Efficient Entrepreneurs

Create a Roadmap for your Business

by MentoringU | Nov 13, 2017 | Business, Efficient Entrepreneurs

What is a Roadmap?

Creating a business roadmap is an essential step for a business to have a big picture idea of where you want to go, where you are now, and the steps that it’s going to take to get you to your final destination. This is a tool that we like to use with small businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs to make sure that you are building your business intentionally. We want you building the business you want, not the business that just happens.

When you started your business, did you have an idea of what your success would mean? Have you defined your goals? I’m big on planning (go figure!) and encourage my clients to plan consistently. We even have a planner system we designed that focuses on this idea of holistic, work-life balance goal setting. Visit our Freebies section to grab a free planner week download and try it out.

But let’s get back to our Business Roadmap. The idea here is that if you know what success looks like for you specifically, and you know where you are in your business right now, we can put steps in place to move you from point A to point B, ensuring that you stay on track and are building your business with your end goal in mind.

That seems like such a simple statement to cover such big objectives, but honestly if you have a direction in mind for your business, you will find yourself much more mindful of the actions you take day to day.

Building a Business Roadmap gives you Direction

So often we see businesses that grow organically, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if your idea of success is to be working 20 hours a week, traveling the world, and have a passive income that’s supporting you, then we don’t want to build a business that requires you to be in a storefront 40 hours a week. Those two things are likely to be mutually exclusive.

So when we build a business roadmap we lay out the framework that helps give us direction.

We start with looking at where we see ourselves now. Think about what the pain points and the frustrations are that you face each day in your business. Consider what you’re happy with, what you live doing, and what you would love to not be doing.

Then we can figure out exactly where you want to end up down the road. Each action you take, the time you devote each day, the relationships you build, they all drive where your business is heading. The focus of a Business Roadmap is to ensure that direction is taking you towards your final endpoint. To the place and time where you consider your business a success.

Your Business Roadmap, plus a little business accountability on an ongoing basis, will help form a big picture plan to keep your business moving on the right track in the direction you want it to go.

Business Roadmap Training

Business Roadmap Training

Check out the video on how to build a business roadmap and grab your free planner to build your own.

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(All resources, downloads, and a copy of the video trainings are hosted in the MentoringU Skills Lab. You will be prompted to checkout, and create a free account to access them. If you are already a Skills Lab member you can find these resources under the Freebies section.)

Pomodoro Technique for Time Management and Productivity

by MentoringU | Jan 8, 2017 | Efficient Entrepreneurs

Guess who’s back?

Yeah I know, it’s been a little while since you heard from me, but I really am excited to be back. I’ve been hard at work helping clients get ready to be super productive in 2017, with a focus on tasks that deliver clear and consistent results. So often we waste time on tasks that derail our productivity and aren’t essential to success because we’ve lost sight of exactly where we want to go with our business and our personal life. Over the next few months I’ll be sharing some of the strategies right here on the blog. If you haven’t already, be sure you grab the 90 Day Jumpstart Action Planner. I’ll be referring to that handy-dandy guide over the next few posts, so you’ll want to grab it, print it out and keep it nearby.

Stock up on coffee, we’re about to make change happen with some good old-fashioned action oriented tools!

First up, How Entrepreneurs Can Manage their Time to Increase Their Productivity!

Time…it’s the one commodity we can’t easily buy more of. Now you can delegate, outsource and hire on, but that’s not really getting more time. Over the next few months we’re going to talk all things productivity. How to be more productive, of course, but also how to do you get in a productive mindset, how do you figure out what derails your productivity and where do you learn to fix it. How to do we make productivity a back burner habit that supports your efforts easily and without a great amount of forethought? Productive people don’t have more time in the day, they just make the most of each and every minute. Get ready… I’ll be sharing some of my favorite productivity hacks, along with resources and tutorials to help you get the most out of your day!

One of my absolute favorite productivity hacks is using the Pomodoro Technique for focused bursts of productivity that deliver real results.

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Now taking profile submissions for our EntrepreDOerzine

by MentoringU | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Business, Efficient Entrepreneurs, Life Style, Marketing

Ok now I know that is a tongue twister…say it with me nice and slow… Entre – pre- DOer -zine! See that’s not so hard, but I bet you can’t say it 5 times fast (If you try, catch it on video and send it my way :)).

