How to Get Your Business Organised For Christmas

lorraine — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:24:05 +0000

Now that the Melbourne Cup Carnival is nearly over, you’ll find the weeks will speed by and before you know it you’ll be sitting down having Christmas Dinner. If you’re unprepared and don’t get your act together early enough, you can find that you can lose golden opportunities to increase business because you’re so stressed out trying to keep up.

Here’s 5 top tips to ensure you make the lead-up to Christmas as productive and stress free as possible:

1. Plan ahead.
Before each day gets hectic, write a list of all your business requirements to ensure smooth-sailing through this time. Some of these ‘to do’s’ will include the tips below.

2. Make your gift and card list early.
Who will you be giving gifts to? Clients, employees, referring partners etc. Reward people who have been good to you. Save time and buy on-line. You can easily make sending out Christmas cards less time-consuming by clicking here
(Whatever you do though, do not send anyone a Christmas Card with an invoice in it. A printer I had spend thousands of dollars with did this to me one year and I never did business with him ever again.)

3. Who Is Available?
Will your business be closing over Xmas? Are you going away? Have you booked your holiday already? Will your team be absent? Do you require additional help?

4. 2011 - Hit the Ground Running
Book a planning day now to review the year that was and your plans for the coming year. Organise this now and inform whoever needs to attend now. People’s diaries can get very full in the lead up to Christmas. Towards the end of January as business gets back to normal may be too late if you want to launch new programs or products.

5. Staff /Client Functions
Will you be having some type of event or night out? If so, plan for it now. Book the venue now!

Getting your business organised for Christmas right now will give you peace of mind and a sense of accomplishment. You can look forward to the next few weeks instead of wandering around in a daze reacting to whatever gets thrown at you.

With the additional social activity taking place, it’s an ideal time to renew or strengthen business relationships. The last thing you want to happen is to decline important invitations because you’re so snowed under in your business that you can’t afford the time to attend. It would be crazy to miss these golden opportunities for reconnecting.

Do you tend to be reactive rather than proactive in your business? Are you always running out of time and not achieving the results you really deserve? Then take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will show you how to reduce the stress and overwhelm and get you big results.

***

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 Stop Disorganised People From Wasting Your Time

lorraine — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:59:37 +0000

Isn’t it frustrating when you have everything planned out and then some disorganised person puts a spanner in the works and what should have been a simple process to complete turns into chaos?

Recently we settled on an investment property. The day prior to settlement everything seemed to be running along smoothly with all the paperwork in order. I had even double-checked with the people concerned to confirm we had everything ready.

On the morning of the settlement I received a phone call from the conveyancer. She was panicking about an email she had just received from the bank who were funding the loan saying there was a shortfall of funds in our account for the deal to be done. ‘Someone’ had stuffed up. The loaning bank blamed the conveyancer and the conveyancer blamed the bank. However, I had already experienced a couple of other mistakes this person had made so I naturally thought it was the conveyancer’s disorganisation that caused this situation.

To ensure settlement occured that day, the conveyancer told me I would need to run off to my bank immediately, get a bank cheque and then take it to the bank which was lending us the money. Sounds simple, except the nearest branch of my bank was in the city, around 30 minutes away. The whole process would probably take at least a couple of hours. Not only that, my daughter had taken my car and was out for the day plus I had coaching calls booked all morning.

There was no way I would have rushed off anyway and done what the conveyancer had requested. There just had to be an easier solution… and of course there was. A quick phone call to my own bank asking for an express transfer and the problem was solved.

How often do you experience similar situations whereby you have reacted to someone else’s lack of organisation? Disorganised people are always under the pump and creating chaos around them.

The next time something like this happens to you, don’t panic. Take a deep breathe and take a few minutes to consider other options before racing off. Often in their state of chaos, disorganised people are so cluttered in their thinking that they can’t see simple solutions to fix the problem.

***

What You Must Know to Save Time and Get Paid on Time

lorraine — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 04:27:46 +0000

***
How often do you hear business owners complain that their clients are slow payers?

Before working with me, one of my clients who has a pool building business, told me that they only asked for a 10% deposit at the start of the project and then invoiced the balance at the end of it. The process of building a pool takes weeks! Save Time and Money. In the meantime her company would have to cover wages, equipment and all other costs throughout this time. What often happened at the end, the clients were slow to pay causing them even more financial stress.

It was easy to fix their cash-flow issue. A 50% payment was made on the signing of the contract with progress payments made prior to the commencement of the next key stages. Final payment was made before completion.

Work would not continue until each progress payment had been made. If they had waited for that last payment, chances are it would have been delayed. No payment, no work! It’s amazing how quickly you can get your money when you make these simple changes to how you do business.

Never deliver anything without some form of payment. Wherever possible get credit card details and partial or full payment up front. If you’re offering a service, have new clients sign a contractual agreement and pay a percentage retainer fee before commencing work.

Avoid having to rely on your clients paying you by bank transfers, cheques etc. You want to have control over money owed to you. Allowing payments to be made by a bank transfer or cheque means you have to rely on your client to actually do this. If you’re worried about the bank or credit card company fees, increase the cost of your products and services to incorporate them.

If you offer high priced services and products, consider setting up an automated payment plan over a period of weeks or months to make it easier for clients to buy from you. For instance, my Productivity and Profit Home Study System is $697. You can choose to pay the amount in full or 8 easy instalments of $97 a month. If you were going to invest in this program, which option would you choose?

The Final Word

Getting paid for your products and services on time is vital… that’s if you want to stay in business. Many small business owners simply do not know how to set up their systems so this side of their business is easy to handle and they can spend more time on business development.

Productivity is not just about time management. A major part of it is YOUR Personal Effectiveness and having the knowledge to know what to do and HOW to do it….investing your time and money on the RIGHT things so that at the end of the day you achieve outstanding results. This in turn leads to more profit in less time for YOU!

Are you stuck in your business? Are you wasting time and not achieving the results you really deserve? Then take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will show you how to reduce the stress and overwhelm and get you big results.

***

The Perils of Procrastination

lorraine — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:31:10 +0000

How are you progressing with the goals you set yourself this year? Have you made a start and continued on until they have been achieved? Or are you still procrastinating or caught the “I’m too busy” epidemic?

Mary’s Story

When I first met Mary she told me how stressed out she was trying to juggle work and home effectively. She ran her own publishing company employing 5 people. Her business although surviving (just) could have achieved major growth except for one major factor… Mary. She was very disorganised and ran her business that way.

Mary was always complaining about the pressures of running her business and having a life. I suggested to her that by having personal coaching she would dramatically improve her situation…guaranteed, providing she actioned the ideas, insights and solutions she would gain through the process. Being in a group coaching situation wouldn’t work for her as she needed focussed attention and accountability. There was no way she would make changes on her own.

Mary was a ‘gunna’. She was ‘gunna’ do this and ‘gunna’ do that. Unfortunately all she can and still does do is talk about it. She won’t make a decision. Money wasn’t the issue, after all she had invested thousands of dollars attending an American guru’s week long “life changing” bootcamp. She thought that would be her “magic lifechanging pill”. Unfortunately Mary did not action what she had learned. She got caught up in her chaotic life immediately on her return.

It’s interesting to note that many people believe that the more they spend on some of these seminars, the better the results will be. What they forget to factor into the equation is they need to apply what they learn.

The Latest Crisis

I have spoken with her a few times and suggested the best course of action to take and she always responds with “not right now… it’s not a ‘good time’. Mary always procrastinates and says to contactl her in a few weeks’ time when the current major crisis should be over. She seems to run from one disaster to another and blames everyone else for her problems.

It’s been awhile since we first spoke and I’d forgotten all about Mary until I bumped into one of her former employees. Jan told me it was extremely stressful and unrewarding working for Mary. She was amazed she’d even stayed there for 6 months.

Jan could never complete her work as her duties were always changing. Mary made promises to clients which she would often break and Jan, being her personal assistant was the person the clients would go to make sure the work was done on time. She was also the key person who kept the peace with the rest of the staff.

Jan had given Mary one month’s notice when she handed in her resignation, so Mary had plenty of time to find a replacement. When Jan left, Mary still hadn’t found a replacement as she left it to the week before Jan exited to advertise the position. Of course she did all the recruiting herself, advertised in the local paper and had 50 replies. No doubt she wasted the next month interviewing suitable applicants.

When is the right time to take action?

Easter?
Christmas?
The new year?
The beginning of the financial year?
When you’ve got nothing else to do
When your spouse leaves you because you’re never there?
When your kids go off the rails because you’re never there?
When your business is on its last legs?
When everything is ‘perfect’?
When you become so sick from the stress of your business that you cannot get out of bed?

Henry Ford said “The hardest work known to man is thinking”. I say “the second hardest work known to man is taking action”.

Are you stuck in your business? Is procrastination preventing you from getting the results you really deserve? Then take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will show you how to reduce the stress and overwhelm and get you big results.

***

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 to www.productivityqueen.com.

Take Time To Be On Time

lorraine — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:49:11 +0000

Are you one of those people who always turn up to an appointment on time? Or are you the opposite…always running late, flustered and making excuses as to why you’re late?

I had a recent experience where I was considering selling my house and had called a local real estate agent to provide an appraisal. Gary turned up 5 minutes late with no apology. This behaviour bugged me, especially as it was a first encounter and there was a possibility of doing business.

When people are late and do not contact me to let me know, I find that really annoying and unprofessional. After all I’ve cleared my schedule to be available to meet this person, they should value my time as well as their own.

When I pointed out to Gary he was 5 minutes late (I couldn’t help myself), he said ”Is that all?”. What an easy way for him to lose business. If that’s his attitude and we hardly know each other, how slack would he be in helping me get the best possible price for my home?

Gary was the principal of this business, which made it worse. If that’s the attitude of the owner, what were his staff like?

Punctuality goes a long way to building rapport, trust and professionalism. Turning up on time can be the difference between you winning or losing business.

The Productivity and Profit System includes everything you need to know to get your business running much more effectively so you can work less, profit more and have a life too! Click here to find out more.

To find out how personal coaching can accelerate your results and give you the rewards you deserve. Click here to find out more.

***