Business Burnout

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MS Polarfront weather ship IMO Number: 7608708...

When you’re the only crew on your ship, it’s tough to take our hands off the rudder. So you keep saying to yourself…

But many business owners don’t allow themselves the luxury of a day off here and there, and certainly not a vacation. This can lead to Business Burnout, and that’s not pretty. Business Burnout will make you far less effective, more moody, less decisive and possibly depressed, anxious and resentful. Who wants to do business with someone like that?

It’s too difficult to get away.

It’s not worth it, because I just come back to a mess.

I might miss an important opportunity if I take time off.

Who will take care of the clients?

No one else can do what I do.

I can’t afford to take time off.

It’s no fun to take time off if I can’t afford to do anything different.

via Business Burnout.

The road to burnout for entrepreneurs is well documented. In fact I’m doing a webinar about it in 2 days, come and take steps to focus your life and skip the burnout.

In the meantime, enjoy the reasons why you became self-employed instead. Commit to someone else that you will take that time off no matter what. Remind yourself of the consequences of burnout.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

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Sales Lessons My Mom Taught Me

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My mom was a no-nonsense lawyer with a heart of gold. Her tongue however, was not made of silver (as they say). She told it like it is. Still does. I’m sure she’d agree with the rule that…

 

‘No gift until after you write the thank-you note.’

My mom was BIG on thank-you notes. In her mind, it was the height of rudeness to fail to recognize when somebody had sent you a gift. So every Christmas, before we got to actually play with the toys our relatives sent us, we had to sit down and write our thank-you notes.

Years later, I learned that she always applied the same principles in her sales job. Whenever a store manager cut a special order, or allowed her to rearrange the shelf layout, or did anything that made her job easier, she wrote a personal note and mailed it, on exact the same day.

via Sales Lessons My Mom Taught Me.

Other lessons she taught me were about thinking before I opened my mouth, treating everyone like I wanted to be treated and finally about how important friendships were. Here’s to you on Mother’s Day mom!

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

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60 Seconds to Sell Yourself

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Sign on the door of a unisex washroom

Sign on the door of a unisex washroom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t call them elevator pitches, I call mine bathroom lineup chat (I’m a woman). As was brought home to me at the sold out Oprah live event in Toronto where I waited with 6500 women to pee, it’s really important to have a swift way to keep people interested and engaged. Even if they’re a captive audience.

Keep it simple but don’t be general:

Focus on the problem that you solve

Take 10 – 20 seconds to state what you do. No need to state your name that’s boring, it will probably be forgotten, it wastes time, and more importantly it is on your business card. When stating what you do, be sure to be interesting so that you will stand out (remember you only have 60 seconds to make an impression on someone and be memorable). Get right to the point and explain what problem or problems that you solve for your customers.

via 60 Seconds to Sell Yourself.

Remember these tips, the next time that you need the loo!

With kindness as always,

Chala

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Losing Hope: The small business nightmare

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Finding solutions is all about mindset…

I have a terrible suspicion. My clients aren’t hiring me (a branding coach) to teach them how to brand or how to market themselves. I doubt they even suspect the real reason…I’m beginning to think that I am hired because I offer a single shining thing….I offer hope. Signing that 6 month contract with me is investing in the future, it’s putting a concrete step forward in good faith that things will work out and get better than they are now.

Just 6 months ago, I left my full-time job to launch my practice. When I think about how many times I’ve lost hope, I can really appreciate what other small business owners go through. A single rejection can send you reeling. Silent phones and lack of emails have you projecting starvation. So what’s the antidote to losing your hope?

Relief – is it within your grasp?

How do I get back on the horse? I think about people who have overcome horrible circumstances. Circumstances that are a million times worse than my phone not ringing.

Here’s an example. I’ve had 4 miscarriages. So when I was finally pregnant with Logan and had enforced bed rest for the first trimester, I read the most awful and horrible biographies I could find written by survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Every day as I read about women, who were lined up as a deliberate act of war to be raped in front of their entire families, I would reflect about my own fears. How did this strategy work out? I ended up giving birth to a 10 pound cutie pie and adopting a Rwandan sister through the Women for Women International organization for life.

Mindset is everything when it comes to small business growth. If you, the heart of that entity have lost hope, I urge you to stop everything you’re doing and just think for a minute about what you’re grateful for.

I guarantee you’ll feel better for it.

If you need help finding horribly inspiring stories, here are a few resources that work for me:

http://www.dancaro.com/

http://www.immaculee.com/

http://www.viktorfrankl.org/

http://www.peacepilgrim.com/

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

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My teacher Oprah

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I saw Oprah live for the first time in my life this week in Toronto. Bucket list anyone? People (mostly women) were lined up for blocks and blocks. Parking lots around the venue were full. The radio was talking about the traffic jams caused by the event. Once I got into the building, I joined the throngs of women all excited and chatting and taking pictures of signs and the other people. I felt goosebumps from the energy in the room. I was there 2 hours before the start time and I almost couldn’t find a seat–even though I walked to the very end of the cavernous room. 8500 avid fans were there, waiting for their first glimpse of Oprah.

Similar to most people, I consider Oprah to be one of my biggest teachers. I’ve learned about authors, concepts, movements and personal stories of triumph and tragedy from her. I owe meeting my hero Wayne Dyer and my Rwandan sister through Women for Women International to Oprah.

The day of the event was no different. I saw and listened to great teachers I’d never heard about before. A large and charismatic man named Bishop T.D. Jakes stood up and wowed the audience. He said to the woman who couldn’t get over the death of her husband, “people are like scaffolding, when the building is complete they go away”. I was so touched by that. So many of my relationships have so much more meaning when I look at it that way.

As a small business growth coach, I teach everything I learn on a daily and hourly basis almost immediately. I am privileged to have a life where I can transfer these learnings to others as part of my actual job.

Make every day a learning day. Every memory something that has lessons and every interaction will have that much more meaning for you and for your clients.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

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Entrepreneurial Paralysis

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Rollerblade Twister skate Italiano: Pattino Ro...“Excuse me, coming through!” I screamed at the people on the bike path as I unsteadily rolled at a fast clip on my blades. It was an uncommonly busy day at the Beach and I’m not the best rollerblader to say the least.  Low and behold people were strolling on the bike path and not the boardwalk, impeding all biker and blader traffic.

The single most common reaction to my shouts was paralysis. People of all ages and sizes would turn around with giant eyes and STAY frozen in my path, watching me barrel them down on more than one occasion.

Fear freezes entrepreneurs too. One client who was too scared to pick a niche was incapable of creating a signature keynote or even writing en eBook because she couldn’t pick whose pain she wanted to address.

Another client was afraid to public speak so he avoided not just looking for speaking opportunities but stopped any marketing efforts what so ever.

SYMPTOMS
Entrepreneurial Paralysis (my own word that I shall refer to as EP from now on) is easy to spot. If you own your own business and are procrastinating, stagnating or generally making a lot of excuses but getting nothing done, then you’ve got EP and you need help.

TREATMENT

  • Remember why you’re in this business in the first place. If it’s still relevant, keep going.
  • Remind yourself of the consequences of inaction. If you have EP now, what will you be like in 6 months of this?
  • Write a to-do list with 3 business building actions per day and don’t end the day if they’re left undone.
  • Lastly, call a coach, call a mentor, call a friend, call anyone… but get some support. You can’t do it alone.

With kindness as always,

Chala

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3 feet from gold*

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English: Amercian self-help writer Napoleon Hi...

Napoleon Hill author of Think and Grow Rich!

I’m re-reading Napoleon Hill’s famous book on positive thinking called ‘Think and Grow Rich’. It’s making my mind itch and stretch as it’s meant to. The story of Mr. Darby, the gold explorer who gave up on mining the ore because he unknowingly had hit a fault line—3 feet beyond which lay the vein full of gold gave me pause. The ironic part of the story is that Mr. Darby then sold his drill to a “junk man” who hired an expert about fault lines and continued to drill to become a millionaire from Mr. Darby’s mine. Continue reading →