How to play office politics ethically and professionally?

Keeping your head down and working hard is important but we all know that in business you have to “play the game” and develop effective personal relationships with the key stakeholders across your firm. As such, networking with internal contacts is as important as networking with external customers and target clients.

The number one word for managing office politics is diplomacy. Keep it professional at all times and find common ground with key stakeholders across the business.

It is important to make sure that you understand what is really going on. Pay attention. What do you see? Who talks to who? Who doesn’t talk to who? What does the gossip say? Notice who gets their way and who doesn’t. Talk in a way that ensures that you avoid being seen to take sides.

You should treat your stakeholders equally, do a good job for everyone and listen and respond to what they need. When you are chatting with someone and they are playing the political game, listen and talk to them about what they can do, how they feel, or what they want to do about it rather than agreeing or taking sides.

Office politics can sometimes create stressful situations and tension but it is important to keep your cool at all times. If you've been maligned, candidly address the issue at the source. Then shake hands and move on. Nothing that happens at the office is worth a heart attack. In the grand scheme of things, will the issue matter in a week or a month’s time? If you keep things in perspective, you will be less prone to turning incidents into catastrophes.

If you are building a team it’s worth screening potential new hires carefully. Ask candidates how they feel about workplace politics and how they might react in difficult situations.

Finally, bear in mind that regardless of the type of business that you work in, you will not like everyone and not everyone will like you. Always be professional and make sure you communicate clearly and consistently with them. Be direct and do what you said you would do.

Check whether you are making these financial and marketing mistakes that costs you hundreds, or EVEN thousands of Pounds. Click to Download the book below!

Contact us if you need help to increase your business profits:

PJ | ☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

4 simple & easy tips for Change Management!

In light of the recent Brexit decision, one thing is inevitable in business in the coming months and years and that is change.

Whichever way you decided to vote, the result of the referendum means that you and your business must be prepared to change and adapt to a new business environment.

Here are a few change management tips for your business:

Create a plan and set realistic goals

People tend to resist change so create a plan that outlines each step of the change process, the key stakeholders, the timeline and the deliverables. Ask different staff members from across the business to feed into this plan. Someone might have a great idea to contribute to the plan – sometimes all you need to do is ask.

Communicate

Communicate your vision clearly to your team. Identify what it is that you are trying to achieve through the change process. What is in it for your team? The best managers can explain this in a way that inspires the team to get involved and move forward with the plan.

Maintaining momentum

Your employees may agree with your vision initially, but they're likely to become frustrated or disillusioned along the way, especially if they don't see immediate progress. Find ways to keep the conversation going through short town hall meetings, staff surveys and casual conversation. Ask the team for their honest feedback regularly and be willing to listen. Be honest about what you don't know, and commit to updating employees when those details are finalised.

Get the team on board

Getting the senior management team on board is relatively easy. They should be able to see “what’s in it for them.” However to succeed in managing change in your business you need to get your middle management and your junior staff members on board too. Ask representatives from different groups across your business to get involved, share their views and take ownership of different aspects of the change process.

Self-Employed or Starting a Micro Business?

Did you know that almost one in seven people in the UK are self-employed?

You might also classify self-employment as “freelance work”. UK research suggests that 30% of those who work in the media call themselves “freelance”.

Research by Skills Development Scotland noted that the creative sector is dominated by sole traders, micro and small businesses. Approximately 13,500 businesses employ 0 to 49 employees and accounted for nearly 98% of the total number of businesses in 2014. This is an increase of 35% in the number of small and micro businesses since 2009.

So why start a micro business or become self-employed?

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) conducted a survey in which 27% of people who moved into self-employment within the last 5 years said they did so to escape unemployment.

The Government 2015 Workplace Employment Relations Study reported that micro-businesses accounted for 33% of private sector employment and 19% of total output. Although micro-business employees tend to earn less, receive less training, and have fewer benefits, it found that these employees were also the most satisfied group of workers in the labour market. Factors like job control influence in decision-making, business loyalty and even satisfaction with pay.

The benefits of a micro business or becoming self-employed include:

• Flexible working hours
• Ability to choose your work
• Developing a relationship with customers who you want to work with
• Ability to respond quickly to opportunities
• Making a greater impact

However there are drawbacks which include:

• No sick pay, holiday pay or redundancy pay
• Little or no support, training, no back up if you can’t work
• Not a 9 to 5 job - it’s 24 hours a day
• No company contribution to a pension
• What if I can’t get paid on time?

Micro-businesses and self-employed people need assistance and if you are starting up or feeling the pressure get in touch with us as we will be able to support you.

RTI Changes to note for 2016!

RTI Concessions for Small Employers to end from 6 April 2016

The Government announced at Autumn Statement 2015 that the current two year temporary reporting relaxation will end as planned on 5 April 2016.
The relaxation permitted employers who at 5 April 2014 employed no more than 9 employees, to report their PAYE information for the tax month ‘on or before’ the last payday in the tax month instead of ‘on or before’ each payday.
This will align the reporting obligations for micro employers with all other employers who are currently required to report payments ‘on or before’ each payday.
As a consequence ‘Late reporting reason code E’ will not be valid from 6 April 2016.

End Of Year PAYE Return Reminder

Under RTI the end of year form P35 was replaced by the Final Full Payment (FPS) submission.
Send your final FPS on or before your employees’ last payday of the tax year (5 April) instead of the old 19 April deadline.
Remember to put ‘Yes’ in the ‘Final submission for year’ field in your payroll software.

Contact us for all your Tax & Accounting needs!
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com 

Half My Advertising Is Wasted, I Just Don’t Know Which Half”

I read an interesting (and disturbing) statistic recently from Forbes. It stated that 45% of CEOs agree that ‘marketing efforts are wasting money’.

Yes, I’m an accountant (and proud of it) but I’m also a business owner. In many respects I’m in a unique position. I not only have to run and build our firm, I also get to advise dozens of other business owners (our clients) on growing their firms, making sure their financial management is as good as it can be, and ensuring they don’t pay a penny more in tax than they have to.

However, we are different to most accountants because we take an active role in helping our clients grow. That’s why we invested a considerable sum to give our clients access to one of the world’s leading sales and marketing systems (the BGSvault).

But when I read that statistic from Forbes, it reminded me of a famous quote from department store mogul John Wanamaker, who said: "Half my advertising is wasted, I just don't know which half".

It’s fair to say I have this discussion regularly with a number of our clients. They don’t measure the results of their marketing, so they have no way of knowing what’s working and what isn’t makes my team and me very ‘number conscious’. We do measure everything. That includes our marketing. I want to know if I spent X on a strategy, what return did I get?

Why is that important? Well, it means I know which strategies to invest more of our hard-earned money into and which strategies to ditch or try and improve. It’s not rocket science, but as small-business owners we have to watch the pennies and leverage as many things as we can.

I also smiled when I read that statistic from Forbes. I wonder how many CEOs actually know what their marketing results are and which strategies work. It is highly likely they are just like John Wanamaker—they haven’t got a clue.

This one simple act of measuring the results (or lack) of ALL your marketing is so simple, yet it will have a significant effect on the growth of your firm.  It’s your job to make   sure   you  put  in  place  a  mechanism that  gives  you this  data.  In   my   experience,  I can  tell you, it is TRANSFORMATIONAL!

How to keep your clients happy? 8 Simple Steps!

Keeping existing clients happy is a lot easier than acquiring new ones. But that’s easier said than done.

Think of yourself as a customer. When you walk into a shop, you expect to be treated in a certain way - a smile, a small greeting, “Hello, how are you?” and you want to feel like you matter.

You don’t want to be treated as just another customer. Excellent service makes a difference to how you perceived the experience and if you return to that store again.

Opposite our office we have a coffee shop called Rise. If I ever want a coffee, I go there and wouldn’t think about going anywhere else. This is all because of their excellent customer service.

Even before you are at the counter ready to order, you’re greeted with a friendly “Hello” and the staff make you feel valued and appreciated. Here are a few ways you can keep your clients happy so they are amazed by your service and never want to leave…

1. GIVE FREE ADVICE

If you come across as only wanting fees from your clients, they’ll run in the opposite direction. Giving free advice shows that you care about your clients’ success. It doesn’t mean you have to be on the phone with them every day answering a list of questions, but if they know you’re available to give advice when they need it, you’re more likely to be referred.

