Chaos2Results Business Coaching

6 Steps To Set Yourself Up For Success In 2022

Debra Austin — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 17:07:49 +0000

It’s not too late to set yourself up for a fantastic year in 2022. Schedule some quiet time for yourself, grab a notebook and pen, then work through these 6 steps.

Step 1: Review Your Calendar.

Look at your calendar from last year. What was the best use of your time, money, energy – things that moved you closer to your vision for your life, your goals? What was the worst use of your time, money, and energy? What are you most proud of? Take time to celebrate your wins.

Step 2: Reflect on Your Year.

What did you learn about yourself in 2021? Think about your vision for your life. What do you want for your life? Where do you want to spend more time, money and energy? Where do you need to spend less time, money and energy? What do you need to let go of from 2022? Consider missteps, failed relationships, etc. This is a great time to review the Serenity Prayer.

Step 3: Refocus on Your Vision.

What story do you want to tell about your life at the end of 2022? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to talk about how your business grew? How you spent more time with the people important to you? How you improved your health?

Step 4: Set Your Goals.

What are the three big things that you want to accomplish in 2022 that will move you closer to the vision you have for your life? How will you know when you’ve succeeded in those things? What will your success mean to you? Consider using the S.M.A.R.T. goals format to make your goals crystal clear.

Step 5: Make a Plan.

What do you need to do in 2022 to accomplish your goals? What things may get in the way or prevent you from being successful? How will you overcome these things? Break down those three big goals and identify what you need to do in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter to be successful. How will you check in to make sure you stay on track? How often will you check in? Think about doing this on a monthly basis at minimum.

Step 6: Write It Down.

Finally, write down your plan in an easy to read format. Post it where you can see it and review it every week. Choose to be intentional about how you spend your time, money and energy. You will see the results.

Want some help working through this? Schedule a free 30-minute discovery session at: https://chaos2results.as.me/discovery30v

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5 Reasons Your To-Do List May be Failing

Debra Austin — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 17:38:41 +0000

Did you make a to-do list for the day? If so, how many items have you completed? Did you completely forget about it already? If so, you are not alone. Roughly 41% of items on most people’s to-do lists never get done. The best way to fix your to-do list and have it work for you and not against you is to understand the common reasons why they fail in the first place.

Here are five common reasons to-do lists fail and how you can do better:

Too Many Things to Do

To-do lists should never be pages long or used for the long term. Instead, they should focus on daily tasks within a certain period of time you plan to get to work. Meaning you should have multiple to-do lists, not one overwhelming one that will surely get you lost.

Unclear Deadlines

You must set hard deadlines and have the discipline to follow through. A to-do list without them only gives you the permission to take your time or not do it at all. Understand how long it really takes to do each activity, including prep, and clean up ñ and never assume you can do double the amount of work you can do overnight.

Don't Account For the Unexpected

No one’s schedule is perfect, so don’t plan it that way. Account for flexibility and always include an extra fifteen minutes each day for the unexpected. You may end up in a meeting or traffic a little longer than you realized, for example. So, don’t schedule important meetings or errands to accomplish back-to-back with the idea that everything will go smoothly.

Created with A Long-Term Mindset

In other words, you are giving yourself too much time to complete tasks or are creating to-do lists for more than one day. Your to-do lists should support your 90-day action plan. They are not meant to replace it. Be sure the lists are to the point and a direct path for achieving your primary objective for that day or even a 90-minute period.

Unorganized and Unclear Main Objectives

Taking the time to dissect and pinpoint what you want to achieve is crucial to accomplishing them. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want and the steps you need to achieve it, you can’t be sure you have the right plan either. Unclear objectives lead to unorganized plans, ideas, and actions. Identify what you need and want then prioritize to get things done in a timely and orderly fashion.

Don’t let your to-do lists fail you anymore. To-do lists are great to utilize and can guide your day to ensure you are on the right track for long-term success, if they are done correctly.

Want more ideas on how to get more done? Check out these 7 Tips to Turn Your Busy Into Productive.

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How to Market Your Business on a Shoestring Budget

Debra Austin — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:22:29 +0000

Big brands spend an enormous amount of money on advertising and marketing, but as a solo entrepreneur or small business owner you don’t have to do the same to get results. You can market your business just as effectively on a shoestring budget by using one or more of these basic free or low-cost marketing tactics.

Network

Most people think of networking as circulating through a room exchanging business cards. A broader view of networking is creating a pool of contacts where you can draw clients, referrals, resources, ideas and information. You can do this via phone, e-mail, online communities like Facebook and LinkedIn groups, online messaging as well as in person.

The key thing to remember is that networking is interactive. So just as you would follow up with a prospect by placing a call or suggesting lunch, you can build your network of potential strategic partners and referral sources the same way.

Engage on Social Media

Social media is a great way to interact with your audience and spread awareness of your brand. You can use it to communicate directly with your followers, share content, build a community, and research your audience members.

Start by finding out which social media platforms your audience uses. The major ones now are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. LinkedIn is a social media platform specifically geared towards business-to-business and professionals. If you don’t know which platforms your audience uses, ask them directly, run a survey, or sign up to each and look for them.

Social media sites are free to use. All it takes is an investment of a little time posting quality content and managing your account.

Produce Helpful Videos

People watch videos on YouTube to learn new things and find solutions to the problems they’re facing. YouTube is one of the world’s most popular websites and its user base spans every demographic.

For YouTube, you can create short videos that offer help on various topics. Take a simple tip and show your viewers how to do it. Make a video where you answer a commonly asked question or discuss trending topics in your industry.

You can use free video production and editing software, and it’s free to post on YouTube.

Build an Email List

Email is a highly personal way to interact with your audience. People subscribe to email lists to receive useful content, the latest news, and exclusive promotions straight into their inbox.

The best way to get people to sign up to your list is to offer something of value often referred to as a lead magnet. A lead magnet is usually an information product that you offer for free; all the recipient needs to do is enter their name and email address. In exchange, they benefit from your helpful email newsletter, quick guide, ebook, article, etc.

To get started with email marketing, sign up with an email autoresponder service. Some of these are free, while others can get costly – research the different options to find out what’s right for you. Always start with a free service or a free trial to test out the software and make sure it gives you what you need before investing.

Start a Referral Program

With a referral program, you can offer your customers incentives to tell others about your products and services. The incentive could be freebies, free trials, exclusive content, or discounts to people who spread the word. This is a great way to generate some valuable word-of-mouth marketing.

A referral program multiplies your marketing efforts. The key is to offer something that’s valuable for your customer but costs little to nothing for you to produce. Some good ideas include an information product that only takes time to create, a discount on your products, or a free ticket to your upcoming event, etc.

Leverage the Internet

You never need to spend a great deal on advertising and marketing as long as you have an arsenal of marketing tactics you can put to use. Always focus on providing valuable content that meets your audience’s needs, and you can market your business with a small or non-existent budget.

Want more ideas on how to market your business on a shoestring budget? Check out our Low Cost Marketing Quick Guide.

The post How to Market Your Business on a Shoestring Budget appeared first on Chaos2Results Business Coaching.

Why You Should Complete A SWOT Analysis Of Your Business

Debra Austin — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 19:42:59 +0000

A SWOT analysis is a great way to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist for your business. It also an essential element for your business success. It is a great tool to use when you start your business and to use periodically as your business grows.

You can do a SWOT analysis for almost any objective you have for your business as well as planning your marketing and sales strategies.

To perform a SWOT analysis, you’ll want to create four quadrants with the labels, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You’ll want to label the quadrants into two parts, strengths and weaknesses as internal, opportunities and threats as external. Focus your SWOT analysis only on one specific area – i.e. over all business, business growth, marketing, sales. If you have additional objectives, consider working on them in a separate SWOT analysis. As you consider your specific area, write down the information you gather in each corresponding quadrant.

Consider all the factors that can affect that particular objective, such as the political, economic, sociocultural, and technological issues that you may face in the future with your industry. Because this is your own business, you may also want to include personal issues that may affect your business continuity. For example, being a single mom of two, nearing retirement age, key employees, etc. are factors that might affect your business or your ability to do your business.

Once you write down all the factors you can think about in each quadrant – i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – you’ll want to review them. Here are some questions you may want to consider: How do your strengths affect your opportunities? How do your threats affect your opportunities? Which of the weaknesses could become strengths if you made changes? Look for areas weaknesses you can convert into strengths by outsourcing, educating yourself or buying technology. Are there any threats to the continuity of your business that you can eliminate through planning?

Here are some examples:

Every year, you likely have the opportunity to buy software for an entire year at a less expensive cost. The impact over all would be lower cost but if you don’t have the savings to purchase it for the entire year, you can’t make the purchase. You would also be giving up funds that you may need for other purposes during the year.
You have only one team member who can perform a critical business task. The employee decides to leave or is disabled. Do you have a plan as to how that task would be performed? Could it be outsourced? Should you cross train another team member to take on that task?
You have identified a particular software you use for a large portion of your business activity during your SWOT analysis, what would happen if that software were no longer available to you?

A SWOT analysis often reveals issues you can mitigate to avoid business failure and generate growth opportunities you may have overlooked. It provides a chance to identify options before having the problem so that you can seamlessly change if needed. It will help you to go through your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly processes to fully identify any strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities so that you automatically build in resilience into your business.

The post Why You Should Complete A SWOT Analysis Of Your Business appeared first on Chaos2Results Business Coaching.

The Easiest Way to Make Your Business More Profitable

Debra Austin — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 22:21:17 +0000

The easiest way to make your business more profitable is to track what is working. What parts of your business, what services and what products are making you money? Which ones don’t? What type of customer is most profitable for you? Where is your most profitable traffic coming from?

Taking the time to dig into your stats is one of the best things you can do for you bottom line.

Your Products and Services

Start by looking at your products and services. These could be services or physical products you offer, anything you resell or even advertising you sell on your website or social media sites. List it all out.

Next to each item on your list, note down how much money each offering has brought in. You can break it down by month, or look at long term figures like year-to-date profits or revenue generated over the past 12 months. Use whatever number seems most helpful.

Next think about how much work each of these offerings or profit streams take. Using the amount of work your offerings require, the revenue they generate, and any time required to create and maintain them create a list. Assign a value to each item on your list.

Use your completed list with assigned values to determine which offerings are most profitable for you to invest your time and money. Also, identify any offerings that are not profitable and determine if you want to continue to invest in them.

Your Customers and Prospects

Taking a look at your customers and prospects is also a good idea. Where did they come from? Who is your core customer base? These are the people that buy everything you offer and are signing your praises to their circle of influence. They may also be repeat customers that come back to you over and over again.

What prospects are most likely to turn into paying customers? Are they people that were attracted by the freebie you offer to get them on your list, or are they people that found you via networking or the great blog posts you write?

You can find a lot of this information by looking at your customer database and by comparing prospect lists to customer lists. You can also learn a lot by talking to your customers and prospects. Start a conversation via a personal telephone call, email, on your site or in a Facebook group.

Your end goal is to pinpoint who your most profitable demographic is and then figure out how to put yourself in front of more of those people.

Your Traffic

It is time to dig into any stats that you have. How did they find you? Who refers them to you? What attracts them to you? If you are looking at website stats, what do they look at once they get to your site and what funnel do they go through until they become part of your most profitable customer group?

Tools like Google Analytics are your best friend here. Spend a weekend learning more about the different reporting you can set up, what you can track and how to read the numbers.

Once you know where your most profitable leads are coming from, put on your thinking cap and figure out how you can tap into more of those leads or something similar.

Keep tracking, tweaking and improving your bottom line. Make it a goal to get more profitable this month than you were last month and you’ll see your business and bank account grow in no time.

For tips on productivity, marketing, life balance, and more, join us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessCafeFSB

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Conquer Overwhelm and Get More Done

Debra Austin — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:30:28 +0000

How do you manage multiple tasks that are all important? There are only so many hours in the day, and so much that needs to get done. We often spend too much of the day on Task A, and then we don’t get anything done on Task B or Task C, not to mention routine daily stuff.

When you have many things to do each day, a great time management technique to employ is chunking.

Chunking involves taking each regular task and giving it its own “chunk,” or time block in which to work on it. This works great because it takes each task and treats them all equally, ensuring that each gets worked on.

Let’s say your daily to-do list looks like something this:

Social media time (answering questions, responding to comments, posting content, looking at your feed)
Work on a new product or service offering
Work on a project for a client
Think about the future direction of your business and do some general planning
Conduct market research to create a better customer profile

Each of these items is important. The client project and information product are big tasks that you should work on a bit each day. You might put the client work first, since it has a deadline and there are consequences if you don’t finish. But what if you get engrossed in it or realize there’s more to do than expected, and it eats up your social media and planning time?

Chunking helps you balance all your to-do’s by assigning each one a daily timeframe. It might look something like this:

Social media time – 30 minutes
New product or service offering – 1 hour
Client work – 1.5 hours
Planning your business – 30 minutes
Market research – 1 hour

With chunking, you can make steady progress on each task and nothing will slip through the cracks. Another huge benefit is that you don’t need to multitask. You can spend each chunk of time focused only on the designated activity.

Give this time management strategy a try with your to-do list and see if it works for you.

There is still time to join the free Busy to Productive 5-Day Challenge at https://chaos2resultscoaching.com/challenge-opt-in.

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7 Small Habits that Will Change Your Life

Debra Austin — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 17:25:30 +0000

It’s hard to imagine sometimes that small things can have such a deep impact. But if you’ve ever doubted the impact of tiny actions then think about how erosion created the Grand Canyon. Over time, something as small as sand, water, and rock have created one of the most awesome of nature’s miracles.

So too will small habits affect your life in such a way as to create lasting and significant change. Read on and find some habits you can start immediately implementing that will begin reshaping you into the person that you’ve always been meant to be.

Get up on time. Starting the day with multiple hits of the snooze alarm sets a bad tone for the rest of the day. You obviously set the alarm with the intention of rising at that hour – why are you breaking that promise to yourself? By getting up on time, you’re putting a positive start on the day. Shouldn’t you give yourself the best odds of a good day as possible?
Eat healthily at every meal. It’s hard to feel energized when you’re slogging along on a diet filled with fats and sugars. When you put more healthy choices onto your plate, you will feel better. Your mind will be sharper, and you’ll be better energized to get through the day. Start small. Add a salad to your meal. Or replace dessert with that piece of fruit instead.
Exercise. Before you get caught up on thinking you need a lot of fancy equipment or huge time investment to feel good, think again. Start small. Try taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator.

Read more. Dedicating a half hour of every day to your mind means that you’re constantly sharpening your saw and exposing yourself to new ideas. Pick books that inspire you or encourage you to think.
Realize you’re an ‘idea’ person. Make a goal of writing down a few ideas every day. Some researchers suggest ten but even one new idea a day means that you’ve got source material to draw from when you’re looking for something with which to challenge yourself.
Become more mindful. Meditate. Even starting small has the positive impact of reducing stress, lowering your heart rate, and bringing a mind that’s running in a million directions at once back on track.
Think about your day. When you finish the day, reflect on your accomplishments. Focus on the things you’re proud of, on the things that made you smile

None of these items should take very long – even 15 or 30 minutes a day on some of these is enough to create lasting change. What you’re going to find out very quickly is that by practicing these habits you’ll not only feel better, you’ll like the person that you’re becoming. That is building ‘you’ at your best. If a small change can do all that, then isn’t it time you got started?

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Working Through Stress and Uncertainty

Debra Austin — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 17:08:36 +0000

Are you struggling to focus on work with everything going on in the world right now? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Working through uncertain and stressful times isn’t easy. In fact, it can feel almost impossible when your mind is so taken up by fear and anxiety.

If you’re struggling right now, here are some tips to effectively work through stress and uncertainty.

Practice gratitude

Practicing gratitude can make a big difference on how you feel. Studies have shown that writing a list of the things you are grateful for, can drastically improve your mood.

Focusing on the things you’re grateful for, forces the brain to think more positively. You’ll finding yourself switching your focus from the bad things going on right now, to the good. For example, working from home may be challenging, but at least you’re safe and have a home to work from.

Establish a routine

If you are new to working at home, it can feel really strange. Your normal office routine is gone and you are not quite of how to navigate your working day. Creating a work-at-home routine will help to ease some of that uncertainty.

Wake up and start work at a set time. Make sure you schedule breaks throughout the day and have a set finish time too. Just this one routine can erase so much of the uncertainty you feel right now and help you feel more in control.

Utilize support that’s available

One of the good things about this uncertain time is that it is impacting everyone. This means there is a lot of support available out there.

Consider spending more time connecting with friends and family. You may also find it useful to share your concerns with others in online support forums.

If you’re struggling with your finances, or worried about how the current situation will play out, don’t hesitate to seek emotional support from a financial advisor or a trained therapist for example.

Focus on self-care

Focus on doing things that relax you each day, such as meditation, reading or listening to music. Exercising regularly is also a great way to deal with stress.

It’s hard not to stress and fear what might happen during a time like this. Practicing the tips above will help you to manage those feelings.

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Productivity – 7 Habits for Increasing Yours

Debra Austin — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 18:35:45 +0000

Many of us are overwhelmed with the number of things we need and want to get done each day. Creating just a few new habits can give you back some control over your time and help you get the important things done.

Here are 7 strategies for increasing your productivity everyday.

1. Get clear on what’s important to you. Having a to do list full of things that are not important to you or don’t support your values and goals can eat up a lot of your time and energy but not really give you a sense of accomplishment.

2. Start your day the night before. Take the time at the end of each day to think about the three most important things you want to accomplish the next day. Write them down.

3. Get a good night’s sleep. It is amazing how everything is really difficult when you are tired and how brilliant ideas just flow when you are rested.

4. Maximize your high and low energy times. Plan and complete the more brain intensive work during your high-energy time. Save the low energy tasks for when you start to drag.

5. Work in blocks of time. Instead of multitasking, focus on only one thing at a time. Fifteen to twenty minute time blocks tend to work well for most people. Believe it or not, you can get a lot done in that short amount of time. Brain studies show over and over that the quality and quantity of our work goes up when we don’t multi-task.

6. Stay focused throughout the day on your answers to #1 and #2 above. Start your day with your list from #2 and be sure to check in during the day to get them done. It is too easy to get sidetracked by busy work when you lose focus.

7. Reflect at the end of the day and learn. Take 5 minutes at the end of your day to think about what went well, what didn’t go so well and what you will do differently the next day to work around anything that may have prevented you from completing your important things for the day.

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Making Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

Debra Austin — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 20:23:30 +0000

The New Year is a great time for reflections and new beginnings. It can also be a frustrating time when the first quarter of the year is over and we realize we have given up on most, if not all of our resolutions. Try these tips to help you successfully make desired changes all year long – not just for the new year.

Here are 7 tips to help you make your New Year’s resolutions stick.

Make one change at a time. A long list of goals can quickly become overwhelming. Consider working on one goal that you really want each month or quarter so you can gradually include the changes in your life.
Write S.M.A.R.T goals. Research proves that written goals trump unwritten goals every time. Be sure that your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and have a time frame for beginning and ending.
Break your goals into measurable baby steps. What will you need to do each month, each week, each day to achieve your overall goal? Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you plan to achieve the goal by December 31 you can start on December 29.
Have an accountability partner. Find someone like a good friend or coach who won’t let you easily forget your goal or the work you will need to do to achieve it.

Set up negative consequences for not achieving your goal. Consider writing a postdated donation to an organization that you would never want to support. Have someone you trust promise to mail the check to the organization if you don’t achieve the goal.
Reflect on your progress each week. By reading your goals, and reflecting on how well you are (or are not) doing, you will stay focused and have a chance to develop strategies to overcome the obstacles that may have thrown you off course.
Don’t give up. If you get off track, jump back on as soon as possible. The best part of working on smaller goals and reflecting each week is that you will not get so far off track. Remember it is not over until you quit.

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