Bite-Size Chunks of Wisdom

January 2015

Recent Posts

If you’ve been following along, we kicked off the New Year with a 30-day blogging challenge. Each day, for 30 days, bloggers and entrepreneurs who accepted the challenge, write and post a blog. The purpose? Drive more traffic to the website in order to generate more leads and acquire more clients. (Click to Tweet)

Sounds simple, right? Wrong!

Blogging every day for 30 days is not without its challenges of finding topics, time, and a few brain cells to rub together to make the blog of interest and value to your reader.

We’re more than half of the way into our challenge, and have covered topics such as:

Stop Wasting Time

Content creation, along with an inbound marketing strategy, can be challenging for those who routinely do business face-to-face and belly-to-belly. Having launched our business in 1997 using an outbound marketing strategy (i.e. attending networking events, etc.), we understand fully how to get results from offline networking. Over the years, however, we’ve questioned the real ROI on face-to-face networking. It’s the dirty little secret no one wants to admit. (Click to Tweet)

Given the amount of time required to drive to and from an event, plus the cost of the event, parking, and meal and/or refreshments, networking events have to produce a better ROI. This is especially true if you live in LA, like we do, or another large metropolitan area, where a 10-mile jaunt across town can eat three hours out of your day.

I don’t know about you, but I’m just not willing to give up that much of my time sitting in a car.
 
Get On The Blog Train

Can you tell we’re hot for blogging? Blogging, or creating content as the pros call it, is an integral piece of an inbound marketing strategy.

When we first read about content marketing in 2008, it sounded right. Perfect for the way consumers wanted to buy – and ideal for the way we wanted to work. Since that time, inbound marketing has gained in popularity.  (Read Why We Love Small Business Blogging…And You Should, Too!)

Once you look at the numbers, it just makes sense to get on the blog train and ride it all the way into the sunset. With blog 19 out of 30 under our belt, website visits are up 40% and leads have increased 144%. Now that’s what I call a lead-generation website!

It’s never too late to accept the task. Challenge yourself to the 30-day blogging challenge and see for yourself the difference it makes in your enterprise growth.

Only those stranded on a desert island during the last 12+ years have yet to hear about Linkedin. Launched in May of 2003, Linkedin is a disruptor of traditional networking. Used by job seekers and entrepreneurs alike, Linkedin is the networking tool of choice for business professionals. And, it’s an extremely effective business development tool…if used appropriately.

“It’s not what you know but whom you know,” is an age-old adage more relevant today than every before. Combined with, “Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” and you have a match ready to ignite your future.

The Connection Conundrum

A request on Linkedin signals that you want to establish a relationship with the other person. You want to connect for whatever purpose you intend.  Being you seldom have a second chance to make a first impression, don’t leave your manners at your keyboard. (Click to Tweet)

1. Craft a personal invitation. Who doesn’t love that Linkedin “thinks” for us when fashioning a one-liner to connect?  Nonetheless, what does the generic message really communicate to your recipient?

It might convey that you’re too lazy to craft a personalized message, or you’re in too much of a hurry to care. Either message won’t keep doors open for long.

Take the time to read the recipients profile. Craft a personalized message. Let your actions demonstrate your intention to connect.

2. Send a personal thank you note. Once your invitation is accepted, nurture the relationship.  Send a personal “thank you for accepting my invitation” note to foster trust.

3. Complete your profile. Upon receiving your invitation, the astute Linkedin user visits your profile to gain an understanding of who you are and what you do.

Make sure you make the best impression with a complete profile, including a professional photo.

4. Enroll in a paid subscription. Linkedin has done an amazing job of allowing us to connect through our regular email. It’s a godsend! Going through the Linkedin system is cumbersome, at best.

When the perceptive Linkedin user discovers they are required to go through the Linkedin system to respond to your request, you risk “brand damage”.  Too many clicks to connect say you’re cheap. Invest in a paid subscription.

5. Do the work. When making requests request of other Linkedin users beyond the initial invitation, make sure you do the lion’s share of the work. Whether it is a request for a meeting to sell your wares, professional input on a business idea, or an invitation to join your group, don’t make your connection do your work.

Remember, when you make a request of a Linkedin connection, they are doing you a favor. Return the favor by making it easy for them to follow through on your request.  The time a connection spends communicating with you is a gift they are giving to you. Don’t be rude. (Click to Tweet)
 
I must admit – it’s a bit disconcerting to write “how to” tips for human contact. Yet, it seems as though many feel that the guidelines for human interaction don’t apply to social media. I disagree.

Don’t leave your etiquette at your browser. It’s bound to hurt your ability to make the strides you hoped for on Linkedin. Put “social” back in social media. (Click to Tweet)


What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to connecting on Linkedin? (Click to Tweet)

My mind floods with thoughts of danger, caution, and resistance to the possibilities. I move cautiously and tentatively. I scrutinize the clock.  The seconds tick by agonizingly slow. My breathing is erratic. Sweat pours off my body in a way that’s out of proportion to my movement. I wobble and bobble.
I’m on day 6 of a 108-day yoga challenge when the yoga instructor reminds me, “everything is hard – at first”.

Sounds eerily like entrepreneurship, doesn’t it. I can’t help but think of the newpreneurs with whom I strategize. This is what it feels like when you take your first steps into business ownership. Even thinking back to 1997,when I launched Synnovatia, makes my heart flutter with a mixture of excitement, optimism, fear, and worry.

For most of us, business ownership is new territory, complete with its own lingo. (Click to Tweet) There’s so much to learn – not only when you launch – but also every day when you turn on the lights and fire up your computer.

I will admit.  It does get easier when you learn the language and the lay of the land. However, whether you’re new to entrepreneurship or have been “around the block a few times”, we all need to know – we are not alone in our angst and exhilaration.

The Willing ‘Preneur

Given my 18 years of coaching CEO’s, Presidents, and Founders of companies through frustration with their pace of progress, keeping up with cash flow, stress, getting it all done, feeling stuck and lonely working by themselves to getting back on track, developing their focus, setting and achieving goals, and maximizing their potential, here’s what I would like to share with the new ‘preneur

1. Be willing to go the distance. Success doesn’t happen overnight for most. You’re not Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs – although you might be. The truth is, even for most enterprising individuals, business is an endurance sport. (Click to Tweet)
 
2. Be willing to invest. Playing close to the chest (i.e. cautiously) is limiting. I’m not saying that one should throw money around like it grows on trees, to borrow a phrase from my parents. I am saying that you want some sort of financial reserve to carry you through from start-up until you’ve achieved your second generation of clients.

Its not just cash you want to be willing to invest, it’s also your investment of time into learning the domain knowledge of entrepreneurship.

3. Be willing to involve others. Entrepreneurs are a proud bunch. It’s hard to ask for help. Failing to reach out to others for support only slows progress. Whether it’s a mentor, coach, mastermind group or the myriad of resources accessible, avail yourself of the expertise and wisdom of others.

4. Be willing to brave failure.  “Failure” is an interesting expression. People fear it, dodge it, and wrestle with the concept of it. Unfortunately, “failure” is a garbage-can term errantly used to describe a myriad of business situations.

Seldom do we truly fail. We do, however, find ways that don’t work at which time we have a choice. We choose to label the event as “failure” or we learn from the experiment that is business, adapt, evolve, and move on.

5. Be willing to ride the roller coaster. Every business experiences ebbs and flows. Develop the same innocence owned by a child when learning to walk. Enthusiastically embrace the receding tide, as much as the rising tide.

Rest assured, entrepreneurship, like yoga, becomes easier with time, practice, learning, corrections, and a heavy dose of courage.


What advice would you share with the new ‘preneur?

A blog is an outstanding tool to grow your business. It expands your market reach, builds your credibility, presents your expertise, and shapes your brand awareness. Plus, it’s a cost-effective tactic for driving more traffic to your website…once the common blogging challenges are unscrambled.

Before we can consider growing blog traffic and encouraging reader interaction, most of us need to conquer the most common blogging challenges of topics, time, and talent.
 
A Blogging State of Mind is Messy
 
Those who blog – whether labeled a blogger or not – face the same issues as any writer.  Finding the time to blog is stressful. Waiting for the inspiration to blog is excruciating. Awaiting the confidence to blog is nerve-racking. Pinpointing topics is painful.

In January of 2013, I was challenged to a 30-day blogging challenge. It felt more like a dual than a challenge. It was agonizing for all the same reasons most entrepreneurs don’t blog often enough. Drudging the self-assurance and focus to meet the challenge took determination and guts.

I won’t lie! There were many days I wanted to wind up my commitment. Growing a small business is stressful enough without this, I thought. Luckily, it’s difficult to pull the plug on a promise made when held accountable by others. Ack! So I toiled.

I don’t consider myself a gifted writer, like Carolynn Aristone, who can sit at the keyboard and effortlessly pound out pearls of wisdom.  My blogging was one of spits, sputters, stops, and starts…until I discovered a method.

It was a process that eliminated the ambiguity, calmed the nerves, and nudged me into action. It was an approach to blogging that ensured that blogging was a delight rather than annoyance.

Download the Step-by-Step Blogging Process here to thwart “blog jams” and “bloggers block”.

More importantly, I learned that blogging is a form of discovery. It helps you understand what you know…and what you don’t.

As with any skill, blogging takes practice. The more you blog, the better you get and the easier it becomes.


What has been most helpful to your blogging process?

You’re going down the road at 90 miles an hour. Music is blaring. The kids are hanging out the window. You’re moving through the beautiful countryside so quickly, in fact, that the scenery is just a blur.

Feels a lot like running a small business, doesn’t it. And, so it goes with staying relevant and up-to-date with what matters most…

The Curse and Cheer for Technology  

Most small business owners have a love-hate relationship with technology.

It’s improved our business in many ways. For instance, our online presence can be as powerful as a Fortune 1000 company – without the colossal marketing budget.  Procedures and processes can be simplified and streamlined, cutting fat out of our time and budget. Answers to our questions and solutions to our problems are only a click away.

In other ways, technology has added additional stress to the life we’re trying so desperately to balance. Thanks to technology, information is now produced at an alarming rate. Check out the infographic of Data Never Sleeps 2.0. Most importantly, all that information comes at a cost.

The Cost of Content Clutter noted that “in the past 12 months, content searches cost companies $14,252 per worker and 494 hours per worker.” Even if you’re the only “worker” in your business, that’s a chunk of time and money that could be better spent on a family vacation!

Get Out from Underneath. Stay on Top of What Matters.

How do you slash through the clutter to keep up with the latest in your industry?  It’s not an easy task but here are some of the tips and tools we use to stay on top of our game.

Unsubscribe from newsletters. Along with the use of Feedly, unsubscribe to all newsletters, especially those bloated with information. You never really take the time to read them anyway, do you?

Stop notifications. Many notifications, from social media to email to messaging, are merely a distraction from that which is essential to your business.

Unsubscribe from shopping sites/emails. If you do any online shopping, it’s an immediate invitation for online sites to send their latest sales. Oy! Again, don’t have the deliver information to you – go to them when you’re ready to spend.

Use Feedly to curate content. Stay current with what’s happening in the world of business without a multiple of emails flooding your inbox. Use Feedly as your one-stop location.

With Feedly, you can subscribe to industry publications or valuable small business blogs (like ours <G>). You can personalize it, share articles, and take it with you wherever you go.

Let Feedly do the work of automatically gathering what you need to know. Rather than have notifications inundate your inbox and create a distraction, hangout on Feedly – undistracted and undisturbed – with the mental and physical space you need to absorb what you read.

Finally, aggressively replace articles, blogs, etc. with those that better meet your needs.

Did we mention to subscribe only to information related to your small business goals? You don’t need to know it all, nor can you. That’s what experts are for.

Store research in Evernote.  Evernote, a digital filing system, collects and organizes topics of information and inspiration for your business. The Premium version, which we highly recommend, has a robust automated search and discover feature within the app to aid your search efforts. No more saving vital information in your inbox, bookmarks, or on your office desk.

