Category: Strategy

Why EOFY is like Christmas in July for Business Owners

Endings and beginnings: Like EOFY, they’re inevitable; like breathing… out with the old, in with the new.

I love a good rummage around in my computer. As a Creator, I do a lot of writing and thinking and starting but not everything gets finished.

Not everything gets published – but here’s something that did. It went out as a newsletter late last year and, on reflection, I thought it was relevant to the End Of the Financial Year (EOFY) just as much as Christmas.

You might be focussed on the financial clean up but there is so much more to endings and new beginnings than getting buried in numbers. If you can think differently, you can get different results.

Here’s my Christmas in July gift to you… and a little BONUS at the end.

The end of things…

Yes I know it’s only November, but there’s something about “now” that has a certain feel to it.

​I love this time of year – the time to start finishing off the year; tidying up and the tying off things… like a big red bow tied around a hand-made gift that is complete and ready to bestow at Christmas.

​I’m a creator – I like to make a mess when I’m creating. My desk resembles Einstein’s.

​Puttering around my desk, cleaning up, gives me time to think. I find things I thought I’d lost in the teetering stacks of notes and sketches and outpouring of ideas. I find snatches of wise words from conversations, resource materials, pictures and doodles and diagrams, the beginnings of things for later use – I’m so amazed at what comes out of my brain and makes it to a page. Thank goodness it does come out – it gets cluttered in there!

​I like to clean up afterwards to make room for more intriguing thoughts. And as I clear my desk after a project is finished, sweeping away the detritus left from a million creative ideas, I clear my mind by reviewing what worked and what didn’t, what I learnt, who I connected with, what I’ll stop doing, what I’ll continue to do what I’ll do differently next time.

​Some of my plans for this year came to fruition; some went completely sideways, some smacked me between the eyes – amazing, surprising, startling things that I could never have planned for, like my new health coach who appeared at just the right time.

​I love the potency of those spontaneous things, and while I’m pretty big on planning, I also like to leave lots of “wiggle” room for things to evolve. Some of them have been way better that I could have imagined or planned for myself.

The realisation I came to quite a while ago is that while we behave like we can control everything; we schedule and diarise and pack and squeeze as much as we can into our too busy lives, we’re actually not in control nearly as much as we think we are.

​There are other forces at work here and if you just stop for a minute, take a step back and loosen your grip you’ll find all sorts of synchronistic, apparently spontaneous things will be allowed to happen.

​You’ll bump into that person you’ve been thinking of, the clients you’ve always wanted will contact you, the projects you really want to work on – they will come to you.

​That’s pretty much been my year – everything I tried to force got choked, everything I allowed to flow happened almost effortlessly.

​Right now I’m in flow… getting ready for relaxing summer holidays, time with family, lazing under a tree with a good book, walking, swimming, playing with my grandson, clearing my head and connecting with people I love.

​Not long now. Just a few more loose ends…

The beginning of things…

There’s a space between finishing one thing and starting another.

​I call it creative procrastination; it’s the thing you do in the space between productive tasks. You tidy your desk, you make another cuppa, you get a snack, make a few calls, clear your emails, file your nails, make holiday plans…

But there’s more going on than you realise. You’re “Getting Ready”.

Your brain is switching gears. While you’re fluffing about in the in-between space, your brain is planning and working things out. What you need, who you need, how to tackle the task. It’s an almost meditative state, like hand watering the garden on a warm summer’s evening.

Until eventually you kick yourself into gear; “C’mon, get on with it”.

And you make a start.

Trust that process. Don’t use it as an excuse!

Now it’s up to you… run with it, play with it, be with it – enjoy it!

Happy EOFY Bonus…

If you think you could improve on last financial year, you might like to try my 7 Business Building Tools to set you up for your best year yet. Enjoy.

Life Lessons: “I’ve got your back”

A dozen years ago I found myself on a tight rope stretched 10 metres high above the Nevada desert, legs and arms and body wobbling dangerously. I was listening to my internal dialogue yelling “Holy Cow!” but telling me I would be okay; listening to others encourage me, feeling fear in the pit of my stomach – and I was laughing at the same time!

“Pauline, you asked for this!” I reminded myself under my breath. And I had! I was looking for a little excitement – something to stretch me.

I clutched at the dangling rope that was handed to me like life depended on it (even though I was wearing a harness attached to a wire above). And as I grabbed that rope I had to edge forward and let go of the one I was holding in my other hand, to pass it on to my team mate.

I would love to say I was brave and fearless. I wasn’t. But I didn’t buckle either. There were people way braver than me – instructors and participants. People passing me the rope, making sure I was okay, safe and moving forward. I was terrified but not to the point of not moving, and now, when people say “I’ve got your back” I really know now what that means and how that feels.

When I say “I found myself” I really mean I found myself. I was testing my limits – there was an instructor on another wire behind me and people ahead of and behind me. But I felt like it was all up to me – which it was. I had to move and pass the rope with care to the person behind me.

And I could have sat this one out and watched other people scrabbling around the high ropes course, but I couldn’t let myself and my team down.

I was so incredibly relieved to get to the end of the wire – and so proud of myself for doing it; and so heartily grateful to all the people who helped, encouraged and supported me.

You might guess that that was the beginning of testing my limits and it was; even though I don’t consider myself a thrill seeker, I like to find out what I’m capable of. I do the occasional “dangerous” thing – jump out of a plane, abseil, explore underground caverns. I like to make sure my heart’s still ticking.

Because nothing will sharpen your senses like fear!

What did I learn?

I learnt to trust myself and those around me. There are always people around me who have “got my back”.

I learnt to think about how I fit with what’s going on and to try to get beyond my own fear to help others. (This is still a work in progress – it’s pretty terrifying when all you can think of is “I might die!”.)

Above all, I learnt that if I can tackle scary things like this, I can handle pretty much anything that comes at me, in business and in life.

And so can you.

Capitalise on your Concept

Are there opportunities you could be taking advantage of that would give your business a massive lift?

Capitalise has several meanings; to secure funding or inject money into your business; realise an investment; authorise or issue stock (shareholdings)… and several other accounting terms.

Let’s explore this one: Capitalise: to take advantage of; turn something to one’s advantage.

Right now, if you know where to look, there is hidden money in your business.

Let’s go exploring…

Use your strengths

Your personality will determine your strategies:

If investing in your business was like buying property, what would you be focusing on?

A Trump Tower?
(It’ll need deep foundations and buckets of money – preferably not your own money!)

A nice little starter that you can sell to someone else?
(Great for creative types who get bored easily and have a wealth of ideas).

A renovator for a quick makeover and flip for profit?

A long-term “home” you can add value to?

Something with development potential?
Renovate or knock it down and turn it into units – think franchising, multiple business or launch your business on the stock market.

What next?

Once you’ve decided on the best strategy for YOU as a business owner then move on to these considerations…

If your concept is “unique” – ask yourself “Am I being realistic about this? How long would it take for someone to copy this? What would that do to my business?” AND the most important question to ask is “Can I get a good return on investment with this, relevant to the effort I need to put in?”

Does your business have depth? i.e. does it appeal to a good chunk of the market and does it have long-lasting capability (i.e. not a fad that will go out of date)

Is what you sell something that has future potential to grow? i.e. it has complimentary products or services that can be added to your range OR has the ability to do one thing really well so it can be duplicated and scaled through franchising or licensing.

Are there more opportunities to sell all you can to your current customers? i.e. how’s your up-sell and cross-sell – are customers getting all they came for and more (without employing creepy icky sales techniques)?

Are you converting enough leads and prospects into actual customers who buy from you? Regularly and predictably – and are they sending you good referrals?

Can you attract investment partners? Think “Shark Tank”. If you had to pitch your business to investors, how would you do it? What are your weak points? (For a LOT of business owners two weak points stand out: 1) the money side of their business and 2) Marketing to get more customers.

What chunk of the market do you have? How much more do you really want? Be realistic with this – one or two percent might make the world of difference. Don’t set impossible targets, just break down a big goal into manageable chunks and chip away at it.

Ultimately you need to know why any prospective customer would walk over hot coals to get to you. You’ll need to describe the uniqueness of what you offer – it MUST be significantly different to anything else that competes for your customers’ dollars.

Ultimately the questions you ask now will determine your future.

How long will your business last?

Have you ever had a brainstorming session for your business – a really deep and meaningful exploration into the outer reaches of what’s possible?

I was speaking with a woman a few nights ago who was telling me about her new business and the product she offers; what goes into it and how she packages it. She says she is the only person in Australian doing it. Now, I don’t know how much research she’d done but someone else who joined the conversation said “Oh yes, I’ve seen that in America and other countries.”

How long do you think it would take before someone else looks at it and says “We can do that, let’s copy it.”?

Given that the product was not unique and the packaging, while unusual, was not unique – not very long I’d say… And there’s another fledgling business left with nowhere to go because they hadn’t worked out how to stay ahead of the curve, and because they didn’t know how to do that.

Harsh Reality: business is tough, it’s not for everyone. Will you be a survivor?

I love to encourage new business owners, and I don’t like to burst the entrepreneurial bubble – but the reality is, if you want a sustainable business that makes consistent money and gives you plenty of satisfaction you’ll need to delve deeper into your concept.

Most new entrepreneurs can easily identify their first wave of customers – friends, family, some first degree relationships – but the second, third and subsequent waves of customers starts to get a little fuzzy. They realise this is going to take some thinking and some marketing and “gasp!” selling. And they’ll need to get to grips with money and finance.

At this point some people give up. But SOME people roll their sleeves up and get to work.

Until you have a Proven Concept with a hungry crowd already consuming products like yours (and are looking for more or better) you may just have the seed of an idea, but not an actual business.

If your business is more established, don’t get complacent. You always need to be on the front foot, testing what works, what doesn’t and be ready to make changes. Swiftly. Decisively. Intelligently.

One of the best things you can do right now is imagine how your business and your industry will be in 2 years, 5 years and 10 years’ time. If your business is based on a “fad” – and there are plenty of them – make a plan to get in quick, have some fun, make some money and exit before the fad becomes extinct.

If your business has a longer lifespan because it is in an essential market segment or it is able to grow with new technology then make some long term plans – but make sure you are flexible, agile and at least listening to the market if not predicting the future.

The trick in business is to look further that the next few months – get real about what’s possible for your business beyond where you are now.

And if you need some help with that. It could be time to “Reinvent Your Business”. Ask me how.

Connect with me on Facebook at Bright Business
https://www.facebook.com/pauline.bright.thecoach/

Ask me great questions and I’ll answer them.

If you’re an ideas person, or you need some ideas to grow your business, you’ll love next week’s blog “Capitalise on your Concept”.

Personality types and planning; what makes you do what you do?

Which best describes you?

  • “Here’s exactly what’s going to happen” planner
  • “This might work” planner
  • “I’m not sure about this bit” planner
  • “Let’s all get together to make a plan” planner
  • “I’ll plan a bit and leave the rest to the universe” planner
  • “Let’s just see what happens” planner
  • “Can someone else do this, I’m too busy” planner
  • “Just tell me what you want and I’ll do it” planner
  • “I’ll get around to it later” planner
  • “I’ve never had a plan in my life, I’m not about to start now” non-planner
  • Something I haven’t even described here or a combination of others

We’re all different – and we seem to attract people into our lives who are our opposites – thank goodness! Imagine if we were all the same… Chaos would reign; there’d be no leaders and no followers OR there’d be fights breaking out amongst people who insist on doing it their way.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by the planning or non-planning processes of your boss or partner or work colleagues, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong it just means they do things differently to you.

And if you know a little bit about DISC profiling you’ll understand that there are 4 basic personalities:

The High “D” people are dominant and driving and want to be at the front of everything, but aren’t good when it comes to details.

They make a plan where they can change, fix or control things. They need the High “C” people to handle the details and High “I” people to explain it to the team.

The High “I” people are Influential and Inspiring.

They like to be at the centre of things with lots of people around them. These people will make plans to be “popular” and are also not particularly interested in details. They need High “D” people to dive parts of the project where it gets bogged down. And they need “S” people to steadily work away at all the tasks that need doing.

The High “S” people are steady and supportive.

These are the people who like to be given a plan rather than write one. They are very good at being cooperative supportive and agreeable. Plus, they can carry the plan forward and get things done. They need High “C” people to help with the details and the “I” people to keep them connected to the larger team and the “D” to the purpose.

The High “C” people are conscientious careful and compliant.

With rules to follow, their plan will be very detailed and precise. These people need High “S” individual to help them relax a little and go with the flow – and the “D” people to drive the plan forward. “I” people can help deliver the plan to the team without them getting overwhelmed.

Of course, we are not all of one thing, we are combinations of these personality profiles but we do have a dominant personality.

Ultimately your plan needs to be your plan if you’re in a solo business. If you are planning for others consider their personality profile. Ask them what they need in a plan to fully engage with it; how much detail; who does what; who leads what and what is the benefit of the plan to the whole team.

To find out more about DISC profiling and how it can be used in your team book a 15-minute call here.