Claim your spot in the “Plan to Thrive” teleclass

Register for this free session with Meggin McIntosh and me.

Does business planning really matter, or do all business plans sit forgotten on a shelf?

According to a recent study, lack of a well-developed business plan is a factor in 78 percent of all small business closures. In fact, planning is one of the best practices you can habitually engage in to bring success and ease to your growing business, develop your skills, and achieve the goals you set.

Wondering how to create a plan you will actually use?

One way is to join host Meggin McIntosh and me for this informational and practical (and free!) teleclass.  As a participant, you will:

• review types of plans to find one that meets your needs;
• begin writing your own plan;
• receive planning tools to use again and again;
• learn techniques to focus on the steps with the greatest impact;
• discover secrets to sustaining your motivation no matter what!

Don’t just survive — plan to thrive!

Registration is free – reserve your spot here.

Humans are natural procrastinators

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
– Sir John Dalberg-Acton

Hold on, Sir John! Is it possible that delay serves a good purpose? And if, like our appendix, delay has outlived its usefulness, how can we work around it with as little discomfort as possible?

This Thursday I will be speaking to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) San Francisco chapter, and the topic will be “Mastering Follow-Through.” Join this opportunity to network with many of San Francisco’s most dynamic business women by registering at the NAWBO website, or just join us at the door.

Why is it so hard for us to follow through on our plans and make the change we really want to make? It turns out that humans, along with having big brains and the ability to sort lots of choices, have become “natural procrastinators.”

Want to know how to work with our natural tendencies rather than struggle against them? Join us this Thursday at the Omni Hotel, 500 California Street, San Francisco. We’ll share hors d’oeuvres, lots of networking, and some information you can use the very next day to get more done and feel better about it.

I’ll be making a very special offer just for NAWBO attendees for my “Plan to Thrive” coaching program, that will give you the support you need to go from overwhelmed to overjoyed in just six months, by helping you get control of  your time, paper, and projects.

Great networking with the wonderful women of NAWBO, useful information, special offers —  there are so many reasons to be there on Thursday! Hope to see you then!

Want to get organized for business? This class can help.

Tired of an overflowing in-box? Would you like to be better organized? Want to manage your time, paper, and energy, and have a lot more fun doing it? There’s a class that focuses on the skills and tools you need to banish disorganization in your office.

I’ll be teaching “Organize Your Business Life” at College of San Mateo on Saturday, May 15.

Learn to handle incoming items effectively, set priorities, follow through, get the most from your time, positively affect your stress level and the stress level of those around you — and more.

This class makes use of presentations, participant exercises, and class participation to help you learn new and useful skills. I’d love to share the skills, the information, and the fun with you! (And community college classes are a great bargain – don’t miss out!)

If you’re not in the San Francisco Bay Area, please contact me directly by leaving a comment here. I’ll be happy to point you toward resources available to you in your area.

What are your biggest office organizing challenges? Time? Paper? Setting priorities? E-mail? Let me know!

Listen to “Getting Organized with Margaret Lukens” podcasts

Would  you like to listen to your organizing and productivity information as well as read it?

The latest episodes of my radio program, “Getting Organized with Margaret Lukens”, are now available as podcasts on iTunes.

The free podcasts were originally broadcast on WHDD public radio in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. Now you can download them and listen any time.

Check back often — even more programs are in the works.

Plan from your passion

Last week I received the audience feedback from a conference workshop I led in November. One respondent commented anonymously:

“So inspiring, clean. Made a promise to myself as a result of this session.”

This is what I live for!

I was leading my popular session “Plan to Thrive – how to shape, track, and follow through on your best business plans,” and while it’s impossible to cover the whole planning process in the 75 minutes typically allotted for a conference workshop, I aim to give people several tools that can take them from vague and disorganized to focused and motivated, with their plan beginning to take shape even during the session.

I am passionate about helping others get in touch with the possibilities in their business so that they can get the results they want with more ease. In that workshop session I spoke from that passion, and consequently I was able to tap that passion in the workshop participants.

As you make your business plans, remember to station your passion front and center. Planing isn’t merely about making a spreadsheet of what’s possible, or worse, probable.

A good plan also touches the passion that is the source of so much energy, creativity, and focus.

A good plan will help to propel you out of bed in the morning. It will hold your passion up before you, reminding you of why you bother.

A good plan will enable you to enlist others in your enterprise, so you don’t have to go it alone.

Success requires clarity about goals and how to reach them. It requires good execution; no plan can help very much if we don’t take the steps outlined in it. And long-term, sustainable success also requires tapping into our passion.

How will your passion inform your plan for the future? What are you excited about right now? Leave a comment here.

“Eliminating Excess” teleclass

Eliminate the excess at work and at home

Are you a professional organizer or hope to become one? Don’t miss the upcoming teleclass “Eliminating Excess”. This class is part of the series of classes offered by the National Association of Professional Organizers.

You will be able to assist your clients when:

• one office mate calls the stuff clutter, and the other says it’s a collection
• your client wants to de-clutter AND keep as much stuff as possible out of the trash
• your client is discouraged because they’ve decluttered before, but stuff always comes back
• your client has a cluttered calendar and task list

In this course I supply strategies for identifying clutter and hoarding, forms to help you and your client formulate a project plan, ideas for dealing with clients with different learning styles, lots of resources to donate and recycle surplus items, and much more.

This teleclass will be offered for the first time on Thursday, November 12 from 7 to 9 m Eastern, 4 to 6 pm Pacific. To register, visit the NAPO curriculum page and click on the bar for PO-204T: Eliminating Excess.

How to Get Clients Now

Getting more clients is crucial for nearly every small business owner. Are you frustrated because the clients just aren’t coming?

Help is here, now.

This summer, doing a small part to move our economy forward, I am giving away just 20 places in the “How to Get Clients Now” teleclass.

In my two-part teleclass, I will train you to use the Get Clients Now system at no charge.

Get Clients Now is based on the book by master coach C. J. Hayden. (Maybe you’ve already got the book on your shelf, but you haven’t yet put it to work.) I am a licensed Get Clients Now facilitator, and I regularly lead Get Clients Now programs for small business owners.

In this teleclass, I will train you to use the tools in the Get Clients Now program. These are tools that are custom-made for your business, tools you can use again and again.

The two-part class meets at 3 pm Pacific time, 6 pm Eastern this Friday, June 19, and next Friday, June 26.

To join me for this special opportunity, please contact me with your name and email address. (I require these in order to send you the materials you need to participate in this valuable class. Of course I respect your privacy and will never trade, use, or sell your personal information.)

Please come fresh and ready to work. This two-part class is a $100 value, but it can be yours without charge if you act now.

I look forward to helping you Get Clients Now.

Questions? Contact me or leave a comment here.

Why “Get Clients NOW” might be perfect for you

If you want to attract more clients to your professional services business, this is a class for you.

Based on the book by master coach C.J. Hayden, Get Clients NOW! ™ will help you focus on marketing to fill your schedule, using proven strategies and high-quality tools customized to your business.

You will not only learn what you need, you’ll take action to make it happen. During this program you will

• Focus your marketing efforts.
• Diagnose what’s missing in your marketing.
• Choose from dozens of effective tactics to build your client base.
• Overcome the fear, procrastination and resistance that keep you stuck.
• Stay motivated, no matter what.
• Design a plan that suits YOU, one you can use again and again.

Allow me to offer you this fantastic opportunity.

Get Clients NOW ™ combines a seminar to teach the tools you’ll need and regular coaching to help you take effective action and build your client base.

New Leaf + Company is offering a convenient six-week group teleclass so you can participate from anywhere, beginning January 5. To register, phone 650.342.0580 today.

Make 2009 a spectacular, break-through year for you and your business. Call now!

Why do I offer this class?

My MBA taught me that when it comes to a small business, marketing is not brain surgery or rocket science. It consists of a few simple principles which, applied consistently, have a powerful impact. It really is an organizing problem — focusing your time, paper and projects to achieve your marketing and business-building goals.

My business experience allows me to help other solo entrepreneurs and small business owners to achieve their marketing goals. Get Clients NOW provides a simple, tried-and-true framework. I know it works because I’ve used it myself.

Call now. 650.342.0580. You won’t be sorry. Make 2009 the year your business really takes off.

What does it cost?

What is the cost for 3 hours of training plus 4 hours of group coaching? While other programs cost much more, Get Clients NOW is just $245 with New Leaf + Company this month.

Call 650.342.0580 to speak with Margaret Lukens in person about how Get Clients NOW can make a significant difference for you this year.

What is the value of just one client for you? Call Margaret Lukens at New Leaf + Company today! Begin 2009 with one of the best investments you’ve ever made. Clear your calendar; you won’t be sorry.

I look forward to speaking with you!

All the best, Margaret Lukens

Announcing February’s SF coaching book

by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC

In October I requested recommendations for a book to share with the San Francisco coaches-and-friends book group. Several people, including authors, offered wonderful suggestions (see below for more good reads), making it excruciating to choose just one book.

book shelf

But choose we must, so here it is:

If you are in the San Francisco area on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, please join the SF members of the International Coach Federation and their friends (no need to be a coach!) at Books Inc. for a discussion of Brain Rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school, by John Medina.

As many of you know, brain science is a particular interest of mine, and this book, published in 2008, is one of the most accessible and interesting reviews of what the latest research can tell us about how to work WITH our brains rather than against them, for maximum productivity, joy and health. The book comes with an entertaining DVD, making use of at least two of the “brain rules”, #4: we don’t pay attention to boring things, and #10: vision trumps all other senses.

This book will provide immediate help if you:

* give a PowerPoint presentation
* parent a teenager, or a toddler
* wonder how to sell to a client
* influence an office layout
* want to learn new skills
* hope to remember things better
* and more.

Whether you have read the book or not, please join us for the discussion at Books Inc. on Van Ness Street in San Francisco this February.

And if you’re packing your suitcase with books in addition to a snowboard and gifts this month, consider adding these runners-up for the book club choice:

Being Productive, Getting More Done with Less Effort, by Chris Crouch, available later this month. Chris, sometimes referred to as the “Jack Daniels distillery of organizing” for the way he boils down and renders the best of what is known about productivity, is the author of several books on organizing. This is his newest.

Bit Literacy: productivity in the age of information and e-mail overload, by Mark Hurst. This book got votes, a testament to the need we all feel for help in managing new information technologies.

The Spiritual Art of Being Organized, by Claire Josefine. Many people yearn for a simpler and more meaningful life, free of clutter and confusion. Claire Josefine is their Lewis, their Clark, and their Sacagewea.

Fun With Filing, by Maria Parkinson. It’s about creating files (either business or personal) that last a life time and anyone can understand. Brand-new book by a first-time author.

If you can’t make it to the San Francisco group in February, please connect with the book discussion by leaving a comment here.

Update on April 3, 2009: As of this week, Brain Rules is now available in paperback.

Book Group in San Francisco Welcomes Recommendations

By Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC

In February I will be leading the book club of the SF chapter of the International Coaches Federation at Books Inc. at Opera Plaza (Van Ness Street) in San Francisco. Is there a book you would like to read or discuss? Any book related to organizing, coaching, or productivity is welcome.

If the author can attend, so much the better!

Some possibilities include The Now Habit (Neil Fiore), Bit Literacy (Mark Hurst), and Leadership and the New Science (Margaret Wheatley).

Do you have a suggestion? All ideas welcome. Please leave a comment here.

Update: a book has been selected. See this post. And do join the discussion!