entrepreneur Archives - Darryn Van Hout

5 Ways To Recession-proof Your business

Darryn Van Hout — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 22:57:31 +0000

Australia has been out of the woods over the past few decades since the time of the recession ‘we had to have’. The country has done well to elude the worst ever global financial crunch and has recorded tremendous economic growth.

But recently, the media has been hinting that we’re right in the thick of a recession.

According to a survey carried out by PwC, CEOs are no longer optimistic. The ongoing economic deceleration both locally and globally, besides the political distress and trade conflicts all around has forced the topmost brass in businesses throughout Australia to express little confidence in the nation’s growth prospects.

However, it’s not so much about whether the market will contract but rather when.

If tomorrow’s media headlines screamed of a potential disaster and consumer sentiments plunged to the floor, what would that mean for your business? Would you be afraid or stay optimistic about new opportunities that would emerge? Or become worried wondering whether you will withstand the crash?

This guide is designed to assist you in preparing for the worst case scenario even if it never gets to happen.

The article features 5 important steps to protect you against a possible market crash. And not only will the guide help safeguard you from bad times, but also give your business a competitive edge in good times.

1. Cash Buffer

Stockpiling cash sounds easier in theory than in practical. While this step looks clearly obvious, a recent ASIC report showed that 40% of business failures are caused by a lack of cash flow. A substantial part of the problem emanates from what’s known as the ‘Parkinson’s Principle’. This principle states that ‘Work expands to fill the time available for its completion’.

Have you ever realised that when you have to complete a task within an hour, it takes an hour? And that when you only have five minutes you’re somehow able to get it done within that time?

That’s Parkinson’s Principle at work.

The concept is applicable to other areas too.

Take losing weight for example. Humans have a tendency of eating everything that is on the plate (Yes, my hand’s definitely up on this one). If we made the plate smaller, we will eat less food without realising any difference in satisfaction. That too is Parkinson at work.

So, if you apply this principle to your money, it’s important to understand that you (or your team) are most likely going to spend any available cash.

Keeping money away for a rainy day is one of the ancient tricks in the book but from experience many businesses can’t survive without fresh revenue generated for a period of 4-6 weeks.

As your business continues to grow and cash accumulates, somehow, you will find new ways of spending this money. Obviously, most of the new expenses will be genuine operational costs relating to your growing business.

Yet, after close examination, you will recognise that a good chunk of the new spending relates to non-core activities. Maybe you may decide to re-brand despite there being no good reason to do so (other than the fact that you got bored with the usual ‘look’ of your business cards and letterhead).

Maybe you decide to get a few more Uber Comforts when you were comfortable using the Uber X earlier on.

It’s easier to fall into this trap when you fail to prioritise stockpiling cash for what is only needed. One of the main challenges is that most small business owners have their funds coming in and out from the same bank account.

“As sure as the spring will follow the winter, prosperity and economic growth will follow recession” – Bo Bennett

This is likened to putting all your food on one plate—or restricting your available time to complete a given task. The single bank account is a recipe for never ending cashflow problems.

If this is the way you’re running your business, then forget about building it into a profitable establishment. It’s simply impossible to track your transactions and any in flow will be quickly spent.

As a matter of fact, if you withdraw some cash (profit) and lock it away once it’s received, you will figure out how to run your business with what’s left. Trust me, you definitely will. (You probably began with nothing and managed to work out things). Surpluses often make us become less creative hence it’s better to whisk away some cash now, and start figuring out how to run the business with what’s left.

For any profitable business model, the magic number is always six.

To prepare your business more adequately for a crash, from now on, get into the habit of allocating revenue into different baskets that is, bank accounts, instead of putting all your eggs in one big basket.

Six may sound like an exaggeration but it helps you keep track as well as form healthy habits. Each account should have a separate purpose.

Business accounts: The magic six

Tip: Make it simple—check your account every week and transfer everything available in your income account into the other accounts.

Managing your business finances in this manner not only helps you avoid overspending, but also ensures that you have adequate cash for both the expected ad unexpected expenses—all these while remaining with enough money to make a difference in your realm.

Action stations: Open your accounts today.

If you don’t restrain yourself by apportioning money to the key areas of saving, donating and of course paying yourself, you will end up spending every dollar of your revenue.

This step should help you grow your business quickly though it’s not PROTECTING your business and you are at risk of ending up where you will be consistently chasing your tail or in a worse place.

Your challenge: Break Parkinson’s law—Keep in mind that nature only changes when it’s forced to. Your business behaves this way too. Taking the challenge to rise above your urge to spend every penny earned is a decision you’ll never regret.

2. Cost cutting

Proper allocation of your money is the initial step. You should also be able to significantly reduce the cash outflow if you have to prepare yourself well for a crash.

And, this doesn’t mean you should go for cheap things in the name of cutting costs. The last thing you should do is reduce costs to the point where your brand is affected negatively.

Spending less does not equal to doing less. Never throw your baby out with bathwater and cut costs to the point that you can’t operate your business.

What you ought to do is gain a thorough understanding of every single expense that pertains to running your business and find out which of these expenses can be minimised or eliminated altogether.

To achieve this, you will require a 3-step process:

Identifying hotspots
Prioritise the ones to cut
Incentivise the cuts

Identifying Hotspots

To identify hotspot, look for the following three categories in your financials:

Recent increase in costs
Expenses that cost a lot more than any others
Costs that fluctuate

In case your operations are a one-man show, do this on your own or seek the help of a qualified accountant but based on the size of your organisation, you may have to allocate this task amongst the various teams or departments in your business to make the work easier.

Once this step is completed, choose the ones that belong to these three categories:

Mission-critical and highly valued
Highly valued but not mission-critical
Non-mission-critical and low-value

Any item that falls under category one shouldn’t be touched unless you find away to make it more cost effective without causing any negative impact on operations. The best example here would be the truck maintenance expense if you’re a logistics company.

Items that end up in the second category can be somehow manipulated to become cheaper. Consider the fridge in your break room. It’s not an item of much value to your business but if eliminated, people will not be happy. Maybe it would be prudent to replace the fancy water bottles for the more affordable home-brand variety.

As expected, anything that falls under the third category can be done away with. For example, mobile plans for those who rarely leave the office and don’t respond to work-related calls from home. It’s likely that you have more subscriptions on your online tools and websites than you really need. Be sure to review each item one by one.

Prioritise Costs to Cut

Before choosing the items to cut costs on, you may have to consider prioritising them. Make this process easier for you and your team by allocating the expense items in each of the following categories:

Hi-return, low-complexity
‘Big Gains, Easy Wins’ – If cutting a non-mission-critical item will give you good gains and you can do this as easily as cancelling a subscription account that never gets used, make a move immediately.
Medium-return, low-complexity
‘Moderate Gains, Easy Wins’ – Get rid of the items that may not save your business thousands, but which are simple to cut out, like switching from premium to standard subscriptions or changing your stationery supplier.
High-return, high-complexity
‘Big Gains That Are Tricky to Implement’ – This may include creating a new strategy, for example setting up a sound-proof meeting room with a large screen so your team isn’t always jumping into Ubers to see clients.
Low-return, high-complexity
‘Small Gains That Are Tricky To Implement’ – Considered lowest priority, this includes the changes which take a while to implement but won’t impact your overall revenue by a significant amount.

Incentivise Expense Cuts

No one likes the idea of spending less, in most cases because they imagine they will be missing out on some important thing, so give your team reasons why they should consider cutting costs.

First and foremost, be honest. If the business cuts on expenses, everyone on the payroll gets to keep their job. This is basic truth often ignored or understated. Working for a well-established company is always a privilege and so it’s often easier than imagined to motivate your teams to take an active role in cutting costs without giving them incentives or cash bonuses.

The next step involves building the culture of saving money within your organisation. You may decide to achieve this by turning the whole idea into a fun game by encouraging weekly meetings where teams do their best to outsmart each other in terms of the amount saved. The winner should get some form of reward which should not be necessarily monetary.

The third and final step is transparency. Let your team have access to the company’s financials and budgets so they can be in the picture and understand the ultimate effect of every cost-cutting measure they’re implementing. They can also participate by tracking the scores and follow closely how the business is progressing as one way of staying motivated and identifying even bigger cost-cutting opportunities.

Carry out expense reviews regularly like four times each year so you may understand the money that’s flowing out that in essence, shouldn’t.

3. Assets And Automation

Having eliminated costs, the next step is to consider the fact that you’re paying your workers for their time and that time is expensive, especially here in Australia.

To make the most returns from every dollar spend, master the art of delegating and automation.

Your best and highest paid employees should be free to handle the highest-impact tasks that produce more revenue for your business.

When it comes to low-revenue tasks, delegate. Assign them to junior staff or trainees so you can focus your energies and attention on more important matters.

What You Need To Know About Business Process Automation

Business Process Automation reduces noise from the business, helping you save more on resources. This isn’t the task of a business owner but the team members who should be able to invent and implement workflow automation that helps save time and money.

Seven things to automate:

Customer service
Lead generation
Sales workflow
Marketing and social media
Meeting minutes
Scheduling
Accounts

What You Need To Know About Assets

Basically, the term asset refers to anything that produces new value when you and your team are away. Picture your business from a distance. Now hold that thought and picture it without people. The degree to which the business will still run is the level to which you have built what can be considered as an asset-driven business.

Investing in the right assets makes workflows move faster and can automatically generate quality inbound leads, cut the time spent on training a new team and ensure your business runs into the future as a well-lubricated machine.

Every asset purchased should deliver clear and measurable returns on investment while enhancing efficiency.

Examples of assets

Online Tools and Software – Third-party apps will make working hours more productive.
Business Systems – Consistency is key and this can be streamlined by introducing systems.
Procedures and Processes – Developing internal procedure documents and videos will eliminate wasted time.
Automation Tools – Allow the latest technology to complete tasks for you and your team.

The Goal Of Workflow Automation And Assets

In most cases as businesses grow, they become complex with more expenses, more layers and additional moving parts.

By constantly striving to cut or eliminate expenses, automate tasks or delegate easy tasks to junior staff or interns, you will be building a business that will not only thrive but will also be efficient. Profits increase while running costs reduce. There should be systems in place that will ensure that when you or your team is not there, the machines keep working.

Aim towards recession-proofing your business by operating lean and gaining maximum returns on every employee on your payroll.

When a recession hits, instead of getting bloated with more people who shouldn’t even be there while your accounts get drained by unnecessary expenses, your business will only become the best version of itself.

Carry out an exercise involving you and your key personal and jot down every repetitive, non-skilled tasks they perform every week and how long the tasks take to complete. How much more would the business make if this time was spent on revenue generating activities? This explains just why hiring virtual assistants who usually charge lower rates can ultimately propel your profits to higher levels.

4. Standing Out

One of the best ways for your business to achieve a competitive advantage in your market is for your brand to be recognised as the “go to” brand.

This objective of being more visible and trusted should never be ignored. Positioning yourself as an industry leader makes any other major activity in your business more efficient and cost-effective.

Imagine your brand being recognised in your market as the number one ‘go to’ brand and you the founder being acknowledged as a Notable Person of Influence in your industry. You and your business have been top in the media, and flooded with invitations to speak in large-scale conferences and events. What then happens to your cost per lead? How easy would it be to attract top talent to your company? Would your company be able to close on that major partnership faster? The answer is yes of course.

Unless you get recognised as one of the ‘go to’ brands in your market, you will struggle to thrive and everything will be costly.

Make a business that stands out

Businesses headed by founders who are renowned, trusted and liked are more resilient in a meltdown because people prefer them and consider them as the best.

