Category: New Business Development

One of my buddies
shared a post
on social media
about writing to
leaders
regarding climate change.

I talked to her
as I wanted more information.
I uncovered that
SHE didn’t write
to those leaders.

She considered sharing the post
to be her contribution
to the issue.

Sharing on social media
IS doing
but it is a pass-the-buck
and get others to complete the task
type of doing.
It isn’t as effective
as taking action
in other ways.

Take additional action
if YOU want to change
the world.

Sharing on social media
is better than doing nothing
but it won’t change the world
on its own.

A writer buddy of mine
told me
she was writing cozy mysteries.

Being an avid buyer
of cozy mysteries for a loved one,
I gave her some insights
on the market.

She then shared her story idea.

Her story wasn’t a cozy mystery.
It was a paranormal cozy mystery.
That has a completely different target market.

I told her to scrap my insights.
They not only didn’t apply
to her true market.
They could have greatly decreased
her odds of success in it.

Know your market.
That should be
one of the first things
you uncover
about your product
and service.

Ensure you know it
before you ask for advice.

When I helped design new product lines
for a major beverage company,
the return on investment
was calculated over
10 years.

That meant we weren’t
merely designing a product
that would be successful today,
we were designing it
to remain relevant
for a minimum of 10 years.

We had to look at
what the market would look like
in a decade.
The main component
we considered
was demographics.
Were our target demographics
still large enough
to support the product?

Today, I would definitely
consider science,
especially climate change.
For example,
could we still easily source
the ingredients
for that new beverage product?

And I would consider
technology,
including social media.
How would I spread the word
about the product?
In an image-heavy world,
I would like to ensure
the beverage was pretty
when poured into a glass.

Seth Godin
shares

“Consider
demographics, technology
and science.
All three are inexorably moving,
and while they can be ignored,
sooner or later,
they catch up
with our project
and push against it.”

We’re not developing products/services
in a bubble.
And we likely want that product/service
to be success years from now.

Look at trends
in demographics, science
and technology.

In my area,
during the big vaccination push,
teachers,
employees who were working remotely,
were vaccinated
before grocery store workers,
essential workers
who dealt with customers
every day.

Why?

Because teachers had
someone (the union)
negotiating on their behalf.

Grocery store workers
had no one.

Grocery store management
had the power
to defend their employees,
to ensure their safety
was a priority.
They said nothing.

Grocery store workers
are now,
of course,
trying to unionize.

If we don’t advocate
for our employees,
for our industry,
they will suffer.

Eventually,
they’ll suffer so much
others WILL advocate
for them
and we might not agree
with everything
they want to do.

Our employees are our responsibility.
Represent them.

Building a business
is extremely
complicated.

There are hundreds,
could be thousands
of tasks to be done,
moving pieces
to be tracked.

We can’t keep all that
in our brains.
It’s impossible.

And we shouldn’t keep
it in our brains.
If something goes wrong,
others can’t access
the information there.
They can’t help us.

Setting up systems
to track tasks,
to help us remember
is a key part
of starting a business.

It can be as easy
as adding the items
to our calendars
or keeping a
to-do list
(either on paper
or on our phones).

But we need
to start tracking
these tasks
NOW.

Sh*t is only
going to get
more complex.

Put in a system
that will help you
remember tasks
and make it easier
for you to transfer
your responsibilities
to someone else
temporarily.

Do this
TODAY.

Whenever there’s a public example
of bad police policy
in the U.S.,
the police department
in my Canadian city
reviews their own policies.

Our city’s police department
has their own incidents.
They COULD wait
until one of those happen.

But it is much less costly
(in lives, goodwill, other resources)
to learn by
another department’s example,
to use the other department’s
high profile case
as a reason to review policy
and to make changes.

I try to do the same thing
with my businesses.
When another business
in my industry
gets into trouble,
I review my own policies,
my own actions.

That has greatly increased
both my success
and my happiness levels.

Try to learn by others’ example.
It is MUCH more efficient
and MUCH less painful.

The reality of today’s world
is,
to be successful,
we will likely have to
work longer hours.

So it makes sense
to work at something you love.

NASA Astronaut Megan McArthur
shares

“Figure out
what it is
you love to do
and then put
all your energy
into excelling
at that thing.”

You won’t love every aspect
of whatever you choose
to do
but it is extremely helpful
if you love some aspects
and if you’re interested
in that field.

I don’t love edits,
for example.
That’s drudge work
for me.

But I love writing
the first draft.
I write first drafts
for fun.

And because I love it
so much
I happily do it
whenever I have any spare time.

That spare time writing
has contributed greatly
to my success
as a writer.

Do what you love
and love what you do.
It will help
with your success
and with your happiness levels.

One of my ‘secrets’ to success
in life
is…

I make everything
work a little harder.

If I buy a stock photo
I can use
multiple times
without extra charge,
for example,
I use it multiple times.
I’ll use the photo on my blogs
and on social media
and in newsletters
and I will place it
in a folder
to use in the future.

I do this
most vigorously
with things that require my time.

If I read a business book,
for example,
I’ll write a blog post about it.
I’ll then take snippets of that blog post
and post it on social media.
I’ll continue to
reference that blog post
in the future.
I might use that blog post
as a basis for a workshop.

That might not seem
like much
but these little acts,
this stretching of resources
adds up over the years.

They create wealth
(whatever your definition
of wealth is).

Make everything you have
and everything you do
work a little bit harder.

We’ve all done it.
A business builder
seemingly comes out of nowhere,
her business
is the hot new entity,

And we feel envy.
We wonder why
OUR businesses aren’t succeeding
like her business is.

Except she didn’t truly
come out of nowhere.
She was toiling in obscurity
for decades
or
she had powerful connections
or
she obtained her business idea
from someone else
or…

We don’t know this
because
we merely started
benchmarking to her business
today,
the day her success
brought her to our attention.

Seth Godin
shares

“We’ve been brainwashed
into
keeping up
with the Joneses.
Paying attention
to our peers
and staying ahead,
just a little bit.

But if you’re
in that trap,
it’s probably worth considering
who your Jones’s are.”

If you benchmark to others,
know who those others
are.

Don’t benchmark
to random successes.

We see this
in Romance all the time.
A writer puts her book
in a niche
where it doesn’t belong.

Except she can’t see
her book
doesn’t belong there.

She doesn’t realize
her product
is significantly different.

Many of us
can’t see
how we/our products/our businesses
are different.
That can hamper
our success.

Seth Godin
shares

“There’s absolutely
nothing wrong with being different
from the crowd.
In fact,
it might be the ideal path forward.
The problem begins
when you don’t see
what’s not matching up.

The best way
to transform the path
is to see the path first.”

How do we do this?

It can be as simply
as asking.

I will often ask
people familiar with the niche
what makes my stories
special or different.

I will often also
present a cover
or blurb
or premise
and ask people
which niche it belongs in.

Know how you are different.
Take time
to uncover this.