A simple thought really – and this guy verbalizes it with such enthusiasm.

How are you getting better every day? How is your staff getting better every day?

What are you doing to enable and encourage “increasing the awesome”?

If you aren’t increasing the awesome, what are you doing instead?

photo credit: Watt_Dabney

Today’s guest post is a quote from Henry Miller that I stumbled across.

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. – Henry Miller

Look at your business through that lens. What do you see?

photo credit: kasrak

Every programmer, much less anyone who does something that startups need, has had these discussions.

However, that isn’t why it’s today’s guest post.

The thought process from idea to creation. The value of execution.

That’s why it’s a worthwhile read.

photo credit: James Jordan

Recently, I stopped into a niche retail business for the very first time.

They’ve done a nice job with it. Haven’t been open long, so some of the obvious things I’d suggest to make the place a real customer magnet weren’t in place yet.

I have a feeling they might get there, but time will tell.

What worries me most about my visit is that they did nothing to see that I’d return…

• I wasn’t asked how I’d be using their product – and it’s a natural question for them, not a nosy none-of-your-business one.
• I wasn’t offered any additional information showing all the other items they make.
• I wasn’t asked to check out their Facebook page, which will someday hopefully be full of ways to use their product.
• There was nothing letting me know that another business in town uses their product, so that if I really loved it I could go there too.
• There was nothing in the store or on the products that included their website address on it – including the receipt or the label on the product.
• I wasn’t asked if I’d like to be notified when they make special stuff. Doesn’t matter whether that notification happens by phone, text message, Facebook, email list or even a printed newsletter, just notify me.
• I wasn’t asked to let them know how I liked their stuff by going to their site or Facebook page (which also doesn’t encourage this) or heaven forbid, filling out a self-addressed postcard or picking up the phone.
• I wasn’t given a coupon or “send-a-friend” promotion so that I could tell my friends about them if I liked their stuff (that’s also what the Facebook Like button is for).

Doing ALL of this might be a bit pushy. Doing NONE of this is a big mistake.

Look, I know they are a new place and some of this takes time to get going.

You may even think I’m being hard on them, but I’m nowhere near as hard on them as the market will be.

No Second Chances

Re-elected politicians get second chances. Folks who make mistakes, like Michael Vick and Martha Stewart, get second chances.

Businesses are rarely granted that luxury.

You have to take advantage of the “honeymoon of newly open”.

During your honeymoon, people will…

• Visit your store even if they don’t need what you sell.
• Tell their friends that they visited, even when they might not normally do so.
• Click “Like” in Facebook just to give you a little push, when they might not ever use that button.
• Cut you some slack for mistakes like untrained staff and other stuff that happens when you’re still trying to get all the kinks out.

When you operate a niche business, not every one is going to decide to be your customer. Those who do more or less raise their hands and say “me, me, me!”

When they do that, your job is to make sure to remind them to come back regularly, not just when they remember to return. Leave it to them to return at random and you might not see them for months.

Make the honeymoon last forever

Customers are hard to replace, even in a good economy. It’s particularly difficult to go out and find 100 new customers tomorrow because revenues are tight.

It’s a lot easier (and smarter) to earn just one new customer a week, keep it up year after year, and do whatever it takes keep most of them.

So let’s go over this again.

• You love whatever you do so much that you quit your job to do it. That’s great.
• You spent most of what’s left of your liquid retirement money to fund the business.
• It cost more than you thought it would to get going, so you borrowed from your in-laws, your family and friends.

After doing all that, please don’t tell me you’re going to ignore the very people who said “me,me,me” by letting them walk out the door as if they walked into a box store.

Keep that up and you’ll be back at your old job in no time – if you can get it back.

You didn’t like that job anyway, so please do these things for yourself and your business.

photo credit: jlastras

As I spent the last month mulling over my strategic plan for this year, I started by looking at what I was doing operationally as if I was my own client.

In the software business, it’s called “eating our own dogfood“. In other words, a vendor using their own software for the task it was designed to perform.

But it isn’t limited to software.

From a day-to-day operations perspective, that process quickly tossed a few things in my face.

I thought I’d mention some of the higher level things in case they happen to spark a ToDo item for you.

Technology

I need to automate WordPress updates across several dozen sites (some mine, some not). It was semi-automated, after today, I have it down to one button, right down to opening the site WordPress admin page to make sure I know whether I need to hit the “Database upgrade” button in the WP admin interface. No, I don’t use the built-in update process because I’d have to manually go all over the place to make that happen. Old school.

The upside of systematically handling this critical task is that I can finally hand this task off to an intern because there’s a system in place to make the work happen. Can you say “E-Myth”? Yes, I thought you could.

Last year, I moved all my web and other development work (including marketing/strategic client documents and even blog posts) to source-controlled environments after a few fits and starts in the past. This year, the software projects will get further screw-tightening by adding automated build and test processes.

Accountability

I’ve had some trouble with getting consistent action out of some folks this past year. Dan says I shouldn’t care because I can’t control the actions of others, but it isn’t about control. It’s about encouragement. Worse yet, client results reflect on me and I don’t like seeing folks failing to take advantage of my best efforts. I think I’ve found a way to solve the problem. We’ll see.

As for me, I need to lean on the calendar even more than I have in the past, especially on projects important to me.

The result of pondering this is that…

• I’ve already chosen my charitable time commitments for the year.
• I’m actively seeking a new mentor. Yes, pretty much everyone who is getting anything done has a mentor. Even Dan Kennedy has a mentor. Think about that for a minute.
• I have to be more demanding of my marketing clients in 2011. You may have figured out that I have a certain level of expectation of my clients after creating a strategy, tools and other materials for them. When they don’t get used (regardless of the reason), that hurts them and me (eventually). That level of accountability will rise markedly later this month as I complete a few tasks that will help me “enforce” it. Those who are willing to take their business seriously will be glad I’ve done this. The rest will probably end up working with someone else, if they do anything at all.
• Because I had to more or less ignore the needs of several prospective clients in 2010, I will be narrowing the clients I personally serve in 2011 while expanding the number of clients that can get my personal help. Yes, I know that sounds like opposite directions. Stay tuned, it’ll make sense as I roll it out. Planet Dan folks – think “ladder”.

Focus

John Haydon mentioned the other day on Twitter that his boss was a jerk. Of course, John works for himself. The hardest person to manage is yourself.

Focus comes up because a few personal projects slid last year. This was mostly due to an abundance of customer work. While I’m grateful for the work, I’ll be more demanding of myself in the selection of projects this year because these other things MUST GET DONE.

That’s already being corrected, partly via the accountability change noted above, partly via the mentor thing, partly via kowtowing even more to the calendar and via a few other steps I’ve taken. Like Jim Rohn said, when you say yes to one thing, you’re saying no to something else.

My existing clients will get even more attention this year. If you aren’t a client now and you’ve been thinking about it, now would be a good time to make a decision.

Writing

My writing (in the blog) has suffered immensely the last two years. I think it’s gotten better, but the frequency has really fallen off due to my workload.

The upside of this is that it’s given me time to think more about what I write and how you guys consume it and take action on it. That has resulted in the BIP book taking a few turns strategically. Now that I’ve finally, really (no kidding) figured out what I want to do with it, well, it’s moving along much better now.

I’ve also waded most of the way through an editorial calendar for the blog for the year, something I’ve never taken the time to do before. I suspect that’s pretty obvious to long time (it’s been 6 years this week) readers.

Bottom Line

One of the things that stood out in my mildly-freaky conversation with myself was that I need to put even more effort into doing for me what I do best for others. Imagine that.

Oh yeah, by now you should be asking me why you should care. “Boy, doesn’t that seem all about you and not at all about your readers?”

Yes, except that most of what I talked about is…for my readers/clients. And I hope it has made you reflect on what your plans are.

Do your clients know where you’re going? Does your staff?

photo credit: Northampton Museum

When I first came across this meat vending machine, the comment I read introducing it was something along the lines of “Do we *really* need this?”

If this butcher has customers who do shift work – or anything that keeps them from visiting the shop during business hours- it’s worth a try.

Perhaps he had a lot of customer comments about his hours from shift workers and this was how he decided to serve them.

Perhaps it only serves custom pre-paid orders. You don’t really know, but if it works for the shopkeeper and their customers, who cares?

The real question is what can you borrow (and change to suit your needs) from another line of work in order to better serve your customers?

photo credit: dev null

Been talking about this for a good while, glad to find someone else who agrees.

There is one President who matters to your business: The President of you.

What you do today, tomorrow, the next day and every day to improve your products, services, customer support, and to continue to provide better value to your customers makes a ton more difference in the results seen in your business than anything done by anyone else, regardless of party, regardless of office.

Quit fussing over elections and political issues. If you want to make a difference in your business, get to work.

PS: Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to Veterans for all you did. Thank you to active duty personnel for all you’ve done and continue to do.

photo credit: williamcho

One of the difficult things about entrepreneurs is maintaining your focus.

Most entrepreneurs are interested in many things, so the BSO (bright shiny object) threatens to pull them away from their core mission cuz that other thing would be soooo interesting to work on.

Still others wonder what their core mission is.

Just this morning I heard a guy ask “What if I don’t know what I want to do?”, in response to a suggestion that he find his purpose in life and focus on finding a way to make a living serving that purpose.

If  YOU don’t know what you want to do, I’m not sure how anyone else would. OTOH, why not ask someone? “What kind of work would you call me in to perform before you’d call *anyone* else?”

One way

We’ve discussed this in the past and one pragmatic suggestion was to consider the things that you get asked to do by the smartest people you know. Stuff you actually *want* do, that is

A bit more entertaining way would be to think about some others who do amazing things in their line of work.

Say for example that you asked Clark Kent. He’s Superman. His answers might be “Leaps tall buildings in a single bound”, “Faster than a locomotive” and “X-ray vision”. In other words, he has super-human strength.

If you asked Peter Parker, he might talk about his ability to walk up a skyscraper.

You get the idea.

So…when you perform from your strengths as if you are a superhero, how would you describe your power? What super-human strengths do you have?

Here’s an example

Mine center around a few related areas.

• Though I don’t always exercise it, I seem to find it easy to have a conversation between warring parties without either of them wanting to fit me for a pair of Jimmy Hoffa Concrete Galoshes (No, I have no desire to play detente-boy in the Middle East).
• I find it easy to ask troubling but non-confrontational questions about situations and opportunities that others don’t often see, though I think a good bit of that is because people are too close to their situation to be honest with themselves (or to have clear vision). I’ve been guilty of that as well. We all have forests that keep us from seeing trees.
• Processes (technical, marketing, operational, you name it) have always intrigued me. I feel very much at home looking at them from perspectives ranging from 10000 ft to piece by piece dissection. “Seeing” how they can be improved has been a core strength. I have to be careful with this one because it’s easy to become the guy wielding the shovel. All I have to do is I let “my altitude” get too low – and thus too close to the process rather than going big picture. Yeah, I know. A little wishy washy.

That last one is what merges the marketing side of my head with the geek side.

Enough about me…has that given you an idea how to describe your super power?

I’d love to hear yours.

photo credit: moonjazz

Or at least, minimize/manage it.

Today’s guest post from Everett Bogue (posted over at Julien’s place) is a nice little wake up call if you’ve been thinking about making changes in your life (or lifestyle).

One of the biggest things about taking the big step you know you need to take is dealing with the risk involved in making the change.

Here’s one way to abolish risk.

FYI: What he’s really talking about is managing risk, but that sounds boring compared to abolishing it.

photo credit: Swami Stream

It’s just another Saturday morning (well, it was when this first went live anyhow).

What are you going to do with it?

Let’s see if this guest post from Brogan tweaks your plan for the day a little bit…

If it doesn’t tweak you, I say good for you.

Why “good for you”?

Because you must already be heading the right direction.

The rest of em have already started thinking, I hope.

photo credit: quinet

Today’s guest post is an interesting Inc. Magazine interview with Tony Hsieh about why Zappos sold to Amazon.

What makes it most interesting (to me, anyhow) are the discussions about the culture and differences between the two businesses.

I think there are a few take-home items for anyone who owns a business of any size – as well as some tidbits for those who are under the impression that all corporations are evil.

Enjoy.

photo credit: Berlin Wall by antaldaniel

Today’s guest post is from personal development speaker/author Steve Pavlina.

It’s a great message about building a life that should speak to every entrepreneur.

Happy Independence Day!

photo credit: paul (dex)

I was finishing up Seth Godin’s Linchpin this weekend while camping in Plains for a swim meet and thought this was worthy of sharing.

Like others have said, there’s a lot in Linchpin that is common knowledge/attitude to “smart people” and while it resonates with how I feel about business and opportunity (likewise, Dan Kennedy would be nodding his head saying “I’ve been saying this for years!”), it never hurts to refresh those thoughts with words from someone who comes from another angle.

Dan and Seth both present their case on the “being indispensable” thing with a substantially different tone, so it’s helpful to hear it from a fresh angle.

Your art

One thing stuck out from Seth’s version as I got toward the end.

He started discussing your “what you do best” work as your art. I was mentally nodding “yep, yep, yep” and then he really hit the nail on the head.

He said something along the lines of “Your art is that thing you do that no one can tell you how to do”.  Why? Because it’s your passion and skill for that work is perhaps not untouchable, but highly developed when compared to almost everyone around you.

My art

For me, it’s the integration of marketing, technology and business process refinement and how they flow to the bottom line. I can talk on stage (or elsewhere) about those things all day long – even if no one is listening.

For example, the programmer and industrial engineering side of my head is what focuses me on the “bugs” in your process (such as the “patient intake” experience I described after my doctor visit last week). When you marry that to the marketing and customer service side of things, it’s easy to see ROI.

I’d like to hear what your art is and how you’re leveraging it to help others.

photo credit: erikogan

I was speaking with a wanna be business owner the other day who I *know* has the skills to help people in the market where he works.

When I say “wanna be”, I don’t mean they can’t do it, or won’t do it, just that they haven’t done it.

For the wanna be, something is missing: That first really important client.

That client has to be framed right.

• It is FIRST really important CLIENT?
• Or…is it first REALLY IMPORTANT client

I think it’s both – and they aren’t often the same person or business.

That FIRST really important CLIENT

As in first client, and really important because you finally got one. A paying one.

Not your brother in law, your mom’s boss, your church or that community organization that can’t afford anyone else – but someone who actually paid.

They’ll teach you how it feels to have a level of trust granted to you by someone who maybe shouldn’t have done so. Not because you didn’t deserve it, but because you didn’t yet have a reputation that told them you were the *only* logical choice for what they needed.

They give you much more confidence that you can actually do this thing and get paid for it.

And…that’s the one that will likely make you realize all the things you have left to do, learn and organize.

Those of you who have been there know what I mean. Sometime in the past, someone took a chance and bought what you do when maybe, just maybe they should have gone a different direction.

A safe direction. But they chose you instead, and that made all the difference.

That first REALLY IMPORTANT client

What does ‘really important’ mean in a client?

The first one is important because they exist. They prime the pump.

The really important one is the one that solves a fundamental problem you have when you go to sell your stuff to the next person.

They ask “Why should I buy from you instead of anyone/everyone else?” You’re ready for that one. And then it comes, the one that you hate to hear – until you have an amazing response: “Who else do you do this for?”

That’s when you want to say “the United States Senate” (I still remember what that check looked like).

You might even manage to be able to say a name like Donald Trump, The Bellagio, the Dallas Cowboys, The Diaper Bank of Tucson, Wachovia (well, back in the day anyhow), The American Red Cross, IBM, Microsoft, the New York Yankees, Apple or Pixar.

Mention a few of those – or the equivalent in your market – and suddenly, you’re the one being pursued.

Credibility. That big product champion. The quote from Bill Gates or Steve Jobs about the work you did.

The testimonial that makes them raise their eyebrows and say “Come on in”.

The Whale

That’s what the wanna be is missing: the “whale”.

In Las Vegas, a whale is a gambler who comes to town to drop big money at the tables. Six figures.

In the business world, a whale might be a Bill Gates, a Trump, the US Senate, or it might just be an influential local client. Someone that the rest of the community respects.

They’re an influencer in their market, or better, in *every* market…and that person likes what you do.

Every business needs a whale, whether they’re a local or a national one. They need a product champion, a killer testimonial. Someone that you can mention and say “See what I did for *them*? I can do that for you too.”

Maybe Gates or Jobs are a stretch, but maybe not. They have to buy from *someone*. Why not you?

Bill Gates has a plumber. What, you aren’t good enough? Whales come in all sizes. They’re people too.

Landing the Whale

For the wanna be, that first client might seem like a whale. If you’re going to work hard as you can to get that first client, why not make it one that would be an ideal match?

Focus on a client that’s an absolutely great match for what you do. Go after them with everything you have. I don’t mean be obnoxious and cold call them at 10pm. Instead, position yourself to answer that important question…

“Why should I buy from you instead of anyone/everyone else?”

Once they’ve taken that chance, transform them into a great champion of your work…by doing your best work.

