Overwhelming Success for Solopreneurs

And the winner is...

Thanks to all who answered the In Tandem 2010 Wish List survey.

The winner of the book drawing is Birgit Olson of Focused On Your Business Virtual Office Assistance LLC, www.focusedonyourbusiness.com

Birgit has received her choice of one book from my Introvert’s Ultimate Reading List. Wanna know what she picked? OK, I'll tell ya: Introvert Power: Why Your inner Life is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie Helgoe.

Curious about the reading list? You can find all the book titles right here on the sidebar.

Entrepreneurial Strategies for the Introvert in You

Note from Joanne: I've invited Patricia Weber (a fellow coach, fellow INTJ and one of my role models) to share some business tips specifically for the introverted entrepreneur. As introverts we have some challenges unique to our temperament. Pat has a wealth of knowledge and years of experience working with introverts in their business challenges. When I have a question or want some advice, she's the first one I turn to, and I am honored to be included in her circle of colleagues.  Read on, implement, and enjoy:

Save Time and Effort

Imagine you plan a trip from your home to another part of the country. You’ll travel something like New York City to Seattle. Do you think you would select just one route? I know I never do. There are things I need to consider: Would it be better to drive or fly? If driving, how can I get in other visits? If flying, what are the connections? Just like there are many ways to travel from one place to another, there are many ways to entrepreneurial success as well. Oh certainly, there are some foundational basics. But as an introvert, to find that route, the best coach or marketing system or online strategy, we want to travel with less frustration and an easier go of success.

1. Seek balance. For years in corporate America my sales and marketing training was mostly an extroverted approach combined with a time when “assert your self” was a marching slogan. My personal introvert style is assertive anyway yet a problem in the approach was little balance. It was 4 to 6 hours of cold calling a day, followed by a happy hour with the sales team, ending on a Friday with an even longer happy hour. It was exhausting. It was out of balance. If you want a fast track to push yourself in ways you might never do on your own, it’s possible an extrovert business strategy is just the kick you need. Just check in with yourself first.
2. Avoid “cookie cutter.” If you were making cookies to celebrate Halloween, would you pull out the cookie cutters for Christmas trees and angels? If any “system” looks like it’s a cookie cutter with promises that this is “the” system for everyone, then run the other way. While some tactics to marketing are fundamental, the strategies will need to be different, even tailored, for a company, product and people. Almost all offerings these days offer some preview. Take your time, get past some of the marketing hype and again, feel or see how the ideas resonate with the introvert in you.
3. Check for farmer or hunter. In marketing and sales, introverts are more like what Joe Nunziata calls farmers: we develop relationships over time. You might meet a number of people and then make a decision about which relationships both can add more value and get value for you. This is contrary to the approach of the hunter: go from one sale to the next in record time. If the sales style of the “one best” business system sounds like it might not have the right focus for you, you’ve probably just been caught in a hunt style program.

Introverts know energy. Hearing one size fits all is a first clue it’s may just take your energy away or not give you more. Why? Because traveling only one way doesn’t mean it’s the way for you.

When you think about a coach, a marketing system or some business strategy to help your entrepreneurial business, use your analytical introvert strength to find what will:

• Give you balance
• Suit your style
• Support your farming nature

Then whether you drive or fly you’ll know which route is the best for you.

Be sure to check out Pat's latest ebook: Debunking Negative Introvert Myths: Bringing Your Introvert Strengths to the Party. This (affiliate) link will take you to a page where a FREE 32-page excerpt is available, so you can try before you buy. BTW Yours truly is mentioned in the excerpt!

Comments are always welcome. Did you find the post useful? Would you like to see more guest posts? What's your challenges as an introverted professional?

All we need is just a little more time

We each have the same 24 hours to work with as the next person. No more, no less. Time is the one commodity that is distributed absolutely equivalently to all. And we all seem to want/need more!

So how can we make the best use of our time? That's one of my main goals as a coach, to help my clients choose their tasks, goals, activities so that they can make the best use of their time.  But even I can use some help in that regard. I recently discovered a wonderful resource, Tracey Lawton. I have a feeling she will soon become my not-so-secret weapon when it comes to taming my not-enough-time and too-much-paperwork tigers.

Tracey is an Online Business Manager and Office Organization Expert who will be sharing her time management and organizational expertise via: Office Organization Success Café. The Café is an ongoing monthly membership program to support, guide, and advise solopreneurs on how to create their core online marketing and office organization systems.

One of the main membership benefits are the LIVE monthly teleclasses led by Tracey on a variety of online marketing, office organization, or client attraction systems topics.

It launches this week! I'm eagerly anticipating the first teleclass -- Time Management Strategies for the Holidays, to be held on Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 11:00 am EST.

On this call Tracey will be sharing with you effective and proven time management strategies to get you through this busy holiday season. With the information she'll be sharing with you during this teleclass you can apply it all year round - not just during the holiday season.  You'll be able to accomplish so much more with the right systems in place.

Click here for more information. Will I hear you on the call?

Business Plans for the planning averse (and everyone else)

Dare I admit that I have managed to run my business so far without a business plan?  Yes I dare!

I like to believe I'm in good company; I believe a lot of us who became entrepreneurs after working in the corporate world have similar motivations: "I just want to work for myself;" "I'm tired of having a boss tell me what to do;" "I'm too creative/innovative/don't like structure/don't like routine; the corporate environment is too stifling." Sound familiar?  So the last thing I want to do (besides marketing, but that's another post) is sit down, and write a boring, long-ass business plan that locks me in.  And besides, I do have a plan; it's just in my head.

Well guess what; I'm not getting the results I would like. I asked myself: "What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do more of, what to do less of, and what needs to be done differently?"  And that's about when I realized I needed to think about my business aspirations and put them in writing. I needed, and wanted, to get very clear about where I wanted to go. Once I knew where I wanted to go, the path to get there would be a lot easier to map out. And, I'm getting too old to rely on my memory -- I do have "senior moments"  from time to time, so putting it all on paper would help keep me on track. Next thing you know, a business plan sounded like a great idea, but I still dreaded writing the plan.

I found myself a mentoring program offered by my local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).  And whaddaya know, their mentoring program starts with walking the mentees through writing a business plan!  And it gets better; the textbook chosen for us mentees is titled The One Page Business Plan, by Jim Horan.  Yes, you can write a business plan that fits on one page.  This plan may not be detailed enough to get you that venture capital investment, but it is quite handy for what most of us need -- a blueprint to help us focus, design action plans, and keep on track.

I can't do the book justice in one post, and I would recommend you buy your own copy anyway. There are different versions of this book depending on the type of business you own. The link above is for coaches and consultants (people who sell a service); the links on the sidebar of this blog include a version for entrepreneurs who sell products.  Here's the main nugget of this book:  If you can answer 5 questions, you have all the elements you need for your business plan. Here's the five questions:

1. What are you building? (vision)
2. Why does this business exist? (mission)
   
3. What results will you measure? (objectives)
   
4. How will you build this business? (strategies)
   
5. What is the work to be done? (action plans)

For those of you who make decisions quickly, you'll be done in no time. For those of you like me, who tend to over-analyze, it will take a bit longer. But remember, it's your business plan -- change it when you wish.  You are not locking yourself in, just documenting your best thinking at this time. Review, revise, refine -- when it's just one page you can tweak it without causing you a lot of grief. 

I would love to get your feedback; please leave a comment. Do you have a business plan? Do you dread the idea of writing one? Do you think a business plan is necessary? If you buy the book, did you find it helpful?