Tips for Mastering Time Management

A common mistake business owners make is not managing their use of time effectively. Entrepreneurs fall into the superhero syndrome very quickly and think that have enormous super powers to do everything themselves. They slowly begin to focus on tasks just because they need to get done or perhaps it is just easier to do it yourself rather than take the time to train someone. This is the time trap and needs to be avoided. There are only so many hours in a day and you need to focus your time on the task s that will yield the greatest result and outsource or delegate the tasks that don’t provide a large return.

It is all in the math. If your hourly rate is $ 150/hr and you are not a strong bookkeeper and it takes you 10 hours to keep your books it cost you $1,500 for that task. If you outsourced your bookkeeping to a professional at $ 25/hr , chances are it will only take them 5 hours since this is their specialty, and cost you only $ 125. A big difference. Not to mention the other benefit—You now have 10 additional hours to work “on” your business rather than “in” it. The strategic planning that will BLAST your business to new heights, that next great idea that will bring in a muti -million dollar client or that creative marketing message that will brand you in a class by yourself. Your time is one of your most valuable asset, protect it wisely. Many entrepreneurs struggle with this concept because often cash is tight and they believe they can save a few bucks by doing it themselves. Unfortunately, this has the exact opposite effect and can impede success. Although you may save a few dollars in the short fun and ended up successful in the end, the question you need to ask yourself is would you have gotten there quicker? Would your business have reached its goals many years earlier? A good exercise to begin is to start planning your time…. Business is all about planning.

Follow these tips:

Develop the main areas of your focus: Sales, Marketing , HR, Operations ect..

Write down your “to do” list (tasks) — this will be an active list that you will add to each day

Categorize your task into the main areas and consolidate for easy review and delegation

Prioritize the importance of the tasks on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being most important)

Identify task that can easily be outsourced with a check mark

Review your list and outsource and delegate everything with a checkmark

Outsource all administrative tasks, bookkeeping and marketing

Develop expectations and manage by exception. If your teams are hitting their goals, trust them to continue.

Remember that at least 35% of your time must be working ON your business.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

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You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST 9O Day Coaching Program and teaches biz owners how to build the business of their dreams for a life of freedom, profits and fulfillment. Interesting in growing your business, sign up for her FREE mini course “The Empowered Entrepreneur” and learn how to take the journey to freedom, profits and fulfillment at www.kelliedandrea

Sometimes it takes a little Faith

Most times when the word faith is used, people immediately go to religion and often assume it has nothing to do with business. Yet faith is defined as an inner attitude, conviction or trust related to a higher power. In Christian theology, faith is the divinely inspired human response to God, so in contrast couldn’t faith in business be the trust and inspired response in yourself, your people and your process?

I can hear John Hiatt’s song “Have a little faith” playing in my head “When the road is dark and you can no longer see, let my love throw a spark and have a little faith in me”. To me, faith is believing in something without having empirical evidence. It is taking a leap, a risk and feeling confident that you won’t fall or if you fall, you can get right back up. It is a powerful tool in business because if you believe in everything that you have built including your people, process, products and even your customers, your business will soar without you touching and being involved in every single aspect of your business.

But having faith requires hard work and true commitment since it will be tested frequently and in the most trying of times. It will be tested when our perfect plans don’t end up being perfect, when our well rehearsed presentation don’t go well, when our workshops and teleseminars only have a few attendees or when we are having trouble converting our leads to sales. It is very easy to get distracted and start to believe the worst, but that is where faith comes in.
True faith exist in the face of adversity and is real when everything on the surface is pointing you down the path of least resistance and preparing you to give up on your dream. It is the one thing that holds you together when you have to leave your business to attend to other matters and it is one of the biggest drivers to keeping you motivated and on the path to your dreams.
So how do you hold on to your faith to forge ahead and drive your results?

Here are some tips:

1) Know that your faith will be tested over and over again. To have true belief in something, you must not waiver and must hold on to that truth. For example, if you really believe that your product will revolutionize the market but you are having trouble with investors and manufacturers, keep the faith in your product and yourself and you will find the solution.

2) Be clear about what you want. When you become uncertain and lose your faith, doubt moves in and as a negative emotion can take over your world. Remain focused on your goal and on your objectives and stake claim to what you want. The universe has a way of helping you reach your goals, you just need to be able to identify what it is you want and be specific.

3) Surround yourself with positive influences. In times of adversity or when you start to feel that doubt and uncertainty is testing your faith, reach out to your support group and allow their faith to re –energize yours. Be honest and open and allow these individuals to be your guides, advocates and strength. These are your dream champions and will carry you all the way to your goal.

4) Accept failure as part of growth. Failure is inevitable and every successful person has failed one time or another. It is part of the process of growing and enriching our lives. Learn to accept failure and treat it as a learning experience and an opportunity to improve.

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” Gail Devers

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the “Boost Your Business with Power Presentations System”and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. For a limited time she is offering a FREE 5 part mini course on entrepreneurship offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

Kellie D'Andrea & Associates - Our Brand. Our Mission

Kellie D’Andrea & Associates helps motivated entrepreneurs, professionals and businesses transform to new levels of performance and results by mastering the “emotional"side of business – communication, marketing, & team performance. Kellie D’Andrea, owner and C.E.O (Chief Emotions Officer) provides simple and practical ways to attract more prosperity with techniques designed to master communication, achieve goals and create a culture of accountability and results.

An example is a client that I helped reposition the business as a leading industry expert. Like most business owners, the company failed to have its’ own identity and connection in the marketplace. The entire business brand was centered around the personal involvement of the owners who were looking to start removing themselves from the day to day operations of the business. We successfully launched a complete communication and branding strategy that not only repositioned the company as a market leader, resulted in the company increasing its revenues by 32% that year and being invited to bid on opportunities that it never would have in the past. That company still uses my services and now we are working on developing high performance teams and a professional development program that enhances employee retention. We were able to work together to create and execute a branding strategy and develop a human resource plan that will continue to support the brand message and build the business. Now they are on their way towards increasing their market share even more!

Additionally since I am passionate about development, I have created a mentor program that teams like-minded individuals together to create mini mastermind groups. This personalized coaching has helped not only these business owners, but all of their employees begin the journey to reaching their personal and professional goals.

Dream It - Build It - Share It

“Positioning – Marketing’s Fifth “P”

Every marketer, business student and entrepreneur has been taught the 4 “P’s’ of classic marketing – Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place as the marketing mix model designed to be used by business to define their marketing strategy. The marketing mix has been around since the beginning of time and used as a tool to identify customer’s wants and needs and how to address the competitive landscape. But what about the 5th “P” in the marketing mix – Positioning?

Positioning is the bridge that connects the other 4 “P’s” together around a central theme and creates the brand equity that is so critical to the success and growth of any business and therefore the most important component to the marketing mix. Many companies approach their client base with a “one size – fits all” approach to their product or service but in today’s environment, this approach will not work. Each customer that you service in your business is unique and has different wants and different needs. Although your product may cover a wide range of attributes that may service the majority of those customers, a successful marketer knows how to use positioning as tool to customize a solution for all. Here are 5 things that you need to position to be successful:

1) Yourself – business is based upon relationships and people want to work with credible individuals, not big corporate entities. Use personal branding techniques to position yourself as an expert in your field with credibility and integrity, will yield increased sales. People will buy from people they trust.

2) Audience: your customers need to understand if they are in the right place and that there is a fit for your product and services. Skillful marketers can position the audience so they belong to target market and community and customized marketing messages specific to their needs and wants.


3) Brand: creating an image or perception in the minds of your customers is one of the most powerful positioning techniques. A brand position permeates through an entire organization and is supported each and every time a customer interacts with your organization.

4) Product: refers to what the customer thinks about your product – for example; lowest price, highest quality best service, easy access ect, when they are making a purchase decision. Your product position will directly connect to your value proposition and how you differentiate yourself from your competition.

5) Offer: refers to your approach to the sales process. Successful offers focus on the outcome your client will receive not the service or product offering. Your offer should be a combination of what outcome (benefits) your customer can expect and the way (feature) they will receive your product.



©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the “Boost Your Business with Power Presentations System”and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. For a limited time she is offering a FREE 5 part mini course on entrepreneurship offered at http://www.kelliedandrea.com/.

5 Critical Components to a Successful Marketing Plan

Businesses that are successful usually have a marketing plan and most would tell you that while executing the plan has its challenges, developing the plan and deciding what to do and how to do it was the longest part of the process. Your marketing plan should be a clear, concise, and a well thought out document that guides you through your marketing activities starting with your overall objective and how you intend to accomplish that objective. Whether your company provides products or services, is off line or on line, your marketing plan is essential to your success but must focus on five critical components to be a success.

I. Position your product

In the BLAST marketing system, positioning is the most critical element to consider when putting together your marketing plan. It involves creating the image and identity in the minds of your customers each time they experience your product and building the infrastructure around it to support it. In product positioning, there are two basic focuses: Offering what the customer wants with the most profitable market opportunity and taken actions to differentiate product from that of their competition in such a way that customers will develop a preference for your product over the competition. When you put the right product at the right price and in front of the right customer, you have mastered positioning. The goal of any marketing plan is to create a strategy that will boost your profits including a persuasive message targeted towards your customer and a promise that your product actually delivers – this statement will become your brand promise.

For example:

Fed Ex, “When it simply has to get there overnight”

Domino’s Pizza “Pizza in 30 minutes or less”

II. Tap into your mastermind group

Information is one of the most powerful assets a person can posses and having the ability to leverage other people’s information is exponentially better. To help define your marketing plan, tap into your brain trust for ideas, market and competitive perspectives. In a mastermind group, each group member will come with different experiences, perspectives and ideas that will most likely be your next big money making idea. Having the ability to brainstorm and be creative with a group of people all focused on helping you solve a problem is one of the biggest benefits you will experience from a mastermind group. The powerful result of a mastermind group is that there is a synergy of energy, excitement and idea sharing that partipants bring to the group therefore raising the bar by challenging and encouraging other members to create and implement their goals.


III. Listen to your customers

The best way to find out what is in your customer’s head is to simply ask them. Whether you new business or an established one, understanding your target market is an important element to your marketing plan. It is important to get your customer’s perspective to your product, its price, quality and anything else that influences their purchasing decision. Try handing out samples, conducting surveys or test marketing your product. The information that you get back will be invaluable and well worth the investment of offering a few free samples. The feedback that you will get from your customers or potential customers will help you evaluate the integrity of your product, its ability to support your brand promise, the pricing model and its quality. Even if you are new, test your product in your target market by conducting what is called market test to see how your product will be received. This is a great way to introduce you, get valuable feedback and testimonials for your product launch.

IV. Create a simple plan

Now that you have given some thought to what you want your product to represent, identify your target market and tested your product to see what works and what doesn’t, it is now to sit down and draft your marketing plan. So many business owners get stuck at this point either thinking they don’t need a plan or are intimidated about creating one. Every business, both small and large, will benefit greatly from a well thought out planning process and a key component to every success business is a good marketing plan that answers the basic questions: who, what, why, where, when an how much. Creating a marketing plan is critical component to on-going success and is not something that should be ignored. This plan does not have to be comprehensive.

It can be a simple plan that addresses the following:
· Your overall market
· Your specific niche
· Your target audience within your niche
· Your brand promise
· Your competition
· Your benefits and competitive differences
· Your pricing model
· Your marketing budget
· Your marketing activities
· Your marketing calendar of events
· Your success measures


V. Track results

A successful marketing plan is tracked and measured. In order to measure your performance and determine if your plan is successful, you must identify how you will be measuring the success of your plan. Some examples: Return on investment (how much did I spend vs. how much I got back; Returned coupons, web hits, open clicks, Increased calls? How will you define a successful marketing activity? What is the result you are looking for?

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.