Over time I learned that in order to grow, I needed to let go of the work that I could hire out and that had a lower dollar-an-hour amount in cost. If I could design and sell an egg for $100 and it took me an hour to do that, then anything taking up my time–like filing or licking stamps (this was pre-self-stick stamp days) valued at less than $100 per hour–I would be wise to delegate. Eventually I hired an assistant in my studio at $10 per hour and never looked back.

Nowadays, I spend 90% of my time coaching, speaking and writing for which I have the highest return on my investment. I hire people to convert my online e-newsletter to html, take registrations for my events and outfit me so I look professional and stylish.

Think of it this way if you’re having a hard time letting go. At some point our forefathers and foremothers let go of milking their own cows and trusted that the milk they drank would be okay, even if it didn’t come from the labor of their own hands.

Is there a to-do on your list that you’d like to let go of but are afraid of losing control? Can you trust that delegating this labor-intensive task will free you up to be more productive in your business? Call a goal buddy and commit to letting go of the equivalent of cow-milking. Let me know how it goes.

My younger daughter Laura, to whom my book Soul Proprietor is dedicated, helped me out this week by listening to the soon-to-be-released audio version of the book. Line by line, she read the text while listening to the recording I’d spent the last couple of months on. I wanted a fresh pair of eyes and ears to catch any stumbles or other errors in the recorded version.

She did a fine job dog-earing any page that had a repeated phrase, a mispronunciation or missed word from the text. I want this to be letter perfect. I plan to submit it for acceptance in iTunes and know that any boo-boos would throw it into a reject pile. (BTW, if anyone knows the best way to get onto iTunes listings, please let me know.)

When she was all done reading this new edition as well as listening to my voice speaking it, I asked her if she had learned anything new. After all, she’s known me for 28 years. I was pretty sure it would be in her bones having lived with and observed me for the first 18. Laura is entrepreneurial now herself, translating Japanese text daily for an international television company. She works independently and takes on other freelance work as it comes.

“I was not aware of how much help you’ve gotten from other people,” she told me. The book is filled with examples of my reaching out and asking questions of people in my mastermind group, taking courses, attending networking events and otherwise relying on a think-tank of friends and colleagues who have been more than generous with their advice and resources.

“I didn’t realize how many people you’ve hired and how much you’ve delegated.”

“I had no idea how persistent you have to be. You would call someone six times before letting go. I’ve never done that.”

I love that Laura had me so magically powerful–that I had created it all by myself. But, I love it more that she knows the truth and has a realistic sense of what it truly takes to be successful: lots of help and the determination, willingness and self-caring to go for it.

I’m just back from a stimulating conference in Waltham, MA put on by the National Speakers Association-New England Chapter. The opening keynote speaker was David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR. His talk emphasized doing things in “real time” rather than pontificating on the ins-and-outs of running a business. Deal with what’s right in front of you and call attention to it.

David played an hysterical youtube video to illustrate his point. A disgruntled passenger was unhappy with the luggage department’s treatment of his instrument, which he’d checked. He dealt with the poor customer service he received in a 2010 – new rules –  kind of way. Watch at your convenience and have a tissue ready, you’ll be laughing so hard.

This prompts me to write about an annoying interchange I just had trying to change the hosting of my web domain. Network Solutions, with whom janepollak.com has resided for ages, sent me a renewal form. I began the process of renewing my subscription for what looked like a nominal amount until I got to the checkout page and I noticed a figure in the hundreds of dollars. I immediately wanted out as I know godaddy.com will host you for under $10 a year.

In order to get my domain out of their clutches, Network Solutions kept me (actually, my faithful assistant) busy for hours. Because I’m no longer accessible on janepollak@earthlink.net, they needed about a dozen forms of identification including a copy of my driver’s license, a call on my home telephone line and a long questionnaire to validate that I was indeed the person who signed on years ago. This required enormous dedicated time and attention (i.e. money-making time). Finally, when we’d crossed every “t” and dotted every “i”, the customer service rep asked why I wanted to change services. “Pricing,” I said.

“Oh, if we offered you the same service for $8.50 per year, would that make a difference?”

Of course it would! I immediately signed back on for 3 more years. But why didn’t she tell me that in the first place?

The news here, and I may be late to the party to really get this, is that companies want to hold onto customers. It’s a good time to negotiate, especially if the competition is knocking at your door.

BTW, I asked the customer rep if she’d mind if I blogged about our interchange. “Not at all,” she said. So I did.

I won’t mention any names, as I don’t want to incriminate my wonderful and helpful counselor from SCORE. But, we were talking about the new edition of my book yesterday, and he said, “If you sell 600 copies you’ll be lucky.”

I was incredulous. I immediately responded, “I intend to sell 5000.”

He said, “If you sell 5000 copies, I’ll give you a million dollars.”

The interesting thing was what happened to my marketing spirit when he put out that challenge. It fully ignited. What could I do to sell 5000 copies? My mind went into full gear, high speed calculating and asking-for-help mode.

Then he amended this, by adding, “And my wife goes with the offer.” (This is why I won’t mention any names.)

My spirit sagged when he hedged his offer.

My job here is to stay connected with the energy he sparked with his first statement. I’m fully capable of selling 5000 books. I loved the extra motivation of his dare. I’m a real I’ll-show-you kinda gal. I realized I’d need help to accomplish this goal.

Please send along any tips you have for large order book sales. I’d love to sell (52 copy) cases at a time along with the onesies. I’ll show him!

(Some of you may remember when my husband bet me $1000 that he’d never watch the Oscars from beginning to end again. I put that hand-written wager in my tickler file and pulled it out just in time to collect the following year. I’m good at holding people to their word.)

I’m just back from a great event for women entrepreneurs called Savor the Success. It will continue tomorrow, but I’m completely filled up. I met terrific women, heard great speakers and practically floated home afterward. I’ll be sharing quotes and thoughts I heard there for weeks to come. It was that rich.

My favorite speaker this morning was Poppy King, the Lipstick Queen now featured at Barneys and on HSN, who hails from Australia. She emphasized that her greatest successes invariably came after her biggest setbacks. (She doesn’t like the word failure). I also appreciated her profound understanding that “simple is hard.” She said there is “no nobility in being complicated.” Sticking to her vision of non-shiny lip color has been her hallmark of success.

She reminded me of my favorite woman business owner–Eileen Fisher–who has maintained her vision of simply beautiful garments in solid colors, high quality fabrics and attractive styles that enhance the wearer.

I’m often distracted by new promotions/seductions that lead me in a different direction than I intend for myself. Usually there’s a dollar amount that seems attractive. But when I stay true to my values, keep focused on my ideal client and in my groove of what I do best, I’m able to keep it simple and walk away from business that doesn’t serve my ultimate goal of leading remarkable women to uncommon success.

An article in the New York Times caught my eye over the weekend: Tech Entrepreneurs Share Sentiments in Therapy That Aren’t Fit for Twitter. I read every word.

If there’s anything that I stand for in my business it’s this: giving voice to the sentiments about being in business that aren’t fit for social networking, either online or in person. Where can a business owner go and ‘bare their insecurities’? We ALL have them.

I love that these techies have found a home in a monthly support group–Founder Therapy– in the Silicon Valley. I say, let’s ALL talk about the truth behind the facade. Every entrepreneur needs a safe place to express these feelings and be heard. Having a compassionate group is a godsend and a business-building tool.

The examples in the article were about being naive about the risks of creating a start-up, and having to fire a best friend. These are the everyday facts I hear as a coach, each person whispering them as though they were the first ever to have come up against such challenges. We’re such a secretive society that the burden of making mistakes feels overwhelming, so they’re not shared, but rather borne with despair and heaviness.

Today is the final session of my Winter Mastermind Group that’s been meeting since January. The concerns shared were often not seemingly business-related, but the unburdening of these matters unleashed creativity and success without bounds. For business owners especially, there is a need to express fears, be heard and supported, and know that you’re not alone.

Back when I was a member of the New England Chapter of the National Speakers Association, I heard a talk from a prominent editor at Fast Company Magazine. At the end of his talk, as was the practice in appreciating all of our guest speakers, the group rose to its collective feet and rewarded him with a resounding standing ovation.

His speech had been great, but what he said after the applause died down stuck with me more than anything else. I’ll paraphrase. “It feels really good to get the applause and standing ‘o’, especially because what I’m doing for you is really easy. What I’d love is if you’d all come to our offices next Monday and do the same thing after a grueling editorial meeting. Then I could really use the applause.”

I just finished entering 940 names onto a spreadsheet for a postcard mailing I’ll be doing soon announcing the publication of the new edition of Soul Proprietor. That doesn’t sound so daunting, but I’ve been switching platforms to a Mac and had spent hours transferring data from my ACT program. Turned out, when I went to the Apple Store this morning for them to show me how to export the contacts, there had been an entering error and I was unable to get a clean file. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was excruciating. I came back home, had my MacBook set up next to my desktop to be sure I didn’t miss any of the new entries. Long story short, it took hours and it’s done.

Where’s my standing ovation? I could really use one now. These are the hurdles entrepreneurs face ALL the time with no glory. What I know is that the hard work does show in the strength of character and depth of knowledge successful business owners carry on a cellular (and I don’t mean phones) level. Next time you hear your friend, the entrepreneur, mention having achieved a hard-won goal, put your hands together in support and encouragement.

In February I gave you the opportunity to vote for your preferred cover of my upcoming new edition of Soul Proprietor. And vote you did! Hundreds of you viewed the post and almost as many actually cast a ballot via your comments and e-mail messages to me. I heard MANY opinions.

Among my favorites were (paraphrased)

“You can’t go wrong! They’re both great.”

“Absolutely #1!”

“Absolutely #2!”

“Neither! Bring back the one with the egg on the cover.”

What’s an author to do? What most resonated with me was the desire to have my image looking right at the reader. My vanity actually preferred the photo in #2, but the marketer in me said, “Don’t turn them off by looking away.”

Years ago I brought two mock-ups of my first brochure to the owner of the Artists Market in Norwalk for her opinion. One sample piece was an artistic origami style design which opened in a clever and intricate way. The other was a standard folder with interchangeable pages for easy updating and image replacement.

I was in love with the intricate one for artistic reasons. I could see the trouble my evaluator was having even opening it and desperately wanted her to overcome her frustration in deference to its beauty. But this was a retail store owner, not a museum curator. She unhesitatingly selected the simpler version. “You’ll drive your buyers crazy with the other one, pretty as it is. Less is more.”

Bowing to the wisdom of the crowds, I’m opting for (drum roll, please) cover #1. I pooled all of the entries regardless of which you voted for and selected the winner: Lisa Braithwaite a valued reader and frequent commenter on my blog.

Please note that I was most interested in your thoughts on the photo. I’m working with my designer on taking the type out of my hair and other distractions.

Thank you, ALL, for your interest, your time and your valued opinions.

Besides being headline news and having her business publicized, what tickles me about this particular press piece is that the before-and-after featured behind Betsy is MY laundry room! I’m not afraid to reveal what a mess I was before Betsy arrived to help me.

I’m such an advocate of hiring professional organizers. Some of the areas that have helped me throughout the years, due to the talents of Betsy and others, are:

• Keeping a master notebook
• Moving my art books out of my business area to make room for more business opportunities to flow in
• Creating notebooks to track projects I’m working on
• Providing me with a tickler file
• Using the principles of feng shui to attract business and allow positive energy to circulate in my office and home

If you’ve never hired a professional organizer before, I suggest you try out their services this year. The return on investment is exponential. Your productivity will increase and your frustration level will be minimized. I know from my own experience how valuable Betsy’s and her colleagues’ services are.

I knew that I wanted not only to attend, but also to have a booth space. I dusted off my trade show set-up and arrived early to put everything in order.

TFI Envision helped me with my re-branding a few years ago and included these banners which are noticeable from across a large room. I met great women and got a sense of what’s going on in the community at large.

At about 9pm Erica gathered everyone in the main exhibition room to say a few words. She shared her vision, which I just loved.

“When I was in Mexico,” Erica told us, “I was taken with how the women would create their own marketplace by setting up their wares. I thought, ‘we can do that, too.’ And tonight my vision has come to be.”

She went on to thank everyone who had been instrumental in making the event happen (everyone there essentially, Erica said) and a special thank you to her daughters who also helped and attended. “Is Dad in the car?” Erica asked as she introduced her younger daughter who had come towards the end. We got the sense of how the family had supported Erica throughout her creating this vision.

“Instead of the Big Connect, they’ve called it the Slow Connect.” There was compassionate and knowing laughter throughout the hall.