Simply Business Coaching

The third word is .... Action!

For the last post of this week, I’ve reached the third word which is ‘Action’.  It’s been interesting to see how many ideas a single word triggered, in a relatively short time.  Here are today’s thoughts:

• Without action, nothing happens.  And nothing changes either.
• When you don’t know what to do, taking any action is usually better than none.  Even if what you do turns out to be wrong, at least you’ve moved out of the ‘don’t know’ zone.
• Planning is important but becomes worthless if it isn’t followed by action.  Also known as ‘analysis paralysis’, there comes a point when you have to stop planning and start doing.
• Successful people take a lot of action.  They don’t sit around waiting for opportunity to knock on their door; they go out and look for it.
• Taking action will put you back in control of a situation.  Letting things simply happen to you is like drifting without aim or purpose.  But the moment you start taking action, you stop being a victim.
• Be sure to distinguish between projects and actions.  A project is redesigning your website, an action is writing one page of it. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s experiment.  Thanks again to Chris Brogan for the idea. 
If you were to define what you want to achieve next week using just 3 words – what would they be?  Feel free to share by commenting below.

Today's word is .....

Continuing with the 3 word theme, today’s word is ‘Focus’

• Focus on what is going to bring you money now, or very soon.
• Don’t spread yourself too thin, focus on having no more than 3 projects in progress at a time. 
• Perfectionists will always find more to do to get it ‘just right’!  As Dan Kennedy says ‘Good is good enough’!  Focus on completion
• It can be a bit of an anti-climax when you finally reach a goal you’ve been working towards for a long time.  Focusing beyond the achievement of a particular goal will mean you enjoy every success. 
• Short, intense bursts of focused activity will get you over the procrastination hump [see my personal productivity secret weapon post]
• Delegate what you don’t like doing and what you’re not so good at.  Focus on your brilliance.
• Multi-tasking really doesn’t work!  Be totally focused and work on just one task.  I like to only have the papers related to my current focus on my desk.
• Focus on what you do want, rather than what you don’t.  Your subconscious will start working with you so be sure to give it the right message!

What are you focusing on today?

A Three Word Week

One of the blogs I enjoy reading belongs to Chris Brogan of www.chrisbrogan.com.  At the beginning of this year, he wrote a post where he explains his personal system for goal-setting.  Basically what he does is come up with 3 words and build a goal around each of them.  This week I thought it would be interesting to borrow his 3 words system to develop my blog posts, so this week’s words are: Building, Focus, and Action.  Here goes!

Building

• Small businesses must always be building on what they have already achieved.  Even if they have all the work and clients they can handle, they still need to keep building for when they want to retire from or sell the business.
• Building relationships is an ongoing activity when you’re in business.  Relationships with clients, prospective clients, suppliers, and just about everyone else you come into contact with. 
• I blogged about building your business and personal brand last week and repeat that it is going to be very important this year.
• Reputation is closely linked to your brand.  Make sure to get testimonials from satisfied customers to help build a reputation for good work and service.
• Building a list of prospects to market to is another constant on every business owner’s to-do list.
  
• Building on ideas.  Take a closer look at some of the many ideas you've got.  Which deserve to be worked on?

I hope this has given you some ideas.  What business building activities do you need to do this week?

Whatever else you do, don't stop marketing!

I’ve seen a few local business owners this year who have that ‘rabbit caught in the headlights’ look in their eyes.  They’ve been listening to all the bad news about the economy and don’t know what they should do to keep their businesses going.  While they’re wondering, they’re not actually doing anything – apart from wondering.

Now I don’t know, anymore than the next person, what’s going to happen in the next few months.  But in terms of my business I am absolutely 100% positive about one thing.  I will be continuing with my marketing activities.  As I posted before Christmas [Have you planned your 2009 marketing yet?], I have written out my marketing plan for the months ahead.  That keeps me focused and stops me wobbling if I should feel uncertain about what to do next. 

If you’re faced with a smaller marketing budget than before, it’s not an excuse to do less!  Get creative, there are lots of low cost ways to get your message out there.  If your business is anything like mine, advertising doesn’t work to bring in clients.  What does work is building relationships and that vital know, like and trust factor.

One of my new marketing activities for this year is my weekly radio show at http://blogtalkradio.com/louisebj It’s a great way of raising my visibility, costs very little (except some time), and it’s fun! 

Do you have a creative way of marketing your small business that you’re prepared to share here?  I’d love to know, just leave your comment below.

Has your confidence taken a bit of a knock?

Life, and business, has an annoying habit of not always going according to plan.  You know, the sure-fire order that doesn’t materialise, the great offer that no-one buys, or the great-sounding he-guy that turns out to be a mummy’s boy in a tank top......  but that’s a story for another day ;)

When you put a lot of effort into marketing your business only for it not to bring you sales, it can start to feel a bit personal.  That in turn can give your confidence a bit of a knock.  Before long, you start to have a few little doubts, even to the point where you start wondering whether you’re really cut out to be in business.

It’s a rare person who goes through life without their confidence taking a dip occasionally, and most people who give the outward appearance of being confident have been working at it!

The best tools I’ve found for building up confidence are preparation, preparation and preparation!  If you research the background of a situation, take time to prepare your presentation, and rehearse what you’re going to say many times, you will increase your confidence for when you come to deliver the real performance.

Whether you’re talking to one prospective client, or delivering a presentation to the board at a corporation – if you take the time to thoroughly prepare beforehand, you will feel more confident.

An NLP technique that I’ve found to be very effective with my clients is to visualise your presentation going very well, to see yourself getting the order.  Connect with these positive visualisations and your confidence levels will rise!

