” HerdiOflo “

Throughout my years in business, I’ve come across many mistakes and downfalls in which I’ve used to create a momentum for success. I can almost speak on behalf of most entrepreneurs out there, that failing and making a mistake is always good for our future in business. We fail in order to move forward. We move forward to achieve the bottom line, at that is to profit and to create a sustainable business. I’d like to share to you some of my experiences.

One of my experiences of a common mistake while running my business is NOT establishing a solid system integrating all of the different functions together. Every function within the business must smoothly go together and move into a smooth flow that will eventually move your business at a high speed. I found out that I needed to speed up the finance aspect with book keeping in order to keep up with my marketing and vice versa; I needed to make my marketing decisions based on my finances as we must have marketing and finance go at parallel speeds for maximum results.

Another common mistake is being too greedy in business.

While seeking the best profit margins, many experience the issue of distribution. What we normally would like to see is our products being sold everywhere to create easy access for our customers to purchase our products. But the problem is, while seeking profit margins, we have the tendency to get caught up in working with too many sub-distributors, that at the end of the day, they all end up killing and minimizing our profit margins. They would compete against each other to lower the selling price then make it difficult for our customers to choose where to purchase our products. A good solution for this problem is either to search for an exclusive distributor or distribute on-line. You will have more control of the situation to monitor and evaluate your business.

Another common mistake is bad accounting.

We depend on accounting for the growth of our business because accounting and finance is considered the “health” of our business. Make sure that balance sheets are balanced, financial statements are in checked and the amount of money written in the book is also the “actual” amount of money you have at hand. This occurs a lot where the book states you have $15.000, but at hand you only have $4.000. Where did the $11.000 go?

Lastly, another common mistake is tightening your promotion money when your business is going down.

When business is slow, we should increase our spending on promotions. As without promo, your business will either stay slow or go even go down in business. We must be brave to spend our money on promotions. It is key to growing our business.

Lets fail forward and succeed.

Hooray!! I’ve just bought my own copy of “The 4-hour Workweek” written by Timothy Ferriss. Its been nearly 1 whole year since I’ve been reading about the book with interviews, watching videos on youtube, as well as browsed through the website of thefourhourworkweek.com to find information.

Being in Indonesia, I wanted to wait until the book hit the shelves locally so I could get my own copy at a cheaper price than if I’d directly ordered from amazon.com the day it came out in 2007. I’ve been following up on the teachings but none of it made sense to me, because the info that I’ve received through the web were just sections or parts of the book where putting it all together would not be possible without reading the entire book from the beginning to the end.

I bought the book at a local bookstore and without thinking about it I directly purchased it! There were 2 copies left as I asked the cashier if there were any more copies and he said that they only had 2 copies in the store. Woaw, close call, I almost missed out on the opportunity as great books are hard to come by down here; we must constantly browse bookstores or browse through www.juraganbuku.com

Ok, first impression of reading the beginning of the book, I directly reflected and said, “wow, this is me and my concept of life but just never knew how to interpret it until clearly manifested and stoned carved by the great Tim Ferriss.” I’ve been envisioning the new rich lifestyle all along but just never confident about my own concept and notion of life that I was always being shunned out or mistangled by the notion of ‘normal people lives’ - go to school, get a good job, get married, have kids, and teach the same process to our kids.

Luckily, it has been defined and answered and I’m going to prove the world that living the life we choose is the ideal way to live this short life. We shouldn’t be told how to live our own lives, as we were born alone and will end this life alone. We must choose to be happy with love and integrity.

Ok, back to the 4 hour week; I’m still halfway into the book as the book consists of many eye popping concepts that seem “scary (in a good way)” to me, because I truly feel the same way. I do believe this is the book thats going to change my entire life forever. And residing in the third (3rd ) world, I’m going to prove that the new rich & new lifestyle does not only exist in first (1st) world countries, but me being a third (3rd) world citizen can also live the concept of the new life being from a background of simple-low economical status.

I’m not going to talk about the book much as I plan on taking you more to my practices of the book, as I work to live out the 4-hour workweek from the perspective of a 3rd world citizen.

Well, in some parts of the book, Timothy states that being ‘unrealistic’ is the way to perceive life, and so I’m thinking, would it be possible for me to meet him and talk about my 3rd world journey of living the new rich and new lifestyle?

Does anyone have his phone number? I’d like to call him up

I came across a friend the other day who shared with me an interesting story in which I will bring up on today’s post. It is about genuinely helping others in order for us to receive help in return.

In today’s fast paced world, we have the tendency to focus and work on something that only benefits us and only us. We spend most of our lives living the process of helping ourselves to achieving what we plan to accomplish.

We consider jobs that only benefit us, we make sales calls that benefits us, we create business plans & strategies to benefit us, we use our links and networks to benefit us…. but have we ever thought about taking an action to purely help someone else?

Within the natural state of give and take, we tend to give because we have an interest to take.. Have you ever genuinely helped someone for the sake of helping them with no interest for your own benefits? Not many of us do..

My friend spoke about the power of reciprocal return. If we genuinely help someone full-hearted with nothing to expect in return; one day we will almost automatically receive help from others in different ways we could ever imagine.

So, lets develop our help habits and help those in need.

I attended a Leadership Seminar with speaker of Bob Andrews whom spoke about the 4 engines needed to lift off your team through leadership. They are the following:

1. Energy/Enthusiasm
A leader must show energy and enthusiasm for his/her team to lift off and reach greater heights. No matter the circumstances, the leader must at all times show his/her passion and excitement towards every aspect of the team. Through its ups and downs, the leader must always be energetic. This automatically transends the energy into the team.

2. Education
A leader must educate his/herself in all aspects of the team. Through all the tangibles and intagibles, the leader must have solutions to problems and always motivate the team to greater heights after all of its accomplishments.

3. Expectation
A leader must always believe and have a positive attitude towards every aspect of the team. Through its personnel, outcomes, strategies and decisions; the leader must always expect to come out as a winner. One doubt from the leader; and the team will automatically follow doubt. Remember–> “You can’t manage doubt!”

4. Encouragement
A leader must always motivate and encourage his/her team to always strive for the best and to never be easily satisfied. The team can be rewarded after all of their accomplishments but always push them to be better than they are. Encourage success. Always remember, “we are on a journey and not a destination”.

“In order for you to reach your potential, you’ll need to first fall hard on your face.”

On today’s post, I’d like to talk about perseverance and determination. Before we start, I’d like to define the definition of Determination and Perseverance below.

Determination - “The quality of being determined to do or achieve something; “his determination showed in his every movement”; “he/she is a man of purpose”

Perseverance - “The act of persisting or persevering; continuing or repeating behavior; “his/her perseveration continued to the point where it was no longer appropriate”

Now you know the meaning of the 2 words, I don’t really want to get into the theories or write a whole alot about examples that will only make you argue your own personal situation versus that of examples from the post, but more into being able to reflect your own situation with that of whatever results you want to achieve.

I’d like to talk about failing forward as the best way to undergo perseverance and determination. As you go through the days to achieve whatever goal it is that you have in mind, you tend to be challenged by many around you especially your close ones (family, spouse, siblings, boss, etc). That is one of the biggest obstacles that you will have to face in following through with your goal in mind.

Many that care for you will tell you, “because I care for you, that is why i’m telling you this.. bla.. bla.. you’ve failed and your failing, so its best that you …. bla… bla..” only to make you think twice about your goal thinking to yourself (is this it or do I go on?) –> You think about it hard, you fall back on your plans, you adjust it, tweak it a bit and still questioning yourself, then the “Perseverance & Determination in your heart says, “screw them, they care for me but I care about my goal/dream”, “I must go on!”

That is the key to perseverance and determination.

You sort out and fight yourself that give thoughts of quiting into pushing yourself to accomplish your goal. Remember, all the greats, had to fail always in order to get to where they are right now. It is about failing forward to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.

Listen to your heart and  keep on pushing it.

Why do I find it so important to jot and write things down? Because I believe that writing things down will concretely give life to our thoughts and accomplishments. As we all agree, our attention span these days are very limited due to our fast paced lives. We have so many distractions all around us from text messaging, advertising, phone calls, daily work processes, that seem to carry on to our memory; A very short attention span as well as beginning to show signs of short-term memory.

