Nothing to fear but fear itself

I spend most my days speaking to and working with Managing Directors and Business Owners across the country (and sometimes in other countries)

 

Some customers I see regularly and have a more personal interaction with, whereas with others I have more of a "virtual relationship" – i.e we interact through email, social media and SKYPE

 

But, interestingly, regardless of how our relationship is managed, they all have one major obstacle holding them back – surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) it is not lack of knowledge, lack of resources, or even lack of money that’s preventing them from running the business that they want (although these may be issues that they are facing in their business lives)

 

The thing that is holding them back, more often than not, is fear - fear of getting it wrong, fear of looking stupid in front of your friends, colleagues and family members, and fear of failing

 

Of course, fear can be useful in some situations - it stops most of us doing stupid things like jumping out of a moving vehicle, but fear of failure can be the very thing that’s stops you reaching your full potential - In life and in business!

 

Sometimes, the fear of failure can be so strong that it stops us even trying to achieve what we really want to achieve - and so instead of reaching our full potential, instead of doing what we know is right, instead of moving forward with a plan, we end up doing nothing and stay as we are

 

The good news is though... It’s a relatively simple problem to solve! All it takes is a shift in mindset!

 

Failure can be VERY good for business

 

Now I’m not saying failure is the goal - of course it’s not!

 

Success is the goal, but in order to achieve success some failure is almost inevitable

 

If you think about it former US president Abraham Lincoln first went into politics at the age of 23 when he campaigned for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly and failed. He then opened a general store, which failed after only a few months!

 

Michael Jordan, the most famous name in basketball was actually cut from his high school basketball team!

 

Walt Disney was fired by the editor of a newspaper for lacking in ideas!

 

DavidBeckham has missed more shots at goal than you could even imagine!

 

I could go on and on – the point is that you can take any successful person from industry or any walk of life and behind their success you will see a catalogue of failings

As Franklin D Roosevelt said in his inaugural address ‘There is nothing to fear but fear itself’

And there are just two things in the main that separates them from everybody else;

 

1.) They don’t let their past failings stop them from trying again

 

And

 

2.) They learn from their failures and approach things differently next time around 

 

Two things that you can no doubt apply to the way you do things in your business

So, if you want to get over your fears and make your business the success that you want it to be, if you want to get some tips on how to make your past failures into successes, then contact us today – don’t be afraid! (we are actually quite nice people)

You can contact us in all of the usual ways – by phone on 08456 894 894 for Executive Recruitment or 084 3289 3288 for Management Consultancy – by email at hello@blueboxrecruitment.com or enquiries@blueboxconsultancy.com

Or if you just want to check us out and find our what we do and who we do it with, then go to our websites at www.blueboxrecruitment.com or www.blueboxconsultancy.com

Until the next time, take care, be bold, and do good business

PS Ask us about our £800 Business Rebate which is being launched at the end of August

Are you exclusive?

One of the greatest truisms in business is that your clients want to be treated like royalty – it is a fact that cannot be disputed, and why shouldn’t they?

Your clients are paying you their hard earned money and they want to know that you are actually going get the job done for them

They have trusted their business with you and they want to know that you are not like everyone else in your industry who promises the world and never delivers

They have engaged with you and they want to know they’re dealing with an expert - an expert who’s going to guide them through the complexities of their problems and take them from point A to point B as smoothly as possible

They want to know you care about their challenges and you’re doing all you can to deal with them

In essence, they want a premium and exclusive service!

And as business owners, we should all want to offer that kind exclusive service because it is what your clients want! At least it is what the very best clients want

The ones who appreciate the value you bring, the ones who respect you, and the ones who are willing to pay a premium to get the very best of the best

But here there is a tradeoff - if you want to offer an exclusive service, you will inevitably have to exclude people - it comes with the territory! 

  

Of course, this makes absolute sense and it’s actually quite a simple concept to grasp - but we see so many businesses getting  this so wrong

They claim they offer an “exclusive service” but when you look at their business in more detail, you’ll quickly see that what they offer isn’t exclusive at all - instead what you will see is that the are willing to take on just about anyone with the ability to pay (and sometimes they will even forsake this criteria as an absolute requirement)

In my mind, that does not equate to providing an exclusive service -  in fact this describes a service that is commoditized and open to just about anyone  

But does everyone deserve the same treatment as your very best clients?  Do you think that offering a commoditized service will allow you to command the prices that you know you are worth? Do you think that your ideal clients – the ones who want and demand a truly exclusive service - are going to want to work with a supplier who offers a bog standard, one-size-fits-all service to everyone?

The answer to all of these questions is, of course, NO

However, if you want to grow your business with the types of client that trust and respect you and the services that you offer, if you want to dominate your market, and if you want to be seen as the go-to person within your business sector, If you want to charge the prices you deserve and have a long line of clients willing to pay you, then you have got to start excluding people instead of making yourself available to everyone and anyone

If you want to learn more about creating a strategy to make your business exclusive, or you just want to learn how to get more, better value clients, then get in touch – we would love to hear from you

You can contact us by email – enquiries@blueboxconsultancy.com (for management consultancy clients) and hello@blueboxrecruitment.com (for executive recruitment clients)

Alternatively, you can call us on 084 3289 3288 (for consultancy) or 08456 894 894 (for executive recruitment)

Or if you just want to learn a little bit about us and what we do (and who we do it with) the check out our websites at www.blueboxconsultancy.com or www.blueboxrecruitment.com

Until the next time, take care, be bold and do good business

There is no such thing as bad weather....

I have a friend called Dave who is a mad keen cyclist – he is one of those crazy souls who goes out on his bike all throughout the year – even on Christmas day.  Fortunately for Dave he has managed to find himself a wife who also likes to cycle – so at least he is not spending all of his time alone (anymore)

I was reminded the other day about one of his favourite sayings – stick with me, we will get to that shortly...

 

Dave trains relentlessly whenever he can – regardless of the time of year, regardless of the weather – he is out on his bike - rain or shine, and in this country, no matter what time of the year it is it seems to rain a whole lot more than it shines!

 

That means that if he wants to reach the top of his game he’s inevitably going to have to go out in the cold, wet rain every once in a while to get the training done

 

I don’t mind cycling – I quite like cycling (in certain conditions)  - but you’ll never catch me doing it outdoors on a cold, dark and wet Saturday morning – there is literally a million things I’d rather be doing

 

Dave is dedicated though - and so no matter what the weather was like outside - most weekends and some weekday evenings you’d find him out on his bike getting the miles under his belt in preparation for the next big race

 

His favourite saying is;

 

“There’s no such thing as bad weather - Just inappropriate clothing”

 

The same applies to your work life -  you see, just like the UK,  the metaphorical weather you face in business life is unpredictable - some days the sun shines and everything goes to plan, whereas  other days you find yourself up to your eye balls in cold, wet rain!

 

But that’s just part of life as a business owner - and like Dave says; there’s really no such thing as bad weather - just inappropriate clothing!

 

In other words, as long as you’ve prepared properly and done the necessary to protect yourself, you don’t have to get wet when those rainy days come around - and that preparation comes in the form of mastering the art of marketing, sales and seduction

 

Think about it for just a second -

 

If you need more leads for you and your team to follow up on? No problem!

 

If you’ve mastered the art of marketing, sales and seduction getting leads is a piece of cake

 

If you lose a big client that is key to your business – No Problem!

 

If you’ve mastered marketing, sales and seduction you don’t need to “get wet” you will just go out a find new and better one to replace them

 

If you more money to pay a tax bill that seemingly came out of nowhere? No problem!

 

If you’ve mastered the art of marketing, sales and seduction you’d know exactly what to do to get a rush of clients through the door to inject your business with cash fast

 

You see - mastering the art of marketing, sales and seduction is like wearing a water proof jacket in the rain - it’s not going to stop the bad weather but it will stop you getting wet!

 

 

If you want to master the art of marketing, sales and seduction then you should contact us straight away and we will help you to navigate through any stormy weather that you may be experiencing

You can always find someone to talk to on 08456 894 894 (for Executive Recruitment) or 084 3289 3288 (for Management Consultancy).  You can also email us – hello@blueboxrecruitment.com or enquiries@blueboxconsultancy.com .  We would love to hear from you

If you would just like to check us out then go to our websites at www.blueboxrecruitment.com or www.blueboxconsultancy.com

Until the next time, take care, be bold and do good business