Here is a basic definition of the word “Membership”: the total number of members belonging to an organization, society, etc.  Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/membership
Short sweet and to the point but let’s elaborate on that shall we? Basically it is a group brought together through a common interest. It can be to learn something new, strengthen a skill, working toward a common goal, promote ideas… you get the picture. When you have an idea, a product, a class – anything you want to share with your audience you can make a membership program out of it.

Now whether that will be a successful membership site, that is another story. For right now we are going to stick with the the “What” question.

What  – Examples:

Here are some examples of memberships: Church, your local Gym, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. These are all groups that you join, become active in, learn something and share ideas – a membeship site/program is a community.

What – An Idea:

A membership site is also a place to connect with people.

This is the part I like best about membership sites and is at the core of why I am in business for myself – creating opportunities for those who are struggling to connect and find support.

The right membership site can offer that, a solution to the problem you are facing right now.

What – Building Your Tribe:

A membership site is also a way to build and support your tribe.

Sidenote: If you haven’t read Seth Godin’s book Tribes, run don’t walk to you nearest bookstore or computer and buy it. If you have read it already, I suggest you read it again before starting a membership site.

Once you have a tribe of followers and they find success in the training and ideas you are teaching, they are going to look for ongoing support. Your membership site can offer that by connecting and bringing your tribe together so that they not only help each other out but in the end, you as well!

Through interaction with your members you learn what areas they are struggling with. What is working, what isn’t. What questions are they asking, what type of support will they need in the future? This gives you all sorts of feedback and information on what products and services you may need to offer in the future.

So maybe instead of membership site, we need to call it a Tribe Site? Hmm, have to think about that one huh?

This Christmas weekend I’ll be spending time with my family, opening presents, eating lots of food, playing with the dogs, watching some of my favorite Christmas movies, and reading the Christmas Story. A time to just “be”.

December tends to be a reflective time of year too. A time to look back on what happened over the year and look ahead to the New Year. Last weekend I carved out a block of time to take a closer look at what got done, what didn’t and why.

This big issue I found… not planning. At least not thorough concrete plans that were written down on paper. I had lots of big plans in my head but that doesn’t get you very far does it.

There is a power in writing ideas down, seeing the words and acting on them. This didn’t happen nearly enough and I had to ask myself, why? I know part of it was overwhelm with too many ideas floating around in my head which made it hard to know where to start.

Another reason was that I did not take the time to be quiet and let the ideas flow. This is where a lot of my “aha” moments have come from this year and will be a bigger part of my business plan in 2011. These “aha” moments have come from reflective moments while at training seminars, journaling each day and many more while walking the dog.

Some of these “ahas” have even turned my projects and ideas on their heads taking me in new directions. That is exciting and scary at the same time. The result has been that some of my ideas and projects for 2010 did not happen. This is actually good and bad – bad that it is still on my list but also good in that it is a lesson that I needed to relearn. It has spurred me on to plan out 2011 by month, quarter and the year.

Where do I want to be at the end of 2011 and what do I want to be able to say in my year end blog post?

The past few months I have had the opportunity to venture out of town and participate in some incredible training seminars that gave me a lot to think about. A couple of the major themes? Planning, Goals, Speed and Accountability.

Planning

Make a Plan – Write out A Plan – Be Accountable to the Plan. Get that plan written out and schedule time to act on it and make sure to review and tweak on a regular basis.

Goals

With a plan written out you see your goals in a very visible way. The next step is to break them down into smaller, manageable chunks and start moving.

Speed

One of the advantages of being a solo-preneur is the speed of implementation. Well that is the theory anyway! I tend to get stuck in analysis paralysis reviewing all the options, researching just one more piece of the puzzle and taking the first action step tends to get shoved to the back burner.

Learning to Ready, Fire, Aim is a learned skill for me, it is super easy to get stuck on the aiming and never firing. Another area I’ll be focusing on in 2011.

Successful entrepreneurs go for it – make it happen and tweak along the way.

Accountability

As a virtual entrepreneur it is so easy to get isolated and not reach out for help. It is easy to forget to ask (or remember you can!) for help from a coach, colleague, family member and try and do it all on your own.

Accountable to your written plan, accountable to mastermind members, business coaches, business partners or a colleague, it needs to be someone or a group of someones who are willing to tell you you are are dropping the ball or that you are doing great. This can be incredibly powerful and helps remove the blinders off of our business and the direction we are heading.

What worked?

Great Training – training I have been looking for and wanting.

Live Training – Attending live events for training, to get that in-depth, intensive times of training, meeting people and getting out of the office has been great and I plan on finding more events in 2011 to continue this growth.

Planning – The 2nd half of this year I have done more planning and evaluating on a deeper level then I ever have before and the prep work for these planning sessions have taught me a lot and each step is preparing me for my next stage of growth.

Growth – You can’t help but grow as an entrepreneur both personally and professionally. That to me is one of the big draws of being in business for myself, the opportunity to stretch and grow.

What didn’t work?

My project list did not shrink – Nope in fact it grew. But that is okay, this year has been a year of investigation, growth and ideas. I’m excited where it will take me next year.

Not enough time off – I’m an introvert, I need time to get away and rejuvenate. I’m also a SI on the DISC profile and have learned that getting away to think and plan is not a luxury  to consider, but a necessity to keep me moving forward. (I’ve already planned out much of 2011 for regular breaks to get away and plan – very excited!).

So what does this all mean?

There are lots of changes coming for The Blue Jeans VA, I know I have said that before, but in 2011 it is gonna to happen. Writing it out has made a huge impact and there are pieces in place to launch the changes I have in mind. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing more about these changes and how it affects how I work with clients, including new processes, time-lines and the type of new projects I take on.

With each new project we will take a closer look at the why of the project – no the just the how.

This makes a big difference in the final result and how effectively it works.  It doesn’t matter if it is a new website, website redesign, membership site or new video series. Knowing why you are doing it, what is the final result you are wanting and expecting and then working on the how to get it done will be an exciting journey to take. I get excited just thinking about it!

So what did and didn’t work for you this year? How are you going to fix what didn’t and continue what did in 2011?

I have been a huge fan of the eMachine computers (I know… don’t laugh too hard!). They have been awesome computers for me, just outgrew my 2nd. Rarely had any problems and both lasted for a long, long time.

But the poor little guy was getting old, I needed way more space and a quite a bit more computing power. In comes the granddaddy of a computer… an HP with a 1 TB hard drive and a wonderfully huge 6 GB RAM. Woohoo! Now this might not seem like a big deal these days but consider that my desktop pc was chugging along with only a 160 GB hard drive and 1GB RAM, it was a trooper each day, especially with what I was putting it through!

Using it has been a dream, at least it was after I got everything transferred over, that took a long time and I still have a few programs that need to be installed. I am faster, more efficient and I’m no longer wishing for greater speed or wondering what I can delete or uninstall to give the poor computer some breathing room.

So this got me thinking, what other areas in my business have I put off, or ignored, getting the right tool for? It hit me the other day that I have not been taking advantage of the help of other VAs. Yes, I have been ignoring the very thing I tell my clients to do. So last week one of the VAs I had worked with earlier this year, got in touch to say hello and check in and my goodness what excellent timing! I realized right then and there that this was a tool I needed to have in my business and keep in my business. Good ole’ fashioned help. (Not to generalize virtual assistants as tools… really more of an asset but I think you get the drift)

By bringing on another virtual assistant to help me out in my own business, I am going to become even more efficient, the to-do-list and want-to-do list is going to start being tackled (it already is!), and I am going to be able move some of my projects forward. Wow novel idea!

So I am taking a closer look again at that to-do-list and see what other areas I can have her take on so that I can keep moving my business forward and tackle some of those wish list items that seem to keep falling to the bottom of my to-do-list.

What tool do you need today to keep your business moving forward?

If you had an assistant, what could you tackle and cross of your to-do-list today? This week?

P.S. If you have ever considered bringing on a virtual assistant onto your team check out our FREE special report “How To Find And Hire A Virtual Assistant”. Sign up for it here on our site for instant access.

She has had an incredible year of being diagnosed with breast cancer, an intensive round of Chemo Therapy, 2 rounds of Radiation as well as a surgery mixed in. This has entailed countless hours of traveling to a hospital up here in Portland (that is about a 4.5 hour drive one way for them), lots of doctors appointments and days of being totally and utterly exhausted from it all.

Not only is she coming through with flying colors both she and her hubby are inspirations to the rest of us on how to deal with adversity and and keep an incredibly positive outlook on life and what it is throwing at her.

It has been a complete and utter wake up call for the rest of us on how precious life is and knowing when to slow down, take a break and enjoy the moment. It has been also a call to faith, entrusting her to God and His loving care. We know that there are lessons to be learned through this journey and doing our best to be open to them and take them to heart.

For me it is to realize that I do not take enough time off, that I am not giving time to me and my family to rest, rejuvenate and refill instead of always going, going, going. An echo of this years theme of simplifying.

So one of the things I will be sharing throughout the rest of the year is to show examples of slowing down, even if for just a few minutes to enjoy the sunny day, walk the dog, listen to beautiful music or my favorite… walking on the beach.

As entrepreneurs we usually are work-a-holics and are in desperate need of an intervention… and I don’t mean this as a flippant use of words. We go and go and go trying to get it all done wondering where the day, week and month went all while trying to keep our head above water as we run our business(es). Many times this does require a hard knock on the head, a good shake to bring us into awareness of today and has to be done and what can wait.

It is also learning to work through the fear of… what if I can’t get it all done? I must do it all myself to make sure it gets done right. It is a fear of letting go in order to move ahead.

So I invite you to take this journey with me of learning to set boundaries, or at the very least enforce the ones already in place!! Enjoy today, take a deep breath and celebrate life!

I’ll be posting a few pictures soon of “Aimeepalooza” with roasted pig, tiki lights, leis and live music! Plus tent city as we converged on her home, what a blast!

Simplifying the lives of creative entrepreneurs one task, one project at a time.

One of the best definitions I have found of creativity is from the healthline.com website:

The ability to create inventions, produce works of art, or solve problems using an original, novel, or unconventional approach.

That last part “solve problems using an original, novel, or unconventional approach”. Now doesn’t that sound like a quiticential quality of an entrepreneur?

As small business owners we develop the need to offer our skills, knowledge and experience in an environment other than a corporate one. It is a pull that cannot be ignore, the opportunity to present what we do best in a unique and creative way.

If you haven’t had a chance to yet I would highly recommend checking out the film that is currently in production called Shine. This movie is a collection of stories from entrepreneurs, why they are entrepreneurs. I’m not sure that you will see a more impressive collection of creative and inspiring people.

Enjoy the trailers to the movie, they will make you smile, chuckle and probably realize, yep that’s me!yes