Month: July 2016

Avoid Obstacles To Your Freelance Success

Remove Obstacles to Freelance Success Are you ready to for freelance success right now? Are you tired of schlepping to a day job? Are you underpaid, overworked, or burned out? Remove those obstacles to your freelance success!

The thing is, most new business owners or entrepreneurs fail. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows us that only about half of new establishments that make it through the first year are still in business by year five.

The statistics do not take into account all the failed freelancers out there. The ones who never registered as a business or lost steam after the first few months and gave up.  How sad, to not even be a blip on the business radar screen.

It is fun and easy to dream of big freelance success, but unless you take action, you will never get past the daydream stage.

It is fun and easy to dream of big freelance success, but unless you take action, you will never get past the daydream stage.

There is something for everyone out there in the realm of business opportunities and freelance options, but you have to do the work, and you, only you, have to be able to overcome common obstacles to freelance success.

Lack of Vision for Your Freelance Success

Sure, you have imagined for years how it will feel to be your own boss. You see yourself working anywhere and anytime you feel like it. No more time clock for you!

That is not a vision, it’s a daydream.

Define your mission statement, your vision and your values. Why are you stepping out as a freelancer? What is the service or product you will provide? How will you deliver your product? What are your core values? What is your commitment to your customers?

To be a freelance success, you gotta get real. You have to set realistic, measurable goals.  You have to work your tail off, consistently. There are no shortcuts to freelance success.

You can take advantage of courses and coaches that give you knowledge and a framework to launch from, but it will be up to you to create a great service or product and market it effectively. Create and market. Then do it again.

Know Your Customer

You have heard by now that you have to find a niche.  That means you have to be specific about the type of customer who will buy your product. Can you define what they need? Now you have to be able to describe how you can meet that need.

It is too broad to say that your market is fitness freaks, and you will teach them a workout program for peak performance.  Failing to narrow your target customer is an obstacle to freelance success.

A successful freelance niche is much more specific. For example, your ideal customer may be millennial female runners in executive positions who have difficulty finding a regimen that works with frequent business travel.  You have just the answer they need!

Perfection Hinders Progress Towards Freelance Success

A huge obstacle for many is just getting started. Have you kept buying self-improvement books and joining Facebook groups in your chosen field but haven’t even really gotten your business off the ground? The first hurdle is planning and decision making.

The saying is true, even in business that progress is better than perfection. You still need to have a decent business plan, but stop thinking you need to wait until you have everything perfect before you actually start selling you product or services.

Perfection is a process, not a milestone. You will always be looking for new ways to improve your business, your product, your marketing strategy and yourself. If you don’t, your business will fizzle.

Make a plan, set deadlines. Designate specific times to be working on your business tasks. Not just setting up a web page, or tinkering with your WordPress theme, but also designate time for creating a business plan and measurable goals.

Don’t just set deadlines to accomplish certain tasks, but make deadlines for decision making. Are you paralyzed with indecision about choosing a web host? WordPress theme? Picking a domain name? Gather some options and then set a hard deadline for making that choice! Then go with it. Don’t waffle. You need forward progress here and if you can’t trust your own gut, you are lost.

Be realistic about your abilities. Nothing is a faster business killer than constant frustration and hitting roadblocks. You have to be prepared to change course if your initial plan is hitting a brick wall.

Doing It All

If you are trying to save money by creating your own web site and customizing a free theme, that’s fine if you have the skills for it. Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours on a task that turns into days and you feel you are worse off then when you started.

I actually have skill and experience with databases and customizing online applications, but trying to set up and customize a free WordPress theme was making me totally crazy. After several late nights, I realized that setting up my own web page was taking way too long to be productive. I finally purchased a responsive theme package and had my website up and customized in a few hours – easy peezy!!

I can’t believe I wasted so much time and energy before spending a few measly dollars to get something workable and attractive. So don’t make yourself crazy! Remember, your time is worth money, too.

Still Need More Support to Reach Freelance Success? 

Business programs that I can personally recommend to help you get your business off the ground are Empire Building with Alexis Giostra for starting your own business, and Fearless Launching with Anne Samoilov to show you exactly how to effectively get that new service or product out to your customers.

As for that interactive theme I bought – it came from BluChic!

Are you dreaming of freelance success? Do you have a side hustle? Please share your questions and comments!


How To Boost Morning Productivity Before Bed

How to Boost Your Morning Productivity by Getting Ready the Before Bed Are you ready to rock your morning productivity? Are you taking Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning challenge? Or are you just looking to better organize your hectic mornings?

Here are easy tips to boost your morning productivity that you can start today!  Using just one or two of these hacks before bed each night will immediately help boost your morning productively.

Less Hassle Equals Morning Productivity

Think back to the last few mornings. What tripped you up? Mentally walk yourself through everything you did from the time you opened your eyes until you walked out the door.

What felt like an annoyance? What sidetracked you? What tasks or routines do you do every single day no matter what? Are there things you would like to do every morning if you have more time?

Consider your morning routine a project, an ongoing project, and let’s break it down step by step. Let’s start with an areas all folks have in their morning routine.

Personal Hygiene

Do you shower or shave or style your hair every morning? Where are your towels and shaving stuff and hair products?

Towel Short Cuts

Save time before your shower shower by laying out towels the night before. Do you normally take the time to go to the linen closet or paw through the basket of clean laundry? Do you have to walk to the utility room to grab clean towels from the dryer?

From now on, keep your towels folded within reach of the shower or hanging from a hook, within  easy reach when you step out.

You can permanently install decorative hooks or just slap on the easy and inexpensive stick-on hooks. The advantages of the stick-on hooks are ease of removal and not adding another project on your to-do list!

The added bonus of hooks is that you can just hang your clean towels instead folding and putting them away every laundry day. More time saved!

Corral Those Bath Products

The same type of arrangement can be used for your shower products, like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, facial scrubs. Are your bottles and jars already lined up on the bathtub ledge, or do you grab your stuff as you head it? Are you sharing ledge space with other members of the household?

A plastic basket from the dollar store is an easy way to keep your shower stuff handy and separate. You won’t have to move it out of the shower, either. Use an S-type type hook or carabiner to hang your basket from the shower curtain rod or shower caddy.

Shaving and Styling

If you have a drawer or cabinet next to the bathroom sink, arrange your morning shave or hairstyling gear within easy reach, cockpit style.

I have a tall cabinet next to my sink and mounted plastic coated wire baskets – the kind you can get for kitchen spices – on the inside of the door to holds my blow dryer and brushes. There is a place for hairspray and styling products. Use a hand mirror for checking the back of your hair? That can hang from stick-on hook inside the cabinet!

Heading Out With Morning Productivity

Every few seconds you can shave off your morning routine will add up by the time you head out the door.  For my morning commute, an extra ten minutes before I leave extends my drive by twenty minutes because of traffic!

Getting Dressed

One of the most productivity enhancing habits to develop is to lay your clothes the night before. Lay out the entire outfit, including socks, underwear, necktie, purse, jewelry and any other accessories.

Make sure you have inspected those clothes before you lay them out. You do not want to be ironing or trying to find a substitute shirt because of a stain or missing buttons.  That is another good reason to lay out your underclothes as well… you really don’t want to wear purple floral panties under those white pants, do you?

Time and Money

Improved morning productivity can shave some expenses off your budget, too. Would you avoid a stop at the local fast food for a breakfast sandwich or coffee if you had it together in the morning?

Have your travel mug and coffee station ready for the morning. Set out a spoon, napkin, and your coffee or tea of choice. If you use a single serving coffee machine, preset it to wake up and heat the water a few minutes before the time you normally prepare your morning cuppa. For me that is as soon as the alarm goes off and my feet hit the floor!

Get you breakfast and lunch ready in advance as well. It will save money and is one less stop on the way to work!

Boil and peel a bunch of eggs on the weekend and have them ready to go for weekday mornings. Ditto for preparing other cold stuff you will be taking with you like fruits and salads.

Leftovers for lunch are a really money-saver. Put portions of leftovers in a microwave safe container as you clear up from dinner. Ready to go!

Keep It Together

Have a designated spot or a plastic bin in your fridge for in the morning. It makes a huge difference in that last rush to get out the door to be able to simply grab your bin and transfer everything to your lunch bag.

Pack your lunch bag or briefcase with nonperishable items the night before.

Morning Productivity On The Road

Plan ahead for your morning commute. Have you downloaded that audio book you want to listen to? Do you have a travel cup washed and ready for coffee or ice water on the road? Do you need to allocate extra travel time to stop for gas?

