I was browsing through Betty McCray’s blog and found a post about setting yourself an appointment at 9am each and every day if you work from home so that you don’t let the start time for your day slide. Whether its a meeting with a client or a telephone appointment it ensures that you get your day started in a businesslike way.

I would also add the importance of dressing for business – not only does it put your mind in work mode but it also means that if you get a call from a potential client who wants to meet up almost straight away you’re not rushing off to the bathroom to shower and dress and slap make-up on. (OK I’m sitting here typing this in my pj’s but it is 5am and my excuse is I am jetlagged and heading back to bed for a couple of hours.!!)

Betty McCrays blogpost

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By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning. (Lao Tzu)

Think about it…today think about it in the context of lunch. Yes, lunch. How many of you skip lunch or eat something at your desk so that you can ‘save time’ ? Are you really saving time ? Maybe you would still get everything done even if you have a proper lunch break.

When I worked in Paris (in the days of the corporate career) I went out for lunch every day and yes often had a glass of wine (maybe two even) but I sure as heck worked harder and more productively in the afternoon than when I worked in London or Toronto and ate a boring sandwich at my desk and carried on working.

How many of you are taking a real break at lunchtime ? Eating a nice lunch rather than some boring old thing in a food court ? or at least going and eating the boring thing in the sunshine or with friends (no not co-workers – that is great for team building but not every day – you need a break from your work environment). And for readers who work at home… what are you up to ?? Bet you skip lunch or eat at your desk .. go on admit it.

So change it. Things will still get done even if you have a good lunch break.

Between working for my business consulting and coaching clients; developing a series of e-books and teleseminars to help people evaluate their business ideas, harness the power of social marketing etc; translating my website content into French; developing CanEuropa – a consulting business helping Canadian companies move into Europe and European companies expand into Canada; working on three totally new business ideas, writing posts here every week…

I need some time out from blogging !

You’ll still find me on Facebook and be able to see what I am up to.

I’ll be back at the beginning of October….

… or a Time Saving Tip for Nomadic Entrepreneurs.

This amused me and it is really practical too. How to fold a T shirt in 2 seconds. Click here.

Colleen Coyne, a former member of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, earned a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games. And in a post at the HubSpot blog, she outlines how the keys to Olympic success apply to your work in marketing.

1. Don’t train harder, train smarter

2. Success is a decision

3. Plan the work

4. Work the plan

5. Be in position to be in position ie anticipate the possibilities and make sure you are prepared to take advantage of them.

6. Nobody cares what you want, they care what you do

7. Hang out with & watch the pros

8. If you are not getting better, you’re getting worse – There is no such thing as “maintenance” in business. Everything you do (or don’t do) contributes to your level of success.

Click here to read the full post.

I read a great blog post today that set me thinking: launching and/or growing a business is not just about feasiblity studies, biz plans, road maps and marketing strategies it’s also mindset – in fact one could perhaps argue that mindset is more important than all the others.

The blogpost is about walking on water (in a metaphoric way)and starts with a joke about three Buddhist monks – two of whom walk across the lake to the monastery and the third one keeps sinking into the lake each time he tries to walk across. Eventually the first monk says to the second one “Do you think we should we tell him where the stones are ?”. The blog post takes the idea of stones which enable us to ‘walk on water’ – stones that are vital to the success of any business venture. These include:

Walk With Open Arms

Gain Speed With The Flow

Go read the entire article (Walk on Water) – its thought-provoking.

If you look at the right hand side of my blogs you will find that I have added a widget from feedjit.com – Live Traffic Feed which shows who has visited. It shows what country and also by what means they got to my blog. This is providing me with some interesting information on visiters. I have also added MyBlogLog which shows me which MyBlogLog members have been to my blog.

I was just reading an interesting post on Mari Smith’s blog – How not to do business on Facebook or anywhere about someone who plagiarised all her work. This prompted me to make the following comment on her post:

A variation on a similar theme – I used to do a lot of feasiblility studies and business plans.I once found that a client had revised the 3 year financial projections I had prepared to make the project profitable (and therefore eligible for a grant) when it was destined to be a major loss maker … fortunately the person reviewing the document knew me and knew that I would never have produced some optimisitic figures. This scared the heck out of me though … naively perhaps but it had never occurred to me that someone would take my work and then change it and present as my professional judgement in order to raise financing. I also experienced someone using my CV and adding me as a consultant adviser in order to win a contract without my knowledge or consent. I have not figured out how to avoid this – short of restricting my work to business coaching.

Does anyone have suggestions ?