How often do you take your business hat off?
If you follow me on Twitter (or simply realised due to my lack of comments), you’ll be aware that I’ve been away for the past week.
We – my girlfriend and I – have a lot of family in and around London and try to get down there as often as we can.
Just like every other time, I worked longer days the week before we set off so that I could take the time off without having to think about any aspect of my business and could enjoy the time away fully.
This time, though, things were slightly different.
Whereas I usually don’t think about work at all or consider my actions in a business sense (I don’t mean I act wild or recklessly, I just mean that I’m not thinking about what might happen to my work if I do one thing or if I don’t impress a person), I found that I was looking at ways to develop my business and speak to people in a way that could be considered networking.
I thought back to the last time I was down. It was for a family wedding in May and although some of it is now a bit hazy (after the church there was a garden party with free alcohol, ahem…), I remember being introduced to people and rather than brushing over the fact I was someone who ‘does a lot of different things’, I focused on the fact I was a writer.
The time before that, however (February 2010), I can’t think of a time where I had my business hat on.
And thinking about it, this fits almost perfectly with how my writing career has developed since the start of 2010. I ended 2009 being a writer who was plodding along quite contently and I don’t really know what happened over Christmas and New Year, but I got a massive kick up the ass and decided 2010 would be the year that I pushed my writing career forward.
I found that this time in London – the city which is supposedly paved with gold – I was looking at everything as a business opportunity.
For some of the break we stayed in a hotel that was heavily business orientated and I couldn’t help but think what would happen if I spent the time striking up a conversation with some people in the lobby or bar and then handing over my business card.
Yes, I guess it’s cold calling, but surely the few minutes it would take saying a quick hello, mentioning a generic topic and working my writing business into the conversation would be worth it eventually?
Even now I’m back home, I’ve realised that I’ve still got my business hat on most of the time. Not to the extent where I’m constantly working, but that I’m looking at everything as an opportunity and a way to develop my career.
This has been a kind of light bulb moment for me. Over the past 8 months things have slowly clicked into place with my writing career and this seems like another piece of the puzzle falling into the right slot – I’m no longer having to think of ideas and ways to develop; they seem to be coming naturally.
The reason I posted this was because I’m interested in hearing from other writers who find – or don’t find – that they’ve always got their business hat on.
Are you constantly looking for opportunities? Is it a bit of a strain or do they flow naturally? Do you like having your business hat on or would you rather you could take it off?
Image: Quinn.Anya (Flickr)
Article by Dan Smith
Dan Smith is freelance writer and small business consultant. Specialising in business development, he has a strong background in Search Engine Optimisation and has a distinct (dis)ability of not being able to say no.
Dan has written 82 awesome articles for us at Get Paid to Write Online
{ 5 comments }
Twitter: pattistafford
August 18, 2010 at 11:01
Great post Dan! (I got it right this time. LOL)
I don’t always have my business hat on, but I do have it on more now than I used to. I actually have my business hat on more than I do my writing hat these days.
Ideas are still not flowing naturally, so to speak. I have plenty of ideas, and sometimes they bombard me. My struggle is still in how to implement them and which ones I should just let go of. I guess it’s the development of the ideas that I struggle with.
Thanks for sharing. This is a very thought provoking article.
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I actually know exactly what you mean with the ideas, but have recently figured a great way for dealing with them.
I used to get ideas at stupid times of the day and in really unhelpful places – this might be a little too personal, but there’s been more than one occasion where I thought I’d had a light bulb moment in the bathroom.
I would tend to jot them down on scraps of paper, make a note of them on my mobile phone, send myself an e-mail with the idea or open up a new Notepad document and type them in there.
I found, though, that I was never doing anything about them. I had these ideas, would think they were great but once they were down, I would forget about them or keep putting off doing anything about them off.
Then I found that the ideas I was looking at more were the ones I had easy access to, which for me was the ones in the Notepad document, which I kept open on my laptop at all times.
Today, whenever I have an idea I put it in my Notepad document. I jot everything down and keep looking at them. I write notes next to them and if after a few weeks they’re still there and I’ve made no notes on them, they get deleted.
The ones that are still on the last I look at in more detail when I get chance, but I find the most important thing is actually having them readily available.
Having, remembering and acting on ideas is actually more difficult than most might first think and for me at least, it’s important to have access to them whenever I want so that they’re continually fresh in my mind.
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Twitter: danaprince
August 18, 2010 at 11:46
Hi Dan,
My brain probably never stops churning in a business sense and I find it really hard to mono task nowawdays (I’ve become extremely impatient) but in terms of living daily life (outside my office) and with local networking,I’m quite the opposite. I’ve thought about the potential of doing business locally or networking with friends and family but I quite like the anonymity that my career scenario presents. I did try to help someone in my personal life with marketing recently and didn’t like the crossover effect.
My phone doesn’t ring off the hook as I do business primarily via email and only give out my number when asked. I tell clients I prefer to schedule phone calls rather than keeping business hours (which is important for me since I have clients in many different time zones), and my schedule is my own as I don’t have local business meetings to attend. I do work too many weekends and answer too many emails after 10:pm but I don’t see changing my approach and going local any time soon.
Am I limiting my success this way? Perhaps. But business is booming and I have the flexibility I want — for the moment.
That’s the great thing about being your own boss, I guess. You can define and re-define your business whenever it suits
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I’m a pretty easy going guy, Dana but I have one rule that I now always abide – I never work with family.
I’ve done it in the past and have helped other relatives work together and it has – 100% – ended in misery.
It starts off well as you’re both happy and friendly and there’s no awkwardness. But from my experience, it just gets…awkward.
You feel bad if you make a criticism and no matter how much knowledge and experience you have in a certain field, there’ll be some aspects of it that your relative will feel they know more on.
I don’t completely rule out working with family in the respect that if they ask for advice I won’t refer them to a colleague, but I won’t work with them on a regular basis where they’re paying.
For me, the hassle – which will come – is really not worth it.
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I think that whatever field you are in it is always important to have your business hat on. Even if you are on holiday you wouldn’t want to miss a potential business deal. To always keep a look out for opportunities is essential these days. You can’t just sit and wait for job opportunities to come your way, you have to find them!
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