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The Personal Inventory

July 15, 2013 by

Personal Inventory

In this series of blogs we have been looking at personal development…building your interior resources so to speak. Since YOU are the one who is in charge of and responsible for the business I recommend that you take a personal inventory at least once a year.

There are four health categories to consider: Physical health, mental health, emotional health and spiritual health.

Physical Health

This is pretty strait forward. When was the last time you had a physical? When was the last time you had a stress test? Are you healthy in an average sort of way…statistically speaking. Nothing wrong with average if that is OK with you, but I can tell you that the stressors of owning and running your own business will be more than you ever imagined.

Being physically fit and staying fit will be a great resource for you both in the short and long run. Can you dedicate at least an hour a day to aerobic and strength training? The latest research seems to say that’s what is called for in today’s world to be able to deal with all the stress coming at us. Remember life is a long distance run not a rat race.

Mental Health

Is your brain working well? How you learn and move through life solving problems, making plans, executing plans and keeping track of all that is going on in your life and your business is part of your mental health checkup. Thinking about this can make your head hurt. We may not be able to grow smarter brain cells but we can learning from our mistakes and keep up by reading and researching those topics most relevant to us and our business. With age (if we’re lucky) may come wisdom.

Emotional Health

Staying emotionally balanced can be a challenge when things are not going as you planned or hoped. Having a person or persons around you to support you through tough times is a must. Trusting someone to be there for you emotionally, to share your struggles and successes is mandatory. Some include therapy in our health support system. There are many worthwhile therapies that can be useful. If you feel that you are “losing it” then get help sooner not later.

Spiritual Health 

This area is more often not looked at or discounted as being important to your business. For some this health is the most important health of all for others not so much. However, to ignore your interior world of beliefs is to be not prepared for the challenges life may present to you. This is multiplied by ten for those of us who aspire to own our own business. Spending an hour or so a week might be enough for you but for me I need daily time with the deeper (higher) part of myself. I chose meditation and walks in nature are my prime elixirs.

Humanss are complex and may be becoming more complex over time. Indeed, the world is getting more complex and we will not be going back to a simpler time as we sometime wish. So showing up to be and do the best we can by being conscious of the present moment, letting go of outcome, and by speaking our truth without blame or judgment gives us a good chance at reaching our goals in life and in business.

Keep on keeping on…

Filed Under: Strategies for Success, Tips Tagged With:

The Trouble with Money

June 25, 2013 by

The Trouble with money

What are you worth?

What will people pay?

The Trouble with money

My Dad said, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Most parents have ways of saying no to the requests of children by giving them one a liner that may in some way make sense but are more a like Zen koan to the inquisitive young mind.

Of course money doesn’t grow on trees, so far, but the Fed makes it like as if it does. But you and I have to earn it in some way. So either you work for someone else or you work for yourself.

The trouble with money is that we as a society have become more than attached to it. But I’m not going to preach on that subject today but rather take it at face value…we need money to live in this world. On a higher level money is a symbol of energy being exchanged for something else: a service or product. Money is only valuable because we as a society have declared it so.

So if you are not producing enough income/money then perhaps what you are offering is not considered valuable or valuable enough by others, OR you have not figured out how to price your product or services, AND/OR you are not selling to the correct market OR you are being screwed by a system that is taking advantage of you.

What are you worth?

Could be all those options are true to some extent but let’s take the higher road. You have talent or a great idea, or a new or better product to offer the world and you need to figure out what its worth. So go ask people what they would pay and see what you learn. This is basic but essential market research. Most people starting out in business skip this for one reason or another and find out too late that there was never a “there there”.

Your time is worth more than anyone can afford if you consider this life is short and the time you have to make money is short. So take time to be realistic about how you will spend your precious time doing something that will produce income and hopefully even make a difference.

What will people pay?

Unless you have a truly unique product or service you may already have a good idea what the buying public is paying by researching your competitors.  Maybe you can do it cheaper than the next person but that tends to be problematic if you are a small business person. It’s a much better plan to find the right niche or clientele who can afford and will pay for your time or product. But it is generally true that everyone loves a bargain so there is a balance you need to consider. Perception is often considered reality. What we perceive to be “true” is what we think is true. Of course, this is not the actual truth we are talking about but rather what we feel is true in the moment. Advertising has trained us to perceive value and benefits in such a way to completely side step what is in fact true. But the point here is you must help your potential customers perceive your value and convince them that the benefits are both real and worth their hard earned money. This is a universal business ‘truth’ which you cannot ignore.

Researching the value of something will help you know if or how you will succeed in your specific business. Take this point seriously and your chances of success will rise accordingly.

Keep on keeping on…

Filed Under: Analysis, Strategies for Success, Tips Tagged With: ,

Being successful continued…

June 17, 2013 by

Staying on course.

  1. Mindfulness in business
  2. Being true to higher values
  3. No way around Practicing

Mindfulness in business

So we have been leaning about breathing and how it will help you be effective/real in your relationships. We previously talked about leaning to be still. This leads to the much written about concept of “mindfulness”.

Mindfulness in business occurs when you are paying close attention to what is going on within you and around you. This is also expressed as being fully present. It is said that just ‘showing up’ consistently is half the battle of being successful. I say it’s only about one quarter of the battle. One of my teachers, Angeles Arrien, teaches a cross cultural shamanic path based on her research of indigenous people. She calls it the Fourfold way.

  1. Show up (and be present)
  2. Pay attention to what has heart and meaning
  3. Tell the truth without blame or judgment
  4. Let go of outcome

For an in depth look at these concepts check out her book; “The Four-Fold Way”.

Show up, be present and be mindful. The breathing exercise in the previous blog will help you accomplish this task. Doing this will increase your chances of being real with yourself and others.

Being true to higher values

Knowing what your values are and then acting and making choices based on those values is an important part of your life’s work. So it goes in business as well. People have values and a business should have values as well. The Mission statement should touch deeply on those values. Most small businesses don’t have a mission statement but they have an owner and the owner’s values then become at least part of the business values.

Dr. Arrien’s statement, “Pay attention to what has heart and meaning” is one way to get at the values conversation. But the saying is more instructive in that it is itself sort of a values statement. If I practice what that statement says then I will become an active engaged participant in the business and in life. To stay true to what has heart and meaning takes another important step when we commit to telling the truth…without blame or judgment. To do this, to speak and think in this way is no small task and in doing so you will become a most valuable player in any business and in life.

Perhaps the hardest of the four directives is the last, “to let go of outcome”. In business we are all about outcome. As in life each one of us has dreams and aspirations and goals and wants to succeed in one thing or another. How can we ‘let go’ of all that?

This is one of those conundrums we face. To have goals is not just a good idea but recommended. But how you hold them in your mind and heart are integral to the process of achieving them. Letting go is more like ‘surrendering’ to the outcome. There’s a saying in some spiritual circles that goes, “let go and let God”. This saying can move one in the right direction. The letting go is a way of acknowledging that we don’t really have control of very much. And yet, we are responsible for so much. I know this all sounds a bit like “the sound of one hand clapping”, but if you will be still and ponder these ideas you will find peace and they will move your closer and closer to reaching your goals. More importantly, they may also help you be the kind of person you always wanted to be.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Each day is the proverbial new day. You can be the same old you or the new old you.

The new you (old or not) is the one that takes life lightly and seriously at the same time.

Take yourself more lightly and the way of being in the world more seriously. Time has taught us humans that we must practice being the best at whatever we choose to be.

So start practicing now because NOW is all you’ve got.

Filed Under: Analysis, Strategies for Success, Tips

Being “REAL” in Business

June 11, 2013 by
  1. Where does ‘real’ come from?
  2. Tune up your ‘BS’ meter.
  3. Being ‘still’ is a start—here’s how.

Are you for Real?

We all like to think we are being real…as if that’s the only way to be. The reason we may not always be real has to do with our personal history, our upbringing, the traumas that may have befallen us in our youth, and the way our brains have locked on to those traumas.

To own your own business or to aspire to be successful in business will force most of us to say and do things we never thought we would say or do. Sometimes that can be a good thing but more often it means we fall back into saying or acting in ways that are not what we wished we would have said or done. What if you could have that moment of insight that helps you to use the opportunities you have to change any outcome for the better.

So this brings up a challenge. How do you know when you or anyone else is being real?

Some people are really good at fooling others and sometimes we are really good at trying to fool ourselves. I know I have noticed that little feeling in the pit of my stomach that after the fact reminds me that I really didn’t mean to say something. But I’m not just talking about guilt either.

There is this idea of a “BS” meter in each of us. The “BS” meter is like an internal lie detector. The wiring for this mysterious machine resides both in our brains and our guts.

If it has not been used in a while the connections may be rusty but they can be polished up by reuse.

How to test this device? If you watch any Television, and or listen to news, especially news and commentary carefully your BS meter should be going off frequently. This does not mean people are necessarily lying to you, for they may in fact believe deeply in what they are saying, but there is a place in you that can show you that just saying something does not make it real or true. I’m not saying forget logic…logic is in short supply in most arguments and commercials. The BS meter resides more in the gut…as in something doesn’t feel right.

So what’s this have to do with being real in business? One thing about being human is that we will make mistakes but to be real means we will learn from them and act accordingly. One goal you may want to seriously consider is to learn how to be real in your own skin.

Life is complicated, breathing is simple! The fact that most of us no longer breathe correctly is well researched. But there is even more you can do with breath.

Just follow the instructions.

Sit still or stand or lie down or even take a walk. Choosing a quiet place and time may be more helpful at first. Breathe deeply, following your breath as it passes in and out of your nose or mouth. Follow each breath all the way in and out of your body. Focus only on each breath then the next. If some thought enters your mind then refocus your mind on your breath. Doing this a little each day (start with a minute then increase the time a little each day) will move you in the direction of knowing what is real in you and once you find that ‘real’ you will be moving towards being real with others. I’m not trying to trick you into becoming a meditator (that’s ok of course) but rather have you experience stillness inside so you can achieve a realness that you and others will notice. This practice leads to being more present which will lead to other successful skills.  Make this a daily routine and increase the time allotted slowly…you will see/feel different…in a good way.

Keep up the good work!

.

Filed Under: Analysis, Strategies for Success, Tips

The Art of Being Real

June 3, 2013 by

Last week I was pointing out that being real with yourself, your employees, your customers and your vendors would move you toward success. Some have asked “what is ‘being real’”?

That could be a trick question. Since I’m not the arbiter of what is Reality for you it would be tough to say how to accomplish being real for each and every one of us.
However, I believe that each of you does know what is real by feeling it when it’s present in our own relationships. Who do you know right now that you would say is and has been ‘real’ with you? Real in the moment can be a jumble of feelings but here I’m speaking of those times when the presence of another person attention on you has got your full attention and you want to pay attention to what that person is saying or doing.

To be real is to be genuine, to be authentic, to be open and available to be fully present with another. Some of us may have a hard time with this concept but let me say that if you follow the previous blog instructions you will be on your way to achieving ‘realness’ in terms of being real with another.

Put in business parlance, that means you welcome the opportunity to do business with another person. If you can imagine ‘cherishing’ someone for the business then do so.
We all like feeling cherished, being noticed (in a good way) and being recognized. Think actively about this then act accordingly based on your specific job at the time of an encounter.

Sometimes I go into a business establishment just to experience what kind of greeting or contact is going to happen. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised. Sure, not everyone wants to be greeted at the door or even helped but everyone does want respect.

Think of ways to ‘respect’ your clients, your co-workers, your employees, your vendors.
Your business will be rewarded, and so will you.

mgmauldin

Filed Under: Analysis, Strategies for Success, Uncategorized

Step one to Success.

May 28, 2013 by

Creating and keeping healthy business (and personal) relationships it at the core of success. Some relationships are for a lifetime. Business relationships are in most cases time dated in that either the relationship is at one passing point of sale or last throughout the course of a business. Thinking about your business as a ‘factory’ for building good relationships will give you a sense of how  relationships are the meet and bones of your business. The blood of your business is of course, positive cash flow.

Back in the day “the customer was King” was our mantra. But I’m going to recommend something a bit more radicle. Depending on what kind of business you are in the type and term of your business relationships may vary. Howeve,r the more you put into the ‘relationship’ the bigger the return. This is common sense but harder to do than to talk about.

I do stand on the golden rule: treat others as you would treat yourself. However, some of us don’t treat ourselves very well do we? If you are overworked and underpaid, well you get my point. That said, the goal is to be as present with your customers and potential customers as possible. What does “be present” mean?

Technically, to be present means that all your focus, your attention is with the other person. To accomplish this I recommend you take a deep breath each time you engage someone and then focus your eyes on their eyes while standing not too close. Breathe into your belly thru your chest and back out. This may take practice…so practice with another person or at least in front of the mirror. Etiquette may dictate that you shake hands or more likely at work, you may have a greeting already prepared. No matter what you say, saying it from a grounded place will be way more effective than as an automatic greeting usually sounds. Greeting someone from this grounded place will have a positive effect for you and the person you’re greeting.

This may be a baby step on the road to building customer relations but it is a very important step. Do not skip this step. Again try this exercise and practice it until the people close to you notice “something different”. This is not about being forceful or manipulative. This is about you being REAL and in the moment. The better you get at this the more successful you will be…in whatever you do.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

mgmauldin

Filed Under: Strategies for Success, Tips

Work as a Pilgrimage

May 20, 2013 by

In David Whyte’s well written and insightful book “Crossing the Unknown Sea—Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity”, we are given a new perspective on what it means to ‘work’ in the world. This is no small thing.

How many times in the course of your life, or the course of a year or even sometimes in the course of a day do we pause and say “what the heck is going on here?” The real question is, “what the heck is going on with me”?

Sure, we all have our bad days, our out of sort days, our wish I were somewhere else days. However, David’s insights go to a deeper level a level I find that will come up in my coaching conversations with clients more frequently than not.

Let’s make a leap, an assumption for a moment. What if…what if the world you are looking out at right now is a reflection of what is going on inside you right now. Yes, that’s a big jump I know, but stay with me a moment.

Is everything as it should be? As you look out there do you see your life flowing along? Is your work life, your business flowing along? Are there small ripples or large waves flowing across your life’s pond of tranquility? If so, do you know what created those waves, or how to let them subside? Maybe you like waves. Maybe you like sailing and a strong wind suits you. However, without a rudder a strong winds will blow you where they will, not where you intended to go.

Mr. Whyte’s book is about the journey we take once we commit ourselves to a given path we call our job or our business. If you have your own business or work for someone else you have chosen to do so and in doing so you become and/or must ‘own’ that role. So now you have responsibilities and time constraints and commitments that you must bring yourself to…all of yourself, your fully present and aware self if you intend to be successful in that role.

Work for ninety nine per cent of us is more than one third of our daily existence. Many business owners will spend more time working than time with family, friends, and even sleep. Is that a given? Is that not the way it’s done you may tort. As a former entrepreneur there was a time I could only see the trees and not the forest. Please do not take this as a criticism but rather a poke at your ‘reality’ beliefs.

One of my clients has a business that is not yet 5 years old and which is not yet over the profitability hump but is well on its way. He is young and ambitious and married and with kids and has tremendous discipline. He only works 8 to 10 hours a day 5 days a week. Not 6 or 7 days a week, just 5. He has a life because he values the rest of his life as much or more than his work life. Also, he loves his work life and the challenges it brings him. His ocean has its rough and smooth days but he stays fully present and has learned, with help, to sail with the wind, rudder in hand going in the direction he intends. Can you say that?

Getting back to Mr. Whyte’s insights, he is saying that one of our greatest opportunities for discovery and growth is in our work life. If you think about the times in each work day where you either get to make a choice or engage in relating to someone else you will have in those moments the opportunities of which David speaks so eloquently. Work is about creating successful relationships. Creating successful relationships with yourself, your family, your co-workers, your employees, your customers, your vendors, and your environment will lead to a meaningful life, a successful life, a rewarding life. This is the life you want to see in the mirror of your day.

What does it take to create such successful relationships?

More to come…enjoy your week, and stay in touch.

mgmauldin

Filed Under: Strategies for Success

What drives you?

May 13, 2013 by

What ‘drives’ you?
What are your motives?
Do you know who you can trust?
Do you think you know the answers to these questions?

Something (or someone) is always ‘driving’ us, pushing and pulling us. Getting in touch with what that is, and where ‘it’ comes from can and will make the difference in creating a happy healthy successful life in business.

If you find yourself searching, seeking for some kind of assistance, some boost or pat on the back and recognition, I invite you to sign up here.

Success can be had on many levels. A well balanced life will be one with few if any regrets. Meeting life’s challenges, most of which we create ourselves are for one primary purpose: to learn, and from that learning, prospering and experiencing joy and comfort.

I recommend that a ‘sober’ evaluation of one’s choices and motivations for those choices be done. Whether you are just starting out in business or moving past that important 5th year milestone an annual ‘taking stock’ of oneself is always a good idea.

Taking stock is an older phrase originally used in business…as in accounting for one’s inventory. The word ‘stock’ also could mean shares of a business, or reaching back in time could also mean a device for holding one in place: “stock and chains”.

What are your talents, what are your shortcomings, what is missing from the business plan, where is the plan out of balance? Are you taking home at least a living wage? Does the business turn a reasonable profit? Maybe your business is a hobby? These may be easy questions to answer yes or no to. However, often it’s what is beneath the “yes” or “no” answer that will lead one to the truth in a given situation.

If you have chosen to be a business person, and more so, if you chose to be an owner of a business then you have chosen (consciously or not) to have those kinds of challenges that will help you become the skillful person you truly want to be. To go down the path of facing challenges and learning how you create them is not an easy task or one you should do alone. Get outside help! Friends can be a great help but they may not have the skill set to really help coach you through certain business challenges.

My intension is that through this blog and our interactions much will be gained by all who participate. Reading and responding to the blog will be helpful for all who are reading along. We can learn from each other and save time and money in doing so.

That said some issues are too complicated to be fully served via this one blog. The smallbusinessinaction.com website connected to this blog is also available as well as reaching me directly via the contact form.

I offer this blog to be a sober place to take stock of your business self, your actions, and thoughts. You will not find judgements or useless negative criticisms but rather an open forum of ideas and possible solutions.

Welcome,

mgmauldin

Filed Under: Analysis, Planning, Strategies for Success, Uncategorized
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