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I hear people and groups talking about wanting to promote their events and things but lack information and training, so here’s your chance to get some. And it’s free.

This is an invite to a professional group that I run with Tia Paquin. We are having a marketing expert come give our consultancies some support and we’ve opened it up to our community. John’s great and the group itself is a font of knowledge on all things financial and very friendly. Outside of the presentation, we introduce ourselves and our work, eat good food and share resources or problem solve. It’s fairly caual as professional groups go. But very helpful.

Let us know if you want to come! You can respond below with contact information or email me: briana at infinitelypossible dot net.
Briana

Happy Fourth Quarter Everyone!

This is a new updated invite for the Roundtable. We got an offer we just couldn’t pass up! A special 3- month FREE series on marketing by expert marking coaching John Van Dinther. We’ve all been looking at how to bring in new clients and John’s offered to help us.

He will present a three part workshop series on marketing for small businesses, giving simple and easy to use tips on how to create a marketing plan, generate sales, and present or update your business on the internet. John Van Dinther, the owner of 2hats Consulting, is a small business marketing consultant based in San Francisco. You Can visit his blog at: http://2hats.blogspot.com

Monday, October 5, 2009: How To Build A Strategic Marketing Plan
Time: 7pm
Where: Frjtz
590 Valencia Street, San Francisco
http://www.frjtzfries.com/
Creating Measurable Goals
Using Effective Marketing Channels
Tracking Your Progress

Nov. 2, 2009: How To Market In-Person
Viceroy’s in Berekeley
7pm
Finding Great Networking Events
Building Effective Presentations
Making Sales & Landing Clients

Dec. 7, 2009: How To Develop A Compelling Online Presence
San Francisco, TBA
Setting Up Blogs & Websites
Delivering Useful Emails & Newsletters
Accessing Online Communities
__________________________________________________________
The Bookkeeper’s Roundtable
Open to any financial professional interested in networking or finding resources for clients, primarily for bookkeeper support and development.

Purpose: To share information and resources for problem solving for clients. To further our studies, our consultancies, bring resources to the table like books we read, online and print and human resources. Refer other legal & professional contacts like lawyers, tax accountants, CPA’s. Refer clients to each other.

We begin with introductions, a short discussion of our consultancies and then additional resources and current issues/challenges we are facing sections.

Please RSVP to tia@noir.com so we can arrange sufficient seating.

This is one the biggest, most often asked question in my field. So I’ve gathered some information for you so that you can get those questions answered.

IRS page on the different between an employee and contractor

More information about the 20 point check list

IRS 20 point check list

Template for a form you can fill out for each person you hire

Let me know if you find any others that are particularly helpful!

I contend that money is one of the easiest and most effective ways to create change. Money touches us all. Every part of every business and individual’s lives, at least in the US, somehow touches money. Food, clothing and shelter for individuals, products, services and employees on the business side. All about money. That is because money is really the spirit of exchange – and we’ve given the power of that exchange away so that it appears that it doesn’t belong to us. But it does.

Everyone has money (even if they think it’s not very much). You’ll touch easily more than a million dollars in your lifetime. (Even at $20k, just above poverty in the US, 50 years of that puts you at $1 million, not including social security, investments, benefits or your real salary. And at $50k for 25 years you’ll touch at minimum $1.25 million). That’s a lot of money.

That gives you a lot of power. In fact that makes you a millionaire. How would you make decisions if you were a millionaire?

Most of my clients are doing something amazing in the world, whether it’s high-standards eco-friendly product reviews or revolutionizing beauty we’re all looking for ways to make the world a better place.

There are lots of options to choose from. One of those options is micro-finance.

Microfinance takes the power of money and gets it out into the community. When I decided to write this morning it was because of Scott Cooney’s article about Microfinance. I enjoy his work and wanted to pass that on. I also want to say that he’s wrong.

Microfinance will change the face of business in the US, whether we challenge Kiva or not.

Micro-finance and micro-lending is one of the most powerful ways that we have of transforming the monetary system. Micro-lending puts power directly into the hands of individual small investors to support things that are important to them. They make decisions about people, often people they know and certainly things they care about. That is really the ultimate goal in my opinion. People helping people with no one getting in the way.

It’s a much more sustainable option already because it doesn’t depend on banks or countries – which really depend on corporations – to move money. It changes the dynamics of power by putting the power of choice into the hands of the people and diversifying. It gives more people a say in the global economy.

By saying “let’s put pressure on Kiva,” I think that’s a vote for not trusting the people. Instead, let’s consider another route. Education.

Instead of trying to get an institution to do anything, I say let’s talk to the people who want to make the investments and help educate them so that they are excited about putting their money where their values are.

It’s people that create change, not corporations. If you want the world to be different, here’s an easy, direct and straight-forward way to do that.

One of the most common things I hear my clients talk about is procrastination – they can’t seem to get those things off the To Do list.

While there are many strategies, I was just reading Procrastination Inoculation that gives nearly all the strategies that I also share with clients.

So rather than re-write it, I’ll include it here.

A recently study by Dr. Piers Steel, a professor at the University of Calgary concluded that procrastination is on the rise. According to Steel’s research, in 1978 about 15 percent of the population were considered moderate procrastinators. Today that number is up to 60 percent, a four-fold increase. While procrastination is to some degree a natural phenomenon and can’t be completely eradicated, you can use the following ten strategies to to get in the habit of getting things done.

1. Take advantage of your power hours. Are you an early riser who tackles your morning to-do list with all the gusto of a bear eating honey? Perhaps you’re a night-owl and crank through your most pressing projects at 11:00 p.m.?

2. Focus for five minutes. The hardest part of overcoming procrastination is often just getting started. For a tedious task that you have been putting off try setting a timer for five-minutes and get to work. When the alarm sounds, if you feel like stopping – don’t be surprised if that first five minutes turns into 10, 15 and 20.

3. Create cues. Write down the item you need to do and place it somewhere where you can see it – your refrigerator door, car dashboard, calender, iphone, bathroom mirror. Posting prompts on items you are procrastinating about in a highly visible place, helps remind you to get them done.

4. Use the clout of your calendar: Do you have a task that has been lingering on your to-do list for days, weeks or even (gulp) months? If so, use the clout of your calendar to move from inertia to action. Open your planner or PDA and schedule a specific date and time period when you promise yourself that you will work on that item – and that item only.

5. Decide on the next action: One reason people procrastinate is they feel intimidated by the task as it is currently stated and can’t figure out what to do next. To overcome overwhelm, figure out the next smallest, easiest and most comfortable action you could take to move forward. By breaking down the bigger less defined item into smaller more specific chunks, you tell your mind “I can do this”!

6. Give yourself credit all along the way: The moment you take any action (no matter how small) – give yourself credit. Don’t wait until the entire to-do is complete before experiencing at least some degree of satisfaction and accomplishment.

7. Tackle the hard ones first: Almost everyone has more focus, energy and attention available at the beginning of their workday than at the end. When you have to do a hard task, get it out of the way and do it first thing in the morning. This way it won’t nag at you all day long.

8. Be decisive: Putting off a decision on what to do with that piece of paper won’t be any easier tomorrow than it is today. Train yourself to categorize every item that comes across your desk as something to do now, delegate, dump, or defer. Defer does not mean placing it back in the pile and pretending it does not exist. That is the pathway to procrastination. It means putting it in a dated tickler file, scheduling a time to do it, or moving it to a someday to-do list – where the guilt and stress of procrastination don’t apply.

9. Enlist encouragement. Tell a close friend what you’re going to accomplish by when and ask them to check in on your progress. Going public can create a self-imposed pressure to shun procrastination and perform. Having a buddy who can celebrate your successes, and help you maintain perspective when you procrastinate is invaluable.

10. Play let’s make a deal. To get yourself moving on a hard to do activity, try a bribe. Make a promise to yourself that when you stop procrastinating and take some action on the item, you get a reward. This can be a piece of chocolate, watching a favorite tv show, spending time with your family – anything that you value and will motivate you to get moving.

Karen Leland is the bestselling author of the new book Time Management In an Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day. Feel free to excerpt any or all of this article but please give credit to Karen Leland and the book.

Tonight Dale Marie Golden, VP of Alta Alliance Bank will be speaking at our gathering. We’ve had several conversations about banking in our group and Dale is VP of a bank I really like; they specifically work with small businesses and non-profits. I hope you’ll join us to talk about banking and what this small bank has to offer that our clients (and our own consultancies) can really benefit from.

This group is primarily for finance professionals, but tonight it’s open to small business owners who are interested in hearing about this.

Date: May 4, Monday
Time: 7:30 PM
Where: Viceroy
21 Shattuck Square, Berkeley 94704

Please RSVP here or to: briana at infinitelypossible dot net

Thanks!

Come join us for a one-night experience of calling in money as an ally:

Transforming Money Stories 

$     Do you want to make clear decisions about money?

$     Do you want to understand really belongs to you in your relationship with money?

$     Do you want to release all that financial tension you’re carrying?

There is so much floating around about money – especially recently in the financial crisis-that-is-not-a-crisis (or is it?) of our banking system: anxiety, fear and pain. This unease is a highlight of our issues with money. We have a substantial opportunity to release that right now with the shifting political climate, the openings in the economy and our ability to come together and heal our pain.

Come join us to explore how it can be different!

Friday, November 21^st, 2008

7:00 – 10:00 pm

SF location (given at registration)

Contribution: $75-30 sliding scale

Together we delve into the depths of our awareness. We explore our individual and collective stories and can come to a deeper level of choice – a more profound level of truth.  We call in money as an ally instead of adversary, scapegoat or threat. Through awareness we choose to be in right relationship with money and release old expectations, stories and pain. 

Your facilitators: April Taylor and Briana Cavanaugh

Movement, breath and flow are three things that inspire April Taylor. A Bay Area transplant from Los Angeles, she graduated from Mills College in 1997 with a BA in Women’s Studies and Dance. As a Certified Sound Healer and expressive arts teacher, April will weave creativity and expression into our work around money. Guiding us to move into the flow of abundance and to hear empowerment in our new stories. She is a student teacher within the Reclaiming Community, and recently began working with Dancers’ Group a dance advocacy organization in San Francisco. 

Briana Cavanaugh is a financial coach, bookkeeping consultant and priestess with a background in non-traditional education, business analysis, ritual and personal growth work. She focuses her accounting and coaching work on the quadruple bottom line: people, purpose, planet, profits. She sees entrepreneurs, couples and non-profit clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. See www.infinitleypossible.net for more about Briana’s work and philosophy.

To register or for more info contact Briana: briana@infinitelypossible.net or call: 510.282.1970.