Time to Move On

This has been a very easy blog to learn on, to use and to build and I am a little sad to leave. I've decided to keep all the posts here for you to read - especially since you've taken the trouble to visit!

If you'd like to follow me to my new home, I'd be delighted to welcome you there too. There will be the same mix of news and tips, plus the occasional rant (you didn't really think I'd stop did you?) so I hope you'll pay a visit to the new blog which is at: http://www.frontline-results.com/blog/blog_index.html.

See you later ......

A key question

This morning has been one without focus. As a result, I haven't got through half of what I wanted to! Some papers I needed weren't where I thought and I kept getting distracted by trivia. My mood wasn't good.

Then the phone rang (doesn't it always!). The caller quickly identified themselves and launched into what they wanted to say. I'm afraid I gave them rather short shrift! My mind was still on the missing papers and how far behind I was falling. While I wasn't rude (at least I hope not), I did actually utter those immortal words "Don't call me, I'll call you." (I can't quite believe I actually said that out loud).

How different things might have gone if the caller had asked me the one key question that I believe everyone should learn: "Do you have time to talk now?" and waited for the reply. I might have felt more kindly disposed if I had been given the option to hold the conversation at another more convenient time.

Oh well, enough of that... now, where ARE those papers?

Let's get refocused

It's nearly the end of the summer holidays and I can already see lots of invitations coming through for networking events, seminars and workshops. Business owners I've spoken to are starting to ramp up their marketing - and I'm no exception!

I've been kept busy over the summer both working with coaching clients and on new products. I'm consciously moving closer to my new business model - it's starting to get exciting now!

From next week I'm delighted to have several projects lined up with Southern Entrepreneurs, starting with leading a small Mastermind group and then, at the end of September, I've been asked to hold a Stress Management workshop.

Next week also sees the launch of a brand new joint venture that I'm really looking forward to and will announce here when it goes live!

As a result of all the preparation involved in these activities, blogging has rather slipped through the net lately! But, with the end of the holiday season, I know that all business owners will be refocusing on their targets for the rest of the year. I will resume more regular blogging and hope that the posts will continue to provide tips and inspiration for you!

Taking the plunge!

When I started my first business, as is so often the case, I didn’t have much money to spend on anything.  Coming from the big budgets of a global corporation, it was quite a challenge to learn how to get maximum impact for minimum outlay!  I still get great satisfaction from finding a ‘good bargain’.

However, this frugality has also backfired on me and held my business back.

You see, I believed it was wrong to spend much on training to learn more about business.  But the free or low-cost seminars and workshops just left me increasingly frustrated because they didn’t give me the whole story!

I’d been following several very successful business owners whom I admired, hearing them tell about the importance of investing in their personal development, and that they spent as much as they could afford (sometimes even more than was comfortable) on hiring a coach and training.

At some point a couple of years ago, it dawned on me that my belief was actually holding me back from success.  It wasn’t a case of waiting until I could comfortably afford to invest in training at all!  The training had to be done first, and then the business would be more successful.  Not really a light bulb moment, more of a ‘Duh, why didn’t I think of that before?’ moment!

All the time I was thinking small and penny pinching on my personal development, I was in effect saying that neither my business or I deserved more.

As soon as I took the plunge and started investing serious amounts of time and money in training and coaching for myself, that’s when I began attracting more business.  I was even able to get some of the training paid for under a government initiative!

Business is still growing, and I’m still investing in it!  Never again will I be a ‘cheap-skate’ because I now know that my business is worth the best.

Forward planning means you can act quickly

One of the many benefits of working for myself is that I can plan to do exactly what I want to do when I want to do it, pretty much most of the time.

During my corporate career, I was well-known for organising my workload so that deadlines were met.

It’s second nature for me to forward plan, although I know that isn’t the case for everyone.

Some of my business coaching clients have protested “Oh, I much prefer to be spontaneous, it’s more fun that way!” when I suggest they plan ahead. I shudder when I find out that some of these people don’t even have written business or marketing plans before they start working with me.

I find that having a very clear plan of what needs doing and by when, puts me firmly in control. It allows me to build in contingency time in case of any unexpected ‘surprises’ and that in turn reduces my stress levels.

Forward planning has enabled me to take on new projects while keeping on top of existing ones. I can see at a glance what needs doing and by when.

I’ve noticed that very successful business people use forward planning and organisation to help them take advantage of new opportunities. They may do this themselves or delegate it. The point is that by having their finger on the pulse of their business, they are able to act quickly when they need to and not jeopardise their current commitments.

If forward planning is good enough for them, it’s good enough for me!

What’s your best forward planning tip? I’d love to know.

Good manners cost nothing

I don’t know about you, but that saying was drummed into me from a very early age. As a result, I’ve always tried to treat people courteously, and remembered to say please and thank you, in all forms of communication. I don’t see why an email, phone call, or even a text message should be any different.

This week I’ve experienced two occasions when manners were missing or ignored. The first time was an email from an organisation for whom I’m giving a talk in October. The message read:

“Louise, Can you distribute the flyer to your own networks?”

That was all. No please, no thank you, just the words above. The message wasn’t even signed! Bearing in mind that I’m not being paid for speaking, I’m afraid the wording of this email has left me feeling disinclined to help out with marketing.

The second experience was a phone call that started OK and went downhill fast. The caller was someone I’d met over a year ago at a networking event. I keep in touch with him through my Ezine but he hasn’t contacted me since that first meeting.

The conversation started with him reminding me about his commercial finance business. He went on to give an example of someone he had recently helped and then offered me a percentage for introducing any of my contacts who resulted in business for him.

At that point, he apologised and said he had to take another call. After a few minutes he came back on the line, apologised again and we continued our conversation. Almost straight away, he took another call and left me holding on again. When he returned, I commented that he sounded busy. His reply that ‘if only they were business calls’ surprised me and I’m afraid any inclination to help out a fellow networker completely faded away when he took the third call – and left me holding, yet again. Our conversation finished soon after that.

Even though the interruptions were quite short, I feel quite strongly that they shouldn’t have happened at all. I don’t use the ‘Call Waiting’ service. When I’m speaking with someone, I honour their time by giving them my uninterrupted attention for the duration of the conversation. I suppose it depends what impression you want to give!

Am I being old-fashioned and over-sensitive? I don’t know. But I do know that good manners buy quite a lot of goodwill and they still cost nothing!

Recharge your batteries, recharge your business

It’s the holiday season and, for a lot of people, the pace of life and business is slowing down a bit.

This is a good time to recharge your batteries, and recharge your business. Have you ever noticed how we tend to put ourselves at the bottom of the list when it comes to satisfying our wishes?

Unless you’re practicing to be a martyr, there really isn’t any point in doing this. Ask yourself “How would I treat myself if I were my best friend?”

You’ve all probably heard the advice given to parents travelling by air with small children. In the event of the oxygen masks dropping down, you put yours on first and then your child’s. It’s not selfish, it’s common sense. What use are you going to be to your child if you pass out? And what use are you going to be to others if you don’t take care of yourself first?

Your batteries of energy and love are going to be empty if you are constantly giving. I know, it goes against everything we’ve been conditioned to believe but it does make good sense. Just think how much nicer a person you will be when you look after you first. You won’t feel resentful because your needs aren’t being met, you’ll have more energy and love to give and more to spend on your business.

So how are you going to invest in yourself? What is going to recharge your batteries? Perhaps you want to enrol on a course at college to gain new skills. Or maybe you're thinking of making changes to your business that are going to involve extra hours spent working.

Such investments are going to affect everyone you share your life with and it’s important you have support so you’re not trying to do too much. Yes, your family may have to do more in the way of chores than before but they will benefit from a much happier and fulfilled you. Don’t wait until the ‘time is right’ – because it never will be.

Perhaps your investment is something smaller, but just as important to you. It could be taking a couple of hours pampering yourself in a bubble bath, or curling up with a good novel once a week, making a date with some friends for lunch, playing a round of golf or going to the gym.

You could set up a chart for every member of your household and each plan your own investments to get your individual needs met.

Investing in yourself doesn’t have to cost a lot in terms of money but the gains from recharging your batteries are beyond price.

© Louise Barnes-Johnston

I’ve started so I’ll finish …..

A client was telling me recently about how she had spent time sorting through the piles of paper in her office during the previous week.  She was able to throw away (or recycle) much of it, and was proud of her newly empty desk.  “I feel as though my mind has been de-cluttered as well”  she said “there’s room now to take on some new projects.”

It’s in the nature of business owners and entrepreneurs to love new ideas.  They relish doing the research, planning what (and who) needs to be involved and getting the project off the ground.  They also usually have quite a clear picture of what the finished product or service will ‘look’ like.

Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of great ideas falter.  You see, when people are great are starting new projects, they’re often not very good at finishing them!  Once the initial excitement and buzz of a new idea has faded, in their minds they’ve already done all the work and are ready to move on to the next new idea!

Other people have a lot of trouble getting started with a project but are great at working through the detail.   They get tremendous satisfaction from seeing the finished article and hate to leave any loose ends.

(Whether you’re a starter or a finisher, your projects could benefit from my special Summer Strategy meeting.)

In an ideal world, the ‘starters’ will have all the ideas and pass their projects over to ‘finishers’ to see through to completion.  Everyone would be very happy doing what they enjoy most.

But if you’re an ideas person who doesn’t happen to have anyone to do the finishing, you’re going to need to learn to de-clutter your half-finished projects so that you can make room for those new ideas you crave!

Not only that, you could be delaying earning money from them too! 


Louise Barnes-Johnston
'Trainee finisher'

Customer Service 101 – Don’t P*** off your loyal customers!

I recently responded to a special offer from British Gas to service my central heating boiler. Being a somewhat cynical soul, I checked out the website first and the offer appeared to be genuine.

Rather than book via the website I decided to call and, hopefully, speak to a ‘real person’ in case I had any questions. My call was quickly directed to a customer service person (only one set of options to go through!) and I told the young lady in question that I wanted to book a date for one of their engineers to come and service my gas boiler for the special offer price.

I was asked if I was aware that by paying a very modest monthly sum, I could insure for parts replacement and labour. Saying ‘Thanks for the information, but no thanks’ politely, I repeated my request to book the special offer boiler service as advertised.

I was then asked how I wanted to pay. This came as a bit of a surprise to me and I naively said that I didn’t expect to have to pay until after my boiler had been serviced. This apparently was not possible, despite my asking if being a loyal customer for nearly 30 years counted for nothing?

I decided against taking up the special offer.

There are 3 areas where I believe British Gas need to look at their customer service:

1. By all means upsell to another (higher price) product but please, not until after you’ve made the initial sale!

2. Asking for the money before even checking for a convenient appointment date is just being greedy!

3. Wanting the money upfront from new customers is understandable. Wanting it upfront from existing customers is an insult. If it isn’t possible for the engineers to take money, why not add it on to the next bill?

I realise I’m in danger of being labelled a ‘grumpy old woman’, but at a time when customers have so many supplier choices, it isn’t rocket science to realise that loyalty needs to be rewarded. Keeping existing customers happy is a lot cheaper than trying to find new ones. But then, perhaps that isn’t an issue for British Gas?

(Since writing this post Centrica, the owner of BG have announced profits of £1bn and BG tell us there is to be a price rise of 35% - I rest my case.)

Don't forget to pack your pen!

When you go on holiday, I really hope that you don’t take your laptop or business mobile phone with you.  ‘Getting away from it all’ should be exactly that.  The whole purpose is to have a rest from your business, enjoy time with the family and recharge your batteries.

Those of you who have followed my newsletter for the last few years will know that I feel very strongly about the importance of switching off and de-stressing.

And now I’m going to contradict myself – but only a little!

One of the side benefits of switching off from day to day business life and all that comes with it, is that you will often find answers to problems you’ve been wrestling with – and been too busy to give enough attention to until now. 

You may also find that, as you relax by the pool or walk in the countryside, ideas for your business pop into your head quite unexpectedly.

Now, you simply have to capture those ideas and write them down while they’re fresh in your mind.  If you delay, it will be too late and the idea gone, possibly for ever.  I’m sure you’ve had flashes of inspiration before, perhaps in the middle of the night?  I bet that by the time morning came you struggled to remember it.

So I recommend that, when you’re packing your bucket and spade, you also pack a small notebook and pen that will fit easily into your pocket or handbag – just in case you get that great idea that’s going to make your fortune! 

Why a 'Jack (or Jill) of All Trades' can damage your business

Many years ago, before I became self-employed, I worked for a large corporation.  They were going through a period of ‘streamlining’ and as a result weren’t replacing staff who left their employment. 

One day I overheard my then boss (the finance director) having a rather heated discussion with the personnel manager.  Personnel wanted to redeploy a member of the department.  This employee was an excellent Purchase Ledger clerk (looking after all the invoices from suppliers).  Personnel wanted to move them to Credit Control (where they would be chasing customers for payment) and couldn’t understand why there should be a problem!

In small businesses, the business owner is usually keen ('though a bit anxious) to take on their first member of staff and finally get some help.  This is such a big step for any small business and needs to be carefully thought out.

A client I worked with recently had employed someone to look after incoming phone calls and her team’s online diaries.  This employee, (we’ll call her Susan) was very efficient and the office was soon running like clockwork.  My client (we’ll call her Barbara) decided that Susan would be the ideal person to take on responsibility for making phone calls to get appointments for the sales manager.

Soon after that, the wheels started to come off the efficiently run office.  Barbara was puzzled and said to me “I don’t understand it, Susan’s always been so good at her job.”  I suggested to Barbara that while Susan was probably very happy to answer the phone to incoming calls, making outgoing calls was a very different matter.  The penny dropped.

As the owner of a small business, you need to work to your strengths and employ people to do the work that you’re either not very good at or don’t enjoy doing. 

When you employ someone especially for their particular skills, let them do what they’re good at and everything will be fine.  Just don’t expect them to be as capable (or willing) with tasks outside their skills and experience. 

Where do you get your best ideas?

Where do you find you get your best ideas?  I’ll bet it’s not when you’re looking for them! 

I was  working with a client the other day on his marketing plan for the next 12 months.  He said something that made me realise he hadn’t read the notes from our previous meeting. 

So I did what any good coach would and asked him a couple of questions to find out why.  For me, it was one of those ‘duh’ moments (not as good as an ‘a-ha’ but often just as illuminating!).  This client does not like reading, so my carefully written notes had passed right by him.

Without saying anything, I started to use a Mindmap to illustrate the strategy we were discussing.

The difference was quite amazing.  My client became quite animated, asking lots of questions and making some suggestions of his own.  It was a very productive meeting.

Afterwards, when I came to put together the notes from our meeting, I drew a mindmap to summarise (using software from smartdraw.com). 

With written reports it can be easy to ramble on with too many words.  Mindmapping helps you get straight to the point!

What do you have in common?

I had lunch with an old friend a few weeks back. We hadn’t seen each other for over 10 years and I was really looking forward to catching up.

When we used to work together, back in corporate world, we had been really good friends. We knew the same people, watched the same TV shows, went out for drinks – nothing special, just the usual things that friends do. We shared a lot over the 5 years or so we worked for the same company.

After we’d done the polite bit, you know ‘you haven’t changed a bit’, asked about respective families, and gossiped about mutual colleagues and where they were now, the conversation started to run dry ….. and we were still waiting for our meals to arrive!

I couldn’t believe how little we now had in common. He didn’t seem to have moved on at all – it was as if he was stuck in a time warp (I swear he was even telling the same old jokes!). I know he won’t be reading this so can safely say that, unfortunately, I found his company really boring! Oh dear.

As business owners we have a lot to learn and need to keep on learning and changing if we’re to succeed. Those around us must find it unnerving when we suddenly develop what seems like a completely new vocabulary.

It’s important to remember why you’re in business – who you’re working so hard for. Take care to keep communicating with the people that matter in your life. Involve them if they want to be involved. It won’t matter how successful you become if you lose precious relationships along the way.

For my birthday a couple of weeks back, I had two cards with computers on them – do you think they were trying to tell me something?

Have I got Article Marketing all wrong?

To keep up to date with the best tips and tools to share with my colleagues and clients, I subscribe to lots of newsletters and use Google Alerts to tell me when my favourite bloggers have posted something new.

Now, I only discovered blogs just over a year ago (I know that’s very late!) and really love the wealth of information being shared by these generous people.  I do tend to be a bit of a book and blog worm (is there such a thing as a blog worm?) and read voraciously!

I also enjoy sharing what I’ve learned about growing a small business and write articles for my Ezine ‘Competitive Advantage’ that comes out every two weeks and shorter articles more often for this blog.

But I’ve noticed that I’m doing things a bit differently from most other bloggers.  They use the article in their Ezine, post it on their blog and submit it to several article directories and do all this more or less on the same day.  Because I didn’t realise things were done this way, I felt a bit short changed at first when I had subscribed to both their Ezine and their blog, as I’m getting the same articles twice – now I just unsubscribe to one (usually the newsletter as it cuts down my inbox).

My reasoning for writing different content is that I like my Ezine subscribers to be the first to read new articles – after all they have been good enough to sign up and many have been with me for years.  I don’t submit these articles to other sites for about a month, and often don’t post them on my blog at all.

This does mean quite a bit of extra writing and I’m often tempted to take short cuts.  But I want my loyal subscribers to benefit first and stay with me because I provide plenty of high value content.  Perhaps I shouldn’t be expecting them to sign up to both?

I’d really value your opinion on this.  What do you do and what do you expect?

That Friday Feeling

I love Fridays but I’m really not sure why!  It’s the one day of the week that is somehow different from the other six.  There’s a subdued feeling of excitement, the anticipation of possibilities still unexplored.  There’s a lightness of spirit – have you ever noticed that people smile more on Fridays?

 
When I was a child, Friday meant the end of a week of school, no homework for a couple of days, and no need to get up early.  Two whole days of play!

As I grew up, Friday meant getting ready to enjoy the evening out with friends (is Friday still the best night for going out?).  It didn’t matter that I had to get up early for my Saturday job – I never seemed to need much sleep back then!

During my corporate career, Friday meant looking forward to a lie-in for the next couple of mornings and a chance to recharge batteries.  Friday evenings with my (then) husband were no longer spent on the dance floor; instead a meal out or a take-away was the weekly treat because it meant no cooking!

Now that I have my own business, Friday no longer means the end of the working week.  I often find myself checking emails at the weekend, networking on facebook, and catching up with reading blog posts and newsletters that I didn’t get time for during the week.

So Fridays have always been a bit special to me.  Then I started thinking that it would be great to feel like that every day of the week.  And it’s absolutely possible!  Using some simple NLP (neuro linguistic programming), you can recall a pleasurable experience from your past and apply all the feelings associated with it whenever you want.

But I think I prefer to leave Friday as a special day and enjoy that ‘Friday Feeling’ – just like today! 

What do you think?  Do you love Fridays too, or do you have a different favourite day of the week?

© Louise Barnes-Johnston

How do you think?

Recently I’ve taken on several new projects that need to be created almost from scratch. Also, because the deadlines are either at least a couple of months away or not even specified, I’m having to be disciplined and set some imaginary completion dates.

I’ve always considered myself to be a good planner of projects, to be logical, pay attention to detail and, indeed, I’ve prided myself on completing ahead of time on many occasions. This was very useful during my corporate career.

Those experiences and skills have also served me well in my own small business, except in one rather important area.

When it came to creating a new product, my old ‘linear’ way of thinking didn’t seem to work too well. I found that my paper lists became very messy as I thought of new points to add in, and that logic wasn’t terribly helpful for new products that didn’t exist yet (except in my head!).

It was obvious that a new way of thinking was called for. Mindmapping, devised by Tony Buzan, has been a real revelation. It enables you to let your brain take a more circuitous route and capture more and different thoughts than if you were simply writing a list. One of my local networking contacts, Andrew Wilcox of Cabre, is using Mind Manager software in very innovative and effective ways in businesses.

Now, whenever I start a new project, I plan it out as a mindmap first. The lists come afterwards. More creative – and even more new ideas!

How do you think?

Who's on your side?

It can be a lonely life as a business owner. If you came from an employed background you were probably used to chatting to people while having a coffee or across the office. When you work from home who is there to share the trials & tribulations, or to celebrate getting the order? Your disinterested cat - if you're lucky!

