Peter Roper says, “Be seen, be heard, be visible” to connect to people (in business)

At the North East Business Road Show organised by Network North, Peter Roper of Positive Ground encourages all business owners to be natural presenters.

We buy people. We buy relationships.

So why do 80% of all presentations fails? Roper bases his claims on survey results of 350,000 businesses.

1. WHY ARE YOU PRESENTING? I am here to serve….
2. THE POINT - YOUR MESSAGE
3. CLOSE (the closing 5 mins)
4. OPEN (the opening 5 minutes)
5. BODY (the rest of the talk….flexible…the proof of what you are talking about)

Roper sugests we all ask oursleves the following question:

How do you know you’re good enough? (presenting your business).

Often there are considerable marketing questions that need answering prior to designing a good presentation, but where does one find a top business marketing consultant? Roper offers consultancy to address any issues you might have. If you want to get a choice of solutions then using an onlione service such as Business Support Finder will probably help you to consider alternative business professionals.

Giles Johnson says, ‘Learn from the wisdom of 10 year olds’

At the Business Road Show North East (UK) Giles Johnson of SmartSpeed revealed how the wisdom of 10-year olds can help us manage our businesses better.

1. Work ON your business, don’t fixate with the competition.
2. Focus on YOUR priorities and make sure tasks happen.
3. Be clear about the requirements of your clients and the value you bring to them.
4. When facing an issue, keep asking questions until you get to a real cause, not a symptom.
5. When projects/improvements stall, use the tiniest step possible to ignite activity.
6. If a change doesn’t work properly first time, tweak it and try again.
7. Use routines to help make sure that the day-to-day stuff is manageable and gets done.

In conclusion, Giles summarises the 5 key things to look out for in organisations when addressing (poor) business performance:

1. PROCESS
2. VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER
3. MEASURES
4. LINKAGES
5. ISSUES

The best method to help business owners consider how best to make improvements, and ideally to install a continuous and never-ending improvement programme is to employ professional business advisers. Where can business owners access the right business consultant at the right price? An online business support search using Google UK may bring you to a service such as Business Support Finder

Richard McCann says, “Focus on the Positive” to find the opportunity in adversity

Speaking at the Business Road Show North East (UK) Richard McCann gave a rousing speech encouraging ALL entrepreneurs to find the opportunity in adversity.

Richard McCann told his audience of business owners how he turned it round.

(He) knows a thing or two about adversity. Brought up in poverty, on the ‘At Risk’ register, lived in foster homes. Eventually brought up by his estranged step-father, often violent and drunk towards him. As a result Richard had little confidence or self esteem, left school with no qualifications. He was kicked out of the army after a nervous breakdown, turned to drugs and ended up in prison - his rock bottom. - and found the gut wrenching determination to turn his life around.

1. ATTITUDE - ”I Can” approach to life.
2. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE - it makes it easier to deal with challenges.
3. BE COURAGEOUS - life begins at the end of one’s comfort zone.
4. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP - nothing worth having is going to be given on a plate.

Richard suggests that when Life offers us a ‘window of opportunity’ to climb through it. Many people let other people take the risk. It requires a leap of faith.

We’ve all got more potential to do more than we are currently. Richard also encouarges us to “Do things that make you feel uncomfortable, because they make you grow.”

As a business owner, as Robert Craven the Entrepreneur guru often reminds us, we cannot do things on our own, we need to ask for help from business consultants, and Richard McCann says to ask for help is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. I think they’re right, don’t you?

Robert Craven - Entrepreneur Guru - What would you do if you were in his shoes?

In my opinion, Robert Craven is one the UK’s leading authorities on UK Small and medium Sized enterprises. He runs The Director’s Centre which offers “been there, and done it” support for medium sized business that have hit a ‘glass ceiling’ and have run out of ideas, steam, or the will to carry on.

