As an entrepreneur, most will face as some point, and possibly many times, the desire to quit. Starting your own business can be a long and tumultuous ride. However, it can also be one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences of your life. It’s probably safe to assume that if you decided to leave or avoid Corporate America to be your own boss that you choose to start a business doing something you had a passion for or interest in. Even when you do what you love, you may still feel like tossing in the towel when times get tough. To help you through those tough times, we have provided five tips to help you stay motivated and on your path to success.
Always have something you are working towards, a goal on the horizon. Having something to aim for can be enough to get you through just about anything.
Know when to back away. Many times when you are pushing and pushing and things just don’t seem to budge, you may need to just walk away from what you are doing for a little while. This can be difficult I know because sometimes you just want to muscle through it. But if you find that you are getting increasingly frustrated and things just aren’t going the way you want, then it is time to take a break. Take a walk, listen to your favorite music, call a positive friend, go to the gym. You know what things make you feel good so have a few things in mind that you can do when you need to get away from your work.
Remember why you started in the first place. Sometimes when we are frustrated and things just aren’t going our way, it’s good to take a deep breath and ask yourself, “Why did I want to do this in the first place?” There was some reason that you chose this path, remembering it can help keep you on it.
Throw a temper tantrum. If enough is enough and you are fed up to the gills, throw a fit. Most of us did this when we were kids, and it’s a great way to release that pent up frustration from our minds and our bodies. Get a pillow and beat the poop out of it. If you need to use your voice scream as loud as you can until you feel better (although if you are in a place where others can hear you, and you don’t won’t anyone to come running, I recommend screaming into the pillow) If you have a gym or place that has a punching bag use it. Getting the feeling out of your body can be a great release and open your mind at the same time.
Lend a helping hand. Getting out of your negative space and giving assistance to someone else can give you a great high to get you back on track. Think of someone you know that could use a hand at something. Check with a charity or something of the like and volunteer. Helping others helps everyone.
I hope these tips give you the strength and determination to get past those rough patches. Remember tough times happen for everyone, it’s what you do to get through them that says a lot about who you are, and what your made of.
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Tracy Piercy who is the creator of Money Minding. 12 Simple Steps to Mind Your Money. One great thing about Tracy’s program is that she shows you how to save money by spending money. How great is that! One of the things she discusses is how to find what you love and then find a way to make money at it. Let me tell you there is no better way to make money than by making it by doing what you love.
Tracy’s 12 step program includes the following twelve key points:
Step 1: Gratitude
Step 2: Where Are You Going?
Step 3: Where Are You Now?
Step 4: Implement Systems
Step 5: Develop Saving and Giving Habits
Step 6: INCOME – Is It Enough?
Step 7: Professional Advisors
Step 8: Risk, Insurance, Estate Issues Covered?
Step 9: Credit Wise
Step 10: Income Producing Assets
Step 11: Growth Assets
Step 12: Creative, Higher Risk Investments
Visit the Money Minding website where there are free downloads, blog, podcasts and financial plans at www.moneyminding.com
In today’s web economy there are words that you may have never heard before, but need to. Below is a list of 10 terms becoming more and more popular online.
1. Advermation- A combination between advertising and information. Primary purpose is to give information to the viewer more so than marketing to them.
2. Angry Garden Salad- Slang for a poorly designed and incorrectly coded website. Mostly seen when you click a link it and launches something completely different.
3. Cornea Gumbo- An overly animated or graphic website that is visually distracting
4. Infosnacking- Quickly or intermittently getting online throughout the day.
5. Interstitial- An ad that appears in a pop-up browser window when a you move from one page to another. This is not a banner ad and include large graphics, streaming video and applets.
6. Mash-up- When two or more services or tools are combined together to create a new multi-level tool.
7. PeelAway- A pop up ad in the upper right hand corner of a web page. Similar to a page in a book that can be “peeled away” to uncover an ad beneath.
8. Plugoo- A widget that allows you to chat with your website visitors in real time, that is connected to your IM provider.
9. Rasterbator- A compulsive digitally manipulating web designer who obsessively tweaks designs and overuses Photoshop.
10. TweetBeep- A free tracking and alert service that monitors conversations that mention you, your company, etc, and sends you an email when the mentions happen.
There you have it. Ten of the latest and greatest web words that you need to know. Resource used and referenced for this article was Entrepreneur Magazine. For more information see Entrepreneur Magazine February 2009 edition.
Why is it that some people get to wake up and do what they love while others get up to the grind? How does one find their passion in life, much less get paid for it?
Surely, once upon a time you knew your passion. You know, that thing you did, that when you did it hours passed by in what felt like minutes. I believe everyone has a passion or many of them. The trick gets to be how to you find it if you lost it in life and how do you make money at it too?
The first trick is to find that lost passion. There are some questions you can ask yourself to remember yours. Things like, “If tomorrow were my last day on Earth, what would I wish I had done?” Or, "Name one thing I do that makes hours go by in what feels like minutes?" Or maybe, "If I had unlimited time, money, and resources, and could do anything I wanted, and would not fail, what would it be?” (for a worksheet on how to find your passion, email inspirational expert, Sharmen Lane at shar@sharspeaks.com)
After you find your passion the question becomes, how can you make money at it? Well, here are a couple of examples that can help you think outside the box to make your passion your profession.
One woman I know loved to read. So she started getting paid to proofread books for publishers. Another example is a person who loved to knit. She could do it in her sleep. So she wrote a “how to” ebook and created a website where for a few bucks people could buy and instantly download it. Then she started to hold six week classes at a local yarn store. Last example is of a man who was a personal trainer. He knew he could make more money if he could find a way to train people without being in front of them. He put together instructional videos and again made them available for download on his website.
These are just three examples of ways to turn a passion into a profession. Look outside the box and think of creative ways to make money at your passion.
What is rejection? Isn’t it really just some big scary thing that we have created in our minds? Is rejection really all the bad? When it comes to business in the end it all comes down to sales. If people aren’t buying your product or service then you aren’t closing the sale and you likely aren’t making any money. Anyone who has even been in sales knows that selling is a numbers game. The more you ask the more sales you will make. The bad news is that the more you ask the more rejection you will be faced with and you have probably heard that it takes about 10 no’s to get to a yes.
The good news is, the faster you get through those no’s the sooner you will get that yes. So, how do you reject, rejection? Change your perspective. Be excited every time you get a no because that means you are that much closer to a yes. Put yourself out there. What’s the worst someone can say? No? Okay, that’s not so bad, is it? Sure you would rather they say yes, but if they don’t you can simply move on.
Many times people will let the fear of rejection stop them from taking action to get what they want. Rejection is a fake fear. What is a fake fear? A real fear is something that could cause you physical harm or death. A fake fear doesn’t. A fake fear is something that only exists in your head. If you are rejected you are not going to end up in the hospital or die. So what do you have to lose? Absolutely nothing!
From now on see rejection as a good thing. The sooner you get through those no’s the closer you are to getting that yes.
Social media seems to be all around us. No matter where you turn you hear about Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the like. Connecting with others had never been so easy. However, have you noticed that we aren’t connecting with those we know? I think all the social media sites have made it so easy to connect with others in far away lands that we have forgotten about those in our own backyard.
When was the last time you called your friend instead of just texted or emailed? When was the last time you got together in person instead of talked on the phone? Has social media made us lose our social skills?
When it comes to people you have to connect, in more ways than one. Sometimes text and email or a Facebook update isn’t enough. As nice as a Twitter what I’m doing is, isn’t picking up the phone and actually talking to someone an extra something special? I think we have gotten so comfortable behind our computers that we have forgotten to have that human touch.
Whether it’s personal or business, go that extra step and reach out to your friends, family and customers beyond that of just an email or social media update. That little extra personal touch can really change the lives of those around you. If you are in business it can really make a difference when you connect with your customers in the good ole fashion human way not just the electronic way.
No matter what product or service is, if you are not staying in touch with your past clients someone else is. I’m amazed at the number of people who don’t make contact with their past clients. It happens at just about every company I’ve ever known or worked with.
The people you are selling to are relationships and like all relationships they need attention. How many times have you been disappointed to have lost a new sale to an old customer because you didn’t stay in touch? Maybe you don’t know because you have never made contact with a past client before. You already have a relationship, they’ve purchased from you before. If you don’t stay in touch with your past clients you are missing many sales opportunities.
There is at least one reason every month to stay in touch with past clients.
For example:
January- New Years and Martin Luther King Day
February- Valentine’s Day and President’s Day
March- St. Patrick’s Day, Daylight Savings begins
April- First day of spring, Easter, Passover
May- Memorial Day and Mother’s Day
June- Father’s Day and the first day of summer
July- Independence Day
August- End of summer, back to school
September- Labor Day, first day of autumn
October- Halloween and Columbus Day
November- Daylight Savings Ends and Thanksgiving
December- Christmas, Hanukah, First day of winter
Every month you have at least one reason to drop a note in the mail or send an email to say hello to your past clients. Make it a point to stay in touch with your past clients and you will grow your business.
