As I went to my twice weekly Pilates session recently, I realized that I had never referred the studio I go to to any friends or clients. I am one of those “loyal-as-the-day-is-long” types and love to share my favorite resources so this surprised me.

I realized that there were a couple of reasons. Firstly, while I genuinely enjoy my Pilates trainers, I don’t like the owner of the studio. I find her abrasive, unfriendly, and she doesn’t maintain the place in a fashion that I would consider truly professional. Secondly, while I’ve seen others there, I really have no idea who constitutes a good referral if I did want to share! So with this brief story, I’d like to share with you how to turn on your faucet of referrals!

Be friendly! Always greet everyone you come into contact with professionally and with a smile. It doesn’t matter if they are going to do business with you or not, they likely know people that would be great clients or customers.

Keep it clean! Maintain your product or premises in a clean, professional manner. Design counts! Making an office, showroom, or shop inviting always adds to the word of mouth that can grow your business. For those that work out of their car, that appearance counts as does a professional personal image. (Believe me: even in Pilates for the owner to look just-rolled-out-of-bed isn’t serving her.)

Be Targeted! Find out about your clients and customers. Dig deep so you know who your target is and know why they like to patronize your business or buy your products. Knowing this translates into knowing who else is your ideal fit.

Ask, Ask, And Ask! Always welcome existing clients and customers to refer their friends, family, and associates. Whether you do this verbally or have a small sign by the door or even a friendly note framed on the counter isn’t important. But you must ASK.

Make It Easy! When you ask for a referral spell out carefully in detail who you are looking for. You aren’t a fit for just anyone, but you want your best client or customer so describe that person. Again this can be in person, “I so enjoy working with you, it would be a treat to work with (be of service to) any of your friends that you think would benefit from my product/service.” Or you can put this on the framed note or the placard by the door.

Reward the Giver! Always when you get a referral reward the giver. At the least with a note of thanks, often something more like a free session, a complementary product, or other incentive. They don’t need to know about this in advance. Surprisingly many people are motivated more by a do-good feeling than by tangible rewards, but this reinforces their good and generous behavior.

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Want to Use This Article in Your E-zine or Website? Simply include the text here, with a link to www.melissagalt.com. Online entrepreneur Melissa Galt, “The Lifestyle Diva,” publishes “Interior Destinations” a monthly ezine with 1500+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, create comfortable and personal home interiors, define your personal image and style, plan exciting travel and adventure, develop the career of your dreams, and pursue your past times and passionate pursuits, learn how now at www.melissagalt.com.

Excerpted from Celebrate Your Life! The Art of Celebrating Every Day, for your autographed copy or to pick up your convenient easy listening audio program go to www.theartofcelebrating.com.

So often we get caught up in our daily routines only to forget the most important element in our lives, our health and well being. We are so busy taking care of everyone and everything else that we ignore ourselves until we either get sick or end up at the doctor with an injury. While none of us will ever admit to having the time to be ill or injured, we often don’t allow the critical time for health and wellbeing. When we honor ourselves and our bodies we will have a greater opportunity to experience the wellness necessary to keep up with and care for our families, enjoy time with our friends, succeed in our work, make a positive difference to ourselves and others.

Daily Exercise

Make a point of establishing a routine that works for you. If you are a morning person and can add in even 30 minutes a day at the front end for a brisk walk, a spin on a bike (stationary or otherwise), yoga stretches, pilates, or whatever makes you feel good, do it. I have found that I literally block my fitness time on my calendar and won’t schedule anything over it. It is my time to feel good, get my heart rate up, and break a sweat! So many of us spend so much of everyday sitting in a car, in an office, on the sofa, at a table, we really do need to make an effort to keep our body active and in tune.

If you are a night owl and prefer to schedule your routine later in the day, make that commitment and create it to work for you. Usually doing exercise right before bed is not recommended as it tends to generate more energy than rest, but perhaps after work or before dinner you can salvage 30 minutes for fitness.

Often we get trapped in the thinking that if we can’t devote at least an hour, it isn’t worth it. This is inaccurate thinking and creates an excuse for not stepping up to take care of ourselves. I have found as have many others that a short regular routine that I do literally every day energizes me and renews my commitment to myself.

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Want to Use This Article in Your E-zine or Website? Simply include the text here, with a link to www.melissagalt.com. Online entrepreneur Melissa Galt, “The Lifestyle Diva,” publishes “Interior Destinations” a monthly ezine with 1500+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, create comfortable and personal home interiors, define your personal image and style, plan exciting travel and adventure, develop the career of your dreams, and pursue your past times and passionate pursuits, learn how now at www.melissagalt.com.

Beating procrastination is an art in and of itself! But it is essential to the success of every business. Here are 5 tips on getting more done every day the easy way:

1. Put Your Subconscious to Work:
Before you head to sleep at night, think about the outcomes you most desire the following day; give real thought to how you see your day unfolding, the successes you feel, and challenges you will conquer. This allows your subconscious mind an invaluable opportunity to go to work on this while you are sleeping and often come up with creative solutions and methods for realizing your success more effectively.
Sleep not only improves our health and well-being but is essential to our success and productivity.

2. First Things First:
Determine your most productive time of day and schedule your most challenging tasks for that time. I am an eagle and find my mind is sharpest at 6-10am. Late at night, I fade and can miss important details. I can get the better part of a days work done in my office if I jump in early, don’t allow the distraction of email and hold phone calls until later. Tackle the mountains first and the molehills will disappear.
Use your personal productive peak to get ahead.

3. Three Steps Forward Every Day:
Mark Victor Hanson and Jack Canfield of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ fame made a conscious effort to each do 5 things daily to drive their book to the best seller position. It took a year of focused dedicated efforts, though most of us thought it was overnight. Overnight success rarely is. Instead it is the culmination of determination and many little accomplishments over time. It is usually 20 year overnight success! Do you send out three mailers a day to client prospects? Do you follow up on three new leads each day? Do you cold call or social network to three new contacts each day? Do you write three pages for your book each day? Do you send a note to three existing clients each day just to touch base? Do you send out three estimates or invoices at least one or two days a week?
What three things can you commit to every day to drive your major goals forward?

4. Anchor Activities for Continued Progress:
Since we all have the habit of allowing activities and tasks to expand to fill the time allotted, I find I get a lot more done when I schedule a handful of commitments whether it is a client call, a tele-conference, a lunch, or a resource trip and then focus on getting the rest of my work done in between. Having anchors throughout my day forces me to be time efficient or it won’t get done and rolls to the next day (making my week that much longer!)
Anchor your day for optimal productivity.

5. Evaluate Your Progress:
Too often we focus on what we didn’t get done and don’t keep up with what we did accomplish! This only demotivates us. It is vital that you take stock at the close of each day what you did achieve and honor that, while generating your next agenda of still to complete. I actually have changed my language from a To Do list to a To Complete or To Accomplish list. That tiny change in semantics is enough to spur my productivity.
What words will trip your productivity switch?

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Want to Use This Article in Your E-zine or Website? Simply include the text here, with a link to www.melissagalt.com. Online entrepreneur Melissa Galt, “The Lifestyle Diva,” publishes “Interior Destinations” a monthly ezine with 1500+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, create comfortable and personal home interiors, define your personal image and style, plan exciting travel and adventure, develop the career of your dreams, and pursue your past times and passionate pursuits, learn how now at www.melissagalt.com.