Description
Presentation explain the be do have of a successful entrepreneur.
THE BE-DO-HAVE
OF A SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEUR
RENATA MCDONALD
INTERNATIONAL LICENSED CONSULTANT
2
3
THE
BE - DO – HAVE
OF A SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEUR
RENATA MCDONALD
INTERNATIONAL LICENSED BUSINESS CONSULTANT
A compilation of tried-and-true
experiences and results from a
traveled, multi-cultural
international business consultant
© Copyright 2013, Renata McDonald. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
written prior permission of the author.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BE
The Will To Succeed
Setting Goals & Achieving Goals
Goal Attainment
Are you looking for security in the new upcoming year?
How is simplicity related to your ability to be at ease with something?
What’s the fundamental diference between being successful or being a failure?
Does life follow your attitude or does your attitude follow life?
In simple words the anatomy of success
Leadership & attitude
What is Leadership?
DO
You cannot establish any new or basic procedures in the presence
of unethical conduct
Where did it go wrong?
The importance of customer service
The fve most basic fundamental dos and don’ts in business during tough
economic times
Productivity leads to proftability
Is the infow of new customers or clients in your business on a decline?
Indecisions and how they glue you down to a total halt
In business, like in life, “What goes around comes around”
If time is money does that mean that if you don’t have time-You don’t
have money?
How do you handle group morale when it is down?
How do you cope through tough times in business?
Exactly how is the efciency of a workplace related to its gross revenue?
During tough times in business is it wise to cut the marketing budget?
Business is not good, how do I fx it?
Business ethics, indicators of
HAVE
A company’s success is as good as...
Business conduct: Morals versus personal integrity
Consulting & unethical business practices
Employee’s accountability
How can you recognize a great potential employee from a poor employee?
Management, consulting & business ethics
Productivity: Rewards & Penalties
The two prong solution to a high personnel turnover
Table of Contents
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Renata McDonald
BE
You have to assume a position or a frm point from which to view life
and to act in life.
This is your beingness.
This is where you generate your own personal power from.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
THE WILL TO SUCCEED
It is my experience, as a turnaround business consultant, that even though you can
have the best knowledge and tools they will “not work” if the person you are working
with does not believe it is possible to turn things around. The will to succeed is way
more powerful than any advanced business knowledge or turnaround strategy. The
person you are working with has to want to win in order to win! By this I mean that
the individual personally has to want the activity to succeed. It won’t fy if his primary
motivation is someone else wanting it.
This means that you must be able to:
Recognize the actual belief and intentions of the individual, and if needed handle the
individual to the point where he is working with the belief that it is possible to turn
things around.
Remember – the will to succeed is of paramount importance in any activity!
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Renata McDonald
SETTING GOALS & ACHIEVING GOALS
We are all getting ready to set our goals for this upcoming year and we are hoping that
this time some, or all, will come through.
I have observed that the only goals you achieve are 1: the goals you make a clear cut
decision that you want to achieve. And 2: the goals you have a high level of certainty in
your self and your ability to achieve them can be achieved with your current abilities.
These are the ones that you actually come through on.
You have to be decisive and certain about your goals.
If look back in your life at the goals you have achieved, you will fnd that point 1 and 2
were present.
Sounds awfully simple, but then I have never seen complicated theories work!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
GOAL ATTAINMENT
One helpful exercise someone can do in reference to goal attainment is to picture the
goal being point B and where you are point A, and draw out a “path” of what would
need to occur to move from A to B.
It is best done on a gradient scale approach, by writing down each step. This allows
you to keep track of where you are in reference to your goal and avoids you getting of
the correct path. It is best done, per my experience, by writing a plan or a program.
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Renata McDonald
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SECURITY IN THE
NEW UPCOMING YEAR?
The best and only security you can count on is you. It is your self-confdence, your
ability to create, to be imaginative. That’s the only real security. Knowing that you can
count on yourself to go out and do a good job. It is believing in yourself.
With that you can rebuild a business and regain wealth. This is the only real security
there is. This is the one that counts.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HOW IS SIMPLICITY RELATED TO
YOUR ABILITY TO BE AT EASE WITH
SOMETHING?
Have you ever felt that things got too complicated in an area of your business? And
because of it, it became harder and harder to get any production out of it?
If you look deeper you will fnd that you are not at all at ease with that specifc area
and it has become harder and harder for you to deal with it. You start to resent going
into to that area and fnd yourself getting, little by little, more and more frustrated.
That’s when an executive fnds himself making rush decisions which often turn out to
be incorrect.
The solution to such a situation is to raise one’s own ability to be at ease with the area
by getting back in it, rolling up your sleeves, working with your manager and your
staf. Observing what’s going on, communicating with them while analyzing the area.
Get familiar with it again (or newly), fnd out the ins and outs of it.
You will soon fnd that to the degree that your own ability to be at ease with it
increases, the more “uncomplicated” it becomes.
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Renata McDonald
WHAT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN BEING SUCCESSFUL OR BEING
A FAILURE?
Answer these two questions:
Do you approach your business and life from a viewpoint of you being cause, being
in charge of whatever the circumstance may be, or are you looking at it from being at
efect, like a spectator?
In other words are you being the Director of your life or merely a spectator?
If the answer to 1 is: “cause” and on 2 is: “I am the Director” then you have what it takes
to be successful in business and in life.
Knowing that you are the cause point of your business and that you are the one
responsible for its success, instead of assigning blame and cause for what’s occurring
to others, is the most basic and fundamental diference between having or not having
what it takes to be successful.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
DOES LIFE FOLLOW YOUR ATTITUDE OR
DOES YOUR ATTITUDE FOLLOW YOUR
LIFE?
What monitors your life success? At the end of the road the answer will always be: you.
Depending on your attitude, in any circumstances, you can predict your success or
failure.
To stay true to your own goals, you must have the ability to believe in yourself, in your
judgment and your decisions. If you make a mistake, you get back up and you learn
from it.
Your attitude towards life is the control factor of your journey’s steering wheel. You
can factually because over achieving your goals, but in order to do that, you need to
frst realize that you and your attitude are its controlling factors.
The mechanics of your job will then follow automatically and aid you in your success.
Your knowledge does not substitute for your outlook in life. Your attitude in life is
senior and is more powerful than your education and training in regards to the quest
of achieving success.
