Category: New Business Development

Whenever I hear someone say
they’ll work on their dreams
someday,
I assume they will never
work on their dreams.

The business equivalent
of someday
is a date far into the future.

Some businesses,
for example,
had set 2030 as the date
they’d implement changes
to address climate issues.
That date is now too soon
so they’ve shifted
it to 2050.

The real date is
never.

If there’s no date set
in the near future,
I assume it will never happen.

Because as Seth Godin
shares

“Date certain
This is very different
from “someday.””

If you’re taking a goal
seriously,
attach step completion target dates to it
and ensure one of those dates
happen within a year.

I posted that,
prompted by a newscast,
I went outside
and picked up garbage
at a nearby park.

A person commented
that I should have also
picked up garbage
in another neighborhood,
not just in mine.

It doesn’t matter
what we do
or how much we do.
Someone will think
it isn’t enough.

(Often that someone
isn’t doing ANYTHING
to solve that problem.)

We will be pushed
to do more.

And that way
leads to burn out,
especially since we’re doers
and often have already pushed ourselves.

Burn out renders us unable
to do anything more.
It decimates our progress.

We’ll always be pushed
to do more.

Ignore those people.
Listen to yourself,
to your body,
your mind,
your soul.

Follow your own plan.

A loved one
has been revising
his novel
for years.
He wants it
to be ‘perfect.’

While he was ‘perfecting’ it,
there were many people
who were looking for
new novels to read
during the Great Pause.

They wouldn’t have cared
that it wasn’t yet perfect
because NO NOVELS
they’ve read
have been perfect.
A perfect novel
doesn’t exist.

Seth Godin
shares

“The best available option

That’s not the same
as perfect.

The best available option
is always available.

Perfect almost never is.

If you care enough
to contribute,
you can care enough
to not wait for perfect.”

There’s no such thing
as a perfect product or service.
Prospects aren’t waiting
for perfect.

Prospects COULD be waiting
for the slightly flawed offering
you currently have.

A buddy told me yesterday
I was lucky to run my own business
because I could work
whenever I felt like it.

I have perhaps
the best business in the world
– writing stories –
and I never FEEL like working.

I would rather
daydream about my stories
than write them down.

I CAN decide which hours
I work.

But, if I wish to
accomplish anything,
I have to set working hours
for myself.

I can’t wait
until I’m in the right mood.

I have to start working
in a conducive environment
and hope the mood strikes.

As Seth Godin
shares

“Attitude follows action
far more often than
action follows attitude.”

Don’t wait until the right mood strikes
or the right time comes
to build your business.
Do it now.

Every Spring,
a loved one and I argue
about when to turn on the A/C.

EVERY Spring.

This year,
we’re finally setting
parameters around
when this will happen.
And we have put these parameters
in writing.

Next year,
I hope not to have
this heated discussion again.

If you find yourself
having the same discussion
over and over,
come to an agreement around the topic
and then put that agreement
in writing.

Host an information page
or FAQs
on your site.
Add it to the employee handbook.
Put it in the partner agreement.
Or record it elsewhere.

Settle recurring discussions
once and for all
and capture that conclusion.

Once I had enough funds to cover
food and housing and other basic needs,
I started to feel guilty
whenever I had any additional success.

I had enough.
Maybe I should back off
and allow others to obtain enough also.

Except the world doesn’t work that way.

That success I was being offered?
It would go
to another person or entity
who was equally or MORE successful
than I was.

A poor or struggling person or entity
wasn’t even in consideration.

This is one of the reasons why
the rich get richer,
the poor get poorer,
and
billionaires multiply.

How I deal with success guilt is
I give a portion of any funds
attributed to that success
to charity.

I don’t depend on another person
redistributing success.
I do it myself
and I can be assured it is being done.

Am I doing enough?
Probably not.
But I’m doing something.

Success guilt is a thing.
The cure for it
isn’t to shun success.
It is to use that success
to help others.

I was hired
as a consultant
by a small company.
They wanted to know
why they were struggling
to reach their female target market.

There were no women
on their product development team,
in their marketing or sales departments,
on their senior management team.

They held focus groups
with women
but, by that stage,
there was often too many things wrong
with the product
to fix.

The focus group focused
on the large issues.
They didn’t have the time
or energy
to list the thousand little things
that were wrong.

For best chances
of success,
the target market
should be deeply involved
during each step of product development.

The easiest way to do this
is to ensure the target market
is represented
in our employees.

If we want the software we’re developing
to be accessible for the blind,
for example,
we might wish to have someone
on our development team
who is seeing impaired.

Is your target market
represented by your employees?

(And for those who say,
“The best qualified employee
should get the job.”,
knowledge of the target market
IS a qualification.
There are also 7.6 billion people
on this planet.
We can find people who are ‘qualified’
within the target market.)

We often talk here,
on client k,
about changing the world.

I usually associate that
with building a business,
with creation,
with larger change.

But consumption is often
as powerful as creation
and little changes
add up.

If we choose to buy our office supplies
from an Earth-friendly business,
for example,
we’re transferring wealth
to that business owner
and encouraging her
to create more office supplies.

If we choose a bank
that supports a cause,
we’re indirectly supporting
that cause also.

We don’t have to wait
until our businesses are successful
to make a difference.

We do that
with each of our choices.

Make your choices count.
Create the world
you want to live in.

As business builders,
we deliver change.

Many people don’t like change.
They know how to work with
and around
the present situation.
Change is work for them
and they resist that
…even if that change
decreases the amount of work
they’ll do
in the long run.

Seth Godin
shares

“There’s a long history
of culture
pushing back on
the smart, generous, safe interventions
that ultimately become standard.

Because the status quo
is the status quo
precisely because
it’s good at sticking around.”

Expect pushback.
It is part of the process,
part of promoting change.

I received some harsh feedback
on one of my stories this week.
It came from someone
I trusted
and it obliterated my confidence.

I doubted my ability
to tell a story.

Which was challenging
because I had to continue
writing the next story.
I had to create.

So I scanned through
the contents
of my success file.
I looked at glowing messages
from readers.
I looked at my list
of awards.
I looked at the many, many records,
both large and small,
that confirmed
I COULD write great stories.
I COULD do my job.
One bad story didn’t erase
all those previous wins.

My confidence returned.
I got back to work.

If you don’t have a success file,
create one today.
Anytime you receive positive feedback,
put it in that file.

You will likely need it
some day.
We all will.

Creating something new
means
risking that something new
not working.

Keep reminders
that you know your sh*t,
that this one failure
is surrounded by many successes.

You can do this!