Michele – Page 22 – Michele Christensen

Internal deadlines help with solopreneur time management

Internal deadlines can help solopreneurs get more done — When working alone, solopreneurs can create their own deadlines

I was working on a sales page for a product I’ll be introducing soon, and was reminded again of how important it is to use internal deadlines for projects that tend to creep. You see, I took an amazing copy writing and marketing course last year and wanted to apply all the elements of the thorough process I learned. But that would have required 1 or 2 days of work and this is a very low-priced product. I though about slapping up a quick few paragraphs but that didn’t feel right either. I decided on a deadline of 1 hour for an initial draft and committed to using just some of the techniques I learned not the entire process, and low and behold I finished it.

What is great about internal deadlines, whether they are a date or a length of time, is that they force you to access how important a project is and how much income potential it has. In my case, I realized that I would have to sell a lot of copies of my product to make those extra hours spent writing copy to pay off. Sure, my less-polished copy probably won’t sell as much as really great copy but I’m betting that I’ll come out ahead with my approach.

When I started this project, I quickly saw myself slipping into a quagmire of continuous improvement but never getting done. With some projects, you have a clear idea of “done” but with something like this the temptation is to keep investing time because it keeps getting better. At some point, you have to look at the trade-off of quality and time and see if it’s really worth it. Will 5 more hours spent generate enough additional sales to make it worth it? Often, the answer is no.

This is valuable for almost any project. Start with a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish by doing the project and then decide how much time is appropriate to invest in it. Make sure the time is proportionate to the benefit, then stick to your limit. You can always go back and put more time into something and make it better, but once time is spent it’s gone. Don’t overestimate how much impact something will have and invest too much time in it. At the same time, don’t do a half-baked job on something critical. In this example, I spent a lot of time on the actual product because people are paying for it and I want them absolutely wowed. But the sales letter? That needs to be good enough to communicate the value of the product to the people for whom it’s right. It doesn’t need to win awards or be the best ever.

What do you spend too much time on? Come on, be honest and tell me about it in the comments.

The biggest asset in your solopreneur business

Sometimes I post about things that aren’t strictly business. It may seem that this post is one of those times, but I can assure you it is related to your business even if it’s not “strictly business.” As a solopreneur, you ARE the business even if you have help. As a result, your biggest business asset is you. As a business coach and consultant, I’d be remiss if I didn’t advise you to care for your biggest asset. So, today’s post is about self-care or insuring your biggest business asset continues to create prosperity for you.

2011 was a turning point in my own self-care. I got much clearer on what I need to do to feel great, and made strides toward accepting that I’m a little “high maintenance.” By high-maintenance, I mean all the things I need to do in order to stay healthy, active, sharp and productive, which is a lot! The details of my self-care regimen are not that interesting, nor are the relevant to what you need but the basics include sleeping, eating, physical activity, relaxation, socializing, fun and maybe a few more.

For most of my adult life, I tried to skimp on these things. After all, you can get yourself an extra hour or two a day by skimping on sleep. Grab a convenient, processed something in a wrapper, eat it in your car and save some meal time. Even the gym, which I love, was a place to cut corners. I spent years trying to get by on less self-care, and what I did do I resented as a “waste” of “valuable” time.

This year, just for an experiment, I decided to practice radical self-care because what I was doing wasn’t working well. To me, that means striving for what will make me my best, not just what will enable to drag myself through the next day. Some examples of this include planning to be in bed early, taking breaks during the day, not missing my workouts, and taking more time off than I used to.

It hasn’t been easy. Like most people, I have more on to-do list than I’ll ever get done so every day I’m making decisions about what to leave undone so I can take care of my well-being. Of couse I want to stay up later than I should (2 year olds everywhere, I sympathize!). I want to spend less time preparing and eating food. I wish I didn’t have to stretch every day to feel good. This is where the acceptance comes in – what you need to do to be at your peak is not disputable. Whether you accept this and act on it is up to you. It’s also about priorities – is what you are doing instead more important than making sure you live long and well?

Caring for yourself isn’t self-indulgent or a luxury if you’re a solopreneur. Caring for yourself fills your tank so you can do the work the world needs of you. You can’t fill someone’s cup if your pitcher is empty.

In what ways can you take better care of yourself? Leave a comment with something you want to do.

Your site has 3 seconds to grab new visitors

You have 3 seconds for your website visitors to know if your solopreneur business is for them — Your solopreneur business site has 3 seconds to convince new visitors to stay

I was at a training recently and the instructor was reviewing the websites of some of the people in the room. One rule that kept coming up is that you have 3 seconds to grab a new visitor. When someone comes on to your site, you have about 3 seconds to tell them what your site is about, what it does and for whom it is intended. If it’s a fit, you have a chance of keeping them on your site and if not they’ll leave. If they don’t know, you’ve lost them even if they are a perfect client for you.

It’s definitely challenge to create a website that grabs people, even your perfect clients or customers. That’s true even if your purpose is clearly stated, but if you don’t clearly state your purpose, your chances have gone from “challenging” to “zero” because you’ve lost them.

3 seconds. Wow. That’s fast. Here’s some of what we learned:

A bold headline featured prominently will make your purpose more clear
Be clear about what your site does – is it for sales, information, sharing, connecting or something else? Consider it from the perspective of your visitor – why should they stay?
Mention in the headline something to tell your visitor whether this site is for them – examples might include moms, vegetarians or golfers. A person knows immediately if they are in or out of that group
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. You’ll end up reaching nobody. If you’re specific, you’ll at least have a chance of reaching the people you want to.
Test your site on people – give them a quick glance and ask them what the site is about. This was very informative! You’d be surprised at how different something can seem to different people.

I think all of these ideas are really helpful in making your site an irresistible beacon to those people you most want to reach but the testing takes the cake. In our group, we did testing by having a few people provide their first impression on each site. The range of answers and interpretations was really eye-opening. One word or phrase can mean something totally different than you intend. For example, one site we looked at had nothing to do with dating but had the word “match” in the headline. That one word would have caused me to leave the site even though the actual subject was interesting to me because it sounds like a dating site and I’m married. You can easily test for yourself – just ask people what they think. Remember to consider whether they are your target market or not though.

Keep this in mind when you design or update your site. I know I’m going to look at my site soon and see if I pass the 3-second test everywhere!

Make the most of a slow holiday season

Solopreneurs can use the slow holiday time to get ahead — How to use the slow holiday season in your solopreneur business

Now that December is officially here, a lot of us will see a slow down in business. Events aren’t happening as much, clients aren’t as available and it takes longer to get a response from someone. So what’s a solopreneur to do? Believe it or not, lots! There are some specific things you can tackle right now to set the stage for a great next year. Imagine waking up on that first day back to work after the new year begins and being ready to jump right in!

Last year, I wrote a series on just what to do at this time of year to prepare for next year. Click here to read part one of the series, and then follow the links to parts 2 and 3.

Click here for part 1 of the series “How to make the most of holiday slow time.”

In the comments, tell me some of the things you do at this time of year to prepare for a great next year. I just may try your ideas out!

Maintenance vs. Expansion tasks for Solopreneur Businesses

Solopreneurs have to both grow and maintain their business — Maintenance vs. expansion tasks for solopreneurs

As a solopreneur, there are a lot of tasks that need to be done just to keep the business running. These include things like answering emails, filling orders, posting to social media, blogging, etc. There are also tasks that build or expand your business to the next level of sales. Expansion projects need to be carefully nurtured and kept in the forefront of your awareness so they keep moving ahead.

The problem with expansion projects is that we humans have a strong tendency to want everything NOW! We see other people with much fuller business structures than our own, and know we could thrill all the new customers we’d get if only we had all those things in place. Add to this the almost addictive pull we entrepreneurs feel toward new ideas and we have a recipe for getting nothing done. We may have many grand, beautiful projects in the works but nothing is actually done and making money. An expansion project is done once it’s part of your maintenance routine. For example, if you decide to add video to your marketing, you’ll need to do the initial set up on various sites, get familiar with your camera and the upload procedure, craft a strategy, etc. Once you are in the groove of shooting and uploading video, it’s just another maintenance task.

I often work with solopreneurs who are in the midst of several big expansion projects. I have done this to myself before. The key thing is realistic limits on what you can do. Ideally, take on just one expansion project at a time. Complete it, tweak it, optimize it and then put it neatly to bed by adding it to your maintenance routine. If the projects are small or are prone to stopping and starting because of other people, then you may need more than one expansion project going on all the time just to keep moving ahead. You may also want more than one if you get bored easily or if the project has a lot of boring parts. It may help keep you motivated if you only have to work on the boring parts for a short burst of time every day.

