Doing the hard stuff

I’m often amazed by what can come out of just a few hours of doing the hard stuff. By hard stuff I mean the stuff that really matters to the growth of your business or project. The stuff that will make a real and lasting difference to your progress. This is not twitter, Facebook, business card and brochure design. It’s not doing a competitor analysis or evaluating the software you’ll be using for managing email or contacts.

The hard stuff is picking up the phone, speaking to people and finding the contact in a company that can help you get your idea across to inevitably sell your service. Putting together a well-formed email is all well and good but you have to remember to send it… and follow-up.

As I walked through Sheffield City Centre this week coming from a fantastic meeting I’ve been hoping to have for some time, I reflected on what got me there. It was a single 3 hour block of commitment to pick up the phone and say “This is me, and this is my idea”.