Illegitimis Non Carborundum

Worst. Year. Ever.

Come to think of it, not even close to my worst year ever, but definitely up in the top 5.

That doesn't matter though.

My mum's health is improving, finally; my partner's degree is finished and awaiting final marking and my home life is about as stable as it ever is.

We won't talk about the non-Kleeneze work life. There aren't enough adjectives, let alone imaginative expletives. 

So, I'm starting again. From scratch, but with added scars experience. Time for a new 104 day plan.

You know what? I've missed this so much...

Normal Service? Well, It All Depends On What You Call Normal...

Originally posted on itsnotanattitude.blogspot.com

Have you ever had times where you're convinced that there's some sort of fiendish plot to keep you from achieving your goals?

Me too. In fact, every single time I try to build a business that will fulfil my ambitions and goals, my family or my work life conspire to derail my progress.

You couldn't make this up - since I decided to stick to a 90 day plan and dual-blog:

- A second car has had to be replaced at short notice. My first was in October 2011, courtesy of a charming woman who ran into the back of me, gave me false details and then disappeared, leaving me with a written-off  Volvo. So I bought my partner's car off him with the insurance payout and that promptly threw part of its gearbox linkage within 10 weeks. I'm now driving a carpeted Transit Van (aka a VW Sharan) that drinks fuel.

- My partner decided to live in Rugby from Monday night to Thursday morning, because it's more convenient when he's decided to do a Masters degree in London to have a personal taxi service that is prepared to pick him up after 11pm and drop him off at the station before I go to work. Oh, and have a housekeeping service that provides him with breakfast, sandwiches, does his washing, loses his socks, etc. After a discussion where, apparently, it's my fault if I'm late for work because I'm not getting up earlier and managing the family better, he's decided to spend the next two weeks in West Oxfordshire, to sort out his tax returns and write his essays. I presume the wild-eyed, manic Harpy that dropped him off at the station at the end of that discussion may have had something to do with it...

- My eldest son has decided to move back in, with all the hassle that entails. I need to convert my office/music space back into a bedroom, move furniture into other rooms, etc. All whilst doing a full-time job, a two hour commute and failing to run a Kleeneze business.

- My mother is having serious kidney problems, which mean we're now stuck with a cycle of visits to GPs, specialists, etc. I'm scared it's kidney failure this time - her legs are swelling up and she seems to be permanently on antibiotics.

- Then there's this year's flu, which knocked me out for several weeks. I haven't felt this weak and lethargic since I had glandular fever in my early 20s.

All in all, it's been an interesting 90 days. Something had to give, and that was the blogging. However, I'm already drafting the next 90-day plan, whilst sticking to the remains of my original one to give me some forward momentum. 90-day plan blogging will re-commence in two weeks.

90-Day Plan - Day 4: Singing in the Rain

Well, I'm half-way through my first week of 13 and I haven't started a new 90-day plan yet. That makes today unique!

Not only that, but I got over my sulks about the day-job; turns out that another day without any "official" work goes a long way towards clearing up an email backlog.

Plus, I managed to collect 90 out of 191 books before my paper listing which houses I'd blanket dropped fell apart due to getting soaked in a 2 hour long rainstorm.

That leaves the motherlode of all stragglers to collect over the next couple of days, and I only got 1 order, but who cares? I'm back on track and loving my Kleeneze business.

90-Day Plan - Day 3: Practice, What Practice?

A lot of Kleeneze distributors got hit by bad weather today, especially those in Scotland, where a roof blew off a block of Glasgow flats to land on houses in another street, lorries got blown over and trains got cancelled. They still carried on regardless.

I got hit by the back-to-work blues.

After the euphoria of yesterday's efforts, I went to work smiling. I was singing in the car (got to practice somewhere and the offspring complain when I sing in the bathroom). That lasted all of 5 minutes after I got into the office.

By the end of the day, I was drained, miserable and depressed. Over the Christmas break, I had focused on what I needed to do to build my Kleeneze business's momentum, to the point where I was so fired up, I didn't want to break off for 6 hours sleep. I knew I was capable of achieving great things. I knew where I was heading, what I had planned, what work I needed to do, what routine I needed to follow. I was happy, as I always am when I'm fully occupied.

My day job doesn't have any of that. I have no project to work on, no activity assigned to me, despite my persistent requests. Normally, I'd find myself something to do that makes use of my skills, but I've been told categorically by my line manager and indirectly by his boss that these skills are of little to no use to the team as it currently exists. There are no suitable vacancies in other teams and I don't want to job-hop when I'm trying to build my own business after day-job hours.

So, I'm stuck with nothing to do, but I'm expected to look as though I'm working flat out on technical issues. I can't leave my desk for more than a few minutes at a time, as my line manager sits opposite me and is well aware I don't have any business users to talk to because he hasn't provided me with any work. Taking and making personal calls is discouraged and commented on.

Eleven weeks ago, I had a stress management meeting, which my line manager assured me would be written up and copies provided to both myself and HR. I'm still waiting. Mind you, he only completed my performance review paperwork after 8 weeks delay and a number of comments from his boss...

In that stress management meeting, I emphasised that not being fully occupied and not being allowed to utilise my many skills properly was causing me untold stress, to the point where I could have been used as a textbook set of symptoms by trainee stress counsellors. My line manager's response was to tell me, "don't take on the business, the business always wins." I got told to bite my tongue and accept whatever is said about me or my work, to be friendly regardless and to just do the work and make sure it's "good enough". I also got told that my skill set is unusual and unlikely to be used in forthcoming projects and that I should accept that and get on with it.

Since then, he's made no effort to give me any work at all. I can only assume that's what happens when you "rock the boat" in this company.

I know I'm whinging, but I was so upset after being back at work for one day that I couldn't face anybody. I slunk upstairs and shut myself in the office for most of the evening and played solitaire over and over again before crawling into bed for a fitful night's sleep.

What am I proud of today?

Nothing. I let the day-job get to me, yet again, to the point where I'm severely stressed and avoiding people.

What can I do to improve, tomorrow?

I can get over this stress and lack of self-confidence by working on my business. As I get better with my Kleeneze business, my confidence will grow and my focus will move towards my real goals rather than my day-job.

90-Day Plan - Day 2: The Benefit of Starting Off Badly

After yesterday's issues, today had to get better fast.

It's amazing how much more focused I felt after creating that to-do list and then reviewing it first thing.

By mid-afternoon, around everything else I had to do to prepare for the family's return to work and school, I had 200 catalogues out in a new area.

Plus, I've got a clear view of how I'm operating my business over the next few weeks. I actually feel energised for the first time in months.

I'm looking forward to my best year yet.

What am I proud of today?

Getting 200 catalogues out in a new area in under 2 hours.

What can I improve on tomorrow?

Get more organised with my non-business activities, speed up and increase focus on my business activities.

90-Day Plan - Day 1: The Activity Hokey-Cokey

That's me*, completely out of step with what I'm supposed to be doing, but loving it anyway.

Of course, it's not really me, it's a stock clipart. This is me (right hand side at the start, in the middle):

Yes, I'm a morris dancer :-)

I'm not dancing much at the moment; I've chosen to concentrate on the 90-day plan instead.

Which, of course, is not going quite according to plan at the moment. Today was my day for putting new books out, which hasn't happened because I'm dancing attendance on those in the family who aren't feeling very well. To be fair, there's more flu symptoms than hangover symptoms, but, yet again, my plans take a back seat to everybody and everything else.

So my to-do list is a big one and I've lost the opportunity to blanket drop 200 catalogues.

Having said that, I've cleared a backlog of emails and I'm sorting out my study/music room/general dumping ground to free up some space for bagging catalogues and orders, so today hasn't been a complete wash-out.

What am I proud of today?

I worked on something to do with my Kleeneze business, despite the temptation to put off the start of my 90-day plan for another day.

What can I improve on, tomorrow?

I can stop messing around and concentrate on working my plan. Plus, I can set boundaries with my family, so they realise I am actually serious about making this plan work.

Does anybody else get side-tracked this early and easily or is it just me?

Happy New Year, everybody!

90-Day Plan: D-1 - Plan Review Time

So, it's D-day minus 1 and I'm trying to do my initial review.

Looking at yesterday's figures, I've got some serious work to do with this plan, to set me up for the end of 2012.

