Website Wonderland

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

 

July 2016 monitor with truckDuring the 1980’s, I was always asked if I had a business card so that prospective clients could call me. In the 1990’s, the question became, “What’s your email address so I can write to you?” By 2000, both of these queries were replaced with, “Do you have a website?”

There’s no question that websites have evolved into a highly popular tool for showcasing products and services, providing customers with 24/7 access and attracting media pros seeking interesting stories to put in front of their readers and viewers. That websites are so commonly in vogue today prompted an associate of mine to recently remark that whenever she hears a business doesn’t have an online presence, she can’t help but wonder if (1) if it’s really a legitimate entity or (2) it’s just too lazy to embrace the technology.

Obviously neither assessment is a fair one to make if you don’t know anything about the company or its reputation. In the first place, the existence of a website isn’t an ironclad guarantee of authenticity, nor is there a correlation of authenticity based on how slick/polished/glam the screen looks or how many moving parts there are to seduce your senses. Many an aspiring model or screenwriter, for instance, has been taken in by bogus agencies and production companies that use eye-popping graphics, persuasive language and effusive testimonials that sometimes have no basis in truth. Secondly, the absence of a website could be either a planned decision on the part of management to focus on traditional advertising or a reflection of temporary confusion on how to build a website from scratch.

If you want to avoid the expense of hiring someone to build it for you (and if you don’t count yourself among the computer-savvy), the good news is that there are plenty of software programs, books and online resources to painlessly walk you through the process. The bad news, though, is that an amateur-looking website won’t do you or your company any favors; in fact, it could be worse than not having a website at all.

Once you have it up and running, the challenge is then to keep it interesting enough that visitors will keep returning to see what’s new. To accomplish that, you need to think of your website in terms of a car dealership. Let’s say, for example, that you drive past the same lot twice a day on your commute to work. If you always see exactly the same line-up of cars out front, there will quickly come a point that you no longer bother to even glance in their direction. Since the owner of the dealership can’t afford passersby to be indifferent to the inventory, s/he routinely rotates the vehicles. “Wow!” you exclaim one day. “Was that orange truck always there? I wonder why it never caught my eye before…”

The reality is that the orange truck was always there but just parked in a different place. Once you notice the orange truck, you’re going to start paying attention again and wondering what other kinds of vehicles are available for sale.

The same principle applies to websites. Even if you’re simply reshuffling the contents and changing the color scheme, you’re laying the groundwork to drive repeat visitors to your door.

Excerpted from MEDIA MAGNETISM: HOW TO ATTRACT THE FAVORABLE PUBLICITY YOU WANT AND DESERVE (Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle)

Tuning Out the Naysayers

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

headphones

History has given us no shortage of dreamers whose friends and foes were probably quick to say, “I told you so!” whenever one’s defiance of convention resulted in fizzles, flops and failures.

  • The eighth time was the charm for R. H. Macy after his first seven businesses went belly-up.
  • As a youth, F. W. Woolworth wasn’t allowed to wait on dry goods customers at his first job because his boss said he didn’t have any sense.
  • Fledgling author Dr. Seuss was rejected by 27 publishers before someone finally decided to give his stories a chance. Jack London tops that rejection count with 600 “no’s” before he got his first “yes.”
  • Henry Ford went broke five times before launching a car company that finally found success.
  • Elvis Presley was fired after his debut performance and advised to go back to driving a truck.
  • Long before he gave the world The Happiest Place on Earth, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor who told him he lacked imagination and good ideas.
  • The Wright Brothers went through years of failed prototypes until they came up with a model that literally got off the ground.
  • Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime and yet kept at it because – well, he really liked to paint.

The lesson here is that if any of the visionaries on this list had caved to the pressures of the bliss-blowers and shelved their dreams in deference to a well-lit, safe and predictable path of ordinariness, what a loss it would have been to the generations that followed.

So it is as well with aspiring sole proprietors. If you have the aptitude for your chosen field – coupled with the patience and ambition to learn how to make your ideas work in a commercial context – the world is truly an oyster of your own making.

Just make sure your shell has enough layers of insulation to drown out the noise of everyone pounding on it and saying you should be making something else.

 

Excerpted from Office for One: The Sole Proprietor’s Survival Guide (available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle)

Pink-Slip Your Non-Performers

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

nonperformers

When you’re an employer, it’s no easy task to let someone go that hasn’t been pulling his/her weight and measuring up to company performance standards. Have you communicated your concerns with clarity? Are there resources or motivational strategies you may have overlooked? How will assignments be reallocated in the interim so as not to disrupt the workflow?

When you’re a freelancer – and writers are especially prone to this – it’s just as hard to let go of all the dribs-and-drabs publishing markets that are supposed to collectively sustain you until Something Really Big comes along. Yet how many of these low-paying gigs have actually increased your exposure, added to your skill sets, and/or made you feel deeply appreciated? If they’re just taking up space on your calendar and desktop, maybe they need to be shown the door.

Consider the following:

  • “Non-performing” markets take up a disproportionate amount of your time and resources and – because you’re not seeing the results you want (i.e., a growing bank account, a bigger global footprint) – can put a negative cast on your self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. Content mills are a good example of this. On the surface, $25 for a short article sounds like a pretty easy and consistent income stream. If you can turn out said article in 60 minutes, not have to do any research, and not have your material sent back for rewrites, you’re earning $25 an hour. But what if that project takes you two hours? Four hours? Eight hours? Before you realize it, you’re now making $12.50/$6.25/$3.12 an hour. Those hours add up – and could be better spent on projects that pay more handsomely.
  • In focusing on how to correct ongoing problems (i.e., chasing down payments, dealing with difficult clients), there’s no telling how many opportunities are being missed in venues that provide greater promise. As recently as last week, for instance, I had a writer colleague tell me that she’s reluctant to dissolve her relationship with her agent despite the fact the latter hasn’t sold anything for her in almost two years. “I don’t want to hurt her feelings,” she said, ignoring the reality of her own career being hurt by a non-performer that’s holding her back.
  • Whether it’s personally or professionally, you’re also known – and evaluated – by the company you keep. As a leader, you’re judged by how effectively you’re managing your team. As a team member (albeit a subcontracted one), your reputation can be jeopardized if the entity with which you’re associated starts getting bad press. This further extends to the issue of whether you should stay with a sinking company and squeeze out a few more checks until you’re officially let go or jump ship before a replacement opportunity for new income has presented itself. While the saying holds true that it’s easier to get a new job while you still have one, how much of a sinking company’s failure do you want attached to your own name if you wait too long to leave?

This being a new year and a chance for a fresh start, it’s time to have a staff meeting (with yourself!)  and take a critical look at what can be jettisoned in order to get you where you want to be.

In my own experience, I look at three key elements in either accepting new projects or culling venues from my existing list of obligations: (1) what does it pay, (2) who will I reach, and (3) how will I feel about doing it. For a project/venue to be viable, it has to satisfy at least two of these three criteria. For example, I’ve been writing lesson plans for free since 2009 for an online resource for video arts educators; I’ll continue to do so for the foreseeable future because I’m not only reaching multitudes of teachers and schools across the country but the feedback and effusive appreciation they express makes it all worthwhile. Conversely, I’ve turned down a number of ghostwriting projects which – while they would have yielded a high paycheck – would have involved stressful interactions with demanding/unpleasant/contentious clients and left me little time or energy for the projects that gladden my heart…and bear my own name.

Lastly, it’s important to look at the consequences of off-loading business relationships that don’t seem to be doing as well as you’d like them to. Is there a way to negotiate better terms and conditions? Is it a platform for professional growth if you continue to pay your dues and prove your worth? Are there perks or networking opportunities that might not be found elsewhere? A case in point for the latter is an associate who pens freelance interviews for an arts and entertainment magazine. While he often grouses that the pay is paltry, he’s also compensated with tickets to film screenings, play previews, concerts, gallery openings and the chance to schmooze with celebrities. For the time being, it’s an association that meets the performance definition of Priceless.

 

 

Scattered Thoughts With Intermittent Brainstorms

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

December 2015 image

If you want your business to stay viable, visible and competitive in the coming new year, it’s essential that your staff not only have a sense of ownership in that process but also be invited to show you what they’ve got in terms of untapped creativity and problem-solving skills. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for a risk-averse manager to use “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as an argument to discourage initiative. By the time the breakage occurs – sometimes irreparably – the chance is often lost to hear solutions that may have been floating in the hallways all along and yet were never actively solicited.

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Thinking Outside the (Suggestion) Box

If the drop-slot of your employee suggestion box is crisscrossed with cobwebs, it’s time to embrace a more interactive approach to feedback. Distribute questionnaires (with an option for anonymity) to gauge staff satisfaction levels with working conditions, procedures, policies, and perks/privileges. Demonstrate that you’re actually receptive to input by publishing the results in your company newsletter and using them as your talking points for the launch of a brainstorming task force. This strategy works well if the size of your organization precludes a full group meeting or if you’ve observed that workers are hesitant to speak out with suggestions for fear of rejection or reprisal.

Thought Bubble Diversity

Within any goal-oriented group – be it TV sitcom writers, nonprofit volunteers or corporate committees – there are typically four personality types: leaders, creative thinkers, analysts, and pleasers. If all the participants in your think-tank session are drawn from the same quadrant, don’t hold your breath for progress to ensue. Why? Because functionally they will cancel each other out: the leaders will grapple for power, the creative types will bounce off the walls, the analysts will scrutinize everything to death, and the pleasers – too timid to offend anyone – will assume the role of bobblehead yes-men. Likewise, if you’re exploring new ideas which will impact multiple departments, the reception to those ideas upon implementation will be a lot warmer if each division had a rep involved in the planning stages.

Forbid Podium-Hogging

What do brainstorming meetings and elementary school classrooms have in common? They are either a scene of cacophonous pandemonium in which everyone talks at once or a setting wherein a handful of know-it-alls dominates the discussion and intimidates the rest into silence. For a brainstorming session to be effective, you must not only brush up on Robert’s Rules of Order (http://www.rulesonline.com) but encourage full participation as well. To get the conversation started, make sure everyone has a clear understanding of The Problem. In other words, what, exactly, are they there to solve? Next, have each participant write down his/her solution to the problem on a folded slip of paper and put it in a bowl. Each “anonymous author” idea is then drawn forth and written on a whiteboard for everyone to see. Start with the first idea listed and ask each participant’s opinion regarding that idea’s merits and flaws. Set a timer so no one is allowed to hog the stage with a filibuster. Rebuttals and interruptions are not allowed when someone has the floor. Ideas that accrue a higher number of negative hash tags are erased. Once you have gone around the entire room, start the process again, gradually whittling down the list – and incorporating modifications – until you arrive at a solution that everyone can agree with.

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As energizing and empowering as these brainstorming techniques can be, however, an absence of sincerity – coupled with an unwillingness to compromise – is the quickest way to kill esprit de corps. Whether you’re requesting fresh ideas and then stealing them, trivializing contributions or ascribing value based on rank, or asking for input on a decision you’ve already made, it won’t take long for employees to start keeping their best thoughts to themselves or, worse, giving them to your competition.

Wherever you are in the world, here’s to a joyful holiday season and a spectacular 2016!

Office for One

P.S. Will this be the year you decide to go into business for yourself? If so, you’ll want to add Office for One: The Sole Proprietor’s Survival Guide to your wish list. Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, this indispensable resource is perfect for any entrepreneur who wants to go it alone without getting lonely.

 

 

Mrs. Shinn Makes a Spectacle

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

Mrs Shinn130

Sad but true: Not everyone tasked with planning a corporate retreat, a class reunion or a charity fundraiser has the business acumen to generate excitement and actually make it a success. Some fall into the job by default (i.e., “You’re the most recent hire so you have to do the annual fill in the blank campaign”). Others are guilted into volunteering (i.e., “Don’t you care about the plight of endangered muskrats?”). Some see the title of “organizer” as a fast track to the popularity that has previously eluded them (i.e., “They’re finally going to know my name.”). Then there are those who shamelessly wrest command on the basis of their social clout; would anyone in River City, for instance, challenge the entitlement of Mayor Shinn’s wife to direct the Ladies Auxiliary Dance Committee?

All of these scenarios have one thing in common: If the person in charge has invested either too little heart or way too much ego, the event will probably fall flat.

Let’s start with corporate off-sites. Like a summons for jury duty, it’s always a mandatory event. And – like jury duty – “mandatory’ is not synonymous with “fun.” While it’s time spent away from the office, the work will continue to pile up in one’s absence and, thus, create a stressful return. Depending on the venue and duration, it’s time spent away from one’s family as well. This, in turn, disrupts the home-life routine and fosters grumpiness. Lastly is the question of why corporate off-sites are even necessary. According to the pricey facilitators brought in to run them, it’s all about team-building and the loopy premise that group hugs, tearful disclosures, and role-playing games will cause everyone to suddenly become besties when they’re back at the office. Seriously? I have yet to see this happen.

Even if your participants aren’t a captive audience and can exercise free will insofar as attendance, five critical considerations should go into the event planning process:

Incentive aka “What’s In It For Me?”

Your employees, classmates or prospective donors are more likely to embrace your vision if they can see a correlative benefit to their own lives. Will it provide them with exciting networking opportunities? Will they glean knowledge on how to achieve their goals? Will they be served an incredible meal? Will they feel better about themselves for supporting a cause that’s dear to their hearts? Never lose sight of the fact that your event likely has plenty of competition for your participants’ attention. If it’s something that’s going to take them away from their loved ones, cause them to miss another event scheduled for the same weekend, or require them to ask for time off from work in order to fly or drive, it will always be easier for them to RSVP with a “no” than a “yes.”

Affordability

The current economy has given rise to a whole lot of belt tightening. In the business world, the use of teleconferencing, webinars and podcasts has proven to be a cost-effective alternative to physically sending staff members out of town. If it’s daunting to think about paying for a large group’s transportation, lodging and meals, consider hosting a virtual event that takes place on a technology platform instead. For events in which prospective participants are paying out-of-pocket (i.e., a writers conference), be sensitive in developing a pricing package that is realistically within their reach. You might also offer an “early bird special” in which those that register by a certain date can do so for a lower fee.

Accessibility

A colleague of mine is skipping his upcoming college reunion. Although it’s a landmark decade – and, accordingly, a steadily shrinking alumni – the reunion committee chose a venue that is 75 miles from the closest airport and has no nearby hotels. Further, it didn’t put any thought into a formal, themed program beyond a no-host bar and just sitting around. In a nutshell, the only attendees that have thus far signed up are the committee members themselves (who didn’t want to travel outside the comfort zone of their home zip code). Whether your own event is scheduled for a few hours, overnight or a weekend, you need to address factors such as (1) how do participants get there, (2) where do they park, (3) is there a shuttle service, and (4) will the hotel offer a group discount.

Weather Or Not

I used to belong to a national writers group that held their annual conference every July. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many places in the U.S. that are particularly enjoyable that time of year. Nonetheless, quite a few events do get planned for June-August, the primary draw being that attendees with families can build a vacation around it without having to take the kids out of school. If it’s the peak season at your intended locale, it’s going to be more expensive. If it’s off-season, you can usually score some perks. And, of course, never schedule your event around or near a major holiday or three-day weekend where your attendees will have to contend with heavier traffic.

Feedback

If it’s going to be a recurring event (i.e., the annual Founders’ Day Social), it’s essential to find out what worked (i.e., the music), what didn’t (i.e., Mrs. Shinn’s Grecian Urn Tableau), and what everyone would like to see next time around (i.e., more food). Make it as easy as possible for participants to share their two cents. MailChimp.com, for example, lets you create a free, online survey without your respondents having to go find an envelope and a stamp. While backend feedback is useful for future improvements, it’s just as valuable to ask for input prior to an event’s implementation (i.e., “Where should we hold our first auction?”). If, however, you reject every idea that’s presented and, instead, go with whatever you wanted to do in the first place, don’t expect such decisions to be met with feelings of unmixed delight and esprit de corps.

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My savvy guest bloggers this month include:

How To Increase Employee Engagement on ‘Dirty Jobs’ – By Dana Barker Davies

Were You Born To Do Something Great? – By Marlon Smith

Reduce The Complexity When Franchising Your Business – By Brian Keen

The Science of Social Media – Better Engagement/Better Measurement – By Sam Reader

I’ll Be In My Virtual House If Anyone Is Looking For Me

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

Tiny Space Artist Loft

When you’re working in a job that you’re not keen about – and working for a boss you think is a doofus – there’s nothing glacially slower than the hands of an office clock. Will it never be lunchtime? Will it never be time for a break? Will it never, ever be time to go home?

Back in my 20s and 30s, the one thing that sustained me during the interminable days of boredom was the fact I always had something exciting to look forward to after work and on weekends; specifically, rehearsals and performances in community theater productions. Even when I was doing something mindless like filing correspondence, processing travel claims, or organizing the supply room, the best way to “get out of myself” without physically leaving was to mentally review my lines, think about favorite shows I had done, and plan menus for upcoming cast parties. To the casual onlooker, I looked completely content doing the most mundane tasks – the secret being that the contentment derived from thoughts which had nothing to do with work. A critical component of this mindset, of course, was also embracing the view that none of these jobs defined who I was as an individual; they were simply the means to an end of keeping bills paid. Nor did I ever stray from the belief that one day I’d be working for myself and not watching a clock at all.

When that wish came true and I became a full-time writer, I discovered something interesting about myself. Although I’m sure I always suspected I’d work harder as a sole proprietor and put in far more time than I ever did as someone else’s employee, maintaining a balance between home and work is a particular challenge when they’re both under the same roof; i.e., the temptation to answer a phone even if it’s “after hours;” the tendency to talk about work ad nauseum at the dining room table; the “just one more email” before bedtime. Although I’m much better at dialing back and keeping to a workday schedule than I was when I started, I’m also the first to admit I usually eat lunch at my desk and forget to take breaks unless my Chief Canine Officer reminds me she wants a walk.

We don’t think of stress as an impediment to creativity, yet stress can creep into the psyche if we don’t purposely plan for activities to alleviate it. Yes, that’s right – plan. While it may sound silly to block out increments of time throughout your home office day – and even put reminders on your daily calendar – it’s much too easy to let that down-time routinely slip away. For me, the stress-busting takes the form of two activities that have absolutely nothing to do with writing or consulting. The first is playing my upright grand piano for 20-30 minutes – usually Broadway show tunes that put me in a singing mood. The second is my architectural design software which allows me to dabble in original floor plans, color schemes, furniture layouts, etc. It’s amazing what wallpapering a virtual room, swapping out fireplaces, “planting” trees and flowers (and, of course, imagining the families that might live there) can do to reframe my thinking and make me feel as if I’ve just returned from a mini-vacation.

I also make it a point not to put any computer or telephone icons in my virtual houses…just in case anyone figures out how to interrupt me for something that can easily wait until I come back.

Here’s my line-up of stellar guest bloggers this month:

Information Technology Considerations for Your Business Plan – by Rich Silva

Protect Your Creation – Intellectual Property Tips – by Cathryn Warburton

How To Stop Your Business From Starving – by Robert Coorey

It’s True! Mentoring Pays! – by Susan Bender Phelps

Need some extra help taking stress out of your life? I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Annika Sorensen, author of My De-Stress Diary – 52 Effective Tips for Less Stress and More Peace of Mind. I liked her book so much that I actually keep a copy of it permanently on my desktop. Here’s the link to her feature interview: https://fromtheauthors.wordpress.com/category/dr-annika-sorensen/

Help Wanted

Posted on by Christina Hamlett

Blog Image

Back in the days when I worked in state government, I always viewed summer with a mixed sense of anticipation and dread. Summer was the season of interns, the season when the floodgates would open and spill forth dozens of cattle-call applicants in their late teens and early twenties. Although these positions were unpaid, it was management’s vision of a win/win scenario: the interns would get work experience to put on their resumes and the rest of us would get a cadre of malleable minions to do the filing, open mail, stock supplies, and run errands.

While now and again we’d delight in finding a true gem who had the skill sets, initiative, and leadership qualities that could one day translate to a full-time job with us, the majority of them were clearly not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Among them:

  • The one who threw out any mail that personally didn’t look interesting to her. (She asked me why we never got fashion magazines or People.)
  • The one who filed all the travel claims under “S” for “someone who took a trip.”
  • The one who took over an hour to deliver a file to an office located on the same floor. (If we had traced his footprints, they would have looked like Billy’s from a Family Circus)

As the saying goes, good help is hard to find. Bad help (which is worse than no help at all) can take years off your life, cause costly mistakes and jeopardize your reputation. While government agencies and nonprofits have no problem doing shout-outs for extra pairs of hands, a lot of sole proprietors I’ve known over the years are not as willing to admit they’re getting overwhelmed. A part of it, I think, is that they want to maintain the image they’re completely in control (albeit exhausted to the point of collapse). They’re also cognizant of the reality that in the length of time it takes to train a helper how to do something – or correct how the helper did it totally wrong – they could easily have just done it themselves.

Whether you’re looking to go the intern route for short-term projects or planning to one day expand your small business and put out the call for prospective employees, it’s critical to have a clear sense of what you want, how much supervision you want/need to provide, and what the participants can potentially gain from the experience of working with you. The more “ownership” they feel they have in the process and the outcome, the more pride they’ll take in paying attention and doing their assignments well.

These same elements apply to situations where you’re subcontracting with local vendors to provide services (i.e., catering) or outsourcing product-oriented tasks (i.e., assembling goods) to an off-site team an ocean away and with whom you have no physical interaction or quality control mechanism. While you may have the highest trust that everyone is doing what they’re supposed to, the bride whose flowers aren’t delivered on time or the client who receives 500 logo key chains with the company name misspelled isn’t going to mad at your helpers; they’re going to be mad at you for allowing that mistake to happen in the first place.

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Here’s the lineup of my guest contributors this month:

Take the Sting Out of Stress When Moving Offices – by Zachary Rook

And, Or, But – How to Handle Objections – by Julie Garland McLellan

How To Design a Marketable Signature System – by Ling Wong

Using Lists to Draw Web Traffic and Media Attention – by Mickie Kennedy