Warning - this message may be a bit more harsh than you are used to reading from me. Read it anyway!
If you are like most business owners, you created your business because you wanted to live on your own terms and you knew that you have something amazing to offer.
But, have you realized that dream?
Are you doing what you love, or putting out fires? Do you have minor business problem gathering other problems, rolling downhill and ending up smack, dab in your personal life? Do you find you are getting sidetracked and not finding the traction you need to move your business forward?
The truth is every performance gap, every little inefficiency, every lack of organization or productivity, not only reduces the effectiveness of your business, it also steals time from your personal life! This is TRUE FOR all BUSINESS owners!
As business owner you need to confidently take your business to the next level… if you’re not, you may be going nowhere fast... In fact if you are like 95% of business owners, you are already there…in the area of a million ideas and nothing getting done.
Does your networking work for you? For many it doesn't. Why is that? Today Adam Urbanski shares his thoughts on why systematizing, automating and delegating are keys.
According to a survey conducted by Small Business Administration 60 out a 100 small business owners claim that over 60% of their new business comes from referrals.
But only a handful of professionals can clearly pinpoint where their referrals come from and the exact process they use to turn them into paying clients.
Amazingly, when it comes to referral marketing, majority of entrepreneurs seem to rely on luck! Not exactly the best formula for business success!
When asked how they turn referrals into clients, most professionals have a deer-caught-in-the-headlights, puzzled look on their faces and keep quiet.
The First Two Key Success Factors of Referral Marketing
Those who truly can sleep peacefully at night knowing their referral generating process is working with the predictable precision of a Swiss banking system understand the power of using FREQUENCY of EXPOSURE.
There are more professionals working out of their home now than ever before. Working out of your home can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. Distractions can come from every corner. Today we will cover 19 tricks or tips to make working from home.... work!
Home based businesses are more than a passing fade. In fact, they continue to grow in numbers. According to the Small Business Administration:
Small businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employees.
The latest figures show that small businesses create 75% of the net new jobs in our economy.
Home-based businesses account for 53% of all small businesses.
24 million Americans are self-employed from home on a full-time basis
1 in 5 businesses located in an office or industrial area started in the home, including Ford and Apple.
This is an exciting time for the entrepreneur! There are many advantages to owning your own home-based business. You can fold laundry while you are on a conference call or do a little gardening when you are stuck on a problem. Many people dream of owning their own business some day, but are afraid to try it. Indeed, being in business for you involves risk.
Getting organized is a challenge for most business owners. It is often more difficult for individuals that operate their business out of their home. Many distractions can keep you from focusing on your business - a sunny day, your children, etc. Many home based business owners frequently do not have someone to hold them accountable other than themselves. The following items are provided as tips for your success.
The new year is a great time to think of ways that you can improve your life -- Getting Organized always lands in the top 10 lists of New Year Resolutions. There are many outstanding resources available help you, but I often hear that it is hard to find them. Our solution was to get the resources available in one spot!
What's the difference between a high-performer and low-performer? That question occurred to me after reading findings from the company Leadership IQ. Out of 16,237 employees, only 3,896 self-identified as high-performers! If you move beyond the shocking realization that everyone did not label themselves as high-performers, you might come to the realization (shocking or not so shocking) that employees know how good they are.
I'm sure you are thinking, "Stephanie has lost her mind!" A Yeah/Yuckie list? That sounds like something kids would do and maybe it is, but today, we're going to talk about why you might want to make one of your own.
A Yeah/Yuckie list is a thought process you can go through to help you determine if you are spending your time wisely.
For the past few days, I have talked about why our brain is like a computer and shared the first three of seven tips on what you can do to free up room on your brain's hard drive.
Today I'll share tips 4 and 5 for freeing up space and getting rid of brain clutter.
Yesterday, my brother commented to one of my time tips and it really made me laugh.
He brought up a good point -- Facebook and other social networking sites can be real time-killers if you are not careful. Then, I realized that I have not really shared my experience or the tools that I use to stay productive online. That will begin to change today by sharing one of my "secret weapons."
Recently, I have had a lot of colleagues and readers ask me how I stay in touch with people that are important to me and I realized that I had not talked about this tool in a while. When I first learned about this tool, I thought it had to be too good to be true. Boy was I wrong! The company continues to impress me with their ability to upgrade and keep costs low and value high. Keep reading to learn the benefits and how this tool has helped me.
One of the things that I had promised myself while on this trip in Pittsburgh was that I was going to do a lot of catch up reading. The first book that I started and finished all on Monday was Dave Crenshaw's The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done. As a recovering Multitask-er (or Switchtasker as he puts it) I was excited to get to this book. Keep reading for my perspective on this book, key points discussed and how you can get your own copy.
Sometimes when I talk about delegation, I am referring to taking a task and giving it to someone else to do. Today, I'm talking about taking a very mundane task and delegating it to automation!
I found a cool new tool recently while surfing TipsGuide.com. It is called OnlyWire. OnlyWire lets you bookmark articles/posts that you find and like to multiple bookmarking accounts all at once.
I have been reading the work of Michael Masterson for a number of years now. I started reading his writings with a newsletter he publishes called "Early to Rise." Since then, I have gone on to articles, books and more.
Anyway, the reason that I like Masterson is because he talks about productivity in much the same way I look at the need for productivity -- to be able to spend more time actually living life!
Today I was doing my morning reading and found an article that I thought you would enjoy.
Most everyone has a bit of a different definition of what the "Good Life" is. However, I can guess that many do NOT have "I love to be interrupted from my focus" as one of them!
A while ago, I wrote a posting with a number of techniques to manage interruptions. Today I'll share a few more!
Interruptions can be a huge time waster! Today there are more ways than ever to get interrupted, someone at your door, phone, cell phone, pager, instant messaging, email and more. Gain control of your environment by practicing some of these tips. The following tips will help you gain control of your time and your sanity!
If you want to run a successful business, one of the first steps is to learn to implement systems so that you don't need to be at your business all of the time. Your office should be able to run without you. In fact, there are very few successful entrepreneurs that are also micro-managers. As a business leader, your focus should be on growing your business, not the day to day operations. For many that is a really hard transition. So, take it step by step. One great place to start is by making sure that your business can function when you are ill or away on business trips. Here are three tips to help you kick that process off.
There are a number of things that you can do to increase your profits and have hours in your day that you enjoy and prosper! Even if you do not have employees, there are things you can do to delegate activities. Don't let activities you cannot stand or are not money makers chew up your time! Today, I'll talk about social networking.
Last March I had the pleasure of spending some time with Jim Killian, News Director for WGCY radio. He was fabulous. It was really easy to talk with him and he made me feel at ease. (Thanks Jim!) To make things even better, Jim provided the recording of our conversation for me to share.
Humor me for a moment today. Please close your eyes and envision a swan. Now, take a few moments and describe that swan. What words did you use? White, graceful, bird, clean, dirty, ugly duckling, etc.
Long ago, in Europe, everyone believed that all swans were white. Why was that? Well, it was because all anyone had ever seen were swans that were white. Everyone thought that for YEARS. That was, until Australia was found as well as the black swan.
So what does this have to do with organizing or productivity? Keep reading to find out!
Delegating is a skill that is very difficult for many professionals to master. Either they do not give enough responsibility the assistants that they have, or they micromanage them way too much.
Successful business people are able to empower skilled individuals to handle administrative tasks, while they focus on keeping current clients, growing relationships and reaching a new client base.
Melanie raises some awesome points about how you cannot do it all yourself and do it well. As the picture to the right shows, this juggling lady is already losing some balance because that food is about to spill all over the baby on the floor!
Keep reading for ideas on how you can do more in less time and be more successful!
About a week or so ago I went and gave a presentation to some staff at Illinois State Univeristy. One of the coordinators of the meeting shared a great set of resources. I checked them all out and thought that they were fabulous resources for you! I'll share some different ones throughout this next month or so.
The Art of Delegation
This audio covers some awesome thoughts around delegation. Many managers and business owners have a really hard time letting go. Yet, we know that we can not move our businesses forward if we keep doing what we have always done. That does not leave room for new activities and growth.
According to the Small Business Administration small businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employees. Add to that the latest figures that show small businesses create 75% of the net new jobs in our economy and you can see how important small businesses are.
Small Business Owners have a very challenging job. Many small business owners go into an industry because it matches their passion or is something that they are really good at. What many start up business owners do not realize is that it takes a LOT more than being good in a particular industry to successfully run a business.
Most of the time, small business owners need to wear many hats - visionary, product developer, marketer, bookkeeper, secretary, janitor and more! Overwhelm is easily around most corners! Below we provide some thoughts to help minimize that stress.
<<< Is this what your to-do list looks like? There really are better tools! Take Jott for example. What? You have never heard of Jott? Well, I had not either until about a month ago. Now I love it! www.jott.com.
Imagine a system that you can call and it will type for you!
Imagine a system that you can call and it will remind you of things you need to do, or that others need to do.
Would you rather blog to the phone while you are waiting at the doctor's office? Now you can!
Learn what is enhancing or impeding your productivity today! Click on any of the self-evaluator tools below and receive your results online immediately!
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