Business Coach: Overwhelm Kills Consulting Business

Today we are going to talk about how overwhelm kills your consulting business. Overwhelm is an emotion and like all emotions it has a trigger that causes it to happen. Check to see if you have these tell-tale signs that may be causing you to feel overwhelmed. Look at the suggestions on how to deal with feeling overwhelmed and how you can turn the situation around in order to add maximum value to your life and your business.

Overwhelm is an emotion, not a business problem. Feeling overwhelmed is the same as feeling happy, sad, encouraged, disappointed, excited, or angry. Emotions are a response to something. You have to address the event that triggers their intensity. What trigger event do you notice? Can you point out what is happening in your business that is making you feel overwhelmed?

To-do lists are a trick. To-do lists are a major culprit of feeling overwhelmed. Do you have things on your to-do list that never move? Do you have things listed to help you avoid the real work of your business? If you have an unfocused to-do list, it only stresses you out. Yes, you will be busy, but the tasks don’t move your business forward. Actually, this unfocused to-do list only adds to the frazzled and unfocused felling that leads to feeling overwhelmed.

Do things that matter. In order to get things back in focus, do things that matter.

Commit to you. Commit to the things you know you need to do so that each day builds on the one before. Commit to the things that improve your expertise, your understanding of the daily business operations, and your understanding of your clients. Do the things that make you a better leader of your consulting firm.

Commit to your business. What are the things that must be prioritized in order to improve your business and help it produce a better outcome for your clients? Does your sales process need refining? Should you re-commit to your client retention strategy? Does your service offering need to be improved? Recommit to those things.

Commit to your employees. Recommit to your employees. There are things you owe to your employees, clients, vendors and outsourcers. These groups support you directly and indirectly. Make sure you are providing for them in the very best way you can.

Be honest. Be honest in your assessment of you and your business. It may be something in the above list or something else. Only you know exactly what it is. Whatever the issue, go after the things that actually matter to the growth of your business.

Solve the time management trick. In order to solve the time management trick, you need more than a time management hack. You need more systems in place, more procedures, and deliberate ways of producing high level results. More systems also means that you need less stuff. You don’t need more software, more employees, more sheets of paper, or more templates.

Additionally, you have to be able to measure success. What does success actually mean? You have to be able to differentiate between a good result, a great result, and a poor result. Your environment, your team, your vendors, and your employees also have to be able to know the difference between a good, a bad and a great result.

Finally, in order to better manage your time you must prioritize. Choose the things that are most important to you and make sure those things happen. If you are consistently doing the things that matter most and those are highest on the priority list, then you’ll do them well. You will end up getting more momentum in your business simply because you can provide the best energy on the things that provide the best value. While it makes simple sense, it is easier said than done. It requires heavy commitment.

Public Speaking for Consultants

Today we are going to talk about public speaking for consultants. You are a consultant and you finally got the opportunity to speak in front of prospective clients. This is a chance to communicate with people who want to hear what you have to say. Let’s talk about how to get the most out of that opportunity. We are going to go through a lot of content in this article, so get ready and focus.

Be clear about your end result. Whether your goal is to secure a client, secure a referral, secure a partner, establish thought leadership or whatever else it may be, articulate that goal for yourself. Write it down on your presentation scripts. Make sure you are clear on the result you expect to accomplish at the end of your presentation.

Focus. The next step is to focus on the people in the room.

Don’t overwhelm – unless you decide to. The first rule you should keep in mind is not to overwhelm them… unless it is on purpose. If your intention is to overwhelm the audience with information to show how broad the topic is (and how bad they need your help) that is a good strategy. However, if you find yourself rambling, sharing side stories, and giving too much detail, then you’re overwhelming in a way that is not helpful. Think about the end result and decide whether you should overwhelm or not.

10% love, 10% hate, 80% sway. The second rule to keep in mind is that 10% of the people in the room are going to love you, 10% are going to hate you, and the remaining 80% can be swayed in one direction or another. With that understanding, speak to the middle 80% and sway them. Be careful here: don’t try to sway them to work with you, sway them to make a decision. Help the audience decide whether it’s smart to work with you at this particular point in time. The last thing you want are poorly qualified clients in your mix. They take up more time than you have to give them. Sway the 80% to make a healthy decision.

Maintain their attention. Ask a question, stop, and wait for an answer. Let your thought provoking questions sink in and allow your audience to provide a response. Also be careful of reading your slides and focus on the story you are trying to tell. People like to hear stories, so have one core story that connects through all the slides. Add an impromptu element and show some life. It’s amazing what my clients reveal after they get off the word-for-word script. Talk honestly about what you do and you will perk up and come to life.

Have a call to action. Whether you want them to buy, take a trial, call, refer you, or follow you, challenge the audience to do something. You only have their attention for a finite amount of time; ask them to do something attached to your desired end result.

This is a great way to think about speaking in front of an audience before you actually get in the room. However you decide to design your final presentation, make sure that your content provides value for both you and your audience.

Phantom Problems for Consultants: Business Problems Only In Your Mind

Today we are going to talk about phantom problems. These are problems you believe exist, but don’t. I get this a lot from my clients and you may have a similar issue. You believe you have a specific understanding of the challenge your business faces and you want an answer… now. You want a silver bullet o r magic solution that immediately resolves it. If this sounds familiar, let me suggest that what you believe is the problem isn’t the problem at all. Some common examples will help explain what I mean.

I need a better time management solution. You are looking for a calendaring system, list management system, appointment scheduling system, a new app or a new website that will help manage your behavior or time management. The truth is, this is not really what you need.

It’s not about time management… it’s about priorities. Certain things are more important than other things. For example, how important is breathing to you? What is more important to you than breathing? Well then, by definition everything else is second to breathing. Additionally, how important is eating to you? If breathing is first and eating is second, then all the business tasks are third. If we keep thinking this way and take a look at your consulting business, certain tasks are as important as breathing and eating. That means every other task must come after these. Once you set your priorities, it’s easier to figure out where your time should be spent.

It’s not about time management… it’s about clarity. You have to be clear about what is important to your business and what isn’t. That means you have to separate your thoughts, ideas and strategies; look at them individually and figure out which are most important and mean the most to your business. Ask yourself, “Do I truly understand each element of the problem?” If you are not clear on what the issue is, you are doomed to solving the wrong problem over and over.

It’s not about time management… it’s about panic. You create to-do lists that are so long they intimidate you. You see how much you have to do and it creates panic, anxiety, and stress. You have to flip that. You must be able to look at your to-do list and not be intimidated by its length or what’s on it. As you develop the discipline to look at your tasks in a different way, the scary and uncomfortable emotions will subside.

I need cash, now! The second major point that my clients come to me with quite often is “I need cash, now! I need customers, now! I need money!” I suggest to you that it’s not about the money. For example, what will you do between today and the day when the money arrives? Whatever you do, it has to be something healthy. How do you know your new money is going be spent any differently than your previous money? If you know you made a mistake in the past, how do you make better decisions moving forward? You have to think hard about it. Also, how much money do you really need? How many clients and engagements do you really need? Until you are clear about your need, any new money that comes in the business is likely to be spent just as poorly as the old money.

I can’t trust my employees. Another common discussion I get from my clients is, “My employees don’t do good work. This is a very limited belief about your current employees. You may say, “John Brown is a jerk and nobody likes him.” That may be true, but what is also true is that you hired him! Maybe it is time to let him go. If John Brown is that unhealthy to the environment, he doesn’t belong. The same is true for known underperformers. You need to let them go if you can’t train them to be better. The point is, don’t let your business be subject to a mistake that was made from a hiring perspective. You can fix it!

The real issue is your perspective on the problem. You don’t have an issue with your time, money, or employees. It’s your perspective on these things that has you intimidated. For example, you may be too close to the issue. When you stand too close to an issue you are able to see all the minor details, but you can’t get a wide enough perspective make major business decisions. Talk to an expert, consultant, or coach to provide some feedback and be a mirror to you. When you fully embrace the appropriate perspective you can prioritize the issues that really deserve your attention.

