Before my business evolved into what it is now, I was trading my time for money, dollars for hours. As a website designer and developer, I charged by the hour. As a writer/editor, I charged by the hour. As a public relations and marketing consultant, I charged by the hour.
Do you see the problem here?
There are only so many hours in the day, right? And if I wanted to pay the rent, I needed the majority of them to be billable hours, which left little to no time for marketing. As you can imagine, without the time to market my business, I struggled to get clients.
But I don't struggle anymore, and here's why: it's called leverged income – multiple streams of leveraged income – that enables me to work with much fewer (but more of my ideal) clients one-on-one, and gives me much more time for marketing and growing my business with a lot less effort.
Okay, so what exactly can YOU do to step struggling, to stop trading time for money, so you can actually work less and make more?
Here are three quick tips Im delighted to share with you:
(For even more details on how I broke the 6-figure mark while only working about 8 hours a week this past year, leaving me plenty of time to spend with my preschooler, her baby brother, and my husband, join me for a FREE one-time-only teleseminar Tuesday, February 17th. Register here:
http://www.clientabundance.com/tagpreviewcall.htm)
(more…)
What's a Niffler, you ask?
Well, if you've read Happy Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you might remember that a Niffler is a critter that hunts treasure. Once it finds one treasure, it moves on quickly in search of the next prize.
Do you do the same thing in your business? Meaning, are you a constant gatherer of the things that you think will move your business ahead, but not so much the implementer of them? Do you get distracted by anything and everything that's new in your industry? Do you come up with one great idea after another, but you never fully commit to completing one of them?
Yes? I hate to break it to you, but there's probably a bit of Niffler in you! You could also call it distractibility-disorder or failure-to-follow-through or fear-of-success/failure, or focus-challenged… but personally, I like having a bit of Niffler in me. It means I'm still passionate about what I'm doing, I'm still excited about learning new things, and I'm still interested in what's happening in my industry, which lends to my ultimate success.
But what can happen is that all those ideas and thoughts and half-completed projects don't move my business forward. For example, when I started my own business almsot 8 years ago ago, there was a fraction of the business-building technology and tools available that there are now. And it's so easy to want to jump on the cutting-edge bandwagon. But at some point, if I didn't focus on actually completing things, I'd still be spinning my wheels instead of driving in the fast lane.
So, how do you tame the Niffler in you?
The strategy that has worked the best for me (not 100% of the time, but close enough) has been to keep an Idea Log. The one I have now is just an old-fashioned composition book, and whenever I have a new idea or thought about something I want to do related to my business, I just jot it down in my Idea Log. Then I go back to working on my current project that I am committed to completing. I know my ideas are saved there for me so I won't forget them, and eventually I do go back and refer to what I've written and choose some to work on.
What this also does, besides helping me to maintain my focus, is it stops me from wasting time on ideas that ultimately don't fit into my business. Many ideas end up almost self-selecting themselves out by virtue of time. So by keeping my focus on the ultimate treasure, I don't get side-tracked by fool's gold… 🙂
If you think you have a little Niffler in you, try this idea and enjoy a dramatic increase in your own productivity!
© 2008 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
Me: I'm done…. (to hubby after arriving home from Ali Brown's Online Success Blueprint Workshop)
Him: With what? (read: uh-oh…)
Me: I'm done with thinking, playing, being small. I know I've been saying this for awhile, but it really became clear to me at the workshop – I'm so done with the piddly stuff. No more…
…and on (and on..) the conversation went. Here are three of the main shifts in my thinking (and feeling and being) I've made from my experience at the workshop.
1. I'm not a joiner…
That may surprise you, if you know me at all. I love people, I love being a part of 'stuff', and my daughter definitely has my 'I'm afraid I'm going to miss something…' gene… 😉
And I don't know if it's the fact that I've literally left my house on only 3 occasions in the last three years (while I focus on tending to two little ones) – and thus 'it's the hermit life for me' has become innate, but it became very clear to me how much an individual I am at this event – in a good way. Meaning that I've become very comfortable and confident in my own skin, in who I am as a person, both personally and professionally, without even realizing it.
Mindshift: My success is not based on the 5 people I surround myself with. It's based on me.
That being said…
2. I'm not a competitor…
If you've been reading this ezine for awhile, you may have read my 'Turn Your Competitors into Collaborators' article (maybe even more than once, as I keep reprinting it due to the amount of positive responses it always receives).
So, although this wasn't necessarily a new 'a-ha' for me, being at this event and meeting so many success-driven AND purposeful business owners validated my belief in abundance, that there is more than enough for everyone – and then some.
Here's something that Ali said that summed up how I feel very succinctly:
Mindshift: I don't compete. I don't compare. I just am.
Yup. Take that one to heart, please – it's incredibly freeing.
3. I'm not your average mompreneur
Ok, this one wasn't a huge relevation, but what was was that I got to meet a bunch of other 'not your average mompreneurs' at Ali's event, like Alexis Martin Neely, Sheri McConnell, MaryPat Kavanagh, Sarah Robinson, Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, and several others. (Google these amazing women to find out what they're up to…)
I'm grateful to be in such amazing company, and to know that this special group of women I've had a passion for supporting when I first started out in 2004 with www.EntreMoms.com is finally coming into its own. Amen!
Mindshift: I'm not the only one who is building an empire while raising a family.
So what do these mean? For me, it means that the vision I had for my business when I started out was too small. It means that there's an opportunity for me to make a much bigger impact that I ever conceived possible before. It means that I'll be making bigger and better decisions about 'what next' going forward.
It means I'm done playing small. What about you?
Every once in a while, something comes along that "changes the game"…
It’s rare, but it does happen.
Well, one such item recently came across my desk, and I suddenly realized, "Wow this is unprecedented. This is new. This is groundbreaking."
What is it?
It’s a brand new book (and teleseminar series…more on that in a
moment) by my friend and colleague, Dr. Larina Kase, called…
The Confident Leader: How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional
http://www.confidentleaderbook.com/alicia
The Confident Leader combines cutting-edge research and on-the-ground experience to give you a formula for…
…consistently and reliably breaking through your comfort zone — at will.
Larina has actually "cracked the code" to breaking through your comfort zone, predictably and with scientific precision, and backs that statement up with over 10 years of research (she’s a Doctor of Psychology and served as a clinical faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania).
Countless clients of hers are breaking through to new levels of achievement that they previously considered impossible.
Youll also find interviews with business leaders such as Seth Godin, Tim Sanders, Joe Vitale, and 7 additionally incredible authors and experts.
She’s also a giver. So today, when you pick up your copy of The Confident Leader, she’ll be giving you access to:
1. An unprecedented LIVE 11-part Confident Leadership Telesummit with world-class experts in business, self-development, and leadership.
2. A selection of exclusive bonus gifts that Larina hand-picked herself from highly qualified and respected experts (definitely not the typical overload of bonuses no single human being could ever actually utilize 🙂
I’m happy to say that I’m one of the bonus contributors. It’s wonderful to participate in promoting such an important and groundbreaking book.
This is truly too remarkable a book (and overall offer) to miss:
http://www.confidentleaderbook.com/alicia
You’ll be very, very glad you did (and a better, more confident leader because of it). I know I’ll be implementing Larina’s formula to elevate my status to being an exceptional leader in my market. How about doing the same in yours?
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