Every year, the coaches of the Ghost CEO (who also happen to be three of the SheTeam contributors), go through a planning process. We review the last year, set goals for the next year, and get everything tight and lined up for a profitable New Year. Here is the newsletter that is going out on Friday, but SheTeam readers will have a look a bit early. In the newsletter, you’ll see a ‘link’ reference. Download our internal file on the steps we go through to plan a profitable and sustainable business year. So in the theme of this month (tightening up your business relationships), spend some time with yourself over the holiday season and get clear with what you have accomplished and what’s left to do.

You can find the newsletter here.

Cheers,

Chris.

www.GhostCEO.com

Experience, hard word and talent are not enough to succeed in today’s workplace. You need to also focus on building a network that will bring you the success you want. Your career will likely span multiple jobs and fields and the best and fastest way to get where you want to be is having a network of people you can call on. Building an effective network takes time, planning and intention. Here are 5 rules that will help you out:

1. Talk to strangers. You never know who is standing behind you at Starbucks.
2. Build a network with intention; create a plan of the types of people you want to meet and work the plan.
3. Give as much as you get; don’t be stingy about looking for ways to help others out. This will repay itself many times over when you need a helping hand.
4. Reach out to people long before you need anything; do not be that person who only ever calls when they need something. That is not networking – that is using people and you will not be appreciated for it. Stay in touch regularly with the people in your network.
5. Ask for what you want, not what you think you can get. The simple act of asking will get you a lot more than you can ever imagine.

Remember: success does not come to those with a low tolerance for risk or those who are led by fear. Start talking to people – you will be surprised what you learn!

Fiona Walsh, CEO, FM Walsh & Associates Inc., www.fmwalsh.com

I see so many women hold themselves back because of fear. As an entrepreneur I have come to recognize how insidious fear can be at times. It approaches you quietly, subtly and faintly whispers in your ear – and you find yourself holding back without even realizing it.

I experienced this myself last week. I was having lunch with a business associate and she mentioned the fear she had experienced prior to doing a pitch for a big project and how she allowed it to let her believe her competition were a better fit for the account that her. (The client didn’t agree – they hired her.) We laughed about it and toasted her success.

I realized a while back that I had a habit of procrastinating on big projects. I thought my foot-dragging was due to having too much other work and other priorities that came first. But in a moment of clarity, I realized it was fear that was holding me back from jumping on the big stuff. Once I realized this, I stopped doing it. Now I write out a quick plan of action for big projects, so I don’t get tripped up by that fear.

That’s the funny thing about fear – once you acknowledge that it is there and take action anyway – it loses its power to affect you. My challenge to you today: look at what you are procrastinating on in your life and take one action step to get it going. That is the best way to get fear out of your life.

Fiona Walsh, CEO, FM Walsh & Associates Inc., www.fmwalsh.com

We’re heading swiftly towards the last quarter of the year and it’s time now to start to assess the year thus far. Thinking back to January when you set you business goals and objectives, it’s now time to make sure you’re on track to achievement. You’ve heard us harp on all year about measurables and this is why. When you set goals for your business there has to be an accompanying action plan – without it you surely won’t succeed in reaching your targets – and more importantly a way to measure whether or not you are on track. Using revenue as an example, if you set a goal of grossing $200 000.00 in sales this year then you will know:

Quarterly Target – $50, 000

Monthly Target – $16, 666

Weekly Target – $3, 846

Daily Target – $769

Hourly Target (based on 8 hours) – $96.15

By breaking down your goal into these measurable chunks it’s easy to keep you finger on the pulse everyday as to whether or not your on track. Take a look through your 2009 goals and measure your progress against your goals. How are you doing? If you’re off target, think about your strategy for the last quarter. What can you do differently? What can you kick in to high gear to finish strong?

Everything you do in business has to be measurable. It’s the only way you can stay on track to reaping what you sow.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

I am the oldest of four kids and this weekend we are embarking on our, first ever, annual siblings vacation. The youngest of the four of us is about to embark on his journey to University, having just graduated, the second youngest has one year of post secondary under his belt and has just arrived back from planting 95,000+ trees this summer, the second oldest, my sister, is half way through her Nursing degree and then there’s me, a young ambitious entrepreneur, two years in to my first business.

I cannot wait to be sitting around the pool, lake, fire or wherever else we end up gathering this weekend and tossing around business ideas. I’m excited because each one of us is intelligent and creative, yet have all had completely different experiences to draw on. Over the weekend I’m sure we will mastermind and brainstorm all kinds of different ways we could band together, and mutually benefit from synergizing our uniqueness, make a ton of money and retire early in the South Pacific. (Ok, I’m not really sure where everyone else want to retire, but you get the idea.)

So often I see and hear of family members who dread spending time together and although I understand, it really is a shame. Having access to other minds, other ideas, other thoughts, other resources etc. all within the context of the unconditional love of a family is absolutely priceless. This summer, if you’re open to it, be more engaged at family gatherings. Find out what your siblings, cousins, parents and the like are really up to. Brainstorm with them, strategize with them, imagine with them. Not every family should go in to business together, that’s for sure, but I think that every family could support one another in talking through ideas, making plans and holding each other accountable to living out our potential.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

It’s July and summer is officially here. Kids are out of school which likely means that if you’re a parent you’re also juggling a new routine as you plan activities to keep them busy while you continue to build business.

What about a new approach?

Kids or no kids, what if you planned your summer activities and found a way to build business while having some fun, instead of the other way around? “Too good to be true” you say, try it!

As always, you have to have a plan because building business without a plan sets you up for a complete disaster and no matter how ‘hard’ you work, you will never feel accomplished. So, first off, sit down and write out your ’summer plan’. What is is that come August 31st needs to be accomplished in order for you to have had a productive summer? Benchmark yourself so that you know where you are now and where you want to be in 2 months. Then take a look at the activities you have planned to see where you can smudge the line between work and play.

For example, I sit as the Chair of a committee that, later this year, will honour 3 women who have accomplished extraordinary results in the area of Food. One of our challenges is that we have yet to sign on a keynote speaker. This is a major component of the event as the right speaker will draw good PR and media attention as well as draw sponsorship from the food community. 

In order to feel accomplished in this area by Sept 1, I have to have booked a keynote speaker for this event. I took a look at my summer activities schedule and noted that I had guests coming to town the first week of July, one of whom happened to work in the food industry for about 25 years. BINGO! I set the intention to chat with him about recommendations for our keynote presenter.

As we sipped wine and he rattled off 10 or so names of key Women in Food that I hadn’t previously thought of (it hardly seemed like work) the server at the restaurant we were at joined the conversation. The next thing I knew, I had her asking the other 75 front and back of house staff members for their recommendations for a keynote speaker (after briefly explaining the event to her). I left the restaurant with a great list of over 20 prospects to approach for the keynote speaking position, had made a great connection with the server and some of the other staff (I also do a tremendous amount of training in restaurants, so, another bonus), and had enjoyed the company of my guest.

Obviously, be tactful, there’s nothing worse than the person who never has anything to say other than ’shop talk’, but with some tact, planning and intention, you can have a wonderful summer and build business too.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Vince Lombardi

I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to be too concerned about the recession on a sunny day. I was sitting out on the deck this morning reading the New York Times magazine and it was talking about all these places in the US where housing projects and developments just stalled. It was the wierdest thing (said in a mocking tone). These developers thought that if they built these massive complexes without pre-selling them, that people would line up to buy. Nobody lined up and now the developers are bankrupt. Even more shocking, people bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford and those houses got taken away when they lost their jobs. On top of that, they were leveraged out to the max and so no savings in place = hard times. These people are losers my friends. People who were trying to be something they aren’t and now are suffering public humiliation. The worst part, in all sincerity, is that their families suffer along side them.

What is the matter with people today? Have we, as a collective group, lost all forms of common sense? A friend of mine says, “I wish common sense was more common”, and she’s right.

I watch crowds flock to Suzy Orman shows to hear her say, “sorry girlfriend, you can’t afford that.” Really Suzy? I make 20K a year, spend 75% of it on housing and food, and I shouldn’t buy those $500 Jimmy Choo shoes on my Visa? Awwwww, come on Suzy, Just one pair?

Some of the stupider things I’ve heard people say on television about the recession in the last week:

• I knew I couldn’t afford the house payments, but I thought the bank would help me out.
• I knew that my whole division at work was being laid of three months ago, but I thought they would spare me.
• I can’t believe that working at Bear Sterns isn’t getting me a job.
• I can barely stand having to put up with my parents while I live with them. I know they are helping me get back on my feet, but I have the smallest bedroom in the house.
• I refuse to work for less that $75,000 a year. I’d rather be on unemployment.
• I know there are jobs, but I refuse to move.
  
• They will have to kick me out of my house. I’m not leaving until they put my stuff out on the street.
• I can’t believe how much my business is down. I’m going to start marketing when things get better.

Business is not immune to natural selection. The weakest and dumbest to get the biggest hits when things go south. I had a woman come to one of my events in Detroit three years ago. She came up to me after the show and said, “We can’t keep building cars they way we have been. It just doesn’t make sense. I think I need to plan my exit strategy.” She was a manager of a plant for one of the big 3 automakers in the US. She spent the next six months making her shift and has transfered her management skills from automotive to retirment homes. I got a note from her a few months ago saying that she was now getting heavily invested in Real Estate and couldn’t believe the deals she was getting. This is a smart woman. She saw the writing on the wall and left when it suited her. She didn’t wait to see herself and her cowokers get locked out of their jobs and put on the unemployment line.

What’s this whole rant about? Life is good. Life is short.  Don’t wait for tomorrow to do what you NEED to do today. If you think you might lose a big client, don’t close your eyes and brace for it. GO GET A NEW CLIENT! It’s not rocket science, or maybe it is. Maybe the reason why so many people are suffering right now is that they didn’t see it coming? Does anyone really believe this?Natural selection is at work eating up the people with the greatest concentration of ‘dumb ass’ in them. It started back in the cave man days. One cave man says, “I think I’m going to stay away from that tiger that wants me for dinner.” The other one said, “Pretty kitty and walked out and got eaten.”

A sunny day is a good day to do some planning. Plan for yourself, plan for your future. Plan to enjoy sunny days because you know you have control over how things turn out. You can take action before, during, or after you get hit with something and learn from it. The woman in Detroit didn’t have to get hit in order to learn about the importance of planning. Now she really gets it and is getting rich in the process. Don’t buy fire insurance when you smell smoke. Buy it when you learn what a fire is. Here are the questions to get your primed to protect your back, stay on course, and enjoy many sunny days to come:

1. What is the greatest threat to my way of life at this moment?
2. If this threat became a reality, what would my course of action be?
3. What can I do today to minimize the risk of the threat happening or mitigate its effects if it does happen?
4. Who do I know who has gone through this and come out the other side? What can I learn from them?
5. Are any of my actions contributing to a big fall for me personally? (i.e. Living outside your means/buying things you can’t afford)
6. Do I have resources at my disposal that I can access in a time of need? If not, how can I get started?
7. What am I doing that I know is wrong or conflicts with common sense? How can I get back on track.

These might be really tough questions for you to go through, but they will be tougher if you are under the gun to find solutions. Forewarned is forearmed. If you don’t like where you are, shift. If you like where you are, set up systems to keep yourself there. Your business life will model your personal life and vice versa. Be wise, look ahead, and plan for the worst, while hoping for the best. Many a visionary has been struck down because they spent too much time looking out and not enough time looking in. Much of business development and life development is to seize opportunities and mitigate risks. Today is your day to do just that.

Enjoy the sun.

C/

www.GhostCEO.com

There are two questions I get clients to answer all the time:

-       What do I enjoy?

-       What am I good at?

As women, we often slot ourselves into roles that we think other people want us to do.   To chart a new course in 2009 for yourself, you need to grab a quiet hour (no phones, no email), a notebook and sit there and write down the answers to these 2 questions.   Be thorough and don’t edit your answers.  Don’t worry about what other people are going to think.  Just think and write – listen to YOUR voice only. 

You are responsible for the direction of your life.  Getting clear on what drives you, what motivates you, will allow you to define what you want to get out of 2009.  Spending a lot of time doing stuff you don’t enjoy is not what life is supposed to be about.  Neither am I advocating that you turn into a selfish person.   To strike a healthy balance in life, you must be clear on what makes you happy and then make sure you fit those things into your life.

Fiona Walsh, CEO, FM Walsh & Associates Inc.

In challenging economic times like this, it isn’t about focusing on what you don’t have. It is about focusing on the resources at hand and the ones you can access should you need them. Regardless of economic climate, all professionals running businesses must consider (on a daily basis) their cash flow needs and what their burn rate is.

Cash flow needs: Basically put, this is the amount of cash that is going to come in and out of your business each month. For some businesses (like our coaching model), all money comes in at the beginning of the month and then expenses to do the work (and build the business) trickle out over the next 30 days. For other companies, they may do the work today, but not bill it till the end of the month, and then give clients 30 days to pay. That’s a 60 day consideration that must be measured for an entrepreneur to stay on top of their financials.

Burn rate: this is the amount of money you go through every month, regardless of how much business is coming in. The slang for this term is the ‘nut’. What is your ‘nut’ for the month. Include: rent, cell phone, car, gas, insurance, non-commissioned staff, and all other costs that happen, regardless of how much money you are bringing in. Why you see big companies laying off a lot of people right now is that they are trying to get their ‘burn rate’ down by cutting fixed costs.

In 2009, more than ever, business owners need to be on top of their money position on a daily basis. Don’t wait until the end of the month to figure out how you did. You should be running a constant tally in your mind on what your cash flow position is. I like to think of it as balancing a cheque book (does anyone do that anymore?). Rather than waiting to get your statement at the end of the month, you account for your deposits and payments in real time to see what your balance is.

Plan your cash flow and you can avoid the ‘weeds’ (cash negative position) in the upcoming months.

Best,

Chris.

www.GhostCEO.com

I love the beginning of a year. It’s like planning a road trip and having a full tank of fuel. 2009 promises to be a year where those who are ready to build big will. Those who are going to spend the year ‘riding out the storm’ are going to have a rocky ride. The fear in the market comes from the ‘unknown’. People don’t know what is going to happen so they are scared. The way to alleviate this fear is to ‘plan’ what is going to happen so that you take control for the outcome.

This month I’m going to share some of my favorite techniques in planning for business. For the first one, I grab a 11×17 pad of graph paper (I like the boxes rather than lines). I draw a line across the width of the paper and break out 12 segments. Each segment is a month. Planning with the end in mind, I start with December and decide what I want to have accomplished. Then I work back each month to see what would have to be accomplished in order to fulfill the goals for the year. I’m a visual person so having something I can look at makes it easier for me to see the big picture.

I should note that my planning is done in pencil. Things change and I need to make corrections as I go to account for the unforeseen. When you write something down, you put it into your subconscious and give it power. I look at this sheet a couple of times a week and consider if I’m still on course or if I need to make adjustments. All you need to accomplish this: the pad of paper, a pencil, a cup of coffee (optional) and of course a quiet room with a clear mind. 2009 is your year to shine, build great wealth, rise to the top, and navigate your own course. Don’t buy into the market hysteria. There is money and opportunities in all markets. With a plan, you will get everything your deserve.

Best,

Chris

www.GhostCEO.com