These are all examples of phantom problems. These are problems you believe exist, but don’t. If you as a leader can achieve a different perspective on your own company, you can solve problems more quickly. Push for a clear perspective on the root cause and commit to the behaviors that will resolve the issue. Think hard today about what it is that’s keeping your company from growing. Think about what that real problem is, get help if you need it, and grow your business, like you should.

Selecting a Safety Consultant for Film and Television

The issue of selecting a safety expert in any area is always a decision that’s important to get correct; within the highly specialised world of film and TV which can often be multinational projects the decision is increasingly complex with many “experts” available.

What Kind of Expert:

The first question is what you specifically need in your safety expert – this may be a safety advisor/consultant in most cases – however in some specialist cases you may get more benefit from hiring an expert in that field as opposed to a pure safety consultant/advisor.

Examples may include Experts in Mountain Rescue, Local Guides, Security Consultants or Rigging Experts – in many cases these can sit alongside a more specialised safety expert.

Experience:

Film and TV are highly specialised environments in terms of the artistic demands, the technical infrastructure and the highly contractorised nature of the workforce. It is not as simple as hiring an expert and leaving them to understand the industry.

Ideally in a client’s shoes I would look for people I’ve had recommended, who have a record in the industry – having identified my short list I would then use the definition of competence above to choose between them.

Qualifications:

It’s important that safety qualifications and expertise are considered alongside industry knowledge. In many countries safety within film and TV has become a sub set of the stunt industry rather than a field for pure safety professionals. This can be a good thing on a stunt led production but it has meant that people with no specific training in health and safety have set themselves up as experts – and they may be experts in relation to stunts but a film or TV production has many risks and safety issues beyond the pure stunts.

So look at what defines competence in the country in question – in the UK for example the government through the HSE has established a consultants register; http://www.oshcr.org that allows you to search for competent safety professionals; Australia has established a Certificate IV in Occupational Health and Safety – each country has its own safety body – check any expert against these criteria.

Country:

Any film or TV will be made in a country or possibly several countries. It is important that the Production remembers that safety law whilst based on universal principles does change from country to country – or indeed in some less developed world may have no law with regards to safety.

It’s important you have an expert who recognises the need for solid foundations and core principles but can also read and understand local law – or who knows where to locate English translations of that law.

Equally working in less developed nations doesn’t suit every personality – find those with experience of such nations who understand the complications and demands.

Responsibility:

Employing a safety expert does not remove a Producer or 1st ADs responsibilities; it should be there to help them meet their responsibilities through support and expertise.

The actual responsibilities a safety expert takes on to a degree depends on what you agree with them – they can take on specific responsibilities and duties beyond simply advice providing that’s agreed in advance and they are given the authority to deliver on those agreed responsibilities. For example I have several times ran the whole safety for a major TV show – however that show gave me the authority to sign off or to demand better props, rigging, design etc. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can delegate responsibility without the power to carry out that responsibility.

TV and film are fun environments on a good day; everyone wants to work in TV and film; but they are also highly emotional and high pressure environments – make sure the consultant has the personality to fit – they need to be hardy, thick skinned and strong as well as flexible in their approach. TV and film make demands unique to that industry – laws are rarely written with film or TV in mind hence law and best practice need interpretation and invention to fit the industry – find the consultants who understand that.

The general concepts of selecting a Safety Consultant are discussed in related articles and provide more background information on broad competence as opposed to the industry focus here.

Chris Elliott is a long established Health and Safety Consultant working in the film and TV industry; working across Drama, Entertainment, Factual Reality TV and News in. TV and also on a variety of film projects – he’s also been involved in writing HSE guidance for the creative industry. He brings industry knowledge and methods for managing safety in the creative industries – meeting safety needs but allowing the production needs to be met in whatever form they may take.

Why Should You Hire A Construction Consultant?

As you are probably aware of, construction is a long and complex process with the difficulty level and risk of failure increasing as the job gets bigger. As the construction manager, it is your responsibility to oversee every aspect of the project from planning to eventual turnover, and to ensure that the project goes smoothly. Your job is a particularly crucial one, and even small mistakes can be costly.

A construction consultant can be crucial to your operations, providing essential services that will make the project go smoothly and reduce costly mistakes. Among some of the services that construction consultants are routinely expected to provide are:

• Project planning
• Quality management
• Construction safety

A commercial construction project of any size will require thorough planning. By having a solid plan in place, you will greatly increase the likelihood of getting the results you want while reducing the risk of costly errors or safety issues. It would be helpful to hire a construction consultant at the very start of the planning process. Most such professionals are trained engineers, and they will be able to help you come up with a construction plan that meets your specifications and fits into your budget. This is an especially important concern, since most construction projects have very strict budget constraints.

Aside from budget concerns, quality is another important factor. As the construction manager, you will have to ensure the integrity and durability of the structure. It is especially important to pinpoint problem areas as early in the construction project as possible, as they can be costly and even life-threatening when left undetected. A construction consultant can be helpful throughout every stage of the construction process, identifying potential problem areas and suggesting possible solutions.

Safety assurance is another area where construction consultants can be invaluable. In any construction project, there is always a high degree of risk which again increases with the size and complexity of the project. By working with a construction consultant experienced in the various aspects of risk management, you will help ensure the safety of the construction personnel and everyone involved in the project.

A construction consultant is a highly specialized professional who is well-versed with various aspects of the construction business. Although the costs of hiring such a professional may seem superfluous and unnecessary if you already have a considerable number of projects under your belt, don’t neglect the benefits that such a professional can provide.

How Stretched Bar Lcd Display is widely used ?

Stretched LCD display, also known as BAR LCD displays.

Bar type LCD display series – ultra-stretched, ultra-wide by design – designed to meet the demands of the most restricted advertising digital signage spaces. With an emphasis on maximizing advertising space efficiently, digital advertising boards have been cut LCD screens effectively display information in small, narrow spaces such as store shelves, ceilings, and corridors.

Marvel Technology is a specialist digital signage manufacturer in stretch displays and have solutions in a variety of sizes and aspect ratios.

Marvel ultra-wide Stretched LCD display aspect ratio native stretched LCD panels presents you with a number of innovative ways to grab public attention,and gives excellent visual performance in a wide variety of applications.

Marvel have launched bigger display area floor standing model: 75inch Stretched Screen Shelf Standing LCD display.

Standard specification as below for your info:

Technique Parameter for LCD Panel:

Display size: 67.8inch

Screen type: IPS full view “BOE/LG”

Backlight mode: LED

Resolution: 1920×585

Brightness: 500nits (higher brightness optional)

Overall size: 1688.5mm x 545.8mm x19mm

Display area: 1651.5mm x 545.8mm

Viewing angle: 89/89/89/89 up and down/left and right

Service life: =50000h

Response time: 5ms

Audio output: 5W x 2

Working Environment:

Temperature

Working temperature: 0°C~50°C

Storage temperature: -20°C~60°C

Power supply:

Industrial High level Power module AC100~240V 50 /60 HZ

Power source: AC220V

Power rate: 90W

Standby power consumption: ?1W

Outer shell:

1. Main outer shell is made by extra quality Iron material

2. With a protection layer of high-penetrating Tempered glass (with 3mm-4mm thickness) on the surface of the LCD Panel.

3. Surface finishing: heavy industrial grade of powder coating with an anti-wear texture.

4. Color: black (For bulk order, color can be customized)

Stretched LCD display digital advertising boards several advantage features introduction:

1.Advanced Custom display area size & Highest in industry contrast ratios & Advanced super slim outline dimension.

2.Support choose from a range of brightness specifications for indoor and semi-outdoor applications. 350nits-1000nits.Elevated brightness and high resolution for true color expression in a range of lighting conditions. Delivering clear images in high brightness lighting conditions.

3.Industrial level LCD signage durability during continuous 24/7 operation.

4.Easy and Flexible installation way, wall mounted, floor standing, fold standing ,ceiling mounted,Embedded installation way.

5.Support split screen combined with Marvel content management software. User upload content by cloud server platform.

6.Support with high clear speaker inside, voice advertising attractive your attention.

7.Portrait or landscape content with wide viewing angles for versatile applications.

Stretched LCD screens is utilized in retail, advertising, public transportation, quick-service restaurants and other applications worldwide. :public building, museums ,supermarket,port , airport,school, park etc.. Specially for restricted area for advertising or smart info display board, such as subway station to inform Metro arrival as inform board, small smart screen with voice advertising display on the goods shelves in the super market, digital advertising boards in elevator etc.

Are You Using the Best SEO Consultant for Your Online Business Website?

The reason there has been such a surge in SEO consultants is that many people are intimidated by the thought of having to use search engine optimization for their online business websites. Because there is no exact formula for SEO there are many so called “SEO experts” who can unfortunately only provide limited results but will charge thousands of dollars for their services. If you know what you should be looking for then it is relatively easy to spot these so called experts.

If any of these statements come up in the interview then it might be a good idea to find someone who is more qualified.

1. You Get Guaranteed Results

As there is no exact formula to follow when doing search engine optimization it is impossible to guarantee results. If they promise that your online business website will be on the first page of Google then there is a strong possibility that they either have a basic misunderstanding of SEO or they are talking about the use of AdWords which can finish up costing you a small fortune.

Google has a whole fleet of people tweaking the algorithm constantly, in fact it has been estimated that the algorithm can be modified anything up to 400 times in a year. Even though these modifications are usually only slight it can still affect your website.

2. Buying Back Links

If your SEO consultant starts off by advising the purchase of back-links (which can also end up being very expensive), then it is definitely time to move on. Let’s face it anyone can buy back-links and you don’t need a so called search engine expert to do this for you. In fact you could probably learn how to do it in no time at all, so why would you need to pay an SEO consultant to do it for you.

It is essential to have a well rounded SEO strategy for your online business website and if the consultant you have hired cannot produce one then you need to find one who can. There are numerous options available on the internet.

3. Is Your SEO Consultant Talking Over You?

If an SEO consultant tries to constantly talk over you there are one or two reasons for this (and possibly both). Firstly they may simply think that they are better and more knowledgeable than you are and that you will not understand anything they tell you, so they don’t really need to bother.

The important point to remember here is that you are the person who is employing them. You are actually the one who is doing them the favor and apart from the fact that it is very unprofessional it should be a sure sign that employing their services is a bad idea.

Secondly it is very likely that they don’t understand search engine optimization well enough to explain it in simple everyday terms.

There are some other obvious warning signs as well such as the use of black hat SEO methods and the spamming of social network sites, but these three points we discussed above should be quite enough of a tip off to get a more qualified SEO consultant if you want your online business website to be successful.

Things To Remember While Hiring PPC Consultants

When it comes to Pay Per Click advertising campaigns, many of us show a certain degree of skepticism about hiring an external agent to manage them for us. After all, PPC campaigns look simple enough. You choose a few keywords, write the creative for the ads, fix a budget, make the necessary payments and your campaign is set up and running in no time. So why need PPC consultants to advise you on something that is so easy and simple?

Well, the truth is, while setting up a campaign is easy, making it worthwhile takes a lot more expertise and specialized knowledge than most of us have. No matter what they’ve been telling you, PPC management is serious business and one that requires a good deal of understanding of the process.

When you hire dedicated pay per click consultants to assist you with your search marketing activities, they not only advise you on the best way to set it up but would also continue managing it on your behalf so that you keep getting a consistently good return from your investment.

Most reputed pay per click consultants would offer you the following services. These are also a great checklist to ensure that you are getting the best services in all-round PPC management.

1. Keyword Building/Expansion: Departmental teams consult with each other, in conjunction with the client to produce thousands of specific targeted keywords for any audience.

2. Daily PPC Bid Management: It is a necessity to stay on top of changes that will affect your campaign performance.

3. Custom Ad Copy: Continuous Split Testing of ad creative to ensure maximum ROI.

4. Advice on best landing page design and selection: Along with split testing facilities to determine the most effective combination.

5. Custom Banners: Banners for campaigns on content related sites who have partnered with Google.

6.Return on Investment Analysis: The most crucial aspect of your entire marketing experience is this analysis. The best experts will give you the complete picture, always.

7. PPC Lead Generation: Many clients look for quality leads that can be turned into profitable returns. Some reputed companies can you on that front, too.

8. Time Zone and Geographic Campaigns: Are you looking to market in a certain region of the world? If so, your PPC consultants can pinpoint campaigns down to certain regions of a state for marketing with laser-precision.

How a Marketing Consultant Can Help Your Business Find Its Niche

A niche business market is one that is underserved or services only a distinct buying audience. If you’re looking to carve out a niche in the business world, a marketing consultant can help you define and promote it. A niche can be either a service or a product. Maybe you offer a specialised safety seat for children, with a patent being owned by you and unable to be replicated by competitors. Or maybe your area is lacking in upscale items for pets and you want to open a pet boutique. Whether your business is a service or product, if you are providing an underserved product or service, you have a niche business. Deciding on a niche can also help you stand apart from competitors in the same sort of business category as you.

Creating Your Business Idea

If you don’t already have an idea for an underserved business product or service, speak with a marketing consultant about researching the current market and finding out the needs of your community and prospective client base. Since professional marketers are constantly working with new and veteran business owners, they are familiar with which businesses are currently out there and which areas are severely lacking in certain goods or services. You should have a natural interest in the niche you want to do, and then work with your consultant to create a business plan and marketing goals.

Researching the Market

Before you start marketing your niche business to the public, you need to see how much competition is out there. If you’re lucky, you’ll be the only one in your local area to offer the product or service. But that doesn’t mean you’re the only one in the world to offer the product or service. You need to check how much online competition you have, which businesses similar to yours offer catalogues for their products, and where the closest related type business is to your area. Your marketing consultant will help you conduct extensive research so that when you do market the business as unique, you can state how and why it’s so unique.

Promoting Your Business

Once the legwork is done, it’s time to begin your advertising campaign. With all of the recent research you’ve done, your marketing professional should know exactly which types of advertising campaigns would work well for your business. They may choose to advertise in print publications, suggest you attend an expo or trade show, and if your business is truly a one-of-a-kind niche they may want to get you a radio or small television spot. Working with a marketing consultant not only gets the word out about your business, but it allows you to remain focused on building your niche whilst the expert finds cost-effective ways that promote it.

How Your Company Can Benefit From Professional IT Consulting

Computers are rapidly overtaking the world. A few decades ago many entrepreneurs were led to believe that computers are just a passing fad and they won’t gain any real traction – and let’s face it, they could hardly have turned out any more wrong. It seems that everything is done with a computer these days, and things are only going to move further in that direction as time goes by.

So obviously, if you want to keep your business ahead of everyone else, you have to make full use of modern technology and all that it offers you. And make no mistake, it offers a lot, as long as you know how to utilize it properly. That, however, is not something you can learn overnight. Proper, in-depth experience with computers and IT takes a lot of time to acquire, so the experts in this field tend to be highly valued.

If you want to make sure that all of your business ventures are successful, as far as technology and computers are concerned, you should hire an external IT consulting company to help you out in this regard. IT consultants work pretty much like any other type of consulting business – they provide their knowledge and expertise for a price, advising you how to best utilize their skills in your work. How exactly they’re going to do that for your particular type of business depends on what kind of work you do. ‘

In general though, if your company lacks a specific IT infrastructure, your consultant will likely start there. It’s important to work on a solid foundation, and you need to have a tightly developed backend system governing your IT operations. This will allow you to easily expand later on, which is vital when dealing with IT in your business.

This is actually one of the most critical points – you need to be able to scale up your IT services according to the expansion of your business, otherwise you’re in big trouble. The most common problem business owners encounter with IT is that their companies start to grow too fast, outpacing their IT departments. What happens as a result, is that your business will start to struggle to meet its IT demands, and you’ll slowly but steadily get into some serious problems.

An IT consultant is usually best hired early on in the development of your business, as the earlier they get started reorganizing your company’s IT structure, the better. So if you realize the need for a well designed IT organization in your company, one of the first things you should do is hire an IT consultant to manage that for you. You don’t have to listen to everything they say – they’ll likely have lots of ideas coming your way and they won’t expect you to implement everything they say anyway. But by discussing those things with the consultant and filtering out the inappropriate solutions, you’re quickly going to improve your business in terms of IT in all possible aspects that modern technology offers.