Your Co-Owners

It is a classic story,
almost a cliché.

An entrepreneur needs money.
She decides to accept that money
from a venture capitalist,
giving him a piece of her business.

The venture capitalist
pushes the entrepreneur
to make decisions
she doesn’t want to make
like going public
or selling out.

The entrepreneur resists.
She is eventually pushed out
of the business she founded.

Why?

Because she chose a partner
who didn’t have the same vision
for her company
as she did.

Murray Newlands
Founder of
ChattyPeople.com,
shares

“Before adding partners
or anyone else
that has this much
ownership of the business,
check to see
if you are on the same page
in terms of philosophy,
what you want to accomplish
and overall vision.”

Co-owners will decide
the future of your business.
Take the necessary time
and apply the required resources
to find the right ones.

Another Think Coming

A writer asked me
if the correct phrase was
she ‘has another thing coming’
or
she ‘has another think coming’.

‘Another think coming’
is correct.
However, many readers
believe it is
‘another thing coming’.

My recommendation?

She should use
a different phrase.

If you are EVER
writing marketing copy
and you wonder if the phrase
or word you’re using
is correct,
don’t use it.
Why?
Because prospects
will wonder the same thing
and that will draw their attention
away from the product or service
you’re selling.

Keep phrases and words
simple
in marketing copy
(and in novels).

Published
Categorized as Marketing

The Promise Of Anonymity

A friend was fundraising
for a great cause.

As this friend is a huge gossip,
I wanted to make a donation
to her campaign
anonymously.

She would still receive the credit
for the donation.
She simply wouldn’t know
who made the donation.

The charity seemed to allow that.
There was a
‘check here to make
your donation anonymous’
option.

I checked that option.
My donation was posted
to the website
as being anonymous.
My friend, however,
received an email
telling her exactly
who made the donation.

I won’t ever donate
to that charity again.

If you promise
anonymity
to your customers,
deliver on that anonymity.

Let It Go

I don’t tend
to argue with people
in real life
or on the internet.

I say my piece,
stand up for what I think is right,
and then I move on.

I have never changed anyone’s mind
by arguing with them.
It serves no purpose
and sucks time I don’t have.

Seth Godin
shares

“You’re totally justified
in spending a lot of
time and energy
in evening the score.
You are the avenger.

The thing is,
it’s not clear that
we benefit from
carrying around
all that vitriol.
All the time we spend hating
is time that
we’ve given away
to someone
who hasn’t earned our time.
It’s time
we’re being controlled
by someone
we don’t like
or respect very much.”

If you’re not accomplishing anything
by arguing with people,
why do it?

Selling Only To The Extreme

A buddy will only eat
organic, chemical-free food.
She saw a post on Facebook
about how Ben And Jerry’s,
the company she usually buys ice cream from,
has chemicals in their ice cream.
She didn’t investigate the post
She simply won’t buy from them anymore.

Another buddy only reads
literary books.
A beloved writer of hers
had his latest book
labelled commercial
by one critic.
My buddy will no longer read
the writer’s books.

If you’re selling
only
to the extreme,
one rumor
or one mistake
will cost you these customers.
You won’t be extreme
enough for them.

Consider marketing your products
as extreme
while ensuring your product offerings
appeal to the more mainstream
market
(i.e. Market to the extreme.
Sell to the slightly less extreme.).

Published
Categorized as Marketing

You Likely Won’t Like It

I posted a comment
about liking a certain type of story.
One of the replies started with
“You probably wouldn’t like my story
because…”

My comment back?
“It sounds like something
I’d enjoy
but I trust you, (writer)
and I’ll take your word for it.”

If you’re sincere
about “You likely won’t like it”
comments,
well, that’s honest
and I respect that.
If you steer the prospect
toward another product of yours,
you will likely get a sale.

If you’re using this
as a marketing tactic,
hoping the prospect
will try to prove you wrong,
stop.
You don’t want that type
of customer.
The customers you DO want,
the customers who will listen to you,
respect your opinion,
won’t buy your product.

If someone else says this
to you about THEIR product,
believe them.
Walk away from that purchase
or partnership.

Think before you use
‘You likely won’t like it.’

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Misunderstandings

There will always be
one client/customer/prospect
who misunderstands
your marketing/instructions/
comments/other communications.

On Sunday,
at an online party,
I posted a contest.

The instructions were simple.
‘For a chance to win,
comment on this post
and tell me
if you think the man in photo 1
or the man in photo 2
is sexier.’
I left a comment as an example.

One reader still misunderstood
the instructions.

If you have
plenty of misunderstandings,
yes,
look into the wording.

If you have
one or two misunderstandings,
don’t waste your time
tweaking the wording.

Someone will ALWAYS
misunderstand you.

Be Upfront About Being A Business

With my romance writing business,
I receive a gazillion offers
a day
from folks
to proofread, to promote,
to craft teasers for me,
etc.

The issue is…
I never know
if these are business owners
or enthusiastic fans.

I tend not to involve
enthusiastic fans
in the business side
of romance writing.

I will, of course,
thank them
for any ‘help’ they give me
but I won’t take them up
on offers.

And since I don’t know
if these offers
are from businesses or fans,
I say
‘no, thank you’
to all of them.

Be upfront
about being a business.

The Company You Keep

I worked with a publisher.
I thought they were legit
(and they were… for a while)
but I had my agent look at the contract.
Closely.
Some clauses were changed.
Other than that,
it was a great contract.

Then the publisher stopped paying
all of the writers.
They continued selling our books
in huge quantities.
They merely pocketed that money.

So I talked to my agent.
She told me
I could get my books back
IF I went to court.

Other writers did this.
They went to court.
The publisher paid them
the day before the court appearance,
AFTER the writers incurred all of the legal fees.

The writers had no case.

Then the publisher stopped paying them again.

This is when I found out
a contract isn’t worth anything.
Only the ethics of the people/company
you’re doing the deal with
protects you.

Seth Godin
shares

“Specific contracts
don’t completely protect you
from dishonorable people.
What they do
is make it really clear
about what it takes
to do what you said
you were going to do.

Start with a good agreement.
But your future depends on
doing agreements with good people.”

Don’t do business
with people/companies
you don’t trust.

Support Your Product Or Service

I can’t believe
I have to write a post
about this
but it seems I do.

If you make a product
or offer a service,
allow your customers
to use that product/service
around you.

If, for example,
you make fancy tights,
don’t forbid attendees
to wear those fancy tights
at your conference.

Yes, this means
if you make underwear,
you should expect
and embrace
that your customers will wear
that underwear
as outerwear
at events you host.

If seeing people,
all types of people,
in underwear upsets you,
you shouldn’t be making underwear.
You should be in a business
you CAN love.

Be the number one supporter
of your product or service.
Celebrate when your customers use it.