I'm Flipping Out

Yes, I finally succumbed to the peer pressure to purchase a Flip video camera for my business...and I love it!

In case you don't know what a Flip video camera is, here are some facts: it's very compact (about the size of an iPhone), it's "idiot proof" (there are only 3 buttons), and it uploads your videos directly to the internet via a USB connection.

Check out my first video, shot within 30 minutes of checking out at my local Target Store:

5 Ways to Put More Fun In Your Business

Have you seen the classic movie, "The Shining" with Jack Nicholson? One of my favorites scenes is when his wife discovers that the manuscript he's been working on in a remote, isolated hotel, miles from any other human contact contains 100s of pages with the same sentence written over and over again, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Gulp!

As an entrepreneur, it's easy to isolate yourself in your own world that consists primarily of 4 office walls, a to do list that's a mile long, and zero boundaries as far as what times your work day starts and ends. You might take pride in this and tout it as a strong work ethic. And you might be right...for most businesses, skating by just isn't going to cut it these days.

However, working too hard can also lead to lack of motivation and creativity, drops in productivity, and even death. (OK that last one probably sounds a little extreme, but the Japanese use a term, karoshi, which literally means "death from overwork.")

To see what entrepreneurs are doing to put a little bit of fun into their business, I conducted an informal survey. Here are the top responses:

1. Take It Outside: If you work in an office and especially if you work from home, try to schedule a little work time at the beach, local park, or even just the backyard. Some people recommended making meetings "mobile" by using their cell phone during outdoor strategy sessions. Others actively schedule certain business activities that can be done in their favorite fresh air venue.


2. Tweak Your Environment: Incorporate more of what inspires fun into your work space. This could be music, games, photos, kids, or pets. One woman confessed she keeps cans of Play-Doh on her desk. (Take a break right now and watch this fun, short video featuring 2.5 tons of Play-Doh and a 30-ft rabbit, by clicking here.)


3. Schedule (And Take) a Vacation: A study shows that up to 42% of American cancel their vacation plans "regularly." Another study, done by NASA scientists, concluded that "vacationers experienced an 82% increase in job performance post-trip" but that taking 2 or 3 days off did not deliver the same benefit as getting away for a couple of weeks. Put it on the calendar and then put the necessary pieces in place so your business can run without you while you're gone.
   
4. Do What You Love: This is where you hit the sweet spot. When you love everything you do in your business, everything feels like play. Hopefully, pursuing a field that you are passionate about or that allows you to use your strengths is one of the main reasons you started your business in the first place. Still, parts of running a business might get you down. So if you only love certain aspects of what you do, see if you can delegate out the rest.


5. Play Well With Others: Instead of working like a hermit in a self-imposed cubicle, mix and mingle with people you enjoy. Hunt and gather people with whom you actually want to spend time with and put them on your team, in your virtual communities & networks, and add them as clients.
   

Author, Seth Godin, has this to say in his book, Tribes:

"'Life's too short' is repeated often enough to be a cliche, but this time it's true. You don't have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It's not just pointless, it's painful. Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from."

This is a bit of a contradiction with point number 3 above, but very wise advice. Design your business the right way and you won't feel the need to runaway.

Why Plan B Is the Entrepreneur's Sidekick

Did you read a lot of comic books when you were a kid? If so, you might have noticed that many of the big name superheroes have sidekicks who are definitely the B players. They aren't big enough to be the headliner, but they make themselves useful now and then and sometimes even save the day.

What about you? Do you have a "sidekick" in your business? (Otherwise known as a Contingency Plan or what I like to call Plan B.)

In the New York Times bestseller, Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath, the authors mention an expression in the Army that goes simply, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." The same is true in life and in business and, as an entrepreneur, you've got to have that sidekick ready to go just in case of an emergency. And I guarantee, no matter how much planning you do in advance, something unexpected is bound to show up once in a while to spoil your day.

For instance, I taught a training called Tweeting for Dollars (For Clueless Entrepreneurs Only). If you missed it, grab your free CD here.

30 minutes before the call, I pulled up my conference line dashboard and made sure everything was set up correctly. Then 10 minutes before the training was scheduled to begin, my dashboard suddenly refreshed and flashed the words "Sorry, this event is over."

Houston, we have a problem.

In 8 minutes, I quickly put Plan B into action: I set up a new conference event, sent out a group email with the corrected information and managed to start the call on time. Afterwards, when the conference system would not release the audio recording of the event, I submitted a trouble ticket to let the conference service know about all the problems.

Here is their reply,

"This was an issue earlier brought to our attention, we have since resolved the issue. Our ISP changed one of our server's time zones for admin purposes without consulting with us. This caused the computer to think it was 7 hours in the future (when your event would be over) -- We changed the time zone, and it appears to be working now."

Can you plan for this kind of stuff? It's impossible! But you can prepare according to the belief that "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

Do you have back-up systems in case your computer crashes? (SOS Online Backup, Carbonite, and Mozy are good online options to check out.) If you record telephone conferences, do you have more than one recording system? Do you have someone who can step into your business and keep things running in case of an emergency? In other words...who's your sidekick? I encourage you to create the back up systems necessary to give you more freedom and less stress in your business.