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Managing start up business

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FEATURE – Ashgrove Serviced Offices

Ashgrove Serviced OfficesOne of the real challenges for small business owners managing start up business is making the transition from the home office, or even the back bedroom, to a commercial office.  Committing to a lease is a big step and often a financial challenge.

But take a little time to think about it and you soon realize that, in a world where an internet connection is a ticket to anywhere; where capable and self-sufficient virtual technical assistants are available at a fraction of the local cost; a dedicated office and fixed term lease may not be the best solution for you.

If you don’t need street frontage, don’t rely on walk-in trade, and don’t have a physical storage need, physical location may be not be your priority presence.

managing start up businessGreg Cusack, owner of Ashgrove Serviced Offices, fills a need gap for those managing start up business.  With his wife and co-owner Terri, he offers a virtual office solution to those who don’t need a dedicated physical office.    That means they do everything and you don’t need to be there.

Knowing that your calls are being answered professionally in your business name; and your mail is being received and forwarded, leaves you to get on with your own high-payoff business activities.

What you save in dedicated office leasing you can apply to building your online presence, which the whole world can see.

My favourite - The BoardroomOf course serviced offices are also available if you need a fulltime, part time or representative onsite presence.  However, my personal favourite, apart from Greg and Terri’s warm welcome, is the stunning boardroom.  Located on Level 1 Highpoint at 241 Waterworks Road, brisbane, this is a perfect near-city location for boardroom presentations; training small groups; and conducting client meetings and interviews.

For all your physical and virtual office needs, visit Ashgrove Serviced Offices online at www.asoffices.com.au or call Greg or Terri on 07 3510 2100.

Gary 5Author’s Note

If you are a small local business and you would like to join our referral group, just get in touch.  I am very willing to feature your business on this site.  You found it and so will others.  Call me on 0408 756 531 or email me at gary@garyweigh.com

 

You get what you focus on

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Managing start up business

You get what you focus on

Managing start up business is more than just buying at one price and selling at another.  The mind conceives all thought, all concepts, and initiates all action.  At Gary Weigh & Associates, we pay a lot of attention to your mindset.  These principles of business mind are drawn from the powerful art of Aikido.

Do you ever wonder why goal achievement, good fortune or indeed money never seems to come your way?  It may be that you have to change your mindset and your point of focus.

When you think about what you want in life and in business, is your focus on positive aspects of your wants, or on the problems that their lack is causing?

This law of the universe always holds true.  The more you focus on the lack and the problems the lack is causing, the more you will succeed in being without.

In the art of Aikido, we never narrow our focus to the point of attack (i.e. the apparent problem).  There is an old martial arts saying, “Don’t look, just see!”  In other words, relax your tunnel vision and take in the wider perspective.

Your focus must always be on the solution.  To focus on the solution possibilities will always bring you closer to finding an acceptable solution.  Whereas focusing on the problem will only ever exacerbate the problem.  It only serves to draw the negative energy closer to you.

Managing a start up business is only one aspect of life in business.  If you would like to read more about Aikido in everyday life, check out my blog at http://aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

Starting up a business – seven (7) operational threats to your business!

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It is not my intention to sound like a profit of doom but it pays to be cautious and examine all conceivable scenarios.  So I am playing the devils’ advocate!

When starting up a business, it is normal to do some serious planning before jumping in.  One of the tradition planning tools is SWOT analysis – i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

It is important to identify weaknesses, just as it is important to know your strengths.  However, weaknesses aren’t generally fatal – at least not in the short term.  They may cause you problems and probably slow you down.  However, threats are potentially fatal in the short term.  So it is worth spending a little more time on potential threats.

Regardless of the business you are in, here are seven (7) potential threats that could prove fatal to your business.

  1. Putting all your eggs in one basket (e.g. relying on one customer or supplier)
  2. Growing too fast (i.e. too much business to handle, insufficient resources)
  3. Negative cash flow (e.g. from poor pricing, poor costing or unfunded expansion)
  4. Failure to innovate (i.e. not keeping up with technology or competitor products)
  5. Going it alone (i.e. trying to do everything yourself and doing nothing well)
  6. Non responsive to communication (e.g. customer requests, feedback, criticism, complaints, creditors)
  7. Loss of power and / or connectivity (e.g. power outages / surges, internet / telephone problems, failure to back up)

Note that all the threats listed above are operational threats.  And there are more!   Unlike threats posed by natural disasters, these are well within your control.   More importantly, they can all be planned for.  In fact, avoiding these pitfalls is what business planning is all about.

So if you fall victim to one of these threats, it is of your own making.  The fact that you didn’t know that the threat was even possible simply means that you didn’t do enough research before starting up a business.  Any competent business coach or adviser could list these threats.  Get advice!

Check my other blog site http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com and learn how Aikido could make a life changing difference to the way you run your business.

If you want to learn the magic of Aikido visit http://www.griffithaikido.com.au

Until next time!

Gary

Business start up – all in a day’s work for an Aussie female entrepreneur!

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One of my very good friends is an amazing female entrepreneur.  Over coffee this morning she told me this amazing story.

Last Saturday, she met a new client for lunch in a local coffee shop bistro.  It was supposed to be a straight forward business start up meeting with this lady for an online internet marketing business.  It was a hot day and they sat inside the restaurant in the cool air conditioning.

My friend had her handbag sitting on her lap with her arm resting on top of it but did not have her arm through the strap.  They hadn’t been seated for very long when my friend’s handbag was taken from this position – and she didn’t feel a thing!

It took her client to point out several times that a young well dressed guy had just snatched her bag and was now out the door and running away down the street.   By the time my friend came to full realization of what had just happened the guy had a considerable head start.

She described him as being in his twenties, tall, of slim build and well dressed in casual clothes.  My friend is about 5’7” (170cm), almost twice his age, not so fit, with a heart condition and was wearing high heels.

She mowed this guy down inside two blocks (in high heels).  She recalled that after sprinting down one block she was running out of gas fast.  With a ‘now or never’ attitude she found overdrive and scorched down the second block running on pure adrenalin.

His mistake was to turn a corner and stop to see if she was still chasing.  She was, and as she rounded the corner, the guy took off again up a short hill.

She planted her hand into the middle of his back and grabbed a handful of shirt.  Some how without losing her own balance, she kicked him in the back of the knee and felled him to the pavement like a steer that had just been roped.  The momentum caused him to skid for a metre or so to a skin grazing halt.

Without allowing him to take his face out of the pavement she reclaimed her handbag and let him have it with a few well chosen expletives.  Unfortunately for the thief, that section of pavement was finished with exposed aggregate.

He wasn’t a pretty sight when he staggered to his feet bleeding profusely from gravel rashes on his face, hands and forearms.  He ran off and once again stopped (slow learner) at the next corner to look back to make sure he was free and clear.

He wasn’t!  Moments later a police car entered the street and followed in hot pursuit.  Fortunately, someone in the footpath crowd, which moments before had magically parted like the Red Sea, had called the cops.

My friend hasn’t had as much as a minute of tuition in any martial art, but due to her profession she does have a deep understanding of the Universal energy.  She said she connected with the thief and stayed connected.  The rest was pure heart and adrenalin (and her body’s distant memory of high school running).

Knowing I am an Aikido practitioner, my friend said she realises that it wasn’t the aikido thing to do to run after a thief or a mugger but, without conscious thought, as her primal fight or flight reaction kicked in, she decided that she wasn’t going to be a victim.

Who was I to argue?

Until next time!

Gary

Post Script: When she finally recovered from the shock, spoke to police and returned to her client at the restaurant, they decided the business start up could wait a couple of days and went to the pub!

Visit http://garyweigh.com/business-startup