Today’s success tip comes from Sue Ismiel.

Sue is a mother of three and creator the Nad’s Hair Removal product. Within a few years it was the foundation of a multi-million dollar company, spaning several countries.

What’s it like working with your husband and two of your three daughters?

My family has been involved with the business right from the start. There is nothing like working with family. If a company is to be successful then it obviously has to have a network of people who support it. In the past I have had bad experiences with people whom I trusted but didn’t know very well, so having a network of trustworthy people to work with is very important.

I have learnt over the years that the people who care most about you are your immediate family and your close friends, and they’re the ones you can trust and rely on.

My husband Sam has always been my greatest support. He gave up his own work in 1993 as soon as I started advertising on TV. He was already working in the business part-time, as well as working in his own job, but the response to the TV campaign was so huge that I needed help, so soon we were working together full-time.

Today he is a director of the company. His patience, more than anything, has been a great help to me. Like everyone, we do have our differences, but Sam has a great sense of humour and that tends to diffuse things really well.

In 2000 we renamed our company from Nad’s Pty Ltd to Sue Ismiel and Daughters Enterprises Pty Ltd, to reflect the involvement of my daughters. Nadine is head of research and development, as well as being a member of the executive team. She has a very strong personality and often reminds me of myself. Quite often we disagree on things because we are so much alike.

Natalie is currently our marketing coordinator, and as a model, she is also the face of Nad’s print and television advertising campaigns. My youngest, Naomi, is a graphic designer.

It is one of the great pleasures and rewards that I can continue to work and spend every day with my daughters even now that they have grown and left school.

For more great tips and advice stay tuned for next week’s success tip.

Until then,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Suzi Dafnis.

Suzi was the founder of Pow Wow Events, a company distributes books and other learning products, and occupies more than 50% of the market in the personal finance, personal development and business skills segment. Having now sold that company, she is the director of the Australian Business Women’s Network.

Having attended hundreds of seminars on business and personal development, can you list some of the most valuable lessons you’ve learnt from them?

Some of the most valuable lessons include:

Integrity - You need to be able to sleep with a clear conscious, so have integrity in your dealings with others and with yourself. Keep your relationships above board and work for the highest good.

Karma - I really believe that you reap what you sow. If you believe you are a victim of scarcity, there will never be enough money, clients or business. If you believe in abundance, you’ll be generous and it will flow back to you.

Assets vs Liabilities - This is a big one, many business owners know how to generate cash but they don’t know how to keep it. Using cash flow to buy assets, which in turn produce their own cash flow, means that your money is working for you, rather than you just working for your money. This was an idea that I mainly got from Robert Kiyosaki.

Marketing and Innovation - Without these components, you don’t have a business. No matter how good you think your product is, if you cannot market it you will go broke. Innovation is not about inventing something new, it is the commitment to the ongoing improvement of what you do, whether it is the way you answer the phone, the way you market, or the way you recruit. Innovation is what differentiates exceptional companies from average ones.

Numbers - Business is a numbers game. If you don’t understand financials, make sure somebody you trust does. No matter how fun it might be to take on a business activity, at the end of the day if it loses you money, it’s not worth doing unless it’s going to get you some other goal down the line. We’ve had some great fun projects that the team loved taking part in which cost us a lot of time and money.

Responsibility - Some people think that responsibility means taking on a lot of work. What it means to me is doing what you say you are going to do. As a business owner, I’m 100 per cent responsible for the success or failure of the business. Staff can and should be held accountable for their areas of the business, and my responsibility is to hold them accountable for what they say they will do, and to set an example by keeping my word.

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That’s it for this week. If you want more great advice on how to live a productive and successful life, be sure to check again next week.

Until then,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Chris Males.

Chris Males is the Founder of Pro-Fit Corporate Health which is an established provider of “at work” health solutions. Since starting Pro-Fit Chris has also created a fitness BootCamp which has helped over 500 people get fitter and stronger.

What are some low-cost ways business owners can improve the health of their staff and, in turn, improve productivity?

It comes down to creating a healthy workplace culture that the ‘corner offices’ buy into. So many bosses talk to their staff about health and work-life balance, yet do the complete opposite themselves. Often they are the ones that work through lunch, load up on caffeine and work back all night. This sends the message that ‘if you want to get to where I am you need to follow suit’.

