Archive for the ‘Giveaways’ Category

It is with mixed emotions that I announce the end of the 1st Foundation Studio Holiday Treasure Trove!! The Treasure Trove is very special because it features companies owned and operated by Parentpreneurs across Canada! To appropriately mark the end of this great event, we’re having a Twitter Scavenger Hunt Party!!

Sunday, December 20th starting at 8pm – Follow the hashtag #HolidayTreasureHunt on Twitter and you could win!! Our Treasure Trove Participants have generously donated prizes for the occasion; Prizes you will NOT want to miss out on!!

Prizes include:
* Headband from Bandella
* Supercape & Crown from Fancy Pants Kids
* 2 sets of custom cards from Grace Announcements
* A pair of “Smittens” from January Baby
* A matching hat and scarf set from January Baby
* A 12 oz Kleen Kanteen Sippy Cup from Raising Rascals
* A Kecci Blue Singapore Diaper Bag from Raising Rascals
* A gift certificate from Mabel’s Labels
* A Craft mat from 4Kids Enterprizes
* A Gift Certificate from FreshPow!
* A gift certificate from Wild About Beads
* 6 months worth of ad space from Foundation Studio
* One princess demi dress (fits 3 to 8 yrs) with matching bag – or – One jungle pith hat, vest and matching bag from Dress Up & Play Parties
* A $75 gift certificate for prints from Melissa Collesano Photography
* A pair of Baroque Down Earrings from Jolie Mack Designs
* A $50 Thought Spots package from Thought Spots
* A $20 gift certificate to Starbucks from BC Parents Connection
* More being added each day until the party!!

There is a catch however… You will need to hunt for answers in order to answer some key questions on Sunday!

RSVP here and we’ll send you a special “head’s up” list of questions complete with hints – the insiders scoop!!

Again, I thank you so very much for following our Treasure Trove – without you, the Treasure Trove wouldn’t have been such a success!!

A

Happy Monday!!!
I hope you had a great weekend! This is just a quick note to announce the winners of our retweet prize giveaways.. we chose our winner using “Random Twitter Selection” by “Twitrand.com” and are pleased to announce the following winners!!!

• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz- @rbuscemi
• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting – @mashalababy
• The Couponizer coupon system – @mclelandmktg
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds – @maniacalmom
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel – @bewellgroomed
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel – @cbachelder
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor – @SmallBizCanada
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire – @moneywizdom

A super special thanks to all of our Retweeters who helped spread last week’s small biz tip sheets!!

@rbuscemi / @schatziwear / @alternativeoff / @josh_gulick
@AngelaWills / @clickawayva / @SmallBizCanada / @abbijayne
@CoachesCorner / @HolleyV / @jennhudder / @HilaryMcDonald
@JeanetteGray / @maniacalmom / @mashalababy / @Kidzsack
@creativeXchange / @emccaleb / @moneywizdom / @thdsupport
@bewellgroomed / @imorganizer / @StevenDavies / @mclelandmktg
@Petiethecat / @MondayMorningVA / @belasco / @CoachDarcyE
@seOverflow / @StaceyKann / @skaworks / @neenjames
@MomGYB / @mumby / @tpgtex / @AngelaCurrent
@EileenRoth / @couponizer / @BillyArcement / @Thomasinathecat
@its3princes4me / @mhdery_soc / @onetwin / @Pepperfire
@TorontoEMN / @studiofluid / @SeacoastShopper / @cprmom
@lesismore12 / @Rileycat1 / @KATSIConsulting / @cbachelder
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Thanks again to everyone who made last week such a success!! I cannot wait until next year’s Small Biz Celebration!!
Stay tuned for some really cool new things coming up on the FS news page – we have a new feature “Ask The Expert” – Starting with some financial issue and we even have a holiday surprise (or two) coming up… Make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter; You won’t want to miss it!!

TGIF! We made it! What a great Small Business Week – Loads of collaboration, prizes being donated, Retweets flying around and tons of business being drummed up! I would have to say, this week has been a great success!

We received great feedback from yesterday’s Tip sheet on “Got Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!”, Our Retweets flew around – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes were originally going to be given out today – but people who will be will be Retweeting this post will miss out! So plans have changed and all prizes will be given out on Monday!

As I said at the beginning of the week, this week’s posting would be out of our usual – with one post per day, Monday we will return to our usual scheduled posts – 1 – 2 per week. We have awesome spotlights coming up AND we have a new feature – Ask the expert – where you can submit a question to one of our experts (Legal, Financial, HR etc.) and receive an answer!  But for now, without further ado – here is today’s post!

SAVING MONEY IN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF BIZ! (Download Here!)

