Australia Business Help: Be. Do. Have. (A simple formula for success?)

When it comes to giving owners sound and effective business advice, our ActionCOACH Business Coaches make it clear to every client in the beginning that to be meaningful, any change in life or in business has to be dramatic.

Minor change is easy to accomplish but results in only minor differences.

To increase the sales in your business by say 150 per cent in three months will take massive changes in both your thinking and the way you do things.

In order to HAVE anything in life we all recognize that we have to DO something to achieve it.

If you want wealth you must invest. If you want love you must first give it. If you want respect you must earn it. No matter what you want, you need to DO in order to HAVE.

But DO-ing is not the only thing you need to change in order to HAVE. You must BE-come the person who would have the things or persona that you desire.

You must develop the identity, beliefs and values that the person who has those things has.

We’ve all heard of the Lotto winner who, within three years, lost the several million he won. He didn’t become the “millionaire.”

Let’s talk a bit about BE-coming. Everyone has an identity that they developed, usually at a very young age. That identity has values and beliefs that can limit you. Perhaps you believe that customers are always looking for a discount. You will attract that sort of customer to your business because of your belief. Maybe you believe that business owners are greedy. What do you suppose you will be when you own your own business?

In order to HAVE something like a million dollars, you have to develop the beliefs and values of a millionaire, and believe me they have an identity that needs to be copied. In fact it is said that you will earn + or – 10 per cent of the earnings of the three people you associate with the most.

Why?

Because you develop the values and beliefs of these people.

Business is no different.

In order to HAVE amazing customers, and amazing businesses need amazing customers, you must develop your business into one that will attract amazing customers.

What is an amazing customer?

It is specific to your business.

Only you can define for yourself the characteristics of your amazing customer. Perhaps it includes a customer who always pays cash. Maybe one who sends you lots of referrals. You must identify who your amazing customers are and what these customers want. You must know how these customers shop. You must BE the place where these customers want to shop.

And the same is true of an amazing business. It is one where your amazing customers shop. It consistently delivers more than your customer expects. The amazing business attracts these amazing customers.

Once you are the business, then you must DO the things that make these customers know what the perfect business will do for them. Imagine, if you will, an owner of a Jaguar leaving his automobile at the local garage that looks as though it has never seen anything better than a ’64 VW Microbus.

Not likely. If you want the customer to come you must BE the business to which he will come.

If you are the person or business that attracts the people in your ideal target market then they will come.

Just remember you must “Be” as well as “Do” in order to “Have.”

And when you are ready to “Have” more in your business, contact ActionCOACH to see how this idea can be simply applied to your business.

Business Help Australia: “5 Ways” to Business Success through ActionCOACH

If you are looking for actionable and effective business advice for your company, ActionCOACH can help you achieve true business success through analysis and systems implementation.

What that means is that we help the self-employed build a profitable commercial enterprise that works without them.

After all, your systems should run a business, not the owner.

The first thing we do is to access the business by working with you to determine where you are, where you would like to be, and how we can implement systems and strategies based on what we find that is most appropriate for your company’s particular needs (whether it is increase profitability, systems, employee training, controls, etc.).

ActionCOACH will assess your business in the five key profit generating areas:

1) Lead Generation
2) Conversion Rate
3) Average Value Sale
4) Average Number of Transactions and …
5) Profit Margins

Those areas are highlighted in the following equation:

Lead Generation  x  Conversion Rate  =  # Customers
# Customers x  Avg. Value Sale  x  Avg. # Transactions  =  Revenues
Revenues x  Profit Margins  =  $ Profits

So basically, we are looking at the equation for profitability for any business, in any market, in any industry sector.

Throughout all of these sectors of business, the equation for profitability stays the same.

ActionCOACH has developed more than 367 different systems and strategies under these five variables.

For example, Lead Generation has 73 systems that can be implemented to help business owners increase their lead flow.

In addition, we have 86 systems that may be used to increase your Conversion Rate, and so on down the line.

Once we have established where the business is, we are able to go back and look through our systems and determine which of those would be the most appropriate to implement in increasing the profitability of that particular business type.

We use the information we have gathered on the business to put together a detailed “Alignment Report” that will serve as our roadmap to success for the time you work with us.

Once we have established that your business can be profitable, we move on to our secondary goal, which takes place during our business coaching process.

That goal is to teach the business owner the difference between working on their business and working in their business.

Small business owners can spend 60 hours or more per week just trying to keep their business alive.

Most often, what we find is that they are working on the wrong aspects and end up spinning in a relentless circle until the business finally folds in on top of them.

Our goal is to help them in working on growing their business instead of concentrating on the technical issues, which are usually counterproductive to growth.

Throughout the business coaching process, we will spend about an hour each week with the business owner (depending on their needs) helping them stay focused on their goals, testing and measuring results, assisting them with potential obstacles for growth, systems implementation, etc.

We hold our clients accountable for reaching the goals that we set together, and work diligently to help them achieve great results!

So basically, we teach the self-employed how to become successful business owners. We teach them how to make more money for less effort, and we have been very successful at that.

For more information on ActionCOACH, visit our main website at actioncoach.com … or better yet, contact an ActionCOACH Business Coach in your area today.

Business Help Australia: Simple ways to make business work

There are some things in life that are supposed to be really complicated: being a parent, learning how to invest … and running your own business.

When you look at all of these things nothing could be further from the truth.

Parents are taught by their children, investors are taught by their experiences and business owners should be taught by a mentor.

Often, when we look at businesses, it is clear that the owners have given up trying to improve their lot in life because they think that it is too complicated an issue to generate more activity.

They think they need to be Einstein to invent some radical new way of doing business.

Here’s a few real-life examples of how simple it can be to change the direction of a business.

Usually a business has no coherent direction established within its culture.

The first thing and ActionCOACH Business Coach does is to have an owner and their team spend some time deciding exactly where they want to be in 12 months time.

This process must include all of the members of the business, because they will all contribute to getting there.

Once this is done, the goals are well publicized. One of our clients implemented this as the first step … and this alone without any other changes produced a very significant increase in sales.

Another business is a physiotherapy practice. Health professionals tend to think that they should not have to sell their services and skills; people should just discover them.

To combat this, we wrote a simple script for the physiotherapists to tell their patients that it is in their best interests to come back regularly for treatment until the injury they had was completely cured.

Up until then they would just say “thanks for coming I’ll see you later.” This alone increased their number of patient visits from 190 per week to around 230…a 21% increase in business.

Next, the practice discovered that their patients were leaving their office, walking around the corner and buying strapping tape (as well as other supplies) from the local chemist.

To add value, we advised them to stock the practice with these products. Sales of these have substantially increased the cash flow.

This business has grown by some 30% in ten weeks without implementing any of the more impactful strategies that we had identified in their initial analysis. In another of our mentoring programs, we simply implemented a dress code for their sales team.

The most dramatic impact of this came recently when their leading sales person had gone into the field in a dark blue shirt and tie.

He spent six hours and had not made a single sale. He walked into a menswear shop, bought a white shirt and red/blue tie, he went to the dry cleaners and had it pressed and then he changed. Within 40 minutes of this change he had sold his entire inventory.

There are many more examples of this sort, but the message is clear. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make money in business.

Unfortunately, most owners are so close to the coalface that they cannot see the opportunities. That is why an outside mentor who can give effective business advice, encouragement, correction and discipline is the best investment a business owner can make.

We hope this helps you get better results in your business … and when you’re ready to take your own company and results to the “next level,” contact an ActionCOACH in your area.

All the best,

The “Business Help” Team at ActionCOACH

Business Help Australia: Can an ActionCOACH help you build a better team?

Putting together the “Dream Team” for your business can be as easy as taking an “action” rather than an “information approach.”

With a plethora of training options open to employers, it can often be puzzling when trying to find the strategies that are going to achieve results.

There is one basic rule to apply when considering your next team building exercise.

“Dream Teams” are not built through information or training alone.

Seminars, competency training, reading books and watching videos are all helpful strategies but as the age old adage goes … “action speaks louder than words.”

Being able to perform tasks during training is not the same as applying them on a day to day basis, just as information does not automatically change behaviours.

For example, even though people read about the dangers of smoking, many people still engage in this destructive behaviour.

Environment is one of the key factors in influencing your team’s success.

Why?

Because people base their behaviour on their beliefs about themselves and their environment.

Can they have a positive impact on their environment?

Does this environment support positive behaviour?

Team members should feel that they have the capability to contribute in their environment.

This means giving them the right equipment and environment to be effective is essential.

It also helps if they feel safe to contribute their opinion and feedback in a supportive environment.

But how do you find this out?

You simply have to ask!

Ask your team if they think there are factors in their environment which could be improved to help them be more efficient, productive or happy. Perhaps they may prefer music as they work, better light, or more flexible hours. As a result, many organisations have changed and adapted to this feedback and these requests, and workplaces now can include facilities such as childcare or the benefits of ergonomically designed work stations.

The result is that employee satisfaction directly impacts the bottom line.

Not only is environment important, but beliefs are the key motivators in peoples’ behaviour.

However, changing your team members’ beliefs is not an easy or swift task. Recruiting the right people through personality instruments and team interviews can be one strategy but understanding their beliefs can be important in identifying other strategies.

Common beliefs limiting team performance include:

• Feedback:  “I have some constructive feedback but expressing it may cause a confrontation – best to keep it to myself”
• Delegation:  “The only way to get the job done properly is to do it myself”
• Sales:  “Real salespeople are dishonest, pushy and arrogant”

Changing beliefs such as these can be a daunting challenge.

Team leaders need to facilitate change by designing flexible experiences for people in organisations to learn that “maybe there is a different way to look at this.”

Experiential learning such as climbing trees and playing games aren’t just used because they are fun and help build relationships but because they work. Multiple and varied experiences must be used to inspire new ways of seeing and thinking about things. Reframing opens the mind to new beliefs and behaviour.

Information and ideas are not enough they need to be engrained in day to day activity.

You need to look at training options and ask what beliefs in this organisation may hamper or aid in achieving the desired outcome. For example, “How can our work environment be changed to support flexibility and greater productivity or what experiences will help foster changes in belief and behaviours?”

Team building is not an exact science but a cast of finding the best strategies available to bring out the potential in your team.

And one of the best ways to do that is to bring in an experienced business mentor and business help resource in the form of an ActionCOACH.

Not only does a good ActionCOACH have the tools and systems proven to build more effective and more cohesive teams, the ActionCOACH system is guaranteed to produce results for any business.

So contact a local ActionCOACH and start to build your own “Dream Team” today.

Business Help Australia: Putting business solutions into action

The philosophy of assisting business people to work “on” their business rather than “in” their business is driving the success of ActionCOACH and the system of business help an ActionCOACH can offer the average small business and its owner.

An ActionCOACH Business Coach helps business owners identify where they want to take their business and what they want the business to provide them with … both financially and personally.

Ultimately, an ActionCOACH Business Coach is acts as a business help resource, as well as a training coordinator, marketing manager, sales director, partner, personal business mentor and confidant – all for less than the cost of a secretary.

The main advantage of a Business Coach is to make sure action steps are being implemented by holding owners accountable for their actions and results.

To learn more about how ActionCOACH can help you in your business, and how our company can become the only business help resource you’ll ever need, contact an ActionCOACH in your area today.

Business Help Australia: Can ActionCOACH really elevate businesses to new heights?

ActionCOACH empowers business owners worldwide to reach their goals, and has now realised its own dream as one of the fastest growing franchises (and number one business coaching franchise) in the world – with more than 1,000 offices in 32 countries.

With small businesses in Australia meeting increased demand, the fact is that failure rates in the category are still shockingly high.

Even in good times, demand for professional business counselling is greater than ever, and smart business owners know they need outside advise and counsel to succeed.

Because as healthy businesses aspiring to reach new heights, their owners want to thrive, not simply survive.

ActionCOACH helps owners by working with them closely to make their personal and business goals a reality.

ActionCOACH Business Coaches put their heart and soul into their clients, creating success together.

The company guides clients with proven systems and strategies to give them the confidence, knowledge and skills and help them implement sales, marketing and business management systems that allow them to reach their goals over and over again … well after the initial program is complete.

Through ActionCOACH’s guaranteed system, business owners discover resources and strategies that allow them to reach heights they never thought possible.

The running theme is teaching business owners to work on their business, rather than in their business.

The reality for the majority of Australian small business owners is that they spend more than 60 hours a week just trying to keep their business alive.

ActionCOACH Business Coaches owners cut this time significantly by putting systems in place that allow them to focus on achieving larger picture goals.

In the end, an ActionCOACH Business Coach is like a mentor, business partner, sales manager, team trainer and sound board all wrapped into one – for half the price of an average administrative assistant.

So if you are looking to get more time for yourself and more money into your business, talk to an ActionCOACH today.

Business Help: Branding is better than a Lead?

If you’ve ever paid to have someone create advertising for you, you know better than most how easy it is to get caught up in the “branding” trap.

Most ad agencies and designers help you fall into this trap, by telling you the most important thing you can do as a business owner is to create a brand.

But what is a brand?

Chances are, if you asked 100 different ad people what their definition of a brand was, you would get 100 different answers.

At ActionCOACH, we believe the best ads aren’t the best looking, the prettiest, or the best designed.

The best ads are those ads that generate qualified leads.

So the next time you get the “pitch” from an advertising agency or media outlet looking to part you and your marketing “investment,” ask them a simple question.

“How many leads can I expect to generate from this campaign?”

Most simply won’t be able to give you a good answer, because they’ve never actually created an ad that has ever sold anything.

So before you spend any more precious resources on advertising that doesn’t work, arm yourself with strategies and information based on advertising that does work.

And in this case, that means advertising that generates qualified leads for your business.

Discover for yourself what some of those strategies are. Look at the classic advertising and marketing literature of Claude Hopkins or John Caples or even David Ogilvy.

Then talk with a local ActionCOACH Business Coach who can guide you and your marketing “investment” to effective, proven and profitable results.

Business Help: Getting to Cashflow

While most owners focus on profit (as well they should) … to successfully grow any business requires an initial focus on cashflow.

Why is cashflow so important?

Cash is “king” in any business … and if you are struggling with generating positive cashflow in your business, here’s some tips that can help:

1) Stop discounting. Discounting kills your profits … so stop it! Hold your prices and find ways to add value instead.

2) Raise your prices by 10%. While this may seem hard to do, you’ll be surprised by the results. Yes, some customers will whinge, but they probably do so anyway. Most won’t even know the difference. But you will. On your bottom-line.

3) Cut your expenses by 10%. You should be able to trim 10% from the expense side pretty easily if you are tracking every pound that goes out the door. Remember, though, you can only cut so much before you start to affect operations, so cut as much as you can … but put plans in place to grow your way to success.

4) Sell off old stock. Raise additional cash by selling off old inventory … or packaging old items with faster moving inventory and raise your overall price point (by adding value with current resources).

5) Take stock on consignment. This is a way to offer new products to your customers (especially in a retail setting) with little or no risk to you. Simply stock the product of a local vendor or supplier, and pay out a percentage back to the supplier when the product sells.

In reality, there are more than 282 additional strategies that can help generate positive cashflow for you today.

How do you find out more, and which ones will work for your business?

Just contact an ActionCOACH Business Coach today and see how you can use the resources that are already in your business to generate more cashflow, higher margins and faster moving stock.

Business Help: Eliminating Risk in Getting Business Help

One of the biggest obstacles most business owners face in looking for effective business help is reducing the risk of actually getting help for their companies.

What does this mean?

Essentially, most owners don’t want to waste extra time, additional money or more resources on tactics or strategies that don’t or won’t work.

Here’s a checklist of items that will help you reduce (or even eliminate) your risk in getting business help for your company:

• Is the “business help” system simple (not necessarily easy, but simple) to understand and implement?
• Does the business help give you new strategies and tactics you didn’t know beforehand?
• Are there success stories or testimonials that validate results?
• Is the system proven … or guaranteed?
• Does the system focus on generating cashflow and profit (as these are key results in any business)?

In general, the more you know about the help you need and the help you are getting, the more clear you can be in making the changes you need to make in your business.

In your search for proven and effective business help, remember to include and ActionCOACH Business Coach.

It just may be one of the most interesting (and profitable) calls you could ever make.

Business Help: Are you selling what you want to sell … or what your customers want to buy?

Here’s an interesting question:

Does your business sell what your customers really want to buy?

Or … are you insisting on selling certain products or services that may or may not be wanted or needed by your customers?

As hard as it may sound, the market place always wins … so if your sales are suffering, you may want to take a look at your stock, your inventory, your products and your service … and then start talking to your customers.

Why?

Because people buy what THEY want to buy … not necessarily what you want to sell them.

What can you discover by talking to your customers?

• What they want
• What they don’t want
• What added value you might be able to add to your current offerings in order to give more value … (and those answers might possibly help you up your price points)

So the next time you take “stock” or “inventory” of your business … do so by asking your customers what they want.

You may not get the answers you want … but you will get the answers you need to build a better and more profitable business.