My client, let’s call him Mike, has had interns working for him for the past few years. It’s a great way to keep his payroll costs lower (he pays them, but not a lot) and gives a younger person great experience in their new field.

Mike’s most recent intern, “Josh,” has worked with him part time since the beginning of the year. Josh has a professional degree and working with Mike has given him some valuable real world experience in his chosen field, and hopefully a good reference, as well.

Josh had another part-time job to make ends meet. My client had work lined up for him this summer, but just this week, on a day when he was expecting Josh to come to work, he got an email from Josh instead with the subject line:

hey

His message was that he had the opportunity to work full time in food services and so would be stopping his work as an intern with Mike. He thanked Mike and said eventually he would pursue an advanced degree in their field.

You have probably received a few emails like this, often from people in their 20’s (as Josh is), very informal, casual spelling and grammar – the kind you’d typically send to a friend. But, hey, at least he didn’t resign via a text message!

Mike, being the brilliant client of mine that he is, did NOT respond by email. He has Josh’s last check and intends to wait for Josh to come in to pick it up so they can have a little chat about how you resign in a professional manner. Mike is a great guy and a true mentor of young people. He wants to help Josh and will kindly let him know that sending an email is not a professional way to resign from a job and is not very likely to get him a glowing reference from Mike.

On the other end of the continuum is Mike’s secretary, Claire, a competent professional in her early 60’s. Mike was getting complaints from his other employees that Claire was unfriendly towards them, although she had impeccable manners and friendliness toward the firm’s clients.

When Mike sat down to discuss this with Claire, she talked about how she was trained not to speak personally with her boss or other employees. That was often the case 30+ years ago when she was starting out her career, but now the workplace has become less formal and a some friendly interaction with co-workers is the norm.

Mike had to let her know that it is in fact highly desirable that she engage in some informal chit chat with her co-workers. He assured her that he was not worried about any of them losing focus and not getting enough work done.

As is often the case in business (and life), somewhere between two poles lies the best course of action. Ask yourself where you fall on the informal/formal continuum and make some simple adjustments if needed. This can go a long way to improving your professional relationships.

Because, hey, let’s face it, it’s a balancing act.

However, I don’t talk very often about my grandfather because while he was able to do impressive things in the business world, he failed at what I believe to be one of life’s biggest achievements, one that makes any business success look unimpressive in comparison: My grandfather was a lousy father.

After he left Newsweek, my grandfather for all intents and purposes abandoned his family and went to South America to pursue various business endeavors. My grandmother essentially raised my dad and his sister as a single parent. It was not that acceptable to divorce in those days, and raising her family by herself was not an easy task. My father’s sister, my aunt, never spoke to her father after she left home and refused to speak about him with anyone for the rest of her life.

My father dutifully kept up a letter writing campaign with his father as his father lived out his days in southern Brazil. But the impact on my dad was very deep and, in my view, essentially crippled him emotionally. Of course the result of this wounding affected the kind of parent he was to me and my siblings, as well the kind of husband he was to my mother.

So when you get down to it, I don’t care if you are Donald Trump or Bill Gates and have a ton of money in the bank and all sorts of business accomplishments in your “win” column. What does all that matter if you are a lousy parent, an absent spouse, or if your friendships run fast and shallow? It’s that old question about: what do you want them to write on your gravestone: “I wish I had spent more time at the office” ?

Fortunately, having good relationships is a lot more important for many people these days. Most people want to leave a legacy of healthy, positive relationships with partners, children and friends.

This is an especially hard challenge for entrepreneurs. We have to marshal all our strength, intelligence and heart, as well as tap all the help available in order to achieve a healthy balance and not let our business completely take over our lives. The price is too high. In fact, our businesses have a better chance of succeeding if we don’t become completely obsessed and unbalanced, and shortchange the personal relationships in our lives.

Newsweek may go the way of the dinosaur, but my grandfather has left his legacy. He could have done better.

What will your legacy be?

It’s not easy taking on the role of “boss.” Unless you have been an entrepreneur from birth, you had a few bosses before you started your own business, so you are well trained in being an employee, not a boss. When it comes your turn to be the employer, it can feel pretty uncomfortable, especially when corrections need to be made and negative feedback given.

One of my clients was quoted this week in the Wall Street Journal on this issue.
Before she started her business, 2 Hounds Design Inc., a manufacturer of designer dog collars, Alisha Navarro had a boss who invasively monitored employees’ activities. So when Alisha started her own company in 2003, she was intent on using a different management style.

In the WSJ article it says, “But Ms. Navarro admits her hands-off approach has backfired on her at times. “I have an intense need to be liked by everybody, which translates into trying to deal with problems in the workplace indirectly rather than directly,” she confesses.”

In fact, with some help from me, Alisha has come a long way in “toughening up” and becoming a stronger (though still nice) boss. If a nice southern girl like Alisha can do it, so can you.

In providing small business consulting services to entrepreneurs around the US and Europe, I am constantly helping clients deal with employee issues. Let’s face it, it’s one of the hardest aspects of running a company, and not nearly as fun as creating new products or services. But your team is your fortune, so take the time to get better at managing them and you will be well rewarded.

Yesterday I was about to make a purchase when my browser suggested there was somewhat of a problem with the security of the shopping cart. Now, I’m a veteran online shopper and never had a problem . . . until last month. I ignored a warning message and someone got my credit card number and immediately (and I mean immediately) charged a plane ticket on it.

Of course the credit card company issued me a new card, but what a hassle. So now I’m a bit gun shy. And when this site had a bit of a problem, I hesitated and decided to order over the phone. I called and got voicemail, so I left a message.

Then last night I realized that I could actually make do without buying that piece of equipment. I lost my willingness to shell out the bucks. So when they called me back almost 24 hours later, I wasn’t buying anymore.

Little things tripped up this sale for the company. A problem with their shopping cart. Then making me leave a voicemail on their toll free sales line. Then not returning my call for 24 hours.

In my small business coaching and consulting services, I help my clients take a magnifying glass to their sales process from start to finish. It’s not only, how do you GET a prospect, but also where can you LOSE a prospective customer? Where DO you lose them?

Never stop asking these questions – fix everything you can!

In a recent interview in Inc. Magazine, Tim Ferris, author of the best selling book, The Four Hour Work Week, said that while the title of his book was not meant literally, it was possible to dramatically increase your productivity by eliminating nonessentials and reestablishing strong boundaries.

He said: “You have to emotionally condition yourself to the point where you’re comfortable declining almost everything.” Being able to say “no” (diplomatically, hopefully, most of the time) is a true power tool that can radically change your work life.

Just like building a bicep, this “no” muscle requires heavy use and repetition to develop. But the rewards are huge – you’ll have the strength to protect your time and your focus.

In addition to being able to say “no” to the trivial, you have to focus relentlessly on your core areas of strength and focus on the 20% of activities and clients that produce 80% of your profit. Almost everyone has heard of the 80/20 rule, but when I really use it to analyze my time and productivity, I have always found that it is remarkably and consistently accurate.

So while a four hour work week is not remotely likely for most of the business people I know, a 40 hour one would be a great achievement.

Yes, it’s April Fool’s Day and I got suckered by Google – and had a good laugh – a great way to start any day!

Google has been playing around with their search home page, dressing it up for various holidays like St. Patrick’s Day. I indulge them that, but mostly I really want them to stick to their wonderful usual clean, simple look. They’ve done a great job of branding, haven’t they?

But today Google’s home page proclaimed “Topeka” and a little link “Not in Kansas – learn about our new name” explained that Google is changing it’s name to Topeka. A little sign at their corporate HQ confirmed it, along with a press release.

I admit, I fell for it for about a minute and then it dawned on me that it’s April Fools’ Day. I sent an email this morning to my step-daughter not to waste her time calling or emailing today, because we were on to her April Fool’s Day hijinks. Nonetheless, I feel for Google’s trick.

Day in and day out I provide my small business consulting services to small businesses across the country. Everyone’s working hard, dealing with the challenges. I say as long as we can laugh at ourselves, we’ll be just fine.

Thanks, Google, for a good laugh today.

The article make suggestions about having plants, adding color, using good ergonomics and getting to a different locale sometimes.

I’ve always had at least one big plant in my office because I agree it really does bring good energy and make me feel good. According to one study “more innovative thinking, generating more ideas and original solutions to problems in the office environment that included flowers and plants.” I believe it!

As for ergonomics the article talked about having good chairs and good posture. A couple years ago I switched to a desk that’s 41” high. I have a tall chair that I sit in, but some of the time I stand. This switching of positions is good for my back and helps channel my restless entrepreneurial energy! Providing small business consulting services to a wide variety of businesses requires a lot of energy and I find that standing up helps me maintain that level I need.

I’m going to be repainting my office this year and was already planning to paint at least one wall a vibrant color. You can use color to help put you in whatever you mood you prefer, whether that’s calm and creative, energized, focused etc.

Their last suggestion was to do some work in another location besides your office, whether a coffeehouse, a park (now that the weather is getting nice), or somewhere similar. Sometimes as I provide my small business consulting services I enjoy getting to another locale because it always seems to re-energize me and refresh me.

Try one or more of these tips to help you feel better and keep up with all the many responsibilities in your business.

In order to help small businesses and their owners to thrive, I’ve put together this mini guide. I’m sure that whether you are just starting out or are a more seasoned business person, you will most likely get a few flashes of insight or recognition that will help you improve your business today.

Peter Drucker is famous for once saying that there are really only two core functions of any business: marketing and innovation – and that the rest are all costs. In this guide, I’m adding what I think are two additional core components for today’s small business person: productivity and planning for profitability. To me, this four legged stool provides you with a strong foundation from which to steer your business ship to continued and greater success.

INNOVATION: VALUE DELIVERY

First, our business must provide innovative products and services – ones that clients and customers need or want. The more we can put some extra value into our products and services, the more we can help people enjoy or benefit from them in a more effective or enjoyable way (innovation), the better we have served them and the better our business will do.

For example, I put extra value into my small business consulting services by giving my clients writing and editing help (this is very popular), free books when I think of one that would really help them (without overloading them with yet more to read!), birthday cards and other gifts to let them know I truly care about them and appreciate them being clients of mine, and in-person meetings when I am in their city or town.

Actually, innovation is typically what entrepreneurs love to do. So this one isn’t as tough, typically, as the other three legs.

MARKETING: GETTING THE WORD OUT, BRINGING THE PROSPECTS IN

I’d say a good portion of small business owners hate business development marketing. This is true despite the fact that they are in most cases the best ones to lead the marketing charge because of their passion for their products and services, their personal compelling story and their drive to have their company succeed.

Marketing for small business is, of course, how we get the word out to prospective customers, how we bring in the leads that our sales processes can then sell to. Small business marketing is of course a massive topic, and yet it’s easy to make it an overly
complex process, too. So here are three keys for marketing success.

#1. We have to start with WHO you think your target market is, or your “ideal client” as some like to call it, and work backward from there. There isn’t much in the world that “everybody” needs or wants. Even with such fundamentals as the food we eat, what one person chooses to eat can vary tremendously from the next guy or gal. So you MUST know WHO your business serves and then you must learn as much as you can about those people – their demographics, such as age and gender, location, and income, education, of course, but also their psychographics – attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles.

Then use all you have learned and make sure your marketing (including headlines and copy) really address the needs and wants of those people. Every business can be different, noteworthy and focused on a specific niche or demographic/psychographic.

#2. One key business marketing strategy is to use direct response marketing, not image or brand marketing (leave that to multinational corporations that sell to the mass consumer market like car companies, Proctor & Gamble, et al). You need marketing that incites the prospect to take an action and that action needs to be measurable. Then make sure you measure it! Track it. Tweak it. Rinse and repeat forever.

Remember the line about he business owner who says “50% of my marketing works great; I just don’t know which 50%”? You can’t afford to waste 50% of your marketing dollars or the time you and your team put into it.

#3. You need to be innovative, somehow unique, have a message. Don’t be afraid to be different – embrace it! It’s an interesting thing to me about the name of my company, Authentic Alternatives. I really liked it at the beginning, of course. A few years later I thought to myself “What a stupid name – nobody knows what it means, it’s not about business per se” – all those self-critical voices we get in our heads. Then a few years later I realized it really is a great name for my business, because it attracts the right kind of clients to me – business owners who march to the beat of a different drummer, who truly think outside the box, who want to be real (authentic) and who aren’t afraid to think a bit “alternatively.”

My advice to business is to make your business ABOUT something, like the way Subway repositioned itself to be about health and even weight loss. Pretty good trick for a fast food corporation!

It’s not easy getting noticed in this world of 7+ billion people and billions of marketing messages everywhere 24/7. So if you and your products need to be a little bit eye-opening and remarkable to reach the level of success you deserve.

PRODUCTIVITY: LIFE IS SHORT

As owner, if most of your day is not spent on innovation and/or marketing, you’re probably having a lot less success than you could be having. In the business coaching services I provide to business owners from a wide variety of industries, the same productivity principles apply, regardless of type of business. You must:

1) Manage your priorities
2) Manage your energy. (a better answer to time management for small business owners!)

Let’s look at each of these briefly.

Managing Priorities

Everyone knows they need to manage their priorities, but what does this really mean? The fact is, we all have too many priorities and too little time.

If you haven’t heard the story that Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, passed along, it’s worth repeating. Pretend that a big glass jar represents your life. You have a bucket of sand and the sand represents all the hundreds of little things you need to do each day and every week. You have a bucket of big rocks and they represent your top priorities – the things that if you focus on them will bring you the true rewards you want from your business and life. If you put the sand in first, you won’t have room to cram in very many rocks. But if you put the big rocks in first, you can then pour the sand in and it will fill in all the space very nicely and it will all fit!

What this means is on a weekly and then daily basis you must decide what your big rocks are and then schedule them into your calendar. All the other stuff WILL either get done or if it doesn’t, your life won’t end.

In my small business coaching services, I recommend to my clients that they start by picking just three big rocks for the week and focus everything they can on those until they are done. My clients are high achievers, go-getters who set the bar for themselves very high. Most of the time – too high.

Even though they get a tremendous amount of work done, they continually feel either like failures or like they aren’t realty making progress. In fact, the opposite is usually true. They ARE making very good progress.

We need to open our eyes and be more aware of what the activities are that will truly move the ball forward for our business. If you know you really needs to upgrade your website for example but never seem to get around to launching the project, clear the decks!

Your email can wait, Twitter and Facebook can wait, your laundry can wait, doing someone’s performance review can wait.

You have to be RELENTLESSY FOCUSED on your big rocks. If you aren’t, the tsunami of “life” will roll over you and carry you far, far away at best and kill you at worst. So you must RUTHLESSLY protect your time and focus.

You have to develop a killer attitude toward your time, be as fiercely protective of it as a mother lion of her cubs.

If you have an open door policy, change it. You have to create chunks of time every day which are UNINTERRUPTED, meaning no drop ins (unless the building is on fire), no email (turn off sound alerts if you use them), no phone calls (let your voicemail take messages), no cell phone.

Think back to when you had a job and you went into the office on a weekend – how incredibly productive you were. Eliminating interruptions and distractions is a hugely important productivity strategy. Your customers, staff and family can live without you for a few hours. Really.

Managing Energy

What about managing energy? If you ever read The Power of Full Engagement by Loehr & Schwartz, you had your eyes opened about the fact that it’s not so much about time management as energy management.

Most small business owners run on adrenaline to fuel their endless activities. We know intellectually at least that long term a healthy and happy life cannot be sustainable if we run on adrenaline a lot of the time. None of us will fall apart if we have a cup or two of coffee, eat a candy bar now and then or short change sleep occasionally. However, if we overdo these, we will sooner or later start to be incredibly fuzzy and ineffective and head straight toward total burn out. Burn out can come in many forms, such as a failed business, a heart attack or a failed marriage. The Japanese even have a word for it: karoshi – death from overwork.

There’s been a ton written about work/life balance and the fact is running and growing a business is not for the land of “ideal work/life balance.” But what we can do is incorporate energy rituals into our daily lives. These are simple practices that take little time but serve to dramatically restore our energy and focus, our enthusiasm and commitment to the multitude of tasks at hand in running our businesses.

The term “creatures of habit” is incredibly important here – because all of us truly are creatures of habit. A huge percentage of what we do and think every day is habitual, meaning we don’t really think about it. This is a curse (if we have a bad habit) or a blessing (if we have a good one). If we can set up and program ourselves with just a couple key habits for positive energy management, we will experience a powerful and profound difference in how we feel about our business and in how well our businesses actually do!

So what am I talking about? An energy ritual will be unique to you and what it is that restores you. Since most of us overtrain emotionally & mentally and undertrain physically and spiritually, most of us need energy rituals that focus on the physical and spiritual.

Examples from clients of mine include:

- 10 minute break in your office doing a few stretches or yoga poses.
- Putting on your headphones and listening to music you love for 10 minutes.
- Reading 10 minutes from a book you find inspirational (e.g. the Dhammapada, the Bible, Tony Robbins, Martha Beck, etc.)
- 15 minute walk outside.
- 5 minute closed eye meditation break.

You want to put these into your daily routine and on your calendar when possible to take an energy break mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Also mid-evening if you’re working late. Implementing these energy rituals will take simple, small steps and will give you and your productivity a huge pay off.

Here are examples of the old paradigm (on the left) and the new paradigm (n the right):

Manage time ==> Manage energy

Avoid stress ==> Seek (positive) stress

Life is a marathon ==> Life is a series of sprints

Downtime is wasted time ==> Downtime is productive time

Rewards fuel performance ==> Purpose fuels performance (Intrinsic motivation provides more sustaining energy. i.e. wanting to do something because we value it for the inherent satisfaction it provides (versus extrinsic – money, approval, social standing, power, love)

Self-discipline rules ==> Rituals rule

The power of positive thinking. ==> The power of full engagement.
There’s a lot more to this, but I think even this info gives you an idea of how radically effective this new paradigm can be in your life.

PLANNING FOR PROFITABILITY: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

We’ve talked about the key things you need to know in marketing and productivity. The third leg of the stool is financial management. If you hate thinking about financial management, you have all the proof you need to understand why 90% of business failures are caused by a lack of financial management, not sales or marketing management!

Most entrepreneurs are great at innovation and creating new products, services and markets. They’re usually good at marketing and are able to be pretty damn productive, even if it may be in a chaotic way that’s less effective than it could be.

However, most of them struggle at financial management (in the beginning, at least, and often for years). The thing is, you don’t have to become a bona fide CPA! (You need a CPA, but you don’t have to BE one.) The cool thing is you’ll start to enjoy the feeling of power and control that you get once you have your arms around the basics and start to create and use some key metrics – critical indicators of how things are going in your business on a daily or weekly basis.

Yes, of course, you need to have your books done regularly, hopefully by a skilled bookkeeper. You need to review P & L’s monthly. But more than that you need to create a plan to be profitable, deciding what your financial goals are for the year and how you’ll get there and setting up a simple spreadsheet that compares your projections with actuals.

Although it is a popular tactic, it doesn’t actually help to stick your head in the sand when things aren’t going well. Knowledge – even when painful – is power. With the proper knowledge about how your company is doing financially, you can be successful. If not, there is a high chance that you’ll be closing your doors within a few years. Especially when times are tough. Like in a “great recession” (they aren’t going to say “depression,” are they?!)

In providing my advice for business, I make sure my clients have a solid profit plan and a good understanding of margins. And I help them identify those critical indicators they need to keep their finger on the pulse of their business.

IN CONCLUSION

Running and growing a small business can seem really complicated. So we have to apply models and systems that help us simplify things and get our arms around our businesses, both conceptually and then in actual daily practice. I hope that understanding these four legs of innovation, marketing, productivity and profit planning will help you do just that.

I was 11 years old and the name, A.I.C. & M., Inc., (pronounced “ace and em” was derived from my initials, plus I knew that “Ace” had some marketing juice, at least it did back then (think Ace Hardware)!

Of course, I was the chief cook and bottle washer, the only employee. My most successful division was T.R.P. – short for “traveling rubbing parlor,” and my best and only customer of that division was my dad, who was what we now call a raving fan.

Although at that age I giggled whenever anyone tried to rub my feet, I understood that a business must deliver what its customers, not we, want.

I had already learned some key marketing lessons:

- the best form of marketing takes an educational approach (“The
Understanding Booklet”)

- offer several levels of service and pricing (I had two levels of foot
massage available)

- focus on benefits (“You are the master!” – who could resist that?)

- let people test out your products and services (“you can test us on
a few things”)

- always have a call to action (“If you have a job to do, contact us!”
– a little lame, but not bad for an 11 year old)

My second most popular division did not appear on the above marketing piece. It was my candy store. I bought candy from the local grocery store (Canada mints, as I recall) and resold them at a profit to my delighted customers, my mother and sister.

Yes, entrepreneurial qualities tend to surface early in life. However, whether we start earlier or later, we all must go through much trial and error to learn the ropes of starting and running a successful business.

No matter how awkward, lame or inexpert our first attempts may be, the brilliance is in starting, and then learning, tweaking and trying some more. Not every venture will pan out, but as countless real life success stories have shown, quantity eventually leads to quality.

So whether you’re 11 years old or 91, get out there and keep throwing stuff against the wall!

You know that it can be easy to be dazzled by someone with an extensive track record and tons of experience in the area you need help with. Likewise, someone who has little or no experience may seem like a poor choice.

As many of my clients would tell you from past experience, however, if the skilled person doesn’t fit well with the team and lacks the qualities that you value (which might include a collaborative approach, willingness to take on other tasks and areas of responsibilities, interest in learning and growing, congenial, good communicator, high integrity, etc.) you’ll regret your decision and be trying to gather your courage to fire him or her before long.

Let’s face it – it’s no fun firing someone. In fact, it’s a task many entrepreneurs procrastinate about, sometimes taking months or even years to act on. Sometimes they never act and wait until the employee finally quits on their own.

Most of the time, you will actually be helping the person you fire. If they weren’t a good fit, they will be happier in a job where they can truly thrive. If they had a bad attitude or bad work habits, they’ll probably benefit from a wake up call.

If a person has a great work ethic, on the other hand, along with a pleasant and capable personality and is willing to learn, you can end up with a gem of an employee. One of my clients hired such a young woman two years ago whose qualities were a great fit, but her experience was lacking. After a year of learning the ropes, the new employee was performing very well and my client couldn’t be happier.

A subcategory of hiring errors is hiring friends. Another client hired a good friend of his to be the office receptionist/manager for his busy pediatric practice. It’s a demanding job requiring lots of people skills to schedule, handle emergencies, deal with sick babies and their stressed parents, not to mention the computer work.

Unfortunately, this employee/friend has quite a short fuse, a hot temper which has resulted in numerous occasions where she’s been a bit rude to patients. Although my client has told the employee that this is unacceptable, she has not been able to adjust her behavior and my client has not had the guts to fire her. Now, after TEN YEARS of putting up with this, the not-so-good employee is finally leaving of her own accord. (I wish my client had been using my small business consulting services a lot sooner; he would have put an end to that silliness.)

I’ve heard many tales over the years from clients who have hired friends, only to regret it when the time came that they had to act like the boss they indeed were. I know there are exceptions to this rule, but I recommend not chancing it.

Despite the tools and skills available to improve one’s hiring track record, it remains one of the most difficult of skills. It’s impossible to have every hire work out; that’s why having the courage to let someone go if they are not working out is vitally important.

As a small business owner, you can’t afford unproductive, uncooperative employees. Everybody matters. To help your business reach its full potential, be smart in your hiring.

Small business consulting services are provided by Anne Alexander who has been coaching businesses full-time since 2002, as well as informally for 15 years before that. Clients typically have from 1 to 10 employees, and occasionally up to 50 employees.

Professional services:

* Web design
* Accounting
* Interior design & installations
* Consulting
* IT

Manufacturing:

* Home based manufacturing
* Agricultural products
* Pet industry
* Toy industry

Health field:

* Medical practices
* Veterinary
* Health education
* Psychotherapy
* Natural healing

Financial Services:

* Financial planning
* Insurance agencies

Retail:

* Online only merchants
* Bricks & mortar retailers

Services:

* Construction/remodeling
* Landscaping
* Real estate
* Banking
* Non-profits
. . . and more, in over 20 different U.S. states and 4 countries!

Anne also provides business executive coaching to executives in small and medium sized businesses.

Executive clients have come from the fields of health care, accounting and real estate development, among others. These clients work in companies with up to 400 employees.

Her time management seminars combine the best of traditional and cutting-edge insights into optimizing one’s time – your most valuable resource.

Well, that’s my official media release. The funny thing is, almost every one of my clients, who typically work with me for 3+ years, was initially hesitant to speak with me, as they were unsure of the benefit or what I would be like. After a one hour call, their questions were answered enough to start and after a few months they understood the benefits much more deeply.

There’s a reason the most successful small business owners and executives now have a business coach – their success is greater, faster.

I like to point to the example of Tiger Woods as a super successful person who still works with a coach. I think he should have had a relationship coach, as it turns out! The bottom line is that throughout the ages, the leaders of society had mentors, guide, trusted strategic partners to help them through the maze of business and professional success. Do you have yours?

The good news is that I’ll be fine. But I know that things are rarely as simple as they appear. I am a firm believer that stress is the cause of most illness and I’m sure that is the case with my ulcer. My digestive system worked fine until I let my work/private life get out of balance.

It’s so easy to do, isn’t it? To check email or do a little work in the evenings or on the weekends.

I love that I truly enjoy my work, that it’s really not “work” to me. Remember the saying “It’s only work as long as you have to do it?” But even people who love their work must honor the need for oscillation – which is the ebb and flow of life.

This ebb and flow can be seen in nature – the cycle of day and night, the tide going in and out, as well as in our bodies with the waking/sleep cycle, our heart beating, resting, beating, resting, and our breath going in, out, in, out. In this 24/7 culture the pace is sped up, we can have “daylight” (thanks to electricity) all night if we want to. Not to mention that we can be constantly available by voice, email or text with cell phones.

But the price is high. Too high.

Over the years, I’ve gotten better at taking time off, relaxing and rejuvenating. Better at maintaining that boundary between work and play, downtime, rest, relaxation, social life.

But in 2009 I slipped. I moved from Colorado to North Carolina; I’m sure you know or can imagine the effort and energy involved in executing the hundreds of details required in the process of selling and buying homes and moving one’s home and business. And I also experienced for the first time the death of a parent when my dad died.

World renowned business consultant John Dudeck writes, “Studies show that revitalization plays a critical part in achievement. The average person can experience what’s called the revitalization effect. Every time we get totally away (and the key word is totally) from money-generating activities, the average person experiences 8 to 14 days of high clarity and achievement upon return.”

So a two day weekend that is free of any business, can give you a full work week or more of clarity and energy. A full week of true vacation (no work!), gives you two to three months of clarity, energy, productivity and creativity. Wow!

In 2009, I had months on end with no break.

So this month I’m blocking out my vacations for the whole year. If I don’t, it’s a lot harder to schedule them later.

Also, I am recommitting to revitalization days every weekend.

I invite you to do the same:

- Block out vacations now. One week per quarter is excellent. More is better, less if you have to. Just book them!

- Take at least one day a week that is totally free of business, including email. Two days is much better.

You’ll be amazed at how much better everything in your life goes – business, relationships, health. I’ve been successful at this in the past, and I’m looking forward to it again in 2010!

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Do you want to stop spinning your wheels and move forward with substantial, profitable business growth, personal satisfaction and bottom line control? Join clients from around the world by getting the best of Coach Anne’s small business consulting services for growing your business. Visit here for more info.

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Get Unstuck Now!

Now through Friday, Jan. 29 get a one hour call for only $34 (save $71!) with Authentic Alternatives associate Susan Gabriel. Susan helps business people break through long standing, core issues that are blocking their business progress. Relationship issues, depression, grief and more. Contact Susan here or 828.545.8460. (New clients only, please.)

Several of you emailed me and suggested I send my article to the dentist. I considered this and hesitated because I didn’t want to come off sounding arrogant. After some thought, though, I went ahead and sent the article to the dentist, marked “personal and confidential” along with a short note with the intent of being helpful.

A day or two after I mailed the article and my note, the dentist called me up! He was not defensive. He took responsibility and appreciated my feedback. He said he had shared the letter with his staff in one of their twice a day staff meetings and they had a good discussion about it and how to rectify it in the future.

I was very pleased. The upshot was I scheduled my appointment. I was happy about this outcome, because his practice really sounded like a good fit for me.

If you’re like me, you get sick of marketing hype and are wary of claims. Although this dentist sounded good from his website and subsequent materials that were mailed to me, I was waiting to see how it actually was being there as a patient.

I am pleased to say his marketing was not overblown. It was indeed the most professional dentist I have ever been to. I was given a tour of the premises, the dentist introduced himself and I sat in an automatic massage chair for 15 minutes before my digital X-rays were taken. (Those things are pretty darn good!).

For their clients they have snacks and drinks available. I was shown some excellent videos on a computer about various topics. The dentist was very down to earth and open to my opinions. The dental hygienist gave me a terrific cleaning. A week later I had some fillings repaired and again I felt I was in very skillful hands.

This is one of those great examples of an unhappy customer who, when their problem is addressed and handled, becomes a happier customer than they were before. (Although in this case, I wasn’t a previously happy customer, I was an “almost never” customer.)

The takeaway for us business owners: When a customer complains, be grateful for the feedback, thank them and take action!

Diapers.com CEO Marc Lore discussed his day to day life running the business and I gleaned three key lessons to share with you.

1. Superb customer service. The business spends about 10 percent of their marketing budget on flowers, gift certificates, massages and other goodies for their best customers. If a customer service rep sees that someone has been a really good customer and has referred other parents to them, they have the authority to send them a gift.

Do you empower your employees in this way? Or if you are a solo entrepreneur, do you consistently give gifts, rewards and other “thank you’s” to your best customers?

2. Fanatical data tracking and analysis. Prior to launching the company, Marc and his co-founder Vinit Bharara did extensive analysis of all aspects of their business including what the optimal number of boxes should be in their warehouse and what size the boxes should be. They took action on the results of their analysis and bit by bit added margin points. Their gross margins started at 4.6% and now are in the teens!

I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs neglect to pay close enough attention to their margins and it either drove them out of business eventually or caused them to net much, much less profit than they should have and could have.

Do you analyze your operations and review expenses regularly, with an eye to improving your margins?

3. Planning, visualizing and not much TV watching. Of his ambitious five-year plan, Marc says he “visualizes the path over and over again.” In the evenings, between family responsibilities, Marc researches, analyzes and plans things like pay-per-click and other elements of his business. A typical entrepreneur, Marc said “I don’t really watch TV at all. I much prefer working.” And part of his daily work is focusing on those all so critical “important, not urgent” areas of the business.

If you’re stuck all the time in do-do-do with no time to think, research, study, plan and strategize, your business will fall short of its potential.

Do you schedule time daily or weekly to focus and do quality thinking about the vitally important areas of your business (not just always putting out fires)?

I invite you to see if you need to strengthen your business in one or more of these areas. There’s no time like the present. As always, let me know if I can help.

Prior to our move back to North Carolina, I did some research for a progressive dentist who uses digital X-Rays and non-mercury fillings.

I found one who looked great and on inquiring via email about any new client specials was told that yes, they had one for $157. This included a full set of digital X-rays, a cleaning and exam. This seemed like a reasonable price to me. I told her it would probably be later in August since we would need time to settle in.

Last week I called to set up my appointment. Again, I was very impressed with how the staff talked with me as a new client. I even had the thought that sometime in the future I would write an Ordinary Brilliance article about how great this business is.

I mentioned that I had talked with someone earlier in the year and that she told me the fee would be $156. There was no specific response to this, so I thought all was well. They sent out a very nice welcome packet. In the packet it listed the fee for my visit as $212. This was 35% more than what I had been told, so I called up.

This time, I actually got the same woman I had talked to a few months prior. Oh, she said, that was a special going on at the time, but not now. Oh, I said, well I told you then that I wouldn’t be arriving in North Carolina until a few months later and you didn’t tell me that special would no longer be in effect.

“Well, do you want to keep the appointment?” she asked.

“No, thanks.”

“We’re here if you need help in the future,” she concluded.

I was really surprised she didn’t honor the special. The result? The dentist “saved” $56, but in actuality they lost thousands.

What is the Lifetime Value of a Customer for this dentist? I don’t know about you, but I tend to see a dentist regularly, and the same one. Since I plan to be here for a very long time, this dentist missed out on 20 – 30 years of servicing my dental needs. I’m not sure what his net profit margin is, but I’m sure we’re talking thousands of dollars of net profits. I think he was missing the forest for the trees, as the old saying goes.

What about you – are you splitting pennies and not focusing on the long-term value of a new customer? You MUST know how long the average client stays with you and what their average purchases are per year.

Then, and only then, can you make a reasonable guess as to what you can afford to spend to get a new customer. Don’t make the mistake this dentist did and “save” a few bucks and miss out on thousands of dollars of profits. Know your numbers and empower your staff to do the right thing for your long-term business success.

I did my part to support them and boost the local economy by getting some cat food. They did a good job passively upselling me at the checkout counter, as they had lots of cool little items for sale. I got two bumper stickers. Once says “Sleeps with dogs” which I gave to my partner and the other one is for me:

It’s on my desk, reminding me to keep the good energy flowing (I’m not a big barker, but sometimes . . .)

Nothing like something funny to sell stuff to happy customers!

I recently came across a quote from Karl who said, “Life is being on the wire; everything else is just waiting.”

Are you on living on the wire, or just waiting?

To me, “living on the wire” means being where the action is, not waiting on the sidelines while you look to jump in. It means being fully engaged with your mission, being really alive.

Most of the time I live on the wire. It was living on the wire when we decided in 2006 to move 1500 miles across the country to a brand new community (Fort Collins, Colorado). There were social risks, financial risks and business risks.

After three wonderful years in Colorado, we decided we wanted to be closer to family and to deciduous forests and so moved last month back to the mountains of North Carolina.

Some people may have wondered if we were a little crazy to move after only three years, especially with the housing market near the bottom. It would have made more financial sense to stay put, since there are substantial costs involved in selling and buying, as well as moving.

Yet living on the wire requires us to trust ourselves to make good decisions, using our skills honed in the crucible of life’s experiences – that exquisite blend of knowledge and reason with our intuition and gut feelings. Then we can bravely step forward, focused on the wire, truly alive.

Living on the wire isn’t just about physical challenges or changes and relocations, though. It can also be about your internal attitudes and beliefs – not letting yourself play it too safe in your business and get complacent or waiting for things to change on their own.

Even when it feels like a high wire act, it’s important that you challenge yourself to grow new skills, such as learning how to better navigate conflict (a vitally important skill needed in both business and private life), how to delegate (one of the best skills anyone can master), or how to hone your marketing skills to grow your business to the next level.

It takes courage, determination and discipline to take calculated risks, which is what smart entrepreneurs do. They live “on the wire.” Life is too short to just play it safe. Don’t waste anymore time. Get focused, take calculated risks, and experience being truly alive.

My dad had written that he wanted to either be cremated or buried in something very simple. My dad’s wife wanted something nice, so we deferred to her wishes as the person closest to him. Although the casket wasn’t top of the line (that would be the kind with the “permanent seal”, gold leaf trim, etc.), the price tag was $4,000.

Interestingly, I’ve recently struck up a virtual friendship with Jane Hillhouse who owns a company called Final Footprint. We met through our membership in the Green America Business network. Her company provides eco-caskets and green burials.

Final Footprint offers a beautiful selection of caskets and urns that are available through funeral homes or direct. “Whether a simple pine or cardboard box, or an artfully crafted coffin made from bamboo or willow, all of our caskets and coffins display a simple elegance and respect, not only for the deceased, but for the earth. All are made from low impact, sustainably harvested materials. All are non-toxic and safely biodegradable. “

I sure wish we had known about Final Footprint when Dad passed away last month. Jane’s caskets run around $1,000 plus shipping and they’re made from sustainable, renewable materials. This would have honored my father’s wishes, as the frugal, environmentalist that he was. There are millions of deaths in this country alone every month, which represent an awful lot of material resources, not to mention the energy to produce them and the high financial expense for the survivors.

Jane is doing what entrepreneurs do: taking an existing category and adding something new and desirable.

What’s new: there is as we know a huge trend toward green, ecologically responsible products and the funeral industry is ripe for options in the sustainable category!

What’s desirable: people are paying through the nose for caskets, at a time when they are extremely emotionally vulnerable. In this recession, people are paying attention to pricing and if you offer a high quality product like Jane does, for a much lower price, that’s a market advantage.

So Jane takes an established products in continual demand – burial caskets – and makes them green and less costly. A recipe for success!

In their great book, The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up, Norm Brodsky & Bo Burlingham say, “There is nothing more expensive than educating a market.” They believe that the ideal business is one where the concept has been around for a long time. The casket industry is certainly well-established. It’s not a new and revolutionary product category.

The authors say another criteria for a successful new business is that the industry is not only established, but also in some way out-of-step with its customers. Again, Jane has identified a demand that millions of eco-conscious baby boomers and their parents have for simpler, less toxic, more natural products for end-of-life times.

How can you take what you do in your business and add something new, something that people will need or want? The trick, of course, is that often your customers don’t even know they need or want something – we have to be clever enough to see the gap.

There are needs and wants all around us. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just find a better, cheaper or faster way to get people what they need and want. The world would be a better place if we all took regular time to think, not just do. So I encourage you to carve out an hour and brainstorm and daydream about how you could do just that in your current business or organization.

He was in many ways not an easy man. However I think his life has some lessons for us as we continue our efforts in our businesses.

One of his favorite sayings was from Ernest Hemingway: “Everything’s your own fault if you’re any damn good.” While I don’t believe this is true about everything, I do think there is much wisdom in it. When we take personal responsibility, we are empowered to change, grow and improve.

Dad’s heavy drinking and years of smoking as a younger man probably had a significant effect on his various ailments. But he never blamed anyone. He knew it was his own “damned fault.”

When corporate politics forced him out of the insurance company where he had worked for 29 years, he didn’t waste a lot of time railing against the injustice. He continued on to several other senior executive positions and was elected president of his industry’s national association.

Years ago, when one of my businesses encountered severe difficulties that precipitated a drastic restructuring, I didn’t blame my business partner. I took personal responsibility, cleaned up the mess as best I could and carried on.

So what’s going on in your life that you need to take responsibility for? Something that you’re ready to tackle, learn from, turn around and rise above?

Here’s a photo of my Dad on an expedition he co-lead with college pals in the Yukon in the early 1950′s. He was one tough cookie and I think mountain climbing was his way of rising above things.

Thanks for everything, Dad, the good stuff, the hard stuff, the toughness, and the underlying steadfast love. May we all remember what’s truly important in business and personal life: taking responsibility for our relationships with spouses, family, friends, colleagues, clients, customers and, yes, even strangers.

The article also makes key differentiation between what to use Facebook for and what to use Twitter for. I’ve gotten some clients from Twitter. I think it can be used successfully by small business owners, but you must have and implement a good strategy.

While there’s no perfect solution for generating power, these babies rate pretty high in my book. I love looking at them, which cannot be said of the huge coal burning smoke stacks I passed by later in Tennessee.

Even just a few years ago, very few people were thinking about wind as a viable source of energy generation. Similarly, it’s amazing how many things we use or do or offer in our businesses today that we didn’t a few years ago. You’ve no doubt seen many changes in your own business. It may be changes in your products, services, location, ideal clients, production or operating processes, or other things. But change, as they say, is inevitable.

In business & marketing, we have to be flexible and open to new ways of generating revenue, serving our customers and delivering our products and services. There is usually some (or sometimes a lot!) of stress associated with change, yet we can truly see it for the positive expansions that it can bring to our businesses and our lives.

Let me share with you a couple of quick stories. As you read them, think about how you can evolve your own business game to benefit your customers and you.

Take residential real estate. One of my clients is the New York market manager for Redfin.com. Redfin is changing the traditional real estate game:

“Redfin is the industry’s first online brokerage for buying and selling homes, half Century 21 and half E-Trade. This means we know when you want to use the web and when you want to talk to a real person. Our goal is to change the real estate game in consumers’ favor by offering you more data, better-performing agents, and a significant commission refund.” I love it!

Here’s how a few of my other clients are shifting their businesses, embracing their equivalent of adding “wind power” to the mix:

* Buying a company that makes similar yet different (and patented) pet products when the owner of that company had to sell her business.

* Adding additional product lines, to stabilize and grow revenues for a home improvements business.

* Shifting from employee to consultant, with much greater flexibility and income.

* Working on a merger of two CPA firms to blend and mutually benefit from a tax expertise and an audit expertise.

Changes keep on blowing through!

So are you going duck for cover in the face of the winds of change? Or will you throw your kite into the air and maneuver it even higher? Opportunity is everywhere.

Afterward we headed up to the National Center for Atmospheric Research to participate in their guided tour. It’s supposed to be a cool place about weather and other things scientific.

However, no sooner did we arrive in the lobby when my partner, Susan began to feel dizzy and nauseous. They called in their onsite medical team, and discovered that Susan’s blood pressure and heart rate were alarmingly high. So they called an ambulance and soon we were heading over to the local ER.

At the ER, blood work and chest X-rays also revealed everything to be normal. After about four hours, we went home and by morning her blood pressure and pulse had returned to normal. In situations like this, it’s easy to imagine the worst, like heart attack and even death. We both felt this fear acutely and it took a few days for us to really calm down.

So…this was obviously not the birthday I had anticipated! The gift was pretty quickly evident, however, because my beloved partner of eight years is alive and well.

Sometimes, just getting back to “regular” life is a huge blessing! A regular day coaching with my wonderful clients, seems doubly miraculous. Eating healthy, plentiful food becomes even more of a gift. Answering emails is almost a holy act. Discussing business strategies with Susan, I feel like the luckiest person alive.

Most entrepreneurs need to do more planning and not go after their business in a random manner. Yet, as in life, business is what happens when we’re busy making plans. If seen in a wider perspective, rebuilding a database after a computer crash makes you giddy with relief. If your business endures a fire or a flood and no one is hurt, just putting the pieces back together and running normally becomes the most amazing blessing.

Life/business happens, and rarely according to plan. Yet there are always silver linings, if we look for them. When you see your life as the precious thing it is, you empower yourself, your loved ones and your business.

My hair really is as dark as in that photo, but I’m proud of my gray ones, too. I’ve earned them!

So, big deal, right? I’m about to be 50 years old. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?!

Because we all need those frequent reminders to be grateful and there’s nothing like a milestone event in your life – or in the life of someone you know – to remind you to take stock and count your blessings. Time truly does fly and you never know when your number will be up. Actress Natasha Richardson went skiing last week, fell and bumped her head and it was all over at age 45.

There’s no time like the present to re-evaluate and recommit to your purpose and passion here on earth. For me, one of my passions is helping small business owners thrive!

You hear a lot about passion these days and for good reason. Without passion – without deeply caring about your life and what you do – you can fall into a dreary pseudo-existence. I’m happy to say my clients all embrace their passions. They sell real estate in a creative new way. . .help people enjoy knitting . . . create amazing non-toxic kid toys or dog collars. . . make natural fertilizer… guide people on amazing eco-bike tours. . .and in many other ways bring their gifts into to the world.

So please don’t give up on your dreams or your passion. We need you!

As I prepare to celebrate 50 years, I wish you much joy, passion and some “moments of glad grace,” as William Butler Yeats once wrote. (Thanks, Mom, she loves that phrase!) For me those moments include swinging in my indoor hammock, hiking, playing with my dogs and cats, eating chocolate, and great conversations with family and friends.

40%? Yes!

Not some breakthrough drug. Not a brilliant new surgical technique. Not a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, but a simple 19 point checklist of basic safety measures that takes two minutes to use!

I’m sure you use checklists sometimes or at least have at some time in the past. But I want you to consider how you can harness this simple yet incredible tool.

Check lists can be used in any area of business including operations, accounting, quality control, purchasing, sales and marketing.

If you don’t already have one, how about a prospect follow up checklist? You could be looking at an increase of 20 – 40% just by following up more consistently and at least 7 – 9 times which is the average number of “touches” needed before someone buys your product or service.

One of my clients started creating checklists for producing each of his apparel items that his company makes. He designed it to help his employees reduce their errors and improve quality consistency.

One day he had to step in to help, and he used his own checklist. He realized it was a bit confusing and is working to improve it.

I use checklists in my business and personal life. I have one for creating this newsletter. I have a “new client” checklist for when a business owner first hires me. Although I’m a creative entrepreneur type, just like the hospitals, I have found that checklists save a ton of time and reduce errors.

See if there’s one single area of your business that could benefit from a new or improved checklist and create one. Try it for a month or so and let me know how it works for you! And if you need help to put checklists to work today, get more information here.

Apparently Japan is suffering it’s worst period economically since 1974. Still, that’s no excuse for behaving unprofessionally.

Nakagawa’s behavior is a good reminder for all of us. You probably don’t get drunk at business functions, but it’s a good idea for all of us occasionally to do a little self-check and make sure we’re coming across the way we want.

I love how satellite communication connects us so easily around the world. Yet one of the downsides in living in such a globally connected world is our missteps can spread far and fast.

We’ve heard about young people posting things on their MySpace page or similar sites which are not going to do them any favors in a few years when they’re looking for jobs and a prospective employer googles their name.

With more and more business people using social network tools like Facebook, Twitter, Xing, and Fastpitch Networking, just to name a few, we need to always keep in mind that customers and prospective clients can, will and do read what we post.

It’s vitally important for us to have places in our life where we can let our hair down, where we can gripe and moan, kvetch and vent. For my clients, one of those places is with me! And though it may sound strange or even bizarre to some, I am happy to be the container to hold all their “stuff” safely and without judgment.

Out in the world, they need to be professional. Sometimes a business coach helps his or her clients by listening to their venting when needed, before moving on to the solutions.

So figure out your top two methods to deal with your stresses and problems- vent with your coach, therapist, spouse or best friend, walk the dogs, hit the mountain trail or your bike, jump on your trampoline, write in your journal, write a poem, go bowling, play the piano. You know what works for you.

If not, your stress will creep out in tiny yet discernible ways. Or sometimes, as with Shoichi Nakagawa, very discernible ways.

Be careful before you speak too quickly or hit “send” too fast on that email or post. Stand up, take a few deep breaths, call your business coach if you need to , but above all, be professional!

Lesson #1: Frugality for the good life

Mom was a child of the Great Depression. Her parents literally came over on the boat from Poland and both did manual labor to make ends meet for their family of seven. Yet, they always had a solid roof over their heads and good food on the table. (The other side of my family came over on the Mayflower, which makes me a typical American mutt.)

From this experience, Mom taught me the value of healthy frugality. She doesn’t waste things. And in business – especially in this recession – we need to be extremely good stewards of our resources.

Your greatest resource is people: you and your employees. When you truly get your employees on board with the vision and mission of your business, when you empower them, listen to them, and care about them, they can literally increase your business 25 or 50% or more.

Here’s an example: I just read in article in Inc. Magazine about a woman who owned a small upscale clothing shop in Missouri. She empowered her seven employees to get financially literate, teaching them about inventory turns and margins and how they relate. In October 2007 she did $55,000 in sales and a year later in October 2008 she did $81,000, in the midst of one of the worst recessions of our life times.

Lesson #2 Understand & use the wheel of life – wherever you are at the moment

Mom also taught me about the wheel of life. As a kid, I envisioned this as a Ferris wheel. She told me that things always cycle around – when you’re down, you will always come back up. Hard times cycle back to good times. My mom, an avid gardener, would probably put it in terms of nature – that winter always leads to spring and new growth. Keeping that perspective is vitally important at times like these!

Are you at the bottom of the wheel right now? Take heart. Remember the other times in your life when things looked bleak and you were ready to hang up the towel. Use that knowledge that you can get through anything.

Or perhaps you’re at the top of the wheel right now. Yes, even in our big, bad recession, some people are doing very well. I’m not telling you to start living in fear of the inevitable turn of the wheel. I’m reminding you to always have your Plan B, and Plan C. The most successful entrepreneurs are actually not really huge risk-takers. They take calculated risks, and hedge their bets.

One of my mentors recently reminded me that about 80% of the things you try in your business will fail, no matter how much you think they will do great. This means we will be “failures” most of the time!

Isn’t that amazing? In order to be very successful, you just have to fail more than others. You have to turn that wheel more times. So don’t be afraid of the low point of the wheel.
Just keep on turnin’. You’ll be at the top again before long.

You know moms are always right. So how can you apply my mom’s two business lessons today?

I was shocked to learn recently that she’s never had a review in all that time.

Another one of my clients works in a hospital system. He has two regularly scheduled meetings per month with his boss. One is an open meeting on whatever topics he wants to discuss. The other is more formal review of his 90 day plan and how it’s going.

No surprise–my hospital guy is a lot more satisfied with his work.

We humans need feedback. We need opportunities to discuss with our leaders how our work is going, how our goals are tracking and any problems we are having.

So if you own a business, make sure you are meeting regularly with your employees. You want to meet frequently as a team, and at least monthly one-on-one.

If you are an employee yourself and your boss does not meet with you regularly, take the initiative and ask for what you want. Years ago I worked in a small four person non-profit. I asked my boss if we could have weekly staff meetings. I felt it would be helpful to us if we checked in a little more formally, not just popping into each other’s offices on an as-needed basis. She agreed. Even in a tiny organization like that, we found those meetings very valuable.

If this sounds like a lot of meetings to you, I encourage you to try it for two months. I bet you will find that these meetings end up saving time in the long run and will make your business more money. Why? Because people, if left on their own, often get diverted down wrong paths. And because if people feel appreciated and cared about, research shows that they are more creative and productive.

Positive feedback–what someone did specifically and how it will help the business (or mate or children, in your personal life) is vitally important. Many surveys over the years have consistently shown that one of the top three things people want in their job is appreciation for work done. (While good pay is one of the top 10, it’s not in the top 3!)

Of course “constructive criticism” is important too. It’s crucial that we develop the ability to discuss with each other problems we are having with the other, and the best way to do that is early (before little things get big) and often.

I recently implemented a process with my assistant that’s working very well. Each day she emails me the answers to the following questions:

1. What you did and the results you got

2. Problems or challenges

3. Questions you have for me

It takes less than 5 minutes and keeps me up to date on both what she’s doing, as well as what problems and questions she has. This way, little issues get handled early, and frustration won’t build.

So don’t forget to give and receive frequent feedback, especially positive feedback. I like to be appreciated, too, and I truly believe you will thank me for the results you get!

Your authenticity is a huge key to prosperity.

Marketing guru Gary Bencivenga talks about something he calls The Credo Technique. Credo is Latin for “I believe” and Gary believes, as I do, that we must never be afraid to say “with clarity and boldness” what we believe about our business, products and services.

The strongest marketing, says Bencivenga, tells the truth. It doesn’t have to exaggerate or lie to gather customers. It relies on the integrity of you and your business to set you apart in an overcrowded marketplace.

In other words, your authenticity.

The Credo Technique is an expression of our core values “which serve as a clarion call to gather the like-minded faithful of your marketplace.” Although people do buy products and services that are less than authentic, ultimately they respond well and for a long time to authenticity. Your product or service may not even be the best quality, but if your marketing conveys accurately your authenticity and trustworthiness, you and your enterprise will thrive.

New Coaching Club

I’ve launched a Green Business Coaching Club, designed for owners of small businesses with 0 – 10 employees to get vital help in growing their business and thriving personally.

There are monthly business development teleseminars on marketing, productivity and many other business topics, along with monthly phone-based mastermind groups where members get individual coaching from Coach Anne. Plus many more resources on the member-only website!

For a limited time there’s a $9.95 one month trial. Check it out at www.GrowYourGreenBusiness.com


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Thankfully, I eventually got back into the habit. But since then, I’ve been very careful to regulate my news input at a level that supports my well being, while still letting me be an informed citizen.

The fact is, we need a lot less news than we may think we do, and definitely a lot less than is available.

If your newspaper is like mine, it loves to plaster stuff every day about how bad things are with the economy.

Yet, in scanning the business page today, I noticed some GOOD news. Note the following items:

One of our local breweries is moving forward with a major expansion.

Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest maker of wind turbines is expanding its Portland Oregon work force from 350 to at least 1200 and building a 500,000 square foot office.

Nationally, Thanksgiving weekend retail sales were UP about 1% over 2007.

A local running shoe store had a 40 percent increase in sales over 2007 over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Additionally, one of my clients told me yesterday she continues at 20% growth over last year, when her competitors are reporting drops in revenues lately of 30% or more.

I thought that was quite a good bit of good news for your average Tuesday at the end of a year of recession. I guess it’s a bit like the glass half full saying. During the Great Depression, 25% of people were out of work. While that’s a lot of unemployed folks, the way I see it, this means that three quarters (75%) were working!

Yes, there’s plenty of bad news right now. So what do you want to focus on? I stay informed of national and world affairs, and it doesn’t take much to do that. To keep your positive energy up, you might want to do what one of my wise clients did last week – a news fast.

As for me, I choose to stay positive. In the fourth quarter this year, I brought on six new wonderful clients with really cool businesses, prepared to launch two new low cost/high value coaching programs, brought on an exceptional assistant, got my office 100% cleaned up and organized, and renewed my business plan for 2009. I know the only thing I “can’t afford” is to be negative.

So get out there and make your own news! And let me know if I can help.

She wrote, “In racing, your fuel must be all your courage, skill and strength in your tank, including your spare tank, and you must plan to run dry just as you cross the line. When you do finally cross the line, the expenditure leaves you writhing in pain and gasping great tearing sobs for oxygen. This may not sound like fun. It isn’t fun. It is totally fulfilling.”

Based on experience in my own businesses over the years and working with my wonderful clients, I think that running a business is pretty much the same way. You wouldn’t necessarily call it fun, but it can be totally fulfilling. And sometimes, it’s fun, too.

Whether we own a business or not, we are called, like Sara Hall, to use all our courage, skill and strength to cross the various finish lines we encounter.

When we really give it everything we’ve got – and use our “spare tank” too – we experience the fulfillment of a worthy endeavor, whether we “win” or not. We have used ourselves for a noble purpose, as we have defined it.

For Sara Hall, rowing was her way out of an abusive marriage, a way to find her incredible inner (and outer) strength and her self-confidence. In business most people must uncover their unknown reservoirs of confidence, too, to keep going in the face of all the challenges.

Have you ever experienced any of the following situations? All of them have happened to my clients:

 Your key salesperson quits one day in your peak selling season.
 You get an unexpected whopper bill from the insurance company.
 Your computer crashes and you haven’t backed up everything.
 Your boss is indicted for fraud.
 Your best customer goes over to a competitor.
 Your mate and kids start to forget what you look like.
 There’s a bug in your software that can’t seem to be fixed after days on the phone with
tech support.

You can no doubt add a few of your own!

However, I think it’s also important to remember the fulfilling parts about our businesses. Here are gifts offered by some of my clients to appreciative customers:

 Your company provides home health care to an elderly person.
 You remodel a forty year old kitchen to the delight of a large family.
 You publish a book that brings readers pleasure, knowledge and skills.
 You give your client a great audit that they need to assure their supporters that they are in 100%
compliance with all laws.
 You manufacture a natural fertilizer for farmers who grow wonderful food.
 You make exquisite dog collars that bring joy to their owners.
 You help IT companies solve problems for their clients.
 You give hundreds of kids a great experience at summer camp, helping them grow as human beings.
 You provide customers with incredible clay walls that bring warmth and delight to all dwellers and
visitors.
 You provide the best hosting in the world to thousands of websites while using the profits to
promote social and environmental justice.

These are some of the things my clients do for their customers. I’m proud of them and of what they do. They use their courage, skill and strength in their pursuit of contributing to the world through their business.

Are you giving your work your “all”? Are you crossing the finish line, completely spent, but totally fulfilled? If not, see my special offer below. If you are, I congratulate you on using your talents to their fullest!

It is a riveting tale and I literally could hardly put the book down.

Out of 45 passengers, 16 people survived injuries, sub-zeros temperatures, avalanches and had no choice but to eat the flesh of their dead companions in order to survive. When they realized no rescue was coming, the author and a companion scaled a mountain that would intimidate fully equipped technical mountain climbers and walked 45 miles in nine days until they met a shepherd and got themselves and their companions rescued.

The story is wrenchingly honest about the emotions, the constant fear, the questioning of God and of “why me?” and how they used their team training as members of a rugby team to survive.

The story gave me several gifts especially:

1. It gave me renewed perspective about the “problems” and challenges I am facing.

2. It helped me understand that we all have our “personal Andes” story or stories – challenges,
misfortune, and struggles that seem completely against all odds to turn out well.

3. I was inspired by their courage, inventiveness, team work and sheer guts.

I know many of you, like me, have faced some exceedingly difficult situations, where the odds seem stacked against you and you don’t know if you will survive.

Maybe you’re in such a situation now. At times like these, we must use the stories of others to inspire us, help us find our inner hero, and take another step.

Author Nando Parrado wrote that it was his love for his father and his desire to see him again that kept him going against all odds. (His mother and sister who were also on the plane had died.) At one point when he was sure he was going to die, he had an epiphany that the opposite of death was not life, but love. He stated, “only love can turn mere life into a miracle, and draw precious meaning from suffering and fear.” His circumstances, no matter how overpoweringly bleak and crushing, could not stop him from loving. It was an insight that changed his life.

So whether you’re facing a business challenge, an illness, financial crisis, relationship failure or other situation that seems unsolvable and impossible, I hope you are able to claim the courage and insight that will help you weather the dark night and experience your own version of a miracle.

You have probably started to notice that some savvy business owners are helping customers and prospects compensate for this situation by offering free gas as an incentive to come into their stores or as a bonus when they make certain purchases.

In the past few weeks in my local paper I have seen a hearing aid that offered buyers a $100 gas card and a bank that offered new account holders a $50 gas card. A client of mine who does auto window tinting is offering customers a $100 gas card when they buy a $249 tint job. This promotion is bringing a lot of customers into his store where he sells 90% of them!

What these business people are doing is converting this reality of skyrocketing gas prices into an opportunity for their business by offering their customers free gas certificates.

Virtually every business in our community is offering some type of incentive — you see it every day. They’re used to promote business and lead generation. You have to have something that really gets people excited. Free gas is obviously something that most customers or potential customers can really use.

Using incentives like free gas certificates can accomplish a lot of things:
• Make your customers very loyal
• Increase your profit margins with no additional advertising
• Dramatically increase sales
• Promote higher margin sales
• Increase the length of service agreements
• Increase new customer traffic
• Offer promotions that tower above the competition
• Gain valuable information on potential customers
• Retain current customers
• Re-energize old customers
• Express appreciation
• Generate local media “buzz”
• Provide high-value, low-cost gifts

Whatever your business, you can offer an incentive. You can offer an incentive to test drive a car, to purchase a sofa, to spend X amount on golf clubs, to get your carpets cleaned, to upgrade a computer, to rent a car, to come in for a review of your tax, financial or estate situation, to try out a new health club for a month, etc.

As it turns out, oil companies are fiercely competitive. They are paying for loyalty. That is why business owners are not paying dollar for dollar for these certificates. These gas certificates cost pennies on the dollar. For example a $100 certificate costs as low as $10 and a $500 certificate as low as $14.

Banks, auto warranty companies, resorts, and many other kinds of companies pay anywhere from $10 to over $200 for a lead. Why? Because they know their conversion rates and the lifetime value of their customers!

Do you?

Whether you offer something like free gas cards or some other incentive, as long as you know your numbers, if you are making a satisfactory return on investment, you can afford to offer that type of incentive. Not only can you afford it, you’d be crazy not to do as much of it as you can!

It’s the same with the oil companies. They know people are habitual. And they want you to habitually choose their brand of gas, which is what the gas cards do.

So know your numbers: what you can afford to pay to bring in a prospect? You’ll need to know what percentage of them you can convert them to a paying customer. Then use a powerful incentive like free gas cards to bring them in and grow your business, even during a recession.

(And if you’re interested in gas cards, contact me at 970.672.4946 or visit here for more information.)

With Strategy #5 he discussed what he calls the referability habits. No matter what industry you’re in, how big or small your company is, or how skilled or innovative you are, he has found in over 30 years of coaching successful entrepreneurs that there are four key habits you must have to be someone that people are excited to refer customers and clients to. He calls these habits your passport to the future.

The four basic habits are:

- Show up on time.
- Do what you say.
- Finish what you start.
- Say please and thank you.

Surprising, isn’t it? You might have thought the keys would be things like exceptional skills, intense charisma, or brilliance. But when you stop to think about it, you probably know super smart people who you would not refer business to, because they are arrogant or ungrateful.

You also probably know wonderfully charming people who you would not refer to because they don’t come through with what they say they will do.

What about colleagues who are almost always late to meetings? How respected do you feel by that person? Again, they are probably not someone you would refer to.

I’m part of a wonderful mastermind group. Recently, we decided to ask one member to leave. Although she is brilliant in some key areas and a very fun person, she missed a lot of our calls and she doesn’t answer calls or emails from members.

How do you feel when someone doesn’t come through with what they promised they would do?

How do you feel when they don’t offer a simple word of thanks or when they bark out a request, instead of being polite about asking?

These habits communicate respect. They communicate that you do not take anyone for granted. If someone does not feel respected, it doesn’t matter how brilliant, talented or charming you are. Sullivan says, “Respect means you recognize and are aware of other people’s goals, schedules and values.”

I encourage you to take a look at where you fall short with one or more of these habits and then recommit to them. Make these four behaviors the foundation of your personal and professional behavior. As you model them for your team or organization and impress them into the culture, everything in your personal and business life will transform.

Part of being highly effective is having great systems, including safety systems within your business. I’ve been backing up my documents daily using Carbonite, so I knew I should have all my documents intact, other than in the last 24 hours since my last backup.

Also, earlier this year my computer guy (one of my “platinum” team members) suggested I get an external drive and do an image back up of my whole computer using Acronis software. I did. Last night, he installed a new hard drive and used my image back up to fully restore my computer – ALL programs, settings, software, operating system, the whole deal.

Since I had never tested my backup before, I was nervous. So when he called this morning saying all was working, I was immensely relieved.

In less than 12 hours, I had survived a hard drive crash. Life is back to normal. Amazing, isn’t it, how you can feel on Cloud Nine when things are back to normal? Like when someone almost crashes into your car, but you’re fine, or you think your investment portfolio might drop 25% because of a certain situation, but it doesn’t? Before the incident, you felt average, OK, but after – when everything was back to “normal” – you feel ecstatic.

In the case of my computer, however, prior planning prevented a humongous mess and significant challenges for my business. Working on small business marketing day and day out, I have a lot of files that would be hard to replicate.

So whether you’re in Fort Collins, Florida, Fiji or anywhere in between, make sure you’re prepared. Many of life’s challenges are preventable.

The creator of Talk In A Box is Stan Scott. Due to the confidential nature of my work, I don’t often get to brag on my wonderful clients. However, one of my clients wants the world to know about his wonderful creation. I was a customer and a fan of Talk In A Box even before he hired me.

Like many people, Stan got a great idea for a product. It was an outcome of his mission as a professional facilitator to help change the world through powerful conversation. He worked for several years refining his concept and creating the game. He had it professionally designed, raised the capital and got Talk In A Box produced.

That’s a lot more than most people who have a “great idea,” but never do anything with it. Now, Stan is ready to have his product reach a wide audience.

So what’s one of your favorite indulgences?

What song reminds you of a specific event or time in your life?

What is an edge that you’re interested in exploring?

What is it that you are glad is not the way it used to be?

When I hear your answers to these questions, I will know you better than I do now. You will be much more of a real person to me.

You can play Talk In A Box with your spouse, partner, growing or grown children, other family members, friends or colleagues. I went camping recently with an old friend and we answered a few questions before nodding off to sleep in our tent (see photo).

And you can play it at coffee shops, cafes, even pubs, at the beach or around a campfire, traveling on an airplane or on a cruise, at a party, a family reunion or on a retreat, before sleep with your spouse, or during holiday gatherings. All for less than the cost of dinner and a movie.

As a Talk In A Box player, you are not asked to win, to be faster, more knowledgeable, more creative, more expressive, more witty, or more lucky. You’re simply invited to show-up, be curious and listen, reflect and express yourself authentically, respect yourself and others, and laugh at yourself and with others. Every player can be a winner, enjoying the prize of connected and deepened human relationships.

I’ve had a lot of fun playing this game. I invite you to check it out, too, at here.

Now, in the right context, I don’t necessarily have anything against boogers, cigarettes, loud conversation or hairy calves. But at a nice restaurant, it didn’t fly and I wasn’t planning on returning anytime soon.

However, unlike most of your customers who never complain, they just stop using your products or services, I emailed the restaurant to let them know of my experience (since it’s my mission to help businesses, whether their my clients or not). I received a very nice email back thanking me for the feedback. Apparently that employee will not be working there much longer and she’s sending me a gift certificate. So, guess what? I will be back.

Are YOU aware of the things about your business that are annoying or off-putting to your customers or clients? You won’t know unless you make it part of your mission.

If you’ve been in business awhile, I bet it’s been some time since you really did some research on your target market’s needs and wants. Or possibly, you’ve never done this, in which case there’s no time like the present!

It’s extremely important that you understand your best client’s needs and wants as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, we tend to assume we know. After all, we own a business – we know everything, right?

Remember the ancient saying that those who think they know, don’t know, and those who think they don’t know, know. We all need to recover our “beginner’s mind” and not make assumptions.

Luckily, you can easily conduct your own research, whether through an online survey, mailed surveys or third party phone calls. When you do, I guarantee you will find some golden nuggets you can act on immediately to improve and grow your business.

First ask yourself, what END RESULT do your prospective customers want from:

Your product or service:

Doing business with you:

Next, determine who you will survey:

Suspects

Prospects

Shoppers

Customers

Clients

Advocates

Raving Fans

Former clients

Design a Needs And Wants Analysis Questionnaire. Here are some sample questions:

What do they expect from this type of product or service?

How long have they used this type of product or service?

What has been their experience in the past?

What is their biggest frustration with the products/services they’ve used in the past?

What do they expect from the provider (company) of this service?

What is their past history/experience with other salespeople?

What is their biggest frustration with businesses in this field or area?

What made them choose the type of product or service they currently have?

What made them choose the particular salesperson or company they’re currently with?

What is the most important consideration for choosing this type of product/service?

What is the most important consideration for choosing a sales person or company?

If they had a magic wand and could construct an ideal buying experience, what would it look like?

If they could construct an ideal ongoing client/salesperson/company relationship, what would it look like?

How often would they like to be contacted with new information, or be contacted by their salesperson or company service person?

Do they prefer being contacted by phone, mail, or email?

Do they prefer being contacted at home or at work?

If you’d like to receive some sample surveys, as well as a list of over 80 additional questions you might want to consider, drop me an email and I’ll send them right out to you.

Let’s say you and your team has been working their tails off for many months.

Let’s say it’s an absolutely gorgeous spring day, in the low 70′s, no humidity.

Well, if you’re like this client of mine (who gave me permission to share this story), you’ll get a “wild hair” and close up shop for the afternoon and take everyone to the zoo!

My client, let’s call her “Jane,” and 14 of her staff went on a spur of the moment “field trip” to the zoo. They had an absolute ball! After all, it’s not every work day you get to pet four inch cockroaches and ride a carousel with your colleagues.

Jane also gave some funds to a few of her staffers to buy animal toy gifts from the gift shop. The next day everyone got one of these as a memento for their desk to help them remember the fun they had.

This little outing gave her staff a huge morale boost. They had a great time and got to connect with each other on a personal level. Jane used to do more of this when her staff was smaller, but like many of us, over the years, some of those good habits had slipped.

The next morning, her staff came to her office and gave her flowers and a thank you card. One of them commented that “you throw the best staff meetings!”

If you have a staff, when was the last time you celebrated with them, maybe even for “no good reason”? If you work solo, you still need to get out and have some fun, refresh yourself with something out of the ordinary.

In The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner, one of the best selling leadership books of all time (and my leadership bible), one of the five leadership practices is called “encourage the heart” and one of the two corollary commitments of that practice is to “celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.”

This is exactly what Jane was doing last week when she took her team to the zoo.

“Community may not be the stuff of ordinary organizations, but it is the stuff of great ones, ones with strong cultures,” said Kouzes and Posner.

What can you do this week to celebrate your company culture and your team?

See you at the zoo!

FOCUS:

F = Follow
O = One
C = Course
U = Until
S = Successful

Follow one course until successful.

It’s true that many of your ideas could be profitable and make a great impact on the world. Yet, without focus, not even one idea will become successful.

However, if you focus on one thing long enough, you will figure it out. Keep trying and testing until you find the key that works for you!

David shared a few other ideas on how to stay on track:

1. Create a vision of what business will look like when it’s successful. Put samples or mock ups of your products on walls. Make a vision board of what you’re working to achieve.

2. Put on your opportunity blinders. Make a commitment to yourself not to jump on any more “bright shiny objects” that come along. There are many more great opportunities out there than you can ever possibly take advantage of. Remember the power of F.O.C.U.S. if you really want to succeed.

3. Create a two year plan with milestones and convert into a timeline that visually shows the milestones. Put it on your wall. In my experience, most people resist planning. Planning is not an administrative task. It is one of the highest level activities you will ever engage in.

Your plan will undoubtedly change. Yet doing the thinking to create one as best you can, establishing milestones and benchmarks and making all of this visible in a visual format, will make a huge difference in the odds of your being successful.

4. Hire a business coach. [David is not himself a business coach.] This will return 10x and help you stay on course. Just today I received this email from a client (unsolicited)

“I thought that you offered a lot of value today, on several different levels. It is helpful for me just (!) to have the structure of the calls, and the list of what I’m working on, you have GOOD ideas (and a quick mind, I LOVE THAT), and are good on details, like the verbiage on the postcard, and those things are all valuable. I appreciate you!!”

5. Tell everyone you know what business you’re in and what your goals are. There’s nothing like the pressure of other people’s expectations to help you stay true to them!

Remember as a kid how you could burn a leaf by focusing the sunlight through a magnifying glass? Keep that kind of focus and you WILL be successful.

I learned recently that 11 years ago one of my fellow Rotarians – I’ll call him Anthony – was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Apparently it was close to Stage 4. Two different doctors told him to go home and prepare to die. He consulted with another one who saw it differently. Anthony decided to fight. He radically changed his diet and other lifestyle factors and embarked on numerous traditional and alterative therapies. The survival rate for that stage lung cancer is very small, yet he’s alive today, an elderly gentleman with a wonderful twinkle in his eye. He beat the odds.

If you follow football, you know that the NY Giants beat the New England Patriots in this year’s Superbowl. It was an incredible game down to the final seconds. The Patriots were favored to win by two touchdowns. With little over 2 minutes left in the game, the Giants were behind by 4 points. They pulled it out and scored, beating a team which was 17 – 0 coming into the Superbowl. They beat the odds.

So right now, what are you facing where you need to beat the odds? How will you endure and overcome that particular obstacle and do more than survive, but thrive?

When you face your next daunting challenge, remember the NY Giants, remember Anthony, and most importantly, remember how you have beat the odds in the past. Take heart within yourself. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. Gather your courage and take one more step forward.

Here’s a quick story about the external capacity side of the equation. Recently, a local massage therapy business in my city offered a special: four massages for $100. This was 50% off or $25 per massage – a great deal. I had not yet tried out this salon, but still I snapped up a couple certificates (their limit), figuring with a number of therapists to choose from, I would find one who I liked.

Their campaign was a huge success. So much so that I think it blew their circuits and overloaded them with all the massages people were now scheduling. On top of that, two of the four therapists left for various reasons. All of a sudden, they had a huge waiting list to get a massage. As I write this now, I’ve been waiting for a month and my neck and shoulders are not happy campers!

Although I give everyone the benefit of a doubt, my opinion of that business is wavering. Meanwhile, I’ve scheduled a massage somewhere else. It’s possible the owner’s successful marketing campaign will backfire on them, especially if I enjoy this other place more. Or if their customers get tired of waiting and demand a refund.

On the internal capacity side of the equation, a new client of mine needed more business. Then she got five new clients in a matter of weeks. This surge in business highlighted her lack of functional organizational systems as well as her inner beliefs about whether she deserved success. I’m confident that as we work through these challenges she’ll be ready to handle the number of clients she ultimately wants.

It’s vitally important to ask yourself: Is my capacity set up for the success I want?

Do whatever it takes to identify, shift, eliminate and transform the external capacity issues you have. These could be inadequate production or inventory space, blocks to hiring new staff quickly when you need it, or a lack of capital for new computers or other equipment. And remember, you also have to change the internal attitudes and behaviors that are stopping you from your abundance.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my massage now!

The bottom line is that the more people you have to communicate with, the number of possible interactions increases geometrically. Consider this amazing information:

• 3 people = 3 possible different communications

• 25 people = 300 possible different communications = 8x more people = 100x increase in communications complexity

• 50 people = 1,225 possible different communications = 17x more people = 408x increase in communications complexity!

• 100 people = 4950 possible different communications = 33x more people = 1,650x increase in communications complexity!!

• 1,000 people = 499,500 possible different communications = 333x more people = 166,500x increase in communications complexity!!!

(Source: Six Discipline of Excellence by Gary Harpst)

In other words, when there are three people in an organization, there are three possible communication combinations (persons A + B, A + C, B + C).

In a 25 person organization there is an 8-fold increase in the number of people but a 100–fold increase in the communications combinations.

In a 100 person organization is 33 times the size of a 3-person organization but 1650 times more complex from a communications perspective.

Bigger businesses try to handle this complexity by creating layers, divisions and departments. Yet we know from how we sometimes laugh at Dilbert how ineffective most of these are.

In smaller business or organizations, problems and opportunities can be communicated much more quickly and decisions can be made. You’re more flexible and can adapt to market changes much more quickly. Good communication is at the heart of successful business.

To maximize your small business/organization communication advantage, make sure to follow these simple guidelines:

• Stick to observable facts and stay away from evaluation or diagnosis. Example: Say “You didn’t bring me the report by last Friday.” Instead of “You blew off the deadline for the report and totally screwed up!”

• Stay away from extreme language and don’t use words like “always,” “never,” “usually,” or “most of the time.”

• Avoid judgmental words like manipulated, ignored, put down, blown off, misled, left hanging, etc.

• Focus on solutions by stating clearly and simply what you want the person to do.

Good communication takes practice, so go easy on yourself and don’t expect perfection right out of the gates.

Most people have default teams. They haven’t consciously picked their team members and so what they have is often a pretty mixed lot. Some members may be highly consistent, positive, and fun, while others may be unreliable, irritating or worse.
Your team members can include your spouse or partner, employees, accountant, financial advisor/stock broker, child care provider, computer technician, business coach, plumber, handy person, house cleaner, car mechanic, travel agent, landscaper and more.

For example, my financial advisor is super. When I first started working with her, unlike some of the big name firms, she didn’t require that I have a huge amount of money to open an account. She thinks big and creates big results for her clients.

Another team member who is invaluable to me is my accountant. When I had a question the other day, I called her office and found out she was home with a sick child. Five minutes later, she called me from her home. (Her son was resting.) How’s that for outstanding customer service? No charge for the conversation, either.

Then there’s my computer technician who learned how to build computers in the Navy and is stumped by nothing. He charges fairly and is highly competent. In my business, along with my telephone, my computer is my number one business tool, so you can see how important he is to my professional success!

All my team members are fantastic people, caring, highly competent and service oriented, just as I am with my clients. I have chosen them carefully. Don’t put up with anything less for your team.

Remember that the only thing constant in life is change, so accept that over time there will be some changes to your team and be prepared. Have backup suppliers or service providers. If you have employees, don’t be surprised when someone moves on, and keep a file of possible candidates, people you have noticed in your community who might be a great fit for your team.

Take a minute to look at your team. How high do you rate them? If you don’t rate your team at least an 8 out of 10 (10 being amazing), then you need to take a hard look at it.

We have a huge tendency to become like those we surround ourselves with. We tend to have the same income levels, the same ambitions, the same degree of risk taking and growth orientation. So be sure to create a designer team, one that supports your success and that you can count on. The results will amaze you.

Best wishes,
Anne

P.S. If you are ready for some help with working well with your team (or yourself!), get a coach. An outside perspective and the knowledge of an expert coach can often work miracles! Put your time and effort where they will yield the best results. To get started, just contact me. We’ll talk and we’ll get to work.

So, what is a time termite? Time termites are activities you do or actions of others that “eat up” your time and destroy the beautiful design of your life. Just like real termites can take down a whole house if left unchecked, time termites may seem small, but they can destroy your life. You must design your life to strongly protect against the situations and people that will run right over you and eat up your life – if you let them.

The reason I get so “violent” is that, in my experience coaching hundreds of business owners and professionals – time termites eat up as much as 25 – 50% of your time. Only a very energetic, intelligent and vigilant approach toward protecting your time will work.

Some of the top time termites, based on my unscientific experience with hundreds of clients, include: wasting time on trivial items, waiting to see the boss or manager, meetings without good agenda and/or facilitation, too many reports to write, problems in locating documents or other needed items, phone & email, complainers and whiners, inability to say “no” – saying “yes” to too many people, and interruptions.

Let’s look at just one of those. I have a client who has people contact him at various times about in-person meetings. He is learning to consider these carefully. While it is definitely important to have “face time” with colleagues to keep his relationships fresh, a lot of the time he can accomplish the task at hand much more expeditiously over the phone.

My client has 40 or so hours each week to run his business, so a 1-1/2 or 2 hour meeting (when you include travel) equals about 5% of that time. If he went to two such meetings per week, that’s 10% of his time! Since he can handle most of them on the phone in a quarter to one-third of that time, you can see this is one time termite he’s squashing in a hurry.

Whether a meeting is in person or on the phone, if you keep it focused and on task, you can take the time you save and use it for quality time with the professional or personal relationships that make the most sense.

There are many other strategies and tactics to exterminating time termites. To stick to my one-minute guideline for Ordinary Brilliance, I can’t go into them all right now. But you are creative and resourceful and have a lot of ways to deal with your time termites. I invite you to pick just one time termite and set your intention to exterminate it in the next 30 days.

Let me know how you do with it and then I’ll be happy to have you as a proud member of the elite Time Termite Exterminators Club.

Anne Alexander
Authentic Alternatives

KnockKnock

Check it out today!

Since we were unable to understand what Grace wanted, we had to make a decision as best we could. Her quality of life sucked, and the vet said she was definitely suffering.

So instead of putting her through fluid injections and tests and X-rays and God knows what treatment for what the vet said would be either organ failure or cancer, we euthanized her.

I hate that word. Let’s say it like it is: we killed our own dog. A mercy killing. I know many of you have been through this. I have before, but it’s so hard every time.

We took her ashes to her favorite river and let her go. As is often the case with people in our lives (generally speaking), Grace was a mix of sweetness and -well – the opposite.

She barked a ton. She was a cattle dog and was very territorial. She chased our other dog upstairs, because she was intruding on Grace’s territory. She nipped at us. She rubbed her butt on the carpet.

And we loved her.

As quoted in the bestbook on leadership I know, The Leadership Challenge, Former US Army Major General John H. Stanford said “The secret to success is to stay in love.” We’ll always love Grace. Go spread some of your love today.

Thanks.

This truth was brought home to me recently when a friend who lives in Minneapolis told me about the ArtCar parade she attended in late July. This parade has been an annual event for 11 years, featuring the whackiest motorized vehicles you have ever seen. One of the best was the Couchmobile. My friend described the scene: cruising down a main drag in the city, a young man sat serenely in a traditional couch that swung around in gentle circles as it glided down the street. I was already laughing and then I viewed a 10 second video clip of it at www.couchmobile.com and it got even funnier.

I am grateful that creative, fun-loving people are out there doing things just for the joy of it. They make us laugh and get the all-important perspective that life is not meant to be serious all the time and that we’ll actually achieve more of what we want by having more fun.

Yes, life does have its serious moments. Many of them, in fact. Our businesses are demanding, our careers often insecure, and we have issues with various people in our lives. We may even have health challenges or have parents or friends who do. It is easy to become overwhelmed by these facts and lose sight of the balance we need for optimum wholeness.

Whatever it is that you find funny or genuinely amusing, make sure to seek it out and indulge in it on a regular basis. With all the heavy, intense and bad news, whether in “the world” or our own lives, humor is not optional. It is essential.

So what makes you laugh? I encourage you to make a quick note right now on your calendar, daily planner or PDA of one of the things you find the funniest and most uplifting. Make it a recurring appointment: call that hilarious friend, watch that movie that puts you in stitches, read a funny book, sign up for clown classes, visit that web site or blog that always makes you laugh out loud. Or hang out with small children – they laugh a lot and it’s contagious!

And don’t forget to check out the Couchmobile. Hmmmm….maybe I should make a COACHmobile? I could cruise down the street in my motorized office chair, wearing my wireless headset, holding a clipboard on my lap and coaching my clients. Now that sounds like fun!

He wrote about the importance of buying advice – GOOD advice!
See what he said here.

It’s funny, because advice giving is big business, and yet, many folks take the advice, as Seth points out, of celebrities and others who don’t necessarily know jack about what you need advice on.

A lot of coach training “advises” heavily against giving advice. Coaches are “supposed to” draw out the client’s own wisdom, because people are the best expert on ourselves. Fortunately, many (most) coaches also do give advice, because most of them have a lot of professional and life experience that is extremely valuable.

So don’t hesitate to ask your coach – or me here – for good advice!

Check out this interactive telephone seminar:

The Four Keys to Becoming a Time Architect™: An Introduction to a Revolutionary New Way to Take Back Your Time

More info here.

If you’re like most professionals, managers, and business owners, you work more hours than you prefer and you may feel like you’re still not getting enough done. You’ve virtually given up on many of the other interests and passions in your life.

In this interactive telephone seminar you’ll be introduced to a new approach to “time management” that gets to the core of how to create sustainable
peak performance for today’s professionals and business owners.

A Time Architect™ is someone who has a great control over their time and their life, and creates time for the high value activities and relationships that are important to them.

This class is for you if:

* You feel burnt out or like you might be headed in that direction.

* You don’t seem to ever have time for non-work passions and interests.

* Willpower never seems to work for you.

* You feel like you’re “on” all the time.

* You want more than a “quick fix” that won’t last.

More info here.

You’ll learn:

* how “solidifying your structure” has everything
to do with getting control of your time

* to understand the critical see-saw principle and put
into immediate use

* how simplification and stormproofing play key roles
in becoming a master Time Architect™.

And you’ll leave the call with at least three achievable action steps, customized to you, which you can start implementing immediately in your
life.

Your only investment is $9.95 for the class, plus the cost of the long-distance call to the conference line. If you don’t get way more than $9.95 worth of actionable material, I’ll happily refund your investment.

You have two choices for this clss (one daytime, one evening)

Thursday, August 4th at 8:00 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific

Wednesday, August 10 at 3:00 pm Eastern/12:00 pm/Pacific

To register, go here now.

Maximum of 20 people per call, so register now. I promise to make it worth your valuable time!

Best regards,
Anne

Great story! I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s sad that some individuals don’t get to know people who they assume are too ordinary….Some of the most important role models I’ve had in life do not have buildings named after them or have millions in the bank but in some beautiful way their ordinary lives have been extraordinary.

Thanks for sharing that story,
Debi

Hi Anne –
What a beautiful message! Thank you!
And I love your tag line.
Take good care,
Priscilla

I think this was exactly what I needed to read today to remind me of what’s important.
Thank you.
Donna

Anne,
A great story of courage and determination. Live one day at a time with a loving heart for all that we do. Life is precious and so is each one of us who live and breathe one moment at a time.

Gratefully,

Darleen

Dear Anne,

Thank you so much for a great, worth sharing article about ” how to be the hero of your own life”. I just don’t know how to describe how inspiring the article is.

Cheers,

Caleb

Hi Anne,

Thank you so much for this e-mail. It was absolutely wonderful to receive it.

It is my daughter’s 27th birthday today, a day of Celebration of her life. Unfortunately for 12 years now she has had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so that beautiful girl has been unable to go to college, etc. as it is too taxing on her.

I listened to your article and started crying. It really got to me. Jessica was a wonderful girl and will be in our hearts for ever. She is and will be special to all of us forever.

I passed the e-mail onto my daughter, so that she can listen to it. It will make her feel extra special today, as she totally deserves to be. Thanks for that.

Have a truly memorable day…

Nina

Very lovely and inspiring story.
Thanks, Anne.

Don

Dear Anne,

I am greatly inspired with the mail you sent to me on
Jessicca Berry. I really appreciate it. I pray we all achieve our
dreams though the roads might be rough but with perseverance and
determination we shall get there.

Dapo

When I attended my step-daughter’s college graduation this past May, I thought the commencement speaker was a very accomplished person. Whether one is positive, negative or neutral about Hillary Clinton, she has accomplished a great deal, persevered through many storms, set high goals and reached many of them.

What I didn’t realize until recently was that another individual with an amazing success story was also there at that graduation. She was, in fact, one of the graduates, and with hundreds of students streaming across the stage, I honestly have to say I don’t remember her as she received her diploma.

But I learned recently about this hero of the Agnes Scott College’s Class of 2005. Jessica Berry started college with my step-daughter – they were in the same English class. During her first semester Jessica was diagnosed with Hodgkins-Lymphoma cancer. Despite multiple treatments and periods in the hospital during a stem-cell transplant, she was determined to continue her education.

According to her classmates and professors, Jessica had a positive, upbeat spirit and an amazing focus on graduating college. She was on track to be a teacher, but the disease got the upper hand and six days after she graduated, she died. It’s a very sad story. And yet I am inspired by the way Jessica set herself a goal and, despite the odds, achieved it. And in that process, she showed that it is not our achievements that are so important in our life, it is who we are. Our personal qualities and character traits are what allow us to strive for a particular goal. These qualities are what really matter: they make us successful human beings.

Jessica did not succeed because she graduated, just as she did not fail because she died. She succeeded because of the courage and determination, the bright spirit that she displayed through those four difficult years. She succeeded because the qualities she lived have inspired me and many others. And she has helped us become conscious of how well we are living our lives.

None of us knows how much time we have left. Let’s take a cue from Jessica Berry and live full out, pursuing our dreams, authentically and with integrity. If we do that, whether we reach them or not, we will have succeeded.

We lose touch with what’s most important to us and start down that slippery slope where life feels like a numbing treadmill and our passion and caring begin to disappear.

Fewer choices = greater freedom. A paradox, isn’t it? I’m frequently reminding clients that the practice of sequencing is so crucial. Sequencing is doing things in sequence rather than all at once. So you may sequence some big life projects, and focus on one this year, or even for the next few years.

If we do one thing well, we will be much further ahead than doing multiple things half-baked.

A fellow who has struggled for over 20 years with his professional golf career won the men’s US Open last Sunday. How did New Zealander Michael Campbell do it? In an interview, he said that, as he played the last 9 holes, he said to himself 20 times each hole “Keep your focus, keep your focus, keep your focus.”

This simple statement contains such power and is such a key to our success. I don’t have A.D.D., but sometimes I wonder, the way I can jump around from project to project. When I KEEP MY FOCUS it truly is amazing what I accomplish. It feels great!

Ask yourself, what is the top activity you need to focus on right now?

Yes, I agree with you about action. I also have a lot to do in the patience division. But, as you found out, action and patience really go together. If you had not gone to the Builders store, you probably would never have seen the glass block. The glass block came into your vision because of something you saw at the Builders store. Whether you saw it or now, you mind saw it, and then put you and the block together.

When I rush to action, many times it takes more time to redo the action, than if I wait for the perfect solution… that is always there!

Thanks for your notes…

Lawrence

Patience is a virtue I have been blessed with but, I do sometimes find myself in a hurry to get something done. This story reinforces that waiting is almost always a good thing to do. By waiting just a couple of seconds we can respond to something instead of reacting to it.

Thanks for the reminder,
Paul

Great lesson. I probably have more than my fair share of patience. I have cultivated it the last few years. I think your lesson has great beauty in the waiting. Not something we no how to do very well in the culture.

Thanks for sharing,

Have a great day ~ Debbie

What a great example of how patience pays off and the innovative solutions we can come up with when faced with a problem to solve.
Thanks,
Connie

The beautiful wood lot next door to our house was recently cleared to put up two more homes. We knew it was going to happen sooner or later. On the window that faces the lot, we had a beautiful stained glass piece, however, the window showed through about 8” on either side.

Now, with the lot cleared, every time I went by the window, instead of beautiful greenery, I noticed raw earth, scraped by the bulldozer. It made me cringe every time. I am a big believer in the tremendous benefit of setting up our environment to support us. This includes all kinds of environments, like clients, friends, beliefs, food, etc. But in this case it was my physical/social environment.

We had to do something to change that view out the window. I came up with the idea of a lightweight translucent plastic roller shade that would go behind the stained glass. Definitely tacky, but I was adamant I did not want to see construction for the next six months or look into someone else’s window for years after that.

Although this idea wasn’t the greatest, I didn’t see any other option and my perspective, as an impatient, action-oriented person was “Let’s just put up the shade.”

Fellow “action” friends take note: sometimes action can be premature.

So what happened? We started tossing ideas around – an attractive Japanese paper shade of some kind, plastic film you stick on windows in bathrooms for privacy that still lets light through, even spray-on coatings.

Yet, we agreed, none were very aesthetically pleasing in our desire to create an uplifting, beautiful environment that would positively affect our daily performance and happiness.

To stimulate our idea process, we went to the local home improvement monster box store and cruised the aisles, trying to come up with a good solution. No luck.

Finally, frustrated and back home again, I noticed the glass block I had in my office. It simply sat on my window sill since I had nowhere to install it, but I had loved it for years. Was there some way to use the block?

We quickly discovered that the spacing was almost perfect – one column of glass block on either side would fill the gaps perfectly. The wave pattern made it so, while light came through, we didn’t really see what was outside, just some color.

Now we wondered how we would stack a column of blocks, without mortar. It turns out they make a plastic insert for just that purpose – dry-stacking glass blocks.

We bought some blocks and inserts and you would think that the window had been specifically planned for this purpose. I was amazed! The solution was perfect. Yet, in my initial rush to solve the problem, I would never have come up with this.

It was a wonderful lesson to me to:
1) take enough time to come up with the best solution, and
2) put your head together with one or more others to guarantee better solutions.

In this action-oriented culture, there isn’t much value placed on patience. Let us be wise and not make that mistake.

Here’s one idea from the book. When approaching a particular business or professional problem, take the approach of acknowledging that you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. “Instead of worrying over the many possibilities in any situation, just let go. You really surrender when you drop attachment to a particular outcome…One student said: ‘My approach has always been to hammer away at a problem until I find a solution, or failing that, I usually give up. This brute-force approach does produce results but at a cost of great stress and unhappiness… With surrendering I felt much more at peace with myself, and I actually attacked the problems with greater confidence.’ ”

What problem can you surrender today? Success may be the result.