Mindset, Learning, Collaboration

Category Archives: planning

Is being too busy affecting your health?

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Is busyness affecting your health and wellbeing?

No matter what you do for a living, you need to feel that you have been productive. I know what its like to feel like you have had a busy day but cant think what you have achieved. It feels like you were just reacting to things rather than planning to do them. This is not productive it is reactive. Under these circumstances it is very easy to drift along and feel as though you must be successful because you are so busy. Busy does not mean success. In fact in most cases it is simply a reflection that you are just surviving.

I am sure some of you will be able to say that you are financially successful and so this cannot be true. But, what is this business doing to your health and well being? If you are exhausted, stressed and tired then the answer is yes. Is this what you want in your life? If its not then you might want to think about changing the way you approach your day from a reactive one to one where you plan what you are going to do. This might not sound simple when you can see all the work that needs to be done but if you take this time you will gain the time back in your business and in your life because you will have better health and well being. Have you considered what the stress of a busy job does for your relationships with others? Maybe you are not being the kind of partner, friend or parent you want to be because you are tired and stressed.

Its time to take back the power and make a few small changes that could change your outlook on your business and your life. Try these planning tools. Give yourself 21 days to really make a change.

3 planning tips to set you up for a productive day

1. Top 3 tasks

Every morning, make a list of the top 3 things you want to achieve that day. You may have a bigger “to do list” and that’s good but you need to prioritise them. Select 1 big one and 2 small easy ones. Ideally the 2 smaller ones can be knocked off in one day. With the big one you will need to have several sub goal because it is so big. See my blog to help with this. It is important to set yourself up to have a good day and feel you have achieved something. If you don’t plan to achieve anything you will constantly feel like you never achieve anything. Logical right? So many people just get up and look at all the tasks and try to get as much done as they can. Stop doing this. You need to see progress.

For me the small tasks are things like – get out todays orders or get out 10 orders in 2 hours or spend 2 hours answering emails. If you just sit at your computer an answer all your emails or fill every order you may never get to anything else. You may need to set up an auto email response to say you aim to answer all emails within 2 working days. You may need a similar one for orders that state when an order will be filled. If you can do better than your stated response time you will and this will make the customer happy but they knew not to expect anything else.

2. 50/10 rule

Work on one important task for 50 minutes and then take a 10 minute break. Refocus, start a fresh and get back to your to-do list (see point 1). During this 10 minute break I recommend:

  1. you don’t just have coffee during this break. Do something physical like stretching or go for a quick walk around the house or garden.
  2. you make sure you have plenty of water to sip on during the day and reduce your coffee in take to 2-3 cups a day.Distraction Management

  3. Use a diary

You might use a paper diary or a digital diary but if you don’t use it well you will not feel you are on top of things. I use google calendar on my phone and this syncs with my online calendar in google. When I first started using my digital diary I also used a paper diary as I like to see things on paper. It might take you a while to let go of your paper diary too. Find something that works for you. The thing I found hardest was talking to clients and booking the appointment at the same time. I eventually found a way to fix that. What I did was to have an online booking system with set times I was available. This sent them a reminder too which helped with no shows. There are lots of online booking systems and the free ones don’t have reminders. I found it was worth paying for it.

You can invite clients to an appointment on google calendar and hope it ends up in their calendar. That’s free. This relies on you to take the booking and set it up. If you pay for a system you put in your time slots and clients choose a time. This saves heaps of time if you are looking for time savings.

In summary, don’t let your day rule you. A bit of planning and good work habits will turn busyness into productiveness and ultimately better health and well being.

 

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team

Retirement : the new life stage

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It is becoming clear to me that now I am 50 my idea of retirement is changing. Its not just me though. It seems we are living longer and feeling healthier so the idea of retiring when we are 65 seems a little premature.

The old road maps we used to plan our lives are out of date. Life is becoming re-imagined. We observed our parents and noted the pathways they took at different life stages. It all seemed scripted. Predictable even. You spend roughly 20 years getting an education and training, roughly 40 years of family and work, and then ……the golden years. The carrot on a stick for all the hard work. Retirement.

A career was to be for life, so we were lead to believe. You remember the concept of long-service leave, retirement gratuities and superannuation don’t you. They seem long gone now. Replaced with ….. nothing.

Some people recognised there was another way to do work early on and began taking charge of their work lives and changed employers and even occupations from time to time, seeking new challenges.

Then in the 1980s along came a new phenomenon-restructuring (downsizing- call it what you like). This shocked a few people and they found themselves without jobs, or in jobs they were reassigned to (not always by choice). It was not what they had planned or expected. Loyal long-serving workers were being tossed aside, having to apply for jobs with no experience in writing CVs and cover letters, job searching or being interviewed. Some retrained and changed careers, others took lower-paying roles, or exited the workforce altogether. As time moved on and organisational change became a regular feature of the work environment, many older workers found it increasingly hard to retain jobs or gain a new position post-redundancy.

Somehow, despite all the changes in the world over the last 40 years, retirement has remained the dreamed-for destination, the reward for 40 years hard work, something to hang on for. But things are changing fast and the very concept of retirement is being redefined.

But the landscape in our own lives has changed.  Many people are staying on at work well beyond the traditional exit points. We are healthy and want to continue to contribute through work. Why shouldn’t we? Sadly, there are also many mature-aged people who aren’t in work but would like to be. They are facing an enforced and premature retirement.

The statistics reinforce things: Life expectancy has increased from 58 ys in the 20th century to 80 in the 21st century. It is projected that by 2050 the average life expenctancy will be more like 85. If you haven’t reached 60 yet, just think, when you achieve that milestone you could still have  another 25-30 years of productive life ahead of you. Work could well be part of that. At 60 you may have only lived 2/3s of your life.

The potential to live a longer and healthier life has thus created new opportunities and challenges for people in their 50s and 60s. It has created a new life stage. Very little in our upbringing has prepared us for this new life stage. We are largely in unchartered territory, so how will we to navigate it?

It will be the life skills we have acquired, how we think about ourselves and what we think about the world around us that will give us a frame of reference for the way forward. In addition to our good health (if you have made that investment) we will need to be resilient, flexible and adaptable, because this will determine the quality of your life in this new life stage. The final frontier. Unchartered territory.

The question for you is: will this life stage be how you imagined it?

I enjoy travelling and have learnt that anticipation and planning are important. I first research about my destination, I talk to others who have been there and I dream about it.  The anticipation of what I will do, the weather, what I will see, eat and the places I want to go are rehearsed in my mind. But is not till I get there that I find out if it is anything like I imagined. Maybe things are like what imagined, maybe there are more choices when I get there than I thought, maybe it is not what I thought at all. If I am going to have a good time I will need to resilient, adaptable and flexible. Life has a way of throwing up curve balls but it also could be better than I imagined.

This last life stage could well be like this too. You can choose to stay close to what you know, remain safe and not engage with your imagination, or you could imagine the possibilities, anticipate and dream about what life after 50 could be like for you.

Will it be exactly like you imagined? Probably not. When you get there, circumstances are likely to be different. Life does from time to time throw a few curve balls at you. You cannot always anticipate these.

Victor Frankl, endured 3 years in a Nazi concentration camp and wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. He chronicles his time in the concentration camps and attempts to make sense of his and others experiences. He concluded that the way in which we imagine the future affects our longevity and that meaning in life is to be found in every moment of living. That life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering, and death. So, as you contemplate the next stage of our lives we must draw meaning and purpose from it.

Let me summarise. We are living longer and healthier lives. We are working longer because we feel healthier and are looking to find meaning and purpose.

As you contemplate the next stage of life, the key will be in discovering you ‘why’, or reason to live. This may mean a challenging shift from a life preoccupied with what you do, your role and position, to discovering a purpose, cause or belief that inspires you. I admit this can be a major challenge if we have largely defined our identity through what we do.

Its not over at 65: start creating your future

The shape and meaning of this new life stage beyond 50 is changing in ways we don’t yet fully understand. What we do know that we are redefining what it means to age and are doing this life stage differently to the previous generation. It is certainly different from the way my parents have done things. If you are like me, in your 50s, you are seeing a new norm unfolding. It is fast becoming the new normal.

Dare to dream.

Create your future in this new life stage.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

www.anywherebusiness.co.nz

Sign up to our newsletter: email us at info@anywherebusiness.co.nz and put Sign me up to the newsletter in the subject.

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!

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

3 Tips for planning your time when you work from home

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Setting Goals Planning Comment

Only you know how much time you can dedicate to your business. Good time management will help you get the most out of your day so you can achieve your goals. Dont fall into the trap of planning to do things and then be distracted by friends, family, jobs around the house, animals, a good book or a chance to get out in the sunshine. You can still do all these things and give all these things the attention you want to but with a little time managment you will achieve much more.

Here are some essential tools and tips for helping you manage your time.

1. Have a diary

Make sure you have a diary in which you set up some core hours you will dedicate to your business.

It will be up to you to decide if this is an electronic diary or physical one. If you don’t have a diary you will always feel torn when you are asked by friends to join them for coffee, exercise, lunches etc.  An electronic diary is more portable and lighter. You can set up your to-do-lists in there too.

2. Set your core business hours

The distractions -Groceries still need to be bought, cleaning, washing, school drop offs, after school activities and lunches and dinners need to be made. All this needs to be considered when you are planning your working week from home.

Consider working longer some days so you have days available for the odd lunch or coffee date. Or start later so you can start the day doing exercise or catching up with friends. Working for yourself often means we can fit in work after hours when the kids are in bed or on the weekends when your partner is home or you know the kids will play happily for an hour.

When you look at the core hours you have to work with, ask yourself if that is enough time to get all you need to get done, done. If not, you may have to change some of your social time hours. We think it will be easy to fit all our friends in for coffees but in reality it’s still often better to leave our social time to after school or the weekends. Until you do this exercise you won’t know what is possible.

3. Let people know your work hours

Once your schedule is set let family, friends and clients know your core hours. It is useful for your clients too to know when they can easily get hold of you. The sooner people who know you know your “work hours” the less they will ask you to join them during those times. Less distractions.

In summary:

Have a diary
Decide on your core hours each day
Let family, friends and clients know what your core hours are

The changing digital landscape is changing the way we do business

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Are you keeping up with the changing digital landscape? It’s changing the way we do business.

If you have been searching the internet for inspiration about what you might do in the future you are probably aware that the future of work is changing. This is because the digital landscape has change the way we collaborate, our mindset, and the way we gather information (learning). The big question is are you prepared for it? What have you already noticed?

What change have we already been through? At almost 50 (generation X) I have seen lots of change in the way I communicate and the business tools I have used to collaborate and do business. No one stopped and asked if I was ready. I was eager to experience it to be honest and embrased it. I have seen work change from being repetitive and time consuming to become replaced by technology and efficiency. I adapted and changed because I had to and because it was exciting.

My changing landscape

When I started work in the late 80s fax machines were just coming into my workplace, there were no cell phones, no ATM machines and the home computer was for playing games on. There was not social media. If you were going to be late home you had to find a phone box or ring from work. If you broke down you walked to someone house and used their phone. If you wanted to know what a shop had to sell you had to go in or look at a catalogue or advert. We got our news on the radio or TV at the appointed hour. If you wanted to research something you had to go the library. If you wanted to read a book you bought it or got it out of the library.

If you wanted to communicate with a work colleague, family or friends you wrote a memo, letter or picked up the phone. Or better still you walked round the office to went to their home to speak to them in person. People were not so accessable and we had to wait to tell them things. Memos and letters were longer because you saved it all up to put in one document. Now a days we do everything in bit size pieces. Sometimes we send our thought on social media or text as they come to us. Maybe we used a diary for this before or wrote it down in poetry or songs…….imagine not being able to tell your partner something when you thought of it- ping off goes a text.

In the 90s I remember getting my first “flip phone”. It was a great comfort to think I could text my partner about my location so we could meet up after work or I could get help if I broke down in my car. It was quite expensive to make calls so I really treated it as an emergency device for calling. I was listening to music on my stereo or walkman. I was using my camera for photos and having them printed out from a role of film. I needed a video camera for video.

I taught myself to type so I could use my home computer to type up assignments for university (when I went back to uni after 10 years working so we are in the 90s now). I taught myself to use email and started sending emails to friends. I remember one friend saying she thought it was funny how I wrote like I was talking to her. She thought I should only use it to send a quick message and if I wanted to talk I should phone. I remember sending emails at work and treating it like a letter. I would save up things to say and send one long email.

In the early 2000s I was using the internet for booking flights, reseaching things that interest me, and checking emails when I travelled. I was using my home computer to do my accounts, business documents and communicating with work and friends who were out of town. When I travelled I took photos or video on my camera and I left my phone at home. My only form of commuication with people back home was sending a postcard, letter or checking my emails in an internet cafe. I used an walkman playing cds for music. If I wanted a job I had to look in the papers, and post in an application, then go to an interview. If I wanted to buy something I could search about it to see where I need to go to buy it. It wasnt the norm to pay online but you could email an order.

Digital landscape today

These days, I generally don’t go anywhere without my phone. I use it for my emails, internet searches, bookings, games, phone calls, texts, social media, business information storage in the cloud, my calendar, to take bookings for business, listening to music, accessing stored doucents in the cloud, taking photos and videos, read the news, do my banking and to tell me the time. When I travel I take just my phone and I can Skype or Facetime, or use my social media to communicate and share realtime what I am doing, where I am with whome I like.

Workwise I have seen that more and more people are working from home. Some are working remotely for someone else while others are working for themselves. Working around family is a big focus. Information is more accessable, its being stored electronically in the Cloud. People are collaborating through online meetings such as Zoom and Skype. Technology has changed the way we do business. We dont need to be in a clients office to speak to them, do training for them or with them, having a meeting or exchange ideas. If I want a job I apply online, I network with people imporant to my business or future business online. If I get an interview it wouldnt be unusual to be interviewed by Skype. If I want to order something I can seach online for the best price or product. Then I can order and pay right away online and it will be shipped to me.

What does this all mean for the future of work?

Our epectations have changed (mindset). We expect things to be at our finger tips. We expect businesses to get back to us quickly and to find what we want in an instant. We no longer expect to have to go to the shops for items.  Dispite social media we are still meeting up to socialise (collaboration). We are just sharing the experience with more than just those who are there.

People want thing fast, in bite sizes and they want to share their experience. They need to see and experience your product so photos or video are important. You need a presence online so you can be found, so your consumer can learn about you, and you need a way of interacting online with customers to create a following. Are you providing that? What does your digital landscape look like for your business? Do you have brochures, messages or busy ads that are long and boring. Are you refusing to get conected with social media and unsure how to take video, share experiences and photos of what you do? This is the future NOW.

What can you do to improve your digital landscape right now?

Its often easier to cope with this change when you are young. I think thats because you dont have other things like kids and financial pressures to worry about. Some people are better with change. But change is all the current generation know. The digital landscape is in their face and its changing fast. If you are a gernation X like me then you need to think about the changing nature of work and the fact that the next generation, the millenials are now in the workforce in bigger numbers and they have grown up with laptops, phones, social media and the world of instant gratification. They are your workforce and your consumers and are just plain expecting different things than you have grown up with. As parents we are grappling with the changing digital landscape our kids are exposed to. My advice is to learn about it now. Engage with them in their world as this is the next generating of your customers. I will explore more about the millenials in my next blog. You cant afford to miss it.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Colaboration, Mindset, Learning.

www.anywherebusiness.co.nz 

 

Proven stress reducing tips to help you achieve work-life balance

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One of the biggest problems with working for yourself is that we seem to never switch off. We are always dipping in and out of our work because it is always around us. We find it difficult to switch off and work-life balance can suffer when many of us work for ourselves to achieve better work-life balance. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, having a good work-life balance is important for your relationships, your health, your contribution to society and your job performance. If one suffers then many times so do the others.

This neat little 5 min video is a peach for practical work-life balance and proven stress reducing tips, all of which I’d support and encourage.…but don’t watch it eating lunch at your desk!

We hear a lot about going ‘off the grid’ to strike that elusive work-life balance. But what if we can’t afford to jet off to a remote island for a digital detox, or to lock our smartphones in a safe for a week?

BBC Ideas spoke with Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s VP of Europe, who offers six tips to unplug just enough – so that a mini-sabbatical or an email sojourn won’t make you look like a slacker, or make you feel that you’re out of the office loop.

One strategy is even called ‘monk mode’. A morning ritual not quite as ascetic as it sounds, it involves holing up at home for 90 minutes a day before coming into the office. That way, you’re not as chained to your desk as you’d normally be, but are still putting in that needed face time.

Did you watch the video? Tell me what you think.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

www.anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz

Time Management tip 3

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I am continuing to be share with you from the Tips on Time Management series from people who have experience working from home.

Tip 3: TIME MANAGEMENT

“My time management tip is to collaborate with another ‘work from home’ person.

Email each other on Monday with the tasks to complete for the week.

Meet up for coffee or chat on the phone or email each other at the end of the week to help each other stay on track.  Accountability can be the nudge to completing tasks that would otherwise be shuffled to the bottom of the list.”

Anne Thoroughgood

Business Liaison

Young Enterprise Regional Coordinator

www.nmit.ac.nz/anne-thoroughgood

#Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Time Management tip 2

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I am continuing to be share with you from the Tips on Time Management series from people who have experience working from home.

TIP 2: TIME MANAGEMENT

“Make sure you maximise on the benefits of working from home by scheduling in some of these little gems into your daily time frame:
– 30 min exercise (e.g. walk the dog or do some in house yoga )
– read one chapter of your current fave book from the comfort of your armchair
– 10 min sun bathe in your garden
– 15 min meditation

And most of all, start using positive language when talking about your time management and your work. Use words that express abundance rather than lack like “I don’t have enough time for this … or I can’t fit it all in”…
Instead learn to say e.g. “My time schedule for this week is running at capacity.”

Angelika Barnes / Life Coach/ Nelson, New Zealand

Website: www.angelikabarnes.com

Like her on Facebook ABC Angelika Barnes Coaching 

Angelika is passionate about communication and bringing out the best in people. “There is nothing more rewarding for her than seeing people becoming more energised and happy, because they have taken on board new techniques to get themselves there.”

Angelika

# Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Time Management tip 1

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In this series I am going to be sharing Tips on Time Management by asking peope in the know about work from home.

TIP 1: TIME MANAGEMENT

“Before you start each day, write down a list of what you want to achieve that day; review how well you did at the end of each day. When you have mastered this, use your Friday afternoon to review your week and plan for next week bringing forward any undone ‘to do’s’ – however make sure your tasks follow the SMART rule! (Specific | Measurable | Achievable | Realistic | Timely)”

Debs Taylor-Hayhurst

“Working together to make a difference”

Business Consultant and Coach

www.successfactor.co.nz

http://www.facebook.com/successfactorconsultancyandcoaching (LIKE HER ON FACEBOOK)

Success Factor invests in people and businesses by providing them with the tools to reach their full potential through a results based service.

Debs

Debs Taylor- Hayhurst

How do you succeed in business?

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Many who work from home have other income coming into the household from a partner so the amount of money generated is not always important. If it is your sole income for example you may feel more pressure about this.

It is still important no matter how much you are making to work efficiently. This will give you a sense of achievement and purpose- Successfulness. Without goals you may spend more hours than you need to working on your business and achieving very little.

There is a tendency to feel like you can never get away from work when you work from home because it’s always there. There’s always one more thing to do. Today I want to talk about goals and planning as they will be your keys to success.

Setting Goals

If you haven’t sat down and written down the goals you have for your business, then you need to do that now. When you are selling anything it seems impossible to predict how much you will sell since you cannot control the economy or how people spend their money. But you have to start with a goal. There are many great books, websites and blogs about this so start by investing time in working out what you are trying to achieve. I recommend a few on our website.

Your goals should be SMART -Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time bound

It’s a good idea to set business and personal goals since the reason for you working from home is often motivated by your personal goals. If you need help setting personal goals you will find a free tool here.

Goal Example: It might look like this for a T-shirt business

Make $x per month selling 50 t-shirts through my online shop.

Have a Business Plan

Next you need a plan. Here’s a free business planning tool to help you get started. You now have to have a plan for making this goal come to reality. You need to know you’re your strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities are. You need to plan for marketing and taxes. You need to plan for production time and delivery. Once you have done this planning your will know if your goal is realistic and achievable.

Invest time in yourself every day to become an efficient entrepreneur.

Kerri Bainbridge

Collaborate, Mindset, Learning

One Half of the Anywhere Team New Zealand

Related article- Tips for Time Managment

Is it possible to have a work/life balance and working from home?

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Work Life and balance- are your goals matching what you want?

If you are like me, the idea of working from home is very appealing. Setting your own hours, no commute and time for the things that are important to me. I have worked from home for 12 years and it has given me the freedom and flexibility to work around my growing family. This flexibility has also come at cost. Finding a job that can be done from home that pays the bills (and more) is not always easy and I haven’t always been efficient with my time.

If you work from home too or want to, you might imagine that working from home means you could easily work around the kids, fit in social time with friends and family, and exercise too? Let’s look at this a bit closer at this work/life balance.

What are the distractions?

Here are just a few:

Friends wanting to catch up for coffee
Sick children
Household chores
Running errands
Paying bills
Gardening
The dog needs a walk
Going to the gym
Achieving a work/life balance

Having a work/life balance is possible when you work from home. If you are going to achieve your goals of running a successful business from home, you need to set goals and manage the distractions that some with working from home.

Kerri Bainbridge

Learning, Mindset, Collaboration

Anywhere Team NZ

Think Big

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Video: Courtesy of Panalitix Proprietory Ltd via the Taxman Ltd.

When I ask a business owner “what’s your plan for next year: how much do you think you can increase your sales?”  typically the answer is a small number like “five percent to ten percent if we do really well that would be a great year.”

But what I find is when you really understand the numbers most businesses can achieve much more than they ever thought possible and to do that it’s really important that you understand the numbers for your business.

First of all think about how many customers you have in your business.

Secondly, think about how many times those customers buy from you.

Thirdly, think about the average spend when those customers

If you increase each of those numbers by just ten percent your sales would increase by over thirty three percent and that’s a quite a dramatic number.

And if you broke those down into those three areas, a ten percent increase is certainly doable in many businesses.  So if you’re doing a million now you increase those three numbers -customers transaction, frequency transaction, value – by ten percent each you’ll go to 1,100,000 and in many businesses you know a lot of that would drop straight to the bottom line.

What I suggest you do is talk to your accountant to understand your numbers, what the dynamics are of your business in terms of those numbers and then plan together to increase each of those numbers by at least ten percent and then go and enjoy the rewards of that.

To subscribe to the Elevate EMagazine us at info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz and put Subscribe to Elevate newsletter.

Need help?

If you dont have an accountant contact us and we will help no matter where you live (the digital world will make it happen).

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Collaboration, Mindset, Learning

www.anywherebusinessnetwork.com

Marketing, Sales and Service

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Video: Courtesy of Panalitix Proprietory Ltd via the Taxman Ltd.

In any business there are three core activities that it’s very very important that you understand and understand not just the activities but the numbers that sit behind them. Those activities are
firstly marketing, secondly sales and thirdly how you service and keep your customers.

If you think about marketing, there are activities that you will undertake in terms of marketing.  These
are lead generation activities they create opportunities for you to sell to new customers.  When you think about sales there are activities and people who sell whatever it is that you do.  And then when you think about customer service again there are activities and people who look after that function as well where it’s really important that you get to is an understanding of if I spend it I get Y.

Now you may be joining us from anywhere in the world but let’s just use dollars to make the point here if you spend $100 on a marketing activity what will the result be if you can guarantee because you’ve studied this that it would generate 20 new leads and that following a sales process your team could close let’s say eight new customers and those customers bring in five hundred dollars on average every year. And let’s say you spend $100 to service those customers then that would be a good investment. But until you know those numbers you really have no idea what you can spend on marketing with any sort of justifiable return on investment.  If you don’t know those numbers it’s time to find them out and your accountant can help you do just that.

Panalitix produce these wonderful short videos. To subscribe to the Elevate EMagazine email us at info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz and put Subscribe to Elevate newsletter. We were pleased to share another of the Panalitix video with you today.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Business Team

Mindset, Collaboration, Learning

For tips and tools for being in business www.anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz 

Do you have any raving fans?

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Video: Courtesy of Panalitix Proprietory Ltd via the Taxman Ltd. Panalitix produce these wonderful short videos. To subscribe to the Elevate EMagazine produced by Panalitix email us at info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz and put Subscribe to Elevate newsletter.

Raving fans! What is a raving fan. Well, its a customer who is loyal to you and your brand who will not only consistantly buy from you but tell others about you.

One of the top questions you you need to ask yourself if you are in business is “why sould a customer buy from me” and “why would they choose my business”. There has been lots of research on this and looking at why do customers change their vendor or supplier and not choose to stick with you. Yes, a persentage of people will leave because of price or the product is better somewhere else but that isnt the number one reason. The statisitcs consistantly show that (70%) the number one reason why customers leave a businesses is the perceived lack of interest or in difference to them. That they dont care.

So what are you doing to create a remarkable experience. What are you doing to create a difference rather than a perceived indifference. This video gives you some simple littele things you can do to create that loyalty you need to retain customers and ones who will altimately tell others about you and be a raving fan.

Need some help?

For help to grow your buisness through collaboration with other entrepreneurs, develop a healthy life style and learn how to develop a successful business go to www.anywherebusinessnetwork.com.

This link is especially useful to those who are interested in learning about how to market online in todays digital world. There you will find a link a 30 free trial to the learning platform.

If you like books on this subject go to our shop www.anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz for the book Raving Fans by Harvey MacKay.

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Future of work for Generation X

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Future of work for Generation X

As a gen x, I think because our parents are baby boomers we are influenced by their beliefs….work hard, stick with what you know, be loyal, think of your family…. When in fact we haven’t in fact been offered such security from our employers. We have been through restructures, mergers, redundancies, centralization, decentralization and the introduction of technology that we were not prepared for in a school and had to teach ourselves to use. Many of us are on our 5th career change and are highly qualified. I myself have 2 degrees and another qualification but what I want is freedom and flexibility from the 9 to 5. I am tired of juggling family and work. Why?

This generation has the highest rate of broken relationships than previous generations. Not everyone it seems is willing to work on a relationship in order to provide their children with a balance that comes from a two parent household. It seems people of my generation (gen x) think they “don’t have to put up with anything they don’t want to”.

What has been the cost?

Gen Y and the Millennials (some of us waited to have kids)are our children. We have shown them they have lots of choices and don’t have to do anything they don’t want t and there are always choices. I think it became apparent to me when I heard myself say..” it’s up to you Alex, you can carry on with that behavior or loose you iPad time”. The choice is about winners and losers in this case. He can’t win but he has a choice. So now he is 11 he gives me choices…” If I do this can I have iPad time?”

So how does this affect the future of work?

We have bred a generation of self-centered individuals who know about trade offs. They love technology, because we gave it to them, and they know what it means to be anywhere and be able to do anything if you are connected to the Internet.  You can find anything, talk to anyone and get information about anything from anywhere. This is how they will experience work. They have spent years discussing what the Internet is teaching them, forming opinions, finding out what is possible, and like us they will be determined not to be like their parents. They are tired to the trade offs. They are in charge now… or will be.

What can we do?

As a gen x, I am exhausted, I have been raising my son on my own for 12 years. Trying to work around him and have changed careers so many times I have no sense of what a career is.  I have spent time pursuing careers that have been unforgiving to people of my age with no experience and a qualification.

So now, I have unskilled myself in the latest digital landscape, joined a community of people online who are in the same boat and are there for each other. I have spent a long time working from home, alone, but I don’t like working alone so I have a business partner now. We work remotely as we don’t live in the same town. We have online meetings, email, text, skype, Facebook….. whatever it takes. We each have our strengths.  It works well. I won’t be left behind in this ever changing digital world. I won’t bury my head in the sand and say “ I don’t understand it, I am afraid of it, so I won’t use it” .

So, what you can do Gen X is pick yourself up and do what you know how to do and learn to survive change again. Change your mindset and collaborate with others, some will be just like you. You may need to meditate, you may need the help of a life coach or you may need to consider a new study option.

Whatever you do, make sure it is a positive step forward. No one will do it for you but it’s time to find out how you can fit into the changing future of work.

Get started today

  • What can you do that can be outsourced to businesses, and not just where you live? What skill gap can you fill?
  • What digital skills do you need, that are holding you back?
  • Do you need help and who can do this?
  • Are you mentally ready for change?

At Anywhere Business Network we can help with heaps of free resources on our website. We have motivational tips for you, business tools and recommendations, we are just like you. We would love to share your journey.

Kerri

One Half of Anyhwere Business Network

www.anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz – lots of great tips for getting started with business

info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz – sign up to newsletter

What’s it like doing business with you?

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Are you sending the right message on your digital media, in your sales pitch and advertising?

 

Way too many people talk way too much about themselves rather than about the benefits of the customer dealing with them. So have a look at your website what are you doing on your website. Are you telling everyone that you’ve been in business for 83 years? (… and seriously who cares except maybe you and your mother) or when I’m visit you online am I discovering what it’s like to do business with your business.

Am I finding out the sort of results that I might get, the value that might accrue to me when I actually invest some time to work with you?  You see, what customers really care about are those results.  What they really care about is- how am I going to improve, how is my situation going to be improved, how is my business going to be improved as a result of your product or service and as a potential customer?

I’m going to believe your existing customers before I’ll believe you. That’s why when I go to your website and I look at your other marketing collateral or when I’m visited by one of your sales people, what I really want to see is how does this work. I want to see case studies, I want to see testimonials, I want to hear your customers talking to me about why you’re so great. But more importantly what that means to me.

So put your customer eyes on here and take a look at all of your marketing collateral and start with your website make sure that you’re not just telling us how wonderful you are, how long you’ve been in business, make sure that when I leave that page I’m really clear on where the value to me is as a customer. And when you do that I get a much better picture of what it’s like to do business with you and that helps me make a better decision about becoming one of your customers.

Video: Courtesy of Panalitix Proprietory Ltd via the Taxman Ltd. Panalitix produce these wonderful short videos. To subscribe to the Elevate EMagazine produced by Panalitix email us at info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz and put Subscribe to Elevate e-zine and we wil get you on the list. 

Kerri Bainbridge

One half of the Anywhere Team NZ

Collaboration, Mindset, Learning

Did you find this useful? info@anywherebusinessnetwork.co.nz 

How to write a blog

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Our business won a blogging competition in 2017 so we decided to do a blog on how to do a blog! The blogs we write firstly built on the principle of servant leadership- that is, putting the interests of others first.

When I do a blog I am mindful of 3 things:

1.       My target market (learning)

2.       Whether the content is interesting

3.       To spur a call to action

The reasons why I use the digital bloggers platform are:

1.       The ease of use

2.       The common values I have with the community (collaboration)

3.       The collective power of blogging as a community allows greater reach

4.       Development of our brand!

Lastly, when I write a blog I want people to learn and be inspired (mindset). The blogs that I write have a lot of myself in them, my values, the values of our business and positive movement forward! After all Anywhere Business Network has its “why statement”:

Why We Do What We Do:

We wake up in the morning wanting to inspire people and their communities to make a difference.

Small businesses are the core of communities.

We are passionate that collaboration, mindset and learning are key to small business success.

Feedback is appreciated!

You can follow us on facebook or our website!

Andrew Elphick

Half of the Anywhere Business Network

Collaborate, Mindset, Learning