3 Essential New Year Resolutions to Help Businesses Beat Recession

I came across an excellent press release by Henry Baker called "3 Essential New Year Resolutions to Help Businesses Beat Recession"

In it Henry describes how in times of Recession (ouch I used the R word-more on that in my next post) we must look to attract more affluent customers. He describes how in the past a cup of coffee was just a cup of coffee and now it comes with more bells and whistles than a mercedes, americano, latte, skinny latte, vanilla, caramel, syrup, douoble shot, foam, cinnamon sprinkles.......

This goes some way to explaining the $2.50 price tag on a cup of coffee costing 25c to make.

The profit on the double shot of coffee far exceeds the profit on the coffee itself. The deisgner handbag costing $3,000 does not in fact cost 200 times more to manufacture than the similar looking but non diesigner handbag sold for $15.

But of course this is not the full story when we go to Starbucks we do so not just for the coffee, we go for the "experience". Starbucks describes itself as being the ‘third-place of
business’ – home, office, Starbucks in between.

If you walked up to someone about to buy a bag of ground coffee at the store and tried to sell them just a cup for $2.50, they would tell you it was too expensive when the bag of coffee costs $3.00.

But, if you are at the coffeehouse, you are going to pay for the experience.

Henry concludes that in difficult recessionary times we must

1. separate price from what we sell
2. deliberately look for affluent customers and
3. serve them with an experience

In my view three great aims for any business not just in difficult times but all the time. I particularly like 3, because ultimately we buy on emotion, we return to stores / businesses where we have a good emotional experience.

This was brought home to me again over the past week.

We use an online recruitment board called salesjobs.ie as a part of our recruitment process when we recruit.

We find it excellent if used correctly (refreshing the ads, browsing the online cvs, e mailing potential candidates etc. etc. and of course systemising this and doing it every day), but back to the point, Emma the sales consulatant from Sales Jobs called me on a number of occasions over the past few months to ask if we had any recruitment coming up, very pleasantly, not pushy (she clearly understands the concept that the customer will buy when the customer is ready to buy not when she is ready to sell), she built that relationship brick by brick step by step and when we were ready to recruit the first e mail I sent was to Emma who called me immediately to process the sale.

She had built an emotional bond with me, my previous experiences buying from salesjobs has always been good and so I returned for more of the same.

Keep smiling it works..........

Silvan Tomkins and Paul Ekman worked together studying personality and human expressions.

They became experts in microexpressions. These are the instantaneous or short lived expressions that give away our true feelings. Our subconscious is good at picking up these microexpressions and you can see them on slow motion video, and if you know what you are looking for, with practice you can become expert at picking them up.

No hope for me - I am an emotional wasteland but back to the point of the story.

Whilst trying to emulate the facial expressions for sadness, they both noted that their moods had significantly deteriorated. Deciding to examine the effect more closely they began to wonder if your mood is sad your facial expression follows but did it work the other way around. Was there some type of bio-feedback mechanism that worked the other way too.

They set up a study that ultimately showed it did, so if you had a sad hang dog expression your mood changed accordingly and similary for other expressions like smiling and laughing. Putting a smile on your face elevates your mood.

I have often heard the recommendation that before you make a telephone call smile because it comes across in the phone conversation.

So there is a scientific basis for it, put a smile on your face and your mood will follow.

On the basis of this discovery I now walk through the office with a cheesy grin on my face at all times, whilst it has done wonders for my own mood and general outlook on life it has also convinced my staff of my complete and total lunancy.

What you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts I guess.

Milton said "the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven".

Isn't it great to know that the simple act of smiling, even in the face of adversity or difficult situations will lift your mood and don't things seem easier to deal with when you are in an elevated happy mood rather than down in the dumps and stressed.

Try it and see - it may just work for you. Try the short video below, I challenge you not to laugh, - how good does it feel and the world seems just a bit better doesn' it!



Paul Ekman ultimately developed the Facial Action Coding System and in the Diogenes Project developed a system that could accurately predict lying by examining peoples facial expressions

Take the first step

Lao Tzu said "that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step", or for the pedantic amongst us " a journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath ones feet"







Sometimes that first step seems gargantuan.

The majority of people never take that first step, you know the excuses

• I cannot because,
• what if,
• what will people think

A million excuses but if you are one of the few who take that first step, the journey never seems as hard or as long.

Best of all the pride you feel at the end of the journey or even half way through as you look back cannot be beaten.

Take that first step

ps. take a second one too and then one after that and so on. Even small steps in the right direction will get you there.

Lesson of the day! (for me)

Yet again I discoverd today that doing the tough stuff is in fact not so tough.

I, for one, am guilty of making mountains out of molehills, overanalysing possibilities and over preparing plans to deal with the endless possible consequences. The result - "paralysis by analysis" and procrastination.

