5th November 2011 was a very special date for me.

It was the 10 year anniversary of my first day of going Self Employed.

10 years ago I escaped the corporate rat race and embarked on a quest to design life, work, success and freedom on my own terms.

There have been many lessons that I have learnt along the way. Here are just a few of them:

Top 10 Lessons from 10 years being Self Employed

1. It is vital to create your own definition of success based on your core values to live and work on your own terms.

2. The path to business success & the ideal life isn’t linear. Accepting this is essential.

3. Not everyone works from the same level of integrity, standards and ethics. Be careful who you let into your space.

4. You can’t be firing on all cylinders 100% of the time. Be kind to yourself if you lose your mojo sometimes. Beating yourself up serves no purpose.

5. Mindset dictates your results in all areas of your life. Being committed to learning how to improve it is a no brainer.

6. When the brown stuff hits the fan, there is always an opportunity lurking in there somewhere.

7. Being a Lone Ranger is a recipe for disaster. It is important to build a support team of like minded people who share the same values.

8. Working with GOOD QUALITY mentors & coaches speeds up progress and results.

9. Having a clear vision of where you want your business AND life to go is key to guide your actions and avoid wasting time on stuff that doesn’t move you forward.

10. Relationships are the life blood of the Self Employed and a fulfilling life.

I am not going to give you a load of BS about how the last 10 years have been a breeze. Because it hasn’t. There have been ups and downs, challenges to overcome and some whopping mistakes!

But through all of that, it has all been totally worth it because:

The freedom of living and working on your own terms, by your own definition of success, is priceless.

As I finish reflecting on the lessons of the last 10 years and look towards what I intend to create in my business and life moving forward, I invite you to join me in making a commitment to yourself to grab the unlimited potential being Self Employed offers.

Make a commitment to design your ideal life and business and start taking steps to turn it into reality.

You up for it?

I recently left the majority of Linkedin groups that I had joined.

The reason being is that I got totally hacked off with the endless self promotion of members ramming their stuff down my throat.

I found very little value in them.

I am a big believer in the the power, potential and possibility of a community of people coming together from a position of genuinely supporting each other.

And that is what I was looking for in the Linkedin groups I had joined.

A community that want to:

1. Discuss shared topics of interest.
2. Ask for help with a challenge, knowledge or finding information.
3. Brainstorm ideas and get others perspectives.
4. Share experiences, challenges and solutions.
5. Be part of a supportive, encouraging, community.
6. Connect and build relationships with like minded people.

But I didn’t find this in the Linkedin groups I joined. The noise of the self promotion brigade was just too loud.

However, I am a big believer in this motto:

If what you want doesn’t exist, create it yourself.

So, I have decided to set up a Linkedin group that IS a pure support group for Self Employed Professionals. The ethos of the group is based on the 6 points above.

In order to protect the integrity of the group, I think it is appropriate to put a few boundaries in place. So the following rules will apply:

• No selling, marketing or promoting your products and services
• No promoting of your own blog posts or articles.
• No asking people to become affiliates

Do the 6 points listed above sound like the sort of support group you would enjoy being a part of?

If so, come on over and join us. My aim is to make this a really valuable resource and community for you. You can join the group by clicking the link below:

Support Group for Self Employed Professionals

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=4130115

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Would you like to improve the results you are getting in your business, family life and lifestyle?

If so, have a think about this:

How are you deciding what to spend your time on each day?

Unless you are spending your time on activities linked to your goals and the things that deliver results, you won’t achieve what you really want.

With that in mind, here are 4 steps to support you in keeping on track and focussing your time and effort in the right place.

Remember, these steps are as important to creating your ideal family life and lifestyle as they are to achieving your desired business results too!

Step 1 – Measure

Measuring the outcome of what you are investing your time in is crucial. It allows you to see what is working well and what isn’t. You can take corrective action to head off problems before they occur.

It is important to measure activities linked to achieving your goals and your desired results.

In your business – what are the key things that influence successful results? Measure those. (Tip: think of all the roles you would find on a Board of Directors – think of what they would measure. Remember: you are the CEO and entire Board of Directors for your home business)

In your family life and lifestyle – what things would make you feel really fulfilled, happy and add real quality to your life and relationships? Measure those.

Step 2 – Review

Measuring on its own isn’t going to change anything. It is what you do with the information you have measured that is the foundation to creating change and improving your results. Use what you have measured to review your progress and to drive your decision making.

Step 3 – Action plan

Once you have completed the first two steps, use the information to drive your decisions and action plans and to choose what you will spend your time on and focus on.

Step 4 – Repeat

If you are really serious about achieving your goals and getting the results you want, this process needs to be carried out regularly.

This will allow you to identify potential problems in advance. It is an opportunity to adapt, tweak and upgrade your plans to keep you going in the right direction and on track to achieve the results you want.

Put in place a regular schedule for this process.

I recommend to my clients that they set up a monthly “Board Meeting”. This meeting is to review what they have measured, make decisions based on the information they have gathered and set action plans based on this for the following month.

This is a very simple process but extremely powerful in its ability to drive results. Give it a try.

Do you do this already? If so, how does it work for you? If you don’t do this yet, what difference do you think it would make to your results if you did? Please share your views in the comments below.

Yesterday I had my monthly board meeting.

Do I actually have a physical board of directors? No. I am a Sole Trader.

I have a support team of business buddies with different skills and experiences to mine. We bounce ideas off each other on a regular basis.

But when it comes to my monthly board meetings, it boils down to little old me reviewing every area of my business, measuring how it is performing, using the information for future goal setting and action planning.

You can find out more about why I do this and why I encourage all my clients to do this by reading Why Board Meetings are Essential for Sole Traders

I wanted to mention this whole subject again now because it is a critical time of year for setting yourself up for success in 2011. Board meetings for sole traders are an essential part of making 2011 your best year yet. Don’t under estimate the powerful impact this one activity can have on your success.

Tip to set yourself up for success in 2011

• Read Why Board Meetings are Essential for Sole Traders

• Make a commitment to yourself that you will hold a board meeting every month in 2011. Having a set day each month helps (mine is usually the first Friday of every month).

• Work out what are the key aspects of your business that will influence your success in 2011 (hint: you need to be covering every aspect of the business that a board of directors would review).

• Make a list of everything you need to measure monthly. Measuring performance is essential. It is the driver of your action plans.

• Don’t let not knowing what to do get in your way. Find out. Research. Ask other people. Read books.

• Do it NOW. Set up a process to manage your board meetings now so that you can hit the ground running in the New Year.

There are many factors that will influence your level of success in 2011. But having a monthly board meeting that assesses every aspect of your business, measures results and uses the information to drive action plans is the backbone that will hold everything together.

Do you already do this? If so, please share your views on how it helps you in the comments below. If you don’t do this yet, do you think it would make a difference to your success levels next year?

Related posts:

• How would a crisis impact your business success?

In the post The Truth About Loneliness When Running a Business From Home we established that loneliness for parents running a business from home is actually a choice. And we explored some suggestions for eradicating loneliness as a sole trader.

One of the keys to eradicating loneliness and creating the success you want is having a good quality support team. Yet many people just don’t do it.

Why?

Because they think it is going to cost them a shed load of money. They often think the only way to do it is to hire people. Then the “I can’t afford it” mentality kicks in. So no action is taken.

But here is the thing I want to ask you:

What if you could get the support you needed for FREE?

Well you can. You’ve just got to think creatively. There is no secret to it and anyone can do it.

The key to free support is relationship building.

Let’s be clear here, I am not talking about targeting someone you think could help you, pretending to be friendly with them just to get what you want out of it. That sucks. You will end up Billy-no-mates if you take that approach.

I am talking about genuinely taking an interest with other people. Connecting with other people. Going to places and events that attract like minded people.

Obviously to do that you have got to get out of your home office. Stop being a hermit. Make connecting with people and relationship building a priority.

Once you have build solid relationships the possibilities are endless.

You can set up brainstorming sessions, bounce new ideas around, share challenges, set goals and action plans using each other as accountability partners. The list could go on.

For those of you thinking I don’t have time for all of this, you don’t always have to meet face to face. I have some support buddies that aren’t even in the same country as me. We phone or skype.

The other trick is to keep your support sessions time bounded. This will also help with keeping focussed.

The point I am making is this:

Successful people don’t achieve it on their own. They surround themselves with a support team of some sort.

So stop being a lone ranger. Get out there. Build genuine relationships.

Fostering genuine relationships costs nothing, makes a huge difference and is a lot of fun.

By the way, you should always challenge your “I can’t afford it” mentality. Hiring good quality specialists in the skill sets you don’t have is a great way to develop your business. You need to view it in your annual budget setting (which everyone already does right?) as an investment in the business development and look for the return on investment you need to achieve. But that is a whole other topic which we will cover another time.

What will you start doing to build and strengthen your support team? What tips do you have on getting the support you need without it costing a fortune?

I love people watching. So much can be learnt just by sitting back and observing.

While my son was in hospital recently (more about that here Eradicating Mediocrity (Part 1) – What are you waiting for? ) I had an opportunity to do quite a bit of people watching. You see, hospital time operates in a totally different way to normal time – it goes excruciatingly slowly. So, partaking in a bit of people watching helped pass time.

Many of the things that I observed were wonderful lessons to keep in mind in relation to building a strong business community. So here are:

4 Lessons in Business Community Building from life on a Children’s Hospital Ward

1. Be respectful of others – Every parent was respectful of each others space and not being intrusive. As a result a comfort level between all the parents grew very quickly.

