Gabriella Goddard's Blog (author of "Gulp!: The 7 day crash course to master fear and break through any challenge"

Start That Business: Nick Williams's Top Tips

  Nick Williams is of course the best-selling author of "The Work We Were Born To Do". 







After a long and successful Marketing and Sales career he left the corporate world to set up his own business and write books.

Check out his blog at http://www.nick-williams.com/blog

Here are his top tips for budding entrepreneurs:

1.                 Use your sense of intuition, passion and inspiration to guide you to the business you would love to create – that is a large part of what will make you successful – your own authentic energy

2.                 Avoid dreambashers – people who are afraid to live their dreams and who are happiest telling you why you can’t live yours. You already have enough of them in your own head

3.                 Be aware of your own resistance – often what you’d most love to do is what you most avoid and procrastinate about – but through your resistance and start doing the things that are most meaningful to you

4.                 Find great business strategies and use them in your authentic way – find out what works for other people to attract clients and then find ways of authentically integrating those ideas into your business.

5.       Learn by doing – nothing breeds confidence like success – so start in tiny ways to make your dream come true. Don’t wait until you are ready – start and you become ready 

6.                 Know that the biggest factor in your success will be your ability to attract clients – develop at least six strategies for attracting clients

Nick Williams is an expert on fulfilment at work and helping people become inspired entrepreneurs. See http://www.nick-williams.com/blog

Ask Gaby...my new career column in In London magazine

I'm very proud to announce that I am now the career/work columnist for In London magazine.  My first "Ask Gaby" came out this month and I had so much fun doing it.

In London is a magazine aimed at New Zealanders, South Africans, Australians and all other folk living and working in London.

It's a great magazine and I'm really delighted to be associated with it.  Check out the online version at http://www.inlondon.com/emag/ilm40/index.cfm .  "Ask Gaby" is on page 62.

Start that Business : Top Tips to Getting Organised

The best way to move forward with your Gulp! is to take small steps every day.  If you do this, you'll be amazed when you look back two weeks later and see what you've been able to achieve.

Kate Bacon used to be my virtual assistant so she knows a thing or two about getting and staying organised and here are her top tips for getting yourself organised.

1.  De-clutter your office:  A clear working area not only gives you space on your desk it gives you invaluable space in your mind.  You’ll be amazed how much more you get done when your mind is clear!

2.  Write a daily To Do List:  Look (honestly) at what your priorities are for the week and then break them down into daily bite-sized chunks.  Keep the list do-able – too many tasks and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

3.  Create a filing system:  Putting papers away in an organised filing system both puts them at your fingertips when you need them, and keeps them from distracting you on a daily basis

4.  Clear out your email inbox regularly:  A cluttered inbox feels stressful.  Clear out junk mail immediately; clear out email once read (if you don’t need to keep it); set up a filing system for your email by creating folders for keeping essential emails.

5.  Keep your calendar up to date:  Whether you use a paper calendar or digital diary, ensure that it is current.  Viewing an updated calendar means you “know where you” are at a glance!

Kate Bacon
VA and founder of the VA Business Start Up Course: Helping you design a VA business to fit your life!
http://www.piertopeercoaching.com

Start That Business: Janet's Words of Wisdom

Janet and I often chuckle about our first years at running our own business.  Oh the things you learn on the way!  Janet went from being a Finance Director in the NHS to being a healer and medium at the College of Psychic Studies (and a very good one at that).

Here are Janet's insider tips for anyone looking to start a business.  And if you already run your own business...have a read and reminisce!

1. Network , network , network
Advertising is expensive for small businesses and may not be that effective. Networking can be fun and cheap and is a great way to meet new people. My first client as a consultant came through a networking event and I have had 2 chunky pieces of consultancy work through a friend. I also met Gabriella through a networking event.  As a comparison 2 targeted mail drops of 40 contact letters each produced not a single client and wasted me about 3 days time.

2. Work out what you can do yourself and what you need to hire someone to do.
Starting your own business can be exhausting as suddenly you are responsible for everything , book keeping , marketing , buying the stationary. I was used to ringing the helpdesk to sort out all my computer problems for example.  Work out what you can reasonably do yourself and what you need help on.  I hired a cleaner as soon as I started my own business. The cost is fairly low compared to my daily rate and the time I used to spend on housework I now spend running my business.

3. Spend time talking to other self employed people who will inspire you.
When I announced to my friends I was leaving my job as an NHS Finance Director I got a round of negative comments.......... Then I realised that they were all still in the corporate world and corporate mindset - some of them were two afraid to take the big step that I was taking. I now have a good group of self employed friends who find self employment rewarding and enjoyable.  I have a much broader range of contacts from healers and mediums like me to a self employed musicians.

One Life Live: Get Ready to Be Inspired

Don't miss the One Life Live exhibition.  With five zones including "be your own boss", "take a career break" and "retrain", it's ideal for anyone at a cross roads in their life.

I'll be running free Gulp! seminars on Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 4pm, so come along - it'll be great to see you there.

www.onelifelive.co.uk

Expert Tips: Creating a Business to Love

For all the Gulp! entrepreneurs out there, I've asked top business coach, Judith Morgan, to give us her ten top tips for creating a business you love.

1. Know Why. How will the business you create support the life you want to lead? This is what the E-Myth calls Your Primary Aim. Get one. Take your temperature regularly. Are you still in love with your business? If not, why not? Fix it.

2. Join a Mastermind Group or get an inspirational business coach. You cannot do everything all by yourself – you need a dream team who will give you insights and inspiration, honest feedback and bear witness to your commitments to action.

3. Get great people around you at work or buy professional solutions by outsourcing so that you can do only what you love which is usually what you are very best at anyway. Find ways to work smarter, not harder.

Expert Tips: Overcoming Procrastination the Holistic Way

If you're suffering from "manana, manana" as you step up to your Gulp!, who better to ask for advice than time management guru, Mark Forster, best selling author of "Do It Tomorrow".

Virtually everyone has problems with procrastination at some point in their life. For many people it is relatively easily overcome. For others it has a permanently crippling effect on their lives. Whatever their talents and however big their dreams, they are unable to express them fully because they keep putting the necessary action off. So their dreams and visions remain dreams and visions and nothing more for year after year.

Thirteenth Stop: Judith Morgan's Blog

I'm off for a chat with Judith Morgan on her blog.  Judith is an amazing UK business coach with 30 year’s experience of running her own businesses and those of her clients, as their accountant and Finance Director.  Her experience is legendary and she has set up and sold businesses in accountancy, travel, cleaning, stress management, catering and many more.

What I love about Judith is her whole innovative approach to running a business and how she has adopted technology to run the various off-shoots of her own business.  So she's proof of her own pudding.

She's asked me some sticky questions about my own entrepreneurial journey...find out more here: http://judithmorgan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/09/an_entrepreneur.html#more.

Plus if you are a solopreneur and get a bit lonely on your own sometimes, then check out Judith's new baby - www.LonelyEntrepreneur.com

Twelfth Stop: Suzy Greaves at Big Leap

Today starts with a stop on the Big Leap Coaching community site run by the amazing Suzy Greaves.  Suzy is the author of "Making the Big Leap", an inspirational book about how to turn your dream business idea into a reality.  Suzy's been a life coach for many years and what I admire most about Suzy is that she oozes energy and passion - she is an incredibly uplifting person to be around!

She's asked me some really poignant questions about fear; how to overcome it, how to get clear about what it's telling you and practical things you can do when you feel fear in the moment.

Check it out at: http://www.thebig-leap.com/gulp_virtual_book_tour.phtml

See you there!
Gabriella

   

Tenth Stop: Ecademy with Mindy Gibbins-Klein

  Well it's over to Ecademy now to the Writer's Forum with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, a "book midwife".

Ecademy is the largest online networking group for entrepreneurs and business owners.  Its forums and blogs are buzzing daily with new views, new ideas and the occasional rants and raves.

Mindy is a very special lady. An author herself, she is passionate about helping people bring their books to life.  She says, "Too many people think about doing it, but never get around to it. I believe passionately that every book deserves to be written and published and I work tirelessly with people that have an idea for a book, or want to finish a book they've started or desperately want to publish a book they've written."

It's a private forum, but if you'd like to find out more about Ecademy then visit www.ecademy.com.  And if you're interested in writing a book, then make sure you pay a visit to www.bookmidwife.com

See you later

Gabriella