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Browse every published article connected to Lorraine Pirihi, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Lorraine Pirihi, or search within this exact expert archive.
Before you start complaining that your team are causing you headaches and not performing the way you want, take a look at yourself first. Gary who runs a plumbing business has 5 staff. He was always complaining that they were lazy, didn't use their initiative and would take advantage of him. ...
What are you focussing on achieving in your business in the next 90 days? Do you have any idea? If you don't then you better come up with a goal or outcome otherwise you may find that another 3 months has passed you by and you're no further ahead than where you are right now. When you've got ...
John is a personal coaching client and has been getting coached for several months. Since he's started coaching he's been resisting filling in a time sheet so we can both see where he is spending his time. I find he's not the only one. It seems that many people avoid doing this very simple ...
I recently spent an entire day with a client planning their business strategy for this year. This particular client had initially been referred to me by one of his colleagues who had heard me speak over 4 years ago. So how did John's friend remember me after all this time? Gary had been on my ...
Do you find it frustrating knowing that there must be a better way to manage your time, yet you can't seem to pinpoint exactly what you need to do? Well here's a simple secret that could easily save you a couple of hours a day. I've been coaching Greg for only a couple of months and in that time he has made big changes in his business and his life by actioning what he has learned.Now that he is planning his working day he's found he has easily saved 2 hours a day. That's 10 hours in a basic working week or, in other words, he has gained an additional day a week!
Whoever thinks that running your own business is a breeze obviously has never had one. There are so many areas you need to get right otherwise your business could end up disintegrating along with everything else in your life. You need to be organised and disciplined, a good marketer, ...
I attended a business women's event last week and was amazed at how many of the attendees presented themselves. This was a business event and the way in which many of them dressed you would have thought they were going to a local football game! I met a 'coach' who raved about how successful ...
Some time ago I spent a planning day with a new client to determine exactly what she wanted to achieve in her business over the next 12 months, where she is now and the exact steps she needed to take to reach her goals. On questioning Sophie about her income and expenditure, she told me 'my ...
This time of year, it's important to clear out the clutter and start the year with a fresh approach. I completely detoxed my own office over the break and couldn't believe how much stuff I had accumulated that I didn't need. I do my regular mini-clean-ups weekly and the major ones around 4 ...
Have you ever arrived for an appointment at the correct time only to be told the person you are seeing is running late? I'm sure that has happened to you on many occasions. In the story I'm about to relay to you, this incident happened to one of my clients recently. Gary and his wife arrived to see this health professional at the appointed time. The receptionist had even confirmed the time the day before. On arrival at the health clinic they were told the practitioner was running 30 minutes late.
Some time ago I used the services of a mortgage broker who in the first instance was very prompt and appeared very efficient. Although it took some time for the refinance to go through (that was caused by the bank and their legal people), all went smoothly. However, going back a second time to ...
I attended a Personal Mastery Program recently and there were many other people there, who like myself attend seminars and conferences to gain more knowledge so they too can improve their lives. However, it's not the knowledge that makes the difference, it's the application of that knowledge. ...
What I've noticed about very successful business owners, they are always learning and growing. The majority do not achieve their high levels of success on their own. The coach I'm currently working with is in two high-end coaching programs that she invests thousands of dollars a year to belong ...
How often do you take for granted the valuable knowledge that you have? n I'm constantly amazed at how the simple things that I know and share with my clients, can be a massive revelation for them. n For instance, Denise has a public relations business. She's well-known in her industry and ...
Wouldn't it be great that every time someone sends you an invoice for their services/products you pay for it immediately? The cash is always sitting in your bank account and no matter what bills you receive you can always pay on time. The theory is if you're good at 'budgetting', you should ...
Have you ever heard the saying 'work always expands to fill the time available? So what does that mean? It means that the longer you have to get something done, the longer you will take to do it.save time One of my clients recently committed to taking every Friday off. He blocked out the time in his diary and guess what? He gets the same amount of work done in the 4 days.
How many tasks do you take on in your business? Do you pride yourself on doing the bookkeeping, reacting to email, preparing your own proposals and presentations, attending networking events, making appointments, keeping on top of the paperwork, providing your service, packaging and delivering ...
Following-up is such a simple thing to do yet most business owners and entrepreneurs just can't get it right. Some time ago I used the services of a mortgage broker who in the first instance was very prompt and appeared very efficient. He was referred to me by someone else I knew who had ...
Networking is a very important marketing component for most businesses, yet so many people just don't seem to understand that to make it work there is a crucial step that must be done right...the follow-up. n At a recent event I attended I went up to the presenter afterwards and said that I was ...
Over the next few weeks, anything can change in your business. You’ll find that people often make decisions about what they will and won’t be doing in the new year. You will want to make sure that your business not only survives but thrives next year. It’s imperative that you put time aside and take the necessary action to ensure your clients and referral sources continue doing business with you. And if you have competent staff, ensuring that they continue to stay with you. If you’re one of those business owners who has neglected any or all of these people, guess what?
A few years ago one of my clients felt a tingling in his finger. Being a workaholic he didn't have time to pay too much attention to it. After all he had meetings booked all day and they were more important than a tingle in his finger. He was about to leave home, then collapsed. Luckily for ...
Do you have any favourite TV shows? I do and one of them at the moment is "The Biggest Loser". Any show that highlights health and fitness to the nation and how important it is to your well-being, has got to be a good thing. Sure it's an 'unreal' environment, the exercise regime is ...
Before you start complaining that your team are causing you headaches and not performing the way you want, take a look at yourself first. Gary who runs a plumbing business has 5 staff. He was always complaining that they were lazy, didn't use their initiative and would take advantage of him. ...
Why are you in business? Hopefully you enjoy what you do, however is it because you want to make money so that you can have, be and do more in your life? Who pays you? Your clients do and never forget that. Unfortunately many business owners do. They take your money and then vanish off the ...
Why is it in life that when something is working, you stop doing it? Jack has a well-established electronics business which he started 10 years ago. Over this time the business has grown and he now has a team of 7 people. When Jack initially contacted me, he was at a point he felt like walking ...
Many people try something once and if it doesn't work, they don't usually bother again. A great example of this is sending out a newsletter to your database. In business, it's really important to stay in contact with your clients, prospects, associates etc. otherwise they can easily forget ...
I recently met up with a friend of mine who was telling me how little time he had working on his business due to the people problems he was constantly experiencing. He always complains to me that if he could run his business on his own, he would. Unfortunately this is not a reality so he ...
I had a new client who had been putting off investing in herself. She has spent thousands of dollars on her website, business cards and general 'stuff'. 'Mary' has a service business and did what many people in her industry do to 'get' business and end up burnt out and not very profitable. ...
It's amazing to see so many people who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their business. I'm sure you know of someone like that. They get up at the crack of dawn, drag their weary bodies out of the house and head off for another rollercoaster ride at work. Ten or twelve hours later they head home totally exhausted with all their energy sapped from their body. patient with laptopThey might make the effort to find out how the rest of their family's day has been, even read their children a bed-time story.
Observing many people when I'm out and about attending various business related functions, I'm convinced that so many of them do not realize how powerful it is to make the effort to meet others and network. Networking is great for business ... if you do it right and have a system in place to ...
One of the biggest challenges many of my clients face is having the right people. Prior to coaching I'd often hear: "If only I could find the right people my business would much more profitable." "I'd have less stress." "I spend more time managing my people than getting the work done and ...
You can see from the photo how cute 'Casper' is. He's a great companion for our other dog 'Beasley'. They're both Bischon Frise's, the perfect companions - they don't smell or drop hair everywhere, easy to look after and fit perfectly on your lap! And they're quiet. So after picking Casper ...
We had an overwhelming response to the survey we recently sent out to our database. They were asked for feedback on what their key challenges were and what they wanted to know about being more productive and profitable. n Here's just a few comments we received: • How do I motivate ...
It's been a year since my 15 year old son Trent, completed his first triathalon. What was rewarding was the jou ey he went on to achieve this milestone. (Hang in there with me as this story has great relevance to you and your challenges in your business and your life). You see if you had ...
One of my clients runs his own successful accounting practice from home. With pre-school children and trying to grow his business, he and his wife used to get very frustrated with the fact that they could never remove themselves from the workplace. They felt their business totally overwhelmed ...
A few years ago I attended a presentation from Parenting Expert and well-known author, Stephen Biddulph on "Raising Boys". My son, Trent was 11 at the time so I was interested to hear what Stephen had to say. In fact, so were the 800 other parents in the room! The key point that I picked up on ...
I recently met up with a friend of mine who was telling me how little time he had working on his business due to the people problems he was constantly experiencing. He always complains to me that if he could run his business on his own, he would. Unfortunately this is not a reality so he ...
Have you ever heard the saying 'work always expands to fill the time available? So what does that mean? It means that the longer you have to get something done, the longer you will take to do it. save time One of my clients recently committed to taking every Friday off. He blocked out the time in his diary and guess what? He gets the same amount of work done in the 4 days.
This week I received an article by a very successful entrepreneur Alexandria Brown. Here's what she says: Over the past several years I've immersed myself in learning. Because my business is marketing, I have mostly attended and spoken at marketing seminars. But I also make plenty of time to ...
Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the 'hands on' work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it. Her clients constantly tell her how great she is, which makes her feel appreciated. However it ...
With the end of the tax year fast approaching, it's With the end of the financial year fast approaching, now is an ideal time to focus on your personal affairs. I'm always amazed that so many business owners and entrepreneurs spend most of their time consumed by their business and totally ...
Recently I facilitated a strategic planning day for a small accounting practice. During the course of the day we reviewed the progress they had made since the last major planning day we had the year before. As we were reflecting on their achievements before planning the future, one of the ...
Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the 'hands on' work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it. Her clients constantly told her how great she was, which made her feel appreciated. However it trapped her into staying 'on the tools'. Mary had 5 people on her team, and she struggled with letting them handle her clients. Only problem is Mary stayed up late most nights working on her business doing the basic administration and 'trying' to squeeze some time in for marketing.
In business you can often think that with better marketing and more capable staff your business and your life will improve. However if you're disorganised and the internal business systems are the same (which is very common), then your ability to cope with additional work and find and retain ...
Last week I went to purchase some food at the local deli and asked the owner what the ingredients were in the ham he sold. He was very unhelpful as I took him away from preparing food to put into the display case. So I walked out and didn't spend my money with him and won't go back again. I ...
Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the ‘hands on’ work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it. Her clients constantly told her how great she was, which made her feel appreciated. However it trapped her into staying ‘on the tools’. Mary had 5 people on her team, and she struggled with letting them handle her clients. She also complained that it was challenging finding competent people.
Do you have a huge challenge coping with the incoming paperwork? (Whatever happened to the paperless office?) Paperwork lands on your desk and somehow finds its way into your in-tray. Eventually the in-tray becomes so high it explodes and ends up all over your desktop. That’s because you avoided taking action on those messy pieces of paper the moment they arrived. Now you have no option but to sort through the explosion and tidy up the pile or actually do something with the paperwork. How can a pile (or piles) of paper cause you so much stress?