Your 2017 Survival Guide

This is going to be a tough year. We don’t really know what’s going on. We don’t know what the future holds; in fact, we don’t even know what tomorrow holds.

We have put together your essential guide to shoring up your PR and marketing armoury to deal with some of the scenarios you might face this year.

Problem:           How’s your sense of reality? Are you blinkered and assume it’s all going to be fine?

Solution:           Take a long, deep breath and do an audit of how well you’re doing in terms of communicating your key messages to your target audiences.

Problem:           You don’t know your key messages and your target audiences.

Solution:           Don’t worry, we can help. We’ll come in, learn about your business and guide you through who your customer really is, how best to communicate with them, and what messages you need to tell them.

Problem:           Your sales are stagnating or decreasing.

Solution:           Check your competitors’ activity. Check your pricing. Check your products are what people actually want or need. Are you over-stocking? Are you under-stocking? Know what makes your customers buy from you. We can help you with all of this and work with you to turn the situation round so you sell more and make more profit.

Problem:           You need help communicating to your customers that they need to pay you quicker.

Solution:           A good cash flow is vital. We can help write those difficult emails and put together a bad debt process for you.

Problem:           You need to iron out those seasonal peaks and troughs, more so this year than ever.

Solution:           We can help you by planning your PR and marketing activities through the year so you can beef up in readiness for the lean times.

Problem:           You think sending out one tweet or post a week is enough.

Solution:           We can help by managing your social media accounts for you. We look at your objectives and how to persuade and influence people who matter through effective and regular social media messaging. We’re on top of your accounts in real time so help manage your business’s reputation if someone’s saying something less than positive about you too.

Problem:           You don’t think you can afford a PR and marketing consultancy to work with you.

Solution:           You’d be surprised. Talk to us. Think of the potential cost if you don’t.

Chimera Communications to the rescue!

If you need expert help to survive this year and beyond, get in touch now. We’ll take an independent, honest and straightforward look at your PR, marketing and communications, put on our combats and use our skills, knowledge and expertise to cut through the wood to see the trees!

Email info@chimeracomms.co.uk or call 01903 812275.

Work-Life Balance Olympian Style...

7 Work-Life Balance Secrets of Elite Champions... and You

Guest blog by Nick Le Clere, strategic change consultant and facilitator, executive leadership coach, trainer, innovator and speaker, running online webinars and learning events for conscious business leaders of the future www.nextlevelconsulting.co

Hooray for our Team GB Olympians! What truly outstanding performances from so many, to win 67 medals in all. 27 Gold, 23 Silver and 17 Bronze - wow, truly amazing.

Wonderful timing for putting the heart and self-respect back into Great Britain, after Brexit as well.

How did that happen?

What did it take to create that level of success, both individually and as a team? What did it take, to peak at the precise time, for the maximum Olympic effect?

Well for sure, the athletes didn't just roll up to Rio and get lucky. They did not drive themselves to the edge of insanity, just before the Games and hope to pull off a coup. They did not pray for miracles. They knew they could do it, deep down inside themselves. They were ready.

Many of the athletes talk about planning for this event for many years beforehand. Some deliberately missed other competitions like the Commonwealth Games to be able to retain absolute focus on Olympic Gold in Rio 2016.

All the while, training relentlessly and building their mental commitment, emotional resilience and self-belief levels to astounding levels of positivity and self-assuredness.

Also receiving the help and support of coaches, mentors, physios, trainers, families, friends and of course Lottery Funding.

The support these athletes have received has been planned and organised since the Lottery Fund was first started in the 1990s. That’s the kind of long-term planning, organising and consistent investment in the environment and infrastructure that has been going on behind the scenes for years. Not to mention the ongoing benefits of the London Olympic infrastructure created previously.

What can you do for you, to nurture your high performance?

What can we take and apply from this amazing Olympic lesson in discipline, commitment and resolve, to be the best you can be, on your particular stage?

 1. Pick your battles and commitments

Beware of over-commitment. Be fully aware of what you say yes to. Don’t try to do everything and wear yourself out.

Make time for urgent and important activities and delegate as much stuff that you don't like doing as possible. Keep your edge sharp, not blunted on trivia.

2. Manage your down-time as well as up-time

Sporting legends look after themselves and know how to relax and switch off. Plan and organise your time with your own rest and recovery cycles in mind.

Burn out = no medals at all. Give yourself priority among the ever-increasing workload.

3. Build high quality support systems

None of the Olympic athletes could have achieved what they did without full-on help and support over an extended period.

Ask for help. It’s a sign of strength not weakness, if you want to win the big stuff.

Balance your work, rest and play time, and actively schedule these things in your calendar, if necessary. Look at your eating and drinking habits and make more healthy choices.

4. Get a coach and/or mentor

Get yourself a coach and/or mentor with whom you really connect and bounce new ideas around to raise your game.

Most athletes have more than one coach - areas covered include winning mindsets, self-belief, various capability sets, energetics, optimising emotional content, and work-life balance.

Coaches help you see what you can’t yet see or what’s staring you in the face while you look around everywhere for answers. They help you create new pathways for high performance and wellbeing.

5. Stay grounded and centred

It’s far too easy to lose your centre and sense of self under intense pressure. Sustained exposure to pressure and stress creates fatigue and leads to deteriorating performance.

With both stress overload and fatigue, simple things start to become difficult to achieve consistently and self-mastery goes out of the window.

Finding ways to relax and come back to your centre, say through visualisation, meditation or taking regular time in nature to soften your focus and create harmony within, is time well spent in the pursuit of high performance.

6. Stay positive and focused

While easier said than done, when under pressure, if you feel overwhelm approaching, the best thing you can do is stop and breathe and take a time out.

Stepping back helps to refocus your attention on the bigger picture and create an opportunity for positivity to be reclaimed.

This can be hard when in the thick of challenging situations, but at the first chance you can, create, pull back and evaluate as an observer and notice new ways of doing things entering your perceptions...

You can do this and still keep your eyes on the prize!

7. Manage expectations

Rome was not built in a day. Olympic medals are not won through short-term effort cycles.

Be honest with yourself, and others around you, about just what is possible. Get used to saying no, if things feel wrong.

By saying this, you may be able to create new ways of approaching things that you feel more able to say yes to. Practice discernment and be aware of how much pressure you put on yourself and its effect - positive or limiting.

Too much pressure over extended periods is madness and no medals come from that choice or habit whatsoever. Unless cultural insanity is the prize.

And finally…

Be kind to yourself, especially if no-one else is being kind to you.

If this is your normal working environment, and work-life balance is not possible in your team or business - then it’s time for a change.

If you don't put your work-life balance first, no one else will.

So it’s up to you - how badly do you want the end prize?

What is your Gold medal event, at your own lifetime Olympic Games?

Never knowlingly under-managed

I read a piece in the media recently about companies like John Lewis, co-operatives which give their staff a stake in the company, keeping salaries realistic while still motivating hard work, good customer service and sales. Their profits are rising. Royal Mail staff will get free shares in an effort to gain their buy-in and engagement, as part of the organisation’s privatisation process.

When I go into John Lewis, I certainly get a feeling their staff are proactive in selling while caring about giving a first class service and offering top notch, quality products. Can the same be said for Royal Mail, albeit prior to the share pay-out?

Every year, the postage increase gets worse and worse, so much so that this year’s hike and associated parcel size fiasco can only be classed as someone’s idea of a joke ... on the British public. It begs the question: how can they beat that next year?!

Have we got a better mail delivery system as a result of increased postage? Do we get deliveries first thing in the morning like we used to? Do we get a second delivery mid-morning? Of course not. We’re lucky if we see mail by lunchtime, and in some cases by suppertime. The Edwardians probably had a better service than we do. Yes I know there was far less post but in bygone days, they could post something in the morning and it’d be with the recipient by the afternoon. New technology should mean things improve.

Being British, do we complain? Again no, for fear they’ll take umbrage, go out on strike, picket our picket fences and stop deliveries altogether.

At this point, I should say that in the main, postmen and women are absolutely delightful and at least I get my post mid-morning. It’s not their fault that Elf & Safety and the unions won’t let them carry anything heavier than a bunch of A4 envelopes or a lightweight parcel or two, and advise them to keep away from a ‘Beware of the Dog’ sign in case there really is a monster pooch ready to take a bite out of them – quite sensible, really, and it’s to protect them. When the postman can’t get something through my letterbox or I’m out, I have to drive miles to the nearest delivery office, and there’s no Elf & Safety concern over whether I put my back out to carry it.

And don’t get me started on their offer to deliver packages to neighbours. You can’t specify who, just anyone else in the road who’s in. The last time this happened, they left a parcel with someone I’d never met, in a property I didn’t know, about a quarter of a mile away.

Increased costs should mean increased service. Maybe the bosses at John Lewis should take a turn as operational leaders for Royal Mail. Now that would be first class!

(Originally published in The Argus on 27.9.13)

No-one ever went to their grave wishing they’d spent more time at the office

By the time you read this, I will have completed Phase One of my summer break – a long weekend last month! This will be followed up with Phase Two – another long weekend – this month. Rarely one for lengthy holidays, this is more or less as much as I can expect till the Christmas shutdown because thankfully we’re as busy as ever in this, our 10^th birthday year.

I’m sure I feel like many small business owners when it comes to a work/life balance: sounds fantastic but this is reality. While it’s essential to be mentally and physically fit to carry out my work to the level my clients expect and deserve, I have to make sure there’s a snug fit between this and taking time away from the business to regroup, relax and revitalise. After all, a worn-out and exhausted PR and marketing consultant is no use to anyone!

I’m lucky, of course, because I have some truly delightful clients with whom I work closely and effectively. And I have a team of exceptionally talented associate consultants working with my company. I have no problem delegating projects or tasks although ultimately I’m responsible and have to be on top of what’s going on.

I’m not an avid sun-worshipper and I don’t like hot climates, so I don’t crave weeks away on end in idyllic locations, although as I’m writing this, I may be having a change of heart! Fairly recently I’ve started working with a personal trainer who has revolutionised my approach to health and fitness. You’ll be able to see this for yourselves when I update my photo in the weeks to come!

One great result of the healthy diet and daily exercise regimen has meant I’m brighter, sharper and much more energetic. The first month’s detox wasn’t as hard as I’d imagined and I’m enjoying doing different exercises and gym routines. My business benefits from me having even more capacity for ideas and outputs, and now I really differentiate the working week from the weekends, when I value every ‘down-time’ moment. I try not to be computer-obsessed at weekends now, only respond to emergencies and rarely now work unless it’s absolutely necessary.

So what have I learned about having a good work/life balance? There’s no magic formula, just whatever works for you.

Remember no-one ever went to their grave wishing they’d spent more time at the office!

First published in The Argus on 25 June 2013

The link between a good Americano and the internet

My second office is fast becoming a coffee shop in town. It’s become a place where I can go for a change of scenery, a meeting place, a decent Americano, a quiet catch-up on the news, a sanctuary and a creative haven. It’s a neutral zone where I can meet contacts, suppliers, contractors and maybe a client over a coffee. Yet one thing disturbs me and it disturbs me greatly... it still has no internet access available despite months of promises.

“Quite right” some of you will say, “there’s far too much technology these days. Give it a break!” to which it pains me to respond “You’re right, but I must have access to keep up with things.”

And so it has come to this. How many of us sit in front of the television with our smartphones or other mobile devices, tapping away, thinking how great it is to be multi-tasking, part listening to and part looking at a film while checking emails, watching ebay or messaging a friend? Who’s going to own up to texting or emailing someone sitting only feet away, instead of talking? Or maybe that’s too much like a sketch in a comedy show.

Much has been written about the effects of too much technology on young people and not enough focus on human interaction and communication skills. Recruiters have highlighted a growing inability in candidates to speak or write properly. Good old-fashioned grammar and care are, in the main, getting forgotten along with mathematical skills which disappeared with the advent of calculators. This does not bode well for businesses in the future.

For the growing band of similarly-minded business people flocking to coffee shops, willing to spend money on cappuccinos and a bite to eat, internet access is not just desirable, it’s essential, otherwise we might just as well stay in the office.

Love it or hate it, the era of mobile devices is here to stay. The majority of people already use them to search for products or services and reviews. Whatever you want, there’s an app for it. Now there’s Google Glass and a million and one new innovations for our delight and delectation.

Don’t even think about fighting it. Jump on board, keep up or get left behind. I say embrace new technology and change because actually it can be good fun and theoretically it’s supposed to make our working lives easier. Until the internet goes down or there’s a power cut.

Now, where did I put that Americano?!

Originally published in The Argus on 23.4.13

Ten years ago today I started my company, public relations and marketing consultancy Chimera Communications. Ten years which have seen governments come and go, the colour of local politics change, the worst recession in living history, the birth of social media, Olympic frenzy, a different James Bond, several different faces of Dr Who, the strange popularity of reality shows (or should that be unreality shows?), freak weather, Jeremy Kyle, America's first black President and now the first papal resignation for nearly 600 years.

The price of petrol in 2003 was around 78p a litre, a onesie was what a baby wore, twitter was something the birds did first thing in the morning and we'd never heard of Justin Beiber. Happy days!

Well, petrol now costs around 139p a litre and despite clients' budget restraints, rapidly changing technology, ridiculous parking prices, the hell of automated phone systems, frustrating customer care via overseas call centres, with the grace of whichever god in which you believe and a prevailing wind, Chimera Communications has survived and flourished.

Key elements which contribute to that fact, I believe, are experience, planning, organisation, self-belief, dogged determination, value for money, flexibility and caring for my clients' businesses as if they were my own. The company is run on the basis of low costs and a friendly and approachable, effective service. There’s no fancy office, ‘Ab Fab’ style champagne lunches or glossy brochures. All my business over the years has come through word of mouth and the testimonials speak for themselves. We work with award-winning clients, businesses of all sizes as well as not-for-profits and charities, all of whom are treated exactly the same.

Of course there have been tough times, like any business. I've learned the hard way that there are occasions when I have to say 'no', that there are clients with whom it's best not to work, that there are never enough hours in the day, and that working all night is really not a good idea. I love working with such a wide variety of businesses and learning just enough about what they do to enable me to do my job. I was invited to become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations more years ago than I care to remember, and that always stands me in good stead as we have to sign up to a code of conduct which ensures we act responsibly and ethically.

Looking back, as one is prone to do at times like this, my best decisions in recent years were to join Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce, BNI (Business Networking International) and a select range of other professional and networking groups. Networking is certainly the way to go these days for building great contacts and useful, trustworthy and lasting business relationships.

It can certainly be argued there are already more than enough networking groups in the area, and this is where targeting is crucial. You could spend all day, every day going to different events and every week, there are new groups jumping on the bandwagon. The really effective ones are those which monitor business passed, or are proactive in fostering links between relevant members. There is a place for those which meet on a more informal basis, but it’s important for me to be able to justify and quantify the results of precious time and money spent.

I’ve built up really good business relationships with people I can trust, knowing I’m going to be sitting across a table each week or each month when they’ll be accountable for every piece of work done, whether for me or for those to whom I refer them. These include not only professional suppliers like printers, designers, accountants, photographers and lawyers, but electricians, plumbers and lettings agents, even a chiropractor. Much work has come through networking, as well as some introductions to my own associate consultants.

So my advice, should you need it, is to think carefully about who it is you need to target and why. Whether it’s specific professions, ages, gender, business size or location, there are plenty from which to choose. It’s important to remember it’s not only about who is at the networking event, but who those people know and in turn, who their contacts know. And of course, it’s equally important you’re comfortable giving an ‘elevator pitch’ to promote your business or whether you prefer to eat, drink and mingle. Networking can help build confidence and presenting experience, but don’t forget to ask for specific business or contacts you’d like – you need to focus or networking can become a bit of a jolly and a waste of time.

On the whole, the last ten years have been a blast. Huge thanks to all my clients, media contacts, suppliers, networking colleagues, business partners and my merry band of Chimera associate consultants over the years. 

Here's to the next decade!

pla·gia·rism/ˈplājəˌrizəm/ Noun: The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

I'm interested in your views.

I've had my website copied (images and content), my LinkedIn connections systematically trawled through and used, and my clients contacted.

Now I know this is the real world. Stuff happens. And I've been known to look through the web for inspiration myself. Yes, LinkedIn is all about connecting to new people via connections but what about netiquette, doesn't that count or is that being a tad naive?

Here's the thing (in the words of that truly ground-breaking PR from the telly, Siobhan Sharpe, Head of Brand at Perfect Curve - "2012", BBC): should I get irritated by this flagrant copying, should I be flattered, should I be saddened that such people have no original ideas themselves nor ways to get their own clients, or should I grin knowingly, shrug my shoulders and get on with something more important?

One thing I've noticed though - the perpetrators have all been women. Come on sisters, shouldn't you be doing it for yourselves?

You know who you are. Actually, and please note, so do I.

Other folk out there in social media land - what do you think?