So I’ve been working on various things behind the scenes in my business and am really excited to be spending a few days next week with my mentor and coach – Heather Dominick to learn a bunch of new stuff, get inspired and no doubt – change and upgrade more stuff in my business when I get back. 🙂
So – why do you care?
Because I am getting clearer about what I am able to offer and as I do that, I get clearer about the type of clients I can really best help and that to me is EXCITING!
As I find out more about what problems my clients need solutions to and what kinds of business headaches they face, I am learning more about how my clients think and what is actually a problem to them…some things I would never consider a problem, can be major headaches to other people and some of the natural things I do, like add structures and planners and schedule things, or just chunking things down into manageable pieces can sometimes seem overwhelming if that subject isn’t your strength.
More clarity, is always a good thing and certainly in this case, reason to be excited!
Organization
Do you have a plan to fail?
It’s a New Year, optimism and the desire to do it differently this time… letting go of what’s not worked in the past, in favor of the blank slate of a new everything… sound familiar? 🙂
So how do you do it differently this year?
One of the things I noticed about myself as I looked over the last year, is that I got completely thrown off track at the end of October by Hurricane Sandy… now we were fortunate, only lost power and moved out of the house for 8 days and still, I was completely thrown off my routine… My business still young and evolving, when we returned home, it wasn’t nearly over, schools were still closed and there was so much to deal with… and then the holidays were approaching and I had some ideas for things, but who has time to maintain a blog in the midst of all that?
Someone said to me a long time ago, if you don’t have a plan to succeed, you have a plan to fail… and as I did not have a real plan (just a nice idea) for my blog content and newsletter launch, when push came to shove, I failed to deliver. Anything!
One of the things I do for my clients is help them to put in systems or structure, to help them stay consistent with whatever their plans call for and I realized… if I need a plan for my newsletter and blog content, chances are, someone else does too! So I made one and am offering it here as a free download, just put your name and email address in the box on the Right, so I know where to send it. I’m hoping that as you use it, it helps you get more consistent with your content writing and delivery and just maybe, it can help me get more consistent with mine? 🙂
Would love to hear your feedback, or experiences with your content planning, or lack thereof! Feel free to post a comment below.
to your growing success in 2013!
Perfectionism?
Do you ever find yourself hung up on perfectionism? You have a ton of things to do and instead of just making a list and taking the action and crossing things off your list, you find yourself spending valuable time on the best way to make a list and if you should have due dates or if you should rank them in terms of importance or perhaps you’re still figuring out which special new note book you should write your tasks in… or, for the techies, which is the best productivity app you should use? Ever gone down that rabbit-hole??!! Does any of this sound familiar?
I’m finding that I’m not actually so hung up on doing the task, as much as I get hung up sometimes on ‘doing the task perfectly’. It’s a distraction tactic. Spending valuable time spinning my wheels and not actually moving forward is just not acceptable to me anymore. I’m so glad I am noticing this behavior and putting a stop to it that much earlier. No, this is not an excuse to then move into beating yourself up for why you’re wasting time or why you haven’t learned from your past mistakes and why you’re still repeating old patterns… sigh – more familiar territory anyone? This is the time to notice and gently and lovingly say to yourself, there I am again, doing that thing I sometimes do and now I see it, I choose to go forward anyway…
My solution? Pick something and start. I like to have things on-line these days, synced across my phone, my iPad and laptop, so I am never far away from my list and whenever I have a few minutes, I can review and do something… Having a LO at home means my schedule is never as predictable as it used to be and there is a lot more stop and start, so I factor that in now and syncing across machines and phones works for me, so I can literally pick up where I left off, in a different room or floor of my home, without stopping to find my perfect notebook. ;o) What works for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts or comments…
Urgent or important?
So many different things going on… I’m sure every business owner must go through… what really is important and what is urgent? Is there a difference? Of course!
Urgent to me means things that have to be done immediately, or there is an undesired consequence. Like paying a late water bill, before the water is shut off.
Important are those things that have to be in place to handle things BEFORE they become urgent! Like having a system in place to make sure bills are handled, before they are late. So if you find yourself every day handling things that are urgent, it’s time to take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture. What is the vision for the business and are there systems and structure in place to get you there?
Entrepreneurs often have to deal with a shifting landscape, business often evolves without an eye on structure, or systems and this can be problematic. Success can often be fleeting as more opportunities arise, the solo-preneur becomes less able to respond effectively and things start falling through the cracks; customers don’t get the same response times they used to get and success levels off, or worse falls away… feeding the classic feast or famine cycle that many small business owners find themselves going through. So, what’s a solo-entrepreneur to do? Cloning themselves sounds good? 🙂
The trick of course is to get the systems in place while the business is small and then stick to them when times get busier. It takes discipline and dedication to follow through and keep on top of everything, but the time taken to put systems in place early on, makes it easier to grow steadily and to more easily build a supportive team as that growth and success happens.
Are you happy with the systems you have in place? Do your systems still support your growth or have you outgrown them?
If you know you’ve reached a place where you could use some help in setting up systems and structure or overhauling and updating what you have in place – I invite you to contact Rama and let’s see what we can do together to streamline your business and get you on Auto-Pilot.
Project Planning
What tools do most people use for project planning? Let me re-phrase that – what tool do most solo-entrepreneurs use, for project planning? Their heads! And how do I know this? I’m doing it myself!
I am spending time this month getting some ideas worked through and getting a vision of the next couple of months worked out. I am picking up more clients from networking events and teaching a class. Basically, I am getting busier. My clients have been somewhat relaxed over the summer and are now wanting to get moving as summer comes to a close and I am helping them plan out their next steps and getting it all on paper; they have some clarity and we can both make plans. Then it occurs to me – I can benefit myself by getting some plans out of my head and onto paper! Sounds so silly, but most solo business owners keep a lot of stuff in their heads! Their plans, their ideas, their knowledge, ‘who has time to get organized when there’s work to be done’? Although I see a little of that tendency in myself lately, as a project manager, I know that it’s time for me get my plans out of my head and onto paper. If you’re not a project manager – it must all still be in there somewhere?! If you need someone to help you figure it out – you know where I am. The sooner you start to document your processes, get your ideas onto paper and your projects into a plan – the sooner you can get help and really start to make progress.