Free one-day coaching event clears the way for entrepreneurs worldwide – and yields unexpected financial benefits.

On September 1, dozens of entrepreneurs from all over the world congregated online for a free one-day event sponsored by the business coaching firm Success Connections. The project, Melanie Benson Strick's Clean Sweep Challenge, was a one-day organizing and clutter-clearing blitz designed to increase success and decrease 'overwhelm'.

Prior to the day of the event, Success Connections President Melanie Benson Strick armed participants with worksheets and recordings to help them plan their Clean Sweep. For the day of the event, Strick created an online meeting space, http://www.cleansweepchallenge.com/site, where participants could check in and post their progress.

“It’s like a refueling day. By cleaning up all that ‘should,’ ‘toleration’, ‘putting up with’, ‘having to remember’, ‘omygod it’s not done yet,’" - you lighten your load," Strick said. "Imagine if you carry around a backpack and you’ve got all these bricks in there, it’s like you take the bricks out.”

While it was clear from the posts that the Clean Sweep meant something different to everyone, nearly every participant used the challenge to address a combination of work- and home-related projects. Often, Clean Sweepers just need some time to clear out odds and ends like updating a recipe database, defrosting a refrigerator or, in one case, purchasing a piece of glass for an odd-sized picture frame.

The Clean Sweep provided participants with emotional benefits - "It's now 5:57 p.m. on the East Coast and I feel about a hundred pounds lighter since this morning," wrote one sweeper, and occasionally it even yielded cold, hard cash. Web designer Adam Hommey wrote that the amount he saved after canceling his dial-up internet service and reducing his cell phone and cable plans saved him almost $1000 every year. Another participant found unredeemed rebates as she organized.

Strick, who will offer the free-of-charge Clean Sweep twice per year, says these results are not unusual. "What I want people to get is it’s going to help you make more money, it’s going to help you get more done, and it’s going to help you feel more energetic and passionate about going to work every day again," she said. "It’s basically taking yourself on a cleaning vacation."

Melanie Benson Strick, "The Entrepreneur's Success Coach," offers keynotes speeches, mentoring, training and products designed to get people out of overwhelm and onto the success fast-track. The National Clean Sweep Challenge Day toolkit is available FREE at www.CleanSweepChallenge.com.

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