What I like about Craven’s style is it is simple, clear, direct and works - I find his style refreshing and quite rare. He has just launched a business club for small enterprises who perceive that they can’t afford business advice and assistance. Since ALL consultancy operates on a ‘results basis’, whether charged as such, means that small business owners lack the faith or insight as to the business opportunities in their niche sector or marketplace. The business club benefits (newsletters, videos, downloads etc) act as ‘education’ helping to bring the business owner to the point of clarity and purpose when they can see the opportunities and can sense a rising confidence to go after them. Craven emphasises that ‘you can’t do it one your own’, which is absoutely true.

Finally, I come to the aspect of what I would do if I were Robert Craven. What could Craven do, occupying as he does the position of a leader in his marketplace (Consultancy). Anyone involved in assisting SMEs wishes to help raise the standards and expertise of small business management. As a market leader in UK Business advice and assistance Craven also needs to protect himself from business consultants trying to use or cheapen his business material. So what’s my suggestion? It is simple. Robert Craven (RC) already does a fantastic business presentation for UK SMEs in his business series: “Lets talk, More profit”. Market himself/rebrand himself as a business guru ‘celebrity’, increasing his ‘reach’. He is already known as an author but he would benefit from raising of his profile. Creating a top quality DVDs of his material (e.g. More profit and Bright marketing) and, with the help of the best PR in the business, he can try to -reposition himself as the celebrity business guru, such as the like of Alan Sugar. Does this need TV to achieve it? I suspect it does, but that is where professionals come in. The point is to rebrand Craven as a celebrity (i) is achieveable and (ii) which bring him all the rewards he deserves (increased prominence, respect for his materials, financial return etc).

Why Many Businesses Choose Car Lease as opposed to Buying

It may be that business car lease offers cheaper monthly payments than buying but in the long run, you know you will pay more money on a vehicle that is depreciating than buying it outright. So why do business owners opt for business car lease rather than saving a few pennies or dollars and buy outright?

One reason might be cash flow. Keeping money in the business rather than taking it put to buy a car can mean the difference between survival and death.  Another reason is clearly image; turning up to a client in a new executive car can generate business beyond the extra cost of the car. A further consideration in leasing new rather than buying used is the great fuel economy new vehicle s are delivering recently. In fact some are so good, you wonder how car manufacturers have been able to achieve this in such a short time, or maybe that always could have done this, but chose not to because the market did not demand it at that time.

The final consideration of leaving money in a business is deciding what you can do from a commercial point of view with that money. If there is a business argument that you can take £20k and make it into £40k in 3 years, there is a fundamental no brainer, why save a few grand on car lease when you can make £20k keeping the money in the business.
So when considering business car lease it makes sense to calculate the real cost of the car and what you can do with that money if you chose to lease.  If you loads of money on the bank, then it will be cheaper to buy, if you need that money to grow the business then business car lease could be right for you.

Driving Instructor Training Schools Selling The Dream

You can’t have missed the abundance of television adverts, telling us how easy it can be to be a driving instructor, how much we can earn, work our own hours and have a fully maintained car, for those who have never worked for themselves in the past, these adverts can appear to be the dream business to  give the standard of living they long for.

But like all businesses serious though should be made before entering into businesses and certainly some research should be done before handing over any money to a driving instructor school and certainly before leaving any secure job.

The first thing you should do, is research who is offering driving lessons on your area and ask yourself, is there enough space for you to enter this arena? Driving lessons is a very local thing, students do not want to lose time during their lesson waiting for an instructor to turn up and the driving instructor does not want to travel far, to pick up a student.

You can get a feel to how busy or popular the competition will be by their prices and word of mouth from neighbours and friends who maybe have used the service. If the school is advertising lessons for £10 an hour, there is a hint that business is not brisk. However is they are selling lessons at over £20 an hour this should suggest they are not in any price war.

Of course where you live should also be a bearing. Living in a small village may not supply you with enough customers for your business, however being in a slightly larger village where you are the only instructor could mean your business becomes a god mine. no one outside the village would want to travel to your patch.

Maintained car means the word leased and of course you are paying for this, so do not get carried away with the TV adverts as if the car comes free. whatever you pay for the leased car, is what you are not earning as wages, so take this into account.

Working your own hours is against your earnings. You cant work less hours and still earn high amounts of money, so really you have a choice, work the hours your clients want, or earn less money, it is up to you.