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

According to an article in the Telegraph, 660,000 new companies are registered in the UK every year, which is equal to 70 new businesses being formed every hour! Unfortunately, this same article highlights that 60% of those businesses will go under within three years and 20% after just 12 months! So, what are the challenges and how can you start a business and focus on the skills you need to develop in order to sustain your venture for the long-term? It All Starts with You! T

There is so much emphasis on giving value nowadays, but what does that really mean for you and how people perceive you? Whether you are a business owner or an employed professional, we are all aiming to do our best and to be recognised for the work we do. However, because we all have different strengths, abilities and ways of working, the goal is to create value in a way that helps you to get what you want as well as delivering what your clients expect? Understanding Expectat

There are so many reasons why personal branding is essential for your professional and personal development. If you’re looking to stand out in your industry or profession for the issues that matter to you, making amazing connections and increase your following, you need to know how to create the X-Factor with your personal branding. Having a personal brand doesn’t mean you need to be famous and it doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to copy what other people are doing eith

For those of us who work directly with clients in a service-based business, gaining their trust and empathising with their challenges is the first step in developing a relationship which in many cases will ideally be long-term and loyal. Unlike with a product-based business where customers have an idea of what they want and are able to search to find a match for their requirements, providing a service adds another dimension into the mix in that they need to interact directly

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

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

The short answer is yes! Personal style can be attributed in two ways; communication and image. How they both impact on your personal brand really does depend on what you do. The focus may be on one over the other or they may be in equal balance. When you are looking to building relationships with people, how you approach them and what you look like will factor in the opinion they form of you, so it’s important for you to understand what your style is and how to develop it ef

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

When I started my business, I had all sorts of ideas about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Having come from a background in financial services I started out focusing on helping firms with their financial promotions marketing and it worked…but something still didn’t feel right about what I was doing. So, by chance gained a new client from a completely different industry and decided that because marketing was subjective only by industry but the tactics where appl

I’m honoured to be able to work with some great individuals and business owners to help them learn how to use their talent/skills, experience and knowledge to build their leadership, influence and authority with their audience by creating a strong personal brand. It is great that we are living in a world where we all equally have communication platforms at our finger tips that allow us to connect, educate and learn from each other on a day to day basis. However, what I also d

Our bodies are something we have to live with…like them or not! However, having to deal with so many stereotypical expectations of what we should or shouldn’t look like has meant that in relation to confidence, our bodies and how we look play a huge role in how we deal with the situations that life presents to us. From my own personal experience, I have always had confidence issues with my body from a very young age and even today, now I’m in my forties, as much as I have lea

A part of what I do is based on personal development. Yes, I am a brand and marketing consultant, so for me, being at your best is what helps to make you successful as a person professionally and personally. I practice and extoll my 3 M’s to myself and my clients in order to help them understand why this matters to them as a business and as a person. Mindset, Motivation and Momentum, which in turn should help master the 4th M which is Manifestation. We are living in an age of

So, here’s the first of my personal brand review blogs that I am starting to help you understand the importance of managing your personal brand and the impact it can have both positive and negative. I’ve chosen Theresa May to start with because she is an iconic figure in British politics for arguably the right and wrong reasons when you look at her personal brand. To give some context, personal branding focuses on two key areas – image and personality. When managed effective

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

This is one of those self-development areas that many people struggle with and it can be the difference between success and failure in many cases. Without confidence doubt and fear take over and push you backwards, sacrificing your happiness as well as your success. I know this from my own personal experience as this is an area that I have struggled with and it has held me back from moving forward and achieving my goals and dreams. I spent a long time in a job I loved not sho

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