5 things to consider:

Perfect Your Pitch

During good times, you might be tempted to become a little lazy around marketing and effective communication. Your business’ ‘pitch’ is the backbone of your customer value proposition. It should captivate and draw the attention and interest of the target audience faster and more powerfully. Take a moment to answer this question:

“Why should a person prefer to work with you over your competitors?”

Publish Thought Leadership

Publishing content is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and start generating ‘inbound’ opportunities. Building credibility to ensure your message is heard by those with potential to help increase your business growth is important, however, the number one reason why most people fail to provide content consistently is lack of time.

Your objective should be to generate enough content such that if someone tried to ‘content gorge’ on your material, it would take them more than 7 hours and forcing them to visit at least 4 different platforms to succeed.

For instance, someone may decide to watch a 90-minute talk recording you shared on YouTube, and thereafter listen to a 2 hour podcast episode before spending another hour reading various articles you’ve published. Obviously this may not happen every time—but could happen over time with the magic number 7 hours across 4 different platforms. This should be your target and in case the market declines and opportunities dry up, you will enjoy a wider ‘net’ that will reward you with a steady flow of new business.

Build A Product Ecosystem

Single products and or services don’t bring in money but product ecosystems do. Every business should be able to succeed in the following 4 types of products:

Every product layer in your ecosystem must deliver the following results:

Capture ATTENTION and generate a LEAD.
Build TRUST and generate a QUALIFIED LEAD.
Solve a problem and generate REVENUE.
Offer continuous support and generate RECURRING PROFIT.

If your product layer cannot fulfill these 4 types of outcomes, your business will fail to attain the level of efficiency it needs to achieve in order to thrive given that over reliance on human time is costly and may not achieve these expected outcomes.

Raise Your Profile

Nowadays, Google dictates who you become online and you are who Google says you are. Try and Google yourself and company right now and see what shows up in the search engine from a prospect’s perspective, a marketer or potential talent or key alliance partner.

Do you spell authority and credibility? Now try and google your competition. How are they performing? You will either have to seriously pull up your socks if you want to remain relevant over the next 3-5 years OR you will realise you have the opportunity to standout from the crowd. Either way, you must act fast.

Have a poor profile? Just add the word S.A.L.T.

There are 4 crucial areas you ought to master. Ask yourself if you are worth the S.A.L.T. in your specific market.

S = SOCIAL MEDIA

No arguments please, you’ve got to nail it on social media. We suggest you focus more on this step once you start rocking the next three steps.

A = AWARDS / ACCOLADES

We were ranked the 8^th fastest growing company in Australia (Award). We were named by Inc.com as “one of the leading business accelerators in the world” (Accolade). Create a list of awards or accolades that best fit your business.

L = LIVE APPEARANCES

Receiving invitations to speak, host, judge or sponsor at a well publicised industry event that touches your target market has real impact and enhances your credibility. Do you have a speaker kit? You can’t afford not to have it.

T = THIRD PARTY MEDIA

Finding yourself and your company in the media, on other renowned person’s blogs and podcasts—anything that involves someone else featuring you and your business and what you do.

Begin with ALT, then move back to S and you will be impressed with your results on social media.

WARNING: Just like salt, “personal branding” should be added in small quantities to an existing “main course” of any successful business. But on its own, it can turn bitter.

Partnerships

There’s nothing great that has ever been achieved through isolation. One of the most effective ways to improve existing opportunities despite the market conditions is by forming partnerships, joint ventures and alliances with interested high performers in the sector.

The 3 types of partnerships you should consider are:

PRODUCT Partnerships: These partnerships enable you to provide added value to your customers without you or your business having to build extra internal capacity. For instance, an accountant may create a partnership with a banker or a broker, delivering better outcomes for the client.

BRAND Partnerships: These partnerships help to align your brand with a company, brand or a reputable person that boasts more credibility in the industry more than you. For instance, if you host a webinar or talk show with a given famous celebrity, the association will enable the celeb to transfer some of their brand’s goodwill to your brand. The same is true for any partnership or association with a blue chip company.

DISTRIBUTION Partnerships: These partnerships enable your business to reach a wider audience. For instance, a sales and marketing company may choose to promote the services of a reputable web developer to their clientele and vice versa. If there’s no conflict of interest between the two partners, then this can translate into a very powerful way of driving new business at no extra cost to either party. One of the most effective tools for succeeding in any given market condition is by establishing a broad range of distribution partnerships.

The secret is not starting at one or two. If you have already worked on each of the previous 4 steps, you should have a powerfully credible message, with different content and a well-tailored product ecosystem that will help you to establish more solid partnerships.

5: Help (Self & Others)

It’s important to create a “circle” of partners and suppliers who can hold your back during tough times. The main thing in this step however, is how YOU can dive deeper to help others during their hard times.

What products or services can you produce and deliver in order to help others survive the crash? If you can answer this question, then you will be able to position yourself in a manner that will enable you to receive cash inflows. You can also take advantage of the situation to keep the cash coming in and stamp your authority in your field.

Who does your business need?

Draw a list of external partners or providers who can support you through the downturn. These can include Accountants, banks/finance providers, Business Coaches, Suppliers with flexible terms, JV Partners specialising in lead generation and any other persons your business might need along the way.

How can you help others?

Create a list of ways you could help others faced with difficulties during a recession.

Market crashes provide great opportunities to those who are prepared. As early as now, you can begin marketing your products and or services either in readiness for or to cushion yourself against upcoming recession.

Hope has never been an effective strategy when handling an economic crisis nor will it help with your sales and marketing.

If you have no confidence that your business can be able to weather a recession, it’s never too late to start and the good news is that you can start now. Take the first step by opening additional accounts (or delegating simpler tasks to junior staff to focus on more important matters).

Proper, Early Preparation Prevents the Probability of Poverty!

The additional bonus to recession-proof your business means you’ll immediately start to streamline your operations and reserve more of the revenue you’re generating.

When you’ve got a fat bank account during a recession, you gain the power to grow your business in substantial ways faster than when the market conditions are normal. Not only will you buy things cheaply, but you will also source top talent eyeing your company because it is stable and will offer steady income.

When recession hits, expect to see carnage. But, when the economic sun starts rising again, those that were resilient through the tough times will hit the ground running faster than before.

The post 5 Ways To Recession-proof Your business appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.

How Parenthood Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

Darryn Van Hout — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:44:07 +0000

Parenthood or to be even clearer—Having a baby has completely changed my life and business. Here’s how.

My partner was once brutally honest with me when she told me I was too selfish to be a father. She was incredibly accurate because I was selfishly consumed by my other baby — Business, and was proudly a childless bachelor at the time.

I had never imagined myself writing this kind of a post…

In fact, I swore I wouldn’t dare share my candid experience of fatherhood, that is, if I ever became one.

Pre-baby, I was a workaholic who would dedicate every bit of spare time that I had to my business. But since becoming a father, not only have my priorities changed but my approach to business as well.

Before my partner got pregnant, I would actually frown at people who published blogs about how it felt like to be a new parent and how it changed their perspective on life and business.

I must admit, seeing my friends, peers and business partners continue to thrive through their journey of parenthood and business gave me confidence leading up to the decision. Thank’s guys, for all your support!

Pre-parenthood murmur:

“Give me a break. You’re violating your baby’s rights in the name of gaining page views.”

I would never ever do that.

It didn’t make sense convincing anyone that a baby is some sort of “life hack” that turns you into a more effective and productive human.

It felt so awkward, wrong and mean.

That was until Wolf was born.

To be honest, fatherhood toppled the longstanding paradigm that entrepreneurs have to choose between parenthood and business. For sure, I found them very complementary.

Back to being a father….

