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.
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?
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.
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 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.
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!
Many business builders are optimists.
We have to be this way.
We’re designing new products/services
in crowded markets,
hoping they’ll be successful.
But when it comes to other people,
it benefits us
to see humans as we really are.
We learned,
for example,
during the pandemic
that many people
don’t give a sh*t about others.
It would be nice
if they cared
but they don’t
and it is unlikely
our product/service will immediately
make them change their minds.
So we should assume
they won’t
alter their stances.
If our target market
includes those people,
we should ensure
that’s something great
in the product/service
for them.
See other people as they truly are.
None of us are perfect.
We all have faults.
Acknowledge those faults.
Design your products/services
and their sales/marketing campaigns
around our imperfections.
There are people
who want to prevent
OTHER people from wearing masks
during this pandemic.
There is no downside
to other people wearing masks.
None.
And there are potential upsides.
That person might live,
might not get sick.
The anti-maskers might live,
might not get sick.
There are many theories
why they don’t want other people
to take precautions.
I don’t know which theory is correct.
I DO know
1) the you-shouldn’t-wear-a-mask people
don’t have our best interests
at heart
and
2) they don’t give a f*ck about
our freedoms.
There are people
who feel the same way
about our dreams,
our goals.
They don’t want us
to achieve our goals
and they actively try to block us,
even though it doesn’t impact them
in any significant way.
Accept there are people
like that.
And then ignore them.