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- You’ve Reached Your Goal…Now What?
- Understanding Business Development
- Startups: Be the Polymath, But Keep It to Yourself
- Starting Email Marketing
| You’ve Reached Your Goal…Now What? Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST
After you've reached your first goal the rules for setting your next goal in the chain change. If I'm wrong then why do so many people make the same New Year’s resolutions over and over again? Many start the gym membership but quit within weeks. Some start the diet but never stay on it. And others sign up for the school but never get the degree. I could go on but you get my point. And that brings us to, Ok…Now What? More than likely you set your goal then gave yourself a reward for finishing which is as it should be — that's step one. Step two is the exact opposite. You are going to get the reward first. Yes I said that, first! The second part of goal setting is an inside game, it's between your own two ears, any kind of validation from the outside world is extra. This is a point the so-called "Gurus" and others get absolutely wrong. Let's use quitting smoking as an example. You did step No. 1, which you should be praised and commended for. But now you have to continue. Step No. 2 is not to repeat step No. 1 over, and over, and over again. You won't do it, so step No. 2 should look something like this: I spent on average of $ _____ a day. That totals $______ per week, or $_______ per year. As a reward, and reminder why I am doing this, I am using the money I would have spent smoking and purchasing _________ today! If you notice I said today, not tomorrow, not next week, not I'm saving up, but today! You need to remind yourself why, not remind others, but you. Others may also benefit but from here on out it's all up to you. No cheering crowd a month or one year from now is going to help in keeping you in pursuit of your goal as the tickets for a vacation, jewelry, watch, or other item you have in your hands now will do. If you wait you won't do it, and the same will happen to the goal. It too will go unfulfilled. The excuse that I don't have the money right now doesn't fly either. You would have found the money somewhere somehow to smoke right? Then get a jar and put the actual money in it daily. See how this is getting to sound serious? That's because it is, and the reason why so many stop after step one. You can do this with anything you want, just fill in the blank. Diets? Sure… start with step No. 1, at step NO. 2 go into your closet and weed out every article of clothing that is one size too big. Regardless if new! On your way home from Goodwill® stop at the mall and buy one article one size smaller than you are now. You can repeat step No. 2 as long as you like. See the difference? You can apply this goal-setting method to anything you want in life from habits, to jobs, or anything else. It's once you truly understand that the applause you're working for is to come from you and not anyone else, goals become fun, entertaining, and a lifetime of fulfillment. Now go set a goal, and have fun! © Mark St.Cyr Photo Credit: creepyed |
| Understanding Business Development Posted: 30 Jan 2012 05:30 AM PST
Good business development allows businesses to profit by doing something that is tangential to their core mission. Sometimes the profit is so good, it becomes part of their core mission, other times it supports the brand and sometimes it just makes money. And often it’s a little guy who can be flexible enough to make things happen. Examples:
You don’t see business development from the outside, particularly all the potential deals that fail along the way. Many companies, though, spend millions of dollars a year looking for deals and then discovering that they pay off many times over. Others, particularly smaller competitors, are so focused on their core business that it never occurs to them to consider partnerships, licensing, publishing, acquisition and other arrangements that might change everything. Harley Davidson probably makes more money on business development than they make on motorcycles. The thing that makes business development fascinating is that the best deals have never been done before. There’s no template, no cookie-cutter, grind-it-out approach to making it work. This is why most organizations are so astonishingly bad at it. They don’t have the confidence to make decisions or believe they have the ability to make mistakes. Think about the Apple Nike partnership on making a device that integrates your iPod with your sneakers. This took years and cost millions of dollars to develop. Most companies would just flee, giving up long before a deal was done and a product was shipped. Here are some tactical tips on how to do business development better:
Photo Credit: o5com |
| Startups: Be the Polymath, But Keep It to Yourself Posted: 29 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST You are not your product/service. Whether your service is design, programming, writing, a product, or something else, it is important to understand that when we are talking about your product/service, we are actually talking about your core product/service; not all products and services that you could possibly create. Corporations have a family of products/services in addition to their core products/services because they can afford to. Startups, however, must focus. Focusing means leaving things out. What happens is that those who specialize, and leave things out, and create a focused service description (that reflects their core service) out-perform those who don't. The ones who manage to create a disruptive, focused product or service dominate the ones who are just floating around; they won’t know what hit them. The easiest way to start out online is by becoming a freelancer. In short, the role of the freelancer is to create and define a specialized set of services and navigate to a position, a sweet spot, where demand grows so that the price of the service also grows. Another way is to form a company (if you're more than two people) and create a service or a product that generates revenue while you keep expanding your customer base and make the product/service better, innovate on new products and create partnerships. Sounds simple, however, it can take a couple of years so choose one path and stick to it. You are not your communication, however, adopt a communication strategy. Online businesses have customers across the globe so visits (unless you own a private jet) are not possible. (If you do own a private jet, or are currently reading this from a private jet, then have a safe flight!) For the rest of us, phone-calls, video calls and email are the norm, where email is the main communication method. Special consideration should be taken how you formulate and answer mails, however, there's no magic formula. Briefly, keep your messages short, precise and stay in context. Video- or voice-calls are the best way to touch base, meet and discuss details. There is also the possibility of text chat. However, text chat should be avoided. You are not your skills. There's room for all kinds of businesses. For example, a technology company like Apple operates in such a wide range of technologies that even "being a freelance Apple-developer or a team of independent Apple-developers" can mean so many different things. This is a good thing. The good news is that you can create your own scope. Your scope is that part of your core skills, which you have refined over the years, so that when you undertake a project, the amount of time and effort you put into the project will pay off so that your bank account not only stays positive but you'll also be able to save some money as well. This is also called revenue. Note: If your focus area is too wide you'll be zapped under the dreadful pull of the "long tail"-effect, which means that gradually you'll have loads of competition, your price will go down (which equals your value) and you won't get adequately paid for your time. Therefore, the intelligent entrepreneur avoids the “long tail”-effect by focusing and refining the core service/product. Meanwhile, she helps other entrepreneurs in becoming specialists in their own area. You are not your ideas. Everyone has hundreds of brilliant ideas. However, ideas themselves aren't worth anything. The moment ideas become worth something is when you expose them and start building them in the form of your venture. The brilliance of the execution then dictates and multiplies the value of the initial idea. All in all, this is where the magic happens — it's a lot of work. The idea might involve the way to execute the idea, i.e., a new way to do things. However, before anything gets done, any idea, any business plan, is practically worth less than the NDA it's printed on. You are not your work, however, you are your life. Creating your own business online is the chance of a lifetime to really become that independent professional that you always wanted to be. It involves creating your own schedule and your own plans, your own business model, your own office, your own vision and your own way of execution. You are the one in charge and solely responsible for the outcome, so it's a big responsibility. Meanwhile, it's a huge opportunity. Hopefully, you'll have the support of your family, friends, former colleagues, the bank, etc., because at times things can get a little tough.
1. Put a sign on your door that says: "Working". Brief other people in the house of your daily schedule. 2. Make it a habit of taking daily walks (in the morning and evening for example). Working from home you might end up not going out at all. 3. Forget about invitations to projects and stop looking for more work. You have to finish this one first – fast! 4. Keep your desk tidy. Switch the mouse hand occasionally. 5. Buy a really good chair! 6. If you have a wooden floor put a rubber/plastic mat or some kind of protector under your seat. Your chair will wear out the varnish in about a year. 7. Listen to music. If you're writing or programming instrumental music or music in a foreign language might be better. 8. Remember to eat! Put an alarm for lunch breaks. Go out to have breakfast and lunch! Eat healthy. Meditate. 9. Show up. At times you're sick or there's a lot of distractions (baby sick, mother visiting, construction going on in the building, broken fridge, broken computer, fire in the house!). In any case, show up and advance as much as you can. 10. Relax and enjoy! Now you're there. You have been working so hard to get to this point. Be proud of what you've accomplished. |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST The most successful email marketing tactics are the ones that truly understand the concept of permission marketing and cater to the subscriber's needs as they occur. |
Setting and reaching a goal you've set is a wonderful experience. Regardless of the size, just setting it and actually reaching it deserves applause. But this is where the applause now stops. From here on in, it's an inside game. It is here so many either get frustrated or get what I like to call "Goal Fatigue" because they will now continually seek or wait for some external force to validate their new goal or progress.
Business Development is a mysterious title for a little-discussed function or department in most larger companies. It’s also a great way for an entrepreneur or small business to have fun, create value and make money.
Finally: Practical tips for the self-employed: Doing the work at the home office.| You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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