If you are a market leader like World of Leather then a 20% drop in the demand for leather sofas will have a huge impact, but if you are selling 2 sofas a week from your Ceredigion workshop then you still only need to find 2 customers a week out of the probably thousands that are still being bought each week in South Wales, and because a big beast in the leather sofa world is no longer there it could actually mean that there is more unsatisfied demand?

“Ah” I hear you say “but my turnover is suffering how do you explain that?” Well maybe we are all just a little guilty of expecting less and consequently settling for less?
Perhaps we need to find the zip and self belief that we started with?

Just a thought
All the best Chris

But if you have to attend to other clients , go to meetings, or you are a one man band doing whatever you do, then answering the phone can be a nightmare, whether you need to concentrate, or get into unusual positions and places ( I am thinking of plumbers here, before your imagination leads to other places!) And of course in our part of Wales the mobile signal can be quite hit & miss.

Of course customers might wait until you can ring back, or they might leave a message. But we all know the sound of an empty message, left because the keen buyer is off to ring the next supplier!

That is what people do if they get an answer phone, some people just hate talking to them, for whatever reason whether they leave a message or not they will ring somebody else, at best then it might be a race to see who gets back to them first, but if your competitor picks up the phone you have lost that customer not just on this occasion but for life.

What is the life time value of one customer to your business?

This all comes as part of a very affordable package, but you are invited to a meeting this evening to see how we work, whether  or not you come along we will offer you a two month no risk, no obligation trial for just £4.95  – actually the cost of post and packing – If you decide that it is not for you and leave after the trial then fine, but naturally we hope that you will join the thousands of others nationwide who have found that the Entrepreneurs Circle has made a real difference to their business!

Take up the trial today either at the meeting in the Hotel Mariners or online at http://www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/495-trial/?qAf=17565

And I will give you a FREE copy ( cover price £9.95) of “It’s All Changed” 66 practical down  to earth  steps to growing your business in 2011/12.

This is a real book not an electronic e book and it features a not very flattering picture of yours truly!

PLEASE YOU MUST ACT TODAY TO GET THE BOOK

Call me, 01550 739 053 or come to Hotel Mariners this evening, or go online;http://www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/495-trial/?qAf=17565

I am not sure who it was said that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.

Many small businesses reflect the personality of the owner, after all we are probably in that business because we like the industry and are good at whatever it is we do. This is not necessarily the same as turning a hobby into a business, but we are drawn to those things that we enjoy and the prospect of doing something you hate for the rest of your life is not going to motivate many of us to start a business doing that very same thing. Of course escaping the prospect of doing something you do not enjoy for the rest of your life can be the thing that kick starts us into self employment.

But running and developing your own business demands different skills and talents’ as things move on. It can be that the determination and self reliance that gets you started is less useful in the later stages when you become more dependent on staff and suppliers or the bank manager. When you think about it the biggest changes we need to make in our business is us! We have to spend more and more time explaining things to people, we become more reliant on others to do their job properly, we spend less time “doing the business”.

If you are running a business and you are not getting the results you want (or deserve) then the chances are that it is you that needs to change! It is your business so who else is going to do it for you?

If you are happy with things continuing the way they are leave well alone. But if you want to grow or develop profits, sales or lifestyle then something has to change. Having some help is no disgrace, Alan Sugar clearly is not afraid to use other people with different skills. You probably use an accountant, and you probably do not fly the plane when you go on holiday.

You have achieved a lot in starting your business, although it may not feel like it, and you have some great skills (or you would not still be in business) But you now need to do something differently, in order to achieve the dreams and ambitions you had when you set out.

So my question is “what are you going to do differently”  Or are you happy with things as they are?

From a guest blog done for the Best of Pembrokeshire

Take the two month trial for £4.95

Click here;
http://www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/495-trial/?qAf=17565

To make it worthwhile you having a look there are some great extras including

• FREE Online video training “How to Use Twitter for Less than 6 minutes a Day to Successfully Grow Your Business”.
• FREE Online training on Google Adwords and pay-per-click — to seriously sky-rocket your online earnings.

either of these would cost you a lot more to buy and could be worth even more when you use them in your business!

Check the other FREE GIFTS out along with the money back guarantee, so you really cannot lose
Click here;
http://www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/495-trial/?qAf=17565

The Entrepreneurs Circle is different -and credible- because it is lead by a UK entrepreneur who has built SIX £million+ businesses from scratch , and is still doing it today!

HAVE A LOOK NOW!
http://www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/495-trial/?qAf=17565

OR RING 01550 739 053

If this is as good as I say how would you feel to miss out?

