Let’s face it: It takes guts to own your own business. And creativity. Lots of stick-to-it-iveness. A big heart. The ability to manage people, and to hunt for the best collaborators and nurture those relationships.

That’s a gift. I don’t know how many of you think of it that way, but trust me - it is. Those of us who choose to go out on our own are WAY outnumbered by those who prefer to have a boss. Of course, I’m not saying one way is better than the other. They’re just different.

But that ability you have is precious, and needs to be guarded. A friend of mine calls it the “curse of competence.” Unfortunately, there are…and will always be…plenty of people who want to steal that gift. They are the people who ask for guidance and help, yet never offer the same in return. They are the people who receive your referral and instead of being gracious, they ask if you have more clients you can refer. They’re the ones who want to have long, circular conversations about how to grow their business, but never really take the challenging next steps, and keep coming back with their frustrations.

These folks may be good (if misguided) souls, but you can’t let them suck you dry. How do you protect yourself? A couple things I do:

• Keep a kitchen timer on my desk so if a soul-sucker calls, I can set it for 10 minutes and when it buzzes, I use it as an excuse to end the conversation.
• Visualize boundaries between myself and others. They’re not solid walls, but they’re a tight mesh - that only lets through the positive influences.
• Use caller ID. I screen those calls and return them (or don’t) at my leisure, not others’.

And to make sure I don’t become one of those soul-sucking folks myself (hey, no one’s perfect), I always try to remember that when someone helps me, I want to do the same for them if possible. I don’t keep a meticulous list, but I think of those folks often and try to do good things for them whenever I can.

So I’m curious - have any of you run into the same issue? I’m sure you have. How do you protect your valuable time, energy and ideas - your gift?

I’ve been listening to Alanis Morissette’s new album, and the song “Incomplete” is resonating big time. It’s about slowing down and realizing that all the striving you do - all the rushing around trying to be everywoman - is really keeping you from enjoying the moment and celebrating everything you’ve already accomplished.

It was that rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off last Friday that made me goof so much on our group emails. What a flub! I guess I could slink off in embarrassment, but I’d rather look at it as a chance to learn about myself. No big deal, just a reminder to chill out - I don’t have to complete 100 emails an hour.

The bottom line: Take a moment today to just breathe and relax, and enjoy where you are today, professionally AND personally. Think about all you’ve done to get here: all the challenges you’ve faced, the things you’ve learned, the guts it takes to own your own business and do everything it takes to keep it strong, especially in our cruddy economy today. You’re a rock star! Take a breather and soak it in.

I’ve been using Survey Monkey a lot lately to check the pulse of my ChronicBabes, and it’s terrific - if you keep your surveys short and sweet, you can use a free account and get wonderful feedback. I include lots of questions that have comment spaces, because my readers are very opinionated and happy to offer lots of tips and suggestions for articles.

Another benefit of surveys is that readers feel involved in the process, part of a community. If I can get 100 women to respond in a week to a short survey, and most of them give long responses, then they must enjoy the surveys. And I get fantastic information I can use in developing content and future products for them.

So how about you? Are surveys your thing? I’m curious to know if you use them, what you expect to get from them, and what service you use. Do you publish your results? Do you use responses in your marketing or project development? Fill me in!

I’m considering employing an intern for a brief period this summer, and I’m curious to hear what other folks do to prepare for - and work with - an intern. Here are some of the things I’ve got on today’s to-do list:

• Create a brief overview of my business and my goals for the coming weeks, and put it into bigger perspective as well - the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year plan.
• Decide on a work schedule. Will s/he work 9-5, or put in a minimum number of hours per day? How flexible do I feel like being?
• Build a list of potential tasks an intern could do with some guidance from me.
• Build a list of potential tasks an intern could do without my observation.
• Provide an overview of the working conditions, i.e. - I work for myself, so you’ll likely be sitting on my couch, and sometimes working on the other side of my desk when I’m at my part-time rental office, or even at a cafe.
• Look into insurance for my intern; should I consider having coverage?
• Create a measurement system. How will I know if s/he is doing well? How will I convey that to the intern?
• Find out if my potential intern will want an exit interview, reference, etc. once s/he is done, i.e. something s/he can give to a teacher or potential employer.

That’s what I’ve got on the brain so far. I would really LOVE to hear from other folks about how they handle interns. Please comment here, and feel free to give me a call, too. Thanks!

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately (in fact, I’m on the road now) and it’s tough to feel connected. Here are a few of the things I do:
Twitter, which is highly addictive. While I travel I sometimes turn on notifications on my cell phone so I can keep up with what folks are doing while away from my computer.
Blackberry, which is a new addition to my arsenal, and lets me send text messages and emails to folks. I don’t receive emails on it because it would cause an overload, and the price would skyrocket (I get upwards of 150 emails a day).
Remember the Milk, which Matt Mayes just turned me on to. It’s a great way to make and keep to-do lists, and I use their little program MilkSync to sync it up to my Blackberry.
GoToMyPC, which lets me access my desktop computer at my home office whenever I want. That way I can peek at my outlook, send and receive emails, find files I need, etc. Love it!
CNN Headline News. Nuff said.

So, how do you stay connected? Tell us!

I’ve been working with a vendor for years, and have a favorite contact person there. He suddenly left the company and is starting his own business, and I’m going to follow him, for sure. The level of customer service he provides is unbeatable and he’s just a great person to work with.

But I wonder: how many people would stick with the original company instead? Some would think it’s a gamble to follow the contact while they create their own business, preferring to stick with the original company that has a long track record. But isn’t that track record really based on the work of the individual contacts there?

I’m sticking with my guy - I know he’ll take good care of me. But what would you do? What have you done?

Truly, I would like to use the “R” word, but I’m trying to be an optimist.

Adapting an entrepreneurial business in a down economy is challenging. You’ve got to get creative and stay positive, even while others around you may be faltering. Here are a few ideas:

Marketing: It’s important to maintain client relationships without being too aggressive in your marketing efforts. One of my favorite marketing approaches is a simple postcard, mailed every other month or quarterly. Don’t get caught up in the big sale; instead, offer some tidbits of advice that remind your client base of your value. They’ll appreciate that you’re staying in touch, offering resources, and not pushing the sale extra hard. You’ll stay top-of-mind for a low price. (I recommend getting your postcards printed and assembled at Kinko’s or Staples. You can bring them your mailing labels and stamps and they’ll put it all together for you, saving you valuable time.)

Proving your worth: This is the kind of climate in which clients most want to understand your worth. You’re likely competing with at least one other service provider, so you need to prepare yourself. Research market prices to ensure you’re competitive. Gather testimonials from past clients to post on your web site, use in your marketing materials, even include in your email signature if possible. Now’s the time to polish your resume, get your clips together, freshen up your sample books…generally get your act together so you can present the full package any time you have the opportunity.

Networking: You’ve got to keep those non-client relationships strong, so networking is key. If your budget’s tight, you may be considering letting some memberships lapse…but don’t! Association memberships are comparably low-cost when you consider the networking possibilities. Use your LinkedIn connections to make new contacts, and participate in online communities and list-servs. You never know when a contact will refer you to a new client.

Spirit: It may be tough to keep yours strong when you’re frustrated with a business slump. This is a great time to get in touch with old contacts that you’ve let slide, and to rekindle friendships that can offer support. Stay active with organizations and find new ways to hang out with business contacts - attend events together, take a class with a group, join up at a coffee house every week for communal work times - anything you can do to surround yourself with other creative, entrepreneurial folks.

These are just a few suggestions that have helped me stay strong through the years. I would love to hear more of your tips so join the conversation!

Every two weeks for the past couple of years I’ve published an enewsletter from ChronicBabe, the Goodie Bag. I’m really proud of that accomplishment and it’s extremely rare for me to take a break. But I did just that this morning, sending out a short letter to my readers instead. The topic: the value of taking a little break.

I love the continuity, the connections you get with an enewsletter. It keeps your readers (or clients) up to speed on your activities, offers them resources that strengthen your reputation as a go-to-gal or -guy, and basically reminds them that you still exist. So even though I was feeling very burned out, I chose not to abandon publishing altogether, but go for this alternate approach, which took about 1/5 the time.

It was a relief to get it out the door so I could go what I really needed to do, which was relax. Sometimes we just need to do that! As entrepreneurs, it’s sometimes (usually? always?) hard for us to get our heads around that concept.

So how about you? Do you ever cut yourself some slack and take a little break? An hour here or there, or a “mental health day” or even a - gasp! - vacation? Fill me in.

Most of us work from home; a few of us have outside offices. I’ve always worked from home, but am now getting ready to split my time between my home office (ChronicBabe HQ, or CBHQ) and an outside office space I’ll share with a group of cool, creative folks. It’s exciting! But it creates some questions and challenges for me:

- How should I keep my computers connected? I use MS Outlook to manage my calendar, email, task lists, etc. I don’t want to bring my main computer to the remote office (let’s call it CBHQ2) but I want access to all that stuff. I’ve checked out GoToMyPC and it seems workable. I don’t like to work for hours at a time on my laptop, so I’ll probably get a dock so I can use a bigger monitor, keyboard and mouse.
- How should I handle phone calls? I spend a lot of time on the phone, and I suppose I’ll just forward my home office phone to my Blackberry to answer at CBHQ2. Time to get a hands-free headset, but I’m super-picky about them, so I’ll call my usual provider, Hello Direct, and see if they have something that I’ll like.
- How will I manage paperwork? I think it will be best to keep my main filing system at my home office, and have some sort of smaller file-holder at CBHQ2. That way I can carry that day’s important files with me back and forth. But I think I’ll need to think strategically about keeping more information digital so I can always access it. (I’ll be killing fewer trees that way, too.)
- What about office supplies? Good think I never get rid of anything, like old staplers, trash bins, scissors…I have duplicates of lots of stuff. I’ll gather up the most vital things and find a nifty storage container for them. Too bad I don’t have a spare office chair; that’s the only big purchase I’ll need to make.

And finally,
- What about my attitude? I’ve always poo-poo’d working offsite. I don’t even like to work in coffee shops! I’m easily distracted and I don’t like to be interrupted a lot. So working in a shared space with other folks will take some getting used to. But I think the payoffs will be worth it: Regular contact with creative, interesting people. Folks to have lunch with. The chance to get out of my house when the neighbors are being particularly noisy. A reason to put on big-girl clothes and makeup and stuff. (Or maybe they won’t care if I work in my PJs.) Yup, worth it.

So…I’m ultra-curious to hear how other folks prepare to work offsite. What software/ hardware/ equipment/ gadgets help you? How do you balance your time? How do you minimize distractions? Handle paperwork? Chime in with a comment!

You know what an RSS feed is, right? If not, Wikipedia explains it pretty darn well. Many sites put out little feeds, and it’s nice to have a feed aggregator to capture the feeds of all your favorite sites into one place.

I’ve been using Bloglines for a while now, and really like it…but fresh off the plane from SXSW Interactive, I’ve got more recommendations floating around my brain, and I’m curious: What’s your favorite feed aggregator, and why?