Every business has a story. Afterall that is what sets each business apart and makes them unique. You can look at any two businesses and they will never have the same story. Your business story tells others about what your business looks like, why you do the things you do and how. It tells others all the important things so that they can truly understand your business as you do.

When we start our business, we have this vision in our head. We know what we want to do, how we are going to do it and why. Some take the time to write out a business plan, while others jump in with both feet figuring that they will “wing it” as they go. We spend a lot of time as business owners reading about the importance of business planning and many financiers and investors would never give you money without being able to see a solid business plan. So, if you took the time to write this plan when you started your business, have you ever taken it farther? Do you update your plan as your business changes? Have you written out your policies, your procedures, your BUSINESS STORY?

Your business story should be written in such a format that anyone can read it and step into your shoes. They should know your purpose and your vision, together with the steps necessary to achieve that vision. Here are five key ingredients to include in your business story:

1. Description of your target market, your niche and the products or services you provide and why. Let the reader get a feel for exactly what your clients look like, act like and desire and what products or services you deliver to fulfill their needs and desires.
2. Your visions, goals, hopes and dreams for the future; the exact steps you hope to take your business in to achieve these dreams.
3. The policies you have put into place to protect your clients, your products and services and most importantly your business reputation.
4. The procedures you follow each day to achieve those successes including all the behind the scenes tasks, your sales process and your formula for creating the top notch products and services you provide.
5. Your no-fault, absolute, make everything better, disaster recovery plan, a.k.a. your contingency plans. Those things that you will put into place to make sure that anytime there is a “hiccup” in your business it will go unnoticed by your clients.

Creating your business story is easy you just have to look within your heart and your head and it will almost write itself. Now you just have to set aside the time to write it out. This is important and you won’t realize how important until one day you face that obstacle and say “If only I had written my story!!”

Every day we spend so much time building and maintaining our business and maintaining a balance at home that we spend very little time on ourselves. I believe that one of the best ways to relieve your stress is to take time for yourself. Find that one thing that you consider a “treat” for yourself and reward yourself each and every day. No matter whether you feel you have had a great day or a “not-so-great” day, reward yourself nonetheless. For me, it is a warm bubble bath every night and time to read a book. I allow myself a half hour each night to soak in a warm tub and read. It might take me weeks to read a book, but I look forward each day to that time. It gives me something to look forward to each day and motivates me through the tough times!!

Some ideas of ways to treat yourself are:

- massage
- time for a hobby or interest
- time to watch TV
- a walk or run
- exercise
- writing

I could go on and on, but the underlying trick is to find that one thing that is going to make you feel great and rejuvenate you to make it through the day!!

I have been feeling very overwhelmed lately and took sometime to organize where everything goes. The important thing for me to remember now is to put things back in their proper places because it is amazing how quickly things can become disorganized. Here is an article I found that I thought was excellent and wanted to share. I know that it talks about WAHM (Work at Home Moms), but I feel the information can be easily utilized by anyone running an office from their home:

For any work at home mom it is important to be organized so that things can run in a businesslike manner and yet remain relatively stress free. To avoid being swamped with work or overwhelmed with laundry, I will cover some organization tips for Wahms that I have discovered over time have helped me to work better from home.

Establishing Business Hours
There are benefits to having set work times each day. First, you will become more consistent with your business. You will work more efficiently when you have a set start and stop time, just as you would with any job outside the home. When your time is managed you will no doubt reduce distractions such as emails, chatting on the phone, watching TV.

There is less chance of you stopping at a moments notice to do things like laundry or doing errands. With set hours you will be more focused on your work. Family and friends will learn to understand that, just like any other job, you are available to them only at certain times.

Delegating
Sure, you could just do everything yourself becoming stressed and frustrated, what with your new business, the laundry, housework, cooking, shopping, etc. Or you could do the wise thing and delegate some tasks. Get the kids to fold the laundry, do some vacuuming, and pick up after themselves. You might ask your husband to cook dinner a couple nights.

Things may not be getting done the way you would do them, but they are getting done. In my home, together we keep on top of the basics and then I take a few hours on the weekend and do a good cleaning.

By sharing in these chores you will find that you may have a little extra time to do some work on your business and will feel pleasantly rested.

Organize Your Home
By this I mean, your entire house. It may take some time to do it all, but your efforts will be well worth it. The best way to tackle this job is to do it in sections, rather than diving in and doing it all in one day or weekend.

Start at the desk where you will be working, get rid of or donate anything that you do not need. Find a place for the things that you will be using. This way, during your working hours, you will not have to stop whatever it is you are doing because you can’t find something.

Once your desk is organized, move onto something else, doing the same. You might want to go to the home improvement store or dollar store and get yourself some shelving, bins or cabinets to put things in. Now when you find something where it shouldn’t be you can easily put it in its storage space.

Organization for Wahms takes time and work. Your organizational system will improve in time. Together you and your family can make your home run more smoothly, allowing you to concentrate more closely on your work when needed. You will discover that when you are organized, your business, as well as your home life will blossom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Connie McKenzie is a full-time work at home mom who devotes herself to doing the things she loves to do most. Family, friends, volunteer work, writing articles and affiliate marketing. Learn how real women run a home business, get your Free WAHM-IT! The Masters Course.

One of the best things I did for my business was to establish boundaries. These are those items that establish the line between personal and business. For many their business is full of gray areas and this often leads to confusion between them and their clients.

In order to establish boundaries, one must first know what is important to them in order to maintain that true balance between work and life that so many of us are trying to achieve. The first step to doing this is to sit down and really figure out what is important to you and to your business. Here are some areas to look at:

• What is office time? What is family time?
• What are you willing to do? What are you not willing to do
• What would your perfect business look like? What would your perfect family life look like? How do they interconnect?
• What rules do you have to keep personal and business separate?

The next step is to sit down with your family and get their opinion. What are their expectations from you as a business person and what are they NOT willing to “sacrifice”?

The final and perhaps hardest task is to respect the boundaries that you set. If you determine that you will work while your children are at school only then ensure that this is when you work and make it very productive time. If you determine that you will not enter your office after business hours do whatever it takes to make that happen.

The best way to do this is with the aid of a boundary letter. This letter outlines for your clients exactly where the boundaries of your business are. I give my “boundary” letter to each and every client right after our initial consultation and/or with my Proposal. The best thing about a boundary letter is that is sets out my clear expectations from the very beginning and lets my clients know what I am and am not willing to do. For some this has meant the difference between working with me or not, but in the long run I have come to realize that if a potential client does not respect my boundaries then they are not the client for me.

Come back tomorrow and I will outline for you the ten areas you should consider when creating your boundary letter. I am sure that once you are clear with not only yourself, but with your family and clients as to what you consider to be the balance you need between work and life, you will be on your way to creating a truly thriving business.

The other day I wrote an article about how I was clearing the clutter and today I found an excellent blog post that you should really check out all about clearing the clutter …

Declutter – Organising Queen

Wow!! That is about all I can say about my life right now. I feel like I am in a whirlwind and don’t know how to make it stop. What an appropriate day to be talking about taking the “manic” out of your business and your Monday when I feel like this is something I so, so, so need to get under control.

My husband and I, both self-employed have taken some time to really review our businesses, our lives and our lifestyle over the past few weeks. As you know being in business is like taking a very bumpy roller coaster ride … sometimes you are up … and sometimes you are down. As both of our businesses are still new, we are both working very hard to grow them and fulfill the dreams we have for our businesses. Some days are easier than others.

As of late I have been feeling like I am unable to focus and get a move on to making this happen – to fulfilling my “big dreams”. My mind has been feeling very “cluttered” and when I took some time to realize why it has been so hard to focus I realized that I was stressed over a number of things in my life.

As I stated in a previous post, my business recently took a downturn and now this downturn has become evident in other areas of our life and in particular our finances. This left me with three options …

Option #1 – Go out and get a part time job until my business gets over this downturn. The downside of this is that I am unable to devote all my time to growing my business, putting my plans into place and coming back bigger and stronger. This would perhaps help with the finances, but would it still allow me to devote the time I need to go forward with my business? It also might mean less time with my children, which is a sacrifice I am not willing to make …. this is the reason we are self-employed is to be there for our children when they need us!!

Option #2 – Ride it out and worry about “fixing” my finances later. This is not really my style since I have always been one that believes you do not “borrow from John to pay Peter”, but sometimes you have to do, what you have to do.

Option #3 – Take an inventory and see where you can cut corners until this ride smooths itself out.

So, all things considered, we decided together, my husband and I, that Option #3 was our best bet. In taking our inventory we decided that we were still living the lifestyle of a “double income” family (and a high double income because after all we had both left good paying jobs that had left us with little to no time for family!!) So we are in the process of “liquidating” some assets and making some changes that will allow us to reduce some of these worries and make it easier for us to ride out the “roller coaster” of self employment.

So … this weekend I began clearing away clutter and getting our home ready to sell. We have decided to use the equity we have built up in our home and move to a smaller home … one that will leave us relatively mortgage free. This will allow us to focus on making our business dreams come true without the financial worries we are having right now. It also means that we no longer have to worry about those ups and downs of business … we can now use the ups to save even more money towards another one of our dreams to retire early and enjoy life!!

BUT how does all this relate to you and to your business? What inventories are necessary for you to take in order to free your mind from the worries and clutter of these worries? Make a plan of action to make your day, your life and your business as “Clutter-Free” as you can. I can’t tell you how much better I feel now that I have a plan and will be able to concentrate on making my business everything it can be!!

Take some time and realize what is cluttering you from being able to move forward? What is keeping you from being everything you can be? Then take an inventory and clear that clutter!!

When we start our own businesses, many of us come from the “Corporate world” as I like to refer to it. When we worked in the Corporate world, we had set days and hours that we were expected to work. This meant that the freedoms to do what we wanted was limited to the times when we were not obligated to be at work. Well, guess what ………..

As business owners, we no longer have to work within that time frame. We are no longer obligated to working Monday to Friday, 9-5, for example. We have the freedom to allow life to be lived, however and whenever we want. Work no longer comes first…our family does. This is one of the greatest advantages to running your own business. The ability to do what you want, when you want. No longer must we schedule our family time around our work schedules.

When you prepare your daily schedule, take the time to look at your family’s needs and schedule that time in first. Then work backwards and determine the best times to focus on the work that needs to be done for your business. For example, if your children are young and at home, schedule in the times they will need you first. Work around their schedule (i.e., focus on work while they nap, while they sleep, while they are at a play date or during their favorite TV show).

When your school age child is going on a field trip … if this can work in your schedule, plan for it. Go with them and have fun. Schedule work around it. Perhaps it might mean picking up some extra hours in the evening after your children are in bed to catch up, but this is the biggest freedom you have as an entrepreneur.

Enjoy your family …. I remember a friend of mine once said that she always seems to reflect when people are dying they often say “I want to spend more time with my family”, but never, ever do they say “Gee, I think I will put in some more time at work”. At the end of life, who says “I wish I worked more?” Take the time now, while you can, to enjoy your life. Your family, your children and loved ones will thank you for it.