Weather Considerations

Do you need to throw an umbrella or ice scraper in the car? In the winter will you need to plan time for scraping or defrosting. Remember to get your boots and gloves set out for the cold trudge out to start the car!

Morning Productivity for Your Kids

Do you have kids that need to be dropped at school or daycare  in the morning?

The same night-before routine will reduce the rush and frantic hunt for that left shoe and  permission slip in the morning, but with a bonus. You will be teaching your children how to think ahead, solve problems, and be productive people!

Now Or Later

There are only so many hours in a day, how are you going to spend them? The tasks described above all have to be done, sooner or later.

You get to choose when to do them. You get to choose to be ahead of the game, or rushed and stressed.

Try some or all of these hacks to increase your morning productivity. After a few mornings of having everything at your fingertips from your hairspray to your car keys, you will discover how pampered it feels to have everything at your disposal!

Would you like to see more productivity hacks? What are your tips and tricks for morning productivity? Please share your comments!



How To Protect Yourself When Asked For Sworn Testimony

Legal Speak for the Lay PersonWhat would you do if you were asked to give sworn testimony? Or a sworn statement? What the heck does sworn testimony mean, anyway?  Sworn means given under oath. A sworn testimony or statement is your view of the facts, either verbally or in writing, and a promise that you are telling the truth.

Nothing But the Truth

If you give your version of the facts under oath, and it turns out you deliberately lied, you could be punished.  The penalties for lying under oath range from financial penalties to jail time. In a criminal case, lying under oath is called perjury.

The penalties for lying under oath range from financial penalties to jail time. In a criminal case, lying under oath is called perjury.

 

You could be asked to give a statement or sworn testimony anytime you are involved in an event, have been near an event, or know something about an event.  A car accident is an example of an event that could result in different kinds of sworn testimony.

If you are driving or a passenger in one of the crash vehicles, you are involved in the event, and will be asked to give a statement or sworn testimony about what happened.

If you were walking on the sidewalk and saw the whole thing happen, you were near the event and could be asked to give a statement, or sworn testimony to tell what you saw and heard.

If one of the drivers in the crash was drunk, you may be asked to give a statement or sworn testimony about what you know if you partied with the driver at the neighborhood bar in the hours before the event.

Your Own Attorney

If you are named in a lawsuit because of an auto accident, in most cases your insurance company has a “duty to defend” you, even if the accident was entirely your fault! That means they will hire an attorney to represent you in the lawsuit. Don

Don’t expect your insurance company to pay for an attorney if you are the one who wants to file a lawsuit, or if you have not been sued by someone who is making an insurance claim against you.

If you want to hire an attorney on your own, it will be at your own expense. Some attorneys will take your case on a “contingency” basis, meaning they don’t get paid unless you win the lawsuit and get some money, like insurance proceeds, then they will get a portion of the amount you are awarded.

If you are facing criminal charges and can’t afford an attorney, the court may appoint an attorney to represent you, often called a “public defender”.

Recorded Statement

Sticking with our example of the car wreck, if you are directly involved in the event, at first you will likely be asked to give a statement to the police officer at the scene. This is not sworn, but it will be part of the official accident investigation report.

Later, you will be contacted by the insurance companies that issues auto policies covering the vehicles involved. Generally, the insurance adjuster will give you a call or meet with you and ask you to give a statement, to tell the adjuster your version of what happened. If they intend to record you conversation, and they usually do, they should tell you or ask your permission to record the conversation. They will often ask you again at the end, to get it on the recording, if you understood that your discussion and statement were being recorded.

If you are already represented by an attorney, you should not give information to anyone who asks for it, like an insurance adjuster, even if it is your insurance company.  If you are the insured person, you have an obligation to cooperate with your insurance company. That does not mean you can’t coordinate their request with your attorney.

Once you are represented by counsel, let your attorney decide a when and under what circumstances you will provide your statement. Your attorney may or may not decide to be with you when you give your initial statement to the insurance adjuster.

If you have already given a statement and later hired an attorney, don’t be surprised if the attorney immediately demand copies of any statements you already gave, even if you already told your lawyer what you think you said.

Affidavit

An affidavit is a written statement given under oath, of some fact or set of facts explained to the best of your knowledge. Affidavits are usually notarized.

Examination Under Oath

There are a couple different ways that most people may be called upon to give sworn testimony. A tad less formal scenario, often used by insurance companies, is to hire an attorney during the investigation of a claim to perform an “examination under oath” or “EUO”. An examination under oath is most often used to gather information before any litigation has been filed.

An EUO is part of an insurance company investigation of what happened. It is a tool used to help the insurance company determine if the event giving rise to the insurance claim will be a covered event under the insurance policy. There will usually be someone there who is qualified to take down everything you say and take your oath that everything you will say is true. The attorney will ask you a series of questions about your identity, and the facts of the case. They may ask about your finances or other information.

You may agree to participate in the EUO with or without an attorney. You are not required to bring an attorney, but you can if you want to. If you are already represented by an attorney, never agree to any kind of statement without discussing it with your attorney first.

Deposition

The more formal kind of sworn testimony is a deposition. There will always be a court reporter hired to take down what everyone says on the record, and there may be a videographer if your deposition will be recorded on video.

You will be notified in writing of the scheduled deposition and may even get a subpoena. The notice will tell you if it will be a video deposition.

During the deposition you may be questioned by more than one attorney. Your attorney may also ask you questions, if he or she feels that there are points to your side of the story that are important to have on the record or to counter a line of questioning that may have been asked by the other side to bring out statements that can be used to support their side of the story.

Do’s and Don’ts of Sworn Testimony

A deposition is not the time and place to tell your side of the story. That is important to remember!  On television it is always a dramatic scene where the person in the hot seat gets to tell their side of the story and exactly what they think of the other parties in the case. The person testifying may even drop bombs of information, knowledge or facts that will dramatically change the direction of the litigation – emphasis on dramatically.

As much as you may be bursting to tell your side of the story, don’t do it. You will have your day in court, literally, unless the case settles before trial. The more information you volunteer in the deposition, the more the other side will pounce on a word or phrase and drill you with questions. They will leave no stone unturned.

Do you have an attorney? Be sure to make time to meet with your attorney before the deposition.

Be prepared to work with your attorney to go over questions that you will likely be asked by the other side. Your attorney has your best interest in mind. He or she will give you some general advice on giving testimony, but above all they will counsel you to tell the truth.

Tips on Testimony

Telling the truth – answering truthfully – is not the same as blowing your stack or spilling your guts. In a deposition you do not, repeat, and do not want to offer additional information in response to a question.

Short and Sweet

I have a favorite drill for helping folks prepare for depositions. I learned this drill from one of the most brilliant and successful attorneys I know. It goes something like this:

Imaging you are the deponent. The attorney who is questioning you holds up a spoon, and asks “do you know what this is?” You immediately respond, “Sure I do! It’s a spoon!”

Wrong answer!

The correct answer, if you know what that is:    “Yes.”

Yes. PERIOD. If the attorney wants you to name the object, they will have to ask that question by asking you to name that object. Get it?

I love that exercise because it is a light bulb moment for most of us.

Facts – Not Opinions

The other thing about deposition testimony is that you are there to provide facts, not opinions. You are not qualified to give expert opinions. You can relate what you saw, or heard or did. You can state where you were and what interaction you may have had with others involved in the event.

Remember, you are not qualified to give opinions as to things like “How drunk was she?” or “Do you think that bridge could hold ten cars?” Anytime they are asking what your impression was, be careful to take the time to give some thought to the question before you answer.

No Guesswork

That’s the other thing – you do not have to answer a question if you truly don’t know the answer. It is perfectly acceptable to say you don’t know. If you are not sure, don’t guess. It is natural to try to be helpful and answer any questions asked to you directly. The attorney asking you questions is counting on that. You do not have to come up with an answer to every question! And you should not answer any question quickly. You don’t score points for a fast response.

You do not have to answer a question if you truly don’t know the answer. It is perfectly acceptable to say you don’t know.

In fact, it is better that you don’t answer every question, or any question, quickly. Always pause to think about the question and form your response. Ask to have the question repeated, or say so if you don’t understand the question. Protect yourself from saying something you don’t mean! Give your attorney a chance to object if the question is not something you should be answering.

Do you have questions about statements and testimony? Have you been through a deposition? Please share your comments!