Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management

How can you increase your sales?

2011-11-23T09:00:00.002Z

How can you sell more of your products and services? How can you increase your sales? Your business sales may have levelled off, your turnover may be growing more slowly than you would like or you may have experienced a dip in sales. Whichever category you are in, what can you do to increase your sales?

Identify who your ideal customer is. Who is your ideal customer? What are their characteristics? How do they prefer to buy? The more you understand about your ideal client (whether businesses or individuals), the easier it is to target and market to them and get more sales.

Sell more to your existing customers. What products and services are your existing customers buying from you? Are you in regular contact with your existing customers? Your existing customers may buy more from you of what they currently buy or may buy some of your other products and services if you tell them about them. Regular communication with your clients will encourage them to buy more from you.

Understand your customers' requirements. What do your customers want from your business? Are their requirements changing? Understanding your customers' requirements and making sure you keep up with their changing needs will help you to increase sales as you will know what they want and are better placed to meet their needs.

Improve customer service. What do your customers think about your service? Are you losing or upsetting customers due to poor customer service? Improving customer service will help with client retention and thereby sales.

Identify your warmest prospects and market to them. Who are your warmest prospects? Who is most likely to buy from you? Marketing can be very costly so targeting your resources to the warmest prospects is the most cost effective way to generate sales. Your warmest prospects are likely to be your existing customers, potential customers who your existing customers can recommend you to, enquirers to your business who have not purchased yet and other contacts of your business.

Manage your enquirers to maximise the chance of them buying. How do you manage and follow up enquirers? How do you encourage enquirers to buy from you? Marketing experts say that it takes an average of 7 contacts with each enquirer before they become a customer. You can increase your sales by good prompt follow up and keeping in regular touch with your enquirers and not giving up if they don't buy after the first contact with your company.

Reduce the number of different products and services you offer. Do you have too many products and services? Would you increase sales by specialising more? By focusing on your best selling products and services and being a specialist in those you may find that you can sell more overall.

Increase your prices. Are you selling your products and services too cheaply? Are your prices in line with the value that you are offering to your customers? You may be undercharging your customers and be able to increase your prices for new customers or all your customers. This way your sales may increase even without increasing volumes.

Increase your capacity. Are you struggling to increase your sales because of capacity issues in your business? Are you turning customers away? To enable your sales to increase you may need to increase your internal resources (e.g. take on more staff, upgrade your IT systems) or become more efficient and productive.

Expand your market. What area do you currently operate in? What products and services do you sell? What types of customers do you service? To increase sales you may want to look at expanding your market (e.g. selling over the Internet, selling in a different location, selling to a different type of customer, increasing your products and services).

Do something different to your competitors. What do you do differently to your competitors? Why should customers buy from you? How can you stand out from your competitors and be the company that customers flock to? Think about the companies you buy from and what attracts you to them to get ideas. If you can stand out from the crowd this may result in increased sales.

Be where your customers are. How do your potential customers find out about you? Where do you need to be for them to notice you? Think about where your potential customers are and how you can make contact with them (e.g. if they are all iphone users do you need to have an iphone app?). If you can be where they are you have more opportunity to get them to buy from you.

Get testimonials from satisfied clients and show them to prospective customers. What feedback do you have from your customers? Do you ask them for testimonials? We are more likely to buy from a company if we can see what their customers say about them so use customer testimonials in your marketing.

Focus on sales. What are you doing to increase sales? Are you reviewing your sales strategy on a regular basis? By focusing on sales and what you can do to increase them you are more likely to see an increase. You may find that you have to try different strategies before your sales start to increase, so keeping focused and being flexible will give you the best chance of success.

There are many more ways to increase your sales but hopefully this article has given you plenty of ideas to think about in relation to your business.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the November 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What Do Your Customers Think About Your Business?

2011-10-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

Do you know what your customers think about your business? What is their view of the service they receive? Are you listening to your customers? Are you putting your customers first? Have you looked at your business from your customers' perspective? It is very easy to get caught up in the day to day of running your business and not put your customers first. However if you do this you are likely to find that your business starts to struggle and your customers go elsewhere. So what can you do to improve the service you provide?

Understand your customers' requirements of your business. Your customers won't necessarily tell you their requirements; you will need to ask them. You may do this via a questionnaire, focus groups or speaking to them individually.

Be a customer of your competitors. Try out the service of your competitors and understand whether you need to improve the service of your business as a result.

Ask your customers what they think of your service. How often do you ask your customers for feedback on your service? You can do this in many ways e.g. a short survey, a phone call or even a chat after they have made a purchase.

Exceed expectations. When our expectations are exceeded we are very happy. How can you engender this feeling with your customers? What is the difference about your service that will make the difference to them?

Look after your customers. How do you want to be treated when you are buying something? Look after your customers in the way you want to be looked after. Set customer service standards so your customers are always well looked after by your business.

Always do as you say you are going to do. One of the most annoying things for any customer is when something is promised and then it doesn't happen e.g. you promise to call the customer before 2pm and you forget. Always do what you say you are going to do.

Communicate regularly. Keep in touch with your customers throughout the buying process and afterwards. Encourage your customers to repeat purchase. A happy customer will want to buy from you again. Send them information on new products and services and ask their opinion.

Make them feel special. Make your customers feel special by treating them as individuals. Even if you are dealing with large companies make the person who is buying from you feel important. Personalise your relationship with your customers.

Listen to your customers. How often do you really listen to what your customers are saying to you? It is key to listen to not just what they are saying but also to understand the underlying meaning of what they are saying. What are they really saying about your business?

Make the customer experience as simple and straightforward as possible. It is very frustrating when what should be a simple process is made unnecessarily complicated. Put yourself in your customers' shoes and understand what they are experiencing. What can you simplify?

Don't get defensive or make excuses. If a customer isn't happy or raises an issue with you, stay calm and don't get defensive or make excuses. You may think they are incorrect but apologise, investigate what they are saying and provide a resolution for them.

Resolve complaints quickly, efficiently and effectively. If you receive a complaint about a product or service, resolve it quickly, efficiently and effectively and to the customer's satisfaction. An unhappy customer is very bad for your business as they will tell everyone else about their experience.

Look for underlying issues, problems and trends. Always look wider than individual complaints and issues. Not every customer will provide feedback; some will just not use your business again. Look for the underlying reason and look for trends. If you solve the underlying issues your overall customer service will improve.

Say 'thank you'. We all liked to be thanked, so thank your customers for their business.

What will you now be doing differently with your customers as a result of reading this article?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the October 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Don't Try And Control The Uncontrollable!

2011-09-29T16:25:00.003+01:00

How much time do you spend worrying or getting stressed about things that you have little or no control over? By doing this you can end up feeling very uncertain, overwhelmed, stressed and powerless. However it is very easy to think like this and get in a state. It can also stop you focusing on the areas that you can influence and control. So what can you do about it? Here are some tips to help you:

Understand what is within and outside of your control. By identifying what is within and outside your control you can start to move forward more positively e.g. you can control how often your business contacts your existing customers but you cannot control what the media say about consumer confidence.

Accept that you cannot control the uncontrollable. By accepting the things that you have little or no control over you will be surprised at how quickly you start to feel more in control. You can choose how you think about these things and if you spend less time worrying about them you have more time to focus on the areas you can control.

Change your reaction to things that you have little or no control over. Now you understand the things that you cannot control you can change your reaction to them e.g. you cannot control another person's behaviour, but you can choose to change how you react to them.

Focus on the areas that are within your control. Once you have identified the areas that are within and outside your control, focus on those areas that you have control over.

Set goals for the areas within your control. Decide on what you want to achieve in the areas that are within your control, whether this be in your personal or business life. By understanding what you want to achieve you are more likely to get there and not get distracted.

Plan the action you are going to take. Make a plan of how you are going to achieve your goals. A plan will give a focus to your activity, as well as helping you to understand the different things you need to do.

Take action on the things you can control. By taking action on the things you can control you will start to feel much more in control and you will start making progress. You will also find you have more time for these areas as you will not be worrying about all those areas you cannot do anything about.

Share with others. Often it is difficult to see for yourself that you are getting worried about something that is outside your control. Therefore when you feel anxious, overwhelmed or stressed it may help to talk to someone else about it. Try talking to someone who is impartial and not involved in your day to day personal or business life as they will give a fresh perspective and help you see the wood from the trees.

Remember that you have a choice. Don't forget that you have a choice about how you think and feel about things, as well as how you react to them.
If you are trying to control the uncontrollable hopefully this article will have given you some ideas as to how to move forward.

Other articles: You will find lots of other articles on our website including:
Can stress be good for you?
Stress management tips
How to deal with a stressful situation?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the September 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How Can You Grow Your Business?

2011-07-18T14:30:00.005+01:00

Are you looking to grow your business? Have you been trying to grow your business but are finding it difficult to achieve the growth you want? When business owners think about growing their business they tend to focus on increasing sales of existing products and services. However this is not the only way to achieve business growth. Here are some different ways to achieve business growth which you may want to consider:

Increase sales of current products and services. You may be able to achieve the growth you want by selling more of what you currently sell. This may be through encouraging your customers to repeat purchase, gaining new customers similar to your current customers or targeting new types of customers. Sales and marketing activity, promotions, price changes and better deals with suppliers may also stimulate demand.

Focus on a niche. Narrowing down the products or services you offer may be a better route to growth for you. By focusing in on a niche you may find that your business will grow more quickly as all your efforts will be targeted on a smaller range of products or services.

Develop or introduce new products and services. You may want to consider introducing new products or services. These may be similar lines to what you offer now or something completely different. They may be what your competitors offer or you may want to develop your own unique products and services through innovation.

Introduce new sales channels or markets. Another possibility for growth is to sell through new sales channels. This may be by using agents or associates or maybe selling through your website. You may also want to look for other types of customers such as selling to the public sector or selling overseas.

Open in a different location. You may be able to expand your business by opening up in a different location. This may give you access to a new market place and enable you to replicate your business quickly somewhere else.

Enter into a joint venture or partnership with another business. You may find that by entering into a joint venture or partnership with another company that you can grow your business. This may be with a company that sells similar, complimentary or quite different products or services to you.

Merge with or buy another business. You may want to increase your business incrementally by purchasing another business or merging with another company. This may require a bigger investment than some of the other routes to growth but it may get you the growth you want much more quickly.

Franchise your business. You may feel that your business can be grown through franchising. Your business may be such that you can sell franchises to other business owners who will the run the businesses and pay you a franchise fee.

Invest in your business or take on outside investment. You may be struggling to grow your business due to a lack of investment in the business. You may find that you can enable growth by investing in the business or getting others to invest in your business. Such investment may be used to take on additional resources such as staff, equipment or technology that will then enable you to take on more business. Outside investors may provide their expertise as well which may help you achieve the growth you are looking for.

Improve business productivity and efficiency. Growth can also be enabled through increasing business productivity and efficiency. This may help you to get more sales through your existing infrastructure and cost base.

Enhance customer service. Could you improve the level of customer service you provide? Better customer service may result in an increase in repeat business and more referrals of new customers by existing customers.

Get help and support. You may need outside help to grow your business. This help and support will be personal to you but may include consultancy, sales and marketing expertise, business mentoring and coaching, financial analysis or help from another business owner.

If you are looking to grow your business hopefully this article will have given you some ideas of the different options available

Other articles: You will find lots of other business articles on our website including:
What is your longer term business strategy?
How to beat the recession?
What can your business learn from the recession?
How to work 'on', not just 'in', your business?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the July 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Who Is Managing Your Time?

2011-06-29T13:37:00.005+01:00

Are you managing your own time or is it managing you? We now live in a world which demands instant communication 24 hours a day and seven days a week. New technology and social media enable us to be in touch with each other whenever we want to and allow us to be updated on information and news instantaneously. You are expected to be available at any time of the day and respond immediately. The consequence is that you have many more demands on your time and it is much more challenging to manage your own time and have time to focus on the most important things for you. You may find that you feel out of control, distracted, stressed and that you are drawn into multi-tasking, not able to give anything or anyone your full attention.

So how can you manage your own time and be in control in the world today? Here are some ideas that you may want to try:

How are you spending your time? Have a look at a typical day and ascertain how you are spending your time and what you achieved. Are you looking at Twitter all day and getting distracted by what you are seeing? Are you looking at your texts and emails as soon as they arrive and trying to deal with them? Are you checking your mobile in meetings? Do you keep having a look at Facebook to keep track of your friends? Are you giving people and priorities your 100% attention or are you trying to do other things as well? What did you want to do in the day that never got done?

How urgent and important was the communication you received? Go through the communication you received in the day and understand how much of it required an immediate response and how important it was. You may have dealt with something straight away but it may not have been urgent or important and it distracted you from a much more important task. Did you need to look at Twitter when you did? Did you need to answer those emails and texts straightaway? Did you need to keep checking the news headlines on the internet or TV?

Take control. You will feel much better, be more productive and achieve much more if you are in the driving seat and in control. You can decide what you do and when, you don't need to let social media, technology, news and other communication take control of you. If you are not in control and feel you have no choice you will feel stressed, angry, frustrated and probably helpless. You will also find that you are not achieving your business and personal goals.

What are your business and personal objectives and priorities? Be clear about what you want to achieve in your business and your personal life. Prioritise these and plan what you need to do and when. From this you can plan what you are going to do each day.

Plan each day based on your business and personal objectives and priorities. To be in control you need to decide what you are going to do each day and align this plan with your business and personal objectives and priorities. Be realistic about what you can achieve in a day and allow time for the things that need doing each day.

Identify the best way to manage communication, social media and technology. Allocate time in your day to answer your emails, texts and phone calls and to access social media. You may find that you want to allow several slots in the day when you are easily distracted to do this e.g. first thing in the morning, after lunch and the last hour of the day. At other times in the day focus on your planned activity and don't get distracted. Consider having someone to look after all this for you and just pass the urgent and important matters to you to deal with.

Set your own boundaries. It is your business and your life so set your own boundaries and priorities. Communication, information, news and social media all have a place in your business and personal life but it is down to you to decide how to use it and how it best fits for you e.g. just because social media is available it doesn't mean you have to be accessing it all the time. What is important for your business and you? Consider the impact on your business as a whole as well. Do you need policies in place for your employees too?

Align your activities with your body clock. If you can align what you do each day with your body clock you will be more effective. If your best time for strategic thinking is in the morning then plan it in then. If your concentration levels are lower in the afternoon, maybe use that for meetings, phone calls and emails. Also consider the week and month as a whole as to which are the best days or weeks for different activities. You will find that by making simple adjustments to when you do things it will pay dividends to your time management and how you feel.

Turn communication and technology off. Do you need to be accessing the news every minute of the day? Do you need to have your mobile switched on by your bed at night? Do you need to check your work emails when you are at home? Do you need to check Facebook constantly? You may find it hard at first to turn communication and technology off because you are so used to it being there 24 hours a day seven days a week. However turning it off will give you more choice and control as to what you do with your time.

Give everything your full attention. How often do you give one task or person your full attention? You have all seen people checking their mobile or laptop during meetings, answering their phone when they are supposed to be talking to you, texting in restaurants when socialising and probably many other examples. Try giving everything you do your 100% attention and see what the results are? You will probably find that you are more satisfied, calmer, more productive and more likely to achieve your business and personal objectives.

Hopefully the above ideas will help you to take back control and manage your own time.

Other relevant articles: You will find lots of other articles on our website including some which are relevant to managing your time such as:
Time Is Money
Time Management - A Different Perspective
Are You Procrastinating?
Keeping Focused

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the June 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Are You Prepared For The Unexpected To Happen?

2011-05-19T12:49:00.003+01:00

As a business owner you are probably so focused on running your business day to day that you don't have time to think about potential disruptions to your business. However what would you do if the unexpected happened? The unexpected could be anything from a wide range of possibilities including your website may get hacked into, your premises may be flooded, a key member of staff may need to take time off at short notice, your equipment may break down, your broadband connection may have a fault, your computer system may fail or a key supplier may go into administration. If you are not prepared the unexpected could have disastrous consequences for your business. So what can you do now that will help you if the unexpected does happen?

Here are some tips that you may want to consider so that you are ready for the unexpected:

Identify the potential crises that may arise. What could happen that would disrupt your business? We have given some examples above but there are many more. To help with this consider your key business functions, the business assets and equipment, your supply chain, what your business is dependent on to service its customers, your location, your staff, things that have happened to other businesses and anything else that could prevent your business running smoothly. Understanding what could happen is the first step to planning what to do.

Understand how these may impact your business. What impact would each of these crises have on your business? Take each crisis in turn and understand the implications e.g. what would happen to your business if your computer systems were down for a week. By going through each potential issue you will understand their potential impact on your business.

Assess the likelihood of each arising. Consider the likelihood of each of the different crises arising. This will enable you to gain perspective on the likely risks and to take decisions on what actions and steps you want to take now and what you are comfortable to leave and deal with if they happen.

Take steps now to minimise the risk. What can you do now to minimise the risk of the unexpected happening? Think about the steps you can take now that may prevent a problem later. These may include better health and safety procedures, alarm systems on your premises, virus protection on your computer systems, supplier financial checks, staff training, password and computer security procedures and regular maintenance of equipment.

Take action now that may help if the unexpected happens. What can you do now that may help your business if you have a problem? Think about the actions you can take now that may help you if the unexpected happens. These may include off site backups for computer systems, databases and websites, testing recovering your systems from these backups, insurance for the key business risk areas including business interruption, staff training, keeping contact databases up to date, alternative premises to use in an emergency, securing additional suppliers, alternative processes to follow and developing a contingency plan.

