What did you say?!!

Another Top Business Tip – Why not listen? What did you Say?!!

Check you language.  It’s really important not just what you say to others, but what you tell yourself too.  So check your language.  Remove words that dilute your message.  These are words like:

Try & Hope.  

I’m not interested in doing business with someone who will TRY and deliver, or HOPE to fulfill my requirements.  I want to do business with some one who delivers results.

To avoid sounding arrogant,  use the words “I believe…..” instead.

The other alternative is to just leave the word hope or try out of your sentence.  I’ll give you an example, I just received a tweet from a new follower saying:

“@Bridge101 thanks for following hopefully you’ll find it helpful and interesting”.

Compare that against:

“@Bridge101 thanks for following, you’ll find it helpful and interesting”.

OR

“@Bridge101 thanks for following I believe you’ll find it helpful and interesting”.

Which one do you have least confidence in?

Small changes, but massive difference.

It’s one of the most powerful ways that you can make small changes to massively impact on your life – to check your language.  As a mother I’ve always been aware that I’d like to tell my son Zach what it is I want him to do, rather than what I don’t want him to do.  I’ve been consciously thinking about this and putting it into practise since I was pregnant back in 2004.

It’s now just a couple of weeks after my sons 7th Birthday and even though I still can find myself saying “Don’t do that…..”  I manage to get in quite a few, “Can you do this please….” in too.

So we recognise that just because a change is small, just because a change is simple, it doesn’t mean to say that it’s easy.  It will require lots of work, consistently, but the benefits you’ll receive, the massive changes it will make in your life are always worth it.

What small change are you going to make to your life to bring massive changes?  Why not just check your language? – What did you say?

 

Are you all thinking and no doing? Take Action

Why not listen to this blog? Are you All thinking and no doing? Take Action

Take Action.  You will have received Top Tips for Business Success so far.  If you’ve implemented just one of these Tips into your business you’ll already be seeing massive results.  So if that’s you – then let us know and share your results with us – leave a comment.

The truth is that most people don’t take action, which is why implementing these seemingly small changes into your life and your business will put you into the top 5%.  So what are you waiting for?  Go For It.  As Nike would say Just Do It.  

Why not find yourself an accountability buddy – someone who you say – I’m going to take this action.  Then a week later you tell them how that action went.  You’ll find that if you didn’t take action, it’s going to get a little embarrassing after a while coming up with “reasons” as to why you didn’t follow through, that in itself will give you the motivation to Get Into Action.

The Top Tips for Your Business Success I’ve shared  in some form so far are:

Top Tip #1   Before you go to bed write down 6 things you need to get done the next day, and then do those before anything else – watch your productivity soar.

Top Tip #2  Understand and share your reason WHY you’re in business, how it is you want to serve people, what value you’re bringing.  People will buy from you if it’s in line with their values.

Top Tip #3  You don’t need to know everything in business, but do get a basic understanding.  Use other peoples expertise and learning curves.  Networks are great for accessing this.

Top Tip #4  Recognise the value of putting systems into your business.  Define, quantify and document systems for every area of your business.  You’re building an asset.

Top Tip #5  Take Action in your business!  Everything you think and learn is redundant unless you take action.

 

Twitter just doesn’t work for your Business….

I believe it was Steve Clarke from Eureka Sales that said he used to think “Twitter Twatter Smitter Smatter” when ever someone mentioned Twitter, because Twitter just doesn’t work for your business – right?

Maybe, that rather depends on how you use it.   It’s now fair to say Steve is a huge fan of twitter.  It seems a lot of people need to have their AHA moment or in Steve’s case Eureka! moment and then they get the power of platforms like Twitter for business, myself included.

BUT…..

And it’s a big BUT – these platforms really do work.  And the reason Twitter works (and the other social media platforms like Facebook & Google Plus) is that you are constantly using people by their name.  It’s so personal.

I have to confess that it took me some time before I got my head around twitter.  Without a shadow of a doubt there are some tools and tricks you need to know to get any real benefit from Twitter for business.  You can choose to learn these yourself or you can seek advice and dramatically shorten that learning curve.  (If that’s you get a copy of Your Social Media Guide which is full of hints tips and know how – leave a comment requesting it with your email and it’s yours as a thank you for reading my blog).

Twitter for Business?

Why is using your twitter name so effective?  Well nothing is more true than WIIFM – What’s In It For Me.  Confession (seems I’m doing a few of these lately), when I first heard this I thought “Not me, I’m really about What’s In It For Them”.  That’s true, helping and promoting other people is what I’m all about, but if I’m honest with myself it’s also true that it’s all about me.

If it wasn’t then why does it please me when I see I have more followers on Twitter?  Go on be honest with yourself, every time your name is mentioned in a tweet you feel good about yourself.  One, because it’s probably complimentary and two, by the very fact that people are talking about you.

If I wasn’t WIIFM then why do I get all excited when I see someone’s read my post or even more excited when they’ve left a comment?  Because when ever anyone says my name, talks about me, talks to me, I love it – just like you do when it happens to you.  Just like your customers love it when it happens to them.

You’ve heard it said before that when you’re in conversation with someone then you should always use their name.  But I’m dreadful with names AND faces (just ask the folks at Innerflame conference).  It makes using the other persons name a bit of a roulette game. Ask Amanda, who now has a whole new persona called “Heather” because I introduced her by the wrong name.

With twitter I never have to forget a name again (I have to confess to still getting names wrong when meeting twitter folk face to face.  Thankfully there are words like “Darling”, “Angel” ,”Gorgeous” or “Sweet Pea” that I happily use to fill in the “not yet remembered” names).

With twitter I get to talk to people directly by using their name EVERY time I talk/tweet with them.  No other scenario that I find myself in allows me to do that.

Twitter allows you to be singled out amongst over 300 million people.  You!  Someone’s chosen to mention you, talk to you, recommend you, out of all of those millions of people.  They’ve used your name to single you out.  Think about it, that’s going to have to make you feel good.  Imagine if that’s your customer feeling that way because of what you’ve said.  Imagine it’s your customer feeling that way because of what your competitors are saying.  I mean you’re not even using twitter for business – right?

Using people’s name is so powerful that every Friday people recommend who to follow #FollowFriday #FF.  You name each person individually and recommend other people follow them.  I’ll never tire of being mentioned in an #FF, nor will you or the people you recommend.  It’s what keeps people doing it week in week out. I believe it’s this reason that people can become “addicted” to twitter.

So if you’re looking to build your connections, strengthen and expand your network for business, learn from twitter.  Use someone’s name as often as possible when you’re talking to them or about them.  Be personal, say something positive, be genuine and do it consistently.  Then watch the results you’ll get, you’ll be impressed.  You never know, you might even find yourself using Twitter for your business.

Follow people who are using twitter effectively for their business.  Someone else I met recently who does this very well is Warren Cass, a born networker it’s no wonder he’s able to transfer those skills from the traditional meeting place to the social platforms.  If you click on the mobile icon next to the follow button – see belowthe tweets that don’t start @someone will come straight to your phone so you’ll be able to effortlessly follow and learn.

My call to action to you, if you liked this post is please share it with others.  Copy http://bridgetgreenwood.com and paste where you want to share.  (I’m talking with Sarah Arrow to get this blog up to date technically)

Leave a comment, and if you want “Your Guide To Social Media” then leave your email too and I’ll get it straight out to you.

You can also sign up so that you get more of these blog posts under email subscriptions top right of the home page.

Where to subscribe to blogs

 

The #1 thing lacking in most businesses – is it lacking in yours?

Top Business Tip #3 – the reason why 80% of start ups fail

Why not listen? Business Tip #3

Never underestimate the power of putting systems into place in your business.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re the only one in your business, or if you’re one of many, you should a) have systems and b) document your systems. 

If you’re in business because you want to grow and develop a business that you can go on to sell, then clearly other people are going to have to know the day to day tasks and systems that are in place in your business that make it work.

How do you answer the phone, what process do you go through all the way from meeting a prospective client to closing the first sale, customer service and follow ups, who are your suppliers, what systems do you use with them?  How much of what you do can you automate, how much can you delegate or outsource?

Until such time as you go through and identify, quantify and document the systems in each area of your business, then what you have is a job and not a viable business that can grow successfully or be sold.

Even if you’ve no intention of selling your business, or growing it beyond you, you should still put systems into place.  It will free up more of your time, and means that if you become sick and are unable to work, then someone else can step in and take over – meaning that your income can still be generated while you take time to recover.

 

Sheep, fetish porn and an Apprentice – my last 3 days

Over the last few days I’ve been at a business conference in aid of an incredible charity called Innerflame.  I’ve learnt how to “turn” a sheep, I’ve learnt how to look at fetish porn for marketing ideas – the more niche you are the more of a premium you can charge and I’ve learnt an awful lot about Marketing & PR from Kimberly Davis – a former Apprentice contestant.

In just 9 days the charity had to find a use of some incredible conference and hotel facilities.  With the help of Warren Cass an unbelievable Business Growth conference has been delivered.

Every one of the speakers/trainers has delivered rich content, including the fabulous Sarah Arrow @Birdsontheblog.  Zero to blogger teaches you how to blog and attract customers.  Defined, qualified clients that want to do business with you.  I’m signing up to Sarah’s services and will write posts over the coming days sharing some of my experiences and learnings from all the presenters over my last 3 days.

But here’s the confession.  I enjoyed a fab night last night with the Hamiltons – Christine  & Neil, all at this conference.  And it might be fair to say I had a glass of wine or two, or three…….. (I don’t get out much).

It’s meant that the memories of the new friends I’ve made during the conference has been rather wiped by my excesses.  Stephen Bailey then came up with the idea that I should write a blog Zero to Blotto and get everyone to remind me of the conversations we had.  So here it is, a more light hearted blog and one to help cement the relations of these wonderful business peeps I’ve met.

So here’s my call to action folks, please add a comment and remind me what we talked about….

 

Business Tip #2

Why not listen? 

As my “short but sweet” blogs continue.  I share with you another top business tip.

Have a basic understanding of all areas of business for you don’t know what you don’t know.

I have an absolute thirst for business knowledge, and the more I learn the more I realise there is to learn.

The key though is not to know everything yourself, but to know enough so that you can decide what tasks you’re going to take on that will propel your business and fulfill your role.  To know what tasks you should delegate or outsource.

Without that basic knowledge how will you know the advice you’re receiving, or worse still that quote you’re looking at, is delivering what your business needs and at the right price?

You’re great at what you do, but there is so much more to running a business.  Find networks that share this knowledge with you, find other people in business who have already been through the learning curves you’re about to face.  You don’t have to do it all on your own.

 

The changing world of the Blog

Why not Listen to the blog post: Audio: The Changing world of blogs

When I first started my blog, I wasn’t yet on twitter and Google + didn’t exist.  As my understanding and use of Social Media has grown I’ve used different platforms to share my different thoughts and learnings.  My learnings have continued however my blog here has suffered.  I don’t believe I’m the only one this has happened to.  So I’ve decided to do something about it.

Using Twitter has really taught me how to share my thoughts in 140 characters or less.  Boy that took some learning – as you can imagine from my sometimes verbose blogs!  But we’re all busy so short but sweet is often a great way to blog.  “Are you sitting comfortably”  doesn’t seem to apply anymore.

With that in mind I’m going to share my learnings in short sharp Top Tips, with the allowance of a few “Are you sitting comfortably” blogs sporadically.

I’ve also emailed these tips to those Business Women who said they’d like to find out more and be a part of The Business Woman’s Network.

Before you go to bed write down your list of 6 things to do the next day.  While you sleep your brain will be working on these for you, don’t be surprised if you wake up the next day with a problem you had solved.  Then work your way down your list of things to do before you tackle anything else.  

You’ll see your productivity rocket!

Small things done consistently will bring massive changes.  You’ll hear some things more than once, but that’s ok.  It takes a while for things to sink in.  As they say Repetition is the mother of learning.

 

How to build a Remarkable business, hint most people don’t even know this

How do you build a Remarkable business, one that stands out from the crowd, gets talked about for all the right reasons and attracts loyal customers?  There are many methods you can utilise within your business, but it’s the principles that you should focus on.

Everyone knows that you’ve got to test and measure in business.  How else will you know what’s working and what’s not?  But if what you’re doing and what you’re measuring isn’t the most important standard to measure then it only gets you so far.  The chances of building a remarkable business are limited.

How do you know what to concentrate on, what’s going to work for your business?  With the amount of decisions a business has to make just on a daily basis, especially small businesses where the owner has multiple roles to play, it’s no wonder things get complicated and the important ‘to do’s get lost.  So what can you do about it?

I mean everyone knows that just because you’ve got a great product or service, it doesn’t guarantee any success.  Just because you’re meeting a need, doesn’t mean people are going to buy your product.  We all need to exercise on a regular basis, doesn’t mean to say that we do!

Then once you’ve got your product or service you’ve got to find the people who want what you have and then stand out from all the competition and convince them to buy from you.  You’ve got to compete on price, on product, on packaging, on placement ANYTHING to get the attention of your customer over the million other messages that are being thrown at them.

You can decide to reach them through so many different channels, networking, print, tv, radio, internet.  Each channel has a thousand and one options within themselves and all cost time and money, both of which are always in limited supply.

Seth Godin talks about the idea of constantly inventing your Purple Cow to stand out from the crowd.  The world has changed, we have far more choices than ever before, but less and less time to consider and make those choices.  So the Purple Cow needs to be invented, some thing that will make you stand out from the crowd.  But of course once people become accustomed to your Purple Cow, it becomes ordinary, so you have to think of another Purple Cow, and then another.  These are manipulations to get your customers attention.

And of course, all the while you should be testing and measuring, testing and measuring to see how effective your new product design is, how effective your new marketing tactics are, how your customers are responding, how your staff are performing, endlessly testing and measuring.

But what if we brought it all back to basics?  Seth Godin does talk about how marketing has changed, that you should now incorporate your marketing right at the start of your business, with your product and design.  That more money should go into making your product and service exceptional, so that other people will talk about it and create word of mouth.

In their own ways Simon Sinek (Start with Why) and Michael Gerber (The E-Myth) take it back a step further.  Michael Gerber talks about designing your life first, what do you want it to look like?  When all is said and done and it’s too late to change anything, what would you like people to say about you and your life?  Then design and plan your business around this, so that your business helps you to achieve your life’s aims.  Give you the time and money freedom to really live.

Simon Sinek’s theory is that you should Start with Why.  Why are you in business in the first place, what’s your driving purpose, how is that you want to serve people, change things, what is it you value?  For Apple it’s challenging the way people see how the world works.  So whether they’re producing computers, or phones, tablets, or the iPod, all of these products are in line with Why they are in business.

Apple is renowned for having loyal fans and customers, and Simon Sinek believes it’s because these customers also share the same value, the same drive to challenge how people see the world.  Apple stand out from the crowd to these customers because of this shared value.  Apple inspires people.

And going back one last step, Stephen R Covey talks about the difference between the “Personality Ethic” – where people are looking for the quick fix, and are looking to be “seen” to be something, rather than the “Principle Ethic” – which is a way to live your life.  So instead of being a politician whose image is Family Values yet gets caught with his trousers down – the “Personality Ethic”, by living the “Principle Ethic” you value Family and everything you do, in every part of your life reflects that, from your political views to your day to day dealing with your family and others.  People can see that and believe you’re authentic, it builds trust and loyalty.

By living the “Principle Ethic” people who share your values are naturally drawn to you, you inspire people and show yourself to be a leader.  You stand out from the crowd.

Therefore, to build your Remarkable Business

1) What’s important to you in life, what principles do you live by, what do you value, what type of legacy would you like to leave behind you, what’s your purpose?  For me it’s showing my son that he can live a full life, have big dreams and make them reality all the while caring for those around him, leaving the world a better place for being in it.

2) Really think about and define what sort of life you want to live – think about all areas of your life, be bold, don’t limit it to what you think you can achieve, remember we’re creating something Remarkable here.

3) Design your business’s products and services to reflect your purpose in life.  Remember for Jobs and Wozniak at Apple their purpose is to change the way people think, they do this through their innovative products.

4) Design your business systems so your business can work without you in it, leaving you time to live your remarkable life as well as run your remarkable business.

5) Ask yourself at every point is what I’m doing for my business taking us closer to our purpose or further away?  If it’s taking you further away, don’t do it.  If it’s taking you closer then do it.

By designing your business and your life in this manner, ensuring that everything you do is in line with your vision, principles and purpose you will build a Remarkable Business.  A Purple Cow of a Business that won’t need to be reinvented and use manipulations to stand out.  A business that will attract customers who share the same values, customers who will talk about your business telling others about it, a business that will create loyalty.

By staying true to your principles you will be seen as an authentic leader, those who share your belief will want to work for you, building a loyal employee base, who will share the same desires to drive your business forward and serve your customers because they share the same beliefs.

By testing and measuring everything againts this standard, then you will truly build a Remarkable Business.

 

In times of adversity, real leaders keep going..

It’s all too easy to be affected by bad news, if you’re not careful you can find yourself surrounded and consumed with problems. It’s so important, especially in the world we live in right now, to make sure that you don’t lose sight of what’s important.

Quite simply put for me, that’s to continue to be focused on the Solutions – not the problems. Stay committed to what it is you want, if you don’t then when you hit a road block (and that’s a When NOT an If) the first thing you’re going to think is “How do I get out of this?”. If you’re committed then the first thing you’ll think is “How do I solve this?”.

No is not a word you can afford to accept. David Cameron recognising this said he wanted “to champion the growth and ingenuity of the British people….The spark of initiative, the courage to make your dream happen. The hard work to see it through…….There’s only one strategy for growth we can have now and that is rolling up our sleeves and doing everything possible”.

There is no one more iconic to me than Gerald Ratner for his ability to keep going, prove himself as a leader, and demonstrate that success is achievable as long as you stay focused on the solution.

 

What’s working in today’s economy?

Having been quiet on the blog front it’s no reflection on what’s been going on in my life.  I’ve been learning so many new tools, systems, personal development.  But it’s all a complete waste of time if they’re not implemented.  Getting busy just isn’t a problem, getting things done however can be.

The best analogy I heard was Steve Clarke – entrepreneurs especially have so many ideas that woosh their plane takes off, and before they’ve arrived at their destination they spot another great opportunity – and woosh another plane is launched.  But before you know it there are a number of planes up in the sky never reaching their destination.

To ensure 2011 really is to be my best year yet, I decided to land all my planes and only take off new planes when the skies are clear to do so! So I enrolled in the Sales & Marketing Mentoring Course run by Mandie Holgate, The Business Woman’s Network in conjunction with Steve Clarke, Eureka Sales. Our first rule, “Good is good enough”.

With that in mind I am proud to publish my first video: