Canadian Small Business Women

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The exact process we use to get clients social media success

When it comes to social media for business, most entrepreneurs fall into one of four categories:

  1. You know you need it, but you have no idea how to get started. Perhaps you got into social media a little late and you don’t have the base knowledge to know what will work best.
  2. You are already on it, but you aren’t seeing any growth or positive results and you’re not sure why. You’re spending time on putting content out there, but it’s going nowhere. You’re not even sure if anyone is reading it!
  3. You are already on it, but you can’t find the time to actually do anything with it. Running your own business is already hard enough. You realize the benefits social media can bring, but you just aren’t able to dedicate time to doing anything with it.
  4. You are an expert and you’ve mastered the art of engaging social media content.

If you fall into category 4, congratulations! If you fall into category 1, 2, or 3, don’t worry. You are not alone. It’s no secret that social media plays a major role in connecting with your audience, but, for many entrepreneurs, that’s where the frustration begins. Whether it’s a lack of knowledge or time, everyone has to start somewhere.

At SongBird one of the things I do is work with clients on their social media strategies. Sometimes it means building a strategy and executing it, and other times it is simply building a strategy and giving them the tools to execute it successfully on their own.

This is the 5-step process we go through with clients to help them achieve social media success:

Step 1: Social and competitor audit

This is an in depth look at what you are already doing on social media (if you’re on it!) to see what is working and what isn’t working. Then you take it a step further by looking at your competitors’ social media channels. Look for things like engagement, brand consistency, and content variety.

Step 2: Brand refresh

Make sure your brand messaging is aligned with your overall business goals and brand personality. You also need to take a good look at your audience and where they like to consume content to ensure you are using the right social media channels that will help you achieve your goals.

Step 3: Refine your strategy

You can start by ensuring your social profiles are consistent across platform when it comes to imagery, messaging, and brand story. Then you need to create a strong content strategy that will help you get your message across on all of your chosen social platforms. This means looking at appropriate posting timing, hashtag usage, types of content, and where the crossover content will be. Remember, you shouldn’t post the same content across all platforms. The idea is that you want people to follow you on all platforms, so you need to provide value in different ways to encourage this.

Step 4: Learn your tools

You need to make your social media implementation as easy as possible, so you can keep up with it. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer will help with scheduling so you can schedule content one week at a time and not worry so much on a day-to-day basis. If you’re concerned about how your content looks, use a user-friendly design tool like Canva.

Step 5: Take it one day at a time

Only take on what you can handle, realizing that you can grow your strategy over time. As you start to see success, and your social presence becomes more consistent, you will find it easier to add to your strategy. It is also easier to track your success if you fully understand what you are doing. If you notice something isn’t working, try tweaking your strategy slightly. There will be trial and error in figuring it out on your own, so just embrace it rather than have it frustrate you. You can learn as much about your business, yourself, and your customers through things that don’t work as you can through your successes.

If you’re stuck, feel free to reach out and ask questions! You can also check out our Social Media Starter Kit!

Candace Huntly is Founder and Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Four ways to beat content marketing overwhelm

For many small business owners, trying to keep up with content marketing and social media as ways to grow business is a lesson in overwhelm that happens on a regular basis! It’s time for an intervention! There are a few simple steps you can take to break through the overwhelm and get content marketing working for you. Let’s look at a few (4) of those now:

Identify your goal

What are your goals for you content marketing? Having a goal of making more sales is way too broad and will lead to a sense of overwhelm. Instead, break that broad goal down into specific, measurable goals such as turning leads into customers or driving traffic to your website.

Get a strategy

It’s easy to fall into spending too many hours creating and posting content with no plan or strategy in place. For your content marketing to work well and to return the results you want and need, a solid strategy is required. Never create content for the sake of creating content – always have a strategy. Take the time to plan this important step.

Once you’ve identified who you are trying to reach, where they spend time online, what types of content they like and respond to and what you want them to do with it (like, share, join your mailing list, buy your product…) you’ll be able to design a strategy for meeting your marketing goals.

