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Ann Hawkins The Business Owner's Mentor

Grow your business, make more profit and have more time to enjoy it

Why don’t you do what you say you want to do?

June 19, 2013 by Ann Hawkins 4 Comments

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emoticon“I’ve been going round in circles like a dog chasing its tail and just not getting on with the things I want to do”, says Alex. “I’m driving myself nuts and I don’t know why I do it.”

“Look at this list”, said Elaine “I want to follow up on all these prospects but I’m doing everything else instead – what’s wrong with me?”

These are two very rational, successful people, more than capable of doing what they say they want to do but just not doing it and getting more and more frustrated with themselves – and they’re not alone.
We often call this behaviour procrastination but that doesn’t explain what is going on or how to stop it.

You may have heard that in our extraordinary, rational, creative brains there lurks a leftover from more primitive times, our reptilian brain. This controls our survival and acts on hunger, fear and lust. It is the most powerful thing we have. Whatever rational decision you make, if the reptilian brain isn’t satisfied, you won’t be able to do the rational stuff.

In our civilized world where we are rarely hungry or afraid and lust is largely contained, our reptilian brain sleeps quietly and leaves us free to do amazing things. Until ……..
You find you’re making a rational decision about what needs to be done, even convincing yourself that you want to do it and that you will be better off having done it – but you’re still not doing it.

Here’s why:

If you’re hungry, tired or depressed your reptilian brain will try to protect you. Fail to take care of yourself, and all logical rational thought will take second place until you feel better.

What can you do?

Beyond the obvious of taking care of yourself physically, routines work. Rewards work. Accountability to people you respect works.

When faced with the same situation as Alex and Elaine, the most important thing you can do is start.

The second most important is to set a time limit on your activity. “I’ll work for ten minutes then have a coffee” – and repeat. (Well, maybe not the coffee!)

The very worst thing you can do is beat yourself up.

We are programmed to survive and to shut down the things that are not essential for survival until we are safe.

You may need to make some tough life decisions before you can get on with more routine stuff but sometimes a bit of tlc is all that’s needed.

Sleep, eat, have a hug, reassure yourself that you’re safe and keep to a routine and slowly work back up to  the level of activity you’re comfortable with.

If you’ve felt like this, what worked for you?

Ann Hawkins is a business mentor and coach, author of New Business: Next Steps. To get free tips on how to Work Smart, Not Hard subscribe to this blog. 

If you’d like to talk about how to grow YOUR business, get in touch! 

 

 

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Filed Under: Work smarter Tagged With: Accountability, Acts, Alex, Amazing Things, Civilized World, Creative Brains, Elaine, Going Round In Circles, Hunger, Monogamous Relationships, Nbsp, Nuts, Powerful Thing, Primitive Times, Procrastination, Prospects, Rational Decision, Rational Thought, Reptilian Brain, Time Limit, Work Rewards

Why blogs are great for small businesses

October 14, 2012 by Ann Hawkins 2 Comments

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BLOG spelled out in keyboard letters

Blogs are great for small businesses

Anyone who runs a small business knows the importance of finding effective ways to market their business that won’t take too much time and can be done on a minimal, or even non-existent budget.

If this is relevant to you, then say hello to the blog; it could just be your biggest ally and your new best friend.

Blogging benefits

There are many benefits to writing a blog and posting it on your website and I’m sure you’ve heard of most of them.  These include:

  • Driving traffic to your website
  • Producing social media fodder
  • Promoting your clients and associates
  • Contributing to the ever important SEO
  • Showing off your knowledge and expertise
  • Capturing the attention of your target market
  • Building a history of work you have done over a period of time
  • Keeping your website fresh with new content on a regular basis
  • Engaging with clients and prospects by encouraging them to leave their comments

But overall, they are a very effective means of spreading information about you and your business across a far wider audience.

Given all these advantages it’s surprising to find that a large number of small business owners are reticent to start their own blog.   The common concerns seem to be:

  • Not knowing what to blog about
  • Finding the time
  • Keeping momentum

Knowing what to blog about

I’ve heard business owners tell me they wouldn’t know what to blog about and then spend the next hour telling me, with great passion, all about their business, the fantastic product / service they offer and the benefit they provide.  For me blogging is a small step from talking about your businesses and what you can do for your clients, to putting this down in short, interesting and informative blog posts. If you’re not a great writer, you can easily record audio or video content on a smart phone and add it to your blog with a minimum of fuss.

The trick is to think about what your target audience would be interested to read about or find valuable to learn.

One of the best things is to think about the questions your customers are always asking and blog about the answers you give!

Blog about the knowledge you have which could make a real difference to your existing and future clients.

Finding the Time

The first few times you write your blog you may well find that it does take some time.  However you will notice over time your blogging will get easier and quicker too.

To get you started here are my top 3 time saving tips:

  1. You don’t need to write War and Peace so don’t be afraid to keep your blog posts short, sweet and to the point.
  2. Write about the most common questions your clients ask you.
  3. Write evergreen content (not linked to a specific time or event) that can be re-used.

Remember your blog has the potential to reach and influence a wide and far-reaching audience.  What else could you do in that same time frame, from the comfort of the your own home/office, that could have the same impact and provide as many benefits? 

Keeping momentum

It is true that once you decide to commit to a blog and host on your website you do need to make a commitment to keep it coming and keep it fresh.  But this need not be as daunting as it may sound, providing you apply some crafty tactics:

  • Write ideas for blog content on a notepad or your phone as they come into your head so you have a list of future post topics to fall back on
  • Write when the creativity strikes, this will not only make it easier and quicker to write the blog but also allows you to store up posts to release over a period of weeks
  • Find another small business blogger whose service / product complements your own and suggest exchanging guest blog posts
  • We all hold a vast amount of knowledge in our specialised field; don’t give it all away at once but release as a series of posts and keep your audience coming back for more

Once you have your blog written and posted on your website you need to make sure you promote it for maximum coverage and make sure you’ve got a sign up box so that people who like your posts can get new ones delivered by email. This gives you the chance to build your own mailing list which is probably the most valuable asset a blog can provide!

If you’d like to talk about how to grow YOUR business, get in touch! 

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Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Ally, Benefit, Blog, Budget, Fodder, Hummingbird, Momentum, New Best Friend, Passion, Period Of Time, Prospects, Small Business Owners, Small Businesses, Target Audience, Target Market, Traffic

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