New Business Development – Page 71

The More Intricate The System

We won’t ‘fix’ climate change.

We might, if we’re lucky,
fix one or two of the issues
caused by climate change.

We might, for example, figure out
how to continue
feeding ourselves
or
how to somehow hold back
the oceans.

But the planet
won’t ever be the same.

Why?

Because the more intricate
a system is,
the harder it is to repair.
And the Earth
is the most intricate system
any of us has ever encountered.
It is so intricate
we don’t have any idea
how all the millions of subsystems
interact.

Hell, we don’t even know
what the Earth’s core consists of.

Plan for irreversible climate change.

And when you’re building systems,
keep them as simple as possible.
Complicated systems
are a b*tch to fix.

Celebrate The Small Wins

I interacted with a new-to-me reader
yesterday.

I put that encounter
squarely in the win category,
told the people
who would be happy for me,
who would understand,
treated myself to a mini celebration.

It was a small win
but that is usually
what drives larger successes
– small wins.

They are important,
are building blocks,
and they should be recognized.

Celebrate your small wins.

Why Not Both?

I was asked yesterday
if I liked Star Wars or Star Trek.
I said I liked both.
The person got upset
and told me I had to choose.

No.
I didn’t have to choose.
I could like both.
I DO like both.

People, especially Americans,
like to choose sides.
They like being all in,
either passionately for
or passionately against.

That is limiting thinking.
It is world of scarcity thinking.
It is if I win, you lose thinking.

We don’t have to choose, for example,
between promoting on Facebook
or promoting on Twitter.
We can do both.

We don’t have to choose
between planting trees
and lowering emissions.
We can do both.

Doing both is almost always
an option.
Ensure you consider it.

Telling The Truth

There was a discussion
online
about word count targets
for stories.

An editor
for a large New York Publisher
shared her preferred word counts
for submitted stories.

Writers jumped on her,
telling her she was being
small minded,
was limiting their creativity,
was censoring their thoughts.

She muted comments on her post
and withdrew from the conversation.

I posted recently here
about building a business
during climate change.

NONE of the people
who contacted me
liked that post.

The environmentalists
told me
we have enough businesses.
We don’t need any more.

The business folks
told me
things like
the world is always changing
and
businesses should be built
for what is happening today
because the future isn’t certain.

I’ll continue to tell
my truth here on client k.
It is one of the reasons
I’m semi-anonymous.

But often,
when we yell at the people
telling us their truths,
they stop sharing their truths
with us.
We lose their insights,
their expertise.

Encourage the people
who tell you their truths
even if you don’t agree with them.

Will You Regret Not Doing This?

Starting a business
is extremely risky.
Businesses fail
all the time.

Some of your loved ones
will tell you
these harsh truths.
Again and again.

And you might have doubts.
You might be tempted
to put your plans on hold.

What I do
when faced with these kinds
of decisions
is
ask myself,
“At the end of my life,
will I regret not doing this?
Will I always wonder
what could have been?”

If the answer is “Yes”,
I figure out
how to minimize the downside,
how to limit
the potential damage,
and then I do it.

If the answer is “No”,
I don’t do it.
I wait for something,
for an opportunity
I WOULD regret not seizing.

Live life
with as few regrets
as possible.

Business Building And Energy Consumption

Electricity in my part
of the world
is currently fairly inexpensive.

That will change
as the world heats up.

One of my main businesses
(writing romance novel)
depends on electricity
for production.
I can’t write
or load books to booksellers
without electricity.

(Sales depend on
my target customers
having electricity also
but that is a post
for another day.)

I’m currently looking into
becoming a little more
self sufficient
regarding electricity
(installing solar panels
and battery backups).

Does your business
depend on having
X amounts of energy
available?

Look into having
a backup source
for that energy.

And investigate
whether or not
you can lower
your energy consumption.

For Those That Constantly Revise

I tweak stories.
I constantly refine them.
I don’t stop doing this
after the final edit
and it drives my editor
up the wall
because I usually insert typos.

The only thing
that pulls me out
of the revising death spiral
is a deadline.

I will set up a story
for pre-order
and booksellers will insist
the final version
be loaded by X date.

That deadline is the ONLY reason
my stories get published.

Seth Godin
shares

“The benefit is that
once we agree to the deadline,
we don’t have to worry about it anymore.
We don’t have to negotiate,
come up with excuses
or
even stress about it.

It won’t ship
when it’s perfect.

It will ship
because we said it would.”

If you constantly revise
like I do,
consider setting a firm deadline.

Studying History

Winston Churchill once said
“Those that fail
to learn from history
are doomed to repeat it.”

But those of us
who have studied history
know
the majority of people
DON’T learn from history.
And we ALL repeat it.

What learning from history
does
is allow us to see the signs
of an upcoming situation
and
then take action
to avoid it
personally.
Perhaps, if we have
the impact,
we can ensure
EVERYONE avoids it.

We know,
for example,
that book banning
is one step closer
to having a dictatorship.

We know
how dictators function
and how a country would look
under a dictatorship.
(Living under a dictatorship
is NOT good
for business building.
At all.)

We can take action
to stop this from happening
and we can prepare
for the possibility
we won’t be able to stop it.

Study history
because we WILL repeat it
and the knowledge
could save your life.

Do You Fully Understand The Critique?

A writing buddy was told
her heroes were too beta
and there wasn’t a market
for beta heroes.

She posted this
on social media.
Everyone rushed to tell her
there WAS a market
for beta heroes.

She happily indie-published
her story
with the ‘beta’ hero.

And she sold very few copies
of her story.

Because the true issue
wasn’t her hero was beta.
Her hero was passive.
He didn’t do anything.
He reacted to situations.
He didn’t drive them.

Very few people
want to read
about a hero
who doesn’t do anything.

When evaluating a critique,
ensure you understand it.
Ask for specific examples
of areas that need improvement.

If you decide to take action
based on a critique,
consider informing the critic
of the actions you plan to take.
Ask them
if those actions
will solve the problem.

If they say
the actions don’t address the problem,
you likely don’t understand
the problem.
Investigate the situation
more.

Design With The Target Market In Mind

I recently wrote a story
for a serialized app
(KISS, Radish, iReader, etc)
with those readers
as my target reader.

It was a VERY different story
than one I would write
for eBook readers.

It had cliffhangers
every 2,000 words,
for example,
rather than merely at the end
of every chapter.

It was written from
one character’s point of view,
rather than two,
as another example.

It will eventually be published
in both formats
– serialized app
and eBook.
I ensured it was readable
in both.
But the primary target market
drove the product development.

When you design
your product/service,
try to make it
acceptable for all markets
but design it primarily
for your key target market.

It will change
the final product/service
and
that should make
a huge difference in sales.