Time that you treat as the most important and valuable in your day or week. This is time you don’t juggle around for anything but emergencies.

We all have time that we waste each day, whether it be from watching television, or grabbing an extra nap, there is time that you can devote just to your business.

How much time do you currently spend doing the things you know will give you more energy, consciousness, inspiration, and motivation to manifest the life you want?

Believe it or not, doing things that are energy producing such as exercise, eating right and taking care of yourself will add time into your day, rather than detract from it. So the first thing you need to do in order to ensure that you have sacred time for your business is take care of yourself! Ensure that you do the things you know you should do to take care of your mind and body and spirit so that you have plenty of mental and physical energy left to complete your commitments.

How often have you read about a great technique or exercise and you did not implement it, simply because you never make the time to follow through with a priority?

The next step to ensuring you have sacred time for your business is to actually make the time to implement a new technique when you learn it. How many times have you purchased a product or became involved in a service and never follow-up with what you learned? I know I have and that’s just a waste of time.

Daily Calendar friend or foe

When you learn a new process commit to it. The only way you can do this is to put it into your calendar in writing. Your calendar, your daily planner, is your friend. This is what you need to live and die by, when trying to organize your home business. If something is not written in your calendar, you’re less likely to follow through. If you write it down, you will treat it as important and do it. I often use Google’s free Calendar, it’s easy and convenient and I have it set up to send me email reminders!

Now what do I mean by “sacred time”?

I mean that you treat this allotted time as if it were an important meeting with someone ready to hand you over thousands of dollars just to attend. If you’re a coach, it no different then the time you set up with meeting with your coaching clients. I know you wouldn’t skip the coaching session because you got involved in a Facebook chat or decided to send a few more tweets. You only reschedule if it’s an important family emergency. Don’t interrupt your work time for a movie, coffee with friends, or to watch television. Think of how you accomplish so much at your job. You accomplish a lot because you have a set work schedule. A time in which you are expected to perform your job. If you treat your business the same way, setting aside specific working times, and don’t deviate unless it’s a true emergency in other words treat it just as you would a job then you’re on the right path.

You’re not going to have a home business if you don’t work in your home business. Much the same as you won’t have a job if you don’t perform at work!

The more you value this time, the more you will learn how to appreciate yourself so that you can manifest a business and life that you love!

Create a Plan – Plan one positive action for the day, before you start your morning routine. This will get you off to a great start each morning. Some ideas are to exercise, or eat a healthy breakfast. Other ideas are to say three nice things to yourself and others each morning. It’s up to you how you will carry out the positivity and totally dependent upon your personal goals. But if you have a plan you’ll be more likely to be successful.

Take Time in the Morning – Spend at least 10 minutes relaxing before heading out to face the day. Don’t roll out of bed and rush to the office, even if the office is simply in the other room. It is very important to take time out, at least ten minutes to relax with the paper, a cup of tea, or a soak in the tub. Getting up a bit earlier so that you don’t have to rush will create a positive vibe throughout your day and immediately reduce stress by not starting your day off with the production of stress.

Take Time in the Evening – Reflect on the day’s events and spend 10 minutes planning for tomorrow. It’s very important that you carve out the time for yourself to plan for the next day as well as think about how your day went. Think about the good and the bad, but only give yourself a specific amount of time to focus on it so that you can move on to the next thing and make plans for tomorrow.

Don’t be a People Pleaser – Quit playing the “I must please everyone” role. This is a role that many people take on themselves, especially mothers and wives. We are naturally prone to wanting to please those we love and sometimes even people we don’t even like! Good thing is that you can stop it right now. There is absolutely no reason to be a people pleaser. You don’t have to be mean to people, but ensure that you know why you are saying YES to anything you say Yes to and the reason best not be just to please the other person.

Stay Calm — When you feel stress, stop and take 10 breaths before proceeding. Just taking the time to breath can reduce a lot of stress. It might be hard to believe but most people don’t breath correctly. To breath correctly you must breath into your diaphragm filling your lungs with air, your abdomen should rise and fall, not just your chest. Try breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth for ten practiced breaths when you feel nervous, stressed, or just tired.

Positive Stress is Good — Remember that not all stress is bad, but all stress has the same effect on your body. Some stress can encourage you to try harder. For instance if you feel stress about a test, or about a report that you need to turn in, or even about a fun party, you’ll automatically work harder to either do well, or to have fun. Stress can be a huge motivating factor in your life if you learn to use it correctly.

Pushing yourself to work too hard, staying up too late, eating too much, or constantly worrying are not only stressful to the mind but to the body and can lead to heart disease, cancer and a variety of life altering illnesses. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s your choice. Be good to yourself and to your business by doing small things every day to live a stress free life.

So here’s a question only you can answer. What’s the fire behind your business?

Make marketing a priority?

Is marketing first on your list each and every week? Not just the weeks you feel like making extra money or the weeks that you find yourself low on cash. When you’re not consistent with your marketing it shows. Marketing is all about making the connection. Clients and potential clients have the uncanny ability to pick up on that vibe of desperation

Whether you have a services business or you sell products it is vital that you spend every moment of the time you’ve set aside for work, working, whether that is client work, administrative tasks, or marketing.

Here’s an important point. Client work puts money in your bank account today, but marketing or connecting with clients puts money in your bank account tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that…

So what’s next?

If you don’t have enough clients follow the 80/20 rule put 80% of your effort in marketing. If you’ve set aside 5 hours a day to work, and you have 1 hour of client work. Then you have four hours left. Spend at least 3 to 3.5 hours on marketing. If you do not have all the clients you want to have, and you’re not marketing well to quote a Michael Jackson song “(I’am) starting with the man in the mirror.”

If your running your business like a business then market your business just as you would any 9 – 5 job (not just when you feel like marketing). Sometimes working from home starts to feel like a hobby so it is imperative that you treat your business as what it is, a business — not a hobby.

One final point.

You may be thinking well what do I do how should I market, what is the best way to market. It doesn’t matter if you do in person networking, use social media, SEO, or buy ads. What is more important is that you DO IT. If you hate networking and you try to force yourself to network you may get out there to meet new people a couple of times but you won’t be consistent. On the other hand if you love in-person networking but hate social media then network. If you take pleasure from social networking, spend some of your time doing that. But, on the other hand if you hate article marketing, outsource it if you can. If you can’t outsource due to limited funds right now, make it a goal to outsource eventually. Because it’s the consistency that makes people stand up and take notice and ultimately connect with your message and purchase your products or services.

Once you create a marketing plan, spend most of your time marketing in ways that are most enjoyable for you.

Remember to stick with your plan. Just like you plan how many calories you will eat each day when you are on a diet, it is important to plan not only how much you will work each day, but to plan exactly what you will do each day with time for maximum effort in attracting more clients.

Have fun. Marketing is fun when you doing what you love and you’re connecting with people who love what you have to offer.

We are the best, the smartest, the greatest and you really can’t go wrong if you select us … blah blah blah.” Zzzzzzz ….you’re putting me to sleep already.

Hate to say this, but… SO WHAT! Nobody cares

In marketing you learn to expound on benefits not features, and with your clients you need to learn to provide solutions to their problems rather than information that only gives more questions. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that your clients don’t even want service, they want solutions to their problems. Yes, provide good customer service but if you provide the right solutions there won’t be any need for anything else.

Your clients don’t care about information they care about solutions. If you study your target audience enough then you know exactly what solutions they need. It’s up to you to figure out how to provide those solutions. The fact of the matter is that solutions are what will sell your clients, not more information. Everyone is in information overload today, they want their problems solved.

They don’t want information, they are looking for solution that will solve their problems. Ask yourself what are your client’s problems and how can you create solutions for those problems. What do your clients fear, how can you protect your clients from that fear or eliminate that fear? What do your clients care about, give them exactly what they care about and you’ll not only attract more clients you’ll keep more clients. Client attraction only works if you’re doing the work to keep the ones you have happy and by providing solutions you will do just that.

You can give tons of information to a client but the nuts and bolts are that the client really wants you to solve their problem, fill their need, answer their prayers, and be a solution. Think of it this way — People do not want to buy a computer software, they want to do their books. They don’t want to, higher a caterer, they want to have worry free fun party with family and friends. It’s really that simple, provide your current clients with solutions, and ensure that your future clients understand that you solve problems.

If you’re a service provider you don’t provide services, you give free time and organization. Your clients want free time and to be organized, they don’t want a typist, or a writer, they want someone who gives them more time. As a service provider you offer that. If you’re a coach, you give your clients the tools to lose weight, start a business, or whatever your expertise may be, you fill that need with a solution that gets results for the client not take more of their time providing even more information.

If you can practice describing what you do in terms of the solutions you provide and the benefits you offer rather than the features and information you have you’ll attract new clients, retain more clients and be busier than you’ve ever been before. Try writing down the solutions you provide your clients right now so you won’t forget

You see your next money making opportunity could be right under your nose. You’re just may be too close to your own life to recognize it. The fact is anything that you have a lot of knowledge and passion about can be a way to make money; you just need to research it to be sure you want to do it. And if you don’t believe me just do a Google search on any topic.  I’ll bet you’ll find somebody that has had the keen thinking to make it a business.

The secret sauce it research who the target market is (probably people like you) and research how others are earning money in the niche.  Now here are a few ideas on how to begin.

1. Make a List — Creating a list of your favorite hobbies and interests is a good way to get started figuring out what your passion is from which you can start earning money. What do you already do today that could possibly earn money? Add each item to your list and start doing the research to find out how you can earn money from something you already love.

2. Examine Long-term Interests — Is there anything you’ve enjoyed, loved, or valued for a long time? Any activity that you can’t stop doing, whether it costs money or not? Whether you’re simply a fan of something or good at something it doesn’t matter. You can look at each of these factors and add them to your list of items to research as a possibility of income opportunities.

3. What Do You Talk About? — Make a list of things that dominate your conversations because that will give you a clue to finding your money making passion. There are many people online making money right now from what they already know. You don’t have to know everything, even if you’re just a beginner, there are others who haven’t yet begun who need to know what you know.

4. Go Online — Start your research online, and end with your business online. Use Google to research the different ideas that you listed from above and find out what others are doing to make money from that niche. Don’t be afraid of competition, in fact, you want competition. If you discover a niche with no competition delve deeper because it might not be a good money maker. Competition is good because that means people are making money.

5. Find a Mentor — Once you’ve identified a few opportunities it’s time to find a mentor or a coach that can help your clarify and go to the next level. It might seem strange to pay someone to push you to that new level but it works a lot better than asking friends or family because they are too close to the situation to do enough justice to your business ideas. A coach or mentor will tell you the truth because they aren’t tied into the relationship but only the goal to help you achieve success.

The one thing you need is an open mind, the courage to do it and a bit of guidance.  That’s it!  Now the rest is up to you.

It’s so easy to get sucked into games like Farmville some make call it “networking”, but if you find yourself so engrossed in games you lose all track of time I’d call it a time vampire. It’s kinda like being in an office spending too much time at the proverbial water cooler gossiping when you really should be completing a project.

But before I give you any tips let me warn you, if you try to juggle 100 things a day you probably juggling 100 things badly and even more importantly you’re actually doing is juggling your life badly.

If you really want to make things happen, you’ve got to have an emotionally compelling reason that drives you. Without a compelling reason it’s a lot more difficult to keep focused on track and productive. Many people find it easy to confuse activity with productivity. Activity without focus is not likely to end in accomplishment.

Productivity turns into profit. Given enough time and consistency, it turns into even larger profits.

Here are your top 5 time management tips.

1. Start with a Date

Start with the END date of when your project or product is due and work your way backward giving yourself a specific amount of work to do each day. If you don’t get something completed Don’t beat yourself up. This is so important because when you do that it a distraction and a trick of the ego, who is busily trying to keep you safe by keeping you where you are right now. So Set the DATE.

2. Break it Down

Break the project down into smaller more manageable steps. For instance, if you want to write a 30,000 word book you by a certain date, count the days until then, be honest about how many of those days you will work, schedule it by writing the what you’re going to do on a calendar. So maybe it’s 1000 words a day or 500 words a day 5 days a week now you know exactly when you’re project will be complete. So that books now feels more manageable because it’s doesn’t take a lot to write 1000 words a day. 30,000 words sounds like a lot, but what if it’s only 1000 words a day? Your book will be done in a month! (BTW 1000 words is only about 2 pages)

3.Avoid the Social Traps

Whether it’s online, or offline, avoid social traps. This is especially true for people who work from home. It’s easy to let your friends and family to take up your time. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you don’t overschedule and include enough free time so everybody is happy. It’s your schedule, you can control it.

4. Turn off Technology

Constantly checking email, Twitter, Facebook and the next best thing in social media can fast become a huge time-sucking gremlin. When you’ve set aside the time to do a specific task, do that task. Schedule time to check your email, and visit and interact with social networking sites.

5. Set a Routine

Setting a routine gets you into a habit of getting things done. More even importantly getting the right things done at the right time. One of my tools is a daily list that I write down at least 5 things to get accomplished. Anytime I find myself doing things out of sequence or just getting distracted with the internet I go back to my list and re-focus complete an activity on the list. Without it I find myself busily distracted and unable to get things accomplished.

Now it’s your turn to get er done.

· Set a date

· Break it down

· Avoid social traps

· Turn off technology

· Set a routine

We only have one shot at each day so let’s make the best of it.

]]> http://www.attractclientsoutofthinair.com/client-attraction/attract-more-clients-with-a-winning-mindset/02/feed/ 1 http://www.attractclientsoutofthinair.com/goals/the-wealthy-retiree-retire-or-reinvent/01/ http://www.attractclientsoutofthinair.com/goals/the-wealthy-retiree-retire-or-reinvent/01/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:35:08 +0000 admin http://www.attractclientsoutofthinair.com/?p=941 As a savvy boomer you’re probably doing your due diligence asking yourself if you plan to retire or reinvent. A boomer is not an old person who is near death. Boomers are vibrant, alive, and active and often want more out of life and truly examine deep needs before making a choice. If you choose to start a business it’s important to figure out what you want from that business so that you can choose correctly. There are key question to ask yourself when making the choice to retire or reinvent.

