Goal Setting and Time Management - Part 1

What is a goal? - Well my son said it's when the ball gets into the net past all the things blocking it.

So I ask how do you score a goal? You imagine it mum, and you try different ways to get past all the other players, some work some don't but you have to keep trying and then you eventually get a goal.  Unless you are the goalie he is not meant to score goals just stop them :-)

How do you imagine it?   I have pictures on my wall of people scoring goals and I see it in my head the team winning and me scoring a goal.

It's funny really because I over complicate my goal management sometimes instead of keeping it simply about vision and passion to reach my goals.

The most common terminology you hear about goal setting is making sure you set SMART goals, that you write them down and that you consistently visualise achieving these goals, but remember you must have a plan to back up how you are going to achieve the goals you set yourself.

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable
• A = Attainable
• R = Realistic
• T = Timely

Specific - Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen, the what, why and how

• WHAT are you going to do? Use action words such as direct, organize, coordinate, lead, develop, plan, build etc.
• WHY is this important to do at this time? What do you want to ultimately accomplish?
• HOW are you going to do it? (By…)

Measurable - If you can't measure it you can't manage it. Establish real criteria for measuring progress towards reaching each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the excitement of achieving that spurs you on to reach your goals.

Attainable -Goals that are too far out of your reach you are less likely to commit to.  Although you will start out motivated towards a goal your subconscious will keep reminding you that it is not really attainable.  Your goal does need to stretch you and be important to you, you will then begin to figure out ways you can make them happen. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills to reach them.

Realistic - There is no point in setting yourself an unrealistic target, the goal needs to be realistic for you and within the things that you can influence the tings you can change.  Setting unrealistic goals only undermines your confidence to achieve.  But do not make them easy there is no sense of satisfaction in achieving easy goals make them somethings you can strive towards.

Timely - Put a time frame an end date on your goals, give yourself a clear target to work towards.  If you do not give yourself a time frame there is no urgency to start the work necessary to meet your goal. 

Write your goals down, visualise success and never give up it will happen!!!!

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 4

In the last blog - essential presentation skills part 3 - we covered steps four to six, how are you going to close, how are you going to open and what will be your memorable visuals, now lets move forward to steps 7 and 8 and then a short summary:

• What is your goal? 
• Who is your audience? 
• What is your content and why? 
• How are you going to close?
• How are you going to open?
• What will be your memorable visuals?
• How will you excite your audience? 
• What is your rehearsal plan? 

How will you excite your audience? 
Your voice will excite your audience, your passion for what you are talking about. But you need to remember do not run through your words in a single tone with no pauses between information it will just sound too boring even though you are passionate. The three important facts are speed, tone changes and pauses.

You need to know what your voice sounds like so record what you are saying and listen – get family members to listen and learn what you believe you need to change. Be critical of your own voice and listen for the tone changes when you would expect to hear them from others – just this practice can help your voice tone.

Your personal mood can have an affect on your vocal projection so you need to spend time working on focusing your attention, focus on the moment and filter out your negative mood factors. Visualize success, fun, enjoyment, passion and repeat to yourself something that make you feel good.

Present a warm and likeable front to your audience smile at them, the action of smiling actually changes the tone of your voice. Stand in a relaxed way but do stand tall do not hunch and look like the beechams powder character.

What is your rehearsal plan? 
Always remember - If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail – one of the most important things you can do is rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. You need to know: 

• Write yourself key cards to trigger your thoughts 
• Number your cards so you have a visual flow 
• How long will you presentation actually take 
• When are your visual aids required
• What movements are appropriate to your words 
• Will you meet your goal 
• Will your audience be expecting different 

Summary of Presentation Tips

1. Create memorable moments 
2. Your slide show is not your presentation you are your presentation 
3. Memorable grabs beginning, the middle and the end 
4. Stick to the rule of three 
5. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse 
6. Avoid FEAR – Fictitious Events Appearing Real 
7. Visualize – reflect on a positive performance 
8. Think Visually 
9. Sell your dreams – passion 
10. Repeat, repeat, repeat 
11. Give numbers a perspective and a visual 
12. Enjoy it

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 3

In the last blog - essential presentation skills part 2 - we covered the first three steps, what is your goal, who is your audience and what is your content and why, now lets move forward to steps 4,5 and 6:

• What is your goal? 
• Who is your audience? 
• What is your content and why? 
• How are you going to close? 
• How are you going to open? 
• What will be your memorable visuals? 
• How will you excite your audience? 
• What is your rehearsal plan? 

How are you going to close?
A good close is probably the most important part of your presentation it should set your audience buzzing. It must not introduce anything new, not try an repeat the whole presentation in a summary, but most important the audience must know it is the conclusion and what you expect them to do next.

If you are going to take questions, make sure you have rehearsed the types of questions you may be asked and your answers. Do not open the floor to questions if you are not rehearsed for this as you may leave a different closing memory.

How are you going to open?
The start of your presentation needs to wake them up, inspire them, get their attention, make them laugh, build a rapport There is no need to start a presentation like everyone else does and have a list of agendas or topics for today’s presentation – what they have seen before will not inspire or awaken.

Questions are great attention grabbers for an audience but make sure you ask something associated with your goals their problem that you are about to solve. After you have asked the question you need to pause – you will get their attention.

Do not rush in to get started – people get interested when there is nothing going on. You could take in the room in front of you smile around at people the silence will make people look, make people stop texting, make people focus on you.

A good visual of something that they were not expecting to see will grab the attention of the audience.

Stories or jokes are also a good way of grabbing the attention but make sure you are skilled at this the last thing you want is silence at the end of what was intended to be a joke.

What will be your visuals?
Your look and dress are the first visual and you need to pay attention to that detail as judgments’ can be made simply from your dress code.

Even though your insides are crumbling do not rush walk to the presentation area with confidence, slowly – no running back and forward to get everything you need or calling to others to help you organize.

Body Lanuguage there are some do and don’t with body language and a whole school of thought on the meaning of different movements but things to avoid are:

• Touching your face or covering your mouth 
• Crossing your hands in front or behind your body 
• Folding of the arms 
• Swaying or twisting with feet rigid 
• Click or flick a pen or whiteboard marker 

The right body language is a great visual, facial expressions, hand movement will really engage your audience some things to encourage are:

• Stand tall and head held high 
• When making an arm movement make it worthwhile rather than a fidget 
• When referring to slides point first and then tall 
• Move around the presentation area occasionally not constantly 
• Smile and project passion and control 

Visuals on any slides you use are a great way to put across facts never have text, text, text visuals and bullet points are a great attention grabber:

• You do not want the audience reading your slides rather than listening to you 
• Figures presented in a graphical way get a message across very quickly 
• Summarise your speech into bullet points your key messages 
• Don’t hand out any slides before your presentation the audience will spend their time reading what you have given them

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 2

We has said over the next few Blogs we are going to cover steps towards preparing for a presentation, so today we will cover the first 3:

1. What is your goal?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What is your content and why?
4. How are you going to close?
5. How are you going to open?
6. What will be your memorable visuals?
7. How will you excite your audience?
8. What is your rehearsal plan?

1. What is your Goal? 

When you are planning your presentation you need to think about what is your goal.

Telling is not selling – people are very bad at absorbing large amounts of information in a very short time, you often hear the statement too much information or information overload. So plan the key information you want to get across to your audience and make sure you are not too broad.

I once went into a presentation with my goal set as I want to tell the management team about my project. Way too broad they were confused, bored, frustrated as to the purpose and actually my manager was annoyed at the whole incident.
My goals needed to be more focused and I learnt very quickly to plan better on my next project report to the executives. 

2. Who is your Audience? 

You need to identify who your audience is going to be and what they are hoping to get out of the presentation. Put yourself in their shoes for example an executive board are interesting looking forward and managing the cash if I am going looking for more money on a project I need to address the questions they will be asking like what will it be spent on and what benefits will the organisation get from this additional spend.
There is no point in having your visual aids referring back to things from the 1970’s that you understand when your target audience is the youth of 2010 – ensure any visuals you use will make sense to your audience.

Think about what your audience: 

• Want to hear about – why are they there 
• Don’t want to hear about – what would send them thought wandering 
• Want to learn – what will help them make a decision 
• Would get irritated by – avoid getting up peoples heckles 
• Technology levels – don’t use terms that only make sense to you 

3. What is your content and why? 

Audiences don’t remember if there is too much information and there are terms they cannot associate with. The brain also remembers things that are repeated so if it is important to you that your company name is remembered then repeat, repeat, repeat but in a way that flows with the presentation. Find a phrase or a strap line or a motto that the audience can link with you and repeat, repeat, repeat - they will remember.

Brains remember stories and real life examples – if they can link what you are telling to a real event or a real purpose or a real problem they may be experiencing they are more likely to remember.

Link your content back to your goal and your audience and remember that the human brain loves the unexpected and tends to remember them. Placing something totally unexpected or unusual in the middle of your presentation will grab the attention of your audience again.

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 1

Effective communication is essential especially when building rapport with potential clients, the ability to deliver information that achieves maximum impact is a skill that is good to master.


I commonly find when people think presentations they think PowerPoint, however you will find that presenting is so much more than the tool that you decide to use.  

Some fantastic examples of presenters can be found on 

TED Ideas worth spreading

The next few blogs will focus on key points about effective presentations and give some hints & tips on preparing for presentations.


Did you know that of the persuasive power of a presentation:

• 55% is visual such as body language, display aids, memorable stories
• 38% is by the speakers’ tone of voice or character of engagement
• Only 7% by the content, the text on slides for example

Did you know that:

• 80% of audiences cannot remember 24 hours later what was presented 
• With strong visual presentations 50% of people can remember 3 days later

Did you know that the retention graph for brains shows:

• 80% of people remember a grab at the start
• 75% of people remember a grab at the end
• 10% of people remember things from the middle bit

Over the next few Blogs we are going to cover steps towards preparing for a presentation:

1. What is your goal?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What is your content and why?
4. How are you going to close?
5. How are you going to open?
6. What will be your memorable visuals?
7. How will you excite your audience?
8. What is your rehearsal plan?

Starting a New Business - Support for Writing your Business Plan

It can be a time consuming process to get all of your creative ideas, facts, market analysis information into a structured document - The Skills Academy can help here - we meet with you once each week to gather your business information and we structure draft by draft your business plan to reflect your data.  This process is quicker and our business mentor can also keep you focussed on the end result and on areas of your business plan which may be weak.  

Call us on 01 4939433 or 085 1676143 to discuss, or email theskillsacademy@eircom.net

Starting a New Business Part 7 - The Business Plan

The Business Plan
There are lots of templates available for different business plans and there are even sites where you can pick up specific examples, but I would recommend that you don't spend too much time selecting a template its your content that is important.  Some templates:

Enterprise Ireland Business Plan Template

Fingal County Enterprise Board Business Plan Template

Dublin City Enterprise Board Sample Business Plan

Business Planning Software Product Tool

You can also create your own, basic business plan sections would be:

• Executive Summary - Concise and interesting summary of the whole plan
• Company Description - what we do, how we do it, why we do it
• Product or Services - Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People
• Market Analysis - Size, Competitors, Target, Trend, SWOT Analysis
• Strategy and Implementation - Premises, equipment, operational plans 
• Marketing Plan - Advertisement, Web site plans, 
• Management Team - Management team, staff requirements, staff plans
• Financial Analysis - Profit and Loss, Cashflow, Balance Sheet, Assumptions

Once you have selected a template, for this purpose the elephant, then eat the elephant one bite at a time, it is amazing how the structure comes together when you take just one section and focus on its content and it does not have to be perfect first time.  This is an ongoing process do not expect to have your business plan written in a few days it will evolve with your business idea, your target market, your products, your prices evolve and before you know it you will be ready to write the executive summary, your one page pitch at the start of the document. 

It can be a time consuming process to get all of your creative ideas, facts, market analysis information into a structured document - The Skills Academy can help here - we meet with you once each week to gather your business information and we structure draft by draft your business plan to reflect your data.  This process is quicker and our business mentor can also keep you focussed on the end result and on areas of your business plan which may be weak.  

Call us on 01 4939433 or 085 1676143 to discuss, or email theskillsacademy@eircom.net

Starting a New Business Part 6 - Financial Equity, Grants and Loans

Financial support is a key requirement when starting up a new business and there are a number of schemes available to assist new and developing businesses in Ireland. 

Grants

The following list gives details of some bodies that may provide grants or other financial assistance, it is not the only options:

• County Enterprise Boards    County enterprise boards develop economic and entrepreneurial activity at city and county level.  They offer a variety of financial support package to assist the start-up, development and expansions of small businesses in the manufacturing and services sectors employing ten or less people.        
• Enterprise Ireland   Enterprise Ireland is the government agency responsible for the development and promotion of the business sector.  They can provide financial support towards the cost of establishing, growing your business.  The funding is typically a mix of equity and grant aid and is targeted at manufacturing or internationally trading services of companies intending to employ 10 to 249 employees.
• Seed Capital Scheme  An employee who leaves employment and invests by means of shares in a company, which carries on a new business, may claim a refund of income tax paid in previous years. An unemployed person may also avail of this facility.

Investors
There are many potential investors out there if you go looking family members, friends, companies who may offer investment.  The Irish Investment Network  is a service that matches entrepreneurs with angel investors. They do charge a fee to match your proposal with potential investors but this only gives you the contact you still need to do the work selling your idea to the investor.


Other Business Loans
There are companies out there that will also offer business loans albeit at a higher rate of interest than the banks an example of this would be First Step Micro Finance.  There is also an option to agree loans with family or friends.



Bank Business Loans
Take time to look around at the major bank lenders and to those promoting small business packages, I looked at AIB, Bank of Ireland and NIB.  Have your business plan ready, especially finance sections we covered in part 4,  to go through with them

• Some offer 2 years transaction free banking
• Some offer 2 years internet business banking
• Some offer discount vouchers to business tools
• European Investment bank loans 2.66%
• Standard business loans vary 3.85% to 4.15%
• Business overdraft facility average 8%

Starting a New Business Part 5 - Bit of a Distraction

Before we look at financial equity, grants and loans it's a good idea to examine the types of questions that investors or grant aids expect you to be able to answer.  Watching Dragons Den videos is a great way to look at those that were successful and WHY and those that failed and WHY.  

Using this information test your own business idea.
Do you have clear answers to some of their questions.
Watch lots of these videos and create yourself a checklist of potential questions.
Then practice, practice and practice your responses!

Dragons Den Ireland - The First Deal

Dragons Den Ireland - The First Refusal

Dragons Den Ireland - Bin Trasher

My Summary of watching these three videos:

• Know your market size and direction
• Know what business model are you using to make profit
• Compare and contrast to others on market
• Know the profile of customers
• Know your competitors
• What does the product cost you and what can you sell for - margin
• Distribution mechanism
• Marketing Strategy
• Simple ideas can go far

   

Starting a New Business Part 4 - Financial Projections

Finances where to start?  There is no point in jumping in looking for grants and loans and equity you first need to figure out the business projections.  So there is no getting away from producing projected profit and loss accounts, projected cash flow statements and projected balance sheets.   This can be a daunting step but if you keep your information simple your projections can be reached with a bit of work on your part and support from an accountant. 

Let's see if we can break this down into simple parts to get you started 

remember look at this month by month forward for at least two years.

Projected Profit and Loss Accounts

1. List all of your possible overheads, examples:
• Advertising
• Insurance
• Rent
• Wages and PRSI
• Phone bills
2. List your projected sales each month on products and services
3. List the cost to the company for the products you are selling

Guess what you now know your Gross Profit = Sales minus Cost of Sales and your Net Profit = Gross Profit minus Overheads - the start to your Projected Profit & Loss Accounts.

Projected Cash Flow

Being profitable does not necessarily mean being liquid. A company can fail because of a shortage of cash, even while profitable.For your company to survive the cash flow is a key component.  Cashflow is basically the movement of cash in and out of your business you will have to remember things like:

1. Bills have to be paid on time
2. You may have to pay your suppliers before you can sell your product
3. You may operate on credit sales where companies take 30 days to pay you
4. Cash sales are good for cash flow
5. Look month by month at receipts (money in )  and payments (money out)

Guess what you now now your Cash flow and can see your closing balance each month.  This can help you decide if you will require an overdraft facility for the initial few month of business.

Projected Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a snap shot of your companies financial position at the end of its financial year.  It basically summarises the company assets, liabilities and net worth (shareholder equity).  Assets are what a company uses to operate its business, while its liabilities and equity are two sources that support these assets.

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity

The balance sheet was the difficult one for me but when you have all your figures a few hours with an accountant can provide you with the necessary data for your business plan.

The Skills Academy can provide you with a mentor to get you started on the right financial track.

Starting a New Business Part 3 - Fun with Business Names and Strap Lines

I am going to jump in now with some fun stuff - your business name and your strap-line.

There is no real science to creating a great business name and strap line. Being witty, being hard hitting, playing around with metaphors, rhymes, alliteration, and so on, are all good ways to start off. 

                          Have fun with this process         

Use brainstorming techniques and throw out all the words that could possibly describe you and your business then look at all associated words and don't judge just get all the words out in front of you.  These can be used to create many different strap lines and variations on names. 

Playing around here does not have to cost you any money you just need creative thought and the vision of what you want your business to represent, its core values.

Many businesses use the rule of three - Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetroic.
 

Put simply it is that people tend to easily remember three things.  So maybe the strap line can be three words that people will remember:

• Beanz Meanz Heinz - Heinz Beans
• Stop, Look and Listen - Road Safety Authority
• Always Low Prices - Asda
• Every Little Helps - Tesco
• Just do it - Nike
• Finger lickin’ good - KFC
• Vorsprung durch Technik - Audi
• It's Miller Time - Miller
• I'm Lovin It - McDonalds

Then again many times businesses use just a visual logo, however your brand needs to be developed for people to recognise your logo.  If you did not know the brand then would you know what these companies represented - but their brand is so big we all know.

     

Have fun thinking of names, strap lines this process helps you really identify your business values and purpose.

The Skills Academy can provide you with a mentor to get you started on the right track.  

Starting a New Business Part 2 - Developing your Idea

You have an idea in fact you probably have lots of ideas, but how do you develop your idea into a business.  I have had many many business ideas and got quite excited about their possibilities - but the hard work is turning that idea into your vision your passion and your business.

To develop your idea you have to go through a process of deep examination:

• develop your idea, visualise what you see as the end result
• whats your mission your vision for the future
• ask yourself do I want this, is my lifestyle ready for this
• evaluate your idea ask yourself lots of questions why, what, where, why not
• look at who your potential customers are, what are their needs 
• how can I stand out from my competitors, do I have a unique selling point

This can be a difficult process but remember do not be put off by the fact that someone out there has already done something similar, if you have the passion and the vision you can get some of that market share.

Begin with the end in Mind - Stephen R Covey

If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people to make decisions for you.  And as I have often heard people say if your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster.

• Visualize your direction and result
• Develop your mission statement
• Imagine what success feels like
• See a successful end
• Decide your value system
• Have goals

Set goals for developing your business idea and map out how you will achieve them.

The Skills Academy can provide you with a mentor to get you started on the right track. 

Starting a New Business Part 1 - Useful Information

This week The Skills Academy are going to look at many of the websites, information, books, skills that can be used when looking at starting your own business. In spite of the recent recession many individuals are determined to start out in their own business and some of these tools are of huge benefit.

Bank of Ireland have an excellent Business startup online training course - which is free. 


You can also go to your local library and rent out the book - Starting your own business - a workbook.
I got my copy at my local library.

The enterprise boards have many links, useful advice, business plan templates and case studies.

Don't get distracted from your business idea because of information overload, there is so much information around you can spend all your time reading what to do rather than actually doing it - I was that soldier - but having been through the experience I have now learnt the benefits of planning my business planning.

The Skills Academy can provide you with a mentor to get you started on the right track.

Benefits of One to One Mentoring and Training

The Skills Academy is passionate about effective and efficient learning delivered through one to one mentoring and training.

We believe in learning while doing.

The Skills Academy operates with businesses and individuals on real deliverables, the result is a new skill learnt and a real deliverable produced.