If you’re going to get wet – might as well swim

My exercise ‘Thing’ is swimming. I love to swim in an outdoor pool (not in the sea!) but there is something that I see when I am there which I don’t get.

Now, I appreciate that not everyone comes swimming to plough up and down doing laps like me but surely if you’re going to get wet—might as well swim.

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What I didn’t learn at business school (but know now!)

While I did learn a LOT of theory and case studies of big business, and if required I can write out a cashflow forecast and balance sheet by hand, what I didn’t learn was any of the actual practical ‘stuff’ that business owners—especially small owner managing solopreneurs like many of us doing our Thing actually need to know.

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Get wise with your whys – for stories that sell

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Stories sell.

And if you don’t like ‘selling’ try stories instead.

Obviously I am very strong proponent of the adage that people buy from people but it’s true for my business and all the business owners I work with.

Now much as you can ‘create’ a brand around who you are, what really sells you are your stories.

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Are you asking the right questions?

It’s always good to ask questions if you’re stuck—after all, you’re not likely to get an answer if you don’t ask a question. But make sure you’re asking the right questions.

And if you’re not sure what the right questions are then find someone who will challenge you so you’ll ask questions you didn’t even know needed answering.

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Can you have more than 1 Thing?

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Yes I am talking about Things again. I can’t help myself. It’s what I love to do! :)

And a question I get asked often is can you have more than 1 thing? So I thought I’d share my answer here.

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Getting your ‘business head’ on (and why you need to keep it on!)

This morning I visited my friend Nicola, who’s just started running her own business (she’s my hairdresser), and it was great to hear that she’s already got her ‘business head’ on, and is busy working out how she’s going to start differentiating and improving her salon.

She’s taken over an existing business, and this of course can have its upsides and downsides — the upsides being that she is making money from day one (quite useful!), but the downside being that there isn’t a blank page to start from to do everything your way from the outset.

But here’s some things that we talked about that made me confident that the salon is only going to get better and more profitable…

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