Does this sound like you?
- You’ve always wanted to go it alone but you’re not sure if you’ve got what it takes and you’re terrified you won’t be able to make it work
- You’ve recently left a top position in a corporate organisation because you have a passion to start something on your own but you’re not sure where to start
- You’ve just been made redundant and are thinking about working for yourself but you’re not sure if it’s the right decision for you
- You’ve recently become self-employed but it isn’t working out as planned
Imagine if you could have a clear idea of what you will need to move successfully into self-employment and a clear plan for making that happen.
Think how empowering it would be if someone would hold your hand through the process and provide you with the support and guidance you need.
That’s what the Taking The Plunge Audio Masterclass Series is all about.
This series brings together the leading experts in areas that have been shown to make the difference between an easy and successful transition to self-employment and new business owner as opposed to one that is fraught with difficulties and less likely to achieve your aspirations. Learn from their expertise and experience to develop:
- clarity over whether self-employment is right for you
- greater confidence over your decision
- increased focus on what steps you need to take to make the transition a successful one
Whatever your area of specialism, you won’t want to miss this unique opportunity to learn and be guided by individuals who, as well as being experts in their fields, have also made a successful transition to self-employment.
Meet Your Panel of Experts
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Monday 3 October – 6pm to 7pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Ian Brodie [/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Obtain Your First Paying Customer
Ian Brodie provides straight talking marketing and sales advice for Consultants, Coaches and other professionals to help them attract and win more clients. He’s the author of “Client Breakthrough” and he wrote the chapter on “Selling for Independent Professionals” in the NY Times bestseller Mastering The World of Selling.
On this call you will discover:
- The importance of developing the right mindset for sales and marketing
- Why it’s ok for clients to say “No”
- How to develop your confidence & recognise the value you can offer clients
- The challenge of being overwhelmed with all the marketing approaches available & how to focus your efforts
- Key questions you need to answer to identify your target client
- How to research whether your proposition is commercially viable
- The marketing approaches that work best and most quickly when you’re first starting out.
BUY NOW FOR JUST £27.00
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Monday 3 October – 8pm to 9pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Michael Zipursky[/headline_arial_small_left]
Getting Started as a Self-Employed Consultant
Michael is the co-founder of Business Consulting Buzz, the leading resource focused on helping consultants become more successful. Michael’s work has appeared in the Financial Times, FOX Business, HR Executive, Business Edge Newspaper, Talent Zoo and in several other media and publications. He is the author of Profitable Relations: How to Dramatically Increase Your Profits By Giving Customers What They Really Want, the Consulting Success System: How to Become a Successful Consultant, the Consulting Fees & Pricing Guide, and the Masters of Consulting Interviews.
On this call you will discover:
- Why specialising is critical to being a successful consultant and how to determine the specialism that works for you
- Why you should avoid charging hourly fees
- How to prevent the price in a way that the client will accept
- The importance of understanding the concept of billable time when determining what to charge
- The power of educational marketing in selling consulting services
- The marketing secret of 7
- Coping with the challenges of tough times and demanding workload
Buy now for just £27.00
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Tuesday 4 October – 6pm to 7pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Andrew Thorp[/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Find Your Mojo & Turn it into a Business Proposition
Andrew Thorp is a co-founder of MojoLife, an entity that is very much about finding purpose and passion – as an individual, business or organisation. Andrew spent many years in the golf & leisure industry – as a professional referee, tournament organiser, operations & marketing manager and a journalist. A life-changing experience led him to adopt a different path, and he successfully “re-branded” himself. Andrew is a professional speaker, communication skills trainer and the Founder of Speakeasy Groups, an innovative training concept based around storytelling.
On this call you will discover:
- A 3-stage process to help you attract the clients you desire
- Why creating an “elevator ptich” isn’t always a good idea
- The power of authentic story-telling in communicating your business proposition
- Why finding your Mojo is important to developing a successful business proposition
- BUT why its not enough!
- The power of PULL marketing
- The vehicales & channels you can use to tell your story and draw people to you
Buy now for just £27.00
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Tuesday 4 October – 8pm to 9pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Gladeana McMahon[/headline_arial_small_left]
Getting Started as an Independent Coach
Gladeana McMahon combines academic rigour with down-to-earth communication skills and provides coaching and therapy to politicians, celebrities, senior business people and those in the media. A clear, informed and direct approach mixed with humour and compassion being her trademarks. She is considered one of the UK’s “Top Ten Coaches” by the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Observer. As one of the leading personal development and transformational coaches in the UK, Gladeana was instrumental in founding the Association for Coaching for which she now holds the positions of Life Fellow and Chair. She was voted Coaching Person of the Year 2010 and is also a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Gladeana is widely published with some 20 popular and academic books on Coaching andCounselling. Her most recent professional books include, ‘Positive Psychology for Dummies’, ‘Performance Coaching for Dummies’, ‘Essential Business Coaching’ and ‘Achieving Excellence in your Coaching Practice’.
On this call you will discover:
- The biggest challenges coaches face when setting up a business and how to address them
- How to attract clients amidst the “noise” of the coaching market
- The value of accreditation as a marketing tool for coaches
- The tyranny of charging by the hour and how to overcome it
- How to use “chemistry” sessions as a sales opportunity
Buy now for just £27.00
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Wednesday 5 October – 6pm to 7pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Heather Townsend[/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Start Building Your Business Network
Heather Townsend helps professionals achieve business and career success using networking and social media. She is the author of the ‘best selling’ book on networking – ‘The FT Guide To Business Networking’. As well as being the leading thinker on joined up networking – how to use both online and offline networking for business and career success, she is one of the UK’s experts at helping you build up your personal brand so that work comes to you rather than the other way around.
On this call, you will discover:
- Why you need to network if you’re going to make a success of self-employment
- How the right networking strategy can help you meet George Clooney (or Angelina Jolie!)
- The steps you should take immediately to start building your network
- How you can network without ever going to a networking event
- The 5 levels of a business relationship and why they’re important
- The power of offline and online networking for strangthening relationships
- The FITTER model of effective networking
- The 4 different types of networking event and the role each of them might play in your networking strategy
Buy now for just £27.00
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Wednesday 5 October – 8pm to 9pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Sharon Gaskin [headline_arial_small_left]
Getting Started as a Freelance Trainer
Sharon Gaskin is the founder of The Trainers Training Company. She works with freelance trainers to help them create and grow successful and profitable training businesses. Sharon has been in training & development for 20 years. She worked within large corporates as a Training Officer and Training Manager. 10 years ago she became a freelance trainer. She started from scratch, having just moved into a new area, didn’t know anyone and didn’t know anything about marketing and selling. Yet she managed to create a successful training business with many corportae clients such as Zurich, Europ Assistance and Lloyds Register Quality Assurance. One of the biggest frustrations for Sharon when she started out as a freelance trainer was the lack of information and support to help her start up and grown her business. So, in 2008 she set up The Trainers Training Company which is a one stop shop for freelance trainers to help them create and grow their businesses.
On this call you will discover:
- The mistakes many freelance trainers make when they first start a business and how to avoid them
- The advantages and disadvantages of associate work
- Why its critical to have a specific target client and be able to talk their language
- The importance of networking and how not to do it
- The power of having a focus, a plan and putting that plan into action
Buy now for just £27.00
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Thursday 6 October – 6pm to 7pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Meg Edwards[/headline_arial_small_left]
Getting Everything Done When You’re Self-Employed
Meg Edwards is a senior coach with the David Allen Company, custodians and champions of GTD® the shorthand brand for “Getting Things Done®“. GTD® is the groundbreaking work-life management system by David Allen that provides concrete solutions for transforming overwhelm and uncertainty into an integrated system of stress free productivity. Meg has provided on-site and virtual coaching to senior level executives for companies such as Herman Miller, American Express Open, and Australia’s Qantas Airways. She has coached virtually in thirteen countries including Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Norway. She has coached individuals in a wide range of industries including information technology, aerospace, and manufacturing. Meg’s enlightening style assists others to achieve focused productivity and peace of mind through the implementation of the GTD methodology.
On this call you will discover:
- The key challenges involved in managing your workload when you’re self-employed
- How the “Getting Things Done®” approach can help everyone whether they are naturally organised or naturally disorganised
- 5 key stages to help you take control of your life
- How to plan and progress projects quickly and effectively
- Tips to manage your calendar so that you make time for all the important things in your work life and home life
Buy now for just £27.00
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Thursday 6 October – 8pm to 9pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Helen Stothard[/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Keep on Top of the “Admin” Required to Run a Business
Helen Stothard has over 20 years experience of helping business efficiently organise and complete their administration. In 2009, Helen set up HLS Business Solutions to offer a virtual executive assistance service to trainers, coaches and consultants. Helen is known for her pragmatic and Yorkshire spirit and is regularly in demand for ideas and inspiration on how to improve administration processes and systems.
On this call you will discover:
- What a Virtual Assistant (VA) is and how it can help you?
- How investing in a VA can save you money
- The vast range of ways that a VA can add value to your business
- How a VA allows you to have additional resource on a “pay-as-you-go” basis
- How a VA can be the best friend you never met
- The things you need to do to get the best out of a Virtual Assistant
Buy now for just £27.00
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Friday 7 October – 6pm to 7pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Mike Harris[/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Develop Your Business Proposition for Self-Employment
Mike Harris is the author of Find Your Lightbulb: How to Make Millions from Apparently Impossible Ideas. He is also co-founder and Executive Chairman of the UK’s leading online identity company Garlik, which develops software and services to help control and protect people’s personal information and identity online. Mike has created three iconic consumer businesses: Egg plc, the UK’s first online bank; Firstdirect, the world’s first telephone banking operation; and Mercury Communications, the UK’s second largest telecommunications operator. He turned each of these into £1 billion plus concerns – Egg reached this figure in three years. Mike was chairman of innovation at the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2005 to 2009 and was a regular speaker at mid-career MBA courses at the Sloan business School MIT from 1996 to 2008. When he’s not occupied with Garlik, Mike works with entrepreneurs and innovators in all sizes of business, helping them achieve breakthrough results.
On this call you will discover:
- The mindset successful business people adopt to make ideas happen
- How to generate ideas that can form the basis of a business proposition
- How to deal constructively with the inevitable criticisms
- Options for getting your business funded
- The one fundamental principle which characterises all successful leaders
- How to get started in the most powerful way possible
Buy now for just £27.00
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Friday 7 October – 8pm to 9pm UK time
[headline_arial_small_left color="#000000"] Antoinette Oglethorpe[/headline_arial_small_left]
How to Manage the Transition from Employment to Self-Employment
Antoinette Oglethorpe is the host of the Taking the Plunge Audio Masterclass Series. She is an exemplary Career Coach & Consultant who specialises in helping business leaders and professionals take control of their careers and realise their ambitions, including developing the confidence to take the plunge to self-employment. After a successful 18 year career in multinational corporates, she took the plunge and became self-employed in 2007.
On this call you will discover:
- The things you are likely to miss about being employed and how to replace them
- How to develop your new identity
- Strategies for coping with the isolation of being self-employed
- Building your support network and establishing a new community
- Ways you can develop the confidence to be self-employed
Buy now for just £27.00
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How to Access the Calls
This series is now over. However, every call was recorded and transcribed so that you can listen to this information whenever and wherever you want to.
You can buy the whole series at the special price of just £147.00 or the individual calls at £27.00 each above.
Best wishes
Antoinette
