Wednesday 30 December 2009

Love is all around us...............

No, you haven't blinked, missed January and been propelled towards Valentines Day frenzy, it's just something I have noticed recently. Since delivering Love Your Business programmes to companies around the UK, I have seen billboards and TV advertising campaigns all using the word 'Love'. I dont pretend to be ahead of the curve here but it seems that the British public (and, more interestingly, the business community) are using this word more and more.

A huge 'Love your Blackberry' campaign seems to be underway - quite comforting as 'addiction' is usually the word associated with this little gadget! Many famous people admitting to sleeping with their Blackberry under their pillow etc.

Love your bank has also popped up and been mentioned in the press in recent months - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2009/nov/13/metro-love-your-bank - an interesting concept around boutique banks. I am really looking forward to the opening and hope they adopt the same velvet clad seats and plum coloured wallpaper approach as the boutique hotels have. I am picturing walking in to cool mood music and Armani clad tellers when I bring in twenty bags of 2p coins to deposit on a busy Friday lunchtime......

So, with that thought in mind, there is no need to be shy when you say you would like to love your business - infact if you haven't done already, you are sooo last season. We at Vision Republic like to be 'on trend' when it comes to the success of your business. Joking aside, if companies are using this sort of language, it is because of a customer need - a need to feel wanted, secure and be part of something which is doing more than providing 'good customer service' - these days, that is a given. Look us up, test us out and find out how you can not only enjoy running your business, but make it more profitable, give it substantial market difference and build customer loyalty into the mix. You'll love it!

http://issuu.com/visionrepublic/docs/vision_republic_brochure

Tuesday 27 October 2009

In your element

I am almost finished reading The Element by Ken Robinson - a man after my own heart in terms of how finding your passion changes everything. It is such a simple thing to spend some time to find out what really makes you tick (fires you up, toasts your teacake etc.) and you wonder whether something so simple would be worth doing at all. BUT IT IS!!

I am always banging on about this when I meet people and often sound like a scratched record or a tape recorder on permanent playback (do people still have tape recorders?) Anyway, it was a turning point in my life and I am so lucky to be doing something I'm good at and have a real passion for. Waiting until I was in my 40's to do this was perhaps a tad silly but hey, it's never too late and as I am planning to live to be 120, I've got bags of time!

I totally understand the term 'flow', something mentioned a lot in Ken's book. It is sort of work nirvana, if you know what I mean......Being in your element is something everyone should strive for - particularly business owners. Imagine being able to combine your strengths (the good ones which give you drive and energy) with something, or several things, you feel passionately about and form a business strategy around that - surely a recipie for success?

Yes, actually and there are lots and lots of examples of this - people like Anita Roddick for one. She didn't call it passion, she called it her 'obsession'. Famously she laughed when the likes of Yale and Harvard asked her to come and deliver workshops on how to be an entrepreneur and said "I'm not sure you can teach entrepreneurship - after all, how do you teach obsession".

Read Ken's book, or better still, watch him on http://vodpod.com/watch/2108360-sir-ken-robinson-the-element. It's good stuff. Oh, and if you want to know what I'm up to, look at the Love your Business bit a the back of this document.........coming to a business networking event near you! http://issuu.com/visionrepublic/docs/vision_republic_brochure