Good morning all. I’ve had a great weekend, but struggling a little on the health front! Today’s cartoon is for anyone, who hasn’t been well over the weekend, and wished they could have stayed in bed a little longer.
How everyone in the firm can be a ‘rainmaker’
December 3, 2009 – 8:05 am
In my experience the bulk of business development work tends to fall upon one or two individuals, who are seen as rainmakers and good at ‘marketing and selling’. Think about your firm, or firms you know… rainmakers often have an official (or unofficial) title of business development partner or have been given a high, compared to other people, new business target.
In my view, business development is a team activity that every member of the firm should play a part in. I have yet to find a firm which gives everyone a target for business development activity – often marketing effort is expected to occur in employees and partner’s own time. Very often gaining partnership in a firm is recognition of an ability to win business. However in many professional practices you are expected to ‘magically’ be able to do business development. If you are given a very high billable hour’s target, how can you be expected to experiment, learn and develop business development skills?
Often business development is seen to be solely the writing of proposals and pitching for work. In reality business development activity is anything that contributes to winning new business; this is everything from generating interest and awareness in the firm’s products and services, through to the glory moments of winning a competitive pitch.
This could be:
- Networking – both face-to-face and on-line
- Writing articles
- Speaking engagements
- Organising and running seminars (both face-to-face and teleseminars)
- Conducting proprietary research
- Spending time with existing clients getting to know them better
- Market research
- Attending industry conferences to understand new needs within the industry
- Writing proposals
- Writing and delivering pitches
If you read through the list of non-chargeable activities which contribute to business development, there is something for everyone. The true technical specialists within the firm may relish the opportunity to write articles and contribute to on-line forums – but would be like a duck out of water if asked to go in and ‘sell’ to a client. (You probably wouldn’t want them in front of a client ‘selling’ as well!) The ‘sellers’ may get bored rigid conducting proprietary research, but love the opportunity to go out face-to-face networking.
If you think about you and your practice, how have you divvied up your business development efforts between the whole team?
Why is it easier to win new work off existing clients?
December 2, 2009 – 7:45 am
I have heard many times over the years that it is 7-14 times easier to win new work from existing clients rather than work from new clients. But, why is this?
1. Trust and credibility
Trust and credibility need to be established in your potential client’s mind, before they will buy services from you. If your previous work is of a good standard and quality, trust and credibility are already established in existing client’s minds. As well as shortening the buying cycle, trust and credibility are generally key buying criteria for a client – and having already established this with your existing clients, you will already have an advantage over your competition.
2. Limited competition
There is a strong likelihood that any new business which comes from existing clients may just be handed to you on a plate… no competitive proposals, tendering, pitching…
3. Minimal research
When you are targeting a new client, you invest time in getting to know them, understanding their needs, researching their market and competitors. This work is already completed for existing clients.
4. Easier to find new opportunities
When a client trusts you, they readily talk about their business and the challenges and opportunities that they are facing. It is then easy for you to match these challenges and opportunities to a product or service you offer. For example, off the back of a conversation with my accountant about taking over my books, he also picked up the task of completing my VAT returns. All he asked was, do you want us to do you VAT returns as well? It was as simple as that.
5. Limited marketing activities
A large proportion of the cost involved in winning new clients comes from marketing – building awareness and interest, lead generation etc etc. With an existing client you may not need to do any of these activities. Often all it takes is a regular conversation with an existing client. I am sure you have all heard the lines, ‘oh, while you are on the line, can you help me with….’
What are you doing to develop new business with your existing clients? Who out of your existing client base could you call today?
How healthy are your practice’s assets?
December 1, 2009 – 7:31 am
As a professional advisor you have two main assets – your knowledge and skills and your relationships with your clients.
The difficulty is unless you continually work on developing these assets, the health of your practice will slowly decline.
Let me explain…
Let’s suppose you develop a new service, which is new to your target market. You gain a reputation for this service and charge a premium price for your service. However, as sure as night follows day, over time your competitors will catch up and also become experts in this service. As time goes on, all your competitors will offer this service as standard, and the market place becomes crowded and the fee level you can command for this service drops.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at training consultancies. Ten years ago, most training consultancies didn’t offer coaching as a service to their clients. Now if you look at any training consultancy’s (or even freelance trainer) website – they will all offer coaching. Being a training consultancy that can offer coaching to clients is no longer a point of difference.
I can see that some of you may be sceptical, after all the accountants amongst you, will suggest that every client will need to do VAT and tax return – and so there will always be a market for clients needing annual accounts and tax returns produced. Or will there? What happens if HM&RC produced its own version of Kashflow, (and offered it free to small businesses) that automatically computed and submitted VAT and tax returns? How many accountants would go out of business? Is this a bit far-fetched? May be, but HM&RC already offer free payroll software to allow small businesses to complete their own payroll… Who would have thought that Tesco would have ever been able to offer financial and legal services to it’s customers at the till?
Much research has been undertaken which has identified that it is 7-14 times easier to develop new business from existing rather than new clients. But, what happens if you offer a service that clients normally only need once or very infrequently, e.g. a will writing service or pre-nuptial agreements. So how do you efficiently find more business? Once you have provided this service for your client, unless you had additional services and products of interest to this client, you wouldn’t be able to gain any more fees from this client.
So, if you need to continually develop new services and products to maintain the health of your practice, how do you find a client willing to buy your new service, without the all important testimonials? Very simply, if you have a good relationship with an existing client, they are normally happy to trial a new product or service from you.
Now, nothing I have written here, is probably a surprise to you. But, if you take a long hard look at you and your practice, how much time do you routinely allow yourself, and people within your firm, to deepen client relationships or develop new products and services?
Have you thought about using games consoles to train your staff?
November 30, 2009 – 7:56 am
The Royal Navy is to distribute 230 play station PSPs among its weapons engineers as part of an initiative to improve training efficiency. Training videos, featuring slides and voiceovers, will be pre-loaded onto the machines, enabling sailors to refresh their memories of important maths and physics principles without having to read a book or go back to the classroom.
What the navy have realised is that people learn in different ways. Not everyone learns (or wants to) from reading a book. In the same way, not everyone learns from observing others, or just getting stuck in. Honey and Mumford suggest that there are four main learning styles – activists (‘do it’), reflectors (‘think about it’), theorists (‘make sense of it’) and pragmatists (‘try it’). However, for a person to learn effectively they must complete all the four stages of the learning cycle:
Plan-Do-Review-Conclude
More often than not, I find that professional service firms favour one learning style over another. For example, training is either ‘learn on the job’ or attend a training course. I find that many accountancy firms always send their staff away to seminars and classroom-based training for technical training and updates – but expect their staff to pick up new behaviours and interpersonal skills with minimal direction or support, while learning on the job.
Is there a better way, you may be asking? Almost definitely. The Navy has worked out a better way for their weapons engineers on ships. They use computer based training mixed with an element of fun. The Navy PSPs can still play normal games on them, as the Navy has worked out that their sailors are more likely to use the PSPs if they can play games on them. In addition, the PSPs take up less space than books and files and are very hard-wearing and sturdy.
Coaching is an excellent method of learning, particularly for developing new behaviours and interpersonal skills. It is the only type of learning method which appeals to all four of Honey and Mumford’s four learning styles. No wonder, it normally yields a return on the investment of 7-14 times. It is interesting to note that classroom based learning is one of the most inefficient ways to learn. Researchers have discovered that 70% of learning actually happens on the job.
How efficient is the training you provide for your staff?
The monday cartoon 30-11-2009
November 30, 2009 – 7:11 am
I’ve just looked at the date for today’s post. Where has 2009 gone to? Today’s cartoon is dedicated to anyone that can’t wait for the christmas holiday!
How to say ‘no’ – By the Lawyer Coach
November 25, 2009 – 7:30 am
Many lawyers have an intrinsic belief that they can do everything. There is no such word as “can’t”.
It’s hard to admit that some demands on your time are a bridge too far.
It’s been well written that “time management” is a misnomer. It’s actually impossible to manage time itself, or to create more time. In fact, what we’re really talking about is managing yourself.
Of course there are tons of ways in which you can manage yourself to make better use of your time, but the one which will give you instant relief is just saying “no”. Plain and simple.
Saying no to clients:
Consider this – how many things do you do for clients which aren’t really necessary but which your client has talked you into doing, and which you agree to just for a quiet life? Sometimes, what you should be doing is having that difficult conversation with your client to explain that you’re not going to carry out their request because it’s against your advice, unreasonable, unnecessary, disproportionate or a waste of resources. If you’re doing unnecessary work against your better judgement are you really acting in your client’s best interests?
Saying no to your opposition:
How much of your time pressure comes from arbitrary deadlines set by the other side? When you’re feeling under pressure it can be easy to slip into complying with deadlines just to get them out of the way. Step back for a moment. Whose timetable are you working to? If you’re in control of the case it should be your own, not your opposition’s.
Saying no to colleagues:
When you add your colleagues into the mix, you can see that there are demands being made on your time from all sides – clients, opposing parties, team members, supervisors, partners, junior staff reporting to you, external counsel… there aren’t enough hours in your day for everyone.
It can be especially hard to say no to those you work alongside, whether it’s those you report to, or those you manage. Ambition, guilt or a desire to please can mean you take on work for your superiors without thinking through how you’re going to fit it in. Alternatively, your “open door policy” can mean that you are subject to constant interruptions from more junior staff.
It’s crucial to allocate your time based on those who deserve it, not those who demand it. If you are struggling with management demands, consider allocating set times of the day when you will be available to junior colleagues. If you are overloaded with work from your supervising partner, be open with them about how much you have on your plate. They won’t see you as incompetent. They will see you as someone who is serious about doing a good job and making the most of their working time.
This post has been written by Catrin Mills, founder of The Lawyer Coach. The Lawyer Coach helps lawyers and other professionals to achieve more with their time. Catrin’s book on time management for lawyers is due to be published in Spring 2010.
Who do you now represent?
November 24, 2009 – 7:30 am
I was ready for the initial drop in income. I believed I was rationally ready for business ownership. I’ve not even been surprised how hard I’ve worked over the last nine months. What I hadn’t bargained for was the time it took me to fully take on the emotional side of business ownership.
I am not sure if you can prepare mentally for the transition that you must go through when you leave corporate life and start up your own business. For my regular blog readers, you may be wondering why this sudden reflective post from myself?
I was working with my client today, an ex-lawyer who is setting up her own business, and now doing something that she loves and is truly passionate about. After our last coaching session I set her some homework, which forced her to face how her professional identity had changed, and the brand she now wanted to outwardly and inwardly portray. In the session today, my client confessed how hard this had been for her. After 20 years of mentally and physically working towards being the best lawyer she could be, it is difficult to emotionally redefine what you are about and what you do. My client, in her working life, may now be at her most authentic. That still doesn’t make this transition from employee to business ownership quick or easy.
After working with my client today, I realise that I am still struggling with my identity as a business owner. One of my projects, the executive village, has suddenly taken off and is gathering more and more momentum with each week that passes. My difficulty is I’ve only just got my head fully around being the founder of The Efficiency Coach, and the patter and identity that goes with that. Today, it dawned on me, that I am not just the founder of The Efficiency Coach, but the founder of the executive village. And, the awareness that I needed to once again step out of my comfort zone, and be prepared to be the founder of the executive village as well as the driving force behind The Efficiency Coach.
As you go through life, you, often willing go through large changes of personal brand and identity – child to teenager, student to career professional, singleton to couple, couple to parents. Becoming a parent is perhaps the biggest identity change that you will go through in a life time – but you normally have nine months to prepare for this. The business world moves at such a pace, that you never normally have the luxury of nine months to prepare for a change – you are often expected to make large identity changes at a drop of a hat. A friend of mine is currently retraining as a patent attorney, and has left behind fifteen years of being a scientist. Has she made the full transition to her new corporate identity? I doubt it.
Your brand and identity is more than just how you dress, or what you put on your business cards, or e-mail signature – it’s what you feel inside, and how you portray that to the outside world. A personal brand and identity takes time to build, and truly live and breathe it. I truly believe that it is worth taking the time out to build your own brand and personal identity. In my experience, a strong personal brand and sense of your own identify gives you the inner confidence to go out and achieve truly great things.
Has this post struck an accord with you?
monday cartoon – 23/11/2009
November 23, 2009 – 7:30 am
It was a lovely weekend, and I’ve a busy day ahead today – four hours of coaching, helping my clients achieve their goals.
Today’s cartoon is dedicated to anyone who needs a lift this morning:
Follow friday 20-11-09
November 19, 2009 – 11:54 pm
Wow… what a week. And where do I start? How does one begin to describe a week which started and ended with some great quality leads, involved a major project going live plus spending a day being inspired at the everywoman conference?
Let’s start with the first ever executive village event on tuesday, which had a full house of villagers. I meet some great tweeters in person.
@neilryder is my fellow founder of the executive village. It’s his vision, drive and a little bit of grounding from myself, which has got the executive village up and running within six weeks. (yes, really, six weeks)
I finally met @bryonythomas in person. This lady is as impressive and eye-catching in the flesh as she is on-line. Her approach is very pragmatic and grounded in intelligent thinking and logic, and if you want a marketing company that will help your business make a step change in performance… give @bryonythomas a call.
This man really impressed me on the night. He knows his stuff… I’ve read a few of @bobhayward ’s tweets, and it was great to meet him on tuesday, and hear his insightful and refreshing insights on the villager’s challenges and discussion points.
I am one of @al_keck’s newest clients… his ‘beyond mail’, e-mailing marketing software is very powerful and affordable. He’s a man with a clear vision for his business, and I hope to be working with him more closely in the next few months.
I then spent wednesday being inspired at The Everywoman conference. As well as meeting for the first time, in the flesh so to speak, my great twitter buddy @chocolat_a_toi, I also met @law4mumpreneurs who is in the final stages of organising an executive village group to start up in Reigate. It was lovely to meet @mimimyne, who showed the conference that it is perfectly possible to build your business on-line using social media. I had a great chat with @gabby_tonicity who is in the early stages of a revolutionary women’s health business.
If you are thinking about attending the next executive village events in either Swindon or Bedford, do book your places in the next week… as there are only 3 places left at each of the tables.
Have a great week!
Freelance or Interim or Business Owner – Part 3
November 19, 2009 – 7:55 am
Business ownership… so how does this differ from being a freelancer? And can you be both? What different skill sets are needed to be a business owner rather than a freelancer. These are the questions that I will be looking at in this blog post.
Very simply a business owner differs from a freelancer in so far as if you took the person out of the equation; would there still be a business or legacy left?
Often people start out as freelancers and then start to become a business owner. If you have your own set of clients, which work with you directly, and have full responsibility for resourcing this client’s assignment, then you have become a business owner. If you take on other freelancers or permanent employees, to service all your client’s needs, then you have moved into the world of business ownership.
A quick note here, many freelancers will use the services of an accountant, book-keeper or virtual assistant… this is my book doesn’t make you a business owner. The key difference here is employing or hiring staff to service your client’s needs, rather than to help you manage your own affairs more efficiently. Many of my clients who have established businesses, struggle to find enough time in the day. With these clients I am always helping them to be more confident and prepared to delegate and outsource the routine and mundane tasks, which stop them doing more interesting and profitable work.
Many professional advisors who have left the ranks of the ‘employed’ take on freelance work until they have built up a solid client base for their own business. Whilst you are building up a professional practice it is worth setting limits on how much freelance work you will or wouldn’t take on – as too much freelance work may amply pay your bills but hamper your ability to build up your practice. One of my clients was taking on freelance legal work to finance her whilst she built up a coaching practice. However, she soon realised that if she was ever going to live off her earnings as a coach and ditch the legal stuff once and for all, she needed to severely limit the amount of freelance work she was doing.
Many professional advisors who would have never considered themselves to be salesmen (or sales women) start up their own business. It comes as a rather nasty shock to the system that business ownership means you need to be able to market and sell yours services to survive. Relying on a reputation for good quality work, and work coming to you solely via word of mouth and referrals, is not enough! Plus, if you think about it building up a business based on quality referrals takes time.
To be successful as a business owner you need to make the transition from technical specialist into business development director and Chief executive.
Before I conclude my series of blog posts on the differences between freelance, business owner and interim professionals, it is interesting to note some of the similarities… all three will probably trade as a limited company and networking is a must have skill for all three types of professionals.
That concludes my series of blog posts looking at the differences between freelance, business ownership and interim professionals. What are your thoughts on the differences?
Freelancer OR Interim OR Business Owner? Part 2
November 18, 2009 – 7:48 am
In this post, I am going to look at what it means to work as an interim employee, and how this differs to business ownership and being a freelancer.
I think the most important thing to note is the word ‘employee’ – it is a bit of a giveaway as to your status within an organisation. As an interim you are still very much employed – your boss or organisation may change a couple of times a year, but you are still very much employed. Your key stakeholders are still your boss or sponsor, rather than your clients. Whereas a freelancer can often be seen to be on the outside of an organisation, an interim is very much on the inside of an organisation.
An interim normally takes on project based or short-term assignments, either for a daily or hourly rate, or on a salaried basis. Most interim assignments are for senior level professionals or highly skilled technical specialists.
Organisations will use the services of an interim professional when they have a long-term absence to fill, such as a maternity leave cover, or to ‘buy’ a skill for a project which isn’t present currently within the organisation, or to ‘try’ before they hire permanently.
When organisations do hire an interim, it is almost always on full time hours, and often with a very quick recruitment process.
Many interim professionals choose to go down the interim route for many reasons, including:
- they like the freedom of being an interim,
- they want to build up a particular skill set
- they have chosen to take an interim assignment as there are no suitable permanent assignments around
- there is a strong possibility that the assignment will turn into a permanent role
People do manage to mix interim work with freelance work, but I suspect they take on freelance work when in between interim assignments.
I tend to find my work with interims is focused around helping them find and secure the right next assignment. Similar to permanent roles, 80% of all interim vacancies are not advertised – I typically help my clients who are interim professionals quickly find their next role.
If you like working within the structure if an existing organisation, love hitting the ground running, and have no yearnings to want to be your own boss, then the interim route could be the right one for you.
So, what are your tips on quickly finding your next role as an interim?
In my next post I will look at what it means to be a business owner.
Freelancer OR Interim OR Business Owner? Part 1
November 17, 2009 – 7:45 am
What’s right for you… freelance, interim, business owner or a mixture?
Since I left permanent employment I have been struggling to know what to call myself, am I a freelancer or a business owner. And, is there a difference?
Yes, there is a difference between working as an interim employee, freelancer and business owner – and you can be a mixture of all three. In my next three blog posts, I’m going to look at the differences and pros and cons between the three. In this first post, let’s look at what we mean by a freelancer…
When I looked up in the dictionary, a freelancer was someone who
- sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them.
- is an uncommitted independent, as in politics or social life.
- A medieval mercenary.
Now, I wouldn’t call myself a medieval mercenary or an uncommitted independent, but there are parts of my revenue stream where I am fulfilling an assignment to a company, without either side having a long-term commitment. I work for two training providers as an associate. These pieces of work pay my bills and allow me to build up my own business, The Efficiency Coach. On the upside, it allows me to talk about case studies of what I have done, and earn a living whilst building up my business, The Efficiency Coach. On the downside, I am still working for another boss and am reliant on the training providers having interesting work, that they want me to do.
So what is the benefit of working as a freelancer? Whether you jazz it up with language such as contractor or associate, typically you need to do less business development than as a business owner. To get work as a freelancer it is very much who you know and your ability to network amongst your peers and businesses which use freelancers.
If you feel uncomfortable with selling and business development, then aim to focus the majority of your revenue stream on freelance work.
It’s interesting that when I am coaching freelancers, I am often helping them to smooth out the peaks and troughs in their work patterns. (& helping them maintain a healthy work/life balance) It is highly inefficient to have months where you are frantically busy, and months where you are scrapping around for any work.
If you enjoy being a technical specialist, hate marketing and selling, and want the freedom from corporate life, then freelancer may be the right option for you.
In my next post I will look at what we mean by interim work.
Monday Morning Cartoon 16-11-09
November 16, 2009 – 7:30 am
I had a shock when I put up the date of this blog – where has 2009 disappeared? The last 12 months have seemed have flown by. Has anyone else had the same thought? It’s been a quiet weekend for me… which was much needed as I have a very busy week coming up. When I got this week’s cartoon from Guy, I had a good old snigger. It’s a good one… and its dedicaed to anyone that loves being away from ’tidy desk’ policies and practices:
Follow Friday 13/11/09
November 13, 2009 – 7:30 am
Wow, we have already got to the end of the week. It’s been a good week, and I have managed to push several projects a little further along the line. If you haven’t already booked your place at the table for the Swindon, Bedford or newly announced Worcester Executive Village events, then I would encourage you to do so. Places are being snapped up fast and the group I’m personally leading in Bedford, which kicks off at the end of February, is already 50% booked! To find out why there is such a buzz about The Executive Village, take a look at the website.
I’m off to the Everywoman conference next week, and this blog is dedicated to the people on twitter I have met through the Everywoman website:
Firstly, where would I be without @Chocolat_a_toi? She is now a good friend, and a successful business woman in her own right. If you want personalised chocolates to give to out to your best customers or clients, give her a call.
I met @raspberrydoodle via Everywoman. @raspberrydoodle is a talented artist and someone that I also consider a true friend.
The lady behind the Everywoman Tweets is sadly now working miracles for the guardian.co.uk website. @MariamCook is a true expert on building on-line communities – and I miss her helpful posts on the everywoman forums.
I’m looking forward to meeting several of the people I tweet with at the conference – @law4mumpreneurs, @janeCwoods to name a few.
It’s short and sweet for me today – and for those of you who haven’t already signed up for my teleseminar which is guaranteed to help save you money on your IT & marketing budget click here
Have a good weekend!
What to do if your Twitter Account Is Hacked…
November 12, 2009 – 11:44 am
In the last few days, I have seen the effect of a twitter worm spread rapidly through people’s twitter accounts. In the last fortnight, I have seen a 20x increase in the amount of spam Direct Messages (DM) I am receiving, and 95% of these spam DMs have arrived from people who were unaware that they had sent it. If you have been unfortunate, the most likely way your twitter account has been compromised has either been through giving your twitter password and user ID to an dodgy twitter application, or by clicking on a link sent to you in a Direct Message.
If you have discovered that your account has been hacked. Complete the following steps:
1) Switch off tweetdeck and Hootsuite completely (if these are running in the background after you have reset your password, you will be locked out of twitter for a few hours)
2) Delete any cookies from your system and clear your browser cache
3) Download and run this free (but very powerful virus scanner) http://conduit02.geekgalaxy.com/mbam-setup.exe (choose the quick scan option)
DO NOT skip this step. One of my twitter followers found that the twitter bug had disabled the security centre on his computer.
4) Now that you have removed any potential nasties on your machine, go into Twitter
5) Click on the setting link, click the connections tab and remove any twitter applications on the list that you do not use on a daily basis
6) Now change your twitter password
7) when you first go into tweetdeck or hootsuite you will need to change your twitter password to your new password
report your problem to twitter
To protect yourself in the future, do not give any twitter applications your twitter password – use the Oath sign-in method… and don’t click on any links in direct messages for the foreseeable future.
What the best way for your firm to find clients?
November 12, 2009 – 8:22 am
This is one of the first questions that I often ask my clients – how do you attract clients?
There are seven common ways that businesses can attract clients. Normally a business will attract them in one or two main ways. If you find that you are utilising three or more of these ways, take a look at the efficiency of your marketing. It is extremely likely that one of these ways is not yielding a good rate of return:
Referrals: This is where your clients and advocates ‘sell’ your services to others
Trade shows and professional associations: This is where contacts sell your service (and products)
Sales calls: This is where a team of business development professionals or telemarketers sell your service
TV, radio or print ads: This is where you are using advertising to sell your service
Product demonstrations, free sessions: Your services sell themselves – e.g. free teleseminar
Websites and newsletters: Internet information sells your services
Placement and appearance of buildings: Your location sells your product or service.
Each practice or business will have its own optimal mix of marketing to attract clients. For maximum marketing efficiency, your business or practice will need to work out what of these seven methods yields the greatest return on your investment.
What’s it like to work with The Efficiency Coach?
November 11, 2009 – 8:32 am
It’s more normal to post up a testimonial from a client, after a successful engagement… rather than in anticipation of a successful and profitable coaching relationship. This is what my new client, Helen Stothard of HLS Business Services had to say about becoming my newest client:
It’s not a traditional follow friday blog this week as its all dedicated to one person!
You may have heard that I recently won a fantastic prize for my business which includes coaching and support and services from several renowned experts in their field.
Well since I entered the competition I have been joking with Heather, the Efficiency Coach that I wanted to win her. I am not sure she was as thrilled at the thought of being “won” as I was with the idea of “winning” her, however, many a happy tweet has been had on Twitter over the subject.
I received the email announcing I was the grand prize winner and tweeted poor Heather straight away. We arranged a Skype video chat the following afternoon.
I confess to being rather disappointed that she wasn’t bedecked in red ribbons and gift wrap as any real prize should be, but then again, I had hardly made an effort for her either! She did comment that my office seemed rather dark on this occasion, (I was working by the light of my table lamp) and of course I replied that bright light would only show up all my lines and creases and the bags under my eyes! I think she was a tad disappointed that I hadn’t run round finding my lipstick, hairbrush and heels this time in honour of our video chat, but hey, it was our second chat and like a second date, it didn’t require the effort that had gone into the first one! (Only joking – rest assured I will make more effort for our future Skype calls!).
I had already had a “taster” session with Heather last month, knowing how much I wanted to win her she kindly got in touch and gave me some of her time to see if it would be of benefit to me. We had a brief chat about the subject in question before having a much broader chat about how we could work together on an upcoming project (more on that in a moment), and it is amazing how much difference just that brief chat has had on my business.
Was it a painful experience being coached? Not at all! Heather asked me some simple questions which made me focus my attention, it actually felt more like I had come up with the answers myself, but I think that is the sign of a good coach. She knew which questions to ask.
I came away from that meeting feeling much better about the subject in question and got straight on with making the changes we had discussed. The effect was unbelievable.
I believe that between that video chat with Heather and some subsequent tweets with each other on Twitter I can say I have seen a massive improvement in my business. I am pretty sure that most of those improvements would never have happened without her influence, so huge thanks go to her. Just think what our future coaching sessions will lead to!
Anyway, back to that other project we discussed in our video call. Heather is holding a teleseminar at 8.00pm on Wednesday 25th November, and she is going to interview little old me! The subject of this seminar is how start up businesses can save money on their IT and marketing costs in their first year, though I suspect that it will also be of value to other small businesses as well.
Thanks Helen! Like Helen, how can we help your business achieve more?
What our TV remote control can teach us about efficiency?
November 10, 2009 – 8:10 am
How many remote controls do you have for your TV and accessories? I would place a bet that it is probably a minimum of 2 and more likely to be upwards of 3.
Now take a look a just one of those remote controls… how many buttons do you actually use on the remote control? I’m feeling lucky and so bet a large pint that you probably use under 20% of the buttons on your remote control…
If you only use 20% of buttons on a remote control, how efficient is this remote control? Has someone in R&D decided that we as a consumer need all this functionality? How much did they talk to their consumers about what they use their remote control for?
It’s interesting that the most efficient remote control I have is my sky+ remote control. This one does buck the trend, it is really easy to use, very simple layout… and I probably use 80% of all the buttons really regularly. Most TV remote controls are a great example of product-led development rather than customer-orientated development.
My question to you is what is your business offering your customers… a sky+ remote or a normal remote control? How many products & services, with multiple features are you offering… and how many are actually what your end consumer wants? How many occasions have you over-engineered some aspect of your offering?
For example, if you offer 3 different pricing structures… do you really need 3?
Generally if you simplify your offering to what your target market is asking for, you will become more efficient with your marketing and operations, and reduce your costs and increase your profit margins.
Monday morning cartoon 9-11-9
November 9, 2009 – 7:30 am
I’ve probably spent too much of this weekend working, but feel lighter now the backlog of work is vastly reduced. Lots of lovely new clients has meant a build up of admin, which needed to be tackled… Enjoy this week’s cartoon, I make no apology for it’s topical nature.
My follow friday recommendations 6-11-9
November 5, 2009 – 11:20 pm
This week, I been asked to dress up in fishnets as Madonna, and wrap myself in red ribbon and gift wrap. No, I don’t quite know what is going on either!… my newest client, @hlsbs, has just won the better networking treasure hunt competition 1st prize… she was over the moon to win business coaching with myself… in her own words… ”I’ve won The Efficiency Coach”. After our first mini coaching session a few months back, @hlsbs was inspired to start a very well written blog, and secured a client as a direct result of her conversation with me. (So, no pressure then on me for our future coaching sessions!) Therefore, this blog is dedicated to @hlsbs to introduce her to all the other experts that she has won in the prize.
@Richard__White is a leading speaker, writer and trainer on selling for non-sales people. @Richard__White has over 8 years experience of helping people that hate the idea of selling to quickly develop more business. @Richard__White is the founder of AccidentalSalesman.com ® and a self confessed Accidental Sales person. After falling into sales by accident he made it his mission to find a way of selling that was respectful and did not feel like selling. He is now one of the UK’s leading trainers in Soft Selling techniques and regularly coaches business owners on what he calls ‘Soft Calling’.
@VATark started working in indirect taxation over 30 years ago. He worked for Customs & Excise (now H M Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for 13 years covering many aspects of the department’s work. In 1988 @VATark, left Customs & Excise to work for a firm of Chartered Accountants. In 2000 @VATark set up his own practice, with the objective of providing sound, pragmatic advice to businesses, charities and other organisations affected by VAT.
With his brother Simon, @Robertz is a partner in Zarywacz, which was named because few know how to pronounce it or are able to spell it, but many remember it. Operating in the marketing and PR sector, they chose their web site name – z2z.com – because many people remember and spell it and you can type it fast. Zarywacz offer business copywriting, editing, proofreading, marketing communication, PR and web content services. Every business needs to communicate; Zarywacz help you to do it effectively.
@Ces_creatively is a branding consultancy Director and founder of The SME Brand News. Having built a career in brand design and having worked in London and the South Coast on projects for global brands, @Ces_creatively then set up Creatively Minded Design to help ‘the little fish’ win more business and compete against larger more established companies. Passionate about helping business professionals to stand out and increase their flow of ideal customers. @Ces_creatively writes regular articles to give insight into the advantages of a consistent business image and clear business benefits to engage with your ideal customers.
@Romanythresher provides social media virtual assistant support services to business owners and busy consultants who would like to increase their online visibility. She also recently founded Better Networking an invitation only online social community which focuses on helping business owners to increase their visibility online.
@mjamme is currently the President of SpotOne Global Solutions Group a successful company that helps US software companies set a foothold in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. @mjamme also recently founded iConscience, an organization that enables business experts and like-minded individuals to share their expertise and experience in the name of sustainability, development, ethics and morals.
Have a great weekend – and well done to @hlsbs on her fantastic prize win.
Why a whole day of one-to-one training is a waste of your money
November 4, 2009 – 7:55 am
I’ve just been giving some feedback to someone on a forum about a PR package that they are offering which includes 2 days of one-on-one training.
What’s so wrong about this you may ask? As a trainer and coach I’ve spent the last ten years helping people learn new skills, different behaviours or different responses to situations. With this specialist skill set, I know that this package has never been sold, and will never be implemented successfully. So, how do I know that?
One-on-one training or coaching is very intense for both the trainer and trainee. An individual can only learn at this level of intensity for a couple of hours at most. After about one to two hours, when coaching, I notice that my client starts to quieten down, pause and become very reflective… It is at this point that I realise they are full up, and their brain is now saturated and needs to time to digest and reflect. This is the point that I bring the coaching session to a close.
You may be wondering what is different between a day of one-on-one training and a group workshop? With a group workshop, as a trainer, you have the benefit of varying the dynamics – individual work, small group work, large group work etc. This is why, with good workshop design, you can run a whole day course. When working with just one person, you can either coach, ‘teach’ or set them individual work. My mother is a maths teacher with over 40 years experience. The longest one-on-one tutoring session that she will book is 2 hours. Any longer and the time is wasted, as the brain needs time for a break to digest.
If the one-on-one training day is being padded out with individual exercises, then why pay for one-on-one time when you are doing individual exercises? Surely, this day could be better designed in chunks of 1:2:1 coaching/mentoring interspersed with ‘home work’ (i.e. the individual exercises) between coaching sessions? This way, any skill learning or behavioural change will be fully supported and sustained.
Rant over…
12 questions which will revitalise your business development
November 3, 2009 – 7:45 am
It is the challenge of every start-up business… how to grow a profitable revenue stream. The success of any start up business comes down to 2 very simple things, how efficient & effective the marketing is… and how well it is financially managed in the early days. I was helping a new business on a networking forum, who was 6 months in and finding business was slow. I thought it might be useful to share the questions I asked the start up business owner to get to the root of her problems..
I first investigated where she was having problems in her ’sales funnel’…. Is it generating interest and awareness of what you do? Is it generating enough of the right type of leads? Is it converting leads into serious buyers? Or is it closing the deal with the serious buyers?
Sales Funnel
If your problem is with generating interest and awareness, then I would suggest you look at your PR – where are your target market seeing you talking about what you do? Are you hanging out with your target market?
If your problem is with generating leads, then how well are you explaining how you meet your target market’s needs with your products or services? Or at an even more basic level, do you know what your target market’s top 3 issues and concerns?
If your problem is with converting leads into serious buyers, how well are you encouraging your buyers to take action? How well are you demonstrating your credibility and expertise to solve their problems?
If your problem is with closing the sale, what objections are you hearing from your potential buyers? How are you overcoming these objections?
Monday cartoon 2-11-9
November 2, 2009 – 7:58 am
I’ve just spent a great week away for half-term, and been having some great quality thinking and reflecting time.
This cartoon from Guy Carter, The cartoonist, is dedicated to all of you who have been taking time out to think over the last week.
So, what are twitter lists?
October 30, 2009 – 10:04 pm
There are lots of questions tonight on twitter about lists… and what they are, and how you use them…
Very simply, twitter has added a neat bit of functionality which allows you to group your followers into lists. Twitter has just rolled out this functionality to all twitter users.
To find out how many lists you have been included on – a good measure of how engaged you are with your followers, then look at your followers and following stats – there will be a new figure – ‘lists’.
If you click on your lists number you will see who has added you to a list. For example, I like working with accountants, so have started a list called great accountants.
You may be thinking so what… well if you want to follow accountants too, you can with one click you can watch everyones tweets on this list. To illustrate this, I found that I was on a list called thames valley businesses. Since I want to connect with local businesses, I with one click followed the list. 161 within my target group that I can watch their tweets… result!
Creating a list is very slow, you have to add people 1 by 1. I’m hoping that a few twitter applications will appear shortly which will speed up the process of creating & finding lists.
If you are wondering why I haven’t created many lists… I’ve a very slow internet connection tonight, and will create lots of lovely lists next week.
Follow Friday 30-9-9
October 30, 2009 – 11:50 am
It’s Friday again, and I’m in holiday mode… I even slept into 09:00. If I’m honest, I’ve mentally not surfaced yet today.
Today’s list is all about the people whose blogs I regularly read because they are well written and I either learn from them, or thoroughly enjoy reading them.
The first on the list is @hlsbs, my guest speaker for my teleseminar on the 25th November, which will possibly save you thousands of pounds on your marketing and IT budget. Her blog is written in a conversational style and is friendly, warm and often very funny.
The next on the list is @bryonythomas. @bryonythomas writes a marketing blog, which is very much a marketing masterclass for someone like me. I have bookmarked some of her posts to help me with some future projects.
@candocanbe’s blog is always short and sweet, but a very practical marketing guide for small business owners like myself. Well worth a read – and I normally retweet @candocanbe’s new blog posts, so watch my tweets for these posts.
I like @duncanbrodie’s blog, it’s always focused on something about leadership or management, and worth a look.
This blog is normally very topical – and often inspired by a conversation between the two of us, or more often than not, ‘heated discussion’ with both of us trying to find consensus and the right way forward… yes, it is @neilryder’s blog. It was these conversations which launched The Executive Village. (places at the Swindon & Bedford tables are being booked up fast, make sure you don’t miss out)
My next blog is exceptionally well written… and has already been commissioned by a publisher to turn into a book. (I am SO jealous) @lawyer_coach blogs about time management and other pertinent issues for lawyers. Whether you are a trainee, solicitor, associate, sole practitioner or partner, there is something in there for you.
That’s it – have a good weekend.
What to think about when negotiating a job offer
October 29, 2009 – 7:45 am
Congratulations you have just received a job offer! Perhaps this is what you have been working hard to achieve for the last few months… maybe it has come out of the blue… This stage of the job hunting process is vitally important to get right as it will define your pay & benefits for the rest of your tenure with your new employers.
1. Understand where the power lies
Once you have received a job offer you are in a position of power. When a company makes a job offer, they have decided that it is ‘you’ that they want. The last thing they want to do is to start the job hunt all over again. Therefore, have the courage to explore what your new employers can or cannot offer you.
2. Think laterally and creatively
The pay for your new role may be fixed by the company’s internal pay bands. But, what your new employers may be able to negotiate is on the level and range of perks you will receive, how many days you can work from home, the type of work you will take on, training they will pay for, the hours you will work, start date, annual leave, bonus payments, golden handshake, notice period… etc, etc, etc
3. Don’t resign until contract signed
Don’t presume that the job is in the bag until the contract is signed and returned. A company is perfectly within its rights to withdraw a job offer. Not many do, but I do know of examples where the negotiation over terms and conditions has caused the company to withdraw a job offer.
4. This may fix your pay & reward package for a long time
From bitter personal experience I know how hard it is for an employer to give you a big pay rise when you are incumbent into a role. Pay rises that are not tied into a performance related pay process take delicate negotiation to bring about. Unless you change role internally or get promoted you will be paid this much + cost of living rises for the foreseeable future.
5. Know your walk away position
Having clarity about your ‘best alternative to negotiated agreement’ gives you the ability to know when to walk away from a negotiation. That way, you stop yourself, in the heat of the moment, from agreeing to an unsuitable package. It is all too easy when you need a new job to get suckered into an unsuitable job – because it is a job. It is better to be out of work for slightly longer rather than take on a job you hate and leave within 3 months…
6. Look to preserve the relationship
Hopefully you and your new employers will enjoy a positive and fulfilling relationship for a long time to come. Be aware that if you negotiate too hard, your job offer may be withdrawn or your sour relationships with your new employer before you start.
7. Hold your nerve
Pay negotiations can be drawn out affairs, which are normally conducted via the phone. If you are not sure what you are agreeing to, ask the other side for a summary of their proposal. If your new employer is playing hardball, you have two choices – play hardball back or give the other side feedback on the impact they are making with you. Do be aware that if they are playing hardball, this is probably indicative of how they will act with you in the future.
How much will it cost to set up as a freelancer?
October 28, 2009 – 7:25 am
You’ve taken the big decision to go freelance. Well done… but how much start up capital do you really need to take the plunge? Here is our guide to identifying your start-up costs.
1. Legal stuff
You will probably need some form of professional indemnity (PI) insurance and maybe Public Liability Insurance. If you are a member of a professional association, you will normally get a hefty discount on your PI insurance. Some professions, such as law, require you to have a ‘practicing certificate’ before you can be your own boss. Check with your professional body what they recommend that you have in place to be an independent. It’s difficult to put a price on what PI insurance will cost you, as it depends on what work you will be doing.
2. Subscriptions and membership fees
These may come as a bit of a shock to you if your employers have always paid your yearly subscriptions and membership fees. You will need to pay your professional association’s fees and any trade or federation body fees, and then any networking organisation’s membership fees. For example, I am a member of my local chamber of commerce, the independent learning practitioner’s association, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, Business For Breakfast (B4B)… these all add up. If you are considering being a member of a breakfast club such as BNI, 4N or B4B, your yearly membership fees are likely to be over £500, and normally do not include the weekly, fortnight or monthly cost of the breakfasts.
3. IT equipment
As you are probably handing back your work laptop, you will probably need to get your own personal laptop. A reconditioned machine or netbook will set you back £250+, but remember to factor in the extra cost of peripherals and software such as Microsoft Office, Mouse, keyboard, monitor, accounting software, printer, external hard drive… all-in-all, a budget of £1250 will get you a pretty decent laptop, essential software, and reasonable quality peripherals.
4. Accounting fees
Whilst you can do your own books and set up your own limited company, you may find it simpler and more cost effective in the long run to ask an accountant and their book keeper to do this for you. For example, if you can charge yourself out at £100+ per hour, do you really want to be doing your own books, when a book keeper will charge £10-15 p/h? Many accountants will set up your limited company for free, as a way of getting your business.
Whether you are a sole trader or director of your own business, you will need to complete a self assessment for your personal tax return. You can either do this yourself, or ask your accountant to do this for you.
5. Your salary
Even if you have gone freelance with guaranteed work lined up, there is always the gap between doing the work and getting paid. My first assignment, for various reasons, took over 4 months to be paid in full. You need to factor in a worst case scenario for how long it will take you get booked for some work, and how long it will take for you to then get paid. There is no good reason for it, but most companies will generally pay up 30-60 days after they have received the invoice. If you are acting as an associate, you will tend to only get paid after the client pays the person you are working through.
6. Website
If you decide to get a web presence, then you will need to think about domain hosting and registration fees. The cost of your design and build of your website can be anything from £0 (you do it all) through to many thousands of pounds. There are website solutions to suit every budget… for example, a wordpress blog hosted within your own domain, has a good level of functionality and can be quickly and easily customised to build your own website. To have your domain registered and hosted with some e-mail addresses will set you back somewhere between £50 and £100 for the year.
7. Personal insurance and protection policies
Up until now your employer has probably paid for a range of great benefits like life assurance, private medical insurance, pension contributions… Speak to an independent financial advisor for a quote for what this will cost you.
How to run a top team building session
October 27, 2009 – 8:30 am
Most companies when team building with the top team, automatically pay out for an external facilitator. If many highly respected learning and development consultancies are to be believed team building with the top team is a highly skilled process. Is this all just marketing spin? In reality, do you need a special process for top team building? Or, are the rules of the game the same regardless of the seniority of the team?
So what are these rules that I am referring to?
1. Clarify the return on the investment
Good team building, regardless of level of team, should be tied into quantifiable business results. When working with a top team, there is an expectation that any team event must produce tangible, measurable results fast.
2. Be aware of relationships and history between team members
In any team there will be politics, relationships, team norms and unspoken stuff that inhibit productive team working. For a top team add in an extra helping of big egos, attitudes and the stakes suddenly become very high. For example, are your top team a group of individuals or an actual physical team? How much are the top team members in competition with each other? In my experience the goals of individual top team members are unfortunately not always over-lapping (in process). More often than not the top team can easily agree on a number for the company — e.g. profit and revenue targets, but struggle to agree on how best to get to that number. I.e. what activities, projects, and strategies should the top team agree on and work together to achieve…
3. Trust and respect are crucial
Trust and respect in a team event goes three ways — how much do the top team trust and respect your ability to facilitate the event, how much trust and respect is there between team members, and how much do you trust the top team to play ball on the day? Many classical team building activities depend on having people drop their guard by doing something slightly ridiculous or amusing. Others depend on team members freely giving their opinion. (As an aside, think about how enjoyable and amusing it is to watch the behaviours that appear when running the red-blue game?) For any facilitator to get the ‘moose out on the table’, their credibility has to be established and team members have to trust that any opinion voiced will be handled sensitively without fear of retribution, and lead to a beneficial outcome.
4. Consider your audience’s prior knowledge
Any learning invention should involve a detailed learning needs analysis — which then guides the design of the intervention. When dealing with the top team they will have been exposed to the majority of content, exercises, events within a decent learning and development professional’s tool box. Therefore, you may need to badge the intervention as a ‘strategy’ day, focus less on input and more on discussion and output
5. High quality facilitation is key
As a facilitator in a team building event you will need to focus on securing credibility before and during the event with your audience. This goes without saying for all teams regardless of their seniority. When dealing with a team of ‘stars’, egos can get in the way and you will need to prove yourself worthy of their respect. Your board members may not be used to being challenged, and so your facilitation will possibly need to be more assertive than usual. Unfortunately, when team building goes wrong claims of racism, bullying, discrimination & harassment can rear their ugly heads. This is no different for a top team, but the potential cost to the organisation of such a claim could be disastrous for both the organisation and individuals involved.
6. Clarify your brief with the team leader
Any decent team building event will involve discussions with the team leader to identify what they are trying to achieve from the event. It is essential to get quality time in with the CEO to identify what they want to achieve from the event. Not all team members may be aware of the CEO’s longer term plans and strategies.
So, in this discussion I have identified that with a senior team, the need for good team working is no different to any other team. The tools that the learning & development professional will use with the senior team are no different to other teams.
But, and this is a big BUT, when you are working with the top team these rules are emphasised in glorious technicolor. Break one of these rules and you could find yourself getting the metaphorical custard pie in your face, and a large dent in your credibility with senior management.
However, the two reasons why external consultants will still be able to make a good living from team building with the top team, is nothing to do with the capability of the internal resource. It is simply that top teams do not like airing their dirty linen in public — as well as the content of the discussion could be too sensitive for an internal facilitator to be perceived as objective.
This article originally appeared in training zone.
Monday Cartoon 26-10-09
October 26, 2009 – 7:46 am
It’s been a quiet weekend for us, and as next week is half term and we are in holiday mood, today’s cartoon is slightly frivolous.. but it’s one of the funniest cartoons I have seen so far from The Cartoonist:
My Follow friday recommendations 23-10-2009
October 22, 2009 – 11:52 pm
After last’s week follow Friday blog dedicated to the lovely ladies I tweet with, it is only fair and proper to dedicate this one to the boys…
The only reason my business partner @neilryder is first on the list is that he will sulk if he isn’t in top spot. (And if you don’t believe me look back at our mutual tweets!) Our plotting over the last month has finally become a reality. The Executive Village is born…(or should that be being built?) The Executive Village is a new networking group exclusively for directors and business owners. You may have already had the privilege of finding how lonely the top of the tree can be. If so, you will know that it is sometimes difficult to ask for and find objective advice within your own company. This is where the Executive Village comes in – you get to spend the evening in the company of other senior decision makers and, over a three course meal in an intimate setting, give each other peer-to-peer support and advice to solve each other’s ‘if onlys…’. Places at the first meeting on 17th November of the Swindon branch are going quickly… dates have just been released for Bedford, with Bristol coming soon.
This is someone that is determined to refer me a client, so makes it into this blog on more than just merit. In case you are wondering, he is very funny and helpful. It is @ataccounting.
However funny @ataccounting is, it’s actually one of his clients who is even funnier – @cartoono. His political satire cartoons for HA! Magazine are definitely worth a decent titter and sometimes even a rip-roaring belly laugh. Beneath all that wit and general teasing (mostly of me!), there is a very caring true gent who will do anything for his friends.
I’m a little cynical by nature of people that set themselves up as expert, but I recognise that my next recommendation is a truly credible expert. He is @Richard__White, The Accidental Salesman, and I learn heaps and heaps of stuff about how to improve my sales technique from his blog and tweets. I’ve registered for his extensive free on-line training resources, and looking forward to having the time to have a good rummage around these. One of these days I hope to be on the other side of London and attend one of his workshops.
My next recommendation is @rapidbi… whenever I meet or talk to him over the phone I am truly inspired. My decision to choose to offer a value priced (i.e. my fees are at partly at risk) pricing model for my coaching has come directly from a conversation with @rapidbi. @rapidbi is very generous with his time and help for others.
@markbnorwich is someone who generously shares his time & tweets and helps pretty much most people. If you are thinking about your energy costs, perhaps you should give Mark a call, he may be able to provide you with a better deal.
@dalerockell is another peep that is generous with his time and help. He is a life coach who is absolutely fantastic at working with teenagers and young people – helping them prepare themselves for the world at large which waits for them. You may have listened to part 1 of our recent podcast… part 2 will be coming out soon. I will put these podcasts up on my website in the next couple of weeks.
Have a great weekend!
ROI of social media
October 22, 2009 – 8:30 am
A study by e-marketeer in summer 2009 has discovered that the greatest barrier to entry into social media for companies is not knowing how to measure the return on their marketing investment. If you dip your toe into the blogosphere measuring the ROI of social media is a hot and highly debated topic. What most people agree on is that you must measure the ROI of your investment in social media. Twitter and facebook can be a delightful waste of time if efforts are not targeted.
So, how you measure the ROI of your social media investment… with difficulty… seems to be the answer. Unlike some more traditional forms of marketing and sales, social media isn’t a simple cause and effect marketing mechanism. It can’t easily be defined as PR, sales, customer service or marketing — it can be a combination of all four. For example, Easyjet uses Twitter for customer service. The customer service supervisor at Luton was in touch with me via Twitter when I suggested about using Easyjet for my holiday next year.
There is no definitive answer for the ROI of social media, but there are some things you must complete to evaluate the effectiveness of your investment.
Firstly, you need to decide and agree on what you are trying to achieve with your activity on social media. Is it PR, marketing, sales, customer service — or a mixture of all four? What tangible things are you trying to affect… leads? conversations with potential or existing customers and clients? readership of articles? Traffic to website? SEO?
Secondly, you need to determine how you will measure these objectives. Google analytics, Google Feedburner, Google Webmaster are great free tools that help you measure traffic and subscribers to your site. Numbers of people signing up to your mailing list may be a way of deciding on how well you are engaging people in your brand and site. Number of comments and social bookmarking is an indication of how well your content is engaging an audience — but whether it is the right audience is the question. You can also ask new clients how they heard of you, and why they decided to talk with you.
Thirdly, you then need to measure what you have decided to measure…
Simple really… or is it?
8 things to think about before turning freelance
October 21, 2009 – 8:30 am
1. Brush up on your selling skills
As a freelancer, potentially for the first time in your life, you will need to sell. Yes, you may need to become a sales person. What will you sell? You will be selling what you can deliver for the other person’s organisation. If the thought of this fills you with dread, you need to consider very carefully how you will gain your work — you may be better suited to working through recruitment agencies.
2. Strengthen and grow your network
There are statistics that suggest that 80% of all vacant positions are not advertised formally. It is just the same with freelance assignments… they tend not to be advertised. It will be who you know more than what you know. Who within your personal and professional network is most likely to be able to help you find your first, second and third gigs?
3. Work out your business model
How do you want to operate as a freelancer, as a professional interim, or an associate, or the boss of your very own business? There is no reason why you can’t be all three, but it pays to work out your ideal business model in advance and stick to it.
Then, there is the sticky question of what you will charge. Will you target an hourly rate, or look for a day rate? How much you will price by value… or will you take what you can get from? In answer to these questions, do your research before you decide on a charging model.
4. Build up your Intellectual property
When a company hires a freelancer or external supplier it is because they don’t have the skill set internally to do the work. Therefore, you need to keep your knowledge fresh and up-to-date. For example, my brother is a freelance programmer in the telecommunications business. He needs to keep his knowledge fresh about any technological advancement in the telecommunications sector. As a freelancer you need to personally invest in your own professional development — and work this cost into any budgeting or business plan that you write.
5. Identify potential clients that may come with you
It’s much easier to start up as a freelancer or small business with a ready-made client list. How many of your current clients would be interested in following you? Be aware that many professional services firms will ban you for a period of time from contacting clients or poaching employees. This can be got around… but it is better to gauge interest about clients that will come with you before you resign rather than after. Chances are that after you resign you may be given gardening leave and assertively asked not to contact your existing clients.
6. Work out what you will delegate
As a freelancer there will be tasks that others can do better for you and at a fraction of the cost of your hourly rate. For example, many book keepers will charge £15 per hour to do your books, this is potentially significantly less than your personal charge out rate. You need to work out what to delegate and outsource to others to keep you financially efficient.
7. Identify your routes to market
You don’t have the luxury of a monthly pay check any more. So, how will you go about generating work for yourself? Will you rely on recruitment consultants to find you your next assignment? Will you focus on generating referrals? Will you work alongside another freelancer? Do you really need a website?
8. Consider your legal status
Sole trader or limited? Which is right for you? This is a question that is best answered in conversation with a qualified accountant. Be aware that if you gain your work via agencies then you will probably need to be limited.
12 ways of maximising your cash flow
October 20, 2009 – 8:30 am
The health of any business is a mixture of three factors, cash flow, revenue and costs. Many businesses are great at looking after turnover and profit, but take their eye off the ball and forget about cash flow. Many a company with a healthy order book and business model has gone bankrupt as a result of poor cash flow. Here are twelve ways of maximising your business’s cash flow.
1. Shorten your payment terms
Easy to say, less easy to apply in practice! If you change your payment terms to 14 days instead of the more normal 30 days, then you are likely to get paid in 30 days rather than 60 days. If you can negotiate it with your customers or clients, what about payment before dispatch of the goods, or payment on receipt of the goods?
2. Have rigorous systems and processes for credit control
Good credit control is not a mystery science. Good credit control requires discipline and someone systematically talking to late paying debtors. In addition, before you engage a new client or major customer, it is worth performing credit checks. I know of one small training company that went into liquidation after an outstanding debt of £50k was not paid. If there is a hint of poor credit worthiness ask for payment up front — or a large percentage of payment up front
3. Phone when sending an invoice
When you are sending an invoice to a client (or customer) give them a call to tell them they are expecting it. This gives you an excuse to speak to your clients, and may circumvent any problems with the invoice. It prompts your client to get your invoice sent to the accounts department, rather than letting it languish in their in-tray.
4. Send your invoice via e-mail (with a return receipt)
An invoice is less likely to get lost in the post if it is sent via e-mail. Make sure you put a read receipt on the invoice so you can track that it has been delivered and opened.
5. Offer a discount for prompt payment
Incentivising (or penalising for late payment) your customers for prompt payment, may help your customers/clients pay you quicker.
6. Put Bank details on your invoice
Ask your customers and clients to pay you via BACS — and encourage your clients to do this by putting your Bank account details on the invoice, and specifically stating you want payment via BACS.
7. Invoices paid via BACS are paid quicker than cheque.
BACS payments do not involve The Royal Mail or the three to five working days for a cheque to clear. You will probably get paid at least one week quicker if you get paid via BACS.
8. Issue invoices promptly
The quicker you ask for payment, the quicker you are likely to get paid. Not rocket science… Late invoices are more likely to be forgotten about — the sooner they are issued, the more likely they will get paid.
9. Do cash flow forecasts
Many businesses have gone bust by not managing their spending versus the amount of money they are receiving. A cash flow forecast, completed monthly, will give you a good guide to what you can afford to spend
10. Monitor credit worthiness of major debtors
Do keep an eye on your major debtors. If you sense that they are having problems or struggling, be pro-active and ask them how (and when) they intend paying your bill.
11. Maintain a dialogue with major clients
The more that you are talking generally with your clients/customers, the less likely they are to sit on one of your invoices. You will also get a sense of if they are running into problems…
12. Don’t have all your eggs in one basket
Even if you follow all of the advice in this article, there will be times when you are unlucky and one of your clients will go bust. By making sure that no one client is more than 25% of your turnover, you will minimise the risk to your own cash flow.
The monday cartoon 19-10-9
October 19, 2009 – 7:30 am
It’s been a weekend of two halves – a busy day on the saturday meeting up with family. Then a very quiet and slow day recovering for all of us.
This week’s cartoon, from The Cartoonist, is for anyone that thinks a supplier, customer, boss or colleague has ever made a mountain out of a mole hill:
My follow friday recommendations 16-10-9
October 15, 2009 – 10:22 pm
This follow Friday blog is dedicated to the ladies who I regularly tweet with. I make no apologies for being sexist, it’s my blog, and so I can!
The first lady I am recommending is @busylizzie71. @busylizzie71 is a partner in an accountancy practice and has two lovely children. @busylizzie71 and myself share more in common than I can publicly state… but @busylizzie71 is great at letting me win our on-line scrabble games. @busylizzie71 works very hard, and delivers great client service and is supports many people around her.
My next recommendation is another accountant, and forever living distributor – @tonihunter (As I specialise in working with professionals, I am indulging myself somewhat by recommending two great accountants in one blog.) If you ever wonder how I manage to keep my energy levels up, try some of the Forever Living Bees Pollen that @tonihunter sells . It’s a real pick-me-up, and my substitute for caffeine and chocolate.
@lawyer_coach deserves a recommendation for what she has achieved in the last month. Not only has she managed to sign up her first twitter client, she is also most of the way through her first published book. Like myself, @lawyer_coach has two young children and is building up her business as a coach. Well worth a follow…
@law4mumpreneurs is a fairly new person to twitter. We started having some good off-line e-mail, and this is a peeps with a great pedigree – and a huge supporter of my blogging and tweeting. I know that @law4mumpreneurs hasn’t yet formally started up her business, but I wish her all the best… A very well connected peeps, worth following.
So we have had two lawyers and two accountants, it’s time for a change of tack (or a bad joke?)… two Virtual Assistants… @romanythresher is a quiet, hard-working but very influential person on social media. @romanythresher is not a great self-promoter, so I am happy to sing her praises. If you want to help with your social media presence, then why not give her and the team at Direct Assist On-Line a call?
@hlsbs is a fairly new VA, but has a very useful skill set. She knows pretty much all of the low cost and free productivity solutions that the net can offer. That’s not all… she’s pretty good at getting debtors to pay up. @hlsbs is self-less and always supporting others. She has offered to speak with my potential new office manager to help introduce her to what life can be like as a VA. If and when my new office manager comes on board, I’ll introduce her to you all.
VAs, lawyers, accountants… who next? Actually it’s the boss of a marketing firm – Clear Thought @bryonythomas set up Clear thought, which works with SME’s to help them get the marketing know-how to become bigger businesses. I’ve recommended @bryonythomas because she works incredibly hard for her clients, and I’m impressed with how she is introducing them to the power of social media.
Seven ways to stop procrastinating
October 15, 2009 – 8:30 am
Procrastination is one of the big threats to personal efficiency. The good news is that personal will power is all you need to conquer procrastination. Easier said than done… read on for seven tips to minimise the amount you procrastinate.
1. Break it up
Break the task up into smaller pieces. When the task is smaller and seemingly more manageable, you are more likely to get on and do it. Remember, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time…
2. Give yourself milestones
Similar to breaking the task up into smaller pieces, set yourself milestones on the way to completion. Reward yourself when you achieve a milestone, for example, time for a cup of tea and a biscuit.
3. Have a to do list
Write down all your tasks and things to do. When you have completed them then scrub them off the list. As you see your progress building it will give you the momentum to finish the list
4. Set deadlines
Whether they are real or artificial deadlines, set them. You will be amazed how a deadline can give you the stimulus to complete a task.
5. Get the difficult stuff out the way, first
Very simply, if you do the difficult stuff when you are at your most alert and energetic, then you will gain the momentum to get the rest done.
6. Avoid perfection
Aim for 80/20 or 90/10, as total perfection is rarely needed in business. Aiming for perfection (and knowing you cannot achieve it) is a factor in procrastinating. Perfection is a major obstacle to personal efficiency.
7. Delegate or outsource
If you know what you don’t like doing and what tasks you tend to procrastinate on, then (if possible) delegate or outsource this task. Procrastinating on certain types of tasks often suggests that this is not a personal strength OR there is a lack of personal motivation to complete the task.
When team building goes wrong
October 14, 2009 – 8:30 am
Most team away days are well thought out and planned… or are they? Here are some of the common pitfalls that trainers fall into when team building, mostly based on my own personal experiences as a participant!
Do your homework in advance
If you don’t do your research about the team and what is stopping them performing well together, then you could come a cropper. Take for example, a trainer that unwittingly played the ‘red-blue’ game as an ice-breaker with a team of lawyers that was struggling with trust problems between team members. So, what was wrong with this you may ask? The ‘Red-blue’ game will identify problems with trust. However, playing the game introduced extra conflict in the team and only heightened the lack of trust between team members, and the team build went downhill from that point onwards!
Don’t fully timetable the day with activities
People need time to reflect on activities and the introverts in the group (and some of the extroverts!) will need time away to recharge. I’ve been on many team away days where your time as a participant is organised from 09:00 to 21:00 at night, and there is minimal time away from each other. I was once on a team build where the activities had run over during the day. The facilitator only gave us 20 mins to change and get ready for dinner. We were all expected to be present for pre-dinner drinks and participate in all the evening’s ‘fun’ activities. I was so shattered from having to be physically with everyone for over 12 hours, I struggled to contribute fully for the rest of the away day.
Don’t design based on your personal preferences
I was a participant on a three day team build. The team leader wanted to have engaging discussions to gel the team together and use as a base to identify what was really important to the team — and had planned a light structure based around guided discussions. This structure suited her personal preferences perfectly. Half of the team had a Myers-Brigg ‘SJ’ preference and got extremely frustrated that they couldn’t see an obvious route map for the three days, and felt that there was no defined actions coming out of the discussions. Consequently the team didn’t really progress past ‘storming’ and most of the team came away feeling that the three days had been a waste of time. The moral of the story is to design based on whole team preferences rather than your own personal preferences.
Don’t exclude team members
When team building you need to consider all the team members learning styles, general preferences and physical limitations. Having had two children I have been participating on ‘outward bound’ style team building exercises whilst pregnant. Well, when I say participating I mean watching from the sidelines and getting pretty bored… On the occasion when you want everyone to feel included, you need to make doubly sure your design for the day allows everyone to contribute.
Get organisational buy-in
Often teams are not masters of their own destiny. You need to get agreement from the organisation that the team can take the time out for your team build — and the likely benefits of any team build. For example, I was asked to run an away day for the executive office of my old firm. The executive office was composed of PAs of the firm’s ‘board members’. The away day never got off the ground as there was always some spike in workload for the team which caused the away day to be postponed. Ironically the day was all about how they could spread the work more evenly between members!
Make sure all the team are present
If you are running a team away day or team build you need all the team to be present. In one team that I worked in, one of the members was under-performing and there were trust and respect issues between this team member and the rest of the team. For two team away days in a row this team member wasn’t present, consequently this heightened his isolation from the team, and he became known as ‘the absent member’. On these away days the team became united against this team member, rather than sorting out their problems with him. The key element that was preventing this team from really meshing together was this team member and his relationships with the team. As a result, the team away days never addressed and rectified the real issues within the team.
Don’t forget about team members
When working with a team, you need to connect with the whole team. There will be times when team members need some time out from the activities — but don’t forget about them. When researching for this article, I was told about a team build where an exercise had produced very strong emotions. After this exercise one team member dealt with his emotions by going for a run up a nearby mountain. The facilitator forgot about this team member. Hours later a search party was sent out and the unfortunate runner was found safe, but physically and mentally exhausted.
Think about health & safety
If you are working outside on a team build you need to do risk assessments for each planned exercise, and ACT upon the risk assessments. I was a participant on an away day in Dublin. The away day had been planned around a big ‘walk up the mountain’ finale. However, it was extremely windy and the team leader allowed testosterone to take over from his better judgement. The inevitable happened, a very overweight member of the team got blown over, and bounced down the mountain for several metres and was hospitalised needing an operation on a damaged shoulder.
This article was originally published by training zone
Ten things you must do before starting your own training business.
October 13, 2009 – 8:30 am
One of the well-trodden paths for a recently made redundant trainer is to go freelance, and set up a training or coaching business. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being your own boss and being able to focus on exactly what you want from your work life. However, turning freelance is not the easy option. It’s a sad fact of life that two out of three new businesses fail in their first year. I was talking with a coach today that has been running his own business for over two years and is still struggling to make ends meet. To make matters worse if your training or freelance career doesn’t work out, and you choose to go back to corporate life you risk being deemed as ‘unemployable’. So, what do you need to do to set up your own training business, before you leave your current employment? Here are nine things you must do to increase your chances of success with your own training business.
1. Write your business goals down
Only about 3% of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five to ten times as much as people of equal ability and standing, but who, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want to achieve.
2. Decide on your business model
One of the first decisions (and most important decisions) you will have to make is ‘where am I going to get my revenue from?’ If you don’t feel comfortable with selling then you will need to focus on chasing down associate opportunities. The financial rewards are generally higher if you find your own work — but you can make a very comfortable living as an associate. If you feel comfortable with business development, then focus on growing your own business and brand.
As a freelance you need to make sure that you are not overly dependent on one client or associate provider. As you probably know well, companies can always stop a program on the slightest hint of a potential budget reforecast. Decide on the proportion of associate vs own work that you will target, and stick to this model.
3. Decide on your niche
Before we go any further, it’s time to bring reality back into the equation. Everyone knows a trainer or knows someone that knows a trainer. Sorry to be brutal but soft skill trainers are two-a- penny. It appears to me that anyone that has attended a life coaching course and set themselves up as a life coach, seems to feel equipped to be able to facilitate and run group workshops. My ex-HR director told me that I would do very well as a freelance trainer as there was ‘an awful lot of dross out there’. To differentiate yourself (and command higher rates), the current marketing wisdom is that you should choose a specialisation and stick to this.
4. Gain the commitment and support of family and friends
Starting your own business is all-consuming. As a new business owner, your working week is now 7 days. Inevitably your quality time with the family, friends and loved ones is going to reduce in the short term — how can you prepare people for this? It is a sad statistic that many new business owners’ marriages don’t survive the first couple of years of trading. Knowing that you have your family and friends commitment and support to your new venture is invaluable and a great source of free advertising!
5. Strengthen your network
People prefer to buy from people that they trust or have been recommended to them by someone that they trust. I would put a fairly large wager on the fact that your network is going to get you your first gigs — whether as an associate or independent trainer. From personal experience, it is possible to pick up some associate opportunities before you leave your current employers. To warm up your network properly plan to complete at least 3+ networking meetings every week…
As well as being your most effective source of work, referrals, customers and clients, your network will take the place of your current work mates and colleagues. The reality is that bouncing ideas off your team mates stops when you pick up your P45. Do you have enough people in your current network willing and able to give you all the advice and assistance that you may need in the early days of working for yourself?
6. Answer the question — ‘why my product or service is different?’
Unless you are one of the very few people who manage to come up with a completely new product or service, you need to be able to identify what makes you different from your competition, and why people should buy from you instead. At any networking event or meeting, the question may or may not be verbalised, but people will always be thinking why I should hire you.
7. Find a coach
In the early days of setting up a business, it can often be difficult to have the space and time to focus on what really matters. From personal experience, I can tell you that until you are established business owner you are on a very steep learning curve and one hell of a roller coaster ride. A good coach will help you see the wood for the trees, provide a time and space for you to think, expand your list of options and choices, and provide invaluable support and encouragement.
8. Identify and acquire the skills you will need as your own boss
Unless you can afford the full complement of professional advisors, you will need to acquire new skills as a new business owner. Like me, in your first few months of trading, you may find yourself amongst others becoming the book keeper, web designer, marketing expert, finance director and new business director for your business. Until you have a team of people working for you, delegating tasks and functions to professional advisors costs money you often can’t afford to spend. However, you may be able to acquire these skills for free or at highly reduced rate. Do you have an opportunity to acquire these skills with your current job or hobbies and interests? Who offers funded places for courses aimed at new business owners?
9. Believe in yourself
And finally, If you don’t believe in yourself, no-one else will — and you wouldn’t have the confidence to get started on what could be the best experience of your life.
This article was originally printed in training zone.
Monday morning cartoon – 11-10-9
October 12, 2009 – 7:00 am
I’ve had a quiet weekend, and getting lots of work done… but also made some time to make some cupcakes with my little guys. Talking about cup cakes, this monday’s cartoon is for anyone who can’t do without their morning cup of coffee.
I hope you all have a good week, and have enjoyed this week’s installment from The Cartoonist.
My follow friday recommendations 9-10-9
October 9, 2009 – 8:30 am
Friday just seems to whizz around – not quite sure how the week just flies by. I’ve been having some great and potential lucrative conversations with lots of people on twitter today.
The first person I am recommending is @neilryder. He got a little bit sulky last week that he didn’t make it to the top of the list. There are a lot of rumours flying around on twitter – mostly started by @neilryder… but what I can confirm is that we are collaborating on an interesting proposition. Watch this space… I can promise you all with be revealed. Well, not quite all… but that’s another story. If you are after someone that really understands organisations, and senior executives, then this @neilryder the person to call. He is an ‘old dog’ that is prepared to learn new tricks and more than matches me for drive and energy. PS don’t believe everything that @neilryder writes on twitter about me!
Next up is @hlsbs. I probably succeeded in making @hlsbs’s week this week…(read her blog for more details!) It was a fantastic phone call, and if you want a fun, straight-talking Yorkshire lass, you wouldn’t go far wrong with @hlsbs. If you need some administrative help – for example, with your books or chasing your debtors, then this is the virtual assistant to call.
What @hlsbs and I realised in our conversation was how much we knew about getting access to high quality tools, software and training for free or minimal cost. We both want to share our knowledge with a larger audience, so will be running a teleseminar on wed 25th Nov at 20:00 where @hlsbs and myself will share our collective wisdom. Our guarantee to you, is that if you do only one of the tips we share with you, you will more than save the cost of the teleseminar. Further details of how to book on the teleseminar will be released nearer to the time.
I spoke with @duncanbrodie this week. I love talking with Duncan, and a kinder more authentic person would be difficult to find. @duncanbrodie is a management & leadership guru, so well worth a conversation if you are thinking about some management or leadership training for your staff.
Some of you lucky people may have received my newsletter this week. It has been incredibly well received – over 50% of people opened it and over 30% clicked through to an article. From what I hear, this is almost unprecedented for a newsletter from an organisation like mine. If you want to know why the newsletter was so well read, why not sign up for next month’s at www.theefficiencycoach.co.uk. Thank you to @anthodges for helping me get up and running with his very easy-to-use, affordable & powerful e-mail marketing software – ko-junhnt. The reporting function of the software is excellent, and has left me with some interesting leads to follow up.
That’s it for me – have a good weekend!
6 tips to help you minimise interruptions
October 8, 2009 – 7:55 am
My business partner John is lovely. I feel privileged to closely work with him.
John is an extrovert, and now that he predominantly works from home, needs to pick up the phone and talk to people. I am often the person he picks up the phone to… which means I get interrupted… which is normally very welcome. But, this got me thinking, and has prompted me to write this blog post.
Interruptions often hinder your ability to be truly efficient. Studies have suggested that the average employee is interrupted every 9 minutes. Now, that I work at home, I have vastly reduced the amount of interruptions I receive when working.
Here are my top tips for minimising your interruptions:
1. Turn off notifications
Turn off your new message notifications, e.g. new e-mail, tweetdeck, new text message
2. Turn off phones
If you are brave enough, turn off your phones. Whenever I am in a coaching session I switch off my mobile. If you are worried about missing a call with a potential new client, why not use a business answering service. I personally use Emma Fryer who runs http://www.answer-it.co.uk. I’ve not missed an important call since hiring Emma and her team.
3. If it’s urgent deal with it straight away
Don’t leave urgent stuff lingering, deal with it and then go back to what you were doing.
4. Be assertive
If the interruption is unnecessary, stop it or avoid it. Turn off the unwanted mobile call. Try standing up when an unwanted person comes over to talk with you. I can guarantee that your interruption will be short and sweet.
5. Postpone
If the interruption is unwanted, then politely reschedule the interruption – at a time which is convenient to you
6. Move away
Working away from your desk is a great way to minimise interruptions. If you need some peace and quiet to get your head down, why not book a meeting room for a few hours? If, you work from home, why not try working from your local library? Most libraries require you to turn off your mobile phone…
Our 6 step guide to efficient communication planning
October 7, 2009 – 8:00 am
Communication planning is an important tool for any business regardless of scale or size. Done well, communication planning will help your message get to the right people at the right time, in a format they can understand. Done badly, and you risk alienating the very people you are trying to influence and persuade.
1. When to plan?
Right at the beginning of a project or campaign is the best time to plan your communications. A communications plan should be a live document which is updated frequently.
2. Think about your stakeholders
A stakeholder is anyone that can influence the impact and end result of what you are planning. Not all stakeholders are created equal. You need to identify your key stakeholders, what is the impact of the change on them, communication preferences, their current mindset and the support needed from them. i.e. whether it matters if they are positive about a change. Then think about for each population, for your campaign or project, what’s in it for them and what resistance they have. Your communications plan needs to decrease their resistance and highlight to them what they will gain.
3. Think about how you will communicate – ‘your channels’
Everyone has preferences how they like to be communicated with. Some people (particular introverts) like to read and have time to think about the communication. Others want a phone call or to discuss what you are proposing in a group environment.
4. Why?
Efficient communication planning requires you to think about why you are sending out this message. You may find that you may not need to send out something – which saves you time and resources.
