Want to Be an Entrepreneur? Follow These Steps to NEVER Giving Up

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Thinking of giving up?  Want to throw the towel in when it gets a bit tough?

Stop right there!

We love to inspire our JigsawBoxer’s so thought we’d share our take on an article by Anna Vital at www.fundersandfounders.com on her strategy for never giving up on becoming an entrepreneur.  We think you will find it invaluable and the illustration is great for those times when you need a lift!

Step one: Keep breathing

Sounds simple but this is the first step for as long as you are still breathing, in and out, anything is within your reach.

Step two: Rein back those expectations

Strangely enough, most accomplishments are not overnight.  It’s the newspaper headlines that like to glamorise such successes to make them appear as an overnight job!

Some are true but for the most part it is just a guessing game.  If you are wasting your time wondering how someone else did it then don’t.  By all means keep at it and work hard but these expectations should be curtailed you will only put undue stress on yourself.

Step Three: Your mind will tell you that you aren’t as strong as you think you are

Sadly this is where most people fall by the wayside. They listen to their inner voice saying ‘the pressure is too much’.  Just breathe.  Use this as a reason to persist. If you say you can’t do something then you stand no chance out in the big wide world!   Try different things if you find that something is not working. Even if it means you are on your 50th idea will you try number 51? They are not all related so each new failure is the next step to a success!  A bit like the sales man who gets a 100 no’s, he has faith that there is a yes just round the corner!

Step Four: Fake it.

Today everyone tries to be something they are not, so what do they do? They fake it!  It’s the same with you. Follow their example by acting like you have made it already. It’ll make a difference to how you feel inside which will keep pushing you forward.  Just don’t lie that’s the golden rule.

Step Five: Making comparisons

If you focus too much on what others are doing you’ll end up a mess! You never know what’s happening behind closed doors, if they are doing really well at faking it that is!

You’ll then find yourself falling into a dip as right before success this will happen.  It’ll feel pretty low and you will feel like giving in.  This is where you do the stuff that no one else does, you take risks because you have absolutely nothing to lose. Don’t be afraid just do it, success will most probably be just around the corner.

Here’s the best bit! And remember we are right behind you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Mindset: Doing one thing with excellence or many with mediocrity?

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Nicola Bird, Creator of JigsawBoxThere’s two approaches you can take in business – try and be all things to all people, or do one thing really really well,

Let me explain how that works in our business so you can see what I mean.

Here at JigsawBox we constantly get asked for new features. Can you develop and autoresponder to go with JigsawBox? Can you create your own shopping cart we can integrate? Does JigsawBox do sales pages? Can my clients book appointments into my diary using JigsawBox?

And our answer is ‘no’ and here’s why. Aweber, Infusionsoft and 1ShoppingCart have spent gazillions on perfecting an autoresponder that works. Same with the shopping cart idea. WordPress is already perfect for creating sales pages, and Timetrade is the thing to use for booking client appointments online.

Can you integrate all these things with your JigsawBox? Absolutely. Do we want to divert our resources into trying to provide these for you? Certainly not.

I’m a great one for listening to what your market tell you they want, however we pride ourselves on the fact that we say ‘no’ to a huge percentage of customer requests for development.

We take Steve Jobs’ stance when he quoted Henry Ford who said ‘If I’d asked them what they wanted, they’d have asked for a faster horse’.

Our focus is on making JigsawBox THE number one piece of toolkit for any serious coach. We’re working every day to make it faster, prettier and easier to use. In fact later this week we release the ‘copy module’ and ‘copy package’ feature that you HAVE all been asking for – because this supports our core purpose of providing a simple, elegant, beautiful piece of technology that allows coaches to sell more than their 1: 1 time and have the time, money and freedom to do more of the stuff they love.

So what’s the mindset piece here? List out 10 things you’re going to say ‘no’ to offering as part of your services and get really really focused on that one thing you do really well, better than anyone else in the world.

Monday Mindset: Nothing is good or bad

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You can mulle...er...do it!‘Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so’ according to William Shakespeare (Hamlet Act 2 scene ii)

I really think the Bard knew what he was talking about here. The way we think about things makes them what they are to us. Specifically, the way we describe things in words makes them ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in our minds. Or anything else – interesting, boring, useful, beautiful or inspiring.

In case you haven’t heard me say this before…

There’s always more than one way to describe a thing.

If the way you currently describe something means that you don’t feel good about it, how about experimenting with different words. Not to change the meaning, just to shift the emphasis.

For example, the complaint,
‘I’m not happy about that’ could be re-worded to, ‘I’m not totally happy about that’. How does that shift your thoughts?

Or the try this one: ‘I’m not good at that, I can’t do it’ transformed to ‘I haven’t discovered the easiest way to do it yet’.

In NLP this is usually described as re-framing. You could also call it taking control of your thoughts. I think of it as shifting focus using language.

But like I said, there’s always more than one way to describe a thing.

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Guest blog post – written by:
Dianne Lowther Master Trainer of NLP

Dianne Lowther is a Master Trainer of NLP and Principal of Brilliant Minds. She specialises in applications of NLP for leadership and business results.

JigsawBox Tip: Facebooking It

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It's Facebook - Let's ALL Comment!This week’s JigsawBox tip is going to update you on how you can use and integrate Facebook into your JigsawBox account. Social media is something that most of us, now, jump into with both feet and without fear. Isn’t it time that you started incorporating it into your own coaching programs?

Facebook Comments quickly became one of the hottest features and in using it, our coaches found that they were able to communicate better and faster with their clientele. It’s the locked in connectivity that both you and your clients are needing so that flow of communication keeps on coming.

Here is your quick and easy “How To” on setting up this fantastic feature…

  • Step 1: Create your own Facebook account by going to http://www.facebook.com.
  • Step 2: Once logged in to your Facebook account, then go to http://developers.facebook.com
  • Step 3: Click the “Apps” tab at the top of the screen to be taken to the apps menu. On the right hand side of this screen click “Create New App”.
  • Step 4: On this page you need to name your app, select your locale, and agree to the terms of Facebook. Additionally please click “Continue”, confirm your security credentials, and finally click “Submit”. Doing this will take you to the main application page.
  • Step 5: On the main application page choose the “website” option at the bottom. Where it allows you to enter text, enter: www.jigsawbox.com/ *Please remember to add the forward slash!*
  • Step 6: Click “Save Changes” and once more click the “Apps” tab at the top of the page.
  • Step 7: From the “Access Tokens” area of the main apps page, click the “Need to grant permissions” link and copy the Application ID code.
  • Step 8: Log into your JigsawBox account and click the “My Account” link on the right hand side of your screen.
  • Step 9: Scroll down the page until you see the section called, “Facebook App ID”. Paste your application ID into this section.
  • Step 10: Click “Save”.

Then guess what! You are done!

Start using Facebook Comments today and upgrade how YOU talk to your clients.

JigsawBox
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