my own journey – Page 5 – Michele Christensen

Solopreneurs, is your focus in the right place?

As I go through life, sometimes I get reminders of things I already know but maybe got a little rusty on. Recently, I was reminded of the power of focus, as in what

Solopreneurs can have better growth by having proper focus — Solopreneurs must make sure their focus is in the right place

you focus on tends to become more prevalent in your life. To be clear, I don’t believe in any sort of magic behind this, it’s more like having a clear focus drives you to make decisions that support that focus. For example, if you get clear and focused on losing 10 pounds you will make different choices than if you weren’t focused and make the weight loss more likely to occur. If you constantly talk about how bad the economy is, you’ll see signs of that everywhere. It’s like when a friend buys a new car in a model you’ve never heard of or seen and suddenly you see it everywhere.

Last week, an acquaintance pointed several people to someone’s blog saying it was a “must read” and “really funny.” The blog in question was written by a 27-year old single woman in search of love and marriage, but the topic and title was all about the bad dates and low-quality men she had met. I was immediately struck by how out of line with her stated goal publishing such a blog is. To be certain, seeking love and marriage is a worthy goal and even something to be blogged about. My concern with this particular blog is that she is putting time, energy and focus into remembering, chronicling and preserving the bad dates she had been on. Talk about putting your focus in the wrong place!

I have my own version of this mistake. As I talk about often, my husband and I are about 6 years into renovating our house, which looked like an abandoned drug den when we bought it. In the course of our renovations, I’ve had the misfortune to deal with a lot of bad contractors and very few good ones. For some reason, many people seem to want to hear the horror stories. I often find myself being goaded into regaling a crowd with my awful contractor stories. It took me a few years to realize it, but every time I allowed myself to be the entertainment, I would feel sucked right back into the bad emotional place those experiences put me in the first time around. As a result, I spent many more hours being upset by these bad experiences than was necessary. It took a few years, but I eventually got clear that entertaining other people was not as important as my well-being so now I have a full stash of ways to share that experience without being harmful to myself.

How can you apply this in your business? Do you focus too much on all the things you haven’t done instead of celebrating your accomplishments? Do you talk too much about how you have too few clients instead of what a delight your existing clients are? It’s important to acknowledge the gap between where you are and where you want to be, but watch your focus at the same time.

Have you fixed a focus mistake in the past? Tell me about it in the comments.

Solopreneurs, what’s your theme for 2012?

Solopreneur business owners can focus on one theme for the year — What's your theme for your solopreneur business in 2012?

What is next year about for your solopreneur business?

Like many successful solopreneurs I know, I choose a theme for each year. Some people pick an inspiring word like growth, action, or fearlessness. I’ve been choosing one big, overarching area that needs improvement for my big project of the year. In 2011, my theme was “expand my online business.” Before this effort, I had a website that functioned as more of an online brochure and newsletter sign up. I was getting one-on-one clients and group gigs mainly via personal connections. Beginning in 2010, I began to learn how to use the internet to promote my business. By the time 2011 rolled around, I was ready to get to work.

It’s been a great year and I’m really happy with the results. I’ve got a full website that functions well, my online presence is fleshed out and ready for more, and I’m finishing my first information product that will be sold from my website. Mission accomplished!

Even though I help others improve their business, I regularly get help too! Nobody can be as successful by themselves as they can with the guidance of a coach or mentor. Expanding my online presence was something I definitely wanted help with and I used two main sources for that help.

The first person I got help from was Kathleen Gage in the form of her 1-year Street Smarts Marketing VIP Club. You get one lesson a week covering just about everything you need to know about online marketing, and the lessons build on each other. At $27 per month, it’s very affordable and the value is great. If you’re interested, here is the link: Street Smarts VIP Club.

The other person I got help from is Alicia Forest. I first purchased her “21 Easy and Essential Steps to Online Success” in the spring. This is like a handbook for setting up the online part of your business. I had so much success with that program that I attended her live event the “Online Business Breakthrough Workshop.” This was an inspiring, motivating, action-oriented 3-day workshop where we learned in-depth strategies to building an online business. By the way, I’m an affiliate for both Kathleen and Alicia since I love their work so much.

2012 is the year of my signature system. I first sketched out my unique signature system at the Online Business Breakthrough Workshop in the fall. Since then, I’ve added lots of details as they come to me, but this year the goal will be to write all the text and have it for sale. Once that happens, I’ll probably add some more products and programs that use my signature system. If you’re curious, my signature system lays out the steps to set up a successful solopreneur business, i.e. to take what you know and make a profitable business with it.

If you’re not familiar with the idea of a signature system, it’s a way to package the knowledge you use with every client. Some of what you do is unique to each individual, but if you give it some thought, you’ll probably find that you say and do some of the same things with each person you work with. It was really enlightening to discover those steps in my work. Now when I’m working with someone, I can often see more clearly what they are missing in their business.

If you haven’t already done it, why not pick a them for 2012? I’d love to help you with this – click here to schedule a Quickcall with me. If you have a them for 2012, share 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.

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

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.

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?

Get great results by assuming the worst

One of the best things I’ve learned about business management is to always assume the worst – assume that everything will go wrong and many mistakes will be

Solopreneurs should be prepared for things to go wrong — Solopreneurs should figure out what to do before things go wrong

made. This rule has saved me and saved my projects when I was a project manager in corporate America, in my home renovation and of course in my business.

It may seem that this would lead to negative thinking, but I think it works just the opposite. By always assuming the worst and being prepared for it, things will almost always go better than you think and when they don’t you’ll be prepared. This helps me to keep a positive outlook. Given the complexity of modern living, it’s realistic for things to often get messed up so acknowledging and preparing for it isn’t negative, it’s just realistic. Even when things do go bad, I feel better about it because I know I’ve done everything I can to prepare.

What can you do to save yourself and your projects before things go wrong? Here are some ideas:

Confirm the details at least twice. Don’t give a second thought to offending anyone – communication is tough and your efforts will save everyone later. It may not even be the other party that gets things wrong, so confirm for yourself as well.
Get things in writing whenever you can. I’ve found that it’s much easier for two people to get different ideas from the same communication if it’s verbal as opposed to written. If you are talking to someone, send a follow up email outlining your understanding of the conversation. Having something in writing gives you something to refer to if things do go wrong.
Get clear on a next step. What is to be done, who will do it and by when? If the next step belongs to the other person let them know and get their approval to follow up with them if you don’t hear from them. I say something like “So I’ll call you Wednesday if I haven’t gotten the report okay?”
Always have a backup plan or more than one if you can. I cannot tell you how many times this has saved me when things have gone horribly wrong. Try to think of everything that can go wrong and have a solution before you need it. Before going to great lengths on this one, make sure to weigh the potential damage if things go wrong vs. how much effort it will take to make a backup plan because it’s not always worth it. Some things go wrong and there’s very little negative effect so it wouldn’t be worth it to create a backup plan.
Knowing that things do go wrong, leave slack in all of your projects. Build in extra time and money and any other resources that could sink your project such as technical expertise. If you are depending on someone else such as a contractor or copy shop, give them a deadline well before you actually need it in case something goes wrong.

Do you use this mindset in your work? Does it make you feel more positive? Leave a comment telling me how it works for you.

Get the help you need to be a great solopreneur business owner

Solopreneurs should get the help they need

When I first started my business, I didn’t work exactly in my current specialty. I started as a professional organizer who specialized in productivity, systems and time management for entrepreneurs. Like most solopreneurs, my focus has changed and will probably continue to evolve over time.

Like many solopreneurs, I assumed all I had to do was set up an online brochure (aka a website), print some cards and get to it. I knew my stuff and got great results so how could word not spread like wildfire right? Ha, ha. Wrong.

I thought I’d be spending a little time every week on “business,” things like paperwork and an occassional lunch or coffee meeting. Even with my extensive business background I was unprepared for just how important it is to be an excellent business owner and not just an excellent provider of whatever you offer.

Fast forward a few years, and investments of time, money and energy into my own learning and I’m so much wiser. What I finally get now is that as much as we spend time getting the skills we sell up to par, we have to invest in getting business skills up to par as well. You can be the best at what you do, but if you don’t run a solid business you won’t be successful. Like it or not, the day you opened shop you became a business owner.

That brings me to the point of this article – get help with the business part of your business. No matter how great you are at what you do, you still need to run a business that works great for you and there are people and products that can help you with this. Of couse, this is what I do so it would be dishonest to say I wouldn’t be thrilled if you choose me for help. However, I’m hugely committed to the success of solopreneurs everywhere, so if I’m not your pick that’s fine but please pick someone or something.

Getting help with your business should not only be a non-negotiable in your set-up, but it should also be an ongoing activity you are always doing. Now that I see how much this kind of help can shortcut my success, I’m always on the lookout for the next thing to boost me. Start paying attention to what your are having difficulty with so you can be on the lookout for your next solution. Whatever problem you are having, it’s likely someone else has faced it, solved it and now sells the solution to.

One final point – beware of any purchasing more help than you’ve implemented. Try to only buy as much as you can put into practice soon, otherwise you’ll end up with a backlog of “shelf help,” i.e. things you’ve paid for but haven’t implemented and are sitting on the shelf and not helping you. The only time I make an exception to this is when I see something at a really great price that I know I will need soon.

What kind of help do you use in your business? What has it helped you achieve? What do you wish you had gotten help on sooner?

New free resource for you!

I’m really excited to share a brand new tool I’ve created to help you build your solopreneur business faster and with more ease!
I often get into conversations where people ask me what tools I use in my business. It’s one of my favorite things to talk about, and often people are surprised that there are free or paid tools to do the very thing they need to do.

I’ve compiled a list of the tools I use to run my business into a handy document called the Soloprneur Success Rolodex. It has 32 of my tops picks for services and products that are integral to my success.

Grab you copy on this page:

Solopreneur Success Rolodex

To your success!

A simple but effective tool for solopreneur time management

During one part of my career before I was a solopreneur, I worked for a holding company that was a parent company for engineering and architecture firms. My job was to help standardize systems across all the companies. Because of the job-by-job nature of the work, everyone filled out a timesheet – even the administrative staff. I found that knowing I was going to have to slot my time into categories when I did my timesheet helped me to think more proactively about my time and use it more wisely.

For most of us, more freedom is one of the main reasons for being self-employed. We love that we can work whenever it suits us and spend time however we want. If you’re like me, you’ll be thinking “Ugh, I could never go back to something like a timesheet now.” I thought this too, until I saw how it changed my business and my life.

I started using a timesheet 6 months ago when I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done in all the major areas of my life – personal, our fixer upper house and professional. My husband went to school for engineering and now works as a computer programmer and it was his idea to start tracking my time. In the engineering mindset, you can’t optimize a resource until you know how it’s being used now. So, in an effort to diagnose the problem I reluctantly began keeping a timesheet. Boy did I become a convert quickly!

So many great things came out of my using a timesheet it would be hard to list them all here. I became more aware of how long things really take which makes me better able to plan. I could preset how much time to spend on each area so that I invested my time according to my values. Strangely enough, I felt a sense of freedom from being on top of my time. I imagine it’s similar to when someone finally gets on top of their budget and spending. You can’t have unrealistic ideas about your time if how you spent it is right in front of you. My timesheet helped me remove unhelpful blurring of work and personal time, which is a big trap for work-at-home solopreneurs.

If you don’t keep track of how you spend your time, I invite you to do this even for a week or so. It’s a great practice to do every few months or so to make sure you’re spending your time how you think you are.

For my timesheet I used a spreadsheet where each line is a time window, and then I spread out how I spend the time into columns representing the areas I wanted to focus on. You could just write things down on a notepad or use a calendar if that works better for you. Don’t get caught up in finding the perfect tool – just do whatever works and will get you the information you need to make the best decisions about your time.