Tag: business - Page 17

June is not for the faint hearted. Not only are business owners like me trying to get last minutes sales in to boost our financial performance, we are also trying to ensure that we take advantage of any tax breaks that may come our way thanks to the Australian Taxation Department. Sadly for me, I am not part of the criteria for the asset tax break of $20,000, but I am sure there are a few other areas that our accounting department can take advantage of.

I've recently changed the narrative of my business. It's not something I took lightly. Re-defining what value you provide to the market place can be game-changing, or business destroying. 

If you look at Uber for instance, they could have failed, but yet they succeeded. Is it sustainable? Most probably. Is it worth the market value associated with the business? Not really. Did they not only change their original narrative, but create a new narrative for the entire industry - disruptive in design?

It's known as the 'Kardashian Effect and is described by the Urban Dictionary as “The practice of caring about D list celebrities who have no talent and contribute nothing to society.” At first glance that may seem correct when talking about Kim Kardshaina, but look a little deeper and it couldn't be further from the truth.

There is another more positive way at looking at the Kardashian phenomenon, and that is to examine what the Kardashians did to build their image empire.  

18 months ago, I decided to employ my niece who was 18 at the time, to work at the Marketing Eye Sydney office.

This is not a decision I took lightly and I spent a lot of time thinking it through. I decided that given how young she is, I would have her answer the phone and do administrative duties with the hope she would show aptitude for an area of the business, and we could further train her.

Failure is inevitable and is something that is mostly out of our control. After all, who actually sets out to fail? I don't. But it happens, a little more often than I would personally like.

I fail at so many things; staying true to walking my dog each day, keeping 100% of employees engaged all the time, communicating the value proposition of our business when we have severely overserviced a client and it has then become an expectation, keeping a timesheet, and letting go.

My biggest failure 

I have been back in Australia for a week and it really has been an incredible experience in so many ways.

I feel more "entrepreneurial" than at any point in the past 12-months which is hard to believe given that Marketing Eye continues to grow, innovate, expand and further cement its position as a world-leading SMB marketing company and this journey is something that I live with every single day.

The sharks were circling. Their prey nervous. Beads of sweat popping and streaking. Hands raised to wipe their brow.  Vocal chords faltering. Knees buckling under pressure. Sensing weakness the sharks go in for the kill.

That’s the basic principle of a television show called Shark Tank and the show on which it is based Dragon's Den. Shark Tank has just started airing in Australia and has been running in the US since 2009. The Sharks comprise of four entrepreneurs, with a combined wealth of somewhere in the billions of dollars who must judge the business presentations of ‘wanna-be’ entrepreneurs.

Never die wondering. It's not just what I say, its what most people would say, even you, had you not been so afraid to take the risk.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of people coming to me for advice, and then never doing anything about it. I am not talking about coming to me for advice and not following my advice. I am talking about coming to me with an idea, and never executing it, mostly due to fear of failure.

I am an average guitar player. Sometimes I think I should have played the piano. I have an ear for piano, I can pick up any melody and start banging the keys and music miraculously fills the air. With the guitar on the other hand, I can play when sheet music is put in front of me. I can learn to play songs, but I can’t play by ear.

I guess that is something to do with the way my brain is wired. I am not the front man, rock star I thought I could be when I first had guitar lessons. I’m more the guy who sits behind the piano, fully integrated into the sounds being made and lost in the full force of the music.

I cannot describe enthusiastically enough how excited I am to be in Melbourne today, the 12th day of January.

Still calling hotels my home, but albeit for only a short time more, I woke up excited for what the day will bring. Today, I will re-engage with my Australian team and work together with them to build Marketing Eye in Australia by 40 percent over the next 12 months. We have everything in place ready to go - and its incredibly motivating.