The most economical way of improving your staff’s health is to actually invest in action. While seminars, health assessments and online information are great for inspiration, education and need analysis, it is not until you actually start the activity of getting healthier that you will notice a change.

There are a lot of overweight people that know a great deal about exercise and nutrition, yet they never use that knowledge. Knowledge isn’t power, it’s potential power just waiting to be acted upon.

Our clients can choose to do sessions whenever they like, although we will always recommend the lunch hour because it helps raise productivity so much.

Working out at lunch not only helps to break up the day, but also revitalises your thinking and releases positive endorphins into the bloodstream that in turn help create a productive and creative mood. It’s also great for team morale to be doing the workout together instead of visiting a gym by themselves after hours.

Some other ways to improve staff health are:

* organise an incentive program for staff to join in fitness activities

* replace afternoon coffee and cakes with healthier options such as fruit and juice

* hold an annual health expo with individual assessments and education seminars

* have a health column in your monthly newsletter

* organise teams to compete in popular fundraising events such as fun runs and Walk for a Cure.

I hope you’ve learned from this week’s tip for success. If you’d like to see more, check back again next week.

Until then,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Pip McKay.

Pip became a trainer of NLP, running programs through her company Evolve Now! Mind Institute. From her years of experience coaching and training Pip pioneered a new technique called Matrix Therapies that has gained widespread popularity.

What have you found to be the best methods or strategies for keeping motivated and focused?

* I believe that doing what you love is the key to staying motivated. When you love something you don’t have to motivate yourself because you simply want to do it. If you have found your purpose and don’t feel motivated, then there is some kind of block that needs to be cleared. I don’t even like the idea of having to ‘get motivated’, it seems like too much hard work. I’d rather do what I love or clear a block to what I want.

* Having said that, in every business there are certain tasks that although boring, are important. In these situations I always break the task down into smaller sections so I can get a sense of closure for each. This also allows me to complete more interesting tasks in between. Or I will give myself a short timeframe to complete it in so that I am racing the clock and getting it out of the way more quickly. Inertia is always greatest at the beginning of a task, so starting with small, easy steps helps overcome that initial inertia and the rest of the task takes on a momentum of its own.

* Sometimes a lack of motivation is simply exhaustion. To remain motivated I think it is important to balance your lifestyle, take breaks, eat well and have holidays. People often use the term, ‘mind over matter’ to bully themselves into becoming a workaholic. When we work in cooperation with our body and emotions we create balance and wellbeing and in these circumstances motivation is natural.

That’s it for this week. I wish you all the best for this coming week.

Until next time,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Avril Henry.

In 2006, Avril won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement in Human Resources Award at the Australian HR Awards. She has been a finalist in the Best HR Director and Sydney Business Review Businesswoman of the Year awards, and nominated for Telstra Business Woman of the Year on four occasions. She now works in Sydney and owns AH Revelations. Avril continues to help and inspire 100’s of business owners every year.

You are now an expert in understanding and leading people from Generations X and Y. Can you share with us some of their characteristics?

First of all, one of the important differences between the older generations - Veterans and Baby Boomers - and the two younger generations - X and Y - is that X and Y do not define themselves by what they do for a job. They will change their careers and jobs multiple times, be self-employed, work overseas at least once and re-skill themselves on a regular basis.

This is quite different to the older generations who believed in the concept of a ‘job for life’ and long-term loyalty to one profession and one employer. This loyalty does not exist in the minds and hearts of Generations X and Y who saw their parents’ loyalty to the organisation repaid with redundancies and downsizing.

Generation X tends to be the more sceptical generation, whereas Y is highly optimistic - but both generations believe in managing their own careers. They are better educated and more multi-skilled than previous generations. They believe that education and having experience in different disciplines is a greater form of job security as it makes them more employable.

Both these generations believe in the concept of ‘working to live’, rather than ‘living to work’. They have observed the break down of marriages and relationships from their parents and are not willing to sacrifice relationships for work and career progression.

Generation X women are getting married and having children later, believing it is important to establish a career before having a family. They believe this gives them more financial security and greater bargaining power when they want to return to work, because they are in a more senior position when they go on maternity leave.

Unlike previous generations, they are not willing to do jobs they hate or work for bosses who they do not respect. They are risk takers and will leave a job or boss they don’t like without something else to go to, much to the dismay of their more conservative and security-conscious parents.

If you want more great tips like this one, check back again next week.

Until then,

Allan Poole