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Tips to kick start your business after the summer break

Wondering where the summer has gone and why your business is sluggish?

Beating yourself up for spending more time with the children than with your customers?

Hey, stop it! The school holidays are a time of fun and pleasure. Family time to savour and enjoy. I’m sure you’ve been keeping the business ticking over. It’s fine. Let’s look forwards not back 🙂

Ready to kick start your business?

If you’re anything like me, your business has taken a bit of a back seat amongst the juggling of the summer holidays. Even though my boys are teenagers, (eldest starts college next week), and I don’t have to “look after” them, they are still a distraction whilst they’re at home.

Whilst you’ve been keeping customers happy and doing some marketing over the summer, I’m sure that now it’s come to back to school time, you’re wanting to really grab your business by it’s business plan and focus focus focus. Am I right?

Here’s some tips to get you started back on track with growing your business:

  • Be clear about what you want to achieve. I know, you hear this all the time. But it’s still true! If you don’t know what you want, how can you achieve it? Your plans may have altered, so write things down so you’re clear about your new focus.
  • Write down clear goals for the next 6 months to focus on. How many products do you want to sell? How many clients a week are you wanting to serve? How many events do you want to attend?
  • Know how much time you’ve got to spend on your business. After school clubs may change. School times may be different if your children are moving to a new school. When’s half term? Are you taking holiday? What activities are you already committed to at weekends?
  • Do you have time limited events already committed to e.g. Christmas stalls, training days Ensure they’re in your schedule. Work backwards from each fixed date to ensure you get all the work done you need to make the most of that particular activity.
  • Tell your family and friends what you want to achieve. If you don’t have the right support, you’ll feel guilty for working in your business. If they know they will support you. Is there anything they can do to help you?
  • Book time out for you & having fun. Whilst the summer holidays may be behind us, you need to ensure you continue to have regular downtime to recharge your batteries. If you’ve learnt nothing else from the summer, taking time for you gives you space to think about what’s important.

What tips would you add? Leave a comment below.

Join the Free Kick Start your Business Challenge

Business Kick Start Challenge

In the Business Cheerleading Club this summer we supported each other with a Stay on Track Challenge. It really helped business owners keep their businesses moving, even though they were often busy and juggling lots of other commitments as well. So, we thought we’d do a quick challenge to get your business kick started.

Starting Monday 3rd September, each day you’ll need to commit 20 minutes to do one task each day. That’s it. I’m confident that this little 20 minute focus will give you and your business the kick start you need this autumn.

It’s free to join, and you’ll get all the support you need in the free online group to do whatever it is you need to do, or get help with, to take those first steps in September. No catch. Just commit, show up, do the tasks and ask for help. For 5 days. Sound like a plan?

Join us here for the Kick Start your Business Challenge: 

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Keep on keeping on

“I can, therefore I am.” Simone Weil

keep on keeping onAre you seeing all your hard work and efforts starting to pay off this year? I am. Both personally, for my family and my business.

None more so than for my eldest son this weekend. It was his national championships for his sport. He’s 16 years old and after some wobbles at the end of last year when he was working out if he even liked the sport any more, (as he’s been doing it for about 8 years now), he’s been focused on doing as well as he could in these championships.

He’s worked hard, and has stuck to his goal, through injury and recovery. Through his school work, which he put time and effort into as well. And he’s always listened to the advice his coaches have given him. He’s learnt, he’s tweaked, he’s put time in to his personal and physical development. The mantra “Keep on keeping on” has been very much in my mind watching and supporting him this year, with all the ups and downs.

His performance this weekend is what some may talk about as “solid”. There was nothing spectacular. Yes, he got some personal bests in a few of his 10 events (he does Decathlon), and he was close to his others. He had his highlights and some disappointments over the weekend. But he kept going. He focused on his own game rather than that of those he was competing against. We didn’t know it, but at the end of the 9th event he’d jumped from 7th to 4th, heading into the final 1500m. He didn’t know it either. That was interesting to me. He was so focused on his own personal performance that he didn’t need to know where he was or what others were doing around him. He concentrated on running his own race (the best he’s ever run it, not in time, just in technique), and finished the end of the weekend 4th in the UK. Wow. Just saying that makes me have goose bumps! Yes, I’m blown away by his talent.

But more importantly, what it showed was that his steady weekly tasks and progress all add up to something very special in the end. Yes, the other 19 boys who completed the event are all amazing. They have to learn and commit to practising 10 different events, whilst they do their school work, and have friends and other interests. But they focus on the end goal. And stick to it. They don’t let a little wobble in one event affect them overall (OK, some do, but that’s where those who get to the top manage this much better).

Just like our businesses are made up of many different moving parts, so a decathlete needs to manage their training, nutrition, rest, recovery, mental strength to get the result they want. If one part isn’t quite right it affects the rest of our business. If you’re not happy, or committed to what you’re doing it affects the whole thing!

Keep on keeping on – what does that mean for you?

Do you have one part of your business which isn’t working for you right now? Something which doesn’t feel quite right? What is it? Just be honest and say, “OK, this isn’t working right now, what are my options?” Do you feel that you’ve been keeping on yet nothing is working for you? Are you being consistent with your work, or are you jumping around all over the place trying different things out, and you’re not ready to keep on keeping on just yet?

If you’d like help exploring your options, feel free to book a 20 minute free Explore Call, or join the Business Cheerleading Club and get the help of other business owners to explore with you.

I’d love to hear how you Keep on Keeping on and what results you’ve seen personally, or professionally. Leave a comment below.

If you’d like Monday Thoughts, and our weekly business tips delivered direct to your inbox, you can sign up here:

 

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How to use live video for growing your business

You’ve probably heard that using live video in your business could help you engage with your customer. They can get to know you better through your conversation or showing what you do in your business.

But many business owners are scared by live video, so simply don’t do it. I’ve heard the following reasons excuses for not doing live video. How do these sound to you?

  • nobody wants to know what I do
  • I’m not very photogenic
  • I don’t have a video camera / the right lighting / the right microphone

Really? Your customers don’t want to know what you do? Why on earth not? If they want to buy from you, why wouldn’t they want to know more?

And the others? Well, I guess you have a mobile phone or computer as you’re reading this? Who says you’re not photogenic?

live video tips by alice andreatIn my interview with Alice Andreat, she gives some great tips to get started with live video.

You can see from this photo that she’s an expert, and I’m still in learning phase for live video! She was so kind when she said “you are the light Tracey-Jane” 😉

 

Live video tips to take the fear away

  1. Use the equipment you’ve already got when you’re starting out. Your smartphone has lots of tools, and if it has a camera, you can record and share live video from it
  2. Choose the platform which you’re most comfortable with. If you use LinkedIn, use their video function; if Facebook is your preferred place to be, use their livestream; if you’re constantly on Instagram use Instagram stories to share your video
  3. Improve your lighting by getting natural light lightbulbs. Alice herself uses 2 unshaded lamps on either side of her camera, at about eye level. This is important for preventing shading on your face. For those of us with glasses this helps reduce the glare off your glasses
  4. Practice before going live. You can create a secret group on Facebook and practice, practice, practice there. Practice on any topic you like. If you have a safe place to share, like the Business Cheerleading Club support group, practice in the group and get feedback from members.
  5. Test your audio before you start. My first ever live facebook interview will go down in history as a classic case of this! I thought the audience could hear me, even though my guest couldn’t. Ooops! It’s actually a brilliant #tipsforbusiness video as Carrie Eddins gives some excellent PR tips for getting you started which is why you can still watch it! 😉
  6. Stay a bit more the right on your screen and look at the camera, not the image on the screen. It’s hard and this takes practice, but it’s worth trying out and seeing what works for you
  7. Generally use your phone in landscape mode as most platforms prefer this format. It also makes it a better “look” when you download the video and use in other content.

Want to learn more about using Live Video?

Join our online workshop Friday 10th August 11am BST where Alice from Fabulous with Alice will give some more practical live video tips in an interactive workshop. She’ll be focusing on ways you can use live video without being on camera. Sound like something which would help you get going with video in your business?

It’s free to Business Cheerleading Club members (level silver or above), or you can join us for £29 for the one off workshop. This includes the recording. LINK TO FOLLOW MESSAGE ME IF YOU WANT THIS.

What tips would you add for getting started with live video in a business?

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Why conversation is important to us

I love talking and meeting people and having a conversation. It helps the world go round, don’t you think?

If you don’t have a conversation with your client, how will you know what they want, and if you’re the right business to serve them?

How do find the right supplier, or negotiate the right deal for your business? You have to have a conversation.

I was looking at ways to help business owners learn tips and tricks to improve you improve your time management, or learn how to do something. I know you don’t have much time to go searching for what’s right for you. There’s so many courses and tutorials and youtube videos available, but what’s going to work for you?

Conversation with experts

in conversation with Sarah Arrow blogging for business tipsLast week I decided to have conversations with some experts I know in different areas of business, and personal development. My goal is to spend no longer than 30 minutes with the expert – they’re busy and so are you – getting a couple of #tipsforbusiness owners from them from our conversation.

I love learning, and spend a lot of time reading, and watching tutorials and webinars. But I’m sometimes left with more questions than I started with! I want to ask “what does that mean for me?”, “how do I do that in my situation?”. So, this way, I can do the asking!

We’re carrying out these conversations on our Facebook page as a live interview. So they’re free for anyone to watch, and ask questions during the conversation (or in advance if you can’t come live). We’ve created quite a list in a short space of time, and are now getting experts booked in for conversations in April. It’s wonderful how so many people are wanting to share their tips with others so we can all learn and do better in our lives and business.

Every conversation is recorded and will be available afterwards. For our Cheerleading Club members, they’ll have them in the club resource centre. We’ll also be putting them on our YouTube Channel, and of course on the Facebook page, so hopefully they’ll be easy for you to find what you need.

What would you like to learn from a conversation

So whilst I’ve started learning and having amazing conversations with fantastic people, we’d like to hear what you would like to learn from a conversation with….Who? Who would you like to have a conversation with?

If we can all have more conversations with each other, we’re bound to understand each other better, learn more, and help each other more aren’t we, and grow all areas of our business too?

That’s a dream I’m having at the moment.

Join our conversations & let’s grow together. A full list of our events is here on our Events Page.

 

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Getting organised Tips

When we’re trying to juggle lots of things, the most important thing to ensure we get things done, is to get organised.

Many of us use online organisers and notebook systems, like Evernote, or google calendar, (yes, we’re an android/google house here) to manage reminders of tasks, meetings, and capture information for using in the future.

I’m personally a fan of writing things down. It helps me remember things I need to do, and process those things into pockets of time, or slots in my head and then my diary. My friend recently bought me a “List Book” with sticky notes, and list pages which has been perfect for the way I work.

We’ll look at CRM systems, (Customer relationship management), in the future. Today is just about the basics.

 

Getting organised tips

Whilst this isn’t an exhaustive list, it should help you work out a system for you, and your team, to get organised and get the tasks completed on time:

  • Have a diary which is accessible to your team and/or family and ALL use it. If you use a hard copy and an online calendar, make sure they are the same at least once a week.
  • Have one, yes one, To Do list. The master copy if you like. Ideally break this down into smaller tasks, and have headings for each part of the business or family life it affects e.g. Finances, Website, Customer service, Shopping.
  • From the To Do list, prioritise one thing each week from each heading.
  • Create a weekly activity planner and add your priorities into this planner. Ensure the planner has all your meetings, time out, children’s activities and dentist appointments in it, so you have slots of time to schedule your tasks into.
  • If you manage a team of people, assign tasks from the priority lists with the day and time they need completing. Set reminders on your phone/calendar to follow up the work has been completed.
  • If you use an online task planner, at the end of each day, update it.
  • Using a paper planner, cross things off as you do them.
  • If a task hasn’t been completed, ensure you write it on another day’s planner to complete, or assign to a team member with the deadline for completion
  • Don’t beat yourself up if the tasks don’t get done because of an unexpected emergency. Simply reschedule & update customers, if it may affect them. Customers are humans too, and whilst we do our best to complete work on time, life does sometimes get in the way. They usually understand if they’re made aware at the earliest point in time

What are your getting organised tips to make this work around the house and in your business?

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