Category: New Business Development

When I need motivation
with the writing,
I’ll often go to my book page
on my website.
I’ll gaze at all of the covers
and remember the struggles I had
with those stories
and how I overcame them.

When I need a kick in the ass
with blogging,
I’ll look at the sidebar
and see the months and months of posts.
I’ll remind myself
that I’ve never missed a day
and I don’t want that to change.

When one of my buddies
gets irritated with her high paying day job,
she’ll pull out her investments,
reminding herself
how she’s close to making her financial goals
and how that day job is helping her
do that.

Figure out a way
to make your progress visible.
Seeing really IS believing.

There were
8,240
new romance titles
published in 2010.

This number was as intimidating
when I started writing.
Fellow unpublished writers
would point this number out
and say there was too much competition.
They’d use it as an excuse
not to try.

Today, I’m writing full time,
earning a living from writing,
and they’re still waiting.

If you’re in a healthy industry,
you’ll have competition.

You should know that competition.
You should respect that competition.
You should design your product/company
so it is unique from that competition.

You should never use
competition
as an excuse
not to try.

If I can become successful
in an industry with thousands of competitors,
you can become successful also.

There are very few hard deadlines
with writing novels.
Stories go into the submissions queue
when they’re received.
There are months, even years, gaps
between when a story is submitted
and when a writer is paid.

So one day delay doesn’t matter, right?
No one will raise a stink over it.
One day won’t make a big difference.

Except a day here or there
adds up
and days have a habit
of turning into weeks.

Many entrepreneurs,
especially during the start up stage,
are in the same situation.
It is very easy
to push that sales call off
until tomorrow.

What I do to stop this
is create artificial deadlines.

I’ll tell my editor to expect
my manuscript on a certain date.
I’ll ask friends/family
to keep me accountable.
One of my loved ones gives me
his ‘I’m very disappointed in you’ speech.

Delaying a day DOES matter.
Get it done NOW.

“Studies have shown
that people who multitask
are far less efficient,
taking up to 30 percent longer
to complete the tasks
with twice as many errors.”

In other words,
if you’re dividing your attention
between multiple tasks,
you’re doing shitty work.

So focus.
Shut down your email.
Turn off your phone.
Limit distractions.

Focus on that important task or project,
give it all of your attention,
and get it done.

One of my buddies
sold a book to much fanfare.
Advance sales are high.
Studios are fighting over
the movie rights.

Her publisher, her agent,
the studios, hell, everyone
is waiting for book 2 in the series.

My buddy is writing an unrelated story.
She claims she’s working.
You and I know she’s procrastinating.

Procrastination is
“the act or habit of procrastinating,
or putting off or delaying,
especially something requiring immediate attention.”

For hard working folks like you and I,
procrastination usually takes the form
of shiny new projects.
We’re working hard
and that makes us feel better
about the procrastination
but it is still procrastination.

Stop dragging your heels.
Get that project done.

The Booz & Company’s
Annual Global Innovation 1000 study
shows that

“Specifically,
the 44 percent of companies
who reported that
their innovation strategies are clearly aligned
with their business goals —
and that their cultures strongly support
those innovation goals —
delivered 33 percent higher
enterprise value growth and
17 percent higher profit growth
on five-year measures
than those lacking such tight alignment.”

Interestingly,
this alignment has a bigger impact
on innovation success
than R&D spend.

In other words,
if your company doesn’t support innovation
and doesn’t have innovation
as part of the greater business goals,
it doesn’t matter how much
you spend on R&D.
You’re less likely to be successful.

Work on your company culture
before you spend on R&D.

When the average person thinks
of an entrepreneur or inventor,
they think of someone willing to take crazy risks.

You and I know
that isn’t true.
If we take crazy risks
with our financing and other scarce resources
and we fail,
the game is over.

Most entrepreneurs mitigate that downside
by conserving their resources.

However, most entrepreneurs,
by simply being entrepreneurs,
also take a big risk socially.
They are willing to personally wear the weird label.
They are willing to have their innovations
be considered weird
by their peers.

As Malcolm Gladwell shares*
“That is the risk profile seen
in many entrepreneurs and innovators —
operationally risk-averse,
but willing to take social risks —
to be outcasts and weirdos.”

Dare to be different.
Embrace the weird!

* CMA Magazine, March/April 2012

I gave a presentation on writing
on Saturday
and I asked attendees
“Who here reads within their genre?”

A shockingly small number of writers
raised their hands.
However, EVERY published writer
raised her hand.

I heard a lot of excuses from the unpublished.

My favorite excuse was
that they were creating something
completely original.

How did they know
their product was completely original?
They hadn’t read their competition’s product.
For all they know,
the product they’re creating has already been done

As product developers,
we need to know our industry.
In order to position our product,
we should know our competition’s products.

Yes, this research is work
and not always fun work
or immediately lucrative work,
BUT it has to be done.

Know your industry.
No excuses.

Paul Silverman started out a success
in the real estate business
and
then lost everything.

I know.
Yikes!

Did he quit?
Nope.
And sticking with it
made him a success.

“What we got out of it was
learning so much:
How to deal with adversity,
how to keep moving,
how to put one foot in front of the other.
There are so many blocks
put in our way every time.
So, we are almost not afraid
of anything now,
because we went through
such hard, hard times.”

My first foray into romance writing
failed miserably
but I learned so much
and when I started again,
I hit the ground running.

When you lose everything,
you don’t really lose everything.
You’re left with valuable experience.
It is up to you
to decide what to do
with that experience.

Anita Campbell shares
one of the tactics
to build an innovative company.

“Recruit entrepreneurs.
At Google, this idea is taken literally:
Many of the company’s key employees
formerly started businesses
of their own.
DreamWorks encourages their employees
to think of themselves as artists,
and anyone who’s worked with artists
knows they’re typically
independent, entrepreneurial spirits.”

As an employee,
I could tell which companies
valued innovation
by what they noted
on my resume.

Managers in innovative companies
would comment
on the small businesses I’ve started
or on the consulting I did with start ups.

The past predicts the future.
Innovative employees
have always been innovative.

Questions uncover what is valued.
Managers in innovative companies
ask about innovation.