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Whilst owning and running your own business can offer you flexibility and control, it can also be lonely and frustrating. When there’s no one in the office with you to brainstorm issues or problems or even to celebrate your latest success, a feeling of isolation and overwhelm can creep in.

A good networking group gives you some camaraderie and you can build some great relationships but essentially its purpose is to gain business. So discussing your challenges or issues with a potential client or those who can refer business to you will probably not be front of mind!

So how can you prevent that feeling of overwhelm or isolation that impacts your success?

The answer is to stay in control of your time and emotions and make sure you surround yourself with the right people.

Here are my three top tips:

1) Make the time to plan achievable tasks

Put time in your diary to plan the following week’s activities to make sure they are relevant and working towards achieving your business goals. Break them down so they are achievable and can be ticked off rather than overrun to the next week.  

2) Do what you do best

You know what you enjoy – anything that makes time fly and gets you the best results! Focus on your strengths, and play to the strengths of others to get more done. The cost of outsourcing or delegating what you don’t enjoy will be worth it as it will take a weight off your shoulders and give you more time to maximise your potential.

3) Hang around with the right people

Negative nellies will bring you down so ditch them for success, action oriented individuals who listen to you, offer inspiration and encourage your success. Create your own board of directors to whom you can turn for expertise, advice and non judgemental support.

 “I needed an environment where I could open up honestly about the challenges I was facing, rather than try and always have my “confident, in control” face on.  dma’s group coaching has met that need head on… A group of like minded business owners, able to share the trials and tribulations of working life, whilst being guided by Denise towards resolving the issues that felt overwhelming but once talked through, finally produced a light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Jo-Anna Francis, Maidstone Virtual Assistant

Looking for action oriented people to hang out with?

Come and try out one of my Step Up Forum coaching groups on Tuesday 9 April.

Visit www.stepupforum.co.uk for more information and to read what members say about their group coaching sessions

To book your place now contact me on 01732 851858 or dm@denisemolloy.co.uk  Places are limited

• Want some help to establish clear business goals with your business partner?

• Is there more potential in the business but it’s just not running as smoothly as it could be? 
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• Want to retire or take a back seat but need to be sure that your partner is ready to take up the reins, or are you biting at the bit to take over the reins but they just don’t know how to let go?

Working with a business partner should give you a sounding board to talk through ideas, share concerns and work through the tough times together. But does it always work out that way for you?

Having a business partner brings its own challenges, even more so if you are a family run business or have set up with a friend. I often find that communication may not be as open as it could be for risk of upsetting the other party.

Avoiding sitting down and talking about the direction of the business and what each of you want from it, means you have less control over the direction of your business. Instead of working in harmony with your partner(s), there could be friction and pulling in different directions, causing personal rifts, frustration and procrastination in decision making.

Business is tough enough as it is so you really want to be pulling in the same direction – where there is least resistance and where inspiration flows! Working towards joint goals brings any potential issues into the open so they can be resolved. You need to know what your business partner wants and how that is in line with, or different to, what you want.

Not taking the time to really talk about the future with business partners is pretty common as you are so focused on running the day to day business and keeping your head above water. Taking time out to discuss the future of your business and your part within it, seems a luxury for which you just don’t have the time!

Trust me – you need to find the time. That’s where I can help. Help you work through your joint business vision and set time bound goals to ensure you are going in the same direction. That’s why I am tailoring my successful Vision Formula Workshop to specifically help business partners get their year in gear – or as it has been fondly renamed by delegates, get your ‘ar.. in gear!’

To encourage two of you to come along and work through joint vision goals, the second delegate comes free. The delegate fee is £87  – so that’s only £43.50 each! I will take a maximum of 8 delegates on the workshop so we have time to talk through specific issues and set clear goals that work for you. That means I only have spaces for 4 sets of business of partners – and one place is already booked.  So email me NOW!

The 3 hour workshop is on Tuesday 12 February 9.30-12.30 at The Hand and Sceptre, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.

You will leave the 3 hour workshop with:

• A core 3 year business vision that clarifies what you both want from your business
• A reality check on where you are now
• Key measurable goals by which to track progress
• An action plan to get you started

Places are limited to 8 delegates – that’s just 4 sets of business partners for just £87 for you both. So email me now or ring me on 01732 851858 to book your place.

I couldn’t let 2012 end without wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

The festive season is a wonderful time to look back over the year and celebrate your successes. It’s also the best time to begin thinking about the things you want to achieve in 2013 and to start putting plans in place to make sure you are on track to accomplish these.

Try using my S-Model to get you thinking about what you can do differently to achieve your goals and gain the quality of life you want:

Step out of your business and make the time to really consider where your business is and where you want it to go in the next year.

Set goals so you can measure your progress and know when you get there. Plan what needs to be done to reach these goals. Whether it’s increasing your marketing, improving your delegation or even reviewing the products or services you offer, be specific about what needs to be done.

Stop doing activities that are not giving you the return you are seeking and are not aligned to your goals. That’s why measurements are so critical to the success of your business – you will know where best to invest your time, money and effort!

Sustain your efforts where you are getting the outcomes you are seeking. If it is working do more of it!

Start taking action! Don’t procrastinate! Prioritise what needs to be done and get started. Taking the first step will result in a natural high from the release of endorphins in your brain and make you happier, spurring you on to take more action!

Step Up! Once you’ve started, remember to make time to regularly review your progress and realign your plans, making sure that you get the support you need to step up your business and stimulate personal and business growth.

Denise Molloy works with owner managers to build a profitable and sustainable business that provides the quality of life you want.  To regularly receive Denise’s tips, sign up here.

In Part 1 of my latest blog series, I asked you to think about where you are and what else you want. Part 2 offered tips to get you started. In my last blog of the series I want to help you make it happen!

So here are my final 3 Tuesday Tips to help you gain more time and get more clients.

Live by your values and build on your strengths to gain the work life harmony you want. Get the balance that is right for you and that is congruent with your values. If fun, growth, security and love for your family are all values you live by, make sure you don’t set goals that contravene them. Be aware of your strengths and play to them, you will be happier in what you do and you will be make it happen.

Surround yourself with a strong team who complement your strengths. Delegate or outsource tasks that you don’t enjoy or for which you don’t want to acquire skills – others will do a better job of it than you and it will work out to be more cost effective in terms of time, and being able to sleep at night!

Don’t dilly dally! Speed of implementation will get results faster and inspire confidence to take the further action that’s needed to step up your business!  In my first blog I promised that if you take time to plan you will get better results, but results only come if you have the courage and confidence and commitment to implement that plan!

Denise Molloy works with owner managers to build a profitable and sustainable business that provides the quality of life you want.  To regularly receive Denise’s tips, sign up here.

Last Tuesday I reflected that you would soon be reviewing your business performance for 2012 and I wanted you to start thinking about the successes you are seeking for 2013.

To set yourself up for success, the motivation to plan and take action is much stronger if it is intrinsic, something that fuels your inspiration from inside to achieve your goals or aspirations.

If you’ve noticed that you’re not achieving all you wanted this year, or you want more, check out my 3 top tips to set the foundations for future growth.

Feel the passion!  If you don’t – you are not setting yourself up for business success. Passion is that fire in your belly, that internal drive that gets you out of bed in the morning and inspires you to work hard to get the results you want from your business.

Establish focus and direction by setting measurable goals that move you towards achieving your vision. Make sure you are working to your own measures of success and not what others expect from you.

Write down your goals – they are your intention to take action and will help you overcome procrastination as you become clear of the direction in which you are heading. Written goals give you faith in yourself, and stating them in the positive gives your subconscious something to act upon. It needs to know what to do to move forward – not what not to do!

Next Tuesday I will offer 3 final steps to help you make it happen.

If you want a helping hand to work out what you want and how to get there, come long to my Vision Formula workshop next Thursday 28th November at Barham Court, Teston, Maidstone ME18 5BZ from 9.30 – 12.30pm

The workshop is for you if you’re a business owner ready to:

• Write and commit to the direction you are choosing for your business
• Crystallise your priorities for action
• Focus on the future profitability of your business

One of my Vision Formula attendees recently said: ”As a new business owner, I found I needed objective, focused guidance. I attended a half day group coaching workshop with Denise … I found her insight and guidance invaluable. Her style is down to earth, genuine and unfussy and she is knowledgeable and practical”.

Reaching mid November, small business owners soon start reflecting on how the year is going. If it is also your financial year end, you will be even more focused on the figures!

I know I’m looking at where my income came from, and asking myself if I can sustain and /or grow that stream of income, and how I can step it up to give more support to current clients whilst attracting new ones.

In my last blog I offered some tips on how to make your time more productive. That was the micro stuff! To really make inroads to be more productive and get more clients, I can promise you that making the time to step out of your business and looking forward to where you want to take it and what you’re committed to doing will help you to step it up, make more time and get more clients.

Building a profitable and sustainable business means stepping out of your business to plan where you want to go and stepping it up by prioritising the actions to get you there. Decision making will come easier and procrastination will reduce as the action you need to take to maximise personal and business growth will be crystal clear.

Start by making time to think about what you really want from your business – your business vision. Over the last year did you have control over where your business went or did you ‘go with the flow’? What do you want to achieve in 2013? How will you measure your success? Be clear on the quality of life you want so that your business fits into your life rather than your life fitting around your business.

Next Tuesday I will be offering some tips how to make that journey easier so that you take action to get more clients.

Meantime, check out my workshop if you want to get your year in gear. You will leave with with:

• A core 3 year business plan
• Key measurable goals
• An action plan to make it happen

Denise Molloy works with owner managers to build a profitable and sustainable business that suits their lifestyle. To regularly receive Denise’s tips sign up here.

On Sunday I was up at 7.30am – unheard of for me, but of course my body clock was telling me it was 8.30am. After changing all the clocks, I walked the dog. I don’t listen to music, I just enjoy the walk in peace – it becomes thinking time for me and it’s when I come up with some of my best ideas!

Every one of us would love to be given an extra hour to think about and focus our energies on where we want to take our business and to inspire action in place of procrastination! There are an abundance of strategies you can use to make more time, but a great starting point is to discover how you are spending your time by taking a reality check.

How are you spending your time?

How many times do you pick up a piece of work and put it down again saying, ‘I can do that later’. Its work that needs to be done but you are not in the mood or there is something more interesting to do? I know I do. But every time we do this, 2-3 minutes is lost, so we only need to do that 20 times and we’ve lost an hour.

A good networking colleague, John Speed, is an IT specialist and often shares with me what’s new on the IT front including useful software. A few weeks ago he told me about Get Harvest, an electronic timesheet (and much more), but I used it just to check out how I was spending my week. I could input very easily how long I was spending on coaching, marketing, admin etc.

It can help in a number of ways:

• By choosing the projects for which you want to track time, it gets you thinking about what is important and where you should be spending time
• You can see how many hours a day you are productive rather than popping out for a coffee etc!
• It really does focus the mind – you actually get more done as you know you are being timed
• You can clearly see what is billable time
• It enables you to generate reports so you can review how you have spent your time. As a result you do things differently to focus your time more productively, or stop beating yourself up as you have discovered you are doing things right!

So give it a go – download it for free for 4 weeks and take that reality check! I promise you will save yourself more than an hour – every week not once a year!

If you want more help to focus your time more productively, take a look at my Laser Coaching - just an hour a month to keep you on track.

Denise Molloy works with owner managers to build a profitable and sustainable business that suits their lifestyle. To regularly receive Denise’s tips sign up here.

Sorry – this offer has now expired!

Well, it’s my birthday tomorrow and whilst I won’t be sharing my age –

I am sharing part of my Step Up programme
FREE!

FOR 48 HOURS ONLY

AND… if you are one of the first 5 to apply there is a

BIG ADDITIONAL BONUS FOR TAKING ACTION NOW!

• Need to clarify what you want from your business and where you want to take it? You may be a new start up or have been established for a while and need focus and direction to step it up!
• Lost some motivation and want an injection of inspiration to propel you forward? The spark is missing and you need to reignite that fire in the belly.
• Want to stop procrastinating and take action? Indecision is getting you nowhere; you are getting frustrated and overwhelmed and need to do something about it.

Well not for long if you read on and sign up now for my

FREE birthday gift to you!

So what do I get for free?

FREE access to Module 1 of my online Step Up programme focused on determining ‘What Do You Want?’ from your business. The module will take you less than an hour to complete, at a time that suits you, but gives you clarity and focus on what you want from your business and a reality check on where you are now in building the business you want.

My clients tell me these questions really inspire them to think about why they went into business in the first place, how well they are achieving their goals and what they need to do differently to get the results they want.

The module will help you work out what is important to you, your priorities, and what you need to do to grow your business to suit your lifestyle. Writing down your thoughts brings your goals and aspirations to life and reignites that fire in your belly!

FREE access to the on line Step Up Accountability module in which you record the action you are committing to take to achieve your goals. The written word is powerful in propelling you into action and regularly checking your progress keeps you on track to meet your goals. Recording your successes inspires you to do more, to step out of your comfort zone and stretch for growth.

FOR THE FIRST 5 TO APPLY…….
FREE online coaching for 4 weeks!

You get me – giving you the support you need to take the action to which you’ve committed – a supportive yet challenging sounding board to inspire you into action.

Why am I giving it away?

Well it’s my birthday and I’m feeling generous! Plus, I really want more small business owners to experience the power of coaching to help you realise your goals, build your confidence to get out there and do it, and know that you don’t have to go it alone!

So sign up NOW and help me celebrate my birthday! Don’t wait as this offer is available for less than 48 hours!

REMEMBER if you are one of the first 5 to register, your commitment to taking action earns you an additional bonus of 4 weeks online coaching!

It’s only open until MIDNIGHT on my birthday
WEDNESDAY 17 OCTOBER SO SIGN UP NOW!

Just register below and I will be in touch. There’s no catch – I promise!

Always near the top of the list of obstacles to success for small business owners is not having enough hours in the day. This leads to procrastination – you don’t know what to do first and start feeling overwhelmed as you get stuck!

Take a moment to think about why you went into business in the first place. Do you recall looking forward to having more control over your time so you could spend quality time with the family at the weekend, or go away for a few days with friends?

If you have attended my Vision Formula Workshop you know that we work on how your business fits in with what is important in your life; where your business is now and where you want it to be.

Once you have that plan in place you just need to get on and do it! Work through these steps to get back control of your day and give yourself space to think about what’s important, so you can get it done!

Step 1 Plan your time by thinking through the outcome you are seeking. Refer to your business vision and aspirations. Be clear it is time well spent and is taking you towards your goals. I like to work out a monthly, weekly then daily plan.

Step 2 Prioritise what needs to be done. Consider the benefits of doing a task and the consequences of not. Then decide if they are essential and the timescales required.

Step 3 Record the tasks to be done in a way that suits the way you like to work. If you are kinaesthetic you probably prefer a paper and pen method. I know I much prefer to sit down with my diary and work out what I need to do when. If you enjoy techie stuff and playing on your ipad or smart phone – use that!

Step 4  Have a good look at each of the tasks and think hard if they really need to be done .What would happen if you ignored a particular task? What are the benefits of doing it? Cross out anything that isn’t essential and for which you cannot see a benefit – STOP doing it!

Step 5 Identify what you have to do but would rather not! For items that need to be done but you don’t enjoy and regularly put off, look around and see who else could do them. There will be someone who actually enjoys doing it, can do it faster and dare I say, even better!  It might be your accounts – invoicing, chasing outstanding invoices – or marketing. If you can delegate – do so! You may say ‘but I can’t afford to’. Before you do, make some enquiries; you could be pleasantly surprised as specialists take fewer hours to do the job plus it takes the stress away from you. It will give you more time to do what you do best and enjoy – another reason you set up a business!

Step 6  For the essential items you have to undertake, keep them on your  list and touch them every day. By making progress every day, if only for 10 minutes, it will get done. Make the task an appointment in your diary rather than a task – you wouldn’t miss an appointment with a customer; treat this the same. To avoid procrastination make it the first appointment of the day to get it out of the way.

Step 7 Make a plan for the weekend that includes your leisurely pursuits then you won’t have time to work! Write a list of all the things you want to do but have put off as you haven’t had time.  You are now making time so put them in your calendar and enjoy!

DON’T MISS OUT! For those that need that extra bit of help and support to stay on track, keep an eye out for my Birthday Bonus – coming soon.

Denise Molloy specialises in working with owner managers to build a sustainable and profitable business that suits their lifestyle.