#personal development secrets

Running a small business is all about pressure.  One of the keys to success as a business owner, whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional, is your ability to manage pressure.  

When you are self-employed, at times you may feel like you have pressure coming from many different directions.  And, when you are starting your own business, there are many unexpected pressures.  Once you get to the point of running a small business, hopefully, the pressures are fewer.  If not, you will burn out.

How do you manage pressure?  First of all pressure is good.  It creates stress.  Stress can cause us to do good things or to shrink away from what must be faced.  Running a small business is about facing pressure.  The key to handling pressure and overcoming it is to establish your priorities.

In business coaching one of the aspects that most clients address is how to reduce stress.  First, we have to understand that stress is what causes us to grow if we respond to it properly.  The only stress free state is death.  

Business success, whether it be small business success or large business success, is getting clear about your priorities.  To grow in running a small business you must know your priorities.  And, here’s the key.  You must be able to shift your priorities.

Think about this.  You have several problems or challenges show up in an hour.  Which one is the most important?  Instead of determining what is most important the self-employed business owner either tackles what is easiest or responds to them in the order in which they appeared.  

After all, things are hectic.  Yes, they are hectic.  My life as a business coach can become hectic.  When this happens its because too many things have come into my life at once.  Initially, I react to whatever comes in.  The problem with this is that I end up putting my focus on what I deem as critical.  In fact, when I am in this mode everything can seem critical.  

Here’s the problem not just for me, but in running a small business. To grow and be successful you must focus on what is important.  When you are in reaction mode to a multitude of challenges it’s difficult to set your priorities.  

But, if you don’t set your priorities you will end up having a day and a business focused on what is critical.  Progress is made when a business owner addresses what is important. When he or she does that then the number of critical situations starts to diminish.  

One of the best feelings in running a small business is to have a feeling of control.  It is one of the keys to success and it does not happen overnight.  It takes time.  It takes personal growth.  And, when you have control you start to reduce the pressure.

If you would like to take the next step to small business success learn techniques and tips about pressure, motivation, relationships, problem solving and many other topics that will take you to the business success you desire then check out www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com

The Business Keys To Success membership course is specifically targeted to the self-employed business owner.  Whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional you will find tips and insights to take you and your business to the next level.  You will find a guide and training to assist you in taking the next steps to your business success and personal success.  

You will receive a weekly lesson for 20 weeks on topics targeted to small business success.  There are questions for reflection and evaluation as well as the opportunity to create your action steps to small business success.

The Business Keys To Success fixed term membership course provides self-coaching to help you accelerate the process of your successful performance. Go to www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com and grab your copy to get started on improving your most important asset you.  When you do you will give yourself the opportunity to be running a small business that flourishes and more importantly, honors who you are.

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What’s your startup business plan?  Thoughts are things.  A startup business plan begins with thinking.  The next step is talking.  And the next step for those that want to enhance their chances for success is to write it down.  

If there is one thing that will increase the odds of your success it is to write down in detail your startup business plan.  As a personal business coach I can assure you that there is very little accountability until something is written down.  

As a business success coach it is painful to watch business owners say what they are going to commit to do and then not do it.  To avoid accountability they will say that what they said previously is not what they really meant.  

The sad part is that time is lost, they excuse themselves for non-performance and then they start the cycle all over again.  And as long as their thoughts and desires for their business are not written down they can give themselves an air tight excuse for failure.  If they only understood that the keys to success were at the end of their pen maybe they would be more motivated.

The moment you write down your startup business plan is the instant you have added true commitment to your success.  In business performance coaching the simple task of putting things in writing can accelerate the process of successful performance.  As a personal business coach I have collaborated with clients who are successful and did not write down their startup business plan.  

But I can assure you whether it is success planning, a marketing business plan, a business marketing strategy the business owner will increase his odds for success when he writes down his thoughts in these areas.  

Being self-employed whether you are an entrepreneur or solo professional is a big challenge.  And, it becomes a much bigger challenge when we keep our thoughts in our minds and don’t get them down on paper.  

Much as it may sound boring writing down your plans is one of the business keys to success.  Think about it.  Ultimately, you are going to need policies and procedures which are in writing to grow and hold others accountable.  You might as well get in the habit of writing things down in your startup business plan.  

There are many keys to success in small business.  You don’t have to master all of them.  But, you must master some of them.  Taking a business training course is one of the keys to success.  

In my Business Keys To Success home study course at www.BusinessKeysToSuccess.com you will learn valuable lessons from my observations of small businesses that have succeeded and failed. These are the keys to success that they don’t teach you in school.  

Formal education will make you a living.  Self-education will make you a fortune.  As a self-employed business owner my goal is to give you the keys to success in creating your own fortune. Running a small business is a huge challenge.  Start the process correctly and it will make it easier to grow and experience small business success.

Your small business growth will get no bigger than your thinking.   Arm yourself to think big.  Believe in yourself to create and have all that you desire.  Before you begin put it I writing.  That’s the key to a startup business plan for success.

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Personal hand written notes are powerful.  I once heard it said that “You have the power to make someone’s day at the end of your pen.” And, I have seen the truth in this not only in my own life but in the businesses and lives of my clients.  

In my personal business coaching practice I engaged a new service company as a client.  The company consisted of the owner.  He wanted to grow.  But, as is often the case when you are starting your own business, he was short on capital.  

Personal Hand Written Note Marketing

As a self-employed business owner he knew that his ability to connect with others was his best marketing business plan.  The challenge was, and this happens to many small businesses, if he went out and marketed he would have to close down his shop.  

After exploring various strategies including the hand written note, he was stuck.  He thought the hand written notes were a good idea but he had never written one.  Very often, necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case new action.  

He decided to commit to hand written note marketing.

A Personal Hand Written Note For Every Customer

Every customer that came into his shop received a hand written note thanking them for being a customer and telling them that if they had any concerns to immediately contact him.  

From my experience, I knew that this marketing could work and could have big results.  At first he got Thank You cards from Office Depot.   In the beginning he was writing 1 to 2 notes a week.  

At times he became discouraged.  Business would rise a little bit and then fall back.  But overall, it was moving in the right direction.  In fact, it increased enough in the first six months to where he hired his first employee.  

Build Referrals-A Hand Written Notes Converts A Customer To A Friend

At the end of his first year he had done $50,000 in sales.  Four and a half years later he is on track to do $800,000.  He has done no other advertising.  He now has 7 employees.  And, he still writes every customer a personal hand written note.  

To amplify his the hand written note marketing he is now able to get out into the community and do volunteer work which has also had a very positive effect on sales.  

His customers have become his friends and his referral business is huge.  The hand written note is central to running many businesses by referral.  If you are looking for an inexpensive way to make a very positive impact use the personal hand written note in your marketing business plan.

I have seen the power of this for many self-employed business owners.  The personal hand written note pays value to others who are helping you get to where you want to go.  And, the most important aspect of the personal hand written note is that it builds relationships.  

If you are looking for more business that is better use the personal hand written note.  You do have the power to make someone’s day at the end of your pen.  That power is the personal hand written note.

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One of the keys to success is to know how to add value.  Whether you are adding value to a team, a project or a situation you must know yourself and your abilities to add the maximum value.  

Keys To Success:  A Story About Value

I was reading a story the other day about a high school basketball team.  It reminded me of when I played high school basketball because my coach, Coach Lasko, did something similar.  

When you have a group of competitive teenage boys who all think they are great players how do you get them to accept that they may have to play a position other than what they think they are good at.  It was quite normal for our forwards and centers to think that they had the ball handling abilities to play point guard.  Invariably when they tried to do this they would turn the ball over.  

One day in practice, Coach Lasko changed the normal scrimmage between the first and second teams.  The first team normally beat the second team soundly.  This day, he had the first team members switch positions.  The point guard played center.  One of the forwards played shooting guard.  The center played point guard.  Then the first team went out and scrimmaged the second team.  The game was to 20.  The second team, of which I was a member, trounced the first team.  

It was no contest.  From that day forward no one questioned where the coach had them playing.  

Keys To Success:  Know Your Value

One of the greatest challenges for individuals, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs and solo professionals is to understand the concept of value, and more importantly, how to add it to our lives and businesses.  We can go out everyday and recognize talent.  People are loaded with talent.  Yet the ones who truly experience personal, business or small business success are the ones who apply their value in areas where it will be recognized or appreciated.  

One of the keys to successfully running a small business or your life is to know yourself and your abilities?  It is critical.  Think about this.  If you are seven feet tall and weigh 300 pounds you will never be a jockey.  Yet, throughout my years of personal business coaching I have collaborated with many people who had great abilities but who were either not using them or applying them where they would not have maximum benefit.  

When I ask most people how they add value they can readily tell me.   That is good.  When I ask them if they feel their present circumstances or situation is allowing them to add value, very often, I receive a different answer.  

They tell me they wish they could be doing things differently to utilize their value.  There is very little satisfaction in doing something well and yet, we don’t feel like we are adding value or are valuable.  Step one in adding value is to know your value and to position yourself to use it.

Keys To Success:  Understanding Your Value

Once you know how you add value the next step is to understand your value.  You may say, wait a minute, aren’t knowing your value and adding your value the same?  Here’s the difference.  

Understanding your value is about figuring out how your value can fit into a particular situation.  Too often we arrive at a situation or challenge with our skills and abilities, our value, yet we don’t know how to apply it, or even if we should to add value.

Keys To Success:  Applying Your Value

Once you know your value and understand it there is one more step.   Knowing your value is great.  Understanding it and how best to apply it is even better.  But, the ultimate achievement is to apply it.  Without application of our value we can feel unfulfilled.  

Whether it be in your business or life, put yourself in a position to succeed.  One of the most important keys to success is to position yourself to add value and in the process enhance your work and life and benefit others.

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A continuing challenge that stands in the way of success for the self-employed business owner is to learn how to let go of yourself.  Too often as a business growth coach and in my business growth coaching practice I find owners who are trying to hold themselves and their businesses together.  

Let Go Of Yourself—The Fear Of Falling Apart

Trying to hold yourself and your business together for fear of falling apart is a tough way to go through life.  It’s tough because the fear of falling apart and failing can never be put away by adding more pieces of success.  

When you have the fear of falling apart, you will where out faster.   How come?  In your mind as you add pieces of success will now even have more conditions you believe you must control in order to keep your business and life together.  

When you have even more conditions you believe you must control you become wound tighter and tighter.  That’s why learning how to let go of yourself is important.  If you don’t know how to let go of yourself then you are destined to hang onto things that are making you miserable.   Learn how to let go of yourself and you can conquer the fear of falling apart.

How to Let Go Of Yourself

Whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or an individual seeking better performance is about understanding one basic premise.  

Anything that you have to control, controls you. And, anything that causes you to be afraid of losing control is already out of control.  It very easily can be an accident waiting to happen.  For those of us seeking small business growth and small business success we definitely understand that one of the fears in running your own business is that things will get beyond your control.  

The first step in how to let go of yourself is to understand exactly what it is that you feel you have to control.  

Let Go Of Yourself—What Makes You Angry

A key step in personal growth and learning how to let go of yourself is to understand what makes you angry.  What makes you anxious?  For most of us it is when things don’t go the way we want.

When things don’t go the way we want it means that the security seeking pictures we have are not being met and they are further confirmation that we are leading a shaky life.  

The key to let yourself go is to understand that who you are can never fall apart.  What falls apart for all of us are the self-pictures we have that flatter us or give us security.  Once you understand that these pictures are not the solution, but are the source of your shakiness and unhappiness, only then can you start to let go.  

Take a look at each one of these pictures.  How are they working for you?  Take a sword to the ones that truly aren’t necessary or don’t work.  Alter your picture in other cases.  

Let Go Of Yourself—A True Story

A real life example as a business performance coach is the client that felt the more things he acquired for his business the better it would be.  The problem was that there weren’t the processes and the people to utilize the things he was acquiring.  

What he did was create clutter.  The clutter was distracting to him and his employees.  It got in the way of their efficiency.  Plus when these things went unused it was a constant reminder that he was failing and he experienced the fear of falling apart.  

Over time he realized his picture of acquisition was the problem.  He started to pare things back.  It was painful for him to sell or dispose of some of the things he acquired.  He was changing his picture.  He was letting go of himself.  He let go of a false image that he thought was carrying him to success.  

Learn how to let go of false pictures.  When you do you will learn how to let go of yourself and the fear of falling apart and put yourself on a path to the serenity and success you desire.

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