NY Times reports what many of us have known and keep seeing, Entrepreneurship is growing especially for those over 55. Baby boomers still actively working and those nearing retirement are all considering keeping active, keeping engaged, and bringing in a bit more income (or alot more income).

It's not about retiring as usual ,the generation born between 1964-1946 have never done anything the same way. The brains, the braun, and the fascination with contributing to the world will produce more entrepreneurs in the next 10 years than ever before.

Read more about more and more people becoming entrepreneurs after 55.

http://nyti.ms/NYTimesarticleEntrepafter55

Check out the E-workbook on building your 7 Step Business Plan if you are seriously thinking about becoming an Entrepreneur.

As Oprah wrote about in her latest issue of Oprah Magazine, “it is time to declutter.”

A terrific way to start March. Following are a couple of suggestions on bringing more health, joy, and good feeling into your life both in business and at home.

Clean out closets, file cabinets, boxes, junk drawers, and email inboxes.

Clothes: Make a pile to give away, sell to consignment or repair/tailor

• Get rid of anything that you haven’t worn in a year
• Get rid of anything you don’t like, doesn’t make you feel good, or doesn’t look good on you—Be brutal!
• Organize your clothes by color and toss half the black sweaters that don’t fit right.

Drawers:

• ·        Throw away the old files that aren’t critical (ie. Financial and tax documents). If you haven’t used it in 2 years clean it out and only keep the most important
• ·        Work files are often useless after 1 year. If you can get it on the computer, internet or web get rid of it. It only holds you down
• ·        Pretend you just lost everything in an earthquake or flood, what do you really wish you still had?

Photos and Chachkis:

• Go through old photo albums and choose 5-10 good pictures from each album. Store them in a nice easy box that you can actually find and look at. Label carefully
• Make one album of all your kids of only the most important photos
• Organize your online photos so they can be seen and used. Make a book or put some in a computerized storage device- one photo container for 1,000 photos.

Email Inboxes

The Newest place to declutter is your email inbox.

• Start by sorting by name and deleting everything that isn't important or you have read.
• File important emails into folders and get them out of your inbox
• Repeat with the Send file
• Delete everything. If someone really wants something you will get another email. I promise!

• 
  Start with decluttering and get everyone involved. Make room for the sun to shine!

For a funny article on decluttering when you have no closet read my article.

My husband, Jean was given a book, Everyday Ways to Raise Smart, Strong, Confident Girls, Successful Teens Tell Us What Works, by Barbara Littman, recently by a friend and co-worker who has a single 15 year old daughter. She scribbled a note on a  post-it, "Read the book now, it will make all the difference in the world."  Trusting his friend, he dove into the book, reciting to me everything we needed to do.

Struck by #14, "Teach your Daughters to Cook and Do Basic Maintenance," he highlighted the key point. Learning to cook is about becoming independent. Yes, we bake once in a while and she helps set the table and make her bed, but learning to cook has not been high on our list. Afterall as the youngest daughter I never really learned to cook well until recently and Jean, had maids growing up and was not encouraged to be in the kitchen. We realized, however, how this skill wasn't only about independence but could also be a great family event in which we did together.

Starting off with the menu, Zoe stated that she wanted to learn how to cook Thai chicken curry, followed by tiramisu. "Let's start with Thai chicken curry," we agreed, the tiramisu could come later! Once at Trader Joes we shopped for the stir fry vegetables, chicken, curry sauce (some day we will learn to make our own curry) coconut milk, and a bottle of nice wine.

The next step was to lay out all the vegetables; cubes of yellow squash, green onions, snow peas, borccoli, edaname, chicken strips. Learning to cut and chop was the first task, close to the edge but not to close. Jean and Zoe continued to throw in the vegetables one at time stir frying each, adding spices, the curry sauce and the chicken. Waiting for it to simmer, they sat on tall bar chairs next to the stove sipping their drinks and talking about what it was like to cut, chop, and cook.

