Welcome to 2019!
Happy New Year, and welcome to 2019! I hope you all had a great break and managed to get some well-deserved rest and relaxation, and the chance to catch up with loved ones.
I’m back after my short break and ready to help you reach your goals and boost your business. The New Year usually brings with it resolutions, and if one of yours is to improve your business, make sure you contact me for your consultation.
Other New Year’s resolutions are usually along the lines of “New Year, New Me”, or similar. Sometimes though, no matter how much we plan and how hard we try, things just don’t go the way we want them to; that’s why the topic for this month is What Happens When Things Don’t Go As Planned. Also this month I’ve included my Google results to show you how social media is such a great tool to boost your business, and next month I’ll discuss further social media tools and how to use them to your advantage, too.
I publish additional information over on my Facebook page and also on my LinkedIn – so make sure you are “following” me on Facebook, and connected with me on LinkedIn. Instructions on how to do this are below.
“Like” and “Follow” me on Facebook:
Click here to visit my page, then click “Like” and “Follow” up the top of the page and you’ll start receiving notifications so you don’t miss anything.
To change how many notifications you get, click “Following” and you can change your notification settings.
Connect with me on LinkedIn:
Click here to visit my business page, then click “Follow” up the top right corner.
You can connect with me also by visiting my personal profile here, and clicking “Connect”.
Make sure you “Follow” me, too, so that you don’t miss any updates!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Social Media
See How I Do It, And How You Can, Too
It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again – social media is a key tool to use to further your business in today’s day and age, having a wide reach and, in many cases, is free of charge. Below shows my Google star rating, which assists in me receiving more enquiries and business as it gives new clients a sense of trust in me and the standard of my work. Also, the email showed that 149 people used Google to find me – that’s a high number! Would I have had 149 people look in the phone book for me if I didn’t have my business on Google? Probably not, in today’s digital world.
Click the image to view my Google reviews
Google is just one social media tool which you can use to entice more clients.
For more information on social media tools you can use, keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter. You can subscribe to my newsletter here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
When Things Don’t Go To Plan
Even with the best intentions, sometimes our plan, or sticking to our plan, goes awry. So, what do we do when things don’t go to plan?
Number 1 – Don’t panic! As the image above says, “If ‘Plan A’ didn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters! Stay cool.” and this is exactly what you should do. Revisit your plan and see what went wrong. Was it that you didn’t allocate enough time? Didn’t have the necessary resources or information? Figure out what went wrong, rewrite the plan, and try again.
Other things we can do when things don’t go to plan are to research and investigate why, including looking into whether we are targeting the right market.
Are You Targeting The Right Market?
Part of why your business may not be succeeding is because you may be targeting the wrong market. A main part of any good business plan is market research, though this is either looked over or poorly done in quite a few business plans due to many new business owners not understanding how to effectively research their target market. How do you decide on your target market?
1. Think about the what
Identify the product you are selling, or problem you are solving. Seems simple enough, but this is where you really need to understand your product or the problem you are solving. If it is too generic, it will be hard to pin-point a target market and you may reach few people with your marketing due to it not being able to be aimed at anyone in particular.
2. Think about the who
You need to decide who would benefit the most from your product or offering. Think about things like what age group would benefit the most, where your customers are more likely to come from (e.g. city or urban dwellers; lower or higher income earners), would business owners, employees, or students benefit the most, are your customers more likely to be interested if they’re married, single, or have families, and so on.
3. Think about the why
Why would people buy your product, or engage in your service offering? Is it because they have a particular problem that your product or offering will bring a solution for? Will it benefit their personal or professional lives in some way?
4. Look at what your competitors are doing
Try to find ones with a different target market to your own. You will have to look deep into some, as your main competitors may have the same target market overall, but they may be targeting a sub-product or -service to a different target market. This is where you’ll find your niche market and reach a whole new group of potential customers, rather than fighting your competitors to get your product or offering chosen over theirs. This is particularly important if you are a new business, as well-known businesses are more likely to be chosen by new customers due to the ability for them to tap-in to past customer experience with the business, whereas your product or service may still be relatively unknown.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
When To Pivot
From The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products, with the businesses usually consisting of startups (hence the name). Its aim is to quickly discover if the current or proposed business model is viable, and shorten product development cycles.
One of the things The Lean Startup recommends is to have monthly “persevere or pivot” meetings, where you decide whether to persevere on your current path, or pivot – taking a “structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth”. In essence, this means to change paths radically, as pivoting involves going in a completely new direction based on this new hypothesis about your product, strategy and business model.
So, How Do You Know When To Pivot?
You should consider pivoting when you have ceased making progress, or are making little progress, toward product or market fit. When you pivot, you are essentially reinventing your business.
Author of The Lean Startup, Eric Ries, lists 10 types of pivot, covering different areas of your business in which you can pivot for a better chance of success – in other words, you may not need to pivot your entire business.
Click here for the list, and to learn more about pivoting.
And, if you’re considering pivoting your business but aren’t quite sure how this looks in action, check out the companies listed below that have made the decision to pivot and never looked back, gaining huge success from their choice to pivot.
Companies Who Have Pivoted
1. Twitter
In 2005, Twitter was actually Odeo, a podcast service. Due to Apple deciding to also offer a podcast service, being heavy competition that Odeo would not be able to beat to gain customers, Odeo decided to pivot – and became the hugely successful Twitter that many celebrities currently use day in, day out, to reach their fans.
2. YouTube
YouTube originally started out as a dating service, with the idea that singles could upload videos of themselves and what they were looking for to find a date. However, after five days not a single video had been uploaded, so the founders decided to pivot and open the site up to all videos, not just dating videos, which is when YouTube became the YouTube we know today.
3. Slack
Slack began as part of an online gaming company, Tiny Speck, in 2012 as an internal tool used whilst they were developing the now defunct game, Glitch. Slack is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”. When Glitch was shut down, Tiny Speck realised they had a unique messaging technology in Slack which could be useful outside of just the gaming world. Thus, Slack was released in August 2013, and became an overnight success – and is still going strong to this day, helping businesses around the World organise their internal communications.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Did You Know?
“Failure is not fatal”
Without failure, we would not learn the lessons we must in order for our businesses to succeed. How else would we know, for sure, what works and what doesn’t? So, keep going!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are you struggling whilst wearing all the hats? Unsure where to start?
In a lull, and need help to get out and back on top? Call Steve, now!
And don’t let the thought of, “Oh, but it will cost too much”, stop you from picking up the phone. Why?
My first introduction session is FREE!
So, what are you waiting for? Pick up that phone and book your consultation with me, where we will focus on:
- Discussing your business
- Reviewing your goals
- Giving you ideas, and
- Discussing your options
To take advantage of this offer you can either visit my website to sign up, or you can give me a call on 027 447 7577.
I look forward to helping you succeed!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Click The Image Above Or Use The Link Below To Sign Up To My Monthly Newsletter!
Copyright © 2019 Steve Hockley Business Coach, All rights reserved.
My mailing address is:
Steve Hockley Business Coach
194 Waterloo Road
Lower Hutt
Wellington 6010
New Zealand
