Bizbuzz blogs

Make your income stream more robust

Heather Douglas — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 12:00:00 +0000

One of the issues for self-employed people is the way income can fluctuate quite markedly. It's often referred to the feast-or-famine effect.

While it's just part of running one's own business, it can be pretty frustrating not knowing how much money is going to be coming in, or at least not being able to count on at least a portion of it being steady and reliable.

There are ways to help overcome this, though. Most business owners can't entirely wipe out the ups and downs in their income cycle, but many can at least make the undulations swing less wildly and create a predictable "foundation" of revenue. If you can achieve that, then bad months are not as nerve-wracking, and good ones can be a real boon.

I'll illustrate this using an example of a friend, Sally, who owns her own little gardening business.

Now Sally got into gardening (some would call it garden landscaping but she's a real wellies-on type and baulks at the idea of a fancy title) because she's always loved pottering around and when friends offered to pay her to help them sort out their back (and front) yards, she not only loved the work but enjoyed having a bit of pocket money to spend on herself. When her marriage foundered, though, she asked me to help her turn her hobby business into something which could support her more effectively.

We decided one of the most important things was for Sally to create a baseline revenue stream which was regular and predictable, which she could grow over time. Instead of just selling her time on an ad-hoc basis, Sally and I worked out several "gardening packages" she could offer. They boiled down to roughly:

Monthly: regular weeding and minor tidying
Quarterly: planting seasonal annuals, minor seasonal tidying
6-monthly: mulching, pruning and major tidying
Annual: planting new perennials, repotting, major tidying

Now, Sally could sign up clients for any of these regular services, and as she billed monthly, she would have income coming in on a far less ad hoc basis. Not only that, but by also designing some attractive vouchers, she made her packages suitable for gift-giving - and the local garden centre through which she sourced the majority of her supplies was more than happy to display these, as well as her brochure, at their checkout.

Sally soon had a regular clientele. But she's been smart about the packages, too, as she'd made sure each one did not exclude the others. It was not too hard to upsell a "weeding" customer to a quarterly one, or to get someone to commit to a 6-monthly package and find not long after they were asking about some of the other options. Of course, she offered a couple of additional options:

A discounted all-in-one package which included all the services
A one-off consultation and design service, which was a great introduction for customers wanting to redo their gardens and often lead to selling one or more of the packages, but could also be offered to existing package clients who wanted not only to maintain or upgrade their gardens.

Finally, Sally also spoke to a couple of other business owners she had met through networking. She arranged with a handyman to refer business his way and he would do the same for her. Sometimes she even sub-contracted to him, depending on what the job entailed. She did the same with an arborist. She found out many people did their gardens up just before selling or after buying a house, so she also got some friendly local real estate agents on board. Oh - and she rewards client loyalty with vouchers to spend at the local nursery I mentioned above.

Sally has built her little business up quite nicely by packaging her services, and is finding her income a lot more regular. She still takes on ad hoc work when she has the time available (often converting this customer to a new regular client). She still has fluctuations in her income but there's a good chunk of it she can count on - and the best of all is she has a great win-win relationship with her customers and a small network of associates.

Many other service businesses can also package up their time in a similar way.

21 Apr 2017

Benefits of business credit checks

Ashley Bryan — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 06:13:09 +0000

In the modern business world, making quick, smart business decisions ensures that you stay ahead of the competition. But making the right decisions can be quite difficult when you don’t have the right kind of information at hand. Credit-checking businesses of interest ensures that you have accurate financial information on the businesses you are transacting with to help you make sound financial decisions.

Conducting a business credit check on a new customer can provide vital information on their debt payment history that will help you avoid making financial mistakes. Big businesses and banks have been doing this for a long time with their customers to ensure that they are paid back the money they give out either in cash or tied to goods and services provided.

Here are ways in which you can benefit from business credit checks:

Knowing your customer.
It’s a good idea to find out some information about the company you are planning to do business with before getting into a business relationship with them. Conducting a credit check will help you fill some of the blanks while giving you an understanding of what kind of company you are dealing with and their current credit situation. And since it’s important that you get paid your due after providing goods or services on credit, credit checking will help you increase the chances of that happening.
Risk reduction.
It’s always a risk selling products on credit, but it’s something we can’t avoid as most transactions between businesses are carried out under these terms. Since it can’t be avoided, if you want to make your business competitive, the best you can do is minimise the risk of bad debts. Credit checking gives you a clear picture of your would-be debtors’ ability to pay and to do so on time. A company might look healthy on the surface but in reality could be in crippling debt which would affect their ability to pay you.
Improving cash flow.
Maintaining a positive cash flow is all about forecasting and proper planning. By checking a customer’s credit score before selling to them on credit, you will be able to determine (with significant accuracy) the ability of your debtor to pay you on time. This way you can budget properly and control spending to ensure that your business has adequate liquidity to meet day to day financial needs as you await payment.
Identifying opportunities.
Credit checking is not only limited to looking for negative things, it can also be used to find good things as well. With credit checks, you can find out whether a customer can take out more credit and still be able to pay comfortably. This way you can create incentives such as bulk discounts to encourage low-risk customers to buy more from you helping your business grow and forge stronger relationships with its customers.
Avoiding fraud.
Where money is involved, there’s bound to be some unscrupulous people looking for shortcuts to get it. Conducting a credit check on a potential customer helps you establish their legitimacy and avoid handing out your goods or services to con artists or making wrong deals.

In addition to credit checking new customers, old customers should also be checked regularly to keep yourself abreast with their changing financial circumstances.

23 Mar 2017

Are you in-between winning and losing in business?

Mark Sutherland — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Are you in-between winning and losing in business? Are you an in-betweener? In-between good and great; in-between stagnating and growth; in-between walking and running; in-between not making a decision and making a decision.

When I was coaching international athletes the very worst place was 2nd or 1st loser. It was gutting not to get the gold. When you have had a taste you want more.

In business the worst place to be is in-between. In my experience so many businesses and so many business owners are stuck in-between not achieving their business goals and achieving them. They haven't yet found the tipping point or reached the tipping point. They just keep on hoping it will show up.

So how do you move away from the in-between acid bath? The answer to this is a one word answer - DECIDE! Decide that you want to move forward and then get on with it. The single greatest mental blockage is the ability to decide. Too many people are scared to make a decision because they want certainty that what they decide will work. In fact they carry out a self-fulfilling prophecy because when they make a decision they immediately go to the negative about the outcome. Typical negative thoughts are - it will be too hard, cost too much, haven't got enough resources, to many other people are doing it, my staff won’t buy in, a meteor will hit the earth or a flying pig will land on my head and kill me.

The in-betweeners dilemma - to go forward or stay behind or make myself a nice little comfort zone in the middle. As a peak performance coach there is only one answer 'decide to go forward and stop being an in-betweener'!

HOW can you go forward? 5 little words!

Clarity - be clear about what you want to move forward to and visualise this.

Specificity - write down the specifics of what you see in your mind as you go forward including the positive things that will happen to you.

Capability - value your own personal capabilities and then decide on what other capabilities you need to source through coaches, contractors and specialists. Everything is out there, you just need to identify it and ask for it. Sure it might cost you money but that is what budgets and forecasts are for.

Simplicity - whatever you do make sure it is simple - no sophistication or complexity. The basics work. Keep in mind that 'excellence is doing the basics better than before everyday all day in every way'.

Discipline - there is no escaping this one and ultimately this is the one that can trip you up. Discipline means staying on task - or being a disciple to the plan. To stay disciplined ask this question regularly - "is what I am doing a return on investment activity or a distraction?" If it is a distraction get more disciplined and stay on task.

Set your plan and follow it. NO MORE IN-BETWEEN - Peak Performers are never in-between they are always moving forward, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast but they never stagnate - they make decisions and then get to work.

14 Mar 2017

5 SEO lessons learnt from 2016

Ashley Bryan — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:49:30 +0000

Now that 2016 is over and 2017 is here, it’s a great time to look back at the previous year for SEO lessons that can be applied this year to help improve our SEO strategies. Whether your SEO efforts were successful last year or mired in setbacks, putting together a strategy early for this year using lessons from the past one will help ensure continued success or a resurgence from last year’s slump.

They say it’s only by looking at the past that you can predict the future, so here are 5 important SEO lessons we learnt from 2016 that will help you create effective strategies for the future:

SEO is not dead. Several years back, a lot of people had declared SEO to be dead, a notion that has been proven false in subsequent years including the last one. A study by Borell Associates estimated that companies spent about $65 billion on SEO in 2016, a figure expected to hit the $79 billion mark by 2020. This data shows that not only is the industry well and healthy, but also growing at a high rate. As the industry grows and users, as well as search engines, continue evolving, the amount of specialisation in the industry will continue to increase with more knowledge, data, experience and tools being required to maintain an upper hand. Continuous skills improvement will be necessary to thrive in the growing industry.
Mobile compatibility is crucial. With the number of mobile search queries increasing with every passing day, Google is working to establish itself as the best engine for mobile search. This saw the introduction of mobile-first indexing last year – a feature that will see a site’s mobile site considered to be the default version when ranking, instead of the desktop version. This means that optimising for mobile in 2017 is essential to getting a good ranking.
Artificial intelligence is taking over. 2016 has seen the establishment of RankBrain, Google’s machine-learning AI system as one of the top three ranking signals for Google’s search algorithm. This is meant to improve the quality of results for user queries. SEOs will need to understand how Google uses this AI and create quality content that can be interpreted by the tool for SEO success in 2017.
Google is continuously shaking up things. Google is continuously making tweaks and updates to its algorithm for improved customer experience. Estimates put the number of tweaks each year at around five hundred with most of them being small changes. But every so often we do see major updates that have huge repercussions. Last year’s major updates included the Mobile-Friendliness Update, Penguin 4.0, ‘Possum’, and Divided Index. Same as previous years, we can expect to see more updates from Google. Quick adjustment to these updates will ensure you remain ahead of the curve and achieve a good ranking.
Content still matters. Quality content was a crucial part of SEO last year a trend that will continue as search algorithms get better at identifying up-to-date content with relevant information. With search engines focusing more on the actual content rather than its optimisation, it would be wise to create engaging content geared towards the reader rather than the search engine.

Although predicting the future with 100% accuracy is impossible, by looking at the past we can be able to predict with a significant amount of accuracy the general direction the industry is headed.

24 Feb 2017

Your Shipping Container Office: 5 Benefits

Ashley Bryan — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 11:00:00 +0000

An office is arguably the most important facility for any business. It acts as the nerve centre of the entire operation as well as the connecting link between the business and its customers and stakeholders. Although crucial to the business, finding dedicated office space for your company can be an expensive affair.

It is because of this prohibitive cost of leasing or building traditional office spaces that people are now looking for more cost-effective alternatives; one of which is the shipping container.

Containers have for long been converted into structures for use outside of shipping, with the trend now growing rapidly due to high construction costs. Here are five benefits that you’ll get when you construct your office using a shipping container:

Cost savings. Of course, this had to be the first reason I mentioned. When dealing with business infrastructure, cost is a major consideration and using a shipping container ensures that this is kept to a minimum. A cargo container office costs a fraction of what it would cost to build an office using traditional building materials. The low construction cost is attributable to the wide availability of sea containers around the world making it easy and affordable to acquire one. The final bill for the modification will, however, depend on the number of additions you want to be included with basic conversions only adding a small amount to the cost of purchasing the container.
Quick and easy construction. When building with shipping containers, most of the construction work is done off site. This makes setting up the container office on location a quick task that only involves delivering the pre-built office – and sometimes putting some final touches to it. Because of the reduced construction work, cargo container offices are ideal for on-site use in remote locations such as construction sites and mines where putting up traditional buildings would be difficult.
Easy relocation. Cargo container offices (because they are essentially cargo containers) can be easily moved from one location to another using existing container handling infrastructure. This makes the office ideal for businesses that keep relocating as it saves them the hassle of having to look for an office every time they move. For temporary operations, cargo container offices make it easy to pack up and move once the task at hand is complete.
Durability and ruggedness. Because they are designed to withstand rough handling and conditions during transit, these all-steel boxes are extremely hardy. This makes them very durable and extremely difficult to break into. They will, therefore, not only keep your business’s items safe from the elements but from theft too.
It’s a physical asset. Unlike a leased office space that you pay for and get nothing in return after your tenure, a cargo container office is actually your property that you can sell or reconvert to something else when you don’t need an office anymore.

In addition to these benefits, and perhaps more importantly, using a sea container (a used one) to construct your office is a way of upcycling which reduces wastage of resources. And in this age where everybody is concerned about the environment, using environmentally friendly materials to construct your office space could earn you some extra points with your customers.

10 Feb 2017

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5 Change Management Strategies As Your Business Grows

Ashley Bryan — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:30:31 +0000

As a business grows, quite a number of changes have to be made to position it strategically in the marketplace. And because most of us aren’t as receptive to change as we think we are, this can cause quite a bit of a problem. That’s because when not managed properly, change will result in disgruntled employees, low employee morale and reduced productivity.

It is, however, possible to navigate through major changes within a business successfully, but only if you use the right strategies. Here are five change management strategies that when employed will help smooth change implementation.

Involve your employees. The most effective strategy for change management is surprisingly simple: include your entire workforce from the beginning. The top-down approach does not work when managing change. Very often the Management Team becomes secretive and insular about changes, more so those related to restructuring and layoffs. Springing big changes on your employees at the last minute could elicit resentment, anger and non-cooperation. Involve your employees from the beginning, get their input and opinions on the current state of the business and how things can be changed to meet set goals. People are generally less resistant to change when it comes from them.
Convince your people that the change is necessary. After doing something the same way for some time, people get into routines which are difficult to get out of. For them to be willing to get out of this “comfort zone”, you will have to show them why it is necessary to change. Demonstrate to them the benefits of the changes being implemented. Remember to start with your top management as they need to embrace the change first so as to motivate and challenge junior employees to do the same.
Communicate. Don’t just communicate the change at the beginning then assume that all the employees are on board. Constant communication is necessary throughout the transition period to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Seek feedback from your workforce and actually use it to realign and adjust your approach if need be. Team meetings, short surveys, and company-wide webcasts are some of the ways you can ensure that information is being exchanged between you and your employees. Keeping everyone in the loop will help keep employee morale up while creating a sense of involvement.
Pay attention to the individual. The thing about change is that it’s not the organisation that changes, but rather the individuals in it. Focus on each person or department when implementing change instead of having an overall view of the entire business. Making the individual the centrepiece of change and assist them to work through their personal concerns for a smoother transition.
Adjust the culture. Evaluate the cultural landscape within your business to identify beliefs, perceptions, and behaviours that could undermine the change initiative. Once you have identified them, work on changing those that could impact change negatively and reinforce those that support the change effort.

Like all other processes, constant monitoring is required to ensure that setbacks are caught in time and adjustments made to keep the transition on course. If things aren’t going as planned, don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone with more experience who can offer a fresh perspective. You could also call in professional change management consultants to help your business navigate through change smoothly.

Although change is inevitable in business, it is how we manage it that determines whether the business comes out stronger or a shell of its former self.

31 Jan 2017

The changing face of SEO in 2017

Ashley Bryan — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 00:39:57 +0000

Search Engine Optimisation is always changing. What improves your ranking today might be the thing that lowers it tomorrow. It is for this reason that SEOs aren’t allowed to get comfy with their strategies, but rather keep adapting for continued success in 2017

In the SEO game, you need to constantly stay ahead of your opponents by adjusting your strategies before they get a chance to catch up. That is why it’s not too early to start planning for the coming year, and having an idea of where SEO is headed will definitely help out.

While some things might never change, like searching phrases in search engines, most things are changing, and you will need to address them if you want to stay on top. And it’s not just the search engines that are updating their algorithms, consumer behaviours and expectations are also changing, requiring marketers to continuously rethink their strategies.

So what should you be focussing on in 2017? Let’s take a look at how SEO will be changing in coming months.

1. Mobile search

The fact that 60% of all internet searches are now being done using mobile devices such as phones and tablets cannot be ignored. It’s obvious that increasingly more people are using their mobile devices to surf the web. In 2016 we have seen search engines (more specifically Google) put more pressure on site owners to improve their site’s mobile friendliness. The search engine has also made this a ranking signal.

You can expect mobile searches to continue increasing in 2017, which will see search engines putting more emphasis on mobile optimisation. So if you haven’t yet, mobile optimisation will be a must.

Google AMPs will play an important role in mobile optimisation in the coming year. If you haven’t heard of it, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages is a project that helps webmasters create web pages that load faster on mobile devices. We’ve already seen Google favouring “AMP-ed” sites in search results – something that we could see more of in coming months.

2. Voice search

Siri might not have been the first voice-activated personal assistant, but her success started a new revolution in the area of intelligent personal assistants. Now we have Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. And instead of typing some awkward phrases into a search box, people are asking their assistants questions in natural language.

This change has spilled over to search engine algorithms which has made natural search phrases more favoured. To stay on top in 2017, start creating content that responds to the questions that users would ask through voice search.

3. User experience

User experience has always been an important factor in SEO – to some extent at least. But Google has been pushing for improved user experience with the introduction of AMPs and Google's inclusion of site speed as a ranking signal.

In the coming year, optimise your site internally so that it’s faster, use a faster server and consider how design aspects you add to the site will impact on speed.

Google will also be targeting interstitials in 2017 as a way of improving the user experience on mobile devices. These pop-ups sometimes cover the majority of the screen making it difficult for users to access web content. Ensure your interstitials meet Google’s acceptable standards, or you’ll be penalised.

Still on user experience, Google wants to direct its users to sites that will provide what they are looking for. A high bounce rate will, therefore, indicate to Google that your page is not relevant or valuable to the search query which may lower your ranking. Optimise your content for user engagement to avoid bounce rate signals.

4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Google has effectively created an ever-evolving algorithm with “RankBrain” – which contributes to the search engines results. Yet this is only one of the several filters the engine applies. The effects of these AI-bots will continue to be felt in 2017 and subsequent years.

One of the effects of machine learning is the decreasing the effectiveness of keywords over time. So if you have been heavily reliant on these for your SEO, you’ll need to change how you create content in the coming year.

Going forward, Google will become increasingly better at telling whether your content is useful for a particular search phrase regardless of whether you used the exact phrase or not. This is because as the algorithm evolves it will get better at understanding content on each site.

Content will still be king

Although we’ll see quite a bit of change in the world of SEO in the coming year, one thing you can be sure of is that quality content will remain king.

For a good ranking, Google only requires two things from your website – that it meets technical requirements, and it serves as a great resource. Keep this in mind when planning your SEO strategies for the coming year, and you should be fine.

28 Nov 2016

Invitation: Podcast with Heather Douglas from Bizbuzz

Heather Douglas — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 10:34:07 +0000

I recently agreed to be interviewed by Kiwi Mum Janine Ogg, co-host of the Get It Done Mum podcast. Janine has kindly invited me to share this with the Bizbuzz community.

This was a first on two fronts - my first podcast interview AND the first time I have shared the inside story of Biz Buzz on video, from its early beginnings in the days of dial-up to today, when we have over 40,000 members and a thriving online community.

In this interview I reveal how we have grown and monetised Bizbuzz as a free membership site, and why a genuine commitment to providing high value content to our members has been such an integral part of our success. Listen in to discover how we have built such a large following, how we keep the Bizbuzz audience engaged with our content, and what you need to think about if you want to monetise your own business, membership site or blog via advertising and sponsorship. In particular, we discuss:

How Bizbuzz and the home-based business industry have grown and developed since I started out 15 years ago (in the days of dial-up!)
My tips for building a free membership site with over 40 000 members, and how I have monetised Bizbuzz using advertising and sponsorship, in a way that feels authentic for me.
The different types of advertisements you can offer to monetise your blog or membership sites.
How to approach advertisers and sponsors, and talk money with them, while maintaining your integrity.
What advertisers and sponsors are looking for, and whether there is a tipping point where your business takes off and becomes highly attractive to sponsors.
My top 3 tips for attracting members to your community, as well as to connect in a meaningful way with individuals and businesses when you have a large community.

I also have a more personal chat with Janine at the end, sharing my experience of the different stages of being a mum working at home, from the early days of daycare and nappy changes right through to seeing your kids off to Uni! We also chat about the David Awards. Click here to listen in. I hope you enjoy it.

If you prefer to listen to the audio you can play the interview directly from your computer here. Alternatively, you can click here to read the interview show notes on the Get It Done Mum blog.

Let us know if you enjoy the podcast, we may team up with others to bring you more in future.

19 Aug 2016

In Business & Life We Strive For Excellence

Stuart Wills — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 09:04:43 +0000

As a Kiwi today it is easy to think of the manner in which many of my country people strive for excellence as I watch the Hurricanes on television and think of the Olympic team getting ready to compete. In Business We Strive For Excellence Most people go into business with the intention of being successful, but unfortunately most fail. We all know when we are winners. In business most people measure success in dollars - profits. There are plenty of people in business that would be deemed as successful and some of those would not have money or profits as a driving factor; however many business coaches and accountants would only ever measure success if you have profits to show for your efforts. As a mortgage broker success is extremely important as we are dealing with peoples lives and dreams. Contact us or follow our finance blog if you want winners on your team.In Sport There Is Only One WinnerI love the fact that sports people strive to win! There is a winner and the first loser and nobody wants to be anything but the winner.Of course in to days "PC" world there are the people that say participation is important, but they are the people that have generally never won much. This weekend the Wellington Hurricanes beat the South African Lions, so the Hurricanes won and the Lions didn't ... end of story! Of course both come to the game to strive for excellence, but there is only one winner.

07 Aug 2016

How a pool builder dug his company out of a hole

Colin Kennedy — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:31:59 +0000

Some people will be familiar with the story about how American Marcus Sheridan turned his swimming pool company around during the recession by cancelling his annual advertising spend of $250k to less than a tenth of that.

Instead of advertising, he turned to information blogging on his website, in particular answering people’s questions — even mentioning competitors (in a nice way) e.g. the best swimming pool builders in Richmond, Va.,.

He didn’t use social media, by the way, and we’re not recommending cancelling your advertising. Advertising done correctly, continues to be a very powerful and speedy way to engage your audience.

I’m still amazed at how few companies in New Zealand utilise this very simple tactic. There are gaping Mt Vesuvius sized holes in most industries, just waiting for a company to start populating their website with good, informative, helpful content.

I like to do a bit of woodwork. I guess I’m not a big buyer of timber, but collectively I bet we add up to a fair sized market in tools, timber and consumable. But do you think I could find plans for building an outdoor table and chairs that works in millimetres instead of inches?

I even tried UK websites, Australian websites and South African websites (all metric based countries that talk English). For example, I would search "build your own wooden outdoor table and chairs pocket holes site:.UK" (which excludes all sites except those from the UK). But even limiting searches to particular countries turned up nothing worthwhile.

In New Zealand, we have a national obsession with home renovations. The amount of information and product listings for "decking" is mind-boggling, but there's very little on what to do with that deck once you have it.

Some approaches to getting your content up and going include:

1. Provide plans and templates your customers can apply, using your products.

2. Answer your customer’s most common questions.

3. Tell them the pros and cons (honesty wins trust).

4. Provide tips and advice on how to do stuff.

One of the things Sheridan talks about is the price. It’s the one question all your customers want to know, but nobody every mentions it. Personally, I can’t think of a better way to qualify your prospects.

If you want to read the Marcus Sheridan story, you can find it here: New York Times

22 Jun 2016

You shouldn't forget about the end of the TAX period of submission of IRD returns - till July 07

Svetlana Strizheva — Mon, 30 May 2016 05:31:53 +0000

You shouldn't forget about the end of the TAX period of submission of returns - till July 07

There was the last month (June) for preparation and submission of annual tax returns. This month will be very important and saturated. There are some mistakes which taxpayers can make. One of them is not to be registered as the payer of GST.

If you receive more than 60 000 dollars a year - you have to be registered as the payer of this tax. If you work in several places and your total income more than 60 000 dollars a year - that registration is obligatory. If you forget - that the penalty will be very big.

30 May 2016

Why do you need to Hire an Employment Law Specialist?

Simon Meikle — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:54:25 +0000

An employment law specialist is what you will need if are an employee and your employer offered you a compromise agreement. You need to receive a legal guidance or advice from an employment law specialist so that you won’t be making any decisions you will regret and your employment law specialist will know how to handle these kinds of situations. It is significant to do it as it is one of the requirement for documents like that to be legally bounded and valid. This is exactly the reason why you need an employment law advice.

You need an expert legal advice from an employment law specialist on a compromise agreement because there might be legal clauses and terms you might not understand on your own. The specialist is task to comprehensively explain all the contents of the document to you in a manner that you will understand. Therefore, there will be no excuse for you not to comprehend what is in the compromise agreement. Every detail in the compromise agreement is important and you necessary have to understand each and every detail of it.

It is also the job of the employment law specialist to negotiate on your behalf if you are not comfortable or dissatisfied with the employer’s offer. You need to understand that before you sign a compromise agreement, you have to make sure that everything is crystal clear. If you are not agreeing with any terms in the agreement, seek advice on your hire employment law specialist for an advice. Now, if you want to sign the agreement, you will be making the agreement final.

The task of an employment law specialist does not end there. He/she is supposed to provide advice on how you could lay down a susceptible protection and how the compensation is adequate for you. The legal advice you will get from your hired specialist will entail the fairness and the attractiveness of the compromise agreement. These will include the job title, the salary, and the total number of years you have served the company, among others.

Another legal advice you can get from your employment law specialist is that he/she can help you with any possible claims that you may file against your employer. The law specialist is most capable of assessing and evaluating such claims. This way, there will be a clearer view on whether signing the document or filing a legal claim could be more beneficial.

If you are in need of an employment law specialist, Simon Meikle LL.M (Hons) – Barrister & Solicitor is here to help. Practicing since 1987, Simon specialises in employment law and also in relationship property. His office is located in the Wellington Central Business District. Simon will provide legal advice which is practical and timely.

09 Apr 2016

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You Won't Get a Larger Variety of Activities Anywhere but On Abel Tasman Tours

Stew Robertson — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:32:41 +0000

This may be the best place to camp in New Zealand. It's certainly the best place to tour when you're looking for a wide variety of outdoor activities. Visitors enjoy hiking through the woods, visiting the lovely beaches, fishing, and hunting, camping, biking, and even scuba diving.

Abel Tasman Tours Can Help You Stay Organized

When vacationing abroad, it can be difficult to find your way around. Many of the gorgeous sights to see are only known by locals. It's best to have one of them give you a tour of the area if you want the full experience. Tours are constantly being organized.

Those who go on organized tours often have a wider variety of experiences when visiting the park. They get scuba diving lessons, organized hikes through beautiful areas, and fun activities, like sailing, in the clear, blue water that surrounds the beaches.

Visit a Cave

A cave can be a dangerous place without a guide. It's also a pretty creepy place when you don't have someone who knows there way back leading the group. Many of the tours showcase the beautiful caves that fill the area. Abel Tasman tours are led by locals who know the area. They can explain the structures in the cave, and the best areas to explore in them.

A Waterfall

There are waterfalls throughout the area. These aren't marked on maps. It may be difficult to find them all on your own. A tour guide will be happy to lead the group to some beautiful waterfalls to gause upon. Some of the waterfalls even have areas that are safe for swimming.

No Dogs Aloud

It's important to remember that no dogs are allowed on this Island. The New Zealand government retains the right to have them put down if they are taken. Fires, like bond fires, are forbidden on the Island. This can cause serious damage to the wildlife, and vegetation of the area. This includes barbecues. An electric grill may be used.

It's Time to See What This Island Has To Offer

Enjoy one of the most beautiful beaches in the world by visiting Abel Tasman. You won't regret your stay in this paradise. It's time to see all that this Island has to offer. It's perfect for those who are fans of water. Enjoy the endless amount of activities that are available on a tour.

09 Apr 2016

Sharing your home with your business (and your significant others)

Heather Douglas — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 12:00:00 +0000

I've been self-employed and working from home for over twenty years.

In fact, I have become quite an expert at it.

You know what I mean - hanging the laundry before reading the emails, chucking a meal in the slow cooker when you take a quick lunch break, providing company for the dog when no-one else is around, and so on.

I love the flexibility of working from home. I love the independence of being self-employed. And I relish the efficiency of achieving goals for my business and my family in an environment that I enjoy and appreciate.

