Going slight off the beaten track today, I thought I would share with you a day in the life of my humble small business - my business and my blog Part One.
I am sure that for similar reasons, there are those of us who can't wait to get our angst down on paper - be it for a professional cause or otherwise. It is therapy (as I once described a equally humble job years before) and for me, this is the perfect platform (even if nobody ever is likely to read it...) After all, we learn by mistakes the most, not from the ones we make ourselves, but the ones which are made by others. At least we can then take delight in saying "thank goodness that wasn't me!"
The day starts off, like many SME's, with the good intentions of the world then somehow from morning to night, somewhere, it all goes the other way. For me, the day begins with several cups of tea and a struggle to get motivated. There in itself, lies the cardinal error - motivation. If, there was nothing along the lines of motivation in the world, jobs wouldn't get done, countries would not trade, governments would cease (not a bad idea) and money would not exchange hands. I read a book recently which stated that "everything in the world started off as a single thought." Now, I don't know how you feel about that, but I would disagree. It is rather like the old saying of "Some men are born great, others have greatness thrusted upon them," (A Night In The Museum: movie) there is an argument to it. A thing might start off as a single thought, but the brain has still needed an element of motivation to get there first!
The daylight hours
The middle of the morning can be a wonderful experience. The sun rises and we feel thrilled to be alive. The day is full of promises yet to be made, but sometimes what really happens is rather like playing a computer game simply because you like the soundtrack. The idea of business is usually what makes us all tick. That, if anything, is the very thought that leads to motivation.
Yet not everything can be like a University paper and have the word "discuss," at the end of it to make it suitable for therapy. The conclusion of the day should, fundamentally, be the same - we are in business to make money. Some of us, mountains. Others, just enough to get by, it is the service we provide that is the wealth we desire: not just the green stuff.
So I start the day/afternoon with a blog...
I have found that these things called blogs are our best stage for a jolly good rant at the end of the day. I find working on my blog has to be done in the middle of the day while the house is quiet. However, when a certain time rolls around, the volume goes up, cats wail and a smaller version of me wants to be fed. All this said, I would not be true to my blog here if I didn't mention how such a valuable source of marketing they can be for the SME. What I have found over the years since starting various blogs (5 to date which are still present, but not updated as lovingly as this one) is it's fame depends on who your host is, (such as Blogger etc.)
Friendster, Wired and all these other strange and curious blog hosts which aim to delight and please as well as promote and share, are all very well, but if they won't generate a good listing in Google search, then your efforts are wasted and you must as well print a few copies off and hand them out in the street to complete acquaintances and passers by.
Going in for the kill
The site I came across today was this one. On Educause, (http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutBlogs/156809) they discuss the very importance of having a blog and the rules one should comply with. Now please allow me to take this extract taken from the above page and dissect it. The passage reads as follows...
"(A Blog) is an online collection of personal commentary and links. Blogs can be viewed as online journals to which others can respond that are as simple to use as e-mail. The simplicity of creating and maintaining blogs means they can rapidly lead to open discussions. Faculty are using blogs to express their opinions, promote dialogue in their disciplines, and support teaching and learning; students increasingly use blogs for personal expression and as course requirements. By carefully evaluating blogs' strengths and weaknesses, educators are learning to set guidelines and expectations to maximize blogs' instructional benefits. Structured exercises and clear goals are further enhancing the educational value of blogs. Put into practice with an understanding of their benefits and limitations, blogs are an increasingly accepted instructional technology tool."
Okay, here we go....
Firstly, blogs, or at least a vast majority of them are used as business tools. There is nothing wrong with that, but the way we view blogs has changed immensely over the years to the way we use them today. Many are used on a personal basis, yet how many potential customers really want to see pictures of last years sun burnt week in Scarborough when your Auntie Dot lost both her cork mules in the sea and forced you all to eat sand covered custard tarts because the local chippy didn't open for another four hours? The way in which we use blogs has crossed over from personal to business, or rather we mix the two. Which, and you may disagree with me, is just not cricket...
- "By carefully evaluating blogs' strengths and weaknesses, educators are learning to set guidelines and expectations to maximize blogs' instructional benefits. Structured exercises and clear goals are further enhancing the educational value of blogs. Put into practice with an understanding of their benefits and limitations, blogs are an increasingly accepted instructional technology tool." To be honest I'm not sure exactly what this actually means. I certainly agree with the piece at the end describing blogs as an instructional technology tool but surely these are only effective to the student if the student is actually reading and digesting it's content. Blogs are for the casual reader first and foremost and as we move into the idea of blogs for business, there are a great many blogs who end up in the graveyard simply because they are not effective.
Answers on a postacrd...
The conclusion to this peculiar rant today is this: The common or garden blog has somehow lost it's appeal and worth. Many businessmen state that their blog and it's content is for minor marketing reasons but to be honest, there are very few blogs out there which are actually turning over revenue. After all, we take hours to write and 'hours' means an hourly rate right? That probably means very little money to the SME, I know it does to me. There is much the SME does, that literally is for nothing, so don't let a blog be the same for you.So what have I learned today as I type away at my blog? I know not to look at the Educause website again, and if I do, I will read instead, "7 Things You Should Know About LULU," and hope that it might tell me why on Earth she released "Boom Bang A Bang..."
Until the next time...
onemum 2009
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