Competing In A Crowded Market

There are a number of methods
to compete in crowded markets.

Joe Matthews of Poggled.com
suggests

“Rather than trying to
serve every customer,
cater to the ones
that have unique needs.
For example,
nightclubs “don’t want
to have 1,000 coupons outstanding”
that people can use anytime.
They want people coming on their off nights.””

There were 8,240 new romance titles
released in 2010.
Yeah, that’s crowded.

To compete,
I’ve specialized
in paranormal and sci fi
short stories
(40 pages)
and novellas
(75 pages).

That’s the narrow niche
I’m playing in
with a very specialized customer.

Other methods include
personalizing the customer experience
and redefining products or experiences.

To be successful,
you have to figure out
how to compete in crowded markets.

Passion Vs Hobby

Whenever I hear about
a writer waiting for ‘the muse’,
I know their writing is a hobby,
not a business.

Nora Roberts states it even blunter.
“Every time I hear writers talk
about ‘the muse,’
I just want to bitch-slap them.
It’s a job.
Do your job.”

Entrepreneurs don’t have
the luxury of waiting
until they ‘feel like it’
to work on their businesses.
It isn’t a hobby for them.
It is a passion.

As Mike Michalowicz shares

“Hobbies help you relax,
forget and unwind from your day.

On the other hand,
an activity fueled by passion thrills you,
charges you up and
makes it difficult to relax
because you are so chomping at the bit
to learn more, do more and
accomplish more in the pursuit of it.
You know you’re passionate
about your business idea
when you work on it all day and into the night,
and still get up at dawn
to start all over again.”

There’s nothing wrong
with having hobbies and
with having businesses
(i.e. passions).
Just don’t confuse the two.

Exuberance And Passion

Recently I met a yet-to-be-published writer
who was blah, blah, blah
about everything.
She didn’t love any books
she’d recently read.
She didn’t show any excitement
during brainstorming.
Her emotions were flat.

So I told her
“This business is tough,
and there are easier ways to make money.
If you don’t have a passion for it,
don’t do it.”

She acted surprised
and assured me she DID
have a passion for romance writing.

Maybe she did
but she didn’t show it.
She didn’t have exuberance
and I didn’t believe her claim.
I doubt an agent or publisher
would believe her either.

Passion without exuberance
inspires no one.

As Terry Starbucker shares

“Exuberance is a quality
that projects vitality, joy, and enthusiasm
for the task at hand.
If leaders can show their exuberance
in a controlled, personal and authentic way,
the resulting effect
on the rest of the team
can be profound.”

Show your passion.
Be exuberant!

Seasonal Energy

Do you have more energy?
That’s normal.
Summer normally gives us all
an energy boost.

And as Anita Campbell explains,
we should use that boost
to help our business.

“Unlike the hibernation feeling
that can make us lag in winter,
summer generally gives us more energy
—and more time to use it.
Allow yourself to feel
how your natural rhythms change
at this time of year.
Try getting up an hour earlier than normal
and use the time for creative thinking.
Meditate on a business problem,
free-associate ideas or
think about long-term goals
for your businesses.
Capture your ideas in writing.”

Ride that summertime high
and get more projects accomplished!

Vacations For Entrepreneurs

Yesterday,
I mentioned that
many bloggers are taking vacations.

Not this blogger.

Why?
Because I’m an entrepreneur
and I have too many exciting projects
on the go
to take a vacation right now.

And even when entrepreneurs take vacation,
we ensure our businesses continue operating.

I blog every day.
I write every day.
I promote every day.
When I take a vacation,
I either delegate these tasks
or I complete them before the vacation
and schedule them for during the vacation.

If your business stops
while you’re on vacation,
your momentum stops.
Your business should work
even when you don’t.

Constant Innovation

Coca-Cola is one of the top brands
in the world.
The 126 year old company
has legions of devoted fans.
Yet Coca-Cola innovates,
bringing out new products
every single year.

My romance writing business is
much, much, MUCH smaller.
Yet I innovate,
trying new product lines,
new types of characters.

Companies and entrepreneurs
have to innovate and change
constantly
because our customers are changing
constantly.

That means
having a system in place.

As Vivian Wagner shares
“Businesses need to have
a process in place
that allows them
to continually evaluate current products
and come up with new ideas.
This means talking with customers,
soliciting feedback,
reading comments about your products
on social media sites,
evaluating sales and
otherwise gauging and
assessing customer opinion and demand.
It might also mean having idea meetings,
where you, developers and your employees
toss around ideas and
talk about what’s working and what’s not.”

You need to innovate
constantly.
They don’t have to be big innovations.
They don’t have to be innovations
affecting all of your processes.
But you DO need to innovate.

Which Superstar To Promote?

We’ve all seen it happen.
A superstar climbs her way
to the top
and then once she snags the leadership position,
she implodes,
taking company profitability with her.

So what are one of the signs
this superstar
might not be leadership material?

Justin Menke,
author of Better Under Pressure,
shares that

elevated narcissism and self-promotion
is incompatible to great leadership.

“Only an individual
who feels genuinely invigorated
by the growth, development,
and success of others
can become an effective leader
of an enterprise.
And it remains
the most common obstacle of success
for those trying to make that leap.”

What if that’s not you?
You have a couple of choices.
You can train yourself
to be happy for others
when they succeed.
OR you can maintain your superstar role
and leave the leading to others.

When you lead,
it isn’t about you and your success.
It is about your team’s success.

Outsourcing And Supervising

A loved one hired a contractor
to put in a flower bed
on the weekend.
The contractor was highly recommended
by a friend.

The contractor did a shitty job.

What went wrong?
The friend hired the contractor
and then supervised him closely.
The loved one hired the contractor
and then left for the weekend.

Outsourcing is a wonderful alternative
for time-crunched entrepreneurs.
It transfers the doing
to someone else.

It doesn’t transfer the supervising.

YOU are responsible for quality control.
YOU are responsible for
supervising your contractors.

Adding Friction

We talk a lot about making things easier,
streamlining processes,
allowing transactions to flow quickly.

This is usually a great thing.

Usually.

There are occasions
when you’ll want to deliberately
create friction.

Paying expenses
by credit cards, debit cards,
and smartphones is easy and fast,
especially if you’re using company cards.
Do you want your employees
to spend company money easily and quickly?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Consider building friction around
the spending of your scarce resources.
(and yes, this includes your precious time
– this is one of the reasons
CEOs have assistants)

Delegating The Right Way

“Sink or swim,”
that was what one of my managers told me.
He “delegated” a project to me
and then walked away.

Completely.

I was a contract employee,
brand new to the company,
without connections,
without deep knowledge
of how the company worked,
and my manager was MIA,
refusing to meet with me.

I struggled.
I didn’t have employee support
because my manager’s hands-off approach
signaled I didn’t have HIS support.

I wasted precious time.
I made big mistakes.
I almost quit.
I ended up succeeding
but barely
and I vowed never
to take another contract position
at that company again.

Delegation is NOT the same
as abdication.

As Professor George Kohlrieser shares

“Clearly, leaders need to delegate tasks.
Yet delegation should not mean
emotional detachment.
Leaders who assign tasks
and walk away
with a completely hands off approach
abandon their people.
Good delegation relies on
continued connection and accessibility.
You can maintain
a sense of connection
by signaling that you are willing
to be available.”

Delegate
but support the employee
you’re delegating to.