Then there was Vered’s Women’s day

I summed up Bootcamp with the insight that meant the most to me: Get in line and stay in line.

If I had to sum up Women do business differently then for me the bottom line is to Think in Terms of Strategy and not in Tactics.  That’s a basic difference between short term and long term. I am for 80% occupied with thinking about the next day, the next week or maybe the next month. In other words, I deploy the one tactic after another. 

Oh, I understand the importance of strategy and if you had asked me last week I would have said, yes, of course I have strategies for my business. Since Women do Business Differently, I have to admit, that apart from having an amount that I want to earn by the end of the year, I actually have little to no strategies to make that happen. I am living from invoice to invoice, and project to project with too little to fall back on if I encounter a setback. 

It’s not even that I don’t have back end products to supplement my front end products. I do. But because I am constantly busy with the front end, and the short term, I have not given these back end products the attention they need. As a result, hardly anyone even knows about them!

What’s even more tragic (yes, I use the word tragic!) is that I even have more front end products, related to the one product that has me in its grip, just floating about, being wasted.

In my brainstorm team I was given several ideas for not only promoting my products, but also for building campaigns. And campaigns are what will create a sustainable customer base. And the funny thing was most of the ideas were strategies I had suggested to others to support their businesses but somehow I had not applied them my own business. I even know why…

But that’s for the next blog.

So, to sum up for now

STRATEGY INSTEAD OF TACTICS

Open Circles Academy - Business Bootcamp

Just two days to turn your business around

It wasn’t that I was sceptical really, I just came to Bootcamp with some measure of reserve. After all, since starting as a ZZPer (Sole proprietor) three years ago I have been to several seminars, workshops, training sessions. Effective? Some, not all. 

But, if I am perfectly honest, my business doesn’t resemble the vision I had for it when I started out. Oh, I am earning a living but I often feel frustrated and unfulfilled. But more than that, I find I am working from invoice to invoice and the vision I had of finally integrating my creative abilities into my daily activities has not been as structured as I had promised myself.

I took a month off in November, and wrote substantively on my latest novel, but when December came around and two potentially large jobs didn’t materialise and I didn’t have enough alternatives in the pipeline, depression set in. And creativity flew out the window.

So, with nothing to lose, I took myself off to Bootcamp.

It didn’t take long for me to throw off the reserve and throw myself into the weekend 100%. In Nisandeh’s (Neta) words:

I showed up

I participated

What I learned is too much to list.  But a couple of important insights were:

I do not need to stop writing in order to concentrate on the business. The writing is still where I feel the most passion. What I need do is see my writing as part of the business so I should take my quest for a publisher more seriously and set aside time for that in my agenda in the same way I plan the translations and copywriting (the current source of income). My writing is a potential source of passive income, which will liberate me from living from invoice to invoice.

I learned that it’s a good thing that I am able to see the big picture for others and to give useful advice. It doesn’t matter that this is free of charge. It’s the way I make a contribution at the moment. I have a knack for connecting people, so I will just do it, and not even think in terms of personal reward.

The contract I make with myself is just as binding as the one with someone else. If I break a promise to myself, I stop believing in myself. And if I stop believing in myself, how can I convince anyone else to believe in me?

It’s ok to ask for help and I don’t have to do everything alone. Multitasking is also not necessary and not beneficial. Plan the agenda and do one thing at a time.

The list goes on. I came away from Bootcamp overflowing with ideas. And how did I shift from being reserved to being bowled over? That’s the power of Bootcamp.

Bootcamp gives the insights, the tools and the motivation. But it’s what happens now that’s important. It’s the promise to implement the principles, set goals and stick to them, to keep going no matter what that will ensure success. That’s just for starters.

 One weekend that can turn your business around!

NaNoWriMo day 30

Day 30

Well, I gave it my best shot, but didn’t quite make the 50k. I enjoyed making the effort and I am really pleased that, due to NaNoWriMo, my writing is once again a priority in my daily routine. It had been taking a back seat to any number of other activities every day that  my fear was that my current novel would never get finished. Well, having almost doubled the wordcount in November, revitalising the plot and getting to know my characters more intimately, my doubts have been eradicated.

I am almost there, people. The plot is as good as complete, almost every chapter has been worked out in detail. There’s lots of new dialogue and characters meeting each other and driving the plot along. The ending has been written, so I know where all the gaps in the narrative must lead to ultimately. So, I am satisfied.

Will I do it again next year? Lets just wait and see.