March 2020 - IttyBiz

Month: March 2020

Now Is The Time To Build (And Use) Your Network

March 31, 2020
Networking
by Kris Faraldo

As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, and more and more businesses are feeling the impact of quarantine, isolation, and shelter-in-place orders, so many of the traditional channels of marketing and promotion have gone away.

This shift is massively reducing the incoming revenue of almost all businesses, big and small. Everyone is going to need to change up what they’re doing to adapt to this in order to keep the roof over not only their heads, but the heads of their business.

This is especially true at the ittybiz level – there’s no big bailouts for us, unfortunately. So we’re going to have to use every tool at our disposal to keep money flowing – even if it’s in smaller quantities than we’re used to.

This is where networking comes in – and for you, it matters now more than ever.

Promoting During A Crisis: Here’s What You Need To Know

March 25, 2020
Marketing
by Kris Faraldo

Over the past few days, I’ve received emails from customers asking if it’s okay to run any kind of promotional content during this time of crisis.

We all know that right now is not the time to run a big, flashy launch of a $2,000 online class. (Well, I hope we all know that.)

But what about lower-key promotions? Like small sales, or even, “Hey, I still sell this relatively normal product or service, and I’d love to keep offering it for sale instead of hiding under my table”?

For a lot of people, selling ANYTHING right now seems like a murky gray area.

So, what do you do?

During the Coronavirus, Focus On What You CAN Do

March 23, 2020
Productivity
by Kris Faraldo

We’re all reeling from the effects of the current coronavirus pandemic, and a natural part of that reeling process is paralysis – an overwhelming feeling of “What the hell are we going to do in the face of this?”

This paralysis comes, in part, from a looming sense of uncertainty. None of us has any real idea of how thing are going to shake out over the next few months – or through the end of 2020 – and that uncertainty can make it hard to make real-time decisions. So much seems up in the air right now.

Dr. Sonia Lupien – founder and director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress, cites this “sense of low control” as one of the 4 ingredients to the recipe of stress that we feel about anything that concerns us. (Naomi talks further about the specific effects of this on your family on her blog as well.)

When we feel a sense of low control – and therefore stress – it can be very easy for that paralysis to start taking hold. And unfortunately, it can become a vicious cycle. We don’t act, so things stay stagnant, and we feel even less control, and it continues in a downward spiral.

To reverse this “sense of low control”, we can start acting on the things that we CAN do.

If we begin focusing on the things that we CAN do in our business (and our life as well), we can combat that sense of low control by reinforcing that there are a whole lot of things that are in our power.

To My Influencer and Marketer Friends: What You Can Do

March 16, 2020
Business
by Naomi Dunford

[Written by Steve Pavlina, published here with his encouragement]

To my influencer and marketer friends:

This is not remotely a “business as usual” situation. Please open your eyes to what’s happening. But more importantly, please open your heart to what’s about to happen.

This isn’t a time to be working on your launches. This isn’t a time to work on your campaigns. The focus on business needs to be put on hold right now. We all have something much more important to work on right now.

Month: March 2020

To reverse this “sense of low control”, we can start acting on the things that we CAN do.

We have the leverage to greatly reduce a tremendous amount of suffering and loss of life that’s about to unfold.