Category: New Business Development

A romance writer told me yesterday
that she couldn’t wait for
the billionaire “trend” to be over.

She’ll be waiting for a long time
because the billionaire hero,
an upgrade on the millionaire hero,
has been popular
since…
well… since the first romance novel was written.

I’ve heard the same thing
about wolf shifters,
a twist on the beast hero.
There has always been a demand
for more primitive heroes.
They might be MMA Fighters
or wolf shifters
or gladiators
but they’re the same type of hero.

There are short lived fads
and longer lasting trends.
Then there are twists
on constants.
These constants never go away.

Businesses can be built
around all three of these
but the tactics for
fads, trends, constants
are very different.

Know what type of business
you’re in.

Asking questions is
one of the first steps
in innovation.

Warren Berger
shares

“I love the Polaroid story,
which is something of a classic.
Back in the 1940s,
Edwin Land was on vacation
with his 3-year-old daughter.
He snapped a photograph of her,
using a standard camera.
But she wanted to see
the results right away,
not understanding that
the film must be sent off for processing.

She asked,
“Why do we have to wait
for the picture?”
After hearing his daughter’s why question,
Land wondered,
what if you could develop film
inside the camera?
Then he spent a long time
figuring out how
—in effect,
how to bring the darkroom
into the camera.

That one why question
inspired Land
to develop the Polaroid instant camera.
It’s a classic
Why/What if/How story.
But it all started with a child’s naive question
—a great reminder of
the power of fundamental questions.”

All past innovations
were driven by questions
the business founders asked.
The next big innovation
could be driven by questions
YOU ask.

One of my pen names
has existed for four and a half years.
I’ve never had a break out hit
with this pen name.
I’ve had constant releases
and constant promotion,
a slow and steady build.

However, simply having been around
for this length of time
is now differentiating me
from other writers.
I’m landing promo opps others don’t.
I’m given projects others don’t.
Readers recognize my name
and associate length of time
in the business
with quality.

In the romance world,
as in many industries,
there are many start ups
and very few older brands.

This is why you should start NOW.
Start your business.
Start your dream.
Start your marketing.

Not tomorrow.
Not next week.
TODAY.

Old school management training
says you have to be
stern and harsh and humorless
to be a good manager
and drive results with your team.

That does sometimes work.

But so does being
a happy, optimistic, smiley manager,
a leader who gets her people
so revved up and enthusiastic
about the product
(whatever that product is)
that they work extra hard
and extra long
to ensure the company is successful.

Yes, you can’t be happy all of the time.
You’re a leader
and sometimes leaders have
to redirect the efforts
and correct the tone
of others.

But as a happy person myself,
I know my ‘mad face’ terrifies people
much more than
a grumpy person’s ‘mad face.’
I barely have to raise my voice
and people rush to correct the problem.

Being a manager
doesn’t mean
being a grump.
Cheerful manager get result also.

When I’m looking for writers
to promote with,
I normally choose writers
at my level or above.

Why?

Because working with these writers
forces me to give my all,
to be the best I can be.
I see how hard they work
and this pushes me
to work as hard or harder.

Bruna Martinuzzi shares

“87 percent of employees report
that working with a low performer
made them want to change jobs.

And 93 percent said
working with these type of people
decreased their productivity.

High performers often report that
low performers aren’t held accountable
and that they’re often forced
to clean up the mess
made by these lazy employees.”

Work with people who are better,
more successful,
than you are.

You know you made a mistake.
You feel it in your gut.
You tell a buddy about your mistake.
Her response?
“It wasn’t a mistake.”
“Everything will work out.”
“It was the other person’s fault.”
You feel happier about yourself.
You decide you didn’t make a mistake.

So you make the SAME mistake
days, weeks, months, years later.
You don’t improve.
You don’t change.
You don’t become successful.

A great mentor,
in contrast,
will agree with you
when you say you messed up.
She’ll ask you
what you would done differently.
She wouldn’t allow you
to dodge responsibility for your mistake.

Because change is hard
and no one changes unless there’s a reason,
normally pain-filled reason
why we have to change.

Mistakes SHOULD hurt.
The pain stops us
from making the same mistakes
over and over again.

Those of us
who do are rare.
This means
a single opportunity will often lead
to many more opportunities.
This is good and bad.
We have access to more avenues
to success
BUT
these avenues might not lead
to the success WE want.

This is why goals and plans
are important.
However, goals and plans only work
if we refer to them.

As Mark Burnett advises,
in an interview with Carmine Gallo,

“Keep checking in.
Ask yourself, am I on the right path?
Is this what I was called to do?
Most people who hear a call
fail to take action
or
fail to keep checking their map.
They get further and further away
from their goal, their destination,
and soon they are off course.
Always check in.”

I’m three months into a six month writing project
(this is the creative part of the project
– the entire project is twenty months).
I have six stories in the serial written
and another six stories to write.

The possible money no longer excites me.
The possible brand awareness
no longer gives me a thrill.
The only thing driving me forward
is passion for this project,
the belief that this story HAS to be told.

Ekaterina Walter
shares

“You will never hear innovators say
“I hate my job!”
or
“I don’t care!”
If you don’t have this key ingredient
– passion coupled with vision
– you will never be able to
overcome challenges and take risks
to push the envelope,
innovate, and grow your business.”

Passion isn’t everything.
No one becomes successful
based on passion alone.
But when times get tough
(and they WILL get tough),
passion is often what pushes us through.

If you don’t have passion for your business,
consider finding a new business.

I was asked to turn around
a writing project quickly.
I agreed,
assuming that the people
requesting the fast turn around
would assist me
in meeting this very tight deadline.

They didn’t.
They didn’t answer emails.
They sat on their components
of the project.
They asked for changes
AFTER sitting on the project,
expecting me
to complete the changes instantly.

The next time
I’m asked to turn around
something for them quickly,
I’ll say no.

If you want someone
to focus her energies on your project,
turning it around quickly,
ensure that
a) You truly do need that fast turn around
b) You give her the inputs
to accomplish this
c) You respond to her queries quickly
d) You outline the project thoroughly,
eliminating the need for rework
and
e) You have the same sense of urgency.

Asking someone,
even a vendor,
to drop everything and work on your project
is asking her to do a favor for you.
Treat that favor with respect.

One of my buddies
worked minimum wage day jobs
while she was building her writing business.
Her annual income was $22,000.

In the romance writing world,
a writer with books regularly releasing
can replace that income
in 3 years.

My buddy did that
and then took the leap to full time writing
without worrying
about a reduction in her income.

Another writing buddy is a lawyer.
She earns $200,000 a year
at her day job.

It will take decades
for a part time romance writer
to replace that salary.

I suspect this buddy
will never make the leap
to writing full time.
She worries too much
about the reduction in her income.

In industries such as publishing
with low capital costs,
having a low income or little wealth
isn’t a barrier
to starting a business.
It is an INCENTIVE to start a business.
You’re risking very little
for a possibility at success.

My writer friend
– the one who was working
the $22,000 a year day job?
She recently sold a single book
for over a million dollars.

My other writer friend
– the lawyer earning
$200,000 a year?
She continues to earn
$200,000 a year
and dreams of the day
she can write full time.