What’s the One Essential Thing You Must Possess in Order to Create a Successful Business?

January 7, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

mindset blog image

Today’s post is a little different from what I usually write about.  There’s no specific marketing tip or web strategy how-to here, but something much more important to being successful in business.

And that thing is mindset.

[This is a little bit of a rant.  You’ve been warned. ; ) ]

I was recently reminded of this when I had a conversation with a friend who is struggling in her business. She’s trying hard to get it going, but she’s extremely low on resources (which can actually be a blessing), and even lower on self-confidence, which can be a curse.

She asked for advice, so I threw out a few things that helped me get clients when I was getting started.  She rejected nearly everything I suggested, with nary a split second between the idea I pitched and her automatic response, which can best be summed up as some variation of “that won’t work for me.”

To my suggestion to try local networking groups, she responded, “I can’t go to live networking for now.” (No reason given.)  To the idea of reaching out to friends for referrals, “I’ve already asked for referrals and got none,” and to online/social networking, “I’ve tried social media networking, but it hasn’t worked.”

When I hear reactions like this, my first thought is the person is undisciplined and just wants a “magic bullet” of some kind.  It’s extremely limited thinking.  There are no magic bullets.  Or, if you must believe there is such a thing as a magic bullet, believe it’s this:  Taking action everyday on your goals and believing in yourself, no matter what, will create success.

I’ve done the glad-handing, business card-swapping live networking.  I didn’t enjoy it, but I got clients. I have asked for referrals, which I also don’t relish doing, but it worked for me.  I’ve done social networking and gotten leads from it.  I reached out to a very high-profile PR Director of an organization that employs over 11,000 people for freelance work, with my heart in my throat and nervous sweat on my brow, and gotten it.

None of things were easy, and all of them were waaaaaay out of my comfort zone. But I got work.  And now I have a business that supports me.  And have even recently had to turn work away – now that is a place you want to get to.  Which makes the discomfort worth it.

I mean, you have to ask yourself, is your will to be successful greater than your fear of being uncomfortable?  Mine was.  And now I don’t have to work a soul-crushing j-o-b where someone else gets to call the shots in my life.

Of course, some things will stick and some won’t, so maybe live networking won’t work for my friend, but asking for referrals will.  Maybe she’ll kill it on social media or maybe she won’t. You get the picture. But if she rejects everything out of hand with an automatic “that won’t work for me” attitude, then she’s probably better off slaving away for someone else for the rest of her life in a j-o-b anyway.

Because creating a business you love has to start with believing you can.  Even in the face of obstacles.

Now, that kind of touchy-feely stuff usually makes me want to wretch, but in this case it’s true.

And being low on resources?  It’s actually a good thing, because it forces you to get creative and make the best of the limited resouces you already have.  I say this from experience, as I practically wrote the book on being loooow on resources.  Didn’t stop me though.  : )

And  now?

I’m billing 40 hours a week in my business, AND I just got two inquiries today to do some social media and web strategy work which I may have to turn down.

Is it perfect?  No.  In fact, I want to be working fewer hours and enjoying more time freedom.

But where I am now is worlds away from where I was even one year ago, when I still had just one client and a goofy 20-hour-per-week job that had nothing to do with my interests or direction in life, and sucked my soul dry.  But it paid the bills while I was ramping up to where I am now – fully booked, doing work I love, and getting new client inquiries.

And I wish the same for you.

Here’s a quote by Lama Surya Das that helps me when I’m struggling with self-doubt:  Often the Greatest Doubts Occur Just Before a Breakthrough.

And here’s a handy little read on how to stay positive.

In the comments below I’d love to hear your tips for staying positive and getting the work done, or anything else you want to contribute about overcoming obstacles to make your business work.

Go get ‘em, tiger!

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development Tagged With: ,

What I Believe

August 31, 2012 by · 2 Comments

What I believe

Just a little message from me to you, my creative friends, on this simply gor-ge-ous Friday afternoon as we head into the Labor Day weekend.

Have fun, be safe, and make something beautiful!

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development

How to Take Charge of Your Out-of-Control Small Business To-Do List

July 27, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Small Business To Do List

If you’re a very small business or solopreneur, especially if you’re either A., just starting out, or B. struggling in your business, it can be challenging to know what to focus on first.

There are a million things you could be doing, but what is the #1 thing you should be doing — right now, today, to move your business forward and keep the lights on?

I know the struggle well, because as a solopreneur with an outsized to-do list, I often ask myself that very question, as in, “what’s the best thing I can do today to move my business forward?”

Despite using that question on a regular basis to refocus my energy, I still don’t have the problem completely licked. But I’m getting there.

What is the problem, exactly?

There are so many things to do in a small business, especially if you’re on your own, and the list of things you want to get done is really, and I mean really, long, and you’re not sure where to start or what to do next.

Sure, all the advice out there tells you to prioritize, but prioritizing seems impossible when everything feels like a high priority.

Just for fun, I’ll give you the short list of what I have on my “Priority Action Items” list right now:

Write next newsletter, write next blog post, put social media buttons on blog (at long last), update Twitter bio, update LinkedIn profile, client work for client A, client work for client B, do research and surveys for MVP (Minimum Viable Product), research for more guest blogging opportunities and contact blog owners, follow up with business owners/potential clients met at last networking event, create custom home page for blog, create Content 101 page, finish revising all newsletters with updated copy and new social media links, start drafting next offer, write mini-proposal for referred client lead, attend networking event on Wednesday, send writing samples to potential web copy client. . . and on and on it goes.

Sound familiar?

I keep a running list on a legal pad, and every time I think of something else I want to/need to do, I add it to the list. Just looking at it makes me want to break out in hives.

By now you’re probably thinking, get to your point already, what’s the cure for all this small business overwhelm?

I’ll tell you what it is. It’s a clarifying notion called “closest to cash,” which I learned from Naomi Dunford of ittybiz, and it works really well for me when I’m smart enough to apply it.

Here’s the deal. When you have 27 things on your plate and you don’t know what to do next, what you do, as Naomi says, is –

“Work on the thing that’s closest to cash.”

Now, if your business is established, you’re doing fine, and the greenbacks are rolling in like nobody’s business, good. Actually, great.

Or, if you’re still at your day job and doing something on the side for extra dough until you build your side biz into the juggernaut that makes it possible to leave your day job, and you don’t need to rely on the income from your side gig to survive, fine.

There are circumstances under which you don’t necessarily have to  start each business day with “closest to cash” as your guiding principle.

But.

If you have to make your business work – now – because that’s what pays the bills and you don’t have next month’s mortgage payment, or if you just took the leap from a day job to doing your own thing and you need to get some income rolling in pronto or you won’t be eating dinner next week, then you can’t be thinking about getting the world’s greatest website designed, or how to get more Twitter followers, or the killer product or program you want to launch in the next 6 months, or even what to write about on your blog next week. (Unless these things have the potential to get dollars in your pocket sooner rather than later. Sooner, as in, not three months or six months or a year from now.)

This doesn’t mean you stop focusing on the business-building activities with long-term payoff, it just means that each day begins with your closest to cash opportunities, in order of what is the very closest, then working your way out from there to things that could get you cash in the next few weeks and so on. You don’t do the longer-term payoff things until the closest to cash things are taken care of.

I’m telling you, once I learned this technique (thanks, Naomi), everything got far easier and much less stressful.

For example, when I take a look at that long list of things to do from above, I see a whole lot of “want to do but won’t get me paid soon,” and a couple of “things to do right now that will.”

My top 5 closest to cash action items from the list above then, in order of priority are:

1. Client work for Client A (obviously, because I can bill for this within the next few days)
2. Client work for Client B (ditto)
3. Write up mini-proposal for referred client lead
4. Send writing samples to potential web copy client
5. Follow up with business owners/potential clients met at recent networking event

Aaah, sweet clarity. Seeing the list in order of priority gives me energy and focus, and stops the overwhelm.

I recently did this exercise again, mainly so I could stop myself carrying on like the world’s coming to an end because I can’t get everything on the to-do list done today.

And “closest to cash” is how I made that happen. Now I get up each day knowing exactly what to do, and in which order, and I feel calm, happy, relaxed and productive.

And that’s what I got for ya today.

So how about you? What’s your productivity tip or trick for knowing what to do next when there’s a mountain of things to do? Please share your ideas in the comments below so we can all learn from each other.  : )

[Hey there, gorgeous. Did you know you can get my FREE weekly newsletter, with actionable tips, techniques, and how-to’s for marketing your business online, delivered straight to your email inbox each Tuesday? You betcha! Go ahead and enter your name and email address at the top right hand side of the blog now, and let’s get you glowing online.]

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development, Productivity Tagged With: , ,

In Honor of Nora Ephron: You Can Have It All

June 28, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Nora Ephron, Writer, Director, Kick-Ass Cook, and Wise Sage.

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development Tagged With: , ,

What Would You Like to Stop Doing?

March 12, 2012 by · 2 Comments


You might want to ask yourself that.

I am, as prompted by The Burning Question this week over on Danielle LaPorte’s blog.

Every week Danielle posts a “Burning Question” on her site, which people then answer on their blogs, and that’s what I’m doing here today.

(If you don’t know who Danielle is, I highly recommend you get over to her site pronto and check her out.  You know, after you finish reading this post.  ; )  I think she’s amazeballs, and I’m not alone.)

