Tag: business success

Visualise Your Business Success

Posted on 21st November 20183rd December 2018 by Robert

Visualise Your Success.

See How Visualising Your Goals Could Boost Your Business Success Prospects.

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Recently a client of mine won a prestigious business award from ex Dragen’s Den, Theo Paphitis.

Charlotte Kleban of Hand Drawn World (www.handdrawnworld.com) is a very gifted and award-winning graduate textile designer who specialises in hand print design but two years ago, when I first started to coach her, she harboured some doubts in her ability to build and grow her business.

In order to strengthen her self-belief in her ability to eventually make a success of her business, I introduced her to VISUALISATION.

Watch This Short Video

On receiving the award from Theo Paphitis, she sent me a message:

“I visualised myself winning so many times and it’s finally happened”

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The ‘Small Business Sunday’ Award (#SBS) is the most recent of a long string of business awards that she has won and arguably this is the most prestigious of them all.

Every award has built her confidence and self-belief and has created much needed and positive exposure on social media and other outlets.

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Exhibiting Her Products Was Important.

Charlotte Kleban creates and sells a large portfolio of products from Teapots and tea-sets to socks and greeting cards and exhibiting her products to potential customers and talking to these people was a major part of marketing her business.

I remember her texting me just before exhibiting as a trader at The Manchester Youth Market, saying she was a bit nervous.

I texted her back and said:

“visualise yourself talking to your potential customers and visualise them loving your products and buying them”

… she succeeded in winning a Highly Commended Trader Award at the event.

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Now her business is going from strength to strength with a strong demand for her products and she is in a ‘good place’. As I write this article, she messaged me to say that she had just enjoyed her best week of sales, ever.

I am sure Visualisation has worked its part in her success.

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When I First Started, I Doubted Myself

When I first started in business, I doubted my ability to grow a business successfully and I used visualisation to boost my self-belief and self-confidence.

I wanted to own and run my own public house, but I am a naturally shy person and knew I had to be able to talk to people.

And, that was difficult for me.

I repeatedly visualised myself talking to my customers, serving them with beer and them loving my public house.

It was tough at times, but I achieved it and the White Hart was a great success, with the business growing to include a total of five public houses and a brewery, building to an annual turnover of £5 million.

Much of this was down to my use of visualisation to boost my self-belief.

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Many In Business Suffer From Self-Doubts

Many business owners can suffer from self-doubt and the lack of belief in their ability to grow their businesses into a success.

If you have the same self-doubt, you are not an exception.

Importantly, though, you can do the same as Charlotte and myself did - and it could be easier than you think.

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Visualise Your Goals

Create yourself a goal or a visual image and keep thinking about it and keep visualising it in your mind.

It could be:

Selling to customers
Talking to happy customers
Receiving a business award
Seeing orders flooding into your ecommerce site
Receiving good customer testimonials
Seeing a bank statement with a large cash balance
Buying a nice car, you have bought from the profits of your business.

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The process works by visualising any positive situation, positive thought or positive image that you can picture in your mind; it must relate to a good, positive goal being achieved or a good successful stage within your business being attained.

It could be something you have achieved in the past or something that you wish to achieve in the future.

By thinking about something you have achieved in the past, it can give you the confidence to know that you can achieve good things, especially at times when your self-belief is minimal. By thinking about something in the future, it gives you a goal or target to reach for in the future, in the same way that Charlotte visualised winning the award from Theo Paphitis.

Importantly, visualisation can be used to create development in yourself and in your business, thus driving yourself and your business forward.

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You Must Keep Visualising Repeatedly

It is important that you continually visualise your positive image or positive thought (past, present and future) literally many times a day. By doing this, your sub conscious mind will gradually accept it and it will make it easier to use the image or thought for your benefit.

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Our Subconscious Minds Are There To Protect Us

Our subconscious minds are very powerful and are there to protect us.

Going back thousands of years to when we were in the jungle, our subconscious minds worked to protect us from dangers such as wild beasts and our tribal enemies, etc.. When confronted with a ‘dangerous’ situation, our subconscious minds would automatically kick in to move us away from the danger, without us consciously thinking about taking action.

These days, it can work differently to protect us; it can, for instance, work automatically and spontaneously to keep us inside our comfort zones and away from difficult situations, without us thinking consciously.

If confronted by a situation that makes us feel uncomfortable, our subconscious mind will stop us getting into that situation.

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We Can Override Our Subconscious Minds

It is possible, however to override our subconscious minds; by repeatedly thinking about and visualising a situation, thought or image that takes us outside our comfort zones, we can program our subconscious minds to accept that we want to experience an uncomfortable situation.

Eventually it will allow us to do this.

For me, it worked by allowing me to enter a bar full of customers and to talk to them. For Charlotte, it allowed her to talk to people at her exhibitions and it allowed her to have the courage to put herself and her business forward for business awards.

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Visualisation Helps Focus

Repeated visualisation also allows us to maintain focus on our goals and our business journey.

When the goals involve personal self-development and growing our businesses, the continual visualisation ensures we are continually focused on moving forward; then continual progress forward is achieved.

Focus is really important, if business success is to be attained.

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Visualisation Can Cancel Out Negativity

Very often, doubts can manifest themselves when negative comments are recieved or a negative situation arises.

Mentally, it can only take one negative comment to cancel out the positive feelings created by a large number of good comments or one negative situation can cancel out the effect of many positive situations achieved previously.

By using visualisation, you can cancel out a negative comment or a negative situation.

When a negative comment is received or a negative situation arises, for instance, you must first deal with it, then you must visualise the many good comments and good situations that have occurred in your business, previously.

This then should divert the focus from the negativity to the positivity.

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Here Is An Example

At The White Hart, complaints were very rare.

I remember one situation on a Saturday evening when we received one complaint about a meal after serving 300 meals - the staff were feeling a little dejected because they were focusing on the ONE complaint.

We had been showered with compliments that night from the other happy customers and I said to my staff:

“Please focus on the 299 happy customers NOT the one unhappy customer”

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That comment changed their mood, completely, as they visualised the happy customers, that they had served, and forgot about the one unhappy one.

It is very easy to focus on the negative – we can all do it.

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Try Visualisation Today, Yourself

If you do lack self-belief or self-confidence, you can use visualisation, yourself, to bolster your self-belief by setting and achieving goals.

Use this method:

Make a short list of your main goals
Choose the one or two most important goals
Break each of the chosen goals down into the steps, need to achieve each goal
Write down each goal and the steps required
Visualise each goal and its steps in your mind
List the challenges on the way and visualise you combatting these
Visualise the benefits that you will derive from achieving each goal
Write notes to remind yourself of these goals (and steps) and leave them in strategic places in your home and office – even the loo!

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Breaking your goals down into steps will allow you to see how your goal can be achieved and this process should give you some confidence to think that the goal can be achieved, eventually. There will be difficulties and challenges along the way and you should visualise yourself combatting these.

Each goal should be big enough to create ‘benefits’ for yourself or your business and you should visualise the benefit that will come from achieving each goal.

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Use ‘Post-Its’

‘Post its’ are a good way to remind yourself of your goals and the steps - try leaving them anywhere that will prompt you, several times a day.

Gradually your subconscious mind will accept your thoughts and goals and it will allow you to act out the steps to achieve your goals.

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Visualise The Benefits

Visualising the benefits can be very powerful.

If, for instance, your business is making a trading loss, this situation could creat worry and stress for you – can be a ‘horrible’ feeling.

You could set a goal to gain a certain number of new customers to stop the losses and to create a profit. Here the real benefit would be greater sales from the extra customers and hopefully the creation of a profit.

You could imagine the ‘nice’ feeling of making a profit replacing the ‘horrible’ feeling of worrying about having a trading loss.

I hope you can see how visualisation can work.

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Go Back To Your List Of Goals

When you have achieved your first goal or goals, then go back to your original list of goals and choose more and repeat the process.

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Give Visualisation A Go

I hope you can give Visualisation a go to move yourself and your business forward - whatever your situation, I am certain it could make a difference.

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This is a very short explanation, but if you wish to talk more about visualisation, please contact me below or email me: robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk.

5 Business Growth Hacks (Part1) To Boost Your Business Sales & Profits

Posted on 4th September 20186th September 2018 by Robert

Part 1.

