building a business

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I love eating asparagus.

When I first looked into
growing it,
I found out
it would take
4 years
to get to the point
where I could harvest it.

I thought that timeframe
was way too long.

I didn’t plant the asparagus.

That was well over
20 years ago.

If I had planted the asparagus
when I had first thought about it,
I could have been harvesting it
for over 16 years
by now.

Yes, it will likely
take a while
for your new business
to be profitable.

But that time will pass
whether you’re building your business
or not.

And you have the choice
now
of doing something awesome
with that time
and
making your goal a reality,
or
squandering it.

Don’t look back
in 5, 10, 15 years
and wish you had started
your business earlier.

Start today.

The “I’m So Hungry” Test

Before I enter into
a long term partnership
with anyone,
I administer
the “I’m So Hungry” test.

As I’m arranging
an early meeting with them,
I’ll say something like
“Jeepers. I’m so hungry.
I haven’t had time
to eat much today.”

If they bring me food,
any type of food
– a sandwich, a cracker,
a piece of gum,
anything,
I’ll consider
partnering with them.

If they don’t bring me anything,
they’re not the partner
for me.

Because it means
they don’t think of others
and they won’t volunteer
to do anything extra.
Ever.

Feeding people
is the most basic level
of kindness
and generosity.

Ensure you surround yourself
with kind, giving people.

Administer the
“I’m So Hungry” test.

If You Feel Sad And Unmotivated…

A recent study revealed
COVID drains dopamine.

Many of us know
dopamine is our happy hormone.
It makes us feel good.

But I didn’t know
and maybe you didn’t know
that dopamine is a motivation hormone
also.
It pushes us to take action
while we’re feeling good.

If you feel sad and unmotivated
lately,
it might be due to
your recent (as in the past year) bout
of COVID.

Protect your happiness
and your business.

Mask the f*ck up
and continue to
get sh*t done.

We’re business builders.
We don’t have
f*ckin’ time
to catch COVID.

Just In Case

I watered the garden
last evening.

Today, it rained.

I suspected it might rain.
The forecasts said it might.
But there was a chance
it wouldn’t rain.

And I knew
another day without water
would hurt,
perhaps even kill
some of the plants.

So I ‘wasted’ that water
(not really as it was
taken from a rain barrel
that refilled with the rain)
and I wasted my time.

Because that ‘cost’
was less than
the cost of killing my plants.

There are some events
in our future
that might, if they happen,
severely impact our businesses,
perhaps even kill them.

Act as though
they will happen.

Yes, that means
you’ll waste resources
if they don’t happen,
but the cost of not doing anything
far outweighs
the cost of doing something
for no reason.

Prepare for these events.

Making Decisions Based On Best Information

I planted some frost-sensitive plants
in the garden this weekend.

According to the weather forecast,
there should be zero chances
of frost
over the next two weeks.

That forecast could be wrong, however.
It IS a forecast,
not an absolute.

But I had to make a decision
and it is the best information
I have at this time.

We all have to make decisions
for our businesses
based on the best information
we currently have.

That information could also
be wrong.
And we’ll have to
hastily make some corrections.

That’s part of building a business.

There are no absolutes.

Make the best decisions you can
based on the best information
you currently have.

And move forward.

Business Builders Craft Their Own Schedules

We all know the joke
about business builders.

We’re lucky.
Business builders don’t have to work
from 9 to 5.
We can work any 24 hours
we like.

But many business builders,
especially those of us
whose careers
were started
by working for someone else,
often keep the standard
9 am to 5 pm business day
as our core hours.

We forget
we can work
any hours we want,
as long as those hours
are fine
with customers
and business partners.

For example,
I was having electrical work
done on my home.

The electricity had to be turned off
from 10 am to 4 pm
every day
for about a week.

At first,
I was irritated as f*ck.
How would I get any work done?

Then I realized…
I could sleep from 10 am to 4 pm
and work from 4 pm to 10 am.

My readers wouldn’t care.
My editor wouldn’t care.

I switched to that schedule
and it worked out well.

We are the masters
of our own schedules.

Remember that.

The Tasks That Give You Joy

I love fresh writing.
That is my favorite part
of the Romance Novel Business.

So I try to do
at least a little bit
of fresh writing
every day.

There are plenty of tasks
we have to do
each day as business builders.
It is necessary work
and it has to be completed.

But try to set aside
a few minutes,
it could be 15 minutes,
to do a task
that gives you joy.

That will remind you
WHY you’re building
that specific business
and
it will give you energy
for the other
not-as-enjoyable tasks.

Do a fun task
every day.

You’re Not A Billionaire. Yet.

I’ve posted in the past about
how being approachable
benefits
our businesses.

People tell us
useful sh*t.

But, but,
you say,
‘X isn’t approachable
and he’s a billionaire.’

You’re not
a f*ckin’ billionaire.
Yet.
Billionaires play by their own rules
because they’re the people
creating the rules.

And yes, X is a total d*ck
but I suspect he has people
working for him
who are more approachable.

You and I are
building our businesses.
People are more likely
to be within arm’s reach
of us
than of X billionaire.

We should try
our d@mnedest not to be d@cks
to our customers.

Respect The Competition

I’ve talked about
how some business builders
are using AI
to ethically and legally
create many versions of the same book
and then sell those versions.

This activity,
of course,
decreases my book sales.
The market is being flooded
with books.
It is more challenging
for my books to be discovered.

I don’t LIKE the deluge
of AI books.

But I can still ADMIRE
the strategies
these book creators are using.

The competition
is valid competition
for a reason.
They’re doing something right.

Acknowledge that.
Respect them.
Learn from them.

Rewarding Behaviors

Yesterday,
I talked about how
AI business builders
are publishing
30 different versions
of the same book
under 30 different pen names.

You might be wondering
why this is now
more effective
sales-wise
than simply focusing on
1 book and 1 pen name.

It is because
Amazon’s algorithms
now focus almost entirely
on new releases
and they hide older books.

A new release
in the publishing world
is now
a release that is less than
7 days old.

This means publishing
at minimum
once a week
gains MANY more sales
than publishing
once every three months.

(Is it more profitable?
It is for the book creator
if they use
a low cost option
like AI.
Amazon, however,
incurs incremental costs
per book listing.)

Amazon’s algorithms
reward new releases.
They are getting a deluge
of new releases.

We get more
of whatever we reward.

Remember that
when you’re designing
incentives.