Business Growth Insights

Everyone has times when their memory fails them; suddenly you can’t remember someone’s name, or where you’ve met them or important dates that you should have remembered. But as common as it may be, it can still be frustrating and embarrassing. Numerous books and resources are available to help overcome this annoying malady. Here are 10 of the most popular tips and tricks for improving your memory to help you grow your business.

1. Focus
Being distracted when you are trying to absorb new information is a sure-fire way to never remember what is being said. Pay attention when people are speaking and really focus on what they’re saying.

2. Ask
A good way to remember facts or information that is being relayed to you is to ask questions about it. The more details you gather, the larger the pool of information you’ll have to draw on in your memory.

3. Repeat
If it’s something as simple as a name or date that you want to remember; try repeating to yourself several times. This will help the facts stick in your mind.

4. Convert
Try turning information into a pattern or picture that gives the plain data more impact. For example, maybe you want to remember that your friend Alan’s birthday is on the 8th of the month. You could tell yourself that the A in Alan can be turned into an 8 by adding a few lines. Now you’ve converted the information to something you can remember.

5. Connect
Try to find a connection between new information that you want to remember with something personal.

6. Expand
Learning more about a subject is a good way to make details stick. Just do a quick Internet search of the new information you’ve received to help clarify and define the data in your memory.

7. Visualize
Create a picture in your mind of the thing that you want to remember. Often, the more exaggerated the picture the better. For example, to remember the name Dave you might rhyme it with wave and then picture that person riding a surf board to the office. The next time you pass his desk, you might have a funny smile on your face, but you will probably remember his name!

8. Write
Whenever you can, take a moment to write down information you want to remember. The act of writing it down helps commit it to memory. If you’ve been introduced to several people at a social function, for example, it is sometimes a good idea to step away from the group for a moment and jot down bits of pertinent information.

9. Act
If you want to remember how to do something from what someone has shown you, or from instructions you’ve read, the best way is to try and do it yourself. It’s like trying to remember the rules to a game. You read through them but you don’t often understand them until you actually play a round.

10. Speak
When trying to absorb written information, it is often helpful to read it aloud. Your brain not only sees but hears the information and as a result may retain it better.

Apply these techniques and you’ll be on your way to a better memory!

Almost every person alive procrastinates at one time or another; it’s human nature. But for some people, procrastination can be extremely damaging to both their professional and personal well-being. In business particularly, procrastination can keep progress and success from ever happening. Our business consulting and business coaching experts often cite procrastination as one of the hardest obstacles for business owners to overcome. So why do we procrastinate, and how can we control it?

First let’s look at the why. Most of us procrastinate for two reasons; either we believe that the task at hand is too large for us to tackle, or it’s simply something we find unpleasant to do. You have to understand why you have a procrastination issue before you can figure out how to overcome it.

Here are some ways you can tame this time-sucking monster:

Shrink the task. When a task seems too large or overwhelming, it often helps to break it down into smaller pieces. There’s an old proverb that’s always good to remember. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” Sometimes once we’ve started on a small piece of the project, we build a momentum that takes over and we continue on to the finish.

Know it. Make sure you have all the information relevant to the task. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed because of the way something sounds to us, when in fact, it isn’t actually that way at all. For example, you feel overwhelmed if you think you have to take inventory and wait on customers at the same time, when in fact, extra help has been brought in to handle the customers so you can focus on getting the task completed.

Plan. Once you have all the information, draw up a plan of action for getting the task completed. This way you can see the steps you need to take and check them off to monitor your progress.

Set a goal. Some past procrastinators say that setting a deadline helps them to beat procrastination. Getting focused on the deadline drives them to complete the task.

Visualize. Some people are motivated to get the job done by visualizing all the benefits that will come from completing the project.

Grit your teeth. Try to do those things that you least like right away. Chances are you have to do them eventually anyway so why not get them done and out of the way.

Reward yourself. Promise yourself some type of reward for completing the project. For a large project, write breaks into your plan and give yourself something special each time you reach one of those breaks.

Understand consequences. Identify the disadvantages of not completing the task at hand and ask yourself if you are willing to live with them.

The first real step in conquering procrastination is recognizing it as a part of your personality. Try to determine what your procrastination triggers are and work to avoid them. It will undoubtedly take effort to change a habit as strong as procrastination can be, but stay determined! Your life will be all the better for it!

If you liked this article, share it with your friends using one of our sharing buttons. If you have a blog or website, you can link to this article or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.OneCoach.com as the original source).

We recently hosted two group business coaching calls on a topic that is often considered controversial. That topic is outsourcing. First, there are many different variations to outsourcing, including using interns from your local college or university where they intern in your business for little or no pay in exchange to learn your business.

The point of contention always comes down to outsourcing overseas. Is this really an ethical way to do business, especially in the recessionary economy we’re experiencing in the U.S.? Isn’t this unpatriotic to be sending work to the Philippines… or to India… or Singapore when so many Americans are struggling?

Our strategic partner at ReplaceMyself.com has listed all the options available to small business owners for possible outsourcing. Many of them are U.S. based, so you can use U.S. based contractors if you so choose. Naturally the biggest difference will be the pay. In the U.S. you will pay $15 to $20 per hour instead of $1 to $3 per hour, and possibly risk getting lower quality with the U.S. worker.

Please remember that it’s our job to help “small business owners.” Small business owners have two strikes against them from the start. Unlike a bigger company that has access to personnel and departments to carry forth their mission, the solo-professional is wearing 5,000 hats all at the same time.

Is it any wonder that over half of all small businesses fail within the first four years? And yet, no one denies the simple fact that it’s the small business owner that creates the most opportunity for Americans. It’s the small business owner that hires the workers once they get their business up and going.

It’s the small business owner who pays the taxes and is our only future hope for paying off our unbelievably high national debt. It’s my belief that outsourcing helps the U.S. economy… rather than hurt it.

Let me give you a few excellent reasons why outsourcing is good for our U.S. economy and why I believe every small business owner should be doing it right now.

First, as a start up entrepreneur or business owner, outsourcing allows you to focus on your highest income-producing activities while leaving the income-draining activities to others better suited to performing these functions.

This frees you up to create new products, establish new services and spend more time marketing those products and services.

Second, outsourcing allows your company to grow so that you can hire internally. When you first start out, you are practically forced to do everything yourself. How can a start up business running everything on a shoestring budget afford to pay someone $20 an hour for menial labor?

And yet, nearly 80% of everything small business owners do daily is menial labor. I call them income-draining activities, since sales and marketing are the only two areas that produce revenue for your business.

However, if a start up business could afford to outsource these menial tasks at affordable rates such as those in the Philippines, that allows the small business to grow quickly and reach a point where it can then hire qualified U.S. workers at a higher wage.

Third, outsourcing doesn’t just apply to overseas outsourcing. You will indeed outsource to Americans as well. At OneCoach, we outsource our conference call service to a U.S. provider. We use a U.S. based communication company as well as a U.S. provider for our customer service and sales automation platforms.

But here’s the key to all of this. To me what is REALLY unpatriotic is to provide work… ANY WORK… to unqualified contractors… whether they’re U.S. based or overseas.

Find the people who can do the best job, whether they are American or not. NEVER reward inferior service providers just because they are American. You can’t afford to.

Fourth, our great country was founded on the basic principles of competition and innovation. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started out in their garages. And I guarantee you that when Bill Gates got started, IBM wasn’t there to ask him how they could help him get started.

That’s what makes America great. Outsourcing generates competition and competition causes innovation and innovation produces new “in demand” products and services and new “in demand” products and services are what fuel our economy.

And finally, outsourcing allows small business owners to compete with big business owners. It gives them an opportunity to get started… to get going… to get ahead… and do so without breaking the bank. It allows the little guy to achieve their dreams of working from home or starting a business.

So if you question your motives for outsourcing… or if someone else brings this up to you in discussion, keep these points in mind so you keep the discussion in the proper context. My job is to help all of you as small business owners build successful businesses and enjoy and extraordinary life. So I say… thank goodness for outsourcing!