Have you noticed you have more clarity and energy in the morning? For some of us, it starts early, between 5-7 am (me on most days) and for others, it starts more like 10 am (Mark, my husband and business partner). Some people, a minority, have the most energy and clarity in the afternoon.

Whenever your brain and energy works best, you want to be focusing on the Big Stuff to move your business forward. (Things like big-picture marketing and business planning, writing, brainstorming, creative tasks that require brain power, and so on). Also, don’t be afraid to take a 20 minute meditation/nap in the afternoons- research shows it revives you and re-energizes you.

Harness your energy and brain power while you got it!

According to Eban Pagan: “What’s the big enemy of business success in modern times? It’s distraction and interruption. … I’ve discovered that time management is one of the biggest challenges that business people and entrepreneurs face”.

“I was asking about frustrations growing businesses and the answers weren’t about … products. In fact, the most common answer was ‘time management and productivity’. It turned out, the biggest challenge people were facing had to do with managing their time.”

If this sounds like you, try implementing the following systems. If you choose to change the way you approach your work and build the discipline to be more productive, you can get more time, get it faster and get more done! It all depends on how much you value your time – at work and outside of work.

In all the discussions I have had with clients for over 20 years, one thing is consistently apparent in each case. Clients who focus on their most profitable activities are the ones who thrive and prosper. Those who spread themselves too thin; who multi-task too much; are always playing catch-up with their time and their finances.

Time is the most depreciating asset we have. We can never get it back. Yet, we throw it away.  I’ll share more no-cost ways to build your own productivity muscle and get more time later, but here is the first way.
1. Use your 6 Most Important Things List – daily. If you try to accomplish more in a day, you are spreading yourself too thin.

P.S. For my free report: Jumpstart Your Productivity, go to Breakthrough Enterprise.

Even though you are most likely not a manufacturer or a volume distributor of physical products, there is an operations side to your business.

On the operations side, you want to automate as much as you can to free up your time. Spending extra time on operations when you are the business owner, does not make you any more money. So why would you want to?

Therefore, here are 3 no-cost automation systems for your business operations.

1. Set Up Processes  for everything (using Outlook, Billing cycles, invoices, reports, tracking, Follow-up Services – everything)
2. Document and Delegate every repeatable Operation (from shipping product, to hiring, PR distribution)
3. Create Your Operations Manual -  I know that most of this is in your head already. But it is also a ball and chain, limiting how much more you can be doing to make more money and grow the business. Set up your operations manual to spell out everything for:

• Administration

• Bookkeeping/Accounting

• Prospecting/tracking/follow-up

• Staff management

With apologies to one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert, I want to ask you to assess your marketing with a cold eye and an honest look.  Tell me…..is your marketing system based on the wish, hope, and pray method?  Here are some signs that it is:

1. No one in your organization has a clear mission of responsibility for creating and running a constant marketing system.
2. Marketing falls to the back of the list after client services, bookkeeping, scheduling, errands, and dusting the office.
3. Networking in the community and on the Internet is catch-as-catch-can and is handed off to the least busiest person.
4. You have no idea how many new customers you have gained in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.
5. You have no idea how many customers you haven’t heard from in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.
6. You don’t really like to market, think it is hard to do, and believe that great customer service alone will do the trick.
7. Your marketing system consists of trying to upsell existing clients when they are in (think about the hair salon syndrome….you can’t get out of there without running the gauntlet of hair product, make-up, and spa service suggestions every single time you are there).

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In my 14-step formula for getting clients, making income, and building business, one of the steps is to “Identify WHAT.” In other words, identify what you want out of your business. An important aspect of this step is defining clear goals that will help you achieve what you want out of your business.

For example, if your goal is to “get more clients,” this may be a little too vague. On the other hand, if your goal is to get, say, 10 new clients over the next three months, now we’re getting somewhere.

The bottom line is this: If your goals aren’t clear, your business growth will be stunted.

When your goals are clear, it’s much easier to reach them. The more specific they are, the more attainable they become. So, when defining your business goals, make them as detailed as possible. Think about all the things that you truly WANT to get out of your business, and make a list of as many specifics as you can think of.

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Working from home – most of us absolutely love it – but it can be challenging.

Here are a couple other challenges we face when we work from home…

Challenge – Feeling like you’re not getting your great ideas accomplished and the business isn’t moving forward.

• First thing in the morning take a few minutes to picture what you want to create for the day. Envision your success. Write it down in your journal.

• Limit yourself to three top priorities to accomplish today. For example your day might include scheduling appointments, spending quality time with each child and exercising for one hour. This way it’s easier to see your results.

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To run a successful business it is necessary to pour yourself into the endeavor.  Success in business is very reflective of success in life.  People do well in life by laying out their values and priorities and making decisions based upon these.  It keeps things as simple as possible while keeping people true to themselves and happy.  Running a business based on personal values and priorities will make your business decisions easier, give you less heartache, and MUCH MORE success.

If you attempt to create a business that is out of sync with your personal or business values and priorities, it is difficult work.  Putting that business in line with personal values and priorities will make it easier to get clients and build your business, resulting in more income.

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At tax time we all become more acutely aware of our finances. 2009 was a very different kind of year. April is a good time to revisit your goals and plans for 2010 based on last year’s actual numbers.

I have an MBA which taught me to understand numbers and finances in business. That doesn’t mean I naturally like numbers. However, I did fall in love with the numbers in my business when I learned how they directly correlate to my marketing plans and the results I achieve.
In a small business or solo business, your professional cashflow requirements are driven by your personal requirements for the year.

Begin with the end in mind — Stephen Covey

It isn’t just a sense of where you are and a dream of where you wish you could get to. It’s a logical progression that you map out and make possible.

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As creative entrepreneurs, we want to make our wisdom available to as many people as possible. A great way of do this is to take valuable material we have already created and, through repurposing, present it in different formats. We can be of greater service to others as well as making our own lives easier when we do this.

How can creative entrepreneurs and others benefit from repurposing?

Repurposing saves you time and energy because you don’t have to start from scratch. Instead of procrastinating, you’ll start realizing how much you have to offer, maybe things that you previously took for granted. Here’s an important mindset reminder for creative entrepreneurs – what you know has value.

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Time management tips really help you manage yourself when you are stressed, rushed, and caught in a time crunch. Those are, after all, the times when it’s hardest to make your best time choices.

Here are 5 Stress-Reduction Steps to Take the Crunch Out of Your Time

1. Work Within Your Limits. It sounds easy. It is not so easy. Take a deep breath. Recognize the reality that you don’t have time to get everything done that you might have hoped to. Straightforward as it sounds, it requires truly relinquishing options you might value highly! In Scott Peck’s classic, The Road Less Traveled, he lists “balancing” as one of the four essential disciplines to solve all life’s problems. At the heart of balancing is letting go. You assume more positive control by reducing demands on yourself to a workable level. Having simplified your demands, you can succeed!

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