Post by Vicky White

Did you ever see a CEO sitting with their back to the door?

I didn’t think so.

Much of Feng Shui is intuitive. What CEOs know instinctively, we often need to be reminded of – especially if our desks or our rooms do not lend themselves to being in the ‘power position’, which is what it’s called when you have a view of the door from where you sit.

Feng Shui Rules for Desk Placement:

1. Position your desk so you can see the door of your office – even if just from the corner of your eye. The principle behind this is that when you can see the door, which puts you in a position of power – aware of anyone coming into the room. Sit with your back to the door, you’ll likely attract situations sneaking up behind you to take you by surprise – whether in person or symbolically.

This applies even if you live alone and have all the doors and windows locked. Much of Feng Shui is about symbolism – it’s the same here.

2. Place your desk as far from the door as you can – if you’re in a direct line with the door, energy coming into the room is coming straight for you and in Feng Shui this is never good – not with your desk, not with your bed. This can lead to stress and even illness.

3. Sit with a solid wall behind your chair – this gives you and your business solid backing.

Now, these are the ideals. Sometimes because of the type of desk you have, or the size of the room, you are not able to position your desk in accordance with the idea.

If you really can’t sit with a view of the door, the way around this is to place a mirror so you can see the door from where you sit. A good test is to ask yourself: if someone came and stood in my doorway, would I catch sight of the movement?

The power position puts you and your business a step ahead before you even begin.

Vicky White is an Inner Feng Shui Coach. She works with creative women to move through transition to reinvention, so they can live with passion, purpose and meaning at all stages of their lives. Read more from Vicky’s blog.

Have a question about your desk and how to position it? Vicky’s responding to comments about this post while Jennifer is away!

Post from: My Organized Biz

Ariane Benefit has a great collection of thoughts and ideas about how to let go of clutter.

Lori Marrero from The Clutter Diet shares how to get the courage to throw away old manuals (and how to get backup if you ever need them).

Cynthia Ivie at Effortlessly Organized shares how getting rid of your clutter can help others by paying it forward.

Jennifer Chait at Declutter It explores whether first born children are more organized than second or third-born siblings.

What birth order are you? Do you think that contributes to your level of organization?

Post from: My Organized Biz

Alyson coaches people who want to make money from their art to start thinking like a business. Her book is full of go-get-’em ideas – and she’ll be responding to a question I have about following up with propsective clients. She has a great system you’ll want to check out.

She’ll also be giving away a free copy of her book, so find out how next Wednesday!

Post from: My Organized Biz

Here’s how she describes it: “While I officially have an office in our apartment, complete with a desktop computer, I regularly work on a laptop as well — I travel, go to the coffee shop or escape to the couch for a more comfortable working session.

“The problem is, though, that I wind up with spare copies of files all over the place: my desktop computer, my laptop, my back up hard drive.”

To the naked eye, it doesn’t look like clutter – but when she’s trying to find something on her computer… or was it her laptop. Err.. Where is that file, anyway? You can probably hear the gears grinding down the block – and it’s keeping her from working efficiently.

“In a perfect world,” she says, “all of these files would sync up with their counterparts without my having to do anything — and the solution wouldn’t cost a thing. I’ve run into some software solutions, but all of them have a price tag that doesn’t make my wallet happy.

“Got any solutions for those of us with split electronic personalities?”

Good news? I’ve got solutions.

Well, more accurately, I called my buddy Brian Kelly at Willamette Technical for ideas, since that’s his cup of tea. Here’s what Brian said:

Software solutions: “If Thursday’s using a windows based system, I would recommend Microsoft Office Groove. Yes, it is a MS product, but it will securely sync and replicate your “My Documents” data in your home system and your laptop.

“As long as you have an internet connection that each system can access then they’ll sync. The software costs $79 to start, but I’ve not found anything that is as secure and does the job as nicely as Groove. You can also get a free 60 day trial. So, download it and see what you think.”

Equipment solutions: According to Brian, another option for both Mac and PC users is to get a good USB thumb drive and save all your files on it. Then you can take it from place to place without misplacing anything.

“For most people a 2GB thumb drive should hold most all their files,” Brian told me. “Unless they are storing large amounts of pics and movies. But most business docs are small and shouldn’t take much space.” A quick glance on Amazon for 2GB drives shows that this would run about $6-20.

Low-tech (free) options: I know you requested free options and although I think Brian’s suggestions are superior, I have two other ideas that wouldn’t cost money, but time instead:

– You can designate certain kinds of work to each machine so you always know that the blogging writing is on your laptop, for example. But if you really like going offsite or veging on the couch, try the next idea…

– You can get into the habit of transfering files from one computer to another on a daily or weekly basis. It might help to put new files in a particular area (on your Desktop, for example) so you can easily find them to transfer them.

Basically there’s a tradeoff – if it’s free, it’s time-consuming. If it’s automated, it’s got a price tag attached. Either way, your less likely to pull your hair out at the coffee shop because the file you wanted is back at home.

What do you think, Thursday? Any of these sound feasable to you?

Heya, readers – do you deal with this issue? How do you manage files on multiple computers/gadgets?

Post from: My Organized Biz

Jen: Welcome, Leif! Now, you’ve got your businesses, Spark Northwest & Spark Social Media, and recently the ‘Soul Tech’ workshop – that’s a lot! How are you spending most of your time?

Leif: I divide it a few ways, but the main focus for me lately is doing consulting and development around new social media. People are more and more interested in things like podcasting, social networking, microblogging, social bookmarking, etc. It’s richer media, more interactive, and its the way things are heading. It’s fun and a little scary because it can suck up so much of one’s time and life (that’s where the ‘Soul Tech’ workshop comes in.)

Jen: Before we dig in to all of it, can you tell us what compels you to focus on social networking?

Leif: Well, underneath everything I do, whether face-to-face or through technology, is a common thread: connecting people, facilitating an enjoyable/exciting process, and motivating people to action (hopefully to transformation). The new social media, particularly social networking, is really setup to facilitate all three of those steps (though each step, being virtual, has its pitfalls.)

I have to say that I’m also skeptical of social media’s limitations (I use the term ’skeptech’ when blogging about my tech concerns). Because I value real face-to-face time, I’m constantly struggling with balancing the real world versus the virtual world. You’ve got to have both – too much time in front of the screen, your connections are not as deep.

Jen: Agreed – they’re both powerful formats, but balance is key. So, what would you say are the benefits of using social media in one’s small business?

Leif: Good and hard question. Off the top of my head I’d say social media does 4 or 5 things for the small business:

1. It can help improve your product or service based on real time feedback – a power which I think is just barely being tapped by companies.

2. It helps increase retention and loyalty of current customers by deepening the relationship – keeping in touch and giving people a place to share themselves, like a nest for them to settle back into. This ‘customer community’ mentality can also help keep your business genuinely service-oriented, which will always be good for business.

3. It offers you the ability to promote a product/service almost instantaneously through new channels and to new markets. In addition, by offering social bookmarking links (like Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, etc) and by making it easy for your readers, listeners or viewers to share your content with others, your business can ‘go viral’.

4. Social media puts you in the hot zone. When you’re using the most innovative tools, it implies relevance and that your business is ‘hot’.

5. Some businesses may even be able to do real-time business through new social media: video conferencing options, paid-subscription based content, SkypeCasting ( a group conference call – for example, combine this with a pay per call online class.)

Jen: There are so many possibilities in this media that a small business owner could get overwhelmed. What advice would you give to someone considering incorporating social media into their business?

Leif:

• Ask yourself what your end goal is – what’s the destination? Think about why you’re doing this.
• Do some thinking about the possible outcomes and decide what your priorities are. for example, do you want this to get feedback? To develop web presence more? To connect clients with each other? Be strategic about it.
• Decide how much time and resources money you want to invest in it. Be realistic.
• Take stock of your own technical skills. If you’re someone who is high-tech and can learn this stuff easily, then you can DIY. If you’re not or you’re busy, it’s probably better to hire someone else to do it for you.
• Come up with a timeline and a plan. The temptation is to do it all tomorrow, but you’ll get better results if you lay out a plan and the steps to develop based on your goals.

Jen: And someone can contact you for this kind of support, right?

Leif: Yes!

Jen: This is great information. So tell me, what’s some of the coolest stuff you’ve seen or tried lately that’s helping you organize in your business?

Leif: Well, there are so many I’d want to suggest, but here are a few geeky cool tools that come to mind.

Have you heard of jott.com?You call their toll-free number and it takes your message, then translates it into text (with about 95% accuracy) – and then it can add that to a to-do list like twitter, etc. How about GrandCentral, recently acquired by Google. This currently free service gives you a ‘lifetime’ phone number that can then ring all your other numbers depending on who is calling, when, etc. Tons of features you’ll need to check out.

I’d suggest people checking out ‘Talkshoe.com’ –a service that allows you to easily set up your own live talk show and podcast, and that will even pay you based on the number of live listeners and downloads you receive. Even crazier, checkout Ustream.TV – with this service anyone can have their own TV station for free. In about a half hour, you log in, set up account, and anyone you give the link to can see it – BOOM! you have your own TV station. Crazy, huh?

Jen: Awesome!

Leif: There’s even a service called Qik, that gives you your own station using a cell phone! You turn it on and it’s a live video channel. Of course, with this kind of power there is potential for great good (think of social justice issues brought to attention) and great abuse (think big brother.)

Jen: Depending on how it’s used, right?

Leif: Exactly. One other geeky thing to check out is eyejott.com. You just use the camera on your computer (or you can buy one) and then leave a short video message on your blog or website – then other people can reply with video, or with voice (if they don’t have video.)

Jen: Thanks for giving us a rundown of the benefits of social media in small business and the most organized ways of incorporating it into our marketing plan.

And readers – are your eyes glazed over? Have you used any of these tools? Chime and and share what you think below…

Post from: My Organized Biz

Ahh… but life keeps moving and speed isn’t always a bad thing. So, the b5 business channel bloggers put their heads together and wrote about how to live simply and work in a technological age.

The concepts are diverse, but there’s a common theme: simplicity. Is slow the new fast? Read on to find out.

Simplicity can be a powerful thing. Eric Eggertson points to a very basic, very engaging series of how-to videos.

At Home Biz Notes, Yvonne Russell shares a low tech tip to create better connections with clients.

Miki over at Leadership Turn believes that the most simple and elegant everyday solution to the speed trap is communications that are clear, concise and, especially, sticky.

In these times investing seems complicated and risky. But if you use dollar cost averaging, Miranda Marquit at Yielding Wealth shows how you can simplify the investment process AND make money.

Jean Murray over at Small Business Boomers says that the KISS Principle (Keep it short and simple) is best for small businesses.

Celine Roque at Pimp Your Work warns us against over-information, with tips on how to cut back so you can focus on what’s essential.

Tom at The 501(c) Files advises stepping away from your keyboard and using old-fashioned communications to reach your key constituencies in a more personal way.

Bob Turek from ProjectManagement411 shares the simplest sales approach to expand a project.

Darlene at Interview Chatter discusses Shameless Marketing: understanding that you are the product and your ability to sell yourself differentiates you from the competition.

Anne at the Golden Pencil, a blog for writers, shares how simple life choices can decrease stress.

Liz at Business and Blogging talks about marketing strategies that build connections between people and clear, specific ebook templates on how to write a short book out of blog entries.

I wrote a post here at My Organized Biz about how to take a whole day off (in honor of my birthday).

In the skeptics corner:

Susan from Brandcurve questions whether a simple commercial concept for Louis Vuitton will work.

“Sometimes a business idea is so simple, elegant and obvious that it’s thought to be a stupid idea.” Says Sean Kelly at FranchisePick.Com, “Other times it truly is a really stupid idea.”

And, lastly, in the Worst Case Scenario Department:

Ren Garcia at Accounting Solver takes a unique look at accounting for the future with the Doomsday Vault.

Rico Mossesgeld at ContractWorker talks about how revealing the simple details of our lives can bring us big trouble.

Contribute your thoughts to the conversation! Share with us how you incorporate simplicity into your own life and business – or how you wish you did.

Post from: My Organized Biz

When Miranda emailed me about her office, she summed it up with this comment: “…it seems like there’s just too much to cram into the six foot area that I like.”

Miranda, when I look at your photo, “cluttered” is not the word that comes to mind. You’re bring super creative with the space you’ve got with all the plastic bins and shelving. However, you do have an issue that makes your space more prone to clutter: insufficient storage.

The basic theory is this: If there’s a place for things to go, they don’t pile up. If there isn’t, they do. So here are 3 suggestions to increase your storage capacity – which, in turn, will make the extra bits you’ve got floating around disappear.

Suggestion 1: Print elsewhere

Even though your desk measures 6′ long, you actually have about 1.5 square feet of work space on your desk. Not a lot.

By moving the printer, you’ll gain a ton of space that you can store current projects that you need to access multiple times during the day. I’m guessing you don’t use the printer quite that often.

Where do you put it? That’s the next point…

Suggestion 2: Get a dog leg

I don’t know how many hours per day you’re at your desk, but since you blog I’m guessing its a lot. Dear Miranda, this desk you’ve got isn’t worthy of your hard work. It’s too high for you (Maggie had this issue last week, too) and it’s also not big enough.

I’d love to see you with a desk that has some drawers within arm’s reach and a file drawer or two. That would give all the little things under your monitor a place to go. You’d also get an actual surface to work on rather than that tiny 8.5×11″ square.

If a shiny new desk isn’t in the budget (I recommend Ikea for great value), at least get another table and put it on the right side along the wall at a 90* angle. An L-shaped (dog leg) workspace will give you more surface area to store lots of things and a place to put the printer off at the end.

Suggestion 3: Oh, give them a home…

You’ve got some great projects (article ideas) and short-term storage needs (bills) – and you said they’re piling up. So let’s give them a place to live so they won’t.

I’d love to see you hang some shelves over your desk so that you can put some books up and add some project boxes. These provide loose storage (but organized enough) and give assorted papers a place that’s easy to access. Best of all, it gets them off your desk.

For your article ideas, you could also assign a folder as your “article garden” and just drop idea in there when you get. Whatever you do, vertical is better than horizontal when it comes to storage. So be on the lookout for ways you’d want to store things short-term.

Summary: Give yourself more space and start thinking creatively about how you want to store your projects. I know I’ve evaded your question about clutter, but I think this is more on target for what you need.

Thnaks for playing, Miranda!

If you’d like a Wednesday Makeover with 3 suggestions for your office, read how.

What do you think?

Post from: My Organized Biz

I particularly liked Jim Gordon’s post Watch Your Language – and how we could all benefit from learning one.

Check it out!

Jennifer

Post from: My Organized Biz