Monthly Archives: August 2015

BUSINESS SKILLS TIPS 35 – ADMINISTRATION

POSTED BY Angela August 25, 2015 IN Blog | No Comments

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BUSINESS SKILLS TIPS 35 – PAPERWORK AND ADMINISTRATION

In today’s session I am talking about administration and the streams of paperwork, filing, record keeping and organising of your business and some of the methods that we engage in in order to be more affective, always have the information handy when we need it and so therefore feel safe and secure that important matters have been undertaken effectively and records kept securely.

I don’t know about you, but even though I use the cloud to store my videos and many of my important items of information, files, records, and so on, I am a little afraid that when I need to call on important items of paperwork and administration information they might not be there!  Irrational fears have been expressed to me by many of my clients and other individuals who fear what would happen if satellites collide, or even burn out . . . well, maybe we are all too well tuned in to Science Fiction movies, but I confide that I store many of my important documents on external drives.

There are so many very good softwares available including Basecamp (well used and well loved as an organising tool), where, once you have quickly filled out forms and specialist records you can safely store all business administration forms, letters, e-mails and production material for quick access when you need them.  Specialist fields such as building, architecture, design, draughtsmanship, beauty and health industries and consultants who employ appointment systems all rely on software such as Basecamp, Huddle, Smartsheet, Teamwork, and these are just a few of the ‘specialist’ softwares that can not only store your information safely but be used to organise yourself and your staff and manage teams and team meetings too!  This leaves your office less cluttered with paperwork, but still as efficient and productive.

This blog seems rather like a sales sheet today, but it is not intended to be such.  No, I am just considering the matter myself today, and so I though that I would bring the idea of ‘going online’, even reaching ‘the clouds’ to your attention and give you, dear listener / viewer, pause for thought today about the importance of safe storage of your paperwork, your business administration and documents, records and important matters.  Always know that you can have your documents to hand when you need them most, free from worry that you might just forget where you have filed them.

There’s no point in spending hours and hours setting up meetings, organising teams, designing and producing products, buildings, environmental, geological and urban infrastructure, keeping accounts, records and documents away from prying eyes, if when you really need them you can’t find them anywhere – have them close at hand whilst keeping your office and your desk clear – get organised and take it online.  Just my thought for today.

NO 34 – PACKAGING YOURSELF AND YOUR PRODUCTS

POSTED BY Angela August 18, 2015 IN Blog | No Comments

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NO 34 – PACKAGING YOURSELF AND YOUR PRODUCTS

In today’s BST I am talking about ways of packaging yourself and your products and how appropriate that is for your products and services and your client needs and expectations.

When presenting yourself to the public you have 30 seconds in which to make an impression before your customer (target) makes a judgement about you.  This is not my own opinion, it is based on tried and tested research.

Not much time, eh?  For this reason it is critical that you get your personal image and style right for the occasion, for the situation, for the business you are conducting and for the customer’s expectations.

What do I mean?  Well, what do you imagine when I say the word ‘teacher’?  Do you visualise your old teacher, for better or for worse?  How do you think about them?  What are they wearing, how do they sound, what is the feeling that they conjure up in your being?  What about if I say ‘creative person’?  What do they tend to look like, behave like, sound like?  Do you understand what I am saying.  We all have a general idea about what certain people should be like, the characteristics that they should have to be ‘right’. Our value judgements affect the way we feel about people, whether they have value, whether they know what they are saying and whether they are valuable to us.  This goes for what they are talking about and what they are ‘selling’ us too.

Maybe you want to present yourself as a ‘smart’ person who knows exactly what you are talking about, so you dress in a ‘smart’ style in the way a tv presenter would, with a clean and neat appearance, wearing a suit, tie, shirt, blouse and little but classy jewellery.  Perhaps you are a back room techie, movie maker or behind the scenes business person who generally wears ‘laid back’ clothing.  Ask yourself, how do my customers tend to think about what I should look like or sound like.  Does this come across in the way I present myself, what I say to them, how I say it and how my products appear?  You should take the opportunity to ask them, they are the boss of you, they are God in terms of your business success.

‘Laid back’ styling may be the trend these days, and smart clothes kept only for special occasions, so dressing for your ‘peers’, your friends and associates, requires that you keep ‘on trend’, but does this apply to your business, your products, your own appearance when presenting yourself in front of your customers or clients?  Sorry, you will just have to ask them!

Thanks for listening to me today, pause for thought and have a good one.