The case for training. Admittedly we sell training products so we might be seen to have an opinion on this. As customers become ever more sophisticated and demanding about what they want, so customer service becomes more important.

We came across a quote recently from the highly influential management book from the 1980s “the One Minute Manager” by Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson.

“You really have three choices as a manager. First you can hire winners. They are hard to find and they cost money. Or second, if you can’t find a winner, you can hire someone with the potential to be a winner. Then you systematically train that person to become a winner. If you are not willing to do either of the first two (and I am continually amazed at the number of managers who won’t spend the money to hire a winner or take the time to train someone to become a winner), then there is only the third choice left – prayer.” This books comes highly recommended. It is easy to read, it is written almost as a children’s book and so you will get through it in no time at all. Amazon is a good source for this book.

Follow this link to find out more http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_0_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=one+minute+manager&sprefix=one+minute+man

The One Minute Manager - recommended by Associated Learning Systems

Now is the time for you to set up your own business. It really is. With the economy showing signs of slow recovery, and the job market changing beyond all recognition, now is the time to take the plunge – if you’ve always harboured the desire to work for yourself and generate your own income.

It doesn’t even need to cost you anything to get started. The rise of the internet makes this possible. In fact you can cast your net (to use a fishing analogy) and see what bites. You can even do this while working in a job if necessary. You might have an outside hobby or interest that you’re wondering if you could make any money out of.

Our top tip is create yourself a business profile on a site such as HotFrog. It is completely free and you can add searchwords and build your own business listing.  Follow the link http://www.hotfroguk.co.uk/ So if you’d like to try your hand at jam making, or buying and selling cameras or floristry or palmistry, you can do all this for free. Then of course if you start to get some responses it will tell you whether you have a viable business idea.

Never has the opportunity for starting out on your own been so good. Most markets are likely to get more buoyant so if you can build an effective small scale business model that works now, your prospects should grow over time.

Everyone has skills, things they’re good at. Now is the opportunity to tap into your entrepreneurial spirit and give it a go. Best of luck !

There are many ways you can gather great business growth ideas at the moment. And many of the best ones are free !

You are surrounded all day, every day by people willing to share their wisdom with you. So have a coffee with someone who has a business idea or a product or service that you could learn something from.

There are an increasing number of free seminars being run at the moment. Apart from a little time, what do you have to lose ? 

And networking meetings – a great device for meeting new people – some of whom will know of people who could benefit from your services. You may be thinking that you can’t devote regular time to a networking group, or you can’t afford it at the moment. However most groups are always interested in attracting new members so it is always easy to attend as a guest. You can even stand in for regular members often. This will merely cost you your breakfast.

So get out there and circulate and you’ll be amazed how many new ideas you can pick up easily.

Some funded and free training is now available through Train to Gain. Our friends over at To Market who specialise in training and development work with customer service, telesales and telemarketing tell us they’ve got hold of some training funding for you. 

Partially funded customer service training - through Train to Gain

At the moment they are looking to offer both free and partially funded training to organisations In Leicester, Northampton, Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Coventry and Birmingham as well as wider parts of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire plus East Midlands, West Midlands and East of England. If  this is of interest to you, follow this link to http://www.tomarket.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=51. This gives details of the East Midlands training, the West Midlands and East of England will go live we are told over the next 2 days.

But this really is a chance not to be missed so have a look at the details and sign up ! Maybe you’ll even get to hear some of the material on the audio CDs you will find on this site.

It is said that the best way of learning is to teach.

Have you ever found that you understand something, only to try and then explain it yourself, only to discover you’re not clear on it at all ?

Alternatively sometimes you can explain something to someone who then asks you some straightforward questions – which then makes you realise you are not clear on all the details.

This is all part of the learning process. If you really want to understand something, get yourself into a situation where you can explain it to someone else. You will often find that in doing this, you will have learnt more about it along the way. It really does work. To understand you have to teach !

Time management tips, remember there is never enough time, and never will be. There are many top tips about time management which you can pick up from many different people and places, and time management is key to achieving the things we want in life.

Don’t you just hate it when people say “sorry I didn’t do that for you, I didn’t get time.” Sometimes followed by “I’ve just been so busy” or “I don’t know where the time goes – I really don’t ” ?

And it’s rubbish anyway. It simply means that it wasn’t important enough to them. You see time management is partly about motivation. If it’s important you will find time to do it. If someone says they didn’t get time your retort could be “well, if there was a million pounds for you if you’d done it – would you have had the time then ?!” To which the answer is “Ooh yes.” So it’s simply that we choose to do other stuff.

Be realistic, set realistic time frames, and acknowledge the fact that this task may or may not be that important to you, just don’t say to another human being “I didn’t get time !” There will never be enough time – get over it !

Time management is one of the important topics covered in the audio CDs on the Associated Learning Systems website, follow this link http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=24 Buying is easy through PayPal and it will only set you back a few pounds – so click a few buttons and it could be with you by tomorrow.

Now is the time to ramp up learning. First customers have the opportunity to shop around, and spend longer over their decisions. So they will deal with people they like, people who are knowledgeable and people who are motivated.  Secondly there are more hours available for many people at the moment - so now is the time to open yourself up to new ideas.

Some great things we’ve come across. Try searching the internet for subjects you want to become  more knowledgeable about. Go to the library or your local bookstore, there is a wealth of both fascinating and mind stretching material that can both stimulate and motivate you. It also helps get you into a more positive frame of mind. This will also help you carry out your job more positively. You win, your organisation wins and your customers win !

Finally the other thing with reading about wisdom is that it is so inexpensive. So invest in yourself, you will almost certainly find that it’s the best thing you could spend your money on !

Clearly self-belief and a whole lot of commitment to their ideas is what entrepreneurs have.

At the weekend I was reading about Michelle Mone the former model turned business woman who runs the Ultimo brand. She is 37, and since 1996 has built up a company now worth £45 million according to the Sunday Times.

And yet, it wasn’t always so. In the Sunday Times piece she said “setting up the business was hard and I had to find a lot of money to get it going. Iwas in debt by about £420,000 when the company finally launched. I had to remortgage the house and also take out a number of business loans. I also had debts with every credit card company known to man.”

So what kept her going ? She had overwhelming faith and conviction in her ideas. Now surely for every Michelle Mone there are 100 people that gamble and lose, but what an inspiring story.

While we don’t have audio CDs available yet on how to build a £45 million company, remember that Mao Tse Tung said “the longest journey begins with a single step” and we can help with that. Click through to see the audio CDs on self development and goal setting at  http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=SELF%20DEVELOPMENT

But what we can learn is that self-belief and commitment is what she, like other entrepreneurs have.