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Business Makeover: Are You Prepared with an Emergency Plan
Recently I experienced unplanned downtime due to Internet outage which affected my ability to do business, receive/send email or even communicate via my social media outlets. I faced reality that I didn’t have a backup plan in case something like this happened. I didn’t have emergency procedures in place so that I wouldn’t have to go without Internet access.
So my first plan of action while I was down was to create an emergency backup plan in case this happened again. I began by looking for alternative solutions that I could have in place just in case my access was limited again. Below is a list of what I determined:
- Locate alternative external sources where I could gain access to the Internet freely (i.e., library or food establishments with Internet access)
- Obtain information from cell phone company on how I can use my cell phone with my computer to access… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Have You Branded Your Business?
In order for business owners to be easily recognizable, one must make sure that clients and potential clients can tell who we are, what we do and how we can help them reach their goals. This means that a common look must resonate from our website, to our media packages and also our online presence outside of our website. This is termed as your branding and according to Wikipedia.org,
A brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the descriptive verbal attributes and concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme that convey the essence of a company, product or service. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary.
During my business… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Are You in Control of Your Me Time?
On a day when I am discussing “Me” time, I actually started my day off with “me” time. It is a Saturday morning and I decided to sleep in an extra couple of hours. I enjoyed the extra rest and being able to take my time on a day where I might busily run around doing errands.
“Me” time should be very important to business owners because it allows you to rejuvenate and refresh. Although I spoken about “me” time briefly in this series, I decided that it would be a good idea to expand on it today.
If you are constantly going and not breaking for “me” time you can stress yourself and maybe have a negative impact on your business. I say this from personal experience because I learned the hard way when I crashed and burned during an important time with my business a few years ago.
It was… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Are You Focused Like Michael Phelps?
First, if you don’t know who Michael Phelps is, you can read more about him by clicking here. But if you do know who he is then you know that he has been very focused on winning Olympic Gold medals for swimming. His goal has been to beat World records too and so far he is doing a great job of it.
I haven’t been watching the sporting events of the Olympics as intently as others but one thing for sure is that hearing Michael’s name mentioned almost everywhere has become a norm. As business owners, wouldn’t it be great to have positive brand recognition like Michael?
Well I’ve been giving this some thoughts over the past few days and during my business makeover I have realized that I’ve become very focused on what’s best for me and my business. Having targeted goals in mind has helped me to… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Being a Giver
As I write this post I’m thinking about all the people who have been givers in my life. I feel fully blessed because my life has been impacted so that I became a giver too. Being a giver is living the practice of giving to others without expecting anything in return.
An example of me being a giver in business is my practice of paying it forward on Twitter. For my birthday in 2008, I had two people who asked their followers on Twitter and Facebook to follow me and wish me a Happy Birthday. It was declared “Kim Beasley Day” and many friended me and sent me greeting. The two people who did this for me wasn’t expecting anything in return but they gave a great gift that impacted my life. The two people I’m talking about is Coach Deb (@coachdeb) and Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock).
Their powerful example of… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Dealing with the Dark-side of Business
While I was watching a commentary regarding the psychology about the persona of Bruce Wayne/Batman, a thought came to me that as a business owner there is a dark-side we have to deal with too. The dark-side consist of anything that is negative or fearful.
As a business owner, we have to be careful that the dark-side doesn’t rule us and cause us to run our business unwisely. So what are some of the dark-side issue? Glad you asked. Below are a few of the things that I consider as the dark-side of business.
- Stealing clients
- Adding extra time to client projects
- When bartering or exchanging services, you intentionally make sure that you get more than what your barter is worth
- Lead new clients to believe that you have more experience than you actually do to win their project (this means that you don’t let your client know that you are outsourcing their work to someone… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Taking Control of My Calendar Schedule
Have you found that you are forgetting appointments or important events because you forgot it was on your schedule? Maybe you have been so busy that you don’t even have a calendar schedule. Then I want to encourage you to break the bad habit of having a calendar schedule out of control and take charge of your schedule.
When I have allowed my calendar schedule to be out of control, I have noticed that it affected my ability to run my business effectively. Missed appointment or networking events can make or break your business. So I decided a long time ago that when I make an appointment that I would immediately add it to my calendar.
To help me stay organized and on top of my calendar, I setup a system that has been very effective for me. This system works to keep me informed about my upcoming events and… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Using Virtual Teams
After hiring my virtual assistant (VA), I quickly realized that if I create a virtual team that I would be able to continue refining my business processes. I figured that it would a good idea to hire a team of specialist so that I could outsource to them and continue refining my business process.
As a business owner, one must keep in mind that having a virtual team in place will help you leverage your business better. Have you given any thoughts to putting a virtual team to work for you? Below is a list of areas that would be good to outsource to a virtual team:
- Managing Calendar
- Creating graphics
- Content Management (blog & website)
- Data entry
- Handling phone calls
- Organizing computer
- Research
- Creating newsletter
These are just a few of the areas that you can outsource to your virtual team. Have you been feeling overwhelmed or your projects… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Using Mind Mapping to Grow Business
The next step that I decided to take in my business makeover was to create a mind map for my business strategy so that I would be able to determine the direction better. According to Wikipedia.org, a mind map is…
A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.
In order to create my mind map, I use both an online version (Mind Meister) and desktop version (Freemind). I have found that when I need to share a mind map that the online version is best. But if I’m going to be on the go without access to the internet, I use the desktop… Continue reading →
Business Makeover: Weekly Checkup on Goals
So I’ve decided to do a weekly checkup on the current goals that I have so that I can see if I have made progress. Below is my first to do list that I made…
- Getting proper rest at night (at least 6 – 8 hours) – Yes, I’m doing this
- Eating the right foods at the right time – Yes, I’m doing this and enjoying it
- Exercising consistently – working with personal trainer to create plan ()
- Shortening my work day (from 16 hours to a maximum of 10) – Yes, I’m doing this
- Investing time into my personal business, Yes, I’m doing this
- Hiring a VA and delegating tasks, YES I DID THIS, YEAH!!!
- Schedule social networking time frames, I can’t be perfect so yes I’m still working on this one.
The next round for my to do list will include the following:
- Continue monitoring my social networking… Continue reading →
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