This morning I had a "can't be bothered moment". It probably resulted from having cold all week and not sleeping properly, but all I wanted to do was go home and go back to bed. Knowing I couldn't really do that (it doesn't really set a good example to my team), I procrasinated for a couple of hours and then (just before I wrote this post), I gave myself a good talking to and decided to get on with completing just 5 things.
While some would argue that I shouldn't have pushed myself at that point and had the afternoon off, my argument is that none of us can really afford to do that. We all have deadlines, things that need to be done, planned and completed before we can have a break.
It's not like I don't have anything to do and for the most part I'm pretty excited about doing them. And if I don't, who will?
So, next time you have a "can't be bothered moment", give yourself a shake and make yourself get on with just a few tasks. Believe me (I'm currently on task 3 of 5), I feel loads better already and when I've done the 5, maybe I'll challenge myself to go for 10 tasks!
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Looking After Yourself and Your Staff at Work
Wouldn’t it be great if our bodies could diagnose and fix themselves so we wouldn’t have to worry about going to the dentist, or visiting the doctor and you’d never fall foul of the usual round of cold and flu viruses that magically appear at this time of year?
Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a Matrix style programme that we can download into heads to sort out our health. And yet most of us, if we stopped to listen to our bodies and took some simple measures, could actually prevent a lot of the illnesses we have.
Ok so you’re rushing around trying to meet with clients, grabbing a quick lunch and preparing an important presentation, but a small amount of time spent on yourself and the welfare of your staff could pay dividends in the future. It’s one of those investments that we should make but often don’t to our cost.
Healthy Environment
Providing a healthy environment for you and your staff is vital to help reduce accidents and keeping people safe. It everyone’s responsibility to ensure not only that their working area is tidy but that their equipment is up to scratch. It’s also good to check they are sitting in the correct positions and are following the correct guidelines when using equipment. However, as their boss, it’s up to you to make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and that all new staff are given adequate guidelines and the appropriate training.
Reduce Stress
A tense environment can quickly escalate causing staff to burn out and is one of the main factors why people fall ill. They may even end up leaving if this pattern keeps repeating itself, and in extreme cases this can result in staff taking their employer to court. Using humour in the workplace can foster wellness, improve stress management and increase productivity and morale. Also ensuring you and your staff take regular breaks and use up their holidays on a regular basis will not only minimise the build up of stress but also help avoid the glut of holidays that workaholics always seem to find themselves with before the year end.
Staff Training
Providing training gives your staff the tools to help grow your business. After all, you’ve spent time and money choosing good staff so why wouldn’t you invest the time to train them? It’s not just about providing your staff with training on a regular basis but also coaching and mentoring them. Your input is vital in guiding your staff through tough times and gives them direction. They also need to know why they are being asked to do something and are much more likely to do a better job if they understand its importance
Recognise and Praise Achievements
When was the last time you gave your staff a pat on the back, or thanked them properly for their efforts? If you don’t praise them at least once a day then you’re not praising them enough. Everybody likes to be praised for a doing a good job and its important to ensure you do this on the same day. It makes staff feel valued and keeps them motivated. It’s the easiest thing to do and a simple courtesy costs nothing but is worth everything.
Rewards and Benefits
Bonuses schemes are always popular with staff as they recognise their achievements. However, they don’t always have to be monetary. Giving away mini rewards such as gift certificates or taking your staff out to lunch can make a big difference. Just as importantly though are the types of benefits your company can offer staff. These can also go a long way in making your staff feel valued whilst promoting loyalty and a ‘feel-good’ factor. Many companies offer benefits to their staff but one of the most important are health schemes. They let your staff know you are concerned about their wellbeing, particularly if they offer costs towards routine dental and optical treatment, eye tests and prescription charges or even in-patient and day patient care.
