Maybe you resolved to post on your blog more frequently or publish a monthly newsletter. Perhaps your plan is to finish your e-book by mid year but you’ve only written one chapter. Or, you vowed to get your work into 6 galleries. You’ve made a list of those you want to contact. When you searched their websites, you began to wonder if your work would sell and got sidetracked creating a line that might better fit those galleries.

If you are already slipping off course, you aren’t alone. Just look at the gym signups and how the crowds thinned out already.

For entrepreneurs, it doesn’t appear to be a problem of motivation. Judging by  the comments I get from people who truly want to commit to launching or growing a business, it’s more the challenge to remain focused. If you are committed to accomplishing your business goals this year, I recommend you:

• Limit the number of short term goals.  If you are like many creative people, you may have trouble accomplishing your business goals because you are easily sidetracked by new ideas. This is a huge challenge for me as well. I find it helpful to narrow my big goals to three at a time. When new ideas rush in and clamor for my attention, I remind myself that if I try to do too much, I won’t get anything done well. I commit to seeing three through to completion before I will address the others. If you do this, make a note of the ideas as they come to you and file them under “brilliant things I will do when I can give them the attention they deserve.”
• Get clarity on the reason your goals matter. What is the feeling you want to experience when you have accomplished each goal? What difference will it make in your life, the community or the world? Write out your “why” in detail and review it often.
• Create a vision board for your goals and post it where you see it daily. There’s something powerful about a physical image that helps reinforce the importance of your goal. It doesn’t have to be a work of art. Just make sure you have a vivid picture of what those goals accomplished will look and feel like.
• Celebrate small accomplishments. Those first baby steps toward your goals can be the hardest. Take note of milestones and celebrate them. Maybe you’ve made a list of a dozen galleries or shops you hope will feature your work. Once you’ve contacted the first four, congratulate yourself and honor the accomplishment. Have lunch with a friend or take a picnic to the park. Make it celebratory in a way that’s meaningful to you.
• At least in the beginning, stick to a schedule. To-do lists are fine but it’s easy to keep putting off items on the list. Instead, schedule certain days or times of day to do specific tasks toward your goal. If you know you want to publish a monthly newsletter, schedule a day each week that you work on it. If you know you want to post on your blog 3 times a week, make writing appointments on your calendar. I’m not advocating rigidity. You don’t have to schedule your tasks for 8-5 Monday through Friday. One of the perks of self-employment is being able to work around your own body rhythm so if you write best in the middle of the night, mark your calendar to write at 2 AM Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Then if something comes up that you want to do, adjust your schedule for one night.  It’s OK to stay flexible. Just be accountable.
• Join a mastermind group or find an accountability buddy. In addition to the support, sharing of resources and idea generation, a mastermind group will give you a sense of accountability. When you know you have a phone conference scheduled every Wednesday at noon, you are more likely to stay on course to meet your goals for the week. You will feel a responsibility to your group so you will be sure to have accomplishments to report. Also, when you confront an obstacle that discourages you from moving forward towards your goal, you will have a team to help you overcome whatever the challenge is and get back on track.

Speaking of accountability, there’s still time to join Barbara Winter and me for the Obstacle Buster Mastermind this coming weekend in Las Vegas. Find out more HERE

I’ve heard from a several aspiring entrepreneurs who said they wanted to join us but had scheduling conflicts.  They all said the same thing. “I have this great business idea but don’t know where to get started.”

Here are a few tips to help you begin working on your dream business.

• Research people who have already done what you want to do or something similar.
  Read their blogs, study their websites, listen to podcasts and read books by people who are doing what you want to do. Not so that you can mimmic them but so that you can learn from their journey and do your own version and share your unique gifts.
• Talk to people who have been successful at what you are trying to do or something like it. Ask what mistakes they made in the beginning and what they learned in the process. Most entrepreneurs love to share. We don’t see start-ups as competition but complimentary. When I meet a new self-employment guide, I take note of what qualities they possess that I do not and will frequently refer a client to someone who I think might be a better fit. By connecting with someone who has already done what you want to do, you may not only gain a mentor but a friend who you can do some co-operative projects with as well.
• Don’t let the things you don’t know how to do keep you from beginning. A smart entrepreneur admits what she doesn’t know and recognizes that learning is a life-long pursuit. You can always outsource or barter the skills you lack or don’t enjoy performing.
  Or partner with someone who has complimentary gifts.
• Hire a coach or consultant to guide you. Be careful to find someone who has had their own business, not someone who was trained as a business coach but never started a business. Don’t worry about certification. What matters is that they have learned by doing and can share their experience with you.
• Attend seminars or workshops with other entrepreneurs. You’ll learn from the facilitators and the other attendees will share resources and valuable insight with you. You’ll find your tribe and source of ongoing support. (We still have a couple of spaces left. Find out more HERE.)
• Start with baby steps. Even if your dream is big, start small. I’m not an advocate of the 5-year plan because I believe your business will evolve in ways you can’t even imagine now. It’s great to have a vision of the big goal but it’s easiest to make it happen by taking small steps every day.

What first small step can you take today to move forward toward your dream business?

When I speak with people who have lots of ideas, I suggest they jot down some notes and keep them in a file. Once they’re recorded, the anxiety over possibly forgetting them subsides. The mind is then free to focus on one idea at a time and the file is always there when you are ready for it.

What about the ideas that you thought were brilliant when you stashed them away but when you have time, you never revisit them? Why are you neglecting them? Is it fear of failure?

If you’re risk adverse, let me ask you this. Which is scarier to you? Trying and failing or the regret of never having tried? I’m sure you can guess which frightens me. Regret, for sure. I take risks because I am more afraid of regret than failure. (and for the record, I have no regrets.)

It wasn’t until recently that I realized there are people who fear success. Some worry about having to live up to others’ expectations of them if they succeed. For some, it’s uncomfortable to be in the spotlight. Well, contrary to popular thought, I know that a private person can be successful without having to show up on Oprah.

Another excuse I hear for leaving a good idea by the wayside is the fear that someone will steal your idea.  Of course it’s possible that someone will copy your great idea, manufacture it cheaply in China and it will outsell your original. But you know what? You can’t do anything with your great idea if you never take it out of the closet.

Fear is definitely an obstacle to bringing ideas to life but the most common reason people give for not moving forward on their dreams is overwhelm. When I speak with aspiring entrepreneurs about what’s been holding them back, they most frequently site overwhelm with not knowing what to do first. They just have no idea where to begin so they freeze and do nothing. One of the best ways to overcome that overwhelm is to get a clear vision of the whole project and then break it down into actionable small steps.

For some guidance on how to lay out the big picture of your dream so that you can figure out where to start, scroll down to the January 13, 2012 post titled  “Are you limiting your dream to the size of your desktop?”.

What’s happening with YOUR neglected ideas? If you’re ready to put it on the table and give it the attention your great idea deserves, check out what Barbara Winter and I are doing to help a small group of aspiring entrepreneurs break through the barriers and start their dream businesses NOW. HERE’S the SCOOP

“I have too many ideas” is a common complaint of creative entrepreneurs. Being an idea generator is a gift but it can have you running in place if you aren’t able to effectively launch any of them because you are too scattered. It is absolutely possible to run several businesses successfully but just like juggling oranges, you have to start with what you can handle and add more as your confidence and competence grow.

I helped each of the attendees choose one idea to start with and we focused on fine tuning the vision of what that one business will look like. When they show up at the workshop in Las Vegas, we will focus on making that one idea a viable business. Once that business is running and they are seeing profit, it will be easier to launch the next idea, and the next. It’s kind of like when you have a baby. You give that first your undivided attention. Then, when that first child is a couple of years old and you’ve kind of got the hang of that parenting thing, you’re more able to parent a second. Maybe add a few more? Imagine if you gave birth to all your children at once? You’d be like the old woman in the shoe, right? Well just like kids,  you shouldn’t launch all your ideas at the same time.

If you’ve been sitting on a few projects or business ideas for awhile and haven’t been able to make any of them profitable, you are probably suffering from “refusal to choose” syndrome. But you know what? You did choose. By choosing to try to do them all, you’ve chosen to dilute your energy and get nothing done, right?

I know this first hand because the last several months, I’ve been thinking about several new businesses I want to launch. I’ve done research and some initial steps on all of them but mostly been ineffective moving forward with any of them because my attention was too scattered.

Then a few weeks ago, I realized something. If three months ago, I had chosen to focus on just one new project, I’d now have it successfully launched and be starting on the next. Instead, I haven’t launched any of them.

If you’ve been sitting on several ideas for the past year and feel frustrated because you’ve launched none, I’d like to offer you a challenge. Give yourself permission to put all but one on the back burner. Not forever. Just right now while you get that first one crystal clear and moving forward. Try it for three months. Remember, you aren’t neglecting the other ideas. You are just giving each idea the attention it deserves. Once that’s rolling, spend three months on your next idea. Imagine where you’ll be at the end of the year if you do that. You’ll have launched four new ideas successfully.

Do you need some guidance and support birthing that first idea? If so, check out what Barbara Winter, best selling author of “Making a Living without a Job” and I are doing to help a small group of aspiring entrepreneurs break through the barriers and start their dream businesses NOW.  Find out more HERE

If you’re like many aspiring entrepreneurs, you have great ideas but find it difficult to take action on them. Or do you get it rolling but have difficulty staying on task because you know what you want the end result to be but the sequence of necessary steps is unclear? Sometimes, it feels overwhelming. Other times, an idea that seemed brilliant at first begins to feel unattainable or you lose confidence in your own ability to make it happen.

Particularly if your friends and family member are not entrepreneurs, you can lose momentum when you don’t have anyone to run your ideas by or be accountable to. Dreams wither in isolation and if you share them with the wrong people, the seeds are squashed before they’ve had a chance to take root.

That’s why I am an enthusiastic advocate of mastermind groups. Being part of an entrepreneurs mastermind is like having an advisory board  for your business and a support group for your dreams. In his book  “Think and Grow Rich”, author Napoleon Hill defined the mastermind as a “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”  My experience has been that while having one other person is helpful, having a group of 4 to 6 feels more like putting 8 or 10 heads together.

If you tend to lose confidence, procrastinate or have trouble staying motivated, the accountability of a mastermind will keep you moving in the right direction.  Participants brainstorm ideas, share resources, challenge each other to create and implement goals, give honest input and feedback and fresh perspective.

There is nothing like being in a circle of other entrepreneurs to create forward momentum so that you achieve your goals. That’s why Barbara Winter and I are offering an opportunity for a select group of creative entrepreneurs to join us for a mastermind weekend in Las Vegas. You’ll bring your dream to the circle and get the benefit of our combined 7 decades of self-employment plus the feedback and ongoing support of your tribe. You’ll arrive with questions and leave with answers.  HERE’S THE SCOOP.

If you have an idea, however vague, that keeps popping back up no matter how deep  you bury it, it’s probably worth your time to finally take it seriously.

While I never make a major business decision without weighing it intellectually with facts and figures, I am a true believer in tuning into the subconscious. When an idea returns even after I have dismissed it, I know it’s time to give it serious consideration.

Because boomerang ideas can be pesky for a reason, Barbara Winter and I have planned something we’ve never done before. We’ve reserved a suite in Las Vegas to sit down with a select group of aspiring entrepreneurs and bring those neglected ideas to what I call the “possibility circle”. That means you put your concept out there and we all put our “problem solver” hats on to bust through the obstacles and create a viable business.

This won’t be a lecture and it isn’t for you if you are looking for a “what do I want to do when I grow up” seminar. It will be a hands-on, hats-on how-to-make-it happen NOW workshop. If you’ve been sitting on an idea that won’t leave you alone until you do it, if you are ready to roll up your sleeves, dig in to the details and bring it to life, click HERE to learn more about how you can be part of this powerful mastermind. And if you do it NOW, you’re still in time for a pre-workshop phone consult with me. Here’s how you can join the circle.

A brick and mortar retail shop does need more start-up cash than an online information product business. There is inventory, rent, security deposits and possibly some fix-up/build-out work to be done. There are ways around spending on these items with barter, consignment, trade and other savings options which I have implemented myself and have written about on this blog. I have started successful businesses on very little cash and that is my number one suggestion for anyone starting a new venture.

There is only one thing I would borrow money for at start-up, but first, I’ll tell you what
I recommend you do NOT spend money on:

• High priced legal and accounting services. Yes, there will be a time when these are vital to your business but a l lot of new entrepreneurs waste time and money on establishing an LLC or Corporation and setting up expensive accounting systems long before they need to. Unless your business involves liability, just get started. Get whatever licenses you need, start as a sole proprietor and start making money. Of course if you are selling physical items in a state with sales tax, you will need to obtain a re-sale license right away. Keep your business money completely separate from your personal money.  Then, when you are generating revenue, contact an attorney and set up a legal business entity to protect your assets and a good accountant to help you avoid unnecessary tax.
  *note:I do highly recommend you purchase insurance if you have a brick and mortar location where you could be liable for injury to a customer. If you have inventory you will need to insure it for fire and theft as well. If your stock is on consignment. check with the artist or supplier to see if their insurance covers it while in your possession.
• Fancy office equipment, fixtures or build-out. You don’t need state-of the art technology unless you are starting a tech-based business. I’ve started every business with a pen and legal pad, off-the-shelf receipts and a cigar box for cash. Wouldn’t you rather hit your break even point and start building up a reserve than have a snazzy cash register? If you are doing your business online, you do need a working computer you can depend on but you do not need a lot of pricey software, nor do you need the fastest, best technology. Try to work with what you have until your business is generating enough to pay for it.
• An expensive website. Too many new entrepreneurs wait until they have the perfect website to start their business. That’s a huge waste. What you think you want in the beginning is almost never what ends up serving you and your clients best once your business is up and running. Do pay for a self-hosted domain and use a free WordPress theme to begin. I am absolutely not a techie and even I can set up a WordPress site in a day. Later, when you are generating enough income to pay for it, hire a WordPress expert to help you fine-tune the site to suit your needs. Have them teach you how to do it so that you can keep it updated yourself. Ideally, barter for their services. ( I learned this the hard way. I paid a Silicon Valley way too much money and wasted weeks waiting for them to create my dream site. I wasn’t in business long before I realized it did not fit my needs and replaced it with a WordPress blog which I  can make changes to myself as my needs change.

The one thing I would spend money on, even if I had to borrow it, is education or consulting. I’m not talking about an elite platinum group coaching club where you pay $20,000 to $100,000 to spend 4 days a year with a coach in a group of people. (Yes those do exist and people vie for a spot in them.) Rather I am suggesting that if you know what you want to do but not exactly how to go about it, you hire someone who has done it successfully to guide you through the obstacles. It will pay you many times over to get it right the first time.

If you can’t afford one-on-one consulting which can be quite expensive, find a small group mastermind led by someone who is experienced in helping people work-through solutions. It doesn’t have to cost a bundle and it will be the single best investment you make in your start-up. If you are ready to take the first step toward making your dream business happen in 2012, go HERE to learn how you can get your ideas in front of 2 life-long entrepreneurs and problem solvers.

Well, imagine yourself in a roomful of creative thinkers who all hold the intention of propelling their own dreams into reality and are also excited about your ideas and have suggestions and solutions for you as well.

You can read books, take home study courses, hire a coach, participate in tele-classes and webinars but there is nothing as powerful as being in a room full of supportive people who share a common goal and the desire to make it happen.

Are you sitting on an idea that you haven’t nurtured because something else always takes priority? Do you find your enthusiasm for it waxes and wanes, the idea keeps coming back but you just don’t know where to begin to make it happen?
Georffrey James in a recent Inc.com article titled “14 Easy Ways to Get Insanely Motivated” says, “Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you and you can imitate their success strategies.”

Most people need supporters to birth a new project and advisors to bring it to fruition. As small business owners, we don’t have a board of directors. The advantage is that we get to captain our own ship. The downside is that we have no sounding board and often feel discouraged if we don’t surround ourselves with a tribe of inspired entrepreneurs to brainstorm and problem solve with.

If you’re tired of putting your dream on the back burner and you are ready to move forward , what better time than the New Year to commit to making it happen.

What if you could sit down with two lifelong entrepreneurs and focus on your idea, address the challenges and obstacles that have held you back,  brainstorm solutions and design concrete steps to make it real? What if in addition to two self-employment muses and problem solvers, you also had a small group of enthusiastic supporters who were committed to nurturing their ideas while also helping you grow yours?

Well, that’s exactly what Barbara Winter and I will be doing in January and if you register right away you’ll save with the early bird special and qualify for a private phone consult to get crystal clear on your idea. If you want to be part of this select group, find out more HERE

Maybe you believe in coincidence but the only way you are going to make things happen is if you are clear on what you need to make happen and what steps to take to make it real.

Do you have a dream that you long to bring to fruition but no idea where to begin to make it happen? If you’re serious about starting your dream business, don’t sit around waiting for you lucky break. Outline a plan of small steps you can start taking now to move in the direction of your dream.

Speaking of luck, if you need help figuring out what those steps are or how to make money with your idea and how to do it without enough money to start up, join Barbara Winter and me in Lucky Las Vegas for a Mastermind Weekend where we’ll examine YOUR idea and brainstorm solutions to help you jump those hurdles and make 2012 the year you finally make your dream happen. Find out more HERE

I heard something today from a friend who I’d previously thought of as a creative entrepreneur. He’s an ad guy so you’d just assume he’s an idea machine, right?.  I complimented him on a print piece I’d seen and asked where the inspiration came from. His answer shocked me. He fears running out of ideas.  It’s a concept I can’t even fathom,  though I’ve heard it from many corporate creatives. Don’t those who make a living by convincing with words and images  have a steady stream of inspiration?  Not always. While we do get ideas in our sleep and in solitude,  if you hang out in your own head all the time, eventually, you become a desert. You’re creative juices dry up. 

As my mentor and friend Barbara Winter  commented on the adman’s fear of running out of ideas, “That’s scarcity thinking. He doesn’t know that inspiration must be nurtured.” 

And that nurturing takes different forms  at different time for different people.

When my sister Pam moved to Nashville at 23 to pursue her songwriting career, she signed a contract to spend every Friday in a publishing office on Music Row cranking out lyrics. I couldn’t imagine how she cold be creative in that environment.  It’s always been a puzzle to me how employees who have to be creative on demand find inspiration sitting in an office building.  . I thought about where my own inspiration came from for paintings and realized it never happened in the studio. That was just where I went to implement. 

Think about songwriting. How may lyrics are inspired by new love, lost love or betrayal?  The experience that trigger those emotions don’t happen in the cubicle.  Creativity, like friendship, needs to be nurtured to thrive, and that nurturing can be both internal and external. 

That nourishment for me comes from walking on the beach, though the redwoods or driving on the open road. The ideas flow continuously. The colors, textures and motion feed the idea bank. Not all ideas are born in solitude, thought. In fact, I find watching travelers in airports to be a red hot creative spark.  A conversation with a stranger can be a great jump start for inspiration. Visit a preschool class or a farmer’s market and you can’t help but find ispiration. And of course read. A lot.  Read  about people who’s lives look nothing like your. Have a conversation with a five year old. And an eighty five year old. Watch a foreign film the first time through without reading sub titles. 

My favorite, and the most powerful recharger of all is a live workshop.  Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert,  there’s nothing like the charge you get from being in a room of people with curiosity, enthusiasm and  passion.  It’s not just about exchange of information. When you put ten entrepreneurs in a room together, the creative energy is palpable.  That’s why the concept of a mastermind is so powerful and I’ll be talking about that in future posts. 

Even if you’re someone who requires frequent periods of solitude, which I do, you owe it to your business and your art to put yourself in a room with people who “get” you.  Not a huge informational conference although some people do find those stimulating. ( I find them so draining and go into information overload quickly. It takes me days to recoup.) I’m suggesting you go to an interactive, live meeting of creative minds where everyone benefits from the exchange of ideas,feedback, brainstorming and problem solving.

Where do you find inspiration? Out in nature,  while traveling, on a crowded subway, at a lumber yard? Of course you’re invited to share your sources of inspiration. We’d all love to know what makes you tick .