Reading about the couple who were kidnapped by pirates, and who have finally been released after a year in captivity, made me think of two things which are so important for anyone at almost any stage of their lives. The first being that it is so important to have goals and dreams, because that should be the driving force (the purpose) in your life, and secondly to never give up, or give in to despair.

I suppose I quite often write about the importance of setting goals, so I won’t dwell on this too much, but suffice to say that it became evident from all the news programmes and chat shows, that many people dream of selling up and retiring on a boat, or other such things, and clearly if you want it badly enough, these dreams are certainly within your grasp. So always believe that you can get where you want, even though at times it seems a distant fantasy.

This, of course, leads onto the other aspect of this blog, of never giving up. They must have been close to that point on many occasions, especially when they were split up, and couldn’t offer encouragement to each other. Business owners too, are often at their wits end, wondering how on earth they can ever achieve the goals they had when they started out so enthusiastically. Although it isn’t a life or death situation, sometimes when the debts are mounting up, and the sales are non-existent, and the family want a holiday, and everything seems to be working against you, it is easier to buckle under, and just feel sorry for yourself, rather than stand up and fight. Nearly always there is a way out, but you need to be positive and believe that you can win. No doubt all of us feel very alone at times, with no-one to turn to, but wallowing in our own misery will certainly not improve things. I find the poem “The Man Who Thinks He Can” by Walter Wintle, inspirational in times when I am down.
I hope you enjoy it.

The Man Who Thinks He Can
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellows will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

by Walter D. Wintle

Possibly one of the hardest things to learn as a business owner, is how to become a good leader. Leadership is by no means something which comes naturally to a lot of people, but mastering this is essential to running a successful efficient and profitable business.

I meet all sorts of different people in my role as a business coach, and consequently they vary considerably in how they run their teams. Because many of these businesses started as very small enterprises with maybe 2 or 3 employees, they tend to be treated as part of a family or group of friends, rather than a boss/employee relationship. This in turn creates a culture where decisions tend to be made by democratic vote, rather than a clear vision from the business owner leading the way.

I remember being told that a leader should often be seen more as someone who stands above directing people through a maze, whilst the management are on the ground ensuring the team carries out the orders which help them to go in the direction which the leader has determined.
So leadership is not necessarily doing practical things, but ensuring that the team have the resources and tools to allow them to carry out their roles efficiently. However, nor is leadership expecting your team to do things, or act in certain ways, but not do so yourself. I have often come across businesses where the owner or owners are insisting on timeliness and cleanliness, or not talking about others behind their backs, but not adhering to these rules themselves.

For me, one of the key aspects of leadership is consistency. Giving praise when praise is due, but equally well ensuring that people know when they have fallen below expected standards, and explaining the consequences of such failings. Mutual respect is essential for creating good boss/employee relations, and this is generally best achieved by being fair, honest and consistent.

Watching “The Apprentice” last night, as usual I found myself laughing at their mistakes, ridiculing their ineptitude, and wondering above all, how most of them had achieved anything at all in the business world. Of course this has now become much more of a “show” than an actual serious recruitment of real talent, and being on television, we only see the bits which are entertaining, and therefore generally the most cringe-worthy extracts. So is there anything that we can actually learn from watching it all pan out?

I think probably the key thing that I get from this is that at least they have got off their backsides and done
something. People are so quick to offer advice, and to put others down, but how often are they themselves prepared to put themselves in a position where they too could be laughed at.

You could say that it is part of the English culture; after all we all know the press love to belittle people. There is almost a feeling of “How dare they have the audacity to try something, and possibly be better, braver, and funnier than me. Let’s hope they trip and fall.”

Business Owners suffer this all the time. “You’re so lucky” seems to be the accusation leveled at them, when they have achieved great things, and actually have a life-style that many would love, but are never prepared to do something themselves to make it happen.

So next time you find yourself feeling jealous, or criticising someone for trying something (and possibly failing) think carefully why you are doing this. Could it be that they are touching a nerve? Perhaps you could be better also. Perhaps now is the time to take a chance and really go for the dream that you once had.

In my capacity as business coach, I often work with family businesses, husband and wife, father and son or daughter, or even more extended relationships, involving cousins, uncles etc. Without exception, one of the hardest aspects involved in this is that of succession i.e. the handing over the reins from one generation to the next. In fact only today I was speaking to a highly successful and resourceful Managing Director who was telling me how hard she was finding it to get her father to let go, and allow her to run the business her way.
I am currently working with another extremely successful company, which has been very well run over the years, but the time has come for the next generation to take over. This is not really in contention, in that the Managing Director (the father) is quite happy to work on a part-time basis, but the trouble is, he still wants to keep control of everything. Naturally enough this is not a tenable situation, and in order for the business to take the quantum steps forward which the sons want to do, he has to be prepared to step aside, and trust them to make executive decisions themselves.
So how do we get around this, without causing major family ructions? The best solution I can come up with is to take the emotion out of it by writing a clear (new) business structure. This identifies in detail the new roles and responsibilities everyone has agreed to do, and ensures that once these are in place that the old regime do not get involved in areas for which they are no longer responsible. Often this is still quite hard to enforce initially, but gradually once the ex. M.D. sees that things do run well without him or her, and they realise that if they try to interfere in areas they are not wanted that they will consistently be told to back-off, bit by bit they will learn to enjoy their new role, and meaningful change can then be introduced.
As a rider to this, it should be said that to sideline the older members of the family altogether, is a rash and potentially wasteful use of resources. After all, they didn’t get to where they are without being canny businessmen in their own right, so keep them as your mentors, and use their knowledge and advice when you need it. In this way you get the best out of both worlds. Positive change and great support.

A lot of businesses I work with are still finding it quite hard to grow, and make bigger profits. The recession whilst officially over, still has its grip on us, and it will probably be quite some time yet before things feel any easier. So right now we all need to be looking for any ways in which we can increase our bottom line. In its simplest terms this means you need to increase your turnover (without increasing costs proportionately) and/or reduce your costs. Raising prices is clearly one of the easiest ways to do this, but many business owners are scared of going by this route at the moment. However, I am not suggesting huge increases, or necessarily across all your products or services, but when you analyse your sales in detail, you can see what a difference it can make. Just suppose your average sale was around £15.00, and you are selling 100 units of these per week, if you were able to raise the average price by£1.50, a relatively small amount in real terms, your income per week would go up by £150, per month by £600, and in the year over £7000.

On the other aspect of reducing costs, again close analysis, and small changes can make significant savings. I recently worked with a business which was offering refreshments to their clients (coffee/cold drinks), but there is no system or limit on who could be offered what. On analysing this we found that simply by ensuring that clients were offered refreshments following a system which would automatically reduce the cost (but without upsetting the clients), we were able to save £4000.

So think again, re-look at your business, and see what could you do to improve your bottom line.

This is a topic which I find extremely interesting as it can appear in all aspects of life, and at any age. Most of us have experienced it to a greater or lesser extent at some stage, and we have therefore had to find ways of dealing with it (even if is has not been first hand, we may have had to support or help others through it).
The thing is although people may typically think of bullying as something which happens in our younger years (probably at school), in fact it carries on throughout life and the older we become, often it becomes more serious and harder to deal with.
The reason I am addressing this subject, is because recently I worked with a client who was being bullied. Not from within his business, but from one of his key customers. Essentially this customer felt he had such a financial hold over my client that he could demand things from him at any time, be rude to him, and generally treat him with a total lack of respect. Equally well, because my client felt so vulnerable because of his dependence on this customer, he would always back down, and do as he was told. In fact it got so bad, that my client started to plan his holidays when he knew this customer was also away, so he wouldn’t be pestered while he was trying to enjoy family time. In the end it came to a head, and my client finally had had enough. He told him that he was not prepared to take the abuse any longer, and if that meant losing the business, so be it. After the initial indignant explosion, and promises that he would indeed take his business elsewhere, in fact after a weekend cooling off, the bully backed down, and now there is a different dynamic altogether.
My belief is that this is by no means an uncommon situation, and whilst I am not suddenly advising everyone to “smack the bully in the nose” as it could clearly result in a serious or possibly terminal loss of business, I am suggesting that perhaps you should ask yourself is your current relationship/situation with clients like this really worth it? In my opinion you can never appease a bully. They love the power they have over you, and they get pleasure from building you up and then knocking you down again. Therefore there are two ways to deal with this, one physical (which I do not advise) and two, adopting the “why should I care what your opinion is” attitude to these people. Obviously if your business is so heavily reliant on one customer’s business, that if you lose it you could go bust, you will need to decide what matters most to you. But self-respect, and being able to sleep without worrying about the next volley of abuse you are going to get, are hugely important, and sometimes even more so than just lying down and taking it.
Obviously different people are in different situations, and it is never possible to give a “one size fits all” kind of advice. However, I have never in any walk of life seen anyone feel happy if they continue to kowtow or ultimately run away from the bully. The only way to beat them is to stand up to them and to show them that you are strong enough to get by without them.

Trust is a word I come across a lot when I am working with my coaching clients, and is of course essential in any working relationship. My clients need to trust me initially, when they take me on at my word, and equally well I need to trust them, that they will carry out the tasks and actions necessary to move their business forward.
Trusting people isn’t something which just happens. You have to earn the right to be trusted by backing up your words with actions. It is in this repect where I find the “trust” word most used when business owners are talking about their teams.
I am a firm believer that a true business is one where the owner directs and manages his or her staff, and the staff are the ones who actually make things happen. Obviously this can only happen over time, while the business builds in size, turnover and employee numbers. However, I often find that although the business owner or owners have built a good structure, the owner(s) are still doing far too much of the day to day tasks. When we start to find out why this is the case, the owners often make excuses, such as “only I can do that”, or “no-one does it better than me”, or “he or she needs help with that”. But is this really the reason? If you find yourself doing things that you have employed someone else to do, ask yourself the real reason. And if in your heart of hearts it comes down to trust, i.e. you don’t really trust them to carry out the responsibilities you are employing them to do, then you need to do something to remedy that situation.
Don’t stick your head in the sand. Deal with it and everyone will be happier.

While conducting one of my recent coaching sessions, I came across something which perhaps surprisingly is quite common in business owners – the feeling of guilt if they are not doing something! Now the reason I say this is surprising is that the majority of business owners actually dream of this scenario when they first set out on their venture i.e. making lots of money while others do the work for them. However, when it actually comes down to it they have an overwhelming feeling of guilt, and consequently don’t let go of many of the day to day tasks, which as M.D, are not for them to get involved with.
For those of you reading this who are not business owners, you may come across this in your everyday life. Some people simply can’t let go, and would far rather be seen as the martyr trying desperately to keep up with everything, rather than ask for help. These people find it really hard to sit in the sun doing nothing, or read a book(or simply enjoy themselves) for any length of time without feeling that they should or must be doing something that involves work of some sort.
Part of my role as a coach can be simply to give people permission to step back from the day to day tasks, and concentrate on the bigger picture, which can often involve sitting and thinking. The owner or managing director has a responsibility to his or her team to manage and direct the business, not to interfere in the machinations. Your staff won’t thank you for sweeping the floor, or doing the invoices, but they will if you create a strong profitable business, with a clear sense of direction, and one which is therefore a pleasure to work for.

As the summer holidays draw to an end, and we all return to the day to day humdrum of business, I am hearing the same thing from lots of people. The casual enquiry of “How are things going?” seems to often elicit the reply “Well August has been very quiet, but of course everyone is away at the moment, so it is very difficult to get new business.” I’ve even heard myself saying, and I know that in that one sentence I am making excuses, and allowing myself to fall into the comfort zone where we all agree that things are quiet so it must be O.K.
Now you may consider it reasonable to make this excuse for not having a good month, (and indeed there is some truth in it) however, it is an extremely risky path to take, and before you know it you can quickly find reasons why September was bad, and October etc. etc.
I once met a printer who told me once that it was a particularly bad time for printers, and that he had been speaking to other people in the industry who had all agreed that the industry was in dire straits. However, I challenged him, and said that “I bet you only called the people who you knew would say things were bad!” to which he grudgingly agreed.
The thing is, when things are not going so well, our natural inclination is to look for excuses and reasons (other than our shortcomings) as to why this may be so. If we can find others who will support our theories, then it is “not our fault” and “beyond our control”, so that it becomes all right to be doing badly.
So next time you find yourself making excuses about things, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself “Could I be doing more to change things and improve things? Rather than just accept defeat due to outside circumstances.”

One of the first things I ask my new or prospective clients is whether they know their break-even figure, or if they produce a cash flow. The majority of business owners will waffle a bit about how they do “sort of”, but ultimately accept that they do not have control of their numbers. Often people will make wild claims that they don’t need to do this in “their business”, or that they don’t have time for it, but in reality it is far more likely that they simply don’t have the skills, and numbers are largely alien to them.
I suppose if I’m completely honest I was like that when I started my own business nearly 8 years ago, but it soon became pretty obvious that sticking my head in the sand, and hoping things would work out OK was not the answer. Learning the basics of break-even and cash flow is genuinely not particularly complicated. I find that because I had to work it out for myself and have subsequently explained it to numerous clients in layman’s rather than accountancy language, that people can grasp the principles quite quickly, or at least to a level at which they can understand what is going on in their business, and perhaps just as importantly, be able to ask the right questions of their accountant and their staff.
I still find it amazing to see the change in the stature and confidence of my clients, as their new found knowledge allows them to take control of their numbers, and therefore of their entire business. No longer are decisions based on guesswork and hope, which means that the results of these decisions are generally far more successful.