I enjoyed this article by Peter Carruthers. It puts living in South Africa into a seriously, positive perspective.
Some years ago I wrote about a son who had been supporting his dad for many years. The son's firm was failing, and he could no longer support dad as well as before. Dad's response: Anger, mudslinging, and malice. The son was buried in guilt.
Neither of them could see past the immediacy. Neither could see that son had supported Dad for years – without thanks. Dad wasn't grateful for the good years. just fearful about the changes. Son could not see that he'd done good so far, and that his own life had changed – for the moment.
After almost four years out of South Africa, I am seeing a lot of analogies. I thought an expat view might add some value.
I currently spend about 4 hours each day talking to South Africans inside SA. I live in Norway, after a three year sojourn in the UK. The reason for this article is that I cannot help but see my friends getting all frothy and side-tracked by Mr Zumas manhood. (My friends are mostly white, middle-aged, and male, it seems. Like me.)
The present SA regime permeates each chat. If it's not love-kids, it's graft or incompetence.
Expats are not allowed to say much about it, so we just listen. The moment we dare say something happy about our current scene, we're seen to be dissing 'the best place place on earth to live in'.
This weekend we will visit an American friend about 10 minutes away. It's her birthday. We'll gather a few bottles of wine from the local Vinmonopole. (The government owns the only bottle store.) A bottle of Nederburg Baronne (the 2006 costs about R40 in SA) will cost R180 (for the vintage harvested last December). We'll need three of those. Then it's a taxi to visit them, and a taxi back, at R2000 for the round trip. (Zero alcohol tolerance.) Each of these prices includes 25% VAT. And that's after a 56% marginal tax rate.
Want to start a business here? Setting up a firm demands an outlay of R140,000 – just to get registered. (In contrast, it costs about R1000 in SA to get a CC started.) Want to set up as a sole trader? That costs about R5000 to register before you can issue an invoice. (Vs R0.00 in SA.)
VAT registration kicks in as your turnover passes R80,000 for the year. (Yet another layer of admin to enjoy.) I am not going to even talk about the costs and duties around employing your first (until she dies) staff member. It's just scary. And if Zuma gets involved, that's at least a year of maternity leave.
Setting up in the UK is different, but also very expensive.
While you're running your firm, you're trying to keep your home clean, your clothes ironed, the supplies flowing, and the kids happy. Trying to hold down a job (if you can get one) is exciting if the kids are off school for any reason (holidays, snow, flu, or the UK paranoia of the day). There is no cheap labour to help. A garden service in the UK, for instance, will cost you about R300 to mow and trim a piece of lawn the size of a moustache. At least Norway is covered in snow for half the year so that's an expense we don't have to worry about.
SA has an abundant supply of great drugs. In the UK they have a colourful range of bottles of distilled water. Each pretends to be a cure for something mild. Anything worse than a gentle headache needs a visit to a doctor to get real drugs. And the moment you have a mild accident (a sprained ankle, or a spear in the foot) that's the Emergency section of your local hospital for a day outing, as well as a police investigation. (There is no concept of an accident. it must be somebody's fault.)
A friend of mine got a call from his sons school a week or so ago. The boy had pointed a £1 toy plastic gun at another kid and said "Bang. I shot you in the chest." Friends son mentioned it to another kid. This was overheard by a teacher. That was enough for a disciplinary hearing and formal warning. The only reason the boy wasn't expelled was that nobody could prove anything. The kid who brought the toy to school was expelled.
That's almost as bizarre as the old gent sitting at MacDonalds who got hit on the head by a sausage thrown by a 4 year old, as kids are wont to do. The old gent laid a charge of assault against the boy and his parents. In Norway, as in South Africa, the cops would see the humour and send the man home on his zimmer frame. Not so in the UK.
While all of this is happening, the government in the UK have had a torrid time of it. They've bent the rules in ways the ANC wish they had the brains to think of. Gordon Brown has spent about R500,000 per person in the UK (still to be extracted in taxes) to bail out the banks, over which he has as much control as I have over Zuma's winklepicker.
