Small Business Advice

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Last year, I wrote about how Will and I traded offices in order to shake up our routines and get a fresh perspective on how we worked.

One of the things I lost in the move was my giant whiteboard.

This was the place that I kept all my long-tail to-do's, my plans, diagrams for new products and all my big ideas that I was going to get around to someday. My philosophy was that it was in front of me all day so I couldn't forget what I was supposed to be focusing on.

I hate little pieces of paper everywhere and I lose notepads by the dozen so I figured this was a clutter-free way to stay on top of my task.

What I didn't realize was how scattered that whiteboard made me.

Keeping all those notes in front of my eyes was just the same as having them all over the desk. I was constantly pulled in a hundred directions, subconsciously.

So, what was the solution for making sure the big projects didn't get put on the back burner while the little daily tasks of running a business got done too?

Repetition and technology.

For the big things I want to accomplish, the hefty goals, the dreams, the visions, I simply sit down with a note pad and write out, long hand, what I want (as if it has already happened) 100 times.

Yep. 100 times. Long hand.

It takes a few days for me to one of knock those out as they are the big things. I describe to myself what I want to feel and what my environment will be like when I've accomplished the goal. This programs my subconscious to never, ever forget what I'm working for.

I find that even when I have a hundred distractions, my mind always wanders back to the important things that I've programed into it.

As for the little details, I use the task list in my CRM software. I get a list each day of the things that have to be done and I check them off as I do them. Since I'm going to do all of them (I'm careful about not overbooking a day with tasks), it doesn't matter in which order as long as they are accomplished that day.

The little calendar only shows me what is on today's list so I'm not distracted by next Wednesday's junk now. Since I can put tasks on the calendar ahead of time, when I think of something to do, I just jot it in the calendar for a future date and forget about it.

What I've found using this system is that I sleep much better at night, I'm more focused during the day and I get about 5 times as much work done in a shorter period of time.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

Great Depression Podcast

I had a great opportunity last week to speak with Steve Mullen who runs the Start Up Biz podcast. He interviewed me about how more millionaires were made during the Great Depression than at any other time in history.

Click here to hear the podcast.

If you like what you hear and want to listen the full one and half hour teleseminar, you can register for it here.

Hope you enjoy the podcast and thanks again to Steve for a wonderful time!

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Okay, so you haven't heard from me in almost two months. But it's not because I haven't thought of you, really. I've been testing some things out and didn't want to bore you with the details if they fell flat on their face.

So, here's what I'm working on.

Is it possible to run a business from out out of the office?

Not just out of the office, but 6 time zones away.

So far, the answer is yes.

You see, a few weeks ago I did a little experiment. I spent two weeks getting all of my ducks in a row at the office, that is, having any appointments that needed to be done, gathering up documents to work on, creating a tidy little task list of things to do on my computer and then I packed a bag and went to Germany for 10 days.

Was it a vacation? Sure.

Did I get some work done while I was there? You betcha.

The goal here is to prove that you don't have to work in the business to work on the business and that you can combine fun and work in a healthy mix.

It all started when I met a very nice German woman online. We became friends and spent a lot of time discussing the cultural differences between Europe and the US.

One of the most startling differences is that by law Germans are guaranteed six weeks of vacation. And they take them all!

Contrast that to most of my American friends who can barely eek out a week and even then, they are panicked that something will go wrong so they are glued to their cell phones and computers.

When was the last time you had a vacation?

I mean a real one where you didn't feel stressed and where you took at least two weeks away to recharge? Isn't that what owing a business is all about anyway? The freedom to do as you please and to enjoy the fruits of your labors?

Take a moment to figure out what it would take to get away for two weeks. How much money would you need? Who could you outsource oversight of the business to? Or could you just put up a "gone fishing" sign and walk away for two weeks like my dentist does?

Seriously, summer is coming. Should you be enjoying it someplace sunny and warm, perhaps with a cold beverage in your hand?

In future posts I'm going to be talking a lot about how to put the life back in lifestyle business and I'll keep you posted on my tests. I'm taking a two-weeker at the end of June and then a modified four-weeker right after that. Stay tuned!