Develop a contingency plan. If the unexpected happened tomorrow what would you do? It is better to have a plan already in place than to think about it after a problem occurs. Prepare a contingency plan that details how you would handle a crisis in your business. This does not have to be an exhaustive document but relevant to your business. It may include who would be responsible for decision making and the different tasks in a crisis, a list of all key contacts and their contact details, the process you will follow in any crisis and what you will get up and running first in the business. Distribute your plan to all the people who need access to it and keep it up to date.

Responsibilities need to be clear. One of the most important parts of handling a crisis is people understanding their responsibilities, therefore it is critical to plan this in advance and include in your contingency plan. It may be that the business owner takes charge, the sales and marketing manager looks after customer contact, the public relations consultant deals with the media etc. However what if any of these people is away who will take their place?

Communication is key. In any crisis it is critical that the relevant people are informed quickly and accurately of the situation. Do you have up to date contact details for all your key contacts? These may include staff, shareholders, suppliers, service providers, insurers, customers, consultants, emergency services and anyone else you may need to contact if your business is interrupted. You may also have an order of priority as to who is contacted first. These contact lists would be part of your plan as scrambling around for this information after something has happened will delay your handling of the situation. Also your existing communication systems may not work so consider how you will communicate in a crisis?

Ask experts for help. The above may seem quite onerous but it will depend on the size of your business and the critical risk areas. You may feel that you need help with some areas of the above. There are experts in the area of contingency planning that can help you but you can also consult other experts e.g. insurers, IT suppliers, website hosts, service providers.

Test your plan. It is a good idea to test your plan, as finding out it doesn't work before the unexpected happens is much better than realising it doesn't work after the event.

It is your business and you will need to assess what you need to do as regards contingency planning, but hopefully the above has got you thinking about different things that you may want to consider.

Other relevant articles: You will find lots of other articles on our website including some which are relevant to dealing with the unexpected such as:
Managing Change
What Can You Do If Your Business Loses A Big Customer?
Keeping Things In Perspective
How To Deal With A Stressful Situation?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the May 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Confused About Your Priorities - What Can You Do?

2011-04-28T09:00:00.002+01:00

One of the common challenges for many business owners is how to prioritise their workload and how to decide what to do next. It is easy when you are running a business to get overwhelmed by everything that you have to do and confused about your priorities. You may also get sidetracked on unimportant tasks rather than the more important ones and the longer term development of your business. So what can you do to help in this area?

Here are some tips on prioritisation that you may want to consider for your own workload and your business as a whole:

Where do you want the business to be? Are you clear about where you want your business to be in the short, medium and longer term? Whatever your objectives are, having clear business goals will enable you to have a focus for all your business activity. It will also enable you to understand the key areas to concentrate on in your business.

What do you need to do to achieve your business objectives? Once you are clear about your business goals, the next step is to identify what you need to do to achieve these objectives. This will help you to ensure that you have not missed anything off your list of priorities.

What else needs doing? Review your list and see if there are other things that need to be added to your list. There may be other steps you need to take to enable you to move the business to where you want it to be or ongoing tasks that need completing as part of running your business.

When do the above need doing by? Once you understand what needs doing think about when each task needs completing by. For larger more complex projects you will need to break down the project into smaller more manageable tasks with individual deadlines.

What can you drop off the list? This is an area that everyone struggles with. You all have your list of things that you like doing but they may not be adding value or taking the business to where you want it to be. Be ruthless and drop off all these items so that you can focus 100% on achieving the business objectives.

Can any of the tasks be delegated or outsourced? Another challenge for business owners is hanging onto tasks that someone else could do for them and often can do in a lot less time. Consider what you can delegate or outsource and move forward with this. You may think that you cannot afford to employ someone or use an outside company to do some of your work, but sometimes you need to take this step to release the potential of your business.

If you could only do one thing, what would it be? To get to the most important item on your list ask yourself if you could do only one thing what would it be, and work through your list in this way to get things prioritised. Another way of prioritising is to imagine you are on a hot air balloon and you need to remove some of the weight (your tasks). Start to remove the tasks in order of least importance, so you are left with the most important one, as well as an order for the rest.

Which task do you need to do first to achieve your business objectives? You can think about your list in a different way based on your business objectives. Which task do you need to do first to achieve your business objectives? You can then work through the list in this way establishing a list of priorities.

Be flexible and allow for interruptions and the unexpected. Things don't always go according to a plan and we all have interruptions to our day and things happening that we are not expecting. Allow time for these in your schedule and be flexible.

Re-prioritise every time you need to add something to your list or things change. A key part of prioritisation is re-prioritising when something new comes up or things change. If you stick rigidly to you original priorities you may come unstuck, so it is important to keep reviewing and updating your list.

Still confused, then maybe you need some help. If you are still confused and need some help with prioritisation, then consider working with a business mentor who can help you in this area.

Hopefully the above ideas will help you with the prioritisation of things within your business and for you personally.

Other articles: You may want to read other related articles on our website such as Time is Money, Time Management - A Different Perspective, How To Work 'On', Not Just 'In', Your Business? and Are You Procrastinating?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the April 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Do You Have Credit Control Or Cash Flow Problems?

2011-02-25T09:00:00.002Z

Do you have cash flow problems in your business? Is your bank balance lower than it could be or are you at your overdraft limit? Do you agree your payment terms with your customers up front? Do you issue your invoices as soon as the product or service has been delivered? Are you chasing your outstanding invoices or are you just waiting for your customers to pay? Credit control is key to business success but are you giving it the priority it deserves in your business?

Here are some tips on credit control to help you improve your business cash flow:

Make credit control a priority. Many businesses do not prioritise credit control and only realise its importance when it because a crisis. It is so easy to be focused on delivering products and services as this is usually the area of expertise of the business owner, however unless the money for these products and services is collected on a timely basis you will soon find yourself with cash flow problems. This can end up being very costly in terms of overdraft charges and write offs, as well as even leading to business failure.

Have a process and follow it. What is your credit control process? Many business owners cannot answer this question, can you? Having a set process which your business follows including contracting payment terms, timely and accurate invoicing, chasing invoices, escalation procedures and what you do if a customer does not pay will enable you to improve your cash flow.

Which customers do you offer credit to and what are your payment terms? You need to decide which customers you will offer credit to and if you are going to offer credit when do you want to be paid. You may want to review your current terms to see if they are appropriate for your business (e.g. you may offer 30 days credit but could bring this down to 14 days) and consider deposits and staged payments. You may want to credit check the financial position of clients you are planning on working with, especially where they will represent a large percentage of your turnover.

Be clear about your payment terms. Do you discuss your payment terms when contracting with a customer and do you have your terms in your contracts and agreements and on your invoices? If you are not up front and clear about your payment terms with your customers it will be much more difficult to collect payment within your terms.

Consider offering different payment methods. The more options your customers have for payment, the more chance they will pay you. These may include direct payment into your bank account, direct debit, credit card, Paypal, cheque or cash.

Be timely and accurate. A lot of unpaid monies arise from delays in issuing invoices and errors in invoices. Consider when you are going to issue invoices (e.g. rather than issuing them all at the end of the month why not issue them as soon as the product or service is delivered) and always check that your invoices have been received. Also think about how you are going to ensure their accuracy.

Customer service problems. Another reason for unpaid invoices is poor customer service. Where you have fallen short of your normal service standards discuss this with the customer and get to a resolution. If you ignore it you will end up with a disputed invoice at a later date.

Don't be too nice! You may not like asking for payment, but remember you have provided a product or service and the customer has agreed to pay you for this. The customer has an obligation to pay you within the agreed payment terms. Ensuring you get paid may require you to not only ask for money but also to be firm with your clients. You may have to consider stopping working with a client if they are slow paying or do not pay at all. If you are too nice about it your business will be the loser.

Get help. Where you don't have the time or the expertise to manage your credit control in house, you may want to seek outside help. There are lots of people who can help you with this including credit controllers and accountants. You may also want to use a credit collection agency for old outstanding invoices and may want to consider specialist financing help such as invoice finance.

Hopefully these tips have got you thinking about the credit control in your business and given you some ideas to improve your business cash flow position.

Other articles: All our newsletter articles can now been found on our website at http://makinithappen.co.uk/Articles.html. Why not take a look and see if there are any articles you have missed or can help you with your current challenges?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the February 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What's Stopping You?

2011-01-31T12:06:00.003Z

The beginning of the year is a time to look ahead at what you want to achieve for your business over the next year. You have probably already done this. However actually achieving your objectives is much more challenging that deciding what you want to achieve. So if you are struggling to move forward with what you want to, it may be worth considering what is stopping you? This will help you to understand where you need to focus your attention first.

Here are some ideas as to what may be stopping you moving forward with your business goals:

Don't know where to start. This can hold you back because if you don't know where to start you will never get started. If you don't know where to start, you probably need to get some help from someone who is experienced in what you want to do e.g. If you want to increase your sales, you may want to talk to a sales and marketing expert.

Can't decide what to do. You may be generally indecisive or just can't decide about this change. If you can't decide what to do, you may want to look at the different options and weigh up the alternatives. If this doesn't help you may want to get support from someone with the business experience to help you e.g. a business mentor or consultant.

Something else needs doing first. If something else needs doing first then consider if it does need doing first or are you just using it as an excuse? If it does need doing then get it completed so you can move forward with your goals.

Don't have time. If you don't have time in your business then you need to look at how you are going to generate time. You may be wasting time on things that don't really need doing, there may be a need for more delegation or outsourcing, it may be a time management issue, people may be doing the wrong jobs or need training or you may need additional staff.

It seems too big. If what you want to do seems too big then consider breaking it down into smaller more manageable tasks and milestones. If it is a complex project you may need some help on project planning.

Don't know how. If you don't know how to do something this may be an indication that you need some training in your business or you may need to seek some help from someone with more expertise or outsource the work.

Procrastinating. If you find that you are doing anything else but what you want to do then you are probably procrastinating. To move on you need to tackle the procrastination by focusing on the end goal and why you want it, looking at your motivation, trying some easier tasks first to get into it and maybe introducing rewards for achievement.

Worried about your ability to achieve. Often you don't get going on something because you are worried about your ability to deliver and achieve it. If you worry about it you will never start and if you don't start you won't achieve your goals. Start with some small changes first and see the impact and then move onto the larger ones. However you may be worrying because the goal is too risky for your business, if this is the case, then you may want to change or downsize your goal.

Don't have the resources. You may have something you really want to achieve but if you don't have enough resources or the right resources in your business you will not achieve it. You may want to review the resources you have against what you need and address the gaps before starting.

It is the wrong goal! If you are very anxious or keep putting off what you want to achieve then have a good think about whether what you want is right for your business and what you really want. You may find that you have the wrong goal! There is nothing wrong with this and it is better to realise this early and change course.

As you can see from the above there are many reasons that could be stopping you moving forward towards your goals. Don't just motor on regardless as you will find you will not achieve what you want to. If you can understand what is stopping you and address this first, you will have much more chance of getting your business to where you want it to be.

NOTE: All our newsletter articles can now been found on our website at http://makinithappen.co.uk/Articles.html. You will find articles on some of the topics mentioned above e.g.
Are you procrastinating?,
Time is money
Time management - a different perspective
Managing change
What is your longer term business strategy?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the January 2011 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Are Any Of Your Customers Unprofitable?

2010-11-25T09:00:00.003Z

It is very difficult to turn down potential customers or stop working with existing customers. However sometimes you may find that some of your customers are costing more to your business than they are generating and they may also be diverting your attention from more profitable clients. You may not have looked at your customers in this way before but you may have noticed signs from your customers and potential customers that all is not well.

So what are the warning signs that you need to look out for and that may indicate that you don't want to work with a particular customer any longer or not take similar customers on in future?

Want everything done very cheaply. Often the customers who want the lowest price, become the biggest problem further down the line. Watch out for customers who try to negotiate your prices down dramatically.

Complain constantly and are never satisfied. Customers who complain constantly and are never satisfied can be a real problem for the business. They will take up a lot of time and become very costly.

Contact you at all hours. Customers who contact you at all hours can be extremely disruptive to your business. They will email or phone you at any time of day or night with their demands.

You feel a sense of dread at the mention of their name. This is a very obvious way to notice potentially unprofitable customers as they are impacting how you feel and you don't want to deal with them.

Set impossible deadlines. Unprofitable customers are often those who set impossible deadlines and want everything done immediately. This is not only disruptive but may cause you to delay work for other clients.

Pay late or not at all. Where a client does not pay your invoices within the payment terms or doesn't pay without lots of chasing, they are probably unprofitable to you as you will be spending lots of time chasing their payments.

Try to get you to do extra work for the original price. Customers who try and say that they thought extras were included or expect you to do more than was agreed for the original price may become unprofitable as you will be spending much longer than you are charging for.

Don't take your advice or listen to you. Customers who are paying for your help but are not taking your advice or listening to you can take up a lot more of your time than planned. They may also end up trying to pass responsibility back to you for problems they have created.

Take up a disproportionate amount of time. Unprofitable customers often take up a disproportionate amount of your time to what they are paying you for. They may be contacting you a lot, asking you to do lots of extras, changing their mind a lot, not meeting deadlines and not doing as you ask, which can all result in extra work.

So if you notice any of the above warning signs you may want to consider whether or not you want to continue working with a particular customer. Don't make a hasty decision. Understand what is actually happening and if you feel that your business will be better off without them, maybe it is time to stop working with them. This can actually be very liberating and result in you being much better placed to service your other customers and to take on new clients.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the November 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How To Work 'On', Not Just 'In', Your Business?

2010-10-26T09:00:00.004+01:00

It is very difficult as a business owner to fulfil all your roles in the business. You may find that you are always working on the day to day of the business and you have very little time to step back and consider the future. However if you want your business to grow and prosper you need to work 'on' your business, as well as 'in' your business, including working on business goals, strategy, business development, planning, sales and marketing, managing the business and the financial side. This is one of the most challenging areas for business owners to resolve.

So if you are caught up in the day to day, what can you do about it? Here are some ideas to help you:

Decide on where you want your business to be in the short and longer term. Where do you want your business to be in the next month, 3 months, 6 months, year and longer term? Identifying where you want to be will give you a clear vision for moving forward and understanding what you need to change.

Understand what you need to do to achieve your business goals. To achieve what you want to, what do you need to do differently in the business? You may need to spend more time marketing the business or look at your pricing structure to increase your profitability. Understanding the next steps will help you look at where you need to focus your time.

Identify what you are spending your time doing each day. What do you spend your time doing each day? You may be working very long hours, but where is your time going? It is critical to moving forward to understand what you are currently doing.

Look at delegating some of your tasks or outsourcing them. What things are you currently doing that could be delegated or outsourced? These may be tasks that you don't want to do anymore or ones that are not in your area of expertise that someone else could do better.

Review the staffing of your business. What changes do you need to make in the staffing of your business? Maybe you need additional staff or a staff member to work additional hours or at a different time of day.

Focus on productivity and improving efficiency. What improvements can you make to the productivity and efficiency of you, your team and your systems and processes? Businesses often find that they can save time by making changes to their systems and processes and who does what.

Reduce your agenda to the key things for achieving your business goals. What are you doing that doesn't need doing or that is not taking you towards where you want your business to be? It is very easy to procrastinate, get distracted and to do things just because they have always been done. Keeping focused on your business goals will help you to change your current focus.

Set aside regular time each week to step back from the day to day. When are you going to step back from the day to day and focus on the future of your business? Setting aside regular time to step back from the day to day will pay dividends for your business.

Understand the implications of whatever actions you decide to take. What are the implications of the actions you have decided to take? It is important to fully understand the financial and other implications of you stepping back from the day to day, both positive and negative e.g. employing an additional member of staff may cost more in the short term but may enable your business to grow significantly more in the longer term.

Consider getting some outside help. What help do you need in working 'on', not just 'in' your business? You may want to consider using a business mentor to support you in stepping back or you may want to use an expert in a particular area e.g. marketing to advise you on the best way forward.

I hope the above have given you some ideas as to how you may be able to change your role and to enable you to spend more time working 'on', not just 'in' your business.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the October 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What Is The One Change That Will Make The Most Difference To Your Business?

2010-09-27T09:00:00.002+01:00

In September many business owners review their businesses with fresh eyes and consider whether any changes are required. This is usually as a result of taking a break during the summer and having time to think about what is actually happening in your business. Also often you try to make too many changes without succeeding with any, when actually changing one thing well can have a much bigger impact. So I thought this month that a good area to consider would be what is the one change that will make the most difference to your business and how can you identify it?

Here are some questions to get you thinking about the change you may want to make:

What are you worrying about? If you think about what you are worrying about this is likely to be areas that may need changing e.g. you may be worrying about your sales, your relationship with a key supplier or your cash flow position.

What is stopping you moving forward? There may be things in your business that you feel if they were fixed will make a huge difference e.g. process inefficiencies, a particular report that you cannot get from your computer system or not enough staff.

If you could change one thing right now, what would it be? Answering this question straight away should give you the key change as it is likely to be your biggest frustration e.g. start selling online, increase prices or add a new service.

What are your customers talking to you about? Customer feedback is always a good indicator of what is happening in your business so what are your customers telling you e.g. poor quality products, slow deliveries or services that they would like you to offer.

What are other businesses doing that you are not? Being alert to the competition, as well as seeing what other businesses are doing and what is happening in the market place can alert you to changes you need to make e.g. special offers, using new marketing tactics or introducing new more efficient systems.

If everything was how you want it to be, what would be different to now? Thinking about this will give you ideas as to what is not happening now that you want to be e.g. bigger offices, expanding your sales area or getting rid of unprofitable customers.

What could you do to stand out from the competition? Identifying your point of difference or unique selling point can help you to market your business better and to get noticed e.g. you may have a product that no one else offers, have specialist knowledge or can deliver goods quicker.

What are your staff telling you needs changing? Listening to your staff and understanding their frustrations can tell you where changes need to be made e.g. it takes too long to process an order, they don't know how to do something or they are getting lots of returns of a particular product line.

What areas of your business do you feel less comfortable with and why? Understanding which areas of the business you are less comfortable with may highlight parts of your business that you are neglecting and need help with e.g. you may not like presenting to clients, may feel you do not understand marketing or you are struggling with the financial side.

What are you not doing that you feel you should be doing? Often we keep doing what we have always done but there may be things that we are not doing that could make all the difference e.g. you may be marketing to potential new clients but not marketing to your existing and previous customers, you may be issuing invoices but not chasing outstanding invoices or you may be doing things that you don't need to do but not answering important emails and phone calls.

I hope these questions have got you thinking and that you can now make that one change that will make all the difference. When you have made that change, you can then repeat the exercise again to identify the next key change

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the September 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What Can You Do If Your Business Loses A Big Customer?

2010-07-30T09:00:00.004+01:00

Your business may be going along quite happily and then you lose a big customer. This may be as a result of something within your business (e.g. poor customer service) or it may be due to something completely outside of your control (e.g. government cut backs). Whatever the reason, if this happens to your business what can you do?

Here are some suggestions as to what you might want to do if you lose a big customer:

Stay calm. Losing a big customer is likely to significantly impact your business, so it will be easy to panic and get very stressed. Try and stay calm so that you can plan what you need to do next and start to take action to secure new customers.

Reassess your business plan and strategy. Think about what you want to achieve for your business in the short, medium and long term. This may have changed as a result of what has happened and you may need to carefully consider what you now want to achieve.

What can you learn from this experience? Reflect on what has happened and why it has happened. Consider the learning for your business. Maybe you have taken your eye off the business, you have become too dependent on a small number of customers and need to diversify or you haven't been marketing your business regularly to generate new customers.

How have you got customers in the past? Consider how you have marketed your business in the past and where your customers have come from (maybe from your website, referrals, press releases etc.). This will give you an idea as to what marketing you now need to do to replace the business you have lost.

Who are your warmest contacts? Think about all your business contacts and who you can contact to generate new business. Start with your warmest contacts, who will probably be your existing customers, your recent enquirers, clients who may not have used you for a while but who were happy with your business and other business contacts who you have been in touch with recently.

Who else can you contact? What does your business specialise in? What type of companies have you worked with in the past? Identify similar companies that you can approach for business.

Be creative. You need to generate ideas as to what you can do. Spend some time brainstorming either on your own, with your team or with some outside help. Ask your contacts for ideas as to what to do.

Make a plan. Decide on what you now need to do to secure new business and plan out what you are going to do. You may also need to review your cost structure to ensure that it is appropriate for where your business now is.

Start marketing your business or increase your marketing. Now you have identified your warmest contacts, the type of marketing that works for your business and planned out what you need to do, start to market your business or to increase your marketing activity.

Ask for referrals. You often forget to ask your satisfied customers for referrals, but people are usually only too happy to recommend your business to other businesses if they are happy with the service.

Focus on customer service. When you lose a big customer it is easy to get stressed and diverted away from your other customers. Don't forgot your existing customers, make sure you provide a high level of service to them.

Be efficient in your follow up of enquiries. If you are trying to generate new business you will need to stand out from the competition. Ensure you follow up all enquiries promptly and efficiently.

Take action. If you don't do anything your business will be in a serious situation so it is important to take action. Also taking action will help you to calm down.

Be positive. Remind yourself of the strengths of you and your business. Think about your past successes. You have generated new customers before so there is no reason you cannot do it again.

Ask for help. It is at times like these when you have a major change to your business that you may need to use some outside help. Think about who may be able to assist you and approach them for help.

Being faced with losing a big customer is very daunting and potentially very disruptive for your business. However, hopefully if you are ever faced with this situation these tips will help you ride the storm and come out the other side with your business in much better shape.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the July 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How To Deal With A Stressful Situation?

2010-06-23T09:00:00.002+01:00

When you are faced with a stressful situation whether in your business or in your personal life it is very easy to worry, be fearful, get stressed and panic. Some stress is good for you but too much can result in you being unable to think straight, inaction and poor performance. Any of you who have watched the first two of England's football matches in the 2010 World Cup will recognise what we are talking about here!

We have therefore put together some ideas and tips to help you when you are faced with a stressful situation.

Be well prepared. In your business it is a good idea to have a contingency plan for unexpected events (e.g. not being able to use your offices, a computer crash etc.), to have procedures for different eventualities (e.g. a key member of staff is absent from work) and to ensure your staff are well trained to handle stressful situations. In your personal life you can also think about how you will handle stressful and difficult situations and be prepared for such events.

Look after yourself. If you are in good mental and physical shape you will be more able to handle a stressful situation, so it is important to look after yourself on an on going basis, including achieving a good work/life balance, building in relaxation, having fun, eating healthily, exercising and not getting yourself too tired.

Calm yourself down. When you first hear about a stressful event or situation it is easy to panic and get very stressed. Calm yourself down by slowing down your breathing and thinking about how you have overcome similar situations in the past. It may help to move into a different space (e.g. outside the office, away from other people etc.) so you can think things through.

Think positively. When you think positively you will feel in control and confident. Visualise a positive outcome to the stressful situation and focus on past successes and hurdles that you have overcome.

Put things in perspective. When faced with a stressful situation other people may panic and you may be given inaccurate information or the severity of the situation may be exaggerated. Therefore, find out as much information as possible about the situation so you can understand what is actually happening. Also put the situation into context against your business or your life as a whole.

Trust your knowledge, experience and intuition. When dealing with a stressful situation you can panic and forget to utilise all the knowledge and experience you already have. Remind yourself of the resources you have and trust your knowledge, experience and intuition to help you handle the stressful situation.

Make a plan. It is easy to rush straight into taking action but it is critical to first of all make a plan of what you need to do. This will not only help you to ensure that you have covered all angles but will also give you something to refer to as you go along.

Be decisive. People can get very indecisive when faced with these types of situations, which will be very unhelpful. It is therefore critical to be decisive and take decisions in a considered but timely fashion.

Take action. Taking action in itself will calm you and other people down. So once you have your plan, start to take action to resolve the situation.

Write things down. When things are stressful it is inadvisable to have lots of information in people's heads. Write down the plan and ask everyone to write down what they have done. This will help to manage the situation, help people feel in control and will also help after the event to understand what was done.

Ask for help. Faced with a stressful situation you may try to handle it on your own, however, you may want to get some help or someone to talk to. This will provide not only practical assistance but also reassurance.

We hope that the above ideas and tips will help you to handle stressful situations better in the future and to put in a better performance than the England football team have so far in the World Cup!

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the June 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How To Find And Select A Business Mentor?

2010-05-27T09:00:00.002+01:00

In our January 2010 newsletter we included an article on how a business mentor can help you and your business. Another common dilemma for business owners is once you have decided that you would like the support of a business mentor, how do you find one and how do you decide which one is right for you?

So this month we have put together some questions and tips to help you in finding a business mentor and in deciding which one is right for you. These may also be useful if you are looking for a business coach.

What support do you want? Before looking for a business mentor it is a good idea to understand what support you need and in what areas, whether this be general business mentoring for all areas of your business, specific support (e.g. sales and marketing, growing your business etc.), personal support (e.g. stress management, work/life balance etc.) or maybe a mixture of these. If you are not sure what support you want, it will be helpful if you can describe how you feel (e.g. overwhelmed, not strategic enough etc.).

Do you want face to face, telephone or internet support? You can have business mentoring face to face, over the phone, via Skype, via email and even online, so think about your preferred option so that you can find a mentor who can meet your requirements.

Ask your contacts for recommendations. A good starting point for finding a business mentor will be to ask your contacts (business and/or personal) if they can recommend one. They may have used a mentor or know of someone they are happy to recommend to you.

Search on the internet. Try searching on Google and have a look on internet based business directories. Make sure your search is specific and includes your requirements.

Look at the websites of the business mentors. Find out more about the mentors recommended to you and about those you found on the internet by looking at their websites. This will enable you to narrow down your search as you will be able to get a feel as to whether they are right for you from their websites.

Contact a selection of business mentors. Telephone or email the mentors who look right for you and arrange to speak to them to find out more about them and whether they can meet your requirements. The questions below will help you narrow down your search.

Can you relate to and see yourself working with the business mentor? The key to getting the most from the business mentoring is the relationship between you and your business mentor. Spend time talking to them to see whether you get on with them, want to work with them and whether they are right for you.

What business mentoring qualifications, knowledge and experience do they have? Ask them about the business mentoring training they have completed and about their knowledge and experience of business mentoring.

What business knowledge and experience do they have? Ask about their business knowledge and experience, their career to date, who they have worked for, at what level and in what positions. If you want general business support you will want someone with general management experience or who has run their own business rather than a specialist.

How long have they been working as a business mentor? Understand from them how long they have been working as a business mentor and make sure you feel comfortable with this.

What type of clients do they work with and what do they help them with? Ask about the type of clients they have worked with (e.g. the size of the businesses, the business sectors they operate in, the number of staff they employ etc.) and the type of things they have helped them with.

Do they have client testimonials and can you speak to their existing/previous clients? It may help you to decide on a business mentor if you can see some of their client testimonials or talk to their clients.

How do they work with their clients? Ask about how they work with clients and how they will work with you (e.g. how long are the mentoring sessions, how often do they take place, what is your commitment in terms of number of sessions, what is the cost, do they offer a free session so that you can try out their services, do they have a contract that covers their services etc.).

Do you feel that they are right for you and your business? From the above you should be able to decide which mentor is right for you and your business. However, you may want to ask to try them out first with a mentoring session so you can make sure.

Hopefully the above will help you with your search and selection if you decide that you want to work with a business mentor.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the May 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Will Your Business Survive Without You?

2010-04-22T09:00:00.001+01:00

The recent disruption to flights caused by the volcanic ash made me wonder what would happen to my business in my absence. Many businesses are dependent on a small number of key personnel and many business owners and senior managers do not like taking any time off from their business. So what would happen to your business if you were unable to work or keep in touch for whatever reason?

I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some steps that you could take to minimise the impact of your absence from the company in future and which would enable you to take a break from the business.

Build a strong team. It is critical to have a strong team working in your business and to invest in their training and development. Alongside this you need to have good suppliers that you can rely on, whether this be your accountant, bank, solicitor or suppliers of your products and services.

Share your knowledge and experience. Some people are protective of their own knowledge and experience and do not share this with other members of staff. This will lead to problems if these people are absent. Sharing your knowledge and experience will help to develop others and enable them to take on your responsibilities if you are not there.

Have regular team meetings. Regular team meetings will enable everyone in the team to be aware of what is happening in the business, such that work will be able to be completed in the absence of any team member.

Make communication a high priority. In any business communication is critical to its success. This communication may take many forms, including newsletters, regular chats, meetings and updates, communication of the business strategy, plans and targets, as well as operational updates.

Involve your team in decision making. Don't take all the decisions yourself as this will result in the business being totally dependent on you. Involve your team in decision making and delegate decision making to them.

Outsource. Some of the above may not be relevant if your business is just you. However there are still things that you can do. You can outsource many processes, especially the regular ones, such as answering phone calls, arranging meetings, order taking, fulfilment, book-keeping etc. This will all reduce the dependency of the business on just you and outsourcing can also help bigger businesses minimise costs and avoid business interruption.

Delegate. Are there things that only you know how to do? This is a very risky strategy as who will do them when you are not at work. Therefore, delegate tasks to others and ensure that someone else knows how to do what you do.

Use associates. Another idea for those of you who run businesses on your own is to link up with other people in the same field as you who can service your clients in your absence. I have seen this work very well where the associates are carefully selected, share the same values as you and where they understand your customers and are trained in your processes and procedures.

Document processes and procedures. Are your processes and procedures documented? If not you may want to consider documenting them. This will help understand what needs doing if you or a key member of staff is absent.

Automate where possible. The more manual processes that you have the harder it is for people to understand what needs doing in your absence. If processes are automated and the data is available across the business, then it is easier for others to cover for you.

Let people know where you keep things. A good filing system will be very useful if someone is taking over your work, whereas lots of messy piles of paper on your desk will not.

Take out insurance. There are different types of insurance policy that can help your business in these circumstances, such as key man insurance for you and your key members of staff and business interruption insurance may also be worth considering.

After reading this, you may want to consider the different ideas, review your business risk areas and understand what action you need to take to enable you to be able to take a break from your business, to enable you to be less dependent on key staff members and to put your business in a position that it will survive without you.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the April 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Time Management - A Different Perspective

2010-03-31T09:00:00.003+01:00

You may struggle with managing your time efficiently and effectively or maybe one of your team finds time management a challenge. There are plenty of time management courses and time management tips around, but it is first of all critical that you understand what the root cause of the time management problem is. This will enable you to understand what action you need to take. You may find that a time management course is not the answer and that it is something much more fundamental in your business that needs addressing.

To highlight this I have given you some examples below of business issues that can mask themselves as time management problems:

The wrong person doing the wrong job or process. Are your staff in the right roles and are they doing the right jobs? A person may appear to have problems managing their time, but they may be in a role or doing a job that they are not suitable for.

Under resourcing. Is your business under resourced in terms of staff or any other resource? If it is, this could be creating too much pressure for each individual person such that they appear to have time management issues. Equally the resourcing issue may be that their equipment is inefficient e.g. they are working on an old slow PC that needs upgrading.

Inefficient processes and procedures. Are your business processes and procedures efficient and effective? Inefficient processes and procedures can mask themselves as time management issues.

Delegation issues. Do you have poor delegation skills or you may not want to delegate because you are a perfectionist or feel that you will lose control? Any of these will impact your ability to manage your time effectively.

Too many meetings. How many meetings do you have in your business and are they all effective? A lot of time can be wasted in unnecessary or badly managed meetings. Maybe you need to look at the meetings in your business rather than time management.

Lack of training. Do you and your staff need any training to do your roles better? What you thought was a time management issue may be a training need.

Inappropriate environment. Is the working environment appropriate for the work that is being done in your business? If people are uncomfortable, too close to each other or the layout encourages interruptions you may want to look here for improvements.

Poorly defined roles and responsibilities. Are you and your staff clear about your roles and responsibilities? If people are unclear this can cause duplication, inefficiencies and show up as time management issues.

No clear plan or strategy. Do you have a clear plan and strategy for your business? If you are working without clear direction you will find that you and your staff will be struggling to know what to do next and what the key priorities are.

Not reacting to changing customer needs. Is your business listening to its customers and being responsive to their changing needs and preferences? If you are struggling to adapt to your customers you may find that this shows up as time management problems.

This is just a small sample of business issues that can mask themselves behind what appear to be time management problems. I am sure that you can think of many more. It does highlight that the presenting issue is not necessarily the area that actually needs addressing in your business. You may find that it is something completely different!

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the March 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What Can Your Business Learn From The Recession?

2010-02-18T09:00:00.001Z

In November 2008 I wrote an article - How to beat the recession?, so I thought it would be interesting to now look back over the last year or so of the economic downturn and consider what we can learn from this period for our businesses.

We have been through a very difficult time and some companies have not survived. However, what are you now doing differently as a result of this challenging period or what are you considering changing in your business going forward? I have summarised below some key areas that you may want to do differently or consider in your business.

Be aware of the wider business environment. It is no longer advisable to just focus on your market place and customers, the economic downturn has shown that events in other parts of the economy and even other parts of the world can have a big impact on the performance of your business. It is therefore important to monitor and be aware of what is happening in the wider business environment and the world in general.

Understand your market place. Do you know what is happening in the market place your business operates in? What are the key trends and changes? What are your competitors doing? Understanding the market place your business operates in will enable you to stay ahead of the competition.

Understand what your customers want. What do your customers want? How have their requirements changed? The downturn has shown how quickly customer preferences and needs can change. Asking your customers for feedback, monitoring what they are doing, listening to them and understanding what potential customers are looking for will help your business thrive.

Review and develop your product and service range. There have been many changes as a result of the economic downturn in terms of customer, market and overall trends. Is your range of products and services still right? Do you need to introduce new products and services? Build a regular review of your products and services into your calendar.

Maximise productivity and efficiency. Is your business efficient and effective? Are you maximising productivity? Could you improve your processes and procedures? The recession has highlighted that to make your business resilient to change it needs to be as efficient and effective as possible.

Be adaptable and flexible. The recession has shown us that changes can happen very quickly, in fact even over night. Businesses today need to be adaptable and flexible. How quickly can your company change? How flexible are your processes and procedures? How adaptable are you and your staff?

Know what is happening in all areas of your business. Do you know what is happening throughout your business? What is your current financial position? What are your forward sales? Where are you with that key order? What is bothering your staff? Knowing what is happening in all areas of your business will enable you to react quickly, make better decisions and achieve your business goals.

Take risks in proportion to your business. Taking risks is part of running a business but the recession has highlighted the importance of taking risks in proportion to your business. Maybe you are considering a marketing campaign. Can you absorb the cost of the campaign even if it does not work? Consider each risk carefully and make sure that your business can cope with it not working in the way you expect.

Build good relationships with all your key stakeholders. The foundation of your business is your relationships with your key stakeholders i.e. your staff, customers, suppliers, investors etc. The recession will have highlighted any areas of concern. How are these relationships in your company? Do you need to change any of your key stakeholders as they are no longer appropriate for your business today? What improvements need to be made?

Don't be dependent on one or two large customers. Is your business dependent on one or two key customers? If it is you may be very exposed if one of them decides not to work with you any more. This has happened to companies in the economic downturn with huge consequences. Look to diversify your customer base and not to be reliant on a small number of customers.

Have agreements in place for all your business relationships. During the recession a lot of business relationships were put under pressure due to the difficult circumstances. Where agreements are in place you have some protection if things go wrong. Otherwise it will be very challenging to get things resolved. Review your relationships and look for areas where you need to introduce or improve your agreements. This may be anything from staff contracts to joint venture agreements.

Actively manage your cash flow. During the recession some businesses were exposed due to debts not being paid either on a timely basis or at all. Do you have payment terms in your customer contracts? Do you have a process for collecting your debts on time? Are you actively chasing outstanding payments? Focus on actively managing your cash flow.

Don't over stretch your business. Some companies were caught out in the economic downturn because they had over stretched. They may have been exposed to too much debt because of high borrowings, their cost base may have been too high to cope with a downturn or they may not have had surplus funds to help them get through a difficult period. What is the position of your business? Do you need to change anything? Be careful not to over stretch your business or if it is over stretched look for ways to improve the position.

What lessons have you learnt over the last 18 months and what are you doing or going to do differently? I will be interested to hear your experiences.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the February 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How Can A Business Mentor Help You And Your Business?

2010-01-18T09:00:00.007Z

If you are thinking about whether a business mentor could help you and your business, if business mentoring has been recommended to you but you are not sure how it will benefit you or if you are looking for general business and personal support and don't know where to find it, then this article may be of interest to you.

Business mentors work with you in a totally supportive way. They focus on your agenda, discuss your business with you, ask you questions to widen your understanding, listen to you, provide feedback to you, bring a different perspective, help you sort out the many and complex issues of running a business, share their knowledge and experience with you and support, motivate and inspire you.

There are many benefits of having a business mentor both for your business and for you personally. Everyone gets something different from having a business mentor, so I have summarised below some of the many benefits so that you can see the ones that may be relevant to you.

A confidential sounding board. It can be very lonely running your own business or working at a senior level, as you have very few people who you can turn to for general business and personal support. A business mentor will be your confidential sounding board, focusing totally on you, listening to you, discussing your business with you, sharing the successes and challenges with you and supporting you in achieving what you want to achieve.

Enable you to work 'on', not just 'in', your business. A business mentor will help you to step back from the day to day of running your business and take the time to look at your business overall and from a wider and different perspective. This will help you to consider your business strategy and how you want to move your business forward.

Maximise business and personal performance. Working with a business mentor will help you to maximise the performance of your business and your own personal performance in the business. A business mentor will help you to improve your business results, improve your efficiency and maximise your potential.

To bounce ideas off and to help you work out creative and innovative solutions. You may have lots of ideas about your business but you want to discuss these with someone with good business knowledge and experience. You may have a business challenge that you want to work out the best way of moving forward with. A business mentor will support you in looking at the different options and ideas, share their own ideas with you and help you in deciding what to do.

Become more focused and productive. Seeing a business mentor on a regular basis will help you focus on the most important issues and become more focused and productive, through regular reviews of what you want to achieve, where you are and agreeing the next steps and key priorities going forward.

Provide support and motivation. In the stressful and challenging times, when your business is going through major change and at many other times it can be very difficult to keep on top of the business and not to get stressed and de-motivated. A business mentor will provide the reassurance, support and motivation that you need.

Challenge you and expand your beliefs of what is possible. A business mentor will ask you lots of questions and challenge you. This will help you think more widely about your business, look at things from a different perspective and expand your beliefs of what is possible.

Increase your business knowledge and experience. Business mentors work with all sorts of different businesses on a wide range of issues and have accumulated lots of business knowledge and experience themselves. A business mentor will share this knowledge and experience with you, which will widen your own business knowledge and experience.

Support you to achieve your objectives. It is your business and you decide what you want to achieve and how you are going to get there. A business mentor will support you to identify what you want to achieve, in planning what you need to do, in achieving your goals and in making things happen in your business.

Understand yourself better and improve your relationships with others. Having a business mentor will increase your self awareness, your confidence and your self esteem and will also help you to improve your relationships with others.

Support you with a wide range of business challenges. A business mentor will support you with all areas of your business. These may include profitability, sales and marketing, operations, finance, strategy, planning, productivity, staffing, time management, handling stress better, management, leadership, decision making, communication, relationships, handling change positively, business growth, achieving work/life balance, establishing priorities, starting a new business, restructuring, implementing major changes and many other business challenges.

I hope this article has given you a flavour of business mentoring and its benefits. As a business mentor myself you may think I will be rather biased. Therefore it may help you to see what some of our clients say about the benefits they have received from having a business mentor, so please take a look at the client testimonials on our website.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the January 2010 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

The Benefits of Laughter

2009-11-24T09:00:00.004Z

We can all take life too seriously at times and fail to see the funny side of things. When you are very stressed you will notice that you don't laugh much at all. However there are many benefits of laughter, including it being one of the best forms of stress relief.

So what are the benefits of laughter?

Reduces stress hormones. Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones in your body, strengthening your immune system and reducing the impact of stress on you.

Increases stress busting endorphins. Laughter increases the level of the natural feel good chemicals in your body - endorphins, just like taking exercise.

A workout for your muscles. A good laugh exercises your stomach muscles, as well as many other muscles in your body, including your heart.

Reduces tension. After you have had a good laugh you feel a release of emotional and physical tension, resulting in you being more calm and relaxed.

Helps the workings of your body. Laughter stimulates your circulatory, respiratory, vascular and nervous systems, which all help to keep you in good health.

Increases energy and motivation. Laughter increases your energy and motivation levels, making you more focused and productive.

Changes perspective. After you have had a good laugh you will find that you look at things from a different and more positive perspective.

Increases creativity. Laughter can give you the space to be creative, by distracting you from the day to day.

Feel better. Laughing makes you feel better, whatever you are doing. It is very difficult to be stressed or anxious when you are laughing.

Improves communication. Laughter is a great way to improve communication with others and to build better relationships with those around you.

Next time you are feeling stressed or are taking life too seriously, remember to look for the funny side of things, laugh at yourself and with others, have fun and enjoy yourself.

Here are some laughter quotations to inspire you:

"The human race has a really effective weapon and that is laughter." Mark Twain

"Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine." Lord Byron

"What soap is to the body. Laughter is to the soul." A Yiddish Proverb

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the November 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Managing Change

2009-09-28T09:00:00.003+01:00

One of the areas that I support my clients with is managing their business through change. Your business may be faced with external changes which are outside your control such as the economic recession, changes in the market place you operate in, competitors bringing out new products and services and unexpected events (e.g. fire, floods etc). Also you may want to make changes to your business, such as growing your business, a joint venture with another company, changing your suppliers, introducing new products and services or relocating your business.

Whatever change your business is faced with, managing the change effectively is key to the success of your business. Here are some tips and ideas that may help you in managing change in your business:

Stay calm. It is easy to panic and get stressed when you are faced with changes in your business. However this will impact on your ability to make rational decisions and to manage the change. Try and stay calm and think through the situation you are faced with rationally.

Decide on what you want. You may jump into making the change but this can lead to you setting off in the wrong direction and having to backtrack. Think through what you want to achieve for your business and what the end goal is.

Make a plan. If you start taking action without a plan you may miss important actions that you should be taking. Think through everything that you need to do to achieve your end goal and plan out all the different actions that need taking and by when.

Communicate. You may know what you want to achieve and have a plan but have you communicated this to everyone who needs to know. Not communicating can result in everyone working in different directions. Communicate what you want to achieve and how you are going to do this to everyone concerned, including your staff, customers, suppliers etc. Continue with regular communication throughout the change and ask for feedback on how things are going.

Provide support and resources. Change is very difficult for those impacted, especially your staff, and you may need additional resources in the business to manage the change. Provide support to all those impacted by the change, whether through internal resources or outside help, and ensure the business is adequately resourced.

Don't lose sight of the customer. When your business is faced with change it is easy to become internally focused and take your eye off your customers and the service they are receiving. Ensure that you focus on providing a high level of customer service and regularly communicate with your customers throughout any change. Also don't forget to keep marketing your business to potential new customers as well.

Take action and review progress. Change can result in a lack of action and procrastination as people get hung up with what has happened or needs to happen. Take action and implement your plan. Have regular progress meetings, review how things are going, agree the next actions and reprioritise and reschedule where necessary.

Be flexible. In any change things rarely all go accordingly to plan. Be flexible and open to the unexpected. Be prepared to change track and adapt your plan.

Keep focused. It is easy to get distracted when many different things are happening and you have a lot to do in your business. Keep focused on the end goal and in implementing your plan. Also focus on what you can control, not the things that are outside your control.

Be realistic. When planning a change or reacting to an external change you can underestimate the time involved and what needs to be done. Being unrealistic may lead to the change not happening or going wrong. Be realistic about what can be achieved and in what timescales.

Get support for yourself. External and internal changes are very demanding for you personally as the business owner. It is at times like these that it is important to get support. Consider what support you will benefit from (e.g. a business mentor, a trusted friend, a work colleague etc.) and elicit that support.

Celebrate success. Making changes and handling change are very challenging for those involved. So don't forget to celebrate a successful change and thank those involved for their contribution.

You may be going through change at the moment in your business, be planning a change or be faced with an unexpected change in the future. Whichever category you are in, look to manage the change effectively rather than letting the change manage you.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the September 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Take A Break

2009-08-19T09:00:00.003+01:00

Running your own business is very rewarding and enjoyable but it can also be very tiring, stressful and challenging. It is easy to get drawn into working very long hours and not taking any time off. However, spending all of your time at work will reduce your personal effectiveness, productivity, energy and motivation levels and negatively impact your business and other areas of your life. It can also lead to high levels of stress and having to take time off through ill health.

There are many ways of taking a break including working less hours each day, not working at weekends, having a morning off work, attending some training or a seminar, taking a holiday, making time for your interests and pastimes, exercising, having a weekend away, reading a good book, going for a walk, doing some voluntary work and spending time with your friends and family.

Here are some of the benefits of taking a break from your business:

Recharge your batteries. Taking a break will help you to rest, relax, recharge your batteries and feel refreshed. This will enable you to come back to your business raring to go and re-energised.

Time to think. Spending time away from your business doing something completely different will give your mind the space to be creative. Often the best ideas for your business occur when you are away from your business and have the time to think.

Rejuvenate your passion. When you are working too much you can lose your passion for the business because you forget what is important to you. Taking a break will enable you to refocus on why you are running your business and to rejuvenate your passion.

Increase productivity and effectiveness. Taking regular breaks from work will increase your productivity and effectiveness when you are working. You will find that you manage your time better and make better use of your time in your business.

Reduce stress levels. Spending all your time at work is very stressful so reducing your hours at work and doing something different will help with your stress management and enable you to better cope with stressful situations.

Better health and well being. Getting balance in your life by working less and taking regular breaks will help improve your general health and well being.

Improve communication. When you are working too much your communication with others can suffer and you may upset your staff, customers and contacts. Working less will enable you to focus on good communication in your business.

Increase resilience and ability to cope. It is very easy to get things out of perspective when you are working too much. Building in regular breaks from your business will improve your resilience and ability to cope when you are at work.

Improve decision making. When you are working long hours and are tired your decision making can suffer. Taking breaks to make sure you are refreshed and not tired will improve your decision making ability.

Consider your business strategy. Having some time away from your business enables you to step back and have a fresh look at your business strategy and what you want to achieve for your business.

There are many benefits of taking a break from your business and getting the right balance in your life. When are you going to take the next break from your business?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the August 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Keeping Focused

2009-06-30T04:00:00.002+01:00

When you are running a business it can be very difficult to keep focused on what you want to achieve for your business. It is easy to get distracted as there are many different demands on your time, as well as many changes impacting your business. The warmer weather and your personal life will also add to these distractions.

So what can you do? Here are some tips and ideas on how can you stay focused on your business goals and objectives:

Set clear goals and objectives for your business. Be clear on what you want to achieve in your business in the short, medium and longer term. Test your goals and make sure you are happy with them. Keep your goals and objectives at the forefront of your mind, communicate them to your team and use them in managing your business.

Identify the benefits and value to you of achieving your business goals. Reminding yourself of the benefits of achieving your business goals as well as the consequences of not achieving them will help to focus and motivate you.

Plan what you need to do to achieve your goals. Understand what you need to do to achieve your business goals and objectives. What do you need to do each day, each week etc, what one off projects need to be undertaken and who is going to do each task?

Prioritise and re-prioritise. Prioritise all the things you have identified in your plans in order of importance in achieving your goals. Re-prioritise on a regular basis and when things change.

Break down larger tasks and projects into smaller manageable chunks. You may find that the size of some of the tasks and projects in your plan are daunting. Break these down into smaller manageable chunks and plan for each of these separately.

Review progress. Take time to review how you are getting on with your plans on a regular basis and to discuss progress with others who are involved. Update your plans regularly in line with the progress being achieved.

Manage your time effectively. There are many different time management systems and each person has their preferred one. Whichever you choose, set realistic times for each task and what you can achieve each day and re-prioritise when things change.

Use your time efficiently. Review your business processes and systems and make them as efficient as possible. Understand when is the best time of day to do different tasks e.g. if you are a morning person you may want to do the more challenging things before lunch.

Get organised. Take time out to get your business, yourself and your working area organised. Remove the clutter and make sure you know where everything is. Maybe get some help to keep well organised.

Delegate or outsource tasks and projects. It may be better for the business for you to delegate or outsource work. Look at areas that you don't like doing, take you a long time or that you are not very good at as a starting point. If you delegate or outsource, regularly review how it is going.

Minimise distractions. Look at what is distracting you from completing your plans e.g. people, email, phone calls etc. Assign set times of the day for dealing with your emails and phone calls and plan time into your week for your staff, customers, suppliers etc. (scheduled meetings or phones calls may reduce ad hoc interruptions).

Get help to stay focused. You may find it beneficial to get help from other people on a regular basis to help you to stay focused on your business goals. This may be from a business mentor, other people in your business, family or business contacts.

Look after yourself. You will be more effective in your business if you also look after your health and well being, don't work all the time, take regular breaks and time off, enjoy time with your family and friends, relax and do something different to work.

Keeping focused is critical to achieving your business goals. Hopefully the above ideas will help you with this. If you are still finding it difficult to focus, it may be because you are aiming for the wrong goals. Re-visit your business goals and make sure they are what you really want.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the June 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Keeping Things In Perspective

2009-05-18T09:00:00.002+01:00

It can be very difficult to keep things in perspective in your business and personal life. It is easy to get caught up in every day situations and get things out of perspective. This isn't helped by the media who seem to exaggerate each news story so much that it is difficult to ascertain the facts.

Here are some ideas that you may want to try when you are struggling to keep things in perspective:

Turn the statistics around. If you have a customer complaining it is easy to think that all your customers are unhappy. However, maybe only 1% of your customers are unhappy, so 99% of your customers are happy. Looking at it this way will enable you to feel much better.

Remind yourself of what is going well. When something is not going well, however small it may be, you can end up being totally distracted by it. Step back from the situation and consider what is going well, what you have achieved and how much you have progressed. This will make the situation seem much less significant.

Consider the best and worse that could happen. Where you are getting things out of proportion think about the worse case scenario and you will find in most cases it is not that bad. Also consider the best case outcome, so you can take action to achieve this.

See every situation as a learning opportunity. Where things have not gone according to plan, see them as learning and use this learning in the future. Also think back to how you dealt with similar situations in the past and use that learning now.

Keep calm. When things are not going well, it is easy to panic, which tends to make everything worse. Take some long slow deep breaths, calm yourself down and relax. This will then enable you to get things into perspective and decide what to do next.

Think rationally. It can be very difficult to decide what to do in a situation that seems overwhelming at the time. Step away from the situation and think rationally about the next steps. It may be helpful to think about the situation as if you were a third party looking in.

Focus on the bigger picture and your longer term goals. Understand what is really important to you and your business. Try not to let small things dominate your thinking, focus on what matters. Remind yourself of the bigger picture and your longer term goals.

Plan what to do next, re-prioritise and take action to move forward. When you are losing perspective, stand back, plan what you need to do, review your overall priorities, re-prioritise your 'to do' list and take action to move forward.

Discuss with others and get their support. Dealing with something that is getting out of perspective is very difficult on your own. Try speaking to your business colleagues, a trusted adviser, a business mentor, a family member or a friend. They will be able to help you see things from a different perspective.

Expect the unexpected. Everybody has good and bad days and we all have to deal with unexpected events and changes in our life. Accepting that change, unexpected events and bad days happen makes them easier to deal with.

Take a break and do something different. When things are getting out of perspective, take a break and do something different e.g. go for a walk, make a drink, move away from the situation you are in. You will then be able to see things more clearly on your return.

Don't see things as insurmountable. You may feel that the current problem or situation is insurmountable, however, it is likely that you have overcome similar things in the past, so you can do so again.

Be positive. It is always helpful to have a positive attitude. This will make it much easier to keep things in perspective because you will see the positive side of each situation.

Think about when you cannot keep things in perspective, what are the common factors, what has helped you in the past and can any of the above ideas help you going forward?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the May 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Subscribe to our free email newsletter.

Attitudes and Behaviours for Success in Business

2009-04-21T19:08:00.002+01:00

Business owners running successful small and medium sized businesses have a range of attitudes and behaviours that contribute to the success of their businesses. The good news is that these attitudes and behaviours can be learnt and you do not have to be born with them.

We have identified below some of the key attitudes and behaviours that business owners of successful small and medium sized businesses display for you to consider:

Keep focused on the business vision, the goals and the strategy that they have set for the business and its financial performance. They direct their minds and all the business activities to achieving the business vision, goals and strategy and maximising the financial performance of the business.

Look for business opportunities at all times. They are constantly aware of the changing business environment and are always looking for business opportunities.

Take responsibility for making things happen in their business, being proactive and accepting blame if things don't go according to plan. They look at how things can be improved, reflect on what the business can do differently and always retain overall responsibility for the business.

Communicate effectively with everyone they deal with. They are emotionally intelligent, use good communication skills, vary these in line with who they are communicating with and are sensitive to the needs of others.

Take action. They plan how they are going to achieve their business goals and strategy and then ensure the action is taken that is needed to implement the plan, without procrastinating. They exhibit a can do attitude.

Take manageable risks in the business. They assess the risks of the actions they plan to take and minimise the risks in advance. They do not take risks that are out of proportion to the size of the business.

Are passionate and highly motivated about the business and are inspired and motivated about what they are doing. In turn they inspire and motivate those around them.

Are open and receptive to people, ideas, learning and information, both within and outside of the business. They are also happy to share information and pass on their experience and advice to others.

Think positively. They maintain a positive attitude and those around them pick up on their positive energy, they feel in control and confident and perform at their best. Everyone in their company feels positive and customers want to do business with them.

See the business from different perspectives. They understand how the different stakeholders in the business see the business and what their needs are, including customers, suppliers, shareholders, staff and even their competitors. They focus on meeting the needs of the different stakeholders.

Are versatile and adaptive to the business and the environment the business operates in. They accept that things do not always go to plan and adapt to external forces and changing customer needs. They embrace change and do not panic when the unexpected happens.

Develop their social capital. They develop good business relationships, both within and outside the business, focusing on building a good network, the reputation of the business and their standing in the community.

Learn from experiences. They learn from all their business experiences, including both success and failure, and focus on continuous improvement in their business.

Have perseverance and resilience. They persevere and do not give up, exhibiting an inner well of determination and resilience, but they are not arrogant or pig-headed.

Are happy to delegate and outsource business functions and tasks for the benefit of the business. They do not persist in doing everything themselves, instead developing and leading those around them to achieve their potential and to maximise the business performance.

Show respect to all the different people they deal with, including their competitors. They take everyone seriously and are willing to give them time and attention.

Believe in themselves and their business. They have a high level of self belief and also believe in the direction they are taking the business. However they are consciously aware of what is happening in and outside their business.

Draw on the help and support of others. They locate themselves in an entrepreneurial environment and draw on the help and support of others where they don't have the relevant expertise or where they need a sounding board or support and motivation.

You may want to compare the above with the attitudes and behaviours that you display and see if there are areas that you want to improve or adopt. In thinking about these you may want to consider successful business owners that you know and what attitudes and behaviours they display and consider modelling yourself on them.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the April 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Considering The Way You Think

2009-03-24T18:15:00.005Z

You probably don't spend much time considering how you think about different situations in your business or personal life. However, how you think effects how you feel, so if you are feeling bad, you have probably been thinking in an unhelpful way. Also, the way you think can cause you to make inaccurate assessments of your experiences, to get the wrong end of the stick, to jump to conclusions, to think the worst, to distort the facts and it can get in the way of your decision making and the achievement of your business and personal goals. Therefore, it is worth taking time to step back and understand the way you are thinking and, where your thinking is unhelpful, to look at changing the way you think.

Unhelpful ways of thinking and how to change them

There are many unhelpful ways of thinking and we have summarised some of them below, together with some ideas as to how to change each way of thinking.

Catastrophising is taking a relatively minor negative event and imagining all sorts of disasters resulting from it. This can result in misinterpretations of relatively minor situations. To change this way of thinking put your thoughts into perspective, recognise your thoughts as just thoughts not reality, consider less terrifying explanations, weigh up the evidence and consider what you can do to cope with the situation until you know the outcome.

All or Nothing Thinking is extreme thinking and it can lead to extreme emotions and behaviours. This can stop you achieving your goals because you have no margin for error in your thinking. To change this way of thinking focus on somewhere between the two extremes that you are thinking, avoid either/or type statements and consider alternative ways of interpreting the situation.

Fortune Telling is when you try to predict future events usually in a negative way. This can stop you from taking action and can become a self fulfilling prophecy. To change this way of thinking test out your predictions, be prepared to take measurable risks and understand that you cannot predict the future.

Mind Reading is when you think you know what other people are thinking. This can result in incorrect assumptions being made. To change this way of thinking generate some alternative reasons for what is happening, consider that your mind reading may be incorrect and communicate with the other people to understand their points of view.

Emotional Reasoning is when you rely too heavily on your feelings as fact and as a guide to reality. This can result in you totally misunderstanding the situation. To change this way of thinking take notice of your thoughts, ask yourself how you would view things if you were calmer, look for contradictory information and allow your feelings to subside before taking action.

Over-generalising is when you draw global conclusions such as 'always' or 'never' from an event. This can result in you assuming that because something has happened once it will always happen. To change this way of thinking try to get things into perspective, suspend judgement and be specific, steering clear of global conclusions.

Making Demands is when you place demands on yourself and others such as 'I must' or 'they should'. This can result in a very rigid and inflexible view of what is happening. To change this way of thinking pay attention to the words you use, adopt a more flexible approach and allow for things to be different to expectations.

Mental Filtering is when you acknowledge only information that fits with a belief you hold. This can result in a very distorted view of the actual information. To change this way of thinking collect evidence that contradicts your thoughts, pay attention to all the information available and take notice of and look to change the filters you are using.

Disqualifying the Positive is when you transform a positive event into a neutral or negative event in your mind. This can result in a pattern of negative thinking and unhappiness. To change this way of thinking be aware of your response to positive information, accept positive events as they are and accept positive feedback from others.

Personalising is when you interpret events as being related to you personally, overlooking other factors. This can result in you feeling you are responsible for everything that happens to others and yourself. To change this way of thinking look for explanations of events that are nothing to do with you, consider why other people may be responding in a particular way and don't jump to conclusions.

Becoming more aware of your thinking patterns and changing those that are unhelpful to you will enable you to handle different situations and events in your business and personal life more effectively and also will enable you to feel better as a result.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the March 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Using Intuition in Business

2009-02-27T10:43:00.006Z

The current economic climate is challenging every business, we all need to think smarter, be more creative, look for new opportunities and take action to maximise our short and long term business performance. However, how do you gain inspiration, decide what you want to achieve, generate new ideas, make decisions and decide the best way forward for your business? One way to approach all of these areas is to use your intuition or 'gut feel'.

What is intuition?

Intuition describes the way that you gain access to and use the brain's power without the constraints of logical thinking. Intuition uses information from a wide range of sources including emotional, physical and instinctive and it enables you to quickly make sense of a complex situation at a subconscious level. It is often called the sixth sense. Where you cannot rationally explain why you chose a particular course of action, it is probably down to your intuition. A combination of reason, experience, information and intuition can be very powerful in business.

How to develop your intuitive skills?

Many people are afraid to use their intuition, preferring to take a rational logical approach and we are also encouraged from an early age to think and act rationally, which can result in our intuition being suppressed. To help you to develop your intuitive skills you may want to try the following:

- Follow your intuition, don't be afraid of it.

- Train yourself to be aware of your intuition.

- Allow yourself to follow your intuition in every day situations and see where it leads you.

- Monitor the results of when you use your intuition to develop your confidence to use it.

- Tune in and listen to your intuition rather than letting your rational mind override it.

- Look at situations that you have over analysed and where you arrived at the same course of action as your intuition was telling you.

- Be on top of your business and the business environment you are working in, including listening to your staff and understanding the customer and market trends.

- Try sleeping on a problem, it is surprising how often you wake up knowing the right course of action to take.

- Take time out from your work and life to reflect and contemplate and build relaxation and exercise time into your schedule.

- Do something different to what you would normally do to open your mind to new experiences.

- Don't listen to your inner voices telling you not to use your intuition.

As you heighten your intuition you will be inspired, find more creative solutions and unlock situations that you are in. You will also help your business to ride out the current recession and move forward in a stronger position.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the February 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

The Importance of a Positive Attitude in Business

2009-01-28T17:50:00.005Z

The media seems to be full of bad news about the economy and the prospects for the business community. It is easy to get drawn into this negativity and to feel very depressed about the future. Conversely, if the media was presenting the news in a more positive light, we would all feel more optimistic and positive. However what is better for your business, a positive or a negative attitude?

Who would you buy from?

Think about a shopping experience. You go into two shops selling similar products. The first shop is not looking its best, the staff are talking to each other about how bad things are and the customers are not being acknowledged. The second shop is tidy and well looked after, the staff greet you in a friendly and welcoming manner and the manager tells you how well they are doing. Which shop would you buy from?

Equally, think about a business networking event. You meet a marketing consultant who is positive and upbeat, who tells you about a great marketing idea you can use in your business and which he has had success with in other companies. You then meet another marketing consultant who is very bleak and he tells you how many clients he has lost and how everyone is cutting their marketing budgets. Which consultant would you consider using in your business?

What is the impact of your attitude on your business?

Your attitude rubs off on your existing and potential customers, your staff, your suppliers, your investors and all those that you come into contact with.

If you maintain a positive attitude, this will be infectious and those around you will pick up on your positive energy. Everyone in your company will feel positive and customers will want to do business with you. This in turn will lead to you maximising the performance of your business.

If you maintain a negative attitude, the opposite is likely to happen. People will not want to be around you, your staff will feel demotivated and customers will not want to buy from you. The result will be that the performance of your business will deteriorate.

With a positive approach you will feel in control and confident and you will perform at your best, whereas a negative approach will damage confidence, harm performance, paralyse your mental skills and may also impact your health.

However taking a positive approach is not enough on its own. You also need to be realistic about the economic climate and market conditions. It is critical that you focus on making sure your business is in the best shape to weather the downturn and maximise the short and longer term performance of the business. This may be by improving productivity, enhancing customer service, changing your marketing activity, maximising your repeat business, developing a new product or service, training staff or reviewing your cost base.

Over the last few months I have met both positive and negative business owners and it is evident to me that those who are approaching the current economic climate with a positive attitude are seeing their businesses perform better than those with a negative attitude.

How to maintain a positive attitude?

Look for the positive side. It is easy to focus on the negative when there is so much negative news around. However look for the positive side and focus on this.

Be aware of your thoughts. Focus on how you think about different situations. If you see a list of businesses closing down in your sector do you think that your business is also doomed or do you see it as an opportunity to find new customers and maybe even increase market share. Challenge any negative thoughts and turn them into positives.

Present a positive attitude to others. Even if you are feeling down, make sure you present a positive attitude to everyone you deal with. This will help you feel more positive and make others feel positive too.

Focus on what has gone well. Focus on what has gone well and what you have achieved. See things that have not gone so well as learning.

Be careful who you associate with. Surround yourself with people who have a positive attitude and avoid those who are negative.

Focus on improving the performance of your business. Focus on getting your business in the best shape to weather the downturn and to maximise your short term and longer term business performance.

Keep your business goals at the forefront of your mind. What are the goals for your business? Revisit them and make sure they are still relevant. Make sure all your current actions support your goals.

Why not try a positive attitude and see what difference it makes to you and your business. You will find that it not only maximises the performance of your business, but it will also have a positive impact on other areas of your life.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the January 2009 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Stress Management Tips

2008-11-27T21:04:00.006Z

You may need one to one support to help you through a very stressful period in your life, which is one of the services I offer to my clients. However, you may just want some advice as to how to manage stress better. I have therefore included below a selection of stress management tips.

Set goals and action plan. Stress can be caused by not knowing what you want to achieve in your business and personal life and how you are going to get there. To reduce stress, set business and personal goals and plan how you are going to achieve them.

Stay focused. You can easily get stressed when you are not focused. Keep focused on achieving your goals and the important things in your business and personal life and it will help you to manage stress.

Take action. Inaction and indecision can create stress, so take the action you need to achieve what you want to achieve.

Manage your time and don't procrastinate. Stress can be caused by poor time management and procrastination. So adopt time management strategies that work for you and don't procrastinate. Also remember to prioritise and re-prioritise when things change.

Control perfectionism and be realistic. Striving for everything to be perfect and for unrealistic goals can create undue pressure and stress. Be realistic about what you can achieve and be easier on yourself.

Manage your mind. Your emotions and thoughts are closely linked together. The way you think influences how you feel and behave. Recognise how you think about things that result in you feeling stressed and work on changing your thinking.

Take responsibility. Blaming others results in you not developing your own coping strategies and can result in you feeling stressed and helpless. Take responsibility for your own actions and you will find that you are more positive and less stressed.

Don't worry about things that are outside your control. It is very easy to get yourself stressed by things that you cannot control. Understand what is within and outside your control, then stay focused on the things you can control.

Think positively and stay upbeat. If you see everything from a negative perspective, you will feel negative, project a negative image and feel more stressed. Thinking positively and projecting a positive self image will make you feel more positive. Look at what you have achieved and your positive qualities. Focus on what has gone well and see things that have not gone so well as learning.

Be assertive. Stress can be caused by passive or aggressive communication and behaviour. Try to develop an assertive manner where you use clear, direct and honest communication with others and be prepared to say no.

Develop your self confidence. If you are low in self confidence and self esteem you can feel stressed by situations. Develop your self confidence by focusing on the positive and what you have achieved.

Accept change. Change can result in a high level of stress. If you accept change as a normal part of life and you expect change then you will be able to manage it better and minimise stress. Look at change as an opportunity.

Take care of yourself and have fun. Not looking after yourself and taking life too seriously can leave you feeling very stressed. Healthy eating and drinking, taking exercise, regular breaks and holidays, interests, socialising, spending quality time with friends and family, getting time for yourself, relaxing and enjoying yourself all contribute to lower stress levels.

Get balance in your life. Spending all your time at work is unhealthy and stressful and results in other areas of your life suffering. Equally doing a boring job can make you very stressed. Focus on getting the right balance in your life for you.

Value what you have. You can get very stressed thinking about what you don't have and worrying about things that are not going well. Remind yourself of the good things in your life and value what you have.

Build a support network and ask for help. Stress can result from keeping everything to yourself and not asking for help. Build a support network around you and ask for help when you need it.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the November 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How to beat the recession?

2008-10-21T15:27:00.006+01:00

The media is full of doom and gloom about the falling stock markets, credit crunch, financial crisis and the recession. Everyone is now starting to worry and even panic about the impact of this on their business, jobs, finances and personal life. This month's article is therefore a selection of tips to help you and your business beat the recession.

Know where you are financially. Do you know the current financial position of your business and your up to date personal financial situation? Always understand where you are financially so that you make the right decisions for your business and yourself.

Live within your means. Are you over extending your business or your personal finances or taking excessive risks? Take only manageable risks. Decide what you can afford and stick to it.

Control your cash flow. Do you know and are you in control of your business and personal cash flow? Collect money owed to you, try and re-negotiate your supplier terms, consider reducing stock levels, keep control of your costs and look at opportunities to save money.

Look after your customers. During a recession it is harder to get and retain customers. Look after your customers and provide high levels of customer service. Happy customers repeat purchase and refer new customers to you.

Keep marketing your business. Are you thinking of cutting back on your marketing? Marketing your business is just as important in an economic slowdown as in a booming economy. Get wiser with your marketing. Look at what works best and focus your efforts there.

Stand out from the competition and be different. What makes you different? Why should customers come to your business? It is harder to get each sale in a recession so look at how you can stand out from your competitors. Be different so that you get noticed.

Target the warmest prospects first. Are you spending money chasing cold prospects who have never had contact with your business before? Focus your marketing on your warmest prospects, whether these are your existing customers, previous customers, enquirers or contacts.

Look after your employees. Are you forgetting about your employees with all the other challenges you are facing? Keep your staff motivated, happy and focused on the business goals to maximise your business performance.

Diversify your product/service range. Are there opportunities to diversify your product or service range? You may see an opportunity for a new product or service created by the economic situation or you may find that one area of your business is struggling and you need to look for an alternative.

Work smart and focus on what really matters. Are you and your business efficient and effective? Improve your processes, manage your time better, plan well, keep focused on what really matters to you and your business and don't forget your work/life balance.

Keep calm and try not to panic. Are you feeling stressed, depressed or are you panicking? Keep calm, manage stress, stay focused on things that you can control, make decisions and take action to achieve your business and personal objectives.

Be creative. Are you facing new challenges in the slowdown? Think outside the box, be creative and look for innovative solutions that will make a difference.

Be positive and upbeat. Are you feeling negative and down with all the bad news around? Keep positive and upbeat. This will reflect on those around you, attract new customers and contribute to your business success.

Keep focused on your long term goals. What are your long term goals? It is easy to forget these when things get tough, but keep focused on your long term goals and this will help you take the right decisions in the short term.

Get support and help. Do you need help or support with the challenges you are facing in your business or your personal life? Don't leave it - get the support you need, whether this be from your accountant, business adviser, bank manager, financial adviser or you may want to consider having a business mentor to help you.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the October 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Using Intervention Styles To Help Others

2008-09-22T18:22:00.003+01:00

In your business and personal life you often need to help, support, advise or offer your expertise to others. A very useful model to use in these situations is the Heron model of six categories of intervention. It was developed to be used in the helping professions but is very relevant to the business world as well.

