Your Toolkit for Success in 2009

Here are some things to put in your toolkit for 2009:

1. Learn to use your computer more effectively. Watch our Computers 101 video. Once you know how to navigate around on a computer a whole new world of possibilities is open to you.


2. Back up your computer data online. Use either Mozy or Carbonite; both are easy to setup, very inexpensive, and easy to use.


3. Get your accounting computerized ~ purchase QuickBooks and our QuickBooks and Quoting, then sign up for our online QuickBooks courses in January or March. (Remember, all of our courses are recorded and available for you to view for up to 60 days)


4. Start using Microsoft Outlook as your CRM (customer relationship management) software. Outlook can handle your calendar, email and contact data information. Once you start using Outlook you can sync that information with your PDA phone. You'll love this feature! You can even purchase Customer Manager which will act as a liaison between QuickBooks and Microsoft Outlook. You will only have to enter customer information once and both QuickBooks and Outlook is updated. It's a real time saver and so inexpensive.


5. Get a professional looking logo or maybe just freshen up your existing logo. Sign up for our newest online course, "Create a Customized Logo," and learn all the ins and outs of creating a logo.


6. Secure a domain and create a website for your business. Give Simplified Websites a call to get started right away. Simplified Websites is easy to work with and, best of all, they will do the entire layout with their RapidStart program. All you have to do is provide them with photography and text regarding your business. Be sure to check out the examples of their work. If you don't have a website or you would like a more professional looking site, this should be high on your list. Don't put this off any longer.


7. Update your portfolio in a totally new and unique way. Several of you accomplished this task this year after you took our "Create Fabulous Portfolios" course and some of you decided to wait. If you are one of the people that decided to wait, why not add a new updated portfolio for 2009 to your list and purchase our "Create Fabulous Portfolios" course. When you purchase this recorded online course, you will have access to it for 60 days.


8. Start offering new and unique services like the "Design in Five" technique with Minutes Matter Studio.


9. Read educational articles for at least three hours each week. Top of the list, of course, is the Minutes Matter E-zine. We always are sharing information from the many articles we read and the numerous conferences we attend.


10. Revisit past marketing campaigns and revamp them for 2009. Purchase our Power of Innovative Ideas book when it becomes available in early 2009. This new and unique marketing book is chock full of innovative techniques. For more marketing tips, sign up for Jeffrey Gitomer's ezine. He is amazing and sure knows how customers want to be treated.
    

Review your list of goals at least once a month to ensure you are on schedule and to make necessary revisions. Wouldn't it be great to see most, if not all, of these goals accomplished by 2010? Once 2009 comes to a close and you reflect back and see all of the goals you have accomplished since the beginning of the year, the pride that you feel will be "Priceless."

What Do Millionaires Have in Common?

Hi, it's Debbie Green with Minutes Matter this week I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on a very important topic. I always take time to read organizational and time management books and articles. They all have one thing in common - written lists. Everyone recommends that you create a written daily list, a written master list, and written long term goals. Every millionaire is goal oriented; it has been proven that the most successful people take time to physically make lists. When you actually write down your tasks and goals you are 90% more apt to achieve them. So what am I saying? I am saying if you want to have less stress and get more done, start making lists.

Your daily list should have no more than ten tasks listed, including personal tasks. Your master list can have as many as 100 tasks. The master list includes tasks that need to be done next week, next month or sometime in the future. Written goals should include long term plans for your personal and business life. What does goal setting do for you - it gives you focus!

When you consistently rely on lists to govern your day, you can expect to get 25% more done in a day. When you don't have a list, little tasks slip through the cracks and then turn into tomorrow's crisis. For example, have you ever put off ordering trim or custom hardware because it was going to take too much time? Well, I did and one day I said "enough!" Now when a client signs the contract and gives me a deposit, I place orders with my vendors within three to four days. I go down the estimate line by line and create a purchase order for each item. It does not matter if you get your hardware list together today or one month from now it takes the same amount of time, the only difference in waiting is you may incur Second Day Air or Overnight charges as well as rush charges from the vendor.

Be sure to schedule quiet time on your daily list. Quiet time is the time when there are no interruptions and the phone is turned off or not ringing. This time should be scheduled during the time of day that you are most productive; my most productive time is the morning. Use this time to do planning for your business, create proposals, research fabrics, bookwork etc. Remember, planning prevents crisis. Use a calendar to schedule and plan personal, as well as, business tasks, activities, appointments and don't forget the quiet time. Don't over schedule - leave some extra time. Be sure to schedule your quiet time; if you don't, it will always be eaten up by someone or something. We all have the same amount of time; the only difference is what we do with it. The one thing you can control is your time; once we waste it - it's gone forever.

Here are a few tips on planning & making lists:

• Use only one calendar. (I recommend Microsoft Outlook & a PDA Phone and sync daily.)
• Group appointments with errands.
• Control the phone. (Turn off the phone during your quiet time; don't let curiosity get the best of you.)
• Handle a piece of paper once. (Act on it, file it, delegate it, toss it - those should be your only choices)
• Stay with a task until it is done. (Jumping back and forth to a task is a huge time waster.)
• Turn off email notification. (When you are working on a proposal and you hear that "You've got mail" or a ding, it is an instant distraction and it takes several minutes to refocus. I confess this is a weakness for me, but now I have my computer check messages hourly. This was a big step for me!)
• Do those unpleasant tasks first. (You will be encouraged to move to the next task.)
• Break large tasks into several small tasks. (A proposal for a whole house could be broken into several entries on your daily list. This helps those large proposals not seem so overwhelming.)
• Commit time every day to read - it's educational & relaxing. (Read trade magazines, newsletters, Minutes Matter Ezine of course, self-help books, etc.)
• Create your daily list during your quiet time. (If your quiet time is in the morning, create your daily list in the morning. If your quiet time is at the end of the day, create tomorrow's daily list at the end of each day.)
• Be flexible. (Some days just won't go as expected - tomorrow is always another day.)
• Remember bad things happen to good lists - just don't give up!

"He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign." ~Victor Hugo