building a business

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.

Knowing The Future

Some events in the future
are easy to predict.

Water will become
more valuable,
for example.

The number of disabled people
will increase,
as another example.

But the average person
doesn’t want to know
the future,
especially if it is bad
and
especially if they have
to change
to avoid that bad.

You and I
and other leaders
are different.

We’re building businesses
for the future.

We increase our probability
of success
if we know what that future
looks like.

Plan for the future.

COVID, Brain Damage And Business Building

COVID causes brain damage.
EVERY bout, no symptoms, mild, severe,
damages our brain.

If you haven’t noticed it,
well…that’s not great.

I HAVE noticed it.
I’ve had COVID
at least twice
and I suffered brain damage
after each bout.

The brain damage
was, thankfully, slight.
My writing ‘voice’ had changed.
My tempo, choice of words,
pace had shifted.

I added a couple steps
to my process after that.
I read a before-COVID-written story
and then the about-to-be-edited story
and I ensure the writing is consistent.

Consider putting processes
in place
to deal with your hopefully slight
after COVID
brain damage
also.

And if you’re saying to yourself
that you don’t need this,
that you won’t or don’t
suffer from brain damage,
then I suspect you REALLY need it.

That’s not a happy realization
but accepting that will help you
to not only cope
but also achieve the success
you want for yourself.

Have Some Fun With Your Business

A business building buddy
inserts a strip of paper
with a very bad child-friendly joke
into every shipment
of her products.

She grins every time
she does this.
It gives her joy.

It also gives
some of her customers joy.
But that isn’t the primary purpose.
The primary purpose
is it makes my friend happy.

And happy business builders
continue to build businesses.

Add some joy
to your work day.
That happiness
might be the burst of energy
you need.

Taking Action On Customer Complaints

Folks in northern climates
love to complain
about the snow.

Now, that the snow
is going away,
due to climate change,
people from elsewhere
assume we’ll be happy about that.

We aren’t happy
about that.
At all.

Because the snow
benefits our crops.

Without the slow release
of moisture
from snow packs,
our farmers face drought.

The snow and the cold
is also necessary
for our local plants, insects,
animals, birds
and many, many industries.

Don’t assume
complaints
about an aspect of your products
mean those customers or prospects
want that aspect removed or changed.

Humans are illogical beings.
It might not mean
that at all.

Investigate
before you take action.

The Easy Mode

When I need to quiet
my brain,
I often play
a solitaire-type game online.

I have it set
on the easiest mode.

Why?

Because the rest of my life
can be extremely challenging.

I’m building businesses
and trying to make the world
a better world.

I don’t need challenge
in my entertainment.

There are quite a few
‘easy modes’
in life.

We can do things like
pre-authorize bill payments
or outsource snow removal
or rideshare
instead of driving ourselves.

Every aspect
of your life
doesn’t have to challenge you.

Pick the easy mode
on some activities.