3 Tips To Get More Done In Your Business Every Day
Do you possess the special skill that so many people building a small business possess? Yes, I’m talking about the amazing skill of faffing. Now, I know from all my conversations over the last 10 years that faffing can become quite an art form when you’re growing your business. You know those days when you have a huge list of things to do, you work at it all day; you barely stop for a cup of tea or a sliver of lunch, and yet you still get to the end of the day and haven’t crossed a single significant thing off that…
How do I know what price to charge?
Do you ever find yourself having a bit of a heated internal debate about whether you’ve got the pricing right in your business? I know that for a lot of people who are growing a business, price is one of the most difficult and often most uncomfortable areas of business. It brings up all sorts of questions about worth and about value; it really does have a huge amount of emotion connected to it. It can trigger lots of questions like: “What’s my value? What’s my product or my service worth? What’s my worth? What does value really mean to my customers?…
How to overcome the loneliness of building a business
Do you ever feel isolated when you’re running your business? Does your business sometimes feel like a very lonely place? Because I think this is something the vast majority of us go through. And not just once, it can easily rear its head again quite regularly. No matter how much our friends and family really want to support us, if they’ve never had any direct involvement in running a business, then the reality is that they simply don’t get it. They don’t understand what it feels like to have the complete responsibility of that business on your shoulders 24/7. They want to…
Do you need a business plan?
Today I want to share with you some great tips about business plans. No don’t stop reading just yet, just in case that’s giving you the heebie-jeebies! I have been talking to lots of people recently about the need for a business plan within a small business. Are they actually relevant and a good use of time or are they just corporate bull and wasting time on something that’s going to get shoved in that bottom drawer, never to be seen again? And even if you love the idea of having a plan, often it’s much easier to write the plan…
Are You Open to Feedback?
If we’re open to it, life constantly teaches us lessons about our business, even in ways that we really don’t initially see the relevance of at all. A few bazillion years ago, I used to be an athlete. I used to be a sprinter. I ran for England and for Great Britain; I was a National Schools champion three times, an Under-23 European Cup winner, and ran for the England Senior team in amazing places like Rome, Moscow, and Gateshead! And I know you’re probably thinking, “What on earth has that got to do with business, and particularly with your business?”…
When to plan, and when to get cracking!
I’ll let you into a secret. I’m really good at helping clients to get on with the things they’ve been putting off and holding them accountable to taking action. But I go through all the same mental faffing myself when I want to make a big change in my business. This month I’ve started something new that I’ve been toying with for a while. I’ve been umming and ahhing; thinking it through; considering all the ways I could get it wrong; trying to come up with the perfect strategy and basically avoiding getting on with it! So I thought it would be…
Are Bigger Customers Always Better For Your Business?
Have you ever had that conversation with yourself about chasing bigger customers? About how much easier business would be if you could make the same amount of money (or more) but work with a lot less clients? Because let’s be honest, who doesn’t love that idea? It’s quite possible that working with bigger customers will actually become a necessity for you at some point if you’re going to scale your business. Because working with lots of small customers could mean that you reach your physical capacity a long time before you reach your income targets! In my experience though, it’s a lot harder…
Is winning an award on your wish list for 2019?
Do you ever feel like an unsung hero? Owning your own business can be a double-edged sword – especially when you’re the one writing all the cheques, keeping the ship running and fighting for the vision that led you to set up in the first place. Unlike passing your driving test, buying a new house or marrying your one true love, there’s no Hallmark card for keeping Dave in Accounts in gainful employment for the past 10 years! In the first flurry of your new venture, your bravery probably inspired a good pat on the back from your nearest and dearest; but,…
Active Cheshire’s top 10 tips for getting active at work
Now we all know we should be moving more, the benefits of being active are endless; helping to reduce stress, weight loss and generally living a happier and healthier life. There aren’t many issues being physically active won’t help. But let’s face it, you’re not alone if you feel that going for a run or the gym isn’t really your cup of tea! Or you feel low on time or motivation to do it. It doesn’t have to be an extra burden, so why not think about getting active where you spend most of your time… at work? So if…
How to Delegate like a Pro – Go Back to Basics!
When it comes to delegating, can you guess the one simple mistake you can easily avoid? Mmm thought not You see it’s so easy to overcomplicate everything these days that we often overlook the basics. Anyone can delegate. After all, it’s not hard. Delegating well, however, is a whole different story! Imagine you’re in need of a hotel for a business trip. You call your VA ‘Book me a hotel for tomorrow night in London’ Job done!. Delegated. Off your radar. Until you arrive at 9 pm and find you’re in a broom cupboard at the wrong end of town and they don’t even serve food that…
5 Classic Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Marketing is so important to a growing business isn’t it? But that doesn’t mean that it’s quick or easy, and it definitely doesn’t mean that every type of marketing you do will always generate results. If only it were so simple! If only you knew exactly which type of marketing was the right one for your business instead of having to waste time and money working out all the things that don’t work first! Just in case you’re in the same confused boat as bazillions of other people I speak to about this, I thought I’d share some advice about the most…
How Can I Get Everything Done?
Do you ever have one of those days, or even one of those weeks, when you feel as though you’ve worked absolutely non-stop? You’ve barely come up for air let alone eaten properly. But you still feel as though your to do list is a massive, insurmountable beast that will never, ever be finished! Firstly if this does sound familiar, don’t panic, it’s a bit of a natural side effect of growing your own business so it actually means you’re very normal. This is a challenge that I help almost all of my clients with though, so I thought it would…
4 Reasons Your Price May Be Costing You Money
I’ve been talking to a lot of people recently about the things they find most difficult about growing a business. And finding the right price for their service is something that keeps coming up again and again and again. It’s a real dilemma, and finding a way to define exactly what your price should be can feel like a minefield. So I thought I’d share some tips about the most common mistakes people make when setting their price. And I’ll give you a clue – most of these relate to being far too cheap rather than being too expensive! 1. Too…