Seeing The Forest Through The Trees

When your standing in the middle of the forest you only see trees. One tree after another in an endless stream of green. You lose all perspective and can’t see the big picture anymore.

If you could only take a hot air balloon straight up five thousand feet. That would sure help put things in context. You would see where the impassable mountain ridges were located and where the dead end cliffs make their home.

Best of all you could see where the tree line ends and open space begins. You would see the end of the road so to speak, the end-game.

In business, especially in the beginning, all you see is trees.

You have no idea how long (and far) you must travel to get your business going and standing firm on solid ground. Arriving at the promised land of a stable base of customers seems so far away. It’s quite easy to get discouraged.

But fear not.

You are not really in a forest, though it sure seems that way at times. Hard work pays dividends when matched with a map (your personal road map to whatever promised land you seek) and some well heeded advice.

I can’t perform the hard work for you (only you can do that) or give you the map (only you know where you want to go), but I can pass along some well heeded advice.

Educate yourself on topics that will benefit you.

In particular this means paying attention (and implementing) the advice of successful people. The ones who have navigated the forest and are offering their priceless knowledge on how you can too.

Over the years I have read many books and followed the advice of many. In this first installment (of several planned), I would like to share with you three minds that offer advice worth following.

• Copyblogger by Brian Clark. Starting a small business means you will wear many hats. The “writing” hat is not one that you may think of first, but it is one of the most important. Your words (sales letters, business cards, brochures, web site text and flyers) meet your customer long before you ever do in many cases. You want them to make a good impression right? You also want those good impressions to turn into paying customers I would think. To do that you need to write with a purpose and goal in mind. The Copyblogger team will help you do just that.
• Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel. A digital marketing blog that helps you navigate the new online media channels. The principles he teaches can be utilized in a simple little industry like ours with great success. He also has a podcast at itunes that is worth tuning into to (plus a book which is very good).
• David J Schwartz. He has long since passed, however he left a big gift in a book titled “The Magic Of Thinking Big“. Published in 1959, this masterpiece details how to free yourself from your own constraints.

Take the time to learn from those who have risen to the top of their chosen professions. As the CEO of “Your Business Inc”, you owe it to yourself. It will not only shorten the learning curve, it will make you better than your competition (who is probably asleep at the wheel).