Looking for your direction for 2010?

December 22, 2009 at 5:17 pm (Uncategorized)

Maybe I can help!

For all appointments scheduled for coaching sessions (personal, business, or a “whole life” combination of both) in January 2010, I will give you 90 minutes (instead of the usual 60) for only $50! This is a total savings of $40 from what the session would usually cost, and in 90 minutes we can get more accomplished than you’d ever believe. In doubt? Just read Kali’s reference on my Testimonials page and see how much we accomplished in one hour!

To schedule an appointment, please email me at equiconsulting at gmail.com, and let me know that you’re interested in the January special.

Current client? Don’t worry, you’ll get a special too…just let me know you’re interested in a January session and I’ll take care of you!

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Winding up 2009

December 20, 2009 at 4:04 pm (Challenges, Creative Thinking, Helpers)

It’s our nature to spend the last days of a year looking back at what we accomplished – and what we didn’t quite manage to finish – during the previous year. And while it’s valuable to give ourselves a pat on the back for what we’ve done, we often end up berating ourselves for our “failings”. And yet, how often did we expect something from ourselves without a realistic plan for how we’d get there? How often did we end up realizing that we didn’t have the needed skills, assistance, or time to reach our goals?

Most often, we create our goals like we create our New Year’s resolutions. “I’m going to lose 20 pounds before Memorial Day”, we say. Yet this isn’t a plan; it’s a dream. “I want to gain four more clients in the first quarter of the year”. “I want to double my sales by the end of the year”. Wonderful goals – and we certainly know when we’ve achieved them, as they’re easily measurable. But how manageable are they?

I invite you to consider this – if a goal is worth setting, then it’s worth planning and working for. Want to lose that 20 pounds? Fantastic! What will you be doing to get there? Do you need to find someone with more knowledge to help you, like a nutritionist, or a personal trainer? Do you need support from a coach, from a group like Weight Watchers, or from friends? How will you break your goal down into smaller, measurable chunks?

So your goal is to get more clients in 2010. Awesome! What number would mean “more” to you ? And how much support would you have to have in place to take on those new clients? How can you attract these clients? Do you need to try some new techniques, or do you need to put more effort into your existing outreach? How can you break down this goal so that you can celebrate your accomplishments along the way – will you set a goal to talk to three new people each week about your work, or will you commit to calling one old contact to network once a day? Explore how this can look, broken down, on your calendar.

Unfortunately, we often don’t get the guidance and training we need to set – and reach – our goals. This is where a great consultant, coach, or mentor can come in handy. Finding someone that understands what you want to accomplish and can help you get there is important to your eventual success; getting a cheering section of mentors, friends, and colleagues can help you stay motivated and keep moving forwards on your path to your goals.

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Minding your social media p’s and q’s

December 11, 2009 at 10:37 pm (Uncategorized)

Social media is amazing for small business owners, as well as community organizers, impassioned activists, and even your run-of-the-mill chatty charlie. Unfortunately, it can do as much harm as good, and it doesn’t take much mishandling of your twitter account and facebook fan page to drive potential customers away with a negative opinion of your work (and, unfortunately, of you). So let’s go over a few reminders, okay?

1. Don’t become overly familiar with your customers – that’s what your personal accounts are for! Remember that when you post, tweet, or blog from your company name, you’re giving people a look into the business – and if what they see is highly personal, they may be concerned that you won’t take their privacy seriously.

Good?   “Took customers out to dinner last night at Chez Foofy. Amazing time with fantastic people!”
Not so good? “Took @customerone and @customertwo to Chez Foofy…got sooooo drunk we took our panties off”

2. Be very careful with any criticism you put out there. Even if it’s justified, when people read your criticisms of other clients or businesses, they may be hesitant to engage with you for fear that they’ll be next. If you must criticize, keep it general and minimal.

Good? “Was disappointed to find out @nonprofit only gives 10% of funds to charity…any other suggestions?”
Bad? “@organization is hiding their funding sources and lies about how much they give away! They suck!”

3. Look for a balance – don’t always post personal stuff to your business account, and vice versa. Readers want to know a little bit about you – they want to be able to visualize the person behind the account; but remember that the focus should carry a thread of the business through it.

Good? “Hitting the coffee hard this morning – I have so many awesome orders to process today, and I need the caffeine!”
Good? “Y’all gotta picture this…@CEO just came in wearing a clown suit! He’s off to his kid’s school fair today.”
Bad? “We have lots of orders today.”
Bad? “CEO is out of the office”

4. Do not feel the need to respond to every follower or friend alert – especially with pre-formatted responses. It leaves many savvy customers feeling like they’ll be spammed at the first opportunity. Instead, periodically leave a genuine comment for them; they’ll feel appreciated and will develop a greater rapport with you (and will recommend you and utilize your business more often).

