Category: New Business Development

It is flu season.
If you’re pushing your business forward,
meeting with perspective partners, suppliers, customers,
(and if you’re not, why aren’t you?)
you are also meeting with folks with the flu.

Employees have sick days.
When they get the flu,
they take a sick day.

When entrepreneurs take a sick day,
we often lose income.
We slow the success of our businesses.

I plan my current week
assuming I’ll be ill the next week.
I take as many face-to-face meetings as possible.
I work like the devil
to get ahead on projects, blog posts, deadlines.
I try to complete as many mission critical projects
as I possibly can.

If the flu strikes,
I switch my communications to email
(which I read and reread before sending).
I work on projects with longer deadlines
(to allow me to redo work).

If the flu doesn’t strike,
I’m ahead in my projects.
I’ve fast tracked my goals.

Assume the flu is coming for you.

Many new writers will be super protective
to the point of paranoia
about their story ideas.
They’ll develop the story idea
in isolation,
write in isolation,
revise in isolation,
and then submit their story to publishers/agents.

These paranoid writers usually don’t sell.

Why?

Because they have no idea
what a good idea is.

Established writers will pitch story ideas
to agents, editors, or trusted writing buddies
BEFORE they write the story.
If there’s excitement,
they’ll write the story.
If there’s no excitement,
they’ll revise the idea
or move to the next story idea.

Entrepreneurs are often no better
at judging their own product ideas.
Successful serial entrepreneurs
have advisers they talk to about ideas.
They don’t develop products in isolation.

Don’t tell the world
about your idea
before you’re ready to go to market
but DO consider telling a trusted somebody.

Are you in the comfort zone,
not growing or pushing or advancing?

What IS the comfort zone?

Doug Sundheim,
author of
Taking Smart Risks
explains
“Being caught in the comfort zone
doesn’t mean that you’re sitting around
doing nothing.
It’s more nuanced than that.
You could be making progress,
but not quickly enough.
You could be taking chances,
but not boldly enough.
You could be going out on a limb,
but not far enough,
and the extra push is
what will make a difference.”

As a buddy once told me
“If you’re not living on the edge,
you’re taking up too much space.”

We’re here on this planet
to make a difference.
Push outside of your comfort zone.

Leading into today’s Super Bowl,
some of the buzz is
whether or not Beyonce will lip synch.

Beyonce lip synched during the Inauguration
because she didn’t want to take a risk
during such a large event.
She wanted her performance to be perfect.

I understand.
Perfect is safe.
Perfect doesn’t anger people.
Perfect doesn’t risk anything.

Perfect is also boring.
Perfect doesn’t surprise.
Perfect doesn’t enchant.

In romance writing,
it is the imperfections in characters
readers love and readers talk about.
The scar on the hero’s face.
The heroine’s frizzy hair.
The awkward conversations.
The beat up VW Beetle the heroine drives.
That’s where the magic is.

Beyonce is an experienced performer.
I suspect she knows
she’s trading magic for safety.
She has a huge fan base.
This might be a great decision for her.
But it was likely a conscious decision.

Know the trade-off between
imperfect and buzz vs perfect and safety.
Make a conscious decision
for your brand.

When I first started writing romance,
I was told I had a modern, contemporary voice
so I wrote modern, contemporary romances.

Paranormal romances were hot sellers
but I stuck to contemporary romance
because that was what I wrote.
I held out for years.

Then my contemporary romance muse
went on holiday
and, for fun, I tried writing a paranormal romance.

I LOVED it.
I found more joy in writing that paranormal romance
than in all of my contemporary romances combined.

I missed out on fun AND sales
because I was too stubborn
to try something new.

As Bruna Martinuzzi shares
“If we want to accomplish anything,
we need to continually update what we do.

An advertisement from
The Boston Consulting Group reads:
“There are no old roads to new directions.”

We become stale
when we continue to do the same thing
over and over.

A business owner who prides himself
on being “old school”
may deprive himself of the opportunity
to learn the art and science
of engaging a modern workforce.”

Try something new.

We are now 1 month
(1/12th of the year)
into 2013.
Many of us have set goals for this year
(and those of us who haven’t,
should).

If you haven’t done so already,
consider reviewing these goals today.

Are they still relevant?
Are you on track?
What or whom do you need
to get you back on track
or to maintain your momentum?

What you accomplish
or don’t accomplish in 2013
matters.
It will matter this year
and it will matter for years to come.

Make 2013 count!

I know I’m most creative in the mornings
so when I plan my day,
I complete my fresh writing early.

I promo (and usually blog)
late at night
when my brain is dead.

Jason Womack,
author of
Your Best Just Got Better:
Work Smarter,
Think Bigger,
Make More,
suggests, when planning your day,
you should ask

“When do you
have the most focused energy
during the day?

When are you
most effective at doing
specific hard to get done tasks?

When are you
best at accomplishing goals
that required broad thinking?

You can then divide the day into sections
and match activities to daily zones,
including tasks that need to get done today
in order for your business to move forward;
long-term strategic thoughts,
conversations or meetings;
and the mechanics of the day,
such as email, travel and phone calls.”

Don’t fight your body or your brain.
Plan your day around
when best you perform the tasks
you need to complete.

In my SciFi romance novels,
I often use existing languages,
instead of making up alien languages.

I do this for a good reason
(because knowledge of an existing language
– even a seldom used language
– would be more useful to my readers
than learning a fictional language)
but I’m aware that
some readers might feel ‘tricked’
and this could damage sales.

Trust between a writer and her reader
(her customer)
is very important.
The reader has to trust
the writer will deliver on the story promise,
giving her a product she’ll enjoy.
Any sort of deceit damages this trust.

So I wrote a blog post,
telling readers exactly what I’m doing
and why I’m doing this.
I’m open when asked about my languages.
I don’t try to conceal anything.

Although this approach has drawn some sneers
from ‘serious’ SciFi writers,
readers either don’t care
or they love it.

And I don’t have to worry
about deceiving anyone.

In this age of information,
honesty IS the best policy.

For Christmas,
a loved one loaded Jungle Style Pinball
on my iPod Touch.

One of the many things
I love about this game
is it trains me to focus
on the doing,
rather than the score.

The best time to look at the score
is between plays.
If I take my eye off the ball
and look at the score
while I’m playing,
I always lose the ball.

It is challenging not to look
while the ball is in play.
I want the feedback.
I crave the feedback.

As it is challenging not to look
constantly
at my Amazon rankings
or at my sales.

But if I wish to win
at either pinball
or business,
I have to keep my eye on the ball
and save the score checking for designated times.

Be significant but slow
or
be fast but insignificant.

That is a dilemma many leaders face.
We have to grow our organizations
to make a significant impact
but large organizations often move slowly.

Or can large organizations move quickly?

BRAC believes they’ve found the answer
through this process.
Pilot. Perfect. Scale Up.

“When demand is spotted
— say, a need for financial literacy training
and microfinance products
tailored for teens,
in the case of ELA
— the organization doesn’t waste time
figuring out how to do things elegantly.
It moves.

It then assesses the pilot
and adapts accordingly,
which could mean eliminating
the entire program if necessary.
To do this requires stringent internal monitoring,
and BRAC is often its own harshest critic
via an independent research
and evaluation division set up in 1975.

Only then does it scale up.
This is really a version of
the “fail fast, fail often” innovation strategy
currently in vogue
among business strategists.”

Pilot. Perfect. Scale Up.