Hi,

    I have been talking with my colleagues in the United States over the weekend and we were talking about how they were surviving and what they were doing to beat this global meltdown.  The first thing they picked me up on was that I was not allowed to call it a meltdown or use the R word.

   So, I do apologise for the negativity!

    Secondly, on a serious note though what they did say to me was that they were anointing this year, the year of the List.  That's right, it is the year of the customer list.

    I actually agree whole heartedly that this year is the year of the list.  The companies who will survive out of these challenging times are those who do four key things -

          1. Are prepared to look inwards to make changes
          2. Are prepared to diversify their interests
          3. Are prepared to modify their customer mix
          4. They have a solid customer list and network

    Looking inwards to your business is one of the hardest things to do because no one wants to believe that they are responsible for the success or lack their of.  I know myself over the last few months I didn't look into what was going wrong in our car cleaning business and didn't realise we weren't hitting the mark with some of our customers.  We have now correct that but it still hurt.

   Not looking inwards is a very costly mistake and will hurt you when you least expect it to.  Often customers don't provide feedback to you unless you specifically ask for it and this makes it incredibly difficult to know how your staff are performing and whether your systems are right for your business. Feedback from customers is one of the key ways to finding out what inward or internal changes you need to make. Over the next few weeks my team will be providing to our car cleaning clients a feedback or evaluation form on  the quality of their cleans. This will help us in doing a better job and to stay on-course and profitable.  Does the feed back hurt - Absolutely - but it is necessary in making sure you stay on course.

    Quite often in some businesses they focus on just one aspect of their business like, building new homes or selling fast food through food vans. This is all well and good whilst the economy is booming but useless when we come into times of recession.  One of the concepts Bob Proctor teaches in the SGR Program is this thing called an MSI or Multiple Sources of Income.  Every millionaire and billionaire in the world understands this concept, it is small business and middle Australia that doesn't.  The MSI concept is that you establish various sources of income that can earn you money with little or no work, but doesn't actually affect your main business.

   Let me share with you one of my MSI's.  About 4 years ago I created a small template called an Excel Paystub Template.  I create a single page on my website that is optimised for the search engine term - Excel Paystub Template.  I sell this template for just $2.99 USD each day using paypal and I do absolutely nothing with it.  Here's the cool part, each week it brings in between $40 - 100 USD each week.  That is a true MSI. 

   What could you do in your business that could bring you in extra income.  Write an ebook on a topic and sell it online. For example, if you were a Real Estate agent, right a book on how to prepare your home to get the best price.  If you were in the scaffolding business, write an ebook on how to look after your scaffolding or a small book on working at heights safely.  This principle also applies to individuals as well.

   If you have a full time job and don't want to leave the safety of that job, you can still create various MSI's. In fact a couple of my colleagues earn more through their MSI's than they do in their day-to-day job.  Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of talking with a couple of people in the US who want to expand their business into Australia.  They sell energy drinks through network marketing and through retail stores and they have asked me to help them launch the business in Australia.

   So, here is the catch - it ain't AMWAY!

   I made it very clear to them I would help only if it was not AMWAY or work like AMWAY. I also set some clear guidelines and one was that it must cost nothing to learn how to sell the product or setup the program. The strange part is they agreed.  So over the next few weeks I will share with you more and show you how you can earn extra money, without putting out any money, just your time. Plus I will be providing free training to those involved.  Call me if you would like more information - 4728 5582

    The third area that I recommend people look at is their customer mix, if your business is reliant heavily on one company or industry sector then you are at their mercy.  For example, I have seen a lot of companies with a market mix of 80% mining and 20% construction.  The problem is when the mining sector slows down like it is now, you have a situation where there business is put at risk because there may not be the volume as their once was.

   The final and fourth area to be building is a Customer List. This list should be comprised of people who have bought from you and people who have inquired about your products.   Every company should have some sort of newsletter, and it doesn't matter whether you are a car cleaning company (www.NQCarwash.com), lingerie company (www.dreamy.com.au),training company (www.nqtraining.com), builders, retailers etc everybody needs a list.  This list allows you to build up trust with your customers, to communicate offers and to help you find new customers.

  In our newsletters we provide deals and offers from both our businesses and other companies and because of the solid group of loyal customers we have, we have all done very well from it.  You must look after your customer list and this can be done by giving away freebies like the books I have provided over the last few weeks and also by providing them with free information.
   
  You can also use your list to gain new customers and to ask for assistance, like I am about to do.  I am looking for companies who would like to offer something Free to their customers to either help increase subscription to their newsletters or to get them to complete a survey etc. 

   My team and I will provide to your company a Free $20 Voucher for Dreamy.com.au to give away to get people to sign up to your newsletter or a $5 Voucher to use at the Cranbrook Car Wash.  These vouchers are provided as actual vouchers and all you have to do to be entitled for these vouchers is just include a small advert for our business. 

   Rental Property Managers could use these vouchers to put into welcome kits for their new tenants,  retail shop owners could use them to get customers to sign up to their newsletters, scaffolding companies or builders could use them as enticements for people to complete a survey on their business.

    If you would like to take me up on this opportunity just simply drop me an email at chris@nqtraining.com or phone 07 47285582.

   NETWORKING AND NETWORKING BOOKS

   Networking is also a great way to be more successful in business and your customer list is one form of network.  You can build your customer list by networking with other businesses. This week I have scoured the internet for good free books on Networking and Roby Henderson from Networking To Win has three Free ebooks to help you with your networking and you can find them at - Networking To Win. I should note that I did meet Robyn many years ago through BNI and she is the number one expert in Australia on Networking so I would encourage you to read those three book.

    Remember starting next week we will be running a Business Networking Group starting at 6:00 pm to 08:00 pm each Tuesday evening.  You will have a chance in this course to learn how to network effectively, to spread the message about your products and to hear others give a talk on their products.  If you would like to join and be apart of this group simply email seminars@nqtraining.com.

    Well once again, have a great week and remember one thing Success is a Habit.

Chris Le Roy
Managing Director
One-on-One Learning Centre

Watched "The Secret"? Learn how I used it...
http://oneonone.thesgrprogram.com