Overcoming Overwhelm

Overwhelm is a real issue for many online marketers. The dream of working from home, with your slippers, or at the beach, etc. can be a pipe dream for many. Especially considering all the aspects of all they feel they need to do to be successful online. Market research, keyword research, website hosting, domain purchases, SEO, SEM, social media, email marketing, paid traffic, conversion, order processing, and the list goes on. Overwhelm can hit us all regardless of where we are in our marketing projects, Internet businesses, or careers. Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful when overwhelm is creeping in on me.

Overcoming Overwhelm

Be Realistic

You are not superhuman, yes there is a lot to do, but you have to pick your battles, you cannot do it all in the same time frame of a team of 4. Projects fail often because expectations weren’t in the realm of realism. Consider the past projects you were a part of, what parts of the project were you realistic with, what parts over zealous? Note that and think how you can improve for the next project.

Expect the Unexpected

Things happen that you just cannot account for. It’s important to build margin into your projects. What if you are confronted with a technology limitation in the middle of creating your product, or serving your client? What if your vendor or partner is unexpectedly unavailable for several days or more? What if you or a partner gets sick?

Depending on the factors involved, I will often increase project completion estimates by a factor of 2 or 3 to build in margin.

Break It Down

Know your plan, and work your plan. Take pressure off yourself by getting and idea what is required on the front end of a project. If you aren’t already using a project management tool, now may not be the best time to introduce one and the overwhelm that comes with learning new software.  You can go simple, pen and paper, or a spreadsheet.

Include:

Keep it simple, only adding layers of complexity to managing the project as the need presents itself.

Know Your Numbers

Nothing can bring clarity better than number. Having business metrics in place takes effort, but once you have them, it is a matter of maintenance. Looking at them regularly will help you understand how different areas of your business are performing.

Numbers might include:

Example: A site we setup 30 months ago required about 20 hours of time, didn’t earn anything for 3 months, and the first months commission was a mere $265.11. Since then it has earned just over $19,000, averaging $633/mo, and requires very little maintenance. Looking at the time:ratio return, it grows in value with each sale.

$19,000 divided by 20 hours equals $950/hr for our time.

Leverage Technology

Anything that can save significant time, over time should be considered. Yes, there likely will be a learning curve when implementing or applying a new technology to your business, but properly selected beforehand it should save you time in the long run, release the pressure that was experienced living without it, and free you up to do other things.

Technologies worth considering might be:

• An autoresponder service (a decent starter is here, more advanced stuff here)
• Mindmapping software (ideas for how to use mindmapping for marketing)
• WordPress plugins (that make blogging easier, faster, and better for SEO)

Partnering

Having your own solo online business is intriguing for many individuals, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Partnering is actually another way to introduce leverage in a business. Overwhelm can be diffused when partnering with someone who can bring assets to the table that you need. Someone may have no inclination toward technology, but are really good at sales or public speaking. It would be to their advantage to partner with someone who has the technology skills to support their sales effort, and vice versa.

Overwhelmed? Consider partnering and outsourcing to get more done.

Outsourcing

Another antidote to overwhelm can be outsourcing. Having someone to write articles, implement a link building strategy, do your bookkeeping, pickup the mail, answer the phone, respond to email, customize your blog, etc. can be a great way to free up your time for other things. As John Assaraf said, “Hire people who play at what you work at.” Hire others so you can get on with playing. One of my favorite outsourcing services is one called oDesk.

Having a skilled resource to keep blog software current, fix technical issues, or post articles can take time to find and build the relationship, but is a great way to help overcome overwhelm.

Get Away, Get Perspective

Life is a process of discovery. Perhaps after completing your last project, you’d do well to get away and decide what is next. Perhaps you learned a few things about yourself that can help you moving forward. What do you enjoy? What skills do you want to improve? What projects should you really be working on, and which to cancel altogether? These questions asked outside the context of “work” can yield some valuable information.

There are many ways marketers can reduce overwhelm, these are a few I’ve found helpful. Useful? How do you deal with overwhelm? Please +1, share on FB, Linked in and/or share your feedback on overcoming overwhelm in the comment section below.
Image credits: courtesy of Rich Schefren’s Manifesto.