I’m sure it’s happened to you. You’re passionate about your business and it takes up a lot of your life so you can’t help sharing some of it with friends and family.

They’ll ask you how your business is doing and you reply with an honest answer that may involve a challenge you’re currently facing.

It can be lonely as a business owner and you can miss having a team around you to bounce ideas around with.

However, you soon learn that family and friends often have an opinion and advice to offer you, even when it isn’t asked for.

Often this may cause some conflict for you as their advice isn’t what you want or need right now.

You see, well meaning advice from friends and family is often coming from one of two places:

1. Wanting to protect you and keep you safe. This is all very well but, in terms of running a business, keeping you safe often means ‘why don’t you ditch the business and go back to a nice safe job’. They may see all the hard work you’re putting in and the stress you are under and interpret this as ‘running a business is bad for you’. And so, in their desire to protect you, they want to take you away from what they perceive the problem to be – your business! This misses the mark completely (yes you’re busy, yes you’re stressed, but you’re also loving it and have got the entrepreneurial bug!) and you start to think that they just don’t get it, or get you anymore.
2. They’re jealous that you’ve actually done something that they would love to do but never get round to. They want to continue to bitch about their job and their boss and don’t like the fact that you are no longer joining in. They feel resentful and take any opportunity to try and knock you down a bit, in an effort to make themselves feel better.

Recognise anyone yet?

It can feel awkward in these  situations to know how to handle it and what to say, so here’s my top tips:

1. Thank them

Whenever anyone offers you advice I’d always recommend that you start off by thanking them. A simple ‘thanks for the advice, I’ll have a think about it’, will do. You don’t need to get in a discussion about it unless you want to, and this can be a good tactic for setting the scene that you are in charge of your business and make the decisions.

2. What’s their motive?

Consider briefly where they are coming from with their advice. Are they already running a successful business or have some relevant experience that means they are in a position to offer informed advice? Or are they trying to protect you in a well meaning way, or even trying to knock you down without realising it?

3. Trust your own instincts

By all means consider their advice, but don’t let this over-ride your own instincts about something. You understand your business better than anyone else.

4. Lose the ‘naysayers’

The ones who are coming from a place of trying to knock you down to make themselves feel better, sometimes you need to make the tough decision not to see them anymore. Or, at least not to talk about your business with them. Who you spend time with and surround yourself with as a business is not be underestimated – how do you feel when you spend time around positive people versus negative people?

As Jim Rohn says ‘You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with’, so choose wisely!

5. Get the support you really need

As a business owner you do need support, so figure out where you need it and build a team around you that will propel you and your business forward. By the way, this doesn’t usually include friends and family!

Examples are:

1. Mentors – experienced business owners who have already accomplished what you want to.
2. Peer group – other business owners at similar stages in their business
3. Business advisers / consultants – specialists such as accountants and solicitors, or marketing consultants that not only provide specialist advice but can also strengthen up any areas that aren’t your ‘thing’.
4. Business coach – someone who can provide accountability as well as expertise in a range of areas and a voice to challenge you and support you.

I’d love to know any experiences you’ve had with well meaning friends and family, and any extra tips you have to deal with their advice – please leave me a comment below to let me know.

This follows on from the post on ‘Why and what to outsource’.

You may have reached the point now in your business where you accept that you need to outsource, and you’ve even got an idea on what to outsource.

But something’s holding you back.

What if you can’t find someone who can do it as well as you, or to the standards you want?

What if it ends up taking more of your time to sort this out than do it yourself?

What if the person you outsource to let’s you down?

Relax – you just need to learn to let go a little and remember the reasons why you need to do it.

Do you think you could maybe be a teensy bit of a control freak? After all, most entrepreneurs are.

That’s okay – let me give you 4 steps to make outsourcing a little easier, even for control freaks!

Step 1 – Create a process or project brief

Once you’ve decided what to outsource then document the process for the task to be outsourced, or document a clear project brief for a larger, one off project.

Please don’t make the mistake of having a quick chat to agree something verbally and then letting someone run with it.

You owe it to your business and to the person you are outsourcing to, to clearly document exactly what you are expecting them to do.

Step 2 – Find the right person

Once you’ve documented what you need doing, it’s easier to find someone to match up with the skills you need.

Asking for recommendations at networking groups or from other business owners is always a great place to start.

Try putting a call out on social media, on your Facebook or Twitter account.

You can also try sites that specialise in providing outsource expertise such as elance.com or peopleperhour.com.

It’s always a safer option to go with a recommendation but it depends on the level of expertise you’re looking for and the budget you have.

You can even get quite a few small jobs outsourced at a very low cost on Fiverr.com, where everything is just $5.

Just remember that you usually get what you pay for!

Step 3 – Have a clear agreement in place

As well as detailing the work you need them to do, you should also set out a clear agreement to cover other expectations.

For example, costing’s agreed and payment terms, a communication plan setting out how and when you will communicate going forward, what to do if either of you is unhappy with the work, what tools you will use to share documents etc.

Spending a little time upfront to consider all aspects of working together and setting out your expectations will definitely make the whole process run smoother.

I’m not talking about getting a legal document drafted here – just formally setting out expectations in a format you can both review and accept.

(By the way, I use and recommend Echo Sign for ease of signing and storing agreements electronically)

Step 4 – Train & feedback

Once you’ve got the right person on board and an agreement in place, then you will need to train them sufficiently to undertake your requirements.

Depending on the task, this may be minimal and simply a case of ensuring they understand your project brief or process.

If it’s someone who is likely to be helping in your business on-going, such as a virtual assistant, then you may need to spend a little more time training them up.

Feedback is also essential – if something is bothering you let them know. Likewise, if they’ve done a great job, let them know.

If it’s a larger or on-going piece of work, then schedule feedback in regularly, don’t wait until the end of the job.

Ask them for feedback too – how was the project brief? Could you have improved your communication in some way?

That’s my 4 simple steps to outsourcing effectively. I hope it’s helped you and please leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts and how you get on. I’d love to hear your own experiences and if you have anything more to add to my 4 steps.

When you start off in business it’s perfectly natural to want to do it all yourself.

For a couple of reasons:

1. You want to learn how to do it all so you understand all areas of your business

2. You’re operating on a shoestring budget and don’t want to spend money on outsourcing yet

Plus, you have the time in the beginning to do it all, right?

When you get past this start up stage though and you find yourself still trying to do everything and complaining that you don’t have enough time to be working on your business, this should be setting off alarm bells that you need to be getting some help in your business.

Ideally you’d identify this stage beforehand so you have your support team all lined up and ready for when you need them.

Reality is often different as you’ve gotten into the habit of doing everything yourself. And habits can be tricky to break.

When I see clients in this stage in their business there is usually a little resistance to work through.

Firstly, they’ll cite money, or rather a lack of. When we explore further, it usually turns out there is enough money to outsource but it means that the business owner has to commit to bringing in the work to bring in the money.

How much extra money do you need to bring into your business to outsource the tasks you need to?

It can end up being a bit of a chicken and egg situation – outsourcing will free up your time to bring more money into your business but if you never do it, you’ll never have the money to pay for the outsourcing.

You need to detach from any view that it is your money in the business, and start to see it as money to run the business.

Of course you want to be able to take out your cut of the profits, but some if it will always need to be reinvested back into the business to enable it to continue and grow.

Once you get clear on how much money you need for the outsourcing,  figure out what you need to do to bring in the money – how many extra clients do you need? How many services do you need to sell?

Once you commit to paying to outsource, this will definitely motivate you to go out and bring in the money!

The trick is to make the commitment to outsource first, and do it, rather than always waiting until there is some spare money.

Waiting for some spare money is like waiting for someday, it never happens.

If you’re ready to commit but aren’t sure what to outsource, here are some questions to help:

What do you hate doing?

This is the stuff that you know you can do but it drains your energy and you’re always putting it off. For me, this is the techy stuff around website updates and anything related to this.

I know that I can do it, but I also know I get really frustrated by it and will probably take 4 times longer than someone who is an expert in this.

The first time I outsourced this I felt a massive relief – the work was completed whilst I got on with bringing new clients to my business. It was worth every penny and I remind myself of this every time I get tempted to think ‘maybe I’ll just have a tinker around with it myself…’

What are the jobs in your business that you hate doing and would give you immense relief to outsource to someone else?

What are you rubbish at?

Be honest now, we all have areas we’re not very good at, so what’s yours?

What areas do you feel a bit embarrassed about, or think are unprofessional and amateur?

To give you another example from me, right at the beginning I realised that I’m pretty rubbish at design stuff so I outsourced this early on. I’ll still have a dabble in this occasionally but the results always leave me feeling embarrassed to associate it with my business.

Maybe for you it’s the book-keeping that you struggle to get to add up, or maybe it’s writing your marketing material.

Don’t be tempted to cut corners and come across as unprofessional - work to your strengths and get help with the rest.

What can you pay someone else to do at a lower cost than your time is worth?

As a business owner, a good chunk of your time should be spent on bringing money into your business. If you’re spending time on other stuff then chances are, you can find someone else to do it at a much lower rate.

Are you spending some of your time as a highly paid admin assistant for example?

Areas like admin and customer service can often be outsourced at a very reasonable cost.

What will free up time for you to work on your business?

This may be something outside of your business where you need to outsource some tasks in your personal life to give you extra time in your business.

Maybe getting a cleaner or gardener, if you don’t have one already.

There are also lots of concierge type services out there and virtual assistants who will sort out anything from collecting parcels to organising holidays and social events.

Business owners who know how to outsource produce significantly better results.

Knowing this, I want you to come up with 1 to 3 areas that you are going to commit to outsource and go do it!

Leave me a comment to let me know what you commit to.

You know that as a business owner you should be working ON your business and not just IN it right? But the reality is that you just don’t have the time.

There’s always something that needs doing urgently, and a to-do list as long as your arm to work through.

Is it really damaging your business that much?

Well, I guess it depends. If everything’s going well and you’re on track for achieving your objectives then possibly not.

If however, you’re running around all the time, never quite able to stay on top of everything, or struggling to take any time away from your business, or not achieving the income you want from your business, then I guess it is.

I completely get how difficult it can be when you are busy to take a step back and work on your business, but it’s exactly because of this ‘busyness’ that you need to.

Working on the day to day stuff is unlikely to help you change your situation to enable you to work less hours, take a break and make more money.

To achieve this it’s necessary to step back and work on the big picture of your business.

Imagine that you are being taken up in a helicopter to hover directly over your business – what does it look like? What are the component parts?

This is where you need to go to work on your business. Here are my 5 steps to help you.

Step 1 – Commit

Before you can do anything you need to commit to making this happen and to recognise that it’s necessary to achieve your goals. Once you fully commit to doing this then the rest of the steps become easier.

Step 2 – Plan what you are going to do

Using your helicopter view, what areas of your overall business do you need to be working on?

Here are some common areas I work on with clients to help your thinking get started:

1. Setting clear objectives
2. Processes and systems
3. Marketing strategy and plan (getting customers)
4. Customer feedback and review
5. Management information
6. Improving profitability

Pick the ones that are going to make the biggest impact and will be the easiest for you to work on.

Step 3 – Schedule time in

I know you don’t have the time, but hopefully by now you’ve made the commitment to do this so the only way it’s going to happen is if you schedule time in, right now, in your diary.

That ‘half a day’ sometime is never going to magically appear unless you commit to scheduling it in.

How much time you should schedule in depends on different factors such as the stage your business is at right now. Unfortunately once you move out of start-up and into the growth stage of your business, is usually the time when you need to work on your business the most but is also when you have the least time to do it!

As a loose rule of thumb I’d recommend between 3-8 hours a month.

But if you can only commit to schedule in half an hour right now then that it’s still better than nothing.

Schedule in something, right now!

Make this time non-negotiable and do not be tempted to move it. This should be up there with your highest priorities.

Step 4 – Get some help

This isn’t essential but is certainly useful. Sometimes you just want to bounce around ideas with other people, as well as be challenged in a constructive way.

Getting some other input will help to make the output of working on your business a lot stronger than trying to do it alone.

Who do you know who would be willing to take this role? Maybe a senior level employee? Maybe another business owner? Maybe a coach or mentor?

Step 5 – Invest in your key asset

Also known as YOU, the business owner. Working on developing your skills and expertise as a business owner is time spent working on your business.

Identify what support and training that you need to help you achieve your objectives in the business. Come up with 2 or 3 areas that you are willing to invest in over the next year, and how they are going to help you to grow your business.

I’d love to hear what action you are going to take after reading this, so please leave me a comment to let me know.

Reality shot – when you’re running your own business things don’t always go smoothly.

In fact, sometimes things go right off the rails and you’re left questioning yourself again about why the hell are you doing this?

Things will go wrong at times.

I know this only too well from my own business.

I work around school and nursery days (my choice), which means I have around 6 hours max of working time each day. (Except Friday’s, I take these off with my youngest until she starts school full time)

This means I have 24 hours a week into which I need to fit my client appointments, networking meetings, marketing activity, admin work and all the other stuff involved in running a business.

And that’s assuming I work at full pelt with no breaks or unproductive time!

Okay, I do work in the evenings sometimes and occasionally at the weekend but, again, that’s my choice. I also get help in some areas.

That is why I have to focus on my own productivity and why I’m so keen to help other business owners work on theirs.

I like to think I’m pretty good at this, but I have learnt (and continue to learn) ways that work for me to get the most out of my time

What my reasonably tight schedule and productive week doesn’t allow for though is when something goes wrong.

One of the areas I get really frustrated with is when technology does not work as it is supposed to.

What about you? What kinds of things go wrong in your business that have you tearing your hair out?

Only this past week my laptop packed up on me again. (It’s been off for repair 3 times now in the last 2 months)

It wouldn’t start up at all. Although there are things I can do on my iPad it’s not the same, and I can’t do everything.

I was feeling very frustrated and annoyed that this had happened and interrupted my plans for the week.

In fact, I was feeling so frustrated that I thought I’d better work through it as I don’t have a cat to kick (of course I would never really kick a cat even if I did have one, just an expression!)

So, I had to try and come out of a crap situation with something good and I reckon that you experience this frustration in your business too, so here’s my 3 steps on how to handle it when something goes wrong. 

 1. What can you do about?

Part of my frustration stems from a lack of control around the situation, and I suspect yours does too. So the first thing to look at is what you can do, rather than what you can’t do.

In my case, that was to ring the company who I contract with to support my laptop and arrange a callout.

Once that was sorted, I looked at the work I had planned to do and figured out what I could still get done and what would have to wait.

So next time something goes wrong in your business, start off by focusing on what you can do about the situation and do it, rather than worrying about what you can’t do.

2. What can you do to reduce the risk of it happening again?

If there’s anything worse than something going wrong then it’s the same thing going wrong repeatedly. Ask yourself what you can do to reduce the risk of it happening again.

You may need to put in a new process or get some specialist support.

I’d already experienced issues with my laptop so had already put in place a process for a regular back up and had taken out a contract for technical support. Although the issue happened again for me, it meant that I wouldn’t lose anything important, except time!

3. What can you learn from it?

There is always more to learn when things go wrong than when things go right, so take a few minutes to reflect on this and consider what the situation has taught you.

I’d already learned that I need specialist support with my laptop so knew who to call straight away.

This time it also reminded me that I can’t control everything, and when things don’t go according to my plan I need to adapt and roll with it.

Leave me a comment below to share any experiences you’ve had of things going wrong, and how you’ve handled it.

Why bother with testimonials?

It’s about getting ‘social proof’ – people who are interested in  buying from you are also interested to see and hear what other people have said, who have already bought from you.

When you are looking to make a purchase nowadays, you are surrounded by a mass of information to help you in the the buying decision.

Forget the old ‘buyer beware’, it’s more about ‘seller beware’ now as your potential customers may know more about what you are selling than you do.

How many times do you go and research something online or ask your networks before making a purchase?

It’s rare to find a website nowadays that doesn’t include some form of customer ratings and reviews.

It’s reassuring to buyers to read (or watch) a review of someone who they relate to, and is likely to help them make their decision about whether to buy or not.

Avoid the blah, blah, blah…

Having testimonials is no longer something you can do to be different to your competitors. It’s expected that your competitors will have them too.

It is possible to stand out with them though by thinking about how you get them and how you use them.

Go and have a look at some of the testimonials on your competitor sites and see what they say. Lots are likely to sound very similiar and be quite generic e.g. “Company x provided a great service and we wouldn’t hesitate to use them again” Blah, blah, blah…

This is often because we leave it up to our customers to come up with something off the cuff, and we can all struggle to come up with something when put on the spot.

Make it easy for your customers to give you testimonials that stand out by asking them these 3 questions

1. What was your situation before working with me / making the purchase?
2. How is it different now? What has changed?
3. What would you say to someone who is thinking of working with me / buying this product?

Adapt them to fit your business, but you are looking to get them to describe their problems that led them to work with you, how what you have sold them has made a difference to this, and giving some advice to those customers who are thinking about making a purchase from you.

It should still be in the customer’s words, you’re just giving them a framework to make it easier for them.

Do people often tell you that they will do a testimonial for you, but then never get round to it?

This has happened to me – lots!

I’d ask if someone was happy to give me a testimonial and they’d usually say something along the lines of ‘yes, of course, I’ll send something over to you.’

And then, nothing! I used to leave it, thinking that I don’t want to pester people. BUT then I realised that I do exactly the same thing!

People were asking me for testimonials, which I was happy to do, and they’d sit there on my to-do list waiting for that elusive moment ‘when I had time’. Have you ever done this?

This is why you need to make it easy for people to do.

Once you have your questions ready, rather than emailing them over, ask them when you see them next or give them a call. Write down their responses and email it over to them for them to approve.

Reading something and editing it it much easier than having to start from a blank sheet.

Using this approach has worked every time for me. Try it out.

Video testimonials are also becoming really popular, though not everyone is up for doing these!

Ask your customers if you can film them. You can get a good quality video nowadays from your smartphone, you don’t need to hire a professional.

Keep your eyes peeled for ad-hoc testimonials

By this I mean those times when someone sends you an email to thank you, or leaves some feedback on your Facebook page or on Twitter or something else.

Here’s a little tip I use - if someone gives me some feedback on Twitter, I mark it as ‘Favourite’ so that it’s saved to my Favourites list to access at any point.

I can then use this in future marketing material, with their consent of course. (I always ask if someone is happy for me to use their comments, even if they’ve left it in a relatively public place such as Twitter or Facebook.)

How and where to use them

Okay, once you’ve got them, consider how you can use them to help your future customers make a decision to buy from you.

It used to be considered good practice to set up a ‘testimonials’ page if you have a website. This can still help but I think that these are a bit dated nowadays and don’t help to distinguish you.

I’ve just got rid of mine, and instead am now using testimonials interspersed on the pages where I am talking about ‘work with me‘ or the events that I run.

After all, why make it harder for your customers to see this information if it’s of value to them?

Think about how you break up the content so it’s not too wordy. For example, use screenshots of comments from Facebook and Twitter – it can stand out as it’s not too wordy.

Here’s a couple I’ve used to help you think about what you can do:

This was a comment posted to my Facebook page from a 1-to-1 client after one of our sessions.  It was unprompted and didn’t use my question formula but impromptu comments like these are not only great for you to have as a business owner, but your customers will like to read them too.

This was posted to Twitter by one of the attendees on my Rock Your Business Bootcamp, after our first day together:

Over to you…

Spend just 5 or 10 minutes now to consider how you are going to use testimonials to stand out, and how you are going to get them.

Leave me a comment to let me know what action you are going to take.

Does the thought of selling your services or products leave you with an uncomfortable, icky feeling? Are you squirming right now?

First things first – you are absolutely not alone. Most business owners feel like this at some point. It’s perfectly normal.

BUT, assuming you want your business to be profitable, you are going to have to get over it.

I don’t want to be harsh but I do want to be truthful with you – if you think you can ‘build it and they will come’ or that your services or products will ‘sell themselves’ then you are deluding yourself and will end up with a hobby not a business.

Let me help you get a bit more comfortable with the whole idea of selling and ensure your business is on the track to making money.

1.     Start with your customers

Your starting point should always be your customer. Who are they and what are their problems? How do your products and services ease their problems?

It’s all about them and how you are going to add value to them.

If you don’t believe you can add value to them then you should not be trying to sell to them – this is not being authentic and I don’t believe this is what you’re about.

Always focus on your customer and what they need, not on what you are offering.

Ask them questions. Be curious. Really get to know them better.

2.     Be clear in your offering

Once you know how you can help them, TELL THEM.

It may sound obvious but this step often gets missed.

Maybe you think you already have at some point. Maybe you mentioned it during a conversation. Maybe it’s there somewhere on your website.

Don’t leave it to chance – be really clear in telling your customer what you have to offer them, how it will help them and how they can buy it.

Don’t confuse them here with too many options or being vague about how they can purchase.

Spell it out for them and make it easy for them to buy.

3.     Practice

If you’re going to be having face to face meetings, or even talking to prospects on the phone, practice beforehand.

Rope in a good friend to role play the prospect for you and practice going through it until you feel comfortable and confident.

Pick someone who will give you honest feedback for this – you need to refine it as you go through it.

If you’re feeling brave, record it so you can give yourself feedback too.

4.     Find more ways to talk to more people

Technology nowadays can make it easy to think you can sit locked away in your office and still sell to your customers via social media or your website.

This is, of course, possible, and it can be a great way to reach lots of people quickly. The problem can be the other noise out there distracting them from your business. We’re all a bit overwhelmed with emails and social media updates right now, so a lot can come down to timing with this.

Face to face is always the most effective way to build a connection with someone and develop the ‘know, like and trust’ factor so that they become your customer.

Consider doing talks where your future customers are hanging out.

Don’t dismiss the phone either. This comes a close 2^nd to face to face in building a connection and is harder to ignore than an email.

Think about ways you can reach your target customers and get out there talking to them.

5.     Follow up

People will rarely buy at the first contact. It often takes several meetings, calls, emails before someone is ready to buy.

Don’t be put off by this.

Following up is not about being pushy either. It’s as simple as staying in touch and checking in with them to see how they’re doing.

Make sure you always take a prospect’s contact details so that you can stay in touch with them.

6.     Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose

Don’t get attached to a sale. Sometimes it will come through and sometimes it won’t. So what.

If you’re the business owner it’s easy to take a ‘no thanks’ as a rejection.

‘No’ doesn’t mean they don’t love you!

Happy selling.

If you’ve already been working on improving your productivity and time management but are still struggling to get everything done, in this short (under 5 minutes) video I explain what you may be missing.

Let me know what you think and what action you are going to take by leaving a comment below.

Do you have some big dreams you want to achieve?

Maybe one day you’d really like to cut down on the hours you put into your business so you have time to take up that new hobby you’ve always wanted to do.

Maybe one day you’d like to make enough money in your business to put your kids through private school, or jet off on a couple of luxury exotic breaks each year.

Do your dreams feel any closer right now or are they still as far away as ever?

If they’re still a ‘one day’ or a ‘some day’ then you may be missing a little commitment.

Either of these sound familiar to you?

‘Once I have some more time, then I’ll be able to ……..’

or how about,

‘Once I have some more money, then I’ll be able to ……..’

Hard truth time – these are excuses!  You are kidding yourself if you think something will miraculously happen and you will suddenly find yourself with more time or more money to go and make your dreams reality.

What you need to do is fully commit.

It’s as simple as that!

Until you fully commit to your vision of what you want, you’ll always be waiting for a ‘one day’.

You either want this thing or you don’t, right?

If you decide you want it, then you need to want it bad enough to make it happen.

No more dreaming about the ‘one day’, what are you prepared to do to make it a reality? Start writing it down now.

Stop making the time and money excuses.

If you want it enough then you will find the time and you will find the money. What do you need to sacrifice to get there? What can you stop spending time and money on and divert these resources to your dreams instead?

Get creative – look at ways you can achieve these things rather than the obstacles you see right now.

Once you fully commit to what you want you will start to find ways to make it happen, rather than excuses as to why its not.

I know that it can be scary to commit. After all, what if you fail? Well, then you’re no worse off than never trying. Except that you’ve probably learnt loads of things that will help you next time.

If you never fully commit you also have a ready made excuse as to why you never did it.  But do you really want to look back and think ‘if only…’ or would you rather look back and know that you gave it everything you’ve got?

This is one of my favourite quotes on commitment that I want to share with you;

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”  Goethe

What are you going to begin now?

If you’re still feeling uncertain about your dreams, or you want some support to clarify what you need to do to achieve them, I’d love to help you. (It’s what I do best!) Simply book in a 30 minute ’find out more’ call with me here and you may be amazed at the progress you make in just 30 minutes.

In part one we looked at one of the reasons your productivity can lapse when you become self employed.

It’s often the very reason you set up your own business; to escape the ‘boss’ and create a more flexible approach to working.

But, this new flexible way of working often results in you doing the things you are most comfortable with there comes a day when you suddenly find yourself saying ‘if only I had a boss to hold me accountable, I would get more done’.

Hey, what’s that all about then?

It’s about your secret weapon number 3.

Weapon number 3 = Accountability

It comes up time and time again from my clients as one of the reasons they seek out a business coach and is a part of coaching that they place a high value on.

When you publicly declare your intention to do something, it is much more powerful than keeping it a secret that only you know about.

Somehow, by publicly declaring you are going to do something, ‘magic’ starts to happen. Where before, you would find excuses why you couldn’t do something, now you have to find a way to make it happen.

After all, once you’ve declared you’re going to do something you can’t not deliver on that, can you??

How can you make accountability work for you without resorting to finding a boss?

Step 1 - Find an accountability partner

Think carefully about this one.

Be clear on what you’re looking for and be honest about what will work best for you.

Will you be more accountable if you are paying for this, such as hiring a business coach or mentor, or joining a paid mastermind group?

They will need to be someone who you trust and are happy to share confidential info with.

One word of caution – be wary of putting family members or close friends in this role. This very often doesn’t work as we tend to not feel so accountable to them and try and explain our lack of action away!

Draw up a short list of possible candidates and have a chat to sound them out and figure out which one will get the most out of you.

Step 2 – Draw up an agreement

In order for you both to take this seriously and be professional I strongly recommend that you draft an agreement. Nothing complicated, but summarise what you are both expected to do and what you expect in return.

Step 3 – Agree a structure

What are the practical details you need to agree?

For example, how often will you talk? Will this be face to face or over the phone? How will you keep them updated? How will they follow up with you? And very importantly, how will they challenge you if you are not taking the action you commit to?

Step 4 – Try it & refine it

Now go do it!

See what works and what doesn’t, and keep refining it until you have a process in place to keep you accountable and taking action to reach your goals without having to go out and find yourself a boss!

Leave me a comment to let me know what action you are going to take and how you get on – I’d love to know.