How To Effectively Solve Any Problem In Your Business, Stress Free, With The Problem Solving Strategy

by Michelle Dale on June 15th 2011

We all have bad days where it feels like everything's going wrong. How do you resolve a problem? We came across this great article and wanted to share it with you.

This Problem Solving Strategy

Whenever I have a problem, I always go through these motions in order to get everything cleared up fast and effectively.

Don’t Get Emotional

First of all you need to look at the problem without emotion, there’s no point in getting all worried, panicked or upset because in actual fact, your emotion is not solving anything, all it’s doing is burning up your energy. If you have to deal with people regarding the problem, you need to stay calm, and not rant, rave, argue or blame. It’s all just BLAH and won’t get you any closer to solving the issue. The quickest way to solve problems is to deal with them rationally rather than emotionally.
Question: Am I in a rational state of mind? If yes, progress on.

Focus On The Actual Problem

You need focus on the problem to start with so you can understand what you need to do – not all the fluff and nonsense surrounding it, because it’s the fluff and nonsense that will cause you to stress out and lose focus. You need to work out how this problem came about, where it stemmed from, what the outcome has been, if there are any further repercussions, and what can actually be done about it. Don’t worry for now about anything else – you need to stay on form and deal with this issue. So focus JUST on the problem itself and understanding it.
Question: Do I fully understand the problem? If yes, progress on.

Know Who Is In Control

The best kind of problems are the ones you can do something about, for example, a client has spotted a mistake in their work, this is something you can rectify ASAP, if you can – do it, whatever it takes. But there are things outside of your control, such as 3rd party systems or technology for example, people who have said things they shouldn’t have, or done something silly and created a problem for you, these things are not in your control, you need to simply accept it and work around the issue to the best of your ability. You can’t ‘do’ anything about things which are not within your control.
Question: Am I completely clear on what I personally am in control of? If yes, progress on.

 

VOWELS – AEIOU

Action, Explain, Inform, Own Up!
Now you need to take action immediately – be productive in doing whatever is in your control regarding the problem. If the problem was caused by you, or is your responsibility, the only option is to own up and be honest about it, but also explain to the people affected what you’re doing to resolve it (or what you have done to resolve it – even better). Resolution is the key to quickly getting problems off your plate, if the resolution is out of your control, you need to explain who is responsible and what you know about what they are doing to resolve it – keep people informed. If it’s absolutely necessary to keep people in the dark, fine, don’t tell them every little detail, be general, but the point is, if the problem may have an impact on their business or work, you have to say something… Them finding out from another source is going to be a million times worse, than coming from you. Once you have taken the action and you have the situation in hand, explain and inform to the people involved what has happened, what is being done, and the outcome and timeline, and if this was your fault, own up to it and apologise.
Question: Have I worked out what action I need to take, and taken it? If yes, progress on.

 

Relax…

The first thing that used to pop into my head with any problem was, “What’s this going to do to my business?” As long as you always do your best, you are honest and give it your all as a business owner, your problems will be few, and the likelihood is that in the grand scheme of things it won’t have a major impact on your business, maybe a minor one at the time, but not to the brink of total destruction. Minor problems soon become yesterday’s news and you’ll wonder why you worried about it in the first place. As long as you can honestly say that you have done everything you can, that’s all you can do. Relax, and periodically monitor the situation and provide updates if it’s not yet finalised.
Question: Have I stopped beating myself up over this and/or know that I have done everything I could? If yes, progress on.

 

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

If my website would go down for the day because of the hosting for example, I would worry about it the whole time unnecessarily. That’s an entire day that I would be terribly unproductive, not really getting anything done, because I was too busy worrying about something that I had no control over – worrying is a total waste of time, and seriously, limit your worrying to times when you actually have something serious to worry about – minor setbacks or issues don’t warrant the stress factor. Now with every problem I have, I will always look to see if there is a way I can prevent it next time, if it’s feasible for me, then I will do it. Last year I invested in a more expensive but super-reliable dedicated server, and ‘touch wood’ I don’t have that issue anymore. Yes it costs me several hundred dollars a month, (I have a lot of systems/sites) but I will happily pay it for peace of mind and elimination of that concern.
Question: Can I now do something to prevent the problem in future? If yes, then do it!

Whenever you have a problem arise in your business, and of course it’s inevitable one day you might, ask yourself these questions and deal with the situation efficiently, go through the strategy for solving the problem, rather than let it burn you out.  You’ll find that your time is better spent getting perspective — then taking action, as opposed to worrying and feeling anxious.

 

Got any problem solving tips or thoughts on this post? Comments welcomed below

What DeNiro Knows About Business That You Don’t

 

From Meet the Fockers to Casino to Limitless, Robert De Niro is one of the most successful actors in the world. The next time you are watching one of his movies, do me a favor and don’t just watch them for pure entertainment, but watch them as a source of education.

Although Mr. De Niro is well known mainly for his acting abilities, you can actually learn a lot about business from his movies as well.

If you don’t believe it, just look at some of his movie quotes…

Don’t Be a Rat
“You learned the two greatest things in life, never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.”

Talking about people or tattle telling on people won’t make you look good in business, it will make you look bad. Unlike your personal life, your business life should be a drama free zone.
If you start gossiping or ratting people out you’ll start to earn a bad reputation and no one will want to hang out with you after hours. And although that may not sound like a big deal to you, a lot of business deals are done outside of the work place.

Emotions Affect Decisions
“People don’t try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.”

It doesn’t matter how logical or tough you are, you have emotions. There is nothing wrong with it, we all have emotions. And just like Mr. De Niro stated, you should try to hide them when doing business because they don’t mix well.

But when you are doing business with other people you need to look deep into their eyes, analyze their body language and figure out what feelings they are trying to hide. If you can figure out the emotions they don’t want to show you, you can then leverage those feelings to close a deal.
Just make sure you aren’t crossing any boundaries when doing this. For example, I would never leverage someone’s family or personal life to close a business deal as it unethical.

Patience is a Virtue
“All good things come to those who wait.”

The reason I have succeeded in business isn’t because I am smart, it’s because I am persistent. I have succeeded because I have been in business for over 10 years.
The first few years are always hard because you’ll make rookie mistakes, but as you continue your entrepreneurial journey you’ll be less likely to make mistakes and sooner or later you’ll start succeeding.

As long as you learn from your mistakes and you are willing to put in a good portion of your life into the business world, sooner or later you’ll do well. My recommendation is that you start as soon as possible as you don’t have too many financial or family obligations when you are 16 or 18 years old.

It’s Better to be the Solution Than the Problem
“Either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution or you’re just part of the landscape.”

If you have an option to be part of the problem, solution, or landscape, which one would you pick? Hopefully you didn’t say landscape because that means you’re not even trying… instead you are just watching everyone pass you by.

If you said problem, that’s also bad because you don’t pay people who cause problems, you pay people who solve them.

Always try to solve people’s problems as you’ll make a lot more money doing so. When you start a business the first thing you should think about is “what problem are you solving.”

You should never start a business because you have a cool idea, instead you should start a business because you know of a problem that enough people have today and how you can solve it in a simple way.

Give a Little Respect
“I don’t give a s*** who he’s connected to. Tell him to take his feet off the table. What’s he think this is, a sawdust joint?”

It doesn’t matter how much money you have or who you are, you should always respect others. Just because you are famous or more successful than someone else, it doesn’t give you the right to treat them wrong.

In the long run when you start respecting the little guy, they will start telling all of their friends about you, and sooner or later more people will want to do business with you.

For example, I was at a conference in London a few years ago and no one wanted to help out this Russian kid who could barely speak English. I took 30 minutes of my time to give him free advice and that same night he told over 10 companies how great I was. One of those companies ended up giving my firm a 1.2 million dollar contract.

Don’t Stiff People

Whether my business is doing well or not, I always figure out a way to pay my employees on time and contractors that I am working with. If you can’t learn how to pay people the money you owe them, how can you expect people to always pay you?

I’ve been stiffed a lot of money and I probably still have a few hundred grand in receivables from companies that will never pay me. I never want to have other people experience that feeling as it isn’t fair to make people work for you and then not pay them.

You Don’t Know Everything
“You haven’t had to climb up all the grease balls. You haven’t been bored blind at fundraiser. You haven’t done the time and that first marriage to the girl with the right father. You think you can leap over all on a single bound. You haven’t had to bribe or charm or threaten your way to the seat at that table. You don’t know how to assess your competition because you haven’t competed. Don’t make me your competition.”

No matter how smart you are, you can always learn more. So the next time you are talking to someone, don’t think you know more than him or her.

One of the best ways to learn is from other people, so when someone doesn’t know the latest stuff that is happening in your world, it doesn’t mean that they can’t teach you anything.

If there is one thing that I wish I could have more of, it’s experience. The more meetings I do, the more problems I run into, the smarter I become because I am always learning from these experiences. Which is why you should never stop learning!

Don’t Fight Fire With Fire
“There’s no way you can be making accusations like that and be walking around alive.”

I’m a big believer in living a peaceful life. I’ve been screwed over multiple times and I never try to pick fights.

The next time you are thinking about burning a bridge or talking negatively about someone, or even picking a fight, just remember that you are better off by keeping your mouth shut and walking away.
You never know how far the other party is willing to go to make your life miserable, so why not just take your tail and put it between your legs. I know it sounds like the sissy thing to do, but in the long run it will pay off. For example I have had someone screw me over and try to pick a fight when it was their fault. I apologized, they forgave me, and a year later they ended up giving me a $240,000 contract.

Conclusion
Robert De Niro isn’t the only actor that you can learn something from, you can literally gain knowledge from everyone. Heck, I even learn new things from my 1-year-old nephew such as you don’t need much in life to be happy.

Stop looking at things just from the surface level, you need to dig deeper.

Article written by Neil Patel on May 26, 2011

Courage Conquers Fear

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

~E.E. Cummings

Relative to the whole scheme of things, your life span could be compared to lighting a candle and immediately blowing it out. In other words, life is short – very short. Missing out on any of the joys life offers is a tragedy.

If your life is being controlled by your fears, you are most certainly cheating yourself.

Courage is the mental muscle that conquers fear. Like all muscles, the more you use them the stronger they become. Courage is not something you are born with, it must be developed. Individuals, who fail to develop courage, remain confined in mental prisons and face each day as mental lightweights.

It has been said if you face the thing you fear, fear leaves you.

For years I believed that courageous individuals had no fear. I was wrong. Eddie Richenbacher put it very well when he said, “There is no courage without fear.” We all have fear, however, not everyone becomes subservient to their fears.

There is, very likely, something you have wanted to do for years – move to another city, start your own business, apply for that better position, go after the big account. Whatever it is you should do it. Remember, life is not a practice run. This is it. A little courage leads to more.

Observe those poor souls who are without courage. They merely tiptoe through life hoping they make it safely to death.

You and I were never meant to live that way. Learn to live the way you like by no longer living as you dislike. Forge into the remainder of your day with an abundance of courage. That’s living!

-Bob Proctor Speaker and Author

Who’s Behind Geisha Affair?

Terri and I were recently asked to contribute to an article featured on Geisha Diaries and we found ourselves asking a few questions that we're sure some of you have pondered: Who's behind Geisha Affair?


**This article has been moved, please click here: http://www.geishadiaries.com/home/2011/3/11/whos-behind-geisha-affair.html

How can I deal with an "impossible" client?

     Terri and I were recently approached by a very well established agency who asked why we alot of the articles we post seem geared more towards "business" or "corporate" America than they do the adult entertainment world. Our answer was simply: being an adult entertainer or a provider IS a business. Just because a topic or article we share was intended for the corporate environment it doesn't meant that there isn't something to learn and apply in our arena.

     Here's an article we came across that not only applied to Executive Luxuries as a business but can be applied by providers.

     We've all dealt with extremely difficult client's and there are times you feel like there's a sign on your forehead that says "if you're crazy, difficult, asshole - I'm your girl!".  This article explains that in every business (corporate or adult entertainment) you'll deal with people that are unpleasant. Some will be reasonable and change their behavior (as best they can) and others you'll just have to walk away from. There are some cases where the money just isn't worth the mental anguish.

How can I deal with an "impossible" client
By Andrew Sobel (09/09/08)

Question

How do I deal with an "impossible" client?

Answer

There are many reasons why a client may come across as "impossible." First, determine if this is truly an impossible client or if the relationship just needs to get put on a better footing. If it's the latter, then you need to conduct a relationship review with the client. Gain a better understanding of the client's expectations for how they would like to work with you, and reaffirm their agenda of key priorities. Talk about how you work with your "best clients." Reiterate what you expect of their organization--what they need to contribute to make the collaboration truly successful.

If the client is a tyrant or otherwise difficult to work with, you have to either confront them with their behavior or simply let the account die of benign neglect. One of my clients told me this story: "We had one of these impossible clients, a CEO who mistreated our people, constantly squeezed our fees, and was otherwise difficult and demanding at every turn. I sat down with him one day and said, candidly: 'Look, I think you should fire us and find another provider. The truth is we've lost a number of young associates from the firm because of the harsh treatment they've received on your account. The relationship isn't very profitable for us, because you've squeezed our fees so much. At times you're unreasonably demanding.' He looked up at me and said, 'Well, I guess I need to tone down my bluster. I figured I'd be called on it eventually.' After that he still was occasionally hard to deal with, but the relationship improved dramatically, and he remained a loyal client of mine for many years. I still stay in touch with the guy."