When you think of people with patience,
Donald Trump’s isn’t the first name coming to mind.
Yet in Trump: How To Get Rich,
he says
“I’ve spent from five minutes to fifteen years
waiting for a deal.”
Does waiting mean do nothing?
No
and that is the big difference
between doers and dreamers.
Doers continue to work on the deal,
to be part of the negotiations.
Dreamers simply dream.
Be a doer.
I wanted to add business quotations
to a couple of my sites.
I am constantly collecting quotations and
thought others would enjoy them also.
I had a choice when setting up.
I could incorporate the quotations
into my established sites or
I could build a new site and link to it
(via the handy dandy widget on the sidebar).
One lesson I had drummed into me
during my time at
a certain beverage company
(number 4 on the
Brandz Top 100 Most Powerful brands listing)
was when in doubt,
separate.
Why?
Because now I’m building
two brands instead of one.
When you develop a product,
think
“can this be run independently?”
and
“how can this be designed in?”
A “cheat” to ramping up sales quickly
is to associate your new brand
with an established one.
This is to be done cautiously
as the two brands will be perceived initially
as being similar.
The good AND the bad of the established brand
will transfer onto the new one.
Before pitching my novel to publishers,
I made a conscious decision
to link my author brand
with the romance genre.
I weighed the pro’s
(huge established audience)
against the con’s
(no respect from the literary community),
before finally deciding that
it was the right thing for my novels.
There is risk with this strategy.
Anything damaging the romance brand
will now damage my author brand.
Think before you link.
Unfortunately we can’t tackle the whole world
with a product launch.
It is simply too large for our resources.
So we segment and
target that slice of the population.
What determines a successful segmentation?
Sultan Kermally in Gurus On Marketing advises
“For segmentation to be successful,
it is important for a segment to be
large enough for it to be profitable;
distinct enough to differentiate;
homogeneous enough to prepare a marketing plan
and
measurable to determine
the effectiveness of marketing.”
I usually start with the first,
size for profitability.
It is easiest to measure
and is an absolute must.
There is a great article in
The Wall Street Journal
about aging friendly products.
Inventors are targeting
the three major senior concerns;
decreased motor skills,
impaired vision, and
forgetfulness.
Some of the highlights include
touch controlled faucets,
flexible font sizes on electronics, and
stoves that sound an alarm when pots boil over.
The big win is that these innovations,
while designed for an older consumer,
appeal to all ages.
How can you make your products more senior friendly?
Coca-Cola is a global company.
It prefers that product offerings
from country to country
are the same.
Prefers,
due to system efficiencies,
but doesn’t insist upon it.
For example:
Despite being popular in the U.S.,
there is no Cherry Coke in Canada.
It has been introduced a few times
and failed each time.
There is no local demand for that product.
There IS, however,
a demand for more Five Alive flavors
at a higher juice content
so Coca-Cola changes the base product to supply it.
That local success is then tested
in other countries.
Coca-Cola thinks globally
but
acts locally.
Can your company take global successes
and tweak them for the local market?
Seth Godin posted about his gmail spam filter
blocking orders from Google.
Is this surprising?
No.
All of my email accounts block legit messages.
One even blocks emails
from addresses in my address book.
Does this mean the spam filter is useless?
Another no.
I read each message reaching my inbox.
I scan each message heading and email address in my trash.
It still saves time.
What are you missing out on
thanks to your spam filter?
I asked a young entrepreneur
if he trusted his new mentor.
His reply?
“What does it matter?
I have a non-disclosure agreement.”
Here’s the nasty little secret about
non-disclosure agreements
(or any other legal document)…
they’re only worth the resources
you have to enforce them.
You have no money?
Then non-disclosure agreements
aren’t going to help you much
(unless you can convince your lawyer
to take her fees out of the settlement).
Yes, get them signed but
know that the only thing backing them up
is the character of the person signing.
A friend plans to invest in real estate.
For the past three years,
he has been learning “everything” there is
to know about real estate.
He admits he still has a lot left to learn.
Another friend also wanted to invest in real estate.
He looked at the first step,
learned what he needed to know to in order to take it,
and then acted.
He did that for the next step and
the next step after that.
Does he know everything about real estate?
No.
But he HAS become a successful real estate investor.
If time is unlimited,
learn for learning’s sakes.
If you want to take action today,
learn only what you need to know.
I recently watched
a spider take down a ladybug
four times his size.
A combination of factors
helped him with this seemingly impossible task.
The web was well woven and in the right spot.
The ladybug was old and weak.
When the ladybug got entangled,
the spider worked furiously for two days to secure it.
But once that was accomplished,
the spider ate well.
Sounds like your average entrepreneur’s story.
Preparation, luck, and a lot of hard work
leading to success.