This is the first part of a series of blogs with short bite size pieces of business advice, which if implemented could make a real difference to your business sales and profits.

I have realised, from more than 30 years of starting and running businesses, it is very often the small and simple things that can make the biggest difference to the growth of a business.

Also from coaching many businesses over the past 15 years, I have learned that many small businesses owners use the excuse of ‘not having time’ to NOT implement new ideas.

But when shown how to make small changes that take little time to plan and implement, they realise that they do have time, after all, and it is very possible to introduce new ideas that can make a big difference.

Here I Suggest 5 Business Growth Hack Ideas To Boost Your Business

Here I suggest FIVE ways to make changes to your business – one for every day of a 5 day working week.

Start with number 1 on Monday and work through to number 5 on Friday.

Each should only take one hour of your time, each day and, in some cases, a lot less time.

1. Monday - Collect Customer Reviews

2. Tuesday - Place Your Customer Reviews On Your Social Media and Your Website

3. Wednesday - Make Continual Progress In Your Business

4. Thursday - Ask Your Employees To Suggest Three Ways To Save Money In Your Business

5. Friday - Divide Your Customers Into Customer Groups

Monday

1. Collect Customer Reviews

87% of people will go online and check your customer reviews before they purchase from you.

But if you have no customer reviews or you only have a few or what you have are out of date, your potential customer will not be impressed and you could lose them.

But it is very simple to get a review from a customer who has made a purchase - simply ask them.

In my experience, most people are happy to provide you with a review, but many business owners are too frightened to ask for fear of what they will hear.

But good or bad, you need to know.

If the review is good, you will know that what you are doing is satisfying your customer and if the review is bad or poor, this is valuable information for you to improve things.

So, you must do it today.

Contact your most recent customers and ask them for a review - 'phone or email them now!

Tuesday

2. Place Your Customer Reviews On Your Social Media & Your Website

New potential customers will buy when they have trust in your business and your products.

One way to create trust is from good reviews from existing customers – so it makes sense to place them where your target customers will be looking and where they will see them.

That means your social media and your website.

See How This Can Be Done

Recently, I did this for one of my clients.

His name is Chris Fleet, a top accredited UK hypnotherapist, helping people with anxiety and depression to improve their lives. He also trains new hypnotherapists at his Devon School Of Hypnotherapy to Diploma Level.

Recently I placed this review from a successful hypnotherapy student, who graduated from his school, onto his Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

It was only part of the review, as the student Jo Webber provided a lengthy review - but it was enough to create much awareness.

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Here is another student review from another one of Chris Fleet's successful students, Ali De Matos - I placed this onto the home page of his website, along with a picture of Chris and Ali De Matos, proudly showing off her Diploma In Hypnotherapy.

Crucially, the review and picture were placed near the top of the webpage, so that more visitors would see it.

Again this technique has worked well and has helped to sell his Hypnotherapy Course places.

You can see more by visiting https://www.chrisfleethypnotherapytraining.co.uk

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This technique of placing customer reviews onto social media and onto website pages can be very powerful and is something you should do, too.

Wednesday

3. Make Continual Progress In Your Business

It is wise to have a good Business Plan for your business to set your strategy, but too often, small businesses create a Business Plan, then either forget about it or ignore it.

Often there is a good reason for this - the business strategy that they have set themselves or that someone else has set for them is too ambitious and they are overwhelmed by it.

In business, you need to continually move forward, but a slow steady pace is far better than trying to grow your business at a gallop – growing a business is a marathon NOT a sprint.

The best strategy that I advise for my clients is simply to just beat the previous month’s sales total. If you do this most of the time, you are ultimately moving your business forward and in the right direction.

This Is Very Simple To Do

This is simple to do – just record and total your business sales for each month and try to beat the previous month’s total.

For most businesses, you can either keep a cumulative sales total as the month progresses or set aside an hour or so at the end of each month, to total your sales.

If you don’t beat the previous month, then sit down and see how you can improve things for the coming month.

By adopting this strategy, it can remove a lot of unnecessary stress and can stop you becoming overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of achieving a large growth.

If your monthly turnover is £10,000.00, say, and you beat each month by 1% for ten months of the year, your annual sales will grow by approximately 10% - provided, of course, the other two months don't see a big drop in your sales!

Thursday

4. Ask Your Employees To Suggest Three Ways To Save Money

Employees love to feel that they are more than just ‘workers’ in a business.

I know from experience that many like to feel more involved in the business than just working in it and one of the best ways to achieve this is by sometimes involving them in the decision making.

I know many employees have some good ideas about how a business should be run but, too often, they feel their views are not welcome or are not needed.

They then keep these ideas to themselves.

For my businesses, some of my best business idea have come from employee suggestions and these ideas have proved to be very successful when implemented.

As a business owner, you cannot have all the answers on how your business should be run best and you should really welcome ideas from the people who are often the closest to the working clogs of your business - namely, your employees.

Ask Them To Suggest Three Ways

Today ask your employees to suggest THREE WAYS to save money and to reduce costs in your business - maybe, even offer a prize for the best suggestion.

I think you could be surprised by what is suggested.

Friday

5. Divide Your Customers Into Customer Groups

Then, finally for Friday, a good suggestion to grow your sales by understanding your customers better.

You customers will only buy from you if they feel your products really help them and if your products provide the right benefits. If they think your products are not right, they will not buy and you could lose potential sales.

One good way to optimise your sales is to ensure your products are exactly what your customers want but there is a good chance not all of your products will appeal to every customer.

If, for instance, you run a café and you have a nice selection of meals, it is very easy to think that everyone will have the same dietary tastes.

But, in reality, this is not the case.

For instance, older people may like to eat different meals to younger people, meat eaters will want different choices to vegetarians and vegans and some people may like a large meal while others will like a light meal.

This is just a general description of how tastes could vary.

Customers Can Be Divided Into Groups

A good way to approach this is to think that customers can be divided into distinct customer groups, where each group could contain customers of a similar disposition with similar tastes, such as:

· Older people

· Younger people

· Meat eaters

· Vegetarians

· Vegans

. Children

In order to optimise your café sales, you would be well advised to offer different meals for the different individual customer groups.

For other businesses, you might have other customer groups based on:

· Gender

· Earning ability

· Marital status

· Retired

· Homeowners

· Students

This list is not exhaustive but should give you an idea of how to potentially divide your customers into groups.

Simple Exercise To Evaluate Your Customer Groups

It is a very simple exercise to take an A4 piece of paper and to list the likely customer groups that your products appeal to, and then to list which of your products will appeal to each group.

You should then assess each customer group, separately, and see whether the needs and wants of the customers in each group are fully catered for by your products.

When they are not, maybe create new products or improve existing products.

Maybe ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I have a good choice of product(s) for each of my customer groups?

2. Are my products right for each customer group?

3. Do my products bring the right benefits to each of my customer groups?

4. Does each of my customer groups get a good customer experience from my products?

From this very simple exercise, you could be surprised to discover that you are losing potential sales simply because you are neglecting one or more customer groups.

To help you with the process, you could even ask your customers what their views are – as suggested in 1) above here in this article.

The more you know and understand about the needs and wants of your customers, the greater the number of customers, you will attract and the more of your products, they will buy.

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All 5 Growth Hacks Are Very Easy To Implement

The basis to the success of my business coaching is to make business owners think differently about their businesses.

Very often owners are too close to their businesses and their thinking becomes very narrow and very restrictive.

But when shown ‘how to think’ and ‘what to think’ differently, I have seen many business owners experience ‘lightbulb moments’ where they suddenly see things differently within their businesses.

The results can be staggering - creating big positive changes to their businesses through small actions that have taken ONLY the minimum amount of time and effort to implement.

YOU CAN DO THE SAME!

I Want To Challenge You To Use These Ideas

Starting next MONDAY, please implement each one of these ideas on the days indicated and see if you can use these ideas to grow your business.

If you are already using some or all of these ideas, then well done.

Let Me Know How You Get On

I would love to know how you get on - so please contact me.

Email me at robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or contact me below.

Best Of Luck!

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Please look out for Part 2, too, in the coming weeks, with more easy-to-implement ideas to grow your business.

Boost Your Customer Numbers Through Engagement

Posted on 26th July 20189th August 2018 by Robert

Want To Boost Your Customer Numbers?

Engage with every customer & treat them like a 'guest' visiting your home.

Written by Robert Viney

I am certain that if you greeted a visitor into your home, you would be courteous, polite and friendly.

Am I correct?

When an existing or potential customer visits your business, do you extend the same courtesy?

I would hope you would.

But if you do, I think, quite possibly, you could be in the minority.

Many Businesses Do Not Treat Their Customers As Guests

In my experience, many businesses do not do this.

And, sadly, these businesses are missing out on new customers, more sales and more profits, as a result, and they cannot see it.

A Sure Way To Grow Your Customer Numbers Is To Engage

A sure way to grow your business customers, sales and profits is to put yourself out and to engage with everyone who comes into contact with your business.

Then, over time, many of these people could be converted into paying customers.

Convert Guests Into Customers

I know, for certain, that this works.

For more than 30 years, I have practiced making people feel like ‘guests’ and I have been able to convert many of these into paying customers.

In all my businesses, it has never failed to work.

I Often See Businesses Not Engaging

Constantly, I see businesses not engaging sufficiently.

Let’s look at the retail trade …

I am continually disappointed by the reception that I get when I visit high street shops.

It does not matter where I am, I often get the same reception … or the lack of reception.

More often than not, there is no engagement from the staff or owners of these shops.

Not even an acknowledgement!

I Expect This In Larger Shops

Sadly, I expect it in larger shops owned by large chains, but I often see the same action from smaller independent shops when the owner is present.

So many make no effort to engage, not even a “Hello” or even ‘eye contact’

I take that as being very rude and this action can make it uncomfortable for the customer to be in the shop.

I certainly don’t feel like a ‘guest’

For me, my thought is often this:

“If the owner cannot be bothered to engage, then I cannot be bothered to browse their shop and spend my money”

So, I leave the shop and I know many of my friends and associates feel and do the same!

Have you had this experience too?

These businesses are losing potential customers and sales and they cannot see it.

I Have Worked In Retail Most Of My Working Life

I have worked in retail most of my working life – I have run public houses and high street shops - and engaging with customers has been easy for me.

When a customer is in front of me, making eye contact, saying “hello and welcome” is a spontaneous reaction.

I have always felt not to talk is VERY RUDE.

I Have Always Made The Effort To Talk

I have always made the effort to talk to them.

It does not have to be a long conversation, just a few words to make the customer feel welcome.

I have treated them as if they were a guest in my own home.

Most Customers Want To Be Welcomed

Most customers just want to be acknowledged with a nice “Hello” to break the ice.

Surely, in that situation, there is really no excuse on the part of the business owner or employee not to engage when the customer is just a few feet in front of them.

No engagement is very rude!

No engagement is ruining businesses and losing business owners customers, sales and profits.

No wonder the High Street is dying!

It Does Not Have To Be A Long Chat

The skill of the retailer is knowing whether the customer wants to just a quick “Hello” and a short chat or whether the customer wants a longer chat.

Not all customers are the same, but all customers deserve the courtesy and politeness of at least being acknowledged.

I See Poor Engagement Everywhere

It is not just retail businesses where I see little engagement, it is everywhere.

There is the telephone …

I have had more poor experiences than good ones, here.

Many times, I have experienced an unhelpful person on the other end of a telephone line, who keeps engagement to the minimum, making me feel they don’t really want my business.

Have you had this experience too?

I am sure you have.

The good telephone operative should be able to make a potential customer feel like a ‘guest’ by making them feel welcome to ‘visit’ their business, even though it is on a telephone line.

I See It Online Too

Online offerings from businesses can be similar.

The customer’s journey starts much earlier than it used to before the internet came along.

85% of customers will view a company’s website and their social media output and read their customer reviews, etc before buying from the customer.

But Many Are Not User Friendly

But, too often, the online offerings, such as their website or social media sites are not user friendly or are sparse on detail and don’t draw visitors into their businesses.

Half of businesses still don’t have websites (incredibly) and many of those that do have a website, do not seem to prioritise them by regularly updating them and making them easy to use.

Social Media is a great platform to engage with people before and after they buy, and many businesses are not taking advantage this great facility - much of which is free to use.

Many Are Out Of Date

I often see websites and social media output that are not regularly updated.

One bad practice for social media is what I call ‘post & go’ – here a piece of content is posted about their business and then the business owner disappears, often ignoring corresponding comments and questions or not responding quickly to them.

That is no way to engage and this poor level of engagement puts people off the brand.

People Should Be Made To Feel Like ‘Guests’ On Line, too

When someone visits the online offering for a business, they should be made to feel welcome and again be made to feel like a ‘guest’ – but sadly many don’t.

If a visitor feels like a ‘guest’, they are more likely to stay on a website or a social media platform and have a good look at what is offered and be tempted to make contact or buy.

Some Businesses Try To Sell Too Hard

These businesses do not realise that customers want to learn about the products and the business selling them before they consider purchasing.

People do NOT want to be sold to

All target customers want to learn about a business, its products and the benefits that can be experienced.

And, they all want this before they buy.

People Want To Learn About The People Behind A Business

Furthermore, people want to learn about the people who own and run the business.

If social media marketing is done right, it is very possible to gain an insight into the personalities of the owners and the culture of the business.

All of which can influence a purchase.

Engagement Does Work

Not all businesses are poor at engagement.

Many do it very well, some incredibly well, but sadly, from my observations, such businesses are in the minority.

But, I know with great certainty that the businesses that engage and talk well to their customers, always achieve higher sales and profits.

Always!!!

Why Does Engagement Work?

The reason engagement works is very simple.

People Buy People!

A person is more likely to buy from a business if they know and like the people who own and run it.

It is basic psychology.

When a customer likes the people behind a business, they will buy more of their products, be loyal to their brand and they are more likely to tell others about that business.

Conversely, though, when people feel no affinity for a business, its brand and its products, they do not buy.

I Ran A Delicatessen Business For 12 Years

For 12 years I ran two very successful delicatessens/sandwich shops in Torbay. Myself and my employees engaged with all visitors and customers to the shops.

I say ‘visitors to the shops’ as I was not bothered if people entering the shops bought. Everyone received a nice greeting and each was made to feel welcome and, importantly, there was no pressure to buy.

Each visitor was made to feel like a ‘guest’

My philosophy was simple:

Get to know people through engagement and then build up a relationship with them rather than try to sell to them.

On average, 8 out of 10 people always returned to buy eventually.

And, when they did buy, we were always keen to thank them and to engage further, encouraging them to return and, I am very pleased to say, most did.

In this way, we were able to build up a huge army of loyal customers who returned to buy more and more.

Businesses That Engage Are Busier

Any business whether, retail, non-retail or online that adopts this same procedure of engagement are always busier with larger numbers of customers and sales.

Always!

It always works, if done right.

For Your Business, Set A Deliberate Strategy To Make People Feel Like ‘Guests’

If you don’t have a strategy of engagement now, set yourself one now to create greater engagement and make your customers and potential customers feel like ‘guests’.

One of the biggest tips that I can give you is to think about how you interact and engage with your customers:

Before a purchase
During a purchase
After a purchase

Look at all the contact points between your business and your customer - even make a list of each contact point and critically analyse how you and your employees engage and interact.

Whether a contact point is direct or indirect engagement with your target customer, review this contact point.

Does it make your target customer feel welcome and comfortable within your business?

Does it make them feel like a ‘guest’?

Look at your website and social media channels and ask yourself if you sell too hard.

Do you educate or sell?

Ask yourself if you provide enough information about your products or services to enable the potential customer to make an informed decision about buying.

Will your potential customer understand everything that they need to know before they buy and is this information easily accessible and presented well?

80% Education To 20% Selling

I think, from experience, an average ratio of 80% education and 20% selling is a good ratio that can be very effective.

Try to adopt this ratio in your engagement.

Think How You Can Develop Long Term Relationships

This approach has successfully created thousands of long-term relationships with my customers and these relationships have been a large contributor to me being able to build up an army of loyal customers with each returning to buy more from my businesses, time and time again.

You can do the same.

Want More Advice?

