Business Wisdom Podcast

When we regularly question the achievements of business, our role within it, and its role within our greater goals in life, we better understand what motivates and drives us, and the steps we need to take in order to succeed.

Business owners should regularly ask questions, both of themselves and their business. When we ask questions, we begin to better understand our business, our customers and ourselves.

Questioning allows us to keep the big picture in mind, it offers constant improvement, and allows us to recognize opportunity more readily.

Questions To Ask

• What business do I want to be in?
• Where to from here?
• How is the business performing at this time?
• Is there a better way of doing the things we do?
• Am I happy?

Many people aren't happy in their business but don't do anything about placing themselves in a better position where they could be happy.

The answers to these questions are sometimes frightening and very often enlightening. The answers to these questions can help us decide how we are going to move forward.

What business do I want to be in?

It's important in business to ask the questions about what it is you actually do and to dig deep into discovering what you want to do, as this will make you happy. Don't spend time on the things that don't make you happy.

Discovering the things that you want to do will also help you discover your ideal client. When you understand your ideal client, it means that you have a really good understanding of what it is that you're going to provide and the conditions of the products and services.

Look forward, not backward. Don't focus on the things that will make it difficult for you to move forward. Look closely at where you want to go, where you want to be, how your products and services will lead you to your goal.

Where to from here?

It is important in business to work on your plan. It is an important undertaking and it is important to undertake it regularly. When you have a plan, it'll make it easy for you to deliver services. Planning is something you should be looking at on a regular basis.

It is important for you to know your Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWAT) as this will change overtime in your business. Being aware of what they are, you'll be in position to move forward with confidence and take advantage of your strengths and opportunities, and mitigate the weaknesses and threats.

How is the business performing at this time?

Ask yourself and your customers regularly. The feedback you get from your customers tells you what you should be providing and how well you are doing at providing it. These simple things will allow you to do better in your business. If you are providing the way people want it, more people will hear and be excited about it which will lead you to better results.

Is there a better way of doing the things we do?

Customers are good at explaining a better way of doing things. It's about discovering what customers really want. It is always worth looking at better ways.

Asking what are the better ways is important because that will keep you up to date in the eyes of the customers. Customer experience should be the top priority,

Am I happy?

The first thing a business should deliver to you is life. Most people go into business because they want to have better choices. And better choices means being able to choose the life that you live.

The common mistake entrepreneurs tend to make is to give up time. If we give up time, we also give up the ability to choose. As a result of that, we are not living the life we want to live.

Asking this question is easy. Finding the right answer can be a little difficult for most people. Find out what will make you happy and work towards that.

Highlights:

0:00 Introduction

0:41 The questions every business owner should ask

1:00 Business owners should ask questions regularly

2:01 What the answers might reveal when we ask these questions

2:30 What business do I want to be in?

3:10 What will make you happy?

3:30 Who is your ideal client?

4:27 Where do you want to go?

5:10 Planning is important

6:05 BWhat is your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)

6;30 Ask your customers feedback

6:57 Is there a better way of doing things?

7:42 Am I happy?

9:10 Look for expert guidance to help you answer these questions

9:45 Thanks for joining Clive

9:47 Subscribe to the Business Wisdom Podcast

9:50 Work with Clive

Other Resources:

Join The Strategy Circle

Book a Discovery Call with Clive

Contact Clive

Follow Clive:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

About Clive:

As a successful business strategist and coach, Clive Enever has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in assisting business owners to grow their businesses and achieve their goals.

Clive provides powerful and high-impact mentoring, using an approach that is warm yet direct and results-driven to build a business owner's success while creating the lifestyle they crave.

Business Mindset is how you think about your business. An acknowledgement that how you approach business and its challenges mentally has an impact on your success.

This success includes how your brand is perceived, the services and products you offer, the leadership of your staff, and the processes you embrace to get where you want to go.

There are different types of business mindsets, including growth and fixed, but the critical takeaway at this moment in time is that your attitude will impact your business.

Your business mindset impacts culture, morale, growth, opportunity, and personal mental health.

Tools to assist with managing your mindset

• Plan your path forward
• Don't dwell in the past - look forward. Create a clear plan and course of actions in achieving our goals in business.
• Know what did not work in the past and leave them behind. Identify what worked and carry it forward.
• Focus on what you can control, not on what you can't.
• Invest your mental energy in the future
• Believe in what you do and believe in yourself
• Inculcate in your mind that you have the ability and power to reach your business destination.
• Believe that you will succeed.
• Know why you're doing your business
• Keeping the core reason why you're doing the things you do 'top of mind', will keep you inspired and motivated.

Everything around you is presenting an opportunity. Mistakes are an opportunity. Treating mistakes and errors as an opportunity to learn and evolve allows you to free yourself and keep your business reaching goals.

Take every opportunity to learn. Arm yourself with new tools and insights.

Develop good habits. Know what habits work for you and your business and be consistent with them.

Business mindset is all about knowing why you do the things you do. This means you're in a great position to know your ideal client. Working with your ideal client means better results. Better results means enjoying your business more and more easily maintaining the right business mindset.

Your mindset determines what result you get from your business.

Highlights:

0:00 Introduction

0:40 Managing your business mindset

1:10 Different types of mindset in business

1:20 Your attitude impacts your business

1:38 What is business mindset

2:10 Tools you can engage to manage your mindset

2:15 Plan your path forward

2:55 Focus on the things you can control

3:10 Believe in what you do

3:40 Know why you're in business

4:18 Share your ideas with others especially your staff

4:30 Treat mistakes as opportunities to evolve

5:05 Develop good daily habits

5:28 Look at what works for you and your business

6:10 Process should be at the heart of what you do

7:05 Your why will help you identify your ideal client

8:05 What a good business mindset can give you

8:10 Your mindset determines what results you get

8:37 Thank you for joining Clive

8:40 Subscribe to the Business Wisdom Podcast

8:42 Work with Clive

Other Resources:

Join The Strategy Circle

Book a Discovery Call with Clive

Contact Clive

Follow Clive:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

About Clive:

As a successful business strategist and coach, Clive Enever has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in assisting business owners to grow their businesses and achieve their goals.

Clive provides powerful and high-impact mentoring, using an approach that is warm yet direct and results-driven to build a business owner's success while creating the lifestyle they crave.

Fear stops people achieving. Fear treads on imagination and removes self-reliance. Most of all, it introduces and magnifies doubts that sucks all our enthusiasm.

Fear is contagious. If we are filled with fear, people will be afraid to do business with us.

People like to work and be around people who are enthusiastic.

Fear takes over initiative and promotes uncertainty. When you recognise the feeling of uncertainty, then you'd be able to do something about it.

Fear can be expressed in a multitude of ways.

The 3 major fears people have

Lack / Poverty

Criticism

Ill Health

Overcoming fear is difficult but we must look at ways to help us eliminate this. Once we pass through fear and know how to overcome it, it'll be much easier for us to deal with it the next time.

It's all in the mind. So it's reasonable to expect that thinking will get us out of it.

The more we focus on the fact that we are fearful, the stronger it becomes and would definitely affect everything that we do.

How to deal with our thoughts?

Find your affirmation

A series of words which speaks about something we want to achieve but speaks as if we are achieving it now. A manifestation.

Be grateful for the positive things in your life

Recognise, acknowledge, and celebrate good things or even small wins

Be positive

When you think positive, you do positive things, which will attract positive results.

Change fear into a motivator. Recognise it and find ways not to experience what you are fearful of. Then fear will serve a valuable purpose in pushing you forward in taking actions towards your goals.

Monitor what's happening around you by comparing past and current performance and find what could've been better. Identify the steps of action in the direction of where you want to go without being held by fear. Be brave and enthusiastic enough to focus on what you want and use fear as an inspiration in achieving it. Fear will eventually fade away.

Highlights:

0:00 Introduction

0:45 What is fear in a business perspective?

1:20 Fear treads on imagination and magnifies doubt

1:55 Two contagious things in our world--fear and enthusiasm

2:50 How fear expresses itself—3 major fears of people

3:10 Strategies to overcome fear

4:35 Find a suitable affirmation

5:18 Be grateful for the positive things in our life

6:25 Monitor what's happening around you

6:36 Take action to improve and become better

7:07 Focus on what you want and the fear will simply fade away

7:23 Thank you for joining Clive

7:23 Subscribe to the Business Wisdom Podcast

7:28 Work with Clive

Other Resources:

Join The Strategy Circle

Book a Discovery Call with Clive

Contact Clive

Follow Clive:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

About Clive:

As a successful business strategist and coach, Clive Enever has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in assisting business owners to grow their businesses and achieve their goals.

Clive provides powerful and high-impact mentoring, using an approach that is warm yet direct and results-driven to build a business owner's success while creating the lifestyle they crave.

Regardless of what business you're in, the growth trajectory of any enterprise is similar. There's the excitement of sheer existence, the heady days of survival and the critical decisions that need to come once you attain success. In this Business Wisdom podcast, Business Strategist Clive Enever walks through the five stages of business growth, looking at Harvard's research on the subject and also outlining how that applies in the true trenches of business. He discusses each stage, how you know you've attained it, and the challenges that ensue, including the key things every business operator needs to have in place once they reach the next step on the ladder. In a podcast that applies to each stage of the business journey, Clive examines the lifecycle of a business, offering you an expert insight into how to climb the ladder of business success. Clive discusses: •What the five stages of business are and how you know you've reached the next step •The common challenges that come with each stage and how to overcome them •Why knowing your ideal customer is key to all stages of business, and how to keep them at the heart of your business planning Highlights: 0:33 What are the various stages of business growth? 1:05 Existence and why the key focus is customers 1:50 Why 65 percent of businesses fail within the first three years 2:10 Survival and why so many businesses remain stuck in this mode 2:50 The critical questions to ask at this point 3:09 How you can attain success and which decisions need to be made once you reach this juncture 3:30 The defining elements of business success and the most important things this stage can give a business operator 4:26 What needs to be considered in terms of planning and growth 4:55 How to attain the fourth stage of takeoff and what that involves 5:05 Why growth might happen at a rapid rate, and how it can be managed 6:00 The challenges that come with maturity, including maintaining position and developing technology 6:25 How to innovate and diversify, and why it matters, along with the key ways to avoid stagnating 6:55 The one thing that all stages of business have in common 7:05 Why it's imperative to know your ideal customer and keep them at the heart of your business planning 8:12 Subscribe to the Business Wisdom Podcast and Work with Clive Resources Mentioned in the Podcast: •Australian Bureau of Statistics •Harvard Business Review Other Resources: Join The Strategy Circle Book a Discovery Call with Clive Contact Clive Follow Clive: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube About...

Everyone wants to grow their business to a particular level.

Might not want to be the next entrant in the Top 100 - or maybe might want to be that next entrant.

Do you want to grow quickly? Do you want to grow slowly? Do you want to grow at all? Each is a very legitimate question and each requires understanding what that ultimately delivers and how to manage what that delivery is.

I took some time in the last few days to check the engagement of stories I have been presenting via social media, my website etc.

Interestingly, 4 stories achieved engagement between 8 and 12 times the average of all the stories presented.

These stories were about (in no particular order:

• Understanding your SWOT

• Correct Pricing

• Being Busy (rather than productive)

• Growth

Although all the stories presented are about business and having business run to suit you, these four highlight an ongoing issue.

To achieve growth there are many things that need to work in unison. They need to be aligned and heading toward the end goal. But to achieve growth all the parts involved need to align with one thing above all the others.

The presentation of your goods or services needs to align with the view of that product or service held by your customer. If your view of your business and your customer's view of your business are not aligned, no amount of all the other things will persuade a purchase. Starting from the right place is paramount.

If you're in small business, there's every chance you don't have enough time. Whether that's every day, or last week, or at random times across a week or a month, there's a reason for that. Being in small business often means there is only one person to fill all the roles. And each of the roles can seem that it attracts enough tasks for a full time job. Of course, each task that bobs up "demands" immediate attention. I hear stories from people about gaining another day per week because they no longer have to travel to an office, because of Covid-19 lockdowns. That's one way to find more time. Where can that time be used? • All the jobs claim urgency - identify what is beneficial to you if done "right now" • Identifying the most important and doing that or those will bring the right results • If it involves introducing a new customer to your business - that is a priority • Work through each of the tasks in order of benefit to the business Completing the selected tasks will have improved the position of your business. And you will typically have just as much time for those other tasks as you had before you started on the things which actually grow your business. Having grown the business because you worked on the things that matter most, you are probably now in a position to pay someone else to perform the tasks that take you away from the things that matter.

You've had this fantastic idea.

Excitement and enthusiasm abound.

What will you do with this world beater of an idea?

As time passes you answer all the questions you can think of and the idea becomes a vision. A vision of how the world will change because of your idea. How humankind will benefit from this tremendous discovery. And you're ready to go to the market, convinced of how well you will be received. After all, it's a no-brainer. You can smell all the piles of money as you lounge within them.

You're in business, you know there will always be questions. When people are interested in your product or service, they will naturally have questions. But, are you finding that you are being presented with question upon question upon question? Anyone interested in a product or service, regardless of what that is, will have questions. If they don't have questions they are not really interested and don't really want it. The interesting thing about handling all these questions is this: if you know, really know your product/service and know who you provide it to, and under what conditions you provide it, most of those questions simply do not arise. The customer "knows" you have them covered.

We all know that business is about selling your product or service. When it comes to selling, a lot of people have a negative view of what selling is. Many people are frightened by it and, as a result try to be seen as NOT selling. Some of those same people then worry about why their product or service is not selling. Hmmmmm! Selling, real selling, is not something to be frightened by or of. Selling is just a conversation. Yes, it is a conversation designed to arrive at the right outcome. And understanding how to have that conversation and who to have that conversation with is what makes the difference between a successful business and the other alternative. Knowing how to have that conversation is what real selling is - no pressure; no need for 'power' tactics; no need for stress & worry - just a conversation to arrive at the right outcome. How to do it: • Understand why - precisely why - someone will buy from you • Understand what the right outcome is • Know how to introduce yourself • Have a conversation