Category: New Business Development

The hot topic right now
is bullying.

At first, the fight against bullying
targeted mean-spirited comments.
The movement had noble intentions.

More recently,
the bullying label is being applied
to ANY disagreement,
any negative comments or discussion,
any push back against the status quo.

Which means,
as entrepreneurs,
as sh*t disturbers,
as proponents of change,
you and I will eventually be labelled bullies.

Disagreeing is NOT bullying.
Disagreeing is not wrong.
All of the advancements
we’re enjoying right now
occurred because someone disagreed
with the established way of thinking.

I think disagreeing is so important
to a healthy society,
that if it means being mislabeled a bully,
I’ll accept that incorrect label.

Success always comes as a price.
What price are you willing to pay?

I have a make it or break it release
with a big New York publisher
this year.

There are two possibilities
with this release.

If this story sells well,
I’ll break out of midlist
and become a best selling writer.
Every publisher will want me,
no matter what I’ve done.

If this story doesn’t sell well,
I’ll be fired from my current publisher.
The other New York publishers
won’t want me either,
no matter what I’ve done.

What does this mean?

I’m free, completely free.
I can say or do
whatever I like
because I’m not really risking anything.
No editor is going to say
“I’m not signing k
because she’s a sh*t disturber.”

I can be fearless, take risks,
do things other writers can’t.
And I’m taking full advantage of this,
stirring things up in Romanceland.

Ironically, this new attitude will likely
INCREASE the odds
I’ll be successful.

Be fearless.
You truly have nothing to lose.

Piano Man is the song
most people associate
with Billy Joel.
What many people don’t realize
is he worked as a piano man
AFTER he received a record contract.

The record contract sucked
and he was trying to break it
yet he still had to earn money
and he still loved to play.
This experience taught him a lot.

Billy Joel
shares

“What you’re doing
in a piano bar basically
is playing for tips,
so you try to pick out
what will get bread out of the audience.
Is this guy Italian?
You play the ‘Godfather’ theme
or something like that.
Is this guy Irish?
You play ‘Danny Boy.’
You try to get those $5 bills
in the brandy glass.”

“I’ve never given myself
more than two seconds of self-pity,
ever since I realized that
the piano bar gig is something
a lot of people have to do for years
and maybe their entire lives.
And they’re happy to have the work.”

There are lessons to be learned
from every set back.

There are also people
who would be thrilled
to have the experience
you view as a set back.

Seth Godin shares

“What’s your job?

Not your job title,
but your job.
What do you do
when you’re doing your work?
What’s difficult and important
about what you do,
what change do you make,
what do you do
that’s hard to live without
and worth paying for?”

This isn’t an easy question
to answer
yet it is key to our success.

Many of my writing buddies,
when asked this question,
say
their job is to write.
This means
they resent any time spent
interacting with readers,
and
promoting their work.
They feel this
takes time away
from their true job.

When I asked myself this question,
my answer was
“To entertain others.
To make them happy.”
This means
I deliberately make
my marketing and promotion
fun and entertaining.
Reader events are exactly that
— events.
Even when I’m not writing,
I can do my true job.

What is YOUR true job?

Jacquelyn Smith
shares

“Successful people want
others to succeed.
Unsuccessful people secretly hope
others fail.
“When you’re in an organization
with a group of people,
in order to be successful,
you all have to be successful,”
Kerpen explains.”

People judge you
by the company you keep.
If your buddies are all successful,
you will look
and likely become
more successful.

Has your social maven buddy
worked her a$$ off
and gained a million Twitter followers?
Congratulations!
By being supportive,
you now have access to a million people!

Has your co-worker won an award?
Congratulations!
Everyone in your department
including yourself
is now in the spotlight.
Make the most of this time.

Success creates success.
It doesn’t have to be your success
that starts the reaction.

Mike Periu
shares
“I was recently asked:
What is the greatest mistake
first-time business owners make
right at the launch of their businesses?

There are enough mistakes
to fill several books,
but in my experience
the business killer is
focusing on profitability.
This may seem counterintuitive,
as being profitable should be
the goal of any business.
But this goal usually comes
at the expense of something more important:
cash flow.
Managing your cash is
by far the single most important factor
in business success.
No amount of sales or profits
can save a business
from having insufficient cash flow.”

I can attest to this.
I drafted the financials
for many new businesses.
Even for brand extensions
within one of the largest beverage companies
in the world,
I drafted cash flow statements.

Yes, we looked at regular income statements also
but the cash flow projections
were the most perused,
the most heavily debated.
(If the cash wasn’t used for the brand extension,
it could have been used elsewhere.)

In my own business,
even though I’m a professional accountant,
I only update the formal accounting statements
once a year.
The cash flow statements are usually updated
daily.

Run out of cash
and your business is in trouble.
Focus on cash flow.

Last week,
a huge acquisition in Romanceland
(HarperCollins aka Avon buying Harlequin)
was announced.

This started a debate
about whether or not
this was a good thing.

My reaction?
Who gives a sh*t
if it SHOULD happen?
It’s happening.
How can we profit from it?

Every industry,
including yours,
is currently debating
something equally useless,
equally out of their control.

It could be
an increase in input costs,
a new law,
a new consumer trend.
Your industry doesn’t have
the power to change it.
You can only figure out a way
to profit from it.

Accept these new realities
and adjust your plans
for this change.

Seth Godin
has a great post
on power users

“Power users can pay you more
or they can build infrastructure,
or they can do outreach for you.
The challenge is in
finding them, embracing them
and giving them tools
to accomplish their goals
as you reach yours.”

In Romance,
as with many industries,
sales are all about the power user.
There are certain groups of readers
who read A LOT.
They also constantly talk about books,
promote books,
push other readers to buy books.

When I find a power user
reading one of my stories,
I immediately invite her to be part
of my street team.
I shower her with extras.
I make her feel special.
She tends to invite her power user buddies
to be part of the street team also.

I win because I have these power users
promoting for me.
They win because they are rewarded.
Everyone is happy
and my sales grow.

Embrace your power users.

There’s a certain editor in Romanceland
that I greatly admire.
She has done some creative innovative things,
pushing the entire industry forward.

However, I don’t agree
with many of these things
and when we talk,
we always argue about them.
The arguments are heated
but not emotional.

We’re both professionals.
We can disagree
and remain rational about it.
We can also work together
and not worry about vendettas
or other pettiness.

And we’re both better,
more successful
because of this.

You don’t have to agree
with everything a person says
or believes or does
to learn from and work with them.

There is a lot of talk
about eliminating the ‘isms.
This is 2014.
We shouldn’t tolerate
racism, ageism, sexism, etc.

Yes, I agree that we shouldn’t tolerate it
but ‘isms aren’t going away.
They might change.
If aliens attack, we might experience planetism.
But they won’t go away.

Because the ‘isms serve an emotional purpose.
They make us feel safe and in control.
In the past,
we used these ‘isms to band together
giving us a greater chance of surviving.

It helps us deal with
the random sh*t that happens.
These unexplainable acts frighten us.
If we blame them on a certain group,
we’re immediately calmer.
We’re in control.
We can do something about them
(exclude or eliminate this group).

We also enjoy being in elite groups,
belonging to clubs not everyone can join.
This is why self-published writers tell everyone
they’re self-published
even though readers don’t care about publishers.
They made what they felt to be
a superior choice
and now they’re informing the world.

Self-published writers then surround themselves
with people who agree with them,
who made the same choice.
Clearly, every other writer is wrong.
This gives them reassurance,
a nice feeling.

We ALL have ‘isms.
The first step to
managing or eliminating them
is to know what our own ‘isms are.