Category: New Business Development

Scott Allen has a great post
about thinking like a bootstrapper
(and every entrepreneur should think
like a bootstrapper
– at least, until she has a confirmed win).

My favorite tip is
“Develop continuous, passive income,
even if that’s not your core business.”

Every business needs cash
to stay in business.
If you are working on a product
with a large selling price
or a large consulting project
that pays out only at the end,
you need something else to pay the bills.

As Scott states,
these little sales may seem like a distraction
but they are a necessary distraction.

One of my author buddies does this.
She writes shorts (10,000 word stories)
in hot, trend-happy genres.
She can write one of these in a week
and it pays the bills.
She devotes the other three weeks
in each month
to writing her ‘break out’ novel.

Build a base of passive income
so you can pay the bills
while pursuing the big sale.

I recently wrote a novel-length story.
It is a great story.
It will sell if marketed the right way
and placed with the right publisher
with the right pen name.

The problem is…
it doesn’t fit any of my pen names.
It is too spicy for my traditional name.
It is too traditional for my spicy name.
It doesn’t fall into the right genres
for the others.

If I have it published,
it would need its own pen name.
It would then be an orphan,
one of those one hit wonders
people read about.
It isn’t strong enough for a solo book
(solo books are rare in romance,
readers like series).

So I’m shelving it
(maybe not forever, but for now).

That’s the thing about product development.
The product you are developing
should fit somewhere
within your existing strategy.
You need an existing brand
to support it
or the confidence to launch
a new brand around it.

If you have neither,
concentrate on a product
that DOES fit.

One thing that all published writers learn
is that the way
readers interpret a story
and the way the writer interprets the same story
is different.

And that’s okay.

Once we create a product
and bring it to market,
we lose control over
how the customer uses that product.
We no longer own the product.
The customer does.

Coca-Cola can’t stop
customers from mixing their product
with Mentos
(and using that mixture to power a car).

WD-40 can’t stop
customers from using the water repellent spray
to soothe their arthritis pain.

Q-tips put a warning
on their boxes
discouraging customers from sticking their product
in their ears.
I don’t know of any other adult use for Q-tips.

Companies can discourage alternative uses
(WD-40 and Coca-Cola actually encourage alternative uses)
but they can’t stop it.

Once you sell your product,
you lose control of it.

Yesterday was my first full time day writing
for the summer.
(The week before, I had another contract extension).

Normally, I write 4,000 solid words a day.
Yesterday, I managed 1,000
(and some editing).

Why?

Because every time
I switch projects,
it takes me time to ramp up.
My mind partially remains
on the previous project.
I’m only working with half a brain
(or less).

Most people experience this.

That means I am more efficient
if I group like tasks.
It also means that I should plan
for this ramp up.

Build in a buffer
when you switch projects.

I cringe when someone comes up to me
and says
“I have an idea for a business”
like having an idea
is all that is needed for success.

Entrepreneurs have
dozens, hundreds, thousands of ideas.
Coming up with ideas
is usually not that challenging.
What IS challenging
is
coming up with a viable business idea.

Forbes has a great post
on questions you should ask
when deciding
whether or not your idea
may be viable as a business.

Of course,
there is the all important
‘does this solve a need
people will pay for?’
question.

My fave addition,
however,
is
‘can this idea be replicated?’
If your sales are linked
to your hours worked,
that answer is a clear NO.

I get cranky
when I spend too much time
working to make
other people’s dreams come true
(i.e. usually on a business contract)
and not enough time
making my own dreams come true.

So I take a day off.
When I worked full time,
it would be a sick day.
Now, I take an unpaid day.

One of my buddies
tries to work through it.
She ends up snapping at people,
walking away from projects
at the worst times,
and
otherwise f**kin’ up.

She damages relationships
and projects
by not seeing to her own needs first.

If you’re an entrepreneur
raising money by working for someone else,
manage your entrepreneurial impulses.
There’s no shame
in taking a (planned for) day off
to indulge in business building.

Take time for you.

An interviewer asked
best selling novelist Jodi Picoult
how she fights writer’s block.

Her answer?

“I don’t.
Writer’s block is for people
who have the luxury of time.”

I have the same thoughts on procrastination.
Procrastination is a luxury.
It is meant for those of us
who plan to live forever.

The rest of us have a short time
on this earth.
We can’t possibly do
all that we want to do.

That means there’s no time for delaying.
I don’t talk about writing a story.
I write the damn story.
I don’t talk, talk, talk about project launches.
I get the facts I need
and launch.

Sure, I make mistakes.
Sure, I don’t often do things
with full information.

But I do.

Go out there and DO!

In April’s Men’s Health,
Chad Lavigne
talks about innovation and passion.

Lavigne designs bottles and tubes
for personal care products
(The bottle for Kenneth Cole Signature
is his).

He is passionate about his art
(and yes, designing bottles
IS art).
He is so passionate,
he collects bottles for inspiration.
“I’ll see bottles
and have to have them.
I try to carry that passion
over into my designs.
There are millions of products
on the market.
If there’s not some thought
behind a product,
it doesn’t mean anything.
And if it doesn’t mean
something to you,
why should you buy it?”

HAVE to have them.
That’s passion.

Last night,
I told the office cleaning lady
she did a great job.
“But of course,”
she replied.
“I’m the best cleaner there is.”

She’s the BEST.

Are you living at that level
of passion?

When I was with
a quick service restaurant chain,
we’d go on
competitor shops.

When I was with
a major beverage company,
we would count shelf facings
of competitor’s products.
We’d call their 1-800 numbers
and ask questions.
We’d have Google alerts
on their brands.

Every successful company
is aware of what competitors
are doing.

It enables them to respond quickly
or even choose not to respond at all.

Forbes has a list of six ways
you can keep an eye on competitors.

In March’s Men’s Health,
Matthew McConaughey says

“Cynics love to put their finger
on disease
before they put it on health.
It’s the easy way to go.
Play the blame game:
‘I got screwed,
that should’ve been mine.’
They’re all dead-end answers.
For me, ‘Just keep livin’,’
as a creed and a compass,
is about making the evolving choice,
the forward-moving, life-giving choice.”

There are no successful cynics.
Take control of your future
and KNOW you can change it.