Spark into Marketing

How to remove clutter permanently so you move forward easily

September 10th, 2010 · Bit of a Rant, Inspiration

We all know that clutter stops us moving forward, slows us down, and prevents us from taking the big bold steps we want to take.

Why do we have it then when we know we “should” get rid of it?

Usually we put the activity on a to do list, and because it is a small and rather dull thing to do, we never feel the spark about doing it AND NEVER DO IT! Then we feel bad because we haven’t done it, then we beat ourselves up, so we feel worse, so we don’t do it .. etc. When we are down we are more likely to want a “magic pill” an amazing experience that may (but is unlikely) to instantly make us feel good, rather than doing some incremental small steps to clear out. When the magic pill approach fails we can feel worse (again) as more precious money and time may have been wasted.

Clinging to clutter can help us to feel safe. Very often there is an emotional charge about keeping the stuff. Clearing out is often not a once-and-for-all activity but a process, as more and more becomes irrelevant.

The most common type of clutter in a work context are the piles of information that just may come in useful one day. Notes from seminars or webinars that you have not yet put into action so don’t want to throw away, magazines, invoices that need attention. It is all just in case.

The authentic and more permanent way to remove clutter is to feel so good about ourselves that the stuff becomes irrelevant and can go easily. It is then all part of the big adventure. As we feel better about ourselves it becomes clear that the gorgeous new person – our new supercharged identity – is inconsistent with all that clutter and stuff. So out it goes. Yay! And even better it is easy and fun.

In a perfect world clutter doesn’t build up but is dealt with regularly at the end of every day, week, quarter, season or simply as things change.

After focussing on the good stuff coming into my life, finishing with my son’s wonderful wedding which marked the end of an era I have found myself naturally wanting to make life better, and throw out anything that is no longer beautiful or useful.

So in the last three days I have thrown out (sent to charity shops) all clothes I now longer wear. What a great feeling. Two of my daughters have done the same and years and years of forgotten clothes are off to new homes.

And, most excitingly I have re-arranged my wardrobe: all my clothes are now organised BY GARMENT TYPE and by COLOUR! All shoes and handbags have been lovingly cleaned with a type of saddle soap ( ie leather “balm” not shoe polish) and they look wonderful! I have never done this before and now when I open the doors there is an exciting view – and it is easier to plan the new wardrobe that really suits me!

(It is like the difference between seeing the jumble of colours on a sale rail or the new season colours more excitingly arranged.)

Today is the day for another cupboard, and a pile of papers. I am giving myself a set project (the cupboard) and will finish that first and I will know when it is finished. I am not sure how much time I need for the papers so will give myself an hour to start with, and then will reassess. ( I have to do money-creating activities as well as the clearing up!)

I have been using this approach with one of my groups and they all have naturally wanted to get rid of what is no longer relevant. So I know it works!

If you find yourself wanting to clear up but not having the energy these guidelines could help:

1. Identify a clearing-out project that you could do (but haven’t yet felt the energy to do.) It doesn’t matter whether it is from “home” or “work” as if you run your own business feeling good in one area helps the other.

2. Each day notice the good stuff coming in. You may have achieved something good, been paid a compliment, taken a risk, received money but make sure you notice it…acknowledge it and record it in a diary, notebook or document on line.

4. Keep on recording the good stuff. When you have enough proof of the good stuff you will have a sense of your own spark, and magically the clutter that you have already identified loses it emotional charge and can go. In fact you will feel excited about it going!!

5. Set to work with energy and purpose on your project which can be finished in a reasonable time frame. Unless you have lots of time I suggest 1 – 2 hours. (This is not really about time but about having the emotional energy, but you want to make sure you finish it. Half way through clearing up there is usually more mess than when you started!

6. Release all the stuff to other people and get it out of your space. (Charity shops, recycling or whatever is appropriate).

7. Show someone else the finished project and celebrate!

Repeat the process! It is amazing how sorting out one area of your life releases energy to create the business and life you really want.

→ 1 CommentTags:spark

Fabulous Friday Feeling – get more done more easily

September 3rd, 2010 · Inspiration

Fridays can give you the spark to get more done in your business more easily.

Finishing the week with a completed “to-do” list feels fantastic. Use the natural deadline of Friday at the end of the week to create some urgency. The thought of relaxation in the weekend ahead means you are happier to push yourself – and maybe take a few risks.

Those difficult phone calls can be more easily tackled on a Friday rather than Monday, and the person on the end of the phone be more responsive. If you get the tough stuff out of the way, it makes Monday more enjoyable, so the next week will flow more easily.

Plus Fridays can feel a bit like a treat! I know business owners who make sure they have an enjoyable meeting scheduled for a Friday (even if it is not a meal or a drink.) The extra feel good factor often means more goodwill is generated which turns into business opportunities – either for yourself or others.

I think Fridays are also excellent for quality thinking about your marketing and business life. The start of the week can feel more action orientated which often means looking after clients, but some coherent planning and thinking is perfect – and often easier – for a Friday. The more relaxed atmosphere on a Friday helps reflection, confidence and thinking outside the box which magically leads to new opportunities.

Use your Fridays to:

Do difficult tasks
Do enjoyable things – contact and meet up with people you like
Reflect on where you are going with your business and plan the next phase
Take a risk.

Mondays can be a whole lot more fun when you get the most from your Fridays!

→ No CommentsTags:friday·spark

August is a great time for your small business

August 6th, 2010 · Inspiration

: Image via Wikipedia

Employees and business owners take their holidays in August, so how could it be a great time for your small business? These seven ideas will help your marketing and your business spark generally.

You can create a link by having the “have you been away/ have you stayed at home/ what did you do / how was it? conversation. The more links you have with your prospects and clients the more they will feel you understand them, and that they know like and trust you. Of course similar experiences, likes and dislikes make for better quality links.
Holidays are associated with postcards – so send some! A postcard will have more impact than an email. You can send some to employees, to suppliers, and customers. The message can be very relevant to your business and / or simply fun. Of course you need to have their addresses. Sending a few real hand-written hand posted cards with real stamps from a real place is the most authentic way to do it, or you can prepare a printed postcard with a hand-written font, take them with you and post them while you are away.
August is a great time for sending out real live letters which is an extension on the post card idea. Why? Because during the holiday season we feel we owe it to ourselves to enjoy things more. A letter that is enjoyable to read and has a clear call to action stands a better chance of being noticed. Of course if you include a physical lumpy “thing” it is even more interesting and certainly more enjoyable than facing an overloaded email inbox. Anything that is not an urgent problem or a message from a friend may simply get lost in email overload on re-entry.
Make those difficult phone calls because the unreachable person may be easier to reach during August. They may pick up the phone or even be covering someone else’s phone. A business owner covering reception duty is wired for action and decision-making not simply passing on messages. Phoning in the holiday season is higher risk but every so often you get a winning result.
Clearing up is easier to do if normal business life is on hold. Putting names on databases, catching up with invoicing or reconciling accounts, doing research, reducing the paperwork mountain or simply reading relevant magazines, blogs and social media are all excellent ways of getting that firm foundation so your business can move forward and grow in the Autumn.
Take time off to improve the quality of your thinking. Of course relaxation is the real point of a holiday! The problem is that if we get more and more stressed and overstretched the less capable we are of taking time off. In fact like the hot frog in gradually heating water we do not even realise we are not operating at our best. Relaxation becomes difficult but so does real focus and concentration. When “forced” to do nothing and enjoy a holiday the phone and laptop often go along as well as a form of anxious defence, or alternatively illness can strike. I have lost count of the business owners who felt uneasy without their constant checking mechanisms but once they began to relax became aware of how tense they had previously been. A jump start like reading a wonderful book, taking exciting exercise, playing a boisterous game with the children can bring that first release.
As a business owner, however, you are unlikely to completely switch off for long..even if everything is covered at the office. The chances are you have a lively mind and are interested in doing things better. Once you have begun to relax your interest will be sparked by new ideas and new opportunities. Stay in brainstorm mode and just collect the business ideas in a small notebook or on a table napkin. It only need take a minute or two, but the quality of your thinking is likely to be more creative and confident. Edit and refine later when you are planning the next stage.

Whether you take a four week holiday or just the odd afternoon here and there the most important thing is to switch off. It is the best investment you can make in your best business asset. The more you invest in you the easier others will do so, too.

→ 2 CommentsTags:Internet Marketing·marketing ideas·small business·spark

Mary Portas – queen of greengrocers and local shops

June 23rd, 2010 · Branding, Inspiration

Mary Portas Queen of Shops BBC programme is helping small local businesses. This week she focussed on a greengrocers. It was excellent TV – we saw drama and disagreements, and excellent business and marketing inspiration.

How could a business owner benefit from the programme?

Mary herself comes across as very authentic and natural. She doesn’t do consultant-speak, she is very unstuffy and wears cool funky clothes (I especially like the ankle boots!) , she gets up early cheerfully if she has to, and she is sensitive to others feelings but not afraid of confrontation, nor of saying when she feels down. Above all the has a great energy and sense of purpose…and a sense of humour! All very refreshing and a good role model.

She operated in the real world and was on top of the facts. She said that 5000 small shops closed last year, and that half the number of greengrocers exist now compared to ten years ago, despite the fact that in the UK we spend 8 billion on fruit and veg a year. Plus the salient point that sales of local produce have increased by a third, and that the veg box market is worth £ 170m.

She enrolled others in the vision and kept going despite setbacks. One sister was on board with the new ideas (so she suggested she be in change) one was resistant to all change, and one was on the fence. I was particularly impressed that she commented on the lack of enthusiasm even while they were in Harrods Food Hall, and was happy to challenge.

The shop moved from undifferentiated to specialist. Doing one thing well (providing quality local produce to the local community) made the shop better and more relevant than the supermarket. Dominating a niche as a specialist is more effective than being generalist.

The personalities of the sisters became part of the brand rather than simply being all about the fruit and veg. It made the shop more memorable with the new logo and photographs compared with its previous incarnation or a supermarket. Small businesses naturally have loads of personality.

The physical premises became more inviting. With Mary’s magic wand and money from either the BBC or her company the shop became more contemporary and more values-based. Local prodice was not only sourced but also described more fully. Customers were invited to come in to a welcoming space, to read, to come to the launch party, and of course to take action and buy.

The owners’ assumptions about their customers were challenged. The sisters were shocked by the negative attitude of shoppers in the supermarket “before” and couldn’t believe “after” that providing what they thought customer wanted would be acceptable. A woman said she would pay £ 10 – not the £8 they had imagined, and one man on the step of his house said that he would enjoy receiving a surprise box of fruit and veg for the week. Mary made the most of this by giving him a hug! Sometimes businesses have to listen (and it can be tough) and sometimes take the lead, and this was a lovely example.

I am sure there were other aspects which will occur to me at some point.

Did you watch the programme? What did you like about it?

→ No CommentsTags:female entrepreneur·retail shop·small business

Business hero to evil villain in 3 easy moves – Mark Zuckerberg of facebook

June 22nd, 2010 · Uncategorized

Business hero Mark Zuckerberg set up facebook in the dorm room at Harvard and early use was restricted to other students. Perfect business hero behaviour.

Next – facebook keeps changing and it can be hard to keep up. Plus there is a lack of transparency over what is going on and a few legal issues. His hero status starts to be interrogated.

Finally – facebook is amazingly, popular with users, and financially very successful. Oops very scary indeed.

Three easy ways to go from hero to villain.

1. In the start up phase (preferably while you are young, poor and working from a bedroom) it can be easy to win hearts and minds.

Your business is probably pitted against more powerful establishment businesses and you look like the attractive new kid on the block.

Think Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs in the early days. Richard Branson even signed up musicians because he liked them -

even though he hadn’t heard their music demonstrating he was all-heart, plus good instincts.)

2. When the market is dominated any lack of transparency is seen as ominous.

3. Extreme financial success elevates the individual or company to villain status.

Google reaching 80% of search results, Microsoft owning the desktop market and charging for continuous upgrades, Ipad sales topping 2 m in a few months means the general public (consumers and pundits) can feel threatened. Apple’s treatment of its Chinese workers, brutal management at Virgin, Google slaps that are difficult to analyse and general We-love-to-hate-Microsoftishness get more air-time.

It is just the tall poppy syndrome.

As fortunes get made more quickly the hero to villain cycle becomes more rapid. It has been six short years for Mark Zuckerberg and it is getting more personal. He is being portrayed as a villain in a new film. The appealing story of a student developing a way for friends to stay in touch in the dorm at Harvard is being taken into new dimmensions of the tall poppy syndrome.

As facebook now has users totalling the equivalent of the third biggest country in the world, and they are making a lot of money ($800 m) they have become an extremly tall poppy.

Mark Zuckerberg and facebook may or may not be adversely affected, but as a small business owners it is important to keep our customers, stakeholders and the press on side. Building an appealing brand at all stages of development is mandatory.

→ No CommentsTags:facebook·Social media

Email marketing that is so valuable your readers pay you

April 8th, 2010 · Uncategorized, Words

: Image by KayVee.INC via Flickr

Email marketing that is so valuable your readers pay you would be a great way to make money – provided your emails are valued by your readers. In reality your emails are in hand-to-hand fighting in the inbox with spam and other email messages and could be beaten.

One way round this is the new idea that emails are on a pay-per-read basis. On My attention people are saying how much they would charge a reader. The real question is of course, how much would people pay to read.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that in the original days of the postal system it was the recipient who paid the man on the horse delivering the mail. Before you broke open the seal on the letter, you would decide whether it was worth it!

Improving your chances of getting your emails read is the first step – whether or not paid-for email becomes a reality.

Write to people you know (or who have heard of you). It is spam to send to strangers, anyway, but the principle of a small list of fans rather than a huge list of connections is useful, so you build up genuine communication. Your marketing generally will help to get your name into the minds of people in your target market, so the list can grow. If you are writing from your name it is better to carry on, even if at some point this task is performed for you. Your name is valuable. Once your name is known, the chances of email being read, letters being opened and phone calls being received are increased.
Be consistent. This sounds easier than it is! Even if you have decided to write a monthly newsletter only, commit to it, and make it a top priority. If in doubt be consistent, and then build up to frequenqy. In some ways writing more often is actually easier, and the ideas flow, but the worst thing is to start in a blaze of enthusiasm and then stop. It happens a lot, so don’t worry if it has happened in your business.
Write a headline which is interesting for the reader so they will want to open it. At the start you have to provide excellent value.
Write a headline which can be read in one eye span. Headlines that are too long will be cut. Short and snappy is best.
Relate to your readers’ life and issues. The more closely you know what life is like for them, the more credibility you and your company will gain. Modern email systems let you target sub-groups without wasting trees or spending long days slaving over a hot computer.
Once you have written your newsletter, take a break. When you come back to it you will look at it with new ideas. Often ideas develop during the writing, and you may be able to focus the content more clearly.
Check to see that you are providing value. You can be a guide-post to interesting and relevant stuff, as well as give it yourself. You will know if you have done something amazing because people will tell you. However, it is worth asking customers when you see them. If your market is not very computer confident, they might prefer to tell you in person.
Don’t be 100% serious. We all like entertainment, and we all want to relate to real human beings not machines. Once you have gained trust, let people into your world. The more you enjoy sending email, the more likely it is that your readers will enjoy reading it. A few surprises can be good, too!
If you are giving good value it is fine to ask for a response. It could be to click a link, make a phone call, buy something. Once you are the authority for your market, you will be doing them a disservice if you do not let them know about other opportunities. Shake up the ratio of value to response – never just hit people to buy.
Deliverability and Reports. If using your own servers make sure you get the information about opened emails, bounces etc. If you do not have your own servers use a good third-party email software company. Sending a lot of emails could get you banned, but in addition to delivering bulk email, the software will give you reports on opens, bounces etc, and will integrate easily with your website.

→ No CommentsTags:email

Ada Lovelace Day – anniversary for inspiring women in science and technology

March 24th, 2010 · Inspiration

Ada Lovelace Day is in memory of Ada King, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, who became Countess of Lovelace, and died in 1852. Her Automatic Engine is credited as being the first computer programme. The opportunity for this day is to give credit to women who inspired interest in science, maths and technology by blogging.

I love blogging, giving credit and sharing in a community so I was very interested when I found the information. But as for finding a woman who has inspired me .. that is a completely different matter. Firstly the only woman scientist I have really heard of (which is the point of the whole thing!) is Marie Curie .. and she has never interested me, so it would be wrong to wheel her out.

Then I asked a friend who is a professor of Acoustics and he talked about a woman who is president of the Royal Society and some others ..but using them would be like doing homework. I wanted to find someone who was amazing, that I had heard of but had forgotten. Even after some online research nobody jumped out at me. I don’t have to do this for homework – it is real, so it better be real for me.

Next I thought about women who inspired me where there was some scientific quality. Mary Wollestonecraft Shelley who wrote Frankenstein which is a bit scientific, George Eliot who I know was very interested in phrenology (the bumps on your head), Beatrix Potter with her interest in anatomy and botany. None seemed quite good enough. I love the paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby – lots of early scientific experiments and racked my brains to see if there were any women in the Lunar Society which was all about using science as a way of understanding life, rather than religion .. but there were none.

Then I thought about my own education. Was there an enthusiastic woman teacher of this stuff ever in my life? Maths was taught by men, (goodness – that is a strong subliminal message, isn’t it) the Biology teacher was incompetent and we used to mess around, chemistry was taught by a blue stocking spinster type – I remember finding her dull and a bit scary. Who taught Physics? That was the subject that I liked the most but I have absolutely no idea who taught me! No one comes to mind at all.

Until I started this thought process I hadn’t quite realised how badly science was represented by teachers. But in fact, we were very short-changed by inspirational teachers … one taught French and was fantastic, and while I was doing A level English we had two excellent teachers. But by that time I had made up my mind about which subjects I liked best. If there had been a lively science teacher somewhere in my past I think it would have made a huge difference.

Perhaps I should ask myself whether this is hopeless. Am I capable of being excited by science and technology? Am I meant to be doing this Ada Lovelace Day at all?

The answer is yes! My father describing the solar system using apples and oranges from the fruit bowl at supper, my boyfriend years ago talking about motherboards, the principles of database design and so on had me completely hooked even if I didn’t understand it all. I am fascinated today by using technology in websites .. but I have never been inspired by a woman. I think it has been more that it was a land I couldn’t enter.

If I am really honest the only people who have inspired me are my three daughters. They took to computer games like ducks to water, and are all technically competent even if not particularly interested. The finer details of CAD, Powerpoint, computer hardware or making films are no problem to them. They just assume they can do it, that there is no reason why not. So although I started by looking for some kind of heroine, I have ended up with the people I know best in my own life! Perfect.

They have a mother who supports them to do it, which was the hallmark of Ada Lovelace’s education. Her father (Byron) though a charismatic person was totally absent from Ada’s life, but her mother educated her about numbers and science. Probably the best kind of inspiration.

I must stop now and get to grips with my new Joomla site which was explained to me on Skype last night in a friendly hour and a half call with – yes - a geek in the US. Knowing who inspires me gives me more confidence that I can understand it all and make it work the way I want.

The fact that I have done this blog at all has been inspirational as I can see more clearly the influences on my life. I will read others’ blogs on Ada Lovelace Day about the women who inspire them, and, who knows, maybe by next year a real whole person who inspires me will have come into my life.

→ 1 CommentTags:anniversary·blog·women

Ada Lovelace post –

March 24th, 2010 · Inspiration

Ada Lovelace is not seeing the light of day. Just checking with this post. Firefox problems? Couldn’t be a jinx on Ada.

→ No CommentsTags:anniversary

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Small business marketing ideas and inspiration

How to remove clutter permanently so you move forward easily

September 10th, 2010 · Bit of a Rant, Inspiration