Don’t think about trying to sell them other services - treat it as a form of developing the relationship with your clients.

2. UNDER-PROMISE AND OVER-DELIVER

We say this a lot to our clients, but it’s true! If you promise someone too much, you’re putting pressure on yourself just to impress.

If you can see them for one hour a week, but you tell them they’re entitled to 30 minutes of your time every single week—they’ll be blown away when you over-deliver.
 

That’s a lot better than making promises you can’t keep (even though your intentions are never to break them).

3. COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH CLIENTS

If there is anything clients like - it’s to be kept informed, even if you have some bad news to tell them. Don’t let months go by without speaking to them. And this goes for your team too. Make it part of your team ethos to regularly keep in contact with clients about their workload. No matter how small the situation may seem, if a client’s work changes, they should be informed. 

It will go a long way in creating excellent customer service. 

Feedback emails are a great way to check in with clients to make sure they’re happy with the service provided. Ask your team to send an email to clients every few months making sure that everything is running smoothly. (This is a great way to keep your firm moving forward.)

4. BE AVAILABLE

Similar to point 3, communication is key to developing a strong relationship and making sure everything runs smoothly. 

You can’t be available every hour of every day, but there’s nothing worse for a client than not being able to get in touch with their accountant. Set aside a few hours a day when you are free to chat to clients if they ever need you and let them know that you’re unavailable any time outside of these hours.
 

People don’t like to be left in the dark about things, and if they haven’t received a response back from you within a few days, then they will lose confidence that you care.

5. DELIVER WORLD-CLASS WORK

This goes without saying really, but if clients aren’t satisfied with the service provided, they will cancel.
The primary reason clients came to you is because of the service you provided, and not how great your customer service is. Keep track of any work your team might do for clients, so you are always aware of the status of their work.
 

If your service isn’t up to scratch and they don’t see results - you can expect a cancellation.

6. ASK YOUR CLIENTS QUESTIONS

The only way to know what your clients want is to ask them. Feedback emails (as mentioned earlier) are an excellent way to over-deliver. And it goes a long way that you made the effort to ask.
 

Ask questions about their company too - find out the best times to communicate with them, what excellent customer service means to them, what their goals are and more. Establish what their expectations are and exceed them. Treat this as an opportunity to get to know your clients too.

7. MAKE EVERYTHING PERSONAL

People like personalisation and not being treated as just another client (think back to what I said about Rise earlier). This means every moment of truth with the client should be personal - from their name on letters to a personal touch to emails.
 

Make all of your clients feel appreciated. If you’re holding an event - invite them along. Invest time in building a relationship with each and every one of them.

8. UNDERSTAND THEIR POINT OF VIEW

Your clients are busy people and you won’t always get a response from them as quickly as you’d like. If you know that you need something from them, then asking the day before isn’t sensible. You have to put them first. 

Put yourself in their shoes. If they’re upset with how a member of the team has spoken with them, empathise and do everything you can to turn the situation around. Get the facts from your team and see the situation from the client’s side. (This doesn’t mean they’re always right, but look at things from their side)

PJ

For Accounting, Marketing, Business Building help, contact us:
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

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The Huge Pitfalls Of Reducing Your Price & What To Do Instead!

As the economy struggles to recover, and competition gets more and more fierce, we thought it was important to bring to your attention the problems you encounter by reducing your prices in the hope that this will bring you more sales.

One of the most common and most costly traps business owners fall into has to do with the perception that the quickest way to increase cash flow when sales are down is to have a ‘sale’.

On the surface, the concept itself seems to make sense. We need more sales, so we lower our prices.
Lower prices will attract more buyers who will purchase more of our products at the reduced prices. And we’ll make up for the money we’ll lose with the lower prices by the increased number of sales.

But the reality is, rarely is this strategy a success.

Having a sale, reducing prices in order to attract more customers, can often be the kiss of death for businesses unaware of the bigger picture.

In reality, there is rarely a good reason to reduce your prices. No matter what you think, most people do
NOT buy on price and price alone. In fact, research over the last 6 recessions has shown that only between 5% and 20% of people buy on price. Most people think it’s the other way around! So let’s take a look at the effects of reducing your prices...

Let’s assume, for illustration purposes, that your business operates on a 30% margin and you want to reduce the price to increase sales. If you lower the price just 10%, you’ll need to increase the number    of sales you make, or the number of customers you sell to, by 50% just to maintain the original profit.

Don’t believe it? Let’s walk through the numbers…

Let’s say that you sell an item for £100, and that your total costs to acquire that product and get it out the door comes to £70. That leaves you with a net profit of £30 on that item.

Now, let’s say that you reduce your price by 10%. You now sell that item for £90.

You didn’t do anything to reduce your product costs or your expenses. All you did is reduce the amount you charged your customers.

If you subtract your £70 costs from the £90 sale price, you net £20.

Now, if you subtract this £20 from your previous profits of £30, you end up with a £10 difference. Divide the £10 by £20, and you get 50%.

So to get back to the same profit level that you were enjoying before you lowered your prices, you’ll have to sell more items  or the same number of items to 50% more customers.  Now, here’s another problem most businesses fail to take into account. No one knows you’re having a sale unless you tell them about it.

So you need to advertise or send something out to let everyone know you’re  having a sale.

And if you expect to attract more customers and sell more goods, you may need to beef up staff, salespeople, delivery, packaging, money processing, accounting, stocking, signage and any number of additional things that you may not initially consider and all of which further increases your costs.

So when you look closely and carefully at having a sale, you may have to sell considerably more than the 50% to even come close to breaking even.

IMPORTANT
REDUCING PRICES IS THEREFORE SOMETHING YOU NEED TO THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT. REMEMBER, VALUE AND PRICE ARE LINKED – SO PROVIDE MORE VALUE AND YOU’LL STILL GET THE SALES!

The Value Of Increasing Prices

In our estimation, we believe that 90% of ALL businesses charge too little for their products and services.

Often people are scared to increase their prices, and business owners rarely test different price points (do you?). 

But having carefully targeted your prospects and customers (like we always advise you do), you are in a position to charge premium prices because you are seen by the market as THE go-to company for their specific requirements.

And there is no quicker way of increasing your profits and the success of your business than by increasing your prices. Let’s take a look...
Using the same 30% margin as in our previous example, instead of decreasing prices by 10%, you raise them by 10%.

The result?

You can now maintain the same profit margin with a 25% reduction in sales volume… either in the number of items sold, or in the number of customers sold to.

You could actually lose one out of every four customers and still make the same money.

Now, let’s compare two identical businesses which sell exactly the same products. Business A lowers prices by 10% and Business B increases prices by 10%.

As was pointed out, Business A has to sell 50% more, and Business B can sell 25% less, and they’ll both make the same profits as before.

While the owner of Business A is working his/her tail off just to break even, Business B owner is cruising along without all the stress, worry and other problems, and yet is making the same net profits.

Furthermore, what is often surprising to business owners is that when they do increase their prices, the opposite of what they expect actually occurs. Instead of losing customers, they actually gain more customers.                                   

Why?

Because the higher prices are met with the perception  that your products or services are worth more and therefore this perception of ‘added value’ gives the business a welcome influx of sales it would previously never have received.

We have numerous examples of this. For instance, a photographer was charging just £450 per day for his wedding service.

With very little change to the way he carried out the service, he increased his prices to over £3,000 in three months.

A restaurant owner increased her prices by 20% and saw an immediate increase in bookings .

A jewellery store increased prices 15%, resulting in an increase of £25,000 a month in sales.

These are not isolated incidents. If you get your target market right and you deliver a good-quality product or service, increasing your prices and increasing your sales is NOT a pipe dream.

So what if you’re selling a commodity-type product or service, whereby people can easily shop for the best price? Well, it’s no different. What you have to do, though, is create a level of service that is unmatched by any of your competitors.

