BLOW #6: How was your quarter ?

I have sat down today and reviewed my progress this quarter, I have exceeded my targets so I am very happy and gave myself a little reward. I am surprised by the number of small business owners that dont have a regular review of their progress and even more less that dont give themselves a reward system.

How can a business know where it is if it doesnt do a regular review or have metrics to measure the progress of the journey. It would be like starting a car journey with a map and not planning a route or knowing what your fuel usage is. Having goals whether they are financial or just development milestones are important so that makes sure you know where you are in the scheme of things.

There are lots of stresses in running a business and plenty of people will line up to give you a hard time when things are going wrong but the queues are very small when praise is to be dished out. So its nice to feel the feeling of success so take time to stop a smell the roses of success when things are going good to help you get through the bad times.

How was your quarter ? Did you hit your goals ?

Advertisement

Business Networking Hint

A few weeks ago a made a blog posting Business Lesson of the Week about networking, this weekend I got some good advice on how to prepare for a networking event that I thought I would share.

Before you attend an event its always good to first set a objective of what you want out of going to the event and the type of contact your aiming to make at the event. The next step is not just turn up and hope with blind faith that you stumble over that person instead you should contact the organisers of the networking event ask them can they introduce you to some people who meet this criteria at the event. The people organising would be only to happy to see this happy and as they are probably goaled on networking occurring.

So before you turn up to the next event why dont you send an email asking to meet people that will help your business grow.

BLOW #5: Keep yourself focused

I have been struggling this week with being focused, I have had to do some boring tasks to get done and seems my body is really tired so it has taken me way to long to achieve my goals this week.

When your body is sending you a message it wise to listen to it, redefine your goals make sure you understand why the small things allow you to achieve the big sexy goals that you love to do.

BLOW #4: Networking is important

This week I have been away at the Microsoft MVP Summit, its been a week of meeting like minded people and a lots of intelligent people that I have a lot of respect for. Well there is no doubt that it is a lot of fun but is it good for business.

Before you take a week out of building your business you should always question is it all worth it, the answer is often hard to measure and of course there is no real exact answer. One thing is for sure business is built on relationships and all relationships need constant attention. Remember that best mate from school, yep you were always having fun but if you dont keep contact what happens ? yep they are just a facebook friend years later.

Another important fact is people who run similar businesses to you, especially in another country will be very happy to share solutions to problems they have solved and you with them since they wont see you as a direct competitor. What a great way to find a list of viable solutions to problem then people that have already faced and solved them.

So the business lesson is you need to keep in contact to keep relationships alive and next time your at an event dont be scared to walk up to a complete stranger introduce yourself and learn from them. In fact why dont you before you go to the next event identify a problem you have and would like to solve then see if you can find a solution. The worse thing that could happen is a few new facebook friends.

What good things have come out of your networking ? found a job ? found a great friend ?

Ninemsn Catchup TV Problems

Being on the road a lot I unfortunately miss some tv shows at home, I found out the other day that Ninemsn allows you to watch episodes after they have aired so I wont miss out on the show.

I first thought great option cant wait to use this, being in the US this week I thought I would download a copy of underbelly and watch it in the hotel room. Broadband connection was good so went for it before I headed out to dinner, the first hurdle is I have to download a special video player [POP] … there goes being able to watch it at home over an extended media player but ok I can do that.

Then once I have downloaded the video, hook the video out to the hotels room widescreen TV and sit down ready to watch. Start the video [POP] you must be connected to the internet to watch the video … what ? There goes watching it on the plane.

Get the cable connected with a little bit of furniture changes, hit play [POP] You arent in a valid country. Oh rats. So thats really annoying, so no watching till I get home.