by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Time Management/Productivity
To make more money is probably one of your goals. There are entrepreneurs whose business makes them $20,000 a year and then there are other entrepreneurs whose businesses makes them 2 million a year. Both entrepreneurs had the same amount of time and yet achieved completely different results.
There are two kinds of entrepreneurs — icons who whip through their day and always finish their to-do list and everyone else. The “everyone else” column holds an awful lot more mere mortals that the other one does.
It’s tough getting through the workday sometimes when you’ve got no one to tell you what to do or how to do it. Too often, this results in hours of sitting at the computer, not really accomplishing anything.
Savvy entrepreneurs try every tip they find, and use the ones that work in their daily routine to avoid the loss of income that dawdling creates. Here are 6 productivity tips to help you stop wasting time, so you can start to make more money this year as an entrepreneur.
#1. Decide to Unitask
Multitasking has long been held as the way to get a lot done in a small amount of time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. According to Forbes magazine, our brains don’t work that way. Concentrating on one task and doing it well to completion is the way to work most effectively.
#2. Schedule Your To-Do List on Your Calendar
You can’t get any work done if you don’t know what you need to do. Detailed scheduling will eliminate any question of what to do in any part of your day. Sit down the night before and write an hour-by-hour schedule for your work day, filling in the task you’ll complete in each time block. Do nothing during each hour but the assigned task.
#3. Try the Pomodoro Technique to Make More Money
Many people have a hard time concentrating even one straight hour without their mind wandering. The Pomodoro Technique of work training can help solve this problem. It’s a method of working flat-out for 25 minutes, then taking a 5 minute break. Use an online timer such as the Tomato Timer built for this technique or Instant Boss, and you’ll have audible and visual clues to keep you on track.
#4. Block Distractions
If social media and other fun sites are taking your attention away from work, get rid of them during your day. Download an app such as LeechBlock. These apps set a block on your browser that don’t allow it to load a list of websites. Create the list of sites from your personal distractions, set a timer for work hours and you won’t be allowed to goof off.
#5. Look for Recurring Tasks You Can Automate
There are lots of little tasks you have to do every day that could be done more efficiently. An easy one is automating your bill payments. Just as important is backing up your work on a regular basis. You can back up automatically with a cloud service like Mozy to not only secure your work, but access it from any device anywhere.
#5. Organize Your Finances
I find a lot of my clients spend upwards of 50 hours between December and January simply trying to get their business financial reports together for their CPA. That is completely unnecessary and easily avoidable. If you’re constantly searching for invoices and your taxes are a mess organize your finances by installing a simple bookkeeping program. Ones such as QuickBooks or Peachtree are designed for non-experts and have a very shallow learning curve. Make a habit of using this for a few minutes each day or just one hour per week and your finances will be much simpler to deal with.
#6. Improve Your Work Environment
Streamlining your work environment can help to streamline your work day. Get rid of everything on your desk that doesn’t absolutely need to be there. You should have as few distractions for your mind as possible, and that includes items off the screen as well as on. Create an organized work space, whether it’s a dedicated room or a corner in the den, and give it a neat and tidy look. The lack of distractions will help you keep your mind on your work.
Achieving your BIG goals starts with making a series of small changes in how you leverage your time. I challenge you to start implementing these 6 tips. Practice them on a regular basis and eventually they will become engrained as a part of your success habits.
QUESTION: What is the #1 challenge that is getting in your way to make more money this year? Please share your comments below.
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset
Could Discouragement Be Destroying Your Game Plan?
As football season is in full swing what I love about the game is how it challenges even the best players not to rely solely on the playbook. The football team, the coaches and even us fans know how much the athletes’ mental state of mind will impact how the game will play out. So, which is more important? The playbook or their mindset?
How can you choose one over the other? They’re both critically important to winning the game.
So, what about your game plan as an entrepreneur or a small business owner? Has your 2011 game plan been helping you achieve notable wins in your business this year?As a business growth coach I often see clients missing out on experiencing a winning season, not necessarily because they didn’t have a good game plan, but because they allowed themselves to fall prey to simple thing called discouragement.
Even though most of the clients I help are established Entrepreneurs and small business owners who have had many prior successes it seems that discouragement can still attack and destroy even the best laid strategic plans.
Here’s what some common voices of discouragement have sounded like:
1. The economy has dried up a lot of our business
2. People just aren’t in the buying mindset 3. I’m just not good at sales and marketing 4. People just don’t want what I have to offer 5. Everything I try just doesn’t work 6. There’s too much competition for me to succeedI’m sure you can fill in the blanks to add even more discouraging thoughts. Now, if you were to re-read the above 6 negative statements, and you were to say them out loud to yourself 30 times a day for the next 30 days, what would you predict might happen in your business? … Of course, it’s only common sense that the natural effect from playing this record of negativity over and over throughout the day, day after day, to anyone’s business would be nothing but a negative outcome. I’m not advocating that you trick yourself into believing complete non-realities — that the economy is suddenly robust, that everyone is in easy spending mode, that you are a wizard at sales and marketing (if you’re really not), that everyone will want what you offer, or that every tactic you try will work wonders, and that there is virtually no competition, so you will indeed succeed. So, how do you get out of the line of fire from discouragement?
Step 1: First, identify your thoughts. What are the actual thoughts that keep playing quietly in the back of your mind? You can’t change something you can’t name.
Step 2: Decide not to buy into destructive beliefs. There might be a grain of truth behind every one of your discouraging thoughts, but recognize that truth can be twisted completely out of context. Step 3: Re-frame those discouraging thoughts into statements or questions that will re-direct your focus on something that is useful and positive. For example: 1. The economy may have reduced the low hanging fruit we were used to getting, so what can I (we) do today to get better in our business growing skills? 2. People may now be more careful in their buying decisions, so how can I (we) learn more accurately what does motivate our target market to want to buy? 3. Sales and marketing doesn’t come naturally to me, so what steps can I take to improve my skills in sales and marketing? Who can help me improve those necessary skills? Writing down your discouraging thoughts and re-writing them with encouraging, empowering thoughts is a powerful way to get your head in the game, so you can win in accelerating your business growth in 2012. It’s natural to expect to plan on rigorous physical and mental conditioning exercises before you play in a high stakes football game. But, there’s so much more at stake for you in your business success, so why not invest in the very best coach to help you win this upcoming 2012 season? The missing ingredient to your business growth success may very well be that you are trying to play your best, but with no coach. I would like to be that coach for you where we can partner together to co-create your game plan and help you win over discouragement once and for all. You might just discover even one piece of feedback that will set the domino course for 2012 in a whole new direction for your business growth.
There’s only 6 slots, so call me direct now to schedule your complimentary session at 215-292-4947 EST.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and sales teams achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 20 years Yoon has started 4 successful companies and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development. Grab free valuable gifts and resources at https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon@ParamountBusinessCoach.com To schedule a complimentary business coaching consultation call (215) 292-4947.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
Did you know that LinkedIn has proven to be 277% more effective at generating leads for your business than Facebook or Twitter? With more than 200 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social network.
If you’re looking for ways to attract new clients faster and easier you need to learn how to maximize LinkedIn marketing for your business.
I have built my solo coaching practice on LinkedIn. What I love about LinkedIn marketing is that it’s free to use — can’t get better than that!
And, it does not require a huge amount of my time. In fact, LinkedIn alone has generated 6 figures in new business for me in as little as 30 minutes a day.
The thing I hear most often from solopreneurs is that while they have a profile on LinkedIn and accept connection requests, they have not been attracting new clients from their LinkedIn marketing.
Okay, that’s like saying you ordered the treadmill and got it set up, but you’re still not losing any weight. If that’s you my friend, I’d like to point out — you need to actually walk or run on that treadmill regularly to start seeing results.
Well, if you’re not on LinkedIn regularly, it’s most likely because you don’t know what you should be doing on LinkedIn to attract new clients. Here are 4 key actions you can take right away to get started.
1) LinkedIn Tip #1: Claim your vanity URL.
When you first fill out your LinkedIn profile the default LinkedIn address you receive will be made up of a garbled combination of letters and numbers. You want to make your profile look more professional and easier to share by claiming your LinkedIn vanity URL.
Instead of a URL like https://www.linkedin.com/in/hslegsbklbsekhb8, it will look a lot more professional as https://www.Linkedin.com/in/YoonCannon.
All you need to do is click “customize your public profile URL” down on the right-hand side.
2) LinkedIn Tip #2: Name your blog and website links.
Instead of using the default “My Website” you can help yourself stand out and be more memorable to your LinkedIn viewers. You will need to choose “other” in the 1st box in order to see the 2nd box where you can now write the name of your blog or website.
Then, in the 3rd box you can write in the url address of your website, blog site and/or landing page.
Each profile can display up to 3 website links like this, and they can be customized by editing your profile
3) LinkedIn Tip #3: Install applications.
LinkedIn provides a variety of different applications you can use to improve your LinkedIn profile. Check out the Application Directory, and consider linking your blog or applications like SlideShare to showcase your thought leadership and expertise platform. There are a lot of great applications available to help you stand out among your competition on LinkedIn.
4) LinkedIn Tip #4: Register for my free LinkedIn teleseminar.
There is so much more I can share with you in my 60-minute teleseminar than I can fit in the scope of today’s blog post.
If you want to eliminate the overwhelm of social media and discover how to attract new clients faster and easier let me help you during my free LinkedIn training call.
I invite you to join me on
Thursday, October 24th
1:00 pm EST, 10:00 am PST
To register simply click on
https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com/teleseminar
In this power packed LinkedIn training call attendees will discover:
• The reason why you’re currently wasting most of your time on LinkedIn
• How to quickly build your expertise on LinkedIn
• The 3 little known LinkedIn marketing secrets to quickly attract new clients
• Time saving strategies to profit from LinkedIn in as little as 30 minutes a day
* If you can’t make the exact date, register anyway and I will be happy to send you out the replay.
QUESTION: What is your biggest challenge when it comes to marketing yourself successfully on LinkedIn? Please share your comments below.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and sales teams achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 20 years Yoon has started 4 successful companies and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development. Grab free valuable gifts and resources at https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon@ParamountBusinessCoach.com To schedule a complimentary business coaching consultation call (215) 292-4947. © Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | Business Growth Tips Blog, General, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts, Success Mindset
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 50 percent of U.S. businesses fail within the first five years. The primary reason is poor cash management, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) cites. Good cash management is about keeping your cash as long as possible, and convincing your customers to pay promptly. Keeping a few cash management principles in mind will help you keep a healthy business and stop you from becoming just another statistic.
The Confusion Over Profit
Profit and cash flow are related but not equal, stresses Inc. Your profit and loss statement gives you the simple results of revenue minus expenses. A positive result is considered profit, but you can’t tell how healthy your cash flow is by just seeing a profit. Areas you need to watch include:
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Inventory
- Capital expenditures
- Level of debt
If customers are slow to pay, resulting in a high receivables, you could see a profit on the books, but a lack of cash in the bank. You could see a profit on paper, but not be able to make payroll or pay your suppliers.
Getting the Bigger Picture
You need to have visibility into your cash flow to know where your company stands, and where you might be in a week, month or year. Future cash flow prediction is an educated guess based on the trends you see in the areas mentioned above, says Entrepreneur.
As soon as you can, get your business onto a consolidated system, so you can easily see the patterns in your business. Cloud-based applications, such as the retail management software from NetSuite, bring together both your online and offline activities to give you a complete picture. Relying on spreadsheets or different applications to track online and offline channels makes it painful to bring the data together so you can accurately predict your cash flow.
When you have the complete picture, you’ll have visibility to such trends as:
- The payment history of your customers
- The accuracy of your planned expenditures
- The ability to cover unplanned expenditures
Without the consolidated view of your performance data, you won’t be able to make those educated guesses needed to plan for your company’s future.
Managing Receivables
Ideally, all of your customers would pay for your products and services at the time of the sale. That won’t necessarily happen as your company grows and increases the customer base by offering credit and special terms. Increase your cash by bringing in more customer payments:
- Give a discount for paying bills early
- Request a deposit when an order is taken
- Get invoices out quickly, and send reminders at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals
- Once you’ve identified slow paying customers, put them on cash-only terms
Small business owners don’t like the idea of being a bill collector, but the SBA suggests you should do all you can to get something from the customer, because third-party agencies take at least a 30 percent cut if they are successful. Giving discounts as an incentive for payment will let you keep more of the cash in your pocket.
Managing Payables
Keep your cash as long as you can. This improves your cash outlook, especially to banks and investors.
- Use your supplier’s credit terms whenever possible
- Make payments on the last day of your vendor’s cycle — day 29 on a net-30 term
- Use electronic funds transfer (EFT) whenever possible
- Communicate with your suppliers, and build rapport in case you need a break to delay a payment
- Select vendors to work with that have the best terms for your cash flow, not necessarily the lowest prices
Talk to a Factoring Broker
A factoring broker is someone who purchases your invoices, so you use the cash flow immediately for things like making payroll or purchasing needed equipment for the business. This is an excellent solution especially when traditional means of borrowing aren’t available. A factoring broker I highly trust and recommend is Jack Wilson.
A healthy cash-flow is integral to helping you grow your business to the next level. You need cash flow to allow you to hire top talent, beef up your marketing and upgrade your systems. As the saying goes, “you need money to make more money”.
QUESTION: What is your biggest challenge when it comes to increasing your cash flow? Please share your comments in the box below.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Time Management/Productivity
Running your own business can be very overwhelming at times. You’ve got so much you’d like to do, but never enough time it seems to get it all done.
The good news is we now have access to a growing list of web based tools that offer excellent solutions for the busy entrepreneur.
Here are 5 cool web tools I highly recommend for small business owners to increase your productivity, so you can work less and earn more.
Cool Web Tool #1. Work and train remotely.
It’s easier now more than ever to work remotely. Whether you’re on the road or your staff is working virtually, you can easily share your computer screen with others. I use Free Screen Sharing to train a group of people or even just one person. The tool allows me to share whatever is on my computer screen with those who I invite to my session. This tool offers unlimited meetings with up to 96 participants at a time. They also throw in free, dedicated conference bridge line you can use at anytime. Visit FreeScreenSharing.com
Cool Web Tool #2. One application and dashboard to organize your entire business.
FusionForge has tools to help your team collaborate, like message forums and mailing lists; tools to create and control access to Source Code Management repositories like CVS and Subversion. FusionForge automatically creates a repository and controls access to it depending on the role settings of the project. Learn more about them at www.fusionforge.org
Cool Web Tool #3. Free invoicing with easy online payments.
Vogogo is a B2B risk management and payment services business that has spent recent years developing and launching technologies to enable secure and compliant online transaction processing between businesses and their customers. This unique combination gives Vogogo the security, flexibility and scalability to meet the demands of a marketplace driven by technology and seeking reliable risk management as well as effective access to conventional banking and payment services. Visit www.vogogo.com
Cool Web Tool #4. Easily track your billable hours for each client.
Whether you’re a landscaping company needing to track design time for 30 different clients or you are a solo attorney needing an easy system to track your billable hours, Harvest is a great tool. They let you easily and accurately track time as well as analyze your time with powerful reports. This cool web tool also allows you to instantly create branded invoices for your clients. You can get this both as desktop and mobile applications. Visit www.GetHarvest.com
Cool Web Tool #5. Stop wasting time with staff scheduling.
Shift Hub is a great new employee scheduling and communication platform to save you time and money for the small business owner. Now, as a small business owner you don’t have to waste valuable time putting schedules together and responding to constant scheduling change requests. Visit www.ShiftHub.com
There are hundreds of excellent web tools out there today. The place to start of course is to first identify which of your tasks are tedious, recurring and/or involve multiple steps to getting it done.
Once you’ve shortlisted the time consuming tasks in your work you can then begin searching for the right tool. Or, even better why not just ask our community right here and share what you’re searching for in the comment box below.
QUESTION: What is your favorite web tool that has saved you time, money or headaches?
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Time Management/Productivity
Note From Yoon:
Time management crops up as a constant concern for many of my clients. Today, I share some of the same strategies that have helped my clients monetize their time. These strategies have been successfully employed by my clients from solopreneur new coaches to those who are CEO’s of 30 Million dollar companies.
It is a fact that most modern day parents struggle to balance caring for the needs of children and family. Everyone wants more time for their kids. With three kids of my own, I know that I have to make every minute count in my work day. I do not enjoy engaging in activities that waste my time or deplete my energy. I am sure that most people feel that way!
As a result, it is particularly important to make sure that your work time is well managed. Here are some ideas and strategies to help you manage your time. Feel free to reach out and share on my blog with others. Share how these tips are working for you, your business and your family!
Here’s to Your Success!
5 Time Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs
I have found that time management is one of the most challenging disciplines in the life of an entrepreneur. As an employee, your schedule and tasks are structured for you. Employees will still earn the compensation they were offered regardless if they were more productive or less productive in a given day.
When it comes to time management skills, the cracks show faster when you’re an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs who have weaker time management skills will feel that direct impact on your revenues and profits.
What’s great about being an entrepreneur is being your own boss.
What’s challenging about being an entrepreneur being your own boss.
Whether you are a solopreneur or your have employees the fact is you do not have a boss who measures your productivity and holds you accountable to higher standards of performance.
It’s just so easy to get distracted whether it’s by allowing others to constantly interrupt us or by falling into a pattern of interrupting ourselves. I know myself, I find the internet to be very distracting. I jump on Google to search for the answer to one question that should theoretically only take me 10 minutes tops, but I can easily wander to 14 other sites and not do what I intended.
Meanwhile, emails are popping up that draw me away from what I came to do, many of which include links for me to review that leads me onto yet another set of 12 more interesting websites I somehow feel in the moment I must explore.
I confess that yes, I too get bit by the distraction bug. Here are some strategies that have worked for me to overcome my self interruptions. Rather than practicing what I preach, these tips I preach are the ones I have practiced.
Time Management Strategy #1. Keep a daily time journal.
This is something I do everyday even now that helps me in the moment to see just how much time I gave to a task and assess the value of what I accomplished in that time. I jot down my tasks contemporaneously throughout the day as I switch tasks. Of course, sometimes it will happen that I jockey back and forth from 3 or 4 different tasks, in which case I write that as one line item. Here’s what my form looks like:
| Start | End | How Long | Results of What I Accomplished w/ Each Task
Week Total: hrs | Task Category |
|---|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
When I jot down the results of what I actually accomplished it sheds light to where the greatest ROI is (return on investment) on my time. It also brings awareness to those tasks I ought to outsource, delegate or delete because I’m either overqualified to be doing those tasks or those tasks just are not in my areas of core competency.
If I keep doing certain tasks I am weak at, all I’m doing is acquiring a lot of strong weaknesses. If I keep doing entry level tasks just because I know how to do them, all I’m doing is paying 3 times to 10 times more salary then if I just outsourced or delegated those tasks to a lower paid assistant.
One of my past clients, who is an eye doctor with a new private practice, used this form for two weeks. We found he spent on average 2 hours a day answering the phone which totaled 20 hours in the two week period.
I asked him, “Did you invest in medical school to earn $12 per hour?
Because that’s what a receptionist is for.”
Time Management Strategy #2. Plan your week in advance.
It’s important to take all those pesky to do items out of your head and onto a form. You should choose what type of form works best for you. There are some great free tools available I found at https://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/
There’s also another great tool called TimeDoctor.com. It’s really for companies to keep track of what hours their employees are working and what they’re doing, but you can also use this tool for yourself. It gives you reports on how you spend your days, but what’s really cool and a bit surprising is that you can get screenshots of all the websites you were on during the day and what you were doing on them.
Time Management Strategy #3. Color code your time on your calendar.
The best time management technique that works for me is to simply color code my time on my iCal (or if you’re on a PC your outlook calendar). Then of course, you should sync your calendars so you can access the same info from both your smartphone and laptop.
Here’s my personal color code system:
I set up the week ahead of time and put all of my
- client session appointments on there in red,
- my marketing to-do tasks in pink,
- my follow up items in orange
- admin to do is blue (which I try to have the least)
- Emails are brown
- Kids commitments are in green
I make myself note what outcome result I accomplished on the tasks (not client sessions though) and that is my own built in reporting system of where my time is going.
Time Management Strategy #4. Choose a system to hold yourself accountable.
To succeed as an entrepreneur half the battle lies in setting the right goals and developing a smart plan to helping you achieve those goals. The other half of the battle is following through and implementing that plan. Here are 4 solutions to consider to help you succeed in following through.
- You can hire a business coach like me to hold you accountable.
- You can ask a friend or family member to be your accountability partner — although some people may not be tough enough on you.
- You can join a mastermind group — a peer group of like minded entrepreneurs who are there each month to hold you accountable. Take a took at one that I facilitate for the Women’s Business Forum at https://www.paramountbusinesscoach.com/mastermind-group
- You can also consider some tools out there like www.Stickk.com where you have to pay money for every to-do item you do not follow through on.
Following through does take discipline. It takes discipline to say no to all those shiny baubles that show up in our week. It takes discipline to plan out your calendar week in and week out. It takes discipline to audit yourself on a daily basis to assess how well you stayed focus and stayed on track.
The good news is the more you repeat a pattern of behavior the easier it becomes to continue that pattern of behavior.
Time Management Strategy #5. Let go.
The reality is there are only 24 hours in a day and your body needs to sleep for 8 or 9 of those hours. There will always be more to do both at home and with your business. If you are constantly racing the clock and running out of time, why not just give yourself less to do? A huge break through in my own success occurred when I made the decision early on to let go and let others take care of a lot of my tasks.
I’d like to invite you to join to the conversation.
QUESTION: What is one discipline, decision or tool that has helped you get more of the right things done as an entrepreneur? Please share your comments in the box below.
© Copyright 2016
