Category: New Business Development

I write for two publishers.

The big New York publisher
cares about the number of books sold.
They sell novellas for 99 cents.
I make 8 cents a copy
and my royalty check is tiny.

The eBook publisher
cares about profitability.
They sell the same length of stories
for $4.50 each.
I make $1 a copy
and my royalty check is respectable.

I couldn’t survive long
with the first strategy.
I have bills to pay.
I need cash flow to do this.

As Barry Moltz
shares

“Sales are vanity,
cash is sanity.
Forget about how big
your revenue number is or
how many people you employ.
Learn how to read
a cash flow statement and
find out how much cash
you actually get to keep instead.”

Cash flow is king.
That is the most important number.

I grew up dirt poor.
The house my family lived in
didn’t have running water.
We didn’t eat every day.
(yes, people live like this
in North America,
likely in your State or Province)

It made me fearless.
We had nothing and I survived.
I know if I lost everything material tomorrow,
I would also survive.
I don’t have a fear of being poor.
However, I have a great incentive
to ensure I never am poor again.

Terrence J
shares

“I had it tough growing up.
I was born into welfare
and I never met my biological father.
And I talk about all of those things in the book.

But for me,
I think sometimes
when you get the short end of the stick
in the beginning,
it gives you that fuel to never give up
as an adult.

I just always tell young people,
especially when they’re going through
something hard,
to not let it become a hindrance
or an excuse,
but to let it be your motivation,
let it be your fuel to go out there
and take over the world.”

When you have nothing to lose,
you can take bigger risks.
Being born into poverty
is no excuse for not being successful.

One of the most common myths
with starting a business
is the entrepreneur doesn’t have a boss myth.

I supposedly work for myself
yet I report to readers (my customers).
I report to editors and publishers (my partners).
I have deadlines set by other people,
meetings I can’t move and must take.

As Julie Cole,
one of the co-founders
of
Mabel’s Labels,
shares

“You’ll never work harder in your life.
And I remember thinking
‘This will be great.
I won’t have a boss.’
Well, I have loads of bosses.
I’ve got my business partners.
I’ve got staff.
I’ve got our customers.
I’ve got our suppliers.
Suddenly,
one boss doesn’t sound so bad,
does it?”

We ALL work for someone else.
All of us.
Expect to work for someone else
when you start a business.

As soon as a story is published,
I know I’ll receive
many, MANY emails
from readers
telling me about spelling mistakes,
misused words,
things they didn’t like.

The world is filled with problem finders.
They are EVERYWHERE
and, once you’ve been in any business
for a while,
you tend to tune them out.

What gets my attention
is when a reader or writer or reviewer
suggests a solution.
That’s rare.

As Robert Murray,
author of
It’s Already Inside,
shares

“Problem finders are everywhere.
Innovative problem solvers are rare.
Imagination and thinking
outside the box is scarce.”

If you want to add value
to your chosen industry,
be a problem solver.
Your solution doesn’t have to be perfect,
it likely won’t be,
but offer one.

As I mentioned yesterday,
I’m trying to write more mainstream.
When I tell writers this,
some of them are horrified.
They worry that
my writing will become
just like everyone else’s writing.

It won’t.

The TV singing competition,
The Voice,
is proof this won’t happen.

On The Voice,
contestants sing popular songs.
The only differences
between the performances
by previous artists
and the contestant’s performance
are the voices and the interpretations.
Yet the performances
are very unique.

What does this mean
for product developers?

Our products don’t have to be
and often shouldn’t be
completely different.
Focusing on one big difference
can be powerful.

My writing remains very quirky.
When I went on the great agent search,
I submitted a sample of my work
and stated in the query letter
that I wanted to become more mainstream.

The agent I signed with
enjoys my work
but she sees the flaws.
She criticizes my work,
honing my writing
so it’ll be more mainstream,
more acceptable to
the average romance reader.

She isn’t a cheerleader,
loving everything I write,
not wishing to change anything.

She’s a mentor.

The only reason
to pair with a mentor
is to change,
to gain skills
and knowledge
we don’t already have.

Expect criticism
from your mentor.
That’s her job.

On Friday,
I worked from 8 am to 3 am
with very few breaks.
I had a deadline.
I was in the zone.
I needed to get things done.

Julia Hartz,
co-founder of Eventbrite,
shares

“Workdays stretched on
for 18 hours
in the beginning.
I ran customer support
and the marketing department
for the first several years,
along with finance,
which was simple
because we weren’t making
a lot of money [laughing].

I would talk to early adopters
and host meetups.
I would get their feedback
and distill it for Kevin,
who would sketch out
a product or feature
and then build it.
We worked like that
for the first three years or so.”

18 hour plus days
is one of the many things
distinguishing a business from a hobby.

During your start up,
expect to work long hours.

I always set my own deadlines.
Yes, I’ll agree upon deadlines
with my publishers
but these are deadlines
with buffers built into them.
These are deadlines
I know I can make.

Privately, I also set
stretch deadlines,
deadlines I have to push myself
to achieve.

Why?

Because as
Jeff Haden
shares

“Deadlines and time frames
establish parameters,
but typically not in a good way.
The average person who is given
two weeks to complete a task
will instinctively adjust his effort
so it actually takes two weeks.

Forget deadlines,
at least as a way to manage your activity.
Tasks should only take as long
as they need to take.
Do everything as quickly
and effectively as you can.
Then use your “free” time
to get other things done
just as quickly and effectively.

Average people allow time
to impose its will on them;
remarkable people impose their will
on their time.”

Push yourself
to complete work
before it is expected.
You’re not average.
Don’t meet the average person’s deadlines.

I credit most of my success
in life
to working harder than other people.
I don’t work flat out
all of the time.
I simply do a little extra work
every single day
and this extra work adds up.

Jeff Haden
shares

“Everyone says they go the extra mile.
Almost no one actually does.
Most people who go there think,
“Wait… no one else is here…
why am I doing this?”
and leave, never to return.

That’s why the extra mile
is such a lonely place.

That’s also why the extra mile
is a place filled with opportunities.

Be early. Stay late.
Make the extra phone call.
Send the extra email.
Do the extra research.
Help a customer unload
or unpack a shipment.
Don’t wait to be asked; offer.
Don’t just tell employees what to do
–show them what to do
and work beside them.

Every time you do something,
think of one extra thing you can do
–especially if other people
aren’t doing that one thing.
Sure, it’s hard.

But that’s what will
make you different.

And over time, that’s what
will make you incredibly successful.”

Do a little bit extra
today
and every day.

Recently, I was given an opportunity.
The publisher needed a novella
for an anthology
and they needed this novella in a week.
I told a loved one
that I pushed back,
asking for three weeks.
He replied “It wasn’t that good of an opp then.”
When I asked how he knew that,
he explained that
if I really wanted the opp,
I would have written the novella in a week.

He’s right.
I would have met their crazy deadline.

This is how I feel
when would-be entrepreneurs say
their ideas are too risky.

As
Christiane Lemieux,
founder of
DwellStudio,
shares

“If you can’t take the risk,
it is probably not the right thing for you.
Some days it will be great
and some days it will suck.
The highs are high
and the lows are low
and there is nothing in between.
It just is.”

If you truly wanted the opportunity,
you’d move mountains
to make it happen.