Speaking of which, lets not get started on the extra-marital stuff. The only reason that Bill Clinton didn't have relations with, by or through 'that woman' was because she had a big mouth. His lead has since been followed by what seems to be most of the US senate. Confessions abound in this new season of couch rugby. Watching the news is more interesting than that wildlife show about Cougars.
So lets get some perspective. South Africa remains a paradise to live in. It's easy to create a business and enjoy a superb standard of living. It's got some of the best weather in the world. It's got great food at reasonable prices. It's got fine people who will help you out with all the pesky life maintenance functions which take up so much time. And they will do it for a pittance. The tax rates are survivable. And if it all gets too much, there is always a beach somewhere.
In Norway the beaches are covered with snow apart from a few months in the middle of the year. And in the UK that beach, on both good days each year, is covered by millions of large white bodies getting sunburnt before overwhelming the health services.
Maybe the Internet is tad erratic, but at least you don't get a great big blue screen censoring your activities each time you want to see a scrapbooking site, the kind of challenge that faces folk living in Qatar.
Now, what were you complaining about again? Go grab a glass of Merlot, sit on the stoep, and count some blessings. This is not the rehearsal and life could be so much worse.
Peter Carruthers
Fredrikstad
18 February 2010
www.businesswarriors.co.za
Business generator, Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker, consultant, trainer and writer in South Africa. www.jacquesdevilliers.com
When
branding and marketing your company name, make sure you know the
history associated with the name, otherwise you could run into trouble.
A while ago I saw an advert for a parachuting outfit called Icarus. I
thought it was rather an unfortunate name for a company. As you know,
Icarus, the son of Daedalus (if you care — he built the Labyrinth of
the Minotaur at Knossos and seriously upset King Minos), flew too near
the sun with wax-attached wings, fell into the sea and drowned.
Not a great safety record and not a name I'd highlight for a parachute
company. I suppose the lesson is to know your Greek before choosing a
name.
There's a number of companies that use Icarus as their name. Be careful not to choose names that failure can be associated to.
About Jacques de Villiers
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com. For resources take a look at
http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com
http://www.successseminars.co.za
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
Article by Jacques de Villiers published in Meetings SA and CEO Magazine.
“If you build it, they will come.” This is the attitude of many
companies when they build their websites. They think that customers
will come streaming in and that a website will be a panacea for all
their financial woes. It may have been true when Theodore Roosevelt
uttered those immortal words about the Panama Canal, but it’s not true
for your website.
A website is like a marriage … if you want it to be successful, you
need to work at it consistently. If it is neglected, it’ll wither and
die. In Google terms, it means your website ends up on page 1000 in the
rankings. Your website may as well be dead.
Besides not working on their website, companies make these two mistakes:
1. A graphic designer is in charge of building the website
They don’t involve their marketing specialist. They source the website
function to either a graphic designer or their IT specialist. So, they
end up with a beautiful and fully functional website with all the bells
and whistles, but few people visit the site.
Savvy companies make sure that their marketing specialist is the
architect of an Internet marketing strategy (there’s more to an
Internet marketing strategy than just a website).
A marketers hand at the tiller is important because marketers are
trained to ask the essential questions of a successful website:
- Who do we want to come to our website?
- What are we going to tell them?
- What do we want them to do?
2. Your website is too complicated to navigate (Don' make me think)
If your website is complicated and you make me think too hard,
you’ll lose me. Keep it simple and easy to use and I’ll hang out a bit
so that you have enough time to persuade me to do something that will
bring your company profits.
Road Map to Successful Internet Marketing (and dating Angelina Jolie)
If you’re at all serious about generating revenue from your website you
have to take search engine optimisation seriously. If you don’t have
any visitors, you can’t convert any sales. And, to get eyeballs onto
your website, you need to be in at least get a Top 20 ranking on
Google. The ultimate, of course is to get a #1 ranking on Google. This
is where you you start hitting the jackpot.
You’d employ the same strategies to get onto Google’s radar screen as
you would to get onto Angelina Jolie’s. Why would an Angelina Jolie
consider dating you in the first place (if she weren’t attached to Brad Pitt, of
course). She’s not going to hang out with you if you don’t have
charisma, if you’re unknown and unkempt, is she? She’s going to hang
out with someone that’s confident, charismatic, knows where he’s going
and how he’s going to get there, someone who is popular, and someone
that others will vouch for. Google works in very much the same way.
