Organizing Your Business for Success

Report From the Women's Power Summit - Part 3

In my first two articles on the Women’s Power Summit, I summarized presentations from Jeanette Cates, the Technology Tamer and Loral Langmeier, the Millionaire Maker. I consider both of these women to be my mentors, since I have taken their courses, read their books, and heard them speak before, though I had never met them in person. So of course I was looking forward to meeting these two very successful women that I continue to learn from. But the presentation that I really needed to hear at the Women’s Power Summit was “How to Play to Win with Your Business,” given by Barbara Hamphill.

Barbara Hamphill is a nationally renowned professional organizer. She is a past president of the National Association of Professional Organizers and has appeared on many television shows including Today, Good Morning America, and CBS This Morning. She is a sought after speaker and who counsels major corporations on organizing for efficiency. She is the creator of Taming the Paper Tiger Software and the Author of Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and Taming the Paper Tiger at Work. Her presentation, “How to Play to Win with Your Business,” was all about how to organize your business for success.

Her organizing SYSTEM is an acronym for Saves You Space, Time, Energy, and Money. According to Ms. Hamphill there are three essential components to any system of organization. Your individual methodology, or a way to think about organizing that works for you. Tools that you will need to get organized. And maintenance, which is the actual system that you will use to stay organized. Ms. Hamphill argues that there is no one organizing system or method that works for everybody, but that you have to find a method that works for you.

Start with a productive setting or environment. A productive environment is one in which everything around you supports who you would like to be. One of her favorite statements in her organizing seminars is “have nothing which you do not know to be useful, think to be beautiful, or love.” You know that you have a productive setting when there is no clutter, there is a place for everything, you can find anything you need, and you have a beautiful environment.

Although there is no one “system” that works for everyone, there are six tools that everyone needs to have in order to get organized. Barbara calls them the “magic six.” These consist of: your desk top tools, she recommends a 3 tired box consisting of an in box, an out box and a “to file” box; your waste basket; your calendar, which is actually three different calendars – a planner pad, your personal calendar and your family calendar; your database; your action files; and your reference files.

Barbara teaches the FAT system to get rid of clutter. FAT stands for File it, Act on it, or Toss it. She says that when it comes to clutter, these are the only choices that you have. One of the skills that you need have in order to deal with the clutter in your home or office is something that she calls “the art of wastbasketry.” When you go through the mail or anything that comes into your inbox, ask yourself these questions:

Does it require action?
Is it recent?
Is it difficult to get again?
Does it have legal or tax implications?
Does it have a specific use?

If you answer yes to any of these questions either file it or act on it. If you answered no to all of these questions, then ask yourself what is the worst possible thing that could happen if you tossed it out. If you and your organization can live with the consequences, then toss it, if not, file it.

For more help in the clearing clutter and getting your home or office organized, you can read one of Barbara Hamphill books. Her books are also available on CD and she also has a Taming the Paper Tiger software program.

This is the third article in a series about the Women’s Power Summit that was held in Atlanta in October of 2006. If you missed the previous articles, you can read them on this blog.

Joanne Musa is a tax lien investing consultant and creator of taxlienlady.com, an educational web site to help people that want to learn how to invest in tax lien certificates and tax deeds. To find out more about tax lien investing, go to http://www.taxlienlady.com/.

Report on the Women's Power Summit - Part 2

In part one of my report on the Women’s Power Summit, I summarized a presentation by Jeanette Cates, the Tech Tamer, on how to play to win with your expertise by creating cash flow from what you know. In this article I’ll introduce you to another one of my mentors, Loral Langmeier, The Millionaire Maker. Loral gave a presentation on how to play to win with your money.

Loral Langmeier grew up on a farm in Nebraska. At a very young age she decided that she was going to be a millionaire. She started her first business at the age of 17 and at the same time started working with mentors in the finance and wealth industry. She set a goal to be a millionaire by the time she was 35 and actually became a millionaire when she was 34. Among her mentors are well know personal success guru Bob Proctor and financial educator Robert Kiyosaki. She is the author of the best seller, The Millionaire Maker, and her new book, The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing. Now a multi-millionaire, she is a master coach and financial strategist who has helped thousands of individuals take control of their finances and become millionaires. She is the founder of Live Out Loud, a coaching and seminar company that teaches her trade marked Wealth Cycle program.

Loral’s approach on “how to play to win with your money” is refreshing and different from what you may have heard from other wealth building gurus or financial planners. One mistake that she sees people making with their money is paying down their debt first. Many financial planners will tell you to get out of debt and they make that a priority over saving and investing. Loral says that once you pay down your debt, you have nothing. Now you have no debt, but you also have no savings and no assets. The thing to do is work on accumulating assets that will pay your debt. Then when your debt is paid off you have assets that are generating an income for you.

Another thing that a lot of people don’t do right is that they try to do everything themselves. Loral says that there really are no “self-made” millionaires. She say’s that millionaires make their fortunes by relying on a lot of advisors and support people. They do it with the help of a “team.” She claims that in order to get the best and highest use of your time you should strengthen your strengths and hire your weaknesses. In other words, hire out the things that you do not do well or do not like to do – don’t spend time and money learning how to do them yourself. Instead, work on strengthening the skills that you are good at and enjoy doing.

In order to make $100,000 per year, you need to make $400 per day. Ask yourself, “What am I going to do to make $400 a day?” In order to make $400 a day, you will need to say “no” to some things and “yes” to others. What are you willing to say no to and what are you willing to say yes to in order to meet your goal? For example, meeting your goal may mean saying yes to things like; spending time with successful people, getting your life supported by hiring a house cleaner or organizer, and building a team for success. It might mean saying no to; negative people, negative thinking, and using negative language.

You’ll need to have specific goals about what you want your net worth to be, what assets you want to have, and how much you want to make. Your goals might look something like this:

• Have a net worth of 1.8 Million
• Own 4 Million in real estate
• Have a passive income of $120,000 per year
• Have nationally diversified assets
• Pay no taxes

Now ask yourself, “What are the non-negotiable activities that I need to do each day in order to reach my goals?” These activities should include journaling each day and spending time with like-minded people. Another question to ask yourself is, “Who do I need on my team right away in order to meet my goals?” Your team may include; a house cleaner, an organizer or assistant, a marketing or sales person, a bookkeeper, and a CPA.

Most of the things that we have been talking about so far have to do with what Loral refers to as your “Cash Machine.” Your cash machine is just on of the building blocks in Loral’s wealth building cycle. To find out more about Loral’s Wealth Cycles and to find out how you can become a millionaire, read Loral’s books The Millionaire Maker and The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing.