Week 3- Total Solutions and Trends

Total Solutions

All good businesses recognize that they are providing a solution to a clients problem - not just a product or service. Having a desire to solve peoples problems by providing a genuine solution is powerful and your success is linked to your belief in this concept, period. The days of doing “just enough” are behind us and you can’t hope to climb out of the pile of competitors unless you address this. There is a clear way to test – ask yourself, “Do I constantly strive to be the best at what I do or are am I happy to simply avoid failure day to day?


What is the cost of ignorance? It could be your entire business.

Trends are the external forces at work day in and day out, regardless of how well you are running your business

“What are the short and long term trends in my industry and what are they telling me? “

As the business owner, you must be aware of these trends. Not only aware, but ready and able act on your instinct to ensure your long term survival. Think about the effect the ageing population will have on providers of health care facilities, or the effect that round the clock grocery chains continue to have on small, corner retailers. Or how about the effect that computers have on traditional auto mechanics?

In everything we do, everyday, we are exposed to thousands of little “happenings” around us. I am talking about the way the person opposite you on the bus is reading the paper, the advertisements we see and the way everybody looks at their cell phone when one is ringing in public. Make an effort to “see” more of what is happening around you. You will start to experience the golden “ah hah” moments which occur when you spot a window of opportunity surrounding a product or service.

The author Brian Tracy believes that many business owners “…fill their mind with candy rather than with protein….reading the sports pages and watching television rather than reading the financial pages and reading business magazines.”

As a business owner on a quest for choice, you have the responsibility to go for protein over candy.