If you would like to discuss this article more with me, further, and how you can develop more engagement within your business and how to make your customers feel like ‘visitors’ and ‘guests’, please contact me below or by email:

robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk

Your Employees Could Be A Gold Mine

Posted on 26th April 201827th July 2018 by Robert

Your Employees Could Be A Gold Mine.

Extract The Gold Dust Buried Within To Grow Your Business.

Are You Getting The Most From Your Employees?

I expect you have never thought of your employees as a Gold Mine?

But your employees could be a gold mine.

Buried within your Gold Mine could be tons of valuable Gold Dust which, if extracted right, could be used to grow your business, your sales and your profits.

But, as any good miner will tell you – you must open up the mine in order for it to give up its riches.

I Want To Share Two Methods To Grow Your Business.

In all my businesses, I have always thought of my employees as Gold Mines and I have often used TWO METHODS to open this mine to yield the Gold Dust contained within.

If you employ people within your business, you must think to use the same TWO METHODS to extract your own Gold Dust.

Two methods that, if used right, should boost your business, your sales and profits.

But first I want to ask you a question.

You might be the boss of your business and quite possibly the founder, but do you understand your business better than your employees?

I expect you might well answer “yes”

But is that really the right answer?

I would suggest the answer should really be “No”

As the person running the business, it is quite likely that your culture and your philosophy is stamped onto it.

It might even be an extension of you and your personality.

But, in my experience, business owners can become ‘blinkered’ and short sighted about their businesses, seeing their businesses only through their own eyes.

In many ways this can be of benefit to the business but not always.

Others Could See Your Business Differently

Others within your business could well see your business differently to how you see it.

Your employees, for instance, will be able to observe you within your business and how you run your business, and they will quite possibly see things differently to how you see yourself and your business.

Have You Asked Your Employees What They Think

But have you ever asked your employees what they think of your business?

Quite possibly your answer will be “No”

In my experience, very few business owners have done this – especially owners of small businesses.

Many don’t think that the opinions of their employees are valid and appropriate, and some owners are even frightened to ask, as they are fearful of what will be said.

The Most Important Opinions Are Those Of Your Customers

The most important opinions are, however, those of your customer; these determine whether a customer buys from you or not.

But how well do you know and understand the views of your customers?

Again, quite possibly, the answer could be “No”, again, if you answer honestly.

In my experience, most business owners could improve their understanding greatly.

Most Owners Would Learn Much By Asking Their Employees

Most employers would learn much by asking the opinions of their employees.

Your employees are nearer to the ‘coal face’ than you are.

Many would have direct contact with your customers and would almost certainly have better contact with your customers than you do.

They will consequently understand the needs, wishes, desires and views of your customers well.

You Need To Know The Views Of Your Employees & Customers

When you ask your employees for their comments, you will not just get your employees’ views but, almost certainly, you will get the views of many of your customers, too.

By asking your employees, you will could get views from two important and valid sources.

These views will be Gold Dust to you.

These views and opinions would definitely be something you should know about, if you are to keep growing your business success.

These will be the equivalent of Gold Dust, giving you the knowledge to improve your business and the opportunity to increase your sales and profits.

With Gold Dust in mind, let me share two methods with you that I have often used to obtain this Gold Dust contained within my Gold Mine.

Method 1 involves primarily the personal views of your employees
Method 2 should involve a combination of both employee and customer views

Method 1

Method 1 involves periodically asking each employee individually a number of questions to gauge how they are thinking about their position and their job within your business and what they are thinking about your business as a whole.

Here are some questions that I have asked in the past and which have always created some good interaction:

Which part of your job do you like best?
Which part of your job do you like least?
How could your job be improved?
How could you become more effective and more productive in your job?
What ambitions do you have within the business?
How long do you plan to be employed within the business?
Do you feel you have been trained right for your role within the business?
What training would you like to improve your skills?
Do you feel your skills are being best used within the business?
What qualifications would you like to acquire within the business?
Do you feel the team within the business runs as a team?
How do you feel the team could work better?
Do you feel the leadership provides the right leadership?
Do you feel inspired and motivated by the leadership?
Do you feel encouraged and motivated to keep improving yourself within the business?
Do you feel you can easily talk to the business leaders?
Do you feel you can suggest ideas that would benefit the business?
Do you feel you are listened to by the business leaders?
Do you feel that your ideas are used within the business to grow it?
Do you feel appreciated by the business leaders?
Suggest three ways to improve the business

You could ask all or some of these questions and, quite possibly, you could think of your own, as appropriate to your business organisation.

It is good practice to issue a version of this questionnaire to your employees once a year.

With the answers in, you can either review the findings individually or collectively in a group or both.

I have done both and I have always learned much from the process and, indeed, have my employees, too.

The Process Can Be Stimulating & Invigorating

I have always found the whole process very stimulating and invigorating, for myself, and I know for certain for everyone else involved within the business, too.

Every time that I performed this exercise, the business and the team always benefited greatly.

Method 2

The second method involves asking a separate set of questions that could provide you with a good insight into how your employees think your business can be improved.

Remember earlier, I said that your employees are at the ‘coal face’ of your business and are probably closer to your customers than you are.

Again, with your Gold Dust in mind, you could ask the following questions:

How do you think the business could be run better?
What do customers say about our products?
Suggest three ways to improve our products or services?
Could you suggest products or service that we could offer but presently don’t?
Could you suggest products that have been requested by our customers?
What do customers say about our customer service?
Could you suggest three ways to improve our customer service?
What do customers say about our customer experience?
Could you suggest three ways to improve the customer experience?
What do customers say about our pricing?
What is your view on our pricing?
Could you suggest three ways to improve customer contact?
Could you suggest three ways that we could improve any aspect of our business?

This is a generic list of questions that you could ask your employees and, again, you could probably think of others, appropriate to your business organisation.

The best process is to ask questions that are specific to your business and your products.

For method 2, I have found the best approach is to ask just 1 or 2 questions only at a time to get the best response and the best ideas.

Asking just one or two questions is a good way, as it achieves the best engagement from the employees and it reinforces their focus.

Discuss Ideas As A Group

I also found that when discussed as a group, a good dialogue and good ideas evolved – better than when discussed individually.

One note of caution here, though, the more reserved employees often made the less contribution to the process but often presented some of the best ideas.

Both Methods Can Yield Good Ideas

I have always found both methods to be very informative and I have always found the suggestions and ideas from my employees very constructive, very useful and, when implemented right, have made a great contribution to the growth of the business.

Employees Like To Feel Valued

Most employees like to feel valued and they like to feel part of the business and part of the decision making.

The process involving these two methods nearly always creates other additional business benefits, worth mentioning here, too:

Employees feel their voice is being heard
Employee loyalty can be enhanced
The business team can become closer with a stronger tie
The owner/employee bond can become strengthened
The company culture can be reinforced

Many employees also like to be able to excel in their roles and this process can give them the inspiration and opportunity to do this.

You Will Certainly Receive Some Good Ideas

Almost certainly, you will receive some good ideas and suggestions and you could be surprised by the quality of these.

You should always implement the best ideas suggested as this will make your employees feel the process is working. If you do not use their ideas, you do risk de-motivating your employees.

Let Your Employees Take Ownership

When a certain employee suggests something good, give them ownership of the idea and the role and responsibility to introduce the idea into the business with your support and encouragement.

In my experience, employees are often very keen to take and perform this role and I have often been surprised by the level of motivation and confidence created, correspondingly.

You May Not Like Some Of The Truth

At first, you might well learn some uncomfortable truths about yourself and your business but it is important not to take these personally but to accept them in the spirit that they are offered.

Most Employees Want To See Their Business Flourish

In my experience, most employees wish to help to improve the business that they work for and to help grow it and to feel inspired and motivated within their roles within the business.
Open Your Gold Mine & Extract The Gold Dust

I guarantee if you use these two methods right, you will become the proud owner of a very fruitful Gold Mine, yielding much Gold Dust, with which, you should be able to grow your business.

Exploit Your Gold Mine

If you employ staff within your business, think about your Gold Mine and the Gold Dust buried deep within. Your employees could be a gold mine.

Mine the Gold Dust and use it to grow your business.

Your Employees Could Be A Gold Mine

Please use these methods within your business and please tell me how you get on,

Best of luck

If you wish to discuss these methods with me further, please email me at robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or contact me below.

Be A Business Success By Copying Other Successful Businesses

Posted on 28th February 201824th May 2018 by Robert

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Be A Business Success By Copying Other Successful Businesses.

Want To Boost The Success Of Your Business?

A Method Guaranteed To Bring Business Success.

If you are running a business or you are planning on starting a new business, I am sure you want it to be as successful as you can make it.

There is one simple process that can boost the success of any business, but so many business owners don’t think to use it.

Many don’t even know about it.

But if it is done right, it is guaranteed to work.

Here in this report, I want to share with you the method I used to create a great start to my first business. I am certain if you use the same method, your business or your startup could be greatly enhanced as a result.

Originally, I Was Told I Would Not Succeed In Business

When I first started in business, I was told that I would not be a business success and that I would fail and that I should forget the idea.

This got me thinking and wondering why some businesses were successes and why some businesses failed and why some entrepreneurs were massively successful and why some entrepreneurs were not.

I decided to research business success and business failure and to see if there was a trend.

This was back in 1980, when there was no internet, so the process was not as easy as it could be now, but I decided to talk to as many business people as I could and to research their businesses, their business models, their business strategies and their levels of business success.

A very strong trend emerged

1) The most successful businesses owners and entrepreneurs were those with a strong positive mindset and attitude, generally.

2) The least successful business owners and entrepreneurs were those with weak, negative mindsets.

In short, I observed that the stronger and the more positive the mindset, the greater the business success.

But this was only true if the strong mindset was applied right.

A strong positive mindset and attitude did not guarantee success.

The most successful in business were those who applied their strong mental attitudes best in their thinking and in their actions. In other words, the entrepreneurs who were able to adopt the smartest thinking and the smartest actions.

Thirty plus years later, I can say that this observation is still true and, importantly, it is not just my observation, as it is also supported by The Harvard Business School and many of the other global business schools, who consistently report that their most successful candidates are those with the strongest attitudes and not necessarily the best grades.

I have written about this previously in four of my other blogs, namely:

Become One Of The 10% Most Successful In Business

Please have a read of these, if you have not already done so.

When I did Start, I Was Ready To Start

I eventually started my business in 1984, but when I did start I was ready to start.

I knew how to succeed in my business and I knew how to avoid failure.

I not only researched the most successful entrepreneurs in business and understood why they succeeded but I also copied many of their successful business ways, strategies, and methods.

And, I also researched those entrepreneurs who had failed and understood why they failed and made a conscious effort to avoid their ways and methods.

I changed My Mindset And Attitude

One of the most important things that I did was to change and strengthened my mindset and my attitude and I learned how to think smartly and creatively.

Again, previously, I have written about this in two of my other blogs:

7 Ways To Achieve A Positive Attitude

8 Ways To Beat The Fear Of Failure

I Researched My Competitors

My research also took me to investigating my potential competitors, in great detail, and to looking at their business strategies and business models. I worked out which business strategies and business models created their business success and worked out which strategies and models were not so successful.

When I started, I designed my business around the strong parts of my competitors’ business models and I avoided the weak parts and the parts that were obviously not working.

In other words, I copied the best parts of my competitors’ businesses and avoided the bad parts.

But also, importantly, I did not just look at my competitors, I researched other businesses outside my niche and investigated both successful and unsuccessful businesses.

As with my competitors, I included the best parts into my own business and avoided the bad parts.

History Is Full Of Examples

When you look back at the history of starting and running businesses, there are loads of examples where SUCCESS IS SUCCESSFULLY COPIED.

It goes on all the time.

And, the reason is simple - it works.

Every successful business does it.

In the 1960’s, McDonald’s were very successful in the U.S. with their take-away burgers. The founders of Burger King could see the success that McDonald’s were having and wanted to start a similar business.

But they did not rush in.

They took their time and they did their HOMEWORK first.

They studied the most successful McDonald’s outlets and learned about the methods of trading that they used, the products that they were selling and the customers who bought these products.

They did much of this research by literally visiting McDonald’s outlets and sitting inside and outside the busiest outlets.

They then simply watched what went on.

With their research complete, they then started their own outlet a very short distance from the busiest McDonald’s outlet and it proved a great success for the first Burger King.

Not only did the founders do things in a similar way, but they offered a similar product to McDonald’s, and as they started close by, McDonalds customers would see the Burger King and visit.

Burger King took a significant number of McDonald’s customers.

Burger King Were Smart

But Burger King were smart – they looked at the business model for McDonald’s and they copied it, but, importantly, they thought creatively about it and asked themselves one very important question:

“How can we make this better?”

They Made Subtle Changes

They made small changes to the business idea, business model and the products offered, which proved to be very popular with their target customers.

One distinctive change was offering relishes and sauces with the burgers, which is something that McDonald’s, at the time, were not offering.

You might think this was very bold starting a similar business on the door step of your competitor. But it worked – look at Burger King now.

I started In A Similar Way By Copying Other Successful Businesses

My first business was a pub.

But instead of just taking over the pub and trading, I looked at the other pubs in the area. I would visit the most successful pubs, buy a drink and sit and watch.

After several months, I understood which customers, I should target, what food and drinks were popular, what prices to charge, what customer service to provide and what customer experience to create.

When I started to trade in the pub, everything learned was put into place and within a year, the pub was the local market leader and I grabbed many of our competitors’ customers – the competitors’ who we had copied!

Like Burger King, I thought creatively about my offerings and offered everything slightly different but much better.

And, it worked.

Ironically, the better competitors, then tried to copy me but I kept creating new and better products and they just could not catch up again.

Copying Other Successful Businesses Goes On All The Time

Copying goes on all the time – Pepsi Cola copied Coca Cola with their own cola drink and Apple and Samsung copy each other with their smart phones.

So it goes on all the time.

If you are not doing it in your business, you are a missing a very smart trick.

Understand What Your Competition Does & Why

Once you have identified a business to copy, it is important that you RESEARCH it heavily and UNDERSTAND why it is a SUCCESS and how the business model works.

You should look at all aspects of the business and ANALYSE EACH PART and THINK how you can incorporate the same ideas into your business.

One note of caution, most things you can copy, especially when you make small changes to the idea, but beware of any patent and copyright restrictions that may be in place and avoid plagiarism.

The High Failure Rate For Businesses Really Concerns Me

The high failure rate really concerns me, but I am absolutely certain that many existing businesses and those planning to start a business could do much better if they used this same method.

Think How You Can Be A Success By Copying Other Successful Businesses

1) Firstly decide that you are going to study SUCCESS and FAILURE.

2) Then start to study and research your competitors comprehensively and worked out why some of these businesses are doing well and why some are not.

3) Include other businesses outside your niche in your research and work out the reasons for the most successful and the reasons for the least successful.

4) Think how you can incorporate the best parts into your business and how you can avoid the bad parts. Set your business strategy and business model accordingly.

5) Think creatively how you can improve on the best parts of your competitors’ business, to give yourself a competitive edge.

6) Finally, take action and put into place what you have discovered.

One Thing To Think About

If a certain business is successful, and you were to introduce the same methods, same business strategies and same business models into your own business, would you not be just as successful, if you did things right?

The answer should surely be “YES!!!”

If you did it right, then you would be a success, too.

Be A Success By Copying Other Successful Businesses

If you want to be a SUCCESS in your business and not risk FAILURE, you should look at your SUCCESSFUL COMPETITORS and see what they are doing and copy them – but add a twist, by making your version slightly different and better!

But don’t make the mistake of trying to reinvent the wheel.

That is very difficult to do.

Remember, Be A Success By Copying Other Successful Businesses.

If you would like to talk more about this with me, please contact me at Robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk. or contact me here:

Become One Of The 10% Most Successful Businesses

Posted on 18th December 20174th June 2018 by Robert

Become One Of The 10% Most Successful Businesses & A Member Of The '10% Club'.

Transform Your Business Success By Changing Your Mind, Changing Your Thoughts And Changing Your Actions.

Copy The Ways Of The Most Successful In Business.

Just 1% of all businesses and entrepreneurs are mega successful and only 10% of all business make a good profit and provide a good living and good retirement prospects for their owners.

That is the sad reality.

90% of businesses either fail or just drift along, languishing in mediocrity in terms of profits and performance & many never really achieve real business success.

Often the owners of those 90% of businesses cannot see how they can elevate themselves and their businesses to do better. Sadly, many of these entrepreneurs do not realize that the switch to become a member of the ‘10% CLUB’ of the 10% most successful businesses is much easier than they think.

What Is A Successful Business?

For me, a successful business is one that is growing in sales with a good profit base and a strong balance sheet. The following sums up an ideal successful business:-

sales and net profits should be growing by at least 20% per annum, year on year
sales should exceed £100,000 per annum in year 2 after startup
sales should exceed £0.5 million - £1 million per annum after 10 years
net profit should exceed 20% of sales
business should have a strong 6 digit cash-rich balance sheet after 5 years of trading
business owners should have full control over the business
business should run efficiently with low wastage
business should have a strong team of happy & effective employees
business owners should be happy and not be stressed
business should provide a good living and a good pension for the owners
business should retain a good profit after owners' drawings
business owner should run the business & the business should not run the owners

This is a very rough appraisal.

For me, a SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS is one that is growing and making money, but is also one where the owners are in full control and are happy and are enjoying running their business with a good life balance. A successful business entrepreneur should be able to draw a good income, leaving a good residue profit for re-investment and for building the balance sheet.

A successful business entrepreneur is one that could sell after, say 10 or 12 years, for a good reward that would allow them to retire or for a sum that would allow them to go a big way to providing for their long term.

Too Many Business Owners Do Not Enjoy This Scenario

Sadly, too many business owners do not find themselves in the scenario of the ideal successful business that I describe above. Many of the 90% of businesses have poor mediocre sales and profits with low or no growth. These owners find themselves stressed as a result and importantly they are not happy and are not enjoying the experience of running their businesses.

Many business owners would say that money is not important and I think that can be right, but I know from experience that a business is much easier to run and provides a much happier experience for the business owners if sales and profits are growing at a good rate of the order of 20% or more.

If you are a business owner, where growth in sales is flat and profits are poor, you should think that it is much easier to transform your business nearer to the scenario that I describe above than you possibly think.

You Must Think Of Your Business As Being Two Parts

If YOU want to make the change and to become a great BUSINESS SUCCESS, the place to start is to think that your business is about TWO FUNDAMENTAL PARTS:-

PART 1 IS YOU & YOUR ATTITUDE
PART 2 IS YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY

Harvard Business School has consistently said that business success is consistently down to ATTITUDE rather than STRATEGY. You can have the best business strategy and the best business plan but if your attitude is weak and negative, then your strategy is not going to work and YOU will never achieve real BUSINESS SUCCESS.

As the business owner, your business success is determined by YOU. So if YOU want to become one of the most successful business entrepreneurs and achieve huge business success, YOU have to change 'YOU'.

You Have To Change 'You' As Part 1

YOU have to become like the most successful in business.

PART 1 is YOU and includes:-

YOUR MINDSET
YOUR ATTITUDE
YOUR THINKING
YOUR ACTIONS

Part 1 includes your mind, your mindset, your attitude and your thinking and how YOU carry out your actions within your business.

The most successful business entrepreneurs all have the same mind characteristics and consistently have similar attitudes and mindsets. Consistently most successful entrepreneurs have the same qualities, such as:-

GREAT PASSION
BURNING DESIRE FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS
HUGE BELIEF IN THEIR BUSINESS SUCCESS
GREAT EXPECTATION OF THEIR BUSINESS SUCCESS
BIG BELIEF IN THEIR BUSINESS ABILITY
STRONG POSITIVE ATTITUDE
GREAT DETERMINATION, DRIVE & PERSISTENCE
MASSIVE OPTIMISM
SETTING OF GOALS
MASSIVE FOCUS
POSITIVE THINKING
SMART BUSINESS THINKING
GOOD DECISION MAKING
NEVER PROCRASTINATING
SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS
ABILITY TO STEP OUTSIDE THEIR COMFORT ZONE
NO FEAR OF FAILURE
ABILITY TO LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES
ABILITY TO REBOUND QUICKLY FROM SET-BACKS

If YOU wish to replicate their business success, YOU need to develop the same MINDSET.

From my experience, the right business mindset starts with a STRONG, POSITIVE ATTITUDE, a HUGE PASSION for what they do, a BURNING DESIRE to be successful, a MASSIVE BELIEF in SUCCESS and a MASSIVE BELIEF in the ABILITY to achieve everything within the business.

GOAL SETTING is incredibly important for maintaining the right mindset. The most successful entrepreneurs in business all use goal setting and they always work hard to achieve their goals, with each goal achieved propelling them forward. By continually setting and achieving goals means the most successful are continually making progress.

The process of GOAL SETTING creates intense FOCUS which, in turn, creates DETERMINATION, PERSISTENCE, DRIVE, OPTIMISM and PASSION making it possible to do whatever is necessary in the business including STEPPING OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS don't FEAR FAILURE; importantly, many have experienced FAILURE and SET-BACKS. They view SETBACKS as part of the learning process and part of the process to achieving business success. Importantly, they learn from each experience and they never repeat the mistakes. Each one is very resilient and they don't linger on the setbacks. They shrug off the setback and get moving forward again, quickly.

The big consequence of all this is that SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE make QUICK and SMART DECISIONS, eliminating PROCRASTINATION.

SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS are then the result creating good outcomes which drive their businesses forward, ultimately generate great profits.

The TOP 10% most successful business entrepreneurs have many of the above and if YOU can replicate these qualities, then YOU should be SUCCESSFUL, too.

And, that will help YOU achieve PART 2.

Part 2 Is Your Business

PART 2 is YOUR BUSINESS and your BUSINESS STRATEGY.

Having the right BUSINESS MIND allows the most successful in business to set and execute the BEST BUSINESS STRATEGY and the BEST BUSINESS PLAN for their businesses. In my view, LASER FOCUS derived from having the RIGHT BUSINESS MIND becomes highly effective in the key areas of the business:-

UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET CUSTOMERS & THE TRADING MARKET
BUILDING AN ARMY OF LOYAL CUSTOMERS
CREATING THE RIGHT PRODUCTS FOR THE TARGET CUSTOMERS
CREATING A STRONG BRAND
DELIVERING AN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE
CREATING AN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
HAVING HIGHLY EFFECTIVE MARKETING
DRIVING HIGH SALES & HIGH PROFITS
EMPLOYING & TRAINING THE RIGHT STAFF
CREATING EFFICIENT BUSINESS SYSTEMS
RUNNING THE BUSINESS EFFECTIVELY & EFFICIENTLY
CREATING A MONEY RICH BUSINESS
HAVING FULL CONTROL OF THE BUSINESS

The most successful ENTREPRENEURS in business UNDERSTAND FULLY their TARGET CUSTOMERS, their COMPETITORS and their TRADING MARKET. This allows them to provide the RIGHT PRODUCTS and the RIGHT CUSTOMER SERVICE and to deliver the right benefits for a HUGE ARMY OF LOYAL CUSTOMERS and to ultimately create EXCELLENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES.

The most successful are also continually creating MARKETING that builds a STRONG BRAND and delivers more CUSTOMERS and more SALES. They also FOCUS heavily on employing the RIGHT STAFF and training and treating them RIGHT and on creating STRONG SYSTEMS to run their businesses effectively and efficiently.

Importantly, they also FOCUS heavily on the the MONEY within their businesses and FOCUS on generating PROFIT and keeping their businesses CASH RICH.

All of this is possible because of a STRONG BUSINESS MIND, i.e. PART 1.

PART 2 is possible because of PART 1.

You Can Become Very Successful

So for YOU to become one of the MOST SUCCESSFUL in business, YOU need first a STRONG BUSINESS MIND and that will allow YOU to RUN your business much better.

The most successful in business do this and YOU can do the same - YOU just need to decide that YOU will do it.

It could be much easier than YOU THINK to become a member of the '10% Club'.

This website is full of useful business articles and features to show YOU how to BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ‘10% CLUB’, so if you are serious about your future, then please take the time to explore it.

To start, YOU should read the following articles that link into this article:

If you wish to talk to me more about this, then please contact me: Robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or leave a comment below:-

Provide An Excellent Customer Experience & You Will Never Have To Search Far For Customers Again

Posted on 5th December 201726th May 2018 by Robert

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Provide An Excellent Customer Experience & You Will Never Have To Search Far For Customers Again.

