My 13 year old daughter and her friends are totally into instant gratification. They are the sound byte generation.

We live in an instant gratification society. I admit to wanting things instantly because I feel I don’t have time to wait. I’m working on becoming more patient, I swear. Where did this come from? I grew up with snail mail, without fax machines and e-mail and without computers. As technology speeds forward, just about everything becomes instantly available. We begin to expect it and then feel annoyed when we have to wait.

The problem occurs if this way of thinking spills over into our business.  Being an instant gratification junky doesn’t serve you well if you expect an instant response to your marketing, instant results from what you learn from courses and books, instant response to your e-mails, newsletters, and offers. Instant success. You know those offers that promise to make you an instant fortune on the Internet in days if you use their system? They’re just playing a psychological game that feeds into our natural desire for instant gratification.

It’s easy to start a project or a business and feel excited, enthusiastic and motivated. It’s hard to accept delayed gratification, to stick in there until you reach the finish line even when you don’t see dramatic results right away. The most successful people I know spent several years seeing small, unimpressive results before they really took off. They don’t often tell you that but it’s true. This has been my experience with every business I’ve owned in the last 20 years. There were times when I wanted to quit, times when I thought I must be doing something wrong. But I stuck with it, made re-adjustments when necessary, studied and learned from mentors who were already succeeding, and it paid off every time.

So don’t fall into the trap. Buy into the dream instead. Persist.

; Add to Onlywire  

Does this chart look like your business model?

If so you have basically put a cap on how much you can earn and how successful your business can be. Yet so many small business owners use this model because they are afraid of either.

1. They can’t afford the help.

2. No one can do things as well as they do.

There was a time when I thought like this too. But when I started listening to mentors who’d made millions I came to realize that the only way to make a huge leap forward in my business was to get outsourced help. Outsourcing tasks is easier and cheaper than ever.

The truth about being successful is that you have 2 choices.

Choice #1 - Be somewhat successful and work long hard hours

Choice #2 - Be insanely successful and work a few hours a day

Now, give this some thought… which choice stands out to you as the clear cut winner here?

If you decided on choice #1 then you may just be a glutton for punishment and enjoy spending all day on your computer while sweating it out to make sure everything is done your way.

If you liked choice #2… well good for you, because that is the choice that will allow you to make more money - but even more importantly that choice will give you the time to enjoy your money.

So, how do you go about becoming insanely successful and working just a couple hours a day?  You leverage the skills and talents of others.

Once I learned how easy and inexpensive it is to outsource, my life changed and my business soared and I want to share that knowledge with you.

And finally an expert at outsourcing, someone that has made millions by doing it, is going to reveal to you EVERYTHING there is to know about outsourcing your way to incredible success.

You see, my colleague Jeff Mills transformed his own life from flat broke to Internet Millionaire by outsourcing, and now he is exposing his secrets to you. Any small or solo business can win from these strategies and resources.

Listen, if you’re prepared to explode your small business online income while putting in less time (a LOT less time), then you owe it to yourself to have a look at Outsource Secrets Revealed today:

http://www.shopgoldmills.com/cmd.php?af=760786

To Working Less & Making More,

Janis

PS - If you still think doing everything yourself is the way to go, then consider this… at some point you simply cannot do any more.  At some point you just won’t be able to produce any more… and then where will you be?  Best case is you’ll be profitable but stuck at a plateau.  Worst case is you’ll burn out and send your business spiraling downward.

You don’t have to do this… leverage the talents and skills of others to make more while working less!

http://www.shopgoldmills.com/cmd.php?af=760786

; Add to Onlywire

They always say that the teacher teaches what they most need to learn. Lately I’ve had a number of my coaching clients who are struggling with using time effectively. As a result they feel the frustration of not moving forward as quickly as they could.

I’ve certainly struggled with using time ineffectively myself and each time I introduce them to a Time Effectiveness Model I teach that will catapult their business to a whole new level, it reminds me to stay on track with my time.

Yes, I used to fall into the time trap and end up feeling like I was spinning my wheels. Have you been there? What I’ve learned is that treating  time like your most precious possession, like gold, like a million bucks, will make the difference between struggling and succeeding beyond your wildest dreams.

There are so many time traps that can rob us of the ability to focus obsessively on priority activities that will express us toward our goals. I once heard Michael Gerber speak. He’s the author of The E-Myth Revisited, one of my favorite books about how to build a small business. He said that successful entrepreneurs focus obsessively on their goals and persevere even when they don’t see immediate results. I couldn’t agree more.

You need to be aware of these time traps and avoid them at all costs.

1. E-mail - a blessing and a curse, e-mail can consume hours each day. I try to check e-mail only 3 times daily–mid-morning, after lunch and at the end of the day. Even that’s probably too much and I’m working on getting that down to once a day. I will soon be adding an autoresponder message to my e-mail that lets people know that I may not respond immediately because I only check e-mail a few times a day. This is a smart way to not get sucked into the e-mail trap.
2. Answering every phone call–some people answer their phones every time they ring no matter what. This means you are constantly interrupted and it’s often a tele-marketer, or someone who wants to  make their urgent problem yours. Use caller ID and return calls at a certain time each day. This way you’ll have protected work time without interruption.
3. People interruptions-from colleagues, friends, children, neighbors (if you work from home).  You need to let people know that they cannot disturb you during your prime work time. Close your office door, don’t answer the doorbell, give your kids ice cream. I don’t care, just find a way. My daughter has learned not to enter my office when the door is closed and your’s can too.
4. Surfing the Internet with the excuse that it’s research. If you want to check out someone’s offer or website, if it’s not a priority do it at the end of day when your brain is fried anyway!
5. Playing on Facebook or MySpace and convincing yourself it’s all part of your marketing. Some of it is and some isn’t. You know the difference.

All of these interruptions are time wasters because they keep you from finding new clients, making phone calls to prospects or gatekeepers, networking, blogging, product development, or whatever else will propel your business forward.

 Want to share some of your time tips! How are you maximizing each work day? I’m sure we’d all be grateful.

 Warmly,

Janis

; Add to Onlywire
If you don’t know who Jay Abraham is, you should. He’s one of world’s best-known marketing “gurus”  (http://www.abraham.com) . More importantly, he seems like a genuinely nice man who generously gives of his time and energy to teach others how to make gobs of money by helping their clients make gobs of money at the same time. He truly believes in win-win.I started taking a course with Jay last summer to learn joint venture marketing from a true master. The course is intense, enormously content rich and goes on for more than a year. At the monthly live two-hour classes, Jay assigns homework-lots of homework. And he expects you to do it.

Now when my daughter has homework I expect her to do it. No excuses accepted. But I have to confess that when Jay “called on me” last evening, I had not completed all of my homework. Neither, it seems, had a number of other people. Jay, needless to say, was not impressed with us.

At first I clung mentally to my excuse that I’d been way too busy servicing my small business clients, doing marketing and joint venture projects, and since I’m a widow and singe mom, taking care of my 13 year old. Then there’s the house, shopping, laundry, church, and on and on. You get the picture.

Oh, poor me!

But the truth always makes itself known sooner or later. Luckily very soon I came to see that I had chosen to participate in this amazing course but that I wasn’t making it a priority, I was kind of winging it-just the thing I tell my daughter is unacceptable. What an “aha” moment.

Jay said he had our best interests at heart and knew from experience that if we didn’t do the work we would never really succeed at this. I know that’s true because I’ve had a few clients that, in spite of my guidance and encouragement, didn’t follow through and that self-sabotage lead to them not reaching their goals. And here I was going down the same path!

At the end of each classs, Jay asks us to share insights we got from the class. Well Jay, you gave me a wake up call. I get to choose how I prioritize and spend my time. So I can’t make excuses if I choose not to follow through. So I admit it, I made a poor choice and in this case I’ll be changing that.

What about you? How are you choosing to spend your time?

Have a productive week,

Janis