That personal branding ‘stuff’ is for the big wigs of business, celebs or sports stars, right?!

Not anymore.  🙂 🙁

GULP!  I know.  It can be hard to accept that today we need to be our own personal brand to grow our small businesses.

We can’t continue doing business the way in which we’ve always done it.

We must learn and adapt constantly.  That will be our competitive advantage in business in the future. 

Developing our personal brand as an expert in our niche is ABSOLUTELY critical

if we want to be successful in business.

But don’t worry, creating your own personal brand isn’t about getting out there and having everyone in town and across the world know about you.  No!

Your market niche could be a small area of your local city.  For instance, if you live in London, you might only want to be found in (say) the Borough of Kensington.

Then again, you and your business might be able to serve customers across your city, county or state, and therefore, want to be found more widely.

You might be able to serve your customers across the country in which you live… or the world.

What is it for you and your business?  Who do you want to find you and where are they?

The question then is… HOW will they find you?

The key with personal branding is to promote YOU the owner of the business/the entrepreneur as the expert/authority in your market niche or industry.    

It’s about creating a marketing strategy for BRAND YOU – THE ‘go to’ person in your niche!

The digital world has made getting noticed a level playing field.  No longer are big advertising budgets required.  All you need is marketing savvy, consistency, and time.

In developing your personal brand marketing strategy, you’ll have to work out what platforms you want to use.

13 marketing platforms most in use today

Here are key marketing platforms that are in use today.  Which suit you the best?  Remember, a combination of on and offline strategies are important, and PLEASE don’t be on all of them.  You’ll be exhausted.

LinkedIn – a fully optimised profile is NOT NEGOTIABLE if you want to be ‘seen’ within the world’s largest business social marketing and sales platform.  Get to know how to maximise LinkedIn, including writing blog posts, doing advanced searches, participating in groups, creating your own group… and much more.

SEO/Keywords – a must for Google searches – what short and long tail keywords do you want to be found for on your website and other online media, and how will you be found?  Will you use organic reach, pay-per-click, YouTube keyword optimisation so you’re found in Google? 

Networking – always a must so long as you ‘do’ networking properly.  What will you do with the business cards you collect from the networking events you go to?  How can you give before you receive, and build credibility along the way?

Blogging – a fantastic option for many business people.  It enables you to share your knowledge widely.  Can you syndicate your blogs to leading blogs sites or online newspapers?  How about guest blogging too?

Webinars – they’re all the rage at present and are a great way to teach your target audience what you know. 

You Tube – videoing is the way of the future and a great way to ‘teach’ your knowledge too. 

Social media – pick the platform(s) that suit you and your business best (Twitter?, Business Facebook?, Instagram?, Pinterest?, Periscope?, Snapchat?, Google + etc). 

Public speaking – get on the stage if it suits you and your niche.  Public speaking presents a fabulous opportunity to get seen at local, national and international events.  They’re especially good if you can video the event and then upload the footage to your website and YouTube using your keywords.

Podcasting – also all the rage at present as listeners can download your podcasts, and listen in while commuting. 

Get published – write books, e-books, white papers.  Anyone can write and self publish these days.  Plus, if you’re good and you have a significant community following you, you may also seek out the traditional publishing companies to publish your book(s).  They’re always on the look-out for the ‘next best seller’.

Traditional media – TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, PR – it’s there for all if you’re considered an authority in your field.

Advertising and sponsorships – there’s still a place for this traditional marketing activity, depending on the nature of your business.

Email marketing – a goodie and a must once your prospects enter your email community.

Phew!!! … and so it goes on.

Excited?  🙂

REMEMBER… don’t try and appear on all platforms, otherwise you’ll never get any work done.  Select those most appropriate to your industry or niche.

And get help.  Get help in creating your personal brand marketing strategy and outsource some of the ‘doing’ activity.

Do all that and I promise, after a while, you’ll get known as the ‘go to’ person in your market.  Now, you’d have to agree, that would be exciting.  🙂

Did you see the Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD! FREE webinar?

The ‘Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD!’ webinar replay is still available for you to watch here.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you’d like to join my Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD! live 8 week programme, please go here to learn more.  I’d be thrilled to include you in the programme to help you GROW YOUR BUSINESS.

Would some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to make an appointment. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

I’m sure there’ve been plenty of people who’ve swung from a chandelier (actually or metaphorically) to get noticed. 

