20 tips to see things clearly

Have you ever noticed that the closer you look at something the more out of focus it gets? Try holding your business card at the end of your nose and reading it and you’ll see what I mean. 

As marketers and business people, we all get stuck into our businesses and we often live and breathe every aspect of our businesses, but occasionally we get too involved and all too often to our detriment. We pay lip service to the advice of others. We get hung up on the small niggling things that overwhelm us. We worry about everything with the same degree of importance from the cost of envelopes, to losing a new client pitch. We unnecessarily criticize our performance. We have easy habits. If you have a few days like this every week, then it’s time to make change step back from the coalface. The value to you and your business in doing this can be immense.

So here’s a thought, step away from your business and see how much clearer it will appear. Here are my top 20 tips for getting a clearer picture. Do all or some of the following:

1.    Call me!

2.    Go on holiday

3.    Take a day off and write down all the things you can do differently in your job

4.    Go to a museum or an art gallery for a whole day and use a dictaphone to record your thoughts on what you might do differently when you get back to work

5.    Turn off your phone for a day

6.    Listen to your own voicemail recording and see if it is due for a change

7.    Deactivate your email account for a week

8.    Don’t read anything for a week

9.    Stop using social media for a week

10. Try writing a quotation or a client proposal from scratch using only your memory

11. Go and talk to a perfect stranger about your business challenges…(me)

12. Write a story about your business journey so far

13. Write down your top 5 specific marketing challenges

14. Change the layout of your workspace

15. Create a diversion day at work – fancy dress, job swaps, rent a new office for a day, create an improvement wall for ideas

16. Write down 20 things you could do differently in your business

17. Buy a brand new notepad and pen

18. Try rewriting your to do list without looking at the existing one

19. Ring your first ever customer and ask why they bought from you

20.  Ask a customer what they would do if they ran your company