5 Things Small Business Owners Need To Know This Week

Five Things To Know This?Week:

1) How to Improve Your Focus

2) How to Improve Your Memory

3) Should You Buy a Treadmill Desk?

4) Increasing Customer Loyalty

5) Business Owner Spotlight: JoAnn Cilla

Happy Tuesday January 24th!?

Ubuntu is a South African term that, translated, means?"I am because we are."

When we open our senses, and make ourselves available to the miracles and possibilities in our world, we strengthen our connections with others and the universe. Imagine the positive impact!

It sounds good to me; I'm in.

Brian

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1. How to Improve Your Focus

If you’re like many of us, it’s become harder to maintain focus and all too easy to slip down rabbit holes scrolling through social media, playing Wordle, or numerous other distractions. Mashable talked to Dr. Gloria Mark, Ph.D., a psychologist and professor whose research found that 47 seconds is the average 21st-century attention span on a computer screen.

On Mashable’s blog, Mark offers advice from her new book,?Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity, including “three go-to strategies for maintaining your attention span.”

Learn more?about replenishing your attentional resources and how to?do more by doing less .

2. How to Improve Your Memory

In the same vein, Vox talked to Charan Ranganath, also a professor, who says, “If we remembered everything that we experienced, our brains would be hoarders, clogged with all sorts of useless crap that gets in the way of what we really need.”

Tying in with what Dr. Mark talks about in her book (mentioned in #1), we can only remember what we pay attention to. And in today’s “constantly plugged-in, always-on world, people are faced with a barrage of information — emails, news, pointless meetings, traffic updates, chitchat from family members,” it’s increasingly difficult to pay attention.

This article is filled with tips, including how to use technology to your advantage.?

Read more?about “making even everyday moments memorable. ”

3. Should You Buy a Treadmill Desk?

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to get more exercise? Mine too. But it’s hard for busy entrepreneurs like us to find the time to work out when we have so much to do.

Since many business owners are skilled at multitasking, why not work and work out at the same time?

WorkLife talked to one devotee who spends almost her entire workday at her treadmill desk. She says that since she started simultaneously walking and working, her cholesterol and blood pressure have improved, as have her focus, productivity, and motivation.

Read more?about the?benefits of a treadmill desk .

4. Increasing Customer Loyalty

Every business dreams of having a base of loyal customers they can count on. But even your most loyal customers are likely not satisfied every time they do business with you.

In this article on?Harvard Business Review, the authors suggest business owners should “learn to appreciate complaining customers” because “companies that handle complaints in a great way create stronger customer loyalty.”

The good news is that customer loyalty has risen in the last 12 years, particularly among millennials.

Learn more?about how to?create loyal customers .

5. Business Owner Spotlight: JoAnn Cilla Real Estate

Who leaves a big, well-established brand to start a competing business in the middle of a pandemic??JoAnn Cilla.

In November 2020, my brother Colin called me about a business partner who wanted to start her own real estate agency. He asked if I could give her some advice. I jokingly responded, "Sure, don't do it!" Thankfully, that wasn't the advice I gave to JoAnn Cilla. I did tell her that it would be a difficult, rocky road and that she would need the right mindset to successfully navigate her uncharted path.

JoAnn opened her agency on March 1, 2021. Today, she has her own building in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with four real estate agents, an assistant, and over 70 five-star online reviews from satisfied clients.

Even with the market downturn, home sellers and buyers continue to call JoAnn via referrals from family and friends. JoAnn is successful because she is willing to take strategic, calculated risks when other businesses are in "hunker down" mode. And she believes in herself and her agents.?

Click?here ?to learn more about JoAnn's business and hear her story.

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