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Imagine my surprise when reading the Evening Standard on the way home yesterday to read a headline on the front page ‘John Lewis feels the pinch as sales fall be a third.’ Goodness there must be one hell of a sale coming up I thought. I know the credit crunch is bad but surely not that bad. Then on turning to the article I find the headline ‘John Lewis is feeling the pinch as profits fall be a third.’ The economic climate might change but the good old British media is as inaccurate and ignorant as ever.

Popularity: 6%

As a business coach I am more about motivating action than generating ideas. I find my clients have ideas aplenty and although I certainly add more, it is getting them to do what they say they will which is the real challenge. It is not as if we don’t know what we need to. It is simply finding time in between everything else to get these tasks completed.

I have now evolved a simple weekly planning process where we agree at the start of the week the business priorities which must be achieved and then review them at the end of the week to make sure they have been completed. ‘Nothing revolutionary about that’ I hear you say and you are right. I suppose the difference is that instead of having these actions wandering around in their heads we write them down. That simple process of having something in black and white makes all the difference.

There are many people who do this naturally, but if you are not one of them why not try this today. It is not hard and the pleasure of ticking off what you have achieved on Friday night makes it all worthwhile.

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I have a very good friend who is a recognised artist. We communicate virtually every day on email and this week he is to have a one man show. As it is quite a way out of London we have decided to make a little holiday of the trip. I rang the gallery, explained who I was and that I would be attending the private viewing and asked if they would recommend a hotel near them. Of course the usual ‘Muppet’ who answered the phone could not possibly say and had to ask the boss who was presumably hovering in the background. She then gave me the name of a nearby hotel and put the phone down. Now those with disposable cash to spend on art in this slump, crunch or squeeze must be getting thinner on the ground. So maybe 5 magic words could have made a little difference and started a positive relationship. What are they? Well what about ‘looking forward to seeing you?’ Now you might well think that this is a ravings of an old man but believe me when times are hard everything you can do to establish relationship counts. How welcoming and warm are you when prospects contact you from cold?

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Our next door neighbour used to own a pub in the local village. It was a legend in the area and apparently even people from Spain came to our rural Somerset to sample her paella. She was reminiscing over a cup of tea last week and wondered if she should throw some of her pub memorabilia away. After all it was many years ago and all that stuff was cluttering up the loft. The menus, the visitors book, the awards for her great cooking, she had them all. ‘But this is a part of you’ I argued and you know you will regret it as soon as you have done it.

I then remembered that I still had stuff from my first sales career in my early 20s. Those letters we received from the top management announcing on their colourful notepaper that I was top of the league for period 2 or had won this or that completion. There were the names from those days too, all now long gone, thanking me for my hard work. No email then. These were on nice crunchy paper especially used for the purpose all sent in an envelope which I could open and show the wife.

Now we have email and it is so easy to acknowledge performance. Just a few words hit the enter key and there you are. But how often do we do thank or praise the people who work for us or those we work with? Not just for the big things but for something small that really made a difference or for keeping going at a difficult job. Lack of acknowledgement is probably the most cited reason employees give for leaving a company. The person just does not feel valued. Who could you acknowledge, praise or thank for their contribution to your working life today? Just name them and do it.

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I was given a good reminder on responding to proposals today which I thought I would share. I am looking for a web designer for one of my clients with a well written brief, so it is very clear what we want. One company has responded with a short email giving the project cost and asking if this was within the client’s budget. If it was, they will follow with a detailed proposal. By adopting such a refreshing approach they not only save time but also position themselves as a professional company that takes quotations seriously. I have written more about qualifying enquiries in my downloads too.

Chris Kaday
Business Coach

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The more business owners I meet, the more convinced I am that ‘mind set’ not money is the key ingredient for building thriving companies. It is the resourceful, ‘can do’, fearless, capable, decisive, organised, realistic, empathetic, effective people who create successful businesses, more often than not from zero or near zero capital. There are others who are just too slow, too negative, too fearful, too idealistic, too ponderous, too muddled and too inward looking to ever really make it.

People with a business brain move faster and more logically and therefore stand out from the commercial crowd. They are resourceful enough to create what cash they need and in many cases people are actually falling over themselves to give them money as they recognise ‘a winner’ when they see one. Bet you know at least one person like this?

Popularity: 44%

At this time of year we can often feel dissatisfied with life.  The job is getting you down, your partner or your family is driving you mad, the house is in the wrong place, the car too slow.  In fact nothing seems to satisfy you.

Of course wholesale change can be really liberating.  However, learning to accept things the way they are instead of how you would like them to be has a lot of value too.

There are downsides and boring parts of any job, you never seem to get the family you wish for so accept the ones you have got and maybe living somewhere else would not be as idyllic as you imagine.

Facilitating change is what I am about but I sometimes find that changing your perspective on an unsatisfactory situation results in literally seeing it a different way.  By focusing on the positive and perhaps taking a deep breath, you might decide to accept things just the way they are or adjust them to be more the way you want, instead of changing them entirely

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A survey by Orange of 2500 UK adults found that four out of ten would be entrepreneurs were too sacred of failure to pursue their business idea.  Now there is an interesting topic for a blustery Wednesday morning.

Some have commented that these would-be entrepreneurs should be encouraged to take the essential step from idea into action.  This is certainly true for many but in my experience a sizable percentage of those in business owners would be far happier doing something else. The sacrifice is only worth the effort if it is paying off and I encounter many hobbyist businesses, mostly built around the web which are occupying significant time and energy to often produce less than the minimum wage.  Huge amounts of angst are also associated with these enterprises and the quality of life for the owners and those closest to them is poor at best.
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So certainly let’s see more entrepreneurs in Britain but maybe some of that fear which holds potential business owners back is justified.  They say faint heart never won fair lady and the same could be applied to commercial success too.  Be very clear of what you are getting into before starting any business.  It will occupy more of your life than you expected, you will have some sleepless nights, have to make difficult decisions and so on.  At the very least make sure it is something you are passionate about for then you have a better chance to stay motivated, even in the toughest times.

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Ann Widdecombe has decided to stand down as an MP at the next general election, whenever that may be.  Whatever your political persuasion, one must surely agree that the redoubtable lady has certainly made an impact. But it is her acceptance of who she is which has inspired me today.  She once said of herself: “I am toothy, dumpy, ugly, overweight, a spinster - what the hell.”  What an outstanding example of acceptance.  We mumble and grumble and get depressed because things are not the way we want.  All this takes up a huge amount of energy – negative energy.  When we accept who we are we open up some great positive energy and space to be who we want to be. Maybe saying ‘what the hell’ would be the antidote to what is troubling you today? online pharmacy without prescriptionbuy silverbuy detoxbuy italian charmsdownload softwareonline pharmacy no prescriptioncanadian pharmacydownload moviesfarmacia en lineainternet drugstoremovie downloadmexican pharmacybuy gift basketsbuy levitrabuy hoodiaprescription drugsdownload moviebuy dvdcheap auto insurancebuy jewelrybuy jewelry onlinecheap online pharmacybuy alcohol testdownload filmdownload musicdownload mp3prescription drugsbuy notebook batterydownload moviesonline pharmacybuy charmsbuy piercingpiercingflash games onlinebuy propecia onlinesearchpiercingno prescription pharmacyonline pharmacyonline pharmacy no prescriptiondownload moviescanadian pharmacybuy soma onlinebuy carisoprodol onlineitalian charmsindian pharmacybuy viagra onlinegeneric viagra onlinebuy levitra onlinegeneric cialis onlineonline pharmacy without prescriptionno prescription online pharmacytransformers movieeuropean online pharmacyprivate porn moviesbuy phentrimine onlineonline pharmacy no prescriptionbuy jewelry onlinejewelry shopsilver shophealth articlespass a drug testbuy oem softwareeuropean pharmacydvd movies

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