It sounds like a lot of fun, don’t you think. 🙂

Think about all the weird, wacky and very visible things Sir Richard Branson did in his early years as an entrepreneur to get noticed as ‘Richard Branson’ which of course was inextricably linked to brand ‘Virgin’.

Even now, Sir Richard can still be seen doing things that are ‘out there’ to get his message across.

Richard Branson has always understood the importance of personal branding and standing out from the crowd to get noticed; to interrupt the marketing ‘norm’… and to get loads of free advertising along the way.  Very clever!

We don’t all have to be like Sir RB

While we don’t all have to be like Sir Richard to get our personal brand out there, we must do things differently to all the others who compete with us in our market niche.

What’s your chandelier swinging equivalent to getting noticed as an expert in your industry or market niche?

While company branding is important, people buy from people, so as business owners and entrepreneurs we must have a strong personal brand.  And delightfully, technology has made standing out as a personal brand a lot easier for everyone.

Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD – FREE Webinar

If you’d like to learn more about how to Stand Out and Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD, please join me at my FREE webinar, Thursday, 20 April at 8pm BST/9pm CEST/ 3pm EST, where I will be sharing my thoughts on how you can grow your business. You can register here.

My 10 Top Tips To Get Your Business Noticed

Here are my 10 top tips to get you noticed in business.

1. Be clear (and passionate) about why you do what you do!

I know that sounds quaint, but if you’re not passionate about why you do what you do, then no-one will care who you are or what you offer.

Why are you in business?  What difference do you want to make in the lives of your customers? Once you’ve got that ‘why’, let your customers and prospects know.  They’ll feel your passion and they’ll like you for it.

2. What is your market niche?

Who is your perfect customer?  If you don’t know that your marketing will be lost – it’ll fall through the cracks.  These days, we MUST specifically niche our market… and then go after it with all our messaging.

3. How are you different?

What’s unique about you – and the products and services you offer?  Get that message nailed, and quickly.  Otherwise you and your business will be just like the rest of your competitors – offering more of the same.

4. Get personal

Let everyone see the real you and your personal style… not the air brushed ‘plastic fantastic’ version of you.  People buy from people.

We like failure and success – we like ‘warts and all’ people… not gods and goddesses who can do no wrong.  Not everyone will like you, but those who do will be loyal to you and your style.

5. Get seen – pick your marketing platforms

There are so many ways to get ‘seen’ in business that it can be exciting and overwhelming.  Work out what suits you best and go for it.  Remember, you must be seen online and offline regardless of what your business is.

Work out your marketing platforms, and exploit them with a carefully crafted strategy and actions plan – one for you and your personal brand and another for your company’s brand.

6. Grab your keywords

Google rules the world – or at least the SEO world – so we all need to know what keywords we want to be found for…. it’s an art and science;  get help to nail this part of your personal and company brand marketing strategies so that you’ll be found for YOUR keywords when they’re ‘Googled’.

7. Capture your leads

What’s your system for capturing leads as they come to you?  It’s called an email list (or community or tribe).  Get that sorted and you’ll start growing your prospect list… so long as you nurture them and demonstrate your expertise and authority in your niche.

8. Nurture your prospects

Seldom will people become customers on day one.  Create a personal and business branding communications strategy that takes your prospects on a journey with you.  How can you communicate with them to consistently demonstrate that you are an expert or authority in your field?

9. What’s your business model?

It’s no good having people on your list and not doing anything with them.  Work out how you’ll take your prospects from followers to customers.  How can you package up your knowledge, products and services to add value to your prospects so they continue to get to know, trust and respect you as the industry expert?  Then how do you take them to paying customers?  Your business model is the key to your success.

10. Do the work – persistently and consistently

Building a brand – a personal or company brand – takes time, so you have to keep at it.  Keep going, even when the going gets tough, and all of a sudden that hard work will pay off.  I promise.

Well, that’s it.  10 personal branding tips to GET YOUR BUSINESS NoTiCeD.  Personal branding is for everyone … not just celebs, so embrace it – see yourself as branded and stand out in your market niche.

Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD – FREE Webinar

Remember to join me to learn more about how to Stand Out and Get YOUR Business NoTiCeD, at my FREE webinar, Thursday, 20 April at 8pm BST/9pm CEST/ 3pm EST, where I will be sharing my thoughts on how you can grow your business. Please register here now.

Have a great week.

With love, Adèle x

This blog has been written by my friend, Csaba Toth for this year’s International Women’s Day #IWD celebration.  Csaba is an intercultural expert.  You can see more of his work at www.ICQConsulting.com

Which of these women do you find the most beautiful?

No stress, you cannot get it wrong, every answer is correct and that is the beauty of it.

The concept of beauty and the roles of women greatly depend on cultural background.  What we consider good, normal, attractive or feminine is based on our values and beliefs we are not even aware of.  We cannot explain why, we just feel it and we know it. How is that possible?

This is what Romanian photographer, Mihaela Noroc, has decided to explore.  She visited 37 countries in two years and took pictures of hundreds of natural women surrounded by their culture.

Her project is called “The Atlas of Beauty”, and it showcases our planet’s diversity through portraits of women.

Global trends make us look and behave the same, but we are all beautiful because we are different.  In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is always somebody else.

Mihaela wanted to capture that feeling of warmth and serenity which is so specific to women and comes to balance all the negativity we see in the media.  People should be more aware about other cultures and beauty can teach us to be more tolerant.

This is what cultural intelligence (ICQ) is about.  It is the basis of personal development and it opens up a whole new world to us.  Our reality is only ours and others’ can be completely different, yet, equally interesting and valuable.

We tend to trust what is familiar and predictable to us, that is exactly what culture is for.  It is a set of unwritten rules, habits, values and beliefs shared by its members.  That is what we consider normal and right, everything else is suspicious and potentially wrong until we understand the underlying logic and intention.

Stereotypes do exist and sometimes we are affected by several of them at the same time, either by suffering its consequences or punishing others.  They are one of many unconscious biases and they affect the way we perceive, evaluate, or interact with people from the groups that our biases “target” such as gender, ethnicity, profession, etc.  It is in our nature, we want to belong to a group, it feels safe, comfortable and we need to protect it.  How?  Often by putting other groups and their members down so we can stand out.

As learning is emotional, when something goes against what we consider normal, we get surprised,  suddenly we pay attention.  This is what Nike has capitalised on. Their empowering ad  has been shared 75k times and watched by over 2 million people, some of which were really angry while others felt it was liberating.  The commercial showing Arab women fencing, boxing and spinning on ice-skates has stirred controversy over its attempt to smash stereotypes about women leading home-bound lives in the conservative region.

It begins with a woman nervously peering out of her doorway and adjusting her veil before going for a run in the street, while a female voice narrates in a Saudi dialect: “What will they say about you? Maybe they’ll say you exceeded all expectations.”

Amal Mourad,  a 24-year old Emirati athlete said her father at first forbade her from training in a gym where men were present.

“Convincing my father was the toughest part… if you want something bad enough you stick to it, and you can get it done.”

Change is difficult.  You must be bold and determined to accomplish your goals and fulfil your potential.  These women are fighting for being able to be who they really want to be.  Not only do they have to face challenges within their own cultural group, but they have to gain the trust and respect of people outside of it.

Being a woman, fighting for gender equality in our individualistic society is hard enough, imagine that in a collectivist one where the pressure to keep up harmony, comply with strict, interpersonal rules is daunting.

It takes a lot of courage to make a change and remember, when you do that, people around you might not like it and they try to pull you back as you being different makes them feel uncomfortable.

Culture is dynamic even though many people refuse to realise the world is changing, we cannot turn back time. As long as it means improvement, inspiration and fulfilment, just do it, go for it and break down the barriers between people.

Beauty is subjective, but strength is not, so let’s celebrate all the strong and beautiful women today and every day.

Let’s embrace International Women’s Day 2017 slogan and #BeBoldForChange.  We all have a role to play in creating a kinder, fairer and more equitable world, don’t you think?

ACTION:  I hope you enjoy Csaba’s blog this week.  Is it ‘food for thought’ for you?  I hope so.  I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below for me.  I read them all.

‘LOVE is in the air, everywhere I look around… love is in the air, every sight and every sound….’ – remember the John Paul Young song? It’s an oldie but a goodie.

If you’re as ‘old’ as me you’ll dance every time you hear this song being played (totally irrelevant side note – while writing this, I played it on You Tube – so I’ve had a little boogeying going on in my office today.  :)).  I hope you enjoy it too.

