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!