Alan S. Adams's Blog

Here are some of the support
that has been put in place to help businesses through Corona virus.

Business
interruption loan scheme delivered by the British Business Bank, so any
businesses with less than a turnover of 41 Million can apply for a loan of up
to £1.2 Million, the government will cover up to 80% of any losses and there
are no fees and that’s going to unlock around a billion pounds to protect
smaller businesses.

Small Business
Grant Schemes.

The Government
will provide an additional £2.2 billion funding for local authorities to
support small businesses that already pay little or no Business Rates because
of Small Business Rate Relief (SBBR).

This will provide
a one-off grant of £3,000 to around 700,000 business currently eligible for
SBRR or Rural Rate Relief, to help meet their ongoing business costs. For a
property with a rateable value of £12,000, this is one quarter of their
rateable value, or comparable to 3 months of rent.

For businesses
with fewer than 250 employees there’s also some support around the provision of
statutory sick pay, so up to 14 days of statutory sick pay will be refunded by
the government.

HMRC has a set up
a phone helpline to support businesses and self-employed people concerned about
not being able to pay their tax due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

The helpline
allows any business or self-employed individual who is concerned about paying
their tax due to coronavirus to get practical help and advice. Up to 2,000
experienced call handlers are available to support businesses and individuals
when needed.

If you run a
business or are self-employed and are concerned about paying your tax due to
coronavirus, you can call

HMRC’s
helpline for help and advice: 0800 0159 559.

For those who are
unable to pay due to coronavirus, HMRC will discuss your specific circumstances
to explore:

Agreeing an
instalment arrangement suspending debt collection proceedings cancelling
penalties and interest where you have administrative difficulties contacting or
paying HMRC immediately.

The helpline
number is 0800 0159 559 – and is an addition to other HMRC phone contact numbers.

There are other
resources, from private sector and the banks, Lloyds have committed £2 billion
in funds to their clients, NatWest have committed £5 Billion, you also have
support from the likes of the Chamber of Commerce, business groups, forums and
local enterprise partnerships.

My advice is to
reach out if you’re having difficulties, to recognise that you’re absolutely
not the only one, this is something that we need to work through together as a
collective.

It is something
that is going to be with us for the coming months but with he right strategy
and right approach, we can absolutely come out of this bigger better and
brighter than before. 

Just reach out if
you need anything

Alan 

So, within your marketplace what is your product or service offering, who is your target market, what turnover do you need to generate to get you the profit and lifestyle you want, and what are the time scales for you building this?

You have to completely understand the marketplace you’re in, so consider what your key features are and how you compare to your competitors in terms of market share, quality and price. What are the main differences between you and your competitors? This will all give you a feel of how best to understand your position within the marketplace. As an example, I’ve included a graph of car manufacturers (this above is in no way is gospal but gives you an idea) …

On this matrix, you have cost versus quality, and the line running up the middle is the value-for-money line. Bentley is high cost but high value and Kia, who are still on the value for money line, are low cost and low value.

Now if you are just below the line (so you’re actually offering higher value than you’re charging) that’s a great place to be, because you’re delivering slightly more than your customers are paying for (only *slightly* mind and make sure they understand that) clearly you don’t want to be where Rover is, that’s a recipe for disaster. Plotting yours and your competitors on the chart will give you a really good idea of your position, and you can make the matrices whatever you want – it doesn’t just have to be cost versus quality, you can do cost versus number of services, or time versus quality, for example.

What I have found when I’ve done this, is that the vast majority of businesses are charging too little for the service or product they are providing. Quite often this gives people a new perspective on what they do do and what can be charged. if you’re delivering better service than your competitors and charging a lot less, whose fault is it?

Anyway have a great week

By Alan Adams

Access the FREE workshop on Getting DEPTH in your business, click here WWW.GET-DEPTH.COM for more details and start developing a business that delivers you the lifestyle you want, with none of the stress.

Creating a plan for battle is essential. No army would ever engage in a battle without knowing as much as they possibly could about their supply lines, the terrain, and the opposing forces they faced.

Once they’d gathered, or even guessed at the information that they didn’t have, they could draw up a plan for battle and how they were going to win.

The plan would take into account their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and only then would they be ready. Of course plans rarely survive intact after the first contact with the enemy.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

A plan is also essential for your business as it’ll give you direction and a strategy to work to. The plan will almost certainly change but you’ll still have that direction, and if you make sure that you start with the end in mind you know you’ll end up in the right place.

When I work with business owners I always ask what they really want to achieve in life. Is it having more time to spend with the children? Working three-day weeks? Jetting off on well-deserved luxury holidays throughout the year? Or even owning property abroad?

Once that’s established, we can put a plan in place outlining how you’re actually going to achieve it – do you need to take on additional staff? Do you need to give junior staff the training needed to take on your role? What clients do you need? How big are they? You get the picture…

Once you have this ‘end destination’ in mind, you can then start putting the systems and processes in place to help you achieve your objectives,  and you can develop a five, two and one year plan then put in place quarterly and monthly reviews to keep you on track. And don’t forget to develop alternative strategies to cope if and when things change.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

 Benjamin Franklin

Have a great weekend

By Alan Adams

Access the FREE workshop on Getting DEPTH in your business, click here WWW.GET-DEPTH.COM for more details and start developing a business that delivers you the lifestyle you want, with none of the stress.

Now, expectations these days of customer service are really
high.

So, when it isn’t delivered, it just seems even more
shocking.

My partner had a brand-new Mercedes Benz GLC delivered not
long ago, after the delivery guy had gone, she noticed that the rear badge on
the tailgate didn’t fit properly.

I saw it the next day, and I thought it was odd, mentioned it
to her and she said that she’d seen it the day before.

So I took a photograph and just thought, they’d put the
wrong badge on.

Which isn’t a problem, as I can nip into Mercedes Benz
Shrewsbury at some point and get a replacement.

Anyway, three or four weeks later, I pop into Mercedes-Benz
Shrewsbury, I park next to another GLC and notice that it wasn’t that the badge
was the wrong one.

But the tailgate had actually been deformed by something
pushing down on it, absolutely no damage to the paintwork or anywhere else on
the rear of the car, just the tailgate.

I spoke to the mechanic at Mercedes-Benz Shrewsbury and he
said that It must have been done in transportation, because the damage was so
unusual.

I contacted TCH Leasing, and they contacted Mercedes-Benz
Leeds, who provided and delivered the car.

Unbelievable, Mercedes-Benz Leeds turned around and said, there’s
nothing on the delivery notes so it’s not their responsibility.

Wow, talk about hiding behind your T&Cs, even though I
had supplied them with photographs from less than 24 hours after it was delivered,
they weren’t prepared to help.

TCH Leasing were great, they immediately said not to worry
about it, we’ll get it fixed.

However as far as I was concerned, Mercedes-Benz should have
been fixing this, *Not* TCH Leasing.

I complained to Mercedes-Benz UK and eventually, Leeds came
back and said, we’ll pay for fifty percent of the damage.

Which to me, is just incredible, their response was so
short-sighted and I now feel so aggravated by them not just fixing it.

That I will never have a Mercedes-Benz on my drive again.

At the moment I also drive a Mercedes and we both replace
the cars every three years, so you’re looking at seven cars over the next ten
years.

That’s a quarter of a million quid in lost revenue.

Just because of some short-sighted thinking to save themselves a few hundred quid now.

This just think this demonstrates how short-term thinking can blind businesses to the long-term costs.

New Jaguar for me next time

Setting out what makes you truly different is probably a
task you’ve thought about doing, but still not got around to doing because
there always seems to be other urgent and more important things to do, or
simply because life just gets in the way.

Yet for most businesses that go to the trouble, it’s a real eye opener and ultimately, it’s the difference that makes the difference.

If you think about all great companies which stand out
amongst the crowd, you’ll probably know what they do, but also have an inkling or
a gut feeling about ‘why’ they do it. It’s this ‘X Factor’ which makes them different.

But what is it?

They’ve defined their “Why” and the “Values” they live by as
a business.

Apple, Virgin, Innocent, Nike… The list could go on. These
are all businesses have taken the time to really understand who they are and
what makes them tick.

And guess what, once you understand this and everybody gets
it, you will start attracting these sorts of people to you, and not just
clients, but staff too. It works because you’ll appeal to those who like your
values, and repulse those that don’t —
and that’s definitely a good thing.

Here’s mine:

Why: I’m passionate about challenging,
supporting, training and inspiring people to help them create their own
compelling future.

Values

Win:Win

Integrity

Inspire

Pursue Better

Have Fun

What
did you do to work out exactly who your ideal client is and what their drivers
are?

A great
way of defining your client is here at www.Strategyzer.com using their Value
Proposition Canvas, you can sign up and they explain exactly how to use this.

They’re a great example of how sharing you IP can get you really noticed.

If you
don’t know exactly who your client is, then you are quite literally marketing
your business with one hand tied behind your back. 

You may
have heard the saying “if you’re marketing to everybody you’re marketing to
nobody” and it’s never been more true than in today’s marketplace.

One of
my clients has three areas they’ve decided to concentrate on, and they’ve
chosen to focus on one of those particular ‘ideal’ client types first for all
their marketing efforts.

They’ve
gone on to build a much more detailed avatar (or living and breathing
descriptive of this person) and with this information they’ve been able to
develop specific marketing strategies to engage in a way that this potential
client wants to be engaged with. 

So,
once you have this information (and this really is the ABC Ladybird book
version of marketing), then you can decide what marketing pillars you’re going
to use to engage them.

I’d be
interested to hear what you’ve done or if what you think of the Value
Proposition Canvas?

By Alan Adams

#saleswarmup #alansadams

#client 

They get in the way of everyone. 

That’s the voice in our head that fills our brains with roadblocks and obstacles that prevent us from getting to that all-important clarity and focus. 

Business, is 95% mental and the reality is that whatever the voice in your head is talking to you about today is having an impact on you and your business. 

And just to be clear, I know that it’s not easy to control the voice in your head, but it is essential if you’re going to win at business. 

I’ve had some very challenging times myself this year and on several occasions,  I’ve had to consciously get my head straight, because how we deal with any situation, whether it’s an opportunity, a challenge or a problem, is 95% mental – it’s all in the head. 

It’s not an easy fix, but the first step is at least recognising that your mental state and that voice in your head play a big part in the results you achieve. 

This week, as you embark on the travails of an entrepreneur, then know for sure that never were truer words spoken than when Henry Ford said… 

“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, then you’re probably right.” 

And it’s in the heat of the battle that this is truly tested. When the going gets tough or the pressure is really on, your ability to stay calm and think clearly and accurately will be decisive – it’ll decide whether or not you blow up.

Your ability to avoid distraction and procrastination will be key as to whether you win or lose. If you’re facing some tough challenges this week you can control the voice in your head and prevail too. 

By Alan Adams

We can learn from the
behaviour of a lobster. I’m serious – bear with me.

You may
already know that the most common way of cooking a lobster is by
placing it live into boiling water.

So, when you’re in a restaurant and you’ve chosen
the lobster you’d like to eat, the chef will dunk the
living lobster into a pan of boiling water in order to kill it and
cook it. Sounds pretty grim so far doesn’t it!

Now,
because the water’s very hot the lobster tries to escape from the
boiling pan by clawing its way up the sides. So, the chef puts a lid on it to
make sure it can’t get away. All makes sense.

However,
and here’s the key thing, if you cook more than one lobster in the
same pan, at the same time, then you don’t need to cover the pan. You see, the
other lobsters will pull it back down as it tries to claw its way out.

So effectively
the other lobsters sabotage their chances of freedom.

So, are you one of those lobsters who’s trying to get
out of the pan, the boring networking group, the unsuccessful business, the
friendship group, the job etc…?

Are other people pulling you back down, so you’re forced to suffer
with them?

I see it
time and time again, and I’ve experienced it myself – if you’re trying to
better yourself, there’s always someone trying to bring you down.

Especially here in Britain where our culture is very different to,
say, America, where success is welcomed and encouraged much more openly.

Now
there’s nothing we can do about those people. They’re everywhere.

But there
is something we can do to ensure we don’t get stuck in the pan!

Stop making excuses. Rise above the negative forces. Take responsibility for your life and your business and don’t let anyone else pull you back down.

To all my fellow lobsters…

By Alan Adams

You’re procrastinating. 

Right now, probably.  

Me too. I started the day with a worthy goal. A proper plan. I was going to spend the whole day working ON my business. No distractions. Diary clear. Staff briefed.  

But there’s a problem. A big problem.  

In my head.  

My lizard brain. My ‘inner head trash’. Procrastination kicks in. I find ridiculous things to do in order to avoid tackling the big things.  

30 minutes clearing emails. My desk is tidied. A sneaky check on the BBC News site. I’ve even been on Facebook. I lapse into £10 an hour jobs.  

Procrastination really is the disease of the poor.  

It’s as if I’m subconsciously avoiding the big stuff. The stuff that makes a difference. The stuff that secures the future and moves me – and the business – towards my goals.  

FACT: It’s not just me. It’s you too. In this regard at least, I’m normal.  

How do you know if something counts as ‘big stuff’?  Precisely because your inner head trash resists it. It’s like a compass. “I’m avoiding doing this. Must mean it’s a good idea and exactly what I should be doing.”  

So many businesses are stuck at their current level not because of any real tangible obstacles or barriers but simply because of procrastination. It’s a cancer. It eats away at our productivity every single day.  

Sucking you away from the big stuff. The things that make a difference. The things that secure the future, the things that move you – and your business – towards your goals.  

Your job this week is to lance it. 

Procrastination is a condition. We all have it – it impacts us all. See, you are normal too.  

But your job is to fight it with every sinew. Fight to spend productive time on things that make a difference. The things that secure the future, the things that move you – and your business – towards your goals.  

Procrastination. I will not let it win. Neither must you…  

By Alan Adams

It’s incredibly hard being an entrepreneur.

Anyone that pretends it’s easy, and that riches beyond your dreams are there for the taking is a charlatan. Getting even a single additional customer can often be the damned hardest thing.

Which is why you need a fortress. Not one formed from stone with flags on the battlements. No, you need a fortress to protect TWO THINGS:

Your MIND and your TIME…

How you think, and what you do.

When it comes to success and the attraction of wealth, pretty much nothing else is going to matter.

If you can’t protect your productivity and you can’t protect your thinking, you are stuffed. Properly stuffed. 

We are, all of us, constantly under attack – whether it’s email, phone calls, social media, and more. And if you allow the barbarians even an inch across the ramparts, all your goals, plans, and strategies could well wind up in ruins.

For me, it’s why my holidays and time away is so important. Time to think, you see. Clearly. Without distraction. 

Your mind and your time. The two most valuable things for every entrepreneur, everywhere in the world. Today and every day. 

They need guarding and protecting – pretty much with your life because the life you lead is determined to a very large extent by how well you look after and nurture the pair of ’em. 

Man the barricades…

By Alan Adams