There can’t be many feelings worse than seeing your child lying in a hospital bed and being told, potentially, it could be very serious.

This happened to me and my husband a few days ago.

I’m not going to even try and put into words what that feeling is like. It is impossible to verbalise.

Our son had been ill for a few days. He gradually got worse. Our GP suspected an infection of some sort and put him on antibiotics. They didn’t work. He continued to get worse. I took him back to the GP. The GP sent us straight up to the hospital.

To cut to the chase, turned out he had a bad streptococcal infection. It can become serious if it gets to the internal organs. We were blessed. It hadn’t affected his internal organs. They blasted him with heavy duty IV antibiotics. Within 24 hours he started to respond and improve. After 48 hours he had recovered sufficiently to come home to recover. He is now almost better and returning to his normal self.

The point of sharing this with you is this:

There are so many people who, at some level, feel their life is riddled with mediocrity.

Maybe it is their business, family life, relationships, money.

But why do so many people do nothing about it? Why do so many people just settle for the mediocrity hamster wheel and peddle it indefinitely?

What are they waiting for?

It seems to me that it often takes a huge crisis before people wake up and smell the coffee, not to mention do something about it. The problem with that is that it is gambling. Gambling that a crisis ends up with a happy ending.

Here is the point:

Don’t wait for a crisis to make a decision to kick mediocrity out of your life for good. Make that promise to yourself now. It’s time to eradicate mediocrity and create what you really want.

If there is any area of your business, lifestyle, relationships, family life that you are not happy with or feels mediocre, what are you waiting for?

As the famous saying goes:

Life isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is the real thing.

Stop settling for less than you want your life to be. Do something. Start to take action – now.

Whatever you do, don’t wait for a crisis to be the wake up call you need. Don’t gamble on a happy ending – create it.

This is Part 1 in a 2 part series. In Part 2 we will look at the real cost of not eradicating mediocrity and it’s not what you think!

Related post: Why You Should Break All The Rules

Eradicating Mediocrity (Part 1) – What are you waiting for? is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Well, it’s that time of year again. The Back to School malarkey is upon us.

Whether you are a parent who is well organised and has everything ready well in advance, or are running round at the last minute like a headless chicken, for all of us our aim is the same:

To make sure our kids have everything they need for their school life.

Things such as new shoes, the correct school uniform, books, writing stuff, hair cut, nutritious stuff for their lunch box, getting them back into a bedtime routine after the late nights of the summer holidays, homework routine – the list goes on.

If you think about why we do this, it because we are setting them up to succeed. Giving them what they need to do the job of being a school kid as well as they can.

But how many of us do this for ourselves with our businesses?

What I mean is how many of us at any point throughout the year, stop and check we have set ourselves up to succeed?

For example:

• Are we getting enough sleep to maximise our effectiveness?
• Are we eating nutritious food that really fuels our minds and bodies?
• Are we getting enough exercise to boost our energy levels?
• Do we have the correct equipment to do the job the best we can and make us more effective?
• Do we have the right teachers/mentors to help us achieve our goals?
• Are we focussing on the right subjects to achieve our goals?
• Is there a timetable or schedule to manage time effectively?

The point is this:

If you don’t set yourself up to succeed then you won’t. Leaving it to chance or luck is not a good strategy to achieve success.

So here’s what I would like to suggest:

Whilst you are getting the kids ready to return to school, apply the same mindset to you and your business. Review if you have set yourself up properly to succeed.

Include categories such as:

• Equipment – pens, stationery, technology, uncluttered office, an effective timetable.
• Teachers – who is your support team to help you achieve your goals? Think mentors, coaches, consultants, networking clubs, mastermind groups, business buddies.
• Self care – sleep, healthy eating, exercise, meditation, down time.

Once you have brainstormed this create an action plan and start putting it in place. If you struggle to motivate yourself with stuff like this, buddy up with someone else and become accountability and support partners.

