Bulletproof Business

What’s your Business Health Score? Take the test now to find out: https://bit.ly/GetMyBusinessHealthScore

It’s free, takes just 2 mins, and you get a detailed report about how you can improve your score at the end.

Go on… what have you got to lose?

Discover your Business Health Score This Scorecard has been designed to show entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to improve.

Bulletproof Business added a button to help you learn more about them.

Bulletproof Business updated their information in their About section.

This is a great read about managing employee performance - especially when they might be falling below your expectations

How to Talk to an Employee Who Isn't Meeting Their Goals Be clear, be specific, and end with a plan to move forward.

A simple principle to think about with your marketing, ads and copywriting 👇🏼

How would your business cope with shifting to a 4-day working week? 🤔

Do you think it’s true that doing so would result in more productivity? Better well-being and mental health?

Here’s my penultimate question:

Is this a policy that’s dealing with the root cause of the problem or just a bandaid designed to temporarily mask the symptoms?

Four day working week with no pay loss being trialled in UK More than 80% of people polled believe it would have a 'positive effect on their wellbeing'

Finishing off a business plan for a client today.

Grateful most entrepreneurial types hate writing them - it keeps me very busy!

Thinking of starting a new business? Re-thinking an existing one?

Looking for a professional set of financial projections to help you secure funding for a new venture?

Book a call with us to see how we can help: https://calendly.com/jamiekeeling/bulletproof-chemistry-session

Chemistry Session - Jamie Keeling Book a 15 minute call to find out more about how we can work together on your business.Pick a time and day that best suits you, let me know the best number to reach you on, and I look forward to finding out more about you and your business.

Is it better to be EFFECTIVE or EFFICIENT in business?

Well..

If you were to prioritise efficiency over effectiveness you may find your business delivering your product/service to it's customers quickly and at low cost, but may also struggle with low quality or poor customer experience.

Conversely, if you were to prioritise effectiveness over efficiency you may find your business delivering high levels of quality and exemplary customer experience, but struggling with spiralling costs, low profitability and poor cashflow.

The answer is to strike the right balance for your sector.

A business must be equally effective and efficient to strike that happy balance between delivering a great customer experience with a quality product/service, and doing so quickly whilst keeping your cost base as low as possible.

What's the sweet spot for your business?

Which do you find you naturally focus more on - being effective or efficient?

The 'BIG 3'.

If you're thinking about starting a business, or even if you already have a business, have you considered your BIG 3?

Don't make the mistake so many make of jumping into starting a business before you know your answers to what I call the big 3...

Fast forward 10 years...

1) Who do you want in your life? Who are the people you want to prioritise spending your time with?
2) What do you want to be doing in the time you spend with those people?
3) Where do you want to be in the world, doing those things with those people?

Only once you've answered the above can you decide what type of business is best suited to your personal goals.

For example, if family time is a priority for you as you want to be fully present as your kids grow up, then being the next Elon Musk building rockets to go to Mars probably isn't for you.

What are your answers to the BIG 3?

What's the one question I should have asked but didn't... and what's the answer?

What a great question.

This is what I was asked this morning when being interviewed for a business podcast series (I love talking about this kind of stuff, and so love these interviews).

Question: What's the relationship between numbers and actions in business?

Answer: As a business owner it's your job to turn numbers into actions, and then turn those actions back into numbers. The more you do this, the more you will be in control of the results you get in business.

Every action you take in business should produce a number - a piece of data that tells you something meaningful.

So, perhaps the first thing to do would be to map your business system and check that every action is actually producing a meaningful number. If you find actions that aren't it's because of one of two reasons:

1) The action isn't necessary
2) You don't understand the actions place in your business system and aren't collecting the right data to give you the numbers you need to analyse how effective that particular action is

So, you either need to stop doing those things, or you need to re-evaluate the data you're collecting to help you better understand not only the purpose of those actions, but also what effect they're having on your wider business system.

So, here's the rule:

Every action should produce a number, every number (when analysed) should render meaningful information from which further actions can be derived, and every action should both be derived from a meaningful number and designed to create a shift in the right direction in the number it produces.

This is exactly the process we work through with our clients to help them understand where the weak links are, and how to fix them!

But you first need to see and understand your business as a system. How many of you have mapped your business system?

Who would like help doing so?

Survivorship bias:

Think about how this might apply to your business.

Business is hard and your business will sometimes encounter challenges that could make it break it.

It would be easy to focus on reinforcing some of the obvious areas and miss the areas where you’re most vulnerable.

That’s why it’s important to understand your business as a complete system, and how all the different parts interact and effect each other.

An example would be focusing on profit margins and ignoring cash flow. Yes, you might be making a profit on paper, but every business will suffocate and die without good cash flow.

Do you understand your business as a complete system? Which are the most vulnerable areas that most need your attention right now?

Remember, you can always give us a call if you want help mapping and understand your business system, and making your business bulletproof by reinforcing the areas where you’re most vulnerable.