Make sure to gather leads

You’ve heard the one where social media has killed off email? Not so much. In fact, that’s simply not true.  Social media is great to build and strengthen relationships but aim to entice your followers to join your mailing list, as well. Not only does this make good business sense but it will also fight those feelings of overwhelm because your email list is an asset you own. Those frequent changes made by social media have no impact on your email list and nobody can take that away from you (as long as you regularly back up your data).

Outsource what you can

Before you think about outsourcing, it’s essential that you work out your strategy and goals beforehand. If you don’t you could end up paying someone to do work that has no benefit to your business. You can avoid this once you know exactly what needs to be done and how you’ll measure your results, you’ll find some tasks that would be better done by someone other than you. We know that overwhelm can be the result of too much work, but it can also come from trying to do work that isn’t using your strengths when you could be doing great work elsewhere.

Now take some time to look at your own content marketing – which areas could you work on to break through your sense of overwhelm?

 

Barbara Jemmott is the founder and business strategist at Your Entrepreneurial Spirit. Her 4-point YES to Customer Acquisition Program (C.A.P.) allows her to work her passion which is helping entrepreneurial women grow their audiences and income, online. She got here through her 20+ years of experience helping businesses understand and implement systems, strategies and procedures to increase productivity as well implement change and streamline operations. With experience and responsibilities to design, develop and deliver training for small to large technology training initiatives for Fortune 100 companies, she brings “Big Business” expertise to the small business space. Learn more about Your Entrepreneurial Spirit and the YES to Customer Acquisition Program at www.yourentrepreneurialspirit.com

Setting New Year’s Marketing Goals You Can Actually Accomplish

A new year means a fresh a start, right? When it comes to your business, December is a perfect time to strategize for the year ahead, especially for your marketing strategy. The problem is, it’s really hard to set marketing goals that make sense for your business while driving it forward to help you grow throughout the year.

Before you can strategize for the year ahead, it’s always best to look back to see what you have accomplished in the past year. Using simple metrics, you can track your progress. Reflect on what worked, what didn’t work, and what your best marketing moments were for the year. That will shape how you move forward in this process. You should always focus on whether your marketing strategy in the past year helped you reach your business objectives for the year. If it didn’t, then setting your goals for 2018 will be especially important.

To help you follow through, your marketing goals for 2018 should:

  • Reflect on your overall business objectives – you are building your business through marketing.
  • Be measurable – you won’t know if you have achieved your goal if you can’t measure it.

Here are a few goals to consider as you are preparing your 2018 marketing strategy.

Cut the fluff from your strategy

Build a solid strategic foundation by figuring out what’s working and what’s not. If something isn’t working, set it aside. You can always revisit a strategy later if the timing is better. By eliminating tactics that don’t work you’re freeing up resources (time and money) to invest in other tactics. Cutting things from your marketing strategy might be the easiest thing to accomplish because you are saving time and money rather than spending it!

Identify the time and budget resources you can allocate to other marketing projects throughout the year.

Engage daily on social media

Social media isn’t something you say you are going to do and then log in once per week. It takes commitment, but you should be engaging with your followers and potential follower on a daily basis. This is how you will build relationships with customers and potential customers online. If you can’t commit the time to social media (at least 15 minutes per day), consider hiring a third party to build your social media strategy. Your success depends largely on your ability to create dialogue among your community, and social media is a great way to connect with large numbers of people at once.

Make sure you track your increasing engagement through specific and measurable metrics such as brand mentions, retweets/shares, Likes, Review ratings, etc.

Drive traffic to your website

Your website should be an information hub for your brand, and if you are selling products on your website, then traffic is even more important. Customers should be able to navigate across your online channels easily, and all roads should lead back to your website. Post new content regularly to your social channels (ie. Blogs, product reviews) that links back to your website. If you are running a sale, change the link in your Instagram profile and drive people to that link in your promo posts.

Track metrics such as website traffic numbers and your click through rate.

Try something you haven’t tried before

It’s easy to get stuck in a marketing rut. Maybe you’re afraid of change, or perhaps you were just burnt out, but success usually lives outside of your comfort zone. Sometimes that means learning about something new or really getting to know what your audience likes. You will start to see business growth when you push your own personal boundaries as a business owner. This will also help to create new touchpoints for your customers to experience your brand. For example, if you have focused a lot of your energy on social media and digital marketing tactics, try something experiential to hit a targeted geographical group.

Make sure you choose metrics to measure the success of your new tactic. If it is successful, continue doing it, if not, there is no point in wasting the resources.

Your marketing goals for 2018 should make you feel a little uncomfortable, but they should also excite you. It is a good combination when you are building your strategy. Your audience will appreciate you taking the time to see your relationship with them through a fresh perspective and it gives you the opportunity to stay on your toes in business.

Candace Huntly is Founder and Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Tongue Tied About Public Speaking? You’re Not Alone …

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy” – Jerry Seinfeld

Public Speaking with Microphone

With the Right Preparation, You Can Become a Better Public Speaker

The phone rings, I pick up to hear the familiar and confident voice of a friendly business acquaintance, let’s just call her Liz. We talk briefly about upcoming projects, discuss current events, and then what she says next absolutely floors me! Liz, who is one of the most talented public speakers I know, has terrible stage fright. This is a woman who is articulate, poised, and has a great sense of humor that effortlessly engages her audience, and yet, she revealed how thoroughly she must prepare herself for the task of commanding a room with confidence. Curious as I was amazed, I asked Liz how does she does do it? How does she make it look so easy, and what’s more, continually overcome this fear?

“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech” – Mark Twain

With a humble chuckle, Liz explains that she has a strict method that gives her some comfort and predictability.  Very early in the morning, she is either practicing a speech, pitch, or presentation for an upcoming client or company who she will meet that day. For shorter pitches, Liz does this about 10 – 15 times before leaving the house and continues this process of rehearsing as she drives to the intended meeting. Sure, her hands shake, and she usually opts out of having a cup coffee if someone will see it shaking. She’ll usually skip her second coffee due to a nervous stomach, but every week she defies those persistent anxieties.

“You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.”– Leon Trotsky

The credibility and extensive network that Liz has built in, part because of her effective public speaking, led me to believe that hers was a natural talent that very few possess. However, her candid admission made me realize that a large part of her success is due to her work effort and strategy. It’s quite possible that other great speakers have certain rituals or tactics to lessen their feelings of intimidation in front of an audience. For instance, Liz found a creative approach by removing her eyeglasses. She says this makes her less nervous. It helps blur the numerous faces staring at her so that she doesn’t get caught up in their expressions and can focus on the content, rather than the actual room.

So, what are some of Liz’s behind the scenes tricks you can use to prepare for your next presentation, speech, or big meeting?

  1. Accept that you have stage fright, but boldly confront it anyway
  2. Practice and prepare in advance (time management is key). Consider recording yourself in an audio or even a video format.
  3. Use resourceful ways to ease your fright. If you have glasses, perhaps taking them off may ease the intense glare of eyes on you. You may want to find an outfit (albeit professional) that is comfortable. This includes footwear. It’s amazing how the wrong clothing can distract you, or make you uncomfortably warm, itchy, or feel constraining when under pressure

    Woman Speaking in Public

  4. Use your surroundings; map out where you will be speaking from. Pick a seat that you can easily get up from to head to the podium. You may want to try walking while talking if the stage permits movement, this will give you time to find a spot to pause and deliberate if there are questions.
  5. Plan your pauses, take deep breaths, and never rush through your speech.
  6. Try breathing exercises and or meditation techniques starting days before the public speaking to help you relax.

If these tips have been helpful, but you still feel your fear of meetings, job interviews, speeches, or any other public situations are still excessively bothersome please contact me. Together, we can customize a personal strategy to make you a more effective speaker (or meeting chairperson or interviewee) and help you to develop the necessary skills.

If you have HR or career-related matters that you’d like to discuss, please contact me by email, phone, or via direct message on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. I’m also available if you’d like to discuss any of these topics in more detail.

More than career coaching, it’s career psychology®.

I/O Advisory Services – Building Resilient Careers.

Put Some Emotion Into Your Marketing

Emotions can be a powerful thing in business when it comes to marketing. Think about it. If you feel emotionally connected to something or someone, you invest more time and money into that thing or person. Why wouldn’t you want to tap into that power when it comes to your brand?

Everything you do when it comes to selling your brand story should be tapped into emotion to make a stronger connection with your audience.

Here are 5 ways to use emotions to build out your marketing and PR strategy:

Focus on the human aspect of your story

The media hears about so many different businesses, big and small, new and established. You have to set yourself apart from everyone else. Find a human interest story to focus on when you are pitching the media. All of a sudden the story becomes more than a business pitch – you have a living, breathing, feeling focus that your audiences can relate to and become invested in.

Be human

You do so much work to build your brand character so you can’t forget that you should interact with your audience like you’re interacting with a friend.

When in doubt, think nostalgia

Nostalgia will always be a good thing to tap into when you are trying to emotionally connect with your audience. The notion of the “good old days” brings on an array of emotions, and if you have done your homework on your target audience, then you will know what they are nostalgic about. Whether it’s Toys R Us getting their audience to think about never growing up or Tim Horton’s nostalgia over national pride, those are the campaigns that stand out.

Avoid fear

While “prankvertising” and other public stunts that invoke fear in audiences have become popular over the past few years, you have to stop and think how it will affect your brand. For some, playing on the negative side of emotions is great – if your audience is into that sort of thing. Fear as part of a marketing strategy works if you are launching a horror movie, an exhilarating extreme sports campaign, or a provocative public safety ad (PSA). Before having someone dressed as a demon jump out of a TV screen or have someone free fall towards earth from space, think long and hard whether it a) fits within your brand story and messaging and b) will draw people into your brand rather than repel it.

Think Seasonally

Throughout the year, there are holidays and special celebrations that are focused on specific emotions. Why not join in the discussion that is already happening and tap into those emotions people are already feeling. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so you can focus on love and how that would fit into your brand story.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Don’t Do Marketing & PR… Until you can answer these 5 questions

CHuntly

Marketing & Public Relations (AKA PR) should be an important part of your outreach strategy. After all, PR is defined as interacting with your public, and you need to do that to communicate your brand message to your audience. If you’re not trying to communicate with your audience, you are relying too heavily on the “if you build it they will come” strategy. In a world of social media and other online channels as well as all of the visual and informational bombardment on a day-to-day basis face-to-face, there is too much noise in the marketplace to wait for someone to notice you. You need to initiate the connection.

It can be tempting to jump on the first opportunity you see to get your brand “out there” without thinking too much beyond that you just want people to see you. However, just because it is the latest and greatest idea doesn’t mean it is the right one for your business.

You have a lot of options available to you when it comes to marketing and PR. The challenge for you as a small business owner is to pick the right options that will give you the highest return on your investment (of time AND money!).

Here are a few things you need to get straight before you jump on that latest and greatest idea you came across:

  1. What do you do? Be able to identify in detail what product or service you are selling.
  2. Who would be interested in what you have to offer? When you can answer this question, you will have identified your target audience.
  3. Why would your target audience want what you have to offer? This is an important step often skipped by entrepreneurs who are launching a business. You need to be able to articulate – in writing and when you are speaking to people – what makes your product/service so great. Along the same lines, identify what sets you apart from your competitors.
  4. Where does your target audience congregate? Do a bit of research to find out where they get their information from, what organizations they belong to, their social media habits, and what their buying habits are.
  5. What are your goals? Once you have identified who you are and who would be interested in what you have to offer, you need to set goals so you can identify what a successful marketing & PR campaign would look like for you. Is it sign ups? Website traffic? Awareness?

Once you have answered these five questions, you can sit down and use the information to decide what kind of marketing & PR strategy you should run. Your audience and your goals will dictate what channels you use to reach out and your product/service offering and differentiators will help you determine what type of content and messaging to use on each channel.

While it means you need to invest more time in the beginning to help set yourself on the right track, it is worth it in the long-term.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Are you spending your time effectively on Facebook?

 

Kelly Farrell - Teach Me Social -headshot (2)

Are you spending time looking at the right parts of your Facebook business page? It’s so easy to get distracted by “shiny things” on Facebook, but as a business owner it’s important to stay focused on your goal to connect with your followers. Having a strategy for your social media marketing should also include regular maintenance on your Facebook page to ensure that what you are posting and sharing is actually connecting with the right followers.

  1. Update the “About” tab on your Facebook Business Page regularly. Take a few minutes at least once a month to revisit and revise the fields with important information about your business. In particular, ensure that the Short Description, Long Description and all contact details are up-to-date and accurate.
  2. Review the Insights for your Facebook Business Page often to analyze what posts are reaching your audience and are engaging your followers. The Insights can help you identify the best time to post and can provide you with more demographic information about the people who engage with your Page.
  3. Monitor the interaction on your posts and be sure to reply to all comments quickly! The average social media user expects a reply within 1 hour to a comment that they make on social media. Be considerate of the time someone took to make a comment, and respond in kind, even if just to say Thank You!
  4. Share your involvement in local or online events and be sure to create event listing for events that your business is hosting. Invite your friends and contacts to join your event page for updates and event information. If you are participating in someone else’s event, you can add that event to your page’s event listing without creating a new event. This helps to connect your business page with others, thus increasing your visibility!
  5. Know when to spend money on boosted posts and promotions on Facebook and allocate an appropriate budget for this purpose. Keep in mind that you should first set up target audiences in Facebook Ad Manager before spending any money on promotions. The more time you spend to target the right demographic, the more return you will see on your ad spend.

To learn more about how to maximise the effectiveness of your Facebook marketing efforts, schedule a complimentary consultation with Teach Me Social. Teach Me Social owner Kelly Farrell has been helping empower Canadian Small Business owners through social media for over four years. Teach Me Social offers effective social media services which include training sessions and consulting as well as full-service social media account management.

Be Fearless

Sheralyn

Typically in this space I touch upon issues of concern relative to communications in general or communications strategies for small business. Today however, I want to challenge you to face 2016 not just with improved communications skills but also with confidence, clarity of vision, a renewed focus and, this is the big one – fearlessly!

No doubt, at more than one point in your life you have been afraid. Maybe of the future, of failure at school, work or sports, afraid of giving birth (that’s a big one!) or of embarking on a new career.  What was it that helped you overcome that fear? OK, in the case of giving birth you kind of had no choice but in the absence of the onset of labour pains – what helped you to take the leap of faith necessary to move past your fears?

Perhaps your answer is “courage” or maybe “resolve.” Still others might say it was  “opportunity” or that the timing was “right.” Perhaps you were given the gift of money whether through a packaged buy – out or an inheritance. Whatever your answer, being fearless had to have been a part of the process.  This doesn’t necessarily mean to suggest you were without fear but rather, that you embraced your fear and forged ahead regardless.  So how can you encourage being fearless?

Becoming fearless involves strategy.  Yes certain elements like timing and opportunity are important but having a strategy in place that you can act upon for when the timing is right will help create potential success.  Have you, for example, made a list of the pros and cons for your potential action? Have you done research? Have you anticipated all the possible outcomes and planned for them accordingly? Have you considered getting some coaching to help you bridge the gap between your fear and your determination and resolve?  If you have a plan in place with clearly defined, specific and measurable goals this alone will help reduce your fears.  Proactive planning tools will help you to achieve your dreams and while they may not eliminate your fears entirely, they certainly help you anticipate and plan for them, reducing fear to something much more manageable.

So GET PLANNING! Be specific. Always remember however that a little bit of healthy fear is a good thing. It’s natures built in “fight or flight” response. It keeps you alert and aware to potential pitfalls but by planning for them, you can face your fears – fearlessly!

As Owner and Principal partner of “Writing Right For You” Sheralyn is a Communications Strategist – working together with entrepreneurs to maximize profit through effective use of the written word. Looking for web content that works, blog articles that engage or communications strategies that help you get noticed?  Contact Sheralyn today. Sheralyn is also the mother of two children now entering the “terrible and terrific teens” and spends her free time volunteering for several non-profit organizations.

Sheralyn Roman B.A., B.Ed.

Writing Right For You

Communications Strategies that help you GET TO THE POINT!

416-420-9415 Cell/Business

writingrightforyou@gmail.com

How to develop your story for the media

CHuntly

Once you are ready to start planning for your media relations outreach campaign, the first thing you should do is make sure that what you have to say is relevant not only to your audience, but also to the media. You have to make sure that the story you are telling is the right mix of brand and human interest to make the media want to talk about.

Here are 5 ways to make sure that the story you are telling is media-worthy:

#1: Brainstorm

There are few things that are more satisfying than a great brainstorm session! The key is that whether you are having a solo session or a group session, no idea is a bad idea at the initial phase of the process. I like to get as many ideas on paper as possible then eliminate them one by one until I am down to the final 1 – 3 ideas. Then I look a bit deeper into those final ideas to make my final decision.

#2: Play Devil’s Advocate

I am sure you have heard that we are our own worst critic. Well, when you are taking your story to the media, this isn’t a bad thing. It will help you edit out the stuff that will weaken your story. Ask yourself tough questions and be hard on the idea. If you can answer to all of the things you are saying, then you know you have a great idea on your hands. If you are left more confused than ever, then you likely have to go back to the drawing board and tweak your idea some more.

#3: Compare to competitors’ stories

While you don’t necessarily want to get into a rut of “well they’re just doing it better,” you have to see what your competitors are doing so you can push yourself a bit when it comes to creativity as well as differentiating yourself. It doesn’t make sense to pitch the exact same story to the media as your competitors have done, however, you have to take into consideration whether they were successful with their story or not. If they were successful, look at similar elements you could focus on for your own story. If it wasn’t, then find a completely different approach.

#4: Talk about it

Once you have either narrowed down your options or you have landed on that great story, talk about it to family and friends. Gage their reaction. You can generally tell whether someone finds your idea interesting or not, and, on occasion you might find that friend who will be totally honest with you. Take the reactions and constructive criticism and apply it to your idea where appropriate.

#5: Develop consistent messaging

After your idea has been tweaked and criticized, you should have a great story idea to pitch. Now you have to build the foundation for your outreach by creating messaging that will be used throughout your pitches, media releases, media kits, etc. Your messaging document should be short points that outline your brand story. Consistency is key, and repetition will get you remembered.

 

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making it unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

‘Journaling’ to Entrepreneurial Success

Tamara 14 (1)

One of the ways I approach finding effective strategies for building my business has come from very targeted research. This research involves looking to those who are farther along the entrepreneurial journey than me, then identifying what they define as contributing to their success.

One standout trend across industries was the use of journaling, in many different capacities. ‘Journaling’ is a term used (in this article) to define an individual who is taking time in their day as a part of a regular routine to physically write/record personal information, ideas, experiences and reflections.

You may have heard recent studies of science backing up the benefits of putting ‘pen to paper’ (ie: Mueller and Oppenheimer’s research found individuals had increased ‘conceptual understanding’ and consequent success in applying it to their work). Or you may have a personal practice of journaling for creative expression but not thought of it as a business tool. Even if you haven’t had any experience with journaling at all, I wanted to bring to you some of the methods (and benefits) that research has shown can contribute to success in business, so you can create a system that will work for you.

 

  1. Problem solving

Using journaling is actually a way to see solutions that may otherwise not have been seen, as ‘Fast Company’ (online) reveals. This process can include: asking questions, brainstorming solutions or writing from different perspectives. All of which can provide an alternative way to process complex information, beyond typing.

 

  1. Evaluation

Once you have written on a regular basis, it gives you an opportunity to review what has been written and find patterns and changes in momentum across a defined period of time. Using this type of reflection after the journaling has occurred was key in Julia Galef’s (President of the Center for Applied Rationality) work with her clients. She uses this strategy (along with her signature system) to help others change long-standing (often not helpful) opinions about themselves to create new patterns of behavior after this type of process.

 

  1. Focus

One downfall to using technology (widely known) is the abundance of distraction. Quick processing and easily found information make it easy to change activities with a click of a button. Using pen and paper gives you the opportunity to literally only have ‘one thing open’, no need to resist clicking on a new tab. Once your journaling is done, it is encouraged that you then simply ‘put it away’ and not disrupt the rest of your work that is not related.

 

  1. Productivity

A recent Harvard Business School study actually found that using ‘journaling’ (by reflecting at the end of the day) could increase productivity by up to 25%. This is based on the participants in the study being able to ‘visualize’ what is important and therefore make more progress towards a particular goal.

 

I can appreciate that all of these strategies (and subsequent benefits) can be integrated into your workday; no matter what business you are building. We live in a very abundant time in our lives, because technology is advancing and becoming very accessible to all. The great thing is, so is paper. By using journaling strategies in conjunction with digital tools you have an opportunity to create a system that can produce the results you want in your growing business.

 

Tamara is the owner and designer at ‘Your Pretty Pages’ where she provides templates, planners, guides and resources for creative entrepreneurs to get and stay organized. To support your successful planning, Tamara has just released the ‘Entrepreneur’s Journal’ which you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/YourPrettyPages

Managing Information Overload

Tamara high res 1

Whatever stage your business is in, I can guarantee that you are managing a lot of information. It may sound familiar to be juggling things like correspondence, deadlines, project work and your many-amazing-ideas on a daily basis.

Today I am going to share some simple strategies of how to easily (and enjoyably) send and receive information without it being a stressful or overwhelming process.

Information can come to in the form of a phone call, email, text or even a knock at the office door. When you get that email or pick up the phone, the first step is to identify if it is reference material that is ‘response required’ or not.

Reference material is anything that you will need to access at a later time. For example, it could be details about the date and time of a networking event (time based) or some industry news that you will need to look at later for a project you are working on.

The information that comes to you (but doesn’t require a response) is often the hardest to keep track of. The most effective strategy I have ever used has been to categorize information and prepare a collection area before it comes. Of course you can’t predict every type of information that will come your way, but don’t worry. You should easily be able to create word documents or sections in your paper planners/notebooks to divide topics such as Marketing, Product/Service Development, Website, Industry news etc.

As you start noticing trends in types of information you can add them as you go. Having this area prepared is a quick solution for handing the information that does not yet need to be processed. It is also an easy way to input new information and reference it because it is not getting mixed up from the beginning.

If the reference material is time related, it is considered ‘response required’. To handle this information, simply write down the task in relation to a date or time in your calendar, right at that moment. This could be details of a webinar you intend on attending or something related to sending information to someone else. If you don’t do it as soon as you receive it, it will be something that can get lost in the shuffle. If you don’t have time to do it right then…read on and I will tell you the next important strategy.

If you don’t have time to do any follow up action when receiving information (ie. Look up a quote for a client on the phone), then don’t receive it. Remember, this is your business and you get to set up your day the way that works best for you. It’s better to call the client back when you are available to talk, rather than let it interrupt your current work and risk forgetting to follow up.

Finding a way to manage this information proactively is key to being productive and reducing the stress that comes along with not being able to easily access information when you need it. You get to step out of being reactionary in your business and give yourself more time and opportunity to dive deeper into the work at hand – reference materials near by.

Lastly, becoming organized with information takes commitment and time. It’s an evolutionary process that needs to be adjusted as your business grows. If you find yourself having so much information collected on one certain topic, it may be time to sub-categorize or sift through the information and pull out the most important parts.

It may require an initial time investment but it will definitely save you far more time and decrease stress in the future when any kind of information needs to be sent or received in your business.

Tamara is the owner and designer at ‘Your Pretty Pages’ where she provides templates, guides, tools and resources for creative entrepreneurs to get and stay organized. To gain access to Tamara’s FREE 5 Day Challenge (Transforming Information Overload to Organizational Bliss) visit https://yourprettypages.com/5daychallenge/ .

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