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By Bernadette Doyle

It’s not unusual for someone setting up a service business to be advised to give a free consultation as a way of winning business. In the coaching world in particular (and many other service businesses) this is recommended as the main way of winning clients.

Many coaches are assured (often by the people selling them their coaching training) that all they will need to do to have a full practice is offer free taster sessions, and somehow those people will magically transform into paying clients.

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by Marcia Francois

When I do speaking engagements, I always stress the importance of writing things down.

When you write things down, it frees your mind for more big picture thinking and you don’t have to worry about the details.

That said, these are the 3 lists you absolutely must use to manage your time effectively:

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By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

We’ve all had this experience. We walk into a meeting for six people at 2:00 p.m. and five out of the six are there but one is not and so we wait. And we wait some more and eventually the other person comes strolling in and our 2:00 p.m. meeting now begins at 2:15 having kept five on-time people waiting, wasting more than a full hour of the organization’s productivity time.

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By Bernadette Doyle

One big question I hear over and over is ‘how on earth do I find time for marketing and selling?’ The challenge of running your own business is that typically you are not only the sales manager; you’re also the person delivering the service to your clients.

This is something I can strongly relate to, as I struggled with it myself when I first set up my corporate training business back in 1996.

What made the biggest difference for me was replacing one-to-one sales and marketing activities with one-to-many activities.

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by Carrie Greene, CarrieThru, LLC, Coach & Professional Organizer

A lot of the habits and practices you have today seem to be serving you.

You decide to redo your bedroom. You spend weeks, even months on it. You read up on the latest decorating ideas, design the perfect layout and pick the perfect fabrics and colors. You finally commit and do it. You’re thrilled with the results.

Or it could be tax time. You haven’t thought about taxes since last year. But once again it is crunch time. You stress, stay up all night, sort through all of the papers, find everything you need and you do it. Once again, you file everything on time. This year you even get a refund.

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By Bernadette Doyle

When I first started my business, I listened to a lot of motivational speakers and read ’success’ books that preached to be successful in business we’ve got to make huge sacrifices, we’ve got to work 80-hour weeks, we’ve got to compromise, we’ve got to sacrifice time with our family or time off.

And while there are lots of people in the world that will tell you that that’s how you have to be successful in business, I’m not one of them.

I no longer believe that. I used to believe it but I don’t believe it any longer.

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by Gary Ruplinger

Email is one of the greatest innovations of the online world, but if you’re not careful it will suck up your time, and be a far detriment to your business than a benefit.

Here are some tips for taming the email beast.

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By C.J. Hayden, MCC

As an independent professional, the demands of marketing your business have the potential to give you many sleepless nights. It often seems that the list of things to do is endless, and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to market your business, serve your clients, run your office, and keep up in your field.

But instead of staying up at night trying to find time for marketing that just doesn’t fit into your busy day, a better strategy can be to engage in marketing activities that will work for you while you sleep. Here are four ways to approach this kind of set-it-and-forget-it marketing.

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By Sally Goldberg, Ph.D.

Q. Is there any way to make life with 2 young children run more smoothly?

A. Yes, set up a daily schedule and keep to it as much as possible.

A schedule provides structure. “When structure speaks, children listen.” By providing a simple daily schedule, you help your child to feel secure. It provides consistency. It is the beginning of the discipline process. Amid all the chaos of today’s life, you will be able to accomplish as much as possible by following a routine. Here are some helpful guidelines.

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By Tessa Stowe

Have you ever had a prospect say to you “Tell me about your products and I only have 10 minutes”? What have you done in this situation? What was the response you received?

Before we look at three ways to respond, let’s look at the “I only have 10 minutes” statement.

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