heartharmony.com.au

Just to prove that you don’t have to be all sweetness, light and positive in your approach to make money, despair.com is re-inventing the motivation niche.

It started as a parody on all those motivational posters that litter workplaces (and yes as HR Manager I was guilty of buying them also). It then progressed into t-shirts, coffee mugs and videos.

So what sort of thing can you find on despair.com?

Tradition - Just because you’ve always done it doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.

Mistakes - It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Meetings - None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Challenges - I expected times like this - but I never thought they’d be so bad, so long, and so frequent.

Me … I prefer the positive approach, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for cynicism. Are you ignoring potential markets?

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Today I was checking out back issues of The Modern Goddess Blog and came across this You Tube Video. Apparently it was made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indian independence - to inspire people to discover their hidden talents and apply them to the bigger good of India.

This is a great video with some solid messages for all businesses:

• If you come across a block you need to take action.
  
• You don’t need to be the “boss” to take action as leadership comes from all levels of the organisation.
  
• By working together all obstacles can be overcome.
  

Enjoy!

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

In business, forming an alliance with another company that has a similar client base to yourself can be highly profitable. The latest alliance to hit the news is Weight Watchers and Myer.

Weight Watchers is opening two concession stores in Myer Roselands and Knox City, that if profitable will expand across Australia. It will be interesting to watch the development of this alliance to observe how it is approached, what marketing is put in place and the results. Small business can learn a lot from the “big end of town” with these types of trials.

Have a think about what types of businesses work with the same sort of customer base as you do. What can you do to form an alliance with those sort of businesses?

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Modern business etiquette can be a challenge which is why I love this website. http://www.videojug.com/tag/modern-manners. It has all your current dilemmas solved on video from business card etiquette to appropriate workplace and networking etiquette. It also has a great section on giving speeches as well as communication tips.

However, my personal favourite video is totally outside the business section and in the Party Etiquette section. It is Dance Moves - an emergency guide for men and is designed to help guys learn how to dance and not make a forthcoming edition of Funniest Home Videos in the process.

Thanks to Mydayoff.com.au for finding this site for me!

Happy browsing!

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Today I decided to try the newly installed self-serve check-outs at Woolworth’s for my fortnightly shop. I had great experiences at the self-serve at Big W, so was optimistic the Woolworths system would be be as simple to use.

Big disappointment! You first need a human to key you into the system (sort of defeats the purpose) at our supermarket. If you use your own green bags you totally confuse the machine, so every bag you add and remove means another human visit to swipe their card in and key your green bag into the system. I gather their is a tiny button on the first screen to use your own bags that will reduce this hassle, as our friendly assistant told us when we were half way through scanning.

The technology is slower than returning library books - beep - wait - wait - wait - put it in your bag. If you move something from one bag to another in packing you need a human to recalibrate the system, if the item is too heavy for the scales under the bag (think of cans of soft drink or dog food) another visit from the human.

If you move too fast - another visit from the human. If you take the bag off the scales a second before you get your three green lights as ready to move (another few seconds delay) and another human visit. They have built in so many layers to reduce shoplifting that the system is slow and cumbersome.

The only place to put filled bags is on the floor for everyone to trip over unless you are in the know and bring your own empty trolley with you to fill.

Ever had the idea that it would actually be faster and easier just going through the checkouts with humans on them? As someone who embraces their inner nerd and detests grocery shopping I was really hopeful that this would save time. Not with this round of software Woolies.

Reading all the media releases suggests Woolies only really wants people with one or two items to use the self-serve and those with bigger shops to go through the ones with personnel on them. They have achieved their goal. I am going back to the old fashioned method until they bring out V2 of the software. That of course is until I can find a company where I can do my full shop on-line at a good price which means I can avoid supermarkets all together (ah bliss!).

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Here is a brilliant concept for freelancers and self employed people. The trend overseas is to share office space and facilities such as meeting rooms, faxes, printing and filing on a low fee basis. Nothing too new so far.

What Cubes and Crayons do is add in a childcare centre, where the freelancer or self employed person can book their kids in full-time, part-time or casually while they use the shared office space. People pay a membership fee to join and then pay for child care as needed.

Unfortunately Cubes and Crayons are only in the California, but what a great concept! It is looking at the trend of home based businesses and adding value to that niche through fulfilling services that can’t be easily found from home. Some enterprising person needs to trial the idea in Australia.

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

My colleague Dean Bleasdale posted on his blog 10 new rules for a 21st Century business. They are a great summary of things to do to achieve maximum personal productivity.

What other rules do you think need to be added?

exuberantly yours

Ingrid
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Many small businesses try and fit in with what the “big boys” are doing. They work hard at adopting the same attitudes, approaches and strategies. But what if the big boys have got it wrong (or at least got it wrong for some largish niches within the industry).

Anne from Beauty Banquet talked about the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” and how the movie is very true to life in the beauty industry. Unless you wear the right labels, drive the right car and are seen in the right places you don’t fit in.

But what about the large bulk of women whose budget is more at the Target/K-mart end of the spectrum? Target has recently started embracing the concept of labels for budget conscious people and are reaping the financial rewards. They very rightly saw a niche that wasn’t being served - and promptly set out to fill it.

Anne is an image consultant that doesn’t blink at adding in Millers clothes to your range if appropriate - a great niche. Another colleage of mine Margaret Sims specialises in image for over 45. Both have chosen smaller niche’s that were not being serviced within a larger niche.

Many small businesses can fill the niches the big boys leave behind - and make tidy profits as a result. What is your small business niche?

exuberantly yours

Ingrid
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

• 19:02 Loving Java - my home page is looking funky with the new video! #

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On 14 May this year Bill Gates unveiled the future of whiteboards. Most people who have been to my office know I can’t function without a whiteboard as I love the interactivity and immediacy of a whiteboard. It is one of the best tools we can use to help sort out precise word flow for someone looking for a tag line or vision statement - as people can get intimately involved in the process.

This advance is quite an exciting step forward. It reflects the trend of blending technology with the human touch factor - making technology easier to use. You don’t need to push buttons or use special tools - just use your fingers.

It is still at prototype phase and a few years off production - but Bill, my order is waiting for when it is released on the market!

For your products - how can you increase the human touch factor? How can you build ways for people to physically interact with your product rather than just observe?

exuberantly yours

Ingrid
Heart Harmony

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