All that Glitters is not Gold

When I first moved to London oh something like 17 years ago, my mum made a comment to the effect that she thought, I thought “that  London’s streets were paved with gold”  Having travelled back and forth for 4 years in order to pursue my relationship with my then boyfriend and now husband David McQueen I was under no illusion that London has some big issues and that I would have to mete out my success with fear and trembling and that I would not find literal gold on the streets.

Here I am many years later and I can truly say I that what I have found, without a doubt, is that all that glitters is not gold. In a world where wealth, fame and fortune seem to matter to the masses I too, got caught up in believing that what you have defines who you are and your success. The big house, the fancy car, the credit cards in abundance, dining out very regularly and so much more, you know the score. It seems that in the western world what you have or what it looks like you have seems to be more important than who you are and that is often the case “down south”.

David and I have a number of  acquaintances who most definitely look the part, they seem to have it all, appear to be very successful and in with the in crowd! Everything is in control, the money is banked and they are living the proverbial life of Riley… or are they? Just scratch under the surface a bit more you you will find that their gold is in short supply.  You may think that you have little and not in their league, but you might be surprised to know that many are faking it, living their lives based on credit, an old reputation and in miserable relationships. It looks good but only a few bits of thread are holding it all together.

I’m not trying to dis anyone, I was there once, with everything looking great on the surface and the reality being really quite frighteningly different; scratch the surface and you wanted to cover it up pretty quickly! What I do want to point out is than often we we give ourselves a hard time for not having what other people have, not reaching their perceived level of success, not being on their level, not having their money or contacts or whatever. The truth is we have no idea what their reality is, we have no idea how much what they have has cost them in money, friends, values etc. Our job is not to covet what they have and decry what we haven’t, our job is to be content  and grateful for with what we have and strive to be the best that we can be without comparison to others.

Too often we are looking at dead wood that has caught the sunlight and think that it is a prosperous, healthy, fruit baring tree,  it’s not… its dead wood! If we could just for a moment stop to look at the little sapling tree (ourselves) which we often ignore because of others, we might just find that we have the potential to become like the great red woods of America which sparkle in the sunlight, standing tall, authentic and lasting.

Remember all that glitters is not gold, but if you can be look after with your little piece of lead you might just find that it turns into  real gold!

Customer Service and the Credit Crunch

Yesterday I found myself driving my girls around some of the little villages surrounding Watford. It was a beautiful day and since my daughter is currently on crutches I decided that country lanes were the best thing for us. It really was a beautiful spring day and it got me thinking about my garden and how I could make the best of it so that my summer months were delightful.

I happened across a garden store which was a business run from home. It had some really beautiful plants in that I could see making a real difference in my garden. I started walking down the aisle of plants and was in awe at the different varieties of plants, herbs and trees available. I came across  some heather which I though would be great for my garden as I wanted something that could spread over the boarders but still look pretty. So I embarked on asking the person who appeared to run the centre for some help.

Hmm, well yes he did answer my question but what was missing was good old customer service. In these times of credit crunch you can’t afford to lose an interested customer… well maybe he could… After answering my questions he proceeded to have a chat with his friend and completely ignored me. I decided it was time to leave and continue my amble around the countryside with my girls.

In short he lost a sale, I chose not to buy. He never really engaged with me, he never asked me what I was trying to achieve in my garden, or suggested what could work, he never offered to show me any other alternative to the heather. I had made it clear that I was looking for something that grew quite quickly, unfortunately he never picked up on it. I had asked if he had debit card facilities and he had said yes… My goodness man, that was a buying signal if ever I’ve heard one. Opportunity knocked and opportunity was lost.

Especially in these times it is important to make your customers feel that there business is important to you. You never know who your customer could know or  who and what they are responsible for, for all the garden centre man knew I could have been the buyer for a larger garden centre. When customers are holding on tighter to their money, businesses need to be alert to the clients buying signals and seize on them with care and consideration for nervous buyers.

I’m not sure that I will ever buy from that garden centre, it seems that they were not interested in my custom and as a result I am no longer interested in their business offering. If you run your own business or work within the sales environment, remember that your customers are people who want to make wise decisions and sometimes need help to decipher how your offering fits into their need.

It takes time…

We live in an ever increasingly instant gratification society, over the last decade we have had an exponential amount of loans, credit cards, by now pay later and other such financial carrots dangled at us as part of the “you can have it now” ethos that has taken over our world. Recently we have seen that this mentality has come crashing down around our shoulders and is fashionably referred to as the “Credit Crunch”.

When I was a child, it took time, hard work, effort and patience to make a house a home and fill it with the mod cons most home buyers expect today as standard. It took grit to afford to go on holiday and come back without owing a penny. Business took time to bed in and build so that it could be profitable and appreciated by it’s customers and suppliers instead of the set it up overnight and make a million in a philosophy that often privales in the modern board room.

What I have learnt in recent years goes against the modern norm… it takes time. It’s taken time for David and I to build Milestone and we know that it will take much more for it to be the sustainable business we want it to be. It’s taken time for us to appreciate that it “little by little” is far more powerful than “all in one go”. It takes time to build a positive reputation and it builds time for others to recognise it.

I sat proudly observing my husband today as he beamed because he was featured in “The Voice” Newspaper as one of the movers and shakers to watch in 2009. He has worked tirelessly with young people to raise their confidence and attainment levels and has networked constantly at the sacrifice of family time to build contacts who could help him gain access to the more lucrative corporate work that buoys up the work he does in education.  To see him featured was a real priviledge but not something that has come over night, it has taken time and it will take more to really get where we want to go.

There is a phrase in the bible that says “Let patience have her perfect work” and every day I am learning that this is exactly what I need to do. That with patience, endeavour and a giving spirit over time all things are possible.

So go ahead… take your time.

There’s no value in free

What is our obsession with giving our business away for free and being uncomfortable with charging for our service? When we give it away for free it has no value, few come back and want to pay for something we ourselves didn’t place any value on. We continue to just give it a way… “Yes, but it drums up interest” I hear you so. Absolute rubbish!!!

The truth is when we give our services away our potential clients take what they can get for free and run with it. Then, when they are ready to actually purchase the service that you deliver, they go elsewhere and often pay more than you were charging for it.

We have to get comfortable with charging for our services. You don’t go to Tesco’s, Asda’s, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose and expect to come out with their goods for free do you? Even the buy one get one free’s have a cost attached. There is a parting with your money before you can get any product out of the door and that should be the same f0r any business. Before you give anything away there should be at least an initial cost attached that commits the customer.

Even free seminars to build your business should have some cost attached even if you give the money back at the end of the seminar. The customer should always be able to clearly recognise that there is a cost value to your service, product and/or time. When things aren’t paid for they aren’t valued, they are treated with disrepect and often not taken seriously which means you won’t have an income.
You have to place value on your knowlege, experience, skills and talents and be unafraid to charge a reasonable rate for the use of them. They are worth every penny and the sooner you get to grips with that the better for you and your business. Remember your time is money.

Get your head in the game

High School Musical has been the bane of my life since it came out last year on Digital Television, we are now in posession of the High School Musical Concert and the Jump in DVD’s and I haven’t quite yet brought myself to purchasing High School Musical. However apart from the whining singing of teenagers who sound like they need to blow there nose, there are a few of the songs that seem to stick in my mind!! Once such song is “Get Your Head in The Game”

When you work for yourself it’s really easy to get distracted in lots of different ways. Whether it’s doing the washing, cleaning the house or a phone call from a friend or by the millions of ideas that you have about providing more products and services, the opportunities that come your way which don’t actually relate to you business or anything else that distracts your focus. Sometimes the distraction can be knowing what you want to but not being able to put the knowing into action.

If this is the case for you then get your head in the game! My husband and I have really done this recently, we’ve focused our business, prepared all of our documentation and got on with what we do ensuring that any distractions are minimised. If the cleaning doesn’t get done until the weekend then so be it, if an opportunity does not align with our business then we pass it by. Just by putting our head in the game we have already increased our revenue five fold and have a greater level of satisfaction or moreso a greater desire to do more. We’ve put are head in the game and decided that if we are going to play it then we will do so with our all and not just a part.

Put your head in the game today, make the call, write the document, send the email and step out, you will be amazed by the fruit of your labour!

Northern Rock and the Knee Jerks

I know that I don’t have lots of money in a Northern Rock bank account by come on now… How knee jerk can you get?

A bank that is not in trouble decides, that the markets it usually trades with to raise funds is too volatile to use. So to protect itself it asks the Bank of England to give it an overdraft just in case.

The bank doesn’t use the overdraft and it’s business as usual

The media hypes the whole thing up

The Knee Jerks go and take there money out of the bank

The bank has never touched customers savings to loan money and therefore the savings are all in the bank

The Bank of England declares itself guarantor for the bank

The goverment of the UK declares itself guarantor for the bank.

The Knee Jerks queue for hours to take their money out of the bank

The Knee Jerks flood the website to take their money out of the bank and can’t understand why the website doesn’t work.

The website of the bank not build for mass hysteria can’t cope with the traffic and so doesn’t work properly.

What a palarva… somebody save us from the Knee Jerks

Get Serious in Business

I read a great book this morning, yep the whole thing this morning, GrowingYour Business! by Mark LeBlanc and it really made me think.
We often have a business idea and have some loose idea of how we are going to make it work and then we get cracking. We get a few customers and think that we have made it, but can’t understand why we can’t pay the bills and our business is so inconsistent. The truth is we didn’t plan, not seriously anyway. I truly believe that this is one of the main reasons why businesses fail. They have no idea where they are going or how they are going to get there. They get it their car and just drive, wondering how it happened when they get lost.

When we are without a framework; what we do, how we do it, who we do it for, how much we plan on making, what we want to achieve over determined periods of time, we find that success escapes us.

If we are only focused on paying this months bills, we then don’t prospect enough for future business and find ourselves in a constant rut, next thing we know we are closing down our business and looking for a full time job. Mark LeBlanc says “You can run your business, make money and have fun doing it!”. It’s true, but you have to work on your business within your framework.

Think about it, how often has a business opportunity come your way that was not aligned with your current business but you took it because it seemed like a good idea and gave you money? Later down the road you found yourself miserable and stressed because you were so far off your road and confused about which way to go. When you set a framework that is based on your goals, your business offering and business needs you are far more able to fit others into your business or not. If it doesn’t fall into your business model don’t do it. Stay on your path. This doesn’t mean that your framework is inflexible, it means that any changes honour you and your business goals.

Get serious about your business, if you don’t have a business plan then write one, know what you offer and who you offer it to, be confident about what you do. Market your business consistently, consistent effective marketing means consistent business. Follow your framework and don’t be wooed by opportunities that are not aligned with your business. Keep it silly simple KISS, the easier it is for others to understand your business the easier it is for potential clients to buy you.

Get Serious in Business…work on it!

Book Review: The Soul Millionaire

If you are looking for a book that can truly educate you in financial management, where you can learn the about the real power of money and keep your values in tack then The Soul Millionaire: True Wealth is within your reach by David Scarlett is most definitely the book to read.

I’ve been looking for a book that could give me the true keys to financial management, something that I could really get my teeth into and really understand. I found all that I could have ever wanted and so, so much more in this book. It has really empowered me and to be honest it’s a book I just can’t put down. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but every word I have read so far (and I am a good way through the book) has spoken life to me!

I’ve had this book for quite a while and I have no idea why I haven’t picked it up until now. More fool me, I could I have been practicing the principles, building my big picture and improving my financial freedom all this time.

I’ve found that although many of our parents have practiced some of the principles of the Soul Millionaire and financial management, the seemed to have missed effectively educating us in these skills. My kids will most definitely get a copy of this book before their 18th birthday and intend on teaching them these principles now.

If you are willing, this book will change your life, the principles laid down are not new, but they are delivered in a way that makes them stick not just in your head but in your heart. What’s more there is spiritual element that really speaks to me in this book, it’s not about about accumalating masses of wealth, its about integrity,making a difference and freedom. So it’s a thumbs up from me, this book really does make a difference.