Posts Tagged ‘planning’

A few weeks ago, we covered strategy questions. Those questions were created to help you determine more about your business in general. But, your business is not just work, phone calls and clients. Your business is you, your good things, your bad things, your personal life and your business life. Learning more about who you are and who you are in your business will help you to figure out how to make it grow more effectively. After all, you are the most important piece of your business puzzle! IN order to get you to open up and learn more about yourself, I am giving you 20 questions to answer. The questions span from personal to business, as you need to understand both sides of you. I would love for you to share the answers you come up with, as many as you feel comfortable sharing.

1. Where do I want to be in 6 months in my personal life?
2. Where do I want to be in 6 months in my business life?
3. What does my ideal day look like?
4. What is my biggest strength?
5. What is my biggest weakness?
6. What part of me do I love the most?
7. What do I dislike about myself?
8. Which tasks to I perform the best?
9. Which tasks should I be delegating?
10. How do I act at networking events?
11. What would my friends say about me?
12. What would my enemies say about me?
13. Does my business make me happy?
14. What is my favorite thing to do outside of business?
15. What is my favorite thing to do in my business?
16. Do i feel supported by my family?
17. Where do I want to be in 10 years in my personal life?
18. Where do I want to be in 10 years in my business life?
19. What do I need to learn about me?
20. What can I change today to make tomorrow better?

Now onto my answers (it’s only fair if I ask you to answer them, that I need to too!):

1. Where do I want to be in 6 months in my personal life? Still happily married, working on 4 days a week, finally getting all my school and debt paid off.
2. Where do I want to be in 6 months in my business life? Hiring an assistant and building my business to the next level.
3. What does my ideal day look like? Sleeping in, breakfast with my hubby, an hour and a half massage, a relaxing afternoon and then dinner at Mastro’s with my hubby.
4. What is my biggest strength? My desire to succeed in my business.
5. What is my biggest weakness? Being afraid to fail so I don’t take a lot of risks.
6. What part of me do I love the most? My personality – I’m strong, and stubborn but also very loving and caring.
7. What do I dislike about myself? My need to please people.
8. Which tasks to I perform the best? Writing, when I have the freedom to write about what I want.
9. Which tasks should I be delegating? Coding and new client phone calls.
10. How do I act at networking events? The same way I act everywhere. What you see is what you get.
11. What would my friends say about me? That I am dedicated and caring, sarcastic, stubborn, very outgoing and a lot of fun.
12. What would my enemies say about me? That I am stubborn, pretentious and a little too sarcastic.
13. Does my business make me happy? Absolutely!! I love it!
14. What is my favorite thing to do outside of business? Spend time with my hubby, family and friends.
15. What is my favorite thing to do in my business? Talk with other business owners and write!
16. Do I feel supported by my family? Yes, they are all awesome and all very willing to help.
17. Where do I want to be in 10 years in my personal life? A mom of two, enjoying time with my hubby, helping with sports and school.
18. Where do I want to be in 10 years in my business life? Still running my business part time, but having my staff mostly manage it for me, just doing the pieces I love.
19. What do I need to learn about me? Where my limit is. I often overwork myself and regret it later.
20. What can I change today to make tomorrow better? Learning to compartmentalize a bit more so I can spend more time with my hubby without work getting in the way.

Are you ready to share?

We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. – Mary Kay Ash

Being the daughter of a Mary Kay senior sales director meant quotes like this were commonly heard in my household. If I was struggling with why I needed to get work done, or the reason behind a task, my mother always reminded me that everything positive we do leads us towards our goals in our lives. She was great with those motivational messages. Not only that, but she always kept multiple goal lists next to her desk, and in turn, I always had them as well (like mother, like daughter). Each list was laid out with 10-15 small goals, and then one large goal at the bottom. This goal was something that would take a long time to accomplish (months, years, decades, depending on the list. I had goal lists for soccer, school and personal life. Each one had an ‘ultimate goal’ with lots of little ones above it that would help me get there. Even after I left home, the idea of ‘goal lists’ was ingrained in my brain. I usually had 3-4 at a time, sitting somewhere on my desk throughout college. After college, when I started working for other people, I began to use my lists less and less. My goals just didn’t stay in the forefront of my mind, because I didn’t fully feel like I controlled my job or future. After I got laid off earlier this year, I decided that I didn’t want to be in a place where my goals weren’t important.

When I told my mom that I didn’t want to take another job working for someone else and wanted to start my own business, she was so excited for me. And of course, reminded me to make my goals list. It changes almost weekly, as I update and achieve goals, so as of today:

A few of my top goals are:

1. Go to BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2009 with a sponsorship
2. Have Wright Creativity making me a consistent income ? what I was making in the corporate world by December 2009
3. Become #1 on the adage power 150 list by my 2 year blog anniversary (July 27, 2010)
4. Make the OC Metro’s Hot 25 list for 2010
5. Rescue a greyhound
6. Purchase a home in Mission Viejo
7. Get my book, Riding with Lucifer published and on the NYT best sellers list

And the ultimate goal that these are all leading to: Stop working completely by the time my oldest child is 8.

If you notice, as you go down the list, the goals get progressivly larger and more difficult. But, If I do each of the goals above them, then the ones down the list aren’t actually that big. it’s like a snowball effect…the more goals I achieve, the bigger the goals I will be able to achieve.

Do you keep a goals list?

Remember, your goals are your goals. While you may have similar ones as someone else, there is absolutely no way that you will achieve them in the same manner. We all have different processes and ways to get to where we want to go – make sure that you are doing it your way, and you’ll find it much easier.

We’re sunk. Going down. Headed for disaster. Immediate thoughts when an event, a phone call, a date, an anything, goes completely wrong. We’ve all been there. The feeling of dread, mixed with embarrassment and worry. Even worse if people were counting on you and you are going to have to let them down. But who says that failure is the only option when problems arise?

“The conquering of adversity produces strength of character, forges self-confidence, engenders self-respect, and assures success in righteous endeavor.” – Richard G. Scott

Yes, it can be difficult to pull yourself up and try to figure out a solution when everything looks bleak, but there are a 4 simple steps that you can take to lead to towards *hopefully* a new solution.

1. Take 10 deep breaths before you react. Many times situations are made worse because someone reacts on impulse. You over correct, trying to protect your dignity, or someone else’s. Often, all that you need is to make some small changes and the situation can be saved, and no one needs to have egg on their face. Take a breath and think before you react.  Don’t make a bad situation worse by having a mini breakdown.

2. Call in reinforcements. So the location for an event fell through, your fliers didn’t get printed on time, or your computer crashes the night before a huge presentation, life is not over. If my involvement in twitter has taught me one thing, there is always someone who can help, but you have to be willing to ask. Maybe a friend has connections with a venue that can hold your event? Maybe you can find someone who has the ability to print fliers for you? Or maybe, like I did with @MatchesMalone two weeks ago when his computer crashed, you can find someone to lend you a 250GB external hard drive.

3. Look at it from a different angle. I am sure many of you glanced at this picture and saw a sinking ship. Reality? The boat isn’t actually sinking, it is the angle of the shot. Captured at just the right moment, it just looks like the back end is under. It’s not really a disaster, it just looks like one. Next time you feel like something is crashing down around you, see what other angles you can look from – you may be surprised what you find.

4. If all else fails, be honest. If at the end of the day, nothing can save the event, the date, the whatever…just be honest. Don’t sit an complain about how everything fell apart, but do tell people what happened. People appreciate honesty, and understand that we are all human. Last week, Chris Brogan wrote about a mistake he made – sending an email to 17,000+ people – and how the power of apology works. Of course like anyone, he was embarrassed and wished it would just go away, but he knew that he needed to address it. And by doing so, he not only showed that he was a stand up guy, but probably saved a lot of his business relationships.

What do you think? Any other great ways to try to solve a problem? I would love to hear your stories!