Karren Brady At Middlesex University: Power Speech

Karren Brady

"Behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law." 

This week has been eventful, and tonight's highlight is the empowering and inspiring speech by Karren Brady, or as I call her Mrs. Sugar (since she is on the UK's Apprentice as Lord Sugar's right hand). Although she is way more than that. Her success is amazing. Karren Brady is surly a role model for Business women and entrepreneurs of all genders. Read more about her here. I am dying to read her book now more than ever!

We were very luck to have her tonight at Middlesex University for one of the PG Connect events.  

Karren Brady is even more beautiful in person

She was presented by Katie Bell

Some Highlights from the evening:

Leadership is managing the minds and the hearts. 

In life there are three kinds of people:

- People who make it happen

- People who watch it happen

- People who wonder what happened 

The most important thing any business mind is define their core values. 

Live life with courage

When you are starting a business ask yourself the following questions:

- What are my core values?

- What kind of company do I want to start?

- What kind of environment do I want to create/ or work for?

- Who are the people you want to work?

Opportunities will come to you if you are open to them. 

Five things you need to keep in mind to achieve a successful business:

1- Leadership 

It is different from mangement. 

A true leader can get people together to achieve a goal you can't do alone

2- Ambition 

Your fire, drive and it what sets you apart. 

3- Determination 

Keep going. How you react at tough situations shows your true determination.

4- Attitude

Ask yourself "what's the worst that could happen?" 

5- Direction 

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work.   

Toughest thing about being successful is staying successful

Good is the barrier of being great

Three things Karren Brady looks for when she is hiring: 

1- Determination 

Do your research and show your desire

2- Communication 

Don't be nervous and take the chance to sell yourself. Practice.

3- Enthusiasm (that's the most important one of them all) 

Be energetic, and have a "I will" attitude 

In life there are three boxes: 

1- Work

2- Family

3- Yourself

Everyone wanted an autograph and pix afterwards, wish she had more time

Food Stand! 

My little plate. Don't be fooled I had two more after that!

Students Networking

With Mary from Hop Interior and Katie Bell. 
As Karren Brady said: "Without diversity you cannot receive success."

Pitch Perfect: How to Give a Great Presentation

This is a summery of an awesome business lecture by: Gareth Palmer.
I attended it in the University of Salford part of their entrepreneurship series, hope you find it as helpful as I did! :)

The perfect pitch comes from focusing on FIVE main area
(each area start with a letter from the word PITCH)
Performance Imagination Tailoring Confidence Happiness

Performance:
Pitching an idea and presenting it is a performance, it's like giving a show to an audience; acting. All you have to do is commit and prepare. The problems that might face any performer are nerves; anxiety and expectation (the fear of what people expect from you). You just have to do your research, prepare, practice, and focus. Make sure it's NOT *just* the night before!     
The main point to succeed in preforming is focusing and you can do that by doing WFO (well formed outcome). Just Visualize your performance -in positive manner of course- and see the great outcome you want.    

NOTE: Smile, and your audience will smile back (it's a natural reflex). 

Imagination:
There are two ways to doing it:
1- association: imaging yourself; feel it; live the part.
2- disassociation: watch yourself mentally, and how you do it.
rehearse your performance by imagining in the 2 ways above (positively)
and while you are doing it squeeze your index and thump to make the imagination stick in your head (won't hurt trying it!)
Tailoring (plus technology):
Remember: FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT!
1- Clothes: the way you dress and tailor your appearance, and always dress better (example: if it's smart casual lean more into smart).
2- The design of the performance.
3- Audience: research them before you meet them, so you tailor your content towards them.
4- Check what worked in the past. There's no harm in reapplying success.
NOTE: While giving a group presentation make sure the number of presenters is right and the organization of people on stage.
NOTE: If you are giving a presentation, and you feel that people are locked up (their hands shielding their chests), then try opening them up (NOT PHYSICALLY) by giving open hand gesture. They will feel encouraged to mirror you.
Technology:
do you need it? don't just bring a powerpoint because you think you need one! asses the situation, maybe you'll do better without one.
NOTE: stick to bullet points and short phrases on slides NEVER a paragraph :O
Confidence:
There is a difference between BEING confident and ACTING confident and what you need is act it.
(fake it till you make it). Just think I am confident, and you will be.
VOICE: tone of voice plays in showing how confident you are. Always aim for deep slow tones (females might sound too sexy doing it, so practice to get it right). Be responsive in your voice NOT defensive.
BREATH: taking a breath will do you wonders.
try to breath from three areas: tummy, chest, and mouth.
Happiness:
be relaxed, and smiley, but without being too personal and jokey and better off refrain from joking. Imagine starting with a joke and the audience don't get it? nothing will be more embarrassing.
NOTE: When people are happy, their thinking slows down, and they tend to close DEALS! sooooo, make your audience happy, and you never know it might just work ;)

THE ELEVATOR PITCH/ LIFT PITCH
you got 60s to convince someone in an elevator/ a lift to get you a DEAL.
what you need to AIM for when you get a chance like this:
1- Introduce yourself/ hand shake
2- Compliment the person you want to pitch to.
3- Brief line about your pitch (this skin product will make a 10000 in a year & it's been tested, all I need is .... from you).
4- Give your card
5- Take his card to make an appointment.

REHEARSE, PRESENT, & PREFORM.   

Writing a Business Plan

How to Write a Business Plan

This is a summery of an awesome lecture I just attended in the University of Salford about entrepreneurship, hope you find it as helpful as I did! :)

Introduction:
starting your own business is a great step, but before taking it there are few things that you need to keep in mind, and the most important of it all is RESEARCH!
you don't have to conduct research from scratch, you can use second hand research and that will do it, and  some areas need to be considered, like:

1. the size of the market
2. competitors
3. business structure
4. how to finance
5. how to find the right customers
6. WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT! >> that's the MAIN one 

Identifying YOUR customers is the starting point, and you can do that by thinking of your idol customer; their looks, their style, their social levels and the amount of money they can spend; their EXPENDITURES.  After that you can think of segmentations, in other words thinking of the market sectors that supports your product.

After finishing off your research, you should start writing a BUSINESS MODLE, which will make it even easier to write up your business plan.

Business Model:

it's basically a written process of a brief explanation and a summery of your business that will fill only three papers. It should include how this business will be done, customers, charges and profits.

There are two main goals from this:

1. To give you the focus you need and the GO.
2. To arrange the key points to present it to the client. >> it'll help you in your elevator pitch!

Example to practice your Business Model:

say you will do a business about HORSES, you can choose an area:

Horse Riding Centre

identify your customers: adults, and children

paying customers: parents with 1-3 children, middle class, boarding and private schools, brides, older couples, young professionals, and around that.

decide on services: horse riding, horse riding lessons, birthday parties, horse grooming, & weddings.

Profits: will be made from the services.

Needs: Lands, horses, and the right location.

Ways to Finance it: maybe the government? a loan?

Location: half an hour from Manchester

Times: after school

The above is just an example of a very brief business model, and doing something like that for your business will really help you focus and have a strong start.

Pricing:

ok so we figured out some plans, what about pricing? how do you price your products or services?

do you go HIGH or LOW?

if you go high, then:

you will have a low initials, but with a quick recovery, and it will be easier for competitors to copy you, so it will be a low market with a slow penetration to customer houses.

if you go low, then:

low gross profit, BIG sales, rapid markets, quick growth, and creates barriers which makes it harder for competitors to copy. 

Life Cycle of a product:

this is important to know, for every product there's a life cycle where it's born then it dies.

1. The introduction of the product: putting your product out there and marketing it, and telling the customers about the product (to educate them of its importance).
2. The growth of the product: focusing on the product at hand without introducing any at that point.
3. The maturity of the product: aggressive marketing, brand development, loyalty programs and promotions.
4. The decline of the product: where the life span is over and it's on sale.

Costs:

there are two important things in the products costs that you need to know about:

1. Fixed costs: costs that are fixed regardless of outputs (like bills).
2. Variable costs: varies depending on the output.

At the beginning you might not make much, but always make sure to break even, and doing a schedule of daily, weekly and monthly is a key.

These are just few pointers, and I hope they help you start a great business plan! :)