Thursday, June 26, 2014

Balancing Work & Life as an Entrepreneur

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One of the hottest topics in business is that of managing work and life balance. It's the ultimate yin-yang of career and lifestyle, and far from being a solely a "personal choice," it is influenced by a number of factors such as geography, physical capabilities, available opportunities, gender differences, and technology. Entrepreneurship adds another layer of complexity into the balance.

The Difficulty of Finding Harmony at Work and at Home
On one hand, as an entrepreneur, the chances are that you are doing something you are deeply passionate about; something that is no longer "just a job," but more of a lifestyle choice. On the surface, it may seem that blurring the line between personal and business offers the best of both worlds; but therein lies the danger. Every extra hour you spend doing something to further your business may be bringing you closer to breaking apart your marriage, alienating your kids, and driving away your friends. In addition to threatening personal relationships, working 14-18 hour days and not making the time for exercise and healthy eating can, in turn, bring about mental and physical breakdown; which, ironically, will put at risk the continuity and survival of your business. Entrepreneurship may be the ultimate challenge in managing the time between your operating domains: self, family, community, and work.

Finding the Solution
There are plenty of online resources discussing the challenges of effective time management, regardless of whether one is an entrepreneur or not; as well as inevitable tradeoffs and sacrifices one has to make in order to be successful. However, few resources exist that actually provide objective and actionable insight to make work and self-time work. 

Stew Friedman's Total Leadership program is one such resource. Total Leadership approach starts with a self-assessment of your core values and aligning self-expectations with those of the people in your family, work, and community circles. This part can be a bit tedious and intimidating at the same time. However, by taking the luxury of time to escape the daily grind and reflect, you provide yourself with the ability to objectively assess everything that matters to you in the context of your core values and objectives. This will ultimately help drive better choices thereafter. Perhaps you'll discover that entrepreneurship is really not your goal. And perhaps you'll discover that it is. The point is, once you've aligned your values and expectations you will:
  1. See the path ahead clearer
  2. Start making small changes in your life to help drive you toward completion of your goals
  3. Get on the same page with the key stakeholders in your personal and professional life and get their buy-in in supporting your vision
  4. Become happier (based on the testimony of many graduates :))
Stew's Total Leadership class was one of the most valuable to me from Wharton MBA program because it had helped to build the foundation for ensuring a better work and life balance. The class is now also available on Coursera. Best of luck in making the meaningful choices in pursuing your dreams!

Rachel & the team

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Micro Outsource Like a Pro

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As an aspiring entrepreneur you understand that a lot of work goes into building your business. Assuming the idea validation stage has provided a good direction for moving forward, following the non-trivial business registration step, activities quickly pile up: in-depth market analysis, product definition, logo design, site creation, marketing collateral, industry research, accounting, designing the prototype are just the tip of the iceberg.

While you still have a small business and there is only so many hours in the day, you may not be able to do all these activities yourself. Likewise, it may not be feasible for you to hire all of employees responsible for these tasks. So what are you supposed to do? One of the answers may be that you could just outsource the work.

Here's how it works: there are freelance professionals in all areas of marketing, web design, code writing, accounting, etc. that are available to give quality products in their specific area of expertise. Most are paid on a project by project basis. For instance, you need a new marketing ad by the end of the week. You can look on SourceItOut (or any other reputable ad outsourcing website) for someone who specializes in marketing campaigns. You give them the parameters and vision of what you want the campaign to accomplish, and they provide you with a high quality product within your time limits. This allows you to only pay for the work you need.

Crowdsourcing takes the concept to the next level. Many of the same activities could be accomplished by highly trained professionals who actually compete for your business. From crowdsourcing the marketing content and design to funding your project.

That is not to say that outsourcing does not require any work on your part. It takes time to identify the best individuals for every kind of project and track their progress. But the time spent and resources needed to track outsourced projects are generally less that those needed to find, attract, hire, train, and retain an employee. And in the process of outsourcing you may be able to whet potential employees before bringing them on board.

Many freelancers are professionals in their field, ready to provide you quality results right now. With so many of them out there, it's easy to find someone who can work with your schedule. You maintain control over product outcome by specifying what you want, but you don't have to dedicate time to overseeing the project. This gives you time to engage in more impactful activities.

Lets tap into some crowd wisdom together: what outsourcing outfits does your organization use on a regular basis? We'll share the updates in the upcoming posts.

Rachel & the team

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Content Marketing - The Easy Way to Grow Awareness & Build Your Brand

Whether you're reading this because you know something about Content Marketing and you’re wondering how anyone could possibly claim that it's easy, or reading it in the hope of discovering how to get some recognition for all the thought leadership exercised by your growing organization, read on — there's something here for both of you.

For anyone who may be unaware, content marketing is a way of generating awareness and recognition by creating and sharing engaging and helpful media content related to your product or service. This can help to establish thought leadership, build relationships with a base of interested and committed fans. Content marketing as a core component of your social media strategy could maximize the impact of your other marketing, advertising, and sales efforts and ultimately drive more prospective customers your way.

Now for the hard part. With thousands and thousands of organizations relentlessly churning out relevant, informative, engaging content not unlike your own, how can you ensure that yours will rise above the deluge to reach your customers? Does this resonate with you when another helpful newsletter drops into your mailbox?

The answer may lie in the root of what drives a lot of decision making: human emotions. Sharing relevant information is all very well, but telling real human stories is the best way to build lasting emotional connections between you and your audience.

Why are you doing what you are doing? What compels you to embark on your path? Who is helping you? What difference will it make to the world? Of all the brilliant ideas out there, why should anyone care about yours? And once you get started, are you willing to share what obstacles do you encounter on your way (and what you did to address them)?

Bringing a little bit of yourself to the story will ensure that your readers don't see you as a nameless, faceless thought leader, but rather as a trusted adviser and someone they could relate to as well. This has been one of the most transformative journeys for us and we are excited and looking forward to whatever exciting new challenges we encounter on our way. Looking forward to sharing more in the upcoming posts! We invite you to join the dialogue and share your stories!!

Rachel & the team