SmallBusinessMasterCoaching » Business, Marketing, Performance, Profits

To EARN more you must LEARN more!

March 29, 2012 1 Comment

In life and in business if you want to EARN more you must LEARN more.

So many people have dreams of being “millionaires” one day… but the truth is they can’t even make a quick thousand dollars.

If you are stuck in a rut when it comes to creating more wealth and prosperity in your life – you must commit yourself to LEARNING more about money, sales and profits.

The strategy for building wealth is quite simple. First you have to learn to make a hundred bucks. When you are making hundreds, then you can make thousands. When you step up to making thousands you are then able to make hundreds of thousands. When you are making hundreds of thousands of dollars you are then ready to become a Millionaire and create and make Millions. From there – if you keep your integrity and stay grounded, the sky is the limit!

To EARN more you must LEARN more.

Start Learning more today by enrolling into our next bootcamp at www.leapingthroughlife.com.au/ignite

Coach Cameron. Ignite Business and Entrepreneur Bootcamp from CoachCameron Roberts on Vimeo.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Money and Finance, New Business Owner Tips

IGNITE Your Prosperity

March 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

These turbulent times represent an opportunity to build wealth and prosperity in your life or your business.

Take action now at www.leapingthroughlife.com.au/ignite

Filed Under Money and Finance, New Business Owner Tips, Personal Performance Tagged With business building, business coaching services, business coaching tips, Business Workshop, coach Cameron Roberts, leaping through life, making money in business

Turbulent times release opportunity

March 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi there – Coach Cameron here,

The best thing about these turbulent times is that everything is on sale.

Consider what your life would feel like if you could pay your mortgage faster, escape bad debt and double or triple your income!

It is times like this that some people will lose money – others will watch other people make money and the final group of people will be those intelligent people that do their due diligence and make money.

The fact is everything is now on sale and you need to go shopping. Stocks are on Sale. Businesses are on Sale. Real Estate is on Sale.

Now is the time for you to grab the opportunity for you to create more prosperity, wealth and abundance in your business or your life.

If you live within Sydney or Newcastle, in New South Wales Australia, I would like to personally invite you to join my team of empowering speakers and experts for the IGNITE Business and Entrepreneur Bootcamp on April 28th and 29th at Newcastle, NSW Australia.

We have a field of experts who are professionals that can help you achieve your financial dreams and objectives. These individuals have transformed the lives of ordinary Australians with their sales, income, profits, and business.

Imagine the benefits you would get from being in a room full of expert speakers for two great days that have personally helped others create real wealth.

Get up close and personal with some of Australia’s most passionate speakers and educators in prosperity, business and real estate.

Take Action NOW – go to www.leapingthroughlife.com.au/ignite or

For early bird discounts – download a booking form at

http://www.leapingthroughlife.com.au/document.php/gorlsrq/IGNITE+flyer.+Leaping+Through+Life.pdf

Filed Under Business Management, Creating Prosperity Mindsets, Increasing Profits, Marketing and Selling, Money and Finance, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With Business, business coaching, business coaching tips, Business Workshop, coach Cameron Roberts, corporate health and wellness, IGNITE BOOTCAMP, leaping through life, making money in business

Dealing with Conflict from the Public

July 5, 2011 41 Comments

Hi Coach Cameron Roberts from Leaping Through Life and Small Business Master Coaching.

Thanks for clicking through to our Corporate Coaching and Business Owner Support Programs. Today, I want to talk about business primarily.

I recently learned of a really good professional speaker one of the ways of which you can approach conflict in the marketplace. So when a client has a disagreement with you and they come on really heavily and offer a verbal challenge to you, personally, what I used to do is get really defensive and try and counteract that or solve that problem for them whilst alleviating that frustration.

But this professional speaker actually gave us the tip of focusing internally on your own breathing and on your own state of mind and your own health. And what I find that does is it keeps my mind clear up so I can listen to the person intently and really focus on what it is they are trying to vent out.

What you find is that if you actually let the person who has got that build up frustration or the build up anger or the problem, they actually just get to vent it all out. And once they calm down, then you can ask them, “Well, what can I do to help you? What are some of the solutions do you like me to provide or the business to provide?”

Now, you might not be able to provide them all on the spot, and often, it’s a good opportunity for you to put some margins in place. And you might say things like, “What sort of solutions would you like me to provide for you to fix that problem?” And when I offer you the solutions, then you can create the margin for yourself by saying, “Well look, that’s not a process I can fix immediately right now. But how about if you leave it with me for 24 hours or 48 hours, and I’ll touch base with you on the best options I can come up for you.” And what you’re doing there is creating some time where they can go away and relax and calm down, and it takes the heat out of the situation if you like.

So there are two tips that you can use when confronted with conflict in the marketplace. It’s really helpful if you’re working with the public on a regular basis.

We have two great Membership coaching programs that you can be a part of click here for our Master Coaching Membership (business owners/manager/leaders)

or click here for our Health and Fitness Membership Program.

You can see more of our coaching products and programs at www.coachcamerons.com – Warm Regards, Coach Cameron.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Creating Prosperity Mindsets, Increasing Profits, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business coaching, business coaching services, business coaching tips, business performance, coach Cameron Roberts, corporate health and wellness, self belief in business

Leaping Through Life on LONG Flights! by Coach Cameron

April 20, 2011 15 Comments

Hi Coach Cameron here again from Leaping Through Life and Small Business Master Coaching, thanks for clicking through or being a part of our coaching programs… in this busy world and all the junk that’s on the net – I appreciate your time you’ve taken to read my post – thanks heaps!

Ever been on a long flight? Going on one soon? How would you like to arrive at your destination after 10 to 15 hours or travelling and/or flying in PEAK state and ready to “rock and roll”?

With over two decades behind me as a coach, taking teams and athletes on national and international competitions, I learnt a few tips and tricks to help people arrive in peak condition – and you know what – if you are travelling for business or pleasure, you can apply the same tricks and tips to ensure you arrive in a great frame of mind and with an abundant amount of energy and vitality!

Click here to read the full article on how to arrive and ready to perform at your PEAK, after a long flight…

warm regards - Coach Cameron.

PS: while you’re here, how about leaving me a comment? It’s real easy, name/email/web and about 10 secs of your time! thanks heaps!

Filed Under Boosting Performance, New Business Owner Tips, corporate health and energy Tagged With business coaching, business coaching services, business coaching tips, business management, coach cameron, corporate coaching, corporate health and wellness, health and wellness in the workplace, how to keep motivated at work, life coach, self belief in business

Preventing Overload by being too BUSY

April 19, 2011 3 Comments

Wow – I wish i had a buck for every time I asked someone “how’s life been…” and they reply “oh – I have been so busy!”

Coach Cameron here – you know it seems like everyone these days is just busy being busy! I mean at what point in this generation did it become the norm to be “busy” – when did we go from being “happy” or “great” or at least “fine” to be “busy” whenever someone asks us how we have been?

It’s almost like we feel guilty – if we have not been busy! Which may sound like a foreign concept for some of you, but it’s important to realise there’s a difference to being effective than to just be busy – for example, I can be busy watching TV or busy face-bookin, but that does not make me effective.

Oh, and by the way – when did we all become so important that we all need to be contactable 24/7 via phone, text messages and even email! Believe me – your life was not meant to feel this way… there’s a bug difference between busy and productive or busy and effective -you get the idea.

For more information read my full article on how to avoid the overload factor by clicking here.

Warm regards- keep leaping through life – Coach Cameron.

PS – would be nice if you left a comment – plus it will create another back-link back to your page too! win/win for both of us! thanks!

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips, corporate health and energy Tagged With business coaching services, business coaching tips, business performance, coach cameron, corporate health and wellness

Taking Time out to Move Forwards in your business

April 18, 2011 2 Comments

Hi – Coach Cameron here from Small Business Master Coaching and Leaping Through Life.

Here’s a super article on how “stepping back” in life can actually make you MORE productive and MORE effective in your workplace and business.

To read the full coaching post, just click here.

Warmest regards – Coach Cameron.

PS: remember to leave us a comment if you liked the coaching post!

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips, Training and Development, corporate health and energy Tagged With business coaching, business coaching services, business coaching tips, business performance, coach cameron, corporate health and wellness, self belief in business

Keeping Your Staff Leaping Through Life

April 6, 2011 15 Comments

Hi, Coach Cameron here again from Leaping Through Life and Small Business Master Coaching – Why do you think many people in the workplace aim to do their best each and every day, but often fall short of their supervisors expectations?

Why is there a gap between what people think they are doing their best and what their supervisors or managers expect from them?

The challenge, I believe, lies in the fact that a lot of cases the jobs have not been clearly described and it is like the old Chinese whisper – it gets watered down each time it is communicated… and this is not what Leaping Through Life is all about within your workplace.

This means by the time the second or third person gets the job description verbally communicated to them from another work colleague – the professionalism or the job requirements and energy needed to complete the job has significantly diminished.

This is why it is absolutely important to keep your team and your staff accountable to their jobs and their workplace tasks. This is an easy process to implement into any small business and is critical for you to achieve your small business success and making the money that your business truly deserves to make.

One of the simple ways to ensure your staff know what their jobs are is to have them listed clearly right in your in a workplace manual or have a job description posted somewhere for them to read at work on a regular basis. Maybe even have a weekly webcasts to remind them of their job descriptions and what they are required to do at work and how they are to go about achieving those tasks on a regular basis.

You also want to make it clear what the consequences for them will be for not achieving their roles and objectives at work and what are the bonuses that they will receive from overachieving or getting their work done on time and at an above average standard. Remember people are motivated both by the stick and the carrot – this means they are motivated to move towards or away from their this objectives and it is a simple motivation technique to get your workforce moving in the right direction.

Imagine having a great team that wanted to achieve and excel within the workplace – this is possible if you take the time to implement the right strategies into your organisation or your small business.

As a supervisor or a director it is also critical that you continue to lead your workforce and your staff team as a positive role model – it just won’t hold up if you tell them to do one thing and then you do another. For instance if you put out a workplace manual or a job description on professionalism and how they should behave in the workplace toward each other and your prospects or clients and then you behave or act differently to what they have to in their day job description – you create a gap in your team. What you expect them to do – they must see you doing and not something opposite and not of the company’s requirements. Avoid creating discontentment within the workforce – it is like a disease that spreads like wild fire!

Take these three easy steps to keep your staff accountable on a regular basis:

Design and implement job descriptions on your team members to make sure they know exactly what it is they need to do and how long those tasks should take them.
Use the motivating forces of pain and pleasure where possible. Make sure they understand what the consequences are for not achieving their workplace objectives and make sure they know what the rewards or the bonuses for producing excellent work.
Become an outstanding role model. Whatever it is you’d like your team members to achieve and how you’d like to act then you must also achieve these standards and act that way within the workplace. As a manager or supervisor people are looking up to you on a regular basis and you must make sure that you “walk the talk” and you are congruent between the work place requirements that you put out and how you carry yourself as a manager or director of an organisation or small business.

Use the above three steps and watch your business take off in more ways than one – you’ll be closer to achieving your financial dreams and increasing the profits and productivity of your workplace.

For more information about our coaching services visit http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com and for information about our corporate coaching and team building events please go to www.LeapingThroughLife.com.au. Keep Leaping Through Life – warm regards Coach Cameron.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips, Training and Development Tagged With business coaching, business coaching tips, staffing

How to tighten up the recruitment process in your business.

February 22, 2011 4 Comments

At Small Business Master Coaching, we take our role of supporting you and your business seriously. Coach Cameron Roberts is an experienced business owner and knows the challenges that arise from having the wrong staff onboard. When looking for an employee or new people it is critical that in your small business, you have a procedure that you can follow to make sure that you get the right person for the job.

It is easier than you think in small-business to hire the wrong person. Most people when they apply for a job are really keen and motivated to get the position, they often stretch the truth a little bit to ensure they get the job today, so they can meet their own needs and desires.

The problem is however, as these potential employees are going through your recruitment process they are taking up valuable time for yourself, your staff and your business.

This is why it is critical in small-business to make sure you have an objective recruitment process that will weed out any people who are not 100% behind working for you and your small business.

A simple but effective recruitment process can look like the following model:

First of all, a person comes in and fills out a standard recruitment application. This is just some simple paperwork to get the details and capture their availabilities. You can also look at previous experience and ask them for referrals that you can call up to see how they worked at their previous place of employment.

The next process you may want to look at is to engage them in a trial. This trial can be a simple 30 minute trial when they come into your business, maybe even as a client or a customer to see if they like working in your small business and in your working environment. It is a simple but effective way to see how some people will respond to your working environment and you get to see firsthand if they handle the pressure that they might come under once they commenced working for you and your small business.

Only after a potential employee fills out the recruitment application and then comes in for a small 30 minute trial for the position, do you sit down with them and go through an interview process. This way they have already met two of your requirements; being the recruitment application and the small trial at your business, before you have to invest any time on them doing an interview process.

A lot of small business owners make the mistake of doing an interview process first. However if you have 40 people apply for or a position and then you interview 10 to 20 people from the list of 40 – this takes a while of your work and time up to get through.

Adding in a few extra steps before the interview process, you can easily manage these recruitment application procedures to ensure that you get the best person for your job.

Get busy on designing your own recruitment application process today and watch new people coming to your business be more effective and efficient employees.

Wishing you all the business success for this year and beyond.

Keep Leaping Through Life…Warm regards coach Cameron

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Increasing Profits, Marketing and Selling, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business coaching, business coaching tips, marketing your business, new business help

Consumers of 2011.

February 22, 2011 6 Comments

At Small Business Master Coaching we are always looking for ways to help business owners stand out from the crowd. One of the ways to do this is by given consumers what they want. These days’ people are looking for something different. In your business you people want to experience things that they don’t experience elsewhere in your industry.

In your small business you could be driving sales and increasing profits and one of the best ways that you can do that is to design your experiences with your clients and your customers.

Consumers in 2011 are a hard nut to crack. With wage rises, retail spending and job growth this year spinning there is an increasing but over accumulation of more goods in the marketplace.

A new desire on the rise in the consumer’s mind is that they want the feeling and experience of what they are spending their money one. They purchase their shopping for the experience and this need not be with the big retailer but they are happy to part with their money in a small business just like yours – be it online or off-line. If you can provide them with a unique and a happy experience then you can win the business back of the big retailers.

Here are some of the ways in which you can offer an experience to your consumers or clients:

How about holding some classes or to do lessons on how to use your products and services.

Experience comes at a price, and this need not be expensive from a small business perspective. You get to use your communication tools to get across to your customers and clients. Look at how you can contact them via mobile phone and SMS and make sure you are constantly engaging them with inviting offers in your messages.

At every opportunity use your social networking sites and skills to promote your businesses and services to the wider community – let will know that you’re around and in you’re the expert in your field.

Let them interact with your products and services so that it makes them feel special and that they feel secure when they buy the products or services. At every opportunity the consumers, like to try before they buy, so why not let them do this at their own place and at the right time.

What is it that is different to what they’re used to experiencing when buying products and services from your industry or small business?

Change your music, update your lighting in store, put a water cooler machine in the corner and even consider setting up child’s playground area with toys included.

Think of something creative and something small and personal that you can offer your consumers and clients that makes visiting your business inviting, warm, and friendly.

Lastly always make sure that you build a healthy online presence. Being online doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars but it does have to be a good representation of your business and what you sell or what you stand for. A website can be about telling people what you do and what you’re best at and it can also be a way of providing them with information for them to make a good buy decision as previously mentioned. Be sure you take advantage of each of the social media and social network sites like Facebook and twitter to communicate to a wider range of people about your products, your expertise and your services.

It’s not enough just to have social media presences – you have to make sure that you use your social media to engage your clients and potential prospects. Use Facebook in a way and be creative, see what you come up with. What new ideas and new concepts can you use to get people involved at the level of social media that you want them to be involved in?

Maybe you can put a Facebook offer on your site so that your friends can redeem the offer by bringing it back to the store.

At all times engage your customers as much as possible. Customers, clients and potential prospects who are happy and who are engaged in a friendly manner will spend more money and have a higher spend rate within your small business every single time.

Let your customers enjoy their experience, and consider handing over demonstrations or things that they can take home like a little mini show bag or hold an activity of some type – it is about experimenting with your marketing and coming up with effective and efficient marketing techniques that don’t cost the earth and break your bank. Marketing needs to be effective. Marketing should drive people to your business and make them want to spend money.

Regardless of how much you spend on your business with any particular advertising – if it doesn’t drive people to your business it is not effective advertising.

Engaging clients directly through experimental marketing can change the way that you do business for ever.

Consider holding a get together at coffee shops and other activities to get their friends and families involved. Have a dozen different programs for different types of clients and customers. You might have a special program coming out just for the mums that use your services, and then on another day you might have a different program coming up just for the dads that use your service.

You can rest assured that if you engage in some of the strategies that we’ve mentioned in this article that you will get the profits and the performance that you desire out of your small business.

For more information about our business coaching services and how we can drive clients to your door please visit http://smallbusinesscoaching.com

For corporate and performance coaching check out www.LeapingThroughLife.com.au

For a free e-book on ineffective marketing techniques PLUS a FREEW audio program please go to our website by clicking here.

Here’s to your business success.

Keep Leaping Through Life, Warm Regards Coach Cameron.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Increasing Profits, Marketing and Selling, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business coaching services, business coaching tips, marketing ideas, promote your business

Do you need money for your business?

February 22, 2011 4 Comments

As a business coach and CEO of Small Business Master Coaching and our corporate coaching arm, Leaping Through Life, I often see expansion of business and business growth as factors that can hold businesses and their management teams back.

Here’s how you can improve your chances on getting lenders like banks and financial institutions to lend you money to grow your business.

Ensure that your business is healthy and growing and this data is recorded. Make sure you have got your budget in place and all your information is updated.

Make sure that you can measure and prove your cash flow in your business, it is also good to realistically for predict your cash flow position to the bank or lender.

The next thing any bank or lender will want before they lend you any type of money is security. Security is all about risk, you need a be able to show that you can offer some sort of security for them to lend you money or establish or open line of credit against a mortgage or property.

The banks will also look at your honesty. Make certain you are honest with your credit provider, they need to know exactly what you can borrow and if your lending over and above what you can afford to pay back then you will get into trouble and you will be found out.

Be prepared to deal with tighter credit terms in this funding crisis. Raising business funds has become a problem in the wake of the GFC, and if banks and lending institutions are not helping you then it is time to look at other alternatives for small businesses.

Be prepared to provide your tax returns and ensure the tax returns are up-to-date for the last two financial periods. Use your personal tax returns, these are also important to show the bank or lender.

