Issue 4: Rules For Success
Being Effective Is Better Than Being Busy
Are you too distracted by others to see the forest for the trees?
One of the most common mistakes is how we think and behave when we are busy.
Being busy and distracted often means working on the wrong priority, instead of doing the thing that achieves sustainable, repeatable growth.
Failure to build a process or method that others can pick up and follow can mean much bigger - and costly - growing pains slightly further down the road when new hires arrive.
For SMEs, the one person bottleneck is an all too familiar trap. “No one else can do what I do!” you tell yourself. If that’s true it’s because you have not built an onboarding method for the people you work with.
Lightbulb Moment
Learning to navigate day-to-day noise and stress helps us to make better decisions.
A lightbulb moment for me was discovering the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman.
In it he shares many examples of how easily we jump to wrong conclusions, especially when we are stressed and 100% convinced of knowing the right answer.
Self-awareness as to why and how we confidently rush into wrong conclusions can open up our minds to many new ideas and possibilities.
Hesitancy to change our behaviour comes from the safety of familiarity.
What Best Selling Productivity Books Teach Us
The fact is as busy people, we want quick wins, demand quick results, and have little time or patience for the effort required to create sustainable success.
For example, in the current Top 10 best selling list on Amazon you’ll see two productivity books: ‘Atomic Habits’ and ‘12 Rules for Life’. Inotherwords, life hacks.
If you tried the same approach to building houses, your foundation wouldn’t last very long. Irish builders found that one out with cement “blocks like weetabix”.
Again, people looking for quick wins. Having read both of those bestselling books I can summarise them in one sentence:
‘Small incremental changes when sustained eventually create significant impact’.
Write it on a post-it note and pin it within your workspace.
Small business owners in a state of constant stress need to ask themselves this question: do you steer your ship or does your ship steer you?
What Do You Do? Show Us.
Getting people to care about your business can be hugely influenced by how you visually communicate to others.
Ask yourself, ‘what do my customers or clients care most about?’ What might they be curious to learn more about?
Content creators don’t have to go far for inspiration.
A Google search on most topics will show you ‘People Also Ask’ associated questions. Amazon best selling book lists reveal the book titles triggering the biggest issues concerning any audience category.
We live in a world where a printing press can get 17.2 MILLION views on TikTok (which you need to think of as another video platform like LinkedIn and Instagram for future customers).
Even if zero current customers use TikTok you might get a local media press angle out of any video-clip related story. That would be great for awareness, branding and SEO. All for the budget of owning a smart phone, the upload bandwidth, and having an idea.
11-14% of people on TikTok are aged between 25-44. They use services local to them.
As I said to a friend recently, very few people see content organically on Facebook anymore. It’s time to put those on location pictures and behind-the-scenes clips where the people are, and where they are going to be over the next few years.
Keep it short, consistent, and show potential new clients & customers what it is you do with your daily ambitions and goals. For B2B firms, remember it doesn’t have to be boring. It’s your story to tell.
News
Free digital skills boost for over 25s in Scotland - LINK
SME Eco-Loan Scheme in Scotland for energy efficiency projects - LINK
Flexible Workforce Development Fund is open including partnership with Ayrshire College (Dec 3rd 2021 deadline) - LINK
Get up to £5000 for employing a redundant apprentice in Scotland - LINK
Glasgow University graduates create 3D chess set based on city landmarks - LINK
New venture with Edinburgh HQ wagers on crypto future for sports gambling - LINK
Construction begins on new Aberdeenshire business park - LINK
Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) Celebrates Living Wage Accreditation - LINK
Eden Mill reveals £4m visitor centre plans in St Andrews - LINK
Google makes it easier for business owners and marketers to understand SEO - LINK
Google November 2021 Core Update rolling out. Fashion, insurance, online supermarkets among those impacted. - LINK
Insightful Twitter thread about ad fraud trend in PPC advertising - LINK
How can small businesses succeed on Black Friday? - LINK
And finally…
The smaller your budget, the more disruptive and innovative our thinking needs to be.
Here at Big Pond we’re constantly asking ourselves what’s best for your specific situation. “Strength in talent” is a phrase we 100% agree with.
As long as SEO can deliver new business, we’ll keep banging the drum for building sustainable growth.
After all, competition in Google/Facebook ad auction tends to go up every year. Adtech-land has its own revenue targets and they need you to spend more to hit them. Rarely will they recommend that you spend less.
As Microsoft’s Geoffrey Colon says:
Until next time - good luck!
Andrew @ Big Pond
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