The Beyond Burnout article from the September/October issue of PINK magazine had an amazing list of items to help you take it easy. The article was mainly for folks in Jobland but the list was awesome for business owners. Two of the points in particular are really great for me and I couldn’t wait to start doing them!

Let’s go backwards so I can save the best for last!

7 – Be proactive rather than reactive.

6 – Take a weekend break or a mini-vacation more often.

5 – Figure out your hourly worth and delegate tasks – at home or at work – that you don’t enjoy or that aren’t worth your time. (Of course this one is near and dear to my heart!)

4 – Say “No.”

3 – Take time for self-care, such as exercise, meditation, or relaxation with family and friends.

2 – Reach out and talk with other entrepreneurs. Share frustrations while using and building your network at the same time.

So, here we are at #1 and I L.O.V.E it.

1 – Develop a “stop-doing” list rather than a to-do list!

Now I’m all tingly. I’m a list-o-holic anyway so this is one I can’t wait to start!

It would work just like long-term goals, only in reverse.  “By this date I want to outsource this and by this date I want to cross-source this.”  Creating a list of when you will stop doing things could grow your business in a whole new way.  Are you tingly too?

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Sundi

Check out part 1 and part 2 if you missed them!

Back in part 1 when I mentioned people who would lead to other prospects I promised more help.  You have officially arrived at that special place.

I was trying to think of a way to make this referral harvesting thing more real for you and I’m going with the first thing that popped into my head…

The last time someone said, “What do you want for dinner?” did you have an answer?  Chances are slim that you said, “I want pork tenderloin, steamed green beans and new potatoes with sour dough bread.” and everything for that specific meal was on hand.  However, if the conversation had started like this, “What sounds good for dinner? Mexican or Italian?” there was most likely a dialogue which generated the desired end result – dinner in your belly!

If you apply that same theory to your referral hunting activities then it only makes sense when you start a conversation like, “So, do you know anyone who needs me?” it doesn’t go very far!  Keep in mind that people know the names and can visualize an average of 300 people off the top of their head.  (There has been military research into this so if you don’t believe me then by all means feel free to google it!)  You just asked someone to scan all 300 people they know in an instant!

Wouldn’t it be more productive if you said, “Hey, Susan, are you still part of that tennis group that gets together every week?”  Immediately you’ve narrowed Susan’s search from 300 to say, 20.  Not bad, huh?  Not only have you narrowed the field you’ve got her to concentrate on those specific 20 people.

“Are any of those ladies [insert pain point here]?”  Pick any point from your niche like “not really happy in their jobs?”.  If you’re a career coach you’ve just set out a hunk of bait that is bound to work if there really is someone in the group who could use your services!

Susan just might say, “Well, you know Donna was telling me about something that happened with one of her co-workers the other day.  She didn’t say she was unhappy but I would be unhappy if it happened to me.”

Of course the next question you ask is, “Do you think you could introduce us by email?  Maybe I could help her.”

Fast forward two weeks later…

Susan pulls an envelop out of her mailbox containing a gift certificate for a message as a reward for the new coaching agreement you have with Donna!  Now, isn’t everybody happy?

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Sundi

PS – now don’t go thinking just a couple of questions will lead to a referral.  You might have to lead Susan through a few segments of her life before you get exactly what you’re hunting!

Have you seen part 1 of this series?  It isn’t necessary but it would help you get rid of all those business cards you collected at your last conference…I’m just sayin’.

Disclaimer:  The images of my cards aren’t the best, I know.  If you are interested in what the back of my card says you can see my list of services.  Please don’t strain your eyes trying to read it below!

Does your business card suck?

Does your business card pop?

Does it make you tingle when you hand it to another person?

I’m typically a modest person but I must tell you I love. love. love. my business card!  I designed it myself and I get great satisfaction when I pass them out because the reactions I get are amazing.  I wish I had a hundred cards for ever time someone says they thought I had handed them one that was torn!

Here is the front of my card:

Here is the back of my card:

Unfortunately you can’t see what my favorite part is because I do them ALL by hand and this is a picture of my cards pre-print.  Notice the blank spots in the top left corner of the front and the top right corner of the back.  That is very intentional!  I take this handy-dandy craft punch ($12 at your local craft store) and recreate the bite from my logo on my card.  Simple – SO simple.  But you should see the reactions I get from people.

So, do your business cards suck?  If they do what are you planning to do about it?  If not then tell me why they are great!

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Sundi

When was the last time you returned from a conference and wondered what the heck you were going to do with all those business cards you’d collected?  The event could be as simple as a Chamber meeting or as complex as a week long conference.  Either way, you have loose ends to tie up and for many of us it is the downer of a very inspirational event.

Relax!  Your collection doesn’t have to look like this.

Here are some very simple steps to take as soon as you gather all the cards which are probably strewn hither and yon!  Depending on the number of cards you have this could take you as little as 20 minutes so just settle in and get it done already.

Sort:  Create three piles:

• Potential Clients
• Useful Networking
• Other

Sort:  From the Potential Clients pile create three more piles:

• Hot – They acted interested in your services
• Warm – During the conversation they mentioned a goal or problem your service could address
• Cold – Someone you met who isn’t a great fit

Action:  Take the hot and warm piles and immediately follow-up.  Call or email to set up an appointment to meet.  Then mark your calendar for your next followup step so you actually do it!  Enter these folks in your CRM.

Sort:  From the Useful Networking pile into:

• Those who would lead to other prospects. (Help with this coming later in the series!)
• Those who would lead to other networking events.

Action:  Take the other prospects pile and followup requesting referrals.  Enter the contact information of anyone who expresses interest in connecting you with potential clients.

Action:  For the three remaining piles (Other, Cold and Leads to other networking events) it might be worth your time to send a “nice to meet you” note if you have the time.  If not, these cards could simply be relocated to the trash.  If your intuition tells you it is a waste of your time then let it go!

Hint:  If you don’t take these simple steps all the time you spent on the event could be a waste!

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Sundi

Surprise! I read your blogs.  Well, I’m making my way though them anyway.  I read all kinds of blogs every day.  Coaching blogs of potential clients; training blogs of dream clients; speaker client blogs; blogs of coaches, trainers and speakers I’d love to be potential clients…  The stalker list goes on and on.

Today, I found a post by Steve Scott, Referrals: Running your own business in a bad economy.  In his post Steve says, “Small business growth and growing small business are not done by accident. They are done by design.”  He followed up with the ultimate question, “How do you get referrals?”

I can’t agree more with Steve’s statements.  Great small businesses don’t happen purely on luck.  The deal is, the person working so hard to build a great small business loves what they do so much they don’t realize they are actually w.o.r.k.i.n.g.

So, here are my top three ways to get the easiest referrals:

Get ‘em while they’re HOT!  When I client gives you a compliment immediately say thank you and ask if they know someone else who could benefit from your _____ skill.

Make an offer!  Go through all the people you know and find the top two or three who have referred to you in the past or who you feel could be perfect for this opportunity.  Send these three people a personal communication offering a set amount from contracts generated by their referrals for the next three months.  Make the time long enough they have opportunity but brief enough to create urgency.  Adjust the $ or % depending on your comfort level.

Diversify your connections!  Look for individuals who compliment your service and also know companies or individuals in your niche.  Make a similar offer as above or enter into a mutual agreement with them.

My most impressive referrals for my virtual assistant services have come from these three avenues.  How about you – What do you do to get referrals?

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Sundi

Can you break yourself down into three words or less?  If so, please move onto the next blog in your reader because this post isn’t for you!  Need more like 200 words to describe yourself?

My theory is that the more words it takes the busier you are.

Say you’re…

an OD coach who volunteers at your church, leads a master mind group, attends monthly organization events which you of course head a committee, parent of one, coach of a little league team, book re-shelfer at the grade school library one day a week and mentor to a pre-teen boy.

Or maybe…

a change agent/speaker who also works with at-risk girls, sits on the board of the local animal shelter, teaches English as second language courses and volunteers at the food pantry.

How about me?

I’m a full-time employed business owner, mom of three boys who happen to be soccer players, monthly GSA breakfast attendee, devout church goer, active virtual assistant peer group member and weekly Get Clients NOW! groupie!

I’m trying to tell you we’re busy people!  I can’t remember it all…or do it all either.  If any of this is starting to sound like you then try this.

 There are very smart people out there who are just as busy as we are – when I say smart I mean programmer types, which I clearly am not!  They are feeling our pain and trying to give us solutions.  It is our job to just find the right one for us!  Try Evernote.  If it doesn’t work then try the next one and the next and the next.

There is a perfect fit out there for you!

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Sundi

I didn’t dream it would take me this long to recover from Chicks Who Click!  I was very much in overdrive by the time I got to bed Saturday night.  Extra special thinks to Jenny Love for teaching a breathing technique – I was asleep before I finished the second eight count!

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of exploring the tools covered at Chicks Who Click.  There is one particular item I can tell you I used immediately – before I even left the conference!  I signed up and started using my new Hootsuite account in real time and I’m not looking back!

As the day was moving along I started sending out scheduled tweets to the people who were speaking and interacting with our group.   Have you ever been sitting at a conference and thought, “That was really funny!” and then you jotted it down?  Did you ever send a note to that person and say Thank You?  I did.

In real time but I scheduled it out for that evening or the next morning or the next evening.  It was the coolest thing!  Conversations from those scheduled tweets are still going on.  Talk about creating longevity.

If you’ve never tried HootSuite then go give it a browse!

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Sundi

I’ve shared with you in the past how to protect your passwords by using passwords unique to you and difficult to decipher.  Stopping with your online safety isn’t actually enough though!  Identity theft doesn’t have to start online.  Here are some tips to protect you in other aspects of your life too:

• Set passwords to protect your digital devices – especially if you have personal information stored in your devices!
• Design high quality password and pin numbers.  (Again, go here if you need help with this!)
• Get yourself a shredder!  There isn’t a single one of us who manages not to get pre-approved credit cards in the mail at least once a week.  (If you don’t please share how you managed that in the comments!)
• Lock your mailbox!  Just because it is against the law for some schmuck to rifle through your mailbox doesn’t mean he won’t do it.  We have a post office box inside our local post office and don’t even have curbside mail as an option since there isn’t a box installed at the end of our driveway.
• Every month when you pay your bills take a minute to check your online accounts for suspecious charges!
• Don’t mail checks.  Yes, I know.  If you live slightly rural this may be a problem.  Although I’m in the big city all the time we live rural.  Our itty-bitty water district only accepts checks.  Can you imagine! In order to minimize I started paying lump sums every three months.  At least I’ve tried to minimize the activity if I can’t stop it completely!
• Check your credit reports annually – you know this is F R E E right?
• Don’t provide personal information unless you initiated the contact.  If a company you do business with calls you then they already have your account number and anything else they might need!  I mean, they called you, right!?
• Do all that techie stuff…If you don’t know how then find someone who does.  I’m talking about all the firewall, antispyware, antivirus and browser security stuff.
• Shop with reliable online companies.  Look for secure online purchasing before you enter your credit card number.  It is even better if your credit card protects you but remember just because it claims to protect your doesn’t mean the process of being protected will be easy!
• Finally, reduce the number of ways schmucks can get access!  If you pay your bill online anyway, why do you need to receive a paper copy of your bill or invoice?  (Besides, online invoicing and billpay are so much better for the environment!)

 Hey, be safe out there!

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Sundi

I can’t imagine how confusing it would be to start on part 3 so why don’t you go back to part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t see them yet?

Yeah!  Part 3…The End!  I mean the end is here after you finish this step…I didn’t mean you could stop right now!

Remember the whole “never alphabetize” part of this?  We’ve arrived!  All you organization-challenged will love it!  It is one of my favorite things about File Don’t Pile: A proven filing system for personal and professional use.

First, confirm the masters!  You should have a master file for every stack or container.  Each master file should have a different color designation.  In your filing cabinet, behind the master file, in numerical order, are the supporting files.  (I use the term “filinf cabinet” loosely as you may have a tote or file box.)

Second, seek and ye shall find!  If you’re in the office supply store and you want fancy-pants resume paper you go to the paper section, right?  If there is more than one section of paper you skim the signs at the end of the isles until you come to specialty papers. Then, you find 100% cotton in cream with a water mark, right?  The same goes for this filing system.  Pull out the master folder for paper and skim the list until you come to “018 – 100% cotton, cream, water mark,” put back the master file and flip through the support files to folder #018!

Third, everything has a place!  If you want to file something new just reverse the steps.  Pull out the master file for binding supplies, go to the end of the list, next to the first blank number write “2 inch, white, lockable D-ring,” and replace the master file.  Then, pull out a blank coordinating support folder and write in the number you used followed by “2 inch, white, lockable D-ring.”  To file it, put it at the end of the color coordinated support files for the binding supplies section.

Fourth, check me out (aren’t you the organized one?)!  Your master folders could include active clients, archived clients, vendors, staff, bills, warranty or electronics, and taxes.  Depending on your niche and how detailed you choose to be the possibilities are endless.

[Hint]  What about that “misc” container?  When you have everything else filed, go through it again.  Maybe you realized now there was duplicate stuff you’ve already filed.  Or you might know exactly where to put something now because its proper home is clear to you.  Yeah, perhaps you’ve reached your tolerance threshold and you just want to dump the whole container in the trash!  As a last resort, put it in the top of the closet somewhere and come back to it another day.

There you have it everyone!  Not only have I used this system for myself but I’ve set it up for many people.  The feedback I’ve gotten has been positive and, especially for the organization-challenged, the system is easy to maintain.  If you have any questions I’d be happy to help you out!  The book is even a reasonable investment at less than 10 bucks.

As a final note this system can be as neat or as sloppy as you want it to be but as long as you follow the master folder and support folder system it is still organized!  Being the ESTJ I am, I prefer printed labels with colored bars across the top but a pen and marker directly on the file folder is equally effective.  Also, if you go in tab placement order your file titles are always visible as apposed to going hap-hazard when filing alphabetically!

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Sundi

I came across an article over the weekend that left me amazed at how little we (the general public)  know about English!  I’m not perfect but I do try and common mistakes are few and far between here.  The article I found this weekend clued me into why it is so difficult!

There are OVER 615,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary!  This whopping number doesn’t even include technical or scientific terms.  The English language has over 200,000 words in common use!

Isn’t that incredible – in fact, with all the options available, incredible seems like a very weak choice!  How about – implausible, inconceivable, preposterous, outlandish or unthinkable?

Thanks to a thesaurus I came up with those.  Did you know English is the only language to have a thesaurus?

Have you ever asked a friend who is bilingual how to say a specific word from English in their other language?  How long do they really have to think about it?  Is there ever anything that is a perfect fit?

Several of my friends have said, “Well, there isn’t anything exactly like that.”  Gee, you think maybe that is because we have SO many words that catch the smallest nuances of emotion or variation within English?

Compared to German which has 184,000 common words and French which has just 100,000!?

Go back to that Oxford English Dictionary, shall we?

• It  is compiled in 20 volumes which contain 21,730 pages and weights 137 lbs.
• It contains 59 million words and 350 million characters
• It includes 2,436,500 quotations in which the Bible is the most quoted work.

You know what amazes me the most?  When you start throwing all those words togther…think about how many combinations there are!  I’m just talking about the words and how many there are!  No wonder it takes real effort on the part of someone trying to learn English to figure out the infinite number of uses for all those words and word combinations!

(And Twitter thinks I only need 140 characters!  Give me a break!)

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Sundi