Tag: business success strategy

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Entrepreneurs

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 2

Last week I talked about how either moving too fast or too slow can sabotage your success. (You can read part 1 by visiting my blog… my website address is listed below.) Today I’m going to talk about a place where entrepreneurs typically move too slow — creating products or programs.

Does this sound familiar? You’ve been working on your book or your program or product for several months or maybe even years. You’re close to finishing — you just have one or two more things to do. Of course, every time you finish those one or two things, one or two more things crop up. It’s never ending.

If this does sound familiar, you’re not alone. I know many, many entrepreneurs (including myself) who have taken longer than necessary to complete their products. The reasons vary but many fall into the “perfectionist” camp. You take pride in your work. You want your product to be perfect. You want your customers to love your product and get a lot out of it. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Well, there is when it prevents you from actually bringing your product to market. Think about it — if the conclusion isn’t quite right or there are a few missed typos, is that going to REALLY take away from the experience of your product? Or the results your customers will get?

Of course not. But we’re so fixated on it being perfect we can’t get past that.

Now the advice many successful business owners share when you’re in this situation is something along the lines of “good enough is good enough” (meaning your product doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it to a good product and then get it to market) or “taking imperfect action” (which also basically means get the darn thing out the door even if it is imperfect). I agree with both of these statements, but the problem is what happens when you know this and you STILL need to get that “one more thing done?”

I think there are a couple of deeper issues around perfectionism. (And depending on how deep the issues are depends on how quickly you can push through them.) Let me explain.

When we create a product it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the product is an extension of ourselves. So any flaws or mistakes or criticism of the product suddenly takes on way more importance than it ought to be. Because any problems with the product, anything that is lacking in the product, is actually a problem or a lack with us personally.

In addition to that (if that wasn’t hard enough to get past) there’s also a little question of value. If you don’t value yourself, your gifts, your brilliance, what you bring to the world, then how are you going to value a product you created? And if you don’t value your product, when will it ever be “good enough” to sell?

So what happens if you find yourself relating to one or both of these issues? Well, you need to take a step back and do some deeper work on yourself. Hiring a coach or taking a program that gets at the core of what you’re struggling with– whether it’s valuing yourself, valuing your brilliance or accepting yourself (warts and all) is crucial to helping you push through your blocks and getting your products finished and selling.

If you want to do something right now, try journaling about it. See what comes up for you and what your next steps should be.

Next week we’re going to look at the next step – racing through your product launch now that you’ve finally gotten your product done.

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Entrepreneurs

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 1

After being in business for as long as I have, there’s one thing that never fails to amaze me — the capacity entrepreneurs have to sabotage their own success. (Not to mention how creative those ways can be.) While there’s about a million ways this manifests itself, here’s one way I see popping up over and over again.

Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? (Part 1)

After being in business for as long as I have, there’s one thing that never fails to amaze me — the capacity entrepreneurs have to sabotage their own success. (Not to mention how creative those ways can be.) While there’s about a million ways this manifests itself, here’s one way I see popping up over and over again.

And that’s timing.

What do I mean by timing? I mean either entrepreneurs are moving too slow, and thus miss opportunities to make money, or they move too fast and are reckless and miss out on opportunities that way.

What’s interesting about timing is it’s not as clear cut as “one person moves too slow and one person moves too fast.” What I actually see is entrepreneurs move BOTH too fast AND too slow. They just do it at the wrong times.

And where do I see this happen the most? When they’re planning to launch a new product or program.

Here’s what typically happens — people will move WAY too slowly creating the product or program and will move WAY too fast to launch it. With the end result being they miss out on opportunities on both sides — it takes them forever to actually get thing done (so they’ve missed out on money selling the product or program) and then they rush through the launch like they have a bunch of hungry vampires chasing them and they don’t make nearly the sales they could have.

What REALLY should be happening is they should move quickly creating the product then slow down while launching it.

That way, they get the best of both worlds — they get the product or program to market faster and can start profiting from it sooner, and they take their time to work through ALL the launch steps so they wring as many sales as possible during the launch.

