Blue Horizon Venture Consulting Blog

Turn Off The Noise For Business Growth

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This week, I've sequestered myself in Hilton Head, SC for a week of uniterrupted writing and content creation.  My goal: business growth.  Often, we get so sidetracked with day-to-day business and the constant bombardment of interruptions, that little to nothing ever gets accomplished on the business development side.  In the modern era, there are more things competing for our attention than ever before and news and information is literally at our fingertips (in the form of smart phones) 24/7.

So, Sunday afternoon, I hitched a ride with friends who were heading back to North Carolina, and I set up shop in a 2-story timeshare (and I'll make a note to myself to blog soon about how your business can benefit from timeshare ownership) in Hilton Head.  I pushed the dining room table up against a picture window, set up my makeshift writing/editing studio, plugged everything in and I'm ready to go.

I made a promise to myself not to watch TV (making exceptions for NFL football and an educational DVD series on astronomy), but I brought along some things to read (Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and some magazines and business newsletters), and an accoustic guitar.

The phone and email are off during the day.  No dogs to walk, holiday decorations to put up, no TV, no incessant phone calls, no dinging email notifications, and I don't even have a car, so my only mode of transportation is a rental bike that I've been using to get some exercise in the mornings.

I consciously set up this environment to be productive.  I try to stick to my schedule, but I take take a 10-minute break every hour to walk around, strum the guitar, do some pushups, or get a snack.  I'll probably get more done this week, than I have in the entire past month.  And the work I get done will have significant future impacts on my business.

So that's the moral of the story: turn off the noise!  Whether you're writing a business plan, building a website, or writing a book, setting yourself up in a productive environment will go a long way towards reaching your goals.  Give it a try!

Todd Smith, CEO

Blue Horizon Venture Consulting