They turned towards each other, bowed and then the whistle blew – it was time to focus on the task at hand. Concentration was high and the competition had begun, the Dojo was quiet.

A block here, a punch there, another block, there’s a grunt, a kick, another block.

Oh, there’s Mum, I’ll just give her a quick wave, and smile for Dad while I'm at it. I’ll just take a quick look at the other competitors waiting for their turn, there’s my friend Seb, quick smile to him as he waits his turn.

Okay, gotta remember to concentrate back on the competition. Another block, a punch, the whistle blows. It’s all over.

Well that’s how I imagined it sounded in the mind of my five year old, Laura, who was competing in her very first Karate competition on the weekend. What’s a girl (or boy) to do - there was lots happening, not only the competition but there were judges, participants and of course the crowd cheering on the competitors.

Fast forward to Monday, and I was reminded of Laura’s competition when listening to a colleague who was telling me about all these amazing projects she had in the pipeline. She was doing this, doing that, and wondering why things were slipping between her fingers. Her core business was suffering and she was wondering why her new products and services were not flying off the shelf, so to speak.

It sounded as if she was stuck in the second/third of Laura’s competition! Pull together a quick program here, a workshop there, and oh I better remember to focus on what my main business is before the whistle blows.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for pulling together programs, workshops or whatever you need to support your clients' needs. But….

Check for demand. If you are hearing from a few clients that they need something specific – great – but what real need is there? If I am going to take the time, energy and resources to create a program, or add a product or service that will provide solutions to a specific problem, then I want to know that prospects and clients will be knocking down my email to either attend or buy it.

I’m going to test for the demand, and I have to say, this is something that I have learnt the value of over the past year from working with MaryEllen Tribby - ‘Never launch a product by using the “I Know Best” approach’. It’s just not going to work.

Does it fit who you are? And by this I mean your brand. You’ve spent the time identifying your ideal clients, working out the benefits you provide, and you’ve established yourself as the expert or go-to-person for a specific problem or service. Now you want to do a 180 and provide a product or service that really has nothing to do with your core business or your style.

Stop, breathe and remember that you don’t need to be all things to all people. Don’t get caught in the second/third of Laura’s karate competition. Develop new products and services, but do the due diligences to make sure they are best for you, your brand, and your clients. Tweet

“I’m not sure where to start.” “What is it that I need to do?” “How can I get going and take my business to the next level?” These are a few of the emails that have been coming in since I spoke at the two events (St George/Sutherland BEC Sales & Marketing Forum & Sydney Women’s Network) last week. There’s a common theme running through the emails, as there was when I was speaking one on one with people after the events. The theme being: most people want to get running, but don’t know where they need to start. So....what's the first step to take?

Well, starting at the beginning is always good. But asking "What is it that I need to do?", is not what I have found to be the best starting point that guarantees you business success. I have found that identifying the core purpose and intention of your business is the very best way to start. This realisation should be your key starting point for all your business outcomes, which will ensure you build such a strong business that it attracts exactly the type of clients you want. By default, this will boost your bottom line - producing the financial results you desire, while maximising your use of time and resources.

Let me show you what I mean.

Ask yourself the following questions:

· How committed are you to growing your business?
· Is this something you really want or is it something that you think you want?
· What does a successful business look like to you?
· What is the reason you began your business? and,
· Could you clearly articulate this, if I was to ask you?

I’ve shared with you that the reason that I started my business was initially because I had a need and desire for freedom. Freedom allowed me to work how I wanted to work, when I wanted to work, and with whom I wanted to work with. As time progressed and things changed within my life, more needs evolved, which kept me focused on continuing to be successful in business. This need is to be a strong role model for my daughters, and to show them that they can do anything that they put their minds to.

If you are clear on why you're in business, then you will make sure you take steps that drive your business positively in the direction of success.

To assist you in achieving this success, let’s look at three of my very simple yet effective strategies to move your business forward:

- Commit to making your business a success. Let’s face it - business at the end of the day is about making money. How many hours do you work diligently to grow and build your business? I’m here to tell you that it takes work and commitment to really grow a business; there is no easy option here. So how much time and effort are you willing to commit to your business success? Decide on what this looks like, stay focused and don’t get distracted. Think about it, if you were working for someone else, would you step out to do your grocery shopping in the middle of the morning?

- Be clear on your Business Development Days (BDD). These are the days, where you work ON your business. Know exactly what day/s of the week you are dedicating to be BDD. Be clear on your outcomes, know what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve them. Do you know what activities you need to include in these days? If you have been doing the same thing and nothing different is happening, now is the time to look at what you need to change, and plan how to do it.

