“Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he’ll never move.”

Paulo Coelho

I love hill walking, and some climbing too. The thing is, you can only climb a mountain if you first choose one. You therefore have a starting point and a finishing point. Everything in between is the journey from where you are to where you want to be. But hold on – you need to get some climbing kit, be reasonably fit, know something about navigation, find out about the weather, research the climb, perhaps take someone with you for company or because they have skills you do not possess yet, work out how long it will take … the list goes on.

Let’s take a look at the average business. It really is no different from the climb. The climb is a great metaphor from which we can discern a blueprint or path that we can follow to achieve any goal we wish to achieve in life. For all the things that we really want to achieve we tend to follow this blueprint, but when things start to get complex, difficult or we feel out of our depth – we often completely ‘delete’ the rules of the blueprint.

My suggestion is that you get out the blueprint and start look at what is holding you back. First decide which mountain you want to climb. Why did you start up your business? A business is a vehicle that creates many things – employment, products and services for customers, relationships with the community – but the core purpose of any business is to generate sustainable profits and a healthy cash flow. Next, establish what is holding you back – lack of time, lack of certain business skills, inability to delegate and focus on those tasks that will move the business forward – list them all.

Finally, take action and start doing things differently. To get different results you must start to take different actions. Consider four areas in particular:

• • Financial and Management Information
  • Marketing
  • Operations
  • Systems
  • People
  • Time Management

Are you standing still waiting for things to change or improve before you decide to take action?

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. “

Pat Riley

How do you experience excellence? I think about Peter Jackson’s epic Lord of  The Rings Trilogy, Elton Johns rendition of The Lion King, the moon landing in July 1969, Eric Clapton playing Change the World, going and listening to concerts at my children’s school - the list goes on. I experience excellence on an emotional level. It can send a shiver down my spine, bring a lump to my throat, but above all else it makes me want to do better, to be better, not to be average or mediocre. In short it inspires me to be the best that I can be.

How do you create excellence? You have to want to be better. You need to have a passion for creating something that is the best it can possibly be. Don’t confuse the pursuit of excellence with the pursuit of perfection.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

Vince Lombardi

You need to be disciplined, and create habits and behaviours in everything you do. It becomes a way of life that touches everything you do, whether big or small.

Why should you strive for excellence? In business you should strive to create a culture of excellence that flows through the whole business. Whether it be your systems and procedures, your production standards, your accounting function, your marketing, your customer services etc – they must all be constantly raising the bar to exceed expectations, to be better than the competition. If they don’t, somebody else will. Excellence must become the new norm in the local, national and global marketplaces. Survival today dictates that you are better than your competition at everything you do – and that starts with pursuing excellence in everything you do!

Do you have a Passion for Excellence?

“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was visiting a friend recently- when I arrived he was watching television. He kept on adjusting his position in his chair until I suggested he move to what I knew was a more comfortable chair, and which had a better view of the television. His response – this was his favourite chair and he was used to sitting there!

We are creatures of habit – about 92% of what we do is habit. We can turn on the automatic pilot and cruise along without thinking too much. We create comfort zones out of these habits – this is where we believe that we are safe. The trouble is that these comfort zones can become places of pain from which there is no escape, because our habits can create our own self imposed prisons. As long as we perceive a threat from moving out of our comfort zone that is greater than the ‘pain’ of staying put, we will stay where we are.

When the perceived pain of staying is greater than that of moving we might just take a risk and move.

Have a think about your business. Do you need to move out of any comfort zones? If so, what is holding you back? Fear of failure, fear of success, procrastination? The best time to create change is when you want to, not when you need to – it is usually too late by then.

When you take control of your habits and behaviours rather than your habits and behaviors controlling you, you create energy and a new sense of self confidence.

Are you going to continue sitting in the same old chair?

One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself

The Golden Rule

I find that my most creative moments ‘drop in’ when I am relaxed and not focusing on anything in particular. So I was somewhat surprised when, out walking the other day, this phrase ‘helping hands’ dropped in out of the ether with an instant sense of what it meant.

We live in a time when instant and constant communication are the norm. People ‘connect’ more often and more openly, creating the impression of intimacy and caring. The emotion is however often only superficial, the acceptable face of the over committed, 24/7 culture we belong to. That is not to say that people do not care, many do – but we are working so hard to avoid crashing as we travel through life at the speed of light, that we often fail to lend a ‘helping hand’ to others. We are just too busy, too tired, and too focused on getting where we want to go.

So, I have a suggestion. I would like people to join me and try to offer a ‘helping hand’ to people that cross our paths and need some help. It might just be a smile, a word of encouragement, or a promise to make a call. We are all in this together, both in business and life – and as they say, what goes around comes around. The more that businesses help each other, the stronger the business community becomes, and the stronger the people within that community become.

It is a question about how authentic we really are – how are character stands up to inspection when tested by a request for that helping hand.

Will you pass the test?

“Success is waking up in the morning and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at – something that’s bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again.”

Whit Hobbs

I don’t know about you, but I’m always trying to figure out the best way to use my talents, enjoy using them – and get paid for using them.

The last few years have been hard for so many in almost avery aspect of life. Recession, belt tightening, uncertainty, fear, information overload, not enough time, too much to do …. the list goes on. If the Rule Book seems to have gone out the window – then how do we create order and move forward without constantly looking over our shoulder, waiting for the next unexpected surprise?

Hopefully that’s where I come in now. My focus and attention now is on teaching business owners how to survive and thrive in any environment, whether hostile or friendly – both personally and professionally. I show people how to be opportunity seekers – whatever happens.

As a business survival expert I’m not going to teach bush craft – but I am going to teach ‘business craft’. I practice and teach that craft using my philosophy – The SMART Way – focusing on achieving any goal with the minimum amount of effort without compromising values or excellence.

So, I’ve found my focus:

Updated my website – go check it out.

My blog is going to be about Surviving and Thriving Today -  The Smart Way. Come back and have a read.

By the way – what’s your focus?

“In the middle of every difficulty comes opportunity.”

Albert Einstein

There are risks involved in running a business. But at some point you decided that the benefits outweighed the risks. Those benefits are personal to you, but they are the emotional drivers that enable you to define your purpose and create your own personal vision. You can then set goals that give you clarity, focus, and direction – which in turn motivates you to keep moving forward.

As an employee you turn up for work each day. Your ‘work’ is generally structured for you. You perhaps work as part of a team, you have goals and targets that you are required to achieve in order to achieve an agreed level of performance. If you achieve the agreed performance you may receive a pay increase or even a promotion. Life is ‘secure’ within the structure of ‘work’ - in the sense that you do not have to be concerned about the running of the business. Life is ‘insecure’ in that you have no real control over the business and whether it prospers or not. Your job is to ‘work in the business’ and focus on using your particular job related skills.

As a business owner you still turn up for work each day – but the ‘work’ is not structured for you any more. You may well be the team! Nobody is setting your goals, nobody is setting your targets, and nobody is monitoring your performance. You can work yourself into the ground, but if you don’t make a profit you won’t stay in business. Life is no longer ‘secure’ within the structure of ‘work’ because not only are you doing the work, but you are also ‘running your own business’. You may well now have your own business that you work in, but it is now probably more ‘insecure’ and you possibly feel that you have no real control!

The key phrase here is ‘running your own business’. To reap those benefits you wanted from your business, to make life secure, to create real control – you need to have the mindset of an owner. You need to spend time ‘working on the business’. You need to define your purpose, create your vision, set your goals and set your targets. You need to plan, organise and prioritise your goals and your work. You need to create a structure that will allow you to juggle all the hats that you have to wear. That will involve learning new skills and delegating activities when you can. It takes self discipline but the rewards are there for the taking.

Nobody every said it would be easy to run your own business, but if you determine to become an expert at running your own business it can be both fun and rewarding.

So, if you need to change your mindset, don’t think about it - Do It Today!

The last ten days has seen unprecedented snowfalls and freezing temperatures in Scotland. The psychological impact on business owners should not be underestimated. People are weary – a recession, a new government, expected budget cuts, and business failures now exceeding business start ups – to name but a few.

So what can you do? You need to focus on the future and ensure that you have clear goals for moving your businessess forward. You need to take the time to look at your products/services and see what opportunites there are – you need to learn to innovate and differentiate. You need to take action on those activities that will  move your businessses forward.

But most of all you need to find the energy, the motivation and the desire to do what is necessary to succeed, and just keep on moving forward one step at a time. You need to help each other - talk to other business owners as you are all in the same boat, create master mind groups, and form strategic alliances with other businesses.

2011 is a new year – what are you doing now to make it a great year?

“If you do not seek out allies and helpers, then you will be isolated and weak.”
Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

Do I enjoy working for myself? Definately. I’m pretty certain that I am now truly unemployable – and I enjoy every day of it. The problem is that running a consultancy practice on your own has too much famine and not enough feast. So what is the solution? The answer for me has been what I call a natural organic progresssion. However hard we try to find solutions to problems, sometimes they just evolve over time, and not always when we are expecting them.

It is one thing to know that you cannot do everything yourself, but it is another thing to resolve the problem of wearing too many hats and having too many things to do. I teach time management, personal and business productivity and a number of other personal and business development skills, tools and strategies – but I recognised that if I wanted to take my business to the next level I had to develop some strategic alliances. A strategic alliance can be defined as – ‘a formal relationship between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organisations.’

You can combine and develop different and complimentary skills, accelerate the development and growth of your business – and you can start to leverage your own unique skills and talents.

Personally, I prefer the term strategic relationships. The alliances I form are with people who have similar beliefs and values, whose personal philosophy matches my own. Business should not just be about making money, it should also be about pursuing excellence, and creating value through the services we provide by releasing our potential through our skills and talents.

I have found that my strategic relationships enable me to achieve so much more, by challenging me, holding me accountable, and creating a synergy of talents that moves me forward at times in quantum leaps.

The way forward for me is to develop these relationships. What are you doing to move your business forward – and are you still trying to do it all on your own?

“Careful planning helps us maintain a sense of perspective, purpose and ordered priorities.” Stephen Covey

One of my favourite concepts comes from the book the E-Myth by American business guru Michael Gerber. The myth in question concerns the Entrepreneurial Seizure that persuades you that you must go into business for yourself. Gerber says that ‘you may have fallen victim to the single most disastrous assumption anyone can make about going into business. The FATAL ASSUMPTION is this: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.’

The myth is that most people assume that new businesses are started by entrepreneurs, whereas they are in fact started by what Gerber describes as a technician – someone who understands the technical work of a business. ‘The problem is compounded by the fact that everyone who goes into business is actually three-people-in-one: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician. Each of these personalities wants to BE the boss. But none of them wants to HAVE a boss. So they start a business together in order to get rid of the boss. And the conflict begins. There is a kind of war going on inside the owner of every small business. It’s a three-way battle between The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician.’

Part of the problem is that the typical business owner is only 10% Entrepreneur, 20% Manager, and 70% Technician – so we tend to end up juggling these three hats, and rarely do we get the balance right – especially in the challenging times we have encountered in the last couple of years.

So what is the answer? It will depend at which stage in the business development cycle you have reached. When you first start your business you will of necessity spend a larger percentage of your time, ‘working in the business’ - as the Technician, or doer – but not enough time ‘working on the business.’ As your business grows and evolves, you  need to spend more time ‘working on your business’ and less time ‘working in your business.’ You need to develop both yourself and your business – you need to bridge the gap between your Existing Business Model and your Ideal Business Model.

So who is winning with you at the moment – The Entrepreneur, The Manager, or The Technician?