Category: New Business Development

The concept of growing
using only the resources you have
(namely the revenue you’re currently earning)
is great in theory.

I had that plan when I started writing.
I’d only advertise
using the royalties I earned.

The challenge with that tactic is
growth is slow
and it assumes growth is smooth.

In the publishing world,
as with many industries,
growth isn’t smooth.
There are levels
and getting to the next level
requires additional resources.

As Les McKeown explains

“In reality, growth is never seamless.
There’s always a point at which
a step is required to get
to the next stage
(in moving from solopreneur
to microbusiness
or small business,
that step usually involves
moving out of the home office,
committing to employing someone,
or purchasing expensive
but needed equipment).

And it’s at this point
that all sorts of subliminal stuff kicks in,
testing the solopreneur’s commitment
to building their business.
Do I really want to do this?
Is this worth it?
Is there a financially viable future
if I make this commitment?
This is a key inflection point –
the point at which what is now
a source of additional income
may (or may not) become a business
in its own right”

At some stage,
if you want to grow,
you WILL have to invest resources
the business hasn’t yet earned.
Yes, even in the writing business.

It is half way through NaNo,
I have rewrites for two publishers,
edits from all three,
and a book release this week.
I’m stressed,
crazy stressed.

When I’m stressed out,
I’m tempted to rush, rush, rush,
getting tasks done
as quickly as possible,
hoping none of the deadlines are missed.

That’s a recipe for disaster
because deadlines WILL be missed.

What I need to do is
stand still,
take a deep breath
and rework my to-do list
including my often self-imposed deadlines.

Is ‘winning’ at NaNo
necessary to achieve my goals?
If the same editor is looking at
my revisions AND my edits,
is it necessary that she receive
both manuscripts at the same time?

If you’re stressed about
meeting your numerous deadlines,
it is time to look at these deadlines.
Look at your task list.

Take a breather
and reorganize for success.

I had someone tell me yesterday
that she couldn’t lead a certain change
because she was ‘just a writer.’

“Bull shit”, I replied.
“You’re not JUST a writer.
You’re a writer who knows there’s a problem.
You’re also a mother, a wife,
a university educated woman,
an entrepreneur
and the list goes on.
If you don’t lead this change,
who will?”

She used ‘just’ as an excuse.
Others use ‘just’ as an insult.
“She’s just a financial analyst.
What does she know?”

Mike Figliuolo’s view on the word ‘just’
is quite a bit stronger.

“No one is just anything.
The phrase is demeaning
and pejorative.
We’re all people
– we happen to have different responsibilities.

The connotation of just
is that someone is worth
less than someone else.
As if that just someone has a defect.
One of the most powerful leadership skills
I’ve seen and used
is valuing everyone’s contributions equally.

How do you do that?
Simple
– treat everyone like a person
and an equal first and foremost.”

Think before using the word ‘just.’

Some of my buddies and I
were discussing
why Tiger Woods would put up
with a possible racist caddie.

My theory is…
he knew the caddie was racist
(working so closely with someone
for so many years
would make that almost impossible
to hide),
but he tolerated the racism
because the caddie was so damn good
and Tiger’s focus was
on winning championships.

(This theory would explain why
when his focus changed,
his tolerance of the caddie’s attitude
changed).

If we really want a goal achieved,
sometimes we decide to
tolerate non-ideal behavior or attitudes
in the people
who can best help us
achieve that goal.

That isn’t a bad decision
but it should be a conscious decision.

I’m currently managing a writer’s group.
I’m experimenting
with different processes,
finding a process that works.
While I’m testing,
I’m documenting.

Why?

Because I don’t want to manage
this writer’s group forever.
Documenting processes is key
for training replacements
or for delegating.

