Crystal Clear Strategies, Inc. Blog

Creating a family command center

Find a centralized location in your home, usually the entrance way or a corner in the kitchen, to create a family command center.  This location will be the go to spot for your most important family needs.  It should include the following:

• Phone Lists - Keep an updated list of the family doctors, kid’s friends, neighbors, work numbers, service companies and emergency numbers.
• Schedules - Keep one main family schedule.  Assign each family member a color pen to add their events to the calendar so that you will always have a clear view of what is going on each day.  If your children are young, use stickers to denote event days such as a sticker of a soccer ball for a day when they have a soccer game.
• Document Processing - Use magazine files, a literature sorter, or other cubby system as the designated spot for mail, notices from the school, and other important documents.  Have a Priority slot as well as a slot for each member of the family.

Tips for a Small Space

Go Vertical - Add a bookcase or open shelves to a wall to use all of the vertical storage in the room.  Keep the shelf and containers light in color to keep the space feeling open and airy.

Color Code - Use boxes in a couple of colors for similar storage all over the house.  The kids items such as coloring books and out of season clothes in white, office supplies in blue, and house wares in red.

Under Storage - Use an under sink shelf or drawers to maximize your storage under all of the home’s sinks.

Below are some of the resources available to help stop the flow of unwanted mail before it even comes into the house.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like a more customized plan to deal with your mail abundance.

·         Credit Card Offers

o   www.optoutprescreen.com

o   (888) 5OPTOUT (888-567-8688)

·         Direct Marketing Association (DMA) 

o   Home Page: www.dmaconsumers.org

o   Mail Preference Service: www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

o   (This will remove your name from national mailing lists for five years)

o   Deceased Do Not Contact: www.ims-dm.com/cgi/ddnc.php

o   Caretakers Do Not Contact: www.ims-dm.com/cgi/dncc.php

o   Elderly & Sweepstakes: www.thedma.org/consumers/olderconsumers.html

·         AARP

o   1-888-OUR-AARP (1-888-687-2277)

·         Catalogs

o   Call the toll free number on the back of the catalog to get off their mailing list.

o   Unsubscribe from hundreds at 1 time: www.catalogchoice.org

o   Be diligent about recycling the old catalog as soon as the new one arrives

·         Newspapers

o   If you get the newspaper daily, but don’t read it daily, call the paper and reduce your delivery to only the days that you read.

o   Recycle newspapers at least once a week.

·         Magazines

o   The average person can only read at most 3 magazines a month.  Keeping this in mind, try to limit your subscriptions to only the magazines you love. 

o   To decrease the clutter in your home, remember to recycle the old magazine as soon as the new one arrives.  

o   If there is an article in the magazine that you love, tear it out and keep it in a binder with other articles you love.  This way they are all together and you don’t need to hang on to a magazine full of articles that are no longer of value to you.

·         Charities and Nonprofits

o   When you make a donation, add a note asking to be removed from their mailing lists.

o   When you donate online, look for a box on the site that you can check to indicate that you do want to be contacted in the future

Looking for a new way to grow your business?  The first week of February is International Networking Week.  There will be great events going on all over the work to promote growing your business through networking. 

If you live in Orlando, you have an opportunity to attend the BNI International Networking Week Event.  It will be held on February 2nd from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Orlando Marriott.

The goal of International Networking Week® is to recognize and celebrate the key role that networking plays in the development and success of businesses in every part of the world.

Our Guest Speaker will be Iain Whyte, Executive Director BNI Scotland.  Iain is the author of Life, Business and Speedboat and brings many years of experience in BNI, networking internationally and training with him. As our featured speaker he will talk about building customer confidence in both you and your business.

Now more than ever is an important time to learn how to strengthen existing business relationships and open opportunities for new ones. Come join us from 5:30—7:30 PM for fun, food, drinks, and networking!

This event is open to all, bring your clients and friends.

Click here for a flyer: l-networking-week-flyer1

ORGANIZING STRATEGY

What do a BIN, a BAG & a BOX all have in common?

They are the only 3 items you need to get started on your organizing project. By following the below steps in each room in your house,  you will be well ahead of the curve for your spring cleaning and organizing projects.

1. Pick a room and set a timer for 30 minutes.

2. Go through the room and put everything that belongs in another room in the BIN.

3. Use the BAG to put any old, out-dated, or unneeded items for the trash.

4. Now take a fresh look at the room and place items that are still in good condition, but no longer used or needed in the BOX to be donated.

Once the timer goes off, you are done.  Take the items in the box to where they belong, throw the trash out, and schedule your donation pick-up.  Even if you didn’t finish the whole room, you have make a great start and you should feel proud.

Secrets for Successful Holiday Organization 

Getting organized for the holidays is a dilemma which many of us must deal with. There is simply not time to get day-to-day work done, go Christmas shopping, get to extra community events, make plans to see relatives, and remain sane enough to get organized for the holidays. However, believe it or not, there is hope. Good time management is the first secret of successful holiday organization. Read More…

5 Tips for Less Stressful Holidays

Don’t look now, but it’s already Thanksgiving and the December holidays will be in our laps before we know it. That little reminder is meant not to send you into a haze of early holiday prep tasks, but rather to encourage you to look for ways of making this year’s celebrations more relaxing, more meaningful, and less overstuffed than in years past. Here are five things you can start thinking about and planning for now. Read More…

To start the declutter process, begin with the storage areas.  It is much easier to make decisions about things you haven’t used in a while and it will allow you to create space for new things as you declutter other areas in your home.

Often the garage becomes a dumping ground for things we don’t want, don’t know where to put, or simply can’t part with.  One way to stop this before it starts is to create zones in your garage.  Use high shelves for a long term storage zone.  Put a couple of boxes together for a donation zone.  Finally create a separate zone each for tools, toys, gardening, and cleaning. This will allow you to quickly put away items as they come into the garage which will keep things from piling up over time.

As a service provider, I feel the most successful and happy, when my client’s have reached their goal.  I have been very blessed over the last 3.5 years to have some of the most wonderful people as clients.  I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for helping to make my business successful.  I appreciate your time and faith in my expertise.

Ok, so now you know that you should be do something with those business cards you have collected. 

BUT WHAT?

We are all working hard through the summer to increase our business.  We are working hard, out networking, and meeting new people.  Now that you have met all of these new people, what are you going to do with them?  Do you have a system setup to help you navigate who they are and how you should handle them? 

One of the problems that I am often helping my clients with is what to do with all of those business cards they collect at networking events.  If you are like most people, you come home and pull out the couple that you need to address immediately, and then the rest go into a drawer, never to be seen again.  This is known as the Business Card Black Hole. 

You have every intention of following up with these people to see how you can work together or what their interest is in your products or services, but once they go into that drawer, they are never to be seen again.  So what can you do about this?  One is to spend some time (I know, where will that come from) setting up a contact management system.  What are you going to do with these cards?  How active of a prospect are they?  Do you even want to keep their contact information?  These are all questions that your contact management system should answer.

There are two key components to a contact management system that I would like to address: The type or category of your contacts and the temperature of the contact.  What type of contact they are will be identified by the category and the temperature identifies the level of interest that this contact has in your products or services.

Below is an example of a basic categories and temperature group:

1. Personal – (Cold) - These are family and friends or other professionals that you work with in your personal life.  Don’t forget to include contacts such as your hair dresser, lawn person, your doctors, accountants, etc.  You might not actively pursue them to purchase your products or services, but you want to keep them informed about what you are doing.

1. Clients – (Hot) - These are contacts that have already bought products or services from you.  It will also include those prospects that have expressed an immediate desire to purchase your products or services.
2. Prospects – (Warm) - These are contacts that have expressed an interest in learning more about the products/services you provide. They have not yet expressed an immediate need for the product, but they are definitely interested in learning more.
3. Referral Partners – (Hot) - These are contacts that have committed to working with you to help you grow your business.  They go after the same target market, but they don’t conflict with your business.  These are also the contacts where you have committed to them to help them grow their business.

1. Industry – (Cold) - These contacts are in your industry that you work with or that go after the same client base that you do.  It is important to stay in touch with these people for professional development and support. As an employer, this would also include your employees.  If you are in the network marketing business, this would include your Team, your downline or upline.
2. Networking – (Cold) - These contacts are everyone else that you meet that have not expressed an interest in being a client or referral partner.  These can come from networking events where you just collect business cards and no real interest has been express.  This way you can keep the contact, but you will know what level of involvement they have.

Now you have a starting point to help you sort and handle your contacts so that you can turn them into profitable clients.

For more information on this topic, please check out our ebook, due out July 2009: Make Your Networks Matter - Turn The People You Meet Into Profitable Client$