4 Tips to make your message and presentations more Meaningful, Clear & Concise

On a small scale business presentations are a sharing of information to a variety of audiences – on a large scale they inform people of internal and industry happenings or motivate people to increased performance, therefore your message needs to be sharp,  accurate and relevant to your audience.

Whether your next presentation is a report, proposal, sales and training or to the board, answering these questions will increase your success rate…

1.      What do you want to achieve from your presentation? Do you want people to make changes, start a process, make a sale, communicate a vision, win the job, increase team spirit, accept your recommendations etc? The more you clarify your goal/objective the more accurately you can tailor your presentation.

2.      Who are you talking to? What level of knowledge or experience do they have of your topic? Are they the board, managers, staff, the public? It’s crucial to know your audience and develop a message they will relate to and understand especially new concepts.

3.      How long will you be speaking? You will always have more information than presentation time so only deliver information that supports your message and fits into the allocated time. Build your talk around key points and support your assertions with statistic & facts, anecdotes and personal experience etc.

4.      Respect your audience and take time to develop a presentation that’s relevant, easy to follow and understand. They are investing time, effort and often dollars and deserve your best.

Delivering a quality talk combines many skills and elements and it’s your reputation at stake – everyone will benefit when you apply the 4 steps with attention to detail. Remember it needs to be Meaningful, Clear & Concise.

For more information on how you can make a real impact with your presentations please contact KONA’s Public Speaking Training expert Stephen Robertson on 1300 611 288 or info@KONA.com.au

An athlete has a long-term plan for success that combines many elements and ensures they stay strong and flexible to cope with the demanding workload. Their success is forged on passion, self care, a positive focus and commitment. The result is exceptional performance. Contrast this with the business world that are overloaded with information, deadlines, minimal activity, boredom and for many ‘it’s a job mentality’. The result is stress and decreased performance and profit. Join us at this unique session and take away performance techniques from the sporting world…

1. Learn the steps to exceptional performance.
2. Put the HEALTH into Health & Safety with a healthy workforce implementation plan.
3. Incorporate the Brain Learning Styles into your organisation to open creativity and strengthen morale.
4. Learn three powerful questions to improve any situation.

In April 2013 Stephen combined his lifetime of sport & fitness to complete an extreme event; he went up forward and down backwards 2400 steps tossing a 6kg dumbbell overhead.

He holds a Certificate IV in Fitness, has competed in many sports and created Dynamic Dumbbells – a unique strength & conditioning program. His clients range from 12 – 77 and include a 2 time World and Australian Surf Boat Rowing Champion. Training is his forte and he says ‘he can train a klutz to cartwheel’.

Tighten the control of your results and perform like a business athlete with a workshop or presentation tailored to your organisation or business group.

For more information please contact Stephen Robertson at the KONA Group on 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au

May 2013

In my previous blog article, I wrote about your software options; custom software, customisable software, configurable software or off the shelf software.

Now you need to decide where to deploy the software and the data files supporting the software.

Depending on; your risk profile, confidentiality of data and the accessibility of the system; you have at least three options:

• In-house deployment- where all required hardware, software and systems are on your site
• Private cloud- all systems are off site in a remote facility , managed by a third party but you have a dedicated environment and you know where the facility is
• Public cloud- you are fully dependent on the internet and have no control over the environment; it’s shared by all users, and often you don’t even know where it is located

In-house deployment

Currently this is the most common approach, where you install the hardware on your premises and install the software and systems in-house.

You are then responsible for:

• Hardware upgrades
• Operating system
• Computer environment
• Back-ups
• Security
• Network administration
• Communication- remote access, internet
• Power supply- managing power fluctuations, blackouts

Whilst this may be the most costly option, it may also be the preferred one for many for the peace of mind it gives them by having control over the environment.

Private cloud

In a private cloud environment, you are almost replicating the in-house option but it is located at a third party facility. You would have delegated the management responsibility to the facility provider.

This option is ideal for clients who want control but don’t want the operational responsibility.

The facilities manager will often manage your in-house terminals and communication requirements to access the central facility.

You will have to manage the relationship with your specific business software provider for the applications provided for you at the third party facility.

Typically you will manage the in-house printers but the facilities manager will take care of:

• Centralised hardware upgrades
• Operating system upgrades
• Back-ups
• Security
• Communication

You will typically pay a monthly fee to the facilities manager who would have factored in your portion of the equipment dedicated to you, the operating system and the general software but not your specific business application software. You will pay for your business application software.

Public cloud

In a public cloud deployment you are fully dependant on the internet to access the systems you need to use for your business. Given that the facility is shared by many, your monthly fee will most likely be much less than the private cloud option and considerably less than the in-house option.

Many public cloud based application providers now offer the option to have your data stored locally whilst you access the software via the internet. These are described as hybrid systems.

The advantage of public cloud deployment is scalability. You pay for what you use and you don’t need to worry about hardware and capacity planning. It’s just there for you to use.

This option is ideal for users who are “relaxed” about the location of systems or believe that the provider has implemented adequate security system to protect their data and systems.

Typical examples of public cloud applications include; eBay, Amazon, Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and more. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that your internet banking, share-trading and BPAY facilities are all cloud applications too…

Till next time, happy computing!

For more information of how the KONA Groups technology specialist can assist your business contact Karnig on 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au

That date is just after the Federal Budget and Grange Directors Diane Terzian and Duncan Barber will present for 20 minutes on 5 critical areas that all businesses MUST address to a) protect their assets from the tax man and creditors b) succession planning for the future and c) consider what will happen to your business if you are no longer around.

KONA Group Managing Director Glenn Dobson will then present on How to Match Your Prospecting and Lead Generation to Your Clients Buying Journey.

Following the two 20 minute presentations you will have the chance to network and meet new business contacts.

The event will start at 6pm sharp until 8, and light refreshments will be provided.

Please contact KONA Group on 1300 611 288 or by email at info@kona.com.au if you would like to attend as numbers are limited to 60 attendees.

Bookings close: Monday 13 May Don’t delay as places are limited

1 Day Horse Whispering Leadership Training with Louise Kropach and Horse Sense for People

Louise Kropach is a Horse Whisperer’, Natural Horsemanship Trainer Equine Behaviour Specialist & Personal Development Coach

Develop natural leadership within your organisation or business using the principals of ‘Horse Whispering’

An exciting one day outdoor training workshop where you will delve into how to lead yourself and others more effectively in life and the workplace while being guided by a horse.

By understanding and engaging the principles of ‘Horse Whispering’ you can build trust, improve professional and client relationships and create successful outcomes in your business, workplace, team or classroom.

Using these principals the one day training will connect the practice with the horses into tangible outcomes for you:

• Increase your self confidence
• Improve the depth of engagement in life and work and how you ‘show up’
• Understand how to increase productivity and results through a better connection to others
• Discover new ideas and ways you can handle situations
• Alignment of goals through effective communication
• Inspire and motivate others using intuition and assertiveness.
• Understand the power of nonverbal communication.
• Focus through clarity of thought and intention to achieve what is important to you and your business.
• Be proactive in dealing with challenges and explore principles of authentic leadership

Come and join the horses and enjoy how the presence of a horse can help you on the fast track to success in business and in life.

This is a FUN non-classroom event that gives you direct experience with learning!

DATE: SUNDAY THE 26TH OF MAY

TIMES: 9.30am until approximately 4.30pm

COST: $210.00 Includes lunch and refreshments

VENUE: Cloverfern Equestrian Centre 256 Gyro Close Riddells Creek, Victoria

To book please call Louise Kropach Ph: 1300 611 266 Email: info@kona.com.au

Developing Human Potential through the Way of the Horse

The Art of Horse Human Communication

30 April 2013

When it comes to business software selection, what are your options?

Whether you are a start-up or you have outgrown your current systems, a time will come in your business cycle where you need to choose appropriate software to run your business.

Your options will be influenced by the nature of your business and the flexibility of your business processes. Here are some examples:

Custom developed software

You have a clear vision as to what you expect from your software, you have defined your requirements, you have had a good look at what is available and nothing quite fits; you can consider custom developed software.

This is usually the most expensive option in terms of cost and time to develop and deliver. However it is the best option in terms of developing a system that does what you want and fully reflects your business processes.

This option requires commitment and dedication to the process of having the system developed. Major milestones in this process include:

• Requirements gathering
• Developing functional specifications
• Creating use case scenarios
• Defining user experience interfaces
• Developing test data
• Carrying out extensive system testing
• Developing user/operations guides
• Developing training material
• Deploying the system

It is unlikely that you will be able to cope with all of this by yourself or with your internal resources that are focused on the day to day operations of your business. You will need external expert assistance in many of the stages of this process but at all times you will be involved to ensure the development is on track and continues to meet your requirements.

Customisable software

This option is used when you are fortunate enough to find software that is commercially available and where the developer is able and willing to develop a customised version to address specific requirements that are unique to your business.

Cost of customisation aside, issues to be considered with this option include:

• How will future developments of the base product be integrated into your version?
• Who owns your version of the software?
• Who will maintain the system?
• What is the life expectancy of this customisation?
• Is the system scalable to continue meeting your needs into the foreseeable future?

Similar to custom developed software, you may still require an external project manager to manage and progress the customisation and act as the go between your business and the software supplier.

Configurable software

This is a commonly used option with most software systems that are developed in a way that with the use of system options, terminology modification and user definable lists, the software can be configured to reflect your requirements without impacting the underlying system.

This is the preferred option both in terms of cost and time to go live.

This option, however, may require you to modify your processes to fit in with those dictated by the system.

You may still require specialists who have a good understanding of the system who can assist with the configuration of the system to meet your needs

Off the shelf software

These are systems that you have no control over; including most open source applications. “What you see is what you get”. This is typical of most commonly used systems such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software etc. However these systems are typically so feature rich that the average user would often use a small % of the packaged feature.

As you would expect, this is the least costly option and the quickest to implement.

Having decided on the software for your business, the next question is how best to deploy it; cloud or in-house? This is the topic for the next post…

To discuss how Karnig can help your business please call 1300 611 288 or email him at info@kona.com.au

 This is hardly surprising when you consider both days are either side of the weekend. So why do businesses still send out some of their most important emails on these days?

 A key problem many businesses have is that they look at their email communication as instant news rather than what it should be – part of the marketing communications mix. As a result they often fail to dedicate the same time and effort in developing their eMarketing and email messages.

By dedicating a bit more time to developing the message, you are able to deliver a message that engages the readers.

However your emails will lose effectiveness if the email is sent without considering when the message when the message will be received, including days of the week, time of the day and the time of year that your email is sent.

 The goal of any marketing plan is to work towards maximising Return on Investment as well as promoting sales opportunities at key points of your business calendar. Would you send out a Christmas flyer at Easter? Your eMarketing strategy must be combined with the rest of your marketing activity as well as a logical place in the calendar based on your promotion.

Although we may plan to send an email on Tuesday morning, as the week quickly takes over, before you know it, its 16:00 on Friday and the email “has to be sent this week” regardless of how the timing may impact results.

Don’t sacrifice your results for speed. Industry statistics show that there are decidedly better days to send emails if you want them to be opened and acted upon.

The two busiest days of the week for sending emails is Mondays and Fridays – yet for all the emails that were sent, both days achieved an open rate of less than 20%.

Contrary to popular belief, Monday is one of the worst days of the week for emails to be read as people are flat out working on their own issues and plans for the week. They are also clearing up all emails that have come in over he weekend and are more likely to delete those that don’t immediately interest them (or leave them until later then forget about them!)

Friday is also a poor day as most people are thinking about clearing their desk before the weekend

Compare that to emails that were sent throughout the week – Tuesdays saw a peak of 24.62% of emails opened. If you’re still not convinced this small percentage difference matters, consider an email send of 10,000 messages. The difference between 19.82% opened on Monday and 24.04% opened on Tuesday is almost 500 more people reading your email. What Are the Best Times to Send Email?

For similar reasons as the best time of the week, the best times of the day to send an email and hope it gets read and actioned are 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.

In fact the open rate increases as the day progresses with a low of 21.4% at 8 AM to a high of 34.1% at 5 PM (though the chance of being actioned reduces as the day progresses as they will get added to the overnight emails and/or being seen on a smartphone, and are not that easily readable

Taking these figures into account, planning your emails to be sent on the more profitable days of the week is the obvious solution. Knowing recipients are more receptive to emails received from Tuesday to Thursday, perhaps it’s time for you to start getting more out of your email campaigns and call to action.

To discuss how KONA’s Hearts and Minds™ Sales Training and Coaching will help your team to smash their targets please contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or Glenn@KONA.com.au

By understanding and engaging the principles of ‘Horse Whispering’ you can build trust, improve relationships and create successful outcomes in your business, workplace and team.

Using the key principals of Horse Whispering Louise will demonstrate how you can;

• Inspire and motivate others using intuition and assertiveness.
• Understand the power of nonverbal communication.
• Focus through clarity of thought and intention to achieve what is important to you and your business.
• Be proactive in dealing with challenges and explore principles of authentic leadership

ATTEND AN INTRODUCTION AND DEMONSTRATION SESSION IN VICTORIA ON THE 27TH OF APRIL

For more information please visit: http://www.kona.com.au/training/specialist-training/horse-sense

Or to book please telephone: 1300 611 288 or Email: info@kona.com.au

WHEN: Saturday 27th April 6.30 – 8 pm

WHERE: Cloverfern Equestrian Centre 256 Gyro Close

Riddells Creek, Victoria

COST: $35 / $25 Concession

Recommended for business leaders, managers, directors, teachers, coaches, entrepreneurs and those working with teenagers and youth.

Many have fallen into a mental and emotional hole and feel lethargic, despondent, slow, frustrated, angry and sometimes extremely down and depressed

For all of us, when this lack of motivation kicks in this is an extremely dangerous time as the downward slide can increase quite dramatically and damage our business, performance and/or health.

No matter if we are business people, sales people, sportsmen and women, overweight or a multitude of other roles, if we are not doing the Activity that Generates Momentum(A.G.M.) we emotionally and physically stop doing the key activities that create a result. Then not long after the results also start to flat line or even come to a halt

In sales, A.G.M. is the # 1 principle of successful sales people as they typically spend more time out of the office meeting customers and prospects, than their office bound colleagues

In health and weight lose, people who are slimmer typically take more exercise and eat less rubbish than theirunhealthier counterparts

In relationships, the more we ‘settle down’ and do the same things over and over again, the more chance the relationship has of becoming stagnant

I have a friend whose business is going through a tough time at the moment and he has gone to the doctors who filled him full of antidepressants

When we reviewed how he was spending his weeks, 3 things stood out:

1.He has stopped arranging meetings with clients/prospects and network contacts

2.He has stopped exercising

3.He has started to believe his own excuses (which is making it easier for him to accept points 1 and 2)

Negative Activity Generated Momentum = Negative Energy = Negative Results

So if you are below budget, or feeling depressed, or your belt is starting to get tight around your waist, stop making excuses to yourself and others, get off your backside and start to drive the KEY ACTIVITIES that will CREATE A RESULT:

Business Owners and Managers: Stop wasting time on reports that are based on the past and start to drive activity that generates more sales and customers

Sales People: Get out of the office and from behind your computer and go and speak to more existing and new customers

If you are depressed and down: What are some of the small changes to your levels of activity you can put into place every day to start to turn things around and get you and/or your business moving in the right direction?

Please note: This blog is based on proven practical experience and not by someone who has never run a business, managed a team or built a sales Pipeline. So if we can help you get out of your rut, or you are interested in KONA’s AGM Process please call us on 1300 611 288 or email Glenn@KONA.com.au

     1. Drink coffee to keep going.

     2. Sedentary.

     3. Overweight.

     4. Have regular pain.

These categories affect decision making, energy levels, concentration, performance and therefore productivity. Money isn’t making into your pocket.

With obesity affecting 60-70% of the population and costing $37.7 billion and a further $6.4 billion from premature death, absenteeism and presenteeism; even when your team are there, they are not there and you are paying for it.

It’s time to stop the money leak and put the Health back into OH&S…

Your brain and body need regular doses of oxygen, proper nutrition, activity and rest to perform optimally.

The benefits are…

     1. Lower stress levels

     2. Clear thinking and accurate decisions

     3. A motivated team

     4. Decreased sick leave and costly medical bills

     5. Increased productivity and profits

As an outcome of one of last years KONA Sales Training workshops many of the participants went on to change their lives by making the 3 following commitments (one middle aged sales manager has lost 39 kgs in 6 months!!!!):

      1. They stopped eating most things that contained white sugar especially soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, fast food, etc

      2. They stopped eating most things white especially white bread, white rice and white potatoes

      3. They started to walk most days including getting off and on the bus/train one stop early; walking round the block before they went into the office; meeting a friend/partner in the evening and walking before bed

PLEASE: Stop throwing good money at poor food choices, pain killers and costly treatments

Reshape your life and business with a seminar from KONA’s Health & Fitness expert Stephen Robertson. His message is sharp and clear – respect your body and life is easier.

Stephen has a life time of sport and fitness behind him, is a previous volunteer speaker for the Heart Foundation and a qualified fitness trainer with 20 fitness videos to his name.

For more information about seminars tailored to your needs please call Stephen on 1300 611 288 or mailto:info@KONA.com.au