The Stakeholder Quadrant

In The Fourth Moon, I introduce Tom and his team to the Stakeholder Quadrant.

The Stakeholder Quadrant includes four groups:

1.    Customers
2.    Employees
3.    Shareholders
4.    Suppliers

What’s really interesting about these four groups is how they each uniquely influence your business.

Successful business owners adopt a fanatical and fastidious dedication to understanding each of these stakeholder groups. They invest in building greater relationships together on a win-win basis that delivers leverage to both parties.

Here’s a quick run-down on recommended tactics for each of the Stakeholders.

Customers

In the B2B world, in which most of us live, customers don’t want to do business with ‘businesses’ they want to do business with ‘people’.   

Establishing relationships based on integrity and trust is critical. To do this you need to listen to your customers and help them achieve their dreams or avoid their fears. This takes time and guts.

Act in a way that converts your customers into raving fans. Walking billboards.

Employees

Employees are the lifeblood of any business.

If you engage, empower and reward your employees they will play a bigger game for you.

Explain to them your top goals – your Mission Goals - and get their buy in on helping you achieve them.

Provide them with their top goals – their Crew Goals – and educate them on how delivering on their Crew Goals leads to the achievement of the business’ Mission Goals. Promise them that you will appraise them and remunerate them based on delivery of these goals.

Retention of existing talent and attraction of new talent will follow.

Shareholders

Ensure that shareholders wear an independent ‘hat’ in assessing the business, asking questions and providing feedback.

Be timely and generous in management reporting and sharing information.

Even if you work operationally in the business and own the business, adopt the habit of wearing two hats. An ‘operational hat’ and a ’shareholder hat’.

Under your shareholder hat, think about the business objectively as an investor and ask questions around commerciality, risk, profitability and ROI. 

Focus on transparency, objectivity and commerciality.

Suppliers

Often forgotten as the fourth member of the Stakeholder Quadrant, the humble supplier should be seen as an inverse customer relationship. You are the customer to your supplier.

Like your customers, you want absolute commitment from your suppliers. You want guaranteed supply of the best products and services. At the best price. On the best terms. 

You want suppliers that can bring you a competitive edge. Suppliers that help you add value to your customer relationships.

Aim to build long-term relationships with suppliers. Treat them with respect, communicate with them and pay them on time. Share your vision and needs with them. Ask for their help.

View suppliers as part of your business model and nurture these relationships.

How to optimize the Stakeholder Quadrant

I encourage you to appoint a Custodian within your business. 

One for each Stakeholder. Four in total.

Choose a Custodian that is the best person suited to the stakeholder group. Ask team members to nominate themselves or others as Custodians. Generally, the most suitable Custodian will be obvious.

Each Custodian is responsible for the culture of their stakeholder. Your entire team must commit to supporting the Custodian.

Custodians should report periodically to the team in Monthly Team Meetings (or quarterly at a minimum) on current stakeholder sentiment.

Adopt the Stakeholder Quadrant methodology in your business now.

For more on this and other strategies to transform your business, learn more about my digital e-coaching course Fourth Moon Mastery here

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Don't let Black Clouds & Dream Takers steal your Chi

Chi is a Chinese word meaning life force energy or life breath. Keeping your Chi healthy and protected is a vital success strategy, not just in life but in business.

Black Clouds are those people around you that are constantly negative. These people dwell and feed on negativity and cynicism. 

Dream Takers are those people that diminish, shut down or doubt your big ideas. When you share your dreams their eyes glaze over, their face becomes cast with doubt and their tone changes. They are astonished that you would even consider such an idea. 

Stop allowing Black Clouds and Dream Takers to steal your Chi.

So who are these Black Clouds & Dream Takers?

They are in business. They can be a difficult business partner that isn’t so much glass half empty but rather ‘glass smashed against brick wall’. They might be the silent saboteur employee who hijacks your strategy. Or that passive aggressive customer you just can’t please. Maybe even that sarcastic supplier that bemoans your smallest request.

They are family and friends. Family and friends can often be damaging through influencing your dreams and aspirations. The ‘Doubting Thomas’ who is always vocal about the negatives when discussing your ideas claiming “Why would you do that?” and “That will never work”. The “Eternal Worrier” who offers nothing constructive but a series of agonizing ‘oohs and aahs’ accompanied by pained expressions. “I just think it’s a bit risky” they offer without any questions or comprehension of your idea. And finally the ‘Not Interested’ who never asks you anything about your business or acknowledges your victories. Their monk-like silence and complete lack of interest can impact you without them even uttering a word.

How does this impact you?

More than you think.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, constant exposure to these Black Clouds and Dream Takers can be toxic. In fact, exposure to them at critical times in your life can impact your Chi so detrimentally that they take you down with them.

How do you know if the Black Clouds and Dream Takers are affecting you?

Typical signs are these. You feel anxious before seeing them. You experience physiological changes when in their company such as shortness of breath, heartburn or anxiety. You feel severely drained of energy or mildly depressed after seeing them. You may feel frustration or anger that strikes you as out of character when compared to your normal demeanor.  

At worst, you may even begin to doubt the validity of your ideas, dreams and self-worth.

What should you do about Black Clouds and Dream Takers?

The short answer is to cease, limit and control your contact with them.

Consider to cease contact immediately with any parties that are highly toxic. People that are passively aggressive, abusive or overtly negative towards you have no place in your life. This is a big call but you need to remove yourself from them. 

Often family or long-term friends can play this game. And you are tired of it. When you don’t want to cut yourself off from them, I suggest you limit your contact. This can be done surreptitiously without drama. One tactic is to set a time limit for your catch up before departing. Another might be to simply stretch out the frequency of meeting up together. For particularly challenging family and friends, perhaps birthdays and Christmas.

And finally, I suggest you practice how to control your contact with them. This could include the forum in which you meet – meeting in a group, doing an activity together (movie) or choosing a neutral venue. It also includes moderating conversation and deciding to not discuss particular topics, or politely but assertively shutting down conversations when they drift in to Black Cloud or Dream Taker territory.   

You dreams, aspirations and big ideas are too precious to surrender or have them torn down by Black Clouds and Dream Takers.

Don’t let them steal your Chi

Next time you feel this happening, close your eyes and repeat the following mantra three times.

I deny you access to my sovereign being. You do not influence or control me.

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Have you just bought a job?

How do you assess what you earn as a business owner?

Is it the salary you pay yourself? Or is it the cash drawings you make? Or is it business profit?

What should you base it on and how should you assess it?

Understanding how to analyze your business earnings is really important. If you don’t assess this properly, how can you accurately determine if you are running a successful business?

Market Salary

Regardless of what type of business entity structure your accountant put you into, you need to compare ‘apples and apples’.

Most owners work operationally full-time in their business. So let’s assume that most of you are working in a senior management role.

Regardless of how you take out money from the business for tax purposes, the first step is to look at recognizing a market salary for your operational role. 

Your market salary is the salary that you would pay to an arms-length person to fulfill your operational role. For example, if you are General Manager and the market salary you would pay someone else to fulfill that role is $200,000, then that is how it should be assessed.

It doesn’t mean you have to pay yourself the $200,000.

It just means that you should deduct ‘on paper’ a market salary for yourself of $200,000 as an expense to assess your business profitability ‘after your market salary’.

If you have other family members that work operationally in the business; you should analyze profit after deducting notional market salaries for them on the same basis.

Business Profit

So now you’ve assessed your business profit after deducting a market salary for you and other family members working operationally in the business.

Now I want you to look at the remaining business profit as a percentage of total revenue.

Let’s assume that many businesses have annual sales revenue of between $1M and $10M.

For businesses with annual sales revenue between $3M and $5M I like these businesses to earn a business profit of between $300,000 and $500,000. 

For businesses with annual sales revenue between $5M and $10M I like these businesses to earn a business profit of between $500,000 and $1,000,000. 

These are of course just guides and vary based on size, industry, and margins experienced by your business. 

This is, of course, AFTER you have deducted a market salary.

Market salary is what you should be paid for your operational role. This has NOTHING to do with owning a business.

Business profit is the commercial return on the business. This has EVERYTHING to do with owning a business.

I’ve met business owners (husband & wife) that don’t pay themselves a salary tell me that their business makes a profit of $240,000. Upon analysis of their roles, it becomes apparent that their market salaries for key management roles are $120,000 each. When we deduct these two market salaries from the $240,000 they discover that they are actually not making any profit from the business.

They have just bought a job!

Alternately, many of my clients like to draw a market salary and use this for living expenses. They then withdraw business profits periodically for investment purposes. This methodology quarantines money into two categories. One for living and one for investment. This is a Fourth Moon discipline that leverages their success.

Make sure that you are receiving both a market salary for your operational role AND a commercial return for your investment, risk, and skill for owning the business.

And make sure that you haven’t just bought a job.

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Three Ninja Tactics to leverage your Big Ideas

How often do you find yourself daydreaming and a Big Idea pops into your head? Or you might wake up at 3am with your mind racing thinking about a business opportunity.

What do you do when this happens?

More importantly, what do you do to make your Big Ideas come to life?

Project Board

Whether a melody to the next big hit, the plot to a blockbuster movie or a tweak to your business model. Big ideas must be captured.

Or they just float away. Never to return.

Whatever you do, just write it down. I have notepads in my car, office and satchel. Just make sure you WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE it goes. These ideas tend to disappear faster than last week’s pay. They simply float in and float out of your mind.

That’s where you must establish a Project Board.

A Project Board is simply a list of your Big Ideas. Your potential projects. 

I don’t care whether you capture these Big Ideas in the notes function of your phone, on an app, saved in a Word doc or spreadsheet, scrawled in a notepad or written in red lipstick on your bathroom mirror. Please just write them down in one place.

I have a Project Board in my office. I find it helpful to reflect on it and muse on what I might tackle next.

Clusters

‘Clusters’ are the different revenue streams that I hope to generate from my Big Ideas. They can be new products or services you’d like to offer. They might be a start up business. You might want to buy a business. They can be a creative project. 

I treat a Cluster as a Big Idea that might generate six figures of revenue or more per annum. That is, $100,000 or more each year.

Of course, whether these Big Ideas will or won’t generate any revenue is academic at this point in time.

90 Day Action Plans

So now I’ve captured my Big Ideas on my Project Board.

I’ve thought about my Big Ideas in terms of Clusters of annual revenue.

Next I decide what Big Idea I want to work on to create a potential Cluster over the next 90 Days.

Once I choose the Big Idea to try and make into a Cluster, I create a 90 Day Action Plan. This 90 Day Action Plan lists all the activities and actions I will attend to over the next quarter in relation to one specific Big Idea. I create a spreadsheet with descriptions, comments outlining actions and deadlines.

Of course, some Big Ideas can’t be completed in just 90 days. However, by putting a short-term timeframe around your activity you force yourself to push through the ‘heart’ of the work to see if the idea has merit. 

At the end of the 90 Days, you may have finished the project and can implement it into your business life and attempt to create a new Cluster of revenue. Alternatively, you may not have been able to complete the project and decide to push on based on the encouraging progress made in your 90 Day Action Plan. Or sometimes, you discover that the Big Idea doesn’t have merit and is unlikely to create a Cluster so you drop it.

Start leveraging your Big Ideas

The power of these ninja tactics is that you work on four Big Ideas each year in addition to your existing business. Ideas that don’t fly are dropped.

But what if just one of these Big Ideas is born and creates a six-figure Cluster?

And next year you get to start working on four new Big Ideas.

So start bringing your Big Ideas to life. Introduce additional revenue streams to your business model and diversify risk. 

Just don’t leave your big Ideas in bed. Or left on the side of the highway while daydreaming. Or on the train. 

But I can assure you of one thing.

Something will happen. And it could be big!

Let me know what’s on your Project Board and what Big Idea you want to tackle in the next 90 days?

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

The Busy Fool

Readers of The Fourth Moon may recall the parable of The Busy Fool.

A number of people have mentioned to me that they have recognized attributes of The Busy Fool in themselves. I always reassure them that, if we are being completely honest with ourselves, that we have all been The Busy Fool at different stages of our careers.

The trick is to identify the archetype when we see it appear and banish it. Better still, ask others to call out The Busy Fool when they see it in us.

An extract from The Fourth Moon below reminds us of parable of The Busy Fool.

"The Busy Fool keeps himself constantly busy so he never has to see who he really is. The Busy Fool spends years toiling away. He doesn't have to think, plan or develop a strategy. He just does. He doesn't truly help others, foster relationships or invest in other people. He is an island. An island that never stops working. He can't be queried, challenged or attacked for his autocratic style, grumpy demeanor and emotionless state. It would be like attacking Mother Teresa. How can you attack someone that works so hard and so selflessly? What a man."

"But one day The Busy Fool loses his business, gets sick or has to retire. The Busy Fool returns home to his empty house. His second wife left him. His kids know him only as a stranger. He doesn't have any real friends because he was always working. Worse still, he doesn't have any hobbies and interests as these were never developed over 40 years of work. But hang on says The Busy Fool, I have an amount of money that you couldn’t climb over in a lifetime. Unfortunately, The Busy Fool has no family to share it with, friends to spend it with nor hobbies and interests to spend it on. So sad. Just 18 months after stopping work, The Busy Fool dies as an unhealthy lonely man. At his funeral, attended largely by business acquaintances, the priest delivers the eulogy with no family or close friend to deliver it. The priest says he worked hard and was wealthy. No one cries. The coffin leaves. The end."

The principle of the parable.

Don’t be The Busy Fool.

It may seem counterintuitive but don’t create a level of busyness that blocks out opportunity. I see executives that can’t have a meeting for six weeks. Business owners that can never find time for professional or personal development. Entrepreneurs who constantly work sixty plus hours per week can create a vacuum where nothing, or no one, can get in.

Busyness is a form of laziness. 

Being constantly busy allows you to never have to truly face your pressing headaches. Think about that. You can’t meet with your challenging customer because your schedule is full. Can’t see the lawyer to tackle those issues around your terms. Unable to see one of your key team members to discuss their frustrations. 

Being constantly busy also blocks you from seizing opportunities. Can’t hire that new talent because you haven’t got time to interview. Unfortunately can’t meet your key supplier to hear about an emerging supply chain opportunity. No time for that gun website developer either unfortunately. 

You just can’t meet that person because you’re just too…err…busy.

Right?

This is limiting and self-destructive behavior that simply won’t allow you to reach your potential. 

Remember also that The Busy Fool might not be you. It could be a business partner or key team member. Once identified, you must discuss this with The Busy Fool sensitively and soon. If you don’t, you all lose.

A smart business owner once told me to keep 10-20% (Say 4-8 hours of your working week) of your capacity free on a rolling basis as a minimum. This available capacity allows spontaneous allocation of your time to dealing with both pressing headaches and emerging opportunities.

Do you currently have four to eight hours of capacity as a minimum free each week? 

And what were the most recent headaches spontaneously dealt with or new opportunities scheduled to be explored?

To understand the 28 steps to sustainable success through my digital training program Fourth Moon Mastery, click here

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Flossing & Success Habits

I want to let you in on a secret. I find it really hard to floss. I have an aversion to it. My gums bleed, it hurts and it feels altogether weird. 

In short, I hate it. Some people hate flying, hospitals and clowns. I dislike flossing.

Or at least I did back then.

In the past, I had to endure being reminded by my dentist each visit how important it is and all the really good reasons why I should do it. 

And up until recently, I ignored it. 

Frustrated by my inability to overcome my aversion to flossing, I decided to book an appointment with a dental hygienist.

At my initial visit with the dental hygienist, I recall it being very uncomfortable, painful, invasive and took a long time. The dental hygienist was very patient and politely suggested I make a habit of flossing.

She even gave me some floss to take home.

Determined to break this aversion to flossing, I booked in to see her again in six months as I was walking out of her clinic.

My goal was simply to floss more often. To start.

But how?

The tactic I adopted was to put the floss in my bathroom cabinet in front of my contact lens case. Each night, I would then have to reach past the floss to pick up my contact lens case and place my contact lenses in before going to bed.

This I thought would act as a daily trigger to prompt me to think about flossing and hopefully execute.

So what happened next?

At first nothing. The tactic failed miserably. The awkward thought of flossing was still greater than the desire to adopt the new habit.

But the daily trigger of reaching past the floss to pick up my contact lens case continued.

And then one day I picked up the floss and flossed. Two days later I flossed again.

I’d broken the deadlock.

Of course I’d be tired and miss nights. And like any new habit I’d fall back. But the positioning tactic reminded me each day by bringing the habit back to the forefront of my mind.

Slowly but surely I would floss. Several nights each week.

And what’s happened since?

I went back for my six-monthly visit to see the dental hygienist and was surprised at how easy, painless and quick my next visit was. She was very complimentary on the state of my teeth and gums. The Dentist also came in for a quick check of my teeth, smiled and gave me the all clear. 

This of course validated my adoption of the habit of flossing.

So what can we learn about success habits from flossing?

Quite a lot I think.

I had a deep-seated aversion to flossing so I introduced a strategy around how I would adopt it. I changed things up by booking an appointment with the dental hygienist. I accepted the floss that she gave me with a promise to her that I would try and floss more often. 

I adopted a key tactic that would act as a trigger each day by positioning the floss in the bathroom cabinet. A daily physical reminder to floss. 

I was open to adopting a new habit and forgave myself when I failed knowing that I would be brought back by the trigger on a daily basis. 

The other key tactic used was to book my next visit with the dental hygienist literally upon walking out of my appointment. I didn’t leave the re-scheduling of the next appointment to chance. This placed an onus on me that I would be going back and there would be inbuilt accountability when she checked on my progress. 

Combining the micro strategy of introducing a sequence of small incremental changes on a daily basis with the macro six-monthly strategy of the dental hygienist visit was critical.

And while I don’t floss 365 days a year, I floss more days than I miss. 

I still aim to make this a daily habit and I am optimistic in achieving this goal. I have a strategy and I have implemented it. 

I’d love to hear what challenge you’ve had in adopting a new success habit on my blog or on social media. 

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke