I am discovering that practicing gratitude has many benefits for my own ability to enjoy my life, and it is creating some significant successes in Flow.

When you started your business, if your experience was anything like mine, you loved the thrill and challenge of doing everything by the seat of your pants. Making it up as you went along! No templates to fit your work into! Sweet freedom! But then, as you realized that maybe being the only one responsible for everything wasn't the barrel of monkeys you thought it would be, you began to start thinking about outsourcing some tasks, or hiring staff. Or maybe you were happy to keep rocking your business solo, but you found yourself thinking “there must be an easier way to do this.”

So, you’ve taken your business on line and are now operating an e-commerce shop. Great! You’ve got your branding on point, your photos are inviting, and your copy is pure fire. Amazing! These are, of course, all very important aspects of your e-commerce endeavours. But they’re not the only things to consider!

It is our human tendency to focus on the current challenge rather than connecting the dots between the current challenges and their common denominator. We just want to get away from our pain - the fastest way possible.

If you are like the rest of us in Canada over the last week or two you’ve been getting lots of emails from the mailing lists you are subscribed to asking you to confirm your subscription. Why is this happening?

We definitely don’t have anything in particular against Eventbrite, but sometimes when you see that everyone is using the same thing you being to wonder “are we sheep?” So, for most of our recent events we decided to stray from the flock and use something else... if there was anything else?

As a business owner, there are certain seasons that one can expect to be more or less bombarded with requests from the community to be a sponsor for their event, or donate to their silent auction, or otherwise align themselves with a certain cause.   

Habit #7 can be an antidote to the stress, anxiety and burnout experienced by so many people during this global pandemic. The key idea to this Habit is that regularly investing time for self-renewal has a significant and positive impact on reinforcing your well-being and personal growth.

Every relationship you have, whether it is a personal or business connection, a spouse or work colleague, a family member or neighbour, you inevitably form a joint emotional

bank account whether you realize it or not. Just like any monetary bank account, when there are constant deposits a sense of security, comfort and trust are developed.

Wow that seems simple but not a habit we always find easy to put into place. Why is that? Is it our pride and/or desire to be validated? Is it our inability to be vulnerable and honest with others? Is it our own desire to be heard overshadowing the need to listen?

The concept of Win/Win, the 4 th habit in Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, provided an interesting insight to me. This is the concept that in order to get the best results – at work, in interpersonal relationships, etc. we all need to win.

My former mother-in-law imagined herself as a genteel lady, adopting an air of dignified nonchalance. She struggled to cope in the brash world around her and wistfully spoke of a forgotten era of grace.

When we reviewed this habit as a team, April Burrows, our resident Chief Dot Connector, started us off with the very easy reflection question: “How do you want to be remembered?” We were asked to think about what we wanted people to say at our funerals.

Stephen Covey, author of the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, details how businesses and individuals can obtain positive change by aligning with universal principles based on ‘character ethics’.

We love Quickbooks Online with their pre-set chart of accounts - they basically offer all the accounts you could possibly ever imagine. However, there are almost too many options.

It all begins with an idea.