E1 - Entrepreneur Version - Owning Your Success Newsletter by Outridge Enterprises Inc.

Business Basics - The Passion of Business................Page 2 Marketng Madness: Have You Lost Your Focus.......Page 4 In the Office: Colour Manage Your Time.....................Page 5 Other Publications....................................................Page 6

The Bi-monthly Newsletter for Entrepreneurs

elcome to the Entrepreneur Version of Owning Your Success Newsletter. If you are an entrepreneur then this newsletter is for you. Included in the bi-monthly newsletter will be tips on how to help move your business forward through our columns “Business Basics”, “Marketing Madness”, and “In the Office”. The regular columns will have information to help your business in those three areas.

The newsletter will be available online for free and you can have the latest issue sent right to your mailbox by signing up for a free subscription. I hope you find this information useful and when you’re done reading it feel free to share it with a friend, or better yet have them subscribe to their own version. We also have a transport version available. Check out page six of the newsletter. Enjoy! Bruce

Passion!

Yes, I said it, Passion! Some people have it, some people don’t, but everyone should get it. It’s one of the things that get people up in the morning and keep them working late at night. If you’re wondering how to get our business going, then passion is one of the first steps you need. You can’t fake it, everyone will know. Do you work in the arts? Do you love doing a certain type of business? Maybe you already have your passion, but just aren’t applying it correctly. Well, there are ways of making your passion work for you that you may not be aware of. Ready? Great! Let’s read on and get your business headed on the right track. The first part of using your passion effectively is to know exactly what it is that you’re passionate about. As I mentioned before you may already know what it is. For me drawing was and is mine. I started drawing as a kid copying drawing books and cartoons from the newspaper. I remember “Marvin” being one of the strips I enjoyed the most. My friends and I would draw our favorite rock group “KISS” all over our notebooks recreating our favorite concert scenes. I drew fairly consistently until I was 18 years old when I began my trucking career. I may have lost that passion, but perils of a divorce pushed me back into drawing. Today I am an illustrator / cartoonist and it’s all due to passion. I love to do it.

That drawing has evolved into a business that has brought more enjoyment than I could ever imagine and there are big goals for the future. So, what is yours? That is the first key. If you have passion for something you will work on it without being asked, think about how to improve what you do, and figure out how to make a living at it if that interests you. Now is also a good time to let you know you only have to take your passion as far as you want. If you would like to keep it as a hobby then by all means enjoy it and use it as your relaxation. If you would like to take it further, it may just be the ticket to enlighten your life to levels only dreamed of before. So, if you are trying to make your dream a reality here is how I have begun and hopefully it will give you some ideas to get your career in gear. The first step after identifying your dream is to set some goals. Make them definite and date them. You’ve probably read many times that goals work when written down. This is so true. That single act alone will do more for your career. People have laughed at me in the past because I do lots of goal setting and organize and prioritize, but it works. I have hit almost every goal I’ve set for myself just by writing it down. I don’t know how, but that simple task sets the mind and when I look back over time, I have reached each one of them very close to the timeframe I set out. It is very powerful.

Once you’ve set your goal, you need to set your mind up for success. Be in business! You’re not trying, or will see, or maybe I will. You are… and have a successful business. I don’t care if you’re a plumber by day; your main business is whatever it is you do. Now that your mind is playing a part in your dream, it’s time to invest. Decide – money, time or both for your passion. How much can you invest? Think about this greatly. The amount you invest will directly relate to the amount of growth and longevity for your business.

If you’re only willing to invest 2 hours a week, success will be a long time coming. You may have to start slower and build up momentum. That’s okay. Just get started. I have been accused of spending too much money for my business. But I invested enough that I couldn’t turn back. There lies the secret. I couldn’t turn back. Now begin the process, research where your idea or product fits in society. If you’re a painter, are you looking for galleries, an illustrator looking for assignments, or an entrepreneur looking for clients? Research your chosen market. Investigate what is needed to get there and begin the process. In my office I have a sign that reads, “Failure is not an option!” I ask you to look and see what’s in your office. Until next time - Good Day!

The first part of using your passion effectively is to know exactly what it is that you’re passionate about.

n business there is so much to do that everything can get very overwhelming. This is especially true if you are an entrepreneur trying to run the whole show on your own. I have to redirect myself every once in a while to make sure I am staying to the path set out when I started. The one area that always seems to get people off track is marketing; there is always a latest idea to follow, a new program that promises the world, or a buddy with a new great idea. The strength in marketing is to stay steady and keep moving forward. It is kind of like a road trip, you could take the highway and get there in a reasonable amount of time without small towns or red lights to slow you down, or you could take the scenic route with small towns, beautiful villages and take much longer but it will eventually get you to the same place. In that scenario time and money will be the factors that cost you on the scenic route. That of course could go sky high if your wife starts shopping in any of those small towns, which is why I take the highway.

So if we look at that in marketing dollars by staying on the highway we will get our results in a reasonable amount of time depending on the effort applied and a well developed plan. If we take the scenic route we are going to end up trying every trick and trend in the book, possibly spending a lot of money, time, and effort possibly slowing down our speed to the destination. All of the talk of social media, blogs, and so forth has got everyone going in that direction and that is fine. The problem I see with people going to those platforms is that they end up focusing on just those areas of their marketing strategy and forget everything else. Those are important areas, as I am on all of those platforms as well, but there is a lot of other marketing I do as well to make the plan well rounded. The solution to marketing is as follows; design your marketing program in areas that will hit your target market, find the platforms and marketing forms that are the lowest cost and reach the largest amount of people, and stay consistent to your plan. Feel free to try new ideas but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t abandon old ones if they are bringing in results. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where to start; then start by creating your marketing plan. Remember focus is the key to winning in the marketing game.

ÂŠ2011 Outridge Consulting Services / Outridge Enterprises Inc.

any of us are now using cell phones and electronic calendars to keep our schedules in good order. If you are still using the paper system you can try and adopt or find a similar idea for your time management challenges. The trick to good time management is to block off your time so you are focusing on important parts of your business uninterrupted. Most programs like Outlook allow you to categorize different areas and assign them a colour. You need to do this first, so name your categories, and assign each a colour. These colours work in both tasks menu and calendar menu. The categories I use are administration, client contact, business meetings, personal time, production time, and research. You can add more if you wish, but those are the six I use the most. It is important to add production time if your business requires you to actually work in your business such as an artist or an accountant. Now when scheduling your day enter all the tasks you have to do that day in the task menu and assign each a category. After entering your tasks switch to calendar view and block off your time based upon the tasks you have to do that day.

So if you have four tasks to do in administration you may block off one hour for administration time and in that hour you will handle all of the administration tasks. You would do the same for the other areas. This helps to make sure you are working effectively and handling the most important parts of your day. You can also look back on it and get an idea of where most of your time is going. An important part of the categorizing problem is what administration is classified under and client contact and so forth. Here is how I handle that problem. Tasks like email, updating your status on Facebook, writing in your blog I put them under “administration” time. They are important to the operation of your business, but don’t necessarily impact your income. Items like phoning potential clients, working on a proposal, creating letters to send off are “client contact” and are very important. So you have to decide how each task plays out in your company. Your blog may be income for you if you sell them so that may be production work or client work. It may be different for everybody so see what makes sense for you. You will be surprised at the completion rate for tasks and how it will impact the bottom line of your business. Try it and see what it can do for your productivity.

Well you read the Entrepreneur Version of Owning Your Success. Did you know that we also offer a version for the transportation market? It is published under the same name and is also a bimonthly newsletter. Both issues will alternate each month and is free to receive and view online. If you know someone n the transportation market that is a professional driver, owner operator, or team supervisor then recommend they read the newsletter. It is in the same format as this one offering tips and techniques for a better career or business.

Collar to Collar magazine is published semi-annually and is available online or in a print version. This 32 page magazine offers articles to help supervisors and their staff have better careers through leadership. The goal is to improve customer service, time management, and reduce complacency with your team. Subscriptions are available for by visiting our website at www.outridge.ca and clicking on the Collar to Collar Magazine images and tabs.

ÂŠ2011 Outridge Consulting Services / Outridge Enterprises Inc.