Whenever I think of Freedom, an image of Mel Gibson, springs into my mind. Braveheart! All those kilted men with blue faces and bad hair-dos…a film all about the fight for Freedom. A film all about leadership. And at it’s heart a great leader. A man prepared to lead from the front, and die to achieve […]
Lots of people have read the E Myth. Lots of people get the concept of the three potential roles you can hold in your business. And lots of people talk about how they would love to have the time to work on their business, not in it. Very few people take the action necessary to […]
Systems exist to make our lives easier, there really is no other reason for having them. Whether it’s your personal system for getting yourself up and out to work, or getting your kids to school on time, or your key business system for taking a customer order, or delivering a product; it should make life […]
This time next year wouldn’t you love to have more time and financial freedom? Wouldn’t you love to be able to choose whether you work a 3 day week, or spend more time planning and implementing to grow your business? Having the freedom to choose is a goal for many of us…but what do any of […]
What have you done for the people who have supported your business this year? Hopefully as a minimum you’ll have paid them on time and in full. But how else have you shown how grateful you are for the great work they’ve done, or for the fact that they were reliable, or that they put […]
I’m not averse to paying tax, as my dad always said, ‘If you’re paying a lot of tax, it means you’re making a lot of money’…so bring it on! But staying on top of my tax records, vat returns and payments, has always been a real pain in the neck…and dealings with HMRC a pain […]
At this time of year, plans are essential, how else would we be able to achieve our business goals for the end of the year, do the Christmas shopping, buy the necessary food supplies…and of course fit in all the Christmas concerts and parties?! The truth is though, that plans are always essential. We all […]
If you’re like me, when you go to do your Christmas Shopping, it’s a bit like a military operation.You know what you want, where you’re going to get it, where you’re going to have a coffee, and how long you want it to take. Of course when you get there, you get distracted…maybe by your […]
It’s been a tough old week this week…12 days long so far! But it’s given me two really good reminders that I want to share with you. The first is that overwhelm happens to everyone at some time or another.We all have our days where we feel completely swamped by how much we have on […]
Continuing the theme from last week’s blog…it was McDonald’s UK’s 40th birthday last month. 40th? …really?! Don’t know about you, but it made me feel old! Anyway…as a (rather talented, if I say so myself) ex burger flipper, I thought I’d mark the occasion by revisiting one of my favourite books – ‘Grinding it Out’, […]
There was a question on Twitter this week about why there are no medium sized businesses. Lots and lots of small businesses…plenty of big businesses…but very few medium. Why is that? Makes you think doesn’t it. It depends to a certain extent what you class as small, medium and large…we all know how wildly definition of size […]
When you’re in a relationship, any relationship…whether it’s with a friend, a partner, a customer…what’s one of the things that you treasure most? For most of us I’m guessing it’s trust. You want to know that you can rely on the other person; that when they say that they’re going to do something, they do […]
Hands up if you’ve been an employee at some point in your life. Chances are you have…whether you had a paper round, worked in the local supermarket or did jobs around the house for your mum for a bit of pocket money. What was the experience like? Do you remember it fondly, or was it […]
There are two things that are universally true of entrepreneurs: 1. We are completely in control of our own destiny. Win or lose…succeed or fail…it’s in our hands. and 2. We love to create new things. We love to get a new idea off the ground…and we have LOTS of new ideas. Of course, as […]
If you want to grow your business you need other people…whether they are partners, associates or affiliates…whether you find them on Elance or you employ them…if you want to get beyond trading your life for money…to grow your business without killing yourself…other people are essential. Many business owners shy away from employing as an option… […]
It’s September…so as usual, spiders are running amok in my house. Big ones, little ones, short, fat, hairy ones…all scuttling round the house in search of a mate. Apparently it’s a ‘bumper spider year’ this year…deep joy for the arachnophobes! Personally I’m not scared of spiders. I don’t like them running up my arm, or startling me by making […]
I was in Africa last week…a great place to spend time, if you haven’t already done so. One of the first things you notice in Africa is how big the sky is…it’s huge. Very big and very blue and seemingly endless…with vast horizons and extensive landscapes. You see things very differently in a place like […]
Trust is the key to success in every relationship. Yes, it’s true that relationships can exist without it, but that’s all they do…exist. There’s no joy or happiness in a relationship that lacks trust…no foundation for growth and development…no real meaning. In fact you could argue, that as there is no real connection or bond of trust, […]
The other day I was having a chat with my mentor…I love having a mentor – someone who’s been where you want to go, knows the positives and the pitfalls, the short-cuts and the sure-things, and just won’t stand for any of your ‘can’t’ nonsense. I’ve had a few over the past few years. Each […]
Most business owners are freaks. On the outside we appear to be normal, sane, rational human beings, who recognise logic and understand cause and effect. Hah! Have you seen The Body Snatchers..?! This appearance of normality is all a front! Behind the facade, our mind and body are possessed by at least one, often several, different and disruptive […]
I’ve been a bit hard on myself in the last couple of weeks. Certain things haven’t come together as quickly as I’d hoped…having finally spotted a big black hole in my business, I’ve had to spend time looking for someone to help me fill it…and I’ve been getting really cross with myself for still not having […]
It was a gorgeous summer evening last Friday, and for the second week running, Sas and I decided to go to the local pub…well, why not! It’s a lovely old pub right on the river, that went out of business some time ago, and was brought back to life with great fanfare several years later, […]
A successful business is run by systems. That’s a fact. Systems should be running your business. If your business is not as successful as it should be, or if you are running the whole shebang – working every hour God sends to do so – then you need to take a long hard look at […]
I’ve been a bit of a hypocrite! There, I’ve said it…and it’s true. I’ve been banging on to you for months about the importance of having simple, effective systems. And only the other week I was reminding you how crucial to your continuous improvement the cyclical Plan-Act-Review system is. Meanwhile…back in my own business….I’m afraid there’s been […]
Every day we make choices, aka decisions,…from the time we decide to wake up, to the moment we choose to go to sleep. Life is full of choices. Some of those choices have little or no real impact on our life or our business. But others can have a major impact…like signing up with a […]
Do you remember playing games when you were little? You would always be told what game you were playing…how to play…and how to win…but not how to play to win. Not the strategies that you needed…or the tactics to employ…or how to use your skills to best effect. For a competitive little flamer like me, […]
I have a dream! Who doesn’t know that line?…and who said it? …and when? Just a few words, that inspired an awful lot of action. Life-changing, world-changing action. A dream did that. These days, in business, dreaming has a bad name…it’s associated with wishing and hoping, with pie-in-the-sky thinking and head in the clouds delusion. Certainly […]
Having had a bit of a rant last week about the macho long hours and hard work culture out there…I feel the need this week to redress the balance just a little and give a shout out to the equally misguided (in my humble opinion) people at the other end of the scale… The folks […]
Pardon my frankness, but there’s a lot of hard-core, macho bullshit out there at the minute. Loud, shouty voices telling us that hard work is the only route to success…that we’ve got to put the hours in, that business owners don’t have free-time or time for holidays…that we have to show that we’re “committed”…that if […]
