Philippe’s rigourous training for this walk took place mostly in a quiet meadow. When he was there he would visualise the twin towers & the the city below him with its noise & distractions. When he was on the actual walk he brought himself back to the quite & peacefulness of that meadow. There was method to his madness & to his training.  He was able to use powerful visualisations to help him prepare & when doing the actual walk, keep him focused on the job at hand. But truly inspiring part for me is that Philippe had a crazy dream & he was willing to sacrifice his life to achieve it.

The other interesting piece to this is his regime of training to prepare for all scenairos (ok it was a life or death scenario so he had to!) Philippe had to prepare for all eventualities. His friends would shake the wire vigorously, he practised in all types of weather, the worst the better. One of my favoutite lines from this book is  “He laughed into the teeth of the wind”.

The  “GIVING A START” Competition 2011 is aimed at encouraging potential entrepreneurs to follow their dream and to start their own business.

The judging panel will include Bobby Kerr CEO of Insomnia and of “Dragons Den”, Paula Fitzsimons, of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Terry Clune of Taxback.com.

The winner‟s prize is valued at €25,000.

This prize will be made up as follows:

-Office, business support, conference and meeting rooms in 11 Patrick Street

-Accommodation and events in The adjoining Pembroke Hotel

Support and consultancy from businesses in 11 Patrick Street to the value of €3,000.00 per business.
-Paschal Bergin Accountants & Tax Consultants
-MD Media PR Consultants
-Brian Dunlop Architects
-Optimize Recruitment
-Real Solutions, Staff training and coaching
-Fitzwilliam Partnership, Strategic and Financial Management

-Support from the Invest Kilkenny Business Support Unit and seed money of €1,000

-A strong PR campaign behind the competition locally and nationally aimed at giving profile to the winner and finalists.

For full competition entry details go to

http://www.elevenpatrickstreet.com/givingastart

I recently delivered a customer service programme to group of individuals.  As part of the programme we reflected on a number of questions.

• Who are your customers? Do you segment or categorise them?
• What do they do exactly? What is their business about?
• What are their challenges? In their specific role, in their business, in their industry?
• Are you reactive or proactive with them?
• How do you sound,  speak to your customers?
• Who does most of talking?
• Do you know what they say about you & your company to other companies?
• Do they recommend your company to their customers, suppliers?
• Do you keep your promises?
• Do you say Thank You for your business? Do you say sorry if you make a mistake?
• Do you go beyond your competitors in service? How do you WOW them?
• Do they consider you to be an expert/leader in your field?

This is a pro active customer service strategy. If you have answered yes to most of these questions then you have excellent customer service & I would love to hear how you got there.

For as long as anyone could remember, the current owner and previous generations of owners were extremely positive happy people.

Most folk assumed it was because they ran a successful business.

In fact it was the other way around…

A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying Business Is Great!

The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other. What never changed however was the owner’s attitude, and the badge saying Business Is Great!

Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, “What’s so great about business?” Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed.

Anyhow, the Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:

• the pleasure of meeting and talking with different people every day
• the reward that comes from helping staff take on new challenges and experiences
• the fun and laughter in a relaxed and healthy work environment
• the fascination in the work itself, and in the other people’s work and businesses
• the great feeling when you finish a job and do it to the best of your capabilities
• the new things you learn every day – even without looking to do so
• and the thought that everyone in business is blessed – because there are many millions of people who would swap their own situation to have the same opportunities of doing a productive meaningful job, in a civilized well-fed country, where we have no real worries.

And so the list went on. And no matter how miserable a person was, they’d usually end up feeling a lot happier after just a couple of minutes listening to all this infectious enthusiasm and positivity.

It is impossible to quantify or measure attitude like this, but to one extent or another it’s probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, on which point, if asked about the badge in a quiet moment, the business owner would confide:

“The badge came first. The great business followed.”

The initital euphoria of your new idea may wear off or you realise that actually your goal is going to take much longer to attain than you initially thought. At some point you need to take stock of where you are at & start to put pen to paper, or at the very least the bank manager will need to see a plan. Formalising your goal & how you are going to get there will help to identify the  actions you need to take.  Without a plan, with targets or KPIs linked to it,  you run the risk of wandering around for quite some time, trying desperately (like our squirrel friend) but never quite attaining what it is that you want.

