October 2009 - Issue 64 - www.clareevans.co.uk

Welcome to all new subscribers.

Hello ,

It's been another busy month of workshops and seminars. With a highly successful Mums In Biz workshop this week, a London seminar to a room full of IFAs last month and several talks at the recent FSB Event in Worthing.

There are two events planned locally this month - one is a workshop aimed at increasing your bottom line profits by improving your time management. Did you know you could be wasting at least £300pm through poor time habits?

The second one is a short, practical workshop on creating/updating your Business Plan. So many businesses haven't dusted off or looked at their business plan since they first started up in business. Now's the time change that and create a plan to help you grow. Details are in the What's On section.

Look out for the article on Top Time Saving tips in Prima magazine this month. They've included one of my email tips. As usual several tips were submitted but only one made it into the final article.

I've also been approached to write other articles for national magazines and press. I'll keep you posted as and when they come into print.

As usual, you can get extra news and tips from my blog www.clareevans.co.uk/blog or Follow me on Twitter and keep up-to-date automatically. You can also connect with me on Linked In or Facebook.

Enjoy the rest of this month's newsletter.

Clare

P.S. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to friends and colleagues who could do with more time in their day.

Finding time to grow your business can be hard when your nose is to the grindstone and you're just trying to keep afloat or make ends meet.

Time is limited, so it's important to know what works for your business and focus on those activities that will grow it faster. Stuck in the day to day, it's hard to see the wood for the trees or to end up trying lots of different things in the hope that something will work.

This can waste a lot of time and energy. It's better to focus on a few things at a time rather than stretching yourself and your resources too thinly.  After all, according to the Pareto Principle - 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort. Find and maximise the 20%.

How much more business would you like right now? Think of a goal or target that you could complete in the next three months - by the end of the year.

   - charging x amount of billable hours,
   - getting x amount of additional clients,
   - booking x amount of training/work days,
   - increasing business by £000.

Write down your goal. Set a target date for when you're going to achieve it and how you're going to measure it.

Now decide on the strategies you're going to complete each day to enable you to achieve this goal. There are number of strategies you already use but you might not be focusing on them consistently.

   - Direct Contact/Referrals
   - Networking- online/offline
   - Phone Calls/Email
   - Public speaking/Events
   - Workshops
   - Press Releases/Advertising
   - Newsletters/Articles

Pick two or three of these strategies to focus on. Create up to 10 actions you'll complete on a daily or weekly basis. Such as:

   - Contact 10 new people (email or phone).
   - Follow-up with 10 people.
   - Attend one networking event.
   - Gather 5 new leads.
   - Arrange/attend 1 prospect/client meeting.
   - ... include a well-being action.

Create a checklist to work with over the course of the next few weeks (if you'd like a copy of the one I use - email me).

Having clearly laid out steps and actions will keep you focused. Once you're focused you're more likely to achieve what you're aiming for.

You'll be less distracted because you know exactly what you need to be doing each day to reach your target.

   - Review your checklist daily.
   - Plan and complete your actions.
   - Update your checklist.
   - Track your progress.

At the end of each week review your successes and challenges. You may need to modify your actions if you're not seeing the progress you expect. The important thing is have a clear plan of what you want to achieve and then follow it.

You can apply this process to your personal life as well - improve your health and fitness, home life, finances. Create a goal, set a target date and identify your daily actions.


To find out more about the upcoming Boost Your Business Workshop or a Coaching Package to support you through this process, email or give me a call.

Book a free consultation if you'd like to discuss your specific situation or email me at info@clareevans.co.uk.

Until next month,