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Is Procrastination Hurting Your Business?

All of us are guilty of letting procrastination creep into our lives at one time or another. The trick is to recognize it for what it is, then take a hard look at what it is that’s holding you back and begin taking small steps to move you forward.

This video takes a pretty amusing (and accurate) look at procrastination. Enjoy, and then do your best this week to remove the procrastination from your life so you can move forward on the things that will make you and your business even more successful!

Enjoy!

httpsv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU8H0kR-_Go&noredirect=1

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” at www.mandyschumaker.com. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

Do You Start With The End In Mind?

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Have you ever started a new project, product, idea or even a business, then have gotten into the middle of it and realize you aren’t really on the right track? That you aren’t even close to your original vision of the idea? Or perhaps you feel stuck because things have gotten complicated, convoluted and you feel totally overwhelmed.

As entrepreneurs, we love the next “big idea”. It’s what keeps up going, keeps us excited and can keep us broke if we’re not careful. Too often, we get a great idea, and start right off trying to implement it without a clear picture of the end in mind.

When I was a little girl, I loved watching my grandmother sew, and I really wanted to learn, so she taught me. I used to love to go to the fabric stores and look through the pattern books at all the pictures of the beautiful clothes that you could make.

This is a great example of having the end in mind, before you begin. You must visualize or have a picture, or a concrete idea of what that something is, you are trying to create, looks like in the end result.

For example, I recently worked with a client who was struggling with creating a speech he has to deliver to a large organization in a few months. He wasn’t sure where to start, but had a lot of information, (too much information) he was trying to put into the speech-which would inevitably have become a “long, rambling” speech. As a homework assignment, I asked him to think about the three things he wanted his audience to walk away with and remember from his speech and build it from there-with only three points-not the ten he was cramming into a 30 minute speech!

Another client of mine, along with one of her colleagues, is creating a new networking of health professionals that serve cultural creatives. She wants to create some structure and guidelines of operation for the group, that includes plenty of flexibility, but wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it without ending up with a rigid set of rules.

I suggested that she and her colleague start with the end in mind, by visualizing what this group would look like when it was fully operational. What kind of people were in the group, how often did they meet, what made up the content of the meetings, were members there for every meeting, etc. Then work backwards creating the boundaries and structure that would most likely support that vision.

This notion of starting with the end in mind is why vision boards work so well in helping us reach goals, manifest, or just get clearer on what we want.

So the next time you find yourself creating a new idea, project, speech-whatever-start with the end in mind and get really clear on the end result. You’ll find the path for creating what you want will be easier, clearer and you’ll end up with a successful result!

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” at www.mandyschumaker.com. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

3 Ways to Add More Structure to Your Day

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One of the things I find that many of my clients struggle with (me included) is being able to structure your day so that you can continually get things done and move forward with your business. There are so many things for us to get done in any given day, that we are often in a state of overwhelm, often coupled with feelings of procrastination and low energy.

In working with clients over the past nine years, I have found time and time again, having some structure to your week and day, can make a huge difference in how you feel and how much you accomplish.

So often we take on more than we can handle, or try and cram everything we need to get done into one long “to do list”. And sometimes we just are plain “out of energy” because we’ve worked so hard for so long. Adding some structure and boundaries to your day can help.

If you can relate to any of these feelings, here are some ways you might consider adding structure to your day to help you get back on track and moving forward:

1-Structure your ideal work week and day. When specifically during the day are you going to work on your marketing? When are you specifically going to see clients? When are you specifically going to work on the administrative tasks in your business? The more you can schedule these activities into your weekly and daily schedules, the easier it will be for you to know exactly what you should be doing at any time during business hours.

2-Plan your next day the night before. Before you leave your office or shut down your computer for the night, be sure you’ve created a list of things you’d like to get done the next day. That way, when you come into work the next morning, you know exactly what your priorities are for the day, where to begin and what you need to get done.

3-Don’t have an overwhelming “to-do” list. When clients first start working with me, they often have really long to-do lists. Sometimes they even have two and three lists, one for business, and one for personal and one for major things. First, I recommend having one to-do list with everything on it. Then prioritize the list, with A’s, B’s and C’s. Be sure and break down some of your larger projects into bite-size pieces. For example, if you have an item that’s listed as “Create new business development idea”, you might want to break that big idea down into smaller more doable parts. Those smaller steps can then be put on your daily to do list. As the old saying goes, “it’s much easier to eat an elephant, one bite at a time.”

Where can you be putting more structure into your day and week to help you stay on track so you can be even more successful in your business?

Are You Waiting for Things to Happen?

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As entrepreneurs, so often we can bump up against obstacles in our businesses. I certainly know I have. We think we don’t have the time, the money, the skills, the experience, the energy, the perfect marketing message, website, etc.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t let obstacles get in their way. They find a way to make things happen. They figure out what they need to do, how to get the resources to do it, and take massive action.

If you are sitting around waiting for the economy to get better, or for your website to get done, or your business cards to get printed, before you feel you can get out there in a big way, then you need to rethink your strategy.

Here are several things to consider, when obstacles get in your way:

1-Break your challenge down into smaller “bite-size” pieces.

Sometimes we look at our obstacles and they just seem too overwhelming that we don’t even know where to start. Breaking them down into smaller chunks, then sequencing them in a logical order can help get you moving and make it all seem more doable.

2-Look for the unexpected resources around you

I recently had a challenge in my business that had me stuck, and really wasn’t sure where to turn. It finally occurred to me, after unsuccessfully talking with others about it, that my daily accountability partner was the person to help me out of my rut. Take a look around you and see where there might be some unexpected resources. Who haven’t you considered before to help or guide you in your business?

3-Instead of saying to yourself, “I can’t afford this”, ask yourself, “HOW can I afford this”.

I’m still practicing this one for myself, and am finding that a simple shift in mindset has been very helpful. Particularly when we are starting out in our businesses, we don’t always have the money to invest in everything we want. But it’s amazing how creative one can get when you ask yourself, “How can I afford such and such”. You might come up with things you never thought about, to raise the cash to pay for something in your business!

Remember, successful entrepreneurs find a way to overcome their obstacles, they don’t give up, and they have made the commitment to keep at it-no matter what!

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” at www.mandyschumaker.com. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

Charge What You’re Worth

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It’s very typical for me to get my clients to raise their rates within our first few months of working together. So often when we are first starting out in our businesses, we don’t want to be accused of being “too expensive.” And, particularly since we’ve just started out, we don’t feel comfortable pricing ourselves at too high of a rate, even when we might have years of experience and training in our field. We worry that we might lose business or at least lose the opportunity, if we charge too much.

For example, one of my clients has recently started an IT services company for small businesses. She has nearly twenty years experience in the IT business, including global experience. When we had a conversation about what she was charging for pricing, she admitted she had severely underpriced her first few jobs, because she was afraid she might not have gotten the business if she hadn’t.

These feelings are normal for new business owners, and it’s not unusual to under price one’s services, particularly at the beginning. But it’s really important NOT to do this for several reasons.

1. If you are really good at what you do, you don’t need to become a commodity with your gifts and skills. Figure out what you’re worth – set your prices and sell the value and results you bring to your clients. If someone is in pain, or really struggling, and you can fix that, he or she won’t necessarily care what you are charging – as long as you relieve their pain. It’s about the value, not the price.

2. If you undervalue your services with rates that are too low, you will forever be angry with yourself (and eventually with your client). A client may need some extra attention from you one of these days and you don’t want to end up being resentful that they aren’t paying you enough now, so how could you possibly give them more!

3. Make sure you have some sense of what your competitors are charging. Chances are, you will find a fairly wide range of pricing. Think about your experience, what you bring to your clients, your gifts and skills, then price yourself accordingly after taking in all that information. I like to tell my clients, set your price – then raise it 25% — then you will probably be in the ballpark of what you’re worth.

When people ask you right off the bat what you charge, or call out of the blue wanting to know your prices, you can be sure that these are not your ideal clients. These are people who are price shopping. You do not want or need to get into that. You want clients who can see the gifts, value and results you bring to the relationship, and are confident you are just the person to help them!

If you are wondering about your pricing – if you are charging too little, too much or the right amount for your services – I would be happy to have a quick chat with you to help you determine if you are in the right place. Feel free to give me a call at 207-653-6977, or contact me at mandy@mandyschumaker.com

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” at www.mandyschumaker.com. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

How to Find Your Ideal Client

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It’s a common struggle for entrepreneurs: getting really clear on who their ideal client is. When you ask entrepreneurs who their ideal clients are, they may say, “well, it’s this group and that group and a little of some other group,” Sometimes they can’t really tell you.

It’s so important to know who your ideal client is for several reasons:

1-You need to develop marketing messages that speak directly to your ideal group, so you can “pull” in more of your ideal client type.

2-It’s impossible to market to everyone. Trying to attract everyone through your marketing messages will only create unclear messages for anyone who reads them. You don’t need everyone – you just need your ideal client type. That requires a niche message, not an “everybody” message.

3-Being really clear on your ideal client type makes it easier for other people to send referrals your way. If you are trying to market to two or three different client types, it can be very difficult for others to really understand who you serve. That makes it hard for them to truly understand who to refer to you.

One way to really hone in on your ideal client type is to make a list of all your clients, going back one or two years. Then grade them with an A, B, C, D, F. Your A’s will be the ones with whom you love working. They are getting great results, and they refer others to you. Your D’s and F’s are those who, when you look at your appointment book and see their name, that feeling of dread comes over you again.

Next, you want to look at the things the A’s and B’s have in common. What are their common personality traits, problems, obstacles and challenges? The next step is to interview some of your A and B clients to find out from them what they were experiencing before they worked with you, and the results they received after working with you.

Look for the common words and phrases they use. Write down verbatim their answers to your questions. In order for you to attract more A’s and B’s into your business, you want to use the language that they use to describe how you helped them.

Do yourself (and your business) a favor and stop trying to serve everyone, or even several client types. Try to narrow your focus to one or two ideal client types and see what a tremendous difference it can make it attracting new clients to your business.

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. And who would like to overcome their fear of sales, change their mindset, increase their self-confidence, and create a step-by-step strategy for taking their business to the next level. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Mandy offers one-on-one coaching and consulting, as well as facilitates workshops and teleclasses and speaks on a variety of topics.

Get a copy of her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” at www.mandyschumaker.com. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

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