My children are 8 and 10 years old. My business is 12 years old. All three are important to me, and all three fight for my attention. Sometimes, I can give attention to all three at once. Sometimes, just two. Sometimes just one. (I also have a husband — can’t forget to add that in!)

Because I have chosen to work from home, managing all of it is quite a challenge. Since I’ve been at it for a over decade, I have a lot to share with my fellow Indie parents in the trenches. People often ask me how I manage to keep everything moving forward, and while there’s no definitive secret, I do engage in a few non-negotiables that help me integrate it all — most of the time. I thought I’d share them with you.

1. Have clear business goals. If you don’t know exactly what you want your business to do, you will forever be stuck juggling this, that, and the other, frustrated because you can’t get “it” all done. You have to clearly define “it.” Clarify what you want to achieve. Don’t do anything that doesn’t lead you toward your “it.”
2. Get help. Your help may come in the form of a baby sitter, a nanny, a husband, a neighbor, a math tutor, a virtual assistant, an older sibling, a house keeper, an errand runner, or all of the above — depending on the day. I have always had help and lots of it. You can’t do everything and lead a business and make money and nurture children and manage a household and blah blah blah, without help. Get some.
3. Schedule everything. I use Google calendar, synced to my iPhone. My family and team can access the business portion of my calendar. I can update it from wherever I am. I look at my calendar several times during the day, especially early in the morning, to make sure my 4 or 5 most important tasks are slated to be completed by noon. This way, by the time my kids get home from school, and the workday ends until after they are asleep, I’m done with the biggest rocks.
4. Explain work, once kids are old enough to understand. All kids must be taught about the importance of work, but when you have a home office, as I do, it’s even more important to tell kids why you are doing what you do for so much of the day. All parents have to explain this to their children, but the task is magnified when your children observe you working from home. It’s even more magnified when you and your business are the chief bread winners.
5. Let stuff go. Despite your best efforts, some things just won’t get done. The trick here is not to let it become a habit. If you miss something this week, don’t miss it next week. If you can only get somehting halfway finished, then do that and finish the rest tomorrow. Avoid all or nothing thinking. The world won’t stop spinning if things fall a bit behind, so long as you have a plan to catch up. Sometimes, you just have to allow yourself to say, “Ugh, I can’t get to it,” and put it at the top of your list for the next day.
6. Eat dinner together. This is a super thing to do, and if the dinner is filled with love and lively conversation, it can make up for lots of time invested in your business. In my home, we eat dinner together every night (unless I’m traveling). Sometimes, we play board games after, or just dance around the house. Other times, we do a few chores together or I’ll teach them some important life skill. (This month, we’re working on ironing …) Hugs and kisses at bed time finish off their day. After that, I can work more if I need to — or not./li>

Question: If you are an entrepreneur with young children, what tips and productivity insights can you share? Comment below or at the Indie FaceBook Page where others have already shared their ideas.

The term, “platform” is tossed around liberally in small business circles these days, yet many people remain confused about exactly what it means. To help clear up the confusion, I recently interviewed someone I consider to be an expert on the topic.

Phil Simon is the author of The Age Of The Platform, a book about how small business owners can look to larger companies like like Amazon, Apple, FaceBook, and Google to learn new ways to leverage online platforms for success. Phil has researched the topic extensively, and you’ll enjoy insights during this interview that you won’t find anywhere else.

To listen to my 30-minute interview with Phil, and to put his tips to work in your business now, scroll to the bottom of this page and click the play arrow. If you don’t feel like listening right now, here is a high level summary of what Phil and I discussed, with time stamps in case you want to scroll forward.

1. What is a platform (4:00)? A platform is a collection of integrated planks. An example of a plank is the hair cut service offered by a barber. The barber could also offer the complementary service of a shave. The two planks (hair cut and shave) create his platform. The more complementary services he provides, the more planks he has to support his platform. While the barber can add planks just to increase revenues, Phil says he should avoid misguided attempts to make quick money. Planks should be logical extensions of an existing core platform. They should support the ecosystem of the brand and enhance the customer experience, not be added on willy nilly to make a few extra bucks.
2. Platform alone does not guarantee success (12:45). In addition to knowing what a platform is, we must also know what a platform is not. Phil shares the example of a character in a popular sitcom, who thinks that beepers are making a comeback. That person could build a business around beepers. He could have a blog and manage several marketing channels to bolster a visible platform. Of course he won’t be successful because no one is buying beepers. The lesson here is that a platform does not guarantee success. A platform must must be accompanied by a product people want to buy (know your audience!) and a solid business model. Otherwise, it may be worthless.
3. “What’s Yelp?” (16:00) This is a bit of a rhetorical question, to illustrate the point that, if you’re a small business owner, and are not aware of Yelp or other online outlets discussing your brand and/or the types of products and services you offer, you have a problem.

   Phil shares the example of a conversation he had with the owner of a moving company he was considering hiring. Before speaking with the company owner, Phil discovered numerous negative Yelp reviews for the company — yet the owner of the company had never heard of Yelp.

   Phil’s message is that business is changing — your platform is not completely controlled by you. Not only must you build your own platform, but you must also be aware of third party-owned platforms that can help (or hurt) your business.

Toward the end of the interview, we encountered a technical difficulty. The audio is clear, but you may notice our creative editing in the last few minutes. (Thanks Darryl!) I really wanted to bring you Phil’s insights, so despite the glitch, you will enjoy this podcast.

About Phil Simon

Phil Simon is recognized technology expert and the author of four management books: The New Small, Why New Systems Fail, The Next Wave of Technologies, and The Age of the Platform. His contributions have been featured on Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, the American Express Open Forum, ComputerWorld, Technorati, ZDNet, abcnews.com, forbes.com, Inc. Magazine, The New York Times, ReadWriteWeb, and many other sites. Visit his website at Phil Simon Systems, and follow him on Twitter.

Related Podcast: Donna Maria and Phil Simon: Tips To Help Small Business Owners Maximize Technology

How to Listen to the Show

This post contains my paraphrases of the information Phil shared. To hear it from the horse’s mouth yourself, listen to the entire 30-minute show using one of these options:

• Download it on iTunes. (It usually takes a day or two for iTunes to feed the show there.)
• Click on the arrow at the bottom of this post to listen now!
• Because I have not had a chance to load all of my shows to this blog, you can listen to hundreds of interviews from 2005 to 2010, each one as relevant today as it was when I recorded it, at my Indie Business Radio site.

Question: How are you building planks and platforms to support your business?

Author Shawn Achor says that the happiness advantage, “Asks us to be realistic about the present while maximizing our potential for the future.” I love this statement because it encourages us to realistically acknowledge our present circumstances without allowing them to predict our future ones. In other words, we do not have to put on rose-colored glasses in order to feel hopeful about the future, and — most importantly — to act on that hope to produce the results we want.

Last week, we read about Principle #1: The Happiness Advantage and Principle #2: The Fulcrum and The Lever. So let’s get started. What are the first two principles Achor says can help us leverage happiness to our advantage?

1. Principle No. 1: The happiness advantage? This section of the book is filled with proof that the happiest people perform best in many areas of life, and in particular, in workplace productivity. For example, people who receive positive stimuli before performing a task, complete the tast better and more accurately than those who receive negative stimuli or no stimuli at all. As reported on page 47, even doctors rendered more accurate diagnoses when they receive positive stimulus (in this case, just a lollipop!) before making the diagnosis.

   Another important part of this Principle is the fact that we can actually change our brains to be happier, so that we can enjoy the happiness advantage.

   Page 43 reports a study showing that happier people fight off the cold virus more effectively then unhappy ones.

2. Principle No. 2: The fulcrum and the lever. This principle is based on Archimedes’ Formula, which say that if we have a good place to stand (the fulcrum), we can lengthen the “lever” by which we change our circumstances, and literally move further and faster toward what we want to achieve. For example, page 70 shares the story of a group of hotel maids who were told that their work burned calories like a cardio workout. After several weeks, the maids had lost weight and lowered their cholesterol more than the group of maids who were told nothing. This is proof of the “Expectancy Theory,” that by expecting a positive outcome (the fulcrum), we more effectively push the levers we need to push in order to achieve good results.

Perhaps the best news from the first few chapters of The Happiness Advantage is that people who are not “naturally happy” can “reset” their brains to take leverage the happiness advantage. This is good news for those of us who either know people who struggle with depression, or who struggle with it ourselves. Pages 50 to 56 list several practical things you can do right now, even in the place (fulcrum) you are now sitting or standing, to improve your mood and raise your level of happiness throughout the day. Among them are meditation, exercise, and planned positive experiences.

Discussion Points

1. Have you noticed that when you receive positive, tangible stimulus before performing a task, you perform that task more effectively? How have you noticed this?

2. Have you noticed the “Expectancy Theory” at work in your life, either positively or negatively? Have you expected a negative outcome and gotten it? Have you expected a positive outcome and gotten it? What about your behavior has contributed to both sets of circumstances?

3. How have you used meditation, exercise, planned positive experiences, and the other practical things suggested on page 50 to 56 to improve your happiness advantage?

PS – if this discussion turns you on, you might also wish to join the conversation about this “success tip” I posted at our FaceBook Page.

I‘m no scholar. And it’s a pretty bold thing for me to say that I know what Dr. King would have said about anything at any time. He was a brilliant man, and I mean no disrespect with the title of this post.

My observations of Dr. King’s life, work, and words, some of which are depicted in today’s Google Doodle shown here, do lend themselves to a few conclusions, however, and one of them is that, if Dr. King were alive today, he would have a thing or two to say about small and independent business owners. Here’s how I think he’d put it:

1. Write your own emancipation proclamation.

   I come here tonight and plead with you. Believe in yourself and believe that you’re somebody. … Nobody else can do this for us! No document can do this for us. No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation can do this for us. No Kennesonian or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can do this for us. If the Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sing with the pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation.” (Watch the video where Dr. King spoke these words.)

   These words give me chills. I think they reveal that despite the oppression he fought against, he believed strongly in the power of personal responsibility.

   If you want economic freedom, you must specifically define and pursue it for yourself. Small and independent business owners across this nation are doing that.

2. #OccupyYourHOmeOffice. “A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” To me, this short sentence summarizes the strongest response to the “Fat Cats” on Wall Street. Yes, we can march and protest against their bad behavior, but why not also march for our own?

   I don’t see a one-for-one fair comparison to Dr. King’s marches and #OccupyWallStreet protests. Dr. King marched for measurable outcomes, including specific laws that would make specific behavior illegal.

   He did not march to say that what certain people did was wrong. He marched to empower people to do what was right, and not just in a general sense.

   He was specific, and everyone could tell whether the movement was a success or a failure based on whether his specific and measurable goals were or were not achieved. Dr. King wasn’t on the news taking up space and complaining about how others were treating him unfairly or were making it hard for him to make a living.

   He didn’t march to say, “Woe, is me … I am the poor 99%.”

   He marched to say, “I am a man! I am the 1%, and I demand that you treat me that way, and here’s exactly what I want you to do to make that happen, and nothing short of this will do, and I brought these millions of people with me to pursue the same specific outcome.”

   I think Dr. King would tell each of us to stand up for what is right, be specific about it, and then go home and work day by day, moment by moment to better our own situations.

3. Serve others. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” When I look out across this nation today, I see small business owners in communities everywhere, who are focused not only on how much money they can make, but on how they can serve others by building their communities and contributing positively to the American economy. This is what #IndieMeetUp is all about.

   In over a dozen cities, hundreds of people gathered physically and virtually to empower each other to succeed in small business. These men and women are answering the service question for themselves, and in so doing, are creating wealth on their own terms and paving the way for their children not ot have to rely on a traditional job to secure their future. That is service, to people alive today and to people who will be alive tomorrow.

I Mean No Disrespect

I hope no one is offended by my reference to #OccupyWallStreet (as some were in a prior post on the topic.) I mean no disrespect to the efforts that are being made to give a voice to people who are being ignored and disrespected by the establishment.

What I Do Mean

What I do mean is that, as we point out the flaws in others, we must also be honest about our own flaws, and then we must take it a step further.

We must specifically define what we want, and then pursue that. If we need the law to change to make that happen, then we pursue that too.

We must not allow ourselves to be victims of the despicable behavior of a few people.

We must be victors, using our talents and gifts — in community — to create the kind of lives we want.

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

I believe Dr. King would say these very words today if he were describing small and independent business owners across this nation.

You are laboring. You are uplifting. You are dignified. You are important. You are excellent.

Go!

Question: Thoughts?

Since I quit my job in 1995 to open a retail store, and later launch the Indie Beauty Network, I have known that small business ownership would eventually become the norm for women. My professional life today is built around this truth, as I empower women and their family members to embrace the entrepreneurial opportunities that are so abundant today. I am thrilled, and not at all surprised, to see these statistics.

One of the most telling pieces of information is the fact that between 2002woman-owned businesses increased by 20.1%, compared to 5.5% for men. That means women are starting businesses three times as fast as everyone else! Three times. Here are some additional highlights:

1. Economic impact in dollars. Woman-owned businesses account for $3 Trillion, and growing. This positive economic impact is serving not just our nation and the world, but individual communities at the grass roots level. Witness: Tomororow’s #IndieMeetup in more than a dozen cities nationwide.
2. Employment. Woman-owned businesses produce and/or maintain 23 million jobs. As more women lead businesses, more Americans will become employed.
3. Retail and wholesale growth. Just look at the huge percentage of woman-owned businesses int he retail/wholesale sector — a whopping 13.4%. Those are my Indies and the people who do business with them.

The sources for the statistics shown here are at the bottom of the graphic.

Question: Does this excite you as much as it does me?

These are present tense “resolutions.” Read them a few times, and then say them aloud to yourself as often as possible throughout the year. This is a great list to refer back to over and over again.

These resolutions are not about what you will do. They are about what you are doing. Let’s make it happen in 2012!

1. I am not in the passion pit. I know that passion is not a business model. I do not allow my passion for my work to thwart my ability to make solid business decisions. Read about avoiding the passion pit.
2. I do not spend too much time sitting at a computer . While I will invest time on FaceBook, Twitter, etc., so I can market my business, I take frequent breaks to maintain my health. I exercise regularly and with intention. If I need to, I am escaping obesity in 2012.
3. I use technology wisely. I know that the growth of my business depends on my wise and consistent use of technology. I am proactive about learning how technology can help me, and then take action to make it happen.
4. I always bring my A Game. I do my best, but that’s just for starters. I always bring my A Game, and I insist on results.
5. I watch my money. I plan and account for every penny I spend. I use credit wisely. I borrow money to create leverage. I do not borrow money on a whim. I do not borrow money unless I have a plan to pay it back.
6. I maintain my own branded media outlets. I create and publish content that bears my brand name, so I can expand my platform, reach more prospective customers, and create new business opportunities for myself.
7. I drink lots of water. Water keeps my body hydrated so it can feel and perform well. I drink as much as I can every day.
8. I attend local business networking events regularly. I create and nurture professional relationships in my community by attending local events that offer opportunities to learn from and support other Indies. You can start with the Worldwide Indie Business Meetup in your town on January 14, 2012!
9. I support other handmade businesses. Not only do I like their FaceBook Pages, but when possible, I buy products and services from other creative people who work for themselves.
10. When I learn something, I pass it on. I have a responsibility to pay it forward. I do not divulge my trade secrets without compensation, nor should I be expected to. Otherwise I pay it forward.
11. I eat as healthfully as possible. I enjoy cakes and cookies from time to time, but I know my body. I eat as healthfully as possible, whatever that means for me. I am always learning about new ways to maintain a healthy diet.
12. I splurge on myself. I am worth it. A special facial, a new string of pearls, a new purse … I work hard and I deserve to splurge on myself now and then.
13. I have a coach and/or mastermind group to help me be accountable and grow. I am proactive about seeking out people who can help me grow and succeed. I and my business are worth it.
14. I know what I want from my business. I am not in business just because it’s fun. I am not in business just to make money. My business produces specific things that I want in my life. I know what those things are and I pursue them diligently.
15. I maintain a dynamic business plan. My business plan does not sit on a shelf. It is alive and vibrant with each action I perform in my business. I review my plan often to eliminate what’s not working, tweak what should be working and add new things. My plan is dynamic. My business does not bore me, and it does not bore my customers.
16. I read. A lot.. Because readers are leaders, I invest a significant amount of time reading books and magazines that I enjoy, and that can help me achieve my goals. Start with Indie Business Book Club!
17. I charge what my products and services are worth. I am entitled to make as much money as I can with the talents and gifts I have been given, and the education and experiences I have accumulated. I charge what my products are worth. I am fair to myself and to my customers.
18. I am a woman (or man) of influence. The actions I take in my business lead to the expansion of my sphere of influence. This allows me to be successful in all of my current endeavors, as I also pave the way for success in my future ones. Read about becoming a woman of influence.
19. I do not waste time watching television. And I am not replacing the television with the Internet either.
20. I create multiple streams of assets. I am not just creating income streams. I am creating assets. Whether it’s a blog, a podcast, an e-book, a new product line or a new website, every asset I create gives birth to new opportunities for me to help more people and generate more income. Read more about what I think of multiple streams of income.

Question: Can you share your handmade business resolutions in the comments? Remember to write them in the present tense.

Yesterday, I shared a post containing tips to help you bring your A Game into the New Year. After I published it, I realized I didn’t define A Game. This post does that. Of course, “doing your best” and other useless phrases came to mind. But the truth is that whether you’ve brought your A Game does not depend on whether you’ve done your best. It depends on the results you produce.

Oh, I know. That’s not fair. After all, all you can do is your best right? Well, sorry. In business, you are not judged by how hard you try, but on the results you produce. Therefore, any useful definition of A Game must incorporate not just doing your best, but producing results. Here’s the definition I came up with:

Your A Game is an fierce, undeniable, and obvious intention to achieve specific goals, which intention manifests itself as those goals are achieved.

Here are a few “up close and personal, in the trenches” tips to help you bring your A Game, not just in the big picture (which we discussed yesterday), but also in every moment, of every day, of every week, of every month, of every year.

1. Be prepared. Your A Game won’t show up if you have a B Game mentality. You may accomplish things with your B Game, but they won’t be nearly as good as what you can accomplish with your A Game.

   For example, to bring the A Game my guest and audience deserve to my weekly podcast, I must prepare by reading the guest’s book and biographical information in advance of our live taping. When I don’t, it shows, and I do my guest and my audience a disservice.

   Whether it’s a sales call with a prospective customer or a new product launch, everyone can tell when you are not prepared. No preparation, no A Game.

2. Be physically fit. This could be easy for you, or it could be hard — like it is for me. (Ugh.) I’ve lived for months, in a row intentionally fitting physical fitness into every day. I’ve also lived months in a row not fitting physical fitness into every day. Through these experiences, I have learned that without a daily workout of some kind, it is nearly possible for me to bring my A Game. That doesn’t mean I’m unproductive on days when I don’t work out. But my A Game generally eludes me on those days.

   When I incorporate daily fitness into my life, my productivity soars through the roof. After a workout, I bring my A Game to everything and everybody.

   And by the way, for each of the months when I didn’t squeeze in a daily workout, I would swear to you on a stack of holy books that I “did my best.” And you know what? Yadda yadda yadda. It doesn’t matter.

   This is a constant challenge for me, but as Oprah would say, this I know for sure: no physical fitness, no A Game.

3. Nurture your personal relationships. Personal relationships can either encourage or discourage your A Game. To bring your A Game to your business, you must carefully nurture the personal relationships in your life.

   The burden of unresolved issues in your intimate relationships will always hinder your A Game. Address issues in those relationships. Don’t let them fester. Bring up the hard stuff, talk it through. Agree to disagree if you must, but resolve the issues. Don’t let them build up over time so much that, no matter what you do, your A Game eludes you.

   No nurtured personal relationships, no A Game.

Just like it takes hard work and heavy lifting to define your muscles, it also takes hard work and heavy lifting to define and then deliver your A Game day in and day out. You can do it. I can too.

2012 is nearly here. Let’s do it together!

Question: How do you define your A Game? I’d love to hear your definition!

The holidays are almost officially over. Hopefully, you are getting some rest with friends and family, and taking some time to rev up so you can bring your A Game into 2012.

In case it’s a bit of a challenge after the holidays to to find your A Game state of mind, here are a few easy things you can do to move yourself in that direction.

1. Clear clutter. Clutter saps your energy and makes you feel weighed down. Get rid of products that didn’t sell this year so they are not collecting dust on your shelves. As you do this, assess whether you also need to delete entire product lines that did not do well this year.

   By the way, as you do this, don’t feel badly that you are ditching products that a few valued customers really like. Continuing, for emotional reasons, to carry products that don’t sell is a mistake I see a lot of small business owners make. You’ve got to separate the emotional side from the business side on this one in order to set you and your business up for the best opportunities in 2012.

   This is a often spiritual process. Out with the old, in with the new. It’s hard to explain, but it’s true — once you make physical space for new things, your mental space is also cleared. Your creativity flows more freely and you can replace the old with things that appeal to your customers and that sell better as a result.

2. Ask questions. Use the next few days to ask yourself some hard questions. Why are you in business in the first place? Are you getting what you want out of your business? If not, why not? What needs to change in order for you to change the answer to this question? Is your business growing at a pace that’s right for you? Is it time to refine your mission statement?

   As you ask yourself these questions, record the answers, and take full responsibility for them. Own what you discover about yourself, and then use it to move yourself in the direction you want to go in.

3. Map out a short-term plan. I recently read that the owners of a huge percentage of successful companies did not have a business plan when they started. This may be true, but my guess is they also started at least 10 years ago when there was far less competition than there is today. My other guess is that they were not bootstrapping their businesses in the middle of a recession. While it’s possible to achieve goals without a plan, it sure is harder to do so.

   Make it easier on yourself by dividing 2012 into bit-sized quarterly chunks and set some goals for those quarters. Be specific, and identify what you will do each month (and each week, and even each day) to achieve your quarterly goals. Build in some ways to check your progress as you move forward. You may want to use a business coach or a MasterMind group to help you monitor your progress and keep you accountable.

Question: What are your ideas? What steps are you taking to bring your A Game into 2012??! I’d love to hear from you!

In How To Control Your Growth and Don’t Break Your Life, I shared my insights based on 12 years in business about successfully integrating your need to build a profitable business with your need to build a business that is the right for your life.

These are two distinct things, but unless they are considered together, you could end up with a highly profitable business but no time to enjoy your life, or a great life plan, but not enough money to live it. When it comes to business, my definition of success is actively leading a business that’s designed to finance your unique lifestyle goals. How that looks will vary from person to person and from life to life, and that’s what Adelaide Lancaster and I discussed on a recent Indie Business Podcast episode.

Adelaide is the co-author of The REAL TRUTH About Social Media: Confessions of a Social Media CEO. To listen to my 30-minute interview with Adelaide, and to put her insights to work in your business now, scroll to the bottom of this page and click the play arrow. If you don’t feel like listening right now, here is a high level summary of what Adelaide and I discussed, with time stamps in case you want to scroll forward.

1. What’s in it for you (5:03)? While you’re probably used to asking this question when it comes to your personal relationships, you need to ask it for your business as well. Of course, you have to look at how your business will serve your customers, but in that process, remember to also ask how your business will serve you.

   There are multiple ways to support yourself, and if you choose entrepreneurship, be aware of why you are making that choice. What do you want to get out of making money as a business owner that you cannot get out of making money by being employed in a traditional job. Knowing the answer to this question will help you choose an entrepreneurial path that will help propel you toward the kind of life that keeps you happy and satisfied.

2. A “job” is a good thing (8:08). Traditionally, business has been defined in party by how many systems you have in place and how few employees you can hire to run those systems so you can maximize your efficiencies. OK, that’s all good stuff, and more power to businesses that run that way. We need them. But, says Adelaide, don’t let anyone tell you that your business doesn’t matter simply because it’s really a job you have created for yourself.

   Today, she says, more and more people are deriving enormous amounts of personal pleasure and satisfaction from their work and their role as a small business owner. This flies in the face of the “auto-systematization of everything” kind of mindset. If you have created a business that you enjoy, and your hands-on role is personally and financially profitable, then more power to you for creating a means to leverage your best skills and talents to benefit your community and yourself.

3. Be prepared for short-term consequences (9:43). I pulled my share of “all-nighters” in college and law school. I didn’t stay up all night every night, but for brief periods, I had no choice if I wanted to complete a project on time or study enough to excel on an exam. Business is much the same way. Says Adelaide, there will be times when you will have to work more and spend less time with family in order to do things like push through a customer order, open your new online store, or organize your marketing system.

   “Your business will require you to do a lot of things you don’t necessarily want to do,” says Adelaide. The trick is to push through those times so your life can normalize again. You don’t want lead your business from one never-ending emergency project to another.

As you listen, be sure to catch the part beginning at 18:00 where Adelaide shares specific tips she uses herself that will help you embrace and organize your social media marketing efforts.

About Adelaide Lancaster

Along with her co-author and business partner, Adelaide is the founer of In Good Company, a community, business learning center and workspace for women business owners in New York City. In addition to her entrepreneurial ventures, she works as a consultant and business advisor. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Huffington Post and MSNBC. Follow Adelaide on Twitter here, and check out her website here.

How to Listen to the Show

This post contains my paraphrases of the information Adelaide shared. To hear it from the horse’s mouth yourself, listen to the entire 30-minute show using one of these options:

• Download it on iTunes. (It usually takes a day or two for iTunes to feed the show there.)
• Click on the arrow at the bottom of this post to listen now!
• Because I have not had a chance to load all of my shows to this blog, you can listen to hundreds of interviews from 2005 to 2010, each one as relevant today as it was when I recorded it, at my Indie Business Radio site.

Question: What do you think of Adelaide tips and insights? Is your company big enough, or is it too big, for you?

I am excited to share that the Indie Beauty Network and a few of my best business success tips are featured at today’s Forbes.com in Helping Handmade Artisans With Indie Beauty Network. Forbes is one of my favorite magazines, especially because it does a good job of mixing pragmatic business advice with practical tips for personal success.

Thanks to my handmade friend, TJ McCue (follow him!) for including me in his Forbes “Maker” column. It is an honor to be in the publication for the second time this year (the earlier article is 25 Most Influential Women Tweeting About Entrepreneurship), and I hope you enjoy it. If there are some tips that help you there, please feel free to click the social sharing buttons to the left of the article and share it on FaceBook, Google Plus, LinkedIn or Twitter.

To Tweet it quickly now, click here to open a pre-made Tweet. You can edit the words however you’d like (but don’t change the link)!

Thanks for spreading the word!

Question: What do you think of the tips? Feel free to share your own too!

This morning, I had enjoyed a phone chat over coffee with one of my dearest friends. So you have an idea of what I mean by “dearest,” we once pulled an all-nighter in a men’s college dormitory hallway, drinking several bottles of wine, after one of our boyfriends ditched us. (I won’t tell you which one of us was ditched.)

This morning, we were chatting about the holidays and life in general. She has three children and I have two. We are both married and insanely busy and encumbered this time of year. During our conversation, Terri told me what a pleasure it was to be “friendly with the moment” with me. I had never heard that phrase before, and when I learn something new, I like to share it with you. So, here’s what I learned this morning about being friendly with the moment.

Being friendly with the moment is about:

1. Focus on the positive. When your car breaks down on the side of the road in the middle of the night, there is still something friendly about the moment. While you’re waiting for a tow, you may come across a single-serving candy bar in the bottom of your purse. Savor it. Or maybe you can simply be thankful that your baby is not in the car with you, or that you have a cell phone so you can call for help. Focusing on the positive means choosing to recognize that no situation is entirely negative.

   Be friendly with the moment by focusing on the positive in any situation.

2. Lean into difficulty? When adversity comes your way, be proactive about learning something from it. At the end of the day, you’ll learn something anyway, but I have found that when I am proactive about learning, the potential pain of the learning experience is lessened. In other words, when you lean into a difficult situation, rather than resist it, you learn faster and equip yourself better to help others when adversity comes their way. I bet it takes the same amount of energy to lean into the difficult that it does to resist it. So why not lean into it? You’ll probably get a better result if you do.

   Be friendly with the moment by leaning into difficulty.

3. Make friends with your life. Life sucks sometimes. It just does. Even so, what a blessing!

   Besides, all sucking is temporary, if we choose for it to be. No matter what is going on in your life at any given time, including the stress of the holiday season, remember to be fully who you are in it. Be alive in your present circumstances, and put the best of yourself forward in them.

   Be friendly with the moment by becoming best friends with yourself and the one life you have.

No matter where you are in a busy, stressful, anxiety-filled day, you can focus on the positive, lean into difficulty, and be friendly with your life.

Question: What are your tips for and questions about being friendly with the moment?

Q: “I am an esthetician, and I just started a natural skincare meetup group. I want your suggestions and ideas to make it successful. This is my first effort to reach out to people who are conscious about their skin, to help them with suggestions to improve their appearance. I have seen on your blog and website how you encourage people to gain self confidence. I admire that, and believe that you are the right person to go to seek advice.”

– Promila Sharma, Kayantra: All About Wellness & Beauty, Fremont, CA

dM’s Answer: “Promila, how exciting that you are interested in leveraging live meetings to connect people as you also promote your business and pursue your passion. I have been hosting live events for several years — some of them tiny and others larger. Regardless of the size of the event, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure you do to maximize your chances of success. Here are some tips to help you get started on strong footing.

1. What’s in it for me? This is the first question people will ask. They may not say it out loud, but they want to know exactly what they will get in exchange for taking their time to meet with you. Do they get a discount on your services? Will a wellness speaker share tips to build self-confidence? Will they be entered into a drawing to win something? Giveaways? Prizes are not necessary, but they can’t hurt. Either way, be prepared to help people quickly see the benefit TO THEM of attending your event.
2. Be purposeful. Have specific goals in mind. What action do you want people to take as a result of attending your event? It can be as simple as signing up for your newsletter or Liking your FaceBook Page, or it can be something more significant — like buying a monthly subscription to your esthetician services.

   Knowing what you want to achieve will help you direct your efforts and structure the events to achieve specific goals.

3. Connect with other business owners. Meetup is a great way to promote an event on a budget, but a simple meetup listing is not enough. Connect with other small business owners in your area who can help you spread the word and who might be interested in connecting with the same types of customers you are.

   For example, is there a massage therapist who might like to co-host or help with the event somehow? Perhaps a yoga instructor? Or a chiropractor? These types of businesses are in fields similar to yours, but are not competing with you. They may help you promote or do some type of joint venture.

   You’ll also want to promote your event via your FaceBook Page, Twitter, and your blog and newsletter (if you have them). Ask your friends to share the event as well.

4. Create a record of your event. Use still photos, video, and text blog posts to share the fun had by all at your event. Even a small turnout is worth capturing for future reference. When people see that others like-minded people had a good time at an event hosted by you, they are more likely to want to attend in the future. Capitalize on the moment by taking pictures and sharing them, along with testimonials, so you can build on your early successes.

Another option is to attend an event hosted by someone else so you can get your feet wet and meet people without having to set up everything yourself. The perfect opportunity is to host Indie Business WorldWide MeetUp in your town on January 14, 2012.

As you grow your business and increase your events, take special care to create and nurture new relationships. No one should leave your event without having an opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter and/or blog, or Like your FaceBook Page. Whether they are new customers, new prospective customers or other small business owners, capture their information so you can stay in touch with them — and give them your information as well.

There’s a lot more to effectively using live events to promote a business. It’s a lot of work. At the end of the day, the best events are part of a systematized marketing plan. After the first few events, you’ll have better idea of what people like and what they don’t like. You’ll also know how often you should have your event, and on what days and at what locations. There’s a lot to think about, but once you have a few under your belt, you can build events into your business model. Once that happens, the sky is the limit!

Have a question for dM? Send her your question about business and success now via this form, and it could be featured in “Ask dM!”

My new iPad 2 tablet and Bluetooth portfolio with Bluetooth keyboard have made me happier than I could have ever imagined. Yes, I do have a life outside of geeky toys, but since the geeky toys allow me to successfully create the life I love, I am always excited to test them out and share them with you. Behold!

I have wanted to experience iPad for many months, but the absence of a traditional keyboard, which I rely on to manage my member database and social networking site, and to update this blog quickly, has held me back. As you can see, problem solved!

Business Girl’s Best Friend?

As you can see, it is perfectly red. They keyboard is small but big enough for any common work use. The case has a built-in stand that stands the iPad on a perfect angle for working or reading. I can’t wait to try it out on the treadmill! It’s very light, perfect for on-the-go. It feels good in my hands and fits in my purse. What more could a business girl ask for?

It’s available in a variety of colors, at Brookstone.

I’ll be sharing more about how I use my new toy, including one or two things I can’t use it for (because nothing is perfect) in the coming days. I’d do it now, but I’m too excited.

Merry Christmas To Me!

( .. and happy birthday too; that’s in a few weeks!) Thanks for sharing my joy, and remember to buy some special things for yourself this holiday season. I hope they will make you as happy as this makes me.

Questions: What are your holiday gifts to yourself?

Publishing branded content is the least expensive and most cost effective way to drive online traffic and visibility for your products and services. How do I know this? Because I live it. I just finished hosting my weekly podcast, which increases my access to people every day. And the first thing I did on January 16, 2000, the day I launched my business, was publish an online newsletter. I’ve been doing it almost weekly ever since. To see my first issue, and all of my issues from that first year, click here.

I’ve come a long way since then. (Here’s my most recent issue.) But what about you? I know you know that it’s vital to your success that you own your core marketing outlets and content. So why do so few of you have a reliable, consistent, working content strategy? I think I know why, and I also think I know what you can do about it. I’ll tell you more about my new program to help you do something about it in a minute, but first, here are the chief “explanations” I hear from people who don’t have a branded content marketing strategy:

1. I don’t have enough time. I can sympathize with the idea of this, but not the reality of it. I am a wife with two young children. But I also know that if I don’t invest in my business, my business won’t invest in me. If you won’t force yourself to take your valuable time to tell people about your great products, how can you expect people to take their valuable time to buy your products?

   Let me say this another way, because it’s really important. If your products are wonderful, and you want me to pay you for them, but don’t care enough about me to reach out to me regularly, then don’t expect me to take the time to find out about your products — much less buy them. That’s pretty clear, right?

2. I’ll run out of things to say. If this is really REALLY true, then you need to re-think your products and/or your business model. Both should be putting you in touch with exciting people and ideas every day. You should be reading industry trade magazines. You should be talking to your peers on FaceBook and other social networking sites (oh, like this one, for example).

   You should be surveying your customers and reading their FaceBook updates and Twitter streams to see what’s important to them. What do they care about? Do you care about the same things? Of course you do, especially if your products are aimed at women and you are a woman! Having nothing to say is not a business problem. It’s a life problem. Start connecting with other people, and getting to know them a bit. They’ll never run out of things to say, and, if you listen carefully and create content that interests them, you’ll never run out of things to say either.

3. I don’t understand the technology enough to get started. OK, I feel you here. There’s a lot of technology I don’t understand either.

   (For example, I spent two hours this morning and three hours last week trying to figure out Garage Band so I can edit my weekly podcast. The person who used to edit it for me is not available for a while, so I need to figure out an alternative. It’s painful and frustrating, but I’m doing it. So I thought I’d mention that so you know that I’m living this too.)

   But I can’t just sit around saying I don’t understand, while also complaining that I don’t have enough customers. I get customers because I produce content that is of interest to them. Because I engage them and let the know that I am listening to them, and that I care about and want to respond to the issues that affect them.

   I ask them what they want and then set out to give it to them. I use technology because it’s the least expensive way for me to gain access to them. In fact, technology is the only way I can gain access to them. Do you have any alternatives? If not, then figure out the technology, and let’s get going.

So there you have it. The 3 biggest excuses — I mean, explanations, debunked.

So, What Can You Do About It?

First, make up your mind that you’ll find the time. If you don’t start there, you might as well just save yourself the trouble and fold up shop now.

Second, start listening. Hear what your target customers are saying, and then ask them to elaborate. Engage with them, communicate with them. Dwell with them. You’ll never EVER run out of things to say.

(Yes, listening like this takes time. See #1 above.)

Third, choose a technology and start using it. The three best options are a blog, a newsletter and a podcast (audio and/or video). You don’t have to start with all three, but eventually, you’ll need to use all three. Once you get started with each, you can leverage them against each other — this is where your customers will really begin to interact with you and your brand, and where they will begin to trust you enough to consistently pony up payment for your wonderful products.

How I Can Help (5 people only)!

Can you tell I’m passionate about this? And it’s not just because I read it on a blog or because I’m watching other people doing it. It’s because I live it myself, and my heart breaks when I see Indies unable to sell great products because they don’t know how to market them easily and inexpensively on the Internet.

While I can’t help everyone, I know that I can help 5 people, so that’s why I’ve put together this special program that starts next week — for just 5 people who I will work with one-on-one until the end of the year to get a branded content strategy up and running by January 2, 2012.

I am so convinced of the importance of branded content strategies that I’ve developed a program to help 5 people between now and the end of the year get their branded content strategies up and running by January 2, 2012. Reserve your slot and get started here.

Question: How can I help you develop a low-cost branded content strategy to help you achieve your goals? Let’s go!

Newsflash Indies! You are leaders! I have to shout it because some of you don’t know it. You think you are just small business owners. Well, of course your are, but whether you know it or not, you are also a leader. You may not have a million FaceBook Fans, but if you have sold a single product, then you have nurtured and led that sale from start to finish. That makes you a leader. Now, let’s go with that, shall we?

In order to move your business forward, you must take turn that single act of leadership into a series of leadership experiences that, over time, remarkably transforms your life and your business. But that can happen, you’ll need to know what barriers you will face, and how to cover come them. There are three that that can sink your ship faster than any others. Here they are, along with strategies to overcome them.

1. Lack of clarity. You cannot lead a business if you don’t know where you want it to go. You must know where you want to take the business, and where you want the business to take you. Yes, it starts with planning, but before that, it starts with knowing what you want; not for the business, but for yourself.

   To overcome this one, get crystal clear on what you want first, and nearly every step you need to take after that will become crystal clear as well.

   (You also need to actually take the steps, but that’s another blog post.)

2. Fear. Once you know what you want, fear can set in to sabotage everything. I’ve seen it a million times. I’ll start working with a client, and she’ll tell me precisely what she wants. We’ll set up a basic plan of attack, and what happens? Fear sets in. Fear of spending too much money. Fear of not succeeding. Fear of the time it will take. Fear of not being able to execute the plan. Fear of adding more overwhelm to an already full plate. Fear that she won’t be able to handle the life changes that success will ultimately bring her.

   To overcome this, identify the source of the fear. Call it what it is, and recognize that it’s probably due to some past experience that’s holding you back from the future you want. Either allow that fear to define your future, or refuse to allow that fear to define your future. The choice is yours.

3. Lack of support. No entrepreneur is an island, yet time after time, I see women going it alone. Oh, they’re active on FaceBook and other online tools that facilitative supportive interaction. But that’s all surface stuff.

   The kind of support I’m talking about is the deep, penetrable kind. The kind that gets under your skin and invades your tissues. The kind that opens wounds and then puts salve on them so they can heal and you can move forward. As a woman entrepreneur, that’s the kind of support you need to lead yourself and your business forward. But many people don’t seek that kind of support, and I’m here to tell you that, without it, you will go nowhere fast.

   To overcome this, explore MasterMinding. Find a coach. (I offer a personalized program here.)

   If you’re not ready for MasterMinding and coaching right now, then start making yourself ready — because you will eventually need both. Start by joining one of our Local Groups at Indie Social (it’s free!), or come to the next Heart-To-Heart With Donna Maria — that’s free too! Just don’t make the mistake of doing nothing to get the support your need to develop, sharpen and leverage your leadership skills.

So there you have it. Lack of clarity, fear, and lack of support — and what you can do about each.

Don’t end 2011 without a plan of attack for 2012. Begin to approach life and business on purpose, and as an integrated whole. Know what you want, and then, step-by-step, move toward it. The time to lay the groundwork for 2012 is now.

Prepare yourself to step into leadership in 2012, and if I can help in any way, I’m here to serve.

Question: How can I help you step into leadership in 2012?

I have shared with you previously how managing my life and business from a specific mission-focused perspective has enhanced my life, and also, how New York Times best selling author Laurie Beth Jones helped me clarify my mission. This week, I was thrilled to welcome Laurie Beth as my guest on Indie Business Podcast.

Laurie Beth is the author of The Four Elements of Success: A Simple Personality Profile that will Transform Your Team (and 15 other books … ) On my podcast, I went one-on-one with Laurie Beth to discover how she combines a life and a business mission into a cohesive whole, and how you can do the same.

To listen to my 30-minute interview with Laurie Beth, and to put her insights to work in your business now, click here. If you don’t feel like listening right now, here is a high level summary of some of the things Laurie Beth and I discussed.

1. Are you a “Spiritreneur”. Laurie Beth defines a Spiritreneur as those who can answer “yes” to these questions:
   

   (1) are you doing work that honors God?
   (2) are you doing work that honors your gifts and talents?
   (3) are you making a living full-time doing that work?

   If you answered, “yes” to all three, Laurie Beth defines you as a Spiritreneur.

2. Understand your personality type. Laurie Beth analogizes the four physical elements of the universe to our personality types. The four elements are earth, wind, fire. Each, says Laurie Beth, is characterized by traits that are present in your personality. Knowing which elements are dominant and not dominant for you is key to creating your ultimate success.

   Be sure to listen to his part of the show so you know the distinct characteristics of each element. It’s very enlightening to see how Laurie Beth helps you, as she says, “Tap into the creativity of the universe.”

3. Laurie Beth’s mission statement formula. Laurie Beth offers a simple formula to help you create your life mission statement. She says to it should include “three verbs, a core value, and a tribe.” Think about how easy that is!

   Using Laurie Beth’s formula helped me craft my mission statement: to empower and encourage women to maximize their potential through small business ownership.

You can do the same, and I can tell you from personal experience that having this laser focus has made all the difference in my life and my business.

About Laurie Beth Jones

Laurie Beth is Laurie Beth Jones, management expert and business consultant extraordinaire, noticed that none of the personality/temperament profiles in the market today, none of them provided a tool that was simple, visual, intuitive, and powerful enough to create a shift in thinking as well as relating. So she developed The Path Elements Profile (PEP), which can be used in recruitment, placement, retention, team building, and customer relations as businesses transform many individuals into a harmonizing, humming force for good. Within the framework of the book will be scriptural examples as well as modern day business stories. Follow Laurie Beth on Twitter here, and check out her website here.

(I just noticed that some of Laurie Beth’s downloads are 50% off. I’m not sure how long this will last, so head on over and grab yours now!)

How to Listen to the Show

This post contains my paraphrases of the information Laurie Beth shared. To hear it from the horse’s mouth yourself, listen to the entire 30-minute show using one of these options:

• Download it on iTunes. (It can take up to a day for iTunes to feed my show there.)
• Click on the arrow at the bottom of this post to listen now!
• Because I have not had a chance to load all of my shows to this blog, you can listen to hundreds of interviews from 2005 to 2010, each one as relevant today as it was when I recorded it, at my Indie Business Radio site.

Question: Are you a Spiritreneur? How do you integrate your business and life mission to create a cohesive whole that serves others and accomplishes your own personal goals?

As I prepare for 2012 and for #IndieCruise MasterMind 2012: Create The Life You Love, I am adjusting my cruise calendar so I can invest significant one-on-one with each of my fellow cruisers. Since we’ll paused and unplugged for most of the 5-day event, I anticipate a rich experience with all in attendance. This morning, I heard a story on the radio that made me even more excited about the time I will invest in myself and others as we cruise from Miami to Jamaica, and then to Grand Cayman.

The story is about the newly re-elected Mayor Frank Deese* of Marshville, NC, located a few miles up the road from my home in South Charlotte. Mayor Deese served 10 years in jail for armed robbery. Today, he’s the respected Mayor of a small town. I learned this morning that Mayor Deese lives by the F-A-C-E acronym. I thought it was good enough to share with you.

1. F-ace. Always put on your A+ face.
2. A-ttitude. Start each day with a positive attitude, and maintain it in all you do.
3. C-hoices. Make the best choices you possibly can, not just day-by-day, but moment-by-moment. These infinitesimal snippets of time, and what you choose to do in them, define your life.
4. E-motions. Keep them in check. Depending on the situation, they are an enemy or a friend. Learn to know the difference for yourself so you can leverage emotion to your benefit.

Mayor Deese reminds us that the physical prison he was in for a decade is nothing compared to the physical prison some people are in every day. The Mayor mentioned prisons of alcoholism, depression, drug abuse and more. He said that his physical imprisonment gave him a chance to free his mind. Today, he’s serving a small community of 1,400 residents and is working on his motivational book. I’m not entirely sure if I have defined each word in the acronym the way Mayor Deese would, as the story only shared the first letter — F. But after hearing a bit of his story, I think I’m probably pretty close.

Is Your Game F-A-C-E Ready For 2012?

So many women are in a type of business prison — a prison where big ideas dance around in their heads, but never translate into tangible products and services that others want to buy.

They are smart people, innovative people, motivated people, excited people — yet the needle just doesn’t want to move. It’s not that they’re doing anything wrong. It’s that they are not doing all of the right things in combination and with the consistency that moves the ship forward. We’ll address this (in spaded) on the cruise.

I believe Mayor Deese’s F-A-C-E acronym, along with the concepts I will share during our #IndieCruise MasterMind sessions, will help propel everyone in attendance (myself included) into a whole new dimension for the New Year.

You can read it for yourself here.

And if your Game F-A-C-E is ready, or you need some help getting it ready, register now to join us on #IndieCruise MasterMind 2012 Theme: Create The Life You Love.

Question: So, is your Game F-A-C-E ready?

*Photo Credit: Elayne at Down Ticket Dems

As you know, I’m a firm believer in the power of email newsletters. If you’d like to know more, check out the links underneath the graphic. My weekly Indie Experience Email Newsletter, published since January 2000, contains commentary and articles written exclusively by me. More recently, I’ve begun publishing a weekly Indie Social Email Newsletter, a collection of the great things my members are doing, including product launches, videos, events and classes, and a robust discussion forum. Today, I unveiled a new look for the weekly Indie Social Update, and I wanted to share it with you.

I love how it creates a nice, clean flow for the content, and how great the graphics look. It makes the featured products stand out so nicely! I hope you like it as much as I do. If you’d like to see how it looks sat the social site, click here. Now, onto why it’s critical that you publish an email newsletter.

Why An Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is critical to your success as the leader of a small business. Among other things, a newsletter is an amazingly efficient and cost effective way to drive traffic to your blog, FaceBook and Twitter pages and help you generate sales. While some people traded in their newsletters for Twittering and FaceBooking, others, including me, know that a newsletter subscriber list is the single most powerful online marketing tool there is.

If the above articles don’t convince you here are three reasons why I still publish an email newsletter.)

Really, that should be enough. Are you convinced?

Like many of you, I am observing the #OccupyWallStreet (or #OWS) movement with great interest. I have heard several political and sociological commentators agree that, despite obvious philosophical differences between various political movements today, they all have one thing in common: dissatisfaction and anger with the status quo.

Last week, I read in a local paper that the #OccupyCLT leaders have opened a bank account and obtained a tax id number. As a small business owner, I’m all for formalizing activities where money is involved, and I’m glad they are legitimizing their efforts from a business and financial perspective. But as I watch #OWS unfold, I’m not seeing enough emphasis placed on the individual’s unique power to achieve financial well being.

Things Over Which We Have Little Control Are Kind Of Gloomy

National governments worldwide are in disarray. Greece is about to go bankrupt. A leader who has corrupted a country (not to mention an entire geographic region) for decades was murdered last week, and I saw it, thanks to someone’s smart phone.

State and local governments are in a pinch too. My kids’s school got funding to hire my daughter’s 4th grade teacher the day before school started. And they just got funding last week to hire a new 2nd grade teacher so they could split my son’s class in two. And my hyper-local government (a “village”) just started enforcing an annual home office business fee that I didn’t know about and they didn’t track for the first five years I ran my business here.

At all levels, the people with the most power, influence and responsibility seem inadequate in the face of having to juggle so many different balls at once.

(Too bad more of them are not mothers. (Ooops, did I just say that?))

But What About What We Can Control?

The most disturbing part of #OWS to me so far is the fact that the movement is demonizing the act of acquiring wealth. As the owner of a profitable (and fun!) business for 11 years (soon to be 12), I disagree with that mindset.

Occupy Your Home Office (or #OccupyYourHomeOffice)

I think we should encourage each other to achieve as much as we can achieve in all areas of our lives — personal fulfillment, relationship satisfaction, contribution to community, spiritual and physical health, and financial wealth. I think we should pursue all of those things as individuals and on a corporate and community basis.

And today, everyone can pursue them all in relative comfort. Just #OccupyYourHomeOffice more than you #OWS. That will do more than anything else, in the long run, to turn this dreadful economic situation around.

Create Some Wealth Of Your Own

Instead of beating the dead horse about the guilty wealthy people (and there are lots of them), why not focus on creating some honest wealth of your own?

Wouldn’t it be better to write your own emancipation proclamation, and bring your friends along with you?

There is nothing wrong with financial wealth. There may be things wrong with how particular people acquire wealth, or with what particular people do with the wealth they acquire. But there is nothing wrong with wealth.

In fact, there is everything right with wealth when it is achieved honestly and fairly, and when it is used to inspire others to achieve as well. Even better when some of that wealth is re-distributed to human beings who do not have the same opportunities we have in America (at least for now) to use our talents, gifts and elbow grease to acquire wealth.

So that’s a bit of what I think about #OWS.

Shall We Discuss Further?

To celebrate, and to initiate the discussion, I started a hash tag on Twitter called #occupyyourhomeoffice. ReTweet if you would like to spread the word. And leave comments below if you’d like.

Question: What do you think?

I‘m excited to introduce something new: Heart-To-Heart With Donna Maria, a fun, live video broadcast to encourage and uplift you in your entrepreneurial journey. Those of you who have been with me for while will remember I once hosted Indie Live. You can watch the January 12, 2009 episode here. (There may be a few glitches in the stream because it’s so dated …) Now that technology as evolved a bit, I’m re-launching using a new technology and a new name. Click the image for details and to RSVP.

Heart-To-Heart With Donna Maria is our chance to connect as women entrepreneurs to discuss business, life and how IBN’s benefits enhance both. I am thinking of hosting it a few times a month, but will decide once I see what the need is.

Entrepreneurship is challenging — don’t go it alone!

Remember, a rising tide lifts all ships, so join us and make sure you have the support you need to chart your course to fulfillment of your wildest dreams!

Last night’s #HandmadeChat topic was the How To Integrate Your Blog And Twitter To Boost Your Business. My guest was Cathy Larkin, CEO of Web Savvy PR, a veteran PR and internet marketing strategist.

Cathy and I led a lively discussion that included some of the best tips and ideas for connecting your blog and Twitter to advance your business goals. Here is an overview of some of the ideas and important questions we asked and answered, a link to the transcript, and some actions you can take right now to turn your knowledge into power for the benefit of your business.

1. Auto-posting may be efficient, but …. I shared a link to a post about the drawbacks to auto-posting your blog to FaceBook. Even though #HandamdeChat focused on Twitter last night, my guess is the same kind of negative effects can result from auto-posts to Twitter.
2. Reasons to Tweet. So many handmade and micr-business owners focus almost exclusively on FaceBook because there are so many active consumers there. That’s great, and if your customers are on FaceBook, you should be there too. But last night, several people Tweeted how investing in Twitter has benefited their business.
3. Twitter rocks! This transcript is rich with inspiration for you. You’ll learn how other small business owners use it to get ideas for blog posts, find out what their customers are thinking about, honing your niche and so much more.

Get more tips in the How To Integrate Your Blog And Twitter To Boost Your Business transcript (PDF). Also, use the transcript to follow up on new connections or find links or comments you wanted to follow up on.

Follow Cathy Larkin or visit her website here.

The topic for #HandmadeChat for Thursday, November 3 will be announced shortly.

Meanwhile, click here for more information about the mission of #HandmadeChat, and how you can participate.

Question: What fun thing did you learn, or what fun person did you meet at our #HandmadeChat?

As we sprint toward the “spookiest” season of the year, why not use the opportunity to eliminate some deadly small business mistakes? Like most of you, I make a lot of mistakes in business, but after 11 years of doing some things wrong and some things right, I have incredible depth of insight when it comes to avoiding the mantras that cause the biggest pitfalls.

As you contemplate how to make your business more effective and efficient for 2012, here are some of the deadliest small business mantras and how you can say say “Boo!” to them once and for all.

1. Deadly Mantra No. 1: Build a website and they will come. You need a website, but no one really cares about it. People can get what you have to offer from a billion other places so don’t be deceived by fabulous website designers who want you to spend a lot of money on a website. You need a website, yes, since that’s usually where your secure shopping cart is. But more important than your website is what you do to get people to go there.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I need a fancy, splashy website so I can look really good online.”

   Say “Boo!” –> Launch an ordinary website, and do extraordinary things to get people to go there.

2. Deadly Mantra No. 2: Follow your passion and the money will come. It’s important to love what you do. If you don’t love what you do, you probably won’t do it. But that alone does not translate into a profitable business. Avoid loving what you do so much that you don’t pay attention to whether or not it’s actually making money for your business.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “If I follow my passion, the money will come.”

   Say “Boo!” –> Indulge your passion, but don’t fall into the passion pit, where you love what you do so much that you don’t insiste that it actually love you back.

3. Deadly Mantra No. 3: The more fans and followers I have, the more sales I’ll make. While numbers matter, they don’t matter as much as the emotions behind them. If you don’t believe me, ask Netflix, which lost 800,000 customers in a few months when it decided that profits were more important than the feelings of its customers. (Reported in today’s New York Times.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I have lots of followers to sell to, so not much else really matter.”

   Say “Boo!” –> Count numbers, yes, but pay more attention to the real life emotions of the people behind those numbers. Those are the “statistics” that matter most.

4. Deadly Mantra No. 4: I don’t need a real business plan. If you are a small business, especially a micro or handmade business, and you are not seeking to become a billionaire, and you are not seeking investors, you won’t need a fancy business plan in a 3-ring binder with pie charts, bar graphs and spread sheets every page. But you will need a plan. You need to know where you want to go, and then you need to have a plan to get there. Your plan may will change, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I’m behind the eight ball already, and I don’t have time for a plan, and even if I did have time, I don’t need one because I’m not going to make that much money anyway, and if this business doesn’t work, I’ll just do something else, and if ….”

   Say “Boo!” –> Get serious! Don’t waste your precious life time doing something if you are not 100% committed to making it successful.

5. Deadly Mantra No. 5: I can work while my kids nap. OK, so your kids will sleep for an hour or two during the day. But that’s only enough time to get your head together. It’s not enough time to actually do anything.

   They’ll fall out of the bed and need your attention the minute you pick up the phone to make an important sales call. They’ll contract a cold just when it’s time to publish your first newsletter. They’ll guilt you into playing with plastic interlocking blocks on the floor instead of scouting out a product photographer. And the list goes on and on. I’m a mom, and I know this one well.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I can work while my kids nap and when they are sleep at night.”

   And by the way, if you’re married, I’m not even going to get started on the reason why you might not be able to have all that late night work time you think you’re going to be able to get to …

   Say “Boo!” Get some help with your children so you can devote 100% of yourself to your business during specific hours of the day. You’ll accomplish more in your business, and you’ll be fresher, happier, and less stressed out during the time you set aside for your children.

6. Deadly Mantra No. 6: I don’t need to pay myself. It’s tempting to think that people will choose your products over someone else’s just because the price is lower because you’re not paying yourself. And you’ll probably get some one-time sales using that logic. But you can’t build a business by refusing to respect yourself enough to pay yourself a salary — even a small one.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I can charge less now and raise my prices when my business really gets going.”

   Say “Boo!” –> Respect yourself! If you don’t, no one else will either. If you don’t respect your work enough to pay yourself, how can you expects others to respect it enough to pay you for it?

7. Deadly Mantra No. 7: I can’t afford help. The reality is that you cannot afford not to get help. You may not have a lot of money, but do you think you go into business thinking you have more time than money, you are going to be really disappointed. Time is much more precious than money when it comes to leading a business. In order to have the time you need to chart the course for your venture, you are going to need some help.

   Deadly mindset mantra: “I don’t have enough money to hire anyone.”

   Say “Boo!” –> Start small. Start by bartering. But start. If you don’t get help in your business, don’t ever complain to me that you don’t have time to do important things you know need to be done.

There are plenty of unforeseeable pitfalls waiting around the bend to sabotage your small business. You can handle all of them, so long as you avoid the most obvious deadly mistakes, like those listed here.

Question: Which of these deadly mistakes speak most to you? What others can you share?

I will host #HandmadeChat No. 4 on Thursday, October 27, from 8pm to 9pm EST! Our topic will be the How To Integrate Your Blog And Twitter To Boost Your Business. My guest will be Cathy Larkin, CEO of Web Savvy PR, a veteran PR and internet marketing strategist. A potter by hobby, Cathy handled the PR for 4 years for a Delaware craft festival and she loves helping handmade businesses use technologies to grow their businesses by engaging directly with their customers.

Cathy sees too few small business owners optimizing their use of a blog and Twitter to multiply their business results. She says that while many handmade companies invest most of their time on FaceBook, they are missing out on huge marketing opportunities when it comes to Twitter.

On the next #HandmadeChat on October 27, 2011, Cathy will answer questions and share some of her best tips to help you successfully integrate your blog and Twitter to boost your business.

Visit Cathy’s website or follow her on Twitter.

The next #HandmadeChat is Thursday, October 27, from 8:00pm to 9:00pm EST.

Follow @HandmadeChat on Twitter or FaceBook, and follow the #HandmadeChat hash tag.

Join on TweetChat (best for newbies) or join using our prepared TweetGrid.

If you’re not familiar with #HandmadeChat, read What Is #HandmadeChat to learn how to join and how we help you be more successful.

Last night’s #HandmadeChat topic was the How To Hire A Virtual Assistant. My guest and co-host was professional organizing coach and virtual assistant, Alaia Williams.

Alaia and I led a fun discussion of what to consider when you engage the services of a virtual assistant to help you organize and grow your business. Here is an overview of some of the ideas and important questions we asked and answered, a link to the transcript, and some actions you can take right now to turn your knowledge into power for the benefit of your business.

1. Consider what you do that someone else can do. Make a list of important tasks you do that you can train someone to do for you. Is not delegating certain aspects of your business holding you back?
2. Using your voice does not mean you can’t hire help! Hiring someone to help with social media outreach does not mean you’re compromising your authentic voice. In other words, authenticity is not compromised simply because you hire help. In fact, when it’s done with care and respect for your customers, an assistant can only help you serve them better, thus enhancing your authenticity and not taking away from it.

   For example, one of my assistants helps me manage the Indie Business FaceBook Page. She formally introduced herself to our community in this post, and look how well she was received!

3. Qualities of a good virtual assistant. There are many, but topping the list are: good communications skills, good writer, professional manner. Also look for a good personality fit and someone who is flexible and can be as nimble as your business is.

Get more tips in the How To Hire A Virtual Assistant transcript (PDF). Also, use the transcript to follow up on new connections or find links or comments you wanted to follow up on.

Follow Alaia Williams or visit One Organized Business.

Special thanks to Cathy Larkin for her enthusiastic encouragement and help!

The topic for #HandmadeChat for Thursday, October 27 will be announced shortly.

Meanwhile, click here for more information about the mission of #HandmadeChat, and how you can participate.

Question: What fun thing did you learn, or what fun person did you meet at our #HandmadeChat?

Last week’s #HandmadeChat topic was the Best Places To Sell Handmade Products Online. My co-host was TJ McCue, lover of all things handmade and American Express OPENForum and SmallBizTrends contributor.

TJ and I guided an amazing group of handmade product makers and enthusiasts through a fun discussion of what’s hot in online handmade sales venues. We covered dozens of technologies available now to help you do some pretty amazing things. Everyone met some new friends and learned something new.

Here’s the transcript (PDF) in case you missed last week’s #HandamdeChat, or in case you want to scroll through and follow up on new connections or find those links you’ve been meaning to follow up on.

By the way, I won’t make you wait this long to get the transcripts from here on out!

Question: What fun thing did you learn, or what fun person did you meet at our #HandmadeChat?

This post explains how #HandmadeChat works, and how participating regularly will help your business grow. The mission of #HandmadeChat is to help you sell more of the products you make by hand. We cover fundamental business principles from the perspective of people who sell handmade products like soaps, cosmetics, artisan perfumes, aromatherapy products; and also candles, jewelry, and artisan baked goods like cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and chocolates.

#HandmnadeChat works kind of like a talk show on Twitter. Every Wednesday from 8-9pm NY time (5-6pm LA time), we gather on Twitter to discuss a particular topic of interest to the handmade business community. At the end of each #HandmadeChat, you will be armed with new ideas, new contacts, and most importantly, new actions you can take to drive your business forward. Now, I’m going to tell you how #HandmadeChat on Twitter works.

If you’re brand new to Twitter, first watch my video How To Set Up Your Twitter Profile, and read How To Make Useful Connections On Twitter.

How HandmadeChat Works

Along with my expert guest and/or co-host, I spark discussion on Twitter by posing questions to our guest, and our guest replies. The real fun starts when you join the discussion by posting your own on-topic questions, ideas and experiences.

The best way to describe it is like a MasterMind on Twitter, and everyone learns new things. Additionally, your confidence as a small business owner grows as you meet people and create collaborative and business opportunities so everyone can be more successful.

Using TweetChat or TweetGrid (see below), the #HandmadeChat hashtag is appended to the end of each Tweet. Here’s an example. This makes it easy for everyone to follow the discussion as it happens. it also makes it easy for everyone to find the discussion later — just go to Twitter and search for #HandmadeChat. Here’s how the search results look.

How To Participate Using TweetChat

If you are new to Twitter or to Twitter Chats, it’s best to use TweetChat, a third party application, until you get used to Twitter chats.

Joining #HandmadeChat is super easy, using TweetChat. Just do this:

- Log onto TweetChat
- Click Login in the upper right to log into Twitter using your Twitter username and password
- Click “Authorize App” to return to TweetChat
- Type in “handmadechat” (without the quotes) in the space at the top

This will take you to the chat where you’ll see real time conversations of everyone participating during #HandmadeChat.

Here’s how TweetChat looks – click the image to enlarge.

You’ll probably see some of your friends, and when you do, you can use the icons on the screen to Reply, Retweet, Favorite and Follow them! To start chatting, just type your chat in the text window. The number to the right counts down how many characters you have left before you reach 140. The #handmadechat hash tag will be automatically added to your Tweets, and will be searchable on Twitter (which is indexed by Google), as you can see here. You can even click “pause” to pause the chat in case it’s going too fast for you.

To start chatting, just type your chat in the text window. The number to the right counts down how many characters you have left before you reach 140. The #handmadechat hash tag will be automatically added to your Tweets, and will be searchable on Twitter (which is indexed by Google).

How To Participate using TweetGrid

Joining #HandmadeChat via TweetGrid, a third party application, is recommended if you are very familiar with how Twitter works. (If you are a newbie, use TweetChat. To join via TweetGrid, do this:

- Go to our pre-prepared TweetGrid Link (it’s different each week, and we announce it before each chat via @HandmadeChat on Twitter), login using using the link in the upper left, using your Twitter combination, and you’ll see the 3 columns
- Remember to LOG IN! You cannot Tweet until you log in!
- The left column is everyone using the #HandmadeChat hash tag
- The middle column are Tweets by me and my co-host
- In the right column, type in @ your Twitter username, and it will now display the Tweets of people talking directly to you during #HandmadeChat

Here’s how TweetGrid looks – click the image to enlarge.

You’ll notice above your username is a #hashtag box, which should say #HandmadeChat. If it does not, add it so the Tweets you send during the chat will include the hashtag. Just like with TweetChat, you’ll enjoy real time conversations of everyone participating during #HandmadeChat.

To start chatting, just type your chat in the text window. The number to the right counts down how many characters you have left before you reach 140. The #handmadechat hash tag will be automatically added to your Tweets, and will be searchable on Twitter (which is indexed by Google).

When you’re logged into Tweetgrid, to see the icons that make it easy to participate, hover over the Tweet you want to reply to, and use the symbols to respond. The symbols are:

- Press the left blue arrow Reply
- Press the next blue arrow to ReTweet
- Press the star to favorite a Tweet (so you can find it later)
- Press the speech bubble to send the person a Direct Message (this only works if the person is following you)
- Press the magnifying glass to enlarge the Tweet (this will open a new browser tab displaying the Tweet and all conversation attached to it — a handy feature when you want to see what everyone said about a particular comment)
- Press the envelope icon to email the Tweet

- Press stop in top left #handmadechat column to pause the flow of tweets, but don’t forget to hit start to start the flow again
- Press the + sign there to slow flow of tweets to every 10 seconds, rather than real time to slow things down a bit.

How I Prepare For #HandmadeChat

Along with my assistant and other Indie Team Members, each week, I post a series of Tweets about our guest and the topic for the week. You can follow these Tweets on HandmadeChat.

Here are some additional terms you need to know about to get started:

- The hashtag symbol (#) is placed in front of any term you want people to be able to click on and see what other people are saying on Twitter about that topic. Examples #cosmetics, #handmade #fitness

- TwitterChat speed can be pretty quick, so don’t panic if you see bunches of Tweets flying by. On TweetChat, you can press Pause or Refresh Speed to control catch your breath and create a pace that’s right for you.

- Near the end of the chat, we’ll ask you to post your best promotional Tweet to share a bit about your business and the products or services you have to offer. Please refrain from posting promotional Tweets until this request is made. We sometimes have drawing for prizes at the end too. That’s always fun!

- At the end of the chat, we share the guest and topic for the upcoming week.

- After the chat, take a few moments to follow people you met on the chat. Send people you really want to follow up with a Twitter direct message (if you are mutually following) to let them know you enjoyed meeting them. This is a great way to reach out to follow up and create new and mutually beneficial opportunities.

- Twitter has hiccups from time to time, either due to the volume of people using it or just because of an Internet or Twitter maintenance issue. Most delays are momentary, and we just keep rolling. If any delay compromises the chat for minutes at at time, we will suspend and reschedule the chat. Stay tuned to HandmadeChat for updates if this happens.

Watch @IndieAssist, @IndieBusiness (my Twitter handle) and @HandmadeChat for updates throughout the week, and to see if any breaking news or Internet outage issues have forced us to make a scheduling change.

You can also join #HandmadeChat on FaceBook and/or at our social networking site.

See You On HandmadeChat!!

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