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Feb 19
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Vision Boards For Entrepreneurs: The Wall Of Blue Logos

By Business Coaching Motivation Strategy No Comments

Setting up an environment that carries within it a vision of success is a huge requirement for any successful business owner and in doing so, you motivate not only yourself on an individual level, but the employees and anyone that comes into contact with such a culture.

I’ve come across and use a wide variety of tactics and ways to keep entrepreneurs, staff and my clients motivated to attract better results in as many aspects of their business as possible and have found that the methods I’ll be sharing with you today are extremely powerful in creating such a great environment.

The Wall Of Logos

About six years ago, I was called in for a meeting with a very large advertising agency that was a potential client of mine and being a bit anal about time, I showed up about half-an-hour early for the interview.

Being there that early meant that I was stuck with the friendly receptionist and the various staff slowly dragging their feet into the workplace. I was offered a delicious cup of coffee and patiently waited to be summoned in.

During that time, I noticed a distinct wall of plaques behind the lovely lady and each one had a logo of some famous brand that anybody could recognise; big players in different industries all spread across this company’s wall. What I noticed upon closer inspection is that some were in colour and some were still silver in the shade of the original plaque.

Thoroughly impressed, I thought to myself, “Wow, these must be the clients that this agency works with,” which created even more anticipation to land them.

The time came and I was called into the meeting, everything went as smooth as Jazz and I bagged the opportunity to work with this amazing company. During the meeting, I brought up the glimmering wall of logos and it was explained to me that the brands that are in colour are those that they work with and already have as clients, while the plaques that are completely silver were the clients that they were aiming at getting.

An amazing idea that not only has their goals displayed for the world to see, but also one that motivates and pushes their staff towards a horizon of success.

This way of thinking left a solid impression on me and I firmly believe it to be a fantastic way that the company reminds itself and its employees that they are striving to be the best and will seize any opportunity to be huge in their industry.

The Blue Logo Approach

A few years after my encounter with the great wall of logos, I was working with another client of mine, also a large advertising firm in marketing and media, where I noticed that they had a slightly different approach to the plaque idea.

This company used what could be called the ‘blue logo strategy’, where they specifically targeted brands with blue logos as potential clients and without being confined to a single industry, these brands were all involved in multiple sectors and markets.

If you pay some pretty close attention to some of the biggest industry giants, you’ll come to find that a huge portion of them use a significant amount of blue in their logo: BMW, Unilever, HP, Intel, Facebook and Paypal (Oh! Spillly is also in blue – just putting that out there).

Making sure to tell their staff on a daily basis that those were the particular clients that they were going for, they created an environment with a concept similar to that of the wall of logos at the previous company I mentioned.  They were inducing a sense of motivation and ambition in themselves and their employees to strive towards capturing the best clients they could.

One really cool thing about that was the fact that they didn’t restrict themselves to one industry (like automotives), but to different sub-categories, like blue logos in the tech industry and the banking industry, as well.

This also didn’t necessarily mean that they were only accepting clients with a blue logo, but some of the best brands tend to have blue as a preferred colour choice. (*cough* like my one)

Vision Boards And Attraction

These methods that are used by the companies bear a stark resemblance to the law of attraction and a trick used to attract and manifest certain possibilities in one’s life and environment: something known as vision boards.

A vision board is usually a collection of images, formed into a collage to remind yourself, and others, of certain goals or ambitions that you’ve set out to achieve.

By creating such a device, you condition your subconscious to adapt and attract possibilities and opportunities that will bring about those goals, ambitions or dreams into existence.

Through having the blue logo approach or the wall of plaques, the entrepreneur and the staff all envision and fixate on particular results that they are all striving to achieve and in keeping a visual reminder, they constantly remind their subconscious minds of an outcome that needs to be delivered. This affects their behaviours, body language, communication and interactions with people in order to bring about their desires and breathe life into them.

It’s a fun way to think about who you are as an organisation, the type of clients that you want and how big you want that client base to become.

Finding a similar way to motivate yourself and your staff to excel in and achieve higher goals like this will most certainly be beneficial to your own business, including the environment and culture that it creates.

From the inside, your business will carry and develop an energy that strives for success; while from the outside, people are drawn to the high levels of ambition that you’ve put out on display – making it known that you’re on a quest to becoming a big-player in your industry.

This is a nice and easy trick to make use of and implement in your work environment and so am I.

I’ll be the best business coach you’ve ever invited into your life and business and just like those big corporate kings: my logo is blue, too.

Okay, I won’t keep bombarding you with how awesome my logo is, so if you need to know more about how I can turn your business frown upside down:

Let’s do a Zoom call, a face-to-face, a get together, a coffee:

+2783 253 3999

brent@spillly.com

I’m easy enough to find – there aren’t many bald, bearded business coaches with a blue logo out there. (Again, just putting that out there).

 

 

Feb 07
Love0

To Be, Or Not To Be A Family-Run Business

By Business Coaching Entrepreneur Strategy No Comments

Family is a beautiful and sometimes icky subject to approach when business is involved, as there are so many arguments for and against the involvement of family in forming any kind of business.

In my years of coaching a diverse variety of clients, I’ve found that a number of them run family-owned businesses and that there is a certain level of both ease and discomfort that come with making such an unpredictable choice.

As with everything in life, there’s always a lurking list of pros and cons that can be used to spark either healthy debate or ignite a scorching argument – so get your pitchforks and flamethrowers ready, as we take a look at some of them.

Is Blood Always Thicker Than Water? 

In breaking down the different arguments for and against having a family-run business, I often run into both plenty of benefits and detriments in the situations that my clients often come to face.

These family-owned businesses come in different shapes and sizes: a husband and wife partnering up to conceive a healthy, young startup; a father and son building towards a timeless legacy; sometimes 3rd generation families that start with the grandfather and trickle all the way down to the grandchildren, exist, as well.

There is a lot of conversation around how to run the dynamics of a family business and a lot of business owners will often run into the decision whether or not to include or employ family.

Usually in those family-oriented businesses, there’s a tendency to employ family members that are either unemployed, miserable in their current jobs, or that they could trust in building a great business that will last. Most of the time it’s done out of love, but sometimes because employing family can work out as a nice, cheap option.

Some of the biggest advantages of having a family-run business would be more empathy all the way through the company, as there is an extra level of care; you often know who or what you’re dealing with in an employee and understand the person better; the opportunity of a faster start-up, because you avoid the process of sifting through people that you don’t know, avoiding tedious interviews and background checks; and family tends to be a bit more united from the get-go, having more motivation to succeed with and for one another.

Take a look at some of the most powerful family-run businesses like Nike, Walmart and Samsung – they are amazing at what they do and provide a pretty solid defence around family involvement.

Get your fire extinguisher ready – because on the contrary, Harvard research has proven that family-run businesses have a success rate of around only 30%. A scary statistic that should be paid more attention to, as 70% of these businesses fail, get bought out, or never make it past the 2nd generation.

It’s not difficult to find arguments against having a family-run business, as it’s not always a peachy and pleasant road to go down.

You’ll find that those high levels of comfort ultimately slow down the company growth, with a reduced sense of drive and professionalism; conflicts don’t necessarily stay business-related, but can carry through into personal affairs; often blatant levels of unfairness on staff that aren’t considered family, as promotions and progress in the company become a contentious issue; deciding which family members deserve leadership roles and raises certainly push buttons; and often a lack of accountability follows if management doesn’t want family who are in the wrong left feeling butthurt.

It can often change family dynamics quite quickly, creating resentment and rifts that were never there before.

 

Blood and Business Can Be Like Oil And Water 

One of the saddest things that I come across in my experience coaching is the disjointing and disruption of families that can often be found in running a family business.

Quite often, married couples might partner-up in starting a business and pretty much all of their energy, time and efforts are spent on making that vision work in the best possible way. Waking up together, going to work together and all that is ever discussed is the business – creating an imbalance between their relationship and business-relationship.

As the proverb goes: “familiarity breeds contempt”.

All of that time spent on work and business, without enough focus on love, ends up eating away and destroying a marriage faster than a divorce lawyer with bills to pay. The power dynamics in family-business relationships often shift, too – the water gets murky and power becomes an issue between couples, parents, children and even grandchildren. It doesn’t always work out for the better when the kids take over the business, kick mommy and daddy to the curb and play with their budgets, while partying away the profits.

There’s a funny saying that’s echoed through time: “the grandfather started it, the father built it and the children spend all of the money.”

My stance is that if you don’t need to employ family or friends, simply don’t.

It’s not always worth the risk of burning bridges, creating rifts, starting fires and ruining the precious gem that is family. Love your family, take care of and respect them enough not to bring them into a potential and likely mess.

It’s impossible to go back in time and make your amends when the damage has already been done.

For more polarising and hard-hitting thoughts on your business decisions, tactics, ideas and plans:

Feel free to get in touch with a business coach that actually gives a shit, We can have a chat, grab a lunch, maybe a warm beverage, You know exactly how to reach me:

 

+2783 253 3339

brent@spillly.com

 

 

 

 

Jan 05
Love0

The Authority Syndrome – The Psychology of Business (Pt.2)

By Business Coaching Motivation Strategy No Comments

Have you ever had the motivation, courage and determination to be highly creative and put your amazing idea or concept out there, only for you to be riddled with the anxiety that nobody will see or hear it, or even worse – not care, at all?

In taking note of how the imposter syndrome and one of its closest counterparts, creative anxiety, both work; I’ve come up with a blended form of the two, which I call authority syndrome.

 

Noticing it in particular clients that I work with and even in myself, it’s an interesting cognitive bias that leaves you in fear of not being recognised for a creative endeavour that you’ve put out into the world.

 

“If A Tree Falls In A Forest…”

There’s an interesting philosophical thought experiment that questions human perspective and existence: “if nobody knows it’s there, or that it happened; does it even exist?”

In looking at the authority syndrome, I’ve often found myself in fear and wondering whether or not anybody will even see, recognise or pay attention to some of the creative ambitions and endeavours I want to put out for the world to engage with.

With enough confidence and motivation to create content, generate ideas and formulate concepts, I find that a sense of anxiety follows the desire to put it out there for display – not necessarily because it won’t be good enough, but that nobody will even care to engage with it, or worse: be totally unaware of its existence.

The desire for such recognition is rooted in all of us and social media proves this through our dependency and need for engagement through likes, comments and shares. There becomes a clear distinction between the comfort that comes with creation and the reluctance that comes with putting it out there.

Nobody wants to deal with the harrowing silence that might follow all of the hard-work and effort one puts into something so close to their heart, especially when countless hours and love are put into that process.

This fear spills over into moments that you feel most in control, leaving you with a set of expectations, which in turn extract feelings of being judged; being seen for who you really are; taking criticism; and dealing with any negative feedback from others.

 

Fighting Through A Lack Of Self-Belief

Both imposter and authority syndrome come from a place of a deep-rooted lack of self-belief; while imposter syndrome has you convinced that your voice does not matter, authority syndrome has you believing that your voice does matter, but that nobody cares and there is no real point in even bothering making use of it.

And as with all of these biases: they’re simply different forms of psychological self-defence mechanisms that try to protect and prevent you from the inevitable unpredictability that life can present you. Safety and security become a necessity, so our minds work to protect us from any potential threats or danger to our mental well-being.

It’s a difficult and painstaking process to deal with mentally, but it is important to remember who the common denominator is: Yourself.

You are the common thread in those thinking processes and need to be self-aware of the contradictory fact that you believe you matter one day, but don’t believe it the next day; you’re in possession of the power to break that vicious cycle.

Growth isn’t about resources, but rather resourcefulness and by taking the decision to grow, rather than struggle – you’ll find success in seeking ways to create a base of fans and interest inside and outside of your business. By understanding the psychology behind how, what and why you do things, you won’t only have insight about yourself, but insight into those that you work with and have in your business.

At the end of the day, you can’t please everybody and by finding acceptance in the fact that there will always be people that criticise the work that you do, everything becomes a lot easier. In order to build something of value, you have to trust yourself to put out the hard-work and energy, regardless of whether or not it’s seen, heard, criticised or loved.

By learning how your thoughts and emotions operate, you’re granted the ability to see that you’re not alone in dealing with the tumultuous environment that your powerful mind can often abandon you in.

You can carry these psychological insights through to the way that you motivate your employees; in hiring the right people; negotiating contracts with clients effectively; improve performance in you and your staff; market in better ways; and achieve your goals far more effectively.

Aristotle’s wise words echo through the ages: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” So in understanding how you think and coming to terms with your own psychological drawbacks, you can make the best decisions for yourself and your business moving forward.

Nobody really cares if you fail and you certainly won’t be punished for making mistakes in your own creative space, so don’t shy away from yourself and the stunning abilities that you gift to the world. Keep on creating, formulating and share it until nobody can look away.

 

Hopefully this resonates with you on some level and it hasn’t fallen on deaf ears, or ended up a fallen tree in a forest;

 

If it didn’t matter at all, I’m still fine with that; If it did and meant something to you: give me some feedback, or criticism. I’m still on my journey to becoming the best business coach that I can be, especially for someone like you.

Let me know how you feel and together we can come up with a way to turn that fallen tree into a loud and captivating euphony that you can be proud of:

+2783 253 3339

brent@spillly.com

 

Dec 17
Love0

Putting Too Many Eggs In One Of Two Baskets

By Business Coaching Coaching Strategy No Comments

 

With the ever-growing number of risks to businesses and business owners, especially during crappy times like Covid, it’s absolutely crucial to seek preventative measures in order to protect your company and safeguard its value.

Unfortunately, it’s quite a common theme to find that client-based businesses tend to suffer the most when seeking a sense of comfort in their sources of revenue – especially based on the number of clients they have and the industry that they are involved in.

I often advise my clients to measure many things on a daily and even monthly basis – especially in the smooth operation of a well-oiled machine – but, emphasis certainly needs to be placed on client (and industry) dependency.

 

So Many Eggs, Only One Basket 

Most business owners measure a lot of the right things such as sales, overheads, how much is sitting in the bank and their finances from a tax-perspective; but often neglect to take into consideration the levels of client dependency in their business.

As a business coach, I always make sure to bring awareness to the measurement of revenue their clients produce as a percentage of the total business, ensuring that they divide their clients and determine how much each one brings in.

This is extremely important, as you should avoid (at all costs) a client that is too big in your business, in case things go south for whatever reason.

By depending on one major client, you run a massive risk that could put you out of work, leave you having to take (or make) salary cuts, or worse: retrench staff.

People will often build their office, infrastructure and technology based on what the biggest clients look like and the overheads of the business often go hand-in-hand with that.

In creating a solid defense against those risks, I advise producing something that looks like a pie chart every single month and plot out what percentage revenue each client gives your company on a monthly basis.

The golden rule of thumb in this situation is to ensure that no client provides more than 10% of your total revenue. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you have 10 clients and each of them provide 10% of the revenue for your business; you’ll be at a lower risk, because if one of those clients have to leave – it’s not the end of the world. Sure, it certainly isn’t great, but it’s not the worst thing that could happen.

But, as soon as you’re receiving more than 20% of your revenues from one client, the risk increases as you depend more on that source (they literally account for a fifth of your business, if not more); consider 20% as an alert and 50% as trouble.

Avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket and creating an unpredictable reliance on one client; what you want to be doing is growing your current client-base to produce more revenues by increasing what they spend on you, from say R10k to R20k, while keeping them below the 20% threshold.

 

Not Just The Revenue Basket, But The Industry Basket, Too 

Another basket that you’ll find being weaved in a similar situation is the industry basket; the revenue basket is the dependency on revenues from clients, but attention needs to be paid to the industry basket, as well.

What industry is your business dependent on? If you’ve accumulated a strong list of clients within one industry or market, you run the risk of the same threats to the well-being of your company.

 

By relying on clients that might seem unwavering in an industry, such as the hotel industry, or airline industry; you’re setting yourself up for an uncomfortable surprise if the proverbial shit hits the fan. Covid KO’d a lot of industries and those businesses that were reliant on certain industries took a subsequent beating.

If the airline industry all of a sudden goes bankrupt, or the hotel industry begins hemorrhaging and the bulk of your clients are part of that industry – your business will suffer indefinitely.

Covid has taught us that it’s vital to pick about 5-10 different industries and spread your client-base among them, so that if anything were to happen to any of these industries you wouldn’t be affected as much, because you’ve diversified and spread yourself out.

So by taking careful consideration of the two baskets and the measurements that should be taken when spreading your eggs into each one, you’ll ensure proper protection of your business.

There is one basket that I will recommend putting all of your eggs into:

And that’s in choosing the right business coach for you.

Don’t spread those eggs out when dealing with advice, coaching, mentoring, development:

Throw them all into one and you can depend on me to get the right job done.

Who you gonna call? Coach Spillly! (*insert Ghostbusters melody, here)

+2783 253 3339

brent@spillly.com

Apr 12
Love0

I’m thrilled about the Covid Lockdown extension | A sales strategy for fearless leaders with cash.

By Business Business Management Coaching Entrepreneur Motivation Strategy No Comments

For the audio of this blog click here

 

 

10 April 2020

Dear you,

Covid overload. Death tolls. Minimalism. Flattened curves. Acts of kindness. Memes. Screen fatigue. Emotional health. Conspiracy theories. Short-termism. Existential crisis. Lead generation webinars disguised as support networks. Oh, woe is me. Dick-stain Trump. I’m over this pandemic. Over the panic. Over waiting for the financial pain to come, but then so is your opposition and perhaps substantially more so. If you have money in the bank today, you may have a life raft. Now all you need is a way to paddle into prosperity.

Now, here is the part that you may not like. It may even turn you off a little. Get someone to hold back your hair while you throw up. Look away if you are scared. Be afraid of what I’m about to say:

Kill your opposition. Ensure they are drowning in the freezing shark infested waters of despair. Don’t pretend you give a shit, you don’t.

The lockdown extension is a blessing. Your glib, living the Instagram best life bastard-of-an-opponent that’s been sipping Champagne on the top deck of the Titanic and is always at the pitch table too, is most likely leveraged to the hilt, geared to kingdom come and not making payments on those gas guzzling German cars he/she couldn’t afford to buy cash. They have no life raft. Let them drown.

Your competition has bled all their cash and not acted quickly enough. They never booked a dingy. They have recently ruined their relationships with their own clients fighting over payments and pauses. Post lockdown, they desperately need to protect margin to keep the shareholders, the stakeholders, the sharks and the banks at bay. Why not learn and adopt a sales strategy from some of the most aggressively growing business in the world today? And it’s an uncomplicated one. Ready?

 

Don’t make a profit.

 

That’s it. Simple. For the next 6 months learn to live on the knife-edge of cash flow and zero profit and if today you have the stomach for this and some cash in the bank, sell at below cost and see how quickly the competition capsizes. Nobody can compete with zero margins when they are encumbered to others.

Pitch on everything at break-even. Land grab. Offer the competitions’ clients a life raft now. They too, are looking for deals as they have suffered and need support and cheap services. Brag ashamedly about your company’s stability, durability and reliability and ensure the market knows you will survive future traumas together. Unscathed.

The rich businesses will get richer and the majority middle class may be wiped out. Ephemeral thinking is for the middle class. Being eager to claw back profits now will flatten your oppositions curve. Why offer them a lifeboat to cling to when you can chum the waters?

@Spillly

 

Thanks to my editor at large @TheJoLurie

 

Apr 08
Love0

THE THREE C’S OF COVID | Lockdown Lessons.

By Business Coaching Coaching Entrepreneur Motivation Strategy No Comments

 

[ For the audio version of this blog post, click here]

 

Last week, I growled a few times and then spoke about my learnings from Day 1 of lockdown. It was rather uplifting in nature and inspirational in tone. Don’t get used to that. Today I’m writing to you with a far more aggressive stance. No lube. No pulled punches. No sanitiser on the trolley. Hold tight.

                                                 6 April 2020

Dear You,

Your initial shock of remote working, the lockdown and an immanent economic depression should have settled down by now, leaving you with the raw reality of your cash reserves, the hard conversations with your team and clients, and the harder conversation you haven’t had with yourself, yet.

You now face the 3 C’s of Covid, all resulting in change. Yes, the 3 C’s – I’m making this shit up as we go.*

The first C is CHOICE

You have the power to make choices now. Being proactive, even if the path is unknown, gives you huge agency and allows you to thrive as a leader. As with all choices in life, it’s advisable to have your facts checked and not just rely on gut. Unfortunately, in the time of pandemics, your choice is often as good as my guess. Choice is a state of mind. Let me butcher a Casey Neistat quote here: You can be a hater and doubter sipping champagne on the top deck of the Titanic or you can be the fucking iceberg! Choose choice.

I-C-E-B-E-R-G ahead!

 

The 2nd C is CIRCUMSTANCE

The current circumstances have left you with fewer choices than you may want right now. You are in the dangerous middle ground where you can either make a move, choose a direction and be that I-C-E-B-E-R-G or wait out the circumstances and let fate or whatever deity you believe in, make that choice for you. This is not advisable. However, you may find yourself in too deep where Circumstance has already come and gone left you in the firm grasp of our third C, Crisis.

CRISIS

Nothing makes you change faster than crisis. Crisis is not the 4-lettered C word you know, but it certainly feels like that. If you have passed the phase of “why am I here and how did this happen?” and have no real choice to make, you my friend, are in Crisis mode. You have to make a choice, but don’t have any real options on the choice. Sound familiar?

Now, you may swear that you become the best version of yourself under pressure and live in crisis-mode. Were you the kid that always wrote his assignment the day before it was due? Are you always fighting people crisis, client chaos, and cash flow stress? Great but this is different. This is South African Revenue Services coming after you personally; this is a CCMA case, this is not paying suppliers, avoiding calls and getting summoned. This is not Mrs White, your high school English teacher telling you to sit in detention because you never handed in your homework.

The good news is that crises always happen and they always end. It’s how you look at the end that matters now and picking ‘Choice’ may not leave you with cash in the bank, but it will leave you with credibility. It will leave you with loyal staff who see you as a strong leader. It will leave you being a trustworthy partner in whatever you land up doing next.

IQ was the shit in 1980.

EQ was the shit in 2010.

CQ is the shit in 2020.

CQ is your change quotient – Your ability to adapt to your new ever-changing environment.

The Titanic had no CQ.

Be the I-C-E-B-E-R-G!

@Spillly

 

*Special thanks to Mari Lee of Devcom who shared the initial change theory with me

Mar 28
Love0

I hope you are quietly freaking out. Lockdown Lessons. Day 1.

By Business Coaching Coaching Motivation Strategy No Comments

[ For the audio version of this blog post, click here]

27 March 2020

Dear You,

I hope you are doing well.

Actually, no, that’s a fucking lie! I hope you are quietly freaking out with uncertainty and a lack of control. Deep down you know that your attitude is wrong. Your goals are wrong and that you should stop with the “just survive” mentality and start thinking about ways to thrive and grow rapidly in this opportune time.

Think big.

Today, there is opportunity everywhere. The money is moving. It’s moving sideways in industries. It’s leapfrogging between industries. There are bargains to be had. You could be buying businesses at 20c on the Rand. You could be partnering with larger businesses that aren’t as cash flush as you. You could be saving your opposition and taking equity. One man’s pain could be your pleasure. Start thinking about it. If someone is in pain, someone will benefit. Go after those people and never stop selling. In times of famine, the gravediggers make money. Become a gravedigger or at the very least, start selling shovels.

Sales.

Today’s sales are easier than ever. I may agree with you that “No one is buying now,” and this may even be true for the next few days BUT access to the C-suite has never been easier. Think about it. Their excuses to see you are less. No one is “going to Cape Town” for a few days. No one is on leave. No one is having full day culture workshops. The CEO is sitting at home with his/her screaming 3 year old and is in the same situation as you. He/she has no 9-5. He/she has no Monday to Friday. He/she is online and available to sales after hours. Before hours. Weekends.

Not only is he/she available for 20 minutes, you can now sell to 20 CEOs at the same time, for 20 minutes. Create thought leadership material and run a webinar. Invite the 20 non-opposing wishlist clients and add value to the network. Sales en-masse. No restrictions. Be smart NOW. Timing is everything.

The office.

Remote working has holes. It’s your call on whether you want an office in future or not. Each has pros and cons. Each has costs and savings. Each requires a different kind of employee. Each requires your existing team to have a different mind-set. Each requires a different type of client. Each requires a different kind of boss. There is no right or wrong – just a future you choose, so choose wisely. No knee jerk reactions required here. While you are in a forced experiment, work out if this is your future and if the rental loss is worth the trade offs.

In remote offices the tech is easy. The culture is hard. The people management is hard. Giving autonomy and not checking bums in seats, is hard. Motivation and inspiration is hard. Always on, is hard. Measuring output and ignoring input is even harder. Not paying rent – easy.

Your team will save time and petrol money in the weeks to come. It’s your job to get them to make other savings in their household right now, too. Your business needs variable overheads, so does your staff.

Clients.

Give your clients space to breathe now. Be empathetic to their circumstances. They are feeling as much pain or more than you are. They may leave you. They may ‘pause’ your services. How you deal with them today will determine if they ever come back to you and if they will ever refer you. Are you building a trust-based relationship with them now? Isn’t that what you want? If they leave you now, just be there in the coming weeks. Pick up the phone and check in. This will serve you well in future.

While they are sitting in their lounges with pictures of their kids hanging on the wall behind them, they have dropped the boardroom attire and pretence. They are human just like you and this is the chance you never had to get close to them- the human.

Products.

You are building a product right now aren’t you? Something “smart” that can be sold online to the masses. You are moving from a niche physical business to a mass online business. Don’t do that. Don’t be silly. You have no idea how that business operates, markets and lives on such small profits. Make what you do today an essential service for tomorrow, like sanitizer- but not so overpriced.

Mind-set.

Stop thinking about today’s loss.

Stop thinking about the week’s loss.

Stop thinking about the month’s losses.

Start thinking about 18-24 months from now.

Who will you be? What will your business do? Will you be relevant? This is all a small blips in your business lifecycle. A deep painful pimple. Don’t squeeze it. Don’t scratch it. Don’t pop it – it will scar. It’s ugly. It’s sore but it will heal in time and you will forget about it.

Best practice:

  1. You would never walk up to a lioness and try prying her new cubs away with your bare hands. Protect your cash like a lioness protects her cubs -GRRROWL!
  2. Chase your debtors like Al Capone. Get paid now and stop being soft.
  3. Get close enough to clients to contract Covid. (Not literally Obvs). You need to know what’s going on in their business before they do. They may be at risk. This puts you at risk. Timeous Information is everything.
  4. Be ruthless with cutting overheads. Overheads may be a euphemism for your people. If they need to go for the greater good – CHOP!
  5. Think about thriving, not surviving. Prosper don’t insulate. Hunt down what you want – GRRROWL!
  6. You are not alone – ask for help. Join a community. Hell! – Build a community.

Kids.

If you have kids that can still be influenced by you – scare the fuck out of them. That’s right! Make this pandemic their World War 2. Hopefully by the time they run for government office or have the vote, they will move the defence budgets to the influenza budget and the war chests to the disease control departments. More people have died of flu since World War 2 than people died in both world wars combined and yet we build guns, not vaccines. By the time I’m an old man, I’m selfishly hoping the next generation use this war and its scars, to build systems and departments that will protect the old people [me] from the Covids of 2050.

It’s a new scary world with no playbook. No rules. This is your chance to write the rules. Write the playbook. Write the future chapters of your career. Innovation and iteration of your product is dead. This is ground zero. It’s time to rejuvenate. It’s time to reincarnate. It’s time to reinvent yourself, your business and your legacy.

GRRROWL.

@Spillly

Oct 22
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Social Truths – A Master Class on Social Media Strategy and Content

By Agency Business Innovation Social Media Strategy No Comments

“Transparency may be the most disruptive and far-reaching innovation to come out of social media.”

Many brands and business are on social media. Why? Because they feel they have to be. In this master class we will take a reflective view as to why you are on social media, what exactly you are trying to achieve and what does success look like. If you’re an agency running social media on behalf of brands, a brand running your own social media or a business with your own social media channels, then let us help you look at your social media truths and execute your social media according to a strategic plan.

Social Media is not just another marketing channel, but where you can have meaningful conversations with your customers, potential customers and people who are interested in your brand. Social media enables you to humanize your brand, drive brand advocacy and referrals, but can also open you up to risk if not managed properly.

COURSE OUTLINE

The HALF day hands-on practical Master class will feature sessions that include:

  • Why Social Media

○An overview of the landscape and best practice per channel

  • Structuring a social media team

○How to effectively set up a social media team and with what skill set

  • How to plan and deliver on campaign strategies

○A simple tool that will allow you to plan, deliver and measure results

  • Mapping out your social media strategy and content plan

○We will do a practical plan on how to map this out for your channels

  • Resources to help you manage and execute on your social media

○Accessible tools to help you manage your social media

  • When should you use influencers

○The good, the bad and the ugly

  • Paid media

○An overview of getting visibility beyond organic algorithms

Most importantly, this workshop shows how how to position yourself on social media, understanding how to structure and set up your team, as well as creating content that’s right for your brand.

HOW WILL YOU BENEFIT?

On the day, you will be taken through a program that looks at your existing social media channels and how you can improve on them by taking a step back, rethinking your team, your resources as well as how you plan content effectively.

This investment should enable you to run your social media effectively, which in turn drives benefits for your business whether it being positive sentiment or driving leads.

This will be an informal but interactive day. All participants are encouraged to participate,

ask questions and make observations from their own perspectives and experiences. There will also be practical activities to ensure you walk way with useful implementation plans on running and executing your social media effectively and efficiently.

IDEAL NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS

Maximum 20 participants

The course content is universally relevant to all businesses, regardless of industry or size and will help a freelancer, community manager or a corporate marketer come to grips and plan their future social media requirements.

COST OF WORKSHOP:

The total fee for this process is R4699 per participant INCLUDING VAT. This includes refreshments, breakfast, as well as any materials provided on the day.

WHO IS DELIVERING THE CLASS?

Elena is a seasoned publishing, content, social media and digital marketing professional. Previously head of social media and content at Aqua (now Wunderman) she now consults to numerous agencies and brands. At the forefront of social media marketing in London in 2010, Elena has gone on to clock up career highlights such as establishing the MTN Group’s social media policies, guidelines and strategies across 22 Opcos; as well as creating a social media command centre for a global beverage company.

Known locally to many agencies as a secret weapon to bed down new clients (on-boarding teams, setting up policies and guidelines, writing strategies), she is also adept at working direct with clients to manage their agencies.

Brent Spilkin over the past 7 years has helped over 150 advertising, media, marketing, PR, digital, software, branding and content businesses and their owners develop, manage crisis, strategize and flourish. He has clients throughout South Africa, Israel, The United Kingdom and The United States that now generate over two billion Rands worth of annual sales revenue. His mini-MBA text book is now lectured through reputable private tertiary colleges. He is a loud-mouthed, tech-adopting, motorcycle-riding business coach who won’t settle for mediocrity.

He has an endless supply of hope when it comes to the resurrection of a beautiful, successful South Africa in which he wants to live and thrive.

BOOK TICKETS HERE:

https://qkt.io/WsjJPD

Feb 13
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What the hell is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?

By Coaching Entrepreneur Social Media Strategy

An SOP is a procedure specific to your operation that describes the activities necessary to complete tasks in accordance with industry regulations, provincial laws or even just your own standards for running your business.

 

Any document that is a “how to” falls into the category of procedures. In a manufacturing environment, the most obvious example of an SOP is the step-by-step production line procedures used to make products as well train staff. An SOP, in fact, defines expected practices in all businesses where quality standards exist.

 

SOPs play an important role in your small business. SOPs are policies, procedures and standards you need in the operations, marketing and administration disciplines within your business to ensure success.

 

These can create:

  • Efficiencies, and therefore profitability
  • Consistency and reliability in production and service
  • Fewer errors in all areas
  • A way to resolve conflicts between partners and staff
  • A healthy and safe environment
  • Protection of employers in areas of potential liability and personnel matters
  • A roadmap for how to resolve issues – and the removal of emotion from troubleshooting – allowing needed focus on solving the problem
  • A first line of defence in any inspection, whether it be by a regulatory body, a partner or potential partner, a client, or a firm conducting due diligence for a possible purchase
  • Value added to your business should you ever wish to sell it

 

Developing an SOP is about systemizing all of your processes and documenting them. Every business has a unique market, every entrepreneur has his/her own leadership style, and every industry has its own best practices. No two businesses will have an identical collection of SOPs.

 

Below is a listing of just a few typical SOPs, which you will want to consider writing for your own small business.

 

  • Production/Operations
  • Production line steps
  • Equipment maintenance, inspection procedures
  • New employee training
  • Finance and Administration
  • Accounts receivable – billing and collections process
  • Accounts payable process – maximizing cash flow while meeting all payment deadlines
  • Marketing, Sales and Customer Service
  • Approval of external communications: press releases, social media, advert, etc.
  • Preparation of sales quotes
  • Service delivery process, including response times
  • Warranty, guarantee, refund/exchange policies
  • Acknowledgment/resolution of complaints, customer comments and suggestions • Employing Staff
  • Job descriptions
  • Employee orientation and training
  • Corrective action and discipline
  • Performance reviews
  • Use of Internet and social media for business purposes Legal
  • Privacy

 

 

Tips

  • Establish prior to opening; review at least annually
  • Develop procedures in the language style and format best for the establishment (your industry/operations knowledge is crucial here)
  • Write SOPs in clear, concise language so that processes and activities occur as they are suppose to
  • The level of detail in SOPs should provide adequate information to keep performance consistent while keeping the procedures from becoming impractical
  • Keep written SOPs on-site and in the cloud so that supervisors and employees can use them
  • Drafts should be made and tested before an SOP is released for implementation
  • The more decision makers, employees and complexity in the business, the more SOPs are required
  • SOP’s should be developed in existing businesses by all the stakeholders in each process.

 

In my experience, companies with well built, managed and maintained SOP’s are far less likely to make the same mistake twice and are often more resilient internally. An SOP can often be the difference between getting new work and not as clients can see the value of a well-run organisation.