Team Management

Systematic Inventive Thinking: How To Facilitate Rapid Cycles of Idea Generation and Solve Complex Problems

June 18, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Systematic inventive thinking (SIT) produces an incredible outcome when used for idea generation and problem solving. Leading companies such as Tesla, Amazon and Apple use this strategy to outperform their competition on a consistent basis.

Systematic inventive thinking is changing the way companies create value. Over the last decade, this new thinking methodology has been allowing creativity to take the center stage.

You might be thinking, why not look to my customers for guidance?

Despite what experts have to say, corporate decisions should not be based solely on customer feedback. After all, customers are just looking for an incredible product or service at a great price.

A recent publication by Jacob Goldenberg at Harvard Business Review states: “Marketers will tell you that the best sources of new product ideas are customers, both current and potential. However, we’re seeing that customers lack the imagination to envision innovative products that address their emerging, or even existing needs or desires.”

So, in order to be truly original and innovative, you’ll have to brainstorm without any restraints. The more ideas on the table, the better. This unique approach helps companies break away from their normal patterns of thinking and come up with great ideas. These ideas are then translated into actions, which then lead to results.

When these ideas are applied to the SIT Formula, amazing things happen.

This formula contains five thinking techniques that marketers have used for many years. It attends to all aspects of an organization’s innovation strategy – from acquiring skills all the way to piloting and deploying new business models.

Before we go over these techniques, let’s cover the correlation between idea generation and problem solving.

The Correlation Between Idea Generation and Problem Solving

Einstein famously said, “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

Idea generation is a procedure by which a company identifies solutions for any number of difficult challenges.

This is the time to brainstorm with no restraint – make analogies to things that have nothing to do with your product, services or processes; stretch as far as possible to reach a breakthrough idea.

Your next breakthrough idea is right around the corner. Click To Tweet

When you come up with many ideas at once, it’s impossible not to get closer to the solution you are looking for. However, it’s crucial that you follow the appropriate guidelines to ensure that you don’t waste your time generating useless information.

Whenever you are facing uncertainty, it’s essential that you have a structured thinking process to guide you. The most successful companies in the world follow three rules when brainstorming:

#1: They work inside a familiar niche.

#2: They generate solutions that are independent of any specific problem.

#3: They use the five techniques of SIT.

Out of the three rules above, Rule #3 is the most important. These techniques are embedded in the products and services you see every day. With their help, you will be able to generate ideas that directly reflect your organization’s goals.

The five techniques are:

Subtraction
Task Unification
Multiplication
Division
Attribute Dependency

With these techniques, there is plenty of room for improvisation. But, as with any art or form, you need to master the basics first. In this article, we will cover how these five techniques may be applied to systematic inventive thinking.

1. Subtraction

Innovative products and services tend to, with time, lose a certain function. This could be an element of the system that seemed essential for identifying a new value or benefit.

Here, you are not creating new ideas. Instead, you are working backward to imagine what benefits there are in using only the existing features.

Here is a five-step formula to apply subtraction to systematic inventive learning:

1. List Out Every Internal Component of Your Product or Service

If you are working with a product, list every single component, and its function. If you are working with a service, make note of every function it performs.

2. Imagine What Would Happen if You Removed One

You could either remove an entire component or remove a piece. Either way, think about what would happen if it was no longer there.

3. Visualize the Result – Even if It Seems Strange

It’s always a good idea to visualize the final result. Even if it seems far fetched, it never hurts to see your product or service from a different angle.

4. What are the Potential Benefits and Added Value?

Who would want this new product or service, and how could it help them? What are the benefits of this revised concept?

5. Is this New Idea Feasible?

Can you actually create this new product or service – why or why not? Is there any way to refine the idea to make it more adaptable?

By applying this five-step formula to your business, you will be able to innovate on demand. New ideas, solutions, and theories will overflow your meeting room.

Application of Subtraction: Amazon

A company that took advantage of subtraction to reap great rewards is Amazon.

Amazon is a household name in today’s world of online shopping, and its innovative efforts do not stop short of brick-and-mortar retail.

In 2018, Amazon unveiled one of its newest creations called Amazon Go. Using its walkout technology, Amazon removed the need for checkout lines and registers from the shopping experience.

With the help of the app, buyers can walk into the store, select the items they want off the shelf, and walk out. The app then detects that the items were purchased, and charges the appropriate Amazon account – it’s that simple.

This is a perfect example of subtraction. By eliminating much of the staff needed to operate a store, Amazon is able to keep its costs low and stay ahead of its competitors.

According to Macrotrends, Amazon’s stock price grew by 28% in 2018 – outperforming the S&P 500 index by more than 35%.

But it doesn’t stop there. Amazon took this a step further and applied the task unification technique to systematic inventive thinking. They collected the data from their customers’ shopping habits so they could provide them with better suggestions.

The benefit? Both parties are happy, and Amazon takes off as a leader in the online marketplace.

2. Task Unification

Task unification means to assign a new or additional task to an existing resource.

It is a collaborative process that requires contributions from your entire team. After all, in order to create new functions for a product or service, you need to have a strong understanding of it.

There are five critical success factors to be mindful of when applying task unification to systematic inventive thinking:

Identify the Obvious Components

Look at the components that are so obvious that they are easily missed. Seek help from others—colleagues, experts, or customers—to identify these components.

Don’t Play it Too Safe

Believe it or not, non-intuitive components are much more likely to lead to creative breakthroughs. If your ideas sound absolutely insane, you’re on the right track.

Don’t Confuse Task Aggregation with Assigning New Tasks

If your idea presents a new function for your product or service, it’s likely not task unification. Instead, look for creative ways to assign an additional task to an existing function.

Task unification takes multitasking to a whole new level. However, correct use is essential for getting results. By being aware of these common misconceptions, you will set yourself and your team up for success.

The Power of Task Unification

Cultures that are rich in resources tend to adopt the task unification mindset. For example, Samsung took its new smart TV one step further by integrating two new features into it.

Picture this: you’ve just moved into your new home and you’re trying to decorate it. Do you want to have trendy art, family photos, or a flat-screen TV on your wall?

Samsung’s new QLED TV’s are designed to end that dilemma. The TV now serves two purposes: to provide endless entertainment and personalized decor.

Samsung applied task unification to systematic inventive thinking, in order to overcome functional fixedness.

Solving a problem doesn't always mean you must come up with something new. Click To Tweet

But it doesn’t stop there: Samsung took this a step further by implementing this technique into nearly all of its products. They now offer a washing machine with a built-in sink, a dryer with a two-part lid, and a dishwasher with an auto-clean function.

This strategy begins with developing a strong understanding of your product or service. From there, you link different functions to provide ideal solutions based on the needs of real people.

Here, Samsung took the initiative to simplify regular processes and improve their customer’s experience. Leading companies like Samsung tend to be conscious of these opportunities, which is why they rise as industry leaders.

3. Multiplication

Many innovative products and services tend to have components copied but changed in some way. Usually, these changes are made to remove or edit features that present themselves to be unnecessary or redundant.

Think about it – if you received feedback from your customers that a feature of your product is great, wouldn’t it make sense to invest time into making it even better?

You could take what you have, copy it, and change it in a counterintuitive way. Not only would this minimize the risks of making a bad decision; it would reduce costs, improve speed, and energize employees.

For this reason, multiplication is widely used by many businesses today. When this technique is applied to systematic inventive thinking, the results are spectacular.

Multiply your potentials with your plans and it will be equal to your purpose of existence”. – Israelmore Ayivor

A common misconception that many brands face today is that they believe they should focus on improving the weak aspects of their products or services.

The problem is, by the time they end up solving the problem, they’re already one step behind the curve.

Emerging as an industry leader is not a matter of luck – in fact, it’s far from it. Rather, it’s a scientific approach used by business owners. With a strong understanding of their brand and a deep understanding of their customers’ unmet needs, business owners know what direction to take their business in.

Multiplication in Action: Apple Inc.

Think about multiplication as a jazz piece. Halfway through the song, a musician usually takes center stage and performs a solo.

This is exactly what Apple did for the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro.

The debate between which cell phone brand has the best camera has been ongoing for many years. Each generation seems to have a new feature that helps it stand out from the existing competition.

Apple took this one step further by introducing three rear-facing cameras onto their flagship phone. This shook the entire industry and left their competition in the dust.

According to Newsroom, Apple saw its highest quarterly revenue ever after the announcement of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models.

You might be thinking to yourself, what if no one liked the new iPhone design? How would Apple be able to recover?

Because Apple applied multiplication to systematic inventive thinking, there was little to no risk involved. Since their last generation iPhone had an incredible camera, all they had to do was add a new twist onto an existing technology. The secret is to encourage multiple perspectives during the idea generation process. After all, there is no such thing as a bad idea.

