Gaetan started with jewelry and soon added her incredibly adorable baby hats. She’s now adding beautiful knit cowls!  She is having a ball, learning new skills and adding customers–all in her spare time. Could life be any better?  Probably not.

Wouldn’t your business do better if you followed Lu’s example?  Try it for 30 days and let me know.  I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised!  Thanks, Lu!

Curiosity opens our minds to new ideas and people.  Just because I own a web-based business for women over 55 doesn’t mean that is what I read about exclusively.  I read about fashion, decorating, architecture, travel, technology, cars, inventions, business, fiction AND almost all the books my grandchildren read so I will know what they are thinking about.  From this love affair with the written word I have “met” many of the fascinating women on my site, many of the fascinating women I have written about in my After 55 column or in these blog entries and have had more darn fun connecting with people at gatherings and being able to keep up my end of the conversation.  You know that these conversations lead to . . . who knows where?

Questions expand horizons.  Take a look at every part of your business and ask, “Why do I do it this way?  Is there a different/better way? What would be best for my client?”  If you take this step seriously, you may find some surprising answers.  You may not want to continue a product or process.  You may find a much better way of being useful to your client. You may discover a new profit center.

Being creative doesn’t require anything more than a curious mind, good questions, and pencil and paper.  Oh, the places you will go! — Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

Just last week, I went to a noon lunch and learn featuring a local movie critic.  I am not a movie fanatic like my husband, but I simply needed to get out of the house.  Wow!  It turned out that it was hosted by the library, and I made two new community contacts there. The informal talk wasn’t about movies. It was about the changing face of movie reviews and how he is responding by taking his work to the internet and his own website, the place of YouTube and his challenges in connecting with his followers.  Now this was far more interesting to me than I expected and I got some new ideas, contacts and a delicious lunch at a restaurant I had never visited.  When I say, “Get out!” I truly have your best interests in mind; I’m not being crabby.

See if they appeal to you–and let me know which ones you read . . . I’m always looking for good, positive information!

What do you want your business to do in January?  Still be standing is not the complete answer.  Between now and January that will be your task–keep your baby healthy and growing. But what do you want to be able to start doing the first week in January 2010?  Now block out the tasks and systems that will get you there.  Good news!  You can do some of this planning while gardening and definitely put a game plan together on your morning walk.

I have my walking shoes on right now–gotta go!

What would you do if someone invested $10,000 in your business? How would you spend it?

$100,000?  $1,000,000?

At first I thought it was a cute set of questions, but as I started to consider the possibilities I saw that what I was doing was writing a different kind of business plan.  We After 55s are many times used to doing everything ourselves.  These questions stretch us in more ways than one.  Go, Barry!

This was brought home to me just this week.  My daughter and her family just moved into their new condominium two days ago.  It is beautiful and the realization of a dream.  To say they are excited is an understatement.  A neighbor dropped by yesterday to say hello and pick up some pans from a dinner she provided the night before.

This person was the first to move into the building and had nothing but complaints and disappointments to air.

How do you look at your business right now? Are you accentuating the positive? Are you sliding into the common  vernacular and putting on a world-weary face and tone of voice? Remember that your attitude can make the difference. What is yours?

1. Trust Yourself. It’s important to be confident in your area of expertise. You should feel extremely comfortable talking about your specific area.

2. Do Not Over-Think It. In your presentation, share the information you would want to receive without the extras that sometimes take away from the real message.

3. Have a Great Time. Begin with the intent to truly enjoy sharing information and ideas that you are passionate about and expect that your audience will be just as excited to receive the information.

Good points, aren’t they?  If that isn’t enough to get you comfortable in front of your chamber of commerce, contact Gillie at gilliehaynes@aol.com and find out what it will take to raise your star power.

1. Access to opportunity: Is age, gender or race a factor? How can you maximize those factors to your benefit?
2. Access to capital:  Make sure your business is well-capitalized and know where you will get the capital.
3. Be knowledgeable about being an entrepreneur: Know what it takes to start, build and grow a business.  Work FOR your business, not IN it!

Good points, Sharon!  Too many times we just start on a whim because we have read about some super-successful person who did . . . probably if we scratched the surface, we would find a different story. There are no born entrepreneurs–there are successful entrepreneurs who have succeeded because of Sharon’s pointers.