More Than WE Know

The best hurdlers clear the hurdles - but just barely.

Think about it - the most efficient way to clear a hurdle is to give it just enough effort to get over it - and no more.  Otherwise, you’ll run out of energy long before you run out of hurdles.

In fact, my father used to tell me the story of the Olympic hurdler from Ohio, Harrison Dillard. It seems that Dillard used to practice hurdling by placing a quarter on the top of each hurdle.  If when he cleared it, he also knocked the quarter off the top, he knew he was using his energy as efficiently as possible - to clear the hurdle - but just barely. 

So, what does this mean to Women Entrepreneurs? 

Plenty!

Think of all the hurdles you’ve had to overcome to get where you are in your business. Consider how many more still face you up ahead.  If you give too much energy, too much time and too much emotion to each and every hurdle you meet, you will soon run out of steam.

Instead, consider the hurdles you face - how high are they really? Do you really need to put as much energy into this particular sale, this particular tax form, this particular complaint?

I’m not advising you to ignore them - just to give them enough attention to resolve them - and no more.

Remember - Growing a business is a long distance race with frequent and unexpected hurdles.  Conserve your energy and keep your eyes on the road up ahead. 

How do you deal with the hurdles you face? Are you giving too much energy to each and every one? Or are you pacing yourself for the long haul?

For more information see:

Successful Women Entrepreneurs Don’t Strive for Perfection

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What an interesting week it has been! Last week I decided that I had been setting my goals all wrong.

Being a naturally ambitious person, setting goals around tasks, only fed my natural inclination to pack as many “to do’s” into my day as possible.  Let’s face it, it really wasn’t much of a challenge for me to get a lot done. 

What was a challenge for me, was taking the time to take care of my health - my “to be’s” if you will.  I have a long history of “doing a lot” and sacrificing my health - sleep, eating patterns and exercise in order to get it done.

Recently, that had begun to catch up with me.  This week I tried an experiment of just assuming the “to do’s” would get done and instead setting my goals around how I wanted “to be” - which was healthier.  The results were interesting.

First, I succeeded in eating healthy foods and getting enough sleep. I’m still getting over my illness so I didn’t exercise as much as I intend to in the near future.  But still, I definitely focused on “being” first, and “doing” second.

The result? I really couldn’t see much difference in the amount that I got done when I was working around the clock and this week when I was putting more boundaries around my work hours. 

Could it have to do with Parkinson’s Law that “work expands to fill the time available for it”?

The other interesting thing was that I added two new clients this week - and they practically fell into my lap!  It makes me wonder about the power of energy.

Since I was taking better care of my health - did I give off better energy that others were drawn to?

So, I’m enjoying this experiment. I certainly feel a lot better. And I’m going to continue it into next week.

How about you? Are you putting your health first and your business second? Or the other way around? What would it take for you to make yourself a priority?  

For more on the power of energy in connecting with others, see:

Networking with Passion

I’m doing my goal accountability check on Tuesday this week due to Blog Action Day on Monday.  I could say that I finally caught up with my goals that I set two weeks ago so it was a successful week. And that would be true. But I could also say that I got sick this week for the first time in over a year.  And that would also be true.

So, despite the fact that I am making progress at my goals, I decided it was time to look at the cost of that success.

For the past few years I have been neglecting my own personal health in order to focus on achievment in my job, education, business and family.  I have given up sleep, and exercise and developed unhealthy eating habits.  I’ve been too busy to see a doctor or dentist.  I still had a lot of energy - based mainly on caffeine and adrenaline.  Although I felt fine, I was really using up all of my body’s resources.

Finally, this week it all caught up with me.  And forced to slow down, it began to dawn on me that no success is worth my health. At the risk of dating myself - it’s like those old Geritol commercials used to say “If you have your health, you have just about everything!”

So now, I’m reassessing my goals and prioritizing my health along with career aspirations. I am struggling to determine what are reasonable goals to set that would also allow me to get enough sleep and exercise and to eat in a healthier way.

I’ve decided I need to set a direction of where I want to get to - and trust that my natural ambition will get me there.  The goals I need to set are around the things that don’t come naturally to me: getting 8 hours of sleep, exercising and eating healthily. 

I’m going to experiment as to whether if I focus on those goals, the amount of progress I need to make on my business will happen naturally.  

So, this week’s direction: continue to expand the visibility of my blog.

This week’s goals: 8 hours sleep each night, healthy eating, 30 minutes of exercise per day.  

What about you? Do you risk your own health in order to achieve your business goals? If not, how do you balance health and achievement?

One of the aspects I like best about the Mirassou contest I reported on yesterday, is that it doesn’t just give the winner the cash prize and walk away.  The contest provides not only a substantial cash award ($50,000) but a group of advisers that will help ensure that the investment pays off. 

One of the biggest challenges that Women Entrepreneurs face is that we try to do everything ourselves. Either we don’t want to bother anyone by asking for help or we don’t think anyone else can possibly understand our vision and live up to our standards. Both attitudes are a recipe for failure. 

Mirassou provides the following experts to assist the winner, and they are a solid basis for your own team.

Business and Marketing Plan Writer.   Many Women Entrepreneurs skip the step of creating a business plan.  More so than men, women tend to make it up as we go along.  While this can feel like it is working in the short term, it is not going to be sufficient to assist your company in growing to its full potential. 

Many Women Entrepreneurs self-fund their business through their savings, credit cards, or family loans. They then think they can’t take the time and don’t have the need to create a business plan.  But a plan helps you to see where you are going, how you are going to get there and what might get in your way. 

A marketing plan is distinct from a business plan.  A marketing plan focuses deeply on who your target market is, the potential opportunity for reaching them and methods of getting your product in front of them.  These days, I would also suggest a separate section on an online strategy for marketing your business.

Graphic Desinger.  Good graphic designers can make your business stand out among the competition. They can make you look big while you are still small.  Graphic designers can develop your logo, your website, and your marketing materials.  

Financial Planner. I found it interesting that the contest recommended a financial planner rather than an accountant.  The assumption of course is that you will have an accountant to handle your budget and tax needs. 

But a financial planner can help provide a more strategic view of your business. For example a financial planner can help you recognize how long you can afford to go before making a profit, and how much profit you will need to make.   They may also help you explore funding options and advise you when you are taking on too much risk yourself.

Legal Expert.  A legal expert can help you determine how your business should be structured. He or she can advise you on ways to limit your personal liability as well as ways to protect your intellectual property and product ideas. 

Mentor.  A mentor is someone who has “been there and done that”.  This type of advice can be extremely helpful in avoiding problems and gaining insight. This relationship can also be reassuring. Your mentor’s success is an encouraging endorsement of your own potential success.

So, who’s on your team? Are you struggling to do it all yourself? Do you feel your business isn’t big enough to warrant all of this help? Give yourself and your business the best chance possible by entrusting it to a team of experts.

If you were here last Monday, then you know I had reduced the number of goals I wanted to accomplish this week.  I already knew then that that this was going to be a challenging week for my business. I had to do a lot of traveling: Phoenix to NY to Ohio and then back to CT, all in about 5 days.  During the midwest portion of my trip I’d be visiting family and friends so I’d have no opportunity to squeeze in any “computer time” without being rude. 

But I thought I had a plan for keeping on track - it included working in airports and on airplanes and not getting much sleep.  As you can tell by the skimpy blog posts this past week - that plan fell flat.

Like many women entrepreneurs, I took on a bit more than I could handle and in an effort to be “everything to everyone”  I fell a bit short on some of my goals.

But as my youngest son told me when he was only in kindergarten “It’s not a mistake if you learn from it”.  So, I am looking for lessons we can all learn from my less than productive week.

The biggest insight I have for the week is that I should have delegated more.  If I had realized how unrealistic my plans were, I might have looked for ways others could have helped me.   This hit me today when I was doing my own surfing of the internet:

1) Hire someone; Shama Hyder at her cool blog After the Launch recommends hiring a ghost writer for entrepreneurs who want a blog but don’t have time to post.  She is talking about hiring someone full-time, but I assume it is also possible to hire someone to fill in on vacations, etc.  

2) Borrow from someone; Publish pre-written articles by authors who write on related topics. Hurlburt Insurance  posted an article I had recently published on ezinearticles.  They got free copy and I got additional readers sent to my blog. I could have done the same with articles other authors had submitted for publication.

3) Ask someone; I’ve met many wonderful women entrepreneurs in my social networking with MyWomanOwnedBusiness. I’m sure several of them would have been interested in being “guest bloggers” while I was visiting family.  It would have given them additional exposure for their business and an opportunity to try blogging on for size to see whether it’s right for them long-term.

The point is that I fell into the trap of thinking that I was the only one who could write the posts for this blog, since it was afterall my blog.  But in reality, it might have been nice for all of you to get exposure to additional people and viewpoints as well.

So, how can you apply these lessons in your own business?

How many of you believe that you are the only one who can service your customers, create your designs, and make all your decisions?

And if you do, how is that limiting your options? How is it keeping you from growing? How much of your day is spent on focusing on the details and upkeep of your business and how much is spent on long-term strategy and vision?

The bottom-line is that emergencies are going to happen and opportunities are going to present themselves - the more critical you make yourself to your business, the less flexibility you are going to have in responding to those unforeseen events.

So, even if you are a solo-entrepreneur in business by herself, there have to be ways to find backup, support and emergency plans.  It’s likely it will take high degrees of creativity and advance planning - but anything else is unrealistic and unsustainable.   

What challenges do you face in delegating tasks in your business? What solutions have you found?