Several times over the past few months I’ve been reacquainted with the experience of working night and day on projects, only to find that there is still more and more to be done. Time is a precious resource. And our capacity to get work done is also measured.

Traditionally, we are taught that with much hard work we can make our dreams reality. However, many of us in the business world have found that hard work that is not constantly being refocused will never yield satisfactory productivity. So we dare not go on aimlessly lest we burn out and give up. But we also dare not let things go uncared for. So what is the alternative?

Work smart.

Now, I know this is not a new thought for most in the business world. But it is a principle that must be refreshed in our minds again and again. We just gravitate toward the to-do list until we are sucked into it and overwhelmed. Until someone comes and reminds once again to step back, take a deep breath, and refocus ourselves on the big picture.

What are your goals? Are they to be “busy” all the time for the sake of being busy? Or is it in your mindset that you want a business plan where you are so in control that your feet are up on the desk and your business is actually WORKING FOR YOU?

I recently hired a new general manager, and after two months of work I began to notice this very malady setting in on his work environment. After talking for some time both he and I realized that it was that time again to step back, look at the big picture, reassess, and pick up the task again of learning to work smart.

I hired a general manager because I wanted someone working alongside me that would take my company’s interests as his own and work toward our goals together with me. Well, maybe it’s not time for you to hire your general manager yet, or maybe you have three managers who are as busy as you are, but you–like the rest of us–are still looking for that perfect employee to work alongside you to build your business.

There is another kind of employee that can “work smart” to help you build your business: your website. When done right, your website works for you nonstop, without vacations, without sick days, never goes to the competition, and can outsell the best businessman. Your website can work hard AND works smart. Is your website your Number One Employee? If not yet, give us a call.

To your success!

A few weeks back, I saw an interview with new Super Bowl champion Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. He was being asked for his thoughts on going to the Super Bowl in his sophomore season, and in response Wilson said, “…I trust the God-given ability that I have….I trust in what I can do, and in my preparation.”

I thought this was a pretty thoughtful response from the 25-year-old who has just become the first quarterback ever to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl win (and only the second-ever Seahawks quarterback to get to the Super Bowl), but what I noticed most was the importance he placed on preparation. It brought to mind the essential need for practice, and its undeniable role in success.

I relate to the importance of preparation in my everyday work as well. In fact, my team’s experience and our emphasis on preparation is the reason we achieve success for our own clients. A lot of people can put together a website, but the real value in our process is in the preparation. In other words, when our clients choose to work with my team, they’re hiring us to prepare, not just to play the game. I love what I do, and after all the preparation is done, building the website is the easy part. The caliber of work and the real, tangible results our websites produce is all thanks to a committed and very unique preparation process.

I don’t know what Wilson did to prepare for Sunday’s blowout, but I’m confident it was intense. And while it seems Wilson was better prepared than Manning for last Sunday’s matchup, Manning (arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time) is well known for his focused preparation. Consider his regular practice of the “wet-ball drill,” in which he dedicates full days to working with his starting center, filling a bucket full of water, and having the center dip the ball into a bucket of water as he practices catching snap after snap. This exercise is frequently credited as the reason the Indianapolis Colts, against all predictions, beat the Chicago Bears in the relentlessly rainy 2007 Super Bowl. Who knows what the outcome would have been without such concentrated preparation?

In an interview a few weeks ago, Peyton Manning repeated what many NFL players know: “We play the game for free; we get paid to practice.” To my mind, this couldn’t be more true in any facet of business or life.

To your success!

Happy New Year! I hope you are excited as I am about the wealth of opportunities that 2014 brings. For many people, this is a time to set goals for the coming year. Yet how do you ensure that you can actually achieve your goals? Here are a couple of tips.

1) Make your goals meaningful

Change is hard, and it’s easy to get distracted from our goals. For your goal to keep your attention and motivate you to follow through, it should be something that inspires you. It’s much easier for a business a goal if it’s something that excites the staff.

2) Make your goals concrete and specific

A goal like “lose weight” or “make more money” or “get up earlier” is not nearly as powerful as “lose 7 pounds by May 1” or “increase net profits by $125,000 in the next twelve months.” Having concrete and specific goals makes it easier to measure how you’re doing and celebrate your wins. It also helps with this next tip:

3) Develop a plan of action to achieve your goals

As important as it is to visualize our goals, I’ve never heard of anyone achieving an important goal by just thinking about it. What makes your goal attainable is an action plan. And, the more you can break your goal down into small, “bite-sized” steps, the easier it becomes to achieve it. The most important question is, “What is the first step that I can take today?”

I hope that with the official start of this new year, you have given serious consideration to the goals you want to achieve for your business. Without having a clear goal for your business, every action you take is without aim, and ultimately without much result.

If your goals involve growing your business in 2014, let me know how I can support you in that endeavor. I love working with businesses that have clear and specific goals!

To your success!

It’s no secret that for your business to be successful, you must have a clearly defined goal. In fact, your goal should be the reason for everything you do as a business. Yet too many business owners find themselves challenged to clarify their goals. They get into the habit of running the business in a “ready, fire, aim” fashion, which is a recipe for disaster.

One prime example is when a business hires a web developer to build (or re-build) a website. In many of these situations, the business knows it needs a website, but the web developer fails to identify exactly what the business’s goal is, and the way in which the website will help achieve that goal. The result? The business often invests a significant amount of time and money in a website that doesn’t actually do anything for the business—it doesn’t drive traffic, convert audiences, or make money for the business.

With just a few days left until the start of the new year, I challenge you to put some focused energy into clarifying what your business’s goals are, and to be very specific. What kind of sales increase do you want to see three months into next year? How many more customers do you want to have six months into the year? What kind of lift in referrals do you need to realize by the end of next year?

The time is now to define your business’s goals, and then to determine how to build a website (which is arguably the most essential marketing tool a business has) that leads you toward achieving that goal…a website that becomes your #1 employee.

To your success!

A man was driving his SUV through the Sonoran desert when it suddenly quit. No matter what he did, he could not get the engine to start. However, there were a few buildings only about a mile up ahead on the road, and fortunately, one of them turned out to be a service station.

As he walked into the service station, the man shouted out, “Please help! My SUV is stalled on the highway, and I have to be in Tucson by 5:00.”

The owner of the service station put his tool box in the back of his truck, and drove the man out to where his SUV was stalled. After listening to the starter and checking a few things under the hood, the service station owner pulled out a small hammer and rapped sharply on a particular spot on the engine.

Immediately after, the man was able to start his car again. The service station owner handed him a bill for $100.

“What?!” the man shouted. “$100 for tapping with a hammer?”

Without saying a word, the service station owner took the bill and wrote out an itemized list:

Tapping with hammer: $1

Knowing where to tap: $99

Occasionally I have had people come to me for help with their website who seem to only want free advice. After asking lots of questions and talking with me for hours, they decide to “do it themselves” or to shop around for a cheaper vendor. I wish them luck. They could have gotten even more information in a few minutes with a Google search. But information is not what makes your business grow. It’s knowing how to use it. And that’s what makes an expert’s help really, really valuable.

To your success!

“I feel your pain” is a phrase that many people associate with Bill Clinton (although I haven’t been able to track down the reason). Now I would like to use it too. Earlier this year I got the opportunity to sympathize even more with my clients!

As many of you know, I just finished a major kitchen remodel in our house. In February I hired a contractor who had come highly recommended by a friend. After we paid him a substantial deposit, he came and did a few days of work, then took off with our money. During the few days he was here, he managed to:

• Connect a makeup air duct to the heat vent
• Install hardwood in the wrong place, and leave a huge bump in our floor by putting the flooring over some scrap wood
• Construct a door frame out of drywall without studs behind it
• Install light switches with live wires hanging out of the wall

…and those are just the highlights. The damage caused by the work he did do was about as bad as the stolen deposit. In short, an absolute nightmare.

In the middle of this nightmare, I was sharing with a friend how I felt:

1. Upset, because I had been burned by a dishonest and incompetent contractor
2. Confused, because I did not know the best way to proceed from there, and
3. Fearful of making another wrong decision.

And as I was sharing these things, I realized that this is probably how many potential clients feel when I first meet them.

The fact is, many of the people I meet are also upset, confused and fearful. Many have also been burned by an unethical or incompetent web developer. They are confused, because they don’t know what to do to make their website successful, and they are fearful of making a wrong decision.

I know it is of little use for me to say, “Trust me; I’m honest,” when people have been burned in the past. However, I CAN say, “I feel your pain.” I really do understand how it feels!

I can also say, “Come see what we have actually done for other clients just like you, to actually make their website work for them.”

Happy Labor Day everyone!

To your success!