How To Not Let Email And Other Ducks Peck You To Death

Bad Ducks

As an Entrepreneur, we are all usually faced with too much to do and too little time to do it. I am sure that you know what I mean.

In the past year, I have gotten off track with letting the Ducks peck me a little by little until I realized because of some family matter that demanded even more of my time, that they were literally beginning to peck me to death.

Now the things is that I know better and point in fact point this out and hammer it home with my customers and even have a whole chapter devoted to this in my Book, Start On Monday.

There are however easy fixes for this and I have had to implement them because of literally some life and death matter.

The kicker is, that I should not have waited to that point to put a stop on it. Because it takes an unnecessary toll not only on you and your business, but your customers and loved ones as well.

Now this may meet resistance from not only your subconscious, but your customers as well.

The first area is emails. I have gone back to checking my emails to twice a week following the lead of Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4 Hour Workweek.

I am going to cover the three major ones and give you their Scientific Names as well.

The Email Duck – Quackus Alotus Toomuchus —–> READ MORE

Tags: Learning, Pecked To Death By Ducks, Tim Ferriss The 4 Hour Workweek

Have you ever noticed that often times the hardest thing to do is the simplest thing? In that when you get you your Business idea all set up we often times kind of get twisted about it and try to figure out all of the angles for every part of it. We make lists, and draw all kind of mind maps and become focused on what the outcome is going to be like.

If that has not worked for you yet, I have another way to approach things. Rather than making a huge list of things that you need to get done, you concentrate on doing just one thing and concentrate not on the outcome per say but on how you are doing the process. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised out how much more you get done. Instead of writing a whole list of things that you want to get done for the day or the week, you make your list only have the one item that has to be done. Just one.

Then after you accomplish that, you then add another thing. You are not going to forget all of the things that get done, but you will start getting a sense of accomplishment.

You see, if have your own business, or you are even thinking about starting your Muse or Business, you expect more out of yourself than most people.

This is a good thing for the most part, but you also have a tendency to think in a positive fashion so as an

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Tags: Get Started

The Answer And A Video Explanation Of Your Most Valuable Asset

So, what do you think your most valuable asset in business is that you have?  If you are like the rest of the go getter’s out there, we have a tendency to think that if we work a little harder, a little longer, and put in more of ourselves we will solve the issue of of the moment.

Now you would think that if you just could put a little more time in, you could get it done.  Well guess what?  No matter how well you manage your time, it won’t matter.  Will you get more done for a while? Of course but you can’t run effectively day after day at full tilt for 16,17, 18 hours a day.

Your most valuable Asset In Business is your energy levels.  If you go after a problem after you are well rested and healthy and your head is in the right place, then you can solve many problems or issues that come up in a manner of minutes.  Yet you try and do the same high level task when you are tired and it could easily take you hours to come up with the same quality of solution.

In the book ” The Power Of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz they bring up some very good statistics and examples of why this is true.

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Tags: Energy, Valuable Assets

I have been thinking about getting back to this later, but because of my schedule and work load and by choice I have been cutting down on dealing with emails, phone calls, meetings, and letting these and other interruptions interfere with my daily routine.

And guess what?  I am actually getting more done.  While I have known this and in fact have even written about it extensively.  But it is amazing how just a few minor tweaks in the way you do things can have a profound effect on your life, your income, and your happiness and fulfillment factor.

Or what my Partner Craig and I  like to call the MadFun factor.

Guess what, checking your emails 40 times a day usually accomplishes nothing productive whatsoever.  You need to ask yourself am I keeping busy to keep busy or am I truly being productive?

Typically 20% of what we do results in 80% or more of our profit.  This is called the Pareto Principle for those of you that have never heard of it or the 80-20 rule.   Pretty cool guy actually Mr. Pareto.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.
Annie Dillard

Here is another Post that I did that talks about this that you might find interesting.

So, you might want to thing about unplugging.  It can put more money in your Wallet, and give you piece of mind that you might not have felt in some time.

Cheers,

Tags: Pareto Principle

This is an interview that I just did with Dave Olson over at HootSuite which is one of the best tools you can use for Social Media and your business.

They just released a team collaboration tool to manage a Businesses Social Media that frankly, just totally rocks and you need to get it.  I allows you to have several people use your Social Media and collaborate while limiting permissions.

Below the interview, I have  a video showing you what it can do.

If you are using not using this great Social Media tool (and it is free) and your competition is, at least you will now know why you are losing your customers to the them!    I am sure the blog will get hammered so be patient while the audio loads! —–> READ MORE

Tags: Andrew Anderson, Dave Olson, Facebook, HootSuite, Social Media, Twitter

Could not having an editor be costing you thousands of dollars?

I am going to explain how getting one could help you make a lot more money.

This is a two part Blog post.  This post  is before I have one of my Editors look at it and the next one will be after I have my Editor go through it.  It may be a miracle if there are no corrections but, I would not put money on it. 

How can not having an editor be costing you thousands or even 10′s of thousands of dollars?   Let me start out by saying that I am the King of mis-spellings, bad grammar and punctuation, on top of making up words, purposely mis-spelling others and being fond of alliteration, so bear with me as I explain this for my situation and how it can also affect you.

So, first off I have really bad dyslexia, which is rather ironic because of the fact that I make money from my writing.  What happens it the the conversation that I have in my head makes perfect sense, that is until I start to type it out and things get all messed up.  Usually, whole sentences will come out backwards and spelling and grammar are  arbitrary things.   I truly look at this as a gift and a competitive edge because this is just part of the way that my brain is wired and it allows me to see and recognize complex situations and see connections and create answers before a whole lot of other people.    But the bottom line is that if you or I have typos, bad grammar and punctuation, it does not matter how great your product or service is, no one is going to buy it!

Here is a fact. Most of us truly do judge a book by it’s cover no matter what we say, a lot of people and clients can’t see past the typo’s and grammar and realize just how much more profit I can help them make. —–> READ MORE

Tags: editors, making money, writing

I got a glimpse of this phenomena the other day with one of my new clients.  No, unfortunately not the Forked-Tail Fly Catcher, but something with a tail, all right.

My client was so busy running round putting out fires, taking care of things that had to be done, chasing their tail and chasing after buzzing flies, they were too busy to stop and actually start making enough money so they could stop running around being busy.

Whenever I am observing a client, I always remind myself to look in the mirror. As I did so, low and behold, I had begun doing a bit of fly chasing myself.   Not nearly as bad as the client, but the buzzing has a nasty habit of distracting you from the important things you should be doing, which is of course…making money.

A lot of this can be stopped in its tracks by simply having a written plan.  OK, I can make something else up if that was too easy but, it is often the only thing you need.  Write out a plan of at most 3 or 4 things that have to get done concerning making a profit, and then one important goal for the week and the month.  Be specific.  Say, I am going to get 20 new clients and build up 8 new residual income streams from them.

Being specific makes a huge difference.  So, don’t let chasing flies cause a fender bender while you are driving down the road to massive profitability.  Let them buzz, you can pay someone else to get them when you have arrived.  You will have enough money to do it.  Massive Profits means never having to swat your own flies.  Unless of course you really want to….     

Cheers,

Andrew Anderson
Profit Consultant

Tags: Fly Buzzing, Inner Game, Massive Profits