Archives for March 2007
Summer time is here
It’s official!
We’ve been getting a bit heavy the last couple of weeks so I thought it’s time to lighten up a bit (oh no, another awful pun).
Seriously, though, haven’t you felt a bit lighter in step already over the last couple of days with the effect of daytime apparently being longer?
But did you know that it’s a hundred years since summer time was first mooted? For those of you who are interested, there’s some history on how summer time came about.
In six months’ time I’ll probably be miserable for a while when we change the clocks again, but for now, let’s enjoy all the natural daylight we can get!
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Check your business progress - Step 2
Moving on from Step 1 last week we start with the basic premise that:
- What you’re doing is decent, honest and legal
- You have the product/ service/ solution knowledge to underpin your business growth activities
- You know you need to learn how to use ethical sales and marketing skills more successfully to increase your company’s performance
- What is your business really about?
- Is your original core business still viable or does it need rethinking?
- What direction do you want it to head in?
- Where do you want the business to be?
- How about a timescale - By when do you want it to be there?
- How about your existing resources?
- Is everyone in your company a positive asset that will help the achievement come about? - This can be a very difficult question to answer, as loyalty, while a tremendous virtue, tends to get in the way of impartial judgement
- Conversely, are there skills in your team that currently aren’t being utilised? Once you acknowledge that we human beings only use 5% of our brainpower, that’s not as unlikely is it may at first appear!
- What practical steps can you take that will help get you where you want be?
- Did you start your business as the result of identifying a gap in the market that you knew you could fill?
- Was your purpose primarily to provide you with a job where you could be your own boss or did you intend to grow a business?
- Are you well on the way to achieving what you wanted when you set out?
- Are you happy with where you’re at now?
- If not, do you know what it will take to get you where you want to be?
- Do you know how to successfully put that activity in place?
- Can you see yourself doing it?
- Can you see yourself having achieved it?
You’ve had a week to mull over Step 1 and now you probably need to take a pace back and get physically away from the daily hassles of running your company.
So why not take yourself off somewhere quiet and devote time to some big picture strategic thinking. It can be at the weekend or over a couple of evenings if you can’t yet be spared during the working week. We’ll pick up from the earlier soul searching with some more ideas to focus your thoughts:
Are you getting excited about what you could achieve or are you thinking: “I’ll never find the time to do what needs to be done”?
Don’t be like the chap in Who runs your business? The worst thing you can do now is nothing.
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
Check your business progress - Step 1
We suggest that you start with some soul-searching questions:
If you’ve answered all of the above questions to your own satisfaction and you’re utterly happy with your status quo, that’s great. You don’t need to progress to the second or third steps.
Maybe you’d like to share one or two tips with us!
Otherwise continue pondering on these points and come back next week for Step 2.
Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.
