Are You Passing Judgement on Your Clients?

 

P.S.

Balance As A Business Owner

Do you feel you overwhelmed by moving forward in your business?

Do you question “WHY” you are in business?

Are you simply putting out fires most days?

What if I could share with you ways to stop the chaos in your business…

Join me tomorrow, Monday, March 14th at 11:00 AM EST to learn the 7 Steps To Start Up Success and learn about

• Building a solid foundation for your business to grow.
• Understand how to align your business with your values for greater success.
• How to share your gift in a profitable way.
• The importance creating a plan.
• How to create that plan and begin implementing.
• How to budget for your business.
• Marketing strategies that work.
• and more…

If you are new to the world of the entrepreneur or have been in business for year, it can all seem overwhelming, even daunting .

My goal during this info packed 60 minute call is to take the mystery out of being in business, give you some action steps you can take today to move your business forward, and strategies to get more YES!

So, if this sounds like what you’ve been looking for SIGN UP HERE for this free call and I’ll “see” you on the call.

Work/Life Balance Lessons for 2011

Guest Post by Allyson Piper of Marketing in Bloom

Does work/life balance really exist? I’ve been asking myself that question a lot lately. Last summer I celebrated my third year as a small business owner. It was exciting and exhausting at the same time. Keeping up with the pace of a growing and changing business is difficult. Add to that the demands of running a household and family obligations and you are left with very little time to have a life, let alone stop and breathe.

I’ve worked as a solo-preneur where I did everything myself and grown my business to a team of two full-time (myself and my husband) with support from part-time virtual team members across the country. But somehow instead of slowing down, even with this extra help my life seems more hectic now than it was before. Go figure!

I keep coming back to the question about work/life balance because I know I cannot continue this way. Not only am I not taking care of myself, but I’m also not serving my clients well if I’m tired and stressed out all the time.

The key – it is all about creating boundaries. In fact, a very wise woman recently said to me “the balance is in the boundaries.”

But how do you create boundaries when your life is ruled by your business? Here are the 5 simple steps I use.

#1 Figure out where your time is going so you can make a positive change. Simply track how many hours each day you’re working and how many hours each day you’re spending on fun, friends, family and yourself. Note: if you’re cleaning the kitchen or picking kids up from school, that’s a third category. Somewhere between work and pleasure. Track that information too.

#2 Assess your happiness and that of the people around you. Realistically, take a good look inside. How are you feeling about your business and personal life? Are you happy? Satisfied? Fulfilled? Now, take a look at your friends and family. Do they feel they’re getting enough of your attention and time? Do they make comments about the fact that you’re always working? Do they seem to resent the time you spend on your business? If so, chances are there’s an imbalance here.

Now that you have both the data and your and your family’s emotions recorded, it’s much easier to see where you can make changes. You can see where you’re spending more of your time and you can see how it’s affecting you and your friends and family. Now comes the tough part – making changes and sticking to them.

#3 Create a vision for your ideal life and figure out what is most important to you. You could create a vision board or write a story about your ideal life. I thought long and hard about what I wanted and I created a mind movie. Now, I watch my mind movie on a regular basis to remind me of my priorities.

I found Kate Power’s information about core values incredibly helpful while creating my mind movie. That’s why I invited her to join me as a speaker during the Your Brand in Bloom Telesummit January 3-7, 2011. If you’re ready to stretch yourself, I hope you register for this FREE virtual event and learn as much as you can from the 11 fabulous speakers on how to create the life you want, the business that supports it and thrive.

#4 Translate your vision into a realistic schedule. Put it on your calendar and stick to it. One of my biggest issues has been working late at night. To combat this, I’ve recently set an alarm on my phone for 7pm each workday to remind me to get out of the office. You can also create lists, prioritize your tasks and focus on the most important, high impact activity first.

#5 Finally, learn to let go. It takes practice but it is possible to focus on what you’re doing right now and to let go of the fear, guilt and stress related to what you think you should be doing. Once you can accomplish that, you’re better able to produce and to enjoy the moment. When you’re with your family, be with them. Don’t think about what you should be doing for your business and vice versa.

You control your life. You’ve created a fantastic business and you deserve the best of both worlds. You can have it. It takes a plan, commitment and an honest look at reality. If you’re living an unbalanced life, make changes. Live the life you want. It’s all in your control.

The New Year does afford a perfect opportunity to start fresh. With that in mind, remember I will be hosting a special Free weeklong telesummit called Your Brand in Bloom January 3-7, 2011 and you’re invited to attend.

About Allyson PiperAlly works with small business owners and mangers to turn napkin notes into marketing plans and bring big picture marketing into focus with achievable steps and results. Learn more about how to take charge of your marketing and grow your business at http://www.marketinginbloom.com.

Do You Bookmark Your Blog?

What is bookmarking all about? Bookmarking is a way to list and tag your articles, blog posts and other content on social bookmarking sites allowing for higher search engine ranking and more visibility for your content and website.

Here is what wikipedia.com says about bookmarking…
“Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren’t shared, merely bookmarks that reference them.”

So what does this mean for your business? Well, if you are not bookmarking, you are missing out on getting your article or blog post ranked in that search engine.

The more search engines your articles are listed in, the higher rankings your content will receive when your key terms are searched within that search engine. I know most of us think of Google when we think search engine but many search engines that are not Google exist and social bookmarking is a great example of this.

Some advantages of a social bookmarking system over traditional automated search engine spiders are:

- All tag-based classification of Internet resources (such as web sites) is done by human beings, who understand the content of the resource, as opposed to software, which algorithmically attempts to determine the meaning of a resource.

- People can find and bookmark web pages that have not yet been noticed or indexed by web spiders.

- A social bookmarking system can rank a resource based on how many times it has been bookmarked by people. This may be a more useful for users than systems that rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it (although both types of ranking are vulnerable to fraud, and both need technical countermeasures to try to deal with this).”

There are many bookmarking sites out there and each has their own style and feel. The one I like best is http://socialmarker.com since I can bookmark my article or post with a good number of other bookmarking sites through this one site. This helps streamline the bookmarking process allowing for more time efficiency and productivity and what entrepreneur doesn’t love that. The initial set up for this service takes some time but then it goes quickly each time after that. An hour of set up time is a good investment for free listing of your articles in just minutes each time thereafter.

Of course this is a snipit on social bookmarking but you should have enough to understand what it is and why you should get started bookmarking your content. If you are doing the writing anyway, you want to make sure you are getting the maximum benefit from your efforts and social bookmarking is a great way to do that!

If you would like additional information on this or other business topics contact Kate by clicking here or email her at Kate@askcoachkate.com.

Launch Your Business

Did you know I am hosting a free teleseminar on the subject of launching your business?

I am and it will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST. Sign up here to join us.

I am excited about sharing this information as I feel it is vital to the success of any business. Most solopreneurs, mamapreneurs and home based business owners struggle in the business side of things due to lack of knowledge and guidance. I intend to demystify the business start up process by going through the steps needed for successful business launch.

“Well, I’ve been in business for a year, two years , 5 years so why should I join the call”, you ask?

If your business is having great success and you are exactly where you want to be then you probably don’t need to call in but if you are not making the income you desire, feel your business has taken over your life or are not sure what to do next then this call is for you no matter how long you’ve been in business. And it’s free so it can’t hurt, right?

Some of the topics we will touch on are…
- Business concept
- Business planning
- Budgeting
- Soft launch
- Setting up shop
- Marketing
- Product creation
- Taxes and legalities
- Client retention
- Outsourcing
… just to name a few.

I entered the entrepreneurial world over 15 years ago and want to share with you what I have learned along the way about building your business for success.

If you are thinking of starting a business, have recently started a business or want to bring your current business to the next level then join us on the call. Simply click here to sign up!

My Outrageous October…

You will notice a slight shift in my blog posts in the very near future.

As a way to stay motivated to finish 2 writing projects I have started I have committed to write 50,000 words in the National Novel Writing Month of November.

Although November is a few weeks away I am not wasting any time in preparing for the challenge. I will be keeping you all updated on my progress and posting excerpts from both the workbook and my memoirs. My plan is to complete the workbook by October’s end so I can focus soley on my memoirs for the November challenge.

I am very excited about this as I have long desired to write a book. I have worked through many blocks and emotional baggage as well as quieted my inner critique. I am sharing my experience, strength and hope so others may find comfort and camaraderie and learn some easy ways to heal and move forward.

I appreciate your support as I bring this dream to fruition.

Feel free to share your dreams by commenting below…I would love to hear about them.

The “Magic” Of Technology

The “magic” of technology is truly incredible if you think about it. I was able to benefit from this “magic” last week in my business and thought I would share.

As most of my readers know, I am a divorced, single mom of two wonderful little beings. My Big Girl is 6yrs old and my Little Man is 17 months now. And although I have an incredible supportive family, I have limited childcare. The ROI on live networking events does not usually justify the childcare costs for me. I still need to meet new people to grow my recently re-launched business to create a life for me and the kids of financial independence and prosperity.

So what’s a Mamapreneur to do?

Well, here is what I am doing. I am embracing social media and all its wonderful offerings. I am on Facebook and Twitter and joining chats. There is actually a schedule of all the different chats here.

Since the events are virtual it’s ok if I have background noise or the occasional interruption – no one but me knows.

Well, while tweeting (that is so funny to type – it makes me smile) I came across a chat and decided to check it out. I am not even sure what made me notice that tweet in the flurry of updates. The chat was a group of women entrepreneurs (like me) who were kicking off a virtual retreat with a Twitter party. I was able to join the chat then sign up for the retreat where I met many wonderful women virtually as well as gained incredible insight into my business.

As a result of the virtual retreat I found a like minded group of women entrepreneurs. I am already signed up for another event and have since joined a newly launched organization, NACWE. And just in case I doubted the money I spent to join – I won prizes for being their 100th member!

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by technology. I completely understand the WHY and sometimes struggle with the HOW. I will continue to move outside my comfort zone and ask for guidance from those who know more than I do. The benefits far outweigh the discomfort.

All of this amazing activity triggered some other great thoughts for me. I have been being tugged by an idea for some time now. It’s a book idea that has been formulating for over a year. I gained clear insight as to what it will look like and am looking forward to getting started with it.

I also posted my latest workshop offerings and f*ee teleseminars on my website. I am looking forward to offering more opportunities to work with me in the way that best suits my clients.

Speaking of opportunities, you only have till tomorrow to sign up for “Turning Over a New Leaf” all day intensive workshop on Saturday, October 9th from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

Starting A Business – Do You Know What You Are Getting Into?

As a business coach I talk to a good number of people who want to start their own business. Often these people have a great idea for a shop or home bases business. They have a vision of working part time allowing for the freedom to take care of their family, enjoy life all while their business (which of course would be profitable;o) provides a full time income.

Now anyone who owns their own business whether at a physical location or home based, you know the description above is idealized. Wouldn’t everyone open up shop if we could work part time, get paid for full time and have the flexibility and freedom we want? So I thought I would share some of the basics of starting your own business.

- Business Idea of what you want your business to provide or do, who your business would serve or provide for (target market) and where your business will exist (home based or physical space)

- Market research is one of the most neglected areas of small business start up and one of the most important. Market research is gathering information about your target market, where they shop, what they buy, how much they spend, how often and what type of marketing is effective. Without this information you will be shooting your business arrows in the dark at a moving target.

- Start up costs should include enough money for several months (6 months is ideal) and factor in payroll, rent, product/inventory costs, operating costs (utilities, supplies, misc), marketing and advertising. Now this is not a complete list for every business but covers the basics.

- Funding sources for where the start up costs will come from. .. Will you take out a business loan? Do you have a large sum of money lying around? Accurately determining your start up and operating costs will allow you to appropriately plan your financing steps.

- Time line for opening shop should account for any construction needed for the shop space or time to get the website up and running so people know you exist as well as learning to be proficient in any software you will be using in your business such as your online shopping cart, QuickBooks for bookkeeping etc. These items usually take months not weeks to complete and can eat up your start up budget if you are not careful and specific.

- Setting business hours and staffing those hours. A business cannot succeed if it is not open enough hours for customers to come spend their money. Business hours need to be staffed whether by you or by an employee. A physical store may need to be opened 50 – 80 per week while a home based business may need “open hours” of 10-20 hours. These numbers only include hours your business is “open” to the public and does not account for office work etc.

- Location, location, location! If you are opening a physical store this is an issue to pay much attention to and be sure to factor in your competition, parking, and surrounding shops.

- Advertising/marketing your business is a crucial element that any successful business spends huge amounts of time and money on. Your marketing campaign should not be about what YOU like but what will speak to your TARGET MARKET. You will refer back to market research for this.

These are just some basic things to work on as you start formulating your business plan. If you would like more information about starting your business or brining success to your current business contact Kate here or email her at Kate@askcoachkate.com

Only SEVEN more days to sign up and save on our in-person Boston workshop with Kate Powers! Turning Over a New Leaf for a New Life is scheduled for Saturday, October 9, 2010 – learn more about how you can still get a discount off the regular price.

Managing Your Expectations

Recently I attended a networking event and was surprised by the presenter’s inability to hide her disappointment. It was a small group and she clearly had expected more attendees. People appreciated the information she had to offer but not everyone was jumping out of their seats to become her paying clients. So this made me think about a few things…

Now we all know as entrepreneurs to “think big”. We always bring double the amount of info to hand out “just in case”. We are never without business cards and have our elevator pitch memorized. But what do you do when it goes the other way? When only a few people show up? When everyone politely declines?

Here are a few things I learned in the beginning of my business about situations just like this.

1) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS remain positive and polite. Be your most gracious self. When the numbers are small, every eye is on YOU every MINUTE. How you conduct yourself has a much stronger impact on each individual than with a large crowd. Potential clients are less likely to become paying clients when they sense negativity.

2)NEVER NEVER NEVER try to force a sale with a small group. Since everyone is intently watching your every move you must ensure your actions encourage potential clients to become paying clients. No one wants to pay to work with someone who is pushy and rude.

3) Have good intentions no matter how many people attend. I have an attitude that no matter what, it is always worth it. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not going to knowingly book to present to a few people when going to the event will cost me with driving time, tolls, babysitter etc. But when I find myself at an event that is smaller than expected I make the best of it and use the opportunity to make a GREAT impression.

How do you manage your expectations when things don’t go as planned?

If you would like more info on this topic, contact me and we can set a time to chat..

The Power of a Plan

Recently, I created a re launch plan for my coaching business. In the plan I mapped out my desired results, action items, products to complete, people to contact etc. “The Plan” incorporated revamping my web site, blogging, social media, newsletter revival, networking, speaking, writing, product creation – the whole picture. I had a very specific time line that allowed me to be present in all areas of my life, not just my business. Most importantly, “The Plan” included my personal WHY for each timeline decision. At the time I didn’t realize how this simple action would serve me so well. I was thrilled with my plan!

So I began laying the ground work – phase 1. Then it happened… I got excited about the possibilities of making things happen, of working with more people, of the creative process and I was instantly swept away by my own excitement. Next thing I know, I am in a creative planning frenzy, adding programs, workshops and products to the very near future lineup. It was incredible how quickly I forgot “The Plan” and hopped onto the “Express Train”.

As I began implementing my “Express Train” plan I suddenly heard a little voice saying… “Remember The Plan”.

I was stopped in my tracks.

So I sat down and revisited “The Plan”. It is a great plan. It accounts for many things that the “Express Train” doesn’t such as my children and their summer schedule, my family, my single parenthood, my need for sleep, and my desire to take things slow to lay a strong foundation for re launching my business in an orderly manner that fits perfectly with my life. “Wow”, I thought, “this is a great plan”. Then why was I not following it? I swept myself away in my own excitement for my business, for living my passion – that is pretty damn cool. So now I have stepped off the “Express Train” and am back to following “The Plan” with a couple small tweaks that I felt allowed me to express my excitement, lay a strong foundation and create healthy business habit.

So I ask you … do you have a “PLAN”? Are you following it? Does it still serve your business where you currently find yourself? Does your plan include the WHY to remind you the importance of sticking to the plan?

To make it easier to stick to my plan I printed out a copy and keep it close by. I emailed myself a copy so I am reminded of it often and I hung a copy on the board next to the computer. With each business decision I make I will consult with “The Plan” to make sure it is in alignment with my goals. And I know I may find times when it is appropriate to add an addendum to “The Plan”. So I am back on target and I hope you are too!

If you would like more info on this topic, contact me and we can set a time to chat..

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