Turn Passionate Ideas into Profitable Enterprises.

The Right-Brain Business PlanDo you dream of making a living doing what you love?

Does the very thought of writing a business plan make your skin crawl?

Are you looking for a fun and accessible way to map out your business success?

Right-Brain Business Plan® now available as a Home Study e-Course.

"If you think of business planning as boring, well, you haven't read this book yet. This is not business as usual... Jump right in!"

- from the foreword by Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup and The Art of Non-Conformity

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | From the publisher, New World Library | Autographed copy from the author

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Guest post by licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitator Amy Egenberger

What have you noticed about the rhythm of your own creative energy? As creative entrepreneurs, we seem to have lots of choice about when we do what.

So, how do we learn best to honor cycles and timing of our creative efforts?

Unfortunately, there is no unique calendar or timepiece you can buy to tell you exactly when to act, when to move, when to rest and when to be still. And frankly, as creative folks, we might object to such a regimented schedule. We prefer to go with the flow and see what happens, right?

Right. We like to trust our own pacing. And yet, we can benefit from expanding our sense for right-timing, even if it seems less than convenient.

This is the challenge of a creative entrepreneur. In charge of her own schedule for the most part, many days are designed, planned or happen with many possibilities available. “How will I spend my time?” is a constant question that recognizes the only-so-many-hours-in-a-day reality. It’s a challenge. But what if we switch up the question?

If we ask, “What is it time for now?,” how might your day unfold differently? This question itself opens up more ways to be present and honor your creative cycles and timing.

In addition to allowing intuition to respond to what is needed in any given moment, I’m learning to notice other cycles, big and small scale, that also play a role. Seasons, astrological patterns, school calendars and such can all seem way too much to calculate, let alone coordinate. I agree. And yet, paying attention to what all is happening can help inform your choices. When to offer a class, when to launch your new website, when to send out your newsletter… these are all questions of timing that you want to schedule for best results.

Cycles help us plan, anticipate rhythms and find the sweet spot for our energy. Work steadily when you are able, rest when you need to. Sometimes we learn that best from what doesn’t work because, really, we can’t get right-timing right every single time. We can, however, get better at it.

What cycles do you want to better synchronize with so that you experience the vitality of the creative flow even more? Sometimes we need to let go and slow down. Sometimes we need to speed up. Take a moment to write down what cycles you are aware of that impact your business, your energy. Seasonal trends, purchasing patterns, or cycles of personal energy levels, for example, may come into play. What annual, monthly, weekly or daily patterns matter to your creative work?

Here are a few pointers for honoring your creative rhythms:
1. Ask, “What is it time for now?”
2. Keep your mind, heart and body tuned to guide you.
3. Learn from what works and what doesn’t, and embrace the mystery of it all.
4. Listen to your own best wisdom.

It’s time for something in your creative journey. What is it?

Making way for creative action, Amy Egenberger, MEd., CPCC, is proud to be a Licensed Facilitator of the Right Brain Business Plan®. She is a seasoned educator, life coach, artist and founder of Spirit Out! Coaching. Amy helps people find the courage and clarity to get moving on their creative path. A book, a business, a project, a change… your creative spirit gets out! Amy is one of our licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitators.

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Guest post by licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitator Cass Mullane

I recently wrapped up my “Build Your Budget” webinar series with ten RBBIZ Premium winners. As the attendees developed their budgets, several had some confusion over how to enter their numbers into their budgets. Turns out they were trying to make everything balance and were mixing up Budgeting with Accounting.

Let’s clarify.

Accounting is the process of making sure all your moola balances out to the penny. It is a double entry system that credits (adds to) one account and debits (reduces) another account for each and every transaction. Your balance sheet and profit and loss statement come from your accounting system. And, accounting normally deals with what has happened in the past.

Budgeting is the process of projecting income and expenses month by month over the course of a fiscal year and beyond. Its purpose is to take a close look at monthly cash flow (as in, do you have enough moola flowing in to cover what’s flowing out?) and to make predictions about what your profit will be at the end of the year. Budgeting is all about the future.

So how do they play together and feed each other?

When you create a budget, you make projections of what you think you will earn in income and spend in expenses, month by month into the future. Typically your projections are based on what happened last year and this information comes from your accounting system. So you look at what happened last year, then make your best guess as to what you think will happen this year. In your budget, these numbers are called your “plan” numbers (as in what you “plan” will happen each month).

Once your bookkeeping for the month is entered into your accounting system, you’ll then take those month end totals and plug them into the corresponding lines on your budget. If you spent $362 in office supplies, you would then enter $362 on the “office supplies” line in your budget. These are called your “actual” numbers (as in what “actually” happened each month).

While monthly numbers have to balance in your accounting system, they do not have to balance in your budget. You can even have some months that show a loss and others that show a profit. Obviously at the end of the year you want to be looking at a happy profit, but some individual months can come in at a loss. One cool thing about having a budget is that you can see in advance which months you’re predicting will have lower profits or even a loss (which probably means a cash flow crunch) and you can prepare for them.

Visit www.ProsperCreatively.com for a free ready to use, color coded budget spreadsheet. If you’re ready to get your budget done, click here for the next “Build Your Budget” webinar series and be sure to select the RBBIZ discount!

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Cass Mullane’s calm, comfortable approach consistently yields positive results for clients. Her business and personal coaching practice, www.ProsperCreatively.com, specializes in delivering solid left brain business skills to right brainers and creatives in a fun, visual way. Cass is is one of our licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitators.

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Multi-Passionate Must-Haves

Right-Brain Product Development WorkshopI wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity for the next 72 hours to get your hands on some valuable resources, including my Right-Brain Product Development workshop, where I share my secrets for turning your teachings into products.

I’m joining more than 20 other creative leaders in a not-to-be-missed bundle sale that’s happening from NOW through midnight Thursday, May 16th.

More than $1379 worth of e-courses for ONLY $97!

The “Multi-Passionate Must-Haves” is designed specifically for those of you who have a LOT of different interests, projects, and creative pursuits in your life.

I couldn’t be more honored to contribute alongside these products from these amazing experts (some of whom you might recognize from past Right-Brainers in Business Video Summits):

  • BYOB Build Your Online Business Guide by Natalie Sisson ($37)
  • Pitch Perfect™ Pack by Dyana Valentine ($57)
  • The Creative Ignition Kit by Melissa Dinwiddie ($37)
  • Renaissance Business by Emilie Wapnick ($49)
  • Productivity for Multipotentialites by Michelle Nickolaisen and Emilie Wapnick ($67)
  • Operation: Creative Career Cheer by Michelle Ward ($37)
  • Social Media Rehab by Tiffany Han ($59)
  • Reclaim Your Dreams by Jonathan Mead ($47)
  • Life is Messy Planners by Mayi Carles ($40)
  • Creating Your Own Mastermind Group by Jen Louden ($100)
  • The Declaration of You by Jessica Swift and Michelle Ward ($57)
  • The Comparison Cure by Kylie Bellard ($15)
  • Ethical Selling that Works by Pamela Slim ($97)
  • Help, I Need More Time! by Bev Webb ($46)
  • How to Describe the Indescribable by Alexandra Franzen ($17)
  • The Art of Earning + The Art of Growth by Tara Gentile ($40)
  • Spin Your Story by Amanda Oaks ($10)
  • The Joy Equation by Molly Mahar ($147)
  • 52 Weeks to Awesome by Pace & Kyeli ($52)
  • The Right Brain Product Development Playground by Me! Jennifer Lee ($97)
  • How to Take a Career Break to Travel by Alexis Grant ($29)
  • Small Army Strategy by Srinivas Rao ($2.99)
  • The Kick Burnout Kit by Michelle Nickolaisen ($17)
  • The Yearly/Weekly Planner Bundle by Michelle Nickolaisen ($23)
  • The Courageous Living Program by Kate Swoboda ($125)
  • The Momentum Kickstart Kit by Charlie Gilkey ($47)
  • Guerrilla Influence Formula by Tyler Tervooren ($49)

My left-brain tells me that the total retail price for all of these products comes to $1,379. But for the next 72 hours, you’ll be able to snag them all for only $97, a price I’m sure your right-brain will love

Grab your Multi-Passionate Must-Haves Bundle TODAY!

And because we feel strongly that the power of multi-passionates needs to be used for good, we’re going to be donating $10 from each sale to Michelle Ward’s team for the Avon 2-Day Breast Cancer Walk in NY. (Michelle was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011 and declared cancer-free in June 2012, and this will be the 2nd year she’ll be walking 39.3 miles with Avon over 2 days with her mother and bestest friends.)

Enjoy!

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Core Values

May 9, 2013 Entrepreneurship
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Guest post by licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitator Laura Burns We often hear people talk about core values, but honestly how often do you sit down and really think about them? An integral part of who you are, your core values dictate what you want out of life and how you will go about getting [...]

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Featured in the Wall Street Journal

May 3, 2013 Entrepreneurship
Featured in the Wall Street Journal

Woohoo! The Right-Brain Business Plan® got mentioned in the Wall Street Journal this week! It’s a great article about online business courses, including my Right-Brain Business Plan® workshop with creativeLIVE. And if that weren’t cool enough, the article right next to this one features Tara Russell, a fabulous fellow Bay Area coach who focuses on [...]

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