For the first time ever, I’m running a contest! I’m running a one-week-only contest and giving away free Power-Up sessions to three lucky small business owners. Entry is easy and the pay-off is huge!
What You Win: An hour-long, one-on-one Power-Up Session with me, Susan Baroncini-Moe, CEO of Business in Blue Jeans, also known as “The Micro-Entrepreneur’s Mentor.” In this session, I’ll determine the three biggest mistakes you’re making in your business and provide personalized strategies for powering up your business to grow profitability and achieve success.
How To Win: Write one paragraph. Topic: “If I Could Wave A Magic Wand and Change Something About My Small Business, It Would Be…..” Post it on your blog or Facebook page with link back to http://www.businessinbluejeans.com/contest.html (or to this blog entry…makes no difference to me).
Then, e-mail contest@businessinbluejeans.com with a link to your entry (or just e-mail your entry to contest@businessinbluejeans.com). It’s that simple!
Contest Rules: Three winners will be chosen at random on February 22, 2010. You’ll be contacted by me right away.
So…go write your paragraphs! It shouldn’t take too long and you just might win a freebie Power-Up Session with me!
I have five cats. And no, I’m not a crazy cat lady. Here’s the deal: My oldest cat is Kate. Kate came to me about 18 years ago, and had been fully declawed — not my thing. The other four cats were feral, born in my dad’s garage about four years ago. I brought them home to socialize them for adoption and of course, I fell in love with all of them and they’ve been here ever since. They’ve still got all 72 claws (18 claws per cat) and a tendency to rile Kate up, which doesn’t do too much for her “old lady” heart condition. So while all five cats pretty much have full run of the house during the day, at nighttime and when we’re not around, we keep the four rambunctious “kids” confined to a spacious sunroom. Now that you have the background, I can tell you how four of my fur babies taught me a little business lesson recently.
Sometimes in the morning, I sit down with my coffee and breakfast and forget to open the door to the sunroom right away. Scooter, of course, is quick to remind me to open the door. He pads at the door until I come over and let him in. Scooter runs right in, looks up and makes eye contact with me, and he’s quick to hop up on my lap for a morning cuddle. The rest of the cats, Lance, Agnes, and Grandpaw, are slower to emerge, and take their time connecting with Leo and me throughout the day.
The other morning, as I was letting Scooter in, it hit me: by being at that door when I’m ready to open it in the morning, by letting me know he’s there, and even scratching on the door to remind me, Scooter is just using smart marketing. Basically, if you translate this into micro-entrepreneur terms, Scooter’s connecting with his target market (me), letting his target market know what he’s up to, and putting it out there that he’s got something to offer me when I’m ready to open the door and let him in. And as soon as he’s in the door, he’s already working with me, connecting with me, and showing me he’s glad I let him in.
In contrast, the other three cats laze about on the sunroom sofa and chairs. They gaze out the window, watching leaves blow around, watching the snow fall. Occasionally they come up to the door and look in, and it seems like they wish they were inside. But they only take action when I open the door and coax them inside, and then it takes them awhile to mosey by for a quick scratch under the chin. Translate this into people terms, and you’ve got all the micro-entrepreneurs who say they want clients and customers, but who actually don’t put themselves out there or market themselves properly.
Here’s the lesson: You have to market wisely and once you’re in the door, you have to deliver everything you’ve got. It’s about relationships and putting in the effort to get in front of your audience and make yourself known, then when you get your foot in the door, deliver, deliver, deliver.
My latest post on LifeHack.org, published March 26, 2009:
How often do you get that lazy feeling? You know the one. It’s that heavy feeling that weighs down your entire body so the only things you really feel like doing is watching TV, surfing the Internet, or playing your Wii. Or, maybe you just feel like doing something fun instead of working, when you know you really need to get some serious work done. These are serious productivity killers, especially for home-based business owners…but there are ways to fight back. Use these tips to get back to work and see your productivity soar.
First, plan ahead. You can’t always predict your moods, but you can plan ahead so you start out with the right state of mind. If you wake up without a concrete plan for your day you can easily waft into checking e-mail and social networking sites before doing any actual work. This is the sort of time-sucking activity that can eat up half of your workday (if not all of it!). If you develop a plan of action and go to bed with a strong commitment to wake up the next morning and get to work, you’ll do exactly that.
Second, as part of your plan, wait until late morning or early afternoon to open your e-mail software or check any social networking sites. This is something that Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek, recommends. If you check your e-mail, there’s a strong chance that there will be something in your Inbox that will require action on your part, and you can bet you’ll feel compelled to deal with that e-mail before you get to work on the tasks you had planned for the day. Talk about derailing your productivity! Even more importantly (especially if your work requires you to check e-mail first thing), keep your personal and work e-mail accounts separate, and only check your personal accounts when your work is done for the day.
Third, once you’re ready to work, minimize distractions. Turn off the TV and the phone ringer and disable any chat or text/instant messaging software. I have a client whose productivity is regularly disrupted by phone calls from friends and family members throughout the day. It’s especially important when you work from home to make sure your friends and family know when you are working, so you can maintain a consistent, productive environment.
Fourth, if you’re trying to work and keep getting distracted by thoughts of something else, take care of whatever is distracting you and then come back to work. If it’s “fun” that’s distracting you, take a half hour out to go do something enjoyable. My husband and I regularly break to take walks outside on a pleasant day, or to bake a loaf of bread. Sometimes you just can’t focus, and if that happens, it’s best not to try to force it. In fact, the stress and pressure can make it even harder to focus and you may end up doing poor work. So take some time out, have a little fun, relax, and then come back with a fresh, new perspective.
Fifth, for some, it works well to build in a system of rewards and punishments. Generally, most people recommend positive stimuli only. But sometimes you want to avoid something just as much as you want to gain its opposite. So the reward and punishment can actually be two sides of the same coin: if you accomplish your task, you get to do a particular fun activity and if you don’t accomplish your task, you don’t get to do that activity. This can be a powerful motivator (but if you really are struggling for motivation, see my article from last week).
Finally, there’s the powerful “just do it” strategy. Once you start working and getting in the groove of productivity, you’ll find that it’s much easier to stay in that “productivity zone.” And once you’re in that zone, you may find that you can get more accomplished in an hour than you might normally get done in a entire day. Sometimes you may have to do some real self-direction to get to this place. One technique that works well to get you into the productivity zone is the “act as if” exercise. In this exercise, you think of someone who you respect and admire who is good at whatever it is that you want to accomplish. Then, you envision what that person is feeling at that moment, step into their shoes, and “act as if” you are them. It’s not enough to act like them, you actually want to act as if you are them. This enables you to temporarily leave the you that isn’t “in the mood” to work behind and in essence, be someone else for awhile.
Use these tips and your productivity will be high with consistency. You’ll avoid the time-sucking, distractions and derailing attitudes and “I can’t believe the day is over and I didn’t get anything done,” will be a thing of the past.
My latest post on LifeHack.org, published March 19, 2009:
Maybe you’ve been trying to kick-start your business and it just hasn’t worked yet. Maybe you’ve just started but you’re already frustrated. Or maybe you’ve wanted to hit that next level for years and haven’t been able to get there. Regardless of your situation, getting motivated and on-track isn’t difficult. It’s staying that way that’s the trick. And when you’re struggling to “make it,” sometimes it’s even harder. You find yourself wandering, letting yourself get distracted, and wondering if you’ll ever really make your mark. Want to end the cycle of struggle? Master these tips and you’ll be virtually unstoppable.
First, know that this is a temporary state. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been where you are. All that you need to know is that nothing is permanent. All things change, even if it seems that they don’t. It’s simply a law of nature — nothing stays the same forever. The universe is constantly moving, evolving, and changing, and so are you. So instead of seeing this as a neverending path into darkness, know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and every day, it’s getting closer. And as soon as you get a new client, sell your first product, or hit that next target, everything within you will shift.
Second, remind yourself what you’re fighting for. When you’ve been trying to make something happen for awhile, you can start to lose sight of the end goal. Instead of focusing on the reason you started this journey in the first place, you begin to focus on smaller, more immediate outcomes. For example, if you started your business so you could eventually free up enough time to spend with your family, but you’ve been working for a long time and haven’t seen the results you’d expected or hoped for, your goal may have shifted from “be with my family” to “make my business work.” This has exactly the opposite effect than you originally intended. By shifting your priorities, now you’re probably spending less time with your family.
Sometimes it’s helpful to create tangible reminders of the reason you started down this path. A vision board may be useful, or just a statement, penned boldly and tacked to a bulletin board near your workspace. If you want to remind yourself of a forgotten goal and reintegrate it into your thinking process and mindset, set your alarm a few minutes earlier each morning and spend that time meditating on what you’re working towards. Reaffirm what you’re fighting for and you’ll find the will to fight is restored and renewed once more.
Third, believe in yourself. It can be hard to believe in yourself when you’ve been trying to make something work for a long time. Sometimes you just lose faith in your own ability to make it work or see it through. One of the best ways to stay strong in your belief in yourself is to keep track of your successes, even the small ones. When you’re feeling down on yourself, go back to the list of successes and review them. Remind yourself that you are capable and you can make this work.
Another way to rebuild your confidence involves something social psychologists have known for decades — that our feelings about ourselves are frequently a reflection of how we think others perceive us. So take advantage of that! Read through your client testimonials and e-mails. Ask your clients for periodic evaluations and you’re bound to receive some fantastic feedback (and if there are some negatives, folks, that’s a great learning experience — it tells you exactly what you need to do to improve and make your clients happy). Even if your faith in yourself falters, others still believe in you.
Finally, get help before you’re in crisis. If your business isn’t where you want it to be, if you aren’t making the leaps ahead that you want to be making, there’s obviously something going on. Before things go too far, before you get lost and become totally unmotivated, get help!
The problem may be with your business — it could be a branding issue, a marketing issue, or maybe just you aren’t giving your clients what they want. Hire a consultant who can turn your business inside out finding ways to improve your results. The problem may also lie within — you yourself might benefit from some “fine-tuning.” Hire a coach and work through any roadblocks that may be getting in the way of your success. Hire a mentor and model his/her behavior. Or if you’re struggling with self-discipline and need a budget solution, ask a reliable friend to be your accountability partner so you both can improve.
As you begin to master the ability to keep your motivation high, it will become easier to stay on-track. Moments of frustration will be fewer and farther between and, as you master your mindset, you’ll find that you actually achieve success and reach your targets faster.
In my last blog post, I mentioned I would be sending a survey out to my e-zine subscribers so I could get to know you better. I’ve had so many new visitors to my site and new subscribers to my e-zine in the last couple of months that I haven’t had a chance to “meet” as many of you as I’d like. And with the recession in full swing, it’s more important now than ever that I know you and understand your most pressing needs. It is my goal to help you in whatever ways that I can during the economic challenges we’re currently facing.
To thank you for participating in the survey, you’ll receive a copy of my newest Special Report, “Top 5 Tricks to Creating Your Success Mindset.” This report has never been released and contains brand-new exercises to create powerful shifts in your thinking that allow you to experience success on an entirely new level. Once you finish the survey, you’ll immediately receive the Special Report so you can start creating your own success mindset!
To participate in the survey, first sign up for my weekly e-zine using the form at the top of this page. I’m sending out just twomore invitations for the survey, so make sure you’re signed up, because I don’t want you to miss this! The e-zine is fantastic and each week you’ll get great tips and ideas on the Business in Blue Jeans lifestyle and business model, marketing, online and offline social networking, increasing your passive income potential, and more.
I’ve said it so many times. I’ve beaten this one to the ground. But honestly? I don’t think it can be overstated. I don’t think I can say it enough times. I’ve linked to articles form Forbes and Entrepreneur that say now is a fantastic time to start a business. And today, CNN has joined the fray, with an entire segment of their web site devoted to going solo.
Let’s recap- why is now a perfect time to go out on your own?
Corporate work isn’t as “safe” as it used to be. You don’t even have the illusion of safety anymore, do you? If you’ve seen the news, you’ve seen how many of our largest companies, even the ones that have always seemed so stable, are laying off scores of workers. I’m really not trying to scare you here, but, let’s face it…you could be next. And that’s something you should be thinking about.
We’re all pulling together these days. Lately, if I have a chance to throw work to a reliable, high quality freelancer, versus a larger company, I’ll do it. Why? Because I’d rather my dollars go more directly to the person doing the work than through the financial filter of bureaucracy and paperwork. That is, if I pay a large company to have one of its employees design a web site or logo for one of my clients, I’m essentially paying for that company’s overhead- the office building they’re in, the person who processes my payment, the boss of the person designing the web site or logo, the guy who empties their trash cans, etc. etc. etc. But if I’m paying the freelancer directly, my money goes directly into that person’s pocket. Sure, there’s be some overhead expenses there, but in the end, the person who’s doing the work gets more of the money and that matters to me in this economy. And I’m not the only one.
So what does this mean to you? It means if you’re thinking about going solo and you’re good at what you do, you’ll have people like me out there who would rather hire you than a big company.
Services are more affordable than ever. Everybody’s trying to get more clients these days. So a lot of people are cutting their rates to be more competitive (someday I’ll write another article on why that’s not necessarily the best strategy, but that’s a conversation for another day). And there are more freelancers working on their own now, and their pricing doesn’t always include the massive overhead of a big company. That means you can get all kinds of services much cheaper than any other time.
We don’t know where the economy is going. Honestly? We don’t know right now if things are going to get better or worse. And it’s possible things might get harder. So doesn’t it make sense to at least create a business that generates some pocket money or enough to cover the electric bill? Start a micro-business now in your spare time, and it’ll provide you with that little extra to help out, and then down the road, should you lose your job or decide you’re ready to transition out of the corporate world, you’ll be able to build that business without much effort (yes, really).
What, exactly, are you waiting for? If you’re waiting for the “right time” let me tell you: the right time is now. If you keep waiting, the “right time” will never come and one day you’ll look back at a lifetime spent working like a slave for someone else. Even if you don’t know what kind of business you want to start (or can start), that’s still no reason not to get something going now. In fact, that’s a perfect reason to hire an expert- someone who can show you your options and help you design your business to suit your lifestyle goals.
I can’t tell you how many times people have said to me, “I wish I could work from home like you,” or, “I wish I could do what you do.” Now, it’s not for everybody, but believe me when I say that virtually anybody can do something like what I do- not exactly what I do, but you can work from home (or anywhere in the world- and I have!). You can build a business based on what you know, that brings in a stable income, one that’s large enough so you don’t have to work every day or even all day. Even in this economy.
To thank you for participating in the survey, you’ll receive a copy of my newest Special Report, “