Category: New Business Development

Buddies have been asking me
what I want for the holidays.

I’m working like a crazy person
building the writing business.
I don’t have time for other hobbies.
I don’t need much of anything.

Except time.

So a loved one gave me time.
She gave me some money
to hire an assistant
to help me with promotion.

Other business building buddies
receive maid service,
yard service,
gift cards for take-out restaurants,
Roombas (those room cleaning robots),
valet service at the airport,
blue tooth accessories,
personal shoppers,
other items that save time,
that allow entrepreneurs
to concentrate on building their business.

When loved ones ask you
what you want for the holidays,
tell them time
and let them know
how to give you that time.

Regular Clientk readers know
how important I think continuous learning is.
Learning new skills keeps us
competitive, young, hungry.

Knight Kiplinger
shares

“Your own earning power
–rooted in your education and job skills
–is the most valuable asset
you’ll ever own,
and it can’t be wiped out
in a market crash.”

I always put some writing books
on my Christmas wish list.
I’ll read a couple of pages every day.

I take at least one monthly workshop.
I’m sitting in these workshops
along side new writers
AND best selling writers.
These are both
my competitors and my partners.
If I don’t learn what they’re learning,
I become less marketable,
less competitive.

Continuous learning is necessary
for continuous success.
Schedule some time for it.

Seth Godin
shares

“We have a default setting,
an arrangement of muscles
that gives our mouth and eyes
a look.
Some have,
as a friend of mine says,
“resting bitchy face.”
People rely so much on reading faces
that even though you might not intend it,
people are making an assumption
about your mood
and your approachability.”

My default is
happy, a smiley face.
That’s perfect
for my career as a romance writer.
Romance readers want happy endings.
Romance writers sell
love and hope and optimism.

It wasn’t as perfect
for my stint
writing grim post apocalyptic fiction
or
my previous job mowing the lawn
at a cemetery
and
I’ve received many dirty looks
when I attend funerals
and other somber situations.

Why are our default looks important?
Because matching the tone of our businesses
to our default look
makes life much, MUCH easier.

Know your default look.
Find an industry
where that default look
is an asset.

A loved one is also a writer.
He always has a long list
of things he should do.
Many of the things on the list
are trivial.
Some, like writing his novel,
are important.

My loved one completes
the trivial, often easy tasks first.
He seldom has time to write.
He ends the day
with a lot of things checked off his list
but none of these are as important
as the one or two tasks
he hasn’t completed.

Shayan Zadeh,
co-founder and CEO of Zoosk,
shares

“At the beginning of the day,
I select one to two tasks
that I want to give my full attention to,
rather than trying to complete more activities
and doing a mediocre job.
Normally on my plate on any given day,
I prioritize my task list based on impact
and tackle the most pressing
and difficult work first.
Setting a goal of ‘inbox zero’
is the wrong goal to set as a CEO,
as your output quality will suffer
in lieu of quantity.
I am constantly reorganizing
my priority list
in an effort to do the things
that will have the biggest impact
on the business first,
rather than tackling
short, easy tasks
just to cross off more items.”

Complete your most important tasks first.

Right now,
your team is likely stressed
about the holidays.
They’re busy and a bit grumpy.
Some things,
maybe many things,
aren’t going right for them.

Right now,
is the perfect time
to send your team a little treat,
a thank you card,
a reminder that they’re appreciated.
It is perfect time
to give them their holiday gift
or to offer help.

I’ve given my street team
their holiday gifts already.
It was extra special
because they weren’t expecting it.
My gift wasn’t one of dozens
under a tree.
My street team used these gifts
(gift cards)
to buy presents for themselves
and for others.

The cost to me was the same.
The benefit to my team
was increased.

Consider giving gifts
or thanking your team now.

Entrepreneurs have families also
(yes, that surprised me too)
and many of us are struggling
to juggle the demands
of our growing businesses
with the desires of our families,
especially during the holiday season.

One of my buddies
had a meltdown yesterday
because she wanted her family
to have the ‘perfect’ Christmas.

I asked her
“Do you want them to have
a perfect Christmas
or to have a happy Christmas?”

Because there’s a difference.

Perfection doesn’t create happiness.
Think of the happy moments
in your life.
I bet they weren’t perfect.

That symphony you loved
had at least one wrong note.
That book you loved
had at least one typo.
The supposedly perfect sunset
wasn’t symmetrical.

Happiness is messy.
It is mussed hair
and icy-covered faces
and sticky fingers.
It is crooked snowmen
and sloppy kisses
from overzealous puppies.

So ask yourself
what kind of holiday memories
you want to create
– happy memories
or perfect memories.
And give yourself a break.

I have over 60 releases.
I’ve worked as a book reviewer.
I judge contests
and critique other people’s writing,
yet I can’t judge for myself
whether or not a story work.

As Aprille Janes
shares
in her most recent newsletter

“You can’t be objective
about your own stuff.
I’m a certified coach
but I have my own coach
for that reason.
You may get off the ground
under your own power
but if you want to break into orbit,
you are going to need help.”

I have editors who judge
my work objectively.
I trust these editors.
They have experience
crafting selling stories.
They know what readers want.

If you want an objective opinion,
ask someone other than yourself.

When I told some writers
about my opportunity
with the New York Publisher
(omitting the details),
almost every midlist writer
told me to reconsider the deal.
However, almost every bestselling writer
told me to run with this opportunity.

The bestselling writers know
that to make the jump
from midlist to bestselling,
you have to take some risks.
(If this risk pays off,
writers will call this luck, not risk)

Many writers won’t take these risks.
They’ll stay midlist,
which is okay.
Writers can make a living in midlist
if they publish enough stories.
But some of these writers
won’t be okay with being midlist
yet they won’t take the risks
needed to be a best selling writer.

Entrepreneurs are faced
with the same decisions.
As you’re building your business,
you’ll be faced with opportunities.
These opportunities could explode your sales
or they could explode your company.

Think about whether or not
you’d risk your company
to take it to the next level of growth.

The big New York publisher
I write with
has hundreds, if not thousands, of writers.
They approached me yesterday
with a very lush opportunity
(one that will either
make me a bestselling author
or not work at all).

Why did they approach me?

1) I write quickly.
They have this impression
because I always turn my stories in
before the deadline.
This is unique
because writers have reputations
for missing deadlines.

and

2) I’m flexible about what I write.
I had an 80,000 word idea.
My editor asked me to make it
45,000 words.
I made it 45,000 words.
This is unique
because writers are known
for ‘being true to their vision.’

That’s it.
These two small differences
are why the publisher chose me
for this plum assignment.

Your company doesn’t have to be
completely different
to be successful.
It merely has to be different
in one or two areas.

Being a writer,
working online
with a growing and very friendly
customer (reader) base,
I receive over 1,000 emails a day.

My best tip
for dealing with this amount of email
is to have different email accounts.

I have an email account
that only my publisher, editors and agent use.
I have a personal account
for friends and family
(because, as entrepreneurs,
personal often mixes with business).
I have an account for customer (readers)
and anyone else contacting me
through my website, blog, social media, etc.
I have an industry account
with all of my newsletter subscriptions.

When I’m busy,
I might only check certain email inboxes.
I should check my publisher emails
at least once a day
(they expect a 2 day turn around time).
I should check reader emails
at least once a week.
My industry account
doesn’t have to be checked.

Anita Campbell
shares

“Use special purpose addresses.
Ever need to download a white paper
or do some other one-time activity
that requires inputting your email?
Then you get tons of spam
from that company.
Set up an email address
you never check and
use it for these types of things.”

Email addresses are free.
Set up different email addresses
for different priorities.