1. Word of mouth. When setting up my first business, the public relations consultancy, Bliss Communications, I relied heavily on the good name I’d earned in the media and public relations industries while working for others. Once I alerted a few key associates of my decision to work for myself, the work began to roll in. As I provided an effective and quality results-driven service, word got out and clients would call asking for me to do the same for them.

Eventually, I was able to pick and choosing what I wanted to work on rather than saying yes to everything. Having the mindset that this would always be the case, and that as one project finished, another would begin, also helped.

Word of mouth can be a massive promotional tool for home business, so be sure to ask for endorsements, recommendations and testimonials from happy clients.

2. Networking for joint venture partners. Before launching Home Biz Chicks I had virtually no home business based network. I researched my target market within Australia and then set about developing relationships with key people who were already successful.  I flew interstate a handful of times in order to further develop business relationships and create meaningful partnerships. I wasn’t fearful of investing money for this purpose, and I wasn’t fearful of asking more successful people to be a part of what I was creating.

I’ve continued to use joint ventures to grow my business. It’s not difficult to do – the aim is to share databases with someone else who targets the same market as you but is not your direct competitor.

3. Using free publicity. I used my past experience in public relations to generate some great media coverage for Home Biz Chicks including being featured on A Current Affair. Each time I’m featured in the media, I see a corresponding growth in my list of customers and subscribers. I continue to write regular media releases on a range of topics, which relate to whatever is in the news right now.

You can also do this by surveying your audience and creating your own news topics that relate to your target audience. Once you start to be seen as an expert in your field, the media will start calling you for comment rather than you chasing them.

4. Having a business coach. When I first began I needed some clarity, direction and ideas from someone with an objective point of view. Just a single session with my coach set me on a new path and spurred about three months worth of work in terms of product creation and refining my offerings. I would highly recommend finding yourself some kind of mentor who can steer you in the right direction – and not necessarily someone who’s in the same industry as you.  You need someone you will take direction from.  It shouldn’t someone who’s a shoulder to cry on or a friendly ear, but someone you will keep you accountable and moving in the right direction.

© 2010 Home Biz Chicks

WANT TO USE THIS REPORT IN YOUR E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Online entrepreneur Sue Papadoulis publishes the popular e-newsletter Smart Biz Chicks. If you’re ready to jump-start your home business to make more money and have more fun and free time, get your FREE tips and FREE CD “Home Biz Success: the 10 Steps to Starting and Growing a Successful ome Business” now at www.homebizchickscd.com.

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I’d like to share with you some of the practical things I do in my business life every day to make me more successful by being a more conscious entrepreneur.

The first tip is planning your day.  Sounds simple, enough, but how many of you race through their day working on a hundred different things but never really achieving much, or reaching that goal.

At the end of every day, spend a few minutes working out just three things you want to achieve tomorrow.  Make a firm note of it in your mind, or write it in your diary if you have to remind yourself.  Close your eyes, breathe out, and visualise yourself happily focussed on these three tasks and nothing more.

Then release it, enjoy a good night’s rest and know that in the morning your day will flow with ease.

By doing this, you’re allowing your subconscious mind to work on what needs to happen while you’re asleep. By the time you wake up, you’re already half way there.

Bring this powerful principle into your life each day, and you’ll find yourself more aware, and more conscious of how you spend your time.

For more tips on how to live the life of a conscious entrepreneur, sign up for the e-book Conscious Business Tips. I’m so proud to be a contributing author – and so inspired to share our message with the world!

There always seems to be so much to do, and not enough time to do it in.

I used to be so stressed out working in my home-based public relations consultancy that I would be physically hyperventilating at the thought of what I had to get done each day.

When I realised this state of mind was harming my physical and emotional health, I realised something needed to change.

Then I read an article on giving myself the gift of time (funny how these things appear when they’re most needed).

Just 10 minutes a day is all you need to see a change and to move away from overwhelm, and to a place of calm faith.

Rather than DOING more to achieve success in business, DO LESS – simply bring your attention to the present moment, meditate, visualise on the feeling of inner calm or success and then return to the task you were working on.

As you do this more and more, you will find your entire day becomes tranquil and peaceful, and that feeling of over overwhelm dissipates as the Universe conspires to alter your experience to reflect your state of mind.

Bring this principle into your life each day, and you’ll find yourself more aware, more conscious of yourself and others.

For more tips on how to live the life of a conscious entrepreneur, sign up for the e-book Conscious Business Tips . I’m so proud to be a contributing author – and so inspired to share our message with the world!

I’ve narrowed it down to the four things you MUST DO in order to succeed.  Sure, there are many more success strategies you can employ, but if you implement these four things well, you WILL succeed.

• Get a mentor:  Following in the footsteps of others who are already successful is an ideal way to succeed.  As we’ve heard before, success leaves clues. Find someone in your industry (or even outside of your industry), sign up for their newsletters, check out their web site, review their marketing collateral and product offers, and then see if you can’t follow their steps to success. If they offer a coaching program, you may be able to access one-on-one advice on how to grow your business.  Being accountable to a mentor or coach is a great way to blaze a path to success.

• See fear as a necessary part of your business growth and an opportunity:  Take fear to be a positive thing – a sign that you need to grow and that a great opportunity exists for you.  When you hear that voice that says ‘you can’t do that’, take it as a sign that you MUST do it.  After all, a flock of butterflies gathering in your stomach is an omen that a fabulous adventure is fast approaching!

• Get the help you need:   Realise you can’t do it all.  As soon as you reach the point of not being able to do everything, you’ve come to the second stage of your business development.  Be grateful and congratulate yourself for reaching this milestone.  Now put a plan in place to move forward by employing an assistant or subcontracting out some of your workload.

• Believe you will succeed: Decide today exactly what you want to achieve.  Quantify it according to how many clients you want, what type of clients you want, and how much you will earn and by when. Get in to a good feeling place (with affirmations, meditations or visualisations), release your intention, feel good about it, know that you deserve it, and believe that you already have these things in your life.  You only need do this 5 minutes a day and you’ll start to notice happy coincidences taking place to move you in the direction of your goals.  Be grateful and continue to feel success – know it is headed your way right now.

© 2010 Home Biz Chicks

We are all creative in some way or another – it’s not just for artists or musicians.  Each of us has a need for creative expression, and when we deny this playfulness in our personality it can lead to stress, anxiety and illness.

Finding an outlet for your creativity can help you achieve more success in business.

It’s giving yourself time to “smell the roses” – those moments where you connect with a higher power, which gives you great energy and drive.

Finding YOUR creative outlet doesn’t mean signing up for an art class (although that’s great if you want to do that).

There are many ways you can be creative in your daily life.

Help others to find their creative impulses

Approach work with an attitude of playfulness and creativity

Approach problems with the same playful attitude

Find a time and place each day to nurture your heart and your spirit – see the gifts and in nature and give the Universe an opportunity to work its magic in your life.

Bring this powerful principle of creativity into your life each day, and you’ll find yourself more aware, and more conscious of how you spend your time.

For more tips on how to live the life of a conscious entrepreneur, sign up for the e-book Conscious Business Tips. I’m so proud to be a contributing author – and so inspired to share our message with the world!

If you’re feeling in conflict with someone, or at loggerheads, see if you can see behind the fierce façade.

Know that the more gruff and blunt the outward persona, the more sensitivity we’re likely to be hiding.

It’s easy to escalate an argument, but if you want to shift to a new paradigm of success in your life and in, you need to play a bigger game than petty point scoring.

Try a little tenderness and understanding.

See the situation from another’s point of view.

Take a breath and give yourself a moment between the situation and your reaction – in that moment is the power to choose.

Choose positivity.

Bring this principle into your life each day, and you’ll find yourself more aware, more conscious of yourself and others.
For more tips on how to live the life of a conscious entrepreneur, sign up for the e-book Conscious Business Tips. I’m so proud to be a contributing author – and so inspired to share our message with the world!

This is perhaps the most important key to success in any aspect of life including business, because if you don’t have the best mindset, and you don’t move beyond your fears and limiting beliefs, you’ll never be as successful as you can be.

We all have these limiting beliefs, but it’s how you handle them that counts. We all grew up with beliefs that probably no longer serve us – stuff we heard when we were young, experiences that have shaped us and events we witnessed that created a deep impression.  For me, I had limiting beliefs about money – that you had to work hard to earn money, that money didn’t come easily, or life wasn’t meant to be easy.  It’s taken me a lot of work and time to overcome these ideas, and I’m still a work in progress, but at least now I know these things are not true for me.

