Have a purpose

And a plan

 “Follow your dreams, pursue your passion!”  That’s the usual useless cliché offered by successful superstars as advice to people who want the same level of success for themselves. It’s not helpful!

It’s better to tell them to stop dreaming, get to work! Learn what you need to know and apply your passion to getting better and doing better.

For ambitious entrepreneurs – young and old, new or experienced – my own advice based on more than thirty years of entrepreneurship and consulting can be summarized in six simple words: Have a purpose and a plan.

Plus a bonus of three more important words: Avoid the mistakes.

Even better you can learn from all the words in my two short books for entrepreneurs how to successfully start and grow a valuable sustainable business: The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans and DON’T DO IT THE HARD WAY.

Both books offer ideas and inspiration based on stories of my own learning experience with clients and other business owners, including the mistakes we’ve made and how to avoid them. Learn more at: LearningEntrepreneurship – Business Books.

You can be better and do better. Be an Enlightened Entrepreneur.

Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph

Learn more about Enlightened Entrepreneurship at: LearningEntrepreneurship.com Read more of Uncle Ralph's advice for Entrepreneurs in Don't Do It the Hard Way & The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans - 2020 Editions.

 Read more Blog posts at: LearningEntrepreneurship Blogs. 

• The Seven Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Find the Exit before it's an Emergency

• When to Launch Your Business

• The Four P’s of Salesmanship: “You wanna buy a book?”

Biggest Entrepreneur Mistake #3

Focused on Profit

Being focused on profit doesn’t seem like a mistake. After all, isn’t that the whole purpose of running a business? No, actually it’s not.

If you accept the principle that the fundamental objective of any business is to build sustainable business value through loyal and profitable customer relationships, then focusing on short-term profitability can be a distraction and detrimental to that objective.

Many short-term profit-oriented decisions can hurt long-term value. Cutting expenses in staffing, marketing, and maintenance might have an obvious and immediate impact on improving profits and cash flow, but they may also have irreversible negative effects on corporate culture, branding, operational effectiveness, and the continued support of key employees and customers.

Most entrepreneurs are dedicated to managing the bottom line by monitoring sales, gross profit margins, and operating expenses. They always know those numbers. But they too often neglect asset management and the performance variables affecting cash flow and the ability of the enterprise’s infrastructure to generate sustainable and profitable long-term growth.

Managers need to monitor all the key performance variables and react quickly to avoid big mistakes that might be fatal. Focusing on short-term profitability may be a dangerous distraction.

Don’t make the Biggest Entrepreneur Mistake #3 – Focused on profit

Be better. Do Better. Be an Enlightened Entrepreneur.

Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph

Learn more about Enlightened Entrepreneurship at: LearningEntrepreneurship.com Read more of Uncle Ralph's advice for Entrepreneurs in Don't Do It the Hard Way & The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans - 2020 Editions.

 Read more Blog posts at: LearningEntrepreneurship Blogs. 

• The Seven Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Find the Exit before it's an Emergency

• When to Launch Your Business

• The Four P’s of Salesmanship: “You wanna buy a book?”

Brave New Plans for 2023

Find a new comfort zone

After two years of living with pandemic restrictions and one year of navigating through an apocalyptic world of continuing health risks, social disruption and discontent, geopolitical conflict, climate disasters, and humanitarian crises, it’s time to make brave new plans for 2023 to find our place among our fellow passengers on planet earth.

Let’s find a new comfort zone for our own peace, security and prosperity while developing new approaches to making it a better world for everyone.

Let's widen our point of view, look large at people and the planet; seek to understand, listen and learn; consider alternate beliefs and value systems. Share our own values and beliefs. Speak up against lies and bigotry, racism and hate, ignorance and misinformation and false faith in simple solutions.

Be aware of the needs of family and friends, associates and colleagues, the neighbours and communities around us. The world is waiting; it needs more of us to do better; and it needs more of the best of us.

Small steps can make a big difference. One friendly gesture; one generous act; one thoughtful contribution of time, talent, knowledge or experience; applied to one person, one family, one community at a time.

It will be another challenging year. Let’s not deny the truth or hide from the ugly facts of life. Let’s change our attitudes and our actions to make life better for ourselves and for others.

Have a great start to the New Year.

 Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph

Choose & Use Wisely

Professionals can help

Twenty years ago, I wrote an article titled, Consultants: How to Chose, Use, and Not Abuse Them, based on my own experience as a management consultant and as a client of other consultants, accountants, lawyers, and other professionals. The article offers tips for effective professional relationships and has retained its relevance for a Blog Post at LearningEntrepreneurship.com and inclusion in Uncle Ralph’s Random Ramblings in my book of advice for entrepreneurs, DON’T DO IT THE HARD WAY.

After a recent headline in The Economist, “Do McKinsey and other consultants do anything useful?” it seems necessary to add the additional advice, “Don’t be used and abused by your consultant.”

The abuses of power and influence and the profiteering by both McKinsey and Bain in South Africa recently led to judicial investigations and criminal charges against both consulting firms. Their scandals and outrageous conflicts of interest in the past have apparently not resulted in more ethical and enlightened behaviour in the management of global consulting firms.

So be aware of what style of management is guiding the professionals that you engage to help you and your business. See Rule #3 – Compatibility: Be sure that your objectives are aligned and that they are helping you more than they’re helping themselves.