It's so important to have a supportive network in place when you work for yourself. Family and friends will usually try hard to understand - be sure to keep them in the picture if you know you can rely on them. There's nothing worse than pouring your heart out and hearing "If it's so hard, why don't you get a proper job?" I know - that's happened to me.

Networking with your peers can be an invaluable source of support but make sure you steer clear of the 'doom and gloom' crowd! They will suck all the enthusiasm out of you and leave you feeling like packing everything in. Misery loves company - but it isn't a club you have to join.

Search out people who will be your cheer leaders, who will encourage you to 'go for it' and motivate you when the going gets tough.

One of the biggest compliments I hear from my coaching clients (and one of the reasons I so love what I do) is that they leave our meetings feeling totally motivated and ready to take on the world!

Life, and business, are tough enough - but with the right support, the challenges are easier to deal with. Make sure yours is in place - ready to cheer you on to to success!

Routines can get too comfortable

Talking to a client yesterday, she suddenly said:

"I want to find a different way of doing this! I don't want to be the same as everyone else!"

She got me thinking about how we tend to search for a tried and tested way, rather than striking out on our own. There are both pros and cons with this.

Since that conversation, I've been having a look at how I work in my business.

I try to spend a little time each day learning something new. It's one of my routines. Just like checking emails at certain times, replying to client queries within 24 hours, writing the newsletter twice a month. Routines are needed to make sure nothing important is forgotten. But some routines can also stifle change, and often they're only there because they're comfortable.

To be absolutely honest - some of my business routines are really only there because I've been too lazy to change them. No longer! I'm going to look at each routine closely and assess if it needs to be changed to benefit the business.

What routines do you have in your business that are in need of an overhaul?

Will rising fuel costs affect business networking?

Over the last couple of months, I've been spending more and more time developing my networking skills online - with Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Plaxo, and Twitter. The series of blogs earlier this month looked at similarities and differences between online and offline networking.

As someone whose clients have come primarily from offline networking, I am a strong believer in the power of building relationships and networking has always been an incredibly cost-effective marketing tactic.

However, it is also time-consuming (depending on how many events you attend). And now, there's another factor to consider. With rising fuel costs, people are thinking twice before getting into their cars. They want to cut down the number of journeys they make so as to reduce the number of visits to the petrol pumps.

As I work from home, I don't have to go out every day. I'm now choosing to use my car less often and blocking together appointments whenever possible. While this has always been a good time management tool, it's now become a tool for financial control as well!

How are the rising fuel costs affecting how you do business? Please feel free to comment.

In case you missed these

I'd like to make it a regular feature on this blog to share websites and other blogs that may be of interest to fellow business owners. It's impossible to find time to read through all the newsletters and alerts out there, I know I've become very selective these days. Time is precious with every minute accounted for! So, without further ado, here are this week's offerings:

MiniCards £9.99
Buy this on MOO.com

Moo.com Some unusual mini cards, postcards, notes, stickers, etc. at reasonable prices for small quantities. The standard designs are good, or you can customise them. I'm thinking of putting something together for a product launch in a couple of weeks.

Caroline Middlebrook has written a very comprehensive guide on using Twitter which is great for beginners and for business owners wanting to use this tool for marketing. Some useful pointers on 'Twitetiquette' - there's a whole new language awaiting you with Twitter! (If you want to 'follow me' I'm at www.twitter.com/LouiseBJ )

Emyr Williams of Bytestart is one of the stalwarts of small business information. The site contains literally hundreds of articles for start-ups and growing businesses alike. There's a newsletter too, that I've been getting for some years, as it provides updates on changes in company law and other regulations.

Say No to 0870 is an excellent resource (I've used it twice this week). If you're like me and don't like paying up to 10p per minute for calls to UK non-geographic numbers, go to this site. Type in the 0870 number and you'll find out if there is a geographic alternative number listed, that is cheaper to dial. You can also contribute by sharing any alternative numbers you know of. This site also covers 0845, 0844, 0871 - as well as 0800 and 0808 numbers that can be costly for mobile users.

I hope this is helpful.