Mini-Biz Buzz

I had been getting things ready so I could take a vacation this week. Besides all of the regular preparation that comes with leaving town, I also needed to write 2 weeks of blog posts. The stress was building to the point where I thought maybe I should just stay home. How crazy is that?  Trust me, it’s really crazy!! So I searched my favorite sites to get some clarity and tips on how to de-stress.

Here’s the best of what I found.

1. Take time to identify what stresses you out. This step is vital. You can’t make the proper adjustments if you don’t know what’s happening. Who and what causes stress and anxiety for you? Make a list and see what can go – temporarily or for good.

2. Reduce the number of commitments you make. Make a list of your commitments in order of importance to you (that’s the key, here). Remove yourself from responsibility where you can. And stop automatically saying “yes” to every request. When approached by your well-meaning friends or colleagues, buy yourself some time by saying you have to check your calendar, or something like that. And understand that, even if you have the time, you don’t have to say yes. Down time is important for a balanced life.

3. Get organized. I just wrote about the importance of this. Looking at piles of papers is stressful. And being unable to find something you need is so frustrating! Save your nerves and your time by getting organized.

4. Avoid difficult people. This one speaks for itself. It’s simple, yet brilliant. Only storm chasers put themselves in the path of a hurricane. Steer clear of toxic people except when 100% unavoidable.

5. Schedule more free-time. That sounds contradictory, to schedule unscheduled time, but for most of us it’s the only way to get truly free time. Block this time out and treat it as important as all of the other things on your calendar. Hanging out with friends and family, or just you and a Netflix movie, does wonders for the soul.

6. Exercise. The times when you think you have no time to exercise are the times you need it most. If you are fit and relaxed you will get much more done, and be much more pleasant to be around - I promise.

7. Understand what you don’t know. You don’t know what the checker at the market, who seemed rude, is dealing with in her life. You don’t know what was going on in the mind of the guy who cut you off. Most things that we think were done “to us”, really had nothing to do with us at all. We were in the proximity of someone who was unaware, or troubled, at the moment we crossed their path. Nothing more and nothing less, so let it go.

These tips work wonders.  They must, because I'm in Mexico right now!

Delegating some of your workload is one of the easiest ways to bring balance to your life, or at least it should be. Like many of you, though, I find delegating to be difficult. It just feels easier to do the job (whatever it is) myself. And the thought of investing time to teach someone to do a task, how I want it done, and have it maybe go poorly, doesn’t seem worth it. But it is.

There are two types of activities involved in running a business: necessary, but menial tasks, and important creative and financial decisions. You obviously can’t farm out the important decisions, and you shouldn’t want to. That’s where the fulfillment of entrepreneurship comes from. But you can get someone to help you with the time-consuming, menial tasks.  Toss yourself a life preserver by getting the help you need, before you feel desperate.

Start by getting help with the tasks you dread the most. Look to your family and friends. They may be willing to help for cheap, or even free. If you don’t have an accountant sister or website designer brother, you can always hire someone. If money is an issue, you can get creative. Look into sharing the costs of a bookkeeper with another small business owner, or maybe you can barter to get what you need. Trade your services or products for someone else’s services. Getting help with even one thing can make a huge difference. This way you can focus on your passion, which is what ultimately drives your business.

Now, on to the help of letting go of control:

1. Choose someone who you trust, and who has the basic capabilities for the job.

2. Be specific about what you want done. List the tasks in writing, including steps involved, and what the end result should be. Also, clearly explain the purpose of the delegated task, to avoid misunderstandings. Make sure you take the time to answer any questions during this meeting.

3. State a clear deadline.

4. Make sure you are available, at least by phone, in the beginning.

5. Set up scheduled times for progress reports. The trick here is to do this periodically, or the delegating isn’t doing what it’s supposed to, which is free up your time.

6. Once you feel comfortable that the person is moving in the direction that you want, let go! Do not obsess on how they handle every little detail. If the end result is what you were looking for, smile and thank them.

Start with baby-steps, if you need to, but start to unload some of your responsibilities. Do not get burned out before you even get started with your business. Ask for help. You may be surprised how many people step forward.

Confidence is imperative to running your own company. Insecurity is one of the main things that keep people from achieving their dreams. One of the things I’ve said to new entrepreneurs is “People dumber than you are running there own business, and if they can do it, so can you.”  The main difference is, the people who are doing it already confidently took the necessary steps.

Everyone, even the most successful people in the world, has had setbacks. In fact, most of these people will tell you about ideas they had that were outright flops. But you must remember, the failure of an idea or a plan does not mean you are a failure. Here are a few tips to boost your confidence, so you can bounce back from anything that comes up.

1. Reduce your negative self-talk. The way to do this is to become aware of your mind-speak. Notice what you say to yourself throughout the day. Don’t be discouraged if you learn that you are hyper-critical of yourself. That’s the point of the exercise. Noticing the criticisms will allow you to stop your mind in its tracks, and purposefully replace those thoughts with kinder ones.

2. Start and end each day with a minute or two of spoken positive affirmations, while looking at yourself in the mirror. This may sound lame (remember Stuart Smalley on SNL?), but it actually works. Give it about 30 days and see if you don’t feel better about yourself.

3. Take positive action. There is a great book, that I highly recommend, called Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers. The title says it all. Take those steps that get you out of your comfort zone, even if they’re initially baby steps. When you live through whatever it is, you will feel empowered. Your comfort zone will now be larger. Now take that next uncomfortable step, enjoy the new level of comfort, and so on.

4. Be prepared. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are onto something with this one. Whether you are attending an event or asking for a loan, do your homework. If you show up with the right knowledge and dressed appropriately, you will be standing on solid ground.

5. Help someone else. It doesn’t have to be anything major and you can even do it anonymously. This immediately gives you a sense of value. Also, it brings you out of your own head, and as you learned with step #1, that can be a good thing.

As your thoughts become more positive, you will begin to reframe your experiences and see them as lessons, not failures.