A customer analysis is important because it combines various research methods that aim to give you a better understanding of your customer base so that you know what they love and require and you can better cater to their needs. So typically, you’d start off by identifying who your customers are, understanding their needs and frustrations, then grouping potential customers according to similar characteristics, and then creating a customer avatar or profile. In this episode, we discuss why as a business owner you need to analyse and review your market from time to time.

Your vision exists as a guide to something greater. It doesn’t come attached to a guaranteed plan. You should definitely do your best to implement strategies but so much of your success depends on endurance, being able to adapt, and allowing your creativity to flow. Your dream is not there to make you feel inadequate, incompetent or incapable. Your dream exists to remind you that it is possible to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. In this episode, we discuss  the importance of keeping abreast of your circumstances when  your reality doesn’t seem to be cooperating with your vision.

Today we are going to discuss the STAR interview method, which you can use to ace your interviews, or, to improve the interviewing process for your company. This method assesses your behaviour in certain work situations, so that the interviewer can have an idea of how you perform under certain conditions. It can also help you to get to know potential business partners better. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

Even the strongest and most composed people are often disorganised when they are experiencing emotional turbulence. You may find yourself lacking focus, becoming increasingly agitated, being unable to complete tasks, and even becoming uninterested in meeting deadlines. Today we’re discussing a few things you can do to put your thoughts in compartments so that you can get things done during a trying time when your thoughts may be muddled up.

What does it mean to maximise your resources and potential? You maximise your resources by doing the most you can with what you have at the present moment, and you maximise your potential by becoming a high-performer in whatever tasks you have been given, or you have given to yourself. It is all about working towards your space of excellence regardless of what you are yet to acquire. In this episode, we talk about holding yourself accountable and committing to making improvements in your life, business, and career, and consciously and deliberately working towards becoming a better version of yourself.

It's so exciting to have a vision and write down the goals that will make that vision a reality. But there are so many goals that never see the light of day, and so many plans that never get off the ground. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances that may prevent us from taking action, but the vast majority of goals aren't met because of issues that are actually within our own control. Let's tackle eight of those issues.

Your business or career development strategy needs to be aligned to your vision so that you remain focused on the core activities, operations, networks and customers, for instance, that will make that business vision a reality. Once your vision is clear, you can determine whether your skill-set is sufficient, especially to take on the current market trends. Skill-sets are so diverse and dynamic; we need to continually invest in them. In this episode, we point out some of the ways in which you can assess and build the skill-set necessary to achieve your goals.

Networking is a powerful tool to help you access opportunities, gain information, and make your skills and talents visible to your target audience. While our networks can be important assets, it’s also important to know, realistically, whether the people we think we can reach out to for advice and financial or other support would really respond positively. Sometimes we find our calls going unanswered, meeting requests are not honoured, and we try to refer people to them for assistance with no luck. For whatever reason, they haven’t seen the value in us and it’s like squeezing water out of a rock. These people are in your network but are you really in theirs? In this episode we ask the crucial question: who’s in your network, and who’s network are you in?

Today we’ll be discussing fruit flies, those pesky flying pests that hover fearlessly around your ripe fruit and don’t seem to be moved by your presence. Just like people who clap and never contribute, they stay only because something smells sweet and can benefit them in the present. The biggest challenge that the fruit flies in our lives present is, they create an illusion of interest and support.

Normally, we seek partners who have something to bring to the table. Perhaps they have the capital and you have the networks. Or you have the ideas and they have the resources. All of these things are important, but we sometimes fall short when it comes to assessing the compatibility of our values with the people we work closely with. Incompatibility here can seriously undermine your vision. In this episode, we zone in on the fact that, as much as we may have industry best practices, at the end of the day, projects, relationships, and partnerships are driven by human beings, their values, and their interactions.