Making time to grow your business

A lot of the business owners I work with come to me because they feel frustrated. They have goals they want to achieve but they're not achieving them because they lack the focus, clarity, and accountability to do it.

Some business owners are “all in” when it comes to clarity, accountability and reaching goals. They invest in a mastermind program or business coach and devote the time required to work on growing their businesses.  But then we have the "little bit in" business owners (and they're the more common ones). The “little bit in” business owners want change and growth in their businesses, but they spend so much time working IN their businesses (and believing there just isn't the time to step away) that they never make the time needed to properly plan, strategize or do the work needed to reach their business goals.

Are you a “little bit in?”

It’s really easy to be the “little bit in” person. You sign up for an online course and rarely or never participate in it, you join Facebook Groups and read everyone else’s posts, but never engage or you follow a business coach online, but never commit to signing up to work with them. The “little bit in” person doesn’t want to invest in a private package or high ticket price business coach full time, or they sign up for things and don't execute on any of it for a million reasons that feel very legitimate and honourable.

Make the time

We all have a lot going on and if you don’t invest the time needed to fully plan your business and work with someone who can help you reach your business goals then you will always be that “little bit in” person. You will never accomplish anything outside of your day-to-day unless you commit to taking a break and blocking off the time to do so.

* You need to take time away from your business to figure out what is next.
* You need to take a step back from the day-to-day and see what is working and what is not.

Whether it is through an accountability group, a business coach or another commitment – you need to go all in for yourself and your business in order to see change and grow.

The next time you feel the need to do something big in your business think about what it would take for you to be all in and not just dipping your toes in? How can you stop being the “little bit in” person and grow as a person and as a business? What would that do for you and your business? Is it worth it?

Ponder this and then leave me a comment and let me know how you make big changes and grow in your business. When you're ready to go all in, book a call with me or come and join the Biz Advantage. We're there and ready to help support you as you start making real things happen!

Are you ready for a great 2016?

Planning has never been one of my fortes. I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants, figure it out as I go... "instructions?! No way!" kind of person.

I've owned quite a few businesses over the last 8 + years and over each year it has become increasingly clear that regardless of whether or not I like to plan for a new year, doing it makes my business better, stronger, and (this is the best part) it makes more money!!

I thought I would share a few of my favourite strategies and tools for getting ready for a new year.

1) Three words

Every year I like to choose three words to theme my year on (thanks to a trend started by Chris Brogan quite a few years ago!). These words help guide me in figuring out what I want to do, how I want to be of service and who I want to be in my business.

In previous years I've chosen:  Create, Teach, Help and Focus, Organize, Produce

I like to spend a bit of time every year thinking about what words I want to have guide me and I encourage you to do the same. This year my words are Grow, Inspire, Support - and I look forward to showing you how those are going to be actualized in my business!  Leave your three words in the comments below!

2) Planners and workbooks

There are a lot of great planners out there. Every year I buy Leonie Dawson's Life and Business workbooks because they help me think through all the important pieces of the previous year and the year that's to come. That gets me to the place where I can start to put my new year out on paper as well and into my planner. My favourite planner is the Planner Pad because I love the funnel down system of managing tasks but there are many wonderful planners out there (including one from Leonie Dawson).

I encourage you to pick something and start getting it ready for the new year. It's taken me many years to find systems that work for me, but trying out different ones and experimenting with them was key. If you use a different planner you love, leave a comment and let me know what it is!!

3) My new 2016 Free Planning Challenge

I've been putting together so many resources for my clients on getting ready for 2016 that I decided to put together a free challenge for everyone. Sign up by clicking here and starting December 1 you'll get an email a day for 7 days setting you up for the best year ever. I would really love to have you take part so I look forward to seeing you in the Challenge update posts in the Biz Studio!

What are you trying to achieve by using social media?

I've been conducting a lot of one on one sessions lately and before we can come up with a strategy for any specific social media efforts it's really important to be clear on three things:

• What are you trying to achieve?
• Who are you talking to?
• What do you want them to know?

Over the next little while I'm going to write a post for each of those questions to hep you figure out how to answer them. Once you have those three things clear it will be a lot easier for you to figure out what you should be saying online.

What are your goals?

Spend some time thinking about your business goals in general but more specifically about what you're hoping to achieve by being online. It's probably (though not necessarily) a given that one of your goals is to make more money. But your goals may also include things like:

• Being known as an expert at something
• Being seen as a resource on a certain topic
• Expanding your audience geographically or demographically
• Getting more engagement online and building community
• Increasing sales in a certain part of your business
• Getting other people to talk about you to their communities

Because it always helps to see specific examples I'll share some of mine and create some fictional examples:

• Be seen as an expert in explaining social media for small business
• Be seen as an expert in nutrition and wellness
• Expand audience beyond the Ottawa-area
• Expand audience to new moms 
• Increase sales in one-on-one coaching and speaking
• Create content that is linked to by other bloggers and media outlets
• Be more findable in search

You can be even more precise and create goals that are channel-specific:

• Increase Facebook likes by 300 people
• Establish a presence on YouTube and get 1000 video views
• Get retweeted and tagged by industry experts on Twitter

Really understand what you're trying to achieve

The more you work to figure out these goals and why you're setting them, the more likely you are to be able to work them into your plan efficiently. Take a few minutes and write down an explanation of what you mean by each one and why they're important to you.

For example:

I really enjoy helping small business owners figure out how to use social media for their business. I get charged and excited when having one-on-one coaching calls with business owners and hearing them figure out what they could be doing. Their lightbulb moments make my day. I want to do more of that so I need to make it clear that this is something that I do, like to do and am good at.

You may feel that it's time to expand beyond your local market. You like to spend time in Toronto and Boston and want to start by growing your audience in those specific cities next. To do that, you need to start to grow an audience in those cities so there is already a start of a customer base in those cities when you arrive to hold an event or launch a product.

Time to do the work

I challenge you to spend 10 minutes right now coming up with 3 or 4 goals for your use of social media over the next 6 months. Really think about what you like to do, what you want to be doing and why you want to be doing it. Then leave a comment and share some with us here!

How to find quality content for social media scheduling

It’s okay to schedule your social media updates. We all lead busy lives and unless you are a larger business who can afford to hire someone full-time to engage and monitor your social networks 24/7, scheduling is the simplest way to provide your audience with consistent content. Luckily, scheduling tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer make scheduling content relatively painless.

They key is to find quality content that you can schedule to be shared throughout the day and across various social networks. The question then remains of how to find quality content that can be scheduled and shared.

Link back to your website 

Don’t be afraid to link back to previously published (but still relevant) blog posts. Preface the link in the update by telling people why they should read the post, what they may have missed if they hadn’t read it before (that's what the ICYMI you may often see on social media is all about it "in case you missed it") or why it’s a great resource for them. You could also pull a quote from the blog post and use that as the text of your scheduled update and also include the link to the post so people can read more.

You should also schedule and share the services you provide, any workshops you are hosting or any other product or event that you want your audience to know about. Just make sure to schedule it within a relevant timeframe and link back to where they can learn more and purchase or register.

Share third party articles

Sharing articles from like-minded blogs and websites is a great way to show your expertise to your audience. You can find these articles or blog posts by doing a quick Google search on your industry, or just look to see what other people are sharing on your social networks. If you link back to the author's site or source in your tweet or Facebook status the person or company responsible for the article will also be notified that you shared their content, which may in turn result in a new “like” or follower.  Just remember not to share any third party links until you have fully read and understood the content.

Create shareable images 

Research and compile quotes from industry experts or even from your own website and create shareable images using tools such as Canva or PicMonkey. You can easily schedule these images and can encourage audience engagement by accompanying the image with a question such as, “Do you agree?”

Scheduled or not it is important that your social media updates are relevant and inline with your business’ goals and objectives. Remember that if you don’t have time for engaging with your audience to not ask difficult or controversial questions or share content that might start a discussion you don’t have the time for. 

Do you schedule your content? How do you find your content?

Mastermind your way to success

Have you ever heard of a Mastermind Group? I'm lucky because I got to be a part of one over a decade ago (though it wasn't called that then) and it was instrumental in helping me grow my career in the field of communications. I've now created one for myself as a business owner and in the few short months since we began, the members in my group have been pushing me to new places with my business - it's incredible!

What is a Mastermind Group?

A Mastermind Group can be run in many different ways, but the basic explanation is that it is a group of people (in my case, business owners) who come together on a regular basis to support each other and help each other achieve goals. That's it. How it runs is often different, but the basic concept is that this group of people is there to make you the best that you can be.

What are the main benefits of being part of a Mastermind Group?

There are many many benefits, but here are my top five:

1) Support

It can be hard (and kind of lonely) to be a business owner. Finding a group of people who understand what it's like to do what you do, who have experienced what it's like to run a business, and who can support you as your run your business is extremely valuable all on its own.  

2) Accountability

I don't know about you, but I often need outside accountability to get things done. In each meeting everyone in the group sets out three things that they will do before the next meeting and they tell the group how they did on the three things they committed to at the previous meeting.  Admitting to not doing what you said you would can be incentive enough to scramble in the hours before the meeting (I say this from personal experience).  Accountability is huge.

3) Insight

At every meeting someone is in the hot seat. This means that almost half of the meeting is devoted to just them and their business. They bring a question or an issue and the entire group is focused on giving them their thoughts, ideas and insight to solve that problem or move things forward.  

We need people on the outside to be able to tell us what they see looking in to our businesses and the members of a Mastermind Group can do that.

4) Safe space

All of the members of my Mastermind signed a Non-disclosure agreement when we started. It's made talking about anything and everything we're worried about or considering safe to talk about when we're together. 

Not every problem we face as business owners can be discussed publicly - that's just how things go in business. Being able to talk with others who understand what it's like to run a business about the things that are concerning or scare you is huge.

5) Push

My Mastermind Group isn't afraid to push each other. Scared to do something? Too bad - your group thinks you should and CAN do it so they'll push you to do it. Trying to hide in that comfort zone? No go with a Mastermind Group watching what you're doing. Putting yourself into a position to be pushed to be all you can be is a scary but amazing thing to do.

How can you be a part of a Mastermind?

Keep your eyes open. A lot of business coaches run them (click here for more information on the group coaching programs I offer) and you might be able to Google and find something in your area. Or do what I did and set up your own.  

Have any questions?  Leave them in the comments - I'd be happy to try to help you figure out how you can get the incredible value I do out of your own Mastermind Group!