As most of the regular readers will realise, Thursday is my reflective day, where I look at the results of my week and decide what needs to be completed before Friday. 

I'm happy with my work so far this week, it has been pretty busy, but I feel like I've accomplished what I've set out to do.  I have a fair bit left to do today, but it is more administrative and consists of tidying up a lot of loose ends.  That being the case, I'll be aiming to take an early finish tomorrow (Friday) and head off for the weekend.

Let's face it.  One of the reasons we become self-employed is so that we can enjoy a better lifestyle.  For most of us, a better lifestyle entails having more free time to spend doing the things which we enjoy.  Over the past few months, I haven't done enough of that and so I'm really focused now on making sure that I organise my time well so that I can take time out to do the things which I enjoy.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my business, in fact a little bit too much my wife would say.  However, I'm a firm believer in living the Mars Bar life, where every day you must work, rest and play.  Being self-employed we should take advantage of not having set hours and enjoy being able to have a long weekend or a mid-week break.

The only way that we can do that is if we have organised our time.  If we allow ourselves to be proactive then reactive, then we can enjoy the freedom which this career path offers to us.

On another note, a broker and I had a discussion yesterday about the generation of leads.  He was surprised at the amount of referrals which I receive from friends and family.  I don't have a massive network of friends and family, but I do make sure that everyone I know personally, knows what I do.  I've also taken the time to invite friends and family to lunches etc where I ask them for their suggestions as to how I can grow my business.  Not only do they come up with good ideas, they also then seem to become engaged in the search and are quick to direct people they know to me.  Don't underestimate this aspect of your personal network.  Take the time to ask for their thoughts.

You may be surprised at the results.