The first few weeks could be considered unproductive. I had to step away from my businesses almost completely, because frankly, it would have been almost impossible to juggle with both sides of my life during that period. My business partners, clients and staff were supportive and effectively forced me to take a two week break. “Thanks guys”

When I resumed, I realised that, as a matter of fact, what all other founders or entrepreneur mums and dads shared was absolutely true.

It wasn’t made up and neither was it just a clickbait. It was pure truth which I could finally relate to.

Becoming a father has been a life-changing, heart-melting, schedule-altering and mind-bending experience that has made me a completely different founder than the one I was two years ago.

On a blog whose goal is to share everything learnt along the startup journey, it can be disingenuous of me not to share the amazing things I have learned in the past year.

And in a fast-paced world, and even through the Covid 19 pandemic, where notable founders and CEOs are torn between choosing to grow their families or businesses, I want my story to confirm that there is absolutely no need to make that kind of a decision.

But first, I must apologise to those mums and dads that I doubted in the past. And those who may choose to sneer at this post trust me; I completely understand your position since I was once where you are. But I have no doubt that someday you’ll get to learn the few lessons I have.

Why Having a Baby Has Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

There are four ways in which the “entrepreneur side” of my life has been affected by fatherhood.

1) Patience

I have always been a fast walker and this is the same approach I use in my business, with enthusiasm and impatience that has often resulted in avoidable mistakes owing to a rushed business decision or an anxiously pursued hunch.

Your child, whether you like it or not, will do things and grow at their own pace.

Your business takes a similar trend.

Sure thing, you may work around strategies to nudge them and set them up for success.

Seeing my son hit some remarkable milestones behind or ahead of when he’s supposed to, calmed my thoughts and made my mind better.

These days I’m fully tethered to a baby boy who has scruffy hair with a pinkie grip firmer than any vice. Rather than view this anchor as an impediment, it has taught me to walk more slowly, be more patient and enjoy every moment I am with him.

Generally, entrepreneurs often rush in pursuit of their goals. What we need to keep in mind is that entrepreneurship is never a destination but rather a journey, and that we must learn patience as we gladly move along the way.

In the end, as long as you are doing all the right things as you are expected to do (and receiving some expert feedback and advice along the way), then you are sure to arrive in your desired destination.

I always believed this but never really understood or appreciated it more than I do now. That makes it a lot easier to have the patience to wait for your business to grow, and at its own pace.

2) Time Management

Look at your schedule now and shred it into pieces. The all neatly listed ‘things to do’ are rudely broken up by constant interruptions that compel you to give a bottle, change nappies or simply walk over and ensure the baby is still breathing given that you’re new to this responsibility and afraid that you could be doing it the wrong way.

At the onset, these distractions brought about a lot of stress and anxiety as I thought they would make me fall so desperately behind my schedules.

But with time, I noticed something; the things to do were still getting done.

The distractions of being a new dad weren’t really replacing my work time. Amazingly, they were replacing all the other unnecessary distractions that were there before my baby’s birth—taking a few minutes to read Twitter, check emails or my mobile phone. Those distractions became too costly and in the presence of more important distractions, the insignificant faded away.

Even more interesting is the fact that whenever I get some few and rare uninterrupted segments of time to work, my focus gets deeper since I no longer get glued to social media or entertain other silly distractions as I used to before; my son has trained me to focus on what is more important.

3) Resilience

Previously, I was accustomed to 6-7 hours of sleep each night to function at my best. Anything less, I would struggle through my day. Apparently, that was a fallacy at the back of my mind.

Most new parents out there know for sure that the idea of enjoying a whole night’s uninterrupted sleep is laughable once the baby arrives.

But after a couple of weeks of being lucky to catch an hour’s sleep at a time, I was surprised that I could operate just right.

I realised I could tolerate more physical challenges than I previously thought. And as I got used to it, I would pull through the fractured sleep schedules and still function without a problem.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how or wherever I get the sleep—it’s always welcomed.

And as my son grows older and I get to sleep a little bit more each night, it’s an opportunity I’ll always cherish.

I have also learned that if I have to get less sleep or less comfort than I’m used to, then I really can.

4) Perspective

I no longer worry about me — I’m no longer number one. That alone has made me more focused on what really matters rather than me.

Hey, I have a baby at home I need to provide for—so it’s no more Mr. Cool guy. I have a hungry kid to feed! There’s absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for my son and his mum.

Having my son to take care of, and who totally depends on us for every need, has made me more focused on driving my businesses to succeed.

How to Apply This to Your Business

My greatest desire with this blog post is to let you know that you really don’t have to struggle with the decision of having to choose between growing your business or your family.

Most certainly, your baby isn’t a life hack and you shouldn’t become a dad or mum in order to gain the skills above.

But then, if you are worried that becoming a parent will interfere with your work or growing your business, please don’t be.

A myriad of things get harder, of course. But if you can learn from me, you might just be surprised that you will become a better entrepreneur, CEO or boss in the process and more equipped to handle everything that life as well as business will throw your way.

The post How Parenthood Made Me a Better Entrepreneur appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.

Richard Branson’s Take on Climate Change

Darryn Van Hout — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 06:25:30 +0000

Let me incept this piece with a quote from the British magnate and billionaire, Sir Richard Branson, which goes, “whatever your goal is, you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.”

Love him or hate him, Sir Richard Branson is by all measure, a master of success with unstoppable entrepreneurial zeal that has given him an edge across many different niches.

The multi-billionaire philanthropist and founder of a slew of diverse companies under the umbrella of the Virgin Group—Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Cruises, Virgin Express, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Mobile and recently Virgin Galactic, has built an amazing life and credits this to a simple philosophy he applies daily—love others, be grateful for all you have, be kind and be mindful. And oh, “Never say no, but just keep going until you succeed.“

But surprisingly…..

It’s not just his ability to succeed in the business space that makes him special. Sir Richard Branson has built himself a solid name thanks to his quest to make a difference on Earth—something that he says has driven his achievements and helped built a multi-billion dollar empire in a single lifetime.

Richard Branson and Renewable Energy

Now one of the wealthiest and most influential British men in the world, Sir Richard is truly making that difference in the renewable energy space, especially after finding himself under siege during a Hurricane Irma event that had him hunkered down in his vast wine cellar whereas the Category 5 storm ripped through his private island.

For the duration of that bad weather event, the Virgin boss had to dash to his concrete shelter with his family and staff as winds with speeds of 185 mph tracked over Caribbean’s Necker Island.

“Earth is astoundingly beautiful, it needs to be protected.”
Sir Richard Branson

While Mr Branson seems to be perpetually a happy-mode man and of course a die-hard fan of outlandish hobbies, he has actually expressed his connection to climate change.

Branson Calls Upon the Australian Government

During a Tuesday morning conference in Sydney, Sir Richard Branson asked Australia to lead the way in renewables.

At the event, the amazing Sir Richard called on the Australian government to put an end to export of coal given its contribution to global warming.

“I’m afraid that Australia must stop selling coal overseas to China and it must stop using coal in Australia. It is the most damaging thing that it can do.”

“I would suggest the Australian government create a revolution in clean energy, which can create thousands more jobs than coal could ever produce.”

The business tycoon proposes a scheme where all companies will be required to work out their net carbon footprint and pay a certain percentage of their revenue that will be channeled towards supporting clean energy initiatives.

“Unlike a carbon tax, that would create a revolution in clean energy, with trillions going into clean energy,” he noted.

“It’s going to need the world to take this problem very very seriously,” he said.

“I think the government of Australia should do a lot more and coal is definitely, I’m afraid, something that should be a thing of the past.”

The Noble Approach to Climate Change

The 69-year old Branson practices what he preaches and advised that the right decisions aren’t always the easy ones as he cited a rather “painful” decision to decline a billion dollars worth of funding by the Saudi Arabian government for his space program—Virgin Galactic. The offer came immediately after the murder of the French journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to the business mogul, it was time for the corporate world to create an “entrepreneurial way of addressing climate change that doesn’t have the negative effects that carbon tax has had in the past – which obviously brought down the Australian government.”

The proposed scheme, he emphasized, was all simple.

“Every company that emits carbon should work out its carbon footprint, and then a percentage of their turnover or profits relating to that footprint will not just be sent to the government to be lost in the coffers. 100 per cent will be spent on clean energy initiatives.”

He added that if all companies were to strictly adhere to these noble rules then “we would have trillions and trillions going into clean energy and very quickly.“

Richard Branson Guilt Tripping the Aviation Industry

The philanthropic Virgin Group boss has pledged three billion dollars over the next decade to go towards efforts to mitigate global warming.

While the aviation industry contributes about 2 percent to the global carbon emissions, Virgin Australia’s co-founder Richard Branson says it’s time for airlines to reduce their carbon footprints or actually risk a reprehensible backlash from passengers.

The prodigy of “flight shame” was on the rise especially in Europe and the phenomena have seen passengers stop flying with certain airlines due to guilt over the effects on the environment.

“It’s up to us companies to get our footprint down and down and down, so people don’t feel guilty,” he stated.

“If any industry doesn’t get their act together on carbon, there is the risk that consumers will act badly against them – and they deserve to be acted badly against,” Sir Richard stated on Thursday.

The billionaire businessman who is such a success today also owns a 10 per cent share in Virgin Australia and the man behind UK’s Virgin Atlantic carrier noted that sustainability should be a top priority for every company and airline.

“Every consumer in [the modern world is informed] and makes up their own mind on things like that,” the Virgin boss remarked in Brisbane while promoting Virgin Australia’s newly introduced route to Haneda Airport in Tokyo which is set to commence in March 2020.

The Virgin Approach

Virgin Australia’s rival Qantas has pledged to eliminate its long-term carbon emissions to zero by year 2050 using a winning combination of fuel efficiency and “off-setting” schemes like tree planting.

Virgin Australia is yet to decide whether it would match its rival’s new commitment to cut its emissions. As it is now, Virgin Australia has used diverse fuel efficiency plans to mitigate its annual carbon emissions by 9 million kilograms.

Last August, the company installed “split scimitar winglets” to its aircraft of which the company claims will save up to 160,000 kilograms of fuel per plane each year.

Already, the Virgin founder is testing newly recycled aviation fuel for use in his airlines but insists that governments ought to do more too.

“What would happen is the price of clean energy would drop dramatically, and stay down forever. It will never go back up again.”

“That’s something I’ll be talking to the Australian government about,” also noting that the prominent Australian scientist Tim Flannery had reached out to him, lauding the idea.

So, What’s Next on Richard Branson’s Agenda?

Sir Richard looks forward to conquering both the oceans and space.

He recently affirmed Virgin’s plans to launch a cruise line—Virgin Oceanic, despite heated concerns in recent years over the industry’s pollution but he promised that Virgin would do “everything possible, plus more.”

“With brand new ships and brand new technology, we can lower our footprint,” Virgin Voyages CCO Nirmal Saverimuttu noted.

For now, Sir Richard’s eyes are set on space and he’s already at it—training hard to become an astronaut as he prepares to travel to space in the near future through his innovative Virgin Galactic venture.

And how does he consider claims that he’s given up on planet Earth? According to him, it’s all hogwash.

“I think Earth is all we’ve really got,” he stated.

“I think this idea that we are going to go and colonise Mars or the Moon and therefore we don’t really need Earth anymore is rubbish.”

The “Earth is astoundingly beautiful, it needs to be protected,” he concluded.

The post Richard Branson’s Take on Climate Change appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.

The Repair Man Story – Why Experts Get Paid More

Darryn Van Hout — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:17:38 +0000

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from him for ten thousand dollars.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemised bill.

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

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