As entrepreneurs muse over whether to throw caution to the wind and start their own business, there’s no better way to deaden the inevitable pains of being an owner manager than by being  forearmed

Below is a compelling list of top 13 ‘learns’ (everyone does 10 and I’m not superstitious!) from members of my business development group  whose members combine a collective century of running small companies. 

1. Begin with the end in mind – set your main goal with a specific timing and keep asking:  Is what I am doing right now taking me towards that goal?
2. Prioritise 3 things a day and focus only on those. Leave work feeling you have blitzed your list!
3. When you feel at your most uncomfortable you are often learning the most
4. Know when, where and how you add value
5. Listen to your gut more often and act accordingly
6. Take a leaf out of Simon Cowell’s  or Nigel Risner’s book. Tell the truth quickly. Putting it nicely clouds the water and confuses or deludes people
7. Ask the right questions, then shut up and really listen
8. Set the pace and the future as a leader – and push hard for it
9. Know your numbers
10. Look out for competitors going bust and make sure you pick up their customers
11. Buy a digital recorder and tape yourself selling on the phone or face to face to understand and improve your performance
12. Keep good customers very, very close
13. Increase your gross margin – put up prices for new customers

Above all, enjoy and celebrate your decision to break out – because once you’ve done it you become truly unemployable!

Pinnacle of success path requires different thinking.

If you are emotional, trustworthy, niche and possess an iphone – then you’re on the starting block to be a potential winner in the brave new business world over the next three years. This is the message from the world’s biggest chief executives’ organisation Vistage International which is hosting a series of UK events for its members who include MDs and CEOs of small and medium sized enterprises. I was bowled over with the energy and passion of  inspirational author Peter Fisk whose call to action was to rethink our markets, be integrous and the best (not the biggest), collaborate, engage and build global social networks through a series of new media tools to create competitive advantage and be profitable.  With people-to-people selling  creating 70 millionaires a year, the ability to adapt and get inside our customers’ minds has never been more crucial. Knowing what and why your customers are demanding is a must – as is giving them energisers (something small which will excite them), enablers (things that will help them to achieve what they couldn’t do otherwise) and essentials (their basic needs and expectations of your business). This potent combination will strengthen the emotional bonds – which in turn will create your competitive advantage. So let’s all maximising the opportunities of the new landscape, be inspirational –  and  delivering experiences as opposed to flogging products and services. So let’s take off the blinkers,  hang on tight and enjoy the rollercoaster ride ahead – and have one helluva party and hangover to celebrate being among the success stories of 2012.

Bottoms are proving BIG business for savvy entrepreneur Sarah Blakely whose Spanx bum-shrinking/smoothing knickers are adorning the posteriors of a galaxy of stars including Sarah Jessica Parker, Katie Holmes and Gwyneth Paltrow  – the latter  an advocate of safety in numbers who wears two pairs at one time. The idea was fleshed out when the former fax machine sales supremo cut the feet off a pair of control-top tights to compliment pricey see-through white trousers. I highly applaud her hunger for lifelong learning sparked by her father giving her Wayne W Dwyer’s aspirational tapes. For me the ultimate lift came when applauding how Sarah rose from obscurity to a multi-million dollar empire through word of mouth. Discarding advertising, Sarah recognised how powerful PR tactics sucked in her target audiences – sending samples to the queen of chat and tactically wooing the Neiman Marcus hosiery buyer. Initially foregoing the elusive work/life balance (Quest PR’s remedy for this comes from Vistage International), Sara is about to Spanx the male species. And the moral of the story? – keep your sights on PR pulling power which, even on tight budgets, will reveal the ultimate results!

The FEE formula is based on the robust processes of Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO membership organisation, which supported Deirdre Bounds in powering her business forward and which has supported and developed me for four years. Vistage has more than 14,000 members worldwide and is marking 50 years of developing CEOs and MDs. Members meet for monthly intensive development sessions, facilitated by chairs who also act as mentors, in which they are challenged and act as each other’s non-executive directors. On average those who join double their turnover and treble their profitability after three years. Vistage Yorkshire chair Richard Bosworth, a master strategist and mentor , who has been central to growing the number of Vistage groups in Yorkshire from 2 to 11, has also shared the benefit of his experience with Forward Ladies in a presentation entitled “Have you got the right people on the bus?”.The first FEE group has proved such a success that we have now rolled out a second group which I am delighted to chair as we plan a packed learning agenda for 2008.Great inroads have been made, with women-owned businesses contributing to about £60 billion to the economy, yet we are still only skimming the surface. An increase in numbers of women business owners could boost UK productivity by up to £23 billion – that’s 2 per cent of GDP. If the UK matched US levels of female enterprise, there would be 700,000 more businesses in the UK – all of which reinforces the need for more support groups like Vistage for larger organisations and FEE for sole traders. SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy, so come on ladies – we need more talented, passionate, energetic and determined women to boost the confidence, business acumen and success of their peers – and accelerate female entrepreneurialism to new levels.