A few years ago, I asked myself the question; How can some people do more and achieve more than the vast majority of other people? The answer I came to, was energy. They are more focused on what they want, can concentrate for longer and seem to both work and play harder than most. to do this requires lots of energy. So then I asked myself what could I do to increase my energy and thus embarked on what is now a 4 year journey searching out ways to maintain and further increase my own energy levels.

Some topics I would like to explore include.

Why do I have lower energy in the winter and what can I do to reverse this?

Is an alkaline diet the best one for me, a man in my early 40’s who is married with 4 young children, self employed as a Business Coach and management development trainer and a competitive triathlete?

What bad habits have I picked up that I am not even aware of that impact in a negative way to my own energy levels?

What is the best way to share these energy ideas with my children?

It has been a while coming so I hope it is worth the wait. The third thing that I have found that gives me energy is “movement” or more accurately how I use my body and what I do for exercise.

I have just recently read and heard about one person who is going to cycle from the Northern most tip of America to the Southern most tip of American in one year. Another person has just ran 32 marathons (26miles / 44km) in 32 days in 32 counties in Ireland. A very close friend of mine will be cycling between Malin and Mizen Heads, the 2 most northerly and southerly points in Ireland this July in 1 day to raise awareness and funds for charity - this equates to a minimum of 18hours in the saddle. These are all amazing achievements but the simple truth is, the people doing these are people like you and I. I believe we have no idea about the potential our bodies have and most of us go through our lives only using a tiny fraction of our bodies potential - what a shame.

It saddens me when I consider what most people do during their leisure time, obesity rates in Ireland and the fact that 84% of the Irish population have satellite dishes or cable TV. This all involves a serious lack of movement which equates to health issues, bad attitude and stagnation.

Ask yourself when you are tired and you decide to sit down to watch a movie so you can recover, do you feel more or less tired after the movie? I am guessing more tired. The human body was designed to move not stay in one place.

When we exercise the body produces endorphins or what some people like to call “happy hormones”. I am currently training for triathlons. I train 5-6 times a week for between 1-3hours / day. I have a very understanding wife and we have just been blessed with baby no.4. The reason I am writing about this is not to brag or blow my own trumpet but to perhaps give you a wake up call that regular exercise is possible and really enjoyable. Sometimes all it takes is a little prioritization, a good open and honest conversation with the other people in your life and a decision to no longer settle for “existing” and chooses in stead to start “living”. Many people use lack of time as an excuse not to exercise and quite frankly that is all this is - an excuse. I have always been keen into sport so I don’t expect everyone to want to spend this level of time doing exercise however think of the consequences of not exercising!!!!!!!

Our emotions are connected to movement also. A line I got from the ultimate energy man himself Anthony Robbins - “Emotion comes from motion”. Think about what your body is doing when you are sad, stressed or depressed! I am guessing whatever you are doing it does not involve much movement. Now think about times you are happy, excited, having fun, enjoying life! I am betting you are moving significantly more. You can use this piece of knowledge to help control your emotional state and therefore your energy. When you want more energy or want to get out of a slump or need to be more creative, don’t throw yourself in front of the TV, but instead get up off the couch and go for a walk,jog, run, cycle, swim or whatever exercise you enjoy doing.

BTW - I am putting my current dip in energy down to a few things.
1. We had our 4th baby just 3 months ago.
2. The shopping has not contained as much fresh food as before and I am finding myself eating a bit more processed food.
3. My work has been very busy over the past few months which means a good chunk of travel. That means a bigger challenge trying to eat healthily. There is NO PLACE to get good wholesome alkaline fresh food between Dublin and Limerick in Ireland. Petrol station owners out there go alkaline!
4. With the level of training I am doing, it is natural to have a bit of a slump every now and again so I think I need to give myself a bit of a break in my own head and accept that slumps are a normal part of a training cycle. “This too will pass” as the saying goes.

In addition to having something to focus on, I also feel strongly that I need to eat properly in order to have as much energy as possible. I believe that much of what we eat actually works against our bodies rather than with it. In other words our bodies find it very hard to digest certain foods and at the same time don’t offer much nutrition.

Since reviewing my eating habits almost 2 years ago, I have dramatically increased my energy levels, minimised the number of headaches I am getting and feel now that the vast majority of the food I eat, serves to give me energy and not work against my body to take energy from me.

I am not on a diet. I have not restricted anything from eating routines however I do now make more informed conscious decisions about what I eat. Some of the key things I do now that I find have really helped are.

1. Drink a glass of water before I get out of bed in the morning to help counteract any toxicity that would have built up in my body when I was sleeping.

2. Eat a very substantial breakfast which is normally a large bowl of weetabix with rice dream (not milk) or porridge with banana or apple & cinnemon plus homemade brown bread with jam and peanut butter or poached egg.

3. I now have 2 smaller mid day meals rather than 1 big lunch. 1 meal will be a large bowl of salad - lettuce, smoked salmon / tuna, black olives, feta cheese, spring onion, tomato, cucumber, cous-cous. The second meal will be soup and brown bread or soya yogurt.

4. I have pretty much cut out dairy completely which I believe has resulted in my sinuses unblocking and being able to breath a lot easier. Milk is the mothers milk of a cow. No other animal / mammal drinks the mothers milk of another animal so it makes sense that humans shouldn’t be drinking it.

5. 99% of the time, I no longer drink normal tea or coffee. The caffeine in these are very acidic. Our bodies are naturally alkaline so by drinking acidic drinks logically works against me and my enregy levels.

6. I eat very little meat. It is dead flesh so why would I put dead flesh into a living organism? I must admit though that I am struggling a bit to find an alternative source of protein. I do eat a lot of fish but apparently there is more protein in meat.

7. I don’t eat chicken unless it is free range - check out youtube videos to see how normal chickens are breed and processed and you won’t eat chicken anymore either.

8. I try to ensure 70% of what I eat comes from water rich food - veg, fruit, legumes based on the logic that 70% of our bodies is water. 80% of our brains are water.

9. I limit the amount of “acidic” foods and drinks I consume - processed food, fast food, alcohol knowing that these will do more harm than good.

10. I try to avoid eating late in the evening however if I am hungry I do eat something that is easily digestible such as a bowl of cheerios or weetabix or toast. If I eat a big meal late, it means my body is “working” trying to digest this food when I am asleep, a time when I should be resting not working. By following this simple regime, I wake up alert and energised in the morning.

11. Finally, I tell myself and everyone who wants to listen that I am not on a diet. I just now make better food choices. I do occasionally drink coffee (3 cups in the past 12 months), eat meat and dairy (once a month) and I do it consciously so it is a choice not a chore.

I hope this information gives you some ideas on how to increase your energy. I am not a nutritionist nor do I have any qualification in nutrition or dietetics. This blog is just my own experiences which have worked for me.

I am a busy person trying to run a training and business coaching service, being a father to 3 young children, a husband to a very understanding wife and a triathlete. 2 years ago I decided to go on a quest to find more energy. At the time I was dragging myself out of bed in the morning, having a major energy slump in the middle of the afternoon and found that I had no interest in doing anything other than vegging in front of the TV at night.

I looked at people who I regarded as being truely successful in life such as Anthony Robbins, Michael Dell and Steve Jobs. I knew these people must have far more energy than I have based on what they have achieved in their lives. I started asking what is so different between them and me? I knew if I had more energy, I would be able to do far more with my life.

The ways I have identifed that create energy are as follows.

1. Having something to focus on.

1. Fueling my body well.

2. Movement.

Today I am going to explain the first ingredient - Having something to focus on.

When I take the time to sit down and think about what would really get me excited, something that I feel I could make a real contribution in or something that would allow me to grow or learn in some way, I get energised.

I recently took up triathlons and I love them. I love the training, I love the social aspect of the sport, I love the fact that it challenges me and I am fascinated with the science and psychology behind what make the top triathletes so great. During the Tri season, I had mountains of energy eventhough I was training 6 times a week and competing regularly.

I set some targets for myself for last season and found I was most energised when I had at least one of these in my sights. In Feburary when I decided to give triathlons a go, I signed up for a 200K cycle around Munster in March. This got me on a bike for the first time since I was a teenager. Once that was over I set my sights on competing well at the Kilkee Triathlon in June. Interestingly enough, once Kilkee was over, I lost focus (and energy) as I had no other major events planned. As a result I lost interest in training very quickly and subsequently, lost a lot of the energy I had through the spring and summer.

Being honest, I still have not recovered these energy levels however it is getting better. I have commited to doing some cycle spin classes over the winter, I have committed to going out on long group cycles 8 times between now and December at weekends and I have booked myself a fitness test this month in the National Coaching and Training Center in UL. Just writing about these commitments makes my energy levels raise right now. I have also identifed 3 events for next season that I am going to focus on which are spread out over the spring and summer.

My challenge now is to harness this knowledge and use the same principles to my work so that I can get as much energy, enjoyment and success from my business as I do from triathlons. This is not an easy task but one I am committed to. As we used to say when I was rowing competitively, if I put as much effort and energy into work as I did to rowing, I would be a millionaire. Perhaps!

This has happened me on many occasions both in my professional and sporting life and I have figured out a way to avoid this post elation blues.

Quiet simply, I make sure I have set myself a new stretching goal before I actually achieve the current one.  One of the reasons I am writing this now is because even thougn I know this theory does work in practise I have gotten caught out. Not professionally but in my sporting life. The triathalon season finished for me a few weeks ago and I made the mistake of not finding some new goal to focus on to get me through the winter and ready for next years season with kicks off in April.

Better late than never.  I need to commit to something that challenges me and in some way is complimentary to the triathlon specific training I will be starting from january 2010. I thought of entering the Dublin city marathon but left that one a little too late. My weakest discipline in the Triathlon is the bike so if I could find an event that involves biking that would make sense. I need to check out spinning classes at local gyms. I have never done them but by all accounts they are great fun. Maybe that is my goal - attend 10 spinning classes between now and December 2009. Item to add to my to -do list tomorrow - contact local gyms to enquire about spinning classes.

Are there parallels you can make with how you work or run your business to my dilemma above?

Can you learn from my mistakes and make some changes that will benefit you?

If you know about this tip already and apply it, please add a comment to this post telling me how successful or not it has been for you.

I have just returned from a Triathlon training weekend in Kilkee, Co. Clare organised by Limerick Tri club - Thanks Brian and Steve for a great tough weekend. During the last session of the weekend - a 10Km run I got thinking about the parallels between Selling and a Triathlon event.

The standard “Olympic” distance Triathlon consists of a 1500m swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run. The challenge is to complete all three events in as fast a time as possible. Another critical element of getting a good time is perfecting the transition from swim to bike (T1) and from bike to run (T2). The top competitors in the world can do both transitions in less than a minute. It takes me over 3 minutes.

So there are 5 elements of a triathlon - swim – T1 - bike – T2 - run.

Like a triathlon, an effective sales process has 5 stages.

The first stage is pre-sales planning. This is the swim in Triathlon. Swimming is the most technical of the disciplines, it is the one that most people find difficult and generally do not give the time it needs. If you neglect your swimming, you will waste huge amounts of time and energy that will impact on the rest of your event.

The second stage of the sales process is working to a structured and disciplined process which should be recorded in your sales plan. This would equate to T1 in the Triathlon where every second counts. You have to be very clear what you are going to do and in what order. You need to rehearse and practise and then make sure you stick to this plan come race day. You can’t afford to get distracted and you have to stay focused on getting on your bike as quickly as possible.

The third stage of the sales process is the “Pitch” where you are face to face with the prospect or on the telephone. In triathlon, this is the longest piece of the event by far. It is where if done right, you can make up significant ground on your competition and if not done well, you will find other competitors flying past you. You need to stay focused on your outcomes, you need to trust in your process and you need to be open to make changes should the need arise.

The forth stage of the sales process is; Handling objections and closing the sale. This equates to T2 in the Triathlon where competitors go from bike to run. Speed is really critical here again and like T1, the only way you will get good at this is if you are prepared and have practised. There are many reasons why prospects raise objections at the end of a sale and there is a mountain of information on the internet on how you can address each of these. It isn’t rocket science either however if you haven’t done the research you won’t be able to get past this stage. Assuming you have addressed all the prospects objections, you still need to ask for the sale or at least get a “call to action” out of your conversation. A call to action might be another meeting, providing some more information, or submitting a formal proposal. Not getting a “call to action” at the end of a sale is like quitting and giving up in T2.

The final and often forgotten stage of the sales process is the “follow up”. Businesses are built on relationships. The better the relationship you can build with your customers, the more viable your business will be. It is much easier to sell to an existing customer and it is to find new customers so this is critical. The fifth and final stage of a triathlon is the run. At this stage you are exhausted, your legs feel like they are detached from your body, your energy is dropping but it is the time for make or break. Every good tri-athlete knows that that you have to conserve some energy for the run if you are going to get a result. The less experienced competitors will be passed on this stage mainly because they haven’t kept some energy in reserve for the finish.

There you have it, a comparison between the sales process and triathlon. One final thought; They can both be great fun, there is no getting away from the hard work needed to get a result but the reward when you cross the finish line or close the sales is fantastic.

I facilitated a networking event on behalf of the Limerick City, Limerick County, Clare County and North Tipperary Enterprise Boards on Wednesday last where we had as the guest speaker - Bill Cullen of “The Apprentice” and “Penny Apples” fame. Bill spoke for over an hour giving his audience ideas on how they can not only survive this recession but to actually thrive in it. One of the strategies he mentioned, was one I had come across from Anthony Robbins a few years ago called CANI.

CANI stands for “Continuous And Never-ending Improvement”. I am not sure was it Bill Cullen or Tony Robbins or someone else who came up with this concept but it is very relevant and something all of us as small business owners need to pay attention to.

Personally I have noticed that in some areas I have not being doing CANI! My website for example has become a little outdated. In actual fact, so much so, for several weeks after its launch, there was no link on my website to this blog.

I realised a few years ago that CANI is one major way that I can feel truly alive. I believe that when I stop learning I am in trouble. Being open to learning has hue benefits not just for business where you can discover great new ways to deliver even better value to your customers, but also for your personal life. Because of this attitude, I will strike up conversations with strangers in shopping queues, I will read sections of the paper I would normally dismiss, I listen to other people’s opinion more intently and all this is great fun.

From a purely Business perspective, CANI is critical. The ways we did things in the boom will not produce the same results in times of perceived scarcity. Everyone will need to brush up on their selling skills; we all need to get more informed about how to read our financial statements and accounts. We need to start looking at how we can add more value to our existing produces and services and how we can encourage our customers to buy more from us. The first step in making any of these things happen is to adapt a Continuous and Never-ending Improvement philosophy.

My next blog entry is going to discuss the 2 fundamental reasons people buy anything. A “must know” piece of knowledge for anyone in business.

As a Manager are you trying to do it all yourself? Are you slow to delegate and let other people take on more reasonsibility? When speaking to Business owners I find quite often that they are just not sure what the best way to delegate to. Here is a simple 7 step process to delegating that I hope you will find useful.

Step 1:  Get very clear in your own mind whatthe reasons are for delegating - ask yourself why am I delegating to this person and why this job.

Step 2: Provide clear instruction as to what needs to be done, making sure to check with the person that they have understood. One great way to do this is to ask the person to summarise in their own words what they believe is being asked of them. Any minunderstanding can be sorted out at this stage.

Step 3: Identify the resources that the person will need to complete the task and make sure they have access to these resources. One of the top reasons employees do not feel engaged with their work is because they do not have the resources to adequately carry out their role.

Step 4: Agree deadline and interim milestones and when  / how work will be checked. It is best to avoid having random and overly frequent progress checks as the delegatee may feel micro managed and could end up not making any decisions for fear of making a mistake. Point out that mistakes are there to be learned from, not to be punished for.

Step 5: Give regular and constructive feedback. All feedback does not have to be good, in fact this would be counter productive as people need to know where they are going wrong.  At the same time, make sure to catch people doing things well and praise accordingly. Remember the timeless advice - praise in public, criticise in private.

Step 6. Retain control: This does not mean micro managing the person, nor does it mean giving the person such a small task to do that it is hardly worth doing at all. Agree when and how often progress will be reviewed and in what format. Once agreed, stick to the plan and don’t all ow yourself to “check-in” on an adhoc basis. The person needs the space to learn and to figure out “THEIR” way of getting the job done. Very often, Managers find that employees find much better ways to do things than they can.

Step 7: Provide the person with support, which is agreed up front. Your role is not to provide instruction but more to act as facilitator to assist the person in figuring out the best way for them to get the job done. It is not about doing it exactly the way the boss has always done it.

For more indeas on delegating, more detailed articles are available in the article section of our website.

Here are some tips that will ensure that you get the maximum return from your cash and ensure money keeps flowing into your business.

Read through the list below and select 1 or 2 that you don’t do, but know that if you did, it would make s significant positive difference to your business. Commit to making a change within the next 24hours. Good luck!

1.   Fill the pipeline

To maintain a healthy cash flow and to avoid any nasty surprises, a business needs to ensure there is activity going on in each of the categories above. If your business needs 20clients / month to be profitable, there needs to be 20 clients in each of the categories. If sales activity stop and the “Perspective” dries up, no business gets contracted, invoiced or paid.

2. Collect money.

Scenario: John rings Company ABC as an invoice is overdue. John speaks to the Accounts dept in ABC to be told they never received the invoice. John sends the invoice again and 1 week later is told that the invoice has been sent to shipping as there was a query on it. Another week goes by and John is now told he has missed this month’s cheque run so his payment will be processed next month.

Solutions:

(a) Put a robust debt collection process in place.

- Create a computer or paper based invoicing system – whichever makes sense for your business.

- Invoice early – be consistent so suppliers know when to expect your invoices.

- Agree payment terms and query handling process with suppliers in advance.

- Call the supplier a few days before the invoice is sent out telling them that an invoice is on the way. Follow up a week later with another call to ensure the invoice has been cleared for payment.

- Send statements MID month in plenty of time for your suppliers month end cheque run.

(b) Desperate measures – If a Company is consistently not paying, sometimes it is a matter of who ever shouts loudest gets paid. A dramatic way to shout loudly is to sit in the customer’s reception and refuse to leave until you get paid.

(c) Last resort - Hire a debt collection agency

3.   Take away all the excuses.

Encourage suppliers to pay by standing order / direct debit.

Offer a Credit card payment facility.

Negotiate finance terms if you know the customer can not pay your full debt in one payment.

Provide FREEPOST envelopes.

4.   The golden rule.

Persistence & Consistence.

Develop a routine for sending out invoices so that your key suppliers know when to expect invoices from you. Decide on a debt collection process that works for you including items such as:

- contact with supplier prior to issuing invoice

- date / time of month invoices will be sent

- escalation process – Accounts dept to Manager to Owner to Solicitor to Court action.

Be clear in your own mind what process you are going to use and stick to it.

5.   Encourage good habits from suppliers.

Talk to your suppliers and ask them when the best time is to invoice them. Ask them how they would like to pay and if there is anything you can do to make it easier for them to process your invoices. Document what you agree, send the supplier a copy and stick to the agreed plan.

6.   Genuinely no money.

If a supplier genuinely can not pay, have a conversation with them sooner rather than later. Try to negotiate payment over a period of time. Consider using a standing order or direct debit to facilitate this.

Learn form the experience and make the necessary changes to your own debt collection process to minimise the risk of the same thing happening in the future.

Only provide new products / services if the supplier agrees to “Cash on delivery” or upon receipt of sufficient funds into your bank account.

7.   Managing your bank manager

One of the key things any Bank Manager will be concerned about is your profitability. As is often the case, losses can be hidden for a considerable time with a large overdraft. To effectively manage your cash flow and keep your Bank Manager on your side you need to:

(a) Recover your profitability

(b) Repay the overdraft.

In this order!

Your Bank Manager may be open to converting your overdraft to a term loan.

To regain profitability look at the following:

(a) Get outstanding invoices paid.

(b) Convert stock into cash.

(c) Negotiate with creditors to delay payment

(d) Ask existing customers for advance payments

(e) Analyse costs – overheads, staff, buildings

8.   Don’t loose sight of the Big picture.

Many business people are taking a very short term view at the moment. “If I can make it through the next 6 months, I will be OK”. While it is important to manage the day to day activity of any business it is also vital that you stay focused on your longer term plans for the business. If you don’t, when we do come out of this recession, you won’t be ready to take advantage of the upturn.

9.   Generate more sales.

It is much easier to increase your sales from existing customers than it is to find new customers. Explore the opportunity to offer existing clients complimentary products to what they already buy. Offer them a discount for larger volumes. Make sure your clients are aware of the full range of services / products that you offer. Don’t let customers be able to tell you “I didn’t know you did that”.

These tips are a combination of my own experiences as a Small Business owner along with ideas that Eamon Curtin of HJM Business Development shared with me during a recent mentoring session we had kindly supported by the LCEB.

If you have any questions on any aspect of this paper, please make a comment to this blog.

1. Be your best, authentic self.

It takes people 7 seconds to decide if they like and trust you. If they are not sure, over the next 30 seconds, they will review a checklist in their own minds to reach a conclusion. If you are fake or false, people will know.

1. Say it with meaningful and entertaining stories.

The greatest presenters and public speakers are those that tell stories Tell people about your recent successes and accomplishments through stories making them relevant to your audience.

1. Keep it short and simple.

You should be able to describe what you do and how this provides value in less than 20 words.

1. Talk with me, not at me.

The greatest networkers take the time to “LISTEN” to people to find out what their needs are. They ask good open questions to understand where the other person is coming from.

1. Be able to back up what you say.

Be careful about exaggerating your achievements. Better to present your actual achievements in the best possible light.

1. Be flexible with what you say and update it regularly.

Your business and what you offer your clients will change. What you did 12 months ago may not necessarily be what you do today. Make sure to keep your “Pitch” up to date.

1. Have a sense of humour

The easiest and quickest way to build rapport and make a connection with someone is to smile. No one likes a serious, miserable looking person, so have fun and relax.

1. Words are not enough.

As little as 7% of the message we communicate is through the words we speak, the other 93% of the messages is communicated via body language and tone. When you feel passionate and enthusiastic about what you do, that will come across – look at the Munster Rugby Team. Make sure your posture, how you dress, and your voice and good eye contact, support your message.

1. Set clear objectives.

As Steven Covey says “Start with the end in mind”. Set yourself 2 or 3 objectives for the event such as to give 6 people your business card or to tell 3 people about what you do or to find 3 ways you can help people you meet with their business.

1. Be prepared

Before going to a networking event, write down a list of your recent successes and achievements that relate to your audience. Put these into a story format and be prepared to select the relevant story when appropriate.

1. Focus more on giving rather than getting.

Great networking is a long term investment, not a quick gain. The more you can give to people, the more they will trust you and will want to give back. If you approach networking to try and get new clients or get more information all the time, you will probably find that you do not get great results. Take the time to understand other people’s needs and figure out how you can meet them. (E.g. can you arrange an introduction, or send them on a relevant article or provide them with some advice?)

1. Follow up.

If you say you are going to contact someone after a networking event – DO! You are letting yourself and your business down if you don’t.

These tips are a combination of my own experiences in networking and in delivering presentation and influencing skills training along with ideas that have been adapted from Peggy Klaus’s book “BRAG! – The art of tooting your own horn without blowing it”.

Good luck with your networking activities and if you have any questions on any aspect of this paper, please give me a call or drop me an email.

Fergal O’Connor.

Business Coach & Trainer.

Mob: 087-6983500.