Is information that I find on the internet (by Googling) reliable?

The internet can be a fantastic source of high quality information, but it is also a place where anyone can say anything they choose about any subject.

There is no fact-checking for blog posts, and the ignorant and uninformed have the same right to speak their mind as the world’s experts, on any topic. Even competitors can easily pose anonymously as either disgruntled coach or a client. So use a little common sense. If you want the most reliable information, it is all at your disposal at the ActionCOACH website, the International Franchising Association website or any of the National Franchising websites.

In most of the developed nations in which we operate – franchising is heavily regulated. Which means that we have fully disclose on all the numbers and legal proceedings (existing and pending) on our business. Even though less than 20% of franchisors put in an earnings claim in their disclosure document – we do.

Our business has been around since 1993, and operates today in 34 countries. Every year – we are named in the Franchise Business Review Franchise 50 – 50 franchise concepts that rank high in franchisee satisfaction.

Our company gives back in a profound and lasting way to the Small to Medium Sized business community and their communities at large. This is best shown by three (of many examples). 1) The Indonesian government created an award and gave it to ActionCOACH for their contribution to entrepreneurialism and growth in their country.  2) Coaching for a Cause (our pro bono coaching program to charities around the world) in its first year (during an economic recession) helped non-profits raise an 2.5 million in charitable contributions through coaching them. Coaching has a compound effect, you cannot unlearn what you learn through coaching. So these non-profits have been taught “how to fish” rather than “given a fish” and will continue to apply lessons  learned via coaching year on year. 3) In Florida USA, a year-long study of businesses being coached by ActionCOACH showed an average $7.50 profit return for every $1 invested in 12 months.

ActionCOACH is the only coaching company who guarantees your coaching will be self-funding on or before the seventeenth week. If you really want to know about a company – you need to look at the source of the information. Is it reliable? We welcome you (in fact we insist) that you speak to our coaches and our clients. Only then will you be able to determine what a company and its people is really like.

So if the information is not true, why don’t you defend yourself in the blogs or forums?

In some instances we do, albeit not publicly.

To understand why we choose not to – you might want to read our 14 Points of Culture – especially our Communication point to understand why.

Business coaching and the essence of our company is about growth, forward thinking and positivity. What is truly unique about our business is our culture and the people. We have a belief that action truly speaks louder than words. So rather than spend time on the fruitless endeavor of convincing anonymous haters and cyber-bullies – we created a forum for people to ask questions of our Founder, Brad Sugars directly. We have regular webinars with our coaches so people can find out direct. You can even find many of us on Social Media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn including executives.

Our CEOs will speak direct to any person interested in becoming a coach or being coached who may have concerns. Unlike the anonymous posters – we are not hiding. We figured if intelligent and genuine people were truly concerned with anything they read online – they would ask us and our team so they can come up with their own opinion.

Are You Getting the Results You Want?

We’ve all seen those inspirational posters. The ones with someone on top of mountain and the word RESULTS in big letters underneath them.

But getting results isn’t really like climbing a mountain, is it?

Success, excellence, they aren’t things you achieve and then step back and appreciate the view. They are ongoing processes and everyday you have to find a way to keep moving forward, keep climbing that mountain.

We all know this can be a tall order, but by remembering that excellence and achievements are journeys, not destinations, we can go a long way toward building a better life and a better business.

That’s one of the reasons we list Fun and Abundance in our points of culture.

These aren’t just buzz words at ActionCOACH. They are ideals that allow us to keep track of the journey we are always on toward success, even as we reach goals along the way.

In the latest edition of Forbes, Northwestern Mutual CEO John Schlifske talks about the importance of taking a step back and appreciating the journey.

“You don’t walk into retirement having put your life’s work into retirement having put your life’s work into a company only to say, ‘Gosh I’m miserable.’”

Schlifske went on to say, “You’ve got to insert fun into the workplace now and them.” And I couldn’t agree more.

We encourage fun at the Global Office through various methods. We have our High Five meeting on Monday mornings, we WIFLE on Friday afternoons and we often have lunch together and celebrate each others’ happiness, whether it’s through birthday parties, baby showers or our team trainings.

So what are you doing to encourage your team to have fun?

There Goes the Neighborhood!

Would you be willing to have your neighbors hate you to have someone else pay your mortgage?

That is essentially the question Adzookie, a free advertising network for mobile devices, is asking.

In return for their paying your mortgage, the company wants to turn your house into a billboard.

Do you live on one of those streets where all the houses share a uniform look and have a real desire to never be invited to a block party with your neighbors again?

Then this might be a good way.

There is no doubt this is a unique way to market a business, but there are some questions that pop up on this topic.

First of all, how will this strategy work in areas where it simply isn’t legal?

Local municipalities have the ability to zone both residential and commercial areas and won’t often let a people in residential areas generate commercial profits.

Secondly, how many residential neighborhoods have so much traffic that the ads will be seen enough to deliver a nice return on investment for Adzookie?

Hopefully the company has done their homework and has reason to believe this marketing campaign will be profitable, but it remains to be seen.

Still, just the fact that we are talking about Adzookie makes it clear that this campaign does have some merit. After all, did you ever even hear of them before reading this blog?

Can You Use the Media to Grow Your Business?

Do you need to grow your business? Getting your business, or yourself, in the public eye is a great way to do it.

It’s worked literally hundreds of times for businesses of all kinds.

With so many reality shows featuring businesses from restaurants to hair salons to industrial waste removal services, it seems that every industry is represented on cable these days and those business owners are just regular people who found the right outlet to make a name for themselves.

Who is a great example of someone growing their business through reality television?

How about Bethany Frankel and her “SkinnyGirl” brand?

A few years ago, Frankel filed a tax return for negative $47,000.

She had tried her hand at a number of businesses, but she needed help because nothing seemed to work.

Then she gained a role on Martha Stewart’s Apprentice and began building her image and, in turn, her business.

Almost 10 years, and five reality shows later, Frankel is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the United States and her net worth is easily in seven figures and growing.

It may not be easy to get on the national stage like Frankel did, but there are probably dozens of local media outlets in and around your area that would love to have you help them fill their schedules with your business advice.

Maybe a local television station would be interested in how you help businesses at your latest seminar or maybe a radio station in your area has empty time slots it needs to fill and can use your expertise.

The media is everywhere these days, and if you’re smart like so many entrepreneurs you see on television every day, you’ll learn how to use the media for your business’ benefit.

What Can You Learn From a Hollywood Icon?

From humble beginnings in New York City, to a long and storied career producing some of the greatest movies and musical acts of the mid to late 20th century Jerry Weintraub has seen it all.

You may not know the name immediately, but you’ve certainly seen his work at some point.

Over the course of his career, Weintraub has worked with some of the top acts in entertainment.

Recently I’ve been reading his 2010 book, When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man. There is also a documentary about his life airing on HBO right now called, His Way.

In learning about this man, what struck me most was not the impressive credits on his resume, but his attitude.

Weintraub started as an actor, but failed.

He’s opened businesses and failed.

Time and time again, Weintraub failed.

But failing never got Weintraub down.

Thanks to extraordinary belief in himself, which he attributes, at least in part, to the way his parents raised him, Weintraub kept plugging away until he found the success he wanted.

A great story about Weintraub that has stuck with me is about the way he pursued Elvis.

“The King” was at the height of his popularity and Weintraub hadn’t yet made a name for himself with movies like Diner and Nashville, but Weintraub knew if he could produce a tour for Elvis it would be a tremendous success.

Of course, the first time Weintraub contacted Elvis’ manager he was denied. And the second, and the third were also failures. In fact, Weintraub constantly hounded Colonel Parker for about a year before finally reaching an agreement by coming to Las Vegas with a million dollars in a briefcase for Elvis.

It is that kind of determination and vision that makes a person successful. Weintraub had a blatant disregard for the word “no” because he had confidence in his own vision of success.

Can A Business Ever Truly Win Back Trust?

What if your business had a major meltdown? What if your business had more than 50 major meltdowns in about a year and a half? How would that affect your customer base and your business?

To get customers to buy from you, they have to like, but to get them to buy from you time and again, they have to trust you. If they stopped trusting you, how long before your business was failing and what could you do to rebuild that trust?

For Johnson & Johnson, trust was an easy thing to build on.

For more than 100 years the company made products they could be proud of that promoted health and wellness to their customers around the world.

Famously known for their “No more tears” marketing campaign, people relied on Johnson & Johnson products for so long the company became an iconic American, and world-wide, brand.

Unfortunately for J&J, there are plenty of tears to go around these days.

Over the past 15 months the company has issued more than 50 voluntary product recalls, including recalling brand names like Benadryl, Tylenol, Motrin and Rolaids.

But it isn’t just over the counter medication. Johnson & Johnson has also recalled items as varied as contact lenses and even hip replacements.

None of this is good news for J&J or its customers, but can the company rebound or is it the start of an inevitable downward spiral for the monolith?

Aside from the legal and financial issues J&J is already facing, the bigger question is will they ever be able to win back their customers’ trust?

In any business, trust is a major factor, but when it comes to a person’s health it becomes even more important.

In 2010, Johnson & Johnson was one of few companies that saw its United States revenue fall from the previous year and the lack of trust customers have for their products these days certainly played a factor.

With more than a dozen recalls already in 2011, Johnson & Johnson needs to move fast before it destroys the trust it took the company almost 125 years to build.

Are You Ready to Learn This Quarter?

As part of our commitment to education and training, every quarter the team at the Global Office is assigned a book to read.

In the first quarter of 2011 we read “The Fred Factor” which was about going above and beyond for your customers.

I think the message of that book has been taken to heart by my team and it is seen in the way the team interacts with everyone that comes into contact with the Global Office.

For this quarter we will be reading a book by one of my favorite authors on personal development, Larry Winget.

“It’s Called Work For A Reason” is about getting results by realizing that all the challenges you face are, in the end, about you.

So with first quarter down and second quarter here, what lessons do you want your team to learn and how will you teach them?

Will Targeted Television Advertising Change Your Marketing

In today’s landscape, businesses need to find ways to reach the exact customer base they need. This type of marketing, based on segmenting, has been a boom to direct mail and internet marketing to name two, but has been a challenge for mass media marketing.

In many markets, it’s simply too expensive for small and medium sized businesses to advertise on television. It’s hard to measure the return on these campaigns and with all the channels available to television watchers, commercials are often passed right over or never seen in the first place, limiting any return on investment.

But it seems like all that is about to change.

Beginning with DirecTV toward the end of 2010, the move is being made to target television advertising, making it more effective.

Thanks to those boxes that change the channels on your television, providers and advertisers can now see exactly what you are watching and when you are watching it. And with that information, they can tailor a specific advertising campaign for you.

But what makes this idea even more incredible is that the technology exists for people to get different commercials based on what they are interested in. So in one house, while watching American Idol, one family might see ads for new cars, while another family might see ads for toys at exactly the same time.

Imagine if you could reach just your ideal customer base through televised advertising? Do you think it could make a major impact on your lead generation and your business in general?

For years talented marketers have known the key to successful campaigns was reaching the target market with ideas that called that market to action.

Now it seems the opportunity is there to reach people directly with mass media marketing for specific niches. How will your business take advantage of this new opportunity?

Make Every Negotiation a Win- Win

From finding the perfect venue for an event, to developing a host/ben relationship or even bringing on a new client, many parts of business coaching involves negotiating.

That’s why it’s so important to understand what makes a proper win-win negotiation. Nobody wants to deal with someone that simply wants to beat them. Crushing someone and winning every level of negotiation is not the way to build a healthy symbiotic relationship.

If you’re going to be doing business with someone over a period of time, you want to develop a reciprocal relationship, one in which you both benefit and win-win is a great way to do just that.

So what are the important elements of a win-win negotiation?

First, it’s important to never assume you know the other party’s objectives. Doing so can limit the scope of your negotiation or cause you to negotiate against yourself in some respects.

Let them tell you want they want and do your best to accommodate them, so long as you are having your objectives met.

Second, don’t limit the scope of your negotiations to just one area. Finding a win-win solution on one topic can be harder than on multiple topics. That’s why you’ll often see bargainers bring topics into the discussion that are irrelevant. In this way, they lose an issue they don’t really care about, so they can win on those they do.

Another important factor to consider is that negotiating plays by a certain set of rules and there are typical issues that come up no matter what you’re negotiating. This is a good thing because it makes negotiating the kind of thing you can practice and even script.

By practicing your negotiating skills, you can figure out what some of the main objections your opponent might have and do your best to answer those objections in a well-thought out way.

The most important thing to remember is that at the end of a win-win negotiating session, both parties should feel like they’ve accomplished something positive.

Negotiation is an exploration of both your position and the other person’s position, with the goal of finding a mutually acceptable compromise that gives you both as much of what you want as possible.

If one party comes away from the negotiation upset with the outcome, you haven’t accomplished your goal of finding a compromise that everyone can work with and that may hinder your relationship in the future.

ActionCOACH Earns More Hardware

We must be doing something right because the awards keep piling up for ActionCOACH.

Our latest comes from the Communitas Awards, which honored ActionCOACH with Excellence in Community Service for our pro bono work with Coaching for a Cause in 2010.

The Communitas Awards seeks to honor companies, organizations and individuals that go beyond rhetoric and whose commitment sets them apart from their competition.

The companies recognized by the Communitas Awards, like ActionCOACH, are dedicated to helping the less fortunate in their communities by changing the way they do business to benefit their employees, communities and environment.

I want to offer many thanks to everyone that contributed to us winning this award, including all the coaches that worked so closely with charities in their community.

We couldn’t be prouder of your efforts and we share this honor with you.