CAP Business Clubs help business start-ups

One of the great things about  running a business club is that you get  to spend time with positive, busy people who get things done and still find time to create new ideas. We actively encourage members to meet outside of the club, and  often find an hour our time over a cup of coffee can be very fruitful.

Chatting with Alison Ball from Lemon Photography last week proved to be one of those light bulb moments.

Alison suggested both clubs take on a business start-up, offering 6 months free membership to the club. This would give the selected applicants a chance to gain valuable networking experience and at the same time receive help and advice from the group, plus of course the usual lead generation. In addition to this they would receive five vouchers for one2one mentoring from members of their choice. 

Now why didn't I think of that??!!

I then shared this with both groups who unanimously backed the idea without hesitation. Miranda Jenkins from Skills to go, being an expert in business start-ups helped with the hows and whens and now we are ready to roll it out, with an actual start time of mid January. 

A page has been set up on this website with details and application forms (you can apply now!)  
http://www.capbusinessclubs.co.uk/apprentice.html

If you or someone you know is starting out in business and would benefit from this offer then contact us to apply. the two lucky selected businesses will be announced on January the 10th 

It's a fantastic opportunity and I'm proud to be associated with both CAP groups who lead the way in networking here in the Forest of Dean.

Believe you can win the business

Never underestimate the power of belief.
 
Over the last few weeks we have been reading about some of the experiments being done in the field of Quantum Physics (and you thought we were just a little bit mad). What Quantum Physics is teaching us is that we really don’t understand the world we live in at all. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the interactions between people.
 
At an unconscious level we pick up very sensitive pieces of information about the people in front of us. At a conscious level, we can usually tell when they are lying, and we can tell when they are happy and when they are sad. Unconsciously we can tell much more, and unconsciously we react to that information.
 
This explains why salespeople have great spells, and terrible spells; they are unconsciously giving out subtle signals about how confident they feel, and the buyers are picking up on those.
 
If you are to consistently succeed, you must put all doubt out of your mind and truly believe you are going to be successful. Achieving that will not be easy, and will take lots of practice. A quick pep talk before you meet the customer isn’t going to do the trick.
 
There isn’t enough space here to cover how you do this in sufficient detail. If this tip resonates with you, you might like to call us to discuss in more detail how you can truly improve your sales conversions, just by believing you can.

The Reason for Father Christmas’ Success

Father Christmas’ working year maybe very short but he has a huge amount of work to do in a very short space of time and a deadline that just can’t be missed.  So how does he do it?

Father Christmas knows what he’s good at and what he needs to focus on.  Everything else has been delegated to a largely unseen but dedicated team of skilled and organised elves that work throughout the year toward their Christmas goal.

We’ve all seen Father Christmas in Grottos asking children what they would like for Christmas but do we always pay attention to the elf by his side making a note of all the relevant details - name, address, gift etc. It is the same elves that are responsible for adding details from the letters sent to Father Christmas to the database making sure that no one is forgotten.

Senior elves check that all the presents are age appropriate and parentally approved.  They also supervise that the elves making and obtaining the presents do so within the allocated time frame.  Presents are beautifully wrapped and clearly labelled with each child’s name and address (and often chimney accessibility).  Postal elves sort the presents geographically into the relevant sacks and load them onto the sleigh which passed its MOT and is flight worthy thanks to the mechanical elves. 

For the months leading up to Christmas the stable elves have fed  Rudolph, Dancer, Prancer,  Dasher,  Blitzen, Vixen,  Cupid,  Comet and, Donner a special diet making them lean, keen and fast and Rudolph’s completed a  refresher orienteering course so that they don’t get lost.  They shouldn’t as the Sat Nav elves have programmed the sleigh with the quickest, most straightforward route taking into consideration adverse weather conditions and atmospheric delays (as advised by the weather and travel elves).

The wardrobe elves have polished Father Christmas’s boots and his outfit has been repaired, cleaned and ironed so that he looks his best; just in case someone catches a glimpse of him (and to make sure that there are no bits to snag on a chimney).

The list of jobs carried out by the elves is endless (only a few of them are listed here) but it’s because of the elves proactive and effective work that nothing is left to chance. When Father Christmas steps into the sleigh on Christmas Eve he is confident in the knowledge that all he has to do is make sure that every child receives their presents before the sun comes up on Christmas Day.  And that is why he hasn’t missed a deadline!