Falling into fear and doubt as you build your business is normal, but there are many things you can do to catch yourself before you fall into what I call the Well of Despair. The Well of Despair is that cold, dark, spinning place filled with fear and doubt like…

“Can I really do this?”
“If this really going to work?”
“I’m putting in so much effort and it feels like I’m not getting anything in return.”
“I’m uncomfortable talking about my business because
I’m not where others think I should be and I feel like a failure.”

First, take heart. We’ve all been there, and back again. And while there are many things you can do to climb out of the Well of Despair or keep from falling into it in the first place, one of the most effective is to simply manage your own expectations about your rate of success. I’m defining success in this case as ‘consistent cash flow’ so here’s a time-tested (over 10 years) timeline to cash flow for your online business.

Knowing this timeline will allow you to manage your expectations, relieving fear and doubt that you’re doing things wrong or that you’re not doing enough. It also allows you to plan ahead so you can move faster through each of the phases OR pace yourself as best fits your lifestyle. The timeline also tells you what to focus on now or what to focus on next.

If you’re implementing the relationship model of building your business, it’s important to be prepared for the time it takes to build your business (this is not a get-rich-quick model, but a potentially highly profitable one with sustainability) and to set realistic expectations of when you’ll start to see a profit from your offerings.

Phase 1: Market and Message

You’ll move through Phase 1 typically within the first 3 months in your building your business. This is when you’re focusing on the problems you solve for your market. This includes discovering and defining the biggest challenges your market struggles with, and researching and/or creating the solutions.

Phase 2: Building Your List

Once you’re clear on who your market is and what solutions you offer to them, you’ll move into Phase 2, which is all about building your list. Currently, we’re striving to attract 500-1500 people to our email list by offering them a free sample of what we do. We start this process right after Phase 1 and focus on building the list as part of our on-going marketing efforts.

Phase 3. Making Offers

This is when you start focusing on how to generate an income with your multiple streams. This is typically done from month 7 onward.

This timeline will give you a sense of how long it can take to get to consistent (or even any) cash flow in your business, as well as stave off any frustration and overwhelm you may feel as you get your online business off the ground or continue to build it. Remember, it takes twice as much fuel for a jet to take off as it does to cruise at altitude. It’s the same in your business. You’re putting in more effort in the beginning but you’ll be cruising later.

Of course this is just a typical timeline. You can always move through it faster or slower, depending on your time and efforts.

I go into this Timeline in a lot more detail with my private clients as well as in our L.E.A.P.™ programs, so if you’d like to learn more, go here.

Where are you in the timeline and what’s your next step? I’d love to know so feel free to leave share your thoughts below…

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You may be too busy during the holiday season to notice if your business is slowing down a bit, but in case you’re not, there are several things you can do to use this time to your advantage as you head into the new year.

1. Review your website

Take some time to review your website and make any necessary updates by removing old information and freshening up the rest of your copy. If you have a photo of yourself on your site, consider putting up a new one if your current one is out of date. And here’s a tip for getting more people to sign up for your Free Taste: put a squeeze page in front of your existing site that asks for just name and email address before they enter the rest of your site.

2. Update your Free Taste

Review your free offering and decide if it could use some updating as well. I’m updating mine again now so it will reflect my more finely tuned message and market. If it’s been more than a year since you’re breathed new life into your free taste, my coach’s request is that you do so now.

3. Have a Holiday Sale

If you want to create some cash, consider holding a sale on one, some or all of your products. Everyone’s looking for a break at the holidays, and there most likely are people on your list who have thought about buying one or more of your products or investing in your services, and a discount might just push them to finally doing so.

4. Clean out the clutter

One of the “powers of the Universe” principles I believe in is making space for things to come into my life. So every few months, I get a huge urge to purge (I’m in it now, actually). I go through my desk, filing cabinets, and bookshelves and either toss, give away or organize it. I also make new file folders for the clients yet to come… and it’s always fun to watch them fill up over the next few months.

5. Plan your first offering for the new year and start promoting it now

Decide what your first offering for the new year is going to be and start promoting it in your ezine, social media, or discussion lists (when appropriate), and through your other marketing channels. Having something already set up to look forward to will help keep you motivated after the hub-bub of the holidays.

And one more thing – don’t forget to enjoy yourself. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we find it hard to take a break, but do yourself, your loved ones, and your business a favor by taking some time away from your work and truly focusing on the people you love and the blessings in your life.

How are you making space and opening the flow for the new year? Please share your thoughts on my blog below…

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I’ve been spending a lot of time lately getting ready for 2012 – planning, organizing, strategizing, visioning, and more. There are many transitions and transformations on the horizon for me and my business, and much to do to prepare for them, so I’m making space and opening the flow.

In Part 1 of this article, I shared 3 ways you can make space in your business. Now here are 3 ways I’m opening the flow in my business that you can do too:

1. Escape Email Overwhelm

The number one distraction to moving your business forward by leaps instead of baby steps is email. So here’s my system for handling email overload. If you can practice this 80% of the time, you’ll be way ahead of the game.

a. Delete: scan and delete junk emails first
b. Move: move any emails into an appropriate folder – and create a rule to make that happen automatically
c. Delegate: delegate any emails that should be responded to by someone else
d. Respond: respond to any emails that only YOU can respond to

The goal is to only have emails in your inbox that require action from you!

2. Track your money

One of the easiest ways to open the flow of money in your business is to start tracking exactly how much comes in on a daily basis. I give each of my private clients a money tracking sheet that makes it super-simple for them to implement this tip, but you can create your own very easily.

Just create a simple form that lists the days of the month, with your monthly money goal listed as well. Each day fill in the amount of money that came into your business, and don’t forget to include affiliate payments and any other sources of revenue as well.

Just by paying attention to what’s coming in will open the flow to more, and before you know it, all the days of the month will be filled in with a number!

3. Don’t overbook

When putting together your master plan for 2012, make sure you don’t overbook yourself. If you do, you won’t leave space for other opportunities to show up that you likely aren’t aware of yet.

When I completed my own master plan for 2012, it was complete, but not overbooked. There was time off, as well as space for other exciting possibilities to come up.

How are you making space and opening the flow for the new year? Please share your thoughts below…

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I’ve been spending a lot of time lately getting ready for 2012 – planning, organizing, strategizing, visioning, and more. There are many transitions and transformations on the horizon for me and my business, and much to do to prepare for them, so I’m making space and opening the flow.

Here are some of the ways I’m doing this in my business that you can do too:

1. Clean Up Your Business Time

Time is your only non-renewable resource. If you’ve ever experienced days when you don’t know where the time has gone, but you do know you haven’t accomplished much, then you need to take a serious look at just what is eating up those precious minutes. My coach’s request of you is to track your time for the next two weeks. Like a food diary makes you intensely aware of what you’re eating, a time log will allow you to quickly and easily identify where you’re frittering time away.

Most likely culprits?… Email and TV (yes, I know some of you are ‘watching’ TV while you’re online, and no, that’s not multi-tasking, that’s just pure distraction).

Once you are aware of where your time is going, make a conscious effort to redirect it to more productive – or even more restful – activities. Turn the TV off (or TIVO/DVR whatever it is you must watch and give it your full attention later). And don’t leave your email open all day long! Allot specific time to read and respond to it instead.

You’ll be amazed at how just doing this simple exercise will free up the time you want for more important (and fun!) things. (Be sure to read Part 2 of this article next week where I’ll share more specific and effective tips for handling email overload.)

2. Clean Up Your Business Space

Now is a great time to go through your files – computer and physical – and delete or organize them for moving forward to 2012. I spent several hours going through my physical files recently, shredding lots of documents (I love to purge!), and setting up new files for my new Platinum clients as well as empty files for the ones yet to come. During this process both online and off, I also found a lot of gems I’d forgotten about – pieces of content, systems and processes, tools, resources, audios, and more.

And now that I have a recent visual in my mind of what’s in my files, it’s literally at my fingertips as I move forward in building my business. As for my computer, I actually went so far as to purchase a brand new laptop, and I’m being very discerning about what gets transferred over from my old PC to the new. Energetically and electronically, I can feel how much more open the flow is by doing this.

3. Clean up Your Business Circle

This one can be a bit difficult, but it’s necessary to prune the people you surround yourself with from time to time. It doesn’t mean you have to completely disconnect from them (unless they’re just weighing you down energetically), but do make a conscious choice to spend more time in the company of those who lift you up.

Let me give you a simple example. If you’re on someone’s ezine list just because everyone else is or you feel like you should be, but you either a) don’t read it or b) don’t feel good when you do read it, just unsubscribe and allow the space for something that resonates with you to take its place.

Or maybe you’re part of a mastermind group that you feel you’ve outgrown. Now is the time to graciously bow out. Once you do, you open the space for a new group to form around you that better supports where you are now.

How are you making space and opening the flow for the new year? Please share below…

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As we head into the season of giving, now is a great time to show appreciation to your clients and customers. Taking the time to give thanks to your clients will set you apart, increase loyalty, improve retention, inspire more sales, and deepen relationships that last long after the initial sale.

Here are 10 easy ways you can say thank you to your clients:

1. Greeting Cards

My husband often teases me that I should own stock in Hallmark for the amount of money I spend a year on cards. I love to send cards, for a specific reason or for no reason at all.

For business, you’ve probably heard of SendOutCards (and no, I’m not an affiliate or a distributor). I get a lot of cards this way, from colleagues, and it definitely deepens the relationship for me. And it is a super-easy way for you to do that with your customers too.

2. Personal Notes

I love to send personal notes too. I have specially designed notecards that I send when I just want to connect with someone after a particularly powerful conversation or coaching call, when someone makes an investment in working privately with me, when I’ve made a special connection with someone in person, or when a client just needs a little cheer.

3. Invitations

One of the things you can do for your top clients is to invite them to a special event just for them. It can be a lunch or dinner at an event you’ll all be at, or carve out a portion of your own live event to spend time just with them.

You can also invite them to special teleseminar, webinar, or LiveStream event where you offer them free content just for being your top clients.

4. Small Gifts

Flowers, books, a mug, or something more specific are all thoughtful gifts for clients. They can be sent for certain occasions or just because (that’s actually my favorite way to send a gift).

5. Gift Cards

These days you can get gift cards for almost any product or service. Some companies, like Starbucks, offer having your logo or business name imprinted on them. Other ideas besides coffee include restaurants, movies, bookstores, office supplies and online vendors like Amazon.

6. Referral and Affiliate Rewards

Even if your referral or affiliate programs offer a commission on each referral, sending a personalized note along with it will go further in encouraging your network to continue to promote your offers into the future.

7. Reverse Referrals

Whenever appropriate, refer your clients and customers to others whom they will benefit from. Making this a part of the way you run your business will come back to you ten-fold as it shows the Universe your belief in abundance.

8. Customer Appreciation Days

Pick one day a year to designate as a Customer Appreciation Day to celebrate your clients. Make a special offer only to them and make a lasting impression.

9. Host Events

Host a gathering at the next event where your clients and customers are likely to gather. A Tweetup is a popular way to connect with both current and prospective clients and they are super-simple to set up and cost you nothing but a bit of time. You can also hold a virtual event anytime you want to bring your clients and customers together.

10. Life Events

Weddings, baby showers, major moves, book contracts, big speaking gigs, TV spots, or any other major event warrants an acknowledgment. A nice card or personal note, or even a quick phone call, will make you memorable for sure.

I’d love to know the ways you show appreciation to your clients and customers. Please share them below.

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As I’m wrapping up a slew of private retreats with clients this month, it’s become clear that it’s time for me to get focused on practicing what I’ve been preaching – or more specifically, to put myself through the same intense process and plan that I take my clients through.

This thought popped into my head several times during the retreats, but really came to the forefront of my thinking over the past week or so, as I’ve been making some very big decisions in my business that’s going to majorly shift things going forward.

So, here’s what I’ve noticed that’s going on with me in my business that I’m hoping will shed some light for you as well:

Problem: Not taking action on a particular task.

If you’re finding yourself low on energy around moving forward on a certain project or idea, it pays to take a look inside for the reason why.

I believe that everything is energy. And when I’m stuck – *especially* when I know what to do next – there’s something wrong inside that’s blocking forward movement. Because, after all, I am all about taking action.

Solution: Ask yourself…

1. What’s one thing I coach my own clients on that I can apply to myself?
2. What’s one way I show others how to operate their business that I can apply to my own?
3. What’s one method I teach that I can implement more fully in my own business?

In other words, how can I practice what I preach more thoroughly?

The answers to these simple questions are the key to getting unstuck and moving forward.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this below…

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