The lender will also check your previous credit history, so make sure at all times you pay off all your credit cards on time every time, regardless of whether it’s a personal credit card or a business credit card.

If you can follow the above, you’ll be able to increase your chances on getting a loan approved with the bank or financial institution. This will help you to grow your business and increase your wealth through investing and financing.

For more information about our business coaching services please go to http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com

For information about our corporate coaching programs and teambuilding activities please go to www.LeapingThroughLife.com.au

Click here to download your free e-book on ineffective marketing techniques and a FREE audio program on how to social proof your business.

Here’s to your business success,

Keep Leaping Through Life, warm regards Coach Cameron

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Increasing Profits, Marketing and Selling, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business building, business coaching, corporate coaching, making money in business, succession planning

Using the web to promote your small business.

February 22, 2011 8 Comments

The Web is a great place for small business owners.

As a small business coach, I see many small businesses and their owners not taking advantage of the world wide web. This is a great way for you to promote your services and products to a greater range of people.

The best ways to promote your services and products in your small business or organization is to write articles for your business. Article writing is one of the best ways for self-promotion on the World Wide Web. You can list your articles or blogs and then use them in your newsletters or send links to them from your emails.

Having a website and writing articles online is a way of gathering information about your products or services that you can use to steer people to at any point of time.

Articles for small businesses are a great way to promote your services and products and increase your search engine listings. You can even put keywords into your article and mention your business. This can be hyperlinked so when someone does a search for your business name, the article actually and all your other search listings outside of your normal web page show up. This makes you look like the expert in your field compared to your competitors who might only have a webpage.

By doing this process you can actually create many more search engine rankings for your business or organisation.

Small business is about being smart and taking in every single opportunity that you can to promote your products and services. Use the web to your advantage and commit to article writing and improve your business today.

For more information on the above check out our coaching programs at http://smallbusinessmastercoaching/coaching

For corporate coaching and corporate performance programs visit www.leapingthroughlife.com

Keep Leaping Through Life – Warm Regards Coach Cameron

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Increasing Profits, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business coaching, marketing ideas, ways to make money, website marketing

Business Success in the Long Run.

February 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who has been successfully running his small-business for over 25 years now.

He had some very good words of wisdom to share as he has been through the ups and the down. He has seen many challenges and problems come and go but hung in there through it all. He now feels like he is at the top of his game and ready to go down to the other side of the hill.

One of the keys to longevity in your business is taking care of yourself and your health. If you let yourself get run down and your health suffers you won’t be able to last the time in business like my friend of 25 years!

A lot of people underestimate the power that comes from having an unlimited supply of physical energy to run your business every single day. It takes a lot of effort and hard work to be successful at business it takes a lot of energy and a lot enthusiasm and your passion can die quickly if you don’t look after your mental and physical health.

Take some time out today to relax, rewind and recharge to insure that you can maintain your longevity in your small business success. This can be a simple process like having one afternoon a per week or to have a weekend off on a retreat with the family

Make certain you decide to do something that will allow you to pull back from your business for a short time. When you pull back slightly you will have more energy, creativity and passion to drive ahead and push harder when times are tough and challenges arise.

For more information about business coaching programs go to http://SmallBusinessMasterCoaching.com

For more information about team building and performance based services go to www.LeapingThroughLife.com.au

To download a free e-book on marketing PLUS a free audio program on how to pack IP products in your business to visit http://SmallBusinessMasterCoaching.com and click on download free e-book.

Here’s to your business success and the success in every area of your life!

Warm regards Coach Cameron

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business building, business coaching, business coaching services, business marketing

Achieving Small-Business Performance and Success.

February 16, 2011 8 Comments

As a business coach that specializes in coaching small businesses and supporting small business owners I often see many small-business owners becoming run down from running their small business on a daily basis. The thing they started to provide them with freedom and a choice in life, often when not managed well turns into personal stress, anxiety and pain.

It is important to maintain your optimal health and wellness as a business owner to ensure that you have the amount of energy and vitality that is required to drive your business to achieve optimal profits and productivity every single day of the year.

For you to be a successful business owner and perform at your peak it’s more about having time off from work that is being in at work.

Many small-business owners that I coach in our small business master coaching programs initially struggled with the work life balance and integrating their business successfully with their personal lives.

When I am business coaching with small-business owners I get them to employ a few key strategies to get them thinking clearly and to make sure that they can keep operating successfully over the long term.

These strategies include some work/life balance strategies and some work/life integration tools.

One of the strategies that I get small business owners to engage in immediately as I start coaching them is to take one day or shift off per week, each and every week. Just by taking an afternoon or morning off throughout the normal working week you will be able to drive your business harder at work and become more effective on the other days.