That’s why Exceptional Thinking recommends health policies such as Wellness cover from WPA http://www.wpa.org.uk/keithiliffe/. From as little as £15.00 each your staff can be covered for dental and optical, eye tests, prescription charges, hospital in-patient and day-patient allowances, specialist or second opinion, post hospital recovery bonus, allowance for attending A&E, physiotherapy, Health Screening, Maternity and Paternity and even a confidential stress counselling service.
Exceptional Thinking http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/ provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a Matrix style programme that we can download into heads to sort out our health. And yet most of us, if we stopped to listen to our bodies and took some simple measures, could actually prevent a lot of the illnesses we have.
Ok so you’re rushing around trying to meet with clients, grabbing a quick lunch and preparing an important presentation, but a small amount of time spent on yourself and the welfare of your staff could pay dividends in the future. It’s one of those investments that we should make but often don’t to our cost.
Healthy Environment
Providing a healthy environment for you and your staff is vital to help reduce accidents and keeping people safe. It everyone’s responsibility to ensure not only that their working area is tidy but that their equipment is up to scratch. It’s also good to check they are sitting in the correct positions and are following the correct guidelines when using equipment. However, as their boss, it’s up to you to make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and that all new staff are given adequate guidelines and the appropriate training.
Reduce Stress
A tense environment can quickly escalate causing staff to burn out and is one of the main factors why people fall ill. They may even end up leaving if this pattern keeps repeating itself, and in extreme cases this can result in staff taking their employer to court. Using humour in the workplace can foster wellness, improve stress management and increase productivity and morale. Also ensuring you and your staff take regular breaks and use up their holidays on a regular basis will not only minimise the build up of stress but also help avoid the glut of holidays that workaholics always seem to find themselves with before the year end.
Staff Training
Providing training gives your staff the tools to help grow your business. After all, you’ve spent time and money choosing good staff so why wouldn’t you invest the time to train them? It’s not just about providing your staff with training on a regular basis but also coaching and mentoring them. Your input is vital in guiding your staff through tough times and gives them direction. They also need to know why they are being asked to do something and are much more likely to do a better job if they understand its importance
Recognise and Praise Achievements
When was the last time you gave your staff a pat on the back, or thanked them properly for their efforts? If you don’t praise them at least once a day then you’re not praising them enough. Everybody likes to be praised for a doing a good job and its important to ensure you do this on the same day. It makes staff feel valued and keeps them motivated. It’s the easiest thing to do and a simple courtesy costs nothing but is worth everything.
Rewards and Benefits
Bonuses schemes are always popular with staff as they recognise their achievements. However, they don’t always have to be monetary. Giving away mini rewards such as gift certificates or taking your staff out to lunch can make a big difference. Just as importantly though are the types of benefits your company can offer staff. These can also go a long way in making your staff feel valued whilst promoting loyalty and a ‘feel-good’ factor. Many companies offer benefits to their staff but one of the most important are health schemes. They let your staff know you are concerned about their wellbeing, particularly if they offer costs towards routine dental and optical treatment, eye tests and prescription charges or even in-patient and day patient care.
That’s why Exceptional Thinking recommends health policies such as Wellness cover from WPA http://www.wpa.org.uk/keithiliffe/. From as little as £15.00 each your staff can be covered for dental and optical, eye tests, prescription charges, hospital in-patient and day-patient allowances, specialist or second opinion, post hospital recovery bonus, allowance for attending A&E, physiotherapy, Health Screening, Maternity and Paternity and even a confidential stress counselling service.
Exceptional Thinking http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/ provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Monday 16 November 2009
Changes are afoot...
There's been lots of changes happening at Exceptional Thinking recently and I feel very much like Willy Wonka keeping everything secret so that everything can be revealed at the same time.
But, gradually things are coming together and this is what will be happening in the New Year:
But, gradually things are coming together and this is what will be happening in the New Year:
- We will be launching our brand new website. It's getting close to the point of completion now and we'll be looking to test it shortly. By the way, if you'd like to be one of the testers and get a sneak preview, please email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
- We will also be launching a new members area where members will have much more help with their marketing from us without paying a fortune. They will get access to calls, action plans, marketing audits and 1-2-1 meetings with me to name but a few things. Very excited about this - watch this space!
- We'll also be doing more workshops, more telecalls, and lots more working with people individually to help them get the most out of their marketing.
We've recently taken on Nicky Benton to help us out in addition to Trudi Hayden and I hope by the end of 2010, we'll have another person on board too.
So, there's lots of changes afoot for the year ahead and I'm really excited about sharing the new changes with you. Keep checking back for more...
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Focus on educating your customers
When customers are not buying, it’s very easy to take it personally, think the whole world’s against you and get very demotivated with the whole thing. And then of course, that makes the situation even worse – because customers can sense a mile off if you’re not happy and even though you desperately want more customers, they don’t want to work with you.
So, what do you do to break out of this circle? Well, an easy way (and often a better way) to think about your marketing is to focus instead on educating your customers. That means, rather than trying to convince them to buy, all you want to do instead is pass on useful tips and information to help people.
The impact of this can be dramatic. Firstly, you start to perceive yourself in a different way. The emphasis is no longer on getting people to buy - you’re now an educator, a teacher in your subject. If you think of yourself in this way, you’ll find that you no longer worry if people don’t buy from you immediately. At least, if nothing else, you’ve been helpful to someone.
The second impact is that the world of marketing suddenly opens its door to you. If you focus on educating your customers, there are a multitude of ways in which you can do this, from writing articles to giving speeches and seminars. These methods will help you to reach more potential customers who will also all perceive you as being an expert in your field – can’t be bad!
Thirdly, customers receive a taster from you of what you can do. If you’re giving a seminar for instance, potential customers get to meet you and get to understand what you can do in a way they wouldn’t otherwise experience. Compare this method for instance to cold calling, where potential customers only get a call explaining what you do and no education at all.
Focusing on educating your customers takes all the pressure off for you and is (in my humble opinion) a far nicer way to do marketing. We have had some tremendous successes from employing this method in my business and clients of ours have received great results too.
But can every business focus on education rather than selling? For instance a customer of mine told me the other day that their business was different – their customers wouldn’t want any education; they either needed the service or they didn’t.
My answer was rubbish – every business can use the focus of education to market their business. No matter what product or service you supply, people always want useful information and tips to help them make a decision.
After all, isn’t that how we buy? Many of us go to the web these days and search for information on a particular product or service before we make a decision to purchase. And if you’re the one providing this useful information for free, who are they more likely to buy from?
Education is a great way to market your business and if you want 50 free ways to promote your business containing many ways to educate your customers, just send me an email – details in the profile.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For a copy of our 50 free ways to promote your business, just email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
So, what do you do to break out of this circle? Well, an easy way (and often a better way) to think about your marketing is to focus instead on educating your customers. That means, rather than trying to convince them to buy, all you want to do instead is pass on useful tips and information to help people.
The impact of this can be dramatic. Firstly, you start to perceive yourself in a different way. The emphasis is no longer on getting people to buy - you’re now an educator, a teacher in your subject. If you think of yourself in this way, you’ll find that you no longer worry if people don’t buy from you immediately. At least, if nothing else, you’ve been helpful to someone.
The second impact is that the world of marketing suddenly opens its door to you. If you focus on educating your customers, there are a multitude of ways in which you can do this, from writing articles to giving speeches and seminars. These methods will help you to reach more potential customers who will also all perceive you as being an expert in your field – can’t be bad!
Thirdly, customers receive a taster from you of what you can do. If you’re giving a seminar for instance, potential customers get to meet you and get to understand what you can do in a way they wouldn’t otherwise experience. Compare this method for instance to cold calling, where potential customers only get a call explaining what you do and no education at all.
Focusing on educating your customers takes all the pressure off for you and is (in my humble opinion) a far nicer way to do marketing. We have had some tremendous successes from employing this method in my business and clients of ours have received great results too.
But can every business focus on education rather than selling? For instance a customer of mine told me the other day that their business was different – their customers wouldn’t want any education; they either needed the service or they didn’t.
My answer was rubbish – every business can use the focus of education to market their business. No matter what product or service you supply, people always want useful information and tips to help them make a decision.
After all, isn’t that how we buy? Many of us go to the web these days and search for information on a particular product or service before we make a decision to purchase. And if you’re the one providing this useful information for free, who are they more likely to buy from?
Education is a great way to market your business and if you want 50 free ways to promote your business containing many ways to educate your customers, just send me an email – details in the profile.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For a copy of our 50 free ways to promote your business, just email me on helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Tuesday 10 November 2009
It's your business...
At a meeting earlier today I asked a client why she was doing things in a certain way. She replied that she had to do things like that. I went deeper and asked her why to which she didn't really have an answer.
It's a pretty hard thing to get your head around but when you run a business, it's your business - no one elses and you say what goes. When you run your own business, you really do start each day with a blank piece of paper and it's up to you how you fill it.
Yes, there may be consequences if you don't do things, but make sure before you agree to any task or put any job down on your to-do list that you're 100% happy with it. If you're not, all that will happen is that it will stay on your to-do list and not get done. You'll put it off week after week until eventually it doesn't have to be done anymore.
Remember, it's your business. You say how it's run and what's ok and what's not. That means if you want to go out for a walk at 2pm in the afternoon, you can and if you don't want to take on a particular client you don't have to.
After all, that's why you started this business isn't it? To have freedom and enjoy life. Make sure you do!
It's a pretty hard thing to get your head around but when you run a business, it's your business - no one elses and you say what goes. When you run your own business, you really do start each day with a blank piece of paper and it's up to you how you fill it.
Yes, there may be consequences if you don't do things, but make sure before you agree to any task or put any job down on your to-do list that you're 100% happy with it. If you're not, all that will happen is that it will stay on your to-do list and not get done. You'll put it off week after week until eventually it doesn't have to be done anymore.
Remember, it's your business. You say how it's run and what's ok and what's not. That means if you want to go out for a walk at 2pm in the afternoon, you can and if you don't want to take on a particular client you don't have to.
After all, that's why you started this business isn't it? To have freedom and enjoy life. Make sure you do!
Wednesday 4 November 2009
How to do business effectively while on the move
I don’t know about you, but there have been days when I’ve been out and about and not been near the office once. On days like this, it’s difficult to get any work done let alone any marketing.
So, what can you do? Here are my top tips to do business effectively when you’re on the move.
1) Plan in advance – how often have you had to rush because you needed petrol and didn’t get it before? Or, had to get up early to print out materials that you needed for the day? Yes – me too! But, if you plan in advance and do these things before the day you know you’re going to be out, you’ll find your life is much smoother.
2) Use Technology – there are so many things out there now to help us organise our lives better, so why not use them? Blackberrys and IPhones are fantastic for managing your emails and Notebooks are great for travelling with – they’re so much lighter than laptops and are often free if you sign up for mobile broadband. I got a new Notebook recently for just £20 a month!
3) Use a call minding company – manage any phone calls you receive while you’re out and about by using a call answering service. They will answer your calls in your company name and will send any messages to your emails or by text to you. People far appreciate speaking to a human being rather than an answering machine, making you look more professional too. We use Professional Call Minders who are fantastic.
4) Scale down your workload - much as we’d like to get everything done if you’re out working, your time will be limited. Recognise this and scale back your workload accordingly – sounds obvious, but we very often don’t do this leaving us feeling stressed because we haven’t done as much as we would like.
5) Outsource tasks – if outsourcing tasks is an option for you, it is definitely something that’s worth doing to help you manage work while you’re out of the office. If you can outsource to a company or an individual, you’ll have confidence that the work is being done even if you’re not there to do it.
6) Set up systems – ultimately if you can set up systems in your business meaning that marketing and work get done while you’re not there. This can of course, include outsourcing tasks. A simple example of a system is to use a programme that sends people who visit your website emails to help you build a relationship with them. Start by looking at everything you do in your business and see if you can set up a system to streamline things. You will speed up your tasks and eventually your business will operate efficiently even if you’re not there.
While it’s hard to manage everything when you’re out of the office, setting up system and using the tools that are available to manage things will help you to feel less stressed and make sure things still get done.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
So, what can you do? Here are my top tips to do business effectively when you’re on the move.
1) Plan in advance – how often have you had to rush because you needed petrol and didn’t get it before? Or, had to get up early to print out materials that you needed for the day? Yes – me too! But, if you plan in advance and do these things before the day you know you’re going to be out, you’ll find your life is much smoother.
2) Use Technology – there are so many things out there now to help us organise our lives better, so why not use them? Blackberrys and IPhones are fantastic for managing your emails and Notebooks are great for travelling with – they’re so much lighter than laptops and are often free if you sign up for mobile broadband. I got a new Notebook recently for just £20 a month!
3) Use a call minding company – manage any phone calls you receive while you’re out and about by using a call answering service. They will answer your calls in your company name and will send any messages to your emails or by text to you. People far appreciate speaking to a human being rather than an answering machine, making you look more professional too. We use Professional Call Minders who are fantastic.
4) Scale down your workload - much as we’d like to get everything done if you’re out working, your time will be limited. Recognise this and scale back your workload accordingly – sounds obvious, but we very often don’t do this leaving us feeling stressed because we haven’t done as much as we would like.
5) Outsource tasks – if outsourcing tasks is an option for you, it is definitely something that’s worth doing to help you manage work while you’re out of the office. If you can outsource to a company or an individual, you’ll have confidence that the work is being done even if you’re not there to do it.
6) Set up systems – ultimately if you can set up systems in your business meaning that marketing and work get done while you’re not there. This can of course, include outsourcing tasks. A simple example of a system is to use a programme that sends people who visit your website emails to help you build a relationship with them. Start by looking at everything you do in your business and see if you can set up a system to streamline things. You will speed up your tasks and eventually your business will operate efficiently even if you’re not there.
While it’s hard to manage everything when you’re out of the office, setting up system and using the tools that are available to manage things will help you to feel less stressed and make sure things still get done.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small businesses on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Do people read?
You know I keep bleating on about why you have to keep repeating your message, not just tell people what it is once - well the reason for this is because people DON'T read.
Let me give you an example - I've just run a free call on Using Articles to Promote your Business. I sent out several emails to the people who were registered and in those and the promotional material put that if they couldn't make the call, not to worry as it would be available as a recording after the call.
And yet, I've lost count of the number of emails I've received telling me that people couldn't make the call and would a recording be available!
If you want people to pay attention to things you need to keep repeating your message, explain things in a different order and highlight different areas just so you hopefully catch the eye of whoever is reading your info. It has to literally hit them in the face otherwise people will just ignore it.
I think next time I do a call, I will put this bit in the subject header - made a mental note!
Let me give you an example - I've just run a free call on Using Articles to Promote your Business. I sent out several emails to the people who were registered and in those and the promotional material put that if they couldn't make the call, not to worry as it would be available as a recording after the call.
And yet, I've lost count of the number of emails I've received telling me that people couldn't make the call and would a recording be available!
If you want people to pay attention to things you need to keep repeating your message, explain things in a different order and highlight different areas just so you hopefully catch the eye of whoever is reading your info. It has to literally hit them in the face otherwise people will just ignore it.
I think next time I do a call, I will put this bit in the subject header - made a mental note!
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