Higher Authority Angle

My company loaned one of our contractors several thousand dollars recently. He was going through some tough times so we helped him out. Several weeks later after he closed on an equity line, we expected to get paid back promptly. After a couple weeks, our renovation manager that communicates with the contractor kept getting the “check book for the equity line hasn’t come in yet so I can’t pay you” excuse. I told our renovation manager to let me call the contractor and see what I could do. This is where the higher authority angle came in.

I called our contractor and told him how familiar I was with equity lines. I let him know that if he simply placed a couple calls, he could access the money somehow without having to wait for a checkbook to come in the mail. I also told him that we expected to get paid by Friday (it was Wednesday at the time).

When a higher authority figure enters a situation, the person with whom you have to deal with will generally get a feeling of importance. They feel more appreciated. They become disarmed and will agree to a reasonable outcome to whatever problem you may be having.

When you come across a terribly difficult person to deal with, do the best you can, cut your losses, and move on.

The Democratization of Information

“…millions of people are changing their habits when it comes to information acquisition. This has happened many times before: with the appearance of the printing press, then the telegraph, the telephone, radio, television, and internet.”

That is what Hugh Hewitt had to say in his book “Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World.” Information has been controlled throughout the ages by kings and queens, pharos, chiefs, popes and presidents. Until now!

As Hewitt said in his book, “The power of the elites to determine what was news via a tightly controlled dissemination system is shattered. The ability and authority to distribute text is now truly democratized.”

Hewitt’s book is an entertaining and eye opening look into what “new media” is all about. Enjoy.

Save Yourself Some Time, "Go Negative"

I was on the phone the other day with a brand new tenant buyer that is moving into one of our properties. She was calling again to complain about some repair work that was not done to her satisfaction and her general dissatisfaction with her experience with our company so far. As I was explaining to her that the house was not brand new and that what she wanted was not on our scope of work, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to "go negative."

I interrupted her rant and said, "You know what, if you are this upset with the way we do business and the condition of the house, we should part ways and not do business together. We want the people that we work with to be raving fans. We will gladly refund your money."

It is amazing how this simple technique will immediately separate the people you want to work with from (as Dan Kennedy would say) the time vampires. She quickly retorted, "Well, these are very minor details that we can work out..."

I was able to diffuse her attack by "going negative." It may sound counter intuitive, but trust me, it works! The people that part ways are nothing more than time vampires disguised as potential clients. You just saved yourself some time.

Googled Yourself Lately?

It's not necessarily an ego thing but a smart business move. Check out what Seth Godin had to say in his blog post titled "The first thing to do this year."

Generation We

Iconoculture, a company that tracks consumer trends for consumer giants like Sony, has dubbed kids under the age of 11 "Generation We." With an estimated buying power of 18 billion, entrepreneurs are turning their attention to this segment of the market. Never having known a world without the Internet, these children are consuming information in a very different way. These little opinionated tech savvy consumers are not responding to traditional media.

Opportunity awaits the proactive businessman. Being a pioneer marketer to this group could put you well ahead of the competition.

Virtual Phone System

We just changed our business phone system to a company called RingCentral. It is a virtual phone system for professionals and small businesses. We have a toll free 800 number that is used as our phone and fax. When someone calls, we set up a message that allows people to choose from seven different extensions depending on their question. On the backside of the system, you control how the call gets routed when someone presses a particular extension. If you want it to go straight to voicemail (like me), you can set it up that way. The voice mail is emailed to whatever email address you want in a WAV file. You can have each extension forwarded to a different phone # and each voice mail emailed to a different email address. Faxes arrive via email in a PDF. There are other functions that RingCentral offers, we are just in the beginning phases of learning to use this business tool to its fullest.

And guess what...all this for the low price of $29.99.

"Close the File" Technique

If you are in sales, you have most likely had some kind of experience that correlates to the following scenario:

You're in a sales appointment. Your putting on your dog and pony show. The prospect is positive, and you think you've got the sale in the bag. You finish your presentation with a grin of accomplishment and low and behold the client says, "I'm going to think it over. I'll get back to you next week." And now the game begins.

You follow up with them, and they ask you to follow up with them in a month. This pattern repeats itself until finally, the "potential client" just doesn't call back. You spend more time thinking about how great that appointment went and continue to leave unreturned messages.

All the while, you're the busy guy who justifies how good of a salesman he is by the number of "Maybes" he is following up with.

Next time you get a "Let me think it over" just say, "I appreciate your time so far. It doesn't look like we are going to be a fit. I am going to go ahead and close the file. Thanks though!"

You have just saved yourself from a state of prolonged self delusion. The tire kickers have been unmasked, and the procrastinators have been put on the spot. You have taken back control. Make sure you are playing by your rules, not by theirs!

Drowning in Minutia

A couple months ago, it was brought to my attention that we may not be utilizing QuickBooks to its potential for our business. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

Since the inception of our business, I have built elaborate Excel spreadsheets to track our individual property expenses, tenant income records, and investor loan records. I also had come across a real estate investor course (specifically geared towards setting up QuickBooks for our specific business model) that I thoughtfully placed on a shelf to collect dust for a couple years.

Finally, after enough frustration with the way we were set up by our accountant, I hired someone to read the course. It was implemented so we could start the year on our new accounting system. QuickBooks is now set up so that it tracks everything for us that I used to input into Excel manually. Between myself and my assistant, this will save us from a monotonous 4 to 6 hours per week of inputting data. Not included in those #'s is the time spent just thinking about not wanting to do it.

In the age of the Internet, there are so many quality programs and systems that can save both time and money. It's realizing that other ways of getting things done are out there that is difficult to see sometime.

What do you spend time doing in your business right now that could be handled more efficiently through the utilization of software?