Disqus - Latest Comments for skinkade

Re: How your strategy helps you make decisions

skinkade — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 18:48:12 -0000

Bill - great post...and I agree that in order to be decisive you have to have a target to evaluate against. A related challenge that I see a lot of business owners struggle with is having a focused, concise list of goals.

We often talk to our clients about the top 5 things they need to achieve this year to move forward. 5 is kind of arbitrary but it is important to have a small list of the most important things - otherwise it's easy (and likely) that you'll get pulled off course.

Thanks for sharing.

Shawn

Re: Overcome Obstacles to Finish What You Start

skinkade — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:17:08 -0000

Matt - great post...part of being an entrepreneur is being subjected to shiny object syndrome, but if left unchecked it will hold you back.

Having said that, there are times when it does make the most sense to not finish something - but how do you know if that's the case vs. just not following through?

Good stuff - thanks.

Shawn

Re: The biggest mistake most business owners make

skinkade — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:50:13 -0000

Neil - thanks for the great comment! I'm glad to hear it gave you a starting point for a challenging conversation.

Re: The biggest mistake most business owners make

skinkade — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:43:26 -0000

Brad - You're right about another big mistake that business owners make, assuming they don't need to market or sell because they have a great product or service!

Thanks for the comment.

Re: It’s time to start saying ‘No’ more often!

skinkade — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:49:29 -0000

Kimmo - great point about not getting locked into a negative approach. I agree it's critical to always be thinking 'Yes' and if the situation warrants it, your suggestion about 'Yes, but...' is a great way to go.

I'm curious how you handle a situation that's not something you do? What would you do if a client asked for graphic design help rather than copywriting? (extreme example I know, but I do think there are times when you'll be hit up to do something that's not a fit).

Thanks for jumping in!

Shawn

Re: Check out 3 new surprising sites for your business!

skinkade — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:54:13 -0000

Rahul - thanks for stopping by, I can see a lot of positives coming out of what you all are doing.

Re: 7 Reasons why giving drives success in business

skinkade — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:11:07 -0000

John and David,

Thanks for the comments. In some ways, the whole topic is counter-intuitive (give to receive), but in other ways it's the only alternative that really makes sense (why would you choose to be unhappy?).

Shawn

Re: Simplify to succeed? Reduce your risk by 10X!

skinkade — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:11:41 -0000

Erik - thanks for reading and the comment! I love the different perspective on the challenges that business owners are facing today. A lot of my clients (and myself occasionally) are feeling overwhelmed with all of the shiny objects (technology, social media, etc.) and it can be difficult to just get back to basics...but obviously worthwhile.

Thanks for sharing.

Shawn

Re: Simplify to succeed? Reduce your risk by 10X!

skinkade — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:54:08 -0000

David and Carlotta,

Thanks for the comments - there's definitely a benefit to going back to the old fashioned way of doing business...helping people, adding value and doing the right thing! It's great to see some data that shows doing the right thing works!

Shawn

Re: Frequently Futile – How Often Should You Blog?

skinkade — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:07:14 -0000

Scott - I agree that less is likely more and I'd much rather see 1 quality post than 3 that don't cut it.

However I think businesses that are just getting started and want / need to use a blog as part of their marketing strategy need some consistency and commitment (at least to get established). I know way too many people that would really benefit from a blog, wrote 2 posts and then got too busy to do anymore. You can take 6 weeks off - partly because you are also creating content on twitter and elsewhere, but also because you're up and running and have previously learned what it takes to be worthwhile.

Just my $0.02 - thanks for the thoughts.

Shawn

Re: Have you seen the Scary side of Social Media?

skinkade — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:14:37 -0000

David and Kimmo - thanks for the comments. I have heard of Blippy, but I'm also trying to figure out why it's something you'd want to be sharing.

Shawn

Re: Meet the Dark Lord of Productivity Issues

skinkade — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:18:31 -0000

Clay - great point and that's what's insidious about the whole thing. Most people are really busy, they have a lot of activity, just not a lot of productive output to show for it.

Figuring out and managing the Collection Points is just the first step...to complement that you also need to have a systematic way to prioritize and do only the highly productive work (highly productive based on what's really important to you).

Finally - you need a way to continually improve your process so that it becomes part of a day to day habit that works! (Simple but not easy).

Shawn

Re: The Secret to Business Growth – Break on through!

skinkade — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:49:11 -0000

Michael,

Thanks for the comment - I had this conversation with 2 different business owners last week and both of them recognized the risk of 'hitting the wall'. Growth is a wonderful thing, but it can wear you down if you're not planning for it!

Shawn

Re: Can we go back to the good old days of business?

skinkade — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:03:50 -0000

Kenton,

Thanks for the great comment - I don't think everyone has made the transition yet, but I do think we're headed that way!

Shawn

Re: Get rid of your fear of numbers once and for all!

skinkade — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:59:03 -0000

Laura - I'll admit that you crossed my mind when I was writing it, but there are lots of folks who struggle with numbers and why they're important to getting out from under the day to day issues of their business.

I'm glad it was helpful.

Shawn

Re: Can we go back to the good old days of business?

skinkade — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:43:30 -0000

Michael - it was great to meet you in person as well. Thanks for checking out the blog and have a great week!

Shawn

Re: Should you be playing a different game?

skinkade — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:05:55 -0000

Christina,

Thanks for the comment - you are absolutely right, there are a lot of ways to differentiate yourself and a lot of them don't have to be big...just right for you (Southwest is an airline physically like everyone else, but their culture of having fun makes them different).

Shawn

Re: 2 tools for maintaining your Social Media Garden

skinkade — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:04:28 -0000

Jerry,

It's a great question - I see a lot of people (even those that have been using Social Media for a while) stepping back and trying to figure out where to go from here. I don't have all the right answers, but I'm looking at it the same way I look at 'real world' networking.

It takes a long time to build a networking presence, find the right kind of partners who will refer you (and who you can refer), but if you can get established with the right network, you can drive a lot of business in the door.

However if you stop attending networking events, don't see people for weeks at a time, don't follow-up or follow through with opportunities and referrals they give you, then your connections will dry up.

On social media, I think you can make a push for events, activities, new products that are more like campaigns, but I also think there's value in just letting people know that you're out there...still doing stuff, still thinking about things and ready to help them out.

If you get wrapped up in the tools and the number of followers, you're likely to lose your way...but if you continue just trying to connect and let people know who you are and what you're about, then there's still a lot of value.

Just like continuing to attend networking events.

I'll have to give some thought to a more complete answer - maybe a different post. Thanks for the question.

Shawn

Re: 5 tools that go beyond the pen and paper approach

skinkade — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:50:09 -0000

Thanks for sharing the GTDAgenda tool - it looks like it has a lot of flexibility.

Shawn

Re: 5 Reasons why being a Hero is killing your business

skinkade — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:08:30 -0000

Dan,

Thanks for the great comment - I'm glad to hear that stuck with you. It can be a tough habit to break when you're used to doing it all yourself, but you will hit that wall if you can't change!

Shawn

Re: 5 Reasons why being a Hero is killing your business

skinkade — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:04:09 -0000

Mary Kay - I think you really summarized the biggest risk. Walking away without any opportunity to be able cash in as a longer term play.

Thanks for the comment!

Re: 5 Reasons why being a Hero is killing your business

skinkade — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:35:00 -0000

Kevin - that's a great point about recognizing the management failure.

Sadly many corporate environments (at least many that I saw during my consulting and corporate days) encouraged that kind of heroic mentality - take one for the team, everything is a life or death issue, etc. However those are the same environments that struggle to keep talented people in the long run and generally churn out poor work as well!

Re: 5 Reasons why being a Hero is killing your business

skinkade — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:17:28 -0000

Toby - thanks for the comment.

You touched on a great point - a lot of times, the result (although not the way you would have done) will end up being better than what you could have done under your own heroic efforts anyway.

Re: What your customers really want

skinkade — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:36:05 -0000

Jerry - I think you're right on with the observation about the self-appointed titles. There may be a rare few that can back that kind of thing up, but it's almost sure to back fire against most.

Although Social Media makes that behavior easier, it also makes it easier to add value and demonstrate your character through online actions. Simply commenting on a post or complimenting someone's good fortune are active ways to show your character.

Thanks for the thought.

Shawn

Re: Are you standing out? 8 examples on getting found!

skinkade — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:37:35 -0000

Joseph - Thanks for totally invalidating my point! ;-) (just kidding).

I agree that Reports and ebooks can (and may be) overdone, but for those industries or businesses that aren't heavily online, it's still a good place to start...as long as they're engaging and add value - which I think was your point as well. To me it's less about lead generation and more about establishing value and expertise.

Good stuff - thanks.

Shawn