Burning Out?: Take Breaks From Your Home Business Already

This Was What I looked Like From Not Taking Breaks!

 

Introduction:

When I first started out in the industry, I would work my full time job, come home spend time with my family, and then work 4 hours on my home business.  Guess how many days a week I did that?  You got it 7!  Keep in mind I did this for months on end, and you can imagine I became mentally exhausted.  I was doing this because I thought it would make my home business take off that much faster, so I could quit my full time job.  You see I have 5 year old twins and I wanted to be home when my kids were done with Pre-K.  After months of doing this I came to the realization that it was time to make some changes.  You know the saying " Work smarter, not harder".  I have great news for you!  When I made the changes the changes to work smarter, I wrote everything down and now I am going to share with YOU!  Before we get to the changes, let's go ahead and discuss some of the signs of you needing to take a break.  Are you ready to get going?

Warning Sign #1: Headaches

I would get awful headaches out of the blue, and it turns out my brain was telling me it needed a break.  This one definitely caught me off guard.  I had no idea my brain needed to take a timeout if you will. Take a Break. 


Warning Sign #2: No Exercise in Months

When I was at my best, I was exercising for 30-45 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  As soon as I started my home business, I stopped doing my workouts.  My excuse was I needed all the time I could get to build my home business.  Take it from me, skipping exercise was an awful idea.  I was constantly feeling tired, cranky, my diet was awful, etc.  What I do now is workout from home, and if you want to see what I do go here  Workouts . 


Warning Sign #3:  Constantly On Your Smartphone

Picture me with my Android phone using it constantly.  I was using it at the dinner table, sitting on the couch, in my bed when I was getting ready to go to sleep.  The first thing I would do when I woke up was check my Facebook notifications, and see how many unread emails I had.  This also lead me to neglect my wife, which is never a good thing to do.   Take a Break.  


Warning Sign #4:  Social Life Is Zero:

It has been said that the number one regret of a person on their death bed is not spending enough quality time with their family and friends.  If you are missing your kids events or your family hasn't seen you in months, it is definitely time for a break.  You definitely don't want to be one of those people who regrets not spending enough time with your loved ones on your death bed, do you?


Warning Sign #5:  Constantly Needing Caffeine

I would drink 5 cups of coffee a day when I started my business.  The worst part about that besides being bad for your health is that wasn't enough.  I was still feeling extremely fatigue after that much caffeine. Pretty crazy I know.  Maybe you are a soda drinker, but the concept is the same.  If you have that feeling after having that much caffeine, it is definitely time for a break.


 Cure Being Burned Out With These Suggestions:

1. Take one day complete off each week to recharge yourself:  If you are not comfortable taking an entire day off, take at least an evening off.  This way you can take your family out to dinner.  No cell phone!
2.  Subscribe to the 60-20 rule:   Work for 60 minutes at a time, then take 20 minutes off to get up and stretch out.  You will be amazed at the increase in your productivity after taking these 20 minute breaks.  
3. Set Office Hours:  My biggest problem when I started my home business was I didn't set any work hours for myself.  I would come home from my job, eat dinner, and then right away get into building my business.  Your local grocery store has set hours, and you should too.
4. Create A Healthy Work-Life Balance:  Schedule time to spend with your family and friends.  I understand you want to build your home business, but with some trial and error on your part, you can make it happen.
5. Get A Hobby:  Pick up a creative activity that doesn't have any goals associated with it.  This will be something that you enjoy doing, but doesn't have any deadlines attached to it.  

Closing:

As I always tell you, don't try to implement all of these suggestions all at once.  I recommend starting with the taking a day off each week to start, and then go from there.  If you found this article helpful, please share with your family and friends on your favorite social media platform.  Have a great day!


To Your Success,


Steven Thompson

P.S. If you haven't already let's connect on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

Suffering From Information Overload? 4 Solutions To Cure It!

Have you ever stared at your computer screen with 20 tabs open trying to determine what you should work on next?  How about having the feeling at the end of the day you finished about 10% of what you had planned to get done for the day?  It makes you upset doesn't it?  Don't worry you are not the first person to suffer from Information Overload, and you will definitely not be the last!  By the end of this post, YOU will have learned how to recognize the warning signs of Information Overload, and how to overcome it.  Sound Good?