- If you’re still not sure what to do….give yourself a kick-start and work with a mentor. Investing in my mentors has been the best money I have spent on myself and for my business. Not only am I constantly learning, I’ve committed myself to being strategic about how I work to develop my business further. When I get stuck in a place of: “What do I do next?”, I ask the question, work through this with my mentor, and then roll up my sleeves to achieve what is next for me.

So, let’s commit to stop standing still. Write down what you want from your business and then look at what and who you need to help you achieve it. Take a stand and make a difference. Tweet

The phone rang at 4.30 last Monday afternoon and it was a colleague of mine that I had spoken to earlier in the day.

“Deb, I just wanted to check in and see how you are feeling. When we spoke this morning, you didn’t sound too good and I was concerned.”

I said that I was fine, but really I was feeling totally wiped out! It was school holidays and I had been in bed for most of the weekend with a virus, but had woken up Monday morning, knowing that I needed to be up and ready to go. On top of this, my two-year-old daughter, Giaan, had woken up and I knew she had another chest infection coming on – the second within three weeks!

So, as you sometimes do, I raided the medicine cupboard that morning, took G to the doctor and got on with the day. When my colleague called the second time, I began to realise that I wasn’t actually feeling the best, but I knew I had a solid week booked with both family and business commitments. I couldn’t let anyone down!

As the evening wore on and I tried to concentrate on some work I needed to complete, I began to realise that Tuesday may in fact need to be a day of rest. But it was the second Tuesday of the month and I was was very much looking forward to this particular Tuesday. You see, I had spent the most part of the previous month re-designing my Business Building Blocks Membership and the first new and improved webinar was happening the next day, and I didn’t want to let anyone down.

Can you see what I was doing? I was so caught up on making sure that I didn’t let anyone down, that I realised by not canceling the webinar I actually would be letting everyone down. It took me most of the evening to come to the realisation that I needed to cancel the webinar and my other appointments for the day.

And that sometimes, Life Happens!

In relation to business, once I made the decision, I realised that I could do two things.

Firstly, I could beat myself up for canceling Tuesday and allow myself to sit in negative self-talk. This would probably of sounded like: “This is so unprofessional, what will my members think?” “Can’t believe that I canceled, really you’re not that sick.”; “What will my colleagues think?”. Etc, etc, etc.

Or

Secondly, I could acknowledge that Life Happens & I was not feeling the best, that my throat was sore and the level of concentration I needed for my members was not going to be there. That it was okay to cancel Tuesday, take care of myself, and my family. That I didn’t need to put this pressure on myself to be all things to all people.

I chose to do the later. I contacted all my members with an email letting them know what was happening, and then made a conscious decision to accept that life does happen and it is okay.

The reason I wanted to share this with you, is to let you know that there are those times when it is okay to let go and say “Life Happens". Be honest with what is happening for you right at that moment and know that those within your community will support you, as the members of my community did. It’s a great lesson that we can give others.

So the next time “Life Happens” for you, don’t go down the road of beating yourself up. Choose to acknowledge what is happening for you right now and ask yourself what you need to do to support YOU. Tweet

How important is it for your business to continue to grow consistently and constantly? How committed are you to making sure your business is capable and able to meet the needs of your market and thrive no matter what economic climate you are facing? What actions do you take to make sure your business stays in the black not the red?

When I begin to work with you, you are at the point where you are ready to take your commitment, focus and investment into your business to the next level. You realise that in order for your business to grow you need to take action that is going to make a real difference. This is when I step in and show you what this action needs to be.

As part of this process, some of the areas we work on are getting clear on what products you offer and what benefits and results this brings to your clients. We then use this information to develop what I call is your ‘Marketing Campaign’.

In your marketing campaign we identify what the key channels are that you can use to expand your business. There are many different key channels that you can use, and today I want to look at one of these key channels, and that is joint ventures. Joint Venture in it simpliest form is to enter a business agreement with another.

There are some of you, who jump at this thought, knowing instinctively that this is a great way to increase profit. But there are some, who for whatever reason, just don’t want to go down this path at all, as you just don’t like the concept of joint ventures. That’s fine as joint ventures can be a sticky creature, but really, if implemented correctly, it adds to your business rather than takes away.

I personally love joint ventures, and the relationships that I have formed from these ventures have always been supportive, productive, and longstanding. It’s not about what I can get, but more about what we can do together that supports our mutual business growth.

To help you select your future joint-venture partners, here are the strategies suggested in *Changing the Channel:

a) Look for strong partners – businesses that have significant skills and/or resources that you lack.
b) Make sure that your contribution to the deal is equal to your partner’s. An unbalanced partnership is not good for either party.
c) Avoid partners that you don’t trust.
d) If possible, limit the scope of the venture in the beginning and extend it as trust increases.
e) Make agreements simple, but put them in writing.
f) To avoid costly misunderstandings after the venture has begun, idenfity the value of each partner’s contributions at the outset.
g) In determining the value of those contributions, remember that fairness is not an exact number, but a range. Try to be flexible – and favour partners who demonstrate the same flexibility.
h) Establish clear protocols at the beginning for amending or unwinding the relationship if it fails to meet expectations.
i) Goodwill is essential for success. Goodwill means that you want your partner to benefit from the relationship as much as you do.
As I mentioned earlier, the idea is about developing strong, financially rewarding, and long-term relationships. You want these relationships to grow and be as painless as possible.

Now, before reaching this place, there are a number of factors you will need to put in place, and one in particular is not to reach out before you have your idea or product ready. If you contact a joint venture partner too early, you may in fact damage the relationship before you begin. But that is a whole seperate article in itself!

So if you are interested in pursuing this with me, please send an email to admin@debpilgrim.com with 'Joint Venture' in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you.

"Changing the Channel - 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business" by Michael Masterson & MaryEllen Tribby
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I’ve been doing more running over the past few months and have inflamed an old back injury. So when it really starts to hinder me, off I go to my fabulous physiotherapist and she works her magic. During the course of our conversation, (well actually it was more like her reading me the riot act about over-running!), I mentioned to her that I need to go back to my lpilates studio to work on my core strength. I was surprised when she told me that they actually had an alliance with a pilates studio only a few streets away.

Now I’ve been visiting these guys for the past few years, so was surprised to hear that they had this alliance. It’s a great idea and I think a perfect compliment for their physiotherapy business. What I found interesting was that as a client of their business, I haven’t yet heard about this additional service they were providing.

It made me wonder how many other businesses have great products and services out there, and are losing thousands of dollars because their clients don’t know about them.

Do you have a product now that isn’t being used to its full capacity? Do you have a service that your clients don’t really know about? If so, ask yourself the following questions, so that your products and services aren’t losing you money:

1) What are you currently doing to make people aware of your service/product?

2) Have you developed a strategy to support the launch and implementation of the product?

3) Does your marketing campaign include all multi-channels of marketing or just the ones you are comfortable using?

4) Are you speaking the language of your clients and potential clients, so that they see and hear about the benefits your new products will provide them?

5) Are you telling them specifically what solutions this product will fix for them?

If you are not getting the return you thought your new product/service would provide, then one of the best investments you can give yourself right now is to work through the questions above. Identify what you need to do differently to put your product/service out there in the eyes of the public. Not promoting your services effectively and efficiently is bad for your business. Your clients want to know about all your products and services, as they have emotionally and financially invested in you thus far. Why would you want them to go somewhere else, when you may be able to solve their current challenge? Tweet

I caught up with an old uni classmate earlier this week, who has been running a successful consulting business for the past five years. After finding out about life in general, our conversation moved around to what was happening in our businesses. When I asked Kate about her business, I was struck by how similar her story was to that of my clients when I first start working with them. On the outside, you would think that everything is going well, but under the surface it is a different story.

Don’t get me wrong, Kate’s business is good and I think there is lots of potential to grow – but as she said, “I feel like my legs are running but going nowhere, fast”.

When I asked her what she meant by ‘going nowhere, fast’, Kate said that she felt as if she was putting in a lot of effort for little return. She felt her business had plateaued and she wasn’t sure what she needed to do to move out of its current rut and up to the next level. Kate also said that the strategies she normally uses to expand her business just didn’t seem to be as effective as they used to be. She was now waking up in the middle of night, thinking about her business and what she needed to do differently, and that she is worried because she relies on her business to support her and her family – as many of us do.

It’s an all too familiar situation that I also hear from my clients when I start working with them, but I could let Kate know that she was not alone. Many entrepreneurs go through the same situation that she feels she is facing, but there are strategies she can put in place to change her current reality.

One quick strategy is to stop going it alone! Most people feel that they need to keep doing things by themselves that they can’t let others know what is really going on for them. This is such an antiquated way of thinking. By investing in support, you move yourself more quickly forward than you could on your own. Trust me I know! Not only from working as a business mentor and seeing my clients succeed, but from having my own business mentor. My business mentor costs me thousands of dollars each month, but I move forward more powerfully in my business both in results and in my thoughts, having her as my partner rather than not having her. This type of support is so different from the support you might gain from your team, your peers, or even your family.

Over the next few weeks, take stock of where you currently are, especially as we are now 6 months into the year. Ask yourself, “What support do I need to move my business to another level over the next six months?”. “What support do I need for me?”. Tweet