May 30, 2012

the balance ~ working at your business vs. working on your business

Grey Cat Working from home by SchmetzPetz. Click for more info.

At the beginning of a business, a great deal of our time is spent working on our business as we get it set up.

We have a dream, a plan… a lofty goal.

We start our blogs and websites, launch a mailing list. We research and put all of our prices, policies, and procedures in place.

We get started with marketing and social media. We hustle.

Then we get busy.

We get stuck in the treadmill of making and shipping.

Of responding to our clients and customers.

Of just trying to keep everything working smoothly – and not just our business, but our lives, too.

In other words, all of the REALLY IMPORTANT daily tasks that actually mean we HAVE a business.

However, somewhere along the line – unless we’re careful and we plan for it – we stop working ON the business at all.

We get so caught up in the day-to-day that we don’t take that step back to critically examine our business.

Is this selling venue really the best one for me? Are my photos really up-to-scratch? Am I spending my marketing and money wisely? Am I growing the business in the right direction? Do I need help?

There are SO many interconnected aspects of our business, and even when things are going well, there is ALWAYS something that could be grown, changed, or improved.

I always find that when I take the time to work on my business – even if it’s just an hour to reflect on the next 6 months and what I’d like to achieve – it leaves me energised and re-motivated to tackle projects head-on.

Conversely, when I don’t take the time to look at the big picture, or to tweak aspects of my business, I find I get worn down by the day-to-day tasks, and sometimes forget my purpose and mission.

So, I challenge you to take a step back today and spend just 30 minutes working ON your business instead of in it.

What will YOU focus on in this time?

Filed Under: Buy You, For You, creating action Tagged With: , , , , , 5 Comments
April 3, 2012

are you doing those things that make you happy?

In our work to get where we’re going, sometimes it’s the simple things we leave off our list, the things that we tell ourselves we’ll do later. And sometimes doing these simple things — the things that just make us plain happy, and remind us why it is we are doing whatever we are doing – are just the things we should be doing, for our well-being, for our health, and for our success.

So every day:

Do those things that make you happy.

Do those things that make you want to get up and do a little happy dance.

Do those things that make you feel five years old all over again. Remember bringing home a drawing that you spent an afternoon making in kindergarten, a drawing you loved making from start to finish, to give it to your Mum.

Do those things that make you grin so wide, that your eyes get squinty and your face feels a little stretched out afterwards.

Do those things that you put at the bottom of your list, because there’s more important things, like balancing the checkbook or picking up the dry-cleaning, sweeping the kitchen floor or meeting a deadline. Turn the list upside down, and do the *fun* things that might be at the bottom of it, too.

Do those things that you wake up thinking about.

Do all of those things because they feed every other little thing you could possibly have on your list of must-dos, to-dos and need-to-dos.

Do those things that you are moved to do because they feed your soul, your imagination, your spirit, and your chi.

Just do those things that make you so very uniquely You.

We’d love to know what some of your “do those things” are. What are the things in your life, in your work that fill you up to the brim and keep you going?

Filed Under: creating action, Plot Notes Tagged With: , , , , , , , 1 Comment
February 14, 2012

Testify: running a biz vs. running around

image by ArtPhotosDiana - click for image for more info

I recently sent the following email to a fellow creative entrepreneur:

Hi Lorna,

I’m in an entrepreneur mastermind group, and someone has asked for a referral for a VA. I’m going to post your site on the public forum, so hopefully some people will check you out.

I know this savvy group of folks will be looking for testimonials. Don’t mean to stick my nose in, but I thought they would make great supporting material for the info you already have up there. Just a couple cents from me.

Lorna wrote a note thanking me for the referral and the encouragement to get testimonials on her page. She had some lying around, but just hadn’t gotten around to getting them on her site. The referral was just the nudge she needed to get it posted and she was thrilled to cross this off her list.

I’ve had a similar conversation with two clients in the last month. Testimonials are a big deal! Simply adding them to your site could be an all important income generating activity. No testimonials = leaving money on the table = boohoo. So why are they getting forgotten?

Because there’s so much schnit to do!

As you know, there is an endless stream of stuff to do when you run your own biz, regardless of its size. And the important stuff, the stuff that actually moves you forward and shakes the money off the tree, can get buried or abandoned.

Horse: please take your place in front of the cart.

Lemme fess up: I have transgressed as well. I have wandered and floated and ignored the important stuff. And I’ve gotten fed up with that way of working and found what works for me.

One of my “I-solemnly-swear-by” tactics is to give myself one focus each month. One.

I start where I know there is a weakness in my biz. I might choose SEO, my website, or creating a product. Then I structure my time that month around improving that one area. This ensures that the income generating stuff gets attention and I plug the holes in my biz.

Wanna try out my one month/one focus strategy? Start by downloading the free planner below.

If you have trouble downloading, please check your settings or try another browser–sometimes Dropbox is fussy.

What will you focus on first? What’s the biggest hole you can plug this month?

Gathering light,

 

 

 

PS -Want more ideas and planners like this? Laura’s e-guide Roadmap to Action is now available for creative entrepreneurs who are ready to plan their success and find their own way of working. Learn more here and pay what it’s worth to you.

Filed Under: Buy You, For You, creating action Tagged With: , , , , , , , 4 Comments
September 15, 2011

Acute How-To: Pretty Dry Erase Boards

Every night, before bed, I take my boring, plain white dry erase board off the wall and write my to-do list for the next day.

My to-do list is more like a schedule.  I write out what I will be doing every hour.  I know that might sound a little neurotic, but making lists and plans is something I really enjoy doing.  Plus, when I have everything written down, I have no stress.  When there is a plan laid out, I know I will get everything done the next day.

After seeing a pretty dry erase board tutorial on Pinterest, I decided to make my own and make my schedule a little prettier.

What you will need:

-a large picture frame {I bought two 11″x13″ frames on sale for $6.50/each}
-a piece of fabric or pretty paper that is large enough to fill the frame {I used a vintage pillow case that I bought for $0.50 at the thrift store}
-white or cream colored card stock {if your fabric is thin}

Step One:

Since the pillow case I was using for each frame was fairly thin, I covered the back of the frame with two pieces of cream card stock so that it wouldn’t show through the fabric.

Step Two:

Cut your fabric or pretty paper so that it fills the entire frame.  I cut my fabric about 1/2″ longer on each side and then tucked it in around the back.

That’s it!  Easy.Peasy.

I am going to use one for my daily, hour by hour schedules and the other as a week ahead type planner or for general notes.  Like I said, I love lists.

Filed Under: Acute How-To, tutorials Tagged With: , , , , , 9 Comments
September 7, 2011

the importance of under-scheduling

Montana Landscape from Courtney Grigg

Montana Landscape from Courtney Grigg


I get stressed out easily. I wish it wasn’t so, but that’s the temperament I was born with. I also tend to try to do too much and bite off more than I can chew. These two qualities make perfect ingredients for a bi-weekly freak-out cocktail.

When I over-schedule myself and think that I can cram productive activity into every waking minute I find myself feeling tyrannized by my calendar. I have a constant, nagging feeling that I’m ‘off track’ and not doing enough. I can’t enjoy the spontaneous moments and events that life brings and find myself snapping at my husband.

There is a great German word for this kind of thing: Selberschuld. The literal translation is ‘self-guilt’, what it means practically is: It’s your own damn fault.

And it is. Each week I have to remind myself anew to leave some ‘air’ in my calendar. I am only one person (for now) and it is just going to take time to get all the things done that I want to accomplish.

The ironic thing about all of this, is that I find it helps me to be more productive. One way to get your inner resistance monster into high-gear is to create an over-managed, over-scheduled, unrealistic plan.

When I try and do one to two really important tasks a day and then a little maintenance stuff, I find I’m much more relaxed and that I end up doing stuff that I wanted to do but didn’t plan for anyway.

Funnily enough, I find the work I do in the times when it isn’t on the ‘official plan’ is actually fun because there is no ‘I have to’ feeling associated with it.

I’m (slowly) learning to get just enough of the ‘must do’ stuff on my calendar, but allowing space for work to be fun or for no work at all. I’ve got a suspicion that this is a big part of learning the art of working joyfully, not just efficiently.

Filed Under: Steal This Process Tagged With: , , , , , , , 12 Comments