Chat Log: NLP and Small Business Development
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IRC Chat Log, August 2, 1998
| Jonathan | Welcome everybody! I have a number of directions we can go in tonight, and I'm going to start by presenting them... and seeing where YOU want to go with them! Sound good? (y/n)
| follie, finter, thefool, Occam, StefanL, Stile, thefool, MrProzac, tranzpupy, Jakester | y
| Jonathan | OK great! For starters... the idea of using NLP™ in developing a small business isn't particularly ground-breaking... those people who study NLP™ often strive to use NLP™ everywhere in their lives... and to learn how to model excellence wherever they find it. People who start their own little businesses are in pursuit of excellence... they are at the cutting edge of learning how to fend for themselves and pursue financial independence... and small business as a concept is something that typically refers to # of employees, or $ revenues earned per annum, etc. My own experience with Small Business is with two -- the two that I presently run. And I will speak from that perspective. I run Altfeld Computing Solutions, Inc., and the Mastery InSight Institute. Now, both are unique entities, involving different clients, different skills, different projects. And the twain never meet, EXCEPT through my website. When I develop that, I further the intent and aim of both companies. Neat overlap eh? Now. In developing these two companies... I had to go through a lot of changes to handle the business development aspects. I had to forget I have ever heard the statement (common in the corporate world) "Its Not My Job." Because its ALL my Job. So there were some limiting beliefs that had to go right off the bat. Some of which I *knew* about and could do something about using NLP. I could get into the right state, believe FULLY that "Its ALL my job," and INSTALL that mindset inside myself. And then anchor the hell out of it! ;) Could this be useful to you? Have their been times when you needed to feel the above and couldn't muster it? Well, even if you hire people or already have people hired... even if you distribute the labor... if you run a small business... then its ALL your job.
| thefool | Doesn't that make you be a tad bit stressed Jonathan?
| follie | Having been working in my own business for almost 20 years (oops, my age is showing), i've had to do everything myself too - there was never a question of someone else doing it
| Jonathan | And your employees or assistants are there to make your tasks happen while you do other things. Thefool -- a tad bit stressed, thefool?
| thefool | Well I see my father, and he is that type of person, "do it all myself to make sure it runs" type-of-guy, but he is working from 7 am till 8 pm every day...
| Jonathan | Hmmm... let's talk about stress. I think I've mentioned this in one of the chats before. I used to be in architecture school.... and when there, I took a class in civil engineering (building structures). And we learned all about the way materials bend and stretch and strain & then break... we learn about STRESS/STRAIN curves... you see... STRESS is when things are under load. STRAIN is when things are pushed to the breaking point. I perform WELL under stress; I do NOT perform well under strain. So I make sure I'm always out of the STRAIN portion of the curve, as it were. Does that make sense? As for working hours... If you LOVE what you do, then its not "work" -- its play.
| thefool | Yes, Jonathan, so what I say is, ok with the "I do all" installation, but with it a good instalation of delegation skills .. then you know how to do it all, but there is someone else to do it for you... :)
| Jonathan | I agree completely, Mik! Thanks for the clarification! As long as you delegate tasks... you're STILL making sure they happen!
| thefool | Because my father HAS to delegate!
| Jonathan | Yes, this is typical in small businesses. My own are getting to the point where the businesses are expanding. OK. So one direction we can go in is to talk about what qualities and beliefs are useful in someone running a small business. Another direction we can go in... has to do with State Management for the various circumstances we encounter when running a small business. Another direction could be... communication skills with customers/vendors. Another direction could be... how do you manage priorities effectively... Another direction could be... HOW does the INTERNET allow us to use NLP™ to run a better bigger business with less resources? So I open it up to the group to talk it out a little bit.
| thefool | As it seems, the priorities direction will be adequate to start with, having all these directions to choose from .. ;)
| Jakester | I vote for state management or priorities
| follie | I opt for (1) managing priorities (2) state management (3) using the internet and NLP
| Jonathan | Let me run with that! First, I'm REALLY glad you all chose Priorities. You must have your priorities on straight! One of the MOST SIGNIFICANT offerings NLP™ gives to practitioners is the ability to evaluate and set goals better, and PHRASE them more effectively! It comes back to an installation in the 1st DAY of practitioner training... "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Remember that one, Kay? What is your outcome?
| tranzpupy | Yup!
| Jonathan | A guy came up to me and said, I see how easily you anchor people, and I want to stop anchoring so poorly. I go, "what do you want?" He goes, "I want to stop anchoring so poorly." I go, "yeah yeah, I heard that, but what do you want to start doing?" He goes, "I don't understand." I said, "So I noticed." See....
| thefool | COOL!
| Jonathan | People don't tend to express what they want in terms of what they want more of. They usually tell you what they want less of, and what they want to stop doing. Once you get them to start expressing what they want MORE of... then things get easier.
| follie | Ah... not what I don't want, but what I do want
| rondesgr | Ahhhh ::: as a candle flame appears over my head ::
| Jonathan | Now, this is old-hat NLP™ stuff... nothing too groundbreaking here. It may be the first time you have heard this, I understand, but don't think of me as bringing anything innovative THERE.
| thefool | No Jonathan, just lighting up dark rooms that are already formed in my head .. :)
| Jonathan | So, its cool. I say to the guy, "you told me what you want to stop doing. I wanna know what you want to do MORE of." Immediately he says "well I wanna start anchoring more effectively..." and I watch as his eyes just start widening on their own. Its not like he just suddenly learned it all unconsciously or anything (I love that one).... BUT what I think was happening (sue me, I'm mindreading here) was that his brain suddenly starting thinking more clearly about a BETTER direction to aim his thoughts... and his intentions and potential actions suddenly became clearer.
| thefool | Reframing?
| Jonathan | That snot re-blaming, no. When you can get people to STATE THINGS IN THE POSITIVE, s'not as much of a problem anymore. OK.
| tranzpupy | Asking yourself "what do I want" tells you a lot about yourself... ...Gives you a *lot* of information.
| Jonathan | So we have POSITIVELY FRAMED OUTCOMES. And this makes NLPers more skilled than the average person... at... setting and reaching goals for themselves OR for their business. And Asking yourself what you want, and then looking at what you wanted before...
| rondesgr | Got it!
| rondesgr | :: Candle flame replaced by light bulb ::
| Jonathan | This gives the NLPer an edge over Joe Businessman... Because they're more likely to be able to set reasonable goals and reach them!
| tranzpupy | And drop goals that aren't what they really want.
| Dan26 | Attitude is a little thing that makes a big differece ;)
| Jonathan | There will always be 1 NLPer out there who isn't doing it effectively, and there will always be 1 non-NLPer out there doing it better than any NLPer. There are always exceptions. But I find NLPers are better at choosing outcomes. And they're also often highly competent... at the process of clearing away incongruity and setting and maintaining priorities, ya know? Still, we can all learn how to do that better than we can today! Who here runs a small business? Or works in one?
| tranzpupy | Me, but it's not really working yet! I'm still in the prep stages...
| Jonathan | You just started Kay, give yourself a little time!
| StefanL | Me, doing summerjobs relatively independently the last 3-5 years.
| rondesgr | I worked for a small business a few years ago.
| Jonathan | Did you enjoy it Ron? Was it a bit of an education?
| rondesgr | At first... yes, it was definitely an education! Unfortunately, the owner was a salesman, not a businessman.
| thefool | Most of my life, I've been surrounded by small businesses... I think it is time for me to make big business! ;) Attitude wise !!
| Jonathan | Hehheh! Alright. Priorities! Now... let me ask Ron... what percentage of the small business that you worked in... did you have a hand in?
| rondesgr | I was in charge of setting up the service dept of a copier company from the ground up
| Jonathan | Right, and when its from the ground up, you have to have your hand in ALL the cookie jars, right? Even though you're creating a front-of-house department that protects the company from public view.
| rondesgr | As much as the owner would allow. The service dept was very much in the public eye due to servicing the copiers in the field.
| Jonathan | Of course. And there are aspects of the biz that YOUR department protected from public knowledge.
| rondesgr | Oh, yes .. I see
| Jonathan | Alright. So you were involved in quite a bit, though your primary focus was developing your group or department.
| rondesgr | Yes
| Jonathan | You clearly had a lot of different priorities, that you had to balance.
| rondesgr | LOL ... yes!
| Jonathan | And there were probably things that you had to do... INSIDE the company... paperwork related perhaps... that you didn't think had anything significant to do with your primary objectives... Is that an accurate statement? But somehow you knew you still had to do them? This could be paperwork, or schmoozing certain people... or... fixing/maintaining office machinery that perhaps you normally would have nothing to do with?
| rondesgr | Well, there were aspects of the paperwork that I saw as urgent but not critical. Yes, I tried to not spend my time in non-urgent, non-critical areas
| Jonathan | In some cases, in small businesses... (in case anyone wants to intern with me), this can mean picking up the Boss's laundry or walking his dog. Anything could be included in this category. GRIN
| rondesgr | (my resume's on my web site, Jon) LOL!
| Jonathan | LOL! Alright. So there are things that have to happen... that don't fit your primary objectives. Well... What I'm about to describe is not the only way to think about this.
| rondesgr | Yes, there were stepping stones to the primary Objective.
| Jonathan | But it comes down to a practical step by step understanding of your objectives, and a willingness to assign % of timeslots available to each objective. And then an adherence to being willing to put aside primary objectives to handle those little less important things, for the duration of time assigned to those less-important tasks. Now this is where the 7 Habits of Highly Successful people wins bigtime. Covey describes the 4-quadrant system for choosing what to prioritize. Now... that worked for me for a little while... but I stopped. I fell back on a percentage-system customized to each task area. Let me give you an example!!! I spend X # of hours per week on updating my website & posting to the internet. It has been one of my most valuable methods for marketing, no question. So I have decided that THAT area must be kept up. So I have decided that THAT area must be kept up. However! There are also other things that must happen which DO keep the business running but which are less important. Like printing envelope labels for the Institute. Like printing blank fax cover sheets Like taking WALKS and refreshing breaks away from the business, to keep myself FRESH with what I'm doing. ALL of my balancing act is primarily KINO based!
| thefool | Jonathan, but all of those come on a need basis, i.e. when you need them you do them, you dont make time especially for them ...
| follie | Please explain "KINO" jon
| Jonathan | Sure, follie, KINO=Kinesthetic: I put in enough time on a task until I FEEL like I have to get back to a more important task. Even though I know the less important one had to get done. I know my priorities, I remind myself of the percentages of time that I should allot... and I get started on a task... knowing and trusting my unconscious mind will TELL me, SIGNAL me, somehow... that its time to mooooo ve on, and then I can get past the BULL and get back to the primary objectives.
| rondesgr | Jon, I used to set up a mini day within the day for those types of tasks
| Jonathan | Ron -- this is coooool -- a MINI-day within the day for all those types of tasks, eh? Tell me more, Ron! BTW, folks, now we're getting into successful "strategies" in case it weren't, like, um, obvious ;)
| rondesgr | Jonathan, I think it's basically what you're doing. I alloted time to those mundane tasks that had to done. sort of schedule them as an appointment and worked through them for that given amount of time each day without interruptions or deviations (hopefully) :) phone calls had their time, letters had theirs, order entry, record keeping, etc
| Jonathan | My attached FEELING.... is that my PRIMARY business objective will not successfully grow or get closer to fruition *successfully*, with me prepared to handle it.... unless I have kept up those mundane less important things.
| rondesgr | Exactly, that's why I did what I did, and was able to get the department profitable in two years for that startup company.
| Jonathan | So I give & get a Kinesthetic response to whether or not I am growing all areas of the business in Tandem successfully. I cannot ship things out successfully unless I have shipping materials handy. I cannot receive faxes & phone calls and be online concurrently unless I have 3 lines coming into the business. I cannot send faxes quickly and easily unless I have cover sheets available (or unless I fax from the computer, but for a variety of reasons I choose not to do that at the moment). So these are the kinds of balancing acts which are present in any small business developers mind... and I POSIT... I submit to you... that NLP™ training makes a big difference in your ability to manage this balancing act of priorities effectively and with a positive attitude. Can you do it without NLP? Sure. Why would you want to! So... questions, ideas, comments, with respect to priorities? There are SO many possible winning strategies to try on...
| Occam | Why reinvent the wheel when you don't have to.
| rondesgr | Did mine make sense?
| Jonathan | Yes, Ron! Thanks for sharing!
| Occam | Maybe we need to prioritize them. ;-)
| Jonathan | Why not just keep trying some strategies on until you find one that blows the others away! And then, if you have the time later on (from all the time you saved with your new strategy)... why not try a few others. I'm all for finding a winning strategy and sticking with it... but don't assume there isn't another great one out there.
| rondesgr | "Continuous improvement"
| thefool | A litte thingie from thefool: I have this little roll of words in my head with names of things to do, and the top one is the one with the most priority, and as the name shows its a roll, because even what you call mundane priority tasks, gets top priority based on need
| Jonathan | When you have a little time... refine... try a few others out... keep it gRoWing. Thefool, does the roll "look" like something? Can you see more than one word at a time? More detail, but keep it concise.
| thefool | I see the main thing that I need to do next, in red, and the word of whatever is after that under it, and if I want to know more things I need to do, then I scroll down ... But when I finish something, the words on the roll change place according to what is needed. Again its based on a need basis/time.
| Jonathan | OK. Neat! So is this a display you have thats transparent over everything else you see?
| thefool | You can say so, its in the top side of my view area ... (like a curtain roll over a window)
| Jonathan | Even more neat. OK, Mik, what I want to know now is... how has this technique made you amazingly successful at what you do? Or has it not done that? If you're sharing it with me, I'm only going to want to try it on, if you're describing something that's been an amazing benefit to you.
| thefool | Well amazingly enough, I always get to do what I need to do in time... leaving me time for what I want to do, and time to get bored too! hehe
| Jonathan | Always? Really? Never faltering? ;) Just kidding.
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