I’ve been paying a lot of attention to conversations that highlight the challenges and needs that are surfacing right now. These conversations take place in my client interactions but also with my network and beyond.

What I’ve been seeing is that you are evaluating how you’re moving forward over the next few months. Whether it’s deciding what services or products to offer now or how you will position or sell your services and products.

Businesses are looking at re-opening guidelines and looking to their provincial and state mandates to see what that means for them and how they can continue to operate or re-open (if they’ve been closed through this).

In addition to that, I see you wondering about what this means for your existing services and products and questioning how to get these in front of your clients over the next few months. What’s appropriate as a business? How can I continue to be viable? How can I continue to strive to hit certain business goals?

In this time of working from home, with so many distractions and major worldwide issues unfolding AND having others in your home, having a strong morning routine can mean the difference between a great day and an unfocussed one….which can sometimes add up to many unfocussed days.

I wanted to go back to basics here, because this is what we are all facing right now. Our regular routines have been disrupted. Where we work has changed for many. There are others in your space that may not normally be there…..

I will add a disclaimer here as well…sometimes we need time to process, time to adjust, reflect and adapt, with patience, compassion and grace. I am in favour of taking the time to process all the changes and challenges that you’ve been through or are facing. If that means working at slow speed, making space for more family time, I am all for it.

When you are ready…and I know you will be. You’ll be wanting to get some things done. And, feeling like you’re able and capable of getting things accomplished will be a form of carving out your own control in a situation that is very fluid now.

So when you are ready, here are some ideas for you.

Do you listen to podcasts?

I really enjoy podcasts. I love how they can get me thinking about new strategies or different ways to look at things.

One of the topics I enjoy listening to is about productivity. (I know…..but I’m owning it.)

As a business owner, wearing a number of hats can feel overwhelming with all that needs to be done.

I’ve mentioned before that productivity issues can be a symptom of something larger - not keyed into a vision or goals, not focussing on the ‘right’ things, etc.

But at the end of the day sometimes we just need help managing the number of items we have on our plate. So, sometimes a new idea or a strategy is what we need to support our planning and ‘the doing of things’.

If productivity or time management is something that you struggle with or want to learn more about, I thought I would share a list of podcasts that I’ve enjoyed.

I’ve found these podcasts helpful in giving me unique perspectives in how I run my own business, support my clients and apply the concepts to other areas of my life.

Here are 3 to check out:

I deeply admire and am inspired by business owners.

They take a chance….make a leap….to create something from nothing. To take the untravelled path, taking a chance and a risk, no matter how calculated…there’s always some degree of risk.

As the business grows from start-up to an established business, typically people are hired or contracted and the team grows. More people benefit from that business’ existence. Not only the customers buying the product/service and the people who are employed or contracted, but there are the spin-off effects of that.

Somebody’s child gets to play soccer that year. There’s a family vacation. There’s a charity that gets a donation or even a larger donation. A spouse that gets to have the freedom to then choose their own career path. The spin-offs are endless…..as long as that business does well.

We all benefit directly or indirectly from those ‘small’ businesses starting, growing and thriving. (A Small Business is defined as a business with employees 1-99: source Statistics Canada)

Yet, the challenges many of them face are…

Time, Stress and Money

These three power-hungry forces show up everywhere. They’re sneaky and like to assert their power over everything.

And, when it comes to running a business, this is no exception.

And, every business has had to deal with these power vortexes at some point. Some have battled back and have asserted their control over the 3 forces…and others are still battling valiantly.

The analogy of a ‘battle’ can be fitting because when you’re dealing with lack of time, lack of money and an overabundance of stress, it can feel like an uphill battle to grow your business.

The fatigue, the overwhelm, and loss of confidence can be crippling to a small business owner who has big dreams and wants to provide a secure financial future for their family.

So, we need to shift the power dynamic.

We need to rise up and establish who’s boss….a rising of the defenders and protectors of sanity, confidence, and calm presence. An anti-dote, if you will, to the power-hungry forces that want to dominate.

So, here we are at the beginning of a new year and many of us will be likely setting goals for the coming year.  Some will go forth and achieve those goals and others will abandon them and continue to do what they’ve always been doing - for various reasons.

Goal achievement can be hard!

As you look ahead to 2020 and consider what you want for yourself and your business, I would love to share with you a mini-training to provide you with an extra edge you need to have greater success in whatever goal you want to achieve.

This isn’t a post about time-blocking or using your out-of-office responder strategically. While these can be effective strategies to put boundaries around your work, what I’m talking about here is a step before all of that.

First off - Is the work you’re doing…. the RIGHT work?

I can hear you saying – yes absolutely!

Before you exit out of this page, I want to challenge you to really think about that.

Are you doing the work that will move you towards your goal?

What makes someone successful in their career or business?

If you were to ask several people about their key to success, you'll get a lot of different answers (many of them about strategies and tactics), but what I've noticed is that a few consistent responses tend to surface.

Have you ever heard this one before?

‘If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing’

I personally don’t like this sentiment at all. But I get the idea behind it.

It's knowing what needs to be done in your business or in your career, but you just can't make yourself do it….

I've been asked many times by clients, "How do you shut everything off at night?", "Even when I'm not at work, I'm at work!".

There are three things I most often recommend to help with this:

In my years of working as a sales professional and teaching sales at a Fortune 500 company, I've seen people held back by their own self-diagnosed assessments that they 'can't sell' or don't know 'how to sell'. 

I now coach people who are promoting their small businesses or in career transition and I've seen trends that can make a big impact to your personal sales process (whether selling your skills, product or service).

Having systems in your business is like having healthy eating habits...once they're established they contribute to longevity, vitality and create a solid foundation for great things to happen - such as growth in your business.

If you were to take a survey of Business Owners and ask them why they went into business, many would say one of their top reasons was for flexibility and freedom.

However, when the business gets going and you are juggling all the different roles, it feels like you have everything BUT flexibility and freedom. 

This power is not to be underestimated.

Your Intention can make profound things happen. It can create changes or actions that may feel small at the time but can have a big impact on how your life events unfold.

Like the cylinders in a car or cogs in a wheel, your business has components that make it run well.

Just like your car's engine, your healthy body, or a puzzle, when one component isn't working, your entire business begins to struggle to keep up....

I've been thinking about the relationship between intent and behaviour.  

In life, so many of us have goals - to eat better, to increase our exercise, to be present at home more...

I'm guessing you can relate to the idea of intending to eat well and then making a poor choice of snack. Or, intending to get more sleep, yet, making the decision to check your social media accounts late into the night.

When it comes to your business or career, we also set goals and then find ourselves making poor decisions that don't get us close.....

I always find it interesting to look at our behaviours towards those goals because it tells us what our relationship is to them, and it can reveal something deeper at play....

I've noticed that when we plan to accomplish a goal and create our actions, there's a piece missing that can de-rail so many of us.  Setting the goal and determining how we'll get there is only a piece of the puzzle...

Accounting for that 'thing' that has the potential to de-rail us could be an important component of your next goal setting and action planning exercise.....

Starting your business – the one that you’ve thought of, explored and now finally launched out into the world, is a huge accomplishment.

What comes next is no easy task.

Finding people to work with: Clients. Customers.