998 business ideas, yours for the taking

Just to prove that you really can find anything on the internet if you just know the right place to look:

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

998 different business ideas contributed from 9 fine young business minds (well Seth Godin thought so), and heaps more in the comments, and while 789 isn’t much of a winner… there’s some awesome content in here even if it does nothing but spark your imagination and creativity.

My other favourite places to find “anything”:

• Another Seth Godin creation: www.squidoo.com – a lens on anything
• www.wikipedia.org – wiki your way to untold knowledge
• http://scholar.google.com/ - Google scholar, essential for those university types out there looking for references
• www.threadless.com – any t-shirt (well, almost)
• www.twitter.com – for any amount of ramblings
• www.reallysold.com – any real estate advertising phrase (and any shameless plug for writer’s own product)
• www.facebook.com – for any old friend you thought you’d never hear from again (and a few stalkers you never knew you had)
• www.99designs.com – any logo designed for you in ridiculously quick time
• www.kiva.org – any aspiring micro-entrepreneur in a third world country waiting for you to assist
• www.etsy.com – any handmade item for you to purchase

With so much information out there – the excuse of I can’t think up a business idea, or I can’t find a creative gift, or I don’t know how to find that information really just don’t cut it anymore.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Grab ‘em by the balls or kick ‘em in the balls (or 8 ways to open a speech: 4 that rock and 4 that suck)

You’re palms are sweating. You’ve spent the last 10 days preparing this speech and you know every point inside and out. Your power point presentation doesn’t suck. You manage to stop your knees from knocking. You look smoking hot (hotter still because the audience can’t see the huge knot forming in your stomach).

You get to the podium and you start your speech.

How you open that speech and what you say in that first minute will either entice and engage (or more crassly grab ‘em by the balls) or alienate and stagnate (kick ‘em in the balls) your audience.

4 sucky ways to open

1. ZZZ out. “My name is Brad Jones, thank you for having me here”. Your audience thinks: nothing. It’s unexciting, unimaginative and unnecessary. You’ve just wasted your best chance to make an impact.

2. Lame out. “I flew in this morning and man my arms hurt”. A weak joke or a lame cliché is a one way ticket to rolling eyes and stifled (or not stifled) yawns.

3. Freak out. By telling the audience you’re nervous. As a speaker, I’ve done this myself, even mistakenly thought it was endearing at times, but after your first 3 speeches, kick it from your repertoire immediately. Fake your confidence until you’ve spoken enough to have it for real.

4. Zone out. Looking at your notes. Even if you can’t remember your whole speech, you can for darn sure remember the opening sentence. Make eye contact during that first moment for a much more memorable entrance.

4 rocking ways to open

1. Shock ‘em. I sat on a panel once at a high school and delivered what I thought was a great little speech. Also sitting on the panel were respected sports people, politicians and a who’s who of my local area. I had no idea who the last person on the panel was however. Her opening: “Hi, my name’s Janice and I’m a hairy legged lesbian”. Total silence for about 3 seconds, and then the room went crazy. She had the audience in the palm of her hand, every other speaker including myself was forgotten and she was mobbed like a celebrity at the end of the talk.

2. Question ‘em. I love to open my speeches with a question, something to get the audience thinking about your topic immediately. I’ll often go with “ when you were 5 years old what did you want to be when you grew up?” Depending on the audience we get some laughter out of these answers to (strangest answers to date being “cat” and “fire truck”) or I can usually get a chuckle when I assure them that at 5 I was 99% convinced that I was going to be Madonna when I grew up.

3. Statistic ‘em. If you’re speaking on health and fitness you might state that statistically speaking, given the number of the people in the room X number of them will die of obesity related disease before they turn 70. Or someone talking about the importance of sleep might say that if you miss X hours of sleep it’s like being over the legal alcohol limit (so that when you pick up your kids from school it’s the same sculling 3 beers just before getting them). On this though – make sure your stats are well researched and you can back them up if you need to.

4. Story ‘em. The best speakers are all story tellers. There’s a reason reality television is the phenomenon it is today: people are interested in other people’s lives. Where possible share your own story, where it’s not relevant, find an inspiring story and share that to illustrate your point and set your mood.

