Category: New Business Development

I belong to a group of five authors.
Almost every day,
we email each other
and talk about what we did
writing-wise that day.

We have measurements
words written,
manuscripts submitted,
that are short forms for progress.
Not surprisingly,
our group has achieved
great things this year.

One of my entrepreneur friends
does the same with three other entrepreneurs.
They email each day
and mention what they did marketing-wise,
what sales they made,
what products they produced.

My friend is beginning to have success.
She tells me,
that if not for these other women,
she would have quit long ago.

Consider finding others
at the same stage you are
and create a support system.
It can be as simple
as having someone you need to be accountable to.

I don’t watch tv shows
unless a legal copy is available online.
I don’t care if there are commercials.
I simply want to be able
to watch the show whenever I want.

Many of my friends feel the same
except they aren’t as fussy
about the legal part.

So they go to the pirates
if the legal content isn’t available.
These shows lose out
on advertising revenue
and access to these viewers.

There’s been some buzz
about Taylor Swift’s new song Mine.
The official video isn’t available yet
on YouTube
(my listening station of choice).
I don’t care about the video.
I just want to listen to the song.
And the song is available on YouTube
from ‘fans.’

It would take very little
for Taylor Swift’s people
to put the entire album on YouTube
(with the album cover)
and earn advertising revenue off it.
Instead, the ‘fans’ get the advertising revenue.

If you don’t offer your content
in a way viewers or listeners or readers want it,
they WILL go to the pirates.
Doesn’t it make sense
to capture these potential customers yourself?

Seth Godin has a great post
on Foundation Elements For Modern Businesses.
He lists 15 new elements
for new businesses.

I love the list.
I also find it disturbing,
especially # 7
“Rely on unique individuals,
not an easily copyable system.”

You see…
I have always thought
a true business,
one I can build to large scale
and have operate without me
(i.e. a business I can sell),
can’t rely on individuals.

If I build a business only I can run,
well, only I can run it.
I’m a prisoner of that business.

I’ve seen people try to sell these businesses.
It sure isn’t pretty.

There are happy mediums.
The CEO who transitions into a spokesperson.
The writer who puts his ‘touch’
on books written by ghost writers.

It is, however, the greatest challenge
on Seth’s list
for new business builders.

Rafi Mohammed,
author of
The 1% Windfall:
How Successful Companies Use
Price To Profit and Grow,
advises to use
different product versions
to appeal to a wider range of customers.

“Consider offering
good, better, and best versions
to allow customers
to choose how much to pay
for a product.
For example,
many gourmet restaurants
offer early-bird, regular and chef’s-table options.
Price-sensitive foodies
come for the early bird specials,
while well-heeled diners
willingly pay an extra $50
to sit at the chef’s table.”

The key is,
of course,
to have three very different options
for the three very different price points.

Can you offer
good, better and best versions
of your products?

One of the key habits
of happy people is
they enjoy the present.

That doesn’t mean they don’t set goals.
As
Tal Ben-Shahar,
author of
Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment,
states
“The primary objective of goals
is to liberate you
to enjoy the here and now,
the journey.”

You are likely not yet
at the stage you ideally wish to be
with your business building.

The thing is…
if you’re an ambitious person,
you likely will NEVER be
at the stage you wish to be.
As you reach your target,
you make a new target.

So enjoy where you are.
Enjoy start up pains
and that crazy growth period
and all the other stages of business building.
You may never experience this again.

I’ve had three great offers this week.
Yeah, I’ve been damn fortunate.

Yet…
I turned down all three.

Why?

Because these great offers
don’t tie into how I envision my future.
I know they will lead to other opportunities
but these other opportunities
will take me even further from my goals.

The opportunities don’t disappear.
They will go to someone else
who will value them more.

It is tough letting them go.
It means standing firm
on what I see as my future.
Yet my dreams will never come true
if I’m chasing someone else’s.

I’m participating in a Christmas anthology.
I started a story for this
five times yesterday.
All five starts didn’t work.

I wish I could say
this was unusual.
I wish I could say
that the number of false starts
will decrease in time.

I can’t
because it isn’t
and it hasn’t.

What HAS changed is
when I kill the false starts.
In a longer novel,
I know to kill a start
if by the third chapter,
the characters haven’t taken over.
In a short story,
I know it isn’t working
in the first 1,000 words.

We talk about this a lot on this blog
because it is key to success.
Most successful people fail
but they fail fast.
They’ll have 10 failures in 10 weeks.

Learn how to spot a failure quickly.

An author friend of mine
is trying to sell
part two of a series.
The challenge is…
part one is unavailable
and part two builds on the first book.
No publisher wants this second book.

I missed an episode of a tv show.
This tv show builds.
Unlike many other shows,
past episodes are not on the internet.
I don’t plan to ever watch this show again.

If you have a product that builds
and you wish new customers/viewers/readers,
it may make sense
to make the previous product available
for free or a nominal charge.

You don’t know everything
about your customer.
You can’t.
It is impossible.

But you do have to know
enough about your customer
to be able to sell to her
and to anticipate her needs.

Yaro talks about
immersing yourself
in your customer’s community
(and all customers have a community,
whether organized or not).

The most common advice
successful romance writers
give to writers just starting out
is to read, read, read in the genre.
This isn’t only to learn craft.

It is because once writers read in their genre
they become part of the reader community.
They not only learn about the product,
they learn about the customer.
They hear about
unfulfilled needs and growing trends.

Become a part of
your customer’s community.

Scott Ginsberg has a great post
on what you can do
while waiting for…
… a job offer
… that big opportunity
… success.

As a project gal,
I often forget that some folks
don’t have a zillion possible projects
on the back burner.

That’s pretty darn dangerous
in the era of disappearing jobs.
The most common excuse
I hear for being a one revenue woman
is lack of time.

That’s why
I like to keep my ongoing projects
as flexible time-wise as possible
(the writing is one example).
When I have time
(i.e. time other people use watching tv),
I work on them.
If a bigger opportunity comes along
(and big opportunities DO come along),
I shelf them.

If you are a one revenue gal,
consider adding a mini-project.