My advice to a client who asked how to build an organisation in times of personal adversity:

"Adversity is always a tough beast to wrangle with. It presents in many forms, and the one thing I can guarantee is that it will continue to do so in a variety of ways. It’s life’s way of teaching us things about who we are that were previously hidden from us. It’s a sparring partner helping you become stronger, more resilient and more wise by punching you in the face.

Here’s the thing; we have practically zero control over anything outside of ourselves. The only thing we truly control is how we choose to respond to the things life has a habit of setting in our way. Acceptance of what is, a desire to sit with adversity as if it were the teacher and you the student, is critically important to navigating a world that, at times, seems like it’s falling apart. Perception is everything.

I think too often we deceive ourselves into believing that life should be easy, when the opposite is actually true - life is damn hard, and there’s a lot that can and will go wrong. Understanding and expecting this is the difference between people who thrive through adversity and those who struggle to survive through it.

Know this; if you choose to be, you are bigger than any challenge that will be set before you. In my mind, there are few lessons more valuable than the reminder that life is short, life is fleeting, and life can leave us at any moment - more time here is never guaranteed, and too many people live their lives in ignorance of this, often wasting their precious time on things that aren’t worthy of them. So, remind yourself that these things are a valuable lesson - that life is precious, it is short, and every moment on this Earth is a privilege.

Let these thoughts guide you as you view the world through the lens of your adversity and appreciate how lucky you truly are, even in your suffering."

What's the most important thing to understand in ANY business?

Marketing? Sales? Systems, processes and operations? Finance?

Nope.

It's personality.

Without it, everything else is doomed to failure - you can't market and sell to people you don't understand, and you can't build successful teams without understanding what personalities you need and how to get the best out of your people.

A healthy understanding of people - of their intrinsic personalities - underpins your ability to build a successful organisation.

That's why personality profiling is so important, and has become so wide-spread (particularly amongst larger corporations).

The thing is though, most personality profiling tools aren't that reliable and although they may give a good general indication of a persons intrinsic characteristics (and it's better than not doing anything) the results are often un-repeatable over time.

That's why we've been taking some training on the 'Big Five' model of personality. It's a model that's been developed by psychologists over a number of decades to accurately categorise and understand what personality is and how it drives our choices and actions.

In other words, it's an extremely accurate and scientifically repeatable way to assess personalities in your business and can have a profound effect on how you hire and how you manage your team.

So, if building an all-star team is something you're interested in (and let's face it, why wouldn't you be) the 'Big Five' personality model is well worth looking into.

We thoroughly enjoyed taking this course led by best-selling author and professional psychologist Dr Jordan B Peterson, and we are excited to apply our new knowledge in helping our clients hire more effectively and build outstanding teams to help their businesses thrive.

We're really excited to launch our new branding in the next few weeks!

We've been working hard over the last few months to completely revamp our business brand with the wonderful Sarah at Northology Design Co.

Our entire rebrand has been inspired by the adinkra (Akan Symbol) representing the concepts of wisdom, intelligence, ingenuity and patience called Nyansapo, meaning 'wisdom knot'.

As an especially revered symbol among the Akan, it is often employed to convey the belief that if a person is wise, then they have the capacity in them to choose the best means of attaining their goal.

The word 'wise' in the idea is used in a very specific context, meant to imply "broad knowledge, learning and experience, and the ability to apply such faculties to practical ends."

This meaning fits perfectly with our values here at Bulletproof Business Services where we dedicate our time to empowering business owners to start, accelerate and sustain high performance businesses in all sorts of sectors.

Sarah has done a wonderful job of encapsulating these values and principals into our new branding.

Watch this space - our new website will be live soon!

"Craft takes place in a collaborative environment where skill is honed, in conjunction with others. This space is characterized by gradations of expertise...The more you work around other talented folk, the more mastery you can see modeled."

~ Scott Newstok

Marcus liked the metaphor of branches on a tree. A branch's potential is dependent on what it's connected to. Oh, and if it's by itself, it's a dead stick. Marcus knew he couldn't achieve anything on his own. He knew he was nothing without his teachers, his mentors, and his friends. So he deliberately surrounded himself with the best. He hired his mentor Rusticus as soon as he took the throne. He hired Galen, the greatest medical mind of the time as soon as the Antonine Plague broke out. He attended the lectures of a philosopher named Sextus up until his death. The emperors before him banished anyone who threatened to outshine them intellectually or otherwise. Marcus wanted them closer.

When you’re feeling stuck, experiencing a lack of motivation, struggling to make the kind of progress you know you are capable of, take a good hard look at your surroundings. The other branches on your tree. The other people on your porch. Do they help you grow? Or do they drag you down? Your progress is connected to who you are connected to. It is the crucial question for you today and every day: what are you surrounding yourself with? Who is sitting on your porch?

Credit: The Daily Stoic

Ever wondered how to write a first class business plan? If you answered yes, then read on - I've got something special for you...

We get a lot of calls from business owners asking about our business plan writing service, and we've had a tonne of experience in writing them for all sorts of businesses in a variety of industries.

So, we thought, you know what? Let put together a step-by-step 'how-to' guide to walk you through the process of writing your very own 'Bulletproof Business Plan'.

