Targets – A-Head for Success

A-Z of Business: I – Influencing Skills

November 28, 2012

The ability to positively influence others with integrity is a key skill in business. It affects your ability to have people buy into you, your business, your product and your ideas. It impacts your leadership style and your ability to build constructive relationships. It can also be incredibly stressful if you are unable to influence people constructively, impacting your productivity, your sales and even your profitability.

Influence is about your ability to have a positive effect on someone. It differs from manipulation in that it is undertaken with integrity and regard to the interest of the other party. It’s about having people buy in to your ideas and perspectives, so that they say ‘yes’ to you more.

The talent for influence requires flexibility in style, clarity of outcome, the ability to understand a situation from several perspectives, and creating and maintaining a resourceful state, particularly during times of conflict, or when the stakes are high.

It is not about imposing but inspiring someone to take a particular action, while maintaining strong rapport and building positive relationships.

There are numerous language patterns which enhance your capacity to increase your powers of influence which are too numerous to go into in this short article but which I teach to many of my clients and which I include on my Influencing Skills training course. The issue, though, is not what the skills are, but the effect that they can have on your success. They can help you deal with objections and concerns so that you are able to transform potentially negative situations elegantly. It’s the YES factor!

Whether your intention is to create change, elicit support or diffuse potentially contentious situations, influencing skills can be a real boon to you in your business.

For further details, please contact Tricia Woolfrey on 0345 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

A-Z of Business: H – Health – How Can Your Business Be Healthy If You’re Not?

November 7, 2012

To succeed in business you need to be firing on all cylinders. In fact, you could say that the health of your business is a reflection of your own health. If you are tired all the time, or run down with frequent bouts of colds and flu, suffer frequent headaches or if you are at the mercy of IBS, can you really be functioning at your best?

Health is more than just an absence of symptoms. When you are healthy in every sense of the word (physically and emotionally), you will have more stamina and energy to deal with the stressors of business life; mentally you will have clarity of thought and direction, the ability to solve problems quickly and your memory will be more reliable; you will feel more motivated and less irritable; health will also mean that your immune system is strong to safeguard you from colds and flu as well as more serious illnesses.

If you’re feeling tired-all-the-time, or low motivation, it could well be as a result of your body needing to be stronger and healthier.

Your health can be affected by many factors including:

Food choices
Depleted nutrition in foods
Cellular health
Alcohol
Sugar
Cigarettes
Stress
Negative emotions
Environment
Lack of exercise

Taking care of yourself is taking care of business. We take great care of our cars: fill them with petrol, make sure there is enough oil and water, take them for a regular MOT, but are you doing this for yourself? For a health MOT, call 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Health, Performance, Success, Wellness

Business, Coaching, Employees, Health, Illness, Motivation, Nutrition, Performance, Problem solving, Stamina, Strengths, Success, Targets, Tricia Woolfrey, Wellness

A-Z of Business: G – Goals: Your Targets for Success and a Solution to Overwhelm

October 18, 2012

One of the things which hinders your ability to achieve results, to maximise performance and to increase productivity, is a lack of clarity around goals. Goals help you establish priorities and are the foundation for actions which lead to success. But they aren’t enough on their own. In this article, I will share with you how to set goals which move you forward, and what else you need to do to make it all happen.

A well-known acronym – SMART – helps to make your goals more tangible. Without this, it is simply a to-do item in a sea of competing items in your cluttered mind. When you set well-defined goals, your unconscious mind is more able to organise itself into acting on them – you will have increased control, decreased stress and greater focus. If you have seen it before it will serve as a useful reminder.

Goals should be SMART:

Specific – vague goals produce vague results
Measurable – how will you know you have achieved it?
Achievable – not based on hope but reality with a contingency built in to deal with the unexpected
Relevant – how applicable is it to your business, your life, now and in the long term?
Timebound – what time scale do you want to achieve it within?

A poorly defined goal would be “Launch product”. A better goal would be “To create and execute a project plan for the January 5th product launch of Profit Serum to existing customers, our prospect database and industry media.”

Goal Considerations

It should be stated in the positive (what you want, not what you don’t want)
Identify the resources needed to achieve the goal – human, financial, physical, etc
Consider whether you can genuinely start the goal and maintain it
Look at the wider consequences of the goal
- Time and effort required
- Do you have buy-in from stakeholders?
- Whether anyone else is affected and how to deal with it if they are
- Does this goal impact the achievement of other goals? Which is more important? What can be done to achieve both?
- What you will have to give up in order to achieve it?
- Are you willing to give this up in the pursuit of the goal?
Is the goal is in keeping with your values? If not, can it be changed so that it does? If not, why do you need/want it?

Making It Happen

Finally, a goal, in itself, is nothing without a plan of action. List the steps to achieving your goal and have a system to monitor your progress and to keep you on track or adjust your course as necessary. Last, but by no means least, factor in a celebration when you have achieved it!

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Goals, Performance, Profit, Success

Business, Decision making, Goals, Motivation, Performance, Profit, Strengths, Success, Targets, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: F – Finance – 5 Tips to Help Your Business Succeed

September 24, 2012

1. Cash is King

Cash flow is the main reason for business succeeding or failing. An apparently successful business may have a full order book, and even good levels of projected profit, but if funds cannot be collected from customers in a reasonable timescale the business will fail. You should ensure your customers are aware of your payment terms before carrying out tasks and where possible advanced payments, should be requested.

Tip – Get paid on time by ensuring you have regular communication with your customer and that you have an effective credit control procedure.

2. Overtrading

This is where a business has a full order book but struggles to convert turnover (sales) into profit. This situation usually develops when tasks are taken on at a cheaper rate when compared to competitors in order to secure orders. Subsequently, the business becomes very busy but the income generated is not sufficient in order make a profit, and so the business fails. This strategy can be used carefully in order to try and build a reputation but for small businesses it should not be used in the long-term. Remember “turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity”.

Tip – You are usually in business to make money so ensure you do not under-sell your products or services unless you have a clearly defined plan.

3. Control the Controllable

Fixed costs – these costs do not vary regardless of the business activity undertaken, i.e. rent and rates.

Variable costs – these are dependant on the level of activity, i.e. heat and light or staff overtime.

Tight control and effective monitoring of these costs is essential. Whilst fixed costs by their very nature are easier to control, effective negotiation with suppliers is an important step. Variable costs can often get out of control if not properly managed, i.e. buying stock recklessly can tie up cash and may lead to unforeseen losses.

Tip – Ensure there is an efficient method of recording and managing costs. Monitor them on a regular basis.

4. Supplier Relationships

Negotiating with your suppliers is important in order to gain value for money but when evaluating a potential supplier do not focus solely on the costs. You should try and build a close working relationship with your suppliers and also consider the following:

Product efficiency – do they have a good reputation for supplying reliable products?
Delivery – can delivery be made in a timely manner?
Payment Terms – extended terms can often ease your own cash flow concerns.

Tip – Ensure you question potential suppliers to ensure they meet your key criteria.

5. Initial Funding

Many small businesses often underestimate the amount of necessary funding needed to commence trading or start a new product line or service. This lack of funding will immediately restrict any business capacity and will greatly threaten the potential growth and stability of your business. Always identify and try to properly estimate the amount of money needed to launch your business and to cover the costs for at least the first year which should include both running expenses and capital investment.

Tip – Take time to plan the financial implications of your business plans.

With thanks to:

Colin Bentall FCCA
Ford Bentall LLP
www.fordbentall.co.uk

A-Z of Business: A – Appraisals

May 29, 2012

Now, you may be thinking of appraisals as something you do to your staff to tell them where they are going wrong and put them on the right track. But it is more than that and it is more than just about your staff. Done well, it is motivational and inspiring.

Appraisals are something you can do for yourself, your business as well as your staff. It is a way of looking at:

What’s going well so you can do more of it
What could be improved so you are continuously evolving
Progress against goals so you can get back on track if you need to
Adjust your goals so that they are relevant to changing conditions such as market, environment, competition, etc
Plan for the future

It can help you really stay on top of your game if you are conducting regular appraisals of yourself, your business and your individual staff members. You first of all need a list of competencies and measures of success to appraise.

If you want to know more about how to do these well, why not book a session so you give your business the best chance of ongoing success? Call me on 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

To your success!

Tricia Woolfrey

PS Have you recently had a psychometric profile? This can really help you to understand your strengths and blindspots so you can work at your very best. Call me on 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

About Tricia Woolfrey

Tricia Woolfrey is a business, performance and productivity coach, helping people to succeed in their business, and for their business to succeed. She has extensive experience with clients across several business sectors, including IT, telecoms, event management, entertainment, recruitment, finance, PR, coaching and therapy, support services, legal and more, ranging from large corporates to start-ups and the solo-preneurs.

Prior to running her own consultancy, she was Group HR Director for a multi-national organisation and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Professional Development. Her integrative approach to change has had profound results for individuals and organisations alike.

“The results there were nothing short of fantastic”- Guy Apple, VP Marketing & Sales, NVT, UK

Appraisals, Goals, Performance, Success

Appraisal, Coaching, Employee performance, Goals, Inspiration, Motivation, Strengths, Success, Targets