This morning, I decided not to attend a networking event that I was booked onto. Why? Well, three reasons really. The first was the pile of stuff sitting on my desk looking at me and the second and probably more honest reason is that my hubby is in China at the moment with work and I hadn't spoken to him for 3 days. Because of the time difference, the only opportunity that I have to speak to him would have been when I was at the networking event. Oh and the third reason was the 1 hour travelling time either side.
So, I decided not to go.
But, not going to places has consequences. There could have been a contact there who really needed what we do. The speaker could have been excellent and given me lots of ideas to help develop the business and of course, I have missed the opportunity to spread the awareness around about ET and what we do.
Weighing up the two sides of the argument, it begs an interesting question - when do you say that you're not doing to go to that networking event in favour of other work?
I guess that depends on you and your business, but at the moment, in the current economic climate, I think that probably I made the wrong call this morning. Surely, now more than ever it's important to get your message out there and take advantage of all the opportunities that come along.
Lesson learnt!
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Wednesday 24 June 2009
The easiest way of doing a difficult task
We’ve all heard the saying that the best way to eat an elephant is a piece at a time. And we’ve probably all been told that if we’ve got a task to do that is difficult, we should break it down into small chunks.
But, have you ever tried it – I mean really tried it?
I’ve known this principle for a while, but I haven’t really tried breaking a task right down until very recently.
Sometimes on my to-do list though, there’s a task that I really, really don’t want to do. Even if it won’t take very long, if I don’t want to do it, it will literally sit there for days and days. And sometimes, even weeks!
I know when it’s a difficult task too because it feels like hard work and I’d rather do ANYTHING instead of that task.
Over the last couple of days though, I’ve found a possible way around that – to break the task down and keep breaking it down until it feels manageable. Let me give you an example. I’m making some calls at the moment for a company – only 10 of them, but they feel like really hard work.
So instead of putting “Do calls for x” on my to-do list, I’ve put “Do call 1 for x”, “Do call 2 for x”, “Do call 3 for x” and so on and really been specific about what the task is.
What’s great about this is that when I’ve done one call, I can tick it off my to-do list instead of having to wait until I’ve done all of them. It’s a lot more motivating I can tell you. And you know what – all the calls are done now too!
So, if you’re stuck on a task, try really breaking it down until the point where it doesn’t feel like hard work and then get on with it. Even if you do the task one bite at a time, I promise you’ll eat the whole elephant.
But, have you ever tried it – I mean really tried it?
I’ve known this principle for a while, but I haven’t really tried breaking a task right down until very recently.
Sometimes on my to-do list though, there’s a task that I really, really don’t want to do. Even if it won’t take very long, if I don’t want to do it, it will literally sit there for days and days. And sometimes, even weeks!
I know when it’s a difficult task too because it feels like hard work and I’d rather do ANYTHING instead of that task.
Over the last couple of days though, I’ve found a possible way around that – to break the task down and keep breaking it down until it feels manageable. Let me give you an example. I’m making some calls at the moment for a company – only 10 of them, but they feel like really hard work.
So instead of putting “Do calls for x” on my to-do list, I’ve put “Do call 1 for x”, “Do call 2 for x”, “Do call 3 for x” and so on and really been specific about what the task is.
What’s great about this is that when I’ve done one call, I can tick it off my to-do list instead of having to wait until I’ve done all of them. It’s a lot more motivating I can tell you. And you know what – all the calls are done now too!
So, if you’re stuck on a task, try really breaking it down until the point where it doesn’t feel like hard work and then get on with it. Even if you do the task one bite at a time, I promise you’ll eat the whole elephant.
Tuesday 16 June 2009
I've got a business idea - what's next?
One question I get asked a lot goes something like “I’ve got an idea for a business. I need to get finance from the bank, buy stationery and equipment and do some research. I’m not sure how to plan everything that I need to do.”
Do you feel like this? Do you have a business idea and so much to do to get it up and running, that you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start?
If so, you’re not alone. Thousands of new business owners feel like this and that’s why it’s vital to put down on paper what you need to do. Here’s how:
Take a big piece of paper and then write down everything that comes into your head that you’ll need to do to set up your business. Don’t worry if it sounds silly – just get it down. You might want to carry this piece of paper round with you for a couple of days just in case you think of anything else you need to do.
Once you’ve got down the vast majority of all the things you’ll need to do, now is the time to start organising them. The first thing to do is group them. For example, anything to do with finance, group them all together (you could do this using a highlighter pen or writing them in groups on a separate sheet of paper); anything to do with getting a loan, group this too. Keep grouping the categories until you have five or six main headings to do.
With grouping, what you’re trying to do is firstly realise that a lot of the tasks you need to do are related and can be done together and secondly reduce the number of things you need to do into five or six areas. As such, if when you do this exercise, you find that some things don’t quite fit into a category, that’s fine – feel free to break them out into another heading.
When you’ve got your groups, take a good long look at them. Is there a logical order in which they need to be done? For example, if you need to get a loan from the bank, you have to write a business plan first before you can do that and research and cashflow things need to go into your business plan.
Are there things that can be done together? I don’t mean literally – but are there things which are not dependent on something else happening first. For instance, could you write a business plan at the same time as you go on a business start-up course?
Your task now is to prioritise your categories and give them an order in which to be done. Here’s my task list:
1) Write a business plan. Do market research and create cashflow.
2) Research banks (could be done while doing the business plan)
3) Go to the bank to talk to them about getting a loan.
4) Once I’ve got a loan, buy equipment and create website
5) Start marketing the business to get my first customer
Bear in mind, what’s on your list might be different to mine. Don’t worry about that – every business is different. The important thing is to get a concrete list of 5 or 6 things to do. Your initial notes will have broken down the detail of what needs to be done in each category.
Finally, once you have a list of things to do – go do them. Only you can make this happen, so go out there and make a difference. Good luck.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides advice and help for people setting up in business and for small businesses on their marketing.
Do you feel like this? Do you have a business idea and so much to do to get it up and running, that you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start?
If so, you’re not alone. Thousands of new business owners feel like this and that’s why it’s vital to put down on paper what you need to do. Here’s how:
Take a big piece of paper and then write down everything that comes into your head that you’ll need to do to set up your business. Don’t worry if it sounds silly – just get it down. You might want to carry this piece of paper round with you for a couple of days just in case you think of anything else you need to do.
Once you’ve got down the vast majority of all the things you’ll need to do, now is the time to start organising them. The first thing to do is group them. For example, anything to do with finance, group them all together (you could do this using a highlighter pen or writing them in groups on a separate sheet of paper); anything to do with getting a loan, group this too. Keep grouping the categories until you have five or six main headings to do.
With grouping, what you’re trying to do is firstly realise that a lot of the tasks you need to do are related and can be done together and secondly reduce the number of things you need to do into five or six areas. As such, if when you do this exercise, you find that some things don’t quite fit into a category, that’s fine – feel free to break them out into another heading.
When you’ve got your groups, take a good long look at them. Is there a logical order in which they need to be done? For example, if you need to get a loan from the bank, you have to write a business plan first before you can do that and research and cashflow things need to go into your business plan.
Are there things that can be done together? I don’t mean literally – but are there things which are not dependent on something else happening first. For instance, could you write a business plan at the same time as you go on a business start-up course?
Your task now is to prioritise your categories and give them an order in which to be done. Here’s my task list:
1) Write a business plan. Do market research and create cashflow.
2) Research banks (could be done while doing the business plan)
3) Go to the bank to talk to them about getting a loan.
4) Once I’ve got a loan, buy equipment and create website
5) Start marketing the business to get my first customer
Bear in mind, what’s on your list might be different to mine. Don’t worry about that – every business is different. The important thing is to get a concrete list of 5 or 6 things to do. Your initial notes will have broken down the detail of what needs to be done in each category.
Finally, once you have a list of things to do – go do them. Only you can make this happen, so go out there and make a difference. Good luck.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides advice and help for people setting up in business and for small businesses on their marketing.
Not everything is an invitation
I beretted myself this morning for sending out the newsletter with the words of "I'm running the Race for Life shortly and I'm dreading it."
Or rather I was fine with putting that out until I got three responses from lifecoaches telling me how they could help me with that. Then I thought "Ah...I wasn't expecting that response."
Fact is, I was exaggerating a little. Firstly to get sympathy; secondly to get sponsorshop - by the way if you want to sponsor me (please please) you can at: http://www.justgiving.com/helendowling and finally to have something to write as an introduction to the newsletter.
My comment though was not an invitation to pitch services to me - on the one hand, I suppose they deserve a well done for taking advantage of the opportunity. On the other, it's more work for me having to explain why I'm not looking for their services.
I know everyone is looking for new business at the moment, but remember if you do marketing in other ways, people will have heard about you and will be approaching YOU rather than the other way round.
A better response, may have been to send me an article that you've written (or quickly put together) on this subject with some handy tips about what to do about it. I'm much more likely to consider you then if I'm in the market for your services.
So, think carefully about how you could respond to this type of comment - there may well be a better way than just pitching your services directly.
Or rather I was fine with putting that out until I got three responses from lifecoaches telling me how they could help me with that. Then I thought "Ah...I wasn't expecting that response."
Fact is, I was exaggerating a little. Firstly to get sympathy; secondly to get sponsorshop - by the way if you want to sponsor me (please please) you can at: http://www.justgiving.com/helendowling and finally to have something to write as an introduction to the newsletter.
My comment though was not an invitation to pitch services to me - on the one hand, I suppose they deserve a well done for taking advantage of the opportunity. On the other, it's more work for me having to explain why I'm not looking for their services.
I know everyone is looking for new business at the moment, but remember if you do marketing in other ways, people will have heard about you and will be approaching YOU rather than the other way round.
A better response, may have been to send me an article that you've written (or quickly put together) on this subject with some handy tips about what to do about it. I'm much more likely to consider you then if I'm in the market for your services.
So, think carefully about how you could respond to this type of comment - there may well be a better way than just pitching your services directly.
Tuesday 9 June 2009
What can the Apprentice teach us?
So, were you, like me gripped to the Apprentice final on Sunday night? I don’t know about you, but I was routing for Kate who I thought developed the best product and executed better than Yasmina. Why then, did Yasmina emerge as the ultimate winner?
Well, having given this some thought, I think Yasmina displayed some of the traits that we can all learn from when we run our businesses.
Firstly, she didn’t give up. Her chocolates ended up not tasting how she had hoped, but still she persevered and carried on through regardless. She explained this in the Boardroom by saying that her team only had 30 minutes with the chocolatier and she would have spent a week with them if she was doing this properly.
Also, even when she realised that her idea of selling chocolate to men wouldn’t work, she didn’t fall over and refuse to continue – she simply picked herself up, tweaked the idea and got on with it.
Secondly, she got on with things that pushed her comfort zone. Yasmina hated giving presentations to other people and yet, she stood up there and gave it her all. Yes, ok it wasn’t the best presentation in the world, yet she still gave it and got on with the task at hand despite not looking forward to it.
Thirdly, she showed her passion to want to succeed. She had already achieved by creating a successful restaurant, but she showed how much she really wanted to win which shone through in the final.
Also, she understood her target market, really doing her research and then pitching her prices at £5 rather than Kate’s over the top £13!
Finally, she understood her costings and was able to explain how she’d got to these and what profit the manufacturer would make from the sales. When Kate was asked the same question, she brushed over the answer and didn’t make it clear.
So, what skills have we got there?
Perseverance, tenacity, commitment to learning and growing, knowing your market, having a real passion to succeed and understanding your costs.
Although Kate developed a good product, that’s only half of the story and Yasmina displayed the skills necessary to win the Apprentice and be an excellent business woman in the process.
And these sound like skills that could be really useful in business, especially at this turbulent time – do you agree?
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice for small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Well, having given this some thought, I think Yasmina displayed some of the traits that we can all learn from when we run our businesses.
Firstly, she didn’t give up. Her chocolates ended up not tasting how she had hoped, but still she persevered and carried on through regardless. She explained this in the Boardroom by saying that her team only had 30 minutes with the chocolatier and she would have spent a week with them if she was doing this properly.
Also, even when she realised that her idea of selling chocolate to men wouldn’t work, she didn’t fall over and refuse to continue – she simply picked herself up, tweaked the idea and got on with it.
Secondly, she got on with things that pushed her comfort zone. Yasmina hated giving presentations to other people and yet, she stood up there and gave it her all. Yes, ok it wasn’t the best presentation in the world, yet she still gave it and got on with the task at hand despite not looking forward to it.
Thirdly, she showed her passion to want to succeed. She had already achieved by creating a successful restaurant, but she showed how much she really wanted to win which shone through in the final.
Also, she understood her target market, really doing her research and then pitching her prices at £5 rather than Kate’s over the top £13!
Finally, she understood her costings and was able to explain how she’d got to these and what profit the manufacturer would make from the sales. When Kate was asked the same question, she brushed over the answer and didn’t make it clear.
So, what skills have we got there?
Perseverance, tenacity, commitment to learning and growing, knowing your market, having a real passion to succeed and understanding your costs.
Although Kate developed a good product, that’s only half of the story and Yasmina displayed the skills necessary to win the Apprentice and be an excellent business woman in the process.
And these sound like skills that could be really useful in business, especially at this turbulent time – do you agree?
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice for small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Monday 8 June 2009
The key to staying positive
As small business owners, one thing that tends to happen is that we get to know ourselves very well. We know what stresses us out; what makes us end the day on a high and we learn what makes us stay positive or results in us feeling down.
The key for me staying positive (and it may well work for you too) is this. Whenever I feel down, it's usually because I haven't set some goals to achieve - I know that if I've got goals in place that motivate me and make me want to get up in a morning, I'm more likely to stay positive.
And if I can see that I've got an action plan in place to achieve these goals, that's going to make me feel motivated for longer too.
So, how are you feeling at the moment? If you're not feeling great, why not try setting yourself some goals that get you excited again? Set up an action plan to get cracking on them and see whether you feel any differently.
The key for me staying positive (and it may well work for you too) is this. Whenever I feel down, it's usually because I haven't set some goals to achieve - I know that if I've got goals in place that motivate me and make me want to get up in a morning, I'm more likely to stay positive.
And if I can see that I've got an action plan in place to achieve these goals, that's going to make me feel motivated for longer too.
So, how are you feeling at the moment? If you're not feeling great, why not try setting yourself some goals that get you excited again? Set up an action plan to get cracking on them and see whether you feel any differently.
Friday 5 June 2009
Why I decided not to vote in the local/European elections yesterday
I didn't vote in the elections yesterday, which is highly unusual for me. In the past, I've always voted reasoning that if you're given the right to vote, you really should have your say.
But yesterday, I decided to abstain from my right and not vote. Why? Well quite frankly, if small business owners had behaved the way that MPs have in the past few weeks with their expenses, I think most of us would have gone to jail.
All of them seem to be as bad as each other at the moment and it makes me very angry that the very people who set the rules and instruct small businesses to pay tax, national insurance, P.A.Y.E and VAT, which the vast majority of us do on time without question, have themselves abused the system.
So, had there been a box on the voting form that says "I do not wish to vote" I would have ticked this, but as there was not, I consciously decided not to vote on this occasion. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
But yesterday, I decided to abstain from my right and not vote. Why? Well quite frankly, if small business owners had behaved the way that MPs have in the past few weeks with their expenses, I think most of us would have gone to jail.
All of them seem to be as bad as each other at the moment and it makes me very angry that the very people who set the rules and instruct small businesses to pay tax, national insurance, P.A.Y.E and VAT, which the vast majority of us do on time without question, have themselves abused the system.
So, had there been a box on the voting form that says "I do not wish to vote" I would have ticked this, but as there was not, I consciously decided not to vote on this occasion. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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