The format will include:

Information session – Communication, Business Functions, I.T., Marketing etc
Fellowship & Networking
Brainstorming and much more!

They will be run in a regular fortnightly format to cover group requested items.  This is also a platform for Christian fellowship and a regular meeting may include prayer or ministry if it is requested by an attendee.

More information shortly!

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!

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

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

I have numerous requests for marketing advice and as such have the following critical steps prior to you getting to marketing and sales:

1. Know what your Goal is and where you are heading first. Plan with the end (or exit) in mind
2. Know your Product or Service
3. Know your Pricing structure
4. Know what place to find your client – the product market
5. Know everything about your client  – their habits, challenges and where they get information
6. Know your clients distribution channel – where to connect with them
7. Know the benefits to your client of solving their challenges
8. Know how to structure a compelling message – Headline, sub-headline, challenges, solutions, call to action etc.
9. Develop and implement a promotional strategy

Missing any of these steps will lead to a lot of wasted time, energy and money.  This is quite a short list of the steps to developing effective relationship building via marketing.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Hi Everyone.  For you book fans on the Gold Coast, Australia; one of my favorite clients is having a clearance of books.

Only $2 per Book or 3 Books for $5

Hundreds of Titles to Choose From

• Business & Investment
• Christian
• Biographies
• Health & Fitness
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Crafts & Hobbies
• Family & Relationships
• Sports & Recreation
• Home & Renovation

Saturday 13th February

7 a.m. to 12 Noon

At 5 Comore Drive, Varsity Lakes Qld 4217

M: 0402 806 280

E: jellard@austarnet.com.au

DON’T MISS OUT

THIS SATURDAY ONLY

LOG ON:                                        Adding wood to make the barbie hotter.
LOG OFF:                                      Not adding any more wood to the barbie.
MONITOR:                                   Keeping an eye on the barbie.
DOWNLOAD:                              Getting the firewood off the ute.
HARD DRIVE:                            Making the trip back home without any cold tinnies.
KEYBOARD:                               Where you hang the ute keys.
WINDOW:                                    What you shut when the weather’s cold.
SCREEN:                                      What you shut in the mozzie season.
BYTE:                                            What mozzies do.
MEGABYTE:                               What Townsville mozzies do.
CHIP:                                            A bar snack.
MICROCHIP:                             What’s left in the bag after you’ve eaten the chips.
MODEM:                                      What you did to the lawns.
LAPTOP:                                      Where the cat sleeps.
SOFTWARE:                                Plastic knives & forks you get at Red Rooster.
HARDWARE:                              Stainless steel knives & forks – from K-Mart.
MOUSE:                                        The small rodent that eats the grain in the shed.
MAINFRAME:                           What hold’s the shed up.

WEB:                                              What spiders make.

WEBSITE:                                    Usually in the shed or under the verandah.

SEARCH ENGINE:                    What you do when the ute won’t go.
CURSOR:                                      What you say when the ute won’t go.
YAHOO:                                       What you say when the ute does go.
UPGRADE:                                  A steep hill.
SERVER:                                      The person at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
MAIL SERVER:                         The bloke at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
USER:                                            The neighbour who keeps’s borrowing things.
NETWORK:                                  What you do when you need to repair the fishing net.
INTERNET:                                 Where you want the fish to go.
NETSCAPE                                  What the fish do when they discover the hole in the net.
ONLINE:                                      Where you hang the washing.
OFFLINE:                                    Where the washing end’s up when the pegs aren’t strong enough.
Who says you can’t have fun occasionally.

A lot of time is wasted and relationships formed during meetings.  So what is the answer for a balanced productive meeting to achieve your objectives and to ensure all parties are happy with the result?

Some Simple Guidelines to Effective Meetings (Time Management):

Have an agenda – Issue it before the meeting, ask for input, stick to it.  (Set the meeting context)

Start and finish on time – A little hard to have a meeting by yourself, but respect yourself and your time.  If the other party/s is consistently late or doesn’t turn up, move on.  Is this the type of relationship you want to have?

Keep great notes and circulate them to the attendees/invitees straight after the meeting.  If someone has a problem with the content, let them address it straight away.

