by Amanda Daniels | May 22, 2020 | Koogar's Podcast (ITI) |
Click the play button to listen to this Episode! (53:38)
We all have dealt or are dealing with difficult people. This is about setting boundaries of what we are willing and not willing to tolerate!
Difficult people exist everywhere, not just at work.
They come in every variety and nowhere is without them.
How difficult a person is for you to deal with depends on your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and your professional courage.
In this episode I speak with Keeley Taverner from Key4Change where we talk about dealing with difficult people, narcissists and more.
by Amanda Daniels | Jul 25, 2017 | Koogar |
I’m in my 2nd year of Mastermind which is a group I attend with other business owners once every 8 weeks. We have 36 hours out of the business and fully immerse into our own businesses, working with each other and our coach to come out the other side with actions, a ton of homework, decisions made and a way forward for the next 8 weeks.
The first year of mastermind I was honing the type of business I want, the type of business I would like to do and specifically who with. Making those decisions has helped me understand what I want from my business, what I enjoy doing, what I’m really good at and who I need to employ to do things I either don’t want to do or could do better than me.
Koogar’s whole team work remotely and this is something I am very proud of. Everyone on my team are here for a reason and each person is REALLY good at what they do. I’ve worked like this since the 3rd year of business (2009) and have found it to be the best working model for Koogar. Not only because each person is a specialist but also because we are effectively streamlined to suit the needs of our clients.
The second year of Mastermind started in May and this year we received a SitRep which is a report based on the current situation used in the military. As my coach is an ex-soldier this was apt although a little strange and interesting at the same time.
So for the next session we were given a new task to complete called our Battle Plan which is what our vision, thoughts, ideas and dreams are for ourselves and our businesses and it was tough to complete.
I had the fear of getting it wrong, wondering if these things are really what I want and HOW I was going to achieve them.
We have our own Facebook Group and everyone submitted their Battle Plans differently. One with a mind map, one on video, one in a word document and so on… I delivered mine in the shape of a vision board with a word document to back it up with the numbers I’m looking at achieving this year.
Click to view Koogar’s Battle Plan
You see… what I have realised in the first year of Mastermind is that I’m not driven for money. My drivers are my lifestyle and how I want to live every day, what I want to do, who I want to do it with and where I want to do it.
As my business coach says… Your business is the resource that will enable you to have the lifestyle you want and the business you want to run.
I love what I do. I’m passionate about marketing and customer service and how it helps our businesses achieve results and goals we set for it.
What is your Battle Plan and do you have someone who is helping you achieve it?
![[Podcast ITI 0006] Does your business have STRONG marketing foundations?](https://www.koogar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/300px-Blog.png)
by Amanda Daniels | Mar 21, 2017 | Koogar's Podcast (ITI) |
Click the play button to listen to this Episode! (39:00)
Listening Time – 39 minutes and 0 seconds
ALL large projects and businesses are built upon their foundations! How strong are yours and will they help you last?
For example, a Japanese skyscraper has earthquake proof foundations to ensure it can cope with the frequent earthquakes in Japanese cities such as Tokyo.
Your marketing should be as considered as this, because unless you have the RIGHT foundations in place, your marketing strategy WILL NOT be able to cope and change with environmental disturbances that come regularly in business.
Some of the changes I’m talking about may be:
- Consumer desires
- Competitive forces
- Resource availability
- Political decisions
FOUNDATIONS – in this podcast is an anagram…
All of the above could cause HUGE issues for a marketing strategy that has not been effectively developed with the proper foundations in place.
by Amanda Daniels | Dec 14, 2016 | Business |
While the idea of a business owner might seem like a simple one, it can actually be quite difficult to understand exactly what a business owner is and how they differ from other business people who may own a business, such as an entrepreneur or a solopreneur.
Owner or Entrepreneur?
Therefore, a business owner is an individual who owns a business entity and therefore often has the power to make decision and the first right to any profits the business makes.
This is often the case for smaller businesses, but for many larger businesses while an individual or group of individuals might own a business they may have little control or input into the decision making process within the firm.
Largely due to firms hiring a team of senior leadership and appointing people on the board who will collate ideas and decide upon the major decisions within the firm. Thus, the size and structure of a business often impacts the role that the business owner plays.
Innovation
Another key element that impacts if the owner of the business is a business owner or not is the level of innovation. It is argued that small business owners usually deal with known and established products, services and experiences, such as a marketing agency or bike salesman. Whereas an entrepreneurs ventures are new innovative goods and services which they conceive and aim to be the first to the market.
This is a clear distinction, and also impacts largely on the way in which they aim to grow the business, as small business owners aim to grow gradually and build upon improved profits year by year.
Whereas entrepreneurs aim for rapid growth and large profits, often leading to them selling the company after a few years and moving onto their next creative and innovative concept. Therefore, while a business owner and an entrepreneur might seem very similar, they are actually very different entities and understanding which you are dealing with in business is extremely important.
Time
This is because they will have different expectations, with entrepreneurs being more demanding and time sensitive as they are aiming to introduce their innovative product as quickly as possible before others catch onto the idea.
While a business owner might be less demanding and time sensitive as they will have been planning this venture for years, and therefore will be happier to take their time and make sure the venture is as close to their expectations as possible.
Furthermore, business owners could be more interested in developing long-lasing and meaningful business relationships as they expect to be the owner of this business for a long time, whereas entrepreneurs are likely to be less concern with these factors as they often sell businesses and start new ones in different sectors or locations.
Importance
Consequently, while a business owner is someone who owns a business entity, it is key for all business people to understand the type of business owner their clients are and who the decision maker is before they enter into business together. This ensures there is no confusion over how decisions are made within the firm and the expectations that will be demanded during the project.
So, ask yourself, are your current clients business owners or entrepreneurs?
If you wish to discuss these issues further feel free to book in for a 30 minute FREE consultation today!
by | Apr 6, 2016 | Tools & Software |
Having recently adopted Evernote (after Amanda had told me about it), I have to admit… I was sceptical!
What is Evernote?
Evernote makes modern life more manageable by letting you easily collect and find everything that matters.
From work notes and to-do lists to recipe collections and travel plans, add everything to Evernote to help you get organized without the effort.
Before we go any future I would personally like to invite you to join Evernote!
My mind was quickly changed due to a range of the following factors:
- User Friendly – Having now used Evernote both on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Phone and my computer it is a VERY user friendly and aesthetically pleasing application, which is especially important when using a mobile application.An issue I had with my previous note taking app “S Note”, was that there were user issues such as scrolling responsiveness and having to manually save the notes every time you exited the application. In Evernote, these issues have clearly being thought through in detail, as the scrolling is perfect, all notes are saved automatically upon exit from the application and you can even add tick boxes to your to do lists…what more could you want?
- Sync – Another benefit which was not available when using my previous application is that Evernote automatically syncs across all of your devices! This is especially important for me as I often take notes in my lectures on my phone, which I will then look over, edit and add to at a later date on my laptop. This feature removes the fiddly task of copy and pasting the notes into an email, emailing them to myself and then transferring them into a word document.
- Notebooks – Notebooks are one of the best features and are again really helpful for organising my University notes. This is because I have individual notebooks for each of my modules where I keep all of my notes for that module, organised in date order with the title of the lecture. Therefore, when I go to add more detail to the notes and eventually when I use them as revision tools they will already be organised in a simple and logical way and format, which will save me time and improve my productivity during the limited revision period.
- Work Chat – Work chat is also a great feature of Evernote, this is similar to other messaging applications and features within others apps. Effectively it just allows you to message your friends and colleagues who also have Evernote – this can REALLY useful if you are working on a project together or if other forms of communication are not working such as email or WhatsApp.Additionally, it is a less formal way of communicating than email, but a more professional communicative channel than WhatsApp.
- Share Workbooks – Another feature which I feel greatly adds value to the Evernote service is the ability to share workbooks. This is important and will be appreciated by people working on projects who are constantly sending and sharing notes and pieces of work through email and WeTransfer.While these forms of transfer and very useful in their own right, sharing a workbook can save lots of time and effort as every member of the workbook can instantly see all changes that occur within the workbook.
- Web Clipping – Finally probably the most technical feature on Evernote is the web clipping feature, which enables used to quickly and easily take clips from the Internet and save/add them to their notes. This uses the Evernote web browser extension and seems very slick… Although I have not used it yet. I do intend on using it in the near future.
All in all Evernote is an amazing application and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!
This post was written by Lawrence Chadwick (Marketing Assistant Intern for Koogar)
