This broadcast covers some of the methods that can help the solopreneur generate and sustain the self-inspiration and motivation that is the required ingredient for business success. What are you doing to keep your spirit flying? To generate new ideas? To work hard, (when others are playing)?

Learn how to create time management strategies that can help you stay focused and set priorities. Discover tips to help you price your offerings competitively yet put you on the road to profitability. How you manage your time and money matters. This podcast gives specific techniques on managing cash flow, getting paid and getting paid what you’re worth, and time management tips to keep you on track.

This podcast reveals some valuable insights that will help today’s solopreneurs begin their journey with a better understanding of their natural talents and their unique attributes to make the most of their resources and their abilities.

This podcast is the first in a series discussing some of the challenges and obstacles and then offer some solutions and resources to help you on the road to success.

Here is a list and links to the original podcasts of the shows we discussed. Did you have any favorites?

Strategy CPR: How to Breathe Life into Your Organization’s Game Plan

Resilience: How Can You Be Flexible and Strong in Challenging Times?

Coloring Outside the Lines

Are You a Transformational Leader?

Why Blogging is an Essential Marketing Tool for Business

Caring Inspired! Love,Hope&Compassion & Social Networking

One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) under construction.

On September 11, 2011, the 9-11 Memorial opened to the public as a place for us to honor and remember those who lost their lives on this terrible day 10 years ago.  This month, I made my own personal visit to this sacred ground and I wanted to share the photos and feelings I had from that day. I had made the trek to Ground Zero after the attacks to see the devastation, and say a prayer for those who died and their loved ones. That visit was very different from this one. While I wasn’t sure what to expect, I knew it would be powerful.

You must book your reservation on line at the 9-11 Memorial web site. They stagger the times you can visit in half hour increments. During this time of year, there was lots of availability, but during the summer or holidays, you should book a few weeks in advance. The web site gives you all the information you need to know to prepare for your visit. You do have to go through security and your personal items are x-rayed before you can enter the site.

Once you make your way through the construction pathways, you enter the site on the southwest corner. The first thing I noticed was the silence except for the waterfalls in the two pools. There were several hundred people there and no one spoke above a whisper. Now this was a Sunday, so I imagine during the week days, you would hear all of the construction going on around the Memorial. I observed many people doing etchings of names, taking pictures at specific names and silent prayers being said.

South Pool

For me the emotions just flowed: tears, sighs, sorrow, and a heavy heart. As I walked around the two pools, I wanted to embrace all the names of those who died and tell them how much they were loved and are missed.

Another observation was the number of small children who were too young to know about this tragic day. Parents were on bent knee explaining what all of this meant. It was overwhelming at times. The 9-11 Museum is still under construction, but this will help our future generations know what happened on this day and how our world changed.

9-11 Museum under construction.

Survivor Tree 9-11 Memorial Winter 2012

As I made my way to the exit, I noticed a group of people surrounding a 9-11 volunteer under a barren tree. I stopped to listen to his story and discovered that this tree is call the “Survivor Tree.”  According to the 9-11 Memorial web site:

The callery pear tree became known as the Survivor Tree after sustaining extensive damage, but living through the September 11, 2001, terror attacks at the World Trade Center. In October 2001, the tree with lifeless limbs, snapped roots and blackened trunk was discovered and freed from the piles of smoldering rubble in the plaza of the World Trade Center. The tree was originally planted in the 1970s in the vicinity of buildings four and five in the WTC complex near Church Street.The damaged tree measured eight-feet tall when it arrived in November 2001 at the Parks Department’s Arthur Ross Nursery in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  It was nursed back to health and today has grown to a height of about 30 feet.

Here is a video of Alice Martin, who lost her husband on September 11, 2001, getting a private tour of the memorial site and learning the story of the Survivor Tree. Since my photo was taken in the dead of winter, this video shows the tree in full bloom and green leaves.

This was the perfect way to end my visit. While so many were lost, those of us left behind are the survivors as well. We have commitment to the 2,983 people who lost their lives to terrorists to never let it happen again.

If you’ve visited the 9-11 Memorial or would like to share your thoughts and memories, feel free to comment below.

For 2012, I am not only writing this year’s goals, I am also thinking about my BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals! These are the long term goals that I strive for – and usually write them down every few years.

I first starting writing BHAGs in the early 1990s. But what is more telling is how they’ve shaped my life and career and what’s happened because of them. My story of how I started my business is because of a BHAG. And there are other BHAGs in my past as well that have come to reality.

In July 2002, I was unpacking some boxes. I had just moved into my new condo on the beach and was settling in. As I cleaned out another box. I found a legal sized yellow sheet of paper with my goals listed on it from 1994. In addition to my yearly goals, I had three BHAGs listed – 1. To own a home on the beach, 2. To get my Master’s degree, and 3. To have my own business.

Fast forward, and here I am with my own home with an oceanview. So, in 2002, I had accomplished one of my BHAGs. Finding this list inspired me to put the other two BHAGs back on my list. In 2005, I received my MA from Monmouth University in Corporate and Public Communication.  In 2008, I started my business. Recession or not, it was time.

The recession has kept many of us from thinking BIG. It’s hard to get beyond today, this month, or even year when confidence is low and fear is high. But, I believe because of this, it’s even more of a reason to write BHAGs. These are long term 3, 5 or 10 year goals, but you must have the vision first so you can move in that direction.

Prepare, plan and take action for 2012 – and add a couple BHAGs to your list. One of mine is to travel cross country by car. What are some of your BHAGs? Please feel free to share and comment.

Creating a Facebook Business (or Fan) Page is easy and free. But once you’ve created the page, you can immediately benefit from the features pages offer.

1. Business page content is in the public domain (where your individual profile is managed by your privacy settings) and is indexed by search engines.  Every bit of content – status updates, photos, links, events and videos – are able to be found by Google,  Bing, etc.
2. If you have several businesses or products or services, you can create more than one business page.
3. Many business owners want to keep their profiles only for their personal use. Fan pages allow you to keep your personal and business lives separate.
4. Since it’s a public page, anyone can “like” your page. This will help you expand beyond your circle of “friends and family” on the personal side and make the page for business building.
5. Pages allow you to create a custom URL – www.facebook.com/yourbusinessname.  This custom username makes it easier for you to share your page link.
6. You can also create a keyword descriptive page name that is more than just your business name.
7. If you have a street address, use Facebook places to have clients and customers check in. Everytime they do, your business name is mentioned on their Facebook profile for all their friends to see.
8. Facebook provides its own analytics called “Insights” that allows you to measure and analyze your efforts.
9. Facebook pages offers several resources to help you cross promote you page on your web site and blog using “likes”, “shares” and “comments”
10. Facebook “apps” can be used to customize your page. You can embed your blog posts and LinkedIn profile and/or add welcome pages, contests, and newsletter sign up forms.

Having a presence on Facebook is no longer something a business can put off anymore. With 96% of US adults using Facebook as their social network of choice, it’s hard to ignore the potential business opportunities this platform offers.

Related articles

• 30 Top Facebook Apps for Business (freelanceswitch.com)

Bea Fields, president of Bea Fields Companies, Inc. joined 30 Minute Business Dig to share her expertise in the blogging explosion and why businesses must embrace this social networking tool.

Bea focuses on coaching executive level leaders, training companies on engaging Generation Y employees in the workplace and teaching business owners and corporate leaders how to build and write blogs and use social networks as a way to expand their reach and connect with their younger employees and clients.

In this episode, you will learn why blogging needs to be added to every business marketing strategy, what some of the obstacles are to launching and maintaining a successful blog, and hear about some success stories from businesses who have benefited from working with Bea.

By creating a social media editorial calendar, you can plan ahead to determine the type of content you will post, where you will post it, and when. Once you’ve outlined your content development strategy, you can track your frequency and days/times posts occur to measure engagement and results through your analytics.

To help in the process, I developed a three-step method to creating a social media calendar that works.

Step 1  – Set Your Strategy

Select the social media platforms you are using.

Specify your social media goals for the next 3-6 months.

Specify how many times per week you will post on each platform.

Specify the breakdown of original content vs. sharing content that others have created.

Specify the types of content you will use: status updates, articles, blog posts, newsletters, photos, videos, events etc.

Your content strategy needs to be as detailed as possible. This makes the content development and creation easier to manage and maintain for consistency and branding.

Step 2 – Create Your Content Development Schedule

Creating a weekly schedule of the types of content you will be creating or sharing will help to create consistency and engagement.  I use an Excel spreadsheet and create a separate sheet for each month.

The left column first lists the type of content that I will create and then I specify exactly what that content will be and the week it will be posted. For example, in week 2 I will write a blog post that will include a podcast from my Blog Talk Radio show.  In week 4, I will create a video testimonial from of my clients.

In addition, you will share content that others have created. As you find content in your daily web browsing that you would like to share,  capture the page link and put it into the calendar for the week when you will post it.  This way all your content is in one place.

If you use a third party platform such as Hootsuite, Social Oomph, or Seesmic, this method helps you manage your time more efficiently. You can schedule some of the content in advance to be posted.

Step 3 – Create Your Tracking Calendar

The tracking sheet creates a snapshot of your social media interaction and the frequency of your posts. In step 1, you noted the platforms, goals, types of content, and frequency of posts per platform. On the tracking sheet, you document this data.

At the top of the calendar, note your post frequency goals.

At the bottom of the calendar, create a legend (or use this one) to code the social media platform and type of content posted.

At the end of each month, you have a complete overview of your social media content created and shared. This data can now be used with your Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to measure your effectiveness.

Click on the link for the PDF of the sample sheets of the 3 Step Process to Create a Social Media Calendar.

If you have any feedback, methods that you use or suggestions, please share your comments. If you found this helpful, use the share links at the top of the post and share this content on your social media platforms.