People have to be talking about you
Like Angelina Jolie, Google also likes to hang out with the popular
crowd. Google wants to know if you are popular and if you have
information that’s relevant to your target auience. Google is looking
for your URL(website name) to be on other websites. The more popular
the website is that vouches for you, the better chance you have of
getting ranked higher in the Google hierarchy.
You’ve got to be industrious
Angelina Jolie likes to see her man at work – it shows that he’s
diligent and productive. So does Google. She likes websites that are
worked on. The more you work on your website, the more she visits you.
And, the more she visits you, the more chance you have of raising your
Google rankings.
Size Counts
I’m not sure about Angelina Jolie, but Google definitely likes size.
The bigger your website the better. So, if you think you’re going to
cut it with a Readers Digest version, think again. Think Leo Tolstoy’s
novel, War and Peace. Remember, Google is a purveyor of relevant
information. The more information you can give Google on your specific
offering, the better. When Google sees lots of pages, she considers
your site to be a valuable resource site. This favours your website
tremendously.
Age is an Attitude
Why do some women date older men? They’re normally more stable,
credible and valuable. They make one feel safe. Google also likes her
men older. She likes a website that’s been around for a while and will
be around for a while. She wants to see stability, credibility and
value. This normally comes with age, doesn’t it? That’s why, when a new
website is born, Google puts it in a sandbox with the other kids so
that it can play. If you’re lucky, you’ll only get indexed on Google
six months after you make your new website live. So, don’t ever retire
your existing website, rather improve on it.
Romance is a Good Thing
Getting Google to rank you highly so that you get quality visitors to
your website is one thing, keeping them there is another. Sometimes
your visitors bounce of your site at a rate of 80%. This means that
they’ve spent less than 30 seconds on your site because it hasn’t
hooked them or the site is not relevant to their needs. That’s why you
should make your website sticky. Use persuasive words, words that are
compelling and words that get people to take action.
Follow these rules of copywriting and you should do just fine – State a
problem you can solve, make a big promise as to how you’ll solve the
problem, show a solution that will solve the problem … make sure it is
packed with reams of benefits, have testimonials, give a guarantee and
have a call to action.
If you want Google to help you achieve your business objectives, then
you’ve got to take Internet marketing seriously and see it as a
mainstream marketing discipline that will add profits to your business.
About the Author
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, Internet marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com. For resources take a look at
http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com
http://jacquesdevilliers.typepad.com/jacquesdevilliers/
http://www.successseminars.co.za
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
Granted, affront advertising does not work for everyone like it
worked for the British outfitter French Connection UK. Using its
almost-offensive acronym, FCUK saw its sales increase by 40% and its
share price more than double after its billboard campaign.
Most of my clients are B2B, so this kind of gratuitous advertising probably wouldn't go down too well.
Now that I have your attention, I'd like to touch on the B2B customer
acquisition strategy (or lack of). Many companies I have been in touch
with seem to rely on one or two strategies with a hope for the best,
let's see what happens approach.
Most B2B companies rely heavily on their sales forces with little
regard to other client acquisition mechanisms. This is a dangerous
game: what if your sales force doesn't fire and achieve the targets you
set for them for a couple of months? The whole deck of cards comes
tumbling down, doesn't it? An exceptional client acquisition strategy
has at least five legs to stand on. So, if one or two legs are
tottering at least the other three can keep the company stable and keep
bringing in income. Find as many client acquisition strategies as you
can and apply them.
About the Author
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com. For resources take a look at
http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com
http://jacquesdevilliers.typepad.com/jacquesdevilliers/
http://www.successseminars.co.za
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
Looks
and charm may get you one date. Character, consistency, caring and
support will get you going steady. The same holds true for your client.
Your organisation may woo her to buy once at a high profit with
promises of service, loyalty, discounts, friendliness, but if you can't
back up your offering, you'll not have a long-term relationship with
her. To do this you'll need to change your perception of the way you
deal with a client.
Here are three ideas you may like to consider:
Think long-term
It costs most organisations money to sign up a new client. Depending
who you talk to it can cost a company 9x more to acquire a new client
than to service and grow an existing one. To get any real benefit and
profits from your client you need to have her on board for the long
haul.
Work out the lifetime value of your client
This concept should totally change your perspective. Let's take an
example of a pizza takeaway restaurant: Imagine that a person buys an
average of one pizza a week at R30 and he does this religiously for 40
years. You're looking at a massive R62 400 over that person's lifetime.
Isn't it true that you'd treat a R62 400 client a whole lot better than
a R30 customer. You'd want him to spend that money in your pizza
takeaway and not in your competitor's restaurant, wouldn't you?
Think client not customer
According to the Webster's Dictionary, a customer is someone who
purchases a commodity or service. A client is someone who is under the
protection of another. Winning organisations become trusted advisers
who have the client's best interests at heart. Those who do not look
after their clients now, will not survive and thrive into the future.
If you think that this is a trite statement, consider the following: of
the Top 500 companies listed 100 years ago in America, only 14 are
still in existence. Ignore the client at your own peril.
"What's in it for me?" you may ask. Well, if you become more
client-focused, you become more valuable to the company. And if you
become valuable, who knows where it could lead – more money, promotion
and status?
Employ some of the following strategies over the next 30 days. There'll be three winners: your client, your organisation and you.
If you go the extra mile and implement some of the ideas I put forward,
you'll see profitable results for your organisation and for you.
Remember, successful people do what unsuccessful people aren't prepared
to do.
Client Relationship Strategy #1
Speak to all your existing clients (particularly, the happy ones) and
ask them to recommend three other decision-makers in non-competing
companies that your organisation can do business with. This is sure to
lead to sales. Challenge yourself to follow up with those companies. I
guarantee if you bring in those sales, the sky's the limit in your
organisation for you.
Client Relationship Strategy #2
Get to know your clients better: birthdays, hobbies, sports interests
and the like. Get as much information about them as possible and then
use it.
Client Relationship Strategy #3
Get back your lost clients. Go through your dormant client
base and send them letters asking them why you haven't heard from them
in a while. Apologise to them for not getting back to them sooner. You
can give them a discount to entice them back. These clients are not
dealing with your organisation because it is taking them for granted
and not making them feel real special. That's the bottom line.
About the Author
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com.
For resources take a look at
http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com
http://jacquesdevilliers.typepad.com/jacquesdevilliers/
http://www.successseminars.co.za
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
The new kid on the block (Internet) is finally surpassing traditional media. First the UK, the USA can't be far off and SA will come in 18 months after that. Advertising agencies will have to jack up their digital marketing skills if they want to stay relevant.
Internet Becomes UK's Biggest Marketing Medium
Internet advertising sales in the UK overtook television advertising for the first time in the first half of 2009, making it the nation's biggest advertising medium, according to new research by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Internet advertising sales rose to £1,75 billion giving it a market share of 23,5%. TV advertising dropped into second place with a 21,9% market share. The UK's advertising market has experienced one of the world's most aggressive expansions, due to the level of Internet penetration. The main driver has been search and particularly Google.
Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers is a professional speaker and consultant specialising in marketing, public relations, sales consulting and employee motivation.
Stromatolites probably don't mean much to you. But they should.
It's thanks to these blob-like "corals" that we exist. The only trick a Stromatolite has is to produce tiny bubbles of oxygen.
Bubbles are produced by primitive algae-like micro-organisms called cyanobacteria, which live on the surface of the rocks - about three billion of them to the square yard - each of them capturing a molecule of carbon dioxide and a tiny beat of energy from the sun.
The by-product of this simple process is the faintest puff of oxygen. For two billion years this is all the life there was on earth. But in that time Stromatolites raised the oxygen level in the atmosphere to 20 percent - enough to allow the development of other, more complex life forms: like us, for instance.
The lesson I've taken out of this is that even the smallest thing we do has an effect.
So, no matter what you do: prospecting, telephoning, making sure your proposal is 100% correct, networking, setting goals, seeing people, educating yourself, spending time with your children, being gentle on yourself - it all has an effect.
Sometimes it seems as if our efforts aren't having an effect. But they do, no matter how small.
So, in the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never give up."
I got the information on Stromatolites from Bill Bryson's enchanting book about
When Jacques de Villiers is not cribbing from Bill Bryson, you'll find him training, consulting and speaking.
About the Author
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com. For resources take a look at
http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com
http://jacquesdevilliers.typepad.com/jacquesdevilliers/
http://www.successseminars.co.za
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
A while ago I saw an advert for a parachuting outfit called Icarus. I thought it was rather an unfortunate name for a company. As you know, Icarus, the son of Daedalus (if you care — he built the Labyrinth of the Minotaur at
a great safety record and not a name I’d highlight for a parachute
company. I suppose the lesson is to know your Greek before choosing a
name.
Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker in South Africa.
I
was watching Enemy at the Gate (one view at the siege of
Stalingrad) the other day and it struck me that one of the few things
we offer our sales people is hope.
In
the movie, every dissenting voice is punished and every failure is
punished by death. This is not a great recipe for success to save
Stalingrad, is it? Things start turning around for the besieged people
of Stalingrad when a political officer named Danilov (Joseph Fiennes)
says to Krushev (Bob Hoskins), "Give them hope". He then turns a
brilliant sniper, Vassili Zaitsev into a hero through a massive public
relations effort. Through this PR effort and of course Vassili's own
brilliant aim – the German occupiers are soon shaking in their boots
and the Stalingraders are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and
galvanising themselves for a famous victory.
Let's
be honest, sometime our sales teams feel as if they're beseiged and
fighting pitched battles wherever they turn. If things aren't going our
way the first person we execute is the sales manager and then the
second to be sent to his grave is the one with the worst figures on the
board.
Perhaps
its time to do things differently. Let's find a hero in our sales team
and start believing again. Remember, if our hero can sell like crazy
… with the right ingredients and motivation, so can our worst
performing sales person.
Sit
with the hero and find out what she's doing right. All you then have to
do is document her winning traits, document it and pass it on to the
rest of the team so that they can model those traits and also win.
So, before reaching for your AK47, find yourself a hero in your organisation and feed off her success.
Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker, trainer and consultant.
The motivational fraternity, including Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar are suckers for a feel-good story. When we hear a good one we absorb it as gospel and share it with our audiences.
Poor Scottish Farmer saves Lord’s Son
I love the story about Alexander Fleming’s dad saving a young Winston Churchill from drowning. This resulted in Lord Randolph Churchill sending Alexander to St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School
Alexander goes on to discover penicillin which saves Winston Churchill.
Man, it makes a great tale of one good turn deserves another and
there’s a reason for everything.
Famous Atheist Defends God
My heart warmed, when, none other than Albert Einstein
defended God in a battle of wits with a university professor. I always
thought he was an atheist. But, hey, don’t let the facts get in the way
of a good story.
Set Specific Goals To Get 97% Of The Wealth
My favourite story, which is the cornerstone of my goal setting workshops, is the study of the Class of 1953.
In 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine
how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. The
answer: 3%. Twenty years later, researchers polled the surviving
members of the Class of 1953 and found that the 3% with goals had
accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the
class combined!
These great stories … aimed to inspire and motivate people to action … are all lies!
Myth #1
The
Class of 1953 story, according to Lawrence Tabak (who didn’t graduate
from Yale and never set any goals for the future) and the Fast Company Consultant Debunking Unit, this powerful and compelling story is untrue.
Powerful
and well-respected motivators like Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Zig
Ziglar also bought into this story … as have motivational speakers in
South Africa
and the rest of the world, I’d suspect.
Myth #2
According to myth-busting website Snopes the Winston Churchill and Alexander Fleming story is a myth. Get the full story here.
Myth #3
Albert
Einstein could never have defended God because he was an atheist. In
his own words "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my
religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I
do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have
expressed it clearly." Read the full story here.
What Now?
I loved Brian Tracy’s answer to questions about the source of “The Class of 53” – “Heard the story originally from Zig Ziglar. If it’s not true it should be.”
Even if the story is not true, but inspires people to change their lives for the good and move on to greatness, is that such a sin?
Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker, writer and an influence consultant. The original article was penned 22 March 2006 and can be found on this page.
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