How Right-Brained Entrepreneurs Can Mix Business with Pleasure

by Deborah A. Bailey

It can be a challenge to take a right-brained person and drop them into a left-brained endeavor like running a business. Spreadsheets, accounting programs, business plans – just thinking about those things can send a creative person into a tailspin.

What drives a lot of creative people into self employment is that they are stifled in structured work environments. I’m a business coach but I’m also a writer, a photographer and a musician (if my years in the high school band count).

After working as a copywriter in the fashion industry, I changed careers and went into information technology. It may seem like I made a huge leap from the right brain to the left, but actually it wasn’t as big as it sounds. Learning a computer programming language was similar to learning any other language. In fact, when I met with the computer school’s counselor I was told that people who had a background in music or languages actually had an advantage in learning computer programming.

Who’d have thought it? Most people believe that there’s a firm line between the two worlds, but it is possible to cross from one to the other when necessary.

As a right-brained entrepreneur, are you dealing with any of these challenges?

• When you are creative and you want to be self-employed, you will have to deal with schedules, structure and systems. Otherwise, you’ll either start a lot of projects and never finish anything, or spend a lot of time thinking about what you’re going to do, but never starting.

• Putting a price on your creations can be challenge, especially if you feel that money doesn’t mix with creative expression. Pricing is a challenge for most business owners, but you should never feel guilty about asking to be paid. On the other side of the coin, you’ll work against yourself if you feel that being paid equals selling out.

• A lot of the time creative people are expected to give their work away for the “exposure.” Well, at what point have you been exposed enough? When do you start asking for compensation? If you don’t have an answer to that, it’s time to take an honest look at things. Are you running a charity or a business?

• Have you ever been told that you’ll never make any money making art? Were you discouraged from becoming a writer because “books don’t make any money?” When those messages are in the back of your mind, it will be difficult to build a successful business.

Being a creative entrepreneur comes with a built-in set of challenges, such as how to deal with structure when it feels totally uncomfortable.  

Here are a few tips:

• Make a schedule for yourself – nothing fancy. Just write down what you have to accomplish each day. When get distracted, it’ll help to have your list of tasks to refer to.

• Hire help if you can. You may have a lot of interests, but some things are better left to the experts. Rather than struggle with an accounting program, you can have a bookkeeper handle things much quicker.

• Be honest about what you’re good at, and what you’re not so good at. Delegation is not a dirty word. If you can hand off administrative tasks to a VA or an assistant, you will have even more time to work on the things that you do best.

• Get a coach. No, I’m not suggesting that because I am a coach. I’m saying it because no one needs accountability like a right-brained entrepreneur. There’s always a new idea that seems so much better than the idea you had yesterday. When you’re always chasing the next new thing you’re going to leave a trail of things undone. A coach will keep you honest by providing the feedback, direction and accountability that you require to stay on track.

If you’re a right-brained entrepreneur you are a visionary. But every vision requires action so that you can bring it to life. It is possible to stop struggling and manage your creativity and your business.

Deborah A. Bailey is author of two non-fiction books including, “Think Like an Entrepreneur: Transforming Your Career and Taking Charge of Your Life.” She's also the creator and host of Women Entrepreneurs Radio, a weekly internet talk show. Her fiction work includes a short story collection and a novel, available on Amazon.com. 

For more information, visit http://www.BrightStreetBooks.com.

How to Stay Focused at Home

by Shannon Suetos

There are many great benefits from working from home: you can set your own hours, wear what you want to and be your own boss. These types of benefits are what most people see when deciding to start a business at home. What they don’t think about, are the many distractions they are faced with such as: television, Internet browsing and family members.

Structure is something we all need for work—whether this means going to an office or staying at home there needs to be boundaries. The hard part about working from home is you are blending your work life and home life. Setting boundaries will help keep the two lives separate, even if they are in the same place.

Agenda
Scheduling your day is just as important when working from home as it is when going to the office. Many people find it beneficial to take a few minutes at the end of their day to schedule their tasks for the following day. This can help streamline your work and get everything you need done in a timely manner.

If you use Gmail, Google Calendar is a great tool to use to get yourself organized. You can set up reminders and even sync text message reminders to your cell phone. Evernote is another popular smartphone app to help you organize your thoughts, and keep notes while on the go.

Internet Browsing
One of the many benefits of working from home is knowing you can take a few minutes to check out your Facebook without getting reprimanded by your boss. On the flip side of things, a few minutes can quickly become an hour or more. Lazyman.com recommends, “creat[ing] separate Firefox profiles for increased productivity…when I'm in the work profile, I don't have the quick auto-complete to my "fun" sites. During breaks I can load up my fun Firefox profile and quickly get to what I want.”

Work Space
Some people work well with distractions. Others need a closed room with no distractions. Decide what works best for you and go with it. There are plenty of companies who have televisions, and other types of distractions in the office to help promote creativity. Knowing how to assess what works well for you is a must for the home based business owner.

Taking a Step Back
Being your own boss also means you have to know how to successful critique yourself. Knowing what you need to get done and asking yourself how you could have streamlined the process is a must. Ask yourself questions such as, “ if I could only work for half of the day tomorrow, what would have to get done?” Doing this will help you set your priorities straight and help you stay focused on the big picture.
What do you do to help you stay focused while working from home?

Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on direct mail companies based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as direct mail at Resource Nation.

Save Time with These Five Web-Based Tools

by Julie Barnes

As busy entrepreneurs, we are always looking for ways to save time in our businesses. Using the following web-based tools will not only save you time, but could save you some money, as well.

1. Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/) – Gone are the days, when we have to rely on a web designer to build our websites, or wait days for just a simple copy change. Not to mention the cost associated with the website. Besides static websites are a thing of the past. You can easily install Wordpress on any domain through your web hosting service. In Wordpress, you can add pages, make copy changes or make blog post without waiting or paying a website designer. Another benefit – Google loves Wordpress when crawling sites. Wordpress is free to install.

2. Hootesuite (http://hootsuite.com/) – Let’s face it. We have to utilize social media as part of our marketing, but it can take so much of our time. If we don’t watch it, a whole day can go by where all we have done is Twittered and Facebooked. With Hootsuite, you can manage multiple social media accounts at one location. One of the greatest features of Hootesuite is that you can track any link posted. You can also schedule your post, so you do not constantly have to log on and post. Now you can schedule your social media time. Hootesuite is a free service.

3. Tweet Adder (http://tweetadder.com/) – Researching people to follow on Twitter is another time-consuming process. By the time you look at their page, then their website you can spend hours on Twitter. Tweet Adder is a fabulous service that allows you to search Twitter using keywords. Tweet Adder will search for followers using the keywords entered, and then follow that person. Tweet Adder will also follow back anyone who is already following you. You should limit your following to about 50 a day to prevent Twitter from thinking you’re a spammer. You can take your Twitter time down to minutes a day. Tweet Adder has a demo that you can try, and then it will cost you $55.00 for 1 profile. This is a lifetime membership with no monthly fees.

4. Skype (http://www.skype.com) – You can do so many things with Skype from instant messaging, phone calls, video calls, and video presentations. You can set up different profiles from customer service, consulting, to personal to utilize in your business. Some features are free while some have a cost associated with them, so be sure to check the features out that you need.

5. Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/) – Carbonite is one of the best time saving services out there. No longer do you have to schedule a time to backup your system. You simply download the software onto your computer; Carbonite then scans and backs up your computer, then continually backs up your system as long as you are connected to the internet. Another fabulous thing is, if you have a hard drive that crashes, you can access all of you backed up files and then download them onto your new computer. How fabulous is that? Carbonite will cost you $54.95.

Implement these tools to see how you can find more time in your day.


Julie Barnes is the author is this post. Julie is excited to be living in Generation E – the age of the Entrepreneur. As a writer, she enjoys writing about all aspects of the entrepreneur journey. She enjoys interviewing entrepreneurs whose experience and wisdom can inspire others to follow their entrepreneurial dreams. Julie lives and works in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, KS with her husband Ron and lovable dog Hank. You can visit her site at http://www.julieabarnes.com . Follow Julie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juliebarnesks. Become a Facebook friend at http://www.facebook.com/people/Julie-Barnes/1003024246 

Women Entrepreneurs - The Secrets of Success for Wednesday, March 31st

Alaia Williams

Founder of One Organized Business (www.oneorganizedbusiness.com), Alaia has worked with a variety of business owners, helping them organize their homes, offices, and lives. From clutter and piles of paper to contact management and efficiency systems, Alaia helps create solutions that help her clients maximize their productivity and increase their bottom line. With an unflappable sense of patience and the ability to draw upon her organizing and systems expertise, she can create just the right strategy for you.

12:00 pm EDT
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