This model can help you to understand the different interventions available to you when supporting others, it can help you to use a wider range of interventions and also to improve the way you interact with others.

The six categories of intervention that Heron identified are:

Authoritative interventions

Confronting. This is about being challenging and providing direct feedback in a positive and constructive way to increase the other person's awareness of their own behaviour and attitude (e.g. I notice when you discuss your workload you always sound stressed).

Informing. This is about giving information or knowledge and your view and experience in order to help the other person gain a better understanding (e.g. There is some very good information that will help you in this book).

Prescribing. This is about advising, offering an opinion and seeking to directly influence the other person (e.g. You need to speak to your business partner about the problems you are having with your suppliers).

Facilitative interventions

Catalytic. This is about asking questions to encourage self directed problem solving and to enable learning through self discovery to help the other person to reflect, discover and learn for themselves (e.g. What would make you feel more confident when making a presentation?).

Supportive. This is about supporting the other person and building their confidence through approval, confirmation and validation (e.g. It sounds like you have tried very hard but are finding this problem very difficult to resolve).

Cathartic. This is about encouraging the other person to express emotions and release tension and empathising with them (e.g. What do you really feel about the situation that you are in?).

The best style of intervention to use will depend on who you are interacting with and the individual circumstances e.g. in an emergency type situation you may want to be very prescriptive, whereas where you are trying to coach a member of staff to work more independently you may want to use catalytic and supportive interventions.

It may be useful to look at your own favoured styles of intervention and consider whether you would benefit from using other styles more often or in certain circumstances. You may find that you avoid certain intervention styles because you are not comfortable with them. These may be areas for learning. You may want to practice using other styles to expand your repertoire.

The intervention styles can also be used to reflect back on your individual relationships in your business and personal life. Did you use the most appropriate intervention style at the right time? What impact did your intervention style have on the other person? This will help you with improving the relationships going forward.

I hope that this article has got you thinking about how you support, help and interact with other people.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the September 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring and Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What can your business learn from sport?

2008-08-18T19:11:00.003+01:00

I have been watching the Olympic Games on the television and I have been thinking about what we can learn from sport that can help us in our businesses.

You cannot fail to admire the people who win medals at the Olympics as well as those who compete but do not get a medal. From these sports people, I have identified the things below that can be applied from sport to achieving success in business.

- Dare to dream: Successful sports people all have a dream. They know what they want to achieve, whether this is to beat their personal best or win an Olympic gold medal. In business you equally need a vision of what you want to achieve in the long term.

- Set goals: Successful sports people set short, medium and longer term goals. They may want to be the British champion this year, the World champion in 3 years time and the following year the Olympic champion. In business you need to also set short, medium and longer term goals, so you are clear where you are going.

- Have a Plan: Successful sports people plan out what they have to do and when so that they achieve their goals. This includes breaking big tasks down into smaller achievable actions, thinking about 'what if' scenarios and revising their plans as circumstances change. Successful businesses also plan in this way.

- Manage your time: Time management is key to success in sport. This may involve keeping to training schedules, getting enough rest, preparing for competitions and planning in breaks. Good time management is also key to success in business. Being efficient, effective and productive, as well as getting your work life balance right are essential.

- Focus on the end goal: Successful sports people keep focused on and committed to their end goal. In business it is also important to keep focused on the end goal. Are you prioritising your actions to achieve your end goal and are you staying focused and committed?

- Manage your mind: Successful sports people believe in themselves, manage stress well, think positively and look after themselves. You can be the fastest runner in the world but you may not win an Olympic medal because you are thinking negatively and letting the stress take control. It is just as important to manage your mind in business.

- Learn and gain experience: Successful sports people learn new skills, keep improving themselves and gaining experience. In business you have to have the right skills and experience to run your business and be prepared to learn and adapt. The business world like the sporting world keeps changing and moving on.

- Deliver on the day: In sport you have to deliver in competition. This will include maximising your performance, through excellent preparation and planning, making sure you feel right and doing your best. In business you also need to deliver. Your business has to be set up to deliver the best service to everyone you deal with, whether this be customers, enquirers, suppliers or investors.

- Teamwork and leadership: When you look at a successful sports team they have a good leader and excellent teamwork. This equally applies to successful businesses.

- Manage the risk: To be successful sports people need to consider and manage the risk. This may include not having a kick about with their children, as this may result in injury. Equally in business you need to consider the different risks and manage them.

- Have a support network: Successful sports people have a support network, maybe a coach, a manager, a sports psychologist, a nutritionist, family, friends and colleagues. To succeed in business you also need a support network, maybe a business mentor, your bank manager, your accountant, your business partner, other business contacts, your family, friends and colleagues.

As well as learning from sport, you may also want to look at other successful business people and try and identify what makes them successful. You can then apply your learnings to your business.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the August 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Benefit your Business by Being More Creative

2008-07-15T12:26:00.007+01:00

To stay ahead today in business you need to be creative. Creativity is essential for problem solving, generating ideas, looking at potential options, finding solutions, identifying opportunities, for staying ahead of the competition and for maximising business return.

You may not be naturally creative, you may be a very logical thinker who finds it difficult to be creative or you may find that you always see things in a certain way and find it hard to look at things differently. The good news is that wherever you are on the spectrum you can become more creative.

If you would like to improve your creativity, here are some ideas to help you:

- Don't make assumptions: We all make implicit assumptions (e.g. it cannot be done like that). To stimulate creativity you need to learn to stop making assumptions. Try asking yourself what assumptions you are making, let them go and then think again.

- Think differently: We naturally think in a certain way. You may have come across a similar challenge before and you think the current situation is the same. Try thinking differently and see what happens.

- Ask 'what if' questions: Your rational mind will take your thinking along a certain path, giving you quite a narrow perspective and limiting the ideas that you generate. Using 'what if' type questions will help you to bypass your rational mind (e.g. What would you do if you had limitless resources? What would Richard Branson do?). Try asking 'what if' questions and you will find you have lots more options.

- Look at it from a different perspective: We tend to look at a situation from our own perspective and therefore we limit the ideas that we have. Try looking at the same situation from another person's perspective (e.g. a customer, a supplier, a successful businessman) or from the perspective of an impartial observer.

- Go for quantity: We may naturally only come up with a couple of ideas. Try going for quantity (i.e. look for lots of ideas) which will make you think more widely and you will be surprised at the results.

- Don't make judgements: If you are a very rational person you will have a natural inclination to assess and evaluate any option you identify. This can limit your creativity because you can dismiss options too easily. Therefore try to come up with ideas without assessing or evaluating them. You will find that you are much more creative.

- Capture your ideas: We can be creative at any time and it is easy to forget the options you thought of. Try writing down your ideas, as this will not only record them for later but will help to stimulate your mind to think of other options. Using well know techniques to record your thoughts such as mind mapping can help you to generate new ideas.

- Take a break: Often some of our best ideas come when we are not thinking about a particular issue or trying to be creative (e.g. when you are driving home from work, when you are playing golf, when you are on holiday). Try not to spend all your time working and you may be surprised with the positive impact on your business.

- Use associations, connections and opposites: We can find ourselves struggling to think of alternatives and options. Try looking at the opposite of what you are thinking, look for associated ideas or connected options and you will see your list increasing.

- Think about what you want to achieve: We sometimes forget about our end goal when trying to be creative. Try focusing on your end goal and what you want to achieve and then identify what needs to be different to achieve your goal. You will find that this generates lots of new ideas.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the July 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Dealing with Difficult People

2008-06-10T09:52:00.005+01:00

I am sure that you have all had to deal with difficult people before but how did you get on? Dealing with difficult people can make you change your normal behaviours, make you think that it is your fault that they are behaving in this way, undermine your self confidence and negatively impact your business and personal life.

Difficult people are found in all areas of your life. They may be difficult because they are rude, they have to have the last word, they shout at you or raise their voices, they are always right, they undermine you, they don't listen or they do not honour their commitments. You probably will have your own examples.

Here are some tips to try when dealing with difficult people:

- Accept that their behaviour is not personal: Usually the difficult person has nothing personal against you, they are just difficult with everyone. Accept that you are dealing with unacceptable behaviour and work on their behaviours. Look for the person's good qualities and focus on these.

- Act normally: When dealing with a difficult person it can make you act differently to you usually do. You can start to avoid them or behave differently towards them. Try and be yourself and treat them as you would anyone else.

- Try and understand them: The difficult person may be behaving as such for a reason. Try and understand the difficult person and their point of view. They may have issues that can be addressed which will improve the relationship. It may be a very small issue that is impacting them that is easily resolved.

- Communicate well: It is easy for communication to suffer with a difficult person. However, it is very important to communicate well with them. Try to listen to them and to understand what they are trying to say and what they want.

- Build a relationship and trust: The difficult person may be the way they are because of a lack of trust in others or of others in them. Therefore spend time building your relationship and trust in each other.

- Be honest and open: When dealing with a difficult person be honest and open. If you are unhappy with their behaviour then let them know. It is a good idea to ask them what they would like you to change, then let them know what changes they can make to improve the relationship.

- Make them feel good: The difficult person may suffer from low self-confidence or self-esteem. Make them feel good about themselves by focussing on their strengths and good qualities.

- Focus on the outcome: Keep focused on the outcome that you want to achieve in your relationship with the difficult person. This will help you to keep objective and better able to deal with the person.

- Find a win-win situation: Look for a solution where both you and the difficult person benefit.

- Keep your commitments and deliver: When dealing with a difficult person ensure that you honour your commitments and that you deliver on what you say you will by the agreed deadlines. This will gain their respect and help to build a relationship with them.

- If you cannot make things work then make the decision not to deal with them: Sometimes when dealing with a difficult person, even though you have tried many of the strategies above, you cannot make the relationship work. In this case it is usually better to move on and not to deal with them going forward. Dealing with a difficult person can be very draining and of no value to you. Be prepared to take a decision if need be.

When dealing with a difficult person, why not try out some of the tips above and see if they make a difference? You will probably find that they help you build a good relationship and that they are not 'a difficult person' with you any more.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the June 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

The Art of Persuasion

2008-05-13T13:23:00.003+01:00

The ability to persuade others or influence them is a key factor in both your business and personal life. Some of us are better than others at the art of persuasion, but what can we do to improve our own ability in this area?

There are a number of different ways that you can use to persuade others or influence them. People make decisions for their own reasons, so it is important to consider carefully the person you are dealing with in order to decide the best method to use.

By increasing your self-awareness in this area, trying out new ways and deciding on the best methods to use in each situation you can improve your ability to persuade and influence others.

Here are the most common ways of persuading others or influencing them:

- Reasoning: Using facts, logic and reasons to put your point of view across. This is best used where you can support your views with good facts, logic and reasons.

- Inspiring: Appealing to the other person's emotions, using energy, passion and conviction. This is best used when you are looking for emotional commitment and when the reasoned view is weak.

- Asking: Asking questions to encourage the other person to make up their own mind. This is best used when you want the other person to buy into the outcome and when dealing with someone more senior than you.

- Complimenting: Making the other person feel good about themself. This is best used when the other person values your views and with people who look up to you.

- Making a deal: Doing a deal by offering the other person something in return for what you want. This is best used when you don't mind making a deal and have something to offer as your part of the deal.

- Calling in a favour: Getting what you want by calling in a favour. This is best used when you have a very good relationship with the other person.

- Comparing to others: Persuading the other person by using the views of people they respect to support your argument. This is best used when the other person is easily swayed by the views of others.

- Authority: Influencing by using rules or principles or quoting someone in authority. This should really only be used in exceptional circumstances as it will encourage compliance not commitment.

- Forcing: Forcing the other person by using assertive behaviour. This is best used in emergency situations only.

In any given situation you should use the most appropriate methods for the circumstances and the person you are dealing with and move between the different methods if your chosen one is not working. Also consider the sequence in which you use the different methods as some sequences work better than others e.g. after trying forcing it would be very difficult to use asking.

To improve your own ability in this area, increase your self awareness of how you persuade and influence others. Also observe the methods that other people use and how they use them, so that you can identify good practise. Then decide the methods that you want to use for the situation, try them out but be prepared to be flexible and afterwards review how it has gone so that you can identify areas for improvement next time.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the May 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Emotional Intelligence

2008-04-14T19:41:00.003+01:00

Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others and for managing ourselves and our relationships with others. It describes abilities that are distinct from but complimentary to academic intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a tool that can enhance your business and personal life. It can lead to better self-awareness and self-management and improved relationships with others.

Emotional intelligence is made up of personal competencies that determine how we manage ourselves and social competencies that determine how we handle relationships.

The elements of emotional intelligence are detailed below:

Personal Competence

Self-awareness. This is about knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources and limitations. Elements of self-awareness are:
- Emotional self-awareness: reading one's own emotions and recognising their impact and using gut feel to guide decisions.
- Accurate self-assessment: knowing one's own strengths and limitations.
- Self-confidence: a sound sense of one's self-worth and capabilities.

Self-management. This is about managing one's internal states, preferences, resources and impulses. Elements of self-management are:
- Emotional self-control: keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check.
- Transparency: displaying honesty, integrity and trustworthiness.
- Adaptability: flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles.
- Achievement: the drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence.
- Initiative: readiness to act and seize opportunities.
- Optimism: seeing the positive in circumstances.

Social Competence

Social awareness. This is about the awareness of others' feelings, needs and concerns. Elements of social awareness are:
- Empathy: sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspective and taking an active interest in their concerns.
- Organisational awareness: understanding of what is happening at an organisation level.
- Service: recognising and meeting customer and others' needs.

Social skills. This is about adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others. Elements of social skills are:
- Inspirational leadership: guiding and motivating with a compelling vision.
- Influence: using a range of tactics of persuasion.
- Developing others: building others' abilities through feedback and guidance.
- Being a change catalyst: initiating, managing and leading others in a new direction.
- Conflict management: negotiating and resolving conflicts.
- Building relationships: cultivating and maintaining relationships.
- Teamwork and collaboration: working with others and building teams.

To improve your self-awareness and self-management and to improve your relationships with others in your business and personal life have a look at the elements that make up emotional intelligence described above and assess yourself against them. You can then identify areas where you would like to improve and the steps that you need to take to get to where you want to be.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the April 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Body Language

2008-03-11T18:40:00.003Z

Body language is communication using body movements or gestures, including facial expressions. 55% of how we communicate is made up of body language, 38% is through how we use our voice and only 7% is via the words we actually say. By developing your awareness of the signs and signals of body language, you can more easily understand other people and more effectively communicate with them.

Body language includes body movements and gestures, posture, muscle tension, eye contact, skin colouring, breathing rate and perspiration. It will vary between individuals and between different cultures and nationalities. It is therefore important to verify what you are seeing in a person's body language by asking them relevant questions and getting to know the person.

Here are some tips on body language:

Eye contact
Maintaining good eye contact shows respect and interest. Too much eye contact and the other person will feel self conscious, too little and you will look disinterested.

Posture
Getting your posture right will make you feel good and create the right impression. Slouching can make you feel nervous and uncomfortable. Leaning slightly towards someone can make you look friendly and interested. Keeping you head level will make you feel confident and self assured. Tilting your head to one side will make you look friendly and receptive.

Arms
Having your arms crossed can make you look defensive or nervous, having them open can make you look friendly and receptive.

Legs
Your legs will move around a lot if you are nervous, bored or lying. Try and keep them still to look friendly and assured. Having them crossed can make you appear defensive.

Distance
Getting too close to someone can make you appear pushy or in their face. Being too far away can appear stand offish or remote.

You can identify how a person is feeling or what they are doing from their body language, here are some examples:

A confident person
A confident person usually stands tall with their shoulders back, they maintain solid eye contact with a smiling face and they make purposeful and deliberate gestures with their hands and arms.

A defensive person
A defensive person will have minimal facial expressions, hand and arm gestures that are small and close to their body, their arms may be crossed, their body may be turned away and they will maintain little eye contact.

A disinterested person
A disinterested person may have their head down, have a glazed look or they may be gazing elsewhere, they may be fiddling about, writing or doodling and they may be sitting slumped in their chair.

A person who is lying
A person who is lying will maintain little eye contact and they may have rapid eye movements, they may have their hands in front of their mouth when speaking, their body may be turned away, their breathing rate may increase and their complexion may redden.

A person who is thinking or decision making
A person who is thinking or reflecting or making a decision may look away and only return to make eye contact afterwards, they may be stroking their chin or have their hand on their cheek and they may have their head tilted to one side.

A nervous person
A person who is nervous may be moving round a lot, they may be maintaining little eye contact, they may have their hands grasped together, they may be shaking, their complexion may redden and they may be perspiring a lot.

It is important to think about your own body language and the impression you are portraying as well as interpreting and understanding the body language of others. Understanding more about body language will help you to improve your communication skills and your relationships with others.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the March 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What is your longer term business strategy?

2008-02-20T16:04:00.004Z

Have you considered where you want your business to be in 5 to 10 years time? Often you are so focussed on running your business day to day that you don't look at what your plans are for the future. However, looking at what you want to achieve for your business in the longer term can give you the direction, drive and impetus that you need to run your business on a day by day basis.

Developing your longer term business strategy involves understanding where your business is now, deciding where you want your business to go and looking at what you need to do to get there. Strategic planning is about setting longer term goals for your business and developing a plan to achieve them. Whatever the size of your business, you can benefit from developing a longer term business strategy. This doesn't have to be a long written document, it can be in whatever form works for you.

To help you with your business strategy here is a process that you may want to follow:

(1) Understand where your business is now?
This involves looking at your business both internally and externally as it stands today. Identify the key internal data and drivers of your business, such as financial performance, customer satisfaction, staff turnover, sales and marketing trends, conversion rates, productivity etc. Look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with your business. Understand your unique selling point and who your ideal customers are. Externally understand the business environment, your competitors and the market you are operating in. What is your market share, how do you expect the market to grow, what changes are happening in the market etc? Look at the political, economic, social and technological trends that impact your business. It is important to be realistic, critical and objective in doing this analysis.

(2) Where do you want your business to go in the longer term?
Here you will be looking at the longer term vision for your business and identifying what you want to achieve in the next 5 to 10 years or whatever period you choose. You may be looking to increase your turnover and profitability by x%, to create value in your business so that you can sell it for a certain sum or you may want to keep your business at the size it is now. If you are looking for growth it may be by increasing market share, expanding your product range, investing in technology, getting investment into your business, changing your business structure e.g. a merger or acquisition or expanding into new markets e.g. overseas. Looking at where you want your business to go is an opportunity to challenge the status quo of your business, step outside the box and to think creatively.

(3) How are you going to get there?
Once you understand where you want to go with your business the next step is to identify how you are going to get there. Look at each area of your business and decide what changes need to be made to enable you to achieve your longer term vision and objectives. Then decide the best way of implementing these changes. Create an action plan of what you need to do and when. Finally start implementing your action plan.

(4) Review your strategy on a regular basis
Review your longer term strategy regularly to ensure it is still relevant and where you want to go.

Having a well thought through longer term business strategy will give you and your business focus and direction. It will help significantly with your business planning, time management and running your business on a day to day basis.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk/ or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the February 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Delegation

2008-01-09T13:17:00.003Z

Delegation involves giving someone else the responsibility and authority to do something that you normally do and holding them accountable for doing it.

It is very important to understand what you should be spending your time doing in order to ensure that you achieve your business goals and objectives. Once you understand this, you can focus on these areas and look at delegating or outsourcing your other work.

Even if you work on your own you can look at outsourcing some of your work, you do not need to do everything yourself. If you try and do everything yourself you are likely to limit the potential growth of your business.

What are the signs that you may need to delegate?
-You are working long hours.
-You are often late for meetings and appointments.
-Your staff and suppliers are confused about what they should be doing.
-Your email inbox, voicemail and in tray are full.
-You never find the time to do the important things in your business.
-You are always reacting to the latest crisis.
-Sales and profitability are stagnant or declining.
-You have some unhappy customers.
-You feel out of control and unable to cope.

Why delegate?
-To enable you to focus on the important areas of your business.
-To achieve your business goals and objectives.
-To increase your sales and profitability.
-To improve productivity and efficiency.
-To save time by giving the work to those most able.
-To respond quicker to opportunities.
-To develop and motivate your staff and increase their job satisfaction.

What should you delegate?
-What should you be spending your time doing in order to ensure that you achieve your business goals and objectives?
-What tasks do you currently do (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly etc.)?
-From the above, what do you feel you need to delegate?
-Consider delegating or outsourcing things that are not in your area of expertise (e.g. book-keeping, marketing, IT support, legal issues etc.).
-Consider delegating all routine tasks (e.g. filing, administration, phone answering, data entry etc.).
-Consider delegating the authority for minor decisions.
-Wherever possible, try to delegate complete tasks.
-If you are doing things that are not essential for the business, why not stop doing them.
-There will be things that you do not want to delegate (e.g. company policy, strategy, staff issues etc.).
-Ensure that the potential benefits of delegation outweigh the costs.

How to delegate?
-Decide when you are going to delegate each task.
-Choose the right person or supplier to delegate the work to.
-Allow the time to delegate the work properly.
-Communicate what you would like doing, your expectations, the outcome, the deadlines and the feedback you would like.
-Allow the people to get on with the work and review it with them at the agreed times.
-Provide support when required.
-Be careful not to delegate too much too quickly.
-Give delegation time to work as the results will not always be immediate.

By choosing to delegate or outsource more of your work you could significantly increase the sales, productivity and profitability of your business, so why not review your workload today and see what changes you can make.

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the January 2008 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Time For Reflection

2007-12-13T17:40:00.002Z

The Christmas and New Year break is a good time to reflect on your personal and business life over the last year, where you are now and what you would like to achieve over the next year.

When you are busy in your daily life you don't often get time for reflection. However, taking some time out to reflect can help you to put everything into perspective and to decide the best way forward.

Here are some questions for you:

Reflect on your life over the last year
What have you achieved over the last year?
What has gone well for you?
What has not gone so well?
What have you enjoyed doing?
What has been successful?
What have you learnt?

Consider where you are now
How happy are you with your life right now?
What are you most grateful for?
What makes you feel valued?
How balanced is your life?
What motivates you?
What would make you happier?
What is missing from your life?
What would you like to change?
In your business, what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

Your plans for the year ahead
What do you want to achieve over the next year?
What do you want to do differently?
What new things do you want to try?
What do you want to stop doing?
What are the first steps you are going to take?
What help do you need?
Where are you going to get the help you need?
How committed are you to achieving your plans?
When you are reflecting in a year's time what will you be happy that you have achieved?

If you would like further information or to use any of our services please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the December 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management

2007-11-16T15:18:00.002Z

Liz Makin provides personalised business coaching, business mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals.

Are you running a business and need a business mentor:
* To bounce ideas off?
* To point you in the right direction?
* To help you focus on the most important issues?
* To be your confidential sounding board?
* To enable you to work 'on', not just 'in' your business?
* To support and motivate you in the stressful and challenging times?
* To help you to achieve your business goals?

Are you finding it difficult to cope with high levels of stress in your life?

Liz can help you with all this and more, inspiring, motivating and supporting you to business success and personal fulfilment.

Liz Makin is an accredited business mentor, business coach and stress management consultant. With extensive business knowledge and experience, Liz can help you, whichever business sector your business operates in and business area you want support with. Liz can work with you face to face or over the telephone and is based in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

For more information please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

To sign up for the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management email newsletter please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter. Previous articles from the newsletter can be found on this blog.

Work Life Balance

2007-11-15T12:43:00.002Z

The term work life balance means different things to different people. Work life balance is about achieving a balance that works for you and your family. If you can get the balance 'right' between the different areas of your life then you will feel happier and have a more enjoyable life.

We live in a society where there is increasing pressure on our time. It is not easy to achieve the work life balance that we desire.

If you feel that your work life balance needs changing, here are some tips that may help you:

Where are you now? Identify what you are unhappy about with your current work life balance.

Where do you want to be? Think about where you want to be. What would be different to how it is now?

What do you need to do? What actions do you need to take to get to where you want to be?

Take charge of your life. Have a prioritised list of what you need to do, focus on the key priorities and let things drop off the list that aren't important. Review and re-prioritise regularly.

Slow down. Notice things around you. Enjoy the moment, your experiences and the people you interact with. Don't make plans for every minute of every day.

Take a break. Take regular breaks. Build in time for lunch breaks, holidays, leisure activities and family time.

Manage your time. Set realistic goals and deadlines and stick to them. Schedule in all your actions. Prioritise and re-prioritise when things change.

Don't allow interruptions. Block out time for you not to be interrupted. Schedule in time for emails and phone calls.

Stop work on time. Set times each day for finishing work and stick to them. Maybe finish early some days.

Share the load. Don't do everything yourself. Delegate at work or use outside suppliers to support you. Ask your family to help at home or pay someone to help you.

Simplify and let things go. Review and simplify your work processes. Get rid of clutter at home. Say no to things that don't fit in with your goals and objectives. Let things go that aren't important.

Manage stress. Take actions to manage stress.

Don't forget your family and friends. Allow time to spend with your family and friends.

Relax. Build relaxation time into your day.

Be positive. Celebrate successes and don't dwell on things that have not gone so well. Develop a positive outlook on life.

Look after yourself. Take regular exercise, eat healthily and make sure you have enough sleep.

Set boundaries. Separate your work and home life. Set boundaries so your work does not encroach into your home life and vice versa.

Our previous newsletter articles on procrastination, time management, stress and what's next may also be helpful in achieving work life balance. These can be found on this blog.

If you would like support in achieving work life balance please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the November 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Learning Styles

2007-10-12T12:59:00.004+01:00

It is very important to consider how you learn and how others learn when you are training your employees, clients or suppliers, when you are taking part in training yourself and when communicating with others.

Four main learning styles have been identified, which are activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists. Most people have more than one learning style but usually one is much stronger than the others.

Have a look at the explanations of these learning styles below. Try using them to decide the appropriate training for yourself, your employees, suppliers and clients. They can also be useful in communication, by adapting your method of communication to the other person's learning style. Using a style that suits the people you are talking to or training will increase satisfaction, whilst participating in training that matches your style will mean a greater chance of success.

Activists like to be involved in new experiences. They are open and enthusiastic about new ideas, they enjoy doing things and usually act first and consider the implications later. They like working with others and feel comfortable in the limelight.
Activists learn best when involved in new experiences, when working with others in group situations and role playing, when thrown in at the deep end with a difficult task, when there is an element of risk and when chairing meetings and leading discussion
Activists learn less when listening to long explanations or talks, when working on their own, when absorbing and understanding data and when following precise instructions.

Reflectors like to stand back and look at a situation from different perspectives. They like to listen, observe and collect data and information before coming to any decision or conclusion. They tend to be cautious and conservative and will listen to the views of others before offering their own.
Reflectors learn best when observing others, when they have time to review what has happened and think about what they have learned and when doing tasks without tight deadlines.
Reflectors learn less when acting as leader or working in group situations, when doing things with no preparation time, when they are thrown in at the deep end and when they are pressurised by tight deadlines.

Theorists are interested in ideas for their own sake. They like to assimilate new information and fit it into their theories and explanations. They tend to be perfectionists and think things through in a step by step way. They are usually detached and analytical rather than subjective or emotive in their thinking.
Theorists learn best when using their skills and knowledge in complex situations, when in structured situations with a clear purpose, when offered interesting ideas and when they have the chance to question things.
Theorists learn less when in situations which emphasise emotion and feelings, when in unstructured situations or the briefing is poor, when doing things without understanding the concepts involved and when they are with people of very different learning styles.

Pragmatists are interested in ideas to see if they work. Ideas in the abstract have little meaning for them. They like to solve problems, are practical and want to put new knowledge to use.
Pragmatists learn best when there is an obvious link between the subject and what they are doing, when they have the chance to try things out with feedback as in role playing, when shown techniques with obvious advantages and when shown a way of doing things that they can copy.
Pragmatists learn less when there is no obvious or immediate benefit, when there are no examples or guidelines to follow, when there are no apparent advantages to the learning and when the event or learning is theoretical.

If you would like more information please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the October 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What's Next?

2007-09-21T15:01:00.002+01:00

September is one of those times of the year when you may feel unsettled, you may be unsure about the direction that your life or business is going in, you may feel overwhelmed by what you have got on or you may want to make changes in your personal or business life.

This is usually as a result of taking a holiday or break during the summer and having the time to think about what is actually happening in your life, as well as what you want in the future. So if you are feeling like this, what can you do? Here are some suggestions that you may want to try:

What do you really want?
-One way of deciding what it is that you really want is to think about waking up one morning and everything is as you want it to be. What would you be doing, saying, feeling, what would other people be saying to you and what would be happening in your life?
-Another way is to write down everything that you would like to do, you want to be and you would like to have.
-You can also think about sitting in your rocking chair when you are old and looking back on your life. What would you regret not doing in your life?
-Look at each main area of your business and/or your personal life and rate them out of 10. This will help you sort out which areas you would like to change, if any.

What is the most important area to work on?
-You may already know what you want to achieve or you may have tried one of the suggestions above to sort out what it is you want. However, where are you going to start?
-Think through what you want to achieve and prioritise what is most important for you to work on first.
-You may find that some things get dropped off your list and you narrow down to a smaller number of things that you really want. You may also find that what you want to achieve is different than what you first thought.

What do you need to do to get there?
-What actions do you need to take to achieve what you want to achieve? If you have decided to work on a particular area of your personal or business life, look at what you need to do to achieve what you want.
-You can do this by brainstorming all the different things that you could do.
-You can think about what actions you need to take to move you from where you are now to where you want to be.
-Consider what will need to be different from now and what do you need to change?
-You could also ask yourself questions to help you to generate other ideas, such as what would you do if you had lots of money, what would you do if you had no commitments, what would you tell your friends to do, what would they tell you to do etc.
-You should now have a list of actions that you could take to achieve what you want to achieve.

What are you actually going to do?
-Narrow down what you are actually going to do and by when. Here you need to decide on which actions from those you have thought of above you actually want to take.
-Prioritise these actions and set deadlines for each one.

Just do it.
-If you really know what you want and you know what you need to do to get there, you then need to take the actions you have decided on.
-However lots of things can get in the way, so you will need to keep reviewing your list and re-prioritising as things change.
-If you are not taking action you may find that you don't really want what you thought you did.

What help can you get?
-To help you with the above, you may want to discuss what you want to do and your action plan with your family, friends or business colleagues so they can support and motivate you.
-You may want to do some reading or attend a training course.
-You may choose to use a business advisor or consultant.
-You could use the services of a coach or business mentor for help with the above and for support and motivation.

If you would like support with moving forward please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the September 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Time Is Money - Are you making the best use of your time?

2007-08-08T15:17:00.002+01:00

Are you making the best use of the time you have available to you in your business? Do you know what you are spending your time doing each day? Are you wasting time? Are you spending your time on achieving your business goals and objectives? Are you managing your time efficiently and effectively?

Time is money to your business. Whether it is your time or someone else's time that you are paying for, it is important that the time is spent productively on actions that will achieve your business goals. There are only a limited number of hours in each day and you need to make the best use of that time. No one sets out to deliberately waste time. However, when you are very busy it is easy to be wasting time without realising it.

If you want to make better use of your time, here are some ideas to try:

Identify what your business goals and objectives are. Be clear about what you want to achieve in your business in the short, medium and long term.

Understand what your time costs you. If you can put a value to each hour of your time and that of your staff, you will see the importance of ensuring that you are not wasting time. This may be in terms of the hourly rate you can charge your clients or the gross cost per hour of your staff or on what revenue you could generate in an hour.

Decide what you should be spending your time doing to achieve you business goals and objectives. In order to achieve your business goals and objectives what should you be spending your time doing? Once you know where you should be spending your time you can start to review what is currently happening.

Review what you are spending your time doing. Make a list of what you spend your time doing and how long you spend on each task. You may want to consider this on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Look at where you may be time wasting. Review the list of what you are spending your time doing against what you should be doing and identify areas where you are potentially time wasting. This could be for a variety of reasons.

Review your business systems, procedures and processes. You may be spending time on inefficient systems, procedures and processes. It is easy to end up with inefficiencies, especially if your business is growing quickly. Review all your business systems, procedures and processes. You may find that some are not required any more, whilst you may be able to improve others to make you and your business more efficient.

Look at whether someone else could do the tasks that you are currently doing. You may be spending time on things you are not very good at, so you are taking much longer than an expert would take. Alternatively, you may be doing tasks that others could do for you to free up your time to focus on more important things. Once you have identified these areas look at who you could delegate or outsource this work to, whether an employee or an outside supplier and the cost of this compared with the potential benefits.

Use your time more efficiently. Look at when you do each task and when is the best time of day for you to do specific tasks. Doing similar tasks in blocks and aligning the tasks to how you feel at different times of the day/week may help you be more efficient. By organising your day better you will find you are more efficient.

Manage your time effectively. Once you have taken action to cut out time wasting, you then need to make sure you manage your time effectively. There are many different time management systems and each person has their preferred one. Whichever you choose it is very important to ensure that you set realistic times for each task, ensure that you are realistic about what you can achieve each day, ensure that you prioritise your tasks to achieve your business goals and objectives and also re-prioritise your tasks when things change or new tasks arise. This will help you to stay focused on your business goals and to keep you motivated.

Tackle procrastination. Procrastination may be the cause of your time wasting. For ideas on tackling procrastination please refer to the article in our March 2007 newsletter. This article can be found below.

There is more to life than work. You will be more effective at work if as well as the above you also look after your health and well being, don't work all the time, have some time off, enjoy time with your family and friends, relax, play a sport or have an interest.

Time wasting may be impacting you and your business. If you would like support with tackling time wasting please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the August 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How confident are you?

2007-07-15T14:48:00.002+01:00

As a business owner, director or manager you are expected to be self confident by your peers, colleagues, employees, suppliers, customers and contacts. However, you may find that you do not always feel confident.

Your confidence may change depending on how your business is going or what is happening in your personal life. You may feel self confident in some areas of your business or personal life but not in others. You may have always had low self confidence.

Your level of self confidence can show to others in your behaviour, your body language, how you speak and what you say. It can also affect your thoughts, feelings and actions. People with low self confidence may avoid taking risks and stretching themselves and therefore will struggle to reach their goals.

If you want to build your confidence, here are some ideas to try:

Look at what you have achieved. Make a list of everything you have achieved and what you like about yourself. Consider your skills, experience, personality, what others like about you, what has brought you success and the challenges you have overcome. This will make you feel more confident as you will have a more positive view of yourself. Keep referring to this list especially if you feel your confidence falling.

Set achievable goals. Make a list of the areas of your business or personal life where you would like to have more confidence. Define an overall goal for each area as to what you would like to achieve. Break this down into smaller goals. This will help build your confidence as you achieve each goal.

Prepare an action plan. Think of what you could do to improve your confidence (e.g. attend a course, look how self confident people behave, do some reading, try out some different behaviours, change the way you think about things, look at when you have felt self confident in the past and what was happening then). Then decide which actions you are going to take and when.

Prepare thoroughly for each action. If you prepare well you will feel more confident. You may also want to rehearse the actions. The more prepared you are the better you will feel.

Don't procrastinate, just do it. Once you have identified what you need to do, don't procrastinate, just have a go. You will start to feel your confidence building.

Allow yourself to feel anxious and nervous. Feeling anxious and nervous is completely natural. Think back to past experiences when you have felt anxious and nervous but have come through the other side. If you start to think that these feelings are natural and positive you will start to feel more confident in difficult situations.

Learn from your past. Review situations in the past when you have felt confident and when you have felt less confident. Look at what went well, what did not go so well and what you will do differently next time. Keep reviewing each situation in the same way as you are building your confidence.

Imagine success. Think about successful outcomes to situations. If you think that something will be a success, it is more likely to be successful. The more success you achieve the more confident you will feel.

Manage your mind and choose what you think. How you think, impacts how you feel and what you do. Therefore, it is important to choose what you think and to think positively

Learn to handle failure. If something does not go well don't look at it as failure, see it as a learning experience. In running a business there will be many things that don't work out. You need to learn from these experiences.

Mix with people who are good for you. Choose to mix with people who help your confidence, that tell you what you are good at, that you can go out and achieve it and ask you questions that help your thinking.

Act like you are confident. Identify people who you think are self confident. Look at how they act and behave and imagine how they think. Try acting and behaving like them and thinking in a confident way and see how it makes you feel.

Low self confidence may be impacting you and your business. If you would like support in building your self confidence please refer to the Makin It Happen – Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management website at http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the July 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

What makes a good leader? - Hints & Tips on Leadership Skills

2007-06-29T17:01:00.002+01:00

There are many different views as to what makes a good leader. It has been widely debated as to whether you are born with leadership skills or whether you can develop into a leader. I personally subscribe to the view that leadership skills can be developed.

Developing your leadership skills is essential for running a successful business. Leadership skills can be developed through gaining experience, learning from others, training courses, self development, coaching or mentoring. Here are some hints and tips on some of the key leadership skills that will help you to develop into a good business leader:

1. Visionary. Leaders need to be able to develop, articulate and communicate the vision for their business, as well as inspiring everyone around the vision. Leaders also need to maintain a focus on the bigger picture for their business.
2. The ability to inspire and motivate others. Leaders need to inspire and motivate their employees to achieve the business objectives, as well as inspiring their suppliers, customers and everyone they deal with around their business vision.
3. Customer focused. Leaders need to be customer focused and to continually review their business from the customer’s perspective. Providing a high level of customer service is a key part of developing a successful business.
4. Personal values and a reputation for integrity and honesty. Leaders need a strong sense of personal values and a reputation for integrity and honesty, as well as the ability to keep calm and assured whatever is happening around them.
5. Knowledgeable and experienced. Leaders need to have specific knowledge and experience of the business they are in, as well as good general business knowledge and experience. They also need to focus on self development and be prepared to keep developing their knowledge and experience.
6. Decisive and self-confident. Leaders need to be self-confident and decisive, as well as being accountable for their decisions and for the business as a whole.
7. Ability to effect and lead change. Change is an essential part of business today and leaders need to be able to seek opportunities for change and effect change both within and outside their business. Running a business requires you to be flexible and adaptable at all times.
8. Good communication skills at all levels. Leaders need to be able to communicate well at all levels both within and outside their business.
9. Delegation. Leaders need to be able to delegate, develop, empower and encourage accountability in others.
10. A willingness to take advice and to seek support. Good leaders are willing to take advice on their business, as well as to ask for help and support.

I provide personalised coaching, mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals. Leadership is one of the areas that I work with clients on to move their business forward.

If you would like support with leadership in your business please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 edition of the Success Matrix Find The Experts newsletter. For more information see www.findtheexperts.co.uk.

Are you a good listener?

2007-06-18T14:49:00.002+01:00

Most of us consider ourselves to be good listeners, but how often do we really listen to what other people are saying? Poor listening skills can impact on your business and personal life leading to conflict, misunderstandings, relationship problems, losing customers and contracts, unhappy staff, increased costs and lower profitability.

What is good listening? Listening is not just about hearing. It is when you truly understand the other person’s point of view, what they are thinking, how they are feeling and how they see the world. Listening involves not only hearing, but also understanding what is said, giving feedback on what you have heard and using and interpreting the non-verbal aspects of communication i.e. vocal factors (pitch, tone and rhythm), eye contact, facial expressions, body postures and even silence.

What are the benefits of good listening? When you display good listening skills the person you are listening to feels understood and valued and is more likely to be open and honest with you. By giving them the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings with you they can gain greater insight and make better choices. Good listening will result in better relationships, clearer communication and a happier and more successful business and personal life.

What are the barriers to good listening? There are many barriers to listening including:
- You may have preconceptions or make assumptions about what the other person might say and should say.
- Your attention can be selective leading to bias in what you hear.
- You think faster than other people can talk and your attention can wander.
- You may be unable to ignore irrelevant information.
- The physical environment can contribute to poor listening e.g. other people’s conversations and background distractions.
- You have not allowed enough time for the conversation.
- You may lack concentration because you are thinking of other things, planning what you want to say next or daydreaming.

What behaviours impede good listening? As well as the barriers to listening above, you can interrupt your listening and the other person by:
- Interrupting when the other person is talking.
- Giving advice or offering solutions when the other person is talking.
- Using humour inappropriately.
- Reassuring or consoling the other person before they have finished speaking.
- Fidgeting or distracting the other person.
- Using emotionally laden language.

So what can help you to improve your listening skills? Here are some tips to help you improve your listening:
- Look interested in the other person and be alert.
- Concentrate on really listening to the other person, including what they are saying, how they are saying it and their body language.
- Minimise distractions.
- Be patient and do not interrupt
- Keep up with what the other person is saying and listen to the whole story.
- Allow the other person to be silent. They may be thinking or processing something internally.
- Provide clear feedback to show that you are listening e.g. nodding, agreeing and encouraging.
- Match the other person’s body language, vocal factors, metaphors, use of language and emotional tone, so that they feel listened to, understood and appreciated.
- Try to understand what the person is actually saying, what they are thinking and what they are feeling.
- Use your intuition to try and understand what the other person is thinking and feeling but may not be actually saying.
- Do not be judgemental or opinionated.
- If you need to take notes ask first if this is okay and do it in a way that does not distract the other person.
- Analyse and reflect back what you have heard, by paraphrasing, repeating, asking open questions and clarifying.
- Summarise the key points of the conversation and ask the other person whether they agree with your summary.
- Notice if you are not properly listening so that you can quickly bring your attention back to the other person.

Poor listening skills may be impacting you and your business. If you would like support in improving your listening skills please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk/ or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the June 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Working Styles

2007-05-18T17:21:00.002+01:00

Have you ever thought about your working style when communicating with your business contacts, employees, friends and family? Working styles are extremely useful in communication at all levels. Understanding and thinking about your working style and that of the person you are dealing with will help you immensely. There are five main working styles which are summarised below. Most people have characteristics from more than one style but generally everyone has a predominant style.

Which is your predominant style and what characteristics do you have from other styles? Think about your business and personal relationships, especially those where you experience difficulties in communication? You may find that the reason for this is that you have contrasting working styles. Communication can be significantly improved by being aware and adapting to the other person’s working style (e.g. If you are a ‘Hurry Up’ you may need to talk slower, explain things in detail and watch out for signs of stress when you are dealing with a ‘Be Perfect’). Why not try this out and see what impact it can have in your business and personal life?

1. Hurry Up
Motivation - To complete a task in the shortest possible time.
Strength - The amount of work they can complete.
Characteristics - Respond well to short deadlines, tend to delay jobs until urgent, look for the quickest way to complete each task, dislike preparation and checking, seem to enjoy having too many things to do and rushing around, can appear impatient, often fast thinkers who speak rapidly and interrupt without listening properly and like information in bullet points and verbally.

2. Be Perfect
Motivation - To get everything exactly right.
Strength - Reliable accurate work.
Characteristics - Prepare thoroughly, plan and pay close attention to detail, written work tends to be very good although lengthy, check facts carefully and has contingency plans for potential problems, constantly apply high expectations to self and others, can become paranoid and highly stressed by mistakes and tend to speak more slowly and carefully using longer and less familiar words.

3. Please Person
Motivation - To please others and encourage harmony.
Strength - Ability to function in a team.
Characteristics - Understanding, considerate and intuitive, will endeavour to draw in quieter members of the team, aim to please others preferably without having to ask what is required, dislike confrontation and conflict, dislike saying 'no' and can find it difficult to challenge, tend to take criticism personally, often smile and nod a lot in agreement tending to phrase opinions as questions, procrastinates over decisions and has good listening skills.

4. Try Hard
Motivation - The effort required in the initial stages of a new task.
Strength - Ideas, concepts, initiating tasks and getting things off the ground.
Characteristics - Like a steady supply of new and interesting tasks, a tendency to boredom with mundane detailed aspects of any task, highly inquisitive and like to explore and discover, positive approach to problems, follow up all possibilities of a task and may pick up on aspects missed by others, communication is often strained and difficult and often volunteer for any task which seems interesting.

5. Be Strong
Motivation -To stay calm under pressure and present an image of strength and control.
Strength - Ability to cope and remain calm.
Characteristics - Excellent in a crisis, energised under pressure, think logically when others are panicking, consistent steady workers with a strong sense of duty, firm, fair and even-tempered with an ability to give constructive criticism, can remain emotionally detached enabling them to deal with difficult people, appear to be able to make unpleasant decisions without guilt, communication style is often expressionless and unemotional, hate admitting weaknesses, often view failure to cope as a weakness and dislike asking for help.

If you are struggling with communication and you need some support in moving forward please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk/ or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the May 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Can stress be good for you?

2007-04-19T14:32:00.002+01:00

What is stress? Stress is the state that you experience when you perceive that you cannot adequately cope with the demands being made on you. You feel under pressure and don't have the physical and mental reserves to cope. This may be because you don't know how to cope, don't have the resources to cope or are in poor health.

What causes stress? Many different situations can cause stress, ranging from a series of minor irritations to major upheavals, including work pressures, personal problems, financial worries, health concerns, perfectionism, procrastination, poor time management, putting too much pressure on yourself, low self confidence, negative self talk or not looking after yourself. Sometimes there is no obvious cause of stress at all.

What are the symptoms of stress? How you cope with stress lies in how you relate to yourself as each situation arises. If you cannot cope, you experience a build up of tensions that can affect you physically, psychologically and emotionally. Symptoms of stress can include:
- Physical signs such as chest pains, increased blood pressure, heart racing, palpitations, panic attacks, constant tiredness, cramps or muscle spasms, food, cigarette or drug cravings, dizziness, lack of appetite, nail biting, headaches, stomach disorders, feeling sick, frequent crying, restlessness, sleeping problems and a tendency to perspire. The body produces 'fight or flight' chemicals which prepare the body for an emergency. Cortisol releases fat and sugar into your body and reduces the efficiency of the immune system. Long term these can lead to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and other major health problems.
- Emotional symptoms such as feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, psychosomatic illnesses and depression. Thoughts may become jumbled and confused and you may become preoccupied with problems.
- Behavioural changes such as being withdrawn, indecisive, inflexible, inability to sleep, increased sensitivity to criticism, irritability, tearfulness and aggression, as well as inability to concentrate.

How can you manage stress? Managing stress is one of the areas that my clients often ask for support with. Stress management involves recognising the symptoms of stress, identifying the causes of stress, taking action to address the causes and thereby reduce the symptoms and where necessary, taking interim steps to relieve the symptoms until the underlying causes have been addressed. There are many different ways of managing stress, including:
-Time management, including goal and action planning, delegation, controlling perfectionism and overcoming procrastination.
- Assertiveness, including recognising behaviours, dealing with criticism and with anger and learning how to say no.
- Rational thinking, including positive thinking, challenging distorted thinking and irrational beliefs.
- Self care, including relaxation, having fun, learning to express yourself, understanding yourself, exercise, healthy eating, a good work-life balance, developing hobbies and interests, expanding your circle of friends and looking after your mental health.
- Medical, including various types of medication.
- Stress management therapies, including psychotherapy, counselling, massage, aromatherapy, reflexology and many more.

Can stress be good for you? Stress is not necessarily bad or dangerous and if you can manage stress in a positive way you can keep on top of things. You will then see stress as invigorating and challenging rather than something to fear. As stress levels increase we move from a state of low performance to a state of peak performance, but as stress levels continue to increase our performance decreases again, as we become overloaded and reach a state of exhaustion and burnout. It is therefore a delicate balance and different for each person. However if stress is well managed it can be beneficial.

Overall, there are positive and negative aspects to stress and it is important to find the right balance in your life. By following good stress management strategies you can enjoy the beneficial and positive side of stress.

If you are struggling with stress and you need some support in moving forward please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the April 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

How do you keep your employees motivated?

2007-04-19T14:03:00.002+01:00

Well motivated employees lead to high business productivity, minimal staff turnover and greater profitability for your business. However, how do you keep your employees motivated?

Motivating your employees is not just about paying a competitive salary or offering perks and bonuses. To ensure your employees are well motivated you need to consider all aspects of your business. Here are some hints and tips to help you:

1. Make your employees feel valued. Thank them, give them praise, recognise them for their contribution to the business, encourage them to feel that their work makes a difference to the business and give feedback constructively.
2. Communicate with your employees in an open and honest way, including regular staff meetings in groups and on a one-to-one basis and staff updates on how the business is performing and management decisions that have been made.
3. Review performance on a regular basis through staff appraisals and individual update meetings, ensuring individual objectives are realistic and align with the overall business objectives. Ensure your approach is consistent and fair between employees.
4. Consult with your employees before making decisions that will affect them and encourage your employees to make suggestions for improvements in the business. Ensure you listen to your employees and acknowledge their opinions.
5. Develop trust and teamwork among your employees and encourage them to ask for help when problems arise.
6. Give your employees a reasonable amount of autonomy and control and try and ensure each employee has a variety of interesting and satisfying work.
7. Support your employees through times of change in the business, in achieving work/life balance and managing stress.
8. Provide employees with development and career opportunities, through training, work placements and encouragement.
9. Create an atmosphere where employees enjoy working alongside their colleagues, where there is time for humour and fun and take the time to be interested in their life outside work. Provide a good working environment, together with the right training and equipment to do the job.
10. Pay your employees a competitive salary and appropriate bonuses and perks.

I provide personalised coaching, mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals. Motivating employees is one of the areas that I work with clients on to move their business forward.

If you would like support with employee motivation in your business please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 edition of the Success Matrix Find The Experts newsletter. For more information see www.findtheexperts.co.uk.

Are you procrastinating?

2007-03-07T14:43:00.002Z

I am sure that you are all familiar with procrastination - i.e. putting off doing things that are important and doing something more enjoyable or easier instead.

But, have you really considered what the costs of procrastinating are to you and your business?
- If you put off something for too long you may miss out on opportunities. How often do you get that big product or marketing idea, procrastinate, then find the competitors have got there first?
- Procrastination is a big time waster. Your time is money and you need to spend it productively.
- It may stop you achieving your business goals or slow your progress towards your goals.
- Leaving things until they are urgent can result in mistakes and low customer satisfaction.
- Procrastination can have a negative impact on your emotions, increasing worry and stress.

You need to recognise the signs of procrastination to be able to do something about it. Do you recognise any of these in yourself?
- Being very busy or always having something urgent to do so you never do the important tasks.
- Being a perfectionist and not wanting to start a task until everything is just so.
- Leaving a task because you feel overwhelmed by it, whether it be due to the size of the task or because you feel you don't have the skills or resources to complete it.
- Always staying within your comfort zone and never tackling the more challenging tasks.
- Feeling that it needs to be the right time or that you need to be in the right mood.
- Fearing that you will fail or even fearing success.
- Finding that you are making a drink or looking at your emails instead of completing an important task.

Understanding why you are procrastinating will help you decide how to stop. You may be putting up emotional barriers, being complacent, fearing failure, avoiding discomfort or feeling that being busy is good for your business.

Stopping procrastinating is one of the areas that I work with clients on to help them become more productive, focused and successful in both their business and personal life. So how do you stop procrastinating?
- Have clear business and personal goals that align with your values.
- Keep focused on your goals at all times.
- Identify the key tasks you need to do and when you will do them to achieve your goals.
- Prioritise these tasks and be prepared to reprioritise them as things change.
- Break down large tasks into smaller more manageable tasks. Start on the easier tasks first.
- Identify the value of completing the tasks e.g. more money, time, fun, less stress etc.
- Use the value and benefits of completing the tasks as motivation.
- Use good time management and organisational skills at all times.
- Try and make tasks more enjoyable and give yourself rewards for achieving them.
- Imagine how you will feel when the task is completed to motivate you.
- Tell other people what you are doing so they can help and encourage you.

Procrastination may be impacting you and your business by much more than you initially thought. Hopefully this article will have increased your awareness of the impact it can have and given you some ideas on how to stop procrastinating.

If you are struggling with procrastination and you need some support in moving forward please refer to my website http://makinithappen.co.uk or contact Liz Makin at Liz@makinithappen.co.uk.

This article first appeared in the March 2007 edition of the Makin It Happen - Coaching, Mentoring & Stress Management newsletter. Please click here to Sign up for our email newsletter.

Are you running a business?

2007-01-22T18:39:00.003Z