Lesson – Being respectful of people and their space creates a strong foundation for growing community.

2. Be supportive with no strings attached – at one point during my son’s hospital stay there was a really worrying incident. I was on my own as my husband had popped out to get some stuff. Two other parents came over and gave me unconditional support. It helped enormously and really meant a lot to me.

Lesson – offering support without expecting anything in return builds trust and rapport fast. It also fosters a feeling of wanting to offer the same support back. Always give from a “no strings attached” position.

3. Genuinely care – we had some fantastic nurses looking after our son. They were warm, caring and reassuring. However, it has to be said that one was less than caring (no box of chocolates for that nurse!!)

Lesson – genuinely caring is often lacking in the “me, me, me” world of business. Just by fostering this one area (but it has to be truly genuine) makes you stand out a mile in a very competitive world.

4. Humour – with the risk of stating the obvious, hospital’s are very serious places. So it is lovely to relieve the tension with a laugh. Now, goes without saying that this needs to be done appropriately and sensitvely.

Lesson – yes, business is serious. But it can also be fun, light and energetic. I know which type of business person I prefer to be around and it’s not the heavy serious brigade. Lighten up. Don’t be the “Eeyore” in the room (if you don’t know who Eeyore is, you had a deprived childhood. Go read Winnie the Pooh).

Your community, whether it be business or social, is the gold in your own back yard. Treating it as such will pay off big style.

What would you add to this list?

Related post: Networking – Busting the Myth

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?

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

Many people go to networking events with the wrong intention in mind.

A lot of people still think the aim of going to networking events is to sell themselves and their products and services. Big mistake.

Here’s why:

How do you feel when, at a networking event, you feel pinned to the wall by some doughnut you have never met who is hellbent on getting you to buy their stuff? Horrible isn’t it? Personally I would never buy off these people. Nor would I recommend them to my clients or my personal network.

On the other hand, there are some lovely people who have great products but are paralysed by fear of coming across as “salesy”. As a result they act like wallflowers, skirting the room and not fully engaging or connecting with anyone.

And don’t get me start on speed networking. I’ll put it politely and say it isn’t for me! (if I wasn’t putting it politely I would say I would rather stick pins in my eyes than partake in this version of pimping yourself to as many people as you can in as little time as possible).

So let’s get one networking myth busted shall we?

Effective networking isn’t about selling your stuff or yourself

A huge sigh of relief for all of the wallflowers terrified of appearing “salesy” eh?

So, if effective networking isn’t about selling yourself and your stuff, what is it about?

Effective networking is about relationship building. Genuine relationship building.

Having said that, watch out for the networking groomers. These are the people who pretend to be building a relationship with you but really are only interested in getting something they want out of you. They are transparent. Avoid like the plague.

Always remember – People buy People

On that basis, who you are being is vastly more important than what you do. A powerful question to ask yourself is – How do I come across at networking events?

Effective networking habits

So, the thing to focus on is developing habits that build genuine relationships. Here are a few essentials:

• Listen more than you talk
• Engage
• Add value (with no strings attach)
• Be true to who you are
• Focus on others

What would you add to this list?

What are your views of Twitter? Raving fan? Can’t stand it? Not interested? Don’t care?

I ventured into Twitterland last year as part of checking out all this new fangled social media malarchy. OK, I confess – up until then I had been somewhat of a social media dinosaur.

When I first signed up for Twitter I fell into the “so what” category. I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I gather that this is quite common for people losing their Twitter virginity.

However, before writing it off completely, I decided to get educated on it’s potential business benefits – why I should be doing it, how I should be doing it, strategy and so on.

Suffice to say I now “get” its power and potential in a business context. I have morphed from the “so what” brigade to bordering on raving fan!

Confession time!

But for me, the real power of twitter and what I really love about it has got nothing to do with business. There, I’ve said it.

Yes, I know it is a powerful business tool but I have come to realise it’s real power lies in its ability to bring out what is good in human nature.

Sound like a whole load of soppy sentimental nonsense? Well, let me explain:

Last week my husband was in hospital for a big operation. The operation took a lot longer than I had been told it would take. Every minute felt like an hour. The days following the operation were a challenge.

During that time I received loads of messages via twitter from people all over the world. Messages of support, messages to make me smile, messages checking we were OK. I can’t tell you how much of a boost those messages gave me during what was a very difficult week.

There is much talk in the world of social media about measuring return on investment. And as I business owner I totally get that. In those terms, last week the personal return on investment I got from Twitter was priceless.

And that for me is the real power of twitter – humanness first, business second.

Please don’t think I have come over all rose tinted spectacles. There is much on twitter I don’t like. To find out more read Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

What about you? What are your thoughts and feelings on twitter? Come on – ‘fess up!

Related posts:

1.Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

2.Confessions of a Blogging Virgin!