This week in small business: 2017 shaping up to be a very productive year!
If this week’s hot topics are any indication, we’re all committed to boosting our productivity in 2017. Are you in the club? If so, you’ll find a lot of advice to get you going in this week’s collection of curated content.
Leadership, management, and productivity
Ksenia Anske is a writer and if you write and want to boost your productivity, dive into this article that she has posted on her website.
Do you schedule “airplane time” for yourself? That’s one of the seven easy “hacks” Caitliln Zucal offers to maximize your productivity.
It’s not the sexiest of topics, but I think you’ll get some very useful advice from Braveen Kumar’s list of eight small business accounting tools.
The biggest mistake you can make is listening to people who’ve given up on their dreams telling you to give up on yours. – Umair Hague
How can you tap the market for the top Millennial employees? Change your marketing, says Wes Gay writing for Forbes.
Keven Kruse contends that we should throw out our to-do lists and fix our calendars to double our productivity. Agree? And speaking of to-do lists, Stephanie Vozza has six items that should never make your list.
Are you afraid that growth will ruin the vibe at your small business? If so, check out Erin Sherbert’s piece on the Salesforce blog.
Here’s one for all of you contrarians (sort of): “Why Productivity Tools Don’t Increase Your Productivity,” by Arina Katrycheva.
Marketing and sales
“Don’t Get Mired in Marketing Minutiae,” is Martha France’s message. She offers five good tips to get you out of the weeds.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. – Plato
In case you need more convincing: “5 Reasons Businesses Shouldn’t Keep Ignoring Content Marketing,” by Toby Nwazor. (I also like his emphasis on storytelling.)
With 500 million people around the world using Instagram, it’s a great place for marketing. Brian Peters shares strategies to grow your Instagram account.
Ted Dhanik is rethinking influencer marketing and putting the emphasis on micro rather than macro.
Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation
Watch out guys! Sarah Friedmann profiles nine women entrepreneurs to keep an eye out for in 2017.
We say things like “It’s the Cadillac of bird cages!” Now we find ourselves saying, “It’s the Uber of Whatever!” Giovanni Rodriguez introduces us to the guy who wants to build the Uber of sales reps.
The problem with youth is that it’s wasted on the young. That’s part of the lesson Rajan Thapaliya gives in his article, “Seven things I wish I knew as a Young Entrepreneur.”
Politics, government, and the economy
NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg, former Dallas Federal Reserve Advisor Danielle DiMarino Booth, and I discuss why small business optimism is up sharply in this Fox Business video clip.