Month: September 2020

Power Hour for “New Businesses” – Let’s Get Organised!

As a new business owner do you feel daunted by all the tasks in your business that need doing? Was it easier when you were employed by a company and everything was already in place and tasks were organised for you? This is more common than you might think, especially for businesses under three years old. Let me explain how a Power Hour can help you with all of that.

Power Hour helps you get organised in just 60 minutes
Power Hour helps you get organised in just 60 minutes

Many new business owners race to get their business at a certain level. Even though you’re just starting out, you might feel you have to be competing at the top to win new clients. You might feel frustrated that the tools you used to have in place need to be rebuilt from scratch. But that’s ok. Establishing and running a new business takes time, effort and energy. It takes organisation.

Some people are naturally organised. To outsiders, they seem to intuitively know what needs to be done, by when and by whom. This has probably come from years of experience, trial and error, making mistakes and learning how to change things to make them more organised and more efficient. The good news is that becoming organised is easy to learn.

I would like to share with you some of my top tips and if you think these are helpful, let’s book a Focus Guru Power Hour to expand on the themes. We’ll open up more time in your diary to spend with family, friends, hobbies and holidays. I will help you find more hours in your day and more energy to enjoy your work and downtime. All from becoming more organised!

“Rachael changed my life literally. I now know exactly what needs doing, when it needs doing, and which task will be the most profitable. Invaluable session!” – Caroline Andrew-johnstone, Networking Rebel

I work with many start-ups and newly established businesses to help the owners and their team to see the wood for the trees. It can be a quagmire knowing what to do first. Sometimes it’s like the chicken and the egg. I offer a unique way to prioritise your incoming tasks, to look at your systems, processes, procedures and priorities, to help you take control of your day, rather than letting the work control your time.

In your Focus Guru “Let’s Get Organised” Power Hour we will achieve:

  • Prioritising Your Workload
  • Breaking Down Tasks
  • Using Technology to Streamline Processes
  • Changing Your Mindset
  • Stopping Feelings of Overwhelm

Focus Guru Power Hours aren’t for the faint-hearted. I will ask questions about how you want your business to run and what you want to achieve. It may challenge you to think differently about the tasks you do, the clients you work with, how you manage your time and more. But the results will be worth it.

“Rachael’s butt-kicking, no-nonsense, organised approach has held myself and my team of six accountable. This alone is saving me over £2000 per month!” – Adrian Savage – Dynamic Marketing Lab

If you know you need to be a little more organised to achieve everything you want to do, let’s have a chat. I offer all small business owners a free 15 minute chat to see if a Focus Guru Power Hour would benefit your business. Focus Guru Power Hours cover many business related themes, from organisation to accountability, from streamlining processes to automating repetitive tasks. Let’s get started! Please book your 15 minute call here: https://calendly.com/rachael-8/15min

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with no “Squirrels!”

www.getfocus.guru

Remember To Treat Yourself As Well As Looking After Everyone Else

It’s very easy to get rushed off your feet looking after the wants and needs of other people. This could be answering questions for colleagues at work, finishing tasks out-of-hours for a boss, making sure your children are fed, clothed and entertained. It could be helping a neighbour with their shopping or checking in on relatives who may have been self-isolating during lockdown.

Top Tip - Make time for a long soak in a soothing bath this month
Top Tip – Make time for a long soak in a soothing bath this month

To make sure you can carry on helping others it’s important to take care of yourself. When flying, there’s the safety talk at the start of the flight advising passengers to “put your own oxygen mask on first” and this makes sense. How can you look after someone else when you’re running out of air?

Luckily, help is at hand! You really don’t have to do everything yourself, all the time. Through collaboration with others, learning accountability and extra time management skills can make a big difference. I can help with these things, but I also wanted to share with you the power of looking after yourself through something as simple and straightforward as making time to treat yourself.

Detox and Relax

Making time in your diary to relax and recharge is a vital part of keeping the balance between being busy and being stressed. It’s great to be busy, jumping from one job to the next to the next. But it can be draining on your time and your energy and this is where scheduling in “relax and recharge” time is essential for your mental and physical health.

When we feel good, we enjoy life more. The knock-on effect of being happy often makes us more outgoing and more productive. We achieve more and look for new opportunities.

Make Time for Bath Time

This is my top tip today! At least once a month, make time to run yourself a deep bath and immerse yourself in warm water to soothe troubles away. Add a shake of Arbonne’s Rescue & Renew Detox Soak dissolving sea salt crystals into the mix and you’re set for an aromatic journey whisking you away from anything that’s playing on your mind.

Let the pure essential oils cleanse and revitalise your skin. With natural ingredients such as grapefruit, tangerine, lavender, juniper berry, orange, rosemary, dandelion, turmeric and ginger root, you’ll be transported into a luxurious blend of smells and senses revitalising you inside and out.

Find Out More

I’ve been using Arbonne products myself for many years and can thoroughly recommend the Rescue & Renew range of sensual, relaxing and revitalising ways to relax and recharge. The products are vegan, cruelty free, gynaecologic and allergy tested, meaning they can be used safely no matter your skin type or skin sensitivity.

I’m an Arbonne Consultant and can advise on health, nutrition and skincare, offering advice and accountability to help you achieve a healthy lifestyle with more energy to enjoy the things you love.

If you’d like to know more about Rescue and Renew products, or if you’d like a free 15 minute consultation to find out how being an Arbonne Consultant can make a big difference in your life, book in here.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

What Do People Think You Do And Are They Right?

When running a business, it’s essential to be able to explain what you do as easily and quickly as possible. Being able to describe your business in 40 seconds in an interesting and engaging way is important, especially when meeting new people at 4Networking meetings.

When you’re in a room with 10, 20, 30, 40 or more people from local, national and International businesses, it can be difficult to stand out. It can be harder to stand out if you are in the same industry as someone else in the room. It’s not uncommon for two web designers to attend the same event, or two electricians, or two accountants.

Preparing to give my 40 seconds
Preparing to give my 40 seconds

Occasionally, you might be in a room with representatives of the same company running your own businesses but selling the same services. You’ve all had access to the same product training and learned the same strategies to discuss and sell the services.

So, how do you tell people what you do?

A good test to start with is to ask a friend or colleague to describe to you what they think you do. This gives a great starting point to find out what people think and then compare it with what you think they think! You might be surprised at what this reveals. It gives you a starting point to review and refine your 40 seconds and your elevator pitch.

The way you say what you do makes a big difference.

It’s your posture, your voice, your expression and your enthusiasm that makes the difference. If you’re promoting the same product as someone else or are competing for the same customers, the difference in the delivery of your 40 seconds can make or break someone’s first impression of you.

Even if you don’t feel confident, stand tall, look people in the eye and smile. Be positive about yourself and your products and services. I attended a 4Networking meeting recently and someone stood up and said, “you’ll probably hate me but…” then at another meeting someone started their 40 seconds with “I’m another one of those annoying…” and it influenced my decision whether I wanted a 121 with them, or not.

If you don’t believe in your products and services, why should anyone else? Why would I want to buy something from you? Our interaction has begun on a negative step when it would have been easier to be positive from the outset.

A little repetition never hurts.

In a busy 4Networking meeting you may find repeating your name, company, product or service during your 40 seconds helps the details stick in people’s minds. Think about the people you remember from 4Networking meetings and the chances are they will have repeated their message several times. They may have a prop, a branded mug, company t-shirt, roller banner or other subtle marketing around them reinforcing their company name and brand.

When networking in a room, there’s a school of thought that you should sit by your banner so people can see you and your banner at the same time, giving double the message. It also comes in handy when photographs are taken as your company name is prominent afterwards, even if someone has forgotten your name.

In 4N Online meetings, having a branded background is another great way to reinforce your company, products, services and special offers. Everyone is encouraged to take screenshots and these pictures with your company branding will be online within minutes of the meeting closing.

If you’re concerned about the impression you’re giving at face to face meetings or in online meetings, then I highly recommend you head over to the Networking retreat App and start engaging with the content Stefan Thomas puts out there, for free!

I offer Focus Guru Power Hours covering general administration, streamlining processes, and uncovering new methods to save time and money within your business. As well as how to stay connected using Mailchimp.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Focus Guru Power Hours – How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing

Keeping in touch with your customers and prospective customers using emails is one of the best marketing strategies available today. Your messages can be written and sent as and when you want, or you can schedule messages to be delivered at set times of the day or night.

This is perfect if you have a special offer to announce, or a new product launch to promote. You can write the content and it can be delivered on your unique timescale. This is where you can “write it and move on” or “set it and forget it”.

Top Tip: Contacting customers on a regular basis keeps your company at the top of the list when they need the services you sell.

Content, subject line & Consistency is key to your emails being opened
Content, subject line & Consistency is key to your emails being opened

Writing the Right Words

How do you know what to write? How do you choose the words to keep your reader interested? What are the “trigger words” to make sure they read your message? How do you encourage customers to click and buy from you and not one of your competitors?

These are some of the many questions I’m asked, and I can share with you my advice on how to make sure your emails are read and not deleted. Many people read their emails on a tablet or mobile device. This means they are making split second judgements to read or recycle your email based purely on the sender, subject and first line of your message.

Sender, Subject, First Line

In my “Unlock the Secrets of Mailchimp Success in 5 Easy Steps” Focus Guru Power Hour, I show you how to set up your Mailchimp email campaign with these key details. Having a properly formatted sender name and email address elevates your company above those who don’t take the time to check for spelling mistakes, grammar errors or missing punctuation.

Look at the difference in impact between using “Focus Guru Power Hour” and “focus guru power hour” as the sender name. Using capitals elevates the impact. It stands out more than using all lower case. Having a bigger and bolder presence in someone’s inbox helps your message to be seen. It also demonstrates attention to detail and shows value in the service being offered.

The same is true for the subject and first line. If these are potentially the only words between your email being read and being binned, it’s vital to make sure they are interesting, informative or entertaining.

Eye-Catching Images

There’s the saying how “a picture tells a thousand words” and with many email programs supporting HTML content and images, there’s no reason why you can’t add relevant images into your email campaigns.

You may wish to use your own product images, or images showing how your services can be used. Alternatively, you can find images (royalty-free or paid-for) from websites such as Canva or Unsplash. There’s no excuse for sending a plain-text email anymore!

Create Engaging Content

This comes back to writing the right words, using pictures and creating the informative, educational or entertaining content that will keep your readers interested and motivated to follow the links to your website, or to pick up the phone to speak with you.

I can help discuss the aims of your email campaign. What do you want to achieve? What do you want your customers to do? What’s the next step? If you need help creating the content for your email messages, I can help with this too.

Through the Focus Guru Power Hour “How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing” you’ll learn how to use these steps to make your email campaigns come to life and achieve great results. You’ll learn how to set up your Mailchimp account and run successful email campaigns all year round where your customers actively read your messages and take note of your call to action.

Book your Focus Guru Power Hour here. I run 121 workshops via Zoom on many, easy to use, business tools, including Mailchimp, online calendars, networking tips and much more. Let’s get started! Book your Focus Guru Power Hour today!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru