Stick all that stuff in a ‘to read’ file. Could be a container of whatever size (I prefer a poly pocket folder about an inch wide) that you can grab when you’re heading out the door to an appointment, on a trip, whereever.

Sitting on a plane right now, I can read them all then throw them away. More space on the way back.

Okay, they’re gonna take my laptop away now.

Love you, love your show.

Jessica

Find out more about me at http://roomtobreathe.biz

I have seen spectrum on which people reside where travel is concerned. At one end, you’ve got anxiety, trepidation, and nausea. At the other, giddyness, excitement, and potentially nausea. (So maybe it’s a continuum?)

Anyway, I land firmly on the giddy, excitement, “oooooh let’s go!” point.  I love the potential. I love sitting in the airport watching people. I love listening to the announcements, hearing who eeds to get to their gate, and watching plane arrive and take off.  For the most part, all I see is love.

Today I get to be in the international terminal as I head out to a conference in Canada. So the people in this terminal are extra happy, love-y, and smiley.  Announcments are in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian, and English.  There is amazing art and a display of Italian Motorcycles from the 50s and 60s.

Yes, I was born with wanderlust in my blood. I love coming home as much as I like leaving again. For a while, I traveled the world and got paid to do it. I’m starting that trend again at the perfect pace for me where I am now in my life.

Being a hugely creative, visionary, ooh-shiny thinker, here’s how I keep my zen like state for travel (and I mean travel anywhere – car, train, plane).

I have a packing list.

I add an extra hour earlier onto my ‘drop dead gotta leave the house’ time.

Yeah, I know. It’s that simple.

Listen, I can hear you, wait, I can feel you, railing against using a list for travel. “Don’t fence me in!”  or “you can’t make me!”  I was like that once. And the bullshit stress of being late, forgetting stuff, having to spend money I didn’t need to if I’d just remembered, finally got to me. I got tired of being in the security line worrying, judging all the ‘slow’ people who don’t already know they have to take off their shoes. Ugh. Way not cool. That stress is totally avoidable.

I picked up a template from the Microsoft Office template site, searched “travel”, picked one, and customized it to my needs.  Why should I recreate the wheel when I could just put shiny hubcaps on one?

Now, it takes me about 45 minutes to pack, I bring everythign I need and want, get to the airport on time, and observe the crazy “freak-outs” without getting sucked into them.  By the power of magical internet and laptops (yes, it’s magic, don’t kid yourself) I get to work in a calm way for an hour, catch up on reading, and hey, even write a blog post or two.

So do yourself a favor. Go make yourself a list. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or just occasionally go to the aiport, grab a template and customize it. Have your Assistant customize it for you. Whatever.  And if you want to see mine, book a 30 Minute Sesh with me and I’ll email it to you.

Have a magnificent day!

Jessica

A little inspiration and curiosity this morning as I read the paper at my local coffee joint.

Background: today is Saturday. The section of the paper I’m reading: a very thin D section, exactly 6 pages long, front page contains the funnies.

On page 4, opposite the movie listings, I see the ad promoting a “local small business marketing consultant” … “providing the tools to develop a marketing strategy and grow your business with confidence.”

This ad placement, right next to Miss Manners, strikes me as one that really isn’t going to touch this fella’s target market.

Since the event is sponsored by the newspaper, I wonder if the consultant had anything to do with the location of the advertising placement. I wonder if this ad was anywhere in the weekday editions. I wonder if it actually ended up in the business section. I wonder what other, non-newspaper, promotion is happening to fill this room. I wonder how many people are attending.

Ad placement is just as important as ad content and has to be driven by the habits of your target market.

If this were a private event, not sponsored by a newspaper, where would you want your ad? Where would you tell this guy to advertise to ensure his target market would show up?

Jessica

When you work with http://roomtobreathe.biz , we ask all these questions so when a paper comes to you with an offer to collaborate, you know how to leverage the opportunity. Visit our website and set up a 30 Minute Sesh today to see how we can help you know what you need to know.

Three times this week, I’ve had conversations which boil down to the naivete of business owners.

The only way to bust outta that naivete is by learning. By putting yourself outside of your bubble. Of course, going outside the bubble also means we also have to “up” our critical thinking.  I am continuously learning. I have my fair share of naievte. Hell, I’m going on a two day treck to a leadership conference in Vancouver BC and sitting in a room with 200 business owners who are 1-3 financial levels ahead of where I am. And getting out of my bubble is the only way to open my eyes, stretch, and learn. Because I don’t know what I don’t know.

So let me offer this eye opener:

When someone recommends a link, a company, a service, without really talking with you about what you want and desire from your business, please, for the love of all that is holy, ask them if they are part of an affiliate program and then ask them exactly how this referral will serve you right now.

An email with affiliate links.

I’m a consultant. That means I listen to my clients, pull all kinds of information out of them, find out what their needs, wants, pains, fears, desires, and goals are, and then I connect those goals to solutions. Many times, my clients, by virtue of the conversation itself, create their own solutions. On other occasions, we find solutions for them in the form of vendors of services and pre-created systems.

Sometimes, depending on the service, vendor or solution, I may receive a reward for making the introduction to that vendor. See those little squares on the side of some of the pages of my website? Yeah, those are affiliate links. I get paid a commission when people click them.

What’s crucial, and frankly ethical, in working with clients is taking the time upfront to find out what you wanted. When I recommend a service or pre-existing system, it’s based on your desires and my experience seeing what could work for you where you are now. My job and purpose on this earth is to show you, Mr. and Ms. Small Business Owner, how to figure out how to run your business better. When you learn that skill, you serve your clients better, make more money, have more time, and go galavanting off to get a pedicure while you business makes you money.

I may or may not receive a referral reward. That, to me, is secondary.

Here’s where I got pissy this week:

Not every consultant or coach is upfront about the commission thing. And for some, making a commission takes precedence over making sure the service/system is a good fit. Okay, okay, I know that not everyone is a jackass. There are a few in the world though and they spurred this post.

When you work with a coach or consultant in any area of your business or life, and they recommend a system to you without getting to know you, your business, your goals, and pulling out of you what you really want to happen, please have a big-ass red flag pop up.  There is no way in hell I can figure out what you want and what’s best for you without talking with you one on one for a dedicated period of time. I guarantee no one else is so savant like they can either.

Know why? Because you’re not them!  And they aren’t you! What has worked for them is not necessarily the right fit for you and your desires. If you want to model them, that’s cool. Just know what you’re seeing from them is the outside of the box. You don’t know all the work, time, energy and sacrifice they put into getting what they have. All of that is inside of the box. You may not want all that comes with what they have.

Moral of the story: Use your critical thinking skills here, good business people. Ask questions. Make sure you’re participating fully when you work with your coaches and consultants.

Jessica

Wanna talk? At Room To Breathe, we work with small business owners to build unique custom processes and systems to make the business of running the business easier. Set up a 30 minute sesh today.

One of my daily activities (read: systems) is to learn. I spend a lot of time reading about topics revolving around education, business, and practical arts and creativity. Why those three? They interest me. 

A trend I’ve seen in all three is the enormous amount of change in our world occurring right now. Don’t know what instigated it, just know that change is happening an an ever faster speed. MC calls is a harmonic convergence.  Sounds about right. 

Here are a couple of things for you to inspire and make you think: 

1) A drawing I made for a client in 2010 to explain how we all see the same event/activity from different angles (like looking at a beach ball) and that change (or delta) is the only constant.  My purpose for her in this drawing was to illuminate the need for her to have some basic standard measurements and systems in her business so she could anticipate and flow with the change rather than keep beating her head against the wall and feeling pissed off she was out of money or her staff sucked or whatever.

Change_is_the_Only_Constant.pdf Download this file

2) Saw this video this morning. I encourage you to watch and then bookmark the website http://bigthink.com

Have a magnificent day!

Jessica 

p.s. come sign up for my emails at Room To Breathe. I bribe you with rainbows and unicorns…. you know you wanna…

What seems like ages ago, I worked in an office and was asked,

“Can’t you be happy just doing the filing then going home?”

No. I can’t. I am a change agent. I am not a paper pusher.

There is no reason to push paper for the sake of pushing paper.

In fact, pushing paper back and forth is frankly a waste of time and squandering your brilliant skill sets as an entrepreneur.

Yes, you may love labeling file folders but ultimately, pushing paper back and forth is not going to get you to that freedom you want from your business.

If you started yuor business and you’re still pushing paper back and forth, or you’re waiting for someone to tell you what to do, this is your wake-up call. No one will tell you what to do. There is no perfect way. It’s only your way.

You get to choose how you spend your days and what you create.

If you want to push paper, go get a job.

Love you, love your show,

Jessica

Sucked into the admin of pushing paper without purpose? Book a 30 minute sesh with me. We’ll build some behind the scenes systems so you can stop pushing paper and start building the business you’ve always wanted.

I was at a speaking gig the other day and was talking about delegation and gave the example about hiring 2, 3, 4, ahem 6, admin assistants or virtual assistants and one of the people in the room said,

 ”We call that Catch and Release hiring.”

I laughed so much, if I was drinking milk, it woulda come out of my nose.

What a perfect way to describe how we small business employers tend to hire people. If you’re like many solo-entrepreneurs or small employers, we really don’t know the best way to hire people for long term. It’s not like we’re Macy’s or Hewlett-Packard for goodness sake, with a big-ass HR department, and a completely built our interviewing process that’s well documented.  No, we’re scrappy, figuring it out on our own.  Yeah, we may have worked for those companies before, but did we pay attention to their hiring processes? Probably not.

So here’s the skinny on hiring:

1) You gotta know what you want.

If you can’t clearly describe what you want this person to do, then you’ll NEVER hire the right person.  Do you want a mini-me? Mini-me’s are very, very rare. Prepare like you won’t find one.

2) You gotta know what kind of person you need.

In order to get the right person, you better know what SKILLS and TRAITS that person needs to have for the job you want them to do. 

Skills = what do they know what to do.  Excel Spreadsheets, Quickbooks, 10 key…

Traits = how do these people need to act in your space. Happy, friendly, go-getter…

3) You gotta ask the right questions.

First impressions are everything. We make our decision in the first 2 minutes, the rest of the time we’re looking for evidence to support our decision. So you better prepare questions to create some objectivity when you compare candidates. You also better ask specific questions asking people to demonstrate their experience. Unless you have time to train someone from scratch (don’t assume they know how to do what you need them to.)

4)  Get in on the ‘group’ interview magic.

Every retail joint who knows what’s what, knows group interviews give perspective, take up less time, and demonstrate immediately some of those soft skills you won’t get in a one-on-one interview.  Why are you any different? Your time is valuable. Why spend 8 hours doing 8 interviews when you can spend 2 hours seeing 8 people. Use a group interview in your business, ask them all the same questions, see how people deal with others. 

There you go. Four ways to get you moving past the Catch and Release we small business employers bump up against, every day. Master it once, then you build a system (ahh, you knew the system thing was coming…)

Love you, love your show,

Jessica

Of course there is more strategy behind the scenes to put energy and intention into asking questions and hiring.  If I gave it all to you right here, then we’d have no reason to work together. Need to bounce ideas off me? Or wanna get to know me better see if we’re a fit? Click the links, there sparky…

Fourth in our line-up – Administration…

Think of this sphere like the octopus with tentacles: it reaches into the other three spheres (Marketing and Sales, Operations, and Customer Service) and hangs on. Administration is the “keep the lights on” sphere. It’s where hiring, bookkeeping, continuing education, quality management, A/R, A/P and business planning live. 

The Admin Sphere is dichotomous*. Building systems for your behind the scenes in Administration takes a fair amount of balance and all depends on your control-freak or let-it-all-be nature.

“Head in the Sand” syndrome: I’m gonna do all of my own bookkeeping, phone answering, filing, printing, copying, hiring, firing, et cetera because when I work on that stuff, I avoid looking at my lagging sales. And I hate sales.

“Fingers in the Ears” syndrome: I’m not gonna look at the bookkeeping – I gave that to someone to do for me – and I don’t know where I’m at with my numbers. I’m gonna keep selling and selling (and selling) and eventually I’ll make all the money I need to. I may be dead, but that’s better than ever looking at numbers. I hate figuring out numbers.

So when you’re looking at all of the things you gotta do to keep the lights on in Administration your key word is BALANCE. Make sure you know enough but don’t get so sucked in you can’t see the big picture. 

Love you, Love your show,

Jessica

*yeah, that’s $50 word right there. Grandma would be so proud.

Get your behind the scenes systems streamlined so you can hand them off and go on vacation. Automate. Duplicate. Delegate. Book a 30 Minute Sesh with me to see how I can help. 

Most of you had two, yes TWO, emails from me today.

And while hey, it’s bonus, it was not my intention.

Two emails happened because I didn’t follow my own advice and mucked around with stuff instead of letting my delegatee take care of things as I had assigned them.  Me and my itchy entrepreneurial fingers.

By my pokin’ around in the behind the scenes system (on their turf), I inadvertently set-up a different/old/duplicate email format to go out to all my peeps.  And then that just messed up the other stuff and I feel like a jack-ass.  Hey, it happens. I’m a real business owner. Stuff like this is gonna happen on occasion!

Guess what I’m gonna do now? I’m gonna go look at that system and see where the breakdown was, and fix it.  Because I really shouldn’t be mucking around in stuff after I delegate it to my assistant. That just makes me a “hoverer”.

Walkin’ my talk…

Jessica

In the last couple of days, I’ve talked with three people who are just DONE. Done with struggle, done with wearing 20 hats. D.O.N.E.

Each of them has decided to let their business fade into the glorious sunset. Each of them, for their own reasons, is choosing to: retire, to sell all their stuff and move to their dream location, and to obtain employment working for someone else.

And that’s awesome for them.  As our own “boss” we get to choose when we’re done. It’s part of the freedom we have to create whatever we want in our life.

My questions are these:

• Why not make a plan for when you’re done?
• Wouldn’t it be totally rad to SELL what you have and make some money on all those years of awesome? 
• What would it look like if all along, you had some systems in place that made selling the business, or even your client list, a real possibility?

This, kats and kittens, is what we call a liquidity event in the world of business. And regardless of how big or small your business is, we all deserve to have a liquidity event.

Here’s your food for thought and action:

You can’t sell YOU to someone else. You can sell YOUR WAY OF DOING THINGS to someone else.  Even for $1000.  Go start writing down how you do what you do so you can sell it when you’re D.O.N.E.

Love you, love your show,

Jessica

I would love to help you get those systems out of your head and onto paper. Book a 30 Minute Sesh so we can get started before you kick the business to the curb.