Business Development – Page 4 – Pauline Bright Business Coach

The obvious way to grow a business that almost everyone ignores

Business is only as complicated as you want to make it.

You might be spending disproportionate chunks of time, when you’re not actively engaged in doing the work of your business, adding more bells and whistles to your offering, making your office look better, getting new business cards, updating your website, trawling through emails, improving your systems and ploughing through dreary hours of admin… ad infinitum.

But there is one blind spot that people will not, or choose not to see because it makes them uncomfortable, they don’t know how to do it and they don’t know what to do about it…

You can spend countless hours on polishing your product, looking as busy as the next person and tweaking everything about your business – or focus on the one truly effective thing that is guaranteed to grow your business – YOU CAN MAKE SALES.

Nothing happens until a sale is made – doesn’t matter how pretty your office looks or how cool your product is, if you don’t sell it, you don’t eat.

If you’re not actively selling to prospects who are in the market to buy, all those coffee meetings, “important” phone calls and endless networking events aren’t worth anything. In fact they’re costing you plenty in time and money and missed opportunities.

It might surprise you to know that you need to invest at least 20% of your time in sales producing activities – even more if you’re a new business – up to 80% of your time should be focused on sales.

You’ll need a repeatable process to bring you more customers on a regular basis if you are going to grow your business.

The first step is to make sure you’re talking to people who want what you have and are happy to pay for it. That’s an exercise in marketing and making sure you’re in the right business.

The second step is to get MUCH better at selling – so here’s my gift to you…

The Elegant Selling eBook, for people in professional services who think they can’t sell – just click to download. It’s full of ideas, scripts & techniques to overcome sales fears and phobias.

Enjoy!

Need some sales training for your team? Ask about “The Art of Selling” workshop. Book a phone call here to see how it can work for you.

The Super Short Guide to Making Wise Business Decisions

Decisions are like “the Trouser Legs of Time” as my favourite author Terry Pratchett put it.

And whichever leg you choose you end up in a different space, which is unfortunate if you don’t end up somewhere you want to be, but fabulous if you do.

Now, you don’t want to get it wrong but neither do you want to be stuck – and no decision is still a decision.

Here’s the 3 Point Super Short Guide to Making Wise Business Decisions: ask yourself these questions…

Is this good for ME?

He said “I make decisions based on the 3 most important things in my life –

1. my Health,
2. my Wealth and
3. my Family

It has to be good for all three without compromise”.

Run the decision by your 3 most important values and trust your instinct to let you know when something isn’t a good fit.

WHY am I making this decision?

What are the repercussions of this? Is this something I can live with for a long time? (This is vitally important when you are thinking about business partners).

Am I rationalising this decision and trying to ignore what my intuition is telling me? If you are trying to “hard sell” the idea to yourself and others, it’s probably not in your best interests.

Can I live with the consequences? Will I still be happy about this in one year, two years, ten years from now?

Do I need more time; am I being rushed by others into making a decision?

WHO is involved in this?

If I’m about to make a decision that involves huge amounts of my input, time, money and/or energy –i.e. if it’s all me, we could be in trouble!

Who else can I involve in this? What expert help can I get? Is this a joint decision or mine alone to make?

If you’re struggling with a business decision right now and you want some expert help – someone to approach it with fresh eyes then let’s talk.

Book a 15 minute phone conversation with Pauline Bright here.

The secret to being a successful business owner

Congratulations! You’re a rare breed.

If you measure success by the dictionary definition of “the favourable outcome of something attempted”, then owning a business could be considered a success, because there are many more who think about being a business owner than follow through to buy or start a business.

But how do YOU measure success?

Is it measured in money, prestige, toys, lifestyle, contribution, customers or reputation?

Who’s doing the measuring?

Are these your measurements or are you succumbing to external forces telling you what success “should” look like?

From the outside your business could look spectacularly successful. However you could be sitting in your business right now not feeling particularly proud and successful – especially if things are not going the way you imagined they would.

Working closely with hundreds of business owners over more than a decade here’s what defines success for them.

Which ones apply to you?

I get out of bed each day with enthusiasm and energy – I enjoy my business
I’m happy with the direction in which my business is headed
I’ve made mistakes and learnt from them. I get up when knocked down
I constantly learn and implement new ideas and ways of doing business
I have good people around me to help run sections the business
I feel good about the products/services we deliver
I have brightness of future. I’m confident we’re on the right track
I have a good support network in my business community
My business is agile, flexible and not heavily weighed down by outside influences
My business pays me properly for my efforts
My business has a good reputation
I’m doing work worth doing, it has value
My time is flexible enough to allow me to enjoy life
My business is growing. I have an asset that has value now and in the future
I have the right balance of work and play. I have time to myself and with my family
I have defined my boundaries of what I will and won’t do
I choose my customers
The business is under control; it has systems that make it work well
My business makes a valuable contribution to my community
I have a business that gives me a good life

Please feel free to add your own success criteria.

