Does Business Coaching Work? The story of my journey

When I was first introduced to the concept of business coaching, it was not something I had considered for my business. A lot of the time people spoke of business consultants but that often had a negative connotation.

With business coaching, they often say "when the student is ready, the coach will appear" and that is exactly what happened with me a year ago. 

I had never thought to go to business seminars but then I came across JT Foxx's event on a friend of mines facebook page. This was Friday afternoon and the event was Saturday morning. I just figured I had nothing to lose and I knew we needed to do something different but I did not know how. I registered and went with my business partner and we had no idea what to expect. We had never heard of JT Foxx but when we had the opportunity to meet him and learn from him we could understand why everyone spoke so highly of him. JT Foxx (Worlds #1 wealth coach) immediately became my role model as I knew this was an individual I could look up to and learn from. People often talk about a switch going off and that is exactly what had happened that weekend.

First Event

As the year has gone on, I have seen the growth in our business but predominantly in myself. One of my biggest fears was that I would not be able to take over the business and I would run it into the ground but I no longer fear that. I know with the support and guidance from my family, friends and my coaches I can not go wrong. Business now excites me and the challenges it poses only motivates me to succeed and push myself harder. The high level individuals I have met this last year and have the fortune to call friends have opened opportunities and created connections that are invaluable.

How business coaching helped my business:

This past year our business has grown by 21%. We have expanded our product lines, moved from 200m2 warehouse to 600m2 warehouse and even that is too small now. Expanded into 2 new countries. Started to supply bakery equipment which is our newest business venture (Bakery in a Box) and opened a training school for bakeries. We now analyse our numbers and have implemented more systems and feedback mechanisms. This is only a few of the changes our business has undergone since we have received business coaching. 

This is why I can say business coaching does work if you do these 2 things:

1. take action AND 
2. have the correct coach.

 Some highlights of my year with my business coach.

Meeting and Learning from Jay Abraham

Speaking on Cliff Central

Meeting Michelle Mone

Myself with JT Foxx and Sylvester Stallone

Myself with Steve Wozniak and JT Foxx

Backstage at the worlds number 1 networking event

Honours Graduation

One of SA's original millionaire underdog

Sharing the success of my business in front of 450 entrepreneurs

Are you maximising events and holidays with your brand personality?

In today's age, individuals are looking for connection in everything we do and it is no different when it comes to our purchasing behaviour and what we look for in companies. 

Consumers are looking to buy but NOT be sold. 

This distinction is crucial when you are coming up with marketing campaigns. Take a step back and ask yourself: "are you being sold?" Look to create a connection with your consumers and one way you can do this is with your brand character during events and holidays.

Do not be afraid to have some fun with your brand character. 

Use the holidays and events in the year to give your brand some character BUT make sure it does not dilute your brands image. 

You can see below how I changed our brands character for Christmas promotions but still maintained the image of our brand. Be careful not to take it too far but have some fun 

Christmas Bakers Man for Infanta Foods

Our All year Bakers Man For Infanta Foods

Worlds number 1 wealth coach JT Foxx: 15 ways to grow and explode your business.

In business conceptual thinking is crucial! 

You must not JUST copy, but copy and make better or different.

Marisa da Silva and JT Foxx

See these 15 ways to grow and explode your business that I learnt and implemented from JT Foxx (Worlds number 1 wealth coach):

1. Stay Small
• Companies can afford to be sloppy when they get too big. Stay small in expenses but think big in terms of vision. It is crucial for you to maintain that stringent mindset.
• We have implemented this mindset in our business and become a part of our culture by always asking "what will the return be?" This thinking has got us to think more strategic.
2. Be the David v.s. Goliath
• When you are the David, you have to be the best because you have no other choice. This constant fight will drive you to think more strategically. 
• In our industry we are the David and this constant strive for being the best is how we have survived in our industry. Always think how can I be the best and how can I do this better-> this strive has revolutionised my business to always better who we are as individuals as well as our products and service offerings.
3. Get the details right
• Constantly ask how can I do better or be the best.
• You can fix as you go along but make sure you are NOT over analyzing that you never actually take action.
4. Must be inventive
• Watch where you are spending. Finances are the thin line between success and failure-> must find creative ways to fund projects and growth.
• Being inventive does not necessarily mean a new product but could be packaging previous products differently-> this allowed us to expand our basket to our customers and got them to try a wider variety of products. 
5. Keep Moving
• In business things go wrong all the time as long as you fail forward.
6. Innovation
• Differentiation is crucial! You do not have to be radical with a product offering. 
• What we did is improved recipes or new packaging. 
7. Trust your instincts
• This is so crucial in business. 
• Do not second guess yourself.
8. Say yes
• It may be scary but say yes to opportunities. Many opportunities will cross your path, you have to evaluate it and have the courage to say yes.
9. Do business differently
• Be bold! You have to be driven. 
• Always think how can I be the best? How can I better this?
10. Keep your ear to the ground
• Listen to everyone, do not just act. Always look for opportunities- even the silliest things.
• By keeping our ear to the ground with the help of coaching we have created training programmes for the bakery and made it user friendly with the help of infographics. 
11. Make sure employees can make decisions quickly
• Empower your employees to act autonomously. 
• Always trust but verify so make sure you have a short string. If a problem arises and it takes to long to get to top management, may be too late.
12. No such thing as bad publicity
• Pop up and stand out. Dress boldly and use small quotes that catch readers attention in media. 
13. Diversify your brand
• Make sure your brand can diversify into completely different industries. Make it possible to do unrelated business 
14. Have fun
• If your organisational culture has a fun aspect, this creates a great environment to have employees thrive. 
• With coaching, we added an idea board and if you have an idea and it is something we can implement the employee receives an award
15. Negotiate everything in every way
• Your negotiation skills are crucial for your business to grow and explode due to the need to form strategic alliances or for better deals as you will need all the help you can get.

These 15 steps are only some of the tips i have used in my business and they have had phenomenal results. Often it is just a small change you need in your business to take you to the next level. With the help of coaching from JT Foxx  (Worlds number 1 wealth coach) I have learnt to grow my business and think transformationally. This has changed my life and my businesses.

8 Great Trade Show Tips To Stand Out and Be Seen

Trade shows are gaining more traction but the only problem is if you do not know what you are doing then it is easy to become lost in the trade shows.

Follow these 8 easy tips to stand out and be seen at a Trade Show:

1. Strong company identification - Logo, Logo, Logo!
• Make sure that your logo is on all promotional items! 
• These events are all about creating brand awareness and reinforcing your brand in your consumers mind which is why you need to have your logo on as many surfaces as possible. 
• Areas that must have your logo are:
1. Your stand, 
2. All Trade Show personnel's clothing and 
3. Most importantly on walk away free promotional products. When people see your products in other peoples hands and would like to try that same product, they need to know which company it came from so make sure you have your company on your walk away products. This exposure at a show is the greatest because it will help to pull people to your stand and have people actively look for you.
• If it is a marketing campaign, make sure that you have similar placement, font and colour schemes so that your brand is reinforced in your consumers mind and the ads tie up to each other. This repetition of similar placement helps with your brand reinforcement.
2. Theme your Stand Decor for direction:
• When you give your stand a theme, it creates a decor direction and helps with decor so that you know what to buy and what you are looking for. If you want to emphasise tradition-> go for a bit more rugged and natural. If you are looking for modern then you know clean cut and strong lines.
• This will help to draw people to your stand.
3. Move out and about:

• Ask the event coordinators if you can walk around with samples of your products and hand out as people are moving between aisles. This is the greatest secret and not many people ask if you can walk around so by the time everyone else realises this, you have already captured more people.
• Make sure you have beautiful promotion ladies, always more effective. 
• 
  
4. Trade show deals:
• Create deals and packages that are unique to that trade show and make sure you use words such as exclusive, once-off offer, for today only, never to be repeated, discounted to... etc. 
• All of this provides a call to action and that is crucial to convert the trade show inquiries into actual sales. This also serves as a metric for you to judge how effective the trade show was, what leads you got from it and which deals and packages were effective for future shows.
5. Do not over showcase:
• Often at Trade Shows, we try to show everything that we do as a company but less is more when it comes to your trade show showcase.
• Make sure what you are showcasing is your signature line, revolutionary or never before seen and most of all easy to transport and have people sample it. 
• If you have a great product, your product will sell itself so we need to make sure that it is easy for people to sample your product. Actually testing the product while at the show will help to secure potential customers while you have them there will you. Let them see it and play with the product.
• Use TV's with powerpoints showcasing your products, give brochures and pamphlets when people want to see your complete product range. 
6. Use social Media Campaigns
• Get people to take a photo at your stand and post online, tag your company and whoever is the most creative with your stand or product then they will win a prize.
• You can also have a fun cardboard cut out with your brand and have poeple take a photo with this cut out and tag your company. 
7. Make friends with your neighbours:
• Work together with the companies around your stand and refer each others companies. This will create more hype around your stands which will pull more people in. The busier your area, the more people stop and look.
• 
8. Business Card box:


• Place a box for people to drop their business cards to win a prize (make the prize something people will desire, or something quirky). Then have people come back at a certain time(s) for the drawing. This will allow you to get a lot more individuals details to have follow-up emails to reintroduce your company.


9. 
   

Remember that a trade shows have so many brands trying to get sales and gain that brand awareness, you just have to be more strategic and more effective.

Is the Sugar Industry all that sweet? - learn how to translate your business journey into a story

Always remember that facts tell but stories sell. 

Your business story is one of the greatest tools you can use to create an emotional connection with your business. As soon as you share the journey of your company, an emotional connection is formed. 

It is crucial to create that emotional connection and experience for your customers as this will help with loyalty. So many companies are pushing their message to your customers as to why they should buy from them and not you, but with that emotional connection to your company, this makes the persuasion more difficult. 

Tip: Create a picture with your story because visuals always have more impact. Read all about my companies sugar story below and the journey we have gone on.

The story of how our family business started:

When we first started in Swaziland, we had lost absolutely everything. We had managed to negotiate a sugar quota of 1000 tonnes with the Sugar Association. The Sugar quota was an unbelievable opportunity, but we were unable to buy a 34 tonne truck of sugar. We managed to get somebody else to buy 34 tonnes and we bought 6 tonnes of our own sugar from them. We then processed it for our bread premixes and would sell them in South Africa. We only had 5 products that we sold and those are still some of our popular products today.

When we fast forward to present day: All four of our family run the business which we currently manufacture 56 products, sell 250 products and have a sugar quota of 4500 tonnes. What started off as one 34 tonne truck once every 2-3 weeks to South Africa has grown to 7-9 trucks every week.

We are a company only growing from strength to strength and with second generation having joined, we are only growing stronger as a business and as a family.

A lot of people ask us "what is the potential of your company?" and our answer is simple: ENDLESS. 

Easy tips for educational marketing

 Educational marketing has received a lot more attention with the increase of competition in each industry. The need to educate the customer on your company and your product and services has become more crucial for your success. 

The key principle behind educational marketing is educate your customer on WHY to use your company or your product/service.

When you develop a product or service, you have specific wants and needs that your product or service is there to fulfill. All you have to do is highlight these needs you fulfill. 

Very often your customer does not see the full value or potential of your product until you have told them. This is all about reaffirming your company in your customers mind.

For example: In our bakery industry, a large problem in the bakeries is they want to do everything from scratch and not use a premix. If this becomes a trend in the bakeries then this will adversely affect our company so we have to actively reaffirm our customers on the NEED for our premix. I have highlighted 7 of the most crucial reasons for using our premixes and made it into a campaign.

To see more about my business go to: www.marisadasilva.co.za 

                      

3 tips for you to start your educational marketing:

1. Make it easy: 
• Make sure the customer remembers it when you are done. 
• Pictures always works the best BUT make sure your pictures are appropriate. Your images need to reinforce what you are saying. 
• Nothing to complex and keep it short.
2. Make it relevant to your customers: 
• Make sure that what you choose to showcase has your customer in mind. 
• Your customer always wants to know "what is in it for me"-> make sure that the message is for them or else educational marketing is useless. 
• Do not speak AT your consumer but rather engage WITH your consumer.
3. Educate, Educate, Educate:
• Add value to your customers and they will add value to you.
• Everybody loves knowledge and education so make sure you do this often. 

The more you educate your customers, 

the more they know WHY you are different.

To see more about my business go to: www.marisadasilva.co.za 

Tips On How To Generate Organic SEO's through "Set pages" settings

This is something so simple to generate SEO's for multiple websites that you have in an organic way.

On your search engine, go to your "Settings" and got to "Set pages". Add all of the URL's for your websites so that they automatically pop up when ever you open up your search engine. Do this for all your office, home and personal computers to organically generate your SEO's.

Raising the objection before they do

In any presentation, you need to know what objections people could potentially raise about your product or service and YOU raise that objection before they do. 

This helps you to answer the question for them. This makes the rest of your pitch more receptive because their objections have already been answered.

Example: "I know this is expensive but, the benefits of having these specialized breads outweighs that because of its ability to lower cholesterol. Can you put a price on health?" 

You control the message which is key!

Preparation, preparation, preparation

Preparation is crucial for any event! 

Never underestimate the power of preparation and visualization.

Any time you are having to do a particular presentation for a particular product to a particular organisation, ensure you are ADDING VALUE to them! It is crucial to either

1. identify a problem and solve it for them or
2. identify an extension of their current products or service that they have not seen yet.

Throughout your presentation, you need to reinforce what value you are adding so that their is no question with regard to what that value is. When you are able to demonstrate that you can add value to them, then you are already 3/4 of the way their. 

Remember: people are only interested when you add value to THEM!

Your Salary and Your Tax Bracket

It is crucial when you are looking to increase your salary that you do a tax calculation because what you may do is push yourself into the next tax bracket, but just at the entry level, and get a larger portion of your salary taken for tax.

Example: 

If your salary is R10 000 your tax payable is R793.33 because your annual salary is R120 000. This places you in the lower tax bracket because you only taxed on 18%.

If you push your salary to R15 500, this then makes your tax payable: R1902.33. 

This is because you now moved yourself into the next tax bracket by earning R186 000. You now get charged 25% just by increasing your salary by R5500.

Therefore:

R120 000 - (793.33 X 12) =  R110 480.04

R186 000 - (R1902.33 X 12) = R163 172.04

Even though you increased your salary by R66 000. You only walk away with R52 692.00 because a larger portion is going to tax because you are just at the entry level of the next tax bracket.

What you want to do is be the highest point in your current tax bracket. Therefore, the annual amount you should strive to earn is R165 600.00. 

This allows you to take a greater portion of your salary home by being the top level in your current tax bracket.