Add Value for the Joy of It

This Week with Sara Fitts focuses on principle # 5 from Thomas Leonard's 28 Principles of Attraction: Add value for the joy of it.

Too often we fail to find joy in what we do - much less add joy in our lives intentionally. So this principle seems to make a point to me personally that we can add joy to our lives and to our work simply by adding value for the joy of it.

How can we add value? There are many ways. Among them, both personally and professionally, can be found in this short list:

• Kind words
• A smile
• "Please" and "thank you"
• 2 for the price of 1
• Buy 1, get one 50% off
• Free gift with purchase
• An extra coaching session
• More time
• More service
• "Extra" services
• Lunch or dinner
• Face time
• Phone time
• Gift cards
• Personal notes
• An unexpected voicemail message

Anything of real value is appreciated by just about everyone. And the pay off we get is exponential. The secret is that the value must be given authentically. When we give value for the sheer joy of it, we get so much more out of life in every aspect.

Build a Super-Reserve in Every Area of Your Life

This Week with Sara Fitts looks at Thomas Leonard's fourth of his 28 Principles of Attraction: Build a super-reserve in every area of your life. Each of these principles works to attract more of everything you want in your life and in your work. By utilizing any one of these principles, you will attract more to you. When you combine any two or more of these principles, you will have even greater success in attracting more of everything you want in your life and in your work. So over the next 24 weeks or so, you will have your own personal arsenal of attraction principles that will open more doors for you than you can ever imagine. The real secret here is to be open to the possibilities and make the most of the opportunities that appear right before your eyes.

Build a super-reserve in every area. What this means to me is simply this: Stop limiting yourself and extend your boundaries in all areas of your life. Build more time into your schedule so that you can have more energy. Build more space into your life so you can accomplish more. Build a larger network of support so you can experience sustainable achievement. Build greater friendships with everyone - so you can have a fuller and more fulfilled life. The list is infinite when you stop and really think about it.

Build a super-reserve in every area. Some people think this only applies to money. Of course, some money is necessary in order to live day-to-day; however, money is really not the main focus of this principle of attraction. But it certainly doesn't hurt to build a super-reserve of it, either! In this regard, saving as much money as you can would not be a bad thing.

Build a super-reserve in every area. Time is definitely a huge struggle for a lot of us. There are several ways to build a super-reserve of time - even in the most harried of lives. Some simple ways to build a super-reserve of time is to know what is most important to you - and to live in that authenticity. If your family is most important to you, find ways to visit with them and make each visit worthwhile. If your spouse is most important to you, find ways to express that even when you are running from one task to another. Whatever is most important to you should drive your goals and actions. [Of course we all must earn a living, but we must find ways in which to live in congruence with our values.]

Build a super-reserve in every area. Health, wellness and fitness cannot be taken for granted. We must build a super-reserve especially in this area, I think. Everything we do is a reflection of our health, wellness and fitness. We need exercise, the right foods, rest and recreation - for creativity, for simple movement, for the ability to work and live, as well as for sustainable strength to keep us going for all our (hopefully) long lives.

Build a super-reserve in every area. This is something that we all need to seriously think about - as it relates to attracting more of what we want in our lives and in our work. What do you plan to build super-reserves in? What do you need more of in your life? What do you need less of in your life? Really think about this - and then do something about it. Delay is increasingly expensive - and time is getting away from us. Start building super-reserves today - and see how the principle of attraction works in your life and in your work.

Over-Respond to Every Event - and Attract More of Everything

This Week with Sara Fitts continues with the third of Thomas Leonard's 28 Principles of Attraction. Over-respond to every event. When we over-respond to every event, we leave nothing undone; therefore increasing the probability of success in our endeavors - both personal and professional.

What does it mean to "over-respond" to an event? Basically, it means doing everything possible to ensure successful accomplishment of the intended goal or objective. Some ways include:

• Following up and following through on all correspondence and calls
• Confirming all appointments
• Assuming nothing - and asking specific questions
• Assuming nothing - and repeating back what you think you heard
• Dropping in on new customers or clients
• Dropping in on former customers or clients
• Implementing a 3-pronged approach for follow-up: email, call, card or note
• Implementing a 3-pronged approach for marketing
• Going the extra mile - whether it's a dinner party or a business meeting - making it special and making the person on the receiving end feel important

There are many ways to over-respond to every event. And when we do, it shows that we care about our business life and our personal life - and the lives of those we touch.

So to re-cap the first three components of my Simple Little Formula for attracting more of everything we want in life and in business,

1. Become incredibly selfish.
2. Unhook yourself from the future.
3. Over-respond to every event.

Put these three principles in play in your life this week, and see what happens. My prediction is that you will experience more in your life and in your work.

Stay tuned for more to come!

Unhook Yourself from the Future in Order to Have More of Everything

This Week with Sara Fitts continues with the 28 Principles of Attraction from Thomas Leonard. This week we discuss the second of his principles: Unhook yourself from the future.

I firmly believe that too often we focus on tomorrow and next year and 5 years from now - at the expense of today. If we can simply unhook ourselves from the future and focus on today and the immediate needs of our lives and our work, we will attract much more in our lives and in our work.

The benefits of unhooking from the future are many - but the ones that readily come to mind are:

1. Living more in the moment - experiencing more of the immediate.
2. We actually get more done - because our focus is actually more narrowed in the present.
3. We can "zoom in" on today - and avoid the trappings of being too focused on the future.
4. We can actually assess and evaluate our efforts and results today - and make the necessary changes that will affect the future.
5. We can break down our big goals into bite-sized chunks and can get ahead much more easily.
6. We can see results faster when unhook ourselves from the future.

While I believe in setting long-term goals (both personally and in business), it is often too easy to get so wrapped up in the future that we can forget the joy of each day. Days can become a blur when we focus too much on the future. When we unhook ourselves from the future, we can actually enjoy the journey so much more.

So try this exercise in your personal life and in your business life. For 1 week unhook yourself from the future. Concentrate your efforts on the day-to-day routine and the daily tasks that must get done. At the end of each day, assess and candidly evaluate where you are. Begin each day with a clear plan of what must be done today - and keep yourself unhooked from the future. The old adage "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today" is a form of this philosophy, I guess.

Unhook yourself from the future - and have more of everything in your life.

More to come.....

Become Incredibly Selfish - and Attract More Business

This Week with Sara Fitts is going back to the basics to create more ways for self-employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners to bring in more business in this economic climate. Thomas Leonard's 28 Principles of Attraction form the basic tenets for my suggestions. Thomas was my coach and mentor - and a very dear friend - who taught me so much about business - and life.

The principle that I'm focusing on this week is: Become incredibly selfish.

Selfishness doesn't have to be a bad thing. It actually can be the best thing you can do for yourself, your family, your business, your life. When you put yourself first and make you and your business a priority, all kinds of amazing things happen.

How to become incredibly selfish in your business environment:

1. Cut loose all clients who drain you. Do it today, if possible. The energy you gain will bring in more clients almost immediately.
2. Ramp up your qualifying requirements. Just because business may be slower right now doesn't mean you need to jump on just any live client or customer. Be extremely selfish about who you "allow" to become a client or customer.
3. Do only the things that bring in the best business - in other words, rid your environment of all the systems that aren't working for you. Be incredibly selfish about what you do in your workplace. If a system isn't working, get rid of it.
4. Become incredibly selfish by surrounding yourself with only the best staff. Get rid of non-performers today. Cut back on negativity and everything (and everyone) who isn't moving the business forward.
5. Become the best personally and professionally that you can become - and stop at nothing in order to be the best. Hire a personal trainer and a personal coach - and develop your full potential. Begin the process today - because it will take longer than you want it to take.

By becoming incredibly selfish, you will start to see business results fairly quickly. It must become a mission for you - not just a fad to try for a day or two. This mindset must pervade everything you do in order for it to bring in more business for you.

If you'd like to know more about becoming incredibly selfish, contact me directly - and I'll give you an hour of my time to work on your business.

Sara Fitts

Get in Gear for a Fabulous Spring

This Week with Sara Fitts is dedicated to making the most of the springtime and moving forward - regardless of the economy. I say this with all due respect and with all common sense; however, I truly believe that what we focus on expands - hence my focus on getting in gear and getting the economy moving rather than ringing our hands and suffering in the "what-if" mentality.

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals are extremely aware of the economic climate right now - regardless of industry or specialty. And that is a given. However, I propose that we all (I'm self-employed, too) refuse to focus on the doom and gloom and instead focus on getting in gear with the hopefulness of springtime.

Perhaps it is the Easter season or perhaps it is the spring or maybe it's just more daylight at the end of the workdays that has given me new hope and a feeling of hopefulness - even in the midst of bad economic news. I am forging ahead with a new sense of purpose and am encouraging my clients to do the same.

How can small business owners, entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals get in gear and move forward right now? Here are some simple ways to shift the focus to the more positive aspects of our work.

• Relieve your stress. Work out, exercise, engage in a sport or hobby, read a novel, watch a movie. Do anything that gives you a different perspective. Relax and enjoy some recreation.

• If you have extra time as a result of lost business, take time to re-connect with your spouse, your friends, your family, your neighbors. Make the most of the time you have - every single day regardless of why you have extra time.

• Volunteer in your community. Give something back to the community where you live or where you work. Be a mentor or tutor in a school. Coach a sport.

• Make better financial decisions. Seek the help of financial experts. Save money everywhere you can. Cut costs everywhere you can. Cut back on your personal expenses where you can. Cut back on your business expenses where you can.

• Revise your business plan to reflect the changes you need to make as well as those changes you have already made. Your business plan should be a working document and tool for your success.

• Limit the amount of time you watch the news and read the financial and business reports. Remember, what you focus on expands!

These ramblings of mine today may help some of you - and some of you may think I've actually lost my mind. But I firmly believe that what we focus on expands. And I personally am focused on success and not failure.

I challenge all small business owners, entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals to focus on success and all things positive and motivational - and to move forward in a spirit of hopefulness and newness in this springtime.

International Coaching Week 2008

This Week with Sara Fitts announces and celebrates International Coaching Week 2008 this week. The purpose of International Coaching Week is to highlight the benefits of coaching - both business coaching and personal coaching. As I celebrate my profession this week, I plan to provide several free resources as my personal contribution to the profession.

Coaching is a forward-moving process that faciliates growth and development while targeting specific areas in one's life and in one's business. The coach has many roles within the coaching process. Some of the roles that a coach plays are:

• motivator and cheerleader to keep you focused and moving forward
• confidential sounding board
• personal advisor and confidante
• accountability
• wake-up call when one is needed
• personal team builder
• a trusted source that provides different perspectives
• a trusted colleague for self-employed professionals
• candid commentator who holds nothing back
• facilitator that moves you forward and helps you get solid results
• someone who asks the hard questions - and expects answers
• someone who asks the hard questions - and gets the answers

Coaching is a powerful tool for any business and any life - at least the ones who want to improve their results, their bottom line, and their productivity. This week there are many opportunities to sample my style of coaching - and I invite you to join me as I celebrate International Coaching Week 2008.

As a reader of this blog, you are invited to schedule a free coaching session with me. Please contact me via my website (http://www.SLFConsulting.com ), via email (thecoach@SLFConsulting.com ) or via phone (703.791.4741). I look forward to showing you the power of coaching this week.

Are you Helping or Hindering Your Progress?

This Week with Sara Fitts asks an extremely important question related to your future success. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I almost always ask questions that are open-ended and powerful; however, today I am asking a powerful question that is of the either/or variety. Are you helping or hindering yourself? Are you helping or hindering your efforts to grow personally and professionally? Are you helping or hindering your staff and their efforts? Are you helping or hindering your own business?

I believe that in order for us to be as successful as we possibly can be, we must be 100% candid with ourselves - first and foremost. We cannot tell ourselves that we are the best in our field if we clearly are not. We cannot tell ourselves that our employees would follow us into battle if they won't. We cannot be less than 100% candid with ourselves if we are to attain the success we are capable of experiencing.

Are you helping or hindering your progress? Take this morning as your own personal example. Did you set yourself up for success or did you set yourself up for failure? Did you get up on time and get to work without unnecessary hassles within your control? Did you schedule a 9:00 a.m. meeting that you know you should have put at 10:00 a.m. - since it's Monday and you know how things go on Monday mornings when you've been away since Friday afternoon? Did you overbook your calendar today? Did you over-promise and under-deliver?

Are you helping or hindering your progress? Do you have a staff that is paid to support you? Do you help them or hinder them? Do you thank them for their support - even if they get paid to do their jobs? Do you hang in there with them to meet the deadlines? Do you help them or hinder them?

Are you helping or hindering your progress? Are you doing everything you can to forward your momentum? Are you doing anything to sabotage your success?

The question that I ask you this morning is not intended to be negative in any way; it is meant to be provocative and motivating. We all have improvements to make in our lives and in our businesses. And we owe it to ourselves and our employees (if we have them) to do everything we possibly can to move forward. This same question was asked of me yesterday - and I'm answering it - and sending it along to you as well. It is a powerful question with almost infinite possibilities for massive, exponential growth in all areas.

So, I challenge you to answer this question candidly - and listen to the answer. Are you helping or hindering your progress?

More to come.....

Setting the Right Goals Makes All the Difference

This Week with Sara Fitts focuses on setting the right goals for your small business in order to get the best results in 2008. Another way of putting this might be found in this quote that I like to use with my clients: If we do not change direction, we are liable to end up where we are headed.

The Simple Little Formula I use with my clients to set goals is basically this:

1. Begin with the end in mind. On December 31, 2008 where do you want your business to be? What results do you want to achieve? What is your vision of your business one year from now?
2. Be specific. Use concrete language. Instead of saying "increased revenue" state how much of an increase in revenue is needed or desired. Be as specific as possible. If you aren't specific, how will you know if you have succeeded?
3. Make your goals measurable. Use specific criteria in order to know whether or not you are successful in your actions. How will you know your plan is working? How will you know it isn't?
4. Make sure you can reach the goals you set. Are they attainable? Is it realistic to believe that you can achieve the results you want? It is highly unlikely to increase revenue in 1 year by 200%. Make sure you set yourself and your small business up for success and not failure.
5. Break each goal down into specific actions with deadlines for each action. This is the crucial piece that so often gets left undone. Give yourself time to reach the goal by putting a plan in place that will provide opportunities for success.
6. Hold yourself accountable for all aspects of the goals, plans, and deadlines. You must be accountable for the results you plan to get. Know that you are accountable for your results period - good or bad. But set yourself up in order to get the best results possible.
7. At the end of each deadline time frame, assess and evaluate your goals, your actions, and your results. Are you heading in the right direction? Do you need to make any small changes? Do you need to change direction? Are you pleased with your progress? How big is the gap between where you are and where you need and want to be? How can you improve?
8. Each quarter review your numbers and your current results. [You may want to do this monthly instead.] Candidly assess and evaluate each piece of the overall plan. Make the changes that are necessary. Do the work that needs to be done in order to make 2008 your best year yet.
9. Setting the right goals makes all the difference in your life and in your business.

If you would like to schedule a strategy session, please contact Sara L. Fitts to arrange it.

http://www.SLFConsulting.com 703.791.4741

Get in Gear for a Great 2008!

This Week with Sara Fitts wishes all of you a wonderful New Year! In order to make 2008 a great year, here are some questions that may guide your action plan and help you get in gear for the New Year!

• What accomplisments are you most proud of in 2007?
• What didn't get done in 2007?
• Did you have any disappointments in 2007? What actions or inactions led to them?
• What is the biggest change you want to make in 2008?
• What change (or changes) in your behavior patterns will be necessary in order to make the biggest change in 2008 a reality?
• What needs to happen on your part in the next 30 days in order to be ready to achieve the results you want in 2008?

Get in Gear and make 2008 your best year yet!

10 Ways to Recognize Your Employees

This Week with Sara Fitts continues ...Here are 10 ways you can recognize your hard-working employees. I strongly recommend employee recognition as a means of saying thank-you, rewarding hard work, and building morale that will last forever. I'd love to add to this list - so please let me know what you do to reward your employees.

1. Lunch or dinner with the boss and management team.
2. Give an afternoon off - or a day or two off.
3. Construct a bulletin board with pictures, notes, letters, etc. celebrating employees.
4. Design a unique trophy and present it formally - monthly or quarterly.
5. Tickets for plays, concerts, shows - and include spouses[or dates] or the whole family.
6. Designate a special parking place.
7. Tickets for a world-class seminar at a resort - all expenses paid.
8. Gift card - or gas card.
9. Cater a company-wide luncheon for every employee.
10. Magazine subscriptions [from a selected list], mp3 players, DVDs or CDs, coupons, books, or gym membership.

The point is to make the effort to have a recognition program in your organization. You can make it unique - or you can change it up to fit the particular occasion. My bet is that it will increase pride and ownership for every employee.

10 Reasons to Recognize Employees

This Week with Sara Fitts suggests 10 reasons to recognize your employees. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, this is always a good time to think about how you thank, reward, and recognize those employees who work so hard for you and your business.

There are many reasons for employee recognition, and these are only 10 of them. Use this as a starting point and add to this list as it applies to your specific business. [Please let me know what you add - I'd love to know!]

Recognize and reward employees who:

1. Learn something new. New skills are always worthy of praise and recognition.
2. Mediate conflicts within their team. Conflict resolution means more time on task and less time away from the project at hand.
3. Mentor new employees - even without being asked. Teamwork is taken to new levels immediately.
4. Seek new solutions to old problems. Focusing on solutions instead of problems creates new energy.
5. Help other employees. Pitching in when it counts helps the entire organization - and makes the point that "all for one and one for all" is still alive and well.
6. Willingly accept change. Sometimes difficult changes need to be made and are not so easily accepted. When someone willingly embraces change, make a point of acknowledging it.
7. Give extra customer service. Especially if extra time and extra effort are involved.
8. Volunteer for work that no one wants to do. Whether it's staying late, covering phones, making a delivery, or cleaning up someone else's mess - the person who volunteers to take this on needs to be recognized.
9. Maintain perfect attendance. This definitely needs to recognized.
10. Go the extra mile - no matter what. When employees go above and beyond the standard and the expected - recognize their efforts.

The benefit of this kind of recognition and reward is two-fold: the recognized employee is acknowledged and the rest of the staff is motivated by the fact that the boss is paying attention and is appreciative of the efforts.

I've always believed that everyone will do more than is expected when management acknowledges and appreciates their efforts and their work. Reward and recognition will raise morale quicker than pay raises.

Powerful Questions that Make a Huge Difference

Other questions that can be catalysts for major growth and change are:

Question to ask customers and clients: What is the value that you are receiving from our work together? [Press them for specifics and real examples.]

Question to ask employees/staff: What is the value that you receive from working here? [Press them for real examples - and not "paycheck".]

Questions to ask yourself: What is the value that I want my employees and staff to receive from working here? What is the value that I want my customers and clients to receive from our work together? What is the real reason I'm doing this? [What is the real reason for this business?]

After asking these powerful questions, listen to all the answers. After listening to the answers, what will you do with the information? The ball is now in your court to move forward toward making significant changes and improvements in your business. This process is extremely helpful. Try it and see what happens.

3 Important Questions for Business Owners & Managers to Answer

This Week with Sara Fitts highlights 3 questions every business owner and manager needs to answer. These 3 questions can lead to significant growth within your organization.

1. Do you have employees whose performance is less than what you want it to be?
2. Do you know specifically why they deliver less than you want?
3. Do you know specifically what to do to change that?

The first step is answering these questions. The second, and most important step, is addressing the issues that the answers to these questions give you. If you do nothing to address the issues or problems, then you will continue to have these issues and problems - regardless of who you hire.

Successful businesses must have structures and systems that are aligned to facilitate growth. If structures and systems are not in place, growth will not occur - and morale will be greatly affected. If the management team implements structures and systems that promote growth for the entire business (employees, staff, customers), then performance and productivity will be aligned for that same success.

There is power in the 3 questions that began this post. Small business owners and managers can change the course of their businesses with the answers. A business coach can help articulate the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

More to come later....

The 20 Question Business Plan

The "20 Question Business Plan" is a simple way to craft a business plan as well as to rekindle your relationship with your business. This Week with Sara Fitts is using the "20 Question Business Plan" because last week 2 of my clients (who own small businesses) were both needing to re-engage in their businesses. For whatever reason these clients had let the day-to-day thrills of running a business fall by the wayside and get replaced with fear and frustration. You, too, can use these 20 questions to get yourself back on track if you are self-employed, own your own business, or are thinking of building your own business.

The 20 Question Business Plan

1. Describe your business in 25 words or less.
2. What is the purpose for building your business?
3. What trend is your business going to invent or remove?
4. Why will you be successful? Why have you been successful in the past?
5. What's the mission of your business in 10 words or less?
6. What's the pain or frustration that your business will help your customers reduce?
7. How do you know you'll meet your customers needs?
8. Where will your next 5 customers come from and how much will they pay?
9. Why should your customers use you instead of some other business that does almost the same thing?
10. How do you intend to get 1000 potential buyers interested in your product or service?
11. Who's going to handle customer service and what are your 5 performance benchmarks in this area?
12. How much will it take to fund your business this year?
13. What are the weaknesses or shortcomings that you plan to outsource or compnesate for?
14. What will tell you that your business is going well - and what will tell you that your business in not going well?
15. What is the biggest limitation to your business?
16. How vibrant is the industry in which you offer your product or service?
17. How will you handle the money and accounting?
18. How quickly will your business be profitable and by how much?
19. What is your profit margin (revenue less actual cost of the product/service)?
20. Who do you need to bring in to ensure your success?

Bonus Question: How much do you plan to sell your business for and in how many years?

These 20 questions provide a simple exercise that I believe all self-employed professionals, small business owners, and anyone who is thinking of building a business needs to answer candidly. And sometimes we all need to dust off the business plan we wrote when we first started our businesses - and renew our interest and lift our spirits. Sometimes we just need to get back to the roots of our desire to own and run a business.

If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you. I hope that today's post will help you re-kindle the fire and love for your business.

4 Ways our Environment Controls Our Results

There are numerous ways that our environment controls our results. Today's post will discuss 4 ways.

1. When we surround ourselves with negative people (employees, colleagues, friends, etc.), we become less positive. We may actually become negative as a direct result of being around negative people.
2. When we surround ourselves with positive, upbeat people, we naturally become more positive and upbeat.
3. When we develop a "work when it's time to work and play when it's time to play" philosophy, we become more balanced and produce better results.
4. When we throw caution to the wind, we really jeopardize our results.

These 4 ways are quite simplistic in scope; however, designing productive environments is not rocket science or brain surgery. It is basically common sense with deliberate action. Without deliberate action, our environments may never be as conducive to productivity and solid results.

Our environment really does control our results - and we can exert enough control over the design and development of our environments in order to get the best results possible.

More to come.....

Our Environment Controls Our Results

This Week with Sara Fitts takes a look at results - and what causes some results to be better than others. While reading Reposition Yourself by Bishop T. D. Jakes, he writes "Environment has so much to do with results." As I reflected on that quote, what came to me is this: We can control our results by controlling our environment. While some things in our environment cannot be changed, we definitely have the power to change a lot of things within our environment - our business or personal environment.

In our business environment we can design a supportive environment. We can surround ourselves with positive, supportive people as well as structures for success that will help us focus on the most important elements of our businesses. Here is a basic list of items that successful environments have:

• the best business plan we can develop
• the best staff we can assemble
• the best product/services we can deliver
• the best target market we can define
• the best location in which to grow our business
• the best support structures to include software, hardware, technology, etc.
• the best communication system in order to solve any and all issues that distract from the work at hand - on any given day

Too many times we look at our results and wonder why we aren't doing better. And, too many times we never really consider the real reason for less than optimal results. I think the key lies in the environment. Whether our results are good or bad, the environment in which we work determines to a great extent our success - or failure.

We can design the best environment for our success - and then we can create it. While a great deal of work must go into this process, it really is a simple process at its basic level. Here are some questions that can get us thinking about the kind of environment we really want to create in order to get the best results possible:

• What is the vision for this business?
• What is the purpose of this business?
• What are the 3 most important factors that we must have in order to get good results?
• What are the 3 key attributes of each employee that must be present in the environment?
• What are the 3 key attributes of each client or customer?
• What must we never have in our environment?
• How will we change when the need arises?
• How will we measure our results - and our overall success?

We can change our results by changing our environments - because our environment controls our results.

If you want to explore how you can improve your results, please contact Sara Fitts and schedule a one-on-one strategy session. She gets results for her clients. For more information please visit http://www.SLFConsulting.com or call 703.791.4741 today.

Time for a Reality Check?

Now that summer is "officially" over and it's time to get back to work, is it time for a reality check for your business? This Week with Sara Fitts poses this question quite candidly to all owners of small businesses and self-employed professionals.

Here is a simple assessment to see if you and your business are where you think you and your business really are. Answer these questions - and get a reality check - to help you kick off your business for a new fall season.

1. How are you different from every competitor?
2. How much are you out in front of your industry?
3. How much are you out in front of your target market?
4. How much did you increase your business in the past 3 - 4 months? Or, did you lose business over the past 3 - 4 months?
5. What are your immediate goals for the next 30 days? 90 days? 1 year?

If you will candidly answer these questions, you will give your business a reality check that will kick off a new season of growth.

Health, Wellness & Fitness in the Workplace

Regardless of the size of the business, the health, wellness and fitness of employees has to be on the minds of the ownership. This Week with Sara Fitts takes a look at what it means to employees, owners, and customers/clients for health, wellness and fitness to be a top priority for all business owners.

When employees are out due to illness - whether it's a day or two or extended over several weeks, business is affected greatly. The costs are great - especially for small businesses and their owners. Health insurance costs are continuously increasing to the point of putting small business owners in a much tougher spot than ever before experienced. Some businesses have had to recently pass more of the health insurance costs to their employees. Other businesses have opted to go to a "bare-bones" approach and pay less and less of the direct health insurance costs. Health insurance premiums for the self-employed are also rapidly increasing - often without warning.

The critical key to combat rising health-care costs for small business owners and self-employed professionals lies in the health, wellness and fitness of each employee. I think the only way to really get a handle on health care and the significant costliness of it is to make health, wellness and fitness a top priority for all employees - regardless of position in the business.

There are simple programs that will work to improve the health, wellness and fitness of the employee as well as improve the business as a whole. The benefits of such a program can include:

• reduction in sick leave costs and absenteeism
• increasing morale and reducing stress
• reduction in workman's comp claims
• higher energy and higher production levels
• more efficient employees
• lower health insurance costs
• bigger bottom line

There are several simple steps that all small business owners can easily implement. Some of them are listed here:

• offer employees memberships to gyms and fitness centers as a benefit
• have a fitness center on the premises
• provide time for fitness
• provide health and wellness fairs
• provide routine health screenings
• offer Pilates or yoga classes after work
• create a walking club for lunchtime exercise

There are many ways to improve health, wellness and fitness in the workplace - and the first way is to make it a priority. More to come on this topic ...

10 Ways to Double Your Effectiveness and Productivity within a Week

This Week with Sara Fitts shares 10 ways to double your effectiveness and productivity within a week. If you employ these 10 suggestions, you will likely quadruple your results. If you employ even 1 or 2 of these suggestions, your efficiency and productivity will double. Try them and see what happens. These suggestions are based on more than 5 years and the successful and sustainable implementation by 500 people in various industries and careers. They are simple; however, they are powerful tools for success.

1. Make the commitment to being more productive by refusing to put this off another day.
2. Respond to problems immediately - and stop using band-aids. [Solved problems are problems that have been eliminated and therefore no longer exist.]
3. Create and develop a culture of "Do it today" by refusing to put off any task that needs to be done.
4. Have your own personal resource list of people, organizations, websites, etc. that can be used for accessing information and assistance.
5. Ask for exactly what you want or need - and by when you want or need it. Accept nothing less.
6. Cut in half your normal appointment block time. If you use 30 minute blocks of time, make them 15 minutes. If you use hour-long blocks, cut it down to 30 minutes.
7. Get the information you need immediately. Don't wait until later.
8. Expect twice as much from others - and you'll get it. Expect effectiveness and efficiency from yourself - and you'll get it, too.
9. Stop saying "yes" when "no" is the correct answer. Protect yourself by saying "no" when you need to.
10. Set up and utilize systems - software, hardware, voicemail, calendars - even sticky notes if they work for you - to your full advantage.

(C) 2007 Sara L. Fitts. All Rights Reserved.