As Todd Nielsen states…
“If you have to explain something
to someone more than once,
then it probably needs
to be written down.
Want to be able
to empower your employees
with greater ability to get things done
without coming to you,
write processes.
A process can be
as simple as a checklist
or as complicated as
an ITIL compliant flowchart.
Even if you area 1-man shop,
you can start writing processes.
You cannot have scalability
and exponential growth
without a solid foundation of processes.”

Document your processes.

When I used to figure skate,
my coach would tell me to visualize
over and over again
the jump being completed.
She was certain it helped her students
learn a new jump quicker.

Turns out,
she was right.

In a study by Harvard University,
students who visualized
learning to play new piano music
had the same expansion
in their motor cortex
as those who had practiced the music.

“When we repeat a skill
that we are trying to master,
we strengthen the neural networks
that represent that action.
The same happens physically
in the brain
whether we perform the action,
or simply visualize it—
Your brain cannot tell the difference
between an action you performed
and an action you visualized.”

Visualize new skills
when you aren’t able
to practice them.

Leading Blog has a great summary
of the ideas
presented in
Jim Collins and Morten Hansen’s
book
Great By Choice.

This book asks…
“When the moment comes
—when we’re afraid, exhausted, or tempted
—what choice do we make?
Do we abandon our values?
Do we give in?
Do we accept average performance
because that’s what most everyone else accepts?
Do we capitulate to
the pressure of the moment?
Do we give up on our dreams
when we’ve been slammed by brutal facts?

In the end,
we can control
only a tiny sliver
of what happens to us.
But even so,
we are free to choose,
free to become great by choice.”

There’s an element of luck
in every success,
but good and bad luck happens to all of us.
It is the choices that define us,
that separate the great from the good.

All entrepreneurs hear about
the stress of starting up a business.
We expect it.
We plan for it.

What we don’t hear about
is the very real stress of
growing a business.
The stress of having too many orders
to successfully handle
within the existing structure
yet having too few orders
to justify expanding the business.

I’m at that place right now
with my writing.
I’m selling everything I write.
Publishers are asking
for more, more, more,
yet I don’t have the writing cash flow
to pay for assistants, etc.

Fiona Cairns,
baker to Royalty,
talked about the stress
of growing her business
to The Costco Connection.

“I’m still not sure how we managed it.
By then we had two young children,
Kishore was still working in London
and I was working long, long hours
in the bakery,
seven days a week.
There’d be vans delivering supplies
at 6 a.m.,
or Harrods would be on the phone
to discuss an order
and I’d have a crying child
in the background.
It all felt very unprofessional,
very stressful and
there was a lot of guilt as a mother.”

If your business does well,
there WILL be growing pains.
The hard work and long hours
aren’t isolated to start ups.

The timing varies with every business
but these pains WILL happen.
Expect them.

In November/December’s
The Costco Connection,
crooner Michael Buble was asked
the ‘secret’ behind
his first record’s great success.

“I think it was a good record.
It was something people liked.
The truth is
I worked my ass off.
My manager had a plan.
I went around the world
three times in the first two years.
Not concerts,
doing showcases
— showing up at a lounge in Paris
with eight people
and trying to move them
and to entertain them.
If there’s some talent there
and people believe in what you’re doing
and you work really hard,
it happens.”

Michael Buble spent an entire evening
wooing 8 audience members
into becoming his fans.

What time are WE spending
to grow our customer base?

Yesterday, one of my buddies
wrote 6,500 words in one day.
That is her personal best.

Today, I wrote 4,000 words.
That’s my personal best.

Another buddy in our writing group
also achieved
her word count personal best.

This isn’t a coincidence.
Being competitive
(and yes, many writers ARE
extremely competitive),
our buddy’s achievement
pushed us
to achieve.

THAT is one of the many reasons
why success is easier
to achieve
in teams.

Are you being a Lone Ranger?
If that is working for you,
fine.
If that isn’t working for you
or you feel you could achieve more,
consider forming a support group
of people with similar goals.

Then post your daily goals
and support each other
in achieving them.