The thing to avoid at all costs is to take on more expansion projects than you can handle. If your business isn’t project management, then managing and juggling many projects should not be a huge part of your day. Take it easy on yourself and build your business in a healthy, sustainable manner. Think marathon, not sprint.

Have you ever bitten off more than you could chew in new projects for your business? How did it work out? How did you handle it? Leave a comment and tell me about it.

My Interview with The Driven Class Blog

I was recently interview by Juan Gallardo for The Driven Class blog. The topic was entrepreneurship and being a woman entrepreneur. Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments.

Tips from Entrepreneur Michele

Managing your time and focus

Time management is a hugely popular subject for small and solopreneur business owners. Not only do we have to manage time well, but we have to manage our

Time management and focus are critical for solopreneurs — Time management is the beginning of being a great solopreneur

tasks as well. A concept I find helpful is what I call “bandwidth,” or how many different balls I can have in the air at a time. Good time/task/project management lets you take advantage of moments when one project stalls to get to work on another or when you just need a change of pace. But how many simultaneous projects is too many?

Like most business owners, I always have a lot of things happening and lots more in the wings waiting to happen. In my case, those additional project stay queued up until I’m ready to take one out of “waiting” mode and into “active” mode. I usually pick the next project to add to my active list when I’ve finished something or simply feel like I’ve got enough spare bandwidth for another project.

I’m pretty on top of my tasks and projects and have a robust system for tracking them. Even so, I find I can only stay on top of a few projects at a time. If I stack too many current projects up, I start to lose track of details, things start to slip and the switching time to go from project to project becomes to great. If I’ve got too many projects, each time I switch to a new one I need to re-immerse myself in it and that wastes a lot of time. Bandwidth isn’t just about time, it’s also effort, attention and focus, all of which are valuable, finite resources for a solopreneur.

Can you increase your bandwidth? Absolutely! Start with some organization and basic good habits for managing your time and tasks. Study what’s been written on the subject and try what appeals to you. Make sure to note what works and what doesn’t work so you can continue to improve. Be open to changing you system as your life changes or just when you need a change.

As a solopreneur, it’s important to use all of your resources wisely but how you allocate your bandwidth dictates what gets done and what doesn’t as well as how well things get done. It impacts how much time you waste vs. use wisely. It effects how much peace of mind vs. stress you feel. If you can strike the right balance between not enough and too much, you may find your creativity and drive increases.

Always ask “Why?” before doing anything

Solopreneurs must know why they are doing every activity in their business — Solopreneurs have to know why they are doing each activity

One of my favorite things to teach and coach on is strategic thinking for business owners. Entire books and degrees can be had on this, but one of the core ideas of strategic thinking is asking “Why?” before doing anything or expending any resources. There are so many moving parts to a successful business that it’s imperative to know what function each part serves and how it will contribute to the bottom line.

So often, I hear people tell me they are going to start doing something new to build their business and when I ask them how this will improve their bottom line they have no idea. When I ask what made them consider starting this new activity, it’s usually “fill-in-the-name told me to” or “everyone is doing it” or “I saw it on a forum for my industry.” There’s lots of right reasons to take on a new activity, but none of these are good reasons to add something. Your time, creativity, energy and mental bandwidth are some of your most important finite resources, and being a successful business owner has as much to do with managing these as it does anything else. So, no matter who said it, don’t ever just add more activity to your business without understanding why it will increase your profits.

This idea applies to general activities such as blogging, Twitter or email marketing but also to specific blog entries, Tweets and emails. In other words, you should have goals for the activity as a whole as well as goals for each individual entry in that activity. Take your blog for example. One entry might be to introduce a new product, while another might be to educate your market on a product or service you provide that they may need but not know is available. Still another might be to share some personal information to build a connection with your audience. You might have entries that are rants against practices you don’t like. Some entries might be geared toward enticing people to sign up for your list. These are just a few examples of purposes you might have in mind for specific blog posts.

As entrepreneurs, we are drawn to ideas like moths to a light. It’s a blessing and a curse – our fire for new ideas drives our business but can sidetrack us down unproductive but fun paths. Make sure you have a clear purpose for anything you take on.

Lessons on life and business

Today’s blog post is inspired by a sad event that happened recently. My father-in-law Alvin H. Christensen passed away from pancreatic cancer on Tuesday October 25, 2011 at the age of 85. In his honor, I decided to write a post that incorporates some of his best traits with how to run a business.

Michele and FIL Alvin walking dogs on beach — Michele and Alvin walking the dogs on the beach

Alvin or “Chris” as he liked to be called was in sales most of his life. He sold a variety of things, but he was always successful. I think his character is one of the reasons for his success. Usually we think of salespeople as slick and charming, and while Alvin was good man who was interesting and intelligent, I don’t think of him as either slick or super charming. What he had in his favor was other traits that made him trustworthy and easy to buy from.

For one, he was a man of integrity. He always said what he meant and meant what he said. If he said something, you could count on it. If you are making a purchase for your business, this is super important. Who wants to look bad in front of their boss for making a bad purchase?

He was tenacious. Alvin was able to stick with things over the long haul, after they got boring and lost their luster. Imagine the value of tenacity in building relationships with customers.

He was interested in the world and learning new things. This is valuable in relating to others, in being able to have conversations and in having a context for what you experience.

He was pragmatic. There was no drama with this man! Whatever happened was not something to be pined about and over-analyzed but just a new element to one’s circumstances. When things went bad there was no point in dwelling on it; instead incorporate the new experience, make adjustments and move on. Now that’s a trait I’d like to have!

He figured out a way to make things work. When something broke, he used what he had and got it working. There was no stalling in perfectionism he just got on with it.

Finally, he was somehow able to be both realistic and optimistic at the same time. He was fully aware of the dire straits of the American economy and national debt, but at the same time held a huge amount of optimism about the future. He loved technology and couldn’t wait to see the next wave of new developments. Again, this is a trait I wish I had.

I’ll miss him for sure, but his life was well-lived and he lives on in the hearts and in the memories of those who knew him.

Using an automated scheduling tool

One of the biggest time wasters in business is going back and forth to try to set a meeting time. It’s bad enough with just two people, but add a third person or

Easy meeting scheduling for solopreneurs

even more and it can take hours of time spread over days just to schedule a simple meeting.

What I found is that someone would want to schedule with me “in the middle of next week.” I would email my availability on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and wait to hear back. In the meantime, since I offered those times to someone already I was unable to offer them to anyone else in the meantime. I might even have to put the next person wanting to meet with me on hold. You can see how this one thing could bog down several people for days.

What I switched to was an automated, online scheduler where people who want to meet with me get a link to a page where they can see my availability and book an appointment on the spot. I cannot tell you the hours this has saved me over the last year and a half and I get lots of positive feedback on how easy it is to use.

I researched several tools for automated scheduling, and tried one other before settling on Timetrade. Here are a few things I like about Timetrade:

You can set up multiple types of “activities” that people can schedule and when you send them to the page for that activity they can only schedule that activity. In other words, if you are working with someone in half-hour phone sessions they can only schedule a half-hour session not more or less time and not an in-person meeting.
Your guest does not need to create an account to use your scheduler. He or she will be asked for an email address for the purpose of an email confirmation.
Your guest sees your availability in real time but does not see any details of your other appointments. Timetrade syncs to Outlook and Google calendar (my choice in calendars) so once you schedule an appointment on your own calendar your availability is automatically updated in Timetrade.
Once your guest books his or her appointment, it is confirmed for both of you so that there is no need for back-and-forth communication.
Time zone differences are handled automatically based on the settings on the computer used by each person. Each person gets the time in their own time zone.

Getting used to an online scheduler took some time and effort. People can book appointments with me any time, so I always have to be on top of that. If I want to go to the gym on Monday afternoon, I have to put that in my calendar so nobody can book an appointment in that time. If I’m done an appointment at 3:00, the scheduler sees that I’m free at 3:00 and may offer that time to someone. I have to remember to put in some extra time so that I don’t have another appointment until 3:30 or so. I don’t always like last-minute appointments or jam-packed days, so I have to remember to close my day if I don’t want any more appointments. Overall, the adjustment was not that hard and the payoff has been huge.

Timetrade is just one of several dozen resources I share in my Solopreneur Success Rolodex. You can get a copy of my rolodex as a bonus with my system “The ABC’s of a Successful Solopreneur Business.” Grab your copy here.

How do you handle your scheduling? Do you use an automated scheduler?