Automated Marketing

I just got back from the most amazing conference!

I spend the week in Scottsdale, AZ with the team from Infusion Software. We recently purchased their system and are hard at work learning to set it up.

If you're like me, you have a hundreds or even thousands of client and prospects you'd like to follow up with, but you can't seem to find a system to make it all happen seamlessly.

That's where Infusion comes in. With their system you can automate complete marketing campaigns that tie in email, direct mail, fax, voice recording and your sales team's actions in one system.

In addition, if you have an online presence (or want one) they can tie your entire online process into their CRM for a completely automated system. That means all the work of ordering and fulfillment gets done without you lifting  finger!

There is no way I can do the system justice in this blog so just go to their website and see for yourself
www.infusioncrm.com.

While you're checking them out, download their new e-book "The Edge" so you can see that these people aren't just software geeks, but real marketers!

Folks, I've been in sales and marketing for over twenty years and this is one of the best books I've read on what it takes to really so sales and marketing right. If you are only going to read one book the rest of this year, this should be the one.

I know I tell you to do a lot of things for your business. Some of it I know you take me up on, and other things I know you just brush off. This is one you should do. Automate your business. Let the system do the work so you can take off.

I'm headed to Europe for 10 days at the end of this month and then again for another 30 days this summer. I wouldn't be able to do that without this system. Seriously, check it out.

 

Brilliant stuff!

Perspective

I just got back from doing a delivery route for Meal on Wheels. My Rotary club does this twice a week and about once a month I participate. It involves loading up a bunch of boxes and bags of prepared food and taking it door to door to a list of recipients.

My route is always the same. I deliver to a high-rise retirement complex smack dab in the middle of one of the worst housing projects in Richmond. The people in this complex are mostly older, mostly in terrible health and very, very poor. The facility itself has been recently renovated but still smells of urine, cigarettes and old food. The residents live in  15x18’ rooms which include tiny kitchenettes and a small bath.

Every time I go there I am reminded of just how lucky the rest of us are. As I drive past the trash-filled streets, see the huddles of men on the corners and the boarded-up buildings, I am so thankful that I didn’t have to grow up in that environment. Can you imagine what your life would be like if your only role-models were drug dealers, prostitutes and welfare families? If your playground were littered with used needles and empty liquor bottles?

If you get a chance this week, take a stroll through one of your city’s “bad” neighborhoods. It might help you appreciate what you have and better understand how you can make the world a better place in a tiny way.

No Resources? No Problem!

Hi all. Sorry for the long absence but I'm working on some things that will make for some very compelling reading, very soon. I'm waiting for some legal and patent things to get finalized and then I'll have a fun story to share. Bear with me, if you will.

In the meantime, check out Tim Ferriss' blog. I think he'll stand in well for me!

Cheers!

A New Passion

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging quite as much as I have in the past.

First, accept my apologies for that. Things are humming at work and I've been a little distracted by some personal stuff.

Why is business humming you ask?

I've been asking myself the very same question. We had a rotten summer at Dancing Elephants. Just plain stinky. Things were really slow and we are puzzled by it. However, since we teach sales we figured we'd better keep prospecting and see what would happen. It doesn't look good if your sales training company isn't making many sales.

So we kept on having appointments and getting put off by just about everyone. It seemed no one wanted to hire us this summer.

That all changed in September. The sky opened up and all that prospecting we did over the summer came pouring out. We've had client work up to our eyeballs since then and it looks like it will continue until well into the New Year.

My partner, Will, even signed the single biggest contract we've ever had at DE. Not a bad end to a long drought.

The other reason I've been delinquent is that I've been pursuing a new passion. Yes, I'm cheating on yoru with a new blog.

It's called Good Monkeys and you can check it out if you like. I'd love to hear your comments and feedback. And you can sign up for an RSS feed if you like. I'll be podcasting it very soon.

I promise to have more info and advice over here as the winter wears on. Just give me a week or so to integrate the other blog into my daily life.

The Marketing Smart Guy

Sometimes life can make you sit up and pay attention.

