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Archive for the ‘Words Of Inspiration’ Category

Do you sometimes feel that if you work one less hour your business might fail? Do you feel that putting in long hours is essential to succeed? I used to believe that. In fact that’s how I used to work. But I don’t believe that anymore. I found a better way to work, one that brings me more revenue and allows me more free time. If you can adapt this model to your business you will soon see that you also don’t need to be working 80-hour weeks in order to be successful.

A Smarter Way to Work

There are many successful business people who will tell you that success demands sacrifice. They tell you to sacrifice your time, energy and knowledge if your want to build a successful business. You need to sacrifice time with your family or time for recreation. They also tell you that the sacrifice is worth it.  Yet as many people know and have experienced, this isn’t always the case. Business people that put in the long hours often end up with strained family relationships, simply because they were never around. Now if your family and friends are important to you (as they are for me).  If you value your leisure time and want to enjoy a more balanced lifestyle then you need to take a different approach to business. Building a business around the “information empire model” is one way in which your business can really start to work for you.

I believe that you have unique talents, knowledge and expertise. I believe that if we hone in on those skills we will find gold nuggets of such incredible value. You can then use that value to grow your business with far less effort than what the long hour strategy demands. One of my clients Mary is a coach who specializes in working with creative people to grow their businesses. When I asked her why she wanted to attend my workshop on building an information empire she had an interesting answer. She said that she was coaching, but she never had enough clients or enough revenue. She was barely covering her costs yet it felt like pure hard work. She had taken on a house mortgage and she knew that she had to get serious about making money. She had to find a smarter way to generate revenue that wasn’t such a slog. Mary attended the workshop and implemented some strategies. A short while later her business started to turn. Now it is working for her and instead of Mary having to put in all the hard work and long hours.

Why Long Hours aren’t always best:

•    80 hour weeks do not guarantee success. You can be putting in all the hard work and still not be getting the results you want.
•    Working long hours takes you away from your family and isolates you from social circles. This can have a negative impact on your emotional health.
•    Working long hours usually cuts into your leisure time when you should be exercising or doing things to maintain a good level of physical fitness and health.
•    Hard work is an admirable work ethic, but it is only effective if it is coupled with working smart at the same time.

There is a common belief that long hours and hard work are the only way to be successful in business. Yet I believe that there is a better model for success. When you start to learn the value you bring to your business and create an information empire, you can get your business to do the hard work for you instead.

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Do you realize just how much your knowledge is worth? You are the first and most important part of your business. Do you realize just how unique you are? If we were to sit down to chat and I asked you about your life and business experience I doubt it will be a carbon copy of what someone else has shared with me. You are absolutely unique, I’m certain of that. Perhaps the issue is not whether you can charge a certain amount for your services or products. It is rather just how much faith do you have in your uniqueness?

A while back, on one of my teleseminar calls, I invited some clients to share their stories.  They had attended my information empire workshop and had implemented specific strategies as a result.  If you were on that call, you would have heard me speak with one of my clients, Gail.  During the interview, Gail revealed something very interesting. She said that it was some of the little things that actually highlighted how she valued herself (or under-valued herself).

Gail is a life coach who works with professional and amateur golfers. She helps them to improve their mental game. One of the things Gail realised in coming on the workshop was how many little things she was doing to please clients and other people. She wouldn’t think twice of driving out to clients or travelling to a seminar. It wasn’t that those were bad things. But when she heard me talking about doing business on my terms, that I ran the workshop in my home town because it was convenient for me, she wondered why she’d never considered that for her business. Gail realised that she had personal beliefs that were undervaluing her business as a result.  She realised it was possible for her to work on her terms. She just needed to value her uniqueness and what she was offering her clients.

I love the tag line in the Loreal adverts that say ‘Because I’m worth it!’ That’s what you need to be saying to yourself. Have more faith in your uniqueness.

Developing Faith in your Uniqueness

•    Are you pricing your products low because you think that will attract more clients? Is that their true value? Or should they really be at a much higher price level?
•    Do you find yourself bending over backwards to accommodate clients? Is that really beneficial to your business or could you be doing things some other way?
•    Do you question why people would want to pay to listen to you or buy your products? If that is the case it’s a sure sign that you don’t have much faith in your uniqueness.
•    Do your personal beliefs sometimes make you hesitate to take a step forward in business?
•    Is there a mentor or coach you could work with that can help you find your true value as part of your business? Sometimes changing the small things can make a big impact on the way you do business.

You are the first essential element in building your business to greater heights. Your knowledge is unique to you and because of that it has a value. If you question what to charge or if you can really set certain systems in place then maybe it’s your beliefs that need changing. Have more faith in your uniqueness. It is on that that you will build the value of your business.

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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Many entrepreneurs start their businesses with great excitement. They pour all their energy and effort into the business and make all kinds of sacrifices. But one day they realize that it just isn’t fun anymore. Somewhere along the line all the passion and excitement about getting in new business has been snuffed out by all the work that is involved with it. Has that ever happened to you? Maybe if you are reading this, that’s exactly how you feel right now. Maybe more than anything you just want to start to enjoy your business once again.

What went wrong?

My guess, if that’s what you are feeling right now, is that you are spending your days doing tasks that you don’t really enjoy. Perhaps you feel you are not very good at them. Perhaps you just find them tedious. Either way work has become a daily grind. The sad thing is that most business literature will tell you that sacrifice is part of being successful. That you can’t always do the things you love or are good at. So you simply accept that that is the way things have to be. Before you know it your business is grinding to a halt because you have become so bogged down in accepting the suffering part of your job and there really isn’t any enjoyment in it anymore.

I honestly don’t believe that has to be the case. Why can’t you spend your days doing what you love? Why shouldn’t you enjoy your business for many years to come?  If you are serious about wanting to enjoy your business once again you need to take some critical views of what you are doing. Analyze what you are doing on a daily basis. Write down a list of all the tasks. Then next to each one rank how good you are at it and how much you enjoy it. What it will probably show is that you are spending most of your time doing things you don’t enjoy. Now you need to look at which of those tasks could be outsourced. When you start to get rid of the things that bog down your day you may feel that spring in your step returning. As you start to focus your time on doing the things you love what you are really doing is building on your strengths. When you do this, you can start to enjoy your business once again.

Why enjoying your Business is Important

•    When you enjoy what you do you feel positive and energized. This energy is often contagious and attracts clients to you.
•    When you are doing things that you are good at, you are building on your strengths. Your work is more rewarding and ultimately more enjoyable.
•    When you enjoy your business your mind is more open to opportunities to learn and develop your business.
•    A business should be about more than just making money. It should serve your lifestyle as well.

Don’t think that because you run a business that it can’t be fun. If you are investing so much time and effort into your business then you should be enjoying it.  You give incredible value to your business. So in return it should serve you. Your business should give you the financial and lifestyle rewards that you dream of. Believe that business should be enjoyed.

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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What truly scares you about your business?

What obstacles are you afraid will interfere with your goals?

If you aren’t making the money you want, there is some type of fear that is coming into play. That fear factor is the one thing that can stand between you and your ultimate success. Until you face and overcome that fear and those obstacles once and for all, they will keep your vision from becoming reality.

First, figure out what you are afraid of.

Have you ever experienced any of these feelings:

Do you question whether you are enough of an expert in your area?

Do you panic at the prospect of speaking in front of an audience or conducting an interview over the telephone?

Are you terrified by the reality of marketing yourself?

All of these questions undermine your confidence in yourself. You need to address the underlying causes of your fears in order to move past them.

The answer to overcoming many of your fears lies with education. It’s common to fear the unknown, but as you educate yourself in those areas you aren’t familiar with, the unknown becomes far less mysterious. And much less scary.

Start by considering whether you have invested enough in yourself, in your education and training, to feel confident. If you can’t justify your expertise with education and experience, it’s time to get more of both. When you put the effort and energy into yourself, it will reflect in your confidence level, and help you to overcome that fear for good.

You may need to learn more about how to promote yourself, which is very different from promoting a company with a brand name. Investing in courses and training programs that offer strategies and techniques geared specifically toward small business owners will help to put that fear of rejection to rest. The same holds true for public speaking. The more you know about your subject and the more you learn how to do an effective presentation, the less you will fear public speaking.

This is all about you believing what you’re worth. You’ve earned the right to market your skills and abilities. Once you get out there and see the impact you can have on your clients, your fear will slowly evaporate.

Addressing your fears is both exciting and scary. You just have to face it – whatever it is. Whatever that thing is that makes you uncomfortable, that gives you pause and makes your heart and your head pound – just do it.

That’s how you’ll step up into the next phase of your business success. Once you do something that you were previously afraid to do, you can put it behind you. You can consider it part of your comfort zone because you did it and you survived it.

Getting over fear is one of the best feelings you can ever experience.

Step up to something, look it in the eye, learn what it takes to overcome it and then just take it on.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients. www.clientmagnets.com. Register FREE for instant access to her Stepping Up teleseminar series

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I’m a working mom with two kids and a million dollar business who works just three days a week. You may be in a completely different place in your life. You might be thinking that the dreams, strategies and tactics that I am talking about don’t really apply to you. The things that I am talking about achieving just seem so far removed from you current reality that you may be wondering is it even possible to get there?

I firmly believe that the only difference between where you are now and where you want to be is that at some point you have stopped yourself. Perhaps you stopped dreaming. Perhaps you stopped working at it.  It may be because of circumstances or because you had no support. It may be because of fear or because you feel that you don’t have the knowledge or the skills to reach your dreams. The point is still that you have stopped. If you have a dream, no matter how big it is: It is there to inspire you. To make you reach up to something that is bigger than yourself or your circumstances. There is a quote by Doreen Virtue that says: “God doesn’t give us our dreams without the ability to make them happen.” Somewhere inside of you a part of you that believes that the dream is possible. Otherwise you wouldn’t be dreaming about it. Sometimes all it takes is a step forward in the right direction, to step up and take on the challenge and discover what awaits you.

Some Ways to Find Inspiration

• Listen to that voice inside of you that is dreaming the big dreams. Dwell on the dreams, let them evolve and breathe life into them.

•  Ask yourself what may be stopping you from following your dreams. Often this can highlight areas in your life where you need to implement some changes.

• When you have highlighted areas in your life that are holding you back, do something about it. Make the changes or face up to the fears and get on the road to following your dreams.

•  Once you decide on a direction, don’t stop. You may pause to think through strategies but don’t stop or give up on the dream.

•  Find a mentor, coach or group that you can work with to help inspire you to go after your dreams.

Your dreams can become your reality. It really is as simple as that. You need to start believing in them. Don’t waste time sitting around wondering why you haven’t gotten there yet and all the reasons why you can’t get to where you want to be. Rather add fuel to the fire and get those dreams on the boil. Your dreams can be your inspiration and the things that lead you to discover a whole realm of amazing talents and capabilities that you may not even know you have. Step up and go after something that is bigger than your current reality. Start developing those dreams.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients.  Register FREE for instant access to her teleseminar series on How to Get New Clients.

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How much money do you want to make this year?

If you’ve answered this question with a round number, like, $100,000, or $1,000,000, or an, “I don’t know,” you don’t have a goal, you have a wish.  It’s imperative that you know your goal income numbers, specifically.  You must know how much you have to net today, this week, and this month in order to land the yearly salary that will support the lifestyle that you desire.

Here are some get-specific Millionaire Mindset methods:

• What would you like to do in the next year? Move?  Take your dream vacation?  Send a child to college?  Hire someone to manage all of that stuff for you?  Or make it possible for your spouse to leave his or her job to come to work for you?

Don’t forget the smaller costs that go along with each large goal, like the cost of providing your newest employee with a company car and fringe benefits, travel costs, tuition, and your existing lifestyle costs.  Don’t estimate.  Make phone calls.  Get current pricing on airfare, college tuition, health care, or whatever bills you’ll have to foot.  Write it down…you’re going to need it.

• Now that you’ve done the addition, do the division. Break out the calculator and find out how much you’ll need to net in a month, a week, and a day.  This will give you a manageable and reachable goal path.

Lots of people say they want to be millionaires.  But if you ask them how much they need to make this afternoon to stay on track for that wish, you’ll likely be met with a dumbfounded look.  Once this step is completed, you will be distinctly separate from those with a wishing frame of mind.

• Challenge yourself in the pursuit of your income goal. If that means working an extra 30 minutes to meet your daily income goal, do it.  If that means negotiating on a deal, even if you’re not comfortable with negotiation, then do it.

When you know how much money you need to earn this week, in pursuit of the big goal, you’ll be encouraged to do the things that aren’t so desirable.  Every time you challenge the boundaries of your comfort zone, those boundaries will soften, and your comfort zone will grow.

A goal like, “I want to make a million bucks this year,” will never incite you to rewrite an email or to hold firm on your retail price for an item.  But if your goal is, “I need to clear another $50 today to stay on track,” you’ll push right through, because you will connect those little tasks with your big goals for yourself, your family, and your lifestyle.

• Successful business people always know their numbers. They rifle off their conversion rates, costs, costs of sale, and precise percentage profits.  Businesspeople who don’t know are probably losing money.

• If the thought of calculating, relating to, or speaking about numbers frightens you, then hire a business manager to do it for you.  Investing all of your energy in working in your business, without working on your business, will be detrimental to your income goal.

• The numbers might be simple now, but if your goal is to make a million dollars, or any other impressive number, you’ll have to expect the money flow, in both directions, to become more complicated.  Adopt a know-your-numbers attitude now, rather than jumping into a sea of number soup when your chances of drowning are high.

In short, know how much money you need to make.  Then know how much money you need to make this week in order to reach that goal.  Name it, and then claim it!

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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You see an advertisement for a high-priced training course that you know would fill in a lot of business blanks for you.  You know that this course covers exactly what you need to know to move your business to the next level.  Will you decide to sign up for the course or will you pass by?  How do you decide if you will attend or not?  Will your decision be based on your current income or the income you can realize once you have that training under your belt?

More important than the answer to this question is the thinking that you used to arrive at your answers.  Did you think, “My current income won’t support a payment like that.  I’m going to have to pass”?  If you did, you’re making decisions based on your current circumstances, and if you continue to limit yourself that way, you’ll severely cripple your ability to grow to the great potential that is within you.

In order to grow and reach our true potential, you must change your current mindset. Any time a threshold is to be crossed (in this case, a monetary one), a change in thinking must occur.  If you can manage to set yourself on the right course, some of those changes will happen naturally, while others will have to be consciously changed in order to get results.

One of those changes is in the way that you make decisions.

Another working example might be an investment in your business.  What if you meet a dynamic systems expert, whom you know would be able to streamline your business operations so that you can concentrate on making the money that you’ll need to promote the lifestyle you desire?  But, what if the fee for that expert is $25,000 – money that you don’t have lying around, just waiting to be spent?

Here’s the question you might ask:  “Will I invest the money, or not?”  But here’s the real decision:  Will you view the $25,000 through the lens of your current situation, or through the lens of your ideal destination?  Even though you would rather not spend the money now, how will it compare to the $1,000,000 you’d like to make this year?

That puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

Those who continue, time after time, to make decisions based on their current circumstances are often saying “No” to themselves.
In order to make decisions based on your destination, you need to venture outside of the boundaries of your comfort zone. As difficult as this can seem, no progress can be made without doing so.  If you make an investment that you might be uncomfortable with, based on the future, as opposed to the present, you will work harder to make sure that the investment will work for your business.  In other words, that step outside of your comfort zone moves you along the path to your goal more quickly.

Your current circumstance is the direct result of decisions that you’ve made.  If you’re not in your ideal situation, that simply means that you have made some poor decisions; but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change your thinking and look to the future – starting right now.

So what will it be?  Current situation or ideal destination?

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Let’s say that you set a goal to quit smoking, or to lose 20 pounds or to make a million dollars. What is your very next step?

In any of those instances, the first step is basically the same. You need to make a decision. Whatever goal you want to achieve is the direct result of the decisions you make to achieve it. Everything you’ve experienced, in your career, your personal life, in your financial status, is a result of the decisions you’ve made.

And, if you don’t like the results, then you need to change the decisions.

In fact, I encourage you to take that even one step further. Don’t just change the decisions, change your decision-making process. The decisions you make are a result of your decision-making process, and you just might have a faulty process.

Only you know for sure if your decision-making process is flawed. How is your year going?   Are you living the glory days or just a mediocre existence?  Are you achieving outrageous success or is your business just full of challenges? You know because you’re living it.

Learn the three key questions you should ask that will help you to improve, not simply the decisions that you make, but the way in which you make them.

1.    “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Consider the worst-case scenario when you make a decision. Asking yourself this will help you learn how to take risks in your business. It will toughen you against the possibility of any little thing going wrong, and will give you the confidence to move forward in spite of that possibility.

The thought of losing money holds a lot of people back from taking risks or making changes. But if you consider the worst that could happen, it’s impossible to lose money. If something doesn’t turn out the way you anticipated, you may not have received the expected return on your investment, but you didn’t lose. You learned. Consider it an education expense.

2.    ”What will it cost me if I don’t do (or buy) this?” If you ask yourself, “What will it cost me to do this (or buy this)?” instead, you are allowing the cost of something to be the prime motivator in your decision-making.

How much money you have or don’t have should not govern the decisions you make in your business. The key is that when you’re not afraid of losing money, you make different decisions about money and it no longer governs your business decisions.

3.    “What do I need to get an instant return on this investment?” When you invest in something, like a product or a mentor or even a virtual assistant, you want to know how to ensure that you see that investment back quickly. In the end, what you need is for that investment to not actually cost you money but end up making you money.

Notice that not one of the questions asks, “What’s the cheapest way to do this?” That’s not how I want you to think. That’s not how you should make decisions.

Apply these questions to an investment you’ve been considering – something that you’ve been thinking about doing in your business, something that you’ve been wanting to do and that you know would help you grow your business. Maybe you’ve been telling yourself you can’t afford to do it.

Approach that investment with these three questions and you’ll see what happens. These questions will lead to different solutions for you. These are some of the very questions that I include in my own decision making, and I know that they will open up some new possibilities for you.

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Think how a caterpillar must feel when it’s in a cocoon that’s turning to mush.

The caterpillar doesn’t know that in only a few seconds, it will be a butterfly. In that moment, the caterpillar feels like it is dying.

This is what change can feel like. It doesn’t always feel good when it’s happening.

When you are on the path to achieving your goals, the recognizable road you once traveled is behind you, while the road ahead is mostly unfamiliar and may feel uncomfortable.  But, as your environment changes, so will you.

Like the caterpillar that experiences a complete change in its environment, going from the ground to the air, everything that doesn’t match the new you on your new path will just go right out of your life.

You may experience some loss, but I promise you, the changes and the gains will be worth it.

For me, a move to a new house led to changes in everything I own, from the clothes I wear to replacing my computer, my phone, my digital camera, my video camera.  Everything just suddenly broke down, got lost, stolen, or needed changing. As I had upgraded, everything around me was getting upgraded as well.

This can happen with relationships too. The people with whom you once spent a lot of your time, both professionally and personally, may no longer be part of your life. This doesn’t need to be negative. As those old relationships fall away, many more supportive people will come into your life.

You will discover new, amazing professional and personal relationships to replace those old ones. Individuals who, like you, are striving toward bigger goals, or who you discover will help you meet yours. It’s like you are upgrading your relationships by moving forward in your life.

Being in the midst of so much change is admittedly scary. It can feel like your life is falling apart. While your instincts may be screaming for you to avoid it, welcome change instead. It means that you’re growing – and the growth will happen across the board.

Remind yourself of the reasons you are experiencing these changes to begin with. Focus on the goals you set for yourself, personally and professionally. Welcome the unfamiliar and have faith in your ability to deal with the changes you encounter.

Like the caterpillar that has no idea of the beauty and unending heights that await when it emerges as a butterfly, your changes mean that you are growing and soaring ever higher.

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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In order to take your business from where you are now to a soaring success by the end of this year, chances are you’re going to need to make some investments.

In this economy, that word, investments, makes most people shudder. But, the kind of investments I’m talking about aren’t nearly as risky or as scary as placing all your money into some fund, speculating on the market and hoping to see a good return.

The investments I’m talking about are much more secure than that. And, they are guaranteed to produce results.

You may need to invest in software, or in building your team. You may need to invest in attending an event or in recruiting the right people, or getting the right experts to assist you with a certain part of your business. You may need to invest in your education.

Rest assured, there is always some type of investment that you need to make in order for your business to grow.

Personally, I’ve invested a lot in my business. I’ve done all of those things I just mentioned, from building my team, to belonging to mastermind groups and purchasing software systems. These things are all essential to growth.

Before you think, “Sure, Bernadette, that’s easy for you to say, with all this money, your nice big house, your nanny and your housekeeper,” I want you to know that this is not a recent habit for me.

I didn’t allow cost to be the prime motivator in my decisions, even when I was broke. Not that long ago, when I had a small baby and was paying so much of my income to childcare, I was presented the opportunity to jump onboard Yanik Silver’s marketing mastermind group. This was far more than I had ever spent before. But it is one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

Yes, you’ll spend a lot of money on these things year after year, but they’re good investments. They help to grow your business.

Your bank balance shouldn’t determine your decision making. If it does, your balance won’t actually change until you stop making your decisions that way.

The decision to make an investment in your business is as much a psychological stretch as it is a financial stretch. Like any investment, you have to weigh the factors to determine if the investment is sound for you. But, instead of asking, “What will it cost me to do this?” the better question is, “What will it cost me if I don’t do this?”

Even if you think that you simply, physically don’t have the money to invest in software or an assistant, you need to look beyond that. This is where the leap of faith comes in. By putting that person in place or buying that software, you will free up time so you can then go out and bring on one more client.

If that additional client spends $1,000 with you and the assistant or software cost you $300 a month, essentially that investment saved you or made you $700 more per month.

Start looking at investments in your business as what you will be losing by NOT making them. You stand to GAIN SO MUCH MORE by giving your business the support and backing it needs to grow. The returns on your investment will be well worth it in the end.

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