We’re moving!

While I really have loved this blog, the time came where I had to update my website and re-launch in WordPress. I also had to consolidate the blog with the new website. Over time, I will be transferring the best of this content over to its new home http://pointatopointbtransitions.com/blog/.

RECORDING Goal-Setting for the New Year: How to Set Your Business Up for Success

Enjoy this 30-minute teleclass on what you need to know about setting effective goals that are more likely to be accomplished for your small business in the New Year.

About the Panel

* Catherine Morgan is a Transition and Entrepreneur Coach who helps professionals from the financial services, professional services, or technology industries establish and grow successful services businesses such as consulting or coaching practices. http://pointatopointbtransitions.com

* Cathy Presland is a Business Strategy Expert who teaches women entrepreneur how to grow their business while creating more time freedom. She specializes in working with women to create a sustainable income from marketing and building a business online.  http://cathypresland.com

* Victoria Cook is a Coach transforming the lives of women business owners from overwhelm, overwork, and over commitment to achieving their BIG goals and living guilt-free without sacrificing what’s most important to them personally. http://www.theguiltfreecoach.com

Join us as we discuss the answers to these 4 questions:

1. Why do I need New Year’s goals and what is the benefit of having them?
2. Is there a rule of thumb to use for revenue goals?
3. How detailed should my planning be and how often should I do this?
4. Are there any strategies to help ensure I actually achieve my goals?

This call is full of useful, actionable content. This is *not* a pitch-fest.

Listen to the call here 

Why selling “we” is easier than “me”

Selling as a solopreneur or small business owner can trip up even the most experienced business development professional – much less the person who is relatively new to sales. I see this all the time with my clients.

Most of the people I work with are newer in their business. The ones who come out of big corporations with established global brands have an additional layer of blocks, which I discuss in The Big Brand Trap Or How To Take Your Skills With You (Please check out this guest post on BarryMoltz.com for quick and easy ways to feel like you have a “real” company.)

One way to feel like more of an expert or to get past the emotional blocks of selling “me” is to partner with someone who provides complementary services to your same target market. If you are an acupuncturist you could maybe connect with a chiropractor or massage therapist or yoga instructor. If you coach small business owners and specialize in strategy and motivation, you could connect with someone who can help with the financial issues of running a business such as setting up the books and the financial pieces of the business plan. These are things that you may not want to do or may not even be qualified to do. When you fill in the missing pieces of your skill sets or service offerings, you look even more valuable to your prospective clients and start to feel like the professional you are (or want to be).

You may even want to connect with people who provide very similar services to yours. If you offer a service like coaching, there are many people out there who provide similar services and may even have similar backgrounds and experience – but a client will pick you for reasons that can be hard to quantify such as connection and affinity. It is hard to force that so even if someone else is a small business coach or consultant, a prospect may be drawn to them or to you for reasons that they can’t really explain with logic.

Collaborating with people doing similar work can enable you to share knowledge, best practices, and leads. If a prospect isn’t a good fit for you and you can refer them to someone who can help them, they will remember you as a valuable resource and may even refer others to you.

If you are very new in your business and are looking to get experience and testimonials,  partnering with someone who is more established for a one-time event like a teleclass or webinar can be a great strategy for your business. Here are some reasons why:

• You will feel more comfortable because all the pressure won’t be on you.
• You will feel more credible because someone else (maybe with more experience) is there with you.
• You may provide more value because two heads can be better than one.
• You will get more publicity because both people will be promoting.
• Selling “we” is easier because it doesn’t set off those alarms around not bragging, not being self-centered, etc.
• You won’t want to disappoint your partner so even if you are scared to death or hate selling, you will actually get out there and do it.

You want to make sure that you partner with someone who is ethical and has a similar business philosophy. You want to be confident that they will be as committed to the project as you are. This isn’t a marriage but it is definitely a date. It is a great way to test someone out to see if you want to do business with them in the future. Here are some things to keep in mind when you are looking for a potential partner:

1. Have a relationship with them for some period of time. This could be on social media or at in-person networking events.
2. Follow their business and make sure that their business practices and values match yours.
3. If they are doing some joint events with others, sign up and attend to gauge their ability and commitment.

I love doing teleclasses with other small business coaches and consultants. In fact, I will be doing one with my friend Cathy Presland on this topic of partnerships. “Growing Your Business Through Partnerships” will be held on November 29 at 11 Eastern. Sign-ups will handled on Cathy’s site. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

How do you feel about doing teleclasses and events with other professionals? Do you like to work with complementary or similar service providers? I would love to hear what you have done in the comments below!

Guest post on CarolRoth.com – Do you suffer from SOS?

Wow, this post really struck a chord for lots of people! Big sharing going on. Please check out my guest post Do You Suffer From SOS (or Shiny Object Syndrome)? on Carol Roth’s Unsolicited Business Advice Blog.

Carol Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of The Entrepreneur Equation.

September updates – Late harvest or why I missed August

Catching up on everything that happened over the last six weeks. Road trips, guest posts, and lots more. Check it out here.

Guest blog post on Women on the Fence blog

My guest post on Women On The Fence blog titled Exploring Career Transition: How to Discover Your ‘Point B’

FYI, site gets 175,000 page views a month, and is syndicated to over 2 million readers a month via 9 Women sites. Honored to be a contributer

Check out the post here.

How my business is like a two-year-old

Over the recent holiday weekend I tried to follow my own advice and take some time away from my business. Since I work for myself, I figured I could take a little road trip, clear my head, and visit some friends and family. I didn’t count on some of the things that happened and it became clear to me that my business is like a two-year-old.

Needs constant attention
I figured it was safe to “go dark” regarding e-mails and social media during a major U.S. holiday weekend, but in fact I had a prospect looking to talk to me and wanting more information about my services, and one looking to finalize a project and pay me. (Actually, I was happy to take those calls!)

Wakes you up in the middle of the night
I found myself obsessing over some things that I hadn’t done for a business partner. While I was pretty sure they would not look at anything over the weekend, I had stress dreams about not having sent the documents and finally sent an e-mail explaining when I would send them, which they probably didn’t read until Tuesday…but it made me feel better to follow up.

Throws tantrums when I turn my attention elsewhere
I was completely exhausted and needed to recharge after a very long drive. Subsequently, I failed to follow up on an important opportunity, which I may have lost. Not logging into Facebook to see a message that somehow didn’t show up on my BlackBerry = #fail.

Refuses to do what I ask it to do
Two-year-olds do everything at their own pace – toddlers speak, eat, and potty train only when they are ready. My business seems to have a mind of its own and grows at its own pace, not always exactly in the way or according to the timing that I hope it will.

Is very sweet, cute, and appealing on the outside but can be a little monster
Owning my own business is my pride and joy some days. I can’t imagine doing anything else and I am completely engaged in my work and in serving my amazing clients. Other days I wish I could give it back. Show me one parent who hasn’t felt like that!

Rejects ideas that I thought were perfectly appropriate
Like taking more than one day off in a row. Much more difficult than I thought it would be. Does a parent ever really get a day off?

The thing is, you’ll make yourself insane raising a two-year-old but it’s all worth it for the two blinks and the toothy smile you get, or the sweet cuddles before bed. You may do the same for your business and it’s definitely worth it when you exceed a client’s (or your own) expectations.

Does your business ever feel like a misbehaving toddler? I would love to hear your stories. Please share in the comments below!

Work/Life Balance Is the Wrong Paradigm

Many of my clients want to discuss work/life balance and how they might possibly be able to achieve that. They feel stretched too thin. They think they should be able to “have it all.” They get stressed out trying to fit relaxation into their schedule! They feel guilty that somehow their life should be different or that things would be better if they could…

If this sounds like you, I think I may have figured out what the problem is. Work/Life Balance is the wrong paradigm and sets you up to feel like you are failing. I want you to consider for a minute the word “balance.” Actual balance can be measured in seconds and sometimes minutes but never over the longer term.

Maybe you remember the first time you tried to walk the length of the balance beam with your arms out, catching yourself as your weight shifted too far to the left or too far to the right. Or maybe you have done a yoga pose on one foot or some agility exercise and thought to yourself, “Balancing is hard!” Balance might also imply that you should be giving equal weight to everything, which is often impossible.

Instead, I would like to ask you to consider Work/Life Allocation. This is not a fleeting instant that you struggle to hold onto or recapture. Allocation is deliberate and done with forethought and planning. Allocation puts you firmly in control of how you choose to spend your time. You can go through a process and decide what your top priorities are and how you will spend your valuable time. Your allocations will change over time depending on your priorities.

When you are launching a product, friends and even family may take a backseat temporarily – and that is OK. You made a conscious choice to allocate more time to certain priorities for a specific timeframe. You allocated your time appropriately given what was going on in your life. After your product is launched, taking care of yourself and recharging may become your top priority, and some other aspects of your life may have to wait. How you choose to allocate your time is much different now.

I like the concept of allocation because it is fluid and will change over time, will be different for everyone, and puts you firmly in control.

What do you think? Does that feel more doable? I would love to hear your thoughts about balance vs. allocation. Please leave a comment below!

Nominated for a Most Valuable Blogger award

My ChicagoNow.com blog Successful In Chicago has been nominated for a Most Valuable Blogger award by CBSChicago.com! How cool is that? Honored to be included in the list since the blog is so new. If you have gotten some value from reading it, I hope you will vote for it here.

And please remember that this is Chicago. You can vote every day until September 9. (I vote from my laptop and cell phone.) And if you can get me some of that infamous Chicago “dead vote,” I will be eternally grateful.

So please vote early and often for Successful In Chicago blog here.

Thank you!

July updates – Business green shoots

Excited to share some of the fun stuff that has been going on. A big teaming opportunity and a new speaking topic. Read all about it here.