As a small business owner, there are countless people and projects clamoring for your attention, which can make it difficult to focus. Distractions often prevent you from getting your work done. Yet, executing strategies that bring you fast cash are essential to build your business quickly.

You may think there are not enough hours in the day. However, the true solution is becoming focused and sticking to your plan to complete projects. Let me share three empowering strategies that will help you improve focus and spike productivity.

1. What are your biggest time wasters?

When you think about what distracts you from work, it may be any of these activities:
• Email
• Personal phone calls
• Social media
• Errands
• Not delegating enough
• Non-money-making activities
• Other people’s priorities

Take out a piece of paper and write down what activities are the most distracting to your productivity. Getting clear on what takes you off course and competes for your attention is the first step to improving productivity. Think about what gets in your way on a daily basis.

2. Allow yourself to say no

I know you work hard, so have a little compassion for yourself. Making yourself feel bad will not help change the situation. As an entrepreneur, you never get to the bottom of your to-do list and it’s time to accept this as a fact. Take a moment to consider what you need to say “No” to in order to clear your desk for priority projects.

Here are three steps you can take situations to say “No” and guard your time:
• If what you are working on is not generating money or a big game changer, stop doing it.
• Set strong boundaries with family, friends, colleagues and even clients if needed.
• Hire childcare if you need it; even two hours a day can improve productivity.

3. Use Tools that Boost Productivity

Try any of these suggestions to become more focused and enhance your productivity.
• Get away from your desk to disrupt your routine. Try a café, the library or even work at home once a week to be super focused during this time.
• Close all non-essential windows on your computer like Facebook Twitter, email, etc.
• Let calls go to voicemail and return calls later.
• Use an egg time or countdown clock on your phone or computer for focused time periods. When the timer rings, you are done—no matter how much you’ve accomplished.

Please keep in mind you are human and tomorrow is another day. Whatever you don’t finish will be there tomorrow, but having an end time is just as important as setting time aside to focus on priority tasks.

Your Client Attraction Assignment
I encourage you to also make a list of what you need to stop doing or delegate to free up time for more important, money-generating activities. Since there are only so many hours in a day, the better you get at using your time productively and not allowing yourself to get distracted, the more you‘ll accomplish.

This is just one of the many best practices we dive deep into with the students of The Client Attraction Business School, the premier training school for growth-minded entrepreneurs looking to quickly attract more clients and make more money. If you’re interested in finding out more, visit www.ClientAttractionBusinessSchool.com for more details. To speak to an enrollment coach, click here.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”367″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_idflHwy0[/youtube]

My video tip for you today is all about the importance of creating your signature system – and how to get started today. Your signature system is really key to multiplying your business over and over. It becomes the basis for your bootcamp, three-day workshop, even the book you’ve always wanted to write. I’ve done this with my own Client Attraction signature system and I teach my Platinum and private level clients to do the same in order to leverage their business. So, where do you even start? Come on, overcome your analysis paralysis with me – watch this short video for this important strategy for growing your business.

Your signature system is actually rather easy to put together. You want to start by getting everything you know about your system down on paper. Document your unique process from start to finish – and don’t worry so much if you’re leaving something out. Your signature system brings your clients in so you can always give them more later.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

1. Write down all the key components. Use bullet points. Include everything you know for sure about your system. Brainstorm.
2. Group all your bullet points into categories. Then give each category a label.
3. Put your categories in logical, chronological order. You want them to follow a step-by-step order that makes sense to the user.
4. Lastly, give your system a results-focused title. And Voila! You’ve got your Signature System.

An effective signature system is the basis for multiplying your business in so many ways. It’s an essential tool for multiplying your business to that next BIG level. Have some fun with it – the key is to just get it done.

© 2011 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

If you enjoyed this video, please post your comment or question below and share it with your friends and colleagues who would find it beneficial.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”367″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwJfD7abZMc[/youtube]

Today’s video is about how to stop doing everything yourself in your business. No matter what level of business you’re in, you need the right resources and systems to grow your business to the next level.

Ever been to a restaurant and notice the number of resources they have on hand to serve you? It’s all about the “front of house” and “back of house.” Front of house means the Maitre D’ and the servers, all the beautiful tablecloths and flowers, and more, all the things that belong to the experiential part of your visit. Back of house refers to all that goes on back there in the kitchen that you never really get to see, the” administrative stuff,” if you will.

Most likely, you’re trying to do both “front of house” and “back at house” in your business, at the same time, all on your own. There are so many behind-the-scenes aspects of running your business, that at some point of your business success, you can’t actually do them ALL, however much you want to hold on to the controls. When you do so, you leave a lot of money on the table.

For you to grow your reach (and grow your income), you need more time to focus on what actually brings in more clients and income. How do you get more time in your solo business? LEVERAGE. Leverage is getting the necessary resources (people, systems, automation and delegation) to free up your time so you can focus on the money-generating activities (client work, marketing, business development, etc.).

Your assignment today is about leveraging certain aspects of your business by using systems and support. Create more time in your day so you can attract more ideal high-paying clients and make more money.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

1. Make a list of ALL the tasks you’re doing during the day.
2. Add a dollar amount to each item you think you can pay someone else to do that for you like errands, filing, scheduling, shipping, editing, phone calls, etc. (it’s actually more inexpensive than you think).
3. Group similar tasks together by dollar-amount and then by category (website, administrative, personal, etc.).
4. Identify the resources (assistu.com, craigslist.com, elance.com, odesk.com, guru.com) where you can hire someone who would be happy to take these tasks off your plate.
5. Start to delegate the lowest dollar amount tasks first and focus your available time on further business development and marketing to your ideal clients (and making room for more clients).

If you enjoyed this video, please post your comment or question below and share it with your friends and colleagues who would find it beneficial.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System®, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your in.come, visit www.attractclients.com.