Typically these days off might be around midweek. I find that this is the best one to have off for me personally. Some people like to getaway early on Friday and only work Friday morning in their small-business and have Friday afternoon.

You decide what’s best for you and your family and loved ones. The idea is to not engage yourself into more work activities, however the time off is to spend with your family and loved ones to do stuff that you enjoy doing.

There is still plenty of hours in the week in which you can do your work and if you are running a small business successfully you shouldn’t have to be there every single day to hold its hand and spoon feed your employees.

The next strategy that I encourage small-business owners to take on board as I start coaching them in our small business programs is to add a date night once per month with their loved one, their husband or wife, or their significant other. This date night once a month ensures that they have some time away so that they can recharge and rewind with someone they truly care about and enjoy being with.

Again the idea here is not to talk about or discuss work activities, but just to enjoy the company and the atmosphere that you create together with your loved one. Nobody on their deathbed ever wishes they spend more time in the office, it is the time you spend with your loved ones and family that matters the most in the long run.

Business owners typically get very busy running their small businesses and managing their teams and therefore often forget about those that are very close to the and in their family. It is important to diaries and block out time with your family and loved ones just like you would block out time for your work commitments or team meetings. Use these date nights every month to spend with your loved one and reconnect with them on a more personal level.

The next strategy that I start talking to small-business owners about to ensure they have a successful and a balanced work/life integration is to make sure they have one weekend off every eight weeks. This weekend off is a time when they get to go away with their family or loved ones on the location other than the normal place of residence.

You can go somewhere simple that might be 30 minutes to an hour drive away from where you currently live. It does however; have to be a difference environment into what you normally would look at and be around. The idea here is to travel somewhere you haven’t been before, to see things you haven’t seen before, and to experience things you have not experienced before.

This will help you rewind and relax and make you a more effective and efficient team leader. Remember though you must diaries this and make sure it is something that you book in with your partner and all your family on a regular basis, and it must have a once every eight weeks and it should be for a minimum of two nights. So that’s two nights away every eight weeks to a place that you like to go that you haven’t been before so that you can rewind, recharge and relax.

This is a great work life balance strategy that I encourage everybody to do.

The last technique that I get small-business owners to implement straightaway when I start coaching in our small business master coaching programs is to book in their annual leave in advance over and above their staff or the other team members annual leave days.

Often small-business owners will juggle their own annual holidays around their staff. As small-business owners we take on all the risks and all responsibilities and yet we often are last ones that choose a date for annual leave. I encourage all small-business owners to take at least four weeks off every year; ideally you should be on annual leave either 2 x two week blocks or 4 x 1 week blocks. This excludes your holidays which are public holidays at Christmas and Easter. These are actual annual leave days for you to enjoy with your family and loved ones so that you can travel and enjoy your life. Traveling is a great way to see and experience new things and when you are relaxed can come up with more ideas and concepts about your business.

If you are a small-business owner and you’re running a successful business, then why not take advantage of this strategy and book in an overseas trip every year, if you’re not at the stage where you can book an overseas trip every year, considered doing it maybe once every second year. Remember being in business is more about just working hard every single day, you need to make sure that you keep performing at your absolute best as a human being, the more effectively you operate at work the more profits your business makes.

When running a small business we limit our own potential and creativity because we are so dead and busted just from running everyday routines.

Small business success is not always about working harder to make you more money, in small-business sometimes the opposite is true. You need time now to recharge, rewind and relax to be successful and to keep performing at the top of your game. Get started today and employ the above strategies to make sure you maintain a successful work life balance in your working and personal life.

For more information about our small business master coaching support and programs or to bok into a workshop or workshops please visit http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com/

For information about our corporate coaching programs and team building events please go to www.leapingthroughlife.com.au

Here’s to your business and life success

Warm regards Coach Cameron

PS for a free e-book or a free audio program please go to our website and download your copy now by clicking here.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, Increasing Profits, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business coaching services, corporate coaching, health and wellness in the workplace, life coach

Effective Leadership for Small Business Owners and Management Teams.

February 12, 2011 2 Comments

In any small business or corporate company leadership has its challenges and rewards.

The effective leader must be prepared to do the hard yards and also need to work smart. An effective leader is someone who can not only manage people well but also manage themselves well. Leadership can be learned, you don’t have to be born leader to be successful as a leader.

In our small business master coaching support programs we develop leaders through many strategies and techniques. Many times we develop the person’s strengths. At other times we may need to focus on the person’s weaknesses. As a leader you are as responsible for people who are underneath you, beside you and above you within your organization or team.

I once read that leadership is developed daily and not in a day. To develop your skills as a leader you need to invest in yourself first. You should be attending courses on leadership, sales and marketing.

In fact any area in your small business or life that requires an additional boost to improve its performance, these are the areas that you should be focusing on as a leader to develop personally.

As a leader you need to read books and listen to audio programs daily. You should write articles for other people on leadership. You need to invest in yourself more than you invest in anything else. Your potential as a person is limited by the amount of time, energy and finance you invest into your personal life to grow exponentially as a leader.

Ask yourself the following questions in regards to your small business or organization?

“Do people follow me because I tell them to or do they follow me because I motivate them to?”
“Do people follow me because of my position? Do people follow me because they want to? “
“If I were to approach my team how would they rate me out of 10 for my leadership skills and what score do I think that would give me?”
“When was the last time that I encouraged those that I work with me?”
“When did I help someone complete a job at work and lead by example?”
“When I go to work, do I use scare tactics on my people?” A good leader will always inspire people, a leader is not just someone who scares people into doing jobs or tasks.
“As the leader of my family how do I represent the values that I would like instilled into my children?”
“What sort of a leader am I in my own community and local region?”
“How can I improve on my leadership skills within the next six months?”
“What else do I need to do as a small-business owner or manager to ensure the success of my business or company over many years?”

Well there you have it – a few excellent tips on how we improve leadership skills and why that is important to the profits, performance and productivity of your small business or organization.

Remember if you would like more information about our business coaching products and small business coaching events please go to http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com and download your free e-book on effective marketing techniques.

To book a corporate coaching and team building event go to www.leapingthroughlife.com.au

Here’s to your Business Success – Keep Leaping Through Life.

Warm Regards – Coach Cameron.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business building, business coaching, business coaching services, business marketing, making money in business, self belief in business

Business myth – customers are always right

February 6, 2011 5 Comments

Small business coaching, business profits and corporate performance is often about relationships as much as it is about profits, performance and productivity. I am sure you have heard it many times before, that old saying that customers are always right. If however you have been in business for more than 10 minutes, then you will know and understand that these urban business myth is not actually true. Customers can be and are often wrong.

Take for example if a customer in your small business is not educated about your product or service, it is hard for them to be correct and right about what you have to offer if they are uneducated about what it is they are buying. It is therefore your job in small business to make sure that they clearly know what they outlined and what your small business product or service will help them do or achieve.

Another area that the customer of a small business is not always right in, is the price of your product or service. I have seen many small business customers come into my small business models, assuming they knew up front what my small business service would be worth compared to my competitors. However my service was always a unique niche product, and therefore the price reflected this and was always a couple of percentage points higher than my competitors. The small business service that we offered was far different and superior to competitors – so our price was a reflection of this this.

Another area in small business where customers may not always be right, is in the terms of trade. You have to set out clearly in advance what your small business payment options are, what happens if the customer a small business misses a payment, if there are any refund policies, and any penalties that may apply for late payments.

Personally as a small-business owner with over a dozen small business awards, I find that it is this area that can cause the most conflict between the customer and the small business. In many cases when I am small business coaching, I find it is the customer that has filed to read your terms and conditions, or they just straight out refuse to accept your policies and procedures on your terms of trade. A small percentage of customers in any small business will often try to bend the rules to their advantage to avoid paying late fees or penalties that may apply for not paying on time or keeping their memberships or fees up today.

As a small business coach, I highly encourage you and your staff to stand as a united front, so that they don’t get a different answer off another staff member when they call your small business back at a later time. The answers that your small business is to customers that try to manipulate your terms and conditions of payment must be consistent at every point of sale with every staff member. Even when your small business has fully explain the terms and conditions of payment up front with a customer as they join your small business or buy your product, and they have a copy of that to take home to read and understand – you will still get that small minority of people that will bend the rules in your small business for their own personal advantage. These people can cause havoc to your small business and your small business profits, because they then tell other people how they manipulated your small business payment options and policies to suit their particular needs. Then when their friends or associates come into your small business they will expect that they will be able to manipulate your payment options and policies as well.

This is like a bad disease in your small business and its profits and performance plus it can spread like wildfire and get out of control really fast.

Are customers always right? Yes, most of the time customers are right, however it is a myth to think that customers are right 100% of the time.

Small business success thrives on happy customers they keep coming back to your small business. A sure fire way to make customers unhappy is to keep changing your terms of trading and payment conditions frequently to those people that jump up and down and make the most noise.

Why should your best customers be penalized because they do the right thing, when a customer who was just come on board or recently purchased your product or service wants to manipulate your small business systems to suit their own personal needs and hidden agendas.

Profits, Performance and Productivity

Keep Leaping Through Life – warm regards, Coach Cameron.

If you would like a free e-book on networking and cost effective marketing techniques go http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com/download-e-book/ or for more information about how we can support you in your small business to produce more profits performance increase productivity click here to contact us.

Filed Under Boosting Performance, Business Management, New Business Owner Tips, Training and Development Tagged With business building, business coaching, business coaching services, business performance, making money in business

New Business Owners – Top Business Coaching Tips

February 3, 2011 4 Comments

The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine who has opened a brand-new business over the last six months.

What I find with new businesses and new business owners is that they are very green when it comes to marketing and advertising their business with the best possible returns on their investment and advertising dollars. For instance this particular person, initially runoff around 3000 Flyers that she intended to use throughout her local community through letterbox drops. After the first 300 were distributed, they never got around to doing the other 2700.

This friend of mine was actually working in the business more as an employee and whilst she was an employee in her own business – this prevented her from growing her business even more then she thought was possible.

Business owners need to understand that initially you might have to do some hard yards and get your hands dirty in your business and be an employee of your own business, however it is important and imperative to understand that for you to grow your profits in your business – you must stet back from being an employee and start being a business owner.

Your job as a business owner is to make sure that your business is profitable and performs at its peak every single day that you are open for trading.

So my first piece of coaching advice to any new business owner – is to stop being another employee in their own business and to understand that for the business to grow and for it to make more money – they are going to have to work harder “ON” the business rather than work hard “IN” the business.

My second business coaching piece of advice for my new business owner friend was to get a referral program going with their existing clientele. I advised them to come up with some loyalty program where their current clients received some form of incentive for recommending new clients. This can be as simple as a little card with a percentage off any future services or it may be a complimentary gift or product that they can offer. It’s just something small that they can give to an existing client to say thank you for referring a friend or a family member to their business and its service or products.

The next business coaching piece of advice that I gave my friend, was to increase their prices immediately. Most business owners are scared of raising prices. This however is one of the sure fire ways for you to make more money in your business. An annual price rise does not even have to be at the same time for everybody.

You can actually stager your price increases in accordance to how many clients you have. For example your first 10 to 20 clients, you may charge $100 for your service. From 20 clients to 30 clients you may charge $110 for your service. Then for every 10 clients after that you keep adding another $10 to $20 on top of your price until you get to a point where you know that you are happy and competitive within the marketplace. One of the quickest ways to go out of business is to continually be the cheapest in town. This is particularly true with small businesses. At all times avoid going into competition on price alone and having a “price war” with a competitor – regardless of their size.

The next business coaching advice I gave my friend was to come up with some policies and procedures for not only herself but for her staff and for her future clients. I encouraged her to make sure that she has a policy for all new clients that join up. Some sort of join up form that was done on her computer as a Word document – just a one page form which you should have that she can capture information about the client and the client understands the terms of trading and her terms of payment requirements.

This is very important because you want to be upfront with new prospects so that they clearly understand your terms of business and how you expect to be paid for the service that you offer.

I also encouraged her to have a policy for when she puts on new staff. This is so new staff members understand exactly what is expected of them. There they will know the standards at which she expects them to perform within her business. The last set of policies that I encouraged her to put into place were in relation to how the business runs how she wants her services to operate and how she would like things to be done in her business on a daily basis. She needs to write these policies out so that if anyone was to buy her business tomorrow they should just be able to look at the policies and run her business straight away.

It is almost like you are coming up with an instruction manual on how to run your business. Imagine if you bought a new TV or a new gadget or a new piece of furniture and it didn’t come with instructions on how you have to put it all together and then some pieces were missing, well this is how some people run their small business. It becomes ineffective and unproductive.

The last piece of business coaching advice I gave my friend was to work on her mindset. I encouraged her to think outside the current realm of what she thought was possible for her business to achieve results beyond her wildest dreams. At present the business is being held back because of her limited thinking. She believed that her business could only handle a certain amount of clients and run with a certain amount of staff. The truth was that she is in an industry where her business could possibly grow exponentially and become a franchise model. The business could easily replace her income and her family’s income and achieve financial success beyond her wildest dreams. But for this to happen she must change her mind set on what she believes her business is possible of achieving.

Your business is limited on its potential to grow, make money and return profits year after year by your positive or your negative mindset and how you think your business.

Be certain that you work with your business coach to come up with strategies and keys for you to be a positive mindset person so that no matter what challenges you face in one day you can always come up with a solution to a problem or challenge. Remember positive people always get more done than negative people in any area of life.

I trust all of the above has been really useful information for you to take on board and grow your business exponentially. If you would like to tap into our resources please visit our online business resource store at www.CoachCamerons.com

For more information about our business coaching programs, please go to www.smallbusinessmastercoaching.com and click on the coaching section.

For a FREE e.Book on effective and cost-efficient marketing techniques click on http://smallbusinessmastercoaching.com/download-e-book/

Until next time – Keep Leaping Through Life - warm regards, Coach Cameron

Filed Under Marketing and Selling, New Business Owner Tips Tagged With business building, business coaching services, coach cameron, self belief in business