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5 Things I’m Doing Today To Improve Tomorrow (Financial Meltdown Edition)

Posted by Sean | Posted under Ramblings | September 18, 2008

Crazy times bring crazy advice. Do something! Do nothing! Throw your hands in the air! Stick your head in the sand! Is there any middle ground? I’m not quite ready to give up on civilization. Yet I’m unimpressed by the uncritical thinking from the "don’t worry, be happy" crowd. Ehhh… here’s what I’m doing in response to the financial meltdown.

Putting in more work hours. I see posts like "don’t change anything in crazy times" but our allocation of leisure vs. labor is not set in a vacuum. In risky times, it takes more effort to minimize risk, or rather regain the previous equilibrium. So maybe I don’t make as much time for basketball as in prior years. Then again, when I have gone, there are less players. Maybe they are working down their risk, too.

Diversifying income streams. I do a mix of ecommerce marketing and publishing. I’ve also partnered with a web developer to try and build some higher-end websites. The hard parts of the apps are done, we just need to get them out the door and in the money. We need to get in Basecamp and hack away at fluffy features like a low-grade horror movie.

Making plans with the wife. Lately, we have been taking it one day at a time, scrambling to get ready for the baby. If by accident we have time left at the end of the day, we are exhausted. So yesterday I said, "let’s think of some things we want to do in the next week, no matter how small, and not let anything get in the way." DW suggested a movie. Cool. It has been too long. The box office looks as weak as the stock market, but we’ll find something.

Morning walks with the dog. The last two days, I’ve walked our dog before leaving for work. I was tight on time, but what the heck. 10 minutes, nothing major. Yet it helped me start the day with a fresh outlook. Fall is spectacular in St. Louis, especially in the morning. What are the most spectacular ten minutes of the day where you live? Are you getting outside and soaking it up?

Innovating. Sometimes more hours are not the solution. Besides doing more of the same, I’m rethinking existing storefronts to increase their conversion rates. My mind is getting sooo frisky. Like, I synthesized everything I know about ecommerce optimization into a start-fresh redesign. When I unveiled the rough draft yesterday, people got excited. Now, you do not know anything in ecommerce without testing, but I think it has serious potential. Near term, more money for profit sharing. Longer term, I need to pursue more ecommerce businesses that have plateaued, and work for a percentage of new profits.

more later…

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1 Comment so far
  1. Dawn September 22, 2008 12:28 pm

    It sounds to me like you are taking small, but health, steps. I think that is all we can do - keep moving forward, but maybe not with the leaps and bounds we once did.