“Never let what you cannot do stop you from doing what you CAN do!”— Stephen Pierce

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it . . . ; Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” -David Ogilvy-

Small Business Wednesday
Expert Interview

Amanda Gates of AB Home Interiors

After speaking with Amanda with AB Home interiors I knew I had to make a couple of changes here in the office. Her fresh approach to creating the right space was well received and I am thrilled share the interview with you.  I spent a bit of time on her blog http://www.abhomeinteriors.com/blog and I got so much inspiration. She really knows how to create a space.

Today’s expert is Amanda Gates, selected by Nashville Home and Garden magazine as one of the top designers to watch in 2009, Amanda Gates is best known for classic design with a modern feel. Her style is fresh, comfortable and relaxed.  Since establishing her firm, AB HOME Interiors in 2005, Amanda has completed projects across the United States, establishing   herself as a trusted designer.

Her stylish designs, retail company and blog have been featured in numerous publications including Nashville Home and  garden, At Home Tennessee, Greater Nashville House and Home, and The Brentwood Home magazine.

As a busy professional, Amanda appreciates spaces that are elegant but easy. Known for her straightforward and down-to-earth manner, Amanda is a designer who designs for real people, and specializes in active families.   She also offers virtual design services! (Which I am particularly excited about)

I have to admit, I thought what does an Interior Designer have to do with small businesses or solo professionals but soon  realized that the space you are in really helps you in staying focused and productive. With the perfect space reflecting your  style, you stay inspired.

I recorded a portion of our time together and here are a few tips she shared for small business office spaces.

1.  Don’t over look your office space.  Giving your office a bit of attention will help to create an inspiring and productive atmosphere.

2.  Add color. Simply adding a fresh coat of paint can really enhance your mood and increase your productivity.

3. Get a Fantastic chair (I love this tip).  Having the right chair is like wearing a pair of  “power heels”. Get a chair that not only looks great but feels great.

4. Art. Decorate with inspiring photos or art.  Family photos, photos from a great trip you took or sentimental items really enhance the space.

Whether your office space is the kitchen table, your garage, a spare room or leased commercial space these are fantastic and simple tips that can really impact the mood of your office.  You can listen to  the interview with Amanda here:  (duration 13:57 minutes)

Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.“ -Richard C. Cushing-

Small Business Wednesday
Expert Interview

Jeannie Spiro of She’s Confident

I had a great time chatting with Jeannie Spiro of She’s Confident recently. She has a passion for helping her clients successfully transition from working full time as an employee to operating a successful business.

By way of introduction, Jeannie Spiro is The Business Coach and Marketing Mentor for Employed Solo Entrepreneurs. As CEO and Founder of She’sConfident.com.  She is a sought after speaker who teaches employees eager to start a solo business how to effectively use small pockets of time and proven marketing strategies to grow and market their business quickly and successfully while still on the job.

She uses her corporate and real world experience to teach employed professionals that are starting a business how to become an “Unstoppable and Successful Solopreneur”.

I recorded a quick interview with her and here are a few tips she shared for those who are employed and working to get their business off the ground.

1. Test your business idea. Is you business idea a viable idea? Are there other businesses out there that are doing something similar? Great tip! You do not want to waste time trying to grow a business that is not viable or find out down the road that there is not enough interest.

2. Decide how you will stand out. What will make you different? Standing out in the market place will help prospects decide to work with you and buy from you.

3. Read the book Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion to create your unique branding. It is a book that all about building your business around something you are passionate about and using the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses.

You can listen to the interview with Jeannie Spiro  (duration 19:46 minutes)

Thank you Jeannie for sharing these great tips.

I have noticed that there is a special excitement among entrepreneurs this year and what it all boils down to is that entrepreneurs are excited as they look forward in making a leap in their business in 2012. Well there is no better day than today!

No really, today is “Leap Day” and small business owners should take advantage of this Leap Year day that only comes once every four years. So why not today and why not start your leap with some proper planning.

Speaking of proper planning, many view Leap Day as an “Extra Day” to work on their business and use it as a business development day to plan out revenue goals, marketing tactics and client retention programs.

With this in mind, today is a great day to plan out your revenue goals that will assist your business in having a 2012 leap year and here are five steps to help you plan out your goals for your sustainable revenue.

1.  Have a clear-cut, attainable goal-

Be clear on your goals and be realistic as you map them out. By planning too large of a goal, you will risk getting overwhelmed or discouraged when it is not met. Especially if you do not have the infrastructure or support to assist you in carrying it out.