1. Create a goal – A good goal is one that you can name, and achieve. Goals should be both achievable and realistic but also challenging. It should also be specific. “Increase newsletter sign ups by 80% in 30 days.” From that you can get an actual number.
2. Craft tactics – Once you know your specific goal, then you can develop tactics, and tasks to reach that goal. Such as: “I will run a PPC campaign for 15 days”. With that tactic you’ll have many tasks to accomplish such as: creating the sales page, creating the advertisement, choosing the keywords, setting up your newsletter and so forth.
3. Accomplish tasks – Tasks come from the tactics you choose. Schedule tasks each day with your goals in mind using the tactics you decided upon. You have 30 days to accomplish your goal, so on day one you will create a sales page, day two you will create the advertisement, day three you’ll send out some tweets and blogs, day four you’ll decide upon keywords based on keyword research, and so on, until finally you’re running the PPC campaign.
4. Evaluate Metrics — For instance let’s assume you have 30 newsletter subscribers when you start. This means that you must increase your newsletter subscribers to 54 (30 * .08 + 30 = 54 -30 = 24) in 30 days. This means that you need to get almost one new subscriber each day of your campaign.  If the tactics you’re using aren’t achieving that, then you need to adjust.
5. Repeat — If something works, do it again, and again. No need to recreate the wheel when it works. If you choose to change something change only one small piece at a time and give time to see the results of your efforts.

Many marketers run two different campaigns at a time with two different sales pages that are only slightly different to see which words, colors, and style works best. This can work for you too, and it is a good way to test and evaluate if your work is effective or not. So let’s repeat here the steps:

1. Create a goal
2. Craft tactics
3. Accomplish tasks
4. Evaluate metrics
5. Repeat

As you can see, breaking things down to steps and scheduling each day to achieve each step will eventually lead you to achieving your goals. Keeping track of the results of each task will further encourage you to keep going, or to change tactics.

However, there’s a work-around. Maybe you’ve heard of the term, “heuristic.” Heuristics are rules that allow a solution to be found more quickly. With a heuristic, a resolution can be found even when the entire path isn’t clear from the onset.

For example, if there were no roads, but you lived in New York and wanted to make your way to California, you might try to:

1. Walk west as far as you can.
2. Walk around any obstacle, if possible.
3. If faced with a mountain range, walk toward the space between 2 small peaks.
4. Repeat until reaching California.

Does this experiment give you the most efficient solution? No; however, it will get you where you want to go as long as you know travel west.

Try these strategies to increase your productivity:

1. Choose the right time. Nearly everyone has times of the day when they are most effective and times when they tend to drag. It’s smart to schedule the most critical tasks for your most effective time of the day.
2. Toss it. If a task doesn’t really need to be done, just get rid of it altogether.
3. Get the bad stuff out of the way. Do the unpleasant items quickly and as early in the day as possible.
4. Set a goal each day (or night). In the morning, decide what you want to accomplish that day. This can be even more effective when planned the night before. Once you have a sense of direction, you can spend all your time getting things done!
5. Eliminate all communication. While you’re working, turn off the phone / cell phone, and don’t check your email. Hang a sign that says, “Do not disturb,” if necessary. You don’t have to do this for all your tasks, but at least do it during the more difficult items.
6. Batch similar tasks together. Do all your emailing at one time. Make all your phone calls at another. Open your snail mail during a set block of time. You’ll waste less time by doing your work in this fashion.
7. Set a timer. Even if a task might take hours, starting will seem easier if you simply give yourself 30 minutes to get as much done as you can. A time limit seems to help many people concentrate and work better, too.
8. Set targets. For example, if you have to make cold-calls for your sales job, tell yourself that you’re not getting up for any reason until you’ve made at least 100 calls. Regardless of what happens, refuse to stop until you hit your target
9. Use the Pareto Principle. This principle states that 20% of the actions you could take will provide you with 80% of the benefits. So focus on the tasks that will accomplish the most. Unfortunately, these are frequently the tasks that are not enjoyable. You might be surprised how little you really have to do if you focus on the critical 20%.
10. Delegate some of your work. Is there anyone else who can help you? The people around you are resources. When appropriate, use their time and talents wisely to get things done more quickly.
11. Set a deadline. Having a specific endpoint will really help to focus your time and energy. If a task doesn’t feel necessary, chances are that it won’t get done.
12. Increase your speed. It sounds silly, but this can really help. Try doing everything a little faster. Walk faster, talk faster, type faster, and read faster.

Implement these strategies into your daily life and you’ll find yourself getting more done in less time. The ultimate secret is to stay on task and not waste any time. These rules will help you do ju