A tale of two breakfasts

I’ve spent most of this week working on a brand new workshop I’ve been asked to present later this month to a group of business owners. It always seems to take me longer than I think to put them together, probably because I keep adding things!

On Wednesday I made a delightful early morning country drive to Alton, where I was due to speak to a breakfast group about Networking. As I hadn’t made that particular journey before, I set off in good time and arrived far too early, just after 7 am – with the meeting due to start at 7.30. Unsurprisingly, no-one else from the group was there yet.

The hotel staff were so friendly and helpful – especially considering the early hour. They made sure I had everything I needed while I waited for the rest of the group to turn up. I spoke to the duty manager, and two of the housekeepers and they were all so cheerful!

After the talk (and a very tasty breakfast - cooked to order!) I went back to reception, someone else was on duty by then but she was just as friendly. I said that I had enjoyed my visit to their hotel because the staff were so nice. She looked a bit surprised, but very pleased. Sometimes we don't praise when things go well.

Contrast that experience to the week before. I was invited to a breakfast meeting being held at a local golf club. When the breakfast was served, it was already 'plated' - with fried egg, bacon, sausage, hash brown, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and two pieces of fried bread! Now, while I'll agree that this is good value for money, I don't like baked beans and, to be honest, there's no way I could manage more than half of what was on the plate.

When I asked if it was possible to just have some scrambled eggs and mushrooms I was told that 'all the eggs had been cooked'! As a compromise they gave me another plate - just without the baked beans.

What a contrast in service and willingness to please. I know few people like being on 'breakfast duty' but it makes such a difference to have a cheerful start to the day.

Should Networking Carry a Health Warning?

Ever since I first started in business, nearly 10 years ago, I’ve always networked to spread the word about what I do. It’s great fun and I’ve met lots of very nice business owners (some of whom have even become clients!)

Don’t get me wrong, I love meeting and getting to know people but unfortunately I think I’m coming down with ‘Networking Fatigue’ – a relatively new and little-understood syndrome whose primary symptom is a sinking feeling when you check the diary and find you’re booked to go to yet another networking meeting (it seemed like a good idea at the time).

Other symptoms of ‘Networking Fatigue Syndrome’ include: Repetitive 60-seconditus (a compulsion to repeat your 60 second introduction every time you meet someone new); An inability to find any pressing businesses issues that need to be resolved by group therapy (leading to feelings of total inadequacy because your business is running smoothly); and a sore throat as the result of having to shout during speed networking (this is accompanied by a ringing in the ears because everyone’s shouting so much).

When I heard this week about 3 new networking groups starting up in my area, I almost had to resort to lying down in a darkened room until my heart stopped pounding.

Fortunately, there is some relief in sight and possible cures to the ‘Networking Fatigue Syndrome’ are imminent as the result of painstaking research by some dedicated individuals. Although these cures have yet to be proved in clinical trials, a sneak preview of the papers revealed the following suggested remedies:

- Avoid copycat groups – you don’t want to forget where you are, it’s embarrassing.
- Balance your meetings – too many full English breakfasts slow down your productivity and increase your waistline.
- Pin your 60 second introduction to your jacket – that way you don’t need to keep repeating yourself.

And, in order to minimise your symptoms (should you believe you may have contracted this syndrome), ensure that you heed the following important health warning:

DO NOT, under any circumstances, stop going to Networking events or the ‘Networking Fatigue Syndrome’ may mutate into the far more virulent ‘Networking Withdrawal Paralysis’ – which will have a devastating effect on your business.

Keep watching this blog for the latest business breakthroughs!

Is there a 'Secret' to Business Success?

Over the years, I've heard this question asked many times. Some people are quite firmly in the 'no' camp, and are of the opinion that success is the result of hard work, luck, who you know, etc. Other people really do believe that a 'secret' exists and that they will be successful, just as soon as they find it!

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing) is sometimes called the study of excellence. It teaches us that, if we want to do something, anything, really well, we need to find someone who is already doing it very well, study what they do and then do the same. It's a bit more involved than that but, to me, it's the nearest thing I've found to the 'secret' of success.

I think that when people are looking for a 'secret' to business success (or success in anything), what they're really looking for is a short cut. They want a way of going from zero to millions without too much effort. (Why else would so many people buy lottery tickets at such outrageous odds?).

The funny thing is that, the people I observe who are convinced that a 'secret' exists, spend an awful lot of time and effort looking for it. If they had spent that time and effort working on becoming excellent at what they do, they'd probably be successful by now! But of course, that might be too much hard work ......

When 'FRE*E'' isn't worth it

Whatever I do in my business - from one-to-one coaching to delivering workshops - I always try to deliver the best value for money that I can. I want to deliver more than the client is expecting.

