Six Years in Business Part 4 – Getting out There – Networking for Introverts

Over the last six years we have tried just about every marketing technique in the book and spent a fair amount of time and money trying to find the ‘right way’. Of course, experienced folk will tell you that there is no one right way: it’s about ensuring that you are approaching your market from different angles with a range of strategies. As I’ve said in a previous blog, the relationship building process is key and an important part of that is getting out there and meeting people – networking. Now as someone who is fundamentally introverted (a classic ISFJ in Myers Briggs terms), this has been one of my biggest challenges. Fortunately Gill is an extrovert so we complement each other as business partners but it’s not about hand holding, as individuals we have had to establish ourselves as credible professionals in the marketplace. So, how can we introverts ‘get out there’ and maximise networking as part of our marketing tool kit? I love the points made in Dave Roos’s  ‘How Stuff Works’ article (link below) with lots of great tips to make networking not just bearable but enjoyable too.

I’m sure my fellow introverts will find something that resonates for them but for me there are four particularly valuable points in this article that I have found helpful:

Volunteer – be part of the event, have a role to play to occupy your mind and give you a specific reason to interact with other participants

Arrive early – entering a room full of people can be very daunting. Pre empting this makes it easier to establish eye contact with others as they arrive. Lingering at the coffee can be a good way to break the ice.

Magic number – setting a goal for the number of new contacts you want to meet is a good idea.  On a broader level plan your strategy - who is likely to be there, from where, who would you like to meet, and who might introduce you?

Be interested – smiling is such a simple and easy thing to do and engages people. No matter who else might come in the door maintain interest in the person you are speaking to through eye contact and positive body language. Have some questions up your sleeve that will help you find out about the person you are talking to.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/business/professional-development/10-networking-tips-people-hate-networking.htm#page=0

Let me know what works for you, I’d love to hear from you.

Dorothy

Northampton

21 February 2014

Six Years in Business Part 3 – Building Relationships (or Kissing Frogs)

In this Valentine’s week, it seems pertinent to consider relationships in business. How can we find our princes without kissing too many frogs along the way?

 People are the heart of any business. People buy people and if someone is going to buy from us, they need to like and trust us (See Fogarty’s tips at: http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/8-tips-relationship-building-business).

Building relationships takes time and is a delicate process that needs a balance of empathy and tenacity on our part. On our journey over the last six years, we have experienced some fairy tale happy endings and some heartbreak.  Many of our disappointments have come from misreading the signs or being led along a path to nowhere. However, in keeping with our learning ethos and our fairy tale scenario, we have learned from these experiences. We have kissed lots of random frogs in multiple pools over the last six years: we now kiss fewer frogs in smaller pools through more targeted marketing.  We will only kiss a frog if the frog has expressed a clear desire to be kissed: our offering is now more targeted based on knowledge of client needs.   Liking and trusting each other then become easier and we now meet many more handsome princes!

May you find /enjoy your prince this weekend!

Dorothy

Northampton

13 February 2014

Six Years in Business – and still counting! Part 2 - The Money Bit

When we set up Level 7 in 2008 the economic circumstances were looking bad: not the best time to set up a new business. At that time we took advantage of a range of sources of advice for new businesses. One bit of advice that has stuck with me all the way through is to remember that ‘cash is king’. You need to have sustainable sources of income to survive. This might sound obvious and risk averse, but I believe that this has contributed to our survival and growth during the recession period. The market in which we operate is a challenging one for a number of reasons:

Establishing the brand - differentiating a ‘training consultancy’ business takes time and hard work

Lead times for winning new contracts from initial conversation to sealing the deal can take up to two years

Budgets for training tend to be vulnerable in times of recession

Reluctance to change training providers in times of instability

There will always be competitors knocking on doors offering a cheaper deal

In the face of these challenges, small businesses need to have robust strategies and systems in place to establish and maintain financial viability. These are the ones that I think have kept us in the market and supported our sustained growth:

Have a range of services in your portfolio with a variety of price points – selling large development programmes may take longer in challenging economic times. Smaller scale services will be more affordable and can help you get a foot in the door with future potential for expanded services.

Make sure that the portfolio of services you offer has congruence as your brand and you’re playing to your strengths.

Have the courage to say ‘no’ if an offer of work is not within your expertise. Don’t lose sight of your core business – there will be times when you feel desperate and worried about money and may be tempted to take on work for the sake of it. I’m not saying don’t do it, we all have to eat, but be clear about how the work sits with your business strategy in the longer term.

Stick to your pricing – be open to negotiation but don’t undersell yourself. If you want to be known as a ‘cheap and cheerful’ brand that’s fine as a strategy but if you want to be seen as a quality provider in your  market it’s important to be brave and not be tempted to cut to rock bottom pricing just to win business.

Employ a good accountant! Although this is last on my list, it’s probably the best investment you will make and do this as soon as possible in your business lifecycle.  In fact, find someone who is more than just a good accountant who understands you and your business and understands the importance of building a good relationship – your success and growth will support theirs!

Dorothy

Northampton

27 January 2014

Six Years in Business – and still counting! Part One....

Another Birthday

In this series of blogs I’ll be reflecting on my experiences of setting up a business, the highs and lows and general reflections on why I’m still here doing what I do as Level 7 approaches its 6^th birthday and our 7^th year in business lies ahead.

It is timely for me to start this blog as I myself approach another birthday.  I think as we get older, the desire to reflect grows stronger and of course we have more to reflect upon. In this first blog  I will be reflecting on why I chose to embark upon a new challenge 6 years ago. Up until that point, I had pursued my early career logically, although not always strategically, up the ladder of personnel and human resource management into academia and my approach had always had a strong basis in the need for security and a tendency towards risk aversion.

So, why leave security behind for the uncertainty that self employment brings? 

An age thing – midlife female fed up with being told what to do and needing to be the boss and in charge of my own destiny.

Rekindling the passion - corporate roles can be moulded to an extent but as we get more senior we end up doing less of what originally fired us up.  Learning is my passion – not only do I need to be learning but I need to be imparting that passion to others. The only way that I could be sure of doing as much of this as possible was to make learning and development my full time business.

Sharing the passion – the opportunity to work with like minded people who share the passion. It is not luck that my co director, Gill, and I work together. We share the same passion for learning and the same drive for success and it would not work if we didn’t. That goes for our colleagues, partners and clients too.

Domestic bliss looked different – babies had grown and although they were still around and needed occasional maternal interventions, they had their own lives. Husband had found fulfilment on the football pitch with a whistle round his neck, a pack of cards in his hand and a small notebook in his pocket. I needed to find a new focus for my talents.

So for me making this big decision came down to timing, opportunity and most importantly a process of self reflection and awareness that informed the decision to make that change.  Having made it, I wouldn’t change a thing. That doesn’t mean I haven’t made mistakes and I certainly haven’t stopped learning.  The journey continues....

Dorothy

Northampton

27 January 2014

Celebrations

It has been an eventful few weeks.  Needless to say one of the key events here in the Philippines was the destruction that typhoon Yolanda wreaked.  Thankfully Manila was unaffected physically but emotionally Yolanda has left her scars.  Of course the International Aid that was forthcoming will make a significant difference in terms of helping those affected as well as helping to rebuild the area.  Many collection points and donation points have sprung up everywhere in Manila in order to help the typhoon victims.  Local support can be seen almost everywhere.

Christmas comes early to the Philippines; on the 1st September Christmas festivities begin.  What is heartwarming to witness is that many Filipinos have elected to either cancel or significantly scale down their Christmas work parties and donate the money to the Yolanda funds.  The spirit of helping is definitely alive and well here.

This Sunday sees the celebrations for the students of AIM who have successfully navigated their way through their programs of study and are graduating with their well-earned degrees.  It will be a proud moment for the students and their families.  The celebrations will be appropriate and enjoyed by many.  I wish the graduating students continued success.

Manila

The world of work: A child's perspective

The world of work: A child’s perspective

I have recently returned from the UK visiting friends and family and have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our grandchildren.  One day whilst I was getting ready to travel to London for a business meeting, my 3-year old granddaughter asked where I was going.  I explained and she responded, “So are you going to be working like Daddy?”  “Yes” I replied.  “What does Daddy do at work?” I asked.  “Well”, she replied, “He does numbers, letters and drawing”.

I thought about what she said and of course when you boil it down, that is really what most business is about.  We manipulate numbers that turn into spreadsheets or financial reports; we arrange and organize letters into coherent sentences, paragraphs and logical arguments that inform our decision-making and we might add in a few pictures and visuals to help convey our messages.

If clarity is our goal, keeping things simple is important. We can become overloaded with information and our judgment can become clouded.  Innovation is sometimes driven by the need to do something in a simpler way, so by looking at a problem or challenge through the eyes of a child whose world is simple and uncluttered, might help us achieve the breakthrough we are looking for.

Of course, it was the last comment my granddaughter said that made me smile the most.  In addition to doing numbers, letters and drawing, according to our granddaughter, our son’s work also involved “cuddling teddies”!  What a lovely working environment that would be?

Manila

13 September 2013

 

 

Innovation Behavior and the External Environment

As organizations continue their quest for developing the skills of innovation, one of the areas they need to focus on is how to pay attention to the external environment.  However, in these days of data overload and accessibility I wonder what strategies people use to keep in touch with what is going on within their chosen areas of interest.

As Level Seven is involved with developing innovation behavior for leaders, we try to keep up to date with what’s happening in our specific field.  One simple, daily habit I am trying to cultivate into a routine is to look through Google alerts for ‘innovation’ and to systematically scan through these each day to look for interesting bits of information.  But what is it that makes me look at some stories and not others?  Clearly, if something in the headline jumps out then I look into that story further but sometimes I just ignore other headlines.

However, it is not always the story item in the alert that is of most interest but what that piece of information links through to.  For example this morning I clicked on a story in the blog section that was entitled: QS Intelligence unit, the global innovation index: a guide for students.  I might well have passed up the opportunity to look into this further but when reading the blog entry the idea of the global innovation index seemed like an interesting concept, so I searched this out and found an interesting resource, link below.  Sometimes the items that are tucked away turn out to be most fruitful.

http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=gii-full-report-2013

Reflecting on my actions this morning has caused me to think about the notion of “associations” and how the act of making associations can help not only with the creative process but also with the innovation process, particularly when trying to associate concepts, components or ideas that do not have any obvious relationship or compatibility. 

A leader of innovation has many pathways to follow within their specific external environment.  Some pathways may be known, others will be less known and some even unknown.  We may never know what we have missed by keeping to the known pathways and we may be unsure of which of the unknown pathways will yield better results.  However, developing an ‘intuitive nose’ and developing the discipline of maintaining habitual routines could help to open up more useful and insightful opportunities.

Manila Diaries

3 August, 2013:  33 degrees C, Cloudy, Humidity 84%