onestepfurther.co.uk - Quickstart - Not More Goal Setting?



	Quickstart - Not More Goal Setting? *Quickstart* *Grow a Profitable Consultancy and Still Have Time for a Life* In this issue Note from Beverley - New Year Already One Step Further - Not More Goal Setting? What's Out There? - Your Business in Lights Personal Reflections - Lessons Learnt From 2005 Note from Beverley Happy New Year to you all and here's hoping your 2006 is your best year yet. I spent Christmas in Scotland with my family and Christmas morning dawned with the perfect picture. Blue skies, sunshine and a heavy frost - not quite a White Christmas but pretty good all the same. So with too many mince pies consumed and trousers that have gotten way too tight, it's back to "normality" as I start my new year. I've got 5 speaking engagements lined up already and a host of ideas for products to help you grow a profitable consultancy and still have time for a life, so watch out for those. Have a great week Beverley bev@onestepfurther.co.uk www.onestepfurther.co.uk Author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight shooter Strategies for Success One Step Further Oh no! Resolutions, good intentions, bold outrageous and provocative goals visions, blah, blah, blah! Why on earth would you bother? Why waste time thinking and planning your year? You've got to get busy earning money right? RIGHT and yet... If you don't have goals… * How will you make decision about what you need to get busy doing? * How will you know what to focus on? * How will you know what your priorities are? * How will you know you are on the "right track"? * How will you know...? > If you want to drift aimlessly through 2006 - go ahead > If you want to be busy being busy - go ahead > If you want to work hard with no clear focus - go ahead > If you want to do what you've always done - go ahead However... If you want more than that, just do these 3 things to get you on a different track 1. Complete this Personal Stocktake. This will only take 5-10 minutes and is an opportunity for you to really think about where you are now. If you don't know where you are now, how do you know where to start from in getting to where you might want to be! 2. Define clearly and specifically - your 3 biggest business goals for 2006 - your 3 biggest personal goals for 2006 You can start with - "By 31 December 2006 I am.../have... for example * 50 new clients @£10k/year * 5 new products generating >£3k/month * Known as a keynote speaker within my niche * Proud that I was able to speak in Spanish on holiday in most situations * Celebrating the £20K I raised for charity by walking the Appalachian way * Smiling fondly as I look at the photos of my month long family holiday in New Zealand 3. Define 3 actions you will take for each of your goals that will progress them over the next 90 days Take One Step Further then one more and soon that first cautious step will seem a distant memory. What's Out There? As promised in December, I am offering you the opportunity to showcase your business during the month of January. Donnie Maclean and Emma Bird showcase their businesses this week below. Why not check them out? There are still a few slots left if you want to take up this opportunity to market your business to over 350 people Audits Unlimited - Has your company been suffering from recent hikes in energy prices? Are you sick of sales calls for fantastic telecomms or mobiles deals? Audits Unlimited are The Business Cost Consultants to manage all your utilities. We work on a no savings - no fee basis. If you spend more than £50k a year on all utilities, we guarantee we can save between 10-20% of their expenditure. Donnie Maclean. www.auditsunlimited.co.uk Donnie@auditsunlimited.co.uk How To Italy - Quitting the rat race and starting over in Italy is difficult but it's not impossible. How to Italy shows you why. How to Italy run consultations and workshops for anyone wanting to live the Dolce Vita, showing them how to avoid the pitfalls and have the adventure of their life. Emma Bird. www.howtoitaly.com emma@weaveaweb.it Personal Reflections As I suggested in the last issue of *Quickstart* that you take time to reflect and think about what you've learnt over the past year, I took some of my own advice recently and thought about what I'd learnt from 2005. Authenticity is Attractive When you are who are and not who you think you ought to be, you find that certain types of people are attracted to you. Those that like what they see will connect with you and those that don't will not. So what? I hear you say. Well in building a successful business one of the key things is to know what type of business you are in and who your ideal clients are. This is stage one in differentiating your self. Stage 2 is knowing and being who you truly are especially when you are your business. Trying to be someone or something else is not real and is hard to sustain. Instead of trying to be what you think others want you to be, just be you. As for me I am direct, I tell it how it is and I'm pragmatic. I also care deeply about my clients success on their terms. That's also the qualities that have attracted my clients. They like that about me and so want to do business with me. There are and will be other people that are looking for something different and they will be served best by working with someone else. Information to be useful must be applied I'd be happy learning for a living! I am an info junkie and love to learn new things and look at things I already know from a different perspective. All this learning is only useful when I do something with it. Otherwise it is activity with no output. For example, knowing that networking is a great way to develop good relationships over time, which will lead to business, is only a valuable piece of information if I actually go out and network. It takes time I took the decision to change my business model last autumn knowing that I was almost starting from scratch in how I went about promoting and leading my business. It took some hard lessons to get me to that stage and once I had made the decision I was much happier. I now know that building a successful and sustainable business takes time, effort in the right place, support and a good network, consistency and a little faith. Sometimes all you have to do is ask Duh!! Yes it's time for a statement of the bl*ing obvious. If you want something just ask. If you need help, just ask. (Now guys I know that may be hard for some of you but get over it!) If you don't know the answer to something ask someone who does. Flailing around worrying about what you don't know or can't figure out is wasted time. Ask. You may not always get an answer; you may have to work at asking, yet it costs you nothing and can often be the simplest solution. I really love what I do Despite all the ups and downs of 2005 I really love what I do. Would I like to earn more, of course? Would I like to be an overnight success now, of course and yet day to day whether it be client sessions, networking or developing new ideas for products and services, ultimately I love what I do and that's why I'm in business. What about you? What did you learn in 2005, I'd love to know and if you'd like to share perhaps I'll post some of your learning over the next few weeks so we might learn from each other. Rgds Bev bev@onestepfurther.co.uk PAY IT FORWARD & Tell a Friend - Who do you know that's a Marketing, HR, Sales or IT consultant who wants to increase their productivity, grow a more profitable business and still have time for a life? Please tell them about Quickstart so they can subscribe immediately and get their free ecourse Discover the 5 Most Incorrect Assumption that Independent Business Consultants Make. Just click on this link Newsletter One of my goals is to achieve 1000 subscribers to Quickstart**and we grow by recommendation. If you have received this Newsletter from a colleague and you would like to receive future issues, please click here to subscribe. Thank you.





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