Self Employed Success

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Visit The Coaching Show Internet Radio website to listen live or to the archives!

This isn’t my ordinary blog post.

It’s long. It will take you exactly seven minutes to read it. (I timed it!)

It tells the story of my journey to reinvent my business. You might recognize yourself in the story.

And at the end, there’s something exciting waiting for YOU.

It Begins With a Feeling, A Knowingness

Two years ago I was feeling restless. I knew there was something more for me to do in the world, but I was confused about the direction I wanted to take my business. I knew I needed to reinvent my business model, but I was so busy running my current business, I couldn’t imagine where I’d find the time to think it through.

I found myself ignoring the call of my inner voice.

This wasn’t my first stab at reinventing my business. I’ve done it five times before! I know how it feels when the reinvention is complete (awesome!) but the process didn’t have boundaries or guidelines and it was making me nuts. I wanted a step-by-step process that combined linear thinking and a creative approach.

Then I started getting phone calls and emails. My clients and colleagues who were already running successful businesses were saying the exact same thing: I want to reinvent my business.

Was some sort of cosmic event going on or was it just a natural phase in every business cycle, this need to transform and grow a business? As I helped them, I explored the process, the techniques and the landmines to avoid.

My Ah-Ha Moment

It took me a year (no kidding) to finally get it. After a year of knowing I needed to transform my business, the idea synthesized and coalesced instantly: My new business model was going to be all about helping people reinvent their business!

As I worked on my model, I became clearer about my values and how they had to be incorporated into my new business model. After 16 years on the internet I was desperate to connect to real, live human beings. I missed face-to-face time with colleagues, students and clients. So that had to be part of my new business model as well. Both a virtual component and a live component: it had to have it all.

Zig When They Zag

But when I looked at all the live workshop models out there, they were all leaning towards huge workshops. Sometimes they had 400 students in a room and 10 different instructors. I’ve been to those kind of workshops and I learned a little from each instructor. But I had three things I hated about those big workshops:

• I didn’t learn enough in-depth information
• I didn’t walk away with an action plan
• I didn’t really get to connect deeply with the other participants

So while my colleagues were all creating mega-workshops, I decided to create a small, intensive workshop about business reinvention, one where I could see everyone’s face, learn each person’s name and their story, and create a group education experience which included training and brainstorming, action planning and connectivity to the group.

Is It Time to Reinvent Your Business, Too?

If you’ve read this far, you might be thinking, “I’m feeling restless, too. I know I need to change my business model. What’s next for me?”

Welcome to the tribe. Many people who have been in business for longer than five years feel the exact same way. It’s part of your business life cycle.

Sometimes life circumstances change and after less than five years you find you need to transform your business to fit what’s going on around you. Sometimes you’ve been in business quite a while, say 10 or 20 years, and it’s no longer challenging to you. You want to grow and you want your business to grow with you. Or maybe you’re looking to simplify and scale back.

Wherever you are on the journey to business reinvention, I salute you.

It’s Uncharted Territory: Until Now

I reviewed my own five business reinventions and pulled out the common elements. I found the step-by-step process by reviewing what I had done and what my clients had done during their business reinvention journeys. I interviewed my colleagues to see what their experience was like. I took all my knowledge about business strategy development, creative thinking, and business planning, and created a model, an easy way to think through the entire process and create a reinvention plan of your own.

Introducing Compass: Your Roadmap to Business Reinvention

This website isn’t for everyone. It’s for those of us who have owned our businesses for a while and are ready to reinvent and transform it, but don’t know where to begin.

In the Compass website you’ll find information on the steps you need to take to reinvent your business. You’ll find blog posts and stories from others who are on the path to transforming their business model. You’ll find inspiration and advice.

I’ll be updating the Compass blog each week with more information, more stories, more education. I’ll answer your questions and do what I can to help you on your journey.

And you’ll find The Compass Workshop, a live workshop I’m teaching in November in Philadelphia, where you’ll learn to use the Compass Model TM to reinvent your business along with a very small group of other solo business owners – just 15 people will attend this special workshop.

So now you know about my journey and the roadmap I created for myself. I am so excited about this next phase of my life! Don’t worry, Passion For Business and The Success Alliance aren’t going away; this is a new brand in my empire. LOL!

Are Your Ready for the Journey?

If you know that now is the time to start thinking about reinventing and transforming your business, visit the Compass website.

http://www.RoadmapToReinvention.com/

P.S. Remember to register for the free August teleclass: Get Off Your Business Plateau! Details are on the Compass website.

If you’re not busy, raise your hand.

Ha! I knew it!

Everyone is busy. Everyone has a full calendar and a full To Do list. So where are you supposed to find time to think about the future of your business and how you will reinvent it?

Of course you know that you have to find the time to think about the future of your business or it will sneak up on you and bite you in the butt.

A Calendar for Reinventing Your Business Model

I can’t offer a miracle time-creator pill (but wouldn’t that be cool?). But here’s how I’m carving out time to plan for my business reinvention – maybe some of these tips will work for you.

1. First I had to figure out the best time of day for me, the time when I’m thinking clearest and the time when I have energy and vitality. For me, that’s early in the morning.
2. Next, I picked several one-hour time slots each week, 8AM – 9AM, and booked an appointment with myself. No phones, no email, no hubby, no kitties. I did this for a four-week period, two self-appointments per week for a total of 8 hours for the month. This time is used for brain-heavy thinking and planning.
3. Then I figured out my most dreamy times, the times when my brain is shut off and my heart and intuition are open. 3PM is my mental down time.
4. I scheduled 4 one-hour appointments in a month (once a week) to visit the lake and just sit for the hour from 3PM – 4PM. No cell phone, no laptop, no paper, no pen. Just me and the waves and the ducks. This time is used to sit quietly and just let whatever comes up to ripple to the surface of my consciousness. I figure if it’s important, I’ll remember it later and write it down, but I don’t want to stop the flow of energy by stopping to write down notes during this one hour “business meditation.”

It might take you a month or two to schedule these appointments with yourself. Just get them on your calendar.

The final thing I did was schedule a business reinvention weekend for myself, away from the house. I was lucky that I had a business trip planned so I extended my stay so that I could have two or three days of undivided attention to my business future.

I also used a mastermind group retreat weekend to focus on my business reinvention and talk about it with my mastermind group colleagues. But you might find a willing friend who will let you stay in their guest room for a few nights and who will understand if you’re incommunicado for part of that time so you can spend quiet time transforming your business model.

Question for you: How are you carving out time to devote to planning your next business move? What suggestions do you have for people who know they need to find time to think and dream about transforming their business, but also lead very busy lives? Leave your comments below; I’d love to hear from you!

Did you know your business runs in cycles? The key to a successful business is to begin the process of change, growth and/or innovation before the preceding cycle of success runs out.

In the past few months, I’ve had an influx of prospective clients come to me with these exact words: “I want to reinvent my business.”  I thought:  Cool! Me, too!

For me, I want to shake things up a bit. Running my business is too easy for me. There’s not a lot of day-to-day challenge and I don’t feel like I’m reaching my full potential. Heck, I don’t know what my full potential IS — but I know I’m not there yet. Have you ever felt like that?

A great way to keep growing personally and professionally is to keep reinventing your business model without completely wiping away everything you’ve done in the past. Take all your experience and knowledge, plus any new goals and lifestyle changes, and make a plan for your future business.

Reinventing Your Business Model

There are lots of reasons why people reinvent their business model. Here are some of the ones I’ve heard recently:

• One of my clients needs to take her business completely virtual so that she can travel extensively with her husband, who retired early.
• Another client said he wants to make more money so that he can send his kids to college in a few years.
• One of my business colleagues wants to expand the services and products he offers to his customer base, to be more “full service” and have multiple streams of income.
• One of my favorites is a colleague who wants to make her business completely based on passive income by selling educational products about her field of expertise. So not only is she reinventing what she offers her audience but her marketing model as well!
• And last but not least, one colleague wants to completely reinvent herself, sell her existing business, and take everything she knows and loves, creating a whole new career/business for herself.

Do any of these sounds like you? If yes, are there specific reasons why you’re transforming your business or marketing model, or just a gut feeling you have? I’d love to hear your comments!

Something’s in the air!

Everywhere I turn recently, I keep running into people who tell me stories about how they are changing their business model, reinventing the way they do business, modifying the products/services they offer, and shifting who their target audience is.

Some say they’re feeling restless: that they know something is going to change in their business but they’re not clear yet exactly what the new model will look like. They’re exploring all the options to find the new formula that works for them.

Others know exactly the direction they’re moving in and just need to work out an action plan. One colleague said to me, “I’m itching and ready to take action, if only I knew what the right action should be!”

I’ve been feeling the same way. I know my business is morphing. I won’t reinvent it from the ground up, but instead I’ll take all my knowledge and experience, and redefine what services and products I offer my audience. Some services will go away, some will stay the same, new ones will be added.

I’m seeing some recurring themes about why people are reinventing their business, and I’ll explore the range of reasons in another blog post. There’s no right or wrong reason for reinventing your business, just like there’s no fixed definition of what “reinvention” means to you and your biz.

Just trust your gut instinct. If you know something isn’t quite right with your current business model, trust your thoughts and feelings on the matter. You may not know exactly where you’re going, but the reinvention journey is a path worth exploring.

I’m interested to hear your comments. Are you reinventing your business, too? Where are you in your thinking about your new biz model?