Year of the Tiger – Happy Lunar New Year

Happy New Year of the Tiger – “Gong Xi Fa Cai” Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4708 begins on Feb. 14, 2010.

At Chinese New Year celebrations, people wear red clothes which is a symbol of good fortune and success. Houses are decorated with poems written on red paper, lots of potted flowering plants – a symbol of growth and children are given “lucky money” in red envelopes. Red symbolizes fire, which according to legend can drive away bad luck and bring you good fortune. Chinese New Year is a time of family reunion. Family members gather at each other’s homes, especially to the parent’s home for a shared meal, most significantly a reunion feast on New Year’s Eve. It is a time of family togetherness. On New Year’s Day, visitors will bring 2 oranges to wish their relatives and friends prosperity and success in their business, studies, career, etc.

For all my chinese clients, we wish you a Very Happy New Year of the Tiger – “Gong Xi Fa Cai”.

Thank you for the opportunity to work with you. “A victory begins with a vision. A vision of winning – a victory of going over the top. The people who constantly rise to the top are those who possess a vision even before the prize is won”. John Maxwell

Let the Year of the Tiger give us all the prowess to fulfill our dreams.

Best Wishes

Molli

Useful Tips 5 : Negotiation

“When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience winds up with the money and the person with money ends up with the experience.”  Harvey Mackay

We all negotiate because negotation is simply a very effective way of getting what we want.  We negotiate to settle our differences and we negotiate out of self-interest to satisfy our needs. You know you are in negotiation if you have the authority and ability to vary the terms – to give as well as take.  Negotiations in essence involve trading concessions.  I have found it an art and often very intense that it makes one feel drained after the whole negotiation.  It must end up as a win win situation, otherwise it makes the losing party feel deflated. That is not what we want to do in any business deals.

There are 7 steps to the art of negotiation.

R – Ready yourself. Set your objectives, list the issues, gather the information, plan your strategy.

E – Explore each others needs. Clarify and establish rapport and communicate.

S – Signal for movement. Negotiation begin with both  sides taking strong initial positions, to create momentum you have to be able to signal that you are prepared to move and respond to signals from the other side

P – Probe with proposals. Make tentative proposals in order to probe for points where the other side will make concessions. Repackage rejected proposals into a more acceptable form.

E – Exchange concessions. Trade by giving the other party some demands in exchange for receiving some of what you want.

C – Close the deal. Avoid giving away too many concessions. Make an acceptable close.

T – Tie-up the loose ends. Confirm what you agreed, summarise  the details, agree on a plan to settle possible future differences.

A good agreement is one that works. It leaves both parties satisfied.

Extract from NEGOTIATE by Harry Mills

Useful Tips 4 : What’s your vision for the New Year

Winston Churchill famous quotation to the beleaguered Britain from a near defeat : “never give in, never give in, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour, and good sense!” Obstacles are inevitable, quitting is optional. If you encounter Obstacles, it means that you are moving forward and that you are thinking of solutions to overcome your obstacles.  Your solutions are all around you. Break the obstacles into small chunks, i.e. chunking down and it will help you to see what the obstacle is and then you can identify the steps to overcome the obstacle.

Before you can do strategic visioning for your business, you need to write down your goals and ensure that it meets the outcome criteria. As Steven Pierce, world #1, Internet Wealth Advocate, says :

“Goals are compelling magnets that move us relentlessly through life – Guiding One Actively to Living Successfully (GOALS).

Goals allow us to greet each day with great anticipation.  To realize your goals you need to move from setting goals to achieving goals”.

Recommended Steps:

1. Set your vision. “A Vision is a picture of a better future”. It will describe the new services, new products, new processes of your business. It describes the end state not the journey.

2. Set your goals.  Goals are tangible and it must be measurable. Write it down.

3. Complete your Vision Board. Translate your Goals into pictures and stick them onto a Cardboard that you can see it daily.

4. Complete your Strategic Visioning.

4.1 Looking through your own eyes, hearing the sounds around you and feeling the feelings of being right there inside of it, you step into your goals.

4.2 Adjust your submodalities – if it’s black and white, change it to colour, adjust your brightness and make your goals so compelling to you.

4.3 Step out of the picture, but you see yourself in the picture. Rise above the time stream, and see in your mind’s eye (visualise), the date that you have achieved your goals.

4.4 Complete the picture of your future, fill it with colours, brillance, excitement, people that you care and loved, a sense of fulfilment and completeness.

4.5 Knowing in your mind’s eye, that everything is out there waiting for you to succeed and prosper, move forward to 2010 with hope and expectation for success.

Useful Tips 3 – Reflections

As 2009 come to a close, and we look back at our life that has just passed us by, and a new year of oppurtunities lie ahead of us. We wonder and our mind races at 1000 kilometers an hour..as we start reviewing our goals, our dreams in life. It is a good thing to have some quiet moments by yourself as you review your vision and mission for your business and where you want to go.  Write down some high level action steps and some dates when you want to complete them by.  Get a friend or your business associate to check on you to establish some accountability. Think outside the box and look at friends or other businesses where you can partner to help your business to move to a different level of success.

Whatever you plan to do for 2010 as a small business enterprise, be willing to start small…and have a plan.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Every oak tree starts as an acorn

So take all that you have and all that you are, place it into God’s hands and ask Him to bless your business as you start 2010

Wish you a very successful and God blessed 2010.