On the other hand, if your goal is too small you may find no challenge in your business venture, be easily disappointed and end up working too hard to just meet your basic income needs. Find the goal that will excite you with the possibilities and is attainable.

2.  Plan out your income avenues and goals for the year

Before you start working on achieving your goals, it is important to plan out your revenue generators. Start with your annual goal and work backwards breaking this goal down into monthly and weekly goals.

This will help you easily asses if you are on track for your annual goal. Also, in this step plan out your income streams and set an annual goal for each stream so that you can easily see where you are with each of these goals as well.

3. Develop an “income plan” with actionable steps for each income Stream

An income plan refers to the different ways your business can earn income. It should list your action plan for each income stream and the steps needed to reach each of your goals.

Your income plan will help you keep focused on the business of earning sustainable income.

4. Implement your plan and commit to it

Once you have mapped out your plan, don’t hesitate to put the plan into action. The sooner you put your plan into actions the sooner you will see and benefit from the results. Be sure to give you plan the attention it needs. In areas that can be automated, be sure to do so this will allow you to focus on other areas of your business.

5. Monitor results

While monitoring the results from an income calculator and revenue generator; you will be able to make adjustment on your plan of action. In business, there will always be something coming in from nowhere and you need to be able to shift directions and plans as needed. This is why monitoring results is vital to your business success.

Now, to help you leap into your business development day, I have created a Six Figure Income Calculator to help you easily plan out your income streams into monthly achievable goals that I would like to give you free of charge.

You can download your calculator here Six Figure Revenue Calculator

Begin your leap NOW!

“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” -Mary Kay Ash –

If you, like many other entrepreneurs, resolved to exercise more this year and you have not done much toward this goal, might I make a suggestion?

You see, I was talking with a colleague about keeping up with running while traveling and one thing lead to another and we ended up chatting about demands of business ownership and how many put off exercising. She mentioned a program called “Couch to 5K” which was developed to literally get couch potatoes “up and running”.  The program is laid out in a way that you can go from couch potato to running a 5k in 9 weeks by just walking and running or jogging three times a week for less than 30 minutes each day. The daily plan included walking to warm up and then short intervals of walking and running until your reach your time or distance goal.

Here is a site that explains more http://www.fromcouchto5k.com/ I am not sure if this is “THE” official site but I do like how the information is very straight forward. For those of you that are new to running or jogging they have tips for stretching out before and after your run, selecting your running shoes, running apps, how to stay motivated…

I also ran across some running apps. I was going to list them here but there are so many I thought I would include this C25K app and while you are on this page you can see all of the other similar apps: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/couch-to-5k/id448474423?mt=8 I personally do not use an app at this time but I think the ones that are associated with this program will signal you to raise or lower your speed as you are jogging. Some of the other apps have GPS and will calculate your distance.

I really enjoy running. It is my time to think about things and often times I come up with great ideas while running. The nice thing about the “C25K” program is that it really does not take much time for those who really feel that they do not have much time but want to work towards adding more exercise to your life.

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” -Beverly Sills-

You know those electronics we grew up with where from time to time they would freeze up or would just be a bit glitchy? We could easily fix these problems by pressing the reset buttons and keep moving on.

Sometimes in running a small business we face glitches, freezes and times when things just are not running smoothly. Instead of pressing the reset button we continue to press on thinking that these are the challenges of doing business.

Instead of struggling with business “challenges” you need to take a moment and reset your business system or process for that challenge. Here are five quick tips to help you reset any business system or process.

1.   Identify what the challenge in. Knowing exactly what you need to focus on is key. If your way of collecting payments is out of control where you are spending a lot of time following up with late payments, have people paying you at different times and in different fashions, and payments coming into different accounts, it is safe to say that you need to create a system or procedure to automate and streamline this area.

2.   Write down everything that is currently going on step by step even if there really is no order. The purpose of this step is to just get all the steps down on paper.

3.   Highlight the areas on your list that are working. See if you can map out these steps in a sequence.

4.   Now look at the steps that are taking up your time and are less efficient. Is there a way to incorporate these steps into what is working? If so incorporate them in your new sequence time line and remove these from your routine. Do this with all of the remaining tasks.

5.   Review your list and see what you can automate or delegate to free even more of your time. Not only do you now have a system for this challenge, you now have a documented procedure that you can hand to someone to handle for you.

If you need further assistance in setting up a smooth running system by turning your challenge into a system or or a step by step procedure  contact us  www.dailyadministration.com .