Welcome to Small Businesses Tips

Coaching for Balance

You´ve read all the self-help books, you´ve set goals, you´ve even shared those goals with a support team. Somehow you´re still not where you´d like to be.

Professional coaches (also called Life Coaches, Success Coaches, Business Coaches) can be the key to getting you from your goals to your results.

A personal coach (like an athletic coach) works to bring out what´s already inside you--your abilities, your motivations, your actions. A coaching relationship can give you the accountability you need to move to action. Action is what will make your goals and dreams reality.

Pay Yourself

Don´t forget to "pay yourself". Too often as an
"employee of your self", you forget to reward yourself
for your efforts which may ultimately lead to burnout.
Is this not why you chose self-employment over the
corporate world to begin with? Take the proceeds from
one sale, one demonstration, one event each month and
do something special for yourself: get a massage, buy
that new book you want, pay the monthly fee to join a gym.
Reward yourself and you reward your business. Be a caring
"boss" and a responsible "employee".

Flexing Right Out of Your Life

Is your business so flexible that you are able to (and
often do) work all day, every day on it without taking
a break? Here´s a tip to make sure that those things
that are most important to you get done as well as all
the work. At the beginning of each week, mark on your
calendar all of the IMPORTANT things in your life.
Everything from business appointments to a play date at
the park with your kids. Keep ALL of these appointments
just as you would keep business appointments and work the
rest of life´s emergencies and little tasks around them.
Eventually you may find yourself eliminating the "little
unimportant tasks" altogether, thus freeing up time for you
to "live your life".

Keep learning

No matter how many years you spent in college or how many years you´ve been doing your job, there is still something new for you to learn.

Stay on top of your industry by attending trade seminars.
Keep your mind sharp by doing difficult things that you enjoy (puzzles, reading, skiing, biking)
Open yourself up to new experiences and people by trying new restaurants, visiting ethnic neighborhoods, or volunteering for a local organization.

You may be surprised at the things you learn and by the unexpected sources they come from.

Meals To Go

Does your business require you to be away during the
evenings sometimes forcing you to leave peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches for the family´s dinner? Try this:
When you cook a meal on the weekend (casseroles or lasagna
work well), make an extra batch and freeze it. When you
need to be away in the evening, a hot healthy meal is only
as far away as your microwave.

Time Savers

There are many little time-savers that, if all put into practice, could save you significant amounts of time. Some examples:
*Need to give a quick answer but don´t want to get up on a long conversation? Call after hours, leave your short message and get on with your business.
*Don´t have time to cook healthy meals for the family during the week? Cook double batches on weekends, freeze individual servings, and microwave a quick healthy meal during the week.

A Day Off

Give yourself a "day off" once in a while. This doesn´t
just mean a day off from work, but a day off from everything:
work, household chores, even family. Take your time browsing
through your favorite bookstore, have a spa treatment or
massage, go away to a hotel overnight. This will allow you
to be refreshed and will clear your mind so that you´ll be able
to continue facing day-to-day life with a fresh outlook.

Just Say No!

You cannot do it all. Don´t even try. You can organize and prioritize yourself to death. Sometimes you have to learn to "Just Say No!" Rotate your time. Were you teacher´s helper last year in your daughter´s class? Say no this year so you can be Little League Coach for your son.

Consistent personal enrichment levels out ´up and down´ cycle

In life and in business the temptation is to either get caught up in the pace when our lives and businesses are successful and busy; or to get caught up in the struggle when none of the right things seem to be happening. During BOTH times promote growth both personally and professionally.

Make a plan for personal enrichment with books, tapes, and seminars.

Consistent input of knowledge and information that stimulates steady growth helps to even out both your up and down cycles. If you stop the input of quality material and learning during your up cycle you seemingly ‘run out of juice' and can slip into a down cycle.