Are You My Mother?

My hope is my kids know that I am their mother and the rules, love and our family culture is one that they want. However it makes you wonder about the way we are with our employees as well. Could showing up different every time your employees go looking for you, just like the little bird experienced when trying to find his mother, create distrust? Could your employees disloyalty and sluggish behavior be your fault?

Leading employees is a role, that when absent, will show up in low productivity, loyalty and growth. What do those signs really look like?

Goals: Setting and Achieving Them

I just crossed a big one off the 2017 goal list and I will not deny, it feels good. It took months of hard work, planning, organizing and perseverance, but in the end it was worth it. While it had nothing to do with Synergy Business Coaching, in some ways it had everything to do with it. Training and running for the Mendocino Trail 50K(That is 31 miles for you Americans) taught me that life is work and work is life.

Are Your Customers on Information Overload?

Last week I opened my email, for the fourth time that day and found 6 newsletters in it. A few from current clients, one from a past and various reach outs from companies I have possibly given way to much money to over time. With the limited amount of time I have, I found myself naturally prioritizing what I needed to read, wanted and would never even open. Each week, I find myself doing this more and more and wonder, can there be too much information?

Those Seemingly Innocent Flaws

Everything was good until, someone asked something so random, I wasn’t even sure they had been sitting through the session the entire time. They pressed me for an answer and I wanted to help. But I wasn’t sure how. I began to sweat and my responses began to ramble a mile a minute. Oh crap. My worst nightmare was becoming a reality at 11:30 in the morning. One of my flaws was being exposed and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Do You Have A Happy Dance?

Most people are challenged to celebrate their wins. In business we are trained to work hard, do our jobs, keep our heads down and clock in and out on time. We have become so trained to do, we have forgotten to be…and being is what life is all about.

Saying NO!

One day about 6 years ago I decided to start saying no. Sometimes I wonder if it was some subconscious preparation for children or maybe I was doing what I saw all my mentors do. Either way, I did it. I said no…..and I did it again and again and again.

What Does Your Budget Say?

Creating and managing a budget might be one of my most favorite business activities as an owner. The boxes and lines, control and excitement, strategy and repeated actions allows my mind to “zen out”. It must be an entrepreneurs “meditation”. But it doesn’t end after building it. Taking this same system and implementing it via the decisions I make, the strategies I implement, the people I hire and fire completes the perfection this system has become.

The Five Things To Do When Sales Drop

Dropping revenue could be a signal of many things. Identifying exactly what it is, will create laser focus on what should be changed. Starting in the right spot is key. Reviewing your marketing quantification will give you a quick clue to where it is stemming from. Are you collecting any marketing quantification? Reviewing it quarterly? Being able to quickly identify simple fixes to your offerings or how you are expressing them is such an empowering thing to do internally as an organization and generally you will see quick results from these changes.

SalesKat CollinsSeptember 14, 2016Comment

Ignoring Referrals?

As small business owners, referrals from existing customers are one of our easiest and best ways to gain new customers. If you’re like me, asking for a referral might not seem natural. I realized I had never asked this client for a referral, instead I was hoping—like so many business owners do—that my great service, stellar personality, and the results we achieved would simply speak for themselves. But building a business on hope is a bit reckless. So how can we make the process easier?

Strategic Benefits Of A Reverse Mortgage

A reverse mortgage is another way that you can get some money from your own home, condo, manufactured building to create a consistent cash flow that can give you the back up you need, for the assurance you deserve. If you find that you fall under the requirements necessary to obtain one, it might be your next system solution for the strained cash flow positions you find yourself in from time to time.

5 Common Financial Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Business finances can be scary. Whether you are running formal financial reports like income statements, budgets, and balance sheets or doing nothing at all; if you don’t know what you are doing, you are probably making common financial mistakes that are hurting you.

What do you do with Twitter followers?

My heart still skips a beat every time I pick up a new follower. As my tablet dings, in succinct harmony with my phone and then desktop computer, I know what has just occurred. It really could be called magic, when you think about it. To have the ability to catch someone’s attention, from a killer post or through a strategically placed hashtag is really tough. Be proud of your work or of that fantastic marketing team you created. You are in an elite group that has few members. Now what?

Passion Paycheck

Nowadays, with how hard it is to get one, I am in appreciation for any check that comes my way. Being a small business owner, I understand the stress and anxiety that can come with finding business and keeping cash flow coming in and not just out.

Are You Social?

You can’t avoid social media. It is the only way to be social now-a-days. Personally, do what you want. I don’t care if you want to hide forever, lurk around and follow people or be the 10 times a day posting master. However, when we are talking about business, it is different. Being social in business is vital to the grassroots marketing that has to happen if you want to look fresh, young, hip and inviting. No one wants to be stuck in the past and not letting your business be social on the WWW is, well, unsocial. Therefore you might as well be #d2m.

Three Tools to Go The Distance

Competitions date back to the beginning of time. Whether it was for glory, land, a wife or politics we have used competition as a way to judge the best against the rest. Lets be honest, we as humans want to know the best and for those that are inspired by it, what to strive for.

The Truth About Santa Claus

One thing is clear and that is Santa is a Christmas leader. He takes on the greatest roles and actions to ensure holiday cheer is bestowed on us all. With strategy and a whole lot of marketing, he ensures Christmas is here, active and bringing happiness to all. Wow, that is a big responsibility. Wonder how he does that. Does he hire managers for that type of work? Supervisors? How does he really pay those elves? Do the reindeer do anything else? So, at a time many of you are questioning your own decisions and actions, let’s be clear about the big guy and what he does to ensure his company runs as efficiently as possible.

When I Found My Confidence

Finding confidence in leadership is tricky. You wouldn’t be in the position you are without it, so you have some, but usually not enough. Otherwise you would have that feeling…you know what it feels like. Knowing that you are responding, answering, deciding, doing and being exactly what you should. We have all felt it, even if it was generated by someone else. Yet, creating it for your self, by your self, using tools that you have control over, is the ultimate freedom. I say it is a freedom we all craved when we set out on this crazy journey of owning and building a business or even a life.

Has It Ever Been Clean?

The tool that was supposed to revolutionize work, improve productivity and increase capacity has actually spun us out so badly that some of you are drowning in your own creation. Is it possible to get back to the basics, using it as it was intended or is our only salvation to melt down and find our support group?

Build a Brand, Not a Business

I will break it to you gently. Simply building a business is a thing of the past. Focusing on activities, vendors, locations, marketing, hiring, firing, promotions, and the myriad of tasks related to operating will get you so far from where you want to be you might as well end up on Mars. Don’t get me wrong, those things are all imperative to survival. But, if it is just about surviving, then sign me up for something else.

#suckitsven

#suckitsven was something you would expect to hear in one of those Ted talks. Witty, organic, and unscripted, it resulted in one of the finest examples of marketing ingenuity I have seen in years. I couldn’t have thought of it on my own, yet when I pick it apart it has all the foundational marketing pieces I coach my clients in.

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