Tag: building a business

Checking On Our Businesses Every Day

Every morning,
I walk around my garden.

This is relaxing
but it also serves a purpose
– animals tend to dig up plants
over the nights
and, if I replant these plants
as soon as possible,
they have a chance
to survive.

Every morning,
I also verify my books
are listed
and my sites are up.

The longer they are down
the more sales I lose.

It pays
to fix those major issues
quickly.

Someone should check
on our businesses every day.

If that person isn’t us
(we’re on vacation
or offline for other reasons),
we should designate
and empower someone else
to check on our businesses
and take any necessary actions.

The Same Thing Every Day

When many people
think of
starting a business,
they think of the big events
– the first spark of an idea
for a product/service,
the finalization of the
first product/service,
the first shipment,
the first store opening,
the first sale.

Those are all
super exciting times.
They are the highlights.

But they are rare.

The majority of time
business building is
a slow slog.
It is unlocking the same office
at the same time
to do the same thing
every day.

Most of the work is
boring and monotonous.

But that work is needed
and that work makes a difference.

As Seth Godin
shares

“If you care,
keep talking.
Keep acting.
Stay focused.
And don’t get bored.”

Making a difference
often means
doing the same things
and
saying the same things
over and over.

Embrace that reality.

Planning For Best Case Scenarios

Over the last couple of day,
I’ve talked about
how we need to plan
for
best case,
worst case,
and
most likely scenarios.

I often get pushback
about having to plan for
best case scenarios.

In best case scenarios,
everything is going well.

Many people believe
all we have to do
is sit back
and
enjoy our success.

Except if we do that,
we won’t have success
to enjoy for very long.

Websites will go down
because we have too much traffic.
Inventory will run out
because we have too much sales.
Baddies will target
our products and our businesses.
The competition will
try to duplicate our success.
Etc. Etc.

We should have a plan
to deal
with all of that.

Plan for success also.

The saying is correct.
Success DOES change us.
Whether we want to change
or not.

How To Use Your Power For Good

Leah Jeffries
has been receiving
a lot of hate
after being cast
in the new Percy Jackson TV Show.

Racists are justifying
these attacks,
saying Jeffries’ character
was white in the books
and she should be white
in the TV Show also.

The author of those books,
Rick Riordan
has very publicly
addressed this.

“You are judging
her appropriateness
for this role solely
and exclusively
on how she looks.
She is a Black girl playing someone
who was described in the books
as white.
Friends, that is racism.”

THIS is how
we use our power
for good.

We call others
on their bullsh*t.

And, as business builders,
we DO have power.

We influence
how our employees,
our partners,
our customers
treat other people.

Use that power
to make this world
a better place.

Make Today Count

The past few years
have shown many of us
that every day is precious.

TODAY is precious.
Today, we have the opportunity
to create something marvelous,
to cause someone’s world
to be a bit nicer,
to make a small difference.

This could be as easy
as waving to a neighbor,
as choosing the colors
for your new product,
as telling the tired cashier
at the grocery store
she’s doing a good job.

Do something wonderful.
Make today count.

Your Top Five Priorities For The Day

I’m a big believer
in to-do lists.

I always have
a to-do list for the day,
usually with less than 10 core tasks
I need to complete.

It helps me focus on
what is truly important,
limiting the distractions,
and I feel productive
when I cross off items
on my lists.

Ellen Bennett,
Founder of
Hedley & Bennett,
shares
“We keep a shared to-do list
that holds
what I need to tackle
and remember.
It also holds
my top five priorities
for each day
that keep me on track.”

What are your top five priorities
for today?

Has Something Like This Been Done In The Past?

One of my first tasks
when crafting a new project
is to investigate
if anything like it
has ever been done
before.

If it or something similar
has been tackled
in the past
by someone
or some entity,
it usually becomes
significantly easier
for us to do,
even if it has been done
in a different industry.

Doing groundbreaking,
never been done
work
takes trial and error
and that requires significantly
more time and resources.

As Seth Godin
shares

“…if you’ve signed up
for wayfinding,
forgive yourself
if it takes a little
(or a lot)
longer.
Because if we knew
the right answer,
we would have found it already.
That’s the hard part.”

Search for similar situations
before inventing a solution
from scratch.
It will save you
time and effort.

If The Insurance Companies Are Worried

I have strong connections
in the insurance industry.
There’s a business reason for that.

If insurance companies
are concerned about something,
business builders should take note
of that something.

The insurance industry
deals with probabilities.
That is one of their areas
of expertise.
They have models to predict events.
They look at trends.
They track different types
of data.

If they’re concerned
about flooding in a certain area
and increase premiums there,
there will likely be flooding
in that area.

If they’re concerned
about unvaccinated workers
and increase health coverage premiums
for them,
there is a huge likelihood
those unvaccinated workers
will become seriously ill.

We should plan not only
for increased insurance premiums
but also for the actual event.
It WILL happen…eventually.

Your insurance contact’s concerns
should be your concerns.

(And we all have an insurance contact
as we all have insurance.
Many of us merely don’t talk to them.)

Track these concerns.
Treat them seriously.
Reduce surprises.

One Tactic Isn’t Enough

One thing we all should have learned
from COVID
is…
one tactic isn’t enough
to achieve our goals.

To stop COVID,
we need vaccines, masks,
social distancing,
sick days,
and more.

To sell our products/services,
we likely need great pricing,
marketing on a number
of platforms,
awesome salespeople,
wonderful customer service,
and more.

It is tempting
to focus on one area
– on Facebook advertising,
for example.
That’s easier.

But it likely won’t
give us the results we need.

Employ more than one tactic
and do that consistently.

Starting A Business And Hope

Business builders
are some of the most optimistic
people on the planet.

We believe there are people
out there
who will want and love
our products/services.

And we’re usually right.

It might seem like
a dark time
to be starting a business.
The world is a bit
of a mess right now.

But dark times
are when we need hope
the most
and starting a business
is often the way
we share our optimism
with the world.

A new business
is a huge symbol of hope,
a declaration
that things will get better.

People look at a new business
and say to themselves,
“That business owner
must think there are good times
ahead.
Maybe I should think
that way too.”

The world needs
our businesses now
more than ever.
Let’s do this!