BUSINESS BLOGS & INSIGHTS
Bigger is Not Always Better: Navigating the Challenges of Business Growth
Growth is often seen as the ultimate marker of success in business. More sales, more clients, more employees—all signs that your business is thriving, right? However, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean...
What is holding you back?
As we move to the close of another year, (they seem to go faster and faster as I get older) its a good time to stop, prop and reflect on the year that has just passed before you race headlong into...
The 7R’s of Innovation
If you want to apply some innovative thinking in your business, the “7Rs of Innovation” is a framework in which you can work in with 7 key areas to think about. 1. RETHINK The first step in...
The 3 questions you should ask every day for business success
FTI (or Failure to Implement) is one of the biggest barriers to business success. In the last 37 years as business consultant, I have observed that my most successful clients are the ones that...
Four Key Tips for Building Success in Your Business
In this article, we will explore four essential tips for achieving success in your business this year. By following these strategies, you can kickstart your year with a strong foundation and set...
Navigating Australia’s Workforce Crisis: Insights and Solutions for Businesses
As a business owner or manager in Australia, you're likely aware of the pressing issue we face—the workforce crisis. This crisis is not a fleeting concern; it's a persistent challenge rooted in...
Innovative Pricing Strategies that will make your business standout
What do consulting fees, underwear, razor blades and toilet paper have in common? OK, so what do consulting fees, underwear, razor blades and toilet paper all have in common? The real connection is...
Leveraging AI to Create Amazing Content
In this age of technological advancement, the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been expanding across various industries. It has become a powerful tool for content creators and marketers,...
Bx Networking Podcast S02E18: Leveraging Trends In Your Business | Russell Cummings
You go from thoughts to words to actions, and that's a quote from today's guest, Russell Cummings. And as an entrepreneur, you might aspire to conquer the world and spread your wings across oceans....
Beyond the Noise: Clearing the Path for Business Success in 2024
As we gear up for the festive season, I’m taking a moment to share some thoughts on how you can make the most of the holiday downtime to think about your business. We’re talking about a little...
The Runway to 2024
As we approach the end of 2023, it's time for small business owners and managers to prepare for the runway that will catapult your business into a successful 2024. In Australia, the months leading...
Now is the time to double down….
I hope you're well and surviving these challenging times... Your response to COVID19 will depend on your industry, business structure and level of resources and I'm sure that you have addressed the...
Online Workshops are the go!
In the current environment, its a great time to be doing some planning with the team but how do you do that when everyone is working from home? On Tuesday, I leveraged the technology and ran a 100%...
Australian COVID19 Information
We have compiled links to key Australian COVID19 Information Resources. Follow the links. CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER COVID UPDATES COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a new virus. Symptoms...
[TOOL] Trigger Point Budgets
Trigger Point Budgeting is a simple tool that I've been using with clients for over 20 years. If you refer to the Coronavirus model we've discussed previously, your model is going to be around...
The 3 Barriers to Your Success
I find that when we reflect on our business and personal performance, there are always areas where we could have improved. I’m sure there are plenty of times when things have gone extremely well,...
Build Your Discipline: The Crucial Role of Personal Discipline in Productivity
In the intricate dance of personal productivity, one of the most influential partners is undeniably personal discipline. The ability to navigate the myriad tasks and responsibilities that accompany...
Focus: The Cornerstone of Productivity
In the fast-paced business world, let's explore why staying focused is a game changer for time management, personal productivity, and planning. This article zooms in on Focus – a key component of...
Unlocking Your Productivity Potential: Focus, Discipline and Control
In the fast-paced world of business and life, effective time management and productivity are the keys to achieving our goals and realising our dreams. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a manager, or...
Discipline: The Key to Productivity
In the pursuit of productivity and success, one factor reigns supreme: personal discipline. While focus directs our attention and control manages our environment, it is discipline that drives...
Control: Elevating Productivity through Disciplined Environments
In the intricate tapestry of personal productivity, the third pivotal element is control – the mastery over one's environment and the adept use of strategic tools. This article delves into the...
My Top 10 Productivity Hacks for working at home
In this new environment with lots of people now working from home and coming to terms with what that means, there are some good productivity hacks for remote workers. Productivity is about 3 things...
Using Zoom for remote communication
As we move to a period of less face-to-face contact, there is a growing need to make better use of video conferencing tools like Zoom. However, I'm finding that there is a large number of people...
[Lessons Learnt] Sales and Networking
Here's part 2 of the Lessons Learnt series we kicked off recently. In this video are my 3 tips on Sales and Networking, which I've learned over 37 years in the industry. First one is that "Everybody...
[Lessons Learnt] Marketing and Promotion Tips
Hey there! I'm excited to kick off the Lessons Learnt series with you, where I'll be sharing insights gained over my 37 years as a business advisor. Each video will be short and sweet, focusing on...
Unlock Your Business’s Potential in 2024: Mindshop’s Business Leader Success Insights
In the 2024 landscape, Mindshop's Business Leader Success Insights Report emerges as a vital beacon for leaders navigating through the tumult of modern business challenges. This article synthesises...
Is Your Marketing Effective?
Marketing is one of the most important and time-consuming activities of business owners as we all want the right image for our business and more of the right clients. We want them to not only see...
Marketing Madness
In a recent blog we discussed how we can make sure that marketing is effective for our business. This blog reiterates that while you need ensure the effectiveness of your Marketing, it is also...
How to measure performance in small business using OKRs
Russ was interviewed on OKRs as part of the GTMHub Podcast series on OKRs and performance measurement in business. In this interview, Russ covers a lot of ground like the ways OKRs can help small...
Management Decision-Making for Business Success: A Practical Guide
In the dynamic world of business, effective decision-making is the linchpin for success. Yet, many managers grapple with the challenge of lacking a clear process. Fear not, for I bring you a...
Get the most from Social Media – 10 Tips
Social Media has played a part in most businesses since it was invented but still the sentiment in the business world about social media tends to be divided. There are those who think it’s an...
Mastering Takt Time: The Ultimate Sales Budgeting Tool for Business Owners
If you're a business owner striving to efficiently track your sales budgets and ensure they automatically adjust based on actual performance to meet your annual targets, you're in the right place....
Building the like, know and trust factor with your clients and customers is an important part of business. In the digital age, it takes longer to build trust and is easier to break it. In the first...
Managing Remote Teams
As we know, the makeup of teams has changed with COVID19. We've got more people working remotely—working from home or in other offices, working with split shifts with half the team working in other...
What can business owners do to manage their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all businesses in one way or another. With no clear end to this crisis in sight, business owners are becoming increasingly anxious as to how to best handle their...
COVID19 BUSINESS SURVIVAL GUIDE
I hope the pressure of the COVID19 situation is not getting you down. The impact of the virus will vary widely across businesses and as a result there is no "1 size fits all" solution. Some...
Setting up for business success in 2020
2019 is almost over and we’re in the last minute sprint to the Christmas break and some holidays. However, it's also a great time to stop, prop and reflect on the year that has been. I work with a...
It’s the little things that matter
In many businesses, particularly in service businesses, clients often cannot tell whether you are any good at what you do - there are no benchmarks. Consumers often only find out how poor a supplier...
Who is responsible for mental health? Challenges of managing today’s workforce
The issue of mental health is one that comes up multiple times a day. Over the last few years, I have noticed the increase in the number of my clients who have employees experiencing mental health...
What apps should you have in your eco-system?
In our first article on this topic, we highlighted the process for defining the apps and tools you will require in your eco-system of apps for your business. If you missed that article, you will...
Defining Your Ecosystem of Apps and Tools
I find that many people have apps and tools that they use that don't work with each other, don't work across platforms and are actually a "pain in the neck" as they increase complexity and reduce...
A Changing Environment
Change is a fundamental and common element to our business environment and this will continue to impact on the whole Australian economy for the next few years. As we have discussed previously, both...
The Business Leader of the Future – will you have what it takes to succeed?
“Traditional ways of managing a business are coming to an end.” – Gary Hamel, The Future of Management It has been a recurring theme in our blogs and webinars that we are in a fast-changing business...
5 Key Trends in Australian Business
Doing business in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) environment requires business owners to always be one step ahead of the curve and continuously think of ways to successfully...
10 hurdles to overcome when learning new skills
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, learning new skills are necessary to stay relevant. Regardless of what your role is in a business, you will very quickly go backwards if you are not...
6 rules to creating the ideal organisation
Creating the ideal organisation is considered to be much like finding the Holy Grail – hard if not impossible. But this didn’t stop Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, experts in Organisational Behaviour,...
Making Profit: Key attributes to a responsive business
One of the many obligations for all enterprises – big, small, not for profit or private is making a profit. And everyone involved in these enterprises know that a policy of maintaining the status...
Finding Opportunities When There are None to Find
How does one steer a person to their potential and then guide them to see a problem as an opportunity? It could be said that personal optimism and pessimism are the defining difference, or maybe...
Apps to Increase Productivity in 2015
I am always keen to discover new ways that technology can help improve my time management and productivity as these are critical to my business success. As we are all aware, mobility has changed our...
One Question
The one question you need to be able to truly answer… “Why would someone buy from me and not the person down the road?” Easy to ask, difficult to answer. Put another way, are you clear on what makes...
Improve Your Productivity with Power Naps
Numerous sleep experts highlight the benefits of improved alertness and concentration following a 20-30 minute power nap. My challenge has always been that I seem to wake up after the nap - drowsy...
Creating Simple Websites
Creating a simple cost-effective website is relatively easy. If you need a special design with custom features, etc then this method is not for you, but if you need a simple website (even one with a...
Assessing our Executives
Skills your Business Leaders must have In order to achieve organisational goals, effective leadership is essential. But how does one become effective? What are the key skills that we require...
Three Ways To Unlock Innovation
One way not to go to unlock innovation is to hold a brainstorm! Or at least to turn up with butchers paper, pens and little else! You need stimuli and a process to gain insight and inspiration. You...
Leading with a Challenge
“People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.” – Umberto Eco I recently finished reading an interesting book called The Challenger Sale, by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. I’m not...
What is Marketing?
This is a conversation I often have with clients. Many businesses take a really narrow view – ‘it’s what we put on our web, print on our brochures or broadcast via our ads’. Effectively what they...
Marketing 4C’s – Moving from a Monologue to a Dialogue
With over 3,000 commercial messages served up to an individual every day it’s no wonder people feel overwhelmed with choice. Add to that an economy under stress, and brands desperately trying to be...
Top 6 time saving tools and apps – Leveraging technology to really save you some time
As I am essentially a “One Man Band” with some external support, I am always on the lookout for how I can use technology to improve my productivity. I’ve focused on some key areas that I know work...
Taking Control of Your Time
In our recent webinar, I highlighted some of the key tools and concepts that I use to manage my time. You can watch a short 3-minute summary here or watch the full 30-minute webinar and...
7 Tips for Social Media Success
With devices such as the iPhone and iPad taking homes, offices and almost all places by storm, browsing the web and connecting to sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter is such an easy thing – making...
Making the best use of a Virtual Assistant
In previous posts on this blog, we have highlighted the reasons why you might want to engage a VA and the detail of the process you might use to find one. In this short video, we highlight the...
Improving your productivity
Most of us are working too long and too hard. This short video highlights the key elements in how to improve productivity and save 8 hours in every week. This is based on Russell Cummings'...
Developing our Leaders to Manage Chaos
In this article, I just want to talk to you about some recent changes we’re noticing in developing leaders in very chaotic environments. The Current Business Environment There’s a new term being...
Do you need a Business Advisory Council for your business?
Many family businesses suffer from “loneliness at the top” and a lack of external input and this can compromise business growth and performance. One option that I would obviously advocate is using...
Who has the most influence over the success of your business?
This article is about understanding the stakeholders in your business and how we can influence them What is a stakeholder? According to BusinessDictionary.com, stakeholders in general are “…a...
How Mobile Apps Changed The World
It is not a new idea that smartphones and mobile applications are the latest buzz in the cellphone world. These kinds of devices and applications are already a part of almost everyone’s personal...
3 Key Ideas to Help Business Leaders Succeed in 2013
1. When did you last complete a competitor analysis? Almost all business leaders are aware of their direct competitors but when was the last time you actually completed a formal analysis by way...
How to Deal with the Leadership Shift
Businesses are under increasing stress as markets are increasingly volatile, clients are more demanding, talent is scarcer and change occurs in faster and shorter cycles. To survive and thrive...
How to Make Your Social Media Work For You – Without Becoming a Slave to It
You can use Social Media as an important part of marketing and sales efforts in your business to produce new leads and higher conversions. Or you can spend a lot of time on it for no result. How do...
Management is Not Leadership
In today’s business world, most businesses are run by very competent people who are not necessarily the world's best leaders. Most leaders are not Ghandi or Nelson Mandela but in my years of...
The Top 3 Business Issues for 2013
At the end of 2012, Mindshop (www.mindshop.com) conducted a global survey of business leaders involved in various business programs and groups across the Mindshop network in Australia, NZ, UK and...
Planning for 2013
The start of the year is a great time to develop plans for the coming year and this year, I’ve come up with a few simple steps that will help you get the ball rolling for 2013. 1. It's...
New Year’s Affirmations
Every New Year brings a fresh start, a new life, a new outlook or perspective. And for most people, the New Year usually brings to mind a bunch of resolutions they would like to accomplish and...
The Benefits of Family Business
The term "Family business " usually refers to a small or mid-sized company that has a local focus and is plagued with a familiar set of dilemmas such as succession. In spite of that very...
Kanban Flow
If you find yourself overwhelmed with all of the stuff you need to do, here’s a great productivity tool I found on the web that can help you get organized easily. This tool is called the KanBan Flow...
Business Failure
The flipside of "success” is "failure” and it’s the latter that every business owner and manager strive hard to avoid. By definition, the term "business failure” refers to the cessation of a...
Grade Your Website
I recently stumbled across a great resource for getting a benchmark on your website. It a free service from Hubspot.com called "Marketing Grader" and you'll find it at...
Using your iPad for Presentations
Using Your iPad To Make Presentation As part of my role as a Coach, I tend to deliver a range of tailored training programs for my clients. This usually involves a laptop computer, a presenter...
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Wonder when you’d get the best results with your marketing strategies? Wonder no more – with a new insight by Simon Sinek called The Golden Circle, you are sure to inspire your consumers and...
Tailoring your Marketing to your Consumers
I recently posted about an interesting ad campaign from Canada using Porsches in a wealthy suburb in Toronto. Let's expand on this concept of really understanding your target market and...
The Process of Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA)
The process of searching for a VA for your business is fairly easy (it worked well for me!) and is similar to recruiting an assistant locally. The only difference is that 100% of the process is done...
Should you Hire a Virtual Assistant?
If your business requires you to be on the road most of the time and/or you find yourself needing assistance to get secretarial and administrative things done then a Virtual Assistant (VA) is what...
10 New Year’s Resolutions for Business Owners
In my latest blog, Planning for Success in 2012, I shared a simple process that can help you think about the importance of taking time to prepare and make a start for the New Year. If you’ve read...
Planning for Success in 2012
There’s no better way to start the year than by thinking about your plans for your business in 2012. With that said, I want to take you through a simple planning process that will help you make a...
ZMOT – How Can you Use This in your Business?
Marketing has always played an important role in the success of businesses. It is one of the essential processes and is the major driver of future sales and profitability. But what does marketing...
Are Meetings Dead?
Meetings are an important part of communication in most businesses but it is a poorly understood discipline. For many people, a meetings is that it is something that is boring, takes a lot of time...
How to Create iPhone Apps – No Programming Knowledge Required
The number of people that I talk with who have a great idea for an iPhone app is incredible. The challenge for most of us in how to make it happen. Too many of the online resources are superficial,...
Must Have Business Technology for the Mobile Exec
As a business coach working closely with business owners and managers in a wide variety of settings, I am frequently out of my office and "on the road". In the last few years, I have found some...
The Lost Art of Management
You know, I think that over the last few decades that “business” has lost the art of managing their people. (I say “business” because obviously there are some great managers out there – but, in...
What are the Barriers to Developing an iPhone App?
The Apple App Store is an amazing marketplace that has changed the way we interact with technology and how we purchase and deliver software solutions. It is a great business model. The strength of...
RSS – What is it? How Do I Use It?
RSS Feeds – What are they? How can I use them in my business? In this day and age, internet and mobile technology play a big role in everyday life. This is especially true for those of us who...
To Tweet or Not Tweet
To Tweet or Not to Tweet Social networking has indeed changed the world. Since its introduction, this modern phenomenon, which is also referred to as social media, has provided a new and faster way...
Getting Some Balance in your Life!
One of the key issues that impacts on most business owners and managers is the issue of Life Balance. This issue is relevant at all times in our lives and if the area has not been reviewed recently,...
The One Page Plan
The One Page Plan covers the key elements of a Business Improvement Plan by summarising the NOW, WHERE and HOW. In the NOW Summary, you need to pull out the key points of your current position,...
Why Plans Fail
There are several other reasons why business managers don’t plan: Traditional business plans are too complex Traditional business planning fails to address many of the current issues in our business...
Getting the Right People
Like so many other areas of good business management getting the right plan in place for management of your human resources can increase profits dramatically if implemented correctly. Getting the...
Reducing Waste in your Business
Waste in most organisations accounts for between 15% and 30% of the total operating cost of the business and is often higher than this in service industries. Therefore if your business has costs of...
Getting the Structure Right!
People: Some people want to change, others resist it. Its sometimes necessary to admit that some team members have become a liability. If such people form the major part of a team, the team is...
3 Stages of Improving your Business
The 3 Stages are illustrated in the diagram below. Stage 1: Structure Most people are aware the first stage in a business improvement process is to get the business structure right. The right...
The Neat Analysis
NEAT Analysis We have developed a simple methodology for looking at our marketing and business development options and have called it NEAT, which stands for: Number of Customers Efficiency % Average...