Once summer weather comes, I am outside and away from work on Sundays. I wake up thinking about bike rides, gardening, swimming or picnics.  However today, here in Portland it is cold and rainy. It’s May 23rd and one would expect  sunshine because we had it in February but that sun is a trickster and often disappears again and throws me into a mild funk! I am one of those people who live in Portland in spite of the weather.

So today I am inside and working ‘on’ my business. No meetings, no client calls,  and no need to get dressed up. Here are three things to do that will bring some sunshine into your business even when it is cloudy outside. If you happen to be in Tucson, then you can use these same three things on a day it is too hot and sunny to go outside. ( I wish:)

All of these things are in the important but not urgent category. What this means is that they will help your business tremendously but, not seeming urgent, they tend to get put off.

1.  Update your website. Browse your own website and imagine you are a potential customer; someone who is squarely part of your niche market. Notice how it feels from their point of view. Decide what you want to change, add or delete. Notice what isn’t working well. Re-write content,  edit for errors, add new pages or change photos. Websites get stale if they are not changed every so often. Your regular customers will feel renewed interest when they go back to your site and see new content.

2. Look at your business plan.  Do a self-assessment and see how you are doing, where you need to put energy and what  areas need to grow. You might think of some new programs to offer your niche market or some new systems for your office. Use my Whole Business Circle for a quick assessment tool. It works!

3. Tidy  up your office. Do that project you have been putting off, dust your shelves and bring in some cut flowers. You spend so much time in this space and it is so easy to not give it that little extra energy.

If you do any of these three things you will begin the week with some renewed energy and focus. I worked on my website today and it felt great! I manged to take a bike ride in between rain drops. What did you do?

For solo business owners, the irony of growing a business is that at the beginning you are focused on bringing in any amount of money. Many people begin their business after leaving a job or completing a training program.

Whatever the circumstances, most solo entrepreneurs have no savings and no start up cash.  They use credit cards, do everything themselves and focus on bringing in cash right away so they can eat and pay their rent. Sound familiar?

Entrepreneurs in this category are some of the most hardworking people I know. They put in long hours and work all the time. They are driven not just by need, but by their passion and desire to be successful. However, money is important and they also want the freedom. Freedom from stress and worry about their cash flow and freedom to be able to take a vacation without more huge credit card debt.

The irony is that, in order to make more money you have to spend more money. There is an order to this process:

1. Know your niche market inside and out. Know exactly who you are helping and why. Know exactly what your people need and what they are willing to pay for.

2. Once you know that, develop your main service and product around their problem and how you can solve it.

3. Develop more and more products and services that continue to offer help to this same group of people.

This 1-2-3 process works. You will begin to earn more money, your cash flow will increase as there are more income streams, however there are also more financial outlays. It cost money to make money.

1. You can’t do everything yourself eventually. You will need to hire  people to help you for specific jobs.

2. You will need to update your website or build a new one that better reflects your business.

3. You will need to hire a mentor because if you don’t you will not have the support to face all the issues and problems you will need to overcome along the way.

4. You will need to spend money  on new equipment, software and tools.

5. You might need a new office.

So, how do you actually increase your profits with this scenario?  It has to do with strategic planning, developing income streams that become self-supporting after the start-up costs and keeping your long term vision clear.  I now understand the old saying, ” It takes five years before most businesses make a profit.”

I wonder if any of you feel like me and have too much to do and too many things that need to have been done last week!  My business growth is following my business plan, which is good, however the plan also included hiring a good part time assistant. Like many successful entrepreneurs, the need is there ahead of the money.

There is a dollar cost associated with success that I didn’t factor in.  I am earning more money but I am also spending more. Similar to a lot of small solo-business owners, I am contracting out more jobs, however I am still doing the lions share of the work myself.

So what do you do when you know it is not possible to get everything done? How do you prioritize?  Here are five tips to help you feel more in control and peaceful. Organization has never been my strong area so if I can do this anyone can!

1. Do a mind-mapping and begin Monday morning  by writing down every single thing you can think of that needs to be done. Jot down next to it-why it’s important.

2. Notice what category each thing is in. Here are the categories I use:
• Finances
• Marketing
• Planning
• Customer service
• Operation

I have my office cubbies organized into these five categories so it helps me to stay with this system.

3. I use Stephen Coveys time management chart.  I draw it large on my whiteboard and then write in each of my items in the square they belong.  This short exercise helps me to decide how important the job is. Some things are urgent and important and other things are important but not urgent, like planning and goal setting.

Some people never get to this because the seemingly urgent things always eat up the time. For me it is the opposite. I love doing planning so I will end up doing it first and forget to pay a bill on time!  The non-urgent and not important category can eat up huge amounts of time and energy. Social media can fall here unless you are very specific about a marketing task. Getting on Twitter everyday for 15 minutes might be important but getting sidetracked on Facebook could be a waste of time.

4. Once you have this chart up on your board, fill in empty squares with your items and then notice the items that are in the same category from number two above.  I do the stuff in square number one first and then square number two.

5. Customer service always takes precedent! In a two-hour gap between two client appointments today I was working on a Power Point presentation. The phone rang and it was one of my clients who needed help.  I put her first because without my customers I have no business!

Now you might be thinking that doing these five things is a time consuming task in itself but it actually only takes about 10 minutes. You can also add new items as they come up during the week.  The fun part is wiping each item off the board as you complete it. This is the magic of using a whiteboard.

My clients often have a huge  struggle around the whole idea of creating a strong niche for marketing and growing their business.  In theory people get it, but in practice, it tends to throw them into full on fear-based reaction.

Niche marketing has to do with focusing on the needs and wants of a specific and narrow group. The narrower your niche, the stronger your business will be, as long as you choose a niche that is accurate and reflects an authentic need. It works and yet people are resistant to doing this.

What are the reasons that make people stuck in this process?

•  Wanting to help everyone and not wanting to leave anyone out.
•  Thinking that by choosing to build their business on a narrow niche, they will make less money.
•  Wanting to focus on their service and products instead of smart business strategies.
•  Fear of their own empowerment and success.
•  Discomfort with making a lot of money.

The idea that you will leave people out by focusing on a niche is actually incorrect and in fact it is the opposite.
Here is a good example:

One of my clients, Christine,  offers movement and fitness help for women age 50-80, who are either disabled or recovering from an accident or surgery. This is an excellent niche because woman in that category have special needs and want to work with someone they trust will understand their exact situation. They have many emotional concerns that accompany their desire for physical help, and they will be less likely to hire someone who seems like a generalist or works with everyone.  They don’t want to end up in a class with young fit people or men.

If she refused to name her specialty and her focus, not only would she not attract the specific women she wants to work with, but she would be unlikely to attract any other group as well. Men are looking for someone who specializes in men; young athletes are looking for someone who helps young people who are athletic and so on.  Without focusing on her niche and naming it, not only would she not attract her niche but she also wouldn’t attract anyone else. Her business would limp along rather than flourish.

Many new small business owners also sabotage their success by stubbornly refusing to focus.  There is a fear of success and it feels safer to stay small. Owning a small business is like taking a full time personal growth workshop. You have to keep peeling off the onion skins and look at the deeper issues that might be holding you back.

Niche marketing is essential because:

1. It is much more profitable to market to a narrower group. It is all about fully understanding the needs and wants of this group and then providing a multitude of products and services to offer value to them and keep them in your pipeline.

2. You will get way more referrals because people will know exactly what your specialty is and who to send your way.

3. Your clients will easily be able to tell their friends about you and refer people to work with you. It will make it easy for them to rave about you being a specialist.

4. You will have a much easier time establishing strategic partners as they will know exactly who to send your way. They will trust your expertise and also see you as the company to connect with around this niche group.

5. People will see you as the expert in your area. People would always prefer to work with an expert so you will more likely get asked to speak to groups, write articles and be a presenter at conferences or trade seminars in your area.

Last year I met a woman who built a multi-million dollar business developing t-shirts and tops for menopausal women. The fabric allows perspiration to evaporate quickly so it is perfect for women who have night sweats and hot flashes.  She was a savvy entrepreneur. If she worried about focusing on a niche, she may have provided  a whole clothing line for all age women and men and watered down her message. Instead she stuck with this one product line and her business grew through the roof. Her customers loved that someone had created a business to specifically help them. They felt understood.
Many years ago I also faced all the above fears. I was afraid to name my niche. It was illogical based on all I knew, so I had to look deeper. My niche is solo-business owners who offer services to help people. I was resistant for all the reasons above. I didn’t want to leave out retail, or people with employees, executives etc. It’s crazy because those people still call me too, but when I finally named my niche, my business began to steadily grow. Yours will too.it is all a matter of clearing your focus.