photo credit: eschipul

Today’s guest post is from the guys over at Lateral Action and is all about seeming busy while not being productive.

Or more accurately, it’s about being more productive and efficient but at the wrong things.

Are you productive where it counts – at the right things?

Make quick work of the post at the above link and see if you’re reading about yourself. If you are, put some tools in place to help you focus on the right stuff.

A paper notebook / checklist is fine – as long as you USE it.

Paper doesn’t work for me. It creates clutter and makes things worse.

I need an automated solution that nags me a little – and I use the GTD system by David Allen to make stuff happen. Fortunately, there’s software that supports GTD. If you use Windows, the GettingThingsDone add-in for Microsoft Outlook is a strong tool. On the Mac side of things, OmniFocus uses Getting Things Done principles to help you stay on track. I’ve used both of these tools and find them incredibly helpful.

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photo credit: extranoise

Today’s guest post comes from MarketingCharts.com.

I’m not passing this along so you’ll have an answer in a future game of Trivial Pursuits, but to get you thinking about your market, markets you arent in yet and markets that might impact yours.

Industries in Motion at MarketingCharts.com

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Mr. Jim Rohn passed away on Saturday.

While I haven’t seen him in four years, I will miss him. Thankfully I have a bunch of his recordings and video to keep me company, even though that’s not the same.

Rohn’s impact on business people for the last several decades is something you can’t even put a number on – but try this on. The guy who picked up Tony Robbins and helped him down the path to helping others… was Jim Rohn.

If you think about how many people Tony has impacted, you know that’s a big number. Some of those people have likely passed their newfound knowledge on to others as well.

That’s the impact of just ONE of the many people Jim has sent out into the world with better ideas and a better plan for themselves.

One of Mr. Rohn’s classic quotes goes something like “To improve your situation / job / life, start by improving *yourself*.” Rohn very strongly believed that life-long learners did better in life. Not just financially, but in all aspects of their lives.

It isn’t just for employers and entrepreneurs. Share this stuff with your employees. You want them to have better attitudes, work smarter, think better. It’s a gift that the right ones will appreciate.

To that end and to honor Jim’s role in helping others improve themselves, here’s some stuff to get you started:

• http://www.openculture.com/2009/12/10_power_tools_for_lifelong_learners.html
• Learn from Jim
• Your best year ever part 1
• Your best year ever part 2
• Your best year ever part 3

RIP, sir.

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photo credit: jared

Today’s guest post from the Washington Post is about a football player turned law enforcement officer from small town Louisiana.

If you don’t read anything else, catch 2 of his last comments on page 4: “I know the margin between being in the NFL and being out of the NFL is so small. You can’t get comfortable with yourself. You can’t be satisfied.”

Would’ve been easy for him to give up. And while some (especially Dallas fans) would say that Washington doesn’t actually have a pro team, they’d be missing the message.

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photo credit: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R)

Happy New Year in November?

I don’t mean the Chinese New Year, the Jewish New Year or the new Federal fiscal year. I’m talking about the regular old New Year that happens on January first.

Are you ready for 2010? Or will you start getting ready for it on January second like a lot of businesses do?

I know some that simply don’t do much of *anything* in December. Their business is open, but strategically, it may as well be closed till 2010.

If your business is struggling, I suggest you reconsider that strategy. In fact, I think you’re nuts to wait 6 more weeks to start your business’ new year.

Why? Sorry, I thought you were serious about your business.

From all I’m hearing on the street, some businesses are having a pretty good year (really!), but others are struggling a little and some are struggling mightily.

It’s pretty much like any other time except that the definitions of “struggling a little” and “struggling mightily” have changed substantially for a lot of folks.

So in order to help you have a Happy New Year, I want you to start your own stimulus plan by start the New Year today in your business.

Do it right now.

Did I just outlaw December? Nah.

BUT…You have about six weeks until January first. I suggest you put them to very good, very strategic use.

With the exception of retailers and a few others, right about now it’s very common for lots of businesses to start mentally winding down for the year.

I understand that the temptation to join them is strong. I also understand that for many, your business is sucking wind. If that’s the situation at your place, you just can’t wait six weeks to get serious again.

I don’t mean that you should skip all the family stuff you do for the holidays and work late on Christmas Eve. However, I do suggest that you get very strategic, very focused about how you use the valuable time left in the year rather than coasting through it like most everybody else.

Rather than not hiring, interviewing, or starting new projects because it’s the holiday season, I suggest you do just the opposite: Start / continue the process today.

Whatever it is, do it TODAY.

Get up an hour earlier on Thanksgiving (if you’re not in the US, get up early anyhow). Get up an hour earlier on Black Friday. Keep that up for the rest of the year. If nothing else, your area’s coffee business will improve (yes, that was a joke).

For every hour of work, ask yourself: “Is this getting me closer to where I need to be, or is it just busy work that I can delegate or not do at all?”

If you have new projects planned for 2010, think of the project as a fully loaded semi-truck (80,000 pounds of in-your-market coolness) and use the next six weeks as the acceleration lane to get that semi up to highway speeds, business-wise.

Finally, be ruthless with yourself and your time. Focus like your next meal is on the line cuz it might be.

Remember Jim Rohn’s comeuppance? (see below)

He couldn’t even afford to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies from the cute little Girl Scout at his door. A grown man with kids, working at an executive position.

That’ll focus you in a hurry. Are you that focused?

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photo credit: orangeacid

Yes, I know that is going to rile some folks up, but you probably need to be riled up anyhow.

What exactly do I mean by “give them the fish”? Let me back up a little.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the saying: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”

I used to agree. It used to seem that teaching someone to fish was sufficient, but human nature is a powerful teacher.

Not anymore.

First, a couple of examples from the Rotary world:

• Do you think that Rotary should just airdrop polio vaccine (and instructions) over Africa and let those folks take care of vaccinating themselves?
• What about the hand-operated wells that Rotarians regularly donate and install in third world communities? I’m talking about the wells that eliminate a mother’s 6 mile daily walk for water. Before you think “So what?”, think about how long it takes a mother to walk 6 miles, then walk 6 miles back carrying 5 gallons of probably not-so-clean water. If you’re taking care of a couple of infants, consider how that impacts your child-rearing and your ability to make a living. Now suddenly you’re taking clean water out of a well right in your village. Impactful.

But…I didn’t start this conversation to talk about Rotary. Their polio and water efforts just make the point easy to illustrate.

Personal Inertia

All of this is really building up to some comments about personal inertia.

Inertia is a big obstacle for an 80,000 lb 18 wheel truck or a jumbo jet, but a person’s personal inertia makes their inertia pale in comparison.

Powered by daily routines and daily “crises”, as I referred to yesterday when quoting Mr. Rohn, it’s bigger than most people realize.

While everybody can do what so and so does to be successful, reach a goal, get out of a mess, change some aspect of their lives, or market their product; but not everybody will.

Why Personal Inertia happens

A lot of the reason for this is that people just aren’t used to taking NEW actions. Sure, they get up for work in the morning (even if they work for themselves) and they go about their business, but they struggle to make new things happen.

Rather than making things happen, they often watch things happen (or worse, wonder what happened).

That’s why you have to give them the fish. Change is tough. Sometimes scary. Sometimes, just different enough that your routine just doesn’t seem to allow for them.

And that’s where the fish comes in.

Sometimes you have to give them the fish to prime the pump. To make the impression necessary to show that the learning is worthwhile.

What IS The Fish?

The fish is what you do for others. Maybe a service, maybe something you teach or something you create for them if they can’t or won’t do it themselves.

I know you can teach them to fish (whatever your fish is), but they have to WANT to learn to fish or your time will be wasted.

Yep, WASTED.

More than likely, whatever you do is the fish your client needs (or is related to it).

Again, giving them the fish primes the pump and helps make that action part of their routine.

Until it’s routine, it’s unlikely to happen.

Before you give them the fish, before they “get it”, they might not have the vision you have.

The fish might be necessary to make the impression (produce the results?) necessary to show that learning to fish is worthwhile in the first place.

Give, then teach

Once the lesson, the results, the vision/buy in are there, learning to fish seems like a good idea.

Their idea. Your gift made it so.

When eyes light up, budgets appear and/or time opens up, it’s time to teach.

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photo credit: Br0m

You know the thing I’m talking about. The thing that just wouldn’t go away. It’s so big, you can’t see it.

It’s like that creep at the dance who just wont take no for an answer. Or that thing hanging over your head that you *know* you have to do – but you just can’t seem to get to it.

Maybe because you don’t want to do it, or maybe because those “pesky customers” keep calling or having you run across town doing stuff for them.

So the money is coming in, but there’s that thing you gotta do.

What’s worse

In this case, it’s work that you make for yourself by doing all that stuff you’re doing for clients. So, it’s kind of a good thing, but it’s also stacking up.

More every day.

Video and still photography are good examples. You go out and capture an event or a portrait or some such and then there’s the studio’s editing station sitting there.

Just. Mocking. You.

The Pile

Thousands of frames have to be edited, corrected, cropped and perhaps a few of the images or a few moments of video are turned into amazing artwork.

Hours and gigs of video have to have the sound cleaned up, bad takes removed, frames removed for whatever reason, titles and effects added, and so on.

These tasks are labors of love at times, but at others, they are long hours of brutal grunt work.

How much did you say you make an hour for this work? Is that editing time factored in? (different discussion for a different day)

Editing might be fun when there are a few hundred shots of something you love shooting, like landscapes, sports, portraits or what not.

It might not be as much fun when there are 5000 sit and grin shots of kids or families or what not. Video – same deal.

Just say no (mostly)

What if you didn’t have to do it?

Don’t think about the WHO quite yet, but on what you get when you don’t have that work weighing down on you.

It’s the time and what you do with it.

How long after these marathon editing sessions does the “wow, this is gonna take x hours of editing time” thought process start creeping into your shooting?

When shooting something with fast action in it, does this “force” you to dial back from 6.5 frames per second to 3?

Does it enter your mind as you shoot 3000 frames (or 15 hours) of wedding coverage, or some marathon sporting event? Do you eventually get the equation in your head that every x shots = 15 minutes of editing?

Does that put a box around your creativity, even subconsciously?

Eventually, I’m guessing that it will.

You, Robot.

At some point, one risk is that this editing work will become mechanical.

If you think about it a bit, how could it not after months, years?

So…if you aren’t doing all that editing….What would you get done instead?

What about the work that you are totally in love with?

Isn’t that really where you want to spend your creative synapse firings? (assuming we all have but so many)

Isn’t that the work you *really* want to spend hours of loving, creative, out of this world editing time?

Just a question. You don’t have to answer.

Me, Nutcase

Let someone else edit my video/photos??? Am I NUTS? Perhaps, but that’s beside the point.

Think about it anyway. Not so much because you are the only one who can do it (really?), but because you really are the only one who can do that other stuff you do.

If you aren’t a photographer or videographer, you likely still have something like this on your plate.

Yet you still do it and it’s adding miles/hours between you and amazing.

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photo credit: mckaysavage

They just don’t know any better and they’re the ones Seth is talking about here.

They don’t know that you’re supposed to dominate your industry and they are supposed to respect your dominance just because your daddy or great-grandpappy started your business 50 or 100 years ago.

They don’t know that they are supposed to adhere to 2, 20, or 200 year old rules that rule your market for reasons no one can remember, much less explain.

All they know is…they can do it better. And without all your baggage.

That’ll be $40 for 2 bags, sir.

But…not all of them have that baggage. Some see past what everyone else is doing.

Like Toys ‘R Us. Yeah, a nationwide box store.

We’ve talked about how the CPSIA has dealt a tough hand to small lot, one-of-a-kind (OOAK) and handcrafted manufacturers of toys and childrens’ clothes (and a zillion other things for kids under 12).

Most of the noise has come from small businesses, even though the big stores have to deal with it too. They have some upside vs the little guy because their lot sizes are large and they can wield power with suppliers. (Or they’re like Mattel and get an exemption…but we won’t talk about that today)

Despite all the inane things that a lot of these big chains do, this one was different.

They were smart enough to do this.

Most big box stores don’t have the brass to do that.

Be different AND better

For example, when most big box office stores have a big sale whose volume is controlled by how much stuff you can cram into a sack, they exclude a bunch of stuff – usually expensive stuff. And they only let you have one bag.

Guess if I wanted to buy enough expensive stuff to fill 10 bags that might tick em off? I guess I’ll just get it somewhere else.

If they had a trade-in sale, they’d normally limit it to 1 item and require purchase from a specific list of replacement items.

Not Toys ‘R Us.  Their trade-in event appears to have no limits.

Just like those 3 kids who just decided to start a company…in your market.

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photo credit: miyukiutada

Silly question – cuz I’m sure you do.

Dave takes a different cut at personal standards. A cut you might find challenging, but I hope not.

Just the same, today’s guest post from Dave Navarro (no, not the famous guitarist) is worth reading and looking in the mirror about.

Check it out here.

A big part of what others do (you know, like your family, your staff…) is a based in large part reflection of you as a family leader, a business leader, a community leader and so on.

What do they see?

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photo credit: C.P.Storm

Today’s guest post from Guy Kawasaki talks briefly about the current state of the economy and more importantly about the economics of starting your own business these days.

Guy’s post offers more reasons why I keep pestering local folks to start their own business - *especially* if they are currently laid off.

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photo credit: geoftheref

Today’s guest post is from @BradRourke, who posts on a litany of topics revolving around self, community organizations, business and things in-between.

The Mark Sanford meltdown was just one of his topics recently, but not so much about the paparazzi angle.

Instead, he writes about what it might take to get a fine upstanding citizen like yourself to go over the edge like Sanford did.

Hopefully you aren’t there and no one you know is there, but just in case, give it a read and see if his story (which isn’t about Sanford) sounds familiar.

You just might save someone – and it might even be yourself.

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photo credit: sburke2478

You’ve all been there.

The 7th grade dance. Girls on one side, boys on the other.

And if nothing happens, it isn’t long before the girls are dancing with each other.

Meanwhile the boys lean against the wall, looking down at their feet, glancing up at their favorite girl and then kicking themselves for not asking her to dance – all while continuing to stand there and not ask.

Sometimes, one brave boy steps out there and asks the prettiest girl in school to dance. Sometimes she does simply because someone finally asked her.

Wallflowers don’t get to dance

You say your name and your business name. And then, you look down almost as if you’re ashamed.

I guess I should paint a more complete picture before I get to the meat of the subject.

Sidebar: What do vegetarians say instead of “Get to the meat of the subject”?

The other day I was speaking on a panel about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The 4 of us had a nice big crowd of small business owners to interact with. Each of us are involved fully or partly in providing our clients with websites, technology or some such, so as a group we had the various bases covered pretty well and things were flowing nicely.

Late in the discussion, someone in the crowd asked a question or two and after a while, asked one last question after introducing themselves as a web designer.

Maybe it was the panel structure itself, but I really don’t think so. We’re all pretty regular, approachable folks. No suits or anything like that.

Something made this person seem a bit embarrassed to bring up the fact that they did web design and that they were looking for customers. Maybe they felt the context was wrong.

Thing is, solo entrepreneurs can’t afford to be embarrassed or shy.

Worst case, a “Hey, is it ok if I introduce myself?” would have worked.

Belt it out

Maybe it was because they felt like we owned the room, but that really isn’t the case. If half of the people in the room had walked up to the panel with a check in hand and a pile of work to do in short order, we’d all be scrambling:)

It really isn’t about us.

None of the folks on the panel cared about the introduction. In fact, I’ll bet every one of the panelists would be happy to see another good web designer in town that we can refer work to when the fit, budget or timeframe isn’t right for us.

Ideally, we would have heard their name clearly, with a phone number, web site address or a “Please see me afterwards”. But that didn’t happen.

I feel a little bad about it now, because I didn’t stop what we were doing and ask them to stand up, reintroduce themselves and give some solid contact info. I mean, the room was full of small business owners. It was the perfect opportunity (yeah, I’ll see if I can get them to introduce themselves next month).

But this is about you, not that person (I can fix that next month). It’s just a story to illustrate how easy it is to overlook something and cost yourself some business.

If you’ve got a shot, take it.

It’s no time to be a wallflower.

Get out on the floor and dance like no one’s watching – cuz unless you do, they won’t be watching and they wont have any idea that you can dance.

What a shame it would be if the best dancer on the floor never left the wall.

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photo credit: WTL photos

Today’s guest post comes from Entrepreneur.com, specifically from author and Entrepreneur writer James Stephenson.

You’ve heard many of these things from me, but it never hurts to hear them from someone else.

Start here and dig in!

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photo credit: Don Fulano

Now is the time to start a new business.

Didn’t I just say that a few days ago? Yeah, I did. And no one managed to step up and tell me I was a lunatic:)

“Why is now a good time?”, you say. I say “Why isn’t now a good time?”

Businesses are stressed. They’re thinking survival. Meanwhile, you’re thinking about new ideas, growth, taking over a market, game-changing stuff.

Guess which one is a better thought process…

If you’ve decided to start something, here are a few thoughts to keep you moving in the right direction:

Stay organized

• Piles are great for dirty laundry, but not for paperwork.
• Piles are a great place to lose a check that you really needed to deposit last month, or an invoice that you needed to pay 3 months ago.
• Piles are just a bad idea.

Get good advice

• No one is born, grabs the phone and closes a big sale from the delivery room.
• Salesmanship and a LOT of other things are learned, not transferred via breast milk.
• When you’re the boss, the safety net is you and your circle of advisors (ie: build one).
• Take responsibility for learning something every day. Read. Take a class. Read more. Surround yourself with smart people, especially if you can find people who are smarter than you.
• Note: If there isn’t anyone smarter than you, you’re either alone or misguided. Forget all that other advice and go get a job.

Listen and learn

• Who is the sharpest knife in your industry’s drawer? Get to know them. Do something to help them. Absorb everything they say, do, think.
• Who is the thought leader in your business? Who picks up on things before anyone else? Spend as much time as you can *listening* to them and observing them and their business.
• Ask smart, successful people (and dumb successful people too) about the lessons that were the most important. If they’ll let you, buy them lunch, Ruth’s Chris or whatever gets them interested and let them talk. Listen. Listen. Listen.
• Surround yourself with smart, successful people, like Jim Rohn says. Return the favor when you’re asked to be one of those smart people.

Expect failure

• Failure is an event. Not a person.
• Learn about failure the inexpensive way. Study other people’s failures.
• Learn from older people who are smart as crap. They were young and stupid once too. That’s when they made the mistakes that made them older and smart as crap.
• You’ll make mistakes. Something will fail. Don’t give up or I’ll call you a wuss.

Expect chaos

• Be prepared for growth. Position yourself to deal with, hypothetically, 2 or 3 times the business you have now. Tomorrow.
• What would you change if your business tripled next week.
• All that preparation might make it easier to outgrow all those cool things you organized. Get over it.
• Expect to feel like one of those Chinese plate spinners who has 20 plates on 20 sticks and is spinning them all at the same time without dropping a single one.
• Expect to encounter times when spinning 20 plates would feel relaxing.

A few years from now when you have grumbling on the staff, tell them about the plates you used to spin.

It’ll go over about like that “walked to school uphill both ways through the snow” story that you tell your kids (or that your parents told you), but it’ll be true:)

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photo credit: Nihit Goyal

Today’s guest post comes from David Armano, who provokes the manager in you by asking if you can handle the truth. 

No, wait. That was a movie..

David’s question is more challenging. Can you handle a passionate employee? Do they even belong at your business – even though you probably think and say that you want them? 

Anyone who has worked for someone else and felt like they were the only one who really, truly gave a rip will find themselves nodding their heads. 

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/12/passion-vs-productive.html

BUT…now that you’re in charge, could someone like you excel at your business? Or would just rather have someone who is “just” productive?

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Today’s guest post comes from The Big Idea, where you’ll hear about a guy who started a multi-million dollar business with $350.

Watch this short video to learn his story. How can you use what he did?

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Today’s guest post is from Guy Kawasaki. You probably know of Guy from his books, from his time at Apple or Garage, or maybe from Alltop. Who knows, you might even have played hockey with him. 

Regardless, his last post as a blogger for Sun is definitely worth reading.

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In today’s guest post, Tuned In discussed a Me Too (sorta) product and the gauntlet that they put new product ideas through just a day after we discussed Me Too products here.

Their 6 simple questions should give you something to think about whenever creating a new product or service, much less modifying an existing one.

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You don’t have to look far to find people who will find 100 reasons why you shouldn’t do what you’re doing in your business (or what you plan to do).

They’ll throw every possible thing at you that can go wrong. Thank them under your breath if they mention something that you hadn’t considered in your plan, but don’t let them get you down.

Remember that some of them probably haven’t built anything of their own. What extends beyond their comfort zone will color their remarks, and will often be irrelevant to you. Those who have built something of their own look at life and business differently.

Allowing folks with that outlook to project their attitude onto you isn’t going to help you succeed. If it’s a consistently negative stream of BS, just leave. If you can’t leave (eg, they might be family), change the subject and don’t talk about business with them.

Jim Rohn once said you’re the product of the 5 people you spend the most time with. OK, Jim really says that every time he speaks, but whatever:)

Are those 5 people being supportive? Asking good questions? Sharing things that have been successful for them, in hopes that you might be able to get some use out of it?

Or are they constantly picking away at you, your ideas and your business as if they were some sort of karmic woodpecker?

Find people who will help you by asking good, tough questions, not those who will chip away at you and your ideas just because it’s what they do. When the chippers chip away, the best thing you’ll get out of it is motivation.

When I announced our move to Montana, someone told me we’d be back in 6 months. I remember it like it was yesterday.

They said it in 1999.

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Good thing I got off the 50+ mile canoe trip today. Turns out this morning’s guest post was missing the link to Yanik’s book list.

The original post has been updated, or you can go here now.

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