Thanks for looking
Chris

For many of us the period leading up to Christmas is the best of the year, and we want to maximise our returns during this time.  This golden period will start in early September so it is actually just over 3 months until the arrival of Christmas cuts it off in its prime. So we really need to make sure that everything is right and working to its optimum during this time. We should be OK it is still only July we have virtually the whole summer to prepare……..
BUT!
Well the chances are that you will have a holiday that will take out a couple of weeks, then of course everybody is taking a holiday as well so even the smallest job can take a lot longer than usual to get done, even the people who are not on holiday are covering those who are, and nobody wants to work late when the barbie and a cold beer (alright some wishful thinking here!) are calling.

So take out the downtime between now and September and we probably only have about 3 weeks to get sorted for a very important trading period which we cannot afford not to squeeze every penny out of.

• Three weeks to get our winter promotions sorted, consider and design our marketing campaigns.
• Under a month to make sure that everything is working perfectly, to train people to do everything just right.
• 21 days to sort out the warehouse, service or buy new equipment.

It is no good starting in September – we will not get things going until October in that case.
Cheesy my headline may be but I really do think it is time to get ready for Christmas now

That’s it for now, enjoy the summer if it ever gets here

Chris

Not the 200+ companies that sit in his Virgin group. Not the private Caribbean island. Not the penchant for dressing up.

What you’ve got in common is that you’ve got exactly the same number of hours in every day, and the same number of days in each week.

Branson’s not become a billionaire because he’s discovered a way of slowing the tick tock of his clock, he’s done it because he’s taught himself to get more stuff done than most other people do, in exactly the same amount of time.

Time is the one thing that money can’t buy, and as a business owner, it’s YOUR responsibility to make to make sure you squeeze the maximum out of every last second.

It’s not easy (if it was, perhaps we’d all be billionaires), but there are some simple strategies that super-successful people use to make the most of their time.

Our very own serial entrepreneur Nigel Botterill is one of them, finding time in his week to manage 5 highly successful businesses and take Monty the dog for a walk most mornings.

Come and join us on  the 12th where we will be sharing Nigel’s time management secrets, and finding out what tricks and tools he uses to fit everything in.

You can book here

www.businessgrowthadvisor.co.uk/southwestwales

or call me on 01550 753039

I look forward to seeing you at the event.

Chris

The content delivered in this session has received great responses from new and established business owners alike. With people going away buzzing with ideas that will improve their business and help profits.
Come along to this free session to see how the Entrepreneurs Circle could work for you!

A local session at a convenient time that could really be the start of things getting better for your business. However you feel about the business climate things can be better but we  have to make it happen!

When I ask businesses what their strengths are customer service gets mentioned in a huge majority of replies. As small businesses it is something we can do so much better than the big boys, How many people think that the MacDonald’s “enjoy your meal” is heartfelt?

But I think we are all in danger of forgetting is that customer satisfaction is a moving target, what was exceptional yesterday will be taken for granted today. Look at how the John Lewis – never knowingly undersold has been overtaken by people offering to refund the difference, and then the difference plus, and so on.

If we stand still then our large competitors find ways of competing with our customer service and neutralise it as a competitive advantage. So we have to keep innovating to stay ahead! But it is worth it because good customer service directly feeds into our bottom line because customers come back to us, they are likely to spend more, they recommend and talk about us, and they are less concerned about getting the cheapest deal. So if you are being completely honest do you give customer service the attention it deserves?

In this tough market place suppose you could get an extra 3% on all sales, what would that do for your profits?

At the Entrepreneurs Circle in Carmarthen on Tuesday 14th 6.00pm we will be exploring ways of improving customer service. Let me know if you would like to come along.

In the meantime – have a nice day! Chris

01550 760141 or reply to this email to claim your place

Something that has to be done by a certain time is urgent – like buying a lottery ticket or drinking your lager before it warms up – but neither of these is really important. Important things are just that and whether or not you do them can have a serious effect on your life.

This distinction comes to mind whenever I talk to people about marketing and developing their business because no matter how important you think working on your business is, I am willing to bet that the Urgency of the ringing phone will always take you away from it!

If you want to improve your business you have to find time away from it – now I would suggest the Entrepreneurs Circle at this point -  please come to my event on June 2^nd - CLICK
HERE for details or copy this into your browser http://www.smebusinessevents.co.uk/south-west-wales

But whatever you do take some time out to spend on your business – it is so important to you and your family but is never urgent. How many of us have been meaning to get something done for years without it ever getting to the top of the to do list!

Of course some things are important and urgent like remembering your wedding anniversary before your wife reminds you!!!!