Pretty In Pink: Christine Siler

Pretty In Pink Spotlight: Christine Siler

Business: C & R Productions

Website: http://www.crprod.com/

Snapshot of your business? We are a custom website design and software development company, specializing in assisting companies to grow their bottom line.

What inspired you start your business? It just happened.

How long have you been in business? Since 1984 – 25 years

What is a typical work day? Answering emails, assisting my business development mangers (sales staff), working with my web designers, business calls, talking ABWA, working on idea’s to grow our business with my husband who is our CIO, teaching my grandson.

What is your proudest moment in business? One of the programs we developed is a voice active menu (one of the first) it is my voice on it and Walt Disney World and Perdue Universities both bought our program.

What is your current business challenge? Finding the next niche.What motivates or inspires you to keep going? To be a snow bird and have 2 beautiful homes and travel.

What is your favorite motivational quote? Do not have one

Family? 1 sister, 2 daughters and 1 grandson.

How do you balance running a business, family and “me time”? We get off at a set time, most days we make it; I have Fridays off for my grandson as we home school him as well. Saturday is work around the house day and Sunday is about “US”. Me time is reading or play on-line game.

What is your favorite “me time” activity? Reading, soaking in a big tub

What is your best piece of advice for other Always Busy Women in Business? Enjoy what you do and be excited by it. Do write a business plan and marketing plan it helps you to achieve what you want because you know what you want and how to get there.

Do you have a favorite business tool and/or resource? Business associates

What is next for your business? We will be rolling out our new product that should take our company to the next level. Ask me again in 2 months and then I can talk about it.

10 Ways to Survive the Carpool Line

1. Grab a Drink. We all can use a yummy cup of coffee or a cold ice tea.

2. Have fun activities for the kids sitting in the back seat. You can even pack a fun bag for yourself and through in your favorite magazine, book or journal.

3. Make some calls. Catch up with love ones and friends while you are waiting!

4. Twitter or Facebook. Update your status or chat online.

5. Plan Your Day. Pull out your calendar and see what is on schedule for the next day and plan out your day. List your top 5 must get done tasks for the following day.

6. Car Dance. Turn up the music and rock out! Do some car dancing and rev up your engine for the rest of the day.

7. Write Notes. Take those few minutes to hand write some Thank you notes to clients.

8. Brainstorm. Have an upcoming project you want to launch or a new service you want to offer. Put it on paper and brainstorm on what you need to do to make it happen.

9. Kid Talk. Have little ones in the back? They are trapped in the carpool line too. Have some fun conversation with them or play an “I See” game.

10. Best Survival Tip. If the carpool line just has you going crazy, my best advice is to park in a nearby spot and walk in. This will save you from the frustrations and craziness of the line. Plus, who couldn’t use a nice boost of sunshine and fresh air?

Great Article by Jennifer Fong - Your Newsletter is an Important Part of your Social Media Strategy

http://liajen.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/your-newsletter-in-an-important-part-of-your-social-media-strategy/

Shared via AddThis

Making the Most of Your Day

Being your own boss can be a challenge. You’re it! As an entrepreneur it is imperative to prioritize each day for maximum productivity. It is so easy to get caught up in surfing the net, chatting with friends on facebook or worse preparing to prioritize (you know what I am talking about… making a list, organizing papers, busy stuff that doesn’t get you any closer to your goal).

The most common time waster is procrastination. Any of us can think of a million different time consuming tasks to do, that ultimately accomplish nothing.

One of the best things you can do to maximize your time is to plan your day. Each morning or at the end of your day take 15 minutes to map out your day. The only way you are ever going to achieve your goals is to take action steps and these steps need to be in your calendar!

You might be reading this and think… yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before. O.K., so then why aren’t you making it happen? Let’s take a second and get real. Think about what behaviors might be sabotaging your success. Do any of these sound familiar?

Continually preparing and not taking action.
Being unable to say “NO” to things that aren’t moving you forward
Failing to ask for help
Focusing on unproductive tasks
Being unorganized
Not having a clear goal
Waiting until late in the day to do tasks and then not doing them because you’re tired.

Did you connect with any of these? The first thing in correcting a behavior is recognizing it. Analyze the behavior and ask yourself why you are behaving this way? Is it possible there is something else holding you back?

Here are a few things that can help:

Focus on priorities first thing in the morning.
Tackle the most difficult task first
One of the best things you can do is carry a tote around with you, so you can be productive when free time opens up.
Don’t take phone calls, look at emails or get on the internet until your priorities for they day are complete.

5 Ways to Help Tackle Self Motivation

While self-motivation is a simple concept, we all know that it’s one of the hardest things to attain. Despite purely good intentions, most of us are better at slacking off than getting motivated. But, no matter what your attention span it is possible for you to motivate yourself and reach your goals; you just need to follow a few simple steps.

Know what you’re doing

A to-do list is nice to have to help you get things done, but it doesn’t do much to help you stay motivated. Before you can make your to-do list, you need to set goals and priorities. They may be short term like “finish this project to attain more work” or more general like “increase workload to attain promotion”. If you give yourself a goal or vision to work for, you’re going to be more motivated to finish things than if you’re simply completing tasks.

Stay positive

A positive attitude can go a long way. People have probably told you this over and over, but you’re still not inclined to believe it. Take a little extra time each day to remind yourself of your accomplishments. It is also a good idea to try to surround yourself with positive and encouraging people. If you don’t have any at work, find positive and encouraging statements from successful people and post them around your office.

Set mini-goals

Finishing a project can be a daunting task. If it’s a large amount of work, you’re likely to look at it, get overwhelmed, and give up or put it off before you even get started. An easier way to accomplish a project is to break it up into smaller tasks. This way you’ll be looking at a bunch of small goals instead of one great big one. While it’s the same amount of work, it helps to keep you from getting overwhelmed. Plus, each time you accomplish one of your tasks, you’ll feel successful and motivated to keep trekking on through the rest.

Reward yourself

To help keep yourself going, set up rewards for each task you complete. They don’t have to be anything big; they could be going to see a movie over the weekend or spending 15 minutes on the phone with a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. It’s just something positive to help encourage you. You can also set small rewards for your mini goals and have a large reward for when you finish a large project.

You can also punish yourself to achieve goals. For example, set up a mini-punishment, like snapping a rubber band on your wrist. Every time you find yourself drifting off and not paying attention, or doing something counter-productive, snap the rubber band. This will help train your mind to stay on track.

Have a backup

While we may have the best of intentions, most of us really aren’t that good at sticking with our self-motivating methods. If this seems like you, you may be in need of some backup. This is a friend, co-worker, or associate - anyone who is dependable and trustworthy. Let them know what your goals are (and even your rewards and punishments) and set up a plan for them to check up on you.

It could be as simple as giving you a call to see how much you’ve gotten done, or maybe have them be the keeper of some reward and administer it when you reach your goal. This way, if your resolution wavers, you’ll have someone else there to help out.

Pretty In Pink: Nancy Jay

Meet Nancy Jay!

Business: Premier Designs Jewelry

Website: www.premierdesigns.com

Snapshot of your business? I sell high fashion jewelry, which is in between costume jewelry and the “real stuff. We often call it “bridge jewelry”. Premier Designs offers something for everyone with our reasonable prices and varied styles from romantic and classic to bold, dramatic, and bling. I assist women by going into their homes and teaching them and their friends how to accessorize their wardrobes with jewelry to economize in today’s tough financial times. I also teach women how to get this jewelry free, as well as how to supplement or replace their income by building a successful direct sales jewelry business. In addition, I do catalogue shows and take wholesale individual orders.

What inspired you start your business? Due to chronic health issue, I cannot work a traditional 9 to 5 job. I was in the “right place at the right time” when I heard about Premier. I had always been a jewelry lover and loved the product Premier offers, along with the flexibility the business opportunity would allow me. It was the best decision ever as it has changed my life!
How long have you been in business? I started with Premier in February of this year.

What is a typical work day? On a day I am not doing a home show, my day consists of a combination of marketing, developing my business, calling customers and hostesses, recording shows, doing my “books” (I try to avoid that at all costs, ugh ;), and going to as many networking events as I can. On a day I am doing a home show, typically I arrive at the hostess’ home an hour before to set up, the show lasts 2 hours and then I take about ½ hour to gather my stuff…plus travel of course.

What is your proudest moment in business? My proudest moments have to come from the personal connections I make with customers. I have a few I can recall but the one that stands out is when I sold a watch to an elderly woman in the hair salon I go to. She is also disabled and has limited income but she wanted that watch so much. I sold it to her on the spot and reduced the price significantly to make it feasible for her to afford it. I did take a hit but the smile on her face when she went around showing everyone her new watch was priceless!!! I still keep in touch with her to this day and she calls me her “gem” ;)

What is your current business challenge? My biggest challenge has to be the fact the, due to being ill for quite a long time, I don’t have as large of a social network as I’d like, as well as that much physical stamina. These limitations make it very difficult to really get out there and get known and book shows. I am working on overcoming these. (oops..i think I gave 2 challenges ;)

What motivates or inspires you to keep going? What keeps me going are two things: the fact that I was out of work for 5 years and now I am able to work due the flexibility that Premier affords me. Secondly, I LOVE the product I sell and the company I work for and what they stand for. Premier Designs treats me like gold, no matter how much or how little I sell and they were the only company to have sent me a card and flowers when I was recovering from surgery and a subsequent life threatening event. (I mightadd..this beautiful bouquet and card came from the owners of this HUGE company so they really keep on top of their jewelers and go out of their way to make you feel special and appreciated for your work.

What is your favorite motivational quote?
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall-Confucious

Family? I have a wonderful husband, Cliff, who is very supportive of my going back to work and is also a strong fan of Premier Designs. I also have 3 kitties..Teddy, Lilly, and Minnie. They are my “furry kids”..but they are more like regular kids to me since I do not have any.

How do you balance running a business, family and “me time”? Since my energy is limited, I always feel like I need to take every moment of it to work and I don’t engage in much “me time”, to be honest. So, striking that balance has been really difficult, I must admit. However, I am working on it and the meetings that GBA provides is an awesome help since they provide us with a forum to discuss these issues.

What is your favorite “me time” activity? Hmm..I do so much with my husband it is hard to say…probably listening to music and singing since music and singing are two of my other passions in life.

What is your best piece of advice for other Always Busy Women in Business? As hard as it is as a business owner, try not to let work consume your life and be the only thing you have. It’s easy to fall into that pattern, especially when you are like me and always feel there is something to be done and have trouble leaving your work “at the office”, which is often our homes, and not thinking about it 24/7. Not to mention, not having any time for yourself or your family. That will make for one irritable and unhappy person, not to mention put a huge strain on your relationships with family and friends. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to engage in non work activities, including “me time” and time for your family, you’ll be a more well rounded and happier person in the end and you will subsequently be a happier and more successful business owner.

Do you have a favorite business tool and/or resource? For me, it is my upline and networking and speaking with other small business owners, like in groups such as GBA.

What is next for your business? I am really looking to engage in a lot more social marketing to build my customer base. I am also looking into re-structuring some of my shows and sales strategies to increase my sales. Also, I am working to promote our brand new line, which just came out last week and is absolutely beautiful!!!

Special Offer? I would like to offer 15% off everything in the entire catalogue to GBA members. Also, I will be offering my retired items at 10% off.