One foot in front of the other - the first step for positive living!

The last thing you want to do every morning is get out of bed and trip all over yourself. Positive living – it’s the first tool you need in your toolbox in order to start each day with one foot in front of the other and a smile on your face! But are you your own biggest obstacle and not even aware?

I’m guilty of getting in my own way. It’s true. My schedule, my life – they get the better of me on some days and I couldn’t fight my way out of a paper bag (even if you gave me a pair of scissors). I’ll share with you today some strategies I use to get out of my own way and back on down the road of positive living. It’ll put a smile on my face to know they worked for you!

Your Schedule – Fix It!

You’re the only one who allows things to go on your schedule. The only one. So stop acting like other people have permission to run your days for you! Enough with the double booking and back to back appointments. Give yourself room to breathe and the time it takes to do what you do best.

Your Clients – Love Them!

In the entrepreneurial world, we sometimes take business because we need the work, not because we like the client. Commit to yourself that you’re only going to take clients you like. When you have clients you like, they’ll refer people like them to you. And that’s more clients you like. It’s magic!

Your Life – Don’t Forget It!

When you leave the office or end your work day, don’t be afraid to not take a call or let your email sit until morning. Your insurance agent isn’t going to hit reply or answer a call at 8:30pm. Why should you? Give yourself the latitude to LIVE your life. Friends, family and relaxation. Devoting time to these things make YOU a better you and ultimately a better business.

Related posts:

1. Four Positive Life Changes You Can Make Today
2. Work-Life Balance: Who’s Owning Who?
3. Business Planning: Five Years? Forget It! Make a Three Day Plan

Put your positive thinking caps on!

I couldn’t think of a better post to start your week than this one: positive life changes. Mondays are universally a downer (even though they don’t have to be!) but how about starting your week with a completely holistic upper instead?

I want you to think of five things that went wrong last week. Drove you batty. Incited you to strangle choke, scream or open your eyes wider than they’ve ever been.

Now, make a list of five things that went right last week. Brought you joy, made you laugh or just made your day in any old way.

The second list was harder to make, wasn’t it? Well, it shouldn’t be!

Here are five positive life changes you can make today that will have that second list rattling off your tongue like that first list of frustrations. No need to be frustrated: looking onward and upward is always a more enjoyable task!

Wake up each morning with a “thank you.”

It’s your first thought of the day – why not make it one of gratitude? From birds outside your window to the sound of the coffee pot, there’s a long list of things to say “thank you” for each morning.

Rain or shine – it’s a good day.

If it rains, you don’t have to water the lawn, which keeps your water bills down (and your shoes dry). If it’s sunny, plants will thrive and you can feel the sun on your face. You can also use fewer lights inside during your work day and keep electric bills down. Either way, it’s a good day.

Out with the downers.

They creep up on us at the store or while we’re out and about. They’re the Poopy Penguins with the sad faces and nothing good to say. When someone around you tries to bring you down, think of how you’d turn the situation around (whether it’s your situation or not). Frowns look better upside down!

Start with a smile.

When you’re sideways, it’s better to start with a smile. First, it’s a pause. It takes a moment to put that smile on. And in that moment, you can change your attitude. Forget about the mad and start with something positive when something doesn’t go right. When your teenager spills something on the carpet after tearing through the house, why not try, “I see you’re a shoo-in for the cross country team next season. In the meantime, can we keep the speed limits below 5 MPH while in the house?”

Related posts you might enjoy:

Three Ways to Beat Stress When Nothing Goes Right (aka There’s No ‘I’ in What the Hell?!)

Why I Love Being Wrong

Related posts:

1. Positive Living: How to Get Out of Your Own Way
2. Work-Life Balance: Who’s Owning Who?
3. Why I Love Being Wrong

Is your home office a bunny slipper environment?

You roll out of bed, put your bunny slippers on, flip the switch on the coffee maker and fire-up your laptop. You’re now in your office. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

We were all new to the home office at one time or another. Maybe you’re brand new to it. Perhaps you now consider yourself an old hand. But either way, have you ever sat down and established some rules for your home office? Working from home is a gift – a pleasure – an indulgence and quite honestly, the biggest opportunity we have to fail at what it is we do for a living. Without some rules, we’re destined for distractions that will damage not only our time management but our bottom line, too.

Work From Home Rule #1: Treat Your Home Office Like an Office

There are no excuses for food wrappers on your desk or empty glasses stacked up to eternity. Keep your desk clean and give yourself a dedicated workspace. The Sofa Desk is comfy, but you’d be surprised what happens when you build a place in your home that is meant for work!

Work From Home Rule #2: Get Dressed

I know – I’m a fan of the bunny slipper days, too. But here’s my argument: three days a week, get dressed. I’m not saying suit-and-tie or dress-and-heels kind of getting dressed, but put some clothes on and get yourself ready as if you were going to a regular office and had to be (gasp) presentable for someone other than the UPS man. I always feel better when I’m dressed for the day!

Work From Home Rule #3: Get a Business Line

In the day and age where our cell phones are primary numbers for many of us, you owe it to yourself to have some privacy. Get a landline installed in your home office and use that as your work number. You can also use services like Phone.com (for only a few bucks a month) to have a virtual number complete with extensions, call handling rules and call forwarding (to your cell phone). You’re a business, not a 24-hour hotline. When the work day is done, people go to voicemail. It’s that simple.

Related posts: Work-Life Balance – Who’s Owning Who?

Related posts:

1. CoWorking: Working With People but Not For People
2. Positive Living: How to Get Out of Your Own Way
3. Work-Life Balance: Who’s Owning Who?

Is multitasking helping or hurting you?

OK – reality check: how many windows do you have open on your desktop right now? Are you a multitasking wiz or overburdened by doing too much at once? (Frankly, how on earth do you tell which one you are?!)

We always hear the multitasking mantra – it’s good. It’s great! It’s productive! But here’s my tough question for the day: what are you sacrificing for multitasking’s sake?

When we spread our attention across too many things, it’s a pretty decent bet that none of them are getting our full attention (nor the attention they’re due). Every now and then, there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a situation to get a few things done at once but today’s post is about stopping the madness and honing your focus. Multitasking isn’t always grand, so here are some tips for making the most of your opportune situations (and getting everyone the attention they deserve).

Multitasking Tip 1: Close Those Web Browser Windows

You’ve got Twitter open in one, Facebook in the other, Gmail in yet another, three blogs, Overstock.com and…WOW! If you’re working on a report, proposal or other task that requires your computer-related attention, do yourself a favor and minimize the distractions. Close your web browser and hit mute on your computer’s sound. That’s way, you’re not distracted by other shiny, web-based things and you can get to the task at hand.

Multitasking Tip 2: The Wired Headset

I know you like your Bluetooth headsets, but the sound quality is unreliable. If you’re going to multitask on a conference call, do everyone a favor and minimize the “hallway” effect and static – get a wired headset. Oh, and find the mute button on your phone. Nothing’s more impolite than the clicky-clack of keys in the background of a call.

Multitasking Tip 3: Email Time!

Do you answer you emails throughout the day? Do you have desktop notifications or sounds that tell you when a new one arrives in your inbox? Give yourself a break. Set specific times during the day to answer your emails and turn off those notifications. If it’s in an email, it can probably wait and you can focus on other things that require your attention.

Related Posts: Email Etiquette Conundrum: Do I Have to Respond to Everyone?

Related posts:

1. Women and Influence: Four Reasons to Stop Watching Oprah (even though we love her)
2. Three Ways to Beat Stress When Nothing Goes Right (aka There’s No ‘I’ in What the Hell?!)
3. Work-Life Balance: Who’s Owning Who?

What's the skinny on coworking?

When you run your own business, one of the classic benefits I hear about time and time again is freedom from the traditional office. We can go take calls in our bunny slippers and sip tea on the sofa while answering email. But if you’re anything like me, you can only look at the cat so long on any given day and you find ways to get out of the house to keep your sanity.

We asked for this – freedom from the office. But sometimes we get stir-crazy. What’s the solution? Coworking!

I recently heard about coworking via one of the many blogs I read. Here’s the jist: you pay a daily or a monthly use fee and prop-up at a desk whenever you’d like! Along with the desk in many locations are various amenities like wi-fi, quiet rooms, a conference room available for client meetings, a kitchen and more. But do you want to know what I think the best part of coworking is? The community. It’s community on-demand.

On days where the cat isn’t cutting it, coworking is the ideal solution for camaraderie, and exchange of ideas in a non-digital fashion and a great environment in which to get done what it is you need to do.

You can find local coworking spaces in your area (and granted, some areas might not be hip to it just yet, so be patient!) by doing a web search for “coworking (your town).”

Here are just a few that you can look at across the country as a primer on the entre cooworking concept:

Cohere Community (Ft. Collins, CO)

Blankspaces (Loas Angeles, CA)

Independents Hall (Philadelphia, PA)

If you have a local coworking fave, share it with our audience here. The more resources we share, the more we all can be as successful as possible as entrepreneurs.

Related posts:

1. Working From Home: Three Rules
2. I Hate Negative People and YOU Should, Too!
3. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?

Email Etiquette in Three Simple Steps

It’s the beauty of email: fast, simple, direct and you never get someone’s voicemail. But there’s a bit more to emailing than just point-and-shoot. There’s email etiquette that’s cause for confusion and enough to make your head swim. In this day and age of digital communication, what ARE the rules for email etiquette? Do I have to respond to everyone who emails me, every time? The answers might surprise you, but here’s my take on the world of email etiquette. It doesn’t have to be a conundrum – it’s email, for Pete’s sake!

Email Etiquette Tip 1: Be Concise

Don’t fire off a lengthy prose masterpiece for your business communications. Save those for the writing contests and updating your mom. Email should be short, concise and respectful of the receiving party’s time. How do you do it?

• Ask one question per email (but don’t send six emails with one question each in rapid succession!)
• If you must ask multiple questions, use bullet points and preface the list with: “I have X questions for you.”
• If you have a deadline, provide that.

Email Etiquette Tip 2: Indicate if You Need a Reply

I get HUNDREDS of emails each day – there’s no way I can respond to everything and email communication threads have to end somewhere. Don’t feel obligated to respond to every single email in your inbox. Here’s my list of rules for what needs a reply and what doesn’t:

• When someone asks a question or asks for something
• When they’re said something really nice and I would like to thank them
• When someone has shared something with me and I found it interesting
• When I need to confirm something.

Aside from that, it’s a case-by-case basis. Use your best judgment but every “thank you” doesn’t require a “you’re welcome!”

Email Etiquette Tip 3: Say Thank You

Whether you add it to your signature line or type it in at the bottom, show your appreciation for your recipient’s time. You’re glad they’re reading your email! It’s that simple.

Now – do YOU have any email etiquette adds for this list? I’d love to hear them!

Related posts:

1. Multitasking Makes Me Mad! Three Ways to Stop the Madness
2. Work-Life Balance: Who’s Owning Who?
3. Working From Home: Three Rules

Three ways to beat the stress under pressure

Stress (defined): The dog just took your car for a joyride. Your older son caused an explosion at the local power plant. Your daughter has run off with a sheikh that lives in Missouri. Nothing is going right. At all.

So how to you unplug and beat the stress when, no matter what you do, life is giving it to you from all sides? Contrary to what you see in the picture to your right, you’re not going to find any answers under a pillow. Here are three things you can do to beat the stress and keep yourself sane when the hits just keep on coming.

Get Out – Now! When life throws it at you non-stop, just get out. Put everything down, head for the door and leave it behind. I’m not saying abandon it – I’m just saying unplug from the situation for a bit. Not only will unplugging stop the momentum of the situation – it’ll give you a much needed and blood pressure-lowering interlude to help you breathe and think clearly once again.

Get Some Help. Really, any kind of help at this juncture will HELP. Maybe it’s a housekeeper. Maybe it’s sending your teenage son to pickup his sister so you don’t have to make the run. Stress can be alleviated in many ways and sometimes it’s the little things that keep us from losing every one of our marbles. Just ask – help is waiting. Listen to your inner psychic. Sometimes we just choose to not see it.

Get a Second Opinion. Sometimes we need an ear and that’s all we really need to keep from spinning out of control. Have you ever told a friend about your crazy day and they just start to laugh?

It’s great to realize that your life is funny again and not the apocalypse you thought. Pick up that phone, dial a friend and become a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? instead of The Biggest Loser.

Related posts:

1. Multitasking Makes Me Mad! Three Ways to Stop the Madness
2. Why I Love Being Wrong
3. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)

It's time to turn Oprah off!

There’s no doubt that Oprah’s become the icon of women and influence. We can’t argue with that, can we? Riveting guests, great stories, attention drawn to phenomenal causes and a shining example of a woman who stands on her own, she’s paved a way in history for the influential woman. Want to know a secret, though?

I think I need to stop watching her show.

Working for myself offers me the blessing of flexibility and access to a television each day when “Oprah’s on!” It’s been a regular thing that I tune in for an hour and offer myself a reprieve from the day when Oprah’s on. It’s been my little break. I’m sharing with you today why that’s going to stop – and it’s got little to do with Oprah herself!

Reason #1 I’m Turning Oprah Off: Because I’ve been spending an hour tuning into to someone else’s thoughts other than my own. If I took that hour and went for a walk, meditated, called a friend…whatever I choose, that hour would better enrich my life because I’m tuning in to ME.

Reason #2 I’m Turning Oprah Off: Whatever she or her guests can do, I can do, too. And in many cases, I already do. I volunteer in the community, I’ve written a book and I have a career that helps people build a fulfilling life. The difference between Oprah and me? I have less press And that’s OK. I think I’d like to continue doing what I’m doing and with whom I’m doing it and skip the prime time coverage!

Reason # 3 I’m Turning Oprah Off: Mobility. If I’m stuck in front of the TV or within earshot, how can I really give myself the freedom to do what I want or need to do at any given time during the day? By untethering myself from the tube, I can go anywhere, talk to anyone, send emails, prepare presentations and (gasp) even run to the grocery store. Life is boundless if I unplug from the gleaming glass screen.

Reason #4 I’m Turning Oprah Off: My clients. They inspire me each and every day in more ways than any TV show could. Their stories, hopes, dreams and desires are fuel enough for me to know I’ve chosen the right path in life. While Oprah’s stories are great, yours are better.

So there you go! I hate to say farewell to Oprah and I’m sure I’ll catch her every now and then, but I’m happy with my decision. Women and influence – it begins with US. We don’t need to tune in to a TV show to see it and live it. I’m glad to live a life devoted to women and influence, and even happier that my electric bill might be a little lighter after taking out 20 hours a month! Now, I love being wrong, but I think I’m pretty spot-on about this one…

Related posts:

1. Why I Love Being Wrong
2. Multitasking Makes Me Mad! Three Ways to Stop the Madness
3. 7 Reasons Why You MUST Find Your Voice

Fairy tales. As we get older and life shows us what it truly holds around each bend, we begin to lose our faith that somewhere, sometime, there’s a fairy tale waiting for us.

Princes and princesses disappear and we see the monsters in the moat, the fire-breathing dragons. Well, we see everything that keeps us from getting where we need to go.

You know what I love about fairy tales? Everything. The beginning, middle and end, every trial and tribulation in between! Aside from imagining myself all dressed-up in corseted gowns and waving to my prince from a tower’s window, I think fairy tales have quite a bit to teach us about business. If only we’d listen.

I want to share three things that I’ve learned about being a woman in business from all those fairy tales of my childhood. Now, this doesn’t mean that the guys can’t share in these thoughts, but I’m a girl and I’m talking to my fellow princesses today!

Hire a Contractor: Remember the Three Little Pigs? That nasty wolf kept huffing and puffing and blowing their house down. This goes to show that do-it-yourself isn’t necessarily the best defense against the things you want to keep at bay in your business. Whether competition or an afternoon rainstorm, team up with those who know how to build what you need – and it’s most likely not one of the other two little piggies under your roof! (Tip: search for woman-owned general contractors and businesses if you want to keep it with the sisterhood!)

Watch What You Eat: If you want to end up in an oven like Hansel and Gretel, go ahead an gobble-up anything that’s put in front of you just because it looks tasty. There are a lot of people in the business world that prey on your desire to grow and prosper and they’ll sell you a bill of goods because you’re hungry. Do your homework, read the fine print and get referrals for those business snacks you’re about to eat. It doesn’t all taste as good as it looks!

Dreams Can Come True: Your glass slipper, your happily ever after – it’s all possible as a woman in business. There’s no “man” keeping you down and to be quite honest, if you find a fire-breathing dragon keeping you from your goals, I want you to email me a picture. Whatever you aspire to can become your day to day. Grab a white horse and a killer dress and go get that new client, small business loan or fantastic new logo design. You deserve it and if you envision it, you can have it.

Related posts:

1. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)
2. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?
3. 3 Must-Do Things to Get Rid of the Whiners

How do you find the middle ground in work-life balance?

Is work-life balance really a myth? Every now and then, I pop over and read the fabulous musings of Cali Yost. She’s an expert blogger on the work-life subject for Fast Company and hosts her own site at the Flex+Strategy Group. I like Cali’s content. And I agree with her: work-life BALANCE is something of a myth. She prefers the phrase “work-life fit.”

Fit. I like that. After all, have we ever, for a single day, truly had “balance” in our lives?

Corporations preach it in their recruiting materials and employee benefits books. Day cares and preschools offer to help us out with it. But if I concede that there’s not really a balance and it’s more of a “fit,” then I think we’re well on our way to making some progress in these days that we live that are brimming with non-stop activity.

It’s pretty simple to see when things are off-kilter: we stay at the office too late, answer emails at odd hours from our smart phones and our voicemail inboxes fill up like the laundry basket.

I put together three tips that you can start using TODAY to make your work-life balance a bit more balanced. Put on your life like it fits and stop trying to button that top button when you had the extra helping of your neighbor’s awesome potato salad at the picnic last night!

Work-Life Balance Tip #1: Take Lunch

Yes, I’m crazy. And I’m telling you to take lunch. Whether you work from home or in an office, step away from your work domain for a minimum of thirty minutes. Stop scheduling conference calls during lunch. Don’t answer your phone. Don’t respond to emails. Unplug – and see how much easier it is to plug back in.

Work-Life Balance Tip #2: Hard Stops

Not unlike taking lunch, give yourself a “hard stop” at least two days a week. This means that at 5 P.M. (or whatever time you determine), you call it a day. Not five minutes later and no excuses. Go DO SOMETHING (and enjoy it). Your inbox will still be there in the morning (and your family and friends will thank you).

Work-Life Balance Tip #3: Ask for Help

If you’re simply afraid that you can’t get everything done and the act of trying is what’s putting you off-kilter, ask for help. Hire a virtual assistant, a house cleaner or one of your teenagers to do some of the running around.

Whatever the solution, asking for help doesn’t have to be expensive or worst of all, humiliating. It can be empowering and free you up to do the things you both need and want to! Take a tip from one of my previous entries on how to offer support. It’s easier to lend and GIVE support than you might think!

Related posts:

1. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?
2. Multitasking Makes Me Mad! Three Ways to Stop the Madness
3. Positive Living: How to Get Out of Your Own Way

I just love doing things wrong!

I really do love being wrong. I relish it, I wait for it and embrace it every time it walks into my life. I greet Wrong with a smile and if it were possible, I’d buy it a mimosa at Sunday brunch. Now, I don’t go out of my way to BE wrong, mind you, but when Wrong shows up at my door, I don’t look through the peephole and pretend I’m not home.

Over the years, I’ve discovered a certain power in being wrong. Remember when we were kids – teenagers, even. We couldn’t imagine not being 100% right all of the time! If anyone told us we were wrong, well, they were just…WRONG. I don’t know about you, but as I traveled through Life’s School of Hard Knocks, I came to realize something:

Wrong is Right.

When you open the door to being wrong, you find new ways to be right. That’s reason number one I love being wrong.

Reason number two is this: when you’re wrong, you can try again. Being wrong is life’s little mulligan. A do-over. And half the time, the work is already done for you when you’re wrong (because someone’s done it right and all you have to do is catch-up). Now, I’m not advocating you don’t look both ways before crossing the street, but there aren’t many types of wrong that aren’t recoverable. I love the do-over.

The third reason I love being wrong? That’s easy: I love learning. If I could be wrong about something every day and have a new Right presented to me, I’m living right. Whether it’s business, a conversation with a friend or a quandary at the grocery store, being wrong gives me the chance to emerge better on the other side. And I can learn how to not make the same mistake again.

Now that you know why I love being wrong, why do YOU love being wrong? What does it bring to your life and what do you learn? Go out and hug a Wrong today – you need them (and they need you)!

Related posts:

1. Women and Influence: Four Reasons to Stop Watching Oprah (even though we love her)
2. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)
3. Free From Manipulation & Being a Control Freak!

Appreciate your opposite!

Forget the battle of the sexes. When it comes down to gender issues (and yes, we ALL have gender “issues”), men and women each bring something unique to the collective bargaining table. But in the heat of life and business, it’s easy to overlook the benefits of men and women being different – we’d rather see those differences as negative. Well, this morning I’m going to turn your head in another direction and give you a list of three things that men and women each do that they do better than the opposite sex! Now, these aren’t absolutes or stereotypical characterizations – they’re tools to help you change the way you think. Last week, we talked about the value of having a trusted business colleague to bounce ideas off of. Well, this week, I’m that person and I’m going to share some fun tips about men and women in business and in life!

Three Things Men Do Better than Women

1. The Technicals - From installing a ceiling fan to figuring out why the back door is making “that noise,” men are just good with tools and gadgets. They’re raised with them – they take shop. Gals took home ec.
2. The Research – Guys activate that hunter instinct and will tell us what kind of car we should buy, the best schools in the area in which we want to live and can find most anything we task them with finding. They love to hunt, gather and bring it home.
3. The Solving – Men are problem solvers. Not to say that women aren’t, but it goes along with The Technicals. If something needs fixing, they’ll get it done.

Three Things Women Do Better than Men

1. The Listening – While guys are great at fixing, sometimes things don’t need to be fixed. They just need to be heard.
2. The Translating – We are great at hearing one thing and distilling the meaning. Granted, we are excellent at jumping to conclusions as well (not so great), but it goes along with our listening skills. We can hear, distill and then come out with something on the other side with great prowess.
3. The Organizing – Maybe it’s our maternal instinct, but women can rally a crowd, plan a wedding, throw a fundraiser or get 16 kids to a little league game on time. We’re great at nurturing and every good organizer is a pro with taking care of the details.

Now, before I get the reaction from some of you as I did from some of my best girlfriends, let me explain. These differences correspond with the years of research done by Carol Gilligan, the foremost leader in gender differences in the world. (I had the privilege of training with one of Carol’s colleagues early in my career.)

Carol’s research shows that men speak in the voice of ‘justice’ and women speak in the voice of ‘care.’ Each ‘difference’ translates into leadership, consensus building and influence methods that you use everywhere in your life.

I want to ask you – what’s one thing that you think men do better than women and vice versa? We all see situations differently and it’s great if we can appreciate the people in front of us for how they’re built instead of who we’d like for them to be. Share with me in the comments section! Forget the battle of the sexes: how about a consensus?

Related posts:

1. Three Ways to Beat Stress When Nothing Goes Right (aka There’s No ‘I’ in What the Hell?!)
2. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)
3. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?

Who do you lean on in business?

I’m not talking about left or right, conservative or liberal. I’m asking you: do you lean? More importantly, do you know HOW to lean?

Business is never a solo endeavor. On Tuesday, we spoke about things to consider when scaling your business. Today, we’re taking that idea one step further: who do you lean on in business? Leaning isn’t about not being able to support you and the weight of your day to day yourself. It’s about having a trusted business mind at your side at all times.

When you find someone in your business life that can not only lend an ear but their business savvy, it’s an incredibly empowering feeling. Business can be a lonely path to follow, what with worrying about competitors, bills, food on the table and keeping clients happy all at once. It’s key that you find a trusted colleague who has a soft shoulder to land on.

Sometimes it just helps us to know that we’re not crazy for thinking what we do about our business situation. Other times, it helps to have someone who will flat-out tell us we’re being crazy about our business situation! We get so wrapped up in our own day-to-day that we can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes. I don’t know about you, but I sure do value a little reality check every now and then!

Learn while you lean.

The other benefit of having a trusted business colleague is learning while you lean. When you share things about your business experience with someone, they’ll undeniably share things about their experience with you. If I made a list of how much I’d learned from other people’s business experiences – oh, honey – that would be a blog and website in and of themselves! Why would you deny yourself the gold mine that comes with learning from someone else’s mistakes and successes? It means you don’t have to make the same missteps and can take better, more purpose-driven steps toward you own goals.

So, my friends: LEAN! Find that shoulder, that ear. It feels great to take the load off every now and then.

If you have an experience to share about how you’ve found the hidden gold in a trusted ally, let me know and let’s start our own little “leaning” community right here.

Related posts:

1. Guys and Gals: Three Things Each Do Better Than The Other (Thank Heavens!)
2. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?
3. Why I Love Being Wrong

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1. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)
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Effective business planning doesn't mean biting off more than you can chew

Tired of all the hoopla about business planning? We recently talked about turning your intentions into actions. Today, we’re going to stop thinking about…

How will you grow?

How much will it cost?

Where will you be in five years?

Enough is enough! Step away from the crazy five-year plans and pare it down a bit. Make a three-day plan!

Have you ever been to one of those all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants and been dumbfounded the moment you set foot in the dining room? Seafood, salad, desserts…where do you begin? For some people, creating a five-year plan is the exact same feeling. It’s the overwhelming feeling that you’ll miss some of the things you like or needed most because you were blinding by having to take in so many things at once. That’s why it’s time to push the salad to one side and the sushi to the other and make your three-day business plan.

It’s three days! Without even thinking about it, we make plans to go out to dinner Friday night on Monday morning. We drop our clothes at the dry cleaners on Tuesday and pick them up on Thursday. Pretty much anything is manageable with a three-day window, right? Take your business from buffet to bite-sized in just a few simple steps:

1. In three days, what would I like to have crossed-off my list?
2. In three days, what would I like to have done that I’ve been putting off?
3. In three days, can I clean-out my email inbox and return all of my calls?

You can probably catch my drift.

Putting your business goals into bite-sized bits can make the overwhelming seem effortless. Some of us are great deadline workers (i.e. procrastinators) and a short deadline will incite us to action. Others just find value in getting some of the smaller tasks accomplished as it makes us feel productive. Don’t turn yourself into one of those negative people by taking on more than is manageable. No matter how you look at it, a series of three-day plans will create your five-year plan before you know it. And I’m betting it will be easier than you ever thought!

Related posts:

1. Do You Lean? (the value of a trusted business colleague)
2. Scalability: Five Things to Know if You Plan to Grow
3. Business Finance: Does Your Lipstick Match Your Balance Sheet?