Tracey D’Aviero, Virtual Assistant

In a recent conversation with my business coaches, I was talking about the fact that I keep my clients’ needs at the top of my list. I have regular calls and emails with them, I ensure that we have a list of things that we are working on each week, and I let them know what’s going on all the time as we navigate their Internet marketing and social media needs.

This sounds good, but I was, in fact, lamenting that although I do all of these things for my clients, I do not do pay enough attention to them for my own business.  Do you know what they said?

Stop Putting Yourself At The Bottom Of Your List!

They were right. The fact is that I constantly tell my clients how important it is to keep their service offerings current, their clients and their ‘tribe’ informed and in touch, and their networking contacts fresh. I tell them these things because they are TRUE! But I always let this area of my own business lapse. I focus on it for a while and then I get too busy and let it go again. Instead of keeping on top of it, I am always playing catch up.

I have decided that it’s time to take my own advice, and so as you know I am building my very first team of subcontractors, after working alone for about 13 years. I have decided that my business is just as important as my clients’ businesses. We are not apples and oranges (now you get it!). We all deserve the same attention.

The fact is, my client load right now is full. I have a waiting list for work in June and July. So really the attention needs to turn to my own business in order for me to be able to grow, and for me to be able to grow with my clients too!

Look for an exciting announcement from me early next week about a new program I am launching. It’s going to be great, and finally I am looking after my own business the way it deserves! (and thanks to my wonderful team members, it will get the TLC that I show my clients!)

Along with schedule adjustments and down-time to read, it is also time to renovate the office. Now that I am working from home full-time again, I am no longer running in and out of my office, dropping things where they may fall. Now is the time to clean the environment around me so that I can focus only on my work when I enter my office each morning.

I have already shopped for a new office chair, which I have needed for way too long. I have already set up my music selection which I love!

I have a great filing system for my email, computer files and paper files, but I am looking forward to purging, purging, purging much of this that is no longer necessary to keep on file. I’ll give my recycle bin and my shredder a workout, that’s for sure!

I will clear the clutter that has accumulated in my office. I have two desks in my office and one of them is a catch-all for all kinds of paper. I clean it off occasionally, but now I will want to work at that desk, so I will have to make sure that I have a better way of managing the stuff that ends up there now!

Of course as I purge, I am finding all kinds of gems that I have printed or saved over the last several months ‘to read when I have time’.  The collection of free ebooks and reports and mp3s is really mind-boggling. Luckily my computer filing system is good and I am having no trouble going through them, picking out the important pieces, and purging the rest. I will probably share some of these with you as I weed through them!

I always thought that electronic copies of things were more environmentally friendly, but my computer hard drive disagrees! I have recently done the same with email lists that I belonged to that were not serving me. It’s important to keep the flow of information that comes in front of you relevant and pertinent, in order to maintain your focus and clarity.

As I brighten the space around me by clearing the clutter in all of these areas, I am making really tidy room for the client work that is on the horizon! Looking forward to it!

You know what they say about the best laid plans … even the most carefully planned projects can throw you a wrench when you least expect it.

Picture this: it’s Monday and you set up your task list for the week. Looks good, you have fit everything in and you know you can deliver it all on time.  But what happens if something goes wrong? Do you have a ‘plan b’ in place so that you can still manage when something goes wrong?

Say on Tuesday one or more of the following situations comes up and threatens to mess up your tidy task list.

• you get sick or injured
• your child or a family members gets ill and requires your care
• a great client calls with a last minute project that they need you to find time for
• you have technical difficulty with a task that you only allowed a set amount of time to do
• you lose your internet connection for a prolonged period of time
• you get more than one referral or prospects call needing proposals

Do you have a backup plan?

If you haven’t thought about what you would do in any of these situations, now is the time to do so! By the time you need to have a contingency plan in place, it will be too late. The time to get your plan in place is when you don’t need it!

Your contingency plan doesn’t have to be complicated – just put together the basics when you have time:

• find someone (or more than one someone!)  who can help you out when you need it
• put together procedures for the tasks you take care of on a daily basis
• set up an intake process for new clients
• develop a project management protocol

Don’t wait until it’s too late!

As a solopreneur,you can sometimes go from 0-60 in no time flat. Make sure you are prepared for that before it happens by going through the steps above and developing your contingency plan.