This blog credits me as the founder of “The Perfect System” (TPS). And I regularly get asked what is is all about. So what is TPS? Is it some new, revolutionary, hi-tech, blow-you-away system? Is it difficult to implement? Is it only for large corporates, or can a small and medium sized company also benefit from it?
You may be amazed or you may be disappointed by the answers to the above. If you expect rocket science I guess you will be disappointed. If you expect something that is complicated and need PhD’s (or over-paid SAP consultants) to implement, you may experience different emotions (depending on whether you are a PhD or SAP consultant).
TPS is shockingly SIMPLE. TPS is based on 10 underlining basic business principles. Almost Business 101. So ANY company will benefit from implementing them. You will see an improvement in profit. You will experience greater customer satisfaction. You will have more productive staff members. You will have better processes.
I will start discussing some of the principles of TPS in the coming weeks. Why do you not start guessing what they are? Or at least comment on what the important issues should be to achieve the benefits of TPS.
I don’t want to guess what the prefect system is but I would love to share the following with your readers…
Only ONE man in ten who start a business will make it, the rest will fail. Yes, the other nine will be hard working, earnest and ambitious men, …in their own way – but to them a course is a course and a book is a book. They read but they don’t see, they listen but they don’t hear. But ONE in ten will make it. One in ten knows what they want in life and they get it.
They know they need to practice, and they practice their business skills all the time. They know the only certainty in life is change. They seek and find answers to new challenges every day.
It is said that Socrates the Greek philosopher (469-379 BC) was the wisest man who ever lived. The story goes that if you would have asked the Greeks in ancient Greece why they thought Socrates was a wise man, their would answer, “Socrates said; I know that I know nothing”.
The market for business knowledge is booming. Every year thousands of business books is published. Books on business start-ups, marketing, sales and business management floods the market. Governments poured millions into training programs and consultants to help create new entrepreneurs. Stop and ask yourself;- Why then, are there still so many business start-ups that fail? Why do nine out of ten people fail to implement the book knowledge they’ve worked so hard to acquire?
According to Thomas Ci-Gar, Life & Business coach;- “Business fail because new entrepreneurs don’t know what they are doing. In many cases they can not ever write a business plan, let alone try to implement one. They just don’t follow the rules. They have very little or no business experience. But the most important thing, they can’t sell. They may be very intelligent people, but all the books in the world will not help them if they never learn to follow the recipe.”
Every good business book is like a baker’s recipe book. In business, like in a good cookbook, there is a recipe for every situation. Nothing is new. Starting a business is like making a special dinner or baking a cake from a recipe book.
It is easier than you think BUT only if you know how to follow the steps, one-by-one. That is exactly what a recipe book is, a step-by-step manual. In the real world, if you try to bake a cake the first time, there is a very good chance that your cake will flop. You need practice. Practice first, get it right and only then you invite the queen for tea.
I call it the “TIPP” – formula. Try the recipe first. Implement it. Practice it until it becomes Perfect.
Your business plan should be like a recipe book, a step-by-step manual. Most would-be entrepreneurs think the only purpose of a business plan is to seek shareholders or to get a loan from the bank. Then they get someone else to write one for them. This is crazy – without YOUR OWN plan your business will fail – it is a 99.9% guarantee!
I have seen young school kids who learned from an early age how to write “to-do-lists” for small things they want to achieve. Entrepreneurs can learn from them. Long before you resign your job to start your own business, start writing “work-to-do” and “steps-to-follow –lists” for new things you want to try in your life or work. Learn to write a plan to do these small things and then follow the steps to accomplish the task. Use a business start-up book to guide you to achieve these goals. You will be amazed what you will learn.
Here is something most important. You must practice to sell. Selling doesn’t only mean one-on-one selling. There are many books on selling and marketing. We are living in wonderful times. Never before in the history of mankind was it easier to sell your products and services to the entire world than right now. The Internet has opened more doors than you can imagine.
Know this. Most great businessman in this world started small. Robert Kiyosaki started by selling comic books. Donald Trump started his business career selling houses. Richard Branson started at the age of 15 selling a student magazine. None of them do it any more, but they learned to sell.
Experience in selling is vital to the success of any entrepreneur. To sell is fun, and for me it has become much easier the longer I do it. I think it is easier today because I have read more books on the subject that I can remember. I have learned to implement the rules in these books, I have practise selling and negotiating for many years and formulated new recipes for myself. You can do it to.
I believe there is a “ recipe-book” for every situation in this world. How to sell, how to manage a business, how to write a plan and how to live your live. All you have to do is find the recipe and follow the steps. One step at a time.
Running your own business should be great fun. If it isn’t, then you are doing something wrong. To often I see businesses suffer and when that happens, I see the owner and his entire family suffer. It is sad to see anyone torture themselves like that when there is so many step-by-step books available. Stop for a moment. Have a good look at what your are doing. Find out what is wrong in your live or your business. Search for the recipe to fix it. Try it, implement what you have learned, practice your new skills, make it perfect and your life will never be the same.
Thanks again for your great input TCG. I would really like to sit down with you one of these days to share ideas.
I fully agree with you – starting and running a business is not difficult. If only people will follow the advice that are widely available. My father used to say “People do not learn from other people’s experience”. How sad is that – everything happening today has already happened many times before in the past. And there is an solution to everything.
The Perfect System is so simple, and many are amazed at its effectiveness. That is why I say it is Business 101. Nothing new, nothing spectacular – just basics – step-by-step. Easy to follow instructions. It always works!