Build yourself a brand

Volvo = safety; Virgin = fun; You =?  What do you stand for?  If you are your business, then you are also your brand.  And from what I’ve been reading over the last few months, building your personal brand is going to be one of the keys to success in 2009.

One of my clients said to me a couple of months ago that they didn’t want their name printed on marketing materials because the business wasn’t really about them.  But they couldn’t have been more wrong!  One of the main reasons people did business with my client was because they were drawn to their personality – in other words their brand.

You don’t need a big budget like Volvo or Virgin to build your brand.  You just need to know what you want to be known for.

(More about personal branding in this week’s ‘Competitive Advantage’.  Subscribe now to make sure you get your free copy delivered to your inbox on Friday!)

Have you done your planning yet?

Most of the business owners I’ve spoken to so far this year have made their plans for success and growth in 2009.  They know that they need to stay focused on what they want to achieve, and not be swayed by all the negative messages about the economy. 

It isn’t being irresponsible to want to grow your business despite what’s happening in the High Street.  Planning helps keep you on track, working steadily toward your goals.

What will halt your growth and could even damage your business is playing the ‘wait and see’ game.  It’s become obvious that the economic situation isn’t going to be resolved any time soon.  It’s even possible that things will never return to quite how they were before.

I was chatting with my dad at the weekend about the differences in buying habits between our respective generations.  For example:

• My generation grew up with readily available credit, and adopted a buy now, pay later attitude. 
• My dad’s generation saved up until they had enough to buy what they wanted. 
• My generation is lured by the latest, shiniest, fastest gizmo as it becomes available. 
• My dad’s generation looked after what they had and expected it to last a long time.
• My generation has amassed an incredible £1455bn of personal debt (as at 1 December 2008, source Moneybasics UK)
• My dad’s generation feared debt and were wary of taking out any loans.

As always, there are lessons to be learned from previous generations, even if circumstances aren’t quite the same.

Planning ahead for your business (as well as in your personal life) means you can identify when you’re likely to need to buy – whether it’s printing, equipment, seminar tickets – and, dare I say it, save up beforehand!

(If you missed my free planning call (inspired by Sherman Hu) and the Planning Template I gave away just before the New Year, you can still hear it here  http://blogtalkradio.com/louisebj click on Show FLR #1)

What planning or financial lessons have you learned from previous generations?  Please feel free to share them by leaving a comment below.

Take note of what Jack Canfield says

Make this a habit and you'll really move forward quickly.

Be sure to let me know how you get on!

Desperation selling doesn’t work

I don’t know about you, but my email inbox is being flooded with even more sales messages than before, and I’m getting loads of ‘junk’ mail through the letter box from lots of different companies too.

Now, I’m one of those unusual people who do read their junk mail before consigning it to the bin because:

1.    Sometimes there’s a really good deal on a product or service I’m thinking of buying anyway.
2.    The copy may be written in an unusual or attention-grabbing way that appeals, so I keep it for my ‘swipe’ file for future reference

However, I’ve noticed lately that the messages are becoming more and more ‘urgency’ driven:
"Only 129 left in stock!", "Last chance to buy at this price!" "Will never be offered again!"

I know that any offer message needs to have an urgency ‘trigger’ to make people take action there and then.  However, using too many of them in the same email or letter really does smack of desperation.  And, IMHO it dilutes the message to an ‘Oh yeah, who cares’ response.

Just as we start to feel slightly punch drunk by receiving so many marketing messages day in and day out, so we become immune to the psychological triggers contained in the messages if they are over-used.

The best marketing messages, (aka the ones that work) have a lightness of tone, they don’t harass.  They lead the reader to take action, they don’t bully.  They build on the relationship that has been established (from previous mailings), they don’t endanger it.  I’ve been ‘unsubscribing’ to a lot of lists that have become too noisy lately.

Even in these times of economic uncertainty, it is possible to deliver promotional messages AND make those vital sales, WITHOUT sounding desperate.  It really isn’t attractive.

Worry is like a rocking chair .....

I couldn't find the original author of this saying, but it’s so true:

“Worry is like a rocking chair, it doesn’t get you anywhere but it gives you something to do.”

If you are so worried about how you’re going to pay the bills, you will probably not be making your best decisions, and you’ll certainly struggle to concentrate or work on anything creative.  I know this because I’ve been there.

When you have your own business there can be some very hairy financial moments.  Worrying about the credit crunch and its possible effects is likely to bring you at least a few grey hairs, and at worst a stress-related illness.

I’m not going to tell you not to worry, that would be foolish of me.  And I honestly don’t know how long or how deep the current economic depression is going to be.  I do believe however, that the media are making things worse because of the number of times they keep repeating how bad things are!  I’ve blogged before that I’ve stopped buying a daily paper as I find it too depressing to read.  But even so I can’t escape all the bad news broadcasts.

In case you haven’t heard, I’m starting a new radio show on the internet (also known as a podcast) on Monday 12 January.  Each Monday, at 5.30pm (GMT) I’m going to be chatting with a fellow business owner about what they do, the challenges they’ve faced and some of their top tips.  I’ll also be asking them for their personal take on the current economic climate.

If you’re a one-person business, please don’t feel you have to worry on your own.  Listen in to the weekly shows on BlogTalkRadio, (it’s completely free and details about how to join in are on the website) or to the recording which will be posted here on the blog, when I’ll be sharing messages of encouragement and motivation!  And if you’ve got a particular topic you’d like to find out about, just leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to find out about it for you.