Stressy stress stress
I think this last week must go down as one of the most stressful I’ve had this year so far. We’ve had one of our bigger projects come to a head this week and I’ve been slogging away at getting it done. Full marks to the client for thorough testing but I did feel at times like I was being bombarded with questions. It didn’t help that we also had a number of meetings to go to, so I was run ragged going to a meeting and then rushing back to keep on top of the project work. Not to mention lots of previously quiet clients suddenly popping up with requests (it’s like they knew I was having a particularly busy week or something).
It goes to show that I still haven’t mastered stress relief. I felt like a gibbering wreck for most of the week. Thank goodness I’ve got my partner to chivvy me along and take up the slack as far as our other projects go, not to mention cook and do the washing up. Where would I be without him? I hope I can return the favour sometime when he has a busy week.
Lots of business planning has arisen from my experiences this week. This particular project ran over time considerably (to the point that I’m scared to look at the timesheet), which means that we will have ended up working for a very low hourly rate – not good at all. We’re reviewing how we approach these types of projects (ecommerce) to put a much more solid system in place. So, something positive will come out of the experience.
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Why’s that then? Why aren’t I skipping off to my computer right now to market my business? (Oh yes, I’m already at my computer…) I’d say that the book is definitely food for thought. There’s no doubt that it helps you look at things with a fresh eye. But…
… I find myself left thinking “now what? now what do I do?”. Yes, it’s given me a lot of theory but nothing that I can really get my teeth into. I find books like that frustrating. It’s like I’ve asked a cook “how do I bake a cake?” and they’ve replied “in an oven, you can make chocolate cake, or carrot cake, or coffee cake, it’s great”, when what I really wanted to know is how much flour to use, how to compile the ingredients and how long to cook it for. Do you know what I mean?
So, I would say that if you’re interested in reading up on the theory of using the web to market your business then this could well be the book for you. But if you’re after a step-by-step guide to putting the theory into practice then you might not get so much from it.
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Am I a control freak?
For most of last week I was suffering with a nasty cold. I spent most of the time curled up with my duvet and laptop trying to keep on top of work. Probably should have given myself a break but if there’s work to do there’s work to do.
Now, I’m pretty much better but have been feeling a bit unsettled this weekend, kind of verging on the stressed-out. I think it’s because I feel like I’m not on top of things. There’s loads to do as always but I feel like I’m going to have to do some back-tracking to make sure that we’re where we should be with everything and nothing important has been forgotten.
Does that make me too much of a control freak, feeling like I need to be on top of things all the time? Maybe it means that I’m not trusting our project-tracking systems enough, so maybe I need to look at them and make sure that we have adequate systems in place so that if my brain stops functioning for a while I don’t need to stress out.
Goal Setting
Aside from the fact that I’m not much of a football fan, the problem I have with goal seeting is that I just don’t know where to stop.
What do I want? Everything
When do I want it? Now!
So my list of goals just keeps getting longer and longer and I start to feel overwhelmed and end up not achieving anything at all. Not very productive is it? Goals are a good thing so I need to learn how to deal with them more constructively. Instead of just an endless list of what I want to achieve I need some kind of action plan with achievable targets. I must stop myself trying to do everything at once and getting burnt out as a result.
There must be a knack to it, I just need to figure out what it is.
Goal!
Just had a real ‘durr!’ moment. I was searching our library catalogue for keyword ‘goals’. Was looking for some books on goal setting, achieving your goals … that type of thing. What did I find? Pages and pages of books about football. Took me ages to figure out why. I’m obviously not feeling very bright tonight – my excuse is that I’ve been suffering with a cold all week.
Brilliant Start-Up
The book takes you through the stages of setting up and running a business. It is an inspiring mix of practical information and entertaining writing style. If you’re toying with the idea of setting up a business then this is definitely the book for you. Our business has been going for a few years now but even though some of the book was covering old ground I still found it an interesting read, so I would say that it’s not necessarily just for start-ups. It’s given me a new perspective on parts of our business and I’ve set myself some homework to follow up on some ideas.
The only criticism I would have is the bias towards sales rather than marketing as a whole. There’s a whole chapter which is basically on telesales way before the whole marketing concept is covered, which I found offputting. However, the author began the book with explaining that it would be opinionated and this is an example of that. I can see the point he’s trying to make, I just don’t necessarily agree with it.
My previous book review was, I said, not one for lifting your motivation. This book is exactly that – whether you’re thinking of starting up a business, are in the process of doing so, or (like me) have been running a business for a few years, this book could provide you with the inspiration that you need.
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Preparing a Winning Business Plan
The book takes you step-by-step through the different sections of a business plan, explaining the information you need to compile and giving information about using resources. Each chapter also includes scenarios of different people setting up in business, which helps lift the dryness of the book a bit. However, I did feel that they could have been a bit more directly related to the subject matter of the chapter just covered to see how the advice could be practically applied.
The copy I have is the fourth edition, published in 2003, and it is therefore surprising that resources mentioned give postal addresses but not website details. If there is a more recent edition available I would hope that this has been rectified.
Overall a good information resource to have on your bookshelf but not a book to dip into when your motivation needs a lift.
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