Never Dreamed I’d Appear In My Nightwear in a Glossy Magazine!

Have you ever dreamed of appearing in a glossy magazine looking sensual in your sexy PJ’s? Well I have to say it has never been one of my goals, but sometimes life leads you in a different direction than expected.

In my role as the Ambassador for the Asthma Foundation I am often asked to speak to the media about the importance of Asthma Management and the  serious nature of Asthma! AND about how you move forward or recreate your life after the loss of a child.

As I write this it is RU OK Day here in Australia – a day when we reach out to others who might be having a hard time – I am encouraging you to reach out to anyone who has lost someone they love especially a child and ask them how they are and genuinely listen to their answer, there is nothing you can say that will make it better HOWEVER really listening does make a difference.

I am also encourging you to send on this post and PDF to those who may benefit from my message. It is possible to create a new normal – if that’s what you chose no matter what has happened. As human beings we are amazingly resilient.

RU OK today – if you need help – reach out there are certainly people who care!

Get your copy of the Finally at 40 Magazine Article as a pdf

Legs Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

5 Secrets To Gaining Olympic Gold That Every Business Owner Should Know!

Olympic fever has hit, and Australians (like many other nations) watch eagerly to see which of our athletes will be bringing home medals. This also has an impact on some businesses and many a business owners can be heard lamenting at the impact this type of huge international event has on their business.

BUT what if we, as business owners, could take away some lessons from our Olympic Athletes and apply them to our businesses so that we can create Gold Medal results too?

Lets have a look at a few of those lessons

1. They Know Their Niche and Plan to Be a Champion

There are athletes training NOW for the 2016 Olympics in Re Do Janeiro.

That’s right they spend years and year preparing for the games. They know exactly what event they will compete in and what they need to do to get there.

For example: They may be a swimmer and their forte is long distance, say the 1500m.

They don’t swap and change the focus of their training between 50m sprint races and the 1500m , NO they just focus on being the best they can over distance.

So, Lesson No.#1 Know your business niche and perform in that space ONLY. Don’t try to hedge your bets!

 

2. They Enlist Others to Join Their Team

Elite athletes know they can’t do it all by themselves, they don’t have the time nor the expertise in every area that is important to their success, so they enroll others to be their experts on their team. This includes things like

Nutritionist, 

Sports Physiologist, 

Strength training and conditioning Coach, 

Mindset coach

Coaches who specialize in their specific event e.g. Distance Swim Coach

You get the picture, they leave nothing to chance, they don’t just train hard, they make sure they are training smart.

 

Lesson No #2 Don’t just work hard, work smart start building your team of experts who will conspire toward your success.

 

3. They Find Others to Fund and Grow their Dream

The thing about being an elite athlete is that it doesn’t leave much time for things like income generation, yet they still have to do the normal things like eat well and pay for things like cars and clothes etc.

There are 2 main things these athletes do to manage this situation

1. They get government funding or grants to pursue their training full-time
2. They partner with businesses that see a mutual benefit in working together. That is, sponsors who see providing funding or goods in kind as a good trade to have their brand associated with the athletes name or brand.

This is an opportunity for you as a business owner too,

1. There are grant or seed funding opportunities for businesses in certain industries and locations
2. There are other businesses who would see a mutual benefit in working together, by introducing you to their clients, so that you can provide a product or service that they are unable to, for example.

 

Lesson No#3 Partner with others who see mutual benefit in a Strategic Alliance, Partnership or Joint Venture arrangement

 

4. They Over Come Setbacks to Compete Another Day

Well, we have all seen athletes comeback after a major injury or disappointing performance. This is where their commitment to their goal is tested. Along with, their determination to success and the mindset to carry it off.

No doubt some pretty intense mindset coaching comes in handy in the times of disappointment (refer lesson No #2)

In everyday life and in sport, things don’t always go to our plan, and it’s what we do in times of difficulty that determines our level of success. Personal and professional growth is an essential element to ultimate success.

Lesson No #4  Overcome setbacks by Developing the mindset of a business champion.