Over the years, I've juggled changing and feeding babies while writing proposals, spent time doing parent help in classrooms before dashing back to change into something more bisiness-oriented and head off to meetings, interrupted doing the GST to help with high school maths homework, worked late into the night when the rest of the family is snoring sweetly in their bedrooms and dropped late-running uni students off at bus stations before coming back home to tackle the business of growing a business.

But sometimes - just sometimes - I'd consider trading it all in for a nice corporate office far from the hue and cry of home life.

A place where an office is an office, a refuge from domesticity and people don't make the general assumption that work can take a back seat to their needs.

Where I'd get a fixed salary and actual annual leave - plus sick leave when I need it.

Where sick and miserable members of the family don't seek solace (and bandwidth) moping in my office. Where the place isn't overrun with noisy, hungry people the minute schools or universities are on holiday. Where dropping people to the ferry, picking up groceries, taking the dog to the vet, getting a plumber in to fix a leak or dealing with an appliance that's gone on strike isn't automatically my job just because I'm the one at home. And where the scissors stay in my desk drawer until I need to use them!

But then again, when it's a real emergency, it's a great advantage to be able to drop everything and deal with it, to be there when I'm really needed, and to juggle various responsibilities to fit everything in.

I am fortunate to manage my own work load, to put some things to one side and family first, to be my own boss and share my home with my work. But I am also always glad when I can wave everyone a cheery goodbye, close the front door, make myself a nice cup of tea and sit down at my desk knowing the house is all mine again - to be shared with my business, and only my business - for the whole day!

What are the highs and lows of working from home and/or being your own boss? I, for one, might grumble a bit, but I wouldn't change places for all the tea in China.

18 Jun 2015

Disaster management tips for small businesses after Wellington floods

Heather Douglas — Fri, 15 May 2015 04:51:59 +0000

Here are some useful suggestions for Wellington businesses currently facing a clean-up - but they would apply to most small businesses in many circumstances where a business experiences unexpected damage.

Karen Stevens, Insurance & Savings Ombudsman, advises residents affected by flooding in the wider Wellington region to call your insurance company before you start your clean up.

“We’ve seen many cases where people have cleaned up after a flood, thrown all the damaged items away, then had difficulty proving that the items were damaged," says Karen.

The Insurance & Savings Ombudsman Scheme has dealt with a number of flood related insurance complaints over the last 20 years. “We understand it’s a really difficult time and people are stressed, but by calling your insurance company as soon as possible, you could avoid problems later on. Don’t clean up before thinking about what you need to make your insurance claim.”

Karen says the recommended steps for people to take include:

1) Call your insurer before you start your clean up. Ask them what documentation they will need for your claim before you throw anything away. Ask your insurer to confirm this information in an email or letter.

2) Read your policy to ensure you know what you are and are not covered for.

3) Document the damage. We suggest taking photos or videos of your house and any damaged belongings.

4) Make lists of all the damaged items and take photos before you dispose of them.

15 May 2015

New Business Directory

Stuart Wills — Thu, 14 May 2015 03:46:18 +0000

With our business based in West Auckland and being involved in networking groups like BNI it made sense to set up a business directory where local businesses could get listed.

It is about locals doing business with locals.

So, if you are in Westgate or the surronding area's then get listed in this new directory today.

Here is the link: http://www.westgatedirectory.c...

Please remember this is new - it will be completed over the next 2-weeks.

14 May 2015

10 Rules For Successful Sales Calls

Sarah Lochead-MacMillan — Sun, 03 May 2015 23:21:39 +0000

As a small business owner you are often the top sales person in yoru company. You need a result every time nd need to maximise your sales approaches to prodcue the best results.

1. Do your homework

Anything you can do to learn about the person or people that you are meeting, the company, their products, their competition, and their customers can make a huge difference. It will help you understand how your product or service can fit into what they are trying to do. Remember it’s always addressing the whats in it for me (WIFM) that gets the sales across the line. Try Linkedin or facebook or Google+, also don’t forget looking up their own website and how you may be connected to them for some real inside information.

2. You and Your Offering

Do you know your stuff? Does your product and service do what you say it does? Its important tp have belief in yourself and your business. People can spot the fakers really quickly. Belief and knowing your stuff gives you the confidence to approach for sales.

Put your prospect at ease. You know what you do and you know how it helps – scripts DON’T work.

3. Manage your time

Do you know how long your prospect has to discuss this call? Have you checked? It is comon courtesy to do this and they feel respected and will be totally present in your call.

Often I have said, if I may have 15 minutes of your time to explain what I do? If you’d like to know more then, as long as you have time, we can continue. Is that okay with you? This often opens the conversation with more reluctant buyers. If you know your stuff and the benefit to them them often the appointment/call lasts longer.

4. Rapport

Building rapport quickly can make the meeting. If you found in your research that the person you're meeting was featured in a recent article or has a hobby or interest that you can relate to, ask them about it. Or just look around for information that could start a conversation--think about family pictures, sports memorabilia, awards.

People love to talk about themselves and this puts them at ease and iopens them up to more of what you are going to say.

5. WIFM

Why have you contacted them? Whats in it for them? How does what you are going to say align with their plans?

Have you set yourself a goal or outcome for the meeting? If not how will you know you have been successful? It could be the next step in the sales process, it could be an outright sale, it could simply be an agreement ot continue.

6. 2 Ears and 1 mouth

You are given these bits of your body in this proportion to understand that to effectively sell you need to understand your clients needs and wants. The ONLY way to do this (besdies research) is to ask questions and LISTEN to the answers. The respond to the asnwers NOT to your pitch.

7. Qualifying

Your questions should all the while qualify you rcustomer. How do they buy? What is their budget? What is their need? How are you adding value?

If you don't find out this information, you may lose the deal or have to follow up multiple times.

8. Presenting a Solution

While you were listening to the customer, you should have been thinking about how to adjust your presentation, so you have the best possible impact when presenting your solution.

When recapping on the sale refer back to their answers. Ensure they fit with what you are selling. Telling them what they told you will have them nodding in agreement. When they get down this “yes” path its difficult to then say no.

9. Asking for the Sale

So you’ve followed all the steps so far. Often business owners wonder why people don’t buy. Simply put its because they didn’t ask for the sale!

If there are more stages to the sales process then clarify then next step and book the next stage.

10. Follow Up, follow up again

One final thought: Be sure to follow up with your customer. It's that follow-through that can make all the difference. That's how a customer can really see your service in action.

Put the customer into your database, add them on Linkedin.

Make diary entries to remind yourself to do a follow up.

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This is also a great strategy once they have bought to keep them engaged and sellmore product to them with ease.

Want more help then conact me sarah@slmgroup.co.nz

04 May 2015

How To Drive Positive Cashflow Into Your Business Plan

Sandra Tibble — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 23:07:49 +0000

Hi there,

Where do you go to get financial assistance when you are in a small business?

The obvious is the bank, family, partnerships and other types of loans from the NZ Government.

Most of these options are local institutions that lend out money. Where does this money come from? You know the money that banks lend out? Another question needs to be asked to complete this broad topic I am sharing with you today "How to drive positive cashflow into your business plan", is are you getting money for your business outside of the business?

I don't know about you but I feel that there are more ways to raise start-up capital then traditional ways. Banks and lending institutions are great, happy to borrow and pay back the interest and charges and fees and the like. Happy to spend the time to do this too, and I am also happy to put in a business proposal to get it done. It is quite normal, and nevertheless you would probably need an accountant to do some cashflow forecasts and get a business coach or advisor to help you crunch the numbers and work the business based on many other factors.

I actually believe in multiple streams of income and legacy building. It does take a lot of knowledge to have financial competency, and although I was taught maths at school and eocnomics it did little for my future career as an entrepreneur.

Thankfully, I can look back and see how the Internet has created new opportunities for global communication with other business partnerships able to be made. The future is looking bright when you have more than one income source. Also, it is pertinent to keep your eye on what is happening in the world. Maybe, read about Megatrends over the next 10 decades. Despite what I have read here are my Megatrends, just try not to laugh too hard!

1. Smartphone technology will affect how we plan our advertising and marketing strategies. The yellow and black book is going to become obsolete in it's current form. We will need to be found online, especially on Facebook and Google and LinkedIn as places to start. Have you a digital plan to get started? Seek out people and companies you know like and trust to steer you in the right direction, within your budget.

2. Global Business Opportunities for Business Entrepreneurs

Worldwide communication that is fast via the internet means we can get involved in Global business. Global business opportunities must be met with customer demand, and must transcend the traditional barriers of distance. As more and more people flood onto the internet there are more opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs to grab their share of the consumerism online. Take for example, how I can market products and services to someone in the USA using the billions of dollars a year sales by the giant Amazon. Incidentally, there is a program that I am aware of where you can join for a small fee and start training and selling within one week. That is fast, and that is scary too. I have sold things like skateboards to the US market, children's moon chairs, nativity scene figurines, even games.

3. I believe that more people will see that there are more options than the traditional 9-5 despite the bad rap MLM has had for those of us who felt that Amway would lead us to riches. As a distributor the highest level I reached was 3%. Thank goodness that has all changed with the Internet. No more long drives to meet up with our sponsor, and weekend trips that cost a fortune for the petrol alone. Glad to leave that all behind. However, I am aware that now I would need to travel overseas to attend business functions, not that afraid of that idea, apart from the cost which is nothing when you consider rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers. Did you know that there are millions of websites online trying to sell you and I things that we probably don't need? Why is that? I believe it is because of Google search or Wikipedia and how fast we can find out where the best pair of sneakers to go on our feet are, and the cheapest store to get them to us.

4. The shocking statistic of 98% of people make no money online will decrease, not sure by how much but a ground swell is happening where the little guy and gal want their piece of the advertising revenue share, which require very little time and effort. This is a great way to investigate how to market online and without these skills you will struggle. I can and will help you with online business lead generation, not so much which business they are all fine, just know how to market their products and services will make you money.

