Some years back, a man we’ll call Tom, half-noticed he was tired all the time. Tom lacked energy, had trouble getting going at times, and little stamina.

Tom was a busy man and didn’t give much attention to the symptoms. He just figured whatever it was would pass. Finally, a relative of his, we’ll call her wife, persuaded him to make a doctor appointment.

The doctor informed Tom he had a heart blockage, and bypass surgery was required.

Shocked, Tom said he’d get something scheduled. It would probably take a month or so to arrange his schedule enough to get it done.

“Sir,” the doctor replied, “we are not releasing you from this hospital without getting this taken care of. You are at tremendous risk as we speak. This needs to be done in days, not months. If we let this go, you won’t be here in a couple months.”

The severity of the situation was laid out. The truth is the symptoms were there for quite some time. Tom just didn’t recognize them for what the problem really was.

And even when the issue was pointed out, the severity still wasn’t a reality. It had to come down to a measurable amount of time before fatality was possible for Tom to take action.

Want to know something?

Everything Tom experienced with his health could be pulsing through the arteries of your business right now.

There might be certain signs you think about in the back of your mind, but aren’t aware of what they really mean, or the urgency they represent.

Maybe you feel like something isn’t quite right in your business, but the busy schedule justifies ignoring it for now.

Sluggish sales?

Difficulty getting a head of steam going in client growth?

Have bursts of fiscal energy, but weak stamina?

If those signs meant your business was actually trying to warn you it was floundering at the heart and could fail tomorrow, would that motivate you to look into it today?

Possible diagnosis.

If high blood pressure is the silent heart killer in humans, low technology is its equal in business.

Check this out.

Let’s assume for instance, you are a small vending operator. I know you’re not, but let’s assume. Play with me here.

Arriving at the shop, the truck has already been loaded with much more product than needed, to account for unexpected sales.

The route is methodically serviced according to a static schedule on the clipboard. Along the route, you find out sales at one account are very low because of a problem with the top selling machine over the weekend, and no one bothered to call it in.

You have to take time from the route to repair the machine, but eventually you get back out there.

Even though sales were up on a couple accounts, which was awesome, you found a few accounts didn’t even need to be serviced. You did anyway, because you drove to this part of town and are standing at the machine. You aren’t about to come back just for this one in a couple days.

Arriving back at the office a bit tired and quite late, money is counted. Data is entered, and the truck is again overloaded with product for tomorrow’s prescheduled–some need filling and some don’t– static route. You finally go home.

Everything seems simple enough, right?

Until one day a company develops software which taps into 21st century technology built into today’s vending machines.

This software will alert the office if there is a break-in, if there’s a lack of sales due to a problem with a machine, or prevent loss of sales when a preset amount of sales or empty selections exist.

This software will let you remotely inventory machines from the office over a cup of coffee. So, only what is needed to fill today’s route is loaded on the truck. There is no more overloading the truck with product that won’t be used.

It will even determine dynamic scheduling–whether there is a need to service a particular account that day or not. No more traveling to locations only to find out they don’t need servicing.

It will allow dynamic scheduling of routes around a problematic machine which saves lost sales, and increases route efficiencies at the same time.

Basically, this software streamlines a company right into idol truck time sitting in the lot.

The truck sits in the parking lot nearly half the time it did before even though sales have actually increased due to the smart data the software produced.

Of course, that means there is opportunity for more accounts, more sales, more profits.

For the same or even less time spent previously, nearly double the sales can be achieved. Now that is using technology to make your company heart-healthy, right?

There is one problem.

Remember the symptoms you experienced? Sluggish sales, trouble getting some momentum going, and burst of energy with weakened stamina? Remember you didn’t really know what the signs represented?

That’s right. You don’t’ even know the lack of technology is creeping its way through your companies arteries like bacon grease towards the heart. You aren’t aware artery cleansing technology exists yet.

Or if you do, you haven’t been able to take the time to look into it, or so you think.

Okay, just like Tom, you’ve now been made aware of the problem to your business and you think, “Wow, I see why I’ve been struggling. I need to get this taken care of. It will take me some time to get this worked out, maybe a few months.”

If there were a business doctor in the room he or she might say…

“Sir, you don’t understand. You are at tremendous risk as we speak. If one of your competitors approaches your clients with the customized route servicing they can supply through innovative technology, your business won’t be here in a couple months.”

Sound familiar?

Even though you know what caused the symptoms in your business, and understand the severity of the situation, there is still a problem. There is the matter of finding some cash to get the blockage removed.

You estimate roughly $20,000 is needed for the software, additional vending equipment, and accessories to allow the software to do its job. You’ve allowed for the outfitting of current machines, but also equipment for the additional accounts you’ll get with all the extra time you’ll have.

It’s a chunk of change, but that’s okay. You’ve calculated the return on investment will take only six-months or so to occur.

There is one last blockage to clear up. It will take a few days to get an appointment at the local bank, they’ll gather your information, send it off to some underwriter who doesn’t know anything about your character, and it’s pretty certain in three-weeks they’ll deny you anyway. They don’t lend money for equipment that you don’t have accounts for yet.

Besides, there is a loan for the truck and the distributor is floating the vending machine financing already, there is little chance they’ll go for it.

The answer? Again technology.

There are companies that not only understand business situations like yours, but they use technology and non-traditional methods to approve loans.

Imagine if you decided right this instant you needed that software. You went on-line, gave a reputable lender your bank information, QuickBooks information, even your social media feeds. They looked at you as a business owner: your ability to pay, character, and stability.

You aren’t evaluated by some post-recession statistics, but personalized information accumulated through today’s technology.

Here’s what’s amazing.

You could decide now you need the equipment and software, go on-line to apply for the money, get approved, have the money transferred to your bank, order the equipment the business needs, and find it took less time to do all that than it did driving to the last vending site you found didn’t need servicing that day.

Reality is, by the time your traditional bank notified you of a denial, you could already have removed the artery clogging sales problem in your business and be using your new technology to potentially double your sales.

Tell me technology isn’t crucial to business success today.

If you aren’t using technology in your business, and your competition is, how much longer will your business be here?

Don’t ignore the signs and symptoms. Don’t wait until you suffer a fatal attack at the heart of your business.

I know you aren’t a vending contractor. I can guarantee you though, there is blockage cleansing technologies in the heart of nearly every field today.

Find out where it is in yours, and use it.

If you need finances to get it done and know you will be a success, you can always get in touch with a reputable technology driven lender like Kabbage.

They are a 21st century, technology driven lender serving an unmet need of business owners with a plan and a passion.

You can red more about what Time, Forbes, Bloomberg, and MSNBC say about Kabbage.

Disclosure. I receive nothing for mentioning Kabbage on this post. I simply feel it is an innovative lender using technology to help companies reach goals otherwise blocked by traditional lenders. Borrow responsibly.

[]: http://www.kabbage.com/

Whether you have kids or not, I think you’d agree there is a common struggle to balance time between family and business.

After all, if we don’t spend time in our business, baby ain’t eating Gerber’s this week, right?

We bottle feed them. Similac for the baby, Red Bull for the business.

We cradle them in the middle of the night with tears streaking the cheeks. Gentle burping for baby. Anxious spreadsheet keying for business.

We provide a home for them to grow up safe and sound. Brick and mortar for baby, and for the business? …

Well, that’s what this post is about. What kind of home to provide for your business. More specifically, Where not to build your business foundation.

So where don’t we want to dig the foundation of our building? Ready for it?

Social media.

Did someone just say, “Dude, that’s crazy! Not use social media?”

Wait a second now.

Of course we want to use them, they are incredibly powerful. In a formula for attracting business—demand, reach, pricing, and copy, social media has the power to reach. No question about that one.

The point is not to let your business be so reliant on social media platforms, that it overrides your own.

We aren’t even getting into a social network’s right to use your written or multi-media material without your permission. Actually, that’s not right, they do have your permission, simply by using their platform. They just don’t have to let you know if, or where, they are using it.

Another topic for another time.

But let’s say you built your own web site using your provider’s hosting package. It wasn’t easy. You learned a lot, which was good.

Now it looks… absolutely fantastic… well…, I guess it’s okay. You’re proud of it anyway. A work in progress, and you’re okay with that.

You then jump up to some social media sites, open accounts, and set up profiles there.

One day while tweaking some add-on function to your hand-built web site, you realize there is a whole team of people at social media HQ working up cool networking tools for your page on their platform, on their clock, not yours.

Testing them out, you realize, “Man, this is a lot easier, and a lot more powerful than tools over at my site.” I can post my blogs there and people can comment. I don’t have to worry about comment spam or getting third party filters set up. I don’t have to monitor them as much. You begin to wonder why you just wouldn’t set up shop there.

Soon, you put more of your content on social media, because you’re getting activity and it’s keeping you too busy responding to people and marketing yourself there to bother updating your own site.

Until one day you look away from your FB page, over your shoulder, as your better half calls from the kitchen.

“We got an automated call from your web host. Your domain is up for renewal. The cost went up this year. Are you planning on renewing it?”

Ummmm?

See the tempting transition going on here?

We can be so easily drawn to over use social media platforms, because they are so powerful and can reach so many.

But, you’ll see in a second how…

Your Business Could Be In Danger on Social Media Platforms

Popularity.

Sitting here at my desk on a sunny afternoon, I can’t really imagine how Facebook, YouTube, and the others would ever step out of grace and popularity with the public. In fact, I don’t think any social media source ever has fallen…

Wait a minute. I forgot about MySpace. Remember MySpace? Oh, it’s still out there, somewhere.

It was huge in its day. Everyone was clamoring to get on MySpace. From kids to artists, to businesses. In fact, so many businesses were on it, you couldn’t look at a page without getting the deer in the headlights look from all the ads.

In the middle of its windfall net popularity, no one would imagine it would have dropped to the level it is today.

So, what if you had built your business model, MySpace dependent? You’d be hurting today.

“Yeah but,” you say, “I could see the popularity dropping, and do something about it before it effected my business.”

That is true. I wasn’t even all that heavy on MySpace, and I could see it struggling. But, let’s say you saw it coming, and you were able to start changing your direction to another similar platform.

There are the countless hours of changing your network funnel and rebuilding your following. There is the loss of potential revenue during the transition. There is the energy which could be used elsewhere, like spending time with family? Plus, if you decide to set up camp on yet another social media platform, there is the risk of reliving another marketing disaster.

Aside from all that, what if, and we’re just supposing now, right? But what if you suddenly experienced…

Account Closure.

“That would never happen,” you say. Well? I wouldn’t want to challenge the Terms of Use on social media platforms and let them get wind of it.

Do you really think a huge organization like Facebook or Google could afford a mouse click’s time to consider you breaching their rules? Or should they? Considering their scope, size, and posted Terms of Use? It is their platform, you are a guest in their house. It is not yours.

Can you imagine the impact that would have if your business was so embedded in a social media account, and they expressed their right to close your account, because you unknowingly violated their Terms of Use policies?

Catastrophic might describe it.

In fact, you don’t even have to violate anything for them to take your page.

Coca-Cola is on Facebook, right?

Did you know it wasn’t Coca-Cola who started their Facebook page?

It was started by a fan of Coca-Cola’s.

Did you know that Facebook, expressing their rights, just pulled the plug out from under this fan, and gave the page to Coca-Cola?

Fortunately for this fan, Coca-Cola came back to him and made it right. Lucky him.

And this guy had tons of people on it. It was just a fan page at the time, but it would have been a business models dream to have had the amount of followers on there.

In a moment’s decision, not his, he lost control. And that brings us to the last point today…

Control.

Why wouldn’t you want control over your own business, on your own platform?

By all means, use the social media outlets to target clients and customers, but then direct them to your web site.

Put out good, informational content to keep them there.

Draw them in from resources other than social media as well. Guest blogging. Publishing your own podcast. Do some target networking. Even more traditional market funneling methods are still viable such as presentations at Chamber of Commerce events, and networking at trade conferences.

Would you agree that as you run your business, you might see an opportunity to take it in a certain direction? Maybe you see a windfall opportunity you can’t pass up.

What happens though if the social media platform policies don’t allow for you to do it, but you’ve built your entire business dependent on that model?

You’ve lost control over your business. You might as well be working for, “the man.”

The way we talk, and the way we are encouraged to talk about social media pages is: my Facebook page, my Pinterest page, my this page, my that page.

What we forget is we are guests in their homes. They are NOT our pages at all, or our accounts.

They are property of that particular social media organization, and that’s the way we should treat it.

You would think it strange to invite a friend from work to stay with you while they’re going through a rough stretch, and then overhear them say to someone, “Oh hey, come on over to my place. I’m having a wild party tonight.”

Then when you pull in your driveway, you notice your name is scratched off the mailbox, and your friend’s name is etched in.

Opening the door there is some stranger flopped out on the couch.

It wouldn’t be long and you’d establish rules of the house too. And if your guest doesn’t abide by them, you change the locks on the door. Problem solved.

Social media platforms have the same rights.

As entrepreneurs, our businesses are our babies. Bringing them into the world and bedding them down on a social media platform is like putting baby down for a nap, going out to the mailbox, and realizing your house that’s sitting on that nice waterfront peninsula, wasn’t a peninsula at all.

It was a landscaped barge, owned by someone else, and they just decided to take it out to sea.

It looked like it was yours, but it really wasn’t. And everything in it, including your baby, just went bye-bye.

That’s not a place you want to find yourself or your baby.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try, try, try until you succeed!

To tell you the truth? It’s too much work to be anyone other than me.

I’ve got a confession though.

When I started writing, that wasn’t the case at all.

I turned into some Shakespearian writing hack, only with about 50,000 less words than old Willie sported in his vocabulary.

Gee, I hope that didn’t bother you I called William Shakespeare, Willie.

See, that’s what I mean. If he were here at my desk, and I was writing about him? I’d still call him Willie, or Will, or maybe even Bill.

I mean no disrespect at all. If he found it offensive? I’d call him what he wanted, of course.

Even though I’m easy-going and lay back, when I began writing I was either too rigid or swung the opposite and became this flowery conversationalist.

Decades ago, I copped a major offense at my creative writing instructor who said I was writing too flowery. I tried to change my style during the writing course, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get it in my head.

You know what I did?

I asked myself, “Why am I beating myself over the head with this stuff? Why don’t I just write like I talk? Why try to be someone I’m not?”

Little did I know it back then, that’s what the market would look for in writers years down the road.

Here’s the deal. If you’re going to write about a new headset for instance, what sounds better…?

“The XL5 Super Boom headset sports a rigid body for durable use. The 2.5 cm built-in woofer perfectly balances the high treble for a pleasurable listening experience anywhere.” We’ve coated the earpieces with a special moisture resistant polymer to prevent premature unit breakdown.”

Or…

“Whether you’re jamming in the park while jogging, rocking out in the library studying, or drowning out your mom’s oldies while in the car; the bass will sound like it’s rattling the fenders off and highs that put you on stage with the band. The XL5 Super Boom won’t break if you drop them either. We’ve tossed them on concrete from 25-feet over 100 times and they still rock! Sweat on them all you want while working out, we’ve moisture proofed the grills and speakers, so you’re good to go.”

Bottom-line? Write more like you speak than you would if submitting your college thesis. Because, it isn’t your English prof you’re writing for, it’s your buying customer.

Then, be prepared to offend the grammarians in your life.

Proper grammar is best practice, but we do talk in sentence fragments, start our conversation with “but, or “and, and use slang you won’t find in the dictionary.

Of course, there are certain writing environments which lend themselves to lean either way, and I’m being pretty casual here. The point is, people respond more to a casual tone than one they feel they are being talked down to, or swimming in technical or corporate speak.

I’ve seen comparisons time over, including my own experiences where conversational tones beat out tech talk.

Years ago, I wrote an e-mail campaign for an organization. One of the board members thought it too casual. This person tossed down the white glove, re-wrote it, and submitted it to the board for review.

Guess which one the board wanted?

My campaign is still used to this day.

The board member who re-wrote my piece is articulate, educated, and has an art background… A very capable person.

But, for the project we were working on, to get the best results it called for a fun, casual tone.

Here’s a tip to help overcome this Shakespearian phenomena when sitting down to write.

Imagine you are sitting across from your mom or a friend. Then, just relax, and write like you’d talk to them. Imagine them listening to you, nodding their head, getting every word.

You might even imagine them asking questions about the topic. If you get one? Mark them down. Those questions might well be your customer’s questions. If so, you’ll need to answer them in your content.

When you’re done, go back to fix up glaring grammar errors, take out as many instances of “that” or words ending in “ly,” and other similar unproductive boo-boos.

Try this technique on your next content piece. Taylor it to your industry and the level of your readers, but stay under the eighth-grade reading level. If you can get to the fifth-grade, even better.

It’s not about dumbing down or writing unintelligently.

It’s all about being understood and identifying with your customer or client.

Hey, even those fancy suits gather at the coffee pot or water cooler and talk in a casual tone about their lives or company events.

You’ll dramatically improve your readership if you write conversationally. Of course, there is a lot more to content writing than tone, but this is a foundational element which… sets the tone… pardon the pun.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

If you don’t already know, social proofing is nothing more than a tool used by the marketing industry to gain customer’s trust of their product, service, or company based on the word of others. It isn’t new, but the more our busy lives become reliant upon the internet, the more role social proofing plays in our decision making.

There are several…

Types of Social Proofs

• By the masses.

We see this in product reviews, YouTube comments, and Facebook “likes.” Proof is validated by the viewpoint of many individuals or companies.

For instance, if we are interested in purchasing a new microwave, and our research shows many product reviews of satisfied customers, we tend to trust them. You’ll find this on Amazon for instance. You’ll even see a note at the bottom of the page saying…

“Those who bought this product also bought…”

We find comfort in the views and actions of others. We assume at least some of those people did their research, bought the product, and now give their thumbs up.

Social proof tells us, after all, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

• Expert’s endorsement.

Another method of trust is through an expert in a field. When looking for our microwave, if we saw an endorsement from a respected chef, a published nutritionist, or Consumer Reports; we trust their word.

Again, we may not know much more than to hit the coffee cup icon to heat a cup of water, but these other folks? They know their stuff, so we can trust them.

• Celebrities.

Closely related to an expert is an endorsement of a celebrity. Odd really, because years ago you’d see Michael Jackson doing Pepsi commercials and he never even drank Pepsi.

Actors, singers, politicians, or anyone in the public’s eye, provided they are well liked, achieves similar social proofing.

Whether they use the product or are just getting paid to put their face to it, it doesn’t matter. It’s what people perceive that matters.

• Testimonies.

Testimonies from individuals in similar life situations also works. For instance, one like…

“A single parent trying to raise three young kids on two part-time jobs… sigh… it’s nearly impossible to find enough time and money at the end of my week to put a decent meal on the table. I don’t’ spend it if I don’t have to, but my ten year old microwave died last month and I couldn’t go any longer without one. I bought this one and boy is it a life saver. It wasn’t as expensive as many out there, and it’s super easy to use, easy to clean too which I really like… not like my old one. Plus, I got some really good vegetarian ideas from the recipes that came with it. Got to go, one’s in the high chair screaming as I type.” –Bea Leever, Anytown, USA

This type of proofing carries a little less weight than the others, but somewhere out there among the many single parents out there identifying with trying to make ends meet, this testimony is selling a microwave.

• Friends and family.

Last in our examples are the people we know and trust. We will buy a particular product based solely on the fact someone we knew bought it, rather than its cost or even if it is the best of what we’re looking for.

We trust the person, so we trust their judgement. We drag our entire opinion, love, and loyalty of that person right into the product catalog with us.

Of course, if that person said they didn’t like the product, as with any of the above social proofing types, we won’t buy.

So, with that very brief description of social proofing, when doesn’t it work?

Social proof will not work if it has…

• Negative foundation.

Or…

• Little proof

Negative Foundation

If we were to advertise our microwave like…

“We may not have the most sales in the microwave market, not everyone quite gets it yet, but we have the best one out there, hands down.

Be the first one on your block to sport the industries quietest, sleek profiled machine while chatting with friends over Chicken Paprika or Italian Lasagna.”

Although we are enticed to be the first to get in on something, and are tantalized with a couple delicious meals, the underlying proof is…

We are told very few people want this machine just now. So, we begin to distrust it, or ask why aren’t they the largest microwave seller.

Market tests show negative social proofing has the opposite result. In Arizona’s Petrified Forest, there was a problem with people stealing pieces and destroying this natural treasure.

A sign was placed to please not do as so many have done before, taking pieces, and to please help preserve the park.

The result was, because visitors were told so many people had done it before, it must be alright, despite the plea not to steal.

Astonishingly, they found theft had not only continued, but tripled in the area of that signage.

In our little microwave case, we are sure to send customers running to the microwave manufacturer with the most sales. Let someone else be the first on the block to buy this one, right?

Little Proof

This one is not difficult to explain.

If you are on Facebook, you get a friend request, you go on-line to see who it is, and seeing they have ten friends of which you recognize no one…

Are you going to confirm the request? No.

If you see an awesome microwave on-line. It really has some convincing copy. It looks really good, but there are only two reviews, or worse, you see the… “Be the first to review this product,” notice on their home page…

Are you going to buy it? Not likely.

Very simple if there is little proof, people won’t reach in their wallet.

It’s better to side step social proofing all together until there’s enough backing to make it a credible trust factor in the marketing equation.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try, try, try until you succeed!

To illustrate this, they got the help of both a pharmacist and a professional basketball player.

They gave a basketball to the pharmacist who admitted she sucked at the game, never plays, and was just kind of going along with the exercise.

They made her shoot ten free throw shots, of which she made absolutely none.

Then they gave the ball to the pro ball player. He got nine out of ten on his turn. To be expected, right?

Then they blindfolded the pharmacist, encouraged her to take a couple shots, and gave her the ball.

She shot once and the crowd went wild with her having made the shot. The host was amazed.

She took a second shot, and again, she plunked that baby through the hoop. The crowd freaked and the announcer was ecstatic.

Then they took the blind fold off the pharmacist, gave her the ball again, and encouraged her to shoot another ten shots. After all, she aced the first two blind-folded and was feeling pretty good about herself.

Remember, the first time she tried, she got zero out of ten baskets. This time she made four out of the ten shots. A40% increase from her original try.

Can you see how confidence worked for her?

By the way, when she was blindfolded? She really did miss the hoop by an Arizona mile, but she was convinced she made the shots by the encouragement and false positive feedback she got from the crowd and show host.

Maybe you’re a doubter and are excusing her four successful shots by saying, “Yeah, but she had some practice shots and so she’s inevitably going to do better. Odds are in her favor she’d make some the second time.”

Okay, explain this.

The pro ball player, having missed his blind-folded shots with a less than encouraging crowd, was getting ready for his shots without the blind-fold.

The crowd was eerily silent, and when the ball player shot and made one, the crowd remained silent and talked among themselves. If he missed I think they even snickered and booed trying to embarrass him a bit. Basically, they were feeding him negative influences.

Remember he originally, being a pro ball player, shot nine out of ten shots before?

He now only made five out of ten, pretty close to the same 40% difference, only in reverse.

Can you now see how both outside influence and our own confidence and positive outlook has a major impact on how we perform?

So, how does this apply to business?

First, don’t hang with people who have a negative attitude or want to dump on your success parade. Those people who enter doubt, even if they seem like they mean well, can bring you down.

Find people who are encouraging, who cheer you on even in your failures. You know, those folks you can always count on to not let you off the hook and help get your head on straight.

And most importantly, don’t listen to yourself when you hear yourself say things like:

“Who do I think I am that I can be a business person anyway? I can’t even remember that person’s name I met this morning!”

“If I was so smart, or meant to be an entrepreneur, I’d have done it years ago. I’m too much a late bloomer for this now.”

“I should be further along than I am; maybe I’m just forcing something that shouldn’t be.”

Learn to recognize when you are telling yourself this crap, and stomp it out immediately. And I mean immediately!

Give yourself a break. You are going to have failures. Well, they are not failures if you learn something, and you will learn something. No one gets it right from the first crack.

Famous basketball player Doctor J said once that everyone was so amazed when he made it big. Everyone thought he was such a gifted player, but they never saw the thousands and thousands of hours he practiced.

There are no people so gifted they get it without failures or distinctions, there are just good marketing behind them to make it look like that is the case.

Here’s an assignment for you. Go look up just about any sport Hall of Famer. They got there by the awesome success they achieved, right?

Maybe. Did you know they all have more failures than successes? Like two-thirds more failures than success.

They had plenty of failures they could have turned into self-doubt, but they didn’t.

It’s what you tell yourself and who you listen to that will make you a success or not.

You can have all the training in the world, all the digital gizmos, all the fancy tools of the trade…

But if you believe lies about your ability and doubt yourself?

You ain’t goin’ nowhere baby!

Here’s a friendly little anchor to remind you to think on the sunny side of life.

When you here a weather forecast that is anything other than a gorgeous day…

Something like, “We have a 40% chance of isolated showers today.”

Ask yourself why the weatherperson is so negative.

Change what he or she said to, “We have a 60% chance of beautiful sunny weather today! For that leaner side of percentage, bring an umbrella, just in case.”

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try-try-try until you succeed!

Back in the day, Texaco wanted to boost their oil sales, right? This was in the early 1930’s.

So, what did they do? They paid a man named Elmer Wheeler $5,000 to come up with nine words they could use.

Is that ridiculous or what? Maybe not, we’ll see.

Remember, this was in the Great Depression, not to mention the difference on the dollar through the decades. Who knows what that’d be worth today…

Even back then, it was roughly $555 per word.

Here is what thick pockets Elmer did.

Back then they still had full service gas stations. You’d drive up, ride over a hose that rang a bell inside when you drove on it. A person would come out in a blue uniform, a logo on the front shirt pocket, a light red cloth hanging out the back pocket, and a coin dispenser belted on the waist.

They’d start filling your car with gas, wipe down the windshield, and in Texaco’s case they’d ask…

Check your oil?

Elmer suggested they ask a different question instead. The question was…

Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?

That little question got Texaco under the hood an extra quarter of a million times in one year.

When you hear the new question, you begin to doubt the level of your oil. How do you know what level it is at anyway unless you just checked it?

You think, “And what if it is low? I better have them check.”

Then leaning out the window towards the man wiping the windshield you’d say…

“Can you check it for me please, thanks.”

Questions, they are the master of sales.

Similarly a waiter or waitress might change the question from…

“Can I interest you in a glass of wine?”

To…

“Do you prefer red or white wine with your steak, sir?”

The trick is to not be pushy. I hate pushy myself. But, you don’t want to leave them an easy way out either. In a way, it’s making someone say ‘no’ to the person asking rather than the wine. Very subtle difference, but a difference none the less.

It should come out as natural as, “Wafer cone, waffle cone, or cup?” When you are at the ice cream Shoppe ordering your Swiss Cream and Cappuccino treat., because you’d never dream of having it without a container, edible or not.

If I were in the restaurant business, I might even try instructing wait staff to ask,

“And is that Rhubarb-Apple Pie or Cherry Cheese Danish for pre-ordered dessert? Cherry Cheese is the special today and both travel well for tonight’s midnight snack.”

If you are in the electronic gizmo business, you might ask,

And would that be extra lithium batteries or wall charger to go with that?

If Texaco invested five G’s to come up with nine words that changed the revenue of a huge company like that…

What kinds of questions could you ask your customer to get you under a quarter-million more hoods this year?

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all…try-try-try until you succeed!

Now, this old gal isn’t your typical blue-haired senior moaning while reaching for an agitated vertebrae shuffling across the room.

This gal skis, hikes, canoes, fishes, and I still have one brow raised, but I think even hit on me recently. I’m still reeling over that one. She plays cards to keep her mind sharp and just have fun. More on that in a minute.

In fact, I was shocked out of my socks to find she was 76-years old. I knew she was somewhat older, but figured just an active 60-year old gal trying to pick up guys on the dance floor on Saturday nights.

She recently regaled us with a story about a gentleman who she claims is just a friend. He put on some music, popped the cork from the wine bottle, and served up some dinner.

I said to her, “Oh he’s hitting on you big time.”

“That’s what my sister said too,” she replied, “She said I ought to lay a big smacker on him. But, no, no, we’re just good friends is all.”

A bit perplexed, I asked her why she thought that.

“Oh,” she sighed, “I’m done. I’m burnt out. I can’t find anyone to keep up with me. I want to go hiking, skiing, and canoeing. I asked this friend to go dancing a while back,” she rambled, “and he said he couldn’t, his knee hurt.”

She went on in a disgustful tone about how he couldn’t go fishing, a less active sport, because he was having his elbow checked out.

Sport after sport she cited his excuses about something that hurt on him or didn’t work. He even confessed, he didn’t think quote, it, unquote worked anymore.

Do I need to explain what “it” is?

Well this gal’s name isn’t Alice, but if one were to, ahem, see Allice, it might give a clue to what he was referring.

She admitted, her last surgery might have ruined that for her…

Somehow I think she was just playing to his sympathy. I digress here before this no longer is a business related blog. And we really are getting to a business point, trust me.

Finally, I said to her, “Sheesh, he probably would have finger trouble playing checkers even.”

“Well,” she said, “we were going to play Cribbage, but he had a headache.”

Really, a headache? I thought that excuse was reserved only for a certain activity. Oh well.

She closed up her diatribe with a laugh saying, “And he’s 13-years younger than me!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle through her entire recollection. Man, I hope I’m as active and young as she is at that age.

Reflecting on my conversation with her, it made me think of how that very situation happens in business.

No, not clients getting picked up by business men and women. Well, okay, that happens, but that’s not what I mean.

What I’m getting at is there are times, just like this young-hearted gal found with her potential 63-year old boyfriend, where a client just isn’t a match. There will be times where as hard as one might try, personalities won’t gel, timelines never seem to work out, or excuse after excuse the info you need doesn’t get to you.

It seems forced. And you know what? Like this gal, there comes a point where you’ve just got to say, “I’m burnt out here.”

Sometimes, it’s just best to have a chat with a client and agree to move separate ways on the project. I tell you, if you feel the disconnect, they likely do too, and they’ll respect you for recognizing it and acting on it.

Of course, you want to be courteous and professional about it, but there are times it’s best to move on.

If you are starting out, it is tempting to tell yourself you need the work, and how a testimony from a satisfied client will help, not to mention the pay. But if it’s that much of a struggle it’s likely things will deteriorate anyway. I’m not suggesting however, to give up at the first sign of trouble or challenge, because there will be those as well.

Over time, if you pay attention you will know when things are stalemating. You’ll feel it in your gut. There will be a certain sense of forcing the relationship or project.

So rather than waste your time and your client’s time, agree to move on and start a project that will move you forward.

Even this young-spirited gal’s friend with the poor health who tried so hard in his sedentary way to swoon her with wine, music, and dinner; recognized he was no match for her. He finally told her, “You need to find a boyfriend.”

After finishing up my chat with this lovely old gal, opening the exit door she said it was card night that night.

I yelled out to her as she passed through the door…

“Hey, none of those wild poker games now!”

I was going to say no spin-the-bottle or strip poker, but I figured I better not be so explicit with her.

Hollering back at me she boasted, “Oh, that’s Saturday night!”

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

In the comment area, Joe brought up some really good points of caution. There was mention of not taking it to extremes, or get in the business of providing pro bono work. We are in business, and have to pay for groceries just like the next person.

While I whole-heartedly believe in having an ethic of doing more than agreed upon is a success model, and which many businesses have founded and maintained their success, there are indeed some temptations to watch out for. This is especially true if just starting out.

Let’s face it, when running head-to-head with competition in a new venture, we need to find a benefit that makes us stand out differently than our competitors.

Perhaps it’s a higher quality product or service, a unique product or methodology no one else has or does, a longer guarantee, a faster turnaround, or the ever popular attractive pricing structure.

It seems freebie work or severely undercut rates are the popular baits many startups offer their customers, and the customer is more than happy to nibble away until there’s nothing left but an empty hook, only to move on to the next fishing line dangling in the water.

Trust me, we don’t want those types of customers anyway. We want customers and clients who respect us for who we are and what we offer, who see our expertise as an investment in their sales or tool of success, not something they randomly pick off the shelves of Wal-Mart.

With that said, here are…

3 Reasons to Avoid Low-balling Your Business Rates

1. Establishing precedence.

Let’s say you are just starting out in the physical training and consultation business. Your overhead is low with mostly just your time and experience as the heart of your business. You really have no expenses to meet at the end of the month, so you got some wriggle room on your fees.

You have zero customers, the phone hasn’t rung, the inbox is empty, analytics show web traffic is low, and you are really anxious to get started.

One day while standing in the grocery line, you strike up a conversation with a shopper who has been advised by their doctor to undergo some exercise. They are complaining, because they have no idea of what to do or how to start.

Oh boy-oh boy-oh-boy-oh boy! A potential customer!

You aren’t doing much anyway, so you fall into temptation of giving this person a $10 per session deal sort of willy-nilly right there, instead of the going rate of $50 per hour.

What do you think he or she will tell friends and family after you’ve given some fantastic training? It will be…

“Hey, if you need personal training, go to this person, they are only $10 per session.”

When we set precedence, we put ourselves in a box. Plus, when realization comes to raise rates and fees, we run the risk of offending and losing that customer. Not only that, the word of mouth to friends and family will now work against us, not for us.

So, what seemed like a good idea, might not be so good in the end.

We do often see reasonable introductory rates, or sometimes “buy one session get another at half off the next one,” but those are typically promoted with a predetermined expiration date or limited to the first X amount of people. There is some structure to it so people aren’t offended when it goes to regular pricing. They understand going in it is a structured limited offer.

2. Self-confidence.

Let’s say you are looking for that first personal training client, and decide to offer a freebie to your pastor, brother-in-law, or neighbor down the road. And to gain some experience you decide to do a number of those.

You might even think it’s a good idea to do freebies in exchange for testimonies you can put up on your website.

The problem with that is, in a time when you are most vulnerable in wondering how you will do in business, subconsciously your confidence could be taking a hit. You might be subconsciously thinking people are getting what they paid for, nothing. The longer you go, the more distanced you can feel from your expertise. You’ll likely begin to doubt your value. Questions enter your mind whether you are worth as you once thought.

Then, when you think of the rates you should be commanding, you might hear yourself say, “Who am I to think I’m worth that much? “It can begin to work on your psyche.

That my friend, is not a place you want to go.

It is true you’ll get some good comments and accolades, that is always nice, but the bank account is still at zero.

It is human nature to think you get what you pay for, and that belief is not limited to the customer. It can have an effect on you as well. Do that long enough, and you’ll begin to doubt your abilities and value. Eventually, your work and enthusiasm will suffer.

Am I saying to not plan for some intro work? To come out of the gate demanding the highest fees and rates?

No. There are times we enter into a so called internship, or getting our feet wet and hands dirty without full pay, but again, these are predetermined, controlled terms. We control them, not bargain hunters looking to lead us by the ring in the nose.

If you plan to develop your own internship as an entrepreneur, make it short, include it as part of your goals, outline what you will do and how much, and stick to your deadline of when it will end.

Refuse to give in to bargain hunter’s counter-offers when your internship is over, and stick to what you are worth. Know in your own mind you are consciously doing this for a reason, find your value in it, and move on.

This is where, if you are that personal trainer for example, you might offer some bonus material. Maybe you offer to e-mail them a pre-formatted training journal, a couple articles on nutrition, a report on the best times of the day to work out, or a link to videos on warm up routines.

What are we doing here? We’re helping them meet their goal with some information we have around anyhow, but not sacrificing our rates. They find extra value in meeting their goals, and you are giving up little.

In fact, you might even have it part of your business planned to give everyone that information kit as new clients, but it appears to the customer they are being treated special, because it is not promoted on your website.

3. Market pricing.

As an entrepreneur, it is a good habit to look at the extremes of a situation. Doing so really helps clear the lines of possibilities and pitfalls. Don’t hang out there, but use it for perspective.

One extreme to look at when low-balling pricing is asking yourself, “What if everyone did this? What if everyone used pricing to lure in would be customers?”

The answer is slave labor.

I’ve seen this as a performing songwriter, in the freelance writing field, and to some degree even way back when I was in the roofing game.

For instance, go take a look at elance.com or odesk.com. It is loaded with bargain hunters looking to pay freelancers next to nothing for their expertise.

And why? Because they know if freelancers are hanging out there, they are likely just starting out, or for whatever reason, are willing to work for peanuts.

For instance, writing an 800 to 1000 word case study for someone on elance.com or odesk.com might earn you $48 – $60 at $0.06 per word.

That same case study written for a savvy business owner could earn you $500 – $1500 depending on how much interview work and research goes into it.

This is a generalization of these types of sites.

The former business looks at your work as an expense, so they are looking for a bargain. They see it as X amount of words costing them X amount of dollars.

The latter savvy business owner sees your work as an investment or tool. She sees that work converting to tens of thousands of sales, so your rates are a drop in the bucket. If you deliver as she expects, the investment to profit ratio is a joke and she’ll pay you that all day long.

Or, what if you are that personal trainer. A client can look at your expertise as an extension of their doctor’s prescription, and expense an insurance company won’t pay for.

Or, they could look at it as an investment in their health. Instead of paying tens of thousands in medical co-pays and prescriptions, not to mention higher insurance rates for the rest of their life after a major health incident, they are saving money and feeling full of energy and great every day.

Realize that when we accept low paying jobs, we help to bring the entire market down. No doubt that will effect us later when we want to command pay we’re really worth. The bottom-line here is to make a calculated start up plan and follow through. Resist the temptation to work for ridiculously low rates, even when it means you miss out on that $60 elance job.

If you are going to give your work away, do it for your favorite charitable organization where you can find good Samaritan value in it and possibly a statement of value from the organization which you can use for your taxes.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

When he paints a happy face on a volleyball, names him Wilson, and makes him his silent friend; we sort of chuckle internally at the ridiculousness of it.

Later, in a wild card attempt for rescue, our heart-breaks right with Hanks’ when his friend Wilson gets knocked off the raft and blown out to sea.

Not to worry, he won’t drown; he’s a volleyball for crying out loud.

