Category: Planning & Management

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Planning & Management

Top 6 Reasons Why Your Business Isn’t Growing

If your business isn’t growing, or it’s stagnant, I find it’s usually down to one (or more) of these six reasons.

I speak to clients all the time who are frustrated and overwhelmed because:

  • Their business isn’t growing;
  • They don’t have any clients (or very few clients);
  • And their income isn’t where they want it to be.

And after having many such conversations over the past few years, and hearing their frustrations at their lack of business growth, I’ve discovered that there’s usually a theme to the reasons why their business isn’t growing in the way they want it to.

I’ve identified SIX key reasons why they’re not seeing the results they want to see.

Read through these reasons and see if you can identify with any of them yourself … you may have more than one!

1. No Clear Strategy or Vision. When you’re not clear on why you’re in business or the results your business is delivering, it’s very hard to grow it – you don’t know what direction to go in; what to do next etc. etc. and chances are you easily get distracted and get off track by following those bright shiny objects (in the form of the latest hot marketing strategy or product). It’s a bit like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle when you don’t have the box in front of you to show you what the end result should look like.

2. Focusing on the WRONG Things. Related to point 1 above, when you’re not clear on what you’re doing then chances are you’ll focus on the wrong business building and/or marketing activities. And then you’ll be disappointed with the results you get. This is because you either don’t fully understand the activity but you’re going ahead with it anyway. Or you don’t know how the activity relates to your business so don’t know how it’s going to help you build your business.

3. Lack of an Automated Marketing System. Without the proper automated marketing system in place, it’s very difficult to follow up with new subscribers (that’s even if you have a system for capturing new leads in the first place). If you don’t have a system in place for following up with your new subscriber, then how can you expect to turn them into a paying client or customer?

4. Lack of Systems. Forget about the automated marketing system, you don’t have any systems in place at all! You’re surrounded by paper piles; you can never find what you’re looking for; you have no idea of your business finances – these are all symptoms of a lack of basic business management systems. And this itself is a core reason why your business isn’t growing.

5. Not Clear On The Results Your Services Deliver. This again goes back to point 1 above, but it also means that if you’re not clear on the results your services deliver, then your marketing message is not clear either. Which means you’re not attracting your ideal clients (if any clients) and your business isn’t growing.

6. Not ASKING! This is a big one. I see it happen so many times. You’ll do anything and everything not to have a sales conversation with a client and ASK them to work with you. And this could mean not even asking them to have a strategy session/initial call with you so that you can find out more about one another. You really do need to start getting into the habit of ASKING people to work with you and create a system for consistently ASKING to have those conversations.

Which of these reasons can you relate to? Is there more than one? Post your answer in the comments below; I’d love to help.

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Planning & Management

3 Tips for Successfully Managing Your Day-to-Day Workload

Time management is the bane of every solopreneur’s life!

There is so much to do in your business on a day-to-day basis that it’s very easy for time to run away with you. Before you know it an hour has disappeared and you’re not much further forward.

Let me share with you today a tool that I use regularly to help me manage my day-to-day workload.  It’s a simple tool … and everyone has it — including you!

And my tool is … SPREADSHEETS!

They have so many more uses than just calculating figures. They are also a great tool to help you manage your time effectively.

As a busy soloprofessional you are not only working for your clients, but you have to work ON your business too. Effective time management is crucial for developing and growing your business, as well as income generating activities.

Below are my top 3 tips for effective time management using spreadsheets.

1. Create a Work Schedule

When I started to get busier I realized I needed a system that would allow me to anticipate or schedule in client’s work. I designed a really simple spreadsheet with the weeks along the top and the client’s down the side. I encourage my clients to book work with me in advance so that I can put this in my schedule. For regular clients I can book in so many hours for them each week, and because my spreadsheet totals the number of hours booked each week I can see what my commitments are and what I have left.

I find that it’s really working, not only because my clients can get ‘booked in’, but when I get an enquiry for new work I can look at my schedule to see if I can meet their deadline.

This system works well for me!

If you find yourself having time management issues with your clients, then give my system a go!

2. To Do List

How do you manage your day-to-day tasks? Do you have a notebook for your To Do lists and cross out each one as you go along? Or do you have little yellow post-its stuck all over the place? Is this really the best way of managing your daily tasks?

Spreadsheets are a great way for you to organise your To Do list. Set up headings in the first row and add your tasks below. You can then sort your list by any column that you choose, making it an interactive To Do list. And best of all, your list is contained in one place.

Create a shortcut to your To Do list and place it on your desktop so that you can access it easily, or just keep it open and minimise your screen each time you’re not using it.

Make your To Do list even more interactive by filtering out those tasks that have already been completed. How? Use the AutoFilter built into Excel!

3. Plan Projects and Activities

How do you keep a track of what needs to be done and when?

The answer’s simple — set up a spreadsheet!

Spreadsheets also accept date formats and this makes them a great tool for tracking projects or planning activities. You can easily use AutoFill to create a date timeline too. Use the column headings for your dates, and the rows for your activities.

Use the cell where the date meets the activity to enter notes, To Do, or anything else relating to your project or activity. Once an activity is complete you can use the strikeout feature to cross it off!

As you work along the timeline, you can hide the columns with past dates, showing only those columns for current and future dates. And if you want to be really creative, use different colours for the cells to represent different activities, i.e. blue cells = to be done; red cells = overdue etc.

Follow these 3 time management tips, and you will soon be using more time more wisely!

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Planning & Management

3 Simple Strategies to Get New Clients Over the Next 30 Days

If you’re struggling to get more clients, there are three simple strategies that you can implement that will help.

But, more importantly, taking consistent, daily action is the real answer to getting more clients.

I’ve had many conversations with business owners these past few months who are, quite frankly, really struggling with their businesses:

  • They have little to no clients.
  • They’re not making the income they need just to pay the bills.
  • They’re barely keeping their heads above water.

When faced with this situation, there’s really only one thing they can do – and that is focus on getting new paying clients.

Maintaining a good cash flow is at the heart of building a successful business; therefore your focus needs to be on getting more clients who are willing to pay for your services.

The only way you can do that is to work with clients who will pay you for your one-on-one services.

Therefore you should forget about:

  • Updating your website.
  • Spending your time on launching a new product or program (if you’re struggling to fill your practice with one-on-one clients, you will struggle to fill your programs).
  • Putting together a telesummit or other major list building event.

Yes, these are all great things to do, but short-term, the focus really has to be on getting more paying clients – this is the single, fastest way to improve your cash flow.

So put all of that “busy” stuff aside, and instead focus on these three simple strategies to get more clients.  You can easily implement each of these strategies so that you can get new clients in the next 30 days — aim for a goal of 3 new clients:

1.  Follow-up with past clients. If you’ve had some success in your business and have worked with a few clients over the past 12-18 months, then take some time to:

  • Check back in with them and see how they’re doing.
  • Ask them if there’s anything they need any help with.
  • Update them on what’s happening in your business.
  • If they’re local, offer to reconnect over coffee.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business is to forget your past clients and not touch base with them again.

2.  Connect with “warm” leads. How about those conversations you had with potential clients that said “no” or “maybe” to your services? Go back to them and, following the example above, reconnect with them.

Chances are they’re in a different place than they were when you last spoke and they may be ready to work with you this time around.

3. Attend in-person networking events. Connecting with people face-to-face is one of the best ways to meet new clients/potential clients.  Whilst the person you may be speaking with may not be an ideal client you never know who they know.

So when you meet someone at a networking event, never try to sell to them. Get to know them first, build the relationship, and make sure the conversation is about them. And ask them, “who do you know who…” and see if they can offer you any referrals.

When you take consistent steps, day in day out, that’s when you’ll start to see results in your business, i.e. getting more clients.

And these steps I’ve shared with you are all very simple to implement – no complicated technology involved!

Action Step: Create a daily action plan outlining exactly what you’re going to do every day for the next 30 days to get three new clients.

And work that plan!

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People & Relationships Planning & Management

Mastering Modern Management in the Millennial Workplace (pt. II)

In part 1, we covered what it takes to understand millennials, as well as their impacts, and we discussed what management vs. leadership means, especially in a world of remote work. In pt. II we discuss adaptation, education, purpose and corporate social responsibility.

Be Adaptive: Never Stop Educating Yourself

No matter what field you’re in, Millennials and technological change are infiltrating your operations. What’s more, the rate of change that we’re seeing now will only grow as time goes on, meaning that you need to learn how to get ahead of the curve and stay ahead.

This means that old, long and drawn-out campaigns relying on rigid processes and technology won’t work anymore — or at least that they won’t work for long. The lack of fluid structure and adaptive decision making is exactly why Blockbuster failed as a company where Netflix succeeded. Learning to predict these differences means committing to continued acquisition of knowledge.

To accomplish this goal, some people peruse blogs and use the internet to source information on new technology and management. Others prefer a more formal course of education, such as a postgraduate degree related to business. In fact, learning company Context reports that the MBA represents 25 percent of all graduate degrees awarded, with permutations like the executive MBA (EMBA) program, designed for business professionals who are already mid-career and can be earned while working full time.

Of course, not everybody is sure whether or not the MBA is worth it for them. Arizona State University’s online resources number one question for those questioning the MBA is “do you aspire to be a leader?” This is because 86 percent of post-graduate recipients reported that the MBA did indeed prepare them for leadership roles.

Whatever your preferred method of knowledge acquisition, be sure that you’re using that knowledge in practice as adaptively as possible. All of that said, there’s one more big thing that needs to be understood about modern employees.

Work With Purpose & Corporate Social Responsibility

Millennials have tightened the relationship between purpose and work, and have even begun to change the face of ethics in businesses, with corporate leaders such as Suburu, Honda, Marks and Spencer, and Nestle investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures. Each of the aforementioned have taken steps to promote initiatives centered around ethics and sustainability, from decreased landfill waste, to cutting carbon emissions and reducing water use.

It’s not just consumers who are demanding that companies promote better CSR, but those companies’ employees themselves. Modern workers want to care about the work that they do, and knowing that the company they work for is bettering the world or society in someway can provide that meaning. Here are four methods companies can utilize to boost CSR efforts.

 

  1. Give back to a cause that your employees and customers care about. Research causes in the community your company serves or in which it is based.
  2. Set up volunteer programs hosted by your company. This will give employees a feeling of connection to both your organization and they community they’re making a difference in.
  3. Embrace cause-marketing. Partner with a nonprofit and donate sales or labor to better their cause.
  4. Get feedback from the board. Getting a board of directors on your side means you might get a better CSR budget, or even that the board members themselves get hands-on with the initiatives.

The bottom line is that companies who exist solely to turn a profit won’t exist for much longer, because employees will flock to organizations that take the extra effort to embrace CSR.

While millennials certainly didn’t bring about the digital and societal catalysts that have forever changed the workplace, they are inextricably tied to them via their values and skills — and they’re not the last generation that is going to usher dynamic transformation in the world of work either. Managers who are learning to lead in this millennial-dominated world should simultaneously be gearing up for the next generation of workers that will soon be pouring into conference rooms and board meetings around the globe. The only way to stay on top in this world is to think ahead and be adaptable. Whether or not you think you’re getting the employees you need, it’s your responsibility to be the manager and leader that they deserve. Perhaps someday they’ll follow your example and lead new generations of work down the road.

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People & Relationships Planning & Management

Mastering Modern Management in the Millennial Workplace (pt. I)

The workplace has changed. Millennials are now proportionally the most represented generation in the office, bumping shoulders with Gen Xers and baby boomers both in employee and leadership positions. With these millennials came vast technological change and the quirks of a growing, intergenerational workforce.

As such, the skills it took to manage an office 10 years ago are completely different than those required of modern managers, whose offices, in some cases, now exist as hybrid or even fully virtual spaces, with employees that range in digital competency from expert to amateur, and who they may never have actually met in person. This is becoming the norm, whether modern managers and leaders like it or not.

So how does one go about mastering modern management in the millennial workplace? While not definitive, here are a couple of tips that can help new cats and old dogs alike get a grip on contemporary leadership.

Understanding Millennials and Their Impact

Millennials, as a group, have received a lot of criticism in the past couple of years, and it’s only recently that you’ll find positive mentions of their generation and the impacts they have on society. While the former isn’t necessarily deserved, the latter absolutely is; millennials bring unique values and experiences to the workforce that are progressive and civically minded. They are the future of — well, everything! It’s only right that we recognize what value this generation presents to both past and future generations. The experts at Pepperdine University have presented these statistics on the millennial workforce, including information on what they value, what they want from an employer, and positive traits that they bring to the global workforce:

 

  • There are 79.8 million millennials in the U.S. By 2025 millennials will represent nearly 75 percent of the workforce.
  • 72 percent of Millennials want to be their own boss — however, if they do have a boss, 79 percent would want that boss to act as a mentor.
  • 88 percent prefer a collaborative work culture rather than a competitive one.
  • Bosses are the number one reason that millennials leave their job. Furthermore, three out of four millennials don’t know where they stand with regard to performance — nearly 90 percent would feel more confident if they had regular check-ins with their bosses.
  • 40 percent of millennials stated that their ability to excel in their job is contingent upon deriving meaning from their work.
  • Tech-savvy, socially conscious, civic-minded, progressive, diverse, and compassionate are all accurate descriptors for the millennial generation.

 

What these stats show us is that the millennial-influenced workplaces generally value meaningful work, autonomy, and good relationships with their bosses. This is where it helps to know the difference between management and leadership. Mix that with their inherent knack for technology, and you have a potentially sticky situation concerning remote management and digital leadership.

Remote Management and Digital Leadership

Though it may seem a new concept, the term “telecommuting” was actually coined in 1973 by former NASA engineer Jack Nilles — who was, at the time, the Director of Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Southern California. After his research uncovered the numerous benefits inherent in this mode of work, he projected the concept would proliferate in the public sphere in the 1990s. While it took a little bit longer, technology has caught up to the hype, and now nearly 3 percent of the U.S. workforce (3.7 million employees) works remotely at least half the time, according to recent survey results.

Managers would do well to make sure that, even though the office may be virtual, office hours and protocol are still respected. Communication may be written more often than not, facilitated by apps like Slack or Skype — but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t videoconference with employees regularly just to maintain a personable presence in their working lives.

To that end, what modern employees are looking for in their bosses has evolved over the years. They’re looking for more than to just be managed; they’re looking for leaders. Rutgers Online points to three primary differences that drive this dichotomy:

  1. Empathy. Employees want to build relationships with their bosses, but they can’t do that unless that leader is empathetic. Where managers might be firm and unyielding, good leaders empathize and work with employees instead of against them.
  2. Open communication. “Leaders need to be willing to communicate about anything and everything when it is necessary to support their team or followers,” write the experts at Rutgers. “They should be able to share criticism in constructive ways. They must be willing to admit their mistakes. They need to be able to ask for help or for more effort. And they must be willing to say the hard things in a helpful and controlled way in order to get the correct message across.”
  3. Motivation and Encouragement. Similar to having empathy, managers need to learn how to motivate each employee individually, as well as how to motivate his or her team as a whole.

Learning to manage effectively in today’s society might mean navigating new technology and leadership styles that seem foreign, even if underlying principles of management are practically the same. This is why it’s imperative that modern managers and leaders be adaptive and never stop educating themselves.