5. Timing is everything
There is a right time and often a wrong time to communicate a message. Unless everyone is clear when press releases are due and the website will be updated, the message may slip out in advance. This could be very costly if you are planning an organisational restructure. On a personal note, I was involved in sponsoring a competition. Because I hadn’t explicitly been told when to communicate about this competition, I jumped the gun by a few weeks….
6. How often?
The old adage, communicate, communicate, communicate normally holds true. The more you communicate a consistent message the more likely people are to ‘get the message’. However, you can over communicate your message. For example, a very frequent recurring message can cause the very people you want to read and act on your message to ‘tune’ or ‘zone’ you out.
How to find unadvertised roles and speed up your job search
October 6, 2009 – 1:23 pm
The unpublished job market or “hidden” job market – where an opening is filled without it ever being advertised – represents approximately 80% of the total jobs filled each year. Therefore, particularly the more senior roles that you are targeting, it is important to spend at least 60% of your job search time and effort on the unpublished job market.
By the very nature of the fact that the unpublished job market is ‘unpublished’ you will need to look and find these roles.
There are two main routes to accessing this unpublished networking – being prepared to network with the ‘right’ people and making speculative approaches to people and businesses.
Here is our guide to planning your unpublished job search
1. Be clear on what you are looking for
If you are going to use the power of your network to find your next role you need to be very clear about what you are looking for, and disciplined about how many people you talk to and what you talk to them about.
2. Evaluate your current network
There is no substitute for pressing the flesh and working your way through your little black book. The closer you are to a contact the more likely they are to help you.
Write a list of everyone that you know personally and professionally. Then, divide your list into 3 categories – likely to help, not sure if can help, unlikely to help. However, do not discount the people in the ‘unlikely to help’ category, they may someone that knows someone that knows someone who can help you. For example, I have helped someone I have met through a playgroup I attend to get a role at a local accountancy firm.
3. Contact everyone in your list
Maintain an excel spreadsheet with all your contacts and update it as you contact everyone on your list – but maintaining more frequent contact with people in the ‘likely to help’ and ‘not sure if can help’. As you speak with all your contacts make sure you ask the question – ‘who can you recommend that I talk with who can help me?’
4. Find out what’s happening in your job hunting location
Companies that are re-locating or starting up a presence in your job hunting location are more likely to be hiring. Companies that are outsourcing or moving out of an office may need interim workers, to help them manage the gap between announcing the organisational change and actually making the change.
5. Do your research
Identify a list of 50-100 companies within your job hunting location, that you would like to work for – and you think will use your skill set. For example, if you are a chartered accountant looking to carry on within practice, you can immediately filter out any non-accountancy practices. Systematically work your way through this list and find out key facts about the company, any planned changes, new contracts. Then think about how you would add value to them. Any company that has won new major contracts or is planning strategic or physical changes are more likely to be hiring staff.
6. Get introduced
Your challenge is to now get in touch with managers who may be hiring within your target companies. Who, within your personal network maybe connected to the organisation? Or even, give the office number a call and ask to speak to the person responsible for recruitment.
A client of mine, was looking for a part-time role within a local accountancy firms. She identified 11 local accountancy firms via the ICAEW website, then rang up each firm and had a conversation with the person responsible for recruitment. After this she wrote a letter and CV to each of the firms. Within a month of sending the letters, she had two job offers, and was still receiving phone calls from interested companies months later.
4 tips to help you achieve more with your paperwork and filing
October 6, 2009 – 8:12 am
I have saved myself up a lovely job for today – sorting out my admin and all my paperwork. This is not an ideal state of affairs… as research has suggested that a piece of paper on your desk will distract you up to five times. Although this does assume that you can find the piece of paper on your desk in the first place…
I have been looking into how I can (and you can) efficiently manage your paperwork, and free up your time and save money on printing and paper costs.
1. Set time aside every day to focus on your paperwork
Set time aside to deal with your paperwork, for example your post. When you are dealing with your post and paperwork act on it immediately, rather than procrastinating. Think about it, how much time have you wasted sifting through your pile of paperwork to file?
2. Do you need to print it?
How much do you need to print out the document? If you don’t print it you don’t need to file it… Then, you can be all smug about how much you are doing your bit to help save the environment.
3. Recycle
Challenge yourself whether you actually need to keep this piece of paper. Remember that 85% of documents are never looked at again. How much space would you free up if you recycled all the paperwork you have never looked at? Remember that you may need to keep all your client paperwork as a condition of practicing.
4. Delegate
If you have the luxury of a personal assistant, delegate as much as possible – e.g. sorting, screening and disposal of the post.
Your monday cartoon 5-10-9
October 5, 2009 – 7:00 am
Good morning everyone – I’ve had a busy weekend, and will quietly ease into monday helped by a large cup of tea…
This cartoon had me rolling in the aisles when i received it on saturday morning. It is dedicated to anyone that is current setting budgets or is being told to rethink their budget.
The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts
Have a good week!
4 questions you need to answer to delegate successfully
October 3, 2009 – 12:21 pm
I’ve just engaged the services of a Virtual Assistant – Romany Thresher of Direct Assist On-line. The plan is that Romany and her team will keep my website updated, and help me with all my social media activities. This will free me up to do the stuff I love which is helping my clients achieve more for less effort, i.e. helping their business or them personally become more efficient. Along with Emma Fryer and the team at www.answer-it.co.uk, I am now starting to build up a team around me that I can delegate tasks to.
In the process of helping Romany understand my website, I realised that since I had been my own boss I had got out of the habit of delegating. I nearly fell into the classic trap of thinking that it was quicker to do it myself than explain it to Romany… how else is Romany (who is a very capable & a quick learner) going to learn how I do things & want things done?
So, here is The Efficiency Coach’s guide to delegation:
Before deciding to delegate you need to ask yourself four questions:
1. What should I delegate?
This should be any task that can be done by someone else better, quicker or more cheaply. Or any task which is stopping you achieving your main priorities.
2. What should I not delegate?
Simply, the following tasks should still be done by you (however, much you may or may not enjoy them)
- Anything that your team does not have the capability to do. For example, until proved otherwise, I wouldn’t be delegating the writing of copy for my website to either Emma or Romany.
- Anything that is confidential or sensitive best dealt with by you. For example, a previous client of mine told me in confidence about some mental health issues she was suffering from. I was aware of a support group that could help her, and connected her to the group. This is not something I should delegate.
- Anything that needs your judgment & specialist knowledge. For example, deciding on overall company strategy for The Efficiency Coach, is my responsibility and mine only.
3. Who should I delegate to?
Very simply, think about:
- Who in your team is able to do the task, or wants to develop the skills to do the task
- Who has the time to do the task?
4. When should I delegate?
The foundations for successful delegation are laid by yourself when you decide to release control and trust your team to take over the task. Delegation should happen all the time – as it is rarely successful if only completed on a few crisis occasions.
If you would like to free more of your time up, why not give us a call, and see how we can help.
My follow friday recommendations 2-10-9
October 2, 2009 – 7:30 am
I can’t quite believe that it is now Thursday evening, and tomorrow is Friday. That means, it’s time to think about my follow Friday blog.
So, what have I up to this week?
I attended the @mumstheboss drop in surgery for people thinking about setting up a business. It was great to be able to help potential business owners translate their needs, dreams, passions into a potential workable business. I enjoyed the mini tweet up with @ivy_house, @humbershomemade, @lsmedia. I am running some group coaching sessions for business owners across October and November with the @mumstheboss network. If you are Bedfordshire based and would like to personally experience myself, for a very small fee, helping you achieve more with your business, why not get in touch for more details.
I met up with @wil101 who is brimming with ideas of how he will enrich his life by translating his passion for ‘grow local, buy local’ into a workable business idea. I’m looking forward to seeing@wil101 achieve his 3 monthly business goals. Plus, @wil101 will be designing & writing a personalised week-by-week gardening plan for me, so I can fulfil my dream of cooking lots of lovely home grown vegetables and fruit.
I’ve met @humbershomemade last week for the first time, and this week additionally at the @mumstheboss start-up event. @humbershomemade makes top notch traditionally made jams and chutneys – which are used by some of the best eating establishments in Bedfordshire and surrounds. @humbershomemade has a ready smile, and is always willing to help out others.
I am in the early stages of a new business venture with @romanythresher. I can’t say too much at the moment…. BUT, what I can tell you is that you will see stuff happening in the spring, and our new venture will play to both of our respective strengths. I’m also thrilled that @romanythresher’s team will be supporting me to get part of my business strategy implemented.
It’s been a tough month for me, and there are several peeps on twitter who kept me smiling, are personally watching out for me and make me feel incredibly supported. These are @markbnorwich, @neilryder, @tonihunter. Thank you.
I’m cooking for a vegan, several carnivorves, a dairy + gluten intolerant and me who is only dairy + chocolate + caffeine intolerant this sunday. I’ve done all the meal planning and even sourced a recipe for gluten-free, dairy & egg free chocolate cake, as my other half whose birthday we will be celebrating has requested a chocolate birthday cake. As a result, I will be spending a large portion of Sunday morning in the kitchen. In case you are wondering, this is the menu slow roasted pork belly, with gluten & dairy free sage + apple stuffing & yorkshire puddings, steamed vegetables and roasted new potatoes & parsnips, followed by baked plums and custard. The vegan offering will be @wil101’s home grown marrow, filled with something (I forget now!)
Wish me luck!
Why thinking about your achievements will help you get an interview
October 1, 2009 – 8:00 am
It’s a tough job market at the moment. Yes, the economy may be recovering, but you are up against good competition. Employers recruiting for any type job want to find people who are a successful and winners; i.e. people who have a good and verifiable track record, backed up with evidence that they have the capability to do the role. Recruiting can be an expensive business so employers don’t like taking risks. Interviewers and recruitment decision-makers want to get the best person for the vacancy, but they also want to protect their personal reputation by avoiding making recruitment mistakes.
Picking and choosing the right achievements to highlight in your CV, is the best way of showcasing yourself as a reliable and safe choice. These tailored and impressive, well-worded achievements need to indicate that you, have the sort of capabilities, experience and personality to match the employer’s needs greatly increases your chances of being short-listed and progressing through the interview process.
So, think about and start to jot down the achievements you’ve attained in the past and identify the ones which match or relate to the requirements of the new job. A relevant achievement does not have to be in the same industry or even from a work situation. A relevant achievement is evidence of relevant capability, style, personality, attitude, knowledge or potential.
It is also important to attach scale and context to your achievements statements. Achievements need to include size, scale and value factors so that the interviewer can assess them properly. Woolly, vague statements without scale are nowhere near as impressive as statements with clear hard facts and figures.
E.g.“increased sales by 25% and £100k in one year” is more impressive than “increased sales”
Context helps explain the claim, and helps position the statement as being relevant to the job vacancy, and the characteristics that the interviewer and employer are seeking. Context simply means the situation. As ever, you must ensure you can back-up and be prepared to provide evidence in support of your achievements statements and descriptions.
E.g. “implemented new sales process for retail sales team, which…”
These days, ‘life skills’, emotional intelligence and maturity, tolerance, wisdom, triumph through adversity, and other good character indicators, are much sought-after attributes. In some cases more sought-after than job-skills and specific work experience. If you possess any of these attributes, then incorporate them as experiences or achievements into your CV
11 ways to write a CV that gets you an interview
September 30, 2009 – 9:30 am
The purpose of your CV is to get you to interview. Nothing more, nothing less. As a career coach, when helping job seekers, more often than not the first thing I am presented with is a CV. It always amazes me how easy it is to stand out from the rest of the job seekers by spending time on a well-thought out and written CV. Here are my top 11 ways for you to get your CV to stand out from the crowd.
1. Find out who the hiring manager is
The best way to not get your CV read is to send it to the wrong person. Before you send your CV ring up the agent or company and find out who the hiring manager is, and ideally let them know your CV is on the way to them.
2. Write a covering letter matching your skills & achievements to requirements of the role
The purpose of a covering letter is to get your CV read… The best way to do this is set up a table and in the first column list one-by-one the key skills, experiences required by the role – then in the next column show how you meet these criteria.
| You are looking for | How I meet these criteria |
| 1. Degree level applicant with professional marketing qualifications | Graduated from xxx university with a 2:1, and achieved my CIM in 2007 |
| 2. —- | —- |
3. Ring up hiring manager or agent and find out more about role
A job advert will only tell you so much about a role. Ring up the hiring manager – or agent, and find out more about the role. E.g. what are the key skills and experiences wanted by the hiring company? Only when you have a role description for the role, can you truly match your capabilities to the demands of the role
4. Be succinct and to the point
Recruiters do not have time to read a long CV. Anything over 2 pages is too long, and will provide too much unnecessary information that will not get read.
5. Tailor CV to role applying for
Find out what the company’s top 5 ‘hiring’ criteria for the role are. Make sure your CV demonstrates succinctly that you have the skills and capability to meet these hiring criteria
6. Highlight your quantified and relevant achievements
Companies want to hire successful people. So make sure you showcase your achievements on your CV.
7. Consider using a functional CV
If you have changed companies frequently, or considering a career change, large gaps when you have been unemployed or been with your current employers for a long period of time – use a functional CV. A functional CV is where you showcase your key skills rather than employment history.
8. Think about keywords
Many recruiters electronically search for CVs by keyword. Use a ‘profile section’ and ‘core skills’ on the front page to increase your keyword count on the 1st page of your CV. If you are posting your CV on an internet board, your keyword count will be vital to your CV being ‘found’ by a recruiter.
9. Consider sending a CV through the post
Many recruiters use an electronic recruitment process for a reason – and so you need to comply with their process. However, many job adverts don’t stipulate how you should apply. As many hiring managers are used to receiving CVs via e-mail, a good quality paper copy sent through the post may get more attention than an e-mailed CV.
10. Re-post your CV weekly
Many recruiters only look at CVs which have been posted on an internet board in the last 14-21 days. Each week re-post your CV on the internet boards… simple!
11. What messages does your CV say about you?
Ask a trusted friend, partner, coach or mentor to take a look at your CV, and tell you what key messages hits them when they look at your CV. If your CV just comes across as a mass of text, then you need a re-write!
As a bit of fun, what’s the worst CV blunders you have seen?
If you are having trouble finding your next role, why not give us a call – we would love to help your CV stand out from the crowd and get you an interview for your ideal role.
The personal price of success
September 29, 2009 – 7:29 pm
Like many teenagers businesses also experience growing pains… For many start-up business owners this will be when their business starts to grow, and they find that they need 26 hours in a day. Many new business owners quickly realise that their business’s growth is being limited by there only being one of them.
I am really pleased to announce that The Efficiency Coach is going from strength to strength. It’s not quite Virgin or Easyjet yet, but watch this space. Twitter has been integral to our success, and so many people are engaging with me on Twitter that I am struggling to keep up with the volume of conversations AND run my business. I still want to have quality personal conversations and engage with peeps, but also need to focus on developing leads and helping my ever-growing client base achieve more. As The Efficiency Coach, it’s important for me to have a highly efficient (and effective!) business.
I’m highly delighted to tell you (the ink is still wet on the contract), that Direct Assist (headed up by Romany Thresher) will occasionally be tweeting on my behalf. If I am out all day in meetings, on holiday or running full day workshops, Romany’s team will be tweeting on my behalf.
My personal & business values set are all around openness and honesty. On the days when someone else will be tweeting on my behalf, I will always let you know that the team at Direct Assist will be supporting me with Twitter.
Perhaps your business is also experiencing growing pains? If so, why not give us a call to explore how we can help you move your business forward in a less painful manner.
Your monday morning cartoon
September 28, 2009 – 7:45 am
I can’t believe that the weekend has gone so quickly, and monday has come around today. This cartoon is for all of you that at one point or another secretly thought you could probably do a better job than your boss!
'The tortoise and the hare' by Guy Carter
My follow friday recommendations 25-9-9
September 24, 2009 – 10:59 pm
It’s that time of the week again… follow Friday blog time. It’s been a great week for us here at the Efficiency Coach – 2 new clients and 2 promising leads.
I must start with @lawyer_coach – she has also had some fantastic news. Her lawyer_coach blog has been picked up by a legal publishing house, and she has been commissioned to write a book. So if you are a lawyer and want to get better with your time management, watch out for @lawyer_coach’s book which will be published in the spring time.
I’ve been talking with lots of peeps this week. I interviewed @businessmum for my book on entrepreneurs. @businessmum is a real northern lass, with an entrepreneur’s head on her shoulders. We had a great conversation & If you are new to the virtual assistant business then you NEED to get a copy of her book – the VA’s handbook. Talking of my own book, my plans are to spend a large part of December when my clients will want to be partying and spending quality time with their family, writing my book. You never know, I may find a publisher willing to commission my book before I head down the self-published route!
I’m proud to say that I am @romanythresher’s newest client. In the next few months I will be running teleseminars and Romany will be getting all the infrastructure set up for me, plus updating my website. I’m really glad to say that The Efficiency Coach has grown to such a size is such a small space of time, that I can’t do everything, and must start playing to my key strengths. In addition, Romany and I will be collaborating together on a joint venture to combine our considerable skill sets on social media tools to help people become as successful as ourselves with social media. Watch this space!
Today, I was guided through a great bit of kit by @anthodges. Together @anthodges & @neilryder have convinced me that the tracking & evaluating tools of @anthodges e-mail newsletter system ko-juhnt, will achieve compensate for the very small amount of html newsletters that wouldn’t get through to inboxes in my mailing list. @anthodges system is VERY easy to use even for non techies.
It took both of us a while to organise, but I had a great conversation with @sharongaskin of The Trainers Training Company this week. @sharongaskin ran her very successful workshop for trainers today – with excellent feedback from all involved. In the next 6 weeks, I will be the star attraction of Sharon’s next teleseminar – how to achieve more when pitching. In this teleseminar I will be sharing the benefit of my considerable expertise with people on the call, on how to win more pitches.
And finally, a small thank you must go to @neilryder. A great peep who has agreed to mentor me, no small task! Perhaps, there will be someone that can try to keep me on the straight and narrow… @neilryder has been helping me polish some articles on team building that I am in the midst of writing for trainingzone.
Have a great weekend – I’m taking the little guys to whipsnade zoo to see the ‘an-i-mals’ on Sunday!
Introducing the Monday Morning Cartoon from The Cartoonist
September 21, 2009 – 5:52 pm
After a great weekend, Monday mornings at your desk can feel pretty ‘ugggh’ – well that’s what it used to be like for me when I worked for someone else.
In recognition of this fact, here at The Efficiency Coach, we wanted to give something for people to look out for and enjoy on a Monday morning. As we can’t predict the winning lottery numbers or physically provide you with a extra special latte from starbucks, the next best thing is a laugh and joke.
On every Monday morning we will share with Twitter, a new, specially commissioned cartoon from Guy Carter, the Cartoonist (guy.carter@tiscali.co.uk) We personally think Guy’s work is fantastic, and are looking forward to sharing it with a wider audience.
sitemap
September 20, 2009 – 9:53 pm
Page 1 of 7 : Next
Posts
- Category: business efficiency
- 12 questions which will revitalise your business development
- 12 ways of maximising your cash flow
- 18 signs that you are ready to take your business to the next stage
- 18 ways an agenda can help improve your meeting's efficiency
- 5 crucial ingredients for a CRM system which really works
- 9 ways to reduce your costs and improve your bottom line
- Are you prepared for a tsunami of CVs?
- Are you running your business, or is your business running you ragged?
- Are you winning enough pitches?
- Building in support for learning
- Have you got a book in you?
- Have you the patience of a saint?
- How clients buy professional services
- How efficiently & effectively are you marketing your practice?
- How focused is your business?
- How healthy are your practice's assets?
- How much will it cost to set up as a freelancer?
- How to achieve more when negotiating
- How to achieve more with your business development?
- How to achieve more with your business newsletter
- How to achieve more with your recruitment
- How to achieve more with your social networking strategy
- How to actually achieve your company's goals in five easy steps
- How to make a six figure income... the easy way!
- How to make the jump to junior partner
- How to pinpoint your target market!
- How to use automated tweets on Twitter to efficiently market your business
- How to use your blog for good SEO
- Is your networking activity working for you?
- My follow friday recommendations 28-8-2009
- My follow friday recommendations 4-9-9
- My Idiots Guide to increasing your search engine ranking
- Nine mistakes new professional advisers commonly make with their first website
- Nine ways every business can improve its efficiency
- Our 6 step guide to efficient communication planning
- ROI of social media
- So, what are twitter lists?
- Sole trader or Limited Company?
- Starting a business in a recession? Mad or enlightened?
- Ten questions to help you achieve more with your blog
- Ten things you MUST do before starting a business
- Ten things you must do before starting your own training business.
- The 7 deadly sins of client service
- The Efficiency Coach's Eight Laws Of Business
- The Four Pillars of a Successful Website
- The personal price of success
- The secret to building up a targetted following on twitter...
- Thinking about setting up your own coaching practice?
- Thinking of starting up a new business?
Plugin by dagondesign.com
My follow friday recommendations 18-9-9
September 18, 2009 – 7:06 pm
It has been a tough week – all my spare energy and time has been taken up with convincing PC World that they were in breach of contract and needed to do something about it. I’m really glad to say that I am writing this blog post on the new laptop… unfortunately it took all day in store to get the data transferred over. A special thank you must go out to all the peeps who gave me support & encouragement, @rapidbi, @neilryder, @breckland, @hlsbs, @markbnorwich, @pennyAW, @lindacheungUK, @lawyer_coach.
So, who am I going to recommend today? This week is themed around new start-up companies, getting on & doing their stuff – and doing it well. Recession, what recession?
So the first person to recommend is @giftwrappedandg. Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous promotes and markets creative designer makers based in the UK. The business is in the early days, and is having a lot of success signing up designers – if you want to sell your own designer goods and get them promoted in time for Christmas, via Mandy, Alison and the team, then get on the phone. Don’t hesitate time is of the essence!
I am proud to say that I have been asked to write for a new HR on-line magazine, called HR Weekly – which will go live in the next month. Yours truly will be writing on matters of HR Business efficiency. @M2rk, the owner, embodies the spirit of Dunkirk & has had some wonderful news this week, which will ensure that HR Weekly has a fast start & will become the ‘must-read’ publication of choice from senior HR decision-makers. Well done Mark!
Strictly speaking this isn’t a start-up, but it’s my blog and I can break my rules if I want to!, this peeps would be considered a direct competitor of mine. However, this is someone who walks the walk & talks the talk. @duncanbrodie kindly agreed to mentor a friend of mine who is just starting the transition from corporate life to business owner. At the moment, there is no promise of reward involved for Duncan. What a great peeps and someone that I am looking forward to working with in the future.
I interviewed @mikejulietbravo for my book research on entrepreneurs. Mike does qualify to be in this blog, without breaking any rules, as Mike is a firestarter. He helps entrepreneurs build up a idea to maturity. Some of you may know that @mikejulietbravo has been having a difficult last few months. I wish Mike well, as it would be difficult to meet a more genuine, giving and values-driven successful business person.
I’ve been starting to tweet with @hlsbs, who has just finished her old job, and next week will be fully employed as the owner of her virtual assistant and bookkeeping business. She is incredibly helpful, and I am sure she will make a success of her new venture.
And then finally, I couldn’t not thank a lovely peep – by day she saves her clients money as a friendly, personable BUT highly effective accountant. By night – well when not being an accountant, she helps to keep the nation healthy by selling the forever living beauty products. She is @tonihunter & is whizzing me bees pollen and Echinacea which will help my poor battered immune system recover.
Have a good weekend.
Nine ways every business can improve its efficiency
September 14, 2009 – 9:48 pm
Whilst small is seen to be beautiful (and believe me, at 5 ft 2” high, I fully subscribe to this view!), SMEs are also assumed to be more flexible and nimble than the large corporations. An accusation often levelled at SMEs is that they don’t have the resource to implement large scale changes quickly, and will therefore, struggle to significantly improve their productivity levels, and therefore, efficiency. I wonder whether you find this to be the case?
Regardless of where you stand on this debate, here are my nine top tips for any size of company to improve its efficiency:
1. Think simple
Simple ideas and methods generally save time and help a business become more efficient.
2. Outsource non-critical processes
If someone can run a process better than you, for the same or cheaper cost for the appropriate level of quality, outsource it. For example, on the 1st October I will be handing over all my books to my accountant’s book keeper. This is a non-critical process which someone else can do better than me, and for less cost.