Celebrate what you DO have. Every business is a work-in-progress. Don’t feel bad about the things you don’t have right now. Make a note of them and work on the most important ones that have meaning for you.

There is no ONE secret – it’s a collection of criteria that gives you a feeling of pride and sense of achievement.

The secret to being a successful business owner is whatever you say it is.

What is it for you?

Are we still the Lucky Country?

A couple of days ago, after the American Thanksgiving Holiday, I was flying back to Perth from Sydney.

It was late and I was tired; I had been at an intense 2 day seminar and would have been grateful for some sleep. I sat next to a small wiry man in dirty work clothes and well-worn work boots. He had paint on his hands, his arms and his clothes.

Shortly after take-off he struck up a conversation “You from Perth?” I didn’t recognise his accent so I asked where he was from.

“Yugoslavia – I come to Australia 17 years ago. Never go back”.

I don’t know what his name was – we didn’t get to that bit. But over the next couple of hours he told me his story.

He cannot believe his luck in ending up in Australia. He is so grateful for the opportunities he has here. He came as an immigrant with his wife and two children, choosing Australia because he has a brother living here. He “lost’ his wife. She chose to go back to Yugoslavia to be with her parents. He stayed here with his children.

He had been an electrician in Yugoslavia but in his own words… “No work.”

“Very hungry, always hungry.”

“When I was kid, my family no food, no work always hungry.”

“Always fighting, always war; Milosovic no good. People killing”.

He settled in a small town in rural WA. He is so incredibly grateful for everything he has; grateful to be able to work hard. “Always work – never run out of work – I go knock doors get work, always”. “No work there, I go knock more doors”. “I do anything, paint, build, fix… I go night school, I learn English after work”.

He bought some land and built a house – so incredibly grateful that he could do here what he could never do in his birth country.

Then he proceeded to tell me about how he was going to subdivide his block, sell half and buy more blocks to grow his personal wealth. “But not too much, just enough. Too much make people greedy. I see it”.

He has a business idea for a food van – he has it all mapped out who his customers will be and how he will sell to them.

He was so incredibly grateful for being able to live in peace “No war here” and for being able to work and earn and enjoy his life. He had built such a good reputation that his employer had flown him to Sydney to do some work for him. He was in his work clothes because he wanted to get home to his family and his next job as soon as he could. “No time to wash before fly”.

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are “Very lucky” he said “Very luck here”.

Have we forgotten how lucky we are? Have we forgotten that we used to call ourselves “The Lucky Country ”?

Have we forgotten to be grateful for every amazing advantage we have here?

Not me – I’m giving thanks every day.

As I left the airport, I had to chuckle at the young teenage girl of Indian descent with younger sister in tow, whinging loudly about something… “First word problem” she said to her “First world problem!”

My gratitude…

Thank you to everyone who taught me something this year. A considerable list of people and lessons! Some I didn’t anticipate and some I jumped into boots and all – knowing I was going to be working hard and loving every minute of it.

Thank you to my clients; past present and future. I’m so lucky to be doing work I love with you!

Thank you to my family and friends and colleagues, to my trusted advisors, to my network of incredibly talented business associates. It would be so much harder doing it without you.

And a little gratitude gift from me to you. Thanks for reading – click here to download

More coming in the New Year

Wishing you a wonderfully relaxing Christmas with all the love that it brings…

Cheers,
Pauline

3 Easy Steps To Write A Blog Or Social Media Post Now!

Quick and simple guidelines to create content

Here are the rules…

Don’t be generic – don’t write for everyone , write just for one person
You need to get inside their head to get to the HOT Buttons – make it personal.
Keep great notes on conversations with clients or customers – these are your source materials

Here are the steps:

Step #1

Identify a specific person

Write a list of the clients you’ve dealt with over the few weeks or few months – Name them. Some will stand out more than others because of the conversations you’ve had – choose the ones you’d most like to write for and that you have the most to contribute to

Step #2

Find their HOT Buttons

Under each name write down all the problems they have – real and perceived. Dig deep – find their fears and frustrations; what irks them, what keeps them awake at night, what they would do if they had a magic wand; what they most want your help with; their horror stories and their dreams and desires. Be very specific; not “needs more money” but “Needs to generate $5000 by Monday”

Step #3

Write the article in a particular style

Once you have the list, write an article for that person – just that person, because if one person has that problem or desire you can bet your boots others do too. Make it interesting to read – choose a style to write it in. It could be a case study, a rant, a “how to”, common myths… it could even be a checklist, FAQs or 3 Steps to do something.

You now have page full of ideas for articles, blogs, and social media posts – no more staring at a blank page. You can even turn these into videos or podcasts.