Duh.

Every one of my friends who runs their own business reports the same thing: they can’t stop their mind from spinning when they finally, at the end of a looong day, fall into bed. There are a million things on your ToDo list and you’re the Numero Uno for deciding everything. You’re emotionally invested in your business in a way a wage or hourly employee could never be. A friend once remarked, “small business, big ambition”. You’re thinking, dreaming, planning, marketing, selling in your mind all day. And of course, it doesn’t stop just because you know you have to get some sleep.

Is this just one of the hazards of small business ownership?

As it turns out, no, its not. Believe it or not, the incessant mind chatter is not due to the millions of things you have to do, it has to do with the way you do them. Ever heard of multi-tasking? Sure. Its been popularized as the key trait to develop. Unfortunately, its also the cause of a good deal of the noise between your ears. How is that?

First, let’s do a quick primer on how computers process multiple tasks at once.

A computer is excellent at processing computations sequentially. It can do one calculation or instruction at a time, but very quickly. So for example, if you click on a link, your computer is going to be processing, sending, receiving and finally rendering a web page. But what happens if, in the middle of your browser calculating those instructions, you click on your iTunes to change the song that is playing?

Your computer has to:

1. Stop the current task that it is doing
2. Save any data and the current state of the process to RAM (short term memory)
3. Retrieve the instructions and current state of the new process and begin processing.
4. When complete (or the user switches back to the old task), it must stop what it is doing
5. Save any data and the current state of the new process to RAM.
6. Retrieve the instructions and state of the old process from RAM.
7. Begin processing.

As you can see there is a great deal of overhead when switching from one task to another. Due to the fast processing power of a computer and because a computer works differently than your brain, you generally don’t see this overhead.

Now imagine you’re at your desk working on your finances, when you hear a “Ding” that you got a new email. You stop what you’re doing, your brain stores the current state of your finances to short term memory, and you look at your email. Then you save the email to your short term memory, pick back up the finances. 5 minutes later you get a phone call – same thing happens. 5 minutes later you remember something you forgot about your recent marketing campaign. The sum total is that for a given hour of work, you’ve lost a huge portion of that to multi-tasking (or more appropriately named, switch tasking).

How does this all relate to having trouble falling asleep?

Our brains and behavior, unlike a computer, is adaptable. We can develop habits in the long term and in the short term. If you have become accustom to constantly switching from one task to another throughout the day, when you lay down to go to sleep, your brain will continue the same process. It is not used to focusing on just one thing anymore and so will be spinning from one idea to the next. This is the major reason why most of us small business owners have trouble falling asleep or doing even much else without still thinking about our business.

But this is a good thing right? We’re thinking and improving our business?

Well besides the trouble falling asleep, no, this type of thinking is not usually very productive. Quality ideas and progress happen after focusing one thing for a sustained period of time. Flipping through ideas in our head, rarely comes up with an idea of any quality. And if you do come up with something decent, it will probably be pushed out of your short term memory in short order.

Solutions?

For me, blocking off sections of time that I dedicate to different activities works miracles. Also, turning off email, text and phone notification during those times help as well. My voicemail tells callers that I will return their call within 2 hours. That way I can turn the phone off and they will still feel relieved that they know when I’ll get back to them. The ASAP mentality is very prone to multi-tasking. The when mentality is prone to effective thinking, delivery and ultimately customer satisfaction.

Dave Crenshaw wrote a fantastic book called The Myth of Multitasking. Its a quick read and I recommend picking it up. If you sign up for his newsletter, there’s a series of videos that will show you some valuable strategies to help you move onto a better mode of operating than switch tasking.

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Are reviews in one or the other enough. I say no and its important to get reviews in multiple places – in particular Google Places. Here’s why:

1. Google is an established giant on the internet. They’re not going any where and they define web search. If you are not listed or don’t have a good ranking in Google places, anyone who searches for your services via the web will not find you.
2. Google recently started omitting inclusion of Yelp reviews into Google Places. So if you have reviews on Yelp, they won’t translate into Google search results for you. So, not only do you want a Google Places listing, but you also want your customers to give you reviews for your Google listing.
3. Yelp is not an internet giant. They are a start-up firm founded on venture capital funding and looking for a buyer, i.e. they’re not a done deal.

I highly recommend taking the few minutes to create the Google Places listing. And ask some of your customers to review your listing. Copy the link to your place and email it to them. Tell them you’re asking for help to grow your business and, if you have a moment, would you mind reviewing your listing? Thanks so much.

Or something to that effect. If you’re not sure how to create this listing, sign up for my free e-book.  It is free – for now – and available – for now.

Good luck!

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Do you know or remember any really great teachers? What was one thing they all had in common?

My answer is, a great teacher can easily convey potentially very confusing topics in a fun, engaging way that is unique to the audience and moment.

Our ability to understand any given topic is limited by our mood, personality and current interaction with the teacher. If the teacher uses the same words for every person all the time, chances are, they’ll have limited success.

My acupuncturist was offered a great opportunity to write health articles for a respected online journal. Now, from my experience, she has a real talent for teaching. But she objected to writing a blog or article because she felt that there was no way to convey a teaching through print or the web, because there are just “too many ways of explaining the same thing. And it depends on reading the body language of the person you’re talking to”.

Here’s 2 tips for writing blog posts that I’ve come across that help me through this hurdle.

1) Use stories. We humans are social creatures and can understand (and engage with) a story better than a logical outline. Think about the enduring teachings that last thousands of years (Bible, Koran, Gilgamesh, an apple falling on Newton’s head), they are all stories. Find a way to say what you want to say using metaphors and stories. This will help people “fill in the gaps” of understanding with what is common experience.

2) Say the same thing twice. Or say it almost the same way twice. If you’re writing a blog or for a journal, you’re going to feel that “Hm, what should I write about today” from time to time. Don’t be afraid to re-visit a (popular) topic. Find a unique or new way to look at the topic and write about it. This way you’ll help your readers get a deeper understanding of the material.

How do you explain tough topics online or in print? Please leave a comment and share your experience.

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Tips for dressing to impress in your photos

A couple rules of thumb should be followed when prepping yourself for a shoot for your professional portraits.

1. Make sure the clothing you choose, whether it be business formal or business casual is something you feel comfortable in. This means that the clothes should fit properly, not be wrinkled, torn, stained or have buttons missing (these things will show in your pictures). For the ladies, if you can’t sit comfortably without having to yank or adjust your clothing, you should rethink your outfit. There is no need to go out and buy new clothes, wear something you have in your closet and know you look good in. Think about the outfits or accesories you have gotten compliments about in the past and chose accordingly.
2. Have a variety of options to choose from for the photographer to mix and match.
3. All black or all white clothing,very bright colors, loud prints or stripes are not recommended. Stick to soft color palettes that compliment your skin tone. If you’re not sure, bring a few options to view with your photographer.
4. Make sure that you’ve had a good night’s rest. Stay hydrated and make sure you’ve had some food before your shoot. Lights get hot, most people are nervous and sometimes shoots can be long ordeals. Being prepared ahead of time means you’ll get the best shots possible.

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Detection and Protection from Spyware

Part 1 of this 2 part series looked at how common Spyware is. Let’s now take a look at how to protect your computer, privacy and identity from spyware attacks. Here are a few solutions for spyware along with my personal recommendation.

We’ve already talked about Virus Protection. In that article I recommended my personal favorite, Kaspersky. Their Internet Security Software does provide protection against most spyware. While their Anti-virus protection is excellent, their spyware protection is less so. Many Anti-virus (AV) firms claim Spyware protection, but really don’t offer end-to-end protection. They are virus experts not spyware experts.

So where do you get full spyware protection?

The best tool I like is Hijack This. Their Spyware protection received the highest 5 stars on a CNET review. Their software generates a list of potential spyware installations, allows you to analyze their threat level and remove them. The downside, and this is big, its not for beginners. If you’re not very comfortable on a computer, I can’t recommend this software for you. It takes a bit of knowledge and personal skill to identify what is a risk and what is not and you could end up removing something that you shouldn’t.

Spyware Terminator is the best solution for non-computer experts. It has a reasonably good user interface, provides good detection and protection against spyware. You can download it here. For most people, this option will be the one to go with.

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I met Anjuli Hicks, a licensed counselor, over the phone today. We got to talking about blogs and providing useful information for her patients and clients. One concern she brought up was in mental health counseling there is a very strict ethics requirement to protect the patient from doing themselves any harm.

What if a reader had suicidal thoughts and misconstrued an article and hurt him/herself as a result?

This concern is valid for really any type of healthcare practitioner from mental health, to physical health to veterinarian health.

I see 2 parts to this question:

1. Protecting the actual patient from doing something harmful
2. Protecting yourself from malpractice and related unpleasantness

The 2nd is the easiest to answer as it has a concrete response that’s been proven out over the last 10 years. Websites have a Terms of Use page. This web page is a legal document posted on your website that, in effect says, by reading the website, the reader agrees not to hold you accountable. These Terms of Use are very standard now and offer a good deal of protection for the author.

Here’s WebMD.com’s Terms of Use. They do have a Mental Health section of their website. They also provide a general information disclaimer that you can see on the bottom of every page.

As for the 1st part of the ethics and blogs question, yes, this is more complicated. WebMD has been very successful, so I’ll use them as an example. The articles they post generally don’t rock the boat on thoroughly accepted medical practices. For example, their article on whether antidepressents might be harmful walks right down the established road. And I definitely wouldn’t expect to see an article that says throw out your antidepressants. In these articles they do not add any additional disclaimers; all they have is the Terms of Use and the additional statement at the bottom of the page.

But what if you don’t want to limit your articles?

Well, here’s another WebMD page that on the bottom has a blurb about Cymbalta, an antidepressant. The text has right at the top a big, bolded instruction that tells the reader, if they have suicidal thoughts to immediately call a doctor.

I did not easily find medical professionals talking about not using antidepressants as a rule. There is a Washington Post article on a study linking antidepressants with suicide. They are not medical professionals, though, so its hard to take anything away from this example.

My conclusion, so far, is to be conservative in your writing on topics that may in any way potentially expose the wrong person to a dangerous situation. In any case, blog articles are meant to be helpful, not curative. The percentage of articles that you write on these “high risk” topics should be very low, if not zero.

Also, keep your articles very specific. Instead of writing an article “10 things to help you through your depression”, writing something like “10 techniques to stay focused in your class or office”. This way you can more easily avoid reader confusion or mis-understandings.

So what are your options to write about health issues online?

1. Protect yourself with a good, solid Terms of Use. Email me and I’ll shoot you several resources to find medical terms of use for about $30.
2. Have an additional statement on the bottom of every page saying you are not diagnosing or providing medical advice.
3. If you’re writing on a “safe” topic, maybe dealing with ADHD in school or bandaging minor abrasion, you don’t have to do anything else.
4. If you’re writing on a topic that might be potentially dangerous to the wrong person (or you have any doubt), there’s nothing wrong with putting a large, bolded instruction/warning to call a doctor or dial 911 if the reader might be at risk of serious injury. BUT before writing, ask yourself if the article is really needed, or if you can focus the article on a more specific, safer topic.
5. Another option to consider if you find yourself writing on tough topics often is to make the articles private to only your patients. That option might give you a little more control over the readership.

We have several excellent attorneys that we consult with. Let us know if you want further legal advice on these topics.

— This article and website does not provide legal advice. The writings, marketing advice and topics covered do not replace a qualified, licensed attorney. Please see our Terms of Use for more information.

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Here are some basics for uploading new images from your computer. For adding images from a web page, click here.

1. First click the Add image icon as shown.
   
2. Next Browse for and select the image you want to post from your computer.
   
3. Wordpress will upload the image. Next write a few words that describe the image. Put these words in the text boxes as shown. If you want a caption visible to readers, add it to the Caption text box as well. If you want the text to wrap on the right side of the image, select left align. If you want the text on the left side, select right align. Also, select the size of image to show, either Thumbnail, Medium or Large. When a user clicks on the image, it will display full size in a pop up. You will be able to change this later. Finally click the “Insert into Post” button.
   
4. Your image will now be in your post. Click here for how to edit your image size, captions, alignment or other.

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We all make mistakes, especially if one of your posts has HTML tables, images or anything that makes your post or page more complicated. Luckily, Wordpress saves a history of the changes you make. This means you can “undo” your changes and go back to a prior version.

At the bottom of the page or post is a box called “Post Revisions” or “Page Revisions”. It shows the date and time of each revision that Wordpress has in its history. If it says “[autosave]” next to a date and time, that means that is a revision that Wordpress automatically saved without you clicking Update or Publish or Save Draft.

To “undo” your changes, click on a date and time you know is good.

You’ll be taken to a page where you can compare different revisions or restore an old revision. To restore an old revision, click on the “Restore” link to the right of the date and time of the revision you want. Then click the “Save Draft”, “Publish” or “Update” buttons depending on what stage of the post publishing you are at.

If you are not sure which is the good revision, you can compare different versions. Use the radio buttons to select the revisions you want to compare. Then select “Compare Revisions”. You’ll see text in different colors indicating it is different between the 2 revisions. Using the Compare Revisions, you can find the revision you want. Once you do, simply click the “Restore” link.

That’s it. Happy posting,

Chris

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If you’re still skeptical that you even need a website, take a look at these statistics.

1,600 people search each month for the terms “back pain nyc”.

If you’re in the business of fixing back pain, that’s 1,600 people who will never find you.

What is your average net revenue from each patient? How many new patients would you need to pay for our Create Your New Website package?

If you’re similar to our other clients, probably 1-3 new patients?

Google Searchs for Back Pain NYC

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Thanks to everyone who made it. It was a… sweltering day, but the evening was perfect on the rooftop, not too hot at all.

Here are some pics.

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