Now, there are variations of this. I have met people who are slow during the product creation AND launch, just like I’ve met people who whip through both as well. (And then there’s another group of people who either never get their product done or they finish products and never actually get around to launching them.) All of these are sabotaging techniques, which is part of the reason why this is far more complex problem then would initially appear on the surface.

So if you suspect you might struggle with one or several of the above, what can you do? How can you stop it? And how much time do you REALLY need to launch? Well, I’m going to answer all those questions over the next 2 articles. Next week we’ll look at why it takes some entrepreneurs so darn long to finish their product and how they can speed up the process, and the week after we’ll cover racing through the launch process.

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Entrepreneurship

How to Ruin Your Business Reputation

Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the “gurus” I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.

To say it floored me would be an understatement.

What was worse was a few days later this person started sending emails promoting their coaching program. How could anyone who had gotten the “trade” email even consider signing up for their coaching program?

Now this was a pretty obvious blunder, but there are other, smaller blunders, you might be making that are hurting your business reputation and your ability to attract clients. But first, I want to make something clear.

The problem isn’t that you’re struggling right now. That happens. It’s the nature of business and every seasoned business person knows it.

Businesses will lose money or be flat from time to time. There’s no shame in it, you just need to keep doing something about it (i.e. marketing, analyzing your offerings or your target market to see if you need to make a change, etc.)

The mistake happens when you make this too transparent. I’m not saying you should lie and say business is great when it’s not. (In fact, please DON’T lie. That’s another way to hurt your business reputation big time.) But (and this is ESPECIALLY true if you have a service business) don’t make it obvious you’re struggling. No one wants to hire a consultant who isn’t busy. In the back of people’s minds is the worry if the consultant isn’t busy they must not be good. So you MUST not come across as too eager or that you have too much time on your hands.

No matter how desperate for customers you are, you must get that under control. People will sense desperation and either run from you or try and take advantage of you. Neither is all that good for you (either your business or your psyche).
So what can you do? Here are 3 tips to help you stay strong no matter what’s going on in your business.

1. Keep marketing. Now is the time to step up your marketing. You have the time, why not write extra articles so you have them “stockpiled” when you do get busy again. Now might also be a good time to do a promotion but do NOT say it’s because business is slow.

Find some other creative way to do the same thing (for instance, maybe you have a “back to school” special, now that the kids are back in school you have some extra time to take on an additional client or two.) Or your promotion can be around a product or a group program. (Having a promotion around your product or group program doesn’t carry nearly the social stigma of pedaling your service.)

2. Don’t answer your phone. Yes, you heard me. Let voice mail pick it up or keep your virtual assistant on to return phone calls. Busy people don’t sit by the phone willing it to ring. You need to get your mind off your phone (or your inbox) and on to drumming up customers.

3. Don’t drop your fees. Your fees aren’t the problem. Something else is the problem. Either you aren’t marketing enough or your target market isn’t the right target market for you anymore or you need to tweak your offerings or something else is going on. But the moment you start dropping your fees or doubting yourself is the moment you’ll start down a vicious downward cycle.
(Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t put together a lower priced package and promote it. That’s fine and it may be a smart business decision. But to lower your hourly rate — not a smart move.)

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Business – How Vampires Can Help Your Business

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I recently finished watching Season 1 of True Blood. While I can see why it’s not for everyone, I myself enjoy a good vampire romp, especially when it’s populated by such a nice selection of hot-looking actors (who have no issues showing off their equally hot bodies).

Anyway, it got me thinking about all the vampire stories out there. Vampire legends have been around for centuries and in nearly every society. Vampire movies, shows, books, etc. continually pop up on a frequent basis.
So why all the fuss? What is it about vampires that just won’t die (pun intended)?

Well, I’ve come up with 2 theories:

1. There REALLY are real-life, blood sucking, undead vampires roaming about.

2. There REALLY are vampires roaming about, but they’re HUMAN vampires, sucking the energy, money, health, time and more out of other people. And these vampire stories are actually a combination of cautionary tales (evil vampires we need to kill) and a way to transform and tame our “inner vampire” to something loving and human (the vampire love stories).

For my part, I’ll put my money on number 2. Which leads me to how this can help your business.

