New Business Development – Page 72

Know Our Seasonal Patterns

I always want to quit
whatever I’ve been working on
in January.
That happens every year.

So I tell people
not to let me do that.
I write in my calendar
not to quit anything
that month.

I want to take on
EVERY project in April.
I want to do
anything that interests me
and that’s a lot.
It is too much.

I tell people
I’m not taking on
new projects in April.
I write in my calendar
not to start anything
that isn’t already on
my project list.

We all have seasonal patterns.
Note them
and then put tactics in place
to deal with them.

No completely new projects
for me
this month!

Buying Time

A buddy asked me
why I help fund
tree planting.
“Planting trees
won’t stop climate change,”
she said.

And she’s right.
Planting trees, on its own,
WON’T stop climate change.
It won’t offset
the impact of
the big carbon contributors.

But planting trees MIGHT buy us
a bit of time,
perhaps an extra second.

And that second,
MIGHT
make a difference.

Currently, I have a series
that is dying.
Sales are slowly decreasing.

Writing another story in it
won’t stop this death.

What it WILL do
is buy me some time
to think of another series idea.
That new series idea
might capture lingering readers
and attract new readers.

If you haven’t yet found
the next great idea,
consider buying yourself time
to do so
by taking smaller, less innovative steps.

The World Is Always Changing

Eleven years ago,
I pitched a romance
with an Asian-American heroine
to a big New York Publisher.

The heroine had been a character
in a popular series
I had published with this publisher
and readers had been asking for
her story.

The Publisher said no,
told me there was no market
for that type of heroine.
“That is just
the way it is,”
they said.

Today, one of my writing buddies
is in demand
by this same publisher
because ALL she writes
are romances with Asian-American heroines.

Seth Godin
shares

“That’s how culture perpetuates
injustice and indignity.
Because that’s just the way
things are around here.

But the status quo
isn’t permanent.
The world doesn’t stay
the way it was.
It changes.

And it’s been changing
faster than ever.”

There is no status quo.
The world is constantly changing.

Just because there wasn’t a market for
your product or business idea
today
doesn’t mean there won’t be a market for it
eleven years from now.

All Actions Have Consequences

Yesterday, I watched
as someone in a grocery store parking lot
didn’t return his shopping cart
to the cart holding area.
He, instead, left it
in a parking space.

Moments later,
a gray-haired, frail-looking driver
drove his car into that space,
crashed into the cart,
damaging his vehicle.

The gray-haired driver
bore the consequences
for his own actions
– not seeing the cart
and driving into it.

But he also bore
the consequences
for the lazy man’s actions
– not returning the cart
properly.

As Seth Godin
shares

“Our actions always
have consequences.
The question is:
who will bear them?”

Before taking an action,
think about
the possible consequences
and who will bear them.

A True Test

Many cozy mystery writers
have been ‘testing’
the large print format
category,
releasing one book only
in it.

Which is a great thing.
We should always test markets
before launching all our products
in them.

Except the writers have been
‘testing’ it
by releasing the current book,
which is not usually the first book
in the series.

Cozy mystery readers,
like many readers,
prefer to start
with book one in the series.

The large print test
usually fails
because the wrong book
was tested.

Ensure you test the product
or service
prospects would buy first.

The Right Industry Fit For You

I value my privacy.

So there are some writing niches
I will always avoid.
I don’t write self-help books, for example,
because self-help book readers expect
to see an author’s face,
to view footage of the author
on social media.
They want to feel they know
the person
they’re taking advice from.

Romance readers, in contrast,
are okay
with never seeing an author’s face.
They realize the need
and preference
for privacy.

Seth Godin
shares

“If you need to avoid
the front of the parade,
don’t pick an industry
or a cultural setting
where only the people
at the front
are treated well.”

Pick the right industry
and niche for you.
Ensure your preferences
don’t damage
your odds of success.

Taking The Blame And Moving On

If a project
goes terribly wrong
and I have to call a meeting
with key project people
to discuss it,
I’ll often start the meeting
by taking blame for
any and all mistakes/missteps.

This does a couple things.

It reconfirms I’m in charge
of the project.
The errors rest with me.

And it stops the blame game.

Team members aren’t worried
they’ll be blamed
for the mistakes/missteps.
They aren’t pre-occupied
during the meeting
with assigning blame.

We can focus
on fixing the mistakes
and saving the project.

Assigning blame
sucks up much needed time
and it can cause dissention
within a team.

Take the blame
and move on.

Will This Be A Hobby Or A Business?

When I speak with a new writer,
one of the first things
I ask her
is, “Will writing be
a hobby
or a potential career
for you?”

It is OKAY
for something
to be a hobby,
to be something we do
merely for fun.

Enjoyment can be
as important as money
and sometimes…often
trying to derive income
from the things we love
decreases our joy.

Many writers feel,
for example,
writing professionally
decreases their enjoyment
of reading.

They can’t unsee
the tricks we all use.
They can’t stop
dissecting the story
they’re reading.

That’s a huge cost
of writing professionally
and it is important
new writers consider it
before venturing along that route.

Decide whether something
will be a hobby or a business
for you.

If you decide it will be
a business,
realize that some of your joy
around that former hobby
will likely decrease.

The Importance Of Leadership

Elon Musk, alien extraordinaire,
bought a hefty share
of Twitter stocks
and forced his way
onto the board.

Many of us
who use Twitter
are horrified.
We know the rules
and the feeling of the site
will significantly change.

Because that is what happens
when there is new leadership.
The company changes
and often the product or service
changes with it.

THIS is why leadership
is important.
THIS is why determining
who can own a piece
of our companies
is important.

Think before
making changes
to ownership
and to leadership.

Negotiated Projections Are Goals, Not Projections

The newest IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
report released this week.

The projections
(including, for example,
the expected increase
in global temperatures)
this report presents
are negotiated.

They are negotiated with politicians
who do NOT want bad news shared
during their terms at office.

They are negotiated with business leaders
who, again, do NOT want bad news shared
while they are in those leadership positions.

Most significantly,
they are negotiated with fossil fuel companies
who do NOT want to change
their business models.
At all.

The bad news in
the IPCC report findings,
as a result,
will be EXTREMELY muted.

I dealt with this challenge
when I crafted projections
for new business development opportunities.

I would be told
“We need X return
for this opportunity to be approved.”

I would then reply
that having a target return
is great
but the inputs and the model
would determine the projected return.

I could negotiate inputs,
which would be outlined
in my reports,
but I wouldn’t be negotiating
the projected return.

Because negotiated returns
aren’t based on anything.
They aren’t supported
by the inputs or the model.

If leaders want to
‘negotiate’ projections,
they can make up those projections
on their own.
They don’t need to involve
me
or thousands of scientists.

Negotiated projections
aren’t trustworthy projections.
They are merely goals.