I've been blogging for a little while now and though I'm not an everyday poster, I do my best to share info with you that I think will be meaningful and useful.

That has always been my intent with this blog, but the other day it gave something back to me.

It was a normal Wednesday morning and I was sitting at my computer at 6am like the geek that I am, when I got around to checking email.

And there it was, my gift.

It was an email from none other than David Wolfe, author of Firms of Endearment, the book I recommended in my last post!

It turns out he had some business ideas for me that he wanted to share. You can bet I was on the phone with him just as soon as I thought it was a decent hour to be calling.

He and I had a terrific discussion (and no, I'm not going to tell you about what, yet) and our conversation led me to his blog.

The dude is even smarter than I thought.

I wanted to share it with you because I think it will help you in your business endeavors. Go check it out and tell me what you think. I personally think he's on to something deep about marketing. And I thought I was the marketing smarty! Just goes to show we can all learn something.

Best Book You'll Read This Year

A special thanks to my friend Holly, who can spot a great book a mile away.

I'm just finishing up Firms of Endearment and I highly recommend you get it.

It started out as a research project to find out what brands Americans love. Not just like or recognize, but LOVE.

After identifying about 60 or so, the researchers decided to find out what makes those companies tick; that is, what do they do that makes consumers adore their brands.

Once they had discovered the secret (take care of your employees, vendors, customers and community and show them love), they looked at the financial performance of each company over the last 10 years. Interestingly, the firms of endearment blew the S&P 500 out of the water.

They even killed the Good To Great firms in those 10 years.

It just goes to show that you can do well by doing good.

Check it out. It will give you hope that you can be a multi-millionaire and still have a beautiful soul.

It's the little things...

As you know, I travel a fair amount for work. In the last 30 days I've been in Nashville (twice), Hilton Head, Toronto, Baltimore, Chicago and Roanoke. That means I get to spend a lot of time in hotels.

If you travel at all you know that hotels are climbing over themselves to differentiate from their competitors and attract customers. I've stayed in 7 different hotels in the last month but one of them stands out head and shoulders above the rest.

The Renaissance Inn in Oak Brook, IL is fabulous. It is a small hotel with limited amenities. No indoor pool or sauna, no Concierge level  and no suites. In short, it doesn't have any of the things that usually make a hotel attractive to a frequent traveler.

What they do have is amazing people.

From the moment I walked and someone pushed the elevator button for me while I was checking in (so I didn't have to wait for the elevator to arrive) to the helpful waitress at breakfast who looked up my conference room for me, they have been spectacular.

Three things stood out above the others that really made my trip.

I came in fairly late yesterday and, being tired from travel, I ordered room service. It arrived as expected and was absolutely perfect. The thing that made it remarkable was that my meal was accompanied by a large chocolate covered strawberry.

It was a tiny detail that made the meal for me. I'm not a big dessert eater but I do like just a taste of something sweet after dinner. How did they know? Score one for the Renaissance.

My second experience happened early this morning.

I'm an early riser and since I'm only here for a few days, I'm still on east coast time. That means I got up at 4am this morning. Instead of having coffee machines in the room, this hotel brings fresh coffee to your room with just a phone call.

At 4am when I called room service I was directed to the front desk automatically. The cheerful woman who answered informed me that there was no one in the kitchen at that hour but that she would see if she could find someone to bring me my requested hot tea anyway. Not 10 minutes later there was a knock at my door with a lovely young man bearing tea. That is service.

My second experience occurred at breakfast this morning. As I was enjoying a complimentary meal (somehow I became a Gold Elite member), a lovely woman came over to check on me.

Her sole function as near as I could tell was to make sure I was happy.

I assured her I was, and went back to my meal. A few moments later she came back with a small glass of thickish pink liquid and informed me that it was a complimentary strawberry banana smoothie to finish my meal. It was delicious and just the right touch.

I've been here less than 24 hours and yet I've had three  great experiences.

So how does your business do the little things right? What tiny little courtesy could you extend to your clients to set yourself apart?

I can tell you, as a jaded traveler and consumer, it is the little things that make the difference.