Hey You SuperMom-Why You Need A Lifestyle Planner

You're a super mom with a busy, hectic lifestyle. You're trying to manage obligations to your family, have a successful career, and still enjoy leisure time. If your life is becoming too overwhelming, what you may need is a lifestyle planner. Lifestyle planning services are geared toward all areas of your life and can assist you with personal and professional needs.

 

Personal Lifestyle Planning Services

Your life is busy; you have obligations to work on while balancing family, work, and leisure activities. A personal planner can assist you with managing issues that come up with your marriage, children, and family relationships. Whether you need a mentor, personal counseling, or coaching, trained professionals can offer the advice you need and guide you in the right direction.

One of the most important aspects of lifestyle planning for individuals is retirement, and a financial advisor can help you manage your finances now, so you'll be ready for retirement when the time comes to stop working and enjoying a new lifestyle.

 

Management Planning Services For Professionals

Whether you own a company or are in a management position, career planning services can help your business run smoothly and be more productive. A professional planner can assist you with strategic planning, managing changes with company policy or personnel, and setting long-term goals.

Learn skills to communicate more efficiently with your management team, and the most productive methods of team building and increasing profits. A professional planner can help you to create a positive environment within your company and help you to develop leadership qualities.

 

Retirement Issues

When you're retiring, you should consider your lifestyle, your health, your finances, and what your retirement goals are. You have to make the best choice for your circumstances. When making the choice of when to retire, your finances are one of the biggest considerations.

If you have extended family such as grandchildren or elderly parents, will you be responsible for their financial needs? You have to think about possible medical needs when you retire, and whether you'll be living in your current community or moving to a different location to be closer to the family. A professional planner can advise you about relocating if health concerns are an issue.

 

Lifestyle Changes

How will your lifestyle change when you retire? You may be involved with community activities or have close friends that you socialize with frequently. If you move, your lifestyle will change. When you and your spouse are retiring at the same time, you'll be spending more time together, and you'll have to give a lot of thought to how you'll be spending your leisure time. Some people choose to travel, work on a part-time basis, or even start a new business. If you aren't sure about your choice, a lifestyle mentor can help you with all your options.

 

The Do-It-Yourself Option

If you want to handle all our financial and personal details without professional assistance, you need to identify your goals, challenges you face, and steps you need to meet all your goals, whether professional or personal. Consult a professional to get you started may be advisable. The main thing is to record all your personal, professional, and financial goals, and establish a timeline for reaching them.

 

 

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What’s The Difference Between A Luxury Planner And A Regular Planner?

Studies show that handwriting lists and plans are more effective than digitally tracking. To some, the idea of carrying around a monthly calendar brings up images of small, monthly calendars the size of a checkbook kept in mother's purses and used more for monthly reminders and appointments than anything else.

Life coaches and household organization experts agree that keeping a pen-and-paper record of goals, to-do lists, and appointments aide in reaching goals and finishing to-do lists much more quickly and effectively than those who do not.

Nowadays there are so many more options for planners that are a far cry from the small purse calendars of our mothers! Regular planners bought in box stores offer the standard monthly, weekly, or daily view on a page in a generic font and standard cover. However, the internet provides many specialty stores that offer luxurious planners that can be customized to each individual customer.

Luxury Planners

These luxury planners offer a range of choices and styles to truly customize and personalize each planner to the individual. High-end, or luxury planners, allow you to go section by section before ordering to create a layout that will work best for your life.

Choose to have your weekly layout start on a Sunday or Monday; add a timeline with thirty minute intervals to each day; or have the daily sections go horizontally or vertically. Many of these planners also give you the option to use a personal picture as the cover, or to choose from a wide-variety of standard colors and designs.

 

Function And Fashion

Not only are these planners much cuter on your arm than the former, standard issue black, customers can add options to help organize and plan out whatever path their life is on.

Being a mom on the go requires being able to organize and plan many aspects of your life easily. Luxury planners give you the ability to not only plan out short and long-term goals, but also financial planning and budgeting, sections to plan important events and vacations, as well as a section for grocery lists and meal planning.

All In One Planners

Speaking of grocery lists and meal planning; for the fitness freak, most of these planners offer the ability to help you reach your goals (whatever they may be). Try adding options like goal planning or nutrition tracking to the weekly layout in addition to monthly health check-ins and the ability to track working out, supplements/vitamins, water intake, and calories burned and consumed daily. Along with daily reminders to keep you focused and on target.

Want even more options? Today's planners are large enough to add even more personalization. Adding accessories such as dividers, pockets, and customized sticky notes create even more organization for your busy life. There are some great ideas for even more sections on each website. Make sure to check out all the various options available.

With every section (including the cover) able to be customized and in some cases even personalized, these cute planners are able to become an effective tool in your life rather than clutter in your purse or backpack.

 

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Want to Be a Digital Nomad? Start Planning Now!

Does the idea of running your office from the beach excite you? How about working while soaking in the atmosphere of the cobbled streets and historic buildings of Europe?

If either of these images excites you, then working as a digital nomad may be the right career move for you! Being a digital nomad means you get to embark on a life of adventure, travel, and flexibility. For many people, living this lifestyle means living their dream.

However, you can't skip right to sipping pina coladas at the beach. To become a digital nomad, you have to put in the work first.

 

So what exactly do you need to do to achieve this dream laptop lifestyle?

You need to start planning, right now. While the lifestyle is a dream, getting to the dreamy lifestyle is going to be tough. You need to be prepared to work hard, work smart, and make sacrifices.

Keep reading this article to learn what you need to do to make your nomad lifestyle a reality.

 

1. Find the Right Work For You

Unfortunately, not every profession is suitable for the nomadic lifestyle. For example, if you're a dentist, it's pretty much impossible for you to take this career on the road.

If you have a profession that you can't do from your laptop, you need to start thinking about a new career trajectory. Ideally, you'll also want one that can be done during anytime zone. Trying to pull off a 9-5 New York work hours while you're partying it up in Bali will not be fun.

Blogging, online marketing, and copywriting are a few avenues worth exploring.

 

2. Plan Your Attack

Once you have a career in mind, you need to plan your attack meticulously.

While those living the laptop lifestyle may seem carefree, most are actually intense planners.

You need to learn anything and everything you can about your planned destination. You should join online groups for expats and travelers, follow local news sites, investigate housing options, and stock up on any necessary medications.

 

3. Understand Visa Regulations

This step is the most critical, as you can get in huge trouble for violating visa regulations.

Before traveling to a country, make sure you know if you need to obtain a visa beforehand, if you can get one on arrival, or if you need one at all. You can look at the US State Department website for details or contact an embassy near you.

4. Be Open-Minded

No matter how much you read up on your chosen destination, you need to be prepared for some level of culture shock when you arrive.

Moving countries is entirely different than moving cities, so don't think you're an experienced traveler if you've moved a couple times domestically.

Whether it's a different political perspective or a different way of greeting people, you need to be prepared to embrace the new.

 

5. Take the Plunge

Once you have your laptop lifestyle all planned out, it's time to take the plunge! Get your tickets and go for it!

 

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How to Make Today Count

Are you the kind of a person that constantly worries about the future? Do you spend a lot of time wondering if your life is headed in the right direction? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. While it's perfectly normal to be concerned about your future, you should be careful not to worry too much that it ruins the day you are having today. It's possible to spend the day in such a way that its sets you up for a better tomorrow.

Today can have such a great influence on whether tomorrow will be a great day, and by making today count, you set yourself on a path to excellence. But right now is all that matters, not tomorrow or the day after. Here are a few ways to ensure that you are getting the most out of your day:

 

Be On Time

Be punctual in everything that you do. Being late results in anxiety and stress. It's not possible to seize the day with a cloud of stress and anxiety hovering around you. For all items on your to-do list — meetings, tasks, meals, etc. — set an end time. Make good use of each minute.

 

Prioritize

Nobody likes to float around aimlessly. Many people have a to-do list for their days. It doesn't have to be put down on paper or saved on your smartphone, but it is always in the back of your mind. Of these tasks, which ones are the most productive to you? Not all task are equal vis-à-vis productivity and effectiveness. Start with the most productive tasks and work your way down the list.

 

Positive Attitude

Starting your day with the right attitude can go a long way towards ensuring its success. Maintain the positive attitude throughout the day, and you are definitely going to have a good one. Approach each day's tasks right away, and you are off to a hot start.

 

Set Goals

Goal setting is a great way to ensure that you are not drifting through the day without a plan on how to spend it. Set goals. Leaving everything up to chance allows interruptions and distractions to dictate how the day goes. It sets you up for failure, and that doesn't result in a good day for anyone.

 

Be Strong, Yield

Not every day will go on as planned. There is always going to be forces beyond your control trying to throw you off your game. Yield and don't let anything knock you off track. If something unexpected interrupts your day, acclimatize and get back on course.

 

Show Gratitude

Be grateful, let someone else feel appreciated. It's easy to get caught up in our day-to-day activities and forget the important people in our lives. Taking the time to appreciate someone will make them happy and give you a great sense of productivity.

Make today count. Doing that gives you the best shot at everything you've ever dreamt of. It also helps you stay happy and avoid the stresses of life. Doing your best to make the most out of your day will also give you peace of mind and the energy to keep going on and on.

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How to Be a Better Leader

Leadership comes naturally to some people, but others must actively work hard to be an effective leader in different facets of their lives. If you have a managerial or executive role in your profession, you may be able to use SmartPlanner.com products in different ways to become a better leader. With a closer look at some of the most important tips that you can follow to become a better leader, you will see how this is possible.

 

Organize Your Time Properly

In order to lead others to achieve great things in their own positions, you must first and foremost be a good role model. This means that you must be well-organized and structure your use of time wisely. More than that, you must be efficient in all that you do so that you can tackle more tasks and devote ample time to everything that crosses your desk.

Keeping a detailed planner or schedule ensures that you never miss important meetings or overlook items that require your attention. More than that, you can better allocate ample time to each task so that you can focus more fully on it.

 

Delegate Tasks Efficiently

A leader certainly does not tackle all tasks in his or her department or business. Leadership is about delegating tasks to the right individuals so that the work gets done right and in an efficient manner. More than that, it also is about helping your team develop and refine their skills so that the individual and the business as a whole can benefit from it.

Planning and creating lists is important in efficient delegation, and your planner or calendar can assist with this process. For example, you can establish times for team meetings, determine which tasks you do not have time to handle properly yourself and more.

 

Be Available to Your Team

While you may need to plan numerous meetings and events in your calendar outside of the office, you also need to allow ample free time so that you are available to your team. This may mean that you schedule 15 minutes of free time after every meeting to chat individually with different team members.

