Month: December 2017

Yet another romance publisher
(business)
is closing.

Some of the writers
(raw material vendors)
for this publisher
said they’d like to go Indie
(start their own writing businesses)
but the costs of producing
a book (finished product)
were too high.
Their sales
would never offset
those costs.

Yep, the only reason
they aren’t selling
their books (finished products)
themselves
is because the books cost
more than they earn

And they wonder why
their publishers
go out of business.

If THAT’s the reason
you’re partnering with someone,
know that this situation isn’t
sustainable.
Something has to change.

It is better that you make this change
than wait for others
to force this change upon you.

If I can’t figure out
how someone is making money
from a business partnership,
I run far, far away.

Often, I can guess.
For example,
writers are currently up in arms
because Goodreads is starting to charge
for contests held on their site.

I expected that.
They were spending resources
on improving how contests
were run.
They were doing that
for a business reason.
Goodreads couldn’t charge
the readers entering the contests.
The other choice
was charging
the hosts of the contests
(writers).

Figure out how
your business partner
is making money
from the association.

Some writers,
even new writers,
have personal assistants.
These assistants
promote on social media,
contact book bloggers,
handle the email.

The issue is…
for some things,
direct contact
from the writer (business owner)
gets bigger results.

And when you’re in start up mode,
the dollars saved
are precious.

Most business builders
start out
doing everything.

Jessica Iclisoy,
Founder of
California Baby,
shares

“For the first eight years,
I was a demo girl
— you know the girl
who stands
at the end of the aisle
and says,
‘Could you try my product?'”

Prepare to do everything
when you first start your business.

One of my least favorite covers
in one of my best selling series
is the readers’ hands down favorite.
They love the cover model.
I think he’s hideous.

But my cover artist,
someone who has spent years
figuring out
what images romance readers love
on covers,
chose him
and I trusted her.

I also knew I wasn’t
necessarily my target customer.

Yes, I would buy my books
if they weren’t written by me
but I’m not the ideal reader,
the super fan
who convinces everyone around her
to read the same books she does.

You are likely not your target customer either.
We’re business builders.
We have unique personalities.
That automatically makes us
‘different’ customers.

Remember that
when you’re making decisions.

The white guy’s network
is still alive
and well
and very strong
in the US.

Seth Godin
has a great post
on how to compete
with folks
having that advantage.

As a business builder,
I prefer not to compete.

Women are 50.8 percent
of the population in the US,
157 million people.
That’s a big enough market for me.

(The main market for Romance Novels,
the industry I’m building a business in,
is women.)

Over 121 million Americans
are non-white.
Again, that’s a huge market.

Small businesses can’t sell to everyone.
We simply don’t have the resources.

Consider playing in a space
where you’re not disadvantaged.

I grew up dirt poor.
We struggled
to put food on the table.
All of us worked hard
and had to find creative solutions
for problems
others simply threw money at.

When I hit adversity now,
I know I can handle it
because I handled it in the past.
I know what I can do
with no money
and a whole lot of willpower.

The competition quits.
I keep going.

Joey Rivera,
founder of
Rivera Group,
shares

“If you have known
the extent of extreme struggle,
running a small business is easy.

Hard is relative.

When you have to kick into high gear
and dig deep,
it’s easy,
because you’ve been there before.

It’s an exercise in
outlasting the competition.”

Extreme struggle makes you
MORE qualified
to build businesses,
not less.

My Romance Writing Business
is a two-person family business.
Two of us have controlling interest
in it.

That creates challenges
because sometimes we want to go
in different directions.

So we have a designated
third person.
This person is different
for different areas of the business.
He/she is an ‘expert’,
someone we both respect.
We give her/him
the tie-breaking vote
and we abide by that vote.

Steve Roeder,
partner
at Blatt Billiards,
a family-run business,
shares

“The most important thing is respect.
We don’t fight or argue
—we take a vote on everything
and we have a ‘two-man rule,’
so if two men vote one way,
the third must follow
for the benefit of the company.”

Would the two-man rule
work for your small business?