Vanquish Your Business Demons

Vicky's back!  And Julia is still banging on about Customer Service.  So what are the mindset reasons why business owners minimize customer experiences? And we all do this..... For a variety of reasons and to different levels.  

A sign of poor customer service?  When your potential customer is still whining about it 4 days later.....  Which you might decide is entertaining in itself, but being Julia & Bill from Be Astute they can't resist going beyond this to explore the reasons why poor service happens and what you can do about it as a business owner.

It happens to all business owners.  Your clients start bringing their own nonsense to your relationship and things start getting personal.  This is not the same as us taking responsibility for when things go wrong, but we have all had situations where we start to question why we are putting up with being treated like this.  As an employee things can feel more clear cut - and there s...

Julia & Vicky are talking about training this week.  It is a subject that they are more than normally opinionated about.....  You might be able to tell that from this weeks episode.   There is a lot of really dodgy staff training out there, and some really great stuff.  So how can you get what you do in your business to be the ...... well, business?

Julia & Vicky were inspired by Liz Truss today.  With all that is going on in UK politics it seemed fair to do a bit of deconstruction and apply it to the world of being a business owner.  Because there re lots of people who own a business who hate leading.......

How we set our prices and at what level are two big challenges for all business owners.  And the big question is "What is the competition doing?" This can lead to you moving away from doing work you love or cutting your profits and standards to fit with something someone else is doing. So how to get out of this rut?

While there are lots of people having a freak out about the current economic situation, there are plenty more who need to grow their business.  So what should we thinking about in order to make a success of things?

A recent survey of small business owners found over half felt unsupported.  Whether this statistic feels accurate to you or not, it raises an interesting question about why this should be so, when small business owners are so in control of their own destiny.  And a great topic of conversation for Vicky and Julia - who might be a touch biased......

Being British, Vicky and Julia have spent the last week living through the official grieving period for the Queen.  And it has inspired them to think about how many people will have felt excluded for having views, thoughts and opinions which could be deemed "inappropriate".  As a business owner there have been plenty of decisions to be made and there have been quite a few businesses who...

Everyone is talking about Quiet Quitting - a new name for an age old problem.  How to get the best from your team and what to do when people under-perform.  So absolutely tons for Julia and Vicky to talk about from their different perspectives and experiences.  We hop e you find it useful!

We spend a lot of time as business owners focusing on increasing demand in order to grow.  But what about the times when the restriction is on the supply side not demand?  This is what Vicky & Julia are exploring this week - and coming up with some surprising suggestions.

We have a guest presenter this week - IT God Bill Stock.  Continuing our theme of how business owners can thrive in challenging times, this week we are looking at how innovating how we run our businesses can be a really powerful tool.

Anyone else fed up with the constant barrage of negative headlines about looming recession and increasing energy prices?  And all the people shouting "We're DOOMED!!!"  Julia and Vicky are - so this week they are talking about how to take advantage of all the lovely opportunities out there to grow your business.

We often chuck technical language into our speech - it is a great way to show our intelligence and knowledge.  But what if our audience don't really understand what we are talking about?  At that point we just sound like a poncy idiot.  So this week Vicky and Julia are covering some words that we hear a lot as business owners and really delving into what we mean, and how they are al...

Inflation is a key business challenge sweeping the world right now.  And it pushes a lot of buttons for business owners.  Which is why Vicky and Julia are talking about it this week!

Our attitude to business risk sits behind pretty much every business decision we make.  So we thought we should talk about it, and what we can do to understand it.

In the last couple of pod casts we have been talking about the joys of planning - and making the theory sound so easy.  Just write a plan and miraculous things will happen. Bu the reality is not like that.  The world is littered with plans that have never been implemented.  And there are business owners across the world with a plan that did not motivate them in any way. So that is w...

We know, sounds really dull.  And many of us hate planning - so why would you want to listen to a podcast talking about something so dull?  But the point of planning is to plan - and that involves dreaming and scheming - and that is not dull at all.  So Julia and Vicky are imparting their knowledge of the subject - to help you be better at this important business success skill

We know we should - everyone tells us that having goals helps us to achieve business success.  But what they don't talk about is all the reasons why having formal targets can make business owners feel queasy.  And this is what Vicky and Julia are unpacking this week. 

It's summer!  Yay!  But for business, summer can be tough on the motivation.  The weather is tempting you outside, your customers are all on holiday, and no-one wants to say yes.  But if your order book is not full it can also be a time of stress.  And if it is full, a time of guilt. This week, Vicky and Julia are exploring the different things that could be going on, and...

So last week we talked about Performance Management.  And gave the impression that if you did this bit right everything would be rosy in your staffing garden.  Sadly life does not work out like that, so this week Julia and Vicky discuss what comes next and how to handle it - the Disciplinary process. Sounds scary, and risky and horrid - and it doesn't have to be.

Getting the best out of your team is an art - a combination of rapport, development, trust, and accountability.  And whether you like the analogy or not, it is a lot like dealing with a toddler. Some of us hate it, some of us can cope with it, and some of us love the challenge.  Julia is one of those weird people who love it, and Mindset Revolutionary Vicky knows some great ways to go ab...

Julia and Vicky set out to talk about plateauing business performance this week, and how to go about moving forwards with your goals when you get stuck in once place.  This coined the brilliant phrase "Rocking on my Hamster Wheel" to describe those times when you are trying but just not succeeding in achieving your goals. So if you are fed up of rocking, and would like to get your wheels movi...

Julia & Vicky are being slightly opinionated this week.  No surprise there then.  And the subject?  Can you drop everything to go on holiday.  Should you even try? Well yes - you should.  And yes you can.

Over the last 3 weeks Vicky & Julia have explored the mechanics of great recruitment - those steps which can have a big impact to making the right hire.  This week they explore the impact of getting the right personality mix in your business and how psychometrics can be massively helpful.