By John Tozzi, Venessa Wong, and Nick Leiber

Pushing for Profits and Social Impact

The social enterprise—a sustainable business that creates social or environmental value alongside profit—is no longer a niche concept. Social entrepreneurs inhabit nearly every sector of the economy, from banking and insurance to energy and manufacturing. That breadth is evident in Bloomberg Businessweek‘s second annual U.S. roundup of promising social entrepreneurs. The companies profiled here were selected from more than 200 candidates suggested earlier this year by Businessweek.com readers. They range from fresh startups to established, multimillion-dollar enterprises. All share a commitment to using business to create a broader benefit. Flip through this slide show to read profiles of each, then vote for the one you consider most promising at the end of the slide show. Voting ends on June 25. We’ll announce the top 5 vote-getters on the Small Business channel on June 29.

Read more at Bloomberg Business Week

For the past two years, I’ve been working with  Gangplank, a Chandler-based collaboration space, to figure out what Arizona needs to be come a successful entrepreneurial hub. Derek Neighbors and Jade Meskill, the entrepreneurs who conceived Gangplank, took a big risk when they decided to sign a lease for a much larger space than their company, Integrum, needed, in order to encourage others to congregate around them. As Gangplank heads into its next phase, which will be a substantial expansion, here are the ingredients they’ve decided are the way forward for Arizona (and probably for anywhere else.) 

Read the rest…

"We can all learn from our mistakes and from the mistakes of others," says Christy Schmitt, Union Bank senior vice president and small business banking executive. "Many of our most successful business clients failed at their first venture and persevered to build strong companies."

Following are a few common mistakes women entrepreneurs make:

1. Hiring too quickly, firing too slowly. Staffing can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of running a successful business. Because making key hires can affect your entire business, many women agonize over whether they’re making the right decision, sometimes losing opportunities to hire qualified people. On the other hand, if you know you need to let someone go, don’t procrastinate. If you don’t have someone trained in human resource management on staff, work with a consultant or attorney who specializes in employee relations to ensure that you adhere to your state’s legal parameters. While firing an employee is a difficult decision, you need to do what’s best for your business.
2. Failing to delegate. As women, we sometimes try to do it all, at home and at work. But successful business owners know that a strong leader is surrounded by an even stronger team. Train your employees efficiently and utilize their skills. Identify a strong team manager or second-in-command so you can manage your time wisely. Reconsider whether you need to attend every meeting or review every memo and e-mail. Trust your team.
3. Not developing a relationship with a banker. Given the challenges of today’s competitive business market, it’s important to have a solid relationship with your banker. Don’t wait until there’s a problem with your business to reach out to a banker. Do it now to prepare for the future. If your banker isn’t calling you, contact him or her; trust your banker, and discuss your specific business needs and goals.
4. Not looking into supplier diversity programs. Many major corporations and the government have special programs for woman-owned, minority-owned and service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses. Some banks, including Union Bank, also offer financing programs that provide flexible underwriting on loans and lines of credit specifically for these businesses. Work with your banker to determine what options might be available for you and your business.
5. Not being certified. "This is probably the easiest mistake to avoid," says Frank Robinson, Union Bank’s vice president of diverse banking. "Certification as a Women’s  Business Enterprise and/or Minority Business Enterprise can open doors to government or large corporation contracts." If your company is privately held and at least 51 percent owned by a woman or minority who is a U.S. citizen or legal resident, you can apply for WBE or MBE certification. Talk to your banker and obtain this certification today if you qualify.

The foregoing article is intended to provide general information about selecting and working with a banker and is not considered financial advice from Union Bank. Please consult your financial advisor.
Martha Pineda is a priority banking manager for Union Bank in Tustin, Calif. For more information about Union Bank Priority Banking, visit www.unionbank.com/priority.

In the short term, this leaves you with an interesting challenge that there just isn’t much advice for – the moment when you realize that you still need to promote your business despite having a website that you hate and which you know is less than ideal. Can it really be possible to use the Internet effectively for marketing without a good website?  Yes, definitely.  Here are a few ideas on how to do just that.

1. Announce a non-existent redesign. The first thing you need to do with a subpar website is to give customers the impression you are working to improve it. The only thing worse than a bad website is one that seems like it will be bad forever. So put a note on your homepage in some way sharing that your redesign is “coming soon.” If you think about it, this is exactly what retail destinations do when they hang those signs saying “please pardon our progress.” Progress takes time, but the first important lesson is that your customers need to know that it is coming … even if you have no idea when.

2. Create other homepages. The nice thing about the web today is that you can get up and running on a host of other sites to create a branded presence for your business in less than an hour. What this means is that your website doesn’t need to be the only place that you share information about your business.  Need a page telling people where you are located? Populate that information into Google Maps and use that link. Want to tell people about your business and share some images? Create a Facebook fan page for your business. There are lots of sites out there where you can share information about your business without needing to just point people to your site.

3. Fix your homepage first. The homepage of your site is the gateway to your business and the first impression someone is likely to have. While a full redesign may be some time away, getting some help to recreate your homepage can be a good investment to start people with a positive experience of your site and then potentially drive them to other homepages as mentioned in #3.

4. Use more direct communications. When you can’t rely on your website to reach your customers, you may want to consider a more direct model. Email marketing certainly fits into this category – but starting a Twitter account and sharing updates directly can also be a way of offering a more consistent stream of content or information without relying on your website to do it.

5. Leverage your other materials. I have seen more than a few small businesses struggle to create a quality website while at the VERY SAME TIME they have an expanse of good printed materials such as brochures and other collateral they use in the real world to promote their business. If you have these kinds of materials, work with someone (or buy a relatively inexpensive scanner yourself) to digitize some of the best of your content. Then you can upload to your site or post it online in another location to make it available for customers and prospectives.

Source: Open Forum

When I was in the process of launching my internet business, The Simple Dollar, I was under a great deal of stress.  I was working a full time job while at the same time giving a ton of my time, emotion, and energy to making my new business take off.  On top of that, I also needed time for my wife and my children.

For more than a year, I was a complete overstressed wreck.  I didn’t sleep enough.  My anxiety level was quite high, causing me to overreact to every little thing.  I got sick several times, causing me to both miss time at my full time job as well as vital business startup time.  I also often felt like I was letting someone or something down in my life because there simply wasn’t enough hours in the day.

That period taught me several vital lessons about the dual difficulties of launching a business while still trying to maintain some semblance of personal finance security and a normal home life. 

First, recognize that you can’t do everything.  The more you try to take on everything, the more likely you are to begin letting people down – and letting yourself down.  That can be a downward spiral of failure and overcompensation that becomes difficult to escape from.

What can you do instead?  Spend some time honestly figuring out what the real priorities are in your life.  Many people will tell you that their family is a priority – and they may even believe that – but they’ll find themselves making other choices when it comes to crunch time, letting their family life suffer at the expense of a business.  If your true priority is your business, admit it to yourself and focus your energies there.  If your true priority is your family, admit that as well and accept that you may have to let your business lag a little.  If your true priority is maintaining your full time job, accept that your business will probably grow very slowly at first.  Once you have your priorities straight, it becomes much easier to determine which elements of your life deserve priority over others.

Another key step is to reduce your personal spending and financial burden.  Many people, when their lives are overfull with demands but their wallets are flush with income, will choose to commit to a much more expensive standard of living because of the convenience.  It’s easier to go out to eat – where you can relax for a bit before eating your meal – than to prepare something at home, right?  It’s also more expensive, which means that you’re more attached than ever to the very difficult personal balancing act you’re taking on.

That’s why a fresh commitment to personal frugality can be so vital as you balance full-time work and the launch of a business.  The less you require for your own personal spending, the easier the transition to a full-time businessperson can be.  Look into ways to reduce your personal spending without much pain.  Install a programmable thermostat and program it to have your air conditioner or furnace not run when you’re not at home.  Hold off on upgrading that car.  And, yes, eat at home as often as you can – learn how to prepare simple, tasty meals with inexpensive ingredients and remember that the slow cooker can really be your friend.

What finally happened with my own situation, you might ask?  Eventually, I made the difficult choice to walk away from my full time job, even though I was earning more from that job than I was from my business.  The reason?  I realized that my family was the highest priority in my life, more than my job or my burgeoning business.  This put my business and my full time job into conflict and I chose the one that made family choices easier for me.  Of course, the path to that decision was made much easier by a strong commitment to reducing my personal spending.

By: Ben Parr

Let’s face it: as an entrepreneur, the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first few years, and even if you do manage to survive, that doesn’t mean your business will redefine an industry, become profitable, or change the world. Getting off on the right foot is essential to navigating a startup from its infancy to profitability.

Luckily, there have been countless entrepreneurs that have gone through the same toils building their own businesses, and most of them are happy to share their experiences to better prepare you for the journey ahead. In addition, there is now an array of social media and web apps that no entrepreneur has ever had access to before. Together, these resources can give you the edge in a fast-changing business world.

While we can’t highlight the thousands of resources at your disposal, we have put together twenty of our favorite guides, web apps, and tools that can help you build and launch a startup. This guide is divided into six sections, covering everything from coming up with the right idea to the steps you need to take and tools you’ll want to have to secure funding for your early-stage company. In total, you will find that this guide is a comprehensive resource for anybody who’s trying to realize his or her entrepreneurial dreams.

Guides To Getting Started

Before you dive into your startup (or maybe after you’re neck-deep), you should get yourself a crash course education in starting a business. There is no education like doing, but reading up on incorporating, collecting some checklists, and understanding just what it takes to get your specific business off the ground will save you plenty of headaches later on.

1. The Entrepreneur.com Startup Kits: Entrepreneur Magazine’s website has a gem for entrepreneurs: startup kits. There are kits for everything from starting a restaurant to a consulting firm, complete with articles, guides, marketing tips, and more.

2. eHow’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Collaborative knowledge resource website eHow has hundreds of thousands of great articles, including a strong set of guides and resources for how to open a business, how to incorporate, raising money, and bookkeeping.

3. About.com Starting a Business Hub: Another resource you should not miss is About.com’s Entrepreneurs Hub. They’ve curated some of their best content for starting a business, including checklists, a small business startup kit, and detailed articles on naming and calculating the cost of your startup.

4. Library of Congress’s Entrepreneur’s Reference Guide: Yes, the U.S. Library of Congress has an entrepreneur’s reference guide, while it’s dated (1999), it also lists a lot of great books that are updated yearly. It covers practically every topic related to starting a small business.

Inspirations For The Idea

There are few things more important to the success of your startup than having the right idea and continuing to be innovative with your product as it gets built and released to your customers. Ideas don’t just come in cans from the store, though. That’s why we’ve brought together some resources that should help inspire your creative juices and help you nail down the next big idea.

5. Vator.tv: A play on “elevator pitch,” Vator.tv is a place where entrepreneurs can upload short video pitches about their startup. Not only that, but you can follow industry news and specific companies. Watching these pitches will certainly jolt your brain’s creative juices. Also check out VentureBeat Profiles (formerly TradeVibes), which also has a great database of startups and a community discussing each one.

6. Alltop Startups: Reading the latest news and opinions in the startup world can only help jolt your brain and keep you current. Alltop has a great list of blogs and news websites dedicated to the subject (including my personal blog). Take a read, subscribe to the blogs that interest you, and you’ll be guaranteed to be reading about great ideas soon enough.

Start Up Web Apps

While there is an array of great web tools for entrepreneurs (10 of the best we previously highlighted), there are some tools that just make your life easier when you’re trying to bring order to the chaos of launching your startup. Consider these tools when you’re in the early stages of building a company:

7. Evernote : Information is king, and there are few web apps that do a better job of collecting information in front of the computer screen or on-the-go than Evernote. The service simply helps you remember everything. You can take pictures of your receipts for easy organization or save key info while you browse, for example, among many other ways to organize and catalog the things you need to remember for your startup.

8. Zoho : Zoho is a suite of online collaboration tools. Not only does it include email and spreadsheets, but it includes, wiki, chat, customer relationship management (CRM), and web conferencing as well. While it is similar to Google Apps, it is built specifically for businesses.

9. PBWorks: Wikis are amazing for organizing ideas and sharing them with team members. There are few better suited for business than PBWorks, which is not only a wiki but a collaboration tool, document manager, and project management tool.

10. FreshBooks: If your business is client-based, you need to track invoices, teams, and payments constantly. While there are many choices, Freshbooks is one of the best due to its mobile apps, integration with Basecamp, and reasonable pricing.

Social Media For Startup Success

Social media is about connecting with people. Interestingly enough, so is business and entrepreneurship, which is perhaps why there is so much overlap between the two. If you want to get your startup off the ground, you have to network, build up your social circle, and reach out to the right people. These social tools are adept at that task:

11. Plaxo: There are few tasks more important in business than maintaining and organizing your contacts. You never know when someone you meet will lead you to a big business deal, venture capital, or a new team member. Plaxo acts as a digital address book that efficiently organizes everyone you meet. Plus, it integrates with Outlook, Thunderbird and the Mac OS X Address Book to make importing contacts a snap. You have to be diligent about adding contacts, though.

12. Google Wave : Google’s  experimental real-time communication platform not only has a consumer version, but also comes in a corporate flavor for users of Google apps. Having your team collaborate on projects through waves is a unique experience, one that we have used with success over here at Mashable. No other social tool has the same collaboration features.

13. LinkedIn: This one may be obvious, but its importance in business cannot be overstated. It is the world’s most popular business social network for a reason. Its business features, especially those connecting you to friends of friends, are unmatched, and with over 50 million users, it’s a social media tool you need to be using constantly.

Social Media For Start Up Success

Bringing your startup to the next level takes more than willpower, determination, and grit. In most cases, you need startup capital to build the product, hire the right team members, and maintain the product after it launches. That’s why it’s vital to do your homework on how to effectively raise money.

These are a few resources that will give you a crash course education in venture capital and raising money to grow your startup:

14. Introduction to Venture Capital: If you’re clueless about how venture capital works (most people are), this short presentation by Will Price, former venture capitalist and the current CEO of Widgetbox, explains all of the basics. It was given at Stanford University in 2007. 

15. TheFunded: This entrepreneurship community is very unique in that it is focused on helping you raise money. How? By giving you ratings and inside details of the practices of countless venture capital and angel investor funds. The information, once you’re in, is invaluable to choosing the firm that will help propel your business to the next level.

16. How to Fund a Startup: This guide by Y Combinator co-founder and early-stage investor Paul Graham is shockingly detailed on the different ways to raise money, the disadvantages of each approach, how venture capital firms operate, and the reality of bringing investors into your company. A must-read for any startup founder before raising capital.

Social Startup Communities

You cannot and should not build your business alone. The world’s greatest entrepreneurs not only had co-founders, but they had friends, family, and a community of entrepreneurs and advisors that helped them with difficult decisions, overcoming adversity, and fixing mistakes.

With the rise of social media and the web, a crop of incredible startup communities have popped up, each one with a unique character but with a wealth of community knowledge that you’d be crazy to pass up on your journey to build a great company.

17. StartupNation: The recently redesigned startup community network has extensive and active forums, useful knowledge hubs, community groups, and plenty more.

18. Hacker News : The seed investment firm Y Combinator has built a thriving and active startup community known as Hacker News. Users add relevant and interesting stories on the topics of programming and startup entrepreneurship and consistently hold thought-provoking discussions. It’s an incredible place for insight and advice on startups.

19. Young Entrepreneur: Focused around discussion forums, Young Entrepreneur is a great place to ask any startup question on your mind or just to read the over 240,000 posts made over the years on the site.

20. PartnerUp: PartnerUp is a community that really focuses on one thing: helping you find business partners. In business, finding the right co-founders is often the difference between stellar success and a quick, painful startup death. PartnerUp is a community ideal for finding and networking with people that will shore up your weaknesses and help you answer those nagging questions about the partnership side of business.

October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Let’s look at blogs out there by women about disability and work! Patricia E. Bauer hits right on target as usual: President urges employers to welcome workers with disabilities. I’m all for that. Here’s a quote from President Obama’s Proclamation:

In the past half-century, we have made great strides toward providing equal employment opportunities in America, but much work remains to be done. As part of that continuing effort, we must seek to provide oppIortunities for individuals with disabilities. Only then can Americans with disabilities achieve full participation in the workforce and reach the height of their ambition.

My Administration is committed to promoting positive change for every American, including those with disabilities. The Federal Government and its contractors can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential. Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work. We must ensure they have access to the support and services they need to succeed.

Right on. Well, how do we get to that culture of fostering and encouraging employment opportunities? What’s blocking people with disabilities right now from having jobs?

How about all the disabled people I know who are working incredibly hard. Doing fantastic, great work.

Who’s paying them? Often, no one. I’m a wheelchair user and have a full time job. Universally, people are surprised to hear that, even people I know as colleagues in social media.

As I wrote and deleted drafts of this post — mostly angry, despairing, bitter , soul-searching rants — I asked myself, "Who do I know who’s disabled, and has a job?"

Not a lot. I know few people, mostly online. My friend Haddayr, a advertising copywriter and science fiction author. Denise, for example, from Dreamwidth. Rivka from Respectful of Otters. Katja Stokley from Broken Clay. Mel Chua. They’re bloggers and writers who represent as well as doing their day jobs. And people I don’t know, but hope to meet someday, like Laura Hershey and Kathleen Martinez and Simi Linton.

But who do I know who’s doing fantastic work? I can name so many.

We can’t work, often, because working risks our benefits that are essential to survival. Working denies us health care. We can’t own more than $2000 of assets, or we don’t get Medicare or Social Security benefits. We are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Programs that promise to help or employ end up tickets to exploitation. So we end up working for free.

I look at this grant to Cornell University and you know what? Great. But I’m not holding my breath. They just got 1.6 million dollars. How much of that is going to actually go into the pockets of people with disabilities? NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US. I hope they hire some people with disabilities, with that grant, and that, when they interview disabled people about their actual experiences working, that they pay them for their time.

You want to know what would help people with disabilities get jobs? How about asking them what they think would help?

My message back to President Obama is to look for some of the people doing amazing work. Then, ask why they’re not being paid. And pay them. Change the policies of health care and benefits so they can be paid without risking their lives or their already precarious ability to live independently.

Hire them. Don’t exploit their labor.

If you can’t hire them without screwing up their benefits and health care? Get in there and navigate the maze of policy and bureaucracy that blocks them. How about this radical idea. Hire people part time, and give them insurance. Enable all people at your company to live a life in balance that doesn’t drive their health into the ground.

Better yet, you as a company, as an employer, can say, "We want everyone in this country to have the health care they need to survive day to day, without it being tied to their employment."

Here are some of the people who are not just working, but who are great writers and thus, advocates who benefits all of us with disabilities. They mean a lot to me and have made a huge difference in my life. The solidarity I’ve found in their keeps me going in my own daily work.

Wheelie Catholic, advocate, thinker on human rights and social justice, and a fantastic writer.

Glenda Watson Hyatt from Do It Myself blog.

Jen Cole and Alejandra Ospina who run GimpGirl, an organization with a 15-year history, for women with disabilities.

Wheelchair Dancer writes about performance and physically integrated dance.

UberGeekChick, who does a podcast about computer programming and self-expression, is an open source contributor, and who takes Twittering to great heights.

CripChick, a fierce outspoken activist and talented writer!

