Dream It! Design It! Live It!

This is a coaching workbook created to take you through the necessary steps to brainstorm and build your life action plan. No matter what age you are or where you are in your business career, these steps are useful to help you think out-of-the box when it comes to planning the rest of your ideal life.

This workbook was self-published in August 2012 by Bonnie Kuhn. She sent me a review copy so that small business folks could get a jump start on their new year’s strategic planning.

I was impressed by the volume of content in the workbook. This is a thorough process with nine steps to take you from dreams to action plan. While you could get overwhelmed for all the exercises in the workbook, it is worth it to take your time and go through all the steps.

How To Use This Workbook

The Dream It! Design It! Live It! workbook has the following nine steps to generate your personal road map to success.

1. Your Life Purpose – asks what type of legacy do you want to leave?
2. Align Your Purpose with Your Life – looks at your current roles and external factors.
3. Design Your Dream Life – sets the budget to finance your life.
4. Envision Your Goals – helps you brainstorm and think out-of-the box.
5. Bring Your Goals to Life – prioritizes where to start.
6. Organize, Schedule & Plan Your Goals – creates a time management system to act on your goals.
7. Your Internal Resources – outlines the critical need for a support system.
8. Celebrate – identifies ways to savor each milestone.
9. Circling – touches on how to keep your inspiration.

How Small Businesses Benefit

This is a great start for an entrepreneur who wants to flesh out a dream for a new business and fully incorporate this dream into their life.

I particularly like the financial section in step three that will help you identify what you need to get started and realistically finance your dream.

About Bonnie Marie Kuhn

Bonnie Marie Kuhn is the owner of Bonnie Marie Coaching. She is a Marketing Coach for New and Emerging Small Business Women Entrepreneurs. Bonnie is also a co-host for Solo Pro Radio, who highlights entrepreneurs every Tuesday.

The Bottom Line

You could be easily overwhelmed by the amount of content in “Dream It! Design It! Live It!” This workbook is not organized to skim through haphazardly.

I recommend, to fully benefit from all the exercises, that you use this book in conjunction with a strategic planning retreat or set aside dedicated time each week to work through all nine steps.

The post Dream It, Design It, Live It: Coaching Workbook appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Own Your Niche

Published in January 2012, “Own Your Niche” is the latest installment from Stephanie Chandler and Authority Publishing. Stephanie has a longstanding relationship with Small Business Trends and, in fact, our very own Anita Campbell is featured as one of the first success story interviews in the book.

Nevertheless, when I received a review copy of the book, I was immediately impressed by the amount of useful content. The number of resources and services listed were invaluable and my copy is already thoroughly bookmarked and highlighted.

Where other marketing books only touch on connecting with your audience, “Own Your Niche” makes sure that the needs of your niche always come first in each and every chapter. This reminds me of a comment I heard recently that, while your services may be able to help everyone, your marketing efforts can’t reach everyone, so it pays to be specific.

The book is easy to read and well organized by topic. I recommend that you take time to read it once through and then go back and implement each chapter step-by-step over the course of several weeks.

Why Use Own Your Niche?

Some of the many benefits promised in “Own Your Niche” are:

• Identify your target audience and authentically connect with them
• Building website and blog traffic
• Using social media effectively and quickly each day
• Establishing yourself as an authority with valuable content
• Generating a PR campaign that drives media to you
• Creating online products and other sources of income

Beyond the benefits listed above, the book includes several interviews with business owners on how they built their service-based business and connected with their target audience. Plus did I mention the mountain of internet marketing resources provided?

Own Your Niche – The Breakdown for Busy Entrepreneurs

“Own Your Niche” has thirteen chapters, each one filled to the brim with marketing tips, but I feel that the book can be summarized in three main areas:

• Targeting Your Niche
• Internet Marketing
• Traditional Marketing

The book begins with the benefits of targeting your niche, establishing yourself as an authority in your field and engaging your audience.

The second part covers the variety of internet marketing strategies available and helps you to prioritize where you should spend your time and why. One strategy is how to structure your website so it is intuitive and makes it easy for your audience to buy your products. The book then covers the SEO basics and why you need a blog. An important part of the book simplifies social media and reassures us that you do not need to spend your whole day to get the marketing impact you want.

Finally “Own Your Niche” wraps up with more traditional marketing efforts such as email newsletters, public relations and ways to draw the media to you naturally. As a bonus, if you are interested in professional speaking, the book outlines the benefits providing products and services that reach engaged and targeted audiences in person.

The Author – Stephanie Chandler

Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor) is the author of several books including “Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business”, and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.”  She recently hosted an inspiring three-day Non-Fiction Writers Conference with online sessions on self-publishing, Amazon, Smashwords, book proposals and more, all presented by major internet publishing industry experts.

Stephanie decided early on to avoid internet marketing tactics that didn’t pass her internal “gut test” and despite her refusal to comply with the masses, she has built several successful businesses, is a frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, and has been featured in Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek, and Wired magazine, and she is a blogger for Forbes.

She is also CEO of Authority Publishing, specializing in custom publishing for nonfiction books and social media marketing services, and Business Info Guide, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs.

Who Benefits from Own Your Niche?

As the subtitle of the book suggests, if you want to become an established authority in your field and promote your service-based business, “Own Your Niche” is for you. This is true whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years. The latest marketing techniques and methods are broken down into reasonable chunks you can tackle on a daily basis to get real results in record time.

The Bottom Line

“Own Your Niche”shows you the way to achieve your internet marketing goals and still feel like you are connecting with your target audience in your own words, not pushing them away with gimmicky sales techniques.

The post Own Your Niche and Remove the Fear of Internet Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The authors created not just one book, but a series of accomplishment journals to help women stay focused on what is important to them personally and for their business. This journal was designed to counteract the all too common feeling women have that despite how many emails they answer or meetings they attend that women still feel like a failure.

The Accomplishment Journal Series

The Accomplishment Journal series began with the first book, The Accomplishment Journal for Working Moms published December 2007. In 2010, the authors published The Accomplishment Journal for Women in Sales and the Accomplishment Journal for Women Entrepreneurs. Information on the series can be found at Accomplishment Journal.

When I requested a review copy, the authors actually sent me a “productivity care package” including the last two Accomplishment Journals and a DVD from the first book that introduced and explained the system. Fortunately the Accomplishment Journals are easy to use and take you through the system step by step.

Why Use the Accomplishment Journal?

The Accomplishment Journal does so more than a typical planner. At the end of every day it tracks the necessary data so you can clearly measure the progress towards your business and personal goals.

The Accomplishment Journal benefits are:

• “Stop the busy-ness and start the effective-ness”
• Get more done during the day to free up time to spend with family and self
• Overcoming procrastination, lack of discipline and no game plan
• Go from feeling stress and guilt to being appreciated and successful

The Accomplishment Journal Steps

All of the Accomplishment Journals follow the same steps:

1)      Identify the Qualities of a Happy Life

2)      Set out goals for the year

3)      Set out goals for the quarter

4)      Project Organizing System

5)      Daily Action

6)      Quarterly Review

Each day on the left hand side of the journal is a planning side where tasks and priorities are listed. The most eye opening part is the time commitment column. Often women underestimate and over schedule their day. One of the authors realized that at the beginning of using the journal she regularly scheduled 23 hours worth of work into her day! That is when she knew she had to change her expectations and priorities.

The right hand side of the daily journal is where the accomplishments are listed with hard business metrics such as calls made, business completed, new leads, etc. Next are softer metrics such as “What was the happiest moment of today?” and “What am I most proud to have achieved today?”

Then there are four areas where you can identify whether your actions supported your qualities of life such as balance, wisdom, growth or enrichment. Over the course of a quarter if you flip through the pages quickly you can easily visualize if an area of your life is being neglected.

The Authors

The Accomplishment Journal authors are business women who use the system and wanted to share it with other women. The series was written and created by Gina Robison-Billiups, the “mother” of Moms in Business Network and the International Association of Working Mothers, and a mother of two.

Gina has spent more than six years supporting, educating, serving and representing the needs of business moms. Co-author Brenda Prinzavalli is a writer, consultant, seminar developer and owner of Balanced Organizing Solutions, LLC. She combines her expertise as an educator and problem-solver with a personal commitment to health and wellness.

Who Benefits from the Accomplishment Journal Series?

The Accomplishment Journals are specifically designed by and for women. They are meant to be used one quarter at a time. Yearly goals are not enough. The author’s believe you need to review the previous quarter and adjust your priorities at the beginning of each new quarter. Also the Accomplishment Journal can be customized so you can begin using it tomorrow to track your progress over the next ninety days.

The Bottom Line

Remembering what’s important today and doing more with less guilt is the key to success for every woman entrepreneur. Use the Accomplishment Journal for Women Entrepreneurs to recognize that success happens with small steps every day, not just all at once overnight.

The post The Accomplishment Journal for Women Entrepreneurs appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Organize Your Home Office for Success is an easy-to-use book for business owners as well as at home corporate employees trying to create or reclaim their office space.  The book is well laid out and while you can read it cover to cover, it works just as well if you go straight to the section where you need to get started.

This is the fourth edition of the book, which was originally published in 1993. I was very excited when I received a review copy of the latest edition because it also includes updated online tools under the electronic home office chapter.

What Organize Your Home Office For Success Covers

The book advocates flexibility over a one size fits all mentality. And the author freely admits that she doesn’t always agree with other experts in the field. Some areas covered in the book include:

• The Challenges and Rewards of Working From Home
• Finding the Right Space for your Home Office
• Stop stacking and start filing
• Making better use of your time
• Taking advantage of the Electronic Home Office

The author is one of the Nation’s Leading Home Office Experts

Lisa Kanarek is one of only a handful of home office experts who is also an interior designer. She is the author of five books about working from home and the founder of WorkingNaked (@WorkingNaked on Twitter).   Lisa has been a guest on several national programs including CNN Financial News and American Public Radio as well as featured in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Expert Strategies

It is often tough to carve out time and space for your home office. Often you need to set-up boundaries both in your calendar and around your home office. You can never lose sight of the need to maintain professionalism, which is why the author encourages you to maintain normal business hours as much as possible and spending the necessary money on quality office supplies and marketing materials.

When setting up your home office, the author addresses the very first item – creating space for the office itself. We fill often fill our homes to the brim so this is no easy task. The section on de-cluttering and staying de-cluttered is key.  Whether you choose a U-shape, L-shape or parallel workspace, office ergonomics are important to keep in mind. Over eighty percent of office workers say that their office furniture is uncomfortable, so don’t skimp in this area. Lisa encourages you to try out all office chair adjustments in person.

The book also includes Lisa’s P-A-P-E-R System that provides five options for dealing with paper:

1. Place it in a stacking bin.
2. Act on it.
3. Put it in a file.
4. Enter it on your to-do list and file it.
5. Rid yourself of it (or recycle it).

While Lisa recognizes that technology changes daily, she includes several ways to improve email, voice mail and electronic filing to make the electronic home office more effective. There is a splendidly comprehensive list of software and online tools ranging from online back-ups to to-do lists.

Resource Guide

Lisa does not shy away from including several pages of resources ranging from furniture to office supplies and even includes associations to help out small business owners.  You will find even more resources listed along with her blog and entertaining videos on her site, WorkingNaked.

Who will benefit most from this book?

Entrepreneurs and home-based corporate employees will benefit the most from this book. Whether you already have an office that’s out of control or setting one up from scratch, this book focuses on creating functional and productive home offices that meet each individual’s working style.

The Bottom Line

A successful home office doesn’t just happen. It needs to be planned and thought out to work effectively. Use Organize Your Home Office for Success – Expert Strategies That Can Work For You to start your home office action plan today.

The post “Organize Your Home Office” For A Workable Office Space appeared first on Small Business Trends.

All mammals, including humans, have social behaviors to help increase their chances of survival. As a bonus, there are parts of the brain, called the limbic system, that reward us for these behaviors by releasing chemicals that feel good.

Before you think that you’re more evolved than other mammals, though, think again. These social behaviors and their chemical rewards do apply to everyday human behavior. When a customer calls to complain, you feel threatened. I, Mammal explains what is actually happening in your brain and why your heart is still racing even after the customer hangs up.

How We Evolved

In a group setting, the mammal brain must constantly decide when to grab something to meet its needs and when to hold back for fear of being injured. The mammal brain rewards successful survival behaviors with happy chemicals and releases unhappy chemicals when our survival is threatened.

You mammal brain doesn’t care if you have a full pantry at home. It works moment to moment. Say you and a friend both grab for the last piece of chocolate. If you get the chocolate, your mammal brain will reward you with happy chemicals. If your friend gets the chocolate instead, your mammal brain will react as if your very survival is at stake, and unhappy chemicals will be released.

These reactions go beyond food, though. Humans also have a large cortex that handles abstract concepts of what success and achievement mean to us. The limbic system still reacts though as if situations were life or death. Let’s say your business is competing against an archrival on a bid. If a competitor gets the bid instead of you, the limbic system reacts with the same level of unhappy chemicals as if your life were threatened.

The mammal brain doesn’t deal in the grey areas of modern society, only in the black and white of our ancestors. That is why next time you may lower your prices to get the bid, which feels good, but in the long run may hamper your success if you can’t cover your costs.

Why Happiness Doesn’t Last

It would be fantastic if we could get our happy chemicals to be released all the time, but that’s not how our mammal brains work. We get our “reward” when we win, but the chemicals fade quickly after that so we can go back to taking care of our survival.

When these happy chemicals fade we feel less happy, and our cortex interprets this as a sign that something is wrong. So we start looking for a reason, and often we find a problem where one doesn’t exist. When we become more aware of our feelings and what is driving them, we can save ourselves fruitless searches for nonexistent problems and ultimately be able to savor the times when we do experience happiness.

The Author

Dr. Loretta Graziano Breuning is Professor Emerita of International Business at California State University, East Bay. She has a background in international trade and worked for the United Nations in Africa. Her prior book was “Greaseless: How to Thrive Without Bribes in Developing Countries” and she has lectured in many countries on preventing bribery.

Growing up she witnessed firsthand how status worked in her Mafia-controlled neighborhood. She says:

“Your brain longs for status the way it longs for rich food, attractive mates and the safety of the herd.”

More Resources

Dr. Granizano Bruening has a regular blog through Psychology Today. She also has many resources listed on the I, Mammal website. There is even a recommended list of movies to watch where you can see mammal brain behavior in action.

Who Will Benefit from I, Mammal

If you have ever been frustrated it is probably because you are comparing yourself to others. Consider your next business networking event. Observe how people talk to one another and see how they try to trump the other person. Realize that everyone is doing this unconsciously to help themselves feel good. Even cows have social rivalries!

I, Mammal helps you to become more aware of these comparisons and get past them. Instead consider appreciating our brains, which have evolved over 200 million years and helped our ancestors to stay strong, mate and protect their children. Next time, let the other person brag. They will feel better about themselves, and you can focus on building an alliance that helps you in the long run and feels good in a different way.

The Bottom Line

While we can’t fight our mammal brain, we can work with to find ways to stimulate our happy chemicals without resorting to behaviors our cortex knows are bad for us. The solution is actually within you, not “out there” in society.

The post Status and Happiness: Review of “I, Mammal” appeared first on Small Business Trends.