Business Coaching

Your Strategic Vision: An Easy & Quick Way To Find Direction

I was reading a blog by Rich Schefren, an Internet business strategist I used to feature regularly on this blog about a quick and easy way to find your strategic vision.

This is all you have to do.

How Much Is "Not Marketing" Costing You?

It is a funny question but...

"How much is "not marketing" costing you?"

Improved marketing is definitely one of the overlooked opportunities for hidden profit that comes from continually testing and improving the marketing you do.

But what if you don't do any marketing or virtually none... and you are struggling for business.

You want more... in fact you may desperately want the phone to ring with a customer enquiry...  but you are held back.

How To Do Good With Cause Related Marketing

I have a free pdf for you today called "Delivering Good With The Goods".
 
This gives you tips on how to use cause related marketing to help build your business in a similar way to what I did with my free business coaching offer linked to a donation to a cancer charity.
 
Done right cause related marketing creates three wins:

Overcoming Resistance with the Socratic Method

When you suggest a great idea... to a customer, to a partner, to an employee, and perhaps even a boss... what do you do if you meet resistance?

It's easy to finish up in a heated discussion... and the more you justify your position, the more resistance you meet.

Why Using Questions In Your Sales Copywriting Is Dangeous

I have been looking at a lot of websites in the last few days and I have been astonished by how often one techniques is used to draw the reader in and engage them.

It is the use of questions...right at the very start...and perhaps in place of a headline.

Borrowed From A Proven Sales Technique

I understand the attraction of asking questions in your copy because there is an old sales technique.

Can Jay Abraham & Dan Kennedy Make YOU A MIllionaire?

Overnight I heard about a new event being put together by two of the biggest names in direct marketing and entrepreneurship - Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham.

It's called the Seven Figure Total Transformation Makeover.

The idea is simple, provided you already earn a six figure income, then Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham will help you to leverage your existing success in some many different ways, your income can increase by five or ten times.

When Prospects Give You The Silent Treatment

From today I will start featuring guest articles from sales trainer Ari Galper starting with this one which looks at the situation where your prospect "disappears". Things seemed to be going well but then he or she went quiet.

You will find Ari's thinking is different from many other sales trainers.

"When Prospects Give You The "Silent Treatment"

By Ari Galper, Founder of Unlock The Game

If you’ve been selling for a while, you’ve probably had at least one experience in which your prospect suddenly started giving you the “silent treatment.”

Who Needs A Finance Coach?

Are you one of the many small business owners who have never got to grips with finance and if so, isn't it time you did something about it?

If so, you need a finance coach.

Finance is the language of business and in the UK, there are more accountants in the top PLC boardrooms than any other set of qualifications - more than engineers, marketers, lawyers...

It's simple.

To manage for profit and cash flow, you need to understand what drives extra profit into a business...and what drains profit or cash away.

I wrote a long explanation about the benefits of being coached in finance...but it dropped out of Google.

Lucky I spotted it and you can read it here:

Finance Coaching For Entrepreneurs & Directors

Even better, if you are based in the UK and are ready to act quickly, I have a very special deal if you want to try Pillar 1 of my coaching system, the Eight Pillars Of Business Prosperity.

Pillar 1 focuses on Your Key Numbers and covers how you measure performance in your business. You can read more on my website at Your Key Numbers and about the special coaching deal.

Clever Use Of Google Adwords To Target GMail

If you use Google Adwords to promote your business, then you may be interested in the latest sneaky trick I saw in Internet marketing.

It seems that Gmail users get to see Adwords advertisements from the Content Network when they send or receive emails.

Yellow Pages Advertising For Accountants

This look at Yellow Pages Advertising for Accountants is the start of a new series of blogs focused on particular issues for particular types of business.

And as accountants fit neatly with the small businesses I serve, it makes sense to start with a service most of us use and buy.

While a lot of search has moved to the Internet, I still believe some types of business will benefit from advertising in the Yellow Pages but only in the right way. For general thoughts please read my How To Advertise In Yellow Pages guide.

As a general guide, if a good number of competitors are advertising, you can assume that Yellow Pages is generating enquiries. If no one is advertising, I would assume the search has moved elsewhere.

Even if you are not an accountant, you will learn from this article if you are planning to use Yellow Pages Advertising.

People Will Spend Their Last Nickel On One Thing

According to copywriter, Internet marketer and Law of Attraction expert Joe Vitale, people will spend their last nickel on one thing.

So what is it?

Before I reveal all...take a guess.

Go on...what would you buy?

Accounts Under The Companies Act 2006 Warning

I submitted my accounts for the year ended 30 April 2009 this week to Companies House, within the nine months deadline.

I thought I was being a good boy but I had them returned.

It seems that the Companies Act 1985 doesn't apply for accounts starting on or after 6 April 2008.

These accounts are required to refer to the 2006 Companies Act.

What Does Being An Entrepreneur Or Small Business Owner Mean To You?

There are many reasons for starting a small business and starting your new life as an entrepreneur and many ways it can be satisfying.

What does being a small business owner mean to you?

For me the big advantages are:

How To Master The Opportunities Of Constant Change

Tomorrow, Thursday January 14th 2010, the ninth and final free panel interview from the League of Extraordinary Minds will be broadcast.

This call is intriguingly titled:

"Master Your Universe: How to Manage, Maximize and Master the Opportunity That Constant Change Presents"

If you haven't joined the League you can sign up for the free call (affiliate link - I earn a small commission if you decide to buy the recordings of the past calls).

How To Get The Most From A Big Business Seminar

John Carlton is one of the world's top copywriters and direct response experts and creator of the Simple Writing System.

He is putting on a business seminar later in January 2010.

See John Carlton Action Seminar on my Online Profits Blog.

To help promote the event and to help his Insider Club members to get the most out of the events they attend, John has put together a teleseminar on...

How To Get The Most From An Event

Jay Conrad Levinson Guerilla Marketing Videos

I was browsing YouTube and found these videos of the Father of Guerrilla Marketing Jay Conrad Levinson.

As a certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach, I am biased but if you haven't had the chance to learn about Guerrilla Marketing, you are missing out.

I particularly like some of the mindset issues based around the Guerrilla Marketing secrets and competencies and the Guerrilla Marketing Attack including the seven sentence guerrilla marketing plan, the guerrilla marketing weapons and the marketing calendar.

My advice is to make yourself a drink and start watching these videos of Jay Conrad Levinson as he shares the Guerrilla Marketing wisdom.

High Taxes Kill Enterprise & Reduce The Tax Intake

Government policy impacts on business and entrepreneurs and in these years (decades?) of high public deficits, there is a huge danger of self-defeating tax policies.

High tax kills because it reduces the incentives and perceived fairness - and statistics indicate that it doesn't even increase the money going into the public purse.

It is easy to spend other people's money.

Dead easy...and that's the problem.

iPhone Sccope App For Price Comparisons Threatens Retail Profits

Yesterday I discovered the iPhone Sccope App which lets you do a price comparison while you out browsing in retail shops and stores.

If Sccope or any other similar service becomes popular it represents a huge threat to retail profits for small retail operations and the huge stores.

Perfect information - where everyone knows the prices being offered by suppliers - is one of the fundamental assumptions economists make in classical industrial economics and pricing is a huge factor in profits.

But perfect information doesn't exist in the real world - nothing close to it.

Fast-Tracking Your Business

The eighth web broadcast for the League of Extraordinary Minds has been revealed and it will be broadcast tomorrow (and hopefully over the weekend).

It is titled:

"Fast-Tracking Your Business: Accelerators That Drive Rapid and Soaring Success"

and you can hear it if you have taken up the free membership of the League of Extraordinary Minds (compensated affiliate link).

Better Network Presentations To Wake Up The Other Attendees

I'm not a big fan of the official BNI/Chamber of Commerce style networking events.

I see them as something as a necessary evil if you want to establish a local presence so you need to know how to make more effective and better network presentations.

Everybody at the networking meeting wants to sell and nobody wants to buy.

How To Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever

I have featured Spike Humer a number of times on this blog and I wanted to make sure you about the free teleseminars he is doing next week to Jay Abraham's list.

I like to think that Spike and I have a lot of common (although that flatters me much more than Spike) as we are straight forward, plain speaking guys without the hype that obscures the fundamental truths.

I've reprinted an email from Spike below and I urge you to join the teleseminar as I am sure it will be very useful. As it is through Abraham.com, it is unlikely there will be an mp3 download available later as Jay doesn't believe they are listened to.

Here is the email.

How To Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever