Is your business green? I hope you’re not working in a toxic office due to the chemicals you’re using to keep your space “clean.” Part of being a responsible Entrepreneur Goddess means taking care of your health. In the long run, cleaning with household (or work place) chemicals can be detrimental to your health. Just as importantly, cleaning with environmentally friendly products will save you big bucks!

There’s a great book you can pick up on Amazon, Borders, or Barnes and Noble called “Green Clean” that really makes environmentally safe cleaning simple. While the book is actually labeled, “The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home,” most of the chapters can be applied to the office as well.

The three most important ingredients “Green Clean” recommends are baking soda, vinegar, and castile soap. The baking soda and vinegar can be found in massive quantities at Costco for a fraction of the price you would pay for normal cleaning products. Castile soap is also really affordable and found in most grocery stores.

Want to sanitize your desk area in a green way? Dampen a towel with vinegar and wipe clean. It’s that easy and that cheap! More money towards your bottom line while saving the environment and your health!

Katie Skow, EntrepreneurGoddess.com

Lush in a Rush: Beauty products for entrepreneurs on the go…

My favorite nail polish colors aren’t fast drying. Often, I forget to apply a fresh layer on my hands or feet until five minutes before I have to leave the house for a business meeting or event. If I have to throw certain open-toed shoes on, my fast yet smooth layer of nail polish gets smeared or my heels get ruined. Not a fun or efficient thing to happen in the few fast-paced minutes before flying out the door.

OPI Drip Dry has been in my nail kit for almost three years now. Santa put it in my stocking one year and now I can’t do without it. With only 1-2 drops per nail, your polish will be dry and hard within a minute. Yes, it’s that cool and that simple.

Although I don’t remember the box making this claim, I have found that my nails look nicer for a longer period of time whenever I use OPI Drip Dry. The bottles are small but last a long time. Try the product once…I promise you’ll love it!

Katie (Entrepreneur Goddess) in Geneva, Switzerland

My recent trip to the other side of the world reminded me of a very important element to the entrepreneurial lifestyle: Every entrepreneur needs a break.

Before I left for my trip I was working from early in the A.M. until late in the P.M. My days were filled with designing web pages, logos, and magazine ads for my design business customers and keeping up with my other ventures in addition to two blogs. To top it off, I had a steady stream of out-of-town visitors for two weeks before leaving.

Time to myself? Forget it. I was working nights and weekends to do everything needed. The night before we left for our trip, a project was finished at nearly 4am, I slept three hours, and woke up to throw things in my suitcase and run out of the house. Not exactly the way I wanted to begin my vacation.

I brought my laptop to Europe because I had fully intended on doing some work while overseas. Thanks to a series of technological mishaps, I only had access to Internet a whole two hours the entire 18 days I was on my trip. Luckily I had pulled off the important tasks before leaving town, in preparation for a situation like this. I admit, it was a relief to finally be on vacation and disconnected from the world.

Being technologically disconnected from the world did wonders for my mind, body, and spirit. It gave me clarity about my life, business, and what is really important in life.

Life in Europe: The Europeans are wise. Their culture teaches them at a young age what is important in life. For the French, it’s taking time out of the day to sit down as a family and eat. Most people have a two-hour lunch break and head home to eat with their families. They might work from 9-12, eat lunch from 12-2pm, and get off of work at 6pm just in time to sit down with their families again. Stores, bakeries, and even grocery stores shut down for lunch, giving their employees the opportunity to be with their families and eat, two very important elements in the French culture.

And yes, their economy is doing quite well. Things run very efficiently throughout France. From the TGV (fast speed train) arriving at the station at 07:41 and departing at precisely 07:42 to the grocery store cart return system.

Experiencing the European lifestyle has really given me the opportunity to reevaluate my life and work. On the plane trip home I came to a few conclusions:

1. NEVER sacrifice you mealtime for work. Always take the time to eat and eat well. Shop at the weekly Farmer’s Market for quality fruits and vegetables as well as to support local agriculture and business.

2. Most client “emergencies” can wait. If you charge an “emergency” fee, it’s amazing what suddenly ceases to become an emergency and can wait an extra day or two.

3. Walk, walk, and walk. Because I work from home, I don’t have to walk very far to get to the office. Many Europeans must walk a few miles per day because they walk to and from work several times per day, take public transport, and enjoy long hikes through the countryside on the weekend. It’s very important that I don’t sacrifice this element of my life for work because in the end, exercise makes me highly productive and happier.

4. Stop working on weekends. This means I will no longer promise clients that I’ll have something to them “by Monday” and I will no longer tell them that I’ll do something for them over the weekend. No more answering client emails on a Saturday or Sunday. My weekend fee will now be an inflated emergency fee because I really should not have to work on the weekend, I have a life outside of my business.

5. Stop working at night. While late nights will sometimes be necessary to get my work done (I am, after all, a business owner who values my bottom line and customer service), I will kick the habit and only work the evenings when I deem absolutely necessary. This also means I must be better at promising clients the moon (literally) and will have to set fairly rigid guidelines and expectations for both myself and my clients.

6. Don’t be afraid to get away from it all. I was on vacation for 18 days and my business did not fall apart. In fact, I have more referrals than ever and will be very busy with both new and old clients in the upcoming weeks.

The above might seem rigid to many, but I feel these new guidelines will keep me from experiencing burn-out and in the end, help me provide better service to my clients. I realize the schedule I had set for myself pre-trip was unsustainable and I was already starting to experience burn-out. With these lessons in place, my business will prosper.

Katie Skow
Entrepreneur Goddess
www.EntrepreneurGoddess.com

Photo Credit

How many times a day do you check you email? Once, twice, five times, ten times, or a few dozen times per day? Most of us are email addicts. We all check our email way too much, mostly out of habit. I know I do and it is really starting to annoy me. I feel as though I’m wasting precious time sorting through too many meaningless messages and responding to messages that can wait.

Checking your email too much is simply not productive.

Deep down, I have always known I check my email far more than I should, but I have not seen a reason to change my habits. However, I recently left my usual daily grind behind and traveled to the other side of the globe. Despite confirmations from my destinations that I would, in fact, have internet everywhere I went…I didn’t actually have much internet access at all. Luckily, I had tied up all important loose ends before leaving and informed clients on a need-to-know basis that I would be unavailable.

The two whole hours during my two week journey abroad that I had internet access, I admittedly didn’t really feel like checking my email. From a small wine producing village in the middle of France, I could care less about the whispers of an earthquake back home or an email about my preference of wording for a document.

Back in the office, I’m trying hard to change my email patterns. I recently read in the book 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and decided I should take a few cues from him as well. Finally, two good reasons (the trip and the book) to finally change my time consuming and unproductive habit.

I’ve been known for my instantaneous responses to emails, but that is starting to change. I still pledge to give a fast response. But now my response might take a few hours or even a day (business days) or two depending upon the urgency.

What’s your email habit?

Katie Skow
Entrepreneur Goddess
www.EntrepreneurGoddess.com