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Renata McDonald
IN SIMPLE WORDS
THE ANATOMY OF SUCCESS
Where you fnd success you fnd someone who observed what had to be done, knew
how to do and did it. Too simple?
I found out in life that the simpler something is, the closer it is to the truth. The
opposite is also true. Where you fnd failure, someone failed to observe what was
actually going on, didn’t know what to do or didn’t act, and he just let it go.
It takes courage, integrity and responsibility to utilize this concept, but then again
these are traits of a successful person.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
LEADERSHIP & ATTITUDE
Your attitude is what monitors your goal’s attainment. That is what most people miss.
Great leaders know how to change and reshape people’s attitude. Some call them
great “motivational speakers”, because of this ability..
What I am about to say might sound rhetorical, yet funny at the same time: you do
afect your life and when I say you I am specifcally referring to your attitude.
If you think you are going to have a bad day, you will! The trick is that you have to
believe in yourself and if you look you will see that great leaders permeate their self
-confdence throughout their space.
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Renata McDonald
WHAT’S LEADERSHIP?
Is it wisdom, popularity or charisma? No, it’s none of them!
Leadership has everything to do with competence, being able to get others to execute
programs, targets and accomplish goals.
Leadership is directing others with good control, positiveness and understanding
towards the accomplishment of production targets. All the rest that you hear about
leadership is nice, but not the key factor.
I‘d rather see a competent leader who is persistent in demanding production, than a
popular and liked leader who can’t get anybody to do anything.
Leadership is demonstrated in up-trending statistics, in quotas met, in better survival
of the group and the individuals that comprise it.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
DO
Ultimately it is your actions that get you to the achievement of your goals.
You need to know where you are frst, to see how far and in what direction you need
to align your actions in order to achieve your goals.
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Renata McDonald
YOU CANNOT ESTABLISH ANY NEW
OR BASIC PROCEDURES IN THE
PRESENCE OF UNETHICAL CONDUCT
Have you ever tried over and over to establish some basic procedures in a department
only to fnd that inevitably its personnel would either: a) stop following it b) alter it
or c) do something else? When you are faced with such circumstances and you look
deeper, you will fnd, one for one that some unethical conduct exists amongst its
personnel.
This has been a tried and true observation from many years and many hours of
consulting in all kind of Industries. This “rule” never failed to be true: new procedures
or teachings are altered, stopped or abandoned in the presence of some unknown,
unethical conduct.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
WHERE DID IT GO WRONG?
How do you detect where something is blocked or diverted from it’s logical course
in your business production fow? If gas is not reaching your engine, yet it logically
should, there are only so many things that could be stopping it or diverting it.
You take the fnal product and you work back from it. If the fnal product is a cup of
tea, you work back from it. To drink a cup of tea you need: 1) water 2) something to
make it hot 3) your need tea and 4) a cup. You write all the steps in sequence and you
analyze them.
This is just a summary of one of many ways that can be used to fnd where something
went wrong.
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Renata McDonald
THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
I wrote an article not too long ago on the 5 reasons underlying a declining new
business infow:
1. The sales or marketing personnel is unqualifed
2. The product’s quality has sufered in recent times
3. You are not delivering to your clients what was promised to them or
you have a backlog in your delivery
4. The promotion was decreased or stopped
5. There is no internal referral program in place
Of these the most important one is # 3.
People sometimes drive hours to eat at a good restaurant or get a great haircut. For
excellent service customers are often willing to pay a higher price.
A company is usually in business because it has a service to ofer. Such a company’s
biggest asset is its customer base. The value of the customer base increases
proportionally to how well customer service is managed.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
THE FIVE MOST BASIC FUNDAMENTAL
DOS & DON’TS IN BUSINESS DURING
TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
A business’ biggest asset is its clients. Make sure every single one of them is 110%
satisfed with your services.
These are the times where superb service should be the norm of the day and is
performed by every single employee in your frm.
These are not the times, as a remedy for a low cash fow and lack of funds, to cut
corners and bring the quality of your service down. This will only result in a loss of
clients.
More marketing and more promotion is what will secure your company’s future. More
potential customers have to be reached to obtain the same results that you were
getting during better times.
Less promotion or cutting all marketing expenses will only bring a failure in growth.
Nothing remains the same: you either grow or contract.
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Renata McDonald
PRODUCTIVITY LEADS TO PROFITABILITY
A company is really a group of individuals joined together by similar or common
purpose. Every individual has a specifc job and a valuable fnal product to obtain. The
combined valuable products should add up to the company mission statement.
Each employee and executive is either doing his job and achieving his position’s
valuable fnal product, or he isn’t. This could be caused by a lack of training or by an
unwillingness to do ones job.
Employee’s performance on their job can be measured by assigning a statistic that
measures how well he is obtaining his valuable fnal product.
Statistics can be reviewed weekly or even daily to determine the employee’s
productivity. High productivity leads to proftability.
Determining the valuable fnal product for each position in the company and
assigning the proper statistic to monitor productivity are of vital importance amongst
the many tools a manager can use to increase proftability.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
IS THE INFLOW OF NEW CUSTOMERS
OR CLIENTS IN YOUR BUSINESS ON A
DECLINE?
New business is the fuel of any company. If it is down-trending it is because of any
combination of these fve major reasons:
1. The sales or marketing personnel is unqualifed.
2. The product’s quality has sufered in recent times.
3. You are not delivering to your clients what was promised to them or
you have a backlog in your delivery
4. The promotion was decreased or stopped.
5. There is no internal referral program in place.
Remedy these points and your new business will start to increase.
This is just a synopsis of what is happening in a company when new business is on a
decline.
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Renata McDonald
INDECISIONS AND HOW THEY GLUE YOU
DOWN TO A TOTAL HALT
Have you experienced that indecisions are followed by the inability to act? What
might not be right away obvious is that anything related to the area of indecision gets
too into a holding pattern and it gets brought eventually to total halt. This is kept in
place by the individual being “stuck on a maybe”.
To unstick it and get things moving again the individual needs to make a decision. It
might not be the best one, but it is better than not making one.
Look into areas of your life where you feel “stuck” and I guarantee that you will fnd an
indecision!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
IN BUSINESS, LIKE IN LIFE, “WHAT GOES
AROUND, COMES AROUND”
After been in business for 20+ years you sometimes get the false idea that it pays to
be dishonest or to not stick to your personal integrity. In the long run I have observed
that unethical business practices never succeed. Eventually the person who is behind
it does himself in.
Following honest business practices is always the way to go. It guarantees long term
success.
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Renata McDonald
IF TIME IS MONEY DOES THAT MEAN THAT
IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME - YOU DON’T
HAVE MONEY!?
This is not as far from the truth as you may think! Your ability to have money is in a
large degree proportional to your ability to manage time.
Time is measured by how fast it takes to move something from point A to point B. It
relates to motion. It may take me longer to run 100 meters that it would take you
to run the same distance. The faster you move, the less time it takes to move from
point A to point B. You causatively created more time “to spare” than, in this case,
myself who took longer to do the same thing. Hence motion and time are intimately
connected.
If you take a look I am sure you can observe in life that successful people in general
move fast, think fast and rapidly make decisions.
By the same token when someone is not doing well, is down in spirits, he moves
slower, can’t make up his mind and in general his motion through life visibly slows.
You can try this: causatively start getting things done faster. Walk faster, decide to
speed up and get more done in a shorter amount of time. You will notice your morale
starts going up. You get more things accomplished. Money coming your way will
increase too.
Success follows people in action! And so does money!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HOW DO YOU HANDLE GROUP MORALE
WHEN IT IS DOWN?
By the attainment of goals! As a leader or manager you need to break monthly goals
down into weekly goals and daily targets for each employee. You need to motivate
them in achieving their goals. Help them in attaining the goals and targets through
their Departmental Supervisors.
Goal’s attainment is the single most powerful action any manager can undertake to
increase his group’s morale. Success attracts success. It does not matter how small
the task is. What counts is completing the task, achieving the target.
Try it, it works! I would love to hear your feedback on this once you have tried it.
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Renata McDonald
HOW DO YOU COPE THROUGH TOUGH
TIMES IN BUSINESS?
Statistics and data evaluation are key to know and understand when you are trying
to turn around a business during tough times. It is very easy to make the mistake of
assuming you know. Your intuition might be right, but only by evaluating raw statistics
and pertinent data to the area you are troubleshooting, you can be sure.
Not having statistics for all areas such as Human Resources, Operations, Marketing
and Sales, not just Financials, is like driving a car without having a speedometer, a fuel
gage and so on. The car ends up driving you! The Financials are the end result of HR,
Operations, Marketing and Sales efectiveness.
The question then is: are you driving your business?
There is an exact methodology for establishing which statistics should be kept for each
area of a company. They tell you everything you need to know as a CEO, Manager and
Administrator. You can predict vital situations if you know how to read them. They put
you in complete control.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
EXACTLY HOW IS THE EFFICIENCY OF
A WORKPLACE RELATED TO ITS GROSS
REVENUE?
I can guarantee you that management in Apple, Microsoft and any other extremely
successful business like them, is completely aware of how workplace efciency
monitors the gross revenue.
Every business manager and employees has a specifc job that they are entrusted to
do also called a “hat”. Each of their positions should be designed to obtain an end
product within the organization. Their combined production adds up the overall
company valuable fnal product: the purpose of why the company exists. This is what
the company revenue represents: the exchange for its valuable fnal product.
How well and how fast each manager and employee does its hat directly afects the
company revenue. They all could be “busy working”, but is all the motion leading to
the end product of their position? Are they efciently doing their hat? The answers to
these questions explain the state of a business’ gross revenue.
I recommend going around to your management personnel frst, and then continuing
going down the Organization Chart, asking what their hat entails. What is their
understanding of what their position’s end product is? Are they doing, right then and
there, something that aligns to their position’s fnal product?
A business’ gross revenue depends largely on each and every company position being
efciently held.
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Renata McDonald
DURING TOUGH TIMES IN BUSINESS IS IT
WISE TO CUT THE MARKETING BUDGET?
It is a correct action to cut costs during tough times in business. Marketing budget is
usually one of the frst things that get severely reduced.
The truth is that marketing is what will get a business out of tough times. The
marketing budget, if anything, should be increased. Successful businesses promote
themselves out of bad times by increasing their marketing reach to keep acquiring a
steady fow of new business.
Cuts should be applied to cost of goods, by fnding better pricing, cutting down waste
and by becoming overall more efcient.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BUSINESS IS NOT GOOD,
HOW DO I FIX IT?
The question could be asked in a diferent way with this analogy: if someone comes
into an Emergency Room and he is having a hard time but you don’t know what’s
wrong with him, what do you do? You check his vital signs.
What are the vital signs of any business: statistics! If there is a vital tool for any
manager or administrator, this is it! Statistics can tell you exactly where the business
is failing. They indicate the exact source of any problem. If read correctly you can
predict things before they happen.
Imagine a doctor that doesn’t know how to check your vital signs, or he does not
know how to read them? That’s right, you may not survive. Not knowing how to read
statistics puts an administrator at efect. Because of it, the business sufers. Become
cause over reading your business vital signs!
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Renata McDonald
BUSINESS ETHICS, INDICATORS OF
In my 20 years of being in business I have observed a good indicator to see if
someone has abandoned business ethics. The indicator is his/her communications are
consistently and almost only about themselves and very little outward towards their
team and customers.
Such people tend to exaggerate and infate reports. Often, per my experience and by
personal investigation, they are found to be behind false rumors, they originate them.
They speak in generalities, as in “everybody knows”. They can’t come up with specifcs
even when asked to.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HAVE
The essence called you (your beingness) and your actions (doingness) determine what
you have today and what you could have tomorrow.
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A COMPANY’S SUCCESS IS AS GOOD AS
“A company” is really a group of individuals united, hopefully, by a common
pro-survival purpose. It is not very diferent than a sports team. A soccer team, for
example, is as successful as the players’ competence in playing their feld positions. It
is as good as the coach’s ability to direct them, unite them and inspire them.
To successfully play a game all players need to show up on time, ready to play, focused
on the team’s strategy and what role they play in it. They are frst a team, but at no
time do they lose their individuality. Actually they are very much expected to show
everything they are during the game.
If Mourinho could win Championships managing Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan -
applying the above concepts in three diferent countries - so a business owner should
be able to do this with his own company.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BUSINESS CONDUCT: MORALS VERSUS
PERSONAL INTEGRITY
Business morals vary from culture to culture. They tell you what “you are supposed to
do…” and they only work in today’s society as long as they are helping in creating a
more ethical business environment.
Sometimes business rules based on morals are out dated and no longer apply in the
21st Century as they are hindering business survival rather than aiding it.
On the other side, when business conduct is based on personal integrity it is
universally respected and accepted. It follows someone’s ethical judgment /code of
honor and it brings about prosperity.
I always observe these two factors in business: are these executives driven by rules
and morals or personal integrity? These give me an idea of how much can I trust them
in their dealings.
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CONSULTING & UNETHICAL BUSINESS
PRACTICES
I have learned this the hard way, but I know now that consulting eforts to turn a
company around don’t “seem to work” in the presence of unethical, unseen business
practices or management misconduct.
When proven, efective turnaround methods and strategies “don’t work” over and over,
I start to be suspicious and I have inevitably found, by investigation and proven facts,
that unethical practices and executive misbehavior lie behind it.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
EMPLOYEE’S ACCOUNTABILITY
In my opinion the best method to measure an employee’s accountability is to assign
them a statistic that measures their individual post production.
This type of measurement eliminates the signifcance of any personal opinions and
emotions toward the employee. If the statistic is found to have been falsely reported
it becomes a subject of termination, as employees that lie about their production do
not have the interest of the company at heart and are not very valuable.
The key is to determine what statistic best measures the position’s fnal product.
However, once this has been done I have found this tool to be the most successful in
the measuring of accountability in the work place.
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Renata McDonald
HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE A GREAT
POTENTIAL EMPLOYEE FROM A POOR
EMPLOYEE?
By my personal observation and experience, there are exact behaviors that distinguish
great from poor potential employees.
Great potential employees move swiftly, have a good presence, a frm handshake and
they look at you in the eyes.
Wearing business attire does not mean much unless you also observe his/her
grooming and cleanliness. This may be a crude analogy, but a bum wearing a suit is
still a bum.
The most important and the key factor that diferentiates a great employee from
a poor one is his attitude towards life (work, family, hobbies, etc.). By picking
uncommon questions to ask throughout the hiring interview, such as: “What do you
believe makes a great boss? And a not so great boss?, you will be able to see their true
attitude by their answers and behavior.
Some applicants will be fearful of answering. They will tend to look down to the foor,
not knowing what to say. Inefective employees have this attitude.
Some will look at you with a fake smile and give you a somewhat bizarre answer. Your
observational abilities are key here. You have to be able to see that he/her is faking
the smile. This is an indicator of a covert – non constructive attitude. These are the
employees who are always “nice” and “collaborative”, yet factually they don’t perform
their tasks assigned and frequently create emergencies.
Some of the applicants when asked these uncommon questions will get antagonistic
and will overtly show you that they are disturbed by the questions. These are
employees that most likely will always argue with you when asked to perform their
job.
The applicants, who simply answer your questions promptly, while looking at you in
the eyes in a conservative – content way, are the applicants you want to hire.
As a note: you need to also observe if the applicant is actually answering the question
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
asked. If you, for example, ask: what is your absolute, all times favorite movie? The
answer is one movie title. Someone saying: “Well depends. Are you talking about
recent movies? The Matrix would be a recent one, however my either favorites are….”
This is not an answer to your question.
The applicants who promptly answer your questions, with a conservative-content
attitude, are the ones you want to hire.
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Renata McDonald
MANAGEMENT, CONSULTING & BUSINESS
ETHICS
There is nothing more frustrating for management and consultants, than not to be
able to get results from true and tried actions that are known to raise productivity, new
business infow or sales. When these proven actions “don’t work”, yet they should, it is
not uncommon, when you look deeper in the area where it is being implemented, to
discover some unethical conduct by the staf. They are too busy working on hiding
their unethical behavior to pay attention to what they should be doing. This is one of
those “rules” that has never failed for me.
If I know that statistics should improve by the execution of some very sound
management actions and they don’t, I immediately look for unethical behavior by the
staf over and in the area in question.
They are being hidden so you need to dig until you fnd them. They are there, I
guarantee you. Once you fnd them, you take the proper actions to get rid of them
and productivity will “magically” increase!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
PRODUCTIVITY: REWARDS & PENALTIES
Management and employees, when rewarded solely based on their job well done, will
naturally increase their productivity.
Unfortunately too often management and employees are rewarded when their
production is actually down. This promotes further decrease in efciency and
productivity. Downward production should be penalized.
The moral of this story is: if you reward down production, you get further down
production. Reversely, if you reward hard work and up statistics, you get an increase
in productivity. This is another reason why keeping statistics is so vital. They tell the
story with no personal emotions attached.
This is a very simple rule, often violated.
Have you experienced this yourself?
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Renata McDonald
THE TWO PRONG SOLUTION TO A HIGH
PERSONNEL TURNOVER
A high personnel turnover stems from two main reasons. The frst one is that the hired
employee is truly not qualifed. It is standard to check the references, education and
prior experience on a potential candidate, but that is just one aspect of the process.
Have you checked how fast he comes up with the answers to your questions, how
swiftly does he walk and move himself, how is he sitting in the chair in front of you? Is
he sitting like someone proud of himself or all slouched up like he doesn’t care? How
is his personal grooming? People treat themselves very much like they would treat
others. If he doesn’t care if he is shaved, if she isn’t well groomed, clean and sharp
looking, he or she are likely to not care about others and their well-being either. The
answers to these questions tell you how well he fts in your team.
The second reason (if they passed the frst test as described above) is: are they well
trained for their position in your company? Making mistakes is not pleasant for the
employee, nor are they for the owner and/or supervisor. You want the new employee,
even if knowledgeable in his exact job, to know the basic procedures of your business.
How you want things done. It is vital for any business to implement a training period
for new employees. You want them to win and be successful right from the start.
Without it the accumulation of losses from blunders and mistakes causes the new
person to leave.
I hope this helps.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renata McDonald is a graduate of the
International Training School in Los Angeles
and a licensed International Business
Consultant.
She is originally from Switzerland where she
attended Business School in Bellinzona and is
fuent in Italian, French, German and English.
With her extensive experience in
troubleshooting and company turnarounds
she has lectured business owners in the USA,
South and Central America and Europe on
the basic fundamentals and principles of a
successful business and her expertise in the
Hubbard Management System.
These principles are what she uses to turn around businesses in difculty and bring
them to expansion, stability and proft instead.
Contact information:
Web Site: http://mybusinessconsultants.net
E-Mail: [email protected]
doc_980778201.pdf
Presentation explain the be do have of a successful entrepreneur.
THE BE-DO-HAVE
OF A SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEUR
RENATA MCDONALD
INTERNATIONAL LICENSED CONSULTANT
2
3
THE
BE - DO – HAVE
OF A SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEUR
RENATA MCDONALD
INTERNATIONAL LICENSED BUSINESS CONSULTANT
A compilation of tried-and-true
experiences and results from a
traveled, multi-cultural
international business consultant
© Copyright 2013, Renata McDonald. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
written prior permission of the author.
4
THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BE
The Will To Succeed
Setting Goals & Achieving Goals
Goal Attainment
Are you looking for security in the new upcoming year?
How is simplicity related to your ability to be at ease with something?
What’s the fundamental diference between being successful or being a failure?
Does life follow your attitude or does your attitude follow life?
In simple words the anatomy of success
Leadership & attitude
What is Leadership?
DO
You cannot establish any new or basic procedures in the presence
of unethical conduct
Where did it go wrong?
The importance of customer service
The fve most basic fundamental dos and don’ts in business during tough
economic times
Productivity leads to proftability
Is the infow of new customers or clients in your business on a decline?
Indecisions and how they glue you down to a total halt
In business, like in life, “What goes around comes around”
If time is money does that mean that if you don’t have time-You don’t
have money?
How do you handle group morale when it is down?
How do you cope through tough times in business?
Exactly how is the efciency of a workplace related to its gross revenue?
During tough times in business is it wise to cut the marketing budget?
Business is not good, how do I fx it?
Business ethics, indicators of
HAVE
A company’s success is as good as...
Business conduct: Morals versus personal integrity
Consulting & unethical business practices
Employee’s accountability
How can you recognize a great potential employee from a poor employee?
Management, consulting & business ethics
Productivity: Rewards & Penalties
The two prong solution to a high personnel turnover
Table of Contents
7
18
34
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Renata McDonald
BE
You have to assume a position or a frm point from which to view life
and to act in life.
This is your beingness.
This is where you generate your own personal power from.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
THE WILL TO SUCCEED
It is my experience, as a turnaround business consultant, that even though you can
have the best knowledge and tools they will “not work” if the person you are working
with does not believe it is possible to turn things around. The will to succeed is way
more powerful than any advanced business knowledge or turnaround strategy. The
person you are working with has to want to win in order to win! By this I mean that
the individual personally has to want the activity to succeed. It won’t fy if his primary
motivation is someone else wanting it.
This means that you must be able to:
Recognize the actual belief and intentions of the individual, and if needed handle the
individual to the point where he is working with the belief that it is possible to turn
things around.
Remember – the will to succeed is of paramount importance in any activity!
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Renata McDonald
SETTING GOALS & ACHIEVING GOALS
We are all getting ready to set our goals for this upcoming year and we are hoping that
this time some, or all, will come through.
I have observed that the only goals you achieve are 1: the goals you make a clear cut
decision that you want to achieve. And 2: the goals you have a high level of certainty in
your self and your ability to achieve them can be achieved with your current abilities.
These are the ones that you actually come through on.
You have to be decisive and certain about your goals.
If look back in your life at the goals you have achieved, you will fnd that point 1 and 2
were present.
Sounds awfully simple, but then I have never seen complicated theories work!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
GOAL ATTAINMENT
One helpful exercise someone can do in reference to goal attainment is to picture the
goal being point B and where you are point A, and draw out a “path” of what would
need to occur to move from A to B.
It is best done on a gradient scale approach, by writing down each step. This allows
you to keep track of where you are in reference to your goal and avoids you getting of
the correct path. It is best done, per my experience, by writing a plan or a program.
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Renata McDonald
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SECURITY IN THE
NEW UPCOMING YEAR?
The best and only security you can count on is you. It is your self-confdence, your
ability to create, to be imaginative. That’s the only real security. Knowing that you can
count on yourself to go out and do a good job. It is believing in yourself.
With that you can rebuild a business and regain wealth. This is the only real security
there is. This is the one that counts.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HOW IS SIMPLICITY RELATED TO
YOUR ABILITY TO BE AT EASE WITH
SOMETHING?
Have you ever felt that things got too complicated in an area of your business? And
because of it, it became harder and harder to get any production out of it?
If you look deeper you will fnd that you are not at all at ease with that specifc area
and it has become harder and harder for you to deal with it. You start to resent going
into to that area and fnd yourself getting, little by little, more and more frustrated.
That’s when an executive fnds himself making rush decisions which often turn out to
be incorrect.
The solution to such a situation is to raise one’s own ability to be at ease with the area
by getting back in it, rolling up your sleeves, working with your manager and your
staf. Observing what’s going on, communicating with them while analyzing the area.
Get familiar with it again (or newly), fnd out the ins and outs of it.
You will soon fnd that to the degree that your own ability to be at ease with it
increases, the more “uncomplicated” it becomes.
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Renata McDonald
WHAT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN BEING SUCCESSFUL OR BEING
A FAILURE?
Answer these two questions:
Do you approach your business and life from a viewpoint of you being cause, being
in charge of whatever the circumstance may be, or are you looking at it from being at
efect, like a spectator?
In other words are you being the Director of your life or merely a spectator?
If the answer to 1 is: “cause” and on 2 is: “I am the Director” then you have what it takes
to be successful in business and in life.
Knowing that you are the cause point of your business and that you are the one
responsible for its success, instead of assigning blame and cause for what’s occurring
to others, is the most basic and fundamental diference between having or not having
what it takes to be successful.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
DOES LIFE FOLLOW YOUR ATTITUDE OR
DOES YOUR ATTITUDE FOLLOW YOUR
LIFE?
What monitors your life success? At the end of the road the answer will always be: you.
Depending on your attitude, in any circumstances, you can predict your success or
failure.
To stay true to your own goals, you must have the ability to believe in yourself, in your
judgment and your decisions. If you make a mistake, you get back up and you learn
from it.
Your attitude towards life is the control factor of your journey’s steering wheel. You
can factually because over achieving your goals, but in order to do that, you need to
frst realize that you and your attitude are its controlling factors.
The mechanics of your job will then follow automatically and aid you in your success.
Your knowledge does not substitute for your outlook in life. Your attitude in life is
senior and is more powerful than your education and training in regards to the quest
of achieving success.
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Renata McDonald
IN SIMPLE WORDS
THE ANATOMY OF SUCCESS
Where you fnd success you fnd someone who observed what had to be done, knew
how to do and did it. Too simple?
I found out in life that the simpler something is, the closer it is to the truth. The
opposite is also true. Where you fnd failure, someone failed to observe what was
actually going on, didn’t know what to do or didn’t act, and he just let it go.
It takes courage, integrity and responsibility to utilize this concept, but then again
these are traits of a successful person.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
LEADERSHIP & ATTITUDE
Your attitude is what monitors your goal’s attainment. That is what most people miss.
Great leaders know how to change and reshape people’s attitude. Some call them
great “motivational speakers”, because of this ability..
What I am about to say might sound rhetorical, yet funny at the same time: you do
afect your life and when I say you I am specifcally referring to your attitude.
If you think you are going to have a bad day, you will! The trick is that you have to
believe in yourself and if you look you will see that great leaders permeate their self
-confdence throughout their space.
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Renata McDonald
WHAT’S LEADERSHIP?
Is it wisdom, popularity or charisma? No, it’s none of them!
Leadership has everything to do with competence, being able to get others to execute
programs, targets and accomplish goals.
Leadership is directing others with good control, positiveness and understanding
towards the accomplishment of production targets. All the rest that you hear about
leadership is nice, but not the key factor.
I‘d rather see a competent leader who is persistent in demanding production, than a
popular and liked leader who can’t get anybody to do anything.
Leadership is demonstrated in up-trending statistics, in quotas met, in better survival
of the group and the individuals that comprise it.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
DO
Ultimately it is your actions that get you to the achievement of your goals.
You need to know where you are frst, to see how far and in what direction you need
to align your actions in order to achieve your goals.
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Renata McDonald
YOU CANNOT ESTABLISH ANY NEW
OR BASIC PROCEDURES IN THE
PRESENCE OF UNETHICAL CONDUCT
Have you ever tried over and over to establish some basic procedures in a department
only to fnd that inevitably its personnel would either: a) stop following it b) alter it
or c) do something else? When you are faced with such circumstances and you look
deeper, you will fnd, one for one that some unethical conduct exists amongst its
personnel.
This has been a tried and true observation from many years and many hours of
consulting in all kind of Industries. This “rule” never failed to be true: new procedures
or teachings are altered, stopped or abandoned in the presence of some unknown,
unethical conduct.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
WHERE DID IT GO WRONG?
How do you detect where something is blocked or diverted from it’s logical course
in your business production fow? If gas is not reaching your engine, yet it logically
should, there are only so many things that could be stopping it or diverting it.
You take the fnal product and you work back from it. If the fnal product is a cup of
tea, you work back from it. To drink a cup of tea you need: 1) water 2) something to
make it hot 3) your need tea and 4) a cup. You write all the steps in sequence and you
analyze them.
This is just a summary of one of many ways that can be used to fnd where something
went wrong.
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Renata McDonald
THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
I wrote an article not too long ago on the 5 reasons underlying a declining new
business infow:
1. The sales or marketing personnel is unqualifed
2. The product’s quality has sufered in recent times
3. You are not delivering to your clients what was promised to them or
you have a backlog in your delivery
4. The promotion was decreased or stopped
5. There is no internal referral program in place
Of these the most important one is # 3.
People sometimes drive hours to eat at a good restaurant or get a great haircut. For
excellent service customers are often willing to pay a higher price.
A company is usually in business because it has a service to ofer. Such a company’s
biggest asset is its customer base. The value of the customer base increases
proportionally to how well customer service is managed.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
THE FIVE MOST BASIC FUNDAMENTAL
DOS & DON’TS IN BUSINESS DURING
TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
A business’ biggest asset is its clients. Make sure every single one of them is 110%
satisfed with your services.
These are the times where superb service should be the norm of the day and is
performed by every single employee in your frm.
These are not the times, as a remedy for a low cash fow and lack of funds, to cut
corners and bring the quality of your service down. This will only result in a loss of
clients.
More marketing and more promotion is what will secure your company’s future. More
potential customers have to be reached to obtain the same results that you were
getting during better times.
Less promotion or cutting all marketing expenses will only bring a failure in growth.
Nothing remains the same: you either grow or contract.
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Renata McDonald
PRODUCTIVITY LEADS TO PROFITABILITY
A company is really a group of individuals joined together by similar or common
purpose. Every individual has a specifc job and a valuable fnal product to obtain. The
combined valuable products should add up to the company mission statement.
Each employee and executive is either doing his job and achieving his position’s
valuable fnal product, or he isn’t. This could be caused by a lack of training or by an
unwillingness to do ones job.
Employee’s performance on their job can be measured by assigning a statistic that
measures how well he is obtaining his valuable fnal product.
Statistics can be reviewed weekly or even daily to determine the employee’s
productivity. High productivity leads to proftability.
Determining the valuable fnal product for each position in the company and
assigning the proper statistic to monitor productivity are of vital importance amongst
the many tools a manager can use to increase proftability.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
IS THE INFLOW OF NEW CUSTOMERS
OR CLIENTS IN YOUR BUSINESS ON A
DECLINE?
New business is the fuel of any company. If it is down-trending it is because of any
combination of these fve major reasons:
1. The sales or marketing personnel is unqualifed.
2. The product’s quality has sufered in recent times.
3. You are not delivering to your clients what was promised to them or
you have a backlog in your delivery
4. The promotion was decreased or stopped.
5. There is no internal referral program in place.
Remedy these points and your new business will start to increase.
This is just a synopsis of what is happening in a company when new business is on a
decline.
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Renata McDonald
INDECISIONS AND HOW THEY GLUE YOU
DOWN TO A TOTAL HALT
Have you experienced that indecisions are followed by the inability to act? What
might not be right away obvious is that anything related to the area of indecision gets
too into a holding pattern and it gets brought eventually to total halt. This is kept in
place by the individual being “stuck on a maybe”.
To unstick it and get things moving again the individual needs to make a decision. It
might not be the best one, but it is better than not making one.
Look into areas of your life where you feel “stuck” and I guarantee that you will fnd an
indecision!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
IN BUSINESS, LIKE IN LIFE, “WHAT GOES
AROUND, COMES AROUND”
After been in business for 20+ years you sometimes get the false idea that it pays to
be dishonest or to not stick to your personal integrity. In the long run I have observed
that unethical business practices never succeed. Eventually the person who is behind
it does himself in.
