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How much mud do you have to throw?
If you throw enough mud, some of it will stick
I have no idea who first said that, but like all clichés and sayings it contains a lot of truth – and can also distract from the truth.
Even when you hit the wall, some mud just slides off…
Businesses throwing mud
I am reading a book on freelancing at the moment. The author, Kris Emery, writes about her early days as a translation and transcription freelancer by saying her approach was to throw a lot of mud.
However, she ‘threw a lot of mud, but just not in any particular direction… [she] didn’t have the big picture really figured out’.
I don’t think Kris is alone in not setting plans or specific goals for her business – I know I haven’t always had clear goals, either, and that it can be easy to get caught in all the everyday details and forget to keep a direction and goal in mind.
A direction and goal also helps keep the motivation and passion up so it’s important.
Do you have clear goals and ideals for your business?
How often do you review them?
Aiming your mud throwing
Kris went on to write ‘If I’d had just one focus, one goal to focus on, it would have been a heck of a lot easier. Cutting my losses was empowering and helped me gain that focus.’
Everyone is busy these days, and often being busy can get in the way of creating and following a strategy.
But how much of that is just busy-work and unimportant? How much is perhaps important but not targetted at heading towards the right goals?
By setting a focus in one direction, it is easier to aim that mud so some of it really will stick and easier to walk away from those tasks (and clients) that are busy work or distracting us.
I know that I got some focus back from attending PB Event and have dedicated more time to backend tasks that had been added to a list of things to do ‘as soon as I get time’. It is possible to make time when you have priorities set – simply stop wasting time on the non essentials (ie cut your losses) and accept small pockets of time add up to mean a lot.
What sorts of things help you regain some focus and motivation?
Do you think you are aiming your business’ mud or just hoping for the best as you throw?
*Image courtesy of BigStockPhotos
Develop a simple internet marketing strategy
Last week, I participated in a webinar by Gihan Perera, author of Fast, flat and free: how the internet has changed your business.
There were two things from the webinar that I wanted to share (as well as all the tips I tweeted during the webinar!) – the first being the basic aspects of an internet marketing strategy:
- create
in other words, get a website and get online! Be it a static one page site, a blog or a fully interactive site with hundreds of pages, until you have a site it’s hard to market online - generate
write some content – preferably good content and lots of it. Put content onto your website and/or blog plus in a newsletter, webinars, podcasts and on sites like YouTube, Pinterest and Slideshare - share
let people know about your content, with the key method being social media links. Gihan suggested automating this as much as possible to save time and ensure it is done, and I agree - participate
get online and join in conversations! So visit other websites and comment in blogs, add reviews, join forums, respond on Facebook, tweet and retweet, answer LinkedIn questions, share interesting things and so on. This step is necessary to engage with other people and should take a large proportion of your marketing time
When you think of it as four simple steps like this it is a lot less intimidating and a lot more achievable, don’t you think? And it is realistic to think of it this simply rather than worrying about a big picture that overwhelms you.
I also like the priority of generating content before you get caught up in marketing and building links – I honestly don’t think you can build a strong foundation online until you have decent content that people will want to use – and share.
So now’s your chance – add a comment to this post to boost your internet marketing and share you ideas. It’s easy, I’ll answer you and you will get a ‘dofollow’ back link so – what do you think of Gihan’s internet marketing plan?
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