Succeed Now, Personal & Business Development by Buhle Dlamini

05:45 am | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

Managing Your Business Contacts for Success

As an Entrepreneur your clients are the number one reason why your business is successful, because after all, a business cannot exist without money, and money comes from your customers. So once a customer uses your business, how can you keep them coming back for more? Them secret is simple, keep in contact with them, and give them reasons to come back to your business.

Each business is different, so you will want to look at what will work best for you. Here are a few ways that successful businesses keep in contact with their previous clients:

1) Start a client list.

Unless you record each one of your clients information, you will have no way of getting into contact with them. You can do this a number of ways, from as simple as getting a customer to sign a guestbook, all the way to as complicated as requesting your client to sign up for a newsletter. Once you have a list of clients, you will be able to contact as often as you wish.

2) If add a new product, service, or expand your business is anyway, inform your previous clients first.

You can achieve this a few ways:

-If you have a newsletter, include it in your newsletter.
-Do a mass mailing using postcards, letters, etc
-Call any client that has willing included their phone, but only use this idea if the change would directly relate to them.
-Post the change on your website.

3) Keep an up-to-date a website.

Websites can be accessed by any of your previous clientele, and provide a great link of communication. Not only should you provide information about your business, but you may also want to include information such as tips, and articles. Visit NetID(www.netid.co.za) about getting an affordable and do it yourself website and hosting.

4) Simple: Write thank you notes to your clients.

A handwritten thank you note shows the client that you truly appreciate their business. If a client feels that they are appreciated and welcomed, then chances are they will come back to your business before doing business with one of your competitors.

5) The use of marketing materials can keep you in contact with your clients.

You would be surprised how much impact a simple pen with your logo and phone number can do. Other marketing materials include: magnetic business cards, Key rings, and notepads. These marketing materials are typically fairly inexpensive, and can be ordered in mass quantities.

6) If you do not want to directly ask for contact information, you may need to get a little creative.

One idea is to hold a contest. Require the client to fill out a card with their information, or drop in their business card. Make sure that you tell the clients that you will be contacting them about your services or products(this can be accomplished by writing it on the card, or displaying it near where they have to their business card or information card once they are finished). Give away something that would be of great interest to your type of client, so you can get the maximum number of entries. Change this contest frequently to gain maximum exposure.

7) Discount coupons are a great way to bring your customers back.

Will 10% off hurt your business, especially if it means whether or not you get that client to come back in? You may want to mail these coupons out, or supply a code for use upon checkout if you have an online business.

8) You may want to consider starting a referral system.

A referral program will not only get your previous clients to come back, but it will also help you obtain new clients as well. For example: for each referral, you will give the client a 10 dollar gift card to use in your store. Be careful not to give out cash, as this may or may not be used for products or services for your business.

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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Young & Able is an implementing partner to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com and visit get and stay motivated at www.motivated.co.za

01:25 am | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Career and Business Success- The Grass Is Not Greener

One of the key determinants of your success as a young entrepreneur is commitment. The moment you have started on your venture and are working your way towards carving your niche in the market and developing a brand you often realise that it is not as easy as it looked from the outside. There's the long hours, difficult customers and financial challenges. Yeah trust me it is not a walk in the park. But you know one thing, if you work on your strategy deliver on your promise and stay the course you'll be laughing to the bank someday!

Somewhere along the way we start to look at other opportunities and even start looking at some corporate positions that are there for the taking. The grass to look much greener on the other side, you start to doubt your vision and reasons for doing what you are doing. This is a normal yet dangerous place to be at, because from this angle it is so much easier for you to focus only on the positives from the other side when in reality there are some stinkers on that side too.

The grass is not always greener on the other side, you've gotta mow and water your side to make it greener. It's your grass, you've got to water it and when it seems to grow out of control you have to be disciplined to mow it. No matter where you go the grass is going to need same kind of attention no matter what side you're on. This is the truth we don't want to hear when we are determined to jump ship and run after a new thing, but it is the truth that you have to heed anyway.

So forget the grass on the other side for a while and concentrate on your own turf. Ask yourself some tough questions here:

How can I mow my grass?

This is about being brutally honest about what it is that you need to cut down on. You have regularly trim off the things that are not necessary and often hinder you from going forward. What are some of the bad habits, bad debt, bad customer service trends, bad spending decisions you have made that you have to eliminate in order to go forward. This is a big and difficult step, one that is crucial to your success. If you are to win you need to focus ruthlessly on those things that will make you successful and cut out the rest. If you Mow your grass and do it continuously you will see some amazing results.


