5 Common Timewasters You Must Avoid

lorraine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:20:56 +0000

Gary has a business, employing 7 staff. When he contacted me he was at a point where the stress from his business was so bad, that he would constantly wake up 3 or 4 times a night worried about everything …his cash flow, staff, lack of clients and the affect all this was having on his personal well-being and family life.

He didn’t use a diary, had no way of planning and kept everything ‘in his The Productivity and Profit Homestudy System head’. Often his staff were idle because he hadn’t spent time training them. That ensured the work didn’t get done therefore causing Gary to lose clients.

On top of that Gary was a perfectionist, he felt it was easier to do things himself so they would be done ‘right’.

Being overweight didn’t help either. He was constantly tired and uptight causing him to be moody and also very negative. His family and his staff would avoid him.

He was spiraling downhill quickly but luckily he realised before it was too late, that it was time to get help otherwise he could lose his business, his family and even his life!

Step by step and week by week Gary changed the way he organised himself. He finally got control of his business and his life. He was aware that he needed to change, was ready to change, found out what to do and committed to making that happen.

Here’s the top 5 time stealers that had originally encompassed Gary’s life and what he had to avoid and what you must avoid too…

1. Avoid using a diary and planning your time
With 50,000 plus thoughts a day running through your brain you must write things down otherwise you’ll forget! Waste hours a week by not using a diary to plan your day, your week and your month.

2. Avoid exercise and eating healthy food
This will guaranteed that you’ll feel tired, take much longer to get things done and get sick more often. You are your most important investment, treat your body like you would if you bought a brand new car.

3. Having no systems and being surrounded by clutter
The paperwork is a mess on your desk, the filing is stashed away and you can’t easily find what you want. Working in chaos is a surefire way to waste hours a week. According to a survey by ‘The Wall Street Journal’, the ‘average’ white collar worker spends 6 weeks a year looking for things. If you’re like many small business owners you’re probably working way too much and not having much of a life. Reduce your working hours, your stress and save money by clearing out the clutter and setting up simple systems to get things done more quickly.

4. Email, Telephones and Social Networking
Having no set times allocated to answer emails, phones and do your social networking. It’s easy to let your time get consumed without you realising it. Create a timetable for yourself.

5. Doing it all yourself
You’re so good at bookkeeping, running errands, packing orders,cleaning, fixing computers, maintaining your website, writing your own newsletter, updating your database, creating your own brochures, producing products and solving everyone else’s problems that there’s no time to get anything else done.
Get help so you can focus on the money-making activities.

The Final Word

Avoid these 5 common timewasters and you’ll be amazed how much time you’ll have to work on improving your business so it runs much more effectively and profitably giving you more time for your life.

Why be time poor and struggle in your business, when you can easily get much more done, make more money and have time off? Go to www.productivityqueen.com/profit.html.

About the Author: Lorraine Pirihi, The Productivity Queen, is Australia’s leading Productivity Specialist and creator of “The Productivity and Profit System ^TM” the complete one-on-one training program for solopreneurs and small businesses that shows business owners exactly how to work less and earn more! To receive your F.R.E.E. CD & Report “3 Steps to Dramatically Reducing Your Workload and Stress While Maximising Your Profit$! ($77 value) go tohttp://www.productivityqueen.com

Work Less, Earn More By Following Up

lorraine — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:03:34 +0000

Following-up is such a simple thing to do yet most business owners and entrepreneurs just can’t get it right.

The Productivity and Profit Homestudy System. Some time ago I used the services of a mortgage broker who in the first instance was very prompt and appeared very efficient. He was referred to me by someone else I knew who had raved about him because he was so knowledgeable and could get the right type of deal across the line. Unfortunately, being knowledgeable about your products and services isn’t enough to get repeat business or have others successfully refer you.

Gary wasn’t proactive (when I called, he took action). He would often forget to call me back, even though he promised he would! This left me in a situation where I had no confidence in him.He needed to use a diary to write everything down so he wouldn’t forget to follow up. He had all the modern gadgets yet they obviously didn’t work. Paper and pen would have done the trick!

If Gary had only followed up with his current and past clients on a regular basis, he could have easily generated more business. However he would have had to provide a decent level of customer service in the first place for them to use him again.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Gary has left the industry because he thought it was just too hard to make money in that type of business.

The Final Word

Personally I find dealing with most business people, very frustrating. They tell you how good they are and will get the job done but the majority are hopeless! They do not follow up and provide a basic level of consistent service.

It’s time people got back to basics, followed up and use simple tools like a diary to get great results. There is a fortune to be made in following up, but only if you do it consistently.Now, if you’re not sure what you need to do and EXACTLY how to follow-up and generate more income, then take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will get you big results. Get a copy of “The Productivity and Profit Home Study System™”. It includes everything you need to know to free up your time, organise your people and systems so you make much more money and get a life!

Why be time poor and struggle in your business, when you can easily get much more done, make more money and have time off? Go to www.productivityqueen.com/profit.html.

How to Avoid Working Yourself Into An Early Grave

lorraine — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:46:17 +0000

On a recent walk I noticed that one of our local bakeries had closed down. There was a sign in the window saying that due to the passing of the owner, the shop was closed until further notice.

I had seen the owner a few times…he seemed to always be working and his physical condition looked awful. Unfortunately it was only a matter of time before something happened to him…and it did.

A few years ago one of my clients felt a tingling in his finger. Being a workaholic he didn’t have time to pay too much attention to it. After all he had meetings booked all day and they were more important than a tingle in his finger. He was about to leave home, then collapsed. Luckily for him, there was another person in the house and they called the ambulance.

John had suffered a stroke. The warning signs were there all along. He smoked, was 30kg overweight, his diet was poor and exercise was spasmodic. He worked long hours and was under enormous pressure. Much of the pressure was caused by John’s organisational skills. He was a poor delegator and had difficulty saying ‘no’. Planning was something he did if he had the time (which meant he never did). Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention he was also divorced!

Up until the time of his stroke, John had been making progress through being coached, however he wasn’t making enough consistent effort, particularly around his health. He was a disaster waiting to happen and it did happen. John was 43.

Fortunately John survived, but what a way to have a ‘wake up’ call. He’s definitely paying attention now and making himself the no. 1 priority in his life. He was off work for weeks.

After that event he seriously applied what he had learned through coaching. He had no choice. Either he got himself organised and changed his behaviors or he would have a short life. He did lose the weight , worked much less hours, planned for his personal life and met a partner in the process. He even got himself fit enough to successfully complete the Kokoda trail.

Running your own business can be very stressful. Most of us just can’t switch off easily. We need even more self-care. If you are just like ‘John’, here’s 5 ways to avoid working yourself to death…

1. Learn how to get yourself organised so you make time for you. ‘I’m too busy’ or ‘I don’t have the time’ is an excuse.

2. Find a holistic practitioner who offers a range of health tests and can provide proactive on-going treatment and advice. You can ask people you know who you know look after themselves and find out who they go to. You will require supplements because hardly anyone eats a 100% organic, fully balanced diet and lives in a non-toxic and stress free environment.

3. Avoid people and places that do not support what you are trying to achieve, i.e. there’s a lady who attends my gym every day to stay in shape and keep her weight under control yet she works in a bakery!

4. Set restrictions about how much of your time you’re prepared to work and stick to it. Do not take work home! Of if you work from home, set rules about when you will and won’t work. Make sure it doesn’t take over valuable family time.

5. Eat healthily, get enough sleep and exercise regularly. Respect your body and treat it as you would if you bought a brand new car. Buff and polish it, go for a long drive and fill the tank with quality fuel. Bet there’s nothing new here, that you didn’t already know. But are you doing it?

The Final Word

Being fit and healthy is not an option. Just because you are standing and breathing doesn’t mean you are well.

Wellness is about being pro-active with your health and not waiting until you are sick or something happens to you. No matter how busy you are, you surely can’t be too busy to die?

Now, if you’re not sure what you need to do to avoid working yourself to death, then I urge you to take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will get you big results. Get a copy of “The Productivity and Profit Home Study System ™”. It includes everything you need to know to free up your time so you can take better care of yourself, organise your systems and master your marketing so you make much more money and get a life!

What You Must Avoid To Get Ahead

lorraine — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:47:35 +0000

I’m constantly amazed at the amount of people I encounter who seem to invest a big chunk of their time and money attending seminars, joining coaching programs and investing in very expensive products only to do nothing with them. I recently saw a testimonial from a lady who attended one of these events saying the information from the program was going to turn her business into a million dollar company.

Well I hope for her sake it does, because I know this person and she hasn’t got a clue how to maximise the potential of her current business. She’ll be broke if she doesn’t address the basic mistakes she is making. She has no idea how to manage her time, has poor systems, she’s wasted thousands of dollars doing the wrong type of marketing, she has a high staff turnover and it seems a complete mess.

Mary’s run off to a seminar where she’s learnt how to do something completely different. It will just take her focus off her business and it is guaranteed to suffer further. What’s she’s done instead of addressing her real issues (herself), she got attracted to the ‘brightly shiny object’. The ‘magic pill’, ‘Mary has attended many seminars etc. but has not focused long enough to finish anything off.

Both myself and a client of mine attended the same event last year. Bill got excited and was very quick to pull out his credit card to purchase a program which if he applied it, would increase his sales. However he had just started his coaching program with freeing up his time first being the priority. If he invested in an additional product or program at that time, it would be left on the shelf gathering dust. Luckily he caught up with me that day to ask me if he should go ahead with the purchase I said ‘no’. He needed to follow through to completion what we were doing first.

The Final Word

The key to implementing this knowledge is all in the planning.
When working out when you will take action on each idea, be realistic with time frames.

I find that the majority of people do not follow through because they underestimate the amount of time it takes to get things done and end up being overwhelmed.

They then put all their intentions into the “too hard, can’t be bothered, I’m too busy” category and move on to another ‘bright shiny object’ for further motivation and new found knowledge.

Unfortunately, the cycle continues and they become educated derelicts.

Attending the event, investing in the program, or being coached is the easy part. Taking the action is much harder. If you perservere and follow through on these top tips your hard work will pay off eventually.

Now, if you’re not sure what you need to do and EXACTLY how to stay focussed and on track to generate more income, then I urge you to take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will get you big results. Get a copy of “The Productivity and Profit Home Study System™”. It includes everything you need to know to free up your time, organise your systems and master your marketing so you make much more money and get a life!

It’s laid out in a very simple way: do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, move on to step two etc. It’s so simple and yet so powerful, it’s changed the lives of many solopreneurs and small business owners.

You can read the success stories and get your own copy at www.productivityqueen.com/profit.html (why be time poor and struggle in your business, when you can easily get much more done, make more money and have time off?)

About the Author:

Lorraine Pirihi, The Productivity Queen, is Australia’s leading Productivity Specialist and creator of “The Productivity and Profit System ^TM” the complete one-on-one training program for solopreneurs and small businesses that shows business owners exactly how to work less and earn more!
To receive your F.R.E.E. CD & Report “3 Steps to Dramatically Reducing Your Workload and Stress While Maximising Your Profit$! ($77 value) go tohttp://www.productivityqueen.com

How to Turn Your Knowledge Into Profit

lorraine — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:02:35 +0000

How often do you take for granted the valuable knowledge that you have? I’m constantly amazed at how the simple things that I know and share with my clients, can be a massive revelation for them.

instance, Denise has a public relations business. She’s well-known in her industry and receives regular phone calls from other consultants wanting to know how she became so successful.

Up until now she had been spending a lot of time, sharing her knowledge (for free) and receiving nothing in return.

Denise’s success is related to many factors. She constantly invests in herself, gets coached, attends seminars, reads books etc. to learn how to run her business successfully.She has invested thousands of dollars learning and applying thisknowledge and here she was giving it away for free.

I suggested to Denise that she compile all this information into a product just for her industry. She could model what I had done with The Productivity and Profit Homestudy System .Denise could sell this program for whatever price she chose to. She knew her target market and what they would pay for this valuable information. Armed with this knowledge, her market would fast-track their own success by following in Denise’s footsteps. After all, What’s the point of trying to learn it all yourself from scratchifsomeone else has already successfully walked the same path that you want to go?

Unfortunately that’s what many small business owners do so they don’t have to ’spend’ money. In the meantime they struggle to survive and eventually their motivation withers away and many become an employee again.

The Final Word

Don’t give your valuable knowledge away for free. If you see a doctor, accountant or lawyer do they charge you for their knowledge? You bet they do. So why aren’t you?

Do not underestimate your value and have a long hard look at how you can turn your knowledge into more profit for you.

About the Author: