Archive for May, 2011

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-05-27

Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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The Cheryl Cole Connection…

Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 1:40 pm  
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Cheryl Cole has been dropped from the US version of X Factor because the shows’ bosses don’t feel she connects with the US audience.

Apparently our friends over the pond have trouble understanding Ms Coles’ Newcastle accent and because she’s not as high profile in the States as she is in the UK she doesn’t draw a big enough crowd.

It just goes to show how important it is to know your audience doesn’t it! It doesn’t matter how perfectly preened you are, how many number one hits you’ve got under your belt or even if you have a proven track record doing exactly the same thing with a different audience – if you don’t connect with the audience that’s in front of you TODAY, use words they understand, language that engages them – they’re not going to buy into you… or from you!

What steps are you taking to make sure you REALLY know your customers? Who are they? What matters to them? Where will you find them? How should you approach them in order to establish and build a strong relationship?

Do you know the answers to these questions? Because if you don’t your business is probably missing out BIG TIME!

If you ARE communicating with your customers in a personal and relevant way I’d like to hear from you. How do you make sure this is the case? Leave me a comment below.

It’s the end of the world!!

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 12:20 pm  
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Well actually… apparently they got the date wrong so we’ve got a few more months left yet…

According to Harold Camping (pictured here) the exact date of our demise has now been postponed until the 21st October but I promise you – you won’t find me wasting a moment waiting for the worst to happen. Not a chance! I’ll be much too busy planning for a great future that extends way past the autumn!

I believe we create our own luck. If you want to live the life of your dreams then you can and similarly, if you want to spend all your time worrying and moaning and waiting for something terrible to happen – well that’s down to you too.

Many people who believed what Camping said about the world ending on 21st May gave up everything in order to sit there waiting for the end to come! Some spent their entire life savings (many on publicising the fact that ‘the end was nigh’ on large billboards!), they quit their jobs and gave up living their lives only to find that we were all still here on the morning of the 22nd!

Whatever your beliefs might be about the world we live in, what good can possibly come from expecting the worst? Seriously?

Why not spend your time focusing on doing the things that will create a fantastic future for yourself and your family and enjoying the journey while you’re at it? Isn’t that a healthier way to focus your energy?

I’ve got to tell you – if the world were to end tomorrow, I’d be content in the knowledge that I’d had a great time with my nearest and dearest living life to the full!

How about you?

Are you spending your time expecting bad things to happen in your life and in your business? Or are you taking positive steps towards creating your own idea of ‘heaven’?

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-05-20

Friday, May 20th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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What Baseball can teach us about business

Friday, May 20th, 2011 at 10:18 am  
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I’ve just read an article on the Guardian website about the story of Rob Summers, a Baseball champ who was hit by a speeding car in Oregon 3 years ago.

The car smashed hard into his legs and left him paralysed. Summers was told there was no hope that he would ever walk again and that he should ‘just give up’. They said the absolute best possible outcome would be that he’d have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Well, guess what? Summers is now making history as the first person paralysed from the chest down to stand up and take a step without assistance! Isn’t that fantastic?

In order to make this happen he’s has had to work really hard for 2 years, training his legs to be able to take his weight again AND his mind to keep on believing and moving forwards. Can you imagine committing yourself to something every day for 2 years when you’ve been told by ‘the experts’ it’s impossible?

Summers isn’t planning to stop there either. Oh no. He’s got plans to run and play baseball again one day! It just goes to show, if your head is in the right place you can achieve anything, regardless of what others believe or say!

I thought this was a great story to share with you because, I’m sure we’ve all had days when we felt like giving up. But Rob Summers is a fantastic example of what you can achieve if you dedicate yourself to doing whatever needs to be done to get yourself where you want to be.

So, next time someone asks you when you’re going to ‘get a proper job’ or tells you that these are bad times for business owners and you notice that little voice in the back of your mind piping up to tell you you don’t have a chance in hell of ever becoming super successful – just think about Rob Summers and carry on!

What are YOU doing TODAY to work towards where you want to be?

That’s not a rhetorical question by the way, I want to know what you’re focusing on right now to move your business forwards so leave me a comment below to let me know!

Thinking Big, Twitter Style…

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 12:50 pm  
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Twitter turns five this week (Happy Birthday Twitter!) but apparently the real ‘first tweet’ was sent 10 years ago, before Twitter even existed!

It would be hard to miss the one that’s doing the rounds today containing the first ‘official tweet’ that was posted by the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. It said very simply ‘Inviting co-workers.

But apparently this isn’t actually the first real tweet at all. That happened a whole 5 years earlier according to this article on the Telegraph website by Emma Barnett!

Dorsey actually wrote some code for his Blackberry and created an email list of friends. He then ‘tweeted’ them when he was at Golden Gate Bison Park saying: “I am at the bison park”.

So there you have it. Nothing particularly exciting but that’s where it all began. Today, 10 years later as Twitter celebrates it’s 5th birthday and one billion tweets are posted every week by people of all walks of life from mums to Entrepreneurs, tv celebrities to the Queen all using it to let the world know what they’re doing on a daily (or more frequent) basis!

It just goes to show what you can do with the right idea, the right mindset and the right tools! Imagine how Jack Dorsey must feel when he looks at that message today, now that Twitter has grown into the giant it has!

After spending some time with over 200 members of the Entrepreneurs Circle who came along for the ‘Thinking Big’ event yesterday (and Sunday evening) I wanted to share this story with you.

It’s further proof that you can do incredible things with the right idea, even if it’s just a single message sent out to a few friends to let them know what you’re doing – you can take things as far as you like as long as your head is in the right place and you’re making all the right things happen!

What are you doing right now to take your business to new heights? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

It would also be great to hear your feedback on the Thinking Big event if you were there with us by the way – just leave a comment below.

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-05-13

Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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Sarah Cressall is May’s Entrepreneur of the Month!

Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 11:17 am  
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Us British are notoriously bad at shouting about our own achievements but it’s important that we do. Not just in order to gain valuable recognition, feedback and support from our peers which helps us in continuing to move forwards but also because it inspires others to follow our lead and strive to attain their own goals!

That’s why every month we make a point of honouring one Entrepreneurs Circle member that’s making great things happen in their business by awarding them with the prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Month Award”. Until now we’ve only featured the Entrepreneur of the Month in the circular but we thought it would be great to include them here on the blog too!

This month’s winner is Sarah Cressall who runs a business called The Creation Station. Sarah is a very inspirational lady who is doing fantastic things with her business.

When Sarah first set up The Creation Station in 2002 she set out hoping to be able to do something that would fit in around her children which would be fun and that would earn her a decent income at the same time.

The inspiration for the business came from having 3 boys to keep occupied! Sarah had to come up with creative ways to keep them busy but she found it hard to enjoy the activities with them because she was too busy getting everything out, washing up and trying to get them clean before they charged through the house. She realised that this must be an issue many other parents also faced and she set about creating an experience for children and their parents or carers that wasn’t quite like anything else available.

Her aim was to inspire children’s natural creativity at an early age in a safe and nurturing environment with the involvement of the parent or carer; not only was it great for children’s development but it was really good fun to do this creative stuff with a child, especially when the ‘mess’ was not an issue, and all the planning and clearing up was done for you.

A few years down the line and Sarah is now the proud owner of the UK’s number one creative children’s franchise which has so far helped over 30 other mothers to achieve the perfect work / life balance too! The Creation Station has now been enjoyed by thousands of children and their parents all over the UK and they are set to keep on growing!

In the last few months Sarah has been faced with a number of challenges that would have left many business owners crumbling under the pressure. Both of the main suppliers of her arts and crafts materials went bust, Sarah tried to buy both of them but for various reasons it wasn’t appropriate. In essence she was left with no supplier for 80 products she needed in order to be able to deliver The Creation Station activities – obviously a big problem.

