Andrew Horder (The Busy Fool)

Find your Focus - those activities and opportunities that you love, and will produce your success

The Busy Fool.com is the core of what I do, helping people to understand where to focus their precious time, money, effort and resources. I use two main tools - Opportunity Matrix and Core Process. Your Core Process is that thing that you're doing when you are totally at your best, really in your flow, it's the thing you're on the planet to do. Using stories, I guide you to an understanding of your unique talent, so that you can focus on that all the time.

Opportunity Matrix is a simple yet powerful tool to help entrepreneurs choose which opportunities to focus on. Clients who've done the programme have said that they now feel a much greater confidence to press forward with their business, knowing that what they're working on has answered the two most important questions for any business owner:

• How much do I want to do this?
• Will I make any money at it?

It all started when a network colleague complained one day, "I've got all these different things I could be doing, I just can't pick between them!" We all know that it's important to focus in business - otherwise you risk dispersing your energy (bad) and (worse) becoming known as a "jack of all trades, master of none". I was already using a pretty cool analysis tool in the Key Accounts Strategy consulting I was focussing on at that time, and we realised that it could be adapted to answer Neil's dilemma. So we went off to the South Bank one sunny summer morning, and the essentials of Opportunity Matrix were born. Over the years since then, I've honed my skills in using it, and sharpened the tool itself, to the point where there's a clear process, and I now take on selected licensees to do delivery I can't (or don't want to) do.

I won't go into the details here, but the basics are, we score each opportunity on two dimensions - Attractiveness (how much do I want to do this?) and Viability (will I make any money at it?). How you deal with each opportunity depends on where on the matrix it ends up - see this You Tube video for more info on how it's actually used.

The beauty of the matrix is it can be used either face-to-face or remotely - with a simple screen-share programme that doesn't require the client to load any software on their PC, you can see their screen and they can see yours, so you can both work on it together, even if they're in Lands End and you're in John O'Groats - or anywhere in the world for that matter.

While I still absolutely love taking people through the programme, I've come to realise that it can be more effective if they're taken through it by somebody who's working with them as a long-term advisor. So I'm now starting to license it out and train other coaches and advisors to use it - I'm a bit precious about who will be allowed to use it, it's my baby and I'll want to know those using it have been fully trained to use its full power. So if you're a professional advisor with high quality questioning and challenge skills, and you want another powerful tool in your toolbox, drop me a line, give me a call or collar me at a breakfast.

The latest development is that clients ask me where they can get help with those parts of the business they're not great at - admin, book-keeping, social media, HR & Payroll, marketing.  So I'm in the process of assembling a team to deliver all that sort of stuff under the BusyFool.com brand - if you are, or you know, someone who provides a simply packaged service to entrepreneurs that would be useful for Busy Fool clients, do get in touch and discuss how we might work together.

Married to the wonderful Daniela, we live in Horley (right next to Gatwick airport, very handy for holidays and short breaks). After a successful career as a Key Account Manager and General manager in both corporates and SME's, I decided to do my own thing several years ago, and established Business Strategy Solutions Ltd. The initial focus was on Key Accounts Strategy - getting businesses focused on working most effectively with their best clients, and that has now morphed into getting them focussed on their best opportunities, mainly (but not exclusively) using the Opportunity Matrix tool I developed.

The kind of people I work best with - as in, I add the most value to - are uncontrolled entrepreneurs, the type who never stay focussed on one project long enough to really make a go of it, and who are constantly flitting from one thing to another, and back again, getting more and more frustrated as they spin their wheels and don't quite manage to gain traction on any of them. And that's not even mentionning the frustration felt by their partners (business and life), employees and accountants.

I see my role as "holding onto the kite strings" - a kite can reach incredible heights with a deft touch on the strings, but if left to its own devices it quickly goes out of control and crashes to earth. The same with full-on entrepreneurs - with a little discipline and a light touch on the controls, and they can really fly, exceeding even their own expectations. And the first step is understanding what they do best, and what really makes their heart sing.