Tag and/or label emails for “reading”.  For those rare instances when you want information sent to your inbox, tag and/or label the email. Create a folder. Let the information bypass your inbox and go directly to the folder. Access this folder during your strategic planning, thinking, and tinkering time.

Set up Google Alerts.  For that which you need-to-know, and you need-to-know now, let Google do the work of gathering information with Google Alerts. Note to self: discontinue alerts no longer needed.

As you can see, many of these tips involve email. Although this isn’t really about email, it is about how to control the chaos of content, cut through the clutter, and create a laser-focused approach to staying on top of what you need to grow your small business.


What tools have you found useful? Inquiring minds want to know.

Entrepreneurs say it’s hard to justify exercising when they could be selling, marketing, or growing their business.  Even though numerous studies show exercise reduces stress, stimulates creativity, and improves self-esteem, some entrepreneurs scoff at such allegations.

Unhealthy habits, and subsequent risk factors, are dangerous to entrepreneurs and their business. Lack of sleep and exercise, unhealthy foods, and high stress don’t keep us performing at our best.

Healthy Entrepreneur. Healthy Business.

It’s difficult to keep a small business growing year after year if we’re not paying attention to our physical and mental health. For most entrepreneurs, health and well-being gets lost in the shuffle.  Apparently, we become adrift in the cerebral side of our existence and lose site of the importance of movement.

Undoubtedly, entrepreneurship is a balancing act between meeting the demands of customers, marketing, business development, employees, family, and one’s health. Consequently, fitness can be a low priority.

Yet, scientific data continues to prove the value of exercise. In 2003, Phillip Tomporowski, PhD, Exercise Scientist, University of Georgia, evaluated 43 studies on the relationship between physical activity and mental performance. He discovered that following a bout of exercise (20 minutes to an hour) ‘executive control’ (the processes involved in achieving goals in a changing environment) improved significantly. In other words, active people are better problem solvers.

Wayne Wescott PhD, Fitness Director, South Shore YMCA, Quincy, MA noted that exercise is “like going from a four-cylinder engine to six.”

Your Waistline and Your Bottom line

Entrepreneurs have a mindset that embraces and accepts hard work. Even so, small business owners have a wider range of responsibility and pressure than the average businessperson (Click to Tweet). Additionally, they may lack the depth of resources. As a result, they juggle multiple roles as salesperson, marketing director, spokesperson, negotiator, bookkeeper, and administrative assistant. Plus, they bear the costs of any mistakes made.

A recent study with 366 entrepreneurs was designed to demonstrate the relationship between sales and the amount of rigorous exercise performed by an entrepreneur. The study measured sales against running and sales against weight lifting. The study demonstrated that while both running and weight lifting influenced the entrepreneur’s ability to meet personal goals (personal satisfaction, independence, and autonomy) only those entrepreneurs who incorporated running into their program were able to demonstrate a significant improvement in sales over those who did not. (What?! Wait while I lace up my running shoes!)

With clear headedness created by exercise, business owners are able to see things from a new perspective that, in turn, promotes fresh ideas. Exercise also expands the mental and physical energy needed to meet the challenges of running a business. It improves focus, increases productivity, reduces health care costs and absenteeism, rallies stamina and strength, enhances one’s capacity for work, provides resistance to disease, stress, anxiety, and fatigue, reduces blood pressure, increases bone mass, improves GI efficiency, cuts risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and blunts symptoms of depression.

With all those benefits, remind me again why we don’t make exercise a priority?

Goal attainment is critical for sustaining business activity.  Fitness is just one mechanism that helps in attaining this mission.


How do you make exercise a priority in your day?

Technological advances the past several years have certainly helped smaller businesses. From reducing costs to minimizing delays, automation tools allow smaller entities to compete with the giants in their industry. Despite these improvements, you don’t want to be lulled into a false sense of security of what automation can do to help your business grow.

It’s true – you no longer need a huge marketing budget to communicate directly with your buyer. Technology is changing business models. And, business automation tools are improving the efficiency of many small businesses. No matter the role played by automation in your business, technology alone does not make your business grow.

Got Goals?

During the past several years, an entire industry has spouted with online tools to help us automate everything from sales, marketing, admin, and bookkeeping, just to name a few. Over time, these same tools have become more affordable. Score two points for the entrepreneur!

Despite these advancements in cost reduction and performance improvement, the U.S. Census recently reported that the number of U.S. nonemployer businesses reached 22.7 million

in 2012. These businesses generated $1 trillion in total revenue, up 4.2% from 2011. This translates into an average of $45,300 per business. (Up from $43,000 in 2010!)

What?!*@!

Yet, ask any small business entrepreneur their intended business outcome and few can answer with any specificity. Why is that?

As a small business strategist, I’ve discovered that some business owners have not been taught how to properly set goals. Others who have had little luck in the goal achievement department are discouraged from facing that reality again. Other business owners find it confusing to set and achieve goals.

Regardless of the reason, the absence of clear targets can certainly take you and your business on the ride of your life. Plus, without the benefit of the unmistakable direction provided by goals, you can expect your organization  to cost more to operate – despite automation!

Remember – it’s goals – not automation – that accelerates business growth.


If you’re ready to get serious about setting your goals for growth, download our free goals setting workbook. Make sure your business is heading in the right direction.

I would have published this blog article earlier today – but I couldn’t decide on the topic. Being indecisive, and grappling with it for a few hours, it seemed most fitting to blog about “indecision.”

What entrepreneur hasn’t dealt with indecision throughout the day. It swirls around our cranium, creates confusion, erodes confidence, creates unnecessary stress, and slows small business growth.

Neil Wagner in his article, Indecision and Lack of Commitment Breed Unhappiness, shared an interesting point about indecision:

“A study from Florida State University suggests that some of their problem comes from an inability to commit. Even after making a choice, some people are never truly committed to it.

Is that it? Are we just not truly committed to the decision we’ve already unconsciously made? Is that what triggers indecision? (Can you feel my stress building?) One thing I know for certain – it definitely makes me unhappy!

When indecision loiters in our brain, it impacts our performance. Like computer files launched and left open, the speed at which our computer (aka brain) is able to process dwindles. Performance suffers.

On the flip side of indecision is decision fatigue.  This occurs when multiple decisions made in a day, regardless of importance, depletes our will power. As will-power declines, the ability to make smart choices, wise decisions, and think creativity deteriorates.

Indecision keeps one’s business in limbo. Decision fatigue adds pressure to the business. Even not deciding is a decision! It all begins to feel like a bad episode of NCIS.
 
Decision Making Framework

Whether it’s missing facts, too many decisions, or uncertainty that contributes to indecision, it doesn’t really matter. What’s most important is to develop a framework to make decisions easily, effortlessly, and in a timely manner.

Here are some supporting structures to add to your decision-making framework:

1. Mission, vision, and strategies. These core elements of your small business are your north star. When decisions align with your mission, vision, and strategies, they are sound.

2. Goals. Does the outcome of a decision contribute to or divert from your goals? Make decisions that influence the advancement of your goals.

3. Gut. It does sound a bit like pop psychology, but more scientific information is being discovered about the value of trusting one’s instinct.  It might be time to pay closer attention to your inklings.

4. Timeline. Prevent the paralysis of analysis by creating a time frame for your decisions. A decision made within twenty-four hours prevents immobilization.

5. Coin – as in one to be flipped. If you run through the previous pieces of decision-making and remain undecided, tossing a coin may be the perfect tactic.

Sometimes good enough is the best decision to make.

Business development – the time set aside to work “on” rather than “in” our business. It’s the point when client projects, email, bookkeeping, and admin take a short-term sabbatical to make room for more serious planning and implementation. Not the kind of planning that’s make the day run more smoothly – although that’s important, too – it’s the kind of planning that keeps your business on the right track to your intended goals.

This blog article could be complete with one sentence – because if it’s not scheduled, it won’t get done – but then Google wouldn’t be happy. Being a people-pleaser – and not wanting to disappoint – allow me to continue. 

Plotting Your Destination

When I bought my Lexus GS 300 in 2000, it came with a navigation system. Today, course-plotting systems are everywhere. At the turn of the century, however, it was as rare as a northern hairy-nosed wombat.

One of the navigation features I loved most was “rerouting”.  If you failed to make a turn, the system automatically reset itself to keep you on course to your final destination. There isn’t a driver alive who isn’t grateful for this sweet little item when an engrossed conversation causes one to miss an off-ramp.

Of course, the key to the entire system was plotting the appropriate destination at the beginning of your journey.

Entrepreneurs are excellent at establishing their endpoint. It’s everything in between the beginning and the end of the day, week, month, and year that pulls us off our pre-determined path. Without an automatic re-routing feature built into our brain, the course we take isn’t smooth, straight, or pretty.
 
Manual Business Navigation System
 
This brings us back to the importance of scheduled business development time. Without it programmed into our calendars, we miss the chance to confirm our destination, check our current position, and re-route our small business, if necessary.

Minus an automatic re-routing system in our head, it’s the best we can do.


How do you keep your business on the smooth path to its destination?

There’s much more to blogging than selecting a few topics and banging some words out on your keyboard. In addition to the process used to produce top-notch posts on a regular basis, there are also tools that make it easier to blog. For us non-journalist, professional-writer types wanting to share our thoughts, a collection of tools creates a better blog.

A Bloggers Arsenal of Tools

Feedly is a news aggregator app.  It’s the simplest, least distracting way to gather blog content ideas. Feedly is the one-stop location for your routine sources of information and research.

Evernote, a digital filing system, collects and organizes topics of information and inspiration for your blog content. The Premium version has a robust automated search and discover feature within the app that we highly recommended to aid your research and drafting efforts.

Don’t forget to download Evernote Web Clipper. Clipping, saving, and storing articles of interest from the web to the notebook of your choice has never been easier.

At a loss for compelling blog titles? No worries. Tap into Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator to stimulate your inner journalist. Amazon is also a powerful title generator to kindle blog title ideas – not plagiarize book titles.

Not sure what title will grab your audience? You’ll love this nifty free tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute. The Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer evaluates your headline to determine the EMV (Emotional Marketing Value) of the title. The higher the EMV, the better it grabs your audience’s attention and draws them in.

Need a blogging platform? Oy! That’s a conversation to have with your web developer/designer! We’re fortunate to be on the Hubspot marketing software – and highly recommend it for small business owners. The marketing software from Hubspot provides a plethora of marketing tools that make your blog sing.

WordPress is a common platform used by most bloggers. With an abundance of plugins at your fingertips, WordPress is a powerful blogging tool.

“A picture is worth a thousands words,” so the saying goes. Visuals are gaining popularity in attracting and enticing your reader. Death to the Stock Photo, Fotolia, BigStockPhoto, and iStock are a few of our favorite hangouts for jpegs.

A timer – who can ink a blog without the use of a timer? You’ve heard the saying, “work expands to fill the time it has to complete,” right?  So goes the blog. A timer keeps you focused and on track to avoid your entire day being decimated by blogging.

A content or editorial calendar is a must-have planning tool when scheduling topics for your blog. Organized in advance, an editorial calendar enhances lead generation through strategically designed marketing campaigns. (Stay tuned. A sample content calendar is available for download soon!)

Although we don’t take advantage of this tool nearly enough, Click to Tweet is a fun and easy way for your readers to share key points within your blog on twitter. (Click to Tweet)

Bloggers needs to channel their inner graphic designer to compete in the visually rich world of online content. For those of us with two left brains, Canva makes designing simple for everyone with a simple drag-and-drop functionality.

As it is with all things online, it’s loaded with tools to make the process of blogging less painful and, if you’re lucky, more fun!


What tools make your small business blogging a treat?

Core Business Assessment

Testimonial

Brooke Billingsley

Vice President
Perception Strategies

Synnovatia is a strategic coaching firm that is detailed and knowledgeable about business. i have a small business that grew from $150K to $750K because of the goal setting and resources that Synnovatia provided. It saves me years of learning on my own.

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