Business Club UK Sign Up Page
January 31, 2013 by simonteague
Filed under Training & Development
If you have just attended the introductory event at Phillis Court, Henley-On-Thames and are now ready to join the community of entrepreneurs and business owners who were devoted to supporting you to be successful with your business venture, all you need to do is sign up via our Paypal Best Year Yet Service to guarantee your place.
Sign Up Today:
We encourage you to sign up now to book now for the two day retreat (price valid up to midnight on 31st January 2013) in order to guarantee your place. Places are limited.
Once you have completed the payment we will send you full details of the programme dates and venues together with a full outline of what the programme will deliver, as you begin your journey in business success.
Business Club UK is sponsored by Refer-On and powered by Best Year Yet UK.
Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet
December 10, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Best Year Yet, Coaching, Featured, Leadership Today, Motivation
At this time of year many people begin the process of making individual, business or corporate plans for the forthcoming year ahead.
Greater success comes to those who take time to carefully consider, plan and make goals for the future. Even greater success comes to those wise few amongst us who write those goals down, track and measure them every week/month, review and adjust our strategies/actions accordingly, never losing sight of the goal we have set ourselves.
The combined process of positive thinking, leading to positive action is the cornerstone to transforming the results you want in your personal and business life.
“If you want to be happy, seek a goal that commands your thoughts, unleashes your energy and inspires your hopes.”
Over the past 30 years, over 1 million people have set and tracked their plans using a system called Best Year Yet. This online results system is incredible and the testimonials are endless.
So, are you looking to make 2013 your best ever year. how many times have you promised yourself you would sit down and make a plan for the next 12 months, but never got round to it and, before you knew it, another year has passed you by and things you have always wanted to achieve keep alluding you?
Change your life. Join a million other successful people who use the Best Year Yet online goal setting and tracking system to set up your annual plan and learn to become a master of producing breakthrough results in both your personal and business life. This system is really easy to use and will prove to be one of the best investments you have ever made in yourself.
Recommended by Leadership Expert, the Best Year Yet system brings you a secure, easy to use, cloud based online goal setting and tracking programme for only £100.00. Thats less than the equivalent of 30 pence per day, to experience your Best Ever Year.
Simple to buy and simple to do – make your own Best Year Yet Plan today:
5 Things You Must Do To Scale Your Company
November 16, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Leadership Today
1. Ready your business for expansion – evaluate strategy & financing.
Access to capital and funding alternatives and how a business owner navigates and negotiates that process is one of the biggest issues facing entrepreneurs today. Linking strategic growth to your short, medium and long term funding needs is key to your success. Having a robust business plan is essential.
There’s lots of capital out there to be deployed – finding the right funding/equity partner and high growth business coach can resolve all your issues. It’s important to leverage your networks and advisory boards.
2. Think big and be bold.
Think about scaling, not only your service and product offerings, but also vertical opportunities that you could move into. Think outside the box about partners that you could team with to be innovative. There are a lot of conversions happening across sectors, don’t think in only your one particular sector or about just your product and services. Make plans based on achieving your Best Year Yet® year after year.
3. Build a public profile and strong brand image.
Revise your website and social network sites such as Linked In to include information on your achievements, vision and insights. PR and testimonials can put you on the map, what are you doing to increase your visibility?
4. Work on the business, rather than in it.
Think about how to build your team, remembering that a diverse team is critical to winning. Critically evaluate where you are today, and where you will be in five years and build a team that will take you to the five year mark and beyond.
Make sure you are tapping into people’s passion and to critically evaluate if you have the right people in the right position. If they have the passion and you like the raw material, tap into that and put them in a position to help you grow your company. And if someone is not working out it’s important to have the confidence and awareness to make critical decision to move on and the courage to do it quickly.
5. Establish key advisory networks.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to draw on the experience of peers, mentors and business and personal advisers. The right networks can yield both new opportunities and a new way of thinking. When you get into groups and are around mentors and advisers you can address the issues you are facing with people who have experienced a similar set of problems; you will see things in a different light. This will help you to develop the awareness and confidence to make tough decisions. Reach out to others; successful people want to help and give back to support the next generation of business owners – don’t worry about approaching someone you admire as an entrepreneur.
If you would like any help or more information on finding the right funding partner for you post a comment or email me directly at simon@simonteague.com
From Employee to Entrepreneur
October 30, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Motivation
The UK Economy
Look around you, and all the Press tell you about is layoff’s, downsizing, outsourcing and austerity budget cuts. Millions of the employed masses find themselves out of work, sometimes almost overnight. With unemployment figures high across the globe, it’s almost unthinkable that someone who loses his/her job today will find “gainful” employment very soon. Conflicting reports would suggest the lines at unemployment offices stretch around the block many times over, and still more individuals join them almost every day.
An exciting and challenging way out
Individuals with transferable skills, who have recently lost their jobs, instinctively think about getting a new job in the same trade or line of business that they most recently performed. However, in today’s business environment where businesses and corporations have loyalty to just one – themselves – a way out of the dilemma of being employed might lie in a totally different direction: Self-employment!
If you, or people you worked with until recently, suddenly find themselves out of a job, then why not create employment opportunities for yourself, instead of looking for them elsewhere. Making use of your transferable skills, either individually or in collaboration with ex-colleagues or friends, is the best way to break free from the perpetual Employer-Employee frame of mind. And with good planning, loads of effort and bouncing your ideas and decisions off others (particularly an experienced business coach), that entrepreneurial spark inside you can quickly turn into an unstoppable fire!
The ingredients
So what does it take to become a true entrepreneur? Don’t you need start-up capital and connections to really make a success of it? Well, yes, you definitely do need both items in order to start a business. These two elements are actually part of the 4 pillars of any successful business venture. However, you may be surprised to know how many opportunities there to access both those elements for your entrepreneurial venture.
And once you are on the path to success, both funding and contacts attract themselves to you like a magnet. That’s because both money and people love being part of a success story. No, the most difficult, and often challenging aspect of entrepreneurship is a good idea and an equally solid business plan, backed up with making the right decisions along the way. Without both these pre-requisites, no amount of capital and even the best of contacts will not matter.
From Hobby to Business
The most successful entrepreneurial ventures are those that revolve around the entrepreneur’s passion for doing what they like. Of course, most passions stem from a casual liking of a subject or a hobby. That’s where you first develop a passion for doing something. Whether it is painting, computer programming, writing, cabinet building or helping people find a new home. Nurturing your hobby into a passion is then just one step away from being able to turn it into a successful business. If you try to start up a business doing something you hate, or aren’t very passionate about, chances are you will not be as motivated as if it were a passion. And motivation is the key to success for any entrepreneur.
Planning your passion
Now that you know what you are passionate about, how would you turn that passion into a vibrant successful business idea. The answer: meticulous planning. Entrepreneurial success rests largely in the ability to plan – even the smallest of details – minutely, and flawless execution of the plan, even when you feel lost or helpless. The essential elements of your plan should include:
- Your vision, spelt out in as much detail as possible – What you plan to do, why, how will you do it, what will be the product or service you create
- How you plan to monetize that vision – Your target customers, why will they buy what you are selling, where will you find them, how much are they willing to pay, what will you price your deliverable at, how many do you need to sell
Although a “real” business plan is much more involved than this two-point list, if you start up with these 2 points and don’t get a real good sense of what you are getting to know about your venture, then perhaps you’ve chosen the wrong passion to pursue. If it can’t make you money, it won’t pay the bills!
Funding your passion
Any fledgling enterprise needs seed capital, and there are a number of ways to get that. If you have a convincing vision, and a defensible business plan, then funding should not be such a huge hurdle to cross. Organizations like ABN AMRO Commercial Finance are a good place to start.
Alternately, if you prefer more “informal” sources, you can tap into the Crowdfunding phenomena to attract capital for your new venture.
For more information feel free to contact me.
Entrepreneurs – Secrets to Success
October 25, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Leadership Development
Over the years I have coached and supported hundreds of businesses in turnaround situations; mergers and acquisitions; high growth strategies and transformational results programmes to help companies make the leap from good to great.
Recently there has been much talk of business failure and nowhere near enough about business success. So to put the record straight there are two essential ingredients to ensuring a successful business:
1. Leadership – businesses led by forward thinking entrepreneurs who inspire and motivate their people to deliver exceptional service to their customers and are constantly looking at ways to improve the business and the customer experience. These leaders also have a habit of making more right decisions than wrong ones, but one thing stands them out from the crowd…. They MAKE decisions and take action. In addition, leaders (whether they like it or not) set the tone in their business. So if a business owner is shy and retiring and doesn’t communicate, this will be a key trait of the whole organisation.
2. Marketing and sales - Successful companies have great marketing and sales systems which deliver breakthrough results. In particular they manage the ‘top of the funnel’ very well by using robust marketing systems by companies like iContact. Email marketing with iContact helps them to stay in touch with their customers, raise brand awareness and achieve sales when their customers are ready to buy.
Successful entrepreneurs remember that their customers don’t often buy when you are ready to sell. You must always be ready to sell, because customers buy only when they are ready to buy. It is vital therefore for successful businesses to manage every section of the sales funnel. This begins with strategies such as email marketing by iContact; robust tracking and data collation; building interest, excitement and commitment; closing brilliantly and following up all the time.
Selling is like fishing – you may have your first bite but it can sometimes be hard work landing the fish.
A Failure of Leadership
October 17, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Communication
According to The Wall Street Journal 3 out of 4 start-up businesses fail in the USA in the first 4 years.
The two fundamental reasons for this are:
1. Weak Leadership coupled with wrong decision making, or worse still, no decisions.
2. Poor marketing and sales strategies.
In the end, businesses wind up because they run out of cash. But they do so, because the owner has either failed to make any effective decisions or where they have made a decision, it was the wrong one. Failure comes when the route to market for their product or service is uncertain and competitors haven’t been thoroughly researched. Thus there is no competitive edge or niche to make the business stand out from the rest.
When things go wrong, failed business owners can file for Bankruptcy protection. For San Diego bankruptcy, people can appoint a highly experienced bankruptcy attorney.
If a business is knee deep in debt, has run out of steam and doesn’t know where to turn for help and advice, there is a great deal of support out there. And in many cases there are viable solutions that elude the business owner. Sadly what happens is that too many businessmen and women in this situation, simply bury their head in the sand and leave things too late, thus reducing the number of potential solutions available.
I would encourage anyone who is struggling in business to have courage and seek out help. This can come from various enterprise agencies; chambers of commerce; accountants; Business Support Kent; consultants, bankruptcy specialists and even one or two friendly Bank Managers (although the latter are becoming increasingly harder to find).
If you know anyone who would like help and support, let me know and I will signpost them accordingly.
A Leap of Faith and a True Test of Teamwork
October 15, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Leadership Today, Teamwork
Doing dangerous things for the hell of it is part and parcel of being human
Don’t be cynical about Felix Baumgartner. His parachute jump was extraordinary
Daredevil Austrian born Felix Baumgartner has safely jumped out of a balloon 24 miles above New Mexico, becoming the first skydiver to break the speed of sound by traveling over 833 miles per hour. His ascended the rooftop of the world, just inside the outer edge of the stratosphere, in a specially build rocket capsule, hanging underneath two million cubic-foot polyethylene balloon filled with helium. from their he opened his capsule, hung in the doorway uttering something about suddenly feeling very small and bravely jumped to earth.
In total, it took him just under 10 minutes to make the record descent – it was also the highest ever freefall – and he opened his parachute with just a few thousand feet to go.
With the waiting over and Baumgartner safely back on terra firma, reaction to his stunt seems to be polarising. There are those who say that, although clearly brave, the Austrian is also clearly stupid, selfish or both.
“Jumping from a balloon won’t cure cancer or reverse the global economic meltdown”
After all, they argue, this was largely a stunt for self-aggrandisement and little else. Baumgartner spent a lot of money and presumably tied up quite a few emergency personnel because he wanted to show off. And he could easily have died – like others who have recently tried to break this particular record.
Jumping from a balloon won’t cure cancer or reverse the global economic meltdown, so why is it afforded so many column inches in newspapers and celebratory pieces on the news?
“Baumgartner’s death-defying jump was sensational, and it showed something good about the human spirit.”
The fact of the matter is that Baumgartner was not alone in this quest – just like any incredible feat of human endeavour, the achievement comes through a strong support network and great teamwork. It is a story of NASA proportions where everyone has a crucial role to play in order to demonstrate the capacity and capability of the human spirit. After all, why does anyone want to break any record – because they believe they can. This story is a testimony in self belief, the achievement of goals and the celebration of success. Baumgartner’s death-defying jump was sensational, and it shows something incredible about the human spirit.
There was, of course, some scientific justification for the jump, though it has to be admitted that any data that comes from it on high-performance, high-altitude parachute systems feels rather secondary to its real purpose.
Which was simply to go to where no man (or woman) has gone before, and do something nobody else ever has.
Why is that worthy of celebration? Because it’s what human beings do. Along with big brains and opposable thumbs, what separates men from monkeys is a desire to understand our world and explore beyond our natural boundaries. Baumgartner is undoubtedly a bit of a show-off, but then he also follows in a long tradition of those who push the limits of human experience for its own sake.
“Though Neil Armstrong collected some interesting rocks, the abiding intent of the Apollo missions was not chemistry or geology but to… prove it could be done”
If you think Baumgartner shouldn’t have bothered, would you rather Sir Edmund Hillary or Ernest Shackleton had also been shackled by health and safety concerns? What about Captain Scott, a tragic British hero celebrated in print and film who died attempting to walk to the South Pole?
Scott died in Antarctica simply trying to find out if something difficult could be done (it could, but mistakes were made, which of course were learnt from), which seems to me like justification enough.
And though Neil Armstrong collected some interesting rocks, the abiding intent of the Apollo missions was not chemistry or geology but to show man breaking free of the constraints of gravity, and to prove it could be done. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon to help satisfy man’s natural curiosity about what he can achieve.
And that really is a good thing. It may eventually lead to human settlements beyond the solar system, or the discovery of alien life, or the seeding of the deepest oceans for human benefit.
As the story captures the imagination of the world we will all feel a sense that there are fewer and fewer things we cannot achieve when we build top performing teams of people with incredible skills, knowledge and tenacity, not to mention bravery.
It says a lot of good things about our insatiable spirit of adventure, and a can-do attitude that bodes well for our collective future.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? WAS BAUMGARTNER’S JUMP AN EGOTISTICAL WASTE OF TIME, OR AN INHERENTLY GREAT THING FOR A MAN TO DO?
The Ultimate Leadership Toolkit
October 7, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Books, Leadership Today, Motivation, Training & Development
There are 5 BIG reasons why leadership and management is failing in many organisations right now.
I call them the five harbingers of doom.
Your about to discover exactly what the 5 harbingers of doom are – although you’ve probably seen some of them in action and you are seeing evidence of their handy work day in and day out – if not in your company then in many you interact with.
The five harbingers of doom lead to:
- Low staff morale
- Reduced productivity
- Poor customer experience/rising complaints
- Lost sales opportunities and revenue streams
- The best staff leaving…
The monster which has plagued both household names, global organisations, long standing local family businesses and one in three start-up businesses in the UK (3 in 4 in the USA!) – LEADERSHIP. The five harbingers of doom which feed the monster are:
- The autocratic leader
- Leadership teams who don’t listen to their people
- Transactional as opposed to transformational leaders
- Corporate bullies
- Leaders who don’t do as they say and fail to deliver on their promises
Ring any bells?
If you’ve worked in any of these organisations I’m sure you will agree:
Clinton Cards; Kodak; Enron; DeLorean; Pan Am; Woolworths; Royal Bank of Scotland to name but a few. There are tens of thousands of smaller businesses and organisations that have faced the same fate. Are you working in such a company right now?
If so, its time to break out from the norm.
The change you want to see in your organisation begins with you.
You can change the environment, the atmosphere and the culture. Yes, I know it sounds incredible – it might even sound ridiculous for someone who feels entrenched in an organisation which seems hell bent on self destruction, where staff morale is at its lowest ever.
So whats the secret?
The secret to making the changes needed to turn your company into an:
Iceland; Pets at Home; PWC; UKRD; Admiral Group; or a Shine Communications (source: The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for 2012).
What you must do is focus on the following five long term traits and turn them into daily habits and actions:
- Become a leader who constantly seeks to develop and fine tuning your skills, using self development tools and practicing a wide repertoire of leadership, management, coaching and mentoring styles at every opportunity.
- Become a leader who is open to and constantly seeking feedback from the people you interact with. This includes your boss/senior stakeholders, your immediate leadership team, staff you interact with, suppliers, partners and customers. Using 360 degree feedback in this way will helps you to …
- Self reflect. Leaders who invest time in reflecting and considering the impact of their actions, who are open to admitting their mistakes along the way and showing some humility, always win the respect of the people they work with.
- Be a Leader who takes the view that your staff don’t work for you – you work for them. Acknowledging that you can only ever be as good as your team. ..
- Nurture and develop your people, acknowledging their talents, inspiring and leading from the front. People respect this kind of leader and will follow them anywhere. This kind of leader no longer has a ‘morale’ issue, because people love working for him/her.
So, here’s the first step you must take, right from now. From this very moment. I strongly encourage you to create time to begin at STEP 1 – self development.
This issue is so important to leadership and management in the current global climate that I spent over 2 years traveling the world and seeking out the best leadership and management tools to help you to become an accomplished and authentic leader. In that time I had the pleasure of meeting the late, great Dr Stephen Covey, Jinny Ditzler, Andy Lopata, the team at Charterhouse, Profiles International and many other influential people engaged in thought, study and publication on Leadership and Management today.
Combining all their experience, talents, success and I have produced the following leadership toolkit. This is one of the most powerful self-development leadership programmes on the market. This is an exclusive offer specifically to help readers of Leadership-Expert.co.uk. The beauty of it is…
It doesn’t cost thousands of pounds. It doesn’t mean your company has to commit to sending you off on a 6 week course to learn everything there is to know about successful leadership. This is something you can do for yourself – no-one at work has to know. This is your gift to yourself to enable you to become 100% more effective as a leader in your workplace, whatever your current role.
The Ultimate Leadership Toolkit is ideal if:
- You are a business owner who employs staff.
- You are new to leadership – perhaps you have just gained your first management promotion.
- You are ambitious and want to progress in your organisation by building a strong reputation for leading people.
- You want to develop top performing teams.
- You want to learn, find out what you don’t know and apply some staggeringly simple but hugely effective techniques.
To start you off I am offering you an exceptional leadership and management tool – which will give you the answers to some of the fundamental problems and challenges all leaders face, but sadly too many do not know how to respond to them. This tool will give you the edge.
- The Ultimate Leadership Guide – secrets to success at work and in business. This compendium contains 32 of the worlds most powerful leadership concepts and open up a whole range of practical tips and tools you can implement in the day to day situations and challenges you face. Do you want to build an incredible reputation for developing top performing teams, who will follow you anywhere. Do you want to learn some of the secrets of how and why the British team did so well at the last two Olympic games? The foreword to this compendium, comes straight from Steve Backley OBE, British Olympic Silver medalist in Sydney 2000 and commentator on London 2012. Value £35.99
That’s just £35.99 (plus postage) to invest in making yourself 10 times more effective than you currently are, because you don’t know what you don’t know. The Ultimate Leadership Guide tells you all you need to know. At the moment Amazon are offering a 15% discount, but this is bound to be for a limited period only.
So dont delay – if you’ve got this far all you have to do is click here and order your copy of The Ultimate Leadership Guide.
Transform your leadership skills right now – don’t let the harbingers of doom feature any more in your working world.
Featured by The Daily Telegraph Business Club – oh and here’s some of the feedback from people who have already started using this toolkit:
“It’s more than a guide – it’s an inspiring instruction manual to help you motivate and lead your team.
Simon Teague has sifted through techniques, treatments and tips from prominent experts around the world to deliver bite size pieces of management good sense.
It’s a must for every desk top.”
Graham Miller, CEO
Media-Vu
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“Whether you are newly appointed, a developing manager or an experienced executive this guide will provide you with a tantalising toolkit of best practise tips and techniques that will help you to become a more effective leader who motivates and inspires his / her people to deliver outstanding levels of performance”
Jim Edgar
Managing Director
CMS (GB) Ltd
________________________________________________________________
“A sensible choice for any Leader or Manager who is looking for a guide of proven work place techniques to use as building blocks for self development and longevity of high individual and team performance”
Graham Wright
Area Director
Royal Bank of Scotland Group
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‘I know how important it is for managers and leaders of business to develop their skills in order to stand out in the marketplace. The tips and techniques revealed in the Ultimate Leadership Guide come from some of the World’s leading experts and Simon Teague has designed the Guide expressly to make it easy to read, learn and apply the powerful strategies within. The rest is up to you.’
Andy Lopata,
Author and expert on business networking strategy.
http://www.lopata.co.uk/
________________________________________________________________________
In the business world today we are experiencing many challenges: Change; Competition; Communication; Motivation and Morale. For leaders to see their way through this multifarious range of concerns, they need to quickly diagnose and apply the right remedies. Having the specialist desktop guide at your side will provide the support needed to tackle these challenges head on.
Steve Harrison
Sales and Marketing Director
Peter Thomson International PLC
_________________________________________________________________________
What I love about The Ultimate Leadership Guide is how it simply and visually explains complex leadership principles in a way that enables the user to instantly apply the theory into practical work based issues and see measurable results. It is the one piece of armoury in 21st Century leadership you simply cannot afford to be without.
Carrie Adams
Corporate Responsibility Manager
Ernst & Young LLP
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This Guide is a fabulous resource, containing a wealth of information that no self respecting leader can afford to be without.
Peter Thomson
Peter Thomson International PLC
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“If you would love to know all the tried and tested leadership and management skills but don’t find the quality time to read, take in and apply the plethora of information that’s available, then The Ultimate Leadership Guide is just what you need. Written in a style that is easy to read and comprehend, you have at your fingertips all the answers you need to be a successful and highly respected leader.”
Adrian Woodstock
Director, People Development, Holtby Turner
http://www.holtbyturner.co.uk/
http://www.cultivatetalent.biz/
__________________________________________________________________________
‘The Ultimate Leadership Guide’ is the most user-friendly, practical and results-orientated reference guide for all businesses that I have seen in a very long time.
Busy people don’t want to have to allocate significant tranches of time and money for them or their staff to increase their skills, effectiveness and profitability. ULG is the solution. Simon Teague – like many great ideas – has come up with a really simple answer to the question of, ‘How do we ensure our people keep on track, self-motivated and with a minimum of supervision?’
A distillation of many of the best ideas from many of the leading gurus, this Guide can save you years of research and reading to track down the answers you want to the challenges you have.
QJ, Inspirationist, Quite Stunning
http://www.inspirationist.co.uk/
‘The Ultimate Leadership Guide’ offers real insights into some of the greatest authorities and experts in leadership and their tried and tested principles. If you apply these principles rigorously you will certainly reach your full potential.”
Steve Backley OBE
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Click here and place your order now.
Leadership-expert will shortly be releasing a subscription membership model which will release significant on-line leadership learning modules for a monthly investment of only £8.66pm. This is currently under development and will transform the world of leadership and management, because the very people learning these modules will become incredible, inspirational leaders across the globe. If this interests you, make sure you join our current community of free subscribers as these will receive the first offers with many bonus leadership development programmes up front.
Thank you for registering your interest
August 30, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Training & Development
Thank you for registering your interest in the Best Year Yet Entrepreneurs Club.
An information pack will be sent to you within the next 48 hours.
Calling All Business Owners & Entrepreneurs in the UK
August 30, 2012 by simonteague
Filed under Best Year Yet, Featured
Light The ‘Blue-Touch Paper’ On Your Business:
The life of an entrepreneur can be a lonely one, but what if…
• You were part of a community of other entrepreneurs who were devoted to supporting you to be as successful as you can imagine.
• You had the opportunity to inspire and motivate others and, in turn, be motivated and inspired.
• You had a team of like-minded people to challenge you, to learn from and to help maintain focus and drive.
• You had access to the best methodology and tools for producing extraordinary results.
• You had training in coaching, mentoring, influencing and motivating others.
• You had access to angel investors and venture capitalists and the space to hone your business plans and business models to ensure you present yourself in the best possible light.
• You had access to some of the most experienced business coaches in the country.
If you had all these things how would this increase the chances for you to have Your Best Year Yet?
Click here to find out more about how you can transform your business over the next few months.
