One of the hardest parts about being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is setting aside a significant amount of time for personal development especially when it comes toRead More
The post 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Master The Art Of Speed Reading appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>One of the hardest parts about being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is setting aside a significant amount of time for personal development especially when it comes to reading educational material. When your business’ welfare and growth potential lies in your ability to learn new business practices quickly and keep as much time free as possible, it can be challenging to make sure that you are not reading too rapidly.
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. – Frederick Douglas (highlight to share)
When an entrepreneur can perfect the art of speed reading, they are able to use their time for more efficiently and focus more on their business. By following these five helpful tips I’ve gathered from very busy entrepreneurial authors, you can master the art of speed reading your business books and other educational material.
There is an erroneous belief that circulates among those who read over important business books and documents, a belief that reading should be done at night, when there are fewer distractions. But did you know that a person actually reads best during the early hours of the day? There are far fewer distractions that present themselves during the morning, and this is when important reading should be completed.
Your brain functions best early in the morning, whereas your nighttime brain functionality is compromised by all of the events that have already taken place that day. Reading in the morning gives your brain a clean slate to work with and is proven to increase your concentration skills. By reading earlier in the day, your speed is doubled and you are able to deal with your most important tasks first, clearing the remainder of your schedule for other crucial entrepreneurial duties.
A great way to read business books faster is to skim the text first, before you do a full-fledged read. This allows you to isolate the key points and phrases and figure out the main ideas. Once this has been accomplished, you can then take a deeper plunge into the material, knowing that you have a greater understanding. This technique is especially beneficial to those with a job that requires them to read a great deal of non-fiction material.
By taking the time to understand the structure of the book you are trying to read, you decrease the total amount of time you will need to spend reading it. Not only does this technique exponentially increase your overall reading speed, but it also does wonders for reading comprehension. Being able to speed read is great, but it is all for naught if you do not fully grasp the material you’ve consumed.
What many entrepreneurs do not know is that the environment that they choose to read in makes a huge difference in their ability to read quickly. Even something as simple as the way you hold the book can make a world of difference. Rather than holding the book up on your own, use a reading stand, one that allows the book to rest at a 45 degree angle. This reduces the strain on a person’s eyes, while also enabling a much faster reading speed.
Some enjoy reading in bed, but this is not a good place to absorb crucial materials. The body’s natural instinct is to relax once you have laid down in bed, which decreases reading comprehension, increasing the chances that you will need to go over it a second time. More difficult materials should be read during the daytime hours, in a place where your mind will remain focused. Relaxing and reading comprehension do not go hand in hand.
Of course, highlighting may have worked for you back in your college days and there are a variety of people who swear by this tactic when it comes to speed reading. Yes, highlighting in bright, pretty colors may give you the illusion that you are reading faster, that you can skim the material and come back to the important stuff later on. When you highlight, you’re essentially delaying your actual learning of the material.
When you highlight, all you are doing is giving yourself more work to do. Instead of taking an extra second to ensure that you understand the material during the first read, you will know have to go backwards and read it again. The more times you read a certain piece of material, the less of a chance you are able to retain over the long haul. So put the highlighter away and make sure you read properly the first time.
There are bound to be moments in any business text that are less important than others. Learning what is truly important and training your focus on these specific parts will help you to cut down your overall reading time. Don’t be afraid to preview the book before you read it, so that you get a true sense of the book’s structure and the lessons it is trying to teach.
This will allow to speed up your reading and slow down as necessary. Speed reading is not about attempting to fly through a book as rapidly as you can, it is about absorbing the material quickly and efficiently, without sacrificing your comprehension. Certain materials can be read at different speeds than others and an experienced entrepreneur knows how to speed up and more importantly, when to slow down.
As a business mentor for MentorMojo, speed reading expert Emerson Spartz has more speed reading tips in detail here:
The post 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Master The Art Of Speed Reading appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>When starting any sort of new business venture, social media marketing and online promotion have become two of the most important ways for an entrepreneur to get their products outRead More
The post 5 Social Media Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>When starting any sort of new business venture, social media marketing and online promotion have become two of the most important ways for an entrepreneur to get their products out to consumers.
While social media is free (for the most part) and easy to use, it is also easy to make mistakes. Getting distracted by all of the bells and whistles that come with social media can keep a budding startup business from true success.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin (Highlight to Share)
There are a variety of social media mistakes that entrepreneurs make when it comes to marketing their business online. Using social media platforms to communicate is a great format, but only when done properly. We’ve interviewed many authors on social media marketing and I compiled a list of the common social media mistakes most entrepreneurs make so you know what to avoid.
Perhaps you were extremely accomplished in your previous ventures or maybe you have a very strong pedigree. There is nothing wrong with being proud of the accomplishments of your past, but most of your social media followers will not care to hear about them on a daily basis. When you share too much about your past achievements, it is a huge turn off to those who do not already know your work.
Just like anything else in life, talking about your past achievements is best done in moderation. There are instances where your past experiences will come in handy and when they are germane to the discussion, there is nothing wrong with bringing them up.
However, social media users are savvier than ever. They will see through any attempts to call attention to yourself by being boastful and may decide not to use your products or services because of your arrogant social media presence. Even worse, this affects your company’s word of mouth in a negative manner.
Social media is great, because it gives potential consumers a chance to get to know you on a more personal level. This can be a bad thing if you are a person who allows themselves to get swept up in negativity. We all have bad days and personal beefs, but social media is no place to air your sour grapes or complain about the hard times in your life.
Consumers use social media as a means for escaping the drudgery of day to day living, so the last thing they want to be confronted with are the harsh realities of your life. Airing your personal frustrations about the problems that you are having with other people or whining about how hard you life is will lose you social media followers and create bad word of mouth.
Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Would you want to buy a product from someone who used their social media profile as a place to vent and complain? The answer is usually no in most instances. Before you fire off your negative social media post, take a moment to consider what your customer base will think of it.
Social media is a great outlet to speak intelligently, but it is even more important for you to use it as a place to listen. By using social media to garner consumer feedback, you have the opportunity to collect information that is specifically designed to help you. If a consumer has a complaint, you can rectify it immediately and ensure that you do not lose their business.
You can also use social media to engage with customers on a more personal level, getting to know them better. While it is great to let consumers learn more about you, learning more about them allows them to feel more valued. Speaking to them about matters more important than your latest sales and promotions is pivotal.
The plethora of tools and usages that social media provides for its users can be overwhelming, causing an entrepreneur to lose sight of the ones that are most important. Social media comes equipped with analytic tools that are geared towards measuring the impact of your social media marketing push.
These tools often come free or can be purchased at exceedingly reasonable prices. The tools will show you which of your posts have become most popular and let you know if any of your materials have shown the ability to go viral.
Posts can also be scheduled when you are too busy to get to a computer or smartphone. With so many options available to you, an entrepreneur would be a fool not to at least explore some of them. No matter what goal you are trying to accomplish, there is an analytic tool designed to help.
One of the best parts of social media is its ability to offer you a means of promoting several different products at once. An entrepreneur can easily leverage social media’s reach to gain as many new customers as possible. There are so many possibilities and there are a million thoughts that are probably crossing your mind about how to pursue them. Enhancing your business prospects comes first and foremost.
Be careful about getting caught up in the madness of trying to promote several different products and services at once. Over promotion can fatigue the audience and cause them to pass by your posts when they are using social media. Training your focus on just one venture allows the audience to get to know the product better. It also decreases the the number of distractions.
As a business mentor for MentorMojo, virality expert Emerson Spartz gives some more effective social media marketing tips in detail here:
The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
Digital Bacon by Alex Rodriguez
Trendology by Chris Kerns
Do It! Marketing by David Newman
A World Gone Social by Ted Coine and Mark Babbitt
The post 5 Social Media Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>