Last week I met a lovely man, but a struggling businessman. His business has almost halved in turnover over the past year or so, and he was at a stage where he was seriously wondering whether to continue with his enterprise, or close it down and walk away.

Now of course my business is based on my knowledge, experience, training and coaching skills, so to give away ideas and tips for nothing should not really be considered good practice, however I found myself offering help and advice to a man who clearly needed a bit of a lift in life. He was extremely grateful, but also a little surprised. “How can you afford to give away this advice?” he asked, to which I probably replied something about giving him something in our short time together, so he could see how much he could potentially learn from me , if he were to use my services over a longer term.

In reality, however, there is little chance he will take me on, as he is highly unlikely to be able to create enough positive cash flow to pay me, along with his other creditors. So whilst I was kidding myself that I was investing my time, so I would get a good return in due course, in fact in my heart of hearts, I knew I was giving something away that just might genuinely help someone, without any apparent benefit to myself.

On reflection, however, I thought that whatever the outcome of our meeting hopefully it gave him something positive to work with, and I was glad that I had acted in this way. I am an absolute believer that you will always get out of life what you put in, and I know that somewhere in the future I will get my return on investment

What a great weekend. Wasn’t it lovely to get up each morning to a beautiful sunny day, knowing that it was going to last all day long. Enough to raise everyone’s spirits, and for once to plan a bar-b-q, a trip to the coast, cycle rides, cricket, or what ever else you like to do.

For me, I was able to get on with my garden. Tidying up the worst areas, weeding and most importantly planting out the vegetable patch. Now my knowledge of gardening is generally at best pretty sketchy, but over the years I seem to be getting a little better at it and a little more adventurous. This year in particular I was given a plastic greenhouse, so I have tried to germinate a whole different lot of seeds. Some of them have worked, others have not, but the excitement of trying something new, and to see what I really can achieve is always a thrill.

The old adage of not having 20 years experience, but one years experience repeated 20 times comes to mind. It is tempting to stick with the same old things, and continue to get the same old results, but why not take a few risks and experiment a bit. Last year I was persuaded to give parsnips a go. And they turned out to be the success of the season. Granted, planting new things in a vegetable patch, or new shrubs or flowers in other beds is hardly high risk itself, whilst investing in new ideas or people in a business is a far more daunting prospect. However, if you want to keep on learning, improving yourself, your business and create opportunities for your staff to grow as well, then why not take some calculated risks. Try something new, you never know, the outcome might be the best thing you have ever achieved.

We are always told to make a good first impression when we meet people, many of us from a very early age. First with friends of your parents, then perhaps with distant relatives, school teachers and colleagues and so on through life. But why is it so important, surely it can’t make that much difference in life.

However, in my experience, from what I have heard, read, and seen for myself, first impressions can determine the way things go in many walks of life. People are very quick to judge and make assumptions. If they don’t like what they see or hear, they may quickly form an adverse opinion of you, from which there may never be a way back. Conversely, if people take an immediate liking to you, then you have to do something pretty bad to lose their friendship and trust.

The reason I bring this up today, is because in a time where getting business is vital to all of us, don’t blow an opportunity by failing to plan things properly. Be professional, look good, plan how the meeting should go, and research your leads thoroughly before you meet them. Where possible “pre-sell” to them before going to see them, so you have a feel for what they may be like and what they will want from you.

Remember, as you walk through the door, they will be forming a near instant opinion of you. So prepare well and make a great first impression.

I seem to be finding that what with the rising price of petrol and other commodities, and a general feeling of uncertainty in the air, that the “marketplace” is a fickle mistress at the moment, and is likely to be for some time to come. Consequently, despite my overall optimism that things are getting better (borne out by a good first quarter for me and the majority of my clients), I am not completely relaxed about the situation, as I know circumstances can change very quickly. So now is not a time to sit back and await developments. Now is the time to think again – look at the possible scenarios ahead, and plan.

Never has the old adage “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you always got” been truer. So if you’re finding that your leads are reducing, that the incoming calls are dropping, your staff are underemployed, and the business seems to be in decline – do something fast. What can you change? Where else can you look for leads and more business? What other services or products could you add to your portfolio? If you sit waiting for the market to pick up, for the calls to increase, for things to get better, and wonder why nothing is happening, your business is in danger of gradually shrinking and ultimately dying.

Keep ahead of the game. Don’t sit wondering if one bad month was just a blip, and blame it on something out of your control. Assume the worst, and work out how you will stay afloat and beat the competition. That way when we do finally come out of this financial downturn, you will be ready to prosper and flourish.

I have recently been reading a book about successful coaching by Mick Cope, and one of the sections in it, is about separating those who will from those who won’t. In essence it is all about identifying those who can and want to make changes from those who can’t and won’t. Whilst this is both valid and very useful in what I do, the categories into which he divides people are applicable to most people in most situations.

The range he identifies goes from Players at the most positive and open to change end, through to Protesters at the most negative and unaccepting end. In between we have in descending order, Participants, Passengers and Prisoners. I think that the categorisations are pretty self explanatory, but nevertheless very helpful in deciding whether someone is likely to make changes or not.

The Players are absolutely passionate about what they do, about being successful, and about making meaningful and permanent change. Participants are willing to make change, but tend to enthuse once or twice a week, rather than the whole time. Passengers lack the passion of the previous two, and tend to treat change as a new toy – a nice idea for a while, but as soon as something more interesting comes along, they move on. Prisoners tend to be pushed by someone else to make change – they are there in body, but not in mind or heart. Finally, Protesters, which are like Prisoners, but actively resist and challenge change.

Understanding the different types of people can help you mange your team, and indeed work out who is realistically going to help instigate change, and who may actively sabotage it. You may also find it interesting to analyse yourself. Do you really want things to change for the better, or do you just talk a good game?

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about beliefs, and how they can have both a negative and a positive effect on your business.

I recently came across a business owner who has a very negative belief about salespeople, and the sales process in general. Without actually saying so, he clearly believes that selling to people is rather degrading, and he would rather that everyone simply bought what they want, because they need it, and because the service that any one company provides means they deserve to get the business – a sort of survival of the fittest.

However in reality things are not like that and the company with the best sales and marketing team are far more likely to be the “winners”. In fact that is very true of the company belonging to this business owner. He has an excellent business, with a great product, knowledgeable and bright staff, and a complete service to outshine all his competitors. Except he is not the market leader as you might expect, because they do very little pro-active marketing, and their sales process is almost non-existent.

So how do you change if your beliefs are strongly against change? In this case it is difficult, but rather like alcoholics, the first step is to acknowledge that you have an issue. Once you accept that your belief may well be holding you back and therefore may not be the best thing for you or your business, then you can start to improve things.

This particular business owner has now accepted that his sales techniques must grow and improve, and is starting to implement training and processes, to allow him to do this.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything always went according to plan? All your meetings go ahead as arranged, the sales hit target, the money comes in when you expect it to, and your staff are always healthy and working as you expect them to. Sadly, however, life generally is not like that, and from time to time problems occur, staff step out of line, cash flow issues arise, all your I.T. crashes or possibly an even more serious crisis occurs, like a fire. Furthermore what often seems to happen is that once one thing goes wrong, others quickly follow, and before long you can find yourself in a self-pitying state, wondering why the world is always against you. So it is not necessarily the issue itself which defines how you go forward from there, but how you deal with it.

Think of your own situation. If a series of things go against you, do you wallow in your bad luck, or do you put it behind you and look for the best way to recover the situation and forge ahead? Part of your ability to turn things around should come from good planning (ultimately from good time management).

If you keep an eye on cash flow, and have back up plans, if you have systems in place which allow others to cover for staff absences, if you have your I.T. backed up off site, etc etc, you can quickly get things sorted out, and back on track. However, the key to bouncing back must come from within, because without your own will to win and desire to reach your goals, if your heart isn’t in it, ultimately the business will never prosper.

Have you ever noticed how people with “bad luck”, always seem to get more “bad luck”, and those who are “lucky” always seem to get more “good luck”. Of course it is never really like this, everyone gets their equal share of whatever “luck” is available. However, with the right attitude and a determination to succeed, the “lucky” ones will overcome setbacks quickly, and soon find themselves back on course.

Why do people put things off all the time? Why are the biggest tasks always left till last? In fact why more often than not, do things never even get started, despite the knowledge that getting them done will make a change for the better?

The reason, I believe, is that invariably when people come to face up to what needs to be done, they see such an enormous task in front of them, that it simply seems insurmountable, and therefore easier and safer perhaps, not to start.

