If you're having trouble finding the time and energy to market your business, it may be your habits are to blame! You can't grow your business if you aren't marketing consistently and putting yourself in front of people who are already looking for your solutions. And you can't market consistently if you have poor time management and productivity habits. What you CAN do is make simple shifts in your mindset to break through these challenges and make progress in reaching your goals. In this week's podcast, I share some simple ways you can change your habits to find more time for marketing.

If your time management and productivity habits are holding you back, it will be impossible to grow your business. That's why it's so important to start building good habits that support your marketing needs and help you reach your goals. I know what it's like to try to overhaul your life (and habits!) in one fell swoop. It doesn't work so well! But what ALWAYS works is taking one step at a time. Here's where you start:

Do you find that your marketing efforts are haphazard and all over the place? If so, you're not alone. Consistency is the one area where entrepreneurs often have the most trouble. It's an area to give careful attention though, because in order to grow your business and your income, you need to consistently connect with people who are already looking for what you have to offer. (Really, that's all marketing is.)

Focusing on just a FEW key marketing strategies at a time – and not spreading yourself too thin – is guaranteed to get you the best results. Honing in on these strategies and doing them week in and week out will ensure your target market remembers you are available to serve them and give them an opportunity to purchase what you have to offer.

Even if you are not a structured, scheduled kind of person, you can make improvements in this regard. (Believe me, it takes one to know one...I'm not the most structured person you ever wanted to meet!) Creating consistency with your marketing efforts is as simple as picking two to three strategies, creating systems for them and working your plan each and every day.

Here's a few tips that I you can model for your business to help get your marketing on track and implemented consistently:

• Schedule time for marketing EACH day and EACH week: I know this sounds simple but don’t disregard it! You likely have at least one recurring appointment on your calendar each week, whether it is for business or your personal life. You keep that appointment each week because it's important to you and see the benefits of doing so. You need to have the same approach to your marketing. You can’t leave it to chance. Even if you just spend 30 minutes a day focusing on taking specific action to grow your business, you will see a significant increase in your profits.
• Do your marketing FIRST thing: How do you start your day? Do you have a habit of starting each day by reading email? Bad idea. That pulls you right into reactive mode; doing what other people need you to do and want you to do. Of course, there is certainly a place for that. You do need to set aside time to respond to the messages you receive. However, you don’t have to START your day in that mode. Choose instead to start your day with a marketing activity. Update your blog. Follow-up with prospective clients. Write your email newsletter. Update your social media profiles. Whatever the activity is, you’re starting your day focused on growth. You’ll start seeing immediate results from your consistent efforts.
• Work your plan: One of the reasons many entrepreneurs struggle with their marketing is because they are trying to do too much and don’t know where to start first. When you follow a plan, you’ll keep yourself from wasting time and money on strategies that don’t fit you. You’ll consistently enjoy better results (ie: more profits!) because you are taking focused action. If you have not yet developed your plan for the coming year, you can use my plug and play system to Create Your Money Map.
• Be accountable to yourself:Left to our own devices, NONE of us will stay as focused on our goals as we need to be. We are constantly being inundated with new information, opportunities and distractions each day. And it is very easy to flake out on ourselves. So it’s imperative that you create an accountability system for yourself.This is what makes marketing coaching so powerful. You have a mentor, who has already walked in your shoes, to help you strategize, hold your feet to the fire for the promises you make, and help you work through your excuses and eliminate where you stand in your own way. Investing in the right coach is the BEST investment you can make in YOURSELF. When you show up fully and do the work, investing in coaching always, always pays for itself! No entrepreneur should be without a coach or a mentor and that includes you. If you haven’t already partnered with a coach, I would love to connect with you, learn about your goals and your struggles and discuss how we can work together to create more profits and more success in your business. To schedule your FREE strategy session, you just need to share with me a few details about your business. (Don't worry! What you share is just between you and me.)

You don't have to overhaul your entire operation to get organized and start marketing your business consistently. With a few simple tweaks and consistent effort you WILL get results! Schedule time for marketing each day, start your days off with marketing your business, work your plan and create accountability for yourself. In no time at all, you’ll start seeing an increase in visibility, clients and income!

Which tip will you implement first? Please share your thoughts with me on the blog!

Joseph Ghabi once said: “Your life will begin changing the moment you decide that you want it to.”

I’ve found that the same is true for growing your business. If you want to see different results than what you’ve seen in the past, you must make a heartfelt decision to do things differently. You need to start with making over your mindset.

Mental blocks can hold you back and keep you from achieving your goals. When you sit down to work on your business are you clear and focused, or is your mind cluttered with ideas, client requests, overdue items and more?

The FIRST step to achieving your goals is de-cluttering and organizing your mind. When you do this, you’ll be able to clearly define what you want to accomplish and start taking the necessary action to achieve your goals.

If a never ending to do list, too many ideas for marketing your business, missed opportunities and a constant state of overwhelm are running your life, it’s time to clear out the old and get organized. When you do this, you’ll find that it’s easier to focus on marketing your business consistently and effectively.

Here are seven simple practices that you can use NOW to do just that:

• Document EVERYTHING! – When your brain is busy trying to keep track of the many details that are floating around your head, you begin to feel stressed out and overwhelmed. Write down everything! For years, my husband told me to do this but I ignored him – until I finally started to see that there was too much for me to manage on my own. Once I started taking his advice, EVERYTHING changed. The same can be true for you. Get a notebook if you prefer the pen and paper type of note taking, or use Evernote. No matter how you do it – start documenting every aspect of how you run and market your business. Getting it all out of your head and onto paper is going to relieve a tremendous amount of stress.
• Create a login file – In this day and age, the number of accounts you need to log into on a daily basis seems to be growing each week! Keeping track of all that information in your head is a surefire recipe for disaster. Have ONE spreadsheet where you keep all of this information. Be sure to write down everything – your blog dashboard, social media profiles, email marketing system, etc. You’ll be able to save time looking for what you need.
• Use a notebook to capture all of your ideas – Apart from your procedures and to do list notebook, you should create a space where you can write down all of your new ideas. Entrepreneurs have no problem generating great new ideas – but it’s far too easy to forget about them or allow them to distract you from your profit plan. Keeping your ideas in one spot will make it easy for you to refer back to those ideas often so you can actually implement them. Imagine how you can increase your profits when you start taking action on your great ideas?
• Use just ONE to-do list – If your daily task list is in 7 different spots, you’re going to feel distracted and scattered. Keep everything in one list – there are countless options, so just choose one and stick with it! Once you’ve picked the best option for you, commit to using this one system for your tasks and projects. Using a web based system will make it easy to delegate tasks to other people.
• Plan ahead with your content – Many entrepreneurs feel stuck with marketing because they aren’t sure what to do. Just start with one month – plan out what you’ll be doing in the upcoming month. Pick a date to publish each piece, plan out the theme for your content and jot down some ideas for your newsletter, blog posts or social media updates. When you sit down to write your marketing materials you’ll crank out your content quickly and easily.
• Create a Master Schedule Template – If you find yourself looking back at the end of the week and wondering where the time went, you need to implement this right away! Using a weekly calendar, you can designate blocks of time where you’ll work on certain aspects of your business. For example, reserve Monday from 9 am to 12 pm for marketing, 1 pm to 3 pm for writing, 3 pm to 5 pm for email management and so on. Start by inserting recurring tasks (like client meetings, marketing times, meeting with your coach, etc) and then designate other blocks of time for your other activities. Don’t leave your essential tasks to chance! Make a plan for when you’ll do them and you’ll boost your productivity.
• Set clear boundaries – Once you get this support system into place, you need to follow through and stick with it! Commit to yourself that you’ll honor what you’ve set out to do. Turn off email notifications and other distractions. Make sure that friends and family know when you’re available to chat. You can also create accountability for yourself by working with a coach or mentor to help you.

Marketing and growing your business isn’t impossible – but it does require planning and consistency to work. When you de-clutter your mind and organize your materials, you will be able to see the results you’ve been looking for and fully enjoy a successful business.

Which tip will you implement first? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments below!

If you want to change the results you are seeing in your business, you have to change your actions. The truth is, you DO have the time to market consistently. You just need to "buy it out" from other activities and use it to work towards your goals. Follow these five steps to eliminate the time wasting activities that are holding you back from success:    

1. "I don't have enough time to market"
2. "I don't have enough money to market my business"
3. "I'm too overwhelmed to market"

If you find that you have similar thoughts running through your mind, I have good news for you! There are simple strategies you can tap into to bust through these excuses and find the time, money and organization that you need to market consistently. Once you put these excuses behind you, you’ll be able to create the successful business that you’ve always wanted.

• “I don’t have enough time to market” – When you own your own business, you often wear a number of different "hats" each day. From following up with clients to planning new programs, to doing the actual work of your service business, your day is packed with various tasks. But marketing is an essential activity that you have to make time for on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. By diligently setting asides specific blocks of time to work on your marketing, you can easily create massive visibility for your work in just a few hours each week. With just a bit of planning, you’ll be able to fit marketing no matter how busy your schedule seems.

• “I don’t have enough money to market my business.” – If you’re thinking of marketing in terms of sending out direct mail pieces, buying advertising space or printing flyers, you may think that you don’t have enough money for marketing. While it’s true that there are many marketing activities that cost money, there are dozens of free to low-cost ways to market your services. For example, leveraging social media and hosting teleseminars is not only very effective but completely free. Don't try to reinvent the week and make the process more difficult than it needs to be!  By implementing low-cost marketing methods you can increase your reach even on a budget.

• “I’m too overwhelmed to market.” – If this is your mantra, it’s time to change your perspective about your business. No matter how busy you are with your current clients, you need to  market consistently to keep your pipeline full and your income steady. The solution lies in your creating s specific marketing plan to achieve your goals and then working that plan. In doing so you will avoid getting distracted by irrelevant opportunities and feelings of overwhelm, because you will be taking action on the RIGHT activities week in and week out.  This will help you feel more positive, in control and less overwhelmed - all while you are consistently enrolling ideal clients into your practice.

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right” – Henry Ford. We are all gifted the same amount of time each day.  What you choose to do with that time is entirely up to you.  But know this, you will not grow your business and achieve your goals if you don't market your solutions.  So you can't afford NOT to invest time and financial resources into connecting with the people that need what you have to offer.   Don’t allow excuses to stand in the way of your ability to create the profitable and successful business you deserve!

YOUR ACTION PLAN FOR THIS WEEK

1.       Take note of how you spend your work day. Chances are you can eliminate common time wasters to create at least 1-2 hours that can be spent on marketing each day.

2.       Make an appointment with yourself, within the next seven days to block out time to create your marketing plan.

3.       During your appointment with yourself, research ways to automate your marketing. For example, create a schedule for updating your blog and pre-plan your monthly posting schedule and how/where you will distribute that information.

4.       Schedule time each week to implement your marketing plan. Don't leave this to chance or allow anything to interfere with this appointment.

5.       Keep going! Once you’ve taken the time to establish a marketing plan, keep taking action and work your plan week after week.

Why?

For solo service professionals, your personal and business lives are often intertwined.  It is important to recognize this potential problem because it could actually be holding you back in achieving the business success you are looking for.   For example, let's say you are just plain discouraged with your life right now.

Your personal life is less than stellar - maybe you haven't had a date in awhile, or you and your significant other have been at odds with each other lately.  Then, you start to focus on the things "wrong" with your life and you get discouraged with everything, including your business.  You start to think that you can't be as successful as you want to be because of your competition, lack of knowledge or lack of funds to take a continuing education course, or whatever.

Once you get "down in the dumps" about yourself and your business, that's exactly what you project to everyone else.  That in and of itself will limit your progress.  That negative energy you are putting out to everyone and to the world around you will only attract more negative energy.

So how do you fix this?

If you have felt "stuck" with where you're at in your business, especially as it relates to accomplishing the goals you've set for yourself,  I want to assure you that it is possible to get "un-stuck", breakthrough the challenges you're facing and get back in gear.

How?

First, stop being so hard on yourself.  Many times when I start working with a new client, I find that they've been spinning their wheels trying to move forward and are feeling very frustrated that they aren't making progress.  It's all too easy to put undue pressure on yourself and to feel buried under feelings of guilt.  All this is doing is draining your energy and distracting you from moving forward.

So, if you've been feeling this way...let it GO!  Stop being so hard on yourself! Getting distracted can happen to the best of us and if this has happened to you, it doesn't mean you're a "failure".  You can't change the past, but you can most certainly take control of your future, starting today. Forgive yourself, make the commitment to change and open your eyes to see all of the possibilities in front of you.

Second, take stock of your assets.  You likely have a lot of good things going for you in your business.  (You may have been too busy focusing on the "negative" things to see this.) So make a list of all the things that are going RIGHT.  Also, make a list of all the opportunities you have at your disposable.  The prospective clients that have expressed an interest in working with you.  The referral partners who would like to partner with you or send client leads your way.  The request you had to speak at an industry event or conference.  Also, I want you to start capturing all of your great ideas in one place so you can refer to them again and again.  Once you've organized your thoughts and opportunities you can start to see clearly what your next steps should be to take advantage of them and grow your business.

Next, set some achievable goals for yourself for the next 90 days.  This isn't the time to focus on your long-term goals.  While I wholeheartedly agree that you should have a BIG vision for what your business can become and steadily work towards that, what you need to get back in gear right now is a few "small" victories.  So make a list of 5-7 things you'd like to accomplish that seem manageable, achievable and inspiring to you.  Then break this list down into actionable tasks and schedule these on your calendar so that you have dedicated blocks of time for working on your business.

Finally, I want you to reach out for support.  Just because you are a solopreneur, doesn't mean you have to be "in the trenches" alone.  No one who is successful in business has become so on their own.  We all need a helping hand.  If you feel overwhelmed by all that you have to get done in a day, partner with a Virtual Assistant to whom you can delegate.  Consider working with a coach to keep yourself accountable and on track with your tasks.  If you really want to leap ahead and overhaul your business within the next six months, contact me about my VIP Coaching Program and enjoy the support of working one-on-one with me AND a group of likeminded entrepreneurs.

At certain times in my business I have faced feelings of being "stuck" and have had to work my way through the challenges I was facing.  By implementing the steps I just shared with you, I was able to breakthrough my difficulties, get re-aligned with my goals and start making progress.  If I could do it, so can you!

I'd love to hear about how you've conquered your own challenges and how you can implement today's strategies in your business. Comment below and let me know your thoughts!

Growing your business and achieving your goals is often the biggest challenge solopreneurs face.

As a business owner, you know all (or almost all) of the things you need to do to make your business successful and prosperous.  For example, you know you should:

• Keep your website up to date
• Network strategically
• Have a plan for marketing your business
• WORK your marketing plan
• Stay abreast of trends in your industry
• Outsource non-revenue generating tasks
• Keep your financial records in order
• Invest in continuing education opportunities
• Apply what you learn

...and the list goes on.

But, while your to do list and wish list get longer, there's often no one holding you accountable to make sure you get things done.  That's where a mastermind group comes into play and can be the critical piece you are missing to move your business ahead.

The basic principle of a mastermind group is that like-minded professionals join forces and commit to helping each other accomplish their goals.  As a group, you celebrate each other's victories and support each other in times of need.  One of the essential players in a successful, profitable mastermind group though, is a strong leader.

The leader of the mastermind group should be someone whose success you admire.  In other words, they need to be successful themselves first to be able to give you the direction you need to create the same type of success in your business.  Think about it, would you want to learn from a ski instructor who's never been on the slopes?

Here's what you want to look for in a potential mastermind group:

• A strong, seasoned and dedicated leader that has created the same results in their business that you want to create in yours.
• A group of like-minded professionals - While they don't all have to be from the same industry, it helps if there is some common ground for support and they are at the same general place in their business.
• Regular access to the leader and other members - A forum is a great way to interact with the group and get fast answers to your questions.  It needs to be a safe place, where no question is off limits.  You also want to have regular interaction with the group through virtual and live meetings.
• A structured program designed with your needs in mind - Having structure is necessary to ensure that each individual receives what they need.  There needs to be clear expectations for the leader and each group members, which creates a supportive environment where each entrepreneur can thrive.

There are many benefits to participating in a mastermind group.  First, you receive ongoing support in your business from people who know and understand what you are going through.  While your family may be cheering you on, even the most supportive family can't understand all the moving pieces in your business.

Second, you have friendly yet professional accountability.  While you won't get beat up over not accomplishing your goals, a good accountability partner and/or mentor will help you identify why you didn't reach your goals and then help you overcome those challenges.

Third, you get real life education while avoiding common pitfalls.  Working with a successful person as the mentor of the mastermind group will save you time, money and needless aggravation. Their insights and experience will help you avoid common pitfalls and give you the support you need if you've made a few mistakes.  And, ultimately knowing someone who has "made it" is a great motivator and will keep you inspired.

At the end of the day, you are still solely responsible for your success.  However, that doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself.  Consider joining a mastermind group to reap the benefits of collaboration and help you leap ahead towards accomplishing your business goals.

Have you participated in a mastermind group?  Or are you interested in participating? Please share your thoughts with me by commenting here on the blog!