As a money relationship mentor and financial counselor, people initially come to see me because they are experiencing some kind of anxiety around money. They quickly come to see, however, that money issues are never about money but directly linked to your own beliefs and actions around it.

Money fog or vagueness indicates an internal confusion.

That means that you must learn to understand the emotional triggers that cause you to take certain actions with money, good and not so good.

Without this knowledge, you can not run a business that supports you which means you will not be of any service to anyone because you will eventually be out of business.

You are your client. You want clients who can afford to pay you well. There is a direct correlation between the amount of money you are willing to invest in yourself for self care and education including seminars, coaches, conferences, books, networking events, and assistance, to the amount of money you can command from potential clients. It makes sense that once you have spent $2,000 on a seminar, you can then confidently turn around and charge the same. Afterall, it is how much you invested in yourself. To expect someone to hire you at a rate that you have not happily paid yourself is unrealistic. Why? Because your own resistance will be conveyed through your marketing, if not in an obvious way, then subliminally. As far as areas of development in terms of your money relationship and the growth of your business is concerned, it is all about clarity, clarity, clarity; knowing exactly how much is going in and out of your accounts, setting up all your accounts in a way that money flows seamlessly in and out of your accounts, getting rid of clutter, getting clear on WHY you want to make the amount you want to make. What is that money going to buy you? It is never the things, but the feelings that go with the things. Money to pay for your child’s education, a house on the ocean, enough money to retire on; these “things” buy certain feelings. And so we come back full circle to your emotions around money as it is always emotions that ultimately drive actions.

You will never get more money than you are able to handle so you must handle the money you do have, well. When you harness your mind and emotions around money, you can not help but experience financial success.

So step one is to understand what your beliefs around money are. Start with your mother, father, guardian and authoritarian figures in your life, growing up. Most people were never taught about the laws of money, but learned through osmosis by watching how Mom and Dad handled their money. Listening to what they said about it, sensing what they felt about wealthy people,
experiencing the level of pleasure they got from spending and saving money and how responsibly they handled it, all played in to your beliefs, growing up.  Their influence on your current financial picture might surprise you.

So remember, money is merely an external creation of what is happening inside yourself which is great news because it means that you are in absolute control of your financial destiny.

To your successful money relationship!

The more that we have to do the more important it is to maximize our productivity and create a productive environment.  According to Barbara Hemphill of the Paper Tiger Productivity Institute, a productive environment is a setting in which everything around you supports who you are and who you want to be.  In order to achieve this, we should focus on sharpening our organizational abilities and adapting good time management skills.

To begin with, we need to re-assess our objectives, which become the basis for our daily and weekly to-do lists.  As there are a finite number of hours in the day, it isn’t possible to do everything that we might like.  Hence we need to weed out the essential from the non-essential.  To aid us in clarifying our objectives, we should apply the SMART methodology to the process.  When setting objectives, make sure that they are SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT, TIMELY. This will enable us to focus on those tasks which will yield definitive results.

Now that the objectives are clarified, there is a growing list of tasks that need to be addressed. The method in which we keep track of these tasks can vary from a to-do list to a sea of post-it notes or a combination of both. In any event, there is a high probability that all of the information that is being collected can’t or won’t be acted on based purely on the notion that there isn’t enough time to do so. Here are some tips for creating a better process for reminding yourself of what needs to be done.

• Assess the importance of each task and only include those which are very important on your list.
• Accept the fact that not all tasks have an equal degree of importance.
• Identify the top 2-3 tasks and focus on them until they are completed.
• Block out time on your calendar to work on specific projects.
• Recognize that there are tasks on your list that you will never get to and plan to re-assess their importance at a later date or just cross them off the list.
• Delegate tasks as appropriate.
• Get into the habit of consolidating all of your to-do’s in one place – preferably creating a system that is easy to use and doesn’t include post-its!
• Group like tasks together.  For example, schedule a block of time to make/return all of your phone calls.

Lots of paper, e-mail and other data can be a byproduct of many of the tasks that we undertake.  So we can find ourselves spending lots of very valuable time trying to locate a specific document or folder. Hence, it is imperative that our filing systems are effective and enable us to quickly retrieve documents on our desks, in our file cabinets and on our computers.  Here are some suggestions for better managing our paperwork.

• Start by clearing all of the paper on your desk so that all that is left are those papers related to either new tasks or ongoing ones.
• Sort the papers that are left into categories by the type of action required and create files for each category. File all incoming paperwork in appropriate folders upon receipt and review.
• Create a system for filing pending items.  Papers related to specific event or project that requires an action in the future should be included in this file.  A tickler file or the Swiftfile is a good tool for tracking this type of information.
• Set up an in box so that incoming materials don’t get mixed in with the paperwork already on your desk.

As more and more communication is done via e-mail, we need to manage our overflowing in boxes so that we are making the most of the time spent on our e-mail.  Some tips for doing so are as follows.

• Schedule time to check your e-mail.  Depending on the volume of daily mail, you may need to check it 2-3 times during the day.
• Open a message only when you are ready to act on it.
• Read all e-mails from one sender prior to replying.
• Create folders and move messages that need to be kept out of your in-box as quickly as possible.

Even once we have adapted the above suggestions into our daily routines, we should periodically re-evaluate our productivity.  This will highlight areas of improvement as well as identify areas where more work may be needed.  A great self-evaluation tool for doing this is the Productive Environment Scorecard^TM.  If you are interested in finding out how well you score on the productivity scale, contact me at Stephanie@theorganizingzone.com and I’ll send you a copy.

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Welcome to WomenandBiz.com, your source of inspirational and resourceful business articles.

In this month’s issue of WomenandBiz.com, our guest writers discuss the importance of investing in yourself and in your team by going “back to school”.

In the last few weeks I listened to an interview with Les Brown, hosted by Lance Hood, and to an interview with Tony Robbins hosted by Eben Pagan. Both of them talked about the importance of investing in yourself, learning from people you admire and consider successful and following through by taking action.

You can go back to school by purchasing online courses in the field you are interested in, by signing up to free or paid online podcasts, or by actually attending seminars and conferences. Take an inventory today of the skills that you are missing, and check out the opportunities available for you. It could be that you want to improve your public speaking skills, bookkeeping knowledge, strategies on running a business, or something more specific to your own industry. The time and money you invest in yourself and in your staff will pay off many times when you take action and execute the skills you will gain from studying.

If you already have a staff, you may also make sure that they are as invested in your business as you are, by offering them trainings and that will help them better utilize their strengths. It is important to always train them on customer service and on new products and services.

Feel free to post your comments and share with us how going back to school is helping you build your business. You can also reach us by filling out the Contact us form on the About us page.

Success,

Elisa Balabram

Founder and Editor, WomenandBiz.com

Author of “Ask Others, Trust Yourself – The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Key to Success”

We always hear about strong communication being a necessity in relationships to avoid a lovers’ quarrel, but what about when it comes to social media relationships? Most people don’t think that “Dr. Laura”-type love advice columns have anything to do with social media, but I think they do.

A lot of the problems business folks have with social media stems from communication issues – or lack thereof. Whether it’s too much activity, not enough activity, the wrong type or just a misinterpretation between what’s written and what’s meant – and, at some point, if your social media audience doesn’t “feel the love”, they don’t call Dr. Laura to fix it – they simply stop reading your blog or listening to your podcast and you’re left to figure out why.

Here are a few tips to help improve your social media communications and build long-lasting relationships online:

• Always be available. Ok, not always, but one of the main things people complain about in romantic relationships is when their significant other is cold and distant. The people who read your blog can feel the same way about you if it takes you weeks to approve and reply to comments. Small business owners especially need to make sure they’re on point because often one of the main reasons clients choose a smaller business over a larger competitor is the expectation of better customer service.

• Think before you speak or write. How many love relationships are damaged every day because one person makes a statement, the other responds, things escalate, and pretty soon the original issue is well overshadowed by the drama that came after? The same thing can happen with social media. Someone writes a comment you don’t appreciate, you reply. They reply and it escalates. It’s easy to let emotion overtake reason, especially under pressure to “get social media right”. Take that extra moment to calm yourself and think before you respond. Better yet create a Terms of Use section for your blog or podcast to take the personal element out of which comments you do and don’t approve.

• Don’t allow things to fester. This is the other side of the coin. Often in a relationship what starts out as a small issue can quickly grow if left unattended. The more time that passes, the more likely the other person will fill in your side of the conversation with what they think you’ll say. If you have a blog or online community, do your best to address small issues, complaints, etc. in a measured but timely manner so you can keep them small.

• Know where the line is between friendly and too familiar. Nothing kills a dating relationship faster than one person getting too familiar too soon. The same is true with social media. While you may have some great and fun conversations as you build the relationship with your audience, it’s still important to maintain the line between your professional life and your personal life. Remember, while you want them to feel good about you, they’re still your clients and potential clients, not your friends.

——————–

Lena L. West is the CEO of xynoMedia http://www.xynoMedia.com a company that helps growing companies profit from the power of social media & the Internet.

Those seeking a mentor relationship are likely overachievers who are fresh out of college. These budding entrepreneurs have spent years studying pages upon pages of textbooks. These goal-oriented, new college graduates seek honesty as they enter the “real world,” which is where a good mentor comes in handy. I have found that the only way to be successful is to have someone be completely honest about an idea. I am very straightforward with my mentees on how their idea may or may not turn out. This will leave your mentee with a stronger mindset and the ability to think more creatively.

Now that these college graduates are book smart, the question is: how can we support these driven, goal-oriented women? The answer: shoot straight from the hip, provide the “street smarts” and direction they likely lack and make them accountable. A mentor should not do the work for them, but give these young women the guidance and responsibility that they need to grow. These overachievers, many times bite down on more than they can chew in an effort to do it all and do it all well! It’s important, as a mentor to break through the clutter and help focus the mentee on what’s important or what requires their attention first. I found that it is important to only help sort through the clutter and not get caught up working it out, leave the mentee responsible.

I’ve worked with many young women who believe they must do it all to get it all, which overwhelms and blinds them from their ultimate goal. These mentees simply begin to lack direction. The idea is ingenious, the drive is there. But they seem paralyzed by the process to start up a company and end up getting “muddied” in the details. Sometimes, what they seek is a brainstorm partner, someone to help them cut through the BS and simply get going! By brainstorming with my mentee, I find that they become better problem solvers and thinkers.

It is important to guide mentees through their thoughts, ideas, problems and successes. It’s important to keep the meeting on track, where an agenda should be used. Like any other meeting you set as a business owner, you should have an agenda and follow-up to assure all tasks are being met. This isn’t any different. I help set realistic and tangible goals with my mentees each session we meet. I consistently follow-up to make sure all goals are being met and the end-result is insight.

Honesty, accountability, encouragement, and guidance are four essential pieces to being a valuable mentor to up-and-coming female entrepreneurs. Each of these characteristics will lead a mentee to become: strong, a big thinker, creative, a problem solver, responsible, and focused.

Like other asset investments in your business, employees require care and maintenance to make sure they function at peak performance.  You can’t just ignore them like office furniture and leave them sitting in the corner.  They won’t develop into their fullest potential with that attitude.

One of the most important needs – as employees and as human beings – is the need to feel we make a difference.  You can go a long way to developing an effective workforce by communicating you’re your employees.  Let them know their presence matters to your company.  Here are a handful of ways you can do that:

• Let Them Know Where The Company Is Going. Do you have a company mission?  A vision statement?  Have you set a strategic plan?  Sales goals?  Let your employees know what your company stands for and where you want to take it.  Rather than bashing them over the head with “Close more deals!” tell them why these sales goals really mean something (other than just generating more revenue for you).  If your employees buy into your mission, they’ll become your most ardent evangelists.
• Be Open to Their Feedback. Few things stifle creativity more quickly than having ideas with no place to go.  If you’ve hired wisely, you’ll want to tap into the enormous brainpower that has just joined your company.  You don’t necessarily have a “lock” on best practices.  Let your employees suggest them as they grow into their positions.
• Communicate with Integrity. A relationship based on lies doesn’t last long.  Don’t make pie-in-the-sky promises that you can’t (or don’t intend to) deliver on.  [This could get you into legal hot water too!]  If the company is facing difficulties, don’t sugar-coat the news.  Don’t rah-rah the team to buoy their hopes when you know the world outside is crumbling.  Your employees are your frontline.  They know – or at least sense – what’s going on.  By the same token, don’t be miserly with your praise for jobs well done and targets exceeded.  Employees appreciate recognition and respect . . . and will reward you with their loyalty.
• Find Opportunities for Teamwork. Human beings are social creatures.  By nature, we feel safer and more secure when part of a group.  If possible, find ways for employees to work together on group projects.  Or, consider regular team meetings where employees can teach one another or share how what they learn outside the workplace can apply within it.
• Provide Regular Feedback and Success Plans. Employees don’t grow in a vacuum.  They require feedback to know if they’re meeting the targets, and where their skills need improvement.  They’ll eagerly take this on if you show you’re invested in their success.  Help them to create reasonable and meaningful performance milestones.  Don’t just wait for annual review time.  Be forthcoming, frank, and constructive with your evaluations.

Of course, there’s a fine balance between encouraging — and mollycoddling — an employee.  If an employee is not as effective as you’d like, you need to determine whether that’s a result of their skill level (which can be improved) or their basic negative character traits (which often, cannot).  A careful employee review process can help unearth these issues.  Speak to your employment attorney to put one in place for your company!

Want more information on conducting employee reviews?  Visit our website, www.GreatBusinessLawResources.com/effectiveemployeereviews.htm to get your free copy of our special report, 10 Steps to Effective Employee Reviews.

But there’s a strange problem here; and you probably know what it is, either directly or indirectly.

Many people know that training is important – because, at one time or another, and in one form or another, we’ve all been valuably trained in something, or trained someone else to do something useful – yet this basic knowledge is not widely reflected in the world of work.  It’s clear importance is not fully understood, and therefore, not fully exploited to make life easier and more profitable.

Unraveling the Strange Problem: Changing Perceptions

The core of this problem has to do with that important postmodern word: perception.

For decades now – centuries, arguably – training has been seen as something that supports the workforce.  This position stems largely from the perception that training is an extension of education.  Since education has been traditionally viewed as a system of supporting human growth and development, workforce training has slid conveniently, some might say logically, into this existing groove of thinking.

So why is this a problem of perception?

Because in the modern workforce – and that of the foreseeable future – the idea that workforce training exists as a support system is dangerously outdated.  The notion of support implies that something is important; but not necessarily vital, and certainly not essential.  And it’s because of this view that in many workplaces, training is viewed as an enhancer; something valuable, yes, but ultimately optional.  Something to invest in or focus upon if revenues support it, or if time permits it.  But certainly nothing essential.

This perception is utterly out of date!

Training is no longer optional.  It’s not an enhancer, a supporter, or a nice to have thing.  In the 21^st century, an organization’s capacity to effectively train its people is part of its ability to survive.  And if that capacity isn’t there – or if it’s defective – then the organization itself will reveal that flaw in a number of destructive ways, including loss of bottom line profits.

Why the Skilled Workforce Makes Training Essential

It’s a misnomer to think that so-called skilled workers are those human beings who emerge from university or college and bring with them some kind of technical or practical acumen.  That may have been true a few decades ago; but no longer, and never again.

In today’s world, everyone is a skilled worker.  From the receptionist with the high school education to the CFO with an MBA, the entire workforce has become a skilled landscape; and that means that there is arguably no position that isn’t in need of continuous training.

Each member of a team, a unit, and a company can no longer be viewed as individual silos focusing on their singular task within a limited sphere of activities.  Rather, today, each person is a part of a skilled workforce; and if there are gaps or lacks in any area, the entire workforce will suffer.  And make no mistake: this suffering isn’t merely emotional or cultural (though that is a part of it).  This suffering is financial.

Training = Profit

When there are gaps in the skilled workforce – gaps caused by lack of training – then, automatically, work become inefficient and money is lost.

How much money is lost depends on the type of gap and how it manifests; but without doubt, regardless of whether a company sells flowers or microchips, a gap in the skilled workforce costs money.

In the past, this gap was typically seen only in terms of sales, such as whether a lack of training caused a sale to be lost.  Now, however, we know without any economic doubt that the costs of ineffective or non-existent training gaps go far beyond lost sales.  These additional financial costs include: rework, missed profits (smaller profits due to inefficiency), and misallocated resources (money spent trying to fix a gap could be better spent elsewhere).  There’s also lost market share, lost potential word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied (or merely served) customers, and the list goes on.

Understanding why Training is Important

It bears repeating: training can no longer be viewed as a support system, like a good benefits program or a leading-edge technical infrastructure.  In the skilled workforce of the 21^st century, training is essential.  It is the core engine of a company, because it supports the entire skilled workforce.  And, frankly, there is no other way – whatsoever – for a company to comply with this paradigm shift than to understand that training is important.  Or rather, that it’s essential.

Not All Training is Created Equally

A typical and rational concern here might be that not all types of workers require the same training.  Actually, this is perfectly true, and not a concern; it’s just a basic fact of the new world of work.

Absolutely: your sales team will not require the same training as your customer service people.  While there might be elements that apply to both – negotiation skills and cultural awareness spring to mind – there is no need to envision a cookie-cutter approach to training.  In fact, the old model of training – the one where static, one-size-fits-all training was rolled-out through a company from CEO to Intern is tragically (and again, dangerously) out of date.  Successful training – the kind that retains profit and creates more profit – must reflect the needs of a particular team or function within a company.

This may sound expensive; and in fact, one of the big reason that old-fashioned roll-out training has been relied upon is because it’s seemingly easy to administrate, and even easier to predict costs (as needlessly high as they may be).

Yet as economists are clearly pointing out – without emotion, without bias, in the great way that economists point things out – this old-fashioned training approach is more expensive than the new, customized skilled workforce training.  This is because focused training can be measured and tracked much more practically than generic company-wide training.  Furthermore, this customization allows training to be tweaked and adjusted as business needs and market conditions require.

A Final Word…

Keep in mind that the key argument here isn’t that training is good.  This isn’t pro-training boosterism; and it’s certainly not a lobbying effort on behalf of financially neglected Training and Development professionals across the globe.  The perception that training is essential is sourced in the emergence of the most powerful, and possibly most dynamic, labor market concept in history: the skilled workforce.

And the message that it’s telling us?  Clear and simple: training is not an option.

By:

Adrian Miller

Adrian Miller Sales Training

amiller@adrianmiller.com

7 Tips for Building Relationships & Guaranteeing Repeat Business

1. Make sure that you ask all of the right questions so that you truly understand your prospect’s needs. Don’t assume that you know what your customer wants or that they have the same needs as all of your other customers. Ask. This way you’ll be sure.

1. Give your customers exactly what they ask for. “Sort of” doesn’t count. Make sure that you are delivering quality each and every time. In addition, don’t oversell. Persuading a customer to take more product than they actually need will quickly make you a one-time resource.

1. Make absolutely certain that your offering will solve your customers’ problems or help them in the way they need to be helped. If your offering is not truly a solution, tell the truth. Selling a product/service that does not solve the problem it was purchased to solve may put money in your pocket in the short term but in the long term, it will guarantee that you lose the customer.

1. Do everything you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. Nothing builds trust and credibility like doing what you say you’re going to do. And tell the truth no matter what. While sometimes being truthful might cost you a sale, in the long run the trust you build with your customers will more than make up for any lost revenue.

1. Keep your new customer informed every step of the way. Whether it’s a delay, a pricing issue, a mistake or any potential problem, let your customer know about it as soon as you know. Do not delay. They will find out eventually and not telling them personally and/or allowing them to discover it on their own will lose you business.

1. Become a valued team member and go above and beyond your prospects’ expectations. Show your customer that you are interested in their business. Invest time thinking about their needs and how you can help

1. Show appreciation for your customers’ business. Don’t forget to say, “thank you.”

Get Wendy’s free Special Report, Getting in the Door: How to Write an Effective Cold Calling Script, at http://www.wendyweiss.com. Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling,” is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com.