Posted in Work from Home Mums

There are so many different strategies I could share regarding keeping your business flowing long term. I will pick my favourite ones to share with you and will most probably write a follow on blog from this one.

• Consistency – you need to be consistent. Consistency builds momentum in your business. Without momentum you are continually pushing up hill. Putting in the consistent effort ongoing rather than stop-starting will give you better long term results with less pain.
• Passion – You need to be passionate about what you do. Not a fake excited, happy face. But really love what you do. People need to be able to see your excitement in the way you speak and also hear it without you saying anything.
• Goals/Plans – You need to be clear on what your goals are in your business. Have a business plan. If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. So sit down and really think about what you want to achieve personally and financially in your business
• Networking – If you aren’t networking you aren’t working. You need to build strong alliances and business relationships. Having a strong network is the making of a strong long term business

In summary, you want to make sure you are pro-active in your business. Not sitting waiting for the phone to ring or for the next door to open. Successful business owners don’t wait for doors to open, they build them!

Do you feel you have what it takes to be your own boss? Are you self-disciplined? Can you think outside the box? Are you determined and motivated to do what is needed and get outside of your comfort zone?

Many people go into business without a second thought thinking that having your own business is easier than working for someone else because you will get to call the shots. The one thing they forget about is all the additional work and things they will now be responsible for that they didn’t know went on behind the scenes.

Key points to keep in mind when looking to become self employed

• Consistency – You need to do all the things you need to do every day no matter what – Do not stop start or treat your business like a hobby ( I don’t know any hobby’s that make you money, just cost you money)
• Research – You want to research your competition, be sure there is a market for the type of product or service you are looking to offer
• Systems – If there is a business model you can plug into and use rather than reinventing the wheel, do that. You then can focus on building the business rather than setting up systems and processes
• Build Momentum – You need to plan a 90 day marketing plan and each 30-90 days review it and build your next 90 days.
• Invest – Investing in your business and in yourself. Money, Time and Personal Development. You need to fill your tank with positive thoughts and information. Don’t focus on the negative. It comes down to the CDI formula… Consistent Daily Improvement.
• Focus – You need to focus on the wins… Not the failures. The difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is the successful person has had more failures and has picked themselves up that one extra time to create success.

So if you are motivated, determined, focused and most of all passionate and excited you can create success being your own boss. As long as you can be consistent!

Every business no matter what industry has busy and slow times. No one in business has the same month over and over and over. Because as we know nothing stays the same.. we are either evolving or dissolving.. and the same applies to your business!

So how do you ensure that your business is evolving and not dissolving? There are a few thoughts that come up for me here

1. Testing & Measuring

Just like your business, Advertising/Marketing changes. So an advert you had that was producing huge results may at some stage stop giving you the results you are after. So continually testing and measuring this you can then tweak the advert, or stop it and find a new place to market, keeping in mind you can always go back to it a few months later and you might find that you get the great results again. The key points with testing and measuring is change the things that aren’t working and keep the things that are. The best way to test and measure is ask every customer how they found you.. NOTE: If they say online or your website, go a little deeper and ask them were they on another website before finding yours or did they find you directly from a search engine

2. Ongoing Education to your Customers

You want to be providing your customers with an ongoing education service, not just selling them products/services. The more you educate your customers, the more you will find they will come to you wanting to buy more of what you have. The reason for this is they realise that you are there to assist them, that you want them to have the best option for them and that you aren’t there just to SELL them something and make money. While doing this you are also building yourself up to be the expert in your field, which means once again when you recommend something to your customer they are going to take it as the best option because you are the expert. The best way to do this is either start Blogging, Writing regular articles, emails etc even becoming a guest writer for another expert!

3. Personal & Professional Development

It comes back to the saying, you need to work more ON yourself/your business than you do working IN your business. The reason for this is, it comes down to Law of Attraction. If you are running your business from a place of enjoyment, happiness, excitement and passion you will attract more of the things that will give you more of those feelings. If you are working your bum off, hating what you are doing and hate having to get up and go to the office, guess what you are going to attract? More of the things you hate to do, more of the clients you don’t like to deal with and more of the lack of everything. So really start working on being grateful, work on finding an element of your business that you can re-spark the passion for. Use personal development programs and events and even coaches and mentors to assist you.

4. Be different

Be unique, be different, be yourself. Focusing on what your completion down the road is doing and copying them is not going to create results for you. It did for them because they were the first and took the step out of the box and did something a little different. So you need to be the same, be different, step out of the box and create the BUZZ for your business
Here is a great video talking about getting out of the box http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_6oVqWulgk

Most people would answer this question instantly with a big YES… However when you really get down to it most people don’t have it!

A lot of people think that owning a store, or providing a professional service will give them the ‘Lifestyle’ they are looking for. But the reality is in most traditional businesses eg. Owning a store you end up working a lot more hours than you would if you had a full time job… because there is all the behind the scene stuff most people overlook when going into business.

There are some pretty huge statistics about how many people after 1 year, 5 year and 10 years are in still in business… I won’t go into these as they are pretty shocking… especially to someone who is in business and has been for the past 10 years… The main reason a lot of businesses fail is for a few reasons… 1. Lack of knowledge of the market, lack of research. 2. No business plan… if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. 3. Most of the time being spent on the treadmill of the business doing ACTION and ACTION but no time spent on the business coming up with fantastic new growth strategies. 4. Hit and miss marketing, no testing and measuring. 5. No more passion, the enjoyment has gone from the business owner’s heart.

There are heaps of other things but you get the picture.

If you don’t want to be one of the failing businesses there are a few things you need to do… Keep the passion; always love what you are doing. If you don’t, change it and find something you do love. Always be evolving with the times… get onto Social Media and start marketing, and see your business boom. (Need a little help here: http://www.buzz-zing.com/leeannebartlett ) Be setting goals and taking the action to achieve them… and giving yourself rewards along the way. Take time off for you… Enjoy your business it really can and should be your best friend not your worst enemy.

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired… than make a change…take some ACTION and find that passion again http://ow.ly/4GbHm

For me, being a mother of 2 very young girls and owning 2 businesses, time management is a very important part of my life. I never used to be this way though.

I used to be so busy doing things, I was all over the place. No real structure, no plan. I would check emails, make phone calls, just do things in an “all over the place” way and wondered why I never had any spare time?

How did this change for me? Two things happened: 1. I put together a strong DMO (Daily method of Operation) and 2. I started working on myself and creating a better energy to get Law of Attraction working in my favour instead of against.

DMO (Daily Method of Operation)
It can take some time to get into the routine, but it’s very worthwhile to make the effort. I personally use Outlook to schedule all my appointments, phone calls, even time with my family. Because when working with a DMO you need to have everything scheduled in or you may forget to do something. You have to also be strict with it. So if you have from 10-11am to check emails only check them at that time, otherwise you will find that you can waste hours all day checking emails. It only takes 21 days to form a new habit, once you have been running by a DMO for a month I guarantee you will wonder where all this spare time came from.

Law Of Attraction
For me personally the Law of Attraction plays just as big a part as my DMO. The reason for this is when you are in a place of good vibrations, in the flow and loving everything you are doing you will naturally attract more things that you love doing and new opportunities into your existence. You can do all the ACTION in the world which will use up a lot of TIME in your life, and if you are doing this from the wrong vibration you will find yourself being busy and filling time with non productive activities and a whole pile of ACTION which is not producing any results.

Would love to hear how you manage your time effective? What strategies do you use?