Well it’s been a while since my last blog, but life has been dedicated to training the last few months.

Things are certainly changing out there in the real world. I read about how things are going to get worse, interest rates soon to go up, which is going to hurt a lot of people, as most are just surviving at these low rates. On the other hand I also read about businesses expanding and growing.

So what’s to be believed?

Well I have this view that you make your own outcome, it doesn’t matter what is said in the newspapers and on the global markets. Articles about the future are just opinions from reporters on their understanding on what might happen, but these opinions can come true due to scare mongering, which everyone reacts to. A bit like a hedge fund manager who short sells on a particular stock, this act causes that share to drop due to nothing other than an opinion which might not have any source behind it.

So how do we carry on?

Well like myself during my ironman race, you run your own race. You carrying on doing what you believe is right, don’t follow everyone else, they might be going to fast for you to cope with, or too slow and cautious, in which case your miss out on getting your best result. Your business will grow or fail depending on the effort you put into it.

Guidance is necessary to make sure you follow your plan and don’t deviate too much. An outside opinion (one from someone who has nothing to gain from your success or fail) whether it be a colleague, a spouse, a coach, a friend can help highlight issues, which you might not have thought about.

So in conclusion, keep up to date with what’s happening out there, but learn from others mistakes and triumphs, and see which ones you can spot happening. This will allow you to see the difference between real crisis situations or ones that are brought on purpose, nothing is as it seems in big business, most things happen for a reason. Think about celebrities who plan to get photographed in certain situations and then moan about privacy. They use a negative to make a big positive in terms of publicity.

Follow your plan and don’t deviate too much to get to your conclusion at your pace. If done correctly nothing can stand in your way, make it happen!!!

Good luck and best wishes

Colin

Well its been a crazy couple of weeks, i've had to write a huge cheque out for our new toy, coming to a marina in the south of france 2011. I've had a week off exercise as i've got a sore throat which is uncomfortable but at least the family hasn't had to listen to me moaning all week.
I had a good chat with @kipfxdesign the other day and was talking about expansion and taking on employees. Which was interesting as i also learnt that the Queen of Twitter @hlsbs is also planning on expansion and taking on assistants (about time too) from her excellent newsletter. So based on this guess what this blog is all about, yes you got it expansion.

How from my earlier blog and something that i always go on about is every business needs a long term plan, and action plan of where they want to go and how they're going to get there. For those with the ambition there will come a time when you need to start employing someone else. Now i always hear people saying that they don't trust anyone else to do the job as well as they do, well these are the people that will never grow.

Most people have had a job employed by someone else, when taking on people think back to that time and remember how you knew what the job intailed and what your responabilites where. This is key to employing the right person from your company, they must be clear on what is going to be asked of them, to avoid the common mistake of employing someone, then ultimately taking on some rolls that they should be doing, because they've not been given clear instructions.

Taking on employees is the starting point in your business from being someone who has created a job for themselves to actually becoming a business owner, Business Owners have the passion to win new business and grow their company, they should not be wasting their time on the actual tasks of performing what the business offers, for example i own a haulage company but i can't drive a truck, and i don't drive any of my vans, i don't answer the phone for calls, my input into the business is to direct the company through the journey i want it to go. My connections in business provide me with the opportunity to get new business from people i connect to rather than having to cold call or have mass marketing campaigns. I wouldn't be able to gain these contacts if i was driving the truck or answering the phone. So to make the break into true business ownership rather than being self employed, start to grow your company, in this climate take the risk of growing and showing strength rather than holding back and fading away.

good luck to all

kind regards

Colin