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Archive for the ‘Home Based Business’ Category

Consider all of the systems that surround you: traffic systems, media systems, religious systems, family systems, political systems.  All have enjoyed relative success, thanks to trial-and-error, careful planning, and dependence on a number of people.  Not one of these structures could exist if managed by one person.  That same principle applies to your profitable business.

In other articles, I’ve discussed ways to reach your ideal client abundance, including aligning your product with the market, targeting those prospects who have raised their hands with interest, and converting those raised hands to incoming cash.

Once you have mastered all of these principles, you’ll probably find the next step to be a welcome one.

Once the clients are rolling in, you might find yourself becoming haggard, stretched too thin, stressed, and wondering if you really wanted what you were wishing for.  This is not your signal to back off.  It’s your signal to systematize.

Systematizing involves delegation and outsourcing, but more importantly, it requires using your creative skills and resources to design a method for getting things done.  All aspects of your business should not be dependent on you.  If they are, something is certain to suffer.

I know the benefits of systemizing first hand.  I once wrote, formatted, and emailed my newsletter all on my own.  I didn’t enjoy it as much as other tasks necessary to my business, but I had to do it.  That’s what I had convinced myself, until…

I realized that I could be spending my time in different facets of my business – ones that I would enjoy more, and that would better showcase my personal talents.

When I decided to recruit other people to my team, to format the newsletter from archives and send it to my readers, I realized a new level of accomplishment.  I could write the personal newsletter introduction in ten minutes.  My new team members could then do the rest.  I found myself liberated from an aspect of my business that was holding me back from my true calling.  Because the newsletter was less dependent on me, I no longer felt that it was holding me back.

It’s rare that every aspect of a business aligns with the gifts of its proprietor.  Some people thrive as prudent business managers, other shine in public relations, and others revel in the creative process.  Success doesn’t involve developing the skills to be a one-man-band, but in pooling resources to get things accomplished more efficiently.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when systematizing your own business:

• Don’t rush to systematize. Work all the bugs out of your products, marketing, communications, and conversion processes first.  Shortcomings will not disappear inside of a system, but will poison the rest of the process.

• You might think you can do it all, but consider how much better your business could be if you concentrated on your strengths. When different people’s gifts are pooled together, the result is the dynamic sum of those talents.

• Choose an aspect of your business that you dislike. Find a person, or a team, who specializes in that task.  Results will improve, and you can concentrate on what you do best.

• Identify your strengths. Survey the aspects of your business that you can delegate so that you can allow more time to use your talents to their highest degree.

• Be creative about ways to automate your business. Focus on how to arrive at the highest quality result in the most efficient way.  Proven business models can help, but don’t forget your own freedom to innovate.

• Don’t sweat the small stuff. You can find people to do that for you.

As you become more successful, there will be a call for your business to become less dependent on you.  This conversion in thinking can seem difficult at first, but if you honestly examine your strengths and choose team members who share your vision (through differently-colored glasses), you’ll not only systematize your business, but you’ll maximize what that business can do for you.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” Warren Buffet

Have you ever heard the saying that games are won and lost in the dressing room? Any sports coach can tell you, it doesn’t always boil down to the performance on the field; it’s about that critical time in the dressing room before the game or even during the opening plays. It’s about attitude and what it means going forward.

Well, we’re in the dressing room now, and it’s time to hit the field. Are you ready, or have you set yourself up for a loss before the first play?

It’s easy to get discouraged about your prospects when you’re listening to the news or reading the newspaper articles on today’s economic climate. But is that news causing you to forfeit the game? Certainly we can’t ignore the news, but don’t use it as justification to stop investing in yourself, to stop growing and developing or to stop taking risks in business.

My bet for the upcoming game is that there is a gap forming. Those who are giving up and those who are determined to succeed. And with each passing day, that gap is widening. So you need to determine which side you prefer. Those who are giving up before the game starts or those who are determined to win.

If you go forward with a winning attitude, one where you say “Yes, the game is changing, but I’ll stay alert, adjust my strategy and win” you’re going to be fine. That’s the game changer – your attitude.

We are all facing challenges. Some businesses may fail, others flourish and others may just fail to flourish. You need to take stock of your situation and decide now if you’re going to flourish. And when you do that, when you make that decision, you’re going to set yourself up so that you play the best darn game that you have played in years.

When you take this step, this decision to succeed – do it with a goal in my mind. Give yourself a specific point spread to win the game. Don’t hold back and play it safe. It’s one thing to say you’re going to win, but quite another to say you’re going to win the game by five goals.

Now, that goal may seem out of reach and may even seem scary. That’s not a bad thing, a goal should stretch you and create just a bit of uncertainty. It’s that uncertainty that will help you grow into your goal over the next year. It’s what is going to push you to succeed and create the path to success.

What’s stopping you from setting the goal? Is it the fear that you’re not going to reach it? What happens if you don’t make your goal, whether it is financial or the growth of your business or the number of clients you gain? Well, what’s happened is that you’ve come closer to success than you would have if you hadn’t set the goal in the first place! Don’t use this as an excuse to not reach your target or to set one that’s too safe. But set a goal that’s going to lead you to win, and win big.

So, we’re here, in the dressing room. Now’s the time – decide right here, right now that you’re going to win the game and decide by how much you’re going to win.

Bernadette Doyle publishes a free weekly Client Magnets newsletter. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at www.clientmagnets.com

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Many people want to start outsourcing, but don’t know how to begin locating the right people for the job.

There are lots of different paths you can take to find the right people to help you. And it’s not always the most obvious route. A lot of people think that the best option available to them is advertising in the local classifieds. While this works for some people, it can also create a lot more work for you in the long run if you’re inundated with responses and you don’t know where to start.

One of the best things you can do is to make your search more targeted. Here are three ways to do that:

Online

You aren’t limited to only using assistants who are physically located close to your business. Especially if, like me, you work from home and don’t want to have people visiting you in your house, location isn’t an important criterion.

The Internet is such a valuable tool for connecting you with the right people, whether it’s a team of virtual assistants or expert individuals. The following websites are really useful resources for helping to meet your outsourcing needs:

www.Monster.com
www.Elance.com
www.RentACoder.com
www.WorkaholicsForHire.com
www.Guru.com
www.FreelanceWriting.com
www.SmarterWork.com
www.CareerBuilders.com
www.FreelanceWorkExchange.com
www.AssistU.com

On all of these websites, you can either post a job or you can look at biographies of people bidding for work. You can also post classified ads on many of these sites, saying exactly what you’re looking for in an assistant. You can specify how much you want to pay, or you can leave that undisclosed and ask people to make a bid for your work. Then you can sit back and can wait for people to approach you.

Students

Let’s say you wanted someone to research suitable websites that could be good linking partners to you or may provide you with opportunities for joint ventures. That’s a perfect project for a media or business studies student, who might also really appreciate the idea of working with a small business and getting some practical experience.

Your local university or college might have a careers centre or newspaper where you could advertise your projects. These students don’t necessarily have to be working from your office. Instead, you could arrange to meet them locally whenever you need to discuss the project face-to-face. And the great thing about students is that they normally either have their own computers or they’ve got access to them.

Personal Approach

Approaching people directly is one of the best ways to hire talent for your business. When I was first setting up my website, I had a basic idea of what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to make it happen. I knew that I wanted to set up a website where I could sell digital products that customers could download immediately, but I didn’t know how to go about doing this. It was one of those examples of trying to hire someone to do something you don’t know how to do. I placed a local classified ad, and was inundated with responses. I really did not know where to start deciding who to hire.  In the end I decided to approach the webmaster of a website that I liked. I told him that I needed help with my project and asked if it was something he could help with.

For certain jobs I know what I’m looking for.  I’ll approach a company or individual that seems to be a good fit and I’ll ask them to bid on the job. This approach has actually worked out very well for me. I’ve had a surprising success rate with it. And it’s more time-efficient than just posting an ad and getting a load of inquiries that you have to sift through.

The key to finding the right people for you is to be clear on what you need done, how you want it to be done, and what you’re willing to pay. You’ll need to practise finding the right person, and you might use different approaches for different jobs.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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If you’ve set goals in your life, and at some point we all have, then you likely have supporting structures in place for those goals. But what if you change your goals? Goals evolve and they grow and they change over time. It makes sense that when your goals evolve, then the supporting structures need to change as well.

As you go about setting your goals for the next 12 months, or even for the next quarter, take some time to also figure out what you need and what needs to change to achieve that goal.

Here’s 3 steps to get you started:

1. What do you need OR what do you need to change? What do you need to reach your goal? It’s not always clear cut, but it could be a simple and clear answer such as administrative help. If it is that simple, then so is the answer – hire someone to help you do the books, help with marketing, whatever you need to help you achieve your goal.

What about your time routine or changing your work methods? Do those need restructuring to help you meet a goal? It’s not always so cut and dried though. You may need a mentor, different resources, or a much more dramatic change.

2. Visualize Your Goals. Take a moment to just think quietly. Visualize yourself when you’ve met the goal. Now work backwards, what supporting structures are in place that helped you get there? Were you in a larger office using an assistant? Were you using different resources?

Take it a step further and visualize your ideal scenario – what you’d like it to be, not what you think you will achieve. What structures are in place in the ideal world? See what you come up with.

3. Be Willing To Let Go. To get your new structures in place, chances are, there are things you’re going to need to let go of. You need to make a necessary compromise – be willing to give up something to achieve your goal – whether it’s an old work habit or even some of your revenue to hire an assistant or use a coach. Don’t compromise on the outcome. Be willing to take a trade off to reach it.

For example, I used to watch a soap opera in my early years. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I did take time out some years ago to watch this ½ hour soap opera – five days a week. I realized that this habit wasn’t going to help me reach my goals. It also wasn’t who I wanted to be, so I cut it out. It gave me 2-1/2 hours more time to focus on my goal each week.

Your compromise may need to be more dramatic. It may be relocating, a change in a relationship. But know that it’s going to get you closer to your goal. It’s all part of the process.

Have the courage to re-align your habits, find out what you need and what you need to let go of. By doing this you’re guaranteed to reach your goals.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Several years ago I was reading a book about Roger Bannister, the man who first broke the four-minute-mile barrier. This was something that even doctors had said couldn’t physically be done.

In his diary, Roger Bannister had written how the conditions weren’t in his favor that day, as the wind would be against him. He wrote how easy it would have been to fall prey to the idea that today was not the day to break the barrier. But he knew that he had been working on this goal, and this was the plan he had, and that plan was to break the four-minute-mile barrier. And he did.

Does this sound familiar to you? There are so many reasons to not try, so many excuses to not even go to the track. But it’s not over until you say it is, and you need to have the resolve to say “it ain’t over.”

Now, you may not be setting out to break the four-minute-mile barrier, you may be just trying to make a sales target. But the premise is the same.

I’ve talked in the past about dealing with setbacks. They’re just bumps in the road and you need to expect them and see that they’re just part of the journey. How you handle those bumps is going to depend on your resolve to reach your goal. If your resolve is weak, those bumps are going to be the catalyst for you to declare that it’s over. If your resolve is firm, you’re prepared for the bumps, even seeing them as an opportunity to change course.

I’ve been below targets before, and I’ve hit major bumps. When I set out to break a million dollar sales mark, halfway through the year I found out I was pregnant, and that could have been the perfect excuse to declare it over for the year. I was also below my target revenue at that point. Even more of an excuse to declare defeat for the year. But I trusted that this was all part of the plan for me. I asked myself, “What do I need to do to hit that target?”

When I rolled up my sleeves to redirect my course, I came up with a project that ended up being the biggest moneymaker of the year. I was supposed to hit that bump, that falling under target. That’s what made me see another opportunity. The pregnancy was also part of the master plan to get me closer to my sale’s goal. It caused me to become more focused, to work harder knowing I had only a certain amount of time to make the target.

Did Roger Bannister stop his quest to break the four minute mile barrier because of a breeze? No, in fact, that breeze may have caused him to run even harder, to pace himself differently.

So it’s never over until you decide it’s over.

You just have to decide what you want and go for it.

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When you’re just starting out in business, one of your biggest goals is to develop the much-coveted client list. That grouping of potential clients to whom you want to market your product or service.

While it’s very nice to already have an existing list to work from, don’t worry if you don’t have a list right now. I myself didn’t start out with a big customer list. Remember, we all have to start somewhere.

There are still plenty of ways to find the market you want to address. As you implement each one, your list will automatically develop and grow.

1. Set aside your preconceptions
If you think you already know who your market is and what they want, you will miss obvious opportunities. Clear your mind of its preconceived notions and your options, and your list will expand tremendously.

2. Listen
The first area you should focus your attention on is listening to the people around you. Hear what people are complaining about and zero in on responding to those complaints.

Think about all the opportunities you have to listen to people’s gripes and grievances. Visit forums. Participate in networking groups. Then, really listen. What are the members worried about? What are they asking questions about?

Look for the patterns. Look for the issues that come up again and again, and that fit your area of expertise and your interests. You may find a market right there under your nose.

3. Survey.
As people begin to show interest in your product or service, delve a little deeper to see what is attractive or important to them. If they visit your web site or sign up for a service or purchase a product, include a second page where you ask them a question. For example, if you are offering a teleseminar, asking for their name and email address will build your contact list. Then, ask them to take a brief survey before the transaction is completed so you can grow your business from the input of your existing clients. Your lead-in page could say something like, “Congratulations! Your registration is almost complete. But because I want to make sure the information I’m covering is most relevant to you, what is your biggest question about…”

4. Present yourself as a leader.
No matter what your area of expertise, being the leader in your field is the best way to sell your products and help your clients. Listen to the market. Pay attention to their needs and problems .Once you identify those needs and problems, establish yourself as the leader who provides help and answers.

Right now, within a ten-mile radius, there are people struggling and suffering with problems that you can solve. By listening to them with an open mind, and finding out their needs, you will find the market that needs you to lead them toward resolution of their problems.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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In any typical working day, most people have only two to three really productive hours. So, why not just cut out the other four to five hours and focus on the two to three that are really getting results?

You may be thinking that you need to work all the hours you do to get everything done. It may seem impossible for you to cut your working hours down. But it is possible!

Understand that the way you work comes from years of habit. It comes from having once been an employee, where you might have been able to get the work done quickly, but you still had to be present at the office because the boss would be upset if you went home at 10:30 am.

Well, you’re the boss now, and you can alter your business hours to suit yourself. You will be just as, if not more productive than you are right now, and you will buy back precious time for yourself.  Time is the one thing you cannot create more of, but in this case, you can.  Here are some questions to consider in your quest to buy back more time by being more productive ….

Are you over-servicing your clients?  Start by becoming really aware of the things you’re doing that keep you working harder and longer than necessary. Then take control, rein yourself in, and stop doing them.

If you’ve set what you think is a commanding daily rate for your services, are you subconsciously working more hours to justify that rate? Do you end up essentially doing three days’ work just to rationalize the higher rate that you charge?

Take a closer look here because, you’re still not making the money you think you’re worth. You are over-servicing the client. It’s not just about the rate. It’s about how much time you put into the service you offer.

Are you offering all sorts of extras that involve a lot more follow-up and that you aren’t being paid for? If your clients are perfectly happy and satisfied with what you’ve provided, your work there is done. Your clients aren’t going to turn away your free services, particularly if they were already willing to pay for your expertise. If you think you have more to offer your client, create an upgraded package and sell it to them. Continued access to your services should not be available for free.

Are you striving for perfection?  Do you continually work on a product or presentation that is already fine because you think it could be better? This is your own need for perfectionism coming into play, particularly if you are creating products or programs.

Perfectionism stops you from moving forward. You will be more productive by creating a product that satisfies your client’s needs and getting it into their hands, rather than tweaking it over and over.

Start to take notice of where are you creating extra, unnecessary work for yourself. It’s a habit that you have to break.   Change your habits to maximize those productive hours. Then spend the time you’ve bought back however you choose.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Are the edges getting blurred between your work life and home life? If you work from home, it’s really easy for those edges to get blurred. You might, for example, find yourself checking for responses to your tweets when you should be spending time with your family. Or maybe you feel the pull of work because your office is right there at the top of the stairs. Whatever your situation, you must set some “hard edges” between work and personal time if you’re going to work from home successfully. Here are three rules for defining hard edges between work and play.

I. Set Firm Work Days: Working seven days a week is a common mistake of work-at-home entrepreneurs. That’s a real mistake, because no one can maintain that level of intensity long-term.

Decide how many days per week you’re going to work, and stick to it. Here’s why this is important: the work you have to do will fill the time you spend doing it. In other words, if you allow yourself to be sucked into working late nights and weekends, you’ll adjust your workload because you know you’ve got lots of time to do it.

On the other hand, if you say you’re going to work just three days each week, you have to adjust your focus to get things done in less time. If you want to have time for something besides work in your life, create a hard edge between business and personal time by setting firm work days.

II. Reserve Time for Yourself: It may not seem logical that setting aside time for yourself each week actually improves your productivity, but it does help. An important aspect of setting hard edges between work and play is allowing time when no one requires anything from you.

You should especially pay attention if you’re a work-at-home parent. By setting a time when someone else is minding the children and you’re not working in your business, you allow yourself to refocus. It also gives you time to do those things you never seem to get scheduled in your personal life.

Whether you take a whole “You Day” each week, or just a few hours, decide now to set firm time that’s all yours. It will make you a happier and more productive person.

III. Stick to the Schedule! It’s all well and good to say you’re only going to work four days each week and take Wednesdays for yourself, but sticking with that schedule takes resolve. It’s so easy when working from home to read “just one more email” or let a project stretch into family time.

There’s no amount of money that can replace time with your family. Allowing your business to encroach on that time probably won’t even improve the strength of your business.

For your own health, and the health of your business, delineate a hard edge between work and play, and then stick with the schedule you set. You’ll be amazed how much you’re able to get done when you have less time to complete it. And your family will benefit from the time you set aside just for them.

When you work from home, you have the freedom to call the shots, to decide when and how you’re going to work. That is, after all, one of the reasons you own your own business, isn’t it?

Rather than allowing your business to control your life, decide what work schedule suits your situation. Let hard edges, not blurred edges, define how your business and personal lives blend. Doing so is a big step toward being truly successful.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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So you’ve made the decision to start outsourcing. Congratulations!

You’ll soon notice the positive impact this will have on your business, and you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Outsourcing is so important, because if you want to grow a profitable online business, you’ll need more than one person!

It’s time to build up a network of people around you that you can outsource routine tasks to.

But where do you start outsourcing? For some people, deciding which aspects of their business they could or should outsource is really simple. To them, it just makes sense which routine activities to outsource.

But for other people, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious answer to the question of where to start outsourcing. No part of the business stands out as being more easily outsourced than any other.

Something that will help you to identify what to outsource is to keep a log of your day. Try to keep a track of all your work activities on a daily basis, ideally for a week. It may seem very labour-intensive to start with, but this will help you to save time in the long run.

Once you’ve done this, sit back and look at this time log. Start to identify any activities that you would like to hand over, things that could be done by someone else. Highlight any tasks that, in an ideal world, you would handover.

Say, for example, you really dislike doing the accounts, or you wish you could get someone else to do your monthly newsletter mail out. Highlight every time during that week you spent on accounts or on organising the month’s newsletter. You’ll probably be amazed at how much time you’ve spent on tasks that aren’t part of your core business.  Tasks that you could hand over to someone else to deal with.

This is where you should be starting to outsource. The routine jobs that immediately jump off the page at you are where you should concentrate, as these are the tasks that you have readily identified as not being part of your core business.

When you start doing this, maybe you’ll only highlight a few tasks on your log. While you might want to hand over other things on your list, at the moment it might seem like too much of an impossible dream.

But I promise, once you start this process you’ll be hooked. And the longer you do it and the more things you’ll start to observe, you’ll begin noticing all that you’re doing that you could be delegating.

The great thing about doing this is that once you’ve got your list of tasks and activities that you would like to handover, you can start to group them together. Ask yourself if there are skill sets that go together, and if you can outsource a group of tasks to one person or team.

For example, your list might contain several activities relating to editing and publishing, or website maintenance, or data entry. These groupings might not occur to you if you just thought about a regular business day. But actually going through each minute of your day clarifies exactly what you do to keep your business going.

I still find myself monitoring my daily routine, because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing things that I could be delegating. Whenever I sit down to look at exactly where I’m spending my time, I immediately experience a boost to my efficiency and productivity.

So, your challenge is to keep a log of your activities next week. For those who aren’t outsourcing, you’ll be amazed at how much of your day you will be able to delegate to someone else. And while you may already be outsourcing, think of it as a ‘tune up’ for your business.

Get ready to feel that boost of productivity!

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When you turn to someone for help or advice, you more or less expect that person to make your situation, whatever it may be, better. They may not be able to fix the “problem” completely, but asking for help from a particular person because they have knowledge or experience in the area in which you’re having trouble is a wise decision.  Your ultimate goal is to come out of the situation with more clarity and knowledge than you had when you went in.

That’s what a good role model does – or should do. Set a good example for you to follow and provide you with the basic knowledge and guidelines you need to follow in their footsteps.

It’s the same for your business. One of the most important things you can do in order to make your business successful is to model the people and businesses that are already producing the results that you want.

The odds are that these successful people and businesses have stumbled upon the same road blocks you have, asked the same questions, made the same mistakes. So, whatever you think your limitations are, whatever you think has been stopping you from growing your business, they can help you to blast every one of your excuses right out of the water.

Do you need to get your message out to a bigger audience? Then model someone who knows the most effective way to network. My friend, Carrie Wilkerson, for example, whom you may or may not already know, is very well known with social media. By that, I mean things like Twitter and Facebook.

And she is big into relationships, with about 65,000 followers on Twitter.  She uses social media to be herself, but to be herself in a much bigger way. And so if you wondered about how you could share your message with a larger audience, then Carrie, or someone like her, is a great person to show you how to do it.  (Carrie is a guest speaker at my upcoming More Leads, More Clients, More Sales event)

The key thing is to look for a role model who not only excels at what you need, but can give you practical steps and advice to follow. Another thing about modeling people and businesses that are already successful, is to choose those that are coming from the same place as you. By that, I mean model businesses and people that share your values and your attitude, and your lifestyle.

If you are a single parent with four children, trying to manage your own business, emulating the successful business model of someone who is married with no children is not likely to result in the same success for your business. The great thing is that you’re always going to have plenty of different role models to learn from.

When you find the ones that have the same attitude and values that you do, they are generally more than happy about sharing what they’ve learned with you.

I guarantee there is somebody out there that is going to be able to show you a roadmap that’s right for you.

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