Am I Winning in the Game of Life?

February 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I have recently had reason to take stock of what I have given, received and learned in my life so far.  These were the limits in which I used to keep my focus. I often need that

I love what I do

I love what I do

because I have such an appetite for learning that I can get distracted very quickly.  This topic also was the subject of one of my favourite authors, Clayton Christensen.  So I looked around me and started asking the tough questions. I am winning, losing or just treading water.

It is always hard to take the time to reflect on your progress.  It feels like a touchy, feely thing to do but you might be surprised to know that the most successful people do it all the time. It is what keeps them honest, in integrity and balanced.  How else can they juggle their complex lives. Of course we have seen the Bernie Maddocks of the world who is the epitome of “failing”. Sadly, he didn’t start to carry out a jail term. He had a big future ahead of him but he lost track of his core values and greed took over.

 

Bernie is one of the big news failures but we see them around us, far too often. I am a coach and I teach coaching in corporations. The reason I do this is to cut the amount of stress employees and managers are under. How many people do you know that would love to leave their job and do something different? How many people do you know hate their job?  I can’t help but wonder what the consequence of these feelings about their job  has on them, their co-workers, their managers, their customers, their family and everyone else that gets in their path. How can they feel good about themselves and continue in this negative pattern.

I am not going  to reinvent the wheel here. I follow this wonderful young man by the name of Scott Dinsmore.   This link is worth a look as he has a great community build around loving your workplace (maybe not the one you are in now but a new one).  His ideas follow mine in that the first key things you must do when you are thinking about your life going forward is;

  • You will actually have to decide where you want to be in 5 and 10 years. I know that sounds like old school but it really is creating a destination point for your journey. If you don’t know where you want to go any road will take you there. This is dangerous to not have a vision of where you want to end up.
  • Are you investing in your brain? Are you learning new things. Remember university and college was just the start. When was the last time you invested in a book about leadership or watched a training video on something that relates to your interests. You get the idea.
  • Are you taking care of your body?  This handy little thing is the only way you can get around easily. It is worth the effort.

Okay, that is lots to think about today. I do recommend Clayton’s book and check out Scott’s site. These are investments in you.  Your life plan is calling.  Take good care of yourself.

 



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Filed Under: Blog, Leadership, Planning, self improvement

Breadwinner Wives

January 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

pic7

For centuries men were expected to be the main providers or breadwinners for their families.  As times have changed, women have established themselves in the working world alongside their male counterparts.  But what about responsibilities at home?  Working women, even those working full-time careers were often still viewed as a ‘second wage earner’ not as the primary breadwinner for the family.  They maintained nearly the same level of responsibility in childcare and household tasks as their ancestral female forebears while also holding down full-time careers.  Times are changing yet again.  Women are now more likely to seek a masters degree than their male counterparts. Women have steadily outpaced men in earning higher degrees since the late 1990′s.

There has been a slow but steady societal shift in which women are taking over as the primary breadwinner and handing off more of the domestic tasks to their significant others.  According to the most recent census, one in five stay-at-home parents is a man.  More women are reporting that they share equally household chores such as cleaning, laundry and cooking than in previous decades.  In a rising number of cases, the husbands are shouldering more of the chores then their wives.  Childcare is the one area where women still tend to take on more than their husband.

Does that mean that a woman who earns more has more power?  Not necessarily.  A majority of breadwinner wives surveyed report that they share power equally with their spouses.   A similar majority report that they are very happy in their marriages, whether they had children or not made little difference in that number.



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Filed Under: Home, Leadership, Planning Tagged With: , ,

Home Office

January 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

tevo3

More and more women are working from home and not just working moms looking for more flexibility.  As a growing number of women are becoming business entrepreneurs, many are establishing themselves with home offices.  Working from home has it perks.   Answering the phone in your pajamas is perfectly acceptable.  Fielding emails over your morning oatmeal or a late night snack is also acceptable.  But there are some serious drawbacks to working from home.  It can be more difficult to disconnect from work when it’s right there next to you.  Distractions can interfere with your work.  Fixing yourself a sandwich can quickly turn into tidying the kitchen, throwing in a load of laundry and starting dinner.  Before you know it, you’ve lost two hours and now you need to walk the dog before you can get back to that project you need finished by 9:00 am tomorrow.

So how do you make working from home work for you?  A few tips:

Establish a separate office space, preferably not a corner in your bedroom.  This cuts down on distractions and trains your brain to settle into work when you’re in that space.  It also allows you to walk away from work and be at home.  This is crucial if you have a family.  They will need to respect your workspace.

Routine!  Have set office hours. Having set working times and set down times allows you to manage stress better.  Yes, you can go to the gym in the middle of the day if you want, but schedule your working hours around it.  Again, routine will be important if you have family or even friends who assume that because you’re home, you’re not busy.

Get out of the house from time to time.  Working from home is great but you don’t want to become a recluse either.  Pick one day a week to work from a coffee shop.  Join your local chamber of commerce.  Attend networking functions.  Something, anything to keep you connected with real live human beings.



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Filed Under: Planning, Planning for Profit, Time Management Tagged With: , ,

Do You Understand Your Insurance?

January 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

tevo2

 

If I asked you how your health insurance coverage is set up, could you answer me?  Some women have their spouses and family listed as dependents on their employer’s group insurance policy.  Some women are listed as dependents on their spouse’s employer’s policy.  Some are covered under individual health policies, with themselves or their spouse listed as the primary.  But what happens if you and your spouse divorce?  What if the one covered by an employer plan gets laid off?  What if the primary insured dies?  Would you know what your options are and what to do to avoid any lapse in coverage?  Single women, listen up.  This applies to you even more since you don’t have the fallback of a possible spousal coverage.

As with the earlier article on taking control of your money, understanding your insurance coverage is key component of maintaining your financial security.  If you experience a loss of coverage for any of the above reasons, you will have a limited amount of time in which to make decisions.  It is a good idea to understand and evaluate the options before you face a crisis.  COBRA is a safety net but it can be a very expensive safety net, particularly if you are not working.  Individual insurance plans are subject to medical underwriting, which can present a problem if you have any pre-existing health conditions, even minor ones.  Healthcare reform laws governing pre-existing conditions don’t go into effect until January 2014.

Once a year you should review your health insurance.  Make sure you understand what type of coverage you have and if you’re covered through a group plan, what would it cost you through COBRA.  You may have an emergency fund tucked away but would it be enough?  Your plan’s group administrator should be able to give you that information.  Be sure you understand how your plan works.  Do you have an HSA account?  If so, is it funded and are you using it?  What is your deductible?  Is that included in your emergency fund?  If you have an individual plan, with or without a spouse, talk to your broker once a year to review how the plan works, how you’re making use of it and understand what your options are if you wanted to make a change.  If your health has changed since you took the plan out, you may not be able to switch to a different plan, which can be an important piece of information for financial planning.



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Filed Under: Planning Tagged With: , ,

Writing your Business Vision Statement

November 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

business

As goal setting include one of the main measures in setting up a firm foundation for any type of business, a vision statement will hold a vital place within the process, as well. Therefore, how will you go about creating a vision statement for your business?

Business vision statements, for small businesses or large businesses, require an owner to initially visualize what he/she sees for his/her business in the future. Within your vision statement, you’ll explain how things are going to be as you reach specific goals which you’ve charted out for the business and yourself. The vision statement won’t just be comprehensible by you, yet by all the ones who’ll work together towards accomplishing these objectives. It’ll permit it to function as one way of communication, as well as will get everybody to be upon the same page as you.

The vision statement doesn’t include just your perception, yet additionally of the ones included within the business with you. Whether it’s your adviser, business partner, or a few of your workers, you must involve them within the process of creating the vision statement. Some brainstorming sessions might be needed to have the ability to jot it down.

Begin by listing the facts concerning the business alongside its capabilities and its strengths. Additionally, enlist your business objectives. The length of your vision statement will be dependent upon all that you wish to include within it. Ideally, it shouldn’t be any lengthier than one paragraph, although it might exceed this limitation in some instances.

The vision statement ought to aptly define where you see your business 5 – 10 years down the road. It ought to possess passionate terms which motivate you to immediately work to accomplish the objectives you’ve established for the company. It ought to be a written document describing the graphic mental photograph you’ve painted for the success of the company.



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Things you should Consider Prior to Purchasing an Existing Business

November 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

business

Prior to purchasing an existing company, you must make certain that you’re prepared to take on the duty that comes with being an owner of a business. Even though, unlike within jobs, you wouldn’t be required to report to anybody, but, all of the profits/losses of the company is going to be yours from now on. Therefore, just if you’re ready for this, think about buying one.

If you’re prepared for this job, then decide on the business which you’d enjoy owning. For that, search into the type of education, experience and skills which you have. Assess your personality– then accordingly, purchase a business where you believe you’ll have the ability to provide your best. Be alert to your abilities; ask yourself whether you’ll have the ability to deal with the employees and clients of the business which you’re going to buy. If you believe you can, you should go for it!

Search for the businesses which you can purchase. Browse through newspaper ads, visit business brokers, ask your friends, acquaintances, banker, attorney, etc., to assist you in the search. You even can go to trade associations, as well as search for companies which placed themselves up for sale.

As you have chosen a company, the following thing you should do is investigate whether purchasing it will be profitable. Therefore, thoroughly assess the business. Assess its monetary statements for the past 3 years. Check if it’s making a profit or it’s declining. If the business is declining, check if you’d have the ability to turn its fortunes around or if the company has reached its peak, as well as isn’t any longer profitable. Finally, ask the business’ owner if you could spend a bit of time at the actual site. It’ll provide you a clearer idea about how the company functions and operates.



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Filed Under: Planning

Developmental Goals for the Work Place

September 19, 2012 By 3 Comments

goals

Photo credit: Franz Pfluegl

 

Employees might occasionally feel adrift from what’s going on around them, inside the organization. It might, at times, be because of a lack of motivation or an incapability of achieving professional objectives laid out by a company. The feeling of not having the ability to live up to a person’s professional potential definitely would cause poor appraisals, which consequently, would leave a negative impact upon a person’s career expansion. It’s why it’s very important to concentrate on developmental objectives at work.

Goals have to be specific: Establishing goals includes identifying what you wish to accomplish, why you want to accomplish the same, what all might be included in accomplishing the goal, probable obstacles which might act as an impediment, as well as at last, the benefits which might accrue upon its accomplishment.

Goals have to be measurable: You ought to have the ability to measure how much you’ve progressed or achieved in the development objective for work which you’d established for yourself. Measurable objectives allow you to comprehend whether or not you’re on course and where you’re lagging.

Goals have to be attainable: Those developmental objectives you establish for yourself should be challenging. However, one must make sure that the objective isn’t too ambitious. It would, to repeat, include a fair assessment of a person’s own abilities in recognizing the developmental objectives.

Goals should be relevant: Relevant goals are those that have significance and the probability to enhance a person’s stance at the work environment. It also should be in tune with a person’s resources and capabilities.

Goals should time-bound: The establishing of realistic time limits allows you to examine how far you’ve progressed. Whether your goal has been accomplished within your stated time or stretched beyond, as well, is a key pointer upon where you might have gone awry along your course.



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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Leadership, Planning Tagged With: , ,

Live Your Legend and Live Big

August 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I have been following a young guy by the name of Scott Dinsmore for some time now. Actually it has been about a year but it feels longer. You know when someone strikes such a strong cord with you, you feel like you have known them a long time. That is my relationship with Scott Dinsmore.

In my researching of new products that compliment the business coaching and  planning niche that I love so much.  I was looking for a product or professional to go deeper into the “Mindset” area. I  feel so strongly about the value of “head-space” or mindset, what ever you want to call it. If you don’t have your head in the game, it just won’t work out so well.  As a recovering HR Executive I heard so many people  talk about “hating”their job and my response always was – Find one you like then.  That seemed like such a foreign concept to so many, which surprised me then and baffles me now. Information as never been easier to get and opportunities abound, but you have to want it.  Some people have that desire deeply embedded in their DNA, like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and maybe Martha Stewart, but others need a thinking partner to bring out the best you have to offer.

Back to Scott Dinsmore.   He has a program that I thought might be a great addition to my work, so I bought it.  Wow is all I can say.  I have become an affiliate of his and I hope to actually do some work with him in the not so distant future. I can see how his work will be a great addition to my TEVO Small Biz Boot-camp series of programs. What I love about his work is the non nonsense type of advise he gives. He is a young guy with a wide open spirit. He is accountable to himself and his family and he holds himself fully capable. There I have put all my coaching jangle in one sentence, but I get jazzed reading this guy.

If you are thinking of doing something different, but are afraid, (no judgement intended here but often we are afraid to make a giant change because of fear of failure, fear of disappointing others around us and fear of the unknown) or if you want to take what you are doing and make it bigger, this is a great program for you. I couldn’t have done it better myself. I am happy to share the link for his program and I am sure you will not be disappointed.  You can find his program Click Here!.

 

Enjoy

Judy



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Filed Under: Blog, Goal Setting, Home, Planning, Planning for Profit, Uncategorized

Retirement Planning

June 7, 2012 By 1 Comment

RetirementWith individuals living longer and requiring more funds to do so, retirement planning includes a critical task even for the ones halfway to the normal retirement age of 65.

Placing just a small amount of cash now inside a savings account which serves as your retirement savings plan could pay off later on. The interest gained on cash in a savings account allows your initial investments to expand to something sustainable. Savings accounts are going to offer a place in which you could accumulate capital making a small interest rate until there’s an adequate amount to invest in a reliable security which is going to yield you more similar to a municipal bond.

An additional strong approach which surely can and steadily will build a nest egg includes investing in long-run bonds. On maturation of your bond, you will receive your initial investment back and all of the interest which collected over the life of your bond. That is a considerable quantity of cash for a twenty- or thirty-year bond-money which could offer a great foundation for retirement. Plus, a government or municipal bond is as secure an investment as you might ever make. Purchase one of those bonds now then appreciate the security of understanding that cash will be available as you select to retire.

But, the ideal approach as it comes to retirement planning includes placing funds inside a 401 (k) plan in the workplace or within an IRA that’s opened with an investment house. The 401 (k) plans where the employer matches the worker’s contributions includes the optimal means of investment preparation for retirement. These plans mean any investment is doubled automatically. Plus, 401 (k) plans will further encourage savings due to early withdrawals being accompanied by penalties.

For the ones for whom a 401 (k) isn’t a retirement planning choice, an IRA includes the next best item. Cash placed within this account will be tax deferred and might be tax-deductible depending upon how much is invested every year.



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Filed Under: Blog, Planning Tagged With: ,

How You Can Turn Public Speaking to New Clients

May 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

speakingPromoting your company using training events which prospects might pay for includes a fantastic method of building up credibility and keeping your pipeline filled with eligible leads. Here include a few methods of using speaking engagements to gain bigger deals:

Breakout session: Keynotes are usually thirty to ninety minutes and generally concentrate upon a wide topic of interest to the participants. Breakout sessions are a more detailed side session in a meeting and typically last forty-five to ninety minutes. Breakout sessions permit you to make deeper connections with participants, as well as secure the part as consultant. It’s how you could start to be viewed as a trusted advisor, rather than the featured speaker.

Corporate trainings: They’re usually half- or full-day seminars performed for private clients, typically corporations, for a circle of its workers. It may be the most profitable industry for speaking due to there being several companies which possess training budgets. Several people, who earn hundreds of dollars speaking for executive coaching organizations, earn thousands of dollars as they deliver the same presentations to organizations.

Sponsoring own public seminar: It’s commonly a full-day workshop or seminar in which registration is open for the public. You will market the event as well as make a profit (or a loss). The business is all about placing buns in seats. It’s oftentimes a proposition in which you will break even in getting the participants there, yet if you make the subject matter specific enough it may lead to the participants wishing for more. In turn, this could ultimately lead to bigger contracts with the individual businesses attending.

Speaking for sponsored events: One alternative to running seminars alone is finding a sponsor. Or you may locate an ‘executive summit’ that has multiple featured speakers. The idea is to get in front of more individuals who could purchase more later on.



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Filed Under: Leadership, Planning Tagged With: ,
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