“Remember lives passes by while You do business. Stop regularly and listen to life – daily, weekly and at least 2 weeks vacation a year. When You “return from life” You see business decisions more clearly.
How do You nurse “Your full life” having a small business?”
Thanks, John H. Hanson, for initiating such an important discussion in “Think Big Small Business Owners Discussion” on Michael Port’s Think Big Revolution community site.
We self-employed professionals, soloprenerus, and owners of small businesses are the business. It’s so easy to get out of balance. I know for me when I focus on the business too long and hard my business and my life, my heart, mind, body and spirit all suffer. So I’m learning to pay attention and to chnage my habits ~ how I think, talk to myself and others, and especially how I act.
Here are a few ways I get to nurture my business and my life.
Having great passion for what I do is critical ~ I get energy when I’m working on the right thngs at th right time, and from working directly with people.
Speaking of people, some of my best friends are involved in my business either as clients or allies or advisors or in my mastermind group. So we blend professional and personal in our conversations. This weekend I’m going to Busch Gardens with some of these folks. You know we’ll have some of the juicest conversations as weplay in a new and stimulating environment, as we spend hours of time together in shared experience, as we shift who we’re interacting with. I know it will be amemorable day – great fun, great connections, great work.
Speaking of fun, “If it’s got to be done, make it fun!” I’ve been saying that for years. Now I’m living it and what a difference it’s making in the energy I bring to everything I’m doing. I’m blasing through resistances that have delayed, detoured, even derailed me in the past.
And of course, I wake up and do my spiritual practices, I take time during the day to stretch, walk and work in my garden, and whatever my heart desires in the moment ~ sometimes.
Discipline and Balance, Joy and Passion! Showing up fully in the moment! Loving and Celebrating Life!
The Energizer Bonnie
http://MarketingToYOURworld.com
P.S. Check out Think Big Revolution. It’s a GREAT place to connect with like-minded people who share passions and challenges.
Tags: Strategies for Success
May 14th, 2009
Ready to take your practice to the next level? Become a business owner who runs a business.
I’ve been a successful professional with several different practices over the years. In the past I’ve taken the practice as far as I could doing what was a comfortable stretch. I’ve established systems for contact management, time and task management and keeping financial records… all designed for short term success.
I’ve started business plans for many, then I’ve put aside because I gotten ‘too busy’ with day-to-day operations.
And so the practice has grown to where I can’t even keep up with those. I then find some reason, or one finds me, to where I’ve given up and moved on, only to repeat the same pattern.
Now I stand on the edge of this very same pattern. This time I MUST change. This ‘must’ has more to do with what I know it takes to succeed at business and less to do with today’s economic climate.
Can you relate? Every client I have can. A psychologist, a writer of educational music books, a webmaster, an owner of a boat delivery service… the title of the profession doesn’t matter. It’s the mind-set and the behaviors that we’ve grown comfortable with and must now move beyond if we are to succeed to our truest and highest potential.
What do we need to do next? I’ll briefly mention a few here and in future posts I’ll go into greater detail on each.
(1) We MUST get clear about who we are, what we’re offering to whom and how we are going to run the business that supports the practice we’re building.
(2) We MUST decide how much time we are willing to work in and on the business in a day, in a week, a month. Turning a practice into a business takes additional resources of time, money and energy beyond what you’re already investing in your practice.
(3) We MUST be clear about how much money we need to live and to turn our practice into a thriving business. And, trust me, it takes more time, money and energy than you’re currently spending on your practice.
(4) We MUST design a business plan that takes into account the combination of more than how many people we want to serve or products we want to create and deliver. It must bring together the above “MUSTs.” You MUST be realistic about how long it will take and know how much you This plan is for YOU! The plan is a realistic blueprint of
(5) We MUST surround ourselves with people who already know and are practicing what I’ve suggested and those who admit they are in the exact same place as you. We need their support, encouragement, the lessons they’ve learned and awarenesses they’ve gained. We need to declare to others what we are committed to do and where we are committed to go and then to consistently take the baby steps we know we must in order to make progress toward our desired outcomes.
I know you know wonderful, talented people who are ready to soar to new heights. Seek them out. Find out if they, too, are convinced they need to gather together, to fly with others who are ready to stretch yet again to succeed.
Form a mastermind group, a high performance team in which each person is talented and gifted AND is a self-motivated self-starter who does what they say they’re going to do and knows how to ask for help when we need it. Declare to each other your individual business outcomes/goals as well as the team’s. Help each other. Encourage and support each other. Be accountable to each other.
Maybe even distribute work required on similar projects and tasks. Divide up the research and figuring out how to use some of the new marketing tools, technologies and strategies. You can even help promote each other.
Look at how the marketing ‘gurus’ work together, sharing lists, using each others’ digital products as bonuses, even co-creating such projects.
Create what works for you now and revisit what you’re doing, why and how you’re doing it and be willing to adjust ~ as individuals and as a team.
The good news ~ we’ve got about 90-95% of the hard work done. Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and tackle the biggest challenges, the ones which, if you’re like me and willing to be honest with your boss ~ yourself ~ we’ve managed to avoid facing within ourselves and do what must be done so that we might survive and thrive as the magnificant people and professionals we have become.
I am honored to be in your company and your service. If you’ve been flying alone and wish to join others whom you haven’t met yet, I am gathering like-minded, spirited, dedicated professionals who are ready. If you are, please reach out and touch someone. We are here ready to welcome you with open minds, open hearts, open arms. We are ready to fly with you. Are you ready?
Come fly with us.
Tags: Strategies for Success
January 28th, 2009
