techniques Archives - Page 6 of 16

Money Wi$e Women + a Contest Too!

March 28, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Last Saturday, I spoke at the Money Wi$e Women Conference in my hometown of Bellingham, WA. It was so empowering. My speech was well-received and it was awe-inspiring to hear the other speakers at the conference. Everyone was great. My blog post about the day is here.

I think we all know (at this point) that our current economical situation isn’t going to change overnight. So I need to be the one that makes a change to create my “new normal” (see blog post here on my “new normal”). It was an honor to hear Marcia Brixey, author of The Money Therapi$t, speak at the conference too. Motivating, to say the least and, of course, I picked up a couple copies of her book.

The Money Therapi$t: A Woman’s Guide to Creating a Healthy Financial Life offers women of every financial strata the advice, tips, and solutions they need to get out of debt, create a budget, spend wisely, and save money. Marcia’s empowering, you-can-do-it attitude and helpful tools and resources encourage and inspire women to achieve financial fitness. With information on organizing financial records, getting out of credit card debt, safeguarding against identity theft, and taking advantage of interest through automatic deductions, The Money Therapist is the first step to achieving financial peace of mind.

You can purchase the book here or WIN THE BOOK! Whoo hoo!Just post a comment below and tell what your best money saving tip is! I am so excited to read all of your comments. I’ll randomly pick a lucky winner on Wednesday, March 31st.

Interested in attending a future Money Wi$e Conference? Sign up HERE.

Be a More Effective Mind Changer

March 22, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

From DailyGood

Famed Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, noted for his theory of multiple intelligences, recently published Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds. The book outlines Gardner’s research and thinking on how best to convince others (or yourself) to adopt a different viewpoint in various settings, including business. In this interview Gardner talks about the difficulties inherent in the process of changing someone’s mind and the seven “levers” by which leaders can accomplish it.Check out the interview if you want to be more persuasive.

Book Report – Crucial Conversations

February 7, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Summary of the blog in case you’re in a hurry:

1. The book ‘Crucial Conversations’ is about having great conversations when the stakes are high. Starter points for doing this:

i. Focus on controlling your body’s natural reaction; breathe deep and don’t let your body go into fight or flight

ii. Look at the ‘win win’ and ask yourself “How would I be acting if I really wanted these results?”

iii. Find the shared meaning with the other person (i.e. “We can all agree we want this to be a great place to work)

iv. Avoid simple tradeoffs that cut off conversation like either/or options. There is always an ‘And’ option

v. Always start with heart, focus on what you want and finding meaning with the other person

2. If you want to learn more, read the blog post and/or buy the book (affiliate link) at Amazon or if you’re a local Bellinghamster, Village Books.

My apologies for not writing yesterday. I had the opportunity to spend the day in Seattle with a good friend (my previous Pilates instructor who moved away to Dallas) eating cupcakes, shopping and getting manicures. It was the epitome of a ‘chick’ day and we enjoyed it to the fullest. I didn’t get home until almost midnight. I did pick up a little treat for one of the chocolate lovers on the Bramble Berry team – Deathcake from Cupcake Royale – this crazy insane cupcake like treat with something like 6 layers of cake, ganache, fudge, espresso and chocolately goodness. For myself, I had my fave – Chocolate cupcake with Salted Caramel Icing with a big glass of milk.

This year, our Mastermind Group is picking our continuing education book series in an interesting way. Each member of the group is reading a business book that they feel would be a good fit for our group. Then, we’re writing a book report and previewing the book for the group before we choose our assignment for the entire group. This ensures that, as a group, we are spending our precious time reading books that will give us value and move us ahead in our lives in a meaningful way.

Though there are many incredible books out there and I want to read them all (!!), I chose one that came out in 2002 called ‘Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high’. I chose this book because having the courage to confront is one of my weak points. I want to be liked. I enjoy having great strife-free relationships. And, it’s easier not to talk about difficult issues, just ignore them and go on as if everything is hunky dory.

Only when you/I do that, the resentment, anger or frustration will pop out in some other unattractive or unhealthy way. So, I picked this book to learn some tools for dealing with touchy subjects.

The book is organized in a linear fashion – starting with what exactly a ‘crucial conversation’ is. A crucial conversation is any conversation where opinions vary, stakes are high and emotions run strong. It could be at work, it could with a spouse or it could be with a neighbor. We can handle these conversations in one of three ways: handle them poorly, avoid them or deal with them and handle them well. For most people, handling difficult conversations with poise and grace doesn’t come naturally. Humans aren’t wired for excellent communication. Emotions come in the way and we’re stuck with the way our body processes stress. Our body doesn’t work in a way that lends itself to sticking around, thinking calmly and rationally and working through issues. Our bodies are wired to produce hormones for fighting or to take flight – neither of which are particularly helpful.

The book then goes on to explain why misunderstandings occur. We all view things through a filter of where we grew up, how our parents taught us, how our schooling went and any other experiences we’ve lived through. It’s important when you’re having a ‘crucial conversation’ to recognize this and start to look for shared meaning with the other person. Focus on what you really want, ask yourself ‘How would I behave if I really wanted these results?’ and start to take charge of your body to calm those fight or flight instincts.

One way we all can fight dirty is by choosing the ‘Sucker’s Choice’ – only giving an either/or option and pretending you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. “I don’t want to be the one that tells you but everyone is thinking you’re a jerk” There is always an ‘And’ in every choice and conversation and pretending you’re stuck with two bad options will not produce a win-win.

After these practical strategies, the book goes into more nuanced communication skills such ‘Safety Problems.’ People that are really good at having crucial conversations can have a conversation while dual processing and watching for when the other person doesn’t feel safe in the conversation and steer the conversation back to solid ground. When people don’t feel safe, they either retreat into silence (to avoid potential problems or to deliberately withhold information) or violence (name calling, controlling, attacking behavior). When we are stressed, we all retreat to the worst of our natures. Learning not to retreat to our worst natures during stressful conversations is a skill and it can be learned. You can learn to look for safety problems and watch to make sure you and your conversation partner aren’t falling into the trap of silence or violence.

If you would like to improve your communication style and learn to address problems in all of your relationships with more grace and achieve better outcomes, head to your local library or local book store and pick up a copy.

Frozen Fragrance Oils

February 3, 2010 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We’ve had numerous customer questions regarding fragrances ‘freezing’ in transit. So I thought others might be interested in the “fix” as well. Below is a fragrance oil (Hello Sweet Thangto be exact) that we left outside in the cold overnight. This is what the fragrance looked like after a night in the cold. Some of the fragrance components have cooled off enough to harden up and sink to the bottom of the mixture. But have no fear, the fragrance oil can be brought back to life using our simple heating trick.

Before…

Hot Water Bath: Bring water to a boil on the stove, turn the heat off and submerge the fragrance oil bottle (with cap off) in the hot water. This can take up to an hour for the fragrance to get back to normal so be patient! Re-cap and give the fragrance a good shake and store in a comfortable room temperature and your fragrance should be a-okay.

After…

Seek to Serve

February 2, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

I listened to a great audio CD on the way to work this morning – an interview with Wayne Dyer by the publisher of Success Magazine. Aside: if you don’t subscribe to Success Magazine and you’re a small business owner, you should. It’s chock full of business advice, interviews with inspirational leaders and practical day-to-day advice on how to stay positive, focused and goal-oriented in good times and bad.

In the interview, Mr. Dyer (author of ‘Excuses Begone’ and other self-help or inspirational books) exhorted his listeners to ask what you can do for others – rather than constantly looking around to see what others can do for you. In the ‘like begets like‘ way of thinking, Mr. Dyer said that if you’re constantly asking the universe to give you more, more, more, the universe looks at you and asks for more, more, more.

In business, this attitude doesn’t need to be about giving everything away. Rather, it’s just a simple mind shift of “How will this help my customer?” when you’re adding new products, asking “How can this help my community?” when you’re deciding where to go to lunch or asking “How can this benefit my staff?” when thinking of employee policy changes.

Try it when you’re making decisions today. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the difference this subtle shift in perspective makes.

Forming Lasting Habits

January 3, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Last year, I read a statistic that changed my evening routine; the statistic was that flossing can lengthen your life by up to 6 years. The bacteria in plaque at the gumline contributes to periodontal disease but worse, is linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

All my life I had known that flossing was good for me. My dentists had been telling me that for years. I would floss diligently in the 2 weeks before my cleanings but the slack off again. But, when I read that statistic, I knew I had to take action.

So, I made a goal with my accountability group. It was simple: I will floss once every day. Every Friday, I checked in with my accountability group – did I do it or did I not? It wasn’t the only thing on my goal list that quarter that was a new habit. Everything else was a ‘tablestake’ (working out, eating healthy, business goals). By only having one new thing in my routine to accomplish and focus on, it didn’t overwhelm my me.

Jack Canfield in his book “The Success Principles” suggests only working on 4 new habits for the entire year and choosing one per quarter. He says, “Research shows that if you repeat a behavior for 13 weeks -whether it is meditating for 20 minutes a day, flossing your teeth, reviewing your goals, or writing thank-you letters to your clients – it will be yours for life.”

So, in addition to making your goals SMART (see definition below), consider chunking up your goals into bite sized, manageable chunks adding only **one new habit** per quarter. This will give you a better chance at success.

As for me, 1 year later, I’m still flossing every night. This quarter, my new habit will be to have 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. So, look over your goals that you posted about on this post and ask yourself: “Are they smart?” and “Which ONE new thing would I like to tackle this quarter?” The rest can wait until Quarters 2, 3 and 4.

To give yourself a better chance at success for your goals, they should be:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Oriented

A generic: “Get Healthy” goal is none of these. Breaking down “Get Healthy” into something that is SMART looks like:

I will lose 10 pounds by April 15th. To do this, I will work out 5 times per week, eat a salad daily for lunch 5 times a week and limit my wine intake to 4 glasses per week.

On Dealing with Disappointment

December 16, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Waiting in the airport hoping to catch an early flight back home and I’m thinking about how my meeting didn’t go quite as I had hoped. But I took away so much positive from it and already have my awesome action plan for improving the next meeting. I realized that I am seeing the optimistic side right off the bat because I’ve trained myself to have that point of view. So, I thought I’d write a quick post before my flight about how I deal with disappointment and set-backs. Like all of my ‘experience-sharing’ posts, take it all with a grain of salt and feel free to share your experiences too!

There’s a reason clichés are …. cliché. There are many experiences that are universal. Yes, I’ve watched a pot not boil. I too have counted my chickens before they hatched and had my back against a wall because I bet my bottom dollar barking up the wrong tree.

And, the ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window’ characterization is equally true.

When you are in business, there are often doors closed, shut and slammed in your face. And sometimes, it’s hard to see the window at first. Here are my favorite tips for recovering when you are disappointed in a business situation:

1. Have a pity party. Acknowledge you are disappointed. Your feelings ARE justified. You just had your favorite store say ‘No’/(insert your experience here). Wallow. FOR ONE DAY. No more than that. Another pithy yet true saying Bramble Berry’s business coach says is “Celebrate your successes for one day. Mourn your losses for one day. After one day, move on.”

2. Call your trusted friends and advisors. Talk it out. Tell them about the experience. If you’re on Day One, you can wallow and whine about how unfair it all is. Good friends are awesome for this. They’re on your side no matter what. But, if you’re not still on Day One, suck it up and start to problem solve with them.

3. Action. So you didn’t land the sale/get into the juried craft show/get product placement in a big magazine; that’s okay. And what’s your plan to change it and make it better next time? Rip that scab wide open and Monday morning quarterback. What went wrong? If there is someone to ask, be sure to ask your account rep/media contact/decision maker why you didn’t make the sale or why you didn’t get product placement rather than speculating. Then, move into planning: what is the action plan to fixing it next time? WRITE IT DOWN. Action plans are useless if you don’t write them down and commit to being accountable.

4. Work off that stress and tension. Like the song says, “move it move it.” When you work out, you give your body something to do while your brain can zone out and process without you constantly second guessing yourself (you already did that, remember?). Physical activity is a great stress relief no matter if it’s walking, running or weight lifting. Just do something to get yourself out of your house/office and in a different situation. Move your body. Let your brain wander as your limbs work out your stress and dismay.

5. Fake it ’til ya’ make it. Just like the ‘Shopping is Psychological’ post, what is the way you can reframe this in your head?

You didn’t get the account: “Wow, I didn’t walk out with a Purchase Order but I sure am closer to one the next time!”
You were promised placement in magazine/tv and it didn’t happen: “We didn’t get placed this time but I am so excited that I have this contact for next time.”
You didn’t get into a juried show: “Well, that’s okay. They have my stuff for next year and man, look at the cute designs I thought up just for the show. They will be great on Etsy/my own site/Artfire/another craftshow/to send to potential wholesale accounts”

There will be another chance. Just think how much you learned. Work on those takeaways. And, be sure to look out for that window. It will open up. I promise.

Travel Little Mouse, Travel

December 15, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

I’m glad that everyone seems to be enjoying the scheduling and planning posts I’ve been doing. I apologize that this post doesn’t have many photos. I’m in the airport and sans photo hard drive. There were a few questions on this planning post and I’ve answered them below.

What Tools do you use for planning?

I use Plan Plus Online to do my general overview and scheduling – and then I sync that with my smartphone (iPhone now, Treo before this). I carry around a notebook for big ideas or to-do lists that get transferred to tasks in Plan Plus Online. Before Plan Plus, I was managing everything through Outlook but it wasn’t as efficient for me.

What do you find gives you energy with your 15+ hour days?

Energy for my day happens through good lifestyle practices. I eat fairly healthy throughout the entire day. People that hang out with me are amazed at how much I eat – but it’s generally all healthy. Lots of protein, low on the processed carbs and very little sugar (save cupcakes) and fat (save cheese). Sure, I have an off day or three (fudge for breakfast, anyone?) but overall, I eat a healthy, small-meals-all-through-the-day diet. I go in phases where I write everything down and monitor every gram (using Livestrong.com) of everything that goes into my mouth to less draconian monitoring habits. I probably spend 1/3 of my year with hardcore monitoring to keep myself honest.I also meditate in short bursts throughout the week in the morning and work out (cardio, pilates, boot camp or weights) at least 5 times a week.

I think all of those things really help with the energy throughout the day.

Is it safe to assume you don’t watch tv?

It is safe to assume we don’t have a tv hooked up in our household. I haven’t ever had a tv in any home or apartment I’ve lived in as an adult, preferring to read instead. That’s not to say that we don’t watch movies or indulge in the occasional Hulu show (Glee, anyone?) but for the most part, we are a non-tv household. My parents emphasized games for family activities rather than television watching and that stuck. But, since I read so much (including People magazine and Entertainment Weekly), I stay pretty caught up on all the pop culture – enough to lowest-common-denominator gossip with the best of them.

Can I ask something else? Why bramble berry, otion and soap queen, instead to be just one brand ?

This is a great question. The short answer is that I am always planning for the future and I wanted to give myself the option to spin off one or any of the companies should the perfect buyer come along without harming the others.

It’s appropriate for me to be writing this post today because I’m traveling, again. In addition to travel for executive education, I travel for business meetings and speaking engagements. There are just some business meetings that can’t be done over the phone or even via Skype. Big meetings with vendors or large customers generally require a face to face to just get that ‘gut check’ done. And speaking engagements are better done in person.

Because I travel so much, I have some travel tips:

1. Pay the extra $3 to park at the closest park’n’ride to the airport. It’s worth it for the 15 minutes of stopping, starting and general slowness otherwise.

2. If your flight takes off at any time before 7 a.m. and you don’t live next to the airport, invest the $99 to just stay at the airport. You’ll be getting up at 5 anyways and it’s just easier to not fight traffic.

3. Don’t check unless your trip is over 5 days or you want full size liquids. You pay money to check bags and then you have to wait for the checked bags.

4. Don’t be the jerk with the extra-large carry on. If you need to check a bag, just give in and check the bag. Don’t be the person that is stuffing the entire overhead bin full, hitting people with your bag and generally being obnoxious. If you do check, pack your important documents in your carry-on. The 1 time out of 100 that your bags get lost will be the one time your marriage license/important presentation/passport is in your checked luggage.

5. Middle seats are only fun when you are under 4 feet tall and weigh less than 100 pounds.

6. It’s easiest to fall asleep during take off. I don’t know why. It doesn’t make any sense.

7. Flights over 7 hours need Ambien or Lunestra. There is never enough reading, movie watching or talking to your seatmate to last 7 hours.

8. Your seatmate. Don’t talk to them unless they clearly are looking to make a new networking connection. If they have their headphones in, have buried themselves in a book or are studiously ignoring you, let them be introverted and enjoy their flight.

9. Babies cry. It’s the nature of things. It doesn’t mean that the Mom holding the baby is a terrible mother and deserves your wrath and dirty looks. Travel with earplugs if you must have silence.

10. Mascara looks terrible after a 4 hour flight. If you are a woman, resist the urge to wear much make up on travel day. You just look like a wilted, sad wreck when you arrive at your destination unless you’re extremely proficient at bathroom touch ups.

11. Wear clothes that you could wear to your first meeting on to the flight. You never know when you are going to need to dash from the (late) flight to your first meeting. Dress business casual at the very least.

12. When you feel like taking a cell phone call prior to the flight taking off yet after you’ve boarded, consider ignoring the call and sending a text message. No one wants to hear your call,

13. When you feel like taking a cell phone call prior to boarding, walk a discrete distance away from the crowd. No one wants to hear your call.

14. Yelling at flight attendants makes those around you uncomfortable. If you’re that uptight, might I suggest Xanex?

15. If your flight is delayed, do not switch airports. It never ends well.

16. If your flight is canceled, call your office and have them start checking available flights for you. When you get to the counter to have your flight rebooked, have your action plan already laid out for the nice customer service person. Ideally, while your office/spouse/friend is checking flights for you, you’ll be on the 1-800 line checking for alternative routes so you don’t even need to step to the counter. Always have a back up plan.

17. If you can use miles to buy any of the ‘Executive Boardroom’ passes, do it. It makes waiting at the airport much easier.

18. When you go through security, have your documents out, your identification at the ready and all your liquids in a clear zip lock baggie; take your coat, scarf, watch and shoes off; empty your pockets. Do this all in 20 seconds or less. You had 10 minutes standing in the Security Line to get prepped. Be efficient.

19. Taxis and public transportation in large cities are a miracle. Use them. Resist the urge to spend $100 a day on a car you’ll never use because you don’t know your way and are scared to drive.

20. Say ‘Thank You’ at every opportunity you get. Traveling is not fun nor glamorous. You might as well make it as pleasant as possible.

If you have any other tips or questions, post them below. I would love to hear how you make travel more easy, enjoyable and delightful for yourself and others.

Plan Little Mouse, Plan!

December 9, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

In my office with one of the planning whiteboards (taken with my webcam)

I was heartened by the level of reader engagement on my post about scheduling yesterday. Thank you for reading and participating.

A couple questions came up on the comments – some easy ones:

How much do you sleep? 5 to 7 hours a night

What is a ‘Big Rock’? It’s Stephen Covey’s term for the ‘Must Do, Really Important, Lines Up with Value, Vision and Life Purpose’ things. For more on this, keep reading this post.

“I’m sure coffee helps.“ I wish. I don’t drink caffeine. Any. Nada. Zilch. One day, I could write a long post about weaning myself from that addictive substance and the subsequent walking-zombie month.

And the not easy one:

Could you share something about your marketing strategy?Yes! I totally can and will. And it’s complex enough to probably warrant a few well thought out posts. Plan on that in 2010 from me.

What did I say? Always on the iPhone. This is on a vacation to scout my brother’s wedding!

As I mentioned in this post, a full 10% of my schedule is devoted to planning my schedule. For me, planning happens in three stages:

1. Yearly Planning – I do this in November for the entire year. What goals do I want to achieve in an entire year? I’ve posted about this type of planning here and here. It usually takes about 2 days of planning, refining, planning, refining, planning and refining some more before goals, vision and value is aligned. And, this is a living document. If it needs to be changed during the year (say, we land a huge account or I get an awesome opportunity to travel abroad for work), it gets changed. I’ve blogged about the process of goal setting, planning your year, determining your vision and values here, here, here, and here. The yearly planning is by far the most difficult and challenging. Once it’s done, everything rolls easier from there.

2. Monthly Planning – I do this monthly with my Management Team for business and my Accountability team for personal stuff. I’ve blogged about the Management Team meeting here and the Accountability team here and here. This is just the process of looking at the big yearly goals and breaking them down into more manageable chunks of what needs to be accomplished in 30 days.

Project task board at Bramble Berry

3. Weekly Planning – I do this on Sunday or Monday morning. I look at my schedule for the entire week, revisit my goals for the year and the month and then start to slot those things in accordingly. Some of my weekly goals and tasks are around family and friends – they’re not all about business. Remember, it’s the extra 20% (health, family and friends) that makes me feel fulfilled in my life so my ‘Rocks’ also include nurturing important relationships. It usually starts with a list. I want to take XYZ class his week, see XYZ friend, go to So-and-So’s house for dinner, make XYZ sales calls, write 5 blog posts, work on X SoapQueen TV scripts etc…

Then, I go through my schedule and literally slot these goals (or “Rocks”) in (using PlanPlusOnline software), leaving lots and lots of time for the smaller pebbles and sand. In any given day, my task list is typically not more than 4 to 6 items. This allows me to be extremely flexible in helping out where needed for customer service, answering emails and all the other stuff that comes fast and furious when you own your own business.

Some of the things I do every single day don’t get written down as a task because they’re just part of the routine. For example, unless it’s a scheduled work out class, I just fit in gym time when I can. Or, daily clean up at the office. Routine, mundane things don’t go on my planning.

The whole process takes 20 minutes max and it’s easy to do. Productivity isn’t about running around, trying to get every single little task done, jumping from fire to fire. It’s about doing the few things that matter. It’s about doing the things that help to move you, your company and your family towards your goals.

Do I drop the ball and disappoint myself and others by not always meeting my deadlines and goals? Yes. I do. Life happens. And, tomorrow is another day. Do my days get totally messed up and not go as planned? Of course it does. Today was one of those days (thus the blogging at midnight). And, when it does, like a diet, you just get back on track and find time during the rest of the week or the weekend to complete your ‘Rocks.’ The pebbles and sand somehow always seem to find their way into the day without any help. Need help determining your rocks? The Cliff Notes version is here. Or, you can buy the book ‘First Things First’ by Stephen Covey (highly highly highly recommend) and do the exercises. They are enlightening and life changing.

Other tools: Whiteboards, whiteboards, whiteboards everywhere! I have FIVE huge whiteboards in my office. They are constantly changing with whatever project is being worked on, whatever the quarterly goals are and whatever we’re brainstorming on that everyone needs to see.

Planning your life isn’t difficult once you knock out the Yearly Planning – everything flows from those ‘Super Goals’ that you give yourself at the beginning of the year. Take a stab at it. Give it a try. Get started now and I’ll do a post in late December so we can all share our yearly goals and help one another get excited about goals, dreams, schedules and even a little pixie dust.

Run Little Mouse, Run!

December 8, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Me with members of the Women President’s Organization

Morgane commented on the Brand Spankin’ New Items post:

I was thinking that if i had to manage my own company, the first thing that would scare me would be managing my time.
Anne-Marie, i would love to know what a day or even a week at BB look like?
I know i am curious! )
Thanks for sharing your passion with us.

I’ve had variants of this question before and requests for the Bramble Berry story. It feels odd to talk about myself as though I am doing something extraordinary or special. But, then I look at the statistics and realize that with the help of my team, we are doing something cool. We’ve beaten the odds (knock on wood) and are among the (sadly low percentage of) 3% of women-owned businesses in the nation grossing over $1 million dollars. (Can I hear a ‘Woot Woot!‘?). So, if my experiences will help you reach the next pinnacle in your success, I want to help.

Speaking at the Admistrative Professional’s Day in Bellingham

My days vary greatly. Some days start at 4:30 a.m. when I leave the house for what I (gritted-teeth) lovingly refer to as my ‘Seattle Days.’ Those days end around 10 p.m. when I make it back home, both excited about what I learned, forward looking and frankly, exhausted. The Bellingham -Seattle – Bellingham commute can take up to 6 hours with traffic and usually clocks in around 5 hours. Thankfully, there’s Audible Books on Tape for the traffic crawl. Other days are in the office, loaded to the gills with email, soapmaking, phone calls, interviews, meetings and customer service tasks. Just publishing my daily schedule would probably be useless for you – but explaining my thought process behind how I plan my schedule might be helpful.

I plan my month using PlanPlusOnline software by Franklin Covey. I split my month up by percentages.

15% Planning
10% Executive Education & Learning
40% Implementing Big Rocks & Doing General Management ‘stuff’
25% Blog Projects & Writing, SoapQueen.TV & Social Media
10% Travel* (for press stuff, speaking engagements or education)
The extra 10% – Working Out/Eating Healthy
The extra 10% – Friends & Family

*in difficult months, travel can account to up to 50% and the perfectly planned month goes out the window!

There isn’t enough time in the day/month to do everything so my days start early and end late. That’s the only way I can fit it all in and, it’s the extra 20% that really makes a difference to how I feel about my schedule. If I am working out, eating right and spending time with family on a weekly basis, a 12 hour workday seems easy.No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’m always hooked into my iPhone (and before that, my Treo).Last month, my cell phone used up 298,440 MB of data, I sent 910 text messages and received 843 text messages (and that doesn’t include Twitter). I check my email first thing in the morning and emails are the last thing I look at before going to sleep. It’s not pretty. It’s not romantic. And it’s not what my husband would prefer – but that’s what it takes for me to run my small business. You have to get up earlier, stay up later and work smarter than everybody else.I can count the number of movies on *one hand* that I’ve watched in the last decade without a laptop sitting on my lap. And, even with all of that, I love my life and feel lucky and blessed every day.

Bellingham Mastermindmind Group

I’ll spend a few posts over the next few weeks explaining the various categories, what they mean and why I devote time to them.

Executive Education includes:

Entrepreneur’s Organization

Women Business Owners

Women President’s Organization

Mastermind Group

Business Book Club

Conventions (Soap Guild, Sales & Business Specific ones)

Reading self-improvement & business books on my own time

Subscriptions to: Inc, Fast Company, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, The Economist, Success Magazine, Money

Local business groups – Whatcom Women in Business, Whatcom Young Professionals

What this does to my schedule: 2-3 days in Seattle for learning events and roundtable business discussions with the Entrepreneur’s Organization, Women Business Owners and Women President’s Organization, two evenings a month (thankfully in Bellingham!) for the Mastermind Group business discussions and Business Book Club and some local business events sporadically in the evenings. I read in the mornings before work, carry magazines with me everywhere for downtime and have trained myself to read in the car (as a passenger, not the driver!).

Why I devote this much time to things that don’t directly make me money: When I started Bramble Berry, I had an undergraduate degree in psychology and criminal justice. I went back to school and received my Masters in Business Administration 4 years ago and don’t want the learning to stop. Every day, I run into things I haven’t done before, challenges that seem to appear out of nowhere and paths that make no sense. Having a strong base of knowledge and other peoples’ experience to draw from helps to make me a better leader and make decisions that not only benefit Bramble Berry but ensure that there is a business for decades to come.

Business doesn’t come ‘naturally’ to anyone. Certain God-given abilities give people an edge (example: being able to sell anything to anyone) but financial literacy, appropriate human resources skills, marketing strategy, operations – all of that needs to be taught.

With the CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally at a *free* event I heard him speak at

What if you don’t have the money to do tons of executive education?Get creative! Classes at the community college, attend evening (free or close to free) lectures, start a Business Book Club, start a Mastermind Group and explore these ideas with other people and go to the library monthly to read the business magazinesUltimately, how you schedule your day is up to you and what works for me won’t necessarily work for you. The next post I do will be about the 10% Planning that I spend my month on – what the planning looks like and why it’s important to do.Please ask questions – leave comments – I want this to be a helpful series for you and I can only make it helpful through your feedback.

ROI of Social Media

December 6, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Seattle Wine Gal had an excellent blog post this week about measuring the ROI of Social Media. She wrote it primarily for wineries but the message applies to all businesses, not just those in the wine industry. When I read it, I thought: “Wow! I should totally write about that for our industry.” And, then, when I started a rough draft, I realized that Barbara had already said it and there was no need to reinvent the wheel. She graciously agreed to let me re-publish her post (thanks, B!). Are you on the fence about ‘social media’ (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and more)? Or are you tweeting away, wondering what good it does? Then this post is for you.

Social Media are an extension of customer service and relations. The extension of customer service and relations via social media efforts is measurable by how many clients and potential clients are reached by social media efforts. This is measured by how many people decide to ‘commit’ to supporting you by following/’friending’ you, which is a public declaration of their support. This measurement comes in the form of numbers of followers/fans/blog readers. With steps taken carefully to ensure quality over quantity of followers, you can assume that the number is an accurate depiction of how many people you are extending customer service and relations i.e. how many people you are allowing easy access to you and your company (to ask questions, hear company news first etc).
Social Media establishes trust. “Trust” is a bit tricky to measure, but it is possible, and very closely linked to ‘increased reputation and word of mouth’. You cannot manufacture trust and reputation it primarily comes from what has already been said and done rather than what we are going to do, i.e. the benefit of this aspect of social media takes some time to develop. Eventually “trust” and general appreciation will be evident by the increase in number of times followers/fans mention your company or product independent of your prompts. The more effort put into social media, the larger the number of unprompted mentions. This is something that can be easily missed, but a daily perusal of fan tweets, and social network mentions of your company/ products is a good indicator of customer trust and appreciation. Basically, the numbers of times that people are advertising for you, and independent of your suggestion to do so. For example: re-tweets, message board mentions, facebook conversations with friends. Providing information and the service of being accessible to clientele is what actually establishes you as a trustworthy source, and this goes well beyond what one can measure in hard numbers. This aspect of trust will be evident in good customer feedback both face to face, as well as on the web.
Social Media increases your reputation and increases word of mouth and recognition. It is very easy to measure an increase in word of mouth on the web. An increase in ‘Google Alerts’ mentions (Google Alerts is a list of web mentions and the source of mention of you, your business, and/or product on the internet, which is emailed to you). Also number of post and/or youtube views and comments, mentions on others blogrolls, and weblinks. ‘@ mentions’ and ‘Re-Tweets’ on Twitter are another great way of measuring word of mouth. It is also important to recognize who the people are that are promoting you via word of mouth, what are their credentials and credibility, are they recognized in a community that applies to your business, or are they mentioning you to a small circle of immediate friends (both are essentially good). Are the followers of those who comment on you commenting on this author/you in their own social media circles?
Social Media efforts lead to an increase in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). One of the basic tenants of SEO is that the more ‘key words’ or direct mentions of you/product/company that exists on the web, the closer to the top of peoples general web searches you become. In your social media efforts, if you consistently write about a given topic or theme, or your product name in general, these keywords will add up and create an increase in search engine optimization.
Social Media, when done properly, increases sales. An increase in sales as a result of social media can be measured to some extent by allowing customers to answer (whether checking out of an online store or in person) the question, “where did you hear about us”? More specifically, customers can be polled about what specific platform they learned about you from (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, message boards, blog mentions etc.). Google analytics is a good way to track this answer, if asked upon check out at your online store. Another way of tracking increased sales due to social media is to give coupon codes or exclusive deals for your fans and followers.

Written by Seattle Wine Gal, Barbara Evans

Fish or Cut Bait

December 2, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Yesterday, I met with a group of incredibly smart, motivated and value-driven entrepreneurs to tackle a question that all of us face at some point in our self-employment life – at what point do you quit? One of the questions we all discussed was:

Do you have specific metrics that you use to figure out when it’s time to stop charging forward and just hunker down?

At Bramble Berry, I don’t go by my gut very much any more without having specific, measurable numbers to back it up. We have a monthly management meeting (click here to see exactly what we cover) and at this meeting, we go through our budget line by line. Any number that is more than .05% off is color coded so we can see at a glance what needs improvement and discuss corrective action. I use my gut when it comes to hiring and firing decisions, new product lines and decisions about marketing strategy but it is only a tool. If the numbers don’t back me up, my gut won’t win the argument for long.

Another question we discussed was: Do your other responsibilities make you more conservative or less conservative?

This was an easy one for me to answer. I feel like my decision making gets more conservative the more employees Bramble Berry has. I feel a responsibility to make the ‘right’ decisions so that there is a job for future generations of Brambleberrians. The drawback to this is that it makes Bramble Berry less nimble and able to react to trends because I review decisions more carefully. For example, we didn’t ever add much in the way of diffuser ingredients because by the time our rigorous testing process was done … the trend had peaked and was not a growing market segment for us to pursue.

At what point is your business not fun? If you’re not fulfilling the dreams you had for the business when do you cut back/pull the plug?

This was the zinger of the questions for me because part of what I love about being self employed is the opportunity. I love being able to dream up my best future and then have the freedom to pursue those plans with delight and vigor. And, since I’ve done every job at Bramble Berry (pulling, packing, pouring, customer service, accounting, budgeting, marketing, you name it), I’m always game to jump in and help whenever I’m needed (and the sad truth is that the team at Bramble Berry can pack, pull and pour way better than I ever could so I’m really not much help). If my ‘dream’ isn’t being fulfilled, then it’s time to rework the vision and the dream.

Right now, we have a powerful motivation – our vision of changing lives, creating opportunities, delivery high value and encouraging creative expression through the five senses. Any time the going gets even a little tough, I just need to look at our overall vision to help sustain me through rough patches. (Wondering how you can make a vision? Here’s a starter post on how to write up a vision).

Takeaways:

Always back up gut decisions with numbers
Being nimble is a market advantage. Fight to stay there.
Define your vision. Make your roadmap and stick to the plan faithfully.
Entrepreneurs are the eternal optimists. It’s hard to get us down!

Shopping Is Psychological

November 10, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

I love love lovecraft shows, fairs and bazaars of all types. Since I spent many weekends at craft shows selling handmade soap to help bootstrap Bramble Berry, I have a very special place in my heart for crafters and artisans and try to buy as much as I can from small businesses represented at these shows.

This weekend, I went to a very well known juried craft show with a girlfriend. We were so delighted to be among small business, colorful displays and quality products that we bought something at the very first booth we stopped at (soap, of course!). As we wandered the aisles, making conversation with everyone, we were both happy to be there and eager to spot the next ‘perfect’ gift. We asked all the crafters how the show was going and got happy smiles and varied responses: “I’m having a lot of fun.” “Lots of traffic.” “I love this event.”

Until we hit one beautifully arranged booth with an array of beautiful toiletry products; when we asked the woman at the booth how the show was going, she answered “Terrible.” My friend and I were taken aback and made sympathetic noises and then asked how her other events this year had been. “Terrible.” I said something acknowledging the challenging economy and she came back with “You’re right, it is tough and I’m thankful for every dollar I make.” Despite the positive last comment, we both walked away feeling slightly disjointed and worse yet, never picked up one single item in her booth. In hindsight, I just wanted to flee the negativity.

We continued our shopping trip, buying several things over the show and making lots of great conversation with everyone we met. But, the one crafter stuck with me. What could she have said? Should she have lied? How did that affect me, as the shopper? How did it affect her, as the shopkeeper, to say that?

Just from a public relations standpoint, the following answers are better then “Terrible”:

“I’m having a great time. There are lots of people to talk to.”
“Isn’t the array of crafters incredible?”
“It’s been a lot of fun!”
“I’ve been getting good feedback on this product.”
“The contacts I’ve made this weekend have been invaluable.”
“I may have picked up a few new wholesale accounts so I’m thrilled”
“This is a great place to test out new products.”
“Oh my goodness, this is incredible; I’ve been getting so many goodies from other crafters here. You should definitely check out XYZ over there. They have great XYZs.”
“I am so thankful that the weather has held up the way it has. It’s just so beautiful/warm/clear/crisp/inviting/balmy.”
“The floor traffic is great. The promoters really did a wonderful job of getting a crowd in here.”
“It’s been exciting to see what sells. Right now, my XYZ soap/lotion/bath fizzy/scrub is selling really well. I think it’s because it conveys happiness/the spirit of the season/calm/insert whatever adjective you want here.”

These answers are not a lie. They don’t address sales but at least they’re trying to find the silver lining on an otherwise dismal weekend. And, just like with children, if you don’t answer the initial question but just answer with a positive, all your potential customer will remember is your sunny nature.

The second we got into the car, my friend and I both discussed the comment and parsed the phrasing of the exchange. When I got home, my friend had already emailed me the following:

I was thinking about the downer soap lady on the way home and realized that not only did I not pick up and smell her soap – which is SO uncharacteristic of me, I love to smell everything – but then I felt a little off the shopping game at the next several booths. It’s as if she conveyed the attitude that we weren’t in the fun, cool shopping place, we were in the loser shopping place and it impacted my shopping. So it wasn’t until we hit the friendly soap booth that I thought about spending money again.

Shopping is so psychological!

She hit the nail on the head – shopping is psychological! People buy with their emotions and rationalize the choices later, after they’ve made the buying decision. So, when you’re at your craft shows this season, be sure to have handy phrases and a big smile to put on – even if your show isn’t what you expected. And you never know, by changing your own attitude, you may help to change the attitude of the customers in your booth helping to turn a so-so show into a great one.

Save That Soap! Scrappy Soap Loaves

October 17, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

If you’re anything like me, and hate wasting soap, you’ll have plenty of soap scraps laying around the house from all of your melt and pour projects. I recently got a bee in my bonnet to embedded some of my old soap in one loaf mold (below) and chop up melt and pour scraps to integrate into a Cold Process loaf (above). I just love how they both turned out. The fragrance is even fabulous, though I will probably never be able to recreate it. Rats!

And another scrappy soap made with melt and pour odds and ends – each bar looks different and special.

Two more scrappy soaps I did are shown on TwitPic here and here.

Check out episode 4 of Soap Queen TV to see how I made the scrappy masterpiece above.