Posts belonging to Category business coaching

Have you ever asked your customers how you can improve your service?

The majority of businesses are too scared to ask their customers what they really think about their product and/or service, but the fact is that your customer will feel valued and appreciated if you listen to their opinion and learn from their feedback. No matter how small a suggestion, it can lead to greater overall satisfaction for your client/customer, which is your ultimate goal… right!

Suppose you don’t ask your customers for feedback and you miss something vital like … (more…)

New FREE business internet radio show starting in 2012 – hosted by me, Michelle Pavel.

The show includes FREE business advice from experts around the globe on topics that most business owners or managers would like to understand more. With a interview/discussion style, similar to a teleseminar, shows are played twice a week and podcast on the VoiceAmerica network and itunes – did I say, all for FREE!

What’s the name of the new internet radio show?

Working on your business – how you can achieve greater success by discovering new and tested, cheap & free strategies to boost your business!

What topics will it focus on?

The range of topics will help business owners achieve greater success with their business and will include information related to all types of cheap & free marketing strategies and techniques, business systems setup, business improvement strategies, attracting customers, quality assurance, business documentation and much more.  Shows will include a mixture of industry expert guests and some of my insight. Actual show topics will include, but are not limited to: (more…)

In light of recent events in Queensland and other parts of Australia over the past couple of weeks, and a nasty experience that someone very dear to me had with her business last week, I wanted to write an article about how you can ensure you have a business continuity plan in place to get you back on your feet quickly; even if everything is falling down around you and it looks like all hope is lost. (more…)

I came across another interesting article today on Hubspot and thought I would share it with you. Now this comes pretty natural to me because I have worked for internet development and software engineering companies, so I have known these tricks for years, however if you have problems finding what you are after in the search engines or would like more specific search results, then read on.

This article describes briefly terms you may or may not have already heard about and will give you some quick tips to finding information that is useful and accurate on the search engines (well of course that depends on the quality of the content but we have no control over that)

Now, I know this article is a little old and there are probably newer and more comprehensive articles out there, but I believe it will still help you a lot . Read it

Did you know that just by rewarding your existing customers for buying from you (in the past or recently) can help your business, because:

• it demonstrates your professionalism
• it makes your customers feel appreciated
• it brings them back to your business
• it can boost your cashflow overnight
• it can attract new customers (referrals)
  

  Happy customers

If you have the email addresses, physical addresses of phone number of your customers, and/or website, you can make money overnight using the latest marketing strategies. (more…)

Want an idea that will make you stand out in the crowd?

Stand out from the crowd of competitors

So how do you find an idea that will help you stand out from the crowd? It is not the idea that will necessarily help you stand out, it is:

• the service, quality and professionalism that you provide
• the support you offer your customers
• the value for money you offer your customers
• the passion you have for your business
• your love to succeed and have fun while doing it
• your commitment to building a better business
• about listening to feedback and implementing improvements and features as required
• about managing your business responsibly
• and so on

Need help standing out or setting up a business and getting it moving forward? Contact me today!

Delegating tasks to your staff or hiring a consultant may help you with tasks that will free up your time to work ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ it… but you need to ensure the person carrying out the task knows everything required to complete it to your satisfaction – upfront!

Working ‘on’ your business allows you to:

• look for new ways to attract customers
• improve your business system
• monitor staff performance; ensuring your values and guidelines are being followed
• find new products
• analyse and beat the competition
• create new marketing campaigns
• enhance your business image
• find business partners
• and the list goes on

Of course, if you don’t want to work ‘on’ your business, and prefer to work ‘in’ it doing what you love, then delegation is great for handing out the tasks you despise. You may even have staff that would love to do that task and be better at it. (more…)

Are you dreaming of creating a really successful business?

Then you might like to start by following these guidelines.

This cycle diagram represents all the elements of your business that need regular attention; if your really are dreaming of being successful in business. Some of these elements you may have working beautifully, but have you considered that the others need a little TLC as well.

A synchronised business system will help you to achieve … (more…)

What if the reason why we are currently experiencing an economic crisis is because there are too many ‘get rich’ schemes ripping people off or products being sold that are not quality or do not provide value? How can they get away with it? Maybe it is time for those ‘advantage takers’ to step back and realise they now need to provide value and quality or they won’t get the droves of customers they were getting a 1-3 years back.

Have you noticed all the ‘deals’ that seem to be popping up lately, like ‘buy xyz car and get $000s cash back’; and that’s not all, you also get a set of steak knives (just kidding). If you are in business that provides a product that is ‘not’ of sound quality (unless you are a bargain shop), what do you think is going to happen to that business down the track. In recent months I have purchased several items through online wholesaler sites. The items were for personal use mostly, but here’s the thing, most of the items have either been thrown out or just not used at all because they were not of the standard I expected. (more…)

Below I have created a little questionnaire that can help you determine if you are providing ‘quality’ products.

If you have more than one product, write down or type up your answers (excel maybe more suitable) so you can see if there is a pattern by product type, supplier and so on. Below is a list of questions to ask yourself: 

That should get you started towards figuring out where your business sits in regards to ‘quality’ products but … you might like to setup a ‘quality management plan’ that includes any issues related to the above items and the action you are going to take to rectify any problems. Try to make each item in the plan measurable, so that you can see how much your system has improved over a period of time. It’s like tracking your marketing campaign really.

Congratulations if you are not experiencing any problems associated with questions 1, 2 & 3. You obviously have some sort of quality system setup, regardless if it is documented or not, and you likely know how to supply ‘quality’ products. Of course, there is probably always room for improvement and documenting a process that is working well also helps you delegate tasks to others, so you can spend time working on your business, rather than it in.

How did you go on a scale from 1-10? Please leave a comment and share your experience with us.