Good? “@follower – wow, I loved your blog post about your new project. It sounds really amazing!”
Bad? “Thanks for following me!”

5. Build your community. Utilize blog posts, status updates, and tweets from others through forwarding, linking, and retweeting; people like to be followed & read, and they love to know who else out there is worth checking out.

Good? “Forwarding http://xxx.xxx – great information on social media in the health industry!”
Bad? “I read this post with amazing info on social media in the health industry. I”ll write more about it later.”

Social media doesn’t need to be as daunting as some of us make it … the key is to be mindful of what you put out there, and make sure that it reflects your brand and your values!

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The best laid plans…

December 6, 2009 at 10:01 pm (Uncategorized)

I try to write a new piece for this blog each week, on Thursday. Notice that the current date is a Sunday? I have a good excuse, this week…life happened.

One of my boy cats, Galileo, has problems with his bowels & colon; this week he became constipated & impacted and (without going into gory details) needed both a vet visit as well as some ongoing observation here at home. My live in partner is out of town on business, so this week I’ve been a single cat-mommy (and the other cats did nothing to help the situation). Meanwhile, I’ve been working on my own writing, supporting my clients (many of whom are going through busy times themselves), and trying to keep my “normal life” managed. As a business owner who takes their commitments to clients seriously, how was I supposed to manage?

I managed the same way everyone does – I put one foot in front of the other. I’m glad that I have a fairly consistent way to keep track of my projects and what needs to be done – I was able to go to that information & start off by re-prioritizing the tasks on my to-do list for this week. Some things, like adding a bit of information to my website (and this blog post), I determined could be held off for a few days. Other things – time sensitive commitments to clients, an article on deadline – got bumped to the very top of the list. I asked for extra time to get back to some people via email; I rebooked a few personal appointments and asked for personal support from friends.

I know now that it’s okay to ask for that extra time – most of us have been in positions where we’re overwhelmed by the demands of life and work, and we understand that other people need to be able to clear space to manage it when it happens to them. I’m also fortunately not living in a space where I’m in constant drama mode; I have learned (painfully at times) to manage my schedule better than I did years ago, and while I still have a ways to go with it, I am happy that I’ve learned to keep a project list that’s more realistic. Still, when the inevitable happens, it’s important for me to let people know that there are things that I need to deal with, and ask for their support in doing so.

The upside is that I now have a bouncy cat who’s taking all of his medication and eating the appropriate amount of food (yay!), and I put in some extra hours this weekend to get myself back to a place where I feel comfortable with what’s on the to-do list. I did miss a lovely trip that I’d planned to take; but knowing that my house (and my work) are in order gives me a level of comfort that I need in order to move forward with my life.

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What’s your Kryptonite?

November 25, 2009 at 3:59 pm (Challenges, Creative Thinking, Helpers)

Superman was amazing. Jumped buildings, flew so fast that he reversed the spinning of the Earth, and even kept everyone from guessing who he was by wearing glasses at the office. But even Superman had his fatal flaw – a reaction to a substance called Kryptonite, which drained him of all of his power.

This week I’ve been thinking about how we react to our own personal kryptonite – our “fatal flaws”. We all have things that we just don’t seem to do well (or at least, as well as we think we should). We procrastinate, we just don’t “get” financial stuff, we can’t keep tabs on our projects, we avoid difficult conversations with people that we need to clear the air with.

Most of us are in one of three places with these:

-We don’t realize that we have a challenge in that area, and we won’t until it becomes enough of a problem for us to sit up & take notice (or, as I like to call it, being hit on the head by a big clue-by-four)
- We know we have a problem, and despite our intelligence & best intentions, we keep banging our heads into it somewhat – if not totally – unsuccessfully.
- We figure out a way to get our stuff done that involves working with, or working around, these “flaws”.

The majority of people that I talk to are in group number two – they know there’s a problem, but they’re frustrated by their inability to find a way to change it. Some people struggle their entire lives, trying to fix the problem, and in the meantime feeling stalled out on things that they’d really like to do (or like to do better) that require their roadblock to be removed. And while it’s admirable to work on it – it’s not so good to let it actually block you.

A few ways to look at it differently may be in order…

- Can you get some help to work around the challenge? If you’re really bad with finances, can you find someone who is willing to help you with them? If your grammar is atrocious, can you hire an editor? If you live in a constant state of disorganization, can a professional organizer benefit you by making your space easy to work & live in?

- Can you learn about it in a different way? If math boggles you, can you find a book (or tutor) that will help you learn it in a way that feels comfortable to you? Can you take a basic class on tax preparation to help you learn to do your taxes correctly?

- Can you find ways to move forward that require only a minimal amount of dealing with the stumbling block? If it’s bill paying that gives you the willies, you can arrange for automatic bill payment through many banks or with the creditor themselves. If it’s recording your receipts, using a charge card that will send you a categorized report at the end of the year might be a great solution. If it’s writing lengthy promotional materials, perhaps using a blog or twitter to update customers on your new services & products can ease you over the block!

- Can you be gentle with yourself? Often, we heap blame upon our shoulders when we don’t meet our own expectations (and as a brutal Capricorn-type person, I guarantee you I know what that feels like!). The shaming & blaming that we do to ourselves is just as painful, if not more so, than having it come from another person…and it reinforces the lack of ability to work on finding a solution.

Start with some brainstorming – you can go back to my earlier post on it for some ideas on how to set up your brainstorming process – and look at the challenges from a different perspective. This can be difficult, especially if we’ve become so ingrained in our belief that we’re dealing with an unsolvable problem, but letting go of the usual perspective is the key to being able to think about it creatively. Once you’ve gotten your ideas on paper – give some of the best ones a try, and see if you can get a little further ahead. Even better – get someone who isn’t part of your work in as a co-brainstormer. Let them use their own un-varnished perspective to give you some new ideas.

In the end, it’s our decision whether we want to challenge our obstacles; but when we do, we open ourselves up to more freedom in our work and more abilities to stretch ourselves into the areas that we have been afraid to explore – which means more personal & professional growth!

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The Non-commuter’s Commute

November 12, 2009 at 6:23 pm (Creative Thinking, Setting the Tone)

I live near Washington, DC; this is great for social & cultural attractions, but not so good for driving. In fact, one of the main appeals that working from home has in my area is the ability to avoid a lengthy commute, along with the subsequent parking, gas, and wear & tear expenses on the car (and if you live near a metro, it’s definitely much more pleasant to not have to be crammed into a train for an hour each morning). It’s been over two years now since I had a daily commute, and I have to say that it’s a much more civilized way to wake up! But…there can be some benefits to the commute time which those of us who are stay-at-homes or self-employed folk might miss out on.

Two friends of mine, who are both self-employed, started a tradition after the moved into a new house called “walking to work”. The leave the house at a set time each morning, and they walk for a while before retuning to the house and starting their day. They “walk home from work” again in the afternoons, as well….and when I heard about this, my immediate thought was – wow, what a great way to get some exercise in on a daily basis!

But now that I’ve lived with the idea a bit longer, I’ve found some other wonderful things that developing a “commute” ritual can do…and I’m working on figuring out a way to make that happen for myself.

One thing that I do miss about my commute is the solitary time that I used to get in my truck, driving to work & listening to NPR or to one of the many podcasts that I’ve come to enjoy. This gave me a separation between my home life and my work life; it let me settle down from the frantic “get out of the house on time” mindspace and into a mood that was much more conducive to my daily work at the office. I got to mentally prep myself for the day, remind myself of things that I needed to do or goals that I had, and get some good information into my head (via podcasts or radio) that improved my perspective of the world in general.

On the way home, my commute was my decompression time; I got to sit in my truck and let my worries about work start shifting into the background, and think about my time at home – whether it was a slacker evening or a busy one, I could start the process so that by the time I walked through my front door, I was ready to be at home and not focusing on what happened that day (or would happen the next day).

So, how can we develop a “commute” time for ourselves?

We can start by finding a point of demarcation in our day – whether it’s walking to work with our podcasts on a music player, or driving the kids to school, or a morning run out to the coffee shop, some time away from our usual work place can be a way for us to “start” the workday. If we’re home bound, we can even go into another room for reading the newspaper or having some tea and contemplation before we start on our task list. Finding one of these at the beginning of each day, as well as at the end of it, can help us get that mental space.

We can make it healthier for ourselves, as well; this might be a time that we can build in our “taking care of our bodies” time – a weekly massage can be our “end of day” ritual for one day, or we can bike, walk, or do another work out in the mornings before we start working. We can even use things like meditation or journaling to set apart the beginning and end of our workday.

The key is to find activities or routines that help us develop a mental separation between our “work” and our personal life; making that distinction clear and using it as a boundary can help our work – and home – life to be more fulfilling!

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The Art of the Solo Brainstorm

November 6, 2009 at 2:00 pm (Challenges, Creative Thinking)

Brainstorming has been traditionally used for group idea generation, but it can be just as effective for individuals – IF you know how to make it work for you!

The first key to a good brainstorming session is to define, and then redefine, the problem. Try writing it down a few different ways before you start to look at options. Even throw in a way of wording it that may look ridiculous…for instance, “How do I sell more of my work” may be written as “What can I beat people over the head with to make them buy my art?” Playfulness and laughter are keys to creativity, so don’t feel the need for everything you write to be perfect, or even reasonable!

Once you’ve gotten it re-stated a few times, start jotting down any ideas that you have about how to fix it. Keep in mind that brainstorming is a method for gathering ideas without judgment or criticism. The goal is sheer quantity, and thinking creatively – and trying to edit the ideas or make a decision on whether they’re “good” or not stifles that creativity. So, the first thing to remember is that any idea is worth writing down – don’t stop yourself from doing it!

If you run out of ideas, try to look at it from a different perspective. In our example above, you might want to consider it from a customer’s perspective – perhaps “what would make me want to buy their work?”. Your answers may shed some light on things that you never realized; maybe the customer would be more willing to pay a reasonable price if they knew more about you as an artist, or if they got to read the background of how & why that piece of art was created.

Challenge your own assumptions about how you do business. Perhaps you’ve been selling your art at art shows for years, but with the dip in the economy you’re having a harder time getting the sales you need. Maybe it’s time to look outside of your comfort zone – selling prints online, for example, or asking local coffee shops to show & sell your work. There are always more ways to do something than we initially thought.

Finally, let some time go by between brainstorming sessions. If you’re not getting anything you feel great about today, let it sit for a few days, then come back to it. Often, our minds will “work over” a problem subconsciously, and given an opportunity to do so we may find that ideas come to us even easier in future sessions!

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When it’s time, it’s time…

October 29, 2009 at 2:31 pm (Challenges, Helpers)

But the question is – when is it the right time to call in a specialist?

Those of us who are solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, DIY’ers, and other infamously self-directed people often get caught up in the same conundrum – we start off doing everything for ourselves, and at a certain point, we realize that we’re missing something. Maybe it’s getting too difficult to continue with our old processes, or maybe we’ve “grown out” of our organizational methods. Perhaps the hand-written invoices are too hard to keep track of; or maybe what we could get away with fumbling when we only had one client is now unacceptable with a full client list.

So, how do we decide when it’s time to ask for help? Here are a few questions to help us figure that out…

- Could we work more effectively if we had someone else take over this task?
- Could we make more money if we had someone else take over this task?
- Do we worry that we don’t know enough to do this task well – and we don’t have time / energy / motivation to get more training or the knowledge necessary to do it?
- Would we be less stressed if we turned the task over to someone else?
- Will it hurt our professional reputation if we do not turn it over to someone experienced with it?

Nobody starts their own business knowing everything that there is to know about running it; we all have our areas that we don’t excel in (for me, that’s developing graphics & website creation). Trying to push ourselves to do all of the tasks that need doing, despite whether we’re good at it or even enjoy it, can send us into fits of procrastination – or even worse, send us spiraling into a trap of “I’m not good enough” feelings.

On the other hand, we have one more thing to consider – can we stand to let go of it? I know I have those little tasks that I could easily pass off to an assistant, but I’m just not willing to. Maybe it’s a favorite part of the job; maybe it helps me to really get a feel for where my work is going. There’s no reason to give something up like that unless it’s making the overall work suffer – in which case, building skills or having someone that can teach & assist with it simultaneously might be a great choice.

I like to suggest that business owners look at the finances as well. Determine a dollar value for your time & expertise – and make it what your time is really worth. If I know that I can make a minimum of X$ per hour working for a client, then that’s my time value. I use this often to decide whether a task is really worth it to me. For instance, the amount of time that it would take me to successfully fill out my tax forms in April would “cost” far more in my time=money equation than hiring an accountant to do it. However, having someone else write my blog or monthly mailing list email would “cost” more than it does for me to do it, given the enjoyment that I get out of it, as well as the importance to me of having that opportunity to communicate with the world at large.

Sometimes, getting a clear picture of where we are and where we need to go can be difficult; taking a hard look at where our time is going, and whether that’s really where we want it to go, can be a great start at helping us simplify and redirect our work into things that both enhance our business and our personal lives.

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Getting it up…

October 21, 2009 at 11:45 pm (Creative Thinking, Getting Started)

Like sex, getting your business started & keeping it going requires some fore-planning. If you want to persuade your lover to tumble into bed with you, you’ll want to go about it in a way that gives you better odds for success…ditto for the business.  So – if you want your business to be successful, there are some concepts you’ll want to think over and play with before you start making any moves towards laying it out.

1. Ask yourself the big 5 W questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why.

What would your business consist of doing that is of value to others? Who are the people that it would be valuable to? When can you fit the work necessary to start the business into your schedule? Where would you work, and where would clients find you? And – most importantly – Why do you want to do this?

2. Contemplate, Meditate.

Spend some time thinking about how you feel about being a business owner. Do you feel strong? Confident? Nervous? Worried? Confused? Inspired? All of these feelings – and more – are part of moving forward with your business plan; it’s important to pay attention to our gut feelings and our fears as we move forward, so that we’re better able to deal with them head on and take advantage of our best moments as our business begins to take shape.

3. Make a Shopping LIst

What will it take for your business to be successful? Education? Time? Money? New skills? Helpers or employees? Mentors? Professionals in other disciplines? Physical location? Technology? Networking? Don’t worry for now how you’ll find what you need, and don’t feel the need to be overly specific with dollar amounts or specific fixtures for now;  just get the list of needs on paper.

4. Take on a mindset of Optimistic Realism.

It’s easy to talk ourselves out of a great idea; it’s easy to listen to people around us who point out the roadblocks, challenges, and failures that they expect will come of our new concept. On the flip side, it’s also easy to become almost pollyanna-ish, believing that no harm can befall our business because  we have so much faith that it will succeed. The problem with both of those is that they aren’t realistic, and we need to make sure that we’re being somewhat realistic. I agree – very few goals are unattainable, however it’s important to be honest about what we can do with the resources we have, and what work it will take to get our business rolling.

5. Start Talking

Once we have a clearer picture of what we want to do, it’s time to start talking to other people. Great ideas are rarely brought to conception in a vacuum; in fact, most successful business owners are borne up by the support of their friends, family, or business & social network members. Pick people who believe in you and what you can do; initially, just look for folks that you can bounce ideas off of, and people that will be willing to listen and give you positive feedback.

This is, of course, not the “nitty gritty” that we think of when we start a business – the questions of incorporation, or vendors, or accounting, or any of the other sundry odds and ends that go into making a business work. However, it’s helping us to lay a firm foundation with our intent, our ideas, and our expectations. And, as with sex, if we get our sweetie built up and excited before we ever put our hands on them, we’re going to get even more of what we want!

Thanks to Luna, one of my twitter followers, for this fantastic idea! Want to follow me on twitter & have your questions answered in my blog? http://www.twitter.com/equiconsult

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Starting the day successfully

October 15, 2009 at 3:48 pm (Setting the Tone)

Some days I wake up, plunge into my work (both personal and business), and realize around noon that I’ve gotten nothing valuable done – and in fact I may have actually forgotten to tackle some high priority tasks. Talk about stressing myself out! Funny thing is, most of us do this – even when we start with the best of intentions. The reality is that intentions aren’t quite enough to actually ensure success. But channeling those intentions and letting them drive us to start our day off well can be the key to getting the things we want…

Years ago, I took the Franklin Covey “What Matters Most” classes as part of an effort to manage my time and my new management responsibilities more effectively. While over the years I’ve found better ways for me to work with planning my time, there is one key piece of advice that I internalized from that class – to set aside 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon to plan my work. This lets me get my daily work arranged, both mentally & on paper, twice a day – and I find that it goes a long way towards minimizing the “down time” that I can spend trying to figure out what to do next (or procrastinating on it!).

This is how it works for me…

As soon as I sit down at my computer, I give myself a little time to clear through my personal email and get my brain in gear (yay caffeine!). Once I’m ready to start working, I go to my ongoing to-do list and review it, prioritizing the Things That Must Be Accomplished as I go. I get an overview of what needs to be done today, and I can mentally organize what projects or tasks I want to tackle first. As I complete them, I check them off of the list, or make notes on progress if it’s an ongoing project.

After my lunch break (which is usually when my mind gets scattered) I’ll check my to-do list again; often I have added other priorities, or things have changed throughout my morning, so that second review is basically identical to the morning review. It’s a chance for me to plan out the second part of my day – which helps me avoid the urge to play a hundred games of solitaire while my brain tries to re-engage.

Am I perfect on it? No. But whenever I realize that my work feels out of balance or overwhelming, this is the place I start – that simple 15 minutes of planning time has made a world of difference to me and my ability to stay on target.

And now, I’m going to take a break – but I’ll check my list when I get back!

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