Do you download recorded tele-seminars and never listen to them? Can’t find the time?

What about exercise? I don’t know about you, but I’m so busy that I have to schedule it into my day.

For time management purposes, let’s combine the two activities. Put tele-seminars on your MP3 player and listen to them while you exercise.

What happens if you hear a good idea and you’re afraid you might forget it because you can’t write it down? I carry a small digital recorder with me. This way, I record a good idea when I hear it. When I finish my walk, I write down the notes I recorded and then “take action now” on them.

Today I picked up four great ideas—and I saved time and got my exercise in!

When it comes to networking, it’s hard for someone to connect you to someone else if they don’t know you and what you do.

A few months ago, at a CEO Netweaver reception, I introduced a colleague to a member of the board of a nonprofit. Two months later, I found out the colleague ended up getting brought in as a consultant. Quite a great deal.

This is a great example of knowing my colleague’s expertise, knowing the need of the nonprofit, and making a connection.

Networking Guidelines:
Learn the person’s expertise.
Learn who their ideal client is.

It’s a win-win.

Is your laptop locked down at home and at the office? How about your external hard drive, where you back up all your data?

A few months ago I was working with a client whose office is located in a retail center—on the ground floor. His laptop and external hard drive were just sitting out on his desk. I mentioned to him that if he got burglarized, the laptop and the external hard drive would be gone. No backup. And recently, I was talking to a friend whose house WAS broken into. His laptop and his wife’s laptop were stolen.. Gone.

Laptop Security Tip

Purchase laptop locks for your laptop AND your external hard drive

There are a number of locks on the market. I use Targus DEFCON® 1 Ultra Notebook Computer Security System. There’s also an alarm on it that I use when I travel.

Lock them down at home!

Also, did you know that most pawn shops report stolen items’ serial numbers into an “online investigative” system that a lot of police departments use?” I can’t recommend a lock enough, but if you don’t have one and your laptop is stolen, ask the detective on your case to check the “online investigative” system.

Laptops are treasures to the thief. Let’s make them more difficult to steal.

Write down one goal you want to accomplish for the day. Stick to it until it is done. If you get interrupted—which you will—go back to your list and see the daily goal target and start working on it again.

Focus, Focus, Focus.

Before you add a new contact, make sure the person is NOT already in ACT!.

Look up by the person’s first and last name.  If they are not in ACT!, check to see if the company is in ACT!.

If the company is in there, you can duplicate the contact so you don’t have to type in the address and phone number. (Contact → Duplicate Contact)

If the company is not in there, create a new contact (Contact → New Contact)

Just met a new client? Promised to send something to an old client? Whatever the reason to follow up, don’t forget to do it! Win new clients and retain old ones — or risk losing them to your competition.

Take time to schedule this in your ACT!, MS CRM, or the CRM you are using.

Not near your calendar? Leave yourself a voice mail.

If you think this is inconvenient, imagine how great it would be to get lost customers back. (One client told me he lost $150K in business one year because of his staff’s inability to follow up.)

Look around and see what tasks you do over and over. Write out the steps to these tasks and put them in a notebook. You can use them to train someone (or maybe even some thing, like your computer) to do the task for you.

For example, whenever I develop a new seminar, I create a folder that has the following:

• Marketing flyer
• Marketing e-mail
• Credit card formPrintout of the PowerPoint presentation
• Attendees’ handout
• Timeline of the presentation
• Steps to follow to market the presentation

Until I realized that this was a set of individual tasks I had to do for every seminar, it would take me forever (or so it seemed) to get all this information together. Now, each time I do a seminar, it takes me only an hour to pull the presentation together. I just grab the file and get started.