2014 has started with a bang for us, lots of new customers, lots of positive attitudes, and a general feel good factor for me and my clients. The good economic news continues to flow in, and at the moment no snow or ice to make things hard for people to get around.

I hope you have all written down your targets for the year, as there is no doubt that writing things down makes it far more likely that you will achieve them. Don’t kid yourselves that you have it all in your head, so that is enough. The more you commit to by writing it down, and the more you show people so they will hold you accountable, the better your year will be.

As ever there is always a wide spectrum of people to talk to, some who are clear about what they want to achieve, but not sure the path to take and what steps to take, and others who are happier not to know the real picture of where they are, and stick their heads in the sand. So which of these is you? Now is a great time to ask yourself the tough questions about where you are going and why, and then to be honest with yourself about whether you truly know how to get there.

If you have been avoiding the truth for a while, wouldn’t it be great to make some real and meaningful changes, and face up to the fact that you can’t do it all yourself. Do you want a business which will work for you and give you the life you have always dreamed of. If so, give me a call, because I can help you get there.

It’s been a whole year now since my first experience of telemarketing, here at Business Life and yes I’m still here.

I remember my first day well phoning numbers praying that no one would answer, dreading having to actually talk to some one. Mad I know but I’d never done it before and really didn’t know an awful lot about business coaching. After the first few days I realised that I had to get a grip, Man Up! They are just human beings after all, what’s the worst that could happen….hang up on me…and yes that has happened a couple of times.

Thankfully I have had a very supportive team who have given me the confidence I needed. I remember them telling me “don’t worry you’ll get it in time” and they could see the potential as they would often tell me how good I am on the phone.

And they were right suddenly I got it! I made my first sale, I was over the moon and realised I could do it. Now I take it in my stride, there are good days and not so good days but I don’t let the not so good days bother me, it’s simply the way it goes.

I love it, I get to chat to some very pleasant, interesting people, and hopefully due to my initial contact with potential clients there are more successful businesses out there.

Back onto sport analogies this week, as there seem to be quite a lot of international matches going on at the moment on the football, cricket and rugby (both union and league) fronts. Amongst all the main stories, one of the slightly smaller headlines, which caught my eye, was about the banning of 6 of the Australian rugby union team from playing this week, as they had broken the rules of their team culture. Essentially they had all gone out for a meal midway through last week, but these 6 had decided to ignore the team “rules of the game”, had drunk far too much, and thereby overstepped the line.

As team manager/coach, it must be very tempting to overlook this transgression, as the loss of 6 first choice players in a team of 15, could of course be a major detriment to the side, and could potentially lead to them losing the match. However, the manager has taken the view that he cannot let this sort of thing happen (the thin end of the wedge) and has subsequently punished them accordingly. I for one, applaud his tough stance, as he ran the risk of far worse happening in the future if he did not stick to his guns.

The same thing applies to your business. The temptation to overlook transgressions or even oversights by your staff, in particular those who you might consider key personnel, is indeed strong, but if you do so, you are opening the door to further wrong doings in the future. Once you have lost your integrity over discipline, it is very difficult to pull it back, because you can easily be accused of inconsistency or being unfair.

So create a clear and strong culture in your business, and then make sure you live by the rules you have drawn up. If you don’t, you can be sure that you will have greater problems to live with in the long run.

As everyone knows, you should test and measure your marketing. In other words before you spend large amounts on your marketing campaign, ideally you should do a test or a pilot run wherever possible, so you can get an idea of whether it is likely to bring a decent return on investment.

Furthermore, you should be using a number of different strategies every month, both passive and active, so that if some of your marketing doesn’t work, at least some will, and you will constantly be generating new leads.

One marketing tool which is not quite so clear cut however is networking. I do a fair amount of networking, not as much as the social networkers, but enough to get a good feel for all the different groups which are in and around my area. Some of them are full of energy and vibrant, some are very structured, some are interesting in one way or another, and some are a waste of time. However, in all cases it is often very difficult to judge if you are actually getting a return on investment, after all, it can take a long time to build a trusting relationship with your fellow networkers, so it may be a while before you start to get referrals. But, just because you don’t get direct business from networking, it should not necessarily be a strategy which you drop.

The thing is there are a lot of other things (intangibles) which you can derive from networking, which may be hard to put a value to. The energy you get from a vibrant group, can be enough to give to give you a boost for a day or two, which in turn can help you to convert new leads to become clients. You can learn new and interesting facts, it can make you keep to your commitments, and even make you feel uncomfortable, which in turn is often a sign of self development.

So before you dismiss networking as an expensive waste of time, or general socialising, think carefully about what you can get out of it. After all, you never know who you might meet next.

I love it when my clients get “it”, whatever the “it” might be. Doing a cash flow, carrying out some marketing, writing a business structure, or simply saying something which shows they understand and have changed.

Yesterday I had one such “Eureka” moment, when one of my clients said “I think I should put a day (or an afternoon) aside to work on the things which need to be done a move the business forward. In other words he had realised how important time spent working on, rather than in, the business can be. The trouble is that most people take a long time to take this on board because all they can see is the need to increase their sales, and the only way to do that (as they see it) is to carry out the contracts themselves.

Another client I have recently started working with is a prime example of this, constantly going from feast to famine because they can’t find the time to do more marketing while they are working on a contract, and therefore there is always a lag between money coming in and the next job. In their own words they spend their whole time just “bumping along the bottom” and can never break free to the next level because they are always working in the business and therefore do not have consistently good income month on month.

There is no quick fix for this problem, but simply by understanding that you have a problem and why it exists is a good start. Then at least you can start to do something about it. And if you are not sure how to go about it, why not get in touch, and I can help you take the first steps.

How often do you have proper business meetings in your office? I don’t mean the informal chat in the kitchen while making the coffee, or the general chit chat about stuff going on, I mean proper organised, planned meetings which people are expected to turn up to, are expected to contribute to, and are expected to take clear actions away from.

In the early days when I am starting out with new clients, I will always find out if they are conducting useful meetings, and will generally ascertain that they are not. They will often tell me that they have one to one’s with various staff members, when they will discuss certain aspects of the business, and possibly even come up with brilliant new ideas. Unfortunately, however, these seldom result in significant steps forward, because the ideas are not written down, no-one commits to doing anything about it, and it simply ends up as time wasted.

Therefore isn’t it time you considered this aspect of your business and started to conduct regular productive meetings. If you have an organisational structure it should be simple to decide who is requires at which meeting, and also who will be reporting on what aspect. The meetings should be chaired confidently and strongly, so they do not wander off the point and take far longer than they should do. Each team member should report on their relevant area of responsibility (with relevant supporting documents circulated before the meeting) and then key points and issues should be discussed and minuted.

The outcome of each meeting should be a clear minuted document, with actions by whom and by when, so that steps forward are always taken between each meeting, and issues are dealt with. By doing it this way and making sure that people put meeting dates in their diary which they must turn up to, you will find that they become a productive positive aspect of your business, rather than a time consuming waste of effort.

We are all learning all the time (I hope) either by reading books, going to seminars, or through talking to other business owners with their own experiences and knowledge. It would be a big mistake to assume we know it all, as there will always be something new and innovative to take on board, be it in our home life or business life.

As a business coach I have to keep at the forefront of what is going on in the business world, and whilst I would never claim to be an expert in every area, I am a generalist, and I have a great system which will benefit nearly every business owner, be they start up, medium or long term, and I have plenty of contacts who I can refer people to, if my clients need specialist advice.

The thing is I have been doing this long enough to have earned the right to stand up in front of people and tell them how they can change their lives, by following the processes which I have tried and tested in numerous businesses throughout East Anglia.

So if you have always dreamed of having a business which can work without you, then you should come along to my Business Boost workshop on Monday 11th November to start that process. But you should only come if you genuinely want to make significant and positive changes in your life. If you come with that positive attitude, I can guarantee that you will get numerous ideas, and a clear process so you can start to change the 101 things you know you need to do, but just can’t see how to begin.

Surely there can’t be a better time to do it? The economy is on the up, and the New Year is just around the corner, so come and learn how to make your business a “Business” not a job.

Why do most people avoid things which they know need to be dealt with, and know that they will sooner or later come to a head, but nevertheless still put them off? And of course the answer is fear – fear of the outcome of the meeting, call, or action taken, turning out in a really bad way. However in reality, it is very seldom that things actually result in the doomsday scenario you paint for yourself.

Of course the longer you put things off, the more the dread builds up in your mind, and the worry nags at you constantly day and night. In fact at night, the outcomes you start to imagine can spiral out of control. Also by putting things off you are likely to exacerbate the problem anyway, and the chances are that the outcome will indeed by worse than it need to have been.

If you think of a particularly difficult scenario you have been in, either in your work or your home life, and the stress it may have caused you, when you have finally confronted them, things have nearly always turned out better than you anticipated. Furthermore, the weight it takes off your mind immediately makes the world a better place, and you can start to move on with your life.

As I often say to my clients, it is far better knowing what the situation is, be it to do with money, staff or any other niggling business issues, because then you can do something about it. However bad things are, there are always actions which can be taken, and even if they don’t solve the problem completely, at worst they will alleviate things and move them forward, so you can live to fight another day.

So think of your biggest concern in your life today, and take some positive action to deal with it.

Coaching is a great career. I love what I do, and I know I am lucky to be doing it. I get a huge amount of pleasure from seeing my clients doing well, freeing up time, and making lots of money, and I get paid for it. However, it is always important to keep reminding myself why I do it, i.e. that it is not for my satisfaction or feeling of accomplishment, it is so that my clients can make their lives better, for themselves, their families and their employees. So it can never be my goals or dreams that I impose on them, it must always be to achieve what they want out of life.

I was reminded of this just recently when my daughter was playing hockey. Her coach is extremely keen, and wants them all to improve and do well, but it seems to have taken on a new meaning for him in the past few weeks, forgetting why he is there. Despite his heart being in the right place, suddenly it is all about winning for him. It is his team, and he has started to concentrate on the players he seems to think are best, and is side-lining the less good ones. Now of course everyone likes to win, but he is in danger of causing disharmony in the team, and he needs to re-address his values.

Of course this can’t be likened exactly to a business situation, except that it is just as important to concentrate on the weaker areas of the business, to improve them, as it is to revel in the glory of taking the easy wins. In business it is so much easier to focus on the things you enjoy doing because you are good at them, rather than work hard on the bits you don’t like because you don’t fully understand them or know how to do them well and efficiently. But for true and meaningful change, every area of the business needs to work well, because then you will have a happy team all working towards the same ends. It may be a lot harder work both for the business owner and the coach, but the rewards will be far greater in the long run.

I was speaking to my son at school yesterday, and he was saying how great his new tutor is (a surprise in it’s self). The reason for this outpouring of praise was that his tutor had been setting him deadlines for getting things done, and then holding him accountable to achieve them (even more surprisingly). Now you might well think that this is the last thing that a teenager would want, but in fact he has recognised how much this type of pushing and pulling has allowed him to achieve in a relatively short of space of time. So in fact it is because of the constant badgering, rather than in spite of it, that he has pulled his finger out, and finally done the key things he needs to be doing for all his university applications.

This conversation just reminded me how important the setting of deadlines is in the coaching process. Getting the business owner to agree to taking certain actions before the next meeting means that things constantly move forward at a far greater rate, than if they are left to do things in their own time. It is also why I try to keep the meeting dates every 3 to 4 weeks at the outside, because otherwise things get left, and nothing progresses. It is natural way for most people to leave the tasks to the last moment, rather than set time aside. So if we don’t meet for 5 or 6 weeks, there is a mad scramble a day or so before I turn up, and more often than not an admission that the “homework” has not been completed. Keeping deadlines tight, and pushing people to stick to them, helps focus the mind and ensure that time is allocated to the key tasks set.

So if you have difficulty finding time to work on the business, find yourself a coach. You’ll never look back.