At some point, pretty much every single one of my coaching client says “I feel so alone”. This aloneness, this isolation, takes a few different forms but comes down to two different causes:

You’re trying to run your business all by yourself;

You alone.

You have no one to bounce ideas off and synergise with.

Brainstorming isn’t effective when it’s just you.

You’re trying to do every single task yourself, from your core business that only you can do to your bookkeeping to your filing. Every single task.

It’s easy to get stuck in a business problem and be unable to get your head around a solution

Or

You’re not looking after yourself

You’re always working, not taking time off for your kids or partner. You know you should, but there’s so much work to be done!

You’re a single parent, which means you’re mum, dad, breadwinner, business owner, everything. The last person you have time to look after is yourself.

You’re trying to look after young children and run a business at the same time. This is why you started a home based business, right? So you could be home and look after the kids and still contribute to the family budget.

Feeling guilty about taking time off when you ‘should’ be working. There’s work to be done, and you’re the one who has to do it. How can you take a break when you can see what you need to be doing?

When you’re trying to run your business all by yourself

If you’re in the first group then the solution is relatively easy. Do any or all of the following:

Get a Business Coach.

Join a Coaching Group.

Find an online Business forum, such as Business Mums Network.

Look for someone in your industry who is willing to mentor you.

Hire a real life assistant or a VA.

Take a break to clear your head.

Become part of an online group of work at home mums, such as Mom Entrepreneurs on google groups.

When you’re not looking after yourself

Getting out from the thought patterns of the second group can be a little harder, because the best answer is to get out of the house and around other people. That takes time and effort, also it’s time away from your business.  And it’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

Where do you find the time? Something has to give, and it’s better if it’s some part of your business rather than your sanity or family. So, decide what HAS to be done by you and do it.

Streamline everything you can.

Outsource where possible.

Look for faster ways to do things.

Become more organised and streamlined in your working.

‘Batch’ your work – do emails twice a day, paperwork once a day/week, group like tasks together.

But doesn’t that take time to set up?

Yes, all of this takes time initially. You have to invest that time in order to free up time. Any task we do will expand to fill the time we have. If you have only one hour to do something that normally takes two, then you’re likely to work your butt off and get it done – in one hour.

Give yourself time off and hold that time sacred. Take time out for yourself. It doesn’t have to be a day at the spa, it doesn’t have to cost anything in money. Go for a walk or a bike ride. Leave the kids with your partner or a babysitter for a couple of hours. Bake cookies and catch up with girlfriends at someone’s house.

Make a connection

As human beings we’re designed for connectedness. We were never intended to live and work in isolation, our psyches aren’t designed to work best alone. No matter what some people will say, we ALL work better when we’re connected to others, be that on a business or personal level.

As women especially, we’re designed to congregate and socialise. Whether that’s talking with other mums about your business or your child’s latest toilet training accident, we all need and crave that connection. Denying that need starves you of emotional oxygen and slows you down.

Go out. Make a connection. Grow. Work well and profitably.

Sean from Psychotactics is giving away the Home Study version of his Brain Alchemy Masterclass for free, until the end of November.

During October I was Project Manager for this project, getting it ready for giving away and have been hanging out to tell you all!

If you’ve got a business then you need to listen to these recordings. I’ve learnt so much from them, and I’m only halfway through (it’s three days worth of workshop!)

I’ve been on Sean’s list for a couple of years, I’ve read his book and am a member of his forum. Initially I was concerned that it would be information that I’ve read before, however I’ve found that most of it is new and listening to it rather than reading it gives the information a whole new dimension.

In the audio’s they work with the participants on the content – this alone has been truly valuable to me as it demonstrates how it applies to real businesses.

It’s free, only until 30 November. Go and sign up for it, now.  Brain Alchemy Masterclass

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Congratulations to the other winners:

Parenting – Your Cheeky Monkey

Women - Inside Out Style

Environment – Twinkle Lily

And a huge thank you to Melissa Khalinsky of Business Mums Network for running this competition!

There’s more information on the Blog Awards here.

Please go and vote right now, voting closes tonight!

That bit of news WAS exciting and set my techy little heart racing.  We were looking at paying around the $600 mark for two licences to upgrade to Win 7 – yes, $600 – so to get the full suite for both of us for $385 was brilliant, and feels VERY good on the wallet.

So if you want Win 7 (yes, you can get Home, Professional or Ultimate versions) plus the rest of the Microsoft suite, hop along to Technet and buy yourself a downloadable subscription. Use the discount code “TNWIN7RTM” (minus the quotation marks) to get the cheaper price.  (that’s not an affiliate link, I make no money off you clicking the link or joining)

Windows 7 is lovely, and after using Vista for the last year and a half it’s even better!

In the middle of our visit to the in-laws I spoke at the Business Mums Network Pampering day. It was a really great day and kudos to Melissa for organising it. The talks will be available soon in downloadable and/or CD format, along with the notes.

Recently I discovered two fantastic tools that I’m loving using.

Timedriver

For quite a while now I’ve been looking for an online appointment maker that could work with different time zones and I finally found Timedriver – it does everything I wanted and at a lower price than I expected. How awesome is that?

The way it works is this: I enter in days and times that I’m available to take appointments, in my own local time. Each ‘appointment book’ is for a different type of appointment – I currently have set up appointment books for 45 minute coaching sessions, 15 minute Laser coaching sessions and 15 minutes quick consult timings.

When a client needs to book an appointment with me I send them the link to the appropriate appointment book. When they open the link, Timedriver detects their default time zone from their computer and so they see the available appointments based on their own local time zone.

Timedriver sends both the client and myself an email when an appointment has been booked and also syncs with my Outlook calendar to book them in. You have no idea how excited I was to find Timedriver. And the best part is that after the free 90 day trial it costs less than US$30 per year!

Dropbox

Dropbox was shown to me by Sean of Psychotactics when I took on managing a project for him. It’s a way to share files with other people without having to email them.

You download the Dropbox application and install it on your desktop. Anything you want to share you save to a folder inside dropbox.

To share a folder with someone you got to the online application and send the person an email invitation to the folder. That person can only see folders that they’ve been invited to – they can’t see anything else in your dropbox.

The other person can then add files to the folder, change and save files, all from their desktop. The first two Gb are free. Great for storing small backups, sharing files, photo’s and audio/video, working with your VA etc.