5. Bitcoin or another crypto-currency will emerge as the new currency. Remember, these are my predictions. Why? Banks cannot access our money. Merchants like crypto-currencies as the fees as small. Money changes hands fast. There is a limitied supply and therefore the value stays in. A lot of giant companies already use Bitcoin, can't think of any right now, can you? The wild swings are not for the faint of heart and I can certainly recommend a place where the best chance for your success can be made. Just remember that there is always risk involved and try not to be too greedy, diversify to minimise your losses.

6. Natural resource protection and organic farming and horticulture for sustainable land, water and air quality must be paramount. For this very reason alone thinking Green will become more prevalent. Using other energy sources to help alleviate fossil fuels being stripped. You can go on a Virgin airways flight and they have a Green philosophy and use less fuel. Did you know that you can get involved in a lot of these new companies by knowing what is coming down the pyke? I can help you get the knowledge and the rest is up to you.

7. Work

Better pay parity for women as the knowledge or information age trudges forward. Brawn vs Brain is an old paradigm and I think it still has relevance today. Women have more access to the Internet to get on Amazon and sell their products. Not everyone is into doing that, but if the money is good men and women will realise their dreams of making more money online. Many have already, only sharing the money is becoming more popular between companies online and their affiliates. More people will utilise the Internet for work by having their own home business. You can still keep your day job until you feel you are making enough money and are diversified in your portfolio to leave it.

I can share some work at home opportunities that are working right now, do your due diligence and recognise I am not claiming to help you make money online. I am merely showing you what is possible for you. If making money online through an online business opportunity puts bread on your table and is legal why would you not consider it? For things to change you must change. Jim Rohn.

8. Advertising and Marketing

Companies selling advertising and marketing is big business, and the drivers are the Internet is in front of their customers. The smartphone is in front of their customers wherever the customer goes. Leaving home without the smartphone is a painful reminder to not forget it next time you head out the door. Local search is huge. Staying in touch with your customers need not cost an arm and a leg and SMS Text messaging will increase as more people open their text messages and fast, than those who read their emails. Social Media and Mobile will continue to gain market share as the costs are much lower to advertise, which brings in the small business owner who is looking to capitalise on these trends which are really here right now.

9. Financial Knowledge

Being able to become a part of a community of people who are able to take control by learning the best ways to make money for bills today, and retirement tomorrow. Living inside a job is not the best way to advance your financial knowledge.

10. Personal Development

With change comes the need to upgrade our brains. The knowledge is there and we just need to reach out and grab it. Jim Rohn has to be one of my favorites. The book Think and Grow Rich and the study of it has helped me, what has helped you?

That's my ten cents. Tell me what are you doing to protect your future wealth and leave a legacy? Are you a small business owner who does not have savings for retirement. Will you have to work over 65? All of these questions are something I ponder on and maybe you would too after reading my article, time is of the essence, get your life moving forward, be smart and learn all you can.

Sincerely

Sandra Tibble

International W3 Associates Limited

PS. If you have any comments or questions please do so, contact me and share with me your views.

+64 (0) 220676077

18 Dec 2014

Is Your Website Listed Page #1 On Google

Sandra Tibble — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 23:20:10 +0000

Hi there,

It's great to be able to write a blog today about whether or not your

business website is listed on the first page of Google.

The reality is that the Internet has changed the game forever.

Advertising has and always will be a key factor in whether or

not our small business will get more 'bums on seats' as in

business categories such as restaurants or hairdressers or

the local cafe.

Traditionally, that is prior to 1994 when the internet became

available for the average at home user, that was the beginning

of changes no one could imagine were possible.

The Internet became a new way to communicate by email,

it was fast and it was cheap, consider where the post office

service in New Zealand it today. In Gisborne, at least there

are less days for receiving mail delivered to your door.

Now we have the Internet to thank for advertising using

a website, not all smallf business owners have gone

and built a website. Back when the Internet started

most people believed it was a fad and would fade away.

It did not. Actually the Internet was embraced as a new

way to communicate, fast and that meant we were never

going back.

We can see a huge new world had opened up to us

with our own website (open for business around the

clock). Amazon and Google, Facebook and Twitter

became household names and words.

The yellow book (not standing on any trademark toes), has

had to evolve and fewer people use that book as most

people can see that the smartphone has changed their

lives. We can call people, we can go online and access

the Internet to do our shopping, find a local business we

would like to call and make an appointment for a service

like a haircut. Now, where do we search for such

information? Most people search using Google, it is

the number one search engine. Nothing else comes

close to it in terms of the numbers of searches. The

fact of the matter is Google has a huge library of

information at our fingertips. We access that information

daily, and the information is dynamic, it is added to daily

by articles, millions of blogs and websites, all because

of the millions of users online creating a huge ground

swell of traffic that we each can utilise with the right

marketing and advertising strategies.

That is why being listed on Google is so very important.

More people will see you there when they search on

Google. You would need to have an online presence

to be found. Whatever that may be, if you are not

found on a search engine how will the customer come

to your business. If you are not there on that first

page, chances are you will not be found!

You and I must position our small businesses to be

found, and that is found on the Google search engine

and found on the first page. Why? Not many search

past page one, the information is there so the

potential customer who in essence could be you and I

would be satisfied quickly.

If your small business is positioned for the explosion

in the purchase of smartphone use, we would know

that we really need to be aware that mobile is sneaking

up on us all.

I could go on and on, but I won't.

Instead I would ask you Is Your Website Listed Page #1 On Google?

Below I have left a few links you can click on to get the information

about the changes in the entire world with the advent and massive

growth and the speed of smartphone purchases. It is astronomical,

and if you do not have a website at the very least you should have

a business app. If you are looking to be able to take your small

business to the next step click here for details on how you can

be mobile ready. Also please leave your comments on whether

you have that service already and your recommendations for the

mobile service you have now. As a token of my appreciation you

can get your own free Mobile QR Codes here (ours work) :

=======================================

Free QR Codes for any web site and Free
Virtual Business Cards with QR Code

All FREE... ours work!

Details on why you need these now and
how to use QR Codes.

http://VirtualBusinessCards.mo...

=======================================

Talk soon.

Sandra Tibble

Owner / Director

International W3 Associates Limited

Mobile : 0220676077

PS. Articles and blogs that could interest you as to the benefits of

being found by a smartphone user.

http://media.nzherald.co.nz/we...

http://mobiledevices.about.com...

16 Dec 2014

The 3-Steps First Home Buyers Should Be Aware Of

Stuart Wills — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:28:05 +0000

We have written a new article on our Mortgage Link website.

This article might help you understand why the banks require information and make the decisions they do, but more importantly it might help you get your affairs in order and increase your chance of your home loan being approved.

Please share this post so other potential first home buyers can be informed too.

CLICK HERE

26 Nov 2014

Our ENQ Circle of Influence

Sandy Geyer — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:35:38 +0000

Those we surround ourselves with, within our business leadership roles, are our circles of influence. We need to be conscious about who they are, what they mean to us and why they are there.

Within the environment of entrepreneurship and business leadership, we deal with aspects of invention, ingenuity, risk, failure and successes along our journey. But these aspects do not define the nature of entrepreneurship; they are merely the props on the stage we are standing on. The definition of entrepreneurship for most of us will be more about why we are on the stage, which stage we want to be on, how big we want it to be, and how many others we will lead from our stage.

And who else is also on our stage, standing behind us or in the wings? Their presence is also critical to where we land, and the value and experience of our journey. When I started my own business, I was heavily influenced by a work colleague who sat me down one day and told me, “Sandy, the most important thing in life is to make stuff you money”. Well, this is the polite version, but I knew what he meant and being 23 years old and vulnerable to the bigger decisions being made around me that had considerable impact on my own life, I knew that what he really meant was that we had to be financially strong if we were really going to create our own choices. And he was right. In that same company, I had the privilege of attending an in depth course about effective leadership which gave me all the tools to focus my mind and control my thoughts to inspire the actions necessary towards where I wanted to go and most importantly, understand why I wanted to go there.

Early in my journey, when funds were tight, I read as many books as I could on personal development subjects to keep my energies and creativity up. In terms of my early years, these influences were my chosen circle of influence. There were many more who lobbied for positions, but were relegated to the outskirts of my circle as they were of the opinion that our business would never work, that it was more responsible to stay employed and that we were crazy to try.

And so we have to consciously select and often refresh our circle of influence as we grow as business leaders. We will outgrow some, whilst others remarkably stay with us no matter where we are on our own journey. Here are the common traits of those I have the privilege of having on my stage, in my circle of influence:

They will tell me what I need to know, not what I want or sometimes think that I need to hear
Their own lives are a reflection of their values and their beliefs. Whether or not they align with mine, they are authentic in theirs
They carry their own weight. Whilst we all need some help and comfort along the way, this is not a relationship based on need. It’s a relationship based on mutual encouragement and upliftment
They know different things to me and help me to see things with a fresh and enlightening perspective
They have my interests at heart. I know this because my doubts are always safe with them and, more importantly and uncommonly, so are my successes
Our relationship is authentic and respectful. By this I mean that they have no hidden agendas as to why they are interested in me. If it’s because they are offering me professional services, they are authentic in that. If it’s because they are my friend, they are authentic in that too and they mix the two respectfully when the lines blur, which often happens.

We also have different depths of circles of influence. These depths include: physical support, emotional support, intellectual support and gender support.

Whilst the EnQ Lion is genderless in terms of the approach to the tools and learning, there is no doubt that as a woman I do spend more time personally in amongst the pride than my male counterparts. Accordingly, I have a circle of influence, which is all about being the best version of myself as a woman business leader. At the end of each year, I like to publish something just for the ladies in recognition that sometimes we do things differently and simply deal with different things. This year, I am delighted to be hosting a webinar with five guest presenters, who form my circle of influence, to share their expertise with you.

Please join us for the 90 minute “Lioness Circle of Influence” webinar on Thursday, 11 December at 7.00pm NZ time, 8.00am South African Time and between 4.30pm and 5.00pm Australian time.

Our exciting line up of guest presenters include:

*Glenda Aitkenhead* is a colour and style specialist. Glenda began her career as a professional make up artist for two large international cosmetic companies. She went on to write training systems for another global cosmetic company and expanded her horizons into personal image and colour. She has been guiding her many women (and men) clients towards the confidence they didn’t know they had ever since. Glenda is a passionate and informative speaker on her subject of expertise.

"After a short session with Glenda I felt as if I had been let out of a box, - suddenly I had a lovely range of colours to choose from, suitable make up tips and a better understanding of styles. This has made such a difference to my confidence and my budget as I no longer buy all the wrong things. I wish I had known how easy this was years ag." Sheila Feller, Marketing Director

Glenda will be presenting on: “Colour me Confident”

For more information about Glenda:
glenda1@orcon.net.nz
021 054 6107

*Sonja Gardiner*, has spent many years nurturing her deep awareness and appreciation for the naturally nutritious building blocks of life. She left her career in Human Resources and Administration to formally study Nutritional Science to follow her passion for helping others live healthy lives infused with happiness.

“Through her thorough evaluation Sonja was able to identify some key areas for improvement, and provide me with easy actionable steps to reclaim my health. Her authenticity and genuine desire to see change is evident, and she makes the process easy and enjoyable." ~ Kirsten

Sonja will be presenting on: Adrenal Fatigue: How to avoid and recover from this 21st century epidemic

For more information about Sonja go to: www.sonjagardiner.com |https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sonja-Gardiner-Nutrition/693349310745104| https://plus.google.com/117572167619360802894 |http://www.pinterest.com/sgnutrition |https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonjagardiner

*Lana Potgieter* is a business owner, facilitator and executive coach.

Using the proven methodologies of Success Motivation International, Leadership Management International and neuroscience Lana has helped her clients achieve results in both their personal and business lives beyond their wildest dreams.

"There are no 'abracadabra's' in life that will take us to our 'treasures', but with the program that I followed with Lana, I've been given my 'road map'. My journey will not be fast, instead it will be steady. And be sure, I'll find my 'pot of gold!" ~ Theresa Styles Kha-Ching Retail Marketing Specialists

Lana will be presenting on: “How the Lioness Avoids Overwhelmed"

For more information about Lana go to: http://www.excelerate.co.za/www.LMI-world.com| https://www.facebook.com/ExcelerateConsulting |https://twitter.com/Lanasmile | https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3451122

*Julie Baines* is a qualified personal trainer and owner of One On One Fitness, specialising in women’s health, fitness and well-being. Julie is the epitome of her belief that in the fitness world “less is more”. Having just competed in the Wellington NABBA Figure Women’s over 40 years and won gold, this 48 year old mother of three educates her clients on how to include exercise in their busy lives and enjoy the process.

Julie’s will be presenting on: How to exercise smarter with the Julie Baines “Less is More” philosophy

"Before I started working with Julie Baines I described myself as allergic to exercise but I always leave my personal training sessions with Julie feeling energized, motivated and looking forward to the next time. I am also 27kgs lighter and I haven't finished yet!” ~ Hayley Kerr

For more information about Julie go to: www.oneononefitness.co.nz |https://www.facebook.com/pages/ONE-on-ONE-Fitness/565280873499943 |https://www.linkedin.com/pub/julie-baines/60/621/b24

*Letitia Buckle*, entrepreneur, Mum of three year-old twins and Director of Quintessential Concierge specialises in providing business support services to small businesses, large corporations and entrepreneurs.

With over 15 years experience in corporate, hospitality and public sector administration in New Zealand and the UK, Letitia’s passion is helping time poor business owners become more effective in managing their businesses

“Letitia is a delight to work with, efficient, accurate and the consummate professional." ~ Tania Witheford, Managing Director of Staah

Letitia will be presenting on: Why the Lioness needs a Personal Assistant

For more information about Letitia go to: www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz |https://www.facebook.com/QuintessentialConcierge |https://www.facebook.com/groups/quintessentialconciergesupport |https://twitter.com/QuinConcierge | https://www.linkedin.com/pub/letitia-buckle/18/112/577

*Sandy Geyer*, entrepreneur, author and professional speaker specialises in working with entrepreneurs to develop their Entrepreneurial Intelligence (EnQ). The CEO of an educational publishing company, a property investment company and the founder of two specialist international training practicers, she epitomises effective women leadership in business.

“It's as if Sandy’s been spying on me in my business, because she knows exactly what I'm going through. She is inspiring, insightful, informative and encouraging. I thank her for doing what she does and for being a compass in a sea of entrepreneurial how-to's.” ~ Abigail Klopper

Sandy will be hosting the webinar and presenting on: The traits of the lionesses in my circle of influence

The lioness Circle of Influence webinar is free, with the compliments of the season and best wishes for 2015 from EnQPractice. Please register for the webinar by clicking on this link:http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/10583/0e7b184ef1.

Whilst the presenters will be focusing on women in leadership, any men who are interested are most welcome to attend as the topics are all relevant. Please pass this invitation on to your friends and colleagues with our compliments. See you there!

“To succeed in business leadership as a woman, we have to get over ourselves and out of our own way. It’s not an easy thing to do when so much of who we are, what we stand for and what we look like is either ridiculed or blown completely out of proportion by those who can’t get over themselves.” ~ Sandy Geyer

05 Nov 2014

Time to re-engage your staff!

Sam Cherry — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Are you getting the most out of your employees??

I have always been surprised at the statistics surrounding the links between employee engagement and performance and retention. Put simply, unhappy employees cost you money. Employee engagement is an employee’s emotional commitment to the organisation and its goals. This is achieved by creating an environment in which your staff offers more of their abilities and potential than they usually would.

“Because I pay them” is no longer the answer to why your staff should produce quality work for you. Team members need to feel some sort of ownership over their role and the firm as a whole. Sure, a pay packet is usually enough to get staff to complete what is written on their job description to a passable standard, but for a small investment you can make a few changes to get that extra 20 percent of productivity out of your staff. This is where the real benefit lies.

Hold on! There is no reason to walk around the office dishing out pay rises and channeling your inner ‘Mother Theresa’. However, there are a few points of interest that may just make your business simpler to run and more profitable in the long run, simply by increasing the engagement of your staff.

Small things can increase engagement, like replacing aged equipment and solving technology problems to achieve modern and efficient systems. This allows your staff’s day-to-day tasks to move from a cause of frustration to a point of difference. This doesn’t only have engagement implications; it also helps at the other end of the process by making your business more competitive in recruitment. This is important as the majority of business owners I have spoken to have “attracting quality talent” somewhere near the top of their list of challenges their business faces.

However, if you’re still unconvinced that keeping your team engaged is a priority then remember that engagement is one of the major factors in employee retention. In many of the cases I have witnessed, retention problems have come down to team members feeling unconnected to the organisation, rather than straight monetary factors. From a business’s point of view the cost and stress of recruiting and training new employees is reason enough to move engagement up your to-do list.

Absenteeism is also closely tied with employee engagement. The happier and more engaged your staff, the less ‘sick days’ they take. We’ve all had that moment first thing in the morning when we’re not quite 100 percent. Do we make the trip into work? Or, do we go back to bed? It’s not surprising that engaged employees are far more likely to make the effort to come into the office than those who are unengaged.

Communication is often a point of contention amongst unengaged staff. What we need to understand is that clear, consistent and regular communication is one of the easiest ways to give staff some sort of ownership of their role and the company. This does not mean you need to be informing staff of all your strategic decisions, or let them know about all the inner workings of your business. However, there are engagement benefits to be made by simply keeping staff up to date with information that affects them.

There is no silver bullet around the best way to keep staff engaged. In all honesty, it’s as unique as it comes. Here at RightWay we offer flexibility, progression and technology, among other factors, as major engagement builders for our team. On top of this, by offering staff the opportunity to work autonomously, we empower them to make their own decisions.

Of course, each business is unique, so if you’re still not sure what you can do to improve employee engagement, or if you have any other questions then please give us a call.

10 Oct 2014

Designing the virtual world from home

Peter Mitchell — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:20:33 +0000

One of the most important things in running a home-based business is to create a balance between the long work hours in my home office and making sure that I can get out in the evenings and weekends to play sport or be with friends and family. It’s important to create a balance, although being home-based works for me.

I run a web-design company out of my St Heliers home office. I thought I would share some of my experiences of working from home. This coincides with my local board running a project to find out more about the home-based businesses in the area, their issues and opportunities and what the local board, its partners and stakeholders may be able to do to help .See https://www.facebook.com/OrakeiLB/events for more details)

I have been in business for 14 years, starting in Australia. For the last four years I’ve been based in my St Heliers home. I can run my business from anywhere that has a decent internet connection. I am currently on VDSL but will connect to ultra-fast broadband as soon as it’s available.

I started in an office and now work from home. This works for me, as I can still have meetings in my home office. I (or my customers) have never seen this as barrier to my business. There is always plenty of free parking too!

Business is currently good in NZ for me. It’s back to pre-global financial crisis monthly turnover levels. I have two permanent employees in Australia, who look after both my NZ and Australian clients. Australia is quieter than NZ, due to political and economic uncertainties and also because I am based here in NZ.

One of the best investments I have made is $400 I spent on a temporary footpath sign that I place at the top of my drive during the day on a busy corner. I get business from across Auckland from that sign, although the majority of my NZ clients are small businesses in the Eastern Bays. Funnily enough, social media does not work well for me, although I can see it working for retail clients or for profile raising.

I am interested in hearing what the Orākei Local Board can do for me when I read about the project on Neighbourly.co.nz. For me, I’d like the board to advocate to remove barriers to my business. Ensuring that I can access ultra-fast broadband when it’s available would be high on my list. My footpath sign works for me but are there any other ways the local board can help with signage policy advocacy for often invisible home-based businesses? I appreciate that signage clutter in residential streets would not be a good look, but are there any creative solutions to improve visibility for home-based businesses?

Finally, I have two employees in Australia because it is simply too risky for a small business like mine to employ staff in NZ. It’s much more flexible in Australia. I have used contractors but feel that employing people works better for both parties. Just think about how many other small businesses could take on staff if labour laws were relaxed for very small businesses to allow employers to hire people without red tape.

08 Oct 2014

Avoiding rejection isn’t an option

Sandy Geyer — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Somewhere and somehow, in the annals of time gone by, when the notion of business building was in its design phase, a rule was decreed that for every “yes” a business leader got in their quest to build their dream, they would be discouraged by an unequal and simply crushing number of “no’s”. And it was so that negativity became the foundation of this career path for all eternity, rendering the journey of the entrepreneur, fraught with the merciless onslaught of rejection and rebuff.

Sound familiar?

The word “no” is mostly likely the first word that we learn to recognise as small children and whilst it is often said with the best of intentions by our caregivers, (they want us to survive past an early age) it results in early programming which is largely negative. Such negative programming unfortunately teaches us very early in our development to temper our actions to avoid the dreaded word “no” at all costs.

When I was building my educational publishing company I found that getting past the word “no”, was counterintuitive but stopping in my tracks just wasn’t an option in the pursuit of traction. With this almost desperate persistence I learned quickly that “no” very seldom meant just “no”. In most cases it actually meant, “just not now”, “its too early/late for our budget”, “we have been using the same book for years and don’t see the need to change”, “one of our teachers has written the book we use”, “you look too much like my husbands ex girlfriend” or “I would really rather go and drink tea in the staff room than stand here and talk to you”. I found that if I could get to the bottom of what no actually meant then I had an idea of what to do next and how to re-approach the prospect at the appropriate time, in the appropriate way. This process took a lot of patience, a very thick skin and willful insight, bearing in mind that we started our company in turbulent political times in a country when most of our clients were overcome in a tidal wave of uncertainty and pending change.

As we grew and my skills developed, I learned more quickly about how to avoid rejection right from the start as well as move on from it effortlessly and efficiently. Once I became adept at refining and teaching this hard won learning to my sales team we grew steadily and exponentially, and for a time, I almost forgot how big a deal rejection had once been to me.

When I started EnQPractice rejection became an enormous part of my professional life again. The personal nature of rejection was also far worse as the concept of Entrepreneurial Intelligence is my creation, and not a product that someone else has written or developed. The gatekeepers in the industry for professional development are ruthless and not afraid to offend, brutally questioning authenticity, relevance, gender and nationality to find the most formidable and soul crushing “no” to come back from. And rejection, unlike objection, is not a show of interest. It is a short and often vicious, punch to the guts of what you are offering, simply to make you go away and lessen the load on the desk of the gatekeeper. Do I blame them? In most cases, no. With the sheer numbers of people in my industry knocking on their doors who are relevant they are completely overwhelmed, never mind the gazillion others who are not relevant or simply bombarding them with spam email and cold calls in a vague hope that one hits home. But I keep going because I believe in the value of the offering.

My long winded point is that to grow a business or practice of any kind we have to make peace with the passenger “rejection” who is going to take their seat in our vehicle of business growth, alongside tenacity, vision and commitment, invited or not and tolerated or not.

Here are 5 ways I have managed to keep “rejection” firmly buckled into their seat in my vehicles, out of my focus and far enough away from the handbrake to not be able to reach for it, just as I am gathering speed:

Understand that rejection is a necessary part of success. Avoiding the chances of rejection only limits our chances of success. Focus on getting better at filtering which rejections to ignore (the issue is them) and which to accept, further explore and utilise to polish our act (the issue is ours).

Get really good at communicating what it is that you can do for your potential clients. Having it right in our heads isn’t good enough, even if we are comfortable in sales situations. We have to craft and rehearse our message to make sure that we hit the mark if the mark is indeed, ours to hit.

Learn the art of effective communication. For a small investment of time and dollars we can learn how to communicate effectively to the 75% of our clients who are not like us and need us to communicate our message in a different way.

It all comes down to numbers and we just have to get past a certain number of no’s to get to the number of yes’s we need. Putting our heads down and just getting on with it, without expecting a fast result or an easy short cut, counts for a lot.

Get really good at asking the questions that will reveal the real reason behind the simple “no”. No very seldom means just no. What’s really going on is often something we can address appropriately.

We are in service to our clients and we shouldn’t look to them to encourage us in any other way than by obviously benefitting from our services. Minimising rejection is a responsibility that we need to take by being professional and authentic in all ways even if we can’t avoid it completely. If we stay close to our purpose, surround ourselves with the right people and find ways to measure and monitor visible progress we will sustain enough encouragement to endure through the building process.

Managing rejection, and success, is a big part of the entrepreneurial journey. Although more related to creativity, one of the best presentations I have seen on managing the concept of rejection and success, in context, is by the author of Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (here). I would like to share this golden snippet with you and my very best wishes for a wonderful September. For many of us spring naturally lifts our spirits and our activity levels.

25 Sep 2014

Social Media Rules

Sandy Geyer — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:04:27 +0000

The single most important rule of business is this one - “Don’t follow rules. Start with rules, and then follow results”.

I am not a big fan of social media. Personally I love how Facebook allows me to connect daily with all my geographically scattered friends, co-pipe band crazy followers and of course, my family. I am sure I am not the only mother who learns far more about her children’s interests, friendships and activities from their Facebook postings than from the conversations at the breakfast table.

But professionally I am just not a big fan of anything that competes for the precious headspace of business owners with questionable returns. Social media is a very big competitor. The best compromise I have managed to nurture with social media professionally is to continue to engage as meaningfully as possible despite the nagging feeling that I must be missing something important, and alongside a somewhat uneasy feeling each time a LinkedIn contact endorses me for a skill I am pretty certain I don’t have.

And I am not alone in my uncertainty of what I might be missing or to the authenticity of the levels of professional engagement on social media. Of course we could employ or contract the assistance of those we believe have the expertise to get tangible results from the social media system, and many of us do. But if social media offers us a way to connect personally with our contacts, really what’s the point of someone else doing it? And if it appears to our followers that someone else is doing it then surely we actually create a bigger disconnection and authenticity issue? But doing it ourselves means we have to spend precious time and headspace connecting, commenting on and sharing information and ideas to assure our contacts that we are clever, informed, interested and up to date.

I understand that there are many dashboard/management systems to assist us with the management of social media interaction, that we need a strategy and that someone always knows someone who definitely made the most critical contact of their career with social media - but my question is always, no matter how efficient we might get at the procedure or how many valuable contacts we do make, how much are we actually earning from our time spent on social media? And more importantly, how much is the time we are spending on social media and away from other key activities of business leadership costing us? And is there a cost to our authenticity from the nature of our contributions?

I assure the social media experts that I am not suggesting that there is no value to social media. My thoughts and questions in this article simply relate to the cost of social media activities to our headspace, our bottom line and our authenticity.

I am going to answer my own question here and suggest that the only rule that really applies to these sorts of questions is that results should rule where we follow. I had the experience of a real life example of this with specific regard to social media this past week.

Having spent some time looking around my Facebook business site with one of my well-qualified and experienced support staff we noticed that the last few blog articles we had placed on the page were not being read whereas the postings previously had been well read. The difference turned out to be that we had recently been posting the blogs in such a manner that only a heading appeared on the post i.e. “archive link to the latest EnQ newsletter”. In theory, the social media training is to place as little copy as possible onto the post to avoid putting people off. BUT in practice, the previous postings that displayed the article content, with the first paragraph at least, immediately readable, was read, and shared, by far more people. Clearly some actual content was needed to engage the readers to read on, share and comment.

I cite this example on the subject of social media in this article but these kinds of “against the rules” situations happen in all kinds of areas of business. We therefore need to be aware that rules can often lead us away and not towards successful results. Assumptions, experts and previous experiences can be dangerous if we rely solely on them for direction for too long. They should be a starting point only. We need to consistently be reading and interpreting our results ourselves, so that we can know for sure what it actually working. We might not always know why but we can work further on that when an unexpected result or trend is exposed.

15 Aug 2014

When is a T-shirt not a T-shirt?

Jesse Best — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 05:06:43 +0000

So lets discuss why creating a merchandise line on its own is severely underutilisng your potential ROI, your direct traffic, and your brand awareness.

If you're reading this, then hopefully you already have a merchandise line, even if it's for promo, or you're thinking of getting something made?

We would have thought this info may be immediately obvious, but we can't believe the number of businesses not using branded items from this perspective.

If your not, then I want to give you some info regarding what we do for other companies in relevant fields and some estimated totals, and targets for you to aim towards yourselves.

We work with clients in many industries, creating either staff clothing or merchandise for customers.

Some of our clients are in the tourist industry, on eof which is doing what we want to tell you about today.

This particular client is currently putting through 5 figure orders per season I could say 10,000 but its actually a multiple of that. Thats not some made up figure either, this is a legitimate leader in a business.

Now when most people create a tshirt for their business, they look at it from the wrong angle. They see it as a possible secondary income stream to their business...

It's not.

When used smartly, it's actually a lead magnet for customers.

How so?

From a customers perspective in the tourist industry, they are looking at possible attractions to be involved in. They have a set fund and they want the best experience possible.

They dont want just great service, thats to be expected.

Instead, they want all the additions that make it unforgettable. They want to think about it for years and years to come and tell their friends and recommend when they visit to do the same activities.....

They are actively looking for an experience that they can tell people about and promote!

So its immediately obvious that you want to be that company!

Now if they are comparing 2 businesses and 1 offers more, even though more expensive, they see it as a better service and the best option.

Studies have proven it. We all want the best.

For example.

Theres a reason the top end Ferrari sells out quicker at 4x the price, than the entry level model.

Even though they are both amazing cars, people still hold prestige to the more expensive model, with all the added features. We want that level of premium service associated, even subconciously.

So back to our client example.

They currently produce 5 figures of merchandise.

They sell them separately, but they mainly include it in their package and increase their price to reflect it.

And this is the genius technique-its nothing new, but how many times are you swayed by cross promotions like this?

Its nothing new, but lets look at these figures so you can see what it actually equates to, because we think this is where people are not looking at..

So, our client could be selling the product for an estimated $40 per item, and then giving it away per customer when they pruchase their premium product.

(If your advertising a product to sell at $40 and also giving them away with your service, then customers associate that bonus as worth $40, even if its not costing you that...)

Like we said, they are turning over 5 figures of customers.

So at aprroximately 10,000 customers (and remember they are doing a multiple of this)

Even if you didn't increase your cost, buying in bulk ath this volume, the tshirt may cost you a max of $10 each inc GST.

Even if you gave the item away only with your product, thats $10 (Which is tax deductible as brand advertising etc) PER CUSTOMER.

Now if your Premium Service is $150 per customer, your seeing a huge ROI

(These guys are not buying and hoping, they are marketing so well with this item, they run out of stock and often have to post them out to customers)

So for every $10 they spend, they recieve $140 back....

Lets break down the potential Benefits:

Customer Traffic Increase

If by having that leadbait you increase your customers at the very least, your seeing a huge benefit.

As we said before, the tourist industry is huge here, but if you can ensure that the traffic comes to you and not a competitor, immediately your increasing your turnover.

In the tourist industry your normally looking at groups of people all participating together.

Which leads us to our next point

ROI for each lead

According to statistics NZ, New Zealand currently recieves upwards of 2.6 million visitors per year. ...

Thats a staggering amount of traffic that could be picked up. Which is possibly why some companies seem to be less forward thinking with their marketing and leadbaits.

Who do you think seals the biggest market share? Our client who is turning over 10,000+ tees per season, or their competitors who don't?

The average backpacker travels to these activities either by the coach load, or the car load.

Say you are seeing a group of 4 choose your industry. They want the experience, they want the free t-shirt, and they want to remember it for as logn as they can, so they now have a souvenior that they will use...

So for an average of $40 investment, you are seeing $560 return,

(With possible sideline purchases for family members back home, as they had such an amazing experience, they now want to tell and share it with their friends and family)

How many more customers will they recommend on their travels?

How many people will see them wearing the tshirt and ask information, and then come to you?

You literally have an advertising medium, that is actively promoting your busness, service and brand, and is also acting as a leadbait to encourage the initial purchase...

Final bonus-monetary sideline

Now heres the sideline that most people by t-shirts for, but we dont think people realise the extent it can scale.

Say 1 in 4 of your group booking buys a 2nd t shirt (Or perhaps a hat or hoody etc)

Thats 10,000/4 = 2,500 units sold at $40 each = $100,000 secondary income...

Say a conservative 10% buy only. (We would hope that afetr such great service, you have staff that are able to monetise this better but thats another topic)

at 10% thats 10,000/10 = 1000 units sold = $40,000 secondary income...

Not to be sniffed at eh!?

But you need that traffic to you!

You need to ensure you're giving the best premium service!

By using this leadbait (And there's many other options), you will see a huge boost in traffic, conversions, and organic advertising!

But you have to make sure your using good quality bait, it has to be something the customer actually WANTS! Trying to fob them off with poor quality or bad design, will have an adverse effect.

Your customers want this feature to talk about your service, and they will talk about a bad business and crap leadbait even more!

What if your competitors already have a similar leadbait? Well then you should have one also or you wont get chosen at all!

So in conclusion

By using a leadbait like this, you stand out from your competitors.

You can create a huge amount of traffic to your business and service

You create brand ambassadors who are staunch advocates of your company

You make a great secondary income which isn't a bad thing

Not only that, you can claim tax on these as advertising costs ;)

So instead of just being a small side income, you can actually use this as a fantastic traffic generation method, but turn over a substantial side income on the side....

So thats some food for thought!

Like we say, if you are creating some merchandise as a sideline, or even better as leadmagnet to get more business, or are interested in looking into this, then give us a call ;)

30 Jul 2014

Payday Loans Hamilton- Easy Monetary Solution Your Way

Candace Lotlie candacelotlie — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 09:25:41 +0000

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23 Jul 2014

NEW Website - Mortgage Protection

Stuart Wills — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 21:23:28 +0000

We have just launched a new website which compares and reviews mortgage protection insurance.

Why?

As insurance advisers we are often asked about the various options and when we searched the internet there was nothing available in New Zealand that provided this information.

We had put together a report to provide our clients, but felt it would be better to put this information on a website so anyone can access this information.

More Coming Too…

This is the start, but there will be more information being added.

Like all websites we will expand the information and update as policies change. We also are careful to provide impartial advice rather than trying to sell a specific product. The reality is we do not have any favoured insurance providers.

Please Tell Us What You Think

Please visit this new website and provide feedback.

We do want to know what you think – all the positive and any negative stuff and of course any ideas that you think might improve it.

Visit: http://www.mortgageprotection....

15 Jul 2014

Wellington freelancers- it's time to get co-working!

Mariya Kupriyenko — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 11:53:44 +0000

Wellington freelancers- it's time to get co-working!

Today’s most exciting and successful businesses have started with small beginnings. Start-ups begin in bedrooms and cafes and unfortunately, often, due to the start-up entrepreneur’s initial lack of resources, they can stay there for some time. Freelancers, even when successful tend to suffer from isolation.

Motivated talents lose drive without a supportive community, opportunity and networks to bolster them. With a growing number of tech start-ups, globally growing freelance culture and today’s prominence of mobile-work situations, more flexible, accessible and affordable spaces are needed that can cater for these dynamic groups.
The same goes for the creative community -there needs to be a casual space where one can do their thing with others in the same creative boat. New Zealand's recent efforts to support co-working environments have paid off as seen by achievements coming out of public co-working spaces such as Enspiral & Biz Dojo. Initiatives such as freelancers/start-ups cafe In Good Company in Wellington providing flexible deals on work spaces further challenge the notion of freelance work.

With the prominence of mobile work and contracting we are experiencing a growth in innovative spaces which cater for this interesting demographic.

I am excited to witness what other spaces and networks are to horizon New Zealand in the near future.

Wellington freelancers- it's time to get co-working!

07 Jul 2014

"Not failing" and "Succeeding" is not the same thing

Sandy Geyer — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 23:09:11 +0000

I talk to many entrepreneurs, across many industries, genders and cultures and there is a common “type” of entrepreneur that I see most often. This is the entrepreneur who has “not failed”. Roughly translated that means he or she has a business that on the surface appears to function adequately, but finances are tight, time is stretched and stress levels are extreme. Does this sound familiar? If so, don’t feel alone as over 80% of business owners, worldwide, find themselves in this space. Despite the obvious struggles within such a space, these business owners comfort themselves with the fact that they have not failed.

But being in a position where we are working 24/7 for very often less than we would earn working for someone else, whilst carrying all the responsibility is not an entrepreneurial success at all.

Succeeding means we:

Lead our business to the stage where we can place qualified people in behind us and give them the space to prove and earn their value
Have sufficient income from a primary business to fund additional ventures that allows us multiply our income streams, invest and grow our expertise and experience
Declare the same profit daily whether we are present in the office or not
Are intimately in touch with every influence on our bottom line at all times through open and accurate information systems

In his new book, Amplifiers (which I highly recommend to all business leaders) Matt Church points out that in leadership it is sequence that is critical. He suggests that leadership innovations are often deployed out of sequence and suggests the following for effective leadership:

Believe that great things are going to happen
Get the group productive
Focus on team engagement
Obsess about innovation

As the building process relies heavily on the direction we provide as the entrepreneur I think we need to give some thought to getting the sequence right too. Borrowing from Matt’s thinking about sequencing, I would suggest the following for effective entrepreneurial leadership:

Believe that great things can happen
Get clear on our purpose – why are we doing this?
Understand our value to the organisation that we are building and leverage that value through stakeholders and systems
Fill the gap between what we can offer and what the organisation needs that we can’t or don’t want to offer, through stakeholders and systems
Drive the sales function of the business personally. Please do not rely on or hide behind marketing and social media initiatives. These are best in support and not as the drivers to effectively communicating our value and relevance to our market.
Set up a system that renders us the closest that we can be to pro-active, which is “instantly reactive”. Reading this system accurately tells us what (and who) is working and what isn’t.
Place qualified and trusted people in behind us to do the tasks so we can clear our headspace for innovation, diversification or additional business initiatives

The sequence of these 7 steps matters to those wanting to move from “not failing” to “succeeding”.

02 Jul 2014