On Career Change Self-Help Books

It all started with a walk and a field full of celandines...

 

You know how a walk can sometimes put things into perspective, well, this morning I was thinking...

Do you want to make loads of money? Sure you do, admit it. Well, here's an idea. I read recently on a career development website, that if you want to turn your passion into a paying career, you have to be able to solve a problem for people. Not just a small, inconsequential problem, but something that they're really desperately worried about.

What could be more worrying than not having a job, or being in a job, but hating so much and wanting to do something different, or feeling that years ago you should have taken a different route and wanting to go back now and try a new path.

So, all you have to do is write a book to tell these people how to change direction.

Explain first why they got into their unhappy situation in the first place (get them on side), make sure they get the point that it wasn't their fault. Tell them their parents and school teachers gave them expectations that didn't really fit with their true values. They've been living lives along paths laid down for them by other people, so it's no wonder they're not happy.

Next, tell them that if they go back to discover what they really wanted when they were young and then focus entirely on that passion, they'll find themselves wonderfully successful and deliriously happy. Now here's the essential point - you have to give them examples of people who've actually done that. Make sure you find quite a lot of examples. If you struggle  here, talk to other self-help authors, lots of them have managed to change career and make money at it.

Publish the book, promote it mercilessly in as many ways as you can, especially with your own blog and with TV interviews and voila, you'll make a fortune. In no time at all, you'll be able to add yourself to the examples of people who've applied your process and become happy and successful. You'll be able to quote yourself as an example in another author's new book.

If you want mega bucks, add a training/workshop programme to your website. Get people to sign up for and pay to join your teaching groups or to see you speak at motivational conferences.

Got the picture?

Over the last few years I've purchased quite a lot of 'you can change your life' type self-help books. A few are I accept, genuine attempts to help, written by people who really believe they have an approach that helps. However, it's becoming incredibly clear to me that there's also a huge and growing number of people out there attempting to make money out of our unhappiness.

I now have a few tests that I apply before buying a new self-helper. First, have a look at their website. If the blog starts a few weeks before the date of first publication and posts fade out after a few months, that to me is a good sign that it's not a serious solution, but a marketing tool to sell the book.

Second, if the website asks you to sign up for workshops or other session that you have to pay for, then give it a wide berth. These are just working on the basis that if you're daft enough to buy the book in the first place, they might as well milk you for a few more dollars too.

If they point you in the direction of other service providers, also be careful - these are just affiliate marketing arrangements, where they get paid if you buy from the affiliate. You can bet they'll have a reciprocal relationship. (I especially disliked an author I read recently, who told you mid-chapter to go and do an online personality test which cost $60, to get the most out of his book - it was a pure plug for an affiliate marketer - how manipulative is that, he couldn't even tackle the whole subject in his own book.)

Finally (for now - I might add some more later), read the book's reviews on Amazon with a wary mind. Check to see how soon after receiving the book, the review was written. Many of these books require weeks of exercises before you complete your transformation. If a review claims to have 'changed my life forever', one week after getting the book, allow yourself the meanest little streak of cynicism and ask yourself if perhaps they're not deluding themselves.

Read the negative reviews too - they can be very enlightening.

I really do question the morals of some self-help authors. If you want to take money off desperate people, get on the self-help bandwagon, personally however, I think there should probably be a new circle of hell reserved just for them.

Years ago when I worked in advertising, one of my clients was a bank. They were the nastiest group of people I have ever met, having a contemptuous opinion of their customers and constantly looking for more and more creative ways to keep them in debt. I'm not sure that I'd put self-serving self-help authors in quite the same category - yet, but we'll see, time will tell.

Here's An Idea For A Laugh

I've been having a halfhearted chuckle to myself this morning. I listened to Woman's Hour and the marketing professional talking about how to distinguish yourself and grow your business. Yet again, we heard the stance of those for whom marketing means spending money, often other people's money.

Oh, what joy it would be if Woman's Hour would dedicate time to explaining to those of us running, or trying to run very small businesses from our kitchen tables, how we might also differentiate ourselves from the competition, find new contacts and new customers, not so much with the investment of half a million, more with twenty quid scraped form the housekeeping this month.

I just love listening to marketing luvvies telling us what we should be doing. So I had this idea. If they're really so clever, let's give them the chance to market one or two of our businesses, using just the resources we have. I'd love to see how they'd do it. No cheating mind - they wouldn't be allowed to tap into their contacts book - only our contacts book.

Because, lets face it, any old marketing manager can throw a few thousand at a campaign and get results, but it takes real skill and wily cunning to do it on a shoe-string. In fact, I think if I ever went back into corporate land, I'd insist that anyone looking for a job with me, first had to put together a marketing plan for a teeny weeny business for less than £50.

Do you think it could be done? I'd love to see them try.

Help For Very Small Businesses - How to Get New Customers

Some Things You Can Do To Find New Customers

Are you running a very small business, or thinking about starting up on your own? If you are, then one of the most critical factors is getting yourself customers - enough to keep you in business.

Lots of people start up with a few customers already 'on their books', usually people you've previously worked with or for. This is a really good way to start, but try not to have all your eggs in this one basket, because the nature of business is that sooner or later the circumstances will change and then you'll be left needing to find yourself some nice new customers to deal with.

So, it's very important to think about how you'll find these precious new contacts, even if at the moment, you have enough business to keep you going. Remember, people move on; the contact who loved you, might be replaced by someone who just doesn't click with you, you do an amazingly good job helping to grow a business, and then find yourself then unable to support their increased needs, your best customer might go belly-up, or decide to sell. There's a lot that can go wrong that's completely out of your control, but if you have a plan for finding new contacts, this isn't going to totally de-rail you when it happens.

So what can you do to attract lovely new prospects? Well, let's face it, none of us very small business owners are going to have mega-budgets to throw at this one, so here are a few suggestions that won't break the bank, but will produce results.

I've divided the ideas into those that work for very small local businesses and those more suitable for very small businesses whose customers are more spread out. Have a read through and see if you could apply them to your business.

Local Business Development 
If your work is done in a limited, local area, then you have a variety of options.

Leaflets
The old chestnut of a local leaflet drop still works. The more you know about the people who'll want your service or product, the better you can target your leaflets. So, if you're offering a gardening service, don't leaflet drop the local blocks of flats - instead, drive or walk around your area and decide which gardens have the most potential - big ones, ones where the owners are too busy to do it themselves, rough looking gardens in posh areas - you get the picture. Then produce a simple leaflet - you can do it on your computer - and print a few off. Then off you go and put them through the letterboxes.

It doesn't always have to be homes you distribute to either. I know a photographer who popped leaflets into the school bags at her daughter's primary school to kick start her business.

Don't do too many at a time, so you can make alterations if you need to. Make your leaflet highlight the benefits your service will give to the customer - what problem will it solve. E.g. Working too hard to be able to do the garden? Don't let your garden let your house down etc...

Leaflets really don't need to be glossy jobs, in fact as a very small business, it's often better to keep it simple. The more personal you can make it, the better. People like to buy from people they feel an affinity for.

Business Cards
I love business cards, they're so portable and easy to use. They might sound a bit tacky, but I bet you read the cards on notice boards don't you? The trick is to say clearly on the card what it is you do. Keep it simple. Then get creative about where you put them - OK, maybe not the phone box (depends on your business, I guess), but lots of shops have notice boards, pubs are another good option, as are churches and church halls. Think about the places in your area where your customers might spend time, and get your card out in those places.

Referrals
Use your existing customers to find your new contacts. This is a REALLY POWERFUL technique. When you're established and doing a great job, it's the type of thing that happens naturally. A customer who's happy with you, is very likely to let other people looking for a similar service, know all about how good you are.

But when you're starting, it's still a good idea to ask your customers if they hear about any possible contacts, to pass on your details. You could leave them with a small quantity of business cards, just in case, if you feel it's quite likely. Don't go in too heavily, remember the main thing is to do an excellent job and build your reputation, but it's fine to gently say that you'd love to hear if they know someone else who'd be interested in your service.

Also, if a customer does refer you and it turns into business for you, reward your referring customer - there's no need to go mad, but a little gesture of thanks goes miles and helps build your reputation even more.

Advertise Locally
Now a HUGE note of caution here. I've spent most of my career involved in advertising in one format or another, and although done correctly, it can work wonders, it is all too easy to get it horribly wrong and blow far too much hard earned cash, achieving nothing.

Now, having said that, the good news is that you can do it well, as long as you proceed with care and think very deeply about what you're doing.

So, think local, think targeted and think cheap. Which route you choose will depend on your target customer, but lets look at an example.

If our local gardener wanted to boost her contacts, what could she do? Well, if she knows that a lot of her customers are church goers, then a small advert in the Parish Magazine might be a good option. She'd need to check how many people it goes to - it's distribution - to be sure it would reach enough potential contacts. Her message would need to be targeted at that audience too.

She could put a small poster in the local pubs where her potential customers live. Posters are also great for libraries, church halls and local shops.

What about local newspapers? 
Well, I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't do it until I was very well established. Remember, a sizeable proportion of the distribution will probably go to people who would never be interested in your service - this is waste and you're paying for it, so unless you're confident that you'll reach the numbers you need, keep this one up your sleeve.

It might be fine for a local garage or car mechanic, but not so good for a local music teacher. Most households will probably be in the market for a car mechanic at some time, but far fewer will ever be looking for a piano teacher. If you're a mechanic, it's possible, if you're a piano teacher, think very, very hard.

Take a cold hard look at the numbers before you part with any money!

Publicity
The difference between publicity and advertising is (forgive me those who spend their lifetimes musing on this) that advertising is coverage you pay for, while publicity is something you get for free. Now in the real world, a lot of publicity is actually paid for in some format or another, but nevertheless, it's a good way for very small businesses to get known.

If you can make a story out of something that you do, have done or are going to do, then there's a good chance your local media (newspapers, radio, perhaps TV) will be interested. The key here is that it must be a story that will interest their audience, not just be nice for you.

So if the gardener just picked up her hundredth customer, that's nice for her, but it's not going to mean much to anyone else, however, if she wins a garden design award for her hundredth customer, then that's news.

There aren't many hard and fast rules here. If there's not much happening in an area, you might get coverage for a weaker story than you'd get in a busy place. But it pays to get yourself known by local media. I'll do a post sometime on how to do this in more detail.

Networking
Cards on the table, I loathe traditional networking events. So unless you're the sort of person that can enter a room full of strangers and instantly start up a conversation, I wouldn't advise too many of these. But networking doesn't really have to be like that.

It's more a case of being amongst the right sort of people. So think about the events where people you want to work with, typically gather and be there too. I think a lot of people dislike the feeling that they are being 'sold to', so instead, it's better to become part of a group and establish yourself so that people are drawn to you gently.

Our gardener might know that because a lot of her customers are church goers, that being involved at the church might be a good way to network with possible contacts. Actually I know a self-employed gardener who has a coffee and cake at her local church coffee shop every week; it's not selling, but it's effective networking.

If your business involves selling to parents of young children, being involved in local school sports might get you contacts.

Networking needs thought, but it's a good way to get yourself known, just don't expect fast results. Remember, people will want to trust you before they do business with you.

Looking Further Afield For Customers

For businesses that don't rely on a tight geographic market, there are other ways to find new customers.

Publicity
This time, rather than looking at local media, think about the trade journals in your field. Trade journals exist for practically every industry out there - don't believe me? Go google, you'll be amazed.

Now these publications really are after as much news as they can get, and they're always pleased to hear from people involved. So get your facts together and give them a story. I'll post on writing press releases another day - if you can't wait, there's lots of information online or great books on the subject.

If you have something new to sell, have won something, hired someone, been hired by someone - you name it (well practically) these journals will want to know. Granted it won't always be used, but it's a really good place to start getting your name seen and heard.

Joint Promotions
One way to pick up new business is to join up with another business that works with the same customers you're looking for, but offers non competing services or products.

This can work well for both parties, helping offer a more complete service and tying customers closer into their relationships with you.

For example, we found new business by joining with a friendly market research company and selling our mock-up pack service. They could offer their customers cost effective pack mock-ups and we got to build our reputation for fast, accurate and cost effective artwork. Both companies benefited and so did the clients.

Not all relationships will work this way, and it's not an instant solution, but it's a good route if you can find suitable business partners.

Networking
OK, so it's rearing it's ugly head again - sorry all you seasoned networkers out there - but if your industry is spread out, then you probably do need to get out there and be seen.

Go to trade conferences, fairs and exhibitions, talk to journalists, go on training courses from time to time.

Again, don't expect to see fast results, but aim to make sure that the people you want to talk to, will begin to know who you are. It's unlikely that business will come directly from doing this, but it's a good way to boost referrals.

By the way, journalists are an excellent source of contacts and make wonderful referrers. They know and speak to everyone in an industry, so if they're asked 'who should I speak to about x?', they're very likely to refer someone who's taken the time to brief them and develop a good relationship with.

Advertising
Proceed with caution. Trade magazines might be the right route, but always be sure that the numbers stack up before you commit. Sometimes a well positioned and targeted advert will really hit the button, but look for cheaper options first and always negotiate hard before you sign up. Never, ever ever take the list price - walk away. We aim to achieve 30 - 50% reductions off the list price every time - sometimes more, and we're just a very small company!

Cold Calling
A tricky one this. For very small businesses, it can be a big time eater - you have to find the numbers to call, then decide what to say and then actually do it - and that's supposing you're the sort of person who can cold call total strangers. Buying this service in isn't an option for most cash strapped very small businesses. What can you do?

Well, rather than think of it as looking for new business, it can help to think of it as planting the seeds of a new relationship. Don't try and sell anything, try and start a relationship. We once put together a short guide to local advertising and then cold called a range of companies, asking for the details of the person responsible for advertising and offering to send them a copy for free. The idea was to then follow up the call a few days later to see if they had received it and whether it was useful. We'd try to keep them warm by following up from time to time, eventually they'd recognise us and so when they did want to advertise, they'd come to us for help. It's not a quick process and there's high waste, but it does produce a proportion of nice warm contacts.

Some companies use the quantity approach to cold calling - the more you approach the better the chance that one will want to work with you. Others prefer the quality approach - they carefully select the companies they want to work with and offer a much more targeted approach - this technique gives a better return, but takes much longer to do. Both approaches are valid, it's up to you what works best for you.

An alternative that can work, is to get someone else to cold call for you - and then you can do it for them in return. For some reason, some people find it practically impossible to do it on their own behalf, but are quite confident doing it for someone else. Have a think about your friends and business contacts - are there any people who you could do this cold-call swap with?

Well this is turning into a long post, so I'll stop here. The main thing is not to wait until you're desperate for new customers before you start looking for them - as I think you'll have seen, a lot of these techniques take time and effort before they produce results - but they do work.

The other thing is to PERSIST. It's a well researched fact, that new customers very rarely respond to the first approach from you. I've seen figures that say it takes an average of six times before they're converted to paying customers. So the message is, 'if at first you don't succeed, keep trying'

What Does My Reading List Say About Me?

Thanks to my enforced holiday, I've managed to read a lot more than I'd normally get time to do over the last few weeks.

After seeing Sister Wendy Beckett on TV again, I decided to read some of her books. I'd borrowed her Story Of Painting from the library about a year ago. I loved it because you can dip into it and learn little snippets of art history whenever you pick it up. I think I renewed it about three times, but eventually it went back, so while I was ill, I looked for it on Amazon and managed to get a copy to keep!

I'm so pleased that I did. It's a brilliant introduction to art over the centuries and perfect for someone to use as and when they feel like a moment of culture. I've found it a bit like choosing a delicious chocolate from an expensive box and savouring it.

I also bought Sister Wendy's book, Speaking to the Heart. It's a collection of 100 poems, selected by Sister Wendy and dealing with themes of Longing, Wonder, Courage, Sorrow amongst others. I'm gradually reading my way through. I'm not heavily into poetry, although some have had a profound effect, but I don't know many of the poems in this anthology. Each poem has a short comment from Sister Wendy preceding it, which also gives an insight into how she understands the meaning of the verse.

The other book that I bought was The King James Version of The Bible. You'll probably know that this year is the 400th anniversary of it's introduction. There have been programmes on the TV and radio about it. I've never had any inclination to read the Bible - there are about six of them in the house, acquired from relatives over the years, but when I looked, only one was the KJV and that was absolutely tiny. In fact it was inscribed to my Grandfather from my Grandmother in 1917 when he was fighting in the trenches. Sadly, my middle-aged eye-sight couldn't cope with the text size, so I bought a new copy.

As a big Shakespeare fan, I'm entranced by the language. I know that a great many phrases we use in common parlance come from the KJV or Shakespeare and reading through, it's fascinating to come upon them as they were originally written. It's huge - OK I know - so I decided to start with the New Testament and then go back to the Old Testament later. It really is possible to read it as an amazing historical story book and I'm picking up a lot of other references as I go along. It's also intriguing to read the different accounts of the same story from different writers. I think the part of my brain that enjoys a good detective story are firing off as I read.

Oh yes, talking of detective fiction, I've also read Caroline Graham's Death of A Hollow Man - lovely and gory Midsomer Murder. And last week I re-read Barbara Sher's Live The Life You Love. She's my favourite life-coach, so much more down to earth than many. I can't exactly say I've managed to do much of what she suggests, but it makes me feel better just reading her books.

I think if you didn't know me, this reading list would give you quite a weird impression of what I'm like and what I enjoy doing. I wonder what other people's reading lists say about them? What have you read in the last few weeks? What would it say about you?

By the way, have you been watching the moon for the last couple of nights? I woke up coughing in the night and was amazed - the moon was shining right through the chink in the curtains and it was INCREDIBLE! 

Hello World, It's Good To Be Back

What a few weeks it's been. February is always busy because we have family birthdays and of course St Valentine's Day, all in a short space, and there was the half term holiday, so we were off to stay in St Germain En Laye with my sister-in-law. And the girls had various activities to do before we went away - you know the scene - lots of things happening, lots of planning to do to keep on top - normal busy life.

Then just one day before my birthday, I started to cough. A persistent, nagging little brute that just wouldn't let up. The joke here is that for practically my entire childhood, I was ill on my birthday. As the cough took hold, I shared a small smile with my Mum - I knew she'd understand. Well that was three weeks ago, and today is the first time since then that I can honestly say that I'm starting to feel better. Not actually well, but at last I feel that I will be better.

It has been awful. A chest infection you really wouldn't want your worst enemy to endure.

But today is different and at last I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I almost feel spring-like. I certainly feel the need to get outside - I've barely left my bed for the last two weeks, so it's high time I was out and about.

Today I feel like making plans. This is an excellent sign because for the last few days, I've been almost too scared to plan anything. Now I know I'm on the mend.

Recalled to life, as Dickens would have had it.

But it hasn't all been doom and gloom. One of the joys of enforced rest is that you get to watch TV that you'd normally miss. So I had the pleasure of My LIfe In Books - what a treat! Sister Wendy Beckett managed to give me new reading ideas - I'm waiting for some of her recommendations to come back into stock at Amazon - Jeanette Winterson got a new fan, The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire remains a hero.  I also watched endless Time Teams, all of which I just adore - better than medicine. Oh and something called Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - another antiques show format. I love it - not so much for the actual stuff they find, but more to see how the different people approach negotiations - I think I've learned quite a lot.

So all in all, not the February/birthday I'd have ordered, but now that I'm on the mend, I can at least say that  it hasn't been a total waste of time.

It's good to be back.

International Spring Fair - NEC 2011

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Spring Fair at the NEC. For those who haven't experienced the fun of Spring Fair - and you really should - it's one of the biggest trade shows in the world, which showcases the widest possible range of gifts, home wear, jewellery and just about anything else you might sometime have wanted.

My connection with Spring Fair goes back to the 1990's, when I was responsible for organising the stand for a couple of employers. But although I've long since moved out of that specific industry, I've maintained a soft spot for Spring Fair and go as often as I can to soak up it's special atmosphere.

I think that what has always thrilled me about it, is the terrific mix of businesses you see there. Everyone, from the major international companies to start-up one man bands, and everyone has the opportunity to show off their goods.

If you want a lesson in stand dressing, just spend a few hours walking the halls and you'll have masses of inspiration. It never ceases to amaze me how well some companies manage to present their products - it really is an art form, even though transitory - in just a few days it will all disappear.

I'm always on the look-out for signs of good and bad exhibition practice, but I have to say that yesterday I was particularly impressed. Perhaps because it's early days - it doesn't end until Thursday afternoon - stand staff were still fresh and smiling, but I have to say that the welcome being exuded from most stands was almost palpable.

I took a friend with me on her first visit to Spring Fair yesterday, so it was interesting to hear her opinion of the event. After her initial taking aback by the sheer scale of the show, she was struck by the way in which you begin to see trends emerging across different markets.

Heaven knows how buyers navigate the show, but I do hope for the people who've invested so much time, effort and money into this year's Spring Fair, that it's the start of some excellent, long-term and profitable business relationships.

How To Exhibit Successfully At Trade Shows - Part Six

Home & Dry
This is the final part in my mini-series of posts on the subject of successful trade show exhibiting and it's all about evaluation and follow-up.

There's always so much to think about in the lead up to a show, that sometimes businesses forget to think about how they'll decide whether the show has worked for them or not. You might not worry, you might believe that you'll just be able to tell by some strange sixth business sense if it was worth your trouble.

But there are better ways to be objective. If you started the process with targets, then once the show has finished, it's time to decide how many of those goals were reached. Now is the time to call all the people involved in setting up and running the show together and listen to their thoughts and opinions. Think about what worked well and what didn't. What did you see other people doing that would be a good idea for you in future? By taking the time to evaluate now, while everyone's thoughts are fresh, you'll capture a much better quality oi response than if you wait a few weeks.

If you were careful in recording details of all the visitors to your stand, now you'll be able to quantify the results. How much did the trade fair cost you per visit? If you have results from previous years, you'll be able to compare this event with others - all very useful information.

Immediately after the show, it's essential to follow-up all enquiries. There is nothing guaranteed to turn a potential customer off more than to delay your response, but you'd be surprised how many companies fall at this hurdle. I'm particularly disappointed by those businesses who plead 'being at the show' for their tardiness. Let's face it, when you're in business, you go that extra mile, so whenever possible, find a way to follow-up immediately, even if it's just a 'thank you for your interest, we're working on your request and we'll contact you very soon with full details' type response. If you're at a show that lasts for a few days, don't wait until the show is over before you make these follow-ups; either do it yourself on the day in your hotel room before dinner, or have someone in your team able to do it for you.

Keep a note of visitor numbers by the day so you will know how to staff the stand if you choose to do it again.

Once you have actually made all the follow-ups, do another round of evaluation. This time, work out how much new business you've generated from the show contacts. This is ultimately going to indicate the cost/benefit to your business. Is it worth it? Is it worth doing it again?

The exhaustion that follows a trade show can be almost overwhelming, especially the ones that last for three or more days and it is just so easy to push evaluation stages out of your mind, but please don't, please close the circle and make this final stage an integral part of your exhibition process.

Sometimes what you discover is that it has been a very expensive exercise that hasn't delivered what you wanted. If that's the case, it's much better to know that and have facts to support it, than to have a 'gut feel'. At least with a thorough evaluation, you'll have the basis for deciding what to do differently next time. Which ever way you look at it, it's the essential last piece in the puzzle.

If you missed any of the other posts in this series, here are links to them.
Part One - To Exhibit or Not to Exhibit, that is the question
Part Two - Getting Started
Part Three - Creating A Brilliant Exhibition Stand
Part Four - All Present & Correct
Part Five - Tell Them You're There