Throughout our days, we tend to have ideas that pass us by, then suddenly within 10 seconds after the text message you received on your cell phone, you completely forget. Thats normal guys, we subconsiously act like that.

I’ve made it a habit to carry around my little black book everywhere I go and jot down everything that I think about whenever I have my pen ready in front of me. There are so many things that we can accomplish by writing things down.

Here are 20 outcomes that i’ve encountered which have made my life more meaningful after creating the habit of writing and jotting things down on my black book..

1. I find solutions to problems faster
2. I focus on my daily work processes
3. I retrieve ideas for my business
4. I act faster on my agenda
5. I monitor my processes easier
6. I don’t run off-track
7. I know what I need to achieve within the day, week, month and year
8. I don’t forget birthdays
9. I reply emails and messages faster
10. I live more calm
11. I do not procrastinate anymore
12. I decide faster using pros and cons
13. I establish a foundation for my thoughts
14. I can monitor my personal growth easier
15. I know exactly what I need to work on after defining my weaknesses
16. I know what I need to probe on through my strengths
17. Living life full of energy and poise
18. Being able to organize my business, life, and family
19. Prioritizing
20. Finding the time to give back to society

When speaking about marketing for a small business, there are many different methods in which we could use to drive sales. Each different method has its pros and cons as I’d like to share to you my experiences of running a small business.

I know that ‘time’ is the most valuable resource for small businesses, and money spent should be money earned at least three times in return, so therefore, I’d like to just quickly share my experiences in this list form below.

Ok then, enjoy and ‘leaf’ like a tree and grow.   Get it? hehe.. Just a little humor before we begin.

Here it is..

MARKET RESEARCH - We must create the market before selling the product.

Methods:
1. Questionnaire:
Pros - Great for random opinions, & questions answered.
Cons - Waste of time & money if questions do not bring results for decision making.

2. FGDs (Focus Discussion Groups)
Pros - Great for understanding quickly how others perceive your product and competitors.
Cons - Participants vary in character and some might not truly show their honest opinion due to their characteristics (shy, going with the crowd, indecisive, etc).

PRODUCT- When there is a guaranteed market, then product development should take place.

Methods:
1) Outsourcing Production
Pros - Saves time as you can focus on managing the big picture.
Cons - Unreliable in deadliness and product quality.

2) Manufacture
Pros - Controlled quality and perfection.
Cons - Time consuming.

3) Reseller (Not our own product)
pros -Leaves us to focus on marketing.
Cons - If manufacturer’s product not up to par with our marketing.

PRICING - Pricing determines profit margins.

Methods:
1) Low-End
Pros - Mass buyers.
Cons - Smaller profit margins.

2) Premium
Pros - Higher Standard, and smaller competition.
Cons - Not enough buyers.

DISTRIBUTION - If consumers do not see your product, how are they going to buy?

Methods:
1) Exclusive
Pros - Easier to manage, negotiate deal and monitor.
Cons - Depending on one ’source’ of basket to handle our eggs.

2) Sub-Distributors
Pros - The ability to expand channels throughout the market.
Cons - profit margin battle and harder to manage.

3) Self Distribution (on-line or off-line)
Pros - Efficient, good for decision making.
Cons - More to manage and time consuming.

PROMOTION - Promo is the icing on the cake which either makes the cake (product) good or bad.

Methods:
1) Old Media - Radio, print media, television.
Pros - Easy to create buzz.
Cons - Expensive, limited channel capture.

2) New Media - Digital, hand phones, i-pods, etc.
Pros - Great for fast emotional bonding.
Cons - Fast shift in trend, and boredom.

2) Promo materials - banners, stickers, posters, etc
Pros - Fast attention grabbing.
Cons - Waste of money, as no one cares if low quality or low quality design.

3) Events
Pros - Great for tying experience with your product.
Cons - Expensive & Time consuming if unsuccessful.

4) Endorsement, Branding
Pros - Great at building quick trust.
Cons - If the endorse e turns into a negative image, your product will suffer.

5) On-line
Pros - Fast and efficient in creating buzz.
Cons - Fighting against other promotion on line as consumers have a 3 second attention span on- line.