My latest column in Make It Business newspaper is all about how to get financing for your business.  The article profiles an entrepreneur who was successful in getting the bank to finance her startup business and what she did to be successful.  It also provides tips from a small business banker on how to be successful in your bid for getting money from the bank.  Read the article here.

I love this quote.  It is good reminder to all of us, whether self-employed or working for someone else, that we all do need to know how to sell.  Even if your job is not a sales job, you still need to sell.  You work in accounting?  YES, you still need to sell.  You need to sell your boss on that promotion or salary raise you want; you need to sell your clients that you are competent and can do what they need done.  And you need to educate your clients on other services you provide, so they don’t go to your competition because “they didn’t know you did that.”

There is no escaping sales!  If you want to thrive, especially in today’s economy, sharpen up your sales skills. It will pay off more than you realize.

I’ve been doing an informal survey these past few weeks, asking people if they do work on the weekends to catch up or even think about work issues on their days off.  Over 90% of them admitted that they do.  So it seems on our time off, even if we are not actually doing work, we are thinking about it.  Instead of being in the moment with our kids and partners or when we are hanging with friends or just relaxing, most of us are mulling over something work-related.   Have we all gone crazy?

My Friday dare to you is simply this:   You would never consider running your car without gas.  So this weekend, honour yourself and refuel your engine by NOT thinking about work, NOT doing any work and certainly NOT thinking - “I really should do a little work.”   Just relax, enjoy life and have some fun.  If works pops into your mind, just swat it away like a fly.

I’m betting you’ll find you are more productive on Monday.    Enjoy the weekend!

I recently read “Developing the Leader Within You” by John Maxwell.  What struck me most about this book was his comment that “success without a successor is failure.”  A leader who influences others to follow is a leader with limitations, but a leader who influences others to lead is a leader without limitations.  Our language should have a special word to describe this kind of leader. 

Maxwell offers some suggestions on how to build a leader who inspires leadership.  First, as a leader yourself, ask the right questions about the follower.  What are the strengths of the individual?  In order to keep followers motivated, they must be working in their areas of strength.  Have I reflected the value this follower will receive from this relationship?  Followers will continue to be engaged in their work if they are aware of specific areas of personal gain.

Second, leaders must give the right assistance to individuals.  By promoting a positive, creative and encouraging atmosphere, individuals will consistently feel motivated to complete the jobs they excel at.  Personal mentoring that complements an ongoing training program keeps the follower in the information loop and promotes an attitude of building a career rather than working at a job.  

-Katrina

I saw a couple of clients last week whose businesses have literally exploded over the past few months. This got me thinking about the difference between those business owners who grow a business and those who limp along. And I realized it is all due to attitude.

Those who grow have a clear vision and goals and just roll up their sleeves and get the work done. They know where they need to make improvements and they take steps to get stuff happening. They’re the clients who have all their coaching homework done by week 2 in the month and come back looking for more!

The ones who are struggling get themselves bogged down by worrying about how to do something perfectly, about what will happen if it doesn’t work, or they go into a state of paralysis, hoping that things will improve on their own.

Success in business is not about being perfect or correct all the time. It is about taking action and learning from your mistakes, and most importantly, always believing that you will achieve success, especially when the going gets tough.

Do not set the price for your product or service based on what you can afford. I see so many women entrepreneurs make that mistake and it only ends up costing them revenue.

This week I met with a woman (let’s call her Anne) who delivers a very high-quality, specialized service for clients. She mentioned that she has one current client who is using a lot of her time right now and she was thinking of reducing her hourly rate because of how big the invoice was going to be at the end of the month. As she said to me, “I couldn’t afford to pay this invoice.” This client is a multi-million dollar company.

Now I am not suggesting you gouge your large clients. What I am saying is that the price you charge is based on the value to the client, not on whether or not you can afford to pay the invoice. By the end of the coaching session Anne admitted that she was operating from scarcity mode which was driving her to feel she needed to reduce her price. When we took a look at her service from the client’s perspective, she was delivering a service they desperately needed to launch their new division and her price was no higher than what the competition was charging. The client was extremely happy with her and had no complaints about her price. Lesson learned - Anne did not reduce her hourly rate and the client paid the invoice without a comment.

The best part of working with entrepreneurs is their energy and their ideas. Great entrepreneurs are like idea machines – constantly coming up with new ideas for business, new ideas for marketing, new ideas for customers and products.

And sometimes the worst part of working with entrepreneurs is all their ideas. It is what I call the “shiny penny syndrome”. They come up with a strategy for business development, they start work on it and then they get distracted by another idea and head off in a new direction. This is a killer for business. Yes, you do need to come up with new creative ideas to keep your business fresh and growing, but you also need to keep focused on your priorities, otherwise time slips by and you are not where you would like to be.

Having too many ideas can be costly. Successful entrepreneurs have developed the ability to take all these ideas, identify the best ones and then actually make the best ones happen. Many great business ideas have languished on the sidelines because no one gets around to taking action - there’s just too much other stuff to get done.

So if you are overwhelmed with ideas, here’s what you do. Grab a notebook, label it Ideas, and start writing down every brilliant idea you come up with. Carry it around with you so it’s there when inspiration strikes.

Once a month, review all your ideas and decide which ones are action-worthy. Which ones will contribute significantly to the growth of your business? Be very picky – only choose the ones that are going to have a big impact.

Then, for each of those ideas, outline all the action steps that have to happen to make this idea come to life. Be thorough. Write down everything that needs to be done – research, design, resources you need, meetings, promotions, etc. Now assign a deadline for each action step and decide who is responsible for getting it done.

Using this simple system keeps you focused on where you really want to use your resources and stops your great ideas from being derailed.

“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” ~ Kimberly Johnson

I love this quote. Too often I hear women saying sorry and then tacking on a long explanation as to what happened. We all make mistakes, we all drop the ball at times. Saying sorry is sufficient. There is no need to apologize mulitple times or provide an excuse or explanation.

Making mistakes is part of life - it is the way we learn. If you doubt that, watch a child learning to print. When did we as women become so obsessed with being perfect and not allowing ourselves to make mistakes? If you find yourself saying sorry several times in a sentence - stop. If you feel the need to attach an excuse to every apology - stop. You are giving away your power. A simple apology - “I’m sorry, that should not have happened. It won’t happen again.” - is powerful enough.

You know you need to get out there and network to build visibility and make contacts to grow your business. The challenge is that networking takes time and money and all of us have crazy schedules already. There is nothing more frustrating than joining an organization and finding out that the fit is not a good one. And sometimes you want to go to more than one event before you put your money down!

Enter ‘The Observation Deck’ - the brainchild of Madeline Chapman, with the Orange County Chapter of National Women in Construction. She wants to attract more new members to their chapter so they can realize the benefits of membership for building business success, but she also realized how tight time was for many women. So she has created the Observation Deck - any woman can drop into any NAWIC Orange County meeting at any time and stay for as long or as little as they want. A separate table will be set aside for the Observation Deck and you can check out what the organization is all about without any pressure.

This is a great marketing idea and one you want to consider if you are looking to attract new members to your organization. I hope more groups follow her lead.

A well-read blog is a great marketing tool and a fun way to write about stuff that you are interested in. The challenge is getting noticed.

I get asked all the time about how to create an effective blog that other people will want to read. Click here to read a great article “27+1 Tips for Building and Maintaining a Blog Audience” by Jarrod Hunt. Easy to understand, it is written for non-techies like me and has already given me a few ideas to act on.