Success Circuit

Normal People, Living Their Dreams!

Archive: Mar 2009

  1. Time To Twist Your Mind!

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    If you are anything like me then you have probably been doing the same thing everyday for too long. We always read and are told that we need to change our environment to keep the productivity levels high but sometimes this just is not possible. So I have decided to look for unique methods of staying productive. They say that a good way to do this is to change our location, or even just change diet, so it must have something to do with the psychology of our minds. I have heard many people say that human beings in general are more active in their younger years. Most people play more games, which work our minds, when they are young. So the answer is easy, play mind games. Over the weekend I was looking for websites that have very good mind games but do not have anything else to distract my attention away from what I need to do. After a while I found a post from Blogussion which had a link to a very impressive website which is now in my bookmarks.

     

    Games for the brain is a website that currently consists of over 25 different games that successfully challenge the mind. One of the games that I have been struggling with is Chinese Checkers. So far I have been able to get down to 5 pieces, to get that far I made many mistakes. I tried again and got further each time. This is yet another way of proving that it is important to learn from your mistakes, eventually you will make it.

    I have decided from now on to spend about 15 minutes at random intervals in each day playing these mind games and seeing how it will help to improve my productivity. Already I have found that I am getting quicker. Maybe soon I shall try to master Sudoku.. one game that I am currently very bad at!

    This is a very small post but hopefully you will input into it and give these games a try yourself. Also remember that to win the contest you currently need only 22 posts, at maximum, this is not hard at all! Just go through the Time Machine and comment on those that you think you have something valid to say about. Tomorrow is your last day.

    Thank you,

    Shane

  2. Looking Back Through Week 12

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    Today I have more posts for you to read, some are extremely interesting! If you think I would like to read your blog posts, make sure you tell me about them!

    Posts from Success Circuit

    Tuesday  What can I Read? Edition 2

    Wednesday Financial Management – A Key to Successful Business

    Saturday Interview with Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos

    Posts from Elsewhere

    Monday WriterDad.Com – The End of the Rainbow

    Tuesday ChrisBrogan.Com – The Quest to Inspire Action

    Wednesday ProBlogger.Net – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog – Sign Up Here

    Thursday Blogussion.Com – 7 ways to find inspirations for your next blog post!

    Friday Blogtrepreneur.Com – Interview With Yanik Silver

    Saturday SendATweet.Com – How do Twitter Evangelists manage their time?

    Sunday Business-Opportunities.Biz – Manage Your Temper in Work and Out

    Now it is time for me to go and write tomorows post! Please remember to be active in the contest, it ends on Wednesday and all parts of the contest are currently easy to win.

    One last thing… if you write about our contest before Wednesday then you will automatically be entered into the contest.

    Thank you,

    Shane

  3. Interview with Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos

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    Firstly, could you please tell us about yourself? (Who are you, where do you live, what do you do for a living?)zappos_hsieh06

    My bio is here: http://about.zappos.com/meet-our-monkeys/tony-hsieh-ceo

    “Tony originally got involved with Zappos as an advisor and investor in 1999, about 2 months after the company was founded. Over time, Tony ended up spending more and more time with the company because it was both the most fun and the most promising out of all the companies that he was involved with. He eventually joined Zappos full time in 2000. Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service.”

    Who/what is your greatest inspiration in business and life in general?

    I’ve recently be inspired to learn more about the science of happiness. There’s a great book called “The Happiness Hypothesis” that I would highly recommend.

    I recently received your Zappos Culture book, how did you go about making such a big company with so much culture?

    How do you manage to offer such impressive customer service?

    I recently gave a presentation at SXSW Interactive that answers both of these questions. You can find the slides here:

    http://www.slideshare.net/zappos/zappos-sxsw-31409

    And you can find the audio podcast of it here:

    http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/videos_and_podcasts

    Zappos had an annual gross over $1 billion last year, how has this affected you and the people around you? Have you changed, as a person, since you started at Zappos?

    As we’ve grown, our culture has gotten stronger because we make company culture our #1 priority. For me, I feel like I’m always learning something new because the company is constantly growing.

    You were a guest at the Tweetathon 2009, what are your opinions about Social Media?

    I think Twitter is a great way to connect on a more personal level with friends, employees, and customers.

    Have you ever had times where you thought yourself or your business as a failure? If so how did you stop feeling like it? If not how do you keep yourself so optimistic?

    A lot of people are in business to try to make money. If that’s the primary driver, I think it’s pretty hard to do well in the long term. But if instead you’re doing something that you’re so passionate about doing that you’d be happy doing it for 10 years without making any money, I think that you’re much more likely to be successful, and the optimism will come naturally on its own.

    What advice would you give to somebody wanting to start their first business? What was the best advice you have been given?

    Chase the vision and passion, not the money.

  4. Financial Management – A Key to Successful Business

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    In this post, Roland from In Business shares some valuable advice about how to manage your finances, an area that many business owners struggle to succeed in.

    Every business large or small has to be good at managing its finances if it is to succeed. Many very good businesses with a great product and customer service has failed because of failing to give proper attention to the management of its finances.

    A typical way in which this can happen is when a business really grows very quickly.

    Imagine this scenario. You are producing a fantastic product that suddenly everyone seems to want. Orders are pouring in every day. Large chains of supermarkets are banging on your door asking if they can buy from you.

    Now what would happen if you now ordered the materials to produce enough stock. You increase the staff you employ and buy or rent a larger factory. Your outgoings are going through the roof but you think no need to worry as you have those orders! However suppose that those orders are delivered and those lovely supermarkets decide to take a few months to pay you? Your suppliers are now demanding payment and they possibly stop selling you the raw materials you need. Your successful business is now in serious trouble even with a full order book. This scenario has happened many times in the real world and businesses have grown too fast without adequate capital.

    If those business owners and managers had not let their hearts rule their heads they would have looked at the accounts and created accurate cash flow forecasts and quite likely grown the business more slowly and selected the companies that they would supply to carefully with a view to a long term stable relationship.

    One great piece of advice that many have been given over the years is ‘start small and grow big’. Growing is a slow process not one that happens overnight. Let your business build its capital base and never gamble that some bank or other institution will bale you out on the strength of orders if you run out of cash. Cash is King!

    Although it may appear boring financial planning, forecasts, and accounting are the things that will hold your business together and prevent you from failing when you could have succeeded.

    Roland Millward is a mortgage broker based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. He blogs about business at In Business which is one blog you should check regulary! Roland is an amazing person to know, he never stops doing his best, follow him on twitter through @RolandMillward.

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