Has life got you so caught up that you seem to have 3 weeks work to do in one week?  Making lists and never crossing items off them?

All too often we are being controlled and reacting to the environment around us and allowing others wishes to be more important to us than achieving our own long term goals.

Have you got your goals up in front of you?

Do you know where you are now and what the gap is between your goal and your current reality?

Have you set out a strategy to achieve that goal?

Have you set out the first set of action steps required to achieve the first strategy step?

Do you have someone to hold you accountable to achieving these strategy steps?

Are they realistic and timely?

Are they connected to your emotional wants as a reward?

Coaching places a realistic perspective on your Goals and helps you evaluate them to “plug up the leaks”.

Some of the key differences people who achieve have are:

• They are constantly scanning for opportunities
• They read regularly and over a wide selection of genres for balance
• They give of their time and skills generously
• They charge appropriately and will often be seen as over the market but exceptionally great service and value for money
• They look after their personal health and spiritual needs
• They love their family and make sure they spend time with them and are also catered for when they are not there.
• They seek mentors and accountability buddies.

This journey is not a short quick fix, change and achieving rewards takes knowledge, application, effort, mistakes and more learning.  It will involve huge emotional challenges and rewards.  But most of all it is satisfying and increases your humility, self-esteem and self-confidence.

Enjoy the journey and reach out to a Coach to help you get on track, explore your options and hold you accountable.

John Burkhardt - Gold Coast Christian Business Coach

Some of the more common challenges come with:

• Not identifying your ideal client demographics well enough.
• Not identifying what your ideal client thinks and their purchase motivation (Psychographics)

Demographics give you their characteristics that identify their abilities, needs and interests of your customers; Psychographics identify their motivation or reason for making the purchase.

Demographics: who is buying your service

Psychographics: why they are buying your service

Where are you missing the mark?

All too often we see people jump straight into the sales process without building a relationship with that potential customer or even communicating with them in a way to suit their pace and relationship style.

If we are to look at this further have you really defined your ideal client Demographics and Psychographics enough?

To define these further we need to also look at when and how they communicate.  The type of language they use, at what speed and format it is delivered in, where they source this information from and how much creditability they place upon it.

By examining it further you may well discover that the information you have for your ideal client is too long and wordy or not even in a language they understand.  Worse yet you may be selling the benefits or features of your product rather than how your product or service actually provides a solution for their unique challenge.

If you convert this to lost leads, this may be the reason your marketing information is not performing as well as you wished.  Is it in the wrong language at the wrong speed for the wrong audience selling features not solving challenges?

Take the time to revisit your ideal client profile.  Once this is streamlined and perfected, you can then duplicate it across to another service or product.  Just like most franchises do, they start with one systemized product and then drop an almost identical product into their client base.   The language they use to capture the young children is much different to the language etc  used to capture the family meal market.

Sit back, Take a moment to reflect and get some outside perspective on your Marketing.

John Burkhardt

• Why don’t we sell our service or product quality?
• What are you competing on?
• What is your differentiation in the marketplace?
• Why are your clients dealing with you?

Society has been conditioned to barter or ask for a discount.  Why bow to the pressure of discounting.  Look for alternatives to sell your differentiation or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).   Are you able to offer better quality and service; add options of extended warranties, payment plans or upgrade bonuses?

Explore and extend your unique product or service experience by marketing that which is your advantage.  (Exploit it)

By having a marketing communication plan, you will have already looked at the positioning of your product/service and its rightful place in the marketplace.  A pricing strategy is critical for long term business viability and the covering of business overheads in addition to cost of goods (COG).

Sit back and reflect as to why you are really discounting.

Don’t get me wrong, certain times call for a form of discounting. Bundle services with an applicable saving; pass on freight savings due to volume discount you receive on larger deliveries.  All great selling points are where your service now takes the focus off the price.  The customer is getting quality service as well as a competitive price.

Don’t sell yourself short and compete purely on price.

John Burkhardt – Gold Coast Business Coach

Just a quick reminder – you should declare all of your business entities to your insurance broker.   You need to let them know all of your company, trust, registered trading and domain names that are associated with your business.

Don’t take a punt on the policy wording picking up all your entities.

Remember to declare all previous activities on your Professional Indemnity and other liability policies to ensure that you have protection in the unfortunate event of a claim.  Some policies require all of your activities, past, current and possible future ones to ensure the policy is correct and responds to a potential claim.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

Does your business structure support your long term business goals?

Do you really understand the use of Companies and Trusts in achieving these goals and ultimately achieving your exit or succession plans?

Start with the end in mind! Realistically nearly all of us get into business because we are great at what we do…  When reality strikes, we are usually not that great at the non “my stuff” functions of business.  It is never too late to align your business structure with your long term personal and business goals.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

I was reading a book last night of which one chapter was on the ability of some scientists to create a whole “model” of something from just a tooth or bone fragment.

I occurred to me that we do this everyday!

We see one part or perspective of something and quickly arrange all the data in our mind, from our conditioning over the years of social, generational, emotional and physical influences and rapidly form our “Opinion” or “Perspective” of what it is.  We then justify it and reinforce to make sure it matches up our previous experiences.

We see a young lady struggling with threadbare little children, no wedding ring and what do we think?  Our perception takes over.  How often would you think that all have been sick and she is really just surviving at the moment, the children are sick, she can’t wear rings due to a skin condition and hubby is away for a week on a big business deal?  Or do we see something else?

Do we question what our mind is doing or do we just let the process happen, justify that is the way it is (Your Reality) and it must be true?

As with the scientists, they were able to create a whole “missing link” with the theory of human evolution, when really investigating the tooth and skull fragment they found would have identified a pig.  Sometimes we have our own agenda or goal to achieve or reality to protect that we can’t allow anything else in!

Food for thought!

What however if we could turn this process around or even be aware of it to question it and look for solutions out of it?  You may even come to the same result, however you question the validity of the information and the process by which you arrange and quantify it.

Could thinking about that lady and offering her a quick coffee break and help with the children be enough to change your perception of who she is.  You may even create a friendship and a valuable business contact with her husband for your business.

Being aware of our agendas and filters is the first step in the process to allowing us to process the information we receive.

Stop, Think, Respond.

John B

Apart from the initial limbic response of their brain to weigh up their environment and consider the immediate response of stay or fight/flight, there is a considerable portion of their communication style which may not connect to the way you are communicating your message or ideas?

I hear you saying, “what are you talking about” – EXACTLY.

As I may waffle on and include the details and facts of this, are you:

Just get on with it… give me the facts and move on OR

Yeah I hear you, but can’t we slow down a bit and get to know each other OR

Yep, Yep; Ok just shorten it and lets go for a drink so I can tell you a bit more about me OR

Yes, I understand that, maybe a question or two on the limbic system………….

Does one of these messages resonate with you?

This is effective communication, all I need to know is how I communicate best and then how you communicate best and adapt my style to match or at least get closer to the way you are communicating.

• Are you missing this with your niche target market and those ideal clients?
• Are you talking to them in your communication style and not theirs?
• Is the language structured to suit them and what they would prefer?

Communication (or lack of it) is the basis of all relationships and happens nearly as quickly as the Trust component.

To learn more about your Communication style, visit FACE-Matrix and do a quick, fun and easy to understand profile.

Have fun with it, share it with your friends and if you want to know more, then the best buy is the FACE, The Global Language e-book

Learn to love it and embrace it.

Let me know your results and what you think.

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

The group is run by experienced business people with coaching qualifications.  It is only $10 per night (first time free) and covers business mindset and a great broad coverage on all aspects of business based on the e-Myth (Michael Gerber) models complimented by real life scenarios and coaching models.

If you wish to be on the meeting list for updates email David Beard here.  We can also forward on information about MasterMind Groups in Brisbane.

Do you have a quiet place to relax? A place where you can be just yourself without the mask imposed on you by society?  Increasing in coaching we come across not only the lack of balance in our life/work but also the lack of balance in our relationships within both areas and the realization that we need to enhance that to better the relationship.

Some strategies we help implement are:

Time management – helping you learn and apply decision making, prioritizing and effective tracking and planning of your limited tool – Time!

Blocking out quiet time – in either your business or personal time to be just you and to do the things you want to do.  A time used for enjoyment, reflection and spiritual interaction.

Communication Profiling – participating in a fun communication tool which easily and effectively helps you recognise your communication type and also become clearer in identifying how others you communicate with regularly are wired and want to partake in communication.  Get a free communication profile at www.facematrix.com.au and let me know what you think via email. (P.S. also enter in the facilitators’ code of FF001AU.

Getting into a Support Triage – Have you got a support structure for your own sanity?  Do you have regular meetings with business colleagues’ or friends where you can get impartial input into your challenges and decisions knowing that they will be open, honest and share willingly whilst respecting your privacy and confidentiality?

The implementation of these strategies is to get you walking in the sunshine enjoying your life as it was intended.

In the current monetary climate there is more and more focus on making sure you know what your money is up to.  With a slower economy (apparently) there is now the focus on even more control on your expenses and how to (market) maximize your income?  This is a great time to become more financially literate.

Do you know how to effectively read your Profit & Loss Statement and challenge some of the items on it?  Do you do this regularly (a minimum of once per month if not weekly)?

Is your Balance Sheet up to date or is it an item that the Accountant does up and it remains in your tax return for them next year?  Do you know what it is for?

Financial literacy is also about knowing how your business structure works and ensuring it matches your long term business and personal goals without you getting caught in capital gains tax or stamp duty penalties.  If you don’t know what structure you have and how to benefit from it, now is the time to talk to you financial advisor to learn!

Do you know what your competitors pricing is for the products you stock or service you offer?  Are you positioned to take advantage of their challenges?  Is your mark-up rate standardised and can be implemented quickly to ensure that you don’t eat into your gross profit?

Financial control is about 1/7^th of the business functions performed and should be treated accordingly.  Be informed; be ruthless in your decisions.

With our business connections we come into a many and varied group of people and their business’s.  If you are after a referral to a business, it is more than likely we know someone who can help you or put you onto someone who can.

Some other professionals we can recommend include:

Accounting and Tax Agents
Business Consultants
Car Sales
Child Sponsorship or Mission work needs
Christian Businesses
Communication Consultants
Computer Technicians
Cosmetic Procedures
Credit Control Services
Debt Reduction Services
Drafting Services
Electricians
Financial Planning
General Insurance Brokers
Hairdressers
Health Food Shops
Investment Property Services
Marketing and Branding Firms
Mortgage Brokers
Musicians
Natural Food Stores
Painters
Psychology
Roster Software for Business
Second Hand Book Distributors
Timber Merchants
Website Developer
and many more!

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As your business grows you will be faced with challenging functions that you either have no or a limited skills set in. This could be marketing, accounting, financial invoicing, form design or any other business function.

A basic thought process for good outsourcing is looking at whether you can delegate, eliminate or leverage the function.

A good starting point is asking yourself where your skills set places on a 1-10 scale for the function required to be most effective and efficient.

Secondly, are you wanting to do this function?  Is it something that you wish to learn more skills for?  Is it something that having that skills set will be part of your long term role and business goals?  Do you need to know just a little more before you delegate or outsource the function?

Answering these will quickly show you your attitude to the function and will allow you to emotionally move past “hanging onto that function”.

Delegating

Can you delegate the function to someone else within your business? Is this time and resource effective?

Can you delegate to outside contractors either within the local area or via ecommerce outsourcing such as ODesk or eLance?

Are you prepared to be very specific as to what you expect and to set the boundaries and KPI associated with that function?

Eliminating

Can you eliminate the function altogether?  Scary thought, but sometimes we do things because that is how they have always been done and no-one has ever questioned if it is necessary to the end product/service or if there is a better way of doing it.  There have been cases of 12 page documents being reduced to 2 pages and obtaining the necessary information to do the required task.  Sometimes we just have to get out of the forest to see the trees.

Leverage

The most common way to leverage is by allowing someone with these skills sets to do the function much more effectively and efficiently that you ever would.  In doing this you pick up a larger time period, reduce your stress and actually make money to offset the outsourcing or delegated tasks.  The most common example is bookkeeping, artwork and form design.

The effective use of your skills set to concentrate on your passion and talents will quickly be rewarded.

Should you create an entire system, HR support etc for functions that aren’t the core of your business or leverage your time and resources by contracting a business who specializes in that area. e.g. Information Technology, Marketing, Graphic Design etc.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

There is scope for coaching particularly in setting up the business goals, direction, vision etc and about looking at the mindset of the owner, customers and staff, challenging and stretching that thinking and the thought processes involved.  In this area we sometimes touch on consulting items and vice versa.

Consulting supports the business owner by providing a structured framework to grow their business.  The focus is to work ‘on your business’ rather than working ‘in your business’.  Like Business Coaching, the initial phase includes analysing your personal and business goals, but the difference is from a strategic and operational viewpoint.  Our recommended Consultants will work with the business owner to create a practical strategic business plan and through on-going performance management, will be there to ensure successful implementation, no matter how long it takes

Should you wish to contract a consultant, we have great relationships with top quality consultants who work from the ground up.  We compliment them with engaging the owner, management and staff in regards to the mindset and thinking.

We are proud to recommend consulting with:

Susan Draper – Full consulting service (Susan’s profile is available here)

As is usually the case in coaching, most clients have 3 main goals to work on and in nearly every case 1 or 2 of them are personal goals on health, fitness or weight loss etc.

The main challenge with getting fit is breaking the emotional and physical habit of doing nothing or little for so long.

Bite it off in little chunks.  If this week you can manage at least one 30 minute walk (and survive) then we can repeat that and build on it.

The same goes for drinking more water, reducing snacks etc. A little bit at a time.

Massive change will put the body into stress and also flight mode to push you back emotionally into your comfort zone (the habit you have formed)

ACTION STEPS

Working with a Coach or a Consultant makes a difference!

Make the effort to record where you are now, where you want to be and the gap that separates them.

How are you going to achieve it?

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions