Tradeshow Tip!

Use these helpful tips to make your time at the JAX Chamber Annual Trade Show on April 23rd a success!

The Ultimate Greeting–Your Handshake

By Carolle Vargas

We all know how important first impressions are: how we carry ourselves, our body language, dress, and appearance. When you meet someone for the first time, you are assessed before you utter a word. What people see, hear, feel and, yes, even smell, impact their first impression of you. All of this information is downloaded in seconds, and is not easily erased, if at all.

The handshake is a personal thing because we actually touch someone—the only time in business we actually touch another person. This ultimate greeting is conveyed with warmth and respect.

Be prepared. Your handshake is an extension of your personality. Polish this skill and truly shine when you present yourself.

8 Tips for a Great Handshake:

1. Be genuinely pleased to meet, greet, and shake hands. People see these sincere feelings in your eyes and smile, and they hear it in the words you use to greet them. Letting your eyes fall away while greeting with a handshake implies that you are not interested or something else is more important. It is disrespectful and people never forget how they feel when this happens. Anything missing from this important presentation will diminish, if not prevent, a great first impression.
2. Be prepared to offer your hand first. Keep your right hand free and ready. Business events are gender neutral; no need to see if a woman offers her hand first. Women, this is no time to be demure. Get your hand out there! Be aware of cultures where handshaking is not customary.
3. Squarely face the person you are greeting. Obtain a solid grasp by extending your hand–fingers forward and straight, thumb pointing to the ceiling. Aim for the palm of the hand and connect web to web (that space on your hand between your thumb and forefinger). Apply firm, but gentle pressure. Give two quick shakes from the elbow and release.
4. Take a cue and determine the best time to release if the person you are greeting lingers for a moment before releasing your hand. Remember, it’s just creepy to hang onto a hand too long.
5. Move around any obstacles so nothing stands between you and the person you are greeting. This gesture tells others they are important to you, and will win you points!
6. Shake hands when saying goodbye. Say a few words such as: great talking to you, it’s been a pleasure to meet you, hope we can meet again. Use warmth in your voice and eyes and you will be someone people will look forward to seeing again—soon.

Don’t Be This Person:

1. Bone crusher: this is not a sporting event or contest of strength. Not nice.
2. Dead fish: limp hands, fingers only, or otherwise wimpy handshake. Yes, it is perceived as wimpy.
3. Two-handed or gloved handshake: okay to use only when offering condolences. This can appear patronizing and will diminish your credibility. Best left to religious leaders and politicians.

Keep These Important Points in Mind:

• Hands Must Be Clean, Groomed, Warm, and Dry:

1. Clean hands are expected unless you are in the middle of a project that has you in dirt, grease, bread dough (hey, it could happen!), or the like. Not only should hands be clean for aesthetic purposes, but also for health reasons. Seeing someone sneeze into his or her hand and then offer a handshake is… well… disgusting. Clean includes fingernails.
2. Groomed hands mean hands that are manicured, professionally or done at home. If you have a condition that lends to warts or other scabs (yuck!), seek remedies, as these are definite turnoffs. Be sure nails are trimmed and hands are moisturized.
3. Warm hand, cold heart–or is it cold hand, warm heart? I say warm hands feel good! Unless you have just come out of the cold, be sure to offer up warm hands. That means keeping cold drinks (which also make your hands wet) in your left hand.
4. Dry hands are up there with warm hands. A wet handshake is as welcome as the “dead fish” handshake. Wet hands can come from cold drinks, ineffective hand drying, or excessive perspiration. Carry cold beverages in your left hand and grab an extra towel to ensure dry hands. If your hands tend to perspire, consider applying antiperspirant to your palms before an event.

• Rings: Zealous handshakes can make for painful handshakes when wearing overly large or multiple rings.
• Injuries: Shaking hands with someone wearing a cast or bandage is awkward and can be a turnoff. If your right hand is injured, offer your left hand. The other person will understand and appreciate the gesture. They will also be happy to not worry about hurting you.

Carolle Vargas is a business etiquette and international protocol consultant and owner of Your Etiquette Style. She is certified by The Protocol School of Washington®.  With more than 20 years in the customer service and training industry, Carolle brings to her clientele in-depth knowledge on what it takes to stand out in today’s market.

Carolle has extensive experience in the telecommunications industry where she developed and presented seminars in leadership and coached management teams. She worked domestically and internationally with colleagues and clients to promote successful and profitable relationships.

Finding time to work ON the business

By Neill Vining

In a growing economy many businesses are facing issues that they haven’t thought possible since the recession hit.  And while most Chief Executive Officers say that they will take having the problem of “too much business” any day of the week, the issue of  not having enough time to actually manage the business is what’s causing them trouble.

This is a concern a lot of First Coast businesses have encountered as of late.  Most small companies have been forced to dramatically downsize over the last decade, but with consumers starting to spend more money, there’s now a greater demand, and often not enough people to meet it.

This is a good problem to have, but one that a lot of CEO’s haven’t had to manage over the last few years. And when time is already a luxury that doesn’t exist for them, not one that most are willing to spend more time trying to fix.

That’s what led Mike Potts, CEO of Feature 23, a St. Augustine based software development company to seek guidance. “All in one year, we moved into a 3300 square foot office and grew from a staff of five to a team of 14.” He says with the growth came a host of issues related to growing a small business.

Michael Jones

Michael Jones,  President of CEO Focus in Jacksonville, mentors executives faced with issues like these. He says being “time broke” is the biggest excuse he hears when trying to get a company on board with his program. “It’s ironic when CEO’s give the time excuse,  because that’s one of the things we work the most with. If we can get them out of the business and get their businesses to function better, we can frequently create the time they need.”

Jones says businesses across the board took a very common response to the economic problems that the country was facing – they cut back on expenses. “It was a very rational thing to do and works well for a short term problem. But unfortunately this problem wasn’t very short term.”

He says commonly, executives have had to cut back on staff and started taking on more of the burden themselves just to keep the business afloat. “They’re making money now that they’ve made it through the recession. These are good companies, but they are broke on time. They don’t have time to do anything and most importantly, they don’t have time to innovate.” Jones says he’s trying to empower executives, like Potts, with that luxury.

Jones explains that the CEO Focus philosophy is unique but realistic. He recruits like-sized CEO’s from all industry’s and puts them on an advisory board together. The meetings are monthly and last 4 hours. “You come and talk about challenges and opportunities to executives that may have been down your same path before.” He also argues that putting decision makers from different industries together is what makes the program work because it cuts back on “inbred thinking”.

Potts agrees that the board of directors meetings are a great advantage and a great value to his business. “To have access to other CEO’s with a wealth of experience, shaves years off the in-the-field experience one gets as a CEO. It’s truly hard to put a price tag on that.”

Jones explains that it’s not a quick fix and that his clients usually stay with the program an average of six years. “It’s the continuous feedback cycle – continuous improvement that moves businesses further. Not something you do for a month and all the sudden it works wonderful again. Companies don’t build overnight and they can’t fix everything overnight.”

“The creative brainstorming that takes place when you put some highly motivated CEO’s in a room together and present a problem, goal or a challenge is an awesome experience,“ Potts describes. “It’s simply a different type of thinking. When you’re in the day-to-day mindset it’s a very difficult thing to think more abstractly. You don’t always have access to a group like this.”

While time and money, Jones says, is the biggest excuse he hears, Potts claims that it’s an invaluable investment. “In my opinion, new or inexperienced CEO’s need to understand that time is an investment like any other. The ability to better invest it in the correct things pays huge dividends later.”

For more information on CEOFocus visit www.CEOFocus.com.

Neill Vining is a contributing writer for Advantage Business Magazine

7 moves you can do from your office chair to better improve your day

By Bonnie Murdoch

Let’s face it, you are busy. Directives, assignments, projects, meetings, expectations and deadlines hover around you—and you struggle to get it all done and to fit it all in, let alone to find the time to take care of yourself along the way. Life has taken on the shape of constant movement and the stress of it all takes a toll on your mind and your body.

The net effect? Fatigue, decreased productivity, lack of focus, stress and disease. Taking a few moments each day to breathe deeply and stretch into your body, reduces stress and tension, stimulates circulation, focuses the mind and leaves you feeling better and better equipped to face the challenges of the day.

Try the following and see how you feel. Start now.

1. Neck rolls. Close your eyes. Take a deep breathe. Relax your shoulders. Gently lower your chin to your chest and feel the sensation of the back of your neck lengthening. Begin to slowly roll the neck in a circular movement, reaching your right ear toward your right shoulder, then tilting your head back, and reaching your left ear toward your left shoulder. Move slowly. Stop to experience the stretch in the front, back and sides of the neck as you explore your range of motion. Move in both directions.

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2. Chair twist. Place your feet flat on the floor with your knees stacking over your ankles. Sit up tall. Relax your shoulders. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, reach for the back of your chair and twist to the right. Close your eyes. As you inhale, feel the spine lengthening. As you exhale, peel your right shoulder open and twist through the torso. Explore the range of your twist for several breaths then switch sides.

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3. Ragdoll. Stand up. Separate your feet hip distance apart. Bend your knees. Slowly hinge at the hips and fold forward. Reach for the opposite elbows. Let the head hang heavy and release any tension in the neck. Feel the hamstrings, hip and spine beginning to lengthen as you relax into your breath.

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4. Wrist stretch. Lift the arms chest height and bring your forearms parallel to the floor. Place the backs of the hands together with the fingers pointed toward to the floor. Reach the backs of the hands toward one another and begin to drop the elbows until you feel a stretch in the top of the wrists. Breathe.

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5. Forearm lengthener. Place your palms on your desk with fingertips pointing toward your body. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, gently lean into the wrists and reach the palms of the hands  toward the desk.

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6. Standing pigeon. Stand at your desk with your feet flat on the floor. Lift the right knee up and place the shin on your desk parallel to the front edge. Inhale to lengthen your spine and, as you exhale, begin to lean the body forward until you feel a stretch in the outer right hip. Repeat on the left.

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7. Breathe. Close your eyes. Sit up tall. Begin to breathe deeply in and out of the nose. Relax your jaw and shoulders. Become aware of the sensation of your breath. Notice where it goes in your body. Feel its warmth. Allow your body to relax into the sensation of the breath moving through you.

It starts with an intention. Set yours and off you go.

Bonnie Murdoch has been practicing law for more than 15 years and yoga for almost 10. Three years ago, she reduced her hours at the law firm to open Lotus Yoga, a vinyasa flow yoga studio in Riverside/Avondale. She co-owns the studio with her good friend and fellow lawyer/yogi, Bethany Crawley. Bonnie believes in the power of yoga as a process to develop mindfulness, strengthen the body, cultivate balance and transcend boundaries. For more information regarding Lotus Yoga, visit www.lotusyogajax.com or email Bonnie at bonnie@lotusyogajax.com.

What being proactive can mean to your small business

By Christy Crump

Think of a friend’s family pet. When you enter the home, you may find him lying in the corner of the living room. What is the likelihood of you walking across the room to pet him if he took no initiative to be noticed and seemingly was comfortable right where he was?

If he got up, however, waddled over and looked up at you, whined a little, and then rolled over next to your foot with his belly and all four paws in the air, what would you most likely do then? Most likely you would lean over and scratch his belly.

 Make an effort

When it comes to your business, you have these same options. As the owner, you can choose to merely do just what it takes to maintain your business or you can make an effort to go above and beyond and give 10% more than is requested, required, or expected of you to ultimately be successful. While most small business owners make that effort, can they say the same for the employees?

There are those employees that sit at their desk, do what their job description says and simply exist—never making an effort to get up and get noticed. If they do choose to simply exist, they will get an equal return—a paycheck with no advancement, no raise, and no extra benefits, which is of no real benefit to you or your business. So, how can you get your employees on the same page as you?

Motivate!

It will take a little motivation and letting them know upfront what you expect. Let them know that if they make an effort to get noticed and do more than required, you can reward them. It may not be monetary or even instantaneous, but they will be rewarded for their hard work and effort.

Far too often employers hear, “I don’t want to be promoted or move ahead. I want to do my job, get paid, and go home.” That attitude may have been viewed as job security in times past, but in today’s business world, you must stand out from the crowd in order to even be retained.

Years ago, loyalty and longevity with a company equaled guaranteed retention during staff cuts, but in this day and age above and beyond is the only way to stand a chance of sticking around.

Proactive vs. reactive

As being proactive and taking initiative are the best and fastest ways for employees to get noticed and are often leading factors in being considered for retention and career advancement, you as the employer need to hire those that already are proactive or train them to be.

The definition of proactive is doing things before they need to be done, rather than after the need is identified. When you are proactive, you are looking ahead. You make a conscious effort to pinpoint what you have coming up and begin preparing now for what lays ahead.

Initiative is the power or ability to begin and to follow through energetically with a plan or task. First, you are proactive. You look ahead at what needs to be done. Then, you take the initiative to do it.

The opposite of proactive is reactive. When you are faced with a situation you aren’t expecting, you go into reactive mode. When you kick into reactive mode, or emergency mode, your physical body tenses up, your blood pressure rises, your heart rate increases, and your mental state is both clouded and crowded. You are far too anxious to even think clearly.

Reactive mode causes detriment to your health, compromises the success of your work product, and stifles, or even ruins, your reputation. It is much more beneficial to everyone involved to stay in proactive mode as often as possible.

Managing up

In addition to being proactive and taking initiative, in today’s world employers need employees who are self-motivated, quick learners, detail-oriented, reliable, and dependable. In other words, employers need employees to master the skill of “managing up.”

One component to managing up effectively is to teach your employees to constantly ask themselves:

•What can I do to be of more value to my employer?

•What is he not getting from me that he needs or that would make his job easier and less stressful?

•What needs to be done?

•How can I do it or make sure it gets done?

Other components of managing up include:

Understanding the mission and structure of the organization. Ensure employees read the policy and procedure manual so they can gain insight into how every part of your organization contributes to the whole.

Setting goals. When the employee begins, set a goal for them to be successful and decide what that means to you in the overall scheme of the organization. Does it mean they learn a new skill, take on additional responsibility, or overcome a fear?

Setting expectations. Let each and every employee know what you expect of them. How can they go above and beyond if they don’t know what you expect? Have open communication with your employees, answer questions, and offer clarification.

Developing ideas. Provide employees the training and tools they need so they can develop and implement ideas that benefit you, your colleagues, and your office. When they come to you with an idea, offer them this list to consider:

•What is the opportunity for improvement?

•Is there a reason to change this task from the way it is currently performed?

•Can it be done faster or with less effort?

•Can it be done earlier to avoid a last minute emergency?

•Can it be done in a way that is easier for someone else involved in the process?

•Will changing it save money or enhance job performance?

•What roadblocks might I encounter and how can I remove them?

Want to get your belly scratched? Then ensure you have employees that get up from the dog blanket and make the effort to get noticed. Hire or train employees to be proactive, take initiative, manage up, problem solve, and implement positive change on behalf of your office or business. You will be rewarded.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

Christy Crump is president of Crump & Associates, a company that enhances human capital through a unique, proven approach to staff education and training that improves performance and increases efficiency and effectiveness. She can be reached at www.crumpandassociatesfl.com.

Five ‘musts’ for creating a great first impression for your employee

By Polly White

To paraphrase an old saying, employees are not your greatest asset—great employees are your greatest asset. Whether your organization is large or small, make sure you set the stage for their success by creating a positive first impression by implementing these five “musts”:

1. Have a plan. The difference between a worker who becomes productive quickly and one who languishes is often how well they are oriented to their new company. The first hours and days of an employee’s new career are the time when they become acquainted to the requirements and expectations of their job, the culture of the organization and where and how they fit into the company.

You can greatly increase the speed at which your employees become fully productive by having a personalized orientation plan in place for their onboarding. The plan should balance time spent learning about the organization and their coworkers’ responsibilities with his or her specific job duties.

It is not necessary that their first hours be spent filling out the myriad of employment-related forms. This may be convenient for HR, payroll or accounting, but does not create the best first impression. While the employee will eventually need to fill out certain forms, most federal and state requirements allow the new employee and your company several days to complete the task. Spending your first hours creating a friendly, comfortable and productive experience for the employee is a better use of time.

2. Have a place for your new employee to call their own. Whether the employee will have a desk, a locker, a workstation, or a peg on the wall, you should have it labeled, clean and stocked with all of the equipment the employee will need to do his or her job. Nothing says, “We really want you to be happy and productive” like a well-appointed workstation.

When desks and workstations are left empty for any length of time, two things happen. First, any useful equipment, office supplies or gadgets seem to walk away. Second, the empty desk becomes a dumping ground for stacks of papers, files and other debris. The day before the new employee is to arrive, take a few minutes to restock the workstation and clean off unnecessary clutter.

3. Introduce them to their co-workers. Most businesses provide new employees with the standard tour and introduction. While this is a step in the right direction, there are ways to increase the benefit to the organization. Spend at least part of the first day celebrating the arrival of the new employee.

Have coffee with everyone on the team, allowing time for socializing and rapport building. If possible, add a donut or other snack into the mix. There is nothing like food to help with bonding and creating great memories.

4. Choose carefully when involving others in the onboarding process. Watch out for the “curmudgeon buzzard”— the longer-term employee who feels obligated to swoop in on your new employee and explain to them in great detail why coming to work in your organization may be the biggest mistake of their career. They peck away of the employee’s confidence regaling their new colleague with stories of times when management was unfair or unkind to the rank-and-file.

The curmudgeon buzzard carries a great deal of baggage with them that must be unloaded on the unsuspecting newbie. They are only effective, however, if they can poison the new employee before he or she has fully formed his or her opinion of the company.

Keeping the buzzards away from your new hires during the first few hours or days of their employment will allow the new employee to form a favorable impression of your company—one that will be hard to change. Coach the new employees yourself or assign them to employees who will represent your company in its best light. The rewards will be long lasting.

5. Outline what the new employee needs to accomplish to succeed—then set them up for success. Finally, explain to your employee what you want them to accomplish in his or her first days on the job. Understanding exactly what you want them to do and how you will measure their success will increase the new employee’s confidence and the likelihood that you will get great performance.

Make sure the tasks you select are ones that 1) will be part of the employee’s routine assignments, and 2) are very doable. Remember, you want the employee to succeed in the early days so that they will be eager to take on the more difficult work that lies ahead.

Polly White is a principal at Whitestone Partners. She has more than 20 years of experience working with companies to improve the skills, behaviors and attitudes of their workforce. Her career has included roles in administration, human resources, curriculum and employee development. She is a noted author, speaker and instructor and has worked for companies ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations. She can be reached through www.whitestonepartnersinc.com.

Optimizing your health can help achieve professional aspirations

By Dr. Earl Eye

The dream of business success captures the imagination of aspiring and existing business owners everywhere. A vision of flowing profits, industry respect, thrilled customers, and a balanced life permeates your consciousness and keeps you motivated.

As an entrepreneur, time is your most valuable asset—yet it’s the only part of your existence you can’t leverage. You only have so much of it in your day and you can’t add more to those 24 hours, no matter what you do or what you pay.

You may think you’re doing your business a favor by sacrificing sleep, diet, and an exercise program, but the truth is you’re not. While it may seem counter intuitive, spending a little less time at the office and redirecting it toward optimizing your health may be just the ticket to achieving your professional aspirations.

Steps to optimal health

Three areas in which you can take some simple and time-conscious steps to optimize your health include:

•Sleep. When you’re tired, your ability to work productively and think clearly may suffer, which could lead to dangerous or costly mistakes and take a toll on your professional reputation.

Poor sleep can make it difficult to multi-task, make you slower to get your work done, and some people report it affects creative thinking and memory. Some ways to reduce insomnia include:

Taking melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate sleep, and as you age, your body produces less and less. It doesn’t cause dependence or addiction and as a side benefit, it naturally increases your body’s growth hormone production.

Sleeping no more than seven hours. Most people need no more than seven and a half hours, but if you cut back to seven, you’ll have sounder sleep with fewer awakenings.

Getting up at the same time every morning. Your body rhythms are tied to the time you awaken, so it’s important to keep it constant. That means not oversleeping on weekends.

Getting into bed only when you’re sleepy. Spending time awake in bed can make you anxious and can lead you to associate your bed with anxiety. If you can’t drop off to sleep after 15 minutes, try slow deep breaths. If you reach 200 breaths go to another room and do something relaxing such as reading a book until you are sleepy.

•Nutrition. Nutrition isn’t about a single “perfect” diet. For thousands of years, human diets were simple: We ate what grew from the ground, fell from the trees, ran across our path or swam the waters.

The diet most synergistic with our Paleolithic-era ancestors: high in nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, lean meats and essential fats) and low in refined, overly processed foods, fats and simple carbohydrates.

To improve upon your eating habits, try:

Choosing natural foods. If it grows from the ground, falls from the trees, runs, flies, swims, it is an optimal choice. Best of all, natural foods such as fruits and veggies are most nutritional in the raw, making them quick and easy to prepare. If you must eat packaged foods, choose those that are minimally processed.

Eating once every three to four hours. Your metabolism is like an engine—the more often you give it fuel, the better it works. When you deprive your body of food, it shuts down to preserve energy. Good examples of some snacks to eat in between meals are nuts, cottage cheese, or jerky.

Taking supplements. Supplements are a quick and easy way to ensure your body is getting all of the necessary nutrients it needs to be healthy. Research is constantly demonstrating that truly therapeutic doses of vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants—the amounts needed to reduce the risk for various diseases—are substantially higher than the RDAs.

•Exercise. All you need is 30 minutes a day to optimize your health. If you don’t know the first thing about exercising, hire a trainer once or twice to teach you the basics.

Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as practicing yoga or lifting some weights. Better yet, discover activities where you can get exercise and spend quality time with your partner, family or friends—such as tennis, hiking, or dancing.

Weight training is the best way to burn fat; it’s more effective for losing weight than aerobic activity because it burns calories while you’re exercising and at rest. Here’s the math: The body requires approximately 30-50 calories daily, per pound of muscle. When you add five pounds of lean muscle, you’ll burn an additional 150-250 calories every day, even on days you don’t exercise. This adds up to 15 to 26 pounds of fat loss every year.

Do some high intensity endurance exercises, which is at least 12-15 minutes of pushing your body to the limit of its capabilities. Interval training is the best way to get a rigorous workout quickly. Using a treadmill or elliptical, start at a low to moderate pace for one minute, then up your speed to an all-out sprint for 30 seconds, then back down to the moderate pace for one minute, and then back up to a sprint for another 30 seconds. Do this five times. An alternate would be using telephone poles. Sprint in between two, then walk between the next two, and repeat.

The most serious thing that could happen is the loss of your productivity—which ultimately not only affects you, but also your business, employees, family and loved ones.

It’s much better to work for seven hours a day at peak performance than for 10 hours a day at half-consciousness. Get on a good diet, a good workout plan, and get plenty of sleep. It’s fine to be off balance sometimes, but never forget the adage, “Sound body; sound mind.”

Dr. Earl Eye is an AMA certified age-management specialist at Cenegenics Jacksonville, a practice committed to helping patients maintain health and live well longer. He is an institute physician at Cenegenics’ corporate headquarters and is the CEO and CMO of Cenegenics Jacksonville. Dr. Eye is also board certified in critical care medicine, infectious diseases medicine, pulmonary medicine, and internal medicine. He can be reached at 904-674-0404, contact@cenegenicsjax.com, or through www.cenegenicsjax.com.

How a little focus and delegation can improve your business  

By John Geshay

Being a certified business coach who works with small business owners, it is not uncommon to hear from them that they  have little to no time to work on the “bigger picture” items of their business. They almost always say they were too busy addressing everyday product and or service issues and employee and customer requests to do it.

What can you do to get out of this day-to-day struggle you may constantly find yourself in? Two ways to get out of this struggle is to improve your business focus and delegate certain job responsibilities.

Enhance your business focus

From within the “Effectiveness” module of Brian Tracy’s coaching program, Tracy outlines a seven step exercise to help you improve your business focus:

Step 1: You must first identify your 10 most important goals. From your subcategory of “business goals,” list the top 10 and commit them to memory.

Step 2: Determine your current hourly rate. To do this, take your current annual income and divide by average annual hours worked. For instance, if current annual income is $150,000, and you worked 2,000 hours, then your current hourly rate = $75/hr.

Step 3: Identify your desired hourly rate. If your desired annual income is $250,000, then your desired hourly rate at 2,000 hours is $125/hr.

Step 4: For one week, keep a detailed list of how you spent your time. Use time sheets like those used by lawyers and accountants, logging your time in 10-minute or 15-minute segments. This may require a great deal of self-discipline as entrepreneurs think in terms of results not hours, however, stick with it. See this as an investment that can pay enormous dividends.

Step 5: Rank all of your activities and tasks on the list. Each evening of that week, carefully review your time sheet and mark each task you performed with a ranking of one to 10 (one being the highest value, 10 being the lowest) based on your evaluation of how important that activity was in contributing to the achievement of your 10 most important business goals.

Step 6: Now with the perspective of five days’ worth of tracking your activities, segment the list to include:

•Your 20%, high value activities (1′s and 2′s),

•Activities for which you would pay your current hourly rate (could be the 4’s to 7’s),

•Activities for which you would pay your desired hourly rate (can be a 1, or 2’s to 3’s), and

•Your low value activities (7’s to 10’s).

Step 7: Focus your own time on the 20%, high value activities. Moving forward, resolve to spend as much time as possible on your high value activities—the 20% that contribute most to the achievement of your most important business goals, and those for which you would be willing to pay someone your current or even your desired hourly rate to accomplish, and to delegate or eliminate as many of your low value (7 to 10) activities as possible.

Delegate, delegate, delegate!

Some business owners say they pride themselves on the fact they are copied on every email regarding their company, but much of that really comes from the fact they don’t think anyone could do the tasks as well as they can.

By not delegating, however, their own strategic business goals are not being accomplished because they have zero time to work on them. If you’re struggling with this same issue, don’t trust your team, feel you must control everything, and are not hitting your own goals, then commit to delegating.

From your lists of high and low value activities, select one activity or task that does not represent the highest and best use of your time but that is nevertheless important to the success of your business. While not everything goes overboard initially, just try one or two to start. Commit to delegating this activity or task to a person who is qualified to carry it out.

List the skills and experience necessary to efficiently and effectively carry out this activity or task and find someone who possesses them. Look around. Who in your group has shown these qualifications and might be available? The person may be a member of your staff, or they could also be a contractor to whom you could outsource.

Clearly define the activity or task you will delegate and describe in detail the results you expect when the delegated task has been successfully completed.  Provide a deadline for successful completion of the delegated activity or task, with benchmarks, or short-term results, by which you will measure the progress of the delegated activity or task.

Determine which resources will be required to efficiently and effectively carry out the delegated activity or task, and what the rewards and consequences will be for the person to whom you delegate the activity or task when he/she successfully or unsuccessfully completes it.

Improving continues

Continue to list your daily and weekly tasks, evaluate those tasks, and determine who might be the best fit to help you have more time for the bigger things in your business.

Improving your business focus and learning to delegate can help you have more time to focus on the “bigger picture” of your business and get you accomplishing your strategic business goals.

Now, go delegate and be successful!

John Geshay is a certified business coach and area developer with FocalPoint of Florida. He can be reached at 904-923-1246, jgeshay@focalpointcoaching.com, or through www.focalpointcoaching.com and www.linkedin.com/in/jgeshay.

Align your actions with your ultimate life goals for better results  

By J.H. Hyun

Apple founder Steve Jobs, in his commencement address to Stanford University in 2005, made the following statement, which pretty much explained why he was so successful in his life:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

What have you been doing lately? Where would that lead you? Are you living consistently with how you want to be remembered by your loved ones when you are no longer around?

Your life plan

Many of you are so busy living day-to-day, bouncing from one urgent issue to the next, that you have lost focus on your ultimate destination. You meander through the maze of your life without a clear focus and ultimate destination in mind.

Too many times you allow other people and events to dictate your priorities, your life goals and the life path you take. If you happen to be in this situation, here is a set of practical steps you can take to realign your actions with your ultimate goals.

Reflect on your life to date and prioritize your life. Invest sometime today to reflect on the most important people and commitments in your life. Take 10 minutes each morning before you start your day to properly plan and prioritize your activities for the day.

Make sure to work on the high priority items first and cross them off as you complete the tasks. Take one full day each year to reflect on the past year and to set your priorities for the upcoming year. We can get the most of our lives by not only appropriately choosing what we do, but just as important, what we choose not to do. Make sure to define your priorities clearly and take actions consistently.

Clearly define what you want out of your life. Would you ever hop into a taxi and expect the cab driver to tell you where you should go? Of course, the ultimate destination should be dictated by you. The driver is there to help you by choosing the right path and making the appropriate turns. Just as true, when it comes to your life journey, you should define your own set of goals and your final destination.

Be specific in defining your goals. Be a better spouse, be a more loving parent, get in shape, lose weight, work harder, be a better Christian, etc. aren’t specific enough. When you define your goals, double check to make sure you can measure your progress.

Replace your vague ambitions with clear goals: Spend 20 minutes each night reading to my son as he goes to bed. Join my neighbor in running around the park every Monday and Wednesday mornings at 6 a.m. Stop eating afternoon snacks at work and no fried food for the next 30 days. Take public transportation and pack my own lunch for the next three months to save enough for my wife’s birthday gift in January.

You will have much better chance of success with specific goals than admirable but ambiguous ones.

Make necessary readjustments—starting today! Your today is an accumulated result of your yesterdays—the planned and unplanned events that took place in your life, decisions you have made, people you have met and chose to associate with, actions you took, how you chose to invest your time, money and effort.

Likewise, your tomorrow is being shaped and determined by how you choose to spend today. For everyone, without an exception, we are where we are as a consequence of our past, and our future is being formed by how we choose to spend this very moment. Start today on achieving your ultimate dreams and goals!

Joong (“Joon”) H. Hyun is the author of recently released “Outswimming the Sharks: Overcoming Adversities, Naysayers, and Other Obstacles to Lead a Meaningful Life.” For the past two decades, Hyun has worked with various global Fortune 500 companies at the executive level before his current role as vice president of Global Business Processes for a multibillion-dollar U.S. based company. He can be reached through www.outswimmingthesharks.com.

4 myths to avoid while climbing the leadership ladder of success

By Myron Pincomb

I constantly observe and work with leaders that are building some of the most successfulcompanies and organizations and then watch as they suddenly “hit a wall.” What happened? How did individuals who have reached the top of their profession by doing all the right things suddenly slip and fall?

They were sucked into one of the myths of leadership success.

In my career I have had the opportunity to lead a variety of companies from very successful technology start-ups to seasoned organizations with over 600 veteran employees. I will be the first to admit that I have personally been sucked into each one of the four common myths of leadership success on multiple occasions.

Four myths

Leadership myth #1: Yesterday’s success. What got you here won’t keep you here. Many of us were taught in school to rely on best practices and proven techniques to build a successful team or business. The reality is that no two companies or two teams are exactly the same and best practices and proven techniques rarely work twice.

This “old” way of thinking is completely counterproductive to the culture of innovation needed to be successful in today’s digital economy where product life cycles and time to market are measured in hours rather than years.

Don’t get me wrong; we should always learn from the success and failures of others, but at the end of the day the formula for success with your team or business is most likely very unique from others.

How can you avoid the “Yesterday’s success” myth? First you must recognize it. “The punch that knocks you out is the one you didn’t see,” said the famous boxer Joe Frazier. Once you recognize that complacency and the “reliance on yesterday’s success” has crept into your organization, you need to really focus on growth and innovation. Growth equals change.

Continually ask: Is there a better way? The answer is always, “Yes!”

If you are really serious about growth and innovation, get someone from outside your organization who knows your business, give them all the details and let them give you a fresh perspective. Pay for outside consulting.

In today’s economy, the most successful leaders recognize that a culture of growth and innovation is paramount to success.

Leadership myth #2: We are the experts. The only way to close 100% of your leads is to give the customer exactly what they want. Many times the leadership team relies heavily on the feedback from the sales and marketing teams to shape the next promotion or product. The reality is that most of that feedback is shaped by personal agendas and biases that result in missed sales targets and upset leadership teams. Only your customer can truly define what they need.

How can you avoid the “We are the experts” myth? The next time you try to create a great new promotion or develop the next home run product, start with a trip to the customer’s office. After the customer shows you exactly what they need, go back to your team and make it happen.

I have also had a lot of success with focus groups, fish bowl sessions and product pilots. The key to success is getting your customer involved in the process long before the sales pitch takes place.

Leadership myth #3: I am a leader, not a product expert. It is impossible to effectively lead a team without extensive product knowledge. Without a doubt, I can say that nine out of 10 leaders I have worked with do not personally have the product knowledge needed to successfully lead their team.

Many of these same people tell me that their company does not have a formal training program because they only hire experienced professionals. The result is that many companies have a team of “experienced professionals” that know very little about the actual product and how it relates to the customer.

How can you avoid the “I am a leader, not a product expert” myth? Every member of the leadership team from the CEO on down the ladder should be required to complete extensive product training on an ongoing basis. I strongly believe this product training should also be extended to the leadership teams in human resources, accounting, finance and logistics. The only way to hire the perfect candidate for an open position is to know the product yourself.

Leadership myth #4: I am a manager, not an employee. An isolated leader is an ineffective leader. No matter how good you think you are greatness has never been accomplished alone. True leaders will never tell you that it is lonely at the top. If you are at the top and all alone, then no one is following you. Get off the mountain, and go find your team and connect.

Great leaders learn early in their career that the people they manage are the only appreciable asset with which they have to work. They also know that leadership has nothing to do with position or title; it has everything to do with your scope of influence.

How can you avoid the “I am a manager, not an employee” myth? An “open door policy” is not enough; walk the floor, connect with your team and understand their pain before you ask them to follow you. Remember that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Myron Pincomb is the CEO/president of The Pincomb Group. To learn more go to www.thepincombgroup.com or send an e-mail to Myron.pincomb@gmail.com.

How mentoring can benefit your business now and in the future

By Nancy Andersen

The benefit for a business that encourages mentoring relationships among its employees isstraightforward: Mentoring prepares organizations for the future.

Whether as a formal program or informal arrangement, mentoring can provide the personal attention less-experienced professionals need to round out their technical and interpersonal skills, equipping them for later leadership positions within a growing company—perhaps even your own.

Mentoring relationships increase the pool of qualified candidates prepared to assume expanded roles. In addition, there is often an accompanying morale boost since this customized approach to employees’ career development gives them a greater sense of belonging within the organization. Knowing that someone cares about their success adds to their satisfaction, making mentoring a powerful retention tool.

A convincing argument

If your business doesn’t have the resources to create a formal mentoring program, how do you convince your best people to take time out of their busy schedules to become mentors? It’s not always an easy sell. More than half, 51%, of executives interviewed in a new Robert Half Management Resources survey (http://rhmr.mediaroom.com/mentoring) said they’ve never been mentors.

Still, that’s another half who have served as mentors, and they have a variety of stories to tell about why it’s a worthwhile experience—for their mentees, for themselves and for the company.

Mentors provide valuable guidance on decision-making and career management that mentees may not be able to obtain from other sources. But mentoring experiences also lay the groundwork for rewarding professional relationships that can last a lifetime. Ultimately, an employee’s decision to become a mentor may boil down to a sense that it’s just the right thing to do.

Of survey respondents who have served as mentors, 50% said they feel the greatest benefit is the satisfaction they gain from helping someone else. These professionals realize that the mark of a great mentor is an understanding that it’s not “all about you.”

The business environment of the last two years has been challenging to say the least. While mentors can’t address or control everything, they can do two important things—listen and offer advice. Many people are burned out and stressed out, and mentors can serve as an important sounding board. Many people might not have objective, trustworthy sources for guidance in their companies, at home or among their friends, so their mentors become a steady support system.

Mentors can offer advice on day-to-day and big picture situations ranging from handling an interpersonal conflict at work to adjusting when a new boss arrives to evaluating a potential job change. Mentors also can point mentees in the right career direction—where they can beef up their skills and networking efforts, for instance, to be more marketable. A mentee benefits from mentors’ years of work experience, the path they’ve taken and perhaps mistakes they’ve learned from.

Doing it for the greater good

It’s not unusual for people to feel hesitant about becoming a mentor. Despite their level of expertise, many professionals consider themselves hardly qualified to be an “expert” or advisor. The truth is, even if they have only a few years with a firm, they no doubt possess valuable knowledge that could help someone. Conversely, everyone at every career level can benefit from having mentors.

As a business owner or senior manager, you can provide guidance to employees you feel would make good mentors—or even to be a mentor yourself. A few things to consider:

•Your strengths. What are the most valuable things you’ve learned over the course of your career? Think about what you have to offer someone just starting out.

•Listen. The best mentors are often the best listeners. Understand your mentee’s situation and his or her greatest needs before you offer guidance. Sometimes the most valuable role you can play is that of a sounding board.

•Look beyond the newly hired. Professionals at all levels can benefit from having a mentor. Those trying to advance to the next level or looking to make a change might particularly welcome your advice.

•Be realistic. Given the realities of time pressures and impending deadlines in your role, it’s important to make clear to your mentee the amount of time you have to devote to the relationship. That way you can better define expectations and avoid potential disappointments.

Mentoring provides a triple advantage if it’s effectively designed: It benefits mentees, mentors and the company. The best mentors offer direct, candid feedback, but always maintain a positive attitude and provide constructive criticism. They also keep an open mind—they don’t allow their years of experience to cause them to respond negatively to new or different ideas or dismiss an employee’s concerns.

Nancy Andersen is the division director for Robert Half Management Resources in Jacksonville. Robert Half Management Resources is the world’s premier provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis

SIDEBAR:

The greatest benefit of being a mentor

•Provides the internal satisfaction of helping someone else – 50%

•Offers you the opportunity to improve your leadership skills – 32%

•Helps you build your professional network – 9%

•Allows you to stay current on industry trends – 8%

•No benefit – 1%

Source: Robert Half Management Resources, 2011

What you can do to lower your stress levels and be more productive

By Snowden McFall

Cash flow, deadlines, and payroll—they can all create enormous stress and pressure for you. And as an entrepreneur, you are especially prone to burnout.

The American Psychological Association says 80% of all American workers feel burned out (not just stressed), and one-third of Americans say they are living with extreme stress.¹ Nearly 80% of all doctor visits are stress-related, with 43% of all adults having ill health because of stress.

So that raises the question, “How stressed out are you?” Check the boxes that apply to you:

• You come home regularly dead-tired with little or no energy.
• The concept of vacation is inconceivable to you- you have way too much to do to go away.
• You don’t have time to exercise regularly or participate in your favorite hobbies.
• You snap at your loved ones and friends fairly often.

If three of the above are true for you, you may be hovering near burnout.

What can you do to lower your stress levels?

1. Get more sleep. You need at least seven hours a night, (the minimum to prevent cancer according to the World Health Organization.) Less than seven hours means you are functioning at a cognitive disadvantage and are three times more susceptible to colds.

You are also likely to gain more weight and carry an extra 20 pounds. Your body is 30% less efficient at burning calories when it is sleep-deprived. Fortune Small Business reported that 13% of entrepreneurs have trouble getting to sleep every night. Do that long enough and you end up with high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

The solution: plan for good sleep. Go to bed earlier, do not check email before bed, do not take your phone or beeper to bed, do not watch TV in bed. Make your bedroom a sanctuary for sleeping, making love, and resting.

2. Take vacations: Expedia found that 34% of Americans don’t go on vacation at all! What’s scary about that is for women aged 45-64, two weeks of vacation cut their incidence of heart attack in half, according to a study by Boston College!²

A study by Expedia found most people feel rested and rejuvenated after vacation, are more productive and more satisfied with their marriages. Think your business will suffer if you are out of touch for a week or two? Strategic Coach in Canada discovered that when his clients doubled their vacation days, they doubled their income.³

3. Drink water. Every cell in your body depends on water to function properly. Throughout the day, you lose about eight cups of water, which must be replenished. A 5% drop in body fluids will cause a 25% to 30% loss in energy; a 15% drop causes death. Often overlooked, water is vital to health, to life and to stress reduction.

Try to drink filtered clean water, relieved of toxins like mercury, chlorine, etc., that are often found in public water systems. Never drink water from a bottle that has been sitting in the hot sun all day—that can be a carcinogen. And caffeine drinks actually leach water from your system, so you need to drink more to replace those beverages.

To determine exactly the right amount for you, take your weight and divide it in half. That’s approximately how many ounces of water a day you need to drink. Try it, you’ll be amazed at the increase in energy.

4. Cultivate optimism. Optimists live seven years longer than pessimists, have better lung function and are far less likely to die young or from cancer. Optimists actually breathe easier. Several studies from National Institute of Health (NIH) and Yale demonstrate this.

Dr. Martin Sullivan of the University of Pennsylvania spent 20 years interviewing 350,000 executives and learned something fascinating—the top 10% performers think differently from others; they are all optimists! So if you want greater success, achievements, and profits in your business, become a more positive thinker.

Small business owners provide two-thirds of the jobs in the greater Jacksonville area. You can only continue to run a successful business if you take care of yourself and lower the stress levels of yourself and your staff. You’ll live longer, be healthier and your family will thank you, too.

Snowden McFall, is a professional speaker and author and co-author of five books, including “Fired Up!,” and “Stress Express! 15 Instant Stress Relievers.” An expert on stress, motivation and optimism/happiness, she can be reached at 904-940-7355 or through www.firedupnow.com.

1. “Stress in US Rises, Causes Health Problems,” The Scoop, The Meeting Professional, March 2008, p.442.
2. Brown, Sarah, “Clean Break,” Vogue, June 2003
3. Brown, Sarah, “Clean Break,” Vogue, June 2003

6 lessons for turning public speaking into personal and business development

By Doug Wilder

Have you thought about going on the speaker circuit, but aren’t sure if it will be worth your time orstress? Whether you are just speaking up at a board meeting, presenting at a workshop, or giving the keynote speech at a convention, speaking in public can be good for you personally as well as professionally.

Good for personal development

Public speaking is good for personal development because enhances your leadership skills, boosts your confidence and courage, and actually becomes fun.

•Leadership skills. To lead is to inspire others into thought or action. People who speak publicly often acquire the ability to inspire and those leadership skills are carried over into normal non-speaking time.

Lesson 1: Create speeches that inspire and entertain. If you aren’t sure how to accomplish this, join a Toastmasters Club or ask someone to help you. Be bold. Sprinkle in heavy doses of character, wisdom and good cheer in your speeches. The more serious the topic; the greater the need for humor. As you inspire, be inspired.

•Confidence boost. Confidence is the belief that what you are doing is “right” and that you will be successful. By speaking in public you will find that you can and will rise to the occasion, and your worst fears are rarely realized. If you do not give up, you will continue to improve, and you will boost your confidence.

Lesson 2: Make it a practice to always say “yes” when asked to speak. Have courage. Face your fears and do it anyway. You will become more confident, and that confidence will help you on and off stage.

•Enjoyment. Speaking in front of groups can be quite enjoyable. As your confidence and courage increase, you will find your abilities and control increase and your stress will decrease.

Lesson 3: Choose to enjoy public speaking. You may need to fake it until you make it. Laugh at your mistakes. As Oscar Wilde said, “Life is too important to be taken seriously!”

Good for business development

Gerlach, Wilder, and Caplan

While eating lunch with two lawyers who do public speaking to enhance their business, they mentioned three ways they benefit from presenting at seminars: credibility, publicity, and direct business.

•Credibility. Howard Caplan, business lawyer (caplawfirm.com), said that public speaking brings him additional credibility. People can see and hear his expertise on Intellectual Property Rights, particularly when he is able to engage the audience in a discussion.

Caplan said, “For instance, at a recent Continuing Legal Education (CLE) class at which I co-presented with Patent Attorney Jo-Anne Yau, we welcomed dialogue and involved the audience.” Therefore the lawyers in the audience were more likely to see the presenting lawyers as subject matter experts and refer business to them.

Lesson 4: Keep track of the places you speak at so you can later furnish that credibility list when needed. Also, gather testimonials in a file.

•Publicity: Caplan said publicity is another reason public speaking is good for business development. “When the CLE classes were advertised, it was in essence an advertisement for me.”

Lesson 5: Before the event, ensure the event announcements are strategically circulated and that you are getting the publicity you want. If not, see what announcements you can create yourself. Don’t forget to use social media to spread the word. Let your clients and friends know what you are doing. After an event, you can tell everyone that you did it and perhaps something about it that might interest them.

•Direct business: Gregg Gerlach, an employment lawyer (harpergerlach.com) and the other lawyer at lunch, chimed in, “Public speaking is an integral part of our firm’s business development strategy. While we don’t solicit the audience to hire us, sometimes the attendees call for advice and do indeed hire us.

“Last week I was the main speaker at an HR conference where 65 supervisors were in attendance and listening to my ‘war stories’ about legal issues facing other supervisors. I have already received a phone call from one of the attendees wanting advice.”

Lesson 6: It is sometimes considered gauche to sell your services or products while speaking at an engagement. If you must, get permission first. For most speakers, just being a great speaker will entice some in the audience to want to do business with you. Be sure to leave something with your name and contact information with the audience so they may contact you later.

By applying the six lessons above, your public speaking will be good for your personal development and your business development. Speak up, and be prosperous and happy!

Doug Wilder is a speech coach with Wilder Business Success Inc., which  strives to create wilder success with less stress. He can be reached at 904-880-8877 or through www.WilderSuccess.com.

Identify how stress affects you and ways to better manage it

By Dr. Earl Eye

When the topic of stress levels comes up in my weekly consultations with executives andbusiness owners interested in a preventative approach to medicine, their eyes get wide and with a half-hearted smile, they sigh. They describe themselves as over-worked and burnt out.

The psychological and physical effects of their hectic professional life are taking its toll and if they continue on this path and don’t make some changes, it will ultimately encroach on their job performance and worse, their health.

Looking to the past

It is a bit odd when you think about it. Your ancestors just a few generations removed walked or rode a horse to work. There were no cell phones, computers, automobiles, or airplanes. They couldn’t have imagined labor-saving developments like washing machines, microwaves, supermarkets, or the Internet.

Yet they still found time for leisure and would no doubt be awestruck by people today who choose to live their lives in a perpetual rush, as if being busy every minute of the day is a sign of accomplishment.

On the way to fiscal nirvana, high performers such as yourself notoriously spend your health to gain wealth. You labor over business strategies to ensure your professional success, leaving your health behind. Eventually, 21st century stress, poor nutrition, reduced exercise, and plummeting hormone levels take their toll. The most costly event in your life—loss of productivity—goes unnoticed.

The shame is so many of you are fixated on succeeding that you forget what a gift good health is, and only after it’s gone do you realize that neglecting it was your fatal mistake. Worse, the stress from this overachieving lifestyle leads to adverse health changes, frequently accelerating your aging and, if not corrected, will lead you to premature death. All your accumulated wealth will do little to help you then, except make your funeral elaborate.

What happens with stress

During periods of stress, the hormone Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands. Although stress isn’t the only reason Cortisol is secreted into the bloodstream, it has been termed the “stress hormone” because it’s also secreted in higher levels during the body’s fight or flight response to stress, and is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body.

Under normal circumstances, it has positive effects. Cortisol regulates blood pressure, the release of insulin for sugar maintenance, immune response, glucose metabolism, and inflammation.

While Cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body then activates its relaxation response so functions can return to normal following a stressful event. Unfortunately, in your current high-stress culture, the body’s stress response is constantly activated and therefore the body doesn’t always have a chance to return to normal. This results in a constant, chronic state of stress with higher and more prolonged levels of Cortisol remaining in the body.

Face the consequences

Chronic stress, which causes consistently elevated Cortisol levels, has highly detrimental consequences. Impaired cognitive functioning with brain shrinkage, hypo or hyperthyroidism, hyperglycemia, decreased bone mineral density, muscle loss, elevated blood pressure, decreased immunity, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences may result.

Excess Cortisol is also responsible for increased abdominal fat (adipose tissue). This belly fat is especially concerning because it is more metabolically active than other fat and increases inflammation in the body. It multiplies the odds of strokes, heart attacks, vascular disease, and dementia.

Learn to relax

To keep Cortisol levels healthy and under control, you must activate your body’s relaxation response. You can learn to relax your body with various stress management techniques and make lifestyle changes in order to keep from reacting to stress.

The first step is to understand what’s causing your stress—in most cases it’s obvious. In other cases, investigation may be needed. Keeping a stress journal may help. Get a notebook and write down when something makes you feel stressed. Then write how you reacted and what you did to deal with it. You can also take a written stress test that may help define what is causing your responses if the causes are not clear.

Once identified, the best ways to relieve stress are different for each person, but you can try some of these ideas to see which ones work for you:

• Exercise, exercise, exercise. Regular exercise is just about the best way to manage your stress. Walking is a great way to get started.

• Manage your time better. Make a schedule and stick to it. Think about which things are most important, and make them a priority.

• Take care of yourself. Get plenty of sleep, eat a low glycemic diet, don’t smoke, limit how much alcohol you drink, and balance out your life.

• Learn ways to relax your body. This can include massage, muscle relaxation, yoga, sex, and exercises like tai chi and qi gong.

• Try out new ways of thinking. When you find yourself starting to worry, try to stop the thoughts. Work on letting go of things you cannot change. Learn to say “no.”

• Do something you enjoy. A hobby can help you relax. Volunteer work or work that helps others can be a great stress reliever.

• Find better ways to cope. Analyze how you have been dealing with stress. Be honest about what works and what doesn’t. Identify alternatives that might be more effective.

• Focus on the present. Try meditation—MRI studies shows it nearly doubles your brain activity. Listen to relaxing music. Look for the humor in life—laughter really can be the best medicine.

• Speak up. Not being able to talk about your needs and concerns creates stress and can make negative feelings worse. Assertive communication can help you express how you feel in a thoughtful, tactful way. Laugh, cry, and express anger when you need to with someone you trust.

• Ask for help. People who have a strong network of family and friends manage stress better. Sometimes stress is just too much to handle alone. Talking to a friend or family member may help, but you may also want to speak with a counselor.

The most precious resource

Your most precious resource is the short, unknown time you have left on this little blue planet. It is perishable, irreplaceable, and, unlike money, cannot be saved. There isn’t a magic pill you can take to manage your stress. For most people, it’s an overall change in managing health.

It’s about proper nutrition, adequate exercise, getting the right vitamins and minerals, and optimizing your hormones and metabolics. Americans live, on average, just 28,000 days. So it behooves you to ask, “Am I living well and taking care of myself? What can I do to give me the best chance to beat the odds and stay more youthful and have more time on this planet to enjoy the fruits of my labor?”

Money alone doesn’t make anyone wealthy. True wealth is a life rich in love, friends, wisdom, and interests, and the time and health to enjoy it all.

Dr. Eye

5 tips for bolstering your bottom line by adding some balance to your life

By Robyn A. Friedman

Susan Carter

Every year on April 16, Susan Carter breathes a sigh of relief. That date signals the end of tax season—and the beginning of her return to 50-hour workweeks after a whirlwind three and a half months spent working 70 to 75 hours per week.

Those long hours may be de rigueur for accountants, but they don’t help Carter, a CPA in Orange Park, achieve any sort of balance in her life.

“The balance between work and home is very difficult, especially as a woman business owner because you are trying to do it all,” says Carter, who admits that during her 17-year career, she didn’t spend as much time as she would have liked with her children, now 19 and 24.

Facts are facts

But Carter is not the only small business owner struggling to achieve balance. According to a survey released by Staples in January, 60% of small business owners admit to spending more time holding their mobile devices than the hand of their significant others, and 43% say they work during hours they are supposed to be devoting to family.

A CareerBuilder survey released in December 2010 revealed that nearly one in four respondents (24%) found it hard to stop thinking about work at the end of the day and that nearly one in five (19%) said they dream about work.

And the National Study of the Changing Workforce, released in 2008, found that 75% of employed parents feel they don’t have enough time with their children, 63% of employees in couple relationships feel they don’t have enough time with their significant others and 60% of employees feel they don’t have enough time for themselves.

The need for balance

Lack of work/life balance is a serious problem for small business owners. Sure, entrepreneurs need to spend time cultivating their businesses to maximize their chances of success. But those who adopt an all-work-and-no-play policy usually pay a price for doing so, such as stress-related health issues, a lack of time to pursue personal interests, or friction with family members.

And what small business owners may not realize is that a lack of work/life balance, rather than helping them achieve success, may actually impair their ability to do so. In other words, improving work/life balance may bolster the bottom line.

“Achieving work/life balance is important to the health of the business and the business person,” says Arthur Lynnworth, the

Arthur Lynnworth

Fernandina Beach-based author of “Slice the Salami—Tips for Life and Leadership, One Slice at a Time.” “A small business owner will not function at top performance solving problems and dealing with competitive issues if he or she is stressed out due to conflicts of work/life balance. Not only does the person suffer, but the less-than-optimum decision making, due to stress, also translates to subpar business performance.”

That can impact the bottom line because a business owner who is stressed out is not as productive,

Shirley Davis

experts say. “You’re not going to come up with the best solutions, be innovative and creative with new product ideas, reach out and service customers or broaden your business,” says Shirley Davis, Ph.D., co-director of the Workplace Flexibility Program for the Society of Human Resources Management. “Employees who don’t have work/life balance tend to be more likely to be late to work, not engaged at work, or call in sick.”

Strategies to reclaim balance

So what can you do to reclaim control of your out-of-balance life? Consider these strategies to restore harmony.

•Improve your time management skills. Plan each day by setting realistic objectives—and then try to meet them. “Don’t think that

Jack Harsh

busyness is the same as business,” says Jack Harsh, a business coach in Jacksonville. “Decide what your top three priorities are each day and what you will focus your time and attention on. Do that for both your personal life and your business.”

•Take real vacations. Everyone needs time away from work to recharge. By getting away from their businesses periodically, small business owners can better focus on important family relationships—relationships that will ultimately help nurture them. “That pays off in tremendous ways back in the business because they now have better balance,” says Harsh.

•Cultivate a support system. Entrepreneurs are notoriously bad at delegating. “Many small business owners bury their personal time

John Geshay

while pouring all their energy into the business,” says John Geshay, a certified business coach with FocalPoint of North Florida in Jacksonville. “Then they realize too late that while they may have achieved success in their business, they sacrificed a lot of other aspects in their lives.”

Geshay recommends delegating and outsourcing. He suggests that business owners divide their net income by the number of hours they work per year to see what their time is worth. For example: If a company’s net income is $100,000 and the owner works 2,000 per year, then his hourly rate is $50. “If there is any task he does that is worth less than $50 an hour, he should find someone else to get that done,” says Geshay. “That maximizes the ROE—return on energy.”

•Leave work at work. Smart phones and other technology make it difficult to create a boundary between work and home. It’s important, however, to block out time for your family that is free of distractions. Paresh Hirapara, president and CEO of Enaptive, a Jacksonville-based software development firm, works hard—about 60 hours per week. But he reserves his weekends for his family. “The weekends are our time,” he says. “I’ll hang out with the kids, do something around town or do stuff around the house. Building software requires a lot of creativity, and I can’t focus unless I maintain a good mental state.”

•If all else fails, seek help. Susan Carter, the CPA, realized that her life was out of balance after she heard Jack Harsh speak at a local networking group. “I felt that my business had consumed me,” she recalls. “When I listened to him talk about balance between work and personal time, I realized that I wanted that.” So she signed on as a coaching client and has since learned how to manage her time better, delegate, set goals and carve out time for family and fun.

Now Carter says she is more relaxed—and much more productive. “This tax season has probably been the least stressful one I’ve ever had,” she says. “And our revenues increased 25%.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing writer to Advantage. She can be reached at robyn@everythingwrite.com or through www.EverythingWrite.com.

Discover the parallels between how an athlete trains and how you run and grow your business

By Aaron Marston

As I sat down to critically evaluate our company’s performance at the end of thefirst quarter of 2011, I reflected for a few minutes on the goals we had established going into the year.

Like many small companies, we set financial and profitability goals, both overall and by product and service. We set customer service and product quality goals and developed initiatives to help reach these goals. We started employee programs to improve their performance, education, and skill sets, as well as programs to improve their experience and satisfaction with us as their employer.

Financial reports needed to be completed, quarterly evaluations had to be done on all staff, and staffing requirements had to be considered going into our busy summer months.

The dreaded ‘to-do’ list

As I sat and looked at the laundry list I just created, I feel my palms begin to sweat. “Marketing materials, website, upcoming promotional events…” I  feel my neck and jaw begin to tighten. “Back office software issues, end of the year tax preparation, 50 e-mails in my inbox…” My heartbeat begins to quicken and my blood pressure rises.

My “to do” list is quickly turning into an “I don’t know how I am going to do” list and I am having a primal “fight or flight” response. I take a deep breath, turn my computer off, and put on my workout gear. For the time being, I choose “flight.”

I warm up, get a light sweat going, and stretch out a few problem spots before getting started. “The list” is still on my mind, but it won’t be for long. I begin my cardiovascular intervals, working hard for a minute or two, before allowing myself a minute to recover. A few stray thoughts of “the list” enter my mind, but I quickly push them away and increase the speed and incline on the treadmill. This is my hour.

New thoughts

In between intervals, my only thoughts center on my breathing and my racing heart rate. The minute of rest allows me to recover, catch my breath, and compose myself so I can do it again. Treadmill, rest, recover, repeat, weights, rest, recover, repeat, medicine ball, rest, recover, repeat.

Each training day is set up this way, with periods of intense activity followed by periods of relative rest and recovery. The short periods of intense activity allow me to push beyond my comfort zone, to do more than I would be capable of achieving for a sustained period of time.

The variety keeps me from getting bored with the monotony of steady state work. The short periods of relative rest allow me to recover, give me the strength I need to perform these intervals again, and keep me from burning myself out.

Bike, rest, recover, repeat, cool down, rest, recover, stretch, recover. I sit back down at my desk, prioritize my list, and begin. I am ready to fight.

Performing new feats

Interval based training has allowed athletes to perform feats that were once thought impossible. The legendary wrestler and strongman Milo, a six time Olympic champion, was said to have carried a 4 year old bull on his shoulders. According to legend, he did so by lifting the animal daily from the time it was a calf until it matured.

Legend or not, the principle stands that pushing the body beyond its comfort zone and forcing it to adapt to increased stresses allows it to continually improve and accomplish things that were unthinkable in the past. This only works if the body is allowed adequate rest, recovery, and nutrition.

If the body does not get this rest and recovery, and you continue to push past your comfort zone, you will only succeed in accomplishing the exact opposite of your desired outcome. You will grow wearier, the benefits will begin to diminish and eventually reverse course, and you will ultimately burn yourself out.

Discovering similarities

The parallels between the approaches an athlete takes to training and a small business owner takes to running and growing their business deserves a closer look. Both require planning and organization, drive and discipline, goal setting and goal attainment. Both require appropriate rest and recovery, intensity and variety, vision and execution.

As small business owners, you all have your lists, your priorities, and your e-mails. Those will always be there and will never be complete. You could literally work around the clock and there would still be work to do.

However, instead of falling prey to the law of diminished returns, take a page from the athletes’ playbook. Work hard, rest, recover, repeat. Plan vacations and schedule downtime for planning, thinking and preparing. Make time for family, friends, and for yourself—and yes, make time for exercise (intervals of course).

Your family, your friends, and your business will thank you. Like Milo, you can accomplish goals that others might have thought impossible.

Aaron Marston is the executive director of The HIT Center of Jacksonville, LLC and Healthletix Management, LLC. He is an expert in the fields of exercise science and athletic training and has over 15 years of experience in these fields. He can be reached at 904-475-9600 or through www.thehitcenters.com.

Goal setting that makes a difference

By Snowden McFall

A few years ago, Dominican University did a study that showed people who havewritten goals are much more likely to succeed. Are your goals in writing, and are they SMARTE?

Future vision

Where do you want your business to be one, three, and five years from now? It’s easy in a down economy to focus on cash flow and bringing in new business, but if that’s all you pay attention to, growth is unlikely. Think about where you want your business to be five years from now.

What kinds of revenue do you want to earn? What kinds of customers are you serving with what products or services? Will you be doing business locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally? Will most of your business be online, or will you need multiple locations? How many employees will you need to provide your services or products? What raw material will you require? What is your anticipated overhead?

Once you have a clear picture of what you want your business to be in five years, back it up. What needs to happen in three years for you to achieve your five-year vision? What needs to happen in one year for you to reach the three-year vision?

When you’re crystal clear about where you want to be, it’s easier to formulate written goals that you can act upon and share with your staff.

Make your goals S.M.A.R.T.E. goals

You may have heard this concept before. Make your goals SMARTE goals, which means Specific, Measurable, Attainable through action, Realistic, Timely, and added here is E for Emotional.

Vague goals produce vague results. For example: We are increasing our revenues in 2011. By contrast, an example of a SMARTE goal: Smith Industries is successfully and easily growing our revenues 22% nationwide by Dec. 1, 2011, by expanding market territory to Asia.

This goal is specific because you know exactly how you will increase revenues; it’s measurable because you can see month to month how you are doing. It is attainable, realistic, and has a set deadline. The emotional component of success and ease adds another dimension to the goal and makes it that much more effective.

The next step

Take every goal you have and convert it into a SMARTE goal, then share it with everyone in your company. Tie this goal list directly to your company mission to ensure you are aligning all aspects of your business effectively. Give everyone a meaningful and significant “why” for achieving these goals (sometimes it is to keep them all employed.)

It does no good to increase revenues if you don’t have support staff to handle the business when you get it, or if shipping becomes a nightmare. How can you add value to your customers every step of the way? What can your business do that is unique? Meet with your team and puzzle out all the contingencies of what could happen if you were successful with each goal. Take the time to think it through, and then put the goals in writing for everyone to see.

Why goals fail

Goals can fail, but there are steps you can take to help ensure success. Be sure to avoid the following errors.

1. Goals are not aligned with your “why.” This means goals don’t fit your company mission or don’t resonate with you as a leader. Everything my good friend, Paul Evans, does in business is ultimately in support of his “why”: 100X missions, which provide support and homes for orphans worldwide, often rescuing them from the slave trade. Be sure to align all of your goals with your “why.”

2. There is no accountability. In that same Dominican University study, they found goal achievement increases dramatically when you have an accountability partner who helps you track your progress. That’s why having an exercise buddy is so effective; you might skip exercise class if it was just you, but instead, you honor the commitment to your accountability partner.

Establish someone in the company to hold you accountable and be sure there is positive accountability at every level. Set up weekly and monthly check-ins to see how you are doing on your progress. Cheer each other on, and remind each other of your why as you work on the goal.

3. The goals are unrealistic. Most have had the experience of setting a goal and having it fall flat—but perhaps your goal was not realistic in the first place. Knowing your company history, the economy, and various outside factors which impact your business, what realistically can you expect your business to achieve?

Do the reality test with each goal and then set up an action plan with strategies to achieve them. Break down each goal into smaller, more manageable steps and delegate effectively with accountability measures in place. Check in every month, and if you need to re-evaluate or renegotiate a goal, do it.

Celebrate success

In new research from Harvard, there is documented proof that when you focus on the good things in life and business, your happiness and productivity levels increase. Celebrate small successes along the way, catch others in the act of doing something right, post a bulletin board where wins can be seen, and do this both electronically and physically.

Praise your team as they make progress, both in writing and in person, because 88% of workers NEVER receive thanks for what they do. Be sure you do thank them.

Written goal setting with accountability can make your business stronger and healthier financially. Involve everyone on your team and get them Fired Up! for success. You will all benefit.

Snowden McFall, professional speaker, trainer, and author, is the author of “Stress Express” and “Fired Up!” and the owner of Fired Up! Professional Speaking & Corporate Training. For her free report, the 10 Keys to Fire Up Your Business and Ignite Your Success, go to www.firedupnow.com/keys.html. She can be reached at 904-940-7355

How contributing your time, talent, and treasure can benefit your bottom line

By Crystal and Michael Freed

No business can fulfill its potential without philanthropy. Philanthropy is not simply throwing change to a beggar or resources to a group or cause; that is charity—helping to support a temporary need.

Philanthropy, on the other hand, is a deliberate plan to address—through the contribution of time, talent, and treasure—specific societal needs in such a manner that the need will, over time, diminish and ultimately be eradicated. This article briefly identifies certain benefits of philanthropy.

Build better communities

Businesses benefit from the stability of the communities in which they do business and the quality of the available workforce. Given this, altruism aside, businesses have a fiscal responsibility to be good stewards of their communities. A defined plan for philanthropy is the most efficient manner to fulfill that responsibility.

Homelessness, for example, in addition to the dehumanizing impact it has on the homeless themselves, can be a genuine drain on the business community. Increased crime, concerns for safety, and the allocation of tax dollars to programs to triage the homeless problem, are just a few of the negative impacts.

That said, it makes good sense for businesses to devote some of their financial and people resources to plans and programs designed to eliminate homelessness and transform the homeless into contributing members of society.

Build brand identity

Philanthropic outreach also is an efficient mechanism to build and reinforce brand identity. Yoplait contributes to breast cancer research; Cheerios supports childhood reading; and your business can and should support causes that resonate with your customer-base and communicate how your business wants to be perceived.

Philanthropic giving is good news about your company and will often garner “earned media,” which is generally more effective than paid advertising. Philanthropic outreach also earns a company reputation for being a good and responsible corporate citizen. This type of goodwill results in a benefit of the doubt when bad news or company crises arise.

Boost employee morale

Philanthropy is also a powerful tool to boost employee morale. A great workplace creates a team atmosphere in which team members feel that they are a part of something bigger than being transaction costs on an assembly line of corporate profit.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “philanthropy is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself…”

Design a company philanthropy plan, and permit and encourage employees to support it with their time and talents and even treasure, and a bond and commitment will emerge that surpasses what can be accomplished with wages, hours, and working conditions.

The “feel good” factor

Philanthropy is a morale boost because, among other things, it feels good personally. It feels good to help people; it feels good to improve circumstances; it feels good to do something constructive about social ills.

The personal benefits are many, but may include confidence, attitudinal lift, and improved emotional and even physical health.

The bottom line is that philanthropy—in addition to being the right thing to do morally—when purposefully and effectively implemented, is good for your business and your personal bottom line.

Michael and Crystal Freed are attorneys in private practice in Jacksonville, Fla. Michael is the Florida Managing Partner of Brennan Manna & Diamond, and Crystal manages The Freed Firm. Michael and Crystal devote their time, talent, and treasure to, among other things, support education, creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged, missionary advancement, and combating child exploitation and human trafficking. Michael can be reached at 904-366-1500 or mrfreed@bmdpl.com, and Crystal can be reached at 904-262-2193 or clfreed@thefreedfirm.com.

Flexible programs allow entrepreneurs to continue their education while running a business

By Robyn A. Friedman

Lang C. Tarrant values education. After graduating from the College of Charleston and pursuing a career in commercial real estate, the 36-year-old entrepreneur completed a curriculum that earned him a CCIM designation (Certified Commercial Investment Member) for his expertise in the commercial and investment real estate industry. He also fulfilled the educational requirements to receive the prestigious SIOR designation (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors).

Not content to sit on his laurels, Tarrant, managing director of Tarrant Commercial Real Estate in Jacksonville, recently enrolled in an accelerated MBA program at Jacksonville University (JU). This semester, he attends class from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and works the remainder of the week. The accelerated MBA program at JU takes 12 months to complete and costs approximately $25,000.

“I’m a firm believer in continuing education,” said Tarrant. “I’ve reached the pinnacle in the commercial real estate end of continuing education, so the next step was to get the MBA—that was always a personal goal of mine.”

Tarrant had been hoping to get the MBA for some time, which he said would “further solidify me as the business executive running this company,” but the active commercial real estate market in Florida prevented him from doing so. Now that the market has cooled, however, he can fit the classes into his schedule.

Most companies—56 percent, according to the Society for Human Resource Management—offer graduate educational assistance benefits to their employees. This type of educational assistance not only helps the employee but also benefits the employer, which gains a more educated workforce. Additional education also helps employees increase productivity, improves employee morale and reduces turnover.

But continued education is just as vital to small business owners, who need to keep their skills sharp—and develop new ones—to compete in an ever-changing global economy. And even if small business owners are technically competent in their own professions, they may lack management experience, preventing them from taking their businesses to the next level. Tarrant, for example, said that the finance, accounting and computer classes he’s taking help to complete his knowledge base.

“There is no such thing as standing still,” said Candace Moody, vice president of WorkSource, the regional workforce development organization in Jacksonville. “If you’re in a business or industry that’s constantly changing—and what industry isn’t—you absolutely need to make lifelong learning part of your business plan.”

Moody said that an advanced education can help small business owners position themselves as more current in their field. Plus, customers with educational credentials may actually seek out those with similar credentials for vendors or partners.

There are two ways to approach education, Moody said. You can focus on getting credentials that will resonate with customers and prospects, or you can choose to fill gaps in your own experience that will allow you to make substantial changes in the way you operate. “Either way, do your homework,” she added. “Look for a program that is accredited and that has high quality instructions and high academic standards.”

Fortunately, colleges and universities are increasingly developing flexible programs that allow business owners to advance their education.

The Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University offers several programs that lead to an MBA. Tarrant is enrolled in the school’s accelerated day program, which takes 12 months.

There’s also a Flex program, with classes in the evening. “You can take as many or as few courses as you can handle,” said Mary Anne Waikart, director of graduate programs at Davis. Students must have three years of work experience to enroll, and the program takes 18 months to five years to complete. It costs about $25,000.

A third alternative is the Executive MBA program, for students with at least 10 years of work experience. Classes are every other Friday afternoon and Saturday, and the program takes 17 months. It costs about $49,000.

The University of North Florida’s Coggin College of Business also offers MBA programs for students who work full-time. According to UNF’s website, most of the 600 students in its MBA program are working professionals, but about 20 percent are full-time students. A typical student takes two courses each term while working full-time. To be accessible, graduate classes are offered in the afternoon and evening; some are even offered on weekends.

Misha Gryb, 27, is president of YanaEx Inc., a Jacksonville company that develops, designs and manufactures products for the food and pharmaceutical industries. He enrolled in the Flex MBA program at JU in October and attends class every Monday night for three hours. He expects to earn his degree in two years.

“I wanted to gain more knowledge in finance, accounting, marketing and human resources,” Gryb said. “This degree will help me improve the performance of my business. That’s the main reason I’m going back to school.”

Gryb’s wife, Ashley Testa, who also works full-time, is enrolled in the Flex MBA program as well. Attending classes with his wife helps him to better juggle the responsibilities of work, family and school.

Indeed, achieving balance may be one of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs who go back to school. After all, it’s difficult enough to balance work and family; for students, school is thrown into the mix as well.

Students need “an extreme amount of time management as well as a supportive staff and family,” Waikart said.

Still, MBA students say it’s all worth it. “I did the analysis, and I think it will not only improve my productivity but also open other business opportunities and give me a competitive edge,” said Tarrant. “It’s just another arrow in my quiver.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing writer to Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net.

5 small business blog tips that make a big difference    

By Pete Michaud

Success with a business blog means attracting and retaining customers. Blogging is also an excellent way to prove your industry expertise and expand your network.

You probably already know you’ll need to write sharp prose and update your site regularly, but do you know how to add that extra pizazz that takes a blog from ordinary to outstanding?

Read on to learn the five critical elements that every blockbuster business blog shares.

Tip #1: Focus on your real customers

Small business owners like you are experts in at least two areas—not only your business domain, but running a small business as well! Maybe you run a dog grooming business. It would be easy to get caught up writing about how to run a dog grooming business, which would be fine if your customers were other dog grooming business owners. If your goal is to get dog grooming customers, then you need to write about grooming dogs.

The difference is subtle, but the effects of shifting focus from you and your business, to your target customers and their needs will transform your blog into a marketing powerhouse.

Tip #2: Add value with every post

If your blog posts are all about you and they don’t address the needs and interests of your visitors, then people won’t stick around for long. They certainly won’t convert into customers.

Don’t bloviate about your latest product release, price change, or customer acquisition. That’s all about you, and frankly, your customer doesn’t give a damn.

Ask yourself before writing and posting, “What is in it for my customers? Does this post help them solve a problem they are facing or give them information you know they need?” If the answer is no, then don’t post it!

Of course, you want to promote yourself and your business to your customers, but droning on about yourself will make you look like a boor. So how do you announce a new product or service in an interesting and useful way?

For example: A successful blogger started a company that helps people build a following on Twitter. He wrote a post about wanting a following on Twitter, and the exact steps he took to build that following. The process was slow, painful, and monotonous. For that reason, he said, he built a piece of software that could help him by doing everything he did manually, only faster. And he also made his tool available to the public.

The response was huge. By sharing that step-by-step guide that addressed one of the very specific needs of his target customers, he positioned himself as a credible expert in his market and convinced hundreds of people that their problem was worth spending money on.

Tip #3: Don’t oversell

What the blogger did with his Twitter article was clever because he added value with his post that doubled as an explanation of and advertisement for his business as well. Business bloggers are always thinking of new ways to convert visitors into customers. That’s a great skill to have, but it’s easy to go overboard.

No reader is going to stick around for a hard sell every time you post an article on your blog. If you bombard them with popups when they enter your page, and all they get out of the deal are thinly veiled infomercials seducing them to give you money, their defenses will go up and they will run, not walk, away from your blog and your business.

Blogging works because it gives you a platform to communicate with your customers, who, over time, begin to associate you with your market. When the time comes to make a purchasing decision, you’ll be on their mind.

Blogging works much like a Coca-Cola advertisement. When is the last time you saw a billboard that said, “Buy Coke right now!”? Instead you’ll see its colors and logo with a tag line like, “Life is good.” Those advertisements exist to keep Coke on your mind and to connect the concept of Coke to the good life.

That way when you’re standing in the supermarket aisle a week later and there is a red package of soda right next to a blue package, you’ll choose the red package without thinking too much about it.

Blogs work the same way, by making you visible to your customers and associating you with trust and expertise in your niche. When the time is right for them to buy, they will think of you first.

Tip #4: Show your personality

You have thoughts, opinions, and goals and the best thing for you to do is show yourself as you really are on your blog. People want to connect with other people, and if you try to maintain a dry, corporate style in your blog writing, you won’t give your readers anything to connect to.

There is some controversy about how formal you should be on your blog. Some people say that staying business-like lends you credibility, and warn that sharing too much of yourself might offend some readers.

Ask yourself, “Do you trust your accountant because he’s a stone-faced rock of a person, or is it because you like him and think he’s competent?” We don’t choose doctors or dentists based on how serious they can act or how “professional” they seem. We choose based on a good bedside manner, who we feel we can trust and be honest with.

Another important question to ask yourself is whether you really want to work with people who are offended by you. Maybe it would be for the best if those who don’t like you don’t try to work with you.

Tip #5: Stick to It!

Finally, even if you’re talking to the right people in the right way, you’re still susceptible to the number one reason business blogs fail—bloggers give up too early.

You may feel discouraged early in the life of your blog because it seems like no one is reading it, and that is perfectly normal. Even expert bloggers start blogs that get almost no traffic for months. In fact, you can expect it to take between six months and a year to take off.

The reason is that growing blog readership is exponential, not linear. Instead of straight diagonal line going upward, the graph of your blog’s popularity is a curve that borders near zero before it finally explodes upward around month eight.

Don’t give up before that explosive growth hits. If you stick to writing sharp, personal content that your customers really appreciate, your blog may soon become one of the driving forces behind the growth of your small business.

Pete Michaud is a veteran Internet entrepreneur who has started businesses in the technology, marketing, and healthcare spaces. His current venture is Kenrose Media, a publishing company specializing in health and wellness titles (on the Web at www.KenroseMedia.com). Pete helps entrepreneurs meet and exceed business goals by training them to connect with core principles, overcome uncertainty, and plan effectively. Pete’s blog is on the Web at www.PeteMichaud.com and you can reach him at pete@kenrosemedia.com.

“It’s easy to lie to ourselves. Little lies build into something big. For things to grow and change, we must get out of our comfort zone and start stretching to do different things,” Dave Josephson told a sold-out crowd at a recent Knowledge Is Power workshop. Josephson is a certified coach in the Strategic Mindset Process with The Growth Coach.

Josephson’s aim during the 90-minute session was to help participants identify the things in their mindset that were holding them back in their businesses, and to show them how to break the cycle that keeps them from reaching new heights.

The process consists essentially of three activities—all aimed at finding the most critical barriers to success. Josephson led the group through three activities:

1. Understanding your reality. Knowing where you are starting from is the only way you can change, he said. He asked the group to write down three things that bugging were them. These things are your reality, he said.

2. Listing the things that clutter your thinking or your life. In addition to things that are bothersome, Josephson said people have a lot of clutter in their lives. He suggested these might be e-mail, watching too much television, leaving tasks undone, and many more. He asked the group to list as many clutter items as they could identify.

“Clutter can be physical, such as a garage so messy you can’t get the car in it or a desk so covered you can’t see the desktop, or emotional, such as feelings of unworthiness or depression.”

Then, referring to the 80/20 rule—80% of results come from 20% of activities—he asked the group to pick out those clutter items that have the most effect on their success. He then asked, “What would happen if you reduced clutter by only 5% and replaced it with something positive and money-making? This could actually improve your bottom line by 30% to 40%! And you could grow really big by removing 10% of your clutter.”

How to get rid of clutter? Make a commitment, he said. Your commitment choices (depending upon the type of clutter you are dealing with) are don’t do it; delegate it or outsource it; downshift its scope and frequency; or destroy and redesign.

3. Assessing your life. Josephson said the wheel of life consists of a number of spokes— family/friends, play, mind, health, financial, spiritual, and career/business. He asked the group to rate their satisfaction on each of these spokes and connect the dots. “Does your wheel look like it is out of warp?” he asked, indicating that most people have wheels that are flat in some areas.

These flat areas are where you should focus your attention for at least a month. “You’ll find,” he said, “that if you put air in the tire, other parts will puff out, too.”

Power to change

The purpose of the exercises, said Josephson, is to help you see the reality of your life, as it is now. “But, you have the power to change,” he stressed, explaining that results are the end product of actions and behavior, which are driven by attitude. “If you want an attitude makeover, look at the results you want to achieve first,” he said.

For example: If you know that 2% of your calls will result in sales, then to get two sales each week (the result you want), you need to make 100 calls (actions to take). To drive those actions, you need to think positively about selling (attitude adjustment), perhaps by thinking of yourself as an expert instead of a sales person.

What this amounts to, he explained, is a change in story. The old story of someone who has trouble selling is “I hate selling but I have to do it for a living.” The new story is “I am an expert who can help others solve their problems.”

“We can make the decision to change our success thermostat,” said Josephson. “Our business can become what we allow it to become.” Key to this decision making is the kind of questions we ask ourselves, he explained. “We can ask empowering questions or disempowering questions. ‘Why is this happening to me?’ is disempowering and dislodges the logical side. But questions such as ‘What can we do to solve this problem?’ are empowering; they engage the local side.”

He ended by challenging the group, “What can you do to take your business to the next level?”

Dave Josephson

Dave Josephson is a certified coach in the Strategic Mindset Process with The Growth Coach (www.thegrowthcoachofjax.com). He can be reached at 904-861-0434. Advantage’s Knowledge Is Power workshop was co-sponsored by VenturePlex and Costco.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Go to go to http://advantagebizmag.com/events/podcasts to download a podcast of Dave Josephson’s workshop, “How to break through the self-sabotage barrier.”