My Story of Information Overload

About a year ago, I was making the transition from Network Marketing to Internet Marketing, and naturally I wanted to finish the transition too fast.  I found myself buying a new training product at least once a week, and spent about 6,000 in the process.  After the dust settled, I had purchased all of those trainings and implemented very little of it.  Worst of all, I had not taught anyone else what I had learned from the training I did complete.    I will be honest with you, Information Overload will not be fixed overnight, but after reading my suggestions in this post, you can overcome it!!


Warning Signs of Information Overload:

• Too Much Training Materials-  As I mentioned above, buying too much training material, and not implementing what you learn.  Worse case you buy the training and not even read, listen, or watch it.  If your wife is like my wife and hears you are buying products and not learning from it, your wife wouldn't be happy either.
• Checking your emails for than twice a day-    How are you ever going to get any work done if you are constantly checking your email? I will answer the question for you, you won't get any work done.  
• Switching Tasks before one is done-   This one was a big problem for me.  For example, I would be reading a personal development book, and then I would get a Facebook notification.  I bet you know what happened.  Not good but can be fixed :)
• Avoiding Necessary Tasks-  You avoid your day to day tasks to build your business, and instead spend too much time on facebook or google plus, etc.  This was another big problem for me. 
• Too Many Internet Browsers-  Find yourself looking aimlessly at the 20 different Internet Browser tabs you have open, and unable to decide what to do next.
• Reading A Book Half Way- Start reading a book and stopping half way through the book and not finishing it.  This one goes hand in hand with buying training material, and not finishing it. Very common problem for people with their own business.

Solutions to Overcome Information Overload

The great news is there are ways to cure information overload, and I am going to share with you the exact methods I used to get myself out of information overload.  Are you ready?

• Admitting you have a problem-  Huge first step and often the hardest step to take. 97% of people fail in this industry and this is one of the main reasons why.  
• Reprogram Your Mind- You need to  train your mind to stay focused on the task at hand.  It will take a lot of self-discipline to do this, but it is absolutely essential! Stay super focused on the task at hand!   Turn off the radio, tv, facebook notifications, etc. 
• Change your daily routine-  The night before make a to do list and a keep a did list throughout the day.  At the end of the compare the two lists, and make your to do list for the next day.  Limit checking your email and social media feeds to 2 times a day.  
• Complete One Task At A Time- Don't allow yourself to start another task, before the task you are working on is finished.  Don't get caught up in trying to get everything done all at once. Take a few deep breaths, and complete one task at a time.  You will be amazed at the end of the day all the work you get done this way.

As I said at the beginning, don't try to implement all of the solutions at the same time. Try one solution at a time, and take it from there.  You won't be cured immediately, but in time you will overcome it!   If this post helped you out, please share it with your friends on your favorite social media platform!  Have a great day!

To Your Success,

Steven Thompson

P.S. Connect With Me on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

3 Must Have Tools For A Successful Business Online

Introduction:

You found my post because you have either recently started your own online business, or are struggling to see success in your online business.  Great news, because you are in the right place!  When I first started my online business as a beachbody coach I had no idea what I needed to do.  What I am about to tell you is going to save you a lot of time and frustration.  What would it mean to you if what I am about to teach you will allow you to spend more time with your family?  Sounds pretty good right?  Let's get started!!

Must Have Tool #1:  A Landing Page

Think of a A landing page like this.  Remember in the old days when you could get someone's contact information and put it into your PDA.  A landing page is very similar.  For instance, if you want to give away a free report on Tools you need for your business, you want to get their contact information, so you can follow up with them in a couple of days.  Make sense?

I have tried a number of different landing page programs such as Leadpages and Getresponse, and I have not found one that is better than Getresponse!  Their site is extremely easy to use, cost is very good, and they have good metrics to track your emails.  Check out Getresponse Here!

Must Have Tool #2:  Autoresponder

An autoresponder goes hand in hand with A landing page.  After you get someone's email address via the landing page, you want to be able to follow up with them in a couple of days.  With an autoresponder, you can follow up via email in an automated way.  Automated is key here, because you don't want to be stuck to your keyboard constantly to send emails.  If you have it automated, you will be able to spend more quality time with your family!  Check out Getresponse Here!

Must Have Tool #3:  An Attractive, functional Blog

You absolutely need a place for a person to go where they can learn more about you.  The fact of the matter is in this day and age, people need to trust you, before they are going to buy something from you.  The blog needs to look good, and also easy to navigate.  When you are creating a design for your blog, make sure it is mobile responsive.  Just about everyone is surfing the internet on their smartphone, so it is a real downer if your site is not mobile responsive.  If you are looking for a free blogging platform blogger is good, and bluehost is good for a paid option.  

Closing:

After reading this post I bet you are feeling a lot better about being successful in your business! Before reading this post, have you heard of these tools before?  If this post was helpful for you, please share with your friends on social media!  Have a great day!

To Your Success,

Steven Thompson

P.S. Connect On Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

Am I Procrastinating? How to tell if You Are and How to Stop!

Introduction:

You found this post, because you are worried you might be procrastinating when it comes to completing your business activities.  Do you find yourself doing busy work like:  checking your email, playing with your smartphone, or constantly checking your Facebook newsfeed? How about constantly looking for new training instead of actually learning and applying from the training you have already purchased?  Don't worry you are not alone.  I have done all of the above.  In the rest of the post, I am going to give you some tips on how to stop procrastinating and get your business moving in the right direction?  Are you ready to get started?

Tip #1:  Make A To Do List:

What I do each night is make a to do list of tasks I want to get accomplished the next day.  As I complete a task during the task, I check it off of my list.  I like to use an online like google calendar or yahoo calendar to put all of my daily tasks in.

Tip #2:  Go Slow:

The worst thing you can do in your business is to try and do everything all at once.  Trying to do everything all at once can get you overwhelmed and make you emotionally stuck.  Take it one step and one task at a time.  

Tip #3:  Stop Trying To Be Perfect:

Don't try to have them everything perfect before you get it out to the public.  For instance, if you are making a free report, and are constantly making minor changes to it, STOP.  Make one or two drafts of your report, and get it out to the public.  You can always go back and make updates to it at a later time.  

Tip #4: Reward Yourself:

When you put in a good week of work, reward yourself.  I am not saying send yourself to the bahamas for getting that report down, but go out for a nice dinner. You will be surprised at how much work you will get done the next week after giving yourself a little pat on the back.

Tip #5: Be Accountable:

It is always easier to hold yourself accountable when you have a partner in crime so to speak.  You can make a challenge between the two of you.  An idea for a challenge is something like a 21 day blog challenge.  Winner gets a guest blog post on the losers blog.  

Tip #6: Do the Hard Work First:

A great way to avoid procrastination is to schedule all of your hard tasks early in the day.  This way you can get all of the hard work done early in the day, so you can concentrate on the smaller tasks.  

Tip #7: Remember Why You Started:

If you are feeling a moment of procrastination coming on, remind yourself why you started your business in the first place.  Maybe your reason is you have always wanted to own your own business, or financial freedom.  My reason for starting my business is so I could be home for my kids.  

Closing:

There you have it.  My tips on how to get out of procrastinating and finally being able to realize your dreams.  Have you tried any of these tips before?

To Your Success,

Steven Thompson

I Have A Home Business: 5 Reasons Why I Blog

Introduction:

Sometimes when I tell people I have a blog for my home business, I get them asking me Why I do it. In this post, I am going to share with you a few reasons why I blog, and I think you should too.


Reason #1: Get Customer Feedback Faster:

If you write a book, you will probably have to wait six months to a year before you will get feedback on your work.  A huge benefit of having a blog is getting feedback from your customer immediately. Think about how powerful that is for a second.



Reason #2: Gain Influence In Your Niche:

I am not saying if you start a blog tonight you will become super powerful overnight.  No that is definitely not the case.  If you start a blog and stay consistent with you, over time you will gain a wide audience of people who trust and respect you.


Reason #3:  Build A Network Of People

Starting a blog is an easy way of expanding your network.  If you blog has a lot of great content on it, the posts will attract people to comment on them.  This will lead to readers wanting to get help from you, and also people offering to help you.  A win win.


Reason #4: Build Trust Online:

In this day and age people are not going to come to your site and immediately buy from you.  Having a blog allows you to build trust with your audience by giving away a ton of value for FREE.  It is also a way to showcase your talents so to speak.

Reason #5: Stay Sharp:

Having a blog makes you stay up to date with the latest knowledge in your area of expertise.  If you want to put up a new piece of great content once a week,  you will be forced to keep your knowledge up to date.  The worst thing you would want to do is put out a piece of bad content.

Closing:

So There you have it.  5 reasons to blog if you have a home business.  Which reason was most compelling to you?



To Your Success


Steven Thompson

Connect on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

Video Walkthrough: Import Wordpress Blog To Blogger

In the following video, I am going to teach you how to import your wordpress blog into blogger.  

What questions do you have after watching the video?

Connect With Me on Facebook:
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Fear of Failing With Your Home Business Is Normal!: 6 Tips To Overcome It

Introduction:

If you found this article, it is more than likely because you have a fear of failing in your business.  I know exactly how you feel, I was in the same mindset as you.  You don't want to let your family down, you fear of not being able to pay your mortgage, not able to pay your car payment, etc.  Fear of failure can make you feel emotionally paralyzed when are trying to build your business.  I was on the verge of quitting my business, but after reading a lot of personal development books, I decided I was going to beat this fear, and make a success out of my business!  In the rest of this post, I am going to share with you 7 Tips I used to beat the fear of failure.  Are you ready to get started?

Tip 1:  Be An Action Taker

Make a bold and decisive action.  In other words, get off your butt and do it!  If the action you take doesn't give you the results you desire, try something else.  Sitting there doing nothing is not going to help you at all.  Ask yourself this question, What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Try it out, very powerful question.

Tip 2: Be Persistent

Get in the mindset of you are never going to give up no matter what happens.  Successful people fail more than they succeed in their business, but one of the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is they never give up.  If you try something and it fails, go back to the drawing board and try something new.

Tip 3: Lighten Up On Yourself

Don't be so hard on yourself.  If you fail at something, take it as a learning experience.  Every action that you try write it down with the corresponding result.  This way when you are planning a new course of action, you can review your notes, and make a new plan.

Tip 4: Be Yourself

The worst thing you can do is compare yourself to others in your industry.  Use the things that make you unique to your advantage.  Have confidence in your own abilities and stand out from the crowd.

Tip 5: Start Small

Don't try to accomplish all of your goals all at once.  If you try to do everything all at once, you are going to get overwhelmed. and fear of failing will set in.  Start with a small goals and this will help you build positive momentum in your business.  Success breeds success, so if you can overcome and achieve some smaller goals, your confidence will grow, and your fear of failure will be gone.  All of this momentum will help you build the bigger successes later.

Tip 6:  Be Positive

Lastly and most importantly, always remain positive.  As a business owner,  you should always have a positive attitude, or at the very least, make everyone on the outside think you are positive.  Learn to expect and deal with setbacks in your business.  Even the most successful business owners, have rough patches in their business.

Action Assignment:

What I want you to do now is to implement one of the tips in the article.  I know what you are thinking, I am going to implement all of these tips all at once.  Please do not do that.  Take it one tip at a time, and go from there.


To Your Success,


Steven Thompson

P.S.  Connect On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

Tips For Staying Healthy While Building Your Home Based Business

Introduction:

When I first started out building my home based business, I really struggled with staying healthy.  I was always cramped for time, and I found myself grabbing a lot of fast food.  Eating fast food every once in a while is not a bad thing, but doing it a lot is not good in my opinion.  In the rest of this post, I am going to give you some tips on how you can eat healthy while building your business! Are you ready?

Meal Prep is Crucial:

Every Saturday my wife and I talk about what meals we want to make for the upcoming week.  Then on Sunday, my wife makes all of our meals for the week and stores them in the fridge.  This way all we have to do is grab the meal out of the fridge, instead of taking on the task of figuring out what to eat, and then actually making it.  Huge time saver!!

Eat Clean Meals:

The meals you make should comprise a protein, vegetables, and either a healthy fat or carb. Acceptable proteins include chicken, turkey, salmon, and eggs. For vegetables, spinach, broccoli, kale, and carrots are great options. Healthy fat examples include avocados, almonds, and olive oil. Also  good carbs are brown rice and quinoa. If you're exercising more than four times a week, use carbs. If you aren't exercising a lot, stick with the healthy fats.

Portion Control:

Don't make yourself go crazy thinking about the number of times you should be eating in a day. When you force yourself to eat every x amount of hours,  you end up overeating, because you think you are being healthy. Instead, eat when you get hungry but focus on your portion size. Each meal should be the size of a fist to a fist and a half.  You can absolutely eat too much food, even if it is healthy food.

Exercise Is Important:

Some people forget to exercise, because they are too busy, and this can do more harm than good.  Set aside 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week to exercise.  I recommend using weights or  a kettle ball if you have access to them.   If you do not have access to either one of those, you can start with body weight exercises.  Push ups, sit ups, crunches, and burpees are all great exercises to start out with.  If you have ever done a burpee, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Short Breaks:

Taking a short 15 minute break after 60 minutes of work is a great way to have you mind unwind a bit.  It also gives your eyes a chance to stop staring at the computer screen for a bit.

Meditate:

Meditation is nothing more than sitting still or lying down for 5 minutes and observing your breathing, or noticing your thoughts.  Research has shown that if you meditate for just a few minutes per day, you tap into more creativity, energy, clarity, focus, happiness, and a whole list of other benefits.  Start out by meditating for just 30-60 seconds per day and you will be amazed at the results!

Get Your Sleep:

Last and certainly not least, you need to remember to get enough sleep each night.  I was definitely guilty of this myself, because I wanted to build my business at warp speed.  After about a week of not getting enough sleep.  I found myself not being able to think clearly, and it was hurting my focus. Shoot to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night if you can.  Your body needs time to recharge and allow you to focus better the next day.

Conclusion:

I realize this a lot to implement all of these suggestions all at once, so try adding one of these tips at a time and go from there.  I am curious to hear your thoughts, so please comment below.

To Your Success,

Steven Thompson

Connect on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson

Easy Way For Your Blog Subscribers to Receive Email When New Post is Published

Are you currently sending an email manually to your blog subscribers ever time you publish a new blog post?  I know I was, so I challenged myself to automate the process.  In the video below I show you how to make this automation possible using blogger and GetResponse's RSS To Email process.  After you watch the video, let me know if you have any questions and feel free to share this with your friends :)   

Tips For Branding Yourself Online

Introduction:

After you have come up with your personal brand and figured out your brand name, you need to concentrate on branding yourself online. Face it, we are in the 21st century and a lot of marketing is done online now.  In this post, I am going to share with you a bunch of tips to market yourself online.

Profile Is Essential:

Your first order of business is to get a great profile picture attached to your personal brand.  You can have incredible marketing skills, but if you will be all for not, if you have a crappy profile picture Check with you friends and family to see if they know anyone who can take a good profile picture for you.  

Be Picky:

Once you are first establishing yourself online, I find it best to only pick a few social media sites and get your presence established, instead of trying to be everyone all at once online.  If you try to do the latter, you will find yourself getting  burnt out pretty quickly.  I personally like to use facebook, google plus, and blogging.  Blogger is a free blogging platform, and facebook has millions of users to market to.  

Get Yourself Out There:

Another part of the process involves you getting yourself exposed to more people besides social media.  I suggest writing your own articles in your niche of choice, and having them published on article sites such as hubspot and EZarticles.  This is a great way for people to find out about you, and it is a way for you to help out other people as well. In this day and age, it takes a lot of you giving away free content, before a person will buy a product from you.

Be Consistent:

If you want to be successful in your business, you must be consistent on a day to day basis.  People can tell if you serious or not based on the amount of content they see from you.  Every week you should create a list of goals you want accomplished for the upcoming week, and break them down into daily actionable tasks.  If you do this on a consistent basis, you will be amazed at the amount of work you can get done.  To organize yourself better,  I like using Google calendar, and there are other free tools out there too.

Share Your Story:

People want to be able to relate to you as a person, so you must share your story.  Share your ups and downs as a business owner, and good things will happen for you.  People do not want to buy from a robot, they want to buy from someone they can trust.  Celebrate and share everything that happens for your business.  If you new to the industry and get 15 visitors to your site that day, share your joy on social media.  Just remember, there are a ton of people in the same situation as you, and you can make someone's day by sharing.

Provide Value:

Create content and give it away for free.  Ideas for free content include:

1. Free reports in your niche

2. Email newsletter

3. videos with an incredible of value.  

When you are creating content, always give away more for free, instead of giving less.  

Closing:

There you have it, my tips for branding yourself online.   Which one of these tips is your favorite one?  Did you learn something new today?

Have a Great Day!

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http://www.facebook.com/coachsteventhompson