Business Brain Food

Suzi Dafnis is Community Director and CEO of the Australian Businesswomen's Network, where she has been involved for over 20 years. This week she gives us the benefit of her decades of career-coaching experience and of her own development in business, which importantly is applicable to both men and women.

Many will wonder whether there is still a need for a women’s network in this day and age, and while Suzi says that the business landscape is significantly different to when the network first formed, she also pointed out that there are still conferences where every speaker is a man, and nearly all delegates are too.  Thus there is still an imbalance.  But why? When it comes to the judgement of people’s success in business, only ‘the habit of confidence’ was cited as the main psychological difference between men and women in the workplace – even the concept of women taking time out to have babies was not seen as too big a barrier to success.  But the advice about how to create that confidence is absolutely interchangeable across men and women.  Some of the key points are below:

  • Find a greater purpose than just using business to pay the bills.
  • Always have a budget and a business plan, even at the very beginning of a project.
  • Successful people always have mentors, so find a way to surround yourself with people who understand you.
  • Find ways to hold yourself accountable. As per the above point: an informal network of people is a great way to spur you on to make progress

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

  • What ‘risk’ really means
  • The relative value of a business degree
  • The concept of masterminding
  • Effective blogging for business
  • Ben’s future plans for a daily show

Resources mentioned in this episode:

SME Association of Australia (http://www.smea.org.au) Two-hour workshops with Ben (http://www.businessfasttrack.com.au) Australian Businesswomen's Network (http://www.abn.org.au/) Darren Rowse blogging site: (http://www.problogger.net/) Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood) Business Brain Food Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood) Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell) ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes) ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher) The Australian Businesswomen's Network is quite simply a resource to empower people to be be more successful in business.  The discussion kept going back to the fact that, especially when starting your own business, you are not going to have the skills and experience to understand every aspect of the business journey.  So the people who find success are not necessarily the ones who have the most knowledge in the beginning – it is those who know where they have to go and find support who make it in the end. It’s so utterly simple: use the resources you have at your disposal, and if they aren’t enough, go out and find some more! Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that! Until next time, have a profitable day. Cheers, Ben Fewtrell (02) 9111 5000

Direct download: BBF073__Empowering_Women_in_Business_with_Suzi_Dafnis.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

 

How To Get More Leads, Customers and Sales With Digital Marketing Expert Greg Cassar

Every business needs to know how to market themselves in the online sphere. Greg Cassar is all about empowering businesses to do just that. Having run his own online stores, he then built up a marketing agency, before deciding to become an online marketing coach. He now has a portfolio of clients who turn over AUD 500,000 to AUD 100,000,000 per year, but took the time out to give us the benefit of his wisdom in this week’s podcast.

Here are some of the key points:

** Because people are in the habit of sussing out companies online, that means that every business can benefit from online marketing.

** Build your database! It sounds obvious, but list building is an absolute must.

** “How can we help?” is a good question to induce people to give their details. It is less pushy than more obvious calls to action.

** Build your online-business persona as an authority. Don’t lose sight of this when developing your websites and campaigns.

** Consider the different end goals of each page on your website. One might be “will the user buy?”, but another might be “will the user stay and find out more?”. Adapt your message to reflect these goals.

** People often don’t read every word of a website. Make sure that the user can get the message if they just skim-read the headings.

** Facebook advertising is very powerful indeed. There is nothing else out there that can be tailored to such a specific global audience.

** “What you can measure, you can manage”. Make absolutely sure that you use the data available to you from sources like Facebook and google adwords in order to build a true picture of what works and what doesn’t in your marketing mix.

The general message from Ben is that everything you do with your online presence can have an effect. All your web content will be measured by google’s algorithms, and all of your advertising clickthroughs on facebook will be available on your dashboard etc. etc., so use this to your advantage and customise everything you can in order to build that customer base. In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** Shortcuts towards how a business can maximise their online exposure from scratch

** The meaning of the term ‘authority site’

** The power of facebook marketing

** The dos and don’ts of websites

** Google adwords as a market research tool

** A ‘tripwire offer’

** How critical drivers are key to understanding the effectiveness of your online presence

Remember, Greg started off with a few simple online stores selling things like Santa Claus outfits, and now he deals with businesses that are turning over millions of dollars every year. With a few of the simple rules of online marketing that Greg shared with us in this episode, your business could go stratospheric too! Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Periscope app – search for Ben Fewtrell

** Business Fast Track (http://www.businessfasttrack.com.au)

** Business coaching, special deal for podcast listeners (http://actioncoachanz.com/businessrich)

** Greg Cassar website (http://collective.com.au/)

** How to double your average business (http://collective.com.au/double)

** Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

If you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!  

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers, Ben Fewtrell (02) 9111 5000


DISRUPT YOURSELF WITH JAY SAMIT

Businesses of any size must be able to adapt to disruption in the marketplace, and some of the most successful new businesses come about because they solve a problem that disruption has caused.  No one would disagree with how fundamental the concept of disruption/change is to being successful in business, and yet so many businesses fall down because they are scared of adapting. Jay Samit is one of the world leaders when it comes to disruption in business, having worked with the likes of Apple, Coca Cola, and General Motors.  In this week’s podcast he outlines how you could be the next billionaire disruptor and make the same impact as the likes of Ebay, Uber and Amazon.

One of the first points he makes is that only 57 of the original Fortune 500 companies have survived, which shows that however successful and secure a company appear, they can quickly go backwards if they merely stick to what they know. It’s all about spotting opportunities that come from disruption, i.e. Apple’s decision to diversify and manufacture Ipods.  And it’s only the spotting of the opportunities that is paramount.  If you’ve spotted the right opportunity then the rest can take care of itself.  In Apple’s case, all of the parts contained within the Ipod were originally manufactured by other companies – all they had was the concept and the brand. Here are some of the other interesting points to note: Technology is key to winning the game of disruption. For a small business to be able to roll with industry disruption, they must always have a clear idea of where they want to be in 5 years. The “one-world economy” is challenging the way we do commerce. It’s estimated that 40% of current jobs will be automated in 5 years. The current era of technological innovation means that there is opportunity for any individual to compete in the global marketplace.  Jay’s book, “Disrupt Yourself”, has been written to show people just how much opportunity is out there for anyone who looks hard enough.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

How to set yourself up to become a market leader or even create a market yourself How to take a concept to market which is just an idea The concept of crowd funding How 3d printing is gradually changing the world The ‘sharing’ economy How autonomous vehicles are currently causing disruption The most important thing that Jay will tell you is that some of the most successful companies in the world simply started as an idea – something that solved a problem that we could all identify with in everyday life.  You don’t need to be able to develop, build or market the concept yourself – the real money is in the idea.  So if you look hard enough at all the problems you face in everyday life, you can make yourself a billionaire just by knowing how to solve the problem that no one else has solved yet!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Pace Architects Case Study (http://actioncoachanz.com/architects-case-study)

** Jay Samit on twitter (https://twitter.com/jaysamit)

** Companion workbook (http://www.jaysamit.com)

** Jay Samit’s book, “Disrupt Yourself” (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disrupt-Yourself-Jay-Samit/dp/1509802886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445506817&sr=8-1&keywords=jay+samit)

** Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

If you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that! Until next time, have a profitable day. Cheers, Ben Fewtrell

Direct download: BBF072__Disrupt_Yourself_with_Jay_Samit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

1