How Do I Water My Grass?

The grass only remains green if it is regularly watered. Without water it will go brown and start to wither, the same applies to your business, your career and life. If you do not water your grass don't expect it to be green. There are specific things for each business, each career and indeed each life that are necessary for growth. These are keys to your success, if you do them regularly they will make you wildly successful. Depending on what business you are in these things will differ but you must know what they are. Ask yourself what do I need to do consistently to get and stay at the forefront of my industry. What is it that keeps me fresh and valuable to my clients and my company. Keeping your offering valuable is the key. You only remain successful as long as what you have to offer is valuable to those you're selling it too. Your customers buy value from you, if you work for a company that company needs to get value out you. Identify the value you bring to your customers, improve on it and you will water your grass. It's just that simple.

You should take some time to seriously look at these two simple questions and start changing your life for the better. Trust me, moving to Australia won't change your circumstances, if you're not watering and mowing your grass here you'll have the same dry patch over there. All you'll get is a different set of neighbours and new rugby team. So why not stay and make your business, career and South Africa work? It is up to you.

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<a href="http://youngable.com/home/?page_id=5">Buhle Dlamini</a> is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Buhle is also a consulting Project Manager to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at <a href="http://www.youngable.com">www.youngable.com</a> and visit the membership motivated site at <a href="http://www.motivated.co.za">www.motivated.co.za</a>

03:42 pm | 2 recommendations | 1 comment

The Power Of Clarifying Your Goals

Often when I speak to people about success and personal development, I sense that some individuals doubt what I speak about. Many people are very skeptical of the message that emphasizes the importance setting specific goals and going after them. Most people figure that if you continue to hustle doing whatever you’ve been doing, you’ll someday stumble upon success.

This week I was going through my old documents and I pulled my goals which I set in April of 2004. I had broken my goals into long, mid and short term goals. My long term deadline (3 years) was May of 2007, last month. What a delight it was for me to be able to look at those long term goals and realize I had achieved almost all of those goals I set 3 years ago. These goals were broken into Personal, Business and Education/Career.

These goals were bold, audacious and at the time seemingly out of reach but through the process of clarifying them, I began the journey towards achieving them. Because I clarified these goals for myself, I can look at my progress today and boldly exclaim “I Am Successful”. By clarifying your goals you set your own standards of success and then you go after it.

One of my business goals was that by May 2007 my business – Young & Able cc, which was only a year old then- would be recognized as a major player in Business and Personal Development field. I am to proud to say that this has happened and the bold turnover figure I put down we have surpassed!

Enough about me; what about you? Are you content just waiting for your ship to come in or will you swim out to it. Clarifying your goals is about staking your claim to what you believe is possible for you. It is about saying about saying, I know I have this great potential and focussing on activating within a certain time-frame.

Don’t be like the person who said “I always wanted to be somebody – I wish I had been more specific”. If you don’t clarify for yourself where you want to be 3 years from now, don’t be surprised that you are still in the same place after that time.

Here is my advice from a personal experience that can change your life:

1. Take a piece of paper or a notebook and go to a quiet place, in your garden, park or behind a closed door.
2. Think about what you want for yourself, what will make you happy, what will make you a fulfilled person and what difference you want to make in the world around you.
3. Then start writing your long term (3-years, for older people this is longer) goals, then your mid term goals (1-year) and short term goals (6 months)
4. Divide these goals into 3 areas Personal, Professional/Business and Education/Career. You can do more areas if you want.
5. Ask yourself what your first steps are going to be and commit to doing it. This might mean enrolling for that course, doing some research, getting a mentor and more.
6. Allow these to sink in and refer to them often, once they are in your system you’re on the right track.

Earl Nightingale said “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going…it’s simple as that.”

What do I say? ‘Nough said!

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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Young & Able is also an implementing partner to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com you can also join www.motivated.co.za to get and stay motivated

03:19 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

5 Tips To Being Taken Seriously As A Young Entrepreneur

by Buhle Dlamini

One of the biggest challenges as a young entrepreneur is not being taken seriously by the very people you are trying to do business with. If you are going to succeed in in business you need to learn the skills necessary command a presence and make an impression on your prospects. Apart from the fact that you have developed and are growing a thriving business, others who meet you or want to do business with you don’t really know you. It is then up to you to show up and reveal the real you.

