Bad deals? Bad providers? Bad clients? WHO CARES!!

This is golden information! No MBA program in the US teaches this real world way to do business and get paid.

Thank You.


Again, why are the posts with the best information ignored?

Yes..It's about SKIN in the GAME.

The more experienced in business you get the more you realise that for big deals to happen both parties have to have a financial interest in the outcome.

A few things here.

I don't go out prospecting for clients yet I have a few who have found me via referral, their sheer determination to find someone who can really help them or through chatting over dinner at some black tie event.

Two recent examples for you.

One client is exactly One hour's drive from me when keeping to the speed limit.

As part of my services I record and broadcast regular seminars where they have 20-40 attendees in the room and maybe 30 - 70 online depending on how well the promotion has worked or quality of the guests.

Needless to say I'm always early to set up the tech but...

A couple of months back, when there was a full house and top shelf guest, there was an almighty pile up on the Highway. I was 3 hours ahead of schedule but that journey took all of 2 hours and 55 minutes.

When it became apparent that I may not get there I had begun to broadcast via a wireless 4g modem whilst driving and relaying a conversation on hands-free to the live seminar room. I'd got a staff member logged in on chat and even though I arrived outside the building with five minutes to go, I had got my main camera hooked up via firewire and was filming as I entered the room. The live broadcast sold $314500 of which I had a piece of.

If I was just being paid to show up I doubt it would have happened.

Apart from the financial incentive I have to maintain my reputation amongst the clients I serve.

Another example was an employment contract I was signing with a prospective member of staff who was gaining access to Australia under a specific Immigration visa to work for my company.

They were an ideal candidate with contacts in various companies that my business was seeking to build relationships with.

Once they had completed their contract of 2 years they could apply for a permanent residence visa so it was valuable to them to partner up with a business who would support them throughout that time.

In many circumstances this type of visa and employment situation the visa is sold to the applicant and they pay middlemen somewhere between 50 - 110K plus they also pay the employer cash back from their earnings.

I wasn't into anything that wasn't above board and I was more than happy to pay the going rate for the quality of employee I was getting without them having to be exploited ...but...

Into the negotiations after I had already invested quite heavily the applicant started to say

"Oh I just need to cover Such and Such fees from my Lawyer"

or

"Could you just lend me $XXXX to pay for medical tests, insurance etc etc."

I explained "Skin in the game"

If you can't put some of your's in then we aren't going to move forward.

They did come to the party but a few months later we parted ways and I should have recognised the signs from their earlier attempts at trying to enter the arrangement 100% risk free.

Peter has the right idea about having leverage for both parties.

The people I help do have cash flow issues from time to time as do all businesses so I understand when sometimes they are late with payment and other times they pay some unexpected extra bonus because they just did another $400K that they didn't expect.

Working inside the analytics and monitoring outcomes you get early warning signs when things are not going right. It keeps you on your toes.

When you get more intertwined into the client's success and you let them know you have confidence in your ability and confidence in their abilities to work with what you do for them the really big results start to happen.

You do have to pick your clients well and sometimes be prepared to walk away because you will gain respect and also position yourself better for your next success.

Compassioneuring - part of how you can be different.

Cheap host or web guy that does not care - leave them.

Small business owners tend to view things as a personal expense rather than a business expense or investment. And if they are penny pinchers at the personal level, they are likely to be penny wise and pound foolish in business.

Kind of a bad example to the point: my hotel owner hates spending $200 for new towels because in my reading of his mind, $200 is a lot of money at the personal level. It does not enter his mind that $200 is a very small percent of revenues and that nice towels are a large part of the positive guest experience . Not to mention that enough inventory is very helpful to the housekeepers and laundry personnel.