Recently I wrote a three-part rant on ebook pricing, and someone I cherish and respect, Tim Brownson, responded with his own rant.
What’s interesting about this is that Tim and I actually agree on many things, but what happened here was what happens in sitcoms the world over: not being clear who you’re talking about.
You know, Janet starts talking about “him” and Shirley is also talking about, “him.” Only Janet’s “him” is her husband, and Shirley’s “him” is Janet’s brother, who happens to be Shirley’s boyfriend, and suddenly we have a very bad situational comedy on our hands, with gossip, accusations, and a torrid mess of absolutely nothing.
That’s where Tim and I got our wires crossed, and, as it turns out, I’m not dating his wife. Nor is he dating mine. Nor are either of us dating Danielle LaPorte.
Although I rarely write a rant like I did because my mamma taught me to be polite, I do have some very strong opinions about how business works, and how it oughta work. And I can have those opinions because I’m clear who I’m talking to.
Because some of my opinions don’t hold true for everyone. For instance, I have a very strong opinion that someone brand new in business shouldn’t have a really clear business plan, because they are just figuring out what their business. They can’t have a clear plan, because nothing is clear yet!
This opinion only holds because I’m talking about very small businesses, folks who are self-employed, or teams of less than a handful who don’t have large investment costs prior to getting to market, for instance service professionals.
If you have a team of eight people, and five hundred thousand dollars in initial funding, you *better* have a clear business plan about how you are going to get your product or service to market, and start cash flow, or you won’t make it.
But that’s not who I’m writing for, and someone who is self-employed will be, in most cases, unbearably burdened by a detailed business plan.
Ideally, your business wants something as clear as a Who-Who-What, described in The Heart-Centered Answer to What Do You Do, which is, perhaps, one of the more challenging pieces of clarity to wrestle to the ground.
But, oh my Lordy, how good the clarity feels.
I know, I know. Getting clear on your “target market” is something that has been heroically resisted, avoided, fought against, and struggled with since the dawn of time.
But think about it this way: who are you talking to? I mean, in the most basic way? Can you see who you are talking to? Can you understand them? Is your heart open to what’s going on for them?
That’s all that this is about.
The confusion Tim and I bumped into is that I was speaking to people who really need to earn a living, and I don’t want them to go out of business and give up on the dream due to blindly copying of someone else’s business model. Tim thought I was urging people who already had a lot of money to make even more.
My message to folks who are already doing well financially is going to be different than what I’m going to say to those who are still struggling.
I have two questions for you:
1. Are you super clear about who you are speaking to, as a business owner?
2a. If you are, what have you noticed comes from that clarity?
2b. If you aren’t, go read The Heart-Centered Answer to What Do You Do. And report back here. 🙂
And all of you, stop spreading rumors about me and Tim. All of it is false… well, most of it.
p.s. Need some heart-centered help getting your business going?
Our two practitioners, Yollana Shore and Jason Stein, have each had a few openings recently. If you’re wanting hands-on, individual, one-to-one support for your business development, then may I recommend the Organic Business Development Program with either of them?
Heart-centered, spiritual, practical, nitty-gritty. Click here to read and then schedule a no-cost conversation with either Jason or Yollana: The Organic Business Development Program: Heart-centered.
30 Responses
Steve Blank who has a blog thinks that any start up doesn’t really need a business plan. (He just taught a course using his model.)
That what they are doing is searching for a business model. This makes sense to me – and I do think is true for the businesses I have seen start (rather than the cleaned up retrospective picture).
On line I think there are some business models finally being established. Though I think it will be another decade or two before things have settled down.
Evan- nice to see you here- it’s been awhile, brother. And maybe I’m mistaken about needing a business plan even for larger businesses. I love that phrase “searching for a business model.” Makes sense to me.
I followed the pricing conversation with interest, and it overlaps a little with a conversation I’ve seen a lot recently about online gurus and the price of programs.
Three thoughts that I feel impelled to share even though you’ve all moved on :-):
1) I think I compare many e-books to the technical books I buy for my business. I don’t expect a guide to HTML5 to be really cheap, and so I expect to pay more for something that will give me information that I actually can’t get anywhere.
2) If it’s an e-book that has a motivational/discovery component, I treat higher more as a promise to myself that I will take serious time to work through it and make it worth the investment. (And I have a ceiling)
3) I don’t buy really low cost stuff, because it’s a fiddle to get out my credit card, and it feels too disposable.
One of the things that I ask people (and myself) is the question: what part does your website/online presence play in your business? For some people it’s absolutely core; for others, it’s more of a shop window or support. I think it’s easy to get confused because web is so attractive and (superficially) simple.
Really enjoying your posts at the moment, Mark. You have a restful solidity that’s very calming and refreshing. Can I ask a quick question: I’ve been look at the Heart of Business workbook and wondering if it’s right. I’m not very New Age at all – I’m a total sceptic about many practices – but the approach of being grounded and centred in your values really resonates.
Alison- great points. and thank you for your kind words. And it’s a great question. I am so not New Age. I’m a Sufi Muslim. So there is a strong spiritual component to our work, but I think you might find it very grounded and nourishing. If your heart says yes- try it out. If it doesn’t match, take advantage of our refund offer. We want you to get what you need. If you have more in-depth questions, feel free to email me.
LMAO – it gets even funnier Mark because of this:
“Tim thought I was urging people who already had a lot of money to make even more
I actually didn’t think that at all. I know you waaaaay too well to ever consider that.
I kind of came in to the conversation sideways, probably primed by the post I had just written for Remarkablogger about being sick of seeing really average, and often poor content sold at exorbitant prices.
I also cannot get my head round the desire for so many people (NOT YOU!!!) to measure success by wealth.
We want money because we think it will make us happy, even though once you lift people out of poverty there is almost zero link between money and happiness. Yet blogs that are about acquiring wealth through online activities are so much more popular.
I think I was on my own little agenda and actually wish I’d kept my mouth shut now because if you thought I was having a rant at you, I’m sure others did too, and that makes me feel bad.
Ok, I’m a Life Coach, that doesn’t make me feel bad at all, but my interpretation of that makes me feel bad 😉
Anyway, thanks for the follow up post and I apologize for not expressing my feelings more clearly and to anybody reading here, I can honestly say there are few, if any, people that blog who I have more respect for than Mark!
(scuttles off to lick his wounds)
See… continued miscommunication. 🙂 I love you, Tim- and no, I didn’t think you were ranting at me at all. I’m really glad you spoke up- I think it created a very valuable interchange- and your opinion is an incredibly important perspective to air.
Hi Mark,
I find this post really juicy! Took a quick look at Tim’s blog (love it) and his rant on your last post (loved it.) and the above. He touches on issues that a lot of folks question but don’t say anything about in public.
I wonder why we call someone’s truth a rant? A lot of the world’s problems come from folks being too polite – they hold their particular truth/concerns in and suffer from all sorts of dis-ease.
Am in total agreement about the generic business models being sold to folks as the cure for whatever ails his/her businesses. Also, that a new business isn’t ready for a business model – need more time to explore.
Life itself is one giant exploration to me.
It’s important to find your own business way and the only way to do that is to dive in and try things. Yet we’re not encouraged to try things. School teaches us that mistakes are bad and that “smart” folks get high test scores. All untrue, but again the model has been set in stone and few dare to question it.
It’s taken me a lot of trying, but I’m now clear on my audience: folks who want to ditch the smelly molds they’ve been told to put on before leaving the house.
Once I figured out who my audience was it became almost effortless to chat with them. When you walk your own talk people who need that walk/talk will find you because you speak their language.
Fun post! Thanks, G.
Hey Giulietta- I love Tim- he’s smart, funny, grounded, and right-on. And doesn’t it feel great to be so clear in your audience? Woo-hoo!
Imagine if you’d gone to your bank manager with a business model that suggested you’d have 50 million customers within 2 years and 1 in 12 people on the planet would be using your service within 5 years.
Not that Mark Zuckerberg had such a plan, but I think you get my gist. I’ve written 3 business plans in my life and the only thing they had in common with the direction of the businesses, was the name on the top of the sheet!
Have you guys tried chia and flax seed cereal? It can be a filling transition for the morning. Add dried fruit to the seeds and soak overnight with some cinnamon. Add sweeteners in the morning if the kids need them.
I find what comes from the clarity (re: knowing who you’re speaking to) is a total drop of ego and a strength of connection into the integrated field of awareness. Something magical arises and I communicate in a way that is useful, original and best of all, helpful.
Hi Cate- I’m thinking you’re responding to the note in my email newsletter about going gluten and dairy free- lest everyone think you are a spam link for chia and flax seed cereal… (huh?). 😉 I haven’t tried that- but I have made millet for a breakfast cereal- yum! I may well try yours, but not sure our 2 1/2 year old toddler twins would eat it.
Yes! The ego does drop when you can truly connect to someone. Or, at least, it gets a little smaller. Nice! I love how you expressed it.
Business plans… reminds me of the Internet bubble model. Get a big site going and worry about how it will make money later!
We all know the sites where that worked (YouTube etc), but don’t forget the many casualties of the .com boom!
Great post Mark.
When I first started out 3 years ago, I had help from a businessman and friend, whose advice was to have a detailed business plan. The numbers so freaked me out that it had the opposite effect it ws supposed to have, and I just froze up.
So I am a great advocate of having what I call an I-D – and Intention-Direction – ie you know the direction you are going in when you start out, you know the intention you have – and then your part on who you are talking to is also absolutely crucial.
Thank you for highlighting this
Hi Mark,
what you said, that someone brand new in business shouldn
Hello,
I got to admit that I found this confusion a bit funny. Being unclear, specially in a business is something very dangerous.
1. Are you super clear about who you are speaking to, as a business owner?
Always, this is one of the most important rules for me because I can avoid unpleasant situations like yours and Tim’s.
2a. If you are, what have you noticed comes from that clarity?
Safety and professionalism. Being clear means that you know one hundred percent what are you talking about -> safety and professionalism.
Great topic, congratulations!
Best wishes,
George Williams
I believe that a solid business can’t be established without being aware of the big clear picture. Designing a plan before you even start your business will save you tons of time and effort. But in the same time you can’t figure out how your business model works unless you try and commit mistakes even if someone shows you the path. So i think it’s kind of a chicken egg thing! Thanks for the “clarification”
Mark, I know the topic of the post was the he said – she said confusion. But the topic of the original post is a really good one.
I too hate the idea of the typical business or marketing plan that sm biz owners put together. In most cases they are just so much boiler plate. But I am a successful serial entrepreneur and one reason I have been successful is that I am pragmatic. I do think whether it is on paper or a napkin you’d better figure out if you can make a living with your business model because until you can, it is a hobby, which is fine but don’t quit your day job quite yet.
Online businesses offer us the luxury of not having to confront all of the questions that brick and mortar companies have. But, if the online business is our primary source of income we had better consider if our ideas are realistic.
I own a small cafe and when I need to find a tenant I want to choose one who is not going to crash and burn in 6 months. So I require that they demonstrate, in writing, how they propose to make their business work.
I want to see how they describe their products and price points and their estimates for traffic and sales. With the expenses delineated it is easy to see where their money will run out if their estimates are off by a bit. And then, they have to show a backup plan for those contingencies.
I don’t want no mumbo jumbo estimations of the size of the market for x y or z. Show me, on paper, that you are passionate about your business, know your niche and what they want, are realistic about how much work it will take to get it off the ground and that you have the resources, personality, money, time, and energy to to get it off the ground and keep it going.
I look forward to seeing you at WDS in June.
Thank you so much for this wonderful information
Business is our life and we all know that we always take care of them
Expect me to visit here most often. After 3months of getting laid from work, now I will be making what i love most as my bread and butter. I need more information concewrning this business..
Is that meant to be ‘laid off’ or a way to fuel gossip? I ask purely as a matter of interest you understand.
Giulietta Nardone, i have to say i agree with everything you said and i like your insights on this. i have to say though its unethical to do gossips about your business. i find it really pathetic… =p this is juicy and funny…hehehe
THIS IS REALLY FUNNY!! No offense meant, but Where’s the professionalism?
I have to say though, this is a fun post! ^_^
Now this is something entertaining! hahahaha
This is funny but a serious matter at the same time. Entertaining because two intelligent opinions are working on this post. Love it!
That’s a brilliant idea, there’s so many gossip in business so much better if we can stop it early as now.
I’m really enjoying your posts at the moment, You have a restful solidity that
“There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart; never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; and never to tell that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening while you tell it.”
What a brilliant post. You should do a series! :)I did a sort of blogging for dummies over
on one of the craft forums and I thought it was too simple for them, but the amount of
emails I got asking questions just like what you addressed was unbelievable. As young
people today we have grown up with computers, but it’s easy to forget that even people just a few years older have not! Really good post! 🙂
Good and very informative post. I will come back to your blog regularly. One thing: I do
not exactly know what do you mean in the second paragraph. Could you please explain
your opinion?