With all do respect to my fellow consultants and other ethical, enlightened professionals, use your consultants well.

Be better. Do better. Be an enlightened entrepreneur.  

Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph

Learn more about Enlightened Entrepreneurship at: LearningEntrepreneurship.com Read more of Uncle Ralph's advice for Entrepreneurs in Don't Do It the Hard Way & The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans - 2020 Editions.

 Read more Blog posts at: LearningEntrepreneurship Blogs. 

• The Seven Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Find the Exit before it's an Emergency

• When to Launch Your Business

• The Four P’s of Salesmanship: “You wanna buy a book?”

Consultants: How to Choose, Use, and Not Abuse Them

Help them, help you

Since my first consulting project over thirty years ago, I have learned a lot about how to successfully manage consulting projects and the client/consultant relationship. Here is my advice, which I am sharing again to help you with your consultants (and your lawyers, accountants and other professionals):

1. Before you introduce consultants to the process, be sure you need what you want and want what you need. Beware of consultants that agree to do whatever you want, whether you need it or not.
2. Look internally to confirm the three "C's" of consulting project readiness: Capacity in budget, time and resources; Commitment of management and staff affected by the process; and Capability to support the project and implement the conclusions.
3. One more "C" – Compatibility. Select your consultants from an organisation that is compatible with yours - are you a corporate multinational or a local entrepreneurial business?
4. Recognize whether your consulting needs are strategic: requiring outside expertise to inspire and facilitate your business planning process, or operational: bringing knowledge, skills and experience that are not available internally.
5. Meet the operating consultant. It may not be the same charming, talented person that sold you the work.  And at those fee rates you don't want to train a recent MBA, who started last week and studied your industry yesterday.
6. Test Drive: Check whether the consultant arrives with questions, not answers; will operate as neither boss nor employee; and will win the hearts and minds of your staff. Successful consultants will listen, understand, empathize, analyze, strategize and persuade better than normal people.
7. Remember you are hiring a consultant to challenge and push you. You are not renting a friend to tell you how smart you are.
8. Can you confidently expect a solution that will be yours not theirs?
9. Ask for references.  Call them.
10. Ask who is not on the reference list and why not.  Learn what they think causes a project to be unsuccessful.  And ask which list they expect you to be on when this is over.
11. Ask for fee rates and a work plan with estimated hours. Then agree on a fixed fee for agreed deliverables with dates, documents and milestones.
12. Don't let their progress reports interfere with your progress.  Get what you need, not what they need for internal "CYA" requirements.
13. Check who else is billing time to your project.  Sometimes there is a very expensive partner back at the office who needs to keep his billing rate up. Your budget can be quickly consumed while he "supervises" from a distance.
14. Avoid surprises.  Ask about additional expenses: travel, telephone and printing. Terms of payment?
15. Do they have a satisfaction guarantee?
16. Get the agreement in writing, read it before signing it.
17. Watch for signs of trouble: such as, selling more work before the work is done; long delays between on-site visits; too much time spent "back at the office" and billed to you.
18. And finally, remember consultants are people too. They want to boast about good work and satisfied clients.  You can help them help you.  Don't be difficult.

With all due respect and best regards to my favourite clients and consulting associates.

Be better. Do better.

Your Uncle Ralph, Del Chatterson

Other favorite articles at: Learning Entrepreneurship Blogs. 

• The Seven Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
• Find the Exit before it's an Emergency
• When to Launch Your Business
• The Four P’s of Salesmanship: “You wanna buy a book?”

Visit LearningEntrepreneurship.com for more Blog posts and articles.

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Check out Uncle Ralph’s books: "Don't Do It the Hard Way" and "The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans" Both are available online or at your favourite bookstore in hard cover, paperback or e-book. 

Fragmented

Or focused?

In discussing politics and social issues these days, there is a lot of debate around fragmented media – both traditional and online – and the negative consequences of people remaining in their “bubble” of commentators and audiences, who all seem to agree on shared ideologies and opinions. These bubbles are too often abused and manipulated to reinforce false narratives and to provoke anger and ignorance into aggressive action against presumed foes.

Fragmented media are not effective at resolving differences or promoting intelligent analysis and developing solutions to political and societal problems.

But lets talk business.

From a business perspective it’s a brilliant strategy – focus on shared values and beliefs to build long-term loyal relationships with customers, employees, and business partners.

It’s an essential element of branding and corporate culture to enunciate guiding principles, values and beliefs to attract “believers” to the organisation. Not just loyal, dedicated customers, employees, and business partners, but enthusiastic evangelists!

That’s the way to build a sustainable business. Whether it’s a local restaurant or a global multinational brand. “Just do it!”

Targeted marketing communications adapted to small market segments can be very effective. Every customer gets positive reinforcement that they belong in the group and that they are respected both for what they have in common and for how they are different.

Fragmented marketing is good if you’re focused.

Be better. Do better. Be an enlightened entrepreneur.  

Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph

Learn more about Enlightened Entrepreneurship at: LearningEntrepreneurship.com Read more of Uncle Ralph's advice for Entrepreneurs in Don't Do It the Hard Way & The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans - 2020 Editions.

 Read more Blog posts at: LearningEntrepreneurship Blogs. 

• The Seven Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Find the Exit before it's an Emergency

• When to Launch Your Business
• The Four P’s of Salesmanship: “You wanna buy a book?”