Business Coaching & Consulting

Your Success Tomorrow Is Determined By What You Do Now!

UGOCHI — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 12:03:36 +0000

1. See Yourself as a Salesperson

Whether you like it or not, you are doing sales. Selling your business, selling yourself, etc. accept it, and work to improve these skills. You will need them.

2. Learn To Love Criticism

It’s fuel for you. Use criticism to improve yourself, your product, or your service. Taking it personally is just a waste of time and energy. You don’t need that.

3. You Can Choose To Be Happy

We don’t control what happens to us, but we do control how we respond to it. If you feel that you don’t have control, you’ve got some work to do. Find things that make you happy and do them.

4. Nothing In Life Is Free

You always pay for something, whether with money, time, or other resources. Life is a business, and smart business people spend their resources wisely.

5. Improve Your Skills

Highly paid people are well compensated because they have skills that are hard to replace. Adopt a growth mindset, get better every day, and never stop improving.

6. Create Something

Examine all the time you spend consuming information, products, and entertainment from others. Use some of that time to make something yourself.

7. Think Big, Act Small

Setting ambitious goals is great, but remember, it’s the work you put in each and every day that matters.

8. Problems Are Just Unanswered Question

A problem is just a question that hasn’t been answered yet, don’t panic, stay calm and figure it out.

Others before you have done it, you can do it.

Find help if you need it. By either getting a mentor, a business coach or a consultant. It’s easier to succeed than to fail. This applies to every aspect of life. Whether in business or personal life, success helps you save money, energy and time. Failure reduces your integrity and your self-esteem. It takes your time, energy and money you should have saved for something else. So why not just choose to succeed. All you need to do is take daily actions that align with what you do consistently.

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Economic Issues

UGOCHI — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:24:16 +0000

How a Solopreneur in Nigeria Can Handle the Fuel Subsidy

At this time, the Nigerian government, under the watchful eye of President Bola Tinubu, has removed the fuel subsidy. Causing a lot of hardship for the common Nigerian. Our homes and our businesses

In this blog post, we will be looking at how to cope with the removal of the fuel subsidy. There is a need to talk about it because it is literally the same thing most Nigerians are facing at this time. The truth is, the fuel subsidy was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time.

The major issue most Nigerians had was how our dear president made the announcement on his first day in office (fuel subsidy announcement).

As soon as the announcement was made, there was pandemonium everywhere in filling stations. Trust Nigerian fuel marketers to take advantage of the situation.

Most fuel stations saw it as an opportunity to increase the price of fuel, which a lot of people do not blame them for. A lot of outrage and criticism are going on both on radio and television stations concerning this new development. Also, the NLC threatened the FG with a strike.

However, the government has defended its moves, saying the removal will help save us a lot of billions of naira. But the masses need to cope with this until the government comes up with better solutions. Ordinary Nigerians must find ways to cope with and manage the impact of this policy on their daily lives.

Here are some suggestions on how to cope with this situation

Reduce dependence on gasoline generators for now. If you live in an area where there is an epileptic light supply or none at all, I will advise you to consider alternative sources of energy like solar panels, inverters, or batteries. These also don’t come cheap, but they are worth it. You can get one to at least charge your phones, torch, and light bulbs.
Park your vehicle and use public transportation for now. It will be more economical to do so at this time, at least for now, so you can gradually ease into the fuel price increase. Also, you can identify with other people working in your area and carpool with them.
You can consider planning or adjusting your budget for the year if you have one. And if you use a monthly budget, consider removing some not too needed expenses. Early this year, me and my hubby decided no DSTV until May, not knowing the subsidy was coming.
Plan all your trips and errands ahead of time. Make a list of the important places you need to visit and the things you need to do. Try to make sure they fit into one trip, so you can kill 5 birds with one stone.
Utilize online shopping and delivery services. Use them for even your groceries, food and other items to reduce the need for physical trips to and fro.
Limit your energy consumption. A lot of us have prepaid meters, and that alone can add to the financial stress. The AC can stay off for a couple of hours.
Maintenance of your vehicle is key. Check the fuel efficiency of your car. A lot of times I hear people say Toyota has fuel efficiency; yes, it does, but you need to take care of it too to make sure it stays that way.

Use bicycles or walk; it’s good exercise for you and heart friendly especially if you are 40 and older. It’s time to walk a little. Put on your trainers and take a walk to that store close to you.
Patronize the people around you. There’s no harm in doing so. There is no reason to travel so far to get something you can just buy in your living area.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of them.” Maya Angelou

For Business Owners

Everything said above applies to everyone. But to stay without adding mental stress to the subsidy issue

NOTE: THERE IS NO WITCH AFFECTING YOUR BUSINESS WHEN YOU DO NOT SELL!

The issue is that people are struggling to cope with the situation on the ground. The buying power is low, hence the drop in sales.

Maintain your sanity by:

Be prayerful

Be accommodating. I am not saying to sell your goods on credit to people in a bid to be accommodating.

Just be friendly and nice, knowing that your attitude at this time matters a lot.

Cultivate a better approach that will keep your customers glued to your store. You have competitors in your neighborhood. It’s the time to gain loyal customers from my own standpoint. I remember that during COVID, I had a lot of customers. People who didn’t know I was friendly started seeing me as a very friendly person.
Be moderate with your prices. Don’t go overboard with your prices, and we all know customers love to hear about discounts. Do a bit of that here and there, and you’ll be fine.
Avoid buying credit from suppliers. This can cause a lot of anxiety. Try to avoid it.
When this term ends and nothing is still done about the fuel subsidy, consider changing your children’s school. Start looking for a school closer to your house or shop. There are good schools around. So your kids can trek home or to the shop.

In conclusion: This is not the time to be wasteful. Parents must take up the challenge and become a team so as to weather this storm and come out victorious. Discuss in a civil manner with your spouse issues concerning your family’s finances. I know this might not be easy. Remember, your relatives are in this too. Your mom, siblings, and dad should know and understand the situation on the ground. Try to cook at home to avoid eating out. More hardship looms ahead, and the earlier we take precautions, the better for us.

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Personal Development

UGOCHI — Thu, 25 May 2023 04:52:01 +0000

Habits to Inculcate If You Want Your Finances to Change This Year

Apart from a bit of luck, much of what makes some people successful involves cultivating certain habits. Learning what these habits are and how to use them in your own life is worthwhile.

Here are some habits of successful people you would want to know and inculcate to help you achieve your own successes.

1.) You must have a vision. This vision must be backed up with a strong “why.”.

Know why you want to go into business and make money. Knowing what fulfillment is to you and what it’ll look like if you’re living a purposeful life. This is very important because if you don’t have a strong vision, everybody’s vision becomes yours. There cannot be a goal without a vision. You need your vision to define your goal.

2.) You need to set goals. When your vision is clear, define your goal. Have a financial goal, a business goal, and a family goal. Have a plan/strategies to meet these goals. You can set financial goals for a month or even for the whole year. Draw out what you want to do with money to know if the figures match up. This will help you achieve ultimate success.

Note that these goals are not just for your board; you review them daily. Know where you are, what you’re doing, and what it’ll take for you to get where you’re going. Make sure there’s something that you do daily that contributes to it.

3.) Develop the habit of taking action. Possess the inevitable “action” habit. It is important to organize, to plan, and to set priorities, but without action, a plan is nothing more than potential.

Successful people act quickly and often. In addition, although it may sound counterintuitive, successful people act (or start, anyway) before they feel ready.

While others come up with reasons not to act, successful people take that all-important first step—even if it seems outlandish.

4.) Take personal care seriously. Personal care with regard to diet, exercise, and hygiene comes next on the list of habits of those who are successful.

For some, personal care involves a complex regimen and a highly disciplined lifestyle. For others, not so much.

5.) Have a positive attitude. According to many successful people, having a positive attitude is not just a result of being successful—it’s one of the root causes of success.

6.) Have a morning ritual. Wake up early!

Your morning time is when you have the best willpower. When you wake up, take time to meditate, listen to messages to lift you, affirm what you want to see, and purge your mind of the negativity around you.

7.) Work on your failures until they look like successes. Do not see failures as failures; see them as a learning point. Pick what you learn and ensure you adopt a new strategy. You’re not a failure. You can only become a failure when you allow yourself and others to tag you as one.

Successful people do what failures won’t do. Don’t look at the failed attempts of the past to judge yourself. Build more capacity and lay out new strategies to try again.

8.) Build up resilience. If you wish to start a business but don’t have enough funds, you can either get a job to gather funds or sell for other brands until you’re able to start your own. There is nothing that kills a man more than pride or thinking, “What would people say?

9.) You need to network. Successful people know the value of exchanging ideas with others through networking. They also know the value of collaboration and teamwork, all of which are likely to happen when you network.

10.) Read books, read biographies of people who were successful in your chosen niche, read articles, blog posts, and newsletters, and don’t get tired. Feed your mind with more knowledge and insights.

It’s important to note that successful people read. While they also read for pleasure, most use their reading habit as a means to gain knowledge or insight.

11.) Be frugal with funds. Frugal is not the same as stingy. Frugality is the habit of being thrifty with money and resources. It is also a habit of being economical. Learning to be economical comes through avoiding waste, which automatically results in efficiency.

Try to avoid overspending. Instead, compare prices and negotiate. The result is financial success through the simple act of saving more money than you spend.

12.) Share with others: Whether through donating to charity or through the sharing of ideas, develop a habit of giving. There is a lot to gain when you share. A lot of successful people know the benefits of sharing, and most believe their success should result in something more than the accumulation of wealth for themselves.

Lack of wealth does not need to be a factor when it comes to sharing. Volunteering in your community, local school, or simply sharing through articles does not cost anything but could provide help where it is needed most.

Hopefully, this article helps you develop some of these habits and strengthen the ones you already have so you can find the success you desire.

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Business And Life

UGOCHI — Tue, 23 May 2023 09:36:30 +0000

8 Challenges Female Entrepreneurs Face And How To Overcome Them

The business world was for a long time dominated by men, making it look like the women are not capable of holding positions or running businesses. But in recent times, a lot of women have emerged as forces to reckon with in the business world. Such names as Linda Ikeji, Mo Abudu, Kemi Adetiba, and many others. Being a female entrepreneur comes with a lot of Challenges and here in this blog post, I will highlight some of these challenges.

8 challenges female entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them

Defying Social Expectations: A lot of times, female business owners may feel the need to adopt a male attitude towards business. No! Don’t do that. Be yourself and have confidence in who you are. You have come a long way; you made it this far through your own hard work and perseverance. What is important is that you are there!
Support: It is common knowledge that men support each other, but women do not get such support from them or from each other. So all women should do is support each other. It is usually very difficult to raise funds for your business. Having a network of supporters will help your business a lot.
Capital: When starting a business, entrepreneurs need to line up capital to get the business “off the ground.” Female entrepreneurs often get their initial funding from family, small loans, savings and gifts from friends. However, in recent times women can obtain capital from government startup programs and self-funding. When women have promising business ideas, it is less difficult for them to obtain startup capital. Therefore, having a solid business plan helps in reducing the financial barrier for women.
Struggling To Be Taken Seriously: At one time or another, most female CEOS have found themselves in a male dominated industry or workplace that does not want to acknowledge their leadership role. As a female entrepreneur in a male dominated industry, earning respect can be a struggle. A lot of times women face negative comments and attitudes from the opposite sex. Your willingness to put in the work, to create your own reputation for being hardworking and an honorable person is needed. To overcome this you have to learn to build your confidence and overcome your limiting beliefs. You need to drop those negative thoughts that are stopping you from reaching your full potential.
Owning Your Accomplishments: Never be afraid to own your accomplishments. It doesn’t matter if you have a team of workers or not. Be confident in your accomplishments and own them. That’s true success.

6.Lack of Networks: Female entrepreneurs are more likely to encounter difficulty because they are less likely to be associated with networks of people who can help them launch and sustain their businesses. “Networks” include people who provide mentorship, coaching, help, and valuable information to entrepreneurs. Men tend to dominate the highest levels of corporate leadership. Therefore, there are fewer women available to provide valuable advice to female entrepreneurs. Women also face “customer/supplier” discrimination, which occurs when customers or suppliers discriminate against women-owned businesses. Women business owners can create their own networks. Building a robust support system is the key to success. The saying “it is not what you know but who you know” plays a huge role in how successful you become. Finding the right support system is not always easy. Start with women focused networking events and join female forums and groups.

7. Coping with the Fear of Failure: Failure is a very real possibility in any business venture. Do not let your insecurities keep you from dreaming big. Self doubts will surely come; every business owner faces that. There is nothing like perfection. The fact that a business failed is not an excuse for negative thoughts or for relinquishing your goals. See every mistake as a teaching or learning process.

Family Considerations: In many countries in the world, for example, Nigeria and Africa in general, women are more likely to shoulder a greater share of child-rearing duties. Children may demand their mothers’ undivided attention, which can be a challenge for female entrepreneurs to deal with. Building and running a new business requires a great deal of time, which may conflict with one’s family obligations. Women in this situation must balance their family lives with their duties as entrepreneurs. For example, parents can communicate about the need to devote some time during the day solely to business, while other times can be devoted to family matters.

The road to success is paved with losses, mishaps, misfortunes, and mistakes, but it still takes you where you want to go as long as you don’t lose sight of your ultimate destination. A lot of female entrepreneurs are breaking boundaries. It could be you next!

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Self Development

UGOCHI — Tue, 23 May 2023 08:16:28 +0000

7 Simple Ways To Thrive

Thriving means to grow, to flourish, to be fortunate, to excel, to be successful and to be blessed. Thriving is all about working on yourself. We are all built to thrive from the get go. Thriving means to engage in those things that bring you development.

It could be in any aspect of your life like mental development, emotional development, personal development, financial development, spiritual development and it could also be in developing your resilience or adaptability skills.

How To Thrive

There are simple ways you can thrive. In this blog post we will talk about 7 simple ways to thrive.

Try out new things. Don’t dwell in your comfort zone, staying there could limit your growth. Constantly trying out new things will help you discover more about yourself.
Learn new skills. By doing so, you are developing your mind and enlarging your coast and exercising your mind.
Do things you love. This helps you mentally and emotionally.
Go out with Friends and family. This is a great way to unwind after a busy week. Spend some good time with the people you love.
Learn a new language. This in itself can be very interesting, relaxing and challenging at the same time. It Just broadens your mind.
Plan a vacation with your family or friends. This could be the beginning of a new discovery of you or an open door to another phase of life. Vacationing with friends, old school classmates can be a lot of fun and a good way to network.
Exercise and eat healthy diets, add exercising to your daily schedule. This helps to keep you fit and smart. Also being mindful of your diet helps in your overall health.

Thriving begins with your mindset. Developing a thriving mindset is important. This can be done by continually challenging yourself to have a better life, career, be more rewarded, more fulfilled, appreciated, and continually questioning yourself if what you are doing is in line with what, who and where you want to be.

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Self Development

UGOCHI — Fri, 05 May 2023 23:33:34 +0000

6 Ways To Know You Are Thriving

Let’s look at these two words – “Thriving and Surviving”.

What is Thriving?

Thriving is to grow or develop well. To flourish and be blessed.

What is Surviving?

Surviving is doing things that are mandatory for a person to be alive. To continually live or exist. There is more to life than Surviving.

Which mindset are you? Thriving or Surviving?

The two mindsets are different: a person with a thriving mindset seeks to continually progress, to reach above the survival instinct. Thriving is about doing meaningful things, its about joy, passion, creativity, relationships. Its about doing what you love and thoroughly enjoying it.

6 Ways To Know You Are Thriving

You know you are thriving when you constantly and consistently show up for your dreams. Not allowing failures, difficulties or challenges to stop you.
When you begin to get yourself out there to shine, not minding what people may think or say.
When you learn to turn your experiences, passion and expertise into an amazing product which in turn will help you live that life you were put on earth up live.
When you shed all of those limiting beliefs that has stopped you from exploring or trying out new things.
When you keep growing and acquiring new skills and updating old ones. Putting them to good use for yourself and other people
When you limit negative thoughts. Negative thoughts can make you feel you are less qualified and decrease your self confidence.
When you become a force that many will sort after.

There is no comparison to survival and thriving. Both are poles apart. Which one are you doing right now? Surviving or thriving? A question examination will give you the answers you seek.

As usual I will love to hear from you. Leave your comment below. Also like and share this post to your friends.

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Strategy and Planning

UGOCHI — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 08:13:25 +0000

Plans To Help You Grow Your Business

A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It’s a way to organize yourself and your business.

“Plans are nothing, while planning is everything.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business partners. Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return on their investment. Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you or investing in your business is a smart choice.

Pick a Business Plan Format That Works For You

There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s important is that your plan meets your needs. Most business plans are written in the traditional startup format. But you can also use the lean startup business plan format.

Traditional business plan formats are more common. Using a standard structure encourages you to go into detail in each section. They tend to require more work upfront and can be several pages long.

Lean startup business plans are not so common, but they still use a standard structure. They focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.

Traditional Business Plan

This type of plan is very detailed, takes more time to write, and is comprehensive. Lenders and investors commonly request this plan.

Lean Startup Plan

This type of plan is specific, fast to write, and contains only key elements. Some lenders and investors may ask for more information.

Traditional Business Plan Format.

You might prefer a traditional business plan format if you’re a very detailed person. Or if you want a comprehensive plan, you can request financing from banks and other financial sources.

When you write your business plan, you don’t have to stick to the exact business plan outline. Instead, use the sections that make the most sense for your business and your needs.

Traditional business plans are sectioned in these steps.

Executive Summary

Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company’s leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.

Company Description

Here, you need to provide detailed information about your company. Go into detail about the problems your business solves. Be specific and list out the consumers, organizations, and businesses your company plans to serve.

Explain the competitive advantages that will make your business a success. Are there experts on your team? Have you found the perfect location for your store? Your company description is the place to boast about your strengths.

Market Analysis

You’ll need a good understanding of your industry outlook and target market. Competitive research will show you what other businesses are doing and what their strengths are. In your market research, look for trends and themes. What do successful competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Now’s the time to answer these questions.

Organization And Management

Tell your reader how your company will be structured and who will run it.

Describe the legal structure of your business. State whether you have or intend to incorporate your business, whether you want to form a General or Limited Partnership, or if you’re a Sole Proprietor or Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Use an organizational chart to lay out who’s in charge of what in your company. Show how each person’s unique experience will contribute to the success of your business. You can also consider including the resumes and CVs of members of your team, especially the important ones.

Service or Product Line

Describe what you sell or what service you offer. Explain how it benefits your customers and what the product life cycle looks like. Share your plans for intellectual property, like copyright or patent filings. If you’re doing research and development for your service or product, explain it in detail.

Marketing And Sales

There’s no single way to approach a marketing strategy. Your strategy should evolve and change to fit your unique needs.

Your goal in this section is to describe how you’ll attract and retain customers. You’ll also describe how a sale will actually happen. You’ll refer to this section later when you make financial projections, so make sure to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales strategies.

Funding Request

If you’re asking for funding, this is where you’ll outline your funding requirements. Your goal is to clearly explain how much funding you’ll need over the next five years and what you’ll use it for.

Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you’d like applied, and the length of time your request will cover. Give a detailed description of how you’ll use your funds. Specify if you need funds to buy equipment or materials, pay salaries, or cover specific bills until revenue increases. Always include a description of your future strategic financial plans, like paying off debt or selling your business.

Financial Projections

Supplement your funding request with financial projections. Your goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a financial success.

If your business is already established, include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could put up against a loan, make sure to list it now.

Provide a prospective financial outlook for the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year, be even more specific and use quarterly or even monthly projections. Make sure to clearly explain your projections and match them to your funding requests.

This is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business.

Appendix

Use your appendix to provide supporting documents or other materials that were specially requested for. Common items to include are credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of reference, licenses, permits, patents, legal documents, and other contracts.

Example of a Traditional Business Plan

Before you write your business plan, read the fictional example business plan to help guide you.

Read Why Business Planning Is Important for Your Business.

Lean Startup Format

You might prefer a lean startup format if you want to explain or start your business quickly, your business is relatively simple, or you plan to regularly change and refine your business plan.

Lean startup formats are charts that use only a handful of elements to describe your company’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. They’re useful for visualizing tradeoffs and fundamental facts about your company.

There are different ways to develop a lean startup template. You can search the web to find free templates to build your business plan. We will also discuss 9 components of a business plan here.

Important Partnerships

Note the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run your business. Think about suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors, and similar strategic partners.

Important Activities

List the ways your business will gain a competitive advantage. Highlight things like selling directly to consumers or using technology to tap into the sharing economy.

Important Resources

List any resource you’ll leverage to create value for your customer. Your most important assets could include staff, capital, or intellectual property. Don’t forget to leverage business resources that might be available to

Value Proposition

Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value your company brings to the market.

Customer Relationships

Describe how customers will interact with your business. Is it automated or personal? in person or online? Think through the customer experience from start to finish.

Customer Segments

Be specific when you name your target market. Your business won’t be for everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense of whom your business will serve.

Channels

List the most important ways you’ll talk to your customers. Most businesses use a mix of channels and optimize them over time.

Cost Structure

Will your company focus on reducing costs or maximizing value? Define your strategy, then list the most significant costs you’ll face pursuing it.

Revenue Streams

Explain how your company will actually make money. Some examples are direct sales, membership fees, and selling advertising space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list all of them.

Before you write your business plan, read this sample/fictional business plan written by a fictional business owner, Daniel, who owns a toy outfit.

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Strategy and Planning

UGOCHI — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 04:57:27 +0000

Why Business Planning Is Important for Your Business Growth

Do you often make time to plan for your small business in your daily schedule? How often do you plan for your business daily? If it isn’t something that you do regularly, then let me encourage you to build some time into your schedule for planning.

Many people think that business plans are only useful for new businesses.

The truth is that business planning offers serious benefits for everybody in business. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business or if you are just starting out.

In this blog post, I share the reasons why business planning is important for the success of your business.

I recommend that you start with high-level planning at the beginning of the year and then go into more detailed business planning every 90 days. Taking time to plan the projects I want to tackle and the areas of my business that I want to grow or improve has been crucial to my own success.

**Here are some reasons WHY business planning is important to make your business successful.**

Planning is not about creating a document (the plan), although that’s a helpful benefit.

Business planning is about thinking. The value lies in the process that you go through while planning. When you spend time planning, you’ll think about your business in many different ways that you may not have thought about before. You’ll look at it from different angles and perspectives and consider the actions you want to take to make it successful.

“Plans are worthless without the planning process… planning is everything.”

Business planning helps you focus on the right and important things.

When you go through the planning process, you’ll decide what’s important and what isn’t important for your business. This is greatly helpful when you get into the day-to-day activities. With a clear plan, you can focus on what’s most important rather than spending time trying to figure out what you should be working on.

This is much more efficient than trying to decide what to do every day. When you do that, you generally spend your time putting out fires—dealing with the most urgent things on your plate.

With a plan in place, it becomes easy to work backwards to create efficient and effective weekly and daily to-do lists. Then you can focus on what really needs to get done each day. And that’s how you reach your goals.

Business planning encourages you to think outside the box.

If you don’t step back and look at the big picture of your business from time to time, it’s easy to fall into a round of boring daily activities. You run the risk of doing the same things over and over again.

As you plan, you’re going to set goals, right? And generally, those are going to be big goals. Setting a big goal encourages you to think outside the box.

Why?

With a big goal in front of you, you start to think of ways to achieve it. You’ll get creative and think of things that didn’t occur to you before.

Business planning helps put your subconscious mind to work.

Up until now, we’ve talked about the active parts of business planning, but there’s another part at play. Once you’ve started thinking about what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it, your subconscious mind keeps working on the problem nonstop.

While you are busy going through your to-do list, driving the children around, doing your thing, and even when you’re at sleep, you’re busy in your subconscious state working on your plan. How many times have you awakened in the morning with the answer to a big question? Or had your best ideas come to you in the shower? That’s the power of your subconscious mind. Planning just points it in the right direction.

What is the purpose of business planning?

The purpose of planning is to make decisions about the future of your business. The purpose of a business plan is to document those decisions so that you can refer to them going forward or share them with other stakeholders.

It helps you to establish your strategy.

The main purpose of business planning is to establish your strategy. Everything else in your plan will support the execution of your strategy.

Business planning will help you set strategic objectives.

Successful businesses set specific business objectives and then track and follow up on their execution. Without objectives, how do you know what you want to happen? When? and how?

Business planning allows you to be strategic and work towards the objectives that will be most helpful to your business.

Business planning will help you in allocation of resources

While you are planning, you need to allocate resources in a way that will help you achieve your strategic objectives. What services do you already use to keep your business running? Are there new services you need in order to grow your business?

Also, think about assets that you may need to acquire or replace this year. Do you need a new computer or printer? What about software? Or maybe photographic equipment or a new cell phone.

And of course, as a solopreneur, your most precious resource is your time. Where will you spend it? Do you need to hire help?

The business planning process can help you clarify your thoughts about how best to allocate your resources.

Business planning will help you decide what NOT to do

Just as important as choosing what objectives to pursue is deciding what NOT to do is also very important. You can’t do everything. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day. You have to decide what to let go of. Making realistic decisions about what you will and won’t do is an integral part of the business planning process.

What should you include when making a business plan?

There are certain elements that you’ll want to include in your business plan. Keep in mind, however, that this is your plan. If something doesn’t make sense for you and your business, it’s okay to skip it.

Your vision & mission for your business

Your vision and mission set a strong foundation for your business. Vision and mission express why you do what you do. They help you attract the right kinds of clients, keep your business focused on the right path, and get you through tough times.

Do you have a vision statement and a mission statement? Vision and mission statements are a great way to start your business plan. They’ll help you keep your eye on the major things.

How is your business monetized? Do you sell physical products? Digital downloads or e-courses? Are you a service provider?

Which revenue streams are working well? Are there any that you want to drop? What about new revenue streams that you want to add to the mix?

A competitive analysis of your market. Do some basic market research. Figure out who your major competitors are, who they sell to, and what they offer.

It’s always helpful to know

what competitors are up to.

And next year, when you do your annual planning, you’ll be able to make a comparison. Have your competitors changed? Who is new in the market? What are the hot new products and services?

It’s always helpful to know what the competition is up to.

A quick SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis sounds technical, but it doesn’t have to be. Grab a big piece of paper or a white board and divide it into four parts. Then brainstorm your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and any threats your business is facing.

A SWOT analysis will make your business strategy stronger because it will ensure that you’ve thought about both internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors.

What are your high-level goals?

For annual goals and objectives, it’s best to stay at a very high-level. This is not the place to go into too much detail because priorities and activities are likely to change throughout the year.

Include a few high-level, “must-do” goals in your business plan. These will likely include your revenue goal and a few other specific targets that you want to achieve.

What is your marketing strategy?

Marketing is an important part of your annual business plan. How are you going to market and promote your business? Do you have a social media strategy? Will you use paid advertising? Or public relations?

Include some information on your target market or your ideal customer. It can also be helpful to decide if your primary focus will be on acquiring new customers or on selling more to your existing customers.

Depending on your business, you may want to have a separate, more detailed marketing strategy document. If so, then you can simply include an executive summary of your marketing plan in your overall business plan.

Action Items to achieve your goals

Your business plan should include the specific actions that you will take to reach your goals. This is when you start talking about the smaller details. What are you going to do? How? When? Where? With?

For a deeper dive into what you should include, check out this post on How To Create a Strategic Business Plan.

Your business plan is a strong and very important document.

At this point, I hope you can see the importance of a business plan. Keep in mind that your business plan can always be adjusted. It’s not final! You can change it or add to it. The plan itself isn’t the end-goal. The strategic planning process is where the true benefit lies.

If you are ready to create your own strategic plan, then be sure to download this free business planning workbook:

The post Strategy and Planning appeared first on Business Coaching & Consulting.

Business And Strategy

UGOCHI — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:11:35 +0000

Why You Need To Be Consistent As A Business Owner/Solopreneur

We all know that true success does not occur overnight. Behind it sit volumes of efforts, beliefs, and actions demonstrated consistently over time. Buttressing much of our success has been the small daily and weekly decisions and actions and how they have added up over the years.

With a new year well underway, we need to ask ourselves how our actions are aligning with the intentions, resolutions, and goals we have set for ourselves.

Whether it has been a commitment to read recent industry publications to help us remain relevant, an investment of time in creating purposeful professional relationships and broad networks, or a conscious effort to expand and diversify our skill sets, the consistency of our actions—or lack thereof—has played a major role in where we find ourselves today.

When advising business owners, I often tell them to focus on their small wins. These are things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions. Celebrating small wins triggers feelings of pride and happiness, helping you to keep working towards the next small step and eventually the overall goal.

Increasing awareness of what needs to be done is an important step toward achieving goals. We must execute our ideas and ambitions, which is often easier said than done

Lots of small proactive decisions add up in a positive way, like regular savings in a bank account, whereas laziness and bad decisions are like small debts eating away at your value over time.

A tool I frequently draw on in my business is my business plan, which prompts me to regularly ask myself some of the following:

Where are you and why?
What are your most pressing considerations?
What can be done to implement immediate action?
How do you optimize existing business options?
What are the longer-term implications or possible outcomes?

Ultimately, these questions will help you determine what actions you are taking to grow the value of your business today.

In talking with other business owners or solopreneurs, I often hear that it is not the big things that keep them awake at night but the little things. Why? Because they know that over time these little “things” have the power to become big things and significantly impact their efficiency, the outcomes they get, and the relationships they build. It is exactly the same with our business—if we aren’t careful, failure to act on the “little” things will prevent us from reaching our potential and desired levels of success.

As business owners and managers, our ability to demonstrate and build consistency in performance, behavior, and service is essential. Nothing is more frustrating than inconsistency in one or more of these three elements. No doubt many of us are able to recall colleagues who have severely limited their opportunities due to an inability to consistently perform or behave. Where one week they seem to be producing record results only to not contribute for the following three. Or where they are technically brilliant at what they do but cause so many problems amongst their team members that the overall results are compromised because no one wants to work with them or you in the future.

There is no doubt that one of the biggest causes of failure today is inconsistency.

While the idea of consistency is fairly simple, the ability to execute it is often not. More often than not, it is due to one of the following three things:

Impatience: We want the results immediately. Consider all of the dieting and exercise activities that we have all participated in!

Belief: If we don’t believe in what we are doing, be it business, exercising, dieting, and so on, the only thing that we are most likely to be consistent in is avoidance. Avoiding anything that relates to that which we do not believe in.

Value: We fail to see the benefits of the amount of effort invested. It will feel as though you are doing nothing. Consistency is most definitely achievable for us all, but it does take practice. It takes practice to understand what it is that you do and why.

It is critical for you to understand how consistency creates high value and longevity in your business or as a solopreneur. I would encourage you to take a moment to consider the following benefits of being consistently repeated,

“It takes determination, repeated, and consistent efforts to achieve your set goals.”

Here are 6 benefits of consistency:

Establishes Belief:

The thoughts and actions that we take on a daily and/or regular basis do shape our own self-belief and the belief that others have in us. Not only is it a powerful force for motivating and building trust in others, but it also serves as a powerful model for the standards to which we and others rise and fall.

Creates Relevance:

Your customers, clients, organizations, expertise, and team members are all looking up to you as a reliable and informed source of information. To remain informed, we need to be relevant. What are the latest developments in your industries, your areas of expertise, or your regions? Is your level of knowledge and its viability empowering you and what you do?

Allows For Measurement:

To build meaningful and successful steps of growth, we need to understand what it is that is actually working—or not working. What are the results of your consistent efforts, actions, and strategies? Are they good or bad? Our ability to measure, assess, and realign is a vital skill in our ever-changing world.

Creates Accountability:

Accountability is a critical requirement in high-performance and values-aligned cultures. Owning what you do, the “why,” and the way you do it can’t help but create accountability for both yourself and those around you. Being consistently accountable—in the good and the bad times—is what will set you apart as the consummate professional.

Builds Stability:

Not only does it build stability, but it also builds sustainability. When people know what you stand for and where they stand with you, it provides the framework for them to perform at their best. By removing the game-playing, the contradictions, and the inconsistencies, individuals have a clear path to success that gives rise to both confidence and loyalty.

Establishes Your Reputation:

Your track record is your reputation. Building a defined track record is critical to the growth of your business. Building your reputation as a business owner or solopreneur is important for potential customers since it indicates trustworthiness and honesty.

The post Business And Strategy appeared first on Business Coaching & Consulting.

Business and Strategy

UGOCHI — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 02:31:38 +0000

Up-level Your Business, Mindset & Income.

Some will say, “You are just one secret away,” but the truth is, there is no “ONE secret” or “magic blueprint” for overnight success…

Different businesses need different things at different stages of their journey.

Some entrepreneurs may need to work on their mindset; some may need to get more visible; others may need to adjust their pricing or create systems to automate their business. You may be at the stage of creating your brand or growing your social media following, or maybe launching your online course and building a passive income in your biz, so you can enjoy more time with your family.

So the single most IMPORTANT thing you need to do to succeed in business and life is to take action… That’s it. Action is what sets successful people apart. They take action every day. Even during uncertain times. When things seem to be crumbling, they take action.

Even during times like this, there is something you can do to set yourself up for success. You can:

– Build your online course

Launch a new coaching program

– Start blogging

– Contribute to podcasts and land online interviews

– Grow your authority

– Show up and serve your community with value

– Be of service to others

So we want to help you get there with actionable, clear, and easy-to-implement tools, training, and strategies.

You will be set up for long-term success!

The post Business and Strategy appeared first on Business Coaching & Consulting.