19 Tips to Bring FocusIs it distracting out here or what?
Thank goodness the election’s over, right? Sheesh. But still, we’ve got the economy yet to hit bottom, banks still needing money (I guess to keep lobbying…), more banks needing money and now more countries needing money. Some of our mortgages are so under water they’re surfacing in China. And they’re sinking China judging by China’s own need for bailing out their economy. We’ve got a couple of wars going on. And Christmas is coming around the corner, though I haven’t seen any ads yet. (That’s something to be thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving.)
And then there’s college football, pro football is interesting now. NBA just started and college basketball starts in a couple of weeks.
And I’ve lost track of Britney, Lindsay, Paris, those skinny twins…
And then there’s this social media thing with blogs, twitter, YouTube, Utterli, Blip.fm, microblogs, podcasts, tumblr, squidoo, online social communities. There’s ning and rss feeds and news alerts. There’s viddler, oovoo, hulo…something, there’s plurk and twhirl and friendfeed, facebook and myspace, emails…(And I’m too distracted to link to any of them. You’ll have to…google all of them. That’s more distraction for you. You’re welcome.)
Oh. And did you say you’re running a business with meetings and reports and challenges. Did we say challenges? What are you doing to keep your employees informed? Your customers informed? And how are you keeping cash-flows flowing…THAT way…and where’s the new product coming out. What’s happening with that employee? Did you miss that meeting? Of course you did, you’re reading this post. Innovation, anyone? No? Ok. Well, did you notice your marketing budget, plan, thingy isn’t working and your CMO keeps talking in vaguer and vaguer terms and he hasn’t kept a meeting with you, in the past 3 months, which coincidentally is a shorter period than the period of declining results from his marketing efforts.
No? You’re too distracted.
Now, that I’ve described in less than 500 words a day in your life and your life is similar to mine and millions of others….let me share some tips with you that I’ve found (if followed…) help me stay focused. Focus, please.
1. Plan Ahead - daily. I plan each day the night before. It’s a simple plan. 3-5 things I want to get done that next day. 1-2 lines each. I usually handwrite it in a notebook.
2. Plan Ahead - weekly. I plan each week, too. I update it every 3-4 days. I review the results each week to make sure nothing’s dropped and to plan for the next week.
3. Go to bed early. Seriously. It’s a marathon we’re running here, people. A rested mind and body are a clear and energetic and positive and consistent pair of tools to work with. All other tools effectiveness depends on these two working together. They work better, and better together, when rested.
4. Eat lunch. Seriously. It’s the peak period for digestive power. It settles the morning’s frenzy. You think calmer on a full belly. Patience is higher there, too. You also sleep better with a big lunch and a light dinner. See previous point.
5. Go home on time. Too many problems arise from a tired mind. Go home, kiss the spouse, play with the kids. Be happy. Relax. There’s when the solutions start popping up. Problems tend to vanish when they’re not fed with our attention. In their place, come solutions.
6. Exercise. For goodness sakes, exercise. A. Do it because it’s healthy. B. Do it because you want to see your kids grow up. C. Do it because the brain works better in coordination with the body and some adrenaline. I’m talking 30-45 minutes on a regular basis giving the effort you can. Some days I run hills. Other days, I walk those same hills. I call it a run either way. I take what the body gives.
6. Read email once a day. Do us all a favor. Stop encouraging us to send email. If it’s important, people call. Or they’ll IM you.
7. Don’t reply to emails immediately. Wait. Either you’ll sense it’s urgency or you won’t. If you do, then you’ve had time to prepare a more thoughtful response. If it’s not, you haven’t wasted time.
8. Put your phone on DND. Turn off you cellphone. Not all day, just for an hour or two.
9. Block your time. Work on a project for 30 minutes. Then move to the next project. A. it keeps your mind fresh. B. you’re making progress, albeit in baby steps, but still progress. C. you’re not creating imaginary obstacle in your head. D. instead you’re systemticall, consistently, breaking down big projects into little 30-mnute projects.
10. Take a break regularly. Breaks keep my mind fresh.
12. Treat Twitter the way you treat email. Hit it, then turn it off. Focus your tweets on adding value. (I’m still learning that one.)
13. Create DND periods for your self. Tell your staff/family not to disturb you for an hour. Interruptions are not innovations. And soon, you’ll find they’re more self-reliant and you’re more productive. That self-reliancy thing you’ll see develop makes them more valuable to you and to themselves.
14. Keep a routine. Whatever it is, keep it. It frees the mind to focus on more important things.
15. Seek help. Yes. That’s right. You need help, my friend. Join a peer advisory board. The best are the Tab Boards and Peersight Online.
16. Buy a faster computer. There are great deals out there, now. And faster computers gets more done, faster. That makes you happy. A happy you makes your family happy.
17. Take an offline weekend. Don’t read email, don’t read blogs, don’t answer your cellphone, don’t skype or twitter. Turn it off. I’m always surprised at the solutions and ideas that come at the end of one of these.
18. Tell your spouse you love them. There’s something about doing that that just makes me more focused. Maybe it’s the contentment of making her smile. I don’t know. Try it. Tell me I’m wrong. And tell your kids, too. Your pets, too, for that matter. ( Tell them you love them, not that I’m wrong.)
19. Pick one or two of these. Try them for a week. See what happens. Adjust them to fit your needs.
Confession: Some of these I do very regularly, some pretty often. Some are on lists of others and after I read those others’ lists, I realized I was doing them, too. (Pretty cool.) These aren’t exclusive to me. They’re just what I realized work for me, when I do them.
I blogged a list of Tip to Stay Focused in Tough Times. (Disclaimer: it’s a shameless self-promotion. But…I’m focused. )
Anyway. We’ve got to go. Too many things to do: meetings, reports, problems to solve, twitters to tweet, utters to utterli, tumbles to tumblr, stumbles to stumbleupon, delicious, facebook, gmail, linkedIn, change my status or a tree will fall in the forest and no one will be there to witness it….
Oh wait. Now, we can focus. Ahhhh. Life is simpler, life is good.
* * * * *
 About the author: Zane Safrit’s passion is small business and the operationsí excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited. Zanes blog can be found at Zane Safrit.
From Small Business Trends
19 Tips to Bring Focus
 Incorporate for Free Today Only As mentioned yesterday, this week is my birthday. So I have an entire week of giveaways and freebies for you.
Today’s free gift to you is a special code which will allow you to incorporate for free at MyCorporation.com.
If you have been thinking of turning your sole proprietorship into a corporation or LLC, today you can do it for free, saving $150.
Go to MyCorporation.com. When you sign up to incorporate, use the code FREE149. The code is good through 6:00 PM Pacific time today, November 11, 2008.
UPDATE: Please note that I just learned the code is good up until 6:00 PM Pacific time today. I also learned it covers LLCs in addition to incorporations.
From Small Business Trends
Incorporate for Free Today Only
 Managed versus Market CapitalismI just got back from a week of lecturing in Singapore, where there is no financial crisis, no recession, and no extra economic pressure on entrepreneurs.
One of the topics that I was there to talk about was the U.S. innovation system. This is something I’m often asked to talk about in other countries, where there is a desire to imitate the U.S. system of creating high growth innovative start-ups.
Normally I don’t think much about the downside of the U.S. system. But with the current economic situation here, I thought a lot about the potential trade-offs between our system and that in other countries.
The U.S. has what some might call market capitalism. Our reliance on the market system has helped to create venture capital and IPO markets that are much stronger than elsewhere in the world and that has given us high growth innovative companies like Google. The downside of this system is that it can lead to excesses (current financial crisis) that we would have been better off preventing.
Other countries, like Singapore, have what some might call managed capitalism. They are much less reliant on the market system and much more reliant on the government to regulate and manage the economy. This approach minimizes the kind of excesses that we have seen recently, but at the expense of the kind of entrepreneurship that epitomizes the U.S. system.
I used to take the advantages of the U.S. system for granted. But now I am now wondering if managed capitalism might be better.
Any thoughts?
* * * * *
 About the Author: Scott Shane is A. Malachi Mixon III, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of nine books, including Fool’s Gold: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America; Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By; Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures; Technology Strategy for Managers and Entrepreneurs; and From Ice Cream to the Internet: Using Franchising to Drive the Growth and Profits of Your Company.
From Small Business Trends
Managed versus Market Capitalism
 What Have You Learned About Blogging? Giveaway of Blog Blazers Book This month is my birthday, and instead of my receiving gifts, I’d thought I would give gifts to you. That means that here on Small Business Trends we will be giving away something for free every day this week.
First up: I have 2 5 copies of the new book “Blog Blazers” to give away.
About the Book
Blog Blazers is written by Stephane Grenier, and consists of interviews with 40 top bloggers in various niches. Some of the 40 bloggers included are names many of you will recognize: Seth Godin, Steve Rubel, Dane Carlson, Yaro Starak, and Pamela Slim. I also had the honor to be included in the book.
It’s got tips and advice on questions such as:
- What are your main avenues for marketing your blog?
- What’s the most common mistake new bloggers make?
- What’s the best way to make money from your blog?
Stephane blogs at FollowSteph.com. He’s set up a website for the book at BlogBlazers.com, where you can read more about the book.
How to Win a Copy of Blog Blazers
To get a copy of this book, submit your tip answering the following question:
What is the number one thing you have learned about blogging?
That’s all you have to do. Make your tip short — or make it long — doesn’t matter. You can submit your tip one of two ways: either email your tip to sbtips@gmail.com or leave a tip in the comments section below by the end of the day on Saturday, November 15, 2008. I will choose two five commenters in a random drawing and will email you if you’ve won. Everyone is eligible — I will be happy to mail the book anywhere in the world. I will post the winners’ names and their tips here on the site.
UPDATE: Stephane saw this post and is sending me some additional books to give away. Therefore, I have increased the give away to five (5) books.
From Small Business Trends
What Have You Learned About Blogging? Giveaway of Blog Blazers Book
 Pay Per Click Ad Campaigns Getting More Complex - DIY or Outsource?Pay per click advertising used to be a lot easier to do. But in the past 24 months it seems to have gotten more competitive and complex. Some small business owners are discouraged about it.
There’s a new PPC Strategy Flowchart just out that walks you through the considerably more complex process of running pay-per-click ad campaigns today. Created by Giovanna Wall at the PPC Blog, it illustrates the kind of strategy, testing and tweaking that you have to bring your advertising campaigns.
(click image to jump to interactive flow chart)
How PPC Ads Got More Complex
For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m referring to, “pay per click ads” or “PPC ads” are those little ads you see down the right side of the page in the Google search results, labeled “Sponsored Links.” Sometimes you will also see them in a shaded box right above the natural search results. As the advertiser, you may also choose to display your PPC ads on content sites (sites like Small Business Trends).
They’re called “pay per click” because in most cases you are charged by the click. You pay XX cents or XX dollars each time someone clicks on your ad.
In order to place your ad where qualified prospects are likely to see it, you need to place your ad only on those pages where people are looking for what you offer. Otherwise, your ad budget would just be wasted. You do that by bidding on keywords related to your site or offering. When someone goes to a search engine and searches on your keyword, your ad is displayed.
It used to be that the more you bid on a specific search term (keyword), the higher up on the page and more frequently your ad would appear. However, that’s only partly true these days. Now other factors have a bearing on how visible your ad is — or even whether it’s displayed at all. One of the factors affecting PPC ads is how relevant your ad is to the keyword you bid on. Google euphemistically calls relevance factors your “Quality Score.”
If Google deems your ad to have a “low Quality Score” (i.e., not very relevant) your bid on a term may be rejected altogether unless you pay some outlandish amount, like $5 or $10 a click for a term that otherwise goes for $0.85. It wouldn’t take long before a small business went broke throwing that kind of money around.
That’s why I say that PPC advertising has gotten more complex and competitive, especially for smaller businesses without in-house PPC expertise. Today, you really have to know what you’re doing with pay-per-click advertising, or you could lose your shirt. Or you may find that your ads hardly ever get displayed and you end up with paltry results like 2 clicks a day. In other words, it takes a lot more knowledge, time and attention to run a pay-per-click ad campaign today than it did a few years ago. And that complexity and competitiveness is only increasing over time.
The Choice: DIY or Hire it Out
You have two choices today: outsource your PPC campaign management, or do it internally.
More and more businesses I know are hiring out the management of their pay per click ad campaigns to search marketing professionals or to Google AdWords Certified Professionals. For businesses that regularly run PPC ad campaigns of 4 to 5 figures monthly, paying someone a fee to manage the campaigns can in the end save you money and get you better results.
On the other hand, if you feel reasonably confident in your ability to do it yourself with pay-per-click ad campaigns, or if your ad spend is still small, you will probably opt to keep it in-house.
That’s where the PPC Strategy Flowchart above comes in handy. It gives you the strategic context for your ad campaigns. But the flowchart is more than just a concept. It also points you to resources about each step in the process. On the flowchart, if you click each box, it leads you to an article or resource on the Web where you can learn more about each step.
Regardless of which choice you make, PPC advertising is still one of the fastest and most trackable advertising methods for bringing traffic to a new small-business website, pumping up holiday sales, or otherwise getting found quickly online. Just be smart about it. Either make the effort to educate yourself, or hire somebody competent.
From Small Business Trends
Pay Per Click Ad Campaigns Getting More Complex - DIY or Outsource?
 New York Times Small Business Summit - Join Me!If you are in the New York area, I would be thrilled if you would look me up at the upcoming New York Times Small Business Summit .
I will be there most of the day in the American Express OPEN Advice Center. I’ll be there to answer your questions. Anything you want to know about, anything you think I might be able to help with, I will be happy to try to assist you.
The day features two keynotes: Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stoneyfield Farm, and Liz Lange, Founder of Liz Lange Maternity. Then there are breakout sessions covering: strategies for growth in a tough economy, empowering your team, and the new marketing landscape. You can wander through the vendor fair and check out offerings to help you run your business. There will be speed networking, too, which is always fun and worthwhile. And a cocktail reception for more relaxed networking caps the day.
When: November 17, 2008 from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM
Where: Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Avenue (at the corner of 53rd Street), New York, NY 10019
Find out more: Visit the New York Times Small Business Summit website.
Hope to see you there!
From Small Business Trends
New York Times Small Business Summit - Join Me!
 Holiday Marketing: A One Page Tip Sheet For your convenience, we have converted our recent article about unusual holiday marketing tips for small businesses into a one page tip sheet. That way, you can easily print it out for future reference.
You can grab the shorter one page Tip Sheet as a Word document here.
I’ve also embedded it in a Slideshare viewer (after the jump below). In the viewer it is 2 pages for some reason, but only one page when you download it. And if you use Slideshare to manage documents, you can also favorite it and save it there.
From Small Business Trends
Holiday Marketing: A One Page Tip Sheet
 Do You Hate Name Tags, Too?
This cartoon came from attending one of those business events where I had to wear a name tag.
I hate name tags.
Well, I should say I hate wearing a name tag. I find them very useful when I’m speaking to someone because I’m horrible with names, but I always feel self-conscious with that big red “Hi, I’m Mark” branded on my chest.
So, instead of hobnobbing and mingling, I set my mind to work on other ways people are identified with tags or signs, and this cartoon popped out. I suppose a therapist might suggest that I was feeling trapped in my job, but mostly I just felt goofy, and was able to turn it to my advantage.
* * * * *
 About: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.
From Small Business Trends
Do You Hate Name Tags, Too?
 Book Review: Entrepreneur Journeys I’ve never thought of comparing a book to a shopping experience, but that’s really what Sramana Mitra’s “Entrepreneur Journeys” reminds me of.
It’s a book of interviews of famous entrepreneurs that you can pick and choose from.
It’s not the shopping mall or Macy’s experience where items are displayed for you in a “Garanimals” kind of way; where all you have to do is mindlessly pick out the things you want or need — all pre-packaged and safely color-matched. Entrepreneur’s Journey is more of a “flea market” or “bargain shopping” experience. It’s the kind of reading experience where you go through the process and wonder if you’ll ever find anything — and then BAM! — there is something really valuable there.
This is a book for the “analytical entrepreneur” who wants to read, listen and learn from another’s experience. In other words, if you’re the type of person who has to have your own experience and learn your own lesson — this book may not be as enjoyable for you. On the other hand, if you learn best by listening to stories and using a case study method, you will enjoy this “fly-on-the-wall” read.
Before I get into the details about the book, let me tell you a little about Sramana Mitra. Mitra is a renown strategist for the technology industry in Silicon Valley. She has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT and is a columnist for Forbes Magazine. She is brilliant and insightful, analytical and engaging. Her goal in writing this book was to share her conversation experience with some of the best technology entrepreneurs in the world. As you read the book, you can literally picture yourself across the table from these individuals.
The book is written in what I call an “interview” Q&A format. And this is why I had that “bargain shopping” experience. You have to read the whole interview to get those good nuggets. In the following sample, Sramana is talking to Steve Havner, CEO of Kayak.com. Kayak is a travel search site that allows travelers to search over 140+ travel sites for the lowest fares.
“SM (Sramana Mitra): What gave you the idea for Kayak?
SH (Steve Hafner): Orbitz was a great company, but it never fulfilled its original mission which was to help consumers find great airline and hotel deals…. Half of all consumers were just doing a search and then booking directly because they did not want to pay an additional fee to Orbitz … none of the companies fulfilled the vision of a one-stop shop ….”
This is just one example of seeing how an entrepreneur thinks. There are several others which show exactly how these “solution providers” took their own experiences and used them to identify a need which then grew into a real venture. Several of these stories and interviews get into the details of how they found investors (or bootstrapped until they did) and takes you on their ups and downs toward success.
The interviews are arranged according to the primary theme of the entrepreneur’s story:
Bootstrapping,
Taking on Giants,
Disrupting Business Models,
Addressing Unmet Needs, and
Tackling Planet Scale Problems
– all standard issues for entrepreneurs.
The challenge for those of you who are NOT thinking about going after venture capital or aren’t in the technology industry is that you will have to extrapolate the lessons from these interviews. Don’t expect to be spoon-fed. You will have to read each story and see in what ways it relates to you and how your business challenges resemble those of these successful people who all started out as small business owners.
So here are 3 lessons I’ve picked up from the book:
- Bootstrapping is the way to success. Jerry Rawls from Finisar survived the Dot Com boom and bust by boostrapping. When he and his team started Finisar, they actually took on consulting projects to support themselves and new product development.
- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This is another nugget from the Jerry Rawls interview. He talked about how Finisar’s culture is based on focusing on the customer, treating each other well and holding nothing sacred. The lesson here is that it is key to understand who you are and who you serve and not get caught up in the eventual muck. He sites an example of AT&T literally handing their company over to consultants and losing themselves in the process. That’s a great lesson.
- Find out what the giants are missing and provide it. My other favorite lesson comes from Steve Hafner from Kayak. Instead of “defending” or rationalizing how Travelocity, Orbitz or Expedia’s model worked, he was open-minded enough to see that consumers’ mis-use of the technology was actually an opportunity.
There are many, many more lessons in this book. But you will have to read for yourself and find them.
* * * * *
 About the Author: Ivana Taylor has spent over 20 years helping industrial organizations and small business owners get and keep their ideal customers. Her company is Third Force and she writes a blog called Strategy Stew. She is co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers.”
From Small Business Trends
Book Review: Entrepreneur Journeys
 Social Bookmarking and Networking Using bizSugar.comLast week I helped introduce you to Twitter and how you can use it as a small business. This week, it’s time to learn about an amazing resource called bizSugar.com. According to the site…
What is bizSugar?
If you’ve felt overwhelmed by the massive amount of business information online, then this site is for you. bizSugar is a social bookmarking and networking site for small to medium-sized business owners and managers. It allows you to submit, share and vote for the best business information links on the Internet.
bizSugar makes it easier to learn about new business strategies, tactics, trends, and news. You can discover websites that provide answers to many of your business challenges, meet other business owners and managers that share your interests, and help others by sharing your knowledge.
Ever been to digg.com? If so, you get what bizSugar.com is. It’s just like that in functionality, but for business content only. That means that you can avoid all the pop culture stories about Britney’s dog that aren’t going to help your business make money. That’s a good thing.
I’ve created a short video below to help you understand how bizSugar works and how you can use it. Please enjoy. Next week, a video about how small business owners can use Linkedin.com.
From Small Business Trends
Social Bookmarking and Networking Using bizSugar.com
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