Create A Great Customer Experience & Get Your Customers Excited.

Learn How You Can Grow Your Business By Offering An Excellent Customer Experience.

I have spent most of my working life in the pub trade running pubs and started as a manager for a small regional brewery running a pub in Southampton in the early 1980’s.

It was a tough job for a new and inexperienced manager during a recession-hit Britain in a town with high unemployment.

But it taught me much.

When myself and my partner took over The Frog And Frigate, the pub was very run down and needed a huge boost to get the right customers in.

But, within a year of starting, we had completely transformed the pub and it was packed to the rafters with happy customers every day.

The key to the success was CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

Before taking over the pub, we researched the pub industry very heavily and we comprehensively studied the city of Southampton and our likely target customers. By the time we started, we understood comprehensively the local trading market and we knew exactly who our target customers were and what their needs and wants were and we set about fulfilling these.

Everyone had a fantastic customer experience, going away excited and telling their friends. We created an army of very loyal customers very quickly through ‘word of mouth’ mostly, spending very little on marketing or advertising.

In 1984, we bought our first pub in rural Somerset – The White Hart Inn. It was very run down with poor levels of trade and a poor reputation.

But we now knew how to transform a pub and we had the confidence to do it as we applied the same principles that we had used at The Frog & Frigate.

We researched our local trading market and target customers intensively and drew up detailed plans of how we would run the pub under our ownership.

Our Mission Was To Give Our Customers

The Very Best Customer Experience

Our primary mission was to give our customers the very best customer experience.

We knew what the other pubs were offering in the area, but our mission was not to just offer better quality and better choice than the others but to offer EXCELLENCE in everything we did.

We wanted to offer the very best we possibly could offer.

And we succeeded.

For our first lunchtime, we took a worryingly low £14 but within 6 months, we had replicated our first success by filling the place to the rafters with happy customers, once more and every day.

Again, key to the success was CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

Everything we offered was of a very high standard, exciting our customers and making them tell everyone else. ‘Word of mouth’ was literally rampant.

Within a year, we were the market leader taking customers from every other local pub. Most of these pubs responded by raising their standards, but they were all left wanting.

We had created such high standards in everything we did, our competition could not replicate our high standards.

In the 30 years following the purchase of The White Hart, more pubs, a brewery and two sandwich bars and delicatessens were all added and all very successfully.

But, importantly, the same principle was used to create high sales, namely CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

Anyone Can Copy What We Did

The procedure we used can be copied for any business and can be summarised as follows:

Make it your mission to offer an excellent customer experience and to create excellence in everything you do.
Set your business objective to excite your customers by offering excellent customer experiences and make your customers talk about you and your business.
Comprehensively know and understand who your target customers are.
Comprehensively understand what their wants, needs and desires are.
Comprehensively know and understand who your target competitors are.
Comprehensively understand the products offered by your competitors, including the quality, the customer service, customer experience and prices.
Comprehensively understand how to be much better than your competitors.
Fully understand the products you need to offer.
Fully understand the quality, the customer service, customer experience and prices you need to offer.
Create a full and detailed plan of how to deliver your customer experience. Have a customer experience plan.
Execute your plan and continually monitor its success.
Talk to your customers and create a strong lasting relationship.
Appraise and monitor the views of your customers with regard to their customer experience.
Make any adjustments where needed.

This Can Be Done For Any Business

If you want to give your business a boost, decide first that you will make it your mission to offer an excellent customer experience and set yourself the objective of always exciting your customers and making them tell others about you through ‘word of mouth’.

Then, you should start thinking about your customer experience, appraise what you do presently and see where you can make improvements.

Ask yourself if you really understand your customers, your competitors and the trading market and whether you really understand how to satisfy your customer's needs. You should talk to your customers and ask them candidly what their view of their experience is and how it could be improved.

You should analyse every point at which your customers come into contact with your business and appraise whether the experience is one of excellence.

When you can see to make improvements, you must do so.

Then if your improvements are right for your business, you should see a corresponding gain in the fortunes of your business success over time.

Businesses That Prioritise Customer Service Always Do Better

Almost without exception, the businesses that prioritise their customer experience and succeed in delivering an excellent customer experience, in the eyes of the customer, are always able to grow their customer numbers, sales and profits.

I see it time and time again.

Conversely, when a business struggles, the reason is often a poor customer experience leading to poor customer engagement.

You Should Never Have To Search Hard For Customers Again

Once your improvements start to work, you should see customer loyalty grow with customers returning to buy more from you. As these customers tell others, ‘word of mouth’ should boost your customer numbers, your sales and profits and reduce your need to spend on your marketing.

Start Thinking Today About Your Customer Experience

Start thinking today about the customer experience you offer and make it your mission to offer an excellent customer experience and to create excellence in everything you do.

Then, think how you can make your customers happy and excited.

But also think that you can replicate this in your business to a high success, too.

If you would like to talk to me about delivering customer experience and to learn more about the methods I have used, then please email me at: robert @prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or please contact me below using my contact form.

I would love to help you to boost your business.

Are You Shackled By Your Business?

Posted on 30th October 20173rd March 2018 by Robert

Are You Shackled By Your Business?

Are You Trapped By Your Business?

Are You Working Too Many Hours?

Do You Have A Poor Work To Life Ratio?

If you can answer "Yes" to any of these question, you should really read this article.

Several weekends ago, my son arranged for us to join a group on a brewery tour of a successful family brewery in Wiltshire.

I am an ex brewer and in one of my former lives, I ran a very successful microbrewery before selling in 2001. He knew I would enjoy it and I did; it was a great day touring the brewery and seeing how this particular company brewed their beer.

The reason for this article is not to tell you about the family brewery – although I might well do that at a later stage – but to tell you about the small hotel, I stayed in for the weekend whist visiting the brewery.

The brewery was located in a lovely small market town and I booked two nights in one of the several hotels in the town. It was the sort of place that I like to stay – several hundred years old, with many of the original historic features. It not only offered accommodation but also had a full bar where you could enjoy a meal and a drink.

The room was very clean and comfortable, and a good hearty breakfast was served each morning of my stay.

But I felt not all was well with this business.

On talking to the lady of the house, she told me the entire place was run by just her and her husband with both working 100 hours per week each and she said they had both done this for the past 20 years.

She said they employed one person, one day per week to clean the hotel rooms; this was their only employment. She qualified this by saying that if she employed more staff, they would have to increase their prices.

Observing her, I also noticed that she obviously had health issues with a poor hip and leg, probably aggravated by the long hours and the physical toll on her body.

The couple knew I was an ex Publican and an ex Brewer but did not know I was also a Business Coach. They did not seek any advice from me nor did I offer any. I sensed that they were conditioned to this way of working and my advice would probably have fallen on deaf ears.

I know from my pub days that running such a business does involve long hours but after 20 years in this business, they should be working much fewer hours, say, 40 but no more.

During my weekend, I observed that many of the other pubs and cafes in the town were much busier than my host couple, obviously serving more drinks and food. Also when I booked my stay, all the quality hotels were full, except for the hotel of my hosts.

While generally being happy with my stay, I would not recommend it to others and I would not choose to return again. The interior while being historic was tired-looking in places, in urgent need of decoration and of general freshening up.

But one major thing that disappointed me was that my room was not cleaned or refreshed in readiness for my second night’s stay – I had never experienced this before and this seriously spoilt the experience, as far as I was concerned. But importantly, I am sure others staying for more than one night would have felt the same; their policy of not employing more staff was certainly a poor policy in this respect and was contributing to the low occupancy rate for their hotel rooms.

This Couple Are Trapped In Their Business

This couple are trapped within their business, unable to reduce their hours, risking their health and giving them a poor life to work balance.

They are living to work.

The lady of the house said that employing more staff would mean them increasing their prices.

She was very wrong saying this.

They were probably both working to their full capacity, but I could see from the other similar business in the town, they could probably easily double their bar and hotel trade.

This extra trade and gross profit would allow them to afford to employ more staff without increasing their prices. And, the extra staff would allow them to reduce their hours and to give them a better life/work balance.