On Monday, I put 180 catalogues out to an area that had been blanket dropped by three other distributors within the previous 2 days. Needless to say, I only found that out yesterday when a couple of very nice people let me know their opinion of the three other distributors. (I'm still receiving calls complaining about catalogue spam today; Betterware and Avon also hit this area over the weekend).

180 catalogues gave me £55 of sales and that's only because I was smart enough to put the New Year's Sale brochure in with everything else. Normally I'd get at least £100 - £150 in for the same number of blanket-dropped catalogues.

Now, I fully support and appreciate the freedom that Kleeneze's business model gives me; I'm not tied to a specific area like Avon representatives are. The inevitable downside is the seasonal catalogue spam caused by distributors converging on a likely area to blanket drop. Catalogue spam is always worse around Christmas. It puts potential customers off and those of us who stick with trying to build a solid retail base spend the following few months calming our regulars down, who often don't realise the realities of building a Kleeneze distributor customer base.

Anyway, back to the review:

1. Do I know EXACTLY what I'm doing for each of the next 90 days?

I did. Until I got the third lousy retail result in a row. Yes, I'm annoyed. I'm also focused on getting £1600 of sales every period from now on. I have a list of roads to start dropping and presenting to; I may need to amend that on a weekly basis during this plan to build a solid retail base.

If I don't get the retail sales, I can't invest in recruitment. It's that simple. So I need to come up with FREE ways of getting leads. I'll need to amend my recruitment plan on a weekly basis as well.

2. Does my family know and understand what I'm doing?

Yes, and they don't believe I can do it. Welcome to the real world.

3. How am I tracking my activity?

RETAIL:

Catalogues out, in, order quantity, order value, average value per order, average value per catalogue, number presented, number blanket dropped, which roads, when, who looks, who doesn't look but hands back, who 'loses', who refuses, who orders, which other distributor.

RECRUITMENT:

Type of lead generation, quantity of leads in, quantity of information packs out, results of calls and follow-up calls, who's not interested, who are tyre-kickers, who want a PAYE job, who want supplementary income, who want to be active, number of signups, which type of signup.

4. What are my back-up plans when/if Life! gets in the way?

Life! has already got in the way. I'm used to it. This is more down to being self-disciplined, something I need to continue working to improve. So, a list of incentives to stick to the plan, and a big fat chart of the money I owe are on my study wall right now. I have built in a little slack to my plan so that, should I need to deal with Life! for a few days in any period, I can do so and still achieve my targets.

5. How exactly will I get back on track if I drift away from my planned activity?

I cannot afford to drift away from my planned activity. If I do that even once, I won't achieve my targets. Self-discipline is key, yet again.

6. How will I reward myself for goals I have achieved, and when?
I have a few incentives planned, but I also have a big incentive, which I can only pay for if I achieve every goal I've set for myself: http://www.maddyprior.co.uk/sbcoursedesc.htm#10 - being taught to sing in a masterclass by one of my heroes. For me, that's a major goal.

90-day plan, here I come!

90-Day Plan: D-2 - The Plan Takes Over My Life!

Oh, heck, this was NOT what I expected.

When I decided in one of my more insane moments to dual-blog on 90 day plans for 90+ days, I completely forgot to factor in my son's activities.

Now, he's doing his GCSEs this year, so he should be able to look after himself? To a point, but not when it involves me slotting in school and extra-curricular taxi duties, not to mention having to waste most of Saturday waiting in for a parcel because he slept over at his sister's house on Friday night.

Seems I'm NOWHERE near organised enough yet. Hopefully, I'll have improved on that at the end of the next 90 days.

Anyway, let's look at creating this plan, as per my instructions on my other blog:

1. Get the year planner up on the wall and draw a border around the 90 days you'll be working your plan.

Nice and easy - the wallplanner was bought a couple of weeks ago and is already up. Mind you, thanks to using a cheap generic version of BluTack, it's now sellotaped to the wall and I need to repaint bits. The border is drawn. I'm adding the last 2 weeks of Period 13 to a full 3 periods next year, to make sure I start my next 90 day plan at the beginning of Period 4 2012.

2. If your business 'weeks', 'months' or 'periods' don't line up with the standard Sunday - Saturday or Monday - Sunday options, mark those out on your planner as well.

Done. Kleeneze weeks run from Fridays to Thursdays. Go figure. Presumably a historical reason regarding staff payments.

3. Mark out ALL commitments for the 90 day plan duration on your wall planner.

Luckily, that's fairly easy this year. Chipping Norton Folk Club once a month, a choral workshop in Chippy and (gulp) my second attempt at singing in front of a Music Festival Adjudicator. Plus, of course, Christmas and birthdays. If you want to know why a Rugby woman does a two-hour round trip to Chipping Norton once a month when there are closer folk clubs.... well, it's a long story.

4. Take your 90-day plan template, which should be marked out in 30 minute blocks from 6am to midnight.

Unsurprisingly, got one of those.

5. Block out periods of time for all normal activity - bathing, exercise, meals, housework, gardening, travel to/from work/higher education studies and, of course, the day job/lectures.

Done that. Blocking out the basics is surprisingly easy and leaves some sizeable chunks of time free in the evening.

6. Block out periods of time for all other commitments - family events, club meetings, holiday away from home.

That was nice and quick, too. You might find you've got more events, meetings and holiday than I have.

7. Block out your business activity for the next 90 days. You will be sticking to this plan; make sure it's sustainable.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. My tendency would be to block out what suits me, but for every block I allocate, I have to consider the youngest son and my partner's needs as well. That turned a simple exercise into a juggling nightmare. There's no point doing this if I'm building up resentment about my focus being elsewhere and, like many women, I'm used to experiencing resentment when I focus on "my" (aka my business) needs rather than theirs.

7a. Take a 7 day plan template and block out your business activity for each day. This time, be more specific. If you plan to hand out leaflets, deliver catalogues or do surveys on a particular day, write down the streets or area now. If you don't use a template, this information needs to go in your diary for those days.

Oh dear lord, THIS is a killer. I've never been this organised before in my life, and I'm not sure I like it! Mind you, I'm sure I'll get used to it, not to mention sidestep it when necessary.

7b. Repeat 7a for all 13 weeks.

I thought 7a was a killer? This is worse - not only do I have to work out my standard activity, but I have to try to preplan extra blocks of streets to make sure I'm always able to hit my targets. This is probably one of the key reasons I've never stuck with a 90-day plan before now.

8. Block out your business activity on the year planner; one simple way to do this is to use stickers of different colours, shapes and sizes depending on available time and type of activity. Remember to create a key to those stickers and display that on your wall, too.

Fell down at this hurdle. I'm shopping tonight and will have to get some stickers and then revisit this step.

9. Create activity tracking sheets for each type of activity you intend to undertake and ensure you have enough copies to cover 90 days of activity. You will be using these every day, in conjunction with to-do lists, to maximise your time and effort.

I had the templates already, but creating 13 copies of each, complete with dates etc., took several hours and had to be done around other activities, such as housework, taxi service for the youngest and Kleeneze catalogue rebagging. It's times like these when I need to do this business full-time.

10. Make sure that you have a central store for all your planning and tracking paperwork, be it in a computer folder or in a filing cabinet or lever arch file. Don't give yourself opportunities to fail.

Now this one was simple, and the filing cabinet is ready and waiting, as is my Kleeneze tracking folder.

Better late than never. I've readjusted my plan to start on Friday 9 December, to give me time to complete the review stage comfortably around my business activity this week.

Fingers crossed!

90-Day Plan: D-3 - Organisation - My OMG Moment

Me, organised? I can be. I just never seem to sustain it. My organisational capabilities flare up when required and then tend to subside just as quickly.

Part of the problem is a desire not to be seen as this hard-nosed, obsessive, managing control freak. Which is what I turn into every time I have a flurry of organisational activity. I need to change and when better than while implementing 90 days of new habits?

You're getting used to this by now - the hard facts can be found here; my pitiful attempts to live up to my own teachings are below:

1. Set up a dedicated email account, don't flood it with subscriptions.

Dedicated account set up. Unfortunately....

OK, fine, I will unsubscribe and change to RSS feeds where I can. This will have to be done in parallel with other activities as I've WAY too many subscriptions for comfort.

2. Email/Mail - Deal with it, dispose of it, decide what to do with it and when. Keep the inbox bare.

Easier said than done, but the more I try to do this, the better I'm getting at it. It's still going to take time to work through my 3,000 emails though. Yes, I know. You don't have to tell me...

3. File receipts as soon as you get them.

This is my biggest area of failure so far. My filing system at the moment is chronological and there are strata of unopened envelopes that were probably delivered by pterodactyls. I've spent an hour filing by year into manila folders. Next step, set up a proper filing system.

4. Set up a business bank account.

I've currently got a separate account for business purposes. Chalk one success up to the Kleenezelady.

5. Make sure you have all contact details available at all times for customers, team members and prospects.

I've ordered a daytimer (early Christmas present) and I will be transferring details to that as soon as I get it. Plus, my new mobile upgrade is a smartphone, which should help as well.

6. Set up activity tracking for all business activities.

Done. Getting into the habit of using the tracking will be the key, though. That, and not letting my laptop spontaneously combust again...

7. Ensure the family answers the phone in a professional manner or divert calls.

Call diversion is on. Enough said. Kleeneze provide a great voicemail system (and yes, I need to clear a backlog of messages on that as well....)

8. Use a whiteboard/family calendar to keep everybody updated on what you're doing.

Already doing this as well. It works really well, when my teenager isn't trying to be clever.

9. Invest in a cashbox and bank your takings before spending them.

That's a habit I need to get into.

10. Develop a routine so that your family, team and customers know what to expect.

And again, that's a key habit that I need to develop.

I'll be planning the next 90 days out tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

90 Day Plan: D-4 - Preparation - The Reality

Over on my other blog, I'm documenting 94 days of 90-day plan activity; this is where you get the reality check!

Today's topic is preparation; something I've tended to fail miserably at in the past - usually because I let life get in the way.

This time, I'm determined to prove I can be more than just a disorganised, hyper-active Type A single mum. Not only that, but I can't lead if I can't prove that what I am coaching about works. So here goes.

Looking at my other blog, there are ten points I should be considering:

1. What do I want, in generic terms, at the end of the next 90 days? List 10 to 15 items.

This isn't as easy as it looks. I'm disorganised, short of cash, trying to support my partner's university fees and expenses and trying to juggle life, the universe and Kleeneze. And I'm not used to setting goals. But, in general, my wants are:

a. More money. A lot more money. My best monthly income from Kleeneze so far has been around £300. I haven't done that this month. It needs to improve.
b. More team members. I can't juggle work and Kleeneze and achieve what I want on personal part-time retail alone. I need to recruit and coach others.
c. A happy family. I won't be able to do this long-term without their continuing support.
d. Proof that I can build a business in my spare time without sacrificing everything around me.
e. Deposit saved for the next family holiday.
f. Car repairs paid for - no idea how much this will cost, but my current car is now cutting out whenever I change gear. I may need the money for a different car at this rate.
g. An end to money worries. Yes, I know, harping on about the lack of money again. Guess why I started my own Kleeneze business?
h. Increased self-confidence. I have serious telephone phobia, for example. I'm shy of presenting catalogues. I know I need to change my behaviour here.
i. Increased savings. I was saving £200 per month. I'm currently saving nothing, partly due to a lack of pay-rises over the past few years, partly to my needing to start again with my Kleeneze business.
j. A reduction in debt. Yep, money issues again. This time, credit cards.

2. What are my 5 specific goals?

OK, I'm getting the hang of this a bit. Specific, Measurable, Achievable (very important for my self-confidence), Relevant and Timely, or SMART, objectives are something I understand from both project management and performance reviews.

So, specifically:

a. Present 50 catalogues per week for 13 weeks (91 days, but who's counting?) That's 50 catalogues handed over, not 50 "No thank you"s. I will also be blanket dropping. That should sort out my presenting nerves.
b. Recruit and coach 4 active distributors, all of whom are retailing £500 per month. That lets me coach them towards their 10% VP in the next 90 day plan. That also allows for the ones who I recruit who don't retail that much. That means I have to cope with my telephone phobia and start learning to deal with it.
c. Achieve a personal retail target of £1600 per 4 week period. That gives me a 13% volume bonus and a combined 4-weekly income of around £336 retail profit plus £133 bonus, or around £469 every 4 weeks. That's before I factor in team-based bonuses. That's a vast improvement on my previous personal best.
d. Save £250 from Volume bonuses only. I will invest £100 per 4 week period back into my business from my retail profits and the rest goes towards paying off debts/bills etc.
e. Pay off one long-standing debt of approximately £500 from my retail profit earnings.

All specific, all measurable, all achievable and relevant.

3. How will I achieve each of these 5 goals?

a. Set aside 50 catalogues for presenting purposes; decide which groups of streets I will present catalogues on, list those streets and go to royalmail.com to use the address finder for the street numbers. Repeat as required.

b. Print out all previous enquiries and phone every single one of them. Follow up as necessary. Set up an autoresponder and keep the interested "not yet" ones in the loop on new offers. Advertise for new leads and follow up responses in a timely manner. Coach according to their abilities and needs.

c. Ensure that I put out "enough" catalogues every week to hit my targets. Depends on the time of year, the area and my reputation as a trustworthy distributor.

d. Savings are based on hitting my 10% Volume bonus for the first 8 weeks and hitting 13% in the last 5 weeks.

e. See point d.

4. Collate all of my diary events for the next 90 days, including those of my family, friends, social groups etc.

I'm working on that. I have the main events blocked out (school holidays, birthdays etc.); I can't collate everything due to my partner's job being somewhat sporadic. I may have to add things in later and re-jig some of my plans.

5. Check I have everything I need, so I can concentrate on the first 28 days of my 90 day plan.

I have almost everything. What I'm missing are a reliable autoresponder and a sizable part of the house to act as a dispatch/office area.

6. Identify any gaps/omissions in what I need and identify when/how I will fill those gaps.

I'll take a look at autoresponders over the next 2 weeks and make a decision based on income and cost. In the meantime, I'll send updates manually.

As far as the sizeable part of the house is concerned, I'll have to make do. I need a bigger house.

7. Take a good look at myself and identify any issues that may stop me achieving my goals in the next 90 days.

I procrastinate to a stupid degree. I'm so scared of phoning others, it's crippling. I get side-tracked easily. I try to do too much and then beat myself up about it when I fail. I'm worried about letting others down.

8. Decide what I'm going to do to prevent those issues.

I will track my behaviour on a daily and weekly basis and use star charts to motivate myself. Well, if it works for stubborn 4 year olds...

9. Write down my baseline results so far. Weekly, monthly and quarterly.

I need to go through back emails to track this, due to my previous laptop spontaneously combusting and taking that data with it to the great scrapheap in the sky. I will post the results once I've done the analysis.

10. Tell my family I'm committing to a 90 day plan of activity.

Done. Not sure they believe me. I need to show them, then.

Pre-Christmas Blues



Christmas Star



 Thanks to a combination of circumstances, I'm rebuilding my Kleeneze business from the ground up at what is, in this area at least, probably the worst time of the year to do so.

"But it's Christmas!" I hear you all say. "They all want to buy presents! How can this possibly be the worst time of year?"

Simple. My town has a couple of dedicated distributor teams who believe in recruiting locally at key times of the year. Christmas is one of them. Which means that certain areas get swamped with new distributors, and we all end up tripping over each other in the pre-Christmas rush.

Not surprisingly, a number of the new distributors won't stay the pace. Me? I'm in this forever. I spent yesterday reorganising a room so I can have a dedicated work space, not just for my Kleeneze work, but also my writing and music. Tonight I'm delivering orders, working on my 90 day plan and doing some self-coaching.

I may be starting again, it may be slower than I'd like, but I'm not stopping until I get where and what I want out of life.

Hope you all have a powerful day today.

Time Management, Kleeneze Lady Style

As anybody involved in the early phases of their network marketing business will tell you, there comes a time when building your business assumes a greater mental priority than working on furthering your 9 to 5 job prospects.

My problem is, I get paid too much in my 9 to 5 job to just quit - I would need to have a turnover of around £10,000 per 4 week period to come close to my current salary. That means I need to build a good team.

However, as I've discovered over the past few months, making the transition from being a disorganised retailer to an organised team builder isn't easy. I've make two serious attempts at building a team after day job hours and all I've achieved so far is missing out on my Volume bonus.

It's time to get serious about working with spare moments within my day job.

I've now blocked out short periods of 15 to 30 minutes during my working day, during which time I will focus on my Kleeneze business activities. These blocks of time could correspond to company lunch breaks, tea breaks, etc. I'll be inputting orders, contacting prospective team members and catching up on paperwork.

The rest of my day will be used to ensure that I am ahead of my workload, which in turn could free up extra short blocks of time in which to contact more people.

I've revised my 90 day plan accordingly. I'll let you know how I get on.

Back On The Retail Track

After a poor month last month, caused by my spending too much time on recruitment activities, paperwork and Life, I'm happy to confirm that my retail is back on track.

My Kleeneze Group Sales Analysis report (all my own work, at the moment) shows that I've got my 10% Volume bonus this period.

As in previous months, I managed to do that with 3 weeks worth of retail.

My next SMART goals are:

• To write up my new 90 day plan for the next 3 periods no later than 10pm on Thursday 12 May 2011.
• To achieve 13% Volume bonus by the end of the next 3 periods, based on personal retail.
• To add another 200 regular customers by the end of the 90 days.
• To contact every person on my current active warm list by the end of the 90 days.
• To add 1 team member per week over the next 90 days.

Now, to do all of that, and juggle being a single mum, working full time and supporting my fiance, who's working overseas again after 2 weeks in this country - that's going to be fun!

Stress, what stress? This is what I do best - setting goals and sticking to them.

Failing Your Way To Success

Well, I've screwed up big time this month.

I decided to increase my sponsoring efforts and as a result I'm not getting my retail bonus for the first time in 6 months.

I need to find a way to do both with the limited hours at my disposal. Looks like it's back to Review, Revise and Refocus.

Still, I've learnt that I can either put out catalogues (this time, with recruitment flyers in), or I can put out recruitment flyers. I don't have the time for both. I'm having problems finding the time to fit everything in as it is.

My typical week goes something like this (with the exception of trips to Heathrow; that only happens once every 3 months):

	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
05:00					Get up, breakfast	Get up, breakfast
06:00	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Get up, wake son	Leave for Heathrow, wake son	Leave for Leicestershire, wake son by phone	Get up, wake son
07:00	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast	Son's paperround, breakfast, Travel to Heathrow	Son's paperround, breakfast, travel to Leicestershire	Son's paperround, breakfast
08:00	Travel to Chichester	Rebag catalogues	Drop son at school, car share, travel to work	Drop son at school, car share, travel to work	Arrive at Heathrow	Car share, travel to work	Car share, travel to work
09:00	Travel to Chichester	Rebag catalogues	Arrive at day job	Arrive at day job	Collect fiance	Arrive at day job	Arrive at day job
10:00	Travel to Chichester	Gardening	Work	Work	Travel to Oxfordshire	Work	Work
11:00	Arrive at Chichester	Gardening	Work	Work	Arrive at Oxfordshire	Work	Work
12:00	Family day out	Lunch	Work	Work	Lunch with fiance	Work	Work
13:00	Family day out	Shopping	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Rest of day with fiance (just back from overseas contract)	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects	Lunchtime phone calls to prospects
14:00	Family day out	Housework	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
15:00	Family day out	Decorating	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
16:00	Travel home	Weekly talk to fiance in Kazakhstan	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
17:00	Travel home	Weekly talk to fiance in Kazakhstan	Work	Work	With fiance	Work	Work
18:00	Travel home	Evening meal	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze recruitment	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail	With fiance	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail	Arrive home, get changed, start Kleeneze retail
19:00	Shopping	Housework	Blanket drop flyers	Blanket drop catalogues	With fiance	Collect catalogues	Blanket drop catalogues
20:00	Evening meal	Review weekly activity	Blanket drop flyers	Blanket drop catalogues	With fiance	Collect catalogues	Blanket drop catalogues
21:00	Housework	Plan weekly activity	Arrive home, evening meal	Arrive home, evening meal	With fiance	Arrive home,  rebag catalogues	Arrive home, evening meal
22:00	Decorating	Bed	Housework	Housework	Bed	Input customer orders, eat	Housework
23:00	Bed		Bed	Bed		Housework	Bed
00:00						Bed

I have virtually no social life and consequently a very small warm market. That's due to being a single mum, who works full time. All I've done is swap surfing and TV time for Kleeneze time. My fiance lives 55 miles away, so we only see each other at weekends when he's not working overseas.

I know I need to work smarter; I know I'm still a Kleeneze apprentice and I'm learning all I can. I just haven't worked out how to improve my organisation and time management skills.

But I will, and when I do, I'll be on my way to achieving my goals.