One of my favorite activities over the last few years has been to create a summer project list of small, and larger tasks, to complete in what some find to be a quieter time. There always are lots of project possibilities in the summer months. Have you considered:

• Updating your website
• Incorporating a new system
• Catching up on the reading you have piled around your office (or bed)
• Taking time to plan for a new program
• Writing some blog posts (and getting ahead of the curve)
• Creating a content calendar for your business
• Writing your newsletters for the next few months
• Starting a new series on Instagram

Some useful questions to consider as you go to decide what projects you want to put attention around:

• What have your clients been asking for?
• What are your key goals this year?
• What new activities would support your action and achievement of these?
• What projects would you like to move off of your “TO DO” List?
• What milestones would you create for yourself so that this is completed before the end of the month, or the end of the summer?
• What resources do you need in order to be successful with this?

For some more inspiration around this topic, listen into this 20 minute video I did last year on 2018 project ideas – check it out on my YouTube channel.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

In both the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I include four business philosophies which are critical to all types of virtual and remote professionals, and business owners today – Focus, Experimentation, Momentum and Reflective Pause.

In my work with teams, and individuals, over the last fifteen years in my business I’ve seen that these make the difference between good and exceptional.

With this in mind, over the next few weeks I’ll be taking a deeper dive into the realm of these four areas looking at:

• What it means in today’s business context
• Why it’s important
• Ideas for putting it into practice
• And resources you may want to follow up around

​A reminder that if you like these topics you may want to check out my weekly Facebook Live, where I put into voice quick planning ideas and activities. You will find it over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page.

Let’s turn our attention to the first topic of FOCUS.

We live and operate today in what is often considered an era of distraction. Our ability to focus and keep our eye on what is important to us, and to our work, is key.
Did you know that:

• The average worker receives 90 emails in the span of a day?
• It takes 22 minutes to get back on track after an interruption?

It’s not uncommon for workers (not just managers) to be spending 5-10 hours a week in meetings? I’ve met managers who wear the badge of
Focused work and attention are critical, and essential in order to create foundations, and grow a business.

How To- Creating Focus:

• Consider building in focused blocks of work – turn off email, move into a conference room, or take your work mobile. What will give you the space and time to do the focused work you need in your job/business?
• Leverage the circadian rhythm. Science continues to show that we have different times of day when we are at our best. What are those times for you? What can you do to ensure you have focused work times within those blocks.
• Create your to-do list of Top 5. With change being the norm for many workplaces, having a top five list each day is important. It’s interesting as the writing of James Clear has pointed to the early 1900s productivity hack from Ivy who asserted that a focus on a top 6 list every day would lead to productivity advances. Whether it’s five or six, being able to check core items off the list can help with efficiency and also motivation.
• Know your priorities – and your teams. Priorities also keep us grounded. They will help us shape our top five as well as discern where our time needs to go. What are your priorities for the week? The month? The quarter?

 
Refer To - Focus
When: The Science of Perfect Timing – Daniel Pink
Atomic Habits – James Clear
Outer Order and Inner Calm – Gretchen Rubin
Deep Work and Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport

Check out my April 3, 2019 Facebook Live 

Wishing you all the best,
Jennifer

Building a business can be all-consuming. While it may be important to “push it” at several times of the year, building a business sustainably also means building in blocks to renew, and setting boundaries in terms of when you are available and when you may not be. In this post, we’ll explore three areas you might want to consider in tightening up your boundaries in business.

Boundaries in business can involve:

Learning how to delegate. Consider the tasks that could be passed on to others. This might include posting your articles on social media, designing graphics for your work, laying out brochures or other.

• Putting it into practice: Look at all your tasks for the next few months and consider what could be delegated. Consider the tasks that are taking a lot of time for you right now, but don’t really require your involvement. Make a list, put some time frames around it, and think about what instructions you would give so someone else could complete this.

​
Time at work – As a business owner the work will always be there. It’s important to remember that productivity does not always equal amount of time worked. Many of you took advantage of the Heart of Coaching Giveaway item I shared this year which was the 19 Productivity and Business Development Tips. I’ve now made this into a video-based program which also includes a series of bi-weekly live calls. You can join us here.

Becoming more discerning. Check out the blog post I included over at the PlanDoTrack blog a short while ago on discernment. You can search out the PlanDoTrack blog posts here.
​
Questions to help you with discernment:

• What is really important to the business right now?
• What are the activities that are having the impact I want?
• What are the things my clients are asking for?
• What support am I able to offer in a high-impact way?
• What tasks could be systematized or automated? Think about things which are taking time and are done repetitively.
• What are the items which are taking away focus on the main parts of the business, and revenue generation?
• What do I need to say NO to and either Defer, Delete or Delegate?
• What do I need to say more YES to – and focus even more on!

Best,
​Jennifer

I’ve been a long-term blogger and writer for almost 15 years now. As someone who is always creating content, it’s interesting to go back and review some of the past posts I’ve shared. Here is one that I think many of you as business owners will find useful. I wrote it back in 2010, and it’s still relevant today:
Six Tips for New Small Business owners – Originally published at the Biztoolkit blog in April 2010

This April marked my 6th year of business. I continue to be reminded of the excitement and emotions of new business owners through regular discussions with participants of the 90 Day BizSuccess program - some of whom are new business owners, as well as seasoned small business people.

In running the program I often get asked, what are some tips for new business owners. Here are 6 tips which have kept business exciting, and successful for me, over the years.

1. Track it! Take notice of the impact of the activities you are undertaking, over both the short term as well as the medium term. What are you noticing about the money you have invested into different marketing activities? Notice what's giving you impact in terms of your activities, networking and relationships.

2. Create Systems so that you don't have to recreate things over, and over again. It's not surprising that even experienced business owners still " have not had time" to create simple processes for their businesses such as invoices, proposal formats etc.

Ask yourself:

• What activities might you need to repeat time and time again (consider finance, people, marketing etc)?
• What systems would benefit your business?
• When will you spend time creating these?

3. Build on What You Already Have, Have Done or Do: Many times small business owners fail to capitalize on what they have already created, designed or know. What can you build upon in your business? Do you really need to start off at 0?

4. Plan it! Time Management and Planning can be a major challenge for business owners. When was the last time you sat down to plan and strategize about your goals for the quarter or even the month? As we know from time management 10 minutes of planning can save an hour of unfocused effort.

When will you spend time creating your plan for the next month?

5. Schedule It! What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. What are your main business priorities right now? Have you scheduled them into your calendar? If it's not written down or blocked off chances are it may get lost.

Activity:
Take 15 minutes this week to identify one or two main priorities for your business and schedule in time in your calendar to get these things done.

6. Be strategic - We can't be all things to all people? Consider the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, which states that we get 80% of our impact from 20% of our efforts. What activities are going to give you the most impact this month?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

For several years I’ve talked about the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. It's likely that many of you also coach teams, or work with them in team development programs. In recent months I have had a lot of requests from coaches to share more on the six factors, and I thought that this blog post would be a great place to start.

Extending from the Team Effectiveness research, such as Hackman and Wageman, and Katzenbach and Smith, we know that teams which excel have a:

• Shared mission and vision
• Clear goals
• Clear performance measures – what does exceptional look like? What is required?
• Clear Roles
• Shared team practices – common ways to communicate, get clear on results and built relationships

As I have written in past Teams365 posts, the six factors of high performing teams include:
1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY) – Why do you exist? What do you take a stand for?
2. Shared behavioral norms - How you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team?
3. Shared commitment - What are you as a solopreneur committed to? What will you make sure you do, no matter what?
4. Shared performance goals (How are people measured? How do your goals align? Overlap?
5. Shared team practices - Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event.
6. Clear Roles - How our roles overlap, align and connect?
(Originally posted November 3, 2014 - https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-307-revisiting-the-six-factors-of-high-performing-teams)
 
Facilitating discussion around these areas helps with the alignment, and clarity, required for teams to excel in today’s ever-changing environment.

I hope that you will take a few minutes today to write out or capture the Six Factors of your business and/or team. For more on these, refer also to my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, pages 349 – 355. 

How might conversation and focus around team effectiveness benefit the teams you are working with?

​As you grow your team, what's important to keep in mind?
 
Enjoy your week!
Jennifer
​

As we step into the month of February, our focus is going to shift to the realm of relationships. Collaboration in all its forms is essential to a thriving coaching business.

On the client level, we are always partnering, and developing deep relationships with our clients. In fact, this partnership is the foundation for successful coaching. If trust and connection is not present, it’s unlikely that a client will be open to discussing their ideas.

While prospective clients may first find us on social media, the next step is usually a call to check for “fit” and that we are the best support for their needs.
Consider what you are doing to build trust and connection with your clients, and prospective clients.

We may also be partnering with others in our industry – with other coaches who we might work with in a variety of ways. This might entail designing and co-leading programs together or bringing others on board through a sub-contracting relationship.

Consider how you are partnering with others in our industry, or related industries this year. Make a list of this.

If we are a solopreneur coach, enlisting others to help us round out our skill set helps us accomplish tasks me may not have skills in – from accounting to graphic design.
Who are the service professionals you’d like to build relationships with to help you with your business?
​
As a solopreneur, relationships are critical for success. Consider these ways we may be working with, and through others:

• To complete projects
• In designing and developing products
• To serve clients
• To help others achieve their goals
• In marketing – having others refer us, partnering in joint ventures, coming together with other professionals to co-host an event like a trade show, a virtual giveaway

What else is important for you to note about relationships this month?
Enjoy!
Jennifer
 
PS – A reminder that this month’s 30 days focus in the 1BizStepaDay series is around Relationships. Download a copy of the 1BizStepaDay series here. What are the daily actions you are taking to build your relationships during this month of February?

“Tasks expand to the amount of time we give them” asserts the Parkinson’s Rule. I remember first reading about this in the Four-Hour Workweek from Tim Ferris. Think about it - what tasks have expanded to the amount of time you have given them?
​
Whether you are a solopreneur or work with a VA or other freelance members, having a variety of tools to manage projects is key. These tools are likely to be virtual so you can share them with others, and you may have different tools for different purposes.
In selecting a tool consider:

• What’s going to work best?
• What are the requirements? I.e. How will we use the tool?
• What’s important to note about this?
• What is the Project Scope – Time, Budget and Effort?
• What is the progress?
• How much time is it really taking?
• What are the project requirements?

Two tools I like to use the capture and communicate projects can include:

1. Asana – Asana is another great project resource, and free of charge (at least at this stage for some functionality). Asana has the advantage of being able to segment what you share with whom, so if you work with a VA and also a graphic designer you can consider what you share with each one or both. Asana allows you to upload documents, set deadlines and also assign responsibilities.
2. Trello – While I use Trello more for program design, I love the visual interface of Trello. It visually breaks down more complex ideas, and tasks into smaller particles. Consider how Trello might support you with your programs or projects. If you are using Trello – please feel free to comment and share with us how you are using it.
3. Good old-fashioned tables – As a new project manager in the early 1990s, it was important to document, document, document. As Word Processors were coming into being, accessible capturing of information was becoming the norm and the priority. Almost three decades later I still return back to the basics and many of my team members say they love the simplicity and clarity of a one-page weekly project outline. It doesn’t have to be super complicated – I usually have 4 columns for:

• Task - What is required?
• Description – More detail about the task – project requirements, what will success look like with the end product? Get granular here and clarify your assumptions!
• Resources needed - highlighting any documents needed, or resources to use, or people to reach out to.
• Deadline – What is the deadline for the task? When it is required? Be realistic and also think about what happens if that deadline is not met. What ripple effect could it create?

What are the tools you want to start incorporating into your work this year, to make projects flow more smoothly?
​
Enjoy your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author multiple books including the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Looking for some daily focus around your work? Join me over on Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder for a daily question or prompt as part of the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series. 
Check out the November 2018 CBB Book Club Call entitled "2019 Planning. Already?". You can view it here.

With the last full weekend of summer officially behind us, many coaches are starting to kick it into high gear with clients, as clients start looking to "year end" already.
Today's post gets you thinking about three productivity hacks YOU can implement for yourself. These can help to boost focus and get things done, without necessarily spending more time in the office.

1. Build in regular planning time. As I have written in the past, ten minutes of planning can save 2 hours of unfocused effort, according to old project management adages. When are you building in time to plan daily? Is this something you want to do at the start of the day, or the end of the day?
Would it be useful to build in a quick end of week review (either Friday afternoon or over the weekend)? This is what the Month In Focus tool is geared for - taking time each week to pause and note your key priorities, successes, enablers, derailer, lessons learned and commitments for the next week. There are 12 months of Month in Focus tools included in the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and  Planner. Already many coaches are making it a regular end of week activity!

2. Tap into a community for support and regular action - As coaches our work can be very solitary, especially if we work virtually. Connecting with a community of others can be really powerful in terms of getting things done, sharing resources and gaining inspiration. Last week I jumped into an Instagram Video 5 Day Challenge with the wonderful Denise Wakeman, and was reminded of how motivating it can be to be in a group!
I've seen this in my own programming, where last month at the Coaching Biz Growth Lab we did a 31 Day Challenge to take regular action on social media. The traction, and habits created, have carried forward as well. I also saw this play out on Friday with the launch of two different fall programs - the Mentor Coaching Group (for ACC renewals, and PCC) and my Virtual Facilitation Essentials programming.
What communities would you like to join this fall?

3. Notice where your time is really spent and track where your results are coming from. 
As solopreneurs our time is limited. It's useful to regularly take stock of where your time is really going. How much time are you spending on client support? Proposals? Preparation or Design work? Marketing? Social Media? Learning? Connecting? Revenue Generating Activities?
If you don't know how much time you really spend, or haven't really seen this in a while, you may want to use the Monthly Daily Tracker to capture these numbers. 
As coaches our work can be very seasonal, with ups and downs throughout the year. If you have been in business for a few years now, notice where your ebbs and flows are.

And as a BONUS - Does everything have a place in your office? Having moved between two different offices for the better part of the last 6 months I have come to realize how streamlining items, and dedicating a home to each, is important for me to focus on work when I am there. The movement between locations has also helped me tackle some of the paper items which can get really overwhelming if you liaise with a variety of clients and partners. While my northern office is now closed for the year, integrating the resources from both happened quite seamlessly this past weekend.

Carving out regular 10-15 minute blocks to tackle a set of files, or drawer or area, can put things back into order. Doing this regularly starts to have an impact. What's the part of your office which could use some organizing?

As you put these quick hacks into practice, what do you notice?
Enjoy your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
Phone: 416-996-8326
Coach and Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Interested in more on this topic? Join me for the fall Virtual Business Planning Retreat - this Thursday from 1 - 5 pm ET. Over the course of 4 hours you'll be able to do some planning AND take some action on key activities (perhaps getting started on your tracking, or clearing, or systems, OR....?). Reserve your spot in Thursday's 4 hour Business Planning Retreat below.
If you are interested in growing your coaching business this fall, join me for the Coaching Biz Growth Lab, a coaching group for coaches. We meet the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month from 3 - 4 pm ET, providing you the space to focus and accelerate your business actions. More information and registration here.

Reserve your spot in Thursday's Virtual Business Planning Retreat - Fall 2018 (Thursday September 20 - 1 - 5 pm Eastern/10 - 2 pm PT)- $97 US: