Let’s talk about you and me That got your attention didn’t it, If I had said let’s talk about numbers then 68% of you would have skipped to the next post, and that’s a pretty accurate number because, with enough data everything is pretty predictable so yes 68% of business owners mostly ignore the numbers. What’s more the 28% that do look at them are generally looking at the wrong ones. Numbers are half of Read more…
If not now then when This is the question I find myself asking clients a lot, having a Strategic plan with agreed tactics and defined actions with a diary of when things should happen is a critical element in achieving the results you want, but it is pointless if the actions don’t happen and trust me if you don’t have a way to keep your self accountable the actions will often not happen. In fact, Read more…
Actions & Tactics This is something that I feel is not covered enough, tactics are supposed to be the actions you take to achieve your objectives, so taking action or being busy is often confused with doing what needs to be done (tactics) it often seems like they are the same thing, the problem arises when the actual actions you take are not the ones you planned to take. Look at it this way, have Read more…
The Advice is Out There This is a great book by Keith Cunningham on how to make better decisions and minimise risk in business, I suggest every business owner should read it, and yet here’s the thing, most of you won’t. Let’s talk about that for a moment shall we, we have all done dumb shit, I know it, you know it and so does everyone who knows you, and still I am prepared to Read more…
I often see businesses using the same tactics day in day out and complaining they don’t see the growth they would like, they do the same things and expect different results. There is a saying about that, I am sure. That is why planning is so important, through proper preparation and planning you create a strategy to deliver the growth and or results you want and then you need to decide what tactics you will Read more…
Why Goals Don’t Work Why goals just don’t work. That’s a little unfair, goals do work when they are created, focused on and actioned in the right way, but it is fair to say that in my experience and in the studies, I have seen over the years somewhere in the region of 80% of goals are never achieved. It is more accurate and fairer to say just goals do not work. I believe the Read more…
The Well Formed Outcome The starting point of all achievement is knowing what you are trying to achieve. I often say. “If you want to achieve ANYTHING you need to know what ANYTHING looks like”. There is a great technique used in NLP called the “The Well-Formed Outcome” this is something you want, rather than what other people may want, crucially it is what “you want” not want you think you should say you want Read more…
This is the only path to growth Why is it that so many small businesses stay small. It’s not about hard work, every business owner is busy, it’s not because they lack commitment, they don’t, it’s not a lack of ambition a lot have that in spades. They are all good at what they do, and I have yet to meet a company that professed to give crap customer service. It’s not their prices, most Read more…
Its all about value Now at least half of you reading this just disagreed with that statement and you would be right to disagree, you see it would be more accurate to say that nobody buys on price alone, they buy on the perceived value of what they are getting for the money (price) they are spending. Nobody expects to pay the same for a Rolls Royce as they do for a Dacia and yet Read more…
With repetition to bring retention A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, no wait wrong story, let me try again, a long time ago when I was involved in a project to turn a household name from an organisation that was losing over £500m a year into one turning an operating profit of over £500m in less that 5 years there was a leader in the business who had “Passion and Pace” Read more…