I hear it all the time:  smart professionals, who are great at what they do, don’t know how to start a business blog, and probably wouldn’t have time to blog even if they did start one.

Last fall Kris and I spent some time interviewing clients. We really wanted to know how we could best be of service.

What we learned is that while business continues to improve for our clients, and many are having tremendous success with their blogs, others had let their blog lag.  Sure, they had started blogging with great gusto – they put in a lot of time – but somewhere along the line got stuck, and never went back.

I hope this never happens to you. But if it does, or if you are considering starting a blog, please allow me to share this story…

Several years ago, I took up needle work, you know, cross-stitching designs on canvas with yarn. One day as I was completing a big canvas, I was listening to a motivational speaker.

All of a sudden, I heard these words:

“Most people just start doing things without reading the instruction manual.”

Loud and clear. I looked down at my needle work and like a shock, it hit me. I’d been doing them all backwards.

Sure enough, a quick reference back to the user manual clearly showed that I was inserting the needle backwards, and not producing the right effect. I put down my work and never went back to that hobby ever again.

My point is that I see many professionals who are pretty smart at what they do, but they start blogging without reading any instructions at all. Later, when they get stuck, they complain about not having “enough time” to blog.