Another challenge was that Sarah’s Franchisee Manager was soon to be moving on so she would need to be replaced. Whenever a member of your team leaves, no matter what the circumstances are, there is a period of upheaval which is rarely easy to deal with.

An old health problem which had prevented Sarah from walking for a few years in the past also returned which has been an additional challenge for her to face too but Sarah rarely let’s anything get in her way which you’re about to find out!

In February Sarah was looking at her figures because she was applying for (another) award (Sarah was voted Business Woman of the Year 2009) and she realised that it didn’t look like she was going to double her turnover this year which is something she had done for the previous 3 years running.

Despite the challenges she was having, Sarah decided that for ‘a bit of fun’ she would see if she could double the turnover in the 6 weeks she had left to do it in…

Fast forward a few weeks and she’s only gone and done it again!

In fact, not only has Sarah doubled her business once again(!) but she’s also begun implementing a social media strategy which she is in the process of rolling out to all her franchisees AND she’s moved into a new premises with a warehouse (before the issues with her suppliers she wasn’t going to be doing this for at least another 18 months). This allows her to carry her own stock and ensure she has greater control of this area of her business. She’s found a new supplier in China too and she’s launched her new online Shop selling arts and crafts materials.

She’s also now interviewing for a Dream Catcher (Sarah’s version of a Sales Manager) and a Network Manager (suggestions for a funky job title welcome).

Sarah has a great saying “You can either look at things as challenges or opportunities” and she’s absolutely right. Where others would have crumbled under the pressure she was facing, Sarah only saw the opportunities, stayed positive and came out smelling of roses!

Well done Sarah! Oh, and to top it all off she’s just been shortlisted for the Extraordinary Woman Awards too and if anyone deserves that title I think you’ll agree it’s our very own Ms Cressall!

If you’d like to visit Sarah’s website you can do so here www.thecreationstation.co.uk

If you are an Entrepreneurs Circle member who is making S*** happen get in touch and tell us what you’ve achieved!

If you know other Members that deserve recognition but are shying away from the limelight this is your chance to let us know about them!

Every Member is in with a shot at scooping this award – we’re not just looking for big companies who are generating super sized profits right now. Winners could also be someone who’s picked up and implemented a nugget or two from a live event, NBTV, the circulars or one of the webinars in the Vault! If it’s made a difference in your business we want to know about it.

If you’d like to enter yourself or someone else simply pop an email over to Nigel at nigel@thebestof.co.uk and let me know what you’ve done in your business that makes you / them worthy of this prestigious prize!

Winners receive a bottle of ‘Botty Bubbly’ a signed and framed Award Certificate, a session with a professional photographer, Maximum Exposure and possibly a bit of media coverage too.

Has Sarah’s story inspired you? If it has, please leave a comment below to let her know!

Business Nightmares!

Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 10:06 am  
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Here’s an interesting article I found on the BBC website today detailing some tricky situations big businesses have found themselves in (and how they overcame them) which will be shared with us in more detail for a new BBC Two series called ‘Business Nightmares’ presented by Evan Davis.

The series starts tonight at 8pm and I’d suggest it might be worth watching.

As business owners ourselves we’re all constantly looking for ways to improve our services or products and to make more profit but ‘Business Nightmares’ will highlight the fact that sometimes, changing an existing product can have catastrophic consequences. Even the most established businesses and brands can get this very, very wrong!

Evan Davis will be taking us through some extreme examples provided by Persil, Coca-Cola and the British Motor Corporation for the series – might be worth a look.

I’d love to hear your comments on the article once you’ve read it (which you can do by clicking here) so please share your thoughts with me below. I’d be really interested to hear from you.

Twitter – Weekly Updates for 2011-05-06

Friday, May 6th, 2011 at 8:15 pm  
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