Sales – Page 3 – Pauline Bright Business Coach

5 Steps to Turn Your Current Business into a Gold Mine

The trouble with creative entrepreneurial business owners is that they jump from one thing to another without fully exploring the thing they started and bringing it to fruition. They get bored, lose their mojo and go looking for new thrills.

It could very well be that you are sitting on a gold mine but you’ve only just scratched the surface. Maybe you’ve been at this a while and the gold is right under your nose but you’re not seeing it.

Owning a gold mine is all about digging deep in the right place and finding a rich seam. It takes hard work and perseverance and if you’re doing it correctly, it should pay off.

If you’re going to find the gold in your business, cover any of these bases and you’re on your way to having a gold mine. The more of these you have in place the better.

Your products, service and business should:

Be something highly desirable
Be in high demand
Be in a narrow but deep market
Be appealing to affluent buyers
Be able to guarantee results
Provide Social Proof – people like it
Have a perceived difference
Have raving fans
Be easily marketable
Be easily delivered
Not be reliant on specialists
Be remarkable
Be able to flex and change with times
Not be financially dependent on another industry
Not be highly regulated or over compliant
Have little or no waste
OR produce a waste product that is valuable
Already be being bought in large amounts
Be replicable and scalable
Be profitable
Be something that runs out, wears out or goes down the sink

Let’s go mining in your business

Step 1. Offer Something Highly Desirable

Whatever your product or service it must have customers who already want it or something like it. It’s very hard to sell a product that no-one wants or needs – even if you think it’s fabulous.

Gold-mine businesses are not always the originators; often they’ve just tapped a seam of desire for something that gets people out of pain or into pleasure.

Step 2. Know your customers like the back of your hand

Get up close and personal with your ideal customer. Make your business all about them and only them. Don’t try to serve everyone, you’ll spread yourself too thin and the business will be a nightmare to run.

Be the best in your industry for that type of customer. Get a reputation for it and protect it.

Step 3. Pick the Gap

If your business has stalled and you’re looking for some fresh ideas then go back to the list above and get the creative juices flowing. You probably already have something that needs looking at from a different perspective.

Look for an idea whose time has come – if you’re at all creative you’ll have a brain full or a notebook full of ideas. Look for things that could fill a current need. If enough people have a big enough problem and you have a better than average solution you could be on the way to the bank with a big gold nugget.

For goodness sake, do the research to find out if your “thing” is saleable in big enough quantities and for long enough to make you one of those rare breed of business owners who do actually strike it rich. Do NOT skip this step!

Step 4. You absolutely MUST do the numbers

Here’s where 80% of business owners start to lose interest but if you can bust your way through this you will succeed and you won’t have to go through a painful bankruptcy to learn the lesson. It can be done on paper first.

You need to know how much it will cost to get this product or service to market with built-in profit – and not be paying yourself with leftover scraps you cobble together after everything and everyone else gets paid.

If you don’t know how – ask me, I eat this stuff for breakfast.

Step 5. It must be something you really enjoy

It would be even better if you loved it and were passionate about it because it’s going to take a lot of stamina to get you through the ups and downs.

And remember if you’re doing it all alone, you’re doing it wrong. Business is a team game – you most certainly don’t have all the genius for every part of the business so you need to find others who have a piece of the puzzle that is their own special field of genius.

You don’t have to make them business partners – they could be outstanding managers and employees – as long as they are doing what they love too.

If you think your business is a gold mine waiting to happen and you want a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at it we should talk.

Set up a 15 minute phone call here and we’ll start digging.

How to get your business Mojo back

Humans are goal-seeking missiles – but what happens when you actually reach your goals and you don’t know it?

Watch the 42 second video to find out how you’ll know

Or if you prefer to read – here’s the video script:

“You know, If you’re feeling a little bit irritated or you’ve lost your mojo or things aren’t quite going according to plan and you want to keep messing with your business a little, take a step back and have a think about this… What if you’ve actually reached the goal that you set out to reach in your business and now because you don’t have another goal you’re just messing with all the details and that could be messing with other people too which is totally messing with their head, so, step back, re-evaluate and think ‘Have I actually reached the goal I set out to reach? Is it time to reset a new one?’