At one point Jean asked her if she wanted to go sit on the couch and read while it cooked. She said, "No, I will sit right here so I can stir it and watch it cook. I like doing this with you."

Next, they checked the rice that was being microwaved (the easy way out for this time) and set the table. Ten minutes later heaped up on 3 dishes was a beautiful Thai Chicken Curry dish heaped on top of rice with a basil leaf for decoration.

"How did you feel cooking?" I asked Zoe. "I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest and I planted the flag on top of the hill."

"Wow!" Jean and I said together smiling at the one of many small steps towards raising our smart, confident, strong daughter.

Our goal is 10 recipes in the next 6 months and have fun engaging in the process with her.

Stay tuned for more ideas on raising strong, confident, and smart girls-- and enjoying it as well!

Three  sisters, ages 92, 94 and 96, live in a  housetogether. One night the 96-year-old  draws a bath.

She puts her foot in and  pauses. She yells to the other sisters,
'Was  I getting in or out of the bath?'  

The 94-year-old yells back, 'I don't know.  I'll come
up and see.' She starts up the  stairs and pauses

'Was I going up the stairs  or down?

The 92-year-old is sitting at the  kitchen table having tea listening to  her
sisters, she shakes her head and says, 'I  sure hope I never get that forgetful, knock  on wood..' She then yells, 'I'll come up and  help both of you as soon as
I see who's at  the door.'

Live well now !

The issue of Work-Life Balance is becoming greater than ever as companies are still struggling through downsizing and cost cutting waiting for the economy to turn around. Even in those companies that are lucky enough to be growing the issue of work-life balance is still heard through the hallways.

With the opportunity to see how life can be lived fully and workers can be extremely productive I am of the firm belief that living a life only for work does no one any good; the company, the shareholders, the community and the individual and their family. Like, healthcare and quality education it is time that society and companies, big and small realize employees can be productive and achieve results and also live a balanced healthy life.

So how is it done, you may ask. Following are three legs to the stool of creating a work-life balance environment. Like the 3 legs, it takes everyone, the organization, the leadership, and the individual to make it happen.

Part I: Family friendly policies, benefits, career ladders

Many organizations today have found that in order to hire and retain great people, the organization needs to put into place some baseline policies and benefits. These include such items as good benefits including family healthcare, policies that embrace the changes in people’s lives (i.e. birth of a child, young children at home, school age children, aging parents), flexible schedules, part time work, work from home options, and the desire to move up the ladder but not always as a manager.

These benefits and policies are the first step in hiring, retaining, and promoting great people that can be productive because the environment supports needs they might have at different times in their lives.

Part II: Manager/ Team culture and implicit behaviors

 Managers and therefore the teams they lead have their own cultures which may or may not support work/life balance. Take for instance a manager who is at work at 7 am and stays until 7 pm. Even if s/he does not say a word, the manager’s behavior sends a message to the team, long hours is important. If however, the manager takes off on Wed at 4pm to coach their child’s soccer team, the message changes slightly. That is until the employees begin to see waves of emails sent that night from 9-11pm. Every behavior by each individual is observed and becomes the norm for what is expected and what will be tolerated, whether implicit or explicit.

What is critical is that managers and teams discuss the work/life balance culture. What are the norms? What is permissible and what is seem as excessive? How are they measured, by hours, productivity, or client results? Is office time always necessary or are can everyone benefit from some days when professionals work at home? 

The key is to make all Work/life balance behaviors visible and explicit.

Part III:  Individual

 The individual must also take responsibility for designing the type of work/life balance they need at each specific stage in their life. This requires an understanding of their goals and how they want to both develop professionally and personally and how the lifestyle that will create work/life balance that is healthy and productive.

The activities and time spent in other aspects of each employee’s life is found to be equally beneficial back in the workplace. Research has shown that relationship and team skills practiced outside the workplace are similar within the work environment and vice-a versa. Integrating dual work/life learning enhances the individual as a family member, a community citizen, and a high performing employee.

Creating Work/Life Balance Cultures, Teams, and Individuals

Balancing the 3 legged stool is key to hiring, retaining, and developing a high performing workforce. It is not just the organization’s responsibility, or the managers, or the individuals, but it takes all three.

Contact me and tell me what you are thinking about work-life balance.

Not being Catholic, I just learned it is from a longer tradition to move out the winter and bring in the spring (or at least hope it is coming soon. The fête is celebrated with the making and eating of crêpes and engaging in a bit of fortune telling, similar to our Groundhog Day. The tradition as told to me is to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the opposite hand, and flip the crêpe into the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year. When you catch the crêpe you can yell,: À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur or just Hip Hip hooray!

Similar to Groundhog day, the catching of the crêpe tells you the days will grow longer quickly or will be covered in snow and cold for another forty days.

Ultimately, it signals the beginning of the end of winter..., time for fun, eating of crêpes, and the springtime is around the corner, let's celebrate!

So, tomorrow, February 2, get out your crêpe pan, sugar, jam, and nutella and celebrate the day and help bring in the sunshine.

I just read a fantastic funny article by Ian Morrison, a futurist, about why the French feel they are superior and what we can learn about their Health Care system.  I chuckled and laughed the whole way through it because it is all true!!!

Here's the beginning of the article and click further to read the entire story/

"The French have the best health care system in the world. Just ask them. (According to them, they have the best everything in the world, from cheese to lifestyle.) Yet, the World Health Organization and many other international comparative analyses actually do agree that the French are healthy and that the French health system is at, or close to, the top of the list in performance. Are there any lessons that we can learn from France?

Decoding French Culture

All health care systems are a reflection of the values and culture of their country. So you can decode the health care system only if you try to understand the culture. On a recent visit, I did my best to immerse myself in the language and culture to interpret why the French seem to be so healthy and do so well in the health care comparison stakes. This involved a lot of wine and smelly cheese.

Here are some clues:

The country is in a superior location. France is geographically situated as a perfect hexagon (L'Hexagon, they call it) in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, which gives the country beautiful vistas, rich arable land and the finest products of the countryside. From the cheese of Normandy to the olives of Provence and all the wine in between, France has killer natural groceries. Even the poorest peasant (read "guy who just sold his little farm to some chinless Brit hedge fund manager") knows what good organic food is (they call it biologique)."

Read the rest of the article - you will keep on chuckling.

We look forward to having you be part of our community and creating the lives we want to live!

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If you are not on the website, click here and it will take you there. 

The difference is the intimacy that occurs in those additional 2 hours. The depth of conversation that takes place. The laughter that occurs. The satiation of eating a long slow dinner.  

As Julia Child said, “It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about-enjoying things.”

Three tips to making a dinner with friends memorable:

• ·        Focus on simple and beautiful. Add a sprig of rosemary or mint on each plate for decoration or a dabble of goat cheese and dried cranberries on your salad. It doesn’t take much to make it taste good and serve as a conversation piece.
  
  
• ·        Spread the word that it will be a long relaxing evening
  In the states there is a feeling that we must be in bed before it is late or the next day will be wasted. The day is scheduled and there is much to do (even if it is Sunday). Let your guests know that you want this to be a special evening when no one rushes and they can kick up their feet. Plan places for kids to fall asleep or watch a stack of DVDs.
  
  
• ·        Plan some conversation starters.  The key to a great evening (besides the food and wine) is the conversation, sharing, and bantering. The joy is in the debate, the philosophizing, and learning from each other. It is not a conversation just about what you are doing, but about what you are feeling, thinking, and wondering about.
  
  Idea: If you are concerned about what you are going to talk about all evening. Have everyone send in or write a question that is on their mind. Throughout the evening choose questions out of the hat and share what everyone thinks.

Take a night and tell everyone to plan on staying until midnight. To know it is a night of conversation, of pleasure, of laughter, of good food. And then create the environment and see what happens!  You will be surprised!

A few examples on how easy it is to have dinner a la Francaise

In our recent trip back to France we were reminded of this wonderful leisurely way of dining with friends. In honor of our return, our friends Mimi and Anton invited us to their house for dinner with another family.. The understanding was the night would be long and full of laughter, talk, and gossip. Hor d’ourves of bruschetti with sliced tomatoes and basil set the stage as Mimi, finished cooking the main course of chicken with a white wine sauce.  Six adults gathered near the kitchen sampling a new variety of wine as  7 kids flitted in and out of the salon grabbing slices of fresh baguette and olives.

By 9pm we were well into our first course, waving compliments at our friend for the rockette salad with avocado and goat cheese. The kids at one end of the table and the adults at another it felt like one big happy family. The wine kept flowing and the dinner kept coming until it was at last time for desert and a small decaf espresso. The kids who had left the table to go watch a DVD fled back for their chocolate mousse with whipped cream.

As the clock tower struck midnight we all realized we hadn’t moved from our chairs except to squeeze closer in as we told funny stories about living in France or asked for answers to questions about life, work, and kids that we were all grappling with.

Gathering our coats and kids we kissed goodbye, three times on one cheek, another, and then back again and spouted continuous thank you’s to our hosts. Leaving the house, Jean and I just smiled at what a terrific long relaxing and stimulating evening we had.

***

The next night we sat down over a huge tourine of lentil soup and fresh baguette and continued to banter with our American friends, Mike and Mary who had moved to France 4 years ago and their two kids. The time flew by and no one got up to leave the table. When a dip in conversation came, the topic turned to something else we could wrap our minds around from the French tax system to the differences between how teenage girls in France and the US to the latest books we read. It was a cross cultural conversation that kept going until after Cinderella’s midnight bell rang.

In reflecting on these dinners and a similar one we had with a French family in California, we realized that this small simple pleasure could bring a lot of joy too many busy Americans. All they have to do is be willing to sleep a little later the next morning.

Blogging for entrepreneurs and especially those providing any type of professional service is becoming as important as a business card. It is no longer enough to have a nice website and even a brochure, but followers, fans, potential clients, ongoing clients, and most important your target market are searching for those who have a unique way of helping them to solve their problems. Your blog becomes your calling card to express what you have to offer in a way that is unique to you.

To get you started and keep the momentum going, try following these 5 steps to writing and posting fun blogs that your readers will find of value.

1. Speak your blog into a digital recorder or an online recorder such as audacity.com. Driving or maybe even taking your daily walk might provide great ideas. Record these ideas and buy a translator program such as Dragon Naturally Speaking and turn your voice into a blog.  Editing once it is transcribed is fast and easy to do.
   
   
2.  If you work with a team, ask them to contribute to the blog. No one said you have to do all the writing or provide all the ideas. Enlist your team to help you.
   
   
3. Include your customers, associates, and partners in blogging with you. Invite key people to contribute to the blog. Possibly ask them questions in which they respond or link your blog to something insightful they have written.
   
   
4. Set a schedule for your blogging. Decide if you will blog once a week, once a day, or every two weeks. Your readers will want to know what to expect from you.  Allow yourself to write drafts of different blogs as ideas pop up and once a week pull one out, edit it, and voila, you have a blog post completed in 15 minutes.
5. Subscribe to a photo service such as dreamstime.comand you will have easy access to inexpensive photos to support your blogs. Pictures tell a thousand words. If you are an amateur photographer, feel free to include your own photos as well and put your name in the photo credits. This is a great way to develop more of a relationship with your customers.

Enjoy the process and the opportunity to speak directly to your target market and customers and ask for feedback.  

So,, tell me what you think of my blog and what you would like me to write more about. Thanks for reading.