Almost everyone wishes there were more hours in the day, and that goes double for entrepreneurs and small business owners. When you’re trying to build a business from the ground up, there are so many things you have to put in place and different aspects of your business you have to juggle that getting everything done can feel like an impossible task. Yet I still see a lot of small business owners sabotaging their work by insisting they can’t start until everything is in place, or they can’t launch a new program until it’s perfect. Nothing is ever perfect, so why do we insist on setting impossibly high goals for ourselves in our business and refuse to move forward until those goals are met? For some reason, perfectionism seems to go hand in hand with entrepreneurship. Only certain people tend to catch the entrepreneurial “bug”, and while not all of them are perfectionists, there does seem to be a lot of crossover between the two. Maybe it’s because, as entrepreneurs, our identities are almost indistinguishable from our businesses. That can make us afraid to release anything for our business that isn’t just right because if it fails, we tend to take it very personally. But guess what? If you never launch that program. If you never publish that book. Then you’ve chosen the certainty of failure over the possibility of failure. That can feel safer, but it’s also holding you back, so let’s talk about how to overcome perfectionism so you can get more done. Give Yourself a Deadline to Get More Done
project instead of procrastinating, it will also force you to overcome perfectionism and launch it instead of reviewing it a thousand times. Get an Accountability Partner to Get More DoneIf you’re not sure you can force yourself to launch your project when you say you will, get someone who will hold you accountable to that deadline. It might be a business partner, a coach, or even a friend or family member. You can even make it interesting by promising to take them out to dinner if you don’t reach your goal. Or give them your phone and don’t let them give it back until you’ve achieved a certain amount. The point is to get them to help motivate you to get more done. Identify Your Perfectionist Tendencies to Get More DoneMany of us have been perfectionists for so long that we don’t even realize anymore when those perfectionist tendencies are taking over our behavior, which can make it harder to know how to overcome perfectionism if we’re not even aware we’re doing it. Take some time to think about some of your most recent projects you launched (or still have yet to launch) where your perfectionism got in the way of finishing the project. What types of behavior did you exhibit in all of those scenarios? What steps could have been eliminated to get more done in less time? Once you’ve identified the perfectionist tendencies that are holding you back, you can start to notice when you fall into those bad habits and stop yourself in the act. Identify What Scares You
Whether you need an accountability partner to help keep you on track, someone to help you come up with a strategy for creating and launching your next project, I can help. You can schedule your FREE clarity call now to get started.
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Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, or you’re in a leadership role of a different kind of organization, there’s a lot resting on your shoulders. People are looking to you to set an example and guide them towards achieving the organization’s goals, so if you feel overwhelmed, that’s OK. Take a deep breath and read these tips to learn how to be a better nonprofit leader. Get the Right People on Your Team to Be a Better Nonprofit LeaderIn order to be an effective nonprofit leader, you have to be able to trust your team, and that starts with making sure you have the right team. Not only does this mean they need to have the right qualifications for their job, but it also means they need to share the ideals of your nonprofit organization. Do they believe in the organization’s mission? Keep in mind that skills can always be acquired, but passion is harder to teach. If someone doesn’t have the necessary skill level for a particular position, but they’re eager to help, bring them on board and either find someone who can teach them the skills they need to do the job or teach them yourself. Get to Know Your Team to Be a Better Nonprofit Leader
Take Care of Yourself to Be a Better Nonprofit LeaderThere are never enough hours in the day for a nonprofit leader, and while it might be tempting to put self-care at the bottom of your to-do list, that’s never a good idea. Because your leadership position requires you to set an example for others and guide them along the path to achieving the organization’s goals, making sure you are operating at your highest level should be a top priority. While things like getting enough sleep and taking breaks are often treated as a luxury, they’re really a necessity. The longer you work, the less productive you become, and sleep deprivation has been proven to reduce decision making abilities. So, if you want to be the best nonprofit leader you can be, make sure you’re getting enough sleep, eating right, and taking regular breaks. Believe me when I say it will make a difference for the better and your team will notice. Make a To-Do List and Keep It Updated to Be a Better Nonprofit Leader
your to-do list at the end of each day, you’ll be able to sleep better and hit the ground running the next day because your mind won’t be busy trying to remember everything that still needs to get done. Build and Maintain Relationships in Your Role as a Nonprofit LeaderI’ve always been a strong advocate for building relationships to grow your business and that goes doubly if you’re working for a nonprofit, and even more so if you’re working as a nonprofit leader. Because nonprofits exist to support the community, you need to build relationships with the community so you know exactly what’s needed and how you can go about providing it. Get to know your local elected officials so you don’t have any problems the next time you need a permit for your next fundraising event. Get to know your local business owners who might also be sponsors/donors/volunteers, or might know other people who would like to sponsor/donate/volunteer for your next fundraising event. While your nonprofit exists to support the community, don’t forget the community can also support you in your efforts. It all comes back to relationships. Get Help as a Nonprofit Leader from a Strategy RockstarIn addition to getting support from your local community, most executives also find it beneficial to get support from a business coach. As someone who has decades of experience helping nonprofits increase their efficiency and their fundraising, both from the inside and as a consultant, I am ideally suited to support you in your role as a nonprofit leader. Just schedule your FREE consultation to get started.
Both coaches and mentors share their knowledge, wisdom, and experience with others to help them grow in their careers, and while they can both provide invaluable tips and tricks, there are some key differences between the two roles. If you’re looking for someone to help you take your career to the next level, but you’re not sure whether that someone should be a coach or a mentor, here’s what you need to know about each one. Professional Relationship vs Business RelationshipWhile both coaching and mentoring can be considered professional relationships because they both center on advancing your career, only coaching is considered a business relationship because it’s the only one where money changes hands. Coaches make their living by helping professionals advance their career, while mentors don’t get paid to mentor other professionals, just a sense of accomplishment and goodwill with one of their colleagues. Qualifications
Mentors tend to provide advice and anecdotes based on their own experience and use that to guide their mentees. By contrast, coaches are more likely to ask questions of their clients and use their answers to guide them, not only to professional and financial success, but to do so in a way that is in alignment with the client’s goals and objectives, as well as their individual strengths and their personality. In that sense, coaching can be a way to get more personalized guidance, compared to mentoring, which can sometimes have a more cut-and-paste approach. Structured vs UnstructuredA mentor can give you advice and help you navigate certain situations, whereas a coach is generally there to help you achieve a certain goal (or goals). It could be a financial goal, it could be getting a certain number of sales or helping you attain and/or retain more staff members. Regardless of what the goal is, a coach is generally going to be focused on helping you achieve a specific goal and your sessions together will center around that goal, rather than a more vague ambition of general professional development, which tends to be the realm of mentoring. Length of RelationshipBecause coaches tend to be more focused on helping their clients achieve a certain goal, the relationship tends to end once the client achieves that goal, usually after six months to a year. Mentor relationships tend to last longer, often years, and many have gone on for decades. Resources
Is Coaching Right for You?If you’re leaning more towards coaching than mentoring, you’ve come to the right place. Michelle Smith is a Strategy Rockstar who has helped countless people grow their businesses and achieve their financial goals through her coaching programs. You can speak to Michelle directly to see if coaching is the next right step for you by scheduling your FREE consultation.
For-profit businesses tend to get most of the attention when it comes to developing a business strategy, but it’s just as important (if not more important) for nonprofits to develop and maintain a business strategy. First, because nonprofits are still businesses, even if they’re nonprofit businesses. Second, because nonprofits are often working with fewer resources and more regulations than for-profit businesses, it’s especially important for them to have a strategic plan in place so they can be sure to use all those resources to the fullest, while abiding by the rules and regulations that apply to them. Here are 4 tips to help you get started with your strategic planning for nonprofits: Identify Your Nonprofit’s Vision
Identify What Your Nonprofit NeedsOnce you’ve outlined your vision for your nonprofit organization, you can take stock of the resources you need to get you there. What do you currently have available to you, and what do you need to add?
Learn from Best PracticesThe more time you spend operating a nonprofit organization, the more you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. If you have experience working for different nonprofits, you might find that what works for one nonprofit organization doesn’t always work for another, which is why it’s so important to regularly assess which nonprofit strategies are working and which ones need some work. Don’t forget to reassess this from time to time because sometimes you’ll find that what worked last year, or even last month, is no longer bringing in results (for example, many of us found that strategies that worked in a pre-pandemic world did not hold up during a global pandemic). Prioritize Your Goals and Strategies for Your Nonprofit OrganizationMany businesses struggle with wanting to achieve a lot of big goals and try many different strategies all at once, but not only is that a recipe for burnout, it also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify what’s working and what’s a waste of time and resources. Prioritizing the goals you need to achieve and the nonprofit strategies you need to implement over the ones you want to try is key to making progress. That’s not to say you can’t experiment and play around with different nonprofit strategies. It simply means that most of your resources should be focused on achieving your primary goals before you start going after your secondary and tertiary goals. Need Help with Your Strategic Planning for Nonprofits?Michelle Smith is a Strategy Rockstar with decades of experience helping small businesses (including nonprofits) develop and refine their strategies so they can produce stronger results. You can get started by scheduling your FREE consultation.
I’ve never met an entrepreneur or business owner who’s afraid of hard work. We all want our businesses to be successful, and most of us are willing to do just about anything to make that dream a reality. So why do so many businesses fail if we’re all working so hard? For many entrepreneurs, it’s because they didn’t have a strategy, but that’s a topic for another blog post. Right now I want to talk about the importance of consistency, because that’s the true key to success, and I don’t mean working long hours every, single day, because many small business owners are already putting in the hours without reaping the financial reward. Instead, let’s look at what it means to be consistent in your business and how that can be the key to success you’ve been looking for. Trying New Things Is Not a StrategyEntrepreneurs like to try new things, and while that can often be a great way to test different strategies for your business, it can also leave you without the results you need if you don’t try any one business strategy long enough to give it time to work.
mean taking the things that work and putting them into practice consistently. Whether that means calling prospects, posting on social media, checking in with existing clients, the point is that while what you do does matter, making sure you do them consistently matters more. Consistency Beats Perfection Every Time
The key to success is to not let perfectionism prevent you from moving forward in your business. You might not be the best at making sales calls, but if you consistently reach out to prospects and let them know you’re available to help solve their problems, you’ll get better at having those conversations and you’ll see results. The same goes for posting on social media: the more you post and analyze which posts get the best results, the better you’ll get at creating posts that get you in front of your ideal clients and help drive results for your business. Make It Work with Your Schedule
If you’ve been dreaming of making a consistent income as a small business owner, but think you can’t make it a reality, think again. All you need to do is schedule your FREE consultation now to see how I can help you rethink your small business strategy.
When trying to grow a nonprofit organization, you can rely on some of the same lead generation strategies used by for-profit businesses, but fundraising for a nonprofit organization requires its own strategy. So if you’ve been struggling with your nonprofit lead generation strategy, use these tips to turn that around. Identify Your Target Audience
By contrast, once you’ve identified your target audience, you can create content that speaks to their values and communicates how your organization shares their values and helps make the world a better place. Refine Your MessagingYour message is what will get people’s attention and prompt them to learn more about you and your organization. Not only do you need to refine your message to make sure it clearly communicates what your nonprofit is all about, but you need to do so in a way that is engaging and makes people want to learn more about the work you do. Consistently Create High-Quality Content
to solve a particular problem, and if your nonprofit organization has content on its website that addresses those questions, you’ll be more likely to show up in those searches and draw those leads to your website. Create Interactive Content
Whether you need help refining your nonprofit lead generation strategies, or converting the leads who are already visiting your website into donors, it might be time to get some help from a Strategy Rockstar like Michelle Smith. Michelle has spent decades helping nonprofit organizations generate leads and reach their fundraising goals, so if you’re ready to stop struggling and start strategizing, you can schedule your FREE consultation with Michelle now to get started.
Entrepreneurs are often short on both time and money, which can make it hard to justify going on a retreat. How can you afford to spend the money and the time away from your business? In fact, a retreat is an investment in your business like any other, and while going on a retreat might mean stepping away from the office for a few days, it does not mean you are not working on your business. On the contrary, by taking a few days off and traveling to a different location (even if it’s just a few miles away), you can gain a fresh perspective, which is ideal for working on your business, rather than working in your business. If you’ve been wondering if an entrepreneur’s retreat is right for you, we have a few reasons why you should consider it one of the best things you can do for your business. Establish Your Vision
A retreat is a great opportunity for you to define the vision you have for your company and map out a plan to achieve that vision. Rather than letting your vision sit in a drawer somewhere (or in your head), a retreat gives you a chance to write it all down and think about the actions you can take in your business right now to achieve that vision. As the saying goes, a goal without a plan is just a wish, and when you attend a retreat, you can map out a plan to make that vision a reality. Increases Productivity
Make New ConnectionsSome retreats offer an opportunity to network as part of the retreat, but even if they don’t, just attending the retreat gives you an opportunity to surround yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs. Not only does this give you an opportunity to forge life-long friendships, you could also end up meeting your next best client and/or referral partner.
Many people assume that because an organization is called a “nonprofit”, it doesn’t have to worry about a business plan, but that could not be further from the truth. While a nonprofit is structured differently than for-profit companies, especially when it comes to their finances, nonprofits still face many of the same challenges as other companies, including staffing and marketing. Having said that, there are also some key differences between business planning for nonprofits and business planning for a for-profit organization. So, whether you’ve just started your nonprofit or you’re thinking of starting one, here are some tips you can use to start business planning for your nonprofit. Set Your Priorities
Set Up Your Systems and ProcessesIf you’re just starting out, you need to identify and implement the best systems and processes to keep your nonprofit running smoothly. This includes everything from promoting and raising money for your nonprofit to recruiting and training staff and volunteers. If your nonprofit organization has been in business for a while, it’s always a good idea to go over the systems and processes you already have in place and take a look at what’s benefiting you and what is no longer serving the organization. Which systems/processes could be improved? Which ones need to be replaced? What new systems/processes could you implement that would make running your nonprofit organization that much easier and more effective? Measure Your Results
Whether you’re starting a new nonprofit or restrategizing an existing nonprofit, it’s always a good idea to have a Strategy Rockstar on your side. Helping people with their business planning for nonprofits is not only one of my strong suits, it’s also one of my passions. If you’d like to hear more about how I help nonprofit organizations get the most out of their resources, schedule a call now so we can chat.