Don’t get sidetracked by “fluffy talk”, issues not on the agenda (put them on the next meetings agenda) and keep to time.

Make sure the meeting addresses what the next action step is, who is responsible for it, the outcome desired and when and where the feedback on the action is to go to.  Leaving a meeting without setting responsible and accountable action steps is really a waste of time and energy for everyone.  You call that a social outing!

Keep people honest. If they are going on an ego trip or talking BS, just tell them that and move on.

Set a time, date and agenda for the next meeting before leaving the first one.

I hope this helps, there are lots of templates out there for running a meeting, but keep it simple and stick to the guidelines.

Regards,

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Why Reflect on Things?

Whilst reading (yes, another past time) I came across this paragraph:

“but, as my father would undoubtedly have pointed out if I had been a small boy and he had been walking beside me today, despite appearances, the pathway doesn’t really get narrower and narrower the farther you go.  On reaching the other end of the field, he would have made me stop and turn to look back the way we’d come.  I would have been surprised and fascinated to discover that, even after walking the entire length of the path, we still seemed to be standing on the widest part of all.”

Source (c) Ghosts the story of a renunion by Adrian Plass 2001

At times you ponder the differences in getting the cheaper less known or the dearer established brand.  Personally, I like quality and timeless performance.  I’d rather spend the extra on a quality product or service that I know (or imagine) will go the distance rather than a cheap alternative.  For tools this sometimes I buy something I may only use rarely.  But when I do its a great feeling.

How does this relate to business?

Why should people pay extra for your service or product?  Is it the extra mile your staff goes to, the constant communication of things relevant to them, the experience of quality time and time again or another factor?

Does all of this stuff matter?  Yes it does! Why do customers leave a business – because they thought the business didn’t care!

There are basic qualities that shine through to your customers:

You care - why else would you communicate with them and invite them back into your business!

You admire confidence in their ability to transact with you.  They are confident that you have the product or service for their needs.

You offer stability and through that continuity in dealing with you.  (It’s very important to be seen to be stable and longterm)

You offer them a quality character and business behind your product or service.  They value the fact that you value your business and them as customers.

Be careful about discounting or free services/products.  The taste of poor quality disappears quickly after the cheap product or service fails.

Position yourself, your product or service and then let people know about it!

Position yourself to be the business that everyone comes to when they are looking for your service or product.

Start with the end in mind.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Hope you enjoy it.

by Lea Belair – Agent of the Future

How can you make the start of your New Year a real start toward the future you want? Studies show that about one in four New Year’s resolutions is broken after two weeks.

It’s clear that what we need in order to keep our resolutions is more than change, we need sustainable change. One way for you to make a change that lasts is to look at your New Year’s Resolutions in a new way. As I’ll show you, it’s easier to stick to your New Year’s resolutions if you look at any change as evolutionary not revolutionary!

When we want to make a change we often ‘see’ ourselves in the future as we would like that future to be, whether the goal is to reach a healthier weight, become financially secure, overcome an old habit, start a new career or attract a new relationship.

As a coach and Agent of the Future, I often suggest that my clients start by seeing the goal as already accomplished. However, trying to make radical changes to get to the future we want can quickly derail our efforts.

Radical change or revolution is a sudden, casting aside of the past in order to bring about something new. (Think: French Revolution.) The same is true about establishing new habits, behaviors, or frameworks of thinking. Just thinking of bringing an aspect of you under the knife of the guillotine is stressful!

When you decide to make a change that is sudden and drastic, without a firm foundation to support you over time, you naturally struggle and give up. Radical change is not sustainable. On the other hand, sustainable change is a step-by-step process, using what ‘is’ as the basis for something new.  Personal sustainable change is the process of creating and unfolding new patterns. See change as a continuum built on a strong foundation that supports you in taking the next step. When you take one step after another in the same consistent direction you make progress and use strengths you already have and reach your goal.

The first step in making a sustainable change is to have a clear intention to do something differently, or create a new pattern. Intentions tap into the field of energy called ‘the flow’ that opens the space for something new without the stress of a revolution. That’s because intentions redirect our focus, allowing us to identify old patterns, choose to see things differently, and take new actions.

In addition, in making change that is sustainable it is important to have our environments support our intentions.

Environments are the things that surround us in our every day life, such as our physical environment, our environment of relationships, and our environment of thoughts and emotions. Environments can happen accidentally or intentionally. Intentionally crafted environments help us to continue to make consistent steps forward toward our goal by supporting our new patterns of thinking and behavior. Environments define us and we define our environments.

Pick one thing in your environment right now and ask yourself what it says about you. Did you put it there intentionally? Does it resonate with what you value? Does it help or inspire you? Or, does it make your life more difficult?

One of my friends told me how he wanted to read at home but never seemed to get to it. Was it that he didn’t have the time, or perhaps the energy? Let’s look at the problem from the environmental standpoint: he had the intention to read, but what about his reading environment? It turns out he didn’t have a cozy chair or a well lit space for reading. Once he changed his physical environment to include the cozy chair and put a good standing lamp next to it, viola he was reading at home without the struggle of having to find more time or energy!

Supportive and inspiring environments come in a variety of forms, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. Whatever the environment, you can craft it intentionally.

Here is a fun and easy way to help you to create an intentional environment to support and inspire you in keeping your resolutions in the new year

1. Gather 25 pictures from magazines, newspapers, and photos that remind you of your intentions. Create a collage and hang it in an appropriate place in your home. If your New Year’s resolution is about food, hang your collage in the kitchen; if it’s about relationships, hang it in the living room or bedroom; if it’s about money, hang it next to where you keep your money paraphernalia.

2. Put a pen and paper by your bed. At the end of each day, for at least one week after you hang up your collage, write down what you noticed about your intentions. Did you remember them? Did something unexpected happen? Did you learn something new? After a week you can keep this practice if you still need support in keeping your resolutions. Or, you can invent another way to remain inspired by your environment. Music, smells, and things you can touch that remind you of the future you want will work with your subconscious mind to keep you on track.

Set yourself up for success.Instead of making change a stressful and frustrating task, take the sustainable change step-by-step route. Taking even one small step at a time with intention and purpose moves you consistently in the direction of what you want and sends a strong message to everyone that will magnetize your future vision to you! As we change, with the support of our environments, we naturally begin to thrive in change.

Lea Belair is a personal and business coach residing in Vermont. This article is based on the distinction Revolutionary vs. Evolutionary in her breakthrough book Walk on Water: How to Make Change Easier which focuses on practical things you can do to support your changes. Walk on Water – 2005 Change Agent Press is available at www.walkonwaterthebook.com

This is a great little article from a US coach.  It is tweaked slightly to fit in with our Christian terminology but the essence and content remains Lea’s.

I am your greatest helper and heaviest burden

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men and women; and alas, of all failures as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.  Those who are failures, Ii have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a woman or a man.

You may run me for profit or for ruin – it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet.
Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

ANSWER – I AM YOUR HABITS. Anonymous

One of the most satisfying processes we come across as coaches is the ability to move the coachees thinking to the point that they illuminate with the answer to their own thinking.

So often, it is that you already know the answer but have not had the time or energy or ability to un-clutter enough to see what is actually going on and more importantly what is the learning about what you are doing and the implications of:

1. Doing it the same way

2. Doing it a better way

Once you start to explore this thinking (as apposed to the problem, details or drama) then you are able to reflect enough on the process to realise where simple improvements or alterations can have tremendous impact.

As we move coachees through this journey, the benefits of thinking for them become more obvious.  It is a great experience to empower someone to think about something, identify their feeling and emotion with the item, learn from it and think through the implications of doing or not doing it.

A recent example was of a coachee who identified a needed to increase their sales.  This was multi layered but through insights, the client was able to identify that half of their stock sold in a certain time period when they had the stock loaded to a website.  The insight was to load up more stock after identifying which were the more popular stock items.

You guessed it, sales started to increase immediately by adding popular items and more of them to the website.  The turnover has taken off.

I trust that this gives you some insight in the benefits of having a coach (or mentor etc) beside you.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions