Binge Thinking

You Ltd - Ros Palmer

Multiple book offers arrive in my inbox every day but my attention was grabbed today by, Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me a book written by social networking Ecademy founder Penny Power that (sic) "takes you on a journey into the online business world".

A sample chapter has the following paragraph:

"To be an individual capitalist you have to create a brand – You Ltd, You Plc – be in demand, be known and have a globally trusted name that earns you respect and feeds you. To do this, you need to know your unique contribution, your talent, your skill, your passion and your reason for getting up in the morning. Money cannot be the only motivator. Your contribution has to be what creates the heartbeat that wakes you up".

We have, for many years, coached people about ME Plc, which fundamentally seems to be the same as Power's 'You' brand..

ME plc is an analytical self-assessment which invites you to consider managing your career as if it was a business. We have a whole process that we can lead you through. To get you started, here is a series of questions to stimulate your thinking. Take some time and come up with as many possibilities for each question as you can.

CUSTOMERS

· Who are my customers?

· What are my customer's immediate needs?

· What are my customer's future needs?

· What is my customer care policy?

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

· What are my products & services?

· What are their unique selling points?

· Are they market leaders or becoming outdated?

· How competitively priced are they?

· Do I offer value for money?

MARKETING & SALES

· How aware are my customers of my full product range?

· How do I meet new/potential customers?

· How effective are my sales mechanisms?

· What is my brand?

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

· What new products & services am I developing?

· Which existing products & services need to be modified or updated?

· What products & services are being developed by my competition?

COMPETITION

· Who are my competitors?

· What products & services do they offer?

· How do my products & services compare?

BUSINESS PLANNING

· What is my strategy?

· What are my objectives (short/long term)?

· What are my key performance indicators?

· What is my mission/vision?

OPERATIONS

· Am I using the latest technology?

· How effectively am I operating?

· How can I make better use of my resources?

When you have created your list of possibilities, take a highlighter pen and mark out the five most important and ready to action points under each heading. Then turn them into SMART goals and ME plc will be in business.