Your Business Success – in 8 Weeks

As someone who chooses to express your purpose through business, you know the value of time… it’s your most precious asset. Where you spend your time is where you are creating.

And if you are finding that your time spent in business isn’t rewarding, or you don’t know how to get started, here are 8 keys to unlocking your business potential.

1. Messaging – Talk About What You Do

2. Charting Your Profit Path for A Solid Business Model

3. Claiming Your Value In Pricing Your Offers

4. Having a Signature Product / Process / System

5. Website Planning / Architecture For Navigation

6. Website / Promotional Copy That Is Clear And Compelling

7. Your Expert Platform Plan To Be Seen

8. A Strategic Key Actions Plan To Keep The Momentum Going

The 10 Energy Keys of Business: What Could Be Tripping You Up

Everything is energy; quantum physicists are proving that daily, and that includes your business. If your business feels stuck or you know it could be better, this is vital information you can use right away. Knowing these triggers as keys to unlocking your business potential can save you time, resources and money by identifying what you might not even recognize as an issue.

Here are the top ten energy keys to having your most successful business.

1. Your business grows as you get your ‘stuff’ handled; that is, your business can grow only as fast as you do. If you haven’t invested in your own personal development, that will limit your business growth because your business will reflect your limitations.

2. Fear is a sign that you’re going beyond your comfort zone; if you don’t experience fear at least once a week, you’re not challenging yourself nor innovating beyond where you’ve been – if you’re ok with that, great! But if you’re feeling stuck, it’s time to make friends with fear.

3. Your job is to stay clear on the priorities so your business can do what it needs to do. There’s a lot of details to operationally running a business, including making sure your customers are happy, so you have to constantly and consistently sort through the details and make sure you’re focused on the priorities. Ideally, you’ll get systems in place to help you do that.

4. Fail forward faster; that is, don’t get stuck in what didn’t work. Instead, go out and do something different and do it as quickly as possible to minimize the loss of the thing that didn’t work. However, as I say that, make sure that you’re really managing a failure – sometimes entrepreneurs throw a marketing campaign out there but then think it’s failed after the first week when there’s been little response. You’ve got to know when to give something time and when to call it done. Fail forward faster.

5. Your environment is the outer reflection of what’s happening in your inner world; make sure that your environment is clean, organized, functional and aesthetically pleasing. I am a former Feng Shui practitioner and I can tell you stories about how powerful this is… essentially, your environment can communicate with your inner world as well so by handling your external environment, your inner world can change. It’s hard to have a bad day when you’re working on your business from your private mansion on the Mediterranean coast, right?

6. You aren’t your business, but it is you – so it’s taking cues from your pace and tone. If you’re having a bad day, your business will likely experience some speedbumps. If you’re in a generous and happy place, it’s likely that all kinds of great relationships and new opportunities show up in your business. Make sure you are honoring yourself first, and your business will reflect your positive energy.

7. Make decisions from a place of strength, not opinion, need for external validation, fear or scarcity. Any of those energies will corrupt your decision and limit the possibilities in whatever decision you are making.

8. Procrastination is actually the delay of pleasure; if you’re putting things off, look at what you’re denying yourself by focusing on the thing that you’re putting off. And really, if you want something bad enough, you don’t procrastinate – just ask anybody who has had a craving at midnight for Chunky Monkey ice cream!

9. You’ve got to make sure you ‘flip the switch’ in your head from being employed to being self-employed. There is no one to motivate you when you work for yourself, and no one else can take the blame or the reward for what you do. Work the hours that feel good. Dress the way that you like. Ask for permission when appropriate, but it’s actually better to ask for forgiveness as a business owner – most of the time, when you’re aligned with positive power energy, people will say yes to any reasonable request anyway… but it takes more time to get their answer than just doing it.

10. Don’t waste time looping in situations. Instead, do what I call ‘break state’, which is to stop the stuck or looping energy with anything – a conversation, music, taking a drive, going for a walk or a movie – and then seeing the pattern you’re in from a fresh perspective. Once you have that new view on what you’re experiencing – and remember, anything that’s happening is inviting you to grow to your next best level – so once you have the new view, choose something different from that conscious, aware perspective you now have.

10 Things Someone Should Know In Case of Your Sudden Death

Although you likely already know these things from a common sense perspective, it’s likely that you haven’t yet done something about it. Death is an inevitability, and it does not always give due warning.

While there are many lessons to be gleaned from that insight, this particular list relates to the practicalities of carrying on your soul-driven business activities to the point that it’s at least a clean wrap up (if the business doesn’t survive beyond you). There are things that your survivors need to know. If you die suddenly, they may have to make decisions at a time when they are not emotionally able to do so.

To be responsible, consider preparing some information for them to use in the days following your death, even though we hope that will not be for many years to come. It can be left in a sealed, clearly marked envelope if you don’t want to share it in advance.

1. Who is to be informed of your passing, along with their contact info

You probably have many separate groups of friends who would want to know about your death, some of whom may not be known to your immediate family. Who should be told? How may they be contacted?

2. Passwords

In life you may guard your internet and computer access fairly carefully. However, there may be accounts to be closed, memberships to be ended, correspondents to be informed. Without the various passwords that enable you to access them, your survivors will either have to ignore it all, or pay a high priced consultant to dig around and try to bypass such security.

3. Money

Where are your bank accounts? What are your account numbers? Are there any accounts that you no longer use but that you have never closed? Credit cards? Do you have a brokerage account? A stockbroker?

4. Insurance

Insurance can be complex; if your folder contains all the information you’ve ever received, your survivors may not be able to tell what’s current. Keep your information up to date and label old policies as such to avoid potential confusion.

5. Safe deposit boxes

Where are they and how are they accessed? What are the contents? Note: don’t keep your will in your safe deposit box because the bank may seal your box until probate is granted, which can complicate things greatly if your survivors cannot access the will in the meantime.

6. The whereabouts of your will and information about your executor

Named executors may retire, legal firms change their policies, people who ten years ago agreed to be executors may no longer be in a position to do so. Even though you may not wish to update your will frequently, at least keep current on changes that may affect executing it.

7. Important papers

Are there other papers that people need to know about? Where are they and what do you want done with them? Are there papers, letters or photos among them that might be hurtful to your survivors and are you sure you want to keep them?

8. Funeral wishes

Decision-making at such an emotional time is difficult for the survivors. If you have strong preferences about your service, write it down. If you’ve made prior arrangements about the disposal and/or burial of your remains, make sure to have that paperwork available. If you would like a particular inscription on your headstone, or have other particular wishes, let people know in writing.

9. Organ donation preferences

Make sure that your preferences are clearly noted in case your organs could save or prolong someone’s life.

10. Any clarification of distribution of your property that’s not in the will

Wills usually dispose of major effects, but smaller items of sentimental value may not be mentioned. Again, put it in writing somewhere even if it doesn’t make it to your will.

4 Most Important Things To Get Positive Business Results

When you need to get results, make a change and get back into alignment with what will move your life and business forward, here are the four most important things you can do from my perspective.

1. Listen to your own inner guidance for your next action steps; know and trust what you know.
2. Connect with like-spirited people who understand and can offer meaningful support.
3. Everything counts; make sure you are doing things that are the most effective use of time, energy and resources in every moment.
4. Have a current, functional, relevant, realistic one-page business vision map in place. (See www.BusinessVisionMapping.com for more info.)

4 Benefits of Knowing Your Critical Knowledge Factors

1. You have clarity which supports focused and proactive growth.
2. You know your marketing approach / message.
3. You know your product development strategy and priorities.
4. You know your price points / customer progression / call to action points.

5 Critical Knowledge Factors

1. What you are selling and to whom.
2. Your best marketing strategies to reach your prospective clients.
3. Your relationship building / follow through contact processes.
4. Your “taste test” products that are low-risk, no-cost for your prospective clients.
5. Your optimal upsell service / product mix.

4 Worst Business Operations Strategies

1. Keeping it all in your head.
2. Running your business by post-it notes
3. Not giving enough direction to people helping you
4. Focusing IN your business instead of ON your business

5 Stumbling Blocks Holding Entrepreneurs Back

1. Having too many ideas and getting lost in the possibilities.
2. Not knowing the ‘right’ priorities to act upon daily.
3. Doing it all alone and not delegating appropriately to others to protect your time and use it most effectively.
4. Not knowing the core value of your product, service and/or time.
5. Not knowing how to sell your business products and services.