Mindset, Learning, Collaboration

Monthly Archives: February 2018

What drives you? What holds you back?

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A recent study in New Zealand of 700 businesses conducted by “The Ice House” asked what motivates their business drive:

  • 25% Passion
  • 20% Customer Satisfaction
  • 20% Making a name for themselves
  • 12% Achieving Goals
  • 18% Family
  • 7% Financial Success

 

The same survey also looked at what was holding business owners back:

  • 36% Lack of finance
  • 21% Themselves
  • 20% Time Management
  • 12% Staff
  • 6% Customer Growth
  • 4% Market Environment

When you look at the results some wise courses of action could result:

Passion, making a name for themselves, and customer satisfaction motivations revolve around customer perception of the business. The needs of the customer are being fulfilled and the customers are telling the business that. The business operates without hassles, the staff are all on the same page and what the business wants and can provide is clearly communicated. When you combine the traits that are holding back business you find that:

1.       The need more money

2.       They lack confidence in themselves

3.       They are not focussed on the use of there time

The gem is that only 12% are driven by goals! I would see this as a perception of goals being a series of financial goals not measurements of passion, customer satisfaction and brand recognition/buy-in from customers and staff!

What if these businesses sat back and at least reviewed their planning and even had a fresh look at where they were heading? They know they are being held back by certain factors! Why not do something about it! We can help at least by getting the business to start to think about planning.

Have a look and complete the business and personal plan surveys. The surveys themselves are free!

 Andrew Ephick 

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Feedback is appreciated!

You can follow us on facebook or our website!

Working from home tools

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Working from home- goals and plans

If you are going to truely benefit from being in business for yourself and working from home you need to have a plan and set yourself some goals. Working from home should be taken as seriously as working for an employer. The only person you are accountable to is yourself and you need to take that seriously.

Click the link through to the blog on my website and find out how to do this. Let me know what you think.

Kerri Bainbridge

Anywhere Team NZ

What does it take to be a successful importer?

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Can anyone import products and be successful?

As you can see in the video I made a leisurely 400-kilometer trip through the most picturesque part of New Zealand my home country. Before I left I spent 3.5 hours in training learning digital skills.  In order to perform well in today’s society a person in business must acquire digital skills. My Trip took me from Greymouth mid-west coast to Motueka in the heart of the Tasman district. I could not help noticing the parallels in our two provisional towns and the next day in Nelson. That is the large numbers of retail shops that were vacant. The names on the shoes indicated clothing, shoes, gift shops, booksellers, specialty shops, food and beverage shops once stood there. I can see that drink driving laws have taken a heavy toll on food and beverage sales but I had to find other reasons for the other types of retail.

Direct imports of foreign goods are increasing at an ever increasing rate. Just click on the two links below and find out how much things cost by direct import by you the consumer! Retail trade by consumers in New Zealand is largely conducted in this way! I see also that food and beverage are affected by digital disruption. Consumer decisions are frequently conducted online before a person goes out and decisions on consumption are already made before people get to the restaurant or café!

Ali Express                                           Reading List For Sale

What is needed is for business people learn the digital skills to get the businesses online to harness the online market. People who are successfully selling online have digital skills. Its not easy. You need to learn specific marketing skills and to understand how to reach the market you are aiming for. So what does it take?

We can help… signup, click the links on this page or at least go to our website to commence the process! Remember you can follow us on facebook too!

Andrew Elphick

Team NZ Anywhere Business Network

What are the cost drivers of your business?

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When you are in business you can only operate if you have sufficient money to pay for the goods and services that you need to produce goods and services. If you put money into your business make it count! Ask yourself in spending that money what will be the outcomes.

Spending can be classified in other ways:

  1. Short term spending … 1 month and its gone

These are items you need to operate. Examples include telecommunication costs, hosting plans, the costs of where you are conducting business. They can vary with the size of the business you operate. Advertising campaigns. Products

  1. Medium term spending… 12 months and its gone

This may include items such as subscriptions to services you need such as aweber, zoom, learning systems, accounting products, cellphones, computers, networking, services!

  1. Long term spending …. What you spend you always have

Mindset, the brand, website (you will still have to maintain it as a short term cost), knowledge.

Spending behaves in different ways to:

  1. It is fixed and may not always reoccur

This may include Incorporation costs, registering intellectual property, finance application fees, business planning fees.

  1. It is fixed but stepped with the size of operations

This may include telecommunications, hosting plans, website, learning systems, loan repayments. It is variable and depends on sales. This may include outsourcing graphics, copy writers, costs of social media campaigns.

The above lists are not exhaustive but my point is to determine what the costs are and plan out how they will behave when you are planning your business!

Andrew Elphick

One half of the Anywhere Business Team NZ

Follow us on our website or on facebook

The idea of “work” is changing

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The idea of “work” is changing

Then next generation are shaping the nature of work and it is not as you know it.

If you think back 10, 20, 30 years and remember what you work life was like you’d have to agree that the way you do work is different. Not only that you probably thought about work differently then because your priorities were different.

30 years ago I was starting my first job. I was sold a job that would last me my life if I wanted it. I had to decide if I wanted to work there a long time and think about all the opportunities that employer would give me. I didnt think about what I would give them. I was looking for a career and money. In those days I worked for a bank. I saw centralisation then decentalisation, restructuring, take overs by other banks and finally I took redundancy and went overseas.

I changed careers and fought my way into a new job in a new city accross the ditch. I gained heaps of experience but I didnt have kids and I had a good income so I wasnt thinking beyond starting a family. After my family I was faced with another career change to work around my growing family. I didnt want to work full time anymore but employers dont get it. They dont have structures for working parents….I know there are some companies that do but I didnt work there. I couldnt understand why more companies didnt see the value I had to offer….just part time. I had to change again.

My definition of work has changed over the years and I am sure yours has too. Like me you may have changed jobs and careers many times already. Well I hate to tell you this but the idea of what work is and how it is presented is changing all the time. The sooner you get your head round it the better.

What did I do? I opened up a business working for myself. I now have 3 businesses, all working from home and the first biggest thing that I had to get used to was budgeting. These days I still hate the numbers stuff so I leave it to my accountant most of the time. I love being social though so I have upskilled on my social media marketing skills. I am reaching more people than ever before and learning and collaborating with poeple to change the way I work all the time. It takes work on your mindset too in order to roll with the punches. Be flexible and learn to keep ahead of the game. What is it you really want to do? Maybe it is time you called the shots and ran your own business? Running your own business could be offering a service. Packaging your skills up and selling them to businesses on contract. Maybe you have a hobby you want to start making money from.

Sounds like you need to change your mindset, find out more about what is possible and seek some advice or join a community to see what others are doing.

Need help?

We specialise in helping businesses succeed. Check out all the great blogs we have written. Check out our website www.anywherebusines.co.nz and see who we are and how we can help you. Heaps of free stuff.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