Patience is the key to success to people who are starting their own business, or business owners themselves. It is true that time is your constant companion but never works at the paste at which you’d like.

The people who are starting their own business often gets frustrated because they want things happen now as they had planned. However, rushing never helps.

For example, you just started your own website, and you spend hundreds of dollars advertising your website. But you are missing the main point – the quality of content on your website, or the quality of products you carry. Your prospects visit your website and leave shortly after. If you run a blog, your visitors need to see things that can turn into values into their lives. If you are selling your products you need to convince your prospects so they can become customers. You might carry great products but that’s not enough to convince your prospects. Adding quality content such as “live demo”, or gather “testimonials” should be your primary focus before focusing on marketing. You need patience for people to spread postive feedbacks about your products. You need patience to find the right employees. [Read more]

There are some things that will stop your business idea, no matter how wonderful it is. These are the costly rough spots that you would rather conceal from the business analyst or banker. Hiding the information will only bring you and everyone you deal with frustration. Your best strategy is to get any deal breakers onto the table and mitigate them early – the sooner the better. In case any of these apply to you, here they are:

1. 100% Financing.
Sure, you and I have heard about those folks who manage to get it. It doesn’t happen that often; more often it’s a deal breaker. Would you invest your savings in someone who apparently doesn’t have the guts or the capacity to invest in themselves?

2. Bad Attitude.
There are entire books written on this topic. The real difficultly with this deal breaker is that most polite folks will not tell you that you suck – instead they will go quietly about taking their business elsewhere. It’s not the responsibility of bankers, employees or customers to create our approach to others. We are each responsible to manage our own attitude.

[Read more]

Building up a network of diverse people is very helpful for any business. Contacts with different clusters or groups would help you possibility of greater opportunities. A closed group of contacts will not let you this kind of exposure.

The more diverse the network is the better it would be. Your networking should cut across the geographical boundaries. When you attend group meetings, collect the business cards of other people. Meeting people frequently could help you to could bring you business.

Networking would help you to expand your contact list. This could help you to expand your sales base. It could also bring you in touch with different requirements help you to diversify your business.

However busy you are you should give importance to networking.. It is important to create a lasting first impression on people whom you meet. The impression you create will bring you greater business opportunities. You should always try to keep in touch will the contacts you have developed.

You should help people in your network. This would not only bring you goodwill but also business. If a person has a product to sell, giving him the contact number of a person who needs the product will help you in the long run.

You should identify ways and means to improve your networking. You should view networking and relationship building as a continuous process. Networking aids the growth of your business and expands your horizon. It would aid you in creating new products and expanding your knowledge.

If you are a professional you should seek new ideas and pastures that would help you to grow. If you are attending a networking meeting, be well prepared. Think in advance as to what kind of people you are going to interact with. When you meet people, you find out what their requirements are and whether you can fulfill them.

The purpose of business planning is to prove or disprove your business case.

Scary as that might sound, it’s as simple as making sure your business will draw enough customers to pay enough money for your products or services to enable your business and you to survive and perhaps even

What’s proof to some may not be proof to others. While absolute proof is hard to come by, there are many ways to strengthen or weaken your business case. The stronger your case, the more confident you will be in your business idea. Your confidence will come about as a result of a number of things you do. The important thing is to use building blocks that make sense to you, and to those you may be trying to romance with your business plan.

Newbies tend to experience uncertainty at the beginning of any business venture. A business plan provides an opportunity for you to gain confidence in your ideas. In other words, prove it to yourself and you will be in a better position to convince others.

Here is a glimpse of how it works. Imagine you have $100,000 and I am trying to entice you to invest it in my hot new business idea; selling laptop computers to polar bears.

• When I first mention my business idea, you might think I’m crazy and set your browser to block my emails.
• If I back my claim up with letters of support from the Northern Polar Bear Association, you might be curious enough to want to know more.
• If I show you written orders for 20 laptops, signed by furry bad-breathed polar bears, you might start returning my phone calls.
• If I increase the number of orders to 100 and include a couple of long-term contracts with established retailers in polar bear country, you might take me more seriously. You might even Google me, my ancestors, polar bears (your misdirected search for “bare laptops”, proves to be nasty!).
• If I provide you with credible financial projections that detail how you can earn a staggering return on your investment over the next 18 months, you might consider the case “proven” and lunge for your chequebook.

The business plan is an opportunity to build your business case, step by logical step. By the time you get through it you will either have proven your business case, or not. Prove it and you may be ready to go into business. If you can’t prove it, don’t give up your day job just yet.

“Conflict” is a word that can have varying degrees of severity, meaning, and implication for each individual or circumstance. For example, the conflict that is experienced in our current, daily lives seems insignificant in comparison to the Samurai, or those in war, who faced death on a regular basis. However, it is still important to extrapolate the significant lessons that have been derived from such severe scenarios, as these notions are still applicable in the conflict that we experience
in the workplace and life today.

Conflict is unavoidable, as each individual has unique and differing thoughts, ideas,
and opinions. Therefore, it is important to learn ways to minimize and manage this
difficulty, in order to ensure efficient and harmonious interactions. This article
provides the genesis of a personal path, introducing tools and ways to minimize and
manage conflict, while pointing to the origin of these concepts. After an overview of
these modern and ancient approaches, a discussion will follow on applying successful
tools and techniques for managing conflict. These ideas can be used to help clear the
mind for better decision-making, and consequently, ensure a personal pathway to
success.

New approaches to ancient concepts

Profound strategies and lessons to minimize and manage conflict have been around
for thousands of years in forms such as the classic Chinese texts the “Book of Change
– Tao de Ching” and the “Art of War”. Today, modern legends including Stephen
Covey (“7 Habits for Highly Effective People”) and Dale Carnegie present similar
corporate and personal tools. As many know the “7 Habits” is not a group of new
concepts, but age-old approaches to success and conflict management, represented in
a way that can be clearly applied to modern day personal and corporate development.

Discovering the origin & foundation of concepts

Although many of the true ancient concepts have been exaggerated or misused
through incorrect interpretations, they can be applied in non-extreme forms relevant to
the modern day from such arts as: Zen (which is not a religion, but a path for self
discovery and growth), the “Art of War” by Sun Tzu (the classic text on strategy
which is often regarded as the most definitive text on the topic), and the Tao de Ching
(the “book of change”). These all provide profound lessons for leadership, change,
success, peace of mind and conflict management.

A workplace example – an tense group meeting debating a topic

If one has to enter a meeting with a number of staff peers on a topic that is likely to
require an intense debate, a strategy can be put into place to help provide a successful
outcome (this should be combined with the other approaches outlined below). For
example, one can approach the members of the meeting individually prior to the
meeting to convey your preferred position. Once the meeting has started you will
hopefully already have likely confrontational people already “on-side” to achieve
your desired outcome in a non-confrontational way.

The Key to Managing Conflict: bringing it all together, and applying it today

All the above methods (old and new) are about changing core behavior and
approaches, in order to avoid conflict and simultaneously achieve personal success.

As Sun Tzu states:

“If you know yourself and know others – you will be successful.

If you know others and not yourself, you will win one and lose one.

If you do not know others and do not know yourself, you are destined for failure in
every battle.”

These are core values, and far more important than putting band-aids on problems, or
approaching things with simply a short-term change. In regard to the ancient
philosophies, they of course must be interpreted, and applied, using case studies and
real world examples in a context that matches the modern corporate world. Applied
Zen (www.AppliedZen.com) is a company that provides workshops, and
downloadable videos online, regarding these exact topics with a unique approach.
This is achieved through implementation of physical interaction drills to reinforce the
concepts covered in workshop presentations. Studies have shown that learning
conflict management based on physical as well as mental practice greatly increases
the participants’ retention, and consequently, aids in implementation (more than 2 to 3
fold improvement).

Aggressive escalation of conflict

Conflict is derived from many circumstances, but quite regularly it can be escalated
because of a person’s approach to the situation. In the Japanese language, there are
two words that help to describe this: aiki and kiai. These words are derived from the
same two characters, and are simply reversed to convey an opposite meaning. Kiai is
a form of showing intensity and channelling it towards an individual, and in the
martial arts ‘kiai’ is a very loud, expulsion of air and voice to intimidate or scare an
opponent. Aiki is the opposite of head-to-head approaches and allows one to avoid
escalating conflict (hence the martial art “Aiki-do”). Yet the approach still
incorporates assertiveness a key attribute in any successful negotiation. Consider for
a moment which concept would be most beneficial in dealing with conflict in a
meeting at work or your personal life: kiai, or aiki?

“Show softness yet engage the opponent with hardness. Show weakness yet
engage with fluid strength”

Obviously aiki is more practical, and will produce a more desired outcome. If we
listen with the intent to understand – not to respond, if we get all our thoughts together
before we confront another person, we can strategically work with someone to
maintain our own balance and not produce antagonism in the person with whom we
are dealing.

“Reaching a centered state, so I can perform at my best”

Having an open mind, and a relaxed physical and mental state will ensure I have an
approach which is non-confrontational and provide a first step to maganging or
avoiding conflict. An approach of aligning your thoughts and actions, and taking a
moment to breathe and release tension, will create a more relaxed state within
yourself as well as the person you are dealing with. This approach will enable you to
convey your points in a way that your opponent will be unable to avoid or refuse.
Settling oneself creates a calm and open mind: you are able to listen, think, and
respond (in this order), and this is positively received by others. If you are able to
settle yourself at any point (i.e. before, during, or after you feel aggression arising),
others will respond to your calm, open mind, and it will put them into the same
relaxed state. In various physical arts the importance of relaxed upper body, a low
center of gravity and appropriate breathing creates this state. Zen and other conflict
relevant arts have such Japanese terms such as “mushin”, “mizu no kokoro” and using
the “hara” (stomach area) for creating and optimal physical state for mental
performance.

Conflict within oneself – perhaps the most important conflict to understand
Lessons such as “trying to defend/attack too many areas at once leaves the troops
divided and weak” from Sun Tzu can be translated to an individual. Just as Stephen
Covey asks, “How thin can you spread yourself before you are no longer there?”.
Applying such lessons to your life today can have a profound impact on personal
conflict – don’t take on more than you can handle, or you will begin to sacrifice the
very essence of who you are. Although it is not direct conflict between two people, it
is still relevant. If you have conflict within yourself, you are destined to have conflict
with others. You will understand that conflict is not merely the apparent external
problems – it also involves each individual and his/her conflicts within.

Sharpen the sword…
This article provides and introduction to some of the methods and principles used in
Applied Zen corporate training (www.AppliedZen.com). Businesses and individuals
everywhere are using these philosophies to manage conflict more effectively and to
achieve success. Therefore, it is essential to train one’s skills & endure ongoing
development. As the ancient Samurai saying states, “Continuously sharpen the sword,
or it will go blunt!”

Definition of Conflict, Merriam/Webster Dictionary: 1: FIGHT, BATTLE, WAR, 2 a: competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as
of divergent ideas, interests, or persons) b: mental struggle resulting from
incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes, or external or internal demands
3: the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama
or fiction

Copyright 2005 – Dr. Jason Armstrong and Dana Buchman