Have you ever had the experience of being so deeply immersed in a project that you lost track of time? Research shows that those are the times when we’re happiest- when we’re engaging our natural skills and abilities.

As a business coach with over thirty years of experience, I’ve seen it in action, over and over again: people succeed when they put themselves in a position to truly use their natural skills and abilities. Happiness leads to success.

When I talk about this—it seems clear that everyone in the audience knows exactly what I’m talking about, because the result is almost universally positive.

People like the idea of developing their natural skills and talents, and they are familiar (usually from early childhood) with the meaning and satisfaction that comes from engaging in activities that are supported by their innate Perceptual Style.

While this “sounds good” to almost everyone, most people don’t believe that it’s possible to succeed in business by focusing on their natural skills and abilities.

Talking to people after a presentation, I have heard many variations on the same theme: “Sounds great, but I have a business to run and don’t have time to be distracted,” or “Sounds like a lot of hard work,” or “You can’t just focus on the positive.”

Recently, though, I discovered an answer to why people can be so negative about being positive! Research in positive psychology shows that many people have a formula for happiness set up in their heads that goes like this: “If I work harder, I will be more successful. If I am more successful, then I will be happy.”

Telling someone who has this formula in his head to work on those skills and talents that are “easy” rather than “hard” is the same as telling him to give up on success and happiness and settle for what they have.

Research, however, has shown that this formula doesn’t work. Hard work may lead to some success, but success doesn’t lead to happiness. The truth is 180 degrees different: Happiness leads to real success. When people are happy and focused on the positive aspects of themselves and the world, their brains perform 31 percent better than if they are negative, neutral, or stressed. They are more intelligent, more creative, and have more energy. In fact, when people are happy, their performance improves on every single measure of business outcome.

According to Shawn Achor, founder and CEO of Good Think, Inc., “If we study what is merely average, we will remain average.” What we focus on and study creates our reality. If you focus on discovering and developing your weaknesses, your will have a never-ending list of acquired skills that you must work hard to develop. While you may become proficient in those skills over time, you will also be physically, emotionally, and psychologically stressed. And we now know how much less efficient our brains are when we are stressed!

If you want to be truly successful, first you must be happy. To be happy, you must focus on what you genuinely enjoy doing, and focus on developing what you already do well. Almost anyone who has mastered any discipline will attest to the truth of this.

So, to those who question the investment in their own talents and abilities, I say: If you want to be happy and successful, you must focus on your natural gifts and talents. It’s not a lot of hard work, it’s a lot of easy work. What you are doing now is hard work!

About the Author: 

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Success Attitude

3 Ways to Deal with Squawkers in Your Business

I enjoyed some quiet time early one morning before the demands of my day started. All of a sudden, a bird began squawking just outside the window. At first I ignored it, but it loudly persisted so I got up.

As I stepped out on the porch, I saw the bird squawking at Maybelle, our cat, who sat on the porch, staring off across the horse pasture. The bird bothered me, but not Maybelle.

She sauntered over, giving me permission to pet her while the bird still screamed at us. But Maybelle didn’t mind. She knew the bird was there, but chose to ignore it and enjoy my petting.

Is there always someone squawking at you about your business?

An employee complaining about your “cheap coffee”?

A vendor who’s more concerned about his sales than your profits?

A customer who’s convinced you overcharged her a nickel?

How do you deal with all the squawkers like Maybelle and Work Positive?

Ignore Them

Like Maybelle, you have a choice to whom you give your time, energy, and attention: the squawkers or someone more pleasant.

The path of least resistance is to abdicate your choice to the negative world and allow the loudest or most persistent squawker to garner your precious resources. Maybelle chose to ignore the pain-in-the-rear bird.

How often do you make a conscious choice in your workday to be like Maybelle and ignore the squawkers? She knew the bird was there, just like you know your chronically complaining employee is present, your vendor’s agenda, and your customer’s penchant for penny-pinching. You accept the reality of working with them, but strategically divert your most precious resources—time, energy, and attention—away from them.

Your internal conversation goes something like this: “I hear you, but I choose to ignore you.”

Eliminate Them

Sometimes ignoring them fails to moderate the squawking. They ramp up the volume and start dive-bombing you in a concerted effort to siphon your precious resources.

That’s when you move to eliminate them.

Maybelle was a well-fed cat, and on this particular occasion, chose not to eat the bird. However, I remember many other times when I discovered bird feathers around her mouth.

When the level of difficulty in ignoring the squawkers moves to DefCon 1 for you, then your internal conversation becomes, “It costs too much to do business with you.”

You fire the employee and hire another.

You fire the vendor and talk with the next in line.

You fire the customer and attract another, more preferable one.

You ignore, and when necessary eliminate, the squawkers at work, so you may…

Enjoy Them

Maybelle relaxed on the porch, gazing across the beautiful pastures to welcome a new day. She chose to give her time, energy, and attention to the positive morning and enjoy.

Next, she seized the opportunity of my walking out on the porch to enjoy some petting. She embraced the chance to purr.

As you ignore and when necessary eliminate the squawkers, you free up your time, energy, and attention to give to more pleasurable Work Positive pursuits. Your internal conversation transforms to, “I choose you to enjoy.”

You get feedback on how to improve from your best employee.

You strategize with your vendor to create better price points for products.

You handwrite a personal note to your best customers to express your gratitude for their sending their friends to you.

You purr as you Work Positive.

Who will win your time, energy, and attention at work today?

Be like Maybelle.

Ignore, eliminate, and enjoy as you Work Positive in a negative world.

About the Author:

Best-selling author, speaker, and coach Dr. Joey Faucette shares how all of us working together create a more positive world this week. Adapted from his #1 Amazon best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World.

 

Categories
Finance & Capital

Changes to Child Benefit: How to Keep Your Payments

Changes to child benefit payments for thousands of higher rate tax payers come in to effect in April 2013. Here’s how to keep your tax-free child benefit if you’re a higher rate taxpayer.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer that currently receives child benefit payments you could lose thousands of pounds a year when changes to child benefit come in to effect in April 2013.

Depending on how much you earn it may be possible to reduce your taxable income below the 40% higher rate tax threshold so you still keep these payments.

Here are your options:

Invest in a pension
The quickest and probably the easiest way to keep your child benefit is to increase, or begin making contributions to a pension.

This should be done by salary sacrifice and can be paid into an occupational pension run by your employer or to an independent personal pension.

Doing this will reduce your taxable pay and, depending on your contribution, could bring you beneath the higher tax rate threshold so you get to keep your child benefit payments.

If you have a family to clothe and feed, you may feel that paying into a pension is lower down your list of priorities, however putting more into your pension could leave you better off come April 2013.

For a family with 3 children, child benefit is currently worth £2,449.20 a year, so paying an extra £1,000 or £2,000 in pension contributions would not only boost your retirement savings but is likely to leave you better off overall as well.

There are two main was to set this up, either by simply increasing the amount of your salary that is paid into your pension, or by sacrificing a part of your salary (perhaps a pending pay rise) in exchange for greater pension contributions from your employer.

Throw into the mix the tax relief that you get when you pay into a personal pension and opting to keep under the higher tax threshold this way can be very tax effective.

For more help deciding whether a pension is right for you, read our guide: Should I Get a Pension?

Childcare vouchers
Purchasing childcare vouchers from your pre-tax pay is another way to reduce your taxable income and could help you keep your child benefit.

Childcare vouchers can be used to pay for registered childcare at a nursery, playschool, childminder or after-school club.

Basic rate tax payers purchasing childcare vouchers for the first time can buy up to £55 of vouchers a week. So if your current salary is just over the higher rate threshold it’s worth investigating this option.

Buying the full £55 a week of childcare vouchers could reduce your taxable income by £2,916 a year, which may be a sufficient amount for you to be classed as a basic rate tax payer.

This is because tax-exempt benefits like childcare vouchers are excluded from the tax rate assessment. So, for the purpose of childcare vouchers, you can earn up to £45,391 a year before being classed as a higher rate tax payer.

Even if your child is too young to be left in child care, you can still purchase vouchers and use them at a later date. Although each voucher will have an expiry date they tend to last a long time.

For more information on childcare vouchers, read our guide: How to Get Help with Childcare Costs.

Register as a company
Reducing your pre-tax salary by purchasing childcare vouchers or investing in a pension will be the two options open to most people worried about losing their child benefit payments.

However, depending on your circumstances and terms of your employment you may be able to keep you child benefit by setting up a company.

Essentially this involves setting up your own private limited company, paying yourself a minimal salary and declaring the rest of the money you earn as dividends from your company.

However, this option is best suited to the self-employed as well as freelancers and consultants not directly employed by a business and simply isn’t an option if you are a full time employee earning an annual salary.

This option could also make your personal finances considerably more complicated so you may need to seek advice from an accountant to ensure you are paying the correct levels of tax on all areas.

Change your working patterns
If you or your partner are a higher rate tax payer but the other perhaps works part time or stays at home, it may be worth considering changing your working patterns so you remain eligible for child benefit payments.

The higher earner could take advantage of flexible working arrangements or switch to lighter working hours to drop below the income threshold, while the lower earner could look at increasing their hours if they work part time, or finding some other means of making up the difference.

While this may not be a feasible option for some couples, balancing your salaries a little more evenly could mean you get to keep the child benefit payments and leave you better off overall.

Salary sacrifice?
You may think that you can sign up for a host of different salary sacrifice schemes in order to reduce your income.However company cars, phones and other benefits are considered to be benefits-in-kind and part of your salary.

This means that you don’t get the same perceived salary deduction as with paying into a pension or purchasing child care vouchers.

Take a pay cut?
Taking a pay cut to reduce your income below the higher rate tax threshold so that you can keep your child benefit may seem like the easiest option.

However, while doing this could mean you lose less than doing nothing at all, paying the money you would have scarified into a pension would essentially have the same effect.

Regardless of your attitude to pensions, investing in your future in this way will leave you better off rather than just sacrificing the money so it’s very much worth considering.

If you don’t have a pension, why not try following our Action Plan: How to get a Pension.

Before you take any action to reduce your taxable income it’s important to research the full implications so that you make the right decision for your household finances.

About the Author:

By Martin Lane from money.co.uk

Categories
Networking

Technology Trend Report For Entrepreneurs

If you’re going to be entrepreneur, you’re better off preparing yourself for the new frontiers of online innovation. The best way to approach this is to think of the Internet as just the first phase in a telecommunication revolution that will change human interaction as we know it. The successful entrepreneur of tomorrow will be not only well versed in the innovations of today, but the innovations of tomorrow and the next. This involves preparing for the next phase of the Internet—the Web 3.0, which will include real time communications embedded in every nook and cranny of society, virtual reality interfaces taking over the workplace, and location-based messaging taking over the commercial landscape. This sea change will affect a wide variety of industries and professions, from healthcare contract management to online marketing.

Real time communication. It’s not just social media, chatting or texting. It’s all of these combined and layered on top of powerful new networks. Skype and Voip services are just the beginning. In the coming decade, we will be embedding real time communication applications in the simplest of every appliances, making ubiquitous real time video an everyday staple. Feel free to talk to your boss through a window on your microwave while you’re making toast. If you think this is overblown simply look at the rise of cloud services as a significant profitable and trusted industry, adopted by tech startups and Fortune 500 companies alike. Real time communication is just hitting its stride, but you can expect to see its muscle truly flexed during the upcoming Olympics.

Virtual reality communities. The future is going to see an exponential rise in virtual reality communities that will assist in everything from remotely held boardroom meetings to literal online dating, as in dating via avatars. Expect the trend toward virtual reality communities to mix business and pleasure and become the next great battleground for marketers and advertisers. It’s going to be Second City, except streamlined for everyday use. While it will be a while until we’re talking about the real Avatar, as in actually inhabiting someone else’s body, virtual reality will grow by bursts and fits in the coming decade and will slowly become as widely used as social media is now. The next big virtual reality communities will be like Second City, except streamlined for everyday use.

Location-based messaging. This trend is already in full motion but will become even more prevalent with the rise of the previous two trends. Place-based messaging services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook will grow to involve more real time video chatting. Expect to also begin seeing location-based messaging being used for ‘online’ places, like virtual reality communities. Services like Loopt are already pushing the envelope with ping-enabled “location-based text messaging”. Expect further experimentation in this industry, as demonstrated by ChatSq, a Foursquare extension that involves creating chatrooms that are attached to locations. Each venue will have the potential to become its own mobile social network. Marketers take note!

All three of these technologies already exist and have been widely adopted. But they are set to evolve qualitatively and quantitatively in the coming years. A wide variety of small business opportunies and venture capital streams are primed to result from these innovations. Entrepreneurs looking for leverage should be familiarizing themselves with these trends and the industries related to them. Don’t get left in the e-dust.

This Guest Post is written by Samantha Peters, an active blogger who enjoys writing about anything of interest to entrepreneurs and business start-ups.

Categories
Communication Skills

The Rule of Thirds: How to Truly Listen

“Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage,” wrote Publilius Syrus more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome.

Such wise advice from ages ago has never been more relevant. In the modern professional world, we are suffering from a listening crisis.

Actually, it’s a “lack-of-listening” crisis.

Whether your role is executive, managerial, sales, customer service or anything else, it is critically important to your success that you listen.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” wrote Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Too often we get that order mixed up. We focus on being understood as opposed to understanding those with whom we live and work.

Ask any of the greatest salespersons or sales trainers what it takes to succeed. Chances are that “ability to listen” will be at or near the top of the list. Success in sales requires you to understand your prospective client before you can do any sort of pitching, convincing or persuading. The smart salesperson asks carefully crafted questions designed to drill as deep as necessary to find out what makes the prospect tick. Truly listening to those answers allows a salesperson to customize, or at least portray, the product or service in such a way that creates maximum appeal.

By the way, “truly listening” doesn’t mean you act like you’re in one of those cheesy “active-listening” workshops. Many people who have completed such workshops look like they are listening actively – they have an intense look on their faces, nod their heads and occasionally paraphrase what the person is saying – but they still don’t retain any of it. Active listening is much more about understanding than it is about facial expressions and head-nodding.

Super executive Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, once said, “I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions.”

Iacocca’s statement reminds me of the old saying, “God gave you one mouth and two ears; use them proportionately.”

In other words, we should listen twice as much as we talk. I call it the “Rule of Thirds.”

Two-thirds of the time you spend talking with a colleague, client or a prospect should be focused on the other person. One-third of the time is focused on yourself.

“No man ever listened himself out of a job,” said former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge. Simply put, listening is one of the top skills required for professional success.

But be careful you don’t over-do it. Some people become so committed to good listening, that they become 100 percent “interpersonal givers.” In other words, they spend three-thirds of their time listening to other people. If you do this, people will tend to like you, because you allowed them to talk about themselves. However, if you fail to reserve your third, they won’t know anything about you or how your business can help them. Listen twice as much as you talk but don’t forget to pitch something about yourself.

Why is focusing on the other person so important? The answer is simple: most people are rather self-absorbed. Want proof? Here it is: I am my most favorite subject. My friend is his most favorite subject. You are probably your most favorite subject.

Saying “I am my favorite subject” sounds awful, but it is not necessarily a selfish or narcissistic thing to say. After all, I spend a lot of time working on my favorite subject. I have invested much in my favorite subject. The success or failure of my favorite subject determines the direction of my life and has a big impact on the people I care about. I sometimes lay awake at night worrying about the things my favorite subject has screwed up.

Most people are the same way.

If you show earnest, sincere interest in my favorite subject, I can’t help but like you. I can’t help but feel some sort of connection with you. Showing sincere interest by truly listening disarms colleagues and clients and paves the way for your success.

You might be wondering to whom you should listen. Who is worthy of your attention? Who deserves your best listening skills? That’s easy: everyone. You never know who has the right information for you or knows just the right person you need to meet.

Sam Walton, the late founder of Wal-Mart, once said, “The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stock boys.”

When it comes to listening, remember to do it sincerely and remember that everyone counts.

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at JeffBeals.com.