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You’ve probably already experienced it: you bought or subscribed to some software that you’ve since ditched in favour of another option. I’ve done it lots. Often, we don’t know what we don’t know till we give it a try. Sometimes there is no one app … Keep reading…

Tips to Clear Your Inbox

Email is a business tool we just can’t avoid. Keeping our inboxes manageable is a daily challenge. (Believe me, I’ve tried the avoiding option and it only becomes a bigger job.) I’m usually pretty good about reading and responding; it’s the filing and organizing that … Keep reading…

Consistency Comes from Having a Process

Late in the ’90s, after an intense SAP implementation with my employer at the time in Toronto, I spent the better part of a year working with all of the different business groups to document and improve on their process workflows. This meant travelling to … Keep reading…

Avoid Marketing Emergencies by Planning Backwards

I’ve joked to friends that no one ever needs to reach me in a hot rush because there are no marketing emergencies. In fact, there are some things that might constitute an “emergency” (Sheldon quotes), such as a website going down or an app not … Keep reading…

What First, How Second

Buying or subscribing to a software application is never the solution to a problem. But it can certainly be part of the solution… or not. It’s all about the process. An app can help streamline a process. Likewise, it can overcomplicate a process. It’s all … Keep reading…

Too Many Items, Not Enough Action

pivot – purge – plan – prepare – postpone The P words are overtaking our business lives in recent months! To make all those P’s happen, we also have long to-do lists… longer now than usual. I know this because I’ve had chats with many … Keep reading…

Working Alone Doesn’t Have To Be Lonely

Sometimes I take things for granted. For instance, while many have been adapting to working alone, I’ve been happy as a pig in sh*t. You might think this is because I’ve been working at home for 15 years, so I’m used to it. Sure, that’s … Keep reading…

We Must, We Must, Increase Our Trust

You may not often think of trust in relation to productivity but there’s a very direct correlation, especially for small businesses. What is trust in a business relationship? It can be quite different than in our personal lives, of course. I’ve recently weathered the end … Keep reading…

Getting Back on Track

If you’re feeling – like I am – that you need to get focused for the next quarter, perhaps my list of planned activities below will be helpful. Business development: Continuing to refresh and work to a business plan is a top priority, but sometimes … Keep reading…

Prioritizing Made Easier

Every small business owner knows what it feels like to have a “million” things to do and nowhere near enough time. We are constantly prioritizing, sometimes deliberately and sometimes less consciously. During the past month, I’ve done a heck of a lot of prioritizing. Some … Keep reading…

Simple Content Planner in Trello

A few months ago I found a new best friend when I started working with a client who uses Trello. While the client is indeed a friend, the free Trello app is what I’m talking about here. Trello is visual like a bulletin board and, … Keep reading…

Waking Up Without an Alarm

The young cashier at Walmart grinned at me and said, “Joke’s on them then.” I had just told him to keep the printer cartridge separate as my business was going to pay for that. I grinned back and said, “The joke’s on me then since … Keep reading…

Small Business Decision Making 101

Simple is powerful… and a recent tough decision reminded me of that. I’d been sitting on the fence for about 2 weeks with a marketing project half completed. I couldn’t decide whether to keep going or to stay with Plan A – and so, I … Keep reading…

Oh, Look! There Goes My Goal

I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to stay focused. And that’s why it’s so important to have goals that we can refer to that will keep us on track. Goals are sometimes quite removed from our daily activities. Once they’re determined, … Keep reading…

Simple Help for Better Blog Writing

Don’t you love it when you find a new tool to make your work easier? One of the benefits of teaching is I also learn from the course participants. It’s Hemingway that has my attention this time (thanks to Jacqueline). I love it’s simplicity! Go … Keep reading…

Super Easy Screen Recording

For a long time, I’ve been meaning to research and find an easy free screen recording application. It just never made it up very high on my to-do list. A few days ago I had an urgent need to explain something to somebody and words … Keep reading…

Summer Action Leads to Fall Success

Summer may be a sluggish time for many businesses but it doesn’t have to be. Use the slower pace to your advantage. Take the Time to Get Inspired Do more reading. Watch more videos. Have more chats over coffee. Take online or offline courses. All … Keep reading…

eMail Productivity: Automate Customer Reminders

For small business owners, nurturing long term relationships is critical, so keeping in touch with past customers to encourage them to return is a worthwhile activity. Dentists have been doing it for years with their cute cartoon postcards reminding us to book our next check-up. … Keep reading…

eMail Productivity: Automate Course Certificates

If you’re a teacher or trainer, you’ve likely struggled with the process of providing Certificates of Completion (or Certificates of Attendance and such) to your workshop attendees. Using a Word template, your process might be something like this: prepare your spreadsheet for a mail merge, … Keep reading…

Action Plan for Creating Marketing Collateral for Events

You know that a killer marketing campaign is critical to your event’s success. But, wow, it’s a lot of work! While every event marketing project I take on is a little different, there is a general process I follow to create the marketing collateral. Creating … Keep reading…

Haste Makes Waste

Rushing can lead to mistakes. We all know that but still we rush. Sometimes it simply means spending valuable time redoing something. Haste can waste more than time. It can also hurt my reputation if my mistakes are public. A little risk assessment before we start … Keep reading…

How to Find Time to Create Content