When you hear about unethical business practices, such as dumping toxic chemicals or employing the use of child labor, the normal reaction is to wonder what on earth the company’s management was thinking.

Most companies operate with a sense of right and wrong that is based upon one of two schools of moral philosophy. If you figure out whether the organization is operating on a consequentialist or rules-and-rights philosophy, it will not really change anything. However, the way you judge the unethical practice will be based upon a greater understanding of what the company’s leaders were thinking.

Consequentialist School of Moral Philosophy in Business

Consequentialist school of moral philosophy – an action’s value is determined solely by the action’s consequences. For example, if a company dumps a toxic chemical onto the ground and it seeps into the local water system, making people sick, a Consequentialist would say that dumping was bad.

If the same company dumped the toxic chemicals onto the ground and no one got sick immediately, a Consequentialist would say that the dumping had value because the company increased its profit margin. This is similar to the “Speeding is only illegal if I get caught theory.”

Businesses that are walking just this side of the law, or even breaking the law, but also not going far enough to operate in a manner generally viewed as ethical, are functioning consequentially. This means the company is focusing on picking up the maximum short-term gain.

Rules and Rights School of Moral Philosophy in Business

Rules-and-Rights school of moral philosophy – An action’s value is determined by whether it follows or breaks the rules, and rewards and discipline follow accordingly. Following a predetermined list of rules provides a set of rights.

This type of deontological philosophy begins in childhood, when the parent offers the child a treat for good behavior and punishes for bad behavior.

For a business ethics example, a company employing low income workers gets a portion of the labor paid by the government, has the opportunity to promote their philanthropy, and a also gains a nice tax break at the end of the year.

Businesses that go by the book, and sometimes step forward to go beyond the legally required minimums, are operating with the expectation of reward in exchange for good deeds.

Even if a company does not announce which school of moral philosophy it follows, an observer can usually discover and evaluate which school of philosophy is in play.…

Email is such a great direct channel to the people we want (and need) to reach for our businesses to be successful.  Unfortunately most people simply use email the way it comes out of the box and wonder why they have little success.

What they are missing are tools (most free), and strategies to take the guessing out of the game and know exactly how to win at email marketing.  I have seen similar post from other growth and marketing individuals, but continue to see a very small adoption of these practices.  My goal is to continue to spread the world and hopefully put it in a format that most people can adopt. 

Finding your contacts email: 

If you don’t have the correct contact you are in trouble, there is no point of sending your message to the gatekeeper aka info@company.com.  We must find the direct address to the person we are looking for. There are 3 ways that will work with 80% success

1. The original: Start by simply searching google, try; “Persons name + email” – “Persons Name + @companyemail.com”.  Often works but not for top level executives.
2. The quantified guess: If you don’t have Rapportive, stop reading this and get it now! (Google why do you not just buy them now?… update- LinkedIn did and kinda ruined it).  Rapportive (Free) is a tool that matches any correct email in the “to” field and displays the person’s information online; Social information, location, updates, and more.  Now, since most professional emails use these four format; Daniel@company.com – Daniel.Sosa@company.com – dsosa@company.com – danielsosa@company.com.  All we need is a name and the @company.com syntax. You will be mind-blown by the success of this strategy.
       

3. The Social Mistake: We think we live in a world where things just disappear, so you will be surprised how often an individual will tweet their email in a conversation. Simply find the person’s twitter handle (This is always public), scroll deep through their twitter feed, command-S, and search for the word “email”.  Wanna take it to the next step? Use www.allmytweets.net to search every tweet they ever wrote.  Yes “All My Tweets” exist for this purpose… it is pretty awesome.   
4. Update: Try Salesloft (www.Saleslofts.com) a tool for pulling contact emails from LinkedIn. Really amazing, kinda pricey, but has good free trial. 

Be fast and analytical:

Lots of great options, but I use Yesware.com.  They are good to me and active with communication when I need them so I will stick to them.  Yesware is a Gmail plugin that does so much! Tells you if and when someone opened your email, allows you to create templates that you can use in just 2 clicks, schedule emails, and analyze the open/response rate of each template.  In other words these guys are the foundation to being an email rock-star.  You are now sending emails fast, testing success of  different templates, and tracking what offer best open and response results.

Engaging and continuing the conversation:
We have the right contacts, the right emails to send, and the tools to track that.  Now we must follow-up and right to make sure we get the conversation.  Followup.cc (Free) lets you create follow-up reminder right from the email so you can follow-up strategically and never forget.  Even better you can use Boomeranggmail.com to set automate your follow-up and simply shut it off if a conversation starts (Update: Yesware added this feature).  Tip: Make your follow-ups smart and relevant.  We now know who has opened our emails, follow-up should be very different than to those who may still not know who we are.…

Neuroscience, once only of interest to scientists, is now a subject of high interest to business because there is a strong correlation between building a better brain and building a better business. “Prospecting for better brains may be the new gold rush,” notes Professor of Neurology, Anjan Chattterjee.

Advances in Neurotechnology

Neuroscience is getting increasing acceptance by the public because of advances in neurotechnology. Examples of applied neurotechnology include online software, audio devices, and video games. In addition, there is a proliferation of services to promote cognitive enhancement. Franchises are emerging where participants are hooked to electronic equipment that improves brain functioning.

Ultimately, despite the diversity of brain-building electronic tools, all these forms of neurotechnology do one thing: they drop participants brain waves from Beta waves (13 to 38 hz) to Alpha waves (8 to 12 hz) and even Theta waves (4-7 hz). While Beta waves form our habitual waking state, the lower brain waves can process more information in a more intuitive and holistic way. Consequently, by lowering brain wave frequency, more brain power is tapped.

Brain Plasticity- How Brains Get Smarter

Brain plasticity, the ability of the brain to change when given new stimulus is one way the brain gets smarter, processing information more efficiently. Essentially, neuroplasticity means an ability for new neurons to form because of some form of brain enrichment. This stimulation can be in the form of sounds of lower frequency, such as used in brain stimulating audio and visual machines, or it can be more information and problem solving stimulus, like a crossword puzzle, Sudoko, or some interesting reading or lecture material.

It follows to reason that business people who have better memories, more mental alertness, and prolonged attention will do better than those who are mentally sluggish. In addition, with an expansion of new neurosynaptic links, a person is better able to access memories, analyze complex data, and apply sound logic and cogent reasoning.

Those who have tapped into the power of brain plasticity are better at thinking, intuiting, organizing negotiating, marketing, selling and inventing new business strategies.

Brain Pathway of Super-Learners

Since business is evolving at the pace of technology, those business people who are able to keep pace with advances in technological information will have a competitive edge on those who prefer to think and learn in the old-fashioned way.

Those who are better learners, more easily able to decode and decipher symbols, can keep pace with technological training because they can learn more information in an easier way.

Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), neuroscientists found that information processing ability is related to how information is transferred from the brain regions in the front to the brain regions in the back. They discovered that good readers are those who are able to process new information and organize it into a coherent inner picture.

The brains of good readers showed under-activity in the front region of the brain and over-activity in the back region of the brain. Conversely, poor readers have over-active regions in the front brain and under-active regions in the back brains. Neuroscientists concluded that those who think too much while reading can’t remember as much. Since they can’t remember as much, they don’t discern themes and perceive clear patterns.

Accelerating Business Innovation

As the relationship between neuroscience and business continues to develop, we can expect business as a field to become more innovative, benefiting consumers with better products and services. In addition, with smarter business people, those who use their brains more efficiently, we can also expect more sophisticated business models to emerge.…

Are you about to make the plunge and enter the startup world?

Do you have a failed startup and are looking to launch a new concept?

Are you simply curious as to what it might be like to dip your toes in something new?

Startups vary from concept to customer type to successful traction strategies, however, there are some consistencies in the mindset of a startup founder and entrepreneur.  And it truly is mindset: a high level of internal accountability that over time forms specific, desired behaviors. (My personal definition)

Often times, it’s a lack of the proper mindset that is the root cause of a failed startup, which means they’ve failed before they’ve even begun.  If you want to avoid this pitfall, here are 3 questions to ask yourself before you make the commitment to ensure you’re doing it for the right reasons and are properly prepared mentally, for what you are about to embark upon.

1. Are you a facilitator?

This taps into the pain point, the problem, or the reason you came up with your concept.  Is this a personal problem you’ve faced and feel you have the solution to it?  Do you truly feel your concept and subsequent company or product will change and/or improve people’s lives positively? If so, you are a facilitator, and this is good.  Facilitators form a startup because they truly feel they and their product are the conduit to improving people’s lives whether it’s through simplification, education, or a multitude of other reasons.  This internal motivator will make things easier when things are at their lowest and hope seems to be lost, and I assure you, regardless of how successful you end up, there will be moments of hopelessness.

2. Are you willing to sacrifice everything?

Yes of course we’re all aware that being an entrepreneur requires sacrifice.  But do you actually consider what you’re entirely willing to sacrifice to be successful?  Behind every overnight success, there are 100 failures, and many of those incur simply because the founder(s) weren’t truly willing to make the necessary sacrifices.  Depending on the issues at hand such as the market, cost of production, and other unforeseen circumstances, along with your own personal life, each founder’s specific sacrifices will vary, but the most important thing to ponder prior to diving into the world of being a founder is just how much are you willing to give up and go without in order to achieve the success you desire.

3. Can you embrace your weaknesses?

We’re all very aware of what we’re good at, however, a true leader encompasses a level of humility to whole-heartedly acknowledge their weaknesses.  This goes beyond self realization though.  As a founder, you have to build a team, and by embracing your weaknesses you can more ably build a team with strengths around your weaknesses.  Every startup is idiosyncratic in nature, and there is only one CEO, CMO, CTO, et cetera that is best for that particular startup and the more you realize and embrace your weaknesses, the easier it will be to build the perfect, complementary team.…

For years, businesses had illustrated the customer journey with the traditional sales funnel.  While each company’s funnel may have been slightly different, the underlying structure was the same.  Create a system in which you define the ideal process you intend your customers to experience as they move towards purchasing your product.  A common funnel would consist of: awareness, interest, decision, and action.  Marketing departments would then use this structure to focus on creating campaigns that would appeal to their target audience and influence their purchasing decisions as they move through the funnel.  This generic representation of how customers travel along the path to purchasing your product was a great tool when consumers used traditional marketing and advertising to make purchasing decisions.

As today’s consumer becomes more connected and engaged, they routinely consult a variety of different media outlets for user generated content and reviews to research their purchases without ever seeking information from traditional marketing outlets.  This means that your businesses’ marketing efforts are going more and more unnoticed, while your customers are relying much more heavily on content created outside of your organization.  This does not, however, mean that the future of your business is out of your hands.  Understanding how today’s consumers are interacting and making purchasing decisions and how you can influence these actions is key to improving your marketing strategy.  Embracing this new customer journey will allow you to re-evaluate marketing efforts and make decisions that will reflect these changes and stay relevant with your brand.

There are 5 points in the new customer journey, 4 of which are various “moments of truth” – the points at which your potential customers will make key purchasing decisions on your brand.  It is important to note that this new customer journey is not linear like the sales funnel, rather a continuous circle in which each journey returns back to the beginning of a new cycle.  That is why your focus should now be on helping customers maximize their experience both pre and post-purchase to maximize your influence at each point of the new customer journey.

Below are the points of the new customer journey:

Stimulus – the connected consumer values information from friends, online reviews, and shared experiences more than anything you will publish.  Therefore, you can expect that a potential customer’s awareness and interest will be sparked by stimulus created by customers sharing their experience online.  It is these shared experiences that will determine whether or not these potential customers will continue with your brand in the first “moment of truth” called the Zero Moment of Truth.

Zero Moment of Truth – the moment your potential customer decides to start researching your brand.  This starts consumers along the path to purchase, and is the point of social discovery.  “Googling” your brand is a very common action in the Zero Moment of Truth, and it is what your potential customers will find when they search your brand online that determines their initial opinion of your brand.  If you have effectively engaged and created positive experiences with previous customers, they will likely find positive content that will form a strong opinion of your brand and lead them to the next step.

First Moment of Truth – the moments in which your potential customers are forming opinions on your product based on the content the find from those who have already completed the journey.  It is in this moment, the consumer will decide whether or not to make a purchase.  This again stresses how important it is to create memorable and sharable experiences for consumers to share it online for those in the First Moment of Truth to find and use to influence them in their purchasing decisions.

Second Moment of Truth – is the experiences your customers have with your product once they have made the decision to purchase.  This does not only include the actual interaction with the product, but how your company interacts with and supports them throughout the life of the relationship.  This is the step that you will have the greatest influence over as it is your product and your effort to engage the customer that will create the desired experience that compel your customers to share online.

Ultimate Moment of Truth – is the final point of the journey, and represents the experiences that your customers are sharing, based on their experiences in the Second Moment of Truth.  This could be in the form of reviews, blogs, forums, ect.  Each of these will be resources for others just starting their customer journey to find and influence their moments of truth.   It is for this reason that the Ultimate Moment of Truth is so important.  The experiences shared by your current customers essentially become the way your brand is defined.  You want to exhaust the opportunities to help lead your …

Written policies and procedures should be common within organizations both large and small. As an organization grows, it is a good practice to have them in a written format that employees can easily refer to. Larger organizations may already have a written document in place, but the challenge may be in managing them effectively.

The Importance of Written Policies and Procedures

If workplace policies and procedures did not exist, an organization could face a lot of chaos and confusion. In order to operate effectively, clear communication is essential. Consequently, developing a document that reflects the philosophy and daily operations of an organization achieves this goal.

Moreover, policies and procedures ensure that employees have the information needed to do their jobs. If clear procedures are in place and employees are required to read them, there should be few excuses for not completing a work task or completing it incorrectly. However, if procedures are either absent, outdated, or not clear, there can be room for error, which can decrease productivity.

Policies Versus Procedures

Before understanding how to effectively write policies and procedures, it is important to know the difference between the two documents. Campbell (1998) suggests that the goal for these types of documents is for the organization to express “what, why, and how” things should be done. Policies represent the “what” and “why”, and procedures represent the “how.”

A policy can be associated with the following:

• Rules
• Standards
• Guidelines

In addition, a procedure can be associated with the following:

• Instructions
• Protocol
• Process

Guidelines for the Development of Policies and Procedures

It may be helpful to designate a person or team of people that will be responsible for the research, writing, and updating of the document. The first step in the writing process is the development stage. This stage is comprised of four steps:

1. Planning – the plan must be in writing and should reflect organized and focused thinking and a clear timeline.
2. Analysis – identify the elements that will determine the best writing design for the nature of the policy or procedure.
3. Research – gather all the information that applies to the policy or procedure being written.
4. Prewriting – organize all the information in a clear way that will eventually transition to drafting.

Writing policies and procedures are an important part of the daily operations of an organization. The challenge is to ensure that the information communicated is effective and reflects the goals and philosophy of the organization. The first step of the process is to dedicate a person or team to the project, and to spend adequate time in the development stage prior to writing the document.…

For many travellers, shopping is one of the most enjoyable aspects of heading overseas, and part of the holiday planning includes research into what a destination has to offer in the way of local products . However seeking out reputable dealers, language barriers and excess baggage rates can take a lot of the fun out of finding that perfect purchase. For large items, locating courier companies and negotiating postage back to Australia can be confusing as well as time consuming. Australian entrepreneur Charmaine Grahame created travel company Worldwide Shopping Tours after personally experiencing the frustrations of shopping overseas.

Custom Shopping Tours

Worldwide Shopping Tours has developed tailored shopping tours that help Australian travellers streamline their overseas shopping. As some destinations are renowned for particular products – e.g. fashion in Paris and Milan, textiles in Bangkok and Istanbul – Worldwide Shopping Tours has ready-made itineraries for travellers particularly interested in these markets. Unlike many shopping tour companies, they do not receive any commission or payment from the retailers that they source.

Personalised Shopping Itineraries

Worldwide Shopping Tours also creates individual itineraries based on their clients’ needs, unlike many shopping tour companies that expect travellers to fit in with a large group of fellow shoppers. An itinerary is devised in consultation with their staff in Australia and regional contacts in the country of destination, taking into account the desired products and budget. The custom shopping tours are also private, designed for parties of two to six people. Individual travellers are also welcome, but a single supplement cost is incurred.

Shopping Tour Inclusions

• 6-hour personal shopping tour
• 20kg air freight allowance and courier box
• Pre-departure information and assistance
• Collection and drop-off at client’s hotel or nominated location
• Personal tour guide/driver
• Private motor vehicle
• Transportation of courier box to Australia by air express
• Transit insurance
• Customs clearance
• Delivery to client’s home or office in Australian capital cities

Prices will vary depending on the destination and the freight costs, but are still reasonable when compared with the costs incurred trying to organise such a project alone. A standard tour in Bangkok or Singapore with 20kg air freight allowance will cost A$460. There are reduced rates for travellers not wishing to use the delivery option.

Shopping Tour Destinations

• Cairo
• Istanbul
• Dubai
• Milan
• Paris
• London
• Copenhagen
• Singapore
• Bangkok
• Hong Kong

Shopping Guarantee

Worldwide Shopping Tours offers a A$200 refund if a traveller is unable to find anything to purchase on their tour.

A complete list of tour details, prices and booking forms are available on the Worldwide Shopping Tours website or contact directly within Australia on 1300 558 203.…

A 2019 Harvard study performed by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert titled “A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind” states that the average adult’s mind wanders an alarming 50% of the time.  For the most part (outside of love making) this is not exclusive to any specific activity; meaning if we’re driving, on the train to work, at work, on our phone, and so on, our mind is typically wandering.  More than ever in human history, our focus is under attack from a barrage of text messages, social media updates, pop up ads, and emails constantly tugging at us.

To improve our focus, productivity, and overall effectiveness in life, we must first better understand how our brain thinks in order to better train ourselves in these areas.

Bottom Up Thinking. This is our computational kind of thinking.  Bottom up thinking  works in milliseconds and is involuntary. It’s the reason we act on impulse at times, the reason the answer to the question we can’t think of comes to us seemingly out of nowhere when we’re not focusing on it, but also the reason many of our best ideas come to us when we’re not even trying.  The bottom up part of the brain works on autopilot because our conscious thought process cannot keep up with it.

Top Down Thinking.  This is our slower, more rational and logical thought process.  It is voluntary in action and can often times override the impulses sent our way from bottom up thinking.  The top down thought process is ideally what we use much of the day, however, the more we lose focus, the more we tend to go on autopilot and the bottom down thought processes can take over.

Understanding how the two kinds of thinking in our brains work is important, however, what is even more important is to understand when each kind of thinking should be utilized to make us as effective and productive as possible.  Daniel Goleman, author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence describes the balance we must seek in top down and bottom up thinking as, “You want to be selective in how you use mindfulness.  The brain does not want to be mindful in ordinary life all the time…”

Here are 3 simple ways we can improve our brain ‘flow’ and find the balance we desire in our top down and bottom up thinking:

1. Think Like a Kid.

This improves our creative, bottom up thinking.  Children have less sensory overload than do adults and haven’t been trained by experiences, meaning their brains are far less likely to be overwhelmed by worry and stimulation.  Since children don’t have the same mental models that dispose many adults to lack or lose creativity, their minds act in a more uninhibited way, which allows for more imaginative and creative ideas to escape the incredible amount of stimuli that can often times overwhelm the brain and stifle creativity.

2. Meditate.

This doesn’t have to be a massive commitment.  Committing to even 5 minutes a day of meditation can do wonders for increasing mindfulness and avoiding the opposite…wandering.  In meditation, you learn to focus; focus on your breathing, on your thoughts, and focus on the times when you lose focus.  Meditation forces you to actively bring your mind back when it wanders, and as with anything, with practice, comes improvement.  Small amounts of meditation can have dramatic affects on your mindfulness throughout the day over time as your mind becomes more and more trained to be in the moment.

3. Unplug and go for a Walk.

I once read that you should never trust someone who won’t take a walk with you.  As a society, I think we dramatically underestimate the power of taking a walk.  We all live very busy lives so it is very difficult to unplug and separate ourselves from it unless we actively force it, and that’s what a walk can do for you.  Leave your phone at home, your worries, and your conscience, and use the time to reconnect your sense to the real world.  Make a concerted effort to notice the people, the scenery, your entire environment around you, and most importantly, take it all in.  Succumb to your surroundings and let them consume you.

Unfortunately, we live in a world that is constantly grabbing at us from every angle possible, and we need to take it upon ourselves to make the effort to not let it.  Whether that’s letting your mind detach and become a bit more uninhibited, putting your phone away, or taking 5 minutes a day to focus on something as simple as our breathing and internal thoughts, it’s important that we take the time to do so as it benefits everything and everyone in our lives. Click  Here to read Why I Became …

Reality television exposes and glorifies a sensationalized, dramatized, and highly influenced form of reality to attract viewers, which translates into advertising dollars. Competitions often take place in exotic locations or artificial situations and participants are coached to act in specific ways by producers creating an illusion of reality through editing.

Big Reality Shows Translate into Big Money for Networks and Reality Stars

It all started with The Real World and Survivor in the 90s followed by Big Brother, and endless other competition shows have followed since. There are more talent shows on TV than one can count on their hands these days. With this immense popularity comes big business that translates into big money for the networks that franchise them and those reality stars that gain popularity and manage something constructive and turn their success and sudden stardom into big business.

While many reality TV participants don’t move past their fifteen minutes of fame, some stars like Kim Kardashian and the original Apprentice Bill Rancic have leveraged their television success into entrepreneurial gold.

Only three years ago when her family first signed on with E!’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians Kim Kardashian was hardly known – maybe within some circles people knew her as the daughter of the OJ Simpson’s lawyer. Today, she is a household name with over three million followers on Facebook alone. She has transformed her sex appeal, beauty tips, and sense of style into a strong business brand.

In a an article in Forbes Online on April 13, 2018, Jenna Goudreau writes that “in order to successfully capitalize on reality TV fame, the celebrity’s product or service must tie in to his or her reputation that was built on the show. Kardashian’s fragrance line, for example, targeted her audience of young women and fit her persona as a sexy socialite…But we wouldn’t want to buy a Kim Kardashian encyclopedia. (Reality TV Stars Turned Entrepreneurs).”

In the same article, successful entrepreneur Bill Rancic and winner of the first season of NBC’s The Apprentice also weighs in on the topic: “You have to have common sense. A lot of these people get caught up in the fame and become intoxicated by the camera.”

The Reality TV genre has created a lot of buzz, and with it its own stars on shows. Shows like MTV’s Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo have created stars that span across TV networks and with this, reality TV stars demand higher salaries. But one must wonder if the Reality TV bubble is threatened to be burst as cost of production continues to rise.…

Cash is definitely the lifeblood of any business. When money is not managed properly, it is possible to end up in situations in which not enough cash is available when it is actually needed, even if the company is currently generating profit. As a cash flow problem appears, bankruptcy can easily end up being reality. You surely do not want to see that happening.

For any business out there it is imperative to control cash flow. This is complicated and is usually achieved through the following steps.

Measuring Funds

This is definitely a tedious process but you have to be sure that you have proper cash flow projections. You need to know how much money you get on a month to month basis. Too many simply think about the money that will be gained in a really long period of time. This is where the mistake happens.

Try to determine how much cash you will have and how much of it will be spent. Analyze what you spend the cash on and see if some of the payments can be done through sources that do not involve cash.

Improving Receivables

We recommend that you try to look for more information on Today’s Growth Consultant and similar growth consultant firms. They will help you because they know how to improve receivable while minimizing expenses. This is what you have to do. The receivables can easily be turned right into fast cash by simply offering discounts when a customer would pay up front. Such an action would give you more cash when you need it the most.

Improving Payables

You cannot sustain growth by simply growing a company and increasing sales. You should always be careful about the expenses you have to deal with. Streamlining a business automatically means that you can end up with expenses that grow too fast. This has to be recognized and you have to be sure that you basically have cash available when you need it during the growth process.

Focusing On The Short-Term

While many have this focus put on a long-term cash flow, you should move towards short-term analysis. This is because of the fact that when you are faced with company growth, you automatically need to pay more bills. You need to always know exactly when more cash is necessary since a failure to do that would lead to the situation in which you remain without liquid funds.

The great case scenario is that you would be able to predict shortfalls around one week in advance. That is what helps you to get the necessary funding from sources that can help you. There is no lender out there that will give you money in the event that you are panicked. As you know what will happen, you will be able to act cool and react properly when that is necessary.

Make sure that you consider everything that was mentioned above because of the fact that this is something that can drastically help you to control your cash flow and avoid problems as your business is growing.…