It seems to have been a bit of a trend recently with a number of my customers, that being that they are looking to branch out and find new challenges, this is partly because we have coached them to a stage whereby the business is more or less working without their input, and partly because the sort of business owners I work with are naturally entrepreneurs and they get bored with the everyday running of a business.

When I first start working with my clients, I always explain that the point of any input is to help them to create a business that can work without them. The idea is that this then allows them to free up their time, and creates flexibility and freedom of choice. Once we near or reach this stage the entrepreneurs that I work with are then wondering what to do next and how best to keep busy. In fact for many it is this feeling of no longer being “needed” which drives them to invest in new ideas and challenges.

This has helped to create quite an interesting situation for me also. Because I work with businesses ranging from start ups to those which have been going 15 or 20 years (or more sometimes), I have some clients looking for investment, and others who now have spare cash to potentially invest. Being in the middle allows me to be the go-between, identifying opportunities and effecting introductions. Whilst I am still maintaining my coaching role, it means that I too have new challenges, in what I suppose is a natural progression for my business.

So if you are a start up business, or are one in its early development, or indeed a business owner who has lost their direction or drive, then perhaps you need a coach who can help you get what you want, and allow you to achieve the wealth you require to reach your life goals.

I have been speaking with my accountant recently about the forthcoming changes to the way tax will be paid i.e. once a quarter instead of once yearly. It still hasn’t been widely published so a lot of people are unaware or at present are giving it no real thought. However, it would be very unwise to stick your head in the sand about this if anything you should embrace this as a chance to improve the way you control and manage your business.

On the whole I find that the majority of business owners I start working with do not keep a very close eye on their numbers. They know that their sales are up or down, and they have a general feel for whether things are going well or not, however, if I challenge them on details, they seldom know the right answer.

The new system of reporting will ensure that you have to have control over your figures, because without that you or your accountant, simply wont have the time to get your numbers in order, and no doubt there will be fines to pay.

So why not start making changes now, before the pressure really starts. To change the way you manage, report and analyse your figures often takes quite some time. For many it is an unsettling and even scary thing to have to do, and in my experience will find any number of reasons for avoiding it. Even when they can see the benefits of reporting the figures immediately after the month end, very often they still let it lapse because it’s just another job, which they don’t feel brings benefit to them or the business.

This is so clearly not the case. When business owners finally start working on their numbers regularly it is amazing what they find. Time spent on this can make and save you huge amounts without even having to find new business.

Don’t leave it too late. If you’re not sure what to do, talk to your accountant, or perhaps better still get a coach to help you.

Recently I have been calling old leads, who I either called or met sometimes up to 2 or even 3 years ago. These are people who showed a lot of interest in the coaching programme, and who said they wanted to go ahead, but not right now. I always warn these people that delaying the start is probably not a good idea, but they are convinced that they can straighten out one or two things first, and will then be in a far better place to use my services. The sentiment is entirely understandable, but seldom justified.

So I will agree to call them a couple of months later, and of course nothing has changed, and so on and so on, until I start to point out that in fact I have been chasing them for 2 or even 3 years, and nothing has changed to any significant level.

I recently had two meetings with new prospects who both used this excuse not to start straight away, and even though they agreed that the chances are in a year’s time nothing will have improved, they still procrastinate and delay the start date. Of course I understand that some people are worried about paying out money for an intangible, but these are business owners who by their own admission acknowledge that their business is not under control, they are not moving forward, and they are not making the money that they want to be making.

So if you are stuck in a rut, frustrated with your business, and wondering what you should be doing next why not contact a business coach. However, before you do so, be sure that is what you want, and that you are prepared to let someone come into your business and your life.

If not you will be just another business owner who wondered if things could be better, but who wasn’t prepared to do anything about it.

What a great couple of weeks we have just had. The best ever haul of medals at the Olympics, some pretty good weather on the whole, and lots of good economic news – unemployment levels the lowest ever, retail sales well up on forecast, and the FTSE performing close to 7000.

Good news on good news is likely to create further good things, so let’s hope people start to ride the wave of optimism and build on that. It was fascinating to see how well our athletes were performing, and in so many different disciplines. In fact although we came second overall, I think we got gold medals in far more different sports than the Americans did. This was because of the feel good surge that was going round the Team GB camp. It is amazing how uplifting success can be for others around you, and their determination to match other people’s achievements, make them strive even harder for a medal.

Being part of a team is a great feeling, and building a united and efficient team in your business is just as important as any other aspect you work on. Getting the right people with the right attitude, doing things the way you would do them, is a huge skill. It is all about setting goals, creating a positive culture where you all work together for the collective benefit of the team, being fair and consistent in both praise and criticism, and rewarding your team appropriately.

So congratulations to the Olympians, be they medal winners, or not. They all had a huge role to play in the overall achievement of the team.

I love the Olympic Games. It wasn’t always the case as for many years through my childhood Russia or America or even a bloc of countries would boycott them, or people were constantly cheating, and looking for ways to bend the rules to their advantage. In fact it hardly ever seemed to be a level playing field, and “the best” quite often were not “the best”, or at least not legitimately. Yes, there are still cheats, and of course once again Russia is barely represented in the games (for very good reasons) but on the whole there are more and more countries competing in a huge variety of sports, and whilst no doubt the USA will top the medal table, there will be many more smaller countries winning something, even if only a bronze medal, in one discipline or another.

The great thing is the stories that go with their magnificent achievements. The adversities they have had to overcome, and the mountains (sometimes literally) they have had to climb to reach the top of their sport.

Nothing is easy in life, and often the harder you have to work for something the more satisfying it is when you get there. You can tell by the huge outpourings of emotion that some athletes show when they finally win the gold medal.

Setting up your own business is also a huge challenge. Everyone gets things wrong, wastes money, employs the wrong people, and faces setbacks time and time again. The winners are the ones who don’t give up the first, the second, or even the ninetieth time they have to sort out yet another problem. They are the ones who bounce back up again, put it down to experience and swear to do better next time. All the athletes have coaching to help them when they need a boost, and extra pair of eyes to spot what they are doing wrong, or just give the a friendly bit of encouragement. As a business owner, perhaps a coach could do just that for you!

Having been a business coach for the best part of 14 years now, it is safe to say that whilst I have encountered a wide range of businesses, there are still many different market sectors I haven’t yet worked with. The thing is, however, that whichever new client I next start to work with, I am prepared to bet that the issues and challenges will at some level be exactly the same as all the rest.

The reason I bring this up, is because recently there have been a few problems with the cricket club of which I am chairman: As I looked more in depth as to what is and is not happening, it suddenly became clear that once again I am finding exactly the same things which need to be sorted out in this organisation as are in businesses being run for profit.

The first problem is that one person is trying to do everything because there is no clear demarcation of who is responsible for what. Understandably ultimately he got fed up with that and resigned his post. It is now clear that there are no roles or responsibilities, and no-one (apart from the ex-captain) really knows what needs to be done each week, or how, and as a result we are in a bit of a muddle. But, nothing which shouldn’t be fairly straight forward to address.

So as with the businesses I work with we will need to allocate roles and responsibilities, set up tasks and systems, and get a proper database of the membership in place, and with any luck we should soon have things back under control, and then we can concentrate on the important aspects of having fun and winning.

I have just been lucky enough to have a week’s holiday in Spain with all my family. My oldest daughter now has a job and is living away from home, my son is at university so we don’t see much of him, and my youngest daughter is the only one who still lives at home on a permanent basis. In other words last week was a very valuable time for me, to be able to spend quality time with my wife and my children.

I work with many different businesses, and it is alarming how many of them are not able to go away on holiday with their family when I first start with them. Sometimes only one or other of the parents can take the children, and quite often they simply don’t take the time off at all. In the end it is so important to remember what matters most in life. If you are completely tied to the business, and can’t get away, is this really worth it?

Of course when you first start a business it requires a huge amount of work and dedication, but in the end you must have a clear goal in mind, and with a clear timescale.

If not you may find yourself constantly striving for an outcome which is simply unattainable if you keep on doing the same things time and time again.

Remember when you started your business you had a clear vision of what you were going to achieve, what your life-style would be like, and how it was going to make you happy. But also remember that most of the happiness was going to be derived from the things you like doing in your leisure time, and the people you like to spend time with. In other words keep focussing on the things that really matter, and drive the business to provide the money you need, to make them happen. If you are not sure how to do that yourself, then you probably need a coach to help you. Some take longer than others, but I make sure all my clients take a holiday, because otherwise what is the point?

When did you last raise your prices? Most of the businesses I start coaching haven’t done so for some time, generally because they are scared of losing the loyal customers they already have, or because they feel it will prevent them from bringing new customers on board.

I recently met with one business where they are agents for various different companies, so buy their products at normal commercial rates, and are advised of the RRP, “Recommended Retail Price”. However, instead of putting those prices on their showroom stock they then reduce the price by a certain percentage, allowing them still a reasonable, but considerably reduced margin, and, so they say, ensuring that they are competitive. The trouble is that many people still ask for a discount off the new prices, at which point they have to explain that the shown price is already significantly reduced, and there is no more reduction to be made. I pointed out that actually a good number of people who come into their store do not know the standard price of their product, and therefore they would be better off leaving the RRP as originally suggested, and then should they be asked for a discount, they can oblige, and probably still sell it for more than they would have with their original strategy. In addition they would almost certainly have a more satisfied customer because they would feel they had achieved something by getting the vendor to drop their price.

The point is, it is so easy to give money away, when in many cases you simply don’t need to. But if you are still struggling to raise your prices, Brexit has given you an ideal excuse to do so. Inflation in the next few months is almost inevitable, so why not take this opportunity to raise your prices, and see what it does to your bottom line.

What a good week to be away. The aftermath of Brexit apparently causing discontent and ill-feeling almost everywhere, and to top it all England get beaten by Iceland. Being away I didn’t write my blog last week, and although it may be a little late now, I still thought I might add my thoughts.

First of all, although I was pleased with the results of the referendum, there should be no need for smugness or insensitivity. This clearly meant a lot to a lot of people, and just because some of us may feel optimistic about the future, of course there are many who are worried, scared and in some cases panicky about what the future may hold for them. Everybody has different circumstances, and consequently will have had good reasons for voting whichever way they did, and naturally we should all respect that. People, I hope, will have voted for what they felt was best for themselves and their families. Depending on what their businesses are, and how they see their finances and security in the future, will have helped them decide on which way to vote, and rightly so.

The thing is whether the vote went the way you wanted it to or not, we are (or will be) out of the EU. So it is now up to all of us collectively to make the best of the situation we are in. There is no point in moaning about it, and more importantly, we should certainly not be talking ourselves and our economy down. It could be all too easy to talk ourselves into the next recession, and then say “well we told you so”, or “that will teach you for voting out!”

Too much negativity will inevitably bring us all down, and why would any of us truly want that. So now is the time to unite, to work together, to help one another, and maybe, just maybe, things will turn out better than any of us could ever have hoped for.

Recently I seem to have come across several clients with similar issues with regards to their sales. Two companies have become incredibly reliant on one big customer, which of course makes them potentially very vulnerable, and another client has a sales team where one of them relies on getting a few very large orders in the year, whilst the other chases repeat business all the time, and again this causes problems for them as individuals and the company as a whole.

The point is, that it clearly shows the importance of spreading the risk and planning on the sort of customers you want to have on board. A few big customers alone can end up dictating the way you run your business, the pricing levels, when they will pay etc etc. Whilst it is nice to have big chunks of income, the people who I meet working like this are invariably being bullied and are constantly worried about losing these key customers. Equally chasing lots and lots of small businesses is incredibly hard work, and can mean that you fail to hit targets or even break-even on occasion.

People often tell me they don’t set budgets because you can never tell what is going to come in, but it is precisely the action of setting budgets which allows you to plan your marketing, and ensure you do hit your goals. In other words you plan the different customers you want to take on monthly and yearly, where they are going to come from, and how and what you intend to sell to them. This should be a combination of some large, some small, some you can sell to lots of times, some may be one offs. However, by having a wide spectrum of target markets and clients, you can ensure that one way or another you always hit your break-even at the very least, and more often than not you do a lot better than that.