Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Designer & Stager's Toolbox in Your InBox - June 2009

Click here to see the archive of our June Newsletter.

Fun and Smelly Stats

Did you know?

Consumers today are using scent to decorate, adding an individual touch that represents their personality and tastes. Companies are branding scent to create an emotional connection with the brand, evoking a mood or memory, so why shouldn't homesellers do the same?

Here are a few interesting scent-related facts...

The decorative fragrance market has surged in recent years, and will grow to an estimated $7.2 billion by 2010, according to Euromonitor.

According to Scent Technologies, LTD, the sense of smell is the most powerful human sense as it has a direct trigger to the brain invoking instant reaction.

According to the Sense of Smell Institute, a recent study indicated that pleasant odours do in fact increase lingering time in stores and museums, so of course, we would expect the same to hold true in a home!

According to our research at The Interiority Complex University, the most popular home scents among consumers are consistently:

Vanilla
Fresh Linen
Gingered Pumpkin/Pumpkin Spice
Lavender
Cinnamon/Apple Cinnamon
Please share these facts with your sellers the next time you're talking about the importance of "smell-appeal"!

If you want more stats, facts, favorite paint colors and decorating tips, visit the Staging Stats and Design Tips section of our website!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Aligning Your Intentions with Your Actions to achieve Integrity

Do you ever find yourself unconsciously moving through your day? Or your business plan? Or your life? Entrepreneurs are often the worst about this. We often tend to function on auto-pilot, in a state of perpetual over-scheduling while performing actions which don't support our intentions. There are loads of self-help books on the subject, telling readers to "Live with purpose!" and "Use the power of intention!" But what does all that really mean?

Merriam Webster defines intention as "a determination to act in a certain way". When you operate with clear intentions, your focus and your daily activities tend towards what really matters to you. Not that ringing phone with that time-sucking, energy-zapping salesperson, surfing the web or Facebook with no purpose, taking on that client that's really not suited for you, watching a repeat of the Seinfeld you've seen 8 times, or agreeing to baby sit the neighbor's kids when you clearly don't have the time. When you are clear about what you want to do, and when you are sure about your goals and desired outcome, and your actions support those goals and intentions, you will find that you are operating with integrity. (Integrity: "the state of being whole, entire and undiminished.") On the contrary, when you operate outside of that state of being "undiminished", it becomes as obvious as an awkwardly arranged living room. You feel frustrated, out of control, over worked, and unproductive.

I've come to learn that the reason most entrepreneurs always feel they are stretched to the limit and spread too thin is because they're operating on auto-pilot, without clear intentions. Think about it... when was last the time you found yourself doing an activity in your business that you could clearly delegate in order to allow you to do something more profitable, more efficient or more rewarding? Though the aforementioned activity isn't the best use of your time, you proceed to attack it with zest, simply because this "item" was on your to-do list, or your inbox. I know I did that very thing JUST this morning! After I did it, I took a moment to pause and clarify my intentions and goals for the week and realized I should not have spent two hours doing the simple administrative tasks that I did. I have such a full plate with so many responsibilities that making mistakes like this can add up, and in the end keep me from getting to where I originally set out to go.

A personal example from my own experience: about a year ago, my husband and I made the decision to home school our son (who was 6 at the time). It was something that was very important to us. He's our only child, and we see these tender years fleeting past us so quickly. Not to mention, with our travels and flexibility of owning and operating our own business, we were in a position to be able to take on this responsibility. Other parents and business owners often ask me, "How in the world do you run a business AND home school?" My short answer is usually along the lines of "I just do it." The longer answer, (with which I don't usually bore people, but I shall proceed to bore you now since we're on the subject of intention) is that home schooling my son, spending time with him and helping to grow and expand his little mind is so important to us that we simply do it as easily as if we were taking a breath to stay alive. We are so clear about what we want, that scheduling and prioritizing our time around this important aspect of our lives is simple - unless we enter into the dreaded "Zombie Zone". Don't get me wrong, I have my days when I feel like there's way too much going on, and something has got to give, but when that happens, it's usually because I've slipped into that auto-pilot mode, and I'm not being fully aware of what activities I should and shouldn't be doing. Once I take a moment to become aware of how I'm spending my time vs. how I intended to spend my time, the balancing act becomes much easier. So, when I'm met with a challenge of Do I take this appointment? Or surf this website? Or {__Insert less meaningful activity here__} the decision is always clear. Is the activity in which I'm about to partake going to get us to where we want to go? Is this activity in alignment with who we are and what we want?

So whether you're starting your business today or next month, or you started your business one year ago, or twenty years ago, take a moment to clearly identify what your intentions are. Once you are very clear around your intentions... the magic begins to happen. Some questions that might help you explore this are:

• Why do you want this business?
• What are your goals? Not just financial goals - think bigger picture too: lifestyle, contributing to causes you're passionate about, exit strategies, etc.
• What do you want your business and your life to look like in one year?
• Two years? Five years? A personal note here: Don't hesitate to think big! Big actions = Big results.
• What fuels you? <=== Do more of this.
• What drains you? <=== Do less of this.

As you're answering these questions, pay attention - are they in alignment with each other? What I mean is, if one of your goals is to quadruple your revenues and build a team, while another goal is to simplify your life and work less, you need to carefully analyze how your true goals are going to occupy the same space in your life. Because afterall, there is only one you, with one life, and though you may have different aspects in your life, they all must peacefully and harmoniously co-exist. You don't always need to abandon one goal or another if they aren't in alignment with each other, just try to think about how they can exist together, in your life so that you're operating with integrity -- that state of being whole & undiminished. When you achieve this state of integrity, where your intentions align with your actions, your Qi begins to flow, the stars align, the heavens smile upon you, serendipity occurs...whatever you want to call it. When you're operating with integrity, everything seems to just work as it should!

Good luck, and happy intentions!
Ashley