mindset – Page 6 – Michele Christensen

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!

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.

What would it take to…….

Get your project done? Get you unstuck? Get you to what’s next?

Working alone means you get stuck sometimes, here's how to get moving — One way to nudge you forward when you need it

Last week, I shared some ideas on the value of getting things done vs. getting them perfect. Of course, we always want to do our best, but sometimes done really is better than perfect.

Today I want to share one of my favorite tools for getting unstuck and getting a project done. Here’s the question I use:

What would be good enough to move forward?

Note that the question is not “how great can I make this” or “what else can I add.” Both of these are great questions to use in some settings. They may help you to really increase the value of a project or product, but they are not the right questions to ask when you are stuck. When you’re stuck and overwhelmed, the last thing you need is to be thinking on adding even more to the project. What may help is a narrowed focus with a realistic idea of what you need. This question will help you get that. You can use this question to just get you moving forward – you can always change your mind at a later point in the project but this will let you get to that later point.

I first heard this question from one of my teachers Lisa Sasevich. I was at a 3-day event where we were composing a talk to use in business promotion. The event was a working bootcamp, and by the end she promised we’d be ready to speak the next day. At one point, we were doing some heads down work, and she asked who was stuck. About a third of the hands went up, and she said those people were not focusing on “good enough to move ahead.”

The people who need your work aren’t looking for perfection and you can’t provide it anyway. What they want is your help, so offer it sooner rather than later and focus on getting it done. When we get stuck in the midst of something, we can get caught up in a trap of not knowing how much to do or what to do first. It all seems important to get exactly right. But by focusing on this one question: What would be good enough to move ahead? you just might pare down that huge list of things you still need to complete your project into a neat, do-able task list.

What techniques do you use to get unstuck?

Done vs. the elusive perfectly done

Solopreneurs love to do quality work, but perfection is not possible — Done vs. perfectly done

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop with Alicia Forest, one of my business teachers. I’ve been sharing some of what I learned in the workshop and here’s another bit for you to enjoy.

During one of the sessions, we talked about the idea that “Done is better than perfect.” I’ve also heard a variation on this which is “Perfect is the enemy of done.” Both are great sentiments that can help us move ahead in business. There’s something about using the internet for you business that just makes us want to add one more thing, to rewrite it again, to add more to the scope, etc. It makes it really easy to get stuck on a hamster wheel of work where you are going, going, going but not getting anywhere.

The key thing to remember is that your goal is to serve your clients and customers, not to show the world how flawless your work is. Every project you haven’t released into the world is help that people who need you are not getting. It may also be money those people would happily pay you that you are not getting.

I’ve heard all this before and I’m sure you have too, but don’t take it for granted. Take a few minutes to remind yourself of this important principle. Yes, it’s important to do your best and give people what they pay for, but balance this against an endless loop of feedback and improvement that keeps the project from ever being done. It’s a drain on your mental bandwidth and not a service to anyone.

One tip to avoid this is to clearly define the scope of the project before you start. You might not have the exact parameters, but if you are trying to write a $7 ebook, it shouldn’t be 500 pages. You can also change midstream if you find the original scope was too small or too big. You can use time limits that are proportional to the price and expected use of the project – for example, you may decide that $7 ebook has to be written in 5 hours.

Take a look at your unfinished projects and see if any could be moved closer to completion by changing you standards to “What would serve my clients” from “Do this as best as I possibly can.” You customers, clients and readers needs should be one of the biggest factors in defining any project.

Could you serve your clients better?

Solopreneurs can sometimes give too much information for it to be useful — Solopreneurs can serve best by editing what they know

I just got back a few days ago from a live workshop given by one of my favorite teachers Alicia Forest. As promised, I’ll be sharing some insights I gained there over the next few weeks.

One of the outstanding things about this event was the perfect pace. There were ample breaks and the days were not excessively long, and this made for great learning. Contrary to what it may seem, I’m sure I learned more because of the “white space” the schedule provided. I don’t think I would have been able to learn as much if we had long days, night sessions and short breaks. Even though more information could theoretically be conveyed with a more intense schedule, the retention and the big shifts I got would not have happened.

Aside from being beneficial to me in this setting, it made me think about how often we as solopreneurs tend to “firehose” our clients in our fervor to serve. We have so much to give and so much passion for helping that we tend to give too much information. This might seem like you are being generous and selfless with your knowledge, and perhaps you are, but maybe you could serve your clients better by pulling back and filtering what you deliver to better suit their needs. No client needs to know everything you know about a subject the first time they ask about it.

Why do we do this? I think it’s a mix of a few things. We are so on fire with what we want to share with clients and customers that we want to give it all. Maybe they don’t have another session booked and we want to make sure we give so much that they can’t help but see the value. Maybe it’s a desire to be recognized for how much we know. Maybe we don’t remember that we gained our knowledge over a period of time and it’s best for our clients to gain it the same way. Maybe we use our knowledge so much that we forget what it’s like to be a beginner. Maybe it feels like cheating to hold back.

For whatever reason you might be overdoing it on the information delivery, try to recognize it and stop. Take a few seconds and listen to what is being asked and then consider the range of answers you can give. Instead of trying to give all you can every time, make your highest goal that which would best serve your client. Even if you know much more than you say right now, that which serves your client best is the best answer to give. You may know 10 ways to do something, but don’t give all 10 if they only need one. They could Google and get the 10 ways to do the task, but only you could help them pick the one that is best based on your experience. That’s what makes you valuable to your customers.

Have you ever stopped to ask for directions and the kind person helping you gives you 3 different ways to go, leaving you confused and in search of someone else to ask? The best, most helpful answer is to give just one choice. As a stranger in town, you have no way of evaluating the 3 choices, so that wanna-be-helpful person could be much more helpful using his knowledge to winnow your choices.

You might even want to frame an answer by saying that there is tons of information on this topic but what you need to know right now is the first few pieces. Once they have the first few pieces down, you can give them the next few pieces in the right order for them. That’s where you can add value.

Giving more information than requested or than a client can use is not being of service. The best answer is just the right amount of information tailored to exactly where the client is right now. Oh yeah, and for the record, I’ve been guilty of this but now that I’ve been taught both ways I’m resolved to do better.

What is your experience of getting too much information? Is it a service or something you wish people wouldn’t do? Have you been guilty of underserving by giving too much?