Archive for the ‘Business planning’ Category

Whether you are a Brick and Mortar Business or an online business – events are happening everywhere – Online, Live and Local. Live events are a great way to network with others in your business field. Human interaction builds strong relationships especially relationships that have a foundation online. They are also a great way to practice networking skills in person. But what events are right for you? The trick is knowing where to look. Here are a few suggestions:

• Check local Business organizations for posted events.
• Visit your favorite blogs/websites for information. If these people are speaking or attending a conference they will want to let their readers know about it.
• Visit online forums. Business forums usually have a place where they list upcoming events both online and offline.
• Visit social networking sites. These are great for business connections – Facebook is one main place where many people or groups post events and send out invites.

Now that you have found some options, how do you choose one?  Look at what your goal is for attending the event? You will want to choose live events that are relevant to your business. You wouldn’t attend a crafting seminar if you sell gardening supplies. And, you probably would pass on a seminar that highlights how offline businesses can get into online markets if you already own an online business.

Here are some pointers to making a decision:

• Check geographic location – Your first time out, you might want to stay close to home to lower costs. Money is often tight when you are starting a business.
• Look at event registration costs – Will you recoup the fees?
• Look at the speakers – Who is coming to regale you with their business savvy? If the speakers involved are other business owners or role models in your industry that you have been wanting to meet, don’t pass up the chance to have your questions answered and gain some insight. Adding a face to face will really help gel your connections as well.  Contacts made at events can have long lasting benefits.

Choosing a live event to attend doesn’t have to be a hard decision. Gather as much information as you can about upcoming events, their location and fees so you can map out your networking strategy. And it should all be about strategy – why you want to attend and what you will gain from attending.

I recently attended NAMS in Atlanta – Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems.  I chose to go for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to learn more about Affiliate Marketing and how it works.

2. It was an opportunity to meet two of my clients in person – one from British Columbia and one from California.

3. There were many other top internet marketers there I have been following for more than one year and it was a chance to listen to their wisdom in person as well as meet them face to face.

When you make conference/event choices by strategically choosing reasons why or why not to go you will find your investment well worth it!

Tawnya Sutherland of VAnetworking

Denise Wakeman of the Blog Squad

Technorati Tags: business networking, conference, events

The past few weeks have been very busy for me as I complete client work but also prepare to head to a conference for nearly one week. It has made me appreciate the systems and processes I have setup for my business. These systems help when interruptions, new contacts and other things not written in my daily planner happen during my workday, I can easily deal with most of them and not get off task.

Staying on task for me is vital, I have many different things in my daily work that must be completed for each client. If I get backed up or behind then it is not affecting only me, but my clients.

What can get you off track? When you work from a home office, it’s a myriad of things and not just clients. For me it can be the dog, the kids, my home phone as well as contact from new clients, new requests from present clients, computer issues, internet issues … the list goes on and on.

What systems help me? The main ones are:

• New Client Inquiry procedures/info packets
• A 10 minute per hour break time
• My own business scheduled time each day

How do these help?   The new client inquiry packets save me time in that I have the info ready when someone asks for it. The hourly break time allows me time to grab some laundry, a coffee, check on the dog or deal with other items that happen. Having time for my own business allows me to stay on top of my own social media tasks and blog writing and other marketing efforts for my business. This time also gives me space in my day to deal with the unexpected that may take even more time.

All of this helps keep my stress levels lower as I have time set aside to deal with the planned and the unexpected. When things are on a roll and your hours are filled every day it is important to be able to deal with new business/contact or other tasks that pop up, and deal with them in a way that does not adversely affect your day.

What is your top tips to handing the busy-times of your workday?

Technorati Tags: busy, Time Management

Here it is the end of December and I am in the organizing mode again… happens every year to me.
Through the busy-ness of the year there are some things that keep getting left on your to-do list and they build up.  You get to a point where you HAVE to deal with them so they are no longer a distraction.  Time on Task surpassed my expectations this year, my first full year in business and now I find that I will use my time over the next couple weeks to take stock of ME!
It might be an out of date expression – taking stock, but I am definitely one of those Year-end, gotta get everything in order – types of people.

My plans are to:

• Look over my business plan – which is about a year and half old now and make changes and updates. I know I have moved into a couple different areas than when I wrote this plan, plus I will look back at what I projected for the first two years and see how I did. Hard to move forward unless you know where you have been.
• Brainstorm some new ideas for business and changes that I want to make, in a week I will be launching an eBook I wrote – Talking on Twitter – meant to help people learn to use Twitter themselves.  I have another book in my head waiting to get out on paper as well as several other ideas that need to be written down and logistics worked out. New plans!
• I clean out my filing cabinet, shredding what is no longer needed and filing away my taxes and other files that must be kept for a certain amount of time.
• and this year, I plan to torture my husband (hehe) and work through a plan together for the future.  I bought a book earlier this year from Dr. Ron Arndt, a Dental Management Coach who has a Couples Planning Kit.   As a couple, we rarely sit down and talk about finances and plans for the future – personally, for business and for the family.  This year we are going to do just that using Dr. Arndt’s book as a guide. I have already peeked through it and it covers almost anything you would think of to plan for your lives together.

Well, those are my plans… what have I missed?  What areas of your life do you find yourself taking stock of at this time of year?  Leave a comment here so others can get ideas from you!

All my Best to my readers for a Happy and Prosperous Year in 2010!

Technorati Tags: business plan, Entrepreneurs, Organization

Everyone works differently; personality plays a big part. Finding an effective way to finish your daily tasks will depend upon your personality, the tasks and you.
Whether you use a paper planner, your email calendar, online calendar or wireless phone; you probably have a method to keeping track of your tasks. If not, and you are finding that you are not completing tasks and forgetting items; then you may want to figure out a task list or to-do system.
If you have system in place, does it work well? Do you get to cross off items; or are they continually added to tomorrow’s calendar? Are items forgotten and missed completely?
You may not realize it, but simply having a to-do list does not guarantee everything will get done. You need to back up your list with a system to help you complete what is on your list.
Here are the Top 5 tips I follow to get my to-do list completed and crossed off.

1. Update your List. Set aside time at the close of day to update your list for tomorrow. This way you will start your day knowing what tasks must be done. Add in new tasks as assigned and their deadline.
2. Block off time to work on tasks.  Most people are more productive early in the morning – so it is best to do this first thing.  Even before you open your email – emails are one of the biggest procrastination machines out there!  You also will fare much better if you work on the more intensive tasks first.
3. Order Tasks by time and priority. This will help you manage your time by knowing what is high priority and the time required.  If one task has a medium priority but will take 5 minutes and the high priority items will take 1.5 hours.  List the 5 minute task first. One more crossed off.  Sorting your tasks on your list will allow you to cross off more as completed. Also you can break up longer tasks into chunks of time allowing you to complete more in between.
4. Spread tasks out over the week, allowing for other aspects of your work to be fit in. Meetings, client calls and other time – takers are reality; allow and plan in time for them as well.
5. When this week’s list is complete; let it be.  Having some free space in your daytimers.  If all is done that needs to be; adding in more work will mean your list will never be completed. Not to say that if a task must be done that you don’t tackle it.  More to say – it’s okay to have a finished list with an end and new work can wait until next week.  Use the time for development and be happy with the accomplishments you have made.

What tricks do you use to help you complete your work? I’d love to learn your methods… maybe I can improve on mine?

Technorati Tags: efficient business, Time Management

I have been taking a course from Coach U – Building Personal Foundations  – and one thing that has really been a key topic is how important it is to take time out of every day for me.

This time is meant  strictly for me – not my work, my kids, my husband, friends. But me and me alone.

I made a goal of starting with 30 minutes every day and this past week I have managed to be successful with this.  My biggest struggle working from home is juggling work and family schedule. Being able to optimize my time with family is big for me – after all that is the reason why I started a home-based business.

This class has really made me think about many aspects of my life – family and work life.  I realize now more than ever how important it is to actually schedule in time for me.  Life is hectic and busy for everyone and taking a timeout can help re-energize and rejuvenate you.  It will also help motivate you in many ways – breaking away will do that.  It may seem difficult at first, but you mind, body and spirit will thank you in the end.

What strategies or plans do you use to set aside ‘your time’?  I’d love to hear them.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurs, motivation, virtual assistant