Time Management and Why You Need To Stop Stealing

Back in March I wrote a post that was pretty popular called `How to Catch a Time Thief and Get More Done’. The essence of this post, as you can imagine was how to reclaim your time, and more importantly put it to better use.

As we know everyone has the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month and a year, yet some people are much more adept and effective at using it wisely. I’m talking about the amount they achieve both work wise and personally.

Clock Tower in Graz, Austria

I really like this recent post from Tamsen at Brass Tack Thinking, a popular blog I’ve only recently discovered and am so glad to have. The posts are insightful, pertinent and relevant and they give great cause for discussion, debate or introspective thinking.

What really resonated with me was this statement:

TIME doesn’t make you do something. YOU do.

The question isn’t, “Do I really want (or need) to get this done by a certain date?”

It’s “Do I really want to get this thing done, or not?” And really, “Am I willing to do what it takes to do it?” Your progress, your success is a product of your actions.

I think I’ve always realized I feel on the top of the world when I’m taking positive action. These last few days in Graz where I’ve been based in one place I’ve really made a ton of progress. Granted I worked 11 hours straight yesterday (which I don’t advise as my eyes have been sore all day today and bloodshot!).

Point is though I cleared my entire inbox, set up new systems, got important client work done, wrote a blog post that went viral and made some `fantabulous’ connections with women as a result.

Did I make progress on my eBook? No. Why not? I know it’s going to be a big piece of work that requires a lot of effort, time, creativity and dedication.

I will however MAKE time as of tomorrow. There’s nothing that annoys me more than people who say `I don’t have time to [insert excuse here].

I also have learned to not underestimate how much time it takes to little things. I watched with disbelief as the clock kept on ticking ferociously yesterday and that even after 7 hours my focused to do list was only 60% complete.

That said I did beat the clock in the end and felt pretty damn proud. How?

1. Firstly by focusing on deliverables, not `nice to do’ activities like being everyone’s best friend on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I had my to do list right by me so I’d come back to what I intended to be doing and make it happen.
2. Secondly by having this great tip at my side
   ‘Tell yourself you only have 30 mins to get your task done. Once you do, your brain takes over & finds a way to get the job done!’
   
3. Thirdly by giving myself a pat on the back at regular intervals when I did great stuff, and yes reading blogs and commenting is actually a vital part of a bloggers strategy and anyone wanting to build a community. So acknowledge what’s useful and what’s not and you’ll know where you want to spend your time and how.

So if you’ve found yourself doing that lately, please stop before you say `I don’t have enough time…’ and admit to yourself why you are the chief time thief right now, and what you’re going to do to stop stealing from yourself!

How do you catch your time thief?

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The World Is Out There But Is Your Business Listening?

Do you ever stretch yourself beyond your close knit group of friends, local business contacts and those you follow on Twitter? I’m talking about beyond your city, beyond your country to the rest of the world.

Depending on your business you may not think you have to, but you should embrace your xenophilia and reach out to a wider world. Not just you but our media, our educational systems, the internet and more.

Luckily the world of Social Media has allowed us to do this instantly and like never before, are you taking advantage of your global reach?

There’s a whole world out there to discover but we’re often so trapped in our immediate surroundings that we don’t know for example that Japan has the highest number of users of Twitter followed by Brazil (11%) and then the USA.

Could they potentially be your customers, or at least some great connections to build a relationship with?

In this recent TED talk, blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman spoke about his desire to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don’t even know. I recommend you take time to watch it.

Taking A Global Perspective

For me this is especially important and probably one of the reasons I embrace travelling because it opens me up to a world of culture, tolerance, customs and differences that make me keep an open mind and a curious outlook.

WomanzWorld for me, has always been about engaging with women around the globe and hearing their stories, learning what business challenges are unique to their countries, city, village or community and to be able to better understand their unique circumstances.

Sadly North America and to some extent Europe dominates much of what we see, read, experience and consider on a daily basis and this shapes our perception of the world at large (unless you happen to devour the Economist, BBC World or sites like Global Voices).

I’ve recently been trying to engage with more women in Asia, Scandinavia and Australasia to feature them here on my blog. Don’t get me wrong I love all my Canadian, US and UK friends and connections and with regards to entrepreneurship some of the biggest trends and activities are happening in these countries.

But is that just because my sphere of influence and sources of news and information is largely based on the North American continent?

How to become a global player

If we’re just sticking to extending your global presence on Twitter as a start then  can I suggest using:

Twellow – the Yellow Pages of Twitter. Sign up, add your Twitter account and then search for the categories for your interest areas OR just use the search bar and type in`Business & Brazil’ for example for some fascinating results.

Twitter Search – take a look at #hastags for areas you’re interested in, countries you want to learn more about or expand your business into, just like this

TweetStats - a great way to look at what you actually do on Twitter both personally and professionaly, Tweet Stats allows you to look at the times of the day when you tweet most, the percentage of conversation vs RT and information sharing, your followers and also a Tweet Cloud of what you talk about most.

You can also view other peoples’ which is handy if you want to check in on your competitors and see how you compare. Get a broader perspective on the Twitter universe.

Here’s mine for @womanzworld

Kind of lovely I think.

I appreciate that there’s a world beyond Twitter too but it’s definitely one of the best sources of real time news and information plus trending topics with a truly global audience so why not start there.

Where do you go for your global fix?

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Investment Pitching Advice: You Can’t Kiss A Frog by Phone

This is a Guest Post I asked Tereza Nemessanyi, CEO of Honestly Now, if I could steal and republish from her blog Mashups. Markets and Motherhood. Enjoy.

I’ve been doing a teeny amount of investor pitching on the business I’m building. It’s my first time. When people realize this, they offer advice. More often than not, it’s using a dating metaphor.

Married for almost ten years, I am woefully out of practice kissing frogs. So I wanted to study up.

Then I remembered that in the dark ages, circa 1997, my Wharton girlfriends and I had fun keeping each other honest as we collectively followed the popular “The Rules For Girls”.

Do “The Rules” apply to angel funding? Let’s see.

1. Be a creature unlike any other.

It’s an attitude, a sense of confidence and radiance that permeates your being from head to toe. It’s the way you smile (you light up the room), pause in between sentences (you don’t babble on out of nervousness), listen (attentively), look (demurely, never stare), breathe (slowly), stand (straight) and walk (briskly, with your shoulders back). When a relationship doesn’t work out, you brush away a tear so that it doesn’t smudge your makeup and you move on!
Hmmm…interesting. That might help. Maybe a differentiated product and business does, too.

2. Show up to parties, dances & social events even if you do not feel like it.

Realize that you may not meet Mr. Right naturally and that you therefore must take social action immediately even if you don’t want to. Get a manicure and go out on another date or to that singles dance — do something to increase your chances of meeting men.
Can you spell “n-e-t-w-o-r-k-i-n-g”?

3. It is a fantasy relationship unless a man asks you out.

Don’t waste time on a fantasy relationship. You may have a good rapport with your doctor, lawyer or accountant, and you may find yourself wondering if he is interested in you romantically. How can you know for sure? If he’s never asked you out, then He’s Just Not That Into You!
And it’s a fantasy pitch, unless it’s in person….as I learned last week, and even triggered some AVC.com dialog about it. And if he hasn’t sent you a term sheet, he’s just not that into you!

4. In an office relationship, do not email him back every time he emails you unless it is business-related.

On all non-business e-mails, responding once for every four of his e-mails is a good rule of thumb. Remember, you never know who has access to your e-mail, so keep all romance off the screen and save it for Saturday nights.
Desperation = bad.

5. If you are in a long-distance relationship, he must visit you at least three times before you visit him.

Remember, the first three visits are really nothing more than three dates… and on the first three dates we don’t have sex with a man or have him stay at our place overnight.
They never sign NDAs. If you’re not launched yet, don’t show your privates until or unless you trust them or you feel secure that sufficient pressure exists not to divulge your secrets to others.

6. When considering whether to use personal ads or other online services, you should place the ad and let men respond to you.

It goes back to the basic premise of The Rules: Man pursues woman. When writing your ad, remember that every man has a type, a voice or a look he likes. There has to be a spark for him that attracts him to you, something that makes him find you unexplainably special.
OK, I’m not sure about this one. Does anyone know anyone who’s actually gotten funded over AngelSoft? If so, please share!

7. If he does not call, he is not that interested. Period.

We know this is hard to accept, but it’s not that he hasn’t called because he’s busy, or because you didn’t smile or talk enough (or did too much). It’s not that he lost your phone number. The bottom line is, if he hasn’t called, he’s not that interested.
Yeppers this sounds about right. I’d add, why not just ask at the close of a meeting: Are you interested?

8. Close the deal. Rules women do not date men for more than two years.

If you’ve followed The Rules, your man probably loves you and wants to marry you. Your problem is not if he marries you, but when! If it’s been more than a year, see less of him and think about dating others. You’ve already spent more than a year waiting for him to propose; do you have another year to wait?
They should make a decision to continue, discontinue or defer very quickly. If you don’t hear, it’s a no. If it is, go off and be successful without them. If you are, they may be back later….and then you can decide who you want.

9. Buyer beware. Observe his behavior so you do not wind up with Mr. Wrong.

Love may be blind, but Rules girls are not stupid! How does he act in the relationship? Is he cheap on dates? Is he critical of you? Remember, The Rules are not about marrying the first man you are attracted to who calls you by Wednesday for Saturday night and buys you flowers. It’s about marrying your own personal Mr. Right — a man whom you love and whose character you admire and can live with.
Be really careful that this investor can bring something important to your business, besides cash. And if s/he’s a jerk, get out early. The signs are there.

10. Keep doing the RULES even when things are slow.

Take care of yourself, take a bubble bath and build up your soul with positive slogans like “I am a beautiful woman. I am enough.” You must learn to accept that, as an adult, you can’t always rely on a friend to do things with you. Even if you don’t meet Mr. Right, going out — whether it’s a restaurant, lecture or party — is a chance to meet new people and practice The Rules.
Build a successful business, no matter what. That’s the most important thing, in the end.

Wow, lots to remember here. I guess my final question is…..who’s the guy, and who’s the girl?

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Can You Crush It Using Social Media For Your Business?

If you haven’t heard of Gary Vaynerchuk by now then where have you been?

The master of video blogging, Gary has single handedly built a $60 million dollar business by reinventing the rules on his own terms and working his ass off.

It’s clear that Gary is no ordinary guy, I’m not sure that he sleeps much and has more energy than an entire factory of Red Bull. So clearly much of his success can be attributed to his amazing work ethic and desire to live and breathe his passion for wines, marketing and business development 24/7.

His book `Crush It. Why now is the time to cash in on your passion’ is one of those super enjoyable books you can devour in less than two hours.

If you’re looking for an intellectual book on how to make money online through use of Social Media tools then don’t read this. If you’re looking to get jazzed up on his pure enthusiasm and ability to make something out of nothing then it’s a must.

What comes through most in this book is that you have to be prepared to hustle every single day, to engage, to respond and to treat your audience/ community/ customers like gold by ensuring they get your personal touch.

You have to believe and be constantly building your business. You can do so much of this using Social Media and I’ve summarized Gary’s key 12 steps to do this below.

I’ve also reviewed the book in this short and entertaining video which I decided to do unscripted and with just one take (taking a leaf out of Gary’s book – literally). Don’t judge! I did say I’d start doing more videos….

Gary Vaynerchuk’s 13 Steps to Crushing It!

1. Buy a domain name – nuff said (try GoDaddy.com)
2. Start a blog – use WordPress, Blogger or Tumblr
3. Hire a web designer – I have to agree with Gary on this, it’s worth it if you’re serious, you can do this further down the track though
4. Buy the tool for your business (Flipcam for Video Bloggers for example)
5. Create a Facebook Page
6. Create a Twitter account
7. Sign up for Ping.fm – distributes your content to as many social networks as you have in one hit
8. Start pumping out content – written, videos – whatever your poison is and make it personal. Be yourself.
9. Get your content out there (Ping.fm or Twitter or TubeMogul). Just do it Here’s where I think Gary’s business development skills started coming through if you already have those basics down pat (bar content, creating it is not basic!)
10. Use search.twitter.com to seek out people that may be interested in what you do, follow them and better yet @reply them to start a conversation. i.e if you’re a jeweller search terms to find someone like you! (I also highly recommend Twellow – the Yellow Pages of Twitter).
11. Go to Blogsearch.Google.com and type in keywords for your business, then go and leave a comment on each of those sites plus your name. (Note this may sound time consuming but it’s super valuable to do)
12. Do a Facebook search on say `Jeweller’ under all search results, then search pages and groups. Join several and start engaging.
13. Rinse and Repeat. In my mind this is one of the hardest things to do consistently but so crucial.

Also check out my free eBook `The Social Media Workout for Entrepreneurs’ for even more tips. Just sign up for my newsletter top right. Here’s a lovely review from Julia:

The Entrepreneur’s Social Media Workout is amazing. It helps a busy working woman learn what to spend more energy on AND what every network is and the best way to use it!

Julia Porter, Glamour Gals

Have you read Crush It!: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion? If so what were your key takeaways or what have you learned from it that you implemented for your business?

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3 Ways to Ensure Your Business Model Runs As a Profitable Vehicle

This is a guest post from Chia-Li Chien, who helps women entrepreneurs convert their business into meaningful personal wealth.

When I recently received a phone call from a client asking, “what’s going on in the stock market?” I had to wonder if they ever actually listened to what I said in the past.

In the fall of 2009, I told every one of my clients to keep their investments in CASH, because by summer of 2010, the commercial real estate bubble would burst and the stock market would not do well.

Unfortunately, no one took me seriously, because the stock market has been on the increase and a subject of hype during the first six months of 2010.

However, the European financial crisis, coupled with a slowing down of consumer and business spending, has created a very tight and expensive credit condition. Many small businesses (less than 500 employees) were cautioned about their spending and had to do more with less without the access to capital available in previous times.

In June, I served as moderator for “2010 Charlotte Chamber Summits: Access to Capital for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs.” (You can listen to the audio recording here.) From the audience’s questions, it became clear that there are many businesses looking for financing.

However, it also soon became evident that the 340 entrepreneurs in attendance have little or no information about the tools available and where to get them.

In 2009, I published an article “Need Money? Think Private Capital Markets” about the six types of private capital for small businesses. It’s a complex process, and was not fully addressed at the recent workshop at the Charlotte Chamber Summits.

One thing I kept repeating at the workshops I moderated was “Revisit your business model, and, if need be, innovate your business model and products or services.” Why is that? Not only do we now have to do more with less, but we also have to grow using newer technologies, better customer relationship building, etc.

Let’s take a look at what a business model is and what it can do to help you grow. You can see the complete article about “Create a Company Wealth Map” for more details. But for the purpose of this article, we’ll only focus on the business model.

First, let’s understand the terminology:

• A business model is the vehicle that gets you there. The “there” is your company wealth map.
• A company wealth map describes the current state or position of a business, its current market value, the owner’s value goal, and the strategies, tactics and business model required to meet the goal.
• The goal is your desire to become financially independent.
• Being financially independent means different things to different people. It is a stage in which you no longer need to be engaged in gainful activities such as business, a job, etc. You can generate income without actually working.

Many business owners have plenty of passion when they start their business. However, passion alone can’t generate dollars.

A business model should align well with:

• Passion/purpose. This is your business purpose and personal passion. Ideally you want to match this with a something you can sell or do for a customer. For example, when Ann-Marie Fleming faced a challenge with her dog, she was unable to find the products or tools to help her aged pet.She felt so passionate about the animal that she created dogquality.com. Not only did it address her problem, but also helped many other people gain more quality time with their much-loved canine companions.
• Talents or core competency. These are your business’s key resources or key processes. Review your business core competency to stay focused and make better business decisions about what and where to expand.
• Economic drivers. You can’t have a business without making a profit. The economic drivers are your profit formula. Surprisingly, many businesses do not realize any profits from what they do.Just talk to any CPA firm and they’ll agree. Why? Because they’ve failed to start the business with a profit in mind and without the economic drivers needed to diversify the overall revenue stream.

Use the above terms and write down how they apply and what they mean to your business. Work on your answers for a couple of days to clarify your business model. Remember, maintain your flexibility and be sure everything makes sense, remaining totally aligned.

The three things I list above take time to formulate. You may not get all the answers the first day, but continue to work until you see a clear picture. Ideally, work with an advisor, mentor or coach to guide you.

Without a clear business model, you may not know where you’re taking your business, and end up wasting unnecessary energy, resources and time.

To receive a complimentary copy of a sample business model worksheet, just tweet this message to me

@ChiaLiChien: “I want to have my sample copy of your Business Model Worksheet.” #womanzworld

Chia-Li Chien is the author of Show Me The Money and columnist for WomenEntrepreneur.com & Fox Business online. She is available for consulting, speaking engagements and workshops. She can be reached at www.chialichien.com or jolly@chialichien.com.

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Top 20 Women For Entrepreneurs To Follow on Twitter

As you may have noticed I’m a big believer in using Social Media as an integrated part of your business marketing approach. I also love coaching people where I can in how to use it effectively for their unique business situation.

Twitter has blown my mind with the ability it has given me to connect with a diverse range of terrific people from all around the world.

I’ve been able to reach people I may never have even discovered or had the chance to contact. In return people have found me completely by random and become fans of my blog thanks to links I’ve shared or retweets I’ve received from others in my community.

For all those people who don’t understand Twitter or bad mouth it – you’re missing out! If you want to know my key tips for using it for business and beyond then get your free copy of my eBook `The Entrepreneur’s Social Media Workout’.

Today I want to focus on profiling a few of the awesome women I’ve had the pleasure to connect with on Twitter. I recommend you follow them and here’s why: I appreciate their advice, their sharing of great information, their support, their style and the unique energy they give to women the world over.

If you enjoy this let me know and I can feature it regularly. There are so many more to mention!

Top 20 Women to Follow on Twitter for Business, Marketing, Technology advice and more

1. Ali Brown @AliBrownLA
   A self-made millionaire entrepreneur and a mentor to women around the world, helping them start and grow businesses and live extraordinary lives.
2. Aliza Sherman @alizasherman
   Strategist, Futurist, Speaker. Co-founder Conversify (social media marketing agency). Founded Cybergrrl/Webgrrls. Alaska-based World Traveler.
3. Kathy Meyer @2cre8
   eMarketing trends and technology enthusiast. She believes in balance and simplicity of design + form + function. She’s a Mompreneur, Foodie, Art, Music and iPhone lover.
4. Maren Kate @MarenKate
   Entrepreneur, start up starter, blogger and all around quirky chick.
5. Carrie Wilkerson @barefoot_exec
   Consultant/Strategist for work at home professionals. She aims to educate, empower, encourage & entertain men & women pursuing biz goals with integrity & passion!
6. Francine Allaire @thedaringwoman
   Founder of The Daring Woman™, Founding Partner of Supreme Social Media, Business Matchmaker, Social Media, Alliance and JV Strategist, Daring Lifestyle Designer
7. Linda Hughes @iempoweru
   Loves entrepreneurs – their inquisitive minds, fighting spirit & that persistence that moves mountains! Totally supportive of them in every way.
8. Anita Campbell @smallbiztrends
   CEO, Small Business Trends, an online small biz community reaching over 250,000 each month. Delivers small business success daily.
9. Simone Brummelhuis @thenextwoman
   Founder of The Next Women Business Magazine which features Female Heroes and News Interviews. Funding Community Founder Entrepreneur CEO TV Pitching Events Speaker – phew!
10. Karmen Reed @kickofftopic
    Provies marketing solutions through social media, online visibility and positive attitude. Loves to travel, cook and read.
11. Melissa Galt @prosperbydesign
    Dream Maker, Profit Architect, Social Media Muse, Life Designer, Tastemaker, Style Visionary, Foodie, Bungee Jumper, Adventurer, Optimist, Speaker, Author (clearly a keyword specialist
12. Anastasia Ashman @Thandelike
    Expat+HAREM neo-culture entertainment writer & producer. A Berkeley native who resides in Istanbul. TEDGlobalist. Hybrid identity adventuress. Seeker of the global niche.
13. Natalia @nakisnakis
    Founder & CEO of Pipeline (@PipelineWomen). Tweets about: #womeninnovators, #socent, @NYWSE, Gen Y, LGBTQ issues, OrgPsych, Healthcare, PopCulture & Gadgets
14. Kristi Colvin @kriscolvin
    Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Fresh ID. Creator of Twitterface. Opinionated user, brand experience designer & customer advocate.
15. Anita Borg @AnitaBorg_org
    Helping technical women connect with each other, resources and opportunities through her work at the nonprofit Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
16. Coles Johnson @IndieBusiness
    Mom. Indie Beauty Network, Indie Business Podcast. One-time practicing attorney. Award-winning smallbiz advocate.
17. Manishka Thakor @ManishaThakor
    Personal Finance Expert for Women.
18. Tina Cook @TinaCook
    Social Media Marketing Mentor and Strategist and Guerrilla Marketing Coach, loves life by the Indian Ocean, photographing and creating inspiring visuals.
19. Elena Verlee @ElenaVerlee
    Loves to Talk About PR, Building a Biz and Living Life Fully. Has built 6 and 7-fig businesses, has 2 kids and lives in 2 countries. Has a great blog called PR in your Pajamas
20. Melinda Emmerson @SmallBizTalk
    Melinda Emerson is Host of #SmallBizChat, author, speaker, and smallbiz coach. Expertise in smallbiz start-up, social media marketing & developing content.

I would LOVE for you to add your own top women to follow in the comments section so we can all benefit and connect.

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How To Retire Early And Create Financial Freedom

Shannon Ward & Diana Stirling are a unique duo that are striving to use their business On Track Media, to build “Pretirement Wealth”, which includes both capital AND the time and freedom to enjoy it.

Shannon and Diana living the dream

They also are determined to ensure that they and other women entrepreneurs are building businesses that support their ideal lifestyle.

They have worked hard, fallen hard, and risen from the ashes to tell the story of how they went from their “dream” business with $1m in revenue to fulfilling lifelong personal dreams while succeeding with a new business model based on a very different definition of success.

Diana recently returned from 4 months in Australia with her family and Shannon from a 2 month “learn to surf” trip in Costa Rica with her family.

It was around this time that I had the pleasure of meeting them and engaging in an energetic and lively conversation about how they’d totally changed their lives to achieve the lifestyle they wanted. I drilled them with several questions as I knew this was precisely what I was about to embark on and that they’d have some fantastic advice for me.

And they did. Here it is in both in video and below in writing. Enjoy

When you initially went into business what did you want to achieve?

Shannon: I wanted to build a large business.  Big equaled success at the time.  $1M revenue, 15 employees and a large downtown office.  It was the only barometer of success we had ever really been exposed to at the time.

If you could pass on one key lesson learned when setting up your business what would it be?

Diana: Make sure you take the time to build your foundation: Legal, Insurance, Taxes, and Finances. At all times know your cashflow – cash is KING. You don’t have a business without cash.

What was the turning point that made you decide to downsize and live life to the full?

Shannon: I walked into the downtown office when we were at the height of our revenue and number of employees. Diana looked at me and asked what was wrong and I just started to cry. I was desperately afraid to admit to her that this definition of ‘success’ was not working for me.

We were working 80+ hours per week, we were exhausted and never saw our families, and we were no longer engaged with our clients – we were spending our time with HR issues, legal consulting and accounting meetings.

In one frank conversation, we knew were on the same page – Diana was losing precious moments with her newborn son – and also dreading the business that we had poured our passion into.

We knew we needed to start valuing our TIME more than any other success factor. It was at that point that we restructured everything to become PRETIRED – to have the capital and the time and freedom to enjoy it with our families.

Your both living what many would consider the ideal lifestyle, what could we all do tomorrow to be one step closer to it?

Shannon: The step before that even is to figure out what really matters to you.  This was harder for us than we expected.  We were so caught up in roles and expectations of who others thought we should be that was difficult to identify what really mattered to us and what we really wanted out of our lives.

Diana jumps into her great lifestyle

Add business and family commitments, a mortgage and a dog and it becomes challenging to see beyond what everyone else needs from you and focus on what you want and need. Once you know what you want start building your life (not just your business) to accommodate that.  It’s taken us over 2 years of conscious work to get to this point.

Tell us your key advice about how to build and maintain a healthy working partnership

Diana: Your business partner is like your spouse without the makeup sex. Like any marriage, it takes work, communication and a solid knowledge of your financial situation at all times.
Shannon: Especially when you are working on the other side of the world from someone – you must communicate well so you can be sure you’re both working toward the same goals. At the same time you have to trust that they are doing their thing and working hard even though you can’t actually see them everyday.

How long did it take you to become profitable enough to support your lifestyle?

Diana: As long as it took us to realize that it wasn’t all about money…
Shannon: The two key factors are money and time together.  We could be making a lot more money but not have the time or flexibility to live out our dreams.   We’ve learned in the past couple of years that we need a lot less money than we used to think to be happy.

How did having children change your perspective on your business and priorities?

Shannon: Having my son changed everything.  It changed where I wanted to work (mostly at home), how I wanted to work (with enough flexibility to spend lots of time with my son and husband during the week) and what I wanted to work on (any time spent working was now going to take away from time with my family and so it had better be rewarding work that fulfills me or it’s just not worth it so much anymore).
Diana: Having children immediately shows you how fast time goes – your child is an infant for less than 6 months… that’s less time than it takes to launch a product. Don’t put off living and experiencing any longer.

If you were to suggest the three main tools you need to be able to work and travel what would they be?

1 – Salesforce.com
2 – Google docs
3 – Skype (Shannon managed a team of 5 people when she was living on the beach in Costa Rica – all through Skype)

What are some of the top books you’ve read that have made a personal difference to you and influenced you and why?

The Four Hour Workweek (4HWW) by Tim Ferriss, after reading this we defined Pretirement. We could write forever on just the principles we learned in 4HWW but these were our “ah-ha” moments.

• Introduced to “Deferrers” those that save it all for the end, only to realize life has passed them by.
• Everything popular is wrong! And retirement is WORST case scenario insurance!
• Sell or donate all the clutter in our lives – FREE ourselves!
• Process and outsource!

What is your key piece of advice to anyone considering a location independent business

Shannon: Get out of your own way.  The first time especially, it can be downright terrifying to cut the ties and attempt location independent work. However, there are numerous books and blogs for advice on how to do it, and most importantly the technology now exists to support it.  So, get out there – there is no excuse not to in this day in age.

Catch the ladies new blog here www.pretirementliving.com

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Seven Steps To Living The Dream And Working From Anywhere

If you’re anything like me, deep down, you’ve had the desire to work and live from anywhere in the world, or at least to have the opportunity to do so with your own business. I know not everyone starts their own business to be able to travel, but I’m sure it crosses their mind at some point.

I’d like to hazard a guess, from the many conversations I’ve had with fellow entrepreneurs and workaholics, that achieving this level of freedom and flexibility is not something many of us manage.

The travel suitcase for women in Budapest market

Well I’m here to chart my journey on how I make this a reality. I’m writing this while travelling ‘backwards’ on a train from Budapest, Hungary enroute to Graz in Austria. The sun has dipped under the clouds, which is giving me some welcome respite from the relentless heat that I’ve been experiencing since arriving in Europe.

There’s no air-conditioning, only hot air that circulates through the window and every so often the smell of oil wafts in. If you’d walked into my carriage five minutes earlier you would have found me nodding off listening to the amazingly talented band Keane.

My laptop battery will not last for longer than an hour and my iPod is running even lower. This, my friends, is my attempt at working whilst travelling. Not sounding too successful I agree, but I’m only just beginning and looking forward to the adventure.

Up until now it’s been a lot harder than I had anticipated for a few reasons. I decided to concentrate fully on competing in the World Club Ultimate Frisbee Championships in Prague last week. The schedule of our games, early starts, warm ups and the travel to and from the fields at different locations meant each night I had less and less time to check in online, and less desire.

Then after a full on week where we beat our seed but missed out on our team goal by losing two universe point games, I simply felt like a break. A break from everything, and the chance to just be a tourist when I arrived in Budapest with some of my team-mates. I was offline for four whole days, nothing short of a miracle and trust me it felt good.

The other reason is lack of reliable internet which I fully expected on my travels but didn’t realize would be so disruptive. Trying to do this from busy and hot hotel foyers is just not conducive to being productive at anything.

My Location Independent Remedy

I’ve taken a few important steps in the last few days to ensure the rest of my journey of running my business from afar goes more smoothly.

Step 1: Always adapt
I have an adapter that I will not lose or loan out (I learned my lesson on that last week). This means I can charge up wherever I go and never be `uncharged’. Don’t underestimate the power of the right tools for the job.

Step 2: Go Offline
I finally enabled Gmail offline. I’ve never really had a need to read, write and respond to email when not connected and then send it when I’m back online – until now. Email clients like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird are great for this but I love that Gmail offers it too and I know I’m going to find this a super handy tool like so many of you already do. Imagine what I can achieve without a connection!

Step 3: Be courteous
If you know you’re not going to be online, set up an autoresponder that says so. I put mine on from day one saying with the header `Natalie is away working and travelling in Europe’ and a simple message saying because of this I may not be responding to emails quite as quickly as normal. So far it’s been great, people have answered their own questions or simply noted they’d meet with me when I’m back.

Step 4: Create a schedule
Obviously one of the easiest things I can do is plan my travel schedule better and commit. Now that I’m off to stay with friends in Graz for a week I know that I will be in one place so I can get a routine going.

I intend to get up early before the sunrises and get some solid work done and then enjoy the late morning and early afternoon to explore. Once satisfied I can use the cooler evenings to get more work done before dinner. I’ll also use travel time on planes and trains to the max.

Step 5: Keep on communicating
I love Skype (when it doesn’t crash) and given all you need to use this is the software and a headset I intend to set up some weekly meetings with my intern plus some interviews when I have reliable internet. No need to stop with the communication in any way shape or form these days, plus it’s free!

Step 6: Stay focused

It’s pretty easy to get distracted when you’re travelling to beautiful cities like Prague and Budapest and a group of friends suggests visiting the castle over the 3 hours you intended to work on your eBook, sales strategy or application development.

However this is a business you’re running, so know what your priorities are and make an intelligent choice based on whether you’ll find more joy in visiting that magnificent attraction and experiencing the here and now of the country you’re in, or whether finishing the critical work that needs to get done will be even more enjoyable.

Step 7: Learn from the best

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter then you’ll know I’m excited to feature two interviews this month with successful women entrepreneurs already making it their business to travel and live where they want while making a living. For me emulating those who already do what you want to do, and do it very well is simply the best way to learn.

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Six Secret Variables To a Successful Start-up

This is a guest post from Chia-Li Chien, who helps women entrepreneurs to convert their business into meaningful personal wealth.

For every six new businesses started, five fail within five years.

Although the high failure rate can be attributed to many factors, one common issue I see (even after surviving the first five years) is misalignment with a business model. And a good business model really depends on how well something called the Six Variables factored in when you first started your business.

For centuries, the Chinese culture has passed along the wisdom of these Six Variables, yet many forgot about them or chose to ignore them. Let’s further examine what they are so you too can have a successful start and a long lasting empire. You can see the complete details in my published article Secrets of a Successful Exit.

The Six Variables that you should understand are the following:

The G Variables

The right time.

If you were to introduce the first generation microwave in today’s market, it may not work as well as you expect if compared to when the first microwave came out. Timing is everything, and your products or services will impact how your buyers determine when to buy.

The right place.

Years ago, there was a swimsuit manufacturer which for over ten years could not sell their products, no matter how many different ways they tried. Five years ago, they found themselves with so much accumulated inventory that the owner was ready to close.

Ironically, he was on a tour of the Middle East when he realized that he could potentially sell these inventories to Muslim women who desired to cover their entire body. Today, he is one of top swimsuit providers to predominantly Muslim countries. He simply happened to market and sell his products in the right place this time.

The right people.

We all know that you can’t grow your company ALONE. You need people, especially helpful people. These people can be your staff, team, customers, vendors, mentors, and/or coaches – anyone you come across. Without them, it’s hard to build a team and to gather the resources and systems required to grow your business.

The U Variables

Yourself.

You can operate your business on your own for at least the very beginning. No one knows your business better than you. The goal is, at some point, for you to have a lesser operations role as you mature your business.

Your own profession.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he uses Bill Gate’s example of taking about 10,000 hours to reach perfection in one profession. That is approximately five to ten years of time if you do part-time work.

This does not mean that you can’t change industries. As a matter of fact, you can, but you’ll need to reset your expectations of the number of years for you to be technically very good at your next profession, career, or even job level.

Your own money.

Have you ever taken out a mortgage to buy your own home? Have you ever wondered why the bank requires a 20% down payment in order to avoid mortgage insurance? It’s because if your own money is in play, the smart people at the bank know that you likely will be more serious about making your monthly mortgage payment.

The same thing can be true about your business – if you want investors to come up with 100% of the funding, they may be reluctant to do so since none of your money is involved. Invest some of your own money, and they understand that you’ll think twice about spending profits on something that is NOT an income generating activity.

Okay, so what if you don’t have all six variables lined up like a jackpot on a slot machine? Well, just like when you sit at a slot machine, you’ll try again and again until you hit the jackpot. It does not mean you won’t have success, it just means you may have to spend some money and pull the lever a lot.

There is much to consider when starting out in business. In addition to the Six Variables above, proper discipline, structure and accountability will help you go a long way. Because you’re the boss now – you call the shots. You pull the handle on the slot machine. No one is there to monitor how you choose to play the game.

Chia-Li Chien, CFP®, CRPC, PMP; helps women entrepreneurs convert their business into meaningful personal wealth.  She is the author of Show Me The Money and columnist for Women Entrepreneur and Fox Business online.  She can be reached at www.chialichien.com or jolly@chialichien.com.

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Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different From Men?

I’m always fascinated to learn more about what makes an entrepreneur tick. Why we do what we do. Whether we’re genetically primed to be an entrepreneur.

I’m also interested in learning the traits and characteristics we share with men and also how women entrepreneurs differ. So you can imagine I was pretty excited to discover this 2010 report funded by Kaufmann Foundation and written by J. McGrath Cohoon, Vivek Wadhwa, Lesa Mitchell.

‘The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different From Men?’ is a 16 page report on 549 founders of high tech companies of which 41 were women. As you probably know only 3% of founders of high tech companies in the US are women and in this study it was actually at 7%.

What are the key findings?

It seems that prior experience looms larger in women’s own estimation of their chances for success than it does for men. Women also rated their professional and business networks more highly than men did as important contributors to that success.

In addition to wanting a balanced life, it seems that women want fair treatment and improved compensation, and that these desires motivated them to move from management to entrepreneurship – I concur.

Top Factors Motivating Women to Become Entrepreneurs

Overall, women who choose to become entrepreneurs are motivated primarily by five financial and psychological factors, specifically:
1. The desire to build wealth

2. The wish to capitalize on business ideas they had

3. The appeal of startup culture

4. A long-standing desire to own their own company

5. Working for someone else did not appeal to them

The Importance of Human Capital

On average, both men and women rated their prior industry and work experience as a very important

factor in determining their startups’ success. Both sexes rated experience highest, with lessons learned

from previous successes and failures rated slightly less important.

In fact there were significant differences in the results between men and women. Women believe it’s crucial to have had prior success. The authors and myself are not sure whether that’s because they are less confident to start a business without prior experience, or that they believe a track record is particularly valuable under these conditions because it demonstrates their competence.

The Importance of Social Capital

Social capital is defined as ‘the benefits derived from an individual’s personal and professional networks’ which is an essential resource to the successful running of a business.

Consistent with their finding that co-founder encouragement is more important to women than men, they also found that women especially benefit from other types of social support and encouragement.  Both sexes rated their professional and business networks as very important to the success of their most recent startups, but women emphasized it more.

Financial Capital Sources

The majority of the successful entrepreneurs in this study had founded their current company

with money from personal savings.

I was surprised to see, as were the authors, that even though it’s long been believed that women entrepreneurs have less access to capital than men, they found no differences in the types of funding sources tapped by male and female entrepreneurs.

The one exception was that women were almost twice as likely to secure their main funding from business partners.

Successful Women Had the Resources They Needed

Men and women mostly see the challenges facing entrepreneurs in the same way. Large percentages of

both groups said the amount of time and effort required to start a business was a key difficulty.

More than half also found it difficult to recruit a co-founder. Financing, the consequences of failure, health insurance, and lack of experience or industry knowledge were lesser concerns, although shared by both sexes.

Lack of mentors was not a problem for either group and for women mentors likely contributed their success.

Even though that unachievable aspect of `work/life’ balance wasn’t specifically asked about it was interesting to see that men are twice as likely to feel greater pressure than women to be the traditional breadwinner and therefore keep a traditional job rather than becoming an entrepreneur.
Women have the potential for greater career flexibility, if that’s provided then we’d encourage more female entrepreneurs.

How do we recruit more women entrepreneurs?

It’s clear that mentoring is very important to women – so more of that please.

Encouragement and financial support from business partners, experience, and well-developed professional networks is also needed.

Efforts to promote women’s entrepreneurship should ensure that women have access to the mentoring and support networks that they view as important contributors to their success

If we focused on these proven success factors for women entrepreneurs we could enhance efforts to recruit more of them, and help make those who take the plunge more successful. Let’s make this happen!

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