Articles Update
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been juggling several time-disrupting events (one of which you can read about in “Bring On The Distractions,” described below.) So, it’s about time for an update on the articles I’ve been adding to the website. I’m not going to tell you about them all. You can find a list of all the articles added over the last 30 days on the home page, Superperformance.com. Right now, I’m just going to update you on some of the ones I’ve written myself, starting with the latest first:
Can A Workplace Have A Panic Attack? — Not being contented with an earlier article (“The Sky is Falling!”) for solo entrepreneurs and micro businesses on the subject of anxiety and catastrophizing, I wrote a stronger depiction of what happens in the larger workplace during times of high stress. This is primarily addressed to management of mid-sized and larger organizations. Solo entrepreneurs and micro business owners need only to mind themselves. In larger organizations, an entire segment of the organization, composed of many employees, can exhibit the symptoms usually found in an individual, and management needs to have leaders ready to deal with it.
You Can’t Beat The System: Unfair Power Plays In The Workplace — Who says you can’t beat city hall? Or “the system.” Many people have. You’ve got options.
Bring On The Distractions: Maintaining Focus While Dealing With Workplace Chaos — It happens to all of us, no matter where we work or for whom we work — things are going along productively and some sort of crisis hits. All work stops to deal with the crisis. It may not be a very big crisis, but it hangs over us until solved. Not to worry: the workplace basic necessities of a “to do list” and a simple scheduler usually solve any distractions from crises.
Follow Your Passion or Impassion Your Work — The idea of “following your passion” is much more than a bit of fluff advice from “touchy-feeley” coaches. The solid psychology behind it is that strong positive feeling for your work is the best motivator we know for overcoming obstacles and getting through hard times. It also builds belief in your work and enthusiasm, both within you and your employees. Not to mention that it enhances your enjoyment when things are going well.
The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling on My Business! — Do you “catastrophize?” Do you look for signs and omens that something terrible is going to happen to you or your small business? Do you constantly imagine the worst? Relax. You’re not alone.
Acceptance Defeats Worry — You’ve probably heard about the idea of “accepting” unpleasant circumstances, events or people. Maybe you understand it to be a “letting go” of power struggles, or just resigning yourself to enduring all of the unpleasantness you anticipate from whatever you are worrying about. Actually, it’s a way of getting rid of most of the unpleasantness, releasing the need to struggle and finding practical ways to deal with the actual results of circumstances, events and other people’s behavior.
Good luck on Friday 13th
Just thought that it was a good day to wish good luck to folks, especially those who think Friday the 13th is a bad luck day. If you have a phobia about it, look up Triskaidekaphobia in your favorite search engine and have fun debunking your fears. And here is a four-leaf clover bouquet to protect you in the meantime.
A few personal growth ideas
Whenever I start writing or publishing articles on entrepreneurship and micro business, I inevitably find myself straying over to writing and publishing about personal growth, development, productivity and performance. I’m sure you can figure that’s because entrepreneurship and micro business primarily rely upon a particular individual’s personal strengths, characteristics, skills, knowledge, etc. In medium and large business, every individual brings something to the work of the organization, but, while each may be important, he or she is far less essential than in the very small organization.
And the smaller the organization, the more essential are the personal qualities that make business function. For example, you have undoubtedly observed the impact that unhappy, frustrated or angry employees can make in the offices or shop floors of large organizations. Imagine the entrepreneur or micro business owner who hates planning, organizing, keeping accounts and records and simply won’t do them. Or one who doesn’t like the kind of work he’s chosen. Or one who is going through a divorce or has a kind on drugs or hates one of his competitors to the point of obsession. What kind of impact do you envision that would have on his or her business?
So, lately I’ve been going back to publish the personal growth, etc. articles to support the ones I’ve been directing to potential solo entrepreneur’s and micro business developers. Of course, they’re good for other folks who just want to read some stuff about individual development for themselves.
Try some of these articles:
Mindset: The First Step in Goal Attainment
Change Made Easier For Yourself and Others
Personal Goals and Priorities Pathways and Pitfalls
Everyday mindful happiness
Today, I published a guest article by Barbara Bartlein. “Happiness-Maximize Each Day by Paying Attention.” She reminds us that there are many pleasant times and experiences to be found in everyday life if we simply pay attention to them. The article somewhat echos the current trend for psychologists (especially positive psychologists), life coaches, meditation teachers and other self-improvement proponents toward “mindfulness” training. Mindfulness practice, at its most basic, encourages you to be awake and aware in the present moment. That means, you consciously and intentionally attend to what is happening right now.
Of course, pure mindfulness is without judgment. If you learn to do mindfulness well, you accept the experience without pronouncing it good or bad; without assigning a meaning to it. This is just a blog post, not a thesis on all the values of being able to do that on a regular basis, so let me just point out that there is a quick, practical outcome to being able to be mindful and without judgment on a momentary basis. That outcome is this: if you can detach for just a moment, you break a cycle of knee-jerk responses to your daily experiences and can re-evaluate them to make them more useful or enjoyable. Yep, you figured it out; you have a chance to develop new insights. (This is not the long-term purpose of mindfulness training, just a kind of useful “side-effect.”)
You just have to pause for a moment and say, “what’s actually happening now?” Hear all the sounds around you, see all the people and what they’re doing, smell the odors, feel the heat or cold, etc. Now that you’ve experienced it without thinking about it or feeling emotions about it, turn your emotions on and decide if it’s bad, good or indifferent. When you find the good moments, grab them and savor them. Do it frequently and you’ll find yourself growing more content. Do it at work. Do it at home. Even do it during commute time. For example, do you listen to music on the radio or CD’s in your commute? Don’t you choose music to make you feel good in some way? Attend to the music, savor it instead of cursing the bogged down traffic in front of you. That’s a way of mindfulness.
Again, this post is not about the full value and training of “mindfulness.” If you want to learn more about it, you can find many websites and books that will get you started on that discipline.
Go find, explore, enjoy.
Career, employment, small business and personal mix
Over the last few days, I’ve been writing and publishing a mix of articles that hit on more traditional employment, personal performance improvement and transitions to self-employment that are close enough to traditional employment to make the transition easier than other options.
In “Independent Employment,” I suggest three ways you could keep working for the same kind of employer you now serve, but in more independent roles such as through temporary staffing, contract employment and freelancing in your current field. With each of those, you could try out the mode of work while you are still employed. Just do it on a “moonlighting” basis until you’re comfortable with it and know it’s something you want to do. The only investment is your time, so even if you decide you don’t like it, you can stop and you’ll still have made some extra money.
In “Be The Hero of the Story: Expect to Win,” I illustrate how you develop success — whether in business, career or personal life — through managing your expectations. Your expectations tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. The article is about how well it works to make your expectations positive ones.
In “What’s Old is New Again: Getting Attention to Your Résumé May Be As Simple As This,” I talk about the most effective ways to make your résumé stand out in a crowd, as well as how and where to send it to avoid the crowds.
And, just today, I published a guest article that takes us back to talking about small business and solo-entrepreneuring again: “Have a Great Idea for a Business? Test the Waters Before Diving In.” It takes up the same dilemma I was addressing in “Independent Employment.” However unhappy a place the job market may be, the self-employment market may be too scary. Valerie Young has a few words of encouragement for trying out various businesses before making a commitment to get into them.
More small business interest articles…
Over the last few days, I’ve published some more guest articles that are helpful to small business/solo entrepreneurs/micro business. Take a look at these:
“The Marketing World is Changing” is a bit dated, because one of the first points Jessica Swanson makes is that “traditional marketing will be 1/3 as effective by 2010.” However, it is still relevant, even if the article is a couple of years old. It is true that traditional marketing has slipped considerably and that prediction may have come true (if we knew what to measure it against). What’s important about the article is that “do-it-yourself-on-a-shoestring” marketing has become available in a big way to entrepreneurs and is very, very effective. That’s good news for the new or soon-to-be entrepreneurs who are making the jump from employment to self-employment. And for those who are trying to start up while maintaining some sort of job.
In “Why You Must Attend Events To Grow Your Biz,” Michele PW outlines a rationale for attending events that not only help you learn more about developing and promoting your business, but also can give you opportunities to network with a variety of others who may help you with that or even become your customers or clients. So, go to seminars, workshops, continuing education classes for your profession and conventions. You’ll probably get lots more out of them than the cost of the actual educational offering.
In “Social Networking Mindset Tip: Be Approachable!,” Nancy Marmolejo helps you hone your social networking skills by showing you how to present yourself so that your warmth, charm and interest in others comes shining through. After all, social networking is personal. Your potential clients/customers want to see your inviting personality.
In “Leadership: 5 Barriers to Your Success,” Duncan Brodie reminds you that success requires you to have a clear idea of what that success looks like and be able to adequately describe it to others. Moreover, you must believe that it can be achieved and have specific goals that will lead to its achievement. And you must overcome both fears and inertia that keep you from continually moving forward.
Small business and entrepreneurial abilities
As a follow-up to my July 24 blog post on Career transitions to self-employment, I wrote an article, Basic Business Start-Up Abilities and published it yesterday. It goes on a bit more about the minimum it takes to start a business for a solo entrepreneur operation or micro-business.
I want to be clear about something: When I say you don’t need as many “abilities” or “personal characteristics” as are often outlined as ideal for small business success, I don’t mean that those skills aren’t important. It’s simply that unless you are considering buying a business or a franchise, getting a loan, or putting a large sum of money into getting started, you can forgo some of the extensive planning and analysis often advised and take a shot at something you already know how to do very well. You can pick up the rest of the business skills you need along the way. That’s the way it’s done more often than not. I just want to encourage you to be creative and not allow yourself to be overwhelmed or intimidated. For example, if you’ve long wanted to try out being an EBay seller, you could experiment by listing a few things you want to get rid of in your own household and it will probably cost you nothing if you strike out or a few dollars if you fail to price correctly. (Although people rarely take a loss there.) So I’m talking about starting on a shoestring, without employees and risking little other than your time. Anytime any amount of money you can’t afford to lose is involved, get help from sources experienced in your field and professional advice. And under those circumstances, yes you do need a well-written business plan, more solid current business skills and a careful analysis of your ideas and the marketplace.Read the article.
Blogging for better government
Have you checked out the many blogs our various government entities and representatives are using? Have you read the White House blog? The blogs of your Senators and Congressmen? How about the blogs of the various agencies of the state you live in? Next time you go searching for information on a subject of interest, try using .gov as one of the keywords in your search. You might be surprised at the wealth of information to be found.
Just a few minutes ago, I was reading the blog of a Georgia representative (not my rep, I live in Nevada), Congressman David Scott of Georgia’s 13th district. I learned about the H.R. 2142, the Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act. It’s designed, as its name implies. to provide standards and processes for continuous performance improvement in agencies under the supervision of Congress. He provides a summary here:
http://www.davidscott.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=190873.
As you may well imagine, there are “government watchdogs” who report on such bills. But isn’t it nice to find folks who are paid by our taxes doing their jobs and keeping us informed. Especially when they inform us objectively, rather than with political rant.
If you want a good example of an informative blog by a politician, Scott’s is worth a visit for that alone. http://davidscott.house.gov/News/DocumentQuery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=1836
Career transitions to self-employment
Lately, I’ve been publishing more articles relevant to small business. Especially one-person operations and micro-businesses. I’ve been focusing more on small business because it’s one of the most available career transitions for the unemployed and underemployed. As fewer and fewer acceptable jobs are available, large numbers of the formerly employed are turning to entrepreneurship, contract work and other forms of self-employment to make a living. Many never wanted or expected to work for themselves; but now they seem to have no other choices. And it’s a hard choice, because so few people are actually prepared for all the variables of working without a job.
I’ve read quite a lot of books and articles about the necessary “characteristics” of people who are suitable for running their own businesses. Much of it has merit as guidelines for identifying your strengths and weaknesses in business. However, I’ve found in my many years of experience researching and counseling, that necessity is truly the mother of invention (or motivation), and the idea that you “must” have certain entrepreneurial abilities to succeed is greatly exaggerated. Most people who have gone into their own businesses have few of the “standard” entrepreneurial attributes, at least in the beginning. The biggest determinant is your willingness to do whatever is necessary to earn a living. If that means making up your own job and making it work, that’s what you’ll do.
You also get to define “success” as being able to make a living or make extra cash or whatever else you decide to call it. You’re not stuck with “success” being defined as becoming wealthy. After all, few people do become wealthy running their own businesses. They may make a comfortable living and move into middle-class neighborhoods. But that’s pretty successful.
There are numberless ideas and opportunities awaiting the unemployed who want to take charge of their own work lives through self-employment. If you are among those people, take the chance, experiment, try it out. Educate yourself so you avoid the many scams. Get creative and think of what you might do that requires little or no money to start.
(If you’re thinking in more traditional terms, however, such as investing your own money that you can’t afford to lose, getting loans, starting a franchise or going into a partnership with some other person’s money, you actually do need to be better prepared. And you need to do all the traditional “stuff” like extensive research, analyses and planning.)
Stay tuned to this website. I’m going to be publishing articles and links to resources for more information for starting up your own solo or micro business. Remember, though, I publish more articles in the main section of this site (http://superperformance.com) than I do on this blog. So look for the daily content uploads there.
Selling by teaching and demonstrating
Earlier today I published a guest article Stop Selling and Start Teaching!. In the article, Jessica Swanson tells of her experience with the hard sell in a brick-and-mortar store. She shows clearly how off-putting “the sell” can be and advocates using an educational/informational approach in your online business, to build trust and confidence.
Jessica’s article reminded me of my Dad. He was a “born salesman.” He was one of those guys who could sell anything. He could extract your eye teeth and sell them back to you. And get you to agree he had done you a favor. He did it all by informing, explaining and demonstrating. In his retirement years, he became a crafter. He made tole-painted decor objects and sold them at craft fairs. I occasionally got to see him work his sales craft on customers. He would pick up an object the customer was inspecting and just start talking about it. With great enthusiasm, he would tell 
the tale of how it was made, what materials went into it, and even the history of the particular pattern or the history of tole-painting. He never asked someone to buy something. He just talked to them casually, while showing great love for his creation. Not only did the immediate customer buy the product, but also bystanders who overheard would often buy the same item or other items. He usually drew small crowds just curious to hear his stories. And when he ran out of product, he took orders to make and deliver the sold-out items. He actually build a fan-base of customers who would look for his booth at the craft fairs, buy from him again and again and phone him to make custom gifts to give.
Think about it. What can you do to connect so powerfully with your prospective customers or clients on line? How can you show them the value of your product or service? How can you create for them a demonstration of your commitment to, enthusiasm for and expertise in your field of endeavor? And for those who operate only on line: how can you show your interest in and concern for your customer or client even though you never connect with them face to face?