Category: New Business Development

Writers do this ALL the time.
We fake the chicken.
We act as though
we have a zillion readers
because readers won’t buy books
they think no one else is reading.
Books don’t become popular
unless they are viewed
as being popular.

Facebook’s Julie Zhuo shares

“One great line
from Gagan Biyani’s talk
last week
has stayed with me:
faking the chicken.
It means doing whatever it takes
to get the chicken in place
so that you can start reaping
the benefit of eggs.

…

Or, if you’re lacking confidence,
fake it until you make it.
Act as if you have conviction
in what you’re saying
even if the entire neighborhood’s
butterfly population
has taken up residence
in your stomach.

Or, if something seems
out of your capabilities,
surround yourself with people
that have done it before.
Take inspiration from those
who make it look possible,
and maybe even easy.
Trick yourself into thinking
you already have the chicken.”

If you don’t have a chicken,
fake a chicken.

When I started writing seriously,
I began with writing short stories.

I knew if I spent a year
working on a single novel
and then three years after that
trying to sell the novel,
my passion for being published
would die.

Writing short stories
allowed me
to achieve smaller successes sooner.
These successes fed my passion.

Dilbert creator
Scott Adams
shares

“Billionaires like to say
passion is the secret of success.
But what else could they say
without sounding like total jerks?
They can’t say
they are smarter than poor people.
They can’t say
they work harder than poor people.
They can’t say
they simply got lucky
because that would ruin their images.
So they say
passion is the key
because it sounds like
an appropriately modest answer.

In my many business ventures,
I was always excited at the start,
but when things turned bad,
my enthusiasm ebbed.
And when things went great,
I got increasingly excited.
So I think success causes passion
more than
passion causes success.”

Consider achieving smaller successes
to keep your passion alive.

Tonight, many of us
will be attending
New Year parties.

You could indulge
in the usual talk
about the weather, jobs,
celebrities
or you could ask guests
about their New Year resolutions
and help them
achieve their dreams.

There has been a lot of debate
about whether or not
talking about goals
helps us to meet them.

One thing that is not debatable
is the value
of SETTING goals.

When you ask someone
about their goals
(in this case, resolutions),
you’re suggesting they should HAVE goals.
The majority of people
DON’T have goals.

Goalmaker shares

“Harvard Business School researchers
have taken a vital interest in
what makes the difference
in success or failure
for people of similar backgrounds
and educational standards.
Their studies find that
3% of people are successful,
30% are moderately successful
and 67% just exist.
The significant difference
for the 3% who are successful is
that they have written down, specific goals.
The 30% who are moderately successful
have a general idea of where they are going
but don’t have any goals formalised.
The rest are happy
to watch the world go by.”

Change the world tonight
and ask someone about her resolutions.

Goals should ideally be
S.M.A.R.T.
(specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic, and timely).

In previous years,
we’ve talked about
the S
and
the M.

Today, we’ll talk about
the A – attainable.

It makes little sense
to list a goal
if it is impossible to attain.

Some goals are clearly unattainable.
You’re unlikely to ever
be able to fly unassisted
or turn into a dinosaur.

Other goals you may think
are unattainable now
might be attainable tomorrow.
I would have thought
five years ago
that New York publishers
would have never published erotic romance.
Then 50 Shade of Grey happened.

YOUR capabilities can also change.

As Top Achievement shares

“You can attain most any goal you set
when you plan your steps wisely
and establish a time frame
that allows you to carry out
those steps.
Goals that may have seemed
far away and out of reach
eventually move closer
and become attainable,
not because your goals shrink,
but because you grow
and expand to match them.”

I normally stick to goals
that I feel are attainable
during a certain time frame
(in this case, it would be a year).

Make your goals attainable.

Yes, we should be setting
goals for our businesses
for 2014
but we should also be setting
personal goals,
goals to make us
more successful entrepreneurs.

I always have a continuous learning goal.
I plan to take courses
or read business books
or learn new skills.

I usually have a delegation goal also.
Every year, my business
becomes more successful.
Every year, in order to grow,
I have to delegate more non-core tasks.
I don’t want to be the bottleneck
for my own success.

Jordan Fried
has five other great resolutions
for entrepreneurs.

My favorite is to stop complaining.
As he shares

“All too often I hear
wannabe entrepreneurs
complain about something.
“If only I had a cofounder who could write code,
then I’d be successful” or
“if only we had some more capital,
then we could make millions.”

Entrepreneurs are problem solvers
– not complainers.
If you can’t write code
either learn to write code,
pay a developer,
or find another creative solution.
As an entrepreneur
your job is to find solutions.”

Remember to set personal goals
for yourself
as a business builder.

Today is boxing day
in the UK and Canada.

I think of this day
as the day
to ‘box up’ the current year
and to look toward the next year
(2014).

I revisit my key lessons for the year
– what worked well,
what didn’t work well,
my successes,
my mistakes.

Did I meet my goals?
If yes, which tactics contributed
to this success
and which tactics didn’t?
If no, why?
Did I have the wrong goals?
Did I lack knowledge?
What could I have done
to ensure these goals were met?

This year end review
helps me
when I put together
the goals and the plans for next year.

Take time to review the year.

Yes, entrepreneurs have unlimited work
we could be doing
but every once in a while,
we need to recharge.

Today,
many of our family members
and our friends
have the day off.

If you can
(and I realize
that not everyone can),
put away the work,
the laptop,
the phone,
and
consider spending
some undivided time
with your loved ones.

Believe in them
as they believe in you.

My editor with the big New York publisher
only accepts story pitches
via Twitter.
She feels if I can’t sum up my story
in 140 characters,
she won’t be able
to pitch it to her marketing and sales teams.

Chris Guillebeau
asked business owners
to give him their mission statements
in one tweet – 140 characters.

Why?

“You want to generate
surprise and delight
throughout your business,
beginning with that first impression:
“What do you do, exactly?”
It’s not just about an elevator pitch;
it’s about clearly knowing
what you do
and how it helps people.

When you have
a clear and concise answer,
it’s much easier
to move to the next step:
“Can I sign you up?””

Describe your business
using 140 characters.

I was struggling with
a huge writing project proposal.
It involved multiple books,
multiple story lines,
numerous characters and settings.
I tried plotting it using Word.
I was struggling.
I couldn’t see it.
Then I laid it out using Excel
and suddenly it was easy.

Years ago,
the business development team
was sitting in a boardroom,
brainstorming ideas
for a new juice-based beverage.
The ideas weren’t flowing.
So we moved the brainstorming meeting
to the lunchroom.
Within a half an hour,
we couldn’t write fast enough
to capture the ideas.

When I’m stuck with a story,
I’ll change from keyboard to pen
and then vary the pen colors
until the words start to flow again.

If you’re stuck for solutions,
change your tools, location,
color, methods.
It sounds simple
but it often works.

Many readers have noticed
that when I quote a business leader,
I often also give an example
from my own experience.

Yes, this shows you
another way you can apply
the business leader’s knowledge
but the reason I do this
is for me.

If I can’t see how knowledge applies
to my own world,
to my own situation,
I don’t retain this knowledge.
I’ve taught myself
to immediately look for ways to use
what I’ve learned.

Knowledge is useless
unless it is applied.
Think of how you can use
the information you’ve gathered.