HELLO I AM TOM EDGE The only qualification I have for being in front of you tonight – many years ago, following my 4th redundancy, I was fed up of looking for a proper job, so I ended up self-employed.  It was more by accident than anything else.  Mind you, I’m still running today.  You’re listening to a statistical miracle. Did you know 80% of NEW businesses fail in the first 2 years, and 97% of NEW businesses will have failed in the first 10 years; and the biggest reason for failure is that they DON’T ASK FOR HELP and when they DO ASK THEY DON’T PUT THE IDEAS INTO PRACTICE.

I WISH I HAD A POUND FOR EVERY DELEGATE WHO SAID TO ME “THAT MARKETING PLAN IDEA WON’T WORK IN MY BUSINESS WE RELY ON WORD OF MOUTH” OF COURSE WHAT HE DID NOT KNOW WAS THAT WORD OF MOUTH RUNS OUT WHEN PEOPLE FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO TALK ABOUT, AND WE HAVE TO KEEP ACTIVELY REMINDING CUSTOMERS WE STILL EXIST.

THIS IS WHY WE GET 250,000 ADVERTS HIT US EVERY YEAR. AND WE HAVE TO STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD SO WE CANNOT RELY ON WORD OF MOUTH ALONE WE HAVE TO BE PRO ACTIVE TO GET MORE PROFITABLE BUSINESS AND THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO TO BEAT THE RECESSION

 “HOW TO BEAT THE RECESSION” (GET IT FROM AMAZON AUDIBLE or Kindle on your device anywhere on the planet instantaneously)   

OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS, I HAVE HELPED THOUSANDS OF BUSINESSES SET UP SURVIVE AND GROW. Businesses from all sorts of industries and places AND I TELL YOU NOW THAT THINGS HAVE CHANGED SO MUCH IN THE PAST 5 YEARS THAT: –

             IF YOU DON’T HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR FUTURE – YOU DONT HAVE A FUTURE

OUR BRAINS OPERATE LIKE A SATNAV IN A CAR THE SATNAV NEEDS TO BE PROGRAMMED WHERE YOU ARE GOING BEFORE IT CAN GET YOU THERE.  WE HUMANS NEED A DESTINATION, GOAL DREAM OR TARGET BEFORE WE CAN GET THERE. REMEMBER THE OLD FILM “SOUTH PACIFIC?” MY FAVORITE SONG FROM THAT FILM IS:

“IF YOU DON’T HAVE A DREAM IF YOU DON’T HAVE A DREAM HOW YOU GO AND HAVE A DREAM COME TRUE?”

SO THE QUESTION I AM GOING TO ASK YOU NOW IS:

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE DOING IN FIVE YEARS TIME? WHAT IS YOUR BIG DREAM? WRITE IT DOWN…PIN IT ON YOUR OFFICE WALL AND HAVE IT STUCK IT ON THE SUN SHADE IN YOUR CAR

WHILE TRAVELLING IN CHINA I MET A YOUNG GIRL AT A CAR WASH. SHE WANTED TO PRACTICE HER ENGLISH SO WE HAD A CHAT. I ASKED HER “HOW MUCH DO YOU EARN?”   500 A MONTH SHE REPLIED. “WHAT DO YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY ON?” I PAY MYSELF FIRST LIKE THEY TAUGHT ME AT SCHOOL SO I SAVE THE FIRST  100” THEN  100 GOES BACK TO MY VILLAGE THEN THERE IS RENT AND FOOD AND I SPEND ANY LEFT OVER “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR SAVINGS” I ASKED.   I AM HAVING MY OWN CAR WASH WAS HER REPLY.

EVERY CHIILD IN CHINA LEARNS THE FOLLOWING FORMULA AT SCHOOL AND I WANT YOU TO WRITE THIS DOWN AND HAVE IT ON THE WALL ANYWHERE YOU CAN SEE IT DAILY – READY?

       HAVE A BIG DREAM, PLAN THE ACTION, ACTION THE PLAN, ACHIEVE THE DREAM

THEY DID NOT TEACH ME THAT IN MY SCHOOL IN THE UK – MIND YOU BECAUSE I AM DYSLEXIC I NEVER LEARNED MUCH AT SCHOOL. My GEOGRAPHY TEACHER SAID “TOMMY DOES WELL TO FIND HIS WAY HOME” SINCE RETIRING I HAVE THREE CRUSES A YEAR AND TWO LAND BASED HOLIDAYS. MY FRIENDS HAVE NICK NAMED ME TOM CRUISE

MY DAD USED TO TELL ME THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS TO SUCCESS   IT TAKES EFFORT BUT YOU CAN BE SMART ABOUT IT BY NOT WASTING TIME ON THINGS THAT DON’T WORK AND THE BEST WAY TO DO THAT IS BY DOING WHAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE DONE ALREADY AND COPY THEM. DAD WAS RIGHT! THEY HAVE MADE ALL OF THE MISTAKES FOR YOU SO YOU CAN AVOID REPEATING THEM

WHEN I STARTED IN BUSINESS I KNEW VERY LITTLE ABOUT BUSINESS BUT I HAD FRIENDS WHO DID AND I ALSO DID RESERCH ON THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IN MY INDUSTRY! ONE BY ONE I ASKED PEOPLE FOR HELP. A TOP SALESMAN CALLED RUSS TAUGHT ME HOW TO SELL. I could not get any OF MY advertising to work until I REMEMBERED GEOFF HEAD OF NEWS CASTING FOR LOCAL BBC    I SENT GEOF PRESS RELEASE and he did a critique on it and he sent it BACK. I copied GEOFF’ S VERSION and used it to get 3 spots on NATIONAL TV AND A DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD IN THE LOCAL BIRMINGHAM NEWSPAPER BY OFFERING TO TEACH SELF EMPLOYMENT TO REDUNDANT WORKERS FROM BRITISH LEYLAND A BIG CAR FACTORY NEAR HOME

         YOU HAVE TO MAKE THESE IDEAS WORK  BY FITTING THE IDEAS INTO YOUR BUSINESS

THAT’S IF YOU WANT TO BE FIRST IN YOUR CUSTOMERS MIND, IF YOU WANT TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS, DO MORE BUSINESS WITH YOUR OLD CUSTOMERS AND MAKE MORE MONEY THIS YEAR

HERE ARE A LIST OF THE  7 THINGS I DID: 

• I HAD ADAPTED THE IDEAS TO INTO MY TRAINING BUSINESS
• I HAD ASKED FOR HELP FROM PEOPLE WHO KNEW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE WALKED THE WALK AND NOT JUST TALKED THE TALK
• I HAD LOOKED TO SEE WHERE GROWTH WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT
• I HAD ADAPTED MY MARKETING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
• I MADE SURE I HAD MY SHARE BY SENDING COPIES TO THE DECISION MAKERS
• AND FOLLOWING UP WITH A PHONE CALL
• ASKED FOR THE ORDER – GAVE AN ALTERNATIVE CHOICE ABOUT THE DELIVERY

YOU MIGHT SAY I WAS LUCKY BUT ALL I HAD DONE WAS FOLLOW THE FORMULA TO COPY SUCCESS. MOST SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE COPIED SOMEONE WHO HAD DONE IT SUCCESSFULLY BEFORE

AND MANY OF THESE DON’T MIND GIVING A HELPING HAND TO THOSE WHO ASK FOR HELP.

IN BUSINESS WE CALL THESE MENTORS AND I HAVE MENTORS FOR MOST PARTS OF MY BUSINESS

AND EVEN A YOUNG GIRL IN A CAR WASH IN CHINA, TAUGHT ME SOME VALUABLE LESSONS.

 Life Long Learning   

 Women are 3 times more successful in starting and running businesses than men, and I’ll go through tonight SOME of the things I’ve discovered about the ladies why they’re more successful, because my industry is about finding out the best practices and disseminating them as far as I can.

 Ladies, for instance, when they get lost on their journey they don’t mind winding the window down and asking for directions, yet men, if they’re going to Cornwall will see you in the Outer Hebrides before asking for directions.

 So you can actually pat yourself on the back tonight for LISTENING  here because by coming here you’ve actually admitted that you don’t know everything.  And that’s good, because I’ve been running these sort of seminars and running this sort of training now for over 30 years and I still am learning on a daily basis, mainly from my audiences, of current practises and what’s happening.

I’m going share you about 20 or 30 ideas and if you decide to pick one, two or three of them and run with them, you are going to literally change your business life for the better.   I know you will, because everybody who picks and runs with the positive changes their business life improves.