Give me stout hearts with ‘Perfect Pitch’

Kentish business has proved many times that when a few stout hearted entrepreneurial men and women get together to share views and support development ideals - success thrives.

Kent is a veritable warren of networking groups who gather at often unearthly hours of the morning to meet and exchange current business concerns. To mix metaphors – they level opportunistic playing fields to create a common song sheet from which they all can sing.

And no better a song sheet could there possibly be than that supported by the IoD in collaboration with Clive Emson and Rochester Cathedral (applauded by intime PROFIT) to present the London Welsh Male Voice Choir in concert at Rochester Cathedral on Saturday 29^th June (conceptually pictured below).

Based on themes originating in Welsh Valleys, rehearsed tirelessly in London, ‘Working Man’ and ‘Stout Hearted Men’ are just two of LWMVC’s rousing harmonies to be enjoyed in Rochester’s iconic cathedral on the banks of the Medway from 19.00 on 29^th.

Where The Medway was said to have been the dividing / deciding factor between Men (and Women) of Kent and Kentish Man (and Maiden), it was also the crucial conduit to create, support and drive trade in the region.

‘Stout Hearted Men’ is one of the choral components of the operetta The New Moon, a collaboration of the music of Sigmund Romberg and the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II.

This begs the question – can nothing succeed without help, support, collaboration, advice – a corporate shoulder to cry on or understanding pat on the back?

Well, Gilbert had Sullivan and Benjamin Britten had the voice of his beloved Peter Pears.

If you have a great day at the office, is there somebody back at home who truly understands the passion and emotion of your business. Conversely, if you are on a negative spiral, who do you turn to for support and guidance?

In Kent, there is a resource to which business owners and managers can turn. It’s one that understands the draining emotions of business management and offers guidance to and through the components of business growth. That’s what the businesses of Kent with whom we already work seem to think.

 

Sharing thoughts at the intime PROFIT Seminar

These business owners have sought and found solace in talking with an intime PROFIT Partner through a series of One-to-One meetings; they may have joined like minded people at our Business Growth Seminars; or perhaps they use our Marketing support services.

Seminars offer a friendly environment at which just 15 or so people can either sit back and listen to the speakers and other delegates, or participate as much as they want – opening up to problems, sharing ideas, discussing the pro’s and con’s of this approach or that.

There is no single solution. If there were, we’d all have bought that book and be millionaires … this time next year Rodney ! Whether you take the Del Boy approach or that of Simon Sinek, there’s always something of value to learn.

 

But of course, the whole moral of this story is that it’s not one or the other that is right or wrong, but the collaborative efforts of a room full of stout hearted business minds as, last month for instance, they consider the wisdom of Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with a WHY’.

This relatively simple business philosophy became a pivotal moment for last month’s attendees. Here’s a snippet of what Simon’s WHY is all about. Take a look and you’ll understand why pens were scribbling and light bulbs were metaphorically sparking across the Whitehead Monckton Boardroom:

This was part of a presentation on creating an Elevator Pitch, a succinct introduction to you, the business owner / manager as you are given a 60 second platform to win corporate hearts and minds.

It’s a powerful tool, particularly if you frequent or are about to enter the world of Kentish Networking.

Intime PROFIT Seminars offer the opportunity to network, but also equips you with the tools, techniques and confidence to network profitably. The structure and formality of a textbook Elevator Pitch may be right for some and perhaps right for others – just not in an Elevator.

 

Simon Sinek’s pivotal WHY helps us to understand WHY it is customers and clients do business with us. In understanding this and discussing the strengths and weaknesses in the context of our own businesses, we truly get to understand our own WHY, our own corporate raisons d’êtres.

Seminar exercises then help delegates to communicate this, verbally, casually, formally, in writing, in an advert, a website, an e-mail and even a tweet.

Like Romberg and Hammerstein; Gilbert and Sullivan; Britten and Pears – intime PROFIT and you collaborate, draft and rehearse our corporate songs until we too find ‘perfect pitch’.

For your chance to tune up to a ‘perfect pitch’ and discover more tools, techniques, ideas and skills to help grow your own business – join us at the next intime PROFIT Seminar on Thursday 11^th July in this month’s host Boardroom at Duncan Lawrie in Wrotham. If you are joining us for the first time remember, your first Seminar is FREE.

PLEASE NOTE: you can not just turn up. Please call / e-mail to request your place. Places are limited and if you secure an invitation but find subsequently you can’t attend, please do call so that your invitation may be taken up by someone else.

To secure your invitation to intime PROFIT’s Dramatic Business Growth Seminar at:

Duncan Lawrie (pictured left),

Wrotham, Kent

From: 10.00 to 17.00 (includes lunch),

On: 11^th July 2013,

Please call 08456 437 497

Or e-mail intime@intimeprofit.com

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

 

 

 

Are you entitled to a FREE Seminar Day?

This is a quick addition to our normal blog stories to remind you about this month’s Dramatic Business Growth Seminar.

We’re holding your place at

Montague House for your

FREE Seminar Day on 9^th May.

Regular attendees have all had the benefit of their free Seminar Day and return regularly to enjoy more pearls of business growth wisdom.

What form does the day take?

This is an interactive Seminar for 10 to 15 people of like minded owners and managers of diverse businesses across Kent. We gather monthly in a host’s boardroom for a 10.00 o’clock start and are away by 5.00. We network over coffee, lunch and tea to share as well as listen to thought provoking experiences.

What’s the agenda?

This varies month on month with each day stimulating fresh thought and energy. The seminar leader runs the day’s informative, practical and pragmatic agenda, delivering and developing sometimes familiar but overlooked though more often fresh and inspired ideas, techniques and processes to grow a profitable business. The day is punctuated by practical interaction and professional keynote contributions on business law and finance. Remember, YOUR first Seminar is FREE (unconditionally).

What’s the point?

Well the bottom line is ultimately down to you and how much you want or need to grow your business and unlock the hidden profitability within it. If you want to generate and convert increasing numbers of enquiries and to turn more of these to profitable business sales and / or relations, then the intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminars will equip you with the tools, the plan and the passion to go back to your desk and make it happen.

To confirm your FREE place please

call 08456 437 497

or mail intime@intimeprofit.com.

www.intimeprofit.com

Budgets – empty promises or realistic goals.

It’s not even a month (at the time of writing) since the Chancellor gave the country his Budget on 20^th March 2013 and already – much to his silent joy no doubt – it has been overshadowed by no less than the death of Margaret Thatcher and the petulant threats of thermo nuclear war.

Those of you who enjoy the odd ale or two are ‘regularly’ reminded of ‘The Chancellor’s Penny’ as that rather eccentric one penny change is dropped into the charity pot on the bar. Was this swelling of bar-top charity donation the covert intention of a secretly altruistic Chancellor or just the cynical by-product of straw-clutch planning?

So, this is the oblivion in which GB Limited’s budget planning was so gratefully lost, but how different really is it from our own business budgets and objective planning.

OK, we don’t have excuses such as these to blot from our minds the actions needed to deliver ‘the plan’. We might find the need to tidy the office; have lunch with Barry; or spend an afternoon fiddling with our profile on LinkedIn to ignore business strategy. Heaven forefend the opportunity to divert from our daily needs now afforded by the death of capital opportunity, entrepreneurial resolve and true 20^th Century leadership - MTRIP. 

Writing realistic Budgets in business need not be daunting. Just as planning the resolve and employing the techniques to deliver it is not something that you have to do alone - so often the case in a small or medium sized enterprise.

Reeves (Kent’s award winning accountants) gave a superb analysis of the Chancellor’s Budget and its affects on business, private finance and corporate planning at their Breakfast Seminar the morning after Osborne’s speech. So popular is this annual post-budget event, that finding a venue to address and entertain 300 plus good Kentish folk has become quite a challenge, even for such stalwart advocates of business, tax and wealth as Reeves.

Tim Levey (Partner and ‘Bean Multiplier’ – according to LinkedIn) and Clive Relf (Tax & Development Partner Reeves) at the Reeves Budget Breakfast  2013.

This year’s breakfast was held at Maidstone Studios – big venue, big audience, big subject - and quite a change from the Studio’s normal ‘Catch the Red Box’ Celebrity Panel Game:

Reeves is a Partner Service of intime PROFIT. Tim Levey of Reeves is a regular attendee of and speaker at intime PROFIT Seminars. On 11^th April his subject was The Budget and matters relating to Tax and its essential effects on small businesses and their owner / managers. As usual, Tim’s presentation (delivery and content) was entertaining and well received. It provoked thought and generated a lively question and answer session to the benefit of us all.

Ears were well and truly pricked and one or two of us checked “…yes it was 11^th April not 1^st…” when, on the subject of Company Cars and low emission g/km tax breaks, the Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid (below) was introduced as the tax busting car of choice. Its CO2 emissions of just 71 g/km beat the Lexus CT200h (87) and the Audi A3 (166) by far. As Porsche strap-line this global cooling run-around … it offers ‘Thrilling Contradictions’.

For more information on The Budget, Tax and Porsches – contact Tim directly @ tim.levey@reeves.co.

www.reeves.co

As if by chance, the theme of this month’s intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminar was ‘Planning for Growth’. As well as the essential big picture budgeting and planning, as ever, the Seminar was realistic. As with each of these monthly Seminars, it remembers that we are all busy people and the business planning text book is sometimes more practically used to stop the table from rocking or stem the chilling draft from the broken window.

Intime PROFIT clients, delegates, attendees, successes need healthy sugar cubes soaked in PRAGMATISM to help the corporate medicine of BUDGETING and PLANNING to go down. Personally, I have attended many seminars in vast halls with buckets full of ‘the right way’ thrown over me and my fellow couple of hundred delegates, then left with little other than a furrowed brow. It’s just noise.

With intime, the Seminars are bite-sized gatherings of 12 to 15 business owners and managers, enjoying relevant, digestible and deliverable ideas, thoughts and techniques to help plan and deliver achievable goals.

You know the old adage – I’m too busy working IN my business to make time to work ON it.

Well, with intime PROFIT this is time well spent that offers real, achievable opportunities. If you haven’t been to an intime Seminar before, you’re in luck – your first Seminar is FREE.

Let’s leave you with a story you may know – but it’s worth reminding you (as always):

I was walking through the woods when I came across a woodsman sawing at the trunk of a tree. “How do” I said, “Aw do” the woodsman returned.

I sat, poured a cup from my flask as the day was warm and I’d travelled far. The water was refreshing and I offered some to the hard working chap as he sawed forth and back at the tree. “Here, take a cup, rest a while” said I.

The woodsman shook his head, the sweat flying from his reddened brow. “Can’t stop” said he “too busy.” I sat, drank, then broke a crust of bread from the loaf I carried in my bag. “Here, take some bread to fuel you” I said. “Can’t stop” said he “this ‘as to come down today.” I tarried, he sawed, yet there was little or no impression on the tree. “Why don’t you stop, take drink and food whilst I sharpen that saw for you. It won’t take long and you’ll be able to cut down that tree and many more besides long before this day is done?”

“How can I possibly afford to stop, not even for a moment, even to let you help sharpen my saw - are you blind? Can’t you see? I’m too busy cutting down this tree!”

If you want help to budget; to plan with achievable pragmatism; or to sharpen your business saw:

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

The front line in business development – quite literally, for some

As we warmed ourselves by the log fire in the boardroom during a breakout session at last month’s business development seminar, we had another chance to find out more about each other’s businesses.

Paul shared the virtues of his print business; Gemma explained why she had taken the leap of faith to set up a recruitment business specialising in automotive trade positions; Mark subtly checked to see if we had each made a will; and Steve Wisbey told us more about his fascinating business, industry and world.

Steve runs NIC Instruments Limited in Folkestone - www.nicltd.co.uk - and has been amongst the regulars attending intime PROFIT’s seminars over the past several months.

NIC manufactures and sells EOD and IEDD equipment – that’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Improvised Explosive Device Disposal equipment … bomb disposal gear to you and me.

Protecting the lives of the brave folk on the front line in Afghanistan and throughout the diverse war zones and terror cells that litter the world with IEDs is a noble business to grow. But it is still a business, a business with prospects and products that benefit from technique to efficiently converge.

Steve’s goals include increased sales and he said of the last seminar: “…another very good session with focus on the tasks that need to be done to increase sales.”

Tony Huggins, QA Manager at NIC (who attends with Steve) simply said: “Effective, Efficient, Manageable” which is just what the seminar delivery intends.

Like all research, a background search for this article was done in Wiki-land where Bomb Disposal was described as “the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe”. The word ‘hazardous’ is particularly evocative in this sense.

However fascinating a product, industry, audience – sales still boil down to the need to generate enquiries; work those prospects through an effective CRM; convert them to optimal value sales; retain and nurture the clients generated to maximise lifetime values … building sales, profits and generating sustainable business growth.

