Coordinate your schedules. Each week, sit down and coordinate your work/errand/family schedule with your husband’s, so there are no surprises.
Your marriage is a partnership; don’t try to do it all alone. Ask your husband for help with the housework and the children.
Carve out family time every weekend, so you can maintain a sense of balance, and your children and husband do no feel pushed aside.
Schedule quiet time during the day when the kids are home for the summer. Ask them to read or play quietly for an hour, letting you focus on work. Follow it with family time.
Let your children help. Helping you out in your business, even in very small ways, will encourage their support and understanding.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
5 Tips to Jump Start a New Business
Create a brand. Spend a little money to create a professional logo, business card and stationery. Present a professional image.
Ramp up Online. Make creating a Web site a top priority. A Web site is today’s calling card. You really shouldn’t do without one. Give people a place to go to learn about your business.
Make Your First Sale. This is key. Get that first sale even if it’s friends or family at a discounted rate. This counts as getting started, so go for it.
Promote Testimonials. Get testimonials from your first sales. Start building credibility for your business from day one.
Build Buzz. Be creative. Look for a special promotion, big event, email campaign or something out of the norm for your business to get people talking about you, your product or service.
Ramp up Online. Make creating a Web site a top priority. A Web site is today’s calling card. You really shouldn’t do without one. Give people a place to go to learn about your business.
Make Your First Sale. This is key. Get that first sale even if it’s friends or family at a discounted rate. This counts as getting started, so go for it.
Promote Testimonials. Get testimonials from your first sales. Start building credibility for your business from day one.
Build Buzz. Be creative. Look for a special promotion, big event, email campaign or something out of the norm for your business to get people talking about you, your product or service.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Success Secrets : Never give up!
Author Michael Jeffreys personally interviewed 15 top motivational gurus in 1997 for his then upcoming book. After talking to gurus from Brian Tracy to Dr. Wayne Dyer, he distilled 8 Secrets to Success they all agreed upon. These secrets are still good today and are as follows:
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1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life –
In a society where people blame everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.
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2. Live Your Life On Purpose -
What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they believe they’re doing what they were put her to do. The difference between this and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the least problems. But when you live your life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur this means finding a cause you believe in and building your business around it.
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3. Be Willing to Pay the Price -
Be willing to pay the price for your dreams. Wanting a big house, a luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between the successful and unsuccessful.
-----------------------
4. Stay Focused –
Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls, messages, and everyone competing for our time. Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned by 30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Instead of giving up, they stayed focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV, and newspapers, for five days a week for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series that have sold more than 10 million copies.
-----------------------
5. Become An Expert in Your Field -
One striking factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their profession. They strive to be the best at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or embarrassed about? Make the decision today to work at being the best in your field. How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what they do.
-----------------------
6. Write Out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals -
Write out an action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals without a plan is like trying to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago without a map. A goal that isn’t written down is merely a wish or fantasy.
-----------------------
7. Never Give Up -
Never, never, never give up. When you’re fully committed to achieving your goal, giving up is not an option. You must be willing do whatever it takes to make it happen. The power of perseverance is an awesome force. As someone once said, “inch by inch it’s a cinch”. Think of the lowly inchworm – if it pondered the length of the trip from start to finish before it started, it probably would never move. To a worm’s point-of-view, the garden path must look like a trip to Mars. Never give up! Keep on going like the Eveready battery bunny, and pretty soon you’re there.
-----------------------
8. Don’t Delay -
Nobody knows how much time they have left to accomplish their dreams, and we must remember that we don’t have forever. The clock is ticking, and sooner or later your number comes up and you’re gone. Successful achievers know this too, but they don’t view it as a “negative”. Achievers use it to “spur them on”. They go after what they want as energetically and as passionately as possible, for as long as they have.
-----------------------
1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life –
In a society where people blame everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.
-----------------------
2. Live Your Life On Purpose -
What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they believe they’re doing what they were put her to do. The difference between this and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the least problems. But when you live your life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur this means finding a cause you believe in and building your business around it.
-----------------------
3. Be Willing to Pay the Price -
Be willing to pay the price for your dreams. Wanting a big house, a luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between the successful and unsuccessful.
-----------------------
4. Stay Focused –
Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls, messages, and everyone competing for our time. Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned by 30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Instead of giving up, they stayed focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV, and newspapers, for five days a week for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series that have sold more than 10 million copies.
-----------------------
5. Become An Expert in Your Field -
One striking factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their profession. They strive to be the best at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or embarrassed about? Make the decision today to work at being the best in your field. How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what they do.
-----------------------
6. Write Out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals -
Write out an action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals without a plan is like trying to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago without a map. A goal that isn’t written down is merely a wish or fantasy.
-----------------------
7. Never Give Up -
Never, never, never give up. When you’re fully committed to achieving your goal, giving up is not an option. You must be willing do whatever it takes to make it happen. The power of perseverance is an awesome force. As someone once said, “inch by inch it’s a cinch”. Think of the lowly inchworm – if it pondered the length of the trip from start to finish before it started, it probably would never move. To a worm’s point-of-view, the garden path must look like a trip to Mars. Never give up! Keep on going like the Eveready battery bunny, and pretty soon you’re there.
-----------------------
8. Don’t Delay -
Nobody knows how much time they have left to accomplish their dreams, and we must remember that we don’t have forever. The clock is ticking, and sooner or later your number comes up and you’re gone. Successful achievers know this too, but they don’t view it as a “negative”. Achievers use it to “spur them on”. They go after what they want as energetically and as passionately as possible, for as long as they have.
Monday, September 12, 2011
5 Tips for Developing Policies for Your Business
Think ahead. Establish policies before you need them. Doing so helps avert crises and awkward situations, and helps solve problems before they arise.
Determine what policies you need. Some you’ll want early in your business include a mission statement, as well as compensation, performance evaluation and employee policies.
Get input from key employees, as well as from members of your advisory board, your board of directors, and/or your professional advisors and consultants.
Communicate policies to everyone in your business.
Review policies on a regular basis—once a year, for example—and revise them as necessary.
Determine what policies you need. Some you’ll want early in your business include a mission statement, as well as compensation, performance evaluation and employee policies.
Get input from key employees, as well as from members of your advisory board, your board of directors, and/or your professional advisors and consultants.
Communicate policies to everyone in your business.
Review policies on a regular basis—once a year, for example—and revise them as necessary.
5 Tips for Making the Most of Your Business Plan
Take the long view and do long-term planning. Map out where you want to be five years from now and how you plan to get there.
Write the plan yourself. You will learn more about your business by doing so.
Think of your plan as a living document. Review it regularly to make sure you are on track or to adjust it to market changes.
Share the plan with others who can help you get where you want to go—such as lenders, key employees and advisors.
Understand that you might pay a price in the short run to obtain long-term business growth and health.
Write the plan yourself. You will learn more about your business by doing so.
Think of your plan as a living document. Review it regularly to make sure you are on track or to adjust it to market changes.
Share the plan with others who can help you get where you want to go—such as lenders, key employees and advisors.
Understand that you might pay a price in the short run to obtain long-term business growth and health.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
5 Tips on Budgeting
Think of a budget as a useful tool—a written financial plan that helps you set goals and measure progress.
Start by coming up with a sales revenue target. Make it your best estimate.
Based on past experience, estimate your cost of goods sold (e.g., 70 percent of sales) and subtract it from the sales revenue to come up with your estimated gross margin.
Forecast variable expenses (items such as travel and commissions that vary according to the level of sales) and fixed expenses (items like taxes and rent that stay the same, regardless of sales). Subtract these expenses from your gross margin to arrive at your estimated net income (before federal taxes).
Break your annual budget into quarters and monitor your progress every three months to detect problems and make corrections.
Start by coming up with a sales revenue target. Make it your best estimate.
Based on past experience, estimate your cost of goods sold (e.g., 70 percent of sales) and subtract it from the sales revenue to come up with your estimated gross margin.
Forecast variable expenses (items such as travel and commissions that vary according to the level of sales) and fixed expenses (items like taxes and rent that stay the same, regardless of sales). Subtract these expenses from your gross margin to arrive at your estimated net income (before federal taxes).
Break your annual budget into quarters and monitor your progress every three months to detect problems and make corrections.
5 Tips on Building a Sound Business Plan
Write a business plan with a complete financial and marketing plan.
Your marketing strategy should be built around your strengths, your competitor's weaknesses and your customers' desires.
Test the reality of your business—know why it will work and how you will make it work. Think your business through step by step.
Allow at least two hours every week for thinking and planning. Do not allow anything to interfere with this time. You run the business. Don't let it run you.
Establish an annual operating plan. Review it and update it monthly with appropriate employees.
Your marketing strategy should be built around your strengths, your competitor's weaknesses and your customers' desires.
Test the reality of your business—know why it will work and how you will make it work. Think your business through step by step.
Allow at least two hours every week for thinking and planning. Do not allow anything to interfere with this time. You run the business. Don't let it run you.
Establish an annual operating plan. Review it and update it monthly with appropriate employees.
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