Elvin Enters the Building, and other Small Biz Stuff

Weekly Wrap for Small Biz Owners

photo credit: Raymond Larose via photopin

It’s Wednesday … and time for a new wrinkle to my content marketing strategy – heh, heh. Sorry, can’t help chuckling. 

I don’t have a content marketing strategy <gasp>.  

I’m just try to small biz owners grow their business.  However, looking at my own glorious prose and annotated screenshots cobbled together with Microsoft Paint every-single-day is getting really old.  So here’s a wrap up of the stuff I’ve been grooving on lately culled from dozens of Google Reader subscriptions.

Elvin Enters the Building

WordPress just rolled out another platform update, with a sexy new media uploader (screenshot). And it may seem silly, but I totally dig the fact that the “Upload Media” button is bigger.  Say what you will about nitpicky armchair designers, tiny buttons just piss me off.  Read more about WordPress 3.5 here.

Killer B2B Twitter Tactics

Katherine Leonard just busted out a short but incredibly useful post this week on B2B Twitter Tactics.  I adore the fact that she used real and relevant examples, a rarity in marketing blogs these days. My favorite is #3 – “Use recognizable themes and language” … something I not really pondered on before that I plan on incorporating into my own daily outreach activities.  See the rest of them here.

Screenwriting is a Gateway Drug

Writer and creative coach Lisa Loop’s piece on better options for the now cliche aspiring screenwriter is cutting and motivating all at the same time – and its applicability to creative small biz owners was surprising.

“Is screenwriting really a stand-in for a different kind of work?”

You can replace screenwriting with any other hobby or service that is still in a ‘failure to launch’ mode.  My answer was “Yes”. So I dusted off a screenplay outline that I wrote years ago, and am re-working it into a graphic novel / manga. Will be formally announcing that project in the coming weeks.

The Steak Dinner of Productivity Blogs

Most productivity gurus spend all of their time talking about life hacks, to-do methodologies, and the psychology of procrastination.  Not Sebastian Marshall.  

“As bad as failure is, success can at times be worse. Because it’s sneaky. Success, especially outsized successes, have a way of setting you up to take your eye off the ball, to get off your gain, and to crash resoundingly hard.”

If you are done with the productivity appetizers littering the web, hop on over to Sebastian’s blog for the steak dinner.

Small Biz Reverse Psychology … or is it?

Chuck Blakeman’s work has radically changed the way I look at small business owners.  His recent post, “To make more money, do as little as possible” is a must-read piece for small biz owner.

“I have NEVER seen a small or local company go narrow and lose money doing it. Never.” – Chuck Blakeman

I Have a Fever for Citrus

I’ve been daydreaming a lot lately. As a busy small biz owner, I used to consider it a huge waste of time, but recently I’ve been beginning to see some benefits.

Here’s my recent obsession – Citrus, which strangely motivates me while giving my a peaceful sense of direction.  Can’t explain it, but not willing to argue with it either.

This particular habit has reminded me of some happy times traveling in Morocco and Spain. After daydreaming about orange and lemon filled courtyards 7,000+ miles from my nearest clients, I feel peaceful and motivated to get back there again.