Five essential tips for any small business owner on how to maximize their long-term success, stand out from the crowd and minimise potential financial risks

1. Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest

Administrative and support services are necessary for any business, but the costs and time expended managing these services may not be worth the investment for a small organisation. Focus your attention on what your business is really about and get some reliable ‘virtual staff’ to handle the rest.

2. Project a professional image

A professional image is crucial to any businesses success. Ensure that everyone and everything that represents your business is projecting that image – that means everything; from your business cards to your offices and how your telephone is answered.

3. Spend wisely

Your company’s long-term success is dependent on making more money than you spend. Spending wisely doesn’t mean cutting corners; paying your employees well and your bills on time is important, but spend only on essentials: good employees, essential technology, marketing; not on that really great, but expensive, gadget!

4. Save Yourself Time Energy and Money (that’s SYSTEMs to you and me)

Develop your systems early; perfect them and adhere to them. That way, as the company grows, you will have already established the way you want everything to work – and if you do it right, it will work; without you!

5. Network, Network, Network

Meeting other entrepreneurs and business owners is critical to creating lasting business relationships and expanding your business. Whether it’s joining groups of other business owners or using social networks, networking is a great way to expand your professional contacts, gather advice, information, and raise your professional profile.

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

To many people, sales and marketing amount to the same thing but there are considerable differences. Understanding these differences will allow you to invest in the appropriate area to produce both immediate impact and long term results.

1. Sales is the process of getting business. Sales is the fuel for the corporate machine and the immediate gratification for corporate hunger. Your company cannot survive without sales. In fishing terms, sales is about going out and catching fish.
2. Marketing is the process for attracting sales. It is easily overlooked because it provides no immediate gratification and yet it is vital for the future prosperity (or even survival) of the company. In fishing terms again; marketing is the irresistible bait that brings large shoals of fish within the reach of your rod or net.
3. Marketing establishes your brand. Your brand is what distinguishes you from the rest of your corporate competitors and whilst it is propagated by your sales people it is initially established by your marketing.
4. Marketing requires investment. This doesn’t necessarily mean that marketing requires financial investment as there are numerous methods of marketing for free but it does mean that it requires investment in time, planning and careful implementation – and it sometimes can be more effective if you are prepared to spend some money on it as well.
5. Effective marketing materials can act as salesmen. This means that an effective, direct response sales letter to 2,000 properly targeted prospects can be the equivalent of sending out 2,000 salesmen to visit those prospects. Difficult to believe, but true – and with the added benefit that even the most effective marketing material doesn’t require a company car, commission and an expense account!
6. Increased sales is the climax of a good marketing campaign. As I said in 2. above, marketing is the irresistible bait that brings in the large shoals of fish. At that point, even the poorest fisherman can catch a few but the best fishermen will catch many. A good sales force will similarly maximise the results of an effective marketing campaign.
7. Sales without marketing is like a car without an engine. It will go forwards and backwards, left and right but it constantly needs pushing and is downright hard work!

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

Why ‘cooking the books’ really is the right approach for your business!

Okay, so now I have your attention, read on for a recipe for ‘cooking the books’ that I guarantee will make your business more successful!

You can read as many books, listen to as many audio tracks and watch as much multi-media as you like, but unless you act on the information you digest, nothing much will happen.

Now this sounds obvious but given that the ‘How-To, Self-Help, Make-Your-Fortune etc’ industry is worth multiple billions world-wide, why is it that so few people make the progress they expect?  Is the industry producing low quality material, or is it because many people like the initial motivation they get from a book but then carry on as before? Maybe they are looking for that magic pill.

Cast your mind back to those illustrious school years and think how much information you absorbed – now think how much you remember today. Hmmm… get the idea?

So what’s this got to do with cooking the books?

All this information you are consuming… well think of it like the ingredients in a recipe. Mix it all together in the right amounts; cook-it at the right temperature for the correct amount of time; dress it, serve it… now you have the makings of a great result.

The information that you read in books needs to be mixed, cooked and served in the optimum way for you to get the result you’re looking for. Get any aspect wrong and you could end up with a disaster.

So here is my recipe for taking the huge amounts of information available and producing a great result!

q  If you see a particular point of interest when reading, dwell on it and consider the implications for you or your business, before moving on.

q  Keep a notebook to hand and write down this consideration in a way that means something to you.

q  Put aside an hour of your time and take all your considerations and ideas and turn them into an action plan. A real action plan with objectives, dates and expected outcomes.

q  Find a way to hold yourself accountable. Maybe you can do this quite easily yourself; if not, find a friend, spouse, colleague, mentor, business coach etc to help you. If you want to achieve something with this information, you need to know that you will actually do what you say you are going to do.

q  Practice with your new found skill, knowledge or approach. Don’t be surprised if, when you try something new, that your old way seemed better. It’s really quite common, when you are developing a new skill or technique, for your performance to drop off before it gets better. Persist!

q  Revisit the book after a reasonable time and measure the results. See which aspects worked for you and which didn’t.

q  Write a review of the book – not about the book, but which aspects of the content made a difference to you when you applied them. Send it to the author; they will nearly always welcome the feedback (even if it isn’t good)

q  Sit back and enjoy the fact that you invested a modest amount of money and really did benefit from it.

q  Recognise that 90% of the above requires you to take action with the information available as opposed to just reading the book!

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

Certain death for your business? It’s all in the execution!

Despite all the help, support, experience and market opportunities that are available, far too many new businesses still die a slow and painful or quick, yet just as fatal, death.

So why is it, with so many great ideas and opportunities, that we still can’t get it quite right?

Whether you have just started your business, or you have been developing it steadily for a while, here’s the golden nugget – it’s all in the execution!

Having a great idea, a well thought through strategy, a fantastic plan or knowing what to do just isn’t enough; you have to take effective action. Here are a few tips to help you execute well and achieve more:-

1. Start every day with a ‘to-do’ list and end every day with a ‘have-done’ list.
2. Make sure your ‘have-done’ list reflects those core aspects of your business that make it successful. Tidying the office and buying a new hole-punch don’t count!
3. Take decisions with the best information you have available. If you can’t make an immediate decision, at least establish a firm date/time when you will make a decision. You can wait forever for just one more piece of information, but by then the opportunity may well have passed you by.
4. Get yourself an external ‘conscience’ like a coach or mentor. It’s all too easy to tell yourself “I’ll get around to that” and then not do it. With an external ‘conscience’ or ‘sounding board’ you will have that nagging voice who will hold you accountable for the things you have said you will do.
5. Listen to your colleagues and partners. It’s your business, and your decision, but always invite other peoples’ advice and ideas. It quite often means the difference between a poor execution and a very successful one.
6. Always meet your deadlines; don’t allow things to slip.
7. Expect the un-expected. Whatever plans you set-out you can assume that something will hit you that wasn’t expected. Focus on the execution and deal decisively with any challenges thrown your way.
8. Focus your efforts. Use laser precision with all your effort, resources, people and funds. Well focused effort produces more definitive results and higher levels of efficiency. Time is one thing you cannot afford to waste.
9. Overcome resistance to change. Whether it is yours or others’, resistance to change is one of the biggest hurdles to effective execution. You may hold the majority of shares or own the business outright, but you will always need the support of others – make sure you bring people willingly along with you.

10.  Do what you do best and find others to do the rest

11.  Make sure everyone knows who is doing what, what is expected and when it is expected, without exception.

12.  Pay attention to the details.

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

Do you believe that the country has come out of the recession? Do you think that we’re heading for a ‘double-dip’ recession soon? Well, either way from my perspective it’s still pretty tough out there for small businesses right now so is it really a good time for a business to consider spending money on a business coach?

Well I know I’m biased because I am a business coach but here are 5 reasons why I believe that hiring the right business coach is a good investment for any business.

1. A business coach is not directly involved with the day-to-day running of the business so will not be bogged down by many of the issues that affect the business owner
2. A good business coach will combine formal business coach training with practical experience – i.e. they will have directly experienced many of the issues affecting the business and will have the benefit of those experiences to provide guidance to the business owner
3. A business coach will ‘see’ the business from an external perspective and will be able to offer constructive suggestions and observations that might not occur to someone working in the business
4. A business coach will help the business owner to focus; to set short and medium-term goals and monitor progress towards achieving them
5. A good business coach will bring positive, significant and measurable returns to the business

And just in case you don’t believe the last one, here a quote from one of my satisfied clients

“We have a measurable 60% increase in turnover from this time last year which is largely due to the coaching skills of Dave Baker”

If you want your business to move out of these recessionary times, don’t be hesitant, talk to a business coach and find your route to success.

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

Grab a pen and a calculator and try out this calculation:

Enter the age (in years) at which you intend to stop working.

Now subtract the age the age you started full-time work.

Now multiply the result by 48 (I’m assuming that you do take some time off each year but, if not, multiply by 52)

Now multiply that by the average number of hours you work each week

Now look carefully at that number

That’s the total number of working hours remaining to you

for the rest of your working life!

It’s not a huge number is it?

If it had a £ sign in front of it and you had that much money you wouldn’t exactly be rich.

It really is not a LOT of time!

Most important of all, it’s not a renewable resource!

How much of your working time are you prepared to use for deserving causes (planning, training, investing in your future etc.)?

How much of that time do you regularly give to people about whom you know nothing (unexpected visitors, interruptions, phone calls etc.)?

Do make sure that you use your time wisely because the only certainty is that tomorrow there will be less of it!

For more business help, practical advice and business coaching book your first FREE coaching session from Charting Success by calling 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk

Everyone seems to be talking about the R-word these days don’t they? You know… Recession!

Now I suppose in some ways that I’m a traditionalist; I was brought up with the old idea that good basic schooling was founded on what was then termed the three R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) – actually that acronym always caused me a problem but I suppose it didn’t actually include spelling!

So the little challenge I set myself was to come up with the three R’s to boost your business and beat that other R-word… and here they are.

Number 1 – Reach out to your existing customers – you’d be amazed at how many businesses don’t bother to keep in touch with existing customers. They know you; they’ve already bought from you so they are the easiest ones to get to buy again. Use newsletters for example to tell them what you are doing and to announce special offers.

Number 2 – Raise your sales activity – don’t just sit there waiting for orders to come to you; go out and get some. Pick up the phone and talk to people; go out and visit existing customers; do something positive to increase your sales every day.

Number 3 – Referrals are one of the best forms of getting new business – go to networking meetings and tell people about your business; make sure that people know what sort of customers you’re looking for and ask for referrals (especially from existing customers).

There you are; my three R’s for boosting your business in a recession.

So if you know a business that’s down on its R’s please give them these three and refer them to me – Dave Baker at Charting Success, I’m a Business Coach

Discover how business coaching can help to improve your business with a Business Booster session from Charting Success.

Call me on 01284 330 400 or e-mail dbaker@chartingsuccess.co.uk