Good afternoon all. Just a quick blog today about the weekend. Decided to take the Saturday off and had a lovely relaxing weekend with the family. However it turned into a Busman’s holiday weekend, as I ended up talking to people about business, quite by accident. The theme was the same throughout… price. The inability to get a fair price for their goods and services.

 A blog by the wonderful Seth Godin came into my head. It was the issue he had with Mobile phones. One that I’m sue we can all relate to: The frustration that it doesn’t take a lot before the reception is poor and for the signal to drop. His observation, would you pay a few dollars more a month for a high-definition phone? A phone that always gave crystal clear quality and as long as you weren’t on the underground or a basement, actually worked. I’m sure you like me you would tend to say, if it truly was such a thing as a high def phone, I’d pay for the comfort of knowing it would always work…

 The business owners I met throughout the weekend, worked in very niche business areas where quality over quantity was easier than most to communicate, so what was the problem?

Two things, the last impression they left with their clients was price, so price was in essence all they would be measured upon and secondly, they wrapped their products in mundane “packaging”. If it looks cheap, then I ain’t going to pay a premium for it, am I? For a business owner I met on Sunday, due to the recession, the jars in which he placed his produce, went from these ornate glass sculptures to standard unassuming jars. Guess what it did for sales? The produce looks as if I can get it in my local supermarket, why would I buy it from you?

 Think about it, would you by a Jaguar from a garage that looked liked working man’s armpit? Course not, similarly if you have a 10yr old fiat punto, your not going to take it to Arnold Clark, knowing the cost of an oil change will be more than the car is worth.

 Another simpler analogy. A coffee/tea from a greasy spoon café vs. a trendy coffee house. Is the thing your drinking THAT different? So why does one cost you 90 pence and the other £2-£3?

 So ask yourself, do you end your conversation on price, or quality and reliability (of both the product and you)? Do you “package” your product to reflect its quality.

Last I looked, other than the east end of Glasgow, not many greasy spoon café’s are left in Glasgow. So do you have a high-def product but sell and package it as something less? All through fear?

 Lastly as we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life, we have choices, what will you choose today?

The Return of the Business Coach

I’m going to start with a statement that seems counter productive to my profession;

Business Training is largely a waste of time and money.

The easiest way to explain this would be to recall a quote from one of our previous clients, Francis:

 Training in any form largely concerns itself with the transfer of knowledge. Unfortunately many of us will know the things we ought to be doing more of but we fail to understand the importance of key tasks.

This is where coaching comes into play and in particular Business Coaching. However we are dealing with an unregulated industry, so we as a company dropped the term “Business Coach” two years ago. Why? Because ask your self, every time you go to a networking event, how many coaches do you meet. As many as Graphic/Web Designers I would wager. Most of these coaches are life/NLP or confidence coaches, or worse still Accountants who claim to offer a coaching service, but in fact offer a business advisory service, which again deals with a transfer of knowledge.

So in all this murky water, what is a Business Coach and why on Earth would you need one?

Simple really. A Business Coach is a professional that has the necessary understanding of what works commercially and has the skill set to communicate that knowledge in such a way that, simply put, you ‘get it’ enough to take affirmative action which leads to results, both commercially and personally.

I’II give you another example, a client of mine, was sent on a 4 day management development course that is part and parcel with large corporate enterprises. 3 months down the line, she was still grappling with line management delegation. Having the good sense to pick up the phone we had a coffee and to quote her:

Now I won’t lie, I was very flattered and because she ‘got it’ perhaps in her enthusiasm she exaggerated a little. I simply helped her translate knowledge she had picked up from the course into a level of understanding she could use.

So we made a decision last month, we are reclaiming the title and setting a new bar that all “business coaches” must adhere to give themselves credibility.

If you are working with a Business Coach, then they ought to be able to agree to the following:
1. Inspiring the need to develop both yourself AND the business
2. Motivating you to take/find the internal resolve that leads to affirmative actions that drive the business forwards.
3. Lay business processes in place that move the enterprise away from an owner operated model to one that operates with a strong management board
4. Lastly and most importantly, is prepared to guarantee if they fail to educate, inspire and transform your business, then they will return their programme fees.

So ask yourself, ‘How big is the well of your business knowledge?’ And then ask, ’How much of this do you actually use day to day?’ If you actually did all of the things you ought to do, what would be the result?
The excuses of time, money, the economy are I’m sorry to say just statements of denial. Just look at our results http://www.templetongreen.com/our-results/ and you’ll see that we cut thru the quagmire of denial and excuses and help you gain the necessary understanding to move your business forwards.

With our new Programs Launching this month, we offer a money back guarantee, if it does not deliver a strong commercial result in line with the results we have shown above, we will give you a full refund at the end of the course. So finally I ask you, does the benefit of working with a Templeton Green Business Coach out weight the risk of staying with the status quo.

Get in touch for a needs analysis to find out which of our new programs are best for you and with training grants available, the investment becomes extremely attractive for you to push forwards the business and gain the commercial success you deserve.

Lastly as we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life, we have choices, what will you choose today?

There is a famous story by Napoleon Hill. It goes something like this:

There was a cat who liked to sit on the stove. One day he accidently sat on the hot stove. That cat never sat on the hot stove again. In fact he never sat on the stove when cold either. He simply got out of the business of sitting on stoves… He ‘over-learned’ from experience…

So why recap this story? Last week, I was treated to lunch by two successful business owners who both appeared to share traits with the cat in our story and herein lies the truth of the past few years.

Regardless of industry, the overwhelming majority of us have had to adapt to how we do business. We’ve seen our markets move, the strength of business relationships tested and the need to be less cavalier about spending.

The danger of over-learning from our experience is we begin to see everything we do as a prelude to disaster and walk the cautious path. We all know this path, the prudent and careful one, forgetting that it was the opposite of such behaviour that lead to our entrepreneurial desire and success. So we willingly move from one extreme to the other under the justification that we’re in tough times.

So what’s the result? We create a business that is starved of success, creativity and most importantly joy. With the green shoots of recovery becoming evident (go on, I dare you to take off those pessimistic specs and take a REAL look), we are all in danger of being the cat that tentatively goes back into the market place, that slows growth and confirms our worst fears, we’re not ready. We’ve forgotten what a calculated risk is. We just see the problem in things.

So how to improve? How to find a balance between caution and the cavalier? Here are three tips:

1. Write down your optimistic and pessimistic expectations for the task ahead.
2. Clearly write down the risks to success. Now this can be hard to see. We can be in denial about the real risks, so explain it someone who is not directly related to you business. Someone’s whose opinion you trust. If you can explain to them the task without using jargon, then you are more than half way there.
3. Look at both the Profitability and the cashflow requirements of the task. These are different. If a new venture/product/service has a high gross profit but the customer payments are delayed, you could find yourself out of business.

 Lastly as we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life, we have choices, what will you choose today?

Starting a business is hard. But keeping one going is even harder.Scotlandhas an unenviable business failure rate compared to the rest of theUK, with 60% of start-up companies failing within the first three years of business, and an alarming 80% going under within five. There are, of course, many reasons why a business fails, but more can be done to ensure new business owners are fully prepared for the hard work and the 24/7 attention required to keep a new venture afloat.

 Starting a business, in my eyes, is similar to owning a pet for the first time. We create this ideology of how much fun it’ll be and the benefits we will receive from having one. But it’s not until you actually get the pet or start the business that you realise there’s a lot of clearing up, hard work and dedication required to get the most out of it.

 For example, looking after a dog is more than simply enjoying long summer walks with man’s best friend – whether you like it or not, your dog needs feeding, regular exercise (regardless of the torrential rain outside), bathing and taken to the vet when it isn’t well – a costly exercise in itself – not to mention endless amounts of attention and cleaning up after it.

 Do it right and your dog will be your best friend. Do it wrong and it’ll take its appreciation elsewhere – leave the gate open and it’ll be gone.

 When my niece, aged six, asked for a pet, she was given a Tamagotchi – a virtual pet which needs to be fed and cared for just like a real one. If she could keep it alive for two weeks then a real pet would be considered. She was the perfect owner for a couple of days but she soon became bored asking her parents to look after the pet. Within a week, two virtual pets were on their way to digital heaven.

 If potential business owners were forced to successfully run a Tamagotchi-style virtual business before they received funding from banks and business start-up agencies, how many would actually be granted the cash?

 Funding bodies might be more inclined to say yes if people can prove they can cope with everything a business can throw at them – they might even invest a little more.

 The internet hosts an array of virtual games where virtual beings make friends, earn money and eat, so I see no reason why we can’t create a similar environment for trialling businesses and their owners.  Real business issues could easily replace fighting and car racing challenges on the web.

 If you own a business, and particularly if you don’t employ anyone, you are responsible for everything – cleaning, tax returns, facing the public, ordering stock – and when you’re relying on yourself to do all these things on top of what you perceive as your job, it sometimes becomes more than you can manage.

 All too often, I see business owners struggling because they hadn’t thought about who would look after the business when they’re on holiday or didn’t really like doing the finances, so constantly pushed them aside. You might have a great product or service to offer the market but if the back office tasks aren’t completed properly and poor decisions are taken your business won’t survive.

 Maybe it’s time we started urging businesses to prove they can hack it in the digital world before they come a cropper in this one.

 Lastly as we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life, we have choices, what will you choose today?

A warm and Merry Christmas to everyone

During this festive period, we thought we would share the true story for business owners of the classic film “A Miracle on 34th Street”. In particular the 1994 remake with Lord Richard Attenborough

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, we have a classic independant department store, Coles, that is struggling and under threat of being taken over and shut down by a global faceless conglomerate (boo hiss go the pantomine calls). They hire a Santa, calling himself Kris Kringle. The story unfolds over whether or not Santa Claus exists and the truth that miracles can still happen regardless of your age and regardless of what others may tell you otherwise…

However the true meaning for business is the truth of Co-opetition. i.e. co-operation with your competitors.

In the story Coles Santa informs the shoppers of where they can go to obtain the best bargain for the particular present they are looking for. On the face of it, the owners and manages of the department store would be horrified to learn that here is an employee, steering customers away from what they wanted to sell and actively advising shoppers to go elsewhere for business.

What Madness!

The truth is they used this as their USP (Unique Selling Point). If Coles Dept store hasn’t got it , we’ll find it for you. It is an overnight success and Cole’s once more becomes the highlight for every child at Christmas and for the grateful parent who will receive some sound advice this yuletide.

Now given the current climate, we all need help with increasing sales and business, wouldn’t you agree? Instead of working against one another, what would be the result if you worked together with your competitors for mutual benefit?

Of course, you need to be clear on the rules and boundaries and agree on a plan of action, but would the benefit outweigh the risk of going it alone?

So ask yourself, which competitor if you were working alongside, would actually help your business? Just like Cole’s department store, think of how your prospective client will react and not to allow your own fears to get in the way of some powerful business oppurtunities…

We have faciliated these discussions and know that they work, if all parties have the courage and determination to allow business oppurtunities to come their way. As we say at Templeton Green, it is your choice, what will it be?

Enjoy what remains of the year and enjoy the holidays with friends and family

From everyone at Templeton Green, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 huge thank you to Mark Johnston of Grid Design a client of ours who is the inspired the following story.

Question – What is the function of a catalyst?

Collins Essential English Dictionary has catalyst described the noun as:

1. a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.

2. a person or thing that causes an important change to take place: e.g. a catalyst for peace

Now, in the majority of businesses, all of the major ingredients necessary to run a thriving commercial enterprise are in place and will have been so for many years, but ask yourself, could the business operate faster and more effectively if you could give it a good shake and get rid of some of the cobwebs?”

Here are some tips and ideas which may help to identify whether a catalyst is necessary within your business:

• Does your marketing yield consistent number of enquiries per month?
• Is there a proven process of review and change to increase sales conversion?
• Is this year’s turonver and profit going to exceed last year’s figures?
• Does the business review its performance and implement improvement changes every 90 days?
• Does everyone in the business pull in the same direction?

Remember, regardless of what the media portrays, there is still business to be found and money to be made.

It is your choice, what environment do you create for yourself and your team, one that gets by or one that flies?

Want to get started immediately?

For a limited time only, we are giving local business owners the opportunity to undertake a full 2.5 hr business review with our compliments.

We’ll review your marketing strategies, your sales process and your cashflow potential within the business. Our guarantee is that we’ll leave you with a minimum of three proven ideas to move your business forwards.

Just ask yourself the question, is the benefit of this complimentary review by experienced business improvement specialists outweigh the risk of keeping with the status quo?

Does that sound like a worthwhile investment of your time?

Our role is to help start the reaction and provide the re-education of business strategy for this new business environment. Just look at our testimonials to see direction and focus we’ve given to so many businesses, both small and large.

Our Twitter best bits from June 2010
by Forbes Bryce
 
#BusinessTip Regardless of ur size, the old adage that u cant manage what you dont measure is a Universal Truth in biz
Good Morning All. #Quote He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. – Muhammad
A great speech by Tony Robbins about the power of Goals http://youtu.be/t5WgomUDcYI 
#Question What beliefs about how ur biz performs will u hold onto and defend while secretly wishing key results were different?
#Quote from Muhammad Ali. If a man when 50 thinks the same as he did when 30, he’s wasted the last 20 yrs 
#BusinessTip Following on from the #quote by Ali, if ur beliefs about ur biz is the same as it was 2 yrs ago, what are you overlooking?
#Question How do you thank your clients? Simple yet obvious, do u go the extra yard, never mind mile? How can u be sure? 
Celebrating the Anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Passing The Al Yankovic Parody of Beat It http://youtu.be/Gkq7HLBe178
#BusinessTip From Jay Abraham: Only 3 ways to grow a biz: 1.Find More Clients, 2.Invite old clients back, 3.Increase the Point of Sale Value
#BusinessTip What’s the point of settng unattainable targets for staff? What’s the result if staff were involved in setting their targets? 
#BusinessTip The current climate reinforces the position that clients more than ever will reject mediocrity, so what’s so special about u?
#BusinessTip If u buy a car, would u wash it regularly? Why? If Sales and Mkting is about buying clients, how r u looking after ur purchase?
From Spike Humer Question for the day–”Is the light you are getting worth the candle you are burning?”
#BusinessTip. If u offer rewards for referrals, then make it relevant to ur audience i.e. don’t offer a bottle of wine if avg sale is £10K 
Hilarious… Glasgow’s true voice. A parody using Alicia Keys hit song http://youtu.be/11NrK75DViI
#BusinessTip Mystery Shopping s a great tried and trusted research tool, however imagne what u would learn if u mystery shopped ur own biz?
#Quote To reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done. –Richard G. Scott
#BusinessTip On balance, a person’s salary acts as more of a de-motivating tool. Focus on recognition, the work & advancement to motivate. 
#Question same shit, different day s familiar to most, so what’s the point? Beyond making money, what was/is the point of being in biz?
#BusinessTip Good leaders are an enabling force, helping staff to perform and develop, once aligned the needs to the people to the biz goals 
#Observation If u reach for the stars and fall, what’s the worst that could happen? Remembering life is not a Dr Pepper Ad…
#BusinessTip If u r unwilling to praise ur biz, who will? To #Quote King Lear “Nothing can come of nothing: speak again.” When wll u speak? 
#Observation imagine if u applied the same attitude (not necessarily behaviour) to ur staff as u did ur best client? The result would be?
#Observation Most biz fail 2 understand that employees do NOT have the responsibility for MANAGING change in biz, its the mgmt/execs that do
#BusinessTip When biz modelling, start with a client need and end with the satisfaction of that need. Just ensure you specify a single need
#BusinessTip Establishing an impression of uniqueness is the strongest tool when in sales, while refuting this, is the best tool when buying

The story of jack and beanstalk is as old as days; however as a story about business, it is equally, if not a more powerful a story.

We have Jack, and employee who works for his mother, the manager. Jack does what he’s told and regardless of what happens that day, his mother, the manager ensures his dinner is on the table.

So Jack, works hard, and will always have the security that he’ll always have his dinner that night. (An employee will always get paid, that’s their security)

His Mother, the manager is solely concerned about getting enough done to run the house and ensure Jack’s dinner.  She sometimes feels she runs the house (biz) for the sole purpose of providing a lifestyle for her son (the employee).

Then one day Jack, on another mind numbingly boring task, of insanity, meets a man, who plants an idea in his mind. Have the freedom of working for yourself, take charge and go fulfil your dreams. So in a euphoric rush of blood to the head, he frees himself from his mother’s apron strings and flies solo with magic beans in hand (now self employed).

His mother mocks him and sends him to bed without dinner. The truth of freedom is you may not have dinner each and every night. (In self employment, nothing is guaranteed).

However our enthusiastic Jack, inspired by his hunger devises a path of growth and after overcoming his fear of heights, climbs the beanstalk (walks the talk).

After overcoming many obstacles he finally gets his head out of the clouds and sees a rival business owner with a goose that lays the golden egg (The Business Owner). The giant doesn’t even look after the goose (biz). His minions do; all he is concerned with is the golden egg (profits). As it’s from this egg, he amasses his wealth.

Jack inspired by the giant, wonders what it would be like to have a gaggle of geese laying multiple golden eggs (The Investor e.g. Dragons Den). Jack first attempts espionage then simply harvests the idea in order to obtain his very own golden goose, so he too can live off the profits and not simply continue to work the sweat off his own brow as either the employee or self employed person that trades his time for money. He wants the profitable business that works without him… He wants the lifestyle running a business was supposed to bring, as promised to him, the moment he pulled himself free from those apron strings.

 So in this entire story, the question, who was the Entrepreneur? The answer, why the man who sold Jack the magic beans (the idea). He made money regardless of the risk to him. He is in the business of ideas. The investor and true business owner crave the golden egg. All of the other protagonists in effect have jobs either making money for themselves or in return for cash flow security someone else.

This path is common for most. It’s not about getting to the top, but achieving your goals. My penultimate question, is as you read this article, which role(s) have you occupied this week already?

As we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life we have choices, what will you choose today?

Considering an online marketing strategy? Bamboozled by the options?

 We are all constantly bombarded by businesses asking our advice about marketing their businesses online; Search engine optimisation, Pay per click, social media marketing…

 With a myriad of digital marketing companies and 10 more starting every week, the choice is immense. Yet all online marketing strategies fundamentally link back to your website. If your website isn’t up to par, your marketing strategy will have been in vain!

 By driving ‘traffic’ to your website that is lacking in certain aspects, such as poor usability and design, you only fuel the growing impatience of customers and clients. If your customers can’t accomplish their aims on your site, the competition is only a click away! People want what they are looking for and they want it now!

 Take a step back, think about your website,

• Is your website easy to navigate and is it easy for customers to find what they need to know?
• Does it accurately reflect your business and the services or products that you offer?
• Does the design reflect your brand and create an element of trust for the customer?

 Most reading this article will say, “Yes – Of course!!” to the questions above. However let’s examine the facts:

• More than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a web site if it takes too many clicks to find what they’re looking for. (source: Arthur Andersen)
• 58% of visitors experiencing usability problems on a web site don’t return. (source: Forrester Research)
• 60% of the time, users fail to find the information they’re seeking on a web site due to usability issues. (source: User Interface Engineering)
• The average e-commerce site could increase its sales by an astonishing 79% with a usability redesign. (source: Jakob Nielson)

 So maybe you should look again at your previous answer!

 If you want to help your prospective clients and customers reach their goals, you have to think about how your website functions for them. An easy to use site that reflects your brand and values will reassure them that they are buying from or working with a reputable supplier. One who cares about their customers and the service they provide. Your website is the ideal place for you to dispel any qualms they may have about using your company.

 At Templeton Green we can provide you with the knowledge that will raise your awareness of what is working with your site and what is not. We will help provide the consultancy for you to streamline your business process both online and offline. This will allow you to engage more intelligently with your digital marketing and SEO Company, such that you can ensure you provide them with the kind of brief that is an accurate reflection of your companies brand and values.

We would recommend also that once you have re-defined the business process that is attractive to your ideal client – that you engage in the first instance, a specialised web design company who focus of great design more than any other service. One of our favourites for the SME community is deFreeze Ltd.

 A well designed and developed website will:

• Confirm to customers/clients that you are a business of good standing and have invested in a professionally built and designed site
• Be easy to navigate and use ensuring customers spend time on the site, engaging and enquiring or buying
• Be ready when you do come to implement an online marketing strategy – the foundations are already in place; a solid, well designed and built website.

You wouldn’t build a house on wet stand, the foundations would never work. In the same way, you shouldn’t spend money on a marketing campaign, essentially to drive people to your site, if your website doesn’t work.

So as we always say at Templeton Green – In business as in life, we have a choice, what will yours be today?