The Shortest Book on Business?

Anyone who has followed me over the last few years will have noticed that each successive book gets shorter and more expensive. Kick-Start was 298 pages and £10.99 and the most recent Beating The Credit Crunch was 98 pages for £20.00.


Well, the next book will be even shorter. In fact, this may well be it! But I won’t be charging for it.

In 20 years time, by a logarithmic progression, the book would be condensed to just over a page. Rather than waiting all that time I thought that we should just cut to the chase.

Those of you who have followed the “Stop P***ing Around” and “Take Massive Action” book chapters, blogs, articles and presentations probably know exactly where all this is going...

All my work has a series of specific themes running through it. The themes inter-relate and support each other. They are as follows


Theme 1: Be clear about what you want


Theme 2: Be clear about:
* Where are you now?
* Where are you going? Where do you want to be?
* How are you going to get there?


Theme 3: Focus on what you want and how you are going to achieve it


Theme 4: If in doubt, “Fake it till you make it!”


Theme 5: Stop p***ing about! Take massive bloody action.


That’s it. All the rest is commentary.






RELEVANT LINKS

Checklist For Success - blog post

Entrepreneurial Qualities - blog post

Seeing The Bright Side - blog post

Bish! Bash! Bosh! - article

"Is Networking The Crack Cocaine Of The Business World?!

"Is Networking The Crack Cocaine Of The Business World?"


This was a great title for an article but does it make sense?

- Is networking addictive?

- Does it add value to anything?




RELEVANT ARTICLE

"Is Networking The Crack Cocaine Of The Business World?" - the original article

Passion in Marketing

David Mitchell on being passionate in marketing is a wonderful three minute video.
Very good indeed. A great viral as well...

The Planes Have Stopped - Peace At Last

"Peace at Last". The planes are silent and there is an unerring quiet. Spooky. What a relief.

In business we have the constant white noise of communication hitting us via our BlackBerries and IPhones 24/7. Is this so very clever? I don't think so. It scrambles your brain.

With so much information we become insensitive to what really matters or we miss it entirely. We need to find ways of filtering all this information yet making sure we focus on the big stuff. Do not become master of the trivia. Do not become a busy fool. No-one will thank you.

Try a BB-Free Friday - it will liberate your brain the same way you feel better when you lose your phone. The world can survive without you and you can get on and do some uninterrupted work.


RELEVANT LINKS
Blackberry Stats - blog post
No More To Do Lists - blog post

News From Bath - Woolley Developers Allowed To Do Whatever They Want

Row Over Alpaca Farm Plans in today's Bath Chronicle describes what is happening not just in Bath but all over the UK. If planners are not prepared to uphold legislation (five refused planning applications in this case!) then we are giving a licence to all developers to do as they please on our green belt land.

Read the article then go to www.savewoolleyvalley.co.uk and sign the petition/comment piece.

The Power of Non-Competitive Alliances

Sounds naff but there is an incredible power to creating non-competitive alliances or marketing co-operatives or whatever you want to call them.

Benefits for the partners:

• Combined resources to focus on a market place
  eg share a database
• Combining strengths
  eg sharing each other’s databases
• Combined power
  eg having a sister expert in a different field means that you can offer a fuller service to your client
• Combined events
  eg working together you can run an event for 100 not 20 delegates
• Exposure to potential clients you might not have found
• Enhanced Reputation
  eg choose your partners carefully and your reputation will grow by association
• Enhanced resource
  eg careful use of pro bono/barter arrangements means that your partners can also be your suppliers and vice verse

Benefits for the Clients
An opportunity to deal with a group of like-minded suppliers who are familiar with each others work practices

Thank You!

We do not say “thank you” enough.

Therefore we take people for granted. If people feel taken for granted they become less loyal. Is that what you want?

I don’t know why people don’t say “thank you” so much these days. Maybe it just isn’t cool to be seen to be thankful.

Maybe it shows vulnerability or frailty to acknowledge that you are grateful.

Or maybe the problem is that most words lose their value and their currency with over-use ("nice", "pro-active", "strategy" to name but a few).

Turning the situation around, I am constantly aware of how certain people seem almost incapable of saying "thank you". Why would that be? Maybe they aren’t grateful(?); but their inability to acknowledge my action actually hurts me.

So, when did you last say (and mean) the words “thank you”?

Your kids, partner, staff, customers, suppliers will all appreciate a sincere "thank you".

The cynical may say that I am just trying to put deposit in the emotional bank account (or some similar weasel words) but actually I think that it is just basic common courtesy to acknowledge when someone does something for you.

Thank you for reading my blog

Robert Craven