“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.” — Frank Wilczek

Do you ever experiment by pushing yourself to the complete max? Do you challenge yourself to your full potential?

I noticed something interesting the other day. I found that I’m not pushing myself the same way that I used to in the past. When I was in school, I studied full-time, worked full-time hours, maintained a relationship, and trained religiously. Now without school, I figured that I would work harder on my other projects. The result is more free time and less results.

This is why I wanted to touch upon the topic of challenging yourself to the complex maximum that you can go physically and mentally.

How can you push yourself to the max?

1. Do what nobody else wants to do.
2. Don’t be afraid of work.
3. Pick up new clients.
4. Train in the morning.
5. Wake up an hour earlier.
6. Take an evening course.
7. Tighten up your diet.
8. Learn a new skill.
9. Overcome a previous fear.

What can you do if you feel overwhelmed?

• Cut something out of your schedule.
• Take a nap.
• Sleep more.
• Eat better.
• Cut out the caffeine.

I don’t want you to burn out. I hope that these tips help you prevent burn out and losing your motivation. I want you to push yourself to the max without losing your mind.

Are you ready to start challenging yourself to the complete max?

One of the challenges about resolving issues in excel is that there are usually so many different ways to resolve a given problem. It’s all about understanding the exact need and trying to find an optimal solution that will be:

-As easy as possible to create and modify later on
-Quick and efficient to use
-As light as possible
-etc

In this case, I received an email from a reader that had a challenge. I will simply show you a screenshot of the file that he sent and you will get the idea:

Interestingly, there are similarities between this problem and the golf scoring problem that I discussed recently. The main difference which makes it much more difficult is that the number of possible results is unlimited. That makes it challenging on many levels and makes it impossible to use a simple vlookup. I wasn’t quite sure how to tackle this specific problem. As is always the case, using a macro was certainly an interesting option. Using a nested if statement could have worked, or even a combination of a few of those but given the number of posssible outcomes, it would be very difficult to work with, and even more tricky to modify later on. Why?

Imagine using an If(xxx,y,if(xxx,y,if(xxx,……. Etc)

This would have gone on and on. My next reflex was to ask the reader if this would be used for multiple lines at a time. If so, that would make things even more difficult. Thankfully, in this specific case, it was going to be done one at a time. This meant that I could simply verfiy (with a nested if statement for each line if that specific answer was the correct one.

In O2 I added:

=IF(AND($F$4>M2,$F$4M2,$F$4

And you can download the spreadsheet of course:)

Where does new business come from?  If you are a business owner, where do you find new clients and customers?   If you are considering going the entrepreneurial route, how do you plan to generate new business?

In a small business, there are generally two-types of client models: 1) relying on volume; or 2) relying on a few good clients/customers.  Of course I’m simplifying.  Also, the ideal would be to have both volume and consistency.

Volume Business

If you’re in a volume business such as me, there is always a concern as to where the new business will come from.  You have to actively seek referrals, hope for repeat business, and implement other strategies for finding new targets.  But relying on these methods can be stressful.  You have to hope that new business will continue to be generated, but you never know when your phone will ring or a prospective client will shoot you an email.  I equate this to the “rain dances,” of native american and other agrarian cultures.  I market, set up my website, write articles, and hope for referrals, but at the end of the day I’m still left praying to the business gods.

Focusing on a few Key Clients/Customers

There seems to be more security in having a few good clients/customers who retain you on a monthly basis.  For instance, I own a professional service firm and most of my clients are individuals rather than businesses.  Once I complete a transaction for my client, it’s over.  My brethren who have solid industrial/business clients, however, are often called upon on a weekly or monthly basis.  So long as they keep their clients, they don’t have to worry as much about where their next meal is coming from.  The danger here, of course, is an over-reliance upon a few key clients.  If one (or two) of them should leave, you might find your entire business is irreparably harmed.

The Middle-ground

One of the great things about a professional services business (i.e. doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.) is that success begets more success.  The more clients I have, the more (potential) referral sources I can count on to potentially bring in new business.  If I have a roster of only 40 clients (past and present), then I am limited compared to someone who has 1,000 (past and present) clients.  If you are just starting out (like me), then no matter how good of a job you do, very little of your new business will be generated by present or past clients—-which are the best source of referrals in most fields.

That’s why I am more proactive than other people in my industry with trying to find other sources of referrals.  I take people in my industry (or related industries) to lunch.  I try to speak at events or take on leadership positions in local clubs, professional groups, etc.

Nobody is Coming to the Rescue

One of my mentors told me he used to keep a sign on his desk that said: “nobody is coming to the rescue (perhaps and old Brian Tracy line).”  In the early days of his business, with a family at home counting on him and little contacts starting out, he knew it was on him.  Indeed, nobody was coming to the rescue.

I find myself thinking about that line quite often.  During the times when I am sitting around waiting for the telephone to ring rather than working on activities that will increase the odds of that happening, I see the blunt truth in that statement.

If you have a few great clients, you can’t allow yourself to be complacent.  As they say, desperation is a bad cologne.  If you wait until you need to find new clients (because your old ones left), it may be too late.

At the same time, having a few pillar clients can’t hurt—–particularly in a volume business where there will be up and down months.  Some consistency can help a business stay the course during a rough patch.

I know two attorneys who specialized only in real estate transactions.  For twenty years, this was a successful and high-volume practice.  Both attorneys lost almost all their real estate business during the Recession.  The one attorney, however, did a little business law and had a few clients to help him weather the storm.  He now does business law and has switched his volume practice to bankruptcy work and real estate transaction.  The other attorney lost his business, worked a while for another firm, and finally retired earlier than he wished to.

Conclusion 

A lot of what I’ve written isn’t anything new.  It’s a matter of common sense.  But it’s also a common sense I have to constantly remind myself to follow.  I hope that, by bringing it to your attention, it helps some of you the way it always helps me in planning my business goals.

Every single time that I go on Facebook I see something new about the benefits of social media. Any time I’m online reading about social media, I read that every business and young professional needs to setup some sort of a random profile on a social media site. Does this sound common?

Do you need to be on social media?

With all of the talk of the importance of social media these days I wanted to dig a little deeper. I’m going to present the benefits and negatives of being on social media and then I’m going to provide you with my final answer.

What are the benefits of being on social media?

• Networking. Most people in your field are on social media. By joining the party you can network with these people.
• Job opportunities. My friend found a dream job on Facebook just because someone had a posting in their company, reached out to him, and liked what he had to offer.
• Connect with old friends. I’m always adding and finding old friends on Facebook. It’s a great way to see what buddies from high school are up to.
• Stay in touch. You can also stay in touch with current friends and cool people that you meet on trips by logging onto Facebook.
• Aim at your target market. If you run a business, you can target your audience online. There’s a diverse bunch of potential customers on Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media that might be interested in what you have to offer.

Those are just the main reasons that I could think of right now. I’m sure that I missed out on a few.

What are the setbacks of social media?

1. Poor judgment. I don’t always have the best judgment. It’s easy to get carried away in your 20s. You have a few drinks, you go on a drunken rant on social media, and you’re automatically labeled as someone with abuse problems. Do you want that?
2. Lose your job. To tie in with the previous point, you can lose your job because of something that you do online. All employers will go online to see what their employees have done and are doing. One of my professors told me that a student lost a job because they posted pictures on Facebook in a revealing outfit when they were looking for a job in child care.
3. Waste of time. The obvious issue with social media is that it has the huge potential to be a colossal waste of time. You go on Facebook, you start chatting and posting useless stuff, and a few hours have passed you by. This is the biggest waste of time.

We all know someone that made one (or all) of these mistakes with social media. This leads to the big question.

Do you have to be on social media?

Nope. You don’t have to be on social media if you’re not comfortable with it. If you don’t understand it, don’t care for it, and don’t want to waste your time on trivial activities, then don’t worry about social media. My advice to you if you want it is to keep on working on what you do best.

Are you on social media?

Today, I am following up on last week’s excel quiz where I challenged all of you to take part in a little test of your understanding of some key excel functions, you can do it here if you have not done so.

Step #1-Download this spreadsheet

To remind you, here are the steps with the answers! This is what the spreadsheet looked like to start off:

Step #2-Using one of the functions described, get the correct number in column “E”. It should be one formula that you can then drag down that will use the correct %. Then, using the chart at the bottom left and the same function, fill out column “F”

=VLOOKUP(D4,$A$15:$B$17,2,FALSE)

=C4*VLOOKUP(D4,$A$14:$C$17,3,FALSE)

Step #3-Calculate the amount to be financed (Selling price – down payment) in column G

=C4-F4

Step #4-Fill out the commission to be paid out to each agent. It should be calculated as follows. They get paid only on the amount to be financed. They actually get paid:

2.5% if that amount is over or equal to $200,000
1.5% if it is lower than $200,000

=IF(G4>200000,F4*0.025,F4*0.015)

Step #5-Using one of the formulas, calculate the correct commission for each seller in cells B22-23

=SUMIF($B$4:$B$12,A22,$H$4:$H$12)

Step #6-Using another one of the formulas, count how many sells each agent made in C22-23

=COUNTIF($B$4:$B$12,A22)

Step #7-The branch has an extra bonus where the bank manager will receive $10,000 for any loan that is over $250,000 with a loan term (amount to be financed) of 20 years or more AND an interest rate of 5% or more. Please enter a formula in I4 that you can drag that will give you the bonus amount for each loan.

=IF(G4>250000,IF(AND(D4>=20,E4>=0.05),10000,0),0)

That’s it:) Here is what the answer looks like:

You can also download the answer here:)