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.

What are you focussing on achieving in your business in the next 90 days?

Do you have any idea? If you don’t then you better come up with a goal or outcome otherwise you may find that another 3 months has passed you by and you’re no further ahead than where you are right now.

When you’ve got a clear focus, you can easily say ‘no’ to activities and people who distract you.

Simple things like turning email and mobiles off, closing the door, working elsewhere and only having what you need to on your desk all help to stay focussed. However there’s often other areas that take you off track. ..and that you can be completely oblivious to!

Last year I facilitated a VIP Planning Day for a small accounting practice. During the course of the day we reviewed the progress they had made since the Planning Day we had the year before. As we were reflecting on their achievements before planning the coming 12 months,  one of the partners made the comment on how crucial their weekly meetings were.
When I first suggested they have regular weekly meetings, the same partner thought it was a waste of time. He was focussed on how much time it cost to have everyone stop work for that hour. Being an accountant he was always focussed on chargeable hours and if they are all in a meeting for an hour they are potentially losing in excess of $1000.

Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the ‘hands on’ work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it.

Her clients constantly told her how great she was, which made her feel appreciated. However it trapped her into staying ‘on the tools’. Mary had 5 people on her team, and she struggled with letting them handle her clients.  She also complained that it was challenging finding competent people. Mary stayed up late most nights working on her business doing the basic administration and ‘trying’ to squeeze some time in for marketing. There was barely any time for her to spend with her husband.

When my son Trent was 11, I attended a presentation on “Raising Boys.” I already felt competent having a daughter and wanted more insight to the world of boys, which is much more simpler than raising girls!

Boys from the age of 6 -14 really need ‘time’ with their dads. That is the most influential period in their lives when they bond with him. And the type of time they need is not all thrown into a ‘once a week’ or ‘month’ block or some exotic holiday once a year.They need to spend time with their sons on a regular basis. Otherwise how can you build a strong and stable relationship? Commonsense, isn’t it?

For the single mums reading this, don’t despair. If you are estranged from your partner and bringing up your son alone, having a positive male role model in his life, i.e. uncle, brother, grandfather, teacher, tennis coach, etc. will work as well.