Tag Archives: Business Strategy

A company has a board of directors, so why shouldn’t you?

June 18, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Some of us run large companies and others run micro-companies. My friend claimed that I was a CEO of a tech company. I argued that I was an Entrepreneur with one full-time person helping me and a few freelancers. I see my company as more of a marketing company that is based on a website which is technical by definition. So, perhaps my business is marketing / tech combined. But, putting aside whether I am a small enterprise or a huge corporation, the idea of a board of directors is an interesting one to ponder, so let me pontificate!

Issues with a board
Putting aside whether having a board of directors is a good idea for an entrepreneur, it makes a great topic for a blog article. You could even write multiple blogs on the topic as your experience with a board develops — you can’t get bored with the concept of a board! The main issues is that very few people will understand the technology, analytics, or daily procedures and issues that my business faces. However, if I talk a smart person through my issues, they might be able to offer valuable ideas.

Others do not understand the technology my business uses – but, they might understand people
I know my business inside out. I don’t understand programming, but I outsource people to help me with that. The issue I have with programmers is finding people who will be reliable and not cheat which is almost impossible. So, the issue I have is not technical, and remains constant with the ever-changing technology as human beings are generally unreliable! I don’t need a mentor or board member to understand the technology I use, but to understand how to deal with people.

Others don’t understand the analytics I use, but they need to understand strategy
I don’t need others to understand the marketing analytics of my business as I already have a handle on that. I need them to understand strategy. If they can think of or assess ideas regarding long term business strategy, that could change the course of my business. Or they might think of something that I would never think of that could be the magic idea that could change my life forever.

Getting multiple people together is impossible
I cannot afford to pay people big bucks to attend meetings. Any meeting I would have would be one on one and possibly over the phone. I like the idea of having four or six people be on my board. I could be the tie-breaker or the swing vote. That way we would have a diversity of ideas, and an evenhanded way of originating, discussing, evaluating and choosing ideas. It might be complicated doing this entire process one by one, but you never know.

The Solution
Don’t laugh. I’m going to do this tomorrow. I work with a psychic who is strong in a variety of uncommon but useful skills. He understands past life regression, channeling, and spirit communication. The problem is that the people who I want to channel are living, so we can’t talk to their departed spirit. My psychic says that he can tap into the consciousness of a living person and get answers to questions in a reliable way. We are going to channel some of the best business minds and management teams in human history like Warren Buffet, Toyota, Google, Coca Cola, Wells Fargo, and more. It sounds far out, but I have been working with this guy for almost a decade and he is really helpful. Part two of this article will be about what we found out!

Secrecy as a business strategy

August 8, 2012 by admin
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

How good is secrecy as a business strategy?

I noticed that many business owners I know are very secretive.  There are many things they can’t tell me, and other things that they won’t disclose until a later date.  Many people think that if you tell them too much, you will expose your business secrets and lose a lot.  Many people think that when you go for a business lunch or coffee that you should keep the conversation very limited and hide a lot of information. One company refused to give me any information as to how they operated and asked me to read their FAQ page which also had very little information.  So, is it good or bad to conceal information?

The Feng Shui School example

My best example of this topic is of my Feng Shui teacher.  This teacher was one of the world’s foremost experts in his field, but also a good businessman.  By the way, The ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui, is a topic I love to write about, and it concerns how your building and natural (or unnatural) environment effect your health, life, and business.  This teacher told us how one of those “other” teachers gave out all of his feng shui secrets in the first two lessons, and nobody came back for the third lesson.  So, my Feng Shui teacher decided to only give out a few secrets per class, and really go into detail about his personal experiences analyzing charts of particular houses and businesses who had particular attributes that corresonded to those particular secrets or shall we say, “rules”. In any case, he devised a system where there was class one weekend per month, and you could keep coming back for two years, and then take the entire seminar series all over again to deepen your knowledge.  His school was booming.  The only flaw in his system was that my questions were not adequately answered, and the solution offered was for me to wait a year and retake the particular class I didn’t understand at great expense.  I said good bye.  This strategy of giving out secrets a little bit at a time is very culturally Chinese — fast enough for some — too slow for many.

Giving secrets as a way of developing trust

The business world revolves around trust — or the lack of it.  People give big money to those they trust, but nobody trusts a stranger or a crook.  Knowledge is hard to find, so people like to associate with those who give them knowledge.  If I want to attract a client, my strategy is to solve their problems, and then I will win them over.  People come to me with a question, and I will try to give them an answer that is much better than they expected.  Then, I invite them to email me if they have any more needs.  People love this, and then are very willing to spend money buying a place on my directory.  So, giving out precious knowledge can get you huge returns and helps build lasting relationships.

Giving out secrets helps — but, how many secrets is the right amount?

If you are too secretive, people might not trust you.  In my experience, companies that have secrets, often are hiding a lot of information. I have never had a good experience with companies or groups that systematically keep me in the dark in regards to critical information.  But, if you give out TOO MUCH valuable information to someone, they could steal your business secrets and use them against you.  In my experience, giving valuable information to others will get YOU ahead as much as it gets the recipient.  Just don’t give them any information which could result in them putting you out of business or directly competing against you.  You always have to keep some of your secrets to yourself no matter how generous you are!

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