Judith Morgan, Wealth Coach for Entrepreneurs

Create an online VA business to fit your life!

Among the many opportunities for online businesses there are a few that really are potential winners.  As a Virtual Assistant (or VA) you can utilise the administrative skills gained in the”real-world” as a PA, Executive Assistant, Secretary or Office Manager, transferring them to provide remote administrative services to clients from the comfort of your own home-office.

How do you make the shift and learn the skills necessary to run a successful business?  It takes more thought than simply setting up a computer with broadband connection!  Kate Bacon of Pier to Peer Coaching, who has run her own VA business for 5 years, has created a unique, specialist training programme for individuals wishing to turn their secretarial skills into a viable business. 

Graduates of the VA Business Start Up Course (the virtual group training programme) talk about how they’ve each created their own VA business for very different reasons. To read their inspiring stories, click here.  Pier to Peer are offering their next course, commencing Saturday, 3 May at 11:00am BST, as a Spring Special Offer.  To take advantage of this reduced price, click here remembering to insert the Reference Code: JM on the secure payment page!

Listen to me interviewing Kate to hear more about it.

The Elite Entrepreneurs Make Me Cry

During last week's Mastermind meeting of the Elite Entrepreneurs Club, I had to reach for the tissues not once, but twice!   One of my clients, with whom I have been working for a couple of years, came up with his best idea for his business yet.   An idea so stonking and so brave that I was in awe and the tears came quickly.   Another client managed to do the same thing to me, her achievements are awesome.   You both know who you are - thank you for making me cry, no really!

I wonder if anyone else other than a coach could know how precious it is to be present when your client emerges as an even better version of themselves?   More confident, more successful, more energised, more powerful.

One of the team even said to me "are we doing this next year?"   With results like that?   You betcha. I couldnt stop this work now if I wanted to.   Just to be present to the magnificence of my clients is a unique honour.   Not to mention the fun we had at the party the night before!

The Elite Entrepreneurs Club will indeed start again in September 2008 when we will re-convene a Wednesday Group and a Friday Group.   If you would like to talk to me now to make sure you get one of those precious seats in one of our EEC Mastermind Groups, then please don't delay, email me today.

Entrepreneur People - Real Stories

I was interviewed this evening by Sherry Borzo for her show on BlogTalkRadio called Entrepreneur People - Real Stories about real people that teach lessons in business and in life.   I am proud to tell you I was Sherry's first Brit!   Sherry is based in Iowa which reminds me from one of my favourite quotes from Field of Dreams..."is this Heaven?   No, it's Iowa".   Should have asked Sherry if she'd seen Kevin and his field.

Anyway, I digress.   Sherry is looking for Entrepreneurs the world over to be interviewed on her show and share their real story.   If you fancy it, contact Sherry directly at dsmBuzz and mention my name.

Here's my interview.   She says I was awesome and wonderful but you know how those Americans talk. Gee!   Actually she was delightful and so if you love to talk and talk about yourself and your entrepreneurial tendencies and your business, get on down to Iowa, virtually.   Ain't the web wonderful?

Tales of the Lonely Entrepreneur (4): Chantal Cornelius

Or the ups and downs of running your own business!

"I set up my own business in 2000 because I wanted to work for myself. I wanted to have time to do what I wanted, when I wanted to. I also wanted to work for the sort of people I wanted to work for. Nothing new or inspiring there, I’m afraid.

As with many small businesses, the first few years were hard work, but I loved it. Since then the business has grown steadily. I’ve got a great team of freelancers I work with, a part-time member of staff and lots of lovely clients. Still not much to inspire you, I know.

Here’s where it gets interesting...

Talking Business - radio phone-in callers required this Sunday!

It's your fourth and final (for the moment) chance to hear me on the radio this coming Sunday morning at 10 a.m.   I know, clashes HORRIBLY with The Archers!   The only programme on the radio I listen to every week, and now I am on at the same time - doh.

I've been having a blast in Golders Green on Jcom radio over the last few Sunday mornings.   I was invited to co-host Talking Business with Mike Segall.   It has been an eventful couple of weeks.   The first week the entire building was evacuated at 10.15 in the middle of our show as it was discovered to be live - electrically live, the building that is, not the show which was always intended to be a live small business phone-in.

The second week I was a minor guest on the Mike Segall show and the third week I came storming back and with a vengeance, I am the woman who bought Santa Claus to Golders Green! Apparently those of the Jewish faith do not have/believe in Santa Claus - who knew?   How naive of me and ill researched, mea culpa.   Happily they smiled at me in a beautifully indulgent and gentlemanly way.   Bless them, the Jcom boys.

Entrepreneurs, will 2008 be YOUR year?

Is yours a Great Little Business that's not yet working like the well-oiled machine you know it COULD be? 

Are you still chipping away at the coalface but not really making much impression where it counts - in your bank account?

Are you working all hours but exhausted and poor, fearing burnout but too terrified to stop?

But most importantly of all, are you ready to stop the rot and DO something about it?

Tales of the Lonely Entrepreneur (3)

Here's the inspiring story of Dawn Goldberg, one of our international members from The States, who went from stay-at-home mum to successful businesswoman, and then on until she found her dream business.   I will let Dawn tell it in her own words, for words are now her stock in trade.   Dawn is the Chief Writing Officer of Write Well University.   

If you are a Lonely Entrepreneur who would like to share your story, do please let me know.   You can read this story and the others on the Lonely Entrepreneur site.

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"A long time ago, I was a stay-at-home mother with two young girls.  I had done the stay-at-home mom bit for a couple of years, and attending mommy events and learning every craft imaginable were starting to get stale.  I felt as if I was losing myself in mommyhood.  I was no longer Dawn; I was Kathryn’s and Anastasia’s mother. 

I wanted more, and I wanted to be in charge.  I had been an English teacher previously, but I had no desire to go back to the academic world.  Owning my own business was the ticket.

I kept my ears open for anything to do with business.  It’s no surprise, then, that when I read Take Time For Your Life by Cheryl Richardson, I was looking at what I read from an entrepreneur-to-be point of view.

10 Steps to Entrepreneur Heaven

This week sees the end of a group business coaching teleclass series I have been hosting called 10 Steps to Entrepreneur Heaven.   I have been joined by some truly inspirational businesswomen, what Nicola calls ordinary people doing extraordinary things.   They have been a joy and, as ever, I have learned much from them.

The 10 Steps are:

Self Publishing - Your Own Book as Your Business Card

My colleague AnnA Rushton will share her expertise on the pleasures, perils and pitfalls of self-publishing this week on Lonely Entrepreneur and if you are a member, this is a free resource.   I'm quite keen on self-publishing my own book as the ultimate business card, an idea given to me by Emily Gordon inspired by Bob Proctor's Life Success Publishing.   There's still time to join this call if this is a topic of interest to you and your business, but cutting along to Lonely Entrepreneur and joining up - membership is also currently free for the first 1,000 members.   An abundance of riches.   AnnA's Expert Call is at 8 p.m. on Wednesday 8th August 2007 and you can find the number to dial into the call at www.lonelyentrepreneur.com - Members Only.

AnnA has written and published several useful little books herself on health, creativity and personal potential and you can find them on her own website Catalyst Online.

Business Mentoring -v- Business Coaching

Increasingly I am beginning to re-position myself as a business mentor as opposed to a business coach. "What's the difference?" I'm asking myself and you might be interested in this too, and have valuable opinions to share.

As a coach in training we were taught the rather purist "elicit their greatness" stuff, of which I am a big fan when I coach.   I believe in my clients (often rather more so than they do in themselves) and their coach believes they already have all the answers inside and frequently they do, especially about "problems" such as lack of focus, how I procrastinate, why I don't practise extreme self-care, why it's different for me (yeah, right) and so on.

But this is all rather different when it comes to money and business. 

How to Make the Best out of Your Membership of Lonely Entrepreneur

As the stories of the Lonely Entrepreneurs at work started to roll in, I sent current members a list of the 10 ways in which they could make the best of their free membership in August 2007.  Here is a summary of those ways, and if you would like to join in on any of them, simply go to Lonely Entrepreneur and join our club.

Idea No 1   Join in the free group coaching call scheduled for Friday 3rd August at 5 p.m. BST. The dates and times of these calls move around each month to allow members in different time zones to join us. August's call is not the best time for us in the UK, I know, in which case you will be able to listen on the website next week as I get the recording of the call uploaded.  If you can plan to join us LIVE on Friday, the number is posted always on the Group Coaching Calls page of the website. Please remember you may need to be logged in to see all of the Members Only pages.

Tales of the Lonely Entrepreneur (2)

The second contribution has rolled in today from Ann Harrison who runs no fewer than 4 (four!) coaching businesses and websites (note to self: must have a word with Ann about focus), but then you just can't keep a good entrepreneur down, thank Heavens!  Here's Ann's inspiring story:

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"By February 2002, I had had enough.  I used to go into the Ladies’ room, just across from our staffroom in the college where I worked, enter the cubicle furthest away from the door and just scream, silently, to ease my stress and frustration.  I must have looked like a perfect replica of Edvard Munch’s famous painting, ‘The Scream’.  Yet 15 years earlier, I had been a brand-new teacher, fresh from teacher-training college and enjoying my job immensely.  So, what had gone wrong in the intervening period?

Tales of the Lonely Entrepreneur (1)

The first contribution has flooded in for the Lonely Entrepreneur book project from Sue Ricks who runs the School of Complementary Therapies and Complementary Therapy Clinic in Loughborough. Here's Sue's tale of the joys of self-employment.

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"When I think back to when I started in this industry over twenty years ago I can hardly believe the journey!  It has had so many ups and downs but fortunately many, many more ups than downs.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride as I have learnt so much and gained an incredible amount from meeting some so many like minded and wonderful people and the experiences that I have had.

Lonely Entrepreneur Stories

I had a brilliant idea today, of course I did.   Actually it wasn't the first time I had had this idea, but it was resuscitated during lunch with Happy Nurse, Claire Westwood, in the sense that during lunch I remembered I had had this brilliant idea again in the shower this morning and forgotten to write it on my To Do List.

My brilliant idea of today is to collect and share the stories of the Lonely Entrepreneurs and then publish them in a book, profits to charity.   Let's find out who we really are, us rabid entrepreneurs, and why we do it!

Entrepreneurs - No Need to be Lonely!

I've created a wonderful little resource for self-employed people, Lonely Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small business people the world over.   It's my online membership club called Lonely Entrepreneur and membership is free to the first 1,000 people to join.   Permit me to share with you the benefits of the free membership.  What's free if you are one of the lucky first 1,000 to join?

What's in it for you to join our club?

Three New Coaching Offerings

I have recently been fortunate enough to find a way to give up my day job.   Only ten years (!) after selling my accountancy business, I have finally found a way to disentangle myself from my last few, much beloved clients.

This has freed up both time and energy to put together some new and revised mentoring and coaching offerings.

What would suit you best?   Working one to one or in a group?   Over the phone, or face to face?   What will you choose to invest in yourself and your business at this time?

Ten Years in the Life of an Entrepreneur

You've got to wonder where the time goes, haven't you?

I went to a meeting yesterday, a significant one.   The high I felt after the meeting, which went very well, was significant also.

It's ten years since I sold my accountancy business in March 1997 and yesterday's meeting was with the team who are taking over my last (ever) accounting client.

Entrepreneur Personality Test

I was wandering round the wonderful world of the WWW earlier and found this entrepreneurial personality test.

You can take it here at www.davincimethod.com/entrepreneur-test/ and you can read my results here:

Loneliness or Isolation?

I have found an article on the web today which almost exactly describes what I have felt at times in my business career as an entrepreneur.   It was published in Entrepreneur magazine in April 2005 and was written by Aliza Pilar Sherman.

The article is entitled "Lonely at the top: success can be isolating, so learn how to stay connected."

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Calm, Practical Entrepreneurship

A nice testmonial has flooded in (as Terry Wogan would say) from a client this morning:

"You are so terribly calm and practical, Judith, even your emails make me take a big deep breath and stop all this silly flapping. How do you do it, and can you bottle it please?"

That's made me think, obviously...

The Highs and Lows of Self-Employment

Yesterday was a pretty good day, as was the day before.  I spent the day doing what all entrepreneurs love to do best, working with colleagues brainstorming new ideas for businesses, as if we needed any more!

It's an exquisite guilty pleasure, getting a new idea and running with it.   Exquisite because of the excitement, the adrenaline, and how wonderfully creative it feels.   Guilty because you know you dont really need another "brilliant" idea for a business, since you are incubating so many as it is.

Ready to up the ante?

The Mastermind Coaching Groups meet virtually to problem-solve, brainstorm, network, encourage and motivate each other and receive coaching. They are a powerful tool for your business success, accelerating your growth.  The basic philosophy is to achieve more in less time by people working together and we meet twice a month on the telephone for 3 months to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback and resources, challenging you to 'up your business game' quite considerably.

By gaining perspective, knowledge, experience, coaching and resources from me and the others in the group you will move beyond your own limited view of the world, advancing your own goals and projects more quickly and helping others to do the same.

Entrepreneurs R Us

I am up to my eyeballs, and have been for some months now, creating a community for Entrepreneurs who work from home, in isolation, who feel the need for connection with others online, on the telephone, at get-togethers and so on.   We are hoping to launch during August. It's very exciting and the culmination of a few month's work with SubHub who have created the website for me.

I could not have managed without lots of technical help and expertise, mainly from Chyrelle from Subhub, Sandra my Toronto-based web techie, and Chantal at my newsletter provider, all working together.   So many thanks to you ladies.