bwagy

Risk Homeostasis is a theory that humans have a certain level of acceptable risk and we will seek to keep that in equilibrium.

If we take high risk in one part of our life we will seek to minimise it in another part.

For example, in a Munich Case Study two groups of taxis were monitored for accidents.  One group had ABS brakes installed, the others stayed with the regular breaks.  You would think then that the ABS guys had less accidents right?

Wrong.  What they found was the accident rate was about the same, the group with ABS having gained better braking would take other risks (ie braking late).

Have a read over at WikiPedia.  Watch my video below on RadioWammo discussing it:

It has interesting implications for all change, innovation and risk when you think about it.

Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell for the inspiration in his latest book What the Dog Saw.

So we had a bit of a bumpy road in 2009, here’s 25 recession busting tactics to help you break through in 2010.

1. Start a side business. In addition to your job look at supplementing your income by starting a hobby business that can add a few dollars here or there.
2. Create a job! Maybe hire the next door neighbour to do your lawns, or someone to do your cleaning. If you have some spare cash, why not improve your life a little and help out your community.
3. Invest locally! Sure leaving money in the bank is fine and dandy but it’s not helping out as much as it could be. Use a portion of it to invest in local business – maybe even form a micro loan club to help support local entrepreneurs.
4. Volunteer. Volunteers contribute hugely to the nation as a whole and have taken a heavy hit in the last 18 months. Get back on the bandwagon and support a local charity; lend a hand, have some fun, it’ll probably be the most rewarding experience you can have.
5. Educate! You know something – share it with the world or teach it to others.
6. Connect. Business is all driven by connections, actively take stock of your connections and see where you can make some introductions that could stimulate business or potential partnerships.
7. Seek for global business opportunities and pair them with local business.
8. Unleash the online world to your business. Whether it’s creating attention, developing business or engaging with customers digital engagement is here to stay.
9. Grow your business, chop it up, reinvent it make it much more streamlined. Look at squeezing efficiencies out of it to maximise profitability.
10. Get not one but several mentors. Leverage others experience to avoid pitfalls.
11. Mentor someone else. Lend a hand to people that can use your skills.
12. Actively outsource & automate the parts of your business that need it. We all know we need to develop the systems & processes that empower the growth of our business. What better time to do it (on the cusp of a recovery).
13. Write & share with the world your experiences. Start a blog (like #5 Educate) unlock your knowledge for others benefits. You never know what may happen or who will read it.
14. Invest in yourself, learn some new skills, take an extra course. Identify skill gaps you have and how to fill them.
15. Take time off! Time to rest/rejuvenate is just as important as the doing.
16. Increase productivity with online tools. Read David Allens Getting Things Done – implement this in your personal and business worlds. Better productivity helps everyone.
17. Set aside review & reflection time (blogging is a great way to do this).
18. Read books. Books are the best investment, they give you some downtime AND present you with new ideas that can dramatically change your business. All $20! #Best investment.
19. Explore franchising or partnerships. How can you strategically expand your companies reach with little capital outlay.
20. Test the waters. Now’s the time to try out those new products and services that have been sitting in the closet. Give them a try.
21. Invest in Adwords. Capture motivated leads in an automated fashion – hard to beat.
22. Networking - get yourself out there active in the market place. When things get busy you want to the guy (or gal) they call straight away.
23. Map out your reach into market, how do you market your company? What does that look like? And how can you improve it?
24. Buy an iPhone. Why? It will pretty much allow you to make your business mobile instantly. Whatever you want chances are it can do it OR someone can develop it for you.
25. Telecommute. Work from home one day a week and encourage your staff to do so as well. This lowers costs, can boost morale and productivity.

It’s the compounding effect of small changes that break the biggest barriers so pick one, knock it, pick another.  Go for it!

(Add your own in the comments below).

Starting without fanfare is a bit daunting and quite scary.

Shouldn’t I be shouting from the rooftops about what I’m doing?

Yes and no.

Shout from the rooftops once you’ve tested your product with paying customers AND they think it’s awesome.

However who starts off like that? Starting without fanfare lets you operate under the radar, quietly refine and build your business.

It also means you have market potential rather than converting a market that is fatigued by your shouting.

A good analogy is the franchise, do you think they rolled out hundreds of McDonalds then figured out how to make a convenient meal?

The ultimate brain dump.

When the pressure is on, I find the easiest way to gain clarity is to just write own each and every task that needs to get done.  From paying the electricity bill to client work.  It all matters as it all adds stress.

Then I am able to quickly evaluate what is important and what isn’t.  A simple activity that you don’t need to do day to day but when the crunch on this simple task helps get the stress out of your mind and onto paper.

Selling out on your customers. Delivering sub par service.

It’s easy to take a shortcut, cut corners to get the short term win…. But it’s not attractive…

Not attractive to your current; prospective or past customers.

You can may win them back.  But at what cost?

I daresay it’s less than the windfall from your original shortcut…

I just want to clarify (since I share ideas each and every day) an idea alone isn’t a business.

A business is a collection of ideas, executed in a fashion that generates profit.

An amazing idea helps a business spread, it forms the messages, builds the word of mouth but it is the collection of ideas and systems executed that make the business.  In essence an amazing idea provides a wave for the business to ride but that wave is short lived unless you have something behind it…

You need to take your amazing idea and mix it up with some others (usually standardised ideas) to turn it into a business.  Then you have something of amazing value.

It’s easy for someone to say you should be doing blogging, or tweeting or vlogging…

You can’t.

You see you ought to zoom in on what you’re good at.

If you’re not good at writing – don’t write.

If you’re not good in front of the camera – don’t do it.

No time for tweeting – don’t do it.

There is ZERO value in using a tool if you don’t do it well.  Let me repeat that – zero value.  If you’re in the space you need to own it.

It’s the same old business principle, 80/20 analysis of what you’re good at, then push that button and keep pressing it.  That’s the smartest form of leverage.