Do You Want To Break The Cycle?

Let's face it, when you start out in business you have the following 3 main goals in sight:

1. Have some FUN! You are the boss now and surely you are entitled to have some fun whilst earning money?
2. Having your own business should be FINANCIALLY REWARDING! This may sound obvious but how many of you feel you have achieved this yet???
3. Being your own boss should mean you have the flexibility to work when and how long you want to. Yes? Or are you actually the boss from hell and you've ended up working longer and harder?!

 So if any of the above resonate with you, what plans have you got in place to deal with this? Or do you have too much to do that you don't even have time to consider mapping out your escape from the Time Trap plan?

Last night I ran my free Business Transformation teleseminar and what I covered obviously struck a note with a number of people given the feedback I've had since the call.

If you really want to break the cycle and make 2010 your most fun and profitable year in business so far, then now is the time to start your business planning.

What it tends to boil down to is that there is a lot of us out there who love what we do but we just want to make more money from it and be less time poor.

So how can we make the change?

On the call last night I shared 5 simple strategies that, if implemented, are guaranteed to generate more revenue and I also shared another 3 time saving tips, helping you to become more time rich.

If you weren't able to make the call last night you may like a COMPLIMENTARY copy of my report on Business Transformation where I share these strategies again. To get a copy simply email me at louise@louiseheasman.com

You may also like to take a look at my website www.cashrichtimerich.com which gives details on how you book onto my 6 week programme where I'll guarantee you will be able to totally transform your business and your life!

If you decide to remain a Lone Ranger, then I wish you all the very best with your business planning over the next few weeks. If however you want to invest some time and money working with me, I'd love to help you make 2010 your best year in business yet!

Free Mind

What a fabulous tool!

I was introduced to Free Mind by one of my mentors. It's a FREE mind mapping tool and for a non-techie, it's really easy to use!

I've been busy all this week using the software to create mind maps for my Cash Rich, Time Rich programmes and it has really helped to let my creativity flow!

http://freemind.sourceforge.net
Let me know how you get on with it. All you need to do it to go to the link above and click download.

Once you've downloaded the programme you're up and running!

A simple way to earn more money doing what you do

I was speaking to a very successful coach last week. On the face of it, her business is a massive success. She's even got a waiting list of clients who want to work with her! So what's the problem?

The problem is the more clients she attracts, the more time she spends servicing them which means if she's going to increase her income, she needs to working more and more hours....

The successful business has a ceiling...

So how can she change this?

There are a number of strategies that she could implement to help her to reduce the number of hours she spends working in her business whilst substantially increasing her income. One of them is simply (as one of my mentors, Bernadette Doyle, puts it), instead of selling one to one, sell one to many.

I like to go the extra step and say instead of 'selling', it's serving...

This coach is in demand. Everyone wants a piece of her! It would be to everyone's advantage if she was to find a way that she could serve as many people as possible, at the same time, helping them to transform their lives, rather than reaching out to fewer and running herself into the ground at the same time.

There is always a way to create a win, win situation! It's just a case of identifying what it is you want and then the how presents itself!

PS - I'll be talking about this more in my FREE teleseminar on Wednesday 7th October at 8pm UK time. If you are interested in exploring these strategies, book a place by registering at www.cashrichtimerich.com

Email Management

I wish it were possible to outsource every administrative task but it's not! There will always be some tasks which you need to schedule time. Take managing email for example. Speaking to many business owners I know it's very easy to feel overwhelmed at times by the amount of time sending and responding to emails can take. But you can do something about it....

So how much time do you spend managing email on a weekly basis?

2 hours a week or 20 hours?

If you consider you spend far too much time on email (maybe more than an hour a day?) there could be a number of ways where you could manage your time more effectively.

1) Is there a way you could automate some of your responses? This could be a more efficient way of communicating the information to your clients and customers.

2) Could you employ a VA to screen your emails?

Here are just two ways to drastically cut down the time you spend on email. Giving you more time and energy to focus on developing your business....

If you decide to introduce these strategies you will have freed up a lot of time but don't forget you will still need to schedule some time for email! My recommendation is to block this time into your diary and treat it like a business appointment.

Maybe spend 30 minutes a day, or a hour three times a week, whatever works for you and your business. But by blocking out this time in your diary this will also help you to manage your working week more effectively.

Good luck and if you need any advice on resources for my two tips above, you know where I am!

Outsourcing Tips!

I'm a great fan of outsourcing! Over the last 5 years, I've had 3 different businesses and have successfully outsourced all kinds of tasks during that time which has enabled me to do what I am good and what I enjoy doing in my businesses.

My first golden rule when outsourcing is never to abdicate responsibility! Just because you are paying someone to do your admin, telemarketing or book-keeping, the buck ultimately stops with you. There's no use blaming others if things don't go according to plan - it's your responsibility to manage the project and the person you've outsourced to. You need to be able to dedicate time in your schedule to make sure the project goes smoothly and meets your expectation.

Secondly, (and this applies mostly to the first timers!) is to identify just how much time you have freed up from your schedule by outsourcing a specific task. Often, the professional will be able complete the task in hand in a faction of the time it would take you but in order to measure your productivity, log just how much time has become available in your diary. Is it 2 hours or 20 hours? Once you've identified that, the next step is to ask yourself what are you going to do with that extra time? Will you be able to schedule more client appointments in your diary, or will you spend the time working on a specific income generating project that you've been meaning to do all year? Or will it simply mean you'll get more time to spend with your family or get to the gym?

The important thing is to value those hours that have been freed up - don't just let them get eaten up by general busyness!

Is it time to outsource some of your tasks?

Following my post yesterday we looked at the benefits of jotting down every task we do in a typical day and how long it takes. As I mentioned before, this exercise is invaluable in being able to highlight where you are spending most of your time.

I'm not going to swamp you with lots of strategies I use with clients once they've completed this exercise but I am going to share one with you today.

From your long list highlight all the tasks that you did on a particular day that:

1. You didn't enjoy doing, such as filing
   
2. Made you feel resentful as it meant you were taken away from an area of business that you enjoy
3. Really zapped your energy, like doing your own book-keeping
   

All of the above are really negative feelings! We are supposed to have fun in our lives and business! It's supposed to be enjoyable!

So if it's not, you need to make some changes and the first step is identifying those tasks that take you away from what it is you enjoy doing and outsource them to someone who does enjoy doing them!

Tomorrow I'll share some tips on how to plan and manage the outsourcing.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Then this is exactly the right time you should be logging absolutely everything you do!

I know that this would be the last thing you want to do as you are so stretched and time poor but it's during this time that you will be able to correctly identify the areas of your life and business that are zapping your energy.

So take a notepad and start jotting down all the tasks that you are doing and how much time you are spending on them.

It really is an illuminating exercise.....

Once you have a picture of what your life is over a 3 day period you can then start to make changes.

Taking action is crucial! I love this definition of madness:

"Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result"

Sound familiar?

Are you always saying next week, month, year will be different but you never quite get there?

Then it's time to make the change and take action!

So get your notepad out and make a start!

Hydrate Your Business!

Listening to the news this morning on Radio 5 Live, many experts are predicting that we are coming out of recession. The stock market is going up, 'green shoots' continue to show in the recruitment and property markets, but there is understandably a little nervousness still.

So many of us have learnt a lot from the last 18 months. Many employees, who are lucky enough to have jobs still, are still creating other income sources, so they no longer feel vulnerable about really on one single source of income.

There are those who have been made redundant or who continue to face redundancy are turning to self-employment so that they feel comfortable in the fact they are taking charge of their own future rather than leaving it in the hands of other business owners.

And there are the stalwart business owners who battened down the hatches and played to win through the recession by tightening their belts and creating smarter marketing and sales strategies.

During the lean times, the concept of creating other streams of income has never been so important and many have begun to appreciate this fact and have taken steps to implement this.

There are many ways to introduce different revenue streams to contribute to your personal economy and we'll certainly be looking at the whole gambit over the next couple of months with lots of contributions from different experts: people who have done this successfully.

And what I love doing is working with business owners to find that hidden treasure that is buried deep in their businesses - creating those additional income streams so the business isn't relying on one single source of revenue.

So have you uncovered hidden treasure in your business yet?

By doing so, you'll truly hydrate your business!

An interesting revenue generator...

When customers like, know and trust us, given the opportunity they would buy more from us.

And that's the key thing: given the opportunity.

How easy do you make it for your existing customers or clients to buy more from you? And there's never a better time to 'add something else to the shopping basket' when they are in the processing of making a purchase from you.

As I put my mascara on this morning, (realising that each morning for the last month I need to buy a new one), I was reminded of this great example of a continuity programme.

Every savvy girl knows that you need to change your mascara every 3 months in order to maintain healthy eyes. I came across a make up retailer who not only drilled this message into her clients she found a way to make it easy for them to purchase a mascara every 3 months from her.

She asked permission (very important!) if it would be OK to automatically send a mascara out to the customer in the post every 3 months.

Most said "Yes Please!" People want convenience...

So when the 3 month anniversary came up, she would make the call (or get someone on her team to make the courtesy call for her) to say as promised, she was popping the mascara in the post and was there anything else they needed.

WOW!

What great customer service and a great revenue builder!

So are you employing the Mascara Marketing Method? If not, put your thinking cap on and see how it could apply to you.

Remember, if you get stuck for ideas, get in contact with me!

Time Management Tip!

One of the things that I do which has really helped me to manage other people expectations is to record a personal message on my mobile stating my business hours.

Sounds simple I know but it really has been a very useful technique for me. There have been many occasions where I receive a flurry of calls about 3.30pm and if people are made aware that I won't call them back until the following day, everyone knows where they stand and it reduces my stress levels too!

Given the vast amount of feedback from others who have since adopted this tip, I know this simple strategy does help with time management.

Please share your tips with me too!

Creating Businesses That Fit Around Your Life!

When I decided to setting up my consultancy over the summer, getting ready for my launch this month once my daughters went back to school, I was anticipating that my 121 clients would all be Business Transformation ones. However, sometimes a trend emerges that gets to you look at another market.

There was definitely something going on in the universe for me yesterday as I took on two new 121 clients both wanting me to help them to identify and set up brand new businesses that will fit in better with their lifestyle.

One client is working part time at a beauty salon and she's had enough of working for someone else. Not only that she's had enough of trading her time for money. So we're going to be creating a business for her that taps into her talent and knowledge and at the same time, we're going to set the business up so there is a passive income too. All very exciting!

The other client is a recruitment consultant and again she's looking to create a more flexible business that suits her lifestyle now. She has extensive knowledge and works in a niche market already so we're going to be leveraging that and will be creating a more online business for her which again will help her to reach more people in her niche.

Is the perfectionist in you sabotaging your success?

Sometimes good enough is simply, good enough! I don't know about you but I have had to really work on myself to ensure the perfectionist in me doesn't sabotage my success. All too often we can get drawn into too finer detail when trying to get projects off the ground and by doing so we really limit our potential. So why do we do this?!

OK, I'm not saying having great attention detail isn't important - it absolutely is if you are going to be successful. However, it's important to recognise where and when great attention to detail is needed.

A really good rule that I often apply when I feel my perfectionism beginning to kick in is to ask myself the following questions:

1. If I perfect this project will it lose me money?
2. If I could continue to perfect this task will in bring in more money straight away?
3. If the task in hand isn't perfect, will it put me in jail? EG, not paying income tax!

By asking myself these questions I have been able to get projects started that I would have otherwise put off, waiting for the 'perfect' time to do them!

Take a look at your work ethic. If you find that you are continuously putting things off until the 'prefect' time, then you could be sabotaging your success.

Remember, it's important just to get started and you can always perfect things later - remembering that I can always perfect things later helps me to sleep at night!

Let me know how you get on!

Do you give your clients the opportunity to be 'Up Sold' to?

My eldest daughter Georgie goes back to school tomorrow (she can't wait!) so we did the inevitable visit to the shoe shop to buy 'suitable' shoes!

When we had both finally agreed on a pair (quite a challenge I can assure you!), the patient, helpful assistant took us over to the till (she had been brilliant throughout the whole process!) to pay. Before she scanned the box she asked me if I had any of the special water resistant spray which would be needed to keep the shoes protected.

I'm sure this scenario is very familiar. It's actually a great example of an up-sell: getting the customer to part with just a bit more money.

Now because the assistant had been so attentive during our purchase I didn't feel as though she was selling to me. It just felt like a natural add on to her excellent customer service and because she posed the question in such a natural way, it didn't grate on me like it sometimes can. So I said yes, we'd take one!

Up sells can be an incredibly powerful way to grow your bottom line and whilst it is a simple strategy, many businesses don't apply it.

So my question to you is do you have an up-sell in your business?

If you don't, you may want to consider using this approach as there's never a better time to sell to a client when they've just bought from you and have loved what you delivered.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. The good, the bad and the ugly!

All Change!

Well it may well be 2 months since I last posted on my blog but a lot has happened during that time!

Since my last post at the end of June, I took the very scary decision to sell my Athena business (and for those of you who know me will know what a difficult decision this was!) so I could really devote my business time and energy to my new consultancy. I knew it was a giant leap of faith. Not only was I letting go of my baby, I was embarking on a massive change which would push me way out of my comfort zone - all very scary as I say!

Going from a hugely profitable business to setting up from scratch again isn't a decision that's made lightly and I wasn't going to simply set up a conventional 'consultancy' where I would be trading my time for money, I knew the way I wanted to continue to work was to create a business model that allowed me to work school hours and term time only.

So, after 4 months of intensive study and working with world class mentors and I've also taken the WHOLE month of August off to spend time with my daughters, I am almost ready to launch my new business!

I'm not saying any of this has been easy. I've listened to countless audios in the kitchen whilst cooking meals, reading transcripts in between building sandcastles on the beach with my girls and I must say I am a total techie phobic but I have found the last 4 months truly mind blowing. It's been great stretching myself mentally and it's only when you do that you realise you've been in your comfort zone for far too long!

So whilst August has been a blast catching up with friends and family, I feel ready for the new school term and I'm now looking forward to September launching my new business and attracting clients who want to become more cash rich and time rich. There is a way to do both, you just need to create the vision!

"Laser Beam Eyes"!

When I returned from Bernadette Doyle's conference in Belfast back in May, my business coach, Carole-Ann Rice described as having "Laser Beam Eyes"! and I suppose that's been a pretty good description of how I've felt and have continued to feel.

I found Bernadette's conference nothing short of life changing which is probably exactly what I needed in my life!

Not only did I discover the Holy Grail to marketing and business, I discovered a huge inner strength in myself too and it's this strength that helps us to move from procrastination to taking action.

Thank you Bernadette!

Welcome to my new Blog!

I hope you'll enjoy reading all my musings. I've spent the last 10 years in Business Networking, the previous 10 years in the Corporate World and now it's time for next 10 year cycle (gosh, I am feeling old!)

My new business is about helping other busy business owners to maximise their profits whilst not working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

We hope you'll come back to this Blog regularly to read about all the success stories, news, tips and ideas that will be shared.