Industry news and views from Panacea and our partners.
John Joe McGinley, Glassagh Consulting_
Why communicating with your clients during this crisis is essential
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for everyone, and many businesses are unaware what they should be saying to clients, how they should say it and when they should be talking to them. They are also confused as to what customers want from their business, in these difficult times.
A large crisis requires a large plan
There is a quote from Blackadder which sort of sums up how many people are feeling as we live through a world impacted by the Covid19 virus.
Now is the time to plan not panic
In these turbulent times I am reminded of a quote from Benjamin Graham the father of value investing when he said The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether youre beating the market but by whether youve put in place a financial plan and a behavioural discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go. Isnt that the issue with so many people we react day to day when in fact we all need a plan, habits and the discipline to get us to where we desire to be.
What is your elevator pitch?
If a potential new client asked you what do you do, how well would you be able to sell your business and more importantly yourself?
Put your future in good hands - your own
In the last few weeks I have shared with you some ideas on how goal setting can help you in 2020. Hopefully those that want to change have started to think about what their goals could be. The first step in effective goal setting is making sure you're clear about what your objectives in life are. Once you've done that, you must write them down, mapping out how to achieve your goals
Why goal setting can open doors for you in 2020
This article is about how to choose New Year's resolutions that could actually change your life and more importantly how to keep them!
Resolutions dont work but Goals do
So did you set a new years resolution for 2020? Perhaps you pledged to get fit and lose weight after the festive excesses or even give up drinking after visiting the recycling centre and dropping off all those wine bottles?
Control your own destiny or someone else will!
My last article was about Business Vision, the ability to define with confidence and facts the way in which your business and life could evolve. Id now like to look at a key step in this process, the business audit.
Have you got a 2020 vision?
Part of my weekend ritual when I was much younger in the 90s, was the visit to the video and then DVD store to rent the latest releases, No downloads or streaming then. It seemed to me that every high street had a Blockbuster video store.
What stops you asking for referrals?
Many people I have spoken to tell me that referrals built their business. Satisfied customers telling others of their positive experience then recommending friends and family to benefit from the service they have experienced.
Never give up on your goals
As I write, its now the start of October and Im thinking where has the year gone? It seems only days ago I was sitting down thinking about what I wanted to achieve this year. I even wrote out my plan and detailed the goals needed to achieve it
Will I have a good day?
As a father of children with autism, you wear many hats. Youre a nutritionist ensuring they eat well, a psychotherapist making sure they improve their co-ordination and most days a psychologist dealing with anxiety. My eldest boy usually starts each day looking for affirmation and emotional support and often asks a question due to anxiety Will I have a good day.
Every day is a school day so never stop learning
Im a great believer in never ending your education and that, as the old saying goes, every day is a school day. If we stop learning we stop evolving and we might not reach our full potential or even enjoy life as much as we should.
The joy of missing out
How many self-help books have you got on your book case or lying around half read? Self-help is a multi-billion industry. In the USA alone it was worth $10bn in 2018. It fills bookstores, packs out conference rooms and is all over the web and social media.
Talk to someone about themselves and they'll listen for hours
One of the most impactful books I have ever read was How to win friends and influence people, written by Dale Carnegie in 1936. Over 15 million copies have been sold worldwide making it one of the most popular self-help books of all time. While social media was a far flung fantasy in 1936 the principles Carnegie talked about then are very relevant in our digital communication world.
How to say No when everyone expects you to say yes
How often do you say yes when you really want to say No? If you say No do you feel your letting people down, missing out on an opportunity or even afraid of the consequences?
Your Social media marketing plan
Last time I discussed why its worth the effort to be social and the need to treat social media as just part of your marketing effort. Every business that wants to maximise its marketing efforts and spend has a marketing plan, so why not have a social media plan? I want to show you how to develop a social media marketing plan that is simple and easy to put together and that will allow you to use the ideas we have shared over the past few weeks.
Its worth the effort to be social
Social media is just another marketing tactic that allows a business to communicate with its existing clients and new potential customers. It is not some panacea for all ills and it certainly is not a dark art only understood by experts.
How do you feel about social media?
Latest consumer research has highlighted that 81% of shoppers conduct online research before they make a purchase. 60% begin by using a search engine to find the products or service they want, and 61% will read product reviews before making any purchase or engaging any professional service.
Dont ignore the softer side of success
What makes a person successful is a question that academics have studied in great depth. A major research piece by Harvard University found that successful people share many attributes and the top ten are:
You dont make your own luck, you make your own opportunities
Napoleon was once asked, as he swept across Europe, what kind of generals he favoured, his answer has been paraphrased throughout the years, he said: I want lucky ones.
Twitter can help your business if you let it
Every month 328 million active users are chatting, connecting and sharing opinions on Twitter. Twitter active users send over 400 million tweets per day, but does it work for business and what exactly is an active user. Well let me answers both questions for you.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit Aristotle
So how are your new years resolutions coming along? Did you set any at all? If you did how successful have you been? Are you sticking to your desire to perhaps lose weight, give up smoking or cut down on alcohol? Or maybe youre trying to change how you run your business or enhance your career.
Success is all about ideas
I was asked recently what is it you do? My answer was short and to the point, I replied I help people make their ideas become a reality. I wasnt trying to be trite or massage my own ego, its something I passionately believe in, that the biggest barrier to success is unfulfilled ideas. I am intrigued by why do so many of us fail to develop the ideas we have?
Old ways wont open new doors - Why Goal setting can open new doors for you in 2018
January (in Latin, Ianuarius) is named after another Latin word, this time for door (ianua), this was because the first month was viewed as the door to the coming year and an opening for new beginnings.
Are you sitting too comfortably?
How do you feel your business is doing? Are you comfortable or can you do more? There is a quote from Manoj Arora the author of From the rat race to financial freedom, that Id like to share with you:
Why you need to be Extraordinary
Infoxication is the word used to describe the difficulty of understanding an issue or making a decision when faced with too much information. My inbox at the moment is certainly infoxicated around the issue of Robo Advice. It seems every news update leads with some story for or against the issue.
You dont have to eat a Troll to be happy!
My youngest child is obsessed with a film he insists on watching every day, so by now I can recite the script by heart. The movie is Trolls and the basic premise is that a group of super cute, insanely positive multi coloured creatures called Trolls, these are on the run from chronically pessimistic Bergens, who are only happy when they have Trolls in their stomach. The entire movie swings from chase to chase as the Bergens strive to eat the Trolls, who they perceive as their only route to happiness, ignoring all else including family, friends and their surroundings.
Just because its difficult, doesnt mean its not worth doing.
I have a friend who is a chef, the thing is he was a chef with a problem, he loved his cooking just as much as his customers.
How do you react to surprises?
While at times it may not seem like it, we are nearly a year on from the seismic American election of 2016. One of the lasting memories of an eventful campaign are the October surprises sprung upon both Trump and Clinton in the final weeks.
Doing what we have always done is not good enough anymore!
I had an interesting meeting last week with a new client. They were looking for some help to identify how they drive their business forward.
There are better starters than me but I'm a strong finisher
At the weekend I watched a legend bow out as the mercurial Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finally brought the curtain down on his golden career on the track.
Tell the world and then walk the talk
I have written many articles on goal setting. In these I have given tips, hints and hopefully some insight into how to make your goals happen. However, the best piece of advice I can give anyone is that no matter how much you desire your goal if you dont write it down it will remain unfulfilled.
Luck or Success
Do you ever look at someone and think wow they are lucky? Perhaps they have succeeded in life or business or achieved something you have always wanted to do. Id urge you to avoid that emotion and instead concentrate on finding out why they are successful achievers.
A fair day's wages for a fair day's work.
My father was a builder before he retired and throughout his career the way he was paid evolved and adapted depending on the employer or customer he had at the time. When he first left Ireland for London, he was happy to work for a set daily rate, doing as the words of the famous Dubliners song said, building up and tearing England down.
There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing
As I write, the outcome of the UK election is clear, with the certainty that no party has a majority on their own, plunging us into a period of potential political and economic upheaval.
Why are milk and bread at the back of the shop!
Behavioural Finance for beginners. Behavioral finance is really common sense and anyone who says otherwise is either trying to mystify the public or they dont understand the topic. Everyone involved in business needs to be aware of the science of consumer behavior and use it to develop a client proposition that is attractive and profitable. This short video looks at six consumer types and techniques we can all use to reach them.
The ten commandments of successful goal setting
It is no fun being all things to all people and doing everything for everyone! Too many businesses try and do so many things because they have always done them. An ingredient of a successful person is the ability to say no and move on from activities that add no real value to your business or hold you back from achieving your goals. To help you focus on your goals, I would like to share with you what I call the 10 commandments of successful goal setting.