Writing Tip: 15 Minutes

We hear a lot of people sigh when they talk about writing for their business. Or they change the subject. Writing anything longer than an email is too big of a mountain to face. That’s natural and understandable. But I have a secret to help you.

All you need is 15 minutes.

Block out 15 minutes of your day to write down all your thoughts about the content you need to write. Full sentences, bullet point, a formal outline – does not matter. Just write it all down, in any order. I guarantee you will feel better.

There are two solid reasons behind why this exercise is helpful:

Surprise the fear
The task of writing has been built up to such a painful level in your head, it seems impossible to begin. Fifteen minutes is a reasonable block of time to start hacking away at the project. See? You’ve started already! It’s not that scary a project.

Open up space
Clearing the thoughts out of your head leads to greater mental clarity. Your mind is now a bit freer to wander without this clutter. And once on paper, all in one place, you will begin to see the writing project take shape. Holes will be exposed, a flow will emerge. Your newly-cleared mind will now start filling in these gaps because it has room to do so.

Practice this 15-minute process each day, if possible. Yes, you are busy, but didn’t you just spend 10 minutes on You Tube watching funny dogs? Right, so instead, use that break today to clear your head, not fog it up. After a few 15-minute sessions throughout the week, you’ll be much further along than you imagined. The fear banished, the momentum moving forward. And you owe it all to a few simple minutes.

Give it a try and tell us in the comments how it works out for you.

Underdog vs. The Giants - a Small Business Reflection

Congratulations, you are the owner of a small business. That takes a lot of guts, brains and sweat to pull off. Do you remember your first day in business for yourself? The first time you introduced yourself as the founder of Prestige Worldwide? Bet it's ingrained forever in your memory. The Current You is still stunningly proud of the Early You. And you should be – it's a huge accomplishment.

The journey since those early days has been quite a ride, but you've hung in there. Armed with your business plan, financials, and big ideas, you've showed the world a thing or two. And learned a lot, too. You've made connections and maybe a few enemies. Clients are happy, and that makes You happy. Business is humming.

Will you stop here? I doubt that bright-eyed, hungry Early You will let you. Because no matter how good things are right now, you see new opportunities for your business every day. Opportunities for growth, for creativity, for adrenaline. You never lost that drive – it just got hidden behind some invoices. The day-to-day is most often mundane, but it makes us feel secure. And at times like these, Early You will storm into your office without knocking, *BANG* a fist on your desk and demand action. Current You will oblige most willingly and things will move and shake. There are still plenty of mountains you want to climb.

Cherish these times, as scary and chaotic as they may be. You will never be here again. Enjoy the obscurity while you have it. Revel in the freedom. One day you will not be a small business and that, too, will be a day ingrained in your memory. Another milestone. But for now, remember this:

“Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants.”

That was a wise message from a fortune cookie. I have it on my fridge so I can see it every day. For me, it reminds me that now is the time to define yourself and introduce the world to how great you are. Small business does not mean small ideas or small actions - it just means you have a lot of room to grow.

Would You Buy This?

It took a long time for me to believe that my uncanny ability to make up daft product names and slogans might actually be worth a dime. Who would have thought that throwing out a product name that made my father blush to the tips of his ears would eventually lead me to founding a business? The product in question was a vitamin that promised erm…let’s just call it growth…that I know would’ve been a far greater success had it been sold under the name I invented, paternal embarrassment or not.

Well, it seems that all those equally daft “inventions” that I periodically dream up may also make me a dime. There is a company out there called Suck.UK (no, I’m not a fan of that moniker either but I get it), who design, well, stuff. My personal faves are the Charity Money Boxes that feature forlorn children intended to guilt you into donating your spare change rather than losing it down the back of the couch, and Mummy Mike the rubber band holder, who as you wrap more and more rubber bands around his body, takes on the appearance of a mummy. Now the rubber band holder I would totally use in my office, I’m a fan of things that look like other things (such as a toilet brush holder that looks like a tree - I know, I’m weird) but I can’t help suspect that since these particular children look neither diseased nor hungry, their melancholy has more to do with their toys. What child wants a doll or a teddy bear nowadays? Don’t toys require Artificial Intelligence and need to cost as much as half my monthly rent check to be considered worthy? Anyway, I like the concept but you’ll have to throw a couple of bandages and pox on the kids before these money boxes work on me.

I learned of Suck.UK through a BBC article (I know, credibility!) about how China is the biggest producer of tat. Now I need to segue here because, as occasionally happens, a word that I and the rest of Britain use has a completely different meaning this side of the pond. In this instance Thesaurus.com tells me that ‘tat’ means to intertwine or weave. ‘Tat,’ in Britain means anything cheap, tacky and gimmicky that we in no way need but insist on buying anyway. It seems, however, that while China produces the tat, it is the British, or at least the West, who invent it. Yes, that Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish that hangs on the wall of more places than you would expect, was actually invented by a Brit. This gives me high hopes for selling my inventions and making that extra dime. How about my towel-sock for spectacles that allows you to wear your glasses while playing sports, or the head frame to support your toothbrush so you can do other things while brushing your teeth? I’m absolutely sure that if I presented these ideas to Suck.UK, or a company like them, I would definitely, certainly, make a dime.

Can you feel the excitement?

That spark in the air? The idea that something great is about to happen? It is.

The red plume blog will soon be starting up. We're excited. You may not be as excited as us, but we bet you'll enjoy what you read. See you soon!