Wow! Wow! Wow! Who ever thought I’d hear from Professor Colin Turner one day?

Sometimes you trudge along, enjoying what you are doing but just getting it done and sometimes weeks just come along that completely blow you away. I’ve had a couple of trudgy weeks and then, last week, I had a “blow the roof off” week!

But before I tell you about that, can I ask you for a bit of feedback?

I’ve been doing this diary writing style of blogging since 1998, documenting what I’m doing to grow my business, firstly The Money Gym and now The Business Success Factory. I’ve always thought that, to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially perhaps those in jobs, it would be useful to see what a real life entrepreneur does and feels on a day to day basis. Warts and all sometimes!

But is it? Is it boring? Or inspirational? Useful or just a totally yawn?

I would really love to get some more questions and comments on this blog so that I can tailor my content to help you, whichever business you are trying to build…do feel free to use the comments box or hit the “share your thoughts” link.

In the meantime, let me tell you about last week and what I did to move my business forwards.

Monday To Wednesday – Too Much Thinking Makes Your Head Hurt But Burns Calories!

Monday to Wednesday was spent doing the usual, which at the moment is doing a lot of book editing (possibly the most boring thing to do on the planet and something that challenges my ADD big time) and also doing a lot of thinking strategically, trying to come up with a plan to get some success stories for The Business Success Factory which is the only thing I’m missing now.

I read somewhere that thinking takes up about 20% of the calories you eat, and when you are REALLY thinking hard, it’s 40%. And I’ve been really doing a lot of hard thinking….to the point where my brain hurts. Business journalling really helps, as it gets all those swirling thoughts out of my head and onto the paper where I can evaluate them properly. I definitely feel more focused since starting that in January.

Getting away from the computer helps a lot too – you know when you are at the computer concentrating for ages, and your forehead starts to feel a bit weird? That’s a sure sign that it’s time to go for a cup of tea and do a bit more journalling.

I read Blue Ocean Strategy this week, after my business mentor mentioned it again, and when I opened it I realised that I didn’t actually read it last time, just the first two chapters. This is very unusual for me, I usually always finish books. Perhaps I wasn’t ready for it, then, or it went over my head… but this time I found it very useful, both in terms of helping me work out who I’m competing with and also in terms of strategic pricing, both of which I’ve been floundering around with recently…..

As I say, I’ve realised that my next challenge is that I’ve got loads of success stories for The Money Gym but in order to create specific success stories for The Business Success Factory I need clients to put through my system. However, in order to attract more clients, I need success stories.

I identified that challenge by reading a report by one of my mentors which said to ask yourself these three deceptively simple questions:

1. What would my prospects need to believe that would make investing in / buying my product or service a complete no-brainer?
2. Why wouldn’t my prospects invest in / buy what I’m offering?
3. Why do my prospects need to invest / buy right now?

My answers are that they would need to believe that they are going to make much more profit than the cost of my product or service – that their Return On Investment is going to be 100% or ideally much, much more over a year.

My first response to Question 2 was “that they don’t have the money” but then I caught myself and remembered that this is just a reaction and it’s scarcity thinking, and it’s a hangover from my childhood (which was very scarce indeed).

There are plenty of businesses out there doing well enough to afford this marketing service as I’ve priced it to be very affordable, BUT they just haven’t heard of me yet, or worked out that they need me. That’s a traffic issue and a USP (also known as a “unique selling proposition”) or a “compelling offer” issue.

My USP is as follows:

“The Business Success Factory – Your 21st Century outsourced marketing department (for less than the cost of a part-time secretary). We will slash your marketing budgets by 50% while increasing profits by 20% or more. Within a year or your money back, no questions asked, guaranteed”

What do you think? Pretty compelling? Says what it does on the tin? Then the call to action is to either

Tuesday PM – Yes! It Was So Good It Deserves It’s Own Mention

You know how sometimes the stars stop turning and universes collide and everything changes in a heartbeat? Well, I had one of those experiences on Wednesday. I got home from a particularly unpleasant errand to find an email in my inbox from a Colin Turner.

The email said something along the lines of “Dear Nicola, a friend of mine has just sent me a screenshot of a review you did of one of my books in 2003. Thank you very much and would you like 200 copies to give away to your subscribers / members?”

I dashed off a reply as I had to go out again, saying “I’ve got a better idea, why don’t I set up a webinar, interview you about what you have been doing since I read your book and we can give away the copies of your book to the attendees? ”

To be honest, it hadn’t sunk in really who it was, as I was in a bit of a rush. But I wanted to acknowledge the email before I went out again.

“Great idea” came the swift response “let’s talk on Friday”. After a bit of to and fro about times, we settled on 3pm.

Right click to download and listen to the Q&A I did with Colin Turner >>

Later on that evening I got a chance to google Colin Turner, thinking I’d do a bit of research before our call, who only turns out to be a Professor Of Entrepreneurship, an 18 book best-selling author and someone who had started NINE, count them NINE companies, three of which were multi-million enterprises. He was also the President for a while of a Nasdaq listed company. All this from a man who was born in a caravan in Inverness, Scotland, not a million miles away from Montrose where I went to school for a while. He now lives in Monaco – yep, that Monaco.

All very exciting and I spent the rest of the week reflecting on the weird synchronicities of life, from a little book falling off the shelf in Books Etc in Oxford Street, twelve or so years ago, to my writing that review in 2003 through to us doing a webinar together on Friday 24^th June, where I’m going to grill Professor Turner about success, success thinking and everything else you need to know.

What was that little book? Watch this short video and find out – but I will tell you one thing.

There was just ONE drawing in it that changed the way I thought about money for EVER.

We’ll be giving away FREE copies of that little book too, to every one who attends the webinar so don’t delay, book your place today! As you can imagine, it’s filling up fast.

Webinar Wednesday

Talking of webinars, Wednesday is always webinar day and we had a corker this week – it was so good, I’ve got permission from the attendees to share it with you.

Click here to watch webinar >>>

And if you like the idea of having that much fun and support while working out what you need to do next in your business, why not join us for a 30-day trial of the Business Success Factory Mentoring Programme? This includes:

• ===> Feedback from me on your business model / business idea
• ===> 4 x live webinars just like this
• ===> 30 Days membership of our private Facebook group
• ===> Membership area with lots of “how to” videos on internet marketing through to membership sites
• Join for the trial now >>>

After you get past the bit about installing Google Analytics, it got very interesting indeed.

Again, the main issues centred around business strategy – one of my clients has a natural migraine relief site that is getting loads of traffic but not making any money yet – and there was a very funny twist in THAT tale.

I wonder if you can guess what it is?

Thursday – Masterminding In London

Thursday was a welcome break from all the thinking, with a trip to London to see my Mastermind Group. Eight huge egos in one room plus me *grin* and among the serious business there was a lot of laughs. Ben Hulme had to go early as his wife is about to have a baby any day now and she was called into hospital, but he’s not a Daddy yet….

What is it about a bunch of men when they get together they think anything to do with bottoms is funny. Age range 22 – forty something, and farting is still funny apparently. I just have to pretend to be one of the boys. Bit like my poker buddies – they are just the same!

TGIF – The Best Still To Come!

Friday was off to Worthing for a Worthing & Adur Chamber Website meeting, which was lively and very entrepreneurial with us all coming up with several new income streams for the Chamber which is great news. I’ve set up the Podcast and I’m just waiting for it to be approved by iTunes, while Tina Tilley looks for a Chamber Member with recording facilities who could create some jingles for us – they make any podcast sound much more professional.

Next year we will talk to Northbrook College about it becoming a project / competition for the students… Tina’s very involved with creating a Junior Chamber at the moment and I’m hoping to get involved with that.

I’m starting the Chamber Members interviews shortly and the weekly podcast will be a weekly update from Tina on Chamber and Business News around Sussex plus an interview with a member – a great way to promote your business across Sussex and the world!

I’ve got to say, the Worthing & Adur Chamber offers SUCH good value for the money, I’m amazed that more businesses are not banging their doors down, but hopefully, our online initiatives will take care of that.