Learning is THE KEY to Achieving Success
The other day, I walked in on the last few minutes of the MTV documentary series True Life: I’m Dead Broke which had the attention of my children who range in age from 13-20. I plopped down and they brought me up to speed on the backgrounds of the three participants. I noticed on thing they ALL had in common… they hadn’t finished high school. They either didn’t know or didn’t want to know how to LEARN.
That’s a huge theme in my house as I raise three children…. you’d better KNOW how to LEARN. What’s most important is not that you know it now…but rather you’d better be equipped to LEARN what you need to know. As Alex Ragone says in his Learning Blog
“You can’t keep up with all of the information, so don’t try.”
While you can’t keep up with the explosion of easily accessible information available today, I can’t think of a more important skill in business than the ability to learn. Learning is not something that ends with a diploma or a degree.
The Experiential Learning blog says:
The traditional boundaries of education are beginning to break down. … Education is shifting from a period of formality to informality. Even more than ever before we will see students experiencing the material instead of memorizing it, then sharing their knowledge with their peers instead of handing in the exam to be marked.
John Hoff talks about learning in business in his post, The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Heard - You Never Learn From Your Successes
According to John… the lessons learned from failure are not better than the lessons learned from success. As a matter of fact, John believes the reverse is true.
Vince Lombardi is reported to have said,
“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
If Vince is right, then it definitely makes sense that the BEST lessons learned in business would be the lessons learned from success!
Constructing Solutions to Customer’s Problems
Once you have identified your target market member’s problems, it is time to construct your solutions.
Take out your notebook of pressing problems and begin listing possible solutions on each page. Keep this list loose and broad. You should list EVERYTHING that comes to mind, even if you cannot personally provide a solution right now. It’s important that your solution list is comprehensive, so whatever comes to mind, list it on the page.
Once your list is complete, go back and, if possible, try to assign a $$$ figure to both the problem and solution. Is a messy desk really worth a $2500 solution? It could be, though the reason may not be readily apparent to the uneducated consumer. If you find yourself stumped, try asking yourself what you would pay for the solution. For example, you may not be willing to pay $2500 for an office organization solution, but you might be more than willing to spend $500 for it.
As you review and assign value to your list of problems and solutions, keep track of the compelling reasons your clients need to understand in order to see value in the solutions you have listed.
Successful marketing and solving problems
The most successful marketing approach focuses upon solving problems. The more narrowly you define your target, the more specifically you can deal with the unique problems (and therefore, opportunities) of your target market. Once you have chosen a narrowly defined market, it is easier to discover the wants and needs members of that market are facing.
It is an unpleasant fact that people have problems. Most buying decisions are a direct effort to alleviate discomfort. Start viewing your best clients as people who have problems that you can solve and you are well on your way to constructing a compelling marketing message.
Define your target market’s most pressing problems.
Grab a notebook and list each pressing problem which your target market is grappling with at the top of each page.
If you’re having problems identifying your target market’s problems, it may be time to develop composite customers to help you get a better idea of why your clients are buying from you. You can learn more about Creating Composite Customers in the book, Beyond the Niche.
Are you engaged in Panic Mode Marketing?
Panic Mode Marketing is defined by the all encompassing thought of “Oh SH*T! I need money NOW!” It’s when you begin focusing upon this quarter’s sales figures instead of next quarter’s sales figures.
Now, the BUSINESS SAVVY business owner knows that smart marketing means what you do today is laying the ground work for the sales of the next QUARTER. In other words, the things you’re doing TODAY are intended on filling the marketing or sales FUNNEL of the next quarter.
No where is this practice more evident that in the brick and mortar retail consumer goods market place. As a matter of fact, consumer goods retailers begin planning for Q4 in Q2… not Q3!!!
Failing to lay next quarter’s ground work TODAY dooms you to staying on the path of Panic Mode Marketing next quarter as well.
The problem with “panic mode marketing” is that when you begin engaging in it, you lose your forward focus. Your decisions are all based in a “7 days or less” time frame instead of a long term growth plan with an eye to the next quarter… the next year and beyond.
For a seemingly silly example, take a small beer brewery who wants to boost sales this quarter. They launch an advertising campaign that proclaims, “Excessive beer intake proven to prevent prostate cancer.” Sure, the outrageous claim makes for a short term sales spike… but where will the brewery be be next quarter… or next year?
The mistake I’ve seen time and time again is business owners whose entire focus is upon creating a DYNAMITE campaign that excites the public and drives them to the company’s web site or doors by droves. (By the way, marketing campaigns RARELY generate such a stampede!) Meanwhile the product or service offered isn’t ready to meet the needs of the customers.
When I worked as a newspaper advertising account executive, my sales manager had a standard reply to the business owner who claimed newspaper advertising didn’t work. He would challenge the business owner to run a 1X1 ad offering to give away $5 bills to anyone who walked in the door, (remember, this was spoken in the 80’s). Without exception, not ONE business owner took us up on the challenge. Their immediate response was, “I can’t afford to give money away to everyone who walks in the front door!”
My manger’s response, “I thought you said newspaper advertising didn’t work.” I don’t think he closed many sales using that technique… but it was a nice illustration.
Want to generate a stampede? Run an ad promising to give away $20 bills to everyone who walks in and asks. (After all, it’s the 2008!) However, don’t do so until your product or service offerings are compelling enough for those same customers to turn around and spend that $20 bill and more buying your product or service!
Experience doesn’t work like that….
Yesterday, in the Dilbert comic strip, the young intern discovers a way to get weeks of work done in under an hour. He tells his co-worker about his achievement and then tells his boss of his accomplishment. His boss responds by informing him that every project he does from now on MUST be completed in under and hour and if he fails to do so, he will be guilty of milking the company.
When he returns to his co-worker, he asks, "Why didn’t you warn me?" Her response, "Experience doesn’t work like that."
Otherwise known as "learning the hard way"…. is that truly the only way to learn? Must I personally get burned by the stove to learn that it’s hot to the touch?
Money For Nothing. Never Work Again.
This is the subject of an email newsletter that arrived in my email box over the weekend.
Sound great doesn’t it?
The email goes on:
Make $1,000; $5,000; $10,000 a month per deal and the revenues quickly mount up — all while you’re not there. Mostly without you personally having to do anything but set the deal up in the beginning.
He goes on to assure the reader that "almost NO ONE knows this secret" but you can learn them too… if you sign up for his course.
I found this guy because one of my paying clients hangs upon his every word. I subscribed to his newsletter so I’d have a heads up on what new class my client would be signing up for next. Bless his heart, he’s more than willing to sign up for ANY program that will do the hard work for him. Yet, he continues to pay me to work with him monthly. Last month we spent hours creating an action plan for him to follow….a step by step guide on the basics of what he needs to do to get his internet presence established. We’ve already launched his blog… now if only he’ll put the other pieces into place, maybe he’ll start earning money instead of spending it.
Don’t get me wrong, I earn a VERY nice living via the internet (I have had months where I brought in 5 figures, which is my definition of "very nice" money). However, only a trickle of that income has arrived "passively" at my door. The rest arrives because I work VERY hard at building and running my business.
I remember back in 1997 when I had just launched my web development business. I had been invited by a local jewelry store owner to discuss the possibility of creating a web site for his business.
I sat down at a table in the back room and he slid across the table a letter he had received in the mail. It was a sales letter, promising the struggling business owner that he could achieve wealth beyond his wildest dreams if he only created a web site. Once the site was created, the business owner could just sit back as the money FLOWED freely in!
As I finished reading the letter, Dan (the store owner) looked across at me and asked, "Is it true?"
I cleared my throat. "Well, Dan… yes, parts of that letter ARE true. You certainly can use the internet to expand your market to well beyond the confines of our economically struggling town. However, can you tell me one thing you’ve implemented in your business that made money for you while you did nothing?"
He sat back and sighed heavily. "Yes, this is possible… but it’s going to require a lot of time and effort on your part to get this going. It’s not going to be profitable if you have to hire me to do all the legwork on this. I’ll be HAPPY to create your site for you, and I’d be EQUALLY happy to train you or one of your employees on how to use the internet to build your business. I can do both of those activities without breaking your budget. But I don’t think you have the budget to hire me to do this full time to get this up and profitable for you."
I left Dan’s store that day without a signed contract to develop his web site. Turns out he wasn’t interested in learning how to harness the then very new marketing tool known as the internet. He was only interested in pursuing the easy way promised in the letter. I don’t know if Dan contacted the company who made the promise…. what I do know is that two years later, Dan closed his store for good.
I’ve been cleaning up the messes left by the "Money for Nothing Marketing Gurus" for a decade now. While I make a nice living cleaning up the messes they’ve made… they still infuriate me with their empty promises.
It’s not that I haven’t had my share of client success stories. Check out the free first chapter of my book: Beyond the Niche for a truly inspiring one. (It’s the reason Dan called me when he got the provocative sales letter in the mail). I’ve just never personally experienced ANYONE who earned a lot of money without working at it.
Attracting Visitors with Great Gagets and Gimmicks
Dane Carlson was inspired by the recent sale of Weblogs to AOL to create an application to determine how much your blog is worth. The tool takes your Technorati ranking and applies a formula derived by the Web Blog sale to AOL.
Adding tools like this is a GREAT way to attract visitors to your web site or blog! You don’t have start from scratch. Eric Harshbarger created an Applet Depot. Many have a copyright date of 1998, but you can see variations of these applets in use today (especially on myspace.com).
Another great gimmick to use is to create a quiz for visitors on your web site or blog. Remember, anything you can do to attract attention is good! People are MUCH more likely to send friends/family/colleagues to something fun or interesting.
Starting Your Business…. Do’s and Don’ts
I’ve been running my home based, internet centered business for a full decade this year. I began creating web sites for pay BEFORE I had reserved a domain name or put up my own web site. (My first client was my previous employer…. it wasn’t until I had done SEVERAL web sites that I hung out my web based shingle.) Last week, I took the huge step of incorporating my business. I’ve gone from a sole proprietor to an official corporation (LLC).
Part of my desire to change the status of my business was the passing of a milestone in my business… I crossed the 5 figure income figure in a single month earlier this year and suddenly realized that maybe, just maybe, it was time to treat my business LIKE a business instead of a hobby.
So when I saw the post at Business Opportunities Blog’s list of 20 things NOT to do when starting your business, I wanted to stand up and cheer. After 10 years of working with business start ups, I give a HEARTY thumbs up to most of his recommendations.
I disagree with only TWO of his recommendations. The first with which I disagree is Number 20 :
Don’t get a business telephone number or mailing address. You have a cellphone, use it. If someone needs to mail you something, have them send it to your house. You’re working there, remember.
The cell phone works GREAT as a business phone. However, I recommend that you DO NOT use your home address. Get a PO Box instead. They’re relatively inexpensive and that way you don’t have to worry about clients showing up unexpectedly at your home. (Yes, I’ve had clients ask for my home address so they can "pop in" when they’re traveling nearby. With the PO Box, they had to ask!)
The other "disagreement" I have with his list is Number 11:
Don’t design a logo. You are your own brand, you don’t need a logo.
I’d rephrase that to "don’t OBSESS about your logo."
If you’re just starting out, there’s a GREAT service called Got Logos where for $25 you can get a professional logo developed for your business. That’s right… it’s only $25 for them to design a logo delivered to you in GIF format (which is great for web sites, but not good enough for print.)
The "catch" is you get one shot. If you don’t like what they deliver, then it’s another $25 for them to make another stab at the design, which is a BRILLIANT business model if you ask me. I mean, the one SUPER HEADACHE most artist deal with is trying to nail down the design issues. I’ve had clients (who were, in reality, frustrated artists) who drove my graphic artists CRAZY with repeated revisions. (One client was specifying not only fonts, but requesting elements be move in the logo by 1 or 2 PIXELS! The element was moved up then down, to the left and then to the right before the client decided that the element needed to be removed from the design all together…. something the graphic artist with whom I was working pointed out when the element was REQUESTED by the difficult client.)
I think a logo is an important element…. and a professionally designed logo helps to establish that you are indeed a "real" business. Got Logos provides professionally designed logos and when compared to the $1000 price tag one of my most talented designers charges for logo development, the $25 price tag at Gog Logos is a steal. Does Richard do better work? MOST DEFINITELY! However, when you’re a boot strapping entrepreneur, you sometimes have to settle for "good enough" which is the point of the post over at the Business Opportunities Blog.
Most of the 20 Things Not to Do Before Starting A Business are simply a matter of focusing on what’s important to getting your business up and running. I can’t tell you how many client’s I’ve had that were SHOCKED that I hadn’t incorporated my business. For me, a DBA was good enough.
As I look WAY back on the launching of my business, I realize that I followed all but 2 of his recommendations when I started out. Ten years later, as I read his list, I see that following those recommendations are probably the basis for my success.
What will this cost me?
If you were to ask what single lesson I’ve learned over the past 10 years of being in business, I would have to say that it’s the lesson of "You get what you pay for". Time and time again, I see the wisdom in this lesson, not only from the point of view of the provider but also from the point of view of the purchaser of goods or services.
This point is brilliantly illustrated with the following joke:
Adam was walking around the Garden of Eden feeling very lonely, so God asked Adam, "What is wrong with you?"
Adam said he didn’t have anyone to talk to. God said he was going to give him a companion and she would be called "woman."
God said, "This person will cook for you and wash your clothes, she will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will not nag you, and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you’ve had a disagreement. She will never have a headache, and will freely give love and compassion whenever needed."
Adam asked God, "What will this woman cost?"
God said, "An arm and a leg."
Adam said, "What can I get for just a rib?"
Finding the road to success…
I had a conversation with a potential client who eliminated herself as a client with a simple gasp during our conversation. This potential client GASPED before I got to the "day" when I quoted her $1500 per day (expect 10 days) to create a content management site for her.
There was a time, when I would have taken this woman on as a client, hoping to show her the way to success. After all, she has big dreams which include partnering with Dr. Phil to promote her book, which she has already written. However, after 10 years in business, I can say that I’m officially done with trying to bring people "up to speed".
The person who referred this potential client to me stated, "I tend to get distracted by those loafing on the unpaved roads to success claiming they’ve lost their way." Turns out, this client didn’t want to spend any money with the person who passed her on to me.
Over the past two years, my patience has been worn thin by these people and the first "sign" that I’m dealing with a loafer on the unpaved road is when they’re unwilling to invest in themselves or their business. Expecting to create a 400+ page CMS based web site for LESS than $1000 is a horrible sign.
It’s been my experience that clients either get it, or they don’t. If they "get it" then they get that it takes time and money to create a successful business. If they don’t grasp those basics, then I’m not willing to waste my time trying to educate them. I’ll let them head to the next "get rich quick" internet marketing guru whose main intent is to separate them from their money as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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