Perhaps I am particularly hard to teach but I constantly have to relearn the lesson of

1. Pick the issue that needs to be dealt with.


2. Decide on a plan of action.


3. Schedule the issue into my day.


4. Address the issue and get it resolved.

Scheduling has generally made me much more effecient - vastly more so than preparing a general todo list. With my todo list, it was always overfull (impossible to get done in one day anyway) and of course you tend to focus on the tasks you like and enjoy leaving the others at the bottom of the list to carry over into the next day - the result (for me) nagging guilt and dis-satisfaction.

Scheduling and addressing the less pleasant tasks and doing them:

• Leaves you feeling fulfilled having completed the task.


• You frequently find that the task was not as hard or time consuming as you first thought.


• You often discover that the task was not that unpleasant anyway.


• Most importantly you learn how to deal with the particular issue and from learning comes growth and an ability to deal with the issue better the next time.

What now for investment?

Unfortunatley, many of us have now discovered the risks of investing in stocks, bonds, contracts for difference and all sorts of other financial products dreamed up by financiers and bankers.

Here in Ireland the banking horror stories seem to come one upon the other.

Anglo Irish Bank, the third largest in the state, has just been Nationalised, as it has been reported in the papers that its previously respected CEO and Chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick, had successfully hidden up to €130 million in personal loans from the banks auditors, the financial regulators and even some of his fellow board members by "bed and breakfasting" his loan with another financial institution whenever the inspectors came to have a look at the books!

Warren Buffett is quoted as saying "It's not until the tide goes out that you know who is swimming without trunks" and it is now apparent that many of the the banks and finace houses have been swimming nude!

Intrest rates have fallen to historical lows with the bank of England rate now at rates not seen since Winston Churchill was in power.

Those with money in the banks are receiving so little interest that they are actually losing money annually comapred to inflation and it seems impossible to make a good stock pick in the current climate.

Commodity prices have fallen in line with decreasing demand from the largest of the world's economies and now with decreasing demand from the emerging economies.

Land and house prices are falling.

But.....land is real, commodities are real, these are tangible assets. Although price and demand for commodities may fall in the short term, increasing world population and conicident increases in demand for commodities will make them a solid long term bet.

When it comes to land - guess what - they just ain't making any more of it....need I say more.

See the wood from the trees

What differentiates great military leaders from inferior ones.

Is it the ability to inspire?

Is it the ability to train others?

Is it education?

Is is bravery?

Well these may contribute but the primary difference between great military leaders and inferior ones is their ability to see the whole battlefield.

To have that overview - the so called helicopter view.

In business you need to "see the wood from the trees", to blow away the fog of confusion and see the entire view.

When planning a victory military leaders look at the big picture and within that big picture are smaller battles, within those smaller battles are smaller skirmishes, to get to the smaller skirmishes are deployments.

If you start with directionless deployment and don't see the big picture will you win the war? - well you might but more by luck than by design.

When you start with directionless deployment the possible future outcomes are endless and victory is just one of those possible outcomes. If however you start with the big picture, see the end point and then plan back from that to the point at which you are now, then all you have to do is reverse the plan and execute it to get to your desired end point and victory.

This is abslutely true in business. You need to have your eye on the big picture all the time.

Remember the military strategy of reverse planning. Once you see the big picture use it!

"We read to know we're not alone"

I very much liked the film Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins. The film details a period in C. S. Lewis's life (Lewis wrote the the Chronicles of Narnia amongst other things). Lewis is introduced to us in the film as a man who feels that all pain should be suffered with patience. But he discovers that the simple rules by which he lives no longer apply when his own wife, Joy Gresham is afflicted by cancer and ultimately dies.

During the course of the film, C S Lewis (Hopkins) says "we read to know we are not alone". It seems to be a matter of debate as to whether Lewis ever actually uttered these words but it is a great line and all budding entrepreneurs should take it on board.

As entrepreneur, you don't have to be alone. Guess what no matter how bad things may seem for you right now , someone else out there has probably made all the same mistakes as you - only ten times worse. So learn from others. Alterately, business may be going well, but guess what I bet it can go better - a lot better!

There are lots of great books out there and with the rise of blogging and the internet, the support rescource of reading is even more accessible. The weight of shared emotional experience cannot be underestimated, so put some time aside and read!

I am currently reading "The E myth revisited" by Michael E. Gerber. It's a great book for small business owners and it divides our characters into three portions "The Entrepreneur", "The Manager" and "The Technician". Unfortunately these are not equal divisions! From that unequal division many of our business diffculties emenate.

If you are a small business owner (successfull or not) have a look at this book, I guarantee you'll see a lot of yourself in there!

There are a number of blogs out there recommending various publications and blogs for entrepreneurs:Diane K. Danielsons Top Shelf Reading Picks - book abd blog reviews for savvy entrpreneurs. Bootstrappers the 100 daily must reads for entrepreneurs

Ps. When nobody's looking I still reach into the backs of wardrobes and give a little push - I haven't found the door to Narnia yet but I still believe!