Category: New Business Development

I’ve been hearing
a lot of
“This is not the ideal time”
responses
from others
when people
talk about
starting businesses,
releasing new products,
including books,
and launching other projects.

It is admittedly
not a great time
to do that
for every business,
every product,
every project.

Many folks
are out of work
or struggling financially.
We’re still dealing with
issues around the pandemic.

But for some businesses,
for some products,
for some projects,
this is the IDEAL time
to launch.

And some of us,
myself included,
have NEVER launched
ANYTHING
at the ideal time.

Launching at the ideal time
is like buying a stock
at the absolute low
and then selling that same stock
at its absolute high.

It is rare
and it depends mostly
on luck.

The best we can do
is buy near a low
and sell near a high.

Don’t wait
for the ideal time
to launch
your business,
new product,
project.

Wait for
an okay time
or
don’t wait at all.

I maintain a list
of my top 100
story premises.

How do I decide
if a new idea
should replace
one of the existing ideas
on the list?

I ask myself
a number
of questions.
– Is there a market
for it?
– Have I ever heard
readers (customers)
talking favorably about it?
– Is the market
one I want to serve?
– Is the idea similar
yet unique
to an existing
high selling book
(product)?
– Does the idea
excite me?
– Do I have the skills
or can I find the skills
to bring the idea
to realization?
– Do I have the resources
to make the idea
a reality?
– Will this idea
fit with the other projects
I am undertaking?

If the answers
to many of these questions
are ‘yes’,
the idea goes on my list.

If the answers
are mostly ‘no’,
I try to discard the idea.

If I can do that,
the idea NEVER
goes on my list.

If I can’t discard it,
I look at it again,
more closely.

Once you learn
how to spot ideas,
you’ll likely have too many
of them.

Learn how to evaluate them.

Send the ones
that aren’t great for you
back into the universe.

Work on the others.

I keep a list
of my top 100
story premises.

Every week,
sometimes every day,
I add a premise
to the list
and drop another premise
off the list.

I find these story ideas
by constantly asking
“What if?”

“What if
the water scientists think
they have found
on the moon
was placed there
by an alien species?”

“What if
the pandemic
was a defense mechanism
employed by a living planet
and what if
it was merely the FIRST
of many defense mechanisms?”

“What if the little old lady,
who is constantly
looking out her front window,
watching the neighborhood
was truly an ancient warrior
in disguise
and one child in particular
was under her protection?”

This seems silly
but when I was
working in New Business Development
for a major beverage company,
I would play the same game.

“What if this concept,
instead of being applied
to a kiddie cereal,
was applied to a juice
for kids?”

“What if this year’s
hot color
was used on a juice carton?”

“What if
vitamin D,
a vitamin suspected
to help prevent
severe cases of COVID,
was added to an orange juice?”

The great news is
1) Playing “What if”
is a learned skill
and becomes easier
over time.
and
2) Friends and family
often enjoy
playing “What If”
also.
It is a GREAT way
to get them involved
and
it gives us ideas
we might have never
thought of.

Great idea developers
play “What If”.

Play a round today.

Many people think
I’m a business babe
merely for the money
it might bring me.

They thought that
when I was a junior accountant
just starting out.

They thought that
when I was in New Business Development
working on industry-changing innovations.

They think that
now
when I’m writing and releasing
Romance Novels.

Nope.
I chose those roles
because I LOVED them.

That junior accountant role?
It was my dream job
at that time.
I was working
in a comfortable office building,
sitting in a comfortable chair
in front of a comfortable desk,
completing the business equivalent
of sudokus
and being PAID to do that.

My dreams changed
and I moved on
but while I held that job,
I loved it.

Your current job
is someone’s dream job
also.

If it isn’t your current dream job,
maybe it is time
to move from it.

But while you hold it,
remember that someone
out there
believes you’re dang lucky
to be doing it.

This past year
has been a challenge.
We seem to have been
supplied with
a reason to delay
projects
every single day.

But this won’t stop.
If the world goes back
to ‘normal’
tomorrow,
whatever normal is,
there will STILL be reasons
to delay projects.

Since I began
taking my writing seriously,
decades ago,
there have been reasons
to delay.

Some are legitimate reasons.
But most are not.
Most can be worked around.
Most are merely excuses
to delay,
reasons to hide.

Seth Godin
shares

“If you’re holding back
and looking for a reason
why,
and that reason
is replaced by
another reason,
then…
you might be stalling.”

Look for reasons
to progress,
not reasons to delay.

Reasons to progress
are always present
also.

I send a postcard
to a senior citizen home
every week.

The postcard has a bad joke on it
and brightly colored stickers.

For the first couple months,
it added to the fun
in the home
but the arrival
of the postcard
wasn’t an ‘event’.

After about a year,
the arrival
of the postcard
has become an ‘event.’

Residents look forward
to the postcard.
The Activities Organizer
brings out
the previous postcards.
Everyone tells bad jokes
and looks at the images.

Today, you’re likely
working on something small
and you might be thinking
“Why bother?”
“No one will notice
or care.”

They WILL care
and you SHOULD bother.

Small actions
add up
over time.
THIS is one way
we make a difference
in this wonderful world.

I have a friend
who had to redo
all four years of high school.
She is now the CFO
of a mid-sized business.

I have another friend
who had to take off
2 years off primary school.
She is now
a university professor.

I hear parents
stressing over
their kids
not getting their full schooling
or struggling academically
during this pandemic.

This is a PANDEMIC.
Staying alive
should be
our sole concern.

And it likely won’t
change anything
if these kids
take an additional two years
to complete their schooling.

If anything,
they’re likely to land
better opportunities
upon graduating
because they’ll be
more mature.

There is no set timeline
we have to follow for life.
Heck, we couldn’t follow it
if we tried.
Some things like
pregnancies and death
and falling in love
have their own schedules.

Focus on surviving
this pandemic.
We’ll amend timelines
later.

A writer contacted me
yesterday.
She had a question
that was clearly niche specific
about a niche
I wasn’t writing in.

When I told her
that,
she replied
that I’d been right
with other general advice
so she figured
I might have the answer
for the niche question.

No. No. No.
Even if I DID have the answer
for the niche question,
she shouldn’t listen to it.

Not playing in the niche,
I wouldn’t know
the nuances of it.

I might have asked
someone in the niche
for the answer
but did I relay
the answer OR the question
correctly?
Did I ask ALL the questions
I should have asked?
Is there a factor
that would make
the experienced writer’s ideal answer
different from
the asking writer’s ideal answer?

There are many things
that could get f*cked up
and result in bad advice.

If you have a niche question,
ask someone in your niche
for an answer.

Don’t ask an outsider.

The US political system
is 2 party.

These two parties
are always pitted against
each other.
If one party is for something,
the other party is against
that something.

There’s no need to cooperate
or even be nice.
Members of one party
seldom work
with members of the other party.

The Canadian political system,
in contrast,
has 3 major parties.

There is always a chance
a winning party
will have less than 50%
of the votes.

This means
there is always a chance
the winning party
will have to partner
with another party
to make change happen.

The parties have to
be civil to each other.
They have to
be ready
to work together
as allies.

When you build teams
or assign leadership roles
or create projects,
the number you designate
WILL
determine how people
perceive them.

If you have 2 project teams,
these 2 teams
will compete against each other.
They will automatically
be ‘enemies.’

If you have 3 project teams,
there will be less competition
and more cooperation.

Both serve purposes.
Ensure they serve
YOUR purpose.

Make conscious decisions
about how many
your business will have.

A business partner
asked for a document
to be signed
by me and my associate.

The business partner
said
the document
could be scanned
and emailed back
or
it could mailed back.

I know this business partner.
She always likes to have
the originals.
So I planned to mail it back.

My associate,
wanting to save a stamp
and preferring to have
the originals,
insisted on scanning it.

The first three scans
were deemed ‘unacceptable’.
An entire day
was wasted on this.

And we finally mailed it.

Give people information
in the format
they request.

That will save everyone
time
and frustration.