I love Christmas, it is one of my favourite times of year. It gives a real chance to relax and unwind, spend some quality time with the family, and to indulge in some delicious food and drink. It also provides a chance to reflect on the year that has just past, and of course look forward to the coming year. Consider what worked and what didn’t work in 2012, and then concentrate next year on more of the successful strategies, and avoid the areas where we made mistakes.

Certainly 2012 has been the toughest year I can remember, and most of my clients have found it so. However, they have all managed to work their way through it, and if anything are going forward far more positively now.

The coaching I have been doing has therefore not only been covering the practical and technical aspects, but a fair bit has been concentrating on keeping my clients positive, and looking at a certain amount of self development.

As we all should know, self belief, or lack of it, is hugely limiting, and in tough times, it is easy to find yourself wallowing in self-pity, wondering what went wrong, and why it has happened to you. So having someone to talk to, ask advice of, but, most importantly, not let you dwell on the negatives, is every bit as valuable as some of the tools in business, which are the obvious things which people should know about, understand and use.

So if you have found yourself feeling lonely and on your own, unsure of what to do next, and how on earth you will survive another year of turmoil, get yourself a coach. Someone to give you some tough love, someone who you can rely on and turn to, and someone to be a friendly ear when all around seems lost. Perhaps a coach with a big smile, someone like me! Happy Christmas

I can’t let this week go by without referring to the fantastic achievement of the England Rugby Team. What an unbelievable result, not only to beat the All Blacks, but to beat them with such conviction. So how did they do this, when for the past couple of performances they looked anything but world-beaters?

The answer as always, was that they won it before the game even started in their own minds. Everyone had written them off, so the pressure was no longer on them. The more they were ridiculed, the more they believed, and the more determined they were to show that they could do it. So by the time they reached Twickenham they were no longer thinking how impossible it is to beat this phenomenal side from New Zealand, but they were visualising very clearly how great it would be to win.

Very interestingly listening to one of the analysts afterwards, (Will Greenwood) he was saying that now they had done it once, they have broken the “spell”, and they know they can do it again. Like many things, until it has been done it seems impossible, the 4 minute mile being a great example, but you only need to prove to yourself once that you can do it, and it is then always possible. The trick is now to bring this level of intensity to every game, especially when they are seen as favourites, and once again this will be achieved or not in their own minds.

What you believe and visualise can be incredibly powerful in every aspect of life. Our limitations are invariably caused by what we think we can and cannot do in life. So if we believe we can grow our businesses, and that we will reach the targets we set for ourselves, we have every chance of doing so. When our backs are up against the wall we can choose if we sink or swim. Do we just give up and say “it’s impossible” or do we fight back and make things happen?

The English are renowned for achieving miracles from seemingly hopeless positions. The economy has done its best to knock us down, but now is the time to fight back and win.

Reading the papers yesterday, I was alarmed to see a comment that if we are not careful we may be heading for a triple dip recession! Now I don’t claim to be an economist, and I don’t have the inside knowledge of some of the “experts” in the city who apparently know it all. However, I do know that what I am seeing and feeling in the real world at the moment is much more positive, and it seems to me to be extremely foolhardy to start talking things down, just when there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

It isn’t just me with my eternal optimism who is saying more positive things either. I do a lot of networking, and the majority of business owners I meet will say that they too are feeling a lot more positive, which is backed up by their recent financial results. Surely, now is the time to build on this, and start encouraging people to re-invest, and take their businesses forward.

I’m very pleased to report that “I am a registered and approved Growth Coach for GrowthAccelerator providing expert, tailored advice to help ambitious businesses achieve rapid, sustainable growth.” You can find out more at www.growthaccelerator.com. This is part of a government funded incentive to get things moving again. The key factors which allow businesses to qualify, is their commitment to growth, both in terms of turnover and profits, but also in terms of employing people. In the few months it has been going, well over 1500 businesses have taken this up, and the enquiries are coming in all the time (hence the need for more associate coaches).

For me this is just another indication of the positive attitude of many businesses, and the economic outlook in the U.K. in general. Therefore suppose you knew that the recession was well and truly over, and there was no likelihood of it coming back, what would you be doing with your business now? Where could you see it being in one year’s time?

As ever I advocate looking at the positives. What if everything is getting better, rather than what if a triple dip recession is coming? I don’t want to offer false hope or naive optimism, but I truly believe things are on the up, and now is the time to plan to grow your business.

What makes the difference between who gets what they want, who makes the sale, who becomes the leader, and who tends to remain in the background not closing sales? The answer is confidence. Not over-confidence and cockiness, but someone who is self-assured and relaxed, as these are the people who convince others that what they say and do is the way to go.

Being confident with yourself is a huge step towards this. A difficult thing to learn, but if you believe in yourself, your product, and in the way you conduct yourself (your values) then others will feel at ease in your company, making them more likely to agree with your point of view.

People can very quickly see through the superficial, over-confident type of person, because in reality they probably don’t truly believe in themselves. They quickly become incongruent between their words and their actions, and immediately break the trust that their team or potential clients might have with them.

Confidence doesn’t always mean you are right. If you are comfortable with yourself, you should be happy to put forward your point of view, but if others disagree and convince you that another path is better, and then you should be equally happy to accept that you are wrong and they are right. It doesn’t mean that you have lost or gone down in their estimation, you are simply confident enough to change your mind.

So next time you are selling something, be prepared, know your subject well, and visualise success through your self belief. The confidence you exude, your aura, will help you to get what you want in life.

Business, and most business concepts have been around for as long as records exist. Yes, there have been refinements, and variations on a theme, but essentially the basics are always the basics. As a business coach I would love to have new tools and ideas to play with and teach people all the time, but in reality they don’t exist, and from my point of view it is a shame to admit to my clients that in all probability I won’t be telling them anything new.

However, coaching is not about that, it is all about getting people to see things differently, change the way things have been done in the past, and create focus on the end goal(s).

One of my clients has been resisting me pushing him to get his cash flow done, as he felt he was better off looking at the numbers the way he has always done. I reminded him that this was exactly why he had taken me on as a coach in the first place, to get him to change things so he can move the business forward.

Of course I don’t want to belittle the things that I coach my clients in, as many of the tools and ideas are new and unfamiliar to them, and therefore will help them in a practical way. However, what really makes the biggest difference is the change in mind set and attitude. Once people are prepared to look at things in a different way, and take on board that more often than not it is they themselves who are stopping the business progressing, then they can make meaningful, purposeful and permanent change for the better.

At the risk of stepping on to political ground, I find I am increasingly frustrated and annoyed by the general culture creeping into this country, of expecting something for nothing. In fact I would suggest that this has been a malaise moving into every aspect of our lives and our businesses for some time now, and I would argue has been encouraged by governments both in the U.K, and more typically in the U.S.

The trouble is, that something for nothing hardly ever exists, and there are very rarely short cuts which will bring in money and success without plenty of hard graft to warrant this. Too often I find that business owners now simply expect good things to happen to their business without planning, marketing and working hard on their business to improve it. Furthermore, if the business owner creates a culture of expecting things to happen the easy way, it is no surprise to find the staff doing the same. They don’t follow systems because they are always looking for short cuts, and they expect wage increases, even though they barely cover what is expected of them, let alone moving their part of the business forward.

So now is a really good time to change this frame of mind. Things finally seem to be turning around in the world economically speaking, and there are many reasons to be more optimistic for next year. But, don’t expect your business to suddenly get better along with the general flow, just because it deserves to. Put in the extra effort, set clear and challenging targets for next year and then reap the rewards.

If you want someone to push you and hold you to your new goals, come and talk to me.

No doubt I have written blogs in the past about taking action, and doing things now rather than putting them off to a supposedly better time.

However, it never does any harm to restress a valid point, and I think that more than ever, many business owners have got themselves into a mindset of delaying actions or making investments, just because things have been so bad for so long.

I was recently re-reading a book called “What got you here, Won’t get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith, and I was reminded of this again by a passage towards the end of this book called “The best time to change is now”. Essentially he refers to a dream in which you are aware that you are incredibly busy, and that you are over-committed, and indeed, out of control. But, this is because you have a special project, or some crucial things to be done, which once completed in 2 or 3 months time will take the pressure off. At that time you can take a week or two off, spend time with the family and generally get back in control.

Unfortunately this scenario is indeed a dream, because in reality there will never be a time when you aren’t busy, because every time you finish one big project, something else comes up equally important, and so it goes on.

So don’t get sucked into the “Once I’ve done this, then I’ll have time” scenario. I have never heard a client say “Wow, I’m so glad I delayed starting the coaching programme for 3 months”, whilst many have said “I wish I’d started doing this a year ago”

If it’s right for you and/or the business it’s right. Instinctively you should know that, so to put it off by making weak excuses about time is only going to stop you moving forward quicker.

Are we finally about to turn the corner? Are things about to start getting better? For those of you who regularly read my blog, you may think here he goes again on one of his optimistic soap boxes. But this time things really do seem brighter.

On the macro scale, unemployment is dropping all the time and quite rapidly. The private sector really is starting to grow and create more new jobs all the time. Inflation is finally down to the target levels as set by the Bank of England (albeit temporarily) and the general consensus is that growth figures in the last quarter will signal the end of the double dip.

On a micro scale, many of my clients are reflecting this also. In fact three of them were complaining last week that they were struggling to keep up with the business coming in. Others who have been fighting to keep their heads above water are finally seeing and feeling change approaching. The things that have seemed to be on hold for so long are finally starting to happen, and more of their customers are starting to commit to buying again. Bad debts are becoming less frequent and debtor days are falling.

From my point of view, I too am beginning to see people who had been wary of spending money due to concerns over cash flow, becoming more confident about the future, and are committing to investment.

Of course we are not out of the woods yet, and recovery is going to be slow, but isn’t it time we all started to latch onto the good news, and see if we can’t make this latest resurgence permanent, and worthy of my optimism.

Keeping in touch with past clients and leads is so important, as you never know when people’s circumstances change, and therefore how a “no” to your services at one point could become a “yes” at another.

This was brought home to me recently, when I was discussing an issue with one of my clients. He had been looking for a container/portacabin for a new office, and had budgeted for quite an outlay to get what he wanted. However, initially he found that what he was looking for was rather more expensive than he had planned, and despite going through websites and doing a lot of research was resigned to having to fork out a large lump sum, putting a considerable pressure on cash flow. Fortunately an acquaintance of his told him of a supplier who they had bought from several years previously, and suggested he go there. So back to the internet, but again with no luck, and it wasn’t until he went through an old yellow pages, that he found some details to contact them. As it turned out they had changed their company name, which was why it had been impossible to find them on the web. In the end my client found exactly what he needed from them, and at about 50% of his budgeted amount, so everyone was happy.

However, had my client not been so persistent, he would never have found them, and he wouldn’t have made his savings, and they wouldn’t have made the sale. If they had simply sent an email or a postcard to all their past customers (a very small investment), just think of the business they could have done. After all who knows how many others who have bought from them in the past can no longer find their details.

The moral of the tale, is keep your database up to date, and keep in regular contact.

A business associate recently rang me because he was worried that his business wasn’t moving forward as expected, and although he had won a number of new customers, and his turnover was on target for the year, he was concerned that he was no longer making profits. It didn’t take long to spot that his cost of sales percentage had risen alarmingly over the previous 9 months, but what was it that had caused this? The answer to this also soon became evident.

Essentially this was a successful company which had grown considerably over the previous 12 months, and had taken the decision to press on forward by setting challenging targets for the next year. However, in doing this, they had sub-consciously allowed themselves the leeway of offering discounts to fuel this growth. In the current economic climate when clients are always asking for better prices, and with new leads tempting you by promising you the business, providing your “price is right”, then we can often succumb to this strategy. “Pile it high and sell it cheap”, but in reality this seldom works unless you really have the clout to buy cheaper, and the volume of stock turn which allows you economies of scale. The result more often than not is that we end up becoming “busy fools”, working twice as hard for the same, or very often, worse returns.

Lots more sales at lower margins can clearly increase your turnover, but your profits will invariably stay the same or worsen. However, more annoying than that, is if your sales do not increase significantly, then your profits will drop significantly, and as in the case above, can drive you into a loss making position.

One other thing to remember on this front is to keep on top of your figures. Had they spotted this 6 months earlier they could have largely avoided this problem altogether, whereas now they have some losses they could probably have avoided. On the plus side, at least they did spot it, and have taken immediate and positive actions to reverse this trend. No doubt they will soon be making good profits once more.