Business Basics

Lots of information on the practical side of growing your business – hints, tips and articles
that will help you being to love marketing and selling yourself and your services.

There’s no such thing as failure, only…

posted on 11 February 2009
also posted in Heart of RichThinking, Inspirational Quotes

I was reading Peter Jones’ book ‘Tycoon” recently, and although I’m not at all sure I want to be a tycoon, lots of it is very useful. Here’s one sentence that I really agreed with:

“I really believe that there are no failures in this world, only events that give you feedback”.

This is definitely rich thinking — and he’s right. I’ve just had what might be called a failure — lost someone’s telephone number who was supposed to be having a session with me right now. Well, how do I react to that? Beat myself up, criticise myself for not being perfect, or more organised? Yes, I admit, I have a tendency towards that kind of thinking. But I [read more]

Being entrepreneurial

posted on 26 January 2009
also posted in Heart of RichThinking, Jane's Blog

Well here I am sitting on my balcony looking out over the stunning turquoise Mediterranean sea. Yes, I’m trying out working from a hot country! Well, relatively hot – we’re on the south coast of Spain, and although there’s a cool wind, when you’re in the sun it’s hot! Very different from a cold winter in the North of Scotland. So a holiday-cum-working. Only been here one day, and I promised myself I’d do nothing today, but in a conversation I’ve just had with Philip, my husband, I just had to blog about it.

‘You know that meeting we had with Collin before we left?’ I said.

‘There were two things in it that really stood out for me’.

“What [read more]

3 Magic words to get more clients

posted on 3 November 2008

How can 3 words bring you more clients? Or more business of any kind?

This is so simple, you’ll love it.

Sitting in the Blue Angel coffee shop in the Findhorn Foundation last week, talking with my mentor, he told me about them.
We were talking about the marketing section of my business plan, and had got to the section on features and benefits.

“What are your FAB’s?” he said.

I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about.

“Feature, Advantages and Benefits of your products” he continued. “Every product needs to be described to the customer in only one way, because they’re only interested in one thing, and that is what it can do for them. This is the [read more]

This credit crunch is great for business!

posted on 29 October 2008
also posted in Heart of RichThinking

Well, that’s a Rich Thought if ever there was one!

Why am I saying this? Because in times like this, people are often more willing to spend money on something that they perceive will give them something to relieve their stress, improve their health, or help them get to where they want to go.

Previously, they might have spent money on ‘stuff’; but now, as the ‘stuff’ doesn’t actually make them feel any better, other than temporarily, money gets spent on treatments, coaching sessions, health products. Anything that makes them feel better from the inside out, or helps them cope with life in a more effective way.

And that doesn’t even take into account all the people out there who [read more]

How I learnt about competition from Starbucks

posted on 26 October 2008
also posted in Heart of RichThinking

I’m reading the story of Starbucks at the moment.

As you might have noticed, the chain has grown incredibly over the last few years, often opening up a shop just down the road from another ‘mom and pop’ coffee shop, or even next door.

“The cheek of it!” says my indignant British side.

But another side, the one that’s interested in people having their dreams come true, said “How did he do it?”

If you want to know how, then you can read the book; what’s relevant to this blog is the reaction of the mom and pop coffee shops to Starbucks ‘encroaching on their territory’. Because basically they had an opportunity to think poorly, or think richly.

Those that [read more]