More Profits, More Time, More Freedom

Get Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

The Action Factor

He stood on the summit. The view was breathtaking. He had dreamed of standing here for so long.

The last 1,000 feet he had been on autopilot – one step at a time, one narrow path to be followed, absolute focus on his goal. To stand on the summit.

After he had climbed his first ‘big’ mountain, a friend had asked how he had done it. His answer had been simple, ‘One step at a time’. That’s one of the reasons he liked climbing. Once you decided to climb a mountain you knew where you were going and what you had to do. All that held you back was your ability to keep take the actions that lead to the summit.

If you look at the mountain it won’t get any closer.

If you stand still the mountain won’t get any closer.

If you close your eyes and hope it will get closer – it won’t.

His friend tapped him on the shoulder – ‘Time to get back down’. He took a last look and started back along the path – but it was not just a path down to the high camp, it was a path along which each step took him towards his next goal. He could already see himself standing on the next summit.

The Right Actions Create Energy and Results

There is too much going on in our lives and in our businesses. We don’t have enough time to get everything done, and what we do get done tends to be fire fighting and the busyness of everyday life. We spend too little time on that narrow path that will lead us to our real goals. Our actions tend to take us anywhere but to the summit. Our focus is in the wrong place.

Believe it or not, you can change what you focus on, and follow that narrow path. All you have to do is change your mindset.

What you focus on you move towards. You can choose what you want to focus on, and therefore what actions you take.

If you want to loose weight, and there is a bar of chocolate in front of you. The choice is simple. Eat it or don’t eat it.

It really boils down to how badly you want something – what price are you willing to pay to achieve your goals?

The choice as always is yours.

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:         a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web: www.how2businesscoaching.com

More Profits, More Time, More Freedom

Get Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

The Business Growth Seminar

I am going to run a two hour interactive seminar  in March about business survival and growth for your business in today’s challenging times.

I’ll let you know about the 10 Steps that I follow.

The seminar is aimed at those business owners who are committed to success and willing to go the extra mile to survive and grow their businesses. The seminar will last for an hour, and there will therefore be plenty of time to meet with other like minded business owners.

My Philosophy = Your Results

The great Jim Rohn was known as a business philosopher, and whilst I am not comparing myself with him, I like to think that I don’t just write about business purely in terms of trading goods and services to make a profit. I like to think that in my own way I am also a kind of business philosopher, and that what I try to teach people about business is also how we can create something that is a reflection of who we are. That reflection is about creating something that is sustainable in the long term, that adds value to peoples lives by what we do, and perhaps, if we are lucky, also leaves behind some form of legacy.

Running a business is so much more than the individual elements of profits, cash flow, margins, ROI, balance sheets, Key Performance Indicators, time management, leadership, personal development …… the list goes on. It is about how you combine all these elements, like a master chef, and create the perfect recipe.

We live in worrying times, and for most business owners, survival or growth seem to be the only options. Ticking over is no longer an option – it is a slippery slope to business failure. The reality is that survival will depend on maintaining market share and – GROWING.

What to do next?

Whilst I obviously want people to get to know me better, I also want to attract a particular niche of business owner – those who are committed to success and are willing to go the extra mile.

Please let me know if you are interested in coming along to the seminar by using the contact details below.

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:         a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web: www.how2businesscoaching.com

More Profits, More Time, More FreedomGet Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

The Five a Day Rule

It’s just like the doctor telling you to eat your five a day to keep healthy. If you want your business to be healthy, apply the same principle to anything that needs to be done. Just like the tree, if you keep hitting a problem, a project, or a task every day, you will create the result you want.

5 Finance Tips

Money flows in and money flows out of a business. Your ability to understand, manage, and develop this ‘flow’ is a critical factor in achieving business success. In order to change anything you not only need to be able to measure it, you need to be able to understand it – and then take the right action to correct it.

1. Keep your Accounting Records up to date

Whether you use an accounting package (advisable ) or some other method, you should as a minimum be producing monthly figures in order to review your performance and take correction action when appropriate.

2. Develop a Financial Budget to track your progress against your goals

A financial budget forces you to document where your business is going and when.

3. Reconcile your bank account monthly – include all outstanding receipts and payments that are not on your bank statement

A Bank Reconciliation is the cornerstone that links your profit and loss account, your balance sheet, and your cashflow.

4. Review an Aged Debtor Report at least monthly

It is not the end of the job because you have sent out an invoice. You need to know what is owed to your business and for what period of time it has been outstanding.

5. Have a system in place to chase monies due

Too many businesses go under because they do not have a robust system for ensuring that all monies due to the business are collected on time.

Start today and do five things that will move your business forward.

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:         a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web:          www.how2businesscoaching.com

More Profits, More Time, More FreedomGet Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

The Five a Day Rule

It’s just like the doctor telling you to eat your five a day to keep healthy. If you want your business to be healthy, apply the same principle to anything that needs to be done. Just like the tree, if you keep hitting a problem, a project, or a task every day, you will create the result you want.

5 Marketing Tips

Customers are the lifeblood of your business. You need to focus on getting a continuous stream of new customers, AND retain and sell again to your existing customers. It’s not rocket science – the more people you talk to that are in your target market, using the right marketing strategies and tactics, and then consistently follow up, the more you will convert into customers. In this instance the statistics don’t lie - it really is a  Numbers Game.

1.  Define exactly who your Target Market is

These are the customers who are most likely to buy your services, and are distinguishable by certain characteristics as defined by their demographics and psychographics.

2.  Define the Demographics of your Target Market

Gender, age, income, occupation, education, household size, and stage in the family life cycle.

3.  Define the Psychographics of your Target Market

Similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles.

4.  Create a Database of all your Past and Current Customers

5.  Find a reason to rebuild a Relationship with each of the Customers in your Database if it does not already exist

Start today and do five things that will move your business forward.

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:         a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web: www.how2businesscoaching.com

More Profits, More Time, More Freedom

Get Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

The Rule of Five

There is a great story behind the success of Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield’s Chicken Soup for the Soul books.They struggled to get the book published and then they struggled to get anyone to buy it. A teacher gave them this advice – ‘If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp axe, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.’

So Hansen and Canfield developed what they call ‘The Rule of Five’. Every day they did five specific things that would move them closer to their dream of selling books. Five radio interviews, five copies sent to editors for possible reviews, giving a seminar to a least five people …. press releases, talk shows, petrol stations that might sell their book – the list goes on. It was a lot of effort – a minimum of five things a day, every day, day in day out – for over two years. As a result Chicken soup for the Soul has sold 112 million copies in fort-one languages.

Not bad for Five a Day!

What You Can Do

I like to think of the ‘Rule of Five’ as ‘The Five a Day Rule’. It’s just like the doctor telling you to eat your five a day to keep healthy. If you want your business to be healthy, apply the same principle to anything that needs to be done. Just like the tree, if you keep hitting a problem, a project, or a task every day, you will create the result you want.

Later this week I will give you some ‘Five a Day’ tips on Marketing and Finance.

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:         a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web: www.how2businesscoaching.com

More Profits, More Time, More Freedom

Get Your Business Back on Its Feet

The Smart Way

Leverage

The ability to influence a system, an environment, or yourself – in a way that multiplies the outcome of one’s efforts without a corresponding increase in the consumption of resources. In other words, leverage is the advantageous condition of having a relatively small amount of effort yield a relatively high level of returns.

I remember having to help my Dad lift some old paving stones – boy were they heavy. He was an engineer and surprise, surprise he had a solution to the problem. Rather than use brute strength he explained that we would use a lever. He showed me how to use a length of flat iron and a block of wood to raise the stones to a point where we could safely lift them correctly. We multiplied our strength with the minimum of effort and the maximum return. We applied and maximised what  I call the Leverage Factor.

The problem is that we rarely apply the concept of  leverage, and if we do, we do not always maximise the benefits. The quantum leaps in technology over the last decade should have made life so much easier for us all,  both personally and professionally. In terms of  time poverty we should all have so much more time to go and do the things that we really want to do, but the reality is that we have  just filled up the extra time we have gained with more ‘things’ to do. We continue to be busy fools.

The few really successful people know how to ‘leverage’ and maximise the use of that  extra time to their advantage.

In business one of the key Levarage Factors for me is the ability to Think Smarter – Work Smarter. I look at every aspect of the business – tasks, projects, processes, systems, marketing, products, services .. the list is endless – and I try to think how things could be done better, faster, simpler, and with less costs. The goal is always to use the minimum effort to achieve the maximum return without sacrificing quality, excellence, or integrity.

Action Exercise

Take 15 minutes out of your busy schedule and find one area in your business to which you could apply the ‘Leverage Factor’. It could be as simple as calculating how many hours a week you spend on emails, and deciding to cut that time by 30 minutes a day. That’s 120 hours a year, or three and a half weeks. Now that’s what I call leverage!

To your success.

Alistair

PS

Please feel free to share any comments you may have.

Telephone: 01875 830568
Mobile:       07981 107914
email:        a.summers@how2businesscoaching.com
Web: www.how2businesscoaching.com