Let’s get right to it, shall we? Grab your writing instrument of choice or pull op a document on the computer and get ready to sharpen this necessary skill.
Identify the problem. If you only have a vague understanding of what the problem is or might be, you won’t be able to solve it because you won’t have the information you need.
What different angle could you approach this problem from? Jack Welch said, “Continually expand your definition of the problem, and you expand your view of all the different ways that it can be solved.” Ask, “What else is the problem?” You may not be looking at the correct “problem” at all.
Consider the solutions you’ve tried. Look the problem over and under. Ask for help because you just might have a blind spot to the problem.
What caused the problem? Is it something that just popped up or has it been brewing for some time now? Know when and how it arose and you might be able to better address it.
Look for ALL possible solutions — don’t censor yourself. No matter how far-fetched a solution may seem, write it down because there could be a kernel of a solution.
Reward yourself because by now, you have thoroughly examined the problem, causes and some potential solutions. Given this hard work, you are ready to decide which tactic will work best, and to go for it. No more procrastinating!
Get your team around you and delegate
Set a deadline and metrics to measure the success moving toward it
Get the solution implemented BUT have a back up plan in case the original plan doesn’t fall into place.
Re-examine the success or failure or points that got missed and make a written note of them in case you’re faced with this same problem or a similar one
Rex Richard understands the importance of leading a balanced, orderly personal life as a way to help you be a better leader in your business role. Your personal satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, can color your business dealings.
Reinvention is something you should look at regularly in your personal and your professional lives. Make the time to achieve serenity and peace. On a daily basis, simply turn everything off for a time. Be quiet, calm and peaceful.
Savor the silence. Use your former TV-watching time to get in closer touch with your loved ones. Be considerate to them and to yourself.
As an entrepreneur, you need to stay on top of your projects. If you don’t you will drop the ball, miss deadlines, disappoint clients and potentially lose them. You need to stay focused and hearn how to effectively manage your projects.
What can you do to:
Stay focused
Hit your targets
If you’re ready to get a handle on your tasks and to get focused so you’re not feeling so overwhelmed and so you feel — and are — more accomplished, let’s go.
First things first:
Grab paper
Grab a pen or pencil
OR open a document on your computer — whatever your planning tool of choice your plan and ideas down on paper. I’ve found it can be helpful to use sticky notes to plan out your road map. I recommend writing with a marker you can easily read from afar, using multiple colors for sticky notes or markers for categorization, and writing on the top of the note so you can tear off the nonadhesive part to prevent curling.
If you don’t write down what you want to accomplish, you will miss deadlines, forget projects or miss steps. Also, writing items down makes them seem more doable and achievable because you’re taking them out of your head where they grow in power and looking at them on paper and you can see, they aren’t as overwhelming as you’d imagined.
How To Effectively Manage Your Projects
Let’s get planning.
As mentioned write down all the big goals you want to achieve
Write down the steps and resources you need to achieve them
Write down the deadlines
Write down all the other engagements that could potentially interfere with these projects (you need to plan for them, though)
Write down your outside of work responsibilities like family and friends
Make note of which items are high priority and which are time-sensitive and which have a loose deadline
Look at your calendar and make blocks of time for each of the projects
Stick to your plan. It doesn’t help you to do this exercise only to toss it aside a day or week later.
Before you leave your office at the end of the day, mark off the items you’ve completed, carry others forward and plan for your next day. Planning for your day before you leave the office means you will sit down to work and already have a plan — it is a great time saver. If the past year has taught us nothing it’s that you need to be flexible with your plans but you do need to have a plan!
Money is a stressor for so many people and entrepreneurs are no different. In fact, money — or lack of it — is one of the major stressors for business owners. You can start your business on a shoestring, but then the shoestring gets frayed because of a lack of clients and you want to give up. We have 5 ways to overcome business finance stress. It may not take all your financial stresses away, but it may help you gain or regain perspective.
Take a deep breath. Take a step back. Remember why you started your own business and center your thoughts.
5 Ways To Overcome Business Finance Stress
Know what you need to make. Do you need to earn $1,000 a month or $10,000 a month in order to pay your bills and live what you deem a comfortable life. If you don’t know what you need, you may always be under stress of thinking you need to make more.
Keep a to-do list. To keep stress at bay, write down a clear and concise list of what is lying ahead and what you can do about it. Can you truly bring on more clients? Will you need to hire someone to help you grow? Write the to-do list and that will help keep your tasks in persepctive.
Let someone know what you’re stressing about. If you keep it all to yourself it will truly eat away at you. Whether you talk with a family member, business colleague or a business coach like Rex Richard, getting an outside perspective might be just what you need.
Write down: what you’re making, what you’re spending (you may be frittering away money you aren’t even aware of — fancy morning coffees for example truly take a bite out of your budget.,” what are your fixed expenses, what are fluctuating expenses. How can you make more and spend less? Keep track of all your spending for an entire week — it could be very eye opening.
Now that you’ve looked at income and expenses, create a monthly budget. When all the income and expenses are accounted for it’s easier for you to stick to the spending habits you’re trying to build.
Listing out recurring expenses such as gas, groceries, utilities, etc.
Prioritize contributing to your emergency fund each month
Set up automatic payments to avoid late fees or interest
Is there a silver bullet to entrepreneurial success? No. That is the harsh truth. To be a success in business you need to be willing to work hard, not take shortcuts, and to reach out to a business coach or mentor in order to move forward. That outside perspective could be just what you need to push through a block and come out the other side with clarity and direction.
If you’re looking for the easy way out, then business ownership may not be in the cards for you. The answers to what you need to do next in order to grow, may be painful. May take you out of your comfort zone or they may be something simple that you just never saw because you were too close.
Some of the things Rex helps his clients work through are:
Limited perspective. You can only see and only know what you know. Your information is limited to your experiences. When you reach outside of yourself, you open up to a new spectrum of awareness
Incorrect perspective. This could be anything from, “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking to the filters of your upbringing or experiences in business. Your incorrect perspectives need to be looked at, discussed and perhaps changed to a new perspective.
Why You Need A Business Coach
Don’t let this message discourage you. You’re not wrong, you just need to look at problems and formulate solutions in a way that you need an outside perspective to help you with.
You’re looking for external input and observation. Along with this external input and observation comes accountability. That is one of the main reasons that working with a coach works. They hold you accountable to your goals and help you find ways to meet them!
Who is a business coach? It could be someone in the same or a complementary line of business. It could be someone whose sole job is to help entrepreneurs succeed — that is what Rex Richard does. He dedicates his time to coaching, helping you open up to perception, observations and new ideas. He provides direction, acts as a sounding board and helps you move your business toward its goals.
You may sometimes receive information and direction from a coach that is like a slap to the forehead and you’ll be saying, “that was right in front of my face… why didn’t I see it?” It’s because you’re too close, the solution does seem obvious — and that’s not wrong thinking — sometimes the most clear path is the one that’s teetering right on the edge of your consciousness. You just need that outside observer to validate your thinking.
If you want to grow. If you want to achieve more. If you want to increase your wealth or your influence or sphere of knowledge, then invest in yourself and your life and your business — hire a business coach.
Rex Richard provides vision expanding and results engineered coaching programs specifically designed to help small to medium sized businesses to break through their barriers and experience renewed life, vitality, and expansion. He can be contacted via LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/rexrichard/ #rexsays
Can you make money blogging? It’s a question that business coach Rex Richard gets asked all the time. The answer is a tentative yes. Making money only by blogging is rare (unless you have a major following and your pay per click game is strong)
Most people who “make money blogging” are doing so because they are blogging about their products or services. Blogging as a business means you have to put your efforts into building a website that will draw traffic and have advertisers clamoring for ad space – which you could sell to them and make money blogging. It’s semantics.
Can you make money blogging?
Generating income starts by generating content that people want to read and that Google and other search engines want to highlight because its so well-researched and written and optimized.
Here are things you can sell and promote through your blogging that could help you make money with your blog.
Online workshops or courses. Package and sell your knowledge through your website. Your blogging skills are what you will use to promote your courses and workshops to people who want to buy them.
Sell digital products like e-books or an online store with digital products. These could be templates, photos, worksheets, printables and more.
Affiliate marketing can be lucrative BUT you need to ensure that if you’re selling items that your blog posts and website are a constant litany of BUY these products! No reader wants to be bombarded with that. They come to your site for quality content, or to learn or to be enlightened. Use affiliate links sparingly and naturally. Make sure you have a notice on every post and on your site that you may make money from affiliate links.
Sell ad space. This will require you to show your traffic numbers to potential advertisers. The more traffic the more you can charge for space on your site. Again, this is a delicate balancing act – your readers won’t want to come to your site and have to wade through dozens of ads to get to the content they’re seeking – they won’t.
Write sponsored blog posts for money.
Accept guest bloggers who want to pay for the privilege to be on your site. Again, this, and number 5 require traffic numbers that will cause someone to want to pay.
Create a digital community based on your unique niche. You could charge a monthly membership fee – keep in mind that this recurring income needs to reward members with new and updated and free content regularly.
So, yes you can technically make money blogging, but it does require out-of-the-box thinking. If you need help coming up with a great idea to make money on your blog, contact Rex Richard.
