Time is the one commodity we don’t get back and we shouldn’t waste it. Here are five ways to make sure you can deliver a sales pitch with impact.

You have competition, less talented, less qualified and less experienced than you and your team, that are winning because they are just getting stuff out there!

A pause can feel like you’re stalling.  Worrying that taking time out to restructure or rethink will lose you momentum, that competitors will pull ahead, that your business is in trouble.  In reality, it’s often the opposite – trust the process.

Tired of doing it all yourself? Discover why your business can’t outgrow you and how self-leadership is the key to real freedom and team success.

When you picture a successful small business owner, you often see the trappings of success, the nice house, the car, the holidays abroad etc.  What you don’t see is the cost behind the curtain.

Promoting the wrong person can often drain your finances and morale due to lost productivity, disengaged teams and missed deadlines.  It eats up time, energy and focus you don’t have.  Does “Why can’t they just do the job I pay them to?” sound familiar?

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of speaking at the inaugural West Yorkshire Conference, run by We Are Wakefield.  I was part of an expert panel being interviewed on ‘Developing leadership skills’.

Could Mentoring be the catalyst for the UK’s next generation of business leaders? 🚀

About time the UK caught up with our friends over the pond.

Hi Gary

How to drive your business forward

This week Gem and I went to the Lakes for a couple of days to bond and to scope out some event venues.  As part of the mini trip, we looked at various outdoor activities that we could do.

Axe throwing was full, Archery - neither of us confessed to being Robin Hood, quad biking didn’t appeal due to the rain, so we plumped for a 4x4 off road driving experience in a Land Rover.

We’ve all been there, you’ve had a very busy day but got absolutely nothing done.  No matter how many hours you work, the to-do list always gets longer not shorter.  AAARGH!!

One of the questions I get asked by clients is “How do you get through so much work whilst running three growing businesses?”.

I don’t think USPs exist as they did.  The reality is that there is always another business out there doing what you do with better credentials, greater experience, and more qualifications.

So how do you compete in a crowded market?

One of the biggest headaches I hear about when chatting to small business owners is that “I can’t seem to find a team that cares as much as I do!”

“I may as well do it myself!” is a common phrase I hear and there is nothing more frustrating than working longer hours after your team has disappeared for the day.

This time last week we were in the middle of running a Masterclass for some of our VIP clients, contacts and selected guests.

The day was split into five, to help those that attended to develop their future business goals & build out a plan.

For a majority of business owners, the lead-time or burn time as I call it is typically three to four months.  This is the average time from a (qualified) prospect engaging with you and them placing the order. So, when you have a poor sales month, it is rarely what you did or didn’t do this month.  It is what you did or didn’t do three to four months ago. Here are the usual reasons why:

I get asked this question many times by small business owners who have their head in their hands and are at their wits end in terms of feeling overwhelmed, being trapped and they have lost their mojo. This status isn’t sustainable.

In order for you to increase revenue in a sustained and controlled way, there are three strategies you must adopt.

From the many businesses I chat with, most don’t execute all three and often, the ones they do adopt are the wrong ones.  

As a result, they are constantly chasing their tail and working hard to back fill the business they are losing.

Here are the three strategies in the order they should be adopted:

You will have heard me talk about the fact that systems run the business and people run the systems.  If the systems are robust and the people follow the systems, it should provide you a platform to be more efficient, profitable, repeatable and deliver best in class service levels.

There are many benefits of engaging with a Business Mentor from tapping into their experience, them holding you to account or just having them being there to listen (more on this in a future issue) when it’s lonely and you need to chat things through.

Processes run the business, people run the processes. Unfortunately, many businesses large and small get this so wrong.
Poor customer service leads to clients chipping at price or leaving and you lose the referral stream from them.
Last week I was on the receiving end of some extremely poor customer service. A combination of processes that don't put the customer first and people that really do not care.
Here's what happened...

I sat with a new client this week who was struggling with her mojo. She had lost her confidence and was caught in a tail spin. She had asked for my support. As part of the process to de-construct what she was doing before re-building, I asked a simple question…