by Angela Taffs | Jun 15, 2015 | Business Success, Personal and Lifestyle
How many times each day do the same things crop up time and time again that cause your energy levels to drop, or your heart rate to rise, or a feeling of being uncomfortable engulf you?
This could be from walking into your office and seeing a pile of paperwork that needs sorting out or not knowing what needs doing next. It could be knowing that you could have to phone a particular client who you know is always difficult to deal with. Or it could just be going on social media and seeing someone who is always complaining and whose comments make you feel anxious or annoyed.
These things to others may seem trivial, but it is quite incredible what a detrimental impact they can have on you and your work.
It is about time to remove the drama and the stresses from your life once and for all and to attempt to only allow enjoyment and happiness into your day. Yes, this may seem idealistic but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
So what can you do to remove the drama and stress from your life?
Workspace stress
If it is your workspace that is getting you down, sort it out. Declutter your office, organise your files and get yourself a task planner or to-do list.
If it is the physical space itself that is getting you down such as your office not being big enough, or family walking through your home office, work externally. Either rent a hot desk for your work or if this is not practical, put a shed in your garden if there is space.
Stressful clients
If you have clients that you dread dealing with, get rid of them. Yes, you may need the income but the impact they have on you and your day may just not be worth it. The time taking putting off their call or meeting or dealing with the drama they create may be better spent finding an ideal client you can work with.
Those never-ending tasks!
If there are certain tasks that are not getting done but are clogging your headspace, block out a day for these and just get them done once and for all. Turn off all distractions and work on one at a time until complete. Or, if the particular task has been sat waiting to be done for months, how important is it really? Just delete it off your list or put on a wish list that you file away for when you are bored and have nothing else to do (haha!).
The energy drainer that is social media
As for social media, first, do a social media declutter. But what about your personal account. Take Facebook. It is amazing the detrimental effect it has on us reading other people’s negativity, anger and criticism. It subconsciously drags us down and can cause us feelings of unrest or anger ourselves. Get rid of these people from your friends list. Just delete them. But if this in itself scares you, just unfollow them. You can do this so that you remain friends but their posts will not show in your news feed.
Start to make a note of when you suddenly get that sinking feeling in your stomach, when you suddenly feel drained or the stress levels start to rise. Identify what has just made you feel like that and then do your best to eradicate the instigator from your life.
Remove the drama and I promise you that you will instantly feel better and you will regain your energy and zest for life.
Good luck.
by Angela Taffs | May 12, 2015 | Business Success, Starting a Business
When running a small business it is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking we have to start off giving things away for free in order to build our reputation. Whilst this method of building brand awareness may have some benefits, it needs to be thought through and the results measured, in a very controlled way.
Why? Because free holds no value in the mind of the recipient and by giving too much away you may be causing problems for your business. In the majority of cases I have seen, when someone gets something for free, they do not perceive and appreciate the full value that the product or service they are receiving is really worth.
I know of a couple of small businesses who have spent time creating vouchers for a massage or facial and promoted this through a competition and then the voucher hasn’t been used by the winner. A waste of time, effort and money for all involved.
I know of a lady who spent time setting up a free workshop to teach dance classes where a good number of people booked and reserved the spaces and yet only one actually turned up.
In my own line of business, there are often opportunities for fully funded business support. Whilst many people who take advantage of this truly do appreciate it, there are those who have the mindset that free holds no value and therefore it is unlikely to be worth much to them so they fail to attend the workshops or appointments they are booked on and deprive others who would have benefited from having a place.
This is demoralising for all concerned and puts in jeopardy any future opportunities that may have been in the pipeline.
But why is this? Because no matter what the price of the thing that has been received, if it is given away for free, subconsciously that product or service is worthless to the recipient. During some research on this subject, I came across many examples of this.
The psychological effect of free
One was a person who had received a book worth hundreds of pounds for free (they didn’t enlighten me on the actual book as it must have been quite special for this amount of money!). On the same day, they made a purchase of a book on Amazon for £10. And which did they read? The one they had paid for. Because this had been paid for with their hard earned cash they perceived its value as higher than the one they had received for free. Crazy huh? But true.
With free workshops and funded support, maybe people don’t turn up because they think there is a catch. Otherwise, why would it be put on for free? That word ‘free’ has such a negative effect on us psychologically.
So if you are a small business owner considering a free offer, think carefully if you can really afford to put this offer on. What is it going to cost you to run the promotion and provide the free offer? Can you afford to lose this money?
If you go ahead, measure the results very carefully. I do not have exact figures to provide you with but from research have discovered that an incredibly small percentage of people who receive a free offer will ever go on to purchase at full price in the future. These people tend to be bargain hunters and so just sit tight until another freebie comes along. They are not your target audience so do you really want to waste time dealing with them? Unfortunately, they have the attitude that free holds no value to them.
And if you are the recipient of a free offer, think twice before accepting. If you don’t see the value and have no intention of using the freebie, let it go to someone who may be more appreciative
by Angela Taffs | May 5, 2015 | Business Success
Well, that was a newsletter fiasco I would rather not repeat!
After messing up with new styles and RSS feeds and getting it all wrong, I (quite understandably) had a few unsubscribes. I totally get that a few people were fed up with having a number of jumbled up emails hit their inbox.
Why I was glad to lose subscribers
So what did I do? I could have gone and cried in a darkened room, but instead I realised a couple of lessons. Firstly, stop striving for perfection. There was nothing wrong with my previous layout but I was trying to achieve something better once again. What I should have done was leave this until I had the time to put to getting it right and not trying to fit it into an already stretched schedule.
Secondly, the people who unsubscribed were not my ideal client. Particularly the one who sent me a quite cutting comment. Yes, they really felt the need to do so! They pointed out my ineffectiveness and their irritation at getting less than satisfactory content.
This could have upset me, but instead I realised I was lucky to have had the chance to filter them out of my email list. I doubt these people would have ever bought from me and if they had, I suspect they would have been moaners and whingers. If they are that intolerant of a couple of emails that did not quite live up to expectation and were wholly unable to accept an apology, then they really are not the sort of people I want to do business with.
We all make mistakes
We all make mistakes. And if we don’t, as was said to me many moons ago, we are not trying hard enough.
[Tweet “If we don’t make mistakes, we are not trying hard enough”]
So the people I want to work with are those of you that have stuck with me and in particular, the lovely kind people who took the time out to message me and tell me not to worry and how much you enjoy reading my newsletters each time they are sent. You are fabulous people and you make what I do worthwhile.
So if you ever mess up, apologise for your mistake and move on. Those that stick with you are worth your efforts, and those that don’t, just aren’t worth your time or trouble.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 21, 2015 | Business Success, Sales and Marketing
How often have you been in negotiations with a prospect who then thanks you for your time but decides not to make a purchase? Quite a few I suspect.
But what do you do in this situation? Do you just thank them and ask them to get in touch if they are interested in the future? If so, you may be wasting a valuable opportunity!
Apply this customer research technique to increase future sales
When a prospect declines to buy, ask them why. Now this doesn’t have to be confrontational so they feel as though they have offended you. It can be done in a very gentle customer research type of manner that makes the prospect feel valued and will give you a far greater insight into how to achieve future sales than anything else out there.
Simply ask the prospect what would have prompted them to buy from you today. Ask them what you could have done differently.
Some people may be too embarrassed to tell you the price is too high or the product not good enough so may say something like ‘I just can’t afford it at the moment’ or if you are a service industry, ‘I don’t have time at the moment’.
This is where you can then start to do some gentle drilling down to find out the real reason they haven’t bought from you and what you can do about it.
They can’t afford it
If they say they can’t afford it, ask them if they would buy if you gave a discount or offered flexible payment terms. If they still say no, you know that price isn’t the real reason they didn’t buy and something else is stopping them. Say to them something along the lines of ‘so price doesn’t seem to be the real issue and I feel something else is missing for you in what I am offering. If the price was right, what could I offer that would make you want to purchase today?’
It’s not the right time
If they use the time excuse, ask them when they think the time will be right for them, how much time they think they need etc. Ask them the question ‘so if I call you in two months’ time will you be making a purchase then?’ If they say maybe or they will think about it at that point, again, time is not the real reason and you need to ask the same question as previously of ‘so time doesn’t seem to be the real issue and I feel something else is missing for you in what I am offering. If the timing was right, what could I offer that you would like to purchase today?’
Hopefully, you get my drift and you will find different questions and adapt them to your business and answers given. It can take practice to get this right but if you can do it, this valuable customer research will really help you find out so much more about people’s needs and wants and how your product or service can fulfil those. You can then change your offering to attract more sales in the future.
All through the questioning make sure you keep an easy conversational style rather than conducting an interrogation and make sure the prospect knows that there is no pressure to buy but that they will really be helping you with your future business offering. Maybe you would like to give them a small token of appreciation for co-operating such as a voucher for future use or a small gift or taster session.
Be brave. Give it a go. And let me know how you get on with this style of customer research in the comments box below or over on the Facebook page.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 14, 2015 | Business Success, Sales and Marketing
Do you struggle with pricing your product or service?
There is a saying that ‘People look for the cheapest price when there is nothing else on offer’. And that is why I try to get people to not compete on price when starting up their business.
When I talk to people looking to start up their business, or who are in their first couple years of trading, and I ask them why customers will choose them over the competition, so many tell me because they are the cheapest.
And this is when alarms bells start ringing for me. If price is the only thing you can compete on, you will find yourself a busy fool with customers that nobody else wants.
Make sure you charge the right price
If people only bought on price why would we have such a range of cars on the roads at vastly differing prices? A Robin Reliant gets from A to B in exactly the same way as a top of the range BMW. But the BMW has reputation, trust, additional comfort and reliability that people will pay for. Why do some people buy a tee shirt for £9.99 in M&S when they could get an almost identical one in Primark for £1.99? Is it the customer service and better layout of items?
Find something of value to offer in your business and charge the correct rate for your products or services. If you don’t, the competition can quite easily wipe your business out by simply offering a price match or doing a heavy discount for a period of time that you simply can’t match.
Having something of value to make you stand out doesn’t have to be a material item. It can be a small, simple step you have in your business that can make a big difference to the customer that makes them remember you.
Uniqueness and value are perceptions so it could be something as simple as a follow-up phone call to ask if the customer is happy with their purchase. It could be a daily or weekly email (dependent upon what you are selling) as to how their order is progressing. It could be a tiny thing such as including a small length of ribbon and a gift tag if you know your product is being purchased as a present.
Remember, it is the unexpected things that influence us and that we remember. These things will have far more impact on our future buying decisions than having the cheapest price.
So make sure you charge the right price for your products and services and don’t sell yourself short.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 7, 2015 | Business Success, Running a Business
Do you have the mindset of a successful business owner or are you just playing around hoping that things will miraculously just drop into place for you?
Too many times I come across those who tell me they are running a small business whilst complaining that they are not getting the results they want. They blame everything from the economy to marketing just not working for them down to customers just not understanding them. But really?
What is the real reason that your business is not gaining clients and generating income?
So many times during discussions, I find these people are not treating their business as a business but are just doing ad hoc work here and there when it suits them. They play with their business when they feel in the mood and if they don’t get instant results, go off and do something more interesting instead.
I work with these people and help them set out plans and goals for the month ahead to start moving things forward. Heads always nod enthusiastically and then when we next catch up these plans haven’t even been started upon, let alone achieved. It is incredible that the same excuses come up time after time.
- I wasn’t well
- I had to take my dog/cat to the vet
- I had a lot going on in my personal life last month
I am sorry, and I know there are some genuine cases out there, but these really are pitiful excuses. If this resonates with you, do you really mean to say that you were ill all month? Did you have to take your dog to the vet every day? Did you really let your personal life take over your business efforts? Emergencies do happen, but these should be factored into your business and a back-up plan put in place to deal with these.
Have you ever been in employment? If so, do you think the CEO or MD managed to run the business and pay their staff with the excuses and lack of performance you are allowing yourself to get away with? Do you think if they took time off every day to deal with personal situations they would have held on to their job? No. I didn’t think so.
Change your mindset and start to think like a successful business owner.
Stop playing around and decide if it is a truly successful business you want or just a hobby that will fit in when you feel like it. Change your mindset and start to think like a business owner.
As fired up and enthused as you may be about creating your own business, it will take hard work, commitment and personal investment on your own part along with self-responsibility for making things happen.
As John Barney stated in a past article on why many quit their business, being your own boss is tough and comes with its own pitfalls such as not having anyone to be accountable to and telling you what to do. This is one of the reasons that many start their own business but soon discover they need to be given constant direction as they lack the necessary work motivation to get the job done.
To build a successful business you will need to be able to motivate yourself to do work that you do not always enjoy and that does not bring instant results. To be able to succeed, you will need a strong inner drive, work ethic and a laser focus. Sadly too many people I meet lack these characteristics which are needed to accomplish the success they are looking for.
[Tweet “To build a successful business you will need to motivate yourself to do work you don’t always enjoy & doesn’t bring instant results”]
If you truly want to succeed and have a business to be proud of, start to act like a business owner now.
- Set out your goals and specific plans to achieve them and put them into action.
- Prepare for the unexpected and emergencies and have a plan in place of how you are going to be able to cover these where possible.
- Set yourself out strict working hours and sit down and work!!
- Sort out your priorities and get them done.
Because if you don’t, you won’t have a business. And there will be no-one to blame but yourself.
Need more help?
If you really do want to put those plans into action but need some help, join the member’s club today. As part of your membership, you will be able to take advantage of the Time Management business builder video tutorial along with all the accompanying planners, templates and action plans to turn you into a successful business owner.
