It’s an exciting week, Friday 7th October sees the first ever Ladies at 11 Business Awards ceremony at Sandown Park and I am delighted to have been nominated for the Outstanding Contribution Award.

The awards event sponsored by Natwest range from Entreprenuer of the Year, Inspirational Woman Award, New Business Award.  You can see a full list of awards and nominees here.  I am delighted to be in the company of Camilla Campbell, Laura Hart, Lynne Hardy, Lindsey Collumbell, Zoe Brown and so many more.

Ladies at 11 is a networking company for women who are serious about growing their businesses.  It’s a networking group with a difference because it’s focused, supportive and works.  It’s a subject very close to my heart and I love what it does and what it stands for.  I am so happy just to be nominated and of course if I win it will be a terrific achievement.

We even got a mention is this week’s Surrey Advertiser:

Item from Surrey Advertiser 30 Sep 2011

So it’s fingers crossed, I may even write a brief acceptance speech…..just in case.  Wish good luck to everyone else who is nominated.  And let the party begin…..

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Ladies at 11 Conference 2011, speakers, back row l-r Tiffany St James, Dylis Guyan, Sue Bown, Carole Ann Rice, Laura Hart. Front row Sarah Martin. Picture courtesy http://samjhanamoon.com/

Is it possible to experience inspiration overload?  Because that’s how I felt when I left the 2011 Ladies at 11 Back to Business conference.  My head felt fit to burst with all of those highly charged particles and dollops of motivation that were ladled on us throughout the day.   The only way for me to sort myself out after this was to go for a run and if you know me, you’ll know that running is not a usual pastime.

What made it such a phenomenal event?   Given that last year there were only fifteen of us there; this year saw in excess of 80 delegates listening to an impressive line-up of high-profile speakers such as Penny Power, Rachel Elnaugh, Cara Sayer, Tiffany St James, Emma Wimhurst, Dylis Guyan, Carole Ann Rice and er… ME!

Carole Ann Rice, one of the UK’s leading life coaches and myself opened the day with a call to action.  Our message was simple:

1. You’re here, well done.  For many multi-tasking busy women just getting there was an achievement.
2. Pack away everything else and give yourself the time to enjoy the day with purpose.
3. Write down one goal that’s a BIG stretch, one that makes your toes curl!
4. Take ACTION!  Make it HAPPEN!

We were followed by Dylis Guyan from IncreaseYourSalesIn30Days.com  Dylis is a high-hitting Sales and Sales Management Coach.  With an impressive CV of sales successes Dylis shared top tips on how to increase your sales in a recession.  She dished out sensible, valuable advice and strategy that we all need. One fact stuck firmly in my head is 80% of sales are made in between the fifth to the 12^th contact.

Penny Power

After a quick networking coffee, Penny Power, founder of Ecademy took to the stage.  Penny captivated the audience with her passion for social media.  She told her story of success and how ‘through the keyboard’ we can all connect, share and turn contacts from stranger to friend to follower. Her story is indeed inspiring.  I loved her analogy about serendipitous moments that appear during your life that she called ‘random dots’ and how we should be looking out for them.  The standing ovation she received for her speech was well-deserved.

A relaxed Cara Sayer followed.  Cara, inventor of Snooze Shadeis a natural

Cara Sayer

speaker who spoke to our large group with such ease it was like she was chatting to us all as a friends.  She inspired us with wise words of advice and of how by focus, determination and making measured choices for her family, she has invented Snooze Shade. An award winning product to help babies sleep on the go.

Lunch was then served, Sandown Park, our conference venue provided a variety of delicious buffet choices.  Including some rather interesting desserts, which I’ve only just remembered and forgot to go back for!  There was networking to be done, lots of people to meet and catch up with.

Rachel Elnaugh

Ex-star of Dragon’s Den, Rachel Elnaugh opened the afternoon session.  Rachel, who founded Red Letter Days, shared her experiences of how a business can go from dream to nightmare.  Learning from her nightmare, Rachel has inspired countless business owners to create Business Magic.  Rachel told us we should each have a ‘seven second sizzle statement’.  To be able communicate the value of our business in just 7 seconds.

