Business Coaching

The Art of Delegation - Free PDF

This is a strange conundrum but I've got the solution for you.
 
I find that solo business owners want someone to help them get more done.
 
Business owners with a few staff want help getting them to do what the owner wants with enthusiasm, commitment and a bit of initiative. It can get so bad, some owners see staff as their biggest problem.

Get Paid For Using Social Media As A Social Media Manager

If you love spending time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the other social media websites and you want to earn more money working from home or in your spare time, have you ever thought about getting paid to use social media as a self employed social media manager?

Get Paid For Using Social Media - affiliate link

ACT5 Bad Back Chair - My New Toy

Ever since I came back from holiday at the beginning of May my back has been bothering me.

My new toy - an ACT5 bad back posture chair was delivered yesterday afternoon when I was out watching the football and I set it up this morning.

ACT 5 Chair - A Very Clever Design

It's a very clever design as this video shows and I want to keep this video to make sure I remember how to adjust it.

Recommended for anyone who spends too long sitting at a desk and in particular working on a PC - available from badbackchairs.co.uk 

Update after using the ACT 5 Bad Back Chair For 12 Months

Initially it went well as I was replacing an orthapaedic chair that was broken and the ACT 5 chair gave me more support.

However after a couple of months I found myself looking for another chair as my back was getting worse. It turns out I had a disease which was causing my joints to become inflamed and no chair would have been good enough.

Fortunately after I was put on a course of steroids, the inflammation was controlled and the ACT5 chair has been fine.

Occassionally I move the wrong lever by accident and find myself having to reset the chair but that's not a big problem.

I'm very pleased with it and it has confirmed how important it is to have a comfortable working environment.

3 Sisters GreenGrocers Turnaround with Mary Portas

I watched Mary Queen Of Shops last night featuring retail guru Mary Portas turning around an old, tired greengrocers into a chic place to shop.

In Hoylake, the Wirral on Merseyside, the old store of Fosters became the 3 Sisters Greengrocers.

How Can I Help You? Survey For Business Owners

I've put together a very brief survey asking how I can help you.

www.SurveyFromPaul.co.uk

During my launch of my new small business membership site - Your Profit Club - I am giving away samples of the content that will only be available to members with a paid subscription afterwards.

What is A Cash Strapped Business Owner?

My tagline for my new small business membership club for business owners - Your Profit Club - is:

"Helping cash-strapped business owners to double profits in 12 months"

This begs the question, what do I mean by cash strapped?

Drayton Bird Marketing Lessons

Drayton Bird is a legendary British copywriter and direct response marketer.

He is also the author of How To Write Sales Letters That Sell, one of the two books I attribute my early success with direct mail (the other was The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy).

Drayton has recorded a series of short videos sharing marketing lessons and tips from his many years of experience.

Dan Kennedy Wealth Attraction Teleseminar

Join Dan Kennedy and 6 Special Millionaire Guests on a FREE teleseminar Dan is hosting to mark the release of his updated book: No BS Wealth Attraction in the New Economy.

Wealth Attraction teleseminar - affiliate link

Kolbe vs DISC vs MBTI - How Revealing Are These Tests?

You may know that I like the Kolbe A Index assessment for discovering (or confirming) where your natural strengths lie. (I recommend the Strengths Mastery Advantage version through Rich Schefren's Strategic Profits).

I believe we each have a choice:

• To work with our strengths and build a successful and happy career and business

Elements of Style by William Strunk - Free PDF

Would you like two of the best books about writing to sell, as recommended by top copywriter John Carlton?

These reports are no longer available.

I can give you free pdf copies of:

Elements Of Style by William Strunk
 
"Elements of Style" is a classic 1918 book on writing by William Strunk. It is very short, gives the main requirements of plain English and can help you in all areas of business.

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Profit with Paul

I was looking through my Google Analytics for my new membership site Your Profit Club this morning and I was pleased to see that it is starting to get some clicks from the search engines.

I thought I'd take a look at the keywords and one phrase stood out.

Profit with Paul

My marketing message summed in three simple words...

Free Guide To Getting More Referrals & Customers

I've got a treat for you today. A comprehensive guide on how to get more customers through referrals.

Here are a few things you'll learn from this customer referrals guide:

• The underlying truth about getting and giving referrals

• Why most people don't give more customer referrals

Yellow Pages is Shrinking

Reading The Sunday Times today, I learnt that the local Yellow Pages advertising directories are going to be smaller and lighter.

It seems that there will be a compact version of the Yellow Pages rather than the traditional A4 size and that will save 5,000 tonnes of annual paper consumption - bringing the total down to 26,000 tonnes.

8 Direct Mail Mistakes

One of the marketing methods I particularly like and which has brought me great success is direct mail.

However every time I receive my own mail, I realise who many businesses are making some fundamental direct mail mistakes which reduce the success of their campaigns.

These direct mail mistakes are what I've seen in today's batch of letters.

• Window envelopes - it highlights that it is a commercial message since only businesses use the see through envelopes to save them time addressing and matching the envelope.

How To Raise Finance For A Small Business

Wednesday morning I had a great interview with my friend Rob Warlow on how to raise finance for a small business.

Rob is a former banker and has recently returned to the UK after being Group CEO of a bank in East Africa. He is also the author of a new book "Loan Sharp: Get The Business Finance You Deserve" (available from Amazon.co.uk - affiliate link)

This interview is another bonus for those who join my profit building membership site Your Profit Club as a silver member.

Back From The Brink - Turning Around Your Business

On Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of interviewing Spike Humer on turning around your business and effectively pulling back from the brink.

Spike is the co-author of “The 10 Day Turnaround for Business – How To Transform Your Business Virtually Overnight” and in 2005, joined the Jay Abraham Group as COO and Chief Consultant.

It's Not What You Know, It's What You Do

Today I have another of the Why People Fail No BS articles from Dan Kennedy to share with you.

Dan focuses on a topic close to my heart and I suspect many business coaches and advisers - finding the balance between learning and doing.

Why People Fail: A series of No B.S. articles from Dan Kennedy

What Might Be Drawn Out,

Not What More Can We Stuff In

 

There is an old joke about the Farm Bureau agent trying to convince the grizzled farmer to attend the upcoming educational conference being put on by the Bureau.

The resistant farmer says: “Aw, no need. I ain’t usin’ half of what I already know.”

Finding Causes To Business Performance Problems: Have You Got It Wrong?

Today I want to talk about how business owners and the senior managers of big companies attribute reasons and causes to business performance problems.

The Art Of The Irregular Verb

First let me explain a concept called an "irregular verb" made famous in one of my all-time favourite TV shows, Yes Minister by the Principal Private Secretary Bernard.

Basically the thinking behind an irregular verb is that what I do is good, what you do is OK and what he or she does leaves plenty to be desired.

Here's an example from Yes Minister.

• I'm an original thinker

• You're a bit eccentric

• He's crazy.

The same kind of things happen when we attribute causes to performance and particularly when performance isn't very good.

What's Hot On the Blog - April & May 2010

I was on holiday at the end of April - celebrating my 50th birthday in Mallorca - so I never published my "What's hot on the blog" when I got back.

So this month, I'm combining April and May.

We've got some old favourites and one big surprise which shows how doing something for yourself can attract traffic.