Month: August 2013

Categories
Success Attitude

Uncertainty – A Pathway to Limitless Possibilities

uncertainty

“Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.”- R.I. Fitzhenry

I’ve experienced three major life-changing periods in my life. One was in the late 1990?s (and I can definitely say I am in the throes of big transitions now).

At that time, everything in my life seemed to be in flux.  I felt at a crossroads filled with excitement and huge fear.  Where was I going?  What might happen next?  At times, I felt overwhelmed with so many questions and so much uncertainty.

One day, while at a low point, I flipped on the TV and caught one of the Public Broadcasting Station fundraising drives.  Deepak Chopra was the featured presenter.  He was introducing his view about uncertainty.  To illustrate his point, he recalled a story that involved his son during the Christmas holidays.  When asked  what he wished for in the New Year, his son replied, “I wish for another year of uncertainty.”

I felt my stomach churn with upset when I heard that! You gotta be kidding!

The essence of his message was this:

Open your mind to see uncertainty as a state of possibility. Limitless possibilities.  So often we view uncertainty with dread and anticipation of something negative happening to us.  Imagine seeing the potential of limitless possibilities that might result in wonderfull things happening.  In other words, expect the best instead of expect the worst.

What if you held the thought, “I wonder what new (and exciting) experiences might be coming my way?” and pondered upon the delightfull possibilities instead of fearing the unknown.

What if you approached life as learning experiences rather than problems or obstacles to overcome?

What if you stood strong in affirming that The Universe is a friendly place and that each moment of every day you walked with your best friend – your personal Divine who is madly in love with you and want your life to be FABULOUS?

And…what if you made the choice to serve God rather than your ego? And decided to turn repeatedly back to God when you felt the slippery grip of your mind pulling you down.

If everything always stayed the same, day in and day out, imagine what your life be like personally and professionally…

How would you grow and expand as a person?

What challenges would invite your best to emerge?

How would your passions be expressed in ways that inspired you and others?

What would delight and bring you joy?

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” – Ursula K. LeGuin

So, now imagine stepping into new experiences with an explorer’s sense of adventure and curiosity! Imagine that everything is unfolding perfectly and guiding you to an extraordinary life even if your outer reality doesn’t look that way.

When you open your mind and heart to possibilities, amazing things can happen! When you invite your Personal Divine to be your partner in all areas of your life and make that your most precious relationship, MAGIC happens.

Your invitation:

1. Adopt a new attitude about uncertainty.  Create opportunities to playfully approach uncertainty with an open mind and heart.  Be the explorer every day! Unleash your adventurous nature as you live in the mystery. Be sure to stay in communion and conversation with God throughout your day!

2. Watch what happens when you are open to possibilities.  You might find people and opportunities coming to you that you might have missed when you approached uncertainty as a negative.

3. Notice your reaction to this exercise.  Learn more about yourself.  Tip: Journaling is a great tool to capture your thoughts and feelings!

All is well

Want to strengthen your faith and trust? Are you yearning to be liberated from pain, struggle, and fear? Does your faith and trust shake with all the changes happening?

My Pathways To Awakening program  is a series of 4-week mini courses designed as deepening journeys with energy activations to help you release the past and open to greater joy and prosperity while fulfilling you Divine destiny.

Join me for a four-week Journey into Faith and Trust beginning August 14 and take advantage of the early tuition through August 9.  Learn why past students rave about this program and reserve your seat here

Transform your inner foundation into strength, insecurity to confidence, and fear to courage. Learn how to overcome fear and unlock the courage that resides within. When you experience this new kind of POWER and courage, you will be propelled into an infinitely beautiful and inspiring future

Categories
Teamwork & Leadership

10 Steps to a Great Virtual Support Team

virtual-team

Four years ago this month, Solo-E hired its first contractors: 3 fabulous VAs. Between them they handled the details of hundreds of items of content for the website, scores of newsletters and uncounted correspondence with subscribers and clients. Two of them still work for me (the third took time off with her third child and is now pursuing a career in financial planning!)

Having a long and successful working relationship with a team of virtual contractors is somewhat of an anomaly among solo entrepreneurs. In many ways I’ve been very fortunate to have such talented and caring people working for me. But I also recognize some critical pieces of making it work that can be planned for — because it’s not just luck!

Part I: Setting up the relationship

   1. Hire people that are a good fit for you. Seems obvious, but sometimes our criteria can hinge too much on things like cost and not enough on “can I see myself working well with this person?” Establish upfront what is important to you — consider skills, work habits, communication style, friendliness, etc. — make a list and use it when interviewing and making your hiring decision.

   2. Establish written expectations on both sides. Do you expect emails answered in 4 hours or 48? Want a weekly update? Not interested in chit-chat? You may have talked about these things in the interview, but getting them down on paper gives you both something to refer back to. And this should be a two-way street: what are their expectations? Do they need to hear from you when they are doing a good job? Is it ok to contact them on the weekend?

   3. Keep the lines of communication open. Talk ahead of time about the best way to let each other know when things aren’t working (even better, put it in writing so you don’t forget). Think about how you best receive feedback — on the phone, via email, scheduled ahead of time or on the spur of the moment, etc.

   4. Life happens. If you work with another self employed solo business owner for any length of time, it’s likely that one of you will face at least one personal issue that takes you away from the business at hand for some period of time. These issues can be difficult to talk about…illness, depression, family issues, death. But not telling the other person will leave them frustrated because things aren’t getting done and they don’t know why. Most people are very understanding and willing to accommodate changes in deadlines, leaves of absence, etc., but you have to communicate first. Talking about “what would we do if” ahead of time may help.

   5. Show me the money (plan). This is one place to be absolutely crystal-clear. How often are invoices sent, how much detail do you need to see, what are the payment terms, how do they want to be paid. Do they want a minimum monthly commitment? Do you want to set a monthly maximum? What about referral agreements, profit-sharing, etc.

Part II:  Building and Strengthening the Relationship Over Time

   6. Pay on time! If the terms say pay within 10 days — why not pay in five? Your virtual support team is the lifeblood of your solo entrepreneur business — what better way to let them know you appreciate and value their contribution?

   7. Put away the fine-tooth comb. If you’ve done a good job of hiring a team member, you don’t need to fuss over how many hours for this or that. If you don’t trust them, you shouldn’t have hired them.

   8. Always say please and thank you. One of my earliest lessons in business — treat everyone with respect. They may be contractors but they aren’t your minions! I take time to go over every email before I send it to make sure I’ve said please, and I send a quick thank-you when the task is completed.

   9. Let them know you appreciate them. Send a note when they’ve completed a big project for you, or a small gift on a special occasion. Celebrate company milestones by thanking them with a card. Be creative! Sometimes it’s fun just to let them know you appreciate them, with no particular occasion attached.

  10. Encourage team input. They know your business and clients perhaps better than you do! Ask them for input when you are considering a strategic change. Encourage them to offer unsolicited suggestions to improve processes, etc. — and implement them when they make sense for your business! This also goes two ways — if you share with the team your vision for the business, your strategic goals, etc., they will be better equipped to execute the plan with you.

  11. Bonus: Let my people grow! If you are like most solo entrepreneurs you are a life-long learner — and so probably are the members of your virtual team. Give them opportunities to take on new tasks. Encourage them to make decisions and take action without asking your input (set the boundaries for this so they know when you do want to be consulted.) Ask them what they’d like to learn, and teach them new skills. You may be surprised how much better they will be at certain things than you are!

Building a great support team takes time, effort, and caring — but you will be rewarded many times over!

Categories
Operations

The Role of an Online Business Manager

Many business owners are a little confused between an Online Business Manager and a Virtual Assistant – they think they’re one and the same.  To some extent they are, but there is a role for both types of virtual support professional in your business. And it very much depends on where you’re at in your business.

The Role of an Online Business Manager

To put simply, I equate an Online Business Manager with the traditional Office Manager/Executive Personal Assistant in the corporate world; and a virtual assistant with an administrative assistant.  I think most people understand these concepts.  So in an online business, the Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant fulfill these same roles.

When you first start out in your business, you typically have very few clients; your marketing strategies are simple; and you have a limited budget.  In this situation a Virtual Assistant can fully support you and take some of the basic day-to-day tasks off your plate, leaving you to build and grow your business.

But as you do your job in growing your business – you get more clients, your income increases, you start to offer products and programs – then typically you’ll find yourself not only growing the business and working with clients, but also managing a lot of the day-to-day activities that you shouldn’t really be managing.  This shows up in ways such as:

  • Knowing that you don’t have enough systems in place, but not having the time to put them together.
  • There’s so much going on in your business that you don’t know what’s getting done and what isn’t.
  • Delegating work between your Virtual Assistant, your web designer, your graphic designer, or your affiliate manager, and having to constantly check in with them.
  • Not having the technical expertise (either yourself or your team) to get your Infusionsoft or 1ShoppingCart account set up properly.

And as a result you become frustrated and overwhelmed, and all the fun goes out of running your projects.  A lot of those projects you want to implement, which you know will generate additional revenues for you, are getting put on the back burner because you’re spending most of your time putting out fires.

This is when you need … an Online Business Manager!

In an organizational chart (see graphic), the Online Business Manager will sit between you and your team members.  They can see the Big Picture for your business (because they’re big thinker strategists), but they are also be able to break down that picture into step-by-step projects to delegate to your team.

Your Online Business Manager will take responsibility for:

  • Project Management – setting up that new online program or membership portal.
  • Operations Management – ensuring that your Infusionsoft or 1ShoppingCart account is set up correctly to deliver your automated marketing plan, programs, and products.
  • Metrics Management – tracking your stats so you know exactly what’s working in your business and what isn’t.
  • People Management – managing the day-to-day tasks of your team members so that you don’t have to.

And your time is freed up to focus on growing your business. The result … your Big Picture gets implemented and your goals are achieved!

Understanding how these various roles fit into an online business will help you determine the best needs for your business. You’ll be able to hire the right team member, at the right time.

And when you have this level of support – someone who understands both business strategy and is very detail oriented – you have a winning combination for growing your business from five figures into six figures and beyond.

Categories
Success Attitude

Three Strategies to Positively Profit from Change

changebig

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

The most common sentence I receive in coaching today is, “We’ve gone through a lot of changes and more are coming.”

Ironically, each client believes their situation is unique.

It’s all of us.

Some of us are excited by it. Others are terrified. Most are just trying to keep up.

So how do you increase sales with greater team productivity and get out of the office earlier while experiencing a fire hose volume of change?

Invite your customers to show you how.

Here are 3 Strategies to Positively Profit from Change:

Focus on Change

Focusing on the positive is an integral dynamic of your Work Positive lifestyle that is a powerful antidote to the dizzying pace of change today. One of your positives is the relationships with customers who consistently invite you to solve their problems whether it be to fix a car or financial advice on investing.

Focus on this positive with these three questions:

What are our customers asking for?

Listen deeply to their concerns, hopes, and desires. They will tell you exactly what products and services they wish you offered that hold the gold to more revenue.

How can we give them what they want?

Remember that most of us are looking for turnkey solutions. Your customers might ask, “Help me with my retirement AND college education savings” or “Change my oil AND pick up my car when it breaks down.” They trust you and that’s the ultimate currency of change. Establish yourself as top-of-mind with them and give them what they want.

Who leads us from where we are to where they want us to be?

Somebody on your team must work on the business to do the research, planning, and implementation for expanding services. Carve team time for coordination.

Filter the Changes

Remember, “Good enough is good enough.”

As you embrace change and direct it to more profits most likely you will try to perfect it before you roll it out.

Filter as you roll through the changes.

Get the product or service out the door and into the consumption habits of your customers. Ask them, “How do you like it?” and “How’s it working for you?” and “How can we improve?”

Filter the change to grow those parts of the operation that work well and eliminate the ones that don’t.

Good enough is good enough.

Forward through the Change

Your mantra as you focus and filter change is, “Forward through the change.”

Yes, you will get frustrated. Sure, you will be stretched. Of course, you will want to quit.

We all do. These responses to change are expected.

Keep moving forward. Positively profit from the change.

It’s going to happen anyway.

You may as well increase sales with greater team productivity and get out of the office earlier, right?

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Categories
Online Business

Common Sense SEO: Link Building

link-building

It’s easy to get discouraged with your SEO if you allow yourself to listen to the “gurus.” The “gurus” will tell you that you have to spend a ton of money on their services or products in order to unlock the secret to SEO. They’ll tell you that there are tricks and hacks that only they know that will jettison you to the front page of Google in a matter of minutes.

What a bunch of…well…you know.

You don’t have to know the details of the Google crawler algorithm to know that getting to the front page of Google is really about doing some basic common sense stuff. This is especially true with regards to link building. Here are the most important things you can do when you want to build links to your site (and, by extension, improve your Google page rank).

Using Relevant, Niche Sites

There are hundreds of different advertising companies out there that promise you a million dollar link building campaign. Most of these companies simply spam your link out to sites through blasters and other black hat methods.

What you want is to find an advertising agency that will post your link or ad on websites that have been vetted and are relevant to your niche. You want a service that has dedicated outreach and a stable base of sites that they work with and on which they publish content. You don’t want your ad on just any site. You want it on the right site. A good ad placing company will know this and, more importantly, know how to do this.

Organic Linking

Organic linking is what it sounds like: getting someone to mention your site organically in their content. Organic links “weigh more” on the search algorithm and with readers. Without a dedicated outreach or link building team, there are only a few ways to get these links:

  1. You can offer to guest post on a person’s blog in exchange for that post organically linking to your site.
  2. You can get another site to review your site.
  3. You can create a great site of your own that people want to link to (this is the best but takes the most work).

Engaging the Blogosphere

Leaving comments on someone else’s site is always a good idea. It helps you build links back to your own site and it helps you build relationships with other website owners and bloggers. You can’t just leave any old comment, though. Your comment has to be relevant. “Nice site,” will (more often than not) get your comment kicked over to the spam pile. Instead, actually read the post and come up with a thoughtful and relevant thing to say about it. Include something from the post itself to prove that you read it.

A good comment doesn’t just grab the attention of the site owner. It grabs the attention of the site’s other readers. Links left in comments won’t give you SEO juice but they’re good for your traffic and could lead to some great organic links.

Link building is something that can be time consuming. It is better, though, to spend the time doing the work organically than to risk your reputation by hiring a black hat service that promises the moon.That is one of the biggest SEO mistakes you can make.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith