When people knock your ideas

… remember these famous quotes:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Crop, 1977

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” – Charles H Duell, Commissioner, US office of Patents, 1899

Making it happen

A couple of weeks ago I was down in the stunning Nelson/Marlborough area speaking to the Nelson and then the Blenheim Her Business networks – a wonderful bunch of women in business, led by the dynamic coordinator Kate Webb.

(me, Kate, Sue Morton coordinator of the Oamaru HerBusiness Network and Cheryl Keene, sponsor of the evening from Zeald.com)

As well as sharing the ‘Her Business story’ and a little about entrepreneurette.com, I was championing all things web 2.0 – blogging, online communities and virtual worlds…

That meant I didn’t have time to share some valuable nuggets of advice that have helped me over the years… so here they are:

Fiona’s 7 tips for women in business for making your dreams happen

1.Take time to just think!
Create a vacuum in your life; don’t be tempted to fill it with ‘busyness’! Your most powerful ideas and creativeness will come from these times when you’re quietly thinking.

2. Find role models
Be inspired by other people’s success and let it open your mind to the possibilities that await you! Read about, and listen to, and even meet people whom you admire.

3. Believe in yourself. Make your dreams bigger than your fears
Realise your fears are just excuses and that you do have choices. You create your own reality so ‘put out there’ the future you choose to have.

4. Have an undying commitment towards your dreams/goals
Be very clear about what your dream/goal is. What will it feel like? What will it look like? What’s the first action you’ll take? How will you get around the obstacles?

5. Focus on your core business activities/ core values and passions
Think of Kiri te Kanawa, the singer. She doesn’t set up the stage or sell tickets to her concerts; her passion and her expertise is singing – so that’s what she focuses on. Determine what activities in your business are goal orientated and passionate activities and which activities can be delegated or outsourced – and begin to delegate! The result: you spend your time doing things you love for the most amount of money and get to go home early!

6. Ask for help/get support
Set up your own focus group or brainstorming group. Meet every three weeks and take turns discussing issues within your business (and even personal) life. Or enlist your own informal board of directors, each with a specific area of expertise.

7. Commit to living an extraordinary life
What other sort of life would you want to have? But until you choose to live it that way, and consciously plan your life, it may never happen. Enjoy the process of the journey –because when you get ‘there’ it will become ‘here’ and then you will have another ‘there’.

"When you do the thing you can do you’ll find the way and the way will find you." (Winnie The Pooh)

What does your business aspire to be?

At entrepreneurette we’re running a business mission / purpose competition… tell us in six words (yes six words, no more, no less!) what your business is all about. Go here to find out details how you can share your mission with the world!

What is a mission statement?
A mission statement is your business’ reason for being, a proclamation of why it exists, a clarification of who it serves, and an expression of what it hopes to achieve in the future. A carefully crafted mission statement accurately describes the business and inspires the people who contribute to its success.
It should be clear, short, understandable and memorable. Think of the famous mission statement in the 1960s to ‘put a man on the moon, and bring him back safely, by the end of the decade.‘ This mission staement was clear, powerful and visionary. Unfortunately stirring mission statements are the exception, and the very term itself has become demeaned by many mission statements that are long-winded, incomprehensible and definitely forgettable. Often, the larger the organisation the worse the mission statement.

Dreaming up your mission statement:
Just as important as the mission statement itself is the process of writing the statement. Thinking and writing up your mission statement will help you clarify questions such as:
• What business are we really in?
• What type of business do we want to be?
• What is our target market?
• What inspires us?
The writing process and the statement itself both provide clarity of purpose and motivation for business success.

A mission statement has the following key characteristics:
• Visionary: Above all else a mission statement offers a vision of what a business aspires to be. A visionary mission statement helps people understand what the business is about and how they can contribute to the achievement of the vision.
• Broad: A company cannot be all things to all people, but a mission statement should not limit a company’s area of service or expertise too narrowly. A mission statement should be broad enough to allow the company to meet those needs without annual revisions of the statement.
• Realistic: The broad vision needs to be tempered with realism, to be both practical and workable. Mission statements that include everything or over promise will not give a clear indication of what the business is about. A lofty, unrealistic mission statement will not have great credibility. Instead the best statements are direct and powerful.
• Motivational: The statement should be written in such a way that it inspires commitment among employees, customers, partners, and shareholders about what this company will do or produce. Some organisations emphasise the inspirational value of their mission statement above all else, using it to express the company’s philosophy and values.
• Short and concise: The mission statement should be no longer than 25 words; short enough that an employee can easily remember it and readily repeat it or as management guru Peter Drucker suggests, it should be able to fit on a t-shirt.
• Easily understood: The statement should use plain language that is convincing and easy to understand. For example, a technology company’s mission statement should not include jargon or technology concepts that are unfamiliar to people outside the area. Consider using the "grandmother test" on your mission statement — would your grandmother understand what your company is about if she read your mission statement?

Here are some examples of famous mission statements:

Ford Motor Company (early 1900’s):
"Ford will democratize the automobile"

Sony (early 1950’s):
"Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products"

Boeing (1950):
"Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age"

Wal-Mart (1990):
"Become a $125 billion company by the year 2000"

3M:
"To solve unsolved problems innovatively"

Mary Kay Cosmetics:
"To give unlimited opportunity to women."

Merck:
"To preserve and improve human life."

Wal-Mart:
"To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people."

Walt Disney:
"To make people happy."

Skype:
“Call anyone on any phone anywhere in the world at local rates”

McDonalds:
"McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile."

Levi-Strauss:
"We will market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world."

Microsoft:
Was: “A Computer on Every Desk and In Every Home”
Now: “To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential".

Revlon:
"In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope."

:::: we’d love to read your mission statement!

getting 25 hours out of your day

Managing time is the one of the biggest challenges for any business owner… the ‘to do’ list is infinite… and there are lots of different hats to wear if you’re just starting out or if you’re a solo-preneur.

Over the years I’ve searched for a ‘magical’ solution to give me more hours in a day, but I’ve discovered there is no magic answer and the best solutions are the simplest.

The system that works for me is ‘chunking’ my activities together in an organised way. When I stray from using the system, my days become full of ‘busyness’ but with no tangible outcome or advancement toward my business goals.

I take the week ahead in my diary and break my days into different activities and colour code the day accordingly. For example;

Green days; these are the days I spend on the money making activities – making sales. These activities create today’s money. When you’re starting out in business there’s lots of green days!

Blue days; these days are spent ‘clearing’ up stuff– activities that have to be done as part of running a business; paying bills, administration, compliance, staff reviews, meetings and so on. Blue days create a clear space to allow me to focus on the other days without interruption.

Red days; these days are more strategic; they’re spent planning and working on future income. Tomorrow’s dollars. As your business matures, red days should increase as you delegate green and blue activities to your team.

I keep three different notebooks; one for each of these activity days. So when I’m in the middle of something and remember I need to query an account, I make a note in my ‘blue’ notebook and on a blue clearing day (or blue half-day) I refer to my blue notebook and attend to it then.

The most important day of all though, is the ‘yellow’ day. These are my days off! No work, thinking about work, or carrying around work. A yellow day is for rest, relaxing and rejuvenation – building up my energy for the week ahead!

Getting your press release published

Over the years as editor of various magazines I’ve seen heaps (and heaps) of press releases. Some work and some don’t. The releases that work get followed up, and possibly published, and the ones that don’t work end up in the bin.

So what makes a press release work?
The writers of press releases that work put themselves in my shoes; I’m a busy editor working to deadlines. I have readers who want to know about stuff that matters to them; that is interesting and will add value or help them in some way.
I’m looking for press releases that give me valuable information that I can clearly see will benefit my readers. The writers have done their homework and have figured out the angle or link that will make their news interesting to my readers. These press releases back up their blurb with facts and figures, that I (a time-poor editor or writer) can draw upon or flesh out further.
And they’re relevant. There’s no use sending off a press release about eco-wool insulation to a small business magazine (unless you can make the connection obvious!).
A good release will always include all the basics too; if it’s embargoed or the release date, appropriate contact details and background details. 

Press releases that don’t work are the ones from people firmly in their own shoes, so to speak. They just tell me how wonderful they are (and they probably are wonderful) but don’t tell me what they offer my readers. And I usually don’t have the time to figure out what that is.
So you’ve started a business, you have plush offices in the city, three lovely employees and you offer your first appointment free? Great! But that’s an ad for your business, not a press release. Tell me about the 84 percent of small business owners who don’t back up their computers to secure offsite data storage and the latest invention that makes it really easy for them to back-up (or whatever).

Should you send press releases?
Editors are busy people, and a good press release will bring something news worthy to our attention – and we’re always looking for good content for our publications. So yes, do your research, put yourself in the editor’s shoes (ask yourself would this be of interest to the readers of the publication; how can I make it of interest?), tailor each press release to each publication, cull out any overt self-promotion and send it off!

sound familiar?

