As entrepreneurs and founders of businesses we have a great many balls in the air at any given time. The average day finds many of us actively managing a team, communicating with investors, raising funding, performing HR chores, recruiting, keeping the books, executing marketing plans, performing customer service, and taking out the trash. To accomplish all of this, we struggle mightily to stay efficient and to increase our own productivity, all the while struggling to find the personal capacity to do it all and to do it all well.

Keeping focus is the critical component in our days and our ability to do so can impact not just on how much work we can get done on a given day, but can also seriously effect the ultimate success or failure of our business.

One of the ways that I have learned to manage my own capacity, and maintain my own focus in the face of mighty of all manner of interruption, disturbance, interference, and hindrance is with a simple tool: the checklist. It is as low tech as low-tech gets: a piece of paper (in my case a Moleskin notebook) and a pen is all it takes to manage your own time, improve your efficiency, and increase your capacity. Here are 5 thoughts on why a checklist works and some tips for their use.

1. Efficiency has an ebb and a flow.
Face it: some days you are just better than others. We all have days when we are rocketing along, firing all cylinders and hitting one home run after the next. These are the great days when we can accomplish just about any task we have set for ourselves and these are the days that matter. Of course there will be the less-than-great days and these are the ones that require you to focus all the harder to maintain your productivity. On bad days I am even more dependent on the simple unadorned checklist I use to keep me focused, force me to be task-oriented, and drive me through in spite of that low-tide of efficiency.

2. Distractions abound.
Business (and life in general) is full of distractions, great and small and the humble checklist helps me to keep my priorities well ordered. Email, for instance, is one of the greatest enemies of productivity; plenty of studies have shown that reading and answering your emails in the course of the day can make it very difficult to shift focus back to other tasks. I find myself looking to the checklist after a round of emailing to help me get my mind back onto the other tasks that I have set for myself that day.

3. (Lack of) memory is the enemy.
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes just plain forget things. That call I need to make; the email I need to send, or the checks I need to sign. Put them down on your list as they occur to you – a good trick is to maintain a separate list of little stuff; chores such as phone calls, emails, and simple undertakings. Your “big” list is composed of higher level activities and should include just 2-3 items per day; these are things that require deeper thinking, such as strategic planning, analysis, and writing and may often require hours of your time, as opposed to the little chores which will take you mere minutes.

4. Know your peak productivity.
Let your checklist help you in your time of need. For me I am talking about the late afternoon hours, when I know my energy and focus are at a low point. We all have those low points and the trick is to acknowledge them and embrace the predictability of their arrival. I know for instance that I am at my peak time to work is the morning, so this is when I delve into the more complex, higher level work I have on my list; the afternoon is typically reserved for the mundane duties in front of me on the “little” list.

5. There is a memoir in your future.
Finally, let your checklist be your journal. What better place to record the events of your day? What more appropriate place to look back on the notes from a call, or check the date of an event? One reason I use a notebook for my checklists is that I date them as I go and can easily reference the older lists and notes to remind myself of the details of that day, to look up a forgotten name, or to find an important phone number. And if a literary agent should ever come sniffing around, trying to convince me to publish those memoirs, I will know just where to start!

How about you? Do you use lists in the same way I do? Do you have other tricks that work for you to help maintain your focus or improve your productivity?

Important opportunities don’t always arrive in big packages. Instead, they initially present themselves as insignificant thoughts or occurrences that are just as easy to dismiss as they are to explore.

All Great Things Have Small Beginnings

Many rewarding relationships have their start as a chance encounter that is bolstered by a small gesture. Some of the greatest product and service ideas started as a lighthearted comment, or by noticing some nagging little problem that needed to be solved.

Don’t discount the seemingly unimportant; even the biggest trees start as small seeds.

The weekly first-time-filer numbers wre released yesterday and – yes – we are still bleeding jobs at a pace unheard of since the Great Depression. The current number for the week is 429,000 new jobless claims!

The bright spot is small business, which consistently contributes 75% of the net new-job growth. The economy currently is showing a few encouraging signs of restarting its motor and – you guessed it – the spark plug for this newest awakening is small business.

And. the most progressive small business are in the process of stepping-up their marketing efforts. This will give them a great “leg-up” on their competitors once the market returns to the “new normal.”

Companies that think social media engagement is the key to increasing online retail purchases may want to reconsider.

A new Forrester/GSI Commerce report called “The Purchase Path of Online Buyers” found that fewer than 2 percent of online orders from Nov. 12 through Dec. 20 resulted from buyers coming from a social network.

Email marketing and search advertising, meanwhile, proved to be more effective in driving sales.

The study also reveals that:

“45 percent and 53 percent of hard and soft goods transactions, respectively, touched at least two marketing touch points. This data highlights opportunities for retailers to think beyond the traditional ‘last-click’ measurement they typically attribute to marketing programs.”

Fiona Dias, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce, reasoned that the data could be explained by taking a look at Sunday church services. She told Mashable:

“If you go with the theory that you should market where the people are, then you should be running off to market during church services. Facebook has the same analogy. Buying things from retailers is maybe tenth on the list of things they want to do on Facebook.”

I don’t think PR professionals give our industry enough credit—and it starts with the fundamentals. As in those of us practicing them aren’t claiming them.

That’s our fault; we should be.

Why should we claim things that “everyone” should be doing? Because when we don’t continue to talk about doing the three R’s well—research, relevancy, and relationships—bad pitches like this one gobble up all the PR headlines, tweets, and Google results.

Research

When you’re doing media and blogger outreach, do you research the people you’re pitching before you contact them? It seems ridiculous even to pose that question, but then again, I’ve read the Bad Pitch blog.

Sure, research should be a fundamental element of every PR outreach campaign we conduct, but there are plenty of PR pros who don’t take the time to do research. Instead, they blast and mail-merge one-way messages across the blogosphere—often to the 34 percent of bloggers who don’t even talk about brands on their blogs.

Research is also about doing the right thing for your clients, because you understand their business and the audiences they are trying to reach.

Let’s say you get the chance to work with Snap Bracelet World. (Don’t pretend you don’t remember snap bracelets.) One option is to start brainstorming ideas left and right, throwing up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, drafting “snappy” media pitches.

Instead, you could sit down with your new snap bracelet friends and talk about what they’re trying to achieve.

There really is a big difference between jumping into the tactical weeds versus asking a client about their goals and objectives and then creating strategies and tactics to achieve them. When you take the extra time to do the research, claim it. What’s obvious to you may not be so obvious to someone else.

Relevance

One of my colleagues always uses the following example when explaining relevance: If you were a cat food company and you were pitching a story, would you rather earn placement in your city’s newspaper or in a cat blog?

If you had to pick one, wouldn’t you pick the cat blog? I would. I know that audience is predisposed to my message. The city newspaper audience might be much bigger—but it may not give a rip about cats at all.

Spending all your time pursuing A-lister media only overlooks relevance, but at least it is done with a potential publicity goal in mind. Too often, we see completely irrelevant pitches that turn a blind eye to what makes the most sense for the client as well as to PR fundamentals.

That’s how a pitch targeted to a mommy blogger ends up in the inbox of C.C. Chapman, who manages Digital Dads. That’s how a pitch focused on the latest and greatest toy for children gets sent to a woman with no kids. And that’s how a pitch developed for an ultra-conservative brand ends up getting covered by a blogger who doesn’t write a post without four-letter words.

Relationships

If you’ve spent any time building relationships, you’ve learned one thing—it takes time. It isn’t something you can do by flipping a switch, so don’t treat it that way.

We live in a “who do you know” world, and communications is no different. Reporters, bloggers, peers, friends—all have a platform online and have always had one offline.

In many instances, whom you know will align with what story you’re trying to tell. For example, maybe you’re working with a nonprofit trying to raise money and awareness for a cause and you have a group of people in your network who (a) support that specific cause or (b) are just plain charitable.

At that point, your relationships become part of your PR toolbox and what you bring to the table. Position them in that way to your boss or a client, even if you say to yourself: “I couldn’t do this job without building relationships. I do it every day.”

Think about it like you’re trying to explain the value of relationships to Aunt Edna—and take credit for getting to know these people.

Bonus R: Respect

You might feel silly when you sit in front of a client during a results report and remind them you actually spent time “aligning strategies with their objectives.” Or that you called on relevant peers, media, and influencers with whom you’ve built relationships to help share a campaign.

You know what’s really silly? Making assumptions. When we assume that everyone else knows the PR industry as well as we do, we cheat ourselves out of recognition and credibility we deserve.

So don’t hesitate to claim the three Rs when you’re looking for some of the fourth R. I believe Aretha Franklin called it R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

By Justin Goldsborough | Posted: April 21, 2011

Justin Goldsborough works at Fleishman-Hillard in Kansas City, where he specializes in digital strategy and education. Previously, he worked at Sprint for two years, managing the company’s employee social network, Sprint Space, and led efforts to improve customer outreach via social media, specifically Twitter.

And that word is . . . words.

At least it sometimes seems that way to us. All the talk these days seems to be centered on the media, as in “conventional media”, “social media”, “multi-media” and the like. It’s as though we’ve forgotten that the building blocks for marketing communication are words; as in the effective use of them to deliver a marketing message that induces the desired action.

The success of our marketing communication will be in direct proportion to, neither the media chosen, nor the graphics, nor that announcer’s soothing voice, nor that attractive model, nor that persuasive spokesperson, nor the typography, but, rather, in the way words are arranged in, around, through and over the other elements of the marketing message.

When we stop to think about it, few would have cause to argue with this point, yet we seems to have become a bit lost amid our frantic dash to try the latest media trend as served up by what has become a decidedly media-oriented genre of marketing gurus (not to mention media salespeople).

A PR authority’s revelation about words

Of course, to our peril, words can be misused, or for a variety other reasons they often do little justice to the idea, concept or product being promoted. And now, it has been brought to our attention by PR strategist Adam Sherk that words also can quite possibly be overused. Indeed, this learned contemporary of ours conducted a little survey, and reports some interesting findings:

Taking 23 of the most popular buzzwords in marketing and PR, he compiled a list of the top 100 in June, and then ran 25 of them through PRFilter, a website that aggregates press releases.

The results: “Solution” led the pack with 243 appearances.

Whoops! – Shortly after he published the post, PRFilter set the record straight: “Solution” did not appear in press releases 243 times; it appeared 622 times. Yet, it was only the second most common buzzword.

The most common word is “leading,” which showed its face 776 times – in one 24-hour stretch!

Here’s the full list:

1. leading (776)
2. solution (622)
3. best (473)
4. innovate / innovative / innovator (452)
5. leader (410)
6. top (370)
7. unique (282)
8. great (245)
9. extensive (215)
10. leading provider (153)
11. exclusive (143)
12. premier (136)
13. flexible (119)
14. award winning / winner (106)
15. dynamic (95)
16. fastest (70)
17. smart (69)
18. state of the art (65)
19. cutting edge (54)
20. biggest (54)
21. easy to use (51)
22. largest (34)
23. real time (8)

So, we would conclude, it’s not just how – but how often – we use (the same) words that can have a marked effect on how, for instance, a press release is received. Can it be any different for other forms of marketing communication? We think not.

The lesson: Use words correctly, persuasively and not – at least the same ones – too often. I would add that this would be the “leading” and “best” “solution” to our marketing communication problems, but if I did, I’d be overusing the three most overused words.

So I won’t. Happy marketing!

Add Your competition is no longer just the other offerings in your category. In today’s environment, there is a bigger concern.

Your Real Competition Is the Extreme Clutter of the Marketplace

Every day our choices are increasing in complexity. The number and scope of the products, services, features, advertising messages, and delivery channels that we are subjected to are rapidly growing.

Ironically, most companies react to this by adding more clutter. You cannot fight clutter with more clutter. You must find or create your own “white space” to stand out.

By Harvey Mackay

When we were growing up, most of us learned to live by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not “as they do unto you,” but “as you would have them do unto you.”

As working professionals, there is another manifestation of this rule, the Golden Rule for Networking. It should permeate all your networking efforts. But it goes against every naturally acquisitive, ambitious and self-serving impulse in each of us.

My Golden Rule of Networking is this: Reciprocity without keeping score. Simply stated, it means what can I do for you without expecting anything in return?

Webster’s Dictionary says reciprocity is mutual action and mutual exchange. Mutually beneficial to both is the kind of reciprocity that most people are familiar with.

My definition of reciprocity is quite different. You must give without keeping score. No quid pro quo. It’s the one fundamental concept that is the most misunderstood in business today. Few people truly understand this. You are either all in or all out.

To be as candid as I can be, there have been plenty of people over the years who said they were going to help me in some way, but they didn’t. Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe they just forgot. Maybe they never intended to. It doesn’t matter. You cannot keep score, or you will lose for sure.

Let me tell you how it works: If we’re smart, we surround ourselves with talented people — the most talented we can find. They are our most powerful asset. That’s why I think of this select group as our own personal brain bank. They include our family, friends, mentors, fellow workers and our industry contacts. You never know when you’ll need to draw on the “accounts” you create with those oh-so-valuable resources.

With every contact within your brain bank — every call and every visit — preferably near the conclusion, sincerely ask the other person what you can do to be helpful to them. Ninety-five percent of the time, people will thank you for asking and tell you that there’s really nothing they need. If, however, they do ask you for a favor, then your eyes should light up like the New Year’s Ball in Times Square.

As you learn what is being asked for, note every detail with warmth and urgency. Fulfill the request to the best of your ability. As you do it, and after it’s done, expect nothing, absolutely nothing, in return. Don’t shop for gratitude in your phone calls or e-mails. Do the favor because you like and respect the other person and honestly want to help.

If you manage your career and live your life in this way, two magical things will happen:

Over time, people will find ways to do remarkable and unexpected things for you that make your life easier.
When you’re hit by a storm in full fury, you are likely to find the most astonishing human network of support you could ever imagine.
There are countless ways business people can be helpful to each other:

Help a colleague prepare for a major presentation. Act as their sounding board. Help your friend by pointing out what needs to be clearer . . . what needs more emphasis . . . and what seems to drag.
Be a source for heads-up information. Do it for other business leaders in your community or your industry — perhaps not direct competitors, but almost everyone else.
Never abuse confidences and or share inside information. You only have to do this once, and you’ll be marked as a security risk for life. Worst of all: You’ll never learn what others know about you and why they won’t trust you.
Don’t export problems. Sometimes companies try to downsize high-maintenance losers and stick them on another company’s payroll. Believe me, if you do that, you will be remembered and for the wrong reasons. When you terminate people who aren’t performing, do them the favor of leveling with them and constructively help them readjust their career focus.
Over the years, my networking focus has shifted from the quantity of contacts I maintain to the quality of contacts. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. The quality of your business is determined by the quality of your relationships.

Mackay’s Moral: If you want to win at networking, don’t keep score.

Practice reciprocity without keeping score

By Harvey Mackay

When we were growing up, most of us learned to live by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not “as they do unto you,” but “as you would have them do unto you.”

As working professionals, there is another manifestation of this rule, the Golden Rule for Networking. It should permeate all your networking efforts. But it goes against every naturally acquisitive, ambitious and self-serving impulse in each of us.

My Golden Rule of Networking is this: Reciprocity without keeping score. Simply stated, it means what can I do for you without expecting anything in return?

Webster’s Dictionary says reciprocity is mutual action and mutual exchange. Mutually beneficial to both is the kind of reciprocity that most people are familiar with.

My definition of reciprocity is quite different. You must give without keeping score. No quid pro quo. It’s the one fundamental concept that is the most misunderstood in business today. Few people truly understand this. You are either all in or all out.

To be as candid as I can be, there have been plenty of people over the years who said they were going to help me in some way, but they didn’t. Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe they just forgot. Maybe they never intended to. It doesn’t matter. You cannot keep score, or you will lose for sure.

Let me tell you how it works: If we’re smart, we surround ourselves with talented people — the most talented we can find. They are our most powerful asset. That’s why I think of this select group as our own personal brain bank. They include our family, friends, mentors, fellow workers and our industry contacts. You never know when you’ll need to draw on the “accounts” you create with those oh-so-valuable resources.

With every contact within your brain bank — every call and every visit — preferably near the conclusion, sincerely ask the other person what you can do to be helpful to them. Ninety-five percent of the time, people will thank you for asking and tell you that there’s really nothing they need. If, however, they do ask you for a favor, then your eyes should light up like the New Year’s Ball in Times Square.

As you learn what is being asked for, note every detail with warmth and urgency. Fulfill the request to the best of your ability. As you do it, and after it’s done, expect nothing, absolutely nothing, in return. Don’t shop for gratitude in your phone calls or e-mails. Do the favor because you like and respect the other person and honestly want to help.

If you manage your career and live your life in this way, two magical things will happen:

Over time, people will find ways to do remarkable and unexpected things for you that make your life easier.
When you’re hit by a storm in full fury, you are likely to find the most astonishing human network of support you could ever imagine.
There are countless ways business people can be helpful to each other:

Help a colleague prepare for a major presentation. Act as their sounding board. Help your friend by pointing out what needs to be clearer . . . what needs more emphasis . . . and what seems to drag.
Be a source for heads-up information. Do it for other business leaders in your community or your industry — perhaps not direct competitors, but almost everyone else.
Never abuse confidences and or share inside information. You only have to do this once, and you’ll be marked as a security risk for life. Worst of all: You’ll never learn what others know about you and why they won’t trust you.
Don’t export problems. Sometimes companies try to downsize high-maintenance losers and stick them on another company’s payroll. Believe me, if you do that, you will be remembered and for the wrong reasons. When you terminate people who aren’t performing, do them the favor of leveling with them and constructively help them readjust their career focus.
Over the years, my networking focus has shifted from the quantity of contacts I maintain to the quality of contacts. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. The quality of your business is determined by the quality of your relationships.

Mackay’s Moral: If you want to win at networking, don’t keep score.

Did your marketing team slow down a bit during the dark days of January/February? If so, they probably weren’t alone. Once peak marketing seasons ebb, “many companies stop their marketing activities with the rationale that they will spend on marketing during the next busy season,” according to a Promo Direct post at its Promotional Ideas blog.

But allowing “quiet spells” like these at any point in the B2B marketing year is simply bad business practice, Promo Direct argues, adding that truly effective marketing means being consistent year-round. “A quiet spell now is actually a result of lack of planning and marketing six months ago.”

To help boost your client list, your relationship with current clients, and your overall results, Promo Direct suggests you engage in simple daily, weekly and monthly marketing activities such as these throughout the year:

Daily

Send one email to or call at least one new contact.
Add at least one prospect’s name to your list of potential clients.
Add one more personal detail about a current client to your client database.
Weekly

Send surveys to current clients. Incorporate their suggestions into your practices.
Research your competitors’ activities.
Monthly

“Contact the customers who truly support your business,” Promo Direct writes. “These are the customers that provide referrals for your business and engage in word-of-mouth marketing for your company.”
Review the effectiveness of your contact points.
The Po!nt: Be consistent. Avoid practicing seasonal “binge marketing,” and instead engage in “healthy, regular marketing activities” that will boost your client list and your results, Promo Direct advises.

Source: Promo Direct.

My friend Eden Sunshine, the business process guru, calls many of the “solutions” to which entrepreneurs are attracted, “bright and shiny things.”

I take this to mean objects that may dazzle, but perhaps look better than they really are. Certainly the marketing moves that bid for our attention almost daily can fairly be said to fall in the same category. They look good – and attributes the media salesperson or online “wizard” ascribes to them are, indeed, enticing. But before plowing precious dollars into a tactic that seems to be a quick fix, cool off long enough to consider how it does – or doesn’t – complement your overall marketing strategy.

Sometimes that pig in a poke disguised as a “sure cure” is better left alone to burrow its way into somebody else’s well-conceived marketing plan.