Great Little Business

Lynne Franks and The SEED Network

Egg — 2007-03-27T03:25:33-07:00

I spent Sunday with Lynne Franks, PR Guru, and her SEED Network at a very inspiring SEED Experience Day in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, which is a pretty little village I used to live in for about 6-9 months in the mid Seventies. Lynne has a home nearby and had found a local Abbey for our workshop day which provided an inspiring, soulful space and a great veggie lunch!

My friend and colleague, Nyasha, reminded me about the SEED Network, which is about encouraging female entrepreneurs and the feminine way to create business so GLB is very aligned with Lynne's goals. I went to the day with the express intention of finding a way to get involved with and help SEED in their mission and they have asked me to help with some thoughts on financial strategy and running a local group in Canary Wharf. What fun!

Here are some notes I took at the day:

My values include: love, peace and serenity, authenticity, abundance, energy, inspiration, creativity, honesty and acceptance and a few more besides.

The most successful moment of my life was about pure love, and has given me permission to put love at the centre of all I do now, and that love will become a springboard for the rest of my life and work. I am loved, whole and perfect, I can anchor those good feelings, and this inspired me to create Pink Days which I want to donate to people and organisations.

SEED reminded me about iVillage and about a poem by Maya Angelou called Phenomenal Woman which I shall post on Three Wise Women later today.

Some of my beliefs which are holding me back are that I am, in some way, insufficient and may be overly concerned about the judgement of others and my fear of that. And that I don't prioritise quiet time, meditation, sitting quietly and doing less to be more.

I have pledged to clear clutter in my life by emptying out the boot of my car, stuff I have filed and will never need again including on my computer, and by recycling books and shoes at Sainsbury's.

In answer to the question "Who Am I?", I was able to answer: beautiful, pink, authentic, creator, entrepreneur, businesswoman, abundant, pioneer, an inspiration, an expert, an extrovert, small business guru, love, manifestor of great wealth, wise woman, leader, inventor, rebel, woman, sister, auntie, sister-in-law, daughter, good friend, fantastic with numbers, coach, connector, spiritual, soulful, energetic, film-lover, up for it, driver, dancer, swimmer, singer, karaoke star, fun and laughter, brilliant, brainy, reader, writer, cat-lover, public speaker, workshop leader, international traveller, kind, supportive, funny, mentor, brave, intrepid, excited and exitable!

The four goals I left with are to

live abroad for three months this year in the sunshine, by the sea, with full wireless broadband
write a book
meditate - find a daily practice that sticks (journalling? listening to meditation CDs?)
empower my partners in all my businesses so that there's HUGE success in all of them

Finally I left with the intention to find a way to join Lynne at one of her Bloom Retreats in Deia, Mallorca, where she has a home.

Time Management for Entrepreneurs

Egg — 2007-03-21T05:16:08-07:00

When you work for yourself there is no-one telling you what you must do in the course of your working day. You decide. Hooray! That’s one of the freedoms we have achieved by electing to work for ourselves.

How good are you a managing time? Have you had time to observe your working patterns? Do you know when you have turned in a good productive day, and when you have not achieved what you set out to do? What made the difference? How can you do more of the former, and less of the latter?

There is a theory that we cannot manage time – there are and always will be twenty four hours in a day – and I hope you are not working all of them! You choose how you get to spend your time.

Generally what I notice is that when I love what I am doing, time whizzes by. Equally, these days there are lots of distractions we can call work, but which in effect leech time from our day and make us less productive. You know what they are – emails, taking calls which interrupt your concentration at the convenience of the caller, filing, banking, admin chores and so on. Eventually I will want you to find a great way of getting this handled and I will encourage you to outsource the rest.

Meanwhile our task every morning is to decide what is our best and most effective use of the time we have available to us to day. Please start to take note of how long it takes you to eventually begin that task – how long can you put it off?

An entrepreneur’s time should be spent creating and moving the vision forward. At the early stages of your business you may decide to do everything else as well from admin to fetching the sandwiches, to making your own appointments, doing your own typing and filing as well. You may decide you cannot afford to outsource these just yet and that by the time you have shown someone else how to do it, you might just as well have done it yourself. That’s only true the first time, by the way. Subsequently that person will enable you to do what you should be doing in your business – creating wealth.

So take a note of the thieves of your time and find a better way to get those done.

So, what’s the most important thing you could be doing TODAY?

Sometimes this will be ridding yourself of tolerations, things which once fixed will save you time and money. Frequently it’s doing one great big job which you put off and procrastinate while getting lots of little ones ticked off your list. Is it tackling a difficult client? Is it doing the billing and collecting in the money due to your business? Is it marketing and automating the system for a steady stream of clients wanting to buy? Is it creating a product to sell online?

I would hazard a guess that you already know which is the most important, wealth creating task which needs doing in your business every day. Are you dodging it? Why? Most of us know that once we finally start a task it’s never as bad as we thought it would be, and draw a great deal of satisfaction from a job well done. So why not start right in there now, and use that energy to sail through the rest of the day? See? Easy!

Think very clearly about how much time you want to spend working in your business, doing the technical work of your business, and make sure you spend that time doing the most important tasks. The rest will either take care of themselves, not actually need doing at all, or you will make so much money by focussing your attention on what’s really important that you will be able to pay an assistant to take care of the petty details which may threaten to drag you down.

And yes, I really believe this stuff works.

Extreme Self Care for the Entrepreneur

Egg — 2007-03-21T05:12:12-07:00

One vital thing to remember about working for yourself is that you are the most important asset of your business and anything you invest in yourself will return to you multiplied many times. The reason for this is that without you, your business is nothing.

Now, all by yourself, you may not be sufficient for a wholly successful business but that’s another story which I will cover later in these thoughts.

Meanwhile, your job is to keep yourself fit and healthy, well nourished in every way, and fully of energy and enthusiasm for the task at hand, that of creating a thriving business around your original idea.

You know better than me what it takes to keep you “up”. You probably also know how easy it is to get into a habit of working very long hours and achieving less and less as you do so.

So resolve from the outset to invest in you.

What makes you feel well, energetic and enthusiastic?

For many it is a simple combination of any or all of the following: inspiration, fun and laughter, opportunities to be creative, exercise, getting in touch with nature, good nutrition, good rest and sleep, plenty of support from like-minded colleagues and an excellent coach, having people you can talk to who understand you and want you to succeed. This may not be your immediate family and friends who for all sorts of complex reasons (mainly love of you) are fearful for you and might even prefer you to be in a job.

Would you describe yourself as a morning person, or a night owl?

Know yourself and know the best times to take care of exercise, find a way to do that which you love – dancing, swimming, running, walking, cycling – it doesn’t matter just so long as you put it in your diary and get it taken care of three times a week.

Equally important is stillness – yoga, meditation, breathing, visualising – plenty of peaceful time which is relaxing, mind emptying and keeps your problems in perspective. Spa time, me time, gym time. Put it in your diary and Just Do It, thanks Nike.

Good nutrition and sleep – it’s a bit like work, rest and play – the old Mars bar saying, isn’t it – not that a Mars bar is good nutrition by the way, but a little of what you fancy does you good. We are talking plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, lots of pure water and fresh air. A performance vehicle gets better mileage out of top grade fuel.

Remember to make time for what my own coach calls Spiritual Self Care and to this list you can add anything at all which makes you feel better for no good reason and none that you have to explain, in my own case it’s a decent manicure, whodunnits and singing (and much more besides!).

And then the only piece which is missing now is that you have to believe yourself worth it and resolve to do it. I don’t know any successful entrepreneur who doesn’t keep themselves up by listening to self-help CDs for inspiration, reading the biographies of people who have overcome huge challenges in their lives to be successful, attending regular trainings.

I cannot stress this strongly enough and I check in with each of my clients that they have commenced a programme of these sorts of activities and are keeping to it. Whenever I notice energy flagging, I ask “are you still running” or whatever it is and usually we find they have dropped off their routine and are feeling the worse for it. Just common sense, really – isn’t it?

Devise your own routine which works for you and find a way to stick to it.

Pledge that you will invest in you and continue to do so – you are your company’s finest asset. Ext(Next week? Liabilities! No, only joking.)

Empowering Women

Judithmorgan — 2007-03-19T10:16:39-07:00

Coach Kerry Hales says: "I am on a mission and you can help. It is to “Empower Women!”

One way for you to help is to attend a workshop. Looking at how women can be more effective on the planet. Yep, just one day. Hey, that may be all it takes!

We now know that we are at least equal to men, but we have learned to play the game on male terms and with male competitiveness. What if we could love the differences between men and women and as a result work in harmony rather against one another?

The results you may expect are:

More attractiveness, thus attracting in what you want will be far easier to achieve
Enjoy and be proud to be feminine - resulting in getting more of what you want
Communicate with ease, to men and other women
See through ‘games’ women play to get what they want, resulting in you being more efficient
Feel liberated in honouring who you are, without your mind telling you who you should be

Are you curious? Come spend a day with Mel and me, and let’s see what we can create.

Where: Aware Chiropractic, Ware, Herts, SG12 0NU. Tel: 01920 465097

When: SUNDAY 25th MARCH 10am – 5pm

Cost: £85

For those of you not in the vicinity of Ware, please do come back to me as I will be holding a further workshop at Exceptional Health in Docklands in a couple of months.

Please feel free to forward to anyone you think may be curious or give me a call if you have any questions about what value you can create from the day.

Contact Kerry at 01227 779429 or mycoach@kerryhales.co.uk

The SEED Manifesto

Judithmorgan — 2007-03-18T14:20:48-07:00

I am excited about meeting and working with Lynne Franks on Sunday, and finding out more about her SEED network which is about The Feminine Way to Create Business.

SEED have their own manifesto, and it goes like this - see how well it would fit in with your own plans for a GLB:

Constantly plant seeds as well as pick the blooms
Keep the space and time to stay in tune with my higher self
Never let go of the big vision
Put my values, including integrity, compassion and love, at the centre of my enterprise
Remember the three R's: respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for all my actions
Believe in myself so others will too
Keep humour and laughter as vital ingredients of my business plan
Get up early in the morning
Not neglect my personal relationships, loved ones, and friends in any way
Manifest abundance in all areas of my life
Keep clutter to a minimum
Recognise my gifts and delegate the rest
Look at difficult situations from all perspectives
Welcome in mentors and mentor others in return
Light candles every day and surround myself with fresh flowers
Give people more than they expect
Talk slowly but think quickly
When I lose, dont lose the lesson
Know my industry
Keep improving my technology skills
Smile when picking up the phone
Remember my body is my most important tool - stretch, exercise, breathe, gor for a walk, dance
Every day try and read a poem, listen to an inspiring piece of music, look at a wonderful painting or go into nature
Drink six to eight glasses of pure water every day
Listen as well as talk
Learn the rules then break some
Know there is nothing more sexy than confidence
Remember that no-one, not even I am perfect, but I'm doing the best I can

Planning To Be A Small Business Success Story

Judithmorgan — 2007-03-18T12:42:31-07:00

It may seem obvious, but how many of us start out with the end in mind? How many of us believe on Day One that we are going to be the next big success story? Are you planning for success, or failure? You know what they say… failure to plan is planning to fail.

Now, speaking as an entrepreneur, I know that all talk of planning is pretty dull. So, how can we liven this up a bit?

The things I feel you need to find a way to plan for in due course include:

• Your vision
• Your mission
• A business plan
• A marketing plan
• A financial plan with targets

Where to start?

I think the best way is to take some time out, ideally before you start in business, or now if you have already started, and do some visioning and planning. I think it’s a good idea to build in some time to update these plans, and check in with how you are actually doing as compared to your forecasts, on a monthly and quarterly basis. Why not take some time out – an hour on the WiFi at Starbucks or half at day at a spa and work your way up eventually to planning your own annual business retreat? Or come to one of mine?

Your Vision should be a big colourful photo board on which you can meditate for five minutes twice a day, getting the good feelings it generates going round and round in your system. This will make you feel focused, lively and up for it and constantly remind you why you are doing it at all.

Your Mission can be a very simple paragraph which you keep in mind every day and keeps you authentic in your actions – perhaps put it on your computer desktop or office wall.

A Business Plan should be a very simple document which records who you are and what you intend to do, what you offer to your clients, who they are, and how you will find them, what you will charge for your service or product, any market research you have done and so on. Even if your bank does not require this for start-up funding, it’s a good blueprint for you to begin work on and you can update it regularly as your plans refine.

A Marketing Plan will list the ways you intend to tell the world about your products and services and will enable you to measure progress in each area, and thus stop doing what doesn’t work and focus on what does. There are plenty of different ways to do this but I recommend that you only pick three if you are working on your own.

A Financial Plan, often the most daunting of all, is where you will forecast income and expenditure, profits, and cashflow. This should be updated monthly as the actual results come in and the spreadsheet will forecast the good (or bad) news and give you plenty of time to take the appropriate action.

Templates for the business plan (incorporating financial pages), marketing plan and mission can be found for free on my website www.LonelyEntrepreneur.com – why not join up now and download them? And do let me know if you need any help completing the templates and I will answer your questions on this blog.

Taming The Monster

Judithmorgan — 2007-02-13T10:54:44-08:00

If you are self-employed, what I am about to say to you now may not apply to you. Because you might like pottering about at home, working when you choose, and for whom you choose. You may have got used to your income being lumpy and not mind. Because you enjoy the freedom it brings. You are your own boss, and leaving aside various uncertainties and the fact that you do everything that needs doing, its great. Really, its great. And if that is you, I'm happy for you. Somedays that's me too!

But what happens to most of us - if we are lucky, or successful, or both - is that the business begins to take off, to fly. We are delighted to discover we are doing rather well. The marketing is paying off, word of mouth too. We start to grow organically. We can no longer do everything ourselves, so we farm out some of the admin to a friend of a friend who needs something part-time.

And take a holiday, tentatively - because we have already allowed the business and the clients to become over-reliant on our own personal contribution, and it won't run without us. It may tick over, just, but it loses direction, momentum, cashflow or worse - we allow our clients/staff to phone us 24/7 including when we are on holiday. Groan. Those bloody mobiles! Ruin it on the beach for the rest of us too, ya know.

In the course of chasing business and keeping the clients happy, our own admin and accounts systems, such as they are, start to fail and break down. The business is in crisis, and often for the very best reason, that we are growing and doing well.

You can lurch on in this in-between mode for quite some time, managing on the goodwill of a few mates to help you out. But it gets tiring so you decide to get a bit more grown up, but really no-one cares like you do. The clients don't relate to everyone else like they do to you, because you give the best service of all your people, no-one quite sees the details which make the difference and no-one's following your way of doing it. You have surrounded yourself with a bunch of rugged individualists, all doing it their way! And that's not their fault by the way, you haven't yet trained them to follow the system. Er, because you haven't created the system yet.

Blimey. We're stuck now. We can't get smaller, or bigger, or give up. And by this time, you have no life, sometimes you are bothered by anxiety, sleeplessness and indigestion from the stress. Is it worth that? Is that why you went into business? No!

Time to get the manual out and put ourselves through just a little bit of short-term pain for the ultimate goal of more profit from less time. Less of your own that is, and more of everyone else's - making money for you by following the systems you created in the business you set up.

Again I say, if you are a one-man band working alone, this will not apply to you, although a little system here and there won't go amiss for you folks either.

But if you are an entrepreneur wanting to create a business which will generate income for you over and above what you need to draw, and an asset base which you could sell later on, then listen very carefully I shall say this only once. Actually I say it most weeks, one way or the other, hoping you will twig on eventually.

You've gotta create a system around what you do which will enable you to step out. You've gotta analyse what you do and do well, and replace yourself in that role, You've also got to take note of what goes undone because you don't like it or find it a chore, because someone else has got to do that bit too if the business is to thrive. Just look at what's piling up or being ignored on the To Do list if you want a clue there.

If I look at your accounts, I can tell what you are good at and what you are not. Selling yes, debt-collecting no, invoicing no, filing no, automatic marketing no, client service yes, finance no, finding solutions to your clients problems yes, closing a deal sometimes, getting more money out of your existing clients maybe, consistent customer experience no, spending money yes, increasing your margins no, cashflow planning no, working long hours yes.

I guess you know what you are good at, don't you? Could you teach someone else to do that, and make a margin on their time? How would that enable you to grow your business, and what if you took on others to do all the other bits? Would the end result be a stronger business?

Remember this - hire to the role, not to the personality of the person who comes along to take that role.

Then you could you open another branch following your exact same system you have perfected at head office. And another. Would you enjoy teaching other excellent motivated and energetic people to deliver your product or service? If not, find someone who would.

Your job will become to be paid to think, motivate the team and direct the business. And to make that product or service greater still, all the time. Imagine rolling out your business on a far grander scale than you ever have before. How does that feel now? Woo hoo!

This might seem difficult and perhaps even painful, I am sure. It may be easier to find another business which permits this more readily from the outset, and extract yourself from the one you have now, or sell it, as I did. E-Mything from within is always messy, not impossible mind, but tricky. Depends why you are in it. Because you have created a business around what you love to do, and its robbing all the joy out of it now, but you can't find a better way yet. Or because you want to make some serious money. A straight choice.

Now might be a good time to mention that the only way to make any real money in business is by using this model. I think you know that too.

As I say, this doesn't apply if you are just self-employed and happy to stay that way.
But if you are an entrepreneur with a vision of building something much bigger and sexier (and easier) than what you have now, get in touch and let's do it together. Or start reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and let me know when you get stuck.

Those of you in this predicament who have not got around to reading this book yet, let me explain the title. The E in E-Myth stands for Entrepreneur. It's about why most small businesses fail and what to do about it. It's the key. It's the way out of your mess.