A: Tony, that’s a great question.

So many small business owners are having a really hard time just making a go of it, let alone setting up the work/life balance schedule and freedom that they wanted and went into business for in the first place.

Here are five steps I work on with my clients so they are energized, have more personal and family time, make more money, and are truly in control of their business:

1.) Know what your specific role is. This is your business, so you can set it up any way that you want (I LOVE that about working for yourself!).

2.) Have written short-, medium- and long-term enthusiastic goals so you know where you’re heading and are able to keep better focus and momentum.

3.) Develop and follow a time-bound strategic plan with weekly, monthly and quarterly action steps, so you’re not wasting time or “spinning your wheels.” Plan your top priority activities daily and review weekly.

4.) Determine which time-wasting and energy-sucking activities to ditch or delegate.

5.) Free your time and eliminate your stress by leveraging relationships – create a staff of high-performers, build alliance partners, or use time- and money-saving vendors.

Your business areas have to be systemized if you really want to work less hours, make more money, and be satisfied, fulfilled and centered.

If you have a question about business growth and want to ask BizCoachJason, send it to Jason(at)DistinctiveCoaching.com or post it on http://facebook.com/GrowYourBiz and I’ll answer it right away.

All the best,
Jason Rosado
773-829-1276
Business Growth Coach
Distinctive Coaching for Business Success

And “little Nate” cries quite a bit and quite loudly too.

His crying lets us know that he’s unhappy, uncomfortable, afraid, or that he wants something.

But we really don’t know which of these, let alone what specifically would comfort him, make him happy and allow him to go to sleep. And trust me, I’ve tried explicitly asking him many times! But he just doesn’t answer. I don’t know what he wants, and he probably doesn’t get why I’m not better at helping him with whatever it is that he’s trying to convey.

You see, we don’t speak the same language.

That creates a communication breakdown, and both of our needs go unmet and our wants go unrealized.

This often affects us small business owners, as well.

As you know, there are certain expectations all of us want from our business:

- get more clients

- charge higher fees

- grow our reputation

- service our clients better

- better train, manage and leverage our staff

- create stronger partner relationships

- and build an incredible business

…just to name a few.

To achieve these expectations, there is an important skill you need to master:

Effective Communication

”Communication creates shared reality.”

This is a definition I learned in college that has always guided me well.

Think about it for a moment…

If I don’t communicate in some way with you what I’m thinking, I’m in my own reality. And if you don’t communicate what you’re thinking to me, your experiences and thoughts are truly your own as well.

We might be occupying nearby space, but without communication we are in completely different worlds.

There is no basis for sharing common thought; thus, no basis for common existence.

So how does this fit with business? If you want to conduct or gain business, you need to create a shared reality.

How can you market to someone and get your message through to them if you don’t speak the same language? And I don’t mean literally needing to speak a language other than your own native tongue. I mean speaking in a way that demonstrates you understand the phrases and words your clients, prospective clients, employees, marketing partners and others use, and just as importantly, so they understand you.

For example, last week I worked with a web designer client to develop a signature talk that could be delivered to different groups in his target market. To make his presentation effective and resonate, it was important that we identified his prospects’ pain points, problems and challenges. But we needed to use their words, not his, so he would could connect with them, teach them and help them learn how to promote their ideas.

For the social networking promotion piece written for a realtor client’s newsletter, and using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to promote her networking event, it was important that the subtleties of one word or phrase were chosen specifically over another. They needed to work in her favor to create the shared reality with the reader that will serve them the best, draw out their commons goals, drive their desire to attend the event and help frame it so they get the most out of it.

For my chiropractor client who was working on interviewing candidates for an office manager position, we needed to evaluate his communication style, words and body language, and those of the candidates as well. It was not only to ensure that their answers contained the skills and experiences he sought, but also to find out if the way they conducted themselves matched the verbal answers they gave for interview questions.

As I noted earlier, communication is key to creating understanding through a shared reality. Always consider its impact. And practice. Work with a professional to really hone and refine your skills for maximum effectiveness.

Like little baby Nate who is getting better at telling us what he’s thinking with certain grunts and facial expressions. We’re still practicing and learning each other’s languages. And with this practice, we know it won’t be long until we really understand each other.

If you’re like most of us and get tons of email, most of which isn’t very interesting to say the least, there is a set pattern to what you do. We all do it, because we’re really busy and time is valuable.

“Text Sells – But Don’t Make Me Look Too Hard For It.”

Is the following true for you?

When you get a new email, if it’s not something that you have been passionately waiting for, here’s what generally happens:

First you skim it quickly, and usually without downloading pictures, to answer the question,

“Is this relevant to me? Because if it’s not, I’m going to delete it. And if it is, I’m busy and I might delete it anyway.”

So, is this you?

I bet it is. I know it’s absolutely me.

And if this *is* you, then it’s also the readers you are sending *your* emails to.

When you’re writing articles, event invitations or marketing email announcements to send out to your subscribers and fans, post on your blog, social media sites, or public calendars, you want to make sure you are doing what you need to ensure it’s something that will be helpful and effective.

So write your copy so that people will read, get your main message and take action.

You can’t provide value to them, and in turn get them to hire you if they don’t read your email.

These easy guidelines can help you create emails that “pass the skim test” and are effective:

• Write in short {sound bite} sentences and paragraphs.
• Use bold headlines a few times within the article.
• Use CAPS, ***Asterisks***, ==> arrows <–, etc. to make emotional positive, negative or curious phrases stand out.
• Use a bulleted list within the article to breakdown a main idea, provide steps or list benefits or challenges.
• Provide a Call to Action so the reader knows what they should do next to benefit from your knowledge and take it further.

As we stated, your readers will skim your article first, so the main attention-grabbing points need to stand out in a big way to hook them into reading more in-depth, and also to stand alone in case they don’t.

“Text Sells… And Practice Makes Perfect!”

==> So next time you write, DO A COPY-EFFECTIVENESS CHECK by reading just the bolded, highlighted, bulleted, etc. items alone. If the main points come across and there is a natural flow and understanding of only those items, you’ve probably written a compelling article that people will delve into, read and take action.

If you want to really stand out and grow your business, you can get more free helpful article, audio and video resources like this on marketing, sales and business growth by clicking here.

And let me know if I can answer any specific questions by emailing me, posting below or calling me directly.

To your success!
Jason
773.829.1276

It’s so wonderful the creativity and resources we have within us when we allow us time and space to just be.

I hope you enjoy this video and music as much as I did.

All the best,
Jason

P.S. I thought about talking about how your business team is very similar. It needs everyone to be in sync – sales, marketing, operations, service, management, external support, etc. to be harmonious and really strong and successful. And how you yourself as the small business owner have to have all your areas in sync – vision, strategy, action plan, skills, environment and mindset – and how these are the areas I help my clients to work on, tweak, upgrade and perfect so you can reach the best possible outcome. But then I decided not to.

Oh wait.. guess I just did :)

As noted in the video below, it takes several, if not hundreds and sometimes thousands, of failures before we succeed.

How has your past failure motivated you?

One of my past failures was public speaking – A HUGE fear of many, many Americans.

In fact, it’s the #1 fear of people in America. Guess what’s #2?

Death.

Yep – most people are more afraid to speak in front of people than to die. And to some people, they are basically the same thing!

I, too, used to get really freaked out, scared to death, and tremble when I had to speak in front of a group – classmates, peers, you name it. And this was before I really had anything on the line, or anything that I was personally hoping to get out of giving the presentation, other than a grade or pat on the back.

After that, I did ironically end up in a career as a corporate trainer, speaking in front of groups as large as 500 people.

But even after that and when I was in business for myself, the first time I had to address a packed room of well-dressed business people that on the whole were older and more experienced than me, all those old feelings came rushing back.

Every time I used to say to myself:

- “Why should these people listen to me?”
- “Who am I to tell them how to do this?”
- “I wonder if I can get out of this somehow – fake illness, maybe??”

Well, I’m glad I didn’t. And I’m glad I found a great way to turn it all around and make public speaking an important part of my life and then my business.

And interestingly, I think you’ll be glad I turned it around, too.

Because my success after failure is about to pay off for you too.

Yeah, that was a little bit of a teaser for you.

If you’re on my email list, you’ll know what I’m talking about soon. And trust me, what I’m going to share will turn your service business around or make it explode to a whole new level:

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

So make sure you’re on my list to get the free training that’s coming in up a few weeks.

You’ll thank me later :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

And, here’s a new strategy to turn your 2012 into something great.

Listen in:

So, now are you ready and psyched to get your Reverse New Years Resolution started??

Stay tuned and look for more announcements about the exciting and upcoming Secret Project that’s guaranteed to drive new clients to you in 2012……..

Jason E. Rosado
Small Business Growth Coach
(773) 829-1276
Jason (at) DistinctiveCoaching.com

Ok, people (and I mean bad, evil, people that do the above mentioned LinkedIn “sin”, and those that are considering it :).

I’ll try to explain this.

First impressions are everything in relationship building. Relationship building is everything in networking. Networking is one of the best ways to get business.

Ya following me so far here?

(Rant in form of very valuable online networking advice) LinkedIn is for personal networking on a professional level, for professional purposes. Please don’t create a personal LinkedIn profile in the name of your company (which I have never heard of) and then ask me to join your network with the default message that does not include your name, why you want to connect (I’m going to assume it’s to market to me, not network and help each other), or how you came across my profile.

(Rant continued) And then to top it off, I go to your website, your blog and your twitter page just to see if I’m overlooking someone I do actually know, and there is not one bit of personal information to tell me who it is.

(Correct course of action advice) Instead, create a personal profile with your company name as *you company* and offer to connect to build a mutually beneficial relationship.

Bottom line: It’s probably a dumb idea to annoy someone as your first impression while trying to network, relationship build and garner business or referrals.

Make sense?

Ok, that felt good.