Starting Your Business

Starting Your Business: You Will Never Be ‘Ready,’ So Just Start

You want to have your own business but you haven’t made it happen yet. There’s always something else to learn, another book to read, another seminar or course to attend, right?
Wrong. Just start. You’ve already got what it takes.
“Do I,” you’re asking?
Yes. The very simple (and sometimes very difficult) truth is that you do.
Read on …

Just Because It Seems True Doesn’t Mean It Is

“Abiotic” is a word you may not have heard before. It means “not derived from living organisms.” It’s used in relation to the theory of the source of crude oil. Most likely, you were educated to believe that oil is a fossil fuel—the residue of decayed forests and dead dinosaurs. This theory would make oil a limited commodity.
However, there have been discoveries that indicate that oil is a constantly renewing resource, created not from once-living matter but from the effects of heat on naturally-occurring abiotic substances deep in the earth.
My point is that fossil fuel, a “truth” most of us have accepted for our entire lives, may not be the truth after all. A discovery has shown us a different and compelling truth.
So what other long-held beliefs may also not be true? How about this: You have to be “ready” before you can start your business.
Would you admit it’s possible that this “truth” may be similar to the fossil fuel theory?

How Badly Do You Want It?

A lot of people go to school to learn about business, web design, coding, etc. But no school can teach you the key ingredient you need for success. Fortunately, you don’t need to go to school for it. You already know. It’s something you’ve used plenty of times.
As a teenager, I wanted an electric guitar. It was all I thought about. I doodled them on my school notebooks. I went to my friends’ houses and played theirs. I asked my parents repeatedly for one. It took a couple of years but I finally got it. I just never gave up. I never stopped wanting an electric guitar.
I will bet that there are things that you have wanted that badly too, aren’t there? You wanted them and you got them, whether it was a quarter from your mom, a car, a certain job …
I sometimes think that what keeps us young and alive is that hot, persistent desire for a particular thing.
It’s the desire for cleaner energy and an unburdened earth that keeps Elon Musk pursuing solar power, electric cars and space travel. It was the desire to be the center of e-commerce that kept Jeff Bezos pouring everything into Amazon.com.
That persistent desire—to have your own business, to bring something good and worthwhile into the world—is the thing that no school can teach you. And without it, all the education you can acquire is wasted.
Desire. Obsession. You’ve felt it. Maybe you are still feeling it. If not, just know that you can feel it.

There Will Never Be a Right Time

Accept the fact that you will never been educated enough. Or prepared enough. Or knowledgeable enough. Doesn’t matter. People less educated, less prepared, less knowledgeable than you have become screaming successes.
Henry Ford might just be the best example ever. In 1919, he sued the Chicago Tribune for libel, relative to a pair of stories the paper published in 1916 that called him an “ignorant pacifist” and an anarchist. In an effort to neutralize the libel charge, the Tribune’s lawyers set out to prove that Ford was indeed ignorant. They asked him a lot of high-school-type test questions. They requested that he read aloud from the newspaper. Among the things that emerged during his testimony was that Ford had little education. He was functionally illiterate. He knew nothing about business. After being insulted by one of the lawyers, he made it known that he had employees at his disposal who he could consult when he needed to know something about business, finance or anything else. (Pretty smart, actually.)
The point is, Ford did not let a lack of education or business know-how stop him from going into business. Think about that: He couldn’t even read this article. But you know what? He was far more interested in building a successful business than in reading business advice. (You should be, too.)

Ideas and Execution

The world isn’t sitting around waiting to give its support to the most “ready” entrepreneur. Or the one with the best idea … or even a better twist on an old one. If you’re intent on success, you have to start in spite of everything real or imagined.
And while we’re on the subject of ideas, if you’re waiting until you have a great idea before you start, well … Ford did not invent the automobile. He just found a way to build it quicker and less expensively.
So, maybe you don’t need to wait for a totally original something-or-other that everyone’s going to want or need. If there is a general product or service area that you have an affinity for, look there. There’s already companies providing it? Great: that means there’s a market. How can you do it better? Can you provide something that’s needed or wanted or desirable that the competition isn’t providing?
Those are some good questions to ask.
The world is full of thinkers. Great ideas are fewer than good ideas but ideas in general are plentiful. What is really scarce are doers—people who start, who execute their ideas.

Final Thoughts

You already have what it takes. That person you think you need to be right now, before you can start your business? You will become him or her by starting, doing and making mistakes.
The worst thing would be to look back in five, 10, 20 years and say, “I should have just went for it” or “I should have started sooner.” Better you should look back and say, “I’m glad I jumped in. I’d never know what I know today if I hadn’t made the goofs I’ve made” or “Man, do I have some hairy stories to tell about running a start-up.”

You’re ready: Go! 

All Things Are Possible

Susan Tuck

susantuck.com

Your Perfect Dream Job

 

Does this sound like your perfect dream job?  

·       I want to work WHERE I want, so I can work from home or while traveling

·       I want to work WHEN I want, so I can work when my schedule allows it and I don't have to wake up early and sit in traffic

·       I want to work with WHOM I want, so I don't have to put up with bosses or annoying co-workers

·       I want to work HOW I want, so I am not forced to work a manual job that takes a toll on me physically

·       I want there to be a WHY to my work, so I can enjoy what I do and feel good about it

1.     my new job must NOT require a storefront, investment, inventory, employees, accounting, or in-person selling

2.     my new job must NOT require any special training, college degrees, licenses, or computer skills

3.     my new job MUST provide me with an income that will allow me to pay the bills and help support my family, with a little "fun" money leftover

4.     my new job MUST allow me to make this income in 1 hour a day (or less), so I can have more free time for myself and my family

$49.00 is all it takes.  

Sign Up Here:  

Quitting Your Job to Pursue Your Business

Everyone who thinks about starting a business is coming from a different place. Some are driven by a big idea they had for a product or service, and they just can’t let go of it. That’s usually a good sign. Some have spouses or kids to consider. Others have socked away a little money to get started, but many haven’t. They’re bootstrappers.

 
The one thing almost everyone considering entrepreneurship has in common is a job—and one of the questions I’m asked most often is, how one should transition from working for someone else’s company to starting their own.

Separation Anxiety

It’s difficult to break away. And it’s not just because of the money and perks your job may offer (a steady paycheck, vacation time, healthcare benefits, maybe a company car or some other perk you’ve come to enjoy). It’s a question of your personal programming.
You see, society trains us—through the education system, the media and even our parents—to seek out the comfort and “security” that comes from having someone else pay for the use of our time. Everyone expects you to grow up and get a job, so it’s just a matter of time until you do what’s expected of you.
In exchange for working a set number of hours every week, you get a fixed rate of dollars per hour. And maybe some benefits. That’s pretty much it. If you do a particularly good job (and excel at office politics) maybe you’ll get a promotion that includes a small pay increase and a fancier-sounding title. And you’ll feel good about it … at least for a while.

A Nagging Temptation

What happens as you move up the ladder, though, is you start seeing how things work. You realize that in business, there’s no such thing as job security.
Then you’ll start hearing stories about old friends from school, or maybe a former co-worker, who went off and started businesses of their own—and they’re doing really great now. You should congratulate them.
Or, maybe you’ll turn on the TV and hear about some budding entrepreneur who turned his back on an Ivy League education to pursue some crazy idea for a mobile app—and now he’s a billionaire.
It’s only natural for you to start wondering if you could achieve something similar. Maybe not a mobile app or a social network per se because technology’s not your thing. But something online that wouldn’t keep you chained to an office all day (or stuck in rush-hour traffic) would be ideal.
You see some kind of online business on the internet and decide to give it a try. You like it and you commit to it and you stick with it until—finally—you’ve achieved a level of success that begs the question: Should I quit my job and do this full-time?

Need to Know

You’re at a crossroads now because you understand that, even though there’s no such thing as job security, there is security in a steady paycheck. Yes, you stand to make a lot more money if you’re successful in business, but in the life of an entrepreneur there are no guarantees whatsoever.
Here’s the way I see it: No one ever built a great company by dipping their toe in the water, or only giving it a couple hours a day after their “real” job. That kind of approach isn’t very serious, and it’s definitely not sustainable. You need to go all-in if you want to achieve real, life-altering results—and a lot of people have trouble comprehending this message.

Voice of Experience

I can tell you what worked for me. Basically, I reached the point in my business where I either had to get in or get out—because having a part-time commitment just wasn’t working. It was a lesson I’d been learning the hard way, and I just couldn’t take it anymore.
So, I made the call to put my business above everything else in my life. The next day, I went down to the university I was attending and told them I was putting my studies on hold. I gave up my side jobs (even though they were bringing in money) because I knew I had to be building my business on a full-time basis. It had to be all or nothing.
And it wasn’t easy. My office was a desk in the corner of my bedroom—and those were some of the longest days I can recall.

Burn the Bridges

With school and my side ventures behind me, I decided to remove all safety nets from my life, including the $435 Australian I was receiving from the government every two weeks for being a struggling student.
It was a bold move because I needed that money to cover my rent and food at the time, but I felt very strongly that I needed that extra pressure in order for my business to succeed. Kind of like a trapeze artist working without a net—I’d either fly through the air or go splat.
Fortunately, I was right. Almost immediately I noticed that the way I was thinking about my business had changed; my thinking was sharper, I was more committed and far more driven to succeed—because I had to be. What choice did I have?
Of course, it took some time. Things were bumpy at first, but I always managed to get by. I think when you’re in that situation, you always find the money for the things you truly need. You always make it work, one way or another.
Then, sure enough, my business was working. The sales started coming in on a regular basis. I even started feeling comfortable again—and that’s when things really started taking off. In December 2011, I made $45,000 in a single month, which was more money than I ever made in my life. And things went up and up and up from that point forward.

Don’t Look Back

Quitting your job to start a business is never an easy decision to make, but you can’t move forward until you make that call for yourself.
If you’re happy working a job and having a hobby on the side, then stay put and dabble with it after hours. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But if you seriously want to build a business that could pay you five or six figures per month, then you need to fully commit yourself and say, “I am going to do this until I achieve my goals, no matter what.” That’s how all major victories are won.
The good news is that, once you have this level of commitment, almost nothing can stand in your way. That’s a good thing, too, because the challenges you’ll encounter on the way to reaching your goals will test your mettle on a daily basis. Your resolve to overcome them at all costs is what will drive you to the next level.
Matt Lloyd

Filed Under: Ask Matt Lloyd, Start Your Business, Startup Basics

 

If you would like to start your own business, check this out! 

Remember, All Things Are Possible, Susan Tuck

To Gain Prospects and Customer Trust

I took a little time off last weekend and watched a few movies, something I love to do. One of them was a crime thriller involving a murder. There were three suspects. Two of them gave their alibis several times to police, including under interrogation. Because their stories didn’t vary, the police didn’t pursue them as suspects. The third suspect gave conflicting stories, changing it slightly every time he told it. This made him a very strong suspect.It’s a similar kind of effect with your marketing and branding. That probably sounds odd. I’ll explain.
If you’re selling a product or service or establishing your brand, consistency is king. By “consistency” I mean repetition of the same message(s) in your promotions and communications.
Consistency produces the kind of relationship with your prospects and customers where they become willing to give you their money.

Circle of Trust

It was author and speaker Bob Berg who famously wrote, in his book, Endless Referrals, that “All things being equal, people will do business with … those people they know, like and trust.”
By isolating the three factors of know, like and trust, Berg gave us a reliable map we can use to guide our promotional campaigns.
Though “know, like, and trust” looks like a straight line with “know” at the beginning and “trust” at the end, I actually see it as a circle that the prospect can enter at any point. For instance:

• Someone may see your logo and like it, even if they don’t know what it is. From there, they may Google you to find out (“know”) more.
• A prospect may read your copy all the way through and learn what you’re about. They have taken some time to know you.

You can’t count on people to fall in love with your logo at first site or take the time to read all of your copy. Though it can take a long time, the most reliable way to get people to know, like, and trust you may be to bring them to your product via trust.

People Believe Repetition

Studies have established the “truth effect” which suggests that people tend to regard  statements as being more true when they have seen or heard them repeated many times.
For example, a lot of people shop at WalMart (judging from their $482 billion in annual sales). A lot of people must believe they can “Save Money. Live Better.” by shopping there. WalMart has used that tagline for the last six years. For 19 years prior, they used “Always Low Prices.”
If people believe a statement is true, they trust that statement. It follows that they will trust the person or company making that statement.
So, whether you’re writing an email sequence, a landing page, a sales letter or whatever—keep your message consistent throughout your campaign.
If you sell soap and your print ad says “Totally Clean: It’s non-toxic.” Then the main message of your product home page and all your other other marketing materials also has to be “Totally Clean: It’s non-toxic.”
If you change the message with each marketing piece, you never develop the repetition necessary to build trust.

How Much Repetition is Enough?

Is it possible to make a paying customer the first time they receive your message? Anything’s possible but I wouldn’t have high expectations.
Though marketing experts vary in their opinions about how much repetition is optimal, the general consensus is that more is better.
This was noted as far back as 1885, by London businessman Thomas Smith, who estimated that 20 exposures to a message were needed to make a customer. He published his observations in a guide called Successful Advertising:

• The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
• The second time, they don’t notice it.
• The third time, they are aware that it is there.
• The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
• The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
• The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
• The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
• The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
• The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
• The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
• The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
• The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
• The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
• The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
• The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
• The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
• The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
• The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
• The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
• The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

What Next?

Take a look at the messaging you’re using. That includes the copy on your website, your direct mail—all of it. Is it consistent for each product or service?

Filed Under: Marketing 101

If you are interested in training tools to market your online business, or want to start your own online business, start here: 

All Things Are Possible, Susan Tuck

susantuck.com 

7 Ways to Make a Blog Go Viral

Social Currency

7 Ways to Make a Blog Go Viral That Will Awe, and Perhaps Annoy You

Do you know where this viral selfie was taken?
Remember the Oscar selfie taken by Ellen a few years ago? Of course you do! Some 37 million people saw the viral picture on Twitter and the PR agency that engineered the stunt said the free publicity for Samsung was worth almost $1 billion.
While coming up with a viral picture or video can feel like it’s the luck-of-the-draw, it turns out that writing a viral article is more science than art. Just take a look at clickbaity media-sites like Upworthy, which launched less than three years ago and is consistently one of the most trafficked content destinations on the web.
But, don’t worry–you can apply the same methods these big dogs use when writing your own articles. Here are seven ways:

Must-Click Headlines

“Her Little Boy Has No Idea His Mother Is About To Die. What She’s Doing About That Is Amazing.” You’ve probably seen titles like this pop up all over your Facebook newsfeed or Twitter stream. Why?
The open secret is that these captions have been optimized for readers to click on them, baiting them to find out the little nuggets of info hidden behind the link. So when coming up with a catchy headline, think about putting odd and interesting things next to each other. Also try to tell a mini-story in the title itself. And of course, don’t be afraid of the classic attractors: sex, celebrity, and miracle cures.

Positive Stories

Two Wharton professors analyzed some 7,000 articles that appeared in the New York Times and reported that the most-shared articles were often the most positive ones.
Happy emotions (“Wide-eyed New Arrivals Falling In Love With The City”) led to more shares than sad emotions (“Web Rumors Tied To Korean Actress’s Suicide”). So try to give your article a positive spin.

Social Currency

Memes like Lolcats are a form of social currency.

Think back to when you’ve pressed that share button on Facebook. More likely than not, it’s because the article made you feel intelligent. Viral articles often become viral because people feel good about themselves when they share the story. That’s why memes like Lolcats propagate: it’s a form of social currency, an insider culture or handshake.

Excitement

The other trait that articles had in common from that Times study was that they engendered strong emotions. So anger-inducing stories performed better than neutral ones. Aim your article to have a very strong position; go ahead and take a risk.

Practical Value

Would you want to admit one reason you opened this article was because it was a “listicle?” Listicles are articles written in the form of a “list.” It turns out they are so popular because they tap into our brain’s desire to mine information, to find practical value in whatever we consume. That’s why infomercials can be so entertaining.
A well-told first personal narrative is a great place to go back to basics and offer something useful to readers. Consider a recent LinkedIn post ‘Why I won’t take your business card’ that went viral and created a good chain of comments and debate (some from the top 1% of most viewed profiles on the network).
The post discusses the importance of building relationships over making an explicit sale at networking events through the lens of a marketing strategist who found herself in a similar situation.
While the honest narrative is compelling enough to encourage responses, the author ends her post by asking questions and soliciting comments. Even one or two comments encourage more people to comment, which in large part, can be attributed to the psychological phenomenon known as ‘social proof’, where we are influenced by and conform to others’ actions.

Keep Writing

In a really inspiring TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert–author of Eat, Pray, Love–responds to a question she gets asked all the time. “Aren’t you afraid you’re never going to be able to top that?”
Surprisingly, her answer is, “of course!’ She said that for years, she couldn’t put anything down on paper. So if you thought you had bad writer’s block …
“It’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me,” she said. Then she realized that she had to treat her writing as a job, and just like her, your job is foremost to just show up. So write every day, even if you don’t feel like it.

Be Controversial

That’s how you gain more readers and followers. Whether in a long-form post or a speech or a lunch conversation, you need to make a statement. Don’t just say anything. Say something. In other words, be Tyler Durden. Take a risk. Buck the system.
Do yourself a favor and answer the following questions honestly:
Are you really saying what you want to say, what makes you come alive? Or are you saying what you think won’t get you into trouble?

(Filed Under: Grow Your Business, Online Traffic)

For more information,
All Things Are Possible, Susan Tuck     susantuck.com

What Is the Secret to Insane Productivity?

 

7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science

When I was 17 years old, I used to work and study for about 20 hours a day. I went to school, did my homework during breaks and managed a not-for-profit organization at night. At that time, working hard landed me countless national campaigns, opportunities to work with A-list organizations and a successful career. As I got older, I started thinking differently. I realized that working harder is not always the right path to success. Sometimes, working less can actually produce better results.
Consider a small business owner, who works non-stop. However, working hard won’t help him compete with his multi-million competitors. Time is a limited commodity. An entrepreneur can work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (the most amount of time anyone can work, really.) His or her competitor can always spend more money, build a bigger team and spend a lot more time on the same project. Then why have small startups accomplished things that larger corporations couldn’t? Facebook bought Instagram, a 13-employee company for a billion dollars. Snapchat, a young startup with 30 employees is turning down offers from tech giants Facebook and Google. Part of their successes were based on luck—the rest is based on efficiency.
The key to success is not hard working but smart working.
There’s a notable distinction between being busy and being productive. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. Being productive is less about time management and more on managing your energy. It is the business of life. We need to learn how to spend the least amount of energy to get the most benefits. I am so lucky to work with an amazing team here at Filemobile. Everyone always challenges me and helps me sort my priorities to become more productive. I learned to reduce my work week from 80 hours to 40 hours, and get a lot more work done in the process. In other words, less is more.
Here are 7 I things I stopped doing to become more productive.

1. Stop Working Overtime and Increase Your Productivity

Have you ever wondered where the 40-hour work week came from? In 1926, Henry Ford, American industrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company, conducted experiments with interesting results: when you decrease your daily working hours from 10 to 8, and shorten the work week from 6 days to 5, your productivity increases.
The more you work, the less effective and productive you are going to become over both short and long term. “Scheduled Overtime Effect on Construction Projects”, a report issued by The Business Roundtable in 1980 states:
“Where a work schedule of 60 or more hours per week is continued longer than about two months, the cumulative effect of decreased productivity will cause a delay in the completion date beyond that which could have been realized with the same crew size on a 40-hour week.”
In an article for AlterNet, editor Sara Robinson referenced research conducted by the US military that revealed that “losing one hour of sleep per night for a week will cause a level of cognitive degradation equivalent to a .10 blood alcohol level.” You can get fired for coming to work drunk, but it is deemed acceptable to pull an all-nighter.
Irrespective of how well you were able to get on with your day after that most recent night without sleep, it is unlikely that you felt especially upbeat and joyous about the world. Your more-negative-than-usual perspective will have resulted from a generalized low mood, which is a normal consequence of being overtired. More important than just the mood, this mind-set is often accompanied by decreases in willingness to think and act proactively, control impulses, feel positive about yourself, empathize with others, and generally use emotional intelligence.
It’s important for us not to overwork ourselves and get enough sleep to maintain a high level of productivity. Next time you’re wondering why you may not be working productively, the reason may be simple as you being one of 70% of people who doesn’t get enough sleep.
Did you know?

• Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps a day and slept less at night.
• The French Emperor Napoleon was not shy about taking naps. He indulged daily.
• Though Thomas Edison was embarrassed about his napping habit, he also practiced his ritual daily.
• Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used to boost her energy by napping before speaking engagements.
• Gene Autry, “the Singing Cowboy,” routinely took naps in his dressing room between performances.
• President John F. Kennedy ate his lunch in bed and then settled in for a nap—every day!
• Oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office.
• Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was a non-negotiable. He believed it helped him get twice as much done each day.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson took a nap every afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in order to break his day up into “two shifts.”
• Though criticized for it, President Ronald Reagan famously took naps as well.

On a personal note, since I started getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day, I’ve noticed a change: I became a lot more productive and got a lot more work done than when I worked 16 hours a day. Who knew sleeping was such a great tool for marketers?

2. Don’t Say “Yes” Too Often

According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of the effort produce 80% of the results; however, 20% of the results consumes 80% of the effort.Instead of working harder, we should focus primarily on those efforts that produce 80% of the results and forgo the rest. We will have more time to focus on the most important tasks. We should stop saying “yes” to tasks that bring low or almost no result.
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”—Warren Buffet.
This begs a question: what should you say “yes” and what should you say “no” to? If you can’t figure if something is going to be worth your time, consider running a simple split test. Track everything you do and optimize if it is possible.
Most of us say yes more often than we should because it is so much easier than saying no. Nobody wants to be the bad guy.
In a 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers split 120 students in 2 groups. One group was trained to use “I can’t”, while the other was trained to use “I don’t”. The results were interesting:
The students who told themselves “I can’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students who told themselves “I don’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% of the time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make a more healthy food choice.
Next time you need to avoid saying yes, say “I don’t.”
Another great trick to avoid activities that don’t add enough value into your life is the 20-second rule: give yourself 20 seconds longer for activities you shouldn’t be doing.
Lower the activation energy for habits you want to adopt and raise it for habits you want to avoid. The more we can lower or even eliminate the activation energy for our desired actions, the more we enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.

3. Stop Doing Everything Yourself and Start Letting People Help You

At some point in my career, I was managing a very large community and couldn’t handle it. I tried to do everything myself. I burnt out, but the community ended up taking over and managing itself. Surprisingly, members did a better job than I have ever done. I learned the power of community and why brands need user-generated content.
Consumers understand what they want and how they want it better than any marketer. Did you know that, according to Octoly, user-generated videos are viewed 10 times more than brand-generated videos on YouTube? When seeking information about a particular brand, over half (51%) of Americans trust user-generated content more than the content on the brand website (16%) or media coverage on the brand (14%). It’s important for marketers to open up and seek help from the brand’s community.
Being a great content marketer is not about creating the best content, but building a great community that will generate high-quality content for you.
It’s important for us to realize we can seek help when needed. We cannot do everything ourselves. It is better for you to let someone who can do a better job taking over some of your tasks. It will give you more time to focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figure something out yourself, let the experts help you.
A lot of time, even if your friends can’t help you, having them around can help you become more productive.
Just having friends nearby can push you toward productivity. “There’s a concept in ADHD treatment called the body double,” says David Nowell, Ph.D., a clinical neuropsychologist from Worcester, Massachusetts. “Distractable people get more done when there is someone else there, even if he isn’t coaching or assisting them.” If you’re facing a task that is dull or difficult, such as cleaning out your closets or pulling together your receipts for tax time, get a friend to be your body double.

4. Stop Being a Perfectionist

“We found that perfectionism trips up professors on the way to research productivity. The more perfectionistic the professor, the less productive they are,” Dr. Simon Sherry, a Dalhousie University Psychology Professor who conducted a study on perfectionism and productivity, tells University Affairs magazine. Dr. Sherry found a robust correlation between increased perfectionism and decreased productivity.
Here are some problems associated with being a perfectionist:

• They spend more time than required on a task.
• They procrastinate and wait for the perfect moment. In business, if it is the perfect moment, you are too late.
• They miss the big picture while being too focused on small things.

Marketers often wait for the perfect moment. In doing so, they end up missing it.
The perfect moment is NOW.

5. Stop Doing Repetitive Tasks and Start Automating It

According to a research study conducted by Tethys Solutions, A team of 5 people who spent 3%, 20%, 25%, 30% and 70% of their time on repetitive tasks respectively reduced this time to 3%, 10%, 15%, 15% and 10% after 2 months of enhancing their productivity.
A week ago, I spent 15 minutes writing a basic Python program. The idea was to generate content from the data, which I pulled from Twitter API using a Ruby bot, and use Hootsuite to bulk schedule them. While it used to take me an entire day to accomplish, it now takes me less than 5 minutes. Nowadays, whenever I do something repetitively (more than 5 times), I would ask myself if I can find a program to do it for me.
You don’t have to be a coder to able to automate your repetitive tasks. It’s nice to have the skills or the resources, but it’s not a requirement. If you cannot build it, buy it.
People often forget that time is money. People usually do things manually because it’s easy and requires almost no research. It is manageable to moderate 30 images on Instagram for your user-generated campaign. But if you have to manage 30 000 photos and videos from 5 different platforms, you need a good digital asset management software. At Filemobile, we help people to solve that problem generate even more user-generated content. Just like managing rich media, you can easily purchase a software to solve almost all of your
problem on the internet.
If you still can’t find a solution, you can hire an expert to help you. Keep in mind that you need to spend money to make money and that time is your most valuable commodity.
Tips for marketers: check out GitHub or Google app script library. Often times, you’ll find free ready-to-use open source code that requires very little programming knowledge.

6. Stop Guessing and Start Backing Up Your Decisions with Data

If you can optimize websites for search engines, you can optimize your lives to grow and reach your maximum potential.
There are so many research studies out there that can provide answers in a range of areas. For instance, did you know that most people are more easily distracted from noon to 4PM? This random statistic comes from recent research led by Robert Matchock, an associate professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Even if you can’t find the data you need, it doesn’t take a lot of time to run a split test.
For instance, last week we did a few tests to figure out the best way to optimize images for Twitter in-stream preview.
Keep asking yourself how you’re going to measure and optimize everything you do.

7. Stop Working, and Have Do-Nothing Time

Most people don’t realize that we’re essentially locking ourselves in a box when we are too focused on something. It’s important to walk away from our work once in a while and have some alone time. Alone time is good for the brain and spirit, according to The Power of Lonely, an article in The Boston Globe.
One ongoing Harvard study indicates that people form more lasting and accurate memories if they believe they’re experiencing something alone. Another indicates that a certain amount of solitude can make a person more capable of empathy towards others. And while no one would dispute that too much isolation early in life can be unhealthy, a certain amount of solitude has been shown to help teenagers improve their moods and earn good grades in school.
It‘s important for us to take time for reflection. We often find the solutions when we’re not searching for them.
We don’t become more productive overnight. Like everything in life, it requires efforts. Change doesn’t happen if you just sit there and wait for it. It’s important for all of us to learn more about our body and find ways to optimize our energy for a more successful and happy life.
Article written by CamMi Pham

If you are interested in starting your own business at home, click here for more details:  Remember, All Things Are Possible, Susan Tuck  susantuck.com

For the Newbies in Online Marketing

Newbies in online marketing

"Are you interested in online marketing? Are you new to online social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Are you looking for the best means to market your products or services?"

If your business is online you cannot ignore online marketing, not anymore. You need to ensure that your business operates 24/7. In this fast-paced world, we have become impatient. We got used to getting answers from companies at any hour of the day and 7 days a week. Emails, live chats, and video conferencing made it possible to get instant answers. Many companies including Amazon, which started using video conferencing, have significantly increased operator productivity and customer satisfaction.

As a newbie, there is a lot to gain from online marketing:

·       Fast implementation of various marketing strategies.

·       More productive and cost-effective communication with customers through emails, live chats, and video conferencing.

·       Wide variety of tools that help to monitor business performance.

·       Quickly and directly reach your target audience.

·       Access to platforms that help to promote your brand.

However, your success relies on various aspects. The good thing is that all of these aspects do not include pure luck, but rather thorough planning.

1.     Audience Focused

Please don’t roll your eyes, but the first think you need to do is to “know your audience.” It is very important because all of your strategy should target a certain group of people. Keep in mind your target audience when developing your brand’s story and user-friendly website. Build a community around your brand and don’t forget that this community is the life force behind your company.

2.     Marketing Framework

This is your one-way ticket to success. Basically marketing framework is a visual representation of market analysis, strategic planning, product planning, etc. There a lot of great online tools that can help to develop marketing framework. Don’t forget to develop strategies for social media, SEO, e-mail marketing. All of them will help to increase conversion. 

3.     Connections and Networking

To connect and make connections are two different things. This is when social media platforms come in hand. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are just some of these platforms that can help you to connect with audience and increase traffic acquisition. Start using tools that will help to discover who and where mentioned your brand and involve in conversations.