Here’s a simple tool that I have used that helps me to focus:

1. Write down your stretch goal , 5 or 10 year goal. Ask yourself  – What is it, what does it look like, what does it feel like when you are there, what does it taste & feel like (this will help you visualise your goal). How will you know when you have got there? What will you have achieved?

2. Break down this goal into a 3 year goal - this is where you need to start putting down some specifics. How much? How many? How far? Set specific targets or KPIs for you & your business.

3. Break down 3 year goal into 1 year goals. These are very specific & should be tangible. Against these you need to set yourself more specific targets , KPIs.

4. From these 1 year goals should come your day to day actions that you need to be doing to achieve the 1 year goal. This is your action plan going forward.

Make sure your goals & actions are realistic & achievable.   Follow the SMART rules,  Specific,  Measurable,  Achievable, Realistic, Time oriented.

If actions are big or difficult for you, break them down into mangeable pieces. Take it one step at a time & build on the success of each achievement. Each success should motivate you to next one.

Chasing the elusive acorn is also captured in the hilarious clips in Ice Age.

The squirrel (Scrat) makes me laugh every time but I also empathise with him. As I know that squirrel feeling!

You are nearly there towards achievement of  your goal.  Its just within your grasp. You feel you have done all the right things on the way. But then you get there & its not what you expected , its’ changed , this is not what you were chasing OR it just slips out of your grasp at the last minute. Maybe you hesitated for just one minute too long, got distracted along the way, or did not make that phone call or do the follow up as you should have done.

Whats that awful feeling you are left with …..disappointment with yourself, all that wasted energy for an opportunity missed and potentially all the other opportunities that would have come from that one opportunity!

But the one positive edge on this story is that squirrel has sure as hell got some energy.  And he keeps going , trying sometimes against all the odds. There has to be a better , easier way. If you were to give that squirrel some advice on how to get those acorns without expending so much energy, what would that be? Love to hear your thoughts.

Invigorating as it lead me to think about all of those enterprising people who are trying to tame the wind & waves, using it to produce energy, leading one of our greatest natural resources into the future.

In the face of our customers or potential customers, isn’t this what we should be doing also. Leading our customers , not just responding to their needs. By showing our customers that you will go 200% for them  & more, they will come back for more. Customers don’t just want a standard product or service anymore they want to know how you can help them drive their business forward, save costs, take them to new markets, help them to be a leader to their customers.

Oren Harari discusses widely this concept of entrepreneurship in his book “Break from the Pack”. If you can get your hands on a copy its very interesting reading.

To enjoy the western seaboard at Easter be prepared. Bring your wetsuit, fleece, wet gear, gloves & most importantly a hat! To enjoy your customers be prepared with how you can help them to achieve what you want to achieve – success & survival into the distant future.

Our discussion led to developing partnerships with companies,  people who have a similar view to quality, how they sell themselves , how they treat their customers.  Should you compromise yourself  & your product/service to get it to market as quickly as possible or to get that extra margin?.  What are your values as a salesperson, manager, company owner? How do you like to do business?   Will having a clear defined set of values reap you business in the future? Here is an article from an entrepreneur who has something to say on this subject.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/15684/

For me one of the first indicators of someone really listening & interested in finding out what are your needs , is whether they ask you questions.  I wasn’t asked one question of what I was looking for, did I have children,  a dog, or why did I need a large booth? He did ask me one question about my current mileage.  I am interested in a diesel car (as my travelling is increasing) but he tried to persuade me that I didn’t need a diesel car.  I am actively searching & open to other models but the sales person did not take advantage of that at all.  He focused on the one car that I enquired about on walking into forecourt. He assumed alot.

For me, listening is actively engaging with the customer to hear what s/he is saying & asking relevant questions to find out what they are not saying. Next time you think you are listening, check if you really are listening to what the other person is saying  or are you just waiting for your turn to talk.

I came across this clip in relation to this subject & thought it was worthwhile sharing with you. Magic of storytelling in business.