Reading the papers yesterday, I was alarmed to see a comment that if we are not careful we may be heading for a triple dip recession! Now I don’t claim to be an economist, and I don’t have the inside knowledge of some of the “experts” in the city who apparently know it all. However, I do know that what I am seeing and feeling in the real world at the moment is much more positive, and it seems to me to be extremely foolhardy to start talking things down, just when there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

It isn’t just me with my eternal optimism who is saying more positive things either. I do a lot of networking, and the majority of business owners I meet will say that they too are feeling a lot more positive, which is backed up by their recent financial results. Surely, now is the time to build on this, and start encouraging people to re-invest, and take their businesses forward.

I’m very pleased to report that “I am a registered and approved Growth Coach for GrowthAccelerator providing expert, tailored advice to help ambitious businesses achieve rapid, sustainable growth.” You can find out more at www.growthaccelerator.com. This is part of a government funded incentive to get things moving again. The key factors which allow businesses to qualify, is their commitment to growth, both in terms of turnover and profits, but also in terms of employing people. In the few months it has been going, well over 1500 businesses have taken this up, and the enquiries are coming in all the time (hence the need for more associate coaches).

For me this is just another indication of the positive attitude of many businesses, and the economic outlook in the U.K. in general. Therefore suppose you knew that the recession was well and truly over, and there was no likelihood of it coming back, what would you be doing with your business now? Where could you see it being in one year’s time?

As ever I advocate looking at the positives. What if everything is getting better, rather than what if a triple dip recession is coming? I don’t want to offer false hope or naive optimism, but I truly believe things are on the up, and now is the time to plan to grow your business.

What makes the difference between who gets what they want, who makes the sale, who becomes the leader, and who tends to remain in the background not closing sales? The answer is confidence. Not over-confidence and cockiness, but someone who is self-assured and relaxed, as these are the people who convince others that what they say and do is the way to go.

Being confident with yourself is a huge step towards this. A difficult thing to learn, but if you believe in yourself, your product, and in the way you conduct yourself (your values) then others will feel at ease in your company, making them more likely to agree with your point of view.

People can very quickly see through the superficial, over-confident type of person, because in reality they probably don’t truly believe in themselves. They quickly become incongruent between their words and their actions, and immediately break the trust that their team or potential clients might have with them.

Confidence doesn’t always mean you are right. If you are comfortable with yourself, you should be happy to put forward your point of view, but if others disagree and convince you that another path is better, and then you should be equally happy to accept that you are wrong and they are right. It doesn’t mean that you have lost or gone down in their estimation, you are simply confident enough to change your mind.

So next time you are selling something, be prepared, know your subject well, and visualise success through your self belief. The confidence you exude, your aura, will help you to get what you want in life.

Business, and most business concepts have been around for as long as records exist. Yes, there have been refinements, and variations on a theme, but essentially the basics are always the basics. As a business coach I would love to have new tools and ideas to play with and teach people all the time, but in reality they don’t exist, and from my point of view it is a shame to admit to my clients that in all probability I won’t be telling them anything new.

However, coaching is not about that, it is all about getting people to see things differently, change the way things have been done in the past, and create focus on the end goal(s).

One of my clients has been resisting me pushing him to get his cash flow done, as he felt he was better off looking at the numbers the way he has always done. I reminded him that this was exactly why he had taken me on as a coach in the first place, to get him to change things so he can move the business forward.

Of course I don’t want to belittle the things that I coach my clients in, as many of the tools and ideas are new and unfamiliar to them, and therefore will help them in a practical way. However, what really makes the biggest difference is the change in mind set and attitude. Once people are prepared to look at things in a different way, and take on board that more often than not it is they themselves who are stopping the business progressing, then they can make meaningful, purposeful and permanent change for the better.

At the risk of stepping on to political ground, I find I am increasingly frustrated and annoyed by the general culture creeping into this country, of expecting something for nothing. In fact I would suggest that this has been a malaise moving into every aspect of our lives and our businesses for some time now, and I would argue has been encouraged by governments both in the U.K, and more typically in the U.S.

The trouble is, that something for nothing hardly ever exists, and there are very rarely short cuts which will bring in money and success without plenty of hard graft to warrant this. Too often I find that business owners now simply expect good things to happen to their business without planning, marketing and working hard on their business to improve it. Furthermore, if the business owner creates a culture of expecting things to happen the easy way, it is no surprise to find the staff doing the same. They don’t follow systems because they are always looking for short cuts, and they expect wage increases, even though they barely cover what is expected of them, let alone moving their part of the business forward.

So now is a really good time to change this frame of mind. Things finally seem to be turning around in the world economically speaking, and there are many reasons to be more optimistic for next year. But, don’t expect your business to suddenly get better along with the general flow, just because it deserves to. Put in the extra effort, set clear and challenging targets for next year and then reap the rewards.

If you want someone to push you and hold you to your new goals, come and talk to me.

No doubt I have written blogs in the past about taking action, and doing things now rather than putting them off to a supposedly better time.

However, it never does any harm to restress a valid point, and I think that more than ever, many business owners have got themselves into a mindset of delaying actions or making investments, just because things have been so bad for so long.

I was recently re-reading a book called “What got you here, Won’t get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith, and I was reminded of this again by a passage towards the end of this book called “The best time to change is now”. Essentially he refers to a dream in which you are aware that you are incredibly busy, and that you are over-committed, and indeed, out of control. But, this is because you have a special project, or some crucial things to be done, which once completed in 2 or 3 months time will take the pressure off. At that time you can take a week or two off, spend time with the family and generally get back in control.

Unfortunately this scenario is indeed a dream, because in reality there will never be a time when you aren’t busy, because every time you finish one big project, something else comes up equally important, and so it goes on.

So don’t get sucked into the “Once I’ve done this, then I’ll have time” scenario. I have never heard a client say “Wow, I’m so glad I delayed starting the coaching programme for 3 months”, whilst many have said “I wish I’d started doing this a year ago”

If it’s right for you and/or the business it’s right. Instinctively you should know that, so to put it off by making weak excuses about time is only going to stop you moving forward quicker.