A Year for Improved Productivity

This year, I’ve decided to do business differently – I’m pledging to cut down my stress level, if not cut stress completely out of my life! To achieve this, I’m going to be (more) productive.

Here are a few of the things I’m going to do:

1) Rate my daily activities as high, medium, or low in the realm of brainpower. This gives me a good sense of what needs to be done in the morning, when I am most productive. I also figured out what hours of the day I work most effectively, and will schedule the “high brainpower” activities for that time.

2) When energy runs out, take it as it is. I’ve decided that when I’m not feeling 100%, I’ll take a quick 15 minute time out or break to rejuvenate myself, rather than slogging through activities. I’ll return to my work refreshed and ready to hit the ground running!

3) Create boundaries. I have set time for business and non-business. Last year I let these two bleed into each other. My goal is to stay disciplined – turn off the phone and computer during non-business time.

4) Touch things once. Rather than read an email and then go back to answer it a few hours later, I’ve decided to implement a rule whereby if I read an email, then I’ll respond right away and get it done rather than waste my time later by re-reading it.

What are you doing to make your year more effective? I’m always up for suggestions!

The Rule of Once

Being effective at sales requires that you be an excellent manager of your time. It means you make your work hours really count. And you can only do this by handling things once. Yes – once. I am talking about paper, voicemail, and email. Taking time to read, look or listen to things more than once is lost time. This really hit home for me when I read “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes. He states: “If you spend just 15 minutes per day to reread documents or emails, you will waste 97 hours per year where no action is taken.”

Are you kidding me? What could you accomplish with an extra 97 hours a year? So get rid of the clutter and bad habits you are hoarding. Starting today, implement a new rule: If you touch it, take action. Don’t read that email or listen to that voicemail unless you are ready to tackle it. Yes, this will be hard to do in the beginning, but for my clients who have implemented it, they have seen a real jump in profitability and they find they have more free time. So I dare you to try it! Drop me a line and let me know what happens.

How Long Will Your Goals Last?

What I love about this time of year is that everyone is so positive.  We’re all making goals, thinking big and dreaming of the year to come.  But now, in the second week of the New Year, are your goals just as strong and alive as they were on January 1st?  I came across a great tool on Flying Solo, it is a one page strategic plan, with a template and instructions to fill it out.  Since this strategic plan is only one page, it is quick to fill out and easy to keep on a wall or in a day planner.  To meet your 2010 goals, fill out this template, revise it on a monthly basis and read it every day for inspiration and drive.  You can download the template here.

To Grow Your Dream, Lead Your Team

One of the most difficult changes for a business owner is shifting from being part of the team to the CEO and managing the team. Five years ago, Karen Engelage launched Beauty Solutions, a wholesale beauty supply company. Karen has seen her dream grow from a virtual office to a seven-figure company with a warehouse, showroom, training facility, customer service staff and a sales team. But Karen admits that her business growth stagnated for a while when she was trying to do everything herself – selling, accounting, shipping, customer service and administration. Read my latest Make it Business article for full details on how to successful make the move from being part of the team to managing the team.

Are You a Serial Entrepreneur?

I love this article in Entrepreneur Magazine that discusses serial entrepreneurs.  This type of entrepreneur is one who continuously builds businesses.  What does it take for an entrepreneur to become a ‘serial entrepreneur’?

The article notes that a ‘serial entrepreneur’ is able to move from business to business by keeping emotions out of work; fear, greed, and anger cannot be part of a ‘serial entrepreneur’s’ mindset, work has to be solely based on logic.  This message concerning emotions is an important one for every entrepreneur, serial or not.  Work done logically rather than based on fear and greed, will help you to sell your business and move on to the next opportunity, as well as pick up after any loss in business.

Stay in Control!

Many entrepreneurs end up feeling like the business runs them, rather than the other way around. Here’s 5 tips to put in play to get that control back.

1. Keep focused on your most profitable business. The 80/20 Rule really does apply in business. As an entrepreneur there are a million calls on your time and energy. You cannot possibly do it all. Do you know which customers or products are your most profitable? Keeping them happy should be your primary focus.

2. Celebrate your successes. Take a moment at the end of every day to review what you have accomplished. Celebrate your victories, especially the small ones. Too many of us never take the time to recognize what we have accomplished – we’re too focused on all the stuff still left on the to-do list.

3. Just touch stuff once. Don’t re-read emails or documents a dozen times; don’t listen to voicemails partially and skip over them. Most of us can end up wasting up to an hour every day handling the same stuff over and over. Make yourself a new rule that you only pick up an email or piece of paper or listen to a voicemail if you have time to take action right then. Otherwise leave it till you do have time.

4. Work less hard. There will always be more stuff to do as a business owner – the pile never goes away! And you always have tomorrow to tackle that next thing. Life passes quickly. Go home at a decent hour every day and spend time with those you love.

5. Recharge yourself. You don’t try to run your car without gas, so why do it to yourself? You are the most valuable asset your business has, so make sure you take time to recharge. Find a hobby, an activity that gets you to unplug totally, so you are not thinking about work. Recharge yourself on a regular basis and you’ll be surprised at how creative and refreshed you will be when you are at work.

Preparing for the Big Day: Christmas

This is always the busiest time of year.  I am constantly watching clients squeeze 30 days worth of work into 25 days so they can have 5 days to spend with family and away from the office.  This maneuvering comes with careful planning.  How are you preparing early so you have time off during the holidays?  Here are a few things that I’m planning to do:

1. Schedule blogs: although you may not plan on spending your holiday writing blogs, your readers may like to stay in the habit of reading your ramblings.  To keep everyone happy, you can pre-write your posts and schedule them.  To make it fun, write some posts about Christmas!
2. If you are going to be too busy for tweeting, you can schedule some tweets as well.  Although twitter is all about social networking, I think it is okay if you schedule a few holiday tweets.
3. Do you plan on replying to emails over the holiday?  If not, think about putting an auto-responder on your email to notify clients and associates of your absence and when you will return.
4. Have you sent out all your Christmas cards?  Sending out Christmas cards to valued clients, and those that you hope to attract, can serve as an effective marketing ploy.

What are you doing to prepare for Christmas?  I’d love to hear your suggestions!

The Price of Procrastination

Recently it was my birthday and I was reflecting on the year gone by and asking myself ‘what were the lessons learned this past year?’

I know the biggest lesson was getting over my procrastination habit. I kept putting things off till the last moment and then finding myself under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines. And, while yes, I do work well under pressure, what really drove me to change was the realization of how much energy and time I spent worrying about not getting things done until the very last moment when I finally sat down to do the work just before the deadline. There was a real cost to my procrastination so I took steps to change this habit and it really has made a difference to my stress and energy levels. That’s why I decided to share this quote with you because it certainly sums up what I learned the hard way.

“No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.” -Charles Baudelaire, poet

What is Important?

What is important to you?  If everything you do is at the same level, then nothing is different, not one item on your list is more important than another.  Life and business are not about squeezing as much as you possibly can into a day, they are about getting the right things done.  How do you define what is important for you to get done in a day?  This will vary from person to person, depending on what role you play.  It is very easy to get stuck completing tasks that are urgent, but at the end of the day, you may not feel a sense of satisfaction.

How do you categorize between important tasks and easy-to-do or urgent tasks?  Personally, I categorize everything I have to do into four categories: 1) not urgent, important; 2) not urgent, not important; 3) urgent, important; and 4) urgent, not important.  I learned these four principles from reading Dr. Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.  I always try to live in the ‘not urgent, important’ box, but it is inevitable that ‘urgent, important’ tasks will come up sometime during the day.

If you have a clearly laid out plan and system to organize tasks, then not only the easy-to-do and urgent tasks get done, but also the important tasks get completed and you feel a sense of satisfaction.  Most importantly, you need to have a good system of defining what’s most important to you, so that you get the right tasks done!  What type of system do you use to be sure that you get done what is most important to you?

No More Excuses!

“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 multiple 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.