“F**k it, I know I CAN do it!” She was recounting the minute it ‘hit’ her – that monumental moment in time when she knew in her heart that she has the power and determination to achieve her business dream.

For too long she’d succumbed to the negative self talk:

‘Who are you to think you can do that?’

‘You’re not good enough or clever enough.’

‘What will people say if I tell them that’s what I want to do with my business?’

‘I don’t have the skills to do it.’

‘Enough!  No more negative self talk.’  Something had changed for her.

And now she’s off and running, she’s on the journey of creating her billion dollar business.  You go girl.  I’ve got your back and there are many others who will too.

Say it out loud

That was a Skype conversation I recently had with a new acquaintance.  Very quickly we got past the ‘chit chat’ and went deep.  We felt safe with each other; we shared our stories of business and life; we laughed and cried together.

A deep bond of friendship and soulful connection was formed in that one Skype call; it happened so fast.

We entrusted our business dreams to each other.  She didn’t laugh at mine and I felt a joyful connection with hers.

We all have dreams.  When they remain in our heads, very often fear kicks in, and we think of all the reasons why we CAN’T achieve them.

Self talk stops us.  It debilitates us.

Or when we share our dreams with others who are not like minded, and they laugh at us – perhaps with derision and not support, that doesn’t help us either.

Instead, find a kindred spirit and be brave.  Say it out loud.  Speak your truth of what you want to achieve in our business and/or life.  Don’t be afraid.  A kindred spirit will be thrilled for you.  They will support you.  They will uplift you.  They will help you to believe you can do it.

In saying it out loud, something changes.  It becomes more real, more believable.  It moves from our head to our heart.

And then take action

Don’t stop there.  Start doing the work to achieve your dream.

Get clear on your business model.  You don’t need to do it alone.  Draw in like-minded people and ask for their help on creating the business model that works for you.

Get your business strategy and goals nailed, and then work on them.  These days a business strategy should only be around one year – two at the most, as the world is changing too fast.  Set monthly, quarterly and six monthly goals.  Get your actions plans in place to achieve your goals.

What do you need to do each week to achieve your monthly goals?  Or each month to achieve your monthly goals?  You get the picture.

Positive thoughts only, please

Don’t let negative thinking or self talk stop you.  When this happens, acknowledge it, and then set it aside.  ‘Feel the fear, do it anyway and the death of that fear will be certain’.

There will be days when it’s hard.  Get the support of your kindred spirit friends, or better yet, find a mentor or business adviser/coach to support you.  If they’re good, they’ll keep you on track.

Don’t give up

We all know that success is not a straight line.  It won’t be easy. The chances are high that you’ll pivot time and time again to keep on the track towards achieving your dream.  There will be a way to get there, so long as you’re ready to ‘roll with the punches’ and change and evolve the way in which you achieve your dream.  Your business model may need to evolve as the market changes….  Just believe you can achieve your dream, and be open to how you achieve it.

Anthony Robbins says:  ‘When it looks impossible and you are ready to quit, victory is near.’

I like that thought.  Do you?

Believe in yourself

Finally, just believe with all your heart in your ability to work it out.

If you believe in the beauty of your dream, and you want it enough, don’t give up on it.  Keep going until you achieve it.

And when you look back after achieving it, enjoy the moment.  Celebrate yourself and all you’ve achieved.  Also reflect kindly on the journey of getting there – the chances are you’ll have enjoyed the journey more, as you will have learnt and grown so much.

I’d love to read your comments.  How about sharing your business dream?  I’d love to know what it is.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How many customers do you have?
• Which customers are the most profitable for your business?
• Which customers do you enjoy working with the most and why?

The last question is probably the easiest for you to answer because you can give me an emotional response rather than a fact-based one.

The first two questions require a bit of analysis in your business.

What type of clients do you want to work with?

I find that many businesses owners have never actively thought about the profile of the customer they would like for their business.  In pondering this issue, I devised a four quadrant approach to customer profitability and management.  I call it my ‘L⁴ Customer Profitability Quadrant’.

Understanding Customer Profitability

Understanding the L⁴ Customer Profitability Quadrant’s power in relation to your business will require spending a bit of time working out the numbers.  (Don’t worry it’s not too complicated).

For each customer we need to calculate the gross margin.  Gross margin is the contribution to profit each customer makes.  It’s worked out as follows:

So for instance, if Customer 24 buys $2000 of products/services in one year, and the cost of goods sold is $900, then the equation is:

That means that for all products and services sold to Customer 24, they’re contributing a gross margin (or contribution to profit) of 55 percent.

Another way of saying this is that for every $1000 of sales made to Customer 24, $550 contributes to the business’s gross profit.

Understanding Customer Enjoyment

Don’t you think it’s important to enjoy working with your customers?  I certainly do. Using the L⁴ Customer Profitability Quadrant, we can rank our customers for enjoyment, where 1 is low enjoyment and difficult to work with, and 10 is very enjoyable and easy to work with.

Once this information has been determined it is plotted to create the L⁴ Customer Profitability Quadrant as depicted in the table below.

Customers fall into four quadrants.

In the bottom left quadrant are the customers that are low in profitability and enjoyment, so I call this the ‘Lose Them’ quadrant.

In the top left quadrant we have highly profitable customers, but the enjoyment factor is low.  I call this the ‘Look Out’ quadrant.

In the bottom right quadrant, are the customers that are really enjoyable to work with but they are not very profitable to the business.  I call this the ‘Lift Up’ quadrant.

In the top right quadrant are the customers that are highly profitable and are highly enjoyable to work with.  I call this the ‘Lots More’ quadrant.

What does each quadrant mean?

‘Lose Them’ Quadrant

How many customers do you have that are really hard going and not very profitable to your business?  This type of customer sucks the life out of us, don’t you think?

Because this type of customer is difficult to work with, they are often time consuming to service too.  Having to work with customers that fall in this category is a waste of time and energy.  That time and energy would be better spent working with enjoyable and profitable customers and finding more profitable customers for the business.

‘Look Out’ Quadrant

Customers that sit in the ‘Look Out’ quadrant are a challenge and risk to a business. They are highly profitable, but they are not enjoyable to work with.

This is a high risk quadrant due to the profitability these customers contribute to your business, despite the low enjoyment factor.  If these customers were to leave, it potentially results in a major impact on profitability.  Yet, because the enjoyment factor is low, there is a real chance they may not be loyal to your business, so there is a flight risk. Ideally, your business needs to resolve any issues that are causing you not to enjoy working with them and ideally get them moved across the spectrum to the ‘Lots More’ quadrant or out of your business.

‘Lift Up’ Quadrant

Customers in this ‘Lift Up’ quadrant pose a quandary for your business.  They are good customers to deal with and service, and are probably highly loyal to your business, yet they are not very profitable.  Often, because these customers are good to deal with, you (and your staff) will ‘over service’ them, because they are enjoyable.

This is actually an easy dilemma to resolve.  These ‘Lift Up’ customers are already wedded to your business, so given the opportunity the chances are very high that they will want to buy more from you.

Often customers are not aware of the full range of products offered, or the business has not considered the full requirements of the customer in making offers.  Depending on your business, the easiest way to address this situation is to find out more about what your customers do and what they might need from your business, and make offers.

‘Lots More’ Quadrant

These customers are your goldmines, and should be treated like kings and queens.  They are highly profitable, and they are enjoyable to work with.

The key here is to analyse what makes them enjoyable to work with: is it the company; the industry; the type of products and services they buy?

Once you have analysed this, you can start working on targeting more of the same types of customers to your business.

Business should be joyful

Business isn’t easy but it should be joyful, and on balance we should really enjoy serving our customers.  It’s important we honour ourselves, our teams and our business by working with the very best suited customers (meaning the most profitable and enjoyable) within our business.  Our success and enjoyment relies upon it.

I’d love to read your comments about your favourite and most profitable customers, so please do leave a comment for me.

Love Adèle

Happy, happy, happy New Year.

I just love the beginning of a new year as it’s filled with wonderfully positive vibes – there’s renewed energy and hope, more joy, anticipation and excitement for what will unfold over the coming months and throughout the year.

People seem to smile a little more (even in the depths of a northern hemisphere winter).  Long may that continue throughout the year! Let there be more joy in the world.

2016 saw us experience some pretty dark moments across the world, and for many of us personally too.  But the dawn of a new year helps us to leave it all behind.  It’s like starting a new chapter of a book, or even opening a new book.

It’s a beautiful and renewing time.

How will your 2017 be?

Too many people let the year ‘happen to them’ rather than taking the year by the horns and saying something like ‘what do I want my year to look like in 2017?’

In one year’s time, when you’re reflecting on all that’s happened over 2017, what do you want to be reminiscing on?

Sure, there will certainly be curve balls that will have come at you and hit hard (probably in business and in life) – that happens to all of us, but there’ll be growth opportunities in those moments too.

That aside, what do you really want to have happen for you this year in life and in business?

Here are 4 seriously important tactics you should be thinking about this year.  They will make all the difference to your business and quality of life.

1  Working ON and not just IN your business

I’m a great Michael E Gerber (of the E-Myth books) fan, and love his idea that we must work on and not just in our businesses.  If we want to grow our businesses in some big or small way, we must be a leader and not just a ‘worker bee’ in our business.

If we’re constantly working day by day to get the work done, not making time to step back and helicopter above our business to think about what we need to do to grow it, then it won’t grow.

Promise yourself that you’ll spend more time on leadership and management activities rather than just worker or technician ones.  Yes, it might be a challenge if you’re a solopreneur or micro business, but it’s a must, otherwise you’ll still be the same (a self employed person) in one year’s time.  Is that what you really want to be in your business?

2  Build your personal brand as an expert in your field

Do you want your business to be recognised as the best at what it does?  If so, then as the owner of the business, you must also be branded the best too – be seen as the expert in your field – the ‘go-to person’.

I know that might sound scary to start with, but there are loads of simple ways in which you can start to demonstrate your expertise to your target audience.  Do that work consistently and soon you’ll get noticed, and people will start buying from you.

3  Get networking

Make time to get out and get to know more people.  Grow your network.  People do business with people they know, like and trust.  If you want to build your influence and grow your business, then you need to serve more people.

Go and build relationships where you help others to be more successful; perhaps find referrals or introduce them to potential partners, suppliers and customers.  In return they will start helping you too.

Too many of us (me included) spend too much time at our desks and behind our computers.  You’ll feel more alive out and about building your network….and in doing so, you’ll be enhancing your personal brand too.

4  Make time for you

As business owners, often we spend day and night working in our businesses, so that people who, and things that are important to us get neglected.

While there is generally no such thing as ‘balance between business and life’, I truly believe most of us can take a little time to enjoy the things and people who matter.

I am fully into achieving my work goals each and every year, but I’m also focused on achieving personal goals too.  To nurture my soul (and to keep me sane) I need to have more in my life than just work.  Don’t you?

I’m making time for friends and family, holidays and much more this year.  Are you?

I’ve also set a MASSIVE personal health and fitness goal for 2017.  If you’re interested in knowing more about it and watching my journey towards achieving it, then I’d be thrilled if you connected with me on Facebook or Instagram as that’s where I’ll be sharing the journey.

Go for it…

So, go for it.  Focus on these 4 seriously important tactics for success this year and I am certain at year end, you’ll be reminiscing on what a fantastic year 2017 has been for you in business and life.

I wish you a wonderfully successful and joyful year in business and life.

Love

Adèle x

Needing guidance?

Are you thinking you need a business coach/mentor for 2017?  Someone who can guide you to achieve your business vision and goals?

I have now only have space for two new clients in my 2017 schedule as I’m taking a reduced number of coaching/mentoring clients because as I’ll be focused in other areas (more on that next year).

If you’d like to talk about how I might support you, then let’s have an initial conversation this week and see where it takes us.  Here’s my calendar to make an appointment.