Now, I get invitations to lots of 'fre*e' business start-up and growth seminars, so naturally I go along. I want to meet the other delegates - they are usually in my target market. Not only that, I like 'fre*e' - don't you?

The expression "There's no such thing as a fre^e lunch" could have been made for these seminars! Yes, you get quite a lot of information - presented by people who want to promote their own company services. However, after attending a few of these seminars, you start to notice that while you get the 'what you need to do' you don't get the 'here's how you do it'. Some are better than others.

I find this really frustrating and a bit of an insult to everyone who has given up their time to go along. So many of these business owners really want to learn, they really want to work hard on their businesses and succeed. But these seminars are really only tasters or teasers. The main event won't happen unless and until you part with money you don't have yet.

Another saying comes to mind - "You get what you pay for."

Does this happen to you?

I had a meeting in a hotel lounge area this morning and arrived a few minutes early. While waiting for my contact to arrive I did a bit of people watching. There were a couple of men talking at a nearby table - business men, judging from the suits! One of them took several calls on his mobile phone, saying 'excuse me' each time. His companion started to look a bit fed up after the third call and I don't blame him.

I know one of the benefits of having a mobile phone is that we never have to miss an important call but surely, when we are meeting with real, live people, it is considerate to give them our full attention for the duration of that meeting and let the message service pick up our calls.

If we interrupt face to face meetings to take calls, aren't we giving the other person the impression that they are less important than the caller?

When I meet with people, I make a point of turning my mobile to 'silent' in front of them, while saying that I don't want us to be interrupted. This usually has the effect of prompting the other person to do the same or, on very, very rare occasions, to apologise and explain that they are expecting an urgent call (usually a family emergency).

Genuine urgency is one thing but allowing ourselves to become slaves to a ringing phone is ridiculous! I thought that's why they invented voicemail.

Emails out of control?

Earlier this week I read about people declaring 'Email Bankruptcy'. This is where they delete all emails in their Inbox and start afresh, telling close friends and family to resend any messages from the last few days.

I also read (in a separate article) that storing too many emails in your Inbox can cause the program to crash - and all messages will be lost. Still, I suppose that has the same end result!

I remember a friend of mine telling me (must be a couple of years ago!) proudly that she had just over 3,000 emails in her Inbox - three thousand!! How on earth could she expect to find anything?

Perhaps the question to ask is how do people allow their emails to build up to this extent? Do they also have piles of paper everywhere? Or is it an 'untidiness' gene?

Personally I believe that we all have to be really disciplined in dealing with all the electronic information we receive each and every day : Emails we've been cc'd on (do question the need to 'reply to all'!), Spam Emails (get an effective filter), Ezines we subscribe to (are there any we don't really want any more?) and all those interesting-looking links to explore on the Internet (a great way of spending a precious hour or more!).

I have a quick 3-second rule that I apply to each each of my emails. Open message, scan for urgency, if urgent move to next message, if not urgent - move message to another folder called 'action' or 'pending' and deal with later. Open next message, scan for urgency .... etc. By applying this rule, 300 new messages will only take 15 minutes to filter those you need to deal with urgently.

Welcome to the FrontLine Results Blog!

Welcome to FrontLine Results Blog - a brand new venture! This is where I'll be sharing news, views and some personal reflections about small businesses and the challenges we all face. Success stories, resources, general comments and our own news too!

Your comments and feedback are very welcome, so please let me know what you think about any of the blog posts.

I thought I'd start this blog off with a recent experience I had with a car dealership (I won't name them to save any blushes!). A couple of days after having a routine service on my car, I received a letter in the post inviting me to fix the cost of my next three years' services by paying in 36 monthly instalments. There was a 14 day time limit on this offer. I put the letter to one side to think about it. The next day I received a text message on my mobile asking me to ring about this proposal and the day after that a message on my landline, also asking me to call back.

At this point, I started feeling a bit annoyed at being called so often. The following day I was in the office and the young lady responsible for the messages rang again. She said she was calling about the service proposal and I told her I wasn't going to take it up. What happened next was quite odd - she just said 'Oh, OK then.' and rang off.

It could all have gone very differently if she had done three things. Firstly, she could have given me a good reason to call her, like saving money on my next three services. Second, spread the calls out - no-one likes to feel pressured. Third, and possibly most important, explore my reasons for not taking up the offer and be ready with answers for objections.

I'm still not sure if I would have signed up had the young lady taken this different approach, but I would definitely have been more receptive to her calls and might even have considered the offer more favourably had I not felt annoyed and under pressure to decide.