As an entrepreneur who didn’t come from a sales background, this was one of the areas I found the most challenging when I started my business and sometimes even now it’s something that can get the better of me on occasion. Even if you’ve come from a sales background, there’s a huge mindset shift you must make from selling someone else’s products and services to selling your own, especially as a coach or consultant. When selling your expertise and knowledge, the people who hav

If you look at most social media adverts from internet marketing experts, it’s not difficult to get caught up in thinking that stating a business is easy and very low cost. Whilst it’s not necessarily untrue that getting your business online can be a minimal outlay, there are many costs that new entrepreneurs don’t consider when they start-up. In part 1 of this article we are going to look specifically at your potential start-up costs and then in part 2 we will move on to mai

As a coach and a consultant myself, it’s important to understand the difference between these two roles, as a lot of people mix them up because there can be some overlap in how these services are provided. However, they are two distinct business models. People hire coaches and consultants because they are looking for support and guidance in the areas of their lives or professions where they are struggling or have a lack of confidence. Ultimately, coaches and consultants are t

The only way a business survives is for it to implement a growth strategy that maintains a steady stream of clients to increase cash-flow and profit. This was one of the biggest challenges I faced in my business and it’s one that many business owners – large and small struggle with. It’s much easier to start a business now than it was 15 years ago. The internet has created so many opportunities for new entrepreneurs to be up and running online in less than 24 hours! On the fl

If you’re in the service industry and you’ve been thinking about starting a business or you have just started one, focusing on your brand development in the early stages will help ensure your progression and growth is more easily maintained than waiting until you are fully established. Having worked in the service industry for over 25 years, when I finally took the step to start my business, I knew it would be challenging but I was ready to embrace that challenge and everythi

There are literally thousands of different awards for businesses and individuals to enter nowadays, but deciding on which ones to enter and leveraging the benefits for your brand awareness and overall business growth is a decision that should be based on strategy if it is really to add kudos to your brand! Different awards have different entry requirements and legitimacy themselves. The high profile prestigious awards for your industry or profession are probably the harder on

The social space is now so full on, that developing the consistent quality content that will create engagement and increase your visibility is a dedicated role that many businesses either outsource or employ in-house, to ensure they get it right. So, what does ‘engagement’ really mean and how do you make your content something that your followers want to engage with? As with everything client/customer/follower related, you are essentially delivering high quality value content

It seems like almost every week there is another brand cutting jobs and closing stores around the UK and no doubt other countries are being affected too. The latest names on the British high street hit list in addition to Toys R Us and Maplin who went into administration in February, New Look last week announced the closure of 60 stores and almost 1,000 jobs cuts, with other chains such as Moss Bros, CarpetRight, Next and Mothercare, likely to follow suit! It’s doesn’t paint

When it comes to business branding, there are several motivations for developing a brand strategy. In this article, I highlight three of the most significant ones with an overview of the what, why, when and how reasons for using them in your business and your brand development. Firstly, it’s important to note that the overall purpose of branding is to create a relationship with your target audience; customer or client, that delivers a high-quality experience to create brand p

Yep – the New Year is only now less than three weeks away and if you haven’t started your campaign plan for 2018, you need to make that the last thing so that you hit January running! Every business needs to run campaigns in order to drive awareness of their products and services with the ultimate aim of generating new leads and sales. Campaigns should be an integral and regular part of your lead and retention marketing month-to-month and depending on your industry or market

Building a brand is about developing an idea, an image and a perception into a preference for a product or service. Only in more recent years with social media becoming such an influence on decision making has personal branding become more of a focus, creating powerful influencers who have the skills, experience and knowledge to drive awareness of products and services in a way that many businesses struggle to do with traditional forms of marketing. Influencers invest in thei

Starting a business is one thing, building a brand is quite another! There are so many different ways to start a business and as technology and innovation improves in the coming years, no doubt it will become even easier and quicker to start up your own enterprise. However, as a business that means with increased competition it is now even more important to focus on how you build a brand. Why, because a creating a sustainable brand is what will help you stand out and continue

No one can say they don’t like to be appreciated for what they do! We all have an inbuilt desire to feel valued, but that value is really determined by the perception you create through your words and actions. What people think and feel about us will always be determined by perception. If you want someone to see you as professional and knowledgeable then you should position yourself in that way. Likewise, if you don’t want people to perceive you as being flashy and materia