Women Grow Business

Guest post by Amanda Steinberg, founder of Soapbxx and also DailyWorth.com. DailyWorth is a free daily personal finance email for women – delivering practical tips, empowering ideas and the occasional kick in the pants.

I have 2 kids and run 2 businesses.
My kids are a 7-month-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. My first business, a Web consultancy called Soapbxx, will gross $300,000 in 2009 and employs 8 people. The second company, an online finance publication for women called DailyWorth, has no revenue (yet) and requires a team of 4 part-time contractors to operate.

The best news? I’m not mad. I have plenty of time to be with my kids. I even manage to find time to have a leisurely lunch or extended “me” time.

Here’s how I do it:

7am: Our baby girl wakes all of us up.
8am: We’re downstairs, dressed, eating breakfast and packing lunches.
9am: My baby is cared for by a nanny. This nanny shows up at 9am and I hand my baby girl off. My 3-year-old goes to preschool. My husband always takes him to preschool. Bottom line: even if we’re running late, I depart for my home office (top floor of our house) at 9am sharp. This is critical to me. 9am. Work.
9am-11am: After I clean out my in-box, I focus on DailyWorth, the finance website for women. We send out a daily email, and this requires about 2 hours of my day to orchestrate.

11am-4:00pm: I focus on Soapbxx, my Web consultancy.
And the tasks I concern myself with include:

1. Ensuring that I’m selling and closing the next $50,000 – $80,000 Web project.

2. Managing our project coordinators to make sure that they’re planning and managing Website projects effectively.

3. Reviewing and testing Websites that are close to launch; logging tasks into our project management system that I think need to be considered or changed.

4. Producing strategic documents. Many clients hire my company because of the strategic services I sell them. As a result, I personally handle a lot of the planning and strategy documents that go with selling large, complex websites.

Liberated from micro management
I don’t worry about Soapbxx’s internal performance or quality because I’ve learned over the years how to hire only the best people. My team is exceptional and as a result, I don’t have to micro-manage them or worry much. This did not happen by accident.

I have 10 years practice hiring and firing. I’ve employed or contracted to 40 people over the last few years and only a select few remain.

And by 4:00pm, I shut down my computer.
I then scoop up my daughter and drive to pick up my son from preschool. It feels incredible to me that I can run two companies and finish my workday by 4:00. Having been raised by a single mom who was forced into a strict 9-6 corporate work environment, I vowed to set up a life where I could be there for my kids more than my mom was for me. I don’t blame my mom for her absence — she did what she had to do to earn what she needed to earn in the 1980s. But I hated that she couldn’t drive me to school, or be there for me after.

I’m structuring my life so that I can run my businesses and be there for my kids before and after school. In 2009, working moms can have it all if we plan properly.

4:00pm – 9pm … family time!
We run errands (Target, anyone?), make dinner, take baths, read books and every other bedtime ritual that makes having kids so special.

9pm – 11pm
Here’s the part of my life that isn’t so ideal. I generally boot up my Mac and do more work. I sense that my husband would rather that I curl up on the sofa and watch True Blood with him. Truth is, I feel pulled to run through emails that came in from 3:30 – 7pm (there are often many) and finish tasks I wasn’t able to finish during the day. I look forward to a day when I can stop work at 3:30pm and not resume until 9am the next day.

Until my babies and businesses are more self-sufficient and systematized, it’s a sacrifice I’m making, and hope that my husband realizes it’s temporary.

11pm. Bed.

The keys to my operation:

• I delegate a lot to very precocious people.

I have a very responsible, motivated assistant. Without her, I’d be mad. She loves having her hands in everything from accounting to project management, and I love her for it. If she chooses to leave me (which she will some day), I’ll have a very hard time replacing her.

• I’m obsessed with cash flow and work with a great bookkeeper/accounting team.

For Soapbxx to operate, we need to deposit $25,000 into our bank account every month. I plan quarterly and manage daily when and from whom checks will arrive. My bookkeeper claims I’m one of the best cash collectors she’s ever worked with, and I’m proud to have mastered the science of receivables. Just last month, I got our receivables down to $0.

• Once a month, I’ll stay up until 4am if need be to push through things I owe (sometimes, you just have to).

What do you think? Does this seem impossible?

You have to take into consideration my manic, tightly-wound character. My theory is I’m more work-obsessed than your average mom. I love my companies and have very ambitious financial goals for myself (tens of millions). I don’t exercise. I’m generally not eating proper lunches (note above: no lunch break). I do experience exhaustion. I wish I had more time to just be with my husband.

Yet for now, I’m satisfied with my structure and recommend it to my power mom business owners and friends.

More from:

• How to manage cash flow for small business owners with Amanda Steinberg, 10/8th
  (WGB readers: use promo code ASLWL for a registration discount)
• Amanda’s first post at Women Grow Business: an entrepreneur and her jeans story.

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What I envisioned.
As some of you may know, last month I decided to take some time to myself – a week, in fact, to think about my business, what the future holds and how I can change my work habits to make my life easier. When I envisioned this retreat, or what I’m calling my “me-treat”, I thought about holding up in a room and thinking big, important, visionary thoughts.

This wasn’t the case at all.
It’s important to say that I held my “me-treat” at home. Many folks assumed that I took a trip to an exotic, remote location. Truth is – I sat in my living room on my couch with my dogs for a week and I worked at least 8 hours every day. Here’s the story.

Goals for my business retreat
After getting my goal of at least eight hours of sleep each night (sometimes 10 hours!), I got up and got dressed and headed downstairs to my laptop, couch, Morning Joe on MSNBC and dogs. I had some very specific goals to address during my “me-treat”. Here are the highlights:

• Business Goal: Review, plan and schedule the kickoff of my branding/marketing plan.

Result: I created a schedule and tasks for my team so that we can kick off this plan. The goal is to put the plan into full execution by the end of the summer.

• Personal Goal: Spend at least 1 hour a day doing something that I want to do.

Result: I gardened, played with my dogs and had lunch with a friend. I will continue this practice from now on because it’s incredibly important.

• Business Goal: Think about the second half of the year.

Result: The biggest thing that I took away about Q3 & Q4 is that I needed to find a way to delegate more and stress less. So I made the decision to bring on more team members to help with the work that I have been doing myself. My time is better spent marketing my company, consulting and bringing in fun, exciting projects.

• Business Goal: Launch my new personal blog.

Result: I launched my new personal blog, a blog about living in the Shenandoah Valley, launched a new look for my Good Works Grapevine blog and started a new website. How’s that for progress?

• Personal Goal: De-stress, breathe, enjoy life.

Result: Yes, yes, yes.

While I highly recommend the “me-treat”, here are a few things that I learned:

Define your goals.
You should have some questions that you want to answer as part of your “me-treat”. Write them down and work toward a solution. For a one-week “me-treat”, I recommend 2-3 business goals and 2-3 personal goals in order to stay focused.

Don’t expect to avoid all client work.
And don’t stress if you have to stray from the “me-treat” from time-to-time. It happened to me and I just had to go with the flow.

Don’t be afraid to take the time you need to be effective.
While I planned for a week, I could have easily taken two weeks to create a complete plan for my business and personal life. Think about what you want to accomplish and be sure to allot enough time.

(Image Time Is In My Hands by Spanish Flea, Creative Commons)

Don’t isolate yourself.
Spend time with your family and friends during your “me-treat”. Talk to them about your ideas. Invite feedback. Process all of the data as part of your plan.

Critical for business growth (and getting over stagnation)
For me, taking the time to really work through my business goals was both critical to the growth of business and motivational – enough to really get over my stagnation and get me moving. I plan on instituting the “Me-treat” as part of my yearly business practice and will do it again in six months.

Frankly, I had forgotten that I run my business and that my business doesn’t run me.

For any business owner struggling with next steps or lack of motivation, I highly recommend taking some time to think about what YOU want to do. If you are interested in taking a ““me-treat””, please feel free to contact me as I’m happy to share my experiences with anyone who needs support.

Beth J. Bates is the owner of Web Strategies Internet Solutions and a jack of all trades in the web world. She consults with small to mid-size businesses on social media marketing and helps her clients find effective ways to leverage these mediums to meet business and marketing goals. With over 14 years experience in web development, project management and marketing, Beth enjoys putting a new twist on traditional web technology and methods. She specializes in social media marketing and how strategy, tactics and tools help businesses expand their reach through their web presence.

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Guest post by Sibyl Edwards, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Sibyl works as a digital designer and strategist based in Washington, DC. She has many years of experience in interactive design, identity branding, and digital strategy for businesses and non-profits.

Sibyl produces the social cause marketing blog Engage and Effect and can be reached there or at www.twitter.com/saedwards.

In my last post on laws 1 through 4, I discussed the “outer laws” and importance of having a vision, doing your research, planning ahead, and paying for professional advice.

In this post I want to discuss the “inner”, more personal laws that will help create a more successful site and life.

5. You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover

For your website or blog
As a business person, you have probably spent many months or years cultivating your business image on paper. The same care should be taken with your online presence as well.

The first thing most people will see about your business will be your website or blog. First impressions count and users will decide whether they want to do business with you based off the look and feel of your site. Consider what your online presence says about you and your business:

• Are you cutting-edge?
• traditional ?
• or casual and modern?

Whatever your image online, make sure it is inline with your organization’s vision.

If your site’s image needs some revamping – hire a professional designer (see Law #4). And remember this: the designer is your partner – not a lackey. While I applaud clients who have a vision, that vision should be flexible and open enough to incorporate new ideas. Don’t micro-manage the very process you hired the designer to facilitate.

On the other side, don’t let the designer “tell you what your image is” while you offer little feedback. Or you’ll end up with something far from the image you want to project.

For your life
Unfortunately, we can often be judged initially by how we look vs on what kind of person we are. To put your best foot forward, always look your best (which can still be done even if your budget can’t afford the best fashion). It is often said people who are deemed more attractive are treated better, are promoted faster, and even make more money.

In fairness, I don’t recommend you go out buying a $10,000 wardrobe or go investing in plastic surgery. I instead suggest we all try and remember this: confidence, intelligence, and a positive attitude can also largely impact how we come across.

6. Stay Focused

For your website or blog
Evaluate your site’s focus with these questions:

• When people first visit your site or blog, can they tell who you are and what products/services you offer?
• Can users find what they need without digging into the recesses of your site?
• Does your company blog have too little pertinent content (but too many pics of the company picnic)?

This brings us back to Law #5 above. How your site is structured as well as the kind of content you feature can seriously affect your credibility – not to mention the bottom line for your business.

If you aren’t able to hire a professional (Law #4) then you need to do Law #2 – research! Go online and research interface design and usability experts to see what makes a well structured site.

For your life
Something I struggle with on a regular basis is staying focused. If you visit my desk at work, you would see my computer completely covered with sticky notes. This “organization” is the only way I can stay on top of things. (I had a planner but I kept forgetting to write in it!).

While I don’t champion this particular method of organization for everyone, staying focused and organized will allow you to “get things done” and save time you can dedicate toward your business and personal goals.

7. Put Yourself Out There

For your website or blog
So now you have started an amazing new site/blog. How to market it?

A key way to get people to your site is to have it as searchable as possible. The biggest search engine is of course Google. One of the best ways to increase rankings within Google is through content. Your site’s/blog’s content should have fresh, regular, pertinent content to help raise your profile in Google. The richer the content, the better your ranking. I recommend adding your site and blog to Google Analytics.

Another great site with search optimization resources is SEOMoz.

For your life
Market yourself like you do your site i.e. check to see how you rank as an individual on Google.

If your ranking is low and – Heaven forbid – someone with the same name (and a less stellar reputation) is ranked above you, you can adjust your ranking by blogging or twittering for yourself and others. Personal brand specialists William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson suggest:

Every Monday morning, Google yourself and keep track of any changes in your results.

Also network regularly (not when you need a job) with others in and out of your field.

8. Stay Positive

For your website or blog
Remember the Golden Rule!

Having a blog, it can be tempting to share and I mean share everything on it. If you want to use your blog for professional reasons, think twice on doing this.

If a potential employer or client happens to come across your blog, do you really want them to read blog posts about the trials and tribulations you experienced with a particularly difficult client, for instance?

Probably not.

Recently, a PR exec leaving from an out of town meeting with FedEx decided to Twitter, rather derisively, on why anyone would want to live in that particular town. Well they got a shock when FedEx found out. And they weren’t too happy.

The moral is: You never know who is listening.

For your life
Believe me I know how hard life can be. Sometimes it seems no matter how hard you work to fulfill your goals, obstacles get thrown in your path. Modern life creates stresses that affect your body and mind. And my recommendation when things get to be too much is go somewhere private and have a good cry or scream! But at every opportunity, try and remain positive! The last thing you want to do is bring people down around you with a negative attitude.

I’ve also found that meditation can be effective against the “blues”.

But please note: if you find your “blues” preventing sleep or proper function for extended periods of time, please consider seeing a health professional.

When overwhelmed, Dr. Wayne Dyer says: “Look for simplicity in what you call complicated by seeing that in this moment, it’s not hard.”

9. Be Balanced i.e. don’t try and do it all yourself!

For your website or blog
Sometimes you are just too busy to update your site’s content or company’s blog.

One word: delegate, delegate, delegate!

If you can’t delegate the duty to a colleague see if it is something you can “farm out” to a professional web content writer.

For your life
First of all there is no such thing as the perfect 50/50 life-work balance. Some days you work more some days you play more. Debra Condren, Ph.D. says: “Imbalance is normal. Go for [self] acceptance.” It is when things become incredibly imbalanced that your work or personal life suffers.

I’m not here to tell you what the best way is to juggle commitments. Only you can decide that. I am here to tell you that no matter what – you will have to carve out some time to dedicate to yourself and your personal goals.

This will be one of the hardest things to do because you may want to make sure others are cared for first. Which is wonderful – when it’s not taken to extremes. By constantly sacrificing our needs we can inadvertently cause ourselves guilt, then anger (and possibly depression).

I have found that when you are pursuing your goals you feel more alive and satisfied with life.

10. Give Back

For your website or blog
The great thing about having a blog is having an opportunity to share your passion of knowledge with others. And by doing so, you create a community where others can come and share and comment on your blog as well. You in turn will connect with your readers which will raise the level of engagement.

Your website or blog can also become a wonderful vehicle to inform, engage, and build support for a favorite issue or cause. If done right, you can be seen as a leader in the community who champions a particular issue.

For your life
Offer to mentor and develop others.

Women in particular often lack opportunities for mentorship.

Host community groups at your place of business. Dedicate a day or more helping out in the community.

Greater DC Cares hosts the Servathon every year in DC. Individuals and groups can sign up for various community events during Servathon.

The ideas for you and your business to serve are endless.

I want to end the Laws by reminding you to start with a vision and end with giving back to the community at large. And remember: you as a woman entrepreneur are smart, powerful, and will succeed!

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