The end of the year is the perfect time to plan for the coming year. And here we are on the verge of a new year stretching out before us with all its possibilities and potential pitfalls. Do you have a business plan for 2022? If you do, are you confident you have included everything you should? If you don’t have a business plan for 2022 yet, when will you… and do you know what goes into successful business planning? A good business plan covers a number of areas related to your business. As you go through each of those areas, you will be using three KEY things (or overall concepts) that will ..read more

The wise David Frost once said, “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally” That’s an inspiring quote, right? But is it really that simple? A while back, I wrote about a friend’s son-in-law who was struggling in his business. He is an incredibly smart and talented man, who dreamed of owning his own business doing something he loved. And he just knew that, given the chance, he could turn his talent and passion into a successful business. He started with a great idea the market needed, lots of deposits for orders, tons of ambition, an ..read more

Some words are so common we tend to not give them much thought. Create might be one of those words. What does it mean to create? First, there’s the obvious meaning, which is to take an idea and turn it into a product that solves a problem. Something others can use or enjoy. Take inventions, for instance. I was watching a show on the History channel the other night, and they were doing an episode on inventions that transformed housework. The story that really captured my attention was about Josephine Cochran, the woman who invented the dishwasher. First of all, I had NO idea the dishwasher was ..read more

When I was thinking about a particular Word of the Week, a song popped into my head. While you may or may not be a Billy Joel fan, these lyrics took me on a journey of deeper understanding and really got me thinking. “If you search for tenderness It isn’t hard to find You can have the love you need to live But if you look for truthfulness You might just as well be blind It always seems to be so hard to give Honesty is such a lonely word Everyone is so untrue Honesty is hardly ever heard And mostly what I need from you” Billy Joel 1978 What do you think? Is honesty what we all need, and i ..read more

A few years back, after losing my husband to cancer, my daughter and I decided to build a house we would share. The idea of choosing the location, model, and options for this new house was daunting and overwhelming at first. But we found what we wanted and moved forward with excitement. We chose a floor plan we loved. We chose the perfect lot. We made conscious, thoughtful – even sometimes tedious – decisions that would create the space we would enjoy living in for years to come. Then we watched and waited as what we had set in motion began to take shape. I remember driving out to the build s ..read more

I was browsing through articles on Entrepreneur.com the other day when a headline caught my eye. The headline read, 9 Employees at a Nebraska Burger King Announced Their Resignations By Writing on the Restaurant’s Billboard, ‘We All Quit. Sorry for the Inconvenience.’ I’ll admit my curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to know the story. It turns out the employees of this particular Burger King were fed up with upper management. They felt their concerns were not being addressed – like poor working conditions and management’s failure to hire more people to cover shifts, which resulted ..read more

Yep, my momma said there would be days like this… Video Credit: catswall on YouTube … chasing something that always felt just out of reach. On that spinning wheel, scrapping with the competition to get to that prize. And even stumbling with the effort at times. When I saw this video on YouTube recently, it made me smile. And it really got me thinking about how much my life used to feel like those cats on the wheel. I had goals I was chasing, but I really wasn’t getting anywhere. And, now that I think about it, keeping all of my priorities from falling through the cracks sometimes felt ..read more

About six years ago, I took on an assistant. From the start, it seemed to be a great fit. I thought things were going really well, and they were, but she was struggling. On the outside, she seemed to be taking on the tasks I gave her with enthusiasm and confidence. On the inside, she felt like an imposter and feared her inadequacy would someday be discovered and cause me to question her value.   She was frustrated by the things she didn’t know. And though she was willing to learn new things, the fact that she had to learn new skills at all created a lot of stress for her. I would say the ..read more

About six years ago, I took on an assistant. From the start, it seemed to be a great fit. I thought things were going really well, and they were, but she was struggling. On the outside, she seemed to be taking on the tasks I gave her with enthusiasm and confidence. On the inside, she felt like an imposter and feared her inadequacy would someday be discovered and cause me to question her value.   She was frustrated by the things she didn’t know. And though she was willing to learn new things, the fact that she had to learn new skills at all created a lot of stress for her. I would say the ..read more

Happy National Leave the Office Early Day! Will you be observing the holiday this year? Years ago, working in the corporate world and early on as a business owner, my days were long and the work seemed endless. I started coming in earlier and earlier. Then I started staying later and later. I was trying to create more time in my day. But, no matter how early I started or how late I stayed, I never caught up on all the work that needed to be done. Looking back now, I have to admit I was exhausted and overwhelmed. In the spirit of complete honesty, I also have to admit I wore my overwhelm a ..read more