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.

“I just don’t have enough time”

How often do you catch yourself saying “I just don’t have enough time to get it all done”?  Does it really matter how many little ‘things’ you get checked off your list?  I often see people ‘busy’ doing little and inconsequential tasks that get them no further ahead – these are the things that often stress a person out.  At the end of the day, what matters the most is the big picture, what you have accomplished and done right rather than all the little activities you have done.  So, before you say to yourself “I can’t get this all done”, look at your list again and think about what tasks will bring you closer to success and have an impact on your overall goals.  How do you differentiate between getting your bigger picture objectives completed and the small meaningless tasks that haunt you?

The Catch-22 of Efficiency

Many of the entrepreneurs I encounter are extremely good at doing a lot of things – getting lots of stuff crossed off their to-do list.  Women, especially, are very efficient – multi-tasking, full of ideas on how to improve their business.  The catch-22 is many of them don’t make a lot of money.  They are highly disciplined and efficient individuals at getting stuff done.   But they aren’t focused on making money – the most important part of business.

If you aren’t happy with the amount of money you make in your business, take a look at where you are spending your time.  Chances are high, you are focused on low-priority items that are “busy work” that do not contribute to you making money.    You have traded being effective for being efficient.

To be financially successful in business, you have to identify opportunities to make money in your business in the next 30 days and then act on them.  This should be your first priority every single day.

Prepare to be Remembered

A couple of my friends were discussing networking experiences, here are some of the tips that we came up with:
First Impressions: you only get to make this once, so make sure it is concrete and memorable. Shake the person’s hand with enough pumps up and down to register the color of the person’s eyes. Once learning the person’s name, use it right away to have a better chance of remembering it.
After Hello: Most conversations at a mixer or after first meeting someone is ‘small talk’, but don’t under estimate the power of ‘small talk’ – it is like the grease that keeps the wheel turning. Memorize a few tidbits of information that are appropriate for ‘small talk’, including the nature of your business, number of years in business, and where your main interests lie.
Moving On: Often at a mixer you will only speak to a person for a few minutes and then want to speak to someone else to make as many connections as possible. If you are moving away from someone you would like to speak with in the future, this is the perfect opportunity to exchange business cards and contact information. If there is another person wanting to join the conversation, invite them in, make an introduction, allow the two to talk, and then move on. Because you don’t want to be the person who needs to be encouraged to move along, be careful to watch other people’s cues and pay attention to behavior going on around you.

What networking tips do you have to share with everyone?

Great Linked In Tips

I know time is short.  And there is so much to do.  And you have good intentions with regards to social networking, so you signed up for Linked In, invited a few connections and haven’t done much yet.  So read this article -11 Ways to Make the Most of Linked In.  It’s a great list of how to use Linked In to get the most out of it.  Tips #3 and #4 are my favorites.

The Sales Funnel

Success in sales is a juggling act – you need to be able to find new prospects, get meetings, close deals, AND deliver to existing customers!  It is enough to drive a girl crazy.

This is the time to make the final big push to bring your sales numbers in so you can toast your success at the end of December and be very proud when you look back at your results!  What kind of sales numbers do you want to bring in by December 31st?  Write that number down right now.  It is not real until it is written down.

The most important sales tool you can use is a sales funnel.  You cannot keep stuff on prospects, and clients in your head or even in files.  For successful selling you need to keep all the information on what you are working on in one place – your sales funnel.   A funnel has 3 basic parts to it:

Prospects:  a list of companies or people that you think might be a good fit for your product or service.

Leads:  these are people you have made contact and they have a definite need for your product or service.

Clients:   this is the list of people who are buying from you.  These are actual sales.

You can use paper, an excel spreadsheet or a CRM package – whatever you prefer.  The most important thing is that you have one at your fingertips and that you look at it every week.

Simple Business Development Tool: Follow up on those business cards you collect

People often question the value of going to networking events, tradeshows or conferences. They comment that the time spent out of the office is not a good investment as they rarely have the time to do follow-up with any prospects or connections they meet. They come back with business cards that end up sitting on their desk – often for weeks or months. Something you mean to get around to doing one day. Not following up on these leads is costing you money so let me outline a simple system you can put in place to use for every event you go to, so you don’t lose out. Here’s what I do:

1. Define clear objectives for every event I go to. What do I want to accomplish by going? Are there particular people or companies I want to meet? Connect with the speaker or the organizers? Before I walk through the door I know exactly what I’m looking to do.

2. Block off time in the morning the day after the event to do follow-up.

3. When someone gives me their card I’ll make a quick note of anything I need to do or remember about them; then I put all the cards into one place while I’m at the event.

4. The next day, I’ll pull out all the cards and determine the next action I need to take with each person – arrange coffee, book a presentation, call them to discuss training or coaching, or send them information they asked for. Then I do it right away. My rule is that all follow-up after an event has to be done within 2 business days of meeting that person. By blocking off 2 hours the morning after the event for follow-up, I get it all accomplished.

5. File the business cards – use the system you prefer – paper or electronic. Just make sure you get it done quickly. There is nothing more frustrating than having to dig through a pile of business cards looking for that person you want to get in touch with.

Implement this simple system and you’ll be surprised at how little time it does take and how many opportunities that will open up!