This is a great time of year for taking our own performance up a notch or two. So, what will you do to set yourself up to succeed?

Business Success Lessons from the Back to School Routine is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

I am just back from a fantastic five day camping trip with my family. We are big camping and outdoors fans so we all had a ball. This trip was made even more interesting by a decision I made before we left.

I decided to totally disconnect from all technology for the whole trip. No email. No Facebook. No Twitter. Even the mobile phone was switched off. Not a scrap of technology for the entire time. Zilch!

Interestingly, I felt quite liberated and actually enjoyed being totally disconnected from all things technology & online. Although I know some people who would feel their right arm had been cut off if they were totally disconnected even for a day!

This experiment raised some important questions:

Do we now live in a world where we are over connected?
And if so, what impact is that having on our business, family life and lifestyle?
Are you over connected?

3 ways being over connected is damaging:

1. Constantly interrupting business activities to check email and/or social media reduces productivity
2. Quality of family time and relationships is reduced if you are regularly distracted by your online activities
3. Having no controls, purpose or strategy over the frequency or duration of being connected means more important things get neglected.

The list could go on and on but the point I am trying to make is this:

Would you benefit from reducing the amount of time you allow yourself to be connected and contactable?

Not just to protect productivity in your business but also protect your family life and relationships.

Tips for setting “connection” policy

• Stop checking email throughout the day. Set times and duration for doing this. Sign out in between.
• Set times and durations for your social media activities
• Ensure you are clear on your social media purpose and strategy. Stick to it.
• Do not allow offline activities (eg business planning, creating new products, playing with kids etc) to be interrupted by online activities.

Being over connected can be very damaging to all areas of work life and personal life. Choose to manage your online activities effectively or they will take over and manage you.

Is it time for you to put a “disconnect” policy and boundaries in place?

Related post:Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

Is it Time to Disconnect? is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

In the previous post The Obstacle That Will Kill Your Ideal Lifestyle we looked at how we are getting in our own way of having our ideal business, family life and real lifestyle freedom on our own terms.

It raises a really important question:

Why are so many people chasing having “stuff & things” at the cost of having real freedom in their work life, family and lifestyle?

Well, the reasons can be many and complex. But here is one of the huge fundamental reasons:

Lack of Financial Intelligence

Now, I am not for one second suggesting people are a bunch of dunces in relation to money. What I am saying is that most of us have never been educated to give us the financial intelligence we need to make good choices and decisions that lead to real financial freedom.

And here’s the shame of it – if we were educated and armed with enough financial intelligence to create real and lasting financial freedom we would probably make very different choices and decisions throughout our life to the ones we make.

I say this, not just from professional experience, but also from personal experience. My husband and I used to be “stuff and things” chasers. It had us chained the Corporate hamster wheel for many years with no chance of escape.

Once we realised that to be really free, in our work life and personal life, we needed to be a bit more intelligent with choices and decisions around money, we started to look at how we could increase our financial intelligence.

If you are really serious about creating your ideal business, family life and lifestyle, I highly recommend you make a commitment to yourself right now to transform your level of financial intelligence and get a plan in place to start making this a priority.

Questions on your Money Mindset to consider:

• Are you on a clearly defined path to financial freedom that will allow you to operate your business and family life on your own terms?
• If you were at a point of financial security and freedom, what difference would that make to the choices you make in your business, family life and lifestyle? Is that worth shooting for?
• What can you start to do improve your financial intelligence and mindset around money?

I know from personal experience, it can feel really overwhelming when you decide to get on a path to financial freedom but don’t know how to start. But here are some simple things you can start straight away while you are building up your financial intelligence:

• Make sure your business and personal life has budgets and review them monthly.
• Make sure you know where every cent of your money goes in your business and personal life.
• Start living well within your means.
• Read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. A good start point for thinking about your financial mindset.

Whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Just get started. Think baby steps and get stuck in.

Related post: The Obstacle That Will Kill Your Ideal Lifestyle

Why You Need To Get A Grip Of Your Money Habits. is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Lifestyle Freedom

There seems to be some confusion as to what constitutes real lifestyle freedom.

In fact, I would go so far to say that some folk are positively delusional about the lifestyle they have. This kills peoples chances of achieving their dream lifestyle and real freedom.

Let me explain:

What a lot of people are calling “having a lifestyle” isn’t a lifestyle at all.

They are referring to things such as a trophy home, numerous flashy holidays every year, spending shed loads of clothes each and every week and so on. What they are actually describing is consumerism not lifestyle.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not being the fun police here. I like nice clothes, holidays and nice stuff as much as the next person.

But to me a kick ass lifestyle is about having real freedom in all areas of your life. Freedom to only work when you want to, on your own terms. Freedom to have the family life you really want with work fitting in around it. Freedom to have enough time to nurture and keep important relationships healthy. The list could go on and on.

Here is the point I am making:

Many people are so busy chasing consumerism (and calling it lifestyle) that it is actually costing them true lifestyle freedom.

The reason for this is they have to strap themselves to their business hamster wheel and pedal damn hard to feed their consumerism habit.

Things to Consider

• Are you confusing consumerism with lifestyle?
• Are you having to flog your guts out in your business to feed consumerism habits?
• If so, what is that costing you in relation to lifestyle freedom? (and I don’t mean just financially!)

There is a lot of focus these days on how work life impacts quality of life, families and lifestyle. And rightly so.

But if you are genuinely looking to create REAL lifestyle freedom you also need to take a long hard look at what impact the choices you are making in your personal life is having on how many hours you have to work, the level your business has to perform at, your family life and so on.

Is your business life feeding your ideal lifestyle or consumerism?

So, I invite you to take a step back and take a good long hard at all the choices you are making in your personal life. Which are keeping you a slave to working longer and harder? Which are really moving your towards true lifestyle freedom and a business life on your own terms? Is it time to make some changes?

What is your take on this? Do you agree, disagree, have an alternative perspective? Please share your views.

The Obstacle That Will Kill Your Ideal Lifestyle is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Is the dynamic between your work life and school holidays exactly as you would like it to be? (and I mean your absolute ideal)

Do you believe it is possible to work only when you want to during school holidays without your business suffering?

These are important questions to consider if you want to create your ideal lifestyle.

Managing Your Business and School Holidays

In the previous post 7 Tips to Manage your Home Business during School Holidays we looked at things you can do to manage the dynamic between your home business and family life during school holidays.

Those things will help you manage your current situation. But, if your current situation isn’t your ideal, you need to know the answers to the questions above to get on a path to something better.

How do you go about getting your work life, school holidays and family life to be ideal?

Here are some suggestions to get you started on designing future school summer holidays to be ideal:

1. Believe it is possible to create your ideal. If you don’t then you are not going to be in the mindset that will allow you to create what you really want.
2. Stop thinking balance. Start thinking design. Many parents are so focussed on balancing everything that it stops them from designing things how they really want them to be. For more information on this read The Curse of Work Life Balance and Why work-life balance is misleading.
3. Work out what ideal means to you – forget any perceived limitations and write down, in the present tense what you, your kids, your work life and lifestyle is like during school holidays when it is ideal. Start taking action to turn this into reality.
4. Include family life & lifestyle in your business planning – many people review and make business plans and decisions in isolation from the rest of their life. Big mistake. Look for creative ways to re-design how your business operates and earns revenue around your family life. Do this at least monthly.
5. Keep focussed on the end game – design your actions plans, schedule and what you spend your time on around your big picture.

The main point I am making here is this:

If you are not happy with the dymanic between your business, family life and school holidays, then start designing it so that you are.

It is 100% possible. And the rewards, well, they are priceless.

But it is essential to remember this – don’t wait. Start working on how you want the dynamic between your business and school holidays to be for future summers NOW. Get busy designing, then put action plans in place to make it so.

What challenges do you face during school holidays? Do you have any suggestions to add to this list?

In the next post we will look at one of the main obstacles that keep people from creating their ideal lifestyle.

How to design Work Life around School Holidays is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

So, here we are again – school summer holidays time.

How are you feeling about it?

- Are you are delighted at the opportunity to spend quality time with your little cherubs?

- Are you feeling guilty because you feel you have to spend all summer keeping the business going so  you don’t have much time for the kids?

- Are you not enjoying the time with your kids because you are worrying the business is being neglected?

- Are you feeling so frazzled about the whole thing that you aren’t enjoying work or family life?

Regardless of which of these categories you fall into, there are always ways to improve the dynamic between your home business, family life and your lifestyle.

7 Tips to Manage your Home Biz During School Holidays

1. Set clear, strong boundaries between work and family life and implement them.
2. Don’t mix work and family time – this doesn’t work for anyone. Keep them separate.
3. Create a schedule of what you are doing when – this will help with point 2.
4. Prioritise hard - look for stuff that can wait until September. Read Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time for ideas to help with this one.
5. Avoid Lone Ranger Syndrome – look for where you can enlist some help e.g. family, friends. To find out more read Is Lone Ranger Syndrome Killing Your Business?
6. Delegate – what can you delegate out? Doing everything yourself won’t lead to success whether it is school holiday or not. Don’t use “I can’t afford help” as an excuse. Get creative. For example, students looking for a few hours work experience could be an option, there are people you can hire on an hourly basis etc. What other creative ideas can you come up with?
7. Form a support group with other parents who run their business from home – set up a rota for play dates to give each other work time without distractions.

The point is this:

Your kids grow up very fast. Once each year is gone, it is gone for good. I speak to many parents of grown up kids who say “I wish I had spent more time with them when they were younger”. Haven’t heard one yet say “I wish I had spent more time at work while the kids were younger”.

So, I invite you to get creative and look for what things you can put in place to enjoy your home biz and the school holidays with your kids without feeling stressed, guilty and frazzled.

In the next post we will look at how you can design your business to operate around school holidays and family life moving forward. In the meantime, what tips would you add to the list above? Please share your thoughts to help other parents.

7 Tips to Manage your Home Business during School Holidays is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Excellent Client and Customer Service is something I feel really passionate about. In fact, I would go one step further and say it isn’t about “Service” it is about “Caring”.

Caring about what experience people have when dealing with you; caring about them getting what they want out of your product or service; genuinely caring about them without the “what’s in it for me” goggles on.

There is so much mediocre and poor service out there. Do these people not realise how this is damaging there business, brand and reputation?

So, if poor service is damaging to your business and reputation. What impact does “wow” service and caring have?

Let me share a couple of personal examples with you.

Example 1 – a few years back, I was looking for a good painter and decorator to help me do up my house. Having experienced poor tradesmen in the past I asked a neighbour if they could recommend anyone good. My neighbour waxed lyrical about the wonderful guy who had done her house. Impressed by how she raved about him, I hired him.

He was brilliant. Did an excellent job. Turned up on time every day. Kept checking I was happy with progress.

Example 2 – Last week I ordered a bracelet online from one of my twitter contacts. Once ordered I received update emails and tweets advising each stage my order was at. The bracelet arrived two working days after the order day (pretty impressive from the UK to Ireland!). It was packaged beautifully and included a handwritten, personalised note thanking me for ordering and hoping I liked the bracelet.

In a world of mediocre service, both these experiences stood out as “wow”.

The painter and decorator was always fully booked for months on end with work and had a long waiting list. He never advertises. His business thrives because his customers rave about him.

The lady who runs the online jewellery store I ordered from last week impressed me so much with her fantastic service and personal touches that I will definitely buy from her again. I will recommend her business to friends. I am a fan because of her “wow” service (her website is www.caradiaz.com )

So, take a minute to think really hard about how you impact your clients.

• Do you “wow” them?
• Are they raving fans?
• Do you really care about them?
• Are they out their “selling” you to their family, friends and contacts.

If not, it’s time for a rethink.

Note: the key lies in how much you care. How much you care about the quality of your product/service, the experience your customers have with you and how they FEEL about you.

What can you do to upgrade the service your offer to create raving fans that wax lyrical about you that leads to sales come knocking at your door?

Giving “Wow” Service = More Sales is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Achieving Goals

I have a real interest in football.

Having spent my childhood in Liverpool it would be hard not to! I love the excitement, atmosphere, passion and buzz that it generates. Recently I have been enjoying the World Cup excitement with my family. Even with England (my home country) having a dismal start and Ireland (my adopted country) not even in it at all, it is already getting very exciting.

At half time each team has a chance to review their first half performance and work out their second half strategy.

I imagine their half time dressing room chats would include:

• Have things been going as planned?
• Are we ahead or behind on where we wanted to be?
• What worked well?
• What didn’t work well?
• What impact are our competition having on us?
• What do we need to do in the second half to have achieved our “goals” by full time?
• Do we need to make radical changes?
• In what areas do we need to up our game?
• What Mindset do we need to create to deal with the pressure, unexpected setbacks and to be our best?

This sort of review is also highly applicable to all of us Self Employed Parents, Sole Traders and folks running a business from home.

Why?

Well, because we are half way through the year.

If 2010 was a football match, how was your 1st half? What half time talk do you need to give to yourself?

We should all be scheduling a “drains up” half time review and asking the same sort of questions of ourselves that the managers and teams of the World Cup are asking themselves at half time (maybe the England camp aren’t asking these questions which might account for the shambolic performance on Saturday!!!).

So, schedule your half time review and analysis now (mine is later this week). Make sure you don’t just focus on the business. Think of every area of your life as a player in your team success. Include family life, lifestyle, relationships and so on. Take the World Cup question list above and apply it to all areas of your life. Then create an action plan and go do.

Where will you be by full time on 31st December?

PS Note to England Football Squad – READ THIS POST

It’s Half Time. What’s Your Second Half Strategy? is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

One of the things I hear most from Self Employed Parents is that they feel they can’t get everything they need to get done in the time they have. They feel they are running to stand still. This often results in feelings of frustration, guilt and failure.

There are all sorts of Time Management related subjects that can contribute to this. Things such as procrastination, ineffective planning, lack of focus, to name but a few (those are things for another post).

But what I have noticed is that one of the biggest contributing factors to that feeling of not having enough time to get everything done is this:

Self Employed Parents are trying to do more than is possible in the time they have.

It is not uncommon for parents to be trying to run a successful full time business, be the world’s best parent, be a domestic goddess, taxi driver to every family member – the list goes on.

That is like trying to do more than one full time job each and every day. So here is what I would like to suggest.

STOP. Yes, stop. I know this can feel impossible as I often hear “I don’t have time to stop”. But really, give yourself permission to stop and take stock.

Ask yourself “Is my perceived lack of time the result of trying to do more each day than is possible or reasonable?”

Because here is the reality – often all those feelings of frustration, guilt and failure don’t come from not having enough time. They come from placing unrealistic expectations on ourselves of what we can physically fit into each day.

Try this experiment.

Get a piece of paper and make out a timetable like you used to have at school. Days across the top and hourly slots down the side. Fill in for next week all your priority stuff giving them set time slots. ALWAYS put your most important stuff in first.

Now, if you are trying to stuff more in than your timetable is showing you is realistic you can see where you are actually creating that “I don’t have enough time” syndrome yourself. Run this experiment ongoing. It will help you to stop overscheduling and placing unrealistic expectations on yourself.

What strategies do you have for not overscheduling yourself?  Or do you regularly overschedule yourself? Please share your experiences and views below.

Related posts:

The Problem with Time Management

3 Myths of Multi Tasking

Are You Trying to be a Superhero?

Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom