Is there a silver bullet to entrepreneurial success? No. That is the harsh truth. To be a success in business you need to be willing to work hard, not take shortcuts, and to reach out to a business coach or mentor in order to move forward. That outside perspective could be just what you need to push through a block and come out the other side with clarity and direction.
If you’re looking for the easy way out, then business ownership may not be in the cards for you. The answers to what you need to do next in order to grow, may be painful. May take you out of your comfort zone or they may be something simple that you just never saw because you were too close.
Some of the things Rex helps his clients work through are:
Limited perspective. You can only see and only know what you know. Your information is limited to your experiences. When you reach outside of yourself, you open up to a new spectrum of awareness
Incorrect perspective. This could be anything from, “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking to the filters of your upbringing or experiences in business. Your incorrect perspectives need to be looked at, discussed and perhaps changed to a new perspective.
Why You Need A Business Coach
Don’t let this message discourage you. You’re not wrong, you just need to look at problems and formulate solutions in a way that you need an outside perspective to help you with.
You’re looking for external input and observation. Along with this external input and observation comes accountability. That is one of the main reasons that working with a coach works. They hold you accountable to your goals and help you find ways to meet them!
Who is a business coach? It could be someone in the same or a complementary line of business. It could be someone whose sole job is to help entrepreneurs succeed — that is what Rex Richard does. He dedicates his time to coaching, helping you open up to perception, observations and new ideas. He provides direction, acts as a sounding board and helps you move your business toward its goals.
You may sometimes receive information and direction from a coach that is like a slap to the forehead and you’ll be saying, “that was right in front of my face… why didn’t I see it?” It’s because you’re too close, the solution does seem obvious — and that’s not wrong thinking — sometimes the most clear path is the one that’s teetering right on the edge of your consciousness. You just need that outside observer to validate your thinking.
If you want to grow. If you want to achieve more. If you want to increase your wealth or your influence or sphere of knowledge, then invest in yourself and your life and your business — hire a business coach.
Rex Richard provides vision expanding and results engineered coaching programs specifically designed to help small to medium sized businesses to break through their barriers and experience renewed life, vitality, and expansion. He can be contacted via LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/rexrichard/ #rexsays
Have you given up and are you going to coast toward 2021? We get it. 2020 has kicked our butts! Coronavirus and the pandemic shut down of the country has put many businesses in a precarious position on not knowing whether they will survive for the long term. If you want to know how to end the year profitable, stick with us.
You don’t have to go all out for this last couple of weeks, but with a few tweaks and some changes you may end the year on a higher note than you were originally anticipating and can’e we all use some wins right about now?
Take a look at these and see what fits for you and your business and do what you can to end on an up note.
How To End The Year Profitable
Are you renting an office? Do you need to continue renting it? Have you found that you’re able to work effectively from home? If so, you may not be able to cancel your lease right now, but consider it for the new year and start out with a savings.
Do you have space in your home that you can rent out as a conference room? You may need to do quite a bit to make it a safe workspace because of COVID-19 and having a separate entrance for the renter makes sense, but there may be local entrepreneurs who simply need a space in which to do a Zoom call or a client call and they can’t get the quiet they need at home.
Are there expenses you can cut? Are you paying for magazine or newspaper subscriptions that you don’t read? Are you involved in online groups or mastermind or other affiliate or membership groups that you don’t interact in or with? Are you paying for items you’ve forgotten about? Do an audit of your bank account and see if there are subscriptions you can cancel to save money.
Are there upsells you can offer to current clients? “Hey if you sign up for three months of my service in 2021 I’ll throw in a month for free if you pay upfront?” or “I am selling this new book/course along with my membership service… are you interested?”
Are you going to raise your prices before the new year? If so, reach out to current clients and let them know. Offer them the service at the current price if they sign up for X number of months. Let them know what the new price will be and let them make up their own minds.
Now is the time to ask for referrals. Fill the first few weeks of your 2021 calendar with potential new client calls. Don’t start the new year with a blank calendar. Offer a referral bonus or gift for those who do provide you a referral that pans out.
Are you buying ads in local papers or media or online? Are they working? If not and if it’s not measurable, why are you doing it? If you don’t have a good answer, don’t continue with that marketing practice.
If you’re not sure what worked last year. If you don’t know how to pivot into 2021 to stay viable or turn a profit set up a time to talk with Rex Richard about your business goals and marketing strategy. Start the year strong!
How you face adversity can make a difference for an entrepreneur between success and failure. If you’re looking for a way to move forward – even if you face a set back – we have tips that will help you be an entrepreneur who surpasses those who have a negative attitude. Is your attitude holding you back? If so, read on.
Is Your Attitude Holding You Back?
Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Yes, there are times when a setback hits hard and it’s all right if you need a day to wallow in the loss or setback. After that, though you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, see what went wrong and course correct.
Don’t avoid change. Change is inevitable and you need to accept it. You don’t have to happily embrace it, but accept that it will happen and make the most of it.
Don’t give away your power to someone else or a client. You need to manage your responses to situations and people.
Don’t waste time on things which you cannot change. There are some changes you can make to some situations and other things – like the weather – are beyond your control. The weather is a BIG example, but think about those things that weigh on your emotions and see if you can change it or move away from it. If you cannot, then find a way to cope.
You can’t please all the people all the time. You can only do your best and deliver what you said you were going to deliver.
You need to sometimes jump in with both feet. Take a calculated risk and see what happens! Chances are, it won’t be life and death, right?
Move past the past. What’s done is done. Replaying a past failure or a past conversation or a client that got away will not help you move forward and in fact will drain your energy.
Are you hearing crickets when you send out an e-newsletter or e-blast to your list? If that’s the case, why do you continue to send one? We have advice on how to get your emails opened and prompt action from the recipients.
We’ve talked in the past about how your list is one of your most important business assets. That is more true than ever with the coronavirus pandemic and the looming election taking up most of our social media feeds.
How To Get Your Emails Opened
If your open rates and click-through rates are low, try some of these steps to amp up the opens, clicks and follow through on your calls to action. Know that subject lines matter – this is the first impression someone on your list sees.
Get noticed in the busy inbox. Your email subject line should be description enough to prompt action. If your subject line is boring or if it tells the entire story, why open? The subject line should be enough of an attention grabber that the recipient needs to know more.
Does your content lend itself to statistics? “More then 80% of all businesses with mailing lists stay afloat!” (this is made up, but if you’re a business owner, wouldn’t you open it? Statistics also help build your credibility – a reader will think, “wow this person knows his stuff!”
Don’t reuse a subject line. If you had a subject line that garnered eyes on the content and clicks, it may be tempting to repeat and reuse – don’t. Your readers will get onto you and eventually they won’t open.
Show your personality. Speak right to the reader. Don’t offer your success in the subject line. “I used this and won the lottery!” Who cares. “If you use this you, too could win the lottery!” Well, now I am listening.
FOMO is real. The fear of missing out, limited quantities, limited spaces and deadlines prompt action. Again, don’t overuse this because it’s like crying wolf. After a while, your FOMO headlines won’t prompt action – well maybe other than deleting it.
Subject lines matter. Your content matters. Don’t use a sensational headline thinking that it will prompt an open and then give content that doesn’t match the headline. Bait and switch subject lines and content will see you in the trash can.
Yes, the coronavirus pandemic and shut down of many states and businesses such as restaurants has caused many to struggle. You can use coronavirus shut down as a way to grow, not languish. There are many technologies available that will allow you to still do business, attract customers and stay in business.
What is your competition doing? Have they shut their doors and called this a vacation? If so, now is your time to shine. We have put together five strategies to help you move past the competition and come out the other side of this shut down with a healthy business.
Use Coronavirus Shut Down As A Way To Grow
You can use these ways to move past the competition and stay healthy in your business bank account and you don’t even need to leave home to do it.
Make decisions. You have the option, right now, to decide whether you will use this shut down of the country as an excuse to kick back and take a vacation. You certainly can, but how will that serve your business or your clients?
Believe in yourself. If you think you CAN do it, you can. You need to be your own cheerleader and know that you can do what you set your mind to.
Failure, isn’t. That may seem confusing, but what we’re saying is that if you try and “fail” you have tried. Try is the major part of that equation. If you fail, great. If you quit or don’t even try to move forward — then that’s a failure.
Maintain your word. Your word and your integrity and your morals are what will keep your clients coming back and make them feel good about recommending you. Be true to yourself and your word. Once you have lost your integrity it is hard to get it back.
Stay Healthy – You’re sheltering in place, like many of us, and that is one way to keep yourself safe. To stay healthy you need to eat healthily, you need to get up and get moving and you need down time. Take care of your mind, body and soul.
Implement these five attributes into your daily life and your business life and you will remain competitive and thriving. If you want to use this time to launch a new business, give us a call or leave us a comment and let’s make that dream a reality.
If you’re continually telling your employees or the vendors with whom you work that the customer is always right, you need to stop saying ‘the customer is always right’ and there are many good reasons to stop that right now. Some of them you may never have thought about.
We truly think that believing the customer is always right leads to poor customer service because your employees won’t care how they treat them because if they offer stellar service or poor service, the experience for the customer is always the same.
Stop Saying ‘The Customer Is Always Right’
However, I think businesses should abandon this phrase once and for all — ironically, because it leads to worse customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why “The Customer Is Always Right” is wrong.
If your employees are NEVER right because the customer is ALWAYS right, why should they give it there all? There’s no reason. You should be loyal to your employees and if you are, they will probably offer better service to your customers simply because your employees are feeling heard and valued. You certainly don’t want to reward poor service, but it’s more expensive to a business to replace employees than it is to treat them well and in turn they will perform at higher levels.
This mantra gives horrible customers carte blanche to be rude to your employees and to complain no matter how high a level service you offer.
Some customers, no matter how well you treat them will still complain and will also think they have you over a barrel and you will be forced to give more and more away to a customer to whom you should show the door.
You’ve been there yourself.
You KNOW there are sometimes that customers are just plain wrong and they will holler to the rooftops that “the customer is always right.” Your customers need to know you value your employees and that you welcome their input and that you trust your employees’ opinions on a customer interaction.
Make your employees feel valued and heard and you won’t have to worry about whether the customer is right — you know they will likely be happy and you know your staff will be happier. What measures do you have in place to show your employees they are valued even in light of a yelling customer?
