It’s about the DECISION to go in any one direction first.  Once you have your decisions made, you have your steps laid out in front of you in numerous articles and books.  So today, let’s talk about what’s holding you back and how to get out of your own way so you can MAKE A DECISION.

1. Problem related to AUDIENCE AND MESSAGE: You don’t know what to say, you are talking to too many people at the same time, no one is hearing you.

Solution: Talk to ONE person at a time. Once you have mastered that conversation, talk to someone else.

Action: Write down one person who is an example of the kind of person you want to buy your products.

Action: Write two reasons why you like them as your kind of customer and one thing they would like about your soap.

2. Problem related to WHERE TO START: You don’t know if you should build a website, get a business card, create a brochure, or take a class.

Solution: Limit your number of options. Use the coin-flip technique to help you make a decision. If it comes up heads, and your first instinct is to move to best out of three, you know that the “answer” is actually tails.

Action:  Pick one of two options in each category – in print, in person, on-line.

• Print: Either focus on your business card OR a flyer/brochure

• Person: Either attend a networking meeting (check on Meetup.com for local groups), OR host a party/gathering at your place.

• On-Line: Either create/finish your website OR set up a blog (wordpress.com)

Seriously, just pick one of the above.  Let the rest go . . . at least for today’s planning purposes.

3. Problem related to COSTS: You don’t know what it all costs, or what it should cost, or what you should pay. Why? Because it varies so much, it’s like a moving target.

Solution: Ask your neighbor, peers, coaches, for specific numbers on what they spent and what they got.

Action: If you are sitting near someone, ask them. If not, get on Facebook, Linked-In, or your own Outlook and ask your friends.  What did they pay for their website, business card, logo, packaging, AND what did they get for it? Check out a recent impromptu survey I posted on Facebook for my presentation to the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild

4. Problem related to your FINANCIAL GOALS: You don’t have an exact financial goal. Why? Because numbers are scary for most people. Specifically, negative numbers. Don’t fret!  Google was in the red (meaning negative numbers) for 2 years before they made it big.  If it’s OK for Google, it’s OK for you!

Solution: Create goals in terms of zero’s, starting with $100.

Action: Set a goal to make $100 with your business. If you have already made $100, add a “0.” New goal: $1000.  When you reach that goal, add another zero – $10,000, and so on and so forth. NOTE: This goal is for sales, not total profit. Just focus on how much you can sell for now.

5. Problem related to NOT ENOUGH TIME: You are never done. Why? Marketing is like breathing. Sometimes you’re huffing and puffing, sometimes you’re controlled and steady. No matter what, you stop breathing, you stop.  Each new level brings new challenges you never knew you were going to face.

Solution: The truth is, there is enough time, but you may not have the energy to make use of it. Instead of thinking about the clock, focus on how you can create more energy to fuel your business. You can conserve energy by working only 90 minutes at a time, because science tells us that’s how often the body needs a rest. And you can create energy by working on your physical state – take a 10 minute walk, do one minute of jumping jacks, dance to one of your favorite songs.

Action: Review your calendar, set aside 90 minutes for Tuesday to do marketing research. Start your 90 minutes with a dance, a walk, or jumping.

6. Problem related to the fact that YOU ARE A DIY PERSON: You think you can do it all yourself, but in reality, you need expert help. Why? Because the time it will take you to figure it out from scratch has the potential to burn you out before you make it.

Solution: Find a coach, consultant, class or a combination to get guidance in areas you were not trained to know. You can get free and paid for help, I recommend a combination.

Action: Write down where you are going to find one person or group of people to help this week.  Ask ONE question you think you know the answer to to see if they are on the same page. Perhaps they have a different view, or can validate your own intuition.

7. Problem related to FEAR OF FAILURE: You want everything you do to work perfectly which can lead to paralysis.

Solution: Failure is actually falling forward!  Look at all “failures” as Significant Learning Experiences – SLE’s (pronounced like sleaze). “Failure” is 90% of business and necessary for growth.

Action: Write out a recent occurrence that felt like a failure. Then write what SLE came from it.

ONCE YOU DO THESE 7 STEPS, YOU WILL HAVE A HUGE HEAD START!

TO RECAP HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE DONE:

1. You have an example of the kind of person you want to buy your products and two reasons why you like them as your kind of customer

2. You selected one easy DIY route to start your marketing efforts

3. You did financial research and learned one business related cost a peer incurred

4. You have a financial goal

5. You set aside 90 minutes next week to do marketing research

6. You know where you are going to find a person or people to help

7. You have turned a recent occurrence that felt like a failure into a significant learning experience

SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSES TO THIS BLOG AND YOU CAN GET FEEDBACK FROM ALLIE AND YOUR PEERS.

To see images from the original Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild presentation: From Passion to Profits, click here.

Core values make up the foundation of your business. All future decisions you make for your business will be based on your core values. Identifying these values early on is very helpful when deciding which moves to make for your marketing, sales, finance, and hiring, among many others.

The values you list must be absolutely true – not a wish list, but an honest assessment of your intentions. For example, as much as we all want to be “authentic,” it’s important that what you’re providing truly is authentic. These values do not change due to fluctuation in markets or changes of customer preferences.

Customers in today’s marketplace will flee the minute you violate one of these values or fail to deliver on the promise. Even worse, they’ll tell all their friends. This is not to say every business will not make mistakes with their brand and their customers. It’s OK to mess up, as long as you get back on your horse again with your bag of trusted values by your side.

Big thing to keep in mind: your personal core values are not your business core values. This is a tough one to separate for many people. When you’re figuring out which are the best values to represent your brand, listen to your self describe WHY you chose them. If YOU are PASSIONATE about your business, but your business has nothing to do with passion (or romance), perhaps that is not the best value to select.  If you need help with this, contact alison@hatchnetwork.com to set up a quickie one-on-one session.

Once you’ve identified your core values, you can start to build a language that describes all that you do. This exercise helps you in talking about your business, and crafting marketing messages. It also is the basis for deciding what your brand should “look” like – the identity.

While we’ve given you some direction for laying this groundwork on your own, we highly recommend that you work with a professional! They will help you refine what you bring to them (and you’ll get better results from doing a little bit of work up front).

Your brand specialist, graphic designer, or agency will probably have a process for developing your brand identity. It usually starts with a meeting and some exploration by the designer. The more effort you put into preparing for that meeting, the better. It is likely that you will meet with several designers when trying to decide whom to hire, so giving them each the same information will lead to accurate, comparable proposals from each of them.

1. Narrow Down Your Core Values

You will start with a long list of core values, and narrow them down to 3-5 words that really embody the most important things about your business. There are more words that you may prefer, please write them in.

2. Next, create core values statements for your choices. Samples below.

The Core Values and actions that support them:

Knowledge: We value knowledge, so we include educational guidance on our website.

Innovation: We value innovation, and have applied for two patents on our new technology.

Service: We value service; we return phone calls within 24 hours.

Authenticity: We value being authentic; all of our products are made in-house.

Responsibility: We value responsibility, our service people have a strict code of conduct that they adhere to when working on your house.

3. Core Values Homework:

Draft your vision and mission statements. They can be whatever you want them to be! Short, long, funny, serious… come up with what is right for your company and brand.

You have already established your core values, and they are the basis for your vision and mission statements for your company. Having these statements is very valuable even to a solo-preneur, and large corporations have them as well. They are guiding principles and ideas for you and your employees.

A vision statement is your company’s challenge to itself – how great are you going to be in your industry in the future. It is the highest standard that your company will achieve, and should be a lofty goal, but still realistic. It is an inspirational reminder that you are striving toward something bigger, and that there is a purpose to the work being done. The vision statement is a powerful tool, and it should be bold.

Sample Vision Statements:

Apple Computer: “Man is the creator of change in this world. As such he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them.”

Microsoft: “There will be a personal computer on every desk running Microsoft software.”

A mission statement is written to give a worthwhile, singular focus or goal to an organization. It describes your purpose and reflects your values. This can be done in a sentence or two, or a short paragraph.

Sample Mission Statements:

McDonald’s: “To satisfy the world’s appetite for good food, well-served, at a price people can afford.”

Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

4. Wondering what to do with these once they are done? Here are two places your core values, mission and vision can show up right away:

- In your business plan

- On your website “About” page

These are dynamic statements about your business, meaning, they may change over time. Start with something today, if it does not ring true in a month or year because of how things are evolving, change them! The best thing to do is take one step, don’t worry about the final destination, at least not for today.

CREATE YOUR VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT.  IF YOU POST THEM HERE, YOU CAN RECEIVE FEEDBACK FROM ALLIE AND YOUR PEERS.

FOR ALL HSMG ATTENDEES, CLICK HERE FOR A COPY OF THE “BRANDING” PRESENTATION YOU SAW IN DENVER.

1.  Who are my customers? Describe this person in full detail. Who is this person? What do they enjoy? Are they early or late risers? Do they like a little cream and sugar in their coffee or straight black? What point are they at in life? Are they just starting their first job or the first mortgage payment? Developing a better understanding of who you’re serving will in turn help you serve them better. Ex: Send your late riser customer an email at 9pm, when they finally have a chance to read and include tips on how to unwind.

2. What are my customer’s expectations and how do I go above and beyond? What pains – whether time, money, or energy – does my business solve for others? All profitable business provide customers some sort of benefit – what’s yours? How do you own this service/product over competitors? Understanding why your customers choose your business may shed light on new benefits or strengthen what you already know.

3. What communication protocols have I developed to create uniformed and consistent messages to my customers? Yes, creating tailored information to address each customer is great. But this is when the difference of WHAT you say and HOW you say it comes into play.  If you want to establish better relationships with your customers, you must develop consistent communication schedules to remind them that you’re there. This is NOT an excuse to email blast every week – but schedule reoccurring service/product purchase follow-ups and keep your primary business objectives in mind.

4. What do my customers view as my biggest strength? Weaknesses? Survey and interview your current customers. If you’re concerned about how these interactions may affect your relationships with customers, try hiring an external company to reduce worries. Understanding how your customers view your business will provide you with more ideas how you can improve your “perfect” business – or help create a hierarchy of weaknesses and strengths.

5. What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of my customers? Be aware that sometimes the problem IS your customers, not [just] you. Write out their weaknesses and brainstorm how you can appease these weaknesses. How might tailor you your service/product to better address these weaknesses? Ask yourself how you might you tweak your service/produce to play-up the strengths noted by customers? If you’ve covered these customer demands, it may be time to fire – yes, DROP – your current customerse and apply more focus on new potential customers.

6. Who is my ideal customer? Describe this person in full detail. Ask yourself how this customer is “ideal” – and go beyond just how many times their VISA appears on your invoices. How does this customer make YOUR life easier? How does this customer add value to your business? Now, start imagining this customer a real person. What does he/she do for enjoyment? Read? Where does he/she shop? Dine?

7. How do I make my ideal customer a current customer? Time to crossbreed. Building off your customer profiles, where are there crossovers? How might you attract more current customer who might also be your ideal customer? Do they shop at the same stores? Read the same magazines? Are they both into golf? How might you place your advertising efforts in these shared spaces to attract more of the ideal customer? Keep in mind, that as much your customers choose you – you can also choose (or target) them.

On behalf of Espree, Hatch Network is so excited to start helping women entrepreneurs in the Santa Monica area. The excitement and energy felt at the launch party are just a beginning of the great things to come ahead. We look forward to sharing our stories and success with Santa Monica women. Look for Hatch Network Pods to begin May 5. If you have any questions or interest enrolling into the program, please contact alison@hatchnetwork or claire@hatchnetwork.

Thank you again and may your business success outgrow your business expectations.

Cheers,

The Hatch Network Team

I believe [that] I’m a fairly smart quick chick, hence working with Hatch Network (Get it? Chick? Hatch? …anyone? Small giggle? Anything?), but this program has me screaming at its time consuming uselessness. Seriously.

I was forced to download the program at another workplace to really give it a try. Result? Ten minutes after a clicking through the time report tool bar, I finally started understanding the program. What else did I find out? Apparently I’m the most unproductive person compared to other Resucetime users (-0.17 vs .037.). Ouch. However, a few clicks later I realized that my reports are a little skewed because I never fully set up a Project, therefore Rescuetime had nothing to compare.

So future Rescuetime users, here are a few suggestions:

• Create projects. Seriously. It sounds like a “well, duh” task, but can be easy to skip over. Trust me.
• Set goals. Manage your “distracting time”. It will help you become more productive and provide insightful explanations of how and when you’re most distracted.
• Think Jerry McGuire: “help Rescuetime, help you” and enter specific words that relate to your projects. Why? These keywords help the Rescuetime track websites and documents not necessarily cued by website domains.
• Log into the program as soon as you start and finish work. If you’re a home worker bee, this small step helps formulize the “start” of work and end of Kelly and Regis or naptime. Plus, it provides a consistent schedule to help you track your weekly and monthly productivity.
• Manually enter productivity measures within the productivity chart – especially if you work within social media. Facebook, Twitter, etc., are rated -2 (very distracting) on a scale from +2 to -2.

The tips can easily be expanded on and I’m looking for some thoughts from other Rescuetime users. What are your experiences with this program? Anyone have any similar stories or suggestions to share?

Overall, this program has been more time consuming than anything else, but possibly it’ll reduce after use. Since starting the program earlier today, my productivity has improved by 0.3, yet there’s still work to do (life in general, right?). However, at least I’ve started comprehending the program. Signing off for now, but cheers to not being a complete tech wreck…

2. Afternoon naps and midnight work sessions are not scheduled on your calendar, but happen often.

3. Writing on your home office walls is normal (using post-it pads, chalkboard paint or whiteboard paint).

4. You batch your out-of-the-home-office meetings so that you have to get ready for public viewing as little as possible.

5. You day dream about having a steady paycheck.

6. You thank your lucky stars you don’t have to go to a traditional office environment, steady paychecks were overrated anyway.

7. When you think about applying for a “real job” you realize that no one would hire you because you’d probably take over the company.

Allie’s extra #7. There is nothing else you could possibly do with your life than be your own boss!

Entrepreneurs happily work from home!

As entrepreneurs it’s easy to lose focus – focus of our vision, focus of our plans, focus of how we’re using our time, etc. Working solo means I have no one to check-in, no “Hanson, wanna hurry it up with the financials?” or “here’s the report you needed on CompanyXY” . I mean, I can’t be the only one who’s spent the day “conquering” a project, only to realize at 6pm that I haven’t finished anything I intended to complete. Instead, at the of the day, I’m left mystified with my unchecked to-do list, wondering where the day went.

So, in search of effeciency and effectiveness, we signed up for http://rescuetime.com, a web-based time management and analytics tool.

Step one: Sign up.
Allie’s thoughts thus far? “It’s pretty damn easy to get started, that’s for sure.” Ha. Five minutes after Allie’s response, I’m just finishing the sign-up process. My analytical mindset forces me to comb through each page, determing how I will benefit from this tool. Apparently this handy-dandy time tracker records the time spent on individual webpages. This information is computed and later compared with a schedule that the users sets up, planning how much time he/she wants to spend on each page. Then voi-la!, Rescuetime produces reports measuring your efficiency. Sounds cool. We’ll see if the first impression actually coincides with the testing round…

I’m not sure if that actually happened for everyone involved, but I do know *it* happened for me.

Yosemite or bust!

The day itself was an adventure complete with trains, buses, and hiking to waterfalls. Nature’s beauty stunned us all into a state of awe.  And, as much as I thought I was going to solve the problems of the world (or at least a few that keep popping up in my business) I realized quickly that no such thoughts would be making their way from my  gray matter to action on this trip to the great outdoors.

Carpools, Trains, Buses, and Waterfalls

I was looking forward to putting myself in an environment where email is spotty, laptops can not be plugged in, and where anyone talking on the phone is glared at.  So, why did I feel the need to lug my laptop and business backpack on this day-long trip?

My heavy, laptop-loaded, backpack was a pain in the butt, having to be shoved in overhead compartments, or under the seat in front of me, and checked in at the lodge, rinse and repeat on the way home.

Unhealthily Attached to My Laptop

I didn’t know at the time, but in a few short hours after cursing the inconvenience I caused myself, I was about to find out that me and my laptop were going to have a parting of the ways and I was about to make a sincere promise to never again be so connected to anything.

After a long day, we arrived at our final destination, the Emeryville Amtrak station. As we departed the train, I said my good byes, gave a rah-rah thanks for everyone’s participation, then turned and realized that I left my laptop on the train, the same train that had already left the station.

Of course I chased the train, made frantic calls, harassed every low level worker I could access through the plexi-glass windows, and left empty handed with minimal hope that my baby would return to me.

I didn’t intend to lose my business lifeline on this trip, but the circumstances of a mad flurry-brainstorm session that exploded in the last hour of our train ride home, left me backpack-less and dumbfounded as to how I could have done such a thing!

Since it is not what happens to us, but how we handle it, I focused on the “positive” for the next hour as my car full of silent passengers crossed the bridge back into the city. I quickly accepted that I was going to enter eht weekend computer-less, or computer-free, depending on your perspective and I desperately needed to find meaning in the situation fast.

The meaning I found actually came about as quickly as the realization that I left my bag behind.

You see, the brainstorm session I was deeply engaged in prior to my loss had to do with the notion of letting go of everything in our business that was not working.

We talked about tossing really big parts of our business including parts of our workshop, book, and website, that regardless of how long it took us or how much time, money, and energy we already invested. The brainstorm brought us all the way to the point of the possibility of a business re-branding.  So exciting and so daunting all at once!

Some of the seemingly important parts (like my favorite backpack, actual laptop, and binders of notes from past meetings) may be gone, but the best parts, my data and pictures, were salvageable. The same is true for our business. Some things that seemed really important a year ago, are not, and those we will happily leave behind on the proverbial business train.

As a side note, I would like to give a special thanks to the women in my car who didn’t take it personally when my head spun in a circle and refused to let them stop at In & Out Burger on the way home. Mary Hickey, Carlie Hanson, Gail Foland and Denise Myers – you are all troopers. Thanks for being there for me at a time when I should have been locked in a padded room.

If you ever find yourself laptop-less and wondering what horrible things might come as a result, here is what I did to protect myself, recover my data, and ensure that if this happens again in the future, I will be ok.

My new MacBook is even more pretected than ever before!

1. Immediately changed all of my passwords, and looked up the “to-do’s” for laptop loss.

2. Signed up for LifeLock to protect me from future identity theft.

3. Contacted Experian who then contacted the other two credit bureaus, Equifax, and TransUnion. It was very nice to only have to contact one. They put a Fraud Alert on my account for 90 days.

4. Gave myself a HUGE pat on the back for using 3 tools:

- Carbonite to restore all of my important files, pictures and music

- Evernote for being my online document organizational tool that captures my most important conversations, documents, and brain dumps

- MobileMe to keep my mail, contacts, and calendar in tact

5. Finally, I purchased LoJack for Laptops to install on my new MacBook Pro.

I’m not always the poster child for having her sh*t together, but in light of this experience, I’m pretty proud to have had some measures for recovery in place.

My fingers are crossed that this will be the last article I write about losing my laptop. Now losing my cell phone . . . I can’t promise I won’t do that again.

Take the quiz.

Maybe I'm more male-brained after all?

The quiz is only 15 questions and leads off with asking if I care about fashion or how I look. Let me guess, that is a male trait?

It didn’t take me long to find out my results. I’m 80% female, 20% male. Ha! Take that, ex-boyfriend, who said I was like a dude. I’m way more chick than d*ck.

I’m taking this exercise to mean a couple of things. First, that my challenges in life have nothing to do with gender-identity. Yay! One less issue to deal with.

Second, that understanding the brain is something I am fascinated by. In addition to having my astrological charts mapped I will continue to learn about what makes me tic. Knowing how I think and do what I do will help me to maximize my strengths and use them to my advantage. That’s definitely a female thing.

Please take the quiz! Let me know your results and what it means to you. I’m so curious.

Link to quiz: http://ow.ly/1u2X4