Now back to the point…..firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day, and thank you so much for your support and participation in my work.  I am VERY grateful to have you as part of my community.  I truly hope that in some way my business growth and personal development work serves you.

A lifetime of love

Are you a bit like me and think that celebrating loooovvvvveeeee on one day of the year is a bit too commercial?

Go-on call me a killjoy.  I can take it.  🙂

Yes, we buy cards for each other and acknowledge the day, but we don’t go overboard – no romantic dinners and flowers for us today.  Besides, it’s the day after our daughter’s birthday – yesterday she was 15 years old – so we’ve already had a dinner out this week to celebrate Gemma’s special day.

David and I like to think we demonstrate our love for each other every day – not always in that lovey dovey, smoochy kind of way  – sorry if that’s sounding a bit icky.  🙂 But in a calm, constant, happy, respectful loving way.

For me it’s about ‘feeling’ loved and important to David at all times, rather than being ‘told’ I’m loved on a particular day.  He feels the same.

LOVE marketing

I believe it’s the same for your existing and potential customers.

They need to feel the LOVE in every encounter with you and not just when you ‘smell’ or ‘sense’ a sale coming up – that’s fake love.  They must feel that they’re important to you all the time.  You just never know when they might want what you sell or refer you.  If they’re not feeling the love, they can easily go elsewhere…..

To thrive in business, you must put the LOVE into your marketing. For me it’s about LOVE Marketing Mastery™.  Your marketing must be:

L – Lucid – It explains vivdly to your potential and existing customers who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what makes you different.  You’re different from the rest, and you demonstrate that you’re the expert and can be trusted.

O – Outstanding – It’s engaging and educating, and you stand out from the crowd.  You share stories that help your community to connect with you in a meaningful way – so they want to know more about you and hear from you, time and again. They welcome your presence in their lives. Even better, they look forward to you being in their lives.

V – Veracious – It’s truthful, real – authentic.  Always!  If it’s not, you’ll soon be found out!

E – Effective – It achieves your intended results – your funnel of potential customers is full of raving fans who over time convert into paying customers.  Plus you have systems in place to measure your ROI.

LOVE Marketing is the ANSWER

Get your LOVE Marketing Mastery™ strategies right and you’ll have the ANSWER to the biggest question in business, which is ‘How do I get more paying customers?’.

A  – Attract – you’ll attract the right type of potential customers to your business.

N – Nurture – you’ll nurture them with your marketing, enabling you to demonstrate your expertise in your niche.

S – Sell – by nurturing them, over time, you’ll start selling your products and services when they want to buy.

W – Wow – give them the wow factor – be alluring, be contagious, at all times, and they’ll want to buy more….

E – Extend – they’ll extend their relationship with you – they’ll buy more and perhaps more often – you’ll be able to up/down and cross sell to them too.

R – Retain and Refer – they’ll stay with you – they’ll be repeat customers, and if you ask, they may refer you to others too.

And in doing all that, you’ll sustainably grow your business so you can enjoy more of the life you’d like.  Now, that’s what business and life is all about, right?

Next Steps

What are your next steps?  How good is your marketing?  Is it LOVE?  You have the ANSWER.  It’s now time to take action.  Today.  Your business growth, profitability and success depend on it.

ACTION:  I’d love to hear your thoughts on my LOVE Marketing Mastery™. What do you think of it?  Please leave a comment below.

With much love

Adèle

PS:  If you know of other business owners/entrepreneurs who are struggling with growing their businesses, how about sharing this blog with them? It may help them in their journey.

PPS:  If you’d like to talk about how I might support you to achieve the business growth and success you’re seeking in 2017, then let’s have an initial conversation this week to see where it takes us. Please click here to access my diary and we’ll schedule a Skype call.

What’s the biggest question you’re asking yourself in business?

Go on, be honest with yourself.  What is it?

I’d place a bet (not that I’m a gambler) that the biggest, most important and most frequent question you’re asking yourself is this one…..

How do I get more customers?

I talk about this question all the time with my clients.

The reality is that we’re all wanting to grow our businesses, either modestly or massively, and that’s a good thing!

In growing our business it allows us to live more of the dream – we get to create a bigger, hopefully more profitably successful business, pay ourselves more, employ more team members, and enjoy more of the life we desire.

It’s good to want to grow our business – to get more customers. We MUST continue to ask this question at all times.

The gruesome facts

Our world is changing very fast.  Daryl Woodhouse, Founder of Advantage Business Partnerships, shared some challenging statistics during the recent Business Growth Online Bootcamp regarding business failures.  According to a study done by the Federation of Small Businesses, only one in 10 businesses are still trading after 10 years, and one in two businesses fail after one year.

That’s dreadful, saddening and those statistics must alter, as our global world depends on the success of small businesses.  I’m on a mission re supporting small business success around the world – but more on that at another time. 🙂

Importantly, here are the nine key reasons why businesses are failing:

1. Ineffective business planning
2. Ineffective branding and marketing
3. No clear objectives
4. Undercapitalised/not enough finance
5. Management challenges
6. Poor cashflow management
7. Staffing challenges
8. Wrong location(s)
9. Not keeping up with new tools/ways of doing business

The ANSWER

I have the ANSWER in relation to how we brand and market our businesses.

As business owners we must get better at delivering the ANSWER within our businesses to grow them.

A – Attract

We must attract the right customers to our businesses (that means being really clear on our market niche and our desired customer profile or avatar) and go after them with laser-like precision.

We need to be looking for them in all the places they hang out – both online and offline.  Where are our perfect customers?  On LinkedIn?  Facebook?  Instagram?  At conferences/ tradeshows?  At networking events?

Wherever they are, our business must be seen there too – and we must stand out from the crowd (in the right way) to get noticed as an expert in our niche.

In short, we must have a clear and future focused business model in place, supported by excellence in our business planning and objective/goal setting processes.

N – Nurture our potential customers

We MUST nurture our potential customers.  Nurturing our customers in the digital age means being present online!  We must capture their email addresses so we can communicate with them to demonstrate our expertise at what we do… and to stand apart from our competitors.  We must continue to teach our potential customers about what we do and how well we do it.  In the digital age it’s all about consistently educating and informing.

We must find ways to have person to person connections with our potential customers too.  For some of us that’s easy, we can wine, dine or pick up the telephone and talk to our potential customers.

For others of us, it’s not that easy.  So, we must build trust through being real with them in other ways.  Story telling is the new way to build trust and relationships, and we must share our own stories – the good, bad, sad and ugly – yep, they want that too as they want to see that we’re human and we make mistakes too.  Our potential customers must see and feel the ‘real’ us, and not the ‘plastic fantastic’ version that some people show of themselves.

They must meet our team too – we’re all in this together.  Let your team shine in the eyes of your potential customers.  You’ll reap the rewards.

S –Sell

After we’ve attracted the right potential customers, so long as we’ve continued to demonstrate that we’re the experts at what we do, then we’re increasing the chances of them buying from us.

We must be really good at selling to them.  Selling isn’t ‘icky’ as many business owners believe.  When we sell, we’re solving a problem for a customer, and that’s a good thing.  So sell with pride and excellence.  Learn how to sell properly.  It’s a learned skill whichever way you do it – face to face or online.  Get expert help in to coach you.

W – Wow

Business is competitive.  At all times in their journey with us, we must WOW our potential customers.  Everything about their interaction with our business must be excellent.  If it’s not, they’ll surely go elsewhere next time.  We don’t want to be continually finding new customers – often they are the most ‘expensive’ to receive.

How can you and your team and business constantly WOW your current and potential customers?

E – Expand

When we consistently achieve the WOW with our customers, trust continues to build and as a result the relationship deepens and expands.  We’re more likely to be able to sell more to them – that means up/down-selling and cross-selling when they buy from us – we get the privilege of better serving their needs and solving their problems.

This is important as by expanding our business relationship with our existing customers, we get to grow our business turnover and hopefully profitability.

R – Retain

The ‘cheapest’ customer to serve is a repeat customer and they are the VERY best customers to have.  As we continue to WOW them, they will continue to buy from us, and if we’re lucky they’ll become our cheerleaders… they’ll shout out for us, and provide referrals to us.  Now that’s a good (and easy) way to grow our business, don’t you think?

Next Steps

What are your next steps to grow your business?  You have the ANSWER. It’s now time to take action.  Today.  Your business growth, profitability and success depend on it.

ACTION:  I’d love to hear your thoughts on my ANSWER.  Please leave a comment below about what action you’re taking to grow your business.

“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.

Christmas and the holiday season is upon us, and 2016 is almost behind us.

Some will be glad to see the back end of it, whereas for others it’s been a wonderful year.

Where are you on the spectrum?

How was 2016 for you?

A fabulous year?

A challenging year?

Or perhaps it’s been a year of two halves – a bit of both?

3 questions for celebration and acceleration

We can be really tough on ourselves and focus on the things that didn’t go well during the year and let me tell you, I’m REALLY good at doing that.

I’m a reforming perfectionist, so I’m constantly learning to think about the good and to learn from the mistakes and things that didn’t go well.

Isn’t time we started being a bit kinder to ourselves by celebrating our successes – big and small ─ too?

Here are 3 simple questions you can ask yourself that will hopefully inspire you to see your 2016 year more clearly.

Qu 1:  Looking back, what achievements, successes, fantastic experiences did you have?

Go through your calendar and remind yourself of the year you’ve had.

Think about your achievements, successes and experiences; think more widely than your work. Take a global view of your year; think about your family, friends, business associates.

What stands out as wonderful during the year?

Have you done things for the first time that you’re proud of (for me it was boxing), that you can celebrate yourself for?

Successes, achievements and experiences don’t have to be monumental.  They can be very personal and small, perhaps iterative steps towards something bigger that you’re working on.

You will have them if you look for them…. In fact, you will have a big list of them if you’re being kind and generous with yourself.

Go on…. seek them out and write them down.

Be proud of yourself.  Give yourself a pat on the back too.  You deserve it.

Qu 2:  What mistakes have you made that you’re learning from?

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes in business and life.  We always have and always will.  I like making mistakes (not that I set out to make them though), as intense learning comes from them, so long as we’re willing to reflect and learn the lessons.

I’ve made loads of mistakes this year, and I’ve learned some wonderful lessons too.

And the surprise for me is that mistakes also lead to unexpected opportunities.   Who’d have thought?

So what mistakes have you made this year?  What lessons can/have you taken from them that will support you in business and life going forward?

I don’t believe that things happen for a reason but I do believe we can ALWAYS find meaning in those things that happen to us.  We can use the experiences positively going forward.

One day you may look back and be grateful for the mistakes you’ve made.  They may be a pivotal part to some evolution in your life and business.  Now how exciting is that?

Qu 3:  What’s holding you back from being and achieving all that you desire in business and life?

When we reflect over our year, it’s REALLY easy to say ‘I haven’t done enough’, ‘I haven’t achieved enough’, ‘I’m not good enough’, or any other mean ‘thing’ we say to ourselves.

What negative voices are in your head right now?  Sadly those voices and the mean spirited things you’re saying to yourself will be holding you back.

Isn’t it time to create another story in your head? A more positive, supportive story that guides you towards fulfilling your potential and achieving many of the goals you may have set yourself.

What is a more loving, kind and empowering story you can use to guide and inspire you in your life? Perhaps it could become an affirmation too?

Maybe it’s also time to remove toxic people from your life – people who zap your energy rather than uplifting you.  We all have them in our lives. Set yourself free.  While initially a little hard, you won’t regret it.

And then there’s the clutter we need can remove from our lives too; things that drag us down rather than uplifting us.

What clutter needs to go from your life and work?

What are you doing that doesn’t uplift you?  Can you stop doing it?  If not, can you delegate it to someone else?  Can you outsource it?

There’s always a way to be rid of clutter!  First identify what that is in your world and then work out a plan to remove it.

I promise you’ll feel much more alive for doing so.

Here’s to a fabulous 2017

So they are my 3 end of year celebration and acceleration questions.

I truly hope you’ll think about them before you start planning your new year.  You’ll feel differently about 2016 if you do.  I promise. 🙂

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 before 1 January and see where it takes us.  Here’s my calendar to make an appointment.

Enjoy the moment

Enjoy the remaining days of busy-ness in the lead up to Christmas day and the New Year.

Most importantly, remember to celebrate yourself – perhaps even have a drink to yourself and all that you are, and have achieved, learnt and experienced in 2016.

I wish you a joyful, relaxed and nourishing festive season.

With love

Adèle xx

With all the experiences I’ve had in business and life, there is one thing I know for sure.

SUCCESS SELDOM ARRIVES IN A STRAIGHT LINE

You may have seen this image (below) showing the reality of success.  It’s a very simple and honest perspective, don’t you think?

Vision, Belief, Action…and the reality

It’s true that however we define success in our lives and businesses, to get there requires vision, belief and action.  But the reality is that on the journey, we’ll experience setbacks, pivots, restarts, failures  and much more…. and after all those experiences, we may even redefine what success looks like for us.

That’s certainly happened to me on many occasions.  I’ve had grand visions for things I’ve wanted to achieve in my life and various businesses, and then as I and my teams work towards achieving those visions, I’ve (or we’ve) encountered enormous hurdles.

Hurdles are a gift 

Hurdles test us.  They’re put in our way to challenge our vision and belief.

Do we really want the success?

Are we prepared to push through the tough times to get to the other side?

Are we prepared to learn from the journey?

Are we prepared to pivot, to make changes, to change direction to achieve success as we see it?

In the hardest times there are always lessons to be learnt… and in learning them we’re often being given the opportunity for a better tomorrow, even though it can seem bleak in the moment.

Where are you at?

Where are you at in your business right now?  Are you charting a course to achieve the success you want in your business?

Is it going to plan?  Or is it a bit topsy turvy?

So many people have had really challenging times in 2016 – me included.  It happens.

When you come through the tough times, out of the fog comes clarity….

That’s happened to me this year. Bring on 2017 – I can’t wait to tackle it with renewed energy, enthusiasm and excitement in business and life.

If you’d like some guidance to get out of the fog in your business (or life), to get more clarity on direction, purpose, strategy and actions going forward, then how about a short Skype call before the end of the year?  I have space for four new clients in my 2017 schedule.  If you’d like to talk about how I might support you, then let’s have an initial conversation this month and see where it takes us. Here’s my calendar to make an appointment.

My boxing bout last Friday

Well, I did it.  I fought my hardest last Friday night at my white collar charity boxing match.   I had a great evening….. and sadly, I didn’t win.  I lost my bout.

Some would say it was a mis-match.  My opponent has been doing boxing training for 18 months, and me 10 weeks.  Bit of a gap in experience…. and she hammered me.

Clearly I came off a little ‘worse for wear’ as you can see from the photos below.  Don’t worry, it didn’t (and doesn’t) hurt.  It just looks pretty gruesome (without make-up)… the bruises are getting deeper before disappearing.  More badges of honour. 🙂

Most importantly, I loved the training…. It’s the journey that we must fondly remember, not necessarily the destination/end result.  I am super fit as I discovered on Saturday after hitting a group interval training class at the gym; I’ve met loads of new people; and I’m happy.

On the night, while I was outboxed by a more experienced opponent, I was humbled by the strangers who approached me afterwards and who told me that I was an inspiration, because despite getting beaten up, I didn’t give up.

I might not have shown my boxing talent as I wanted to that night, but I tried to… even when my nose had blood flying everywhere (I’ve spared you that photo)… I kept going at her, trying to find a way to land some punches and do some damage in return.

Whatever happens in life (and business), never give up… keep going… the experience will make sense one day… and we learn the biggest lessons from the journey, even if we didn’t achieve what we wanted.

In a funny old way, I think the loss will serve me better than a win, as I seem to have inspired loads of people.  I’m now thinking about how I can incorporate this boxing journey in the business keynote and motivational speeches I’m giving, and podcasts I regularly get interviewed for.

So, onwards to the next physical challenge.  More on that one next year.  When you hear of my next personal challenge, you will no doubt raise your eyebrows in shock, horror, amusement or delight. The next challenge will be a lot more difficult for me… bring it on!!

Right now, I’m smelling the roses… and basking in the joy that the boxing experience gave me, even though I didn’t achieve my goal of a win.

Success….it often comes in ways we don’t expect.  And I love that possibility.  I hope you embrace that idea too.

With love

Adèle xx

PS:  I am so grateful to everyone who has donated money to the charity I am supporting via the JustGiving link or cheques given to me.  I will continue to fundraise for twins Lennon and Layla Coady for a few more days.  They’re struggling with their cerebral palsy at present.  Any funds I raise will support the enhancement of their quality of life.  If you’re able to spare a few $$/££, I’d be very grateful.