The arrival of Tiffany St Jamesto the stage piled on more inspiration, this time in

Tiffany St James

the fast-growing arena of social media.  Tiffany, former Head of Public Participation for the UK Government advised us how to using a digital strategy can impact and grow your business.  Did you know that London is the Twitter capital of the world?

Emma Wimhurst

Time for a welcome cuppa, and of course some much enjoyed networking.  After tea we were introduced to Emma Wimhurst, who became a self-made millionaire from the success of Diva Cosmetics.  Emma author of BOOM! a practical, no-nonsense business book inspired us with her story.  She talked us through her 7 Business Disciplines, a straightforward method to grow your business.  We also learned that 85% of business women don’t have a business plan, interestingly 95% of men don’t have one either.

Last, but of course, by no means least, Voice Coach, Laura Hart came to the stage.  Laura cleverly used examples from the day’s events to highlight how we can get the best from our presentations.  Laura, who works with blue chip organisations dished out tip after tip of how to make the best of your voice, your presentation and to communicate your business message best.

Do you see what I mean by inspiration overload?  My mind was brimming with ideas, thoughts, plans and more.  What I needed was time, time to get my thoughts together and start putting all this good stuff into action.

That’s exactly what I’ve done and I hope you have too.  And those toes are not curling quite as much as they were.

If you missed it, you missed a treat, looking forward to seeing you next year

Thanks to Samjhana Moon for taking pictures on the day and for supplying the picture for this article.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Charles Dickens 1812 – 1870

If Charles Dickens wanted to come and speak at your Book Club would you say ‘No thanks, you’re too old?   Would Emmeline Pankhurst or Adam Smith get the same reaction at your networking group?   Or, how about if Sir Winston Churchill wanted to speak at your Speakers Club would you say ‘Sorry pal you’re just a bit over the hill and we’d rather hear from someone younger’?  Of course you wouldn’t!  So why do you tell yourself ‘I can’t do that because I am too old to?’

This is a common theme I hear, people limiting themselves because of their thoughts.  They won’t start their own business, they won’t apply for a new job, they won’t look for a new relationship, they won’t learn something new.  All this because they believe that they are too old, too young, too tall, too short, too fair, too dark, too anything-they-want-to-focus-on!

What other people think of you is their opinion and to be quite frank about it, it’s none of your business!  It’s a waste of your energy even trying to think about what they think because I guarantee you’ll be wrong!

If there’s something you want to do – then do it!

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Is perfectionism holding you back?

You’re a perfectionist, you like to make sure everything gets done properly and you won’t stop until you get there.

How to tell if you are a perfectionist?

1. You spend ages making sure everything is done properly.

2. You notice fine detail and are very critical of mistakes.

3. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to self criticism.

4. Your standards are high and there is no grey area.

5. You want to be best at everything you try.  And will probably give up on things that you can’t be good at.

6. You beat yourself up over mistakes that you make.

7. You run things through in your mind wondering ‘what if’ you’d done it another way.

8. You waste time on getting things perfect.

9. You won’t set a goal in case you don’t achieve it and let yourself down.

10. Procrastination is your best friend and worst enemy.

Recognise yourself in some or all of these traits?  If so, I congratulate you on getting here.  The good news is that identification is part of the battle.  You may notice that you’re more of a perfectionist in some areas than others.  For example you may spend ages getting en email worded correctly, yet you’re not such a perfectionist when it comes to taking the vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard!

Many solutions to stop being a perfectionist is to set realistic goals or expectations.  Which is great, but when you’re a perfectionist how do you know what realistic is?  That’s part of the problem (or even the whole problem)

My advice/tips to overcome perfectionism are:

Accept that you’re not going to change this pattern overnight.  It’s going to be a gradual shift, so the fact that you are aware is a step in itself.  Next step is to get used to understanding what realistic expectations are. How could you do that? Well observe how others do things, you will notice that everyone’s measure of a job finished or perfect is different – hugely different.

Being a perfectionist will serve you in some areas, but not in others. Recognise the difference in these areas, being aware of when will be part of the growing process. So keep aware and you’ll begin to know when is appropriate.

Repeat the mantra ‘good is good enough’ because it is!

Sometimes you just have to trust and let go!

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Roses, still looking good

You’ve set your goal, it’s clear, you’re focused, it feels great, all is going well.  Then – you hit a setback, something gets in your way and that’s it – you give up and the dream is gone.  Does this sound familiar?

You’re losing weight and you have a crisis and BANG you go back to your old patterns.  You’ve given up smoking and something stressful happens and you head for the nearest tobacconist.  You are focused on a business goal to make 20 sales calls a week and someone says something negative to you and that’s it – all the good intention – gone!  Old, bad, frustrating patterns return, all the good work undone.  Why does that happen?

A friend came to see me last weekend and bought me 12 beautiful yellow roses, they are so spectacular.  I’m convinced their fragrance has a hint of lemon, just gorgeous.  Today, much to my dismay I noticed that one of the roses had drooped and it wasn’t looking very healthy.  So I quickly removed it from the vase and instantly renewed the display to its former splendour.  Did I have to throw all of them away NO!

So, why, when you have a setback do you throw your whole goal away?  Just find a strategy to get back on track, limit the damage and get focused again.

How to get back on track when you lose focus:

1. Read your goal again (assuming it’s written, if not write it down)
2. Imagine yourself when you’ve achieved your goal.
3. Make a list of what you’ve achieved so far.
4. Write down 3 steps you can do that day to get back on track.
5. Do the first step immediately!

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Computer generated images of what lottery winners look like.

In my last blog I asked for suggestions of subjects to blog about and how I could help.  One of my cheeky friends on Facebook replied that it would be good if I could tell him the winning numbers for the EuroMillions.  His question made me smile, but it made me think too.

I took a look online and even found an old article in the Daily Mail online which showed computer generated images of what typical EuroMillions winners would look like.  Such is our obsession with wishing for that win.

How do you win the lottery?  What are you are wishing for?  My best suggestion is, I think it’s possible to win your own lottery by just stopping and noticing all of the good things in your life.  Take time to reflect on everything you have that you are grateful for.  Too many of us spend too much time wishing and not enough time noticing and appreciating.

So have a look at your life, note all the good stuff and enjoy every moment.

To repeat a well-worn but effective quote by John Lennon ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Top questions - picture courtesy of www.tvftdo.com

As a coach I ask a lot of questions, coaching is all about asking people questions that helps them think things through to enable them to progress, grow and reach their goals.  Sometimes the less I know about a client or their lives is better because then I ask the questions, that probably sound dumb, but makes a client fully think through what is going on in their life or business.

Funnily enough there are a great deal of questions I get asked too.  Here are the top 3 most popular questions right now:

How do I effectively manage my time?
This is a great question, because I have phases of being a bad manager of time.  I really enjoy having flexibility around my time, I like the feeling that I can choose to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  That’s great of course, up to a point.  There are many occasions where time has to be managed correctly, it helps with all sorts of things, getting things done for example .  Another  extremely vital reason is maintaining a good work/life balance.  Effective time management is something you can give to yourself.  Start by making some small changes, if you like flexibility give yourself some managed time and some unmanaged time.  Break tasks down into small steps, give yourself some deadlines.  Notice what works best for you and keep doing it.

How can I make sure I change my life?
Many people considering coaching are nervous about whether they can change or not.  They disbelieve that they’ve got what it takes to make the changes they want in their life to reach their goals.  My advice is to get started, we all learned to do things and to create patterns in our lives, the knowledge that we did learn is the proof that we can un-learn it too.  Human beings are creatures of habit, start gradually changing those habits and beliefs and you’ll get there.

My partner needs coaching how can I convince them?
This question comes up a great deal.  First thing to consider is how would you feel if the boot was on the other foot and your partner was suggesting you did something.  What would it be and how would you react?  Lose weight, give up smoking, take more exercise, get a new job.  It’s easy to find reasons why others should do something and not always easy to do something for yourself.  I believe the need for coaching has to come from within.  If it doesn’t then any reluctance will cause the coaching to not be as effective.  Step one is to see what changes you could make for yourself, maybe you could change your reaction to your partner, maybe just stopping the nagging could help.   By starting to do something for yourself could be the catalyst to help your partner get started themselves.

I hope you’ve found these questions useful, if you have any comments please use the comments section on this page, I’d love to hear from you.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Does networking come naturally to you, if not, this workshop is for you.

It is a well-known fact that 80% of business is passed through referrals. Networking, be it offline or online is a hot topic these days and the opportunity to network is everywhere.

Networking is a low-cost option to get out there, connect, find new business and grow your business. However it has to be done properly.  We’ve all been in the uncomfortable situation listening to someone droning on about how good they are, what they can do for you and the benefits of using their product.  This is not the way to go.

Even though it’s low-cost, networking can be a big investment in time.  So it’s important to do it correctly and efficiently ensuring you get the most of each networking opportunity you encounter.  Having the correct networking skills is of utmost importance.

On Thursday 13th October 2011, Laura Hart, Voice Coach and are taking part in an event in conjunction with the Surrey Chambers of Commerce.  Starting at 1700, this two hour information filled practical event entitled ‘The Art Of Natural Networking’ will help you to network in the most efficient and productive way.

Book your place now

Who should attend?

It is aimed is aimed at business people who have a need or requirement to network within their business sector, to build business relationships or who are keen to raise their corporate profile more broadly.  Also, small business owners who wish to get out into the networking scene and make the best of every networking opportunity for their business.

Book your place now

Why should you attend?

• 80% of business is passed through referrals
• Networking if not done properly can be a big draw on time.
• You will learn practical tips and gain information of making the best of every networking opportunity.

What you will learn

• What is networking and what it is not.
• Establish meaningful business relationships that lead to the acquisition of new clients and more business.
• Understand why it is crucial to network in today’s marketplace.
• Gain knowledge of how to prepare for networking events including devising and refining the business message for any networking audience

About Us

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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You’re a small business owner, maybe you’re just starting up.  Knowing how to identify your target market is vital to help you be most efficient in selling and marketing your product.

I’m going to tell you a tale, a crusty old tale:

“Simple Simon
Met a pie man going to a fair
Simple Simon said to the pie man
Let me see your wares”

How often does that happen?  Potential clients walk up to you in the street and ask about your business and buy from you on the spot, maybe if you’re selling Mars Bars or Coca Cola or umbrellas on a rainy day.

Just imagine in a perfect world, in a perfect economy people would come to you and ask to buy from you, take moment to decide and then buy.  How great and easy does that sound?  As a small business owner, is that what you’d want and aspire to? 

It is possible that if everyone did come to you to buy, you would find it tricky to provide a service to all these people.  Could you work with everyone?  Do you have the time to work with everyone?   I imagine, the answer to the question is probably ‘no’?

Reality is that whilst there’s lots of people out there – you only need a few – a small group of people who really want your product.  So you must narrow down your focus, really pinpoint exactly who will buy from you. 

Our pie man in the story is selling apple pies, so he is looking for people who like apple pies, he doesn’t want people who like meat pies.  Simple Simon wants to buy an apple pie so that’s good, people who like Apple Pies are the perfect customers.  That’s his niche market.  What about customers who want to buy meat pies?
 
That’s why you need to find out who, and when I say who I mean ‘exactly’ who.  You must be very precise.

Steps to identify your target market
1. Ask yourself ‘Who’ are my target market?.  Write a list of who they are.

2. What are their needs.  How can I help them?

3 What are their concerns.  What can I improve for them?

4. What are their desires.  What can I give them?

5. What are their barriers. What’s stopping them buying from you?

6. What are their worries?  Why might they not buy from you?

The results of these questions will lead you to the beginnings of a marketing plan.

“Says the pie man to Simple Simon,
Show me first your penny;
Says Simple Simon to the pie man,
Indeed I have not any.”

That’s another link in the chain….sales……find out if they can afford you. 

About the Author: Sue Bown: Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Twitter @thecoachingzone
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCoachingZone

Other blog posts:

Would you buy more time?

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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