Technology Recovery

I am notorius for saving emails and I'm on a lot of email distribution lists. I have signed up with a variety of online marketers so I can study and emulate their strategies. It leaves my email in-basket however, quite full.

To make matters even worse, I don't spend a lot of time cleaning out my inbasket. I read and respond to the notices I need to, then just ignore the rest. This results in a complete overload...and crash... of my email client last Saturday.

Fortunately, I subscribe to a fabulous service, www.MyComputerWorks.com. The technicians there can access your computer remotely (with your permission and oversight of course) and fix any number of issues. This past weekend, a team of them repaired, recovered, re-established all of my email accounts. I didn't get everything back (that would have crashed it again anyway), but the BEST news is that, I didn't have to spend hours (or more likely days) working on my own, trying to figure out what to do.

They did all of the work for me!

It took literally hours (probably about 10 when it was all said and done). But it wasn't 10 MY hours. It was 10 of THEIRS! Talk about leverage and good use of outsourcing.

I love those guys! They have saved me a fortune.

Joint Ventures

I've had a couple of conversations with colleagues about creating products (teleclasses mostly) that we conduct together and promote to the people who subscribe to my newsletter. I see this as a great way to create value for my clients and to increase visibility and credibility for both me and the people with whom I partner.

The first class will be on Halloween, October 31 and it's called "Break the Rules and Make More Sales". I'm really looking forward to it. We'll be offering at least one new class every month. Look for upcoming announcements about these great events.

Referral partners

I'm attending a magnificent course on business building that centers on networking and referrals. The techniques are amazing and I'm right now somewhat overloaded with possibilities for expansion. I can see that I need to outsource some of the activities that consume my time so I can focus on more high leverage opportunities - like building relationships with a referral network.

I also know that I must begin interacting more directly with people live and face-to-face. I love technology, but recognize that I sometimes hide behind email and web-based marketing. I get such positive feedback from live events I conduct that it's time to start doing more of them.

This week I'll be identifying and contacting people with whom I can partner for events and people to whom I can delegate some of my work.

Here we go! On to bigger horizons and playing fields!

Amazing results

Having defined a target market (women insurance agent/owners with staff]), I met with my first prospect in that market. In my meeting with her, I learned a lot abot her business and the challenges she faces. As we spoke, it became apparent that there were a number of things we could do profitably together and I am happy to report that she is now a client!

I'm really looking forward to working with her and her team. I'm sure I'll learn more about the industry as we work together and will be able to extend my 'offer' to her to her colleagues in the insurance market.

Distractions

Yesterday, it seems my day was consumed with distractions and little nuisances that took an hour to resolve. I switched the telephone/cable/internet bill from my husband's name to mine and had to reconfigure all 3 of my email accounts. I spent nearly an hour with a tech support person trying to figure out why one of them was still not receiving messages sent from the other two.

I spent over an hour on the phone with techsupport at my shopping cart provider and then with my webmaster assessing what might have happened with the notices I was supposed to receive notifying me of people who had signed up for a teleclass I scheduled. I had only gotten one notice and postponed the class only to find out a few minutes after start time that 21 people had signed up and many of them were on the call waiting for me! Yikes! Lesson learned. Don't rely on autoresponder notices...check the cart for sign-ups before cancelling a class.

It was a tough day. At the end of the day, I looked back on where my time had gone. I was convinced that it has become time to hire someone else, yet given the nature of the things that consumed the time, it seemed like what was needed was my own tech support staff. Here's the bad news. I want to understand the tech portions of my business and I'm afraid of letting some part of the technology side go. Now, this sounds like what my coaching clients tell me when they are facing the big delegation decision. So I'm going to reassess where I spend my time and come up with a plan for how to get some of these time-consuming annoyances off of my plate.

I realize that I can't scale to the size I want to become if I keep all these 'goodies' to myself. Time for a reinvention. Stay tuned!

Strategic Planning

Last year about this time, I created a strategic planning tool to make available for my clients. I gavee a talk on the topic, and one of the attendees asked me if I did all of the things I was suggesting they do. He wanted to know if I 'walked the talk'. Fortunately, I did and I gave him several examples of how I incorporate planning into my life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with all that was on my plate and a little depressed about all the things that weren't on my plate. In a flash of wisdom, decided now would be a good time for my own annual strategic planning session. So I selected one of the days I had set aside for business development, cleared the few activities that were on the calendar and dedicated the day for a strategic planning session with myself.

Wow! It was wonderful! So wonderful, in fact that I have now promised myself to devote more time to this activity on an annual basis. As I was winding down, I realized that I could have used another day to review and prioritize items from all of the conferences and workshops I've attended over the last year. Next year, I will devote two days to the activity.

I revamped my mission statement, refined my target market, developed strategies and goals that left me feeling refreshed, recharged and focused! My mood had shifted dramatically. The world seemed like a playground rather than a prison. It was truly amazing.

Pick up your own copy (http://www.emeraldharvest.com/StrategicBusinessPlanning/strategicbusinessplanning.html) and go forth and plan!

Manking space

Last Saturday, I had arranged to spend the day cleaning my office and office closet with the assistance of my virtual assistant. Due to a scheduling mistake on my part, my assistant was not available. However, I decided to go forth with the plan and emptied my closet, went through most of my file drawers and threw away pounds of no-longer-needed papers.

Typically, I do this around New Year's each year, but this purge was different. Having really settled into what my purpose is and what my business is about, I was able to let go of many categories of things I had been holding on to "just in case" I needed them. Additionally, I believe that my increased use of the Internet has created a sense of confidence that if I do need something again, I'll be able to find it (or something even more current on the subject) on the WorldWideWeb.

I love that feeling of freedom that clear space provides!

Management Mastery Club

A preview of the site was launched last Friday. There are still many features to add and fine tune, but it is up and available.

I also included a teaser about the first teleclinic with sales guru, Brad Ferguson. The introduction is taking place next Tuesday.

Need to start driving traffic to the site now, publishing articles about relevant topics and doing a Google Adwords campaign.

We're on our way!