What Will A Business Coach Bring to My Business?
I have had an amazing week of networking and meeting business people in the Northern Rivers. What has been really interesting is the different views of Business Coaching.
I was in a store, in Ballina, that had a shelf full of small business awards. I asked the woman working there what they did so well to earn all of the awards, her answer was that she hired a business coach around 18 months ago. With a fair amount of professional interest, I asked if she would recommend business coaching to other businesses. “Of course I would, the three most successful businesses in this street all have business coaches!”
Also last week, the Small Fish Directors, Jon Dale and Kristian Reiss, attended the annual conference of one of Australia’s best known franchises. The franchisor pointed out to them that they had noticed that some of their franchisees were hiring business coaches on their own. When they looked at the success of their business, the franchises being coached were more successful than those that weren’t. The franchisor saw the opportunity to introduce coaching to the remainder of the business.
Finally, I was at a Home Business Networking Function where there were a number of key note speakers. Unbeknown to me, the marketing business owner that I had been speaking to prior to the meeting was an internationally acclaimed speaker. In his key note speech, he mentioned that he had met me and told the audience, “Those of you here that do not have a business coach, GET ONE!”
In light of all of this happening, I still meet people that tell me that they cannot afford a business coach. If you are currently in that mindset, I invite you to ask yourself; Can you afford not to get a business coach? Where will your business be if you do not act now and your competition does?
Dean Atkins
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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Congratulations Steve Dyer
Steve Dyer from Cavalier Homes Northern Rivers was presented with two prestigious awards on Saturday at the Master Builders Association Regional Awards. Cavalier Homes builds affordable, quality homes and gives a service that its customers enjoy from start to finish. As their business coach, we decided that what they were selling was trust and this is true today – their customers are not buying a house or indeed a home, they are buying a successful building experience. Steve won Best Contract Between $400,000 and $500,000 and Most Sustainable New Home. Both awards were for 48 Bayshore Drive, Byron Bay.
Well done Steve and Gav.
Jon Dale
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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A Day With Jack Daly
Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to a sales training day with Jack Daly. This is a man of immense experience, wisdom and energy who can relay his message simply and effectively.
The take-aways for me were:
• Change your voicemail daily – let people know what you are doing and when it is likely that you will get back to them. Put some life into it! This is an easy way to differentiate yourselves from others.
• Activity gets results – we know what we need to do to grow our business – see more people, put our business out there, ask for referrals and provide great service. Put a minimum standard of what you need to do daily - do it and track it.
• Get your head in the game:
• Success comes from doing what we know we should be doing, when we should be doing it, whether we want to or not. You have to have self discipline, you are responsible for the outcomes of your experience.
• If you really believe you can be, have, or do something – you will create the circumstances and find the people to allow you to be, have or do.
• Your life is a direct result of your expectations for it.
• “It isn’t what you know that counts, it’s what you do with what you know that counts.”
Kristian Reiss 27-Jul-2010 11:25 AM
Great blog post Mariejan - and I am glad you enjoyed the day with Jack!
A Reflection on Self-Esteem
As some of you know, I'm a bit of a fan of Seth Godin and his blog. He writes with considerable insight about marketing and brings an attitude of sincerity and genuineness that is missing from much of modern marketing.
Read this blog post.
He talks about how people with low self esteem are easy to hire and boss around but the people you want to work with have high opinions of themselves and are also harder to find and harder to manage.
It’s the usual paradox – things that are worthwhile often require hard work, don’t they?
Enjoy the read.
Jon Dale
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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Lessons for Business From the World Cup
As the Spanish celebrate, and the rest of us commiserate our team’s losses at the Football World Cup, it is a good chance to look back at some of the lessons that we can take forward into our businesses.
• New Zealand’s undefeated run against Slovakia, Paraguay and the reigning world champions Italy showed us that a team that works for each other, toward a common goal can hold its own against a team of stars looking for personal glory.
LESSON- Look at your team, who is working for the glory of the team, and who is working for themselves?
• The infamous “Jabulani” ball caused a lot of controversy for its unpredictable movement. England, Algeria and Slovakia all criticized the ball after losses. The problem is, the winners played with the same ball.
LESSON- Legislation, the GFC, and a raft of other issues means that business landscape is often changing., The businesses that recognise that their competitors have the same limitations to work around then adapt the fastest, are usually rewarded.
• North Korea, isolated and closed to most of the world, were embarrassed by a 7-0 loss to Portugal, while South Korea, free
trading and open to new markets, played great football.
LESSON- Get to know your competition, learn from them, and leverage off of them.
Obviously, there are a million parallels that I could compare between the world cup and business, but the most important one, to me, is that each team had a Captain and a Coach. The Captains role was to be in the thick of things, feeling how things are going and leading by example. The Coach identified the skills needed, the resources available, and came up with a strategy to overcome each hurdle. Diego Maridona, possibly the best know footballer in history and Argentina’s Coach, may have loved to have been on the field, but his role as coach allowed him to look at the game objectively, while his football career fuelled his passion and understanding of the game.
LESSON- A lot of great business people may miss opportunities or threats by being so involved in the business of doing business and the best coaches are often passionate players. If you are unable to look at your business from an objective point of view a Small Fish Business Coach can help.
It was a long road to the World Cup, with three years of qualifying matches just to get there. Your business success will not happen overnight, but if you start preparing now, who knows, you could be the best in the world!
Dean Atkins
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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Rewards for Good Customer Service
Customers reward good Customer Service by spending 8% more.
It's official, according to a report comissioned by American Express World Service Australia, customers reward good Customer Service by spending 8% more. It's as simple as showing polite respect and welcoming people to your business. Don't pester them because there is a fine line between buyer willingness and the buyer walking out the door.
Click here to read the full article.
Don't forget, it is much cheaper to keep a happy customer than to attract brand new ones!
Simon Thomas
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
Thomas Preiss 20-Jul-2010 08:30 AM
I agree with this with every bone in my body. Customer servive appears at an all time low in Australia. Just go into any store these days and you feel like you need to apologise for asking anything at all.
Kristian Reiss 08-Oct-2010 10:56 AM
Simon, just read this article titled "Customer service without the service" and had to share it. http://bit.ly/anhHvH
- Kristian
Small Fish Website
Check out this website article!
We were included in an article on BRW (a big Australian business magazine) in March. We didn’t even know. Today, we found out that a website marketing company ranked all the Corporate Mentoring Companies (their words) featured in the article and they ranked us at number 1!!
Well done Sam and CI Marketing!
And more of the same to come and we will get the US site catching up soon.
Jon Dale
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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SME Revenue Grows with Social Media
According to a poll taken by Melbourne IT eBiz Review, small businesses
using social media to leverage online business are likely to achieve
greater revenue.
This is great news for those of us with a SME and a social networking addiction!
Click here to check out the full article that was listed on news.com.au.
Dean Atkins
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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The Silent Customer
Last week I had an amazing meeting with Jeanette Forma of Card Services Hawaii. In that meeting she brought up the idea of the Silent Customer.
You know whom I am talking about; in fact I bet you have been a Silent Customer a time or two before.
A Silent Customer is the one who enters the store with the intention of purchasing something, but whom is either ignored or just dismissed in favor of another customer. They are often browsing your store quietly, but with no desire to make any additional effort in making themselves known.
What happens when you walk into the store and nobody acknowledges you?
What happens if you have a question but can’t find anyone to help you out?
How does that make you feel?
Do you feel unimportant?
Are you in the mood to buy, or are you in the mood to fly?
For me at least, I am usually in the mood to fly and head to the next store. While I don’t appreciate having someone pester me the entire time, I do appreciate a nice greeting and someone at the ready to help me with whatever questions I may have.
If you make me feel unimportant or not worthy of your time, then I will more than likely not give you any more of my time…EVER!
You are not just losing one sale, but many future sales. To think that all it would have taken you to earn my business, was a simple greeting and follow-up concern to see if I had any questions.
Is that to much to ask?
Consider these last few questions:
How many Silent Customers have you had this past month?
How much business have you lost because of them?
Isn’t it time we make a conscious effort to welcome our Silent Customers?
I challenge you to do more, and make the effort!
James Houser
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.us
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Does Your Business Have A Cookbook?
I recently attended my weekly BNI meeting and had the privilege of being able to listen to Rey Chan from Websmart Design present on the topic of “Usefulness” in relation to websites. As Rey said “Bells & whistles wear off, but usefulness never does”.
But there was one thing above all that resonated with me about Rey’s presentation that day.
Rey was passionate about the topic he was presenting, and by being so he was also able to educate the audience. (Interestingly, one of his key points was around using websites to teach what you are passionate about.)
Listening to Rey speak, I was in awe of his ability to simplify what can be a complex and often misunderstand topic.
Often businesses owners, and sales people for that matter, try and restrict the flow of information - like it is some sort of closely held trade secret.
They try and make things seem more complex than they really are, and confuse people. How often do we see this mentality, or even find ourselves slipping into this mindset? (When was the last time you tried to compare phone plans for example??)
Is it not better to educate people, to simplify things, to teach what it is we are passionate about?
Rey offered an example - Chefs and their Cookbooks. Chefs have embraced the notion of sharing their passion. Through their cookbooks, chefs simplify the art of cooking, and teach their passion. This opens the opportunity for more people to share in that passion.
It got me thinking – maybe every business should have its own “Cookbook”.
What would happen if more people become passionate about what you do in your business?
Kristian Reiss
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.com.au
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