Steve has applied a lot of what he has gleaned and is already seeing a difference, generating additional sales by employing the techniques each seminar develops. By working his database with innovative e-mails and mailings, such as lumpy mail (a recent seminar topic), he has honed his USPs, refined the proposition, made his product and service ethic noticed, captured attention and stimulated action.

It is so wrong to pre-judge. Either by pre-judging a fellow delegate at a business seminar, or pre-judging a prospect on your database opportunities are missed. Take nobody for granted because you just don’t know where your next referral or joint marketing opportunity is going to come from.

The bottom line with intime PROFIT’s Dramatic Business Growth Programme is quite literally – you have to be in it to win it … whatever your business, service, or product.

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

Taking the stress out of business growth.

It can be really quite stressful driving a small to medium sized business on your own. Even when things are going well, we manage to find something to worry about. Worry causes tension, tension causes stress, stress can lead to poor decision making – and poor decision making can trigger the problems which, in their own turn cause … you guessed it, STRESS.

One of the attendees at the intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminars is a flourishing company called Restoring Health run by Deborah and Wayne Mc Nair. Because they are busy people, they take it in turns to attend the monthly one day Seminars and share the fresh ideas for business development when they have (make) time.

Restoring Health knows all about stress and the negative effect it can have on our minds as well as our bodies - they are a Sports, Remedial and Body Massage Therapy business. They provide stress remedies as well as advising on preventative approaches through well-being plans, posture awareness and diet.

“Restoring Health has been pioneered by my husband and I,” said Deborah Mc Nair, “and we are passionate to be a part of the physical, emotional and spiritual restoration in people’s lives.”

Intime PROFIT’s own stress-buster is to share innovation and methodology for business development. Through One-to-One development meetings and / or monthly Seminars, business owners and managers learn many and often relatively simple (once you know how) methods to increase enquiries; turn more of them into clients; and to increase the value of those clients – all leading to increased profits.

Deborah has been delighted with the thought provoking content and practical ideas, some of which they have already put into practice. She says of the Seminars that they have: “…stimulated creative thinking in problem solving and anchored a strategy in action planning…”.

Wayne also “gets it” – which can only be achieved by attending.

When asked his thoughts on the first Seminar he attended, Wayne said: “An eye opener – small things can change – but will have a major impact on how to grow the business”.

It’s so true. Change doesn’t have to be scary; it can be introduced in small steps. And the differences can be enormous.

Wayne would probably say the same about posture. Consider how you sit at your desk. Try to be aware of your posture. Stop hunching over the keyboard. Try moving it a little higher. Sit back / upright. A small investment in a new screen and perhaps writing and reading at 120% instead of 100% - these are all little things but improve the desk-side positioning, relaxing the shoulders in the process.

A little effort. Small changes. Big results.

Whether you are keeping ahead of stress through a therapeutic massage or stimulating business growth seminar, you really do have an awful lot to gain.

Taking a day away from working IN your business, to work ON your business isn’t asking a lot – particularly as your first Seminar is FREE. See what another of our attendees has to say on the video – it’s on our new website – just click here: http://www.intimeprofit.com/seminars.php.

Remember – your first Seminar is FREE.

 

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

 

Actions speak louder than words

It’s one thing running a series of Dramatic Business Growth seminars and another to make time to actually action some of the fabulous tips, tasks and techniques presented there each month.

As ER Haas says on the subject of SUCCESS – “You CAN succeed at whatever you do, as long as you simply take the right ACTIONS”.  You may remember this as a recent Daily Tickler from intime PROFIT.

Haas has founded 12 different businesses since leaving graduate school in 1968... some wildly successful... some flops. ("You'll never know success until you've experienced the cold edge of failure" is one of Haas' favorite quotes!).

The intime PROFIT Seminars are intended to equip business owners and managers with deliverable techniques to grow their business, increase sales and deliver sustainably greater profits – ideally without the ‘flops’ but definitely through ‘action’.

Invaluable information builds each month, which delegates take away with them to consider and apply within the context of their own businesses. The trouble is though, once they leave the thought-fuelled atmosphere of the 18^th century coach house on Duncan Lawrie’s estate in Wrotham, Kent … work once more takes its growth-preventing grip.

Last month, the seminar asked each delegate to write down just three of the tips they were going to turn into tasks to apply before convening again next time. OK, we did have Christmas and New Year between the two, but even so … how many tasks were actually actioned?

As co-hosts, we are not exempt from learning (it’s impossible not to) and therefore not exempt from actioning the plans and applying the good practice.

The two things we have actioned this month are; firstly to action the re-writing of our website to bring it in to line with current thought and future services; and secondly to refine and apply our elevator pitch.

Each delegate has been learning and refining their sixty second corporate intro or elevator pitch. You learn much from the techniques being suggested. You learn even more by refining its application. The ultimate lesson though is surely to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT – action it.

Here’s ours:

We think it’s rather good – and now, in the days of a ‘Ronseal Government’ - we too do exactly what we say in the elevator.

If you want to go up in the business world, here’s a tip or four for free:

1.       Take time out and start working ON your business rather than just IN it.

2.       Sign up to the intime PROFIT seminars – your first is FREE.

3.       Learn and share some of the thought provoking ideas and techniques.

4.       But most of all – TAKE ACTION.

 

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

Tax and Death – guaranteed!

You may try to avoid one but you’ll not escape the reaper – tough but true.

So, why is it still so hard to make a sustainably profitable business by helping people to write a will? This was the problem facing Mark Underwood of Integrity Legal Services when he sought advice from intime PROFIT.

The first of what was to become a series of One-to-One business development meetings was free. Despite this Mark, like many, found it difficult to pick up the phone, dial 08456 437 497 and admit he’d appreciate a little help. It wasn’t as though business was bad, but Mark felt there could be so much more to make of it and to take from it.

On the premise that ‘two heads are better than one’, Integrity opened its doors to intime PROFIT.

A recent Daily Tickler from intime offered two words attributed to an African Proverb: GO FAR, and went on – “if you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together.” Mark Underwood certainly wanted to take his business further than he was able to on his own.

When you sit across the table on your first One-to-One meeting, it’s your chance to unload some of the burden of running a business alone by sharing, discussing and solving some of the problems associated with business leadership.

It’s not a psychiatrist’s chair type babbling download of lonely fears and heartache though – intime PROFIT offer a structured series of analytical stages to help formulate the way forward. You are introduced to the intime 3 STEP PROCESS – Review, Plan, Action. It is this structure that then shapes an accountable plan tailored to each business we meet.

Working together rather than alone is often the first reality check. Mark himself admitted that: “…whilst I love being my own boss, making yourself accountable to someone else is a powerful tool.”

The process identifies business as well as personal strengths and weaknesses. It sets goals and a time line across which these goals might pragmatically be met. And it details the actions needed to achieve the goals.

Each time you then meet your intime PARTNER, you begin the session by reviewing the targets set previously and discussing the effectiveness of the actions taken. “Procrastination has always held me back from achieving my full potential,” said Mark (and put your hands up if you can honestly say you’re not the same). “Working with intime has given me the clarity and structure that will help me exceed my expectations.”

Obviously, the details of intime PROFIT’s relationship with Integrity are and remain confidential but the process undertaken follows similar principles whatever the business. When you are working hard within your business, it is difficult to make time to stand back to take a constructive look at the business.

Use your One-to-One to STOP the tumbling doms !

For two hours, once a fortnight over three or four months (whatever suits best), Mark borrowed an extra pair of experienced eyes, sat on the other side of the proverbial desk and looked hard at both the problem areas and the successes too.

Problems such as commercial errors or marketing weaknesses are quickly identified and their domino effect can be stopped. These are usually common mistakes that affect cost or devalue ROI by employing an inappropriate ‘I’.

Reducing costs without undermining service has an immediate impact on profit.

With more commercial control, attention can confidently be given to the flip side of the profit dynamics – sales.

intime PROFIT have two proactive tools to help drive sales. One is the 7 Step Marketing Plan and the other (another 7) the 7 Step Profit Multiplier. The One-to-One meetings concentrate initially on the Marketing Plan, structuring a series of tools to help increase leads, conversions and net order value.

“Marketing my business often slips to the bottom of my to-do list,” said Mark Underwood – “Intime have come up with some innovative approaches that will bring this activity into my top two 'must-dos'.”

The methods are proven and pragmatic – there’s no point introducing unachievable goals and unmanageable techniques. We don’t teach Rocket Science … because it’s not.

For your FREE first One-to-One meeting with an intime PROFIT Partner, don’t prevaricate, pick up your phone and dial  08456 437 497 – now.

To reserve your FREE One-to-One, please

e-mail intime@intimeprofit.com 

or call 08456 437 497

very soon.