One of the things I often say to the prospects I go to see, is that I assume as business owners they know what they should be doing, especially if they have been running a profitable business for a while. However, the difference between knowing something and actually doing something is considerable, and one of the reasons why business owners get a bit stuck, and the business stagnates, is because they simply don’t do the things they know will make a positive difference to how their business moves forward.

Another thing which many business owners fail to do, is to keep on learning and developing themselves. The same complacency which lulls them into not taking continuous positive actions, also convinces them that they already know all the answers, and they don’t need to learn new things. This inward looking, perhaps slightly over-confident attitude, can often be the start of a business stalling and then bit by bit regressing while others take their market share and gradually ease them to the back of the queue.

So I always urge my clients to keep an open mind on things, and constantly look for new sources of knowledge and ideas. Networking is often a good way of doing this, as there are different people with different opinions who can challenge your way of looking at things.

Seminars and workshops also help to remind you of things you already know (but don’t do), and of course give you new ideas, and often teach you things you never knew. So don’t cut yourself off from the outside world because you think there is nothing more to be learned. Find meetings and seminars which you can go to, and pick some here and there which will teach you and inspire you. You never know it could change your business. If you would like to start the process with an interesting and varied early morning presentation, keep your eyes peeled and come along to our next event.

One of my favourite cartoons, possibly in Punch magazine or some such publication was a picture of a whole load of sea birds sitting on some rocks beside a packet of drugs which had washed up on the shore, with the punch line underneath, “No tern, unstoned”.

The reason I bring this up is because, I have recently had the phrase, “no stone unturned” drawn to mind a couple of times by clients who were trying to achieve something really important to them without perhaps investigating all the options.

What I always coach my clients to do, is to examine any given situation as fully as possible, decide on what needs to be done, and then do everything you can to make sure the right outcome arises. For example if you are chasing after a new client, don’t just call once and immediately take no for an answer. Think about what else you could say or do, and keep going back until either you get a positive outcome, or you genuinely exhaust all the options you have considered. Of course things don’t always work out exactly as you had planned or hoped, but you should always be able to think “well I did everything I could” rather than “if only…” or “I wonder if….” Because that will leave you feeling cross with yourself, or that you have let yourself down (and potentially your team).

So remember, what ever it is that really matters, and could make a significant difference to your business or your life, make sure you leave “no stone unturned”, and at least then you know that you have done your best. If you find it hard to push things to the limit, then get yourself a coach who won’t let you off the hook.

What do you do when you have an employee who you believe is potentially a real asset to the business, but who is clearly under performing, and even showing signs of apathy or laziness? Well, you can take them through the disciplinary procedures, and ultimately sack them, or you can persevere, and try to get them to realise their potential.

The second of these two options is clearly the better one, but for many the time and effort it can require to change their ways can be too much, and so in the end they become another victim of taking the easiest route.

I was recently working with one of my clients who has just this issue. They have a young employee just below management level, and whilst he clearly has many of the ideal aspects they need, he is simply lazy, and does things to the barest minimum, just to get by. Part of the problem lies with the line manager who has not made it clear where his responsibilities lie, and also that the line manager is too quick to take things off the young persons hands (because it is easier and quicker to do so). Unfortunately this gives out all the wrong signals, and it just encourages laziness, and re-inforces that that type of behaviour is acceptable.

To be fair to the line manager, he is trying very hard to improve this person’s performance levels, but so far has met with stubborn resistance.

So we have decided to change things, both in terms of where people sit physically (so it is harder to pass work over to the line manager) and also to work out a bonus system which should encourage him to take on more responsibility. If he hits his targets, it will significantly improve his monthly income, and it will therefore be beneficial to him, his line manager and to the business as a whole.

While coaching one of my clients recently, I was reminded of the importance of managing your team, and not simply letting them get on with things. This particular client has done extremely well, and has moved things on significantly, in fact so much so that she now has a General Manager in place, and feels very strongly that the business can largely run without her. Getting to this stage is the aim of most business owners, but just because the business runs without them, doesn’t mean that they should take their hands off the steering wheel completely.

