by Angela Taffs | Mar 30, 2022 | Running a Business, Sales and Marketing
Lost in communication
A word of caution and why emails can be bad for communication.
I sent an email yesterday and was stunned to find that someone took offence to it. When we discussed it, they had read it in a completely different way from what it was intended.
They had read what was meant as a supportive sentence as an accusatory one. I felt sick to the stomach that I had unintentionally upset them. But when we had a phone conversation to find out what went wrong, it was like a light bulb came on in both our heads.
We had both read exactly the same words but read them in a completely way due to the way we read them.
Thankfully, all was sorted out but do be aware of how our words come across and that the written word can be lost in communication.
What I mean by that is each person who reads it may glean a different understanding of what you have written depending on which word they put the inflection on.
Here’s a classic example. Take the following sentence which contains seven words:
I never said she stole money
Now read it putting the inflection on a different word each time and see how the meaning of the same sentence changes. It can be read with a different meaning in seven different ways!
- I never said she stole my money. This means they are stressing it was someone else who accused her. Not them.
- I never said she stole my money. This means they are stressing they never ever said that.
- I never said she stole my money. This means they never actually accused her of stealing money, or that they actually wrote it instead of speaking.
- I never said she stole my money. This means they never said it was the girl who stole the money, but someone else stole it.
- I never said she stole my money. This means they never said she explicitly stole it, but did something else with it like borrowed it.
- I never said she stole my This means they are stressing it was someone else’s money she stole, not theirs.
- I never said she stole my money. This means it wasn’t money she stole, but something else.
Their understanding could also differ depending upon what mood they are in. If they are feeling grumpy, they may read it in a negative manner. I know I have had to pull myself up before when I’ve been rushed and stressed and about to react negatively to a message. When I take a few deep breaths and re-read it, I have a totally different perspective.
If you have something important to say, pick up the phone or use a voice app. It may just save a very awkward situation.
Have you had an experience with emails causing bad communication? Share your experience in the comments below.
by Angela Taffs | Mar 16, 2022 | Business Success, Sales and Marketing
Have you been losing customers and not sure why?
If you’ve been losing customers, maybe it’s because you have been breaking promises you cannot keep.
“What?” I hear you exclaim! Me? Break promises? Never!
Well good on you if you don’t because I have discovered there are far too many out there who do. And I bet they are losing numerous customers because of it without even realising.
You can have the best product or service on the market and exactly what your customer is looking for, but if you let them down during the customer journey they will walk.
Over the past couple of months, I have been promised numerous things from thank you gifts for completing surveys, to information sheets following up treatments to trial samples of products. These are the small things you think may not matter. But if they fail to be delivered they matter a lot! The potential customer loses faith in your ability to look after them.
And then there are the bigger ticket items where a potential customer has asked for a quote. You promise to get it to them within 48 hours and two weeks later they are still waiting!
At first, I wondered if it was just me. But then I started to notice a few times on social media where someone had run a promotion, promised to send the prize to the winner, but had failed to do so. The winner had turned from being delighted to being somewhat snarky and having to ask publicly when they were going to receive their prize.
And I’m seeing more and more on social media and hearing first-hand of people who have been let down.
And I have to be honest when someone promises me something that I haven’t asked for I am delighted and excited. But when the said item fails to materialise, I feel a little narked. Why did they bother offering anything in the first place? And if I’ve expressed an interest in buying from them and asked for a price or samples to try before I buy, if I get radio silence in return rather than what I was promised, I get seriously miffed and vow never to use them again.
Get organised and stop losing customers
Before you go making quick off the cuff promises to impress, think carefully if you can actually deliver on your promise. And if you can, get organised!! Carry a notebook or diary at all times and write down what you have promised to do. And then do it!
If you don’t keep your promises, you could well be losing customers. In fact, I almost guarantee it.
I purchased from a lady recently and was fully prepared to buy again. When chatting with her she promised to send me a free gift to try first. When it failed to arrive, I felt that she didn’t really care about my custom and didn’t really care if I went back and purchased again or not. So, I didn’t. And I am sourcing someone else to buy from.
I could give you a shedload of other examples from buying a car, a new kitchen, new flooring, a holiday, a spa day and the list goes on.
If you don’t keep up your end of the bargain, buyers will lose trust in you. They won’t believe that you will be able to deliver in the future and so may take their hard-earned money elsewhere. And the knock-on of this is they will tell others how you let them down gaining you a bad reputation. A survey back in 2020 by Forbes showed that no less than 96 of customers would leave a company if they experienced bad customer service. Another survey in 2017 by American Express stated that customers who have a bad customer experience tell an average of 15 people! And I bet you it’s way more than that now with the increase in social media being used to out companies.
But the worrying thing is that whilst they are telling anyone and everyone who will listen, they may not be telling you about their unhappy experience with you. You simply don’t understand why they haven’t come back to buy. That’s if you remember them at all of course.
Stop over-promising
The interesting thing is that research shows the companies who break promises tend to be repeat offenders. This could be down to bad organisation or they are just way too busy to deliver on their promises. If you fall into this category, be honest with people and stop making those promises. You have more chance of selling to someone who isn’t expecting something you can’t deliver on.
We all know the old adage of ‘under promise and over deliver’ so stop setting unrealistic expectations and making promises you can’t keep.
Go back and look through past prospects and clients. Did you promise anything that you failed to deliver? If so, see if it’s not too late to rectify the situation and gain that trust back.
And for the future, set yourself up with a simple database. Every time you have contact with someone, go update their record and set yourself a task to do what you promised to do. It’s not rocket science.
And look on the flip side. If you do keep your promises, give great customer service and make your customers feel valued, you can create repeat customers for years to come.
by Angela Taffs | Mar 8, 2022 | Business Success, Mindset and motivation, Personal and Lifestyle
How often do you wish you overcome your self-doubt and those self-limiting beliefs so you can move forward with your business with confidence?
Quite often I suspect.
This past week alone I have spoken with a number of clients (all women I may add) who have all told me they are doubting their abilities, feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of running a business on their own and are lacking the confidence to be able to move forward.
Does this sound like you? Overcoming self-doubt is one of the top challenges faced when running your own business.
You start off guns a blazing with a fantastic idea running around in your head and the world is rosy. You are going to be a millionaire by year 3 – and then reality kicks in. Things don’t take off quite as quickly as you had hoped. The hours you have to put into your new venture are far longer than you anticipated. You feel guilty for not spending as much time with your family as you had hoped. So the self-doubt creeps in. Maybe you aren’t cut out for this after all. Maybe your fantastic idea isn’t quite as wonderful as you first thought.
How to overcome self-doubt
Firstly stop what you are doing. Stop right now!
Sit back and instead of thinking about all the things that you haven’t achieved and the things that haven’t worked, write down all the things that you have learnt along the way and how you have grown personally.
Look at all the things you have achieved, no matter how small. Take a blank piece of paper and let all your thought spill out into written words. Get them out of your head where they are swirling around and on to that piece of paper. Then take one thing at a time and work out how you are going to get back on track.
This may be re-evaluating a time frame for getting that event off the ground. It may be changing the way you are marketing your business as what you are doing at the moment is just not working. It may be a realisation that you need external help as you really cannot cover every aspect of the business on your own. Take some time to re-plan and regain your focus. Then put some practices in place on a daily basis to help keep you on track.
- Each day, write down 3 things that you are grateful for. This will help you focus on what you do have in your life that is working well and will help you stop focusing on the negative.
- Read a chapter of a motivational book each day or listen to an audio. This can be a great way of keeping inspired and finding new ways to keep motivated.
- Find a mentor, whether on a professional basis or a friend you can turn to when sometimes all you need is someone to listen and hold your hand. Find someone you trust and respect and who can help reassure you in those times of doubt.
Whatever you are feeling, remember that you are not alone. Self-doubt is a normal process that happens to everyone at every level of success. Take some time out, refocus on the positive, then pick yourself up and move that tiny step forward towards your goal.
If you would like help with your mindset and motivation, access the modules available in The Small Business Kit.
by Angela Taffs | Feb 16, 2022 | Sales and Marketing, Social media
Are you overwhelmed with your social media?
How to use social media for business is a much sought after answer for so many starting and growing their business. There are now so many social media channels to choose from and each has its own characteristics and best practice rules.
If you are frustrated and overwhelmed with your social media efforts you’re not alone! In my Absolutely Fabulous Business Women group recently, when I asked a question about social media, so many were tinkering with it but unsure what they were doing.
Comments varied from:
“I use it but I loathe it!”
“I use Facebook and Instagram but I don’t know how to use them properly”
“There’s so much to learn”
“I dip into Insta but don’t really understand it tbh.”
“I don’t understand it”
“I’m always concerned my posts and pictures are not good enough quality so it puts me off posting.”
But help is at hand!!
How to use social media for business guide
If you’re unsure how to use social media for business, there is a fabulous guide available.
Huge thanks go to Mapp Marketing who has let us have their Social Media Best Practice Guide – for FREE!
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with social media to the point you actually give up.
But, with a proper strategy, you can quickly nail your social media and use it to help hit your larger business goals – because that’s really what it’s all about.
As Francesca from Mapp Marketing says “It’s no good having social media accounts for your brand if you’re only posting photos of your cat or your latest meal.
Your followers want to see your latest cool product or hear about how your new service is going to change their life.”
Download this how-to use social media for business guide for FREE and get a walkthrough of the basics of a strong, consistent, on-brand social media presence.
This guide is perfect for anyone starting out in social media, as well as for businesses who feel their social content has gone a bit stale.
You’ll get straight-talking, simple advice which you can put into practice today, plus real examples from social media accounts that are killing it (don’t worry, they don’t all have millions of followers).
Download your guide now and if you need any hands-on help or advice, get in contact with Francesca at Mapp Marketing or contact me for further help.
by Angela Taffs | Jan 27, 2022 | Starting a Business
If you have a day job and want to go self-employed, how do you make the transition from being employed to leaving and going full time into your own business?
This can be such a difficult one to answer but affects so many trying to juggle the security of a day job and the desire to run their own business.
On a personal level, I decided to make the jump and left my career to start my own business as I was in the position to fund the business myself for the first few years. Yes, I admit, over the years when things have been tough, I’ve wondered whether I made the right decision. But 99.9% of the time, I am happy I made the jump. It took me a good few years to become financially viable enough to draw a full-time wage but this was offset in the early days of being my own boss, choosing my working hours and where I worked from.
But you don’t have to make the jump as drastically as I did. This will depend upon your current career and what business you are planning to set up, but many clients I have worked with have decided to go self-employed and start their business in their spare time and then moved to working part-time in employment whilst building the business. It takes time but can work better financially if you have some steady income still coming in.
Why do you want to go self-employed?
One key thing that can help you decide is to think carefully about ‘WHY’ you want to go self-employed and start your own business.
If you don’t know what your ‘WHY’ is start by making a list of reasons you want to start your own business.
Common reasons are:
- To have a flexible lifestyle that puts you in control of your life
- Better work life/balance
- More time with family and friends
- You choose when and where you work
- You are passionate about your product and service and know how much it can help others
- To be paid on the effort you put in – you take all the profit yourself
- To remove stress, frustration, and unhappiness in your current job
It can also be useful to list the reasons ‘WHY’ you want to leave your current career. Again, common reasons are:
- Not feeling valued
- Unhappy at work with long/restrictive hours
- Frustration that you know the job could be done better but you are tied by company policy
- Undue stress due to workload
- Bad management, unhappy with co-workers etc
- Feeling short changed with your salary compared to the effort you put in
By writing these things down it can help you get clear on why you really want to go self-employed and give you the motivation to take that first step.
There isn’t a perfect answer and it will be different for everyone, but here are a few ideas to help get you towards making that first step to go self-employed.
Give yourself a deadline to go self-employed
Firstly, set yourself a deadline of when you want to leave your employment and make that jump into self-employment. If you don’t, the security blanket of a monthly wage may just hold you back from ever making the leap.
Give long term notice
If it is possible, give your employer long term notice. Let them know you are wanting to set up on your own but don’t want to let them down and they may just be understanding (as long as you’re not going into competition with them). It’s a win for you as you now have your deadline and need to build your own business to sustain you by the time you leave and it’s a win for them as they have longer to find a suitable replacement and get them trained up.
Go part time
If possible go part-time. No, it’s not always possible and your employer may not be too keen if they get wind you are setting up something of your own, but if you don’t ask you don’t get!
Take up temporary work
Make the decision to leave your employment but line up some temporary work for 6 months somewhere else to help the finances whilst you get off the ground. Look for maternity cover positions which would be an ideal timescale for this option.
Start saving
If you can save up enough to cover your outgoings for six to 12 months, this will help provide that much needed financial buffer that you need. Having 6 months of savings and also getting systems in place so your time can be spent finding clients and not getting it ‘off the ground’ will be worth its weight in gold.
Cash in on savings
Do you have any savings pots, pension funds, long-hidden premium bonds etc that you are willing to cash in to support your business financially in the early days? If you do and you are not prepared to cash them in, I have to ask the question how committed are you to your business and do you really believe in it. Harsh yes, but when I hear women say they need that money in case the business fails, they are already admitting defeat.
Take a holiday
This is a holiday in the loosest sense of the word. What I mean is take a holiday but work your butt off to see how many clients you can get during this time. Book appointments in advance if you are in the service sector. See how much money you make. Try to get these clients to book repeat sessions and to recommend you. This ‘holiday’ may just make you realise what you could do if you took the leap of faith and went for it.
Take the leap of faith
Yes, you have to be brave for this one but sometimes you simply have to do it. It will be a sink or swim situation but there is nothing like not having that security of employment to get you focused to bring the money in,
Get support when you have decided to finally go self-employed
If you need any help or support in taking that first step, or in setting up your business, get in touch now. Email me at co*****@********fs.com, let me know what you are planning and I’ll send you something to help.