3. Help your customers and clients become more efficient
Let’s illustrate this point with a real live example, my IT man, David of Contact Consultants, supports my IT machine for free – unless I really manage to tie it up in knots. Every time I speak to David, he educates me in some way so that I am more self-sufficient and less reliant on him for support. How can you educate your clients or customers so that your ability to service their needs is more efficient or effective?
4. Set yourself goals
If you set goals around improving your company’s efficiency then you are more likely to work towards creating a more efficient business.
5. Invest in automation
Whether you are a people hungry business like retail or a niche consultancy your largest monthly outgoing will be your wage bill. The greater the level of automation which reduces the amount of input by people, the more efficient your business. Compare and contrast the car factory of Henry Ford’s day to the modern production line in a mainstream car manufacturer.
6. Have a safety-conscious workforce
Accidents create down-time and extra costs. If you have ever had a claim brought against you for an accident at work, you will testify to this!
7. Look after, appreciate, and train your workforce
Happy, engaged, appreciated employees generally work harder and are more productive than unmotivated un-engaged employees. Think how much harder you work when you want to work somewhere rather than feeling as if you have to work somewhere. A skilled, motivated workforce is a must for good business efficiency.
8. Look at your product/service mix
If you can sell a higher-value product to your target market, you will normally improve your business efficiency. For example, if you currently sell homemade iced cupcakes, how much more could you sell a range of dairy or gluten free iced cupcakes?
9. Attract the right kind of employee
As efficient as your business may be, you are still reliant on having good quality employees to run your business processes. By attracting the right employee into the right role, you will build good business efficiency, one new hire at a time.
In your view, which of these nine tips for business efficiency should every company, regardless of it’s size, invest time and resource in implementing?
Ten questions to help you achieve more with your blog
September 13, 2009 – 4:03 pm
I’ve been reading a great book by Paul Thewlis called ‘Wordpress for Business Bloggers’ and working through its suggested tips and techniques. The observant ones of you will have noticed that my blog theme has changed to match my corporate brand guidelines.
To improve your business efficiency with your blogging, there are ten questions to bear in mind as you write:
- How will this post interest my target audience?
- How will this post add value to my target audience?
- Have you got a beginning, middle and end to your post?
- Are you posting frequently enough for your target audience?
- Is your post too long for the attention span of your target audience?
- Have you got links into other websites and blogs? (to improve your SEO)
- Are you putting important keywords into your post?
- Does this post sound like me? (Or does my ghost blogger sound like me?)
- How does this post link to my objectives for my blog?
- Can I add a question to the end of my blog to encourage comments?
I’ve been contributing to a discussion in The Efficiency Coach’s LinkedIn Group on the appropriate frequency for blogging. In the discussion Robert Killington – (Twitter ID: vatark) suggested that I ask my readership the question about my blog. That way I can tailor my content to more of what you enjoy and value.
So, my question to finish this post, is… are my posts the right length? Do I post regularly enough for you? Or should I lower the frequency of my posts? And finally, are there any subjects that I haven’t covered that you would like to see me blog more about?
Thanks for your help
My follow friday recommendations 11-9-9
September 10, 2009 – 10:19 pm
I was just about to think about heading to bed, and then I realised it is Friday tomorrow – and with the pre-school run and toddler group with the 2 year old I wouldn’t be on twitter for most of the morning.
So, who do I want to recommend this week?
Firstly, @chocolat_a_toi, she helped me put together a 10/10 piece of edible promotional material. The 10/10 was a rating given to me by a very important client who I sent some of @chocolat_a_toi, edible chocolate business cards to! If you want to sweet talk your way into an important female client, have you thought about personalised chocolate business cards?
I’ve been having long conversations with @neilryder this week. It was great to put a voice to a twitter ID. @neilryder has inspired me to start to leverage the power of my LinkedIn group (The Efficiency Coach – have you joined yet?) as well as challenging my intellectual thinking – something that I haven’t had for a while. So if you are intrigued by what is PAEI then take a look at http://www.ifonly.uk.com.
I finally met @helenlindop in the flesh today at the @mumstheboss 1st birthday networking meeting, where yours truly was the guest speaker and talking about the important of personal focus…. Now Helen has just had her second child, and like similar to myself has a 16 month gap between her two children. Some of the memories came flooding back… When my little guys were the same age as Helen’s two I wasn’t running a business & was putting my feet up whilst on maternity leave. (well almost!) This lady runs her own business, www.businessplusbaby.com I don’t think that even The Efficiency Coach could manage @helenlindop ‘s to-do list…
I had energising conversations this week with two ladies starting out in business – @lawyer_coach and @loubushell. I am sure that they will both be very successful in their new ventures. If you have enjoyed reading my blog then you will find @lawyer_coach s blog written in a similar, easy-to-read engaging style.
I’ve been signed up, on the strength of what I write in this blog, as an expert writer for HR Weekly, a new weekly on-line magazine targeted at senior HR decision makers. This magazine is the brain child of @M2rk and already has over 20 000 people on its mailing list. Not bad, eh… If you are looking to get your business in front of over 20 000 senior HR decision makers, for a very reasonable recession busting fee, get on the blower to @M2rk. On a personal level, @M2rk embodies the spirit of resilience & a ‘never-say-die’ attitude.
I finally got to talk with one of my favourite peeps on twitter this week @sharongaskin. @sharongaskinand myself were preparing for a teleseminar on the 6th Oct (tbc). @sharongaskinwill be interviewing myself on how trainers can win more pitches. So, if you are in the training or coaching business and concerned about your win/lose ratio, why not book onto the seminar – http://www.thetrainerstrainingcompany.co.uk In early November, @sharongaskin will be interviewed by myself for a teleseminar on how to run a business AND bring up a family. Not an easy combination!
And finally, if your sales figures needs a bit of TLC or you seem to have lost your way with your business development – or maybe you are just feeling lucky, then take a look at a fun competition, with a first prize worth over £5000 – http://www.betternetworking.co.uk/blog There is coaching with The Efficiency Coach in the prize… surely that’s enough incentive to get you to take part?
Want to have it all?
September 10, 2009 – 8:29 pm
I had a great phone call today with Sharon Gaskin of The Trainers Training Company. We were talking about (amongst other things) how you can successfully run your own business and do this in conjunction with the demands that children place on us.
I am sure that the utopia that many business women, who happen to be mothers (or fathers who take responsibility for childcare), are all working towards is this… a business which is flexible around the many calls on your time, which the main working hours are between 9:30 and 15:00…AND…. provides you with a comfortable living.
Well, I will keep working towards utopia and will let you know if I get anywhere near it!
Here are our top tips for making your business and family life work for you:
1. Learn how to say no
As a parent there are always many calls on your time. As your business starts to grow the number of people that want to talk with you (grab coffee sometime?) seems to grow exponentially. To keep your life manageable you need to learn to say no – both within your professional and personal life.
2. Have reliable childcare
The business world is not geared up in general for people who are the main childcare provider. There will be times when you need to attend a meeting or visit a supplier and will need childcare for your children. By having at least 4 different childcare options ready if you need it (partner, grandparents, childminder, friends etc) you should be able to juggle the demands of the business and your family.
3. Prepare to work between 6am & midnight
Forget about having a 9-5 working existence. There are times when you will love having the flexibility to put your family first, for example, attendance at school sports day. But, there are times when you find yourself e-mailing at midnight and wishing that you had a more normal working hours and patterns.
4. Be focused and disciplined
As a business owner and parent you have far more calls on your time than the average person. To be able to have it all, you will need to be very focused and disciplined.
5. Invest in automation and efficiency
The more systems & processes that can be automated or run efficiently the more time you will have to spend on the more valuable work based tasks and quality time with the family.
6. Be very protective of your quality time
It is very easy to put your own personal needs for quality time last. In fact, you may not even let yourself have any quality time. To be able to be your best you need to schedule in quality time for yourself.
7. Outsource as much as possible
You don’t need to tell us that this is always another job to do on the to-do list. As soon as you become a parent then the to-do list is never ending – then add in a business to run, and you can easily feel guilty if you stop and try and steal a bit of me time back. To give you back more of your time outsource or delegate as much of the low value tasks, or stuff that doesn’t play to your strengths.
8. Balance your business, family and me time
There will be times when your business will need more of your time and attention and your family and me time will suffer. Just as in the school holidays your family will demand more of your time. However, over time you should look to balance the demands of the business, your family and make sure there is some time left over for yourself.
9. Richard Branson in the making?
There are some very high profile entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, who have quickly built up a global empire from small beginnings. Do not compare yourself to these people – you need to grow your business at a pace which you and your family are comfortable with. The Martha Lane Fox’s & Richard Branson’s of this world didn’t have as many calls, in the early days of their businesses, on their time as you do.
10. Don’t hide your children
People want to deal with people. The more open you are with your clients and customers about your family and how you juggle them, the more understanding they will be when, for example, a phone call is interrupted with the immortal words ‘mummy, mummy I’ve done a poo’. (Believe that happens a lot in my house at the moment!)
11. Remember why you started your business in the first place
When times are tough and you wonder whether there is anything more to life than the business, it is worth remembering why you are running your own business. There is nothing quite like having the flexibility to build your professional life around your family commitments. Remember, you can always go back to the 9-5 corporate existence…
12. Be realistic what you can achieve
There are only 24 hours in a day, and I have only met one person who needed less than 6 hours sleep a night. Your business will grow only as fast as you personally push it. If the pace is getting too fast, then take the foot off the accelerator pedal. Don’t fall into the trap of setting yourself unrealistic targets or unrealistic expectations. Unless you can afford a full time cleaner & a cook, the house will not always be tidy and clean, and dinner may not always be freshly cooked and on the table on time.
Which Wordpress Plugins should you use?
September 5, 2009 – 10:30 pm
I think it must be sheer bloody-mindedness on my part, but I have worked out how to use wordpress the experiential, and pretty tough way. In a way, this is good news for you, as I am about to share what plugins I use for my blog and why.
Before I carry on talking about plugins, I’ve just spent a heart-stopping moment when I thought I had lost all my content of my wordpress blog. Don’t let this happen to you… Before you press the ‘automatically update my wordpress blog to the latest version’ button, always do the following steps:
1) Make a complete off-line copy of your wordpress blog
2) Deactivate all your plugins
3) Then press the update button
Some of you may be wondering what plugins are – these are pieces of coding written by programmers that give your wordpress blog extra functionality. The open source nature of wordpress is what makes it great – but is also its major downfall. The myriad of word press plugin programmers often do not collaborate – why should they? Which means that sometimes one plugin uses a variable needed by another plugin and stops a plugin (or more fatally the whole blog) from working.
Whilst updating my new website I learnt that when wordpress is installed within your own website, your web needs to be hosted on a dynamic server – i.e one that can handle php scripts. After I moved my website to a dynamic server suddenly a lot of plugins started to work for me…
These are all the plugins that I use on my blog, and why I use them:
My first three recommended plugins are all included to help you with search engine optimisation for your website.
All in One SEO Pack
I am not quite sure how this plugin works or what it actually does. However, I am assured that it optimises search engine optimisation for your blog. Basically I dutifully fill in some extra boxes after I have written a new blog post and hope that this plugin does what it says on the tin.
Dean’s Permalinks Migration
Sometimes you may want to change your permalink structure. For example, maybe like me, you started off with the default permalinks (the individual URL addresses for each blog post), then someone nice like @sarah_arrow in my case told me my permalinks were not optimised for SEO… and I changed all the permalinks. The whole point about permalinks is that they are meant to be permanent. With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website, and, I’m told, it even doesn’t hurt your google pagerank. In case this is too techie for you, trust me, it’s a good thing.
Google XML Sitemaps
This is a must have plugin for your blog. I’ll just say that again, this is a plugin that you must have. Everytime you write a new blog, this plugin generates a new sitemap and submits in, in search engine friendly format, to all the major search engines. That’s efficient!
My next two plugins help your readership to easily share your content with their networks.
Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button
This one is a bit of a no-brainer – it allows your readership to share your content on many different social networking sites.
Easy Retweet
I like this plugin as it allows twitter people to easily re-tweet your blog to their followers. It also keeps track of how many times a post has been retweeted. Unfortunately, a week or so ago when I changed the server that my web was kept on the totals all reset themselves to zero. Most frustrating!
My next 5 tools are all designed to help your efficiency on wordpress
Google Integrator tool kit
This seamlessly Integrates Google services such as Analytics with Your Blog. This way you can easily see how many people have been reading your posts and for how long etc etc etc
WP-Spamfree
I use this plugin to get rid of spam. It does what it says on the tin, and is a different option to the other main spam killer askimet.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
This is a great plugin. It puts on the bottom of your posts (or the sidebar) related posts within your blog. This means that you don’t have to even think about putting related posts on the bottom of your posts.
MobilePress
Very simply this plugin turns your WordPress blog into a mobile website/blog.
Twitme
Every time you add a new post, this will automatically tweet a new blog post to all your followers.
WP-copy protect
I take my IP very seriously – which means that I use this plugin to stop people cutting and pasting my posts. It wouldn’t stop the most hardened of ‘thieves’, but every little helps.
WP-Cumulus
This is the best tag cloud plugin that I’ve seen. It’s small, neat and looks fantastic.
If you have any wordpress plugins that you wouldn’t be without, I would love to hear about them and what they enable you to do.
My follow friday recommendations 4-9-9
September 3, 2009 – 10:13 pm
It’s been a great week for me… some real breakthroughs on the work front and my new website is finally up and running. By the way, have you signed up for my monthly newsletter and fortnightly tip? I am giving away a free e-book on how to achieve more with Twitter for the 1st 100 people that sign up. I’ve given away 51 in total so far.
The first person I want to recommend is @mumstheboss. I have to admit a certain amount of vested interest, but I am their keynote speaker for their first birthday party meeting on the 10th Sept. It will be a first for me, as the two little guys will be in the @mumstheboss crèche while I am doing my stuff. @mumstheboss is very opened minded and dedicated to getting 1st class business support for the members of her networking group. I have found that as a mother of two pre-school age children many seminars, networking events are timetabled so that they exclude business owners, who are the primary carer of pre-school children. I will be shortly starting a pilot with @mumstheboss offering group coaching at an affordable cost to participants – and if participants have an e-voucher from East of England Business Link, they can get the coaching for free.
I’ve been getting to know @billboorman this week. This guy is highly respected within the recruitment industry, gorgeous voice to listen to, and runs a fantastic blog talk radio show. We had a great conversation, and will be meeting next week to discuss how we can collaborate in the future. But, I have to tell you this – and @billboorman wouldn’t like it, I’m still ranked higher than @billboorman in 2 out of the 3 twitter ranking programmes. Tee-hee-hee. Yes, that’s right I’m still ranked in the top ten most influential UK peeps (as per twitterio.co.uk)
On Wednesday I met up with @dalerockell and Colin Smith of CJS Accounting services – members of my beyond networking group. (A self-mentoring group) Our conversation was energising and we have created a fantastic opportunity for all three of us. @dalerockell is the brains behind Stress Free which specialises in working with young people and education generally. @dalerockell and I will be working on some podcasts and paid seminars in the next couple of months.
@cartoono is the brains and creative genius behind the 2010 London Cartoon Festival – plus a great cartoonist. As well as all this, he cares deeply about his friends and is always looking out for them.
One of my newer followers – @neilryder, has a great sense of humour – is supportive and encouraged me to write my last blog article, the 8 laws of business.
A big thank you must go to @emma_ewer and @weareredballoon who both gave me the benefit of their advice (for no charge) which helped me sort out the redirects from my old website to my new website. I can’t thank you enough…
The Efficiency Coach’s Eight Laws Of Business
September 3, 2009 – 9:40 pm
I was prompted to write this article by Neil Ryder – it is slightly tongue-in-cheek…
1. The bigger the company the longer the payment terms
Many businesses follow the herd and set their payment terms to 30 days. In all honesty there are two rules about payment terms; one, they have to be acceptable to your potential client or customer; and two they shouldn’t cripple your cash flow. The bigger your buying power, the more leverage you have to ask for longer payment terms. So, what does payment terms of 30 days actually mean? In real terms it means that you are funding the cash flow of your client for 30 days. As a business the shorter your payment terms the better your cash flow. To help your business’s efficiency consider offering a discount for prompt payment, or a penalty for late payment. Or set your payment terms to 14 days, and you will normally get paid within the 30 days.
2. Insanity: doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results
How many times do you plug away at something and expect to see different results? In truth if you keep hitting your head against a brick wall all you will end up with is a headache. I have thought of a few possible exceptions to this role. Do give a marketing strategy six months before ditching it, and remember that 80% of all sales are made on the 5th follow up.
3. “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” Bob Hope
Unless you keep a very tight rein on your cash flow and expenses, you will potentially find yourself in financial difficulties. Banks tend not to lend money to people or businesses who don’t carefully manage their capital and cash flow. As my accountant will tell you stringent financial control is key to good business efficiency.
4. It’s not hard to meet expenses, they’re everywhere.
When you set up in business, expenses, bills and invoices becomes a fact of life. When budgeting always leave a little bit of contingency funds, as the unexpected does happen and you need to be prepared for it.
5. Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
Sorry to be a party pooper but not everything is going to work first time. It is far better to know that an idea is not a go’er before you spend considerable amounts of time and money discovering it wouldn’t work.
6. The more time you spend in reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to do anything.
Don’t get me wrong, reporting, evaluating and reviewing is vital for good business efficiency. However, time and time again I see many businesses spending far too long planning as well as producing countless meaningless reports which no one reads, when they actually need to focused on making stuff happen.
7. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
Why is it that bills always seem to arrive promptly, but cheques can take a while to appear. If you ask your clients to pay you via BACS rather than a cheque, it saves you popping down to the bank and improves your personal cash flow. If you put your bank details on your invoices it will prompt people to pay you via BACS. I am seriously considering charging extra for people who pay me by cheque.
8. Mistakes are inevitable it is how you handle them that defines how successful you will be
To illustrate this point, for 24 hours there have only been 7 laws of business in this article about 8 laws of business. Thankfully no-one has pointed it out on a comment on the blog… Researchers in the hotel industry found that guests gave a higher satisfaction rating, compared to no problems during a stay, when something had gone wrong, but had been prompted and efficiently fixed. Poor Business Efficiency results from not fully testing out new products and services before you launch them… I painfully felt the effect of this last friday when my newsletter sign up was working perfectly on the testing server but failed when on my proper site. Remember to always proof read all copy – as this is one the places where a typo is almost inevitable, and will impact the impression that your readers experience…
7 tips to make sure your covering letter gets your CV read
September 2, 2009 – 8:30 am
In my experience job seekers spend hours perfecting and crafting their CV. They then, rattle off a covering letter… and wonder why they don’t seem to be getting many interviews.
The sole purpose of a covering letter is to get your CV read. Get your first impression wrong and your CV (which you have spent many hours perfecting) wouldn’t be read, and your application will be put in the rejection pile. As the saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
You should always have a covering letter with your CV – even if you are submitting your application via an internet job site. The covering letter gives your CV some context, adds in important keywords for electronic applications, and explains how you meet the requirements of the role being advertised. A covering letter should have more than the following blurb… “I’m applying the xxx role advertised in xxxx, please find my CV attached, I look forward to hearing from you soon.”
Use the covering letter to highlight your strengths and any experience that is relevant to the job. If you have done your homework and found out more about the company and role, you can highlight the areas that you meet the most important requirements that the employer is looking for.
Similar to when you are writing a CV, be succinct with your covering letter. Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page in length.
Here are our 7 top tips for writing a cover letter
- Tailor your covering letter for each application you make
- Keep the letter neat and tidy and clear of spelling mistakes
- Get your facts correct, e.g. recruiter’s name
- Address your letter to a named person, the hiring manager
- Indicate what you would like to happen next
- Match the skills/experience being asked for to your relevant skills & experience
- Explain any anomalies in your background, CV or suitability for the role
What are your best tips for covering letters that really DO get you to interview?
How to achieve more with your business development?
August 31, 2009 – 9:18 am
Everywhere I hear conflicting reports of how sharp, severe or protracted this recession is going to be… or is the economy starting to recover? At the moment, I don’t know what to believe, but know that there is a general downward pressure on fees and prices, and a reluctance for businesses to part with cash for non-essential stuff.
So this set me thinking, how to do you achieve more with your business development?
1. Have a marketing and sales strategy
Unless you know what you are trying to do, and how you will get there, you might as well not pass go. Business development is not like monopoly you don’t get £200 for just passing go…
2. Get your branding right
Unless you have thought of a unique product or service, other people will offer exactly what you do. Branding yourself so that you will stand out with your target market – and be memorable is key.
3. Outsource if necessary
Maintaining a consistent market presence takes time and energy. Choose what low value tasks you can outsource, to free up your time to close down deals. For example, outsourcing SEO or social media tasks works very well.
4. Polish and perfect your copy
Your marketing copy, i.e. the stuff you write in your PR, blog, ads is vital. The words that you choose do make a difference – a well crafted piece is often the difference between a phone call or no phone call.
5. Integrate
Make sure your overall business strategy connects and then that your planned marketing & sales strategy is working towards achieving your overall business goals.
6. Look after your cash flow
It is envitable that you will need to invest some physical cash in your business development. Watching your cash flow and making sure that it’s healthy and positive is vital to good business efficiency. Working with a good accountant or VAT specialist will help you keep your cash flow positive…
7. Get a coach
If you have followed all of my suggested tips it is likely that you will have a large amount of stuff to do. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and if your resource is limited then you wouldn’t be able to do everything overnight. A good business coach will help you prioritise your workload and give you the support to get everything done – but without falling apart in the process.
You may now be wondering where you can get access to all these experts, without spending out loads of money… after all specialists who can offer you this type of service and add oodles of value to your business, may not have been thought of when you initially drew up your annual budget. I have a solution – enter the better networking treasure hunt competition and be in with a chance of winning a prize worth over £5000 and will revitalise your business development. It even includes coaching from myself… how can you resist? But, get your skates on the competition only runs until the end of September. Good Luck
How to use automated tweets on Twitter to efficiently market your business
August 30, 2009 – 10:28 pm
My blog on How to achieve more with Twitter always evokes a comment and debate about whether you should or should not use automated tweets. Don’t get me wrong, I hate as much as anyone else seeing the same message being cycled continually. That’s a quick way for me to unfollow a peeps. However, Bill Boorman has asked me to share my process as he feels that other people will benefit from my process.
So where do I stand in the great twitter debate? Don’t shoot me now, but I do advocate automated tweets as a way of maximising the efficiency of your time on twitter. There is only 1 of me, and I have a fledgling business to run as well as looking after my young family.
Here is my process for using automated tweets, which has meant that I normally get my tweets in front of 20000+ unique readers daily, get 50% of my business leads from twitter and am ranked in the top 10 most influential UK peeps on twitter (as ranked via twitterio.co.uk).
I have all my blog posts and efficiency tips automated to be tweeted weekly or monthly, via futuretweets.
I then use twitter analyzer to get a sense of when a large proportion of my followers are on line (between 7 & 8, 13 – 14, 16-17 and 20:00 – 22:00 – not rocket science). My automated tweets are timed to generally go out in these windows.
I use twitter analyzer to see what has happened with my automated tweets daily. If a automated tweet is not RT’ed I will make a judgement call whether to lessen the frequency of the tweet or delete it all together. Certain tweets work better on certain days of the week, I’ve also noticed which of my tweets my followers like and which lead to a business development conversation. For example my tweet about ‘generating good will is one of the best ways to generate new business….’ is just perfect for people getting into the follow Friday groove.
I review how my automated content is received generally fortnightly. It’s not that scientific, but the next stage for me and my tweets will be to make it even more targeted and properly analyse what is and isn’t working for me.
I then use my limited time on twitter to enjoy the conversation, and start & maintain a conversation with peeps that have @replied to me or RT’ed my blog.
How to achieve more with your business newsletter
August 30, 2009 – 8:43 pm
I’ve been having a lot of fun (and frustration!) in launching our new website. Blood, sweat and nearly tears went into the website refresh. I’m very excited as my new website has the capability to sign people up to a monthly newsletter and fortnightly efficiency tip. As I start to write my first newsletter for this business, I’ve been researching how to use a newsletter to efficiently market your business. Here are my findings…
Let’s firstly consider why you would want to send out a newsletter. There are two main purposes to sending out a newsletter on behalf of your business… Firstly, to establish yourself as a trustworthy expert in your readers opinion, and secondly to keep your business and yourself top of your reader’s mind. Therefore, when a reader of yours wants to hire the services of something you offer, they are more likely to get in touch with you.
