What Does Success Mean to You?

I recently enjoyed having 12 amazing entrepreneurs and professionals as participants in my Think It Plan It Do It 2011 Bootcamp. What an amazing group – what an amazing experience! We started the 2-day workfest with a ‘life criteria’ session, which is not always included in business planning. The VERY FIRST thing you need to do when developing or building a business is to identify how you are going to define success. In other words, what do you want your life to look like?

We start with a great idea that we believe we can turn into profit. We hit the ground running and make the rest of our lives fit around the business – or career. The world is full of help for people suffering from lack of ‘work/life balance’. We finally understand the dangerous effect that stress is having on our lives.

For everything you get, there’s something you have to give up… or work around. Not many people take the time to list the criteria of what a successful life means to them. Sometimes with my clients, we find contradictions in their goals because they haven’t defined what success means to them.

Take time to define YOUR idea of success – it’s not only money! Other things to consider are:

• How many hours do you want to work a week?
• How many weeks of vacation a year? When?
• Time to commit to your health?
• Time to commit to your family?
• Time to commit to YOU?
• What on your bucket list do you want to achieve this year?
• How are you going to contribute to your community?

Remember, you are much more than your work. That out-of-whack feeling usually happens when we’re not feeding all the other areas of our lives. When someone asks you how you’re doing, don’t wear the answer, “Oh, I’m soooo busy”, as a badge of honour.

Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder on February 3, 2011

7 Strategies to Attract More Business

1. Set Goals
When you make your goals make sure they are S.M.A.R.T – Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely. Make the goals tangible which benchmarks each month, quarter and annually. WRITE THEM DOWN! The brain is an amazing thing – just writing them down gets you closer to achieving them.

2. Create a New Revenue Stream
What can you revise, add to or remove? What can you package? Can you create an info-product that you can promote on-line? What about a webinar? If you provide a service is there a tangible product that can compliment your service and visa versa. Be creative!

3. Develop Strategic Collaborations
You can grow your community by collaborating with other entrepreneurs and professionals. Create a business group or mastermind group to work together, brainstorm and create new ways to help one another. Develop a new revenue stream with another entrepreneur and jointly promote it.

4. Develop an “EXPERT” Strategy
What do you need to do to establish yourself as an expert in your market? The answer may come in the form of writing articles, developing products and tools, public speaking, serving as a volunteer in industry associations, blogging, webinars. Brainstorm of ways that you can make this happen.

5. Reach Out to Past and Current Clients
PICK UP THE PHONE!!! With so much communication being done via email or social media, the phone, snail mail and face to face are now more effective than ever in relationship development – have coffee or lunch. Ask how they’re doing – what’s new, what challenges are they facing for 2011. Maybe invite them to a networking or learning event – anything!

6. Go Givers Sell More
Give first and you’ll receive. Look for opportunities to help others whenever you can. Connect them someone else that can help them or may just be a great connection for them, share information and resources – find out how you can be a Giver. You’ll be amazed how others response when you simply ask “How can I help You?”

7. Invest in Yourself
Be true to yourself this year and give yourself the attention and commitment that you give your clients! Invest in learning, time for yourself, a commitment to pleasure and health. Delegate more and ask for HELP when you need it…whatever it is that will make you a happier and more successful person – whatever that means to you.

In closing, you can engage in one activity that will help you with all 7 strategies. Get out there and Network, Network, Network! Network for learning, inspiration, motivation, business development, etc. – networking fulfills a multitude of needs. Remember, we have 2 ears and one mouth so listen twice as much as you talk!

Originally published in New Life Business Newsletter January 2011

Develop Yourself

I consider myself a learning junkie so I read a LOT! One of the best magazines I’ve run across recently is “Success” (http://www.success.com/). It is loaded with wonderful inspirational and informative articles and resources. It also comes with a CD that allows you to take the inspiration on the road with you. The December issue was themed on “Happiness” and it was full of information that I will use in the months to come. These magazines are so great that I keep them close at hand and use them as a resource for workshops, articles, info to send to clients – just awesome stuff. At $5.95 a month it’s an amazing investment – yes investment. This is not an empty expenditure. As January rolls around there’s lots of talk about proper nutrition and exercise for our bodies – but don’t forget your brain. It has to be fed the right stuff too!

Originally published in New Life Business Newsletter January 2011

Focus, Focus, Focus!

I help clients attract more clients, make more money, and have more free time. I do this by helping them create focus in the areas of sales and marketing – we connect their marketing with their sales strategies for real results.

One of the most successful strategies my clients adopt is creating focus in their “TIME and TASKS”. It’s hard to balance it all and even harder to do it all yourself. The following is a system that I use almost every week. Your schedule may be totally different than mine – it doesn’t matter what your system is, only that you create a system that works for you.

Marketing Mondays- This is when I do my marketing activities and my preparation for the week.
• I prepare for my client appointments for that week – research, emails, contacts etc.
• I do all my writing, preparing for e-blasts for my Business Support Manager to send out, writing for clients, contacting colleagues and suppliers, setting up potential client appointments, preparing proposals… whatever needs to happen!

Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursdays – are client days.

I am out of my office first thing in the morning and have client or potential client meetings all day, networking events and usually back in my office late in the afternoon. I am also usually out 1-2 nights a week to networking events. Getting out there in a big way leads to people knowing, liking and trusting you – the formula needed for people to do business with you!

Fridays – I may have one appointment in the morning, but most, if not all of Friday, is my own. I may have lunch with a friend, run errands, go shopping.

During every week the most important strategy is delegation! If someone else can do it faster, cheaper or better – delegate it. Also recognize when you reach your STUCK POINT. Ever notice you can get tons of things done really quickly and then you agonize over a certain project for days, weeks, months? This is your stuck point and the perfect time to delegate. Just image how much time you’ll free up, how much stress will be relieved and how many incomplete projects will actually come to life!

Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder on December 8, 2010

Creating Your Team

For most of us it was our passion that inspired us to go into business for ourselves. We wanted to do what we love, help our clients and generally live to the beat of our own drum. Before long the reality of running a business on our own hit – suddenly we realized there are many different hats to wear other than the one that inspired us to entrepreneurship.

A great team is essential to all success – especially the success of a “solopreneur” or small business owner. Based on much focused objectives my decision to not have employees doesn’t diminish the need for additional resources. I work with an amazing team of professionals that serve a variety of purposes. I focus on what I’m good at to generate revenue and outsource everything else.

Each person only has so much capacity – why not use that time to make money and delegate the things that can be done by someone else? It’s also important that your team include colleagues that assist, inspire and motivate you to think and reach beyond your comfort zone to create YOUR ideal life – whatever that means to YOU.

One of my most important team members is my “right hand”. The one that helps me by professionally and reliably completing the necessary on-going tasks that are essential to the success of my business but not my forte. It’s not enough to have a typical Virtual Assistant, you need a professional that can think like you, know what clients expect and works with initiative and innovation. Whatever that means to you in your business I guarantee that as soon as you hire them it will feel as though a weight has been lifted from your shoulders and your business will start to become what you initially dreamed about.

Being an entrepreneur – there’s no life like it!

Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder on October 27, 2010