Brevity counts.

This is a guest post by Brian Lash who can be found at his entrepreneurial blog BrianLash.com (feed).

When it comes to professional commication, brevity counts.  In writing, in speech.  Always.

It’s a valuable lesson I’ve learned over the years - That people appreciate concision.  Because when you’re brief, when you use precise words and adopt a to-the-point tone, people recognize that you aren’t going to waste their time.

But concision shouldn’t be confused with imprecision.  A quick message doesn’t imply a message that was developed haphazardly.  Instead, the emphasis is on clear-headed thinking; It takes an incisive mind to say in a few words what others tell in a paragraph or a short speech.

Following are three simple rules that have helped me to internalize this lesson as it relates to my professional life as an entrepreneur.  I emphasize writing here, but they apply equally to the spoken word:

1. Put every line you write on trial for its life.  Ask the question, “Can I deliver my message effectively without using these words?”  When they answer is Yes, you’ll know what to do.
2. Abandon your middle school grammar lessons.  Okay, not all of them.  But there’s a curious truth to the writing skills we learn through formal schooling - they sap us of our creativity.  And they allow (encourage?) us to be long-winded.
3. Take a few risks.  It’s tough to change a writing style.  I know it.  But it becomes easier as you take more risks.  You’ll soon find that you’re stringing words together in fun, new ways.  And that you’re finding clever shortcuts to convey your meaning - simply and clearly - with far fewer words.

I admit that these aren’t universal laws - that some professional messages need to be redundant in the interest of clarity, or long-winded in the interest of protecting parties to a legal agreement, or…

But they’re useful guidelines when sending e-mails.  When writing blog posts.  And more genearlly, when delivering a message to a sharp but busy audience.

Your suppliers, your distributors, your customers, your collaborators: all will appreciate your thoughtfulness when you show some respect for their time.

So say what you need to say.  Then get on with it.

Going Away For A Week

Hey Guys. Well as I said before, things have been hectic around here, but I can safely say that the Easter Holidays are nearly upon us. However, I am leaving tomorrow (Friday 30th) morning to go on a Geography Field Trip. I am going for about a week and returning on the following Thursday in the evening.

In the mean while, I’ve just emailed a friend to see if he’ll be able to look after the blog whilst I’m away. This will involve him responding to comments and writing a few posts if he’s got the time, just to keep things ticking over (and because I havn’t written any advance posts - I’ll try and do a few now!). I can’t say for sure who the moderator will be because nothing’s been confirmed but you’ll either hear from me or from the new writer in the next few days.

As usual, emails sent via the contact form will take a week to be replied to, so sorry in advance for any inconvenience caused. If you’re itching to ask me something, then you should shoot over an email quick so I can answer it tonight.

In the mean time, I wish you guys a happy Easter and I hope to speak to you in a week or so’s time!

What To Do When Tiredness Creeps In

It’s a fact in life. Unless you’re some machine with no feeling of mental or physical strain, you’re gonna get tired. This tiredness can come in any form - the most usual of that being the physical limits that you experience when you’re zonked out. Right now, I’m even finding it hard to type this post out - that’s the extent of my fatigue.

But as an entrepreneur, this feeling can be dangerous. Especially if you run online businesses. This is because your hands are needed to write those all important emails to your programmer, those all important blog posts and check those all important bank balances and earnings accounts. Tiredness in short can be damaging.

Thankfully though for us humans, there is a cure for fatigue…rest. By resting, we replenish our energy and normally catching 40 winks can help to give you new life and help you to carry on with whatever work you’re doing. The damaging part to business, comes in when this tiredness can extend over 12, 24 or even 48 hours. Oh no!

So, here are a few tips to help avoid tiredness in the afternoon and early evening - a time which is especially crucial for us internet webbies in the UK who wait for the Americans to wake up before conducting business! Note that there may be no right answer, but the following have helped me personally from day to day:

1. Have a good night’s rest: In my experience, I need at least 8 hours for me to wake up feeling invigorated and fresh and to not want to curl up and go back to sleep.

2. Try not to have a huge lunch: Yes, you probably all know this one, but having a full blown 3 course meal at midday can make you feel extremely lethargic and will probably make you want to have a nap - so try to have a little bite to eat and have your main meal in the evening.

3. Exercise: Again, I could probably write another post on this - in fact, I already have done here. Exercise is extremely important to help circulate blood to different parts of your body. Sure, you may feel tired after an extreme workout, but a gentle 30 minute jog or walk can help new ideas to pop into your head or can help clear your head from stresses and strains.

4. Take a break: I’m not saying that you should nap, but take half an hour to lay out in front of the Tele, watch a documentary on wildlife, or read that special book you’ve been wanting to get a few chapters of.

These are just a few, so feel free to add some tips of your own.

If you can’t cure your tiredness throughout the day - and you just may not be able to reduce fatigue, then record what times of the day you feel most active. You must try and work and be productive as much as possible in that time so that you can afford to relax a little when you are knackered.

Tiredness can be a killer, for you and your business - but if you follow a few steps, exercise well and eat properly, then you should be able to last throughout the day without any breaks in between.

When Is It Time To Change Blog Themes?

Recently, when I realised that I had passed my first birthday as a Blogtrepreneur, I decided it was time for a change. I had got all too used and tired with standardised blog themes and wanted to stand out, to be different, and to put myself in a different light by getting a new theme that would depict my entrepreneurial flare.

The hiring of the designer was easy - and in fact I’ll be making a whole post on the design part of the blog and the designer himself (for the time being, he goes by the name Connor and you can check out his blog here).

Instead, in this post I want to focus on the reasons for changing blog themes and when the time is right to swap your industry standard layout for a brand spanking new one. I decided it was time to change blog themes when…:

• My old theme started taking ages to load up after bogging it down with too many features, with too many plugins and with too many widgets (I blame MyBlogLog!)
• I logged onto the site to be greeted by a disaster scene where text and images had been flung all over the place, and the site lacked real direction.
• My writing was affected due to the lack of thrust and flare I had for my blog design
• I had problems trying to position pictures into a post due to some dodgy coding
• You go onto other blogs and realise that your site is missing some important features.
• You’re just downright bored and want a change in your life (this feeling here is probably caused by personal feelings and has nothing to do with blogging or the internet!)

Making a blog theme appealing to visitors can be quite a task as I’ve found out. There are certain elements which you need to include, especially in the header - things like logo, search bar, advertising and deep linking all need to be done significantly but not in moderation. Balance is the key and I think I’ve cracked the design after a few days working with the programmer.

The sidebar has also caused quite a lot of thinking to occur. The main reason is that a lot of space is needed for the different elements associated with a sidebar - archives, categories, ads, polls, interactivity, etc. However, we came up with an ingenious idea to solve this - the use of AJAX! Yes, in the redesign, all you interactive lovers will see slidy sidebars! I won’t expand into too much detail but you can see what I mean hopefully - so be excited.

OK, well I don’t want to spoil any more aspects of the design, but Im just building the tension so I can have an awesome relaunch of Blogtrepreneur. Tell your friends/family/dog/cat!

P.S. As there’s still time for change, are there any features/design elements that you would like to see in the redesign? Feel free to comment or shoot me a detailed email!

Happy Belated 1st Birthday Blogtrepreneur!

In the hubub of school, homework and moving this blog into stage 2 of its design life, I completely missed my own 1st Birthday! On the 26th of February 2006, I made my first “Welcome” post on my Blogger account. Since then, I’ve only racked up 180 or so posts, but the growth in terms of traffic, RSS and income has been staggering and truly worth the wait.

Advice: If you create a blog, spend time writing, writing and writing more because content really is king and will pay for itself tenfold in the future.

So as a quick summary, I just want to thank you - my readers for having stuck with me over the past year, or if you’ve just joined thanks for droppping by. I hope I can last another year by going from strength to strength.

P.S. As a little Birthday treat for myself, I’m getting a new blog design! But expect more info on this throughout the week. And as an unrelated pressie, I just one $10 in a competition courtesy of Stuart from PimpMyPageRank.com. Check out the next one for your chance to win $10 as well!

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