New year, new ideas: What matters now

You know I like Seth Godin's ideas, here's another free book of ideas curated by Seth.

As we all think about what the future holds for us, about new directions and new challenges for 2010, it would do us all good to spend a moment and read some or all of the contributions to this e-book. Just like the old style department stores, there's something for everyone here.

My current favourite thought: enough. It ties in with my idea for Christmas: I wish you enough.

But download the book and read some of it first...

Write your own elevator pitch

from Idea Sandbox another stolen snippet we can all re-use

It's important to have an "elevator speech." A 30-second summary of what you're working on to tell the boss... When meeting new people, a quick way to summarize the value of your company and what you do.

It can be challenging to boil down what you do into a short blurb... For inspiration, I suggest paying attention to the 30-second narrations at the beginning of TV shows.

Here's the whole post from Paul Williams it's a must read!

He proposes that just like the synopsis and back story seen at the beginning of TV shows, every business needs a 30 second or so introduction to what it/they do.

I concur, but also suggest that for many of us, figuring out exactly what it is that we do is some of the hardest time we'll spend working on our business rather than in it. There are some tools and thoughts to support you in this task on the homework page.

If we can get a clear idea on what we sell, then it makes it much easier to sell it, both to ourselves, our employees and more importantly to the new customer or strategic partner.

Clarify that thinking into you elevator pitch, practice it, and you'll be prepared to deliver it without having to think what to say when someone asks "what do you do?"

Good luck, get inspired.

read some more background on Paul's blog, or ask google