1. Create Great First Impressions

You’ve heard it said over and over again ‘first impressions count’. Well it’s true when I make a presentation I know that the first few minutes are crucial. The people you want to influence use the first few minutes to weigh you up on their scales. If you are found wanting in those first few minutes it becomes even harder to convince them that you can deliver successfully. So how do you create great first impressions? Your grooming is the first hoop to jump through. Neat and presentable is the bare minimum. But you don’t want the bare minimum, you want to catch attention, to wow to say I am here and I want you to know it.

So your grooming has to be great but not over bearing. You need to look at yourself in the mirror and feel comfortable and even proud of yourself. You need to be able to say to yourself ‘Mmmmm you good looking thing’ then you can leave the house. Your grooming also needs to be suitable for the occasion, no point in wearing a evening gown at a cocktail or business presentation.

2. Be Confident and Friendly

Confidence and friendliness is worth more to your business image than all the tea in China. The previous tip should help out with this one, if you are well groomed you walk a little bit taller and carry yourself confidently. But to really be confident you need more than nice clothes, you need preparation. Confident people are prepared people. They have answered potential questions in their heads and they are confident of the answers. Confidence does not mean being cocky either, that is why I have combined confidence with friendliness. Smile and smile genuinely. If you not used to smiling then get practising. Smiles opens doors that clever words can’t. Trust me on this one a smile can win a deal much quicker than a cocky well practised speech can.

3. Clarity About The Value You Bring

The third tip to being taken seriously in business is being very clear about the value you bring to your prospects and clients. This is your unique selling proposition, it’s what sets you apart and will make clients to want to use you over your competition.

To get clarity about this you need to ask yourself ‘what value do I bring to those who use my service or products’ and ‘What difference does my business make to my clients’.

Answer this questions succinctly and clearly then you have narrowed your value proposition. When people ask you what do you do, you need to be able to quickly answer them in the way that excites them about your service/product or makes them think of people who can make use of your business. Nothing is more off putting than an entrepreneur who seems scatter brained about the offering he has for clients.

4. Maintain Professionalism Consistently

As a young entrepreneur you are prone to just want to have fun and monkey around sometimes. That alright as long as you keep that to yourself and partners. No monkeying around when it comes to how you handle business communication, business service delivery and presentation. You should maintain a professional image in your business dealings. From having a clear business card to keeping a professional office it all adds up to how seriously you will be taken. Do not print your own business cards at home with you home printer. It’s tacky, I know, I have done it and have lost business as a result. Rather take people’s information and email them your details as soon as possible. Oh about that email address, try and make sure that it’s to your business name - no 'hotspicy@yahoo.com' or 'men-eater@gmail.com'. This also means you should look at getting a domain for your company and a professional website asap. I think you get the point, once people have met with you they also want to look at your website, your business card and other communication to make a decision about your business.

5. Always Deliver On The Promise

As entrepreneurs we often get it wrong by spending a lot of time and resources on getting the business and not enough on delivering the goods. The only way for people to keep taking you seriously and even giving you referrals is by giving a really good service. Make sure that as much detail goes into the experience created for every customer and you’ll never have issues with people not taking you seriously. So there you are go make money and tons of it despite or inspite of your age!

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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Buhle is also a consulting Project Manager to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com and visit the membership motivated site at www.motivated.co.za

04:56 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Get Lucky- The Art Of Creating Your Own Luck

    One of the exciting books I have read in recent years is “Lucky or Smart” by Bo Peabody, a successful entrepreneur who made a lot of money by starting several businesses that he sold and made him rich. In the book he looks at why he became so successful, was it luck or was it his ingenuity? He admits it was a bit of both but mostly luck which he created as he went along.

    We often hear people saying that to succeed we need to be creating our own luck. Sounds great, but does one actually go about doing that. And hey isn’t luck all about chance anyway? Well if that is so, how can some people be repeatedly lucky in different areas of their lives while others hit the dead end? There must be something that these lucky people keep doing that makes them lucky more often than not. Wouldn’t you want to be one of them instead of just observing from the distance?

    If you are serious about creating your own luck as you go along then you need to consider the art of creating your own luck. Let’s take a look at what lucky people do consistently to set themselves apart from the herd:

•    Take The Plunge- Seize Opportunities

Lucky people take the plunge while others dither and tap dance on the edge of opportunity. Every single day we are presented with opportunities to do things that could easily lead to other bigger, better things. But, because many of us undermine or completely neglect these opportunities of chance, we rarely ever see where the rabbit hole leads. We continue on with our merry little lives avoiding anything out of the ordinary instead of looking for a chance to do something or go somewhere different. If you ask the so-called lucky people what brought about their lucky break you’ll often hear them say things like: “I just happened to be talking to this stranger who turned out to be so-and-so and the rest is history”.  Opportunities are created out of chance meetings, chance conversations that turn out to be vital in roads to something bigger.

People who create their own luck often take a plunge in starting businesses that seem like a big risk. They attend functions where they might meet people who hold a key to their luck. They often talk to strangers or risk humiliating themselves, which they often do, but the newspapers only capture the moment of their luck/breakthrough.

You can choose to be one of the lucky people by deciding to take the plunge more often in your life. Not all the plunges you take will lead to great opportunities but the more often you do it the more likely you’ll hit the mark. Decide to take more opportunities that come your way to do something different, something a little risky and see what happens to your luck factor.

The best definition of luck is "luck occurs when preparedness meets opportunity"

•    Play Your Strong Cards.

Know your strengths and try to use them. Know your weakness and try to avoid having to use them. Most of us spend our time trying to improve on our weaknesses instead of perfecting our strengths. At school if we were bad I math but good at everything else, we were encouraged to spend more time on Math. This kind of thinking has left many of us average because we do not have any area that we really excel in. If you really want to create your own luck you need to start focusing on your strong cards. Don’t pretend to have strengths that you don’t have. You can develop strengths and overcome weaknesses. But make sure you identify your specific skills, aptitudes, knowledge, and contacts and use them wherever you can. This will increase you chances of getting lucky.

As you develop and play to your strengths your reputation spreads as well. When I decided to develop my strengths as a communicator it wasn’t long before people were referring me to perfect strangers and people I probably would never have met.  When you play to your strengths and excel you open up opportunities for yourself that remain closed who are happy with being average.

•    Give More Than You Take.

Stingy people constitute of the unluckiest bunch around. If you want to attract lucky people to your life and business, you need to be prepared to give. You need to go the extra mile for others without worrying too much about keeping score. In my experience the old saying “what goes around comes around” is definitely true in business and in life and “it” comes around when you least expect it believe me. The Bible is not mistaken when it says, “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” When you constantly look for ways to give to others instead of taking, you’ll be amazed at how much you get as a result.

There are many ways to give: Give more compliments than you receive; give more value than what you are paid, give a little expect a little, give more expect more. The hand that is already full cannot receive anymore but the hand that is able releases easily also receives easily. Consider some ways you can give more than you take to those around you. If all you do is take from others you quickly become someone that others avoid. If you never pay for the coffee when invited by friends to coffee, your invitations become fewer.

So are you ready to create your own luck?  The art of creating your own luck becomes easier the more you practice it. When the above become part of your everyday life you’ll start hearing people talk about how lucky you are and they’ll be right. So take every opportunity to get lucky, no one is going give you piece of good fortune; you’ve got to create it yourself.

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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Buhle is also a consulting Project Manager to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com

11:48 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Achieving More With Less

The Key To Balance and Success
By Buhle Dlamini

“It is not necessary to do extraordinary things in order to get extra ordinary results.”
-    Warren Buffet

     In the last four days I have touched down in Dakar Senegal, Dallas Texas, Chicago Illinois and now I am in New York City.  In the years gone by that would have been impossible let alone being affordable. With the advent of air travel what used to be a long, tedious and costly process of getting from one place to another became a breeze, literally. Technology has shown one in so many areas of our modern lives how to achieve more with less. Sadly even with all the evidence that stares us in the face about achieving more with less being a real possibility many of us are not using this to our advantage.

     We all desire some measure of success in our work and life but often we believe that the price we have to pay for it is just too much for us. This may be very well true if we continue to hold on to the belief that in order to achieve more in business, life and work you need to do more. This conventional wisdom is what keeps so many stuck from ever achieving a real measure of success in their lives.

     Warren Buffet spells it out in the quote I shared at the beginning of this article, that you don’t need to do extraordinary things or be extraordinary to achieve great results. I listen to him because he has proven this very point over and over in his life. If you are not aware, Warren Buffet is now the third richest man in the world after Carlos Slim and Bill Gates. Warren Buffet is worth in the excess of 50 Billion US Dollars (not Zim Dollars) and gave away to charity about 30 Billion making history in the process. Now most of us when we hear about that kind of money we imagine someone like him having slaved hard for most of his life to get there. The reality is that he didn’t and if we are serious about success we need to take a leaf out of his book.

The 80/20 Principle

    Richard Koch wrote a book called ‘Living the 80/20 Way’. In this book he explains the 80/20 principle, which basically states that 80% of our efforts give us 20% of the results and vice versa. Many of us unfortunately live 80% effort side of life ad only get 20% of the results we desire. We are often so busy being busy that we don’t realize that all our busyness is only giving us a trickle of the kind of results we’re looking for in life.

     If we are going to achieve the kind of success that we desire a mind shift is important. We need to stop looking for the hardest route to our success and get into the habit of looking for ways of achieving more with less. Often we hear about people who take very few calculated steps and achieve much more than the rest of us. The difference between them and us is that they understand this principle and they make it work for them every time and yielding great results.


     If you are tired of working hard but not getting the results you desire take time to creating your roadmap to achieving more with less. Let us look at what you need to look at in achieving more with less:

1.    Be Clear About The Results You Seek

     ‘Begin with the end in mind’ is a phrase we have heard before but it is still relevant today if not more. What is the end result you seek in your business, relationships, finances, career and life? Becoming clear on the results helps you to chart your course to them. So when you get up in the morning ask yourself what do I want to achieve today? As you get to work ask yourself the same question, what do I want to achieve in my work today? As you handle your finances ask- what do I want to achieve financially? As you become clearer about the results you seek you engage in the process of being results driven as opposed to working for the sake of working. When you know the kind of results you seek you will automatically eliminate unnecessary activities. It will change the way you do things and often it will make your job much easier.

2.    Discover Your 20/80 Route

    Now that you know what you want achieve, why not look at what is the shortest route to achieving the end result. It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Now let us look at your current work and life. Has your current way of living and working given you the kind of results you are looking for in the important areas of your life? If not, then start drafting a different route to take you to your desired results. What can you change in your work and life that will be the shortest route to achieving your desired goals? This might mean that in your work you have to make a list of 20% of activities that give you 80% of your desired results. Once you have compiled your list start focusing on only doing these activities because they are your key to achieving more with less.

   Let me give you a practical example: in your finances, the best way to get more money with the least amount of work is investing. By investing you get your money to work for you instead of you working for money. But the problem is that many of us don’t enough money to start really seeing the benefits of investing. So most of us just dream about having more money and continue trading our time for a trickle of money that barely sees us from month to month. If you want to start achieving more with the less you have there are a few steps you need to take. First, educate yourself about different ways of investing; a book or a workshop on investing will take a long way towards getting the kind of knowledge you need to start investing. Secondly, once you know about your investment options, you might need to start saving a portion of what you are currently getting to get you to the point where you can start investing seriously. Usually you need between R8 000 and R10 000  to start investing for good returns. From then on you follow simple calculated steps and are now on the road to financial freedom. This will enable you to achieve more with less in the financial area of your life.


3.    Manage Your Focus

     If you are like many people I know you have spent a lot of time and money on trying to improve your time management skills. I have been one of the victims of the time management craze. Because of our lack of focus on the right things and our misunderstanding of the 80/20 principle, many of us are taking courses on how we can cram more into our workdays. We pay good money to learn how we can beat the clock in our crazed running around while achieving little or nothing to be proud of. I say to you forget time management. YOU CANNOT MANAGE TIME!!! Time is continuous; nobody gets a better share of time, we all get 24 hours in a day. The Millionaire and a beggar on the street corner both get the same 24 hours in a day, what sets them apart is what they focus on in  those 24 hours. So I strongly suggest that you start focus management instead of time management. If you manage what you focus on you will start to achieve more with less.

     So there it is, you already have in you everything you need to succeed in life the key is getting rid of some of the myths you hold. You don’t need to be extraordinary to succeed. You don’t need to work extra hard to succeed. You don’t need to have a ton of money to succeed. Start utilizing the little you have to achieve more right now. Cheers, I am off to the Time Square, New York is AMAZING!

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Buhle Dlamini is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Writer as well as the Founder of Young & Able Youth Advisory Services cc, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Buhle is also a consulting Project Manager to Heartlines a values-based Mass Media Initiative. Get Buhle’s FREE monthly Success Newsletter by visiting his website at www.youngable.com