Attending a retreat can often sound like a luxury. After all, the term “retreat” implies you’re getting away from your business, not working on your business, right? Not necessarily. Yes, a retreat can be an opportunity to “get away from it all”, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be working on your business. On the contrary, sometimes our best work happens when we take some time away from the office because it gives us a perspective we can’t get when we’re in the office day in and day out. So, to help you understand that attending a retreat can be an investment in your business, just like any other investment, here are some returns you can expect to enjoy after you’ve made that investment (and put in the work required by the retreat). PlanningOne of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs and small business owners making is failing to create a plan for their business. Or maybe they create a plan when they first start out, but then they shove it in a drawer somewhere and forget to check in with it to make sure they’re achieving the goals they set out to achieve. Trying to run a business without a plan is a great way to waste time, energy, and resources. When you don’t have a goal with a solid plan attached to it, you’re more likely to get pulled in all different directions instead of identifying a plan of action to achieve your goal and sticking to it. NetworkingBusiness retreats are a great opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs and small business owners. Many business-oriented retreats provide a time specifically for networking, but even if they don’t, just being in a room with other entrepreneurs and small business owners can be a great opportunity to connect with them and bounce ideas off of them, which brings me to my next point: Inspiration
If you’ve never been on a business retreat before, or if you have but it’s been a while, my next Quarterly Retreat might be just what you need. Take some time to identify what went well this past quarter and what could have gone better, then map out a plan of action for making the last quarter of 2021 your best quarter yet, all while networking with other, like-minded entrepreneurs. You can find out more about the retreat and buy your tickets here.
There are a lot of ways you can raise money for your nonprofit, but one of the most effective (and fun) is to host an event. But planning a nonprofit fundraising event is easier said than done. The bigger the event, the more money you can bring in, but it also means more work for you and your staff, so you need to maintain a balance between bringing in enough money to fund your nonprofit without biting off more than you can chew. Having said that, there are ways to simplify the process of planning a nonprofit fundraising event, regardless of how large or small it ends up being. You just need to follow these steps: Set a Goal Before You Start Planning a Nonprofit Fundraising Event
Decide on the Type of Nonprofit Fundraising EventThis is where you need to decide how big your nonprofit fundraising event is going to be, but you also need to make sure it’s a fun event that people will want to pay money to attend. If you’re a large, well-known organization, you can host a ball (or get a volunteer or donor to host it for you), or a charity luncheon. If you’re smaller and more community focused, maybe you host an event in one of your local parks. When deciding on the type of event, you should also determine how big you want it to be. Can you handle a room (or park) with hundreds of people? Or should you try to keep it to a few dozen? If you’re selling tickets for the event, make sure you cap the ticket sales at whatever your upper limit of attendees ends up being because you don’t want to end up with more people than your space can accommodate. Get Your Space and Your SuppliesOnce you know the type of nonprofit fundraising event you’re going to host and how many people you’re going to have, it’s time to start looking for spaces where you can host the event. If you want to host it outside in a park, be sure to get a permit from the city/village, and you might want to consider a backup venue in case the weather turns against you. If you’re hosting it inside, see if you can get someone to donate the space for you. You’ll also probably need seating, food and drinks, and maybe items to raffle off if you’re doing a raffle to raise money. Most, if not all of those things can be donated by local companies or individuals, so ask around and see who would be willing to help you out. Anyone who donates should have an opportunity to promote their business at the event, which leads nicely into my next tip: Ask Businesses to Sponsor Your Nonprofit Fundraising Event
Promote Your Nonprofit Fundraising Event
Rinse and RepeatAfter your event, it’s important to take stock. How did it go? Did you reach your fundraising goal? Did people enjoy themselves? Would they come again if you hosted another nonprofit fundraising event? You need to take stock of what went well and what could have been done better before you start planning your next nonprofit fundraising event. Whether you’re planning a nonprofit fundraising event, or looking for other ways to raise money for your organization, it can help to have a Strategy Rockstar on your team. Helping nonprofits run a better organization is one of my specialties, as well as one of my passions. You can schedule a call now to see how I can help you plan a better nonprofit fundraising event.
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