The spread of the CORONAVIRUS has forced thousands of working parents to work from home WITH KIDS. My best friend mentioned she was unsure how she would manage it. This is a relevant issue affecting so many of us. Managing working from home with children who need to be homeschooled can be overwhelming Kids, especially younger kids, demand around the clock attention.
As a virtual service business owner providing outsourced marketing support to small businesses, I’m somewhat experienced in this space. Have I mastered it? Not exactly. Did I have to home school as well? NO! But the philosophy remains the same. There are most definitely strategies you can put in place to minimise the fallout – and even thrive. I’m implementing them, and fine-tuning them, and so can you. We can do this, not alone but together! So, if you’re struggling to navigate your new life outside of the office, These strategies from a home working Mum may help you survive these challenging times with your sanity mostly intact.
1. Mindset is key
Be kind to yourself
You’re going to have wobbles during this experience. After all, humans are not built to be in close confines without the ability to socialise! Add in working from home while homeschooling the children. ahhhh! Expect extra emotion and acting up, (from the kids too.) This is not normal, this is an unknown, scary and huge change. They will miss their friends as much as you will.
With routines disrupted and families thrown into close quarters, cabin fever is a real danger.
Adding to this, fear is in the air. Working Mums have shared their fears of running out of work, money, Losing family and friends. The physical and mental strain of needing to add even more hats to your existing workday. Fear of letting your children down by not teaching them in the way a teacher could. Fear of the impact isolation may have on mental health. Or being pulled in directions, so you’re not giving them the love and gentle care they need, especially at a time like this. Even the fear of not being able to wipe yourself after going to the toilet. Know you’re not alone.
Aim to eradicate your fear!
Step 1: Acknowledge your fears. They’re valid.
Step 2: Understand its purpose is to keep you safe. Be kind to yourself.
Step 3: Breathe deeply 3 times, inhale, exhale!
Step 4 – Choose a new more helpful focus. Redirect yourself to ACT. Our thoughts are POWERFUL and can stop our actions towards positive outcomes. I was stopped from positive action all last week. I’ve refocused. I took some vital ME TIME – A virtual 1:1 yoga session from a gorgeous friend. I washed my bedsheets and sent the family for a fun camping venture in the backyard so I could enjoy the simple pleasure of quiet night, in a freshly made bed. #Restorative. What can you put in place to improve your mindset?
Step 5 – If you feel yourself slipping back into an unhelpful headspace. Shift it again. Sing and dance with your kids, or take up a hobby, or do a family meditation, using deep breathing. I use the calm app. as do my kids. They have bedtime stories, focus on anxiety, or lack of sleep, meditations and much more. Even Matthew Mcconaughey shares a story. Switch the channel. STOP what you’re doing, get up and refocus.
Versatile Marketing has been liaising and collaborating with Everymind over the last 6 months. They have a program called Ahead For Business. It’s a great small business resource to use. Take the mental health checkup. Use their toolkit to equip yourself with further support and ideas.
Ghandi summarised the importance of mastering mindset with this quote:
Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your throughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.
2. Dedicate an office area
You need a designated place for your home office, so all family members are aware it’s your office. Even If it is on the kitchen table. At specific designated times, they have to respect this is your workspace and not disturb you while you’re sat at it. unless it’s an emergency or urgent.
Avoid OH&S issues, keep it as ergonomic as possible. Create a makeshift foot stool. Or use a box to get the height of the computer correct. Ensure Wi-fi is fast enough. The lighting needs to be sufficient. A headset and a printer/scanner is a nice to have also.
Create a schedule/routine but be flexible.
Plan ahead
Set a time block routine from the outset. Aim to keep your wake-up times the same as they were, consistency and routine is key. You’ll all cope better, when you know what and when you are doing each day. Even if it’s as simple as wake time, eat time, play time, learning time, exercise time.
In saying that, ensure it’s flexible and adaptive. For example, if you need to get up an hour earlier than everyone else, for self-care or to smash out some urgent work, do it. Equally, if one morning you all want to stay in bed until 10am…do it!
Work smart not hard
Work out the best time to make phone calls or be on teleconferences with the least distractions.
Set specific times for activities to break up the day. Feel free to use our Daily Routine 2020. Provide a print-out of the routine for your kids. Prepare any materials /supplies they may need.
Set alarms/Bells. Use Google Home or other devices to help your kids remember what to do next. (Automate it as much as possible). Above all, be realistic and flexible, expect to be interrupted.
It isn’t easy to work from home with kids. Use our resource sheet which lists brilliant, free aged-based school resources for your children. Utilise these as a supplement to the school’s online learning or alternative learning plans.
Consider working late at night when kids are in bed. However, please ensure you’re getting enough sleep. Easy to say, with so much to juggle, often hard to achieve, however we all need to stay healthy!
Allocate your most critical work during a time when your kids can sit for a good 2 hours straight. If they’re really young, capitalise on their nap times. In our household this occurs during electronics time. Because when they’re absorbed in a movie, playing Minecraft, reading eggs or Mathletics, I smash out work!
Food
Pre-prepare the day’s food as you would for school and show the kids their lunch bags. This is what they get to eat between 9-3pm. This will minimise the ‘Muuum I’m hungry’ distractions, and ration the food stores as well. They seem to eat twice as much at home than at school otherwise. Align break times to school or daycare timetables. Crunch and sip in the morning, then recess, followed by lunch.
Plan to enjoy a minimum of one meal with them. You need a lunch break. It’s nice to connect, re-set and recharge the batteries too. So why not enjoy it together. Be sure everyone has water, and drinks regularly.– 2 litres of water a day is optimal. Give someone a job of being a water monitor – kids love power! 😉
Exercise
Set time for you and kids to exercise together, it’s important to stay healthy, and active. There are so many activities, from zumba, aerobics on tv at home, to jumping on trampoline, go for a scoot, bike ride or walk around the block. My favourite online kids workouts where its fun for mum too are Cosmic Kids Yoga, and a visual pleaser P.E with Joe . Similarly, this re-connects you and the kids, they’ll feel recharged to go off for some more solo activities. Vitamin D, sunshine and fresh air are vital for mental health and for defeating/preventing viruses including COVID-19.
Connect
Plan activities together! Now more than ever your kids need some extra parent time. Squeeze it into your plan. Bake bread, make play doh, play scrabble, kick a ball in the backyard. Stay connected with friends and family. It’s so important for maintaining mental health and social engagement.
Allocate some quiet time for you all throughout the day. If possible, create spaces in your house for zones. A games zone, learning space (with some activities set out). A chill out corner with pillows and headphones. If it’s too small for this, then stick with the boredom box (see below) and bedrooms when people need alone time.
4. This is not normal homeschooling and you’re not a school teacher!
Go easy on yourself. Be flexible and adaptable. Utilise the school curriculum provided. If your kids don’t complete all the tasks one day. It doesn’t matter. This is far from a normal situation and any learning is good learning.
I interviewed a fellow Virtual business owner, with a Diploma of Education, Sandy Pisch. Sandy is a homeschooling single Mum, with 2 boys with disabilities. (Autism, ADHD & Tourette Syndrome).
From a Mum who certainly understands the juggle of working from home. Sandy shares with us her 3 top tips for our temporary home schooling/ home working gig:
You don’t have to do every subject every day.
Have shorter blocks of work, nothing more than 30mins, with numerous “brain breaks” (5-10mins). Even though, at school, they’re in the classroom for an hour or more in between starting/recess/lunch/home. They actually fit in numerous short blocks of work. There’s lots of ‘teacher talk’ and moving around between the floor and desks. A fantastic website for “brain breaks” is GoNoodle.
It’s super important to connect what they’re learning with real life. Talk about things. Let the kids ask questions. Tell them stories and experiences. Play with them, go outside and let them explore the natural world. ALL of this actually ticks off SO much of the curriculum, without even realising it.
Many neighborhoods are getting on board the ‘bearhunt’. Search on Facebook for your local area. People are putting teddy bears in their windows. Go for a fun walk and see how many you can spot…turn it into a maths exercise and add a teddy bear to your window too!
5. Create age-appropriate boredom boxes
Dedicate a weekend to gather boxes you have lying around the house. Label them, 1 box per child. Let your kids be involved in this, and for creative time or free time, this box can come out for inspiration.
For kids without reading ability print images of the activities. Search around the house for the initial box contents. Some of their favourite books, stickers and pencils, with paper. A sewing kit. Then place on your to-do list to order more craft etc. (planning ahead is vital refer to tip 2).
6. Use screen time and virtual support networks
Sometimes the kids are going to go a bit cray cray… so enlist the support of Netflix and put on a movie. Or Zoom call your Mum, or an elderly neighbour or childfree friends and ask them to spend some virtual teaching time – they could teach piano, or read a story, or tell a story of their past – include some modern history. Or family history. Win-win-win.
7. Fill your bucket and invest time filling up their buckets too
It’s important to acknowledge when you need time off, to be proactive about your mental and physical health! Each person will need time alone in a sacred space that they can retreat to.
Remember to appreciate the forced time together. Be present to the amazing opportunities to really re-connect with your family. Spend some extra quality time together. Smell the roses, soak up the sun on a walk together, have a picnic in the backyard while weather permits. If cold camp out in the house, have a dance party, do the biggest puzzles together, make music together, bake and have movie nights.
It is absolutely possible to work from home with kids. You just need to be realistic about the quantity you can get through as do your employers. Find the balance that works for your family, utilising your circumstances and resources. And remember, kindness is key. We need to support all those around us too, so if there is one thing today that you can do for yourself or someone else, amongst your crazy busy day. Do it!
Don’t forget to support your local small businesses. They’re the backbone and heart of your community. Support leads to success. Versatile Marketing are sending everyone strength of spirit, structure, focus, love and calm in all this crazy time.
Need help with your digital marketing?
At Versatile Marketing, we provide professional outsourced marketing support for small Aussie businesses. If you’d like to find out more, check out our services, or book in a complimentary discovery call. Don’t forget to download your free kids resource list and a copy of our daily routine. And, if you suddenly have some spare time to look at your content marketing, to become more visible in business. You’re invited to download a free copy of our seasonal, printable content calendar.
1. Setting your vision and strategies to get things done
As a small business owner, having a clear vision of where you want to go is so powerful! It sets the scene for all that’s to come. To grow your business, you need to transform your vision into a plan.
When you execute your vision and plan, share it across your digital marketing platforms. By doing this, you create an amazing opportunity for your audience to connect. When engagement occurs, visibility and growth are inevitable.
Invest in these 4 simple business strategies, so you can reap the benefits for this year and beyond.
1. Reflection and vision
The best place to start, when you want to move forward and grow, is to understand where you have been. Ask yourself: What worked well last year? Why did it succeed? Are any tweaks required to remain current and relevant moving forward?
2. What didn’t work?
Assess how and why it didn’t work. Is it still aligned with your vision? Perhaps it requires a new approach or discarding?
3. Were strategies set for the last year which you were unable to meet for whatever reason?
If they’re still relevant and current, plan them into your strategy for this year and beyond where necessary.
4. When did you last review your business plan?
Remember that thing you wrote (with hope) when you first started your business? With the day-to-day running of your business, has it been neglected?
I recently reviewed mine, written in 2018. My business has consciously changed course somewhat. And it drifted a couple of degrees off course all by itself. It’s important to re-chart the course to its new desired destination.
Review and assess your:
Mission and vision and values
Ideal clients and their needs
Branding, has it changed?
SWAT and risks? Ask yourself is it still current and accurate? If not revise it with the next 2-5 years in mind, not only the next year! Time flies, so it’s advisable for your business strategy to have short and long-range plans and milestones.
The best way to ensure you reach your business goal is to go through an important annual planning process. Assess lessons learned and changes in circumstances, like:
New technology
Digital marketing and communication platform changes
Turnover
New products or services
Market changes
Environmental changes and impacts.
These all may lead to re-assessing your long-range plan.
Take the time annually, to measure your progress. Assess what you need to do in the coming year to remain relevant and on track. So set a date now in your calendar towards the end of the year, or end of the financial year, to take stock and assess.
2. Plan ahead
You might be familiar with this Benjamin Franklin quote:
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!
After all of the reflecting, re-assessing and re-aligning. The next step is to create a realistic and achievable plan. There are so many ways to plan. And an abundance of approaches and tools to assist you to stay focused and on track.
Here are some suggestions:
Annual planning
Set yourself an annual Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), (taken from Jim Collin’s book ‘Built to last’)
What strengths do you need to achieve this BHAG? List 3-5 key strengths.
What are your annual priorities?
List 3-5 priorities you will focus on this year to either leverage your current strengths and activities. Or develop new ones that align with and lead you towards your BHAG.
Quarterly planning
Break down each of the above priorities into quarterly SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant & time-bound). Plan your digital marketing content quarterly. To assist you here is a free seasonal content planner to help you do just this. Maintain clarity around your overarching vision. Be conscious of your business plan and break down the quarterly plan for each area of your business.
Think: sales, marketing, networking, financial, systems integrations,and the actual implementation of efficient work practices.
It’s important to keep current with the latest technology, algorithms and systems. Remember that change is the only constant.
Using your seasonal content planner. Once your annual and quarterly themes are in place. Break it down to monthly, weekly and daily.
3. Be visible in a digital world
Digital platforms are the way of the future. But what does this mean for your company? Sure, more and more business is performed digitally annually.
To be visible in your business, you need to have a consistent presence, spanning over numerous platforms.
People need to know about your brand, your product or service and your unique value proposition so they can choose to buy from you.
There are many other reasons to be visible.
The more your prospective customers see, hear, and read about you in various places. For example, web sites, Facebook posts, LinkedIn articles, podcasts, blog posts, etc. The more you’ll be seen as a subject matter expert.
When you become more visible, potential clients or customers become curious and are likely to visit your website to find out more. If you have a well-placed opt-in, you’re likely to increase the visibility further, once they sign up to your list. Then you can stay in touch via newsletters and emails. Visibility allows you to stay in front of mind. When your customers ready to purchase the odds will be in your favour.
Be genuinely you! If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, become the face of your business and allow people to get to know you. This might be via YouTube videos, Facebook lives, or simply posts on social media, but don’t forget the ‘YOU’ in your business.
As you can see, there’s a strong argument for why visibility is a vital component in your marketing strategy. Choose the activities you wish to do on a regular basis. Work out where your customers are and select one or two platforms and share content consistently. Only once they’re embedded, add more. These might include:
Article marketing
Social media (Facebook, WeChat, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google My Business etc.)
Blogging & guest blogging
Guest podcasts or run your own podcast
Webinars
E-books
Online courses
Attending events
Newsletters
Vlogs
This list could go on. Remember to re-purpose and cross-promote. With content marketing, allocate enough time to plan and implement a consistent strategy. It can be quite time-consuming but there are tools and systems available to assist.
Owning your own business has numerous perks, you can do what you love, with flexibility. You can be a decision-maker and see the tangible difference you make to your clients or customers, delivering your service or product. Following your passions can only ever be brilliant, right? Well… yes, so long as you get the right balance.
On the flip side, there are numerous stressors. As a business owner, the buck stops with you. You’re likely wearing multiple hats while putting in long hours, many unpaid. There is the worry of cashflow or feeling isolated or the uncertainty of which step to take next. There simply is never enough time to do it all.
Take YOU time
It’s important to acknowledge when you need a day off, to be proactive about your mental and physical health. Maybe it’s a quick yoga session, a night out, a cup of tea or a trip to the beach. Whatever it is, find something that recharges your batteries.
What is your time worth?
Another way to value ‘you time’ is to recognise how much you charge per hour. Let’s assume you earn $150 p/hr. If you’re spending time on recurring work, which isn’t essential for you to do, then consider outsourcing it to someone who earns less than your hourly rate. In this scenario, $50 or $140 p/hour is still a brilliant investment. If you utilise this additional time on your core business activities and relationship building, your business is sure to grow. So remember to value your time, it’s a smart business strategy. Do you know over 1/3 of small business outsource a portion of their work, and that statistic is growing!
Work time is valuable, but so is your downtime because the productivity of your work time is directly correlated to how much downtime you get and how much sleep you have. So remember to practice self-care.
Another clever way to take time for you is… when you plan your year, plan a holiday or two each year. Get it in the calendar, it gives you something to work towards and plan around.
By following these simple four steps, you’re set for a well-planned, visible year. With a crystal-clear vision of where you are and where you want to be. You can take valuable ‘you time’, outsource where needed, and watch your business grow.
Need help with your digital marketing?
At Versatile Marketing, we provide professional outsourced marketing support for small businesses just like yours. If you’d like to find out more, visit our website or book in a complimentary discovery call. Don’t forget to download your FREE copy of our seasonal, printable content calendar. Just sign-up at the bottom of this page.
I wonder how many new business owners start their business as I did? With a rather exciting, guns blazing idealistic dream.
Upon reflection and review, I imagined sipping coffee while working with other people in a shared space. Doing what I love with versatile service offerings.
From contracts management, to project management, social media, admin, grants and blog writing.
I dreamt of this amazing flexible lifestyle. Taking the kids to the beach, watching them play, while shooting out a piece of work! I wouldn’t need to be around corporate politics or have meetings for meeting’s sake. At the conclusion of my first full year in business, I have a confession to make.
I was WRONG. Being a small business owner is hard yards. Yes, there are amazing flexibilities. I’ve been there at the school assemblies and important events. But I can tell you, sand, laptops and young kids near waves while I try to focus on work instead of them…don’t mesh well. In truth, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. I thought my law degrees and 20 years of business experience would be ample experience to run a business.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved the journey, but now realise it isn’t as clear cut as I imagined.
Here is my year in review:
1. Purpose and vision
My purpose and vision remain, to support small business owners. So you’re not overwhelmed, having to wear all the hats that small business ownership demands. I love freeing up your precious time providing necessary marketing support. This allows you to focus on your passion space and growth. After all, this is the reason you started your business.
Reflection: Do you think I stopped to think about how I would not wear all the hats while making this happen for them? Nup! So now all the advice I am giving my clients, I am planning to take on board more for myself in the coming year. I’ll increase focus on time management, increase automation, streamline processes and outsource where required.
2. Networking
This year I started networking. In the beginning, I was nervous and hated it. I thought I needed to have a sales ‘elevator pitch’. I had been reading on forums and group coaching about how important it is to sell your abilities. (Whilst I’m well aware I need work in this space). I have actually loved the fact that I haven’t had to do this.
Instead, I’ve been building genuine connections with people. Getting to know them and their business. I love listening to their personal values and journey. The right people have and will continue to engage my services, as I come from this authentic space. Networking is something I look forward to now, it is more like catching up with passionate like minded friends.
I’ve been a bit of a networking flirt, due to family and work commitments. This year I have networked with:
Sydney Hills Business Mums
Hills District Business Empowerment Network
MIBA Hills District
Sydney Hills Business Chamber
I subbed twice for a BNI group too.
I look forward to continuing my networking in 2020. With my youngest now starting school, I know the time will still remain limited. 930-2.30pm is a short workday.
Reading at school, and turning off the computer at 3 pm is high on my priority list. As I strive to create a holistic balance in my life for next year too.
My clients are so important, their work will always be a high priority for me. As they come first, networking opportunities will be strategically planned around working commitments.
3. Collaborations & contras
A new collaboration with Kym Thompson from Clear View Imaging has been wonderful. She is an amazing local social media photographer. who offers quality photography and social media video clips for all your social media content.
She creates the sets, shoots the pics and I add copy, hashtags, planning and scheduling on the various platforms. I look forward to this taking more shape in 2020.
An awesome contra deal with Rebecca Swanson. I provided the copy for a LinkedIn article, blog and press release. Rebecca gifted me with some amazing coaching.
Blog writing sub-contracting with the amazing copywriter and trainer Leanne Shelton.
I’m super excited for next years collaborations. They are being fleshed out with a couple of different businesses. So watch this space.
I’ve been in discussions with a Government organisation. This is relating to mindset, overwhelm and mental health for small business owners. It’s a space I’m passionate about and will see where this leads.
To that point, there was an amazing FB group I was going to start. Yet, it’s currently benched after several discussions with some very experienced business owners. I’m heeding their advice and for now, and pivoting.
Meanwhile, I’ll be transitioning the concept into guest blogs in 2020. Various business experts will useful and practical information, within their area of expertise. It will be relevant and helpful guidance for the small business owner.
Why? I’m passionate to provide you with tools to create a holistic balance and growth in your personal and business life.
4. Subcontractors
I have an amazing growing team of Australian Sub-contractors, assisting to provide a second to none service. They assist in the following spaces:
Video editing
Social media and graphic design
Sales, project and admin support
There are two more VA’s (Marketing support and a copywriter), who’ve been screened. They fit the very stringent values and client focus testing. They will join the Versatile team as the business continues to grow.
5. Sydney VA group
I started a Sydney VA Facebook group called the Sydney Virtual Assistant Support Community, which now has 64 members. It provides a local support network for Sydney based virtual assistants.
Amanda Primrose is the other amazing group admin. We have arranged two meetups this year with many more to come in the new year. We’re looking at having marketing and sales support sessions.
Co-working catch-ups within LCA’s will be a focus in the new year, as it can be quite isolating working from home. It’s nice to bounce ideas off someone else and have a laugh and some company too.
6. Perceptions realised
With the experience of stating that I have law degrees, versus stating I’m a VA or I own a VA business. I’ve come to a rather uncomfortable realisation. There’s a perception around the (under) value of VA work. Particularly because people instinctively think $12 p/hr offshore or basic admin.
As such, I’m re-branding slightly in 2020. I still own Versatile VA. However, they’ll be a soft change with the addition of a tag line:
your outsourced marketing support
This will remove the assumption of only admin and make it clearer the value and service offering I’m providing.
As I further niche and refine my services over the years, my long-term clients and new clients alike will reap the benefits. The desire to provide an amazing customer-centred, professional experience will be unaltered.
Another exciting change: I’ll be creating packages for blogs and socials and these will be available early 2020. This is to further streamline and simplify the offering to my clients.
New offerings
Social media and blog writing planning coaching sessions are now available. It starts with a free discovery call where we connect via zoom and nut out a quarterly strategy together. This is still in its infancy and I look forward to providing this service to many more clients in the coming year. I will also be offering a free social media audit for all new clients. Many more offers to come too including incentives for continuing a retainer agreement.
7. Clients
What a blessing to work with such incredible businesses this year. I work with a variety of industries. From Finance and property sector, recruitment, marketing, coaching and health and wellness.
A huge thank you to you, my clients, for continuing to choose Versatile VA! Thank you for your clear concise communication, your passion for business growth and trust in me with your babies (your business). It’s lovely to feel a member of your team and I love working with each one of you. I’m so lucky to have scored such really lovely people!
Thank you also for the amazing reviews, they mean the world. It has been such a pleasure to provide vital support for your business growth and help to reduce overwhelm.
I am excited to say many of my project clients have indicated they intend to utilise my services again for their next projects.
My target: 5 new retainer clients by June 2019. My sub-contractors sitting in the sidelines can show what they’re made of. I too am looking forward to sinking my teeth into some new projects.
This year I had a client call from another State who was referred to me by someone I didn’t know. This is exciting news for me. She retained my services for a project and I hope to hear from her again in the future.
Growth space
Next year I intend to phone my clients more frequently, to add a more personal touch and check-in. Emails don’t cut it and I always intend to but time gets away. Upon reflection, this is now an important part of the service and is being allocated to the process.
There are some incredible new prospects I’ve recently met for coffee and fingers crossed. So excited by these prospects who are ethically aligned and their passion for their business is abundantly evident. Watch this space. I’d be honoured to work with them.
8. Public speaking
This year I lead one networking group session on time management and goal setting. I received brilliant feedback and gained benefit from it myself. Read more about the benefit here.
I decided to up the ante and push myself further out of my comfort zone. So I’ll be doing 4 public speaking engagements next year.
9. Continuous learning
Workshops
I have participated in workshops for:
SEO
Basic bookkeeping
Social media marketing
Marketing
Facebook Ads
Studying
Having completed a full copywriting course via UDEMY earlier this year, I am currently completing a Social Media Management Course via Freelance University. I want to continue expanding my knowledge in all things SEO, social media and copywriting, along with learning about the inner workings of several systems.
I’m now well aware business ownership is a learning journey, a journey of growth, and refinement. I’ve made my share of mistakes. I have laughed, connected with some absolutely inspiring, supportive and incredible business owners. Collaborated, cried, felt imposter syndrome 1000 times, doubted my abilities and questioned my decisions, felt excitement that I took another step in the right direction. I love my client’s, the challenges and the journey.
Mindset and business are super connected…what a rollercoaster it’s been. Bring on 2020. I have set myself challenges, am excited to continue to grow the business and myself.
Wishing you a happy restorative New Year!
Thank you for listening to my self-indulgent reflection, of a year that was. And after a short break, I look forward to serving and connecting with you next year. On that note, I hope you all enjoy a short break too. We all deserve a break, to spend time with loved ones, to allow ourselves. In fact, we all NEED a break. Taking time out helps you get back to the reason and mindset of when and why you started the business in the first place and gives you the mental energy to pivot and change when needed.
Having a clear, compelling goal mobilises your focus toward actionable behaviour. It aligns your focus and promotes self-mastery. But what happens when you publicly declare a goal in a goal-setting workshop led by you? And you, ironically, don’t achieve it? This is the exact precarious position I found myself in earlier this year.
So, let’s consider:
The power of goal setting
Why it’s vital to follow through and maintain personal integrity
Lessons learnt when establishing new habits
The power of goal setting
So, I was leading a holistic goal-setting workshop for local businesses. And used an example of my health and fitness for my next personal area of focus. I explained I hadn’t set a good example to my children with some unhealthy eating habits. And while I promoted prioritising self-care to my clients, I wasn’t doing it for myself. Yet we all know self-care is needed to achieve a holistic balance and to reduce overwhelm.
Goal-setting increases self-confidence and helps increase productivity.
It monitors and measures your growth and momentum, by allowing you to maintain focus on each step or task leading to the end goal. Setting a goal should excite and motivate you.
But, when I realised I hadn’t followed through with my goal, months after this workshop, I felt disempowered and disingenuous. Far from who I am and what I stand for.
I felt like a fraud.
The old maxim ‘practice what you preach’ springs to mind. It was vital to snap into action. You see, I was out of integrity with myself. The single most important quality you can ever develop that will enhance every part of your life, is the value of integrity. Integrity is the core quality of a successful and happy life. It’s SO easy to make promises, but often very hard to keep them. Every time you keep a promise, you’ve made an act of integrity. This in turn strengthens your character and reputation. And you’ll begin to attract the best people and situations into your life.
Decide on one BIG goal at a time. You’ll also find the more specific the goal, the easier it is to achieve it. Grab a copy of the goal setting worksheet from my speech here.
Why cheaters don’t prosper – it’s vital to have integrity
Have you ever noticed that when trying a new habit in your life, you can be completely derailed with just one misstep?
Once the alcohol has been consumed, or the tub of ice-cream eaten, it’s hard to convince yourself to go back to the restriction you placed upon yourself. After all, it’s always ‘easier’ and more comfortable to go back to old ways. The reason for this is when you ‘cheat’, your plan loses its integrity and consistency. Leaving your goal to deflate like a blown, untied balloon. Likewise, if you don’t ever start your set goal, you also fall out of integrity with yourself. It’s so easy to do! More than 80% of small business owners don’t keep track of business goals. Without tracking, it’s so easy to lose sight of your target.
Regaining personal integrity – Case study
I’m going to use myself as the case study, but essentially the concept applies to everything and everyone. As soon as I re-set my intention to follow through with the original goal, things fell into place to assist me in achieving it. The Laws of Attraction tends to work this way.
Choosing to take action
A friend asked me to go walking with her once a week. Instead of making 1000 excuses, I said ‘yes’. I started using the Fitbit I was gifted for Christmas.
A food journal was re-instated, to gauge where my starting point was and where I was tripping myself up. By becoming aware of my eating habits, an informed decision could be made to create some new habits.
The cherry on the cake – I stumbled across a local gym promoting their 6-week fitness challenge. Against my natural instincts, I entered their competition. They called me to come in for a biometric scan and chat about the gym. At this stage, I had no intention to join, and if it wasn’t for my goal I would have declined.
Whilst I’ve been to several gyms throughout my life, none of them had what I was looking for. You see, I seek out balance, kindness, and genuineness in all areas of my life.
Finding support aligned with personal values
So, I rocked up to this boutique gym. The first thing that I noticed was happy faces, people greeting me, introducing themselves, and directing me to the person I was meeting. One of the co-founders, Mitchell Phillips, asked me a bunch of questions, including:
What did I want to achieve? Why hasn’t it worked previously?
What has worked and what do I like?
What is most important to me in my life?
WOW! He cared about how this would integrate into my world. Mind blowing!
Reluctantly, I stepped on a massive biometric scale, which assessed fat/muscle ratio (amongst other things). There was a non-judgemental kindness when I was delivered the news of my weight stats (which wasn’t pretty, I might add!). And not once did he push for a sale. It wasn’t a one-size-fits-all, but specifically catered to me.
He talked about:
Mindset
Balance
Emotional eating
Family
Whole foods
Water intakE
Measuring to track and hold to account
Restorative practices – and more
These things didn’t make me want to run for the hills. It was holistic! So in a complete surprise to myself, I signed up. Taking the next step forward. Mitch then let me know I had won an additional P/T session for the 6 week period! Winning!
Outcome
By the end of the 6-week challenge, Several bad habits had been replaced, simply by creating new, more positive practices. I’m mindful this is just the beginning of my health journey. According to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes 2 months to fully integrate a new habit.
Whilst I didn’t win the group challenge, I won my own personal challenge of achieving my goal before the year ended with my personal integrity intact. Losing 6kg, feeling healthier, and feeling more comfortable was a big bonus! And I have Real Fitness Training to thank for that.
I’m in no way affiliated with this gym but want to share this amazing business, so other locals on a similar journey to me, may feel nurtured and encouraged.
I asked Vicky Van De Luecht, co-founder at Real Fitness Training, to share the ethos behind their business with us:
“Real Fitness Training offers a new ideology when it comes health and fitness. Our belief is one of long-term, sustainable results, built on a foundation of education around movement and nutrition, empathy and coaching. Our service is highly personalised, tailored to each individual client and provides a fitness experience like no other. Offering high quality personal training, structured semi private strength training, nutrition coaching around habits, yoga and meditation classes and monthly educational workshops, our boutique studio truly encompasses the concept of health, wellbeing and community. The days of having to join a gym where you may feel uncomfortable and intimidated are over. We provide the most personalised and friendly service, a very unique fitness experience within our beautiful boutique studio. Attention to detail, meticulous service and a truly rewarding fitness experience is what we pride ourselves on.”
3. Lessons learnt in the process of establishing new habits
We all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behaviour for the better. This could be getting in the habit of eating healthier. It could be work-related or perhaps spiritual.
Here are some lessons learnt during my process of establishing new healthy habits.
Don’t go it alone
When you start to think about it, there’s an inverse relationship between habits and willpower. When you first want to build a new habit, it takes a lot of will power to get it done, day in, day out. You’re much more likely to remain focused, positive, and stick with it when you have an accountability group or person, (as I did in this challenge). I felt supported and could provide support to others on the same journey.
Avoid a path to success that’s too strict
Allow yourself that night out with a few drinks, or the dinner out with chips on the side. But don’t fall off the horse. Or guilt yourself and say it’s all over now! Get back on that horse and maintain integrity. Integrate it into your routine, check your mindset regularly, and track yourself until it becomes a habit.
Celebrate the small successes along the way
Stop and smell the roses. Acknowledge your accomplishments along the journey. If you lifted 50 kg for the first time, felt excited to go to a workout, or ticked off a task towards your end goal, celebrate it. Even if it’s only for a moment! Acknowledge you’re stepping towards improvement.
Surround yourself with people who will support you
It’s so easy to listen to the naysayers! So please surround yourself with positive and goal-driven people who support you and your journey. Aristotle nailed it more than 2000 years ago when he said,
We are what we repeatedly do.
By practising these skills, expect to improve your rate of finishing strong.
Do you want to work on a new healthy habit or business goal?
But you’re far too busy to take it on?
Versatile Marketing is here to support you! We support businesses, just like yours, with a versatile range of services to choose from. This includes business administration, goal setting, systems training, social media and blog writing. We’re here to help!
Versatile Marketing will be waving pom-poms madly in the air, cheering you on towards achieving your goal. Ready to chat? Book in a Free discovery call today, we can’t wait to speak with you.
Nick’s passion in both work and life is growth development; he is continually looking for and finding ways to growth hack and build success for both companies he works for and himself.
If you run a business, you know how important an online presence is. Even if you’re not necessarily selling products or services from your website, it’s still a good idea to give customers and potential customers a way to find you – and to find out about you.
So, how do you ensure your company is visible online and ranks higher than the competition? Well, it comes down to three words: Search Engine Optimisation (more commonly known as SEO)
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is an important digital marketing tool. It allows your website to increase its visibility online. That translates to more traffic and more opportunities to turn prospects into clients.
It’s also an integral tool in terms of brand awareness, relationship building, and positioning yourself as an authority in your industry.
SEO uses various techniques to help you move up a search engine’s ranking so that you begin to appear on the first page when anyone searches using keywords related to your service or industry. With over 3.5 billion searches performed every day on Google, customers and prospective customers are clearly using search engines to find what they need.
Why is SEO Important?
A staggering 67% of all people who perform a Google search only check the first page of Google when seeking out information. Meanwhile, as high as 92% of clicks happen on the first page of Google search results, leaving a mere 7% of clicks for all remaining search results pages.
That means it’s very important to work to improve your company’s ranking on key search criteria. If you want to be seen, you need to try to get to the first page of the search results. This will not only improve your visibility, it will help with the likelihood of people clicking through to your website, driving traffic onto it, and helping you get one step closer to converting clicks to customers.
Organic search is also a very big portion of a company’s website performance. Chances are, your clients aren’t finding you through business cards or email signatures. They’re seeking you out by Googling words related to the products or services they need. There are a few easy SEO strategies you can put into place to help grow your business and increase your online presence.
Are there benefits to SEO?
While SEO isn’t a magic bullet, it is an important part of a larger overall branding and marketing strategy, mostly because it dramatically improves your company’s visibility. Visibility is just one aspect of why SEO is important, however. There are many benefits to implementing SEO into the bigger marketing picture. For example:
It gives you and your business credibility
Whether you like it or not, searchers are making mental notes in terms of the rankings they see. Psychologically, they feel search results that are closer to the top are “better”. A higher ranking is like an extra vote of confidence from Google and people tend to click on the first few ranked results. At the end of the day, higher rankings translate to more credibility, whether it’s real or perceived.
It’s one of advertising’s best ROIs
SEO rewards those websites that are highly ranked – more than any other form of on- and off-line advertising. The reason? It allows your business to market itself to people who are looking for the products or services your business provides. In a sense, customers are already specifically searching for you. You just have to convince them that your business is the right one to choose, and a high ranking due to SEO does most of the work for you because, as mentioned above, your higher rank already lends you more credibility.
It gives you insights into your customers
SEO gives you an invaluable opportunity to learn more about your customers. By using Google Analytics to track your traffic, you’ll be able to unlock data and metrics to learn:
How they search
The language they use
The technology they use for browsing
The region they live in
The dates and times they are most active
These insights can help you make more informed marketing decisions, like when to offer sales and to whom, both on and offline.
With 91% of people checking reviews online before they buy, it won’t be long until virtually everyone is searching for products or services online. That means it’s more important than ever for your business to be easily located online as well. If people have a hard time finding you, they’ll end up spending their money with the competition.
As you can see, SEO is an important aspect to branding and marketing, and, as mobile usage rises, will continue to grow in importance. Making sure you’re visible allows you to source new customers and gives you an edge over the competition. More importantly, by ensuring you’re visible locally, you’ll be improving the chances of landing customers that are close at hand. At the end of the day, SEO continues to be an important part of an overall holistic digital marketing strategy.
Versatile Marketing takes great pride in their professional blog writing service, Deb and one of her Associates specialises in blog writing. Utilising your brief, we provide quality researching, blog topic brainstorming and planning and drafting a well constructed blog, with your key audience in mind. So, if your business needs assistance with blog writing , utilising some of the important SEO factors, book in a discovery meeting today.
Your beliefs become your thoughts.
Your beliefs become your thoughts.
Set a time block routine from the outset. Aim to keep your wake-up times the same as they were, consistency and routine is key. You’ll all cope better, when you know what and when you are doing each day. Even if it’s as simple as wake time, eat time, play time, learning time, exercise time.
Allocate some quiet time
5. Create age-appropriate boredom boxes
