Realize Your Business

Thank you to all my readers, your questions, and emails of encouragement. Your feedback is what keeps this blog going

Jason and I are spending the holidays with my family, and enjoying the warmth and love of the family circle, and the loving thoughts we have received in email and text message today.

I hope your celebrations with family and friends are cheerful and loving.

Happy Holidays!

Geri

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

I had a great meeting with my business coach last week - we talked about motivation. About how to keep motivated to work on growing the business. About how to find the energy to do the work. About rhythms of work and rest.

This is a very big issue for small business owners. I look at people like Mark Joyner and Tellman Knudsen and they seem to be always working, never stopping. When I can not do the same, when I need some time to rest, I feel discouraged.

That is wrong on a couple of points. First is that Mark and Tellman do have rest time in their lives. They are not constantly working. They have a need to rest and rejuvenate the same as the rest of us. Second is that I can only do my personal best, so comparing myself to someone else is just a waste of time.

Having said that, what can I do to get the energy and motivation to work on my business?

One part of the equation is physical. We all know what to do here, but may not always do it. What are those things?

• Exercise - having good cardiovascular health and good muscle tone will provide you more energy to do your daily tasks than if you are out-of-shape. Also, this can help you lose weight. If you are heavy, it takes more energy just to move yourself around, and that energy is not available for other tasks.
• Sleep - 7 - 9 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period is what your body needs for health. It does not have to be all at once. Some people do well sleeping a few hours, then working, then sleeping a few more hours. If you never sleep well, see a sleep doctor to find out if you have a medical issue such as sleep apnea or periodic limb movement disorder or a deviated septum that is preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep. Make sure your sleeping area is dark enough, cool enough, and quiet enough for you to sleep.
• Diet - determine the foods that are good for you, that give you energy. Or conversely, determine the foods that are bad for you, that take away your energy.I have found that I do better if I do not eat sugar (any kind), artificial sweeteners, or caffeine. For me, these foods give me energy temporarily, but the effect quickly wears off and I feel worse than before I had them. Having given up all (artificial sweeteners 6 months ago, sugar a year ago, caffeine a month ago), I am feeling far better physically. Most of my aches and pains have gone away, and I have stopped getting headaches in the afternoon. I have more energy because I am not fighting the pain.
• Seasonal - do you have low energy in the winter months? Many people do, but the causes are many. I tried light therapy, but SAD was not the problem, and it left me feeling irritated all the time. I tried St. John’s wort, but I was not depressed, so it had no effect. I tried changing diet, eating lighter foods. That was good for my weight, but did not help the energy problem. I tried L-Glutamine (an amino acid supplement). That worked for me. After a couple of days taking the minimum dose, I had a lot more energy. So now I use it every winter. You have to experiment to find out what works for you.

Another part of the motivation equation is mental. You have to get to know yourself to determine your mental motivators. Some things to think about are:

• The reason for what you do - why are you doing what you are doing? A dear friend of mine was once diagnosed with a very serious blood cancer and had a 50% chance of surviving it. But she really wanted to see her nieces and nephews grow up, and that motivated her to fight the cancer and beat it. If you are trying to make a success of your business, what is the reason you want to be successful? Is the business itself something important to you, something your are passionate about? Is the business a means to an end, such as a better lifestyle for yourself or your children? What is that reason for your business that will keep you working on it for many years, and through triumph and discouragement?
• Skill - do you have the skills to do what needs to be done, or do you find yourself overwhelmed by the tasks because they are beyond what you have the skill to do? Or are you bored because the work is too easy? A huge motivator is when you have something to do that is just a little difficult for you. This lets you use your skills to the fullest, and gives you a chance to stretch a bit, to learn a bit more. If you are overwhelmed, you can either work with someone else who has the skills you lack, or you can learn and increase your own skill. If you are bored, what can you change to make the work more challenging? Or should you give the boring work to someone else and give yourself time to do what interests you?
• Introversion and Extroversion - Some people get energy when working alone. They are introverts. Other people get energy when working with others. They are extroverts. If your work environment is opposite of your needs (an introvert having to work with others, an extrovert having to work alone), then you are cutting yourself off from your source of energy.

Finally, consider that life has a rhythm. We all need time to work and time to refresh mentally and physically. We need time with people we love, and we need time alone. If you have recently spent a lot of time being very creative, intense, focussed, and just completed whatever you were focussed on, you may now find yourself with no energy at all! You may find yourself just sitting and staring at the wall. That is a natural rhythm, a period where your brain needs to rest for a while. Be conscious of your own natural rhythms and work with them.

• Some people work at 60% all the time, a steady constant effort. Other people work 100% for a very focussed period, then maybe 10% for another period. Their pattern is bursts of energy followed by nothing. Both people get their work done, but in different ways.
• Are you a morning person or a night person? Some people have more energy first thing in the morning, other people have more energy late at night.
• When is your best time to do mental work? Physical work? A lot of people love to work out at the gym as soon as they get up. Not me. My best workout time is around 10:30 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. My body likes physical work at those times. I am at my mental best first thing in the morning, especially if it is mental work alone. I do not want to interact with other people early in the day. I do better working with other people in the afternoon. What is your personal rhythm? How can you use that to be most effective at your work, rest, and play?

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Now it is your turn.

Think about your needs for physical energy, mental motivation, and the rhythms of your life.

What have your learned about yourself? What can you change to use your personal energy, motivation, and rhythms to the best effect?

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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Today is a much anticipated election day across the USA.

If you are a US citizen and registered to vote, I encourage you to do so.

You might think, my one vote does not matter. But of course it does!! Polls are predicting that 65% of registered voters will vote today. It is sad that only two-thirds of the registered voters will vote. Especially when you consider how many people are not even registered to vote! I’m guessing that less than half the people who could vote are making the decisions for the whole country.

So go and vote! Make your voice heard. Be part of the decision.

Geri

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Hi everyone -

I have not been on this blog much lately. The good news is: I got a large consulting contract for my company. The bad news is: I am one of the consultants. Do not get me wrong - I love consulting! But doing the work means I do not have time to build the business. It is a common problem for small businesses owners - you can do the work to make money for your business, or you can run the business. So far in my career, I have alternated between the two.

I have found that when I am working as a consultant, I spend 40 hours or so a week on work for my client. Then I spend time in the evenings and weekends doing administrative work for my business. This does not leave much, if any time, to work on the things that will increase my business.

One way to help with this is to hire people to do some of the work. This year I hired a CPA to help with taxes and business planning. This is a great investment for me. I also hired an accounting company to do the bookkeeping. So far, this has not been as useful. I have to spend so much time preparing information for the accountant, that I could have done the work myself. I am trying this service for a year - there is some amount of time you have to allow to get the relationship with the other company working smoothly. After 5 months, I am seeing some decrease in the amount of work I have to do.

My company is very virtual, which is more of a challenge. The tax and accounting laws are all designed for physical businesses. There is a lot of paperwork that is required. And it is physical paperwork. So when I have work out-of-town, the paperwork tends to get behind. One thing I have learned is that I need someone locally just to handle the paperwork.

As I try working with these other companies, I am learning what I really want someone else to do. I am learning what I can effectively outsource, and what I really have to do myself. I have found that lot of what needs to be done is just opening letters and deciding if the letter has to be disposed of, filed, replied to, or given to the accountant. This is the same if the letter is physical, email, or even a telephone message. It may have been better for me to hire a good administrative assistant who could also do simple bookkeeping, rather than hiring an accounting company.

In all cases, I am trying to not hire an employee to do the work. Rather, I am contracting with other companies to provide these services. The reason is the tax laws for employers. I once had one employee of my company. She was great. But the additional paperwork, reporting, taxes, and insurance was so burdensome that after she took another job, I never hired another employee.

Each company is different, and you may have different needs from mine. I hope this article gives you some ideas of the process I am going through to get other people to do my work, so that you try the same kind of things for your company.

Remember, the point of getting other people to do your work, is so that you have the time to grow your company, the time to do the things you need to do to effectively run your business.

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Now it is your turn.

What are the things you do that take up a lot of your time, that someone could do equally well for you?

Have you thought about outsourcing that work? Would you hire a company to provide the services, or would you hire an employee?

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

I’ve talked before in this blog about how you might use a free blog - such as on MySpace, Zaadz, or Facebook - to promote your business. But you have to be careful how you go about doing that, or you will find your account terminated.

I was just reviewing the terms of service for MySpace (all the membership sites have similar terms) and found these uses of a social networking site are explicitly prohibited. You cannot use your account at a social networking site to (I have summarized a bit):

• solicit passwords or personal identifying information for commercial purposes from other Users
• perform commercial activities and/or sales such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes
• advertise to, or solicit, any Member to buy or sell any products or services. (note you can be charged $50 per email for sending this kind of message to other members)
• interfere with, disrupt, or create an undue burden on the Services or the networks or services connected to the Services
• display an unauthorized commercial advertisement on your profile, or accept payment or anything of value from a third person in exchange for your performing any commercial activity through the unauthorized or impermissible use of the Services on behalf of that person, such as placing commercial content on your profile, posting blogs or bulletins with a commercial purpose, selecting a profile with a commercial purpose as one of your “Top 8″ friends, or sending private messages with a commercial purpose

What does that mean for you?

1. You cannot set up a form on your account asking for name and email for any reason.You cannot offer any kind of product, whether or gift or free, through your account.
2. Don’t get too popular, or you might create an undue burden on the systems!! Nice problem to have. If you are that popular, get your own domain somewhere - you can afford it!
3. You cannot post anything that looks like advertising.
4. You cannot send email to your “friends” or other members that looks like advertising.
5. You cannot post advertising for another company (such as promoting a company of which you are an affiliate)

So what can you do?

I think you are still fine with posting informational articles. The articles should have good content and should not appear to be advertising in disguise. Then I like to put a footer at the end of my article, such as this one I use at the end of all my articles:

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your
publication or website, as long as the article is intact and
you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links)
after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your
Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website
of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the
Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Notice that I am not directly selling a product or service. Am I a commercial concern? Yes. Do I sell things? Yes. But I am careful to not “sell” using the membership site. Rather, I share information that may be of interest to other people and if they want a further relationship with me or my company, then they go to my website to do that.

I think the concern of the membership sites is that their servers get overwhelmed with traffic, and that traffic is spending money somewhere else (not on the membership site).

So be considerate of the needs of the membership site - they need to make money to keep their servers running. You can help do this by providing great content that brings visitors to the membership site (who may click on the ads and spend money). But then take care of yourself, by making it possible for those same visitors to find your commercial website where you can turn them into customers. Think of using the membership site as a way for people to find you and get to know you. Use the membership site to develop relationships, then these people will more readily become customers at your own commercial site.

This is a win-win-win situation - the membership site gets visitors and makes money, you get customers and make money, and the customers get your great product which helps them solve some need or problem.

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Now it is your turn.

Do you have a membership at one or more social networking sites? Are you familiar with the terms of agreement for those sites?

How are you effectively using your account to develop relationships with potential customers, without violating the terms of agreements of the sites?

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

An important thing in your business is to understand your customers. Previously in this blog I discussed using a game to get information about your customers and their needs. Another technique that can be helpful is to write a Persona about your typical customer.

You write a Persona when you want to understand your customers better. This Persona is a story you will tell about a typical (but not real) customer. The Persona is a composite story about your typical customers, made very lifelike.

One of the markets I work in is people who are Business Analysts. I started off by imaging a relatively young person in this market who has some work experience, who is really comfortable with the computer and internet, and who readily goes online to find information at any time a question arises. Now I imagine some real people and write their stories.

© Christophe Baudot . Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Karen Carmichael is 27 years old. She graduated from a U.S. college with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Information Systems. She has worked as a Business Analyst for a large bank in Chicago, Illinois for the 5 years since graduation on a wide variety of software projects. Karen is single and loves sports. She is a member of her company’s softball team in the summer, and an avid football and basketball fan in the fall and winter.

Karen feels that she received a fine education in college, but working on real projects for a major corporation is quite different from her school projects. She has many peers at her bank that she can talk with, but often situations arise that are not easy to resolve.

Karen is quite comfortable with a computer and searching for information on the internet. She really likes to be able to open up a search engine and find the answer to any question right away. The problem with search engines is that she often gets a lot of unrelated information in response to her queries. Karen has a number of sites bookmarked on her computer for her favorite sports teams. She wants to create a similar set of bookmarks for sites that have information for Business Analysts. When she has a question, she can just open a web browser and select a couple of those sites to find the information she needs.

© Mateusz Zagorski. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Raj Reddy is 32 years old. He graduated from a prestigious Engineering College in India with a B.S. in Computer Science, and worked as a programmer in India for 3 years. He then came to the US and completed an MBA with the goal of managing software projects. He has been working as a Project Manager for a major health insurance organization in San Francisco, California for the last 5 years, taking on roles of increasing responsibility. Raj is married and his wife is in India. He wants to return to India to join his wife and family, and to bring what he has learned about software development to some of the smaller companies in his home state.

Raj plans to be a consultant and carry a computer with a wireless card everywhere he works. He wants to be able to quickly find information on the internet to help him in his job. This will include information about Business Analysis, because he often finds that the roles of Project Manager and Business Analyst overlap, so he needs to know how to do both jobs.

When he is not as busy with work, Raj likes to continually learn new things. It is hard for him to sign up for classes, because he may not be available for every class meeting. So having the classes online in a self-study format is a great solution. He wants to be able to study the material whenever he has time, and does not want to have a deadline for when he has to complete the class. Raj is a friendly guy, and fears he will miss the daily interactions with people at work. He is looking for an online community that he can access any time he is online to chat with other Business Analysts.

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Now it is your turn.

What information do you have about your customers? Try writing one or more personas about your customers so that the people and their needs are more real to you.

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…
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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

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