Eva from The Deal with Disability who shares her point of view of how people see her in daily life and the assumptions they make.

FridaWrites who argues beautifully for universal design, access, and human rights.

Book Girl from Falling off my Pedestal.

Nick Dupree who is an advocate for Community Choice.

Barriers, Bridges, and Books talks about some of the complexities behind work, life, and disability. Now for example, if you have a disability , you may need some extra health care. But to get Medicare, you cannot own more then $2000 in assets. This is part of what traps people with disabilities into a cycle of poverty.

In Falling, Terri describes her fears for her teenage daughter’s future.

Gayle DeVilbiss ‘s video of her story of misdiagnosis, chemo, and then being denied Social Security benefits, on Disability Information and Resources blog.

Wheelie Catholic reports on the Sears discrimination case.

Katharine Ganly on Global Voices Online talks about people with disabilities trying to survive, get an education, and work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read on into a great analysis, in Disability and Employment in Argentina: The Right to Be Exploited?

Being disabled, physically, may mean being deaf, having mobility impairments, being blind, being exhausted or in pain, having a chronic illness or mental illness, and so on. Those are differences or impairments. Personally I use the word disability as a cultural and political affiliation. But being "disabled" doesn’t mean we can’t work. It means we might need to work differently. And it means we have a harder time defending our own rights and asking for accommodations.

What can you do as employer?

- Don’t make assumptions. Ask what you can do, and mean it. Don’t then subject your disabled employee to a backlash.

- Provide deep information. A map of your office complex with elevation changes, level or ramped paths and handrails marked, elevators, bathrooms, and parking. That will be useful, and appreciated, by more people than you would predict. We might have to plan. We might have limited energy. Deep access information gives people what they need to make informed decisions.

- Work out technological solutions. Telecommuting!

- Try to educate yourself. Read some blogs, some books, and so on. I’m a little skeptical of diversity training. I recommend the WisCon feminist science fiction convention‘s guide to disability access at events. It applies to many physical environments and events.

- Be flexible. You know what helps me most – beside telecommuting half the week – in my work at BlogHer? This:

A couch! Thank you, BlogHer, for the glorious, amazing, couch in my cube. And for not minding too much when I’m lying on the couch on my back, computer on my stomach, my back and my leg experiencing awesome pain relief.

- Be inclusive socially. Plan your office social time with everyone in mind. (I swear, many places, they might as well have had special events underwater. Oh, there’s no ramp and you just realized and "wouldn’t mind carrying me up the stairs"? Thanks for the pain and loss of human dignity. Now let’s party. Or get to work. Or now that I’m completely pissed off and discombobulated, how about I give an hour long public speech.)

- Don’t be a jerk. I mean this nicely. Joking about a person’s disability is rarely cool. Pressure is on that person to get along, to be a supercrip, to show they can "do it all" and can tolerate whatever gets thrown at them.

- Actually help people with their paperwork situations. Defend your employees. Help them fight their fights just as you might help your employee from outside your country with a visa situation.

Thanks for listening.

What do you think about my suggestions for employers? Do you have thoughts as a person with a disability or impairment? What work do you do? Do you get paid? Are you self-employed?

Or, as a friend, family member, ally, co-worker, or employer of a PWD, what in your opinion could be helpful to remove obstacles, and to decrease the huge unemployment rate for people with disabilities? We have a lot of moms of kids with special needs here on BlogHer and in the network. I would challenge all of you in particular to radicalize politically beyond support groups or cures, to connect with adults with disabilities who are advocating for social change, to look ahead to the future.

Originally published at BlogHer.

• Stay focused.
  Many new entrepreneurs feel obligated to jump at every “opportunity” that presents itself. Opportunities can be wolves in sheep’s clothing. Avoid getting side-tracked. Juggling multiple ventures limits both your effectiveness and productivity, spreading you too thin. Do one thing well, not 10 things badly.
  

• Love what you do. Do what you know.
  Don’t start a venture simply because it  promises huge profit margins and returns. Do what interests you. Do what you love. Businesses built around your strengths and talents have a greater chance of being successful. It’s not only important to create a profitable business, it’s also important that you’re happy growing it, managing the day to day tasks. Remember if your heart isn’t in it, your start-up probably won’t be successful.

• Know what you know and what you don’t.
  No one knows everything. Surround yourself with individuals and mentors who will encourage you to become a better leader and businessperson. Build strategic relationships with successful, knowledgeable people that you share common interests and mutual business goals with. It’s these people who will see the value in working with you for the long-term.

• Learn under fire.
  No business plan can predict the future. No business book can completely prepare you to become a successful entrepreneur. There’s no such thing as the perfect plan;no perfect path or road less traveled. You don’t want to jump right into a new venture without any thought or planning, but you don’t want to don’t spend months or years waiting to execute either. One of the most important things you can do for your start-up is to learn from your mistakes and never make the same mistake twice.
  

• Be healthy.
  You’ll be much more productive when you take good care of yourself, whatever that means for you. Being self-employed is a lifestyle and statistics show entrepreneurs work more and longer hours. Working to the point of exhaustion will burn you out and make you less productive. Don’t make excuses. Eat right, exercise and make time for yourself and those that love you. 

• Don’t fall victim to your own B.S.
  Action speaks way louder than words.  Show people what you can do rather than telling them what you can do. Endorse your business enthusiastically, yet tastefully and avoid posturing. Don’t exaggerate truths and or tout far reaching goals as givens. Walk your talk.
  

• Let go, if it’s time.
  Know when it’s time to walk away. If your idea doesn’t pan out, learn from what went wrong and the mistakes that were made. Determine what you would have done differently and  how you will utilize these hard-learned lessons to better yourself and your future ventures. Failure on some level is inevitable, but an entrepreneur’s tenacity will prevail over adversity.

Most of our work happiness comes from our relationship with ourselves. For example, I recently started working on  a proposal for a non-profit human services organization. As I’m reading and putting all the research together, roughing out each section and making it all coherent, I hit walls that stall my progress.

Last week I actually flopped into my recliner, let out a loud groan and sputtered out in frustration. Why did I do this?  I hadn’t written a proposal like this in several months. It was no good. I didn’t have the handle on it I wanted. It wasn’t flowing. Fortunately, my boyfriend was home and he listened to my self-deprecating rant and cajoled me back into life with a few hugs, a popsicle, and a couple of well-timed  jokes. My creativity was zapped by my own thoughts of inadequacy, fear, and anger. The person from whom I needed the most encouragement was myself, and I was being ugly.

I took a look at the internal problems I was having and how they were affecting my work. By addressing a few weaknesses, I discovered how I can use them to work for me instead of against me.

1. One Project At A Time

Almost always, I have several things that I am trying to do at once. I could be writing an email, in discussion with someone in an instant message client while I am thinking about an upcoming task or project.  The distraction puts a strain on my attention and ultimately affects the quality of my work no matter how good I think I might be at multitasking.

From a long line of procrastinators, if I’m not forced to produce I don’t . Often my attention darts from thought to thought and thing to thing because there’s no deadline looming over my head like a black cloud of angst. So when I need to focus, I’ve started setting a timer. A little tension can be good when it brings focus to a person’s life.

Depending on the task, I may set the timer for 30 minutes and try to finish the task within that time frame. If the timer dings and I need more time, I reset it for the appropriate amount of time and go back to work. This allows me to focus on this one task without letting all the other “musts” distract me.

2. Break The Project Down

The length of my list on any given day would give even Gina Tranpani pause. I expect too much and never feel like I’ve gotten anything done.

Instead of getting lots done, there are times when my brain just shuts down in response to my overwhelming list. I needed to figure out a way to reduce those negative thoughts. I have tried bullying and forcing myself  but it never works. I only feel worse and do even less.

I’ve created a routine that allows me to handle my work load. When I realize that I have overextended my task list, I stand up, breathe deep, and let the air out with a slow breath. Then, I get comfortable at my desk and whittle my first big task into 20 minute spurts. As the project becomes less unwieldy, I find I’ve let go of the negative thoughts and boosted my confidence.I’m in the moment and enjoying the process. I’m not feeling overwhelmed by a mountain of work and I’m feeling good about my progress and the quality of work I am putting out.

3. Split Your Tasks List

I usually feel overwhelmed as a result of my own expectations. I expect to get too much work done. I’ve never been able to accomplish a massive task in one day. So when my task list gets too big I often split it into two lists.

I create a main list that’s simple to complete. If I have four hours for work, I make the list equal to about two hours. Typically these are the tasks and projects that need my attention first during the day. The second list is the extras list. This list contains the less time sensitive issues and tasks that require my attention that day.

Whenever I get to my extras list, I feel really good about my what I’ve been able to complete. Anything on the extras list that doesn’t get done today, is prioritized and put on tomorrow’s main list. Guidance and sense of accomplishment is the main reason for a list, so make your list achievable. And don’t forget to roll those unfinished extras items over to your main tasks list for the following day!

4. Take a Break

I can get stalled because I get tired and can’t focus on what is right before me. There are too many options. If I have to write an email, create a blog post, and work on a newsletter then I start to feel over-anxious and foggy. My overwhelmed brain simply wants to shut down. So I  usually get up and take a break to clear my head and let things simmer.

Since I work from home, there always some mindless household task that needs to be done. If negative thoughts are mucking up my progress, I take out the trash. If worry is hounding me, I do the dishes and think about those worries running down the drain with the soapy water. Maybe I’ll pop over to some favorite blogs that have nothing to do with work for some laughter and gratitude.  If the weather is okay, I might sit out on the backs steps and listen to the birds and watch my dog snore in the grass for awhile.  Almost always after one of these breaks, I come back renewed and refreshed; my creativity is moving again.

There are so many ways we can pull ourselves out of a stressful state if we just take a break and let go of what’s bugging us.

5. Check Out The Positive

Like many of us, I get preoccupied in how the present moment makes me feel. I create mountains out of molehills. I can create a torturous thought process by magnifying the bad things that are happening to me instead of focusing on all the good things that are there if I just take the time to see them.

If I’m feeling particularly ugly about a project, I write down of all the things that I’m learning from the project in my Good Things journal. I keep this by my desk and whenever I am gloomy about work, I haul it out and take a peek.

Big projects and unexpected demands on my time almost always push me outside of my comfort zone. By meeting these challenges as they come, with as positive an attitude as I can muster, I can  manage stress properly, compose clearer, better emails, and continue to develop more meaningful working relationships with my clients and bosses.

The bonus is I am getting paid to learn these lessons. That’s a gift.

By working at shifting my perspective to the positive, I’m better able to let go of my negative thinking more quickly and realign myself with the good things in and around me.

What do you do to stay happy during a stressful project or day?

Attendee/Sponsor-driven sessions will include: Using Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook as Lead Generation devices, Expanding Your Professional Network, Living on an Extreme Budget, Building Your Personal Brand, Freelance Consulting 101, Starting Your Own Business and more! Other sessions will be conducted by HR and resource professionals. We’ll have companies onsite who can provide resources for the unemployed as well as some hiring. Losing your job is a unique opportunity to gain new perspective and reinvent your career. By attending Pathways to Success Richmond, you’ll be able to network, promote your marketable skills and exchange resources and expertise with others.

This event exists to provide an environment for community members to help steer each other in the right direction during these trying times — whether that direction is looking for a new job, starting a company, finding freelance work or becoming an independent consultant.”

NOTE: General admission is $12. You do not need to be unemployed to attend + all ticket types Alcohol and Non Alcoholic Beverages, hors d’ouevres, coffee, etc. between 5PM – 8PM

Host: The Dominion Club, 6000 Dominion Club Drive, Glen Allen, VA 23059