Buying an office is expensive and risky, plus potentially limiting. If you outgrow it then you have to sell before you move on, an increasingly difficult task with the currently unstable property market. Renting can therefore provide a great solution, offering flexibility in terms of price, office type and length of lease.

If you need a whole building, part of one, a room or even just a desk, there are options to suit every situation and budget.

For truly hassle free leasing, serviced offices provide a great solution: Fully equipped and managed, individual offices or floors are rented out. You don’t have to buy computers, desks, phones and cleaning and maintenance will all be taken care of – some even have a reception service, perfect for giving the right impression to customers. This is a great choice for a business that needs to look flash without the cash – the costs of setting this up from scratch would be prohibitive to most small companies.

Whether serviced or not, different spaces tend to attract different business types and by getting yourself in with the ‘right’ pool of companies, this could greatly enhance your own offering. Creative environments can be inspiring and if you work alongside a complementary business you may be able to help each other out and go for jobs collectively. If you know a number of businesses in the same position as you, why not pool together and share a building.

With risk low on many people’s agenda due to the economic difficulties the country is in, renting a workspace, short or long term, is a great option for any fledgling business. If you expand and everything goes well, you can move on to somewhere bigger and better, but if things don’t work out in your favour, then it’s easy to leave without incurring too much financial hardship.

About the author: Jessica Lowe writes on behalf of Office Genie, the UK’s first proper online marketplace for desk space and shared office space

Being so reserved actually stops you from being the kind of aggressive or ‘pushy’ salesman we all hate, and that’s a good thing. People are becoming very resistant to the traditional ‘the more you talk, the more you sell’ approach, especially when it’s over-hyped! What people are looking for is answers to questions, solutions to problems and how to achieve eternal happiness . And they’ll happily pay whoever can supply what they want.

Now, I used to be shy too, I guess I still can be reserved sometimes. When I first started out selling, friends and family were aghast! “How is John ever going to sell anything?” was the question they all asked. But I had learned that the best conversationalists do more listening than talking.

Most people love to talk about themselves if you press the right button. You do that by asking targeted questions that get them talking. Questions about their interests, problems, dreams etc. then listen, I mean really listen, because they are going to tell you what to sell them. If they start to dry up ask a question about something they’ve just told you, something that will tell you more about what they want out of life. After a while they’ll think you’re their best pal and will listen to your recommendations. Use this technique in conversation, in selling, even in dating (boy, does it work well there  )

It doesn’t have to be face to face, but it works really well in that form.  You can do it over the phone, in a sales letter or on a website. This is really what Geoff (the guy who’s post I was reading) is doing with his blog. He listens to the ‘online conversation’, posts a comment or a question here and there and people answer him, so he learns what he needs to keep the conversation  going and the sales coming in.

When you know what people want, you don’t have to ‘sell’ them anything, you just have to let them know where they can get it and that’s from you. Everyone is good at something and usually that ‘something’ is being sold profitably by someone, somewhere. If you are good at a particular thing, they might just as well buy it from you, especially if you are better than wherever they are getting it at the moment. Or better still, if they can’t find it at all.

But you do have to join the conversation, go on, just do it!

Good selling!

John

PS  I  got a great product idea just from reading the comments section and by listening to and  understanding the readers’ concerns. So I’m really glad I joined in the conversation.

If you don’t know Ian Traynor, that’s a shame because Ian is one of the online world’s ‘Marketing Gentlemen’, as is well known in webmaster and internet marketing circles. A shame also because you have missed one of the best internet marketing newsletters online, the Marketing Update newsletter, now in its final issue. I have been an update subscriber since January 2006, though I had seen Ian’s name around the web before then. Then I found him following me on Twitter, presumably because of this blog so I followed him back.

I consider Ian a personal friend even though we’ve never met in person, but that’s the internet for you:-). Though I hope to change that now that he, and shortly I, have both retired and have more time. We both have a lot in common Ian and I. We’re both 65 this year and we live in  adjoining English counties, he in Yorkshire and I in Lincolnshire. We’ve both been webmasters for 15 years and internet marketers for 10 and we’ve both been teaching small businesses to market online. I have been teaching groups of entrepreneurs offline in seminars, workshops and conferences; Ian has done it via his newsletters, websites, ebooks and marketing tools such as his legendary Internet Marketers Cheat Kit!

Ian has helped countless people to market online, not just by teaching but also by providing some great marketing and website tools. And he has delivered, in my humble opinion, some of the best quality and best value material anywhere. He is also one of the most approachable people in our business, he deals with his emails personally rather than using robots and has always welcomed contact from his readers.

I wish you and your good lady a very happy, healthy and fullfilling retirement Ian

John

Reader Opportunity

I mentioned an opportunity for you at the beginning of this post in connection with Ian’s retirement and that is his ‘Grand Retirement Sale’. He has put a huge quantity of his best products into a single package which is so good I’ve already grabbed it, even though I already had some of them! The opportunity to grab the rest while they were still available was too good to miss and a real snip at the price. Many of the top marketers in our field have also chipped in with some of their own stuff as free bonuses, and good products they are too. The sale is on until 21st July, so go take a look at his webpage and see what you can pick up for pennies on the dollar.

Update 22 July…

Ian’s sale finished yesterday. Sorry if you missed it but I have some good news. Ian is keeping on one of his projects, the Private PLR Club – of which I have been a member from the beginning, and ‘beefing it up’ even more. I’m personally relieved at that as some of my best products come from that particular source. I’ll keep you informed of this as it develops further.

If you are not familiar with Private Label Rights (PLR), it is a form of product licensing and is a brilliant way of sourcing information and software products for both online and offline businesses. I’ll put up a post here soon to explain further how to use PLR to set up a simple business.

The interesting thing though is that, throughout all this, at any moment, someone was making money and someone was losing money! A boom can be a crazy, scary place to be and a bust can throw up some amazing bargains and opportunities, and right now is no different.

The true entrepreneur knows his/her market and is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to serve that market. They can help their customers to enjoy the boom years and help them survive the bad times. Keeping a focus on what you can do to serve your customer well at all times and in all conditions will ensure not only business survival, but growth in both good and bad times.

So, how can I use my experiences to help you?

Tell Me Your Troubles, Your Hopes, Your Fears and Your Goals

If you are trying to start a business, what is stopping you?

If you are trying to grow a business, what is holding you back?

If your business is struggling to survive, what are your problems?

If you are achieving your goals and doing well, chip in with what’s working and what’s not and help those less fortunate readers.

Throw me some challenges and see what we can come up with. Click the feedack link below to join in…

The eBay For Beginners Video Course comes from Francis Ochoco, the first ever ‘eBay Entrepreneur Of The Year’. This course will be available for download soon for around £29.99 UK or $47 USA. You’ll get the complete set of 28 videos in top quality AVI format to view on your own computer.

Watch the videos now free!

For the moment though, I’m letting my Be Your Own Boss readers have a Free preview of the full course. The preview will take the form of 28 daily lessons all the way from setting up an ebay account to shipping your product to the customer. Each day you will be sent an email with a link to that day’s training and a password to watch the video online. You’ll need the password as I can’t give this away to just anyone, this is just for you.

If doing business on ebay is something you’re interested in you can get more information and enroll here. Your first lesson will be sent to you as soon as you confirm your enrollment.

As you would expect we value and protect the privacy of all our readers you can check out our Privacy Policy here.

Once again I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this course. I’ve reviewed it and believe it delivers excellent content, but your opinion is far more important than mine.

Check it out and let me know what you think via the comments below.

This is way overdue but I’ve intended for some time to produce a series of online training courses for new businesses or even those just thinking of starting a business. With two businesses of my own to run and a growing number of consulting clients finding the time has been a little tricky. Now I’m semi-retired and cutting back on my full day business training workshops the time has come to put my courses on auto-pilot.

First up is a simple six day small business crash course via email, one lesson a day. This is intended for those just considering starting their own business or anyone struggling to get started. It answers the key questions about “how do I get started?” Things like:

• The ins and outs of starting your own small business along with some of the basic steps you will need to take to get up and running.
• Some of the different options available for financing your small business, so that you can choose the one that is right for you.
• An overview of how to create a professional business plan for your small business.
• Some of the basic information that you must know when it comes to paying taxes for your small business.
• Some of the common mistakes that small business owners make, so you can avoid making them yourself.
• The importance of having an online presence and developing an internet marketing strategy for your small business

There will be more short courses to come in future but in the meantime find out more about my Small Business Crash Course. You can enroll for the course from that page.

Oh! I forgot to mention, this one’s FREE!

If you take the course, come back here and let me know how you get on. I would really appreciate your feedback on the course. You can also let me know what else you would like to know about starting and running your own business.

Use the comments form below to give me your feedback, or just click the comments link.

The UK Financial Services Authority have had concerns for some time that financial services products are too often recommended by unscrupulous financial advisers on the basis of the amount of commission they receive rather than being the best product for the client.

The majority of professional financial advisers in UK, and elsewhere, take pains to provide clients with the best advice they can but there has been a persistent band of rogue advisers who think only of themselves.

If your business is in financial services you will probably have seen this coming. But read on as I shall be coming back to you later…

If you are not in financial services then this doesn’t affect you, does it?

Well, yes it does! Especially if you have been used to getting your financial advice for free. Or apparently for free…

Most people in UK don’t pay an adviser for recommending life insurance, investments, pensions etc. because the adviser has been remunerated by the life, investment or pension company by way of commission on the sale. Obviously the companies paying this commission have to make it back in some way and that is by some form of management charge built into the product. This means that the client is actually paying this commission indirectly.

Under the new system, the client (you) will be expected to pay the adviser a fee for the financial advice given. This should mean that the product should be better value for money as there are no commission charges to account for and your adviser has no reason not to recommend the best product for your needs.

However, if you take financial advice but take no action on that advice you will still have to pay the adviser’s fee. Unlike in the commission situation where you can just walk away leaving the adviser with nothing.

Now, back to the financial advisers out there.

The good thing about this change is that you will always be able to get paid for financial advice you give regardless of whether the client takes that advice or not. You will be free to advise the client on any course of action you feel is appropriate to their financial circumstances without any concerns about likely remuneration.

Your only problems, if you have not been charging on a fees basis up until now, is one of educating the client in the new ways of financial services and setting up the appropriate contracts and procedures to handle the new regime.

I’ve been talking to a very senior financial adviser about this as he has operated a fees based financial service for over twenty years now. He certainly understands the problems facing commission based financial advisers over the next couple of years.

In fact he has been helping many financial advisers move over to a fees based system for the last ten years or so.

His name is Terence P O’Halloran, ‘ Terry’ to his friends, and he has been a major player in the industry for well over thirty years. Terry first unveiled his Fee-Pac product for financial advisers over ten years ago and has steadfastly kept it up to date, improved, evolved and expanded it over the years into a major package suitable for any fees based profession.

Fee-Pac now includes a full video training seminar on setting up a fees based business, complete client and adviser documentation as well as all the admin files needed to set up a successful fees based practice. This is an extremely professional piece of kit.

If you are a financial adviser or thinking of getting into that business then check out Fee-Pac here. I can’t believe how little he is charging for it considering its potential value to you in the coming months.

Interesting times ahead!