Business Resources Archives - Page 5 of 16

How to not suck at presenting

Last night we attended the Heavy Chef session hosted by World Wide Creative. This month’s guest speaker was Richard Mulholland from Missing Link. Richard share with us How to not suck at presenting.

Apart from the wonderful antics and stories he shared, there were some gems of wisdom, in particular his four pillars to a great presentation. Here is a short summary of those points:

Give your audience a reason to care.
Give them a reason to believe.
Give them what they need to know.
Give them what they need to do.

We will share more on this and how to create a kick-ass pitch for your business in the new year. If you want o view the video and download the slides from Richard’s presentation hen head on over to www.heavychef.com

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:15+02:00December 9th, 2015|Business Resources|0 Comments

5 ways to make customers eat out of your hand: Part 2

Last week we went through part one of the customer service skills that every employee or business owner must master. This is a five part series that we are going to be sharing with you over the next few Fridays. Here are this week’s 5 excellent customer service skills that will make your customers stay loyal to you:

1. Become an expert.

Learn everything about each product or service you provide. Spend time studying the product as well as the various solutions you are offering for various circumstances.

2. Have a good body language.

Maintaining a good body language is important even when when you are talking with your clients over the phone. Smiling frequently and expressing happiness and laughter in your conversations helps to improve the customers’ experience.

3. Be confident.

If you sound confident in your conversations over the phone, then convincing your customers for any kind of deal or solution will become easier.

4. Handle surprises very well.

Being adaptable within a customer service environment is essential in order to fully prepare for any kind of surprises you may encounter while on the job.

5. Is the customer happy with the offered solution?

Double check with your customer to ensure that they are completely satisfied. This will improve your reputation with the client.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:16+02:00December 4th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

5 ways to make customers eat out of your hand: Part 1

Customer satisfaction is very important in any kind of business. The success of your business depends not only on your hard work, but on the satisfaction the customers. Their satisfaction is the best indicator of how likely they are gonna be loyal to you and will make a purchase in the future.

Hang around with us as we share with you a five-part-series on skills you must have in order to have an excellent customer service. Having all these skills will surely make your customers eat out of the palm of your hand.

1. Be a good listener
Listen intently. Ask questions and summarize the answer of your customer. This will surely show that you care and want to offer the right solution.

2.Have great communication skills
Learn how to effectively communicate with your clients. Know when to listen, when to speak and how to speak. I will make the communication process much simpler any time you talk with a customer.

3. Be calm and patient
Try to manage your emotions and stay calm. This will help to deal with disgruntled and confused customers. When you are calm your customer will feel more respected.

4. Keep your promises
Develop the ability to manage expectations of customer complaints. Stay up-to-date with company policies to ensure that any promise you make for a customer can be delivered.

5. Be honest
Being honest and transparent with your customers proves that you truly care about their happiness and satisfaction.

Develop this skills to excel in any customer service position, regardless of your responsibility, your industry or type of customer you are working with every day.

We will be sharing more on this topic for the next few Fridays, so stay tuned as we continue to learn together.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:16+02:00November 27th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Looking back to plan forward Part 3

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2016.

Today we will begin to look ahead to 2016 and put pen to paper on what your BHAGs and WIGs are. Let’s start with goal setting, this is preached at every business and personal development and time management seminar you will ever go to and for good reason.

Setting Goals do actually work. Simply by writing out your goals and sharing them with other people, you have already done up to 40% of the work towards achieving them. So get going. Set some goals for 2016. We are encouraged by John Maxwell to set BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goals. These are goals bigger than ourselves, a little larger than we would be comfortable with and just out of reach of our normal way of operation.

What this does to us is causes us to grow in ourselves and learn to rely on others to achieve them. Both are not so bad things. We are also told by Covey to set and keep a list of WIG’s, Wildy Important Goals. These are the top 3 to 5 goals that we spend 80% of our time on each day. We read them when we get up and re read them before we go to bed, they are top of mind at all times.

So what are your goals for 2016? Write out a list of 20 main objectives for the new year. Remember to include some of the following categories: Finance, Business, Personal Development, Family, Fun Time, Product Research, Networking and Holidays. Have fun with this and allow your mind to dream a bit. If your list scares you a little you have done it right. Now select your top 5 WIGS and circle them in red. Job done.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:17+02:00November 19th, 2015|Business Resources|0 Comments

The Global Entrepreneurship Week

The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) – which attracts high profile entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson and Michael Dell – is almost here.

For people who are planning to start their own businesses, the need for plenty of tips and advice to help them succeed in realising their dreams ranks high on their hierarchy of needs.

As a result, attending entrepreneurship workshops is an excellent way to get all of that.

The GEW is upon us in South Africa and is scheduled to start next week, with the first event taking place in Cape Town on Monday, 16 November. To be part of this incredible event, EI will also be having a range of workshops focusing on social media and marketing on 17 and 18 November 2015.

Launched eight years ago, the GEW is the world’s largest entrepreneurship event.

It takes place every November all over the world and its aim is to celebrate, educate, inspire and motivate all the innovators and job creators of this world.

The GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.

This not-to-be-missed event is run by people who have already successfully navigated their way through the business world – which is why it continues to attract and engage high-profile entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Michael Dell, Russell Simmons, Muhammad Yunus, Mark Cuban and others who are enthusiastic to share their personal experiences and insights.

Those who are among the privileged few attending these much sought-after events are equipped with valuable nuggets which could enable them to follow in the footsteps of these great global entrepreneurship icons in their own business ventures.

People who are planning to attend these insightful events that are taking place at various areas across the country can expect to benefit in a number of different ways – including but not limited to networking, connecting participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors and introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

– For more information please visit: http://za.gew.co/

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:18+02:00November 13th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Global Entrepreneurship Week hits Cape Town

Entrepreneurship week is upon us and we have some exciting workshops to add to the mix of other interesting events happening in and around Cape Town next week.

Snappy Workshops: We have a range of snappy (90 minutes) workshops focusing on social media and marketing on Tuesday 17^th. You have a selection of one or more of the following titles:

09:30 How effective is your online profile Book Here

12:00 Online Strategies for your business Book Here

14:30 Cool Web tools to save you time and money Book Here

17:00 FaceBook and YouTube for business Book Here

These will be followed by two more in-depth workshops on Wednesday 18^th for those wanting to get a more hands on approach to business:

09:00 Pimp Your Pitch Book Here

12:00 Creating a kick-ass business plan Book Here

All these workshops will be held at the Entrepreneur Academy in our Woodstock venue (directions here) Please register, rsvp and join us for a time of learning, sharing and development.

This could be the very thing you and your business needs.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:18+02:00November 10th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

The “DO IT NOW” habit

Yesterday we had an opportunity to attend the John Maxwell Live2Lead conference, an insightful, life-changing event themed Intentional Living. The event was packed with valuable content delivered by some of the greatest leadership coaches like John C. Maxwell, Pat Lencioni and Valorie Burton. Broadcast to thousands of people across the globe, John Maxwell shared with us about significance of Intentional Living.

One of the things he told the audience was that we need to get into the habit of doing things now – which he termed the “DO IT NOW” habit. That challenged and left me inspired as I am one of those people who sometimes struggle with the thief of time that is synonymously called procrastination.

We all procrastinate at some point in life. How often do you feel your head spinning with great ideas about how to improve your life, start your own business, or make a difference in other people’s lives? And how often do you find yourself stuck in the same place, doing nothing but making the same promises to yourself and repeating the same excuses?

So what is it that stops us? Why are we waiting? Why can’t we do it now? You see, many times we miss opportunities that could have changed our lives because of procrastination.

John Maxwell said a significant thing that “before you get out of bed every morning, say ‘do it now’ 50 times. At the end of the day before you go to sleep, the last thing you should do is say ‘do it now’ 50 times.”

When you live each day with intention, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. So why wait? Do not enslave yourself by putting things on hold. Do it now!

It is time to have a sense of urgency. What we need to know and tell ourselves is that ‘now’ is always the right time.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:19+02:00October 22nd, 2015|Business Resources|0 Comments

Entrepreneur Incubator turns 5

It is the small milestones in business that we need to celebrate in order to gain the huge victories as a result.

I first stood in a queue in a post office back in 1998 to send of my first business registration documents to CIPRO. It was an exciting time for me as the opportunities were plentiful and risks seemed irrelevant. My first business was in Computing and we ran an outsourced service back to various retail companies in connection with JDA and customised solution design. This soon morphed into additional services. We added Graphic design and printing and then branched out with an NPO that addressed the refugee issues in the Muizenberg area and surrounds.

After some years, the business once again morphed into the personal coaching and training arena and together with a couple of friends we launched Well4Life that was sold to one of the partners a few years later. A few other business ventures and partners have come and gone, some good, some not so, but all have added to the development of what is now Entrepreneur Incubator and Academy.

In 2009, some computer issue in CIPRO disallowed us from filing our annual return and like so many other businesses we were deregistered and our bank closed the account. So I started again and this time had more focus on what we were doing and where we were going. It did take 5 turns to reserve the name I wanted and in October 2010 we received our CK1 documents, giving us the green light to begin the dream.

Over the last five years we have moved offices 3 times. Employed 5 staff members and assisted over 450 businesses to get started or get growing. Our relationship with Shanduka Black Umbrellas is key to investing in the emerging markets and our own clients have shown us many different ways to overcome challenges.

We currently have a huge online presence with our blog read the globe over, our e-learning courses on 5 different platforms and our very spiffy Cape Town offices boasts a full training room, office suites, a board/coaching room and a fully equipped video studio.

What does the future hold: Well that would be telling, but I can share that we are thinking hard about the online video space, together with some partners as well as a possible growth strategy that will put us on the national map as a business support partner with a big influence in the market.

So here is to us: hip hip horray….. now to the next 5 years.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:19+02:00October 20th, 2015|Business Resources|1 Comment

Habits that successful people follow

To achieve high levels of success, you must start developing the habits of the highly successful.

No matter where you are in life, there is always more to reach for. When you constantly strive to become a better person and invest in your future daily, you grow as an individual. When you grow, your value increases. The more your value increases, the more successful you will become – and it all starts with your habits.

We all know that not every habit is a good one, but one needs to have a desire to develop a good habit in order to succeed.

The first thing to do when working to towards success is changing the habits that do not add any value to your life and learn how to direct your energy towards the most rewarding tasks in your life.

Take a look into your life and check if the things that you are doing have the potential to bring the most reward to you and your business. If not, then it is time to change your habits.

Prioritizing is one habit you need to adopt if you want to succeed in doing business. High achievers never lose sight of what their major goal is. Think of what the most important thing to achieve at the moment is, and work hard to achieve it. Work hard every day and do something that brings you closer to achieving your goal.

To be successful you need to have a positive attitude towards everything. Turn every negative thing into positive. A huge number of successful entrepreneurs have experienced some set back or negativity somewhere in their journeys that could have made them quit. But instead of quitting they had a positive mental attitude about themselves and their abilities, which gave them the power needed to continue along and reach their goals.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:21+02:00September 14th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Law twelve: The law of resolution
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Law twelve: The law of resolution

Business Resources

Law twelve: The law of resolution

Carl Bates writes in his book The Laws of Extreme Business Success about the 12 laws of business success. The last but never the least law take focus onto the issues of both management and staff. This law speaks to the levels of engagement of each during their time at work. Research tells us that less than 60% of people working in corporate America are engaged in their jobs. This has a lot to do with what they are caring around with them emotionally during the day. The law states:

Extreme business success recognises that you can only move forward when you have resolved or released the baggage of the past. This baggage can take the form of unresolved or hidden issues with people and associates, old ways of doing things that no longer apply, outdated ways of thinking or incomplete actions that prevent both you and your business from moving forward. Brining these issues to light and resolving them in effective ways will empower both you and your business to step up to the next level of success.

This book and others from Carl Bates are available here

By nbmedia|2015-08-31T10:00:12+02:00August 31st, 2015|Business Resources|0 Comments