“So what exactly do you want?” I asked.

“What I’d like is for people to do the job they’re supposed to do, the way they’re supposed to do it.”

“Which means?” I asked.

“To do something beyond the minimum: to go the extra mile for the company. Everybody expects something for nothing.”

“Don’t you?”

“Hey, I earn my money,” Mr. Lansdorf insisted. “I go way beyond the minimum.”

“And it gets you?”

“Nothing, that’s the point. It gets me nothing.”

“So how long are you going to keep doing that?”

“Not much longer, believe me.”

“But you want others to go beyond the minimum: without putting something it in for them? Aren’t you the one who’s expecting for something for nothing?”

“I want people to do what they should do.”

“So what we’re talking about is morality and ethics? What people should do?”

“Exactly.” he said.

“So as a manager, your ability to manage is based upon people doing what they should do?  Otherwise you can’t get the results you want?”

“No of course not. Nobody does what they should. At least nobody in my company.”

“So wouldn’t you be better off trying to find a way to get the results you need with the people you’ve got rather than the perfect people who do what they should and apparently don’t exist. Or at least don’t exist in your company?”

“Obviously.”

Obviously. Bingo! I thought. I felt like Socrates: elucidating my point with just the right questions. Of course later someone reminded me of the famous report given by a third-grader: “Socrates was a Greek philosopher who went around giving people advice. They poisoned him.” So much for the Socratic method.

Obviously, Lansdorf said. If it was so obvious why had he been asking his people to go the extra mile when there was really no advantage in it for them? Even if they went along in order to stay on his good side, how enthusiastic would they be?

You Can’t Sell an Empty Glass

Why do we all so frequently act like Mr. Lansdorf? Trish asks her boss to go out of his way for her and help get her promoted. There’s nothing in it for him. If anything, losing Trish will make his job more difficult. He’s a nice guy. He may help her. But wouldn’t he go along far more willingly if he was doing it to gain another ally in management; or to earn points with the company for having developed another manager; or to free up Trish’s spot so he can reward and keep from losing that great new talent he’s been grooming on the rung below hers.

It’s obvious: you can’t sell anybody anything if you don’t offer them some benefit. You can’t motivate anyone by offering them an empty glass. It’s obvious: and we all forget it. Constantly. We hope ethics or morality or religion or character will make up for the lack of incentive.

Does your idea of character tell you that when there’s little or nothing in it for you that you should devote yourself unstintingly to providing for someone else’s welfare? If so please call, I’ve got a job for you.

Tip: If I believe that playing by your rules, systems, procedures, traditions or morality guarantees that I’m going to lose, do not expect me to play by them.

Bosses who tell you they can’t hire good workers are usually telling you they’re poor bosses. They’re telling you they aren’t providing sufficient incentive for people to meet their standards. Or if they have provided the incentive, they haven’t provided sufficient nuts and bolts, real-world training and direction, leaving their people wanting to climb the mountain but without a clear enough trail to follow.

To mix metaphors a bit, they aren’t adding enough water to the glass.

However – if you know or you’ve heard about it – you can skip this section and scroll to the next main heading called:

What Can You as a Business Owner Learn From “The Harlem Shake”??

A Little History

Back in 1981 a street dancer from Harlem (who never wanted to be hugely famous) called Al B was the one who came up with the original Harlem Shake dance move to entertain crowds in the same way you have street entertainers in Covent Garden in London’s West End.

Fact is, he used to entertain the crowd at the Rucker tournament, which is a legendary basketball league in Harlem.

So what is it?

The best way to describe the “Authentic” Harlem Shake – it’s a derivative of body popping
with sharp shoulder side to side locking movements.

If you’re really interested you can find some experts on YouTube to demonstrate it for you

here’s a link you can click to watch AFTER you’ve read this article

http://bit.ly/TheRealHarlemShake

The dance style gathered some momentum in the nineties but it didn’t ever go mainstream and was confined to its urban hip-hop roots… until this year…

…well sort of.

The Harlem Shake today is a lampoon (some would say a horrid mutation) of a respected urban hip-hop street dance that ironically bears no resemblance to the original created back in the early eighties.

However the free style lampooned version adopted by the masses does follow a set of rules.

a. One person dances in a room (I use the term “dances” very loosely) where people mull around totally ignoring them

b. After about 15 seconds, the shot cuts to the whole room joining in and doing some random movement or body expression loosely referred to as dance.

c. Every video uses the same music track

d. People generally wear costumes, helmets or anything that makes them look ridiculous

e. The video sequence should not be more than thirty seconds

f.  Apart from the above rules the rest is left to people’s imagination

And the hook is – you never know what you’re going to see next when you press that play button.

People spend thousands of hours trying to out do each other with the most outlandish video “Harlem Shake” sequences and load them up to YouTube while the rest of the world sits with baited breath waiting to be entertained.
.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way – I’m going to delve much deeper and ask you a poignant question?

What can you as a business owner learn from “The Harlem Shake”??

I’m not talking dance moves or video production – I’m talking real world business.

So lets get down to business about this “shake” thing.

Like most people, I became more and more inquisitive when I first heard about this craze.

Then after my discovery, my curiosity suddenly turned to bewilderment.

To be honest – I really had to dig deep – but I managed to put my personal feelings aside because I believed there was a lesson to be learned.

I remember a friend told me many years ago that your mind is like a parachute – it works best when it’s open.

I guess you’ve heard that saying right?

So I put this maxim to immediate effect; ergo this article was birthed

Over the years I’ve discovered that many lessons are hidden in plain sight…

…today is no exception!

The reason for this article actually has very little to do with the Harlem Shake (what I’m sharing could be applied to a plethora of businesses – even yours) but it has more to do with shifting your paradigm.

When I say theses two powerful words you will begin to understand what I mean – and why I was intrigued when I initially heard about the Harlem Shake phenomena.

After doing some extensive digging,  these two words metaphorically jumped off the screen and slapped me in the face.

These two words; intellectual property rights.

Ok – that may have been three words (for the pedantic)  but here’s the story…

A DJ who was pretty much unknown outside of his music genre circle (who goes by the name Baauer – AKA Harry Rodrigues) created a music mix track back in May 2012.

On February 2nd 2013 – five students from Queensland Australia shot a video (using Baauer’s mix as a backing track) and uploaded it to YouTube.

Then someone else with quite a bit of social media clout and significant global reach liked the video that those guys from Australia did with Baauer’s music mix and kicked off a really weird dance craze from it.

To this day, the hard core hip-hop body poppers from Harlem are totally unimpressed with how the Harlem Shake (which is a real dance move) has been lampooned beyond recognition.

For the moment, lets put aside the opinions of the Harlem-ites, the psychology behind this craze and how such a massive buzz was manufactured (the “buzz factor”… that’s another story for another time).

We want to focus on the business pay off!

Whatever your personal opinion is about the Harlem Shake; by February 20th 2013, the thousands of videos featuring this track by Baauer received, on aggregate, over 400 Million views on YouTube and is set to overtake Gangnam Style as the most popular meme watched on the Internet.

But here’s the kicker…

DJ-Baauer gets a royalty payment EVERY TIME his mix track gets played on YouTube.

YES!

Every single time someone plays that track – THIS GUY GETS PAID – BY GOOGLE!

This brings a whole new meaning to making money while you sleep.

In addition to that – his DJ gigs have sold out months in advance – bearing in mind – he didn’t even want to openly associate himself with the craze.

So what?

Sometimes – your Quantum Leap is more about long term thinking not just how you’re going to make money from the next trend, product launch, seminar or high-end consulting engagement.

A year from now – the Harlem Shake craze will be a distant memory but Baauer – who has been collecting thousands of Dollars in royalties – will definitely  remember February 2nd 2013 as the beginning of a “Quantum Leap” in his bank balance.

The main difference between businesses that go through perpetual struggle and those that go from strength to strength (no matter the economic condition) – is the latter think much further into the future then the former.

Incorporating streams of continuity income systems / streams should be part of your long term strategy. Utilizing intellectual property rights and licensing vehicles are just a couple of examples.

When you eventually get your continuity income model right – your business morphs from a baby (metaphorically speaking) that needs continual feeding – into a gargantuan gift that keeps on giving (your golden goose).

So how does your business make that transformation?

You have a couple of choices:

You either need to spend hundreds of days in thought, embracing the Socratic Method, read thousands of books and make as many mistakes as Thomas Edison did when he was inventing the first ever light bulb…

or

…you get hooked up with some fantastic strategic minds and ride (what I call) the synergy express train to propel you forward to your next Quantum Leap.

I don’t know about you but – I would choose the synergy option – it’s so much quicker

Everyone has a genius begging to be unleashed. Most will never reach that pinnacle of self actualisation. In fact, 90% of people won’t even reach the level of awakening where you are right now.

When the student is ready your teacher will appear and the fact you have read this far – you must be a life long student (and I applaud you).

Make this the year you unleash your genius.

TV’s Marsha Wright in consultation

In many recent conversations with clients, both start-ups and long-established firms, I am finding more and more that one of the major barriers to achieving the most progress in their organisations is the crutch of mediocrity.

Ok that sound a bit aloof, but hear me out if you will.

Too often, we are waiting for some silver bullet solution to the challenges we face. The nonchalance in our gate is remarkably worrying.

If we watched ourselves from the outside, we would many times be thoroughly disappointed that we were allowing precious time to pass us by, without being the most exceptional beings that we possibly can be.

Mediocrity is deemed as:

Bored & Blah (Photo credit: vmcampos)

I don’t know about you, but I would hate to be – or be seen as – a mediocre leader, friend, lover, wife, entrepreneur, colleague, daughter or sister.

I can’t bear the thought of dying full of potential.  So, with this in mind, I make every effort to recognise areas of mediocrity in my life. I challenge them as enemies of the state. The mediocrity that exists, rent-free, in me is not isolated. Like a cancer it permeates other areas of my life.

When mediocre in my eating habits, I don’t take care of myself, I allow other areas to slip, I become more allowing and desensitized to other areas that are not up to par.  Then procrastination, excuses and nonchalance turn up to the party. Do you find the same?

There is a recognised psychological phenomenon that states, “how you do one thing is how you do all things”; and I think that is prevalent here. If you’re messy at home, you’re more likely to litter on the street. If you’re an all or nothing driven person in business – you are probably like that in your relationships too.

Problem is not everything should be all or nothing. There are varying degrees of effort, heart and passion you should put into whatever you do.

Tug of War (Photo credit: joshwept)

So, why you’re working against yourself…

I think one of the reasons we are so desensitized from pushing forward to being exceptional all or most of the time; is because of what we are around, how we live, who we associate with, our personal belief in achieving our life goals – or even being clear about what those are.

If we can come to a whole-brained recognition of what we want to accomplish; and a REASON why the ‘just get by’ attitude is so prevalent within us, perhaps mediocrity could be deemed as the poison it is.

If we decide not to bustle through the traffic of life like lemmings, and become the ‘odd one out’ no matter the cost. Maybe we would influence those around us to be exceptional too.

Raising the bar, in the standard for YOUR greatness:

I challenge you to think about your standards.

Think about what you WANT to stand for, what you want to be known for when you’re gone, how you want to be remembered, and what legacy you want to leave to prove you were here.

Reach out for greatness (Photo credit: sparktography)

Then, become courageous and consistent.  One by one bring all the areas of mediocre in your life into submission to your great capacity. You may need help when you do this, you may need to delegate some things, and you may need to deliberately postpone some things so you don’t spread yourself too thinly.

But in any case, you should seek to establish standards in every area of your life. Marriage/relationships, time and dedication to your children, your personal development, your family life, your personal appearance and grooming…. NO AREA should be left out of your analysis.

Life is an exceptional flash in time. We’re not around forever, so sticking around just to ‘get by’ or be so relaxed about what matters most (making a remarkable impact on the world, our families, our friends, in our work), has got to become a mentally arrest-able offense.

The resulting tumour of the mediocrity within, that many of us are all too painfully distracted from seeing is that we are not leveraging the greatest opportunities to grow both personally and professionally.

So why are we prone to mediocrity in the first place, and how can we overcome it?

When asked these questions, a number of entrepreneurs shared their thoughts. Here are some of the responses received:

In summary….

I leave you with this quote, which should chill you to the bone, and hope you’ll follow me on Twitter and discuss this more.  Also pick up my 6 Power Seminars FREE here.

“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them” Joseph Heller Catch-22

The real moment of pause is this – no matter which three is your personal reality; you have to decide what you’re going to do about it… Making no decision IS making a decision.

Have you noticed mediocrity in your life or those around you? Is mediocrity affecting your team or organisation? Do you have a tip to share on this topic? Did you take any ah-ha’s from this article?

Please comment below or Tweet Me @MarshaWright and I’ll reply back.

Introducing: Fox Wright

We all want our businesses to do better, but there are just some little niggling things that can block our paths…

Three years ago we (My husband Simon and I) became the proud owners of my first ever pet our cat, Fox.

He’s brought us a lot of joy, but loads of lessons too. I wanted to share one with you as I sit here looking across the room at him.

I think you’ll enjoy it whether you’re a pet owner or not. But first watch this hilarious video on YouTube that exemplifies my point so poignantly.

Lesson #1: Prioritise What’s Important

We feed Fox twice a day, he goes to the litter tray twice a day, he drinks water, and loads of it, throughout the day. OK so that’s his priorities.

If I want to play with him, he will not permit me to do so in any of his times of ‘PRIORITY’.  Period.

Photo Credit: FirstNews.co.uk

So how comes my cat has his priorities straight, and as entrepreneurs we, too often, allow our priorities to be skewed by the latest urgencies?

Personally I have multiple businesses around the world, with contractors & staff in at least 8 countries, managers, suppliers, over 500 joint venture partners, affiliates and contacts that we stay in touch with. In addition to that my website www.MarshaWright.com and the mentorship programmes we provide to entrepreneurs all over the world keep me really busy.

I had to learn this principle or Focused Prioritisation; otherwise I would be dead in the water.

There are several ways to be much more focused.  What I recommend to many of my best clients is to list ALL of the jobs and tasks for which they are responsible (or do because there is insufficient man-power), then look for the 3 KEY THINGS that ONLY they can do, that are ESSENTIAL to the success of the company.

Without these priorities being met, the business will trudge along but lasting and phenomenal success will be a distant achievement.

Then you must DECIDE to reschedule your month to account for these priorities. Make it possible to spend at least 70% of your week on them. And then schedule the other things you cannot yet delegate into slots of downtime. Preferably when you find you are more tired/less productive in the day – or your normal manic days.  Keep your ‘quiet days’ for focused priorities.

Generate new business, close contracts, create better systems… whatever ONLY you can do. Do it and do it most of the time.

Key thing here… BE BRAVE ENOUGH to stick to your priorities, or your bigger picture is going to elude you for a long time to come.

Lesson #2: Don’t Be Led By Everything That Comes Up

Fox goes on his own time

I always talk about being reactive and the damage that does to businesses, morale and your sanity. Many managers are just way too reactive. They just react to every little thing.

The phone rings, employees guzzle attention for things that don’t require your input if they were better trained/prepared, a bill comes in, another issue rears its head.

Whatever it is, you find that you are just reacting constantly. And no eagle-level work every gets done, or indeed very little happens.

Now lesson from Fox…

Fox rarely comes when I call him. He is fairly self-important and doesn’t believe in reacting to the minutia of my whims to have him entertain me.

He responds in his PRECIOUS sweet time. He has his own schedule, and he is not being hurried through the day by external forces (see my article on Crazy Monkeys that will make this all too real for you).

As a leader, it is your responsibility to stay focussed on the bigger picture. You have to deal with some fire-fighting sure. But it should not be every minute of every day. A recent study found that the average employee is interrupted every 11 minutes. So with things like Skype, Google plus, in-boxing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and not to mention WhatsApp and text messaging, we are just WAY too available.

We have to wrangle the inflows, so that our outflows can be more efficient and productive.

 

Lesson #3: If It Doesn’t Feel Right, Do Something About It

My hubby and I are quite mischievous and sometimes finding Fox sleeping, we go harass him. He’ll indulge us for a while, and then about 30 seconds later it’s no longer fun for him, and he thrashes his tail (cat language for leave me alone).

If we persist he’ll either demand we stop – by smacking our hands away – or he’ll just get up and go relax elsewhere.

As entrepreneurs, we can take a lesson from this. Sometimes we put up with some of the most ridiculous situations out of reluctance to institute change.

This is something that has to be arrested in our approach to situations, even people we work with.

Sometimes you need distance, sometimes you need to make clear in no uncertain terms that ‘this’ is NOT okay.  I’m a big believer in maximising your results through communication. It may be uncomfortable; there may be politics or ramifications involved, true.  But if the bigger picture should be in mind, then why wouldn’t we have 5 minutes of discomfort instead of getting so wound up that there is later a blow up?

Nothing beats an honest conversation if something is not working for you.

You don’t have to be mean or disrespectful, but see if you can find out WHY this is happening from the other person’s stand point, and moving forward in the future will be significantly easier for you.  Perhaps you can come to a resolution.

Maybe you just have to lay down the law, but whichever way, you can do it; be focused on growth and collaboration. Make them want to be on your side and you’ll get more done.

Ignoring a situation you are not happy with will often mean you are miserable and like my cat – that shouldn’t be okay with you.

 

Bonus Lessons # 4-7: A Few More Things That Cats Show Us

#4 Be an independent thinker

#5 Don’t kiss butt

#6 Take time to feel people out before you give them all your trust

#7 Delegate as much as possible (he delegates his feeding, cleaning and watering to me – but there again, I delegate it to my housekeeper, so maybe I’m learning yet J)

 

Can you see where these tips could help in your life or business? Have you got a tip or lesson to share? Have you tried this our and want to share your results? Let me know if you got any ah-ha’s from this article?

 

Please comment below or Tweet Me @MarshaWright and I’ll reply back.

 

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone knows the saying “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you where you’re going”.

This saying also holds especially true in the life of every entrepreneur. Some leaders however, build their businesses, then without realising it, do not place nearly a strong enough emphasis on who resides within their sphere of influence. I suppose now’s as good a time as any to take a look at that error.

Ideally, your inner circle shouldn’t all be people like you (though it’s often done accidentally). You should have people around you from various roads in life who have a wide range of experiences and contacts that you can draw upon. The reasoning is “how can I help you/you help me if I face a significant hurdle and we’re all in the same boat?”

Many business owners mistakenly believe that their professional colleagues should all be like themselves. I deliberately draw new relationships from sectors and niches unrelated to my own. Doing so keeps my businesses on the cutting edge and using multi-disciples that others in my sector do not even know about.

So just think, in your own network; “How many of my contacts are like me? How many do what I do? How many are in different circles? How many links do I have to financing? How many links do I have to widen my distribution channels? Who are the best advocates in my network to introduce me to others?

Remember; having associates with different areas of expertise and specialisms adds diversity to your circle and will help you think outside the box much more frequently.

Sphere of Influence (Photo credit: Keoni Cabral)

Is Your Inner Circle Stifling Your Business Growth?

Unfortunately, there is weighty truth that entrepreneurs should face, and the sooner the better.  As you increase your success and improve your circle you’ll be leaving some of your prior comrades, associates and friends behind you. This will happen for various reasons, and in reality, the longer the shift is resisted the harder it will be for you to make your Quantum Leap.

You should know, that the strength of your contacts is what they are connected to, and their value to you is what they are willing to connect you to. The same is true for you. Your contacts will be wondering how you can help them. They’ll be impressed by what you’re connected to. If you approach openly the attitude of achieving greatness through helping one another, then almost everything is possible.

If you choose to stick with old business associates who are in the same place now as they were a decade ago, you’ll find yourself stuck in limbo. Kind of like walking through molasses. Yes you’ll keep moving but there will be a force pulling you back.

I ask new business associates important questions that help me to understand what they need from me, and they (gladly) reciprocate. I work to give them what they need, knowing that the law of reciprocity, and sheer surprise that I’ll do what I said I would kicks in.

I also ask them about what they do to keep themselves on the edge, where they’re going, why they do what they do. I gauge in that first conversation if I can add value to them, and I want to know if they are the kind of person who will compliment people I already have in my circle. I want to know if they are moving forward, are they optimistic or a pessimist. What’s their outlook?

This is all important, to ensure that I don’t add anyone to my network who is actually stagnating or may not be in alignment with my core beliefs and values.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Look At Who Is In Your Circle:

Who do you see in your circle of influence?

Take a moment to stop and really analyse who’s around you. On paper if need be.

Are they always whining and complaining? Do they blaming others for their missteps? Are they cheaters, liars, underachievers? Or are they trustworthy friends, colleagues, winners, honourable, sharp, savvy, and law-abiding citizens?

By continuing to keep company with people who have negative qualities you’ll find yourself gradually being contaminated by their mentality. This could kill you softly both intellectually and financially.

This is where you have to make a decision – do you hang on to people in your life who have stagnated and not matured, or do you move on to find and build more fulfilling and challenging associations?

Influencing Your Peers and Colleagues

According to Klout, I’m fairly influential with a current score of 64. There’s many ways to improve your credibility and influence using ‘real’ and social proofs.

But Klout is not the only way to measure your ‘value’. Having highly trusted peers or colleagues in your sphere is a priceless commodity. You should be seeking these relationships out and cultivating them. But on the flip side, you need to be the  person that people want to go to; that is paramount to your ongoing success.

Become a confidant who is always aware of your surroundings never accidentally laying their secrets bare. Don’t engage in gossip. It’s a small world and it will get around. BE that trusted, knowledgable contact that people speak fondly of.

As entrepreneurs we have to move fast to keep our business growing. It’s important to choose carefully who we spend time with in our travels. Most of the time we hurriedly run around collecting business cards we never followup on as if we were rolling stones gathering moss. Jason Harvey in “Achieve Anything In Just One Year” bids us to remember that our friendships have consequences to our life’s trajectory.

Making the Grade and Leveraging Strategic Alliances

It’s a good idea to fine tune your skills in this area, as those who make the biggest leaps are introduced to their next big break – it is rarely stumbled upon in a news paper ad.

There are resources out there that assist entrepreneurs and executives to build and expand their circle. One such event about increasing and leveraging vital strategic relationships is taking place throughout 2013 via global live streams and webinars. It’s called Leveraging Strategic Alliances (www.LSAsummit.com) and it includes advice to help you; assess & nurture an inner circle of influential individuals, help you to see what specifically you can do to grow your influence and strategic relationships and assess who you want to be attached with, and the best ways to be attractive to those people.

Entrepreneurs, thought leaders and experts who have leveraged and solidified Strategic Alliances have gotten results accomplished magnificent feats, so any leader who is serious about their future would certainly benefit from tapping into professional training on this topic and discover best practices.

[Detailed information about the event is here: http://www.LSAsummit.com].

No matter what you do, just keep your head focused on your game and make sure you’re always on the edge, never to be cut for being the stagnant contact.

Do you have any tips about growing your circle? Did this article make sense to you? Did you benefit from the article? Or did it hit a nerve? tell me what you think in the comment box below or Tweet me and I’ll reply @MarshaWright.

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Written by: Marsha Wright
Serial Entrepreneur & TV Business Expert

Today, I still love the buzz of selling as I did when I used to do odd jobs at 7 years old for pocket money.

Admittedly, I’m much more excited now when I close a five or six-figure deal, or when I’m speaking in front of hundreds of people at an event when I’ve been asked to come and share my pearls of business wisdom…

All sounds great doesn’t it, making loads of money in your own business? But BELIEVE ME it wasn’t all plain sailing…

When I speak to people, the most common question I get asked is, “what’s your secret?”, “What did you do, that I’m not doing?”, “Did you have to have loads of money to get started”?

So with this in mind I’ll tell you what I tell all the other eager beavers who want to know my secret.

The way I went from earning £2.70 plus commission an hour, in home furnishings shop Harvey’s in Woolwich, London about 14 years ago to now running my own companies, and being paid upwards of £5,000 ($8,000) per day for my consultancy or speaking services.

Step 1 – Be Uncomfortable

Being uncomfortable, by far has been my biggest motivator to date. If working at a furniture shop for £2.70 per hour plus commission doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will. If you wanted the definition of a dead end job, then you would find the description of my job in the dictionary.

I knew I was destined for greater things, but I just didn’t know what. I had dreams of being the head of my own empire.  I even drew out an organizational chart of all of my imaginary non-existent companies, which I still have on my wall today. What’s funny is that some of the companies I had written down as a pipe dream are actually a reality today.

However, back then, it was still a pipe dream and I was extremely uncomfortable with my reality.

Uncomfortable; with having to take a calculator to the supermarket, to avoid the embarrassment of having to put items back if I went over budget.

Uncomfortable; with going to the cash point only to find I had less than £10 in my account that I couldn’t pull out, because the minimum amount was £10.

Frustrated that when I went out to eat with friends, I would have to tot up what I selected I could eat in my head. Instead of just ordering the food I wanted. And finally, found it totally unacceptable that I almost felt terrorised by creditors, who sometimes made me feel less than human because, I often fell behind with my bills. I never, ever wanted to live like that – it was motivation to get out of the situation have the feeling of feeling threatened every time the post came through my door in the morning, or the phone rang.

So instead of allowing myself to stay comfortable in an uncomfortable reality, I decided to use that frustration to change that reality by selling solutions people wanted (aka: adding value to others).

The more you realise that your reality – no matter what that reality is – does not have to be the truth permanently, and the more you are willing to take action. The more your opportunities to improve your results in your business or personal life.

Step 2 – Adding Value To Others & Getting ‘Discovered’

When I decided to take the plunge and start looking at ways to grow a business (I didn’t actually see it as adding value to others). I was just so determined to get out of my uncomfortable reality.  I came up with an idea to write investment reports for property investors.

At the time early 2000′s, the property market was hotting up, and everyone was looking for the next untapped location. I decided to post some adverts on a popular property message board, and I was shocked at the positive response and sales I got back. I had about half a dozen orders from the get go.

Again, the buzz of coming up with an idea that total strangers actually made their decision to spend money on was back. It is still one of the best feelings in the world, in my opinion. It means that all the people who thought I would amount to do nothing were wrong. It meant that I was doing something right.

Then a happy accident occurred.

One of my clients was so impressed with my report, he shared it with one of his investor friends, who happened to be quite influential in the property investor circles at the time. She took one look at the report and invited me to speak at one of her conferences.

At this time I had never spoken in front of an audience, and I still remember my knees shaking under the table just before I went up to speak. I educated and entertained the crowd on the day, and ended up leaving the event with a ton of orders. I was ecstatic.

These experiences, and so many more since, made me realise what happens when you stop thinking about yourself, and your own problems, and start asking the question, what can I do to add value to others? This question has made me and innumerable entrepreneurs very successful.

The concept is better explored in the Dale Carnegie book “How To Win Friends and Influence People”. I’d like to say that I was slick enough to have read the book first, and then applied it – but truth is I only listened to the audiobook this past month. But how great it is to hear that as a teenager I was applying these life long principles.

Step 3- Become Worth Knowing

When I had decided to write investment reports, it never occurred to me the importance of becoming worth knowing. I thought I’d create a company name and logo, and just take things from there.  However, I soon realised that they were not just buying a report, but in essence, they were buying me and my knowledge…

They were planning to make money from my expertise.  And as pretty as my logo was, without me opening my mouth, my logo, and my brand had no voice. Yours won’t either.

I recognised (helped by some advice from Richard Branson about ‘being the best in your field’) that I was the brand, and if my company was going to be a success, and I was going to build up my empire.

I had to recognise that I was the brand, had to be exposed to as many people in my target audience as humanly possible.  This was a challenge, because I only have 24 hours in a day, and it’s not going to allow me to speak to thousands, even if the phone was glued to my ear day and night, so , I needed to come up with a different solution.

With the help of my business partners, we came up with the idea of doing a radio show.  Through the magic of the internet, people could access me 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This was back in 2004 when Flash wasn’t even installed on computers… talk about an up-hill struggle!

“My radio show was an instant hit! It was even #1 in iTunes”

I transitioned into other businesses and my experience as a business woman increased… I was being recognised as a Business Expert. At that point my speaking engagements, all of a sudden made me someone worth knowing, and attracted me to not only more potential customers, but more importantly, other people worth knowing, who had a similar target audience I could Joint Venture with for mutual benefit.

Fast forward a little and today I have several business interests mainly in the business services, media & publishing, high-end consultancy and mentoring. I regularly appear in the press, on radio and in magazines – and speak at many events annually where I am paid handsomely for appearances.

I’ve mentored over to 1,000 business owners to start or grow their own business. Even though I’m insanely busy working hard creating more ‘real’ businesses from my old imaginary organizational chart; I can’t help passing on the answer to that age old question…

“Marsha, how can I do it too?”

In order to reposition yourself to become someone worth knowing, get uncomfortable with being where you are, and MOST IMPORTANTLY please, please FOCUS on solving problems for the right caliber of clients – that’s the key to business success!

Make sure your website gives people the right first impression for example, if you have a look around this site, www.marshawright.com, you will just see what I mean.

In the middle of your biggest business breakthroughs you’re going to get challenged, distracted and frustrated.

The trick is to keep perspective, control what you can, make clear sidesteps to the challenges, and embolden your position with action! Sounds great right? Revolutionary even. But it’s honestly a tad harder than that in real life…

So, here’s one really useful tip that can bring courage during your transition, and practical approaches to the life challenges that can often feel like someone’s out to get you.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Beware the Crazy Monkeys

What is that I hear you ask…

The Crazy Monkeys are the people and situations that pop up out of nowhere and disrupt your entire life.  You know those familiar frustrating distractions that can hamper the most positive minds.

Business deadlines go out the window, promises you made in good faith to your kids or family members ‘have to’ be dropped, everything goes haywire.

Crazy Monkeys come in all shapes, sizes and guises. Could be a tax audit, under-staffing, health issues, an unexpected invoice, loss of a major client, your cousins twice removed are blowing in from some hick town and expect you to entertain them for a week, whatever.

The trick is to plan ahead of time.

Play this scenario right now… “How can we keep going at current speed if… (insert a familiar crazy monkey here) happened again?” and “what systems and people could I get in place to avert emergencies before they arise?”

Most entrepreneurs, managers and leaders are unprepared for some of the regular madness that inflicts them in their daily business life.  But if we ‘get outta the box’ and prepare a preemptive strike for the known oddities, then the Crazy Monkeys can be put under control way before they knock you off kilter.

If we’re honest, most of us love the feeling of being Superman and rescuing others from the Crazy Monkeys. We’re problem solvers, and sometimes that means that we completely deny ourselves.  But to make the future the present, you’ve got to fall out of love with the madness. Get some systems in place at home, and at work.

Be honest about how things are. Don’t wait for emergencies to appear before you set up a system, and you’ll have less of them, or at least they won’t disrupt your focus from world domination.

Tips for Home

1. Health – Schedule time as a real appointment in your diary for your health. You need to sleep, eat well and exercise to keep yourself from burning out. Just think about the loss of profit and progress to your business if you are incessantly tired or heading towards being unwell from things you can really avoid.
2. Juggling the home – If you’re not lucky enough to have a maid, then you need to think about the things as simple as monthly family budget planning, scheduling what you are cooking for the coming week on Sunday, setting up a REAL office (work only) zone and educating the family to respect that space. Get some order in place, and stick to it.
3. Stop answering your personal calls in the day. That is – teach the Crazy Monkeys who somehow find time to call you in the daytime, just to talk about their Crazy Monkey life – teach them that you are only available for chit chat in the evenings. Then when they test the water and call you at 4pm DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE! It may take a little while, but if you really stick to it they’ll learn that your time is valuable.
4. Schedule time with your family and friends ahead of time. Look forward to it and don’t break the date. Even frustrated partners will be willing to bear with your unfavorable time schedule if you plan a weekly or fortnightly date. Then all your energy and excitement will build towards it. My husband and I have 3 dates a week! No matter how busy we are, nothing is more important that that time. Otherwise what’s it all about really?

Tips for Work

1. Create a work schedule that is focused 80% of the time on what ONLY YOU CAN DO. Just write down 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON to make the next leap in your business progress. Then choose, no matter what, to stay focussed on them. Remember consistency wins the race (<that’s another article).
2. Institute some focus-time 2-4 hours a day and teach your team NOT to interrupt you during this time.  Do not engage the Crazy Monkeys – even if they come in this time. A great book on this is Dan Kennedy’s ‘NO BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs’.
3. Appoint lieutenants to deal with the Crazy Monkeys. You should only be managing managers if you hope to get any meaningful big-picture work done. So before you hire loads of people to take the pressure off yourself, hire a lieutenant. Appoint them, train them, empower them to lead and supervise the work of your staff, team, suppliers, etc.  They should become the managers of the Crazy Monkeys. Not you. But remember for that to work, you have to implement new policies that allow you to be able to take time away from the company without being hounded.
4. Set a list of 10 FAQ’s or known issues/concerns with each task you delegate. Make mini training videos or manuals for as many things as you can that are repeated. That way you invest time once to get it all down right. Then all newbies to your organisation will have access to it. Leaving you further away from the madness and the “sorry, just a quick question” requests. (Beware of Crazy Monkeys who are lazy and don’t read the procedures. When they ask you for the answer kindly refer them to the training document; they’ll get the picture eventually).

Don’t look at the monkey…. Don’t answer their phone call either!

Final tips for controlling your Crazy Monkeys…

The best ways to stop the Crazy Monkeys from attacking are to NEVER make eye contact, schedule time in your weekly diary SPECIFICALLY to deal with ‘madness’ and firefighting, and did I mention…?  Don’t make eye contact!

Do you have any Crazy Monkeys in your life or business? How much time are you losing to the Crazy Monkeys? What’s your tip to avoid the madness? Did you take any ah-ha’s from this article?

Please comment below or Tweet Me @MarshaWright and I’ll reply back.

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Description: In this fantastic interview, Marsha Wright is probed on her knowledge of securing High End Clients as she discusses how she secured her first $600,000 client. In this except of the entire interview, Heather Picken asks for specific insights and Marsha shares how to create social media relationships that become key strategic relationships.

Social media is a valuable tool when trying to reach high end clients. Knowing your client demographic is an important skill that can build professional relationships. Finding ways to connect with potential clients is fast and simple through social media. Through professional networks, such as LinkedIn, marketing your business and expanding your client base can be done cost effectively.

RECEIVE THE FULL RECORDING AS A FREE BONUS AT… The Leveraging Strategic Alliances 2013 Global Summit CLICK for info

IF YOU LIKED THIS VIDEO TAKE A SECOND TO SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND NETWORK

Description: In this fantastic interview, Marsha Wright is probed on her knowledge of securing High End Clients as she discusses how she secured her first $600,000 client. In this except of the entire interview, Heather Picken asks for specific insights and Marsha shares how to enrich your client by understanding their problems and your place in the solution.

Improve your business by learning new strategies that can help you gain high end clients. By working closely with your clients and securing their trust, you can use your skills to offer them a solution to their business problems or help them identify needs/wants that you can fill. Becoming a successful problem solver allows you to work in partnership with your client to accomplish their ultimate goal.

RECEIVE THE FULL RECORDING AS A FREE BONUS AT… The Leveraging Strategic Alliances 2013 Global Summit CLICK for info

IF YOU LIKED THIS VIDEO TAKE A SECOND TO SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND NETWORK

The strange thing is, you never hear that announcement when you reach “a destination” in your business – do you?

The problem is – in business there is a still small voice that does say these very words – but if you can’t hear it something really weird happens.

Lets go on a journey and discover what happens to a business that hear that voice – and (of course) what happens when they don’t.

A question for you:

Have you ever given a friend sound insight and advice – and years (or even months later – the very thing you told them about mysteriously starts to unfold… in the exact way you predicted?

Listen to this story:

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a software developer. They’ve been writing software for blue chip companies for a couple of decades now.

The conversation went a bit like this:

Me: So when are you going to move from writing desktop applications to writing for the web?

What about writing apps for mobile phones?

Friend: I don’t like writing apps for phones, how is that gonna help me now (this conversation was back in year 2010 – to be fair).

Me: I take my phone almost everywhere; even my CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) is getting to be a pain now since I can’t do any work on the train cos they haven’t modified it to work on my phone browser yet.

Think about how many hours you spend commuting. People want to maximise their dead time.

Friend: Yeah but I like doing what I’m doing. changing to another platform is so time consuming. Learning all those syntax’s etc. I love what I do and I already have to take time to develop my skills on this platform never mind trying to learn a completely new one…

…and soon and so on

…I think you can see how this conversation ends.

Cutting a long story short, that conversation evolved  into a virtual consultancy session from me (on gratis).

Of course technology moved on – as predicted.

They were forced into a re-train or die situation (career-wise).

Fortunately they decided to re-train.

The same thing happens in business!

Five years ago – there were companies that were king of the hill. Today they don’t exists.

These days – the term “too big to fail” has proven to be an oxymoron as proven by that memorable film of the same name.

So what has that got to do with me? I hear you ask.

Good question.

But I know deep down you either have the answer and are working on it or you are in denial.

Here’s an interesting parody to glean from:

Have you ever heard of MSN messenger?

Maybe you have – maybe you haven’t.

10 years ago  (around 2003) – I loved that program. it even worked on my smartphone. Nothing could touch it.

MSN Messenger rocked!

Today – I don’t know a living soul who uses it!

(ahh – that’s not strictly true – I know 3 people  but I haven’t spoken to them on it for the last 3 years – and probably never will – on MSN)

Next parody:

11 years ago  (around 2002)…

Have you heard of ermmm… what’s that program called… ahh – it’s on the tip of my tongue….

that’s it – Friends Reunited!

I loved it – it also rocked!

I connected with friends I’ve not seen in years – so what was so wrong with it???

….Facebook – and a dozen other social networking sites!

Friends Reunited tried really hard to compete and I’m sure they’re still out there.

My last post on the site was something like.

