December 2008 – Page 2

The Biggest Entrepreneurial Mistake

This week,
I finished up my 11th full revision
of Invisible,
my February release.
I’ll have 2 or more sets of edits to do
before the book is published.
And I can guarantee there will be errors
in the final copy.

So it doesn’t surprise me
that proof reading errors pop up
again and again
on The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’s list
of the top 31 Entrepreneurial Mistakes.

If a professional writer requires 3 sets of editors,
entrepreneurs certainly need at least one.
If you skip this step,
you will pay for it
(eventually).

When Spam Is Not Spam

I have a monthly contest on my writing site.
Every month,
I email my list about the contest.

This month,
I helped organize a contest on another site.
When talking about promotion,
a co-author told me
she didn’t want to ‘spam’ her list
to talk about the contest.

I ‘spammed’ my list.
I told my readers
that I knew they loved contests
and I loved this specific contest
I helped organize
so I thought they might love it too.

I got emails THANKING me for the heads up.

It is not spam
if your list wants the information.

Scott Adams, Dilbert, And Boss Diversity

Being a project person,
I tend to have multiple bosses.
I have the boss I directly report to
(often Finance)
and then the bosses assigning me projects
(sales, marketing, operations, the CEO).

Whenever layoffs are discussed,
my main boss has to discuss and get agreement
with all the other bosses
about whether my position stays or is eliminated.

That complexity saved my butt many times.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert,
talks about Boss Diversity in Fortune.
“The best plan now is
to have as many bosses as possible.
I call it boss diversity.
If you work for a company and
you have one boss and
that boss doesn’t like you or
wants to get rid of you,
you’re in trouble.
But if you work for yourself,
you have lots of bosses,
who are your customers,
and if a few of them decide
they don’t like you,
that’s okay.
You can get new ones.
Boss diversity is the one kind
companies don’t talk to you about,
but it can save your career.”

What To Do When Your Boss Is Stuck

Yesterday, we talked about bosses being stuck.
Today, we’ll talk about how to work around
a stuck boss.

A loved one wants a promotion
but he’s dealing with a stuck boss.
The boss doesn’t know how to ask
for what the loved one wants (a promotion).
He’s scared someone will figure out
he doesn’t know how to play the game
and fire his ass.

So my loved one is putting together a proposal.
He’s outlining why that position
(always make it about the position,
not about the person)
should be at a more senior level.
This report has numbers behind it
(the percent of his pay currently performance based
vs
the percent of revenue he pulls in for the team).
It is thick
and
it is ready to be presented.

All the boss has to do
is read the executive summary.
It is no risk for him.
If it goes well,
he takes all the credit for the report.
If it goes poorly,
he says since his employee
put so much time into it,
he felt he had to present it.

Bam!
Stuck boss worked around.

Is Your Boss Stuck?

Has your boss been in his position
5 years or more?
Then odds are
he’s stuck.

He’ll tell you he’s happy where he is,
he doesn’t want more responsibility,
or he’s waiting for retirement.
That is B.S.
I’ve played at the different levels,
the stress is all the same.

What changes is the game
and your boss being stuck
is a clear indication
he doesn’t know how to play that game.

What’s the answer?
You work around him.
If you don’t,
you’ll end up stuck one level down.

1,000 New Species Found In Vietnam

‘It’s all been done’
is something a new business developer
hears again and again.
There are no new stories,
no new products,
no new.

Yet this is proven wrong daily.
New books hit the New York Times Bestseller list.
New toys become the hot hit
of the holiday season.
1,000 new species are found in a jungle
in Vietnam.

‘It’s all been done’
is an excuse
made by people not doing.
Ignore it.

A Bad Economy Isn’t Enough

I went holiday shopping on Saturday.

At one department store,
I was told by an employee
she couldn’t help me
buy a watch
as she was ‘with a customer’
(that ‘customer’ had a store name tag on).

In a Wal-Mart,
the cashier checked me out
without looking at me once
(she was busy complaining to a coworker).

You may think
that the bad economy,
poor sales,
possible lay offs,
is enough to incent employees
to hustle.

It isn’t.

Managers still have to do their jobs,
motivating employees
and ensuring that sales actually get done.

Are your employees selling?

Buying Keywords

A loved one works in a bookstore.
He knows that
a patron coming into the store
looking for a copy of
Kimber Chin’s Breach Of Trust
is more likely to buy
(if that book is in stock)
than a patron
asking simply about a book.

Why?

Because she has done her research,
she has thought about it already
and
she is ready to buy.

The more specific the request,
the closer the prospect is to buying.

Jeff Johnson provides a great presentation
explaining this.

How To Deal With Lulls In Consulting Gigs

I haven’t had a consulting contract
in two weeks.
I might not be on placement again
until I get back from
the Consumer Electronics Show
mid January.

That is normal.
That is expected.
That is one of the reasons
consulting billings
are higher than full time employee wages.

So how do I deal?

I’ve budgeted for slow periods
(with the writing schedule,
I assume
I’m only consulting 6 months out of the year)
and
I’ve planned work for this time.
The nice-to-do list
that somehow never manages to get done.
Training, admin work,
touching base with previous clients.

If your revenue is spotty,
arrange time flexible projects for the off periods.

The Ass-Kissers And The Truth-Tellers

I have a core group
I go to when I want to hear the brutal truth.
I also have a larger group
I go to when I want a pat on the back.
One of the reasons I’m successful
is because I know
who belongs in which group.

In the Rich 100 edition
of Canadian Business,
former CEO of Seagram Co
Edgar Bronfman
talks about ass-kissers and truth-tellers.

“One of the hardest things to do
when you’re a chief executive
is to separate the ass-kissers
from those who tell you the truth.
And, of course, there’s a lot more ass-kissers
than there are truth-tellers.

Sometimes it’s very difficult
for people to tell you truth.
Nobody wants to get in the ashcan
because they insulted you.
They tend to skirt around the issue.
You really have to know
how to penetrate the nonsense.”