• 19Mar

  Find A Great Service Provider

  Business and Health, Inspiration for Business, entrepreneur to ceo 4 Comments

  As a CEO, it’s vital that you find, create and maintain great relationships with the right service providers to support various aspects of your business. Remember, these ARE the people that help your business flowing when you’re absent, expanding to new heights and thriving during the most challenging economic times.

  Keep the primary focus of your business at the forefront of your mind as you consider these relationships. You may have the skills to handle lots of activities in your business. Is this the best use of your time and skills? More importantly, are these activities helping you to leverage your strengths? Are you truly the best person to handle the activity? These are tough questions you’ve gotta ask yourself. The answers are equally tough and lead you to the best place for your business. The bottomline is: if the activity takes you away from your primary focus, it’s not in the best interest of your business.

  Here are a few considerations:

  What do you want the service provider to do for you?
  List all of the things you do everyday to keep your business going. Outsource ALL activities out of alignment with your primary focus. Remember, if it’s not a good use of your expertise then you MUST let it go, delegate it, or outsource it so you can focus on doing that for which you’re best suited.

  Do they have the skills to provide the services at the level you want?
  Unfortunately, someone telling you they know how to do something doesn’t mean they actually know how to do it. If you’re like me, you have a certain way you like things handled and it’s all part of your brand and reputation. Ask detailed questions and get referrals so you know the exact capabilities of the provider. It pays HUGE dividends in the long and short run.

  How will the service provider support your overall business goals/objectives?
  Managing your service provider involves sharing your vision and goals with them. You want the service provider to know the big picture and how things work together so they have a greater sense of what’s important. It’s also a great opportunity to determine if your business values and work ethic are closely aligned.

  These considerations are just the beginning of creating a great relationship with service providers. The relationships with the service provider you choose will be an integral part of the success of your business. In my next post, I’ll share details about specific “soft skills” that are VERY important to the selection process. These skills are equally important to keep your business moving and shaking.

  Share your comments about how you select your service providers.

  Tags: encouragement for business, entrepreneur to ceo, hiring the right staff, service providers

• 01Jan

  Your Business Facelift

  Business and Health, Inspiration for Business, Inspiration for Life, entrepreneur to ceo 9 Comments

  2009 is here! You’ve looked at areas of your business and resolved to do things differently this year. If you’re like I used to be, your resolutions may be long forgotten by February. It’s rather exciting to know there is a more productive approach that ensures success in incorporating incremental shifts and powerful change into your life and business.

  Here are six smart ways to give your business a facelift right now:

  1. Values – Identify them and adjust your business around them.
  When you know what’s important, it makes it very easy to make business decisions about what you do, when you do it and how you do it. Priorities for your business are clearer and success is eminent. Your business will immediately come into focus. You’ll notice it almost immediately! You just gave your business a facelift that will last and last.

  2. Time of Tranquility – Make it and keep it!
  I’ve heard people say they don’t have time for tranquility. I say you can’t afford NOT to take care of your mind, body and especially your spirit. Work toward spending time alone to reflect, replenish and prepare for the next day or week ahead. As a nocturnal person, I enjoy this quiet time in the wee hours of the night or morning. It’s well worth the investment of time to guarantee peace, renewal and resilience.

  3. Free Yourself from the Mental Clutter.
  Stop trying to be all things to all people at all times – it’s just not possible. Once you stop trying, give yourself permission to stay that way. It’s the flight safety instructions all over again. Practice extreme self-care to safeguard your mind, body and spirit with vigilance. Freeing yourself of the mental clutter allows you up to support your clients with stellar results. What a wonderful way to take care of yourself and your business!

  4. Look for Peace in all things.
  Do your best to make peace in every situation and circumstance. Next time you feel tension rising in your relationships, remember that it takes two people for tension to exist. Looking for peace improves your listening skills and turns the volume up on respect for others. Try this one and watch your relationships grow stronger. Your clients will love you!

  5. Accept what is and what is not and act accordingly.
  What’s a shoulda, woulda, coulda or cain’t anyway? Face reality rather than guessing at what might have been. Then, and only then, do you move forward. Acceptance goes a long way to building inner peace and contentment – the much-needed element of an effective business facelift!

  6. Do your best in whatever you do.
  Doing your best not only shows others you’ve got what it takes. It also creates a strong sense of accomplishment to balance out the challenges and obstacles. Build up a string of achievements and write them down. You’ll balance the scales and consistently feel the lift.

  Even if you dedicate yourself to just one of these ways, you’ll see remarkable results from your business facelift. You’ll have more fun and appreciate your clients, too.

  How will you give your business a facelift today? This 5-minute video will definitely get you started:

  Tags: acceptance, business relationships, business values, entrepreneur to ceo, entrepreneurial motivation, mental clutter

• 16Dec

  Time to Put Your Plan Into Action

  Business and Health, Inspiration for Business, entrepreneur to ceo 3 Comments

  You’ve created your strategic action plan and now it’s time to put it to work for you. As you created the plan, plenty of ideas for implementation surfaced. You remember, you kept asking yourself, “How am I going to make this happen?” Now is the time to actually answer that all important question and focus on action.

  From my days as a project manager, I know implementation is a critical phase of any action plan. So critical in fact that it requires the same degree of attention that’s gone into your plan thus far. Implementation this is truly where the bulk of the action on your plan happens.

  Consider the outcomes.
  Paint yourself a vivid picture of what successful implementation means for you. What would you like to be able to say about how your role as a CEO favorably affected your business in six months from now? Or a year from now? Outline the specific steps you’ll take to realize your vision. Incorporate the detailed steps into your strategic plan as the next, concrete layer requiring action.

  Identify the members of your team who must be involved.
  Think of the talents and skills required to complete the work. Things may get a little tricky if you fail to assign the right tasks to the person MOST qualified to get the work done. If someone on your team doesn’t possess the skills, add a team member that does. Right person to right job! Enough said?

  Communicate your plan to the team.
  Boy, is this step ever omitted! Your team MUST know the breadth and width of your plan so they can fully support it. If your team doesn’t have a FULL view of the plan, it makes it harder for them to adapt to any changes that may occur. Keep the lines of communication open throughout implementation to ensure constant engagement from the team.
  
  Acknowledge and eliminate hurdles or roadblocks.
  You may encounter challenges in even the best strategic plans. Encountering a problem is not the issue; finding the solution is. Focus on the root and know that a solution is possible when you’re empowered to arrive at resolution. Determine that there is only room for success!

  Execute, evaluate, adapt and evolve.
  Be patient as you implement and make room for growth and change. This is a tough area and thankfully, you can prepare yourself to readily overcome any challenges that arise. The possibilities are limitless when you’re open to the evolution occurring as a direct result of you implementing your plan.

  Finally, keep the big picture in mind. Focus on your overall goals; monitor and measure your progress; and make note of what works. We’ll talk more about these aspects in the next post in this series.

  As you put your plan into action, remain flexible and be willing to do what needs to be done to get the job done. It’s YOUR time to make it happen!

  When do you know you’re ready to put your strategic plan into action?

  Tags: entrepreneur to ceo, entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial roles, implementation, milestones, overcome roadblocks, strategic action plan

« Previous Entries