Business Made Easy Podcast

Are you just like everybody else in business trying to provide good customer service or are you providing your customers with a unique customer experience? There is a big difference between the two and an even bigger difference on your bottom line profit when you get it right. Today I take you through the difference and give you the tools you can use to provide your customers with a unique customer experience and turn them into raving fans in your business.

“People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan”

This saying couldn’t be closer to the truth when it comes to business and having an up to date and relevant business plan for your business.

Yet so many business owners don’t do them and if they have done them they don’t update them regularly.

This week we discuss in-depth why you need a business plan in your business. 

• What makes a business plan so important and the benefits of a well-crafted business plan
• Why you need a business plan in your business
• How often should you do a business plan 
• How often should you update and look at your business plan 
• What happens if you run your business without a business plan.

Business process automation can be a huge efficiency gain to just about every business. 

It allows you to scale your marketing, your processes and product delivery. 

It is not however good for everything. 

Process automation can not replace or build human relationships and done badly can quickly and easily be damaging to your business. 

In this episode, we highlight two real case studies where businesses have automated their business processes at the expense of good customer service as an illustration of how automation can be more damaging than beneficial. 

In this episode we cover 

• Why business process automation is great for business and can help you scale. 
• Why it’s not so great 
• Where it can go wrong and the costs of getting it wrong in your business
• The importance of building human touchpoints in your systems.
• How to map out your customer journey to exceed customer expectations

It is so easy to get caught up in life busy being busy. But are we being effective? Are we actually working towards or heading in the right direction for what is truly important in our lives and in our businesses?

We explore the beginning with the end in mind approach to life and business this week. 

The idea of starting everything with total clarity on what is important to you in all aspects of life and staying focused on it can have a dramatic effect on the level of success you in your business and in your life.

When we begin with the end in mind approach to our lives we become leaders of our lives as opposed to manages of all that comes our way. 

We discuss in-depth these concepts and how you can have a life well lead versus a life well managed.

• What it means to start with the end in mind
• Why it’s such an important approach to business and life in achieving success
• How easy it can be to lose focus and direction without a proper plan
• The importance of recallibrating regularly to stay focused
• The important distinction between a life well managed versus a life, well lead
• How to implement an End in mind approach to life.

The use of video for marketing in your business is one of the most valuable strategies you can have when it comes to getting your business and brand out into the market place.

But knowing where to start can be a daunting task not to mention overcoming the nerves to put yourself out there in front of the camera.

We interview Holly Gillen this week on the podcast and she generously shares some of her key strategies and tips for overcoming the barriers and getting video marketing right in your business.

Holly empowers online entrepreneurs to go from confused to confident on both sides of the camera & teaches them the skills they need to create not just video but Business Cinema™.

Business Cinema™ is the way she likes to describe the next level video. Not creating content for creating content, but creating videos that have a plan, a purpose and a strategy. Videos that move your business forward and have a bigger purpose.

Holly started her career video production in 2008 as a Videographer, Producer, and Editor working with big industry names including the Sundance Channel, Sony Music, Nick.com, HBO, Bono, Big Time Rush, Forest Whitaker and many others.

Her skills and experience run the full gamut from Producing and Directing to Shooting and Editing, and she has translated those skills into a range of educational courses and services to support entrepreneurs in their quest for video stardom.

Learn in this episode 

• Why Video is important for marketing in your business.
• What makes video for marketing in your business so successful.
• Hollys 4 pillar strategy for formulating impactful videos.
• The techniques Holly uses to overcome nerves and fear of the camera.
• Getting started with equipment and overcoming the obstacles and confusion.
• The truth behind the myths when it comes to producing quality video in your business.

Cashflow in your business is everything. 

If you don’t have the cash you can’t pay your bills and your business won’t survive.

Cash flow is also one of the biggest frustration areas that all business owners struggle within their businesses.

The good news is that cash flow can be managed and it can be easily fixed and managed with the right tools and approach. 

In this episode, we take a deep dive look into how a business can improve cash flow and just where to look when problems arise as they invariably do.

In this episode, you will learn, 

• Why cash flow is important to your business.
• How to measure and plan your business cash flow for success in your business. 
• The 7 key causes of poor cash flow in your business and how to avoid them.

It is very easy, particularly in the online space to loose sight of the fact that you are actually running a business. In this episode I take you through the distinction of a hobby versus a business and what you can do to identify what it is you are actually running, including steps you can implement to set yourself up for business success.

Today I talk about a common problem that many customers face - exactly how can they increase their revenue to reach their lifestyle goals.  

We follow along the journey that my clients Bill and Sharon went through when using the formula developed by Jay Abraham to grow their business.

• The Upside Down Business Budget
• How making small changes in key areas of your business can make all the difference
• How to work out the key metrics to track
• Why you need to measure and track the number of initial inquiries your business receives
• Ideas to start upselling to your customers
• The 5 key areas to grow your business
  • Increasing the number of leads/inquiries into your business
  • Converting more inquiries into sales
  • Increasing the average spend per customer
  • Increasing the number of times a customer purchases from you
  • Increasing your gross profit margin

In today’s episode, we cover a topic that is one I feel very passionate about because I’ve seen it work time and time again - the importance of smiling in your business and life.

What is covered in this episode:

• How smiling can change our physical and mental state
• The benefits of smiling on your company culture, staff, suppliers and customer engagement
• Examples of how poor body language can give your customers a bad experience
• Smiling and its impact on your stress level
• How do you smile to help you relate with customers more quickly and improve your networking skills
• How to implement positive body language like smiling into your company’s culture
• The daily practices you need to implement to help make smiling a natural part of your day

There are essentially 3 freedoms that are most wanted and sort after by entrepreneurs as they battle the day to day of running a business.

They are:

• Money Freedom
• Time Freedom
• Mind Freedom

While the proportions in which we seek each of these may vary from time to time. When I speak with entrepreneurs, these 3 freedoms are important goals and drivers in why they are building their businesses and doing what they are doing.

• You will learn what each of the 3 freedoms are,
• Why they are important to us as entrepreneurs,
• The importance of identifying what they mean to you,
• Prioritising the areas of your business that will help you achieve success in these areas.
• Practical tips to help you achieve success in these areas of your business.