Hey, small business owner – are you trying to boil the ocean?

We all have limits.

Like how much information we can hold in our short-term memory at any given time.

Turns out, it’s about 7 things.

Princeton cognitive psychologist, George A. Miller coined this limit as the “Magic number seven, plus or minus two.” His paper on the subject of short-term memory became so popular it became one of the most cited papers in his field.

The same limitations can apply to your small business. 

Every day you are trying to do too much with not enough time and conflicting priorities all screaming for your attention.

That’s when you make bad decisions.

Of course, business wasn’t always so complicated.

It wasn’t always so complicated

When I first stumbled into business, life was simpler.

Our office had an IBM Selectric typewriter, two phones and a photocopier that could crank out (on a good day) two passable copies a minute.

If you wanted to speak with a client you picked up the phone. If you wanted to send a proposal you started typing on two sheets of paper (one printed stationery, one blank) with a well-used piece of carbon paper sandwiched in-between. 

At the end of the day, we bundled up our letters and packages and headed to the corner mailbox.

It seems so ancient now, but when the workday ended, it really ended. No texting in your car or emails during dinner—when the day was over, it was really over. Life was simple.

Enter the modern age of trying to boil the ocean.

Trying to boil the ocean

In our modern age, when everything seems better than what was before, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

We are tempted by new, bright, and shiny ways to market and grow our company. New tricks for reaching our target market, attracting our avatars and converting followers to sales. In short, we are trying to do too much.

And there are lots of them. 

By the way, I would be remiss to not point out that the most successful “guru’s” teaching new fangled marketing and sales techniques didn’t actually make their millions until they figured out there was more money to be made teaching poor saps like me. Now back to boiling the ocean…

We are told we need email sequences, drip funnels, lead magnets, Facebook ad campaigns, videos going viral and web sites that convert. 

All good stuff, but here, dear business owner, is the catch. 

All of these wonderfully seductive plans take a whack load of time (ever tried to set up a CRM or sales funnel program?) and energy and here’s the real catch…

you might never see a dollar in return.

I know. I’ve tried most of them.

Your first mistake might be trying to boil the ocean – trying to do too much – trying to reach everyone but reaching nobody. 

It’s like thinking you need to build a brand and be recognized when what you really need is to start earning enough to pay yourself.

Of course, a brand is wonderful and we all want the phone to magically ring with new clients eager to throw money at us. 

But, often we need to walk before we run. Here’s an example.

One sale at a time

Last week, at BlogWorks HQ it occurred to me that we have a handful of clients who only use our social media service, but not our blog writing service. I saw an opportunity to help them.

So one morning I identified 11 clients who I thought might want us to write their blog or to refresh and republish old posts. I fired off a 3 sentence email invitation to a call and by the end of the day had booked 3 calls. Two more clients booked calls the following day. By the end of the following week, I had upgraded 3 clients to add a blog writing service (the other 2 are also considering the upgrade) and enjoyed a nice bump in MRR (monthly recurring revenue.)

Let’s look at what happened.

Eleven emails, 5 phone calls and now 3 happy clients who have a better service. Here’s the interesting part: in all cases, my clients told me my timing was perfect and they had just been thinking about getting help with their blog.

I could have chased after a dozen new, sexy marketing ideas. Or I could invite my clients to get on the phone to find out how I can help them.

Sometimes instead of trying to boil the ocean and reach everyone, we need to look for one sale at a time. You can begin by tying yourself to the mast.

Tie yourself to the mast

You will be tempted.

We all are tempted by the latest, greatest marketing, branding and sales strategies. I know of many colleagues who seem to have a “new and exciting” plan every month.

Like Ulysses in Homer’s Odyssey, sometimes we need to tie ourselves to the mast of what we have already committed resources to and avoid the temptation of the next “amazing, greatest” thing.

At BlogWorks, I am constantly reminding myself that only a few shortlist of actions will create the biggest results. Everything else is a waste of my time. 

So I have given myself 3 rules to follow. 

1. Show up with urgency – adopt a day-before-vacation attitude and “let small bad things happen”. Instead of constantly trying to do too much, start by blocking off Friday for writing, planning, reading, and thinking.
2. Stop doing low-value work – make a list of what fills your day and then remove all low-value work with a Stop Doing list. Examples: constantly updating social media, learning new software, checking email and making lists.
3. Think revenues, not branding – this is a hard one. Remember you are in business to make money (of course, you want to make clients happy and save the world, but first you have to put gas in your car). Evaluate all options in terms of the potential to return a profit in the immediate future. Remember, brand building does not pay your bills.

If you are serious about your business and tired of falling down unprofitable rabbit holes, I challenge you to follow this simple formula. Tell me in the comments what you think, or write to me.

Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to get you focused on what matters most:

The secret to getting sh*t done and 6 ways to get started

Why Working Less Might Make You More Productive

My ultimate productivity hack – do the hardest 50 in the first 90

Photo by Holly Rouselle on Unsplash