What is the number one challenge for 76% of businesses?

When you learn to drive a car, you start off driving consciously, thinking every gear change, brake, accelerator, clutch movement. Then, over time, it starts to become more and more natural.

Then one day you brake into a corner, accelerate around it and slip through the gears, 3rd, 4th, 5th without thinking and you then realise what just happened and go: “That’s was cool!”

Business can be like that too and it changes when all the things you once did consciously now become second nature and the learning you’ve been doing becomes knowing.

The knowing comes in the results – from the growing expectancy that you now are actually succeeding and can literally see your dream coming true. In driving it’s when your movement becomes instinctive. In business it’s when you have ideas that are grounded in habits, strategies, systems and processes and you know what tool to apply to what problem so that your dream continues to unfold naturally and effortlessly.

The expectancy comes in signs the results are coming. In business that might be signs that a product is right because the research checks out or sales start clocking up or that a marketing campaing is working because it’s generating leads and sales.

But the decision to succeed is made earlier. It’s made when we commit to doing the things you need to do to succeed. It happens when we stop making excuses. It happens when we stop saying “I can’t” and start saying “I will.”

Let me give you an everyday example. A recent CommunitySoul poll said 76% of businesses number one challenge is finding new business. So let’s use that as an example.

Let’s say your currently worried about where the next client’s going to come from and you’ve got a bottle neck of other things that need to get done. You’re waking up in the morning saying I don’t know where to start… I wish I could find more clients… I wish I could make more money… but before I do that I have to do deal with XYZ.

And you’re right. You have to deal with XYZ. In fact you have to deal with it to the extent it’s eliminated or severely reduced because right now it’s choking you.

Many years ago I worked with someone who complained they had no business coming in. I asked them to give me a breakdown of their typical working day. They told me they did yoga at 9am. Meditation at 11. Made lunch at 12. Walked the dog at 1.30. Did computer practice at 2.30pm then began the evening meal. This was an extreme case. But it clearly shows how the hours of “doing stuff” go by. Now for you that stuff might be emails, phone calls, admin, office tidying – it’s all the same.

But you have to realise that all that “stuff” is stopping you from success and all you need to do is put that aside and decide that you’ll stop doing that and start doing the work that will actually keep you in business – making a difference to others and making money while you do that.

With good wishes
Neil

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What’s your challenge? Would love to have you leave a comment.

How do you feel about making a difference and making a profit?

For some people that means you’ll be taking your great ideas and maybe doubling your income. And that means your great ideas, your passions, the things you really care about are going to be reaching more people and having a bigger impact in the world.

If you’re going to double your business income, you might be forgiven for thinking, “Uh-oh does that means I’m going to be working 2-3 times harder or longer?”

I hope not! If that was true that would mean you might be working 22-23 hours a day and that’s not what you really want to be doing.

So, what is the way to create a business that doubles in profit on a regular basis, reduces the time you spend in it, and contributes to making a better world?

That’s a big question, but it’s a great question because it drives at the kind of lifestyle most of us got into business to have – one that makes money, gives us freedom and flexibility and creates a contribution or a legacy.

So how do we do that?

I was listening to a former Olympic medallist speak the other day and he was saying, that no medallist wins because they work 2 or 3 times harder than the rest. No one wins a race by 2 or 3 times as much as anyone else. It’s fractions of an inch and 100ths of a second that make a difference.

So it’s the little things they do in training, day after day, that make the difference when it counts. And it’s these little things that will win you medals. It’s these little things that  save you time, energy and money. And it’s these little things, subtle things I want to show you, so you can make a big difference, without selling your soul.

So, how does this translate into business?

In your marketing it may be one subtle thing that makes the difference between no sales and a bucket load – this is your fraction of an inch and your 100th of a second.

And it’s the person who claims gold that goes down in the record books and who hits the headlines and the guys who end up second, third and fourth who get forgotten.

The frustration is to have a product or service that is fantastic, but to end up being forgotten, just because of a 100th of a second or a fraction of an inch… especially when your service or product makes the world a better place and the person who gets gold doesn’t.

It may just need the fine tuning to your business techniques or mindset to make your business rock and for you to profit from your heart-felt passions and ideals.

We know that people reading this have glorious visions for what they’d like to achieve, but often they’re not striking gold. This can be solved. You just need to find a place  where you can get the resources and the inspiration of resourcefulness.

A little goldmine of help can be found at www.communitysoulbusiness.com

Go and take a look

Neil

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Leave a comment below and let me know how YOU feel about making a difference and a profit. Would love your input.

When I notice my energy pouring away, that’s the point where I realise I need to get out of the process.

I realised this a long time ago. I’m simply not good at putting together the systems and processes of a new product.

I like the creative parts, the bit where I come up with the idea, the bits where I can speak to a group or network an idea.

We all have different skills and we can all use them in different ways. The trick is bringing all those people together into a project in different ways that create a pay off.

In our industry people often talk about having a “passion”. And this is fine. But you also need to make sure you can earn a living from that passion.

There is a mistake people make in our industry in following a passion. Let me give you an example…

If you have a passion about yoga and you want others to experience the benefits you have experienced from yoga, you don’t have to become a teacher and try to market your own yoga classes.

There are different ways to earn a living from yoga. For example, your natural gift might be marketing, so team up with a yoga instructor who doesn’t like marketing and show them how to reach more people.

You may also be someone who can create a product that hones in on a specific pain point for people who would benefit from yoga. So, help a teacher create a product.

My own passion is helping people have a better experience of life and while I can, and still occasionally do, mentor or coach, my real passion is elsewhere.

There are already a multitude of amazing teachers, speakers and writers, but where our industry needs the support is in the marketing and PR professionals who can help that message reach the market.

My own passion these days is creating joint ventures for clients – knitting together two people with passions so they can work or market together. Plus we have a great platform to help launch those ventures.

Think about your passion… is it really in the way you are doing what you are doing?

You’ll know by how much energy you have for your work. If it flows and you feel you are thriving, you have it right. If energy feels stuck, something isn’t right – you may be in the right niche, but in the wrong role in that niche.

Good wishes
Neil

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What if you could double or triple your profits, while cutting your working hours in half?

The information I’m sharing in this article put me in the real flow of my business and we’re going to be looking at how you can do it too.

First off, let’s look at why this subject is important…

I know that a number of you would like to work less hours than you do and you are just not sure where to start.

Also, there are a number of you who have already achieved a level of success and the problem you may have is that you just don’t have enough hours in your day to grow further.

It’s also fair to say that many of you know you need to do something different in your business in order to grow it further, but you’re resisting it because you have a fear – maybe that’s about giving away some control.

If I go back a few years, I worked long hours. Sometimes I’d be working at 2am and would start again at 6am. I was frustrated. I was working long hours, but just didn’t feel I was getting the returns I wanted.

I remember Jo and I talking about this and we decided I should take some of my own medicine. For a while I’d been taking my own clients through a process of how to save themselves hours in business and yet here I was not doing what I taught.

So we began the process, which took 6 months initially.

The first step was to look at what only I can do, that no one else can do. And to cut a long story short that means public speaking, building key relationships and creating resources for our team.

That means that anything else I do, needed to be handled another way.

As I began to look at every task, strip it down and then outsource it, big holes in my diary began to appear where I now had more time to do the things that were most important for me to do.

Just taking this one action meant I had more time and the business had more potential.

Take a look at your daily routine and see where you are doing things you don’t need to do. Look at what someone else can handle for you.

Good wishes
Neil

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Do you try to do it all yourself? Would love to have your input — leave a comment below.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I don’t recall one school lesson that taught money management skills. My guess is that your experience is quite similar.

The lure of money pulled me out of sixth form early. I’d found a job and the thought of stacking money up in the bank and also having stuff I fancied but previously couldn’t get had a massive appeal to me at seventeen.

I worked hard and soon became the best sales person I could be. With the commission, I was soon able to buy myself a car. I found a girlfriend and later began to enjoy things like beer and clubbing. When the appeal of all that died away, I settled down: got married, got a monthly repayment – commonly known as a mortgage – and had my first child. All fairly typical up to this point.

I bought a mortgage because I’d heard that a house was an asset. As no one had ever shown me what an asset looked like on a financial balance sheet I fell for it, hook line and sinker, because the truth is a mortgage is not an asset to me. But it is to my bank. My mortgage was in truth a liability to me.

What’s an Asset?
Good question. An asset is something that earns you money. How much does your mortgage earn you? Most likely your mortgage costs you. For example an £80,000 mortgage over a normal period at a usual kind of rate will mean repayments of around around £210,000.

Does that sound like an asset?
Sure you can argue that your home will rise in value. But does that earn you money? Probably not. Here’s why.

Your bank knows that you won’t complete the term. They know that in 6-8 years you’re going to move on and take out another loan, usually a bigger debt and a bigger loan.

A Mortgage is ‘For Life’
The word mortgage is derived from the French word ‘Mortif’ which literally means ‘For life.’ And this is most likely where your bank has you… for life.

Why the Rich Get Richer…
The rich get richer because they understand more about money than most people do. They got educated. They know that working for a living means you get taxed and pay your NI contribution before you get your hands on the money. So they go into business. This means that they take their legitimate expenses off pre-tax, pay less tax and end up with more disposable income from the profits.

Why Become Self-Employed?
When I became self-employed – and this may be true for you too – it wasn’t for tax breaks, but to get out of the rat-race and do something I loved, while at the same time creating freedom of time. The tax breaks are a bonus – well, they are if you can earn enough.

The problem for many self-employed people is that they know how to do their task, say massage therapy or homeopathy, but don’t have the marketing skills to drive a stampede of customers through the door. That’s why so many businesses end up closing within three years.

I’ve put together my top tips for spiritual people on earning money.  These are below. They cover business as well as personal expenses.

1. If you pay money out on loans, a mortgage or a credit cards, you do not have assets, but liabilities. You are therefore the banks asset.

2. Begin to educate yourself financially. Is it your wish to see your money be put to uses you approve of? There are some excellent books on making money from money. Start to read them and edge towards financial freedom, rather than financial control.

3. Reduce your expenses to a minimum. Find 10% of your income and use it to reduce your loans. Wealthy, financially free people, know to always clear their debts as early as possible. Once your debts are paid, you can invest in the kind of good, ethical business you believe in.

I hope these ideas help you.

Best, Neil

Would love to hear your opinion. Feel free to add a comment.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In life you either get what you want or you get experiences of failing to have what you want. Life is that simple.

Why is that?

When we say we want something and then don’t do what needs to be done, our behaviour isn’t supporting our intention.

Interestingly our behaviour will always align to what we most want or to our fears about what we most want. What do I mean?

What I mean is when we really want something, our behaviour will align to it or to our anxieties about making the transformation.

So some people may currently have a contradiction between what they say they want and what they do to get it.

When we decide what we want, we create a resonance. That resonance can still include resistance or fear. Only when the resistance or fear is overcome we can achieve what we most want.

And it’s no different to where any of us are now. We have a choice to make our life or the world a better place by taking the steps to do that or to accept the status quo.

What makes the change is gentle action… loving action… spirited action… that keeps us on purpose and helps us be all we can be. And that doesn’t mean ignoring a fear, it means understanding it… accepting it… and working with it.

Fear doesn’t have to stop you. It can propel you!

We resonate with what we want when we make accepting second best a thing of the past. We resonate with what we want when we stop making excuses. We resonate with what we want if we accept our responsibility for everything we do and everything we are.

Contrast that with accepting second best… making excuses… not accepting responsibility… there is immediately a different resonance isn’t there?

Can you feel it?

If you are not currently getting what you want, look at where you accept second best, where you make excuses and where you might not be taking responsibility.

Lots of love and good wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

You may remember David Beckham in 1998, kicking the Argentinian and getting sent off. He had people hanging effigies of him from lamp posts and people sending him hate mail. He came back strong. He almost single handedly qualified England two years later for the Euros.

You look at the German and Japanese economies. Decimated during the war, but by the 70-80′s they had the most productive economies in the world.

What I’m saying is don’t sink when things don’t go quite right.

When things don’t go to plan we’re going to feel the pain or the frustration. Pain and frustration is a reminder to remember who we are and why we are doing things.

It’s important that when we notice things are not going well we take some time out to notice the situation.

A loving attitude, some good grace and some gratitude for the people that are showing you the problems really helps.

Sometimes – often in fact – when things are not going well, we have to put away our ego. We have to recognise that some of our problem might be driven by our fears.

Maybe the way we are communicating is causing conflict as I saw with one organisation I worked with recently, where the person in charge had a dictatorial strategy and had staff leaving often.

Maybe there is something in your marketing messages. Maybe it’s the font, the language or some fundamental aspect you need to include and don’t know you need and you need to invest in some expert help.

There’s no doubt that when you take the time to notice, you can sooth out the edges. Sometimes we can do this alone, sometimes we need help. And you’ll know when it’s time to do what, if you are in tune with who you really are – which really isn’t this frustrated person you might display when things are not going well.

Make a list of 5 people who have been through some tough times and overcome them. Use it as inspiration when things are not going to plan.

Best Wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

When you gain a new customer or client what journey are you taking them on?

Let’s say you are selling to a business. So the journey you might take a client on is that you might offer the client a service that saves them time. Because you save them time, they now have more time. They might reinvest that time in a number of ways… to innovate in their business, to set up a charity,  to have more time with their family. Because you have saved them time, they have the potential to increase their income, give back or spend more time with their spouse and kids.

A recent personal example I can give you is what one of our web guys did for me. Recently I asked one of our team to do a job for us. It was a job I could have done, but I know it’s something he is niched in.

Because I thought of him and knew clearly what he could do, I was able to give him the work. That left me the time to think about one of our other services and how I improve that. What happened was I was able to reduce the few hours per week Jo puts into that project.

The result was Jo now has more time to spend working with her clients, created more space to make a bigger difference to our clients, which increases our income which means we can again make a bigger difference… and it also represented income for us of over £4300. So when the web guy sends me a bill for $60, around £45, do you think I’m happy?

Another journey you might take a client on is making them money. As someone who mentors businesses on making a difference and a profit, I know that when I work with someone and they follow the steps I give them, they will increase their income.

But I also know increasing their income is just part of the journey. This is true because income is so closely related to what the business owner thinks about money and how they feel about making more.

Sometimes someone needs to increase their income to sustain their family, but they don’t feel comfortable asking for money or closing a sale. So, I know when I work with someone to increase their income, they will go through many things.

As our income shot up, I hit a barrier. And I had to adjust my thoughts to go beyond it. I had to adjust my thought process to avoid self-sabotage and it was an interesting time of self-discovery where I had to really come back to the reasons why I do what I do.

A lovely appreciation to have  as you go about your week is that as you evolve, your clients and customers evolve. And as they evolve, so do you. You’re in it together!

Best Wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

When you set up the vision for your business… when you’ve written down the goals and visualised it all as you want it to be… the next part – and  the part that most people struggle with is – getting out of your seat and making it happen.

YOU can make it happen!

In this article we’re going to look at how you address this…

A good place to start is with these questions: “What is it you need to do next to have your vision happen?” Do you need to write a business or marketing plan? Get a mentor? Pick up the phone and ask for help from a colleague? Is there a book you need to read? A website you need to go to. What do you have to do?

Make a list of all the steps and set a time aside. A mentor of mine once said, “If you make the first 90 minutes each day about your goal, it will happen.”

I want you to take note of the things that cause you a bit of discomfort. For me, I often left detail. I didn’t tidy up the little snags. I also haven’t always been as determined as I might be. For you, you might notice other things.

What I did is notice where the detail wasn’t tidied. For a time I went over it until it became perfect and until that perfection was no longer a pain but an absolute joy.

Of course another way is to outsource what you’re not good at, and I do more and more of that as time goes by… because I found that this was a faster way to joy!

And while we’re talking about overcoming pain and gaining pleasure I should mention self-sabotage. When we begin to do better than we’re comfortable with, we can have glitches.

Anyone who has weight problems will probably be able to tell you that maybe on a certain day, when they suddenly feel lighter or maybe on a day which was stressful, they hit the self-sabotage button and revert back to the old way.

It happens. Why does it happen?

Well, one of the reasons is we hit an upper limit of success – we hit the ceiling of what we can cope with for that moment. We’re unable to accept our self as something else… in other words, the success we once wanted now feels uncomfortable.

It’s important we know this happens and we take the time to handle this, or you might be hitting that self-destruct button… and you don’t want that.

Best Wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

We all have things we want to make a little better.

We all have challenges…

The challenges might come in relationships, at work, with our kids, with our health or something else. So there is always something we want to make a little better.

The first thing to do is the step so many miss. And yet this step really isn’t that profound. In fact it’s simple. It’s profoundly simple. So let me share what it is…

The first thing we have to do to is to make a decision to change things.

I “made” a decision to make my life better in 2002. And it doesn’t matter how good or bad life is, if you want something you don’t yet have, you have to make a decision. If you don’t, nothing changes.

There will be some people reading this article today, who have made a commitment to live life to the full and who will not turn back. These are people who will make a note and who will never look near them and there are people who are ready to make life different – however big or small the change.

In 2002 I was signed off work with a back injury, broke, obese and at this time 33 years old with two kids, and single again after 5 years of abuse. So I couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything much and… to be honest… even if I could… I’d probably have been so depressed no one would have hung out with me for long.

That left me with one focus. That focus was on what would make life better. Nothing else mattered for me at that point and there has been one question that has made a massive difference to me.

The question I ask is, “What is even better than this?”

To ask this question it doesn’t matter how good or bad life is. Asking this question can always make things just a little better.

One afternoon, after a satisfying day, I was laying on the sofa, grinning at the ceiling and I asked, what would make this even better, so I called Jo in for a hug, because sharing my good mood was better than keeping it to myself and it made the moment a bit more special.

Give the question a try…

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk