Entries Tagged 'work' ↓
March 26th, 2009 — work
For the past month, I have had the pleasure of working with Dave Bartholomew.
Our work with Dave is still in its infancy, but it is already showing positive returns. Dave has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and it’s a fabulous opportunity for us here at Ambler.
Having Dave onboard also gives me a great opportunity to be a student again. Despite what the tone of my personal blog may suggest, I have very few answers and I enjoy being a beginner whenever possible. The person with the greatest opportunity and potential for growth is the guy or gal in the class with the least knowledge and skill.
Shockingly, not everyone sees it this way. Continue reading →
March 21st, 2009 — work
For the past week, I’ve been sticking to a rigid work schedule. I decided to try it out because, for the previous six months, I had been working “until I was finished”.
Of course, “finished” never came, the quality of my work decreased as the hours increased, and I was starting to get burnt out. I even started to fantasize about going to a beach.
The main problem was not the number of hours, but with so much time allocated to work, I didn’t have to be selective about which tasks I concentrated on. Without constraints, I wasn’t forced to pick and choose the most important things out from amidst the fluff. The result was that I got a lot of things done, but not the right things.
To combat the situation, I did two things: I stuck to a rigid work schedule and, even more importantly, I kept a work journal. From those two practices came three immediate benefits: increased urgency, much-improved focus and a refined selection of tasks. Continue reading →
March 18th, 2009 — work
“Once you realize that changing the mount of money you need to live on can dramatically increase your chances of success, you have an important choice to make: How much are you willing to sacrifice for the business?”
“One surefire way to determine if a bootstrapper is going to succeed or not is to check out how she changes her lifestyle when she starts the business. If everything is first-class — the office, the car, the mortgage, the vacations — then my bet is that the entrepreneur is too focused on taking from the business and not nearly focused enough on building it.”
— Seth Godin, The Bootstrapper’s Bible
March 17th, 2009 — work
Often, we have potential hat and apparel manufacturers contact us trying to solicit business. Here’s a sample:
“We take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as one of the supplier of garments from [COUNTRY]. We have both knit and woven unites. Our production ranges are T-shirts, Polo shirt, Sportswear, Shirts, Jeans, Trousers for Men’s, Women’s and Kids.”
As you can tell, they have no idea who we are or what we do. We make hats; they don’t. DELETE.
This is, unfortunately, all too common. I suspect that the sender must have got our contact info off of a mailing list that we wish we weren’t on. C’est la vie, but what worse way could there be to soliciting business? It’s the equivalent of:
“Hi. I have no idea who you are, what you do, or if I can help you. Neither have I spent even 10 seconds reviewing your website to find out. However, I am hoping that you will overlook that and buy something from me. That would be really great for me, regardless of the lack of value that it has for you. Please add this email to the other 100+ you receive everyday, and try not to be annoyed by the unproductive interruption.”
Wait, let me get my cheque book…
I’ve got a crazy idea. Why not:
- Research your leads;
- Look at their websites for 30 seconds each;
- Qualify your lead list by removing anyone you can’t superbly serve; then
- Craft a targeted introduction that will appeal to your target market.
YA THINK?
March 10th, 2009 — work
This question has been burning up cycles in my head for more than a week. A post on one of my favorite blogs started the thought process.
Initially, I thought the question was ludicrous. Especially when posed to another person. Can’t he answer that himself? My gut-level response last week was, “As many as it takes.”
However, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for over six months now, and it’s starting to suck.
Often enough, working until a task or project is complete is a necessary and beneficial experience, sometimes mandatory. And there’s a lot to be learned from a mandatory-to-completion environment.
But most workplace tasks and projects, admittedly, do not fall into that category unless horribly planned or pathetically procrastinated.
The question still remains: “How many hours should I work?” Continue reading →
March 4th, 2009 — work
Last July, I justifiably blasted a book called Why Work Sucks & What to Do About It. The authors, trying to sell more of their consulting services, gave a shiny-happy, absent-of-detail description of what it’s like to work in a Results-Only Work Environment. Since that time, and with no help from the aforementioned book, we at our office have successfully adopted a work environment free of a defined schedule and by being entirely results-focused.
But today’s the day that I give it a pragmatic, grown-up name. I call it “Working on the F.A.R.M.” Continue reading →