AVERIL MAHER Business Coach

When starting your own business it’s often easy to get yourself started, but a lot harder to keep yourself going when things get tougher. Whether it’s a slowdown in the market, increased competition or the pressure of work, staying committed and maintaining a positive focus in your business can be a challenge. Here are ten tips to help you stay committed.

1. Set goals. Without goals, there’s really not much reason for you to be in business.  If you want to stay connected to your business, it helps to make yourself realize why you’re in business to begin with.

2. Keep goals in mind. You started your business for a reason.  You need to keep that in mind so you don’t get weighed down by the day-to-day of your work.  Keep little pictures or other memorabilia around that remind you of why you’re doing this is the first place. 

3. Be flexible. There’s not a one-size-fits-all method to success; you might...

One of the biggest challenges for business owners is how to balance work life and home life. I hate to tell you this but there is no such thing as work-life balance. If you own a business there will always be times when the pressure is on and home life suffers. The trick is to manage those circumstances and develop a plan of how you will blend your work life with your home life.

Here are ten tips that will help you manage your work life and home life.

1. Set realistic goals. It's pretty much a given fact that if you want to achieve something big, you have to make some sacrifices.  While the select few can manage, most people can't become a CEO and run a successful household.  When setting your goals, be realistic and don't stretch yourself too thin. Ask for help.
2. Make schedules. Keeping track of work and your family can be difficult to plan. Set a time with your partner each week to review and plan the family schedule. Make note of any events such as...

What is the number one mantra for a business to thrive in any environment?

There is a lot of competition out there vying for your customers business. What makes you stand out? Why should this person spend their money with you?

When answering that question many business owners get tied up with the uniqueness of their product or their highly competitive price. What many overlook is the customer experience of buying.

What happens when a customer enters your store and the sales assistant ignores them? Or they research a product or service online, and can’t find what they’re looking for? They get frustrated and annoyed and you miss out on valuable custom.

So, what is the vital ingredient that gets customers through the door and coming back for more? It’s the customers overall buying experience.

Adopt the mantra  ‘Make it Easy for Every Customer.’

Make the buying process easy for your customer.

Make choosing the right product easy and effortless....

I am always looking for ways to improve profit in business so when someone asked me if what I was doing was actually producing income, I stopped in my tracks.

The truth is, I had been spending a great deal of time researching a certain project, believing it would be worthwhile, where in fact I could have been using my time to greater effect elsewhere. I was so enthusiastic about the potential of this project, I failed to manage my time in a suitable manner.

Persistence is an important trait in a business owner but there comes a time where you are throwing good money after bad. For me, this research time ended up being unproductive time because after due consideration, I shelved the project. If time equals money, I wasted a lot of both.

Do you have a product that is not hitting the mark or a business process that, in the long run, is ineffective? It is often the case that we continue to work with the products or processes we have without paying attention to their actual...