Simply Business Coaching

Estimates May Trip You Up

Running a small business means learning lots of new skills, quite separate to the products or services you offer.  There are many books and workshops to provide much of the information needed so you can plan out what you need to do, once you’ve learned how.  But all those carefully thought-out business plans, forecasts and to-do lists can count for little, if you get some basic estimating wrong, for example if you:  

Under Estimate how much time it will take to do the ‘marketing bit’
Marketing should not be an after-thought.  It needs to be planned out, preferably for a whole year ahead, so that every activity has a purpose and a goal.  Many of the marketing ‘gurus’ recommend spending 20% of your time on marketing.  It may seem like a lot – but when the alternative is a lack of business....

Over estimate the demand for your great idea
It’s easy to get carried away with enthusiasm when you think of that brilliant idea for a new product or service that EVERYONE is going to love!  You can avoid the disappointment when customers fail to beat a path to your door by doing some market research first.  Find out what people want – before spending time and money creating something that fails to sell.

Under estimate how difficult it will be to stay motivated – all the time
Even the most successful and driven entrepreneurs occasionally have days when they’d prefer to hide under the duvet!  It can be hard to stay motivated and moving at full speed all the time so plan in some contingency to take a little down time – for when you need to be kind to yourself :)

Have any estimates tripped you up?  Please let me know if they have!  And do share this post if you found it helpful.

Working from home - doesn’t mean working alone

I’m very fortunate in that, most of the time, it doesn’t bother me to work by myself.  But I know it doesn’t suit everyone, and for many ‘new’ business owners who have been used to having colleagues to chat with when they were still in employment, the feeling of being alone can be really hard to get used to.

A possible solution is to rent an office or working space in one of the many small business centres around the country.  Some have communal coffee shops, meeting areas, even restaurants on site, or arrange events that are opportunities to meet fellow ‘tenants’.  But not every budget can stretch to that in the early days.  

Joining a regular local networking group is as important for the mutual support each member offers, as it is for the business opportunities sought and exchanged.  Some are better at being supportive than others.  If committing to a regular meeting on set dates is impractical, there are many other groups where you can ‘pay as you go’, as well as ad hoc networking opportunities.  Consider conferences, seminars, workshops, trade shows and exhibitions are all good ways to combine business with meeting and chatting to fellow business owners.

Belonging to a Mastermind, whether formal and paid for or an informal meeting of like-minded business owners has a lot going for it.  Good Mastermind groups are a blend of support, encouragement, learning, sharing, accountability and action focused.  I’ve found them to be a great way to help me get things done!

One of the reasons coaching is so effective is the regular contact (by phone or in person) and knowing there’s someone who is always there, through all the ups and downs of business life.  Group coaching environments bring the additional support of the other members, which often develop into deeper business relationships outside of the meetings.

There is no need to feel isolated because you work alone at home, and it’s important to the success of all small businesses to set up support systems.

What support systems work for you?  Please share your experience in the comments below.  And if you found this post helpful, a retweet would be appreciated!

Small Business Marketing - Standing Out from the Crowd

Do you know how to find the hidden difference that makes you stand out from the crowd?

Not everyone wins awards, has appeared on television or is a published author.  Fortunately, there are other ways of standing out in your industry.  Perhaps you have developed a new, or different, system, process or method that helps people to learn what you teach.  How did you come to be doing what you do - what's your personal story? (I think everyone's a bit fed up with the extreme rags to riches bit now, so no need to go overboard) but if you did overcome some particular obstacles on your journey - be sure and include them in your story. After all, YOU are the unique part of your business.

What I suggest you do is ask 2 or 3 people who know you quite well (colleagues, fellow networkers, or clients) for some input.  Ask what words they would use to describe you, and what strengths they observe in you.  The results are often illuminating.  Another good tip is to have a look at testimonials you've received - and I mean really look at what's been said.  You may well find, as I did, the same phrases cropping up again and again - showing you just what makes you stand out from the crowd.

I'd love to hear how you found your hidden difference.  And if you enjoyed reading this post, please re-tweet so others can read it too!

Well, what do you expect?

Earlier this week I was invited to attend a Business Link event as a 'local expert' (their term, not mine!) in social media marketing. It was an interesting format, there were 6 large round tables, each with their own 'expert host' in a different marketing area (PR, Customer Relationship Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing, Pricing for Profit, Online Marketing as well as Social Media Marketing). 

