1. Shift from Not Valuing to Valuing your Time. 

This is an important change to make and when it happens you will never waste another minute! In a dollar sense - this means you are comfortable charging for your lifetime of knowledge, learning and experience - don't allow clients to take this for granted. You have invested a lot of time and energy and in life, we only get one chance with our time - we cannot go back and use the last 10 seconds!

2. Get the most out of your day.

Every now and then ask yourself: "Am I making the best use of my time?" If not, stop what you are doing , re-access what you are doing, and begin working on a project that will allow you better use of your time. If you are 'bogged down' or don't want to start a project, use the ten minute rule: set a timer for 10mins and start your project.  If after 10mins you still aren't in the flow of this project -stop and move onto another project.  If after 10mins you are in the flow of this project, then keep going!

3. Work with goals in mind.

It’s amazing how differently we work when you have goals to work towards. If you don't know what your goals are, stop now and spend some time working out what they may be. Use them as a road map for your daily 'to-do' list! Examples may be professional (project deadline, sales quotas, product development, etc) and personal (health, fitness, family relationship, financial, etc).

4. Handle every e-mail only once.

Use the '3 D' rule of Do it, Delete it or Delegate it. Use day-based folders to keep your inbox on track. Check your emails twice through out the day, and then either respond if that is needed, delete it or place it in the appriorate day-based folder. If you print a copy then use the '3 D' rule, for this as well!

5. Ask some one who is efficient - What their secret is?

Ask the most efficient person you know what their secret is and how did they develop these habits. Then see if it will work for you.  Remember that productivity is a habit, so be prepared to give this new habit time.

6. Don't allow anyone to take your time from you.

Set up boundaries around your time. If you are constantly interrupted with phone calls - think about

forwarding your phone to voice mail, and then bundling your return calls at a certain time.  If you work by appointments and someone is late for an appointment and hasn't contacted you - give them 15 minutes past the appointed time and then move on. It is up to you as to how you allow other people to use your time!

7. Build family and personal time into your day.

We all need to have the support of our family or friends - so make sure you build them into your daily habits. You don't want to get to the end of your working life and realise that you missed out on the closeness and development of your family.

8. Your health is important - isn't it!

Maintain your health and fitness because this is what will help you through in the long run. There are three things that I feel are valuable to us all - they are time [which we are talking about]; knowledge and energy. Take care of your energy and its levels. At the end of the day being overworked and stressed is only going to hamper your health. So take extra care of this - go for a walk, have a massage, spend time with your family, stop, breathe and smell the roses.

9. Dry clean the clutter from your office and home.

Take some time to remove the clutter from your life. The more you simplifier your office or life the more time you will have. Clutter zaps your energy and allows you to waste time on non-valuable tasks. So plug the holes today.

10. Work in your peak performance times.

Schedule demanding tasks to the part of the day that you work best, where your energy levels are at their highest. It maybe first thing in the morning or early afternoon - work out when it is and then see yourself moving ahead.

What are your favourite strategies for being productive?  Feel free to share them with us here and over on our facebook page.

Leading a small business, doesn't mean you can't have a BIG vision.  In fact - you want to extend yourself and have a huge vision.  Don't fall into the mistake of thinking that vision statements are for big businesses only, it's not.

It’s  for YOU – the small business.

The reason you want to take time to develop your vision is because it provides you with your end picture. It describes what you’re wanting to build at that higher level.   Let’s not make this hard, because it doesn’t have to be.  In fact once you’ve developed your vision, you want it to be no longer than a one to three sentence statement.

A simple way to begin is to ask yourself:

At the highest level, what do I want to achieve…

Be honest, what do you really want to achieve?  Is it market dominance, or is it to be the best at what you do.  There is no right or wrong here.  It’s about you, your business values and where you want to end up. 

To help you think about this, let’s have a look at some brands that you may already know:

Virgin Atlantic: “Our vision is to contribute to creating happy and fulfilling lives which are also sustainable.”

Amazon: "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Zappos:  “One day, 30% of all retail transactions in the US will be online.  People will buy from the company with the best service and the best selection - Zappos.com will be that online store.”

DebPilgrim J: “To help you start, grow and lead your business, so that you have the freedom to live the life you desire.”

Make it BIG.  Make it something that others want to ask questions about it, want you to explain it further.  And don’t feel you have to put ‘corporate’ words in YOUR statement – be proud of your vision.

Once you are clear on your vision, the other parts of your business will fall into place.  From here you can develop your mission – that is why your company exists, what you do well every day?  Your mission will describe the ‘how to’, ie., your level of service, how you will deliver your products, all those things that bring your vision alive.

You vision is important because:

1.  It can become your decision making tool.  You want to ask yourself when developing new products or services, or when asked to collaborate on a project, speaking engagement etc :  “If I do X, will it bring me closer to achieving my vision?”  If the answer is yes – perfect!  If the answer is no, then you know what to do!
2. It helps you clarify your goals and objectives.  If you have trouble developing goals, once you’ve got your vision it becomes so much easier.  Your goals will lead to the achievement of your vision.
3. It keeps you focused.  By looking at your vision each day – you will know exactly what you need to focus on.  When the ebbs and flow of business occur, you will be a stronger position to keep moving forward and not be distracted by those bright shining objects, because you are very clear on what you are achieving.

Your Success Assignment:

Block out some time over the next week, take out some post it notes, and ask yourself:

• At the highest level, what do I want to create…

Go bold!

For more accountability and support, why not join the conversation our blog or our facebook page, and share with us your Vision.

As January comes to a close, this doesn't mean that your 2012 goals and objectives have too! I'm here to encourage and support you to achieve your best business this year. Whether you are just starting out, growing your revenue or ready to move from managing to leading your business, you will find something here that will support you.

In fact, you can help too!  Share your strategies for achieving your 2012 goals and objectives with us here.  The first five to share their goals and strategies will get a shout out from me in our Business Booster Newsletter.

If you are looking for strong accountability to reach your 2012 goals, then why not sign up for our Business Booster Newsletter or come over to our Facebook Page!

Here's to 2012!
Deb

Are you great at knowing what you want to achieve, but not so good at actually pulling your goals out of your head and writing them down? You sorta know what you want to do, but aren't quite sure how to do it. 

Well I want to share with you a simple process that will make this a little easier for you.

First thing is to get clear on what your objectives are for 2012.  Then begin by making a list of the objectives you want to achieve this year.  Be specific and include time-frames for each one. So an example may be:

I want to increase my list size by 10,000 and before September 2012.

From here, the second thing you want to do, is ask yourself: 

a) What are my strategies for achieving these objectives? 

b) What type of programs/services will I be selling to reach my objectives?

Take time to list all of the different strategies you can take to achieve your objectives.  The clearer you are here, the easier the next step will be.  So an example may be:

To develop a value add free offer that will capture peoples names and contact addresses.

To produce high quality content to use in promotional activities

And the final step is to break your strategies down into actionable steps, that you can track.

Your Success Assignment:

Now you know what the steps are to pulling together your Objectives for 2012.  It's up to you to take the time now and write our your objectives (if you haven't done so already).  Make them real for you, and make sure that you feel excited about what you want to achieve. If you don't then you've got the wrong objectives, and I would encourage you to go back through and look at what the best ones are for YOU!

For more accountability, why not join the conversation here or our facebook page, and share with us your 2012 Objectives.

“Ninety days goes very fast!” is the comment Christian posted on his facebook wall yesterday.  You see we’ve just finished our 90-day Get More Clients coaching group, and boy ninety days does go by quickly...