Caution! Contents Under Pressure: Running A Small Business

Running a small business is all about pressure. One of the keys to success as a business owner, whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional, is your ability to manage pressure.

When you are self-employed, at times you may feel like you have pressure coming from many different directions. And, when you are starting your own business, there are many unexpected pressures. Once you get to the point of running a small business, hopefully, the pressures are fewer. If not, you will burn out.

How do you manage pressure? First of all pressure is good. It creates stress. Stress can cause us to do good things or to shrink away from what must be faced. Running a small business is about facing pressure. The key to handling pressure and overcoming it is to establish your priorities.

In business coaching one of the aspects that most clients address is how to reduce stress. First, we have to understand that stress is what causes us to grow if we respond to it properly. The only stress free state is death.

Business success, whether it be small business success or large business success, is getting clear about your priorities. To grow in running a small business you must know your priorities. And, here’s the key. You must be able to shift your priorities.

Think about this. You have several problems or challenges show up in an hour. Which one is the most important? Instead of determining what is most important the self-employed business owner either tackles what is easiest or responds to them in the order in which they appeared.

After all, things are hectic. Yes, they are hectic. My life as a business coach can become hectic. When this happens its because too many things have come into my life at once. Initially, I react to whatever comes in. The problem with this is that I end up putting my focus on what I deem as critical. In fact, when I am in this mode everything can seem critical.

Here’s the problem not just for me, but in running a small business. To grow and be successful you must focus on what is important. When you are in reaction mode to a multitude of challenges it’s difficult to set your priorities.

But, if you don’t set your priorities you will end up having a day and a business focused on what is critical. Progress is made when a business owner addresses what is important. When he or she does that then the number of critical situations starts to diminish.

One of the best feelings in running a small business is to have a feeling of control. It is one of the keys to success and it does not happen overnight. It takes time. It takes personal growth. And, when you have control you start to reduce the pressure.

If you would like to take the next step to small business success learn techniques and tips about pressure, motivation, relationships, problem solving and many other topics that will take you to the business success you desire then check out www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com

The Business Keys To Success membership course is specifically targeted to the self-employed business owner. Whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional you will find tips and insights to take you and your business to the next level. You will find a guide and training to assist you in taking the next steps to your business success and personal success.

You will receive a weekly lesson for 20 weeks on topics targeted to small business success. There are questions for reflection and evaluation as well as the opportunity to create your action steps to small business success.

The Business Keys To Success fixed term membership course provides self-coaching to help you accelerate the process of your successful performance. Go to www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com and grab your copy to get started on improving your most important asset you. When you do you will give yourself the opportunity to be running a small business that flourishes and more importantly, honors who you are.

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What Is Your Startup Business Plan?

What’s your startup business plan? Thoughts are things. A startup business plan begins with thinking. The next step is talking. And the next step for those that want to enhance their chances for success is to write it down.

If there is one thing that will increase the odds of your success it is to write down in detail your startup business plan. As a personal business coach I can assure you that there is very little accountability until something is written down.

As a business success coach it is painful to watch business owners say what they are going to commit to do and then not do it. To avoid accountability they will say that what they said previously is not what they really meant.

The sad part is that time is lost, they excuse themselves for non-performance and then they start the cycle all over again. And as long as their thoughts and desires for their business are not written down they can give themselves an air tight excuse for failure. If they only understood that the keys to success were at the end of their pen maybe they would be more motivated.

The moment you write down your startup business plan is the instant you have added true commitment to your success. In business performance coaching the simple task of putting things in writing can accelerate the process of successful performance. As a personal business coach I have collaborated with clients who are successful and did not write down their startup business plan.

But I can assure you whether it is success planning, a marketing business plan, a business marketing strategy the business owner will increase his odds for success when he writes down his thoughts in these areas.

Being self-employed whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional is a big challenge. And, it becomes a much bigger challenge when we keep our thoughts in our minds and don’t get them down on paper.

Much as it may sound boring writing down your plans is one of the business keys to success. Think about it. Ultimately, you are going to need policies and procedures which are in writing to grow and hold others accountable. You might as well get in the habit of writing things down in your startup business plan.

There are many keys to success in small business. You don’t have to master all of them. But, you must master some of them. Taking a business training course is one of the keys to success.

In my Business Keys To Success home study course at www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com you will learn valuable lessons from my observations of small businesses that have succeeded and failed.
These are the keys to success that they don’t teach you in school.

Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune. As a self-employed business owner my goal is to give you the keys to success in creating your own fortune. Running a small business is a huge challenge. Start the process correctly and it will make it easier to grow and experience small business success.

Your small business growth will get no bigger than your thinking. Arm yourself to think big. Believe in yourself to create and have all that you desire. Before you begin put it I writing. That’s the key to a startup business plan for success.

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From The Business Coaching Chronicles: The Power Of The Personal Hand Written Note

Personal hand written notes are powerful. I once heard it said that “You have the power to make someone’s day at the end of your pen.” And, I have seen the truth in this not only in my own life but in the businesses and lives of my clients.

In my personal business coaching practice I engaged a new service company as a client. The company consisted of the owner. He wanted to grow. But, as is often the case when you are starting your own business, he was short on capital.

Personal Hand Written Note Marketing

As a self-employed business owner he knew that his ability to connect with others was his best marketing business plan. The challenge was, and this happens to many small businesses, if he went out and marketed he would have to close down his shop.

After exploring various strategies including the hand written note, he was stuck. He thought the hand written notes were a good idea but he had never written one. Very often, necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case new action.

He decided to commit to hand written note marketing.

A Personal Hand Written Note For Every Customer

Every customer that came into his shop received a hand written note thanking them for being a customer and telling them that if they had any concerns to immediately contact him.

From my experience, I knew that this marketing could work and could have big results. At first he got Thank You cards from Office Depot. In the beginning he was writing 1 to 2 notes a week.

At times he became discouraged. Business would rise a little bit and then fall back. But overall, it was moving in the right direction. In fact, it increased enough in the first six months to where he hired his first employee.

Build Referrals-A Hand Written Notes Converts A Customer To A Friend

At the end of his first year he had done $50,000 in sales. Four and a half years later he is on track to do $800,000. He has done no other advertising. He now has 7 employees. And, he still writes every customer a personal hand written note.

To amplify his the hand written note marketing he is now able to get out into the community and do volunteer work which has also had a very positive effect on sales.

His customers have become his friends and his referral business is huge. The hand written note is central to running many businesses by referral. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to make a very positive impact use the personal hand written note in your marketing business plan.

I have seen the power of this for many self-employed business owners. The personal hand written note pays value to others who are helping you get to where you want to go. And, the most important aspect of the personal hand written note is that it builds relationships.

If you are looking for more business that is better use the personal hand written note. You do have the power to make someone’s day at the end of your pen. That power is the personal hand written note.

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Keys To Success: Are You Positioned To Add Value?

One of the keys to success is to know how to add value. Whether you are adding value to a team, a project or a situation you must know yourself and your abilities to add the maximum value.

Keys To Success: A Story About Value

I was reading a story the other day about a high school basketball team. It reminded me of when I played high school basketball because my coach, Coach Lasko, did something similar.

When you have a group of competitive teenage boys who all think they are great players how do you get them to accept that they may have to play a position other than what they think they are good at. It was quite normal for our forwards and centers to think that they had the ball handling abilities to play point guard. Invariably when they tried to do this they would turn the ball over.

One day in practice, Coach Lasko changed the normal scrimmage between the first and second teams. The first team normally beat the second team soundly. This day, he had the first team members switch positions. The point guard played center. One of the forwards played shooting guard. The center played point guard. Then the first team went out and scrimmaged the second team. The game was to 20. The second team, of which I was a member, trounced the first team.

It was no contest. From that day forward no one questioned where the coach had them playing.

Keys To Success: Know Your Value

One of the greatest challenges for individuals, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs and solo professionals is to understand the concept of value, and more importantly, how to add it to our lives and businesses. We can go out everyday and recognize talent. People are loaded with talent. Yet the ones who truly experience personal, business or small business success are the ones who apply their value in areas where it will be recognized or appreciated.

One of the keys to successfully running a small business or your life is to know yourself and your abilities? It is critical. Think about this. If you are seven feet tall and weigh 300 pounds you will never be a jockey. Yet, throughout my years of personal business coaching I have collaborated with many people who had great abilities but who were either not using them or applying them where they would not have maximum benefit.

When I ask most people how they add value they can readily tell me. That is good. When I ask them if they feel their present circumstances or situation is allowing them to add value, very often, I receive a different answer.

They tell me they wish they could be doing things differently to utilize their value. There is very little satisfaction in doing something well and yet, we don’t feel like we are adding value or are valuable. Step one in adding value is to know your value and to position yourself to use it.

Keys To Success: Understanding Your Value

Once you know how you add value the next step is to understand your value. You may say, wait a minute, aren’t knowing your value and adding your value the same? Here’s the difference.

Understanding your value is about figuring out how your value can fit into a particular situation. Too often we arrive at a situation or challenge with our skills and abilities, our value, yet we don’t know how to apply it, or even if we should to add value.

Keys To Success: Applying Your Value

Once you know your value and understand it there is one more step. Knowing your value is great. Understanding it and how best to apply it is even better. But, the ultimate achievement is to apply it. Without application of our value we can feel unfulfilled.

Whether it be in your business or life, put yourself in a position to succeed. One of the most important keys to success is to position yourself to add value and in the process enhance your work and life and benefit others.

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Keys To Success: Momentum

Momentum and maintaining it is one the most important keys to success. To have greater small business success and personal fulfillment you must create the momentum with the right thoughts and attitudes.

The right thoughts envision what is possible. The right attitude brings the feelings or passions that what you are thinking is possible. As Napoleon Hill said in Think And Grow Rich, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Keys To Success: A Momentum Story

Every day each one of us goes to the airport of life. You are your plane. Are you going to take off? Or, are you going to stay grounded?

Picture a plane on the runway. It is getting ready to take off. Yet, it is carrying too much baggage and therefore, too much weight. If it tries to take off it will crash. It can expend all the energy in the world but it will never get off the ground.

Similarly, in coaching success, I see good people who can’t take off because they are carrying too much baggage. The first step is to determine what the baggage is. Very often people have been carrying it around for a long time without even realizing it.

How do you recognize baggage? Baggage is any unresolved situation or attitude about yourself from your past? But you say, don’t we all have a history? Yes, we all have a history. History tells us where we have been. Baggage is what we decide to carry forward from our history into the present.

As a personal business coach, the first step I ask client to take to prepare for take off and to gather momentum is to get clear of their past. The past is not a predictor of the future. It is the past.

Getting clear of your past is a skill. You can get clear of almost anything. It is up to you.

Keys To Success: Dress For Building Momentum

Whether you are an individual seeking greater personal growth or an entrepreneur, solo professional or self-employed business owner seeking greater small business success you can only build momentum by dressing for it.

What do I mean by dressing for momentum? I am talking about the words you use. The words you use every day are the clothes that you dress yourself and others with. Replace the words “maybe”, “someday”, “sometime” or “I’ll try.” They are momentum killers.

Use the words “I can”, “I will”, “today” to start building your momentum. Dress yourself and other with momentum building words.

Keys To Success: Momentum Is A Daily Discipline

Personal success or small business success is not an accident when you focus on building momentum for yourself and your business every day. Personal growth or small business growth that sustains itself is no accident. It applies to everyone whether you are an individual or starting your own business or running a small business.

It happens because you are on purpose. When you are on purpose continually you are getting clear of the past, keeping your baggage light and dressing yourself with the right words to take off and soar above the crowd.

When you want to be on track to becoming more and having more, remember that momentum is one of your most important keys to success.

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Business Keys To Success: You Are Responsible For Your Attitudes

Life is full of surprises, and the adjustment of our attitudes is a lifelong project.  Think about your destiny in business and life.  It will never be determined by our complaining spirits or high expectations.  In my business coaching practice and in my own life I had to come face to face with my attitudes.

For myself, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers and all individuals our attitudes are what will determine in large part our destiny.

We Choose The Attitudes We Have Now

And it is an ongoing choice.  And it surprises me, the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes.  If they are unhappy they may something like, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.”

 If failure begins to repeat itself in their lives they often say, “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.” 

When their lives aren’t progressing while others and their family are still on the rise they may say, “Things would be different if only the birth order was different in my family.”

Whether you are running a small business or starting your own business it is a continual challenge to adjust your attitudes.

Attitudes

In all of the above examples there was one common thread.  There is blame for everyone else or circumstances for their problems.

When a marriage fails they believe they married the wrong person.   When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, in the words of Rose Ann, Rose Anna Danna, “It’s always something.”  It’s always something except for them and their attitude.

Attitudes-A Summary

When John Maxwell talks about attitudes he has a great summary.

The pessimist complains about the wind.

The optimist expects it to change.

The leader adjusts the sails.

To be the leader in your life you must adjust your attitudes.  The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes.  That is the day we truly grow up.  When you grow up you choose to be responsible for your attitudes and how you view your circumstances.

To have small business and personal success be the leader in your life.  Adjust the sails.  With the right attitudes you will create the circumstances to have the business and life you desire.

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What’s Your Ticket To Greater Small Business Success

Although small business success can be defined in different ways I have learned from my own businesses and from being a personal business coach that there is, in the long run, one thing that every self-employed business owner wants. They want greater freedom.

In coaching success I have discovered that the entrepreneurs and solo professionals who are the happiest are the ones who have attained greater personal freedom. Here’s the dirty little secret to being a self-employed business owner. The small business you created to give you greater freedom and abundance ends up putting you in bondage.

It is ironic that the very thing you create to give you greater freedom and to experience more of what life has to offer ends up putting you like a hamster on a wheel. Except, unlike the hamster, who can get off, you have to stay on. You are held hostage by your own creation.

At some point, small business success and the dream of greater freedom and abundance disappears. And the excitement and anticipation for a wonderful future gives way to a feeling that every day is the same as the last. Business and life become a slog through the mud.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. But, to have greater freedom and abundance you must be willing to grow. By the way, no amount of business training courses, or new marketing business plans are going to give you the freedom you seek.

The freedom you seek only will come when you expand the thinking between your ears. I had a client who for some time felt that by having employees he would become a baby sitter. In fact, the thought of having employees was painful. Is this a formula for small business growth? No.

Is this a formula to stay in bondage and be unhappy? Yes! Finally, he got sick and tired of being sick and tired. He took the plunge. He expanded his thinking. He looked at having his first employee as a way to achieve his goals and dreams. He stopped looking at it as baby sitting.

What happened? He changed his thinking. He accepted the fact that he would have to embrace his own personal development. In hiring someone, he would have to learn hiring skills, payroll, taxes and how to build an organization. In hiring someone he would have to come up with a marketing business plan to increase sales to cover the expense of the employee as well as to continue to pay himself.

It was amazing what happened. In 2 years time he added three employees and increased his sales by 200%. Here’s the great news. He spends less time working in his business. During the busiest times of year he can take time off. His outlook on life and his future are positive.

What is the formula for small business success and greater freedom? It includes many things but first and foremost you, the self-employed business owner, must accept the challenge of personal growth.

As in the above case study, once you change your thinking that starts things rolling. When you add people the next thing you must immediately do is create better processes to accommodate business growth. Don’t just add people if your business is growing. Add more to your processes or systems to support growth.

Put yourself in a position where you can hire average people and have outstanding results. How do you do that? Have a good process. Think about this. If you put above average people in a bad process you will have a bad outcome. If you put average people in a great process you will have a great outcome.
McDonald’s is a great example of how process determines outcome. Give yourself greater freedom and abundance. Seldom will your business or your life exceed your personal development.
Know that the freedom and small business success you desire starts with expanding your thinking and creating a process that will allow you to move toward greater freedom and abundance. Once you see it and believe it then small business success can be yours.

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Successful Business Performance: It’s About Raising Your Standards

Successful business performance and how it is tied to raising your standards was the focus of a client meeting I had at the beginning of the year. He was looking for 2010 to be a breakout year.

Things were going well. The marketing of his company was producing very positive results. His forays into advertising had shown him some possibilities that really worked. In 2009 he had gotten his policies and procedures into a manual. Personnel policies and procedures were in place. He had good employees and was starting to put together a management team.

In the financial area, the company was profitable and he was drawing a good salary. His taxes were current. Sales had increased although there was some seasonality to his business. It was all good.

For most small business owners they would keep doing what they did in 2009 expecting a better 2010. That could happen and many times does. Small business owners stay in the comfort zone. Ultimately, when things do change, and they will, they are caught off guard. And, when you are in the comfort zone and things change it can quickly become the zone of mediocrity or failure.

We talked about the fact that when things are going well it is a good time to look ahead to changes that could make the business stronger. The question when things are going well is where do you start?
It is not easy to answer. I asked him to go back over 2009 and focus on things he didn’t like or that nagged at him in his business. I even asked him to look at his life. The result was a list that had many items.

The good news was that many of these things could be corrected or delegated. After all the goal is to design a business and life around who you are. The bad news was that when we looked at them they were draining him of focus and energy. How do you go about getting rid of or diminishing those things that aren’t working well for you?

You have one simple phrase you live by. “Raise your standards.” When you raise your standards what you are tolerating starts to go away. But, change is not easily done with a change of phrase.

Raising your standards has to become a mindset. In the beginning it is best to start with small things that can be easily corrected. The paper work flow in his business was not efficient and could cause some delays. He changed that. Then he changed some job descriptions that started making every one’s life better.
He kept raising his standards and as he did things became easier. He built momentum. And, as of this writing he is enjoying more business and he is having a more satisfying life.

Too often in small business we create a job for ourselves and not a business. Start raising your standards. When you do you will start to grow and move beyond just having a job to creating a business. Creating a business that earns money and where you don’t have to be there all the time.

For More Info: http://www.thehoustonbusinesscoach.com/

Business Keys To Success: Leader-A Larger Field of View

Leader-The Larger Context

 

A leader has a larger field of view. John Maxwell in The 360-Degree Leader shares the following thoughts.
Most people evaluate events in their lives according to how they will be personally affected. Leaders think within a broader context. They start by asking themselves, How this will impact those they lead? They also look at how something will impact those that they don’t immediately lead. They try to see everything in terms of the whole organization.
To be an effective leader you want to ask the following questions:

• How do I fit in my area or department?
• Ho do all the departments fit into the organization?
• Where does our organization fit in the market?
• How is our market related to other industries and the economy?

And as industries in our economy become more global, many good leaders are thinking even more broadly!
You don’t have to become a global economist to lead effectively from the middle of your organization. The point is that 360-Degree Leaders see their area as part of the larger process and understand how the pieces of the larger puzzle fit together. “If you desire to be a better leader, then broaden your thinking and work at seeing things from a larger perspective.”—John Maxwell, The 360-Degree Leader.

Leader-The Application

 

The question for all of us is how does this apply to me? Secondly, what am I going to do about it? In my personal business coaching practice I very often focus on leadership. For the self-employed business owner with a small business leadership first and foremost is about how he or she chooses to lead themselves. In a small company, as you are putting the processes in place for growth, how the owner leads himself and models his behavior has a ripple effect on everything from sales to marketing to hiring to the bottom line.
Interestingly, with larger corporate clients the same is true. The difference is that they have many processes in place that support leading a large organization. How often have we seen a CEO of a large company fired and the company does just fine? We see it quite often. Why? With multiple layers there are other leaders in place in upper and middle management to carry on.
But, the smaller companies can take a big hit when the CEO leaves or gets fired. You may have a few people who can step in and again you may not. The health of a smaller organization can be in the balance. To minimize the loss it is critical for small companies to have good processes in place that have taught others how to lead. But, if each area in a small company has created their own “silo,” it becomes hard for them to pull together for the common good once the strong leader is gone.

A Leader Encourages The Exchange of Information

 

Good leaders understand that silos in an organization are deadly. They prevent free exchange of information, hamper team building across groups and ultimately are counterproductive when it comes to efficiency and profit. Leaders who see the whole picture understand this. Look at your business. See the whole business and all the effects of how you do business. When you do you will become a better leader because you are viewing people and processes in a larger context

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