Volume 3, 2009

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Featured Topic: Doing More With Less

Inside This Issue

Being Successful With Less

A lot of people are concerned about the economy in general, the security of their jobs or business, and the future of our country. Our CEO, Beverly Inman-Ebel, just returned from hosting The 2009 Women’s Business Summit: The Economy Through a Different Lens. Beverly is serving a three-year federal appointment on the National Women’s Business Council.

Speakers included economists from the Small Business Administration and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, members of Congress, Director of Liaison at the White House, and senior level aides from the Senate Small Business Committee. Some of the most positive people in the room were in the audience of 100 business owners. While the economists gave bottom line number crunching of doom and gloom, business owners, who are feeling the pinch, are also being successful and optimistic.

NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners (Beverly was national president 2004-2005), reported a survey that found that 38% of businesses were hiring in 2008 and only 24% plan to hire in 2009, yet 52% plan on keeping the same level of employment this year. The optimism really is evident in that 54% believe the economy will improve by the end of 2009 compared to only 26% who believed that in 2008.

So small business, like the large corporations, will be doing more with less. They will do business with less employees, customers, marketing, and loans. Can it be done? Yes! The success will require all to reconnect with people, work smarter, manage their time, and change some habits.

If you are involved in developing business for your organization, make a list of all the people you know that will return a phone call or email. Catch up with them by talking or meeting them in person if they are close geographically. Have a purpose to this meeting. First, find out what their needs are and see how your organization can help or refer them to another person on your list.

Working smarter means making better judgements. Use critical thinking that is nothing more than reasonable and reflective thinking. Steps in critical thinking include:

Using this process of critical thinking can help you to work smarter. It is usually faster, and smarter, to prevent mistakes rather than to make and correct them.

To help you manage your time, first discover how you use it by keeping a time log for 2-3 weeks. You may find you need to time-box some tasks, do your most difficult tasks at your peak energy times, and reduce interruptions. Remember to make a list of important but not urgent tasks and do something each day to move them along. If you don’t, these important tasks will become urgent and you will spend your days handling the crisis.

Changing habits is both fun and challenging. Get outside of the box and look at your processes with a new observation. Strive to see what your internal and external customers see. At TLC, to reduce travel time and expense, we are providing more executive coaching over the phone and are beginning to provide training through webinars.

We CAN do more with less and then the less will become more.

What Our Clients Are Saying

WOW! Your presentation was wonderful and an asset to our training. I would like to explore my budget in the coming year to see how we can retain your services for future training. I will have to be creative to do so but I am sold.

Kevin McNeily

Happy Within, Even Without

Vincent Ivan Phipps, A.C.E.

Being Successful with Less For Dummies (And Smart People Too)

Hours are being reduced. Work more. Positions are being eliminated. Increase productivity.

Have you felt the sting of our current economy? If you have not, consider yourself fortunate. Chances are, you know of someone who has. To remain nimble in our tightening financial condition, our government and our industry leaders tell us that we have to learn to do more with less.

That sounds like a typical colloquialism. It also has a nice poetic balance to it such as, “The moment is what you make of it.” Or “You get out what you put into it.” or even a timeless favorite, “This too shall pass.” But what does “Do more with less” mean to you and me, right now? The answer you create will determine your fate. See, there is another one!

First, let’s dichotomize the saying, “Doing more with less”. We can take the first part, “Doing more.” Doing more what? Doing more cold calls? Attending more community functions. Writing more proposals? Meeting more people? Reading more books? Getting more education? The answer to each is, yes!

Learn the difference between being busy and being productive. If you are on the phone for 60 minutes, regardless of who you are talking with, an hour is gone. Did you spend that time investing in your growth, or was it wasted? Working smarter is different than working harder. When I was ten, my father asked me to dig a ditch. I grabbed the nearest tool I could find which was a hand held gardening shovel. After an hour, I had worked extremely hard and only dug 2 feet. He showed me by using a shovel I could work smarter and be more efficient using less effort. In the next hour after using the shovel, I had dug 5 times deeper than before.

Second, let’s look at the final part of “Doing more with less.” Less what? How can it get any less? With benefits, vacations, sick leave, salaries all being reduced, can our country handle less? The answer again, is yes!

Make phone calls instead of doing business in person. Remember to be productive. Twice a week, eat lunch at your desk and continue finding ways to be productive. If only done twice a week that equates to 8 hours a month. That’s like giving you an extra day to do more! If you have the technology, use your mobile phone or blackberry to text or check emails while waiting in line or on hold.

Fraudulent spending and economic mismanagement led our country to this current situation. Therefore, calculated savings, and strategic financial decisions must lead us out of it. Decide if you need a laptop versus wanting a laptop. Be happy (or neutral) within. Remain optimistic yet use balanced judgment in your financial decisions.

Doing more with less, starts with the individual decisions we make in our homes. Can you car pool to save money on gas? Can you go without cable? Companies have one goal in mind, to make money. Often that means cutting fat or in corporate lingo that refers to overhead. Focus on making sure that you and your professional talents are muscle. To be your best, do more, with less!

Happy Birthday

TLC wishes a Happy Birthday to clients celebrating in March:

Featured Service

Season Tickets

Season Tickets are interactive, half day workshops teaching vital communication skills to build your influence with people.

The four seasonal workshops are:

Purchase one for specific needs or get all four at a reduced cost. Each Season Ticket purchase admits one and is conducted at Blood Assurance conference room, 3rd Floor 700 East Third Street Chattanooga, TN 37403

Each Ticket Includes:

Cost per seminar $79.95
Cost of Full Season Ticket (series of 4): $299.00

Doing more with less is one reason TLC offers these mini-workshops for individuals or companies wanting to provide training on a limited budget. These programs may be brought in-house and customized for your company. Ask for details.

ORDER NOW!

CEO Corner

Beverly Inman-Ebel

Chief Executive’s Opinion

“If it is to be, it is up to me.” This is my mantra, the standard by which I live my life. Oh, I appreciate help from others and welcome them to take off in leadership, yet I depend upon myself to make my moment, my day, and my life.

Since our topic this month is doing more with less, I thought it appropriate to discuss the smallest whole number: one. I believe we get ourselves in trouble when we wait on others to make it happen. The “it” can be initiation of a task, coming up with an idea, or even happiness. Following my idea of it is up to me, it is important to get off to a good start each day.

I like to begin each day with thinking ahead to four things I am looking forward to. I call these my points of joy. Today my four points of joy were taking my niece for a ride in my new car, completing my nine sales calls, writing creatively, and hugging my old dog that I have not seen in a week. The first one was probably the most fun, but it didn’t happen because my niece called to cancel due to illness. Making the sales calls was no joy ride, but finishing them brought me a sense of accomplishment. To creatively write today, I had to hide in the conference room because of all the distractions in the office. Even the conference room had distractions due to a recent break-in and vandalism. I will cherish hugging McClellan, my 12-year old Standard Poodle, even if he is dirty and full of briers from being out in the woods with my mother-in-law.

Why do I target four points of joy? It reminds me to be grateful for a moment that I might otherwise miss. For instance, I left nine messages today, reaching no one on my sales calls. That could be a downer, yet because I had targeted the completion as a moment to celebrate, I was able to see the value of what I had done rather than commiserate upon the lack of results. I guess you could say I plan the joy in advance and then make sure I come to the party.

When you are depending upon yourself, it is also important to end your day well. Before going to bed, I remember my day and count all the moments of joy that I was not expecting. There are always more than the original four. For me today, while I did not get to see my niece, I did spend some time with my best friend.

Goals, happiness, change – if it is to be, it is up to me. We all can do more with less. It is up to us. And thinking of that, I’m going to take a quick lunch break and drive my Mini Cooper. I promise I will feel the joy of the zippy little car. Live your dreams!

TLC establishes long-term relationships with our clients. If we have helped you or if you believe our approach to change would work for someone you know, please request a proposal or phone 1-888-232-2873. We work with individuals and groups on the following subject areas: attitude, listening, body language, voice, leadership, compliments and corrections, behavioral style, teamwork, effective meetings, public speaking, accent reduction and much more!.

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