Time2Market Business Development Coaching & Consulting

2008 Working Groups and Calls

Thanks to those of you who have inquired and attended monthly Coaching SIG meetings that I chair for the American Society for Training and Development in NYC.  These are members only meetings, but visitors can attend prior to joining ASTDNY.  Every month we have a two-hour meeting, for networking and to further your knowledge and practice build, with a member or guest presentation on a spotlight topic.  Thanks to Reuters for hosting us!  You can check www.astdny.org to register for current events, if you would like to join us.

This month one of our members will present:

Spring Training - Creating a winning sales team using proven coaching methods

Past meetings covered:

• Communications strategies to build coaching awareness
• Introduction to popular assessment tools: Personality, Interests, Communication Styles, Work Relationships
• Coaching in the moment: Using improvisational comedy exercises to help you be in the moment with your clients
• Transforming corporate culture for business results
• ICF annual conference debrief and Sales Coaching - The first 5-minutes of a sales call
• Coaching for leadership development
• Strategies to be a more effective coach
• Distinctions: Coaching vs. other sometimes closely related professional practices (e.g., consulting, mentoring)
• How it's done in Australia: A successful new approach to coaching

Creative development program - well received

This quarter we launched one creative development workshop program with a New York-based associate.  Thank you to the ASTDNY and Deutsche Bank for hosting us. And, many thanks to leaders and members for the great feedback we received. 

• Wow!
• One of the best ASTD meetings I've ever been to…
• Simply beautiful … from both a design and execution standpoint
• Insightful, Brilliant and inspirational

Contact (212)372-3256 or e-mail me here, if you would like to learn more and explore how we can help you with unique business and leadership development programs.

Linkedin - Can it help you build a network to support your business and professional development efforts?

I think the answer to this is, Yes!  But, as with all networking, you'll likely see better results if you make it a two-way street.  And, this site makes it easy to do that.

As you focus on your professional and business development, you may consider Linkedin one good resource to explore, with tools and functionality, for relationship building. Here are 5 main reasons why I think Linkedin can help your development efforts:

1. It’s easy to find and invite others to join your network - get back in touch, and reach out to new contacts.  And, if you are concerned about the privacy of your network, you can keep contacts hidden.
2. Referral functions help you explore new career and business connections faster.
3. Question/answer features can facilitate your knowledge and network build faster.
4. Changes in your network can be viewed daily, so you can stay up-to-date easily (if that feature is enabled by those in your network)
5. You can move your information out to others quickly, with forwarding, pdf, and messaging capabilities. Or, others can find you as a professional match with key word searches, and communicate quickly as well ....

Marketing Innovation for Today's Publishing World

January has been an exciting month, with Gabriella Goddard, a UK-based Executive Coach who is part of the Time2Market team of experts, launching Gulp! in the US and visiting New York. I'm receiving my signed copy this week! I've known Gabriella for about ten years now and loved the UK version, which was fun and inspiring. I also learned some very funny expressions that stick with me today. One of those was "nut it on the head", which I'll write about later. But for now, if you need to nut your book marketing on the head (if I can actually use the expression that way), here are a few tools to help make your mark:

• Blogs
• Book trailer videos
• Podcasts
• Interactive facebook

Gulp! is a great example of marketing innovation in the publishing world, with these on-line tools in action. Check out www.gulptoday.com, and give up living passively. Your marketing campaign can take on a whole new look, integrating these digital tools.

Brand You - One way to drive business and professional development results!

Well, it is here!  The Power Up Brand You Program from Gabriella Goddard, an Executive Coach based in the UK, and part of the Time2Market team of experts.  It’s one way to drive your personal, professional and business development results – fast. 

Looking to:

• Build your business and drive more sales or new business referrals? 
• Get a promotion and move forward in your career? 
• Get that pay raise after working so hard? 

Then, Power Up Brand You to build your visible impact and drive business, professional and personal development results you want.

You can be the smartest and most productive person in your profession or company and still be overlooked for key business sales opportunities, projects, promotions and pay raises. To get where you want to go faster, you need TALENT + VISIBLE IMPACT.  Powering up Brand YOU, is one way to increase your visible impact.

Creating and developing your personal brand is not that much different from the branding process to effectively market and sell products and services.  And, as you know, the products and services that are marketed most effectively, make the most money.  But, you need to be visible and establish unique positioning to drive sales, bring new opportunities, and set yourself apart from the competition.  So, if you want to work on leadership positioning and rise to the top, you have to make your talents highly visible to your colleagues, managers, customers and those in your business network.

The way to make yourself more visible is to power up your personal BRAND.

Building your personal brand is fundamental to success in the workplace today. This is true whether you work for a company or work for yourself as an entrepreneur. And that’s what this program is all about. Get started today! You can listen to Gabriella's insights, learn more from her BBC interview, and start the Power Up Brand You program here to move forward fast.

Looking for networking books?

Effective networking continues to come up as a question area among business managers and entrepreneurs that I meet.  Here are a few networking book recommendations. These are used by top companies' sales teams, as well as entrepreneurial CEO's...

5 Key Areas of Focus for Building Business

While you plan and grow your business via build, buy and/or partnering strategies, it is useful to review these five areas and to monitor them frequently. You will more readily identify business weaknesses in areas such as finance, marketing and sales, and operations and be able to strengthen your business development and growth along the way. Study what did and did not work for your business and others, then develop steps you can take that will see you through to your goals. 

We talk about 5 Key Areas of Focus for Building Business here and all 6 in our monthly newsletter. So, sign up!

2007 TMT Wireless Update following 3GSM

TMT Investors, Entrepreneurs and Business Management – Where will you play?

Tremendous transformation is how I would describe the wireless services market in the past 15+ years.  My work in the early to mid-90’s, for AirTouch Communications (now part of Vodafone and Verizon Wireless), included compiling the first comprehensive world market studies for the emerging company to pursue its international expansion vision.  In less then a decade, that company became a dominant world player, offering leading wireless products and services worldwide, as it successfully navigated significant change in the technology, regulatory, consumer, and competitive landscapes.

Every year we watch this and witness the ongoing evolution of the industry.  For Time2Market Telecom, Media and Technology clientele, The TMT Experts' Report is in from 3GSM in Barcelona with the 2006-2007 update, so you can understand the state of the worldwide wireless telecommunications and technology market. This update provides meaningful competitive intelligence for your product and service development, as well as market positioning. E-mail or call us to arrange a time to speak.  In the meantime, highlights from the TMT Experts' Report:
- Mobile subscribers reached 2.7 billion worldwide, year-end 2006
- 480 million new subscribers are expected in 2007, 80% of growth will be from developing markets
- 3G/WCDMA networks, 130 commercial networks operational, in 60+ countries, approx. 100 million subs
- HSDPA, 93 networks commercially launched in 51 countries
- WiMax interactive video emerging
- Mobile VoIP and SIP-based video calling making headway
- Less hype on IMS, more focus on services with or without IMS
- Ongoing debates in the walled garden pave the way for new service delivery platforms
- Mobile content, more location-based services and smartphone apps emerging, and consolidation in select mobile media spaces
- Mobile handset sales expected to exceed 1 billion in 2007 for the first time
- Interoperable IM services making progress
- Voice SMS is growing in developing markets
- Mobile TV less hype and more reality, 2006 pilots phasing into 2007 commercial deployments, DRM remains a major issue for mobile content growth.

Time2Market’s TMT industry expert discussions are by appointment only. E-mail or call us at (212)372-3256 to schedule your time for views on: the digital divide, mobile broadband evolution short and long-term, device market outlook, and next generation networks and services, or emerging companies.

Click here to view testimonials

Start Up Business Planning

This past week, two separate entrepreneurs asked how much time and expense should be designated for business plan development?

There are no hard and fast rules regarding this. Business planning time can range from a few weeks to many months, depending on the complexity of the business, type of business plan being developed, timing requirements for the documentation, etc. Similarly, planning costs can range from very little to tens of thousands of dollars, again depending on the above, as well as the resources available to help you...

This past week, two separate entrepreneurs asked how much time and expense should be designated for business plan development?

There are no hard and fast rules regarding this. Business planning time can range from a few weeks to many months, depending on the complexity of the business, type of business plan being developed, timing requirements for the documentation, etc. Similarly, planning costs can range from very little to tens of thousands of dollars, again depending on the above, as well as the resources available to help you...

This past week, two separate entrepreneurs asked how much time and expense should be designated for business plan development?

There are no hard and fast rules regarding this. Business planning time can range from a few weeks to many months, depending on the complexity of the business, type of business plan being developed, timing requirements for the documentation, etc. Similarly, planning costs can range from very little to tens of thousands of dollars, again depending on the above, as well as the resources available to help you...

Ask Business Coaching and Consulting Experts

Imagine having your very own 'dream team' of highly skilled experts who you could call on to answer your business growth and leadership development questions.

Well, imagine no more!  Connect with Time2Market's business expert network to help. What's your business challenge?  Let us know. Pose your questions by clicking here to complete the Comments form with your inquiry, or e-mail us.

NB: All questions are moderated and, if accepted, will appear publicly on the blog with the answers.  Leaving your email address and URL will allow us to respond to you directly, however, that is optional.