Posted by on Dec 1, 2009 in My Business Adventures | 0 comments

I can’t believe it’s December already. It’s just going way too fast. Each day is a blur because with a toddler around everything is just focused on him and before you know it, it’s 9pm before you feel like you have any “downtime”. I give single-parents credit…parenting is an insanely trying task. I can’t imagine doing it on my own. There are times where I’m folding the 2nd load of laundry (in as many days) at 11pm at night thinking, “how the heck did this happen in my life?”  It’s all good, but still staggering how much has changed.

Business is still a little odd. I got work…in fact I feel overwhelmed with projects on my table, but because of the nature of the way we get paid as designers, the cash flow is a little strained at the moment. It sucks when it happens just before Christmas but such as it is, I’ve been trying to put my game face on and just jam as much as I can. I worked up till 11pm last night and it looks like it may happen again today. I just need to make it happen.  My wife told me recently that part of my business problem is that I’m “too optimistic”.  I’m not sure about that, I think I fight my share of fears and demons about business, but we all know that attitude is everything when you run your own biz. Perhaps I’m using optimism to combat my fears?

Today I have to substitute for another chapter of BNI. It’s a big time sink and couldn’t have come at a worse time since I could really use the 3 hours of the day today working on project deadlines. But networking is one of those things that demands relationship building and personal time…so as much as I don’t want to go, I think I have to.

I’ve been trying to find other ways to market my business right now that doesn’t require as much personal attention. While personal networking demands a LOT of time, so has marketing online these days. I went to a conference a few weeks back and one of the references to online marketing compared it to being like “separating pee from a pool”.  In other words, there’s just SO much content online it’s harder then ever to stand out. So we all have to put in so much time writing these blogs, and now with social networking obligations, you can easily spend an hour or two each day just trying to get noticed.

So what marketing is left that doesn’t require as much personal attention? I’m not sure exactly….over the years I’ve grown less and less confidence in the effectiveness of print media (i.e., yellow pages, magazines, etc.)  I know that sounds weird coming from a guy who does design and marketing for a living…but in real world practice I think the costs of these forms of advertising needs to come down a bit for it to be viable. Otherwise most business owners will increasingly spend more of their marketing mix online where more and more people are spending their time and the cost of entry isn’t so prohibitive.

Well, time to get back to work… standby, I got a couple of pretty funny and interesting design finds coming up. I just need to find another break to put them up!