Category: New Business Development

November is National Novel Writing Month
and the good folks at
NaNoWriMo
have once again organized
their 50,000 words written in a month
challenge.

It is interesting to hear
the responses to NaNoWriMo.

Some writers are excited.
This is an opportunity
to be accountable for their words written,
to band together with other writers,
and to have some fun.

Then there are the grumblers.

My favorite grumble
is that words written quickly
are trash.

Yeah, that’s not true.
Actually, I find the stories I write quickly
are often my favorite stories
and the stories that sell easily.

It is often the same
with other product development.
The products that are
quick to develop
(quick does not always equal easy)
are often the products that sell well.
(because there’s often a clear reason
for the product
which team members can quickly rally around
and understand).

Quick CAN mean quality.
A process doesn’t have to be difficult
to be worthwhile.

There are two months
left in 2011.

Two months
to make this year count,
to take that action
you’ve been wanting to take,
to make a difference.

Remember those goals
you set at the beginning of the year?

Review them.
Do you still want to achieve them?
If yes,
figure out how
and then do it.

If you don’t know how to achieve them,
ASK!

I wanted to break into a new publisher.
I asked a friend
who was writing for this publisher
how I could get my foot in the door.

She told me about a special call
the publisher didn’t have enough submissions for.
She told me the publisher was looking for stories
ideally over 20,000 words
(the submission call had a range
from 8,000 words to 34,000 words).
She told me they were looking for science fiction stories
(the submission call
was open to all genres).

So I wrote a science fiction romance
over 20,000 words
for the special call.

The editor asked me to revise the story.
I revised it.
The editor asked me to revise it again.
I revised it.
The editor asked me to revise it a third time.
I revised it.
Then the editor contracted the story.

I’ve since sold one more story in
and have another story in submissions.

If you need help
achieving your goals,
ASK
and then
ACT.
Make 2011 a life changing year!

A good project manager
is conscious of the emotional state
of her project team members.

Why?

Because negative emotions
can be an early indication
that a step in the process
is missing or broken.

As Peggy Grall shares

“When effecting change,
check your group’s emotional temperature early
to see if you’ve neglected
a key factor for success.

There are six success factors,
and there is a
predictable emotional reaction
in the absence of each.

When vision is missing,
you get confusion.

When skills are missing,
you get anxiety.

When incentives are missing,
you get resistance.

When resources are missing,
you get frustration.

When information is missing,
you get suspicion.

When an action plan is missing,
you get futility.”

Be aware of the emotional status
of your project team.

Having been in project management
for a while,
I know if I launch…
say…
a peach-flavored beverage
and this beverage fails,
it will be much more difficult
to launch another peach-flavored beverage.
The previous failure
will be remembered
and used as a reason
to reject the new product.

THAT is why I don’t like
the Occupy Wall Street movement.
There is no plan for change
so the movement will fail,
and it will hinder
more organized future movements.

Robert Kiyosaki
isn’t a big fan of this movement
for similar reasons.

“In the end,
the world isn’t changed
by people who complain.
It’s changed by people who do.

Don’t like the way corporate America
and Wall Street operate?

Be part of changing the way
America does business
by being an entrepreneur
who starts a company
to not only make money
but also make the world a better place…”

Plan before you protest.

In writing,
there is developing/producing product,
marketing/selling that product,
and
then there’s noise.
There is a LOT of noise.
Discussions about
whether or not books are dying,
whether or not the Romance Writers Of America
values eBook writers,
whether or not folks can make a living writing.

Focus on the noise
and the writing suffers.

The same is true with entrepreneurs
and discussions about the Fed,
the economy,
the future of the country.
Focus on that noise
and the business suffers.

As David Faye
CEO of Faye Business Systems Group, Inc.
states
“If you’re a leader,
things are going to happen
that are going be out of your control,
and you have to control
what you can control.
People get caught up in conversations
about the economy,
and what the Fed’s doing,
and what the president’s doing…
but at the end of the day,
when you’re running a business,
you have to keep your eye on the ball,
on the business.”

Keep an eye on your business.
Leave the resource wasting drama behind.

I have three publishers
for one of my pen names.

One is a big name publisher.
I send them all of my mainstream, “normal” stories.
They need to turn a profit
and their definition of profit is a lot of money.

One is a smaller, indie publisher.
I send them all of my edgier, could-be-breakout stories.
They also need to turn a profit
but their definition of profit isn’t much money.

Francis Ford Coppola
in an interview with Harvard Business Review
said
“I think the smaller the budget,
the bigger the ideas can be;
the bigger the budget,
the smaller the ideas,
and the exploration,
and the adventure,
and the challenge.
If there’s less money at stake,
you can slip in between the cracks
and look at the material
with a more honest, direct view.
You don’t have to worry about
what would preserve the investment better.”

“Everyone has this conservative streak in them,
especially when money and success
are at stake,
and everyone tends not to
want to be experimental.”

The same thinking is true with start ups.
The less money
(especially other people’s money)
on the line,
the more innovative and breakout
you can be.
You can take risks.

Think about how creative you want to be
when considering financing options.

One of my pen names is
pretty much dead.
I used it for my romance novels
targeting business women.
That tactic didn’t work.

I had a choice.
I could use that brand
for a tactic that might work,
or I could launch a new brand.

Since I needed a new website url,
I decided to launch a new brand.

I keep the first brand alive.
Why?
Because I’d rather business associates
not know about my non-business writing,
and the first brand acts as a shield.
(so when I’m asked if I have stories published,
I point business associates to that website)

Brands die.
It is part of a brand’s life cycle.
When they die,
you have choices.
You can revive the brand,
you can use the brand for other products,
or you can let it die.

fastcodesign has a good post
on how to tell if a brand
is worth saving.

Yes, I post about taking action
quite often.
Why?
Because that is the most important part
of every plan.
Without taking action,
the best plan in the world
is useless.

I have an author buddy
who always submits manuscripts
before they’re finalized.
This drives her critique partners crazy
because it increases her chances of a rejection.

The interesting thing is…
she has more stories releasing this year
than all of her critique partners combined.
Sure, she has to revise each manuscript heavily
but so do they,
though they revise BEFORE submission.

What is the key to her success?
She takes action.
She takes more action.
She receives more rejections
but she publishes more also.

Rajesh Setty has a great post
on what might be stopping you
from taking action.

Some of the best leaders I know
are also
some of the most accessible people I know.
They talk to everyone,
whether they’re in an elevator
or on a plane.
They’re constantly gathering
ideas and information and insights.

In a New York Times interview,
David Barger,
president and chief executive of JetBlue,
shared

“…I really believe in giving people
the opportunity to have access.
There’s got to be other people within JetBlue
who can run this company
who are not just my direct reports.
They’re in the organization
and they’ve got great careers ahead of them.”

Look for talent and ideas and information
everywhere.

In primary school,
we’re taught that
the correct way to take a class/course/workshop
is to sit quietly through the presentation,
waiting for the question and answer period
at the end
to ask questions.
Of course, when you DO ask a question at the end,
your buddies scowl at you
because you’re prolonging the class.

So you don’t ask questions.
You aren’t proactive.
You merely GET the information
you’re given.

Newsflash…
You’re not in primary school anymore.

Successful folks don’t GET information.
They TAKE information.

When I present to a successful person,
I know they have a reason
for attending my presentation.
They’ll have a list of questions
(part of presentation preparation
is trying to guess these questions)
and they will take the information
they need from me.

I can tell within the first five minutes
who are the successful people
and who aren’t.

You’re in the real world now.
Ask the questions you want answered.
Take the information you need.