Thing is, it can be a tad daunting... I mean there's quite a lot of work that goes into producing a professional 'investor ready' business plan - from the detailed and inspiring 'Executive Summary' and 'Market Research' (this is the part most business owners develop cold sweats over - I mean, who enjoys doing market research? Apart from us of course!) to the detailed Financial Projections looking at cashflow and profitability.

Our blog is designed to take the stress (but not the work) out of the process so you can have a go at doing it yourself if you're on a tight budget.

But hey, if you've got any questions or you just want a professional to take the whole cumbersome job off your hands, well, you can always get in touch with us!

I'll stick the link in the first comment for you.

Content marketing is the biggest con of the 21st century... so what's the best way to market your business?

Check out our latest blog discussing the best (and worst) ways to market your business (link in the comments)

Most of us internalize the wrong lesson. We think success = busy. We think that being busy is a sign of a good leader, an important person.

Of course this is not true. A full calendar is the sign of someone who agrees to a lot of things, no more, no less. Which is why the philosopher in us needs to always remember that the goal of life is not to do as much as possible, but to do what matters. Marcus Aurelius struggled with this, as you struggle. He had to constantly review his commitments and his impulses and ask, “Is this essential?” “Is _________ really what I am trading my life for?” “Am I afraid of death because I don’t want to not be able to do _________ anymore?”

Seneca and Marcus both talk about the need for carving out space and time in our lives for reflection, for the study of philosophy. They knew that we needed white space in our calendar—we need stillness—if we are going to think and be at our best. Without this stillness, we become reactive. We get overwhelmed. Our compass becomes uncalibrated. We lose track of the voice inside.

Being busy is not success. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. Autonomy. White space. The ability to be deliberate, to choose your shots—that’s success. Stillness, that’s where happiness and insight and truth comes from. So make room for it. Prioritize it. Fight for it.

- The Daily Stoic

Here’s a top tip for you when it comes to Google Ads...

Don’t pay anyone a penny to set them up for you!

And don’t do them yourself...

Set up a Google Ads account, the Google team will get in touch with you, and they’ll do all the work for for you...

FOR FREE.

They’ll set up your account, create the ads, give you 1:1 implementation and training sessions, and detailed follow up/review sessions once your ads are running to make sure they’re perfectly optimised.

If your business isn’t using Google advertising... why not?

Who's the most challenging employee you've had to deal with?

One of the hardest things about running a business is dealing with employing people - great employees are the life blood of any business, but bad employees are like the bad apple that rots the entire barrel.

If not dealt with decisively, they can create a cacophony of time draining problems for you, their team members and the business as a whole.

They can cost you in lost customers, lost profits and diminished brand credibility for years to come...

So what's the best way to deal with that difficult employee?

Check out our latest blog where we give you the full process we use with our business clients to get great results when it comes to dealing with difficult staff and building world class teams.

The link is in the comments 👇

I made a mistake, so what better way to OWN it than to write a blog about it.

There something that can catch you out when it comes to building your brand...

And this blog goes into detail to explain what that is and how you can avoid being caught out like I was just 24 hours ago.

This is the first of many in the Bulletproof Business Blog series.

Check the comments for the link:

SEE COMMENTS - NEW INFORMATION.

Pornhub are offering a BIG package to small businesses!

They're giving away free advertising to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees on their website to the tune of 1 BILLION impressions.

They'll even create a series of ads for your business as part of the giveaway - and their website boasts an impressive 120 million daily visitors...

EDIT: After posting this some disturbing information has been brought to my attention and I can no longer recommend anyone gets involved with this business or their offer. More information in the comments below.

Re-branding is complete with our new branded merchandise arriving today!

It looks fantastic!

Struggling to move your business on-line?

With recent events, more and more businesses have had to move on-line, and it's a trend that is unlikely to change any time soon.

PLANOLY has just launched 'sellit' to help entrepreneurs turn their social media into on-line storefronts.

It looks like a great way for bricks and mortar businesses to easily create viable on-line stores to capitalise on their social media following.

Some features include:

- Convert browsers to buyers in one click: By offering single-click checkout, sellit users reduce the likelihood of losing customers along their path to purchase.
- Sell anything across multiple platforms: Sellit makes it possible to sell digital and physical products or services anywhere you can link - social media, blogs, email, text and more.
- Save valuable time and resources: Sellit removes the challenge of designing, developing and maintaining a professional eCommerce website, and makes it easier for those businesses with websites to monetize their hard-earned social media audience.
- Enhance the shopping experience: Businesses can sell curated collections via compelling lifestyle imagery as simply as they arrange their social media feed -- a task that requires significant development resources on an eCommerce website

Sound interesting?

I'll stick a link to more info in the comments 👍

What question, if answered, would help you be more productive and profitable in your business this week?

Join Jamie Keeling live on TikTok from 10am to 11am this morning for his weekly 'Brutally Honest AMA' session!

Ask your questions live, if you can take a bit of brutal honesty 😎

TikTok Handle:

Photos of Bulletproof Founder Jamie Keeling presenting his talks all over the UK