 

5. Celebrate

Have you seen athletes standing on the podium with their medal hanging around their necks, chest swelling with pride, eye’s brimming with tears and a grin that would rival that of a Cheshire cat? Of course you have!

There is no shame in celebrating your wins, in feeling joyful and exuberant after a job well done.

You may not have the support of an entire nation cheering you on as you cross the finish line, however a well chosen group of friends and the enthusiastic affirmation of your expert team will make the winning just as sweet.

 

Lesson No #5 Celebrate Your Wins, No Matter How Small, they all contribute to Ultimate Success

 

Article by Lenore Miller

Best Selling Author, Professional Speaker and Business Consultant

Lenore Miller is Australia’s No #1 Expert on Generating More Revenue with the Business Resources you Already Have.

You Can Contact Her office on 1300 884 156 to book her for a speaking engagement or introductory business consultation.

Would you Like to Launch Your Offline Business Or Product Online?

James Klobasa is the author of Chapter 12 of Ignite Your Business Mojo. His expertise in lauching businesses online started with successfully launching his own traditional offline business  (in the construction industry) online with phenomenal  success. Three (3) years later that business still generates a 5 figure income each and every month.  These days James assists other business owners package, promote and launch their products and services online.

James is currently offering people connect with me a  90-min Strategy Session, at no cost to you with loads of value!

So here’s the deal… In the offline world we often have our focus on different forms of marketing and advertising than this… But I’ve just spoken with James, and since October, he’s been laying low working on an amazing way to increase ROI (return on investment) with minimal work and its been kicking butt. Seriously… Its been working for people that have products or services they wish to sell…whether they have started online or or not… Anyway, he’s been underground with this since October and he’s ready to share the strategy now… He’s put up this webpage to explain everything… http://www.plfconsultant.com/LenoreLikes-ConsultThruResult
BTW: He’s the real deal, James regularly delivers 6 figure product roll-outs for his clients and he knows both the online and offline world. He also owns a company supplying services into the Construction Industry that runs on $300/mth……… The beauty of it………..it produces 5 figures/month, and has every month for the last 3 years…for just 2 days work a month.He’s a specialist in value creation, time freedom and delivery strategies.

So I knew you’d be keen to take a look, here it is…
http://www.plfconsultant.com/LenoreLikes-ConsultThruResult

Small Business Success – Sue Henry Recommends Ignite Your Business Mojo

http://www.IgniteYourBusinessMojo.com Sue Henrey from Small Buiness Accelerator shares her Thoughts in Lenore Miller’s New Book ‘Ignite Your Business Mojo’

In Ignite Your Business Mojo Community will learn the secrets of small business success. Connect with this community of like minded entrepreneurs and small business owners looking for the, how to business tips.

You will learn among other things, how to gain and maintain business motivation, how to find the best business mentoring and coaching, the benefits of have a business mentor and or business coach, business tips on how to get FREE PR, referral networking strategies, Harnessing your human resources, in your business in fact all the secrets to success in business.For those who want to accelerate their progress we offer group and individual business coaching and mentoring so you can create your business success.

Sign up for your very own How to Beat Overwhelm Package and start achieving more today http://www.IgniteYourBusinessMojo.com

Ignite Your Business Mojo – Get the spark into your business

Essential Business Tool For Every Office and Virtual Office

Have you notice how our way of communicating keeps on changing with the development of technology? In the ‘old days’ people wrote letters to communicate until the telephone and telegram and then came
pagers.

Until the millennium era came with new smart technologies, from mobile phones that are capable of text messaging and calling around the word in an instant and able to support a myriad of applications including one of the easiest and cheapest ways to communicate – Skype which allows instant messaging, audio, video calling and even the option to have a local number and voice mail service attached to your skype account.

This  technology whilst popular for personal use, can be a valuable business tool too. It allows collaboration with clients around the globe through video and audio conferencing.  “Lets skype” is a popular and well used phrase.  Whilst many people know about Skype, not everyone is using it so let me give you a simple preview.
What is Skype and can I use Skype to call landlines or mobiles?

You can also subscribe to a  paid VoIP services from Skype. Not only can you get skype subscription plans, they come at rates than are much more affordable than any of their VoIP services competitors.

Service Plan and Fees

One of the advantages of dealing with Skype is the payment options they provide. You can either pre-pay, pay as you go or pay monthly with PayPal, credit card, or prepaid cards.

The pay as you go system works through something called Skype Credit, which is similar to pay  as you go for your mobile phone.  You buy Skype Credit and  when you no longer require the service you can stop buying credit and let the service slowly become non functioning.

Phone Numbers and Voice Mail

You can secure a local phone number via your skype account at the cost of
3 months at $24
12 months at $80
Skype will also support voice mail.

This is a great way to set up a virtual office that allows you to do business no matter where you are without the cost of an additional  landline.

How to get  started with skype?

All you have to do is download the program and install it on your computer.  To use the service you will need either a headset, external  or built in microphone. They have Mac and Windows versions of their software, so there’s no need to worry about compatibility and of course you need an internet connection.

Skype is also available as an app for smart phone and tablet devices.

Paul Godden, Event Video Expert, Reviews Lenore Miller

Paul Godden was the video expert at Janet Beckers 4th Dimension Workshop where Lenore was a presenter throughout the 3 days. His company Vision Quest Video Productions videos all the biggest and best events in Australia.

Some of Paul’s  other clients include Daryl and Andrew Grant, Joey Martin, Jennie Armato and  Paul Blackburn just to name a few.

Dipping for Diamonds – interview with Glenn Kirkwood

Many people have asked me how I selected the contributors for my new book Ignite Your Business Mojo in which Glenn Kirkwood has written a chapter 8 on network and referral marketing. My answer is always the same – I looked for people who were truly experts in their field AND walked their talk, I hope your enjoy my series of interviews with Glenn and the other contributors,  you may well like to read a great example below about how successful a join venture can really be!

In one of my first conversations with Glenn he told me about a joint venture strategy between a  book store and a jeweler – that was called Dipping for Diamonds. It involved a glass vase full of cubic zirconias and one diamond (the jewelers contribution). Every customer that came in to the book store and  made a purchase over $40 got to dip for the diamond and when they ask if their  treasure was the valuable diamond the book store owner had to admit that he didn’t know and suggested they pop down to the jeweler to have it checked out. The desired outcome of course was to increase business overall for both business owners.

In short the outcome was that the book store increased it’s turnover by $380,000 that year and the jeweller had over 250 of the cubic zirconia recipients have their stone turned into a piece of jewellery with many buying a second stone to create a pair of earrings. The person who won the actual diamond, spent another $2500 with the jeweler having it made into a beautiful brooch.

This arrangement was truly a win-win-win with both business owners increasing their profits beyond the expense of the promotion and the recipents of the stones getting a fabulous value add for their part in the promotion – remember  and they had to do was spend over $40 at a book store.

So, what could you be doing in your business around networking with other businesses and joint ventures or referral programs. Glenn is not called That Referral Guy for nothing he certainly is a man with many business tips to share.

In this video Glenn mentions his BNI Team site where you can grab some great resources http://www.BNIteam.com.au .

If you’d like to grab a copy of Ignite Your Business Mojo and read Glenn’s Chapter along with all the other fabulous chapters form business experts across the area just pop over to http://www.IgniteYourBusinessMojo.com

Are you Efficient or Effective?

This week I attended a business chamber breakfast where the speaker talked about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. It was great timing for me after having almost a months holiday and coming back charged and ready to go, I really needed to ensure my focus was effective to achieve the bold and audacious goals I have for my business in the coming months and in fact years.

So do you think you’re efficient or effective? Perhaps you roll between the two.

The key to business success, for any business owner though, is to move from being very efficient to being way more effective, let me share why I think that’s so.

In short here is the high level take on the two concepts:

Let me ask you, do you have a long to do list? You know the one that you churn through but never get to the bottom of? Are you the person that is great at getting that ‘stuff’ done? Feeling proud at the end of the day that you ticket them all off (well most of them). Then you’re efficient.

However if you’re the person who looks at the list and takes time to think about what tasks need to be done by you and more importantly what tasks will lead you closer to your vision for your business and then make time for those things…..Then you’re effective.

OK, so I know this is very simplistic and we do need to at times be efficient, especially when we’re  still in the growth phase and only have a small team, which may even be a team of one, YOU!

However you do need to make time each day and each week to work on tasks that grow your business.
Are you familar with Stephen Covey’s four quadrants from his book The 7 Habits of Hight Effective People. In this book he talks about the difference between Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 thinkers. He says

Quadrant 1 thinkers focus on deadline driven projects  and fire-fighting activities - The Urgent Stuff!

While Quadrant 2 thinkers aim to build capabilities for the long term- The Important Stuff

 

Lets go a step further and look at Quadrant 3 and 4 activities. The chances are that Q4 activities can just slide right off your radar – that right Stop doing those things, NOW!

Q3 activities (and some Q1 activities) could be done by someone other than you. This could be an employee or contractor. (you might like to take another look at our post on outsourcing – our VA is working a treat and don’t get me started on how much I love my Bookkeeper)!)

So maybe now is a good time to take stock, draw up your own grid and pop all the activities on your To Do List into one of the 4 quadrants and see where you’re currently spending your time, and what changes you can make to become more effective.

As always we would love to hear your ideas, suggestions and feedback. So please add you comments to the blog post , your contribution just may light someone elses business mojo!

To Your Success,

Lenore

Taking Your Business Online Part 1 with Charly Leetham

Charly Leetham was recently named the winner of the Women In Business category  at the MCEI Marketing Award’s in Melbourne, so she is someone who knows a thing or two about both business and marketing. In this interview Charly shares with us the process for taking your business online.

Most business owners are aware that they could have an online presence whilst others already have a website but it’s not bringing them the results they had hoped for. Charly Leetham’s aproach is to make your web presence deliver exactly what it is that you need it to. In her chapter of Ignite Your Business Mojo – Business Plans and Their Importance to Your Web Presence – what all business owners should know! Charly goes into this in more detail, laying out all the things a business owner needs to consider. Needless to say, when it comes to websites, one size does not fit every business and it’s important to consult with someone who knows the right questions to ask so that your web presence delivers the results you’re after.

In part two of this interview Charly talks about the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) and developing a strategy to ensure your site can be found!

If you have an offline business and you want to take  it online then this web strategy becomes part of your overall business and marketing plan.  If you’d like to know more about this or any other web based strategy or having a website created or refined then contact Charly Ask Charly Leetham

To read more about this and other strategies for business success then you can grab a copy of Ignite Your Business Mojo here!

Taking Your Business Online with Charly Leetham Part 2

Charly Leetham was recently named the winner of the Women In Business category  at the MCEI Marketing Award’s in Melbourne, so she is someone who knows a thing or two about both business and marketing. In this interview we speak with Charly about search engine optimisation.

So, you have a website and you’re wondering where all the traffic is? It’s a bit like opening the doors of a bricks and mortar business and wondering where all the customers are (or the foot traffic). We all know that when we open our bricks and mortar business we have to let people know we are there ready to provide our products and services. If we’re smart we will have a marketing plan that we’re following and will be testing and measuring everything we do against the results we’re seeing and the financial outlay we have made. We may even have sought some professional advice on the best way to market our business. Running an online presences is no different, you need a strategy (or plan) for this too and if you’re not an expert then it’s a great idea to engage someone who is.

There are many options for search engine optimization (SEO), including article and video marketing and  link backs from other sites and each needs to be done strategically to ensure the search engines ‘like’ your site and start to move it up the search engine rankings (so for example when people search for your product or service you show on page one of google). You can either take the time to learn all about this yourself and keep up to date or you can use the services of a specialist who can either help you design a strategy, that you manage yourself, or design a strategy that they will manage for you.

If you have an offline business and you want to take  it online then this web strategy becomes part of your overall business and marketing plan.  If you’d like to know more about this or any other web based strategy or having a website created or refined then contact Charly Ask Charly Leetham

To read more about this and other strategies for business success then you can grab a copy of Ignite Your Business Mojo here!