Business Coaching

Small Business Success Forum - Now Launched

It is nearly nine months since I started this Business Coaching Blog and as you can see, it has already grown to a very significant size.

Inevitably I started to think "what comes next?" and I had been weighing up the pro's and con's of a forum or membership site but some technical issues with my blog have given me a few headaches so I decided to hold back.

But now I have been beaten to it by a friend of mine.

Rob Warlow has contributed articles to this blog and has his own excellent website called Small Business Success. Now Rob has just launched the Small Business Success Forum to provide a friendly place for people interested in small businesses to swap ideas and tips.

I have joined, answered one question and started a new topic and I would like you to come and join me and Rob.

The Small Business Success Forum only started on Sunday so it is all very new but there is a already a little community building up and one or two names that I recognise from contributions to this blog.

As always, the more you join in and contribute, the better it will be.

Update - 18 June 2008

Still unsure what you get from the Small Business Success Forum?

Then this is the latest information from Rob

"Linked to the launch of the Forum I also released a fresh new look for the site and added two new features:

Small Business Audios - a variety of MP3 downloads

http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/small_business_audios.htm

Small Business E-Courses - 5 day mini-seminars delivered straight to your in-box at no cost:

http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/small_business_e-courses.htm

I'll be adding new content to each of these sections and others on a regular basis so keep checking in."

So come over and join us. I will be popping in regularly and giving my thoughts on the questions or issues that intrigue me the most..

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Blog Carnival Submission Tips

Some months ago I told you about the idea of Blog Carnivals where you can submit your articles to a topic specific "online magazine".

Thanks to a recent contact with Amanda of the Amanda Moore Virtual Assistant blog, I have no been encouraged to give Blog Carnivals another try.

It seems that Amanda runs her own Blog Carnival and she put out a call for articles. I left a comment asking whether she found that the Blog Carnivals generated traffic.

This prompted Amanda to leap into action and in response she wrote not one but two blog postings back to help a) convince me that traffic wasn't the only metric I should be judging the Blog Carnival on and b) writing a submission tips article to help me and other people submit to the Blog Carnivals easier and quicker.

Links to both are below:

Are Blog Carnivals Worth Your Time?

Down and Dirty Blog Carnival Submission Techniques

What a great responsive blogger Amanda is and a credit to the blogger community. She has a very good blog and I have added it to my RSS feed

But the moral to the story is that you never know what can happen when you leave a comment and start a conversation. Amanda is now promoting my blog and I have returned the favour.

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

If You Are Searching For Business Inspiration...

I have found a great list of articles and various resources which I thought you would appreciate.

107 Great Resources for Entrepreneurs on Catherine Lawson's blog which offers bold advice for entrepreneurs.

It looks like I have to work harder to try to make the next list but everything takes its time.

We have tasted success today

I received an email to say that one of the articles featured on the Business Coaching Blog had made it into:

Evan Carmichael's Top 50 Business Plan Posts of the Year - How To Write A Killer Business Plan

See the complete list - ours is at number 29 but then we are still "new upstarts"

This is a great honour as Evan's blog receives 260,000 monthly visitors so that is a few more than me.

Aaarghh.

I have to admit that the credit isn't mine.

I didn't write the article but my thanks go to my guest blogger Rob Warlow of Small Business Success.

So thank you again Rob and congratulations.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Business Opportunities & Ideas

This week's recommended business blog is Business Opportunities & Ideas written by John Crickett.

John has a similar coverage to me although with less emphasis on the Internet or the business development superstars that I feature.

It's interesting and thought provoking and I have it on RSS feed so I can see what's going on (subscribe to my RSS feed here) and I popped over and left a few comments yesterday.

One very highly rated post is the Top 100 Business Blogs.

This blog is missing but it has set down the challenge for the next time John decides to update it (I had only been writing this for six weeks when the article was published) and based on current Technorati rankings (and assuming that no one else has moved) I would be in top 100 but still some way from John's own ranking of 53.

I think I'd have ruled that some of the blogs above it weren't really business blogs, just to get in the top 50 (not an unreasonable thing to do if you look at some of them).

But if you want a good read of a wide range of business issues, then just pop over to the Business Opportunities & Ideas Blog.

Memo to self: I must work out how to do a blog-roll on Typepad.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Introducing SalesMarks

In my search to help you find interesting business development websites and blogs I would like to introduce you to SalesMarks™.

SalesMarks™ is about adding, sharing and discovering links to the best business-to-business sales ideas, sales tools, tips, articles, podcasts and video. All about selling. All conveniently in one place for you to explore.

It is free to join and if you find an article or posting that you like, you can add it to their lists and vote on the other items listed.

A couple of my articles are already featured so that is nice to see - No I didn't post them myself.

Someone else has been kind enough to recommend them. I am honoured that an accountant/marketer has been considered good enough to comment on sales.

Business Book Reviews

SPIN Selling Overview

As they has been so kind to give me some traffic, I think that it is only right that I return the favour.

I think that they have a great concept although they are much more specialised on sales issues than I am but SalesMarks is a wonderful place to look for sales and business growth based articles.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Are you making these 11 Common Sales & Selling Mistakes?

Internet Business Coaching Blog by Terry Dean

I try to keep a close eye on what is happening with the business coaching blogs around the world, partly to see which of my articles they pick up on and to make sure that they give me credit back.

Unfortunately with Google Alerts point me towards some rubbish but one blog that I know that I can rely on to give me something interesting to think about is Internet Business Coaching by Terry Dean.

Now I haven't yet mastered how to put together a blog-roll on Typepad (if anyone has any tips then please leave a comment at the bottom) so Terry will have to make do with this article back to his blog.

Are Terry and I competitors?

Well I suppose we are in a way although I think we have more in common, one of which is that we like to be photographed with our dogs.

This is me by the way and not Terry, to see him and his dog you'll have to pop over to his blog but this is the picture I use on my Ecademy and Facebook profiles (not sure why it is so small here) and the beautiful dog is Gina, my Italian Spinone.

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

The Foundation Of Coaching

Would you like to know more about the different forms of coaching?

If so I can recommend that you take a look at The Foundation Of Coaching website.

It is a nonprofit, noncommercial, independent resource for coaching research, education, practice and communication.

It features executive coaching, life coaching and business coaching.

It is always nice to receive professional recognition and I'm delighted that they like this blog and it features regularly in their chronicle of coaching which features the best articles and blog postings they can find.

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Is This The Best Business Blog?

I am working hard to build a great resource for you and other small businesses here at the Business Coaching Blog but is this the best business blog or the best marketing blog?

You have a chance to vote for me, or anyone else at Bloggers Choice Awards.

I fear that this is a question like "who has the prettiest wife?" because we all think we do. Hopefully someone will vote for me and it is a chance for you to find some other great business blogs.

There are just over 17,000 blogs submitted in a wide variety of categories at the moment so it's an interesting site to go and browse and while you are there, just give me a vote...please.

Vote for The Business Coaching Blog - best business blog or best marketing blog.

I'm not going to win because the blog is still very small compared to where I want to take it but a good showing will spur me on to bigger and better things for 2008.

And that can only be good for you because I will bring more resources and be able to spend more time developing the Business Coaching Blog.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs - Rich Schefren's Blog

If you are interested in developing your Internet marketing and I mean really interested, then do yourself a favour and take a look at Rich Schefren's Blog.

In this morning's email I received a great diagram and mind-map of his Attention Age Doctrine.

As a visual person, I love diagrams and Rich comes up with some crackers.

You know the problem.

I know the problem.

But what is the best way to respond to Information Overload so that you can still get your marketing message heard above the clutter and noise of the system.

Marketers fight for your attention but with all the time pressures and distractions of living in the 21st century, your attention is one of the most precious things you have.

Your success depends on being able to focus on what really matters. Being able to concentrate on the important issues that will bring you outstanding results.

Of course, you could just rely on The Business Coaching Blog to bring you business development advice (and I hope that you have signed up to my newsletter, the RSS stream or added The Business Coaching Blog to your favourites). You can see that I deliver on my aim to bring you the best of the best.

Unfortunately as the diagram shows, where we have ended up was inevitable given the primary drivers of the problem:

1. Entertainment options increase so mass marketing decreases
      
2. The Internet explosion
      
3. The personal computer revolution
      
4. Technology explosion.

As Rich says "All the rules for business growth, marketing effectiveness and personal performance have changed."

Click on the link if you would like to read the full report "The Attention Age." It is on the list for a detailed review.

I recommend that you become familiar with Rich Schefren and a great place to start is with his blog.

To Your Success
Your Profit Coach, Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Sales Gravy Nation

Here's an interesting website/blog for any sales professional (or even reluctant sales person) to take a good look at.

It's called Sales Gravy and it's a networking/training site created by Jeb Blount, author of PowerPrinciples.

I haven't read the book yet but I do like the website. The blogs are building up quickly into a large list of articles that will help you to increase your sales effectiveness.

Just click over and take a look. It is free to join as a member.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs