If you live on the West Coast, you are familiar with Daylight Savings time and how twice a year in March and November, we adjust our clocks backwards or forwards by an hour. The rationale behind this practice is that it is a way to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. There's a lot of other reasons why this was implemented, but that's not important here. We are just days away from setting the clocks back an hour here in California. This will allow us to still have light until closer to 6pm, but it will be dark in the mornings until closer to 7am, almost 8am depending on the weather forecast.
There is always an adjustment period when this happens even though I've been doing this most of my life. Just like when the economy shifts up or down, we ride the wave. We have all benefitted from economic upswings and of course, since the opposite of good is bad, there will always be some of those experiences as well. For instance I shared in my recent telecourse that I had a great time riding the wave of the dot com boom (as did hundreds of thousands of other Silicon Valley residents, business owners, and even folks around the world). Of course, when the dot coms "busted", we also experienced some turmoil with losing some of the luxuries we all got accustomed to - big paychecks, rising stock prices, millionaires on paper, etc. Another area that we are all familiar with is the Real Estate boom. I didn't hear anyone complaining when their house values were climbing through the roof and people were knocking on doors offering sometimes well into the 6 figures above the asking price for their homes. Now that the tables are turned and the market values have tanked, everyone's forgotten how good it was and how they probably refinanced their homes and took equity out to enjoy luxuries that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
It is important for each of us, especially as entrepreneurs, to not get caught up in all the negative talk and be grateful for what we have and what's actually happening in OUR own worlds, NOT THE world.
A few months ago, I decided to unplug from what's going on in the world, by choice. I think it was a very smart choice and one that you all may want to adopt. I made a conscious choice not to listen to the news, read the papers or listen to talk radio. I'm not an ultra-sensitive person, but I don't like what all the negative talk does to my mindset. Sometimes we get caught in a pattern of negative thinking and when we focus on the bad news, it affects everything else in our lives. Take an inventory of what's actually going on in YOUR world. Are you blessed with a house to live in? A car to drive (maybe even a choice of 2 or 3 cars)? Do you still go out to eat occasionally? Go shopping on the weekends or online? If you can answer yes to most of these questions, you are in a very fortunate position. Keep that in mind and be grateful for those things because that's your reality.
Here are just a few tips to help you THRIVE during these turbulent times:
1. Take a deep breath. And then another.
2. Stop watching the news, stop reading the papers, and change the conversation when your friends and neighbors begin talking about things having to do with lack. Instead, opt for CDs or MP3 recordings of mentors that inspire you or audio books and programs.
3. Spend time with positive people---the ones that are optimistic, make you smile, turn your day around and who make you feel better being around them. Stay away from those who just want to tell you about how much so and so have lost in their 401K this week.
4. Be in gratitude for what you DO have - i.e. your kids, your family, your health, your business, and CHOICES.
5. Acknowledge your successes - if you just started your business, celebrate that you had 8 jobs this year of if you've been in business for awhile now, be proud that you've made it this far and know that 2009 is going to be even better.
Here are some great quotes that help to drive the point of today's article.
"Tough times never last, but tough people do. " - Robert H. Schuller
"If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think." - Oprah Winfrey
"Living in the moment brings you a sense of reverence for all of life's blessings." - Oprah Winfrey
Implementing just one of these methods will put you back on track to connecting with who you are, what your purpose is and those deserving of and able to invest in your talents, services, and expertise. For every person you encounter that blames outside forces for their failure, there is someone else that is taking responsibility for and initiating the necessary steps for their success. Which one are you? Success is a choice, will you choose it?
© 2008 AKC Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, but here's what you MUST include with it: Alice T. Chan, the Staging Designer's Success Coach, publishes the bi-weekly ezine "Set the Stage for Your Success". If you're ready to skyrocket your Staging Design business and gain credibility in record time, get your FREE tips now at
www.SuccessfulStagingBiz.com.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
"How You Can Make the Most of Your Time"
One of the top complaints or obstacles that entrepreneurs have is "I don't have enough time."
Think about that for a moment---
Does that describe you? Do you have too much on your plate and not enough time?
Do you often find yourself dreaming, "If only I had more time."?
Well, you've probably heard the saying that we all have the same amount of time per day. It's true isn't it? We all have the same 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. How is it that some people seem to get so much done and others are struggling just to keep up?
Thinking that you can have MORE time is a major part of the problem.
There's no where to purchase MORE time. You have all the time that's available to you until your time is up - it's really about how you can more effectively choose where to invest your time.
The reality is that we all have responsibilities. These responsibilities can eat up a lot of your time if you don't find a way to manage it or delegate it. If you're like me, you're an entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a party planner, a housekeeper, and the list goes on. Each of those roles comes with it a laundry list of THINGS TO DO. What we need to remember as small business owners/entrepreneurs is that we need to focus our time during our "working hours" (whatever you designate those to be) to only doing those activities that either get you more clients (the MARKETING) or make you money (the client/STAGING work). Everything else can wait until after 5 or 6pm.
Here are 5 ways to immediately upgrade your use of time:
1. Identify the time wasters
When you own a home based business, the line between your professional and personal life is blurred. To be successful, we need to put boundaries between the two even if you only walk 5 steps across the hall from your bedroom to your office. Since you're not leaving your home to go to a separate place of work, the temptations of home responsibilities can pull at you throughout the day and many times keep you from getting things done.
Here are just a few examples: dishes, walking the dog, laundry, food shopping, exercising, cooking dinner. Sound familiar? We've all been there. What you think will only take a few minutes end up eating hours of your time that you can't get back.
2. Eliminate these time wasters
Now that you've identified what these time wasters are, make a commitment to not doing these activities during business hours. Consider this. If you worked for a corporation, would you be doing dishes or laundry during business hours? NO. The only time you have for personal errands would be during your lunch hour, so if you absolutely have to do something, schedule it during your lunch break. Remember, you have to treat your business like a business, otherwise you'll get paid a hobby's salary and I don't know too many people who get paid well for doing their hobbies.
3. Where are you overcommitted? What can you let go of? Say no to? Delegate? Delay?
When you consciously choose to stop doing something you make room in your life to put something else in its place. Create your own "Stop Doing List". This is an extremely important step to upgrading your use of time. We need to do this in both our personal and our professional lives.
This took me a long time to grasp. It wasn't until recently that I finally hired a housecleaner to clean my house. What would take me an entire day and then some, takes 2 people about 3 hours to accomplish AND they do all the things I don't want to do or really have time to do like wiping down the baseboards regularly, cleaning the interior doors, cleaning the fireplace and cleaning the blinds. Having this service frees up my time so I can do other things, like hang out with my daughter. Consider outsourcing housecleaning, gardening, grocery shopping (I've tried Safeway.com and it's pretty cool - a few minutes on my computer and the groceries are delivered - saves at least an hour of my time, not to mention gas), errands (there are personal assistants available for a very low cost - especially when you consider how much your time is worth).
4. Strategically choose which activities, projects, "things" you do that have the highest value and do those things first.
Most people waste 70-80% of their working day on low level, low value, and low return activities. If you want to earn more, enjoy more, and grow more, then you need to immediately start making better choices about where to invest your time. Hiring an assistant to do the administrative tasks that take up a lot of your time would allow you to do more of the higher level work that brings in more revenue. Outsourcing the bookkeeping would definitely free up your time and allow you to do what you do best, while allowing someone who actually likes numbers and knows how to manage them, do what they do best. Hiring movers and Staging Assistants would allow you to complete projects quicker, take on more projects, keep the warehouse tidier and keep projects rolling and allow you to simultaneously provide a consultation to another client.
Don't get stuck in the trap of having to do everything yourself or you'll never free up the time to work ON your business. Take a look at all the tasks on your to-do list and ask yourself, "Does this really need to be done?" and then, "If it has to be done, can it be done by somebody else?"
If letting go of these tasks is scary to you (and sometimes it is, especially if you've always done it and have your own particular way of doing it) then try baby steps.
Identify a small task that you want to delegate (ex: answering calls).
Document the correct way to perform this task, step by step (ex: Staging Inquiry Call Sheet in the Ultimate Staging Success Blueprint™ System).
Have someone follow your instructions and revise your document until you and your tester are comfortable with the newly documented system.
When the new system document is ready, give it to the person responsible for that task, and insert a copy into your Staging Operations Manual. This collection of system documents is what creates a functioning Operations Manual (See the Ultimate Staging Success Blueprint™ System for one that's already outlined for you). Repeat these steps on the next task.
5. Track your use of time and see where you can make better choices in the future.
It's too easy to fool yourself into thinking you're doing all you can with your time. It's human nature to rationalize away and see what we want to see. But the truth is you can get so much more out of your time than you are. The key is to make if VISUALLY clear exactly where your time is going so that you can self-correct in real time.
By doing this over time you discipline yourself to make better time choices and accomplish more.
Start today to take 100% responsibility for how you invest your hours and minutes. No more excuses.
© 2008 AKC Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, but here's what you MUST include with it: Alice T. Chan, the Staging Designer's Success Coach, publishes the bi-weekly ezine "Set the Stage for Your Success". If you're ready to skyrocket your Staging Design business and gain credibility in record time, get your FREE tips now at
http://www.SuccessfulStagingBiz.com.
Think about that for a moment---
Does that describe you? Do you have too much on your plate and not enough time?
Do you often find yourself dreaming, "If only I had more time."?
Well, you've probably heard the saying that we all have the same amount of time per day. It's true isn't it? We all have the same 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. How is it that some people seem to get so much done and others are struggling just to keep up?
Thinking that you can have MORE time is a major part of the problem.
There's no where to purchase MORE time. You have all the time that's available to you until your time is up - it's really about how you can more effectively choose where to invest your time.
The reality is that we all have responsibilities. These responsibilities can eat up a lot of your time if you don't find a way to manage it or delegate it. If you're like me, you're an entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a party planner, a housekeeper, and the list goes on. Each of those roles comes with it a laundry list of THINGS TO DO. What we need to remember as small business owners/entrepreneurs is that we need to focus our time during our "working hours" (whatever you designate those to be) to only doing those activities that either get you more clients (the MARKETING) or make you money (the client/STAGING work). Everything else can wait until after 5 or 6pm.
Here are 5 ways to immediately upgrade your use of time:
1. Identify the time wasters
When you own a home based business, the line between your professional and personal life is blurred. To be successful, we need to put boundaries between the two even if you only walk 5 steps across the hall from your bedroom to your office. Since you're not leaving your home to go to a separate place of work, the temptations of home responsibilities can pull at you throughout the day and many times keep you from getting things done.
Here are just a few examples: dishes, walking the dog, laundry, food shopping, exercising, cooking dinner. Sound familiar? We've all been there. What you think will only take a few minutes end up eating hours of your time that you can't get back.
2. Eliminate these time wasters
Now that you've identified what these time wasters are, make a commitment to not doing these activities during business hours. Consider this. If you worked for a corporation, would you be doing dishes or laundry during business hours? NO. The only time you have for personal errands would be during your lunch hour, so if you absolutely have to do something, schedule it during your lunch break. Remember, you have to treat your business like a business, otherwise you'll get paid a hobby's salary and I don't know too many people who get paid well for doing their hobbies.
3. Where are you overcommitted? What can you let go of? Say no to? Delegate? Delay?
When you consciously choose to stop doing something you make room in your life to put something else in its place. Create your own "Stop Doing List". This is an extremely important step to upgrading your use of time. We need to do this in both our personal and our professional lives.
This took me a long time to grasp. It wasn't until recently that I finally hired a housecleaner to clean my house. What would take me an entire day and then some, takes 2 people about 3 hours to accomplish AND they do all the things I don't want to do or really have time to do like wiping down the baseboards regularly, cleaning the interior doors, cleaning the fireplace and cleaning the blinds. Having this service frees up my time so I can do other things, like hang out with my daughter. Consider outsourcing housecleaning, gardening, grocery shopping (I've tried Safeway.com and it's pretty cool - a few minutes on my computer and the groceries are delivered - saves at least an hour of my time, not to mention gas), errands (there are personal assistants available for a very low cost - especially when you consider how much your time is worth).
4. Strategically choose which activities, projects, "things" you do that have the highest value and do those things first.
Most people waste 70-80% of their working day on low level, low value, and low return activities. If you want to earn more, enjoy more, and grow more, then you need to immediately start making better choices about where to invest your time. Hiring an assistant to do the administrative tasks that take up a lot of your time would allow you to do more of the higher level work that brings in more revenue. Outsourcing the bookkeeping would definitely free up your time and allow you to do what you do best, while allowing someone who actually likes numbers and knows how to manage them, do what they do best. Hiring movers and Staging Assistants would allow you to complete projects quicker, take on more projects, keep the warehouse tidier and keep projects rolling and allow you to simultaneously provide a consultation to another client.
Don't get stuck in the trap of having to do everything yourself or you'll never free up the time to work ON your business. Take a look at all the tasks on your to-do list and ask yourself, "Does this really need to be done?" and then, "If it has to be done, can it be done by somebody else?"
If letting go of these tasks is scary to you (and sometimes it is, especially if you've always done it and have your own particular way of doing it) then try baby steps.
Identify a small task that you want to delegate (ex: answering calls).
Document the correct way to perform this task, step by step (ex: Staging Inquiry Call Sheet in the Ultimate Staging Success Blueprint™ System).
Have someone follow your instructions and revise your document until you and your tester are comfortable with the newly documented system.
When the new system document is ready, give it to the person responsible for that task, and insert a copy into your Staging Operations Manual. This collection of system documents is what creates a functioning Operations Manual (See the Ultimate Staging Success Blueprint™ System for one that's already outlined for you). Repeat these steps on the next task.
5. Track your use of time and see where you can make better choices in the future.
It's too easy to fool yourself into thinking you're doing all you can with your time. It's human nature to rationalize away and see what we want to see. But the truth is you can get so much more out of your time than you are. The key is to make if VISUALLY clear exactly where your time is going so that you can self-correct in real time.
By doing this over time you discipline yourself to make better time choices and accomplish more.
Start today to take 100% responsibility for how you invest your hours and minutes. No more excuses.
© 2008 AKC Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, but here's what you MUST include with it: Alice T. Chan, the Staging Designer's Success Coach, publishes the bi-weekly ezine "Set the Stage for Your Success". If you're ready to skyrocket your Staging Design business and gain credibility in record time, get your FREE tips now at
http://www.SuccessfulStagingBiz.com.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Boost Your Staging Business By Giving Back
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. It's also the time of year for my family and I to support a cause that's very near and dear to our hearts. Incredible and unbelievable as it may seem, we lost my mom to breast cancer 10 years ago. My 3 year old daughter got me all choked up recently because we were clarifying who daddy's daddy was and who's daddy's mommy, who's mommy's daddy, and then she asked me who my mommy was and I explained to her that she never met her because she passed away. She obviously doesn't understand what that means. She repeated that she hadn't met her yet, but when she does, she's going to give her a big hug. That just broke my heart. All I could say was that she would love that.
That's why I want to help make a difference in the fight against breast cancer by participating in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk this October in San Francisco. I have participated for the last 10 years, Keith has walked with me for the last 6 years and this is Alexa's 3rd year. Earlier this year, a friend's older sister was taken by this awful disease. She was the mother of 6 year old triplets!
As conscious business owners, we can and should use our resources to give back. I just learned the phrase "Cause Marketing" which is being used by big brands to incorporate social responsibility into their marketing efforts. It's defined as a "commercial activity by which businesses and charities or causes form a partnership with each other to market an image, product or service for mutual benefit." Think LIVESTRONG by Celebrity Cyclist Lance Armstrong who turned his public battle with cancer into a hip consumer brand with the aid of branded partners Nike and Hewlett-Packard. This brand raises money for the Lance Armstrong foundation which inspires and empowers people affected by cancer. There's also ONE which is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - ONE by ONE - to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. It was founded by 11 of America's most well-known and respected aid groups, including Save the Children US, World Concern, World Vision, and supported by many top celebrity heavy hitters including Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates and many more. Another high profile example is RED which was created by U2 lead singer Bono to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce co-branded products. A percentage of each RED co-branded product sold is given to The Global Fund which helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.
There are thousands of noble projects to connect to your business. What cause do you already support or would like to support that you can incorporate into your marketing efforts? It doesn't have to be design related. Another cause I support and want to get more involved with in the near future is Dress for Success which is an organization that provides interview suits, confidence boosts, and career development to low-income women. I have a good friend and fellow Designer/Stager who has become very involved with the Raphael House in San Francisco which is dedicated to helping at-risk children and their families achieve stable housing and financial independence. She has been involved with redesigning the San Francisco Homeless Shelter and has received many accolades for her efforts. My husband has and perhaps many of you have also participated in Habitat for Humanity which is a housing organization that builds simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.No matter what the cause, extending a helping hand always creates good will.
2 things to keep in mind to gain the most out of your greater good approach:
1. Identify a cause that fits your business. The goal should be to align your business vision and brand values with a synergistic nonprofit cause or organization in order to create win-win marketing. Your company will gain profile, and you'll likely create stronger customer loyalty because your customers will feel good about buying your product. This will also create a clearer differentiation between you and your competitors.
2. Choose a cause that means something to you. There's no point in supporting an issue you don't really care about - people are bound to catch on. Having a genuine passion or interest in the cause means you'll stay engaged.
Go out and make a difference. Supporting a non-profit provides awesome opportunities for fun, morale-boosting activities that give staff and customers the 'feel-good factor'.
© 2008 AKC Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, but here's what you MUST include with it: Alice T. Chan, the Staging Designer's Success Coach, publishes the bi-weekly ezine "Set the Stage for Your Success". If you're ready to skyrocket your Staging Design business and gain credibility in record time, get your FREE tips now at
www.SuccessfulStagingBiz.com.
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