The Fizzle Show

This is part 2 of the conversation found here: fizzleshow.co/180 As an entrepreneur of a small business there’s just some kinds of tasks you *HAVE* to do… doesn’t matter WHAT kind of entrepreneur you are. So, in this episode we share our favorite workflow tips in 8 different categories. Head here for shownotes and the previous conversation: fizzleshow.co/180

We’ve all felt that feeling where, at the end of the day, you wish you felt better about the stuff you accomplished. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/180 You wish you got more done. There’s a heaviness, a tiredness and a good helping of “dammit I didn’t give it my all today.” Let’s talk about that, and let’s talk about 25 of our favorite tips to manage tasks *we all* have to deal with. As an entrepreneur of a small business there’s just some kinds of tasks you *HAVE* to do… doesn’t matter [WHAT kind of entrepreneur you are]. So, in this episode we share our favorite workflow tips in 8 different categories: - Email — we all have to deal with this. Partnerships and opportunities are in our inbox alongside (thousands of!) spammy bullsh*t. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Planning & Strategy — what’s the most important next step? Are we leaving money on the table? Should we make more products or try to earn more from the assets we already have? We all have to ask this stuff. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Analytics & Measurement — we all *need* to have a good answer to the “how are we doing right now?” question. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Writing — whether it’s emails, blog posts, sales pages or messages to customers and employees, we all need to write. Communication is essential to every one of us. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Customer Support — if we’re doing our jobs, every one of us has some customers. If our products are anything less than perfect, we all have some customer support to manage. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Inspiration & Learning — every one of us needs to stay fresh and bring good ideas to the table. If we stall out too much we could burn all the way out. *We’ve got some tips for you.* - Work/Life Balance — I’ll wager that none of us want to ruin our family lives or personal lives. This is something we all balance. *We’ve got some tips for you.* You’ll find our tips for each of these in the podcast episodes below. I highly recommend listening to the whole thing — it’s like being in a pub with two really experienced small business owners… you’re going to learn some valuable stuff. Then, below those podcast episodes I’ve compiled resources for each of the tasks we talk about in the conversation (and in the list above). Thanks for reading and listening and I hope you enjoy! **Making small improvements to tasks like these can make a world of difference in your business.**

Choosing a business idea is an incredibly important decision. A great idea can make your life so much easier. People will naturally identify with your mission and help to share your message. The right topic will make you come alive and you’ll fall in love with your business and customers. Read more: https://fizzle.co/sparkline/50-business-ideas

If you want to write things that inspire action — web sales pages that effectively sell your product, emails that readers will click on and share, etc. — this article is for you. Show Notes: https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web I repeat: if you want to make things on the internet that work, if you want to publish webpages and videos and podcasts and emails into the world that get results, you’re in the right place. Because in this episode we’re going to talk about COPYWRITING… ugh, sounds boring maybe? nope, there is an art form here that I’ll bet, if you listen to this show, you’ll see completely differently afterwards. Along with this show is a free guide and article which you can find at Fizzleshow.co/178

Of course you’re worried about your business idea. Of course you don’t want to put all the time and effort into building a business only to realize there was a mistake built into the idea that will forever stunt it’s growth. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/177 Think about your business idea like a boat. You’re on dry land making your boat, designing and planning and strategizing. But you put it in the water and realize it’s got holes in it you didn’t notice before. THATS what this episode is about, showing you where the holes would be so you can investigate further and be CONFIDENT before putting your boat in the water. Because the thing about business ideas is that there’s no such thing as certainty, only confidence. There is no way to tell if a business is going to work with 100% certainty, but we can find confidence. That’s what we’re going to guide you through today in the form of 10 huge mistakes we see all the time.

Before people start a business they usually have a decision to make: am I going to quit my job and work full time on this, or am I going to work on this on the side? Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/176 Both have pros and cons, both are frustrating for different reasons. This is a topic to be careful about. Some experts and gurus out there would have you believe you need to just put it all out there, believe in yourself and take a big leap of faith. That’s the model that worked for them so they tell you to do it. But maybe there are more practical ways we can be intelligent about this decision. In this episode we break down common variables you may not already be thinking about like: - How much savings do you need? - What does ‘runway’ mean? - What’s a ‘burn rate’? - What are the different decision points here that would allow me to make a smart decision? It’s a practical and exceptionally helpful episode. Enjoy!

Some business ideas can be thought up and launched in a single afternoon. Others, however, require a ton of time and effort to get off the ground. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/175 So, imagine this (or maybe it sounds familiar to you): - Imagine you want to support yourself, earn a living independently. - Imagine you have an idea that’s big, one that may not feasibly be able to bring in revenue in the short term, but who’s long term prospects are great. - What can you do for revenue in the short term that won’t take up all your time and energy so you can keep building your bigger idea? It’s a great question, especially if you’ve been thinking and scheming about starting your own business for a while. But it’s also a complicated question for reasons you may not see from the start, so it sparked a big conversation for Corbett and I. 
So, here’s another great, honest, no BS conversation on the Fizzle Show. I hope it’s helpful! Enjoy.

We probably all have one of those friends in our lives who thinks *too* big. Or those who once thought too big. Maybe now they’re angry at the world, jaded, cynical. [Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/174] **There’s a danger to thinking too big.** It can burn us out, burn us up, make us miss all the amazing that’s happening right now. **There is also a danger of thinking too small.** You keep doing what you’ve always done because you’ve always done it and then one day it doesn’t work. The market and the world has moved on. That danger could hurt you *financially*. You could also get hurt *psychologically* by thinking too small. Not a single one of us wants to end our careers thinking, “dammit I wish I would have been more brave, saw the bigger picture earlier on.” So, there’s an art to thinking big, and that’s what we explore in this podcast episode. We have no books to sell. We’re not gurus. We’re just a couple people who’ve been trying to think bigger (without toppling over) for about a decade with some success to show for it. I hope you love this episode. Enjoy!

On the show today, 2 experts share what it’s *really* like to run a membership site. The experts, of course, are Corbett Barr and Chase Reeves (that’s me) 2 of the co-founders of [Fizzle’s Business Courses & Community], a membership site that’s been live for almost 4 years at the time of writing. There’s a lot of conversation in the world of online business about how valuable a recurring revenue model. Dependable recurring income that you can count on sounds very sexy if your business needs to be selling to new customers every single day. So, is it as good as it sounds? Or, as a smart Fizzler put it in the forums: what *don’t* I know about running a membership site? That’s what we lay out for you today on the show, diving in deep to a big list that Corbett prepared. Enjoy! Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/173

“I’ve heard from the Editor in Chief of a big site and they said Twitter was basically ineffective for them. Should I still even bother with it?” Here’s the deal — you’re a small business person. You’re the little guy. You can’t pay to advertise and reach people. You have to build an audience to get your message out. Social networks are where people are spending time. So that’s an opportunity to get in relationship with potential customers in meaningful ways. BUT, you’ve only got so much time. You can’t afford a team to run your social media for you. You’ve got to do it yourself, and that means you can’t show up in a meaningful way on *all* the social networks. (Unless it’s your job. I’m looking at you Gary V.) So, if Twitter is a waste of time, you want to know it right away so you can make investments in social media accounts that will produce returns for you. So, is Twitter a waste of time? It’s complicated. And it’s all explained in the podcast episode. I did, however, pull out 10 ideas we had for how to make your Twitter use more effective in 2016 (so, you can assume we’re not writing off Twitter completely). Enjoy! Show Notes: fizzle.co/172