1. Make it short and snappy
In today’s information rich world, people don’t have time to read a long lengthy newsletter. Keep your newsletter’s length to a maximum of a screen depth. If you want to write a long article, provide an extract and link to where your article is held on your web. The width of your newsletter should not be bigger than the default ‘reading’ panel in Outlook or Lotus notes.
2. Start at the beginning
Before you start writing a regular newsletter, identify why you are going to write it and your target market for the newsletter. Then identify topics that your target market would be interested in reading about. So for example, if your target market is pig and dairy farmers, you may want to write about trends of prices for pork and dairy at the farm gate, how to increase your herd’s milk yield… you get the idea…
3. Give yourself or your business a starring role
Well, you are generally not writing a newsletter to promote someone else’s business? To firmly establish you and your business as an expert is the eyes of your readership make sure at least 25% of the newsletter space is about you… what’s you’ve done… your products and services… client testimonials… recent client case studies…awards. When you are talking about a subject aim to highlight recent successes you have had with clients (or customers).
4. Make it personal
As the saying goes, people buy from people. Have your picture, or one of your team’s in the newsletter. Drop in a few personal anecdotes about what you have been doing or are looking forward to doing
5. Put a time-limited special offer in
As per my previous post on, what you need to know to improve the efficiency of your marketing materials, people are more likely to take you up on an offer – e.g. 10% off all coaching packages, if you make it only for a few days or weeks, and state that it is exclusively for readers of your newsletter.
6. Consider the legalities
In the US it is illegal to sign someone up for a newsletter without their consent. In the UK we are not subject to the same laws – however, I believe that it is polite to get someone’s consent, for example, someone that you have met at a networking event, before you subscribe them up to your business’s newsletter.
7. Switch it off!
Do tell people how to unsubscribe on your newsletter. Set up a new e-mail address, i.e. unsubscribe@yourdomain.com for people to send an e-mail if they want to unsubscribe. Many people don’t like having to publically e-mail you to ask to be unsubscribed.
8. See things differently
The compatibility of e-mail clients and over zealous spam filters is a problem for newsletter writers. Specifically ask your mailing list to ‘white-list’ the e-mail account that your newsletter comes from. Give your readers the option of reading a plain text version, or viewing it in a web browser. After all for good business efficiency you want your readers to actually receive and be able to read your newsletter.
9. Don’t send it on a friday
Many people get to the end of the week and then sent out their business newsletter. If you think about yourself on a friday – how much time or motivation do you have to read newsletters? I would suggest very little – you are certainly not going to be motivated to do anything after reading the newsletter. I recommend that you send out your newsletter on a monday or tuesday when people are generally planning their weekly tasks.
10. Do spend money on an e-mail marketing client
If you are sending out a newsletter your recipients do not want their e-mail address visible to the whole of the mailing list. If you start regularly sending out e-mails to a large volume of people, your ISP may label your newsletter as spam… not good… A good e-mail client will prevent all these problems and automate some of the common tasks, e.g. sign-up, unsubscribe requests
11. And finally…
Don’t forget to include a call to action from your readership in your newsletter…
If you have enjoyed reading this blog post, you will love the convenience of fortnightly efficiency tips and a monthly newsletter crammed full with more efficiency tips and techniques delivered straight to your e-mail box. If so, go to our website home page and sign up for our newsletter.
As a thank you, for everyone that subscribes we are sending a copy of our free e-book, How to achieve more with LinkedIn.
For the first 100 subscribers to the newsletter we are also sending a copy of our free e-book, how to achieve more with twitter. But, you will need to hurry up as we are rapidly signing people up…
What you NEED to know to improve the efficiency of your marketing materials…
August 29, 2009 – 5:31 pm
There are six principles of influence – as identified by Professor R. Cialdini, and it pays to know about these six principles when you are marketing your business. Most scams or advertisements will use at least one of the principles…
Think about rolos… which rolo has the most intrinsic value placed on it? The last or the first? Somehow, “would you like my first rolo?” just doesn’t have the same appeal as “would you like my last rolo?”. Scarcity influences people to take action. When marketing your business always put a time limit on offers, quotes, number of clients you work with. talk about how busy you are with orders and clients… For example, I have just started to build up a mailing list. I have offered an extra free e-book for the first 100 people that sign up. Without that much effort I have easily signed up 50+ people in a weekend… and many people have contacted me hoping that they are in the first 100 people.
Take any trip to a recognised medical professional. How readily do you accept their recommendation? I would suggest, normally fairly readily. Authority and expertise influences people. To use this principle when marketing your business, emphasise how long you have been trading, professional qualifications, your expertise with a particular niche (no. 1 for coaching business owners to improve their efficiency)… display certificates of professional competence in your reception or shop
Have you ever wondered why charities when wanting a donation from you, often send you a free pen with the begging letter? If someone does something for you, or gives you something you are more likely to reciprocate. If you want someone’s business card then offer yours first… give away a freebie to potential clients… sweeten up a deal with something of low cost to yourself… offer to connect people at networking events… provide free resources on your website… offer something in return for someone signing up to your newsletter… In all honesty, this is the reason why generating goodwill is one of the best ways of growing your business.
Has this ever happened to you? You don’t particularly want to go out on a Saturday night, but when told that some of your good friends are going out… you suddenly feel you want to go out on Saturday. This is called social proof. This is why toy manufacturers artificially create the ‘must have toy for christmas’… and then provide limited stocks of this item… To use this in marketing your business… talk about how loved/trusted you are with your target market, provide easily visible client and customer testimonials/reviews on your marketing material… talk about how busy you are with orders and clients…
Do you know why I wouldn’t now wear any lapel badges or plastic bracelets? At one point in time I used to quite happily wear the Aids Ribbon, plastic bracelets, poppies charitable pin badges… I now don’t buy or wear these on principle. It’s not because I don’t support these causes – I still donate… By wearing a lapel badge, poppy or bracelet you are more likely to donate more often and frequently to the charity whose promotional item you are wearing – as our brains want us to be consistent in our actions. To use this in your business think about promotional goods that can be easily seen by your clients – mousemat, fridge magnet, notepad… or even better, provide an easy way for your clients to buy a small, low cost product or service from you. They will then be more likely to buy larger and more costly products and services from you at a later date.
Have you ever wondered why people buy from people? Well, actually people buy from people they think are like them or they find they like something about them. Therefore, when marketing your business or out at networking events, emphasise what you share in common with your target market, find something to complement about new people you meet at networking events… e.g. I love your tie… your office is really well situated…
8 things you must consider if you are leaving an organisation as a result of redundancy or compromise agreement
August 29, 2009 – 4:45 pm
In my last post I dealt with what you should do if you have just been told that your role is has been placed at risk of redundancy. However, not everyone has the luxury of time when they are being made redundant from their role. Some employers will chose to compromise an employee out of the organisation rather than follow a formal redundancy procedure. Read on for my guide for what you should do if you find that you WILL be leaving an organisation either as a result of redundancy or compromise agreement.
Retain your personal dignity
It is time to leave. But, this is not the time to shout and scream at the person handling your exit from the company. Whilst they have been asked to carry out a process on behalf of the company, they are human being too, and have thoughts and feelings just like you. Just as you don’t come into work to be shouted at, they don’t either.
Don’t burn any bridges
You may still be feeling very bitter, but the time has come to emotionally and physically move on. In the current economic climate you are more likely than ever to find a new role or work either directly or indirectly from someone that you have worked with. To prove my point, 100% of my first assignments, in the first six months after going freelance came directly or indirectly from someone that I had worked with at my previous employers.
In addition, it is always worth parting on good terms with an employer so as not to run the risk of prejudicing any future reference they may be asked to provide on your behalf. Most employers will now only provide a company reference which will say something very similar to this statement… ‘xxx worked here from xxx to xxx’. However, you are normally asked to provide personal references from people you have worked for – e.g. your previous line manager, a peer.
Take control over the process
Don’t accept the first offer that you are given. If your employer has money problems, there may not be much more on the table, but it is always worth asking. Your employer will be very keen to avoid any negative press coverage or time spent defending itself in a tribunal.
Do take either a union representative or someone you trust into your individual consultation meetings. They are not allowed to answer questions directed to you – however, they can address the hearing and confer with you during the hearing. They can also take notes for you – which may be needed if you decide to take you employer to tribunal.
Think creatively
Before you start to negotiate with your former employer work out what is important to you, and work out what is a nice to have. Your employer will have already told you what may be important to them via the terms of a compromise agreement. There are lots of variables, that don’t involve money, that you can negotiate with your former employers – notice period, content of your reference, who you can go to work for next, who you can take with you to a future firm, how quickly you can contact clients of your soon-to-be former employers, intellectual property, kit or equipment you can take with you etc.
Before signing anything….
Before you sign anything – especially any document that waives your entitlement to take your former employer to an employment tribunal, get the document checked over by a union or a solicitor specialising in employment law. Keep copies of all your correspondence and notes from meetings
How much should you get to go quietly?
There is no magic formula for this. The stark reality is you will receive as much as you are prepared to accept or ask for (within reason!) – however, the minimum you should receive is what you would have received if you had been made formally redundant.
Any redundancy package will be made up of three elements:
- pay in lieu of notice [determined by your contract]
- statutory redundancy [calculated based on length of service and age]
- compensation from your employer for loss of role [optional]
The government has a calculator which helps you work out the statutory portion of your redundancy pay:
If you are being compromised out of the business, and you can’t come to agreement on what your payoff should be, then you always have the option of taking your employer to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. This is a lengthy and time consuming process, and the tribunal will only give you a pay award for unfair dismissal if you can show you have suffered loss. The current maximum amount the tribunal is allowed to award is £63k.
If you consider taking your employer to tribunal do remember that goodwill from your previous employer may be more important and valuable to you in the long run than a pay award.
Time does matter
You only have three months from your effective last day of employment to lodge a claim at tribunal.
What’s a realistic amount to ask for as a payoff?
It all depends on what your employer has previously paid out to other people, what you would get if you went to tribunal and how draconian the compromise agreement is. Your union or a decent employment lawyer should be able to advise you what amount of money you should ask for.
This blog post originally appeared in trainingzone on 16th July 2009
Just found out your role is ‘at risk’?
August 29, 2009 – 4:35 pm
You’ve just been told you are at risk of being made redundant. Chances are that the news came as a shock (even if you were expecting it), and you are now fearing the worse. However, it may be just the stimulus to help you move your career to the next place. Read on for eight tips to help you quickly get your career back on track
1. Find some private space
Do aim to leave the premises immediately after hearing the news – and don’t feel you need to give an explanation, either – what are they going to do, fire you? Give yourself the time and space to accept the news and let your emotions come out. This is often better to do out of the workplace! Don’t be tempted to do anything in retaliation – you may still have a role with your company OR you may want help from contacts within your company to help you find a new role.
2. Take a trip on the emotional roller coaster ride
Facing the prospect of losing your job can be a very worrying time. It helps to accept that it is very normal for your emotions to be wobbly in the short-term and you are likely to bexperience first-hand the emotional cycle of change. Everyone has different coping mechanisms; however, most people find it beneficial to talk with trusted friends and family.
3. Crunch the numbers
How am I going to pay the bills? This is for everyone, almost without exception, a present and real fear when we face the prospect of redundancy. This is the time to take a long hard look at your finances, and work out how long you could survive without paid employment. Knowing how long you can remain unemployed is a great way to start planning what the future looks like. It’s important to minimise your outgoings in the short & medium term, as well as making sure you get all the financial help you are entitled to, e.g. your redundancy payout and state benefits. Take a look at the government’s redundancy calculator to see the minimum redundancy payment you will receive: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page33157.html
4. Take stock
Resist the temptation to immediately get out your CV and start looking for a similar job in a similar industry. This is your opportunity to take stock and go and find a new job that will tick all your boxes. It is better to delay refreshing your CV until you are certain on what your next ideal role will look like. Many people report that (in hindsight) being made redundant was the best thing that could ever happen to them. It’s worth answering the question, ‘if redundancy is the best thing that is ever going to happen to me, what going to be different about the future?’
5. Put yourself in the driving seat
In the initial stages of the consultation process it’s exceptionally difficult to deal with the lack of personal control, and easy to take on the role of a victim. It’s very normal to ask ‘why me?’, ‘am I not good enough?’, ‘what have I done wrong’, ‘If only I had…’. Remember that it is your role being made redundant, not you personally.
To help you get back into the driving seat; remember to tell people that ‘your role is being made redundant’, rather than ‘I’m being made redundant’; and identify positive choices that you could take if you do find yourself without a job after the consultation period.
6. Call in the favours
Whilst, nobody likes hearing the news that their role is about to be made redundant, it is almost as bad knowing that your role is safe when others will be leaving the organisation. As a result people, whose roles are not at risk, will want to help you out. This is not the time to say ‘no – I’ll be fine’. This is one of the few times in your life when you will receive many no-strings-attached offers of help. As a minimum, you should be prepared to ask – ‘who can you recommend that I can talk with, who can help me..?’
7. Warm up the network
Whilst being put at risk is no guarantee that you will be jobless in the near future, it is safe to say that the fat lady is starting to warm up her vocal cords. The best way to find a new role is through your personal and professional network. Do let people know that there is a strong possibility you will be looking for a new role – and ask them if they know anyone who you should speak to, who would help with your job hunting. Your employers have a duty to help you find a new role – including paid time off to attend interviews.
8. Get a coach
Wouldn’t you like to have your very own objective supporter and champion cheering you on during your career transition? Most outplacement programmes include an element of personal coaching, to give you objective support, practical help & encouragement to identify and secure your next fulfilling role. A professional coach, such as a credentialed coach from the ICF, will be able to quicken up the time it takes you to find your next role – whatever it may be!
This blog post originally appeared first in trainingzone in July 2009
My follow friday recommendations 28-8-2009
August 28, 2009 – 1:50 pm
It’s been an eventful week – and shortly I will be able to unveil my new refreshed website – watch for my tweets! For the first 100 people who sign up to my new monthly newsletter and fortnightly efficiency tips I will send them an e-book on how to achieve more on Twitter.
In this week I have been meeting and talking in person with some UK peeps. My blog this week will be focused around these people, and why I think you should follow them.
Firstly, @tonihunter helped me this week by checking one of my blog posts – sole trader or limited? for accuracy. Toni is a partner in a small (but hard-hitting) accountancy firm, who really knows her stuff. If you want your accountant to save you money but keep you on the right side of HMRC, then give her a call.
I met up with @cartoono (and two other cartoonists – Guy Carter and Paul) in London on Wednesday. He is a true gentleman and the main ambition behind the 2010 London cartoon festival. I passed a delightful2 hours in their company. Plus, I love his cartoons…
In the same day that I met with @cartoono I met with @rapidbi. @rapidbi never fails to inspire me and gets me thinking about how I can expand my business whilst more using my time more efficiently and profitably. It was the first lunch of many with @rapidbi and I look to him as a great role model for me as a business owner. I didn’t realise that @rapidbi was a member of the St. John’s ambulance brigade, and has been volunteering for years. There is more to the man than his tweets alone.
I’m the speaker at @mumstheboss 1st birthday party event – what an honour! I will be talking about the importance of personal focus and how to improve it. As I have stepped in at the last minute (“The Efficiency Coach saves the day…”) I’ve brought forward my order with @chocolat_a_toi for chocolate personalised business cards. @chocolat_a_toi has been brilliant and is rushing through my order for 300 chocolate business cards – these will be available for people at the 3 events I am speaking or attending as an expert over the next 4 months.
You may not have realised it, but I have been away in south wales for part of the week. @emma_fryer has been answering my business phone which has been red hot with offers and opportunities of work this week. In fact, all the enquiries and preliminary conversations have been quite overwhelming. The power of twitter is amazing. If you are thinking about working with a business coach – why not give me a call… I only now have a few places left on my books for coaching clients for the next few months. I wouldn’t want you to miss out.
I have been working closely with @directassist on a fantastic competition which will go live very shortly. I can’t say much, but there is a prize of a life time for the winner (+ the chance to be coached by me!) @directassist has worked incredibly hard to get this competition up and running, and I know it will be a huge success. This competition is also the reason I have been in a darkened room for what seems like weeks to get my new website up and refreshed.
I was honoured to find out that I am @ataccounting closest friend on twitter. I must say that I love working with accountants and lawyers, so I was tickled pink to find that a friendly and proficient accountant likes to talk with me back!
And finally, to the mystery affair of the pink tractor. This provided huge amusement to myself and the OH last night. In case you are still wondering, the 2 yo will not be getting a pink tractor and it was never the intention to get her a pink tractor. However, a special thank you must go out to the peeps who found me a pink tractor… @neilryder, @karenwise, @rebekahharriman, @louisebiz, @edelmee, @brays_cottage.
How focused are you?
August 23, 2009 – 2:45 pm
Personal focus and high levels of concentration are essential for personal efficiency which leads to great business and personal success. So how do you increase your levels of focus? Read on for The Efficiency Coach’s top eight tips to increase your personal focus…
1. Write down your goals and make them visible
Research has shown that you are more likely to achieve your personal goals if you do three simple things – write them down, tell people about them and make them visible. What can you pin up to your fridge door?
2. Know thy self
Everyone has their own distractions which detracts them from the matter in hand. For the next seven days notice what is distracting you – perhaps it’s your e-mail? Maybe it’s twitter? Maybe it’s your children? When you have identified your top 5 distractions think about what you can do to minimise the distractions. For example, when I have a large amount of work to complete I turn off tweetdeck and outlook.
3. Look after yourself
Good focus and concentration is helped by taking regular exercise, drinking a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day, minimising your intake of fat and sugar, getting a good nights sleep and eating your 5-a-day of fruit and vitamins. Sorry for being a party-pooper…
4. Take regular breaks
You can only focus at an optimum level for a finite period of time. Regular breaks help you to keep up your focus.
5. Write down a list
Whether you call it a to-do list or a ‘must-achieve’ list, writing down what you have to achieve is a must for high levels of focus.
6. Work with your energy levels
Your energy levels will go up and down during the day. Plan the tough stuff which will need 100% focus when you are generally the most bright and alert, and save the enjoyable or easy stuff for when your energy levels are low.
7. Have someone keep you accountable to your goals
There is nothing quite like the feeling of not having a boss anymore. It leaves you free to follow ideas and opportunities that come your way. The downside is you can may never achieve or follow anything through because you are too busy getting distracted. I personally use my own business coach to keep me focused on working towards and achieving my business goals.
8. Play to your strengths
When you are doing something that plays to your natural strengths or talents focus and concentration is easy – you will achieve high levels of output for seemingly little effort. However, when you are not playing to your personal strengths it’s hard to focus and takes large amounts of energy. If you can outsource work that doesn’t play to your strengths, excellent – otherwise, do this type of work when you are at your most alert and motivated.
How focused is your business?
August 23, 2009 – 12:18 pm
I have recently been researching the subject of focus for a talk I will be giving for Mum’s the Boss on the 10th September. As I was researching the topic I found that there are two types of focus – business focus and personal focus.
In this blog post I will look at the importance of business focus and how you increase it for your business.
Before I start any work with my clients I always determine what is the ‘so what’ of embarking on a course of action. Putting it very simply business focus is a major factor in business efficiency – which leads to greater profit for less effort. Using an analogy if all the people in a tug-o-war team are pulling in the same direction they are more likely to win. The more focused a business is, the greater the chance of achieving business goals.
Here are my seven top tips for how to achieve fantastic business focus:
1. Keep it simple
Keep your business strategy simple and easy to articulate. Your employees, clients and customers should easily get what you do. If a teenager can’t understand what you do, then it is too complicated.
2. Tell your employees and suppliers
It’s amazing how many companies do not tell their new employees (or existing employees if the business strategy changes) what the company’s strategy is and their role in helping to implement that strategy. Every employee should have personal objectives focusing them on what the business needs them to achieve.
3. Your actions speak a thousand words
Make sure at least 80% of your time is spent on implementing your company’s strategy. This way the majority of your conversations will be to do with some facet of the company’s strategy. Your employees and suppliers decide on what to focus on for your company based on your personal actions and words.
4. Give it time
Many businesses don’t give a new strategy enough time to bed in – and throw the baby out with the bath water. For example if you are using a social networking media to market your business, you need to give it at least 3 months before you see any return on your investment. Ideally, you should give a social networking medium 6 months before evaluating whether you are getting a good enough rate of return to warrant continued investment
5. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate
Knowing where to focus your efforts is vital for great business efficiency. This means evaluating the likely rate of return for new ideas as well as existing investments and strategy. It is all too easy to get sidetracked on new ideas for revenue and businesses…
6. Pick your battles
As a business it is easy to get side tracked by going into battles that you are unlikely to win. For example, tendering for work that you don’t have a good chance of winning… going after a no. 1 ranking for a very popular keyword in google
7. Focus on doing the basics well
You wouldn’t go far wrong by focusing on doing the basics well – by this I mean, doing what you say you are going to do, and doing it when you say you are going to do it.
If your business needs help in focusing, give us a call – 01234 48 0123, for a free no-obligation conversation.
Follow friday recommendations 21-8-9
August 20, 2009 – 11:49 pm
It’s Friday! Well actually it’s late on thursday, but I don’t plan to be on twitter much tomorrow… so being organised and doing my follow friday recommendations now. (What else would you expect from The Efficiency Coach?) This is the part of the week where I get to thank some great people. Let’s be highly efficient and not waffle any more:
Let’s start with @annhawkins – this is a great lady who doesn’t mince her words but looks after @ianmckendrick and other budding young businesses incredibly well with her mastermind groups. I am thoroughly looking forward to interviewing Ann for my book on entrepreneurship.
I managed to spell @garrymumford name wrong last week, but here is a person who shares one of my father-in-law’s major passions – trains. Big steam trains – unfortunately I am in the wrong part of wales this week to go and see Garry’s steam trains at Talyllyn Railway, the first preserved railway in the world. I suspect Garry may share my father-in-law’s passion for any type of train – diesel, miniature, model… I also wonder whether the 3 yo who is absolutely obsessed with trains will take after his granddad in this respect.
This is my favourite non-UK tweeter – @ladyJE . She puts up with more than most normal people could cope with every day. (Plus, she knows how to throw a great picnic.) This follow Friday recommendation is for you, as I am too far away to physically give you a hug at the moment.
I’m delighted to be asked to speak at @mumstheboss ‘s 1st birthday party meeting on the 10th september. @mumstheboss is a local networking group which provides networking for business owners, who have young children, and are unable to get to most networking events. I had a lovely evening last Friday painting pottery with the networking group and enjoyed meeting @susie72 and @ivy_house. I am looking forward to seeing more peeps on the 10th September – including @helenlindop. I will be speaking about the importance of focus for business owners.
This is a follow Friday recommendation for someone that I have forgotten about for the last three weeks – and been kicking myself for my memory lapse. @markbnorwich is a warm, supportive peep who makes me laugh – and I look out for his tweets.
This is someone who I have been enjoying exchanging tweets with over the last month – he is @MervynDinnen. If you are looking for a senior HR role – then do speak with Mervyn, as he is one of the few recruiters I would recommend.
I’ve had a fantastic week on Twitter with most days my tweets being seen by over 25 000 unique readers. A bit of an unusual Follow Friday, but if you would like to also to know how many people are seeing your tweets (or other peep’s tweets) have a look at http://www.twitteranalyzer.com/ . I also found out that I am the tenth most influential tweeter in the UK – as decided by http://www.twitterio.co.uk. What can I say? But thank you for all for your support!
And on that bombshell – have a great weekend!
Help me donate a prize to a worthy cause…
August 16, 2009 – 1:29 pm
My creativity and innovation has struck gold again… It must be my lucky day! My suggestion of ‘tiggy’ has been been chosen as the new name for cheeky chums (the premature on-line baby superstore) autumn range.
I have won a voucher to spend at cheeky chums. Now whilst cheeky chums has every type of clothes you could foresee needing for a premature baby, my family is now complete at 2. (and these baby clothes are absolutely gorgeous!) So, I am looking for a charity or person which you think deserves my prize – maybe a friend of yours has just had a premature baby, or you know of a charity that could benefit from my voucher.
Please leave me a comment and explain why I should donate my voucher or drop me a line heather@efficiencycoach.co.uk
my follow friday recommendations 14-8-9
August 14, 2009 – 8:59 am
My week has been dominated by a pilot workshop for senior associates and partners in a law firm client of mine. My first recommendation goes to @actualpeople for helping me deliver and design “the best workshop” many of the participants had ever been on. Wouldn’t you like to find out why it was the best ever workshop for yourself?
My second recommendation goes to @soullastylianou for making me feel at home when I came up to stay on Monday evening.
I’ve been busy refreshing my website in preparation for a competition to be run by www.betternetworking.co.uk. (Watch this space) @directassist is the brains behind betternetworking and a really great competition with excellent prizes. @richard_white really does know his selling stuff – he was very quick to point out the difference between actual and perceived value.
There are quite a few people here on twitter who selflessly plugs my blog. I find the motivation and energy to write because I know these people like reading my stuff. These people are @rapidbi, @dalerockell, @duncanbrodie, @sharongaskin, @garymumford, @garygorman.
I’ve been chatting with @giftwrappedandg who is just about to launch her business. She already does some great stuff and some sells some gorgeous gifts – I can’t wait to see her new business. Plus @giftwrappedandg keeps badgering me to write my book. I am, I am… it’s being researched as we speak!
This is a lady who does not realise the extent of her natural talent, and is prepared to stand up and be counted when forced into the spotlight. I am talking of @raspberrydoodle who is fantastic at capturing the true essence of a pet in a portrait. Plus, get your pet portrait commissioned quickly, otherwise she may struggle to get it done in the next few months with all the work coming her way, after her recent success at an art festival.
This is another lady who is struggling today – I hope the eyes clear up quickly. If I didn’t have a family stuffed full of professional and very good amateur photographers, @lesleywoodphoto would be doing a family portrait session with them. I saw two of her bugs photos this week – amazing clarity… but you wouldn’t see me getting that close to a wasp.
These are two people that lurk in twitter space. Nearly every day one of them will reply to one of my tweets and make me smile. If that’s not worth a follow Friday recommendation, I am not sure what is! Introducing @bingybongy and @ataccounting…
Following on the theme of accountants. @tonihunter is a great twitter friend to me, and has been rapidly signing up clients recently. Are you thinking of changing your accountant? If so, you better give this lady a call while she still has some space on her books for new clients… you wouldn’t want to miss out on great service at local firm prices.
I started off being an unofficial business angel to @chocolat_a_toi. She now returns the favour and gives me motivational tweets when I even think about being a little down! (By the way, if you want some special and highly personal favours for a wedding, talk to this lady) The pun was accidental…
And finally, a small plug for the organisers of the fun VTPP yesterday – @london_law_firm, @ladyJE and @janemcphees. I stuffed myself silly on sausage rolls and got very tipsy on the champers.
Have a great weekend!
Are you winning enough pitches?
August 12, 2009 – 6:18 pm
I’ve spent yesterday delivering the first part of a programme for partners and senior associates within a law firm. So, what was the programme about? Well, my client had found that over a period of twelve months instead of winning 1 in 3 pitches they had slipped to winning 1 in 7 pitches. There were all sorts of cultural and economic reasons why their conversion ratio had slipped. I had been hired to help them with their presentation skills, and how they came across to the client, once they got to the pitch stage.
This got me thinking, your pitch conversion rate is a good key indicator of how efficient your business is. So, here are our top eleven tips on how can you achieve more with your pitches – and make sure you are winning more than you are losing.
1. Avoid getting into a competitive tender
If you can avoid the need for a competitive tender then you can save yourself huge amounts of time, energy and money. Easy to say, less easy to do! Don’t get complacent with existing clients – ask them regularly, how are we doing? Keep your relationship warm with existing prospects. You never know, they may not be considering anyone else for the work…
2. Pick your battles
Sometimes you just know you are not going to be in a chance of winning. Perhaps the previous incumbent is very well entrenched and the company is only re-tendering because they have a policy to retender after a certain amount of years. Is it worth you spending your time, energy and money on this tender?
I heard yesterday how some of the public sector procurement teams are asking 30 or 40 suppliers to tender for a contract. Unless you really want (or need) this contract, how likely are you to win?
3. Make the call
Unless you are in a closed tender process, such as for the public sector, then pick up the phone and speak to the person running the tender. Find out what is really important to them, and what is nice to have. Explore how the tender came about, who are the decision makers, what is the top 3 (or 5) buying criteria, who else has been asked to tender, who will be on the panel for the pitch…. You will be amazed how much people will share if you just ask the question. You can then focus your proposal and pitch document on what’s really important for the client and your key differentiators from the competition.
4. Bring the team
Most people are reasonably clued up that the business development director, partner or business owner (unless you are a very small firm) are unlikely to be the day-to-day person that they will be working with. Make sure you bring along key members of the team, which will be servicing the account, to the pitch.
5. Ask yourself ‘so what’
Time and time again when I work with clients helping them with a pitch presentation I hear a very smooth rendition of the client’s capabilities and key services. If you are going to say, we have a national presence – great – but what is the benefit for the client? When writing your pitch presentation put yourself in the client’s shoes and make sure that every capability or feature described has a benefit attached.
6. Prioritise
You live and breathe your business 24/7. It is what makes you, you. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your potential client or customer is not as interested as you are in your business. When you are writing your pitch make sure you focus on how you propose to solve your client’s problems, and how your business will (succinctly) add value to the potential client’s business.
7. Don’t lecture the client
Potential clients don’t like to be told what they do or don’t need. It’s simple, really. So, when you are pitching use phrases like – ‘in our experience’, ‘you have told us’, ‘one potential solution is..’, ‘may we suggest’, ‘in our research’…. One of my delegates yesterday said, when tying up a presentation, told the panel – ‘you need a partner’. It didn’t go down too well with the panel…
8. Questions, questions, questions
Leave a good half to two thirds of your allocated time slot for questions. Your pitch presentation should be succinct and to the point. Your objective at a pitch is to show that you truly understand the client’s needs (and can meet them), and to engage with the client. Answering questions is another opportunity to increase your credibility with the client AND increase engagement. After all, when I was the other side of the table, I was asking myself – do I want to work with these people, and are they able to meet my needs?
9. Practice, practice, practice
If your first run through is on the morning of the pitch, in the car at the client’s premises ,or in the back of a taxi on the way to a pitch – this is too late! In our experience, people who have run through their pitch presentation a couple of times will come across significantly better to the client. After all, in a pitch a client is looking to see who has taken the time to prepare.
10. Ditch the slides
Unless specifically asked for slides, ditch them. Your objective is to engage fully with the client. Slides, handouts, talk booklets all divert attention away from you and what you are saying. I’m not saying don’t prepare a talk book, brochure or pitch presentation booklet – just give a copy to the client after you have finished the presentation.
11. Follow up afterwards
It’s an unfortunate fact of life for every pitch winner there must be a loser. Whether you win or lose the pitch always get feedback on why you were or weren’t chosen. Use this information to inform how you go about pitches in the future.
If you think you could achieve more in pitches or are worried by the pitches you are losing, give us a call, 01234 48 0123. We take pride in giving our client’s businesses a competitive advantage.
Need to hold a mirror up to yourself?
August 9, 2009 – 9:42 am
I’ve spent the last 10 years working within training, learning & development. It’s become second nature for me to be continually developing myself and learning more about myself in the process. So, why is this now useful for me as a successful entrepreneur? For a start, I have surrounded myself with people who complement not replicate my strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, I have put in place checks and balances to stop my weaknesses sabotaging my chances of success. I generally spend most of my time & energy playing to my strengths – and use the team around me to do the rest.
So how do you increase your personal levels of self-awareness?
1. Ask others
Make a habit of regularly asking for feedback from people around you. Even if you don’t agree with what is being said, say thank you and that you will think about what has been said. If you find that two or three people keep on saying the same thing, then take note!
2. Notice your personal energy levels
When you are playing to your strengths everything seems easy and you can accomplish a massive amount in a small amount of time. These are the days when you spend 12 hours working, but it only feels like you have spent 4 hours at your desk. On the flip side when you are not playing to your strengths, time will drag and your energy levels will be low and it’s hard work. Start jotting down what tasks you love doing and are energised by and what zaps your energy. When you are energised you are playing to your strengths – when you find your energy getting zapped very quickly, this is a weakness.
3. Take time out
In my mad world of being an entrepreneur, there is rarely time to reflect. I make sure I have a 10-15 minute thinking time each day and use it to think about what has gone well, and what has not gone well.
4. Work with a coach
Coaching is a great way of helping build up self-awareness. A good coach (such as myself) will be prepared to hold the mirror up and tell you what others, including yourself, wouldn’t dare to tell you.
If you are finding that you are your own worse enemy, or struggling to understand why some things seem easy and others don’t – why not drop me a line for a conversation – heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk
Thinking of starting up a new business?
August 8, 2009 – 12:09 pm
I’m going to set up a new company in the next few months. But second time around, it’s going to be a lot easier….So what have I learnt about setting up a company over the last four months? I’ve firstly learnt that for good business efficiency right from the start there are at least five elements that have to be up front in your mind before you commit any serious time, money or expense with your new venture.
1. Good Search Engine Optimisation
As the internet is probably one of the most important channels to market, search engine optimisation (SEO) is critical to your website and presence being found on the internet. Good search engine optimisation is a mixture of designing your website correctly from the start, and then hard work keeping your content fresh and resubmitted to the search engines. For example, my business name will include my important keywords – and my directory structure will also include my important keywords. I will design the structure of the website before I write any content…
2. Clarity on marketing strategy
A little bit of a guilty admission here, I’m still clarifying my marketing strategy for The Efficiency Coach. It’s becoming a lot clearer in the last few weeks – but still a lot to do! Second time around, the marketing strategy is being developed first before any products or service streams. If you can’t get your product or service in front of your target market right from day one – you will be inefficient with your marketing efforts.
2. Spreading the load
I’m running my new company as a joint venture. I, and my co-directors will share out the roles and responsibilities – plus make sure we are sharing up the work based on our individual talents and strengths. That way I make sure I focused on the stuff I love, which is creating things, having ideas and helping people. I suspect the marketing side of the new venture will be firmly & squarely placed at my door step. As a new business owner there will be lots of stuff that you have to do until you get to a certain size and revenue stream. My advice is aim to outsource everything that you don’t enjoy doing.
3. Sorting out the legal stuff
A lot of my business relationships are based on trust with no written contract. While this is fine, and I wouldn’t work with anyone without a high level of trust, it will protect myself and my co-directors if anything goes wrong. Plus, it will keep my accountant happy! It will bring a level of clarity to who has put in what investment.
4. What’s our niche?
That would be telling! But, we are very clear on what our niche is and who we are targeting. With this clarity we are able to conduct very precise market research to work out what we can charge and how our charging model will work. Without clarity on who you will be targeting and why they will want your product or service, then you will waste oodles of time marketing to the right (or wrong) people.
If you would like to benefit from my expertise in starting up a business – why not give me a call (01234 48 0123) or drop me a line heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk.
My follow friday recommendations 7-8-9
August 7, 2009 – 10:35 am
This week has been an excellent week for me. I have had long conversations with some of the people I twitter with and even met a valued contact on twitter. So, my follow Friday recommendations are all tailored around people who have been helping me with my book research and given me lots of ideas for additional revenues.
I started the week by talking with @judithmorgan. A serial entrepreneur, with clarity of thought, succinct and articulate. A role model for me – and ‘Lunch with The Efficiency Coach’ will become a reality in the new year. (Based on her concept of ‘Lunch with Judith’)
I spoke to @sharongaskin and we could have talked for hours. If you are new into the freelance training game, or are thinking about it. Stop, do not proceed any further without talking to this person or buying her book. I can promise you, you wouldn’t regret it. Also watch this space, as @sharongaskin and I will be running two teleseminars in the autumn. @sharongaskin inspired me to run a series of leadership workshops with @actualpeople (husband of @soullastylianou) targeted towards accountants and people within professional service firms. These will happen next year.
Yesterday I plucked up the courage to talk with @rapidbi. Over two hours later, I got off the phone – and I think we both will profit from an on-going relationship. I am very grateful for @rapidbi list of wordpress plugins. Some have worked for me, some haven’t – but next week, I will blog a list of wordpress plugins which are worth having on your wordpress blog. @rapidbi has also inspired me to set up telephone surgeries with The Efficiency Coach. These will come on-line in the autumn…
Now, there are two people who The Efficiency Coach could not manage without. They are a husband and wife team I work with. @actualpeople - He is my sounding board, complements my strengths and weaknesses and also will be heading up and project managing the series of open leadership programmes in the spring time with me. Without his faith in me (and the lovely @soullastylianou pushing him to make things happen) I wouldn’t have the freedom to be an entrepreneur. By the way, if you are interested in how Second Life can revolutionise your business then talk with @soullastylianou. That lady really knows her second life stuff.
If you feel you have an interesting angle on what makes entrepreneurs tick or successful, why not drop me a line (heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk) and we can fix up a call.
And then, I cannot thank enough @mariamcook and the team at @everywoman who have given me the opportunity to write about my journey to authorship. My book will finally become a reality. If you are looking to become inspired or helped by other female entrepreneurs, then take a look at www.everywoman.com . I am looking forward to talking with @businessmum – the lovely Nadine Hill, writer of business best seller, the Virtual Assistant Handbook . Invaluable advice if you are thinking about becoming a virtual assistant.
On Monday I had a quiet day and @tonihunter came around and we had a lovely couple of hours chatting and @tonihunter gave me a wonderful facial, which was exactly what I needed to accelerate my recovery from a small bug over the weekend. If you are thinking of changing accountant – perhaps you have outgrown your current one, or not getting the service you require. I can’t recommend more highly the service and quality of advice you will receive from George Hays – the accountancy firm that @tonihunter is a partner in. Local personal service without the big firm fees!
Now there are a few people who have already dropped me a followfriday recommendation (or are very likely to), and it would be remiss of me not to mention them: @mumslikeyou, @ataccounting, @bingybongy, @raspberrydoodle, @chocolat_a_toi, @cheekychums
Thinking of writing a business plan?
August 4, 2009 – 10:27 pm
Take a look on e-zine and there are 44,000 articles relating to business plans. So, in the grand scheme of things, this would suggest that a business plan is probably worth having. In fact, my local business link will give you an e-voucher if you are a start-up with a written business plan. In fact, Geoff Burch, business writer, has likened the writing of a business plan to trying to pin a jelly to the ceiling. For me, a well-researched and thought out business plan is a cornerstone of business efficiency.
But, what does a business plan do – and who needs to write one, and what should you include? In short a business plan helps to clarify your thoughts, as well as consider essential elements for your business survival and future growth. Oh, and if you are seeking outside investment or money from your bank, they will want to see a business plan.
By the way, your business plan should be written by you. There are lots of people that will write it for you, but as you will be living and breathing your business for the foreseeable future, you need to own your plan as it’s your business. It may take blood, sweat and tears to write (and at times you will hate me for making you do this), but it will be worth it in the end.
So, what are these essential elements that you should include in a business plan?
1. What do you want to achieve?
Keep these clear and simple, but they should contain what you plan to achieve with your business over the next 1, 2, 3 and 5 years. (and, further into the future, if you have the vision) For example, this is one of my objectives for my business.
“By Sept 1st 2011 my business will turnover £3k per month, comprising of coaching and consulting work which I have had to travel under 1 hour from home to service”
I also have an objective that I will build up a business for one of my children to take over in the future.
2. Personal Background
So, what qualifies you and the rest of your proposed team to run or build up your proposed business? It is worth doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for yourself and your team. For example, when I was thinking about my business plan – one of my strengths was the fact that I have a great track record, (plus professional credential from International Coaching Federation), of helping people achieve more. But, a weakness and opportunity for me, was that when I was setting up the business I had a small local network. In this section, do consider what would happen if you had a major health problem.
3. Your suppliers
Who are they? What payment terms are they asking. Someone that only wants to get paid in 30 days is better to do business with than someone that wants paying upfront! As a service provider, my suppliers are generally not critical to my success – unless of course I want to employ associates! But if you intend to supply a product, for example organic drinks, this section is critical. You may like to consider how your suppliers will help you and your business grow.
4. Your target customers or clients
So, who is going to be buying your product or hiring your services? Most importantly, how are you going to build awareness of your product/service with your target market i.e. the people who you want to be buying your stuff. You should focus on 3 main ways that you are going to get your brand in front of your target market. This is often talked about as your channels to market. For example as a coach, I use writing (Blog, published articles, book), speaking engagements and targeted networking (breakfast networking club, twitter, linkedin, everywoman forums).
Who is also targeting your customers or clients? What makes you different? What needs are you servicing for your customers or clients? What are your customers or clients prepared to pay for your services? For example, I work with entrepreneurs and professional service firms. A key need for an entrepreneur is to write a business plan. So, let’s look at my business plan… how am I helping service an entrepreneur needs? My firestarter coaching package for startup business owners gives them the necessary focus, thinking time, encouragement and advice to write their own business plan in 6 weeks.
5. Bits and bobs
Even if you are working from home you will still need equipment to start up. This is the part of the plan where you consider a list of premises and equipment that you are going to need for your business. If you are planning to work from home, how are you going to make it work around the needs of your family?
6. Legal Issues
There is no getting away from it, you will need to consider how you will trade – Ltd, Sole trader, LLP, partnership. If you don’t consider it and don’t take the appropriate action with HMRC, they can get very shirty. You will also need to consider how you will keep the business safe and legal, e.g. insurance, licences, health & safety. Very often a business link adviser will be able to help you identify what you will need for your business, for free.
7. The money stuff
Unless you are planning to run your business as a hobby, then you need to forecast how much you will sell (or bill), and what your fixed and variable costs are going to be. Fixed costs, such as rent, are stuff that wouldn’t generally change regardless of what you sell (or bill). Variable costs, such as material costs, are stuff that will go up the more you sell (or bill). It is interesting that wages can either be a fixed or variable cost depending on how you employee your staff.
8. Key people
It’s not quite the place for your Hollywood acceptance speech, but this is where you detail all your professional advisers.
This has been a labour of love writing this blog post – and at times writing a business plan can be feel that way. You may feel very isolated as you work away for hours on end writing your business plan, wishing you could bounce ideas off someone. Our Firestarter coaching package for startup business owners is designed to support, encourage and advise you to get your business plan written, without making it seem like hard work – and will get your new business off to the best possible start. Maybe you have a few ideas bouncing around your head, or maybe you are quite advanced in your thinking for a new business. The first easy step to business success is to pick up the phone + 44 (0)1234 48 0123, or drop us a line, heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk. We would love to help you on your journey!
Thinking about going part time?
August 2, 2009 – 10:40 am
Some of the top professional services firms have recently been offering temporary part-time working to all of their staff. I hear on the grapevine that the take up for this offer has been very good and it has avoided the need for further redundancies. From personal experience, for it to be successful working part time takes time to re-adjust and a different mindset to working full time.
As someone that worked part-time for three years at my last employers, here are my top tips at achieving more whilst being a part-timer.
1. Choose your hours carefully
When choosing which days or hours to work, aim to pick hours that suit both the demands of your role AND your personal needs. For example if your team meets weekly on a Monday, it makes sense to be present for this team meeting. Be prepared for some give and take – for example, it is absolutely fine to ask that the weekly team meeting moves to a day you want to work – but be prepared that your request may be turned down.
It tends to work better if you have a block of days when you are working. For example, mon-wed, tue-thu or wed-fri
2. Aim to hit the ground running
As a part-timer you don’t normally have the luxury of easing into the week. Your time is very precious – particularly if you HAVE to leave by a certain time to pick up children from a nursery or childminder. Work doesn’t magically disappear just because you have to leave at 16:00. Use your train journey into work (or an hour the night before a working day) to check e-mails and plan what you need to achieve in your working week.
3. Remote working
Particularly if you have young children make sure your IT department has given you access to e-mails and voicemails from home. By keeping an eye on the e-mail traffic on your days off you can often nip a problem in the bud before it blows up into a full scale crisis.
4. Build up your formal and informal lines of communications
You are now not going to be in the office day in day out, and so you have to put proportionally more effort into making sure you are still ‘in the know’. Who can you regularly lunch with to find out what’s going on? Make sure your voicemail message and e-mail signature clearly states your working hours/days. Also, when you are on a day off make sure your out of office message is switched on.
5. Have a plan B
Your clients don’t always have needs which neatly can be solved on your working days. Make sure your colleagues are fully up-to-speed on your clients and the work you are doing for them. Have a nominated deputy or team member who your clients can speak to if you are off. Do let your team know a number that they can contact you on, for client emergencies.
6. Complete a handover
As you get ready to leave at the end of your working week, update colleagues on the progress/state of important work – plus anything that needs to get done in your absence.
7. Be assertive
If you are not assertive about when you work and when you don’t work, you will find yourself working full time hours, but only getting paid for part-time hours – and completing work on your days off. Of course, there will always be exceptions but if you are not upfront about your working days and when you can or can’t be physically or virtually at a meeting, you will soon find yourself working full time hours.
8. Get used to saying ‘no’
It’s very easy when work is being divvied up to take on as much work as your full time colleagues. Remember if you only working part time hours your output is not going to be at the same level as your full time colleagues. You may need to remind your colleagues of this, particularly if they are sharing out work equally between the team.
If you have been recently asked to cut your hours or are considering working part-time – why not give me a call? + 44 (0) 1234 48 0123. I can provide support for you through the transition giving you the best of both worlds – great work/life balance and successful career.
Want to achieve more with your follow friday recommendations?
July 31, 2009 – 11:05 am
You may be wondering what follow Friday is all about. It is the day of the week where peeps recommend to their followers who they should follow. It makes Friday one of the best days to be on twitter. In fact, it is the highlight of my week. Here is my guide to achieving more with follow friday:
1. Remember the # symbol
Remember to include #followfriday or #ff or #UKFF (for recommending UK peeps)
2. Make it personal
The best follow Fridays are one’s where someone has taken the time to personally recommend you, rather than a list of great followers
3. Tell people why they should follow them
For example, I think you should follow @raspberrydoodle because she is a fantastic natural artist and a warm genuine person.
4. Do it early
People tend to reciprocate – so by getting in your follow Friday recommendations early in the morning, you will generate more recommendations for you personally
5. Use your blog
A new one this, but use your personal blog to give your #follow Friday recommendations
6. Connect people together
If there are people within your network who you think should be connected – include them in the same follow Friday recommendation
7. Target
If there is an important twitter user that is not following you. A really good way to get their attention is to give them a #followfriday recommendation. It may work, then again it may not. @atomdriving still hasn’t followed me!
So, here are my follow Friday recommendations:
@raspberrydoodle for being a fantastic artist & a warm genuine person
@lizbeth33 @winsorandnewt @deflef_c after @raspberrydoodle recommendation, I’m finding these guys to be supportive and interesting to talk too
@alexparr for helping me on my big adventure – http://www.everywoman.com/YourBusiness/Newtobusiness/Articles/?id=5512 – and introducing me to @pentenscribes
@chocolat_a_toi for letting me be her business angel – and providing a unique product in personalised chocolates. My order for chocolate business cards is on it’s way!
@coachclaire & @duncanbrodie, both professionally credentialed coaches (same as me!) for being serious about delivering a great coaching experience for their clients.
@mikerrogers for picking me up with supportive words when I am feeling down
@tonihunter for being a lady of many talents, not least her ability to promote me
@sharongaskin for selflessly plugging my blog to her followers
@london_law_firm because I love bantering on twitter with him
@janemcphees for being a local peeps who RT’s my tweets
@candocanbe for being a great marketer
@emmafryer for answering my business line and giving me confidence that I am not missing a lead
@directassist for being a very helpful and genuine person
@Ianmckendrick for being probably the ultimate social networking guru. (PS still waiting to see my article on your blog!)
@everywoman for championing the cause of woman in business and helping make my dreams a reality
@ataccounting for listening out for me and making me smile
@bingybongy because this man has tons of talents and would be an asset to any company as their MD
@mumstheboss for connecting me with local female entrepreneurs
@markbnorwich for looking out for me and helping me in my hour of need
@mumslikeyou for starting a great new forum for mothers
@jeremyjacobs I’m starting to get to know this guy – and he seems interesting
Want to join together?
July 28, 2009 – 6:02 pm
In a previous post to my blog I shared the differences between the legal structures of Ltd and sole trader. However, these are not the only options you can choose from. If you decide to go into business with others, there are two extra legal structures at your disposal – a partnership and a limited liability partnership (LLP). Choosing the right legal structure for your business can help your business be more efficient with it’s tax and NI liabilities.
So let’s start with a partnership…
A partnership is similar to being a sole trader but with other people jointly running the business. There is no limit to the number of partners you can have. If the business has problems all the partners are jointly liable for the business liabilities. Which means you could lose your house, car or savings if the partnership runs into problems. For tax purposes, partners are taxed as if they are self-employed on the trading profits of the partnership.
But, what happens if I want to raise investment in my business in the future?
If you are looking to raise investment in the business in the future, you would be better off considering a limited company. To raise money for a partnership you have two choices – ask the bank for a loan or take on more partners who ‘buy into the partnership’. If you want to take money out of the partnership, you have two choices – dissolve the partnership, or resign from the partnership and agree with your partners how much they will pay you to buy you out of the partnership.
But, what about forming a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)?
This is a mix of a limited company and a partnership structure. Partners are only liable up to the investment they put into the partnership (hence the limited liability) but still taxed as if they are self-employed on the trading profits of the partnership. However, like a partnership you cannot sell shares in the business. The LLP is subject to the many of the same rules that a Ltd company is – for example an LLP must complete an annual return and it must file accounts each year.
An LLP must be formed for active trading and making a profit – they cannot be registered as dormant. Therefore, charities and not-for-profit concerns – e.g. clubs cannot be an LLP
So, which is better for your new company, Ltd or LLP?
The key difference between an Ltd and and an LLP is how the directors or partners are treated. The directors in an Ltd are treated as employees and so their salary is subject to personal income tax, NI and employer’s NI contributions. Partners pay income tax as if they are self-employed, so no employer NI contributions, but all the profits of the LLP are regarded as income and subject to income tax. If the employee payroll is likely to be higher than the partner’s salary, then a Ltd company is likely to be more tax efficient than a LLP. If the business is going to remain as a small number of partners who are each making a similar contribution and each draw similar salaries then an LLP will probably be more appropriate.
It is possible to transfer between an LLP and Ltd structure if circumstances change.
What about my exit strategy?
Whilst not impossible, it is easier and simpler to sell a ltd company as a going concern rather than an LLP. If you know from the beginning that you want to sell your business on as a going concern then it is probably more efficient to trade, from the outset, as a Ltd.
Have you the patience of a saint?
July 25, 2009 – 9:48 pm
I recently blogged about a characteristic, and how to build it, that all successful entrepreneurs must have bucket loads of – resilience. It occurred to me today, that another characteristic that all successful entrepreneurs must gain quickly is patience. Let’s face it the opposite of patience is ‘hasty’ and ‘impetuous’ some character traits more normally associated with entrepreneurs. Let me let you into a little secret. My husband believes that I have no patience…
You may be thinking, why is patience so important to an entrepreneur? Building up a client or customer base, raising your profile and generating goodwill all takes time. 80% of all sales are made on the 5th time of following up… New marketing strategies all take time to come to fruition… For example, if you join a breakfast networking group you should give it at least 6 months before expecting to see a return on your investment. It is interesting to note, that it is easy to destroy a good reputation over night, but a good reputation takes months – even years to build up. If you don’t believe me, just think about Arthur Anderson, Enron… Need, I say anymore?
So I applied the same thinking to patience, as to resilience. Is it something you are born with? Can you blame your parents if you don’t have it? Or is it something that you can gain over time?
1. Reframe the picture
See the situation from the other person’s perspective. I use this frequently with my coaching clients and it helps them find a new clarity to a situation. This new clarity, combined with a renewed understanding of the end goal helps people find the motivation to soldier on and be patient.
2. Grow old
Not the quickest way to gain patience, but with maturity also comes additional patience. Think about the patience of a baby compared with a 50 year old… Perhaps I’m being a bit flippant… However, after having my first born I had to learn patience. A baby is not going to stop screaming at 2 a.m. in the morning just because you have had enough. (Although, sometimes I wish that wasn’t the case) Young babies and toddlers do encourage you to learn patience the hard way!
3. Recognise what you can or cannot control
My family went camping to the Isle of Wight in the summer half term holiday. We were made to find patience when trying to catch a ferry both times. Each time we missed our ferry due to situations that was outside of our control. When we recognised that we couldn’t prevent the traffic jam or move any quicker, then we found the patience to relax and de-stress. So what’s the equivalent a traffic jam for your business?
4. Become religious
Once again, not the quickest way to gain patience, but all the major religions cites patience as a virtue. Hence, perhaps seeking enlightenment from a higher power may help increase our patience
5. Keep the end in mind
By actually knowing what the end is, and keeping the big picture present at all times will allow you to make the right decision and keep going towards the bigger reward, rather than choose a smaller more ‘instant’ reward.
6. Set realistic targets – and measurement points
Entrepreneurs are normally brimming over with revenue generating ideas. However, successful entrepreneurs don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, and give a strategy time to work! Set yourself a time limit, and review points, and only then if you are not seeing any return on your investment change tack.
7. Break your targets down
As the saying goes, how do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time. It’s easier to focus on a big goal by breaking it into little chunks and achieving those little chunks. A large client base is built up 1 client at a time. A blog starts to become a major asset for you when heavily populated – but it is still built up one post at a time.
8. Take a deep breath
Very often our emotions take over – particularly if we feel threatened. By taking a deep breath, it gives you time to think rationally and anchor yourself on what is really important to you. When managing conflict situations or in a negotiation, the ability to listen and be patient while the other side talks is a great skill to have.
9. Believe in yourself
If you have enough self-confidence you will have the confidence to carry on a course of action until fruition. If you don’t have confidence in your decisions, you will more likely be swayed by a different course of action.
10. Work with a mentor or coach
It’s all too easy when you are a sole trader to change your mind and go and do something else. A coach or mentor will keep you accountable to your goals and action plans. They will also support and encourage you during the difficult times – giving you the patience necessary to achieve longer term goals.
If you find are finding it difficult to keep focused and see strategies through – why not give me a call? After all it’s only a phone call – you have everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
How to use your blog for good SEO
July 18, 2009 – 10:59 pm
Four months ago I didn’t know what SEO even stood, let alone why I should spend most of my Saturday afternoon and evening sorting out my blog links for better SEO!
So let’s start at the beginning, Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, what is it? Very simply it is the tasks, design or processes which enable your website to appear higher up the search engine’s rankings for your chosen keywords. Well it sounds simple doesn’t it? Do the right things and you will pop out on the first page of google’s results? Well, no actually. If 500 people want to be the top ranked site in google for a keyword, someone has to be first and someone has to be last.
A blog is a great way of encouraging people to visit your website (drive traffic in web speak). What you may not know is that a blog is also an excellent way of increasing your SEO.
Now, I am not a technie, so anything that I recommend to help you improve your SEO with your blog – will not require any knowledge of coding! Plus, I have learnt it the hard way…
1. Bring it in house
By this I mean, make sure your blog is hosted within your website. If you don’t have your blog hosted within your website, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend optimising your blog for SEO, it wouldn’t matter one iota…
Wordpress offers its blogging software for free for you to install into your website domain. The installation doesn’t require you to have much knowledge about servers, coding… but it will probably take you longer than the stated ‘famous’ 5 minute installation.
2. What’s important to you?
You need to identify what keywords are important to you. As much as possible these keywords need to appear, in decreasing level of importance:
Blog title, permalinks (the URL used to get to individual blog posts), tags and blog content.
3. Craft your permalinks
Wordpress by default gives you a permalink (or URL) for each post as something very similar to this: http://yourdomain.com/blog/?p=123. For good SEO you need to add in keywords to your permalink URL.
If your domain is hosted on a linux server, then this is what you need to type in the custom box in permalink settings: /%year%/%category%/%postname%.
If your domain is hosted on a windows server, then you need to type in /index.php/%year%/%category%/%postname%
Ideally keep your permalinks as short as possible – as the google robots prefer not to have to dig deep into the site.
If you do change your permalinks, then you need a very nifty plugin called Dean’s permalink migration. What this plugin does, is everytime someone clicks on an old link for a post, the plugin will automatically direct them to the new link. Thus saving you lots of broken links and annoyed google robots… Very simply change your permalinks, then activate the plug in and type in the old permalink structure. If this was the default wordpress permalink, then just type in /.
4. Categorise
Choose blog categories that contain important keywords to you. Then include the category name in your blog permalink.
5. Tag it!
Don’t skimp on your tags for each blog post. Make sure the tags are relevant to your blog content
6. Update regularly
To increase or just maintain your Google page rank you must regularly refresh or add more (and relevant!) content to your website. Google prefers dynamic content – i.e. a blog to static content (a page with .htm or .html file extension)
7. Measure it
There are some great wordpress plugins (Google Integrator toolkit, Google Analyticator) which enable you to integrate google analytical for your wordpress blog.
8. Promote your blog
The more people that link to your blog the better it is for your google page ranking. (so feel free to link to my blog…)
9. Increase keyword density in your posts
Google now has very sophisticated ways of determining keywords for your site – and actually looks for keywords within the content of the site – not just the meta tags.
Anyway, that’s it for a while. But if you could do with some help to increase your personal or business efficiency – why not give us a call?
Who will you trust (part 2)
July 16, 2009 – 11:03 pm
I recently posted a blog (Who will you trust) about factors which should influence your decision to hire a specific coach. Similar to the coaching profession, anyone can decide to call themselves a trainer or leadership expert. An external trainer will set you back anything from £300 to £2500 a day. You may ask, what’s the difference between a trainer which charges £300 and £2500; actually not a lot. It’s all about how much you value their worth and how good they are at identifying the value of their proposed solution to you.
So, how do you go about finding a identifying a reputable external training consultant to work with your business?
1. Price is not a guarantee of success or experience
Unlike some of the regulated professions such as financial services, accountancy or the law, anyone can call themselves a training consultant or trainer, and charge what people are willing to pay. Before you sign up with a training consultancy do ask for (and check) references from previous clients. If the person does not have any attributed case studies, testimonials, or feedback on their website be wary…
2. Check out their history and experience
There is a level of skill to designing a learning programme – and when I talk about a learning programme I am not just talking about classroom training. Just because someone has had significant line management experience, or achieved a leadership position with an organisation doesn’t mean to say they can design or run a training programme. Facilitating a workshop is a skill, which not everyone can do well. Be wary of someone without specialist learning and development experience who is calling themselves a trainer (or more commonly leadership/management expert!)
3. Coaching – the ‘new’ training?
Since coaching emerged as a separate discipline in its own right, I’ve noticed a worrying trend. Coaching seems to be the new training. When you look closely, actually the provider is offering training not coaching. When people talk about team coaching, they are very often referring to facilitation. Expect every training organisation to offer you executive coaching. Do check out their coaching qualifications and membership of a coaching federation. If the organisations don’t fulfil the criteria that I outlined in part 1 of this blog, then walk away.
4. The myth of the silver bullet
We’ve all done it – seen a training course as a silver bullet which will magically ‘cure’ someone of a deep-seated development area. Sending someone on classroom based training is the least effective way for someone to learn. If you think it about it, rarely does someone get 8 hours of learning from an 8 hour course. However, skilled the programme leader, there will always be parts of a training course which you don’t need.
Sadly what is often a common occurrence; line managers abdicate their responsibilities, and send a direct report on a training course to fix their behavioural problems. Unless you are supporting the direct report’s learning before and after the programme, the reality is that any changes made after the course are very unlikely to be sustained. When I talk about supporting learning, what I am meaning is the following:
- Agree before the programme personal (and specific) learning objectives for the direct report which directly relate to the strategic and operational needs of the business
- Meet with your direct report after the event and agree how you will support them to implement their post event action plan.
Over 80% of people after attending a training course will either, not do anything different after the course or try a few things, find it difficult and give up.
A good training consultant will spend as much time talking with you about how you will intend to support learning back in the workplace, as to the actual training need and potential solution.
5. Enjoy the smoothie
A good training consultant will advocate a blended learning solution. What this means is a solution which involves a variety of learning events, tailored to the learners needs, which take place over a length of time. For example, it could include classroom training, self-study, field work, coaching, e-learning etc
6. Savile row? or off-the-peg?
If you are being asked to spend more than £1500 a day per trainer, then you should expect a fully bespoked learning programme. This means you should see evidence of a full training needs analysis, which informs the final design and pay for design time. You should also expect to have a pilot programme to test out your proposed solutions.
7. Check out the small print
Do ask what is and isn’t included in the quoted price for you. For example, many training consultants will quote a figure excluding expenses. Venue costs, travel, VAT, accommodation, materials, subsistence may actually add up to a significant cost. A good training consultant will be able to give you a clear steer on what these expenses will add up to.
8. Return on Investment
A good training consultant will work with you to identify your proposed return on investment for your training budget.
9. Tools of the trade
By this I mean valid PI insurance, and likely to be VAT registered. After all you would expect your accountant to have PI insurance and charge you VAT. So, why not your training consultant?
Right, that’s my rant fully over. If you would like some advice on how to get more out of your business’s training budget, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. + 44 (0) 1234 48 0123 or heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk
How do you bounce back every time
July 8, 2009 – 2:23 pm
I am renowned for being optimistic and resilient – but have found my motivation waning a little in the past few days. I know that to carry on as an entrepreneur I have to get good with accepting rejection, and learn to bounce back. According to all the books you read on entrepreneurship, to be successful you need to be resilient. But, how do you become resilient? Are you born with it? Can you blame your parents if you don’t have it? Or is it something you develop as time goes on?
Here are my top tips on how to strengthen your resilience:
1. Look for the silver lining
Let’s face it bad stuff happens. And if you are looking for bad stuff to happen, it will happen all around you. However, if you look for the positive to come out of a setback or negative event, you will find a positive. And if you don’t believe me, then believe the scientists – Positive emotions were found to disrupt the experience of stress and help high resilient individuals to recover efficiently from daily stress (Fredrickson et al., 2003)
2. Develop your problem-solving skills
Interestingly if you are prepared to find a solution or work-around, then you will probably find a solution. But to do this, then you need to develop your problem-solving skills. In reality this means being open to possibility and prepared to challenge the assumptions you are making. Ask yourself questions such as ‘who could I involve?’, ‘if it was easy what would I do next?’
3. Accept that you have come up against a setback
I have worked with many clients after they have found they are at risk of redundancy. Amazingly, a few of them are still working away at the same role, doing the same thing as if nothing has happened. It makes for an interesting first couple of coaching sessions! To bounce back successfully you need to firstly accept that there is a problem or setback. Recovery can only start once you have moved from denial, through to acceptance. Publicly talking (or writing) about your situation is part of the process of accepting what is happening to you.
4. Talk with family and friends
Family and friends are great at inspiring you to dust yourself off and start all over again. I recommend that you build a supportive network around you – who believe in you, even when you doubt yourself. I personally find great comfort and positivity from reading positive feedback I have received from people over time. If you don’t already do this, start saving the titbits that make you smile when reading your e-mail for those times when you need a bit of re-energising to get you going again.
5. Sleep on it
Late at night, things can always seem worse than they actually are. A good night’s sleep can give you both the energy to start up again, but also help your subconscious identify the right way forward from your personal situation. Many a time, I have gone to bed mulling over a difficult decision, and woken up knowing the right answer.
6. Give up smoking
Yes, this was a big surprise to me, too! However, research has found that people with high levels of resilience are less likely to smoke cigarettes or use marijuana. (Bonanno et al., 2007)
7. Remember the good times
Inevitably the life of an entrepreneur is a little bit of a roller coaster ride. Do hang onto the memories of the good times – these will help to sustain you when the going gets tough.
8. Work with a mentor or coach
A mentor or coach will help you to see the cloud’s silver lining, as well as help you to formulate plans and strategies to get you back on track. I have just recently finished a coaching relationship with a financial controller in a financial services firm. Along with what’s being happening in the financial services sector and happening for her personally, she has more reason than most to stressed and depressed. With the help of my coaching she has emerged stronger and more resilient from our coaching sessions – and more able to deal with whatever life throws at her.
9. Believe in yourself
Having positive self-esteem and bags of self confidence are going to be a major factor in helping you to bounce back from ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’. If you tell yourself what you are good at, once a day, this will help to improve your self-esteem. [It sounds simple, but ask one of my recent coaching clients, it really does work]
If you would like some help to get through a difficult patch – why not give me a call? [+44 (0)1234 48 0123] After all a conversation is free, what have you got to lose?
Who will you trust? (part 1)
July 4, 2009 – 8:24 pm
My husband will tell you otherwise, but it’s not normal for me to have a big rant over something. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do for a living. I genuinely get a real kick out of helping an individual or organisation develop. My only problem with what I do, is that it is pretty much unregulated – what that means is that any Tom, Dick or Harry can set themselves up as a Coach or Training Consultancy.
So let’s start with coaching. [In my next post on the blog, I will look at training] It is only since the 1970s that coaching has emerged as an independent discipline, moving into business away from the sports field. In fact Timothy Gallway, the founder of modern day coaching, did not publish his famous book on coaching ‘the Inner Game’ until 1997. Do a search on Google today and there are over 44 million hits for ‘coaching training providers’. In fact one ad on the Google search has a ‘free report’ which will show me how to make £5000 every month as a life coach. [As a professional coach, I am somewhat sceptical about this claim!] In addition to the many coaching qualifications I now hold, I hold a certificate in life coaching – and didn’t actually have to do any coaching to gain my qualification. Is it any wonder that there are a lot of poor coaches out there who will promise far more than they can deliver, take a lot of your money, and potentially do more harm than good?
So how do you go about finding the right coach for you?
1. It’s not the letters that count
It seems that every coaching training provider will award you a set of acronyms once you have paid them enough money and jumped over enough hoops for them. If you are UK based look for whether your coach holds an accredited coaching qualification from any of the big three coaching associations – International Coaching Federation (ICF), Association of Coaching (AC) or European Mentoring Coaching Council. Membership of one of these associations is not enough – you can become an affiliate member of these associations by virtue of paying your annual membership fee.
2. Price is not a guarantee of success or experience
Unlike some of the regulated professions such as financial services, accountancy or the law, anyone can call themselves a coach, and charge what people are willing to pay. Before you sign up with a coach do ask for (and check) references from previous clients. If the coach does not have any attributed case studies, testimonials, or feedback on their website be wary… If anyone guarantees you success, walk away…
3. Check the chemistry
Rapport is very important between a coach and their client. Sometimes, despite the best intentions of both parties, a relationship just doesn’t gel. Good coaches will always spend time getting to know you, and what you want out of the coaching relationship – BEFORE, starting to charge you for their time. I pride myself on being able to build up rapport with nearly everyone I meet, however, I know that there are some types of coaches that wouldn’t work for me – but work for other people.
4. Ask around
The very good (and established!) coaches very rarely have to advertise their services. A decent coach with an established business will gain over 90% of their warm leads from referrals – normally happy satisfied previous clients. Having said that, a coach advertising their services, doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with them – but do ask some questions where they find most of their clients.
5. Do they walk the walk & talk the talk?
What I mean is, who is coaching them at this present time? A lot of people have become coaches because they believe they can make a few bob, whilst not really living and breathing the ethics of coaching. A decent coach will be regularly coached by someone else. If your coach can’t answer the question – what’s your view of supervision for coaches… walk away…
Just because your coach has been a top exec, pyschotherapist or acknowledged leadership expert – doesn’t necessarily make them a good coach.
6. Do they have professional indemnity (PI) insurance?
Any good coach should have PI insurance. Would you use a doctor, accountant or lawyer who didn’t have PI insurance? So why work with a coach who doesn’t have PI insurance – you are placing similar levels of trust in them as your accountant or lawyer. In effect, if your coach does not have PI insurance they are taking a business shortcut. Where else may they have taken shortcuts – and potentially how could that negatively impact yourself? For example, I have just been hearing of business coaches who, without being a qualified accountant or FSA regulated individual, advise on overdrafts and loans to their clients. So be careful!
Heather Townsend, the founder of The Efficiency Coach, holds an Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation, and vaid PI insurance from Towergate. If you would like to explore what a coaching relationship could do for you, please give me a call + 44 (0) 1234 48 0123 or drop me a line, heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk
Working the room, again?
June 27, 2009 – 9:10 pm
There are many articles out there on how to grow your business via face-to-face and on-line networking. However, there are not many articles that go into the nitty-gritty of how you ‘work a room’ at a face-to-face networking event. Let’s face it, face-to-face networking can be very daunting. There are many simple ways that you can achieve more with your networking time.
Here are my top tips.
1. Do your homework in advance
By this I mean, ask your host for a guest list in advance. Identify 3-6 people that you want to have a conversation with. Do some research on the contacts you want to meet – what line of business are they in? What may be the particular business or personal challenges that they may be facing? On the day before you go to the networking event, have a quick look at some of the on-line news websites, and relevant trade journals, and formulate an opinion on some of the top stories.
2. Have the right kit with you
By this I mean, have a personalised badge already made up with your logo. There is no excuse, as a personalised badge will set you back under a tenner. Make sure you have lots of business cards with you. So you are never without your business card, keep a store of business cards in your wallet and the glove pocket of your car. Carry a small notepad and pen with you – no larger than the size of a cigarette packet. You can then use this to jot down things you have agreed to do for people you have met. When you get back from the event, make sure you transfer all your new business cards into a business card organiser. There is nothing worse than scrabbling around looking for a business card of someone you met six months ago.
3. Have your elevator pitch worked out
When you meet someone for the first time, they are going to inevitably ask you what you do. Have a 30 second paragraph worked out in advance which tells people ‘what value you bring to your customers & clients’, and your target market. At many networking events you may be required to do a 60 second spot or a 5 minute spot. Expand your 30 sec paragraph into a 60 second and 5 minute talk.
To make your time in the limelight more memorable for the people you are talking to, ask them a question which will help to connect what you do, with something they may need. For example, I use the ‘who thinks their business has the potential to grow quicker and faster?’ OR ‘who needs to get more productivity out of their employees?’
4. Think about your positioning
Make sure you are positioned so that you are facing the door (or early in the event, facing the table where people collect their badges). That way you can see who is arriving, without having to look away from the person you are talking to. In the 5 minutes before you will sit down for a meal, go into a seminar etc, aim to be talking to one of your targets for the evening. That way, you will end up building rapport with them through the ‘feature’ of the event.
5. Finding a person to talk to
We’ve all been there – we arrive at an event and everyone seems to be talking and you are feeling like billy-no-mates. Position yourself near to the drinks table, buffet or toilet – people will walk past you, and take the opportunity to introduce yourself. After all, everyone at a networking event is there to meet new people.
If you see someone standing on their own, make eye contact with them and smile at them. 99% of the time, they will be really glad to be ‘rescued’ and welcome a conversation with you.
If everyone seems to be standing or sitting around in groups, then look for groups of people who are standing in an open formation – i.e. group members who are standing looking into the room. Approach the group, and ask permission to join them.
6. Starting a conversation
An exceptionally common fear is not knowing what to say to someone you have just met. There are some really easy openers to a conversation:
“Hello, I’m ….
AND THEN…
“How’s your day been?”
“How was your journey here today?’
“What have you got planned for the rest of the day?”
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Do you know many people here today?”
“What do you do?”
“What does your company do?”
7. Keeping a conversation going
Always turn up to a networking event as yourself. If you try and be someone that you are not, you will come across as shallow and insincere. Normally people love to talk about their business – so aim to get someone talking about their business, listen to what they are saying – and find ways of personally complimenting them on that they have achieved
8. Introduce other people as if they are very special or important
If someone asks to join your group, do take the time to introduce everyone in the group. When you are introducing a person, give some nugget about them, e.g. Alan is great at opening doors into potential clients
9. Find a reason to stay in touch
Now, Mr Smith from Fantastic Widgets may not be your target client. But he may know someone that is. If you want to stay in touch, then ask for their business card. But, it is more powerful to find a reason to stay in touch. For example, ‘have you met so-and-so? – I’ll send you their details’, ‘I was reading a great article – I will send you a copy’
10. Do ask for permission to circulate
It is very easy to get stuck talking with one person at a networking event. Look out for signs from the person you are talking to that they are looking to end the conversation – an easy giveaway is that their eyes will start to wander around the room. This is your cue to wrap up the conversation.
However, if you are left with a ‘cling-on’, then take the opportunity to introduce them to someone else and politely move on to a new conversation.
If you would like help to achieve more with the networking event you are attending, give us a call – we would love to help.