Work That System For Your Success
August 24, 2009
Heavy workload and a sense of chaos pose as big challenges to a new start up solo entrepreneur. In this case, one person covers every function from marketing to production to operations and setting up of basic logistics.
You don’t know where to start or how to handle the daily demands of business operations. Sometimes you feel that you can conquer the entire world. Other times you feel that you have made the wrong decisions and you are ready to try something else.
How do you manage this sense of overwhelm?
You need a proven system that will help you put the logistics and structures in place and lay the foundation. If you have never done any business, you will want to learn from a mentor, a coach, an advisor or an expert who has been there and done that. You want to learn from their mistakes without making them and save yourself a lot of time. You want guidelines and sign posts so you achieve your success in a shorter time frame.
If you try things out on your own it may take too long and cost too much and the stakes are high. You may not want to let time and opportunity go by as you try to figure things out for the first time. So find a system that works and work that system.
You need to work that system, one opportunity at a time. It sounds simple yet too often we want to conquer the whole word at once. It is good to have big visions and dreams, and to achieve that dream you need to keep your focus on the current tasks at hand. One plan at a time, one project at a time. If you try to do too much you lose focus and concentration not to mention that fact that you will be pulled in different directions. But by tackling your world one step at a time you get to see proven results before you duplicate the system for another market or another product. This way you maintain high success rates.
There is no need to rush into success. If the foundation is firm and you work a proven system, you can easily duplicate your success. Taking on too much in too short a time will wreak havoc in your business and personal life. And if you do that over a period and you will soon be flat out, consumed, exhausted.
You need to follow through and complete the system – no magic pill. Too many give up too soon. Before you have put in enough effort and complete the course do not write your project off as a failure and move onto the next thing that excites you. These seed take time to grow. We need to work the system and let nature takes its course in its own time. We cannot make the plant grow faster by pulling and tugging it every day. If you do that you will be jeopardizing your own project.
Never mind that there are new product launches and new opportunities every week, you stick to what you are working now until you have completed the course and then evaluate if you want to continue of change course. Give up prematurely and you can be throwing away your success just before it dawns on you. So complete what you started off with and finish the entire course before you move onto the next market, product or phase.
Follow these simple steps and you will find that you can cut out a lot of the noise and distraction and unnecessary stress in minding your own business.
If you find these tips helpful and would like to have more of it you can sign up here. You will be informed or the latest events and promotion when you register for more stress relief tips.
2 Common Challenges For New Independent Business Owners – And What You Can Do About Them
August 19, 2009
When you start owning your new business there are a few things that you will need to get used to. Some will be apparent and others will require great shifts in your mindset.
First of all, as a solo entrepreneur you are no longer trading time for regularly paid salary. There is seldom fixed payment at fixed time. Your income does not depend on how hard you work or how much time you put in.
Your success will now be measure by the results you create. The result can be in the form of volumes of sales, cash flow or market penetration. At the bottom of it all, it is cash that will keep the business growing. And only sales will bring in the cash to run and grow your business.
That is why productivity and efficiency is so important if you want success in your business, because you only have 24 hours in a day and you only have 1 person (you) to do all that needs to be done! So guard your time and your resources and make sure you perfect the management of your productivity on a daily basis.
Because results are so important in a successful business, you really need a good hard look how you are doing sales as that generates you incomee. By the way, sales is not a dirty word. It is an exchange where you the service provider are giving value to your clients. You are serving them and enriching their lives.
The second mind shift that is required for the new start up business owner is tied to sales.
You need to shift your mindset from one of specialist to that of sales and marketing. If you are a solo entrepreneur, this is even more important. Even though you may be primarily an expert as a coach, counsellor, trainer, speaker or author, you will need to wear the sales and marketing hat. You the expert will need to promote your business and sell your services, yes you will do sales. This has got to be the most difficult mind shift to make. I hope you are not stressed out by this.
All along, you have been training and studying to be an expert in your field, you do nothing but what you are good at in your area of expertise with your domain knowledge. You were in your comfort zone. Now you need to market and sell, feeling a little uneasy?
But you can be the best coach in town, but if no one knows of your services or what it is that you do nobody can tap into your service. And that is a great lost to the people around you who truly would appreciate the value you can bring. It is also a lost to you because you will not be able to serve the people around you with the gifts and talents that you have.
You need to get out there and sell. Half hearted marketing efforts due to fear will not get you anywhere. You need to put your entire heart and soul into in promoting your services, so they know how to reach you for what will help them. Don't stress out yet. You don't have to push your product down the throat of others. But sell with a heart that wants to add value to others, sell with a heart that wants to enhance others' lives.
Still want to be a solo entrepreneur? Start practicing your sales pitches. Get clarity on who you are and what you do that add value to others lives. What do you uniquely do or have that others will come to you?
Set aside time for marketing, networking, selling and some self development and perfecting of your skills and competencies. If marketing and sales is foreign to you then learn it and learn it fast! Get a mentor, attend some workshops before you give in to anxiety of running your business. Practice and master the skills productivity as you give of your heart and your best to market your service to the people you serve.
Click here for more tips on managing your business stress.
Join us on the Abundant Lives Coaching Fan Page for more frequent and timely updates that will help you reach your abundant life without the stress.
The Solo Entrepreneur Takes Stock
August 18, 2009
If you are starting your own small business (especially if you are doing so for the first time), now is a good time to consider setting yourself up for success. You can save yourself a lot of unnecessary anxiety and sleepless nights if you lay out the main issues you want to look at to ensure success.
As a solo entrepreneur (especially for coaches, trainers, speakers and authors, you will soon find that you have to manage everything from marketing and sales to production and logistics on your own. Then there is keeping of the books and taxes. You have the same amount of time but now need to stretch yourself thinly to cover all the functional aspects of a business.
Where you may have been taught to specialise in your place of work in the corporate world, you now find yourself called upon to be a generalist and need to know enough of everything to get your business operational and successful. That in itself can be rather overwhelming especially if technology is involved.
What might be something you must look out for lest you get sucked into panic and anxiety even before your business takes off?
Bottom Line, figures and capital investment. This is not just about your hopes and dreams. Business is very concrete and very tangible. One element of its success will have to be the figures. You would have calculated the kind of income you like to generate, together with on going operational costs and expenses. If this has not been thought through carefully, you will be thrown into anxiety and panic before long.
Stay on the Course: There is no over night success. Usually you would have been working at it for a while and suddenly hit the sweet spot when things begin to take shape. Too many start out with their new independent professional business on an emotional high expecting to break even in x months and start generating income. And when they don’t see much happening they start getting discouraged and distracted and go on an all time emotional low.
Anxiety sets in when there is no significant increase in interest for your services. And you try to do more, work harder or try new ventures in an effort to speed things up. Or you may decide to switch market or product or maybe even drop out of your master mind or your mentorship and coaching too soon. Taking yourself out of the game before you complete the entire course has got to be one of the most common mistakes to avoid. Too often if you have stayed on for a little while more, you would have seen success.
Invest In Yourself: If you are starting your own professional business for the first time as a coach or trainer or speaker, you want to give yourself enough time to learn about your market, your clients and learn to use your tools effectively. Then you need to practice and strengthen your business judgments and instincts. You want to follow through a proven system and not give up half way. You do need time to build up the momentum and once you have that the rest of the activities can be much easier. You are investing in your business when you invest in yourself. So to stay profitable in your business, you need continual self development.
Be realistic: Release yourself from unnecessary stress of wanting to make it big in unrealistically short period of time. Persistence and perseverance is needed and it is usually a good idea to build your professional service on a part-time basis until you learned the ropes.
And there is no need to prove your success to anyone, not your family members nor your ex colleagues, not even yourself. If you keep your focus on how others perceive you and if you seek external approval, you WILL be adding unreasonable amount of unnecessary stress to your business and yourself! Instead focus on your system, work it, follow it, and see it grow, but if have to give it time.
Starting your own service based business need not take a lot of investment. And if you use the internet to help you, you could be looking at minimal investment if hire ind yourself a guide to help you succeed in the shortest time. With that I wish you every success in your business ventures.
Sign up for tips on managing work stress here and be informed of special 24-hour sale on Aug 31st!!
Connect With Me
eZine Diamond Expert Author