The thing is unless you have taken the view that you really want nothing to do with the business at all, it is essential that as Managing Director (which most business owners are) you must continue to do just that i.e. manage and direct.

In this particular instance there were already a few warning signals appearing, whereby despite there being clear actions for the General Manager to have carried out, none of them had been taken forward, and my suspicions were that this was because no-one was being held accountable.

When I asked the business owner if the actions had been completed she was unsure whether they had been or not, and in the end I had to ask the question of others to see what had and had not been done.

Providing the owner changes their ways and starts to hold regular meetings checking what has been completed in terms of actions agreed, then no harm will be done, and they will move forward efficiently, and at the pace set by the owner. However, if this situation is allowed to continue so that it becomes the norm, standards could quickly start to slip, sales targets could be missed, and it will be harder to get control back in place.

So the year begins with renewed hope and vigour, lots of changes and perhaps challenges face us in the coming year, but as ever if we look for the positives wherever possible, no doubt this can be a very special time for us all.

Of course the uncertainties which lie ahead once Brexit is triggered and Donald Trump has his feet under the desk, could cause a certain amount of instability and volatility. However, as is always my way, I prefer to look at the months ahead as ones which could provide opportunities and prosperity.

There is no doubting that Trump is not a man, whom many of us would care to meet, but he has a real “can do” attitude, and who knows, he might actually be beneficial to the world, and in particular to us in the UK. We have lived with politicians not saying what they actually think for far too long, and whether we agree with everything he says or not, at least he appears to have clear beliefs and ideals.

Equally well, Bexit still continues to bring positives for our economy, and whilst there may yet be many hurdles to jump, the world will not end. Those who are determined to predict that Armageddon is nigh, will ultimately find that it will not be anywhere near that bad, and may well in fact provide benefits for all (as I believe it will).

Therefore now is the time to plan ahead, set clear goals, and start to take plenty of positive action. And I predict that with that sort of attitude, your business will flourish.

I recently was asked by one of my clients to take part in one of their team sales meetings, as they had not been hitting their sales targets on a regular basis. Although the business as a whole was still going well, and was likely to achieve their overall target for the year, they were going to increase the targets for the following year, and it is evident that things need to change if they are to reach them.

The biggest issue is that this is a sales team who are stuck in their ways. Things have changed over the years and the internet and other competitors have made it harder to win business. However, on the whole the sales team have continued doing things the same old way, and rather than trying to work out new sales processes, and new target markets, they have simply been waiting for someone to make things easier for them.

Clearly these are salesmen with excellent technical knowledge, and a base of loyal customers who they sell to on a regular basis. However, they didn’t know their numbers (e.g. how may calls to create a meeting, and how many meetings to get a customers), their sales processes were different (they said and did different things) and their markets and lead times also seemed to vary. Another problem was that they were spending time on things that were not their responsibility, and these were very time consuming and didn’t generate leads or business.

They had any number of excuses as to why things were not happening, and why it wasn’t possible to change things, and also that they had tried most of the ideas I suggested, but they didn’t work. All classic reasons why a sales team fails to hit its targets.

So if you are having trouble getting your sales to increase, and you have a sales team stuck in their ways, why not bring in a coach to shake things up a bit.

This year has been particularly interesting for a number of reasons. Obviously from the larger picture the effect of Brexit on my clients and the UK as a whole has been and will continue to be a challenge, but from the more parochial point of view, a number of my clients seem to have reached a watershed.

On the plus side, the point of my coaching is to help business owners to create a business which can work without them, and we have now achieved that with several clients during the year. However, on the down side, although we always start with goal setting, I think that on the whole they are all a little surprised that they have reached this stage, and are now wondering what to do next.

For some this can be almost as “risky” a point as when they first started out, because suddenly they are left with a feeling of redundancy, and there is a real chance that some will sub-consciously start to self-sabotage their business, so they are needed again, and can find a new challenge. For others, however, the challenge is to start up the next enterprise, and find new ventures into which they can invest time and money.

As a coach, I am really excited by the new opportunities this brings, as for my clients and for myself we are starting on new ground, often going into situations and facing decisions which we haven’t experienced before. In the past year fear of the unknown and fear of failure may have stopped me or my clients from talking these new paths, but now I know that only by pushing ourselves to new challenges, that we can reach still greater heights.

So have you reached your full potential yet? Does your business work without you? Do you feel a bit stale and need new challenges? A coach can help you with all these things, and I know my clients are reinvigorated by the unknown issues which lie ahead.

Have you ever found yourself in the position where you have just learned that because you didn’t do a task or take an action (which you had known about for sometime) you have cost yourself a lot of money, or even excluded yourself from something you would have liked to have been part of? I know I have both in my personal and my business life, and no doubt most people reading this will have been in this situation at one time or another.

Part of my role as a coach, is to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any of my clients. Sometimes it is fairly straight forward things, to make sure that costs are not out of control, and sales are on target. But sometimes it is something much more fundamental.

I was recently with a client who needed to get something approved by the local authorities, but for one reason or another he had been rejected. On discussing this further with them, they recognised that they had possibly been a little harsh, so asked him to re-submit his application, and this would then be “rubber-stamped”. Simple enough, but unfortunately my client has continually put this off as it is a big job and the thought of doing it all again is daunting. However, he runs the risk of missing the opportunity altogether if he doesn’t re-apply very soon. My question to him was “Should they tell you that now you can no longer apply, what difference would it make to your business?” His reply was “A huge difference, structurally and financially.” So why does he still hesitate?!

This situation is not unusual surprisingly. So it is up to me to keep him accountable to getting the application made. He has agreed that I will ring him twice a week until it is completed and submitted.

If you are like this, and you can’t find a way to change, why not invite a coach into your life. It may be more uncomfortable, but you won’t have to say “If only…..” anymore.

This year has been particularly interesting for a number of reasons. Obviously from the larger picture the effect of Brexit on my clients and the UK as a whole has been and will continue to be a challenge, but from the more parochial point of view, a number of my clients seem to have reached a watershed.

On the plus side, the point of my coaching is to help business owners to create a business which can work without them, and we have now achieved that with several clients during the year. However, on the down side, although we always start with goal setting, I think that on the whole they are all a little surprised that they have reached this stage, and are now wondering what to do next.

For some this can be almost as “risky” a point as when they first started out, because suddenly they are left with a feeling of redundancy, and there is a real chance that some will sub-consciously start to self-sabotage their business, so they are needed again, and can find a new challenge. For others, however, the challenge is to start up the next enterprise, and find new ventures into which they can invest time and money.

As a coach, I am really excited by the new opportunities this brings, as for my clients and for myself we are starting on new ground, often going into situations and facing decisions which we haven’t experienced before. In the past year fear of the unknown and fear of failure may have stopped me or my clients from talking these new paths, but now I know that only by pushing ourselves to new challenges, that we can reach still greater heights.

So have you reached your full potential yet? Does your business work without you? Do you feel a bit stale and need new challenges? A coach can help you with all these things, and I know my clients are reinvigorated by the unknown issues which lie ahead.

What does it take for people to face up to the situation they are in and then do something about it?
I often talk about the need for having both clarity of what you want out of life combined with enough discomfort to actually make people change, but it never ceases to amaze me how long they are prepared to sit doing nothing about it, almost until it is too late.

I recently met with a couple of business owners who moaned about the fact that they were losing customers, and the competition was increasingly fierce. Bit by bit their turnover was decreasing, and they were in a place where they owed quite a lot, and were soon not going to be able to pay themselves on a monthly basis. Worse that that they had no other streams of income and the thought of giving up what they were doing, and working for someone else was terrifying for them. In other words, you would think that they would want to take considerable action to change their predicament. But apparently not!

Apparently they were prepared to continue along the route of certain disaster. Keep on doing what they have already proved to themselves is not working, and presumably wait for a miracle to happen, whereby everything will suddenly be OK again.

Surprisingly enough, although I am sure once in a blue moon things do work out for businesses such as this, invariably the miracle does not happen, and of course the inevitable outcome takes its course. So if you are in a situation like this where everything is on a downhill path, but you don’t know where to start to put you on the road to recovery, then why not get in touch with a coach to help you relieve the pain and start to make things better again.