It may mean that you schedule individual or small group lunches or coffee meetings to keep in touch and to foster their creativity for innovation in the business. You always need to be available to your team as needed if you want to become a better leader.

 

Improve Communication Skills

Communication is a two-way street, and it involves active verbal and written communication as well as the time to listen to or read communication sent to you. You need to give ample time to your email and text messages, and you also need to devote your undivided attention to your employees and team members when they are speaking to you face-to-face.

Many managers and executives unfortunately feel stressed and frazzled throughout the day because they are overbooked or because they failed to manage their time wisely. If you want to be a great leader in your organization, you must be able to manage time wisely so that you can improve your communication skills.

As you can see, there are many aspects of time management and planning that relate to your ability to be great leader. If you are interested in becoming a better leader, you may be able to make great leaps forward in each of these areas through the use of a planner or schedule. It can also be helpful to analyze your specific leadership weaknesses and to get feedback from your team if you want to improve yourself in the most effective ways possible.

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How to Achieve Balance in Your Life

Finding a healthy balance in life can be tricky. Everybody wants to know how to excel at their career without neglecting their family and personal life, but only a relatively small number of people actually succeed. Why? It turns out that there are a number of key principles that can help you maintain a healthy work life balance. Once you've mastered these principles, you'll have an easier time managing all your responsibilities without neglecting any of them or getting too stressed out. Here are six ways you can start balancing your life today.

 

Think about what balance means to you.

Ask yourself what your ideal life looks like. Do you want to leave your work at the office every day and just focus on your family when you come home? Do you want to work fewer hours so you feel less exhausted on the weekends? Define the kind of routine you want, so you have a target to aim at.

 

Set goals for yourself.

After you figure out how you want to improve your life, get specific. Come up with one or two concrete changes you want to make, such as spending an hour with your spouse every evening or saying no to working overtime on the weekends. Then think about how you'll make it happen. For instance, you might decide to give up your TV habit to spend more time with your spouse, or you might practice telling your boss you can't work this Saturday.

 

Be willing to say no.

Boundaries are the most essential component of maintaining a healthy work life balance. If you want to have time for all the important parts of your life, you've got to be willing to say no to the nonessential parts. This might mean turning down invitations or new projects when you're already booked, or it could mean cutting out time-wasting habits in favor of doing more meaningful things. Other people might test your boundaries, so be ready to defend them after you establish them.

 

Prioritize your life.

Make time for the most important things in your life by doing them first. Leave the nonessentials for later. If you find that you've got too many nonessential tasks vying for your attention, consider cutting back. Revisit your boundaries and see if you need to adjust them to give yourself more personal time. Whatever you do, don't tell yourself that you'll spend time with your family or work on your most important projects "later," or it might never happen.

 

Be realistic about what you can do.

If you're accustomed to trying to be a superhero, this can be a hard truth to swallow, but the reality is that no one can do it all. Know what you can do in a day without burning yourself out, and don't expect yourself to do more than that. Fitting all your biggest priorities into the day might mean that some smaller tasks go undone, and that's okay.

 

Know that maintaining balance is an ongoing process.

You'll get better at maintaining balance in your life as you practice it more, but the process may never become easy. New obligations will come up, new circumstances will arise, and you'll have to find ways to adapt to them. Achieving balance is a way of life, not a one-time event, so plan to adjust your lifestyle for the long haul.

Balancing your work life and your personal life might make you feel like a juggler trying to keep too many balls in the air, but if you're willing to prioritize and simplify your life, it is possible. Start implementing these ideas today, and you might find you have more time for all the things that matter to you, both in the office and at home.

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How To Work From Home More Efficiently

The idea of working from home sounds pretty attractive to the average person. You can work in your pajamas, work on your own schedule and be comfortable while you do it. While working from home does have its benefits, it can be distracting. Many people who make the decision to work at home are surprised at how difficult it is to get work done. If you're struggling to be productive from home, here are a few tips on how to get your work done.

 

Have a Designated Work Area

One of the best things you can do when it comes to working at home is to set up a designated work space. If you have a room that you can designate as your home office, then that is the most ideal solution. However, many people don't have that luxury. In that case, you can still try to setup some area in your house that is designated for your work. For example, get a desk and put it in the corner of a bedroom.

This will give you a place to keep your work away from the rest of the house. If you can shut the door and get away from outside distractions, that is the best case scenario.

 

Set a Work Schedule

Perhaps the most common issue that people have when they work at home is that there is no clear separation between work and home. They end up working many more hours when they work at home because they don't know when to turn it off. They get an email at night and spring into action to deal with it, even though they might not do that under normal circumstances. Set a work schedule and then stick to it. Your family will learn to respect those work hours as if you were at the office. However, you need to honor that schedule by not continuing to work late into the evening.

 

Take it Serious

To be an effective at home worker, you need to have the right mindset. You must treat this as if you are the office and being as professional as possible. If you don't take it seriously as if it were a real job, then you most likely won't have good results. Show up to work on time and get in the zone. If someone calls, make sure that you're in a quiet area and that they don't hear background noise from the home. Don't have the TV on in the background. Act as if you were right there in the office with your colleagues and it will start to feel like a real work environment.

 

Stay Plugged In

If you are able to, stay plugged into your regular work environment. For instance, you may want to go into the office periodically and work with your colleagues. Attend meetings in the office whenever possible. If you mix it up and go into the office sometimes, it will help in maintaining relationships with your coworkers.

It will also help to remind you that you're part of a team and not feel alienated. Some people that start working from home forget what it's like to work in an office environment around other people. Going to networking events is another good way to develop relationships and stay plugged into the business community in your area.

Overall, working at home can be extremely productive and effective if you approach it correctly. By following some of these tips, you'll be able to get more work done and do it in an environment that you feel the most comfortable in at all times.

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Why Do You Need A Life Planner?

Back in elementary school, you probably had a little book where you would write down all of your assignments for the night. However, you're not in fourth grade anymore, and life has become significantly more complicated. As a result, you're in need of life planners that help you to keep track of all areas. 

Life as a Whole

Life is more than just assignments that are due on certain dates. While you may very well find that you still have due dates as you move into the world of jobs, those deadlines aren't the only ones you have to keep track of. For example, you may have a major project at work due on the same date as the RSVP for your best friend's wedding. Also, you need to pick up the dry cleaning before taking the kids to soccer practice. Instead of having only one item listed in your book, life planners help you to take control of them all. 

Multiple Goals

Your goals also change as you grow. For example, you may want to lose a certain number of pounds, save up enough money to purchase your dream home, plan a tropical vacation with your friends and start to incorporate more healthy foods into your diet. Keeping track of all these tasks in one place is jarring. Opting for these planners will allow you to get better at goal setting in multiple areas of life. You do not have to mash them all together in one planner.

Separation

The major goal here is to have a different planner for each area of your life that you are trying to improve upon. Therefore, you can keep all of the information related to your wedding planning in one planner and all of the details connected to your financial goals in another. Once you start to get organized in this fashion, you may even change the way that you approach your goals. Instead of trying to tackle every thing at once, you may assign a few days per week to yourself to work on fitness goals and others to work on career plans.

 

Plans

Part of the problem with setting goals is that you often know what you want, but you do not know how to reach them. Opting for these planners allows you to start resolving that issue. When you use these planners, you can break your long-term goals down into reasonable pieces. The very way that you look at goals now may be destroying your ability to achieve them. For example, you may set really lofty goals for yourself that are virtually impossible for even the most productive person to achieve. On the other hand, you may have specific and useful goals, but you don't remember about what you need to do each day to meet them. This type of planner helps guide you through.

 

Seeing Success

Another struggle that individuals encounter is that they cannot see the little successes that create a major part of the overall goal. When you start to plan with precision, you also can begin to track the progress that you make. Even if you see that you have made just a small amount of progress, that can provide you with motivation. You know you can get this far, and you are eager to see where else you can go.

Obtaining a life planner is a way to change so many areas of your existence for the better. You get the opportunity to evaluate where you currently are, create a strategy for reaching where you want to be and take pride in the progress you make along the way.

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How Decluttering Your Office Can Help You Get More Done

In today’s busy and fast-paced world, it’s important to monitor your habits in order to stay on top of things. Seemingly small behavioral changes can greatly impact your level of productivity. Your work environment plays a huge part in your attitude and efficiency, and one of the ways to make this work in your favor is to keep a clean, clutter-free work space.

Decluttering your office can promote a better sense of self-organization. Each piece of clutter on your desk is attached to some sort of thought or experience, meaning that clutter is distracting. When you see these reminders sitting in your office, they begin to distract you with unrelated thoughts, and ideas. As a result, they pull attention away from your work and put you into a more scattered frame of mind.

The more visual cues you surround yourself with, the more topics will be battling the task at hand for your consideration. The more thinly your attention is spread, the more overwhelmed you’ll feel and the less efficient you'll be. You may find yourself switching between too many tasks, unable to keep focus and finish what you’ve started. Clearing out the clutter from your work space will streamline your focus and direct your energy into your projects far more effectively.

 

Benefits of Decluttering

On top of lessening the number of distractions around you, cleaning clutter out of your office can also help maintain a mindset of efficiency and organization. People use their environment to express themselves, but it can backfire if they’re constantly looking at messy surfaces that exhibit a lack of organization.

The work environment that you put yourself in will tell both others and yourself what your work ethic and efficiency level are. If your desk is covered in clutter and misplaced papers, then it communicates that you don’t know how to handle your items or workload. Making sure to surround yourself with a clean, clutter-free work space each day will remind you that you are already on the road to being more efficient. If your desk is neatly arranged, then your thoughts and work will be more organized as well. Keeping a clean, streamlined work space will help reinforce the knowledge and belief that you are an organized worker, and will motivate you to set the bar higher for yourself.

 

Finding Things Easier

Alongside helping you feel less mentally cluttered, removing excess items from your desk will simply make things easier to find. When items and papers pile up in your office, it becomes far easier to misplace things, mix up assignments, or lose important memos. Missing deadlines or losing assignments and other materials will take a serious toll on your state of mind and your reputation as a worker.

A simple move like removing excess clutter from your desk can do wonders to make you more capable and respectable in the eyes of your peers. When you clear your desk of all but the essentials, far less time will be wasted each day searching for papers, notes, and pens. Instead, you’ll be able to devote this newfound time to making your ambition reach further. Reducing the amount of clutter in your work area will make you more productive simply because you’ll waste less time.

Not only will cleaning up your office reduce the number of items you have to look through to find what you need—it will bring about beneficial changes in your mindset and attitude as well. Streamlined work spaces represent a streamlined thought process, so clearing away excess items will do wonders to help you increase your efficiency and productivity.

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Things To Look For In Your Next Business Planner- Goal Setting, Nutrition, Social Calendar, Time Management Functions

Your ability to properly plan out your day in many ways is critical to your ability to lead the most productive and efficient life possible. As a successful professional, you may currently be looking for an exceptional business planner to assist you with keeping track of personal and business tasks and responsibilities. However, with many types of basic and luxury planners available, you may not know which is the right one of you to use to organize your life. These are some of the top features you should look for in your next planner.

 

Time Management Features

The most basic reason why you need to invest in a new planner is to organize and keep track of your different responsibilities, events and tasks. This may include everything from business meetings and seminars to the kids’ sporting events, date nights with your spouse, neighborhood block parties and more. You ideally will be able to manage your personal and business life together in one planner so that you can more easily keep track of everything you need to do in one location and so that there is no unfortunate overlap. After all, the last thing you want is to find yourself double-booked because you have two different planners.

 

Goal Setting and Tracking Features

The most successful individuals are those who create a list of goals they want to accomplish. These may be short-term goals, such as increasing your savings account balance to a certain level or losing ten pounds. They may also be long-term goals, such as earning a certification that is needed to obtain a promotion at work. Luxury planners may give you a great place to create goals as well as to track your progress toward achieving those goals. 

 

Health and Fitness Planning Features

You can also find life style planners that incorporate features for health and nutrition, workouts, water intake and more. As busy as you are in your personal and business life, you need to take time to care for yourself properly. You can use the time management feature of your planner to schedule ample time to exercise throughout the week, but you also need to pay attention to your caloric and sugar intake, if you took your medications or vitamins and more.

Financial Management Features

Regardless of the field that you work in, your personal finances likely occupy a fair amount of your time and attention each day. This may include paying bills, monitoring your investment account balances and more. Luxury planners include spaces for your budget, expense tracking, meetings with your financial adviser and more. You must devote ample time to your finances each week if you want to succeed in this area of your life. After all, your bills and accounts will simply not take care of themselves. Look for a planner that incorporates financial management features in it if you want to enjoy the best overall results from your scheduling and planning efforts. 

While you may have initially been looking for a business planner to assist with keeping track of your professional activities and plans, you can see that it is best to purchase comprehensive life style planners that allow you to fully organize all aspects of your life in one neat, concise way. The Fancy Pants Daily Planner System is a high-end planner that incorporates all of these features as well as several others to give you the most comprehensive scheduler available. You understandably want to improve the management of your life, and this planner helps you to accomplish this goal. Available in several stylish colors, this six-ring binder has multiple inserts and add-ons available to help you customize it as desired. This is truly the ultimate organizational system that is ideal for busy professionals.

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What Kind of A Leader Are You? Defining Your Leadership Style.

In the business world, leaders are extremely difficult to find and even harder to replace. Leaders help set the tone of the organization and play a vital role in setting an example for other employees. While leaders share some common qualities, not all leaders act in the same manner. There are a few different types of leadership and all of them can be effective when applied correctly. What type of leader are you?

Delegating Leader

One of the most common types of leadership is delegation. With this type of leader, the individual delegates most tasks to subordinates. The level of delegation can vary significantly from one leader to the next. For example, one leader might delegate tasks to a higher level like putting someone in charge of a department and letting them handle it. Then another leader delegates even low level tasks like replying to emails or taking phone calls.

How you delegate tasks as a leader can have an impact on how your employees see you. For instance, if you angrily demand that someone does a task for you immediately, it can cause resentment and problems down the road. By comparison, if you present the facts to someone and then ask them what they think should be done, you may gain their respect and they will volunteer to complete a task without having to be told to do it. Many great leaders don't have to demand things to be done because they are great communicators and give their employees respect.

Do it All Leader

On the other end of the spectrum is the leader that wants to do everything himself. This type of leader essentially wants control of every detail that they are responsible for. They often have the attitude that "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." They may have reached this conclusion after trying the delegation approach and being let down time and again by subordinates. In some cases, they are just private individuals that like to do their work and not get tied up in "office politics." Regardless of the reason they like to do it all themselves, they often work long hours, and never feel like they have everything done.

A Healthy Mix

While both of the types of management listed above can work in the right environment, it's typically best to have a healthy mixture of both types of leader. Instead of always delegating everything or always doing everything by yourself, try mixing it up. As a manager, it's typically a good idea to delegate lower level items that someone else in your organization can do effectively while keeping the higher level tasks for yourself. Usually, you made it to a leading role because you're a good decision maker. Because of this, it's in the company's best interest if you are the one making the important and critical decisions while your team is doing the tasks that have to be completed. Many leaders keep the mindset that got them promoted initially. They think that they have complete a certain amount of work in a day to be valuable. In reality, it may be much more valuable for them to spend time planning and thinking about the proper course of action.

Regardless of where you find yourself as a leader, it's important to find the leadership style that fits you best. If you are constantly going against the grain and trying to be someone you're not, it will cause conflict. When a leader identifies that perfect fit in management methods, it can be an extremely powerful thing for the organization. Some leaders lead startups, some lead non-profits. If you want to build a brand that impresses the world, you need to elevate your leadership abilities to draw in top level talent.

Want to be a great leader? You must be willing to sacrifice and grind.

Check out our related posts:

Work Life Balance

Network Life A Boss

Get More Done At Work

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/what-kind-of-a-leader-are-you-defining-your-leadership-style

What Does It Mean To Hustle In Your Business?

Hustle.

You hear the term thrown around online all the time, especially on social media outlets. There's a lot of hype out there – a lot of people talking about it, sharing memes and making YouTube videos.

Take Gary Vaynerchuk, for instance. The guy is known as a hustler, a go-getter and a social media mentor to millions. You see D-Rock following him around all day with a video camera and documenting his daily business activities, and you see and hear tons of great motivational soundbites in Gary's videos, social posts and keynote speeches.

So you have an idea of what it looks like for Gary Vee, but how does that apply to you in your line of work? Are you supposed to send out tweets and make selfie videos all day? Should you drop everything and spend all of next week trying to figure out how the hell Snapchat works?

What Does Hustle Look Like In Your Business?

You are not Gary Vee.

You are a different person in a different industry with a different type of business. Don't just jump on the bandwagon and try to be another Gary Vee wannabe, trying to mentor people and throw around the F-word all day to get some likes and retweets. The world has enough of those already.

Instead, you need take a broader look at how people like Gary succeed and then adapt those same principles to your own business. What can you learn from them that you can apply to your own work and life right now?

Here are three solid ideas that you need to put into practice immediately to squeeze the most juice out of your own day and to reach the levels of success that you've been dreaming about.

1. Do The Work

 

What is your business all about? What are you selling? What valuable product, information or service are you offering people that makes them want to throw money at you? What really matters in your day-to-day business? What is the most valuable use of your time?

If you're struggling to get your business off the ground – and if you're trying to do it on a shoestring budget – then you need to get really focused about what is necessary to the success of your business and what is not necessary. A lot of people waste their time on things that don't really contribute to their bottom line.

You need to single out the thing that matters most in your business, and then you need to do that for 40-80 hours per week or more for months and even years on end without quitting.

Do you think Gary Vee became a success overnight? He only recently became popular in the media, but he was grinding for 18 hours a day for several years before anyone had ever heard of him. If you're not willing to put in the hours – and the years – then you've already failed.

2. Fail More

 

Speaking of failure, you need more of that. You need to fail more. If you're not failing at anything, then you must not be trying anything new. If you want to achieve a higher level of success than where you're at right now, then you need to push out of your comfort zone and start trying some new things that can take your business to the next level.

But again, you need to do this in a way that is authentic for you and that fits your business.

3. Cut Toxic People Out Of Your Life

There's an old saying that goes, "If you want to soar with the eagles, then you've got to stop scratching around in the dirt with the chickens."

 

This might sound a little bit harsh, but there's a good chance that you've got some friends and family members with a loser mentality. They're always complaining about how hard life is and about how they never get a break. They're always making excuses for their lack of success in life, and they're always pointing fingers at somebody else.

If you have an idea for a business or a new product, they'll be the first ones to tell you that it won't work.

You need to spend less time with people like that and more time with people who are already successful and who can teach you and inspire you to push for greatness.

So there you have it – three tips to help you build your business and rise to the top of your field. But don't try to be somebody else. Embrace your uniqueness and hustle in ways that make sense for you.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/what-does-it-mean-to-hustle-in-your-business

Learn to delegate In order to grow your business (benefits of leveraging other peoples talents)

Building a business requires a very different skill set than growing a business. When building a business, people often have to do a wide range of things themselves that they can later hire someone else to do - if they choose to. Building a business requires mastering a wide variety of skills to a certain degree.

But people who build businesses can often fool themselves into thinking they've mastered something that they are actually only adequate at in comparison to someone who actually specializes in that skillset. Here are 4 reasons why business owners often don't delegate and why delegation is important if you genuinely want to grow your business.

1. Saving the best for themselves

Very often there are certain plum jobs that the boss gets to decide who does, which they often reserve for themselves. Bosses who do this are losing out on several important opportunities. Employees will go above and beyond for bosses that go above and beyond for them, but by reserving plum assignments for themselves, bosses are setting the example of looking out for #1 and that is the example employees will also follow. Instead of reserving the best jobs for themselves, they can delegate the best jobs as a reward for a job well done in other areas.

2. Getting out of the "master" mindset

When you were building your business, you probably had to spend a great deal of time learning, researching and to some degree mastering certain skillsets that didn't come naturally to you. Because of the time, energy and effort you put into mastering that skillset, it can be natural to want to get the most "bang for your buck" so to speak, by continuing to do those tasks or set of responsibilities long after there is someone else available to do them that you could easily delegate them to. Delegation, however, frees you up to focus on the thing that you actually do much better, which will go far further towards building your business than continuing to do the things you are not naturally gifted at.

3. Lack of trust that tasks will be performed effectively

Too many times we can fall into the trap of believing that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This may be true of many things, but a boss literally can't do everything themselves - that's what they have employees for. While it is important to have a certain number of things done up to a certain standard, bosses also have to learn that not everything has to be done their way to be done effectively. Because of how hugely important the ability to delegate is, it's also important to have well-trained employees that can take on important tasks and do them well. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to train your employees well so you can delegate almost any assignment in a crisis and know it will be handled effectively and efficiently.

4. Fear of someone taking over your business

No matter what position you are in, there is always someone younger and hungrier coming up behind you. Long is the list of founders of companies that have eventually been squeezed out of their own company by a former subordinate. However, no matter where you are, there is always room for advancement, whether it's expanding to another location, moving into a higher position or even building another business entirely.

While it might not be your ideal plan, if you built one company, chances are good you can always build another. When you train your employees thoroughly and are capable of delegating any of your own tasks to them, you free yourself up to move forward knowing there will be someone well-qualified to take your place.

Want to delegate more effectively? Pick up one of our planners built for entrepreneurs just like you.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/learn-to-delegate-in-order-to-grow-your-business-benefits-of-leveraging-other-peoples-talents

Wantrepreneur. How To Go From Being A Wanter To A Doer, simply by writing down your goals

Many people have wonderful business ideas floating around in their head, but very few people actually act on those ideas. Entrepreneurs are individuals who take risks, and they work hard to turn their dream of a great business concept into a profitable reality. Wantrepreneurs, on the other hand, are not doers.

These are individuals who fail to act on their ideas and who often miss out on a great opportunity in life as a result. If you are a wantrepreneur, you may be wondering what steps you need to take to move beyond your current state and to become a successful entrepreneur. The solution is as simple as writing down your goals. A closer look will reveal how writing down your goals can help you to get out of your stuck position and to achieve those goals.

You Are Compelled to Take Action

An idea is something that may float in and out of your head from time to time. It is not something you focus on, and it may not even seem real to you. A written goal is printed in black and white. By simply writing down a goal on paper, you make it real. You bring your thought into reality. You may look at your written goal several times per day or more, and it may become more real to you with each passing day. You may eventually write down an even more detailed plan, and you may revise your goal numerous times until it seems perfectly thought out. Eventually, your written goal compels you to create a full business plan.

It Creates a Path for You to Follow

When an idea is floating in your head, you understandably do not know the next step to take to bring your goal to life. Should you get a business license, find financing, develop a product or do something else? By writing down your goal formally, you can then list the steps that you need to take to bring your goal to life. You are essentially creating a startup business plan that can guide you through the entire entrepreneurial process. You do not have to feel lost or confused because you have a clear-cut and well-researched planning sitting right in front of you.

It Helps You to Decide What to Do Next

Some people get started on their business without a written plan, but they often get stuck with bumps in the road. They may lose track of what they are doing, or they may miss an important step that can smooth the way. When your goal is written down clearly, you can easily determine what you need to do next. You can even read ahead in your written plan so that you are fully prepared to take the next steps without delay. More than that, because your goals are in writing, you can cross off the various steps on your to-do list as you complete them. This can give you a sense of accomplishment that motivates you throughout the process. The startup process can be long and daunting, and your written plan gives you the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you are stuck in the mode of being a wantrepreneur, you can easily sit down today and write down your goals. Your initial goal may be fairly limited, but you can expand upon your goal by writing down more details in the days and weeks to come. Eventually, your plan will be so complete that you feel compelled to act on it. Now is the perfect time to take the first step toward becoming an entrepreneur.

Ready to take action? Great. Now order one of our planners that can assist you in sticking to your goals and achieving them!

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/wantrepreneur-how-to-go-from-being-a-wanter-to-a-doer-simply-by-writing-down-your-goals

Should You Hire Remote Staff or In Person Employees? Pros and Cons

Congratulations! You have finally accomplished what each and every small business hopes to aspire to, and hire staff to guide daily operations. However, there is still a big question to answer before you start hiring. Do you hire remote freelancers or in-person employees? Lucky for you, this guide of the top pros and cons for each can help solve that question once and for all.

Hiring Remote Staff

Pros:

- You have more flexibility to rehire. Firing or replacing a self-employed freelancer is much easier than an in-person employee. Plus, they’ll be more understanding since that’s what they signed up for in the person. Say goodbye to filling out complicated paperwork and the awkward last days that come with it.
- You can save money since you don’t need to offer them high-quality benefits or a commuted salary.
- They are in charge of getting their own licenses and permits so you don’t have to.
- You won’t need to train them since the one you hire should have plenty of experience beforehand.

Cons:

- Since their work is done under their own business name, there is less of a chance they will promote your business or brand.
- Unless you have already drafted an agreement between your contractor, all the work they do will not be owned by you.
- A self-employed remote staff is usually hired short term, so there is less of a chance this is a worker you will spend a long time with.
- Since you can’t exactly monitor what they do from their location, you may lose some sort of control on the way you operate.

Hiring In Person Employees

Pros:

- Your employees will feel like they are part of the team, which will boost morale and job satisfaction.
- Hourly wages are often less than freelancers because an in person employee has more job security.
- Your business will always be fully staffed, even when your workload grows. If you depend on remote staff and freelancers, they may not be available every time you need them.
- You can delegate a lot of tasks that you do not have time to complete yourself.
- You will spend less time training staff since there will be fewer new faces coming in and out of your business. Your in person employees know how you like things to be completed.
- If you choose to go on vacation, you can relax knowing your business is safe in the hands of a trusted few.

Cons:

- With full-time employees, you may be required to provide benefits like health insurance or paid vacation time.
- You are required to pay their salaries on a regular schedule, even if your business is having a downturn. This will mean that you need to have a savings account to cover their salaries, should this occur.
- In person employees require more paperwork to be done.
- Depending on where you live, you may be responsible for any training or licensing requirements needed by your employees.

So Which Is Better?

There is no clear answer to this question as it all depends on your situation and the job you need to be completed. Check out our post on why outsourcing is a better value than in house, in most circumstances. If you have a short-term position open that you do not see yourself needing in the future, a remote worker or independent contractor would be best. If you need someone for the long term or someone to handle face to face communications, an in person employee would be better. It all depends on your and your business’s needs.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/should-you-hire-remote-staff-or-in-person-employees-pros-and-cons

Want to make the second half of 2017 better than the first? Consider writing your goals down daily.

There's nothing quite as rewarding as feeling that you're in a state of perpetual progress. Whether you're realizing a personal dream or advancing in the professional world, knowing that you're moving forward can generate a feeling of deep satisfaction while also boosting your self-esteem.

Even if you're happy with what you've accomplished during the first half of 2017, you're probably thinking about strategies you could implement to make the second half of the year even better. If this is the case, it's important to note that setting goals can be an incredibly effective way to make it happen. Read on to learn how to write and realize your goals so you can lead a more productive, positive life:

Why Goal Setting Is Important

Setting goals is important for many reasons. First, doing so causes you to focus in on what you're attempting to accomplish. It also empowers you to start thinking about what steps you need to take to realize your specific goal. The role that goal setting plays in increasing the likelihood of realizing an objective is undeniable. As noted in Inc., people who create goals for themselves are more successful. The article also indicates that individuals lose 30% of their performance and capacity potential when they don't focus on their goals.

Another great benefit of setting goals regularly is that it helps you lead a more orderly, organized life. Unfortunately, studies show that the majority of people do not plan. This oversight is the culprit for a wide range of challenges that individuals experience in life, including financial complications and health issues. By simply becoming a purposeful planner who writes down goals and focuses on realizing them, you can get on the road to leading a more structured, productive life.

How To Optimize Your Goals

Once you recognize the great value to be found in setting goals, you may be ready to get the process underway. There are several strategies you can deploy to make the most of the goal setting process. One is making your goals SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-specific

Making your goals SMART is important for several reasons. By making your goal specific, you can really zero in on a certain issue and resolving it. Having a measurable goal means that you'll be able to analyze your activity and judge results according to quantifiable data. This process will prevent any ambiguity or vagueness that might have existed regarding your efforts and their outcomes. Also note that making your goal realistic is important because if it is too challenging, you may become discouraged by your inability to realize the objective.

In addition to making your goals SMART, make sure that you place them in a visible region of your living or work space. This step is immensely powerful because by keeping the goal in eyesight, you'll be constantly thinking about it. Once your mind starts moving in this direction, you're more likely to devote mental energy to the realization of the objective.

Don't Delay: Start Creating Goals Today!

Individuals who want to realize their personal dreams and professional visions should know that setting goals is a great way to make it happen. Use the information and ideas presented in this quick reference guide to remain on the road to goal construction and realization!  Ready to start taking action and writing your goals down? Check out our line up of planners.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/want-to-make-the-second-half-of-2017-better-than-the-first-consider-writing-your-goals-down-daily

When Should You Hire Employees as a Business Owner?

Knowing when to hire employees as a business owner can be tough, especially for a startup. Many owners opt to do the work themselves rather than get involved with the expenses that come along with training, insurance, payroll and the like. The truth is, however, that businesses do need to have workers within the establishment at certain times. The following are five signs that a business owner needs to hire employees and can no longer function as a one-man or one-woman show:

The Owner Works 29 Hours a Day

One key indicator of the need to hire some workers is when the boss does not have any time for anything, including sleep. Overworking oneself is counterproductive because it decreases the quality of the products and makes for shoddy customer relations. Additionally, the owner may become cranky and display an unusually short temper that doesn't work well with business partners and prospects. It's okay for a business owner to pass some of the burdens to another person or entity. Workers can serve that purpose. They can help with all the tasks that come down on an owner every day.

Demand Is Overwhelmingly High

Another sign that the business needs workers is when sales start scaling up, and the demand for the product requires more production time than the current "team" has. The owner should consider that a positive occurrence and hire a team quickly to meet those business demands.

Projects Are Incomplete

Incomplete projects are a tell-tale sign that the owner needs to make a move. It's possible for someone to have so many things to do that he finishes none of them. Hiring workers will allow the delegation process to begin.

Stress Rears Its Ugly Head

Owner stress is a sign of a severe need to add some flavor to the establishment. Stress is unhealthy for anyone, but it can be devastating for a company owner who has no workers to take his place. Stress can cause ugly physical symptoms such as migraine headaches, fatigue, heartburn and the like. The emotional consequences are heavy, as well. A strong workforce acts as the support system for the owner. With a team in place, the leader can decide which issues to deal with and what to leave with other people who may be more suitable for the task.

Customers Are Leaving Because of Neglect

Finally, departing customers is a surefire indication that a job fair needs to occur. No matter how good a service or product may be, people still want above-average customer service in their package. They will find a provider that wild give them that if they don't receive it from the current provider. Ideally, an owner would look for workers before the business scaling climbs to an overwhelming level, and he is unable to meet consumer needs.


Many tools are available that can help to cut the expenses of hiring and training workers. An owner can find an amazing team without putting the business into debt. That's totally possible. One way to cut expenses on hiring a staff is to team up with a recruiting agency and get all of the hiring tasks in one bundle.

A recruiting agency is responsible for posting ads, screening the applicants, interviewing the prospective employees and onboarding them in some cases. All the owner needs to do it express his desires about the type of workers that he wants, and the recruiting agency can seek exactly that. Once the owner finds dedicated, high-quality team members, he can rest and feel confident that the business will run smoothly on its own.

So you can hire locally, or you can hire remote workers all as w2 employees. Or alternatively, you could read our post about outsourcing either to a company or an individual.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/when-should-you-hire-employees-as-a-business-owner