makeithappen

What are you going to do now?

Well it’s been a great distraction from the news of 25% cuts and thousands of job losses.  It would have been even better if England had at least performed and show a little bit of enthusiasm to the task.  Being married to a Scotsman its been a very interesting few weeks of fun and banter.  But enough of that lets get back to reality.

What are you going to do now?

Its not a fun question but a serious one.  It really is time to reflect and assess where you and your business are in an open and honest way.  Some of you will already have done so and well done but for the rest of us just spend some time to assess where you are and what you are going to do now?

Take a few minutes now to go through these…..but be honest!

Strengths? What are you doing really well?  I am not asking what you “think” but what you know you do well and are the strengths of your business.  How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, what is it that makes me want to buy from you?

Weaknesses? Some find this section easier but take a careful look at all aspects of your business.  Take a look at your performance, conversion rates, customer concentration, Cash flow forecasts and funding, who owes you money and is it over due? and much more…..

Threats? Its time to look them in the face.  Do some what if…….I lose that customer, they pay late, and many more.  Assess them and think about how likely they are to happen and if they do what impact will it have on the business.  Concentrate on the Fatal ones first and turn it into a positive action on prevention and contingency plans.  Its far better to be proactive than have your head in the sand and wait for something to happen over which you have no control.

Opportunities? Yes there always are opportunities out there.  You just need to have your eyes and ears open to pick them up.  Recessions, and times of difficulty are always the most innovative and inventive.  Make sure you are taking advantage and open to what’s out there.

I have copied a inspiring poem to help you on your way..

You can find more information and articles on our blog if you are interested in some more detail and also comment and let us know your experiences.  Makeithappen

Want to improve your Communications and Influencing skills?

And achieve a Diploma in NLP Business Applications?

Can’t afford the time?

Public Courses never at the right time

Need flexibility to learn in your own way?

Then, could this be the right solution you’ve been waiting for?

A bespoke and personalised programme that will:

• Broaden your thinking
• Present more career opportunities
• Give you a significantly better chance at securing a new job or career path
• Coach you in the techniques of how to be an excellent communicator, relater and influencer
• Develop your skills and give you personal feedback
• Enable you to use those skills in what ever applications you choose
• Gain a recognised qualification from an international body (INLPTA) – NLP Diploma in Business Applications

…Bespoke programmes for Individuals and Groups – private and in-house programmes designed…

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is described as a modern psychology or a study in communications excellence. It is regularly featured in newspapers and magazines summarising the personal gains individuals have gained from its effective approach.  Most people have only seen NLP used in a therapeutic way and have not yet discovered its huge applications in many areas of life and business.

Barry Tayler a Businessman and NLP Trainer, has developed practical, personal and business applications of NLP.  This means people acquire relevant & practical skills more quickly, with greater retention.  Development focuses on managers, professionals and business developers alike, improving their influencing, relating, communicating, coaching and leading skills.  His approach combines the essentials of emotional control and stress management, with the pragmatism of developing business and human processes that build adaptive behavioural skills – the ability to communicate and relate more effectively.

The unique approach combines NLP applications, personality profiling and other practical development tools that have been proven over the years to build successful managers, teams and businesses. Bespoke Individual, Team or Group Programmes are adapted to Clients’ needs, resulting in participants learning How to techniques and methodologies, building on awareness training and theory learning.

I can guarantee that motivated people will learn and develop new, practical and creative approaches, ways of solving task and people problems, and above all, the ability to develop themselves and their business – becoming excellent communicators.

AND………….You get an International qualification that is meaningful.

There are many programmes to choose from out there, which Barry is willing to discuss quite openly with you.  If he can’t convince you of the practical benefits of our approach, we will send you a free copy of his book – How to communicate badly

Please make that personal call to Barry and he will take the time to explain a range of choices open to you including an available training grant for qualifying applicants.

More Detailed Information

International NLP body
Communications Article
NLP Applications
NLP Background

Best regards and look forward to hearing from you.

Barry Tayler
BT Consulting Ltd
North Leeds

01943 468945
07785 376740

or contact Carol  carol@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

I was lucky enough to be asked to present to the Ilkley Business Forum about linkedin and we set up a group.

I thought the information would be useful for all so here is the summary below and if you want to download the presentation just go to  Carol Buchan on linkedin.  Its all about my experience and use of Linkedin … not an official guide!

What is Linked in – Their Definition - Business Social Networking Site

Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.

What is Linked in – some other definitions

• Online Business Card
• Represents who you are and your Brand
• Represents your companies Brand
• Its a meeting place – connections and groups
• Online Networking
• Digital ID
• Its a call to action

In fact its all of these and much more.

Here are some facts as to why you should be interested  – From Linked in themselves

LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries.

A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.

Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

More Facts

Linked in gets over 33 million hits from Google a month!

Google Stats

42% will click on No.1

11% will click on No.2

10% will click on Page 2

Why does this matter?

Because your profile on linked in will go to the top of the searches.  Its also the place where whoever you meet in whatever context will go check you out online.  And you need to make sure it represents you and your message correctly.

What can you do – Linkedin

• Manage the information that’s publicly available about you as professional
• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended
• Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company
• Your Profile
• Summary – Elevator Pitch
• Blog & Experience & Groups
• Experience & Recommendations
• Find a job
• Search for Staff

The journey has only just began!

What is sure is if you are not there why not!

If you want to know more just contact me… I am happy to help out.  07956027738 carol@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

When you start to consider email as a means of marketing and reaching new prospects as well as strengthening the relationship you have with existing customers it is important to keep in mind some very important rules. Here are some of the critical things that you should consider when you begin, supplied by Recorded Devilery who have a one stop solution for email marketing.

1. Only send emails to people who have requested to receive them or to those who you have an existing relationship with. These might be prospects to whom you have sent information to or spoken to on the telephone or they may be existing customers or colleagues. The key is that they must know who you are and why you have contacted them.

2. Take every opportunity to build up your email list with valuable contacts, when someone makes an enquiry by telephone or in person, ask politely if you can add them to your list. Make sure members of your staff who come into contact with potential and existing customers get into the habit of asking for email addresses. Sign up forms on your website, feedback forms and competitions are other good ways of building your list.

3. Only include content which is relevant to the people you are sending to or to the product or service you are offering. The content should be benefiting the recipient of your emails in some way, either by making them aware of something to their advantage or telling them something of interest.

4. When you send your welcome email or perhaps even on your thank you page it is important to include a message like: “To ensure receipt of our emails, please add yourname@yourcompany.com to your Address Book.” This address will be the “from” email you are using and will improve your delivery rate by avoiding messages be directed into junk mail folders. It’s good practice to add this into your emails to make sure that your recipients are reminded to do it. By being added to their safe senders it will also mean that images are displayed in your emails.

5. Make the From Name for your messages either your company name or the name of a person at your company. Once you choose a From Name, keep it consistent. This will help people to recognise that this is a valid email as they quickly scan through their inbox.

6. If you are sending nicely formatted and illustrated HTML emails, make sure you also have a plain text version for those who can’t or don’t want to receive the full HTML version. With increasing numbers of people receiving emails on their mobiles a text only version may be more appealing to them.

7. Send emails at regular intervals if possible and not more often than is appropriate. If your emails have good quality content that the recipients find interesting and useful, they will look forward to your nest email and read it.

8. Timing can be important; in general it seems to be best to send business emails between Tuesday and Thursday and either just after the start of the day or just after lunch. For business emails, late afternoon or just before people leave the office is not such a good idea.

9. If your emails are going to consumers, then early evening may be a good time or perhaps on Fridays if you offer something which they might buy on the internet at the weekend. Much of the timing of your emails will depend on who your target is and their particular habits, but it’s important to consider this when you schedule your email sending.

10. Using lots of upper case text or exclamation marks within the subject line or body of your emails is a good way to aggravate spam filters and will result in your emails either being deleted or sent straight to a junk email folder.

That is the question.  Is training a cost or an investment in your business especially when the training is for the owner manager or key leadership team?  What is the likely impact of not investing in the skills of your team?

During a recession this question raises its head and there are many quotes and warnings from senior executives and HR directors from leading businesses stating that

“….cutting back or not investing in training is a false economy that will cost businesses dear”.

They are difficult questions and it’s all too easy to just cut that line on the budget or cancel that course and save money now. There is also a significant difference between the large corporations who invest significantly in their staff and the majority of smaller businesses where training is a rarity and usually non-existent especially for the Owner or Director.

So how do we answer the question?

I believe that before you can answer the question -  To Train or Not to Train? – you need to consider the following.

• How do I get real value from my investment/expense in training?
• How do I know what return I am getting?
• What is important to me and my business now?

There is no great secret of how to get VALUE from any investment you make in training.  But there are some general principles, summarised below

1. Identify what your business needs – make sure you know what your strategy and plan for the business is and what skills and development you need for the people who are going to deliver it for you.  ALWAYS ensure that your training is linked to the business objectives, kpi’s and outcomes

1. Plan and set Priorities

1. Now find the solution which best meets that need – Explore what best fits – courses, coaching, mentoring, bespoke.

1. APPLICATION – Ensure that the processes have been put in place for the new learning to be applied and integrated into the business.  If there “isn’t time” then you have to question the relevance of the training to the business and its outcomes in the first place.

1. Review & Measure – Who benefits from the training and development? The individual, their team or the business.  The answer should be all three to gain the highest value.  If you don’t have a way of measuring or knowing what you want how will you know if it works?  The training should have an impact to your Key Business Performance Indicators. Right back to your reason for the investment in the first place.

Consider the following quote

“During a recession, many organisations cut back on their employees learning and development budgets … this is entirely understandable, yet these are the very people who will be looked on to help the organisation pull through, spot the growth opportunities and accelerate out of an economic downturn” – said Andrea Cooper, a Director at Common Purpose London

Can you afford NOT to invest in the skills of yourself and your people?

1-1 Practical Coaching – 50% funded

We are very lucky to be able to offer you this Unique and Innovative programme Part Funded by the Enhancement Fund in Yorkshire & Humber Region. We recently partnered with Zulfi Hussain of Global Synergy Solutions in bidding for and winning the chance to deliver this programme.

All the time business owners and managers are telling us they want support which is focussed on thier business and thier specific issues and they want that over a period of time to help them deliver the changes and reap the benefits – WELL here it is!

Even better you get it half price!  Yes it does require you to invest in yourself and your team but for benefits many times that investment

What the programme will do for you

Finally a Management Development Programme of practical support and training which will help YOU achieve the results and turnaround your business needs and give you the skills to continue to drive your business forward.

·    Tailored programme based on your business needs – You set the objectives, content and priorities
·    15 sessions of 1-1 practical support over a 6 month period on site
·    Focussed sessions on Your Business and Your Priorities
·    Support throughout implementation and management of Your Change Programme
·    1 day Group training and networking on Goal Setting, planning and SMART objectives with other individuals on the programme
·    1 day 90 day planning workshop specific to Your Business
·    Individual personal development and skills planning

Programme Price per Individual                 £4350 (plus VAT £761.25)

Contribution from the Enhancement Fund per qualifying Individual    -£2107

Total Payable by you – Per Individual         £2243 (plus VAT £761.25)

PART FUNDED BY THE ENHANCEMENT FUND
Train to Gain
Investing in you to ensure growth and prosperity of your business

Who qualifies for the part funding?

·    Individuals employed by/owning a business within the Yorkshire & Humber RDA region from 1 to 4000 employees
·    Public Sector businesses are excluded
·    Any Key decision makers and Key players in a qualifying business with management responsibility
·    More than one individual can be supported from any business
·    Any sector of business is supported

How do I sign up?

Just contact us

Its that easy – We will contact you to book an initial planning session to identify the specific focus and priorities of development you need in order for the business to achieve its Strategic Objectives, and develop an individualised Personal Development Plan.

Want more information?

Contact us on profit@yorkshirebusinessservices.com 07956027738

You would be surprised how many businesses don’t – Of course I have a plan I hear you say.  “I advertise here and I have a web site”

How do you expect to get new customers to spend money with you let alone increase the spend from your current customers if you don’t know what you are selling and to whom.

1. Remember your marketing mix and INNOVATE – Product, Price, Place and Promotion

2. Pareto’s (80/20) principle – 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers- remember this will help you focus your efforts

3. Listen to your customers – look at what you do well and where you need to improve.  Analyse this information compared to what your best competitors do.

4. Know your customers needs – Think about why your customer’s need you.  What is your unique selling point (USP) – why should someone buy from you instead of your competition. (not price – just a hint)

5. Review your marketing – What do you do now? Do you know if its effective? Is it consistent?

6. Understand your competitors – Who are they and what do you know about them?

7. Create your marketing strategy – Consider the key elements of what you do, what are your strengths and weaknesses and what are the opportunities and the threats to your business (SWOT analysis)

8. Make the most of what you’ve got – Look at your existing sales base and remember it is more cost effective to increase sales from your existing customer base – Do they know what products and services you offer?  Are they only buying one of your services?

9. Avoid price competition – understand what customers are really buying from you. Every priduct has a service element.

10. Implement and review your marketing system – to fail to plan is to plan to fail

You will notice that every major company in the world has a vision or mission statement – a broad, futuristic idea of what the company will achieve and look like in the future. The five-step process can help you achieve there, but you need to know where “there” is first.

I know you must be eager to jump into marketing strategies and get more people flowing through the door, or more sales ringing through the till. Be patient – this is important work that will build and contribute to your amazing success. Trust me!

So, let’s take a look at what a vision statement is, and why it’s important for you to create one for your business.

A vision statement is a broad, inspiring image of the future state a business aspires to reach. It describes without specifying how aspirations will be achieved, or when. It is ambitious, and forward-thinking. It’s not about where the organization is now, it’s about what the organization will be, or aspires to be.

A vision statement needs to:

• describe aspirations and intent
• be inspirational for your staff and customers
• project a compelling story
• paint a clear picture
• use engaging and descriptive language
• be realistic
• align with your company’s values

The vision statement will also provide a clear criteria or measuring stick for decision-making. When making tough choices, ask “Does this support the vision statement?” If major initiatives do not support the overall business vision, chances are they aren’t worth the investment of time and money.

If your business doesn’t have a vision statement, it needs one. If it does, then this is a good opportunity to strengthen it or make sure it is aligned with the current dream you have for yourself and your company.

We’re going to work through a step-by-step process in this E-Class that will help you hone in on what your vision is, and then put it into words.

You should note that a corporate vision statement – once created, agreed to and perfected – should remain consistent and unchanged for several years. When a vision statement is changed and revised, it is difficult to create a consistent plan that supports the achievement of the vision. In this case, now is a good time to revise your vision – right before embarking on a comprehensive marketing strategy.

But first, don’t forget that your employees, joint ventures (companies you align yourself with – the most powerful marketing initiative on the planet is a Joint Venture) and your customers need to believe in the company’s vision too.

Your employees need a strong, clear vision statement just as much as you do. When creating a vision statement, keep this in mind. The vision will need to be something that your employees can embrace and stand behind. A powerful vision statement that your employees can get excited about will motivate, inspire and build morale on the sales floor and in the office.

Think about how you will communicate your vision to your employees once you have created it. How can you inspire them to nurture and support your vision on a daily basis, in everything they do? How can you empower and motivate them to feel ownership of the company’s future and their stake in it?

Take a look at these corporate vision statements so you can get a better understanding of what we’re talking about.

Amazon.com
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

Dell
Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value.

eBay
eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a local, national and international basis through an array of websites that focus on commerce, payments and communications.

Facebook
Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment.

Google
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Other Vision Statement Examples:

• To develop a reliable wireless network that empowers people with the freedom to travel anywhere – across the hall or across the continent – and communicate effortlessly.
• To be America’s best quick-service restaurant chain we will provide each guest great tasting, healthful, reasonably priced fish, seafood and chicken in a fast, friendly manner on every visit.
• To provide high quality products that combine performance with value pricing, while establishing a successful relationship with our customers and our suppliers.
• To be a profitable provider of high quality software solutions and services that provide strategic value to our customers and create a company that can attract, recruit and retain smart and talented employees.

Once you have created your vision statement, share it with the world. Your vision is something you have committed to, and can let everyone know where your company is heading. It allows them to see where you want to go, and gives them the opportunity to help you get there.

Now, do you have everything you need to start working towards your vision?

If you want to know more about creating Your Vision click here now

Found this really easy to use – I can highly recommend wordpress and I have migrated from Blogger.  If you want to know more just contact me to find out or go to our Link4business site for support and information

Great people there at the networking today.  Really positive and great inspiration – if you don’t know about it you should and need to find out