Month: June 2010

Scott Allen has a great post
about thinking like a bootstrapper
(and every entrepreneur should think
like a bootstrapper
– at least, until she has a confirmed win).

My favorite tip is
“Develop continuous, passive income,
even if that’s not your core business.”

Every business needs cash
to stay in business.
If you are working on a product
with a large selling price
or a large consulting project
that pays out only at the end,
you need something else to pay the bills.

As Scott states,
these little sales may seem like a distraction
but they are a necessary distraction.

One of my author buddies does this.
She writes shorts (10,000 word stories)
in hot, trend-happy genres.
She can write one of these in a week
and it pays the bills.
She devotes the other three weeks
in each month
to writing her ‘break out’ novel.

Build a base of passive income
so you can pay the bills
while pursuing the big sale.

I recently wrote a novel-length story.
It is a great story.
It will sell if marketed the right way
and placed with the right publisher
with the right pen name.

The problem is…
it doesn’t fit any of my pen names.
It is too spicy for my traditional name.
It is too traditional for my spicy name.
It doesn’t fall into the right genres
for the others.

If I have it published,
it would need its own pen name.
It would then be an orphan,
one of those one hit wonders
people read about.
It isn’t strong enough for a solo book
(solo books are rare in romance,
readers like series).

So I’m shelving it
(maybe not forever, but for now).

That’s the thing about product development.
The product you are developing
should fit somewhere
within your existing strategy.
You need an existing brand
to support it
or the confidence to launch
a new brand around it.

If you have neither,
concentrate on a product
that DOES fit.

One thing that all published writers learn
is that the way
readers interpret a story
and the way the writer interprets the same story
is different.

And that’s okay.

Once we create a product
and bring it to market,
we lose control over
how the customer uses that product.
We no longer own the product.
The customer does.

Coca-Cola can’t stop
customers from mixing their product
with Mentos
(and using that mixture to power a car).

WD-40 can’t stop
customers from using the water repellent spray
to soothe their arthritis pain.

Q-tips put a warning
on their boxes
discouraging customers from sticking their product
in their ears.
I don’t know of any other adult use for Q-tips.

Companies can discourage alternative uses
(WD-40 and Coca-Cola actually encourage alternative uses)
but they can’t stop it.

Once you sell your product,
you lose control of it.

Yesterday was my first full time day writing
for the summer.
(The week before, I had another contract extension).

Normally, I write 4,000 solid words a day.
Yesterday, I managed 1,000
(and some editing).

Why?

Because every time
I switch projects,
it takes me time to ramp up.
My mind partially remains
on the previous project.
I’m only working with half a brain
(or less).

Most people experience this.

That means I am more efficient
if I group like tasks.
It also means that I should plan
for this ramp up.

Build in a buffer
when you switch projects.

I cringe when someone comes up to me
and says
“I have an idea for a business”
like having an idea
is all that is needed for success.

Entrepreneurs have
dozens, hundreds, thousands of ideas.
Coming up with ideas
is usually not that challenging.
What IS challenging
is
coming up with a viable business idea.

Forbes has a great post
on questions you should ask
when deciding
whether or not your idea
may be viable as a business.

Of course,
there is the all important
‘does this solve a need
people will pay for?’
question.

My fave addition,
however,
is
‘can this idea be replicated?’
If your sales are linked
to your hours worked,
that answer is a clear NO.