I did hear an amusing definition of success the other day which was: success is the happy feeling you get between the time you do something and the time you tell a woman what you did … well I thought it was amusing!

From the point of view of my existing clients, success could be defined as: more sales, more profit, more ideas, more time or sometimes, less stress, fewer problems, or lower expenses. Whatever my clients decide is their definition of success I will work with them, on a regular monthly basis to achieve their ideal.

A final key point here is that once you have defined what success actually does mean for you then it’s far easier to recognise it once you have achieved it and then you can celebrate it… before moving on to decide what the next definition of success (for you) will be

Anyway, if you know the owner of a small business who wants to become more successful, then please refer them to me and I’ll help them to both define it and achieve it.

“Sir, what is the secret of your success?”
“Right decisions” his boss replied.
“But sir, how do you make the right decisions?”
“Experience” was the reply.
“And sir, how do you get experience?”
“Wrong decisions” came the answer!

It’s true though – to become successful you do have to make some wrong decisions and learn from them.

A business coach won’t know all the right answers and won’t necessarily be able to help a business owner from making wrong decisions but a good, experienced business coach will be able to help the business owner to measure what is happening with their business and then make qualified and, hopefully, right decisions for the future. And if some of those decisions do turn out to be wrong for the business, then the business coach is there to ensure that the business owner actually does benefit from the experience.

We have GROW models – that’s Goals, Reality, Options and What, Who or When (depending upon which one you choose).

We speak of IDEAL’s – that’s Identify, Define, Explore, Action and Lookback – and KASH which is Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits. And then we’re surprised if our clients exhibit CRAFT – that’s Can’t Remember A Flipping Thing!

Wherever possible I try to avoid these acronyms when talking to clients but if any of you know someone who could do with a BOOSTER session – that’s Balanced, Observed, Objective, Specific, Timely, Enhancing and Relevant then please refer them to me.

I’m DAVE Baker (that’s Diligent, Affordable, Vital and Enthusiastic) from Charting Success and I’m a business coach. (By the way, I originally wrote Desirable, Attractive Virile and Entertaining but I thought that might be pushing it a bit!!)

Now, my personal opinion is that I believe a good business coach should have experience of business – it’s all very well having text book qualifications but I really believe that a good coach has to have sampled some of the success and learnt from some of the failures.

Secondly, I think that a good business coach must be a good listener; one who actually hears what their clients are really saying rather than just picking out a few words here and there and filling in the blanks with assumptions.

So what were the qualifications referred to in the article? Grey hair and haemorrhoids. The grey hair to make you look distinguished and the haemorrhoids to make you look concerned

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I’ve got grey hair!

Alice, coming to a fork in the road asks; “Which road should I take?”

“Where do you want to go?” responds the Cheshire cat.

“I don’t know,” Alice answers.

“Then,” says the cat, “it really doesn’t matter.”

 It’s just like in business; if you don’t know where you want to go then it doesn’t matter which way you turn because any way could be right or wrong for the business.

 Could you have a successful business without the vision of where you want to go? Quite possibly… but then how would you know?

Well, think on this. If you start work at 17 years old, retire at 66, work an average 5 day week with an average of 4 weeks total holiday per year then the total number of working days in your whole working life is 11,760 days.

Not a lot really is it? Make sure that you invest your time wisely!

and

Great practical workshop on social networking for business being run by Ian McKendrick (www.markandian.com) Thurston Grange Hotel near Bury St Edmunds on Tuesday 22nd March 9:30 start see FSB web site for more details when available (www.fsbsuffolk.org)

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 out of the recession.

So if you know a business that’s down on its R’s please give them these three and refer them to me

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same…

…then you probably don’t need a business coach.

However

IF you know a business that needs help and encouragement in these troubled times and;

IF the business owner really wants to change and make a success of their business…

Then please refer them to me; I’m Dave Baker and I’m a business coach.

“IBM is what it is today for three special reasons. The first reason is that, at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream – my vision – was in place.

The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.

The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realised that, unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there.

In other words, I realised that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one.

From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision. And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template. At the end of each day we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for that difference.

Every day at IBM was a day devoted to business development, not to doing business.

We didn’t do business at IBM, we built one.”

Practical Tips for your business success

Not sure where to start with “seeing” the success of your business? Need some practical help with how to proceed? Well, here are some practical tips for you to use and if you’d like some more help or would just like to talk through your business thoughts and ideas then don’t forget to speak to me, Dave Baker, your Charting Success Business Coach on 01284 330400

1.     Start with the end in mind. Close your eyes and envision where you really want to be with your business in one, three or five years’ time. Think of it as a “Dream Destination”. Write it down so that you can come back to it again and again and remind yourself of where you ultimately want to be.

2.     Be clear about your dream. If you think about it as a Dream Destination then use the “DREAM” part as an acronym to enable you to be really clear about it. i.e.

D – Determinate – Be specific, not fuzzy. You want to achieve annual sales of £xxx by a specific date, or you want to have at least x% market share by a specific date.

R – Realistic – Don’t set impossible goals. They need to be challenging but they have to be achievable.

E – Exotic – It’s a Dream Destination remember; dreams should never be mundane. Think sun-drenched Bahamas not Bognor Regis (no offence to Bognor Regis intended).

A – Agreed – This Dream Destination is a company goal so it’s likely to involve other people. Make sure you do involve them and win their support in reaching the Dream Destination

M – Measurable – You must be able to measure your progress towards your Dream Destination so that, if nothing else, you know when you’ve actually arrived!

3.     Review your dream regularly. Just as with planning the ultimate holiday where you might take out the colourful brochures and read them again and again, imagining yourself actually on that holiday soaking up the sunshine or skiing down the piste; do the same with your commercial Dream Destination. Review your dream at least once a month, make sure that it is still something that excites you and that it is still a valid destination. After all, you wouldn’t continue with your plans of an ultimate holiday if your proposed destination was ravaged by a hurricane or involved in a war (well, at least, most people wouldn’t) so you may have to modify your commercial Dream Destination if it is affected by factors outside your control.