Long Hours Are Sometimes Necessary In Many Businesses

Long hours are very necessary in many businesses, particularly in the start-up phase, say for the first couple of years, but no business owner should be working long hours after 20 years.

Working long hours for many years is very damaging to health and should be avoided.

Over the past 30 plus years, I have seen many businesses like this one. This couple, sadly, are not unique.

Many businesses in this situation simply do not have the time to think about how they can change things. And, even if they could see how to make the right changes, they are probably too tired to make the changes.

Also, confidence can be an issue – many business owners do not like to make changes in case they don’t work. They are fearful that making changes could worsen their situation not better it.

Many such businesses have low profits and low profitability and the owners are not prepared to risk lowering their profits still further by making the changes.

Changes Are Possible

If you are a business owner who is similarly trapped by his or her business, it is possible to remedy the situation and here is some good advice:

1. Firstly, you must allocate some quality time out of your busy schedule for some regular, quality thinking. The brain works much better when it is not tired and not stressed so choose the right time of day when your thinking will be most effective. You should also make this thinking a daily habit.

2. Being able to afford more help with your business relies on the ability to increase your sales, your profits and your customer numbers. As part of your thinking, you must research your trading market to assess how much all three can be increased.

3. You should look at your products and your offerings to assess whether these are what your target customers really want and whether you can make improvements. A good way to do this is to ask your customers what their views are and to look at the offerings of your competitors.

4. You should look at the customer experience, derived from your products and offerings and assess how good this is. In a highly competitive market, your objective should be for an excellent customer experience.

5. Overall customer satisfaction is the ultimate barometer for the performance of your business. You should ask your customers how satisfied they are with your offerings – this should include your actual products, customer service, pricing, ease to purchase, etc. Really every customer contact point should be assessed with the view of optimising your satisfaction rating.

6. Your marketing should be assessed to ensure your target customers see your marketing and understand what you are offering. For marketing to be effective, it has to be a continual process using all the techniques available.

7. Based on your findings, you should assess what action is needed and put this into a very simple, step by step plan.

8. With all changes, you must think that there could initially be increased costs before the extra sales and profits come to fruition. As part of your plan, you should do a rough profit and loss projection for your business incorporating the new changes. Here you should include projections for your new sales, new margin, new costs and likely net profit, etc..

9. Don’t be frightened to ask for advice. Business can be very lonely when you are trying to do something new and on your own. The best source for advice could be from other experienced business owners, business coaches and business mentors. Be careful about advice from friends and family, though.

This is a very rough appraisal of the minimum changes required for a business owner to release the shackles of long hours.

It is very possible to do it, but you need to have the will to do it and to be able to make the time available to think and to effect the changes.

I really fear for the couple running the hotel in Wiltshire; but I also fear that they see no need to change and have no inclination to do so at the moment.

I really hope that their health does not deteriorate massively in the coming years.

If you wish to discuss this matter more fully with me, please contact me below or email me at Robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk.

I would love to hear from you.

For Greater Business Success, Change Your Actions

Posted on 10th October 20173rd March 2018 by Robert

For Greater Business Success, Change Your Actions.

Copy The Ways Of The Most Successful In Business.

In previous articles, I described how to acquire a STRONG POSITIVE BUSINESS MIND, MINDSET and a STRONG POSITIVE ATTITUDE and I described how to use the POWER OF THOUGHT and SMART BUSINESS THINKING to make your thinking more creative.

A strong business mind and smart business thinking jointly will combine to make your ACTIONS within your business become MUCH BETTER.

The Smart Business Actions Are Innovative & Creative

The SMART BUSINESS THINKING of the top 10% entrepreneurs is CREATIVE and INNOVATIVE which means that their SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS are also CREATIVE and INNOVATIVE, too.

Their SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS will always be focused on their CUSTOMER with the aim of continually creating ways to build and maintain an army of loyal and happy customers, who always want to buy their products, keeping them ahead of the competition.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Make Decisions

The top 10% of the most successful entrepreneurs make DECISIONS very quickly and they always attach GOALS to each DECISION and create a STRATEGY for implementation. By doing so, each DECISION is EXECUTED QUICKLY and in the RIGHT WAY.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Are Achievers & Don’t Procrastinate

Once the top 10% entrepreneurs make a DECISION, it is implemented - they work with URGENCY and don’t DELAY or PROCRASTINATE as they know DELAY is MONEY.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Always Measure Progress

The top 10% entrepreneurs always MONITOR and MEASURE PROGRESS with all their SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS. If things are not progressing RIGHT in accordance with their STRATEGY, they are never afraid or slow to change or modify the strategy.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Are Always More Organized

The top 10% are always MORE ORGANIZED in their lives and their businesses and this leads to greater EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS. This means that they can achieve MUCH MORE with less effort and in less time than one of the 90%.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Are Usually Less Stressed And More Happy

As a result of being more ORGANIZED and more EFFICIENT, generally the top 10% of the most successful entrepreneurs are less STRESSED and are more HAPPY; and this is important - STRESS and UNHAPPINESS can affect your health significantly. Also HAPPY businesses always trade better and if the boss is happy, then so should the rest of the business be happy, too!

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Always Have Clear Strategies

The top 10% most successful entrepreneurs always create clear and precise STRATEGIES for the major parts of their businesses:-

UNDERSTANDING THEIR CUSTOMERS & THEIR NEEDS
CREATING THE RIGHT PRODUCTS
SELLING THEIR PRODUCTS
CREATING GREAT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION & EXPERIENCES
COMPETING AGAINST THEIR COMPETITORS
CREATING PROFITS & CASH-FLOW
MARKETING THE BUSINESS AND THE BRAND
HIRING & TRAINING OF STAFF
RUNNING THE BUSINESS

For each STRATEGY, OBJECTIVES will be set as part of their business plan and these will be achieved by the setting and achieving of several GOALS.

The Top 10% Entrepreneurs Research, Understand, Think, Plan & Act

The Top 10% most successful entrepreneurs always RESEARCH everything within their businesses and this leads to a SUPREME UNDERSTANDING of their businesses. Then, through SMART BUSINESS THINKING and SMART PLANNING and the setting of SMART STRATEGIES, they are able to execute SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS.

I call this RUTPA, an acronym for:-

RESEARCH
UNDERSTAND
THINK
PLAN
ACT

RUTPA is a big part of every successful entrepreneurs arsenal and a big contributor to their BUSINESS SUCCESS and YOU should do the same.

This Is A Rough Snapshot

This is a rough snap-shot into how effective SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS can be for driving BUSINESS SUCCESS.

But, it is important to realize that ACTIONS will only be SMART as a result of having acquired a STRONG POSITIVE BUSINESS MIND and a STRONG POSITIVE ATTITUDE and from using the POWER OF THOUGHT and SMART BUSINESS THINKING.

Generally the stronger your BUSINESS MIND and the better your SMART BUSINESS THINKING and the more time that you can devote to it, the better your SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS will be, the the better your business will trade and the greater your business success will be.

Have a STRONG BUSINESS MIND, SMART BUSINESS THINKING and SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS and YOU should over time be able to boost your BUSINESS SUCCESS and enter the '10% CLUB' - the 10% of most successful entrepreneurs.

In short, you should become one of the most successful entrepreneurs.

There Is Plenty More On This Site

There is plenty more on this site regarding SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS.

If you wish to discuss this article further with me, please email me at Robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or contact me here:

Have Full Control Of Your Business For Success

Posted on 5th September 20173rd March 2018 by Robert

You Must Have Full Control Of Your Business For Success.

Business Success Comes From Control Of Each Part Of Your Business.

But Do You Only Focus On The Parts That Interest You Most?

You must have full CONTROL of your business for success.

The very best in business and the most successful in business always have TOTAL and FULL CONTROL over every part and every aspect of their business.

And, that CONTROL allows them to be VERY SUCCESSFUL.

Only 10% of businesses are successful and make it into what I call the '10% CLUB' - if YOU are to make it into the ‘10% CLUB’ - you need to replicate the ways that they achieve success.

FULL CONTROL OF YOUR BUSINESS FOR SUCCESS is one aspect to look at.

HAVE SMART BUSINESS THINKING & SMART BUSINESS ACTIONS

If you wish to discuss this article with me more fully, please email me at Robert@prestigebusinesscoaching.co.uk or leave a comment below.

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