Adding More Structure to My Workday: An Experiment
I’ve heard it said that when it comes to success in business, you live or die by your calendar. Striking a balance between client work, marketing work, admin work, and “me” work has always been a struggle for me. I go into my days with a solid to-do list and tend to accomplish much – […]
Are You in Business for the Right Reason?
I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 14 years. In that time I’ve learned a lot about business, and I still have a lot more to learn. Occasionally I like to sit back and reflect on things…how far we’ve come, how much further we have to go, where the new opportunities lie, and so on. […]
The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Building A Brand Online
13 years. That’s how long I’ve been at this entrepreneurship thing. For 10 of those years, I’ve been using social networks (Happy Birthday, Twitter!) to connect, share and build my brand. Ugh. That sounds so pretentious. The truth is, there was a group of us doing that connection thing online well before the social media […]
Give Up Excuses and Your Business Will Thrive
I am part of several online groups made up of people from all walks of life. Many of them are business owners, like me. I contribute to the groups when I have something to offer, but often I just listen in on the conversations. I’ve noticed a curious trend in these groups, and it’s gotten […]
Three Less Obvious Secrets to Bringing in New Business
This year we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the formation of Jester Creative. For 10 years, we’ve been able to consistently provide production services of all sorts – video, web design, digital marketing, print design and training – to a wide variety of clients of all kinds, across many different industries. We feel very […]
Rising to the Challenge of Scale
I haven’t been blogging here much at all lately. In fact, my last post was nearly three weeks ago. Totally unlike me. At first, I felt the usual pangs of guilt about it. “I really should be blogging more,” the conversation in my head went, “I’m doing a horrible job of walking my own talk.” […]
Easing the Financial Risk of Self Employment
This September, my partner and I will be celebrating 10 years of having our own business. I’ve learned about a million things in that time. Some of them were hard lessons. Others taught me a lot about my abilities. All of it has raised my self confidence and skills to new levels. Taking the plunge […]
Ottawa Entrepreneurs Come Out at Night On May 25th
Many years ago, when my business partner and I started our company, we did like many other new entrepreneurs and took a big leap. We jumped off the cliff and into the great unknown. We learned as we went, and made as many mistakes as we did things right. We were in it before the […]
Zen and the Art of Being Patient in Business
Everyone’s talking about execution these days. Seth’s talking about it over here. Ok, well it’s mostly Seth, but well, we should all be listening to him anyway. Execution is critical to success in business, and it’s the very thing that many people fall short on. Lots of people get wrapped up in the thrill of […]
How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
Ok, alright. The title of the post might be a bit misleading. I am a firm believer that anything you do takes a certain amount of trying. Real work, I call it. But I’ve been thinking about success a lot lately…about what it is that makes people successful and what makes them unsuccessful. What I’m […]