Tag Archives: Occasions

What Can You Learn From Clinton Cards Demise?

Posted on 05/09/2012 by admin
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I was really sad to hear this morning that Clinton Cards have gone into administration, which more than likely means they will disappear from our High Streets. As with lots of hot topics I had a look at Twitter to see what people were saying about it and I was sad but not surprised….  One tweet said it was no wonder they were going bust because they charged £3.50 for a card that elsewhere was being sold for 70p and another said Why would anyone buy a card from Clintons that cost more than the present?  There was a definite trend!

Clinton Cards seem to have made the big mistake of sticking to what they were doing even though their market had completely changed. Yes, we used to spend money on cards but that was because it was all we knew but then online cards came along and the supermarkets started everything but the kitchen sink and that included cards WAY cheaper than the card shops.

Clinton Cards unfortunately have failed to seek the advice of the people that could have told them the ket to their prosperity and that is…..their customers, and now its too late.

If you want to know what you are doing wrong or right then the people you should be regularly asking and I repeat REGULARLY, not every few years or when your profits start to dip (this could be leaving it too late) but ask them every time they buy from you, ask them every time you bring out a new range of products or decide to discontinue something – how many times have you heard loads of people say….. “Why did they stop doing X, I loved it” In fact there have been many occasions of products being discontinued, customers going mad and the product  being re-introduced ! What a waste of time and money that could have been avoided if they had just asked the customers opinion in the first place!

So – ask your customers their opinion regularly, give them an incentive for completing the questionnaire or survey etc and USE the information!

You can’t exist without your customers, give their opinion the respect it deserves !

 

Claire x0x

 

If you need help with your business, attracting new customers and making more profit then get in contact today, email me.. claire@bombshellacademy.com

Are You Discounting or Adding Value?

Posted on 03/28/2011 by admin
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I often get asked whether you should include prices on a website and to be honest I have no idea whether there is a right or wrong answer to that. If someone is going to go elsewhere because of the price they see on your website then it really saves you the hassle of them making contact, you chatting, maybe visiting them and then them saying its too expensive and going somewhere else. On the other hand you could argue that without quoting the price you have a chance to ‘sell’ to the potential customer and they will be so taken with you that they’ll pay anything…… Personally, and this IS only my personal opinion I don’t think it makes any difference because weddings are so emotional occasions that if you provide something a bride particularly wants then the price aspect goes out of the window immediately and I think very few brides actually purchase based on price.

Whether you choose to display prices or not there is one thing that I often see people doing and I would really, really ask you to think twice and that is DISCOUNTING!!!!  We’ve all seen the ads on tv over and over again for DFS furniture and their sofas are reduced to some tiny amount compared to what they are apparently worth, and what are we all thinking? We are thinking that the reduced price is probably what they are worth, not the inflated price at all, and it actually deflates the VALUE of the product. Top supermarkets, who spend millions on their marketing have done extensive research on how to offer their products. Which offer would you prefer:-
Half Price
50% Off
Buy One Get One Free
Basically they are, of course all the same but Buy One Get One Free consistently gets 300-500% more sales than the others!

If you want to make an offer to potential clients, maybe at a wedding fair or as a limited time offer, rather than make a discount increase your VALUE instead. You can do this by adding something of value to your package. If you are a photographer for example offer a FREE engagement shoot (you might do this anyway but make it known!) and make sure you tell people how much this shoot is worth, add a VALUE to it.  If you are making an offering that involves just your time make sure you add a value to it and advertise that value, attach an hourly rate to your service and make it known to your potential customers exactly what they are getting.

So next time you are tempted to discount and reduce the value of YOU and YOUR service think again and get creative about how you can instead add VALUE to your offering.

 

Claire x0x

 

Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW

Do You Choose to be Inferior?

Posted on 10/25/2010 by admin
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When I tell people what I do, help women become more sassy and confident,  they always want to know two things, how I do it and how I define confidence. Lots of women tell me that they come across publicly as being confident but underneath they are self-conscious, shy and very critical of themselves, so does ‘fake confidence’ count? I am currently writing this blog whilst sat in the lounge bar of a rather nice hotel, its comfortable and quiet and has good food which for me adds up to being productive rather than sitting at home and getting distracted non-stop. I have many female friends that would not dream of sitting alone in this way though because they would feel out of place or conspicuous. Likewise I will happily walk into a room of strangers for a business networking event and chat away to people I have never met before, yet women tell me all the time that this is their idea of hell! So whats the difference between me and women that dread these occasions? Do I dress better, do my hair and make up different, do I have more valuable life experience or more interesting things to say? The truth is none of those things, the difference is all in the mind – I think about myself differently and translate my thoughts differently, nothing more complicated or deep than that!  In order for me to sit here, in this lounge bar and feel uncomfortable I would have to tell myself in my head that I didn’t belong there, and for me to not belong there I would have to tell myself that I was inferior in some way – inferior to what? The people that work there, the other people in the bar, the men that are sat in there on their own, the rest of the world? The truth is I am me, I am only inferior if I choose to be and I do NOT CHOOSE to be inferior.

Next time you walk into a room full of strangers and feel uncomfortable ask yourself what the fear really is? That people will look at you? not like you? not talk to you? The truth is none of those things are likely to happen and on the odd occasion things like that DO happen it actually says more about the other people than you. If you are confident about who you are as an individual, know what you stand for, what your beliefs and values are then your confidence will know no bounds…..

Eleanor Roosevelt was a huge advocate for civil and human rights and President Truman called her ‘The First Lady of The World’ One of her most famous quotes, which is also one of my all time favourites is “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” and definitely one worth remembering.


Claire xoxo



You may find that you’d like a little extra help with confidence coaching on any of the points above or to get through specific issues in your life.Claire Dobinson, the Bombshell Coach, has great qualifications to help women find their way back to being the person they really want to be.
Claire is not only a qualified coach and counsellor who has studied psychology but also has personal experience of many of the issues that she helps her clients with.Give her a call to discuss how she can help you to get more fun and love out of life.

Contact Claire on 01223 258000 or email claire@bombshellacademy.com

The Biggest Passion Killer……

Posted on 06/30/2010 by admin
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Apparently the greeks never wrote obituaries, all they did was ask if the person lived with passion. Passion,whether in love, work, life can both make us look foolish but also make us feel and look great. I wonder how many people we know so well today, Gallileo, Einstein, Da Vinci would have still been known if they hadn’t lived lives of passion, passion for what they really believed in and felt.

So what IS the biggest passion killer? Well this past week I’ve come across it twice, in 2 completely different scenarios and its the fear of rejection. On many occasions when I talk to people about having/maintaining confidence it comes down to the fact that to varying degrees we are all afraid of being rejected, there are very few people that can honestly live their lives without caring what other people think about them and without wanting to feel loved and accepted by those around us.

I’ve said before that confidence comes from finding out exactly who you are, your values and beliefs and really liking what you discover, its the acceptance that you are completely true to yourself and you are the very best version of yourself that you can possibly be. What is it about rejection that people fear after all? Do we expect that everyone we meet we instantly like? Life just doesn’t happen like that, we meet hundreds and thousands of people on a continual basis and some we like, some we dont, some we match with and some we don’t. Of course its easy to think about rejection in a logical way in every day life like this but when it comes to big emotions such as relationships and love its a whole different ball game…… (see what I did there with Wimbledon on in the background?)

Even the best of us build new relationships based on past experience, we just cant help bringing our baggage and issues along with us, so what would it take to leave all those suitcases firmly at the end of the road each time you embark on a new journey? Well personally for me its learnings and acceptance. I take the positive out of each situation, what did I learn in that relationship, what do I need to know in order to improve things next time, what would I have done differently? Notice these are all learnings about me, how I can improve myself. I also like to acknowledge and completely accept that I will never know what was going on for the other person in the relationship, I will never 100% know how they felt about me, how they felt about themselves,what their actions meant or what life journey they have planned, I acknowledge that, accept it and let it go because that is about their journey, their life and not mine.

So how can you live with passion? Decide today that there is no such thing as rejection, just go for things 100%, do it from the heart, and throw those fears out the window, because I guarantee that all the times you do, the joy,the memories and the experiences  will make the very few rejections pale into insignificance…..


“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living “- Nelson Mandela

Claire xoxo

Is There an Age Restriction to Loving Without Limits?

Posted on 05/26/2010 by admin
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I live in the now, I preach it to everyone I know and I teach it in workshops and courses – to me it’s the foundation of being happy, so why, for the first time in years am I acting with a fear of the future, a fear of something that may not even happen?


I’m 42 and I’m single, I have no problem with being single, I’m independent and happy. But I haven’t always been single, I’ve had my fair share of long and meaningful relationships and also my fair share of heartache, in fact one relationship left my self-esteem and self-confidence so trampled and shredded that when the heartbreak inevitably occurred it felt good to have a different kind of pain. Having said that I picked my self up and evolved into the confident, self-assured and thoroughly fab person that I am today.

Since then I have dated lots, and I mean LOTS and I’ve been the dumper and the dumpee on many occasions but I can safely say that none of them have hurt. Mildly cheesed-off is about as bad as it’s been to be honest and that’s ok because that’s safe and I can handle mildly cheesed-off but do I want heartbreak again, is being with someone worth that possibility?  Theres a great line in Erin Brockovitch when Erin says  to George “Are you going to be something else I have to get over?” I think when we get older we are all a little guilty of living by that philosophy.


When you meet someone that you really like its like a slippery slope, almost impossible to stop the feelings but at the back of your mind is a voice that says its all going to go horribly wrong and the slippery slope you are on is a slippery slope to inevitable pain.

Up to now I have dated people for up to around 6 weeks, this is plenty of time to get to know someone, get a bit bored, move on and have no residual feelings – I realize now that it’s a strategy that has worked well for me, and its kept me safe, after all, our prime natural instinct is always for our own safety right?  I have even realized that the few of those relationships that could have actually developed into something were magnificently and heroically sabotaged by me, so that I ended up being dumped –job well done Claire!


I have dogs you know, I love them and adore their ‘give it 100%’ unconditional nature –no matter what, they love me, I go out and leave them all day and they don’t sulk, they are just pleased to see me on my return, I scream and shout at them because I’ve had a bad day and they try and understand, don’t take it personally and throw themselves at me when I’ve calmed down. You know where you are with dogs.


Am I a control freak? I dont think so –I just like to be in control of my outcomes haha…..So what’s different now?  Well the universe seems to have cottoned on to my grand plan and has resolved to scupper me! I’m at my 6 weeks point after only a matter of days. Much as I try I can’t get the person out of my mind, constantly wonder what they are doing and more importantly if they are thinking about me and if they are, what are they thinking – it seems a constant stressful, and slightly euphoric state! And its ridiculous quite frankly and rather pathetic – I’m 42 for heavens sake – Isn’t this what happens when you’re 18? I should know better shouldn’t I?


I always tell people when they’ve had a break up that the success of a relationship should not be measured on longevity, it should be measured on how it helped you to develop and grow as a person, how it changed you – that’s the mark of success., so maybe I should listen to my own words of wisdom, the outcome is not the most important part.


What should I do? Keep my heart safe and secure and let nothing happen to it, good or bad or should I jump wholeheartedly, build my wings on the way down and hope that at the bottom of this particularly steep and slippery slope that there is someone to catch me? I have a feeling that there will be, but actually, after the life I’ve had I know that if I do hit the bottom of the slope at full pelt I will be ok ,a little shaken and a little bruised, maybe even a lot shaken and a lot bruised but I’ll be able to get up, dust myself off and life will continue to be good….