And don’t be afraid to combine these. Shock them with a scary statistic. Or I typically like to question my audience and then work into a story. I’ll sometimes ask my audience who among them has had a bad day in the past month. Typically 80% of the hands in the room will go up. From there I’ll share a story about the day I met a man who’d had a really bad day Walter Mikak (www.waltermikac.com.au/) who lost both his daughters and his wife in one day in the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania. After I’m done sharing part of Walter’s remarkable story and the perspective it’s given me on bad days, I’ll ask the same question again – who really has had a bad day in the past month?

So, rock ‘em, shock ‘em and blitz ‘em or freak out, lame out and zzz out: the choice is yours.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

10 ways to become an employer of choice, create staff loyalty and increase retention and engagement

So the question here is how do we whip our staff into a frenzy (as opposed to just whipping them)!

Having been a small business owner with a growing number of staff the focus on keeping them engaged, encouraging them to grow but still stay with us and finding time to run my business often felt overwhelming.

To follow are the simple, and yet at the same time not to simple top ten tactics that worked for me.


1. Communication – find ways to get your team to come to you when there’s an issue, not to whinge behind your back.

2. Create problem solvers – encourage your team to bring any problem to you, but to always bring a solution at the same time.

3. Reward fairly - based on performance, not time in the job.

4. Develop champions – who can grow into their roles and champion and action new ideas and techniques.

5. Trust – regardless of how you’ve been burnt in the past, treat your team first with trust.

6. Reward creatively – consider education rewards, family based rewards (such as dinner vouchers) and tiny rewards (such as their favourite chocolate bar) instead of just standard pay rises or bonuses

7. Involve your team – get their opinions, seek their feedback, hunt out criticism before it infects your organisation

8. Show the path – foster career drive by showing your team the career paths open to them within your organisation.

9. Listen – instead of always talking.

10. Lead by example – live in a manner consistent with what you say. It’s managing, not parenting, so “do as I say, not as I do” aint gonna cut it.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Rock Star Manager: Which kind are you?

As the song so memorably says – I love Rock n’ Roll. I also love managing staff. And I really love helping managers become Rock Star Managers.

Rock Star Managers (RSM) inspire the same kind of passion and devotion in their fans (their staff) as do their musical counterparts. They have fans and their fans will follow them just about anywhere to worship, I mean work with them.

BUT! There’s the type of Rock Star Manager you want to be – and the one you don’t.

The Admirable Rock Star Manager

The Doors: This RSM respects their key players so much that they show them the doors to further career advancement – even if it means losing them to a new opportunity.

The Carpenters: RSM’s with Carpenter-like characteristics build their staff up, rather than breaking them down. The way they behave when mistakes happen empowers their staff, shows confidence in them and as such mistakes rarely repeat. This RSM always has the right managerial tool in their belt and at their disposal.

Destiny’s Child: The RSM who can inspire such a love for work in their staff that they feel as though it’s their destiny to be there. They get up happy to go to work each day feeling as though they’re making a difference.

The Beatles: The RSM who get their operation rocking along to a consistent beat and groove. There’s a synergy and things just flow.

The Avoidable Rock Star Manager

Dire Straights: Everything’s always at panic stations, the company’s always losing money and this RSM always let’s every staff member know it.

Blind Melon: Ah yes, the RSM who sees nothing, no problems, no solutions, no need for change of any kind.

Milli Vanilli: The RSM who has no idea what’s going on and is faking it until they make it. Their lip syncing faux-management is obvious to everyone except the person who put them in the job (at least for now).

Crowded House: The RSM who believes more bums on seats equals is the only way to go. Their staff are sitting on top of one another and there’s no time to manage anyone properly.

Guns and roses: The unpredictable RSM. One minute they’re crazy angry with you (guns) and the next it’s all lovey dovey (roses).

Tears for Fears: The RMS who is unprepared to be a manager and is emotionally unstable.

Counting Crows: The nitpicking manager who will count and ration every paperclip used and who micromanages their staff to death!

Rock on Rock Star!

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Billy Joel: rockstar or business mentor?

A very cool day for me once involved me being interviewed for a half hour on a state-wide radio show. I thought it was cool for three reasons:

1. My future husband heard the interview and thought, hey I might like to meet that girl one day (he did a few weeks later and the rest is, as they say, history).
2. I got a whole heap of air time on radio! The publicity hound in me loved that.
3. I also got to program the music for the half hour.

My friends thought it was uncool for just one reason:

I got to program the music for the half hour.

You see, my choice of Billy Joel they say left a lot to be desired.

But I like Billy Joel! Is he cool? Maybe not to my friends, but I think he’s timelessly brilliant, and while I was thinking about my favourite songs I also noticed there’s some fairly relevant business lessons to be derived from some of his greatest hits too (double the Billy bonus!)

Tell her about it
When you make a mistake, own up to it straight away (hiding it only ever damages your reputation and your state of mind in the long run)

Uptown girl
How do you alter your communication style when you’re dealing with people from different social settings to you? The richest person I ever dealt with never showed it in his dress, so don’t think I’m saying that the “uptown girl’s” of the world deserve to be treated “better”. Everyone should get your respect and service, but how do you mirror or match your behaviour to best suit each client you deal with?

The longest time
Service is a marathon, not a sprint. Does your service plan continue on… for the longest time or just until you get paid?

Just the way you are
Managers – this one’s for you. How often are you praising your team for who they are, not condemning them for who you want them to be? Find our what they’re brilliant at and make sure your recognise it.

You may be right
I don’t believe the customer is always right. But I do believe that the best way to end conflict or an argument is for both parties to put themselves in the other party’s shoes and find out why they “may be right”. Understanding speeds reconciliation.

We didn’t start the fire
And one final Joel-ism not to follow to finish up with, amounting to “it’s not my problem, it’s someone else’s”. The biggest rock stars in the workplace find solutions and fix problems and don’t buck pass when the customer comes to them.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

I’m confused

Why do Australia Post sell Christmas card stamps in packs of ten with only five “card only” stickers?

Why do hotels have signs up next to the scales saying “don’t weigh your luggage here” instead of just getting a set of scales to weigh luggage.

Why does every shop near a local Laundromat have a sign up saying something to the effect of “we’ve all gotten together and you can’t get change for the Laundromat at our shops”? Why not say: “change happily provided for the Laundromat with any purchase over $1” or even, shock horror just “change happily provided”?

Why did that phone guy just think it was appropriate to swear in front of my entire team in our office just then?

Why do people make so many promises such as “I’ll call you back before 4.00pm today” without so much as writing them down and then appear surprised that I’m upset that they didn’t call back by 4.00pm?

Why do so many businesses not show their opening hours on their front doors?

Why do so many businesses have email addresses like ABCstore@yahoo.com when they own the domain name www.ABCstore.com.au ?

I guess it’s like Jim Rohn says – “what’s easy to do, is also easy not to do”. So often people are looking for the next huge thing that will completely revolutionise their business without realising that the tiny things that they can change daily to make people’s lives easier could help them make the leap without them even realising it.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

What you don’t know can burn you

I’m not ourdoorsy. I’ll freely admit it. The thought of camping turns my stomach and in fact the first time I went camping when I was younger I was in hysterics when my Mum told me I couldn’t trail the extension cord for the TV out the back of my car window. Don’t even get me started on what my attitude was like when I discovered that there was no toilet at the camp site.

Strangely though, I’m married to Mr. Outdoorsy. He loves to camp and bush walk and is slowly but surely enticing me towards the outdoors life. Last weekend I even developed a tan. Ok, that’s not exactly true but I’m slightly less translucent than normal after some limited (albeit sunscreen slathered) face time with the sun while walking through Tasmania’s gorgeous Freycinet.

Knowing that I’m not one for the outdoor life I was pretty surprised by an incident that happened this weekend just gone… I became super outdoor Kirsty in just 5 seconds.

It all happened in our backyard, testing Mr. Outdoorsy’s new fire lighting flint. He hacked away at it for about a minute sending sparks everywhere but no fire was lit.

I decided (what with my ample outdoor-pedigree) I’d give it a go myself. Two gentle scrapes of the flint and a blazing fire leapt up from my pile of kindling. It was no fluke either as I proved I could firelight like a superstar on command time and time again.

Lessons I learnt from my brief foray into the outdoorsy life (even if it was just in my back yard).

1. I’m capable of doing things I would have never thought I’d have a natural aptitude for.

2. It may even be appropriate that I put in my Survivor application now. 

3. Sometimes it’s subtlety not brute force that wins the day (or lights the fire).

4. The best thing to do when you learn a new skill is to teach it to someone else (Mr. Outdoorsy is now a master himself!)

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Targeting your customers

If I walked into your business today, would you be able to look at me and know if I were in your major target demographic? Sure, I doubt you’d turn down my sale if I wasn’t in your target demo, but would you know if your marketing was specifically designed to bring me and my wallet into your business.

Gone are the days when your “target client” was anyone with money (in fact did those days ever exist?) but today I want to have a little look at specifically targeting one gender as your target demographic.

Now before anyone gets up in arms about sexism, please remember businesses have been doing this for years. While I’m sure many men like the look of a female leg in a heel, Jimmy Choos aren’t marketing to the boyfriends, they’re marketing to their consumer, the women. Or look at the “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” Hooters or doll creation company Friends 2 B Made, they’re obviously not trying to attract every type of clientele either.

And if the literary world tells us that men are from Mars and women can’t read maps how do you market to just one gender appropriately and effectively.

First, we have to realise that men and women are different (thanks to legendary blogger Guy Kawasaki (link http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/07/how-women-work.html) for this info):

“…men have 6.5 times more gray matter than women. Women have 10 times more white matter. Gray matter is for processing centers. White matter is for creating connections between processes so that people can see and process patterns.”

So let’s have a little look at how two unlikely new businesses online are conducting their gender specific marketing:

Firstly: http://www.husbandhero.com/
This site will email your husband once a month giving him ideas on what he can do to be more romantic such as hiding fresh flowers around your house for not one but five days in a row. Can we all say awww…

I don’t know about how my husband would feel if I signed him to start receiving emails (this is an option on the site for harried wives out there). The first email going to my hubby would tell him that the site is to him what the utility belt is to Batman. Knowing my hubby he’d probably just prefer to go see the new Batman flick.

As of today my favourite new gender biased product online is http://www.manlymancandlecompany.com/

Described modestly on their website as “Quite possibly the world’s most perfect product. Ever.”: The Manly Man Candle Company sells manly-scented candles in flavours such as leather, hunting lodge, coffee, yard work, grandma’s cooking and my favourite: Sports Injury: Now you can smell like a professional athlete without the pain and suffering!

New flavours surely to come soon: “Socks after an hour at the gym” and “Trust me this t-shirt is fine to wear, I just smelt the armpit.”

You can’t get all the customers, so do you know who you’re after?

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

My hero of the day: Sarah Breedlove Walker

I’d never heard of Sarah Breedlove before today. I saw a small tag line on an email saying that she was the first “millionairess” in the world after developing the hair straightener. I had to know more. Upon delving further I found out the following which continued to blow my mind:

• Sarah was born to freed slaves in Louisiana, USA in 1867
• Married at 14, she was orphaned and widowed by the age of 20
• Upon retirement Sarah built a house beside tycoon J.D. Rockerfeller
• The Guinness Book of Records lists Sarah Breedlove as the first female (black or white) who became a millionaire by her own achievements

In her own words: “There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

After watching the recent election in America many people across the world are amazed to see what someone of African American descent is able to do right now. How phenomenal is it to then consider what Sarah Breedlove Walker was able to accomplish as a female African American, over a hundred years ago.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Forward to the future

I’ve always loved the Back the Future trilogy. There was something so very exciting about watching them in the 80’s (something that had next to nothing to do with my crush on Alex P. Keaton.

Kids flying around on hoverboards, cars that flew and used garbage to create a nuclear reaction, video games you played only with your mind.

We’re now living in “Back to the Future”’s future and I must admit I’m pretty astonished at what the internet can allow us to do.

I just bought a friend the gift of giving literacy classes in Cambodia as his birthday present It took me less than 3 minutes.

In New York a boy saw an intriguing girl in the subway. He was too shy to talk to her, but upon regretting it he made a website with a drawing of her and actually tracked her down and they ended up dating!

A guy traded one red paperclip for a house using the internet to find potential traders.

And while I don’t yet have a hoverboard if the internet can do all this I’m not giving up hope on that yet either!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Crazy about the clean: why did you get referred?

In chatting about the ancient art of tattooing recently (no, I’m not game enough to have any, but yes, I find them fascinating) I was surprised to hear my husband of all people highly recommending a particular tattoo artist.



Given my husband’s tattoo free stance I was surprised that he would recommend anyone and was keen to find out what was so amazing about this artist’s work. Turns out however that my husband wasn’t referring him based on his work but on the fact that when a friend of his tried to enter the premises with shoes on he was told to leave and the floor was immediately mopped where he’d walked. The commitment to maintaining a sterile environment had impacted on the person getting the tattoo so much that he had then told it to who knows how many people and that story had impacted on my husband enough for him to pass on the artist’s name.

It’s an unusual referral chain! Who’d have thought a tattoo artist would be getting referred because he was crazy about the clean? I certainly wouldn’t have, but his passion for sterility made such an impact that it’s become a little bit like urban legend and inspires confidence in respect to safety to those that hear about the story.

It got me thinking that you might not always know why people refer you: I’ve heard home owners refer builders because they took the time to clean up their work site at the end of each day and one of my uni lecturers loved telling the class that he flew Singapore airlines because they always have the “prettiest” cabin crew.

Or why people don’t refer you: I’ve heard an irate friend tell people not to shop at a local grocery store because they rudely refused a $20 note when she was shopping for something that cost less than $5.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

When to pop the question?

You’d be unlikely to ask your girlfriend to marry you while she was sitting on the toilet (I hope!) You’d also feel uneasy if your taxi driver asked you to fill out a survey on his driving skills as soon as you hopped inside his taxi. And I’m sure you’d be reticent about asking for a pay rise in the middle of a disciplinary discussion about your extreme use of facebook on work time.

Sometimes when you ask is just as important as what you’re asking.

I was reminded of this recently at a speaking job. I make it a priority to get feedback after my talks but in my eagerness to promptly ask the organiser if he was happy with my performance… I did so while we were both still on stage in front of 500 people (thankfully my microphone was off).

I think, on that day, something in my subconscious needed some positive reinforcement so I asked the question at a time when the organiser couldn’t possibly give me bad feedback. For one, he had about 5 seconds to answer and secondly who’s going to say they weren’t happy while the speaker is still on stage!! It was a silly time to ask, and it made his response meaningless, but it was a good lesson for me to learn because I know it’s not the first time I’ve eagerly done this.

When I followed up via email later on and asked the question again (at the far more appropriate time) I got exactly the kind of valuable feedback the question (at that time) deserved.

What’s an important question looming in your future and when is the most appropriate time to ask it?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Life in 30 minute blocks

I recently had to wear a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours which measured my blood pressure by constricting (very tightly!) a big black band around my arm every 30 minutes while I was awake.

While it was uncomfortable, the thing that really struck me was how quickly 30 minutes goes by. So much so that I got a bit manic by the end of the day with each 30 minute block appearing to come quicker and quicker making me wonder what on earth I’d been doing the past 30 minutes!

Perhaps it’s because I’ve just celebrated my 30th birthday that I’m watching the time that passes a little more closely, I’m not sure. All I know is that having something that brought to my attention that time passing was certainly an illumination experience and made me realise that each 30 minutes gone are ones I’m not getting back!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

What would you ask for if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Last night the proud dad of my 3 year old nephew recounted my nephew’s “order” at their recent family BBQ.

When asked what he would like to eat, Patrick replied that he would like “20 sausages” and then after thinking about it a bit more, he decided that no, he would like “all the sausages”.

But what would his Dad eat? Well, Patrick has a plan for that too. His Dad was allowed to eat “BBQ sauce”.

Of course, the story received a few giggles all round. It got me thinking though: a 3 year old has no imposed limits (self or otherwise). When Patrick thought he wanted “all” the sausages, that’s exactly what he asked for.

If you had no self imposed limits –what would you ask for? What would be “all the sausages” for you?

An earth shattering-ly mind blowing relationship full of passion and love?

A career that makes you smile just thinking about going to work each morning?

To visit every country in the world at least once?

The ability to change the world?

A wardrobe that houses 1,000 gleaming pairs of shoes… (ok that one may just be me).

Thanks to Patrick for reminding me that 3 year olds, while they don’t always get “all the sausages”, are amazing because at least they ask for them!

Ask the world for something amazing today – and then take action to start making it happen. You may not get “all the sausages” but you’ll never know if you never ask!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Don’t forget “back thing”

We found this workout regime downstairs in our “shed”, a reminder of inhabitants past.

I had to take a photo and share it with you because it so accurately represents the procedures I find in so many small businesses.

I’m sure the exercise “back thing” was completely self explanatory to our lone exerciser in the shed, but if I were to try and replicate his exercise plan using just his procedure it’d be complete pot luck as to whether I was anywhere near what he meant by “back thing”.

How many “back thing”-esque occurrences are there in your procedures?

If I came into your workplace today and sat down with your procedures could I complete your systemised tasks or would I be left scratching my head and wondering what on earth you meant?

By Kirsty Dunphey with 2 comments

Fire the boss!

According to a Gallup survey around 24% of employees in the United States would fire their boss if they could.

If you’re an employee, you may already be smirking at the thought of firing the head honcho! If you are the boss, what percentage of your employees do you think would give you the flick if they could?

5 things a boss can do to stop being “virtually” fired

1. Quickly write down the top 5 words you would most like your employees to use when describing their boss to a friend or family member. Then write down the 5 words you’re afraid they may actually be using!

2. Have your employees anonymously rate you every time you rate them (ie: performance review time). It’s scary as heck, but a great way to get essential feedback on the areas you need to improve.

3. Give great exit interviews. Do everything to find out the real reasons why your staff leave.

4. Encourage feedback and act on it. Become known as the boss who can not only take it when someone provides constructive criticism (in a respectful way) but the boss who will actually amend policy and behaviour when required.

5. Listen. When you know that your staff are whining – that’s a sign to listen. When you know that your staff are actively looking for other jobs – that’s a sign to listen. When your staff up and leave and you have no idea they’re looking for other employment – that’s a sign to listen.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Getting the deal across the line

So, you’re about to buy an investment property, or any property for that matter and you want to get the absolute best deal. Always keep in mind that a contract for purchase doesn’t just consist of a price. Many times there are other conditions on the contract which are just as important to the seller as the price.

If you’re trying to get your offer accepted and it’s not quite at the sellers asking price, or you’re in competition with other buyers and want to make your offer stand out… here are a few things you can try to help smooth the deal.

1. Leave the settlement date (the date when you officially own the property) off your original offer and let your agent know that you’re happy to settle whenever suits the seller. If a certain time specifically suits them (quick or a long), being flexible may just help you get the deal across the line

2. Put down a sizeable deposit. This shows you’re serious and are capable of completing the contract. Oftentimes attaching a cheque for the deposit to your offer is enough of a mental stimulus for the seller.

3. Where possible make your contract unconditional or subject to as little as possible. Unconditional means that a contract isn’t subject to a building inspection, finance, selling another property etc. If you can get your building inspection done prior to offering and have your finance approved, this can be a very strong incentive for a seller to sign and put the sold sticker up straight away.

4. Consider letting the agent pass on your circumstances. You’d be surprised how many sellers I’ve dealt with over the years who like to know who is going to own their property after they’ve moved.

It’s important to note that if you’re not able to do points 2 and 3 – DON’T! These are only handy hints and they only work if you’re able to do them.

The points also work in reverse if a seller wants you to come to their price. You can then start to be more rigid with settlement date (perhaps you want to stretch it out so that rent increases can be completed) or deposit (perhaps you want to put down NIL deposit so that your cash isn’t tied up).

Contracts are like living breathing organisms and they’re open to being changed, amended and reworded so that they best suit the parties involved. Before you sign any contract make sure the agent takes the time to explain it and that you’ve read every part of it. Where possible, take it to your conveyancer or solicitor to check over.

Happy purchasing!
Kirsty

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Is there a bomb on your bus?

Have you heard that much touted employee hiring practice of “getting the right people on the right seats”? Whenever I hear that I always think of seating people on a bus… and then I always think of the movie Speed.

You remember Speed right? Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock burning down the road jumping broken bridges, looping cameras, staying above 50 miles per hour, flirting like crazy and all so the bomb in the bus doesn’t detonate (ok, the flirting may have been optional in terms of bomb safety but you get my point).

How different would this movie have been if Ellen Degeneres were cast instead of Sandra Bullock?

She almost was you know! Now don’t get me wrong, I think Ellen’s a riot (and I dance with her daily) – but I can not imagine that movie with her in that role!

In my early days in real estate I almost put on a staff member who I’m sure would have been good, but would not have fit in with my organisational culture. In short, they wouldn’t have been the right fit for my bus. The short term loss of not putting them on stung (but nowhere near as much as the long term pain of having that cultural clash would have).

Now the bus analogy works equally well when you’re looking for work. Don’t do a Meg and miss the fabulous bus.

Meg Ryan has had some great hits, but Top Gun not withstanding, what about the movie lead’s she turned down – Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs and Ghost. Some great busses for sure there.

Whichever bus you’re hopping on or loading people on today – I hope it’s the right one for you!

To reproduce this article head here: www.kirstydunphey.com/usemebaby.html

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Stop Making Promises!

Just this morning a friend called a service provider and was told by his office that he’d call back in “10 minutes”. 30 minutes later, he was on the phone to let her know that he’d call back “in an hour”. 2 ¼ hours later, she’s still waiting for his call.

Two broken promises within the first 3 hours of the day. How keen do you think she is to give him her business now?

Wouldn’t it have been easier for his office to say that he would “call her back”, or “call her today”.

Then when he’d called 30 minutes later to let her know he couldn’t help her immediately she would have been pleasantly surprised rather than thinking “is this your definition of 10 minutes?”

What’s more, he doubled the mistake by making yet another promise (which was soon to be broken).

My advice:
• Don’t allow others to make promises on your behalf.
• Don’t make promises where you don’t have to.
• When you do make a promise – KEEP IT (write it down, tattoo it on your arm, put a reminder in your phone, figure out a way to make sure you keep your promises, or let the person know that you can’t (prior to the promise elapsing)
• Learn what a promise is. A promise is a claim that you’ll do something. Don’t feel like you need to say “I promise” for it to be a promise, all you need to say is “I will”.

And finally – just remember the old adage that promises are like babies… easy to make, hard to deliver.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Foot in keyboard disease

When I was 19 years old, I told a friend’s mother something that my friend had vented to me in confidence. My intentions were only the best. The result: foot jammed well and truly in mouth.

At age 21, I told a girl that her boy was talking trash about her in front of others (only I told her in front of a whole swag of people). My intentions, again were only the best. The result: far less than the best.

At age 23, I impersonated a small child dancing in an amusing way in a chemist. My intentions: harmless fun, I was in a silly mood. The result, I got “jumped” by her drug addict mum (so the chemist informed later) and a small gang outside the chemist. The result: my first and only fight. (Disclaimer: the “gang” were actually teenage pyjama clad girls, but they kicked and slapped with the best of them I can tell you).

And just yesterday, my intentions lead me to fire off a poorly worded email which ended up landing someone else in trouble. My intentions, as before had no malice, but the results… well I think you can guess.

This last outbreak of foot in keyboard disease got me wondering when this would all end. I’m a grown woman and yet still, every now and then I still stick my foot in it so badly.

The remedy? The only one I can think of: learn something from where my foot has historically ended up on occasion.

The solution?
• Take time to think before I email / say something
• During that time, ask myself how I’d feel if everyone I spoke about in that conversation or email heard what I was saying
• Don’t dance in chemists

It’s so easy today to fire off something verbally or via the keyboard without taking the time to think about it. 5 seconds thought about the email I sent yesterday would have been all I needed to realise it wasn’t a good idea. Unfortunately, I saved myself those 5 seconds and cost myself a whole lot more trouble in the long run.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments