In my quest to become a perfectly optimized business owner, I love to read books on productivity and time management that will help my clients (and me!) to operate on a level that uses our talents effectively and gives us the quality of life that we really enjoy.

David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, has a little book called Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, and in the first chapter he states the following:

Something is coming—probably within a few days—that’s going to change your world.  You don’t see it yet.  You don’t know what it’s about.  But it’s there, rolling inexorably forward, destined to throw you a curve that you do not expect.  It could show up sooner or later—but it will show up.  Trust me.

Write down these words exactly four weeks from today on your calendar: David Allen said a month ago that something was coming I couldn’t foresee that would affect me significantly.  Prove me wrong.

What are you doing to be ready for anything?

What would happen if you suddenly landed that big job or project that you hoped would come? continue

Have you heard this story before?  John, a small business owner, is heading into a team meeting.  The team is getting ready to email an advertisement to John’s prospective and current clients.   The ad looks great.  It is his answer to bringing in new business.  The dollar signs are running through his mind.  As the meeting begins, John quickly discovers that the wonderful process for gathering prospective and current client information has not been getting done.   The database is not ready and will not be ready for a couple weeks.   The excuses start to fly.  John’s dream of getting this ad out quickly fades.

By implementing accountability factors for each position, businesses can ensure their structure is functioning efficiently and appropriately.   These factors identify the key functions of the job and outline how they relate to the future success of the organization.  They should be tied to an employee’s performance evaluation and salary increase.   Use the following steps to design your accountability factors: continue

Sales and marketing are critical to improving the top line dollars. Solid organizing and time management skills are a must. But first you have to start by making up your mind to do something different…in order to get different results.

Here are your productivity tips for this month:

1.      What’s the goal? If you don’t know what you’re shooting for, then how will you know when you get there? Focusing energy and spending time on things that aren’t even on your radar wastes precious time you can’t recapture. Be smart…and wise.

2.      Execute on priorities. Knowing your priorities is one thing. Getting to them is another. Shifting priorities is the norm in today’s business environment. That means you need to consistently review your high-payoff activities and go to them first…and often.

3. Make appointments with yourself. If you want to actually accomplish items 1 and 2 above, it requires dedicated, focused time to do what you need to do. Mark time out in your calendar for this important work. Make appointments with yourself…and honor them.

Ó 2007 Cynthia Kyriazis

Search engine optimization - SEO - is usually the first thing that comes to mind for business owners who want to get better results online.  Is SEO a waste of money?  It can be - or it can be your best investment for online success.  The difference is in how you get started.

The purpose of SEO is to get your website to the front page of Google search results (yes, there are other search engines, but Google is the prize).  You want one of your pages to be in the top ten results that Google displays when one of your target customers types a keyword or keyphrase relevant to your business into the search window.

Unfortunately, too many business owners waste their SEO dollars by optimizing their sites around the wrong key words and phrases - either keyphrases that have very little search volume, or keywords that are so competitive that it’s impossible for a new web page to get first page ranking any time soon.  Neither approach will bring traffic to your web site, which is the whole point of SEO.

How do you avoid those mistakes?  Know your keywords, and know your competition.

Know your keywords.  How do you know which keywords and keyphrases your potential customers are using to search for your business? Ask Google. Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool will tell you exactly how many people are using exactly which keywords and keyphrases.  Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in the keyphrases you think people might use to search for your business.  You’ll get the actual search volumes for those phrases, along with a list of synonyms and related phrases, including their search volumes.  Type in the URL for your website (or a competitor’s website).  You’ll get another list of relevant keywords and keyphrases, along with search volumes. Set aside the keyphrases that don’t have significant search volume.  Focus on the most searched phrases.  Optimize your web pages only for keyphrases that actually get searched - that’s where the traffic is.  It’s simple, it’s obvious, and it’s all too often overlooked. continue

A lot of things need to come together to create a great email newsletter, including well written content, attractive formatting and an accurate match of the content to the interests of your target audience. But sometimes even a great newsletter ends up the victim of the subscriber’s Delete button before it even gets opened. Here’s how you can improve the chances of your subscribers actually opening and reading your e-newsletter.

1. Avoid the spam filters: ISPs use rigorous spam protection mechanisms to trap and delete suspect email before it gets into their customer’s inboxes. To make sure your emails don’t get filtered out as spam avoid overdoing ‘come on’ words such as ‘free’, ‘$$$’, ‘save’, ‘discount’, etc. in both the subject line and content of your email. Also, ISPs will blacklist you if you do not remove any invalid email addresses they inform you of.  If that happens, even messages to legitimate addresses may be blocked and that could include things like order confirmations as well as your e-newsletter.

2. Encourage subscribers to whitelist you: Spam filters that come with email clients can create a whitelist of addresses from which mail is always acceptable (safe senders). Subscribers can be coaxed to put in the effort of whitelisting you in a number of ways:

• On your order confirmation page suggest that they whitelist you to ensure they receive order and shipping information
• Run competitions that necessitate them receiving your emails to participate
• Near the suggestion that they whitelist you, provide a link to ‘How to whitelist’ information covering the most popular email clients continue

We’re approaching the end of another year. And isn’t it true–the older you get the faster time seems to fly by. Now’s the time to start thinking about the life you want in 2009. Are you ready to tackle those habits that have been preventing you from keeping commitments to yourself?

Here are your productivity tips for this month:

1.      Make it a goal - The philosopher Neville said “Don’t think OF your goals, think FROM your goals.” Are your goals your wish or someone else’s? If you can’t get excited about it, then it’s probably not something you should identify as a goal right now. Setting a goal has to do with actually seeing it…wanting it…tasting it.

2.      Make it a priority - there are a million things that can get in the way of getting to your priorities. Identify the types of thoughts that get you off track. The next time you need to work on a priority and you hear those thoughts say ‘thanks’, push that first thought aside and climb into that which is most important. It will feel a lot better.

3.      Make it an action - Planning is critical. But implementation is the objective. What actions can you take to execute on priorities in order to reach your goal? Take the action now and reap the rewards in the future.

Here are a few of the enhancements designed to make your work in QuickBooks easier, faster, and more accurate:

1.        There’s a new button up on the toolbar called “Company Snapshot”.  On one screen, you can see an income and expense graph, customer, vendor, and account balances, plus your reminders.  Pick either this or the “Home” page as your default view each time you open the program.

2.       The online banking feature has been simplified to make it easier and quicker to match or enter downloaded transactions.  Automated routines and naming logic help make sure that transactions are properly categorized.

3.       Multi-user enhancements include the ability of one user to run a report while another creates an invoice.  They have also enabled back-up in multi-user mode so users  won’t have to switch to single-user mode to back-up files.

Visit my website and click on the button, “Order QuickBooks” for a chart detailing all of the upgrades in QuickBooks 2009.