How to Know your Business is Successful

Success. 

Seems like an easy word right? It's only 7 letters long. Maybe a little tough to spell on occasion...(how many c's? how many s's, kind sounds like a K is in there somewhere...?) 

Most people might use this word on a daily basis and we probably all know what it means right? Or do we? 

I want to challenge the status quo on this. You often may hear: 

• "we all have our own definition of success" or
• "success looks different to everyone" or
• "let's redefine success"

Hopefully we all get the true, underlying  intention of these phrases, but I am a word junkie and I think words are important. We really need to be using the right word in these phrases. And that word is rooted in the actual, true definition of success. 

Google definition of success:

• The accomplishment of an aim or a purpose
• The attainment of popularity or profit
• a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity

The ONE THING

You can't know if you are successful unless you have goals. That is the ONLY way you will ever be able to measure any sort of success with your business. Did you accomplish your aim or purpose? 

Why is this important?

I could probably talk or write about why I feel this is important for hours, but in order to save you and I both some time, let me ask you some questions.

• Have you ever felt unsuccessful?
• Have you ever wished you had more likes, comments, hearts, followers and pins? 
• Have you ever scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and then suddenly felt like crying?
• Have you ever contemplated giving up all this hard stuff you've worked on because you feel like it's just not going anywhere? Like you are stuck in the mud while everyone else is dancing at the party seemingly without a care in the world? 

I don't know about you, but I've got my hand raised over here at the end of every single one of these above questions. This is important, because all of that...the disappointment, the sadness, the frustration...it's mostly avoidable based on actions YOU choose to take. 

Straight Talk. I'm not here to tell you flowery words that might make you feel better for 10 minutes. YES, you are worth it and YES you are doing great and YES you are valuable and enough, but knowing that is not an action plan.

Understanding fundamental truths about your value as a human being on this planet does not help you understand what steps to next take in your business. 

Stop the madness

Combating the comparison monster is probably one of the most difficult things to tackle for most small creative business owners these days. Social media is the number one reason. Its in our face all. day. long. It's true that "her success is not your failure" and "flowers next to each other aren't concerned about each other, they just bloom" (is that how that one goes?), but how do those concepts translate into specific ACTIONS you can take to help you understand or achieve your OWN success? Honestly, they don't.  

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Personal story...These concepts of success and comparison have been on my mind a lot lately. Our move across the country has challenged me in ways I didn't think were possible. I had a healthy, growing business in California and I knew that this move would take a sledgehammer to my hard work. But I also knew that I needed to set some measurable, realistic goals for myself because I knew that if I didn't, I would flounder. I knew in my mind that I needed to think about what I actually wanted to accomplish when I got to NJ and in what realistic time frame I wanted to accomplish it in. But, I failed. I kind of had some ideas in my head, but I never wrote anything down. 

I am heavily involved in many different photography groups and have found myself following and surrounded by some amazing people who also are photographers. I am extremely blessed to have found such an encouraging group of people to learn from and grow with, but at the same time none of them have moved across country, they've been in business much longer than I have and they are in the process of achieving goals for their business that they set YEARS ago. 

I know myself pretty well, but I still wasn't prepared for the effect the combination of this has had on me. I had to get honest with myself. Why am I feeling like such a failure? Why was I struggling so much with feeling like I'm accomplishing anything? I knew it was hurting me to SEE others achieving goals left and right, and in no way did I feel angry or mad that these people were and are doing amazing things, but I continued to feel like the hurdles in front of me were so big, I would never get over them, but at the same time I wasn't even sure what the hurdles WERE. 

This is the result of not having goals. I run the risk of sounding cliche, but I needed some SMART goals in my life and my business. (Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic and Time Bound) 

I had to step back and take some action.

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Three steps  

Prayer

I am deeply rooted in my faith and prayer is always something I aspire to do even though most of the time I fail miserably. Personable ambition and hard work is never a bad thing, but my hope is also rooted in the fact that God has my back. He works all things together for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28) and that gives me more hope and joy than anything I could ever accomplish on my own. The only way to know and believe in that is through relationship with Him and how else do you build relationships? Through talking!! That's the value in prayer. 

