A Few Of My Favorite Time Management Tips

Money will buy you a lot of things but time isn’t one of them. We are all given the same 24 hrs a day and for some, it is a struggle to get all of the items on our To Do lists done.

I love sharing time management and organizational tips so I thought my 1st official post here would be one where I share my personal favorite time management tips with you all.

The 1st thing I suggest is to be mindful of your own body. Are you a morning, afternoon or night person? Try to schedule your most time consuming tasks when you have the most energy.

1. Meal Planning: Try planning 1 or perhaps 2 weeks worth of meals at a time and write them down on a calendar. This is such a wonderful way to organize/save time and money! See, you can do your shopping according to your meal plan and you can and prepare tomorrows dinner today. You will be AMAZED at what a time saver this is and just walking into the kitchen knowing you don’t have to worry about what to cook is a stress reliever. Just imagine creating an easy meal plan and knowing what you are going to be serving up for dinner each night of the week? You will save time, money and your sanity. You can check out my Meal Planning article for more infomation.

2. To-Do Lists: I know, I know… most people hate them but they actually do work. No 1 ‘To-Do’ list will fit all so try to find your own style when it comes to your to do lists. You can use an electronic planner or a paper planner. The key is to just take a few moments out of your day (either in the morning or in the evening) to make a list for that day or the following day. Be sure to only put down the items that you MUST finish on this list. Too many times we fill our lists with things that don’t have to be completed that day and we can overwhelm ourselves simply by looking at the list. Create a list that is feasible and check your items off of the list as they are completed.

3. Delegate: (This is one of my favorite tips) Do you have friends, a significant other, children, a neighbor..etc that can pitch in and do a few things for you? If so, be sure to use all of your resources. To many times Moms put on the Superwoman Cape and try to do it all. Remember you are human and there are only so many things you can do in one given day.

4. Avoid That Morning Rush: Have you ever noticed that when you have a smooth starting morning that the rest of the day seems to go smoothly as well. Take time out in the evenings to prepare for the next day. Lay out your children’s clothes, prepare lunches and also plan for your breakfast the night before. You will find that your mornings will almost run on autopilot. Also if you are a morning person, why not get up just 15 minutes earlier than normal and get some time in for yourself :)

5. Just say “NO”!: (another one of my favorites)  Such a small word that carries a mighty punch! If you truly can’t fit something into your schedule and it is not urgent, just say No!. Keep a list of non-urgent things that you can do on hand for when you do have some down time. Piling things onto your already busy schedule will surely lead to disaster. If you are a bit shy about using the big word “NO” - try one of these alternatives: “Sorry, my schedule is full” or “I have another commitment that day”.

There you have it, just a few of my very favorite time management tips or as I like to call them “Sanity Savers”. Don’t be shy – feel free to comment, ask your questions hey, why not share your own time management tips or troubles. I am here to assist you in any way that I can

Aurelia :)

Easy Copywriting Formula

I recently sent this to one of my coaching clients and think you’ll find it helpful too.  By the way, I learned this from Maria Veloso over at Web Copywriting University (she’s an awesome copywriter).

Here goes,  your Easy Copywriting Formula:

First, don’t panic, it’s easier than you think, honestly.  Picture your target customers…. How old is she, what does she look like?  When you start writing imagine that you are writing a letter to a close friend, which happens to be your target customer.  

Then take the following questions, and simply answer them.  Again, don’t worry about the wording flow or how it reads, just answer the questions.  Once you’re finished answering the questions, leave it for a few hours then go back to it and add emotion, make it flow nicely, etc.  

1.  What is the problem?   

Write about the customer’s problem.  What issues has he faced before?  How does it make him feel?  

2. Why hasn’t this problem been solved? 

Write the reason why the problem has gone on and on without being solved.  Say you’re targeting parents that want to potty train their child but haven’t been successful – why is that?  Perhaps because there’s a lot of conflicting potty training information out there… maybe the methods mentioned are too general without taking the individual child into account? 

3. What are the possibilities? 

In this area write how your clients life could change if this problem was resolved.  How would their life be different?  What are the benefits to resolving their problem? 

4.  What’s different now? 

This is usually where you introduce yourself and tell the reader what’s different now and how you can help them. Why is your solution different to others?  What benefits will it bring them?  And more importantly how will it solve their problems (stated in 1 & 2). 

5. What should they do now? 

Close it.  Tell them exactly what you need them to do.  Be clear and precise, perhaps add a little sense of urgency.  Try not to add too much hype but be confident in your offer and do mention how great it is.I hope this makes your writing process a little easier. 

Usually the most difficult part is getting started and this gives you a great starting point.  Once you’ve answered these questions, filling in the gaps and adding emotion and personality doesn’t seem like such a big task. Enjoy! 

Hi - Its an honor to be here

Hi there everyone! I am so excited that Mila asked me to be a part of this Expert Blog and I feel honored to be here.

My name is Aurelia Williams and as a busy mother of three who works outside of the home as well as at home part time, I’ve learned and applied many valuable tips to ensure that my life is well balanced and organized.

I’ve always had a desire to help women live a more balanced life and in my quest to do just that, I attended and graduated from Coach Training Alliance and received my Certification in Personal Life Coaching in 2005. I spent a year at WAHMTalk Radio as the ‘Real Life Coach’ where I gave weekly organizational, tips to WAHMs and I have also successfully coached many women in area’s of organization, life balance, time management and self esteem via telephone, e-mail and by the use of teleseminars.

I look forward to interacting with you, sharing valuable tips with you and getting to know you better.
Don’t be shy - feel free to jump in, ask your questions, post your thoughts and share!

From The Mailbag: phpBB Thank You Page

We have another great question from Mel this week. Keep sending them in ladies.

When someone registers for an account on a php bulletin board, they are taken to a new page that says the account has been created (or some such wording). How do I find and edit that page or is it even possible? Thanks!

It depends on what you want to edit. If it’s just the wording and adding a link or an image that’s easier than if you want to make major changes like adding a table etc.

To edit just the message, open up /language/lang_english/lang_main.php, look for the line that says $lang['Account_added']. There is a group of similar language there too and it really depends how you set up the forum. If you have set it up where they must confirm registration you find the line $lang['Account_inactive']. There are all in the same block anyhow once you find one you’ll find the others.

Greetings Internet Based Moms!

My name is Sarah Robinson and I have coached leaders in the direct selling industry since 2004. I am excited to get to know all of you and thought I would share a story about myself to help you get to know me!

Here it goes:

In 2001, I did something that shocked even me. I quit my dream job-twice .

I was hired to turn an organization around. That’s what I was known for – creating positive change. In college I st arted organizations that created significant, positive change. In my personal and professional life, I st arted programs, organizations and non profits that created significant, positive change. And now here I was at the pinnacle of my career – increasing organizational revenues 200% and creating a luminous community reputation out of one that was riddled with negativity. We became one of the top organizations people chose to support. I was so proud.

BUT, I had a boss I simply could not please. Not matter what success I brought to the table, she told me about what I wasn’t doing. No support, no recognition-just negativity. I became over-whelmed and exhausted. Oh-and my personal life began to suffer as well. No one wanted to be around me and honestly I had nothing positive to offer. Finally I decided that the he art and energy I was pouring into my “dream job” wasn’t worth the price I was paying. So, I quit. Then I was promised that it would be different-I would get what I needed. Well that lasted about 2 days, so I quit again, this time for good.

I was instantly griped by uncertainty. How had I gotten here? What was I supposed to do now that I no longer had my dream job? When the perfect job wound up making me miserable, where did that leave me? Then it dawned on me – I needed to apply all of my entrepreneurial “agent of change” skills to my very own life. So, I took that extraordinary journey and developed a way of working and living that gives me both the income I need and the lasting fulfillment I crave.

My fellow entrepreneurs noticed what I had and asked me to coach them to do the same. So, I systematized the choices, steps and actions I had taken and began to teach this system to others.

Then something unexpected happened. Leaders in the Direct Selling industry began to seek me out. Not because I was an “on-fire” motivational speaker – there are plenty of those. But because I could teach them practical business and life management strategies that gave them not only more money, but more time and more freedom to enjoy their lives – lives they passionately loved.

And so Profit, Purpose and Beyond was born. Using my eight-step process as the cornerstone, I have designed Profit Purpose and Beyond to give Direct Selling leaders the knowledge, skills and tools to be strong authentic leaders, to build a powerful personal business, to develop optimum business operations that practically run on their own and the power to live their he artfelt dreams.

Being a part of Internet Based Moms is such an honor. You are an amazing bunch of women. I can’t wait to jump in and share in any way that will be helpful.

Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

In light of what I shared last week about online customers shopping around - it is even more critical that you stand out from your competition.

Whether you improve the way you list your items, find a better product to sell, or learn to use the traffic eBay generates to grow other businesses - there is always room for improvement. As a seller, it is very important to be watching for ways to grow and improve - otherwise, you just might be leaving money on the table for your competitors to grab.

A little over a year ago I put together a package for eBay sellers that included a detailed auction critique for their listings – this was a great exercise for me because it proved something that I had a hunch about for a long time.

I have spent a solid 5-6 hours a week for the last 3+ years researching on eBay…. As I have looked at listing after listing – it didn’t take long to notice important trends. See, successful listings seem to share a quality…. And the not so hot auctions seem to have commonalities as well.

I’ve taken note of what I’ve seen work time and time again – as well as what doesn’t work… and when I started critiquing auctions for my readers, it came together even more. Even though these reviews were critiquing a specific listing by a specific seller – I noticed that I was making the same suggestions for improvement over and over. I realized that many sellers aren’t aware of the common mistakes they are making with their listings and they are leaving money on the table. No more! I’ve spent the last year putting together a packet that is designed to teach you how to reclaim this money.

The Auction Overhaul is a package that is like a ‘do-it-yourself’ auction critique. It provides tools and resources that are hands on to help you take your auction profits up a notch.

This comprehensive package includes:

• Auction Overhaul Workbook with worksheets to help apply what you are learning
• Report: 10 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Listing Your Item
• Report: 1079 Words That Sell Like Crazy
• Report: Description Phrase Helper
• Training Videos: Learn how to use these popular photo editing software programs to edit your ebay pictures quickly
• Product Description Pack – an entire package of reports and audios by Melissa Ingold to help write compelling descriptions that encourage your visitors to bid and buy

I truly believe in over-delivering to my readers… and have decided that even though this package is valued at over $125 – I’m offering it at $67.

Click here to start reclaiming that money on the table today!
www.auctionoverhaul.com/buynow.htm

If you want to learn more, visit www.auctionoverhaul.com

Google Street View: For the Spy in You

Check out this headline from the front page of the Houston Chronicle: “Houston joins Google’s Street View”.

I just love Google. They really get how important the internet is to consumers and local business, and have always led the field in creating tools and resources aimed at helping to put the two together.

So of course I was delighted to read that Houston had been added to the Street View lineup and immediately went out for a stroll around town. Since we live in the suburbs and I work at home, this is something that I probably otherwise wouldn’t do. At least not today.

In case you’re not familiar with Street View, it’s a feature of Google Maps that displays pictures of city streets taken by Google’s car-mounted camera over the past year.

It usually focuses on the downtown area and major streets of a given city. So far it’s only US cities, but I have no doubt it will expand. Visit http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html for a quick video tour.

I fired up Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/ and clicked on the “Street View” tab and see that Street View is available in 9 U.S. cities to date: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Orlando and New York, Houston, Denver, and Miami.

I clicked on the little camera icon for Houston, clicked on the “zoom in” link, and there I was, a little gold stick figure icon standing in the middle of downtown Houston.

It takes a bit of practice to get used to moving around. It helps to look at the video first, as it shows you how to actually “walk” down the street. Of course, I rarely read the directions so I dove in and learned the hard way how to steer my little gold man around town.

At first I thought it was going to be like A9.com, the now defunct Amazon search engine that at one time offered something similar called “Block View”, which sort of graphically represented a neighborhood and you could “see” what businesses were nearby, sometimes with actual photos of businesses.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I know where something is located only in relation to another business. That little consignment shop right down the street from Kroger. The beauty supply place across from the post office. And so on.

So anyway, I roamed around downtown Houston for awhile, then decided to venture out to NASA’s Johnson Space Center where I used to work many years ago and haven’t been back since. It was so cool to zip down El Camino Real, passing intersections as I went. You really feel like you’re in a car! Once I got used to it, I decided it was better than A9’s Block View.

Of course, something like this automatically raises privacy concerns. If you happened to be walking down the street in any of those cities when the Google cam went by, your image could very well be in the Street View archives.

Reportedly there have been pictures of students sunbathing in bikinis, somebody’s car in a driveway, a cat in a window (one blog post said “Dang, it’s so detailed, I can even see he’s a tabby!”).

Of course Google is sensitive to the issue and will remove objectionable or sensitive images if the person is recognizable and asks for the photo be to taken down. To give you an idea of what kind of photos you can find, check out The Top 15 Google Street View Sightings.

Also this blog post gives links to many more: Boing Boing

Ok, your turn. Check out Google Street View and post any cool pics that you find!

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

Starter Manual for Podcasting

I picked this comment up from my last post:

Hey, Kelly,  Any good “starter manuals” for getting a podcast up and running. They would be great for my business, but I’m terrified to get going. I’m totally out of my realm with this.  - Darlene, http://www.mom-defrazzler.com

Darlene, I know podcasting might seem really high tech and difficult from the outside, but I promise you it’s not really all that difficult.  Depending on your chosen format and your personal preferences you may be able to totally DIY - or you can outsource production easily.

As far a good starter manual - girlfriend you have to go sign up for my ezine at Shoestring Radio.  You’ll get my Shoestring Radio Lite - the light treatment version of the paid audio course.  After reading it, you’ll know whether you will want to go ahead and pick up the full version.

I’m getting ready to hold another session of my Podcasting Intensive too - this is a group coaching experience that lasts six weeks. I take my students step by step through the process of planning and producing a new podcast.    I think this would be a great choice for anyone who really wants to DIY but wants to make sure they don’t miss anything important.

And Darlene - you should be podcasting!  It is definitely the next step for your business!

Customers More Comfortable With Online Purchasing… BUT

they are taking longer to buy!

I was reading last week about how customers are getting more comfortable buying online - but this might not be so good for sellers. See, as customers get more comfortable with how shopping online works, they get more comfortable with shopping around. The competition out there is fierce - and if the customer is shopping around… well, that is even more of a reason to be sure our listings are all they can be!

I’ll be posting more about this next week - but, I’m just about to release a new product package that helps improve auction listings… stay tuned - because whether you have been selling on eBay for a long time… or just looking to get into it, this comprehensive package can help you take your listings up a notch.

Your Turn…
What are you doing to keep your customers from shopping around and buy from YOU?

How to Deal with Angry Customers

Following my last post we all agreed how important it was to have happy customers in order to receive referrals and grow our business. So what do you do when you have an angry customer on the phone screaming at you and demanding a refund?

The first thing you need to understand is that the customer wants to feel that they gotten good service and secondly, they don’t want to feel that they aren’t getting their money’s worth. So when they start to complain, be a good listener and let them get it all out. Don’t take what they say personally and really listen to what they have to say.

In answering them, be soft, a soft answer calms their anger. That does’t mean that you still can’t keep your boundaries up while still being soft. If someone is irate and starts to use profanity, you can still say, “Excuse me, please don’t talk to me that way. I’m listening to what you have to say but you have no right to speak to me like that.” If you’ve done all you can to give them the best service you can and they hang up on you, call them back and see if you are able to talk to them. If you can’t get a hold of them be sure to leave a very polite voice message still offering to work with them to fix their problem. Remember, hold your ground but be nice and don’t ever retaliate in any way.

Often times when I’ve had a customer surprisingly angry over something minor, I stayed on the phone with them and continued to talk to them in a soft way. In many cases, it’s not just the small things that they were dissatisfied with, but there were usually other things going on in their life they were upset about and that exacerbates the situation. Nine out of ten times they, the client (without realizing it) will have the tendency to take out their frustrations on the service industry. That is why listening, really listening and understanding your clients is so critical. Once you’ve let them vent, you need to figure out a solution to their dissatisfaction. Offer to fix whatever they are unhappy with for free. It’s their choice whether they let you come back or not. You don’t necessarily have to give a refund.

In our next blog we will discuss how contrary to popular opinion, the customer is not always right. Dealing with unhappy customers is one of the most difficult aspects of running a service industry business. If you have any questions or experiences you would like to talk about don’t hesitate to email me.

That’s all for now, be sure to go and do something good for yourself!

Elaine

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