So the PM has asked us to 'sit down and negotiate' with landlords. Here's how to do it.

Includes a template letter with all the information you need to negotiate effectively. 

What to do if they refuse to negotiate. Why rent deferral will kill your business next year.

Plus essential, act-right-now tips from a professional commercial lease negotiator.

Original story with download here.

What's the worst thing you have to do in business?

Original story with links here.

Ian returns from a horrifying week when the business goes to zero revenue after the government makes events illegal.

Faced with a $500K monthly wages bill and no work, he and his partners go into Survival Mode, negotiating every cost down and  working out what to do with freaked-out staff.

Learn the practical details of Covid biz survival, and how to tell good government stimulus deals from ones that will just kill your business next year.

Original story here.

Our whole industry fell off a cliff last week. Yours might be the same. Covid 19 has changed everything. A lot of businesses won't see the end of the financial year. So a serious story this week: how to make sure you're still standing after this is finished.

I've done a list of essential, hands-on business survival tips, things I've learned from gritting through previous downturns. 

That's what my friend Dan got when he targeted some high level executives with an interesting marketing campaign.

By sending them real physical objects. He sent 10 out, got 8 meetings and won 5 ongoing clients for his Conversion Rate Optimisation business.

What was in those boxes. Listen to find out as we consider why digital campaigns don't cut it for clients above a certain level.

If you want to read it or see the pictures, https://ianwhitworth.net/imagine-getting-thank-you-notes-for-your-marketing-mailout/

Every business coach tells you to focus on delegating all the inessential tasks.

And fair enough time management is important. Yet taking away all those little tasks actually makes you worse at business.

If you palm all your personal and business irritations off to people who  get paid much less than you, you’re now way out of touch with 95% of  your customers, and the human race in general.

You lose your instincts to understand customers and staff.

You become golf club guy, or ashtanga yoga woman, surrounded by people just the same as you.

Embrace everyday annoyance, your new inspirational friend.

Written version here: https://ianwhitworth.net/stay-business-fit-in-the-gymnasium-of-irritation/

Do you manage people?  Ever wonder why they don't do what you want?  This week, a major reason why that is. And how to fix it by changing just one thing you do.

Step back and ask yourself: what’s your actual task in business? Is it to be right?

Or to get other people to do what you’d like them to do?

For all the links mentioned, original post here https://ianwhitworth.net/your-need-to-be-right-is-holding-you-back/

Coronavirus made one of our biggest projects disappear a couple of weeks out.

With other corona and bushfire cancellations, I'm personally down six figures after this hell-February.

What can you do? Bad news is an inescapable part of business. 

There's no escaping it so you might as well learn some strategies to deal with it.

Written version with pictures here https://ianwhitworth.net/i-lost-six-figures-last-week-strategies-for-bad-news/

Here's a dirty little secret. I own a successful business. I know a fair number of other business owners, some of them worth nine figures. These are  people who take success very seriously.

None of them go to success seminars.

None.

Never did, even on their way up.

Because motivators suck. Most of them have no real business track record, so it's all showbiz shtick.

Save yourself some time: all you need to know about success in business can be condensed down to 62 words.

Read it here: https://ianwhitworth.net/7-steps-to-success-and-why-motivators-suck-by-ian-whitworth/

The story of a supplier where I used to spend $15K a year. They did solid work and were nice people. 

But they drove me away with one $3.80 invoice.

This week we discuss Reverse Magician syndrome, businesses drawing attention to the small things that irritate clients a lot. 

And how to avoid doing those things. 

Read it here https://ianwhitworth.net/15k-coffee-and-other-customer-annoyance/