Unfollow

This was hard. An unfollow without explanation or conversation is tough. Its like when you accidentally cut someone off in traffic. You know it was a mistake but the other guy just thinks you are a jerk. 

A few months ago I made the conscious decision to unfollow MANY people on social media (Instagram mostly). I still have other ways of connecting with some of these folks on occasion to keep informed (every now and then) on what they are up too, but the amazing and life shaking things they are doing aren't in my face everyday. 

Please don't confuse this with jealousy or ill-intent. I love these people and cheer for them and think they are rocking at so much, but I don't know them personally. I don't know their struggles. I don't have a relationship with them. There is too much information missing for me to have healthy and growth inspiring thoughts when I am surrounded by their info. 

I also found myself to be heavily swayed by actions they were taking for their own business or goals they had set. I could see myself slowing morphing into wanting to do everything they do since their life seems so great. I was struggling to come up with original thoughts and my creativity was slumped. On occasion I would have some great idea that came to me while driving or in the shower only to see them launching a full product on that exact same idea the next day! Talk about deflating! 

In the time I have been more separated from others on social media, I have felt some of my creativity and drive return. The combination of removing myself from tempting situations (tempting to compare myself with others) plus goal writing has freed me up to return the attention to where it actually needs to be: on my own business. 

Write everything down

I'm still working on this, but it the absolute crux of understanding your own success. Seeing and measuring it in written form. 

• If your goal is to book 4 new clients in the next month and you are in the process of responding to 6 inquiries per week, why would someone having 500 more followers on IG make you feel lousy? 
• If your goal is work four days out of the week in order to spend more time with your family and you are currently doing that and feeling comfortable with your workload, why would someone traveling all over the country speaking at workshops and conferences make you feel like you can't ever keep up? 
• If your goal is to make $35k this year and your are currently on track to do exactly that, why does someone's perfectly curated Instagram feed make you want to throw in the towel? 
• If your goal is to cultivate one on one relationships with new business owners in order to help them grow and feel not as alone then why does that announcement of another 20 attendee workshop launching make you feel like a total failure? (<----I'm being vulnerable with you guys right here...) 

My point is this: Writing down your goals frees you of the comparison and allows you to refocus on yourself.  But you also have to make sure the goals have an end purpose. A goal of 1000 Instagram followers does nothing for you unless that translates into a bigger purpose for your business. 

It is fantastic to push yourself and dream big dreams, but if you don't attach something tangible to those dreams to monitor your progress, you will either constantly feel like you are failing or you will flounder around from one thing to the next wondering why none of it is working. 

My challenge for you today is to write down two goals that you want to achieve in the next month. Make those goals SMART. If you are feeling brave, leave them in the comments. ;-)

I'll give you mine as an example:

Goals for November: 

Launch new service for photographers 

• S: I have the specifics already planned and more info is coming soon!
• M: Having everything prepared prior to launch
• A: In-Crowd announcement, Blog Post announcement, Social Media campaign 
• R: YES! I am able to achieve this!
• T: I have a deadline of Nov 18th for launch

Blog 3 times per week

• S: I will post educational, client showcase or personal blog posts 3 times a week, M, T, W. 
• M: A total of 12 posts for the month of November
• A: I will pre-plan and research content, I will track ideas in Trello, I will block time on my schedule to create content for at least two hours per day M-T. I will not work on blog content on the weekends. 
• R: Yes
• T: Deadline is the end of the month

I would love to know your thoughts on goals, success and comparison. Let me know in the comments and if you need any help crafting your goals please feel free to shoot me an email! 

12 tips for staying productive while working from home

Working from home can be an utterly amazing experience while at the same time it can be utterly frustrating and lonely. You have the ability to schedule your day according to your preferences, you can take a break and run errands at any time during the day, you can even take a nap or watch a show right smack dab in the middle of the afternoon. And don't get me started on the yoga pants...

But it can also be hard to stay on task. Without the rigid structure of a workday, apart from an environment that is "made" for work and also not a lot of people around to keep you focused and on point, staying productive while working at home can be a huge challenge. 

Its been three years since I've called a corporate office my workplace and I've been working at some home in some sort of capacity ever since. I've learned a lot during this time and while I am absolutely NOT the end all guru of achieving massive productivity while working at home, I have uncovered quite a few tips that help me stay on point!  

Turn off notifications

This has honestly been my number one way to remain productive during the day. So much so that I wrote a whole blog post about it. Keeping my phone screen "dark" during the day (with the exception of text messages) has done WONDERS to keep me on point. The screen is not constantly lighting up during the day and my eyes stay put. I was weary about weather or not I would like the no notifications thing, but its been months now and I can't imagine going back! 

Unroll.me

Another fabulous tool and resource to staying on point. I have a video about how this works HERE, but essentially, if you struggle with wanting to have a clean inbox but lots of "junk" arrives throughout the day...this will solve that problem for you. Click. Click. Click. done. 

Don't leave tabs open

This is in the same vein of notifications on your phone. When you leave different tabs open in your browser, notifications will pop up for various things (new emails, facebook, twitter etc...) If you are like me, and you just HAVE to see whats going on when a new notification comes in, resist the temptation from the get go, and just don't have the tabs open. Understanding that of course it can be helpful to workflow to have various tabs open for various things, but if you find that you are being consistently distracted and pulled away from work to see whats going on in email or social media, do the smart thing by recognizing it and taking preventative measures to stop the distractions before they start! 

Time Block

A lot of research has gone into staying productive at work and time blocking seems to be a clear winner for many. Scheduling your work into blocks of time keeps you focused and energized throughout the day. It can also prevent you from feeling overwhelmed out of control. Here is a fantastic article that goes in depth about what time blocking is and how it can help you! 

Take breaks

Allowing yourself to take breaks throughout the day is essential to remaining productive. No one can focus and stay on point for hours and hours on end. Our bodies and minds need to shut down for periods of time throughout the day in order to stay energized and creative. Utilize this and time blocking together to create periods of time throughout the day where you work for 50 min and then take a 10 min break. Or utilize the Pomodoro method and work in small bursts (25 minutes) and then take a short 5 min break. The most important thing to remind yourself is that breaks are GOOD FOR YOU! They don't mean that you are lazy and unmotivated. We need breaks in order to keep going. 

Eat Lunch

I know this seems like common sense, but its strange how working in an office, the lunch break is a welcome part of every day, but working at home it can seem like an interference and bothersome distraction from getting work done. One of the biggest reasons I detest lunch at home is that I don't like "cooking" again during the day (dinner time is enough if you ask this non-chef) so I often procrastinate or snack throughout the day instead of taking the time to eat a proper lunch. I've been working on this lately however and have been making an effort to properly fuel for lunch by prepping ahead of time, or meeting Paul for lunch. Both of those activities are something I look forward to, instead of dreading. 

Work when no one else is around

This also may seem like common sense and also easier than done. One main thing I have learned throughout my time working at home is that it is extremely difficult to get work done or stay on point when Paul and Kyle are home. It just doesn't work for our life. Recognizing this and accepting it for what it is has been working so much better than fighting against it. I schedule all of my work to get done during the hours that they are not home, and as soon as they come home I turn "work" off and focus on household activities or activities that involve them. This has freed me up in a HUGE way. I no longer feel guilty all the time that something isn't getting taken care of (work or them).

I understand that for those with little ones, this may be next to an impossibility, but recognizing the times when you are least distracted by family members and scheduling to accommodate that instead of trying to do it all at the same time can help! 

Schedule hours

This is another tip that has been HUGE for me. Before I was kind of just working whenever the mood struck or whenever something "happened" that I needed to take care of. This left me feeling frustrated and kind of like I was working Alllllll. The Time. Understanding that being a small business owner and entrepreneur, its hard to turn it "off", scheduling actual working hours for yourself can give you the space to still have some of a life despite the big plans you might have for your business.

Pay attention to when you are most needed. If 9-3 seems to be the time you have the most free without other commitments to attend to, then make those your business hours and stick to them. Prioritize to do items to get done within that time frame. Resist responding to emails or social media inquiries outside of those hours. If you consistently reply and respond to clients at all hours of the day you are training them that you are essentially available all hours of the day. Balancing your need and want to serve and love on your clients does not mean that you are consistently at their mercy. Respect your time and they will too. 

Schedule social media posts

Yes, yes, yes a million times yes. If you are not already scheduling your social media posts, then do it now!! I felt the overwhelm of posting on social media early on and quickly found some solutions to help take the pressure off. I've been fine tuning my approach ever since and while I don't think my solution is perfect, it does take a huge load off me during the day. I currently use Buffer to schedule posts for FB, Twitter and Google + and it has been working great. Since Instagram is insistent on all content being posted directly from a phone, there isn't a perfect way to schedule IG posts although you can prep them ahead of time through tools like Hootsuite and Latergram.me. My dream would be to someday use Edgar, but at $50/month that is likely not happening anytime soon. For now Buffer has been working for me and I will likely keep with it for a while. Doing anything you can to stay off of social media throughout the day will help however, because we all know what a black hole social media can be! Productivity killer #1. 

Break it down

Thanks to my dad, I am the quintessential list maker. I have lists around me all the time and this is probably one of the reasons why I love programs like Trello so much. My mind works better when things are line item one on top of another and I can cross them off as they get done. On days where I am feeling overwhelmed by the running list of things that needs to get done in my mind, my first step is to grab paper and pen and write it all down.

I break things down into must get done, nice to get done and someday items so I have a clear picture of what to focus on next. I always feel better after this exercise because things aren't nearly as scary when they are written down. I find that the practice of attempting to get done 2-3 small things and 1 big thing per day leaves me feeling energized and productive and like I really did something to move my business forward that day. 

Parking Lot items

This is a common term in corporate language (synergy anyone?) but it makes sense for working at home entrepreneurs as well.

How many times have you been working away and then something comes up that instantly impedes progress? A software program you are downloading gives you trouble. You have an idea for a photo you want to incorporate into a promotional item or blog post but you can't find one and taking one would take up the next few hours of your time. You just discovered a new resource that can potentially help you accomplish a big goal, but it will take a few days to soak in all the material and learn how to use it. You run across some helpful material that you want to read through, but you end up finding more and more links on the website that would help you more and more and before you know it, 4 hours have gone by and you didn't get anything done that you were planning too that day. Sound familiar? 

Oh friends how I have been there. This is one of the main reasons I have to be extra cautious to stay off of social media throughout the day and schedule times when I can go on and browse around. When I do find things like this or run into speed bumps, I parking lot them. I put them all in one place to refer to later. Whether that be a written list, a Trello board or a fun website like Pocket, have a place where you can put things that seem like they need your immediate attention, but in reality they can be fit into your schedule later when you can clear time in your day to take care of them. 

Walk away

This one may seem to be the most counter-intuitive of them all. "Cinnamon, how can I stay productive, if I am walking away from what needs to be done?" That is a great question and thank you for asking!

By walking away, I mean this in more of a metaphorical sense rather than a literal one. If you are struggling with a project or a concept or not feeling the creative juices flowing, sometimes you need to put everything down (mentally) and walk away from it for a bit. Shake off the dust. Let go of the frustration and give yourself some grace. Parking Lot whatever it is that is eating up your time and draining your creativity and productivity and come back to it at a later date. I understand, this can be HARD to do especially if you are on deadline, but giving yourself a little bit of space between the pressure and the objective can end up jump starting that solution that you never knew existed. This is why ideas or names we have forgotten come to us all of a sudden in the shower or while we are driving. The mind is a powerful and mysterious force, work with it, not against it and feel that productivity flow!! 

I REALLY hope you found those tips successful and I would LOVE to hear some of your ideas and strategies for staying productive if you work from home! Leave a comment below and let me know what works for you!! I just might steal it. ;-)