I remained (thankfully) seated at 'my' table and was joined by 8-10 business owners for 30 minutes, followed by a 10 minute break.  Then everyone moved around to the next table & topic of their choice - this took place 4 times in all.   I was gratified the seats at my table quickly filled up each time :)

Basically, I was there to provide tips and suggestions to the many small business owners who are unsure how to make all the social media goodies work for them - or so I thought.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when the Business Link Advisor who sat beside me the whole time to 'facilitate' the discussions, was only asking if they used Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.  From other local networking events I've attended lately, I know business owners who understand how to use the online networks for business are the exception rather than the rule (unless they're involved with the internet as part of their own business).

When I suggested that online networking was just one part of many social media marketing possibilities, most of the faces around the table unfortunately went from curious to blank, as I tried to describe the wonderfully numerous and diverse ways the internet can literally transform small businesses.

That was when I realised that there are those of us who have embraced the internet and are busy finding ways to integrate it into our marketing and using it to help design brand new business models - and then there are the many other business owners who haven't even considered that path yet.  I really didn't expect to find such a huge gap still existed between the two groups.

Overall, it was an enjoyable if quite tiring experience.  It was definitely thought-provoking and has taught me a valuable lesson about expectations!

Please share your experience of how many business owners you know 'get' or don't get, using the internet in the comments below.  And if you enjoyed reading this post, I'd appreciate a retweet too!

The Funny Thing about Free Training

Following on from my post earlier this week on what I thought about free consultations, I thought I'd share a conversation I had with a client recently about how funny (peculiar) people can be when they book onto free training events.  Here are some of our shared musings:

• They book quickly to reserve a place, even if they have no intention of coming along.
• They don't read the emails which ask what they most want to learn (and then say the training didn't meet expectations on the feedback form)
• They attend 'advanced' workshops and expect to be taught the basics (and then say the training didn't meet expectations on the feedback form)
• They complain about the strangest things - parking facilities, other delegates, the room temperature, the refreshments ..... (and then say the training didn't meet expectations on the feedback form)
• If it's raining/snowing/sunny on the day, they decide not to turn up (and then ask when you're running the next one!)

I wonder how these same delegates would behave if they were required to pay to attend....

What's your experience of offering free training events?  Please share by commenting below, and if you enjoyed reading this post, a re-tweet would be lovely!

Business Coaching: Are Free Consultations Worth Doing?

Last month I ran a special offer to my newsletter subscribers for a 'Marketing Spring Clean'.  It was the first time in quite a while I'd offered a free consultation, and was partly prompted by a fellow Masterminder who observed that I might be missing opportunities to attract clients by not doing so.

Initially I was pleased at the interest generated and duly set up the telephone appointments (using my superb online scheduler Tungle).  And then things started to go awry.....

Here's what I learned:

• Some people will apply for anything that's free, even if they don't qualify.  They don't read past the word 'free'.
• Others will want you to bend over backwards to accommodate their diary (never mind about the 20 possible alternatives you offer, they expect a weekend appointment or evenings) and then they cancel.
• Then there are the pedants who quibble at having to pay £2.50 for a phone call when you're giving them nearly an hour of your expertise - "But it isn't really free if I have to pay for the call, is it?"

Thankfully, 80% of the free consultations went ahead OK (although I'm still waiting to find out how much actual business they bring), but the whole experience has served to remind me how many people really don't value something they haven't had to pay for.

What's your experience of offering free consultations?  Please share by commenting below, and if you enjoyed reading this post, I'd appreciate a re-tweet!

Taking a few detours

On Wednesday I drove to a meeting and got a bit lost!  While I love and use lots of new technology and tools to make life easier, I'm still resisting getting a SatNav system - mainly because I don't believe I make enough journeys to get good use from one.

So before setting off, I looked up the route on the internet and in a trusty old-fashioned map book to get a clear 'picture' in my mind of how to reach my destination.

Everything went swimmingly until about the last 5 miles (as often happens!) when I departed from the chosen route somehow.  After pulling over and consulting the map again, I could see the road I was now on would rejoin my route a bit further on, so thankfully there was no need to turn around.

Admittedly my heart did sink a little as I drove along busy streets looking out for road names and landmarks, but I didn't panic because I knew I'd reach my destination in the end.

I lost count of the total number of involuntary detours, but eventually I arrived safely - and even 10 minutes early for the meeting.

In business we need to have a clear vision and defined goals to aim for too.  Mapping out how we're going to achieve those goals provides the direction and action steps to take.  But when life leads us to take a few detours along the way, as it surely will, that doesn't mean giving up on the end goals. 

Being on the right road all the time isn't as important as reaching the destination safely, especially if there is great scenery to admire and lessons to learn from the detours.

And yes .... I got lost again on the way home too!

How to Get More People to Market to

If you have a website and/or blog - and if you don’t why not? - they are excellent places to showcase what you do and to give away something in return for your visitor’s contact details.  The fact these people are visiting your site means they’re already somewhat interested in your field. 

What you give away is up to you – but inviting people to sign up to your newsletter alone isn’t enough these days.  Remember how overloaded people’s inboxes are?

You need to tempt them with something interesting and valuable, and which they can access immediately – instant gratification is important!  I offer an action guide called ’10 Ways to Boost Your Business – How to get the stuff that really matters to you!’  which has 30 pages of valuable tips and self-coaching exercises.  What could you offer?

Writing articles and submitting them to different directories and publications, both offline and on the internet, is another great way to get more people to market to.  Readers who find your articles through these directories, will then visit your website to find out more about you if they like what you have to say.

Direct mail is still a useful, tried and tested, if more traditional way to attract more potential clients.  Carefully crafted letters and postcard mailings are good for this and need to be included in your marketing campaign.  Again, make sure you’re mailing to a targeted list or you’ll be wasting both effort and money.  Don't forget that sending email promotions to people you don’t know is ill advised and regarded as Spam (which is illegal).  So save emails for your warmer lists of interested prospects and clients.

Another very effective method of finding more people to market to is good, old fashioned Networking – online is OK too – but you still can’t beat going out and meeting people face to face.  Not only can you get to know if they’re in your target market, you’ll come across possible Joint Venture partners too.  These are people who are in non-competing businesses to you, but who are targeting the same audience.  A JV could see you cross-promoting to each other’s lists and both your messages reaching lots more people.

But - in your newsletter, articles, blog, as well as your free give-away – you must provide good, interesting and valuable content.  Just throwing together any old rubbish isn’t going to give a good impression of your business.  Also if that content is of inferior quality readers will, by association, think the rest of your products or services are inferior too!

The Heart of Your Business

Your list of contacts is at the heart of your business and, just as you take care of your own heart by exercise and healthy eating, so you need to devote time to giving your list lots of care and attention too.

Some people get very hung up on the size of their list, and the number of followers they have on the social networks.  They operate on the principle of ‘it’s a numbers game’ and try to connect with as many people as possible in the hope that a few may be interested.  Perhaps that used to work in the past, but I don’t believe it does any more – let me explain.

Everyone is bombarded with so many marketing messages these days – there is so much information to wade through that people have become ever more discriminating what they choose to spend their time reading.  So, if they receive too many messages from a source too frequently, or find the subject matter not to be relevant to them, they’ll delete, unsubscribe or bin it without a second thought.  Having a big list isn’t of much use to you if most of them don’t want what you’re selling!

When you want to have more people to market to, you need to be looking for the RIGHT people to add to your list.  To find them you must be very clear on your target market, this is Marketing 101 so I’m assuming you already know who they are.  Just don’t get side-tracked into building numbers for the sake of quantity.  It’s far better to have a smaller list of targeted people than a large list which brings you disappointing results.

But I already knew that!

Was the comment from a business owner I'd been speaking with about developing her online presence. Judging by the tone of voice, she wasn't too happy to find out that I didn't have a magic formula to transform her business without any extra work on her part.

The trouble is, there's a big gap between knowing what needs doing and actually doing it!  And it got me thinking. 

I've been guilty myself, in the past, of having a lot of 'shelf help' - buying lots of how-to books, training programmes, and attending many seminars.  All in the vain hope that I would stumble across the missing part to build my business effortlessly.

One of the problems is the sales copy accompanying events and product launches.  They all promise the earth - and then deliver ..... you guessed it ..... stuff I already know about!

So I've made 2 promises to myself.  The first that I will not buy any more products or download any new information, without first checking my groaning bookshelves (real and virtual) to see if I haven't already got an equivalent.  The second promise is that I will systematically work my way through each of the programmes in my possession instead of leaving them to gather dust.

Once I've taken action and done the work, it will be interesting to see how much further forward I am in my own business.  I think that business owner's comment may have done me a big favour!

What about you?  Do you keep finding 'new information' you already knew about?