I went to a great breakfast event this morning and the guest speaker was Peter Irvine, the Co-Founder of Gloria Jean’s Coffees. Peter was so easy to listen to and I would have loved to hear him speak for longer. Here are some the comments, tips and suggestions he made, very brief but hope it will give some idea of what he spoke ab
out:
- You don’t ask, you don’t get
- At some time you have to draw a line in the sand and deal with a problem
- You can change a mindset if you have a vision and stay focused
Building a Brand / Business
- Start with a Plan (Where do you want to be in three years? How big do you want to be? What are the barriers to achieve this?
- You need to have Partners (Business Partners – how are you going to deal with disagreements? Staff – when you get the right people in your team (or on the bus) you will go great places)
- Build relationships with your Suppliers
- Develop a ‘Yes’ face – say ‘No’ with a ‘Yes’ face (see the alarm clock as an opportunity clock)
- Keep learning – use your car as a university (listen to CD’s / audio books while driving)
- Relationships – get along with people
- Stop messing with dead things
- Vision – have a vision, without a vision you will lose focus, visualise your business and what it will be like
- Marketing – Marketing Pie Chart (get all your collateral together and have a look at what message you are sending to your customers – is your branding consistent?). Learn to stand out, don’t do what everyone else is doing (Great book, Purple Cow by Seth Godin)
The opportunity to grow in business is usually up to you!
Great way to start the morning and I particularly like thinking of the alarm clock as an opportunity clock! Have you heard a speaker that really motivated and inspired you? What was your key learning?