4. Division

Division works by breaking a product into its different components and then rearranging them. This is a powerful technique in systematic inventive learning because it forces you to create new configurations of your product.

It’s likely that you don’t envision smashing your product into many pieces. After all, you worked hard to create it.

But what if you had to build it back up from the ground? What will likely happen is you will see new ways to use the product that you would have missed, had you try to think of it on your own.

There are three ways to apply the division technique:

1. Functionality

What are the specific functions of your product? How can you simplify these functions by breaking them down further?

2. Physicality

If your product takes up a lot of space, what can you adjust to make it more compact?

3. Preservability

Is it possible to divide your product into a smaller version of itself, where each smaller unit would still preserve the characteristics of the whole product?

Division helps to size your biggest challenges down, e so you can see innovative opportunities.

Once you have envisioned a new product, all you need to do is to identify the potential benefits and it’s target market. From there, you modify, adapt and improve the concept.

Digging Deeper with Division

The concept of division starts with something you know and turns it into something new. In the end, we are left with a sense of surprise.

It turns out that some of the most revolutionary ideas are right below our noses. All we need to do is find them.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” ― Rob Siltanen

Take product functionality, for example. A water sports company took the controls of a speed boat and mounted it onto a water skier. Now, the water skier controls the movements of the boat without needing a separate driver.

Next, let’s look at product physicality. Think about a GoPro camera and its ability to capture video from a variety of different points. Whether it be on a selfie-stick or mounted to the side of your car, it makes for an excellent experience.

Finally, there is product preservability: picture a baking company creating cupcakes that mimic the characteristics of normal-sized cakes. This way, customers can experience their inventions without committing to purchasing an entire cake.

By applying division to systematic inventive thinking, these new ideas emerged into the market. Thanks to this, each one of these companies has found massive success.

These examples just touch the surface of how division can be applied to your products.

5. Attribute Dependency

The final technique to apply to systematic inventive thinking is attribute dependency.

The basic principle underlying this tool is creating dependencies between variables of a product. Here, we are working with variables rather than components.

A variable is anything that has the potential to create values. For example, what are the characteristics that can change within your product?

Furthermore, variables can be internal or external. The internal variables are those that can be controlled by the manufacturer when the external variables are out of their control.

There are three ways to implement attribute dependency:

1. Passive

As the name implies, nothing has to happen for the dependency to take place. There doesn’t need to be an external element or action applied.

2. Active

An active dependency is one that requires an external factor in order for an event to take place. This can come in many different shapes and forms.

3. Automatic

These dependencies are unique because they happen automatically. The product is designed to change on its own in response to a third-party element.

How do you know which type of dependency is best to use on your product? It all comes down to which one will be the most convenient for your customers.

Additionally, you should consider if you want your customers to have the ability to create the change for themselves. Whichever you choose, you will create a fantastic experience for your target audience.

Why Attribute Dependency?

With four other simpler techniques to apply to systematic inventive thinking, why should you look to attribute dependency?

The truth is, this is one of the areas of innovation businesses overlook, and yet one with the most potential to create the next breakthrough.

Take Sun Master for example. They are a professional and reliable solar LED light manufacturer. During the day, the light captures and stores energy from the sun; at night these lights illuminate your garden.

According to Markets and Markets, the solar lighting system market is projected to reach 10.8 Billion dollars by 2024.

This is an example of an automatic dependency.

Here, the consumer doesn’t have to do anything. There are no batteries required, no chords, and no troublesome set-up. The lights are designed to turn on when the solar panels detect that the sun is setting.

Products with an attribute dependency present themselves as being smart. They know when it’s appropriate to change in response to some other variable – whether it be internal, external or automatic. This creates a simple yet engaging experience for the customer.

Apply SIT Today

Systematic inventive thinking relies on three key ideas.

The first idea is that you must work within a niche you are familiar with. Secondly, you must generate solutions that are independent of any problem. And, finally, you must apply the five techniques of SIT.

When used correctly, these techniques have the ability to transform the way your business generates ideas. With it, you will be able to create an endless stream of consumable products and services.

SIT is one of the many strategies taught at Dragon 100, an executive club comprised of 7 and 8- figure entrepreneurs.

If you want to learn more strategies that will help you to get where you want to go, click here to enter the Dragon 100 path.

The System On How To Turn 6 Figures Into 7 In Revenue

June 16, 2020 by Dan Lok

Have you seen the popular TV show ‘Shark Tank’? If you haven’t yet, there’s a lot you can learn from it. For example, how to turn 6 figures into 7 for your business. This business reality show will teach you about business, investing, growing your business and more. You can think of it like ‘America’s Got Talent’ for doing business: entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in hopes of winning big investments for their companies.

You’ll see many success stories, and you’ll also see some millionaire wannabes too. You’ll even see people come back on the show, having previously failed.

Whether you’re a small or mid-to-large size business, you will walk away with loads of value. Since these are real deals, made in real life, you’ll know exactly what will work and what won’t in the market.

People will be willing to invest in your products or services if they buy into what you believe in. It takes a smart plan to convince a lot of people to open up their wallets.

If you want to know how to scale your way to a 7 figure business, you can follow lessons from ‘Shark Tank’ winners. These lessons will save you from costly mistakes, and guide you towards the right track with your revenue.

What differentiates every entrepreneur is the system they follow in their business. Those who are likely to win have done diligent research beforehand. It is their system that enables them to get to where they are, all within an impressive timeframe.

You too can follow a similar system on how to turn 6 figures into 7 in revenue and grow your business:

1. Position Yourself as a 7 Figure Earner

What got you to 6 figures won’t get you to 7 figures. To reach that level, you’ll have to position yourself as who you want to become.

Here’s a secret: you don’t have to hustle your way to 7 figures to grow your business.

What you need to do instead is to focus on your time better. Your time is more valuable. Since you only have 24 hours each day, it’s impossible to hustle harder to reach where you want to be.

You should spend your time bringing more value and impact to your audience; then you will position yourself as a go-to expert in your industry.

If you can position yourself, sales will happen a lot faster. This will also help you stand out from your competition.

While on your way to 6 figures, you were testing out the waters of your new business. Now that you know what’s been working, it’s time to share your growth.

This means that, by now, you should have more credibility and social proof. That’s enough to know that people enjoy your products or services. The next step, then, is reaching new customers.

Positioning helps with doing this. Even if you’re doing social media marketing, your positioning will expand your reach a lot faster. You’ll even get more people referring to you, as well as more recurring customers.

The biggest benefit is that people start coming to you, instead of you having to chase them in a cold market. You’ll be able to see the difference in opportunities.

There are a few ways you can position yourself:

Credibility: Develop authority and provide your expertise to your audience.
Messaging: A compelling message on why your audience should care about your ‘why’.
Platform: Make sure your message and everything else aligns in all your platforms. (Website, social media, publications, etc.)
Social Proof: Have people sell for you through endorsements, reviews, media features, etc.
Tagline: Keep a clear, simple tagline that shows who you are, what you do, and how you’re helping.
Story: This is what’s going to distinguish you from any other business. Your story is a unique and powerful element you need to share, and have others resonate with.

Once you change your positioning, you’ll at least 2X your business. The best part? You won’t need to work as hard. That’s because your company will become more superior and produce better results.

You don’t even have to compete on prices to scale – you can charge more without losing customers. All it takes is for you to show that your products and services are of the best quality.

2. Improve Your Marketing to Grow Your Business

If you’re a good marketer, you can pretty much get anything you want for your business. You can find out how to turn 6 figures into 7 by getting more exposure.

Even though some entrepreneurs didn’t win on ‘Shark Tank,’ they still got a lot of exposure from being on the show. They might not have won a deal, but those who like their ideas end up becoming customers. They might even have deals coming in from other companies.

People are often willing to get on ‘Shark Tank’ for the exposure, and not even expect to win. Once you’ve made an appearance, your business will have more online searches.

That’s how marketing works – it means getting in front of people who want what you have. Now, you don’t have to appear on a hit TV show to gain exposure. You can rely on word-of-mouth and visibility through other channels.

Social networking plays a big role in this. Since everyone is using a smartphone nowadays, it’s hard to stay off social media apps. This is how many people stay informed, share news, and connect.

As social media is only growing stronger, it’s getting more difficult to get people’s attention. Your business has to compete with all the other distractions on a daily basis.

The best way to get people’s attention is by being a little disruptive. What does that mean? It means you have to be creative. That’s how you can make your business famous.

Most people think you have to spend a fortune on marketing. In reality, it’s the content you put out that makes a fortune.

If you can produce valuable, eye-catching content, you won’t have to rely so much on spending money to make money. Imagine if every post or video you make goes viral – what will that do for your business?

You have to keep in mind that more than 2 billion people are using social media worldwide. To reach more people, you’ll have to ask yourself: “What will get them to stop scrolling when they see my post?”

Another way to get more attention fast is to partner up with more reputable people. You can become a guest on someone’s podcast, or have influencers feature you on their posts. Anything that helps spread the word about your business is effective marketing.

3. It’s Not Better Alone to Grow Your Business

There’s an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

With that said, it’s wise to build business partnerships.

There are many successful companies that rely on partnerships: for example, companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Apple.

Airbnb partners with homeowners; Uber partners with drivers, and Apple partners with app developers. Without these partnerships, their presence in the marketplace wouldn’t exist. Partnerships are what make them who they are.

The reason why these companies are successful is that they offer a solution to people’s problems. Not only that: they offer job opportunities too. It’s a definite win-win situation.

The truth is, not every idea you have will turn out great – no matter how exciting it sounds. To test it out, you’ll need other people’s input.

Even if you plan on executing an idea, it’s better to have people working with you. There might be one skill you’re good at, and another you’re not.

Some entrepreneurs find it hard to trust other people with handling their businesses. But managing all the work on your own is not ideal. The best thing to do is to bring world-class talent into the picture: that way, you’ll have a powerful team to produce only the best.

How to turn 6 figures into 7 by doing this?

Keep in mind it’s not the tools, sales, or products: it’s the people. If you want to scale your business faster, you’re going to have to upgrade your team. Surrounding yourself with like-mind 7-figure earners will do the job.

Your network is your net worth. Click To Tweet

Since these talented people are more skilled, you don’t have to be present all the time. They should be capable of coming up with solutions without your guidance.

If you stick to a 6 figure team, you’ll still catch yourself getting involved in most projects. They are capable of performing tasks, but theirs might not be the best work you’ve seen. There could be more revisions that push the deadlines back.

Once you stop micromanaging, you’ll have more time to focus on your business instead – turn to the things that matter more.

Partnerships don’t have to be about hiring new people; you can also focus on your connections. Your business flourishes and will grow when you find the right mentors, industry leaders, and masterminds.

4. The Powerful Thing About Leveraging

There are two main ways you can leverage.

As we mentioned earlier, you can hire a team. You don’t have to have a big team or spend a lot of money on overhead expenses. If you find the right people to work with, they’ll be able to help you sustain more revenue.

What helps your team scale faster are successful strategies and execution. When everyone is equipped with the right skills, all your systems will be effective and this will help grow your business.

These systems are built on action steps and learning. They help your team avoid having to repeat the same mistakes again. Your workflow will then become faster.

Another way to leverage is through technology, specifically automation. If you’re wondering how to turn 6 figures into 7 without getting too involved, then leveraging automation is what you need to do.

You can simplify a lot of your tasks by letting technology do the work. Perhaps your sales funnel could be automated, and you’ll be making money in your sleep.

Whatever it is that’s taking most of your time, try automating it. If there’s a way to do certain things faster, automate it. When you use automation in most of your processes, you and your team will have time to focus on other strengths and that is one way to grow your business .

5. Do You Know Your Numbers – Sales and Profit?

Having an idea is amazing, but knowing the numbers will get you to success. Your idea is useless if the numbers don’t look good.

Imagine you launch a new product, and then find out that there’s not much of an audience for it. You also have to make sure you’re capable of funding it. These factors will reflect on how responsible you are.

You’ll have to prove that your product is well-researched and suitable for serving a great market demand. Also, you’ll need to know about market analyses and sales growth projections.

Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself:

What are my past annual sales?
How many customers do I have?
What are my next year’s sales goals?
My marketing plan?
What are my costs that’ll affect my net revenue?

If you can’t answer these basic questions right away, it’s time you go back and do the math.

Especially if you pitch to an investor to fund your business, you need to be able to answer questions. They want to know how much cash will go in and out of your business. If you’re not confident in your numbers, they might not be as confident in you.

You’re going to need capital. Even if you’re starting out with no money in the bank, your goal is to find capital as a safety net in case of plans failing.

6. Fail Forward as Much as Possible to Grown Your Business

According to INC., 96% of businesses fail within 10 years.

You can still achieve learning how to turn 6 figures into 7 figures – while being the 4% that succeeds. But, you’ll need to be comfortable with failing business first.

Inventor Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Sometimes your ideas aren’t meant to work in the first place, and that’s acceptable. It’s better to stay humble and move on. You must fail forward more to get to your success faster.

Running a business is an incredible learning process and a journey. You have to expect some failures, mistakes, and rejections along the way. You will get closer to your goals if you’re able to accept these flaws. Instead of trying to make a failed plan work over and over again, you have to learn from mistakes and move on.

If something goes wrong, take it as a lesson. It might’ve been your performance that needs improvement or failure to communicate. You will do much better the next time around. This will also make you a wiser entrepreneur. Other people will look up to you for knowledge and experience.

Once you’ve reached perfecting your ideas, you will discover major breakthroughs – some of which many entrepreneurs haven’t experienced for themselves yet.

How to Turn 6 Figures Into 7 Figures Fast

Taking your business to the next level requires you to act a certain way. If you want to earn more than 6 figures, you have to act like you already do.

This will help shift your mindset and make better decisions. Some of these decisions include changing the people in your circle. When you surround yourself with better people, you do better.

Not only that, but you need to know how to work smarter instead of hustling harder. Working smarter involves partnering up with people who can help your business grow. Instead of chasing people, focus on inspiring them to come to you.

If you want to know how to turn 6 figures into 7 figures in revenue fast, High Ticket Influencer™ might be for you. It’s everything you’ll need in one place.

High Ticket Influencer™ (HTI) is where you’ll get Dan Lok to coach you in scaling your business to 7 figures. He will walk you through the same method he uses to scale all his businesses. You’re going to discover how he went from making zero dollars to a million in less than a year.

It’s not something you’d expect and can find anywhere else. You will have the right resources to start right away, as well as other entrepreneurs to connect with.

If you’re ready to scale your business while avoiding years of mistakes, click here to find out more about High Ticket Influencer™.

How To Build A Global Virtual Organization

June 13, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Are virtual organizations something to look out for in the years to come? Since COVID-19 was discovered, it has created fear and doubt. It has also created change. Old traditions can no longer be upheld. These are traditions such as working from the office. More and more companies are allowing their employees to work from home. What once was a luxury now becomes the norm.

COVID-19 is responsible for changing how employees work. It has forced people to think about the future. People that were against working from home now support it. They realize it’s beneficial both to employees and to the company. It’s foolish to continue to force employees to work from an office. As a result, the job economy is shifting towards a gig economy.

Working from home has always been a thing. But until recently, only a few employees were allowed to do so. This is mainly the fault of bad business leaders. They forced traditional beliefs onto their employees. They didn’t think about what’s most efficient. Instead, they blindly followed what everyone else was doing.

Business owners are starting to realize their foolishness. They are starting to realize that working from home has benefits. Companies can reduce their expenses. And employees perform more efficiently and save time.

As technology continues to evolve, so will virtual organizations. Business leaders that understand the value of a virtual organization will flourish. Those that don’t, will slowly fall behind until they are irrelevant.

A virtual organization has many advantages over a local one. If you’re looking to build a virtual organization, read on.

Building A Global Virtual Organization Starts With The Leader

Given a choice, most employees would love to have the option to work from home. But what an employee wants is not necessarily what they will get. For many years, this has been the case. Employees have been told they cannot work from home. That they must come into an office workspace to get their work done.

From a logical standpoint, this makes little sense. Many employees do not need to be in the office to get work done. Employees like programmers can work from anywhere in the world. All they need is an internet connection and a computer. They have the ability to work from home. But they cannot, because of company rules.

Many bosses do not allow their employees to work from home. They allow their personal opinions to get in the way of achievement. They are afraid their employees will slack off. Or that they will be less productive. Ironically, the opposite is true. Studies show employees are much more productive when they can work from home.

To build a global virtual organization, you must be a good leader. A great business leader understands that there are many ways to do things. That the ‘common’ way of doing things is not always the best method. If you want your employees to deliver their best work, you need to cater to their needs. You need to give them what they want.

Becoming a great business leader is not easy. It takes a lot of time, failure, and dedication to improvement. Fortunately, building a global virtual organization is not hard. In fact, it’s one of the most rewarding things a business owner can do.

A Great Business Leader Leads From The Front

So how do you build a virtual organization? Contrary to what you may believe, it is not a one-person job. In fact, it is not even the job of the business leader.

Business leaders are people who hold positions of power. They may be CEO’s, President’s or even Executive Directors. Their role is to guide the company in the proper direction. So building a virtual organization has nothing to do with the business owner.

Most business leaders do not realize this fact. They think it is their job to control how the business operates. In reality, that contradicts what they are trying to achieve.

Let’s say you are a business owner. To keep your business running, you need a good team. Thus, you hire many types of people. Some of your employees are managers – their role is to manage other people. Other employees are executors – their role is to execute what they are told. This creates a chain of command, with you at the top.

This example illustrates how a business leader is supposed to behave. But in reality, many business owners are not at the top. They are near the bottom, telling people what to do. They micromanage their employees and stress them out. Or they are setting strict rules and guidelines on how things should be carried out. Instead of focusing on the big picture, they focus on the small things.

As a business leader, you want to focus on the big picture. Creating a virtual organization means finding the right people to help you do it. You don’t worry about the operational details. That’s for your team to figure out.

Business leaders should not worry about small details. They hire people to handle those things. Click To Tweet

How To Build A Global Virtual Organization Using ‘A Players’

To build a global virtual organization, you need the best people you can find. You need ‘A players’. These are the kind of people that have passion and drive. They strive to improve themselves every single day.

You want these types of people in your organization because they will help it grow. They understand that they can use their skills to contribute to the company. The more successful the company is, the more they are rewarded for their efforts.

Entrepreneurs make great additions to a virtual organization. This is because they know how to manage themselves. They take responsibility for their successes and their failures. Their mindset is one that is wired for success. Unlike employees that only care about a paycheck, A players go above and beyond.

These types of team members can help you build a global virtual organization. Because they are self-starters, they need little guidance to get things done. They have the skills to solve problems and get results. If you want to build a global virtual organization, they’ll handle everything. As the business leader, all you need to do is provide them with guidance.

The Dan Lok brand is a good example of a global virtual organization. Everyone is self-sufficient, which means the workflow is very smooth. Many of our team members are A players with a drive to make results happen. We are located around the world. And communication is done using online platforms like Slack.

At the top of this organization is Sifu Dan himself. But Sifu does not spend his time actually building a virtual organization. He leaves that task to his team members. Instead, he spends his time planning out his next moves. He does what no one else can do, which is lead the company.

Develop A Good Workplace Culture

A virtual organization needs it’s team members to be in sync to work well. If you want to build a virtual organization, you need to ensure everyone can get along. This means creating a good workplace culture. Having a strong company culture will greatly increase your chances of success.

For example, let’s say you are an employee who fills out forms. These forms are then given to managers, who approve or deny your work. In a bad workplace environment, managers may favor certain people over others. This can lead to a lot of problems. They may deny your work because of their own personal reasons. Internal politics is bad news for any organization. It slows down the process and produces lackluster results.

Compare this to a good workplace environment. There are no politics or hidden agendas. Everyone conducts themselves in a professional manner. And team members are all on the same page. This creates harmony because everyone is working towards a common goal.

Harmony is crucial to success. This is because you need great people to make great things. If everyone is fighting each other, nothing gets done. To create great things, people must work together.

A good workplace environment focuses on growth and excellence. When everyone helps each other, everyone succeeds. The more people succeed in an organization, the more the company grows. The more a company grows, the more successful it becomes.

Make your team members understand that company success benefits everyone. The more revenue a company produces, the more you can afford to pay team members. Success is not a one-person show. It is about many people getting together to achieve a similar goal.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Click To Tweet

The Benefits of A Global Virtual Organization

There are many benefits to a global virtual organization. Firstly, it allows you to source talent from around the world. This means you’re more likely to find the right person for the job.

A virtual organization is made up of many team members from around the world. It bypasses limits such as physical distance. This means a company doesn’t have to limit their team to one location. They can find people from all types of backgrounds.

Compare that to a local business. It can only hire people that live nearby. Local people may not have the skills they are looking for. This creates weaknesses in certain areas of the company. As a result, this limits how much the business can grow.

Secondly, a virtual organization allows people to work from home. This has many benefits for both the employer and the employee.

You may already know employees that work from home are more productive than those that do not. Working from home means employees do not have to transit. They do not have to spend hours stuck in traffic to get to their workplace. Instead, they can spend that time getting work done.

Employees that can work from home are also happier. The higher employee morale is, the better they will perform. This means they won’t be wasting time shooting the breeze at the water cooler. If their needs are met, there’s nothing for them to complain about. As a result, virtual organizations are very efficient at getting things done.

Companies also save on expenses such as office space. Because their employees work from home, they do not need to rent an office building. They can save money and invest it in the company.

A Global Virtual Organization Can Adapt To Change Quickly

Team members in a virtual organization communicate with online tools. This is very useful during times of crisis, because it allows them to adapt to changes quickly.

Take COVID-19 for example. Employees have been laid off. Revenue has been slow and unstable. More and more businesses are making the shift online. As a result, business owners have had to make sudden changes to adapt to what’s happening. This creates a lot of stress for everyone involved.

Humans are naturally wired to dislike change. This is true in both virtual and local organizations. As a result, having good team members makes changes less stressful. They can handle sudden changes better because they have a strong desire to succeed.

Another reason virtual organizations are beneficial is because of communication and time. Communicating down the chain of command takes time. A business leader tells their directors about new changes. They then inform the managers. And these managers then inform everyone else. This takes a lot of time. The more time it takes for team members to communicate, the slower things get done.

A virtual organization reduces the amount of time needed for changes to occur. Communication using online tools is nearly instant. You can simply send them a message, and they’ll read it on their own time. It doesn’t matter where or what they’re doing. They will receive your message. As a result, virtual organizations make things convenient.

During times of crisis, many businesses make changes. This is one reason why virtual organizations are so effective. They can adapt to what’s going on better than others. As a result, they’re the first ones to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

A Global Virtual Organization Is Resilient

Throughout history, all great empires have fallen. They may have been attacked by neighboring countries. Or grown so big that they do not know how to manage themselves. This is because they do not realize one principle: the bigger you are the more vulnerable you become. If you want to succeed in business, this is an important principle to be aware of.

Being big is not necessarily an advantage. In certain situations, it is actually a weakness. This is because all your resources become focused into one entity. In terms of business, this is like putting all your eggs into one basket.

Putting all your eggs into one basket means you only have one chance to fail. If the business collapses, you go bankrupt. There is no way to recover your losses.

Compare that to someone who divides up their eggs into many baskets. The more baskets they put their eggs into, the more times they can fail. If one basket fails to produce results, they still have five more to rely on. One failure will not wipe them out.

A virtual organization operates in a similar way. Team members located around the world are like a few eggs in many baskets. If one area of the world suddenly shuts down due to a pandemic, it’s not the end of the world. There are still other team members you can rely on to make up for those losses. You can still operate the business even in times of crisis.

Discover How Super Successful Companies Run Their Organizations

Building a global virtual organization starts with the leader. A great business leader knows how to lead from the front. They must act as the visionary in the company, and lead everyone towards a common goal.

A virtual organization needs “A players” to become successful. These are people with drive, passion, and determination to get things done. They’re different from ordinary 9-5 employees, because of their mindset and beliefs. Many “A players” are entrepreneurs with valuable skills.

Finding good people is one thing. Keeping them is another. A good workplace culture lifts people up. It encourages them to become the best version of themselves. This is especially important in a virtual organization that uses online communication.

Unless your team members are all on the same page, there will be issues. Communication problems will lead to people feeling they are not heard. This can create internal conflict and politics, which will slow down the business.

Virtual organizations have many benefits over traditional companies. Working from home boosts productivity in employees. Companies save on rent and office supplies. And in times of crisis, changes can be made quickly. This gives businesses an advantage over slower competitors.

Building a virtual organization requires a good leader, good people, and a good business plan. Successful business leaders know how to plan for success. They know how to look at the big picture. If you want to know how successful companies run their organizations, get your copy of the Dragon 100™ checklist here.

Managing Remote Employees: Challenges, Tools and Best Practices For Productivity

June 12, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Are you facing challenges with managing remote employees?

Whether you’ve had a remote workforce for years or you had to adjust to COVID-19 lockdowns – managing remote employees comes with challenges.

If you were forced to switch your company structure fast and have people work from home, you are facing unforeseen challenges. But, a remote team also comes with great possibilities and potential.

Experts argue that remote work is an inevitable future. As more and more businesses go online, remote jobs become more attainable.

From 2003 to 2018, remote work has grown by 140% – nearly 10x faster than the rest of the workforce. And this is before current trends are taken into consideration. After the lockdowns, even more people will keep working remotely.

Since the demand for remote employees is already on the rise, why not look into the possibilities right away? Boarding the trend early gives you an edge.

What’s more, a remote team is pandemic-proof. Dan Lok runs his business almost exclusively online. Because of that, his business was able to run smoothly when the states initiated lockdowns.

While other businesses were struggling, Dan Lok’s team was able to go on. Learn from his example and start managing remote employees today, to ensure safety in case something like this should ever happen again.

Find our top tips on managing remote employees below.

Common Challenges Of Managing Remote Employees

Two most common challenges for managing remote workers are communication and false expectations.

Communication with remote workers is a balancing act. You want them to be able to communicate with you and the team, despite the absence of physical proximity.

In an office, it’s easy to bump into each other or have a watercooler chat moment. Remote workers, however, are on their own. So, feeling connected to the whole team can be a challenge.

At the same time, you also don’t want to overburden them with emails and daily huddles. Too much emphasis on communication can actually lower the productivity of your remote employees. Emails easily take precedence over tasks, and video chats break the workflow.

That’s the difficulty of balancing communication while managing a remote team: you don’t want them to feel closed off, but you also don’t want to endanger their productivity.

Wrong Expectations Towards Remote Employees

The second challenge you might face are misplaced expectations. Expecting too much or the wrong thing can lower the productivity of your employees.

For one part, you don’t want to expect your remote team to work the same way a physical team would. Don’t expect them to strictly work from 9 to 5.

Remote work is so great because it lets your employees work at their desired time. If they know they are most productive at night, let them work at night. As long as they meet due dates and criteria you agreed on, there is no problem with that.

The second challenging expectation many remote workers face is maintaining availability. Flexible hours are easy to mistake for constant availability. But remote employees need rest, just like the regular staff.

Stay away from micromanaging your remote teams. Micromanaging makes employees feel watched, and can lower their productivity.

This is especially true for employees required to log into systems that track their work time. Time spent working is not the best indicator of productivity.

If you can, stay away from tracking time at all. Trust your team that they put in the necessary work. Instead, create KPIs which allow you to track their performance. KPIs can be independent of the time they put in.

In fact, most remote employees are trustworthy and work an average of four hours more per week when compared to the regular workforce.

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you and your employees to track success. The KPIs are either set by you or by the team together. Either way, they make sure everybody knows what they have to do.

KPIs should be measurable and enable your employees to see if they are on track with their work. It makes the work performance of your employees more trackable.

If a person repeatedly can’t fulfill their KPIs, it might be worth talking with them. If a person often succeeds in terms of KPIs, think about promoting them.

Hiring Process And Payment Procedures

You can avoid potential challenges if you have an effective hiring process in place. When you hire employees, it’s a good idea to check if they qualify for remote work.

This aptitude depends on their natural talents and strengths. Great remote workers are usually a bit more introverted. They are also detail-oriented and able to take action independently.

Of course, extroverts can work remotely too, but you need to ensure their social wellbeing. If they need people around them to be happy, remote work might leave them unsatisfied.

So, when you are hiring, make sure to consider these factors. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to hire for a part-time position first, and put employees on a testing phase. That way you both can test if your work relationship is fruitful.

Another factor that can remove many challenges early is pay. Many business owners would think that remote employees are cheaper, and they are usually right.

What you want to do, however, is pay them more than the industry standard. If you do that, they will be more productive because their motivation and satisfaction increase. Happy employees work harder.

Distractions At Home

One final obstacle when it comes to managing remote employees can be a distracting environment. This is especially important to think about if this person is working from home for the first time.

Your employees should have a designated office space. That way they keep their productivity up while working from home. This space should be free of distractions (for example no TV in the room).

If they have other people in their household, that should also be considered. Do their housemates understand that work from home is still work? Do they tend to interrupt your employee?

Ask about their environment early on and see if you avoid similar obstacles.

Some employees might enjoy working from a coffee shop or outside. That is okay, but they should have a place to work without distractions.

Communication Tools

Now that you are aware of some of the most common obstacles for managing remote employees, let’s consider communication tools. These include apps and management systems that allow you to manage remote teams more efficiently.

Communication tools help with streamlining communication or optimizing workflows. Here are some you should know.

For video communication, the most popular tools are Zoom or Skype. Skype is completely free. If you have some budget to invest you might prefer Zoom, as it’s a more complete solution for businesses.

Zoom allows you to record meetings, share your screen, and much more. It’s the perfect tool to bring some face-to-face communication into your team.

For text messages, Slack is extremely popular with businesses. Slack allows you to create a channel for your company, as well as several sub-channels.

If your team is large, you can create these sub-channels for each subteam. Avoid the whole team getting spammed with unnecessary messages.

Text messages are usually faster than email; email communication alone might slow the whole workflow down.

Project Management Tools

While most business owners are aware of communication tools, project management software and extras often get overlooked.

Without the tools that support the workflow, the productivity decreases. People don’t know what they are supposed to do, or where the project stands.

Let’s assume, for example, you’d run a video and filmmaking business. You need people who specialize in film, graphic design, copywriting, and much more.

If there is no workflow or process in place, the editor doesn’t know when to edit the next video; the person who films might have no idea where to upload the video and what should happen next.

Tools like Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, or Float help you maintain a clear and streamlined process. Everything is happening in one place and your employees know where to check for their next tasks.

One simple tool like that can have an immense impact on the productivity of your workforce.

Tools For Collaboration

Finally, you want to make sure that the tools you use allow your employees to collaborate. Creating team collaboration can be challenging when managing remote employees. They might all end up working independently of one another.

But, when employees cooperate, it can lead to new creative ideas. For a remote team, tools like google documents that allow several people to work on one document or sheet can be helpful.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s a tool that allows live editing, so that actual teamwork can take place.

Best Practices

Now you’ve gained insight into common challenges and useful tools for managing remote employees. But what are some of the best practices that you and your remote team can learn from?

Follow these practices to naturally avoid challenges and setbacks, while also ensuring the productive wellbeing of your employees.

Unhappy remote teams burn out fast, work unproductively, and cost money. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a look at systems and ideas proven to work.

Business Culture And Vision

The root of a successful remote team is your business culture. Every company or business has a certain culture. But culture doesn’t happen by accident: it is shaped by you, as the leader, and each team member.

To manage remote employees successfully, you want a culture of ownership and accountability. If every team member is aware of their responsibility and holds themselves accountable, there is no need for you to micromanage.

This is what creates trust. When the management is too controlling, employees feel discouraged and less creative.

Successful businesses treat their employees with trust and care, and not like a commodity.

As we mentioned before, give your remote workers the chance to work on their terms. Don’t enforce a certain time frame when they can’t be productive during those times.

Great business culture is clear and based on integrity. The leader holds others accountable but is also accountable themselves. Click To Tweet

Creating a positive and nourishing culture with remote workers is usually easy. That’s because remote teams are often happier, more satisfied, and tend to love what they do.

What’s more, you also want to communicate your business vision clearly. Your employees should know why they are doing what they are asked to do. Best case scenario – their personal goals are aligned with your overall goal for the company.

Recurring And Structured Meetings

We already touched on the challenges of remote communication. A great way to streamline communication is to have recurring video meetings.

Some businesses choose to meet weekly or bi-weekly; some even choose daily meetings. If you decide to have daily meetings, however, keep them short to protect your employees’ time.

Weekly or bi-weekly meetings usually work best. Some companies also go for monthly calls, but that period might be too extended and negatively affect productivity.

You also want your video meetings to follow a structure. Chaotic meetings lower productivity. If you can’t come up with a structure yourself, use proven formulas: Level 10 meeting, for example.

Besides team meeting, it’s a good idea to have quarterly one-on-one meetings. These meetings are great as they deepen communication with each employee and allow you and to review if they are performing well.

Are they meeting your expectations as well as their own goals? If any issues occur, these can also be discussed in the quarterly meetings.

Communication Timeframes

We said it makes sense to let your employees design their own work schedule. What you want to have, however, are certain touchpoints that everyone has to meet.

For example, everyone has to attend a weekly meeting. Or, everyone is required to respond to text messages within 24 hours.

Communicate what makes sense for you and your business to your remote employees, and make your expectations clear.

It’s also a good idea to instruct them on which communication channel to use for what. In what cases do you expect them to use text messages? For what instances should they use email? Are they allowed to send you a private message?

There are no formal rules; just make sure to tell your employees upfront about how you want things to run.

Goals And Career Chances

It’s a common trap to treat remote workers like freelancers. If they are part of your team, treat them like employees. Give them chances to further their careers and pursue their personal goals.

Don’t make them feel like they are stuck with their position forever. Have one-on-one calls every year or half a year and discuss how they are doing. What are their goals for their next year and how can the team help.

Treat your employees with respect and make them happy. That way you have a loyal team. Loyal employees are invaluable because fluctuations in your team cost you a lot of money.

You lose time and money when you have to hire new employees and train them. You still want to hire new people when needed; new employees also bring in fresh ideas. But, avoid a culture that pushes people to leave frequently.

Teambuilding

Creating a strong team is especially hard for businesses that run remotely. As we mentioned before, in a physical office space, people naturally bump into each other and communicate.

That’s why some workplaces like to offer their remote employees an open chat. In that chat, they can talk about anything they want, aside from work. It’s a great way to replace the usual small talk which would take place in an office.

If you plan to have a remote team long-term, consider yearly team meetings. Just two or three days together a year can be beneficial for the whole team.

Align Your Workflow With The Dragon 100 Habits Checklist

Now, there is a lot to keep in mind when it comes to managing remote employees. But what if we told you there is a way to make managing your team clearer and more transparent?

Through his advisory board Dragon 100, Dan Lok is coaching other business owners on how to scale up. Even if you aren’t a part of Dragon 100, you can access the Dragon 100 Habits Checklist.

The checklist allows you to have clarity from all employees. Align your team from senior executives to junior members. Get Access To Your Guide Today.

From Brick And Mortar To Click And Order: How Your Business Can Shift To Online Operations

May 12, 2020 by Dan Lok

Is your brick and mortar business struggling due to the current global crisis? You’re not alone, but the reason you’re struggling is not only because of pandemic-related business closures. If at all, COVID-19 only sped up what was already happening. The retail apocalypse was already well underway, before this global pandemic began.

Since 2018, 59% of the retail stores have closed down. Why is that? People’s buying behaviors have simply changed with the digital economy. Consumers are feeling more and more comfortable ordering things online. Before the boom of online retailers and e-commerce stores, consumers had to go to a brick and mortar shop and look at the product. They depended on the selection of shops in their city.

Today, however, information and the product don’t belong together as much. What does this mean? Consumers look for a product and then find a shop that provides it at the best price and value. That’s why brick and mortar shops have had to adapt and change their sales process.

But that’s not all. Suppliers have also changed their sales processes. Since it’s so easy now to set up an online store, many suppliers would rather sell their products on their own website than through a brick and mortar store. Suddenly, the manufacturers are cutting out the middle man.

In short, brick and mortar stores have fewer products to sell than before, and consumers don’t want to shop in a store as much anymore. Only shops that provide essentials, like supermarkets, still see frequent visits.

What can you do if your store falls into the ‘non-essential items’ category? Or, what if you cannot go online because your offer is only applicable in person? Examples of this include massage therapy or similar services you typically can’t buy online.

In this article, we’ll go over some tips on how to save your business during this crisis. What can you do to protect your business, income and livelihood?

Even if your business can only deliver services in person, make sure to read the whole article. Because in the end, you might get an understanding of what you can do to save your specific business, too.

The Biggest Changes Brick and Mortar Stores Need to Make if Shifting to Online Operations

If you want to shift your business from brick and mortar to click and order, there is more to it than building a website and having a shop-plugin. You see, many brick and mortar store owners make one common mistake. They see their website as only an online version of their real store. But online shopping doesn’t work like shopping offline. Consumers today don’t find stores online by accident or click through the pages for fun.

There are three steps to transform a struggling offline business into a thriving online business:

Help people find you online.
Adapt your product range to that of online shoppers’ behavior.
Encourage the consumer to return to your online store.

If you follow those simple steps in order, you’ll have a very high chance of weathering the storm and thriving despite a global crisis. You might even come out stronger than before. Before we go there, let us give you advice on how to get the most out of this article: Read it with an empty cup.

As Dan Lok often says, two of the most dangerous statements in business are, I know that and, My business is different. It might feel like you already know some of the strategies we’ll discuss. Or, you think your business is different and you and your clients have a special relationship. Your way of doing business is different, right?

Are you ready for the unpleasant truth?

If these differences were enough, you wouldn’t be struggling right now. You only know it if you live it. Study the tips in this article carefully, and allow yourself to accept insights that are radically different from what you intended to do.

From Brick and Mortar to E-Commerce Success: How to Get Consumers to Find Your Online Store

If you want people to find you online, you can do several things. One of the most essential things is experimental marketing. Why? Right now, there are countless online shops out there offering the same products as you. If you want to stand out, it’s crucial to become visible. You can use short-term and long-term strategies. Which one fits you best depends on your business.

If you want to use Facebook as an advertising platform, make sure to keep Facebook’s strict rules and regulations in mind. For products that are somewhat controversial, Facebook will often not allow you to advertise them. In this case, you can use either Google ads or create educational content.

As a next step, you can optimize this content for search engine visibility. Using this method to promote your business is called SEO marketing.

The Power of Niche Marketing Techniques

If you want to shift to online operations, you may need to become more of a niche business. The most effective marketing happens when you have a niche. Why? Because online shoppers already know what they’re looking for, specifically, do you understand? You see, if you are an offline brick and mortar store, people might like to walk through your shop. They can walk around the and discover different things they like.

Online, however, people look for a product with a purpose and an intention in mind. If you send them to your store with marketing, you also need them to have an intention. Imagine you were a customer yourself. Let’s say you saw an ad that says, Visit the ABC store now, we have all kinds of products.

Would you click it with a serious buying intention? Probably not. The ad isn’t specific enough, or niche enough. You were not looking for something specific, and the ad didn’t give you a clear picture of what is waiting for you.

But what if you were looking for a birthday gift? Imagine you see an ad that says: Trendy Gifts, the gift shop that has the greatest selection of birthday gifts available. How would you react now? This ad was targeting the niche of gift-giving, but the same is true for any kind of niche. In what niche could you specialize? Here are some examples of niche online stores that work:

Household products (brooms, cleaning supplies)
Athletic apparel
Electronics for gaming
Beauty products

Those are just a few of many niche examples.

Why Niches Magically Attract More Customers

Why is having a niche essential? Consumers today want what they are looking for immediately. They neither have the attention span nor the patience to browse for too long. Having a broad range of products isn’t as much of an advantage anymore as it had been a few years ago. But where is the difference between the ads before? Didn’t it say we have the greatest selection of gifts available?

Yes, think about why it works: If you are looking for a specific thing, what good is a vast range of random products? If you are looking for a gift, it’s a hassle to browse through clothes, electronics, household items. But if you have a great selection available for a specific demand, it might be enticing again.

There is another advantage to a niche: You can tap into an existing demand. What’s the benefit? Did you ever have a product in your store that no one ever bought, even if you reduced the price? The reason was probably not the cost, but the fact that no one was looking for it.

If you only offer products a niche that people are interested in, chances are you can sell much more.

There is even more to niches – you can specialize even deeper. Let’s say you want to dive into the beauty niche. You can choose to specialize in organic skincare only. That’s a niche within a niche. You won’t offer all beauty products such as hair products, makeup, and skincare. Only organic skincare. Want to be even more specialized, and even more niche? You could only sell only skincare for the face.

Be careful not to specialize too much. Before choosing a niche, do proper research and make sure that you have a market with a demand waiting for you. Important: Just having a niche doesn’t create demand. Specializing in an existing need and pulling in that traffic is what niche marketing is all about.

How to Adapt Your Product Range for Online Success

If you take a look at successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, you will notice a trend. Most of them say, Start with a general store, find one winner and scale that one. This advice sounds simple, but it isn’t easy. That “winner” is a product that sells like the proverbial hotcakes. To find it, you need an intense research process. Also, you have pitfalls to avoid. Before we go into useful advice on how to adapt your product range let’s talk about those pitfalls. This advice might seem counter-intuitive. Especially if you had a brick and mortar store before, this is crucial for a future e-commerce success.

What are some pitfalls or warning signs that you might not be setting yourself up for online success?

E-Commerce Pitfall #1: You are Overly Attached to your Product

Most e-commerce beginners choose a product based on what they like. But you are not your customer. For e-commerce to work, the only thing that counts is data. Analyze the market, see what works and then invest in that product. You might see a product that doesn’t even make sense to you but sells 100 units a day. Then you see a product that looks like people will immediately buy – but they don’t. Be brave enough to drop a product that doesn’t return results as fast as possible. Yes, it might be disappointing to be wrong with your intuition, but this comes with experience. Just move on, fail fast, fail forward and win sooner.

E-Commerce Pitfall #2: You Don’t Research Enough

It’s not enough to have a deep understanding of the market need. What good is it if you can’t deliver what people order? That’s why it’s just as important to gather intel on your suppliers. Especially in e-commerce, where you can source products directly from manufacturers. Sourcing directly most likely costs you a fraction of what you are paying now. That’s why many e-commerce stores have a higher profit margin than a brick and mortar shop.

Yet, high margins don’t matter if you can’t sell anything. Here are some things you need to look out for:

Is the supplier reliable? Check testimonials, ratings, and comments. Give them a small order to test their product quality, and write them messages to test how responsive they are.
Is the supplier big enough? What is their stock size, how fast do they restock? How long have they been in business, how long have they been on the platform you use to buy from them?
How fast does the supplier ship? Consider this in the shipment times you give your customers. If you have a product that is in high demand and you get many sales, it pays to use a different approach. You can partner with a warehouse in the country you are targeting. Ship several of the high-demand units to it upfront. This way, when you get an order, you can ship the product quickly and improve customer experience. What is a highly in-demand product? A good rule of thumb is if you get 30 orders per product per day.
What quality do the supplier’s products have, and how do they deal with faulty units? (What’s the return policy, warranty conditions, repair times?)

E-Commerce Pitfall #3: You Don’t Know Your Metrics

How did you imagine going from offline to online? Some brick and mortar business owners think it just means putting their stock on a website. Those businesses will have an unpleasant awakening soon. E-commerce is a noisy marketplace, and similar online stores will fight you for customers, quite brutally.

Without proper online marketing, it’s highly unlikely to get online customers at all. Since everyone is marketing, you need to outmaneuver the competition. As Sun Tzu said: A battle is won before it is fought.

Sun Tzu also said, If you know yourself and your enemies, you don’t need to fear a hundred battles. If you know only yourself but nor enemies, for every victory, there will be a defeat. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will lose every battle. This wisdom is true in e-commerce as well. If you know what your competition is doing, what they spend in marketing and their strategy, you can win

Important Metrics that can Make or Break your Business

One of the most important metrics for this is the CAC or customer acquisition cost. This metric tells you how much it costs you to acquire a customer. To lead customers from the first click to the sale can be quite expensive. Why? Because unlike offline, the online buying journey has more steps. These steps include:

Seeing an ad

Clicking it

Visiting the site

Looking at the product

Putting it in the cart

Going to checkout

Buying

Even though you only pay for people seeing your ad and/or clicking it, without a sale, this investment is in vain. Their buying journey with you can end at any time, and then your ad was ineffective.

Let’s say you have a product that costs you $5 to source, including shipping, and you are selling it for $19.95. You now have a profit margin of $14.95.

This means you can spend theoretically spend $14.94 to acquire a customer and still make a profit, even if it’s small. Now take a look at the statistics of your campaign. Do your expenses shoot over your CAC? If yes, you are losing money, even if you sell a hundred products.

A Simple Way to Win the CAC War

This might be one of the most significant changes for brick and mortar store owners. Even selling thousands of products doesn’t mean you make any profit.

Make sure to have as high a maximum CAC as possible. Because if you can outspend your competition, you’ll win the war for customers.

For example, let’s say you have a maximum CAC of $100, and your competitor has a maximum CAC of $15

This means you can spend up to $85 more per customer in marketing. This way you will attract more traffic, and you can dominate your competition.

How do you get a higher CAC? Lower your cost for advertising. Now, we’re not saying to spend less on it. You see, some platforms reward you if you get a lot of engagement on your ads.

For example, on Facebook, if your ad gets shared, your cost to run it lowers. This is why the same ad can have a CAC of 15 or 100. Don’t try to do it yourself if you have no experience. It would be less expensive to hire an expert who knows what they are doing.

How to Adapt your Product Range the Right Way

Now that you know how to avoid some critical pitfalls let’s talk about how to find the right product. There are several strategies to do this. The first is to tap into an existing trend, the second is planning for the long run.

To use existing trends, watch social media ads closely. You might notice that certain product ads get thousands of likes in a few hours or days.

For example, if the ad runs for a few days and already has hundreds or thousands of likes, it went viral, which is good. To make sure, look for the product specifically and observe the reaction to other ads for it. If you see an overall high demand, it’s safer to invest in it.

There is never a guarantee that it will work, of course, but you can stack the deck in your favor. You can do this by being very cautious in testing. It might always be that a trend is only short-lived. Once you notice it, it might be declining already.

So don’t only look for one product at a time. The worst number in business is one.

How to Win Over the Online Consumer

Alright, you have chosen a niche, invested in marketing and are attracting clients. Now what? It’s very expensive to acquire new customers, but very cheap to upsell existing ones.

This means you want to figure out how to build strong relationships with your customers. What bonuses can you give them for staying loyal to you? How are you engaging them? If you make them feel validated and cherished, they will come back to you.

Think of your own buying behaviors online: Why are you coming back to individual sellers? Why do you never come back to others?

To engage customers to return, you can give them specific incentives such as:

A discount code for their next order

A discount or bonus if they refer a friend to your shop (perhaps their friend gets a discount as well)

Add an extra gift to their order for free, as a surprise

Ask them for their feedback on your store, and if you implement their feedback, let them know you followed their advice.

Include a personalized, handwritten thank you note in their order. This personal note will be appreciated when they open their package.

With strategies like the above, it’s easier to bring your brick and mortar store into the online world.

What’s the Most Important Thing Brick and Mortar Store Owners Need Right Now?

With the information in this article, you may or may not have an idea what you can do to save your business and lifestyle as an entrepreneur. But you likely have more questions:

Which suppliers can you trust? What trends will occur in a few months? Which online marketing strategy works best specifically for your business and your customers?

Of course, you can find this out, if you are willing to invest time and money in trial and error (which will teach you a lot, but take up a lot of your time and resources.)

Perhaps you neither have time nor money to waste right now. That’s why Dan Lok put together a high-level advisory board. Its purpose is to help distinguished entrepreneurs to create generational wealth even in times of crisis.

Distinguished entrepreneurs are dragons. Dragons are visionaries, wise strategists, fearless leaders, and daring enterprisers. The dragons will either dominate an industry or shape an industry—they are the Kings or Queens of their industry. Dragons can rise above a global crisis, because they have what it takes to survive the crisis.

Do you see yourself as a future King in the online space? Then you’ll want to draw experience from people who already failed for you. You’ll want to avoid pitfalls so you can be more successful faster. Imagine how you can grow if you learn from people 10,20 or 100 times more successful than you are.

If being a dragon sounds like you, click here.

Please note: This a very exclusive group. Only 100 entrepreneurs are accepted, so act now before your seat is taken.

10 Methods For Boosting Team Motivation During Times Of Crisis

April 14, 2020 by Dan Lok

Sara led team motivation meetings at work. And she knew exactly how to encourage, guide, and empower each one of her employees to thrive. Ben, her boss, trusted her enough not to sit in on any of them. But it also meant that he didn’t quite know how to communicate with his team during crises. For example, one day, he called Sara and said, “please pack your things, lock up, and go straight home.”

“What- wait, did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t have time to explain, Sara. Please listen carefully: lock up and go home.” And then, he hung up.

Sara was confused. Was she fired? Nothing else made sense. It wasn’t until she heard about the Boston Marathon bombings on the news that it clicked. Since her workplace was only 3 miles away from the tragedy, she understood that Ben had been looking out for her in his own way. Sara was grateful. But she also wished that Ben had provided more context. Without it, she felt lost, alone, and afraid.

Sara and Ben’s story shows us the management dichotomy that exists in the modern workplace. Maybe you empathize with Sara and feel left out of the loop. Or maybe you resonate more with Ben, struggling to connect with your team. Yet, in these times of uncertainty, leaders don’t have the luxury of time to engineer the perfect solution. So we’ve collected these ten strategies you can use to build your team during these trying times.

Should You Even be Focusing on Team Motivation During a Crisis?

In times of strife, leaders don’t have all the answers. It’s natural to be overwhelmed by all the urgent matters that are weighing in from every side. Maybe you have to contact banks and lending institutions to secure finance. Or maybe you need to put out fires with shareholders before they lose trust in you or your company. Or maybe you aren’t even sure whether your business will have a team to motivate in the long run.

But now more than ever, team motivation needs to be at the top of your list. Why? Because crises can make or break a team. When everything seems to be going wrong, your organization needs to see and hear from you more than ever. With the right words and attitude, you’ll be able to keep your team from falling victim to panic, disharmony, or rumors. And you’ll be able to guide, encourage, and reassure your team to persevere and deliver superior outcomes for the business. Teams can not only overcome times of crisis together but end up stronger than ever. So, build relationships, connect, and create a thriving work culture using team motivation.

It might be daunting to think that as a leader, you bear the lion’s share of the burden. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right people, an uplifting attitude, and sound advice, you’ll be able to handle any crisis that comes your way. So what can you do to be the kind of leader who boosts team motivation during challenging times?

1. Put Your Team’s Safety First

Ben did get Sara out of a potentially dangerous situation as quickly as he could. And that was the best first move he could have made. During a crisis, people need to feel safe. But if they don’t understand ‘why’ they might become their own worst enemy. Take the coronavirus crisis, for example. If everyone had taken preventative measures, it would not have spread this much.

When you share a short ‘why,’ you keep your employees from drawing their own conclusions. You will also stop any speculations and false rumors from spreading.

So as a leader, let your employees know that their safety and physical wellbeing comes before any other consideration. By doing so, you will:

Reduce their fears of having to choose between their (or their family’s) safety and work,
Reinforce that they are a relevant, important part of the team,
Ensure your team fights alongside you to resolve the crisis.

Use team motivation to communicate how and why their safety comes first.

2. Don’t Pretend That There’s No Fire When Everyone Can Smell the Smoke

Conventional wisdom says that you will spread negativity and fear if you share your worries, concerns, and anxieties. Being silent about a crisis as a leader, however, is no different than pretending that there is no fire even though everyone can smell the smoke.

So, even if you feel afraid, take time to communicate with them. Acknowledge that the situation is scary and that a lot of things can go wrong. It’s OK not to have all the answers. People want to know that you are working on them. So share your thoughts on potential solutions and opportunities for growth.

When you acknowledge your team’s fears, you are permitting them to be human. You are also giving your team motivation to keep going. These are a great way to set the tone for a high-performance team despite the crisis.

3. Be a Conduit For Your Team’s Concerns

The best leaders care about their teams. In crises, it’s particularly important to show them that you care. So, if possible, do whatever you can to be the person they can bring all their concerns to. For example, you could:

Call a company-wide meeting where anyone who has a question can ask it,
Set up an anonymous email that they can send their questions to,
Have a suggestions/concerns box placed in a central location of the office.

Encourage your team to ask you any questions or raise any concerns they might have. And then let them know that you will make an effort to answer every single issue – whether you have a team of 10 or 10,000. It might not sound reasonable or possible, but it has great rewards.

When you make yourself accessible to your team by showing up and addressing their fears, you are showing them that you are on their side. You will be the ‘people’s leader.’ They will trust in you, follow your direction, and defend you. And they will feel that they can rely on you to guide them because you are someone who cares.

Having access to all these questions also gives you an idea of what your employees need from you. That way, you’ll be able to plan future team motivation strategies.

Your team members also often know your business at a level of detail that can be missed when taking a high level view. By opening up a dialogue you can often get great suggestions from those in the trenches. In times of crisis a dozen small suggestions can add to make a huge impact.

4. Employee Engagement is Still Key

Many entrepreneurs and business owners mistakenly aim for employee happiness. So when times are good, they do everything they can to accommodate their team members. While this strategy works in the beginning, in the long run, it gives away your power as a leader. Why? Because employee happiness is a fleeting and short-lived measure of the strength of your organization.

That does not mean that you shouldn’t care about employee happiness. But rather than being a goal, it should be a byproduct of your other measurable measures. These measures include employee productivity, engagement, and contribution.

Employee engagement is particularly important for team motivation. Engaged employees tend to be more enthusiastic, passionate, and positive about their work. They tend to contribute by sharing ideas, encouragement, and solutions. They also tend to be the happiest.

If you don’t have a culture of engaged employees yet, it’s not too late to get started. To get started:

Set up problem-solving groups and give them specific, meaningful tasks,
Give your them access to relevant training,
Encourage open discussions and,
Train them to provide kind, constructive feedback and criticism.

Once you have a team of engaged employees, it will be much easier to weather the crisis together.

5. Be a Leader of Leaders

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you probably already have so much on your shoulders. You most likely have to make a lot of decisions each day. In uncertain times like these, there is probably so much more pressure on you.

If you’re struggling to be everywhere at once, develop your team to make decisions on the go. Here are some tips on how to make that happen:

Equip your employees with the tools and resources that they can refer back to,
Use team motivation to empower and train your team on ethical decision making,
Trust them to think through situations and come up with the right solutions.

And once they are ready, let them know that you will back their decisions. Stand by them. This way, you’ll have a team you know you can rely on in good times and bad.

6. Deal in Hope Rather Than Despair

Picture this: you are the captain of a ship. On good days, you can stand up on the sunny deck and give your crew directions. When everything goes smoothly, all you need is to steer clear of some rocks here and there. Your crew largely knows what they need to do, and you make good headway towards your destination.

Now, imagine a large whirlpool appearing off on one side. Your crew can’t see it from their positions above and below deck, but they can feel the ship swaying this way and that. How do you help your crew fight the whirlpool’s current when they don’t understand what’s happening?

In a crisis, your organization is very much like that ship at the edge of a whirlpool. When you know that your team doesn’t see what you see, you can change your approach. By being encouraging, clear, and concise, you could use team motivation to help them trust you. As we mentioned in an earlier strategy, don’t let fear take over. If you did, it would be no different than allowing the whirlpool to swallow your ship without a fight.

Instead, consider talking about long-term plans and projects. But do so without making any promises that you can’t keep. If you deal with hope, you’ll find yourself with a team that wants to reach new heights with you.

7. Check-In Often so They Don’t Check Out

Many businesses are still experiencing communication challenges as more people work from home. Checking-in with your employees often is more critical than ever. As you do, try to keep in mind that your employees have different priorities than they used to.

They might be worried about their family, their health, or how to get the services they need. They might have children running underfoot or elderly relatives to look after. With all these distractions, it might be easier for them to isolate and struggle alone. They may have feelings of guilt and not want to share what they are going through with work.

So do your best to check-in with your employees regularly. Ask them if they are OK and show them that you care if they are not. Make resources available to those who are struggling mentally, physically, or emotionally.

Checking in with your team often shows them that you are acting on your promise to put their safety first. It also allows you to address any other issues or concerns that might arise with the new work arrangements. No one will have to feel lost or confused for long. And when the crisis is over, the relationships you have built with your team will make all the difference.

8. Lead by Example

You may already have heard this strategy because it is a time-honored and proven one. There is no greater team motivation than having a leader you are inspired to follow.

The best approach to take is to lead from the front. Be someone who doesn’t ask anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself. Be seen as someone who walks the walk. Who shows up, who shares, who cares, and who positively contributes no matter the situation. Be the first one in and the last one out.

This strategy works particularly well in combination with the previous ones. When people feel safe, taken care of, and valued, they will take note of your actions and understand that you haven’t given up on them or the business. They will then choose to work with you and alongside you with enthusiasm and pride.

9. Remember That Every Crisis Ends

As difficult as it might be to see now, every crisis does end. So set up systems and procedures that will see you through the dark times and into better times. Here are some tips that might help you prepare for the future:

Create a plan. Assess where you are right now and what you have to do to course-correct and get back on track for your goals.
Be seen. Expand your business’ reach and position yourself as an authority in your industry.
Develop your mindset. Practice gratitude and meditation to maintain a healthy mindset.

When you are centered in who you are as a business owner and entrepreneur, you can prove to your team that there is a future after the crisis. As you work towards that goal together, you’ll have a more reliable, self-motivated team.

10. Learn From Other Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

The most effective problem-solving technique is often also the most overlooked one. And that is to learn and implement best practices from business owners and entrepreneurs do to pivot. It’s easy, as a leader, to feel that you are alone. Maybe you also think that no one will understand your particular difficulties. Or that everything you experience is unique to your industry. We understand.

Dan Lok struggled alone during his early years as an entrepreneur as well. But his first mentor Alan Jacques showed him the power of collaborating with and learning from other business owners. His later success was, in large part, to the fact that he surrounded himself with other entrepreneurs.

And that was because many of them have gone through challenges and crises before. They made mistakes, but they also made winning choices. So Dan Lok was able to skip a lot of the errors and do what worked instead.

So a little known, but effective team motivation strategy is to experience it for yourself in a group like Dragon 100. High-level entrepreneurs that gather there learn and grow alongside you, no matter what.

The other benefit of belonging to a group of like-minded people is that you can finally talk freely. You can share your challenges, worries, and concerns without holding back. Why? Because they understand. They are either or have gone through the same things.

Team Motivation: Be a Leader They Can Follow

Even though the world is facing unprecedented times, with a growth-oriented mindset, a team you care about, and the right strategies, your business will be stronger than ever. So, in summary, here are the ten strategies we’ve discussed in this article:

Prioritize your team’s safety over anything else.
Assure your team that they are not alone in scary times.
Address your team’s concerns and encourage them to come to you.
Harness your team’s intrinsic desire to participate.
Train and empower your team to make the right decisions.
Show your team that you are thinking about the long-term and that it includes them.
Reach out to your team members often so that they don’t feel lost.
Be the kind of leader your team is proud to follow.
Put systems and processes in place so that you prepare for the future.
Join and grow with a group of high-level, successful business owners and entrepreneurs.