“Hey guys – I can’t be bothered to use this anymore – find me on FB. Adios. Love ya…”

Lets bring this to a more recent era…

Last week (mid January 2013) – 2 massive companies that were rocking in the 80′s and 90′s are now virtually out of business.

Yep Jessops and HMV!

What happened here???

People still buy cameras and music right?

YES but now they just buy them differently – like on Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.

As my cousin said to me the other day, “I love buying from Amazon. I LOVE Amazon!”

Amazon are very smart: they know how to manage your expectations. for example, they tell you it’s gonna take a week to 10 days for you to receive your item – but you actually get it in 4 days.

You know they’re gonna keep trying to sell stuff to you and pump product advertising out to you over and over again but ironically – you just don’t care. I don’t know anyone who’s ever accused Amazon of spamming them or sending them junk mail – even though they email you with offers at least 3 days a week.

How come they can get away with that and most businesses can’t??

Obviously a lesson to learn there.

Suffice to say – as Simon Woodroffe (known for Yo Sushi back in the day) said to me once when we had a brief chat; “You need to imagine what people are doing 10 – 20 years from now…”.

He said it -  like he expected you to go into a white walled room (like the creators of Lego do) or go sit on a mountain peak (like a tribal chief or a patriarchal middle eastern sage) and meditate for hours until you come up with something fabulous.

I have to be honest – back then, when Simon told me that, I though was a bit extreme -  but back then I wasn’t running a successful business so I really didn’t get it.

But now I have to think like that because I know if I don’t – my business will be toast!

So take heed from Mr Woodroffe – especially if you want your business to last longer than the Rolling Stones or become a national institution like Walmart.

So how does all that seeing into the future stuff work in practice?

Lets imagine you make wheelchairs – you better be thinking about making wheel chairs that can go up and down the stairs or launch themselves onto a bus (safely) or fold nicely to go into hand luggage on a plane.

These ideas are bit crazy and way off right?

Remember – back in 2003 – nobody knew what an iPad was.

Incidentally back back then – most people were in love with Microsoft and PC’s!

Remember – every so often in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, you might hear a still small voice, get an uncomfortable feeling or have a critical experience that signals a time to change, a time to move on or a time to evolve.

Back in 2006 I shared privately with my business partners that, in the future, people will move from wanting to be motivated to wanting [their lives] to be transformed. People are constantly demanding more. Actually people were always demanding more but there was an era where businesses could get away with ignoring those demands. This is no longer the case. There’s way too much accessible choice – and of course that can work in your favour.

Your quantum leap awaits – but only if you can hear that definitive call to change.

This true as ever statement popped into my mind as I tried to cram a lot of meaning into my 140-character Tweet.

Truth is even the world’s most accomplished person (whoever that is) has hangups, problems, areas of discontentment and things they would rather live without.

I wanted to share a few thoughts that may give you perspective so you’ll snap out of any stinking thinking and get your head in gear for your Quantum Leap in 2013 and beyond. Today I’m focusing on Money, and I’ll share on other topics as time goes on.

Money:

Don’t believe they hype! You will ALWAYS have problems no matter how much or little is in your bank account. The more you have, the smart you MUST become to keep it and grow it. The smarter you must be with controlling it and managing it. Those around you need to be smarter, and more experienced.

In business, the people who got you to $500,000 turnover are unlikely to be the people who have the knowledge ad experience to take you to $45million turnover. Likewise YOU are going to have to change how you look at life, circumstances, business, winning, success vs. failure, and practically everything else before you can become truly the person you need to become.

Mind Control

Money should not control your mind. That is permissible ONLY by you and your fears. So really get clear on what you want, what you fear and work to conquer any internal dialogue that is not conducive to the results you want.

Not having enough liquid cash or assets to make that next investment may alter your strategy, but it should not alter your peace of mind. It shouldn’t make you skeptical, it shouldn’t demotivate you. It’s a challenge yes. But it is controllable.

Be SMART!

You need to budget and manage your money no matter how much or little of it you have. Even when my husband Simon and I had just £5 ($9) a week for food, we managed what we had. That mindset taught us how to build, and has paid dividends for us.

Let’s look at it this way. Say you wanted to expand your business, and required an investor to do it. Say the 3 investors you have pitched to don’t believe in what you have presented enough to part with money. What would you do? How would you think? What is your core belief saying?

If you got that investor, what would your belief system be saying? Versus if you were consistently turned away?

I go back to my original statement:

“Your state of mind can usually be changed if you had less of something or more of something else”.

To be ultimately and consistently successful in every sense of the word your barometer CANNOT be so tightly linked to what happens around you. Life happens, things change, crap happens, great things happen. Its all a tapestry that you can change (most of the time).

So I encourage you to:

1. GET GROUNDED. ANCHOR YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM ON SOMETHING UNLIKELY TO CHANGE.
2. DON’T put stock in the pressures that are upon you. You need to be in control of them. You set the pace. If even the most well known companies negotiate for terms then why shouldn’t you.
3. DECIDE right now that failure is only a temporary circumstance, analyse what YOU need to change about you. What around you needs to change, and what results you want really. NOT THE PROCESS/STRATEGY/ROUTE – The Result. Get outside your box and engage others to share other routes that will lead you closer to your goals.
4. STOP linking your happiness, focus, attitude to the more or less factor. Life is life. Money is money. It isn’t running out.

That’s all I have time for today but; did you get an ‘ah ha’ moment from that? Did it make sense to you? What did you take from this article? Why not tweet me if you have any thoughts or comments, and I’ll reply back.

Tweet me now: @MarshaWright

Truth is, no matter how successful we become as entrepreneurs, consistently doing what you know you should is a secret demon of us all. Whether in business, health, relationships. Whatever.

Many people smarter than me have suggested that one way to get your priorities right is to make a list of the benefits of focusing on what you should do and set daily goals that contradict the ‘bad behaviour’.

But here’s my take on it…

In my experience mentoring so many entrepreneurs, I have found that the principle key to consistency/focus/keeping the passion alive is to actually UNDERSTAND YOURSELF!

Trying to change your behaviour and results without understanding how your brain deals with your outlook, is like chartering a luxury yacht to sail in a swamp. It’s just not going to work!

The things you have to think about are…

1. Why am I REALLY avoiding doing what I have to do?

Get ready for your defence mechanism to kick in here. You will be offering loads of excuses right now. Some of them will be really valid (excuse me while I get a tiny violin).

Your excuses and reasons – no matter how valid – are no consolation to the delays that your inconsistency causes.

TIP: It’s helpful to write these excuses down so when they creep in again you’ll recognise them for the distractions they are. Delegate these off and focus.

Aristotle said:
“We are what we consistently do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit”.

2. Can I REALLY handle the results of completing and achieving my goals?

Okay, I know that sounds a silly question but it makes sense. Many more people are afraid of success than failure. This is one of the biggest base reasons for complacency and procrastination.

Ask yourself. “what’s the best thing that will happen if I do xyz consistently?”.

Check in truthful contemplation if the answer freaks you out or gives you any ounce of trepidation.

If it does then figure it out specifically. WHAT specifically will change in your life/business if you accomplish the desired outcome?

Be honest about the results you want and then make a shift to develop your courage.

3. Finally… Where did I learn this behaviour of procrastination/inconsistency?

If you can trace the origins of something you’ll have a lot more power over it. That power, if wielded correctly, can be your catalyst for change.

Learn to detest the wastage of time. You will become more consistent with this knowledge. Work DAILY in your COMMITMENT to doing ‘it’ no matter what the feelings or excuses are.

4. Who am I hanging around? And what am I listening to?

This may be a cliche, but you are what you mentally eat. If you have people with low standards in your inner circle, that IS what you are.

Change your circle to include more people who are driven and dedicated. Be the blood hound. Look for greatness an up your game. Rise up to the top in your mind and your friends.

Nothing is impossible unless you think it is.

REMEMBER:

Excuses aren’t winners! The world is waiting for you- go get em!

Remember to tweet me if you liked this article. @MarshaWright

Do you have any tips about being consistent? Did this make sense to you? Did you benefit from the article? Or did it hit a nerve? tell me what you think in the comment box below.

Don’t forget to hit share.

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I’ve been an entrepreneur and mentor for a really long time, and I have noticed a pattern all leaders, entrepreneurs, managers and those trying to build something significant could do with avoiding.

It’s frustrating to watch reactive entrepreneurs. They are quite easily identified as they are chopping and changing tactics, dumping one thing for the next shiny ball, and spend a lot of their life discontented with their result throughout the year.

Setting monthly financial and other goals (no matter how big or small) without predictable strategies to achieving them is a sure fire way to meander your year away and frustrate your chances of solid and immoveable foundations.

This year decide that the “I don’t know how” and flittering from one thing to the other is a thing of yester year for you and your business.  If you know someone who could use this advice then lovingly share this article with them using the SHARE logos at the bottom of the post.

The worst thing you can do is give up too early on something that you have not adequately invested in. Most all things you want to achieve will require a minimum of 12 weeks consistent activity to build momentum and get fully adopted.

If you don’t have enough of the right customers, that’s an indication that the problem is in your sales and marketing department – and that’s where you should focus. Got great revenue coming in but complaints from customers – that’s your operations/delivery that needs assessing.  Signing loads of contracts but not seeing the evidence in the bank account? Then get your spectacles on the finance department.

As entrepreneurs we want to do a little of everything – but as leaders we have to put focus where it’s due, and get the house in order before piling more on.

Here are 4 reflective & constructive tips to identify if you’re going astray, and to help bring you back to the heart of your Quantum Leap:

#1. Quit confusing your team…

Every time you come up with a new idea (each one better than the last) you infuse your team with belief in it. When you change tact and do what may seem to them as a 180 turn, you are effectively telling them that it didn’t work, you aren’t sure what to do next, and their time and efforts were worth nothing.

Instead:Analyse and discuss with your team THIS WEEK what worked last year? Who were your best customers? What were the consistent issues? What problems did your company solve for clients? What were the most profitable activities?

Ask more than you speak. Then schedule half a day out the office to just think over it all. Carry the financials and the last business plan you did with you if you can. Analyse BEFORE you act!

By doing this you are allowing your team to share the burden of decisions by utilising the opinions of your internal experts. Stay true to your core bread and butter activities, but wisely decide what you can add to the mix. Remember to accept that you may need more manpower to make the next leap since you don’t want to destroy current relationships with a less superior service.

#2. Get serious about leverage…

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is so cliche it’s easy to think “I know that already” and not actually action it. How many people have you followed on Twitter and not said a word to them? How many business cards do you have collecting dust from that networking brunch? How many associates mentioned they know someone who could use your service – but you didn’t get around to following it up?

A shocking amount of entrepreneurs put a whole lot of effort into meeting new people and next to zero effort in deepening those relationships. The 6 degrees of separation thing is far gone. Now it’s two or three. For example, I’m one contact from Beyonce and almost every music hit maker in the USA and only two contacts from Donald Trump.

Instead:

You just don’t know who you’re connected to until you make a conscious, deliberate AND CONSISTENT (that’s the big one right there) to make and keep building relationships. Look for way to add value, make introductions and be the go-to person in your company or industry.

It will make you invaluable. And EVERYTHING you want to do will become scarily easier. Less uphill and more brisk stroll.

In my company we have a dedicated Joint Ventures Department. With this department alone we have no need to pay for company advertising. We have really solid promotions and endorsements into our desired markets, and we add real value that makes our partners want to work with us over many years.

Action point: SCHEDULE AT LEAST 5 HOURS A WEEK FOR DEVELOPING AND DEEPENING RELATIONSHIPS.

Redesign your schedule…

A book I absolutely love is The Power of Focus By Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt and Jack Canfield. Followed closely by Dan Kennedy’s NO B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs.

Cover via Amazon

The reason I love them so much is the unapologetic style of helping entrepreneurs cut to the mustard and prioritise the bigger picture, rather than the ‘stuff’.

I’m certain you’ll agree with the age old complaint of managers, leaders & entrepreneurs; that too much time is spent in admin and operations, and not enough time in building the business. It’s frustrating and a real time killer.

Instead:

Choose a specialism you are particularly good at in the business, that is meaningful to the bigger picture, and work it till the wheels fall off! It’s not good enough to just be the ‘owner’.

This could be sales, marketing, social media (lead generating), growth strategy, whatever. But be a specialist at it – and make sure you aren’t working for your daily bread; I.E. Today’s work should benefit you longer than this months cashflow needs.

You may need to keep doing some of the stuff you hate – but it’s for a temporary time.  When you eventually streamline each thing, you can delightfully gift it to another, more competent, excited employee who relishes the treacherous things you so hate.

Separate to that buy both the books I mentioned above – they will certainly cover the time management and other things you need to know about making your schedule work for the BIGGER picture.
And that’s what really matters.

#4. Set quarterly goals…

This early in the year even normally frenetic or unorganised people are setting goals.
Here’s one of the biggest mistakes people make… They make the time of the achievement of those goals really tight. It’s then a domino effect that affects cashflow and state of mind when goals are missed.  Many end up by October wanting the chance to start a new year again.

Instead:
One of the best tips I can give you is to think in 4 quarters of the year. The first two quarters are your BUILDING TIME and the last two are your REAPING TIME.  If you build well in the latter part of the former year and in the first two quarters you’ll have an amazing second half and a steady first half.

It’s a skill that takes a couple of years to crack, but it is a different way of thinking that will really help you grow.

Financial goals should NEVER be divided by 12 when you set your goals, because life doesn’t work that way. In business you need to account for seasonal peaks, your marketing campaigns, times you may need to slow growth to steady the ship and keep quality in your offering. You have to account for all kinds of things.

So saying we want to make $6million this year when you made $900,000 last year and you don’t have a proper plan to bridge the gap other than saying “we’ll do it six-times harder this year” is just not going to help you. And, well… it makes you look and sound really silly.

Expenses are much more predictable – BUT you have to really make a conscious effort not to get complaisant when you get your peaks. Save as much as 30% of net turnover as a habit (monthly if possible if not quarterly), put aside the money for taxes when you make it and create an expansion/investment slush fund from the excess once your tax calculations show that you have excess reserved.

Fiscal responsibility is key to your brand making the next QUANTUM LEAP, so keep making the right choices, and line up your ducks for the most amazing second half in history.

What do you think? How would you improve your results? Did you take any ah ha’s from this article? Please comment below or Tweet Me @MarshaWright and I’ll reply back.

Remember to SHARE THIS and follow me on Twitter too.

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Case in point:

June 2012 – nobody knew who he was, very few people even cared and certain authority figures thought he was a pain in the behind.

By December 2012 – He’s has more YouTube views than Justin Beiber and Carly Rae Jepson COMBINED!

His Stage Name: Psy

You may not know the name – but you’ve definitely heard of “Gangnam Style”!

Even though you may not be a fan of K-Pop (neither am I for that matter), You may want to know how the heck he got almost 1 BILLION Views on YouTube… in less than 5 MONTHS!

On the surface – this song is quite weird.. until you search into its anatomy.

Fact: Gangnam is not some random made-up word, it’s actually a extremely wealthy suburb in Seoul Korea.

Fact: The national GDP in that suburb is just over 7% – which incidentally is similar to New York State’s national GDP in the US (in percentage terms)

Fact: Psy has been releasing albums since 2001 which have been either banned or had limited success

Fact: By July 2012 – Psy stumbled in the keys to the marketing vault.

This was his QUANTUM LEAP!

Psy – did something that no-one else has successfully done in Korea – he actually connected with a massive audience by lampooning a suburb in a way that finally got a ton of people captivated.

Somehow, his satirical take on a rich suburb in Seoul – along with a catchy tune resonated in the midst of a double dip recession, a period where austerity is the new catch phrase and a time where Starbucks, Google and Amazon are vilified for making far too much money and paying far too little tax.

In short – he did something deemed virtually impossible.

He became a GLOBAL ICON – in less than 5 MONTHS!

Sounds ridiculous right??

But it happened for him!

Question – why can’t this happen for you?

Just pause for a moment… and listen to all those excuses rattling around in your brain right now.

…it’s OK – everyone has self limiting beliefs

Could these be the VERY SAME beliefs that could have stopped you making that Quantum Leap in 2012?

This is a good time to reflect on what could hinder your growth in 2013 – yup its called “a whole bag of excuses”.

… Next – grab hold of an Iron clad strategy to launch yourself onwards and upwards in the New Year.

Like I said – no need to beat yourself up – since everyone, even the super rich have the very same issues.

Time to draw a line in the sand right now: get a new perspective and mentally prepare for your Quantum Leap in the New Year.

Your homework – if you choose to accept it – is to research how Psy with “Gangnam Style” became such a global icon in the space of 5 months.

It will be really interesting what marketing principles YOU discover (about the Gangnam Style phenomena) and how you will synthesise your discoveries into your own business in 2013.

If you still feel that you are struggling to find your Quantum Leap – I’m sure you can get a helping hand from our resident International Best Selling Author …hint, hint – lol

Happy Holidays and all the very best for the New Year!

May all your positive dreams come true

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International Business Icon Marsha Wright

I’m a mentor, amongst the other hats I wear. And as a mentor I gain an immeasurable level of pleasure from imparting my knowledge and acumen onto others.  There really is nothing like it to me.

That light bulb moment that happens with those who desire phenomenal results; is matched only by seeing them actually surpass the goals and strategies we’ve worked on together at my consulting firm Dew Point IEMC.

Staying on the cutting edge is, I am sure as vital to you, as it is to me in order to continue growing our companies.  It’s also vital as a thought-leader to ALWAYS have something new to say, some new experience under your belt. New or updated insights that will make an impact to your customers or stakeholders.

How My Mentors Inspired Me To Help You Win…

Part of the development that helps me immensely, is having valuable mentors and experts who feed into my life.  Thus perpetuating the cycle of success that comes from keeping a teachable heart and a learning mind.  My mentors are, almost without exception, at least 20-30 years ahead of me, significantly wealthier than I am, have both girth and breadth in their experience and insight; and they WANT TO share their knowledge with me. Because they can.

Today, I’ve been listening to a book called Leadership and Self-Deception, which one of my mentors encouraged me to read.

Truth be known I prefer to listen to an audio-book rather than sit down and turn pages. So today I’ve done just that. For the past five and a half hours of my life, I’ve been listening to this book that is aimed at leaders. Helping us to think differently about how we communicate with ourselves and others.

One of the themes it really points out is helping others JUST because you can, and unselfishly doing so.

Help, Because You Can…

This is a very important lesson that anyone in management can take from. In fact its not just one for managers, leaders, entrepreneurs.  It’s just as pertinent for the wife, husband, mom, colleague and the kid around the corner to benefit from.

The book makes so many insightful points. But in this article, the one I would like to single out is the concept of prioritizing helping others because you can do it.

You’re Letting People Down, And You Don’t Even Realize It

I’ll share this short story with you that exemplifies the point.

My husband Simon and I didn’t always have a car. We had to take the train, the bus, any mode of public transport possible to get where we needed to be.  The truth is we were broke and paying for a car was something we just could not stretch our budget to at the time.

Well, back to the story, I remember us leaving a community meeting one night and it was cold. When I say cold I mean it was freezing. The typical British winter. I think if I had bucked my toe it would have shattered. It was about 12:30 at night, so we were already dreading the 45 mile commute home.

But there was hope… one of the couples attending the event that evening lived 3-4 minutes drive from our house; I had seen and said hello to them earlier in the evening. I guess you can see where I’m going with this…

I’d love to say that we were tucked into bed in 30 mins flat, but that’s NOT what happened.

The couple, knowing we needed to make our way home, in this weather, at that time of night, with no car did not offer to give us a lift. We were good passengers, always offering to contribute towards gasoline, offering good conversation, not too much but not too little…

But the fact is, for whatever reason, they just found it easier to not offer us a trip home… It took us nearly 2.5 hours to get indoors. I won’t pass any judgment on what caused them to CHOOSE not to help. But I can say, had they offered that help, we would have seen them very differently. You probably would too.

I remember sitting at that bus stop waiting for the bus and saying to Simon… “I will never EVER do that to anyone. If, SOME WHEN God blesses us with a car, we will never leave another person that we know at the bus stop I don’t care where they live”.

Sure enough, we have stuck to this ever since. Even driving home at 4 o’clock in the morning after going  two hours out of our way to drop off a friend after a late night dinner. Whenever we couldn’t do so (usually because there were two or more ‘drop-offs’ to be done in totally opposite directions) we would always pay for a cab.

So many of our friends have been shocked by this. I guess it’s fairly unusual. But for us we felt “because we can, we should”. And thus we brought this approach into so many different areas of or lives and businesses.

Could This Be One Reason Why Your Organization Is Stalled?

Think about your last week at home, or at work…Was there a way you could have helped someone in your world that could have positively impacted them?

Maybe a colleague needed to do something that you knew how to do, but you didn’t have the time to show them the short cuts you’ve learned? Perhaps you wanted to eat Thai but your partner wanted Chinese, and you made choosing the Chinese restaurant so undesirable by your tactics that you slighted them? Could you have had a way to help a friend to think differently, perhaps to walk in your footsteps… the footsteps they so admire – but you surmised that they were not ready to play ball yet?

There are innumerable ways for you to HELP BECAUSE YOU CAN in life and business. Doing so will make an impact. There’s no doubt about that.

I’m not saying you should lose sight of what YOU need to do, or be a doormat. There’s nothing wrong with letting people jump a hoop or two, in order to justify investing your time. For example, ask them to send you a brief fax or an email detailing what they need, why, what they’ve tried before and the results.  Even ask for a couple of solutions they have in mind. This puts the onus on them to do something to warrant your time. But the end goal is the same. Look for chances to help… BECAUSE YOU CAN. Be a mentor BECAUSE YOU CAN.

Perpetuate the Cycle of Success I mentioned earlier. Why? Because YOU CAN.

With that story I hope to inspire you to think about HOW CAN I HELP with your colleagues in your organization, a client, a follower on Twitter. Darn it every way that you practically can, without it causing detriment to you.

If the same solution is required more than once, make a video or written guide and share it every time it comes up.

It may take you a little out of your way, but imagine the effect you perpetually have on your organization and teams when you take this approach to HELPING because you can. Making the load lighter will inspire trust, buy-in and further loyalty and excitement in your vision.

As a major supermarket chain in the UK say… Every little helps!

Want to learn more from Marsha? The Blueprint Masterclass event is coming up get a ticket and IMPROVE your results: BluePrint Masterclass

Marsha Wright is a highly sought after Business and Quantum Leap Strategist, who practises what she preaches. She’s a serial-entrepreneur, author, mentor and presenter. Check out events and strategies to improve your business results at MarshaWright.com

Go to www.MarshaWright.co.uk for more tips and business articles
Article by Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

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Social media is really important to me, I love communicating with my fans and followers, fellow entrepreneurs & seasoned experts, and people who really just want to talk about ways to increase their results.

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Hi,

Welcome to my website and to this great interview where working to get you THE REAL STORY I got down to the nitty gritty of “Getting More Exposure” in your business with Nicola Cairncross.

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Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: 0207 1 124 874

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

GETTING MORE EXPOSURE

The exclusive interview with Business Icon Marsha Wright and Entrepreneur & Coach Nicola Cairncross 

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In 1998, just a few years ago, Nicola Cairncross had two small children and was deeply in debt, applying for £12-14k per year secretarial jobs and literally couldn’t pay the rent at the end of the month.

Her life had a massive turnaround due to a book falling off a shelf in the Oxford St branch of Books Etc.  That book was “Swimming With Pirhahna Makes You Hungry” by Colin Turner and there was a little drawing in there that changed the way Nicola thought about money for ever.

The next book she read was “7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey who died just recently.  She devoured it – and did all the exercises – before moving onto other greats such as “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki, “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber and other life changing tomes.

This was her real education you see, because although bright…….Nicola left school at 16 with only three core skills: the ability to talk, a love of books and the ability to type.

“I always felt different and special and knew I was destined for something special but I despaired of finding it through the kind of jobs available to me. I always used to look at my pay check and think “for God’s sake, get bigger!” but I never knew how to make that happen, as they don’t teach success at school – beyond the traditional routes.  So I had to teach myself”.

She has since become an speaker, blogger and author, guest business book reviewer for International Business News, and having published “The Money Gym” in 2003 (revised 2010) and “The Business Success Factory” out July 2011, is often called the “UK’s 1st Lady Of Internet Marketing” and is the official “Money Expert In Residence” for Pampers iVillage and Visa International PLC.

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Nicola has been featured in many newspapers and magazines, including Woman & Home (Jan 2007, Duncan Bannatyne’s “The Sharp Edge” (Jan 2007), The Times, The Observer, The Mail On Sunday, The Mirror, The Scotsman, RED Magazine (many times), New Woman, Woman & Home (Aug 2006), Cosmopolitan (Feb 2007 and many other times), Elle, Marie Claire, Essentials, Top Sante, Radio 5 Live and CNN Breakfast News Worldwide.
After experiencing career coaching herself, she trained as a coach, but quickly realised that she had no interest in “life coaching” but wanted to find out what made people tick – and succeed or fail – around money and wealth creation.  Walking the talk, as she learned herself, Nicola ended up buying, and renovating on a shoestring, a half million pound hotel “no money down” among other business ventures both on and off- line.
As a new entrepreneur, Nicola had no money for marketing so quickly taught herself internet marketing, creating a six figure business “The Money Gym” from a 5-page website and a text only ezine.  The Money Gym enabled many of its clients to become millionaires and some are now multi-millionaires already.  Many more have become financially free and fulfilled their dreams of only working every day on only what they love.
She is an early adopter, one of the first people to start blogging back in 1999, long before the software was invented and has been using Twitter since 2007 when it launched at SXSW.  Her company now counts Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce among it’s clients who boast the UK’s first Chamber podcast.
After years of coaching hundreds of ordinary people to get control, make more money and invest rather than just saving for a rainy day, she became fasinated with entrepreneurs, business success and success thinking and Nicola founded TheBusinessSuccessFactory.com to train and coach entrepreneurs in how to market their businesses better online.

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Hi guys,

Enjoy this third guest blog from my good friend and phenomenal time management expert Paula Eder, who is all about finding time and being more successful. Enjoy and remember to keep working smart! x Marsha

By  Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

3 Timely Tips to Reduce Stress and Enrich Your Life!

Surefire cures are hard to come by, but decreasing your stress is one of the best ways I know of to increase your focus, energy, creativity, and appreciation of life’s moments. And yet stress reduction is not likely to be your first, reflexive response when things get busy and your mind and energy are on overload.

The next time one of those moments of overwhelm arrives in your life, I’d like to encourage you to take a breath.  Remind yourself that stress reduction is a core time and energy management skill.  Then try the following 3 stress reduction techniques.

You absolutely can turn overwhelm on its head by taking it as an opportunity to exercise your stress reduction skills.  Doing so, you will immediately increase your presence, your productivity and your pleasure!

Stress Reduction Technique #1: Setting boundaries:

Practicing this skill can be made into a game, to get your energy flowing. For every boundary you set and maintain, you “win” that amount of time for something you truly enjoy.

So, for example, how much time would you save if you set a boundary that has you checking your email only twice a day?

Reserve those saved minutes for something fun that fits within that time frame. Keep a list of your ‘time treats’ handy so you can reward yourself right away after a success.

It’s so much easier to follow through on boundaries when you know you’ll benefit right away! And the even bigger benefit is that when you do this daily for a month, you establish a helpful new habit.

Stress Reduction Technique #2: Affirmations and Visualisations:

How much time and energy do you spend rehashing thoughtless words or deeds? This is self-created stress that can be challenging to recognize and weed out.

But the good news is that to convert stress to strength, you can capitalize on how your brain is able to focus on only one image at a time. When you catch yourself ruminating, shift your focus to another image of your choosing.

And each time you visualize and affirm your inherent worth, your grievance recedes from center stage. Then, building on this even further, you can use the senses that are most evocative for you to create your ideal inner space. Recall healing or uplifting music, review personal successes, remember warm interactions or inspiring quotations.

Let yourself fully absorb the pleasure as you let this stress go!

Stress Reduction Technique #3: Glass half full…

This tool cultivates optimism and broadens your perspective – especially when stressful energy narrows it.  Purchase a set of small note cards and, at the start of each day, write a quick thank you to someone who has brightened your life in some way.

The wonderful and energizing thing about this technique is that you relive the kindness as you write about it.

As an added benefit, your connections are enhanced when you let people know you appreciate them. You can expand on this technique by thinking, throughout the day, of people you’d like to thank. Focus on the sending out this grateful energy toward others, and pay attention to how it makes you feel.

Each of these exercises focuses on your proactive power to manage your time, energy and thoughts in stress-reducing, health-enhancing ways. Recalling kindness, expressing appreciation, reaching out to others, and affirmations all flood your body with endorphins that lower stress.

You reinforce your awareness of the very real power you possess to reduce your stress and increase your happiness, no matter what the circumstances.

Remember, energy turnarounds don’t have to be difficult or time-consuming to be enormously effective.  So use these 3 proven techniques to improve your life by reducing your stress.

And to move toward your Heart-Based Time Success, sign up for our free gift, the Finding Time Success Kit, which includes “The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!”

Using a workbook format this powerful and practical time template helps you progress beyond disappointment and frustration.

Discover that 24 hours really are enough!

All the best,

Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

Website: http://www.findingtime.net/
E-mail: paula@thetimefinder.com
Phone: 603-547-6696
Please join me on Twitter and on Facebook! Or connect with me on LinkedIn, Google, or on Pinterest!

Hi guys,

Enjoy this second instalment from my good friend and phenomenal time management expert Paula Eder, who is all about finding time and being more successful. Enjoy and remember to keep working smart! x Marsha

By  Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

Time Management Tips – Rediscover Your Energy Rhythm Using the ‘Times 2 Rule’ and 5 Savvy Strategies

Time management tips – the best ones – help you dance in rhythm with life. But how often do you feel like you are running behind, overwhelmed and out of sync as opportunities appear and then whirl out of sight? When you attempt a new task, do you stumble over yourself as the clock just keeps ticking?  Can you feel yourself getting anxious as you read this?

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way for you. Of course, there’s no magic wand that you can wave to find yourself more time, but you can definitely restore flow and harmony to your day. The secret is to use some deceptively simple but really quite powerful time techniques, so read on!

Enter the Times 2 Rule!

Basically, this is an estimating technique. When you are creating a schedule from your To-Do List, the Times 2 Rule asks you to remind yourself that things often take more time than you expect. After you make your best estimate of the time that you think a project or task will take, invoke the Times 2 Rule and double the allotted time!

If this sounds extravagant to you, remember that people regularly underestimate how long things will take. If you consider additional time that might be needed to contend with unexpected glitches, you can easily see how doubling the anticipated time becomes a reasonable, realistic,  and sanity-preserving approach.

And you needn’t take my word for it. Try giving the Times 2 Rule a test run for a week. I predict that utilizing this rule, and combining it with the following 5 Savvy Strategies, will help you prepare schedules that are far more effective for you. As a result, your confidence in planning and coordinating projects will grow by leaps and bounds – and your energy will be far more in sync with the flow of your day!

5 Savvy Strategies to Further Enhance Your Effectiveness  

Strategy #1: Estimating Double the Time Shrinks the Troubles.

Give this a try no matter what your doubts whisper to you! If you complete your project before it’s due, don’t worry – you’ll have plenty of other activities to fit into the ‘extra’ time.  Or you might even treat yourself to a mini-vacation with the time that’s left!

Strategy #2: Build In Extra Time for Assistants, Too. 

That reduces stress for all concerned. Just think – you’ll be easier to work with, and others may cooperate more readily as a result! Whenever you can, alert others to your needs ahead of time. Reduced urgency also leads to fewer mistakes.  That, in turn, means more saved time and fewer frayed nerves.

Strategy #3: Move Forward by Working Backward.

Here’s where it’s helpful to have a calendar nearby when planning for a project. First write down your “due date”. (I prefer this term to “deadline” because “due date” reflects hope and potential, whereas, “deadline” sounds so … dead.) Once you have your due date set, record the date that you expect to complete each prior stage, starting with the one closest to your due date and working back. You are far more likely to coordinate each step and accurately predict the time that will be needed for each when you use this approach.

Strategy #4: Prioritize, Prioritize, and… Prioritize!

You may find that you never complete all your projects within your time frame.  You have the power (and the responsibility) to prioritize the importance of each upcoming task.

One way to get started on this is to start with the most important items on your To-Do List and work down, as your time allows. If your To-Do List hold more than 5 tasks, consider simplifying.  You can do this by relegating the remaining tasks to a Master List.  This, then, becomes a list that you consult as you map out your next day.

And whatever you are doing or planning, as you consider what will fit in your basket of time, remember the Times 2 Rule!

Strategy #5: When Commitments Threaten to Collide, Collect Your Thoughts.

Despite your best efforts, it’s inevitable that you will be faced, from time to time, with two priorities on a collision course. When that happens, it is vital that you resist the natural urge to try to squeeze two activities into one time slot (while jettisoning your personal needs). If you do that, then you can be sure that quality will suffer, as will you. So, instead of depleting yourself and short-changing either project, re-schedule one of them to a different time slot.

If someone requests both projects within a limited time frame, you can relieve the pressure on yourself by openly sharing your predicament. Ask, “Which task would you rather have me complete first?” This allows you to assign different priorities to these tasks and helps clarify the expectations.  Follow through, and thank yourself for creating some breathing space by having the presence of mind to recognize the problem and be open and direct about it.

By using the Times 2 Rule and these 5 Savvy Strategies, you factor your peace of mind into the effectiveness equation. In order to activate these tools, it’s very helpful to remember the following, foundational guideline:

You possess the assertive right to claim the time you need to get the job done well.

And the best way to claim this time is to estimate it accurately and generously at the beginning of each project! Ultimately, you’ll enjoy the experience of having your efficiency and your effectiveness improve exponentially.

So, take heart in knowing you can always increase your control of your time. Finding time isn’t a matter of magic – it’s something far better. By learning how to estimate accurately, manage your priorities and assert your fundamental rights, you are actually transforming yourself. Rather than becoming resigned to a lifetime of wrestling with overwhelming commitments, you can anticipate dancing in rhythm with life!

And to move toward your Heart-Based Time Success, sign up for our free gift, the Finding Time Success Kit, which includes “The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!”

Using a workbook format this powerful and practical time template helps you progress beyond disappointment and frustration.

Discover that 24 hours really are enough!

All the best,

Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

Website: http://www.findingtime.net/
E-mail: paula@thetimefinder.com
Phone: 603-547-6696
Please join me on Twitter and on Facebook! Or connect with me on LinkedIn, Google, or on Pinterest!

Hi guys,

Enjoy this excellent article by my good friend and phenomenal lady Paula Eder, who is all about finding time and being more succesful working smart! x Marsha

By  Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

Find Time to Manage Your On-line
Work – 5 Powerful Time Tips

Time management is a day-to-day skill-building challenge that offers big paybacks.  If you are interested in being more efficient and effective in how you use your available energy, then sharpening your time management skills is the way to go!

Today I’d like to take a look at on-line work and some specific time challenges that it presents, because they are a little bit different than time challenges you confront in the rest of your daily life.
That’s because it can be tough to maintain focus when temptations like e-mail, Google, Wikipedia, Amazon … and literally hundreds of thousands of other sites are just a quick click away.  Have you ever been in the position of suddenly ‘coming to’ in front of your computer and realizing that you have ‘lost’ half an hour?

This isn’t an uncommon experience at all, so I’d like to share 5 powerful and proven time tips that will help you maintain your focus and stay in charge of your time, even in the face of the most interesting internet distractions imaginable!

5 Time Tips to Keep You on Track and In Charge!

1. Know where you are starting – what’s your internet baseline?  This is important, because it helps you set realistic expectations for yourself.  I suggest that you keep an internet log for a week. Make no judgments. Just track how much time you actually spend on activities like checking the news, e-mails, and other things on the Internet.  Use broad categories to start – you can always fine-tune this later if you want. You are just looking for the facts  - because once you have them in front of you, you can make informed choices.
2. Enhance your focus on the task at hand by closing down any computer functions that might be distracting.  Turn off your e-mail (or turn off the sound so you aren’t continually alerted about new messages).  Do the same with your instant messaging and RSS feeds. Setting this boundary for yourself greatly enhances your ability to stay on task.
3. Keep your goal front and center when searching the net. Don’t give in to the temptation to read all the interesting links that your search uncovers. Return to your task as soon as you have the answer you need.  Tip # 4 will help you with this!
4. Keep a running list of interesting links you discover.  Clip or bookmark those links using any of the excellent services available, like Evernote, Pinterest, Springpad, and others.  Also, make an explicit promise to yourself, to set aside time to explore these links later. Knowing that you’ll come back makes it much easier to let go and refocus NOW!
5. Keep your promise to yourself!  Make time to revisit those links.  Maybe it can be a reward for completing a task, or a planned bit of ‘playtime.’  This is important, both as a way to reward yourself and to build trust in your follow-through.  It has the added benefit of helping you keep work and play separate – a boundary that makes both more meaningful.

BONUS TIP:  Don’t get “Lost in (Cyber) Space!  Set clear time parameters for your tasks.  To accomplish this I strongly advise you to begin the practice of using a timer.  It is very easy to lose track of time while you are on the computer. So before you begin, set a stop time for yourself and, when that time arrives … stop!

This can be challenging, and if you struggle with stopping (and it’s logistically feasible), you can try setting an alarm in another room.  This will move you away from your computer (and away from the temptation).   Another thing to try, if you have difficulty pulling yourself away from the internet, is to plan your work so that your allotted on-line time occurs before you have to leave for an appointment.

The bottom line is that, while time on the internet is necessary for marketing and other business-related activities, it is a challenge to stay focused.  If your internet time is expanding and taking you away from other things you need to be doing, your wisest course is to develop and implement solid time management techniques. When you take positive control of your internet activity, you are not only finding more focus and productivity … you are also finding more time!

So start improving your life today by exploring your internet baseline and then deciding how YOU want to take charge of that time.

And to move toward your Heart-Based Time Success, sign up for our free gift, the Finding Time Success Kit, which includes “The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!”

Using a workbook format this powerful and practical time template helps you progress beyond disappointment and frustration.

Discover that 24 hours really are enough!

All the best,

Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert

Website: http://www.findingtime.net/
E-mail: paula@thetimefinder.com
Phone: 603-547-6696
Please join me on Twitter and on Facebook! Or connect with me on LinkedIn, Google, or on Pinterest!

Pre-release Book Cover

A brand new book is hitting the market this coming September co-authored by some of the most phenomenal and celebrated thinkers in the world.

The book “Ready, Aim, Captivate: Put Magic in Your Message and a Fortune in Your Future” is a phenomenal new book in a series which went to the Amazon Best Sellers list.

The book will be released in September at a phenomenal star studded event in Hollywood, USA.

More details on the book’s launch event will be announced soon.

“The reason most people ‘give up’ is because they are too obsessed with the GLOSS and not ‘into’ the process. To them Process is an interruption”…

Hi guys,

I want to share a recent post I placed on Facebook for today’s lesson.

Most of the time we’re all working to get to the infamous “next level” in our businesses, personal lives and general development. We’re looking forward and hardly paying attention to the past, much less the present.

It’s because the future has so much hope.
So much chances for unfulfilled dreams and goals of the past.

Unfortunately though, the current circumstances we are in are often a far cry from the future we want to create. Do you ever feel like that?

Maybe you aren’t making enough money, maybe your family situation isn’t as you would like, perhaps your unsure of what you want to do with your life…

No matter what we always, as humans, see a gulf from today to THAT DAY in the future which is built up in our minds to represent ‘success’.

With this in mind I wanted to encourage YOU on the process you’re going through RIGHT NOW…

I wanted to encourage you today just to understand that the process – that is the bit you’re in now, before you get to the stage you want to be – needs to be honoured, respected and diligently acknowledged.

You see, your future is dependent on the lessons you learn and implement in your process! You will be tested similarly in the future, on a different level yes, but a similar test. ( you may feel now that you are going through something similar to in the past… just slightly different).

That’s how it works… The same damn lessons, except on a different level. 

So you may as well just embrace the test! the process! the exam! the lessons! Because if you don’t you’ll find yourself REPEATING THE CLASS!

The BIGGEST SUCCESS STORIES OF OUR TIME have come from people who triumphed and become successful from the lows and processes they had gone through…

Whether that’s divorce, deaths, bankruptcy, failures, health issues… whatever.

Even I overcame becoming a very successful entrepreneur, mentoring thousands of people, tv, newspaper, radio appearances, investments and international business and speaking success.

But people rarely realise this is only the forefront to my backdrop of financial hardship, sexual abuse as a child, nearly being murdered, living in children’s homes and failing in my first business and fourth businesses.

SO ONE OF THE BIGGEST TIPS I CAN GIVE YOU IS…

Go through the process and take notes, learn about YOU and how you deal with situations; look for improvements and make them, even when you really want to revert to past behaviours.

YOUR PROCESS is your best friend… even though it may seem at times to be your worst enemy.

As my friend and celebrity stylist  Tanesha Westcarr says… “Start Small, Stay Consistent”.

And as I say… “Each passing day may feel like you haven’t accomplished much, but clock up a year and see just how much has changed”.

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

All the best,

Go to www.MarshaWright.com for more tips and business articles

Article by Marsha Wright Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: +44 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.com

===========================================

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshawright.co.uk

For speaking requests email: pressdept []dot[] marshawright [] dot [] co [] uk

Hi guys,

Every now an again I share the links to some of the useful resources that I find, that help me do what I have to do.

When I was 13 I started my first ‘business’ I actually did graphic design for businesses in a town close the where I lived and went to school. I would print up banners, shop signs and all that kind of stuff.

Back then I didn’t have online tools to help you do logos…!   Now that I cast my mind back – I remember that the Internet wasn’t even around then! Hard to think of what that’s like right?!

Anyway, earlier today I found LogoSnap as I was looking through Google in search of a logo maker – there are quite a few of them, but I found LogoSnap quicker, cheaper and easier to use.

Check it out and see if you can make your branded logo look that bit more polished.

Here’s the URL:  http://www.logosnap.com/

Have a fab weekend!

Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.com

=================================================================
Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MarshaWrightOfficial

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

STOP IT NOW!!!

Right now you too could be making the mistake of believing that your customer will patiently wait for you to take them through your marketing funnel…

Buying up the small and less significant offerings until you prove you’re worth your salt and ready yourself to upsell them to the high ticket product/service you really wanted to sell to them in the first place…

But the risk you take is, the longer you wait the more risk of your client buying from YOUR COMPETITIOR!

This waiting game is a severe mistake made by entrepreneurs using the marketing funnel as their sales bible.  But you can have you cake and eat it too.

I think there is a much quicker way to grow your business and have more qualified clients buying your high ticket products and services quicker.

If you want to know how to do this check out this web page where I explain a lot more about it.

All the best,

Go to www.MarshaWright.com for more tips and business articles

by Marsha Wright Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: +44 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.com

===========================================

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshawright.co.uk

For speaking requests email: pressdept []dot[] marshawright [] dot [] co [] uk

Creating short, how-to articles allows you to:

- connect with your audience

- position yourself as an expert, and

- increase sales

Bottom line: Give clients information they need and you’ll be the first person they’ll think of when they run into challenges.

Consider creating a template for your e-mail newsletter articles that will fit the needs of your audience. Ask yourself if they want detailed information, or if they’re happy receiving broad ideas that will allow them to tailor the information to meet their specific needs.

If they want specific info, you could always include a teaser paragraph in your newsletter and then provide a link at the bottom of that paragraph. The link can lead to more detailed information about the subject your that audience is interested in.

Once you understand the needs of your audience, place your information in article format. Here’s a system I’ve often used to produce quick, informative articles.

1. Begin with an identifier paragraph.

This is an introduction to the subject. Just let people know exactly what you’re getting at.

2. Tell them why they should be interested.

This is where you just get into the reader’s world. You will what you’re talking about help them do their jobs better? In essence, that’s all people really want to know.

3. Give short, realistic pieces of advice.

You have so much to say it’s hard to fit it into short bits of info, but do it you must. Otherwise you’ll lose your audience’s attention. Try to stick to the points that have the most impact or the ones that are completely opposite to what people in your industry are currently doing.

4. Wrap it up.

One of my mentors used to always say to me, “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Then tell ‘em. Then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.” No, he wasn’t senile. His advice actually worked. At the end of every article I just wrap up what I’ve said by reviewing the key points of the article. It’s called a “takeaway.” What’s the one thing you want the audience to take away from your article and implement in their daily work lives? Once you’ve answered that question, you have your final paragraph.

Whatever you do, keep it short and simple. Sure we may want to use sophisticated language if your audience craves that, but you’d be surprised. When reading e-mail especially, readers won’t mind short, concise words and phrases. And that’s especially true if those words and phrases add more to the bottom line and/or help them become more efficient.

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Adding value to your site, service, or product is one of the most over looked and under rated strategies for improving your internet business.

The internet and modern technology makes it possible for anyone to offer that little something extra that nobody else does, and usually at no additional cost.

But why bother? well first, let’s look at why this is a good business practice.

It’s a good thing to do because you will make more money!

What: Now let’s look at what value adding is!

Value adding is giving surprise high quality and useful gifts. It’s giving something that your competitors aren’t offering. It’s promising the world and delivering the universe.

It’s taking care of your clients and always providing something that your clients need and want, when and where they want it.

How: Now let’s look at the different ways we can do this.

If you received a free gift from someone when you don’t expect it, do you remember that person?

Answer; yes usually.

How can we do this?

Look at the example below for an idea!

If you subscribe to a news letter or ezine, what do you expect?

You expect to get what you subscribed for, right?

Now imagine that you subscribed for a newsletter that distributes information about Poodle breading in France, and when you open the conformation email you find you’ve also received a free ebook containing 20 poodle grooming tips and Grandmas secret poodle pampering techniques. (a book that normally sells for $/£29)

Wouldn’t that make you more likely to open and read the next issue and the next etc?

That’s one simple example, but where do you get the ebook from? You make it or access the hundreds of thousands of e-books out there in the PLR universe!

If you are distributing a poodle breeding newsletter, you might know something about grooming, or know some people that could help you put together the necessary information. Then you can wrap that up in an ebook cover and then send it around to a variety of sites that will post it for you for free and you can sell on your own site, if you have one. (I can see that there are several more articles just on making e-books, posting them on other people’s sites, and setting up a shop front.)

Now, back to the Poodles! So you can see that by offering this free gift you have achieved several things.

1. You have developed a product (at no cost to you) that you can sell and make a profit on.

2. You have used that product to increase the chances of your new subscriber opening your next email.

3. You have promoted you site/service to other internet marketers that you may wish to do a joint venture with at some time.

Another way to add value for less effort is to offer a 110 percent guarantee instead of a 100 percent.

Another is to make your 20 tips into 30 or more etc, get the idea? It’s all just a matter of finding ways that you can give more.

AND REMEMBER:

The more you give the more you will receive.

CLICK HERE >> Access a FREE course from Marsha called “Solve A Problem, Make A Million” worth £1,256 << GRAB IT NOW

Business is tough at times, but it’s even tougher when you hit a spell when you aren’t sure what you’re doing. So trust Marsha Wright from MarshaWright.co.uk to give readers her top ten tips to being successful in business…

Go to www.MarshaWright.co.uk for more tips and business articles
Article by Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.co.uk
Web: http://www.BusinessAccelerationEvent.com
===========================================

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshawright.co.uk

For speaking requests please email: pressdept []dot[] marshawright [] dot [] co [] uk

Figure out what your market’s problems are and SOLVE THEM

Too often, business owners figure out what they are good at, and then attempt to find a market who will buy it from them.

Problem is, tonnes of people are good at doing what you do, so when your customer finds you they are able to choose easily between you and your many global competitors.

In business, success is predicated on how many problems you can solve, and the number of people you solve them for.

So a great example is; if you know you have an interest in something, instead of trying to just get contracts doing those things, think about what keeps your MARKET up all night.  What problems do they have that you could solve?  Then create a solution that they will see as more than just a product.

To learn more about becoming a millionaire by solving other people’s problems…

CLICK HERE >> Access a FREE course from Marsha called “Solve A Problem, Make A Million” worth £1,256 << GRAB IT NOW

Business is tough at times, but it’s even tougher when you hit a spell when you aren’t sure what you’re doing. So trust Marsha Wright from MarshaWright.co.uk to give readers her top ten tips to being successful in business…

Go to www.MarshaWright.co.uk for more tips and business articles
Article by Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.co.uk
Web: http://www.BusinessAccelerationEvent.com
===========================================

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshawright.co.uk

For speaking requests please email: pressdept []dot[] marshawright [] dot [] co [] uk

Entrepreneurs do not have a mindset that accepts failure easily. Things go wrong, of course, but entrepreneurs don’t call them failures, they call them “glitches, setbacks, bungles, mistakes” but not ‘failures’.

When one such entrepreneur was asked about the hardest decision he ever had to make, he answered that he didn’t know what a hard decision was.

An entrepreneur will approach decision-making with the idea that there’s a strong liklihood that he/she will be wrong.  This doesn’t dissuade them – to the contrary they just do the best they can and worry about handling obstacles as they arise.

Another way of looking at it is to realize that you will make mistakes, so make them as quickly as you can in order to learn from them.  A good leader doesn’t view making mistakes as negative or irrevocable, he/she feels free to press on and try something new. There is the belief that something useful has been learned, and hopefully not at a high cost.

Let’s face it; if you’re going to live this life you’re going to make mistakes.  Make use of them as learning tools and don’t make the same ones twice.

Entrepreneurs also know the value of “intuition”.  While you shouldn’t act on the results of tossing a coin, there is something to be said about your “gut” feeling about the situation.  Very often business people become so involved with systems and checks-and-balances that they forget about that “gut” instinct they had when they started.

While not strictly logical, intuition does draw on a combination of experience, knowledge, and analysis as well as a lot of “gut” information you may have forgotten that you have.

You become a strong leader in your business by “practicing” being a leader.  It’s not a course you can take at a business college; it’s learned in the school of life as you’re doing business.

As a leader, you have to set standards and higher standards for your own behavior.  You must do this because appearances are sometimes more important that facts.

Consider for a moment that as an entrepreneur with a small business you’re planning on approaching a bank for a loan.

You know that you must present a well thought out and concise Business Plan, with all the projections for the use of the capital you’ll borrow and the repayment of the same.  You learned that from all those seminars you attended when considering becoming an entrepreneur, but is there something that you weren’t taught in seminars?  What about “presentation”?

I don’t mean the presentation of the Business Plan, we all know that must be well done and attractive.  What I’m talking about is YOU!  Do you maintain the appearance of leadership?  Do you project a confident appearance of a successful entrepreneur?  You may not have the faintest idea today how you’re going to pay for that advertising bill coming due on the 15th, but you’re not going to give that banker that information.

Presenting yourself as a confident entrepreneur, filled with the excitement of your business idea, and a strong leader of your team (whether it’s 1 or 10 employees) is what will make you a winner and add untold weight to your Business Plan.  After all, you are your business to that banker so you’d better look good and confident.

To protect that faith that your people and your customers have in your organization, always ask yourself these two questions:

1. Could this be interpreted by anyone in a way that would shake their faith in my leadership?

2. Could this be misinterpreted and held against me or the company?

Strong leaders know that leadership is a lifelong learning experience, and when they make a mistake they simply continue to move forward.  The ability to bounce back is a quality that every entrepreneur I’ve ever known has in abundance.

When you blunder, get up and try again quickly. As I alwasy say “Our strategy is to fail forward, fail  fast and fail small.”

Since you’re selling to human beings wouldn’t it be great to know the five secrets that have the greatest influence on your customers? 

What I’m about to share with you will make you the Svengali of Sales in your niche. 

I’m going to put them in the order of use in the marketing process, but they can overlap or be switched around to fit your situation.

What happens in nature when there is a vacuum?  Right.  There is an attempt to fill that void, and human nature also follows that law.

1. Filling the void – When someone does a person a favor or gives them something of value for free, this act provides an imbalance in the relationship.  This creates a subconscious pressure on the recipient to give back in some way. This is what’s known in marketing as filling the void.

2. Reciprocation – In marketing the word “FREE” has the most response of any word in the English language.  That’s why marketers use it over, and over again.  Everybody likes something for free, don’t you?  Even though “free” means there is no obligation or cost, the recipient does feel obligated.  If something of real value is given to the person, an imbalance is created – a void in nature – that needs to be filled.  Maybe not immediately, but if that person has gotten great value and use from the gift, there will be a nagging sub-conscious motivation to reciprocate in some manner.

You’ll find that some people just don’t seem to reciprocate, and it could be that they didn’t appreciate the full value of your offer.  This is why it’s so important to make sure when you are offering a free gift with a promotion, that your customers are made aware of the full value of what they’re receiving.

What really makes this work in marketing, though, is that you make your “free” offer available when your customer takes action.  Now it can be a very small one like filling out a customer card for you (which gives you their name, address, and email address), or accepting your product on a 30-day trial.

3. Getting your customer to like you – Have you heard the phrase, “if a customer knows, likes and trusts you then they’ll buy from you”.  Well, you’ve gotten them to know you with your “free” offer, the next step is to get them to “like” you.  The quickest way I know to get someone to like you is for you to let them know that you like them (reciprocation, again).

Now, not ALL people are going to “like” you and you’re not going to like all your customers, but if you take this approach you’ve a lot better odds of finding customers.

When you’re writing your ads and marketing letters always write as if they are a personal note to a real, live, breathing friend.  Use plain talk as if you’re talking to your best friend, and not “hi-tech technobabble”.  Keep it simple!

4. Trust – I don’t know about you, but when I hear someone say “TRUST ME” it reminds me of an insurance or used car salesman and makes me do anything but trust them.  So how do you get your customers to trust you?

Take a leadership role with them and tell them what they should do to take action and buy.  You must be or present yourself as an “Authority” figure.  An expert in your field and the only one they should buy from as proven by the endorsements of your other customers, their friends and neighbors.

If your offer is made in a letter, than include some endorsements from others, mention articles written about you, books, articles, newsletters that you’ve written, etc.  It is interesting that most people don’t want to make a decision, and it’s better that you give them an action plan to say “yes”.

5. Scarcity - This is one persuader that really motivates humans to action, and you must create and manage this to your advantage in every offer you make.

People want things that solve their problems or make them feel good about themselves that are of good quality.  They want it even more – if the quantity is limited in some way.  Remember the law of supply and demand?  If the demand for a product is high and the supply is low, then the price that’s charged will be accepted readily be it high or low.  (Sounds like buying gas for your car, doesn’t it?)

Even if you create the “perception” that there is a limited quantity available, a limited time frame for availability, or whatever you conceive to use, you’ll find this a catalyst to action for your customer.

Of course, it goes without saying that you always include a guarantee of some kind in your offers.  I always like the “no questions asked” type of guarantee for 30, 60, 90 days or even a full year if it fits for you. With this you’re emphasizing your credibility (trust) by saying you’re going to be around for a while.  I’ve found that most times there are very few takers to the guarantee policy you offer, and if there is – you don’t want to keep an unhappy customer anyway.

Be sure to include all five of these tips in all of your offers (ads, sales letters, presentations, etc.) and you’ll see dramatic results and an increase in your business.

CLICK HERE >> Access a FREE course from Marsha called “Solve A Problem, Make A Million” worth £1,256 << GRAB IT NOW

Business is tough at times, but it’s even tougher when you hit a spell when you aren’t sure what you’re doing. So trust Marsha Wright from MarshaWright.co.uk to give readers her top ten tips to being successful in business…

Go to www.MarshaWright.co.uk for more tips and business articles
Article by Marsha Wright
Entrepreneur, Speaker, Business Expert, Mentor, Author, Presenter

Tel: 0207 1 830 930
Web: http://www.MarshaWright.co.uk
Web: http://www.BusinessAccelerationEvent.com
===========================================

Marsha Wright; as seen on BBC1, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Voice, BBC Radio, RTE Television, IPB Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and more…

Twitter: @marshawright
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/marsha-wright/15/916/392
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarshaWrightOfficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshawright.co.uk

For speaking requests please email: pressdept []dot[] marshawright [] dot [] co [] uk

I come across so many small business owners who love what they do, but have a fear, or suffer with analysis paralysis when it comes to the subject of sales.

In short, sales = income and without it, you have no business!!

I personally break the sales process to these simple 8 points, that if done well, will not only simplify your process, but you’ll find potential customers hunting you down for your products/services, instead of the other way round.

1. Qualify Your Prospect - Maximizing your time is important, so the faster you can determine if you’ve got a potential customer the better.  Determine who the “Decision Maker” is, do you have a good rapport with him/her, is their a problem you can solve or do they know there’s a problem?

You may have the greatest hammer in the world, but if all this prospect uses is screws – you can’t sell your product.

2. Gain Trust – Price and product benefits are obvious buying factors, but less obvious ones are intuition, reputation, impressions, and rapport.  Prospects are just as apt to buy for emotional reasons as practical ones, so you need to show them you are most like them, you’re sincere, you keep your word, and are honest.

If you say you’ll see them on Tuesday, make sure you keep your word.  Don’t make a promise you don’t intend on keeping.

3. Define Your Unique Position – Your product or service provides your customer with a specific benefit or group of benefits.

Make sure it isn’t the same as your competition. Why does your company stand out? Let them know the difference.

4. LISTEN! – Most salespeople are guilty of “overselling”, and often miss the sentence from the prospect that says, “You’re right.   We’ll take it.”

Listen to your prospect as he answers open-ended questions, and even listen to his tone and inflections of speech.  Uncover the problem, and then provide the solution and stop talking.

5. Stay Focused – Too many small business owners spend all their time putting out fires instead of making sales.  Spend at least 60% of your time trying to produce revenue.  The sales window of 9am-5pm is small, so plan your selling time accordingly.  Schedule non-sales generating duties outside this time.

6. Polish Your Presentation – Don’t take your sales presentation for granted.  Practice your pitch.  You’ve spent a lot of money perfecting your product or service, take the time to develop a comfortable, confident, effective presentation.

7. Do Your Homework – Research your prospects so that you can ask better questions, show better under-standing of his business, and be more prepared and confident before your meet.

You have to know ‘what keeps my prospect up at night’ without that fore-knowledge, you’re missing keys to solving your clients problems. And thus to making the profits you want.

8. Learn From Success – Many entrepreneurs have success in one industry with one type of client, and then don’t focus on getting more of the same type.

If you’ve been successful selling to doctors and publishers, call on other doctors and publishers and refer to the successes you’ve had.

Prospects will trust you more if they know you have previous experience with others in their field. You also spend less time establishing your credibility with them.

These are just a few ways to increase your sales revenue, but they are valuable in helping you to accomplish one very important goal – TO SELL THE MOST PRODUCT OR SERVICE IN THE LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME. 

Did you enjoy this article? Did it give you ideas or any personal realizations? What are your useful tips? Did you take any ah-ha’s from this article?

Please comment below or Tweet Me @MarshaWright and I’ll reply back.

Marsha Wright has long been seen as a fashionista, known for her signature style of gorgeous shoes and accessories and a voluptuous figure draped in outfits that any woman who loves her shape and loves fashion would don…

Anna Scholz the fabulous designer has teamed up with Marsha Wright’s amazing stylist Tanesha Westcarr of TWestStyling.com to provide the looks for the big Marsha Wright Photoshoot

Styling provided by:  Tanesha Westcarr of TWestStyling.com and StylingStrippedBare.com
Photography provided by: Hannah Anketell from Jasmine Journey Photography
Hair & Make-up is provided by: Gurvinder Hunjan from  GurvinderHunjan.com
Shoot co-ordinated and organised by: Silvia Pellegrini from the Silvia Pellegrini Events

To see Anna Scholz collection please go to: www.annascholz.com
Or call: + 44 (0)20 8960 2400

Facebook can be really annoying sometimes…

Sorry the link was blocked there – use this one instead:

>>> http://bit.ly/JointVentureInnerCircle <<<

Time With Natalie is a magazine show with educational and uplifting interviews, music, events, fashion, business themes.

Filmed in the best locations with the most inspiring guests, the shows are  informative, entertaining and forward thinking.

Each episode consists of interviews with prominent figures in the community, celebrity guests, business leaders, health experts, music guests etc.

In this week’s episode I interview Marsha Wright. Marsha is a successful business owner and serial entrepreneur with interests in publishing, media, software, business services, consultancy, training and mentoring.

She’s known as a speaker, business guru, mentor, presenter of business and property programmes and an author.

A good proportion of Marsha’s business provides business mentoring and consultancy to existing business owners and people who want to build their own business.

“My hook is great… I turn normal people into well-known experts. I teach them how to manufacture buzz, and then create a business around that niche and then create a £250,000 a year income, if people work my system, then it works!”

Marsha is a school drop out, with no real qualifications, sexually abused as a young girl and spending most of her teen years in children’s homes, she has the perfect rags to riches story. Attractive, outspoken and inspirational, Marsha is truly a force to be reckoned with, and you want her in your corner helping you to be successful!

She and husband Simon Wright started their journey to financial freedom in 1998. Since, Marsha has been the CEO of a number businesses all helping people to be more successful.

Notably she has had a #1 show in ITunes, directly mentored over 700 business owners, in addition to being heard and influencing millions on TV and through radio and national and local newspapers and magazine spreads.

Marsha is a great Sales Director and she teaches strategies to close sales, improve client experience, how to get clients to buy and keep paying, back-office marketing strategies, rapport buying strategies and more”.

Watch the interview here:

I didn’t feel like a facebook post or a Twitter message was enough, so I take to my official site to voice how I feel…

I remember that day… I was in Ealing, London walking down the high street, I had so many errands to do that day. Everything seemed normal.

It WAS a normal day… and then my phone rang

It was Simon, my then fiancé (but now my husband of 9 years).

He said “did you hear the news Marsh?” He didn’t sound… normal… he sounded… Concerned.

I was clueless I didn’t know that he would tell me that the world had changed… I ignorantly replied “what you on about? What news” –

He said “a plane hit one of the twin towers in New York; looks like some kind of accident” I was shocked.

I remember that I stopped walking right by the Italian restaurant. I was in shock… my mind racing wondering who I personally knew who would be in New York right now??

I wanted more details… Is anyone hurt? Oh, and how many people would have lost their lives? That was enough for me to stop my insignificant shopping trip and head home to watch what happened.

I, like the rest of the world took the rest of the day off to watch the unbelieveable pictures of what seemed like a cross between a blockbuster movie and a bad dream…

I remember asking Simon, while still on the Ealing High Road – “babe are you sure it was an accident?” Little did I know that my ominous questions would have such far reaching ramifications…

That Tuesday changed the world forever… and I will never forget that day!

According to Wikipedia 2,996 people lost their lives that day. Not counting those who died afterwards from other related illness.

I’m not sure that figure is correct, many reports account for closer to 3,500. However one life lost was enough.

And for that those of use who remain – remember all of those who were lost and their families, friends, children without their parents…

We honour you all… No, I honour you all with my small contributions – this blog. And a PROMISE to help the world be a better place so that all the tomorrows can be better.

 

I want to dedicate and leave you with this awesome song from Kirk Franklin, “I Smile”: