Presentation skills are important for entrepreneurs and business owners as they are often pitching to new customers or investors and decisions are dependent on the quality of the presentation. The best way to improve is through a course followed by practice and then experience. However, if you do not have time for this process before your next big pitch then hopefully these three tips will help you deliver a successful presentation.

“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tip 1:                Observe
The best way to improve your presentation skills is by watching and listening to other experienced speakers, either in person (check out our events page), on YouTube or on audio. Make notes on the bits they did well which you would like to emulate. The more you watch of these and picture yourself as the person giving the speech, the more belief in yourself you will have giving you the confidence to stand up at the front and present clearly and positively. 

Tip 2:                Strong Start      
The best way to get your presentation going is by giving a strong start. You need to grab your audience’s attention from the start so they do not switch off. If you can, get introduced by the organisers and then confidently walk in the room and make the all-important good first impression. Depending on the size and formality of the group, give strong handshakes at first, maintain eye contact switching between people and use positive body language. Rehearse the beginning part of your speech/presentation the most so when you start, you can roll the beginning straight off your tongue which will get you into the flow of the presentation and show the audience that you are worth listening to.  

Tip 3:                Plan, Plan and Plan       
Planning your presentation is key to delivering it successfully. Not only should you plan the actual content of the presentation, tailoring it to your specific audience, but also plan the location and plan yourself to arrive in the best possible way. Some quick areas to watch out for:

• Presentation – expect questions and try to pre-answer these as part of the presentation
• Location – if necessary test the presentation tools and the volume for all of the audience
• You – ensure you arrive with plenty of time, warm up your voice and stay hydrated.

T
here are many elements to a successful presentation and through practice and experience, and reviewing the success and learning of each one (get a review if you can), you will continue to improve. 

Great learning resources are also available including the audiobook ‘Speak to Win’ by Brain Tracy and a great course that we have attended and fully recommend (to be put in touch with this course, email pa@turnerinvest.co.uk with the subject Speaking Course Recommendation).

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to the Turner Invest newsletter and follow us on social media.

Thanks, 
Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Cash management within a business, especially a small start-up business, is very important. Without enough cash in the bank you cannot pay your suppliers, bills or staff. This can put a stop to growth and even put your business into decline and bankruptcy if the cash situation is very weak. The following three tips will help your business take control of cash management and improve your businesses cash position to help you grow for the future.  

“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went” – Dave Ramsey

Tip 1:                Record, Analyse & Track
The first action to take is to ensure that all income, expenditure, sales and invoices are being recorded. The most effective way is using software or, depending on the size of your business, an outsourced bookkeeper or internal dedicated finance function. By recording all transactions you will be able to analyse what payments are outstanding, what payments are due and what your cash flow projections are for the next month, 6 months and year. Then from this you can implement ways to improve your cash flow situation, reduce customer payment terms, extend payment times to suppliers, drop non-profitable or late paying customers and, focus on your high profit contracts.

Tip 2:                Product Based vs Service Based
A business that sell products can charge their customers upfront, whereas a business selling services invoice when the service is completed and payment is then expected within a month. It is clear which method is best for cash management. If your business is a service business then consider changing some of your services into products. An example from the book ‘Built to Sell’ by John Warrillow is rather than sell a service to create a business logo, sell them the product which is the 5 step process that generates the logo design they want.

Tip 3:                Keep It Simple  
To get the message of effective cash management across to your team you should keep it as simple as possible. Always use the same terminology throughout and refer it back to the cash effect, reducing debtor days may not mean much to some staff yet a target of reducing customer payment times by 5 days will get x amount extra cash in the bank is a simpler target to set. Standardised processes for monitoring, recording, chasing payments and payment terms etc. will also help keep things simple for your team to manage and understand.  

​Cash management is important and these tips only touch on what your business is currently doing and do not go in to increasing sales, making savings or raising additional finance
We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, 

Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

GDPR, as in Good Drills Performed Regularly, should be in place in all areas of life not just business. The committed and repeated performance of things that you know will benefit you will produce results, whether that’s;

• At the gym – sticking to your training plan
• In a relationship – routinely having date nights
• In your business – regularly producing content to build a brand and get new customers

Now I know GDPR actually means, General Data Protection Regulation and businesses need to be compliant very soon. However, GDPR compliance is just another set of Good Drills Performed Regularly!
 
So what does it mean for you as a business owner / entrepreneur:
 
A new set of Good Drills Performed Regularly!

1.   A Data Audit – Take an inventory of all the data you store, noting down why you store it, the purpose, how it is stored, how long for and what action needs to take place (if any). (To help you with this I’ve included a Free Template Data Audit Spreadsheet when you subscribe to the Turner Invest mailing list from our website).
 
2.   Improve/Add New Processes – this will include a regular data audit- every 3 or 6 months, how to report security breaches, how to fulfil data subject requests and any new processes you identify to improve the security of your data (from your Data Audit).  

And to do this, Appoint a Data Officer – although not necessary for smaller companies it is good practice nonetheless to have someone appointed and responsible for the data within your company. Ultimately, you as the business owner are responsible, but by leveraging a team member to take on this role you can focus on the higher level tasks for your business and just look at the reports produced and agree further actions to take. We have appointed one of our VAs to take on this role and they are doing a great job so far.
 
3.   And finally, Renew Consent From Users – this involves specifically explaining to people what you intend to use their data for and getting their consent. And for you, our readers, we are only holding your data (email and name) in order to send you our monthly newsletter and opportunities we hope you will find useful. We do not share this data and your data is protected within our systems. This is a Good Drill for companies to action as your email database should be focused on quality not quantity. Buying data to increase numbers and your database actually reduces the quality of your database and you will see that reflected in the number of unsubscribes and non-opens of your emails. Focus on good, relevant content for your list, share it on your website and social media, and your list will grow with quality subscribers who want to hear what you have to say.
 
That sums up the intro to what GDPR means for you as a business, also check your relevant business sources for industry specific info (e.g. NLA) and register on ICO to understand more.
 
Thanks for reading,
Stephen Turner
Turner Invest
www.turnerinvest.co.uk

Corporate governance is aimed at and reportable by listed companies. However, this high level of corporate responsibility and the governance structures in place in large companies can be and should be reflected in businesses of all sizes when your plans are to grow. Good corporate governance is not just about standards and ticking boxes but is the behaviours of your business and extends from reviewing solely finance to environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas. Implementing the right systems, attitudes and values into your business from the early stages will benefit in the long term. 

“I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term” – Mark Zuckerberg

Tip 1:                Document Your ESG Standards 
Spending half a day researching and implementing corporate governance for your small business may seem like a waste of time, however documenting what standards you expect your business to meet will profit in the long run. The standards do not need to start as a large document and can be as brief as you like or even woven into your existing business mission/ethos or procedures. By detailing your standards and promoting them on your website will not only help attract new business (as you could be seen as a larger business and a business that has thought about its impact on others) but also loyal employees who share the same values.

Tip 2:                Include Your ESG Standards in Working Procedures       
Building on from your ESG standards, you should include, where appropriate, new or improved working procedures. Benefits of promoting these standards throughout your workforce include:

• Your business will be run in support of your standards set. 
• Your team will understand the standards you expect from them and any necessary action that is required from them, for example if you want an environmentally friendly business and your team are aware, they will source supplies that are sustainable and recyclable. 
• Working procedures detailing the approval process for expenditure can lessen the risk of fraud or bribery and promote an efficient workplace.
• Being able to scale your business effectively. The documents will evolve as your business grows, but by having documents in place from the start, no matter how brief, will give your employees procedures to follow and subsequently improve as time and your business moves forward.

Tip 3:                Focus on Medium and Long Term          
Focussing on the medium and long term results of a decision can avoid potential problems caused by short term, quick-fix solutions. Never rush into a decision to quickly fix a problem that will run contrary to your standards set. Not only will this lose business, but could result in higher staff turnover or poor staff work ethics. 
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Corporate governance may not be mandatory for the smaller, entrepreneurial led businesses but by considering it and including some basic standards and processes, your business will run more smoothly, be able to scale more effectively and ultimately will be more attractive for new business and potential buyers should you wish to sell your company.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, 

Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dream

Succession planning for your business is not just important for the owner and CEO, but also for the executive and Director roles, and all business-critical roles, which would be difficult to replace from the labour market. Planning these successions will save your business a huge amount of lost time, resource and cost when these roles do need to be replaced and will therefore give your business more stability and, ultimately, will be more saleable as a result. 

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” – Benjamin Franklin

Tip 1:                Identify and Nurture Future Faces
You should always be on the lookout for top talent and with succession planning in mind, those people who could step up under the right conditions and succeed. When you have identified these people there should be a logical progression path to the targeted position, with the right training and development in place to ensure they can step into the role and hit the ground running with zero impact to your business. It is important to ensure these people are praised widely during their progression so when they are in the role they have already gained the respect and support of other teams and stakeholders to be effective from day 1. 

Tip 2:                Ensure a Good Workforce Mix   
You should ensure your teams have a mix of individuals between those that are ambitious and want to progress within a company and those that are happy with what they are doing and prefer the steady job rather than the top job. Without this balance you may find that all of a team wants to progress into the top role but as only one can, some will look elsewhere and leave your company. On the contrary you may find yourself with an effective team who are happy with what they are doing but with no desire to take on more responsibility or to step up to a senior position. It is therefore vital to find out each of your staffs values as not only will this help in managing them to get the most from them but also highlight whether you need to hire now to balance the mix of the team.

Tip 3:                Plan Early and Fully       
The earlier you consider and act on succession planning, the easier it will be to replace senior executives. Most senior roles would ideally need to be filled by the next most senior member of the team after at least three years in the role or team (depending on the size of your business). This timescale needs to be carefully considered to ensure the right person for the role is at the right point in the progression at the right time. If this person is being progressed from another key role, then the succession planning for their previous role also needs to be considered and so on until new employment can cover the role. 
If your business has no succession planning in place then the time is now to put this plan into action to ensure your business continues to run smoothly when the time comes. The good thing is, succession planning can be planned in full once as long as the systemised process is documented and communicated to all. Each level of management will then embed this plan into their routine team management to ensure the business is primed for when key personnel leave.
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We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, 
Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

a new weekly blog from Turner Invest

Most people dream of achieving big yet few manage to get there. This can be down to numerous elements, however there are common themes for those who succeed and the following are our top three.

“Start small, think big. Don't worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. Put a ding in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

Tip 1:                Write Down Your Goals
Studies have shown people who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them, and those that read and re-write these goals regularly are even more likely to succeed still.  Writing down specific goals where you can see them daily will consciously and sub-consciously drive you to achieve them. The act of physically writing your goals as if you have them now (e.g. I have passive income of £100K per year) triggers you into action as your mind does not want to be wrong. Communicating relevant goals to team members and giving them specific goals with deadlines will drive your business achieve the goals you have set.   

Tip 2:                Focus on High Value Tasks         
It is better to do 5 things critical to success really well, than fifteen important things adequately. In your business you will have a range of tasks that can either be considered high value (i.e. that can generate the highest revenue) or low value (i.e. those tasks that add minimal value, but still need to be done). You should review the tasks you are carrying out to ensure they are of high value to the business; those that are low value should be delegated or outsourced so you can spend more time on the higher value items to achieve your goals. The best way we have found to delegate & outsource (full-time) is by hiring a Virtual Assistant (see bit.ly/thevivaclub for information on how you can hire your own Virtual Assistant)

Tip 3:                Be Flexible       
Once you have you plan in place, monitor progress on an ongoing basis so you are made aware if results do not turn out as expected. It is good to have a plan in place but you should not rigorously enforce the plan if circumstances or outcomes change and results start to suffer. Always be flexible in your approach, ready to change direction if necessary but only after careful consideration of where the current plan is going and where changes in your course may take you. There is a balance to meet between sticking with a plan and altering direction.
Writing your goals on paper, making them detailed and specific, putting a plan into action to achieve them and regularly tracking performance will focus your business to succeed. The big goals you have will become more realistic and achievable and as your business picks up speed towards them, you may find yourself thinking your once big goals now seem quite small.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, 

Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams