by Gwen Bortner | Show Your Work
The steps to starting a sabbatical that is much needed are simple. 1) Pick a date to start. 2) Sketch out a plan of how to use the time. 3) Start the sabbatical and immediately get extremely sick, throwing everything off!
Of course, this might not be how it works for everybody, but it is consistently how it works for me. Within a few days of of taking much needed time away, I become very sick. I am sure it is just my body’s way of saying “I told you so,” and you would think that after multiple instances of this happening over the years I would learn to expect it. But alas, I am apparently a very slow learner.
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by Gwen Bortner | Show Your Work
If you are anywhere near my age, you remember the old Wendy’s commercials with the little old lady asking, “Where’s the beef?” It is an iconic commercial of the 1980’s.
For the last few weeks, the question I have been asking as I work through starting a new business is, “Where’s the market?” I know they exist. I see glimpses of them all around the Internet. I read snippets of their stories on Facebook, Twitter or various blogs. But interacting with them in a meaningful way just isn’t as easy as the various marketing gurus make it sound.
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by Gwen Bortner | Tasks & Goals, Training & Instruction
Like most people my age, I didn’t discover the joys of amusement parks until I had entered my teenage years. Through the peer pressure of my cousins I went on my first loopy roller coaster and I was hooked. Now decades later, my husband and I often enjoy a day at an amusement park and yesterday was one of those days.
As we spent the day enjoying ourselves, I realized that an amusement park is a good metaphor for taking on any sort of new challenge, even in the world of business. The skills you learn and apply during your day at the amusement park are completely applicable in a new business venture. Let me explain.
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by Gwen Bortner | Training & Instruction
I have just finished teaching at an annual weekend retreat and just like every year prior, it was awesome!
This retreat is special in a variety of ways. Even though I think mixing it up is a good idea, they bring me back every year. It is so much fun that my husband wants to go with me and takes time off of work to do so. Many of the attendees return year-after-year and if not every year, then whenever they can. It is the perfect example of why any small business with a reasonably sized following should host their own retreat.
by Gwen Bortner | Marketing
Social media is hard! Anyone who tells you differently is probably either part of a particular age group or isn’t trying to apply it to their own small business.
I am part of the technology generation so new technologies, applications, etc. don’t intimidate me. But I still often do not understand what their purpose is or how I should utilize them to their best advantage. If you aren’t careful, you can get caught up spending so much time managing social media that you never actually work on your business. The following three steps will help you sort out social media and develop a manageable social media plan for your business scenario.