It’s important as a successful entrepreneur that you don’t think like the general public. Most people get caught up in the doom and gloom of everyday life. You hear it everywhere – at the shops, chatting to other parents when you’re picking up the kids from school, or even when you’re at a business networking meeting.  Take note and you’ll hear others complain – about their partners, their family, their lack of money, lack of time, lack of new clients etc. Understand that each time you talk, think and feel like this, all you’re generating is more of the same.  It’s important to step out of the negativity that exists in everyday life and carve out some time for gratitude and meditating on the feelings of success.

The law of attraction is working in your life today – but is it mostly negative or positive? You can decide today exactly how many clients you want, what type of clients you want and how much you will earn.  Get in to a good feeling place, release your intention, feel good about it, know that you deserve it, and believe that you already have these things in your life.  You only need do this for five minutes a day and you’ll start to notice happy coincidences taking place to move you in the direction of your goals.  Be grateful and continue to feel good.

People in your immediate circle don’t share your new beliefs? It might feel like everyone else is being negative and bringing you down. You may have heard about the notion that your personal wealth will be the average of your closest associates.  Do you really want that?  Wouldn’t you rather be earning more, and becoming the best you can be? While I’m not encouraging you to stop spending time with your friends and family, you can choose not to engage in a negative conversation.

Make a concerted effort to find a group of people you find inspiring and motivating. You need to set aside some regular time to immerse yourself in a positive environment.  This could be your mastermind or networking group – people who will encourage you to think bigger, play bigger and believe that you can step into a whole new world of success.

Remember, your environment shapes your success. Behave as if you are already successful, mix with successful people, be inspired and motivated.

Home Biz Chicks members can access more inspiring and motivating articles about mindset and living a life of abundance at the Best Mindset section of the web site.

Taking that first step.  You have to take the leap of faith and believe that your business will work.  I waited until I had a baby and needed to work from home in order to care for my daughter.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that I finally made the decision to give up working for someone else – I only wish I’d done it earlier. I’ve grown so much as a person and when I wake up on Monday mornings I’m excited about what the day holds, not worried or dreading what might come my way.

Feeling fearful.  Could I really run a successful business? Who would want anything that I could offer? Would anyone be willing to pay me? I wrestled with all those ideas and more. I’ve now come to realise that every time I get fearful, it’s a sign that I need to grow.  I take fear to be a positive thing.  When I feel fear in business and the voice in my head says ‘you can’t do that’, I take it as a sign that I MUST do it.  Usually my fear comes when there’s a new opportunity that means I’ll have to step outside my comfort zone.  But the great news is that once I’m out of my comfort zone, I’ve grown as a person – and so has my business!

Realising I had a great idea, but no business skills to run a business!  This is a common realisation that often strikes after you’ve already begun and there’s no turning back.  I didn’t know much about financial control, taxation or bookkeeping so rather than let this stop me, decided never be afraid to ask for help, or ask a dumb question.   I outsourced the administrative side of the business to a bookkeeper and an accountant. Outsourcing continues to be a great strategy to grow my business.

Cash flow.  I needed to put into place expensive activities and strategies that would grow the business, but still needed to earn an income. I could have focussed on my PR business and made a lot of money in the short term, but I needed a longer term plan that wasn’t dependent on how many hours I could charge out each week.  In order to grow Home Biz Chicks I had to give up some income in the short term for the long term gain.

Web design.  I knew I wanted to set up a membership site, but I didn’t really understand what I needed until I was part way through the design process.  Then I realised the contractor I was working with didn’t have the necessary skills to do the job.  I could have given up before I’d even begun, but I cut my losses and moved on.  I spent a significant amount on getting the web site I wanted, which I knew would service me for years to come. I’ve realised that making a firm decision quickly and taking action is much less costly in the long run than continuing down a path that isn’t quite right for you, simply because you’ve already invested time and money in the wrong direction.

I heard this quote from a 15-year old boy who led a group of teenagers to perform the church service last week.  As soon as I heard these words come out of his young mouth, I grabbed a pen and paper to capture this profound piece of wisdom.  (You never know who will show up to be your teacher!)

Too often, I see entrepreneurs searching for and willfully working toward an experience of “success.” Heck, this is what I had done for a number of years as I tried strategy after strategy after strategy, following other people’s suggestions about what would bring me success.  It worked, to a point.  But no matter what I did that was “supposed” to help me achieve success, it never got me to the highest place I wanted to be within myself or in my work.

Success is not something you achieve.