Category Archives: planning

Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Not all Cities are great for Small business

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Thanks to the 6 + inch snow outside I have some time to catch up on reading. Last week I found and saved a article written by Laurie Kulikowski called ā€œBest Cities for Small Businessesā€ and found that not every cities is created equally and supports small business owners especially women business owners.

Some of the few Cities mentioned in the article who are supportive of small business owners are San Antonio CA, Des Moines IA, Miami FL, Kansas City KS, and Atlanta GA.

Other cities have been very slow in reacting to the changing business field and have mainly been focusing to attract large employers and businesses to their market. Many cities are not willing to invest into their future by investing and updating their infrastructure to attacked small businesses into their town. For any small business to move into the areas they need the support.

Support from the local government is needed by providing the basic infrastructure for the business to attract qualified personal during work and play, with a well-connected transit system, over all great connectivity, parks and family friendly recreation areas.

Also the support from local already established businesses are needed as well.

Many cities and their businesses have many opportunities who are more male oriented and very seldom female. The attitude that ā€œshe ā€œis just doing this because ā€œsheā€ is a bored ā€œhousewifeā€ is still alive and well established throughout the country.

The attitudeā€™s is slowly changing and it has taken years to get to this point.

Sure we have National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) , American Business Women’s Association and the SBA (Small Business Administration) who is focused on women. Have you noticed that most of them have groups and meetings only in the larger cities of each state? You donā€™t hear much about them and you have to know they exist. Some cities offer networking evens for women but you have to be in the know or know someone who is in the know to find out about any meeting that is geared to women business owners or women who are interested in opening up their own business.

Meghan Casserly, with Forbes pointed out in her article called ā€œWhy Women’s Networking Groups Failā€ that when the network is balance of resources, information and good intentions to make a network not just functional, but beneficial to all members you have a good network. When one of the parts is missing you have just a great conversational group that meets for coffee.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Spring break but not for burglars

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Here we have another spring break. Suitcases are packed and the air is full of excitement and anticipation of the trip to the fun and the sun. Burglars are as exited for your to go on spring break only for a totally other reason.

Within the United States, one in every thirty-six homes will be burglarized with an average loss of $1,675 per break-in.

During all of the spring break excitement have you take some precautions to minimize the possible risk of being burglarized?

  • Hold the mail and newspaper
  • Put lights on timers and set timer to different times of the day
  • Leave the TV or radio on for noise
  • Make sure all the doors ,windows and garage doors are locked and secure
  • Have the blinds closed so no one can peek into the windows
  • When you have an alarm system make sure it is armed
  • Have your exterior light on light sensors
  • Ask someone you trust to take out your trash and pull back in your trash can for and after trash day
  • You might consider hiring a house sitter for a while
  • Do you have a written inventory of your household items, including all of the serial numbers of your electronic items? Just in caseā€¦..

Is this a guarantee to 100% prevent a burglary. No ā€¦but we can make sure we have done everything we can on our end to make sure that no one knows you left the home and it is unattended.

commitment, Communication, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

Planning for the next stage

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Just had an interesting article called ā€œWhen I Hire You, Iā€™m Hiring Your Mentorsā€™ Judgmentā€ written by Adam Bryant and he interviewed Ilene Gordon, CEO of Ingredion for this article come over my desk and it hit home.

Standing at the crossroads I can see that I have to tackle what I do with a team and see it as a project and count on that Plan A might fall through and Plan B, C or D needs to be in place and to have someone I could lean on and consult with when the Plans are falling apart.

Needless to say I donā€™t have my team in place and that is the first thing I need to get back into place. A team I can consult with and who knows me better than I do. What I already have is a potential target list of companies I am considering to contact to work with as an independent contractor.

I can see now that I have put the cart in front of the horses. I need to get my horses into place first.

That hard part will beā€¦.who to ask and where to startā€¦.

Looking in my tickle file of articles I have kept over the years I came across and article written by John Warrillow titled ā€œHow to Pick a Mentor: Take a Cue From Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidtā€ that gave me some great tips.

Here comes the challenge to find the individuals who do or have done successfully what I would like to do in the future.

education, Inspiration, planning, Team work

Standing at the crossroads

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This year has been already a roller coaster ride of ups, downs and sideways movements and again I am standing in a fork of a road.

I am actually very excited while looking at the fork in the road that has been presented to me this time. The hardest decision will be what road to take. Any of the roads I will take will be just fine and that is the exiting part.

At this time I actually feel like a kid in the candy store.

Overwhelmed by all of the goodies that are presented to me and having mom in the background urging you to make a decision. This time that mom voice in the back has been silenced and time for a decision has time and will come later.

Anyone who was standing at the fork in the road knows what I mean with the mom voice in the back.

There comes a time where it is ok to listen to and do what the mom voice tells you to do. Sometimes there are times where the voice has to be silenced and you have to reach deep to discover your own voice and passion, compare of doing what you think feels right or everybody expects you to do.

commitment, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Think outside the box

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How many times do I hear individuals voicing their concern about not being able to ā€œget anywhereā€ either in their personal or business life?

In this fast pace world we are in it sometimes feels like that we are taking two steps forward and three steps back.

Most of us never take the time to celebrate or see the small successes we had. In some cases some of us just donā€™t see the tree from the forest and maybe overlooking some of the small or large opportunities that are presented to us. Ā There are also some who have been given the ā€œbig opportunityā€ and the mindset has set in that there are set for ā€œlifeā€ and donā€™t have to look outside the box any longer for new opportunities.

Zig Ziglar has a great quote: A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.

Now other will tell meā€¦.but the economy is bad, the area we are in strugglesā€¦..let me throw another one of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes out to you.

I’ve always taught that a poor economy is the best opportunity for salespeople because the naysayers and grumblers have already given up, leaving more territory, more opportunities to be successful than in a good economy when virtually all salespeople are out there, giving it their best.

Now how to we get past the brain freeze and start again thinking outside the box?

Let me throw two more Zig Ziglar quotes at you:

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning

Transition

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Watching a historical moment unfold, for the Catholic Church, today on TV! I was thinking back on the day of his election and placement as head of the Catholic Church 8 years ago and I am amazed on how peaceful any transition has been over the centuries.

My first thought moved to the small word: Transition

We could learn a great string from the transitions in the past. Many of the heads of states or Companies transitions are not as piece full and fluent.

We in our personal and business life have many transitions we face on a regular basis.Ā  Some of the obvious once are birth, graduation, marriage, death, divorce, job change just to name a few obvious once.

How well do we deal with any transition is all up to us, our personal preparation and attitude we bring to the table.Ā  Any transition is emotional no matter how good we prepare and it is ok to have emotions.

My favorite saying is: ā€œWe are humans and not robots.ā€

I ran across a great article from the CharmingHealth.com called the ā€œTransition Phases During Life and emotional imbalanceā€ where I found some great Ideas and tips on how to deal with lifeā€™s transitions we all have to face.

Now you are asking what this would have to do with our business life.

I am thinking a lot.

When we are not prepared ourselves to deal with the lifeā€™s little emotions that might come our way how can we help our contractors we hired or employees we have with their emotional crutches they keep.

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning

Are you ready to hit your personal reset button?

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Within the recent years many of us have taken the road many traveled. Some would call it we failed and others would say we just took a detour to the goals we would like to reach.

Denis Waitley said it best:

ā€œFailure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.ā€ Ā Denis Waitley (American motivational Speaker and Author of self-help books. b.1933)

I took my personal detour and had decided to hit my personal reset button and take my personal detour. During my scenic travels I have learned a lot what I now can utilize in my daily Real Estate business.

The Real Estate market is starting to return to a new ā€œnormalā€ and is ready for the buyers who have hit their personal reset button a while back and now are ready to buy for their personal investments. This market is best for the investor who is a cash buyer at this time. Who has either has personal experience in rehabbing properties or has the cash flow to hire a contractor to help with the rehab.

Sure, currently the interest rate for a mortgage is low right, but why are you wanting your investment to pay someone else but you? I mentioned this in my blog called ā€œAre your investments paying you or do your pay for them?ā€

There will be always good deals in real estate even later, when you are not at the point to pay cash for any investment you would like to buy today.

Here are some Ideas on how to get you to the point to pay cash for a real estate investment:

  1. Pay off your credit cards, house and toys.
  2. Save for your emergency fund and when you have kids start their college fund if needed
  3. Start saving for your investments plus keep the repairs and upkeep and other expenses like taxes insurance in mind when creating the fund.

Will you have your bills paid and your funds in place over night? No!!! This will take time and a bit of personal sacrifices.

commitment, Communication, education, organizing, planning

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

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Had a moment the other morning to watch the news and low and behold they had a flash mob wedding because it was Valentines. In short for the once who donā€™t know what the flash mob wedding is. The wedding is about an hour after the proposal.

Immediately my thoughts when to how prepared would I be when I would have the unexpected sprung on me.

My mind wondered over to the subject personal or business property or information loss.

Sure I carry insurance for both personal and business and I have all of the information backed-up triple times to prevent information loss but what else do I have missing? Do I truly know what I own and what items I have in my house?

Is the emergency plan for personal and businesses good enough or did I miss some important information? Do I have this information stored in a secure place and who will have access?

Thinking about all of this could drive you crazy.

This reminds me about the ā€œAre you ready for a disaster?ā€ Blog post and I am not sure if I truly took my own advice. I maybe should take the advice of Cindy Hartman with Hartman Inventory, LLC she posted in her ā€Be prepared for the next cat!ā€™ Blog or from FEMA as they have outlined in their ā€œAre you ready?ā€ guide.

Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she’s going to come around and whack you. You’ve got to be prepared. ā€œGeraldo Riveraā€

commitment, Communication, Inspiration, organizing, planning, tips

Too much information

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Have you ever attended meetings, seminars, webinars where the presenter just kept on talking and talking and talking about the same topic but tried to explain it in different ways over and over again?

Just recently I was in such meeting.

A question was asked and it could have been answered with a short, sweet and to the point but the presenter choose to user up to 10 minutes to answer this simple question. I am sure the presenter felt great about being able to fill the room with all the information he knew about the topic but I am sure that most of the room was lost after 2 minutes.

I need to admit I am the last person to give meeting advice but even I was off to another dimension to occupy my time and to wait out the long winded present to move to the next topic.

Lighthouse Consulting had a great article on how to keep a meeting on track called Six Tips for Holding Successful Meetings with Staff Members. I think this could easily be translated into any type of meeting. I also found a great meeting article from the Norwood Business Portal called Tips on Holding Online Meetings.

No matter if you have a face to face meeting or a online webinar you need to keep your audience engaged and interested and some questions just need to be answered in person or with a personal phone call.

Donā€™t be long winded with any topic or when answering a question.

Andrew Jackson said it best:

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. – Andrew Jackson –

buying, education, planning, tips

Are your investments paying you or do you pay for them?

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I have many investment properties coming over my desk where the investor has gotten themselves into trouble. Many times when I speak with the investor I find out that they blame their property troubles on tenants who donā€™t pay the rent or the constant upkeep of the buildings.

When looking at their financing situation I can see that 100% of their investments have been bought, while times where good, and secured with some type of 100% financing. Ā Nothing out of pocketā€¦.

They truly donā€™t own their investment 100%, they still own the right to make the payment to an investor who gave them the money to invest into their investment!

So who is the true investor?

The one who signed the paperwork to buy the investment or the one who gave the money that is secured by a property and who might not lose much when foreclosing on the other guyā€™s investment?