Vampires are everywhere. I don’t think it was a coincidence I finish watching True Blood and discover one of my friends and clients was scammed. Con artists and scammers are just another sort of human vampire — typically they’re charming and attractive in some way to their victims (for instance, they’re offering something attractive) then suck them dry of money, energy, time or more.

The thing about vampires is they’re hard to spot. (Vampires look human and in many cases they’re beautiful.) This is why a lot of times you’ll let a vampire in, not knowing it’s a vampire until after you’ve been bit.

Here are some signs of common vampires that can be sucking the life right out of your business:

1. Are there tasks you do in your business that drain you? Typically these are tasks you don’t like doing and you’re probably not much good at them either. Yep, you’re looking at a vampire. The good news is these vampires are selective in who they bite. (Or maybe these would fall into those vampire love stories — one person’s dream vampire love is another person’s worst nightmare.)

Solution — do a bit of vampire matchmaking and outsource, find the people who love those tasks and let them take over.

2. Are there people who drain you? Maybe they’re a vendor or a client you really have trouble working with. They suck up a lot of your time and energy (and maybe even money) and you’re always exhausted after your encounters.

Well, this could be 1 of 2 things — either you have a real human vampire on your hands who makes a habit of sucking the life force out of everyone they meet, or this is like a task vampire. They don’t do it to everyone, in fact they probably don’t even want to be a vampire, but some people bring out the worst in them.

Solution — it’s the same, these people are toxic to you for whatever reason and it really doesn’t matter if they’re toxic to everyone or just to you, you still need to remove them from your life.

From time to time it’s always a good idea to scan your business and your life for any vampires, and if you find any, to send them on their way. Remember, vampires are seductive, so unless you’re looking for them you just might miss them.

Categories
Branding

How Strong is Your Customer Loyalty? What AT&T and Apple Can Teach You

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Apple or AT&T?

I’ve recently run into an interesting dilemma — will my loyalty to Apple win out against my disgust with AT&T?

I admit it. I’m been a lifelong Apple lover. My parents bought the family an Apple 2E in high school. (Remember those)? The first computer I bought was a Mac Classic. I own an iPod, not a MP3 player.

It’s Apple all the way. There’s been no turning back for me.

So of course I’ve been salivating to get my hands on an iPhone. However, to get an iPhone means I need to do business with AT&T.

Hence my dilemma.

I actually tried to order the iPhones and had such a horrible experience with AT&T’s customer service what I really want to do is cancel the entire order and do something else while I wait for Apple to (hopefully) open the iPhone to more carriers.

So this ends up being an interesting business lesson. Will my loyalty to Apple win out? Or will my anger with AT&T win out?

But the real question is where are YOU with your business? How loyal are your customers to you?

And what kind of experience does your customers get with you? Are they happy or just putting up with you?

Clearly the idea here is to build customer loyalty like Apple and avoid customer service issues that turn you into AT&T.

So how can you be like Apple? Well one (big) way is to give your customers what they want.

Apple’s customers want cool. They want innovative. They want a product they can rely on. Apple gives them all of that and more.

Your customers may not want cool and innovative (although I’m sure they want to rely on it). I mean, a computer company should be innovative, right? If you’re not a computer company then innovation may not be at the top of your customers’ list.

Your job is to find out what your customers want and give it to them. Do that, and you’ll be on the first step to creating powerful customer loyalty.

Now what about the flip side. How do you NOT create the AT&T experience? Well, amazingly enough it’s the same as creating customer loyalty — listen to what your customers want and giving it to them.

When you boil it down, people aren’t getting what they want from AT&T. What do they want? To make it easy to do business with them.

Right now, it’s not. You have a problem and it’s very difficult to get it resolved.

How easy is it for your customers to resolve problems with you? Do you listen to them? Are you hearing the same problem over and over again or is it always a different problem? If it is a different problem, what is the common dominator?

And, most importantly, if you KNOW that, what steps have you taken to fix it?

It’s a 2-step process. First, find out what your customers want most and give it to them. Second, find out what your customers AREN’T getting from you, and fix that. That’s how you can create an amazing experience for your customers and have them keep coming back to you again and again.