New York Marketer

We interrupt this irregularly scheduled lack of programming

My book on marketing for law firms, coauthored with Carol Schiro Greenwald, is now available.   If you are an attorney or have no better use for $80 (hey, it was published by the Bar Association), you can find it here. 

Paper or Plastic?

I'm not talking about the trip to the grocery store, for which the correct (if somewhat inconvenient) answer is paper.  Rather, I'm talking about how your customers pay you.  The job of marketing is to start conversations that can lead to business -- and to keep them going.  There are lots of other processes in your business that can actually thwart your marketing efforts.  A key one is your approach to invoicing and receivables.  Every time you ask a client to pay for your services you are, in essence, making the sale all over again and reinforcing whatever your clients happen to feel about you at the moment.  So it's a good idea to give some careful thought to your invoices as affirmations of your relationships.  Also, you want that decision to pay you to be as seamless and friction-free as possible.  Marc Halpert of Your Best Interest helps businesses streamline invoicing, get paid faster -- and communicate effectively with their customers in the process.  He is also an expert at helping businesses navigate the treacherous waters of accepting credit cards, a necessity in times like these when you absolutely must make it as easy for your clients to pay you as possible.  Marc is giving a free webinar on the subject, "Credit Cards:  Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Live Without 'Em" on July 9th from 2 -3 pm.  Sign up here.

Some Timely Advice on a Form of Tardiness

Every so often something really useful comes through in a newsletter.  My friend Jan Jasper is an organizing and productivity consultant who has a lot of good ideas.  Her newsletter this month was on procrastination.  In spite of business being a little slow, many businesspeople and professionals I know are procrastinating more earnestly than ever.  Jan's advice, excerpted below, is simple, profound and timely.  I especially like the second point.  Heaven knows I’ve wasted a huge amount of time and energy in my life putting off something I didn’t want to do. I also find this particularly relevant to my clients when it comes to marketing tasks (ahem)…

Jan's Top Procrastination Busters

1. Prune your to-do list of the non-essential items you know you'll never do.
2. For that must-do task you've been putting off, just do it - ideally, the first thing in the morning. This frees your mental energy - often, not-doing something drains you more than doing it.
3. Identify a part of the disliked task that's fairly pleasant - such as calling a colleague for information - and do that first, to get your feet wet. Or make a list of the various steps involved.
4. Schedule hunks of time to tackle work that requires concentration. Actually make an appointment with yourself. Let voice mail pick up your calls. You'll make a lot of headway in a short time.
5. If the task is really objectionable, promise yourself you'll tackle it just for 10 minutes, then if it's killing you, you can stop. You may find it's not so bad and can easily keep going until finished.
6. If you want to avoid being distracted by email or the internet, put your computer behind you. You'll have to swivel around in your chair to check your email for the umpteenth time, or to Google something you're only mildly curious about. Going to the computer will now be a conscious decision.
7. Avoid the temptation to shift from one half-finished task to another. This task-hopping is a form of stealth procrastination that many of us do without knowing it.
8. For digitally managing tasks with sub-tasks, watch for our upcoming article "Use Outlook to Keep Track of Multi-Part Tasks" in the next issue of this eLetter.
9. Some of the best procrastination advice is from Alan Lakein - pre-tech era, but still excellent.

Jan Jasper is author of Take Back Your Time: How to Regain Control of Work, Information, and Technology, published by St. Martin's Press.  Find her on the web at www.janjasper.com