Niching My Business to Success

Check out this month’s episode where I share with you how I was able to double my business by just implementing one thing. 

Diary of an Entrepreneur Episode 2 from Angee Robertson on Vimeo.

Every week I receive my Google Analytics report with the stats of my website traffic. There is a section in my report on traffic sources, meaning how people came to the site whether through a  link from someone else’s site or a Google search or just typing in my URL directly.

I noticed a referral source that I had not seen before. I followed the link to a wonderful blog, Be Inspired to Live (http://inspiretoempower.blogspot.com/) and imagine my surprise when scrolling down her blog that she has Sheic Space listed as one of her favorite links!!

I was so excited and humbled that someone is reading my blog. I have always said that if I touch at least one person, I know I am doing the right thing and what I am meant to be doing. Well I know I have touched at least one of you out there!

Thanks Sheya for the support and listing Sheic Space on your site.

As I continue my search for redefining my business, it is becoming clear that I want to empower women to give themselves permission to honor their self-expression especially when it comes to entrepreneurship. I love inspiring women and encouraging them to take that leap in to becoming an entrepreneur. To honor this passion I am discovering, I thought I would share with you my journey along the way with some videos called, “Diary of an Entrepreneur”. You can see the first episode below. I will be including a new episode every month.

Diary of an Entrepreneur: Taking the Entrepreneurial Plunge from Angee Robertson on Vimeo.

Really is May almost over and I haven’t written on my blog! It has been a very interesting month so far. I’m going through Ali Brown’s Millionaire Protege Club. It’s a year long program and it’s designed to help you build your business through masterminding, training and retreats.

There’s times where I think I’m right on track and I’m plugging along and then there are times where I have to stop dead in my tracks and evaluate things and think, “Oh, my God, I feel like I’m starting all over again.”

I have a business – a very successful business, and I work one-on-one with clients. When you’re working one-on-one with clients you can only have so many clients. Part of the reason I joined this program was so that I would start to build products, services and programs that would reach a broader audience. In doing that, of course, you have to let some things go whether you want to or not so, the last couple of weeks have been about letting things go.

It’s been quite scary and I have to say that moving from a place where I’ve been comfortable into something that I’m not familiar with has been a little challenging. I’ve been successful in my current business model for eight years it’s just worked very well for me.

Going through this transition has brought up a lot of issues that I’ve had to deal with and moving into that place of being uncomfortable and not doing the familiar – just getting past that has been the hardest part – creating the programs and the products and things – that’s easy. It’s the whole moving into that space that’s been the challenge.

Before when I tried to make this sort of shift, I made the commitment but the old patterns and habits of what I’m comfortable with would come to play and I would fall back into that trap and just go back to that with which I am comfortable.

This time, I’ve made the commitment and when those things pop up that are comfortable, I say no to them. Now I’m starting to find that some of the comfort’s being pulled out from under me and it’s a little scary at times. I know it’s all going to work out and I know I have to make that space to move into these things.

I just thought I’d share that with you in case somebody’s going through this same challenge. I hope this comforts you in knowing that there’s somebody else out there going through it as well because I certainly am and it’s been quite a journey. I can see the bigger picture and I know some greater things are coming. It means just going through it and pressing through to the other side.

The other morning, I opened up my email system and had four emails from a client and every single one of them was marked “Urgent!” I looked at the time stamp, and they had all come in late at night (around 11:50 PM). My initial fear was that there was a death in the family or she was extremely sick and in the hospital, all kinds of terrible things were crossing my mind.

So I opened the first email. Can you guess what it was?

She had some changes to a project we were doing for her. At 11:50 PM, she wanted a simple change done to her website…right away. Now, I know I work some late hours as a entrepreneur, but I do NOT check email at midnight.

Well, I checked the other 3 emails, and they were all in the same vein. A word added here, a change made there, nothing that really couldn’t wait. They were all just things that she had thought of, and she decided to email them to me right then and there.

No one had died, no one was in the hospital, and she wasn’t deathly ill at home stuck in bed. And most importantly, none of them would adversely affect her business if they didn’t get done at 11:50 PM. And yet, they were all marked “Urgent!”

So, this begs the question, what really is “Urgent!” I’m sure to a entrepreneur whose income depends on their business; every little thing is “Urgent!” And to an extent, when I’m working on my own business, I sometimes have moments of “Urgent!” feelings.

But what does “Urgent!” really mean?

For me, when I think of “Urgent!” I think of life or death, and I measure my urgencies by that standard. For example, if my newsletter doesn’t go out by my promised date, is someone going to die, be severely injured, or be really put out to the point of tears? Probably not, as most of you don’t even know that I send them out the same time each month and probably wouldn’t miss it if I skipped a month. So to me, that is not “Urgent!” In the same vein, a link on a website that will in no way increase sales or traffic is not really “Urgent!”

Now I’m not saying to abandon commitments. But there has to come a point in life where the “Urgency!” stops. If it doesn’t, one, you’re going to run yourself into the ground, and two, you’re going to become known as the “Client who cries ‘Urgent!’” And neither is a positive.

So how do we want to qualify an issue that really is “Urgent!”?

An “Urgent!” item is one that will adversely affect your business if it’s not taken care of immediately. Truly “Urgent!” items are usually caused when an entrepreneur falls into “crisis mode” or “I’ve gotten so far behind I don’t know what to do next.”

Sound familiar? Don’t worry, it does to me too. But there are things we can do to avoid both crisis mode and “Urgent!” items.

First, when you have something that you think is really “Urgent!” ask yourself: “If this does NOT get handled right now, what will happen to my business?” If the answer is “Not Much,” then it’s probably not “Urgent!”

If a simple website change is something you consider to be “Urgent!” then you may already be in crisis mode, and you’re stressed to the max. Meaning, you’re running around so much working IN your business that you have no time to work ON your business. You can’t see the forest for the trees and you need to take some time to get organized.

So how do I start?

1.      Check in with yourself and find out when you are the most alert and productive.  Are you a morning person or an afternoon person? That’s a really important fact to know. If you’re not a morning person (one that doesn’t wake up until noon), you certainly don’t want to schedule an interview with your most important client at 7:00 AM.

2.      Once you’ve figured out what your best time of day is for productivity, it’s time to figure out what you need to do. Scheduling is something that affects your business, so it should be put on your calendar. Set aside about 10-15 minutes at the end of your day to schedule the next day’s work. Start with projects that you’re working on; include phone calls you need to make, appointments that you’ve scheduled or other types of commitments and don’t forget to add items that you didn’t get finished today. You may even want to schedule in time to check your voice mail and email.

3.      Once you’ve got your list, prioritize. Remember, those items that directly affect your business or income are the most important, so rate them higher than simple items (like adding a link to a webpage). When you’ve got everything prioritized, you’re ready to add them to your calendar. Take your most important items and add them to your most productive time of day, and then work your way down the list. Don’t be afraid to schedule yourself planning time. You are your most important client. And don’t over-schedule your day. Only schedule about 75% of your day, so you have some available time in case an emergency pops up.

Most importantly, don’t forget to schedule yourself some personal time in between appointments to eat lunch, take a break, and go to the bathroom. Don’t feel guilty for taking care of you.

Having a comprehensive, yet flexible, schedule will greatly reduce your stress load, and it will give you the time you need to get the items accomplished that really need your attention. It will also cut down on the things that seem “Urgent!”