Information Overload

Hey man,

I can totally relate to what you are going through. I never used to say no to any projects either and would land up in similar situations like you.

What I've found is that it's usually roughly 1/3rd of the stuff you do that makes you the most money and gives you the least headaches. So I got rid of the 2/3rd of the projects that were the biggest headaches to me. That also included very demanding/a**hole clients.

Also, its more lucrative to squeeze the most out of the projects that make you the most money. Make the most out of your success!

Hey Keith,

Yes it's a common problem.

Really the solution is simple.

Don't focus on what is available (there's thousands of products and most of what get launched is rehashed old stuff), but focus on your customers and their wants/needs.

If you constantly look at stuff that's coming out you'll be staring at new things forever as there's a constant stream of stuff.

Just look at your business - who your customers are, what they value, what their pain is, and what ways you can help them, then draw out a plan and then keep focused on that plan regardless of what shiny things come along.

It looks like you're in the UK. I'm in Peterborough. If you want to meet up for a chat sometime I'd be happy to give you some proper advice based on my own experience.

Regards,
Andy

Just focus on 1 thing at a time. I try to reduce amount of new information I'm exposed to before then I'm doing too many things at once. It's good to learn new things but implementation should be 80% of your time, learning new things maybe 10%.

Hi Keith,

The big question -> What are you looking for?

-> Are you looking for products that you can resell to various segments of your clientele?
-> Are you looking for knowledge that can enhance your skills?
-> Are you looking for ways to create your own products?
-> Are you looking for ways to promote your products?

Which one of the above?

Once you have decided, then you're on the right track towards your direction.

When you put the questions in front of you, it helps you to classify whatever that comes to you and whatever you stumbled upon anywhere. Saves lots of time, energy and prevents headaches.

Easy classification :
(1) -> irrelevant -> skip
(2) -> relevant -> keep

Now whatever you've kept as relevant needs to be sieved further ( filter ) based on 2 important points :
(1) -> Quality
(2) -> Depth of Relevance

In the markets, what will smother us are the FOGS of HYPE and SCAMS among those items we've gathered together in our basket.

How do we overcome these 2 to get at the products with the RIGHT QUALITY and DEPTH of RELEVANCE?

(1) -> Our Diligence
(2) -> Our Willingness To Network

These 2 inherent characters will enable us to do COMPARISON, the key to making good decisions.

Generally, we compare products and services that we've already classified as relevant and of quality based on 6 points:
(1) features,
(2) benefits,
(3) performance,
(4) specifications ( suitability ),
(5) other people's experience
(6) price.

And mind you, after all these thorough steps, we can still make mistakes. But the mistakes would be less costly. And mistakes done is equal to good experience.

And many times, we would also make successful decisions and be very satisfied.

If we happened to gather 5 or 6 fantastic products, all at par, there are many ways to finalize. One of it is GUT FEELING. Another is to check for complaints in the market. Yet another is, to see how responsive the person at the other end is to all of our queries.

I'm not encouraging analysis paralysis. What I'm proposing are the basics of decision making which happened to be a major time saver as well. As you go along, you'll be sharper and quicker at that.

I'm talking based on experience handling tonnes of information in many forms in various industries for the past 25 years. And achieving what I wanted to achieve from them.

Hope this helps a bit.