Everyone loves saving money but it can be a make or break factor in your first year of business if your money is not taken care of properly. Read the following tips on how to save money for things like staffing, advertising and even purchasing supplies!
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Get a Great Accountant
Save money your first year in business by keeping your finances organized. One of the most important components to staying on top of your finances is to make sure you are working with good accountant. A good accountant will make sure you are planning effectively for taxes so there are no surprises at filing time. Secondly, keep good records. This means keeping all of your receipts, business and personal together, preferably in some sort of filing system. The more you have them organized the less you will spend on bookkeeping and accounting charges.
Hilary L. McDonald, Accountant – www.HilaryMcDonald.com
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Take a Vacation
One of the often overlooked aspects of a successful business is time off to recharge the batteries. During the early years of my business I knew I needed time off, yet my wife and I were trying to conserve cash. One of the things we did was to schedule a 3 or 4 day weekend. Throw a suitcase in the trunk and pick a direction. We’d travel until some caught our interest, then we’d stop and check it out. We made sure that we had a room by 4:00 p.m., then we’d scout the area surrounding the area. For a few hundred dollars we were able to have a great time and energize ourselves. The key was not to have an itinerary. The combination of not having an itinerary and exploring new places was all that it took to refresh the mind and renew the spirit
Dale Furtwengler, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C. – http://www.furtwengler.com
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Swap It
Swap for the services you need like marketing and web development or even vacations on Zakle.com
Eric Stamos, Co-Founder – Zakle.com
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Share Expenses
Look for partners to share the cost of a booth with you at Trade Shows. I have been fortunate to have shared a table with Reiki Pet Healers at Pet Expos that I really wanted to attend. It was WELL worth it!
Lisa Illman, THE KRITTER KOMMUNITY – http://kritterkommunity.com
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Create Your Own Network
Create a Meetup.com networking group in your area of business and have prospects come to you for thought leadership! Just make sure you have content of value to offer them.
Michael Shostack, Qualified B2B Leads LLC – www.qualifiedb2bleads.com
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Go to College
I had a college intern this summer helping research and collect information for an email series I am about to launch. She was free (I fed her a lot)
Denise LaBuda – www.moneywizdom.com
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Give Your Stuff Away
Make in kind donations rather than giving cash to get sponsorship exposure
Susan Barry, Hive Marketing – www.hive-marketing.com
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Catch Up On Your Reading
Read “5 Ways To Start A Business For Under $1000”
Heather Allard, The Mogul Mom – http://www.themogulmom.com
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Get Your Office Equipment for Free
Join your local Freecycle.com chapter (free) and ask for whatever you need to set up your office or store: office furniture, office supplies (binders, in baskets), office equipment, display stands, etc
Sue Freeman
Footprint Press, Inc. – www.footprintpress.com
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Question Everything
When you are considering spending money, on anything, ask yourself if you really, truly need it at this stage of your business. Maybe your website can be a lot simpler than you realize. Maybe you don’t need business cards yet. Maybe getting office space is premature. Small business budgets are usually so thin that money shouldn’t be spent until an issue keeps coming up and can no longer be ignored.
Mark C. Webster, Websterism – http://www.websterism.com
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Check Out the Credit Union
One of the “ankle bitters” that can nibble away on a start-ups budget is banks fees. You can avoid many of these fees by turning to and using a credit union. When I first started up my own company I first visited a national bank and they wanted to have average balances or there would be a fee, there were check fees and all kinds of fees. When I went to the credit union all I had to do was to deposit $25 into a savings account to open up an account and there were no fees and on top of that I earn a little tiny interest each month from my money. I have found the credit union I use to be friendly and are more start-up friendly verse the large national banks.
Sharon Evans, Founder of Trillion Dollar Funding – www.trilliondollarfunding.com
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Become a Community Member
Give up your gym membership, and take up walking/running. Gyms are expensive, plus it’s easy to zone out at the gym. Instead, walk or run through new parts of your city. While you are out, take mental notes on new businesses in your area, or business owners you would like to contact. The only way to understand how to do business in your community is to be a member of your community!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Rack Up the Points
Use a small business rewards credit card to pay for every day purchases (including advertising) Just pay it off at the end of each month and keep the points!
Carolyn Adams, Borders + Gratehouse – www.bordersgratehouse.com
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Use Coupons
Using coupons can save you tons of money in the first year of business and beyond! A great system to use to keep your coupons organized is the Couponizer, a proven system of tools designed to help you save more money, more consistently.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Create Bench Marks
When you sell X amount of dollars, get a part time secretary or a new phone system, or anything else you may need.
Orit Pennington, TPGTEX Label Solutions, Inc. – www.tpgtex.com
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Be Energy Efficient
Not only is this good for the planet, but often times it saves you money! Turn off all the lights when you leave or if you aren’t in a specific room. Unplug machines from the wall over the weekend. Set the A/C or heat to reflect when you are or aren’t in the office. Use fluorescent light bulbs – they require less power and last longer. Purchase paper and toilet paper made of recycled products.
Samantha Scott, Grand Poobah, Pushing the Envelope – http://www.GetPushing.com
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Get Advice
Start an advisory board consisting of an attorney, accountant, business coach, marketing director, etc. This way you get free professional advice on an ongoing basis.
Marian H. Gordon, Yippee Print & Marketing – www.yippeeprinting.com
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Lose the Commute
The biggest, and most costly, mistake I almost made was leasing an office when I started my PR and Marketing Communications firm. Now, I have 2 employees who work for me out of their homes, as do I, without the added cost of office rent. I think it’s the largest single cost, apart from labor or raw materials that a company can incur in many instances.
David Manzer, The Sage Closer – www.thesagecloser.com
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Educate Yourself
Free Learning – NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation has a free entrepreneurship curriculum for educators, but you can get it too. Go to universities for lectures. It’s just as good or better than networking events you pay for.
Kathy Korman Frey, Founder, Hot Mommas Project – http://www.HotMommasProject.org
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Negotiate
Many people know next to nothing about negotiation when they setup their first business; Learning that skill is the single greatest opportunity to save money. Slash 10% on supplier’s prices or office rent and that money goes directly to your bottom line each and every month afterwards. You don’t have to be Donald Trump to negotiate, and there is one secret few ‘insiders’ will share: Often simply making the effort to negotiate will get a discount.
Richard Kershaw, Quality Nonsense Ltd. – www.QualityNonsense.com
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Do It Yourself
Do everything you can by yourself for as long as you can, and then do it a bit longer.
This allowed us to learn the business first and focus on ancillary skills second. This trades efficiency, i.e. time which we had, for money which we did not have. There is no better way to get better at something than doing it over and over, even if you don’t want to.
Damien Casten – www.candidwines.com
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Join a Co-op
Joining a group of like-minded individuals can save you lots of money! The Mom Entrepreneur has a seasonal co-op shop where you can advertise your company for less money than if you were to advertise by yourself. By pooling your resources, you can get the same (if not bigger) bang for your buck than going it alone!
http://coopshop.themomentrepreneur.com/
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Keep Your Eye on the Little Things
As a new business owner, an excellent way to save money is by watching the little things. I added up the little subscriptions for $10 here or $15 there to be listed with this service, etc and I spent $205 just trying to get my business’ name out there and I don’t believe there was any ‘payoff’!
Monica Barnett, President, Blueprint for Style – http://www.blueprintforstyle.com
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Be Selective
Be selective when choosing networking events to attend. A luncheon can easily cost $30-$45, but you might get away with $5-$10 to attend a happy hour. You can meet just as many people, if not more, when attending a cheaper event. (Nobody talks at a luncheon while you’re eating all that expensive food anyway!) Also, if you have attended one group’s networking functions for a few months in a row, take a couple months off to try a different group. You could make new contacts by exploring different opportunities, and you will have that “new kid on the block” cache when you eventually return to your first group!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Ask for Help
Just ask for help, many people will help you out if you plead your case.
Peter E Raymond, President + Chief Innovator, Human Condition – www.hcxdesign.com
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Carpool
Carpool to lunches, meetings, etc – you get a double benefit – save gas and network/build a relationship with the person you’re riding with
Shari L Frisinger, CornerStone Strategies LLC – www.cornerstonestrategiesllc.com
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Give an Incentive
Create an incentive for customers and prospects to post testimonials to a Facebook fan page. An example might be: “Post your favourite reason why our product is so good on our fan page (using YouTube video) and win free tickets to a sporting event provided by XYZ partner”.
Nathan McKelvey, Founder, Hidden Equity LLC – www.hiddenequity.com
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Put Down the Bottle
My first year in business I drank tap water. It won’t kill you and it’s a lot cheaper than bottled water.
Shane Fischer, Attorney at Law – www.fischer-law.com
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Volunteer Your Time
I knew that I had to build my business through networking but I didn’t have a lot of money to join associations and networking groups. My way around this was to call the group facilitators to volunteer my services of running the registration table, or any other helpful tasks that would offset my attendance fees. The majority of people took me up on my offer. I was able to find out whether or not this was a membership I wanted to pursue, AND promote my business, AND provide an extra hand when needed, all on my shoestring budget.
Lauren Milligan – www.ResuMAYDAY.com
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Go Digital
Instead of paying for my own business telephone line, I now have a GoogleVoice account which picks up my calls and creates text messages for me!
Monique Harris, Photographer – www.mportraitphotography.com
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Rent It
Don’t waste money setting up a fancy office. Either work from home or find a low-rent out-of-the-way space. If you need to impress a client, there are plenty of places to rent a conference room by the hour.
Shel Horowitz, Author, 8 books – http://www.frugalmarketing.com
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Outsource It
My biggest expense today is payroll. But when I first started I saved a ton of money by farming out work to independent contractors across the world, which I found on sites like Guru and Elance. I connected with talented people and paid by the project, and had almost zero in payroll, payroll taxes, workers comp, employee benefits, bonuses, etc.
Jay Kamhi, President, Kamhi World – www.kamhiworld.com

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I truly hope you enjoed this series of tip sheets! I had a great time putting them together and more than anything else – meeting all of these great people who went out of their way to provide a little insight in helping you get your business started (or revitalised) on the right path!!

* All of our Retweeters will be listed on Monday along with all the winners too!!!

Have a great weekend!
Ariane

Happy Hump Day!
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out yesterday’s Tip sheet on Managing Your Time Effectively!
We had lots of Retweets for yesterday’s post; entering themselves to win one of the great prizes we’ve got lined up, including a new one!!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry into the prize pot!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out at the very end of the week – Keep the Retweets and Comments coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Today’s article is all about Turning Your Admin Nightmares into a Dream.

Absolutely every business owner agrees on one thing – Administration is a “nightmare”, a “burden of time” and usually results in “just not doing it”. A few experts weigh in on how to change that nightmare into a fully functioning dream. Read on..

Getting a Handle on Paperwork

Take 5
Always take first five minutes (or last five minutes) of the day to file.
Jeffrey Cohen, ImageWorks, LLC – www.ImageWorksLLC.com
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Just STOP!
It’s key to STOP doing – versus doing everything on your lists. Daily & Weekly Entrepreneurs and their teams should find stuff to not do at all. Get rid of or don’t bother doing stuff that seemed like a great idea at the time but now isn’t. Start focus on working on the critical few things versus the important many. I could give you lots of ideas and specifics around this if you’d like.
Cameron Herold, Founder, BackPocket COO – www.BackPocketCOO.com
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Everything Happens in 3’s
On my desk, I have 3 file folders: one for things to do this week; one for things that need to be filed; and one for things that I eventually need to look into. Inside my filing cabinet, I have 26 files – one for each letter of the alphabet – and everything is filed by the company name that issued the document.
I clear out the “needs to be filed” folder at the end of each day. It’s only purpose is to allow me to work each client more effectively. Once I’ve gone through my emails at the end of the day, I also look at the “to do this week” folder to ensure I haven’t missed anything, and to create a must do list for the following day.
Dawn Martinello, Monday Morning VA – www.mondaymorningva.com
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Become Regular
DO file on a regular basis. Filing regularly prevents eventually having to face a mountain of filing.
DO make a habit of filing on a particular day or at a particular time. That will remove the decision making process from the mix and put filing on auto-pilot.
Alice Price CPO-CD®, Organize Long Island Inc – www.organizelongisland.com
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Digitize It
When it comes to filing – build a computer based structure of folders that matches the paper filing system, then, you only have one logic to follow.
Susan Lannis, Time Liberation Agent, ORGANIZATION Plus! Inc. – www.LiberateTime.com
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Go Paperless
We worked very hard to reduce the amount of paper in our office;
All faxes are coming into a computer – and are left there. They are not printed out!
Invoices and quotes are sent via email directly from QuickBooks – none are printed
Bills are filed based on vendor
We registered with every credit card we have – as opting out of any offers, etc – this has reduced our junk mail by about 90% ( aside benefit is that we spend less time processing mail.)
Orit Pennington, TPGTEX Label Solutions, Inc. – www.tpgtex.com
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Go Mobile
Make time and expense tracking brain-dead simple by using mobile/web based solutions like Xpenser
Parand Tony Darugar, Xpenser – http://xpenser.com
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Outsource It
Small business owners that outsource their Human Resources have more time to focus solely on the day-to-day tasks of running a business, without having to spend time and energy on employee issues. Overall an HR outsourcing firm shoulders the tasks that business owners don’t have time to deal with — including HR, providing competitive health coverage, claims management, payroll taxes, direct deposits, etc. It is a way to simplify a small business owner’s life by taking away the administrative burdens.
Rob Wilson, Employco – www.employco.com
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A VA is Always the Way
Hire a part time administrative assistant who comes to my home based business. It’s helpful to have another computer (or a laptop.) – She works 3 to 10 hours a week. She does typing, filing, manages my customer contacts, addresses Christmas cards, takes meeting minutes and cleans and organizes my supply and filing cabinets.
Valerie McCaw, President – VSM Engineering, LLC
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Don’t Bungle – Tungle!
One area where a lot of small businesses are wasting time is scheduling. The endless back and forth of emailing & phone calls to find a time to meet is a huge time suck. Add in the fact that small businesses do a lot of business with people outside their organization and it gets even more complicated.
Enter Tungle.com. It works in sync with existing e-calendars making it quick and easy to make meetings happen. Syncing your calendar with Tungle lets you share calendars across systems and companies, send meeting invitations that propose multiple times, publish your free/busy schedule and more.
Erin Lariviere, Marketing Analyst, Tungle – http://www.tungle.com

Email & Voicemail Nightmares

Broadcast Your Availability
First, choose when you will—and won’t– be available electronically. For example, if your business sees fewer customers on Tuesday afternoons, create that slot as your no-click zone, and use that time for focused thinking and action to strategize around your biggest business challenge.
Then, once you’ve decided, teach people by example. Set clear expectations with your team and others so they know not to expect email responses from you during that time. Clarify the exceptions for them (i.e., I’ll only check email if we’re on deadline and we’ve agreed in advance on a time I’ll be online.”) And stick to it—no matter what. It’s a rare business situation that has to be handled immediately—in fact, most situations benefit from taking a little time to think about the right response.
Darcy Eikenberg, President & Chief Creative Officer, Coach Darcy LLC – www.coachdarcy.com
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Make Some Rounds
Handling Email and Voicemail: In my personal business, I work in rounds. That means that when I’m working on Customer A and I receive a personal email – it’s ignored; if I receive a phone call from Customer C – it’s ignored. At the beginning and end of each day, I check ALL voicemail and email that may have been missed to ensure that I catch any potential problems and handle any rush assignments that have come up.
Dawn Martinello, Monday Morning VA – www.mondaymorningva.com

Procedures and Policies

Policy Can Be Lame, but Systems Can Save Your Life.
There is nothing worse than a useless procedure doc or process. At the same time, we found creating and using some simple systems such as work folders, file management, resource tracking, etc, saved us a ton of time. The key for us were to find the areas that were repetitive, and create a system that worked well for us. We found that in some cases clipboards and pencils worked better for us than spreadsheets. Find what works for you.
Tyler Hammond – The Engine Is Red – http://theengineisred.com
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Make it Manual
We do have an operations manual. It makes it much easier to train staff.
If an employee knows the rules, they are less likely to make up their own rules (which could result in last sales).
Sharon McRill, The Betty Brigade – www.bettybrigade.com
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Map it Out
Every biz needs to map out their systems – how they get clients, how they engage them, how they retain them, office/team mgt and financial mgt. I don’t call mine policies and procedures, but the steps are laid out clearly and can be replicated over and over.
Ann Ronan, Ph.D., Authentic Life Institute – www.authenticlifeinstitute.com
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Be on Alert
Set up alerts in Outlook if you need to, in order to keep yourself on schedule. All reoccurring tasks should be scheduled and broken up evenly throughout the week. For example, in regards to social networking, schedule yourself to add x number of new twitter followers every Monday, and every Friday delete the ones that haven’t followed you back.
Hilary Brooks, AVirtualEdge – http://www.AVirtualEdge.com

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So now that you’re set on the right path to admin euphoria, make sure you Retweet this post and come back again tomorrow because we’re discussing super cool ways to market yourself and your biz for LESS than $500!!! You won’t want to miss that!

Cheers!

A

Happy Tuesday!
I am so excited to say that I am getting SUPER DUPER feedback about yesterday’s Tip sheet on Setting Up A Proper Home Office!
Our Small Biz Celebration Week is off to the races! We’ve had tons of people Retweet yesterday’s post; entering to win one of the great prizes we’ve got lined up!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry into the prize pot!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out at the very end of the week – Keep the Retweets and Comments coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Today’s article is all about Managing your Time and Tasks. I know, it’s a tad bit ironic that in order to manage your time, you have to read a long list of tips – but I PROMISE you – these are so worth it! Grab a cuppa joe and settle in for some great ideas!!! (As with yesterday – you can grab the PDF format for download)

TIME MANAGEMENT AT ITS FINEST

Business owners across North America shared their tips and tricks on Scheduling Daily Tasks, Balancing Time between Business and Family and what Gadgets and Software they use throughout their day! So grab a cup of Joe, a pen and a pad of paper and get ready to manage your time!

Effectively Scheduling Daily Tasks:

Avoid the Avoidance
Do the ‘dreaded’ task first. We frequently put off a task simply because we don’t want to do it. The longer we put it off, the bigger it grows. As it grows, it also increases our stress level reducing our effectiveness in what we are doing. By doing the ‘dreaded’ task first, we reduce our stress level, improve our outlook on the rest of our day and often find that the task wasn’t so terrible after all!
Alice Price CPO-CD®, Organize Long Island Inc – www.organizelongisland.com
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Specific Days for Specific Tasks
Set up Day Files (Monday, Tuesday etc) and place action items in these files for the days they need to be addressed. It helps the paper flow and keeps your desk tidy.

Check your email up to 4 times a day (but not every 10 minutes!). Choose first thing in the morning, before you eat lunch, mid afternoon and then later in the evening. Don’t be a slave to your inbox.

Get a PO Box and only check it twice a week, only allow all business mail to go to that addresses so you are only handling correspondence twice a week.
Neen James CSP, MBA, International Productivity Expert – www.neenjames.com
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Pre-Plan Your Goals
If you write out your goals for the day the night before, you’ll start the morning feeling organized. I use a template that outlines my projects for the day, in the left hand column it allows space for “to do” and “follow up” items pertaining to my list
Thomasina Tafur – http://www.thomasinatafur.com
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Show Up to Work
Forget about multi- tasking, practice being present. Being fully present will make you more productive, more likely you won’t miss opportunities, and less likely to get lost in mundane activity.
Alicia Marie Fruin, PCC – www.profitconsultingco.com

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Be Selective & Decisive
Watch out for subscribing to too much: magazines, newspapers, blogs, e-zines, newsletters, e-courses… and then there’s social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Plaxo, LinkedIn, MySpace and the list goes on and on. You could spend your whole day involved in all of these, but you need to budget your time. Be selective. Choose only those pieces of information which will serve you the most in growing you or your business – those things which could impact your bottom line the most – and unsubscribe to the rest. Limit your time to any one or a combination of these and if time permits after a few weeks or months, you can gradually add more into your schedule if there is value and time permits.
Leslie Shreve, Founder / Productivity Expert, Focus Consulting – www.productiveday.com
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Track Time Spent
I recommend tracking the amount of time you spend on each task throughout the day, to get an overall picture of where your time is going. This is often an eye opening exercise for folks.
Many people feel overwhelmed with their level of busyness – but when you break down where their time is actually going, you often see a lot of it being spent on non-essential items. For example, breaks to surf the internet can really add up throughout the day – not to mention the cost of switching focus!
Brett Owens, Co-Founder and CEO, Chrometa, LLC – www.chrometa.com
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Leave Empty Handed
At the end of each work day, leave with an empty email inbox. Yes, that sounds crazy and nearly impossible for people who get hundreds of electronic messages, but once you start doing it, you will find that it relieves so much stress. It is completely possible if you make it a priority. You will find that having a clean email slate every day is liberating and results in better organization, faster response times and a little bit more sanity overall.
Trazanna Moreno, Associate Superintendent for Community Relations, Klein ISD – www.kleinisd.net
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One Calendar Should Suffice
The important thing is that you only use one calendar to schedule all components of your life, including your vacations. That allows you to have everything in one place.
Billy Arcement MEd, The Leadership Strategist – http://www.searchingforsuccess.com
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Decipher Between Tasks & Projects
It is important to distinguish between “tasks” and “projects”. Tasks are items that involve a single action such as returning a phone call, or attending a meeting. Projects are more complex; they require more than one action. Examples of projects for small business owners are things like: Develop a marketing plan for new product; Hire an administrative assistant, research networking opportunities. When tasks and projects are mixed together on the same list, the small business owner becomes overwhelmed, and spends too much time trying to decide what to do. Instead, projects should be on a separate list and reviewed regularly (at least once a week.) The way to move a project forward is to ask “what is the next thing I need to do on this project?” and put that on the task list.
Joanne Boyd Irving, PhD., The Chrysalis Group – http://www.the-chrysalis-group.com
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Make Your Mornings a Priority
I do the creative, forward thinking work first thing in the morning, before answering all the emails. Once the fire drills start for the day, it is impossible to free up enough time and focus to work on long-term goals. And I have good energy first thing in the morning.

Proper Communication is Key
Always think about how best to communicate with someone based on their style, the message content, and goal for the interaction. So instead of sending one more email trying to explain a complex subject, pick up the phone. Instead of calling the person who always wants to talk for an hour, send an email. If you stop for a split second and think about it, you can often save yourself minutes or hours of time and frustration.
Steven D. Davies, President – PerfectJob Software Inc. – www.PerfectJobSoftware.com
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Big Batch of Tasks
I’m a big believer in batching tasks and tackling a bunch of similar things at once, rather than getting distracted by a bunch of fragmented items. I’ve found that categorizing into daily / weekly / monthly and quarterly tasks helps me minimize the time I spend on them and keeps my mind fresh for the important work at hand.
I handle weekly tasks on a specified day of the week: Review goal and planning, follow-up calls to prospective clients, write blog post, etc.
Monthly tasks, for example, each Tuesday I block out 1 hour to do recurring tasks:
1st Tuesday – Update quickbooks / pay taxes.
2nd Tuesday – Pay bills
3rd Tuesday – Write thank-you notes to clients.
4th Tuesday – Write newsletter / press releases.
Ben Thompson, Creative Director, Studiofluid, Inc. – http://studiofluid.com

Balancing Time between Business & Family

Family First
I make sure to ask if my family has any needs that are to be met. I always ask my wife “is there anything you need me to do for you today and is there anything that you have planned for us so that I won’t schedule anything in that time slot?” Keep family first and your business will be unstoppable.
Derrick Hayes, Encouragement Speaker – http://www.DerrickHayes.com
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Be Clear on Your Values
Build your business around your values and the lifestyle you desire for yourself and your family, rather than allowing your career/business to dictate and overtake your life. This requires you to first be clear on what values are most important to you. For example, if quality-time with your family is a non-negotiable value for you, then literally “close your office” by dinnertime and show your kids how important they are by being fully present with them – minus the disruption of phone calls and e-mail messages.
Lynn Ely, MomEvolve – www.momevolve.com
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Time It
Set a Timer with Kids. Tell them that when the timer goes off, you can play or talk with them, but when it goes off again, you have to go back to work. This gives them the anticipation of spending time with you and it allows you to spend time with your child without feeling stressed or guilty.
Holly Uverity, Certified Professional Organizer®, Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer – http://www.officeorganizers.com

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Schedule It In
My best tip for balancing work and personal time is to SCHEDULE time in for family, health, education, etc. and keep it just like an important appointment because it is! Whenever someone tries to impinge on your personal time simply tell them that you have “another appointment” and magically they’ll either find another time that’s more convenient to you or they’ll handle it themselves.
If it weren’t for this trick I’d never get to the gym, go for a hike or take a needed nap!
Michael Soon Lee, MBA, CSP, President, EthnoConnect – www.EthnoConnect.com
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Family Forecast
Plan meals ahead of time – it will make dinner and shopping go faster. Schedule leftovers for nights that will be “tight” due to a day of meetings or needing to be at a sports game or trash nights.

Make a family day or night – like a trip to the zoo, bowling, water-park, skating, etc. to keep family time. Try to keep evenings open, not working, or at least until children go to bed, if you have projects that run into the evening.

Eileen Roth, Your Organizing Tour Guide, Speaker and Author of Organizing For Dummies(R) – www.EverythingInItsPlace.net
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Take A Break
Schedule mini-vacations. My family and I recently spent a Thursday-Sunday out of town. It was just the right amount of time to be away from home and still be able to catch up on work when I came back. If you can’t get away from work for longer than a week, take a three-day or a four-day vacation with your family.

Find an exercise partner (friend or family member) and share a daily walk or take a bike ride. When you partner with someone else you’re more likely to exercise regularly, stay in shape and enjoy a nice break from work.
Lisa Kanarek, Home Office Expert, Author and Founder – www.workingnaked.net
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Keep Your Eye on the Little Things
Get a cleaner (pay or barter) – this cleaning service will allow you to focus on working and not be distracted by the cleanliness of your home/office environment.

Invest one hour in creating a visual board of all the things you want to achieve in your business and enjoy as a result of your business success. Keep it somewhere you can see it constantly and remind yourself when you get distracted of why you have your own small business.
Identify two time wasters that are distracting you and choose to eliminate them for the next 10 days.
Neen James CSP, MBA, International Productivity Expert – www.neenjames.com
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Time Saving Gadgetry & Software

Where Did the Time Go?
If your intention is to do 10 minutes of online research but end up killing an hour surfing the web, a timer can help bring you back to the task at hand. A great online timer is www.e.ggtimer.com
Alice Price CPO-CD®, Organize Long Island Inc. – www.organizelongisland.com

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Ping It
Social media is becoming a huge marketing and developmental tool. Utilizing online programs such as www.ping.fm to eliminate the need for individual site posts is an excellent time management technique.
Dale Little, Business Strategist – http://www.dalelittle.com
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Put Recurring Tasks on Auto-Pilot
I highly recommend using OmniFocus on the Mac (or a similar software like Nozbe if you’re stuck on a PC) to help keep recurring tasks documented so you can forget about them until it’s time to accomplish them.
Ben Thompson, Creative Director, Studiofluid, Inc. – http://studiofluid.com

Other Time Saving Gems

Keep the Supply Cabinet Stocked
One way to save time that is simple but requires discipline is to stay stocked up on necessary supplies. My wife Beverly who handles my business always has spare printer ink refills, stationary, stamps, etc. You can also save money by stocking up on supplies when they are on sale.
Pablo Solomon, Artist & Designer – http://www.pablosolomon.com
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Do Some Planting
My big tip for home workers is this: just plant your feet under the desk and go to work. When people ask me where I get the discipline, I say “the mortgage is all the discipline I need.”
Linda West Eckhardt, James Beard award winning cookbook author and food writer – http://www.thesilverclouddiet.com
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Impress the Boss
The single best tip I know for small business time management is this. When you’re your own boss, your boss is watching you all the time. So act according. Work just as diligently and responsibly as you would if you were right under the nose of the best boss you ever had: the one you really wanted to please; the one you really wanted to impress.
Barry Maher, Barry Maher & Associates – www.barrymaher.com

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So now that you’ve finished your coffee and made some time management notes – what are you waiting for?!
Go manage (Don’t forget to Retweet!) and take control of your time!

Tomorrow: Handling the small biz nightmare known as “Administration”

Cheers to a prosperous day!
A

HAPPY SMALL BUSINESS WEEK!!!

As I mentioned last week, we are going to be having a week-long celebration – complete with PRIZES!!

All throughout the week, I will be posting tip lists about how to start a business (or grow yours) on the right path. I’ll touch on everything from saving money, marketing for less than $500, handling admin tasks and even time management. Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet the post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!

Prizes will be given out at the very end of the week – Keep the Retweets and Comments coming!
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Our first article is about setting up a proper home office.

I asked business owners across North America what they thought were Mandatory, Desired and Unwanted items for an optimal home office setup. I got some FAB tips – and even pretty cool pics of home offices. Read on and then let your creativity flow into your office space!!

Mandatory Items for a Functional Home Office

A Multi-Function Centre
Invest in a four-in-one office machine: printer, fax, scanner, and copier.
For the desk space footprint of one machine you get four functions.
It is also easier to scan papers to be filed in the computer than it is to just file them in the drawer.
This upgrade really helps professionals who want to go more paperless in their office.
Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
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A Label Maker
Everybody needs a label maker. Labelling files, containers, and drawers helps to define where your stuff and your paper live, and makes their homes more official. When things are clearly labelled, it’s easier to put things away and to stay organized. Label makers aren’t too expensive – some of my favourite Brother models can be found on sale at many office supply stores for under $30. Keep your label maker and extra label cassettes handy, and as soon as you create new file folders or put stuff in a container, create a label immediately.
Joshua Zerkel, Professional Organizer – http://www.customlivingsolutions.com
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A Table Lamp
Put a lamp on your desk; not a desk lamp with an occlusive shade, but a table lamp with a translucent shade. This gives you a larger and more softly diffused circle of light on your work surface. Why is this important? Less eye strain and fewer headaches. Use “warm white” or “soft white” compact fluorescent light bulbs in the lamp. “Cool white” and “bright white” give any room a cold institutional look.
Linda Varone – Nurturing Spaces Consulting
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Current Software
Get the current version of the software used by your customers, and then buy a machine that’s adequate to support it. Don’t “cheap out” on video cards or monitors: you’ll be staring at the screen for four to eight hours a day, so you’ll be smart to get the largest, sharpest display you can afford. It’s a lot easier to compromise on machine speed or memory, but top-notch video quality is essential.
Bill Horne
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Paper & Pens
Lots of pens and paper, for capturing ideas. I personally have a few open notepads open around me so I can capture notes and ideas wherever I am in the house/office.

Good Coffee-Maker
Although coffee is usually not good in the office, at your home office you have the opportunity to have the best coffee in town.
Harry Mylonadis, Mimimoko Design

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Plenty of Supplies for You AND Your Family!
The family’s scissors, tape, markers, pens and pencils should be in an area that is easily accessible to them so they won’t have to interrupt you in order to use your supplies. Make sure they understand that your office is not the family’s office supply store.
Holly Uverity, Certified Professional Organizer®, Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer
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Ergo Chair & Keyboard Tray
The most important tools in a home office are the correct chair and a keyboard tray. A chair that fits your body correctly can alleviate or prevent all types of aches and pains. An adjustable keyboard tray, not a single height keyboard drawer, allows you to get the keyboard and mouse to the correct height reducing strain on the neck and shoulders as well as alleviate contact pressures and adjust the wrist angle to minimize risk for carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.
Chris Sorrells OTR, CHT, CEAS, President, ErgonomicsSimplified.com
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Room Separator
If you absolutely cannot get your own room, get a room partition or oriental screen to separate the work portion of the room. (This is what I do). You do not want to be able to see the unmade bed, or that pile of laundry, or any other mess from your normal life or you will find yourself doing chores instead of working.
Kris Hull – KR15.com
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Desirable Items for a Functional Home Office

Uninterrupted Power Supply
This doesn’t always come cheap but it’s a good investment. A UPS will save you and pay you back the investment when you are working on that very important project, the power goes out and you hadn’t saved a thing.
Harry Mylonadis, Mimimoko Design
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Labelled Notebooks & Bookcase
For some, hundreds of files can be daunting. It is helpful to have a bookcase with frequently used information contained in easily accessible labelled notebooks
Anne Jones
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Two Monitors
Set up a two monitor system. One to put your email, social network, news sites on. And the other you can do your work
Gary Unger, Creative-at-large – www.garyunger.com
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Custom Designed Workspace
Get a custom designed workspace to make the most of your available space. One that anchors to the wall with shelves is a particularly effective without using much of your floor plan. Also a standing height work surface make a great variation for tasks such as cutting or mounting, or just a change in posture.
Ben Thompson, Creative Director – Studiofluid, Inc.
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Microphone & Headset
One way to make money is to create your own products. A great product is to do a teleclass and charge for it. “Make money in your p.j.s” is a common phrase (although I don’t recommend doing business in p.j.s for the simple reason that when you’re not dressed you don’t feel as professional and may not come across as one on the telephone.)
Eileen Roth, Your Organizing Tour Guide – Speaker and Author of Organizing For Dummies(R)
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Unwanted Items for a Functional Home Office

A Television
…this is a time waster and if you are like me you will want to watch CNN or HGTV for a few minutes and 30minutes later you are still watching…
Leslie Jacobs – www.lesmess.com
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Other Necessary Items for a Functional Home Office

A Post Office Box
For safety purposes, consider getting a P.O. Box instead of using your home address for your business mail. You never know what crazies may be out there.

Professional Clothing
Get up every morning and dress professionally enough that if a surprise opportunity presented itself, you wouldn’t be caught with bed-head in your bathrobe.
Susan Wilson Solovic – SBTV.com
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Interior Décor Foresight
Sit comfortably at the desk and sweep your arm left to right. The desktop under the space between your elbows to your wrist should be empty or have just your keyboard/mouse – this is the active workspace. Place things you grab daily – stapler, tape, pens etc. in the space covered by your wrist to your fingertips. Place things you grab less frequently just past the finger tips and place decorative items to the back corners.
These are my Frequency of Use Rules:
Use it every day – place in or on the desk. Use it every week – put it in the desk or within reach of the desk. Use it at least once a month – it should be within reach of the desk or elsewhere in the room. Use it less than once a month -it can be in the room or even somewhere else in the house.
Placement has a big impact on clutter and productivity. Use this information on where to place things and you’ll have a big head start of setting up an effective and efficient home office.
Susan Lannis, Time Liberation Agent, ORGANIZATION Plus! Inc.
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I hope you’re inpsired to start setting up your home office, or to rearrange – get in gear and be productive and profitable!
Feel free to download the tip list here (PDF format!)

Don’t forget to Retweet this post to be entered in to win one of our amazing prizes – every retweet is an entry!!
Have a great Monday!!
A