Enjoy that thought.”

How to set new goals that light your fire

If your daily tasks feel like filling in time and doing things for other people then it’s likely that you’re not working on the projects that can help your business take a leap forward.

Getting your Mojo back will require a bit of thinking time, so set aside an hour or two to think about what you originally intended when you first started or bought your business. You might have to sacrifice some TV time.

What were the big adventurous courageous visions you had? Tap back into those feelings.

Now take one of those goals – because that’s what they were – and flesh it out a little. Break the milestones down into bite-sized chunks then work out a time-line of WHEN it will happen and HOW it will happen.

If you’re not confident with this or need a fresh set of eyes to show you what you can’t see – that’s what we can help with. Let’s talk!

You can book a free 15 minute appointment with Pauline Bright here.

I didn’t think numbers mattered

I never thought that numbers mattered that much. You might not either if you are more of a right brain than left brain person.

After all, I was creative and good at what I did and, if I just focussed on that, then the money would flow, right?

Only it didn’t…

I spent a lot of years in several different businesses just doing what I loved… and it kind of worked.

I made a better-than-average hourly rate, I had my work distributed around the world, work was interesting and varied, I had good repeat business and word of mouth marketing and thought I was getting somewhere.

But, truthfully, I had a job and if I added up all the hours I actually worked, not just the time I billed clients for, I was making a pittance. I could earn more working for a boss. Only I didn’t want to. I wanted “freedom”.

That freedom came at a high price financially, physically and emotionally. I became very good at belting down a few glasses of wine at the end of the day and pacing until I calmed down. I lost sleep wondering where the next dollar and next client was coming from.

Now, I’m not advocating that this is the ideal way to run a business – far from it in fact! But it’s a familiar story isn’t it?

Over time, I got better at it… as you do. But not until I’d made some pretty costly mistakes… as you do.

I’d like to say that the process of awakening was like a bolt of lightning. But it wasn’t. I just had a few key insights that made me think differently and do things differently – and they didn’t all come at once – although I wish they had – I would have got here faster.

Revelations

It didn’t matter how “good” I was or how “good” the product was, if I didn’t get good at marketing I was going nowhere.
Marketing aside, the thing my business sold was probably the least important thing in terms of sustainability and financial success and I didn’t have a clue about numbers.
I was never going to make the kind of money I dreamed of unless I got serious about the “money side” of business. I needed to learn stuff I wasn’t particularly keen on – in fact I thought financial management and business management was dry, dusty and boring. (Maybe it was the way it was being taught!)
I had to stop thinking about myself as “self-employed” and start becoming a “business owner”
I was not an island – it was lonely in there trying to do it all myself and putting myself under immense pressure. I needed to reach out for help.

So, long story short, I learnt it, I made changes – not all at once, but gradually – and things started to get better and better. Like compounding interest, the sooner you start, the more it multiplies with less effort from you. Financial management was NOT my joy – and not my strength – or so I thought. But I did stick with it.

And THAT’S why when I became a coach I wanted to teach people how to get the very best from their business, to make the kind of money they really wanted. In plain simple language, the way I learnt it.

How you run your business is completely your call. If the “Money Side” is something you’ve promised yourself you’ll get better at one day, then maybe this is your opportunity. “IT” won’t come to you – you have to make an effort but it will be worth it.

If you feel your Business could use some better financial management you might like the MONEY MASTERCLASS. It has a Money Back Guarantee.

If this rings bells for you, I’ll see you there.

Cheers,
Pauline

PS: More info and book here for The Money Masterclass – Friday 29th July

What’s your actual number?

How much money do you Fully Intend to earn from your business this year?

Note: “I didn’t say how much money would you like?” That’s a dream.

When I said “Fully Intend to earn” I don’t mean just some vague goal of “I want more money” blah blah blah.

I mean the actual NUMBER – the amount you will put in your pocket and why that’s important to YOU.

Would it make the world of difference to you…

to earn more than you did at your last job or last year in your business?
to live a better life with no holds barred?
to pay down some overwhelming debt?
To boost your self-esteem – to be paid what your worth ?

People get all hung up on money. They think it’s virtuous to say “It’s not about the money” but if you’re in business a big chunk of it IS about the money

Your financial success this year will depend on just TWO things

How you think
What action you take

It’s not just a matter of setting a goal – that’s the easy part… (pick a number – any number…)

BUT – to get from the income you make now to exactly the income you REALLY want… well, HOW do you do that…?

THAT’S the question… isn’t it?

You see the mystery is in the HOW to do things and most people won’t tell you that.

I’ve been implementing this “money and numbers stuff” for quite some time now in my own businesses, and I teach this to my clients in all kinds of businesses, with remarkable results.

And I want to show YOU how to do it too because life’s too short to do this slowly… and painfully.

You lose too much money and momentum trying to figure this out on your own

Now this is not a “One Tip, One Trick” strategy. It’s a series of actions taken at the right time with the right knowledge that will get you where you want to go.

I’m talking about real commitment here.

I’m talking about rolling your sleeves up and getting into it. Even if you think you don’t like numbers. ESPECIALLY if you avoid this side of your business!

It WILL NOT take care of itself.

And YES it will take some hard work – but it won’t kill you, in fact it will definitely make you stronger!

Here’s a neat little tool to calculate how you’ll make that income – click here

Email me pauline@paulinebright.com

Or send me a private message on Facebook or LinkedIn

Or pick up the phone and call me 0413 739 196

Talk soon.

Why is a budget so important to your business, but so hard to do?

I have yet to meet anyone who likes the word “budget”!

It seems to have acquired a negative spin – Business Coach Mandurah like “belt-tightening” or “big brother” standing over you… it may start feeling like there’s no fun in life if you have to budget!

Maybe the politicians have given it a bad rap! Treasurers rarely deliver a popular budget.

So let’s change the name shall we, to CASH FLOW; 2 really nice words that fit together.

Let’s put together a Cash Flow Forecast.

Serious FUN

When you are realistic about what it takes to run your business – how much money you need to spend and how much money you need to make you can start to get out of stress and into some Serious Fun!

And in that Cash Flow Forecast let’s include some FUN MONEY – money you can play with on a regular basis so it makes you feel good.

And let’s measure what happens with the Cash Flow Forecast, – your actual spending, because when you’ve taken the time to set it up and include all of the things you need and want to spend money on, then you know you’ll be able to sustain it. And you’ll enjoy life more.

So what is a Cash Flow Forecast?

Well, when you get the hang of this, you can have:

Cash flows for personal stuff (in fact I like to start with the personal stuff – because being a business owner should give you a better life – right?)
Cash flows for running your business – projected income and projected expenses in the months they actually occur
Cash flows for expanding and growing your business in the future so there are no nasty surprises when you get there.

TRUE CONFESSION:

I’ve had 11 businesses – not all of them reached their true potential because I told myself “I don’t do numbers”.

And every time I had an attack of “Ok Pauline, let’s do this – you know you have to”, I tried to learn it but it was being taught in such a mind-crushingly dry dusty boring way that I felt like giving up.

But I persevered and I learnt the language of numbers because I had to! It was sink or swim. I chose to swim!

And now I REALLY like numbers – seriously I think I’ve turned a bit nerdy. And I teach it in a Seriously Fun and easy to understand way.

I’d never realised the richness of what’s in a business until I learned about Money and Numbers. (I even coach accountants now! I could never have foreseen that.)

Being Good at What You Do is Overrated

Being good at what you do – the work of your business is not enough. You need to be able to accurately predict what will happen and when it will happen. And you seriously need to know the numbers to do that.

If you are running your business based on what’s in your bank account, you’re heading into shark-infested waters. Please DON’T DO THAT!!!

And if you need help – then come to a Low cost/ High value workshop.

The first one is “Women and Money”
Simple Practical Abundant Money Strategies for Women in Business

The next one is “Men and Money”

And there may even be a “Couples and Money”

Watch this space…

Evolutionary Business Design

Category: Sales