Freedom is one of the most exciting aspects of being on your own… It’s the freedom to do whatever you want, pursue your unquestioned dreams and be self-accomplished.  You can get an idea or set a goal and move full speed to accomplish it all on your own. This is often the problem. We naturally take on the role of doing… EVERYTHING. Since we are on our own with limited budgets, we justify overinvesting our time trying to do everything ourselves. This, my friend, is what separates the good small businesses from the great ones.

If I could go back in time and give myself any piece of advice, it would be this: learn how to delegate effectively. It is natural for entrepreneurs to be challenged by this as we are not actively taught that it’s okay to ask for, and receive, help. But getting help accomplishing things via delegation is not a bad thing, we’re not giving up creative control but freeing our time to focus on what we do best to be more productive.

No matter where you are in your business, starting today, it is OKAY to ask for help. Find the things that you struggle with that take away from your strengths and focus and find competent people to handle them. This is a bonafied, JUSTIFIABLE cost and will make all the difference in growing your business. If in doubt, consider reading the “4 hour Work Week” J

I’ve been quiet. Very quiet. (Well, not on Twitter but on here, yes.) I’ll admit it. A lot has happened since I was actively posting in the Fall. One of these things is that I’ve been commuting regularly between South Florida and Atlanta due to the expansion of my business and speaking engagements.

Another big change is that I’m pregnant! At the time of this writing, I’m at 21 weeks… So I’m sure you can see how that could be slightly distracting.

Tomorrow, I’m on my way to New York City  to speak at Blogworld NY (on offline networking for bloggers) and next month, I’ll be back in Atlanta for Skirt’s Creative Conference .

A while back, I shared  3.5 easy steps to prepare for an event. In my own preparation for these upcoming conferences, I wanted to share with you even more ways to plan for and maximize your event experiences.

1. Connect with speakers and other attendees ahead of time on twitter so when you attend their session, you’ve built rapport and stand out.
2. Exchange phone numbers (or minimally emails) for people you ACTUALLY want to hang out with versus just twitter handled. Why? Sometimes twitter FAILS + you can’t reach ANYONE.
3. Don’t automatically add  people you meet at events to your mailing list without permission.
4. Respect your limits and don’t push yourself. Rest, drink water and even bring snacks so you don’t starve yourself or end up spending an fortune eating out.
5. Wear comfortable shoes. At the end of the day, few actually remember what was on your feet except you.
6. Bring a sweater: it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it… Nothing ruins a good session like freezing during a presentation or session.
7. Pack an extra cell battery or charger. You will probably run out of juice. I love the “iGo.”
8. Bring an extension cord! You’d be amazed how some facilities do NOT account for laptop usage and have little (if any) power outlets available… An extra perk is that it’s easy to make friends this way, too, or at least spark conversation.
9. Help speakers out: when a speaker poses a question to audience, don’t stay quiet! Engage and speak up! But be thoughtful in your replies.. Don’t ramble or use the opportunity talk about a VERY specific problem to you that doesn’t apply to the rest of the audience.
10. Update your calendar: If the event you are attending provides an online forum or calendar option, update your schedule for sessions you plan to attend. It’s motivating for speakers to see RSVPs!
11. “Sit next to different people all the time. And ’say hello’!!” Sam Fiorella @samfiorella
12. “Put “hello my name is” tag on back of your iPad!!” (or laptop!!) Sam Fiorella @samfiorella
13. “Most speakers don’t mind live-blogging & tweeting during sessions, but do look up occasionally, it’s nice.” Jen Wojick @thejenatx

What other tips do you have? I’d love to add the to the list!

Have you ever felt like you’ve been doing a lot of stuff but not actually getting a lot… DONE?

Yesterday started out like any other day…. I woke up, stretched, brushed my teeth, made coffee, brainstormed on a few upcoming projects…. and then I realized that it was the last day of September… I went into a small panic – What had I done versus accomplished during the month?

So, I spent the morning doing a personal review of my September including giving a hard look at accomplishments, failures (or things I needed to improve upon), opportunities and potentials…

And while I’ve been busy, I recognized I hadn’t been overall as productive…

I looked at things such as what (if anything) had changed in my routine (aside from my ridiculous traveling schedule)…. and suddenly, the light from above shined and the angels sang – and I had a total lightbulb moment and could see several big (albeit temporary now that I know about them!) productivity (both personal and business) problems… and I know  I am not the only person out there with them…

1. Technology Complacency: I upgraded to a new iPhone4 the day before going to Italy  but I had not updated all of my settings, apps and systems… So when we returned, I remained complacent with the new settings and just… did not proactively deal with it. Not ensuring and confirming regularly that Evernote as well as my various calenders were properly syncing created some serious scheduling problems in both pre-existing commitments and pending commitments.. It became an energy suck but when you are so busy, it’s easy to overlook things that are not an immediate crisis…. Had I been using my solution in item in #4 on this, I would have been able to “see” this problem versus “remember it…”
2. A couch is NOT A workstation: Having gotten so used to being accessible, mobile and workshifting from coffee shops this summer, when I’m in my home, I’ve been working on the dreaded couch. BAD MOVE! No wonder my back has been hurting.
3. Online networking and mental activity does not equal physical activity: Due to the traveling, I haven’t had the mental and energy capacity to be attending countless events and always on the go…. therefore, in the quest for some “down” time, it literally became “I”m going to relax… sitting down… alot.” which resulted in a much more sedentary month that usual…
4. Are you a visual learner? Know your style: I am SUCH a visual learner… yet I have completely neglected my dry erase board and the true joy that comes with writing out tasks, projects, to-dos and getting the satisfaction of visually crossing them off the list… If it’s out of sight, out of mind.
5. Making a plan versus planning to fail: It seems I failed to actually update my September calendar and schedule physical activity/walking/working out and treat them like business meetings. Instead, I’ve been trying to “fit them in…” and you probably know what THAT means… YEP, they are on the bottom of the imaginary priority lis. This is one of the hardest things for a visual scheduler in the virtual or electronic world.

It didn’t seem or FEEL like I was getting in my own way but when I REALLY thought about my month yesterday, it all became so clear. Now, I can see my obstacles and devise my plan of action...

And you BET I dragged out my dry erase board yesterday, jotted down everything from my head and WOW did it feel GOOD to not be holding onto that data any longer….

So, what about you?

• Can you identify with any of the challenges above?
• What things have you been neglecting or not handling that is making life or business productivity harder than necessary?
• What kind of learner are you and what tools do you use to help stay on track?

Today is the day….

Today is the day you commit to nurture your business… Handle those emails you keep putting off… Talk to that prospect… Follow up on an issue.. Update your LinkedIn profile!
Today is the day you call your parents, or siblings or old friend and let them know you are thinking about them instead of using email….
Today is the day you decide on an event (or at least commit to NOT attend…)  And share the event with a few people who might really appreciate you thinking about them and helping them… Facebook now makes it so easy to reply and share.. Use it!
Today is the day you set a goal for TODAY, This week, this month and this quarter! You can’t hit a goal if you don’t set it.. In fact, Wayne Gretzky said it best – “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Why today? Because the longer you delay these things, the easier it is for things to get between NOW and tomorrow…  And for all we know, today could be the only day we’ve got…
Tomorrow will BE today in just a matter of hours..

Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery. And today?
Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.
~Babatunde Olatunji

What are you going to do TODAY to make sure today counts?

One of the hot targeted questions I’ve been asked consistently at the last few conferences I’ve spoken such as BlogHer and Spark and Hustle has been how to prepare for an event.

As I’ve been preparing the last few days for speaking at and attending Barkworld Expo this weekend, these are some of the things I’ve been doing.

Here are 3.5 things to consider:

1. Make sure you dress appropriately. You don’t get a second chance at a first impression! Enough said. Dress how you want others to perceive you and your business.

   (For women – If you are one of the types who is challenged when it comes to mixing and matching your clothes, I highly, highly urge you to sign up for a free account at Fashion-Ade. This site mixes and matches your clothes for you. That’s what I’m talking about! You get to build a custom virtual closet, which is SO easy as they have prepopulated items (and you can add more for custom items) and it mixes and matches for you based on the look you are going for!!)

2. Research attendeesThese days, you can find out a lot about an event such as who is organizing it and who is attending (if they utilized an online invitation).

   Google whomever it is you can find attending, or minimally the hosts. This makes having conversations much more interesting and disarms people who have their guard up when you’ve shown legitimate interest in them.

   Another strategy I use is to find them on Facebook or LinkedIn and see what people you have in common. You would be amazed as who you have in common with and sometimes that in itself is all it takes to get your foot in the door.

3. Set a goal. I cannot emphasize this enough. People go to events without a goal in mind and then wonder why nothing came out of it…

   - How can you hit a goal if you don’t have one set?

   - Why are you attending the event?

   - Who do you hope to meet?

   - What metric of success will you use to decide that the event was time well spent?

3.5 … Bring a pen!! To truly stand out among other networkers AND remember the details of a conversation, take notes on either a business card or notepad . This will show you to be an attentive listener and will help making follow-up much more personal. I can’t tell you how many people are surprised by my note-jotting and then compliment my attention to the conversation… Talk about a way to stand out.

Have you tried any of these tips?  What other tips do you have?

Lately, most of my prospects are needing help with this – figuring out who is their ideal client… I mean REALLY figuring it out. Why? Because… how can you market to them, or get referred to them, or even identify them when they are right in front of you, if you don’t know who they really are?

Many are going to events and having business meetings yet struggling with making solid connections or referrals because they can’t articulate this.. This is the foundation of successful referral partnerships. How can you establish mutually beneficial relationships with strategic alliances if neither of you knows how to help each other?

I found a great list of questions for determining who is your ideal client. (For the entire list by Bonnie Jo Davis with David Virtual Assistance, click here)

Four of those questions are:

Is his or her business located in their home?

What problems does this person have?

Where can you find him or her?

Does this person belong to any organization such as a trade association or volunteer group?

I’m noticing people are going to events where their competitors are… but they are NOT going to where their prospects are. And they think they don’t want to work with their competitors, because they don’t know how to truly leverage that relationship, and then wonder why aren’t they getting referrals or making money from the events they are attending… Here lies part of the problem.

Based on simply the 4 questions above, you should already be having some big AH-HA moments…

Case study:

• Let’s take someone who sells toner.
• They are probably going to events where they figure they should attend with other professionals such as Chamber functions or structured, general networking events.
• However, in those circles, they are bound to run into others who sell similar services (or know someone who does.)

I would then work with this person to figure these things out:

• Where can they go where they will meet less competitors?
• Where can they  meet people with the problems their clients have?

I’d suggest less mainstream events or or smaller events, such as town hall meetings, niche happy hours or targeted trade associations gatherings… You need to research to make sure that the people you are looking to meet will most likely be at this event. The idea is to maximize your networking efforts, not waste time.

On top of that, Mr./Ms. Toner could also think of what other people WORK with their prospect. Who can they form a  strategic alliance or referral partnerships with others who target that same demographic…

• In this case, accountants or bookkeepers would be a great alliance.
• They can also reach out to individuals who sell to schools, office managers or even government entities who already have relationships with the decision makers.
• I would also suggest they connect with people who help businesses cut overhead and reduce debt because they are probably scrutinizing every expense they have.. .

These are just some examples to get you thinking bigger… There are so many opportunities but if you don’t know how to let others know how they can help you or refer you to a good prospect or introduce you to a strategic alliance, how can they help you when you are unsure of how to help yourself?

Based on the four questions above, can YOU answer them? Share the answers in the comments below. You never know who may be reading the comments section and make a good introduction for you!

I posed the question recently to my community on what sage advice would you give a new entrepreneur and I got countless replies focusing on business skills, delegation and education… However, this reply from Lisa Claudia Brigggs (or @IntuitiveBody on Twitter)  particularly stood out because of the fact that no one had mentioned it and it’s often something we overlook…

And it dawned on me that many new entrepreneurs rarely put health or self-care on their to-do lists and we overcommit ourselves to being… connected, either at a computer or a smartphone… but at WHAT COST?

So for those who find themselves either struggling with:

• going to the gym
• daily discipline
• those who THINK about taking care of themselves but really don’t
• and those who sometimes forget to make their health a priority (I’ll admit that I’m sometimes all of the above!!)…

…. here are a few tips to make it easier to take care of YOU…

Because, what good is success if you are don’t have your health?

10 min of physical activity 3 times a day is much easier than 30-45 minutes on a treadmill if you are having a hard time getting to the gym. Use an egg timer. Also, when in small chunks like this, it’s easier to get a sense of accomplishment. I like to either jog in place or do yoga. Now this is NOT this is a valid substitute for the health benefits of pursuing and maintaining an active lifestyle or being fit and healthy.. This is just for people who are struggling getting ANY physical activity into their business lives.

We’ve heard it before – our bodies have got to get water. I know, I know… BUT, let’s be honest – if you are not a big fan of drinking large quantities of water (like me!), try sipping 4 ounces of water every 30 minutes instead of 8oz of water 8 times a day. Try using a reminder on your computer or phone.

If you are constantly in front of a computer or desk, you are probably straining your neck forward and not moving for minutes or hours. Let’s be realistic now – many of us are seated online for large chunks of our day. Right now, stretch your neck to the right…….and try looking up at the ceiling, feel the stretch? Nice, eh? Next to the left. Try standing and stretching out your fingers and arms. How about your legs? Sometimes its amazing how achey my joints are when I realize I’ve been sitting for hours. What about you?

Again, something it seems people are not  eating frequent meals. This is important to our metabolism as well as our overall well-being. I like to snack on trail mix. While it’s not the BEST choice of a well balanced meal, at least I’m fueling my fire with something…

What suggestions do YOU have to make it easier to take better care of our bodies in this new… somewhat more sedentary and hyper-connected world?

Here are 4 helpful resources for you that I really enjoyed:

• 22 reasons to be healthy
• How to exercise while sitting at your computer
• The effects of sitting in front of your computer for too long… (great diagram)
• Stand up for your health – Physiologists and Microbiologists find link between sitting and poor health

I am consistently asked by professionals, business owners and sales executives about Foursquare, a location-based service where users like you and me essentially “check in” whenever we are at a location… Let me preface this by saying this is not a Foursquare-how-to… For that, you can visit http://www.foursquare.com

What this is, however, is a post about BEYOND the how-to and more of the WHY…

For a business, it can be used for marketing and advertising and leveraged as a customer loyalty tool. I personally think it’s silly to not be using Foursquare to enhance one’s marketing but that’s just me… It’s free marketing, it’s useful, it’s timely and cultivates loyalty. An amazing amount of loyalty… I visited a coffee shop over 20 times to try to regain my “mayorship” which would yield me no benefits aside from the satisfaction of knowing I was “mayor”… Imagine the power if that coffee shop had some incentive to BE Mayor, like the current Starbucks campaign? But I digress…

In fact, Foursquare shares that these ways four ways it can be used for:

1. “Easy Tools to create engaging specials”
2. “Promote in-store specials”
3. “Real-time venue stats”
4. “Promote specials across the mobile experience.”

You can read more on these here. http://foursquare.com/businesses/

Here are the four ways that I use Foursquare.

1. Keep track of whereabouts BETWEEN appointments on the calendar… You would be amazed at how many things one does (or places we go to) between the scheduled morning meeting and afternoon meeting… Wouldn’t it be nice to know all the things you really  do each day?
2. Track my mileage - No matter how hard I try, I fail at consistently writing down my mileage… Now, I can track my whereabouts and have an actual, printable log of my calendar and addresses so that I can route my mileage for tax time using Mapquest or Google Maps. No more stressing about whether my calendar shows all the details I need.
3. Get tips on local do’s and don’ts. When you pull up Foursquare, you can see a list of places around you. Often, I will pull up the listing for a local restaurant or hotel and get very valuable, uncensored and genuine feedback, such as dishes to order or stay away from, warnings about busy days and other tips you might not know otherwise…
4. To facilitate chance encounters with my network. This one has been so valuable that I considered making it an entire post of it’s own. When you access Foursquare, you see where other people have checked in. If you are traveling, it shows if other people in your network have checked in at nearby locations… Almost every time,  I end up finding another person in my extended online network who is in the same city at the same time. This can sometimes turn a personal trip into a business trip if you can coordinate and have a legitimate business meeting. Also, I have found others in my network at the airports at the same time… as well as people at the same coffee shop. This helped facilitate a business meeting once where an upcoming speaker for my organization and I had been emailing back and forth over the course of the week to get together. I was working at a coffee shop and noticed he checked in! He had literally came in, ordered and left… but when I Saw the check-in, I contacted him immediately and he turned back and we got tohave our meeting right then and there…

Do you use Foursquare? How do you use it? If you don’t, what’s holding you back?

photo credit - DP Styles

How much time have you spent idling today? Be honest with yourself… Was your Monday really as productive as you hoped?

Here are 7 ideas that you can do relatively quickly to maximize the next 10 minutes while having a profound impact. By doing them, you’ll nurture your network, build your brand, and help you maximize your time.

1 – Send a thank you to someone... it could be for a previous referral, introduction or just to thank them for being in your life. Make sure to include WHY you are thanking them.

2 – Introduce 2 (or 3, if you are feeling adventurous) people and make sure to include why you think they should be connected.

3 – Update your LinkedIn profile, whether it be with a new picture or expanding on your current services, or simply by updating your status bar. This will help you be top of mind with your contacts as this will appear in their updates news feed. (If you don’t use LinkedIn, now would be a great time to start. It’s very powerful!)

4 – Comment thoughtfully on a blog post written by someone in your community.

5 – Reach out to someone you’ve lost touch with and schedule a time to get caught up, such as an informal coffee. Email is great but pales in comparison to the value of meeting with someone in person.

6 – Reply to that email that you keep putting on the back burner… You know which one I’m talking about.

7 – Take your eyes away from the screen, look at the wall so that they can get a rest, stand up and STRETCH!!!!!!

Do you have any suggestions of things for me to include on my next list of 7? Do share!

While in New York City for Internet Week, I wanted to take a minute to share some of the things that I consider when going to an event… These tips have helped me save time, money and make valuable contacts and some really fantastic friends on my conference excursions.

• Wayne Sutton put it best – Always be charging. What electronics are you carrying that you can’t live without? Bring its charger!  I now travel with my iphone charger no matter what. This will help you in the long run by not having to panic over a dying phone or have you desperately seeking to borrow someone’s charger.
• Get an extended battery pack for your smartphone.… and take that charger with you, too. I use the Mophie Juice Pack Air. Based on how much you are doing with your smartphone, you will probably run out of juice at some point. Better safe than sorry. This has saved me and kept me connected on numerous occasions.
• Use Twitter, LinkedIn and other online forums to find people going to the same events or cities to maximize your trips. Reach out to them, connect ahead of time and make plans to meet. This helps create a sense of community so that when you arrive, you have friends… or at least new friends in the making.
• Foursquare is great way to track your whereabouts for tax reporting plus get tips at the same time. You can also see nearby places that are “trending” so in the pursuit of where to grab a bite to eat or where people are congregating, Foursquare makes it easy to find them.
• Carry a light 3-pronged extension cord and make instant friends wherever you go in search of power. You will know the people looking for power by those with eyes wandering up and down the walls in seek of an extra outlet. Reach out to them and offer that they share your cord – they’ll be shocked by your offer and you’ll instantly start chatting. This is a great trick for introverts.
• If you have the room, put a tennis ball in your bag. It’s GREAT for massaging aching arches after a long day of walking.
• Bring your own water bottle and healthy snacks to save on overpriced food. Trailmix is tasty but weighs more than you think and after a long day of walking, even a 2lb laptop will feel heavy on your shoulder.

This is just a handful of tips… If you are looking for more, here are some other tips I shared from my South by Southwest (SXSW) experience… There will be more in upcoming posts as well.

What tips help you save time, money and make friends? Please share your sage advice  below!