I know because I’ve done this too – waited for the time/situation to be just perfect before getting started.

But then last week I was reading Prince Charming Isnt Coming
: How Women Get Smart About Money by Barbara Stanny. In this book, Stanny talks about how women often wait for a man to look after their finances for them. There is one particular passage that jumped out at me.

“Please note: “Mr. Right” or “Prince Charming” need not be a man, or even a person. Our prince could be an ideal job, an insurance settlement, the lottery jackpot, or just an amorphous “something” – anything that we fantasize will save us financially. To become genuinely smart with money, we must get to the point where we can say with total conviction, I can do it myself.

This passage really grabbed me by the throat and made me realize that there are a number of projects I’ve had on hold because I didn’t have everything perfect.  I gave myself a long, hard look and realized I’ve been waiting for my business “Prince Charming”. In this case, my Prince isn’t a man either. Here’s what I’ve been waiting on and what I’m doing about it:

Schedule time

I’ve been waiting for more time to finish writing a book and several ebooks. Well, guess what? The free time is never there.  I need to schedule it to make it happen. How did I solve this? I booked several three hour chunks this month. Will it finish all the writing projects I have? No. But it will get me closer to finishing.

Don’t let cash flow stop you

I need some money to implement a couple of my projects and cash flow is tight right now so I’ve been putting them off. Instead of continuing to wait for things to get better, I arranged for some barter with a graphic designer to get one project completed. Then I looked at my accounts receivable and contacted people who owe me money.

Next, I looked out for “low hanging fruit” or ways I can make money quickly to allow me to finance my bigger projects. Finally, I looked for (and found) ways to complete my projects without spending as much money. It won’t be as fancy as I hoped, but it will get to market, which is far better than having a project on the drawing board indefinitely.

Procrastination

There are a couple of things I need to be doing to promote my products and services that I’ve just been putting off. I call it procrastination but really it should be called either perfectionism or fear of success. Either way, I’ve looked it in the eye and started implementation. I’ve created a list and committed to crossing one item off my list each day until it’s done.

If you’re like me, you have some projects that you’ve been putting off until the time is right. I heard a saying: The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The next best time is today.

What are you going to plant today?

Andrea J. Stenberg

Follow the money

First, you need to measure your money. Are your books up-to-date? Bookkeeping isn’t just for tax time. You need to keep them current so you can predict cash flow and see what products and services are profitable.

Cash flow is obvious, but looking at what areas are profitable is just as important. I knew one business owner who upon looking closer at his books, realized his best selling product was actually losing him money.

While the direct cost of the product was less than the selling price, the cost of servicing it meant he actually lost about $100 per unit. By eliminating that one product, although his total sales went down, his profits shot way up.

Do you know what products or services are most profitable? Look at your books. If you’re not sure how to determine profitability, ask your bookkeeper or accountant.

What’s your web traffic?

Measuring your web traffic is another important measurement to track. You need to know how many people are visiting your site, how many are subscribing to your RSS feed, how long people are staying, where those people are coming from (did they find you on Google, from Facebook, from someone else’s site), and what pages they’re looking at. You also need to track trends from month to month. Knowing whether traffic is increasing or decreasing is more important than total numbers.

Google Analytics can tell you what keywords people are using to find your site. This can help you figure out what type of blog posts to write, what kinds of headlines you should have, and even insight into new products.

Social Media stats

Social media stats are somewhat misleading and difficult to measure. Having a large number of connections, doesn’t necessarily mean your social media efforts are profitable. You can have a large number of followers but if they never engage with you or take action, they’ll do you no good.

Also, you can’t get a straight measurement of profitability. If you run a Google Adwords campaign, you know how much you paid per click and what percentage of people bought your product. You can tell right away whether this campaign is worth your time and money.

With social media, it’s occasionally very direct. For example, recently I made a post to LinkedIn. About 10 minutes later I got a message through LinkedIn from a colleague asking if I do training on marketing with Facebook. I was floored because I thought he knew what I do. After a brief meeting over coffee, I ended up with a $1,000 client.

However, most social media efforts are much less obvious. For example, I know before I do business with someone I check out their social media profiles. I always check out their LinkedIn profile and look closely at their testimonials. However, they may not be aware that I did this, nor how much of an impact that had on my decision.

Likewise, I often see people follow me on Twitter, then connect on Facebook, then sign up for my email newsletter. Later when they become a customer, how much of that business can be attributed to social media? I would never have made the sale if they weren’t on my email list, but they never would have been there in the first place if not for social media.

Your challenge

My challenge to you is to check your stats this week.

1. Get your books up-to-date if they aren’t already. Then notice which products are most profitable. Are there ways you can increase sales of these products?

2. Check out the traffic to your website. Has it increased or decreased from last month? Where is that traffic coming from? What keywords are people using to find you? If you’re getting a lot of traffic from one source, look for ways to get even more. For example, if Facebook is sending a lot of people to your website, vow to spend an extra hour this week on Facebook. If you don’t already have Google Analtyics set up on your website or blog, make that your first priority.

3. Notice whether any of your customers are connected with you on social media. If there’s one site that is working particularly well, spend an hour this week working on planning ways to be even more effective on this site and how to engage with your connections.

Finally, put a reminder in your calendar to do this check each month. You can set up a recurring appointment with yourself to monitor your progress. After all, if you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Do you monitor your stats regularly? How has that helped your business? Or are you a seat-of-the-pants kind of person? Please leave a comment and share your story.

Working from home is sometimes a challenge in the summer. Yes, there’s the fact that I have no air conditioning and my office is on the 2^nd floor. (Last week’s heat wave in eastern Canada and U.S. was brutal).

There’s also my teenage son who is home from school and around the house. Plus there’s the sun shining and I want to be outside.

As a result, there are some days where sitting at my desk staring at my computer seems unbearable.

But I still need to work. The mortgage still needs to be paid and we have this pesky little addition to food.

So, what’s a home-based entrepreneur to do?

I posed this question to my network and got some interesting answers.

Some people like to get up and do something physical: “a walk, mowing the lawn, stacking firewood. For me physical activity is the key to getting unblocked.”

Other’s shared that tidying the office is a good start. I know my desk often looks like a paper bomb exploded on it. And if I let it go too long the paper breeds and soon my office is covered. Taking even 10 minutes to clear the desk to the surface can often be enough to unblock me and get me going. In fact, that’s what I did right before writing this blog post.

Another friend commented that she picks the easiest thing on her task list. Getting that done and out of the way motivates her to keep going.

And sometimes, I think you need to give in to your inner sloth and enjoy the summer. Get outside and do something fun, even if it’s just sitting on the deck having a beer and reading a trashy novel. You’ll feel refreshed and pleased that you no longer have the worst boss you’ve ever had. And likely, the next day you’ll come back to your work with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Andrea J. Stenberg

What’s your trick for getting back on track? Share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment.

When I was in my mid-20s I actually tried to start my own business doing very much what I’m doing now (minus the social media since Facebook etc. didn’t exist back then).

I survived about a year before I packed it in and got a “real job”. The problem was that I thought in order to be a business person you had to be independent, and independent meant doing it all myself.

This time around, being a little older, and a little wiser (I hope), I recognized that trying to go it alone was part of the problem. When I was raising my son I needed a doctor, advice from my mom, and support from other mothers. So I realized I needed the same kind of support for my business.

In the past five years I’ve worked with a variety of coaches, made friends with other business people who I can bounce ideas off of, and joined a networking group. I have an accountability partner who I speak with once a week to talk about what I’m working on. I have a strong network of business friends on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook who I can ask for advice. And on occasion I even talk to my husband about my business.

When I was younger I thought needing other people was a weakness. But if you talk to any successful business people, if they’re honest, you’ll find they’ve all had help along the way. I spoke to one man recently who owns and runs five businesses. He’s been doing so for over 10 years and still meets with the previous owner several times a week to get advice, feedback and support. I know one online entrepreneur with the business in the high six figures who works with three coaches and has a mastermind group.

When you’re building your village you need to make sure that just like a real village it is a diverse group of people. It is often easier to build relationships with other people who are the same stage in their business as you. This is useful because you’re both going through the same things and can really relate to each other.

However you also need to make sure your village includes some experienced business people. Being around more successful business owners helps remind you where you are headed. They can help you remember to focus on your goals and plans rather than just your daily to do list. If you’ve surrounded yourself with the right people will share some of their knowledge and be happy to give you feedback.

Of course, it’s always good to include some new business people in your village. It helps remind you how far you’ve come, and lets you pay back for the help you’ve received along the way.

If you find yourself struggling in running your business, take a moment and ask yourself who is in your village. If you don’t have enough support, advice, and inspiration in your immediate network it’s time to grow your village. Look for a coach, join a networking group like BNI, or reach out to someone you know and invite them out for coffee. You’ll be glad you did.

Andrea J Stenberg

What did he mean? You don’t have to be the best to be successful. The people who get ahead don’t worry about being perfect. They get off their butts, take action and get their products to market.

So here are my thoughts on why imperfect execution is better than perfect planning

Work your plan

While I’m the first one to tell you that planning is important, I know that too often planning can be a form of procrastination. Rather than getting down to the work, you keep tweaking the plan. Get a plan in place and start working it. Over time you can tweak the plan as you see what works and what doesn’t.

Beating the competition

How many times have you seen a competitor release a new product that is just like the brilliant idea you had a year ago but is still in the planning stages? Don’t you kick yourself when that happens? I know I have. Let’s learn from our mistakes; when you have a brilliant idea quickly create a plan then work on execution so that someone else doesn’t beat you to the punch.

Get results now

Customers don’t buy your plan. People have to know how to buy from you, so make it easy. A less-than-perfect sales page, advertisement, or social media campaign will get infinitely more results than that piece of paper with your plan on it that never gets implemented. Whatever method you choose to market with, get on with it. You’ll get better as you go.

You can do better?

How many times have you seen somebody else’s product, read somebody else’s book, or been to somebody else’s seminar and thought to yourself “I can do better than that”? Well if you really can do better, prove it! Nothing is perfect. If those less-than-perfect competitors are selling, get off your butt and get your better product out there too.

You’ll feel better

You’ll feel better. Seriously. That frustration you feel every time you look at your plan but don’t see any forward action will go away. Sure you may feel some trepidation, some nerves, as you get started. But as Dale Carnegie said: “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence encourage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

So if you have some new product that has been sitting in the back your mind, or new marketing strategy you been planning to attempt, quick tweaking the plan! Go out and get busy.

One of the things I do is use binders. Each project has its own binder, as does planning. This has been a relatively useful way to keep track of ongoing work (when the labels don’t fall off the binders).

New ideas were little harder to track. For a while I was doing the Post-it note method. Every time I got a new idea I’d write it on a Post-it note and stick it up on the wall next to my desk.

This didn’t work for two reasons. One, after a while the Post-it notes just became visual noise; I just didn’t see them anymore. The second reason is the mental clutter they caused me. Although I can block out the content on the Post-it notes, I still knew they were there. Although I wasn’t consciously aware of it, it was causing me constant stress.

I moved away from the Post-it notes to whiteboards. Now whenever a garden idea I could just write it on the whiteboard. The nice thing about the whiteboard is it’s one continual surface so it’s less visually cluttering than Post-its.

However, the whiteboard method isn’t perfect either. It’s great for recording an idea as it occurs to me, but what do I do later? Eventually the whiteboard gets full. I needed some way to deal with the ideas.

Then I thought about Microsoft OneNote. This is a software program that comes as part of Microsoft office. I knew it was part of the package but hadn’t looked at it. Last week I decided to open it and take a look. I’m glad I did.

OneNote is designed for the entrepreneurial ADD brain. You can have different folders for different projects, and different pages in each folder. You’re not stuck to writing an orderly fashion as you would be in a word document; you can put notes anywhere on the page. You can import PDFs or JPEG’s; you can even add audio. You can also hyperlink between different factions within OneNote.

This has been a really freeing tool for me since I started using it. I’m able to take pieces off my whiteboard that I want to implement, and create a kind of plan. As I get new information, new details, new action items to add to this plan, they’re easy to add with OneNote.

When the things that held me back from using OneNote is the fact that I don’t always do my planning and brainstorming sitting at my desk. In fact, I often find it is better for me to leave my office entirely when doing brainstorming. Additionally, I have both a desktop and a laptop machine. I was worried about not having my OneNote document on the correct machine.

Then I had a brainstorm. I’ve been using Dropbox to share documents with customers and colleagues. Why not use it to share my OneNote between computers?

That’s what I’ve done. So now I’m using my whiteboard to record ideas that pop up when I’m in the middle of another task. Then, at a later time, I can take these ideas and add them to my OneNote document. Now I can access this document regardless of which computer I’m using. (If you’d like to see how to add OneNote to Dropbox read this blog post on RetroHack)

Andrea J. Stenberg

Have you been using OneNote in your business? Please leave a comment and tell us how you use this piece of software,

I was surprised because Sean is very loyal to the local business community. He makes a point of shopping in town, even if going to the city or buying online will save him a few bucks. So I asked him to explain.

It goes back to his career. You see, Sean sells cell phones. He’s an independent sales person and works out of his home, rather than a retail location.

His main focus is larger companies that need multiple phones for their employees. However, he also sells to small businesses that only need one or two phones.

Sean gives great customer service

What makes buying a phone from him different is the level of customer service. Sean goes above and beyond for his customers. He helps you decide which phone and which plan is best for you. He’ll deliver the phone to you personally. And if you run into problems, he cuts through the red tape of the corporation and solves it for you.

But there is much more to being a customer of Sean’s. Sean is extremely loyal to his customers. If you buy a cell phone from him, he works hard to help your business succeed. He’ll recommend you to his vast network of contacts. He’ll frequent your business himself. In fact, even if he can save money by going to your competitor, if you’re his customer and they’re not, he’ll buy from you. Every time.

So why was he so mad at this local business?

You see, this local business used to be a customer of his.  When his cell phone contract came up, he decided to shop around. This retailer found a cell phone that was a better deal than Sean’s cell phones so he switched.

Seems reasonable; get a better deal, switch suppliers.

So why was Sean so mad?

The guy saved peanuts

First of all, this new phone plan is $3 per month cheaper than Sean’s cell phones. That means this guy is only saving $36 a year.

Compare that to the $150 Sean recently spent in this man’s store. And he probably spent three times that amount annually. That’s a lot of money compared to $36 per year.

He didn’t shop locally

Second, the cell phone provider this guy switched to was selling to him out of head office in Toronto, not even a local competitor. If it had been someone local, Sean could have lived with that. But not shopping locally is a big sin in Sean’s book.

No loyalty to customers

Finally, there’s fair play. By shopping around himself, Sean could buy products much cheaper than from this local retailer. In fact, this guy’s not even the cheapest place in town, never mind compared to the city or online. But Sean purchased from him because he got good customer service from the staff. But mainly, he shopped there because he’s loyal to his customers. But this guy didn’t show the same level of loyalty.

So, the upshot is, this guy has saved himself $36 per year. But he’s lost $500 per year in sales. And I expect I’m not the first person Sean’s told this story to, and I won’t be the last. I know for myself, I feel slightly less inclined to shop at this retailer’s store. I just don’t quite have the same warm fuzzy feeling that I used to.

So, at the end of the day, was it worth it for this guy to switch suppliers? I suspect not.

Andrea J. Stenberg

And I love books. Forget shoes, for me there’s nothing better than wandering the isles of a good bookstore. It might even rival a computer store for pure fun factor.

There’s nothing more exciting than having $100 to spend on books. Even a spare $20 gets me going. You can’t get anything really exciting at the computer store for 20 bucks.

But there’s a downside to my love of books. There’s so much to do and so much to learn. I just can’t keep up.

The photo attached to this article is my current stack of non-fiction reading. Each of these books is on the go. Only two are library books. The rest I picked up somewhere along the way. And yes, I understand the irony of having Getting Things Done be one of the books I haven’t quite managed to finish.

These are all great books. I’m enjoying the read but I’m not getting through them. One of the library books has already been renewed once. I just spend so much time reading – emails, RSS feeds, websites, my own work – that I just can’t bring myself to read non-fiction for long periods of time.

Hence the stack of on-the-go books.

However, I have discovered a secret to getting through books faster. Audio books! I love them. I get one, upload it to my mp3 player, and boom, I can multitask. I can listen at the gym, in the car, while doing the dishes. Suddenly wasted time becomes learning time.

I didn’t expect to love audio books so much. In NLP parlance, I’m a visual communicator. I have to “see” things to really understand. When I was in school during tests I would actually visualize the page in my notebook that had the answer.

I thought audio books would just be noise, and nothing would sink in. But I was wrong. All the years of watching tv while doing the Sudoko or listening to the radio has primed me for audio books.

Yes, there are things that I miss the first time through. However, I can usually listen to a good audio book twice, faster than I can read a print one once. Sometimes, I zone out in the middle of a section, but my mp3 player has this nice little feature called rewind. Sometimes I even have to pull over and make a note of something amazing I just heard.

Where do you get audio books? At the library, the normal bookstore, iTunes, Audible all have audio books available. Not every book you want will be available, but if they are, great. I recently picked up a book and headed to the checkout at the bookstore. Then I stopped to check if they had the audio version. They didn’t have it in stock but agreed to order it for me. I paid for it and in a couple of days the CDs were in my mailbox. I finished the audio version way before the print version would have been cracked beyond chapter two.

Will I give up the paper version for technology? No. I love the feel of a book. I love the smell. I even love the stack next to my bed. But for getting through business books, give me an mp3 every time.

Andrea J. Stenberg

How do you keep up with the information you need to have to run your business? Please leave a comment and share your tips.

Still no go.

So I calmly clicked the “forgot my password” link. WordPress sent me an email with a link to change my password. I went to my inbox and clicked the link. I was then told I’d get a second email with my new, temporary password.

I waited.

And waited.

No new password.

So I tried again. Got the email with the link to change my password, but never received a new password.

Panic started to set in.

Then I remembered I’d had a friend look at the back-end of my blog when I’d had a problem with something. Problem solved! I asked if he remembered the password I gave him.

No.

Scrolled through our Skype chats to see if it was recorded there.

No dice.

My friend suggested my spam filter. I couldn’t see why the first email from WordPress would get through but not the second, but I was desperate. Checked spam. Still no luck.

Real panic. What if I couldn’t get into my blog – ever?!?

Started scrolling through my sent emails to see if I’d sent my friend the password that way.

Still no luck.

Then it hit me. Several weeks back I’d had some troubles with my site and had given tech support at my hosting company a login and password. Dug up what I’d sent them and tried using that login and password.

Success! I was able to get into the admin in my blog. I quickly changed my password for my main user name, recorded the login and password for the second user and created a third user with another email address I have.

My advice:

Learn from my scary episode. If you have a website, blog, Facebook fan page or any other web presence that is vital to your business, make sure you have more than one user name and password. Make sure both users are designated as administrators with full access and rights to the back-end. Make sure they are attached to different email addresses. If you don’t have a second email address, ask a trusted friend to be your backup or create a gmail account just for this purpose.

Trust me, if you ever have a moment like I had last week, you’ll be really glad you listened to me.

Andrea J. Stenberg

What are some of the ways you protect yourself from weird technology glitches? Please share your secrets here.

Apparently, Americans aged 55 to 64 are more likely to become entrepreneurs than those aged 20 to 34. For many people this statistic is counter-intuitive. Younger people are more likely to take risks, right?

Wrong! According to this particular study, “In every single year from 1996 to 2007, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20-34.”

How much higher? One third.

But that’s not all. The study also notes that “a longitudinal survey of nearly 5,000 companies that began in 2004, two-thirds of firm founders are between the ages of 35 and 54.”

What are the causes of this baby boomer boom? The study suggests a decline of lifetime employment is a major cause. While many boomers grew up expecting to work for the same company through to retirement, as we all know, this is no longer the case. The implication is lose your job, start a business.

Our longer, healthier lifespan is another contributing factor. Because we live longer, and are fitter and more active, boomers are more likely to continue working longer and are doing so in their own businesses. The study also suggests the current recession is contributing to the increase in entrepreneurial activity in the baby boom generation. When people lose their jobs and can’t find new ones, they start a business instead.

However comprehensive this study is, I believe they are missing a major reason why entrepreneurial activity is skewing older. When someone has worked 15, 20, 30 years in a career they like, but don’t love, at some point they start thinking about doing more with their life. When the mortgage is paid off and the kids have moved out, it’s time to start thinking about doing something they love.

While I haven’t conducted a scientific survey of boomers, from people I’ve met and spoken with, the main reason for starting a business in your 40s, 50s and 60s is passion. They decide it’s time to spend their days working in something that really moves them.

When you’re younger, you’re looking for experience or to pay the bills. You’re trying to figure out who you are, what you want to be when you grow up. You’re starting a family. Taking a risk and starting a business can seem like too much when everything else in your life seems risky.

But at some point, many of us start to think life is too short to waste doing something less than amazing. I know for me, there was that moment when I thought, “If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it.”

Perhaps it’s the fear of getting to the end of your life and having regrets about actions you didn’t take. Or it’s just a desire to have a career that is more meaningful. Yes, getting laid off may be the boot in the behind some of us need to get started. But I’ve spoken to just as many baby boomer entrepreneurs who left high-paying, secure jobs of their own volition.

Passion, not recession is why boomers are joining the ranks of the entrepreneurs.

Andrea J. Stenberg

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.