Locking you away

Okay, so we’ve looked at where you’re at, we’ve looked at where you want to be. Now let’s look at perhaps the most crucial point – why are you doing it? The question that lays the cornerstone of our foundations is “why am I doing this? What do I really want to achieve?”

(You need to be able to write down some whys, and some, “What do I really want to achieves?” And it’s well worth taking time out periodically to ask yourself these questions and keep going back to them.)

And because of all the interruptions and hassles of everyday business life, you need to be focused on a daily basis. All these other hassles that go on around you knock you off course, and if you’re not constantly pulling yourself back in line, focusing on why you’re doing it, you end up in a totally wrong place. It’s no good getting to the end of your working life and saying, “Oh pants, we’re in the wrong place”, because it’s too late. But you do have the control, and what this is all about is taking control of what you’ve got. You do have the choice. You can be in the destination that you want. Focus on your why? What’s driving you, what’s it all for?

And it might help you if you remember that if other people can get to the destination that you’ve identified, if other people can show visible evidence of attaining what you are after, then you can attain it.

The only thing or person that stops you is you, and that’s primarily because you get knocked off course one day and you don’t pull yourself back on. You just carry on, and you know in this fluffy state of mind that you should be pulling yourself back in line but it’s not a habit yet. So you drift, and that easily then sets into big drifts and then after several years, well you’re miles off.

So please start pulling yourself back into line on a daily basis. Take notes now. Learn to write your thoughts frequently and just keep pulling yourself back, every day, every week, every month.

Business Basics

Business Basics

Heres an exercise for you.

Where are you now? What turnover and income? Is it enough?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where do you want to be?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are my goals? (simple, overview aims)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why am I doing this? What do I really want to achieve?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And every journey has a destination, an end to aim for, so the next area we briefly look at is where do you want to be?

Where do you want to be?

Okay, so now you’ve written a few thoughts on where you are now, let’s look at where do you want to be? We’ve got a ‘start’, so now let’s just see if we can loosely put an ‘end’ together. Where do you want to be? I know a lot of people have a very loose end goal. What do you have? Just a loose thought of what you’d like if it all ‘goes according to plan’? Or is it a precise and specific end point?

Well, as before, please just write down some thoughts on where you want to be.
Do you see yourself on a beach retired?

Do you see yourself owning a huge company but having a less active daily role?

Do you see yourself having sold out and not owning anything and starting another one?

Do you see yourself quitting this daily grind and actually then just doing what you really want to do which is have fun, play golf, fly aeroplanes, do whatever?

Do you have a hobby that you’d like to do, and work is a necessary evil at the moment? Do you see your business expanding nationally, internationally?
Where do you want to be?

(It perhaps isn’t easy to get your brain ‘muscle’ thinking beyond your usual daily thought level. You see, generally you will find that most day-to-day activity isn’t thought out. Most day-to-day activity you’ll get sucked along with what’s happening around you. And that’s given your brain a lazy get-through-the-day attitude. Your brain isn’t driving you, it’s just coping with what you’re doing. So when it comes to now driving forward, we are now having to think, and it doesn’t come naturally! You have an awesome computer between the ears…but it isn’t working at much of it’s capacity so let’s try hard here to stimulate it into overdrive. Train that muscle and it will soon become strong and fit as does any other physical muscle like your Bicep.)

And what does it mean – all this writing down where you’re at and where you want to be?

It means taking control and putting your brain into active gear, and then saying “no I don’t want that, I want this”. It means you stop drifting and start steering.

It means that as you develop these skills and re-train your ‘mind muscle’ you gain more and more control of your life and thus increase hugely the chances of getting what you want out of it. Don’t be lazy! Do not get swept along in an aimless drift!

It simple means that pushing, when it doesn’t come easy now, will directly impact what you get out of your life. It means it is worth it!

Stella Kench is fundraising for BRACE - Alzheimer's Research - JustGiving

Stella Kench is fundraising for BRACE - Alzheimer's Research - JustGiving

Posted using ShareThis

Where are you now?

Where are you now?

Where are you now in your business? What’s the answer to that? Well, how much are you making? Are you feeling buoyant? Are you feeling stale? Are you full of enthusiasm?, Are you knocking at the door, chasing it? Or are you sitting there thinking, “Oh my god I really don’t know how much longer I can keep this going?”

Where are you? Have you really asked yourself that question? Do you stop to think enough about your existence and your path? The truth is that many business owners feel they are ‘too busy’ to stop and think they just need to do! Well you and I my friend are going to stop a little and think so please ask some deeper questions. Where are you with your business? It is more about how you feel than what you’re actually doing.

Turnover? Yes, you need to know what your income is. Profit? Yes, that’s more important because turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, as we know. You must know that, but also you must know for example how many customers you’ve got? How many sales are you getting? How many sales do you need and at what level to achieve your objectives? What about the sacrifices you are making to operate your business in terms of time commitment…are you working too many hours? Do you want to slow down a bit? Is it all a bit manic at times? These are thoughts that you need to clearly talk through with me and share with yourself. If you write them down as a collection of answers you will see clearly a picture of where you are at…and this is absolutely so vital because if you see clearly where you are at it gives us starting point to spring from and also tells us what you want to avoid and leave behind as we begin our journey.

Just be totally honest, do you think you’re flying or are you drowning? Are you treading water but not getting anywhere and being frustrated at the effort? Where are you?

It’s not all about money…but hey, it is all about the money!! Are you making enough? If not, how much are you actually making for YOU? How much do you want? How do you see yourself making up the shortfall? Can you really make up the shortfall without adding also to costs?

And if you do that are you also adding to headaches?

How do you feel about ‘headaches’ like staffing issues? Administration issues?

And is your business known in the market? Are you always adding new business?

Are you really gathering new customers apace or are you very much painfully aware that customers aren’t coming in very fast these days? Or are you gathering new customers but painfully aware that they’re coming in at a very poor level so you’re not making the money these days?

Are you finding that some of your customers are moaning a lot and therefore the enjoyment factor’s gone and in the old days it didn’t used to be like this?

Are you finding that because of the customers you serve, maybe because they moan too much, your position in the market is wrong and you’d like to change your positioning.

(A good idea is to write – honestly, simply – just write down your thoughts as I ask you these questions. Use the ‘GOALS – Where Are You Now?’ section on the page overleaf.)

Are you dealing to the middle class of your market, the bottom end, or are you very exclusive at the top end?

I’m trying to get you to involve the feeling inside of it. How do you feel about where you’re at? ‘Where Are You Now?’ is about a lot more than just facts and figures. Tell me about your current clients, your existing business levels and all that goes with it.

Are you enjoying it? are you frustrated? Which bits do you still enjoy…and which don’t you like so much?

Do you think your positioning is right? Do you think your pricing is right? How do you compare to others?

Tell me about your energy levels. Are you tired most of the time? Has it ground you down or do you feel it gradually doing so?

What about your mental activity…are you awakened at night with excited thoughts and is your daytime a buzz with anticipation and vision? Or are you merely coping with everything that every day throws at you?

Do you worry? What about? Why? What do you think is the cure?

Is it that simple? Honestly! What do you think?

And as we talk, as you think start to formulate you ‘answers’ and write them down. It is a great habit by the way…as you talk with yourself and learn to open up, if you give yourself a creative outlet by writing the thoughts down your mind will suddenly feel like its being listened to and as that process starts to flow more regularly your mind will start to produce all sorts of amazing answers! Its true! You will actually tap into a vast resource that in fact will provide you with all of the answers to all of the challenges you’re ever faced with, so encourage it now by starting the process. Write down these thoughts as to where you are now. Write as fluently as you can, just get used to thoughts flowing out, because it’s a powerful habit.

Do you think you’re at the beginning of your business or approaching the latter stages? If you’re in what you identify as a ‘middle stage’, then how did you identify that? Is that because you just think how many years have I been doing it, or is it in terms of progress towards where you think you want to be? Are you planning an end? Do you see yourself retiring soon should finances allow?

What about your team? Do you need to gather around you a core team or do you have that but recognise you need extra bodies at a lower level to maintain higher volume levels? Is staffing an issue?

Tell me about your enjoyment levels…are you enjoying all of your roles? I mean, when your actually ‘doing what you do’ I guess you enjoy ‘it’ but do you? As much as you always did? If not why not? If you do but it’s the other bits you hate then write down what you like and don’t like. Break your current existence down into roles…tasks that consume your time perhaps, and just get knowledgeable about where you are at.

And it might seem I am labouring this point…it might seem that you just want to get reading about more hot tips to build your business, but as I said previously, I am with you in this mission to attain the result you want and please trust me, this is such a core and vital part of the future build that right here now up front I want you to get into the disciplines needed to see it to the end. Getting down into ‘boring stuff’ actually exposes the mind to real hidden motivations and without correct motivations you are not going to go very far.

And if I keep repeating something as I chat with you it is because again your mind works in a pretty simple way and when it comes to learning we learn things easily when they are just repeated time and time again! Remember when we learned nursery rhymes? How did we learn? By listening over and over again! So, if this is to work it is going to work because we break the ‘old mental pattern’ and break away from your current business operational methods and get into a new one that can give you better results…and to learn a new one we can help ourselves by repetition.

To help you, you’ve got to get the brain to think on a different level here, so ask yourself more questions…

How do you feel about where you’re at?

Are you satisfied?

Are you stale, are you full of energy?

And if you have thought that through and written some things down …

Please don’t worry about writing the correct answers either! There is no right or wrong…just start the process and then look at what you’ve written…you’ll find that it’s a little difficult to get the brain to start thinking and it’s probably not easy to know what to write, but please try. Just let it flow, bounce crazy ideas around in your head and give silly answers if that’s how they feel.

I know I’m firing a lot of questions at you and repeating them. I probably know that you want to just read on, thinking, “I know all of this.”

When you’ve finished scribbling, you will have a collection of thoughts that basically show you some good points about today and some definite not so good points that we want to move away from. We’re going on a journey in business development. The future is not going to equal the past. It can be anything you wish and if today’s business lifestyle and reward system isn’t giving you all that you’ve dreamed of (and I assume it isn’t or perhaps you wouldn’t be with me reading this now) then we have to know exactly what is not right about today’s business lifestyle, we need to understand what we do not like and for what reason…and then we can re create your business lifestyle to one that suits. As we have said this is a journey…and every journey needs a start point. Find yours.

WARNING! Remember, please, before you just read on…if you are wanting to simply read on then probably you are only thinking about this at the same surface level as you’ve become accustomed to and that will probably imply a level of application much as you’ve previously become accustomed to - if you do that then the ‘same as before’ in application will produce the same as before in result. Please, stop now and take a few minutes to review these questions, ask yourself more and examine where you are at with your life, your business life especially and write a clear account of what you like dislike and give yourself an accurate start.

Ben Kench - Focus On Creativity

Focus on Creativity

They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and when you think about it how

true that is. When the chips are down the mind can create all sorts of imaginative

escape routes. It follows therefore that when you challenge your mind to find another

way out of the cash flow challenge, there usually are ideas that can help.

For example the very structure of the sales process…do you ask for deposits? Do you

collect cash before delivery? Is there a system for bringing money in before you

spend out and thus prevent a cash deficit?

Deposits, as an example, are not common in the business to business world although

we all appreciate the need for them in any consumer lead sales environment. If we are

mentally attuned to paying a fair commitment up front for personal purchases then

why isn’t it a more common practice within the business to business market place?

I absolutely promise that if a business wants what you are selling then a reasonable

deposit is perfectly acceptable and doesn’t wobble the sale. I might also add…that if

you are thinking of the worst and believing that many of your clients would run away

when pushed gently for a little up front monies…why is that? If it is because they do

not have it then aren’t you running the much greater risk of the full debt being stacked

up to a client that maybe cannot pay at the end of the process either? Maybe this is

bad risk business and leaves you with an even bigger problem? Asking for money up

front isn’t rude and even gleans respect that you can be so strong with your terms of

sale. You have nothing to fear…the worst that anyone can say is ‘No’ and thus you

are in no worse a position. Just possibly many will see that it is a perfectly normal

request and you’ll have 20-40% of sales paying you some very needed and

appreciated cash flow. Please consider deposits more seriously.

What about cash on or before delivery? Well again it is common place in a consumer

sales environment – one wouldn’t expect to have anything without paying, so in

reality it isn’t that different in a business to business environment. The commonly

accepted thing though is 30 days credit – which as we all appreciate actually becomes

almost 90 days credit! Why don’t you take control of that and simply say that you

cannot continue to supply if their cash isn’t forthcoming within a more viable time

frame for you. If you are in a regular or repeat sales scenario than at least making sure

that clients keep paying you and don’t fall even further behind is critical or else once

again you might be in the risk of losing it all.

Just a thought on this issue…factoring or invoice discounting can be extremely useful

here. It will cost you and the commissions taken by banks and finance houses need to

be added to the sales costs, but in some instances it might be a very good shorter term

arrangement. Typically a finance house pays 85% or more up front…this is critical

when you are spending on a physical commodity as part of your service ( as opposed

to just a labour cost) as it at least allows you to pay your suppliers and staff at he end

of the month.

Explore the specifics for your business and ask several factoring houses - in today’s

competitive market they can be encouraged to be more competitive with their

offering. Check the amount they will allow you to extend credit to…make sure that it

is sufficient for 3 months trading…again I have seen clients caught out by factoring

providers that sound helpful but then limit the ‘debt’ to a set amount that is in fact

eaten up inside 4 to 6 weeks.

However the real thought with creativity is more along the lines of imaginative ways

to sell and package your product or service. Being creative with money management

is a good skill but creativity with selling is far more powerful.

Too often a business has a list of offerings and sees them merely as an available list

instead of being creative with packaged offers and encouraging either increase in

sales value or using the ‘offer’ to encourage other things such as speedier payment.

Lets face it, we’ve grown up since we were children with offers all around us

tempting us to purchase ahead of time…from cans of baked beans in packs of 24 to

larger tins of coffee or tea to 24 cans of lager just in case your quiet night in watching

the footie becomes a neighbourhood party! So why not create packaged offers with

our service or products? Use them to increase order values or even retain

clients…they aren’t going far from you if you have talked them into a future purchase

scenario…and this can be done with services too. What is to stop them agreeing to

your service for a year ahead if they sign a reduced deal rate? How about even

including extra months for the price and extra visits or bonus products? Creativity in

these areas – especially if you have a pretty rigid structure for pricing and delivery,

will help massively. Typically if you are much the same as your industry competitors

then these sorts of tweaks give you a valuable marketing edge.

If cash flow isn’t your concern because the margins on your products or services are

high, then going the other way and adding sales volumes by encouraging the delay of

payments or indeed re structuring the sale so that they aren’t in fact sold merely hired

can be beneficial. When you sit down with an open mind and think of the options

there are always several…the challenge is to open your mind to them as they aren’t

normally done and the first reactive brain impulse is to say it ‘can’t be done’. There is

no such word as can’t.

Creativity can also be shown in your marketing edge and stark images that have hard

hitting impact together with direct words when the target is more used to a veiled

subtle approach can make you stand out at just the right time. Creating a new

approach maybe that merely says a few home truths can have huge impact. If you’re

into dentistry or cosmetic enhancements try something like:

“Dirty Teeth Are Horrible!

People don’t like dirty and rotting teeth. They won’t say it to your face but they will

form an impression and walk away with their wallet. It doesn’t have to be that way.

You can have great looking teeth if you let Abc Dental Care help you.

Fact: better teeth equals better image equals opened wallets”

Simply show a rotten mouth next to a white smile. Let the pictures talk but let the

message be clear and to the point… this type of spending will show a tangible return,

do it today.

Take an hour today or tomorrow and think of a creative approach that ‘tells it like it

is’. I firmly believe that you can say something straight and to the point and be more

effective and that too often our thoughts on promotional materials are too gentle and

too vague. Hit me straight between the eyes…remember if I am not ever interested

because in that example I have great teeth already then it doesn’t matter because I am

not interested…and if I am vaguely interested you’ve just hit me harder and more

direct than all of the other gently cosmetically oriented ‘have a nice smile’

approaches ever have and you are the one that stands out and gives me a reason to act.

Get creative too with reasons why I should buy from you other than price. Give me

something unique – you! Make it personal! Let me know that it is you I get when I

invest…and that you can take me personally to where I want to go. Put more of you

in to the sales process and promise more of you

Ben Kench - control spening

3. Control Spending

Interestingly many people place spending restrictions at the top of their list.

Personally I do not believe that many of us are frivolous with our spending anyway

and thus I firmly believe that spending restrictions have a minimal impact and

effectiveness when dealing with quieter times. My thoughts here are about ‘control’

more than spending. I do not say stop spending…and I do not say stop spending on

marketing activity. Controlling spending in my book is to think before you go dashing

out for a meal with already friendly clients. Think a little before agreeing to spend on

the away-day with known associates and think before spending on another new

computer or electronic gadget that would be nice but actually is far from necessary ie

one that you have managed without for so long that another 3 months will not make

any real difference.

No, surviving a slowdown is not about stopping spending, and definitely not about

stopping proactive spending or marketing activity, it is merely a time not to be

careless. When cash is flowing freely take all of your friends out for meals but when

it might just dry up slightly ring them and wish them the very best. Control spending

when you have choice – because there will no doubt be occasions when you get

caught by a requirement to spend that must be dealt with. You might have a technical

issue that demands you fix it. You might have a vehicle issue that demands you fix it.

Spending then on that web enhancement or image makeover or brochure or desk or

telephone or similar could jeopardise the fixing a more vital piece of equipment that

went wrong without warning and this cannot be allowed to happen. Commit to

earning not spending.

It’s not just about controlling money, it’s more abut managing money. Think about

your business and money in all areas…holistically view all aspects of business cash

transactions. Think about stock levels. Manage money closely and make more effort

with drop shipping or promise delivery in 48hrs not ex stock so that your cash isn’t

tied up. Don’t immediately commit to paying the old terms or buying the usual

amount. Make a more informed decision and make your money work for you.

Don’t commit to larger orders when tempted with another level of discounting, buy

what you need and keep your cash free.

Think about sourcing new suppliers possibly from a foreign supply such as Asia or

Eastern Europe. Whilst it may not be your first choice maybe upon close inspection

items can be purchased that are as good when you really look around.

Think about buying slightly narrower range of product, only stock those that sell

quickly not all of those that might be called ‘popular’. Don’t splash out on staff

incentives instead spend time with them educating them as to some of the more

private side of running a business so that they don’t think you are just being mean.

So, as an exercise, have a quick look at all of the items on your ‘wish list’ eg new

software for artwork creation or a new photocopier or similar and then honestly ask

“If I had to manage without this for another 3 months what exactly would be the

impact? What might be the consequences? What else might have to be sacrificed if I

didn’t buy it? Or, if I did buy it anyway, what might be the knock on effect if then

something else broke down? (time to learn, other items that cannot be bought ). Very

often we work ourselves into a state where we imagine the worst and push ourselves

to spend when reality is it isn’t that urgent. Controlling spending when the cash flow

is tighter coming in needs a little more discipline but rarely means suffering.

Then as an exercise add another level…

Try calculating the absolute total amount that you could spend or would normally

spend if there were absolutely no restrictions whatsoever. Imagine that you were able

to buy what you wanted and it wasn’t cash that stopped you this month…(in a normal

working environment it is quite possible that you couldn’t find enough time to go out

shopping for all that you want anyway so actually time restrictions because of work

load are more of a factor than cash to spend)…but just try calculating what you might

spend if you could just go out spending.

Ok, now you have that figure…

What is the average sale worth to you? What is the average deal value?

Ok, so now, how many average deals do you need to cover all of that total spending

wish?

My guess is that actually your whole wish list is possible to be bought for only a few

thousand pounds and your average sale value is almost enough with just a couple of

sales!! Probably only 2 or 3 at a maximum are needed to furnish all of that wish list!!

And so controlling spending fades into significance when you compare with the

magic of focussing on a few extra sales. Push for 3 more and spend all that you like!!

Ben Kench

Increase Marketing Activity

Strangely enough, in a time of ‘slowing down’ or ‘recession’ many, many business

owners have as a first reaction that of ‘tightening the belt’. Almost instinctively they

become gripped by fear and look to ‘batten down the hatches’ and ‘ride out the

storm’. To me, that is wonderful because actually it leaves the market wide open for

those amongst us who are forward thinking. When everyone else goes quiet we can

storm ahead and capture market share. Slow downs are actually a time to step up!

Contrary to popular opinion the slowing down of a spending habit doesn’t stop people

spending as a total rule. Many for example even say to themselves “times are tough

and I don’t feel great so I’m spending to make myself feel better!” Holidays for some

are immediately scrapped as a luxury and yet some say “I need a holiday to keep me

going”. Because of this human variation it is suicidal to make generalisms and

assume that spending will stop. There will always be spending, so always be there for

them to choose you.

As a caveat though I shall clarify that when I talk to people about increasing

marketing activity I do not mean marketing activity that is advertising. Broadly

speaking, I do not recommend advertising and unless you can clearly show from

accurate measured return figures that an advert pays back, do not spend. If an

advertising person comes to you with a really good offer “last minute availability,

someone has cancelled” etc then my reply is always to question them a little. Try

throwing it back with questions like “Is this a truly excellent proposition? Can you

say that a lot of people will see it? Do you feel that it will generate a lot of

enquiries?”

When they say ‘Yes’ to those I simply say “well then you’ll be happy to have a back

end deal – if you’re confident that lots of people will respond then I‘ll pay double the

price that a normal advert would cost but payments made per response”. At this point

they usually go running…but if you can get a back end deal then take it.

What you should do is increase your activity.

Go to more and different network groups. Mix with a new and varied group of

people…not just business network groups but just groups of people who are in a

‘mover and shaker’ type of group for your particular business interest. It should be

the right peer group and it might well include entertainment activity where you will

be mixing with this group of people – whatever it is you need to ramp up the activity.

When it goes quiet make more noise!

Send more mail. Spend those hours into the evening instead of watching the TV and

write some creative email messages that demonstrate why you can solve their

problem. Illustrate and showcase. Set examples of case history down and send them

out to all those who might be in your arena. Never ever blame the lack of inward

response -make extra effort to go out and draw it into you.

Learn more intelligence about where your clients or prospect might be and increase

your activity in that direction. Sit down tonight and ask yourself “Ok, where might

my ideal clients spend their evenings?” What group might they be a part of? Who

might they also mix with?” Increase your thinking and questioning and then increase

activity in the appropriate area. Substitute spending money for spending time out in

new places or time spent learning writing and visiting.

It is a proven science that human beings feel safest when in a comfort zone…and

business owners or consumers that make up your target group feel safe and

comfortable when dealing with familiarity. Thus your obvious challenge is to make

them feel comfortable and familiar with you and your offer. You cannot expect this to

happen without activity as they simply will not know you, so a quiet time when many

businesses cut back, allows a greater exposure for you to step into. When it goes

quieter, and your prospect’s minds are less over-loaded with other competitor

choices, you can be forthcoming with a message that hits them frequently and well

constructed messages that appeal to their eyes and ears will see you grow and steal

market share. ‘Slowdowns’ are when other competitors slow down not when the

world does.

In addition think about the challenge from the perspective of a vendor such as an

exhibition organiser or a magazine publisher. As most people are sitting back and not

spending these two groups might be more ‘desperate’ than usual and a fabulous deal

can be had which makes you look far larger and more prosperous than you might

otherwise have been able to afford. These are exactly the times to systematically and

strategically do deals with exposure mediums and do deals with exhibition companies

etc and make a loud noise.

You’ll find that there is no such thing as a slow down for you…the spending might be

more thinly spread but as you become more widely spread the overall effect is

actually more to you! So, get busy and enjoy!

Ben Kench - time managment

1. Time Management Scrutiny

First and absolutely foremost our task is to efficiently use and spend the precious time

that we have. Time is the one commodity that you can never replace. Money can be

lost and regained and people can be lost and replaced but time cannot be re spent if

you discover later that it was ineffective. Where you spend it, on what and with

whom are supreme questions when the pressure is on to perform at a slightly higher

level.

You MUST question why you are doing what you are about to do and ensure that it

fits all of the immediate needs. If there is a tightening of people’s belts and a slowing

down in spending, it may well mean that you and your business need to meet with

more people before the required amount of them say Yes…and so fitting more people

in takes more time which needs to be ‘made’. Thus when it might previously have

been good enough to not question your activity, right now it is vital.

Also ask questions that direct your thoughts toward achieving an immediate return.

Yes, some strategic activity must be included in any ‘correct use of time’ overview,

but right now when the pressure is on try looking a little more immediate. Tackle

strategic, but tackle the strategic that is likely to also carry some immediate

advantage. So, for example, where you might have scheduled a meeting to discuss the

new computer system or the new website make-over maybe you might schedule

instead a call to 5 of your top clients to see if there might be add-on sales just begging

to be picked up. Or you might deliberately schedule some time on the telephone

making telephone calls to all of those people who you have met when networking and

promised to ring but then never got around to…and this time is taken from time that

was merely set to one side as ‘time in the office’.

As a possible ‘slow down effects the market confidence, and as this reduced

confidence leads some to reduce their spending, it might well be that you feel ‘the

pinch’ and the ripple effect is likely to impact your business significantly – thus

making those extra calls and deliberately using the time in a much more ‘direct sales

approach’ way becomes the difference between survival and death.

Asking really tough questions where you might not even like the answer is a powerful

skill.

Question yourself:

Is this going to generate me income now?

If I don’t do this, what will happen?

If I could guarantee income, what might I do?

Who could I contact right now that might lead to immediate (this month) business?

What might I produce or create that attracts business in now?

Where might be really useful to go so that I might ‘bump into’ warm leads or hot

prospects?

A really terrific idea as an exercise for you to do right now is to look at next weeks

diary (the next 5 working days from today) and simply question each and every

diarised activity. And then to look harshly at the space between diarised activity!!

(This is usually where the largest improvements can be found.) The time between

diarised activities is where the gap is, and this is the gap that swallows whole many

businesses.

Along the same lines as this discipline, I strongly suggest enforcing a more rigid

accountability for the time that you have spent or are planning to spend by using a

clear diary system. If you currently hardly use a diary because most of your time is

spent in one location, then I simply promise that using a diary will have a profound

improvement on your time consciousness and thus usage of time.. Even when you are

in the office and ‘doing the things that need to be done’ try making an appointment

with yourself to separate tasks into time frames and then allocate time in a block for a

certain task. Keep the task to that time as if it were actually physically a meeting. This

might at first sound a little crazy and be a little challenging…but I assure you it is a

most powerful habit. Accounting for your time makes you feel responsible for

it…and you will not like the feeling when you can clearly see to yourself that you are

wasting time and no one else is to blame for your position - especially when at the

end of the month your haven’t got the cash that you need!

Indeed to help you still further try making appointments with someone else to call

you at the time when you have agreed with yourself to finish. Ask a colleague to call

you and drag you out to another activity to keep the pressure on you whilst on your

appointment with yourself. I.E if you have allotted time for some organisation

internally and allowed yourself 2 hours between 1pm and 3pm then ask a colleague to

call you at 3.30pm and you will have to have been finished by that time.

Viewing time as simply the most precious commodity ever will also help you look at

the time spent when on the phone and in the car. Very, very often we see time

consumed over the telephone when frankly much of the call was just chat. Now I’m

not saying be miserable and never talk to friends or clients about anything other than

work, but I am saying that a discipline not to be distracted will help. Try saying things

to yourself and the person who you are calling such as “I can only speak for a few

moments as I have a lot to do and indeed I am sure that time too is challenging for

you…so I’d like to talk with you about xyz…”. This type of approach will make

certain that your call is brief and to the point and your client feels appreciative that

you also didn’t waste his time. As with so many things, the simple stuff is the most

profound.

Like, for example, when people come into your office and ask if you have a minute!

Never ever is it simply 1 minute long when they then download their problem or ask

your advice on something. So, try immediately telling them that “I do not believe

you!!! One Minute is never all that you want! If you have a challenge that you’d like

my input on, please firstly go away and consider what you might do to overcome this

challenge and then come back to me with two of your best solutions”.

This type of management approach is not new but rarely adopted. Sending the

enquirer away to figure out for themselves the challenge is the only way to break the

time drain in future months. The employee will most likely already have a good idea

as to what to do so when they tell you the two solutions you merely say “and which

one do you think is the best?” Again probably they will have a favourite and indeed

usually they will in fact have sorted out the challenge and come up with the best

solution. You can listen and quickly then confirm that they have made the right

choice…but this listening took a moment – probably actually the minute they first

asked for…and the employee has learned that they can find answers for themselves.

This type of technique is professional management and this type of discipline makes

you feel like you have more time…and as we‘ve said, more time to make more

money is what is needed when less people are buying.

Finally on the time consumption subject look carefully at your drive time. Today’s

traffic challenges are legendary! Even the simplest of journeys can become a hurdle

and any city based journey ridiculously draining. Personally I do not drive into a city

unless there really is no other choice or that the meeting is absolutely vital ‘face to

face’. My challenge to you is to challenge yourself along the same lines. Just because

you have always gone to a meeting and it is a comfortable habit to say “I’ll pop over

and we can talk it through” question whether that is in fat the best possible option. I

might suggest that much of what you can talk through can in fact can be talked

through…and a telephone is all that is needed to talk things through with! You might

even recognise that technology is amazing these days and visual telephone calls using

such wonders as Skype and a web cam are not only possible but excellent and really

do help you still make contact without the huge traffic drain. Honestly, most of the

time we are our own worst enemies as we stick rigidly to the ‘way we have always

done it’, the way we have always operated – it’s us that we don’t want to move

forward. Many, many times a Skype or similar video call can be actioned and no

impact lost.

So, consider please the resource of time and how it’s usage might be impacting our

potential for business success.

The No1 habit to be refined and focussed upon is managing you and your time. Along

with this, the habit of skilful questioning to ascertain quickly the exact situation and

then based on the correct information make a more informed choice as to what to do...

these will help you get more done in less or similar time frames. Especially when the

going gets a little tougher this will save your commercial life.

mad life

So, here is the world as I see it today...bloomin mad! I love life and the challenge of work and all of that, but I sometimes hate the crap that goes with human nature. Employing people that just don’t do what you ideally like... I know that we are all different but I am prone to moaning about a poor attitude. I sadly just believe that it is about attitude...a keenness to work, a desire to just do everything you can to get the job done...a desire to do your very best and if in doubt ask for help or guidance...I mean just simple things!!! But it isn’t common. It is more common for employee mentality fuelled by this pathetic government driven culture of apportioning blame somewhere else...and working to a rule...and working as though you are always on the defensive against ‘tyranny’ of employer abuse....

Anyway by the same token I love life and love people and know that some days I am a pain in the proverbial! I know that at times in my past I was possibly a cause of challenge for my employer....and I know that what goes around comes around...so its just a little moan!

Rising to the challenge of life, winning when it feels like you shouldn’t...that is why I get up everyday with bounce and look forward to the day...as I am today. Bring it on Life!

Wow! Sunshine...isn’t it fabulous! And doesn’t it spread such a fantastic vibe....
Good old UK is pretty gloomy weather wise most of the time and so I guess we hanker after sun more than most – but it really does make you feel better doesn’t it? Today I have had the pleasure of actually being out in the glorious weather instead of admiring from a desk and the mood is high...and so I believe that transmutes into improved performance...because mood and performance are so closely linked...and that made me think...are hotter climates richer because of this feeling better making production higher? Does Spanish sunshine make Spain more productive and wealthy? If France is bathed in more rays, then are they graced too with more wealth? But then how come African continents and South America and then again most of the ‘developing world’ is actually bathed in sunshine and poorer!! How does that happen?!! Maybe then we in England work harder because the weather is so pants every time! Maybe the rain and the cold drive us indoors and drive us to work and so maybe we are better off??
And frankly I am now so confused I am going to drink a hot British tea and sit in my cool air conditioned car and ponder the impact of climate change on the chances of motorcycling in the dry more often actually being a benefit!!

So, here is the world as I see it today...bloomin mad! I love life and the challenge of work and all of that, but I sometimes hate the crap that goes with human nature. Employing people that just don’t do what you ideally like... I know that we are all different but I am prone3 to moaning about a poor attitude. I sadly just believe that it is about attitude... a keenness to work, a desire to just do everything you can to get the job done...a desire to do your very best and if in doubt ask for help or guidance...I mean just simple things!!! But it isn’t common. It is more common for employee mentality fuelled by this pathetic government driven culture of apportioning blame somewhere else... and working to a rule ... and working as though you are always on the defensive against ‘tyranny’ of employer abuse ....
Anyway by the same token I love life and love people and know that someday I am a pain in the proverbial! I know that at times in my past I was possibly a cause of challenge for my employer....and I know that what goes around comes around...so it’s just a little moan!
Rising to the challenge of life, wining when it feels like you shouldn’t...that is why I get up everyday with bounce and look forward to the day...as I am today. Bring it on Life!

The Business Booster - Ben Kench

I am presenting my Business Booster main event today and tomorrow. Looking forward to helping 13 business achieve a better business. It is not always about the big chances but the little chances make a massive different.

What are your goals?

Okay, so if you’ve written some things, what are your goals?

Perhaps one goal might be to sell the business and get the Ferrari. One goal might be to get the Ferrari, the private plane, the beach house in four destinations around the world! How big do you want your goals to be, where are they? What are they? Do you have goals? Some people have limited goals, some people have great big goals, what are yours?

Tell me, how do you feel when thinking of goals? Do you feel silly sometimes? Many people if they’re honest feel awkward. If you do, then please recognise that feeling and let’s consciously smash that restrictive thought. You see, you’re telling yourself you “don’t believe you can have it really”, that awkward feeling tells the subconscious you don’t want it – and then you’ll never get it! So please work at this, especially if you find it hard.

I’m not saying how much you should write, I just want you to flow. Please try and get it to flow. Don’t just write a word or two try describing in full your lifestyle with colour and clarity. It isn’t merely ‘live in Spain, own a Ferrari’ it is a full description of the villa, its location, its gardens, your full lifestyle and the other toys you have alongside the Ferrari. You’ll find actually that when you do start to get it to flow, then you’ll find that you can’t stop it. But just initially let’s get used to thinking a lot deeper.

Again let me share a thought with you as we’re talking: all the people that ‘make it’, all of the ‘success stories’ and the entrepreneurs or stars of film and music…one absolutely 100% common thread is that they all knew what they wanted and were 100% focussed on getting it. There wasn’t any half hearted approach ‘well if I get it it would be nice’. There isn’t any talk of possible other careers just in case. The ones that ‘make it’ are the ones that accept nothing else as an option and are so totally committed and focussed on their goal or outcome that the universe accepts that’s what they’re are going to get and gives it to them. Clarity of focus and absolute driving energy towards a solid visualised goal are number 1 pre-requisites to your success so if you aren’t really sure about what you want, if you only have vague ideas and ‘it doesn’t really matter as long as you’re okay’ then you must do some work in this area now. DO NOT read on and DO NOT try to trick yourself that as you go along all will become clear like some road to Damascus type experience. It wont so stop now and examine where you want to be, what goals you’re aiming for and then once they are clear we can work together on how to get them.

I will remind you once again of our journey analogy…we had to think a little deeper than normal perhaps when examining where we are at now and the questions I prompted you with helped, but to continue the type of analogy…a ships course must be plotted…we know only too well what happens when it isn’t clearly charted and steered with focus – it ends up on the rocks and sinks. Fact. Your business journey is exactly the same…without clear written focus and a charted path you will drift aimlessly getting nowhere and one day run into rocks and sink. Get your mind focused and let’s look at this goal area.

Again to help you I have included a sheet to work on with questions to prompt thought but please do not read on and skip the work…that’s what you’ve always done remember!!
And if you can identify some goals then the natural question to follow is:

Where do you want to be?

Okay, so now you’ve written a few thoughts on where you are now, let’s look at where do you want to be? We’ve got a ‘start’, so now let’s just see if we can loosely put an ‘end’ together. Where do you want to be? I know a lot of people have a very loose end goal. What do you have? Just a loose thought of what you’d like if it all ‘goes according to plan’? Or is it a precise and specific end point?

Well, as before, please just write down some thoughts on where you want to be.
Do you see yourself on a beach retired?

Do you see yourself owning a huge company but having a less active daily role?

Do you see yourself having sold out and not owning anything and starting another one?

Do you see yourself quitting this daily grind and actually then just doing what you really want to do which is have fun, play golf, fly aeroplanes, do whatever?

Do you have a hobby that you’d like to do, and work is a necessary evil at the moment? Do you see your business expanding nationally, internationally?
Where do you want to be?

(It perhaps isn’t easy to get your brain ‘muscle’ thinking beyond your usual daily thought level. You see, generally you will find that most day-to-day activity isn’t thought out. Most day-to-day activity you’ll get sucked along with what’s happening around you. And that’s given your brain a lazy get-through-the-day attitude. Your brain isn’t driving you, it’s just coping with what you’re doing. So when it comes to now driving forward, we are now having to think, and it doesn’t come naturally! You have an awesome computer between the ears…but it isn’t working at much of it’s capacity so let’s try hard here to stimulate it into overdrive. Train that muscle and it will soon become strong and fit as does any other physical muscle like your Bicep.)

And what does it mean – all this writing down where you’re at and where you want to be?

It means taking control and putting your brain into active gear, and then saying “no I don’t want that, I want this”. It means you stop drifting and start steering.

It means that as you develop these skills and re-train your ‘mind muscle’ you gain more and more control of your life and thus increase hugely the chances of getting what you want out of it. Don’t be lazy! Do not get swept along in an aimless drift!

It simple means that pushing, when it doesn’t come easy now, will directly impact what you get out of your life. It means it is worth it!

Where are you now?

Where are you now in your business? What’s the answer to that? Well, how much are you making? Are you feeling buoyant? Are you feeling stale? Are you full of enthusiasm?, Are you knocking at the door, chasing it? Or are you sitting there thinking, “Oh my god I really don’t know how much longer I can keep this going?”

Where are you? Have you really asked yourself that question? Do you stop to think enough about your existence and your path? The truth is that many business owners feel they are ‘too busy’ to stop and think they just need to do! Well you and I my friend are going to stop a little and think so please ask some deeper questions. Where are you with your business? It is more about how you feel than what you’re actually doing.

Turnover? Yes, you need to know what your income is. Profit? Yes, that’s more important because turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, as we know. You must know that, but also you must know for example how many customers you’ve got? How many sales are you getting? How many sales do you need and at what level to achieve your objectives? What about the sacrifices you are making to operate your business in terms of time commitment…are you working too many hours? Do you want to slow down a bit? Is it all a bit manic at times? These are thoughts that you need to clearly talk through with me and share with yourself. If you write them down as a collection of answers you will see clearly a picture of where you are at…and this is absolutely so vital because if you see clearly where you are at it gives us starting point to spring from and also tells us what you want to avoid and leave behind as we begin our journey.

