Blessings, But Busy

So sorry, everyone, that my writings the past couple of weeks have been rather sporadic.  I’m now working with about as many clients as I can about handle on my own… which is indeed a blessing, but carving out time for family, friends, and a personal life of any kind is getting harder and harder.  All I want is sleep, sadly enough.  And, that’s no fun at all.

Therefore, I gladly took the time to read Tim Ferriss’ latest blog this week by a guest poster, Leo Babauta, about “How to Never Forget Anything Again.” Not because I’m really all that forgetful, but because as I read the article, it struck me how much these tools were time savers and “brain dump” organizers.  Which, for me, means more time with Mom, Dad, my trainer, and a glass of wine… less work and more play makes Wendi a FUN girl! 

Quick synopsis:

• Evernote– hold notes, clip web pages, store photos and audio notes, and more. Really cool feature: snap a picture of something on your camera phone, and send it to Evernote … then Evernote will scan the image and you can search for words within the note. This makes sending yourself notes really easy — you can take pictures of business cards, menus, receipts, documents and more … and it’s automatically searchable.
• Jott–  This handy app ties everything together, and is very valuable for when you’re on the go. Just call Jott from your cell phone and leave a message, and it’ll be sent to your email … or to another service you specify.
• OneNote–  This is the default note-taking tool for anyone who uses Microsoft Office, and it’s very powerful. Unfortunately for some of us, it only runs on Windows I believe.
• Backpack / Packrat–  One of the best of many web apps for collecting info, Backpack is versatile and easy to use. You can store notes, text, images, links and more … and send items via email and SMS text messages. It also has a calendar and reminders. For Mac OSX users, there’s also a desktop application, Packrat, that works well with Backpack for off-line needs.

 

Using Twitter for Business

I have to be honest… for all of my love for technology and all things “kinda geeky” when I first heard of Twitter, I just didn’t get it.  And, really, I’m still kinda doubtful, but recently I stumbled upon a blog entry by Richard Brooks, President of flyte new media, in which he gives details on how to use Twitter for business.

Twitter is the inevitable conclusion for a culture fascinated by fame and soundbites… the short attention spans due to an overwhelming amount of data we process on a daily basis.  But, at its heart, Twitter is just a communication tool.  Like the Web and the phone and the telegram before it, it’s just another connective device.

Within this participating audience are a growing number of people who use Twitter for business…. not just aggressive web marketers who “tweet” every blog post they make and create links to all their online activities.  Rather, there are professionals using Twitter in the following ways:

• Follow industry leaders who post links to important resources and influence conversations
• Post questions for quick answers and answer others’ questions to establish your credibility and expertise
• Create links to your Web site or blog (don’t over do it!)
• Keep up on the buzz in your industry
• Network with like-minded (cutting edge) people

The more people who follow you on Twitter, the more influence and networking opportunities you have.  Thus, it makes sense to try and build a following.  Try:

• Follow them:  but be discriminating.
• Post some good tweets right before following someone else:  If someone follows me and they only tweet about how hungry or tired they are, I don’t follow them back.  The same goes for people who haven’t tweeted in a while.
• Complete your bio:  People don’t follow strangers, so complete the one-line bio and include a URL in the More Info URL section of your profile. 
• Add your Twitter feed to your blog or to other social media profiles.
• Reply to people you are following, especially if they’re not yet following you:  That’s a great way to engage somone and get them to follow you, even if they didn’t follow you before. 

 

Remember Everything

Cool new item I found over the weekend… courtesy of Cali Lewis and GeekBrief.TV.
With the tagline “Remember Everything,” Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.

So, what’s the point of Evernote? We are all constantly bombarded by information, much more than our brains can handle. So, we end up forgetting all sorts of things. With Evernote, you can start capturing all of those experiences, ideas, and memories, from both your real and digital life that would otherwise slip away.

I see this as a great tool for photographers, artists, and other visually creative types who store images rather than documents. No more “senior moments.”

Ayn Rand, Where Are You?

On Monday, May 5, the Wall Street Journal’s Erin White ranked the top most influential business thinkers: Gary Hamel, No. 1. This article follows up a recent story in USA Today talking about rich entrepreneurs.

Who’s missing from both groups? Women.

Not a single one popped up in the Journal’s Top 20 list. Rankings were based on Google hits, media mentions and academic citations. But, I say where there’s weakness, there’s opportunity.

I would love to hear about more female speakers. (Better still, I’d love to BECOME one!) Yet, most of today’s wealthy women are still making their money through inheritance or divorce. So, why aren’t there more influential women business thinkers on these lists? How can this change? If you’re a man, would you be motivated to hear a female speaker? If no, why not? If yes, who?

Education from the Blogosphere

Some words found in the social media space lately… time to re-educate your-CEO-self!

Socialprise: social tools + enterprise; one of the biggest shifts in business today.

TLO (Twitter Liberation Organization): concept proposed by Techcrunch and others suggesting that Twitter is “too important” and must be open-sourced so that the platform won’t crash when usage spikes.

Distributed Polling: we are better at solving problems collectively. Fred Wilson posted a poll on YHOO stock price which was picked up and published on a number of leading blogs.

ReadBurner: the socializing of Google Reader so that friends can see what you’ve saved.

TwitPitch: Stowe Boyd, suggests a new way of “pitching”… limited to 140 characters. Now THAT’S the future with no time wasted.

This last word, TwitPitch, is my favorite! 140 characters forces you to distill your business concept down to image words/ phrases that nail exactly what you’re doing and where you’re heading… Fantastic!!

Hello? Is there anybody in there??

“Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Entrepreneurs have often felt lonely – believing that no one else shares their vision or their passion for building a business. But, we are not alone (pun intended) in that feeling. With today’s growing workforce of soloists, telecommuters, work-at-home parents, independent salespeople, and virtual teams, loneliness is a feeling that millions of business owners are fighting.

During the ups and downs of completing a project, or finding new customers, the feeling of loneliness can set in and limit our vision and our productivity. It can be discouraging and be a wallop to that old self-esteem. And, with the gadgets we tote around, we unknowingly make it worse. Technology that’s supposed to connect us – email, voicemail, and PDAs – often fuels our loneliness, enabling us to do a better job of isolating ourselves. For some reason we don’t treat every email or voicemail like a real person is behind it. Why acknowledge it?

We’re also intentionally distracted. We’re plugged into our new I-Pods, or tapping our PDA screen playing a game. How about using technology to interact with real people once in a while?

There’s no need anymore to pretend that you’re too busy dealing with important people and projects. I know the truth. As a small business owner, I am one of you, and it’s vitally important that we connect and help each other’s ventures grow.

Yes, it was your idea in the first place, as John Steinbeck says, but greatness was never created in a vacuum.

MOOFING Monday

MOOFING v. Derived from the acronym for “Mobile, Out Of Office.”
MOOFERS (n.) abandon the workplace between meetings, taking laptop and BlackBerry to the local Starbucks or anyplace else where they can escape interruption by talkative coworkers.

Okay… is it just me, or is it absolutely pathetic that you have to LEAVE the office to get work done?!?!! Is this the state that corporate america has sunk to? If your company has this kind of culture, maybe you should consider (I’d highly recommend!) changing the atmosphere.

Is the office of the future no office and just a headquarters in cyberspace? 42% of IBM’s 350,000 employees rarely, if ever, come to an office. IBM says it save $100 million a year in real estate costs because it doesn’t need the offices. The work force at Accenture management consulting firm is so mobile no even the CEO has an office with his name on the door.

In the future, more companies with scattered work forces and clients may do what the marketing firm Crayon is doing: making its headquarters in cyberspace. Especially, if yours is a “knowledge-based” asset company.

Crayon’s workers rarely meet in the physical world — some are in Boston, others are in Nutley, N.J. — but their online alter egos in the virtual world gather once a week. “Our belief is if we bring like minds together no matter where they are in the world we can actually create that connectedness as if we’re actually at the same place at the same time,” said Joseph Jaffe, Crayon’s CEO.

And, there it is… real productivity vs. time wasted.

Perfectionists are Losers!

Okay, so I’m getting my car washed at Park Place Lexus today, and that’s how I’m blogging. (No computer, Day 4… STILL “jones-ing)

Read this yesterday, so I just had to pass it on.
From Pamela Slim at EscapeFromCubicleNation…

“So I asked Ramit Sethi a question that I have heard from many young people who want to work for themselves:
“What if people won’t want to hire me because I am too young?”
“Give me a break,” he said. “Perfectionists are losers.”
I laughed out-loud at his bluntness, but immediately got what he was saying.”

If you have a tendency to let perfectionism overrun your world, check out how to overcome it.

Moving Stage NEXT

Resources for startups are all over the place, but small companies need help stabilizing and managing their expansion, too. What should be No. 1 and 2 on their priority list? Make a “stop doing” list and a “process” list.

“CEOs in growing companies have to think about creating innovative systems that allow them to have control, but they don’t have to be the one looking over the shoulder” of employees, says Dino Signore, who runs leadership programs at the Edward Lowe Foundation, a Michigan nonprofit dedicated to helping second-stage entrepreneurs, which it defines as those who head up companies with about $1 million in annual revenue that are beyond startup stage but not fully mature.

Business owners must understand that they have to start working ON their business instead of IN their business. That means both a “stop doing” list (i.e. doing some of their employees’ jobs for them) and a “process” list (ex: repeatable and duplicatable procedures for every aspect of the organization to maximize productivity no matter who is performing the job).

The stakes are high. Companies beyond the startup stage thrive or fail based on their organization, according to Eric Flamholtz, a management consultant and co-author of Growing Pains: Transitioning from an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm.
“You ultimately win with infrastructure,” says Flamholtz. “Most people think you win with markets and products. You’re looking in the wrong place.” He says there are some key signals that should tell companies they need to change: when many workers don’t know what others are doing, for example, or when sales rise but profits stay flat.

Of course, business owners seeking organization can overdose on new systems and lose the agility that made their startup successful. You need the right balance of internal processes. On that note, be watching for new products and systems in the Ideas to Go section here… we have LOTS of tools-you-can-use coming soon!

The core lesson is that CEOs should create entities that don’t depend on them. You want your business to be a legacy… to thrive and grow far past your day-to-day involvement. After all, that’s why you went into business on your own in the first place.

Basic Business Blogging

Lots of people have jumped on the blogging bandwagon, and although there is a danger of your new blog getting lost in the masses, this tactic can be a key factor in marketing and business success. The following includes some basic tips aimed squarely at people who know there is value to be found in having a strong web presence, but need to cut through all the buzzwords and hype to get the straight info on the what, why and how of business blogging.

1. Blogging takes commitment and time: You’ll be dedicating time to providing customers and prospects with new information and/or commentary about your company’s purpose and industry. This doesn’t mean you have to type forever… some of the best blogs are short, pithy entries that the reader can view and understand easily.

2. The content must be relevant: Blogs can help to position you as an expert in your field if they’re written the right way. They also enable you to promote your products and services with a personal touch as you can link to appropriate news articles, pictures, and web sites to support your positioning.

3. Links are important: It’s easy to forget the business behind the blog and get lost in the content itself. Build links to the site from other web sites related to your business and expertise. More links generally mean more traffic and a better search engine position.

4. Blogs are interactive: Readers can normally post their own comments to your entries. This allows existing and potential customers to comment on your product or service. Install Google analytics to check the statisics on how many people are viewing your blog… and other pages of your web site.

5. Is there a call to action?: Does the blog link through to a special offer or service you’re currently running? Or, even an invitation for an initial consultation? Calls to action will help you win new customers or encourage existing ones to try out new products or services.

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