Anyway, it’s not an action movie, so if you’re in to those you might not appreciate it, but I love the psychology of it.

As you might guess, stranded on the island he finds a way to get a huge S-O-S out on the beach just in case a plane should happen to fly by.

Well, fat lot of good it did for him, and you know what? Fat lot of good an S-O-S will do you in business too.

Maybe I better explain. In a distress situation, S-O-S means save our souls. While we could find ourselves in distressful situations in business and in need of saving, the S-O-S I’m talking about has a different meaning.

The S-O-S I’m talking about stands for shiny object syndrome.

What the blazes is that?

Let me explain it this way. Let’s say you are a person interested in getting into the adaptive equipment field.

Great, so you decide, “Dog-gone-it, I’m going for it! I’m going to be my own boss and control my own future!”

So, you make a business plan, figure out what equipment you are going to handle, put together some marketing ideas, and basically you are very close to launching.

But wait!

You think, wouldn’t it be cool if on my website I had a podcast giving some tutorials of the products I’ll carry? Yeah baby! So cool!

So, you start to work on that.

But wait!

Hey now, wouldn’t it be great if I had a shopping cart instead of these old school PayPal buttons for payment? After all, that would help make sales easier for customers, and you know the rule… more than three-clicks and you lose people’s attention. I need that for dang sure.

Hold it now!

What if, yeah this one is really good, what if I were to hold a live webinar and offer a discount or package deal for attendees? Now we’re talking modern marketing methods here!

Hey, now here’s something what if…

Okay, enough is enough. Do you see my point?

Are you starting to feel like you’re listening to a commercial with an announcer screaming…?

“But that’s not all, for only three-easy payments of just $19.99 you’ll not only receive our mini-widget Wacker unit, we’ll include our handy widget polish absolutely free. And not just one bottle of our incredible polish, but two bottles of our “never before released” space-age polish. Think that’s all? Guess again, we’ll also include a widget alignment device, again, absolutely free!”

Shiny object syndrome is that incredible shiny business idea, trinket, or brainstorm which always seems to catch your attention. In reality, it keeps you from putting soles of shoes to concrete and getting your business launched or moving.

Look, there are many, great, legitimate ideas and tools out there to help businesses, but as much as each might lead you to believe you can’t do without them, sooner or later you’ve just got to start where you are and get down to commerce.

Nothing will chew away at your confidence ever so slowly and silently than having those elusive trinkets and tools and ideas just out of arm’s reach for you to focus on, rather than picking up the phone and making those calls, writing those e-mails, setting up those appointments; or whatever it is you are really supposed to do to get your business moving towards success.

One day you’ll look at the console of shiny objects surrounding you, reflect on the calendar of when you started the business, and feel a failure because you have all this stuff and all this time invested, and a zero bank balance to show for it.

Please, don’t do that!

Don’t fall for S-O-S. Start where you are, you have enough to start, so just go for it.

Envision a happy customer thanking you for the extra attention you gave them, and while they’re walking away with their new adaptive technology piece, you are filling out a deposit slip for the bank.

You’ll eventually have some time to work on those trinkets, or maybe you’ll decide to farm it out while you do what you do best, educate and help others with their adaptive technology device needs.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

I’m not a champion like Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Branson would agree with the gold nugget I’ve learned through the years and will share with you below.

Many years ago my dad started a roofing business with just a pick-up truck, a straight-claw hammer, a 40-foot aluminum ladder, a leather nail pouch, and a box of nails.

Eventually as my brother and I grew old enough, we worked in that business.

I started at thirteen years-old cleaning residential customer’s lawns on tear-off jobs. I was the guy who picked up all the scraps and old roofing, tossed it in a wheel barrow, hoofed it out to the driveway or street, then picked it up again to toss in a truck. Crappy work, but I earned some bucks and it was a great learning experience.

Here’s the good part though, ten years later, at twenty-three years of age I was running a flat-roof crew and successfully bidding large commercial projects against contractors who’d been in business longer than I’d been alive.

Of course, hard work and persistence on my dad’s part was huge, because it allowed the stability for me to take interest in the business at an early age.

As I look back though, there was someone else who was very instrumental to our success.

A salesman from a roofing system manufacturer took interest in our family business. He shared personal experiences of his own previous roofing business, he shared tips and tricks he picked up from other contractors, he would talk us up to potential business clients in our region, and he knew a lot about our personal lives.

Cripes, I think I still have a couple Wilkinson knives he gave us for a wedding present over 30-years ago.

There is no way we would have had the success we did if not for the help from this individual. Yes of course, he increased his sales numbers by selling product, but it was good product to start with, and he knew that helping others with their business, would help him out in the end. He cared first, and reaped second.

More recently, one business I’m in involves distribution companies. For certain products there are two main distributors. One of them I’d used for years mostly because there was little other choice, we’ll call them Distributor A. The other is a much smaller company; we’ll call them Distributor B.

I’ve been using smaller Distributor B more and more, and plan to use them almost exclusively for the foreseeable future.

So how can Distributor B come in and grab my business from Distributor A who I’ve used for almost two decades?

Here’s why.

When I ask Distributor A if they can do something, it’s either, “No, we can’t do that,” or “I’ll look into it,” and I never hear from them again.

Distributor B says, “I’ll look into it,” and the get it done.

I haven’t seen a Distributor A sales person with product samples at my place for probably 8-years other than once when they wanted to push a cellular sales device they were getting into.

Distributor B stops by nearly every month to bring samples of products, tell me about new things coming on the market, and shoot a little BS as well.

With Distributor A, my inside salesperson left back in December of 2014, and I still don’t know who replaced her despite my asking about it three –times.

With Distributor B I know the name of the billing person, my inside sales rep, and of course my field rep who comes by. If I want a product they don’t carry, they’ll do their best to get it for me.

Basically, Distributor A doesn’t give a rip about me, the sales guy is only interested in dealing with companies who have big sales numbers, and personally his agenda when I do talk to him is quite transparent. I don’t really care for him.

He very much gives off the impression I mean nothing to him because I’m not a big business client of his. How hard is it these days to send a simple personalized e-mail to check in virtually? Besides, I live 10-minutes off a main highway corridor running through our state, not out in Timbuktu.

Distributor B’s sales guy is somewhat surface talk, but he’s a good guy and cares about helping me be more profitable. He’s gone to bat for me with product pricing right from the owner himself, and has really worked hard to gain my business, as small as it might be compared to the big boys.

So what can we walk away with here?

If you serve other businesses, or even if an individual customer, make it your business to help them grow, increase profitability, or achieve their goals.

I can pretty much guarantee you’ll gain their loyalty and increase your own business as a result.

This is exactly what is meant by helping others helps yourself. The catch is, you genuinely have to feel helping out a customer is your real interest and your gain is a bi-product. If you try to buffalo your way through the opposite, they’ll see right through it in your words, tone, actions, and energy. Do not under estimate your caring, or lack thereof, as well body language, verbal tones, and follow-through; which speak much louder than words themselves.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

I’m kidding, get out there and pump some iron!

One pivotal morning, Truck keys jingled in my pocket, I patted my pup on the head with, “I’ll be right back pal. “ Shutting the door on my way out; an immediate thought came to mind, “Did I just? … Oh no I didn’t … Oh yes I did! I just locked the door behind me!” Realize, my truck key does not have a house key with it.

Writer’s note: In case you weren’t paying attention–that would be the pivotal moment right there.

Faster than Clint Eastwood’s cheroot clenched pistol draw, a quick jab to the left front pocket, no house keys! In one fluid move, a slam to the right front chest pocket of my coveralls–which would have impressed even Chuck Norris. Rats! No keys there either… and no cell phone!

Continuing my Dance of External Disappointment, it was… tighten fists, flap lips in various unrecognizable contortions, blend in a burst of vocal expression of self-disgust. Rounding out the choreographed diatribe was a simultaneous wielding of the arms, with an ugly spasm-like twist of the torso.

I’d thought I heard the neighbors squinting out their front window saying “Wow honey. Get a load of this. Brad’s doing some sort of Mosh-ercize, Turbo Slam or something out in his driveway. In the dead of winter no less.”

I stood in the driveway with the pup staring at me through the glass front door with a tongue dangling toothy grin. Was the toothy grin just a sympathetic expression of a canine panting in despair of its owner’s predicament, or more like, “Brad? That hot oatmeal on the counter right over there? That’s mine. Yeeaaah baby!”

How important is remembering your house keys when heading out for the day? Pretty dang important at 15-degrees below zero. Come to think of it, there are a few important keys you need to remember heading out to your day no matter what temperature it is outside.

Key#1: Have a positive attitude and believe you can do it.

No one will ever believe in your ability to be successful as much as you will need “you” to believe in it. Okay yes, there are those around you that see your potential and offer support, but if you don’t see it, or play it down with excuse, they’ll eventually stop. No one wants to keep smacking the encouragement ball to the outfield and drag you around the bases.

It’s your own belief that counts because you’re the one out in the trenches. And you know what? You really can do it if you just get after it. Nearly everything in this world is a teachable skill, and despite how it might appear, we’re all learning everyday so you’re not alone. Just go for it and don’t forget to enjoy the journey.

Key #2: Get going and actually do something.

Funny how once we decide to do something, we’re expected to take action on it. Whose idea was that anyway?

That doesn’t mean endless answering of emails, rabbit trailing down YouTube lane, checking with your neighbor if he brought back the rake he borrowed last fall.

It does mean prioritizing your goals, provided you’ve made them, and accounting for your time. You’re the boss, it’s up to you to give yourself performance reviews, and your boss can get a bit tough. Focus on your tasks, don’t procrastinate, you’ll “loose end” yourself to a point of submersion.

Key #3: Balance the view.

When you’ve forgotten the second key on your keychain, don’t spend all your time looking in the rear-view mirror for it or constantly reminding yourself of all those mistakes you left behind.

Learn from them yes, but hey, there’s a reason the windshield is larger than the rear view mirror. Spending valuable time squinting at that mirror only leads to not paying attention to the things coming at you through that big clear glassy thing with the wipers on it.

Glance at your past to learn from it, but spend the majority of your time looking at what’s ahead. In case you need a blunt reminder–that would be your immediate future, and you’re the one driving straight into it.

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try-try-try until you succeed!

Would you agree with that statement?

After all, as entrepreneurs that is our badge of honor, right? Freedom and independence.

We don’t want anyone telling us we have to show up for work an hour earlier…

Can’t take our sick kids to the doctor appointment today…

Need to change our family vacation because a co-worker has that slot already…

Need to solve a problem the bosses way when the obvious perfect solution is right there…

Got moved to a different department due to downsizing…

Or worse, get handed a pink slip.

I’ll be the first to admit, after all these years of being family- or self-employed, I don’t think I could work for anyone else and not be totally miserable.

However, should our independence allow us to disregard wisdom? Does it morph to a point of stubbornness or digging in our heels where it actually hurts us?

What do I mean?

One of the businesses I operate has a connection with a group of similar independent business owners. We sell similar products and have the same dispensation methods for the most part. In fact, in many cases about the only difference in our businesses is the size, shape, and gender of the owners themselves.

In other words, we have a lot in common in our businesses.

That would mean we could discover something, learn something, or find a success in our independent business; then share it with others, and very likely they too would have that same success.

What’s even more is the way our business affiliation is set up, the better each individual business owner does, the stronger the group becomes as a whole fiscally. Talk about incentive to share information and help each other out, right?

Well, you’d think so, but here’s the rub.

A few of us have tried to get these folks to share information via an e-mail discussion list 3- or 4-different times now. After all, we are in different geographic locations, and while we get together once or twice a year at a conference, that doesn’t go too far in networking ideas and successes.

Unsuccessful in getting them to participate, shaking my head incredulously along with a few others who are not business owners but who are involved in this group, I came up with another idea.

I put together an e-mail informing this group that they have a chance at winning twenty-five bucks, proceeded to encourage them about the personal benefits of the discussion list, and reminded them what types of things we could share. All the while sprinkling in a total of four different times that they could win $25. All they needed to do was simply reply to the e-mail, give some ideas how they plan to grow their business, and pick a number from one to a thousand. The closest number to mine wins. I even e-mailed the number to a non-bias party for transparency.

All proud of myself for digging in my own pocket to try helping this group to participate in their own success, within a handful of hours I got a call.

A fellow business owner on the other end said they had gotten communications from other business owners wondering why they had to pay $25 to be a part of the e-mail discussion list.

Huh?

What?

Your what hurts?

I was literally open-mouthed and no words came out.

First, I immediately lose respect for someone who doesn’t have the hutzpah to pick up the phone or send me an e-mail directly asking, “What the hell are you getting at here?”

But, four times I’d Mentioned they could win $25 just for participating in their increased chance of success. All that was asked was to reply to the e-mail and share ideas so we can learn from each other.

And somehow I was soliciting money from them? Hmm.

Afterwards, I sent off a copy of the e-mail to other individuals not affiliated with the group to see if I in any way portrayed a solicitation. If I did, I’d own up to it and apologize.

These folks were just as perplexed as I.

I love to learn, and there is a huge lesson in this. As I said, I’m all for being independent, feeling free, being my own boss and all that. But I walked away from this experience reinforcing the principle of looking at the world for what it is, not with the motive of proving inaccurate assumptions.

You know, take the glasses off and not look through rose-colored ones, dark sunglasses, or ones green with envy or jealousy. Just look at it for what it is.

These folks really are nice, good people, I really like them, but if they would have actually read the four times I mentioned about possibly winning money, rather than seeing a dollar symbol and assuming that meant they had to pay, they would have read it in a whole different way.

Get this. Out of the twenty-six business owners the e-mail went out to, just one person red it and got it. One single person, that was it! Incredible. If it took that one person 5-minutes to reply, he earned $300 an hour just for responding.

I know the lack of response was not completely due to the twenty-five dollar thing. As I said, I’ve tried this before, this group has just dug in their heels. They don’t want anyone telling them what to do, or even worse, expose how they are doing things in case it turns out not to be right.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be wrong, find a new way, and improve my profits; rather than live in fear I may be doing something wrong, don’t want to admit I’m not the Warren Buffett of my industry, and increase my profitability by learning from others.

Honestly, I don’t take the inquisition or lack of response personally. And am I done trying to get this group united? I would if I saw no benefit from it. But no, I see the end result before it is realized, and it looks pretty good from where I sit. I might just pick up the phone and call each and every business owner to make sure they’d gotten it, find out why they didn’t respond, and take a new approach.

Listen, we can’t be so stubborn, so independent, so into ourselves that we ruin our opportunity to role model other peoples success and steer clear of pitfalls they’ve experienced.

Let’s do ourselves a favor in business, find ways of networking and hooking up with others who do what we do, learn from them, share what we’ve learned, even in sectors where competition is a concern, there are things we can learn from others.

And most of all, do not make assumptions about the world around us with the motive of only proving our own insecurities, fears, or self-righteous independence.

A very interesting study was done years ago, maybe you’ve heard about it. A group of individuals in a lab setting were given barbiturates, and another were given amphetamines.

The thing is, each group was told the opposite. That is to say, the barbiturate folks were told they were taking amphetamines, and vice versa.

What they found was an incredible result. Not all, but a good many of the people who were given barbiturates and told it was amphetamines? Experienced amphetamine symptoms, even though their body consumed the exact opposite.

If that doesn’t prove our pre-determined minds are capable of controlling how we experience the world around us and how we see it, I don’t know what will.

I’ve wanted one for years. When I could see, I loved to ride bike. An afternoon ride out to my parent’s place and back twenty-miles away was not all that out of the ordinary.

The Walkman radio piping tunes in, riding along the river on a fall evening, taking in the aroma of the country, checking out the wildlife, getting chased by Cujo–for those old enough to remember that movie.

It was great exercise. I loved it. So, I wanted to get back into biking indoors to get the cardio exercise rolling again, and see if I can get the old muffin top back down to flat-belly.

Here’s the point.

I researched all these spinner bikes and thought I had one picked out until I ran across this outfit in California.

They had some YouTube spots that were, and are, just awesome. Jeff, unfortunately no longer with us, did an excellent job of making you feel his place was the place to buy a bike, and really it is. I totally recommend Studio-Cycles.com. Tell them I sent you… What the heck.

Anyway, this place is top notch, they really know there stuff, they saved me from making a wrong decision on a bike, they are awesome in every area accept for one.

The last communication I had with them was something like:

“Your bike is shipping, attached is a copy of your invoice, and here is our purchase policy below.”

Not only that, the reply, obviously an auto-responder e-mail, was filled with those character artifacts one gets by pasting in a Word document into an e-mail management system.

You know, “Thank you for ú purchasing ú your ú new bike ú from us!”

Oh boy, aren’t those characters so much fun with a screen reader, not.

Here’s the thing though, even though I really like this company, and I would recommend them, I was really disappointed how they left the seller-purchaser relationship.

As a marketer, I absolutely know they are missing an opportunity with every sale to sell more, and as a purchaser I felt like someone dropped the conversation in mid-sentence.

What should they have done?

As a purchaser I would have really appreciated an e-mail stating something like:

“Congratulations on making the right choice for your new bike! We’re excited for you to get riding, and we want you to know we’re here for you anytime to ensure you get the most from your new purchase.

And to prove it, here is a 7-Point check on how to properly set up your new bike so you don’t’ injure yourself by exercising with an improperly adjusted ride.”

That is the sort of thing they should have done. Education, a company can never go wrong educating their customer after the sale. Even if I was an experienced rider, I would have appreciated the effort.

As a marketer in that same e-mail, I would have taken opportunity to offer some workout videos one can follow along with. People go to clubs or take their bikes to live workout classes where an instructor instructs to gear up, bump down, or double time the cadence; but one can follow an instructor at home too with a video workout.

Why would they not take that opportunity to add to their annual sales by helping a customer use the product they bought? I don’t have a clue.

It wouldn’t end there. I’d offer a daily tip for the first week, and maybe one a week for the next three-weeks.

Each time I’d be helping them with some aspect of their health plus offering products like protective mat, bike maintenance and polish kits, digital counsels to be attached, SPD bike cleats or shoes, proper biking attire…

The list could go on.

As a customer, I would appreciate the tips and education, and I’d be willing to look at their offers too. Why? Because I trust them and I have confidence in them.

As a marketer, even after all that, I’d still send my customers some sort of update or other reason to contact them at least once a month, because if they bought a bike from me, they likely know others who ride, and there is no better sales tool than word of mouth from a trusted source, a friend.

And that is the main point with this follow up system. You, or a friend of yours, are more likely to buy from someone who you’ve already laid out cash to once before, than someone totally new.

As an entrepreneur? Do not let that opportunity pass you up. Don’t’ let the invoice be the last thing your customers see or hear from you.

Once you’ve got a customer’s trust, respect it, but use it as well. A customer is 80% more likely to purchase from you again if they are happy with the initial purchase. Don’t leave them feeling as though they’ve been sold something, make them feel they’ve purchased more than the product, they purchased your experience and support which goes beyond the credit card transaction.

Do this in your business, and you’ll build a solid customer base and strong word-of-mouth advertising.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

I like them…

And I mean no harm to them!

In fact, in my little example, I even made a way for this little guy to be just fine.

That said, I’m sure you’ve heard the way to boil a frog without him knowing it is to put him in a kettle of cold water and then turn on the heat to gradually bring water to a boil, rather than drop him in a hot kettle, otherwise he’ll jump right out.

This is a metaphor used to describe how gradual changes eventually become detrimental without us being aware it’s happening.

It’s a silent killer of projects or even business.

Do you know as entrepreneurs, even though we are in control of our own destiny, our own business, that same thing can still happen to us?

Not only that, we could truthfully claim we were busy getting things done, and we still got boiled.

Let me explain it this way and see if we can save a frog today.

Let’s pretend we put a little frog in a kettle of water, we’ll call him Mr. Greenskin. We put the kettle over the burner, but instead of us turning up the heat, we’re going to let Mr. Greenskin decide whether he gets boiled or whether he can swim in his indoor pool and enjoy himself.

The basic rule is this; if Mr. Greenskin keeps the water clean of leaves and pieces of hay, the burners will not come on.

But, if he lets leaves and pieces of hay float around, the burners will come on, and its frog legs for dinner, right?

So, in goes Mr. Greenskin. We place the kettle on the burner which is off, and there’s the little guy doing the frog stroke all around his little pool there.

So far so good, no leaves or sticks of hay, so Mr. Greenskin is cooling himself nicely.

Let’s say we toss a couple flies in the water.

Oh, look at that, Mr. Greenskin likes that. Now he’s got a pool-side buffet.

Let’s toss in a handful of more things. We’ve got a couple dozen leaves of various sorts, a couple sticks of hay, maybe fifteen flies, ten red ants, and we’ll toss in a mosquito or two for good measure. All the things our little green friend needs to clean up, but only certain things to keep from turning on the burner and boiling the water.

Our little green friend is having a great time at work. He’s downed a few flies and an ant, and is thinking of one of those mosquitos for dessert.

He starts to notice the water is getting a bit warm, so downs the last few insects, and he’s stuffed. He can’t even move anymore he worked so hard cleaning up the water.

Floating there, he notices bubbles in the water and he’s breaking a sweat.

Mr. Greenskin’s in deep trouble.

He was busy cleaning up the water the whole time he was in there, so what’s the problem?

The problem was he only did the fun stuff. He didn’t give a rip about no floating leaves or pieces of hay which were the more important things to get done. It was the insects he was interested in cleaning up, because they were fun tasks to do, tasty too I might add.

Let’s pause our little story here.

Is that something you find yourself doing in your business or even at home?

Do you make this big list of things to do and start picking away at the easy or fun stuff to do?

Maybe you had to do a little research on a project or idea. You love research, not to mention the YouTube rabbit trails, so you grabbed a bowl of snacks and camped out at your desk.

Could be you had to create a spreadsheet. Since you love doing spreadsheets, you bought some special coffee and brewed some up for your little project.

Perhaps you needed to clean up the office a bit before you tackled the rest of the list of items, so you put on a new CD you downloaded and shoved a headset on while cleaning.

Maybe for you doing research, creating spreadsheets, and cleaning your office are like our little green friend’s yummy fun to eat insects.

Maybe you skipped the calls you needed to make, bills you needed to pay, and appointment you needed to make with an unhappy client to try saving his patronage.

And here’s a back pocket kicker…

When you get all the easy stuff done and you think you are finally ready to dig into the harder stuff, the harder stuff will have gotten even harder to think of doing, and there will be a fresh batch of easy fun stuff tempting your attention. Before you know it though, you’ll be breaking into a sweat noticing there’s steam and bubbles in the water.

Look, as business owners, there is always something for us to do. Some of it more pleasurable to do than others, and some no fun at all. Some might take us well out of our comfort zone.

The point is to keep from boiling in your own water, prioritize the list and don’t cop out by going for the easy-peasy stuff.

You don’t want to look back and see you had been busy the whole time taking care of business items, but missed the things that kept everything in perspective and operational.

I’m all for making tough things fun to do, and even doing some of the more enjoyable parts of business after a rough day, but that doesn’t take away the fact the more challenging stuff needs to be done.

Often times, these are the backbones of your business and a bit of a personal challenge. Handle them and not only will your business do better, but you’ll gain a boatload of confidence having plowed through those items.

Next time you’re faced with challenges? They’ll seem a little more like the easy-peasy stuff and less of a challenge!

Happily Mr. Greenskin tossed out all those bits of leaves and hay at the last minute and he’s back to doing his little frog stroke around the pool.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

I’ll share that little nugget with you, plus give you a link to something worth listening to which describes the life of an entrepreneur quite well.

First, let me invest in a few sentences to set the scene.

Its 2005 and I’m in Nashville for a week, sitting in a room full of serious songwriters at a writer’s camp which was put on by the top songwriting organization in the country.

At the front of the room are hit writers whose tunes were on every station program directors playlist across the country at one time or another. And … There I was, a corn-fed, do-it-yourself musician from the Midwest expecting these folks to take time to show me how to write songs.

Granted, I was in a room full of peers who were looking for the same information, and the instructors were getting paid handsomely to teach, but that’s not how I felt sitting there. It was pretty intimidating. I wondered if my music and I even belonged there.

Opening the week’s event, one instructor walked up to the front of the room, put his foot up on a chair, leaned on his forearm resting across his perched knee, looked at all the people sitting there anticipating his words, and said:

“There’s one thing you need to know about your music. There will be times when you are the only one who will believe in it. Publishers, industry pros, … No one else will get it. You will be left alone with your music, but, if you don’t believe in it? No one else ever will, and it won’t go anywhere!”

What he said really stood out to me. First of all, it was addressing the doubt I was feeling sitting in the front row. Secondly, I realized that principle is huge for any entrepreneurial endeavor we chase.

We often hear the romantic side of working for yourself. And it is true; there is that side of it. I have the good fortune of working with my sweetie each and every work day. We don’t have to ask permission from anyone to have an extra cup of coffee in the morning, to take an extra-long lunch, to run personal errands as long as we’re out and about, or to say, “You know what? Let’s skip work today and go play a bit.”

Ever been in a job where you only get so many days off, sick or not, and if you surpass it, you’re fired? I don’t worry about it. As I type this I was scheduled to be a work, but my wife and I are a bit sick, so we stayed home. No calling anyone, no pretending to sound sicker than you are on the phone so the boss doesn’t raise a judgmental eyebrow.

Those decisions don’t require much belief though do they? They are rewards.

There is however, another side to the time card. When it comes to problems at work and there seems to be no solution, and I’m in a real pinch, there ain’t a boss to hang the problem onto while I go home for the night either. There are times when it’s literally midnight and creative solutions need to be made, and there is no one there to say it will work or it won’t. It’s my call, and I had better believe in it.

There are times when you must believe what you are doing is right, watch for evidence of that, and where things need to be adjusted, adjust them and move on.

In other words, one has to have the confidence and strength to get through the tough times, or just like that songwriter said, if you don’t believe in it, it all stops right there.

Plus, like anyone, I make wrong decisions. Do you think that has an effect on the next time I’m forced to make a call on something? It can if I let it, but it’s a good idea to adopt the notion that tomorrow starts a new day, the slate is clean, and any mistakes we’ve made is strictly for purposes of learning, not creating debilitating fear in the decision at hand. The past does not have to equal the future.

So, if you are contemplating entrepreneurship or just now entering it and are having some doubts, first know that we all experience frustration and overwhelm. There are times I wonder why I just don’t go get a job and work for someone else so I can come home at 5:00 p.m. and leave the day’s worries behind me. There are times of vehicle breakdowns, overbooking my time, unforeseen snags cropping up, and we better not leave out technical problems like a computer crashing.

But, I can look back on past challenges where it appeared there was no way through it without loss, and see somehow we made it through. And not only did we make it through, but confidence gets a boost in the process. Once again, I’m so glad to be a free spirited entrepreneur, and really, I could do it no other way. I believe in what I am doing.

A 9-to-5 person asked an entrepreneur, “How can you go to work and not know how much money you are going to make that day?”

To which the entrepreneur said, “How can you go to work every day knowing the most you can possibly make that day?”

For us entrepreneurs it is the freedom, the challenge, the unknown that is thrilling. It’s a strange balance of taking risk and realizing our potential. Without the belief in our ideas or plans however, especially in the rough and challenging times, we will fold. Give yourself some credit, realize you’ll make mistakes. It’s not that we’ve made them that matters, it’s what we do with them. It’s about not letting our confidence be shaken, but to forge ahead because we know what we want in life.

I don’t know if you ever heard the below monologue. I believe it is meant for high-school or college graduates, but if you listen to the words it clearly defines the life of the entrepreneur. I listen to it every so often. I love it. There is so much truth to it.

Have a listen to, Oh The Places You’ll Go.

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try-try-try until you succeed!

Have you ever worried about something?

Okay, dumb question, let me rephrase.

Have you worried about something to excess?

Maybe you heard someone in your department was getting the ax. Then you suddenly realize:

“Uh. Oh. People in the office have been overly nice to me all week! That can’t be good.”

And it kept you punching your pillow all night long.

Can you think of any such worrisome time in life? Take a second and conjure up a goodie. A real doozey.

Got one?

Do you remember what was going through your head at the peak of the worry?

It might be something totally different. For you maybe it was fear of not making a deadline, a relationship challenge, or a lost pet. Maybe it was fear of flunking a class, getting lost in a city with a new guide dog, or maybe it really was that fear of getting fired.

If so, I bet you were visualizing something like a box filled with all your personal stuff sitting on your desk chair one morning.

Were you hearing a very sincere tone in your boss’s voice apologizing for having to let you go?

Maybe you could feel the grip on both your elbows as security escorted you off company property as they do these days.

Did you feel that rush of blood to your face at night when you were alone with your thoughts and the reality of what it all meant flooded in?

Can’t’ make the house payment.

Eating rice and beans instead of your favorite foods.

Credit score plummeting to the depths.

Your spouse’s quivering voice asking, “Honey, what are we going to do? We just got our credit card bill for the month.”

Can you feel your face pulsing with every heartbeat?

Okay, enough pain. Shake it off.

Now, did any of that stuff actually happen?

My guess is no, it never happened. Or if it did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as all those horrible sound bites and images your imagination whipped up in your mind, and you overcame in spite of it all.

If you are in mid-battle now, you will overcome! You really will.

There’s a quote by Shakespeare of all people which I really love.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.”

Now, before you think I’m calling you a coward, I’m not. Trust me; I’ve learned from worrying to excess in the past, as well reminding myself here. This quote says to me we can allow ourselves to experience our worst fears over and over and over and over and over and over in our minds; when in reality they’ll never come in the first place.

It’s telling me to be courageous, to be valiant. And even if it is going to happen, chest out, chin up, and let it happen just the once. I’ll deal with it once, not a thousand horrible different times in my mind.

If you have teenagers and they’ve ever been two-hours late for curfew, and you can’t reach them on their cell; you know what I’m getting at here.

The real point I want to make here is, as much as visualizing can cause us to live out something terribly worrisome in our mind which never comes true, success shares that technique only in the opposite direction, but with tangible positive results.

It’s pretty awesome really.

What if instead of worrying about getting the axe and picturing all that negative imagery and sound bites, instead you visualize your boss shaking your hand saying…

“Congratulations, I’m so happy for you to get the promotion.”

Maybe a co-worker smiling at you saying, “Yeah, we all thought it was you that would wind up with the promotion, you deserve it. Awesome, congrats!”

Or if you are a business person, how about we hear a phone conversation with a client who is so impressed by your professionalism and work that he or she awards you the contract over the phone.

Maybe you picture yourself standing upright, chest out, breathing deep and confidently saying,

“Tell you what, besides the 4-hour consultation and review of your marketing program, I’ll toss in a 5 piece e-mail campaign to kick off my ideas at half the normal rate, because I really believe in this project.” And in return they say, “Awesome, when can you get started?”

Are you getting the idea? Visualize and hear yourself being successful and getting the contracts, or whatever it is you are going for.

Sounds kind of silly doesn’t it?

Well, mental visualization has proven to have measurable results in sports such as basketball and high jumping for instance. It improved both the form and results of the sportspersons.

It has proven to work. Is it metaphysical or just preparation meeting up with opportunity? Who cares, if it works, it works, that’s all we need to know.

Your body language and mental disposition from doing these exercises is worth the price of admission.

Here, try this little exercise.

Point your nose to the ceiling, and put the biggest, widest, crappiest grin on your face.

Come on, do it. Ah just try it this once, go ahead. Put the biggest ear-to-ear smile on that mug. Hold it there for ten-minutes. Five-minutes? Even two-minutes.

Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get done. Stop reading and come back when you’re finished.

Okay. Are you still smiling now because you just are and not having to force it?

Did you wind up smiling just because the very act caused you to? Do you feel better from just that one simple little exercise?

You might be interested to know this little exercise was successfully used as therapy for patients with depression.

Similar happens with mental visualization techniques to put us in optimum position to succeed at our goals. We’ll feel better and do better, because we visualize it and our physiology lines up with when we do our best, and we’ll get the best results.

Try living your life by daily visualizing success, joy, and peace of mind.

I’ve got a feeling you’ll be just like those sportspersons, you’ll increase your successes markedly.

Hey, we really do have a choice, we have control over our minds, is there any reason why you’d choose to think the worst will happen? Why not imagine the best, and expect positive results?

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

For instance, just this past week my wife and I are at the snack bar talking about what’s for dinner and she says…

“Yeah, we could light up the grill, put on some ka-bobbys and…”

Ka-bobbys? In less than 5-seconds I made the connection from Kabobs to what marketing is not. Hang with me a second, I know it sounds crazy at first.

Kabobs, sometimes called Shish Kabobs, are skewers of meat and veggies or perhaps all meat or all veggies often times grilled to perfection over a hot bed of coals.

But, what they are made of is irrelevant. What I’m looking at is what the name Kabob is, and what it isn’t.

My wife called them Ka-bobbys, and my sometimes screwy mind immediately thought…

“Ka-bobbys? What about KaRoberts?”

I thought, how off is that? KaRobert just takes all the fun out of the name, takes all the summer out of the experience, and is taking something fun and conversational and making it stuffy and formal.

Who cooks up KaRoberts? No one, it sounds almost cannibalistic.

And that is just what your web copy can be, cannibalistic by being too formal, no fun, and the emotional experience in its consumption is like dressing up in a corporate suit, grabbing a heaping bowl of communion wafers and a glass of warm water to sit down for the game, or movie night. I think the boys would be a little shocked and headed to the sports bar, or the girls would be asking, “What is up with you girlfriend?”

For example, if I were to say:

“When you utilize my services, I’ll optimize your content to maximize your potential on the market. The benefits of securing a reader’s actions are the epicenter of your business’s concern, and that is the target in our partnership.”

Peee eeeeew! Can you smell the Ka-Roberts burning here? Someone get some water to cool this thing down and get them off the grill.

What I should have said was:

“Want search engines to put you as high as they can? I know the web optimization secrets to make it happen. Look, I know every business wants to increase sales, and, bottom line? It all comes down to turning people into customers by getting them to find you when they are looking, and click those links and buttons on your web site, e-mails, and other direct response pieces.”

See the difference? Why is it people immediately run to the thesaurus to fill up their mouths with what they are not?

It isn’t fooling or impressing a reader anyway. All it does is glaze their eyes over and put their wallet out of reach.

So when you’re writing any marketing piece, unless it is specific to a field which demands technical speak, get out the coffee pot pen and begin to write just like you chat while waiting your turn to fill your cup. In other words, write more like you talk, not like you swallowed a dictionary.

There are other techniques within marketing such as the “lean in,” transition, and others, but we’ll save them for future posts.

Until next time…

Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

Don’t believe me? Okay, we often say time is money, let’s say I gave you $1,000 yesterday and told you to get whatever you could with it, and you got 25-items.

Today we do the same thing. But this time you were twice as thrifty with the $1,000 and got 50-items. What happened? You didn’t save any money; you just doubled your stuff.

Isn’t that how time works? We can’t bank it in our life like some savings account. We’re given only a limited amount and forced to spend it with every blink and every breath. About all we can manage is to be more efficient with what we have, we can’t save it up to use in the end.

That said here are 3.5 easy methods proven to let you be more efficient with your time.

1. Mail. When we pull in the driveway at home, one family member who shall be nameless immediately goes for the mailbox. I’m grateful the mailperson only comes once a day at a predictable hour or this person might be out there every hour checking if we’ve got any new mail. Okay, not really, but you get my point.

Unfortunately, e-mail comes 24/7/365 and so many of us entrepreneurs really do check e-mail way too often.

Smart phones have helped with that which I’ll touch on later, but do yourself a huge favor; when on task don’t tempt yourself to check mail continually. Even if you feel you have some fairly important mail coming or think it will just take a second, because you run the risk of getting hooked on answering e-mails or writing new ones as long as you are there, and before you know it one-eighth of your work day was set adrift never to be heard from again.

Instead, turn off the automatic e-mail checking feature on your mailer, or at least turn off the audio notification, and allow yourself a set amount of time to do e-mail once or twice a day. When time is up, stop. Even if you are in the middle of something, stop. I guarantee you the more you do this, the more efficient you’ll be and the better distinctions you’ll make in what mail to receive in the first place.

2. Automobile University. Zig Ziglar, one of the great motivators of the past use to have a thing he’d call Automobile University. Basically, it was making use of unproductive time you are forced to spend in a commute to work, cleaning an office, or even mowing the lawn.

I’ve listened to many audio books, webinars, motivational programs, and on-line courses while commuting somewhere, exercising, cleaning the office, or any other task that doesn’t require much thought. I even answer or weed out unwanted e-mail with my iPhone on the fly.

This actually does two things. First, of course it allows you to get so much more good information in you that you’d not otherwise have, but more it makes a droner of a task… sort of fun. It got to a point with one audio book I read where I couldn’t wait to clean up the house or mow lawn just so I could get back to the book. I think my wife secretly hopes I’ll find a similar book… maybe even a trilogy or series.

3. Schwartz 33:33 Rule. Back in the day, copywriting legend Gene Schwartz came up with a method which allowed him to write his many books, and entrepreneurs still use it today. Set a timer for 33-minutes and 33-seconds, and start working. When the timer goes off, get up for a 5- or 10-minute break, then repeat the timer and get to work again.

At first, breaking your flow and interrupting your day seems counterproductive, but this mini-deadline is proven to work. You are training your mind to stay more focused when you sit down at your desk. Try it and see if it helps your productivity.

And now for the one-half-method you wondered about since reading the header …

3.5. Don’t work at all. That’s right, take some time off. Working continually only burns you out, makes you feel like there is no reward for your efforts, and your brain needs time away from what you do, even if you love what you do.

There is proof that your subconscious will go to work producing solutions and background work when your mind is at rest. We can reach a saturation point of productivity if we never give ourselves conscious time away from it.

I say this is the one-half-method not because it was half as important, but if you are like me, you are half likely to do it if left to your own workaholic tendencies; and it really does need to be observed and enjoyed.

This is just a sampling of ways to be more productive. Try journaling your day’s activities noting how much time you spend on each item, you’ll quickly identify the patterns and tweaks to your productivity.