Tag Archives: 10 Years

What Can You Learn From The Genius Steve Jobs ?

Posted on 10/07/2011 by admin
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My first introduction to Apple was about 10 years ago, I was dating an IT expert and it used to drive me nuts the way he always told me what I SHOULD be doing on my laptop and was always using it and ‘upgrading’ it.  One afternoon my car was broken into, my laptop (amongst other things) was stolen and I needed a new one. Of course, the IT expert knew exactly what I should buy and what spec I needed etc which again I found annoying and so I bought something he knew absolutely NOTHING about…. I bought a Macbook and I’ve LOVED  Macs ever since. 

As soon as I received my Mac my love affair started, it was delivered exactly when I was told it would be, it came beautifully packaged and when I took it out of the box I didn’t have to faff about installing anything, I literally plugged it in and started using it. Not only that but it was SO easy to use, I didn’t need to KNOW anything because it seemed impossible to break or corrupt and whatever seemed the obvious way to work it worked! Not only have I used a Mac ever since and literally could not be paid enough money to go back to PC’s but I’ve had several Ipods, and when the Iphone was launched, even though previously I had always been a die-hard Motorola fan I immediately ditched them to buy one !

So what has my rather unhealthy obsession with everything Apple got to do with your business?  Well, when developing soething new Steve Jobs concentrated on Yes, the technology, yes, the design, but most of all he focused on the user. When he developed his first Macintosh many years ago he sat in front of it and said, whats that noise? Its the fan they said, all computers then were cooled by hard working fans and the Macintosh was the first one that was cooled differently so as to eradicate the noise – it annoyed him therefore it would annoy the users.  He thought about his customers at every stage and developed products that made their life easier……

We can all learn from Steve Jobs, how easy do we make life for our customers? I’ve been on a few websites just recently that were actually hardwork to find any contact details, I searched for ages to locate them but a potential customer wouldn’t, they would give up and go elsewhere. Do you follow up when contacted or do you expect your customers to do all the running? When working with them do you keep them informed of progress or expect them to chase you?  Its easy to go that extra mile and put your customer first and make their life easy but so few businesses actually do it. Do you deliver on time, everytime, does the package look nice when you DO deliver?

You too could have raving fans like I am with Apple, I tell anyone that will listen how much I love them and I’ve converted some! Raving fans are the least expensive sales force you can ever have and they are also the most loyal and devoted – So what exactly are you doing to build yours?

 

jobs 300x300 What Can You Learn From The Genius Steve Jobs ?

 

 

Claire

If you need help getting your business to where you want it to be, join my Wedding Wealth Program Now !

Are You a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Posted on 09/29/2011 by admin
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Unfortunately in business things change all the time, and some business people like the challenge of keeping ahead of the competition and coming up with new ways to do business and make themselves original and others definitely do not!  If you want to succeed in business long term then you have to be in the former group I’m afraid because your customers requirements and problems change and unless you keep up then your business will simply run out of people to sell to.

One of the things I like to look at when working with a client is how can we keep streaks ahead of whats already out there, what innovation can we come up with or new way of presenting our skills is there? If you can constantly think outside the box with regards to your business then you are definitely on to a winner.

Did anyone see Dragons Den this week? Two women were on there because they have come up with the idea of people doing their own Wedding Videos. Now this struck me as odd because why aren’t videographers nationwide offering this service already? Lets face it Videos have changed a LOT in the past 10 years, they used to be a novelty that people went for then the price of videos came down and down so people did their own, then the CLEVER videographers started doing videos to music almost like pop videos and they were everywhere on YouTube and now we seem to be going back to the DIY version but brides want them professionally edited, so its changed a LOT!

Other businesses have changed a LOT – cakes are more fancy and quirky, photography has got more artistic, everything has had to change to meet the requirements of the bride and unless you supply what your customer actually wants then you will get left behind. So how do you know what they want? Well the easiest way is to ASK! Keep chatting to future brides at every opportunity and ask them EXACTLY what they want, don’t try and pigeon hole them into what you are offering – its their wedding, they are the customer and they are the ones paying so make sure you listen.  And especially important is to ask when you DON’T get the business, ask the bride why not, was iit price (very rarely is) or was it what you were offering?!?!

 

Claire x

 

Have you heard? I’ve just released my latest book… Wedding Fairs – From Waste of Time to Goldmine. The book tells you EXACTLY how to generate a huge income from every single Wedding Fair you do and bring in all the customers you want from them.

 

 

 

How Many Tricks Are You Missing?

Posted on 05/24/2011 by admin
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My parents Wedding Anniversay is at the end of March, and they’ve been married for 48 years this year (Well done Mum and Dad!) For the past 10 years I’ve bought them an anniversary cake, always a nice yummy one and always something different and because I’m lucky enough to know lots of cake makers I get something really lovely for them every year. This year however I must have had other things on my mind and I completely forgot! Now, bearing in mind that over the past 10 years I have had cakes from about 4 different cake makers when I finally remembered the cake situation a few weeks later, I was actually MORE surprised that not ONE of the cake makers had sent me a reminder and asked me if I wanted a cake than I was that I’d forgotten!  Lets take a couple of companies that gets it right on this – Moonpig, Hotel Chocolat, Interflora – all of these, if you register to buy something for a birthday, anniversary or valentines (in fact anything that happens year after year) they send you a reminder and ask if you want to get something this year and often I do!

If ANY of the cake makers had reminded me a few weeks before the anniversary and asked if I wanted a cake again I would have instantly replied and said Yes Please ! Sale made for the cost of an email – could it BE any easier?

As a Wedding Supplier you have the privilege of already knowing a special date for your clients, their Wedding Day and every year after that you have their anniversary! Are sending emails to say do you want a cake, are you having a party and want invites, would you like a special piece of jewellery made or photo taken on this special occasion?

How about asking for the birth dates of the bride and grooms when they make enquiries? You can then write to them even more and ask if they are celebrating a special birthday etc? The possibilities are ENDLESS!!

The easiest people on earth to sell to are……. people that have bought from you before – its a fact! So get clever with your marketing and DON’T think the sale stops after just one deal!

 

 

Claire x0x0x

 

If you would like first hand help with attracting more clients and developing your Wedding business then contact me today about the Wedding Wealth Program, 100% of my clients have said that it helped their business.

 

 

How Creating High End Packages Can Help Your Sales?

Posted on 04/12/2011 by admin
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I was introduced to the concept of ‘High End Packages’ a few years ago by a brilliant marketing lady called Bernadette Doyle, I’ve known her for about 10 years and learnt so much marketing wisdom from her in that time but I can not begin to tell you how introducing a ‘High End Package’ (from now on I’ll abbreviate it to HEP! lol) helped accelerate my wedding planning business to bring in much more profit for me. My standard wedding planning packages started at £3000 and I introduced a super deluxe package for £9000, yes, three times my usual rate ! It was scarey stuff and I was convinced no one would go for the package but when I introduced it in the June I sold 2 of these packages within the first  months! Just 2 sales brought me the revenue the work of my usual 6 sales!!! So thats how producing a HEP helped me, whats the logic behind it?

Well, the best analogy I’ve come up with so far is flying! When we go on holiday most of us tend to fly economy class, this is OK, it gets us to our destination but we ALL know that there are other classes available, Business Class and the Ultimate First Class….. Now if we were to go somewhere for a REALLY special occasion and we wanted to treat ourselves we might really push the boat out and travel Business Class and we’d think we were in seventh heaven, but we would still know this is NOT first class but thats ok, just the fact that the ultimate First Class travel exists and we are a bit closer to it is enough. If there were only TWO classes to fly, business and economy most of us would actually be happy in economy. Its a psychological thing that we always aspire to the highest available but we tend to settle for the next one down.

So – in a business context, when we create a HEP we give our potential customers something to aspire to and in doing so we automatically INCREASE the value of our standard packages that we are already selling. Potential clients see you as someone that provides this Higher class service, even if they can’t afford it and so they feel much more comfortable booking you at your standard service rate and see you as someone that is high value.

Get creating your High End Package and let me know how it goes!

 

Claire xox

 

If you want help creating your very own High End Package and many other fantastic marketing tools and techniques to bring you more clients and more business then join my Wedding Wealth Program, my current clients are RAVING about it!

Let Go Of All Hope……

Posted on 04/10/2011 by admin
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I was introduced to the Law of Attraction about 10 years ago when I started studying NLP. One of the ‘mantras’ of NLP is that your Perception is your Projection. In other words whatever you put out there with your thoughts is what you will make into your reality, or to put it another way, whatever life you have is exactly what you have created for yourself. Now this is a fairly hard thing to get your head around and believe me I’ve seen people have huge arguments against it when they refuse to believe that they can’t blame some or all of the bad stuff that has happened to them on someone other than themselves, but I like it, I really like the fact that my life is what I have created in my mind because when it goes bad its no one elses fault but my own, and if thats the case then I don’t have to rely on anyone else to make it go really well, its all down to me and I like being that much in control of my own life.

So how an the law of attraction how or hinder you in business? When I was counselling I also used to hear people say that they couldn’t be happy until X….. , until they found the right partner, until they had children, until they lost 10 pounds etc, there was always an excuse and I still hear similar things now that I’m coaching. People tell me that their business will be successful when they have the right office, when they are able to afford a new PC, when they have a new studio, when they have made their first £10k etc etc, but the truth is there is absolutely NOTHING and I mean NOTHING stopping you from being successful right now.

One thing I always ask new clients is where do you want to be? Want do you want your business to look like in 5 years time? Invariably people answer me by saying “Well I HOPE that I will have …….” HOPE! Is that the best you can do with your dreams? HOPE for them????   Lets think about the word hope for  a minute, think about something that you HOPE will happen and conjure up an image of it in your mind, really associate with this thing that you HOPE will happen – got it?  Ok now think of that same dream and EXPECT it to happen, conjure up all the feelings and emotions associated with and and see what is there, hear the sounds and really FEEL this dream that you EXPECT to happen? Which felt better? Which felt more achievable?

The law of attraction EXPECTS your dreams to happen, it listens to all your dreams and hears that you are expecting them to happen that it gets to work asap. Some people use dream boards to keep their goals in the forefront of their mind, other manifest every day,other use journals, whatever works for you but the most important thing is do it consistently, abandon all hope and start EXPECTING!!

 

Claire x0x

 

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2010 – A New Decade

Posted on 12/28/2009 by admin
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I love New Years, it’s a great time for clearing out any baggage and making a fresh start, I’m especially keen on this one because its officially the end of the naughties and the start of a new decade. The end of a decade is not only a time to plan for the future but a great time to reflect and learn from the past 10 years – so what have you learnt in the past 10 years?
When the new millenium started I was 31, in a long term relationship, had been self employed for a couple of years and thought I was living the dream, I am now 41, single and still self employed and living a very different dream -so what have I learnt? The first thing I’ve learnt is that what seems like the end is actually a cleverly disguised beginning and when the world around you seems to be collapsing then you can survive and not only survive but can grow and become stronger. Time flies by in a flash, it seems only yesterday that we were all hyper about it becoming the year 2000 and that was 10 years ago ! I can’t believe how quickly time moves by and I guess thats my biggest lesson learnt in the past 10 years, I’ve spent much time being sad and low and wishing things hadn’t happened and wishing things were different and all that wishing was a complete waste of time, energy and emotion. I’ve learnt that the only person that can truly make me happy is in fact me and that all the time I spend wishing I was different is time wasted.
My goals have changed in the last 10 years and now they are more business related but the ultimate goal I have for myself is still the same, its to be happy and live with Joy (Joy being the emotion rather than a person, I haven’t changed THAT much! lol) And I’ve even picked a theme for the next 10 years of my life – the theme is Shine! I want my life and everything around me to Shine. I just love that word and everything it conjures up for me – it suggests living to the full and living a beautiful and blessed life. Not only that but theres also something quite serene and peaceful in the word Shine – it suggest achievement and joy in an easy and magical way – wow – what a word!

So how will Bombshell Academy change? Well we are in a state of change right now in fact and our website is moving to a new home www.bombshellacademy.com We’ll let you know as soon as its completed because we will have a whole host of new courses for not only women, but men as well. Out mantra is going to be Learn, Be, Amaze – our mission is to transform all our clients into the amazing people they always wanted to be -through styling, confidence training, body language and communication courses to name but a few – its exciting times….

New Year Resolutions? Well mine are to stop watching the news on TV (I’m doing an experiment to see if there is a cumulative depressing effect!) , to be more disciplined especially when it comes to work and to encourage more random spontaneous dancing (always a great mood lifter! )

Let me know your resolutions, but make them good ones…..

Claire xox