So this is why we talk about eating the elephant one slice at a time. It is simply not possible to put the whole thing in in one mouthful, and of course the thought of even trying to do that would be ludicrous. The “elephant” can be anything in your life, shifting a huge pile of bricks, digging an enormous hole, or in the cases that I deal with, getting control back into your business.

Very often when I start working with business owners, once we have sat down and analysed what the issues are, and what needs to change, it can seem rather daunting, and indeed almost too much to know where to start. But the key is to at least make a start with little things here and there. Put one or two simple systems in place, bring in one or two monetary controls, and start monitoring things like where leads are coming from, and how many on a daily basis. Keep chipping away, bit by bit, and you will start to see changes happen, not only in the success of the business, but also in the way your team start to re-act to the changes and start to become more focused and professional. So as you start to eat the elephant slice by slice, suddenly you will find that a whole leg has gone, and you can start to work on more fundamental issues, such as an organisational structure and cash flow.

The little changes add up to make big differences, and the big changes, even bigger differences. Suddenly the “elephant” is not so intimidating after all, and you will find that all things are possible.

So next time you are thinking this is all too much, I’ll never get it done, make a start with a small change, and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

One of the things I ask all my clients when I first meet with them is what the business will look like when it is finished, and when that is likely to be? Of course the point of this is to give us a clear target in terms of business size and the timescale in which we wish to do this. However, the response, more often than not, is a rather bewildered look, and then a vague generalisation, which when really pushed, turns out to be that they have never really thought about it clearly. Now I realise that many people love what they do, and can never envisage a time in which they wont be doing it, but even for those people, Father Time eventually catches up, and they find that it would be nice at least to be in a position where they can choose whether they want to work or not. So at least setting a target for when the business can work without you, should be something to determine.

Equally well there are lots of people who specifically set up their business so they can make more money and retire at an early age. But whichever category you put yourself into, planning ahead and setting targets for your business is essential, so you can ensure that your income (either from sale of business, pension etc etc) will support the life style you envisage on your retirement.

So how do you know when you will be financially secure to let you retire? Well at least you can start by doing a rough and ready estimation, including all the goals you have set for yourself, and the money this will cost, plus the basic costs of living the life style you want to pursue after retirement. You can then work out roughly how much you need from your business, and therefore when that should be possible. There are also computer programs which allow you to do this, and I now have someone whom I have set up an alliance with, who can help you with this process.

As a coach I believe it is my role, not only to help business owners to build their businesses and create a better life for them and their families, but also to ensure that they plan even further ahead to make sure their retirement is also a very long and happy one.

Some of you may have come across a great book called “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracey, which is all about effective personal time management. It has a number of excellent and practical tips, but the thing that stands out from it is essentially that you should deal with the ugliest most distracting action first, and then all the other tasks will fall into place.

Funnily enough, however the “frog” is often not the thing which you might think it should be, such as writing a report, preparing the marketing plan, doing the budgets, or other such tasks. In fact it can be anything, and recently I have come up against two such “frogs” both of which were having a significant effect on the business owner.

The first was down to an employee who due to unfortunate circumstances was using the company in a number of ways, including using a company vehicle as their personal mode of transport, and had started cutting hours to accommodate the children’s needs. Understandably, the owner was not happy, but because of the sensibility of the situation, and because he cared for his staff, he kept on avoiding the issue, rather than dealing with it. Now in the overall scheme of events, it didn’t really affect the business much, and the monetary amounts involved were relatively small. However, the effects on the owner grew and grew, causing stress and worry, and also preventing him from working as productively; because issues like this if undealt with, tend to prey on the mind all the time.

When I finally urged him to deal with it, the results were amazing, not only because it allowed the business owner to get what he wanted, and move on, but also because the employee was naturally enough fully aware of the situation, and was hugely relieved once the issue was resolved, and the employee is now working far more productively as well.

The other example is again what might be considered relatively trivial, but while it persists, it is causing stress, simply because the owners know they need to deal with it, but are wary of doing so. Basically this is all about changing the culture in the business, so they can stop people wasting time through having informal meetings all the time. They clearly recognise that these meetings without structure, notes or actions are simply wasting everyone’s time (which they can ill afford) and they want to change this, but worry about the reaction from some of the other senior team members. They have yet to confront the issue, preferring for the time being to continue making excuses for not sorting it out, but they know and I know that once they face up to this “frog” and stop procrastinating, things will improve significantly.