| I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I was | | | | reached a million questions, but does take up about 34 |
| born with a laptop on my lap. I come from a computer | | | | pages. |
| science family and worked in three software | | | | So how does this list help me? Here are 7 ways it |
| development companies before I got out of the rat | | | | helps: |
| race. I know a thing or two about computers and the | | | | 1. By writing my questions down they don't hang |
| internet. | | | | around in my head, nagging me. |
| Having said that, I still have a MILLION questions that I | | | | 2. I don't have to write the questions on my hand (it |
| am dying to have answered about online marketing, | | | | gets crowded and ballpoint pens don't work so great |
| social media, offline marketing, online forums, and how | | | | on skin). |
| to stay on top of it all. I recently read a post on an indie | | | | 3. It reminds me of the directions I want to pursue in |
| business blog that pointed out that time was the new | | | | my small business marketing when I get confused |
| overhead. Forget wages, insurance, rent, and utilities. | | | | (which happens a lot). |
| The new thing that eats up all our resources in small | | | | 4. I can show it to my hubby as proof of my |
| business is time. | | | | voluminous productive work when he accuses me of |
| Time is the New Overhead | | | | spending all my time surfing the web for horse tack or, |
| We need time to keep up with all our friends and | | | | heaven forbid, horses for sale! |
| contacts on Twitter, Facebook, Ryze, and our blogs, | | | | 5. When I have a spare moment and feel tempted to |
| not to mention answering emails, writing | | | | get tweet about non-business items, I turn to my list |
| super-excellent blog posts, and submitting top-quality | | | | instead and post 2 or 3 questions to online forums and |
| articles to article directories. And guess what? If you | | | | check on answers to past questions. |
| really want to dominate your niche you need to do all | | | | 6. When I feel like I'm not making any progress in my |
| of this 5 or 7 days a week! Aack! Can you say | | | | marketing education, I flip through the list and look at all |
| overwhelm? | | | | the early questions that I have gotten answered. Then |
| Many small business owners who are just getting their | | | | I literally pull my arm out of its socket congratulating |
| toes wet in online marketing and social media are in | | | | myself for having come so far! |
| total overwhelm. The sheer volume of the information | | | | 7. I often post the questions on my blog or in a forum |
| stream out there is incredible. Not only do we need to | | | | to generate conversation and learn something. A |
| read it all, we need to respond to it, answer important | | | | well-phrased question of importance posted to the |
| questions that people are asking, and reach out to | | | | right location can generate a lot of learning and traffic. |
| people we want to be our customers. | | | | Plus, you'll be surprised at how many other people |
| Dealing with Overwhelm: The List of a Million Questions | | | | have the same questions as you - they are just too |
| So how can we deal with this overwhelm? One | | | | chicken to ask. |
| technique that works really well for me is to make the | | | | The list of a million questions is a totally simple, almost |
| list of a million questions. About 15 times a day | | | | childish device, but I always think about it like this: "It's |
| questions that I need answered pop up in my head. | | | | cheaper than therapy!" In today's business climate I |
| Needless to say, I don't have the time right then and | | | | really believe it's possible for small business owners to |
| there to go find the answer. Most of these questions | | | | suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome just from |
| need to be researched by searching Google, poring | | | | handling the day-to-day operations. It is overwhelming. |
| through the feeds on my feed aggregator, posting a | | | | The 10 Cent Solution |
| question to a forum, or asking for help on Twitter. Well, | | | | But just think about this: a 10 cent notebook from your |
| that's not going to happen when I'm in the middle of my | | | | local discount retailer can save you years of therapy if |
| conference call with clients who are paying my | | | | you just take the time to jot down all your insane |
| mortgage! | | | | questions. Get them out of your brain and onto paper, |
| So I jot down my questions on my list of million | | | | where they can't drive you crazy. Then, in your saner |
| questions. The list resides in a 10 cent spiral notebook I | | | | moments, get them answered. Voila! You're one step |
| bought at Walmart during the last "back to school" | | | | further in your marketing progress than you were |
| special. Really fancy, right? So far the list hasn't | | | | before, possibly without adding any more gray hairs! |