Do Business Plans Really Work in Real Life?

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Derek ODwyer

If you speak to business owners all over the world, you will hear the following:

“I prepared a business plan which got me a loan but did not reflect how the business fared at all.”

“Most of the assumptions that I made in my business plan were wrong and the plan did not work”

“My business plan lacked any real insight into what really happens in business”

“you cant plan for my business – its too un-predictable”

“I have not got time to do a plan – I’m too busy (not making money)”

And these are the reasons why most people fail to plan. Too often, plans are too broad brush, too long terms and fail to cover the specifics of what has to be done, today, tomorrow, next week and the week after.

If you would like to get down to the nitty gritty, to identify the top 10 things that you must do in your business in the next 3 months, then you need to attend GrowthCLUB.

Book your event today in Galway on January 9th or Ennis on January 16th

If you you like to work on a personal business plan outside these dates contact me today.

 

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Why business owners must perservere

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

There are so many good businesses in Ireland today. Their product is good, their service is good, the after sales support is good, their people are good. But in many cases they are not as successful as they should be. With poor cash flow you can often get dips in service, reduction in products quality and inconsistency in sales and marketing. Shame if this happens to your business.

This inconsistency can often spiral out of control and leave all these good companies teetering on the edge. And often for no good reason. They have all made sales, they have all been paid but they have not achieved consistency. Or they have stopped doing what works in their business.

An important aspect of sales and marketing is to test and measure every aspect of your sales and marketing. This way you can make solid informed decisions and reduce the amount of money you have to spend to make each sale. Because people do not measure, they often get tired of running sales and marketing strategies that actually work and that do not cost them much. And then the cashflow dis-improves and then their business struggles and then they do not know what they should do.

To learn how to improve your consistency contact me today….

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Who do you blame in your business

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

Something gone wrong in your business? Find someone to blame fast…

How often does it happen in your business where you hear excuse after excuse about why  things are not being done, why customers and not being treated correctly, missed deliveries, missed deadlines, wrong deliveries, wrong margins, low sales. After excuses very often come blame. Each team member want to blame someone else in their business or someone external to the business like the customer or the supplier or the minister for finance or the bank manager.?

If your business suffers from “Blame” and “Excuse” overload, you will find it extremely difficult to make a profit in your business. Its the same as playing a game of football with a group of uncommitted players. The only difference in the game of football is that they would be substituted immediately, or you as the manager would be removed by either the players or the board.

The opposite to tolerating “blame” and “excuse” is to introduce a system of “Ownnership” and “Accountability” to your business. More than anything else, this attitudinal and behavioural change will dramatically alter the result you are achieving in your business.

One word of warning – “The Change Has To Start With YOU”  Are you ready and prepared to work harder on yourself so that you can lead a high performance team?

Call 087 222 0720 today to begin the process….

 


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How to get more sales in your business

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

If your business is suffering from a lack of sales, you have a number of options:

1. You can work more hours!

2. You can get better at selling!

Which option carries the most appeal for you? When you consider that the number 1 reason for business failure is burnout, it would seem that far too many people opt for the “work harder” approach. Why is this? Is it because they are afraid to look closely at themselves and their approach to selling and marketing. Are they in danger of getting caught in a rut.

If you own a business, your mantra should be:

“work harder on myself than I do on my business”

If you adopt this as your approach to business, it will cause you to learn more, challenge yourself to explore better ways of doing this, cause you to consider leverage in your business, stop you from being the busy foll and ultimately will lead you to success.

Many business owners make the fatal mistake of not improving their business as time goes by. They may change their products and they way the make the product but do they change their approach to customers and sales, their approach to their team. The answer is no.

If your business needs more sales, ask yourself this question. – How many sales do we make from every 10 enquiries that we get for our product or service. Ifs its less than 6, then you need to work on your sales process.

If you business need more enquiries because your conversion rate is great, then thats all about marketing and understanding who you are targeting and how to get to them.

To make sure that you maximise the return that you get from your marketing and sales, contact Derek on 087 222 0720 today.

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If you have poor team members – what do you do?

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

So you’ve got a team member that you wish you did not have. One of the following has  happened:

1. Your hiring system did not pick out the flaws in the character of the individual

2. You did not provide sufficient training for the individual

3. You did not provide the correct leadership for the individual

or it could be a combination of all three. Either way, its your problem and you have to deal with it.

Before you hire your next team member, decide exactly what it is you are looking for, decide on specific goals for them and decide who will manage them. To manage a person properly, you should first understand your own management style. There is no point getting a team member in who like a lot of coaxing and encouragement if you are the type of manager who just wants to issue the instruction and get the response. Its not fair on you or them.

When a new team member starts, they have to be shown the ropes properly and you have to take the time to induct them properly. Otherwise, they will make up their own rules and they will become troublesome. Not their problem but yours!

Most people who for for an employer or manager do so because they want to be a follower rather than a leader. Thats your job and if you are not a natural leader, learn as much as you can about becoming one. Most of the leadership strategies can be learnt, but most people invest little or noting developing the skill. If you are a good leader, giving your team members, clear objectives and guidelines and proceed to hold them accountable, your team will react. They will either react positively or leave quickly – either way you win.

If you want to find out more about building a winning team call Derek on 087 222 0720 today. By the way – there is an old saying “You get the team you deserve” How true is that for you?

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Sell the Sizzle not the Steak

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

At ActionCOACH we define selling as “Professionally helping people to buy”. Its based on the principle that people hate to be sold to but they love to buy things.

The most common mistake that people who go into sales make, is that they think that they have to be great at talking and that they have to talk all about their product and the features of their product or service.  The reality is that the customer probably does not actually want the product or service that you are offering but they may want what the product or service delivers. i.e when a person asks for a drill bit in a hardware store, do they really want a drill bit or do they want a hole in the wall?!!

I recently witnessed a presentation on a product which “featured” a lot of technical detail. I observed that the sales person had lost the crowd within 2 minutes because he was blinding them with technical information. The product he was selling could help the same business really increase their sales and profits but he missed the point and missed the sale. If he had asked them first about what they expected from the product and how they would measure their return on investment, he would have had a greater degree of success.

If your sales approach needs to change to reflect today’s market then take action now. Call us on 065 707 9873. You may not want to have a business coach but you may want what we can deliver – increased profits guaranteed.

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Attention Business Owners….

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

 

GrowthCLUB is the most powerful day of planning any business owner will ever  experience.

At the end of this day, you will have clarity on your top priorities and a personalized plan for the next 90 days that will help you make more money and work fewer hours.

Business owners, this is also a great opportunity to network with 30 other business owners from the community.

GrowthCLUB
Friday, October 7th 2011, Clayton Hotel, Galway

Sign up today! Seats are limited and they’re going fast!
Click on this link to register! 

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How Well do you Sell Yourself? The 12 x 12 x 12 Rule

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

If you are in business and it’s success depends on your ability to sell, then you may need to take a close look at yourself because peoples’ perception of you will directly reflect the success you achieve.

Consider the rule of 12 x 1 2 x 12

1. How do you look from 12 Feet Away

  • How professional do you look – do you reflect the best in your industry
  • How do you hold yourself and how do you walk – What does your physiology say about you?
  • How aware are you of your surroundings and how present are you?

 

2. How do you look from 12 Inches

  • How is your greeting and handshake 
  • How is your attitude and does it reflect your positives or negatives. Will people want to spend time with you
  • How focused are you on what is going right in your life?
3.What are the first 12 words that you say?
  1. Every professional must be able to present themselves succinctly to the point that what you say, triggers a question from the person you are speaking with.
  2. Your message must be simple and not contain more than 1 or 2 items
  3. Your message must be relevant to the other person in the conversation.
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How Resisting Change Can Kill Your Business

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

Your ability to embrace change, make decisions and take massive action will directly affect the progress your business takes in the next 3 months.

In fact it will have a greater effect on your business than any external force such as recession, people not spending, people being scared or people looking for cheaper goods and services.

To counter these external influences, we as business people must react and we must react in a way that will have a positive effect. Simply doing nothing is not an option, but that is what most people are doing. And they are doing this out of FEAR. Fear will kill your business.

You see, a business is like a tree, its either growing or dying. If you business is not growing or it is stagnating, then you must make some changes today.

To assist you in making these changes, we suggest that you start off with a plan. Where do you want your business to be in 3 years time and what will it look like? Then where do you want it to be in 1 year?  Then where do you want it to be in 90 days from now? Where is it right now? The steps that you have to make to get it to your 90 day objective should be obvious Its just a matter of putting them into practice. one at a time.

If you decide to make one change per week in your business, it will probably be done

If you decide to make 2 changes in your business per week, they will sometimes get done

If you decide to change 3 things in your business per week, they will rarely get done.

Choose to change one thing every week.

“Coached Businesses Grow Faster than Business without a Coach” – According to a study carried out by Cogent Research in June 2011.

 

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T.E.A.M – Together Everyone Achieves More

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Derek ODwyer

T.E.A.M. – Together Everyone Achieves More!

Peter Drucker, the legendary management consultant and author says this about leadership:

“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we;’ they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…this is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

I work with business owners helping them to build high performance teams – Contact me today for your FREE Business and Team Assessment

 

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