Just be totally honest, do you think you’re flying or are you drowning? Are you treading water but not getting anywhere and being frustrated at the effort? Where are you?

It’s not all about money…but hey, it is all about the money!! Are you making enough? If not, how much are you actually making for YOU? How much do you want? How do you see yourself making up the shortfall? Can you really make up the shortfall without adding also to costs?

And if you do that are you also adding to headaches?

How do you feel about ‘headaches’ like staffing issues? Administration issues?

And is your business known in the market? Are you always adding new business?

Are you really gathering new customers apace or are you very much painfully aware that customers aren’t coming in very fast these days? Or are you gathering new customers but painfully aware that they’re coming in at a very poor level so you’re not making the money these days?

Are you finding that some of your customers are moaning a lot and therefore the enjoyment factor’s gone and in the old days it didn’t used to be like this?

Are you finding that because of the customers you serve, maybe because they moan too much, your position in the market is wrong and you’d like to change your positioning.

(A good idea is to write – honestly, simply – just write down your thoughts as I ask you these questions. Use the ‘GOALS – Where Are You Now?’ section on the page overleaf.)


Are you dealing to the middle class of your market, the bottom end, or are you very exclusive at the top end?

I’m trying to get you to involve the feeling inside of it. How do you feel about where you’re at? ‘Where Are You Now?’ is about a lot more than just facts and figures. Tell me about your current clients, your existing business levels and all that goes with it.

Are you enjoying it? are you frustrated? Which bits do you still enjoy…and which don’t you like so much?

Do you think your positioning is right? Do you think your pricing is right? How do you compare to others?

Tell me about your energy levels. Are you tired most of the time? Has it ground you down or do you feel it gradually doing so?


What about your mental activity…are you awakened at night with excited thoughts and is your daytime a buzz with anticipation and vision? Or are you merely coping with everything that every day throws at you?

Do you worry? What about? Why? What do you think is the cure?

Is it that simple? Honestly! What do you think?

And as we talk, as you think start to formulate you ‘answers’ and write them down. It is a great habit by the way…as you talk with yourself and learn to open up, if you give yourself a creative outlet by writing the thoughts down your mind will suddenly feel like its being listened to and as that process starts to flow more regularly your mind will start to produce all sorts of amazing answers! Its true! You will actually tap into a vast resource that in fact will provide you with all of the answers to all of the challenges you’re ever faced with, so encourage it now by starting the process. Write down these thoughts as to where you are now. Write as fluently as you can, just get used to thoughts flowing out, because it’s a powerful habit.

Do you think you’re at the beginning of your business or approaching the latter stages? If you’re in what you identify as a ‘middle stage’, then how did you identify that? Is that because you just think how many years have I been doing it, or is it in terms of progress towards where you think you want to be? Are you planning an end? Do you see yourself retiring soon should finances allow?

What about your team? Do you need to gather around you a core team or do you have that but recognise you need extra bodies at a lower level to maintain higher volume levels? Is staffing an issue?

Tell me about your enjoyment levels…are you enjoying all of your roles? I mean, when your actually ‘doing what you do’ I guess you enjoy ‘it’ but do you? As much as you always did? If not why not? If you do but it’s the other bits you hate then write down what you like and don’t like. Break your current existence down into roles…tasks that consume your time perhaps, and just get knowledgeable about where you are at.

And it might seem I am labouring this point…it might seem that you just want to get reading about more hot tips to build your business, but as I said previously, I am with you in this mission to attain the result you want and please trust me, this is such a core and vital part of the future build that right here now up front I want you to get into the disciplines needed to see it to the end. Getting down into ‘boring stuff’ actually exposes the mind to real hidden motivations and without correct motivations you are not going to go very far.

And if I keep repeating something as I chat with you it is because again your mind works in a pretty simple way and when it comes to learning we learn things easily when they are just repeated time and time again! Remember when we learned nursery rhymes? How did we learn? By listening over and over again! So, if this is to work it is going to work because we break the ‘old mental pattern’ and break away from your current business operational methods and get into a new one that can give you better results…and to learn a new one we can help ourselves by repetition.

To help you, you’ve got to get the brain to think on a different level here, so ask yourself more questions…

How do you feel about where you’re at?

Are you satisfied?

Are you stale, are you full of energy?

And if you have thought that through and written some things down …

Please don’t worry about writing the correct answers either! There is no right or wrong…just start the process and then look at what you’ve written…you’ll find that it’s a little difficult to get the brain to start thinking and it’s probably not easy to know what to write, but please try. Just let it flow, bounce crazy ideas around in your head and give silly answers if that’s how they feel.

I know I’m firing a lot of questions at you and repeating them. I probably know that you want to just read on, thinking, “I know all of this.”

When you’ve finished scribbling, you will have a collection of thoughts that basically show you some good points about today and some definite not so good points that we want to move away from. We’re going on a journey in business development. The future is not going to equal the past. It can be anything you wish and if today’s business lifestyle and reward system isn’t giving you all that you’ve dreamed of (and I assume it isn’t or perhaps you wouldn’t be with me reading this now) then we have to know exactly what is not right about today’s business lifestyle, we need to understand what we do not like and for what reason…and then we can re create your business lifestyle to one that suits. As we have said this is a journey…and every journey needs a start point. Find yours.

WARNING! Remember, please, before you just read on…if you are wanting to simply read on then probably you are only thinking about this at the same surface level as you’ve become accustomed to and that will probably imply a level of application much as you’ve previously become accustomed to - if you do that then the ‘same as before’ in application will produce the same as before in result. Please, stop now and take a few minutes to review these questions, ask yourself more and examine where you are at with your life, your business life especially and write a clear account of what you like dislike and give yourself an accurate start.