onestepfurther.co.uk - Quickstart - Are You Passionate or Piscine?



	Quickstart - Are You Passionate or Piscine? Please add bev@onestepfurther.co.uk to your address book so your issue of *Quickstart* reaches you each week. *Quickstart* *Grow a Profitable Consultancy and Still Have Time for a Life* In this issue Note from Beverley - This Was a Fab Week One Step Further - Are You Passionate or Piscine? Ideas Bank - How To Price and Value Services Personal Reflections - Adding Value When You Know Nothing Note from Beverley What an interesting week. An influencing conversation to win a big coaching contract (I'll let you know if I get it!) A facilitation session for Sony, where I knew nothing about the subject: a business development brainstorm session in a beautiful country house hotel: a web development strategy conversation and first web drafts for 2 new businesses. Some weeks I love my business more than others and this was a fab week. How was yours? Have a good week Beverley bev@onestepfurther.co.uk +44 (0) 1344 625713 www.onestepfurther.co.uk Author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success Buy the ebook and/or become an affiliate and add another income stream to your business. One Step Further The old cliche people buy from people is especially pertinent when you are a solopreneur or independent business consultant. If you are your business then your clients buy from you first and foremost. Whether they trust, respect and like you will affect their buying decision. So what can you do to influence that? Be Passionate - Passion is contagious and has, in my opinion, been all but forgotten in business. Who among you set out to create a business that you were bored with, were indifferent to and frankly couldn't give tuppence for. Well sometimes this is what comes across. I go to so many networking events where at that critical moment when asked, "so what do you do?" someone starts to explain what they do and there is about as much passion in their voice as in a wet fish. Why? Surely you are passionate about your business? Surely you want that passion to come across to whom you are speaking to? Surely conveying the passion you have for your business is what you want? Isn't it? Be Authentic - This is not just about being honest; it is more than that. It is about being you, warts and all. It's about saying this is me. What you see is what you get and what you get is me. Even if your business has more than one person, as owner/leader your personality is what will drive and define your business. Authenticity is attractive. Authenticity is what will attract your ideal clients to you. Authenticity is what will determine who your clients are and who they are not. You are not in the business of doing everything for everyone. You are not in the business of being able to please everyone and so stop trying. Be clear about who you are what your purpose in business is and what values you live by. Be clear about who you want to and will work with and who you won't. If you want to be clear outwardly, you need to be clear inwardly first. How are you conveying passion and authenticity in and for your business? Ideas Bank The ideas bank is your depository for great tips, nuggets of wisdom and knowledge and a library of stories. You can access the Ideas Bank via the special page on my website purely for *Quickstart* readers. You can click in whenever you want and see what ideas you can use as we build content over the coming weeks. Check out this week's contributions on How To Price and Value Services. Remember the Ideas Bank will only be of value if you all make deposit so why not take a few minutes and this week send me an email at bev@onestepfurther.co.uk with your tips, tools, stories and ideas on the topic of Keeping a Healthy Sales Pipeline * How do you manage your sales pipeline? * What has worked and what hasn't? * How do you measure your pipeline? * What tools do you use? * How do you differentiate prospects in your pipeline? * What does your pipeline look like? * What stories of success can you share? You can find the Ideas Bank at www.onestepfurther.co.uk/welcome_to_the_ideas_bank.phtml or if you keep copies of your weekly *Quickstart* the link will always be in there. My challenge is for you to try one new thing each week. Good luck We all share, we all learn. Personal Reflections I mentioned in my intro that I had facilitated a session for Sony. This was at their annual conference in Brighton and was all about embedding the 4 key drivers/values for their business. Bright, intelligent very switched on people who all seemed aligned to what they knew they had to do and it was a great environment for progress. My job was simply to facilitate a planning process. We had 3 hours to get a detailed plan of action on pre-determined projects, which had been given to them as key projects to move the business forward by September 2006 - only 4 months. 26 people, 2 projects, 3 hours - GO! I knew nothing about the content and so it was easy for me just to support the process. I learnt a number of things from the experience. 1. Progress can be made very quickly when you have a clear idea of what to do and why you are doing it 2. 80% is good enough for progress to be made 3. Engagement is easy when you know what you have to achieve and why 4. A simple process can have an immediate impact 5. Committees, long meetings and consultations are not necessary for short term projects 6. A can do and will do attitude gets you further than knowing exactly how something will be done 7. I love facilitation and promise myself to do more What do you love and have not done for ages? Promise yourself to take time to do more. Best Regards Bev bev@onestepfurther.co.uk +44 (0) 1344 625713 PAY IT FORWARD & Tell a Friend Who do you know that's left the corporate world and set up business as a consultant? Have you received *Quickstart* from a colleague and would like to receive future issues? We grow by recommendation so why not invite others to join the *Quickstart* community so they can subscribe immediately and get their free ecourse Discover the 5 Most Incorrect Assumption that Independent Business Consultants Make. Go to www.OneStepFurther.co.uk Thank you.





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