March 25th, 2010 by Jim Donovan
In John 10:10 in the Bible, Jesus said, “I have come that you should have life and that you should have it abundantly.”
Notice that He did not say, “live like a pauper settling for whatever crumbs you can find.”
Nor did He say, “Work hard and maybe you’ll get ahead.”
He said that you and I are entitled to live abundantly. That means having more than enough in every area of your life, including finances. We are entitled to an abundance of love, an abundance of happiness, an abundance of health and yes, and an abundance of money.
So why are most people not experiencing this in their lives?
Well that’s a complex question and cannot be answered with a few clever quips, however, there are a couple of things that I have learned in my two decades of studying and teaching success principals.
The biggest error that I see, over and over again, is that most people spend their energy looking at the problem and lamenting about how they can’t afford this and that.
They continue to reinforce their current condition, usually what they do not want, and as a result, of the law of attraction, they continue to experience the same thing. This is an absolute law and cannot work any other way. There’s no “tricking” it or working around it.
If you want to change your current conditions, especially your finances, you must, repeat, must, stop looking at what you do not want.
Yes, ignore reality, as crazy as that may sound, unless of course, your present reality is reflecting your ideal life.
Stop talking about the problem and focus all of your attention and energy on what you do want. If it’s more income that you want, yes it’s natural to want more, look for opportunities.
While the media is busy telling us over and over how bad things are, there is more opportunity then any other time in history. It all depends on your focus.
If you are focused on and looking at problems, nodding your head in agreement with the television, you’ll miss seeing the opportunity — even if it’s right in front of your face.
Here is the way out of the present recession:
1. Decide what you want (sound familiar?)
2. Set a concrete and specific goal. “I intend that I am earning $5,000 extra each and every month.”
3. Spend time each day seeing it as though it already occurred (visualizing).
4. Let go and let God.
5. Ask yourself, what can I do next to move toward my goal, then take whatever inspired action results.
If you want to learn more ways to increase your income, check this out.
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February 4th, 2010 by Jim Donovan
With the current economic challenges we’re all facing, too many small business owners are finding their business moving in the wrong direction.
In many cases, what were once growing, thriving businesses are now heading into a downward spiral of cutbacks, layoffs, and, in too many cases, bankruptcies. Owners are watching as their customers dwindle and revenues drop.
So, what can a small business owner who is trying to prosper in today’s climate do to turn things around?
While you may not be able to do much about the nation’s economy as a whole, there are proactive steps you can take, regardless of outside circumstances.
Following are three steps you can use to get started turning your business around and moving, once again, in the direction of growth and prosperity:
1. Change Your Focus
Beginning immediately, stop talking about anything that is not working. Stop defending and justifying why you’re not doing better. Stop blaming the economy or whatever else you deem to be the cause of your troubles. If something is not working, continuing to talk about it will cause you to start seeing more things going wrong and continue the downward spiral.
Ask only, “What’s working?” and continue asking every day. Make a list of what is working and have your team do the same, individually and as a group. Change the tone of your meetings. If you understand that you get more of whatever you focus upon, it’s obvious why you’ll want to do this.
2. Mine the Gold That’s Already in Your Business
Every business has “hidden” opportunities which can be mined, usually by either developing new markets for your products, creating new products, leveraging the relationships you’ve built, and joint venturing with colleagues, suppliers, customers and, yes, even competitors.
Ask yourself what new opportunities you could tap into if you expanded your e-commerce offerings and maximized the technology that’s available today. Does your Web site give visitors a compelling reason to subscribe to your mailing list? Are you utilizing email marketing and auto responders to their fullest? What about social media, social bookmarking, video, podcasting, blogging, and other “Web 2.0″ tools?
Your greatest opportunity for business growth, regardless of the economy, are the assets you already have in your business. From personnel, customers – past and present – relationships with colleagues and suppliers, and other “people” assets, to your investment in equipment and technology, the assets you’ve already built represent your greatest opportunity.
And the really good news is they will require the least in either time or money.
Of these “hidden” assets, your customers are the easiest and most obvious place to begin. Do you know who they are and why they do business with you?
This may seem like an obvious question, however, many businesses do not know who is buying from them or why. Once you’ve ascertained this, you’re in a position to explore how else you might serve them.
One of my favorite questions has always been, “is there anything else I can help you with?” This simple question can increase your business tenfold.
A friend of mine is a graphic designer and print broker. One day she asked her client this question to which the client replied, “Yes there is. Can you help us get some of those imprinted jackets with our logo on them?” She happily replied that she could and took the order. (hint: if you own a small business, the answer, within reason, is always, “Yes.” You can figure out later how to deliver.)
Don’t fall into the trap if thinking just because you’ve been around a while that people know everything you do. Often we “ass-u-me” that our customers know what we do.
Leverage
You can grow your business by leveraging your relationships with colleagues, suppliers, distributors and yes, even your competitors.
Several years ago I attended a demonstration at a local copier supplier. It was a huge success as a herd of people roamed throughout the building seeing live demos of the latest in office copiers.
While the local business hosted the event, their supplier provided the factory trained experts on hand to answer people’s questions.
Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Saks have regular “trunk shows” and make-up events to attract customers, again with the expertise provided by the manufacturers.
Faith Popcorn pointed out in her landmark book “The Popcorn Report” that people like entertainment while they shop.
What about your colleagues? Could a carpet or home cleaning company team up with a caterer and offer a holiday special?
Might a lawyer, accountant and banker put together a free event for their business customers? What could you do to leverage your business?
Do you have underused equipment sitting around? Many local newspapers whose presses are only used for a few hours a day, will take on outside printing jobs. Your typical weekly paper is most likely being printed on a daily newspaper’s presses.
Opportunities on the internet.
I’ve saved the best for last. If there is one area that is underutilized by small businesses, it’s your website. Ninety percent or more of local business websites that I’ve visited are nothing more than online brochures. I call them “Tombstones in Cyberspace.”
Contrast this against the sites used by internet marketers. Internet marketers, people whose business profits entirely or in part online, engage the customer with an array of techniques designed to keep them coming back, refer them to friends and leave them wanting more.
The typical offline business gets little if any internet traffic, mainly because their sites have not been setup properly or not even optimized for search engines.
What is even sadder is that if someone does manage to stubble upon their site, they have no way to connect with the visitor and develop an ongoing relationship.
Other than SEO, the easiest thing that you can do is set up some sort of “capture mechanism.” A simple subscription box connected to an auto responder will enable you to begin building a database of your customers and potential customers.
As my friend Vic Johnson, a highly successful Internet marketer who sells personal development information, said, “He who has the biggest list, wins! Or, as every online marketer knows, “the money is in the list.”
The really good part
Once you have put in place your strategy for developing your customer database, you can communicate with them at virtually no cost.
Compare this to the costs of direct mail, display advertising, radio, or TV and the advantages to email and other types of online communication are obvious.
A heating oil company, with a database of 600 prior customers, can blast an offer for a spring special to jump-start sales during their slow season, at practically no cost.
The restaurant owner who’s experiencing a slow Wednesday lunch business, can test offers for specials early that morning by sending to their database. Chances are, they’ll see an increase in business almost immediately. All at little or out of pocket expense.
If you can’t go into your business tomorrow morning at 7:30, create a special offer to jump start sales, and have it out to a list of several hundred or thousand customers by 9:00, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Go here if you want to learn how you can grow your offline business with online strategies.
3. Develop Systems and Follow Through
Hire a business coach or appoint someone in your organization to be your team’s “accountability partner” to ensure your renewed vision is being carried out and that you are steadily moving in the right direction.
A business coach provides a fresh viewpoint and can often help by not being bogged down in the day-to-day running of the business. They are objective and not invested in the politics if your company. The best business coaches contribute knowledge acquired from a variety of situations in any number of industries and employs specific strategies to help you make quantum leaps beyond what you may have thought possible.
Regardless of the specific actions you take, it is important that you do something proactive. Don’t just sit there complaining about the economy with the rest of the crowd. Above all, don’t wait for it to turn around by itself or, worse yet, expect the government to fix it. You have within you the power to change your life and your business, so go and do it.
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August 7th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
As this classic song from the Broadway hit, Porgy and Bess, reminds us, summertime is a time to relax, rest, rejuvenate and reward yourself for all the hard work you’ve been doing. As they say, all work and no play makes Jack & Jill a very dull boy & girl. We all need time to relax and just “play.”
No matter how much you truly love and enjoy your work, it is necessary, from time to time, to get away from it all. This may mean going on a trip, even if only for a day or two, or an extended vacation of several weeks. Perhaps, for some, it means staying right where you are but taking time away from your day-to-day work to get out and see what’s around you.
Believe it or not, doing this can be the best strategy you have, especially if you’re in a rut. Removing yourself from the daily routines associated with running your business or household not only helps clear your mind and opens you to new ideas and possibilities, but it will also take you out of your patterned behavior and stimulates your creativity by presenting new experiences, sights and stimuli.
Being away from your everyday environment gives you the opportunity to see what life is like for other people in other locations. Whenever I travel, I make a point of observing what local businesses are doing. I usually talk to one or two business people in the town or city I’m visiting. This gives me a totally new perspective on things and opens my thinking to new possibilities.
Simply being in an unfamiliar location causes us to think and act differently. It takes us out of our routines, moves us away from our comfort zone and literally bombards our creative minds with new and exciting sights and sensations.
Take time to play. Not only will you return more relaxed and rested, you’ll surely have new ideas and renewed enthusiasm for your life and your work.
Can’t get away right now?
Why not give yourself a Self-care Day? When was the last time you took a day just for yourself? If you’re like most people, your answer is probably never. Essentially a Self-care Day is a 24-hour period where you take care of yourself. You do no work at all. I know, I can hear your protest. I protested too when I first heard this idea “But you don’t understand, I have to check my voicemail, I have to return phone calls, I have to answer my emails and on and on.” I protested in my very best entrepreneurial voice. The truth is any of us can take a day for ourselves without consequence. Believe it or not, the world will keep spinning. Calls will wait as will email.
This is a day just for you. If you normally do the cooking, on your Self-Care Day, you will refrain from making meals. Trust me your family will not starve. Obviously if there are small children or infants that depend on you, you would have to modify this. Overall try to do nothing that is related to your normal work. This is a pampering day just for you.
The first time I did this, I discovered just how my work relates to things that I do on any given day. Most of my reading was centered on business topics. Being an entrepreneur and self-employed, I was convinced I had to be working all the time. I was wrong. Kicking and screaming, I embarked on my Self-Care Day. I took a walk, read part of a novel, took a luxurious bath in our soaking tub (something I never used to do) and just hung out and took care of myself. What a concept!
It’s been some time now and my Self-Care Day has become an integral part of my life. I not only feel better, and am having more fun, I have my life back. Doing this regularly has enabled me to put my work back into perspective. I no longer work seven days a week and I no longer do email throughout the day.
The interesting thing is that because of my taking this time to nurture myself, I’m actually more productive. Because I’m taking better care of myself I have more clarity and I’m able to better focus on the task on hand. Because I am taking better care of myself, I am more creative and productive. Most of all, because I am taking better care of myself, I feel better and have more balance and happiness, after all isn’t that what it’s all about?
Action step
Schedule one 24-hour period, sometime within the next 10 days, when you can give yourself a Self-Care Day and then go and do it. Once you’ve done this, see how you might be able to do this weekly and when you feel really ready, schedule an Self-Care Day for what would have been a normal work day.
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February 12th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
One of my favorite places in the United States and somewhere my wife Georgia and I have spent a lot of time is the Monterey Peninsula, in California. I love the ocean views, mild climate, and the overall natural beauty of that part of the California coast. Along the coastline, on the scenic “17 Mile Drive,” one of the special sites on the tour, is the Lone Cypress tree.
This amazing tree sits all by itself out on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The little tree has anything but a peaceful existence, weathering the high winds and storms, but it survives nonetheless.
The way it not only survives, but thrives, and the point of this story, is that the Cypress tree has learned to adapt to its environment and remain flexible, learning to accommodate the high winds rather than try to fight the elements. In the case of the Cypress, as with people, flexibility is key. Conditions change and people, or trees, who attempt to resist the change, will be broken.
This idea is especially important to grasp with everything that is going on in the world’s economy. People who continue to cling to old ideas, or outdated jobs, will experience difficulty, while those who can learn to “go with the flow” will thrive.
If you have been working in a job or industry that is experiencing a down turn, why cling to it? Just because “I have always been a (fill in your job)” does not mean I have to continue doing so.
Instead, why not look into one of the emerging industries that will be creating huge demands for skilled workers in the future. Solar energy and fiber optic technology are just two that come to mind. The “green movement,” an essential shift in the way we do things, is here to stay. We have been trashing Mother Earth for far too long and fortunately, we’re finally realizing it. This effort to reverse the ecological destruction is creating a swarm of green businesses and ecological products with an accompanying opportunity.
Maybe you are in your own business and are being affected by the current conditions, most are. Don’t be afraid to make some changes even if it means going in an entirely new direction. If you are in a service business and things are a little slow, ask yourself, what new or additional services could I offer that there is a demand for?
The key is flexibility, learn to go with the forces rather than stand ridged opposing them. Pay attention to what you are noticing. Remembering that we attract what we focus on, it’s important to keep our point of attraction on what is working. As I wrote in an earlier article, whenever there is this much chaos and churn, there is huge opportunity. With a new president who is committed to job creation, there is even more opportunity.
For example, a decade ago I was working as a freelance instructor at a computer school in Philadelphia. I taught Desktop Publishing, Office Systems, and the Internet.
One day as I arrived early with my coffee and bagel, I went into the conference room that I was using to have my breakfast and work on my book. On that particular day, when I arrived, the conference room had been turned into a classroom.
Later I learned that in response to a growing need to re-train displaced city workers, the company was building classrooms as fast as they could. I was to spend the next several months teaching classes to former city workers who were learning new job skills. I predict that we will be seeing a lot more of this, in different industries, in the days ahead.
With so many people being laid off, there is an opportunity for coaches who can specialize in transition and careering coaching. For that matter, coaching schools will be seeing an increase in students as many of these downsized corporate employees decide to move to the coaching profession.
Builders and contractors who are astute enough to become knowledgeable about energy incentives can create new business by educating homeowners about what’s available to them.
For the individual, or business who chooses to stay flexible and look where the economy is going, rather than lament about where it has been, there is always an opportunity. Remember the champion hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, who said, “Most people skate to where the puck is. I skate to where it’s going.”
The tides rise and fall, the winds blow and subside, the storms both natural and economic come and go, but the flexible among us always thrive. When you are feeling uncertain or worried, remember the little Cypress tree flourishing amongst the elements.
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January 5th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
If you happened to watch the New Year’s Eve festivities from New York’s Times Square, you may have seen Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed and heard him say, as far as he is concerned, the operative word for 2009 is “Optimism,” which according to Wikipedia, is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place.
I’m with him. It’s about time we had optimistic talk being spread over the airwaves. We’ve certainly had our fill of the other kind.
As with anything else, if we believe this and begin affirming it, we will make it so. It would be really great if the majority of people followed the sentiment of “Mayor Mike,” however, what’s even more important is that each of us affirm it for ourselves.
In truth we can only create our own experience, not the experience of others so, regardless of what the masses choose to do we can start seeing this coming year through a lens of optimism and act accordingly.
No one but you can create your life experience. Not the government, not your employer, not even your spouse. What occurs in your life is totally within your control and is a result of your thoughts, feelings and actions.
If you choose to join with me and Mayor Bloomberg and see this year optimistically, as a year of opportunity and positive expectations, you will, in fact, create your best year ever.
While optimism is a great outlook on life and a key ingredient for success, it’s not all there is. You’ll need a vision of what you want your life to become, specific and measurable goals, an action plan to follow and, hopefully, a mentor or coach to keep you on track.
If you have a coach, great. If not, now would be a good time to get one. Or, if you cannot afford a coach right now, “buddy up”with someone and hold each other accountable. Find someone you feel comfortable sharing your dreams and goals with and arrange to meet with them regularly. This is an important component for success. No one does it alone.
With all the change in the air and the general feelings of hope and possibility being expressed by people from all walks of life, it’s looking like 2009 is going to be a banner year.
As with everything else in nature, there’s an ebb and flow to our life. After last year, I think you’ll agree we’re all ready for the flow to begin. Bring it on!
If you really want to make 2009 your best year ever and are ready to play full out, check out my new tele-seminar program “Live Your Destiny 2009.”
Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be posting a series of articles specifically written to help you start your year off right. If you miss any, or if you’re new to personal development, you can always find the entire series in the “Starting Out” category.
By the way, if you are planning on working one-on-one with a coach, I have an opening. You can learn more here
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Tags: abundance, God, happiness, increase your income, Jesus, law of attraction, Money, opportunity, recession, success