• nYou’re considering getting up three hours earlier each day to squeeze in extra work
• Saturday and Sunday are just another work day
• You spent your last free time drumming up business
• You know some of the kids in the back garden are yours, you’re just not sure which
• You start sleeping in the office to save time
• Reading your email is the only recreation you have
• You don’t recognize a single story on the cover of the women’s magazines at the supermarket checkout
• Your dog doesn’t recognize you
• You gave up trying to make a to-do list because you know you’ll never complete it
• Your pile of unread books, papers and magazines threatened to brain you if it ever falls over

Yes, business can get crazy… but this quote puts it all into perspective:
“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow.
But the rainbow won’t wait while you finish the work.”

So here’s some ways to manage you and your time!

• Sit down for 15 minutes at the start of each day;
• List what you want to fit into the day
• Prioritise the list
• Get real about what you know you can fit in and then
• Just get on with it
• Do the stuff YOU want to do
• Delegate out everything you possibly can
• Say no to distractions
• And bin the rest

time to reflect?

The start of a new year is also a valuable time to reflect… what’s working? what’s not working?… here are some great questions to really get you thinking about you and your business…

• Why are you in business?
• Do you have a positive attitude most days?
• Does your work energise you?
• Is your purpose shared by others?
• Do you love what you’re doing?
• Do you find it easy to go to work most days?
• Do work and leisure time sometimes seem the same?
• At times when you’re frustrated or irritated with a particular aspect of your job, do you maintain a deep feeling that what you’re doing is still right and worthwhile?
• Do you feel there’s no other business you’d rather be in?
• Do you feel satisfied with what you have achieved?
• What is the one business goal, which when achieved, will make the most difference?

kickstart a successful 2008

This is the year you’re going to take on the world, make a difference, do the things you love and turn your dreams into reality…

Here are some tips for making it happen:

Clear the clutter

From your desk, from your computer, from your handbag… Clutter saps your energy and we need all the energy we can muster to achieve our goals.

Embrace the web 2.0 revolution

Find relevant online forums to your industry or business and add your voice to the discussion (don’t be a ‘lurker’!). Sign up to social networks and upload your profile and pic (maybe it’s time to get a professional one done?) Subscribe to relevant blogs and add your comments to interesting posts.

Review your business plan

Dust off your plan and make sure you’re still on track. Do any of your strategies need revising? Have you celebrated achieving your milestones?

Get a mentor or business coach

We don’t have all the answers, and getting feedback and advice can open up a whole new way of thinking, put us in touch with valuable contacts and make us accountable to our goals.

Take a course

Learning something new every year is a great way to keep upskilling yourself. There are lots of online courses available on business, financial and self-development related topics and because they’re online, they fit around your schedule.

Get strategic

Ask yourself “who has my customers, but isn’t in competition with me?” List the top ten people or businesses and approach them with a proposal for a win-win alliance.

::: what else is on your list?

each one; teach one

At entrepreneurette we’ve added our magazine… a place to read articles that inspire you and articles and columns that offer useful, practical advice to help you develop your business.

This is a magazine with a difference though. As well as reading the various articles and columns; you can register as an author and contribute your own articles and columns. This is a fabulous opportunity to build your profile in your area of expertise, and also to assist other women in business by sharing your experiences and knowledge.

The magazine is interactive and encourages dialogue between authors and readers …  readers can save their favourite articles, email articles to friends and comment on your columns…

Visit it here

financially savvy

At the WizardWomen launch last week Lisa Dudson of Acumen and moneytv gave a brief talk about financial education, something she is particularly passionate about.

Lisa shared some practical tips, keeping in mind that money is one of life’s biggest stressors and a major source of contention in our relationships and in business.

Firstly, we need to develop a wealthy mindset – we are what we believe and if we’re ‘scared’ about sorting out our money issues then we’re on the back foot straight away.

Next, we need to address the basics. Lisa has first hand experience through her many clients that getting wealthy is not about how much you earn, it’s what you do with your money. It’s about directing your money rather than wondering where it all went. This is about tracking your expenditure and asking yourself if that purchase was a wise one? (For example spending $100 a week on lunches and lattes rather than saving that $5,200 over a year for a trip or for a mortgage deposit). Included in the basics is budgeting, evaluating your insurances and your estate planning.

Lastly, comes action. As Lisa says, “All knowledge is hopeless unless you do it.” Get rid of your excuses (I’m too old, I’ll win lotto, I’m waiting for a rich man) and create some good habits (you’ll be surprised at the effect of compounding interest).

:::: Great advice for all of us who desire an abundant life!