Following honest business practices is always the way to go. It guarantees long term
success.
25
Renata McDonald
IF TIME IS MONEY DOES THAT MEAN THAT
IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME - YOU DON’T
HAVE MONEY!?
This is not as far from the truth as you may think! Your ability to have money is in a
large degree proportional to your ability to manage time.
Time is measured by how fast it takes to move something from point A to point B. It
relates to motion. It may take me longer to run 100 meters that it would take you
to run the same distance. The faster you move, the less time it takes to move from
point A to point B. You causatively created more time “to spare” than, in this case,
myself who took longer to do the same thing. Hence motion and time are intimately
connected.
If you take a look I am sure you can observe in life that successful people in general
move fast, think fast and rapidly make decisions.
By the same token when someone is not doing well, is down in spirits, he moves
slower, can’t make up his mind and in general his motion through life visibly slows.
You can try this: causatively start getting things done faster. Walk faster, decide to
speed up and get more done in a shorter amount of time. You will notice your morale
starts going up. You get more things accomplished. Money coming your way will
increase too.
Success follows people in action! And so does money!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HOW DO YOU HANDLE GROUP MORALE
WHEN IT IS DOWN?
By the attainment of goals! As a leader or manager you need to break monthly goals
down into weekly goals and daily targets for each employee. You need to motivate
them in achieving their goals. Help them in attaining the goals and targets through
their Departmental Supervisors.
Goal’s attainment is the single most powerful action any manager can undertake to
increase his group’s morale. Success attracts success. It does not matter how small
the task is. What counts is completing the task, achieving the target.
Try it, it works! I would love to hear your feedback on this once you have tried it.
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Renata McDonald
HOW DO YOU COPE THROUGH TOUGH
TIMES IN BUSINESS?
Statistics and data evaluation are key to know and understand when you are trying
to turn around a business during tough times. It is very easy to make the mistake of
assuming you know. Your intuition might be right, but only by evaluating raw statistics
and pertinent data to the area you are troubleshooting, you can be sure.
Not having statistics for all areas such as Human Resources, Operations, Marketing
and Sales, not just Financials, is like driving a car without having a speedometer, a fuel
gage and so on. The car ends up driving you! The Financials are the end result of HR,
Operations, Marketing and Sales efectiveness.
The question then is: are you driving your business?
There is an exact methodology for establishing which statistics should be kept for each
area of a company. They tell you everything you need to know as a CEO, Manager and
Administrator. You can predict vital situations if you know how to read them. They put
you in complete control.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
EXACTLY HOW IS THE EFFICIENCY OF
A WORKPLACE RELATED TO ITS GROSS
REVENUE?
I can guarantee you that management in Apple, Microsoft and any other extremely
successful business like them, is completely aware of how workplace efciency
monitors the gross revenue.
Every business manager and employees has a specifc job that they are entrusted to
do also called a “hat”. Each of their positions should be designed to obtain an end
product within the organization. Their combined production adds up the overall
company valuable fnal product: the purpose of why the company exists. This is what
the company revenue represents: the exchange for its valuable fnal product.
How well and how fast each manager and employee does its hat directly afects the
company revenue. They all could be “busy working”, but is all the motion leading to
the end product of their position? Are they efciently doing their hat? The answers to
these questions explain the state of a business’ gross revenue.
I recommend going around to your management personnel frst, and then continuing
going down the Organization Chart, asking what their hat entails. What is their
understanding of what their position’s end product is? Are they doing, right then and
there, something that aligns to their position’s fnal product?
A business’ gross revenue depends largely on each and every company position being
efciently held.
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Renata McDonald
DURING TOUGH TIMES IN BUSINESS IS IT
WISE TO CUT THE MARKETING BUDGET?
It is a correct action to cut costs during tough times in business. Marketing budget is
usually one of the frst things that get severely reduced.
The truth is that marketing is what will get a business out of tough times. The
marketing budget, if anything, should be increased. Successful businesses promote
themselves out of bad times by increasing their marketing reach to keep acquiring a
steady fow of new business.
Cuts should be applied to cost of goods, by fnding better pricing, cutting down waste
and by becoming overall more efcient.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BUSINESS IS NOT GOOD,
HOW DO I FIX IT?
The question could be asked in a diferent way with this analogy: if someone comes
into an Emergency Room and he is having a hard time but you don’t know what’s
wrong with him, what do you do? You check his vital signs.
What are the vital signs of any business: statistics! If there is a vital tool for any
manager or administrator, this is it! Statistics can tell you exactly where the business
is failing. They indicate the exact source of any problem. If read correctly you can
predict things before they happen.
Imagine a doctor that doesn’t know how to check your vital signs, or he does not
know how to read them? That’s right, you may not survive. Not knowing how to read
statistics puts an administrator at efect. Because of it, the business sufers. Become
cause over reading your business vital signs!
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Renata McDonald
BUSINESS ETHICS, INDICATORS OF
In my 20 years of being in business I have observed a good indicator to see if
someone has abandoned business ethics. The indicator is his/her communications are
consistently and almost only about themselves and very little outward towards their
team and customers.
Such people tend to exaggerate and infate reports. Often, per my experience and by
personal investigation, they are found to be behind false rumors, they originate them.
They speak in generalities, as in “everybody knows”. They can’t come up with specifcs
even when asked to.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
HAVE
The essence called you (your beingness) and your actions (doingness) determine what
you have today and what you could have tomorrow.
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Renata McDonald
A COMPANY’S SUCCESS IS AS GOOD AS
“A company” is really a group of individuals united, hopefully, by a common
pro-survival purpose. It is not very diferent than a sports team. A soccer team, for
example, is as successful as the players’ competence in playing their feld positions. It
is as good as the coach’s ability to direct them, unite them and inspire them.
To successfully play a game all players need to show up on time, ready to play, focused
on the team’s strategy and what role they play in it. They are frst a team, but at no
time do they lose their individuality. Actually they are very much expected to show
everything they are during the game.
If Mourinho could win Championships managing Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan -
applying the above concepts in three diferent countries - so a business owner should
be able to do this with his own company.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
BUSINESS CONDUCT: MORALS VERSUS
PERSONAL INTEGRITY
Business morals vary from culture to culture. They tell you what “you are supposed to
do…” and they only work in today’s society as long as they are helping in creating a
more ethical business environment.
Sometimes business rules based on morals are out dated and no longer apply in the
21st Century as they are hindering business survival rather than aiding it.
On the other side, when business conduct is based on personal integrity it is
universally respected and accepted. It follows someone’s ethical judgment /code of
honor and it brings about prosperity.
I always observe these two factors in business: are these executives driven by rules
and morals or personal integrity? These give me an idea of how much can I trust them
in their dealings.
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Renata McDonald
CONSULTING & UNETHICAL BUSINESS
PRACTICES
I have learned this the hard way, but I know now that consulting eforts to turn a
company around don’t “seem to work” in the presence of unethical, unseen business
practices or management misconduct.
When proven, efective turnaround methods and strategies “don’t work” over and over,
I start to be suspicious and I have inevitably found, by investigation and proven facts,
that unethical practices and executive misbehavior lie behind it.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
EMPLOYEE’S ACCOUNTABILITY
In my opinion the best method to measure an employee’s accountability is to assign
them a statistic that measures their individual post production.
This type of measurement eliminates the signifcance of any personal opinions and
emotions toward the employee. If the statistic is found to have been falsely reported
it becomes a subject of termination, as employees that lie about their production do
not have the interest of the company at heart and are not very valuable.
The key is to determine what statistic best measures the position’s fnal product.
However, once this has been done I have found this tool to be the most successful in
the measuring of accountability in the work place.
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Renata McDonald
HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE A GREAT
POTENTIAL EMPLOYEE FROM A POOR
EMPLOYEE?
By my personal observation and experience, there are exact behaviors that distinguish
great from poor potential employees.
Great potential employees move swiftly, have a good presence, a frm handshake and
they look at you in the eyes.
Wearing business attire does not mean much unless you also observe his/her
grooming and cleanliness. This may be a crude analogy, but a bum wearing a suit is
still a bum.
The most important and the key factor that diferentiates a great employee from
a poor one is his attitude towards life (work, family, hobbies, etc.). By picking
uncommon questions to ask throughout the hiring interview, such as: “What do you
believe makes a great boss? And a not so great boss?, you will be able to see their true
attitude by their answers and behavior.
Some applicants will be fearful of answering. They will tend to look down to the foor,
not knowing what to say. Inefective employees have this attitude.
Some will look at you with a fake smile and give you a somewhat bizarre answer. Your
observational abilities are key here. You have to be able to see that he/her is faking
the smile. This is an indicator of a covert – non constructive attitude. These are the
employees who are always “nice” and “collaborative”, yet factually they don’t perform
their tasks assigned and frequently create emergencies.
Some of the applicants when asked these uncommon questions will get antagonistic
and will overtly show you that they are disturbed by the questions. These are
employees that most likely will always argue with you when asked to perform their
job.
The applicants, who simply answer your questions promptly, while looking at you in
the eyes in a conservative – content way, are the applicants you want to hire.
As a note: you need to also observe if the applicant is actually answering the question
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
asked. If you, for example, ask: what is your absolute, all times favorite movie? The
answer is one movie title. Someone saying: “Well depends. Are you talking about
recent movies? The Matrix would be a recent one, however my either favorites are….”
This is not an answer to your question.
The applicants who promptly answer your questions, with a conservative-content
attitude, are the ones you want to hire.
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Renata McDonald
MANAGEMENT, CONSULTING & BUSINESS
ETHICS
There is nothing more frustrating for management and consultants, than not to be
able to get results from true and tried actions that are known to raise productivity, new
business infow or sales. When these proven actions “don’t work”, yet they should, it is
not uncommon, when you look deeper in the area where it is being implemented, to
discover some unethical conduct by the staf. They are too busy working on hiding
their unethical behavior to pay attention to what they should be doing. This is one of
those “rules” that has never failed for me.
If I know that statistics should improve by the execution of some very sound
management actions and they don’t, I immediately look for unethical behavior by the
staf over and in the area in question.
They are being hidden so you need to dig until you fnd them. They are there, I
guarantee you. Once you fnd them, you take the proper actions to get rid of them
and productivity will “magically” increase!
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
PRODUCTIVITY: REWARDS & PENALTIES
Management and employees, when rewarded solely based on their job well done, will
naturally increase their productivity.
Unfortunately too often management and employees are rewarded when their
production is actually down. This promotes further decrease in efciency and
productivity. Downward production should be penalized.
The moral of this story is: if you reward down production, you get further down
production. Reversely, if you reward hard work and up statistics, you get an increase
in productivity. This is another reason why keeping statistics is so vital. They tell the
story with no personal emotions attached.
This is a very simple rule, often violated.
Have you experienced this yourself?
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Renata McDonald
THE TWO PRONG SOLUTION TO A HIGH
PERSONNEL TURNOVER
A high personnel turnover stems from two main reasons. The frst one is that the hired
employee is truly not qualifed. It is standard to check the references, education and
prior experience on a potential candidate, but that is just one aspect of the process.
Have you checked how fast he comes up with the answers to your questions, how
swiftly does he walk and move himself, how is he sitting in the chair in front of you? Is
he sitting like someone proud of himself or all slouched up like he doesn’t care? How
is his personal grooming? People treat themselves very much like they would treat
others. If he doesn’t care if he is shaved, if she isn’t well groomed, clean and sharp
looking, he or she are likely to not care about others and their well-being either. The
answers to these questions tell you how well he fts in your team.
The second reason (if they passed the frst test as described above) is: are they well
trained for their position in your company? Making mistakes is not pleasant for the
employee, nor are they for the owner and/or supervisor. You want the new employee,
even if knowledgeable in his exact job, to know the basic procedures of your business.
How you want things done. It is vital for any business to implement a training period
for new employees. You want them to win and be successful right from the start.
Without it the accumulation of losses from blunders and mistakes causes the new
person to leave.
I hope this helps.
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THE BE-DO-HAVE OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renata McDonald is a graduate of the
International Training School in Los Angeles
and a licensed International Business
Consultant.
She is originally from Switzerland where she
attended Business School in Bellinzona and is
fuent in Italian, French, German and English.
With her extensive experience in
troubleshooting and company turnarounds
she has lectured business owners in the USA,
South and Central America and Europe on
the basic fundamentals and principles of a
successful business and her expertise in the
Hubbard Management System.
These principles are what she uses to turn around businesses in difculty and bring
them to expansion, stability and proft instead.
Contact information:
Web Site: http://mybusinessconsultants.net
E-Mail: [email protected]
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