So here’s what I’m going to stop doing:

Thinking small, dreaming small and playing small when it comes to my business.  Undercharging for my services. Worrying that everything has to be “perfect.”  Being afraid to tell that client I want to get paid – now.  Changing up my informal, approachable writing & clienting style to a more corporate, play-by-the-rules, inside-the-box experience so I can be “taken seriously” by corporate types. ( I have nothing in common with those types and don’t want them as clients, so why do I care?) Hmm, what else? Participating in idle office gossip.  Reading and/or watching the (bad) news.  Feeling guilty about loving The Real Housewives of Orange County.  And watching it.  Regularly.  (So there. )  ; )

And here’s what I’m going to start doing:

Celebrating my creativity, ingenuity and resourcefulness.  Holding myself accountable.  Talking to my girlfriends more often. Taking big crazy chances on opportunities that light me up and stretch me.  Blazing into tomorrow and next week and next month on fire with faith, belief and knowing.  Giving compliments to strangers.  Believing,  even more than I do now, that helping other people shine a light on their awesome talents and gifts is significant and necessary work, and matters in the world.

That’s my (short) list.

What’s yours?

[Hey there, gorgeous. Did you know you can get my FREE weekly newsletter, with actionable tips, techniques, and how-to’s for marketing your business online, delivered straight to your email inbox each Tuesday? You betcha! Go ahead and enter your name and email address at the top right hand side of the blog, and let’s get you glowing online.]

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development Tagged With: ,

How to Tap Into Your Inner Genius in 10 Minutes a Day

February 29, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Today I want to share a very effective problem solving technique I recently discovered.  This technique will help you generate ideas, come up with solutions to business and life challenges, and generally gain  insight into anything you’re currently trying to work through.

The technique is called “Sentence Stems,” which I was introduced to through Rich Schefren’s  “One Step Ahead” newsletter.  It’s easy and even fun to do, and takes just 10 minutes per day, though you can spend as much time as you like on it.

Here’s how it works:

Start with a sentence stem that’s based on a challenge you’re trying to work through, a goal you want to achieve, a problem you want to solve or anything else you want to gain insight into.  The sentence stem itself will contain the solution to the problem you want to solve or outcome you want to achieve.

For example:

“I could start earning more money each month right now if I . . . .”

“It would be easier to get referrals for my business if I . . .”

“I could get 2 new clients in the next 30 days if I . . .”

• Then every day for a week (or for maximum results, two weeks), write out 6-10 endings to the sentence stem.

• Each day (ideally first thing in the morning, when you’re fresh and full of energy!), write out your sentence endings without looking at the previous day’s answers — you don’t want your previous day’s answers to guide your new answers.

• Write your endings as quickly as possible without second guessing yourself, worrying about perfect grammar or spelling, or stopping to “decide” if this idea will work or not. Just write.  The idea here is to bypass your conscious mind and tap into the powerful awareness of your subconscious mind.

• Try not to use the same ending more than once.

• Now, at the end of your 7 days or 14 days or however long you decided to do this, review everything you’ve written, strike out any repetitions, and consolidate what’s left.  Some of the ideas you wrote down will give you new ideas; write these down as well.

• Then review your list again, decide which ideas are best, and prioritize the ones that are immediately actionable, and begin taking action on them.

Now, your sentence stems don’t have to be business related of course.  Your stems will be about whatever particular challenge you’re currently facing.

Maybe you want to get healthier, so your sentence stems could look like this:

“It would be easier to exercise 3-4 days per week if I . . .”

“It would be easier to eat a healthy diet daily if I . . . “

And so on. You get the idea.

Let me tell you, this technique works.  I used the sentence stem “I could increase my monthly income immediately if I . . .” and after just 4 days of doing the exercise, I have 28 ideas, and the week’s not over yet.  What’s more, I’ve already taken action on one of these ideas, which is going to net me an extra $1100 in income next month.   And I still have 27 more ideas to explore – wheeeee!  ; )

The idea I took action on is something that wouldn’t necessarily have crossed my mind had I not done this exercise.  Although it isn’t an ideal solution to a consistent increase in my monthly income year round, it doesn’t matter, because what I was after was a solution to more income right now, within the next 30 days, and that’s what I got.

I even wrote down my next half dozen sentence stems to work on when I’m finished with the current one.

One of the other benefits of doing this exercise is it will get you thinking of solutions and answers even when you’re not actively completing your sentence stems each morning.  I’ve come up with ideas lying in bed, while in the shower, while in (boring) meetings, driving around, and in the market.

Now YOU try it, you genius you!  ; )

And next blog post, I’m going to take you through some ideas I generated when I applied this exercise to a friend’s dilemma of getting more customers into her bakery/cupcake shop.  Stay tuned!

[Hey there, gorgeous. Did you know you can get my FREE weekly newsletter, with actionable tips, techniques, and how-to’s for marketing your business online, delivered straight to your email inbox each Tuesday? You betcha!  Go ahead and enter your name and email address at the top right hand side of the blog, and let’s get you glowing online.]

Filed Under: Mindset & Personal Development, Productivity Tagged With: ,