I like to begin each week with this question because I know the week will get busy with all kinds of demands, but if I am able to focus on one main goal I will feel successful when Friday rolls around.

Especially for solo business owners this  focus is essential. The reason most people struggle is the lack of focus. It’s easy to feel pulled in a million directions, have too much information swimming around in your in your head and lose track of your purpose.

Lack of focus can cause small business owners to lose momentum.
Having a clear focus can increase productivity in these five ways.

1. It will decrease the chances of mistakes. Having a clearer mental focus will help you to slow down and do each job well.

2.  Focusing will help you to overcome obstacles that might seem impossible to deal with. There is always a solution if you have the ability to clearly focus.  This will allow the solution to appear.

3. It will keep you on track with your overall plan instead of feeling like a leaf in the wind. It can be fun to be a leaf sometimes, but in order to accomplish a goal, focus is essential.

4. Focusing allows you to move from the superficial to going deeper into a project. This deeper process is not only more stimulating, but will give you much more quality results.

5. You will have that sweet sense of accomplishment of putting out an intention and then actually meeting that goal.

At the beginning of each week, put forth one clear focus intention that you want to accomplish by Friday. Allow the magic to happen.

Here are a few good questions to ask yourself. These questions can help you to move your business forward.

1. What is holding you back from your greatness?
2. What obstacle can you dissolve?
3. What is one thing that you are ready to let go of?

When you get your answer ask yourself if you are ready to let this go. If you are, the next part is to write it clearly on a sheet of paper, read it aloud and then light a match to it. Watch it burn away into the darkness and the light of the fire will transform it into the success you want in the new year.

This may seem a bit airy-fairy to some of you, but these rituals do help you to move past your own limitations so you can accomplish all that you desire and empower yourself to develop the successful business you are meant to have.  I had a group of corporate executives do this exact ritual ( we called it a process) and the mental shifts in the group were phenomenal.

Find a couple people to do it with. You can each read your “letting go” piece and the group energy can add to the power of the ritual. Have fun bringing your greatness into the new light.

You’ve probably heard me say this before, “Owning a business is like a constant personal growth process.”

I remember attending an “est” training in the 1975. For those of you born later, it was an intense  personal transformation training offered by Werner H. Erhard,  It was all about learning personal empowerment in a very charged and challenged situation. It wasn’t fun, but growthful and I came out feeling I had been rung through a ringer.

Some weeks of being a business owner can feel just like this. Certainly, most of the time I love what I do and feel grateful for what I  have accomplished.

However, other times there are inner conflicts that come up and challenges that will stretch my own sense of inner power. There are times I want to just cry and other times I feel angry or hopeless as I have to stretch beyond my own comfort zone. One thing I learned way back in 1975 is that my comfort zone can transform if I allow it to.

Stacy’s 4 part Practice

1. Remain neutral (the space within you where emotion ceases).
2. Follow the thoughts that bring you peace.
3. Remain steadfast in your faith of the highest and best outcome.
4. Disregard any and all external distractions and fear based realities.

These 4 principles to follow can be a Practice all on their own. When things are going well, they are not really an issue, but when you are challenged it is a good time to practice these four ways and make them a part of your natural way of being. It is possible to overcome any obstacle as long as you have a plan, determination and support.

As a business owner, your mental and/or emotional state can have a huge effect on your productivity, your relationships and your business as a whole.

It could be that you wake up one Monday morning and just feel depressed. You don’t want to get out of bed, you don’t want to be creative, deal with employees or face the tasks that need to be done.

Owning a business is similar to being married. When things are sunny and happy, you love each other and it feels great,  you are energized and passionate. But sometimes things feel blah and the passion has gone out the window. Everything your partner does irritates you and you just want to be left alone. The choice you make at this moment is pivotal.

You can choose to stay in the dark place and be grumpy or you can choose to do whatever it takes to change your state of mind. The first step is to be aware of the fact that you have this choice.  You are not at the mercy of your emotions. You can choose what you want and how you want to be.

Here are a few tips that can help any business owner to move into a more empowered place and choose how to begin your day and how to relate to your business.

1. Remember your business vision. If you have done a vision board, take a few moments to look at it. It will remind you who you really are and what you are creating.  My own vision board has words like, “clear vision, lose yourself in the magic, be lifted to your higher self and we hear you”. When I read those words it reminds me of how I felt when I wrote them.

2. Energize your physical space. Clean your office, get fresh flowers, move furniture, light a candle, play uplifting music or anything that will help to change the energy on the physical level. Just the act of doing this will affect your state of mind and will help you to move out of a doldrum.

3. Contact your mentor or a close friend and share. Just talking to someone who is a good listener can make a huge difference. Depression lives inside and when you begin to talk,  it moves the energy outward and brings you back in touch with your life force.

4. Make a list of what you want to accomplish this week. Write it on a white board so you can easily erase things as you complete them. Creating your list is good because it is concrete and will get you thinking about what you need to do.  Right action is energizing and can get you moving.

5. Acknowledge all you are grateful for in your life and business. Give appreciation to people who have supported you and cared about you. Give thanks to everything good that has come your way.

Now breath, smile and move forward in your day and week with a positive state of mind.

Why keep struggling in your business when the helping hand is there? All you have to do is grab it.  There is an easy to follow formula for developing a steady stream of new clients, people who want your help and are ready to take your hand.  What goes around comes around.

Service providers often have trouble getting help themselves. Why? Here are a few thinking errors.

1. I can figure it out myself. You know your clients benefit when they get your professional help. It’s no different for you. Why struggle alone when you can shift and learn faster with support.

2. It’s too expensive. “I can’t afford it,” is a deadly phrase for a business owner. There needs to be priorities for sure, but getting help in your business is an investment and will pay for itself.

3. I tried once before and it didn’t work so this will likely be the same. This is a discouraging attitude. It could be that was a wrong match, the wrong timing. Who knows but don’t give up on yourself. Successful entrepreneurs get help over and over.

4. I don’t have time. All business owners are overly busy, however the stress from not having enough clients eats up time and energy as well. It’s all about prioritizing and making the time to work on your business.

5. Things aren’t that bad. It could be that you are in denial of how bad it is. If you are struggling, stressed and worried about money, you need help. Why suffer if you don’t have to.

Whether you assist people with their websites, bookkeeping, health, finances or business,  you can be a model for them as someone who gets professional help when needed. There are 7 easy steps to putting together a marketing plan that will end your struggles so you will be able to continue to provide excellent service to a steady  stream of new clients. Does that sound good?

I remember my first year in business when  the flow had slowed down to a trickle and then almost stopped at one point. I  felt  hopeless, fearful and anxious. When I added a bit of self-judgment to that mix it was a sad sight.

What do you do when this happens? Quit, get a job, go into a cave?

Nothing is wrong or bad about quitting but that decision needs to be made in a place of empowerment and not in the face of fear.   It’s actually an excellent time to re-prioritize your business plan of action and goals.

1. Are you 100% commited to your business?  If your answer is anything less than 100% it’s important to look at what is making it less and what you need to do to bring it back to 100%.

2. Re-do your marketing plan so it is clear and targeted to exactly who you want to work with. Come up with ways to communicate with them that get’s their attention. Offer something of value for free to get them through the door.

3. Review your whole business plan and make sure you are on track of where you are now and where you are wating to go.

4. If you are in a funk make sure you get help. When you make important decisions from a place of fear they are never good. A good mentor will help you to stay objective and make decisions from a place of empowerment.

5. Do one positive thing for your business today and another one tomorrow. Keep watering and weeding your garden and it will flourish before your eyes.

Adam@home, by Brian Basset, is one of them. I certainly can relate to the challenges of running a business from home.

Whether you are operating a lemonade stand like these kids, or a retail store it’s important to understand the principle of adaptation and flexibility. You may have a really good quality product and give great service but if  your customers can’t find you, you have to find them. Here are a few good tips to remember.

1. Don’t  get too attached to anything in your business. Things change and you have to be willing to change as well. Business that stay stagnant are the ones that disappear.

2. Remember the message of  the “Survival of the Species.” The businesses who let go and adapt are the ones who stay in business. When the health food fad started, McDonald’s put in a salad bar.

3. Look outside of your own office or shop. Notice what’s happening around you and offer products that speak to that pulse or need.

When the recession hit, I realized that small businesses would be in a great position as long as they could adjust their business plan and be willing to invest in their business. As a business owner, you have control over your job security.  Adaptation and flexibility need to be your best friends.

You’re at a networking group and people are doing their 60 second elevator speeches. Laurie begins by saying, “Hi, I’m Laurie and I ‘m a graphic artist and I can design your marketing materials.

A few minutes later Jennifer introduces herself and says, “Hi I’m Jennifer and I own ABC graphic arts and we provide for all of your marketing needs”.

What’s the biggest difference you notice between these two speeches? One person is a graphic artist and the other owns a graphic arts business.  How does it feel different when someone says “I,” as opposed to “we”? It feels like Laurie does everything herself  whereas it sounds like Jennifer has a staff and a team.

Laurie is likely to accept jobs based on what she can do herself; her skill level and her time. Jennifer may not even be an artist herself. Maybe she is a manager and hires people to do all the work. Who is likely to say  yes more often?  Jennifer will,  because she’ll find someone who knows how to do the job even if she can’t herself.

I order to move from self-employment to business you need to let go of the idea that you do everything yourself. You can hire someone, contract with someone or develop an allaince with somone, but whatever your choice, say yes whenever you can and then find a way to meet the needs of your clients.

The truth is that some business owners are doing very well these days. What makes one business do well and another go belly up? There can be many reasons but here are a few thoughts on this mysterious question.

1.  Some businesses get attached to their products or services  and keep trying to figure out how to sell them even when it seems apparent that people don’t want them. They may be really good and amazing but that doesn’t mean people will reach their hand into their wallet and buy. The key is to have a variety of wares and not put all your eggs in one basket. Be willing to change your offering and/or add embellishments to attract more attention.

2.  Investing in your own business will keep it fresh and alive. I read an article recently about a woman who owns a little bookshop and made herself distinctive by having live music on Saturday nights. As soon as her sales began to drop she cut out the Saturday night music. This was a mistake because it was one thing that was working. Constricting and cutting too much can cut the heart out of your business. Investing in getting help, re-freshing and taking risks in  your own behalf is one thing that can make your business do well even in so called hard times.

3. Strengthen the weakest part of your business. It could be that you are focusing all your attention on  the areas you feel comfortable with and you are ignoring the areas you don’t enjoy. A web builder I worked with recently was spending all of her time on learning new skills and polishing her technical expertise. Her office was a mess, however, and her invoices were scattered. Once she tidied her office and put in organizational systems  that she could follow, her whole business began to pick up and she got so busy she had to hire an assistant.

Those are a few of my ideas.  All good businesses have strong vision and goals but it also is important to know how to overcome obstacles.  Maybe you have some of your own ideas that you could share.

To me, greatness is about stretching past where I think I can go. It’s time to be done with complaining about the government and what they’re not doing. Instead, it’s time to turn around and see what I can pull out of myself.

It’s also time to let go of the fears, and worries and just go for it;  be of more service, help more people and reach my highest potential.

What I love about our new president is that he  calls people to let go of their inner cynic, get out of the pit and take action.

That call is a breath of fresh air and a wonderful change. No matter how difficult the challenge or how hard the road, we can each be successful  and aspire to excellence.

•  Do you inspire yourself to greatness in your own business or do you shy away from the challenges that would take you to that place?

•  Do you see the obstacles and shrink away or do you  really go for it.

•  Do you make decisions based on your limiting beliefs or on your dreams of greatness?

Here is a simple but powerful process you can do right now. What are three things you want to do in the next three months that would feel like inspired greatness in your business? Write them down and then post them in three places or tell three people. Put them on Twitter and on Facebook.  It’s ok to say it, in fact yell it out. You will in term inspire other people to do the same and the whole world will feel the vibration. It can all begin with you and your small business.

Here are my three things:

1. Hire an assistant to join my team.

2. Begin a new mastermind group.

3. Finish the rough draft of my book .

Just writing this has already set this in motion. I would love to hear your three things as well.

I especially can see the change in my business (lower center) and it is a big awareness to see that all the business development work, marketing and organization I did last year, has paid off.

For my business, I realized that 2009, the inner or yin part is all about re-energizing my office, making space, changing the physical work space and allowing for business expansion and growth.

After completing my board, I stayed up until midnight remodeling my office, moving desks, wires, cleaning and creating a whole new energy of openness. That was all catalyzed by putting “new office” pictures on my board. It wasn’t until I began to build the board that I realized I even needed office pictures.

This is often how the process works.The experience of doing the board helps you to align what needs to happen.

On the yang side of my business, (upper center) it is all about productivity ( my word for the year) and circulation. The world is calling for my books and products to be more available as they are developed to help people to overcome obstacles in their own business. My first e-book will be in print this year.( watch this space).

With my past vision boards, I have always crammed the space full of pictures and words. This time there are open spaces. It might stay that way to allow for expansion or maybe something else needs to be added later. This is another difference and change that intrigues me.

Although my main focus is growing my business and helping other small business owners to grow theirs, using the Ba-gua as a guide for my board has helped me to see that all my life areas work together to bring balance and harmony in my life. My business is here to support my life, not the other way around.

If you have never done a vision board here is an easy step-by-step process.

1. Gather materials: lots of magazines, old calendars, greeting cards, photos,foam board, glue stick, scissors. Do it with a friend or two if you can.

2. Following your own process, get centered and make an intention, say your word for the year or just meditate for a few moments. You can pick a tarot card, sing, listen to music. Whatever works for you.

3. Begin to go through your magazines and cut out any pictures or words that jump out at you. Make a big pile. You won’t necessarily use them all but you won’t know until you get started. I think it works better to not try to control the process but allow the pictures and words to choose themselves.

4. Begin to arrange the pictures and words on your board. When it feels right, glue them down. Look for more pictures or words as needed. There is no right way to do this, only your way.

5. Share your completed board with your friend, mentor or mastermind buddies.

6. Hang it on the wall of your office where you will see it all year.

I used the Ba-gua as a guide for my vision board this year. I loved this process as it feels complete and harmonious, as each area of my life is represented with the appropriate colors and location.

Have you done your board? Take a picture of it and include it hear with your comments. I’d love to see it.

She has a small solo-entrepreneur sewing business. She repairs clothing, makes curtains and creates accessories like scarves. As we talked about her business she realized that it would be nice if she could hire someone to help her. She had no  long term vision but when pressed she very tentatively mentioned the idea of a shop and a wholesale business although her self-esteem was challenged by this idea.  It could be that her idea of not needing much money was a reflection of staying smaller and feeling small.

Can anyone relate to this story. Does your vision include ideas that challenge your own self-esteem and do you know how much money you want? I would love to hear your responses.

I am happily sitting upstairs in Starbucks in Nelson, New Zealand and trying hard not to listen to the Christmas music blaring from the speakers. I am plugged into my i-pod and am connected to WiFi. What could be better? I look out over Trafalgar Street into the bright sunshine and barely remember the cold and damp winter weather I just left behind in Oregon. It is very strange hearing about Rudolph the Shiny Reindeer while it is full summer outside.

Why am I sitting in Starbucks on such a lovely day? It is one of the few places in town that has wireless internet, otherwise known as a “hotspot.” I am happily listening to Joan Baez sing “Diamonds and Rust” in stereo crystal clarity through my ear phones. I am taken back to 1966 when she sat on her stool, guitar in hand, on the stage at Ohio State University hall, and sang this same song about memories, as well as others about freedom and peace.

All of us 19 and 20 year olds looked to her as a leader of the times.
We were invincible with our youth and her music made us feel we could all change the world and make things perfect just by the pure power of our collective will.

Of course the painful reality of life has challenged that belief many times over the years. Being a woman of my time, I have never given up, through the Vietnam War and now the Iraqi War. I still believe in peace as being the only choice.

In the last 40 years we have moved from transistor radios to i-pods and from encyclopedias to wireless internet. What makes it so hard to make that jump from war to peace?
I hear the words of the Youngblood’s, “Everybody get together and try to love one another right now.”

My i-pod is filled with 60’s music. Why? It keeps me feeling the power and will force of my 19 year old, who knows beyond any doubt, that she can still accomplish whatever she wants. It is all about being a leader in my own right, helping others to be successful and enjoying life to its fullest.

I remember when I was a little girl ( 50 years ago). Now that’s scary in itself. I sat on the top step and listened in when my mom had her ma jong club at our living room. The ladies talked on and on while they played, and I remember the chinking sound of the tiles and all the topics of all their conversations. From someone’s husband’s gall bladder operation to a scorned bride it was all about problems. The gorier the better. The amount that someone could complain seemed to give status in everyone’s eyes.

I am not sure what makes our culture thrive on the negative so much but I inherited the capacity for worry. I tend to fret and worry about what “could” or “might”happen. It is a fictional story of the future in my mind because whatever I am worrying about has not happened, and may in actuality may never happen.

Isn’t it much better to focus on goals and create a picture of the future based on what I want to have happen. If I am going to be visualizing why not make it positive. Not only do I feel more peaceful and happy, it also helps to create the future I want instead of the one I don’t want. Think about it.