New Business Development – Page 63

Extreme Weather Days

When crafting my schedule
for the upcoming year,
planning my book releases
(project rollouts),
I’m accounting for
extreme weather days.

They’re becoming
increasingly common.

The rain is too heavy
to safely drive.

Blackouts happen
during heat waves.

It is too hot
to ask customers or employees
to go outside.

In my area,
I am currently planning
for 1 extreme weather
working day
a month.

If those extreme weather days
don’t happen,
I will have free days
to push ahead of schedule.

Plan for extreme weather days.
Then hope you don’t need them.

The Buffer YOU Need

I like to be
1 story ahead of my release schedule.

When I have that buffer,
I don’t worry as much
about meeting deadlines.

This frees up my brain
to create.

One of my writing buddies
needs to have an entire YEAR
of releases written
in advance
or she becomes too worried
to create new stories.

Another writing buddy
releases stories as soon
as they are written.
Having an unreleased story
causes her stress.

Figure out the buffer
YOU need
and try your best to obtain it.

Note: If you are a
no buffer at all type of person,
consider creating artificial deadlines
to ensure you don’t miss
real deadlines.

Turn Single Use Into Multiple Use

I save all the packing material
I receive from deliveries
– boxes, bubble wrap,
air packets
– to reuse
when I send my own packages.

I haven’t bought
packing material
in decades.

There’s a movement
away from single use items.

This doesn’t mean
we have to eliminate
these items.
We should merely use them
a second or third or more
time.

Anything customer facing
should be safe
and should appear new
(unless you deal with antiques
and similar items).

But we CAN reuse
or repurpose
items
in our businesses.

That can decrease costs
significantly.

Back To School And Purchasing Office Supplies

September is
back to school time
in North America.

Many stores are selling
school supplies
at a discount.

School supplies
are often similar
or the same
as office supplies.

Printer paper,
pens,
post-it notes,
paperclips
and other items
we might use in our businesses
are currently on sale.

Consider stocking up
on these items
now.

What Is Your Limited Resource?

In my Romance Novel business,
my most limited resource
is
my time.

I outsource almost everything
except the writing.
I COULD outsource that also
but I prefer to own that completely.

(One of the reasons
I started the Romance Novel business
was to bring MY stories
to life.)

My product development
and my business’ growth
is limited by the time
I’m willing to allocate
to the business.

ALL of our businesses
have limitations.

And as
Seth Godin
shares

“Finding the one thing
that is at the heart
of your value/scarcity matrix
makes it much easier
to focus your energy
on strategic decisions.”

I know, for example,
I can’t grow my business
in a certain direction
if implementing that strategy
will utilize a lot of my time.
I don’t have that time
to allocate.

Determine your most limited resource
and then figure out
how to grow
using as little of it
as possible.

If Your Surroundings Are Healthy

My neighborhood hasn’t had rain
in weeks.

We aren’t rationing water, however,
because the neighborhoods around us
have received a LOT of rain,
perhaps too much rain.

They can share
their water with us.

A restaurant
in a well-to-do neighborhood
in our city
is struggling.
Its owner has medical issues.
He hasn’t been able
to spend much time
on his business.

The other businesses
have come together to help.
They are sending customers
his way,
are helping him in his restaurant,
and doing other things
to ensure his business survives.

They can do that
because THEIR businesses
are doing well.

If your surroundings,
physical or virtual,
are healthy,
YOUR business is more likely
to be healthy.

Choose your neighborhood well
and then support it.

If We Want Improvement

If I wanted simply to offset
the carbon I use,
I would fund the planting
of X trees per year.

But I know some people
won’t or can’t offset their carbon usage
and
I want the world to improve
so
I fund the planting
of at least 2X trees per year.

The standard tip
for housekeeping
when we stay in a hotel
is expected.
The employee factors
that into her earnings.

Doubling that standard tip
will change her life a bit.

Seth Godin
shares

“Whether it’s splitting a check,
getting a project done
or making an impact on the culture
or a cause,
if you want things to get better,
the only way is
to be prepared
to do more than your fair share.”

If we want the world
to improve,
we should do
MORE than is expected.

Choose Your Own Weekend

My ‘weekend’ starts tonight.
I’m taking two days off,
will be doing the minimal
for the Romance Novel business.

Today, as you know,
is a Wednesday.
The traditional start
to a weekend
is Friday night.

But I run my own business.
I can take days off
whenever I want.

We don’t have to be stuck
with traditional thinking.

If having Saturday and Sunday
‘off’
or
starting the work day at 9am
or
wearing socks at the office
makes no sense to you,
change it.

Create the working environment
YOU want to enjoy.

Conference Swag

A loved one works
for a big technology company.
He attends a gazillion conferences
every year
and,
at every conference,
he is given swag,
promotional items,
Sh*t We All Get.

Every September,
he donates
the fancy notebooks.
the fancy pens,
the backpacks,
and other school-like supplies
he has collected
to the Little Free Library
located close to
the neighborhood primary school.

I’ve seen a little boy
pick up
one of the backpacks.
Microsoft was splashed
across the front of it
but that seemed to make
the little boy even happier.

And he was happy.
He was the happiest
I’ve ever seen a kid be.

To us,
it is just another
piece of swag.

To a kid,
it could be life-changing.

Donate your excess
kid-appropriate swag.

Checking On Our Businesses Every Day

Every morning,
I walk around my garden.

This is relaxing
but it also serves a purpose
– animals tend to dig up plants
over the nights
and, if I replant these plants
as soon as possible,
they have a chance
to survive.

Every morning,
I also verify my books
are listed
and my sites are up.

The longer they are down
the more sales I lose.

It pays
to fix those major issues
quickly.

Someone should check
on our businesses every day.

If that person isn’t us
(we’re on vacation
or offline for other reasons),
we should designate
and empower someone else
to check on our businesses
and take any necessary actions.