Start with one. Be amazing. And then…Wash, rinse, repeat.

photo credit: quinn.anya

Lessons get learned two ways, mostly:

1) Via advice offered in hope that it’ll save you some money, time, pain, etc. Often, these lessons were learned in a different way by the person offering the advice. Usually they learned it…

2) The hard way, by making the mistake yourself and feeling the pain first hand.

3) Give me a minute, I’ll explain this one…

Method #2 seems to stick better, even though method 1 (the easy way) tends to be far less expensive.

Method #3

This is the method where you point out a group of folks who may or may not have had the lessons taught by method #1 but appear to have chosen the hard way.

That’s OK though…because they clearly figured out a lot of things.

100 CEOs talk about things they wish they knew when they started their business.

Notice the ones that crop up again and again?

They speak of preparedness, how much time / money they spent on marketing, how they didnt expect sales to be so hard, how its far more important to pick out a market that needs a solution (and provide it) rather than to make something and then search around for a market for it.

That’s why we spend so much time talking about positioning, knowing your customer better than anyone else, doing more than everyone else, thinking about customer needs, and so little time talking about things like how to compete with a lower price.

Give the list another read. There’s some gold in there.

photo credit: seanmcgrath

Today’s guest post from Jeff over at BrickandClick.com has great timing, as I’ve discussed this very topic with two different clients in the last two days.

I love it when I can find someone else to do the nagging for me (as he laughs maniacally).

Seriously, Jeff’s talking about making sure that there’s an opportunity to tell your clients that they can connect with you via Twitter, Facebook etc by making it obvious to them that you even *exist* there to begin with.

Simple, obvious, yet easy to overlook. I just thought of one prominent place where I’m not doing exactly that.

See, it isn’t just you.

Go see Jeff’s take on the subject.

photo credit: TheGiantVermin

Normally I don’t do two guest posts in the same weekend from the same person, but Lisa Barone’s “It’s not the recession, you just suck” resonates with a number of things I’ve been passing along to you over the last few months.

As such, I thought I’d let someone else in the PickYourselfUp Choir sing the lead this time.

Here she is.

Look at it this way… if McDonald’s closed, you wouldn’t starve to death. Why would allow a business closure or layoff to starve your career?

GOYA.

Forty years ago tonight, two guys stepped on the Moon for the very first time (as far as we know, anyhow).

They did so not by accident or happenstance, but because of an explicit choice (and a challenge).

One of the things that always intrigued me about President Kennedy’s speech was his use of words when he suggested that we go to the moon:

“We choose to go to the moon…”

Choose.

Not think about, mull over, ponder or consider, but choose.

It’s an important word. It means get off your keester and take action – one of the most important things you can do.

Make a choice to improve your business, to start one, or to start another one. Make a choice to do something that will completely transform the success of your business. Ask yourself “Why not?” if something pops up and tells you that you can’t do something, or that it wont work.

You choose to sit around or you choose not to, which reminds me of an old acronym: YCDBSOYA

YCDBSOYA is an acronym for “You cant do business sitting on your ass”.

Decide. Make a choice. GOYA.

Do it today. Choose to go to the moon, business-wise.

Maybe even further.

photo credit: alterna2

An ideal guest post for America’s Independence Day, Tech Dirt’s coverage of Amanda Palmer’s use of Twitter for grassroots marketing of her music (and other stuff). I hadn’t heard of her until reading the article.

Note: This is not a G-rated article, but it is instructive all the same.

The point of this is to think, much less think unconventionally, consider the resources you have available and most importantly, to communicate with your fans (even plumbers have fans, so don’t think that your business doesn’t).

Regarding naysayers: There will *always* be people who tell you you can’t do it, you can’t sell for that price, you’ll never make it, etc.

They might be partly right: perhaps they couldn’t.

The question isn’t what they can or can’t do, it is…  Can you?

photo credit: Nils Geylen

If you strongly prefer a G or PG post, this isn’t going to be your favorite guest post.

Or maybe it will.

Today’s guest post comes from Hugh MacLeod, and in fact, it’s part of his upcoming book (June 2009).

You may know him from his cartoons, which he pens under the name Gaping Void.

What I will tell you is that even if a few four letter words bother you, you’ll be better off reading and discarding them because quite frankly, this is a pretty important read to any entrepreneur or wanna-be entrepreneur.