We are launching a digital magazine that will be published quarterly and feature profiles on Entrepreneurs, industry news, and advertising blocks. I am constantly searching for new ways to create benefit for the members in my local networking group, online network of entrepreneurs, and the amazing people I seem to meet each and every day. Everyone has such a unique gift and I have been searching for a way to showcase the amazing variety of skills and services our members represent.

Fast forward and you have the officially announcement…We are launching a digital magazine that will profile 8-12 entrepreneurs each quarter and will be available for you to read and hopefully share with your customer base. The magazine will also be shared with all North Austin Networking Group Members to share with their customer base and promoted aggressively in social media. I hope to provide great profiles of our network of EntrepreDOers and a section for you to advertise and promote any specials or promotions.

This first issue will be a test run, and will be priced accordingly! If you are interested, be sure to submit your profile at http://bit.ly/EntrepreDOerzinesubmission by July 15th. This first series of profiles are offered at no cost! If you are interested in advertising or offering a promotion that will run through the fall, you can do so at early bird rates. (BONUS: If you run an ad now at early-bird rates, we’ll grandfather you in at that rate for a full year). Rate: $250 for full-page ads; $175 for half- page ads; $100 for quarter page ads or less. Payment is due the same date as your ad is placed.

If you’ve been attending meetings, we’ve been talking about this upcoming opportunity and it’s finally here!

The #EntrepreDOit Revolution

by MentoringU | Jun 6, 2016 | Business, Efficient Entrepreneurs, Productivity, Vision and Goals

How do I…

I’m going to …

I have an idea…

So often we start off strong with a question, a plan or even just an idea. We tell other people about our idea, we dive into research, we get excited, ramped up and even obsessive to make something happen. But just like an ambitious workout plan that you start on the Monday morning after a pizza binge Sunday night, the momentum and dedication often fizzles out far too soon.

#EntrepreDOit is a movement, a revolution if you will. It’s starting off small like these things always do, but I hope to see it sweep the nation and circle the globe over the next year… inspiring thousands of Entrepreneurs along the way. We’re revolutionizing entrepreneurship and turning ideas into actions! The idea here is to recognize that actions lead to success so we need to be intentional in our planning, our tasks and our to-do lists, and ensure that what we are doing each day is taking action on what will result in our success. This is a pledge, a voluntary opt-in to join other like minded ambitious entrepreneurs in owning your schedule to make change happen! #EntrepreDOers plan and tackle their to-do’s everyday to make #EntrepreDOit a lifestyle.

A little over a decade ago I left the office to start working from home. I did the same corporate job, just from a home office, but let me tell you everything changed. I had to set different schedules, adjust both my and my co-workers expectations of my availability, and most of all embrace the flexibility that a schedule could provide. I began writing here and there, just chronicling my journey and the chaos that happened as I had three kids, two dogs and a few inner city moves happen along the way. I had to let go of the fluff and be selective about what would help me accomplish my goals. I had to learn to balance both work and life priorities if I wanted any semblance of balance. Most of all I had to learn how to just buckle down and get stuff done! Working from home can be such a productive strategy when you look at it as a tool.

As time went on I began to get more and more questions on how I made it work. People wondered if I worked in my pajamas or was ever off the clock. They asked how to got work done when my baby had a rough day and if I ever took sick time. I found myself giving advice so frequently I started blogging and just handing out a web address. Recently I decided to pull this all together into a book and fulfill a long time dream of one day being an author. I’m super excited to be in the final stages of writing and soon to be moving on to editing #EntrepreDOit, my story (the good, the bad and the ugly!). I’m hoping to have it available for pre-order by July and ready for delivery to your eager hands by August. It’s the behind the scences prequel that is my foundation for the #EntrepreDOit Revolution. I can’t wait to share it. In the meantime, if this call to action, this no-fluff, action oriented strategy is speaking to you…then I invite you to join us in a hashtag happy, obstacle overcoming, caffeine fueled mission!

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5 More Tips on Rocking Your Entrepreneur Journey

by MentoringU | Mar 28, 2016 | Efficient Entrepreneurs, Vision and Goals

As I promised last week, I’m back with more Tips on what I think makes Entrepreneurship amazing, and what you need to know to be successful! I hope you are finding this series inspirational.

If you like the content, you would be a great fit for our Free Goal Planning mini course! Over the course of 10 days we send 1 email each day guiding you through identifying, understanding and analyzing your goals. The exercise is designed to help you create actionable steps to take that will guide your business in the direction you desire! If this sounds like a good fit for you, check out the details at the end of the post.

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