Why Is Math Important?!

This is a TedX talk all about why math is important. I loved how it addresses math and anxiety in both men and women - but how empowering and impassioned Laura Overdeck was when addressing the stigmas around women and math. Being a professor at Bay Path College (all female) this one tugged at my heartstrings a little bit :) 

She covers a "Life Cycle of Exposure to Math" and I think if you have any interest in being savvier with your personal finances or starting a business this is a must watch! My favorite part had to be early on when Laura talks about how some people's brains fire the same nervous response for pain when they interact with even the most basic of algebraic equations. 

Math is super important and I'm not saying that you have to have advanced degrees in applied mathematics to be successful (sorry little brother :)). You do have to understand how we interact with principals of math everyday and the better you understand them, the more efficient you will be with your money and possibly your businesses money. If you are feeling inspired after this video you should definitely check out "Success After the Start-Up" to help rebuild, reinforce, and sharpen those finance skills. 

Coworking Spaces Incubate Awesome Stuff!

I don't have to tell you that starting your first entrepreneurial endeavor can be a potentially lonely road. Long hours, small rooms, and staring at small glowing boxes for hours on end is a volatile (opposite of delicious) recipe. That's why I love incubators and innovation centers. They provide start-ups and even well established businesses some room to bounce ideas around, stretch your legs, have a conference room, and even get a good cup of coffee when you need it. 

This is a stretch but, do you remember your entry level econ classes. Your professor (not as cool as me) probably said something like, "trade makes everyone better off". While the professor was probably talking about the importance of specialization and utilizing scarce resources as efficiently as possible they were also talking about coworking communities. That lesson sets the stage for environment like Start Up Helping Hands to get people working (specializing), sharing costs, and the opportunity for economic development to happen between them (trade).  

Start Up Helping Hands is an accelerator and incubator that's close to my heart. Jack Clemente has been working on creating a space where businesses can come together, grow, and get the resources they need to really kick-start their operations. Couple a space like that with a little help from a resource like "After the Honeymoon: Success After the Start Up" and you'll be a force to be reckoned with. I am a huge fan of what this guy is doing. You absolutely don't have to take my word for it though...

Here's an infographic that will show you how important spaces like Jack's are! 

Coworking Desks Accelerate Business infographic

6 Tips To Help You Kick Start Your Monday

Sure it’s noon on Monday but, that doesn’t mean that you can just call it quits after lunch. There’s a whole second half of the day that needs a good butt-kicking. Hopefully you’ve started your week with a bang and if you haven’t then I have a few things you can try this afternoon to help make this week one that counts.

1. Close on something. You don’t have to be in sales to finalize a deal or a sale. Before you hit full on food comma after lunch take a look at your to-do list. Is there a conversation that needs to happen, an order that needs to be filled, a proposal to be followed up with? Sealing any deal helps to start to build momentum and honestly feels pretty good!

2. Rearrange your tasks. Frontloading your responsibilities with all the easy stuff can actually be a negative thing because you are eventually dreading doing the not-so-easy stuff later. You’ll start to procrastinate and get distracted. Moving your lists around and reordering them in a way that mixes the heavy and the light lifting will also help keep you motivated and moving through the rest of the day.

3. Stop focusing on Inbox Zero. I can honestly say that for a while I was little obsessed with my email inbox. I think a part of me still is. While effectively communicating is crucial to help you start to the week of with a bang it’s not going to magically more successful - and it’s a distraction. Streamline your notifications so that you aren’t getting texts, app updates, desktop alerts, or any other notifications and focus on the important stuff in Points 1 and 2 above. I’m not saying ignore your inbox but I am saying learn to identify the stuff that needs an immediate response from everything else. (No, not everything needs an immediate response!)

4. Take on a new project or two. Everyone is busy or at least they think they’re busy. We are no exception. Saying yes to help out with or to taking on a new project can help set your productivity gears in motion. Doing this accomplishes a few things: you are continuing to prove your value as a resource and you will have to deliberately allocate the scarcity of your time a little smarter. Showing colleagues, co-workers, clients, etc. that you can be counted on and that you are willing to jump into something new always has the potential to create new opportunities for success.

5. Get your prep-work done! Just because you have a meeting on Wednesday doesn't mean that you should wait until Wednesday morning to prepare for it. That’s what everyone else is going to be doing. If you have some time today do it now. The work you do today will be better researched and prepared than anything you might rush to come up with. It will also help take some pressure off of your task lists and schedule. You should always be investing your time and not just spending it. Better prepared means more efficient, more professional, and a better chance for you to be recognized for being awesome by not wasting people’s (boss’/client’s/stakeholder’s) time.

6. Read something. If all else fails today make sure you take some time to work on bettering yourself. It can be professionally, intellectually, emotionally, or even spiritually. Invest some time in learning a new skill or sharpening ones that will help you create the week that you want for yourself. If you are an entrepreneur take some time to work on the parts of running a business that you might not be too strong in. I find that happens a lot with regards to getting the most out of a small businesses financials. There are tools and websites that are all about helping you grow as a professional - here included!

Hope these 6 tips help you find a little extra energy as your digesting your lunch today. Don’t let a slow start from this morning set the pace for the week. It’s important to take action and to make choices that will help you continue to build momentum. That’s how I see it anyway :)

Social Entrepreneurs For The Win!

Happy Friday! It's been a long week but that doesn't mean the learning and content sharing stops here. So to help you stay motivated and not tax your reading eyes any more for the week I have a video to share with you. This is a throwback from the Harvard Business Review and it's all about Social Entrepreneurs. While it is a little old I think the interview is still very appropriate to our current social media and entrepreneurial environments. 

So throw your head phones on and if you can't watch because it's busy and you are trying to tie up loose ends before the weekend - it's still a very good listen. I know it had me flexing my brain muscle a bit. 

PS - If you liked this video and it also helped you flex your brain muscle a bit then you should definitely check out Success After The Start-Up. I hear it's a good read :) 

Top 5 Business Mistakes: May Edition

To kind of piggy back off of my post from Monday on how there’s no short-cuts in building a great business, today’s post is going to be all about missing the low hanging important stuff. Whether you work for someone or you are out on your own, odds are you are busy. Busy is no excuse for missing some of the fundamentals that not only help to keep people coming in the door but also keep your endeavor running smoothly. If you are missing any of these of 5 business components or you just rushed them to move on I would sincerely recommend you revisit them. You can even build some fanfare around it and hopefully give your stakeholders another reason to come visit your site - in real life or on the web!

1. Mission Statement. There are thousands of resources on the web that will help you build a mission statement. The biggest thing to keep in mind about it is that it’s a reflection of you. A reflection of your brand, your integrity, how you do business and the experience you hope people will walk away from. Then you have to do all of the in only a few lines - one line if you’re really good like say, Starbucks Mission Statement. No one wants to see droning paragraphs listing benefits and features because that’s what your sales pages are for. Make sure you choose your words wisely and that you revisit that statement periodically because that’s supposed to be the mast from which your businesses sails hang.

2. Bad Record Keeping. Shoeboxes are not a filing system. They are great for storing things after they have been recorded but they should not be the first place you look for information. The same goes for overcrowded file cabinets. Just because you “filed” something away doesn’t mean that that information is going to be useful. It’s important to develop systems for keep track of all the meaningful information coming in and going out of your business. Probably my biggest pet peeve is seeing piles of unopened mail. Sure as a business you will get lots of junk but you should always at least open the envelopes. You can’t manage your cash flow well if you are constantly getting late notices on every bill because you just bury the important stuff with the trash. The same goes for receipts, invoices, and checks - boggles my mind to hear that business owners lose checks because of so much clutter.

3. Bad Website. Websites are the first place people go to when they hear about you these days. Then the next stop is usually relevant social media sites. Having a site full of broken/stale links, coded badly, poorly maintained and ugly to look at can really hurt you. Now, I’m not saying that you have to run out and spend beaucoup bucks on a new site - just simplify, streamline, and color code that’s all. The simpler the better for most businesses because it creates an easy way to help new visitors navigate to find out who you are and your returning ones will always know where they can find things. Also blogs work best when they are at least updated on some kind of regular basis. Few posts a day, week, month, or year can go a long way. Nothing worse than seeing a blog tab and then finding out that the last post was made sometime in 2009...leaves the consumer wondering if you still exist and in what kind of shape.

4. Too much hiring! Effectively managing a staff can be an awesome productivity booster for your business. Trying to get the maximum output, dedication, and effectiveness is what every employer wants to see. The problem comes when you think just throwing more bodies at an issue will help. I see lots of entrepreneurs and business owners who want to jump straight to the instant success and global supervision phase. So they hire...and they hire. Benefit comes when they can remove themselves from the day to day operations but the costs are dramatically increased cash outflows and probably poorly designed protocols. Basically throwing more bodies at a growing business doesn’t mean it will keep growing. It’s important for owners to understand what the opportunity costs are when hiring and what perceived freedom will cost them if they don’t plan for it first.

5. Listening to everyone. It’s great to get feedback from your customers or clients. It’s bad if you are constantly changing your product offerings every time someone has a complaint. In designing your offerings (services and products) it’s important to stay in line what the mission of the business is and to create offerings that will fulfil an actual need. If you sell 100 options but only 3 of those options account for 75% of your total revenue it’s time to really think about why you are carrying the other 97. The same goes for making instant changes. If you are constantly changing what you produce you won’t be able to collect or receive meaningful feedback.

Hope those 5 business mistakes help to make your business stand out. That’s what my goal is with this post. If you are still having trouble or are looking for a more in depth resource to help you find success you can always check out After the Honeymoon: Success After the Start-Up - I wrote it to be as meaningful and action packed a resource as possible. There’s also a review of it up here, which I was really happy to receive a while back!