Do You Really Need To Define Your Ideal Client?

Do you hear or read constantly about ‘defining your ideal client’ or being ‘super specific about your avatar’ and wonder how on earth you can apply that to your own business? Or do you keep making a start on this but still feel like you’re not really making it work? For me, there’s no question that this is hugely important in helping you to appeal to and resonate with the right people for you. But I also appreciate that it can feel confusing or limiting and that it’s rarely as easy to do like all the people talking about it would have…

Why small is beautiful

Do you ever find yourself feeling inferior to the bigger businesses in your industry? Do you feel as though they have a more rounded, comprehensive offer that makes it hard for you to match them? This is something I talk to my clients about a lot. Whenever they have the opportunity to compete for a juicy piece of work and they’re up against some bigger competitors the inevitable questions arise. But for me, I think small businesses have several mahoosive advantages over bigger businesses! And that’s exactly what I explain in this…

What’s better than New Year’s resolutions?

Are you wondering whether you should be setting New Year’s resolutions for your business or not? Here’s a 5-minute video that explains why I think these are a waste of time, and what you can do instead.   Do you usually set New Year’s resolutions for your business? And if you’ve set them in the past have you done better than the average late January / early February abandonment of them? I happen to think that, despite all the hoo-har online about them at the moment, they’re actually really counter-productive for your business. Want to know why? And what I think you can do instead…

Would you like to be a beacon of calm ?

  How often do you find yourself feeling stressed, frustrated or just worked up in general about the things that are going on in your business? I think we all know that this can be an incredibly stressful time of year while you try and balance the demands of your business with all the seasonal demands too! Because of that I wanted to share with you a story of something that happened in my own business recently that could have turned into a hugely stressful event if I’d allowed it to; and also to share some of the key ways that I…

How To Review Your Year

How often do you review what is working well in your business and where you can improve? For me, regularly reviewing and planning is one of the most important things that you can do in your business because this is the thing that will actually enable you to change and improve things going forwards. So as we’re coming right to the end of the year, I thought it made complete sense this week to talk about how you can effectively review your year and then actually start to think about what that means for you going forwards into next year. Now interestingly,…

How good are you at saying no in your business?

How good are you at saying no in your business? I know this is kind of a counter-intuitive question because more often than not when you go into business yourself that typically means that you’re quite an enthusiastic person, you’re quite a helpful person. And no, is not exactly a helpful positive thing, is it? And let’s face it, when you first set up a business the chances are that you probably, not only will say yes to pretty much anything but probably have to say yes to pretty much everything. Because when you first start a business, the most crucial thing is…

Are you clear on how much you earn?

How much clarity do you have about how much income your business is likely to generate next month, or the month after, or the month after that, even, dare I say it, six months down the line?   Do you actually have that information documented somewhere, whether that’s in an notepad, on a spreadsheet, in your accounting system?   Do you have certainty about that?   And what impact does that certainty or that lack of certainty have over you and your business?   Watch this week’s VLOG to get a bit clearer on how this can impact your business.  

How to deal with those vanishing prospects

Have you ever found yourself in that sort of situation where you are talking to the world’s most amazing potential customer? It’s absolutely nailed-on. You’re having the perfect conversation. The relationship, the connection is going amazingly well. They’re asking you all the right questions. They seem very comfortable with your price. They’re telling you everything about their business and their problems, and how you can help them. And all you can see is this is absolutely a cast iron brand-new customer. And then poof, a little puff of smoke, and before you know it this nailed-on brand-new customer suddenly doesn’t want to go ahead,…

Can You Be Too Nice In Business?

Do you think that it is possible to be too nice in business? Because being nice is a good thing, isn’t it? It’s good to be nice. And yet what I actually find more and more is that, when my clients are actually too nice, what it leads to is more than likely being taken advantage of, rather than them being respected by their customers.  

Have you thought about putting your prices up?

Have you put your prices up recently or are you in that space of thinking that you probably should put them up but you’re not quite ready yet? Or maybe you’ll put them up soon but you’re just waiting for some kind of sign, or you’ve just got all those questions going on about what if I put them up and lose any customers? What if I put them up and I seem a little bit too greedy? What if I put them up and I price myself out of the market? What if I put them up and people that were about…