This includes offering superior delivery times, quicker service or using a powerful guarantee which no other competitor offers and creating ‘premium’ products or services that customers will be happy to pay more for.

So even if you’re reluctant to increase your prices, concentrate on giving more value and you’ll still get many more sales.

As long as you create a gulf of value between you and the competition you’ll be able to increase your prices.

Believe us no matter what you sell, increasing your prices is something you should look at doing now.

Of course, don’t just make a wholesale increase right across the business. Increasing your prices is a tactic that should be approached like all your other tactics. Test small and then roll out when you have sufficient evidence that it works.

7 Strategies To Capitalise On Your Acres Of Diamonds!

When you’re constantly looking to acquire more clients, it’s easy to forget about your most prized asset - your EXISTING clients. This is a mistake I see often.

In many ways, it’s easy to understand why existing clients are neglected, but it’s no excuse.

Growing your firm is challenging (I don’t need to tell you that). But having strategies to retain existing clients and to maximise profits from them are without doubt the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to grow your accounting firm AND give you the income and earnings you desire.

So let’s take a look at the different strategies you can use right now to capitalise on the relationship you already have with your existing clients… 

STRATEGY #1: INCREASE YOUR FEES ANNUALLY

The best and easiest way to maximise profits is to increase your fees. This is a no-brainer.
Systematically increase your fees by at least 15% EVERY year.
You’ll be surprised how few clients you lose as a result and the ones that do leave are the ones you don’t want anyway (price-conscious).

The reason why price increases are so successful is because YOU’RE NOT CHARGING ENOUGH RIGHT NOW ANYWAY. There’s a significant element of added value which you can capitalise on - and increasing your prices is the easiest way to do this.

STRATEGY #2: WOW YOUR CLIENTS WITH MOMENTS OF TRUTH

One of the best ways to add value, build strong relationships and retain clients is to use Moments Of Truth (MOT). We discuss MOT often in these pages, but if you’re new to AFG, MOT are the steps you take at each interaction with your clients to ensure their experience with you is exceptional.

If you focus on every interaction you have with a client and make this the BEST it can be each time, you will create a world-class service.

You’ll retain far more clients and strengthen the bond you have with them - making them less susceptible to the advances of your competition.

STRATEGY #3: TELL THEM WHAT YOU SELL

I know this sounds almost ridiculous, but guess what? Your clients don’t know what you sell.

How many times have you spoken to a client and they’ve turned to you and said something like, “We’ve just gone to ABC company for XYZ,” only for you to turn round to them and say, “Didn’t you know we do that?”

This is more common than you think. Plus, it also brings into focus that if they don’t know what you offer, they won’t even think to buy it. So making them aware of what you sell will prevent many clients from sourcing this service from other suppliers and also increase the likelihood of them buying the service from you.

There are more, but here are 2 easy ways to do this…

1. Include a list of services with short descriptions in your newsletter (see next strategy). This can either be within the newsletter itself or as an insert.
2. Send a letter 4 times a year making clients aware of the services you sell. A good way to do this is to use a tick-box approach whereby you ask them to tick the services they would like more information on. You then follow up with those who want more information. This strategy alone will yield significant income opportunities for you.

STRATEGY #4: SEND A MONTHLY PRINTED NEWSLETTER

This is still one of the least-used strategies, but sending a printed monthly newsletter to clients is one of the best things you can do. Done right, it can achieve all of the following for you…

• Help to retain clients
• Get clients to buy new services from you
• Motivate clients to buy more existing services from you
• Keep clients engaged with you, strengthening your relationship with them
• Differentiate you from the competition
• And much, much more

To begin with, keep it simple. 4 pages is ample, but your goal should be to increase to 8 pages.

STRATEGY #5: SEGMENT YOUR CLIENT LIST

Segmenting their client list is something that very few firms ever do. Instead, they treat every client in the same way. But, clients are not created equally. Pareto’s ‘80/20 Rule’ is applicable to your client base. 80% of your profit will come from 20% of your clients. 80% of your headaches come from 20% of your clients, and so on. It is vital that you identify who your best clients are, so you can focus on giving them the attention they deserve. Reference our execution plan on ‘A-D Client Segmentation’ for more details.

STRATEGY #6: PHONE YOUR BEST CLIENTS

Now you’ve segmented your client list, you can start to communicate more with your best clients (’A’ and ‘B+’).

Simply picking up the phone once or twice a year and having a general discussion on how things are going will ultimately lead to more opportunities and, therefore, more business for you.

STRATEGY #7: CLIENT APPRECIATION EVENT

Once a year, you should organise a ‘Client Appreciation Event’ either at your office or a local hotel/restaurant and treat your best clients. Once again, you’ll be surprised by how much extra business this generates for you.

There are, of course, many more strategies you can use to generate more and more business from your clients. These 7 strategies are a good place to start.



To know more and be up-to-date, contact us:
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

The Amazing Power Of Persuasion

Whether we like it or not, as business owners we are in the business of persuasion.

Persuasion covers many different facets of our business. We need to use persuasion to elevate prospects to customers. Customers need to be persuaded to buy more frequently from us. The team around us need to be persuaded to do the things we want them to do things they like and don’t like doing. 

Even suppliers from time to time need persuasion to deliver the things we want from them, whether that’s in terms of products or services or service (with a capital ‘S’). The point is, if we can get good with ‘ethical’ persuasion, then the effect on our business will be significant.

Subconsciously, many of us use persuasion without even realising it. Our children master persuasion at an early age too! But what’s more interesting is that there is a science to persuasion that can be measured.

Perhaps the leader in the ‘field of persuasion’ is Robert B. Cialdini. His bestselling book ‘Influence—The Psychology Of Persuasion’ is an interesting read and covers the 6 major areas of persuasion…

1. Reciprocity

2. Scarcity

3. Authority

4. Liking

5. Consistency

6. Consensus

 

As a firm, we regularly (and not always consciously!) use reciprocity, authority, liking and consistency but I’d like to just talk about the real impact reciprocity can have on your business. This is the science of giving before receiving. Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others the form of behaviour, gift or service that they have received first.

For example, a recent study carried out at a number of restaurants demonstrated the result of giving each diner a simple mint with their bill at the end of the meal and the effect it had on the size of the tip. The results are quite frankly staggering and revealing (if you run a restaurant, you should implement this immediately!)…

They found that giving one mint with the bill increased the size of the tip by 3%. Not bad. Giving two mints quadrupled (yes, quadrupled) the tip to an increase of 14%. But when the waiter gave one mint per diner, walked away, paused and then turned back saying ‘for you nice people, here’s an extra mint’, tips increase an incredible 23%.

 That’s the power of reciprocity. How can you use it in your business to increase sales and profits? 

PJ

☎ 020 89310165

☏ 07900537459

✉ pushkar.joshi@apjaccountancy.com

Managing Your Time Effectively —Is The Route To Your Success

We’re almost approaching the end of 2014. What have you got done this year, and what will you get done during 2015?

I must confess, I used to be terrible at managing my time. And even now, whilst I manage my time fiercely, I still have to work at it. There’s no short cut. It takes real discipline to ruthlessly manage your time. However, what I do know is that there is a VERY high correlation between success and how well a business owner manages their time. Ultimately, the more you get done, the more successful you’ll be. Of course, you can be a busy fool. But the more time you give yourself to improve your business, your own development and the people around you—the more successful you’ll be.

But time is ALWAYS against you. Don’t you feel that the older you get, the quicker time passes? I’m not sure why this is, but each year seems to pass more quickly than the previous one. The days, weeks and months seem to roll into one, and before you know it 6 months have passed. You’re left wondering, ‘Where did thetime go?’

Now that’s okay as long as you plan your year out AND manage your time ruthlessly. However, most people spend more time planning their holidays than planning THEIR YEAR AHEAD. 

If you plan - you get more done, much more done. If you fail to plan and set goals, it’s surprising how little you’ll accomplish.

All the high achievers and successful people in this world identify planning and goal-setting as a major contributor to their success. 

Why? Because in addition to giving them a clear roadmap, it also helps them plan their daily/weekly/monthly schedules, and effective management of time enables them to get more work done in a week than most other people get done in a month.

Now, I’m not going to spend any time talking about goal-setting (I’ve covered this before), but what I’d like to talk about are a few proven tips and strategies I’ve learned along the way, which have made me “one of the most prolific ‘work machines’ on the planet” (not my own words!). I promise you, getting stuff done is a crucial skill you can learn—but one that will ensure you reach your goals and dreams quicker than you ever thought possible. But mark my words…

None of this is easy. You have to be selfish with your time. People around you will NOT like it (until you’ve ‘trained’ them in your new ways). You’ll find it easy to slip back into your bad habits, but you must fight, and fight hard, to stay the course. Of all the main attributes surrounding success, managing your time effectively, whilst not easy to do, is certainly one of the easiest to acquire and develop.  

It’s also something that isn’t often associated with growing a business, but effective

management of your time is a very potent weapon (and, conversely, poor management of time can be a real business growth inhibitor).

The good news is that you can significantly improve your output if you follow my simple ‘5 Key Time-Management Tips For High Performers’. 

So here are my key Time-Management Tips:

Planning: Plan each month and then each week and then each day based on your goals.

The key here is to establish what you need to do each month to accomplish your goals.

Then break these tasks down to weekly and then daily tasks.  You must always prioritise these ‘goal-orientated tasks’ before ‘general tasks’.

You’re probably thinking—this will take a lot of thought and time to plan out. You’re right. It does. That’s why so few people do it. That’s why so few people succeed in life.

Do not underestimate the power of carrying out this first step—it is the key to your success.

Work During Your High-Performance Times: You’ll get much more done in times when your body is alert and active.

For me, this time is 5.30am-1pm and 8pm-11pm (but you’ll know when you’re at your best).  The worst times are generally after eating! My performance drops significantly after lunch. So I do all my writing in the mornings and other less important work in the afternoons.

It’s during these high-performance times that you should carry out your ‘Goal-Orientated Tasks’.  This one step alone will improve your output significantly—so make sure you only allocate this time to the important tasks!

Use the less productive times for ‘general tasks’ and meetings.

Here’s why using your high-performance time is so important…

1. Since our minds are more active and fresh, we can get more done.

2. Concentrating on the task at hand is much easier.

3. Our creative juices are flowing when our minds are more active and alert.

Block Out Your High-Performance Times: Next, make sure you block out your high-performance times and under no circumstances let other things get in the way.

Again, this is key to your success. Treat your high-performance times as compulsory appointments (in other words, you can’t cancel them).

If you have a secretary or PA, make sure they understand these ‘appointments’ are never to be broken and replaced with anything else.

Resist All Distractions: During your high-performance times, turn off your mobile, take your office phone off the hook and don’t open your e-mail programme.

Even one interruption can set you back an extra 15-30 minutes, not including the time of the interruption.

This does take a high level of discipline. In the early days you’ll find the temptation of leaving your phone or e-mail programme on hard to resist, but I promise you, if you cave in, this will slash your effectiveness by at least 50%.

Once you force yourself to reduce your distractions to zero, you’ll find it very liberating!

For example, as I’m writing this newsletter, it’s 8.52am. My phone is turned off. My e-mail is turned off. I am NOT contactable by anyone (not even my wife, no matter how hard she tries! - although now ‘she gets it’ so doesn’t bother). 

Seriously, this one discipline will make a massive difference to how much work you get done. Not one in 100,000 people have the mindset to do this, so mastering it will put you on a productivity level way above 98% of people around the globe.

Tell Staff (and Family): You must explain to staff and family that, unless it’s an emergency, you are not to be disturbed during your high-performance times.

If your wife (or husband) is anything like mine, it will take time for them to realize you’re serious about this. Helen didn’t even think she used to interrupt me, so every time she did, I made a note of it. That did the trick!!   

By adhering to these 5 key time-management tips, I guarantee you’ll get so much more done. This translates to greater income and more success.

The important thing is to discipline yourself. If it was easy to do these things, everyone would be doing them. The fact is, most people lack real discipline. And getting a high volume of stuff done requires real discipline. You can do it if you put your mind to it. But you have to work hard at it!