When you run your own small business you are required to have many skills. However, to do this successfully you need to manage yourself first. Here are some motivating tips to success for small business owners to get them going.

Motivating Tips To Success No 1 – Take Care Of Yourself

• Have a healthy life, exercise regularly, eat good healthy food and be around people who have a positive attitude.
• Give your brain some new information and attend some development courses.
• Listen to tapes or read self-help and motivational books.
• By looking after yourself of yourself you will have more of energy, be motivated, and have more balance in your life which in turn will help you do more.

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For most of us there comes a day when we toy with the idea of starting a small business; work stress and frustrated career goals can often leave us thirsting for autonomy and starting a small business seems to fit the bill. But for those who are thinking of starting a small business, the road can be one of sacrifice and learning.

Before starting a small business do as much research as possible. Talk to other people who have started a small business and are willing to give you some guidance, read books by people who have a passion for entrepreneurship, and get online to read as much as possible about the ins and outs of starting a small business. On the Internet you’ll also have access to advocacy organizations developed to help those starting a small business; as well as access to chat forums where you can learn from the experiences of others in your situation

Locally there should also be organizations that can help you in starting a small business. Look at the business advocacy groups in your local area that can offer guidance.

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It seems to me the concept of living in the present or the Now is a focus of much conversation. One example is, Eckhart Tolle, who was recently featured on Oprah with a ten week webinar of his book The New Earth which is all about the power of living in the Now. I attended a week long Yoga and Meditation retreat in Mexico and the theme of the week was the power of living in the present. Life can only happen right now. It doesn’t happen in the past and it can’t happen in the future. The power of life is right now in the present.

I also attended a training program on giving powerful presentation. This was also a week long program and the main focus was on being present in all you do. The best way to connect with your audience is to be authentic and fully present in the moment. So what does this mean? To be present in the moment means that your mind is clear, you are not worrying about the past or future. You are focused only on being present right here and now.

While I was at the retreat in Mexico, I was reading a fascinating book by Dr. David Hawkins simply entitled ” I: Reality and Subjectivity”. Here is his description of living in the present. He compares living in the present to the rise and fall of waves in the ocean. “If the focus of the sense of ‘me’ is on the rising crest, the person never lives in reality but is constantly poised with the expectation of control the next instant. They are therefore constantly concerned with the future. If the focus is on the back of the falling wave, then the ‘me’ tends to cling to the past and editorializing. With some practice, the focus can be precisely narrowed to only the breaking crest of the wave, for in that instant, there is neither past nor future and neither regret for the past nor longing for nor anticipation of the future. Everything is witnessed to be as it is.”

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As shell-shocked as you are, when you’re handed that pink slip it’s hard to think about moving on. Much less what to do next. Especially when the ink on your pink slip isn’t even dry yet. Risking sounding Pollyannaish, I’ll say it anyway. It could end up being one of the best things that’s ever happened to you.

What should you do now?

Unfortunately, no one is immune to losing a job in todays unique economy. Even the best. And current statistics show few employees staying with a company long term; or even reaching retirement with a company they started out with. And whether it’s planned, you knew in advance you’d be downsized out, you can never plan enough.

First things first. Before thinking about moving on, it important - for many reasons - including peace of mind, to determine how you’ll handle paying bills and other personal situations. Next apply for any and all available benefits. Such as unemployment. Check into available medical and/or insurance benefits available. Check on the status of your 401k, if you have one. And any pension plan. Because once you’ve at least done that, you can begin to give a thought to how you’ll move on.

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Leigh was a single mother with a stressful job and two young children who decided that self-employment was the answer for her. She quit her job, purchased a vending machine route and tripled its sales within two months. Once that was in order, she started her next profit center, buying and renovating houses. Not only did she find that she was spending more time with her kids, she also got them involved in her business as much as possible.

One day Leigh and her children went to visit a friend who had moved into a large new house. The friend took them on a room-by-room tour of the house proudly showing off her new home. When the tour ended, Leigh’s 5-year-old daughter looked at her quizzically and said, “Mom, where’s the office?”

Leigh’s daughter is not the only one who assumes that a home should have an office. Glossy magazines now feature layouts of slick home offices. Builders of upscale homes are including an office in their plans. Trendspotters tell us that this work-at-home lifestyle is not a passing fad.

Whether your work space is a studio, a rented office or a card table set up in a corner of your bedroom, efficiency is only one of the requirements. Your working space needs to be inviting, a place where you function easily surrounded by things you love and find inspiring.

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“Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within. It is within the process of endurance that opportunity reveals itself.” Chin-Ning Chu

Crisis is often an entry point; an opportunity to get real, tell the truth about our selves and our business. Definition of Crisis -The moment in which we know without a doubt that if we don’t make changes with ourselves and in our business we will lose. Unfortunately, at this point we usually have already lost quite a bit, which is what makes it a crisis!

Understandably no one hopes for a crisis. Certainly this applies to our business or organization. Most of us as leaders would probably say one of our primary responsibilities is to prevent a crisis from ever occurring.

However, I have found that powerful lessons for all of us can be found in the middle of a business crisis. It isn’t uncommon for a leader to say, “Our staff has never pulled together more than when we were facing a crisis.” Possibly it’s the very real prospect of going out of business, facing a public relations catastrophe or even a natural disaster that causes people to unite.

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Businesses fail, and often. If you think you want to run your own business, but are not sure you can be a successful Entrepreneur, I am glad you are thinking about it… keep reading. How does an Entrepreneur think, act, and respond? Is your personality a fit for being a successful Entrepreneur? Do you have what it takes?

Until recently, Entrepreneurs were not well thought of. As recent as the 80’s we looked on them as un-educated business men involved in shady dealings. There was a general lack of knowledge and information about what makes them successful.

Big business was the place to be, now that’s all changed. Our generation and the ones after us expect so much more from our career / work than our parents did. We want money, satisfaction, self expression and flexible hours such as a 4 day work week and tele-commuting. We have more small businesses than ever before in our U.S. history. In addition, smaller businesses are now attracting great employees and competing with the corporate world by offering those employees exactly what they want.

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When John Amatt led the 1982 Canadian team on a successful Mount Everest Expedition, only three people reached the summit. Many climbers who were part of the team, whose lifetime ambition was to stand on top of Everest, made the conscious choice to stay in the base camp. Why? Because they knew the effort was likely to fail if everyone tried to make it. They chose to forego their individual dreams in favor of helping the team succeed.

This wasn’t John Amatt’s first time to plan an Everest expedition. Ten years earlier, with one of him friends from Norway, he had gathered a team of world- class climbers from many different countries, for the challenge. But at the last minute, he backed out. Officially, it was to get married. “But that was just an excuse,” he said later. “I knew that, despite having the best climbers in the world, this expedition would not succeed. Everyone wanted to reach the top for their own glory or that of their country. No one seemed willing to make decisions for the good of the team.”

His fears proved founded. Not only did the team not cooperate to make it to the top, at one point these sophisticated expert climbers even indulged in a rock-throwing fight.

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Goals, I know that word can be very scary, but it doesn’t have to be, especially if you know what to do. What is a goal? A goal is something specific, something you want or need to accomplish in a specific period of time. To establish a clear, central purpose or goal in life is the starting point of all success.

There was a study several years ago at a business school and the results of the graduates who had been out of school for at least ten years illustrates the power of goals. Upon graduation the graduates were surveyed and the following was found:

83% did not have goals
4% had vague goals
3% had clearly articulated written goals

When their levels of accomplishments were compared ten years later, those with some sense of their goal earned three times more than those with no goals. The 3% with clearly articulated written goals earned ten times more than those without goals.

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These days everybody is in a hurry to get somewhere or to do something. It’s amazing how in a few years technology has simplified our lives so we can have more time to do the hundreds of tasks we seem to want to do less than 24 hours. And so we keep packing more and more activities into our daily schedule, priding ourselves on good time management, when in reality we are just stressing ourselves and out wearing ourselves thin.

Women have been taught to believe that taking time out just to nurture them selves is an act of selfishness. The truth is that everyone benefits when a woman cares enough to dedicate a few minutes to look after her self physically, spiritually and emotionally.

I once heard somebody say that women only go to the beauty shop to get an update on the latest gossip. That may be true for some, but most women love to be pampered and indulged. There’s nothing wrong with that once it’s done properly; because your “me time” should be about regenerating, refreshing and restoring body, mind and soul. Don’t get so caught up in the physical makeover, that you forget the other equally important aspects. And remember that you are beautiful and unique, so learn to love and accept yourself just as you are. Here are a few inexpensive suggestions:

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