In the 14 plus years I’ve been a strategic coach, one of the greatest challenges faced by many small business owners and entrepreneurs is their ability to act upon the very plans and projects designed to grow their business. Overwhelmed by the many actions requiring what feels like “immediate attention”, the more important growth projects get put off until “tomorrow”. You know how this story ends, don’t you.
To put your business into a growth mode, consider the use of the “WWH” growth plan. “WWH” stands for the following:
What needs to be done
When will it be done
How will it be done
Here’s how you can grow your business with strategic coaching:
Create my 2012 strategic plan
Friday, February 3rd, 10 am – 2 pm
Schedule this in your calendar as an appointment with yourself. This prevents you from becoming distracted by other activities or putting off this vital activity until “tomorrow”.
1. Turn off all phones and email
2. Gather critical data from 2011
3. Re-evaluate and reset 2012 goals
4. Conduct necessary research
5. Develop my plan
6. Set up metrics
7. Schedule time each month to assess status and tweak the plan, if necessary.
You get the point. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Yet it’s not as easily applied because of the habits that already exist.
What would happen to your business growth if you were to implement strategic coaching for yourself and apply the “WWH” growth plan for one month? What have you got to lose?
Time is money. It’s a suitable mantra for any business professionals but its even more critical for the small office – home office entrepreneur.
Recently, I turned to the colleagues in my professional network for small business advice on their best time-saving technology. Here is what I learned:
- Kenneth Larson uses flash drives that allow you to work on a variety of client projects at a variety of locations and computers
- Lou Susi uses 'Design Thinking' — “sometimes just drawing out an idea and talking through it can save a ton of time and energy.”
- Wallace Jackson suggests a “Gateway HexaCore 64-bit Win7 AMD Workstation with 9GB DDR5 & 1.5TB HDD” for lighting fast speed.
- George Tyler & Lorraine Duncan recommend “Hootsuite for scheduling LinkedIn, Tweets and Facebook posts.” Hootsuite allows you to schedule social media posts months in advance. This is a time-saving technology we happen to love also.
- Jimmy uses “Dropbox and Giant cloud application (these both are file sharing & transfer applications). Also Location Based Apps on my iPhone...help me to reach destination easy.”
- Gayle LaSalle shared some wise council when she said “knowing when to say no. It is a complete sentence, after all. Don't agree to do things you don't want to or don't have the time for.” Can we get an Amen?
- Dhanasekar D uses his phone as a time-saver. Rather than live behind his keyboard, email or social media, Dhana saves time by picking up his phone to get fast answers.
- Cheri Baker is a big fan of “dual monitors.” It's amazing how much faster you can get desk work done if you can read off of one screen while typing or inputting into the other screen.”
- Dean Berry’s “favorite time-saving technology is www.My28Links.com reasoning: I do not have to type urls, search my favorites or try to remember all the websites I visit on a daily, monthly or yearly basis.”
- Kim Luu is a big fan of “cloud based on most everything. It allows me to spontaneously capture thoughts as I dictate as well as work with clients. I can access anything I need.”
- Bernie Siben became a fast friend with his time-saving response: “A Smith & Wesson - so much faster than poison.” We always appreciate a good sense of humor!
- Dave Maskin suggests “Google search”.
- Chris Barton likes using a “small notepad and pen”.
- Rebecca Gebhardt Brizi highly recommends “MindMaps - Mainly because it easy to review and re-arrange your notes, schedule, whatever it is you are capturing.” Check out Wisemapping, a free online mindmapping platform.
- Judy Hojel is a raving fan of her “pen and paper! I plan many training courses and presentations and I've learnt over the years that I can save myself much time and frustration by putting pen to paper first. Later I can transfer my information, but for me the initial story boarding is best done without technology!”
- Cristina Falcao uses “email, cloud storage and USB sticks”.
- Dawud Miracle uses the best non-technology available by taking regularly schedule breaks. “Every 50 minutes, I step away from my work, go outside for a few minutes, breathe in fresh air and drink some water. Doing this 5, 6, 7 times a day has increased my overall productivity by about 25% over just sitting and grinding all day or just taking a break here and there.”
- Aabhas Zaveri advocates “Automation Anywhere, a business process automation tool that automates practically anything that I do over my desktop, network or internet manually and repeatedly.”
- Laura Lara uses remote access with her clients. It not only saves her time but keeps her off the freeway.
- Zoey Smith is a big fan of all things Google. With a highly collaborative team, she finds Google calendar, email search, docs, and talk help her and her team stay connected.
- Scott Siders uses Ping.fm to automate his social media posts and save valuable time.
- Margaret Jacoby loves her new Neat Desk, desktop scanner, to save her time and keep her receipts and papers under control.
- Time Trade is one of our favorite new time-saving technologies. Time Trade affords you the ease of scheduling important meetings and/or calls via email while avoiding the back-and-forth time-wasting email exchange.
What is YOUR favorite time-saving technology?
When sites like Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook launched, they were met with a moderate amount of skepticism. Even some of my colleagues – specialists in the field of branding and marketing – peppered me with disbelief that actual leads could, in fact, be generated through online social networking.
I admit. In it’s infancy, there was little known about the impact of social media on lead generation. Additionally, there wasn’t any real strategy for how to effectively blend social media into the marketing mix. As we experimented with various methods, social media finally got some traction. Now it has “grown up” and we finally have some numbers and trends that make sense.
Recently, I had the opportunity to listen in on a webinar entitled “The Science of Timing” presented by Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, of Hubspot. Just in case you don’t have time to listen to the entire 53 minutes, here are some of the highlights that caught our attention. (We tried to be as accurate as possible while taking notes but this guy talks faster than we do. Let us know of any corrections.)
Twitter
- Don’t be afraid to tweet frequently, especially if you’re tweeting quality content. (No lunch menus, please.)
- People who tweet up to 22 times/day actually increased the number of followers.
- There’s very little difference in B2B and B2C when it comes to twitter.
- Best time to tweet is 2 – 5 pm EDT
- Best days to tweet are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday
- Best practice for driving traffic to your site – tweet one link and allow time to pass before next tweet to allow link to ‘breathe’
- Do not tweet identical tweet repeatedly. Learn to say the same thing differently with each tweet.
- Adding “Founder” or “Official” to your profile increases the number of followers.
- Learn the best time to post a tweet you wanted retweeted at www.tweetwhen.com
Facebook
- Pages that post every other day are likely to have more followers.
- There’s very little difference in B2B and B2C when it comes to Facebook.
- More articles are posted during the week.
- More articles are shared on the weekend.
- Best time to post is 11 am EDT or 7 pm EDT.
Email Marketing
- There’s very little difference in B2B and B2C.
- Abuse reports are highest on Saturday and Sunday; lowest on Monday.
- Bounce rate is highest on weekends.
- Open rate is higher on Saturday and Sunday. This came as a shock to us. Apparently it’s Contra Competitive Timing. This means that when fewer people are speaking, you get more attention. The higher open rate on the weekends is because fewer people are marketing on those days – at least for now.
- Unsubscribe rate is higher on weekends also as more subscribers have time to consider whether to continue receiving your information.
- Click rate are highest on weekends.
- Best time of the day to send is early in the morning as early sends are the first ones that get read. This makes sense when you consider your own email behavior.
- Don’t be afraid to send more frequently.
- View unsubscribes as good. It means they’re not interested.
Blogging
- Most blogs are read in the morning.
- Men have a tendency to read blogs at night; women in the morning.
- Best time for page views is 10 am EDT or 11 pm EDT.
- Comments spike early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday.
- Best days to blog for SEO/links are Monday and Thursday.
- Blogs that publish once a day get more benefit. (Yikes! We better get going.)
And, finally, the best quote of all, “If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.”
Tell us your experience with timing and results from your social media efforts. Inquiring minds want to know.
New products and services are the lifeblood of any organization. Although new launches can be risky, a well-thought out process leverages your risk to create a product or service with sticking power.
While most entrepreneurs with sure-fire ideas want nothing more than to pull the trigger and release the product/service into the wild, a systematic approach works best to ensure the greatest likelihood of financial success. Let’s take a look at the various stages of product/service development:
A. Direction – Idea generation is a systematic search for new product/service ideas. To create a few viable ideas, you may need to generate hundreds of ideas. Pick the brains of those around you – inside and outside of your business. Don’t hesitate to involve your own customers in your idea incubator.
Make sure you’re able to spot good ideas and drop poor ones quickly. Ask yourself -
- Is it consistent with my mission, vision, and strategies?
- Is it aligned with my objectives and goals?
- Do I have the resources and skills to make it happen?
- Does it deliver greater value to my target audience?
Screening your ideas ensures that any idea that gets through means added value to your clients – and you!
B. Design – Developing your concept gives you an opportunity to consider – and present – several options to your group of target consumers. Seeking input at the front end saves time and money at the back end.
Once you’ve defined your target audience, projected sales and profits, determined costs, established a budget, and identified your marketing mix, you’ll be ready to determine the viability of your product/service.
Having a good idea is not enough. It has to be good idea that’s profitable for your business to grow!
C. Test – Finally! Your product/service are ready to be introduced into a more-realistic market setting. This allows you to test your product/service AND its entire marketing program including positioning, pricing, branding, and advertising.
It’s important during the test stage to maintain an open mind for necessary adjustments or modifications that may need to be made for it to be a successful addition to your offerings.
D. Introduction – You’re ready for a full-fledged launch! In addition to rolling out your product/service to an entire target market, be sure to include a post-launch performance evaluation. Inspect what you expect.
Given the rapid change in consumer tastes, technology, and competition, the future of your business may well depend on your ability to conquer a new market with some innovation.
During my 20’s and 30’s, I was running … running my business and my health into the ground. There wasn’t time for physical activity. Like many entrepreneurs, I was busy building my business. Unfortunately, while keeping my business on track, my health was veering off track.
At the age of 40, jarred by a health crisis and a physician who said I’d “never climb a mountain or run a marathon”, I vowed to climb a mountain and run a marathon…and return to my natural healthy state.
My first-hand experience taught me what studies are now confirming … that physical fitness has a significant impact on business fitness.
A study with 366 entrepreneurs demonstrated the relationship between sales and the amount of rigorous exercise performed by the entrepreneur. The study measured sales against running and biking with sales against weight lifting. The study demonstrated that while running, biking, and weight lifting influenced the entrepreneur’s ability to meet personal goals (personal satisfaction, independence, and autonomy) only those entrepreneurs who incorporated running and biking into their program were able to demonstrate a significant improvement in sales over those who did not.
Entrepreneurs have a wider range of responsibilities and pressures than the average businessperson. Lacking the depth of resources, entrepreneurs are juggling multiple roles and responsibilities of being salesperson, marketing director, spokesperson, negotiator, bookkeeper, administrator asst. and technician delivery the service. In addition, they have to bear the costs of any mistakes made.
It’s challenging to justify exercise when one could be selling, marketing, or growing their business even though numerous studies show exercise reduces stress, stimulates creativity, and improves self-esteem. 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 entrepreneurs performing at their best.
Now we know … working out improves not only your waistline, but your bottom line as well. Apparently you do have to move it to make it.
Toleration is a term coined by the late Thomas Leonard, a founding father of the coaching industry. Defined as things that “bug us”, tolerations are a major drain on our energy. In fact, did you know that as much as 80% of one’s life is built around tolerations? Yikes! That’s a lot of wasted energy that could be invested in more constructive activities to move you forward.
Tolerations are like sand in the machinery of life. Although seemingly small and insignificant, they easily wear you down, make you tired, cloud your judgment, and fog your focus. That’s no way to spend your day.
Tolerations occur in all areas of our lives. We put up with things around our house. Think of that cracked paint on the trellis or the chip in the kitchen window from the kids playing kickball in the backyard several years ago. Not enough to warrant an emergency but just enough to capture your energy each time you pass by and say to yourself, “I need to get that fixed.” Like open files on your computer, each requires energy to remain open and slows down the speed of other programs currently in use.
Tolerations crop up at the office with cluttered desks, messy files, and mediocre performance. They arise with automobiles low on gas crammed with empty fast-food bags. They show up in our health when we eat at our desk, on the run, or from that fast-food bag in the car. Tolerations surround us.
If tolerations are such a drain on our energy, why do we tolerate? Part of our willingness to tolerate comes from how we’re raised. Do you remember your parents saying “don’t rock the boat”? Other tolerations come from compromises we’ve talked ourselves into. And, some of our tolerations exist because there’s a payoff.
Are you ready to stop the tolerations keeping you from your potential? If so, here’s a few steps to get you started:
- Tune in to all the things that “bug you”. As the antennae goes up on your awareness, you’ll be amazed at just how much you’ve invested in toleration.
- Keep a running list of your tolerations over the next several days.
- Identify the hard and soft costs of your tolerations. Hard costs are those known and measurable (i.e., the cost to replace the kitchen window). Soft costs are those less easy to identify (i.e., energy tied up in projects not related to your goals).
- Select the “costliest” toleration and eliminate it. But don’t stop there! Eliminating the cause of the toleration ensures it won’t return.
- Continue through your list until you’ve eliminated all your tolerations and their causes.
Once you start saying goodbye to those things that bug you, you’ll be happier, more fun to be around, and have much more energy to invest in moving your business forward. And isn’t that something to look forward to!
Even with the best intentions, a ‘to do’ list can become a gathering place for all things – including those we have the best intention of checking off our list. If, however, your ‘to do’ list gets too long, you’ll soon feel overwhelmed and stuck in neutral.
Are you feeling that way at this very moment? If so, stop what you’re doing and take 10 minutes to declutter your task list by asking “Where does this belong?”
- Do it – This is a good action to take for all tasks that take less than 2 minutes to complete
- Delegate it – If you can’t delegate the entire task, is there part of the task that could be delegated that would keep you moving to it’s completion?
- Dump it – Let’s face it. Many a task that seemed so important when placed on the list tarnishing with time. If it’s really no longer a priority – or in alignment with your goals – it may be time to get it off your list completely.
- Deposit it – I really want to say “file” but it doesn’t rhyme with the other actions. Whether it’s a file or a drawer or your calendar, if its important enough of a task to remain on your “to do” list, put it where it will get done.
Remember the quote from William James , “Nothing [is] so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” <Sigh>
What have you found helpful in keeping your “to do” list manageable?
Have you heard of the expression “death by a thousand paper cuts”? I’ve just recently heard it. Frankly, I don’t know if its a movie or just a saying. It doesn’t really matter as it makes it’s point – bleeding to death from thousands of supposedly insignificant paper cuts.
That’s how I feel about email. It seems so harmless – so inconsequential – yet it can kill the most productive day in no time.
Each morning as I contemplate my day, I consider tackling more significant, profound projects before opening the gates of hell – email. Yet somewhere in my mind, there’s a sense that I can launch my email program, speedily respond and delete, and be done.
It never quite works that way.
Once the email program rears its ugly head, its never ending. The requests, the ads, the information, and the stories keep coming at me until my once hopeful and productive day dies – death by a thousand emails – and its only 6:35 AM. <Sigh>
If you follow me on Facebook, you know I’ve recently been plagued by the growing amount of paperwork on my desk. This pregnant pile of paperwork has been adding multiple do’s to my already extensive “to do” list. I have to admit, its become a bit overwhelming. When the inbox on my desk begins to break out of the periphery, I find myself sorting and organizing the various pieces into comparable piles in hopes of making it easier to address.
This morning, as I sat sipping my morning coffee contemplating my piles and do’s , I experienced a flash of insight – most of what was creating my bulging paper piles and “to do” list was comprised of to do’s requested by others. What??? How did that happen?
I do recall one of my early coaches telling me I was “a yes waiting to happen”. In my moment of caffeinated clarity, I discovered I had allowed my “to do” list to be hijacked! It was no longer my to do but rather had become a “you do” list.
It probably started like this: “Can you do this? Can you do that?” Plus there were the items I readily volunteered to do because the yes within eagerly raised its hand. What was even more profound was the discovery that many of the actions were not in alignment with my strategic plan. Yikes! Being pulled off track can happen so quickly.
Even though I feel compelled to provide a list of things for you to do that would reduce your “to do”, I realize I would only be creating a “you do” list. For the time-being I’ll suppress the urge. It will be one less thing for both of us to do.
Do you ever find yourself stuck? Unable to move forward on a project or a goal? In your quest to jar yourself loose, are you asking yourself “Why can’t I move forward? Why am I feeling this way? Why am I so stuck?!”
Why? Why? Why?
“Why” is a great question to ask if you want to understand underlying motivations. Unfortunately, these drivers aren’t always so easy to identify. The inability to discover the answers, along with lack of movement, create frustration, anxiety, procrastination, avoidance, and guilt.
A solution to the inertia is to ask “what” questions. Questions beginning with “what” are about movement and activity. When you ask “what”, you create energy and reveal solutions that dislodge the log jam of immobility. This movement leads to further movement – like a snowball rolling downhill – gather more and more momentum with each revolution.
Good “what” questions to ask yourself include:
- What needs to happen?
- What needs to change in order for me to move forward?
- What is it going to take to get off square one?
- What is one action that I’m willing to take right now?
- What do I want to have happen?
- What are my other choices?
- What has worked for me in the past?
- What is missing for me?
“What” is about action. What have you found helpful to get you moving when you’re stuck?