We are drowning in information.

The Library of Congress is huge (see picture above).  Did you know it took over 200 years to accumulate all the written material to fill the Library of Congress?

The information material created in just the last 10 years on the internet dwarfs that amount…there’s a lot of material coming out all the time and we’re not setup to be able to process or handle that much information.

I had the opportunity to go to an interesting event this afternoon – Douglas Merrill, the author of Getting Organized in the Google Era and the former CIO of Google presented a summary of his book and his thoughts on what it takes to get organized in the world we live in today.

He covered a lot of interesting ideas ranging from the physiological make-up of the brain (he has a PhD in pyschology), to how people process things they need to do all the way down to recommending some specific tools and ideas.

He spent quite a bit of time on how people think and what our shortcomings are. 

• Your brain is amazing and has a huge amount of processing power…but
• Your brain isn’t wired to store data in a linear way
• Your brain isn’t very good at jumping between short term memory and long term memory, which is why…
• We aren’t any good / it isn’t possible to multi-task

Because of all that and because you can only store 5 to 9 things in your short term memory at any given time, it’s critical that you get the important stuff out of your head and into a system that allows you to search for it and find it easily (instead of relying on memory).

He also covered some quick tips on tools that can help you with that process.  He’s a big fan of gmail and Google Calendar – both of which were developed internally at Google to help the Google employees be more effective.

Overall he’s a fascinating guy with an interesting life story – it’s pretty rarefied air to be the CIO of the most important technology company of all time.  Despite that (or maybe because of it) he came across as very down to earth and approachable.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet – which goes into a lot more detail and covers a lot more tools and how to ideas, but it looks like a great resource.  The event was sponsored by Thinking Bigger and you can see a brief write-up of it at their site:  Review of Getting Organized in the Google Era.

What productivity / organizational books have you read lately?  Anything that’s working well for you?  Share your thoughts below – or let me know if you were at the event as well!

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Habit number seven from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly effective people is “Sharpen the Saw”.  He uses a story of a woodcutter who is struggling after several days of sawing wood – he’s lost effectiveness because his saw is no longer sharp.  From Covey’s perspective, there are different aspects to this – physical, mental, spiritual and social.  If you want to remain at peak effectiveness, you need to sharpen up in all of those areas.

I’m fortunate to be part of a great group called the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (www.pbca.biz ).  It’s a group of business coaches from all over North America who all have their own companies but share common values and approaches to helping business owners succeed.

Our annual meeting was this past weekend in New Orleans and I reflected on the flight home how this was a really well timed chance for me to ‘Sharpen the Saw’ across a lot of different areas.  We spent a lot of time learning and discussing new ideas, best practices and how to be more successful in our businesses (and how to make our clients more successful).  We also spent time connecting and reconnecting with colleagues who share a lot of common ground (and I had some great meals in New Orleans!).

When was the last time you sharpened your saw in a meaningful way?

Most business owners are continually caught up in a firestorm – they’re really trying to be a Hero for their business (and it’s killing them).  There’s always a lot of urgent things to do, but if you don’t make time to step back, you will drive yourself into the ground.

Ideas for Sharpening the Saw

1. Clear out 1/2 day to think every month

As the owner of your business, you are the ONLY person who can really see the big picture and do anything about it…however if you never make the time and let yourself dream, then you’re going to be stuck on a downward spiral.  Find a quiet place and challenge yourself to come up with ways to improve – work with someone else to collaborate and push if that would be helpful.  (maybe a coach…?)   

2.  Sign up for a quarterly learning event

It’s a safe bet that there is always new stuff for you to learn.  Find a topic that sounds interesting or would be really helpful and commit to attending.  Make the investment.

3.  Carve out gym time or walking time 3 days a week

You could kill a couple of birds with one stone on this one.  What if you set aside 45 minutes to an hour 3 days a week for a walk, either by yourself or with someone you enjoy talking to?  You could use the time to think or to increase your connections with someone else and you’ll get some needed exercise!

4.  Have lunch with a friend once a month

A lot of business owners don’t have time for lunch – they eat at their desk and do work or they use that time to meet with clients or networking partners.  In terms of productivity, that’s great, but you should be able to carve out at least one day a month for someone that you just enjoy being around. 

5.  Spend time and develop your core values…in writing

I’ve been working with a client on this recently and it’s really amazing how energized the entire team got by really diving into what made the business tick.  The clearer you are on what your core values really are, the more it will appeal to the right customers, employees and partners (and it will energize you).

What other things could you do (or are you doing) to Sharpen the Saw?  I’m sure there are a lot of other things that I’m not covering – share your thoughts below, I’d love to hear what other people are doing.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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The world has changed a lot – you used to be able to send out letters…direct mail and bring in new business with great success.

But costs have gone up, effectiveness of direct mail has gone down and there are lots of other marketing choices out there.

One of those choices is email marketing – it’s low cost, it’s easy enough that anyone can do  it and if it’s done right it’s been proven to more effective in terms of ROI (Return on Investment) than anything else out there.

The kicker is that is needs to be done the right way!

Let’s start out by looking at an example:

Financial Services

It’s tough to be in the Financial Services business – especially in this economy, but that didn’t stop Vern Cushenbery from creating Cush Capital in Overland Park a couple of years ago after 10 years in the financial investment arena.  Vern specializes in what he calls “Wholesale Investing” – his firm does their own research and buys directly, cutting out the middleman (mutual funds managers, other advisors, etc.) and saving investors a lot of money.

Early on he realized he needed an easy way to communicate with his clients (and potential clients) so he could share his approach and thoughts on the marketplace.  Cushenbery’s answer:  a monthly email newsletter with articles that give you insight not only into his investment strategies, but who he is as a person.  He writes everything himself and gives you insight into who he is and why he does what he does – in fact his January newsletter was all about the goals he’s setting for himself and his firm.

Technology has done a lot to level the playing field when it comes to marketing your small business compared to the ‘big boys’.  There are a lot of alternatives available today that are a lot more effective than expensive ‘traditional marketing’ alternatives (like TV or other advertising) – but only if they’re used the right way.  As an example, in 2009 the Direct Marketing Association released a study showing that Email Marketing returned $43.62 for every dollar spent!  That’s down a couple of dollars from 2008, but still more than double the next closest option of Internet Search Advertising at $21.85.

I previously covered the 10 Reasons to use email marketing (in case that ROI number isn’t enough for you) – so let’s look at the keys to using email marketing effectively?

1. Don’t Spam – ever!

It’s tempting to buy a list of email addresses that represents your perfect targets and start sending them emails about how great you are and how you can help them.  The problem is people really don’t want unasked for stuff in their inbox – just like they don’t want phone calls at dinner or people knocking on their doors to sell stuff!  Not only are you not going to create a customer using spam, you are going to build a bad reputation (which travels fast these days) and you run the risk of violating the CAN-SPAM act (which can cost you up to $16,000 per violation!).

What’s the alternative?  Send emails to customers and prospects who WANT to hear from you.  It will take more time to build your list organically, but it will be hugely effective when you do!

2. Have a plan!

What do you want to get out of your email marketing efforts?  Are you looking to build up credibility as an expert in your space?  Do you want to stay in front of people?  Do you want to build on Word of Mouth and referrals?  Decide what you want and design your approach to get there.

3. Make it your own!

How many email newsletters have you seen built around ‘industry’ updates or generic articles.  Even if they’re well written and helpful they don’t have any personal touch.

One of the great things about being a small business is that you’re unique.  People do business with you (or are considering doing business with you) because they like what you’ve done with the place, they like your approach, how you operate.  That’s what you need to be sharing in your newsletters.  Yes it will take a lot more effort to write your own stuff, but just like Blanc Burgers take a little more effort than your average chain burger; it’s worth it in the end!

4. Be consistent!

The overall volume or frequency of your email is less important than your consistency.  For an email newsletter you want to set (and meet) expectations that you’re capable of delivering a quality product on a consistent basis – just like you deliver your other products and services.  Weekly emails are great, but it’s a big commitment and a lot of work.  Email newsletters once per quarter should be easy to do, but you lose a lot of the benefits of staying top of mind and in front of your audience.  My recommendation would be to do something at least monthly – but whatever it is, live up to your plan!

5. Be interesting – add value!

Finally – good email newsletters aren’t about selling.  They may help you generate revenue, but they can’t be a sales pitch (or a disguised sales pitch).  You need to be educating, entertaining or adding value in some way.  You could use the newsletter to offer a special deal as a reward to your readers – but it better be really special and it should be coupled with other content that makes it worthwhile to open.

Back to our example with Vern and his newsletter:  He’s been doing it monthly for almost a year and a half (consistent) with a goal of educating his readers on investing in today’s market (he has a plan, it’s interesting and he’s adding value).   Vern will tell you the newsletter is a lot of work, but it’s also been a great tool that’s allowed him to build relationships and grow his business in a leveraged way.  And isn’t that what you want out of your marketing?

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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It’s probably time to start thinking about alternatives – not power alternatives (although that’s a worthwhile discussion as well), I’m talking about alternative Social Media platforms other than Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook is now over 400 Million users and over 80 Million of them are playing Farmville (which may be a sign of the apocalypse…I’m not sure) and – Twitter is generating 50 Million tweets per day.  It’s pretty clear that the big platforms are well into the mainstream and potentially too crowded to be useful to anyone trying to connect with more of a niche market than the entire world.

On top of that, history tells us that the world will keep changing and even if you missed the initial jump into these platforms a couple of years ago – you’ll have a chance to get in on the cutting edge of whatever’s next.

So what are some of the other choices of Social Media platforms out there?

If you’re looking for an extended list of platforms – services like www.Namechk.com (lists 145 different sites) or www.knowem.com (lists over 350 sites) will not only list out the sites, but can also tell you if your preferred username is available.

The experts over at the Social Media Examiner (great site for Social Media ideas) have a recent post out on the 5 Emerging Social Media Sites to watch in 2010.  Their list includes both Foursquare and Loopt which are location based Social Sites – clearly an up and coming trend.

They also list Google Buzz – which I’ve been underwhelmed with so far, but it is Google so you know they’ll have plenty of backing and time to continue innovating (or they’ll just buy out all their competitors!).

Another location based site that I’ve been hear a lot about is Gowalla – it’s a fun, easy social application that let’s your friends know where you are and what you’re doing.  It’s an easy way to interact with people, but I’m not sure how much staying power this kind of thing can have.  However if you have a retail establishment, it’s already a great way to get the word out on who and where you are by promoting it on these location based services.

In terms of more of a professional networking site, Biznik is the up and coming new kid on the block.  Biznik is targeting more business owners and professionals and not job hunters (as a way to differentiate from LinkedIn).  I like the approach and the tone of the site, but I haven’t had a chance to spend any time with it yet.

The best way to succeed with social media for business is to use a focused, consistent approach with a clear idea of what you want to get out of your efforts.  I don’t think any of the big platforms is going away anytime soon, but if you’d like to stand out and try something new, it may be worthwhile to check out one of these sites.

What new Social Media sites have you been hearing about?  Have you tried anything?  Share your thoughts below, I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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Do you know what you’re subconsciously telling people about your business?  Are you sending messages that don’t match up with the impression that you’d like to send (assuming that you know what that is)?

The thing is that you and your employees are constantly sending out messages whether you mean to or not.  Have you ever been to a retail store where one of the clerks was rude to you or someone else close enough for you to overhear?  What about a restaurant where they don’t clean off the tables before they seat you?  Or maybe it’s something small like forgetting to respond to an email from a prospect.  Any one of those is likely to cost you a customer.

What messages are you sending about your business?

The good news is that you have control over the messages being sent.  It’s all about being consciously intentional.

Jay Conrad Levinson – the author of Guerrilla Marketing defines the first competency of a strong Guerrilla Marketer as Intentionality:

I see every contact with my customers and prospects as marketing.
My words, attitudes and actions are all intentional and based on
my marketing goals.

There are two aspects of being consciously intentional – the first one is that you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to project.  What message do you want to send to people?  It needs to be genuine and it should be something that elevates you and your company when it comes to your target market.  Do you want to be professional?  An expert?  Friendly?  Helpful?  Warm?  Cheerful?  This is your chance to intentionally share your company’s timeless core values with everyone you come in contact with.

The second aspect is that you have to be constantly aware – train yourself to always be purposeful on the conscious and unconscious messages  you’re sending.  Here are a couple of areas to think about:

• How are you or your employees dressed?  Is it projecting the image that you want?

• What about body language, attitude, eye contact?  It may seem small, but are you smiling when you see people?

• How do you act?  Are you polite…to everyone, including the waiter!  Are you always ethical?  What kind of language do you use?

• How about your written communication?  Is everything spelled correctly?  Have you proofed your marketing materials for typos?

All of this may seem overly nit-picky, but think about the people that you choose to do business with (or better yet, someone that you’ve chosen not to do business with).  Did they portray themselves in a negative way somehow?  It’s not fair, but people are innately judgmental and they will react to an unintentional slip-up.

Are you intentionally marketing yourself with everything you do?  What messages are you sending and are you aware of how you’re sending them?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on intentionality – share your comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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