When to Get Business Help and When to Go It Alone
It’s a sorta no-brainer when you need help in business: flummoxed, bewildered, stuck. But what kind of help do you really need? Do you need to take a class, read books, hire a coach, or get peer-support?
It’s a big question. Without the right support and education, everything you’re working for can fall apart. But, the wrong support can be expensive, time-consuming and overwhelming.
So what kind of support do you really need? Read this article.
How to Tame a Hydra-Headed Project
That book you wanted to write, that retreat you wanted to lead, the website you wanted to create? It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Now, weeks or months into it, you’re facing the seven-headed hydra of ancient Greek mythology. Every time you finish a task, two more sprout in its place. It seems like the more you do, the more there is to do.
It all looked so lovely when you started, but now it’s eating you alive.
So how do you tame a project that is out of control? Read this article.
Listen to the podcast- around five minutes.
Now, Heracles ain’t got nothin’ on you.
If You Resist Marketing, Then You Can Be Great At It
“I’ve tried to market myself for years. I’ve worked with coaches, counselors and healers of all stripes. They all tell me I need to work through my resistance to marketing, and yet I still hate it.” My heart was breaking. I was speaking with someone who had the seeds of an amazing business, one that […]
Why Your Customers Lie to You
Why do you customers lie to you?
In 1985 the Coca Cola Corporation spent gobs on the best marketing research money could buy, and asked thousands of people their opinion. Armed with overwhelming statistics, and clear answers from a huge number of people, they launched New Coke.
The result? $4,000,000 down the drain.
$20 a person spent on 200,000 people in focus groups, testing, market surveys, and the blind taste test. And the results that came back were totally wrong.
The same thing will happen if you go asking your customers ‘what do you want?’
So how do you keep your customers from lying to you?
When Business Planning Becomes Necessary
Recently I wrote an article on ‘Why you don’t need a business plan.’ This started up a fair amount of controversy in The Business Oasis (no longer active).
(Aside: For those who don’t know, The Business Oasis is the online community I run for heart-centered business owners. Anyone who owns the Guidebook qualifies to join.)
Several community members, who are very experienced in business, chimed in to say that the high failure rate of new businesses can largely be attributed to a lack of planning during the early formative years.
Many of us had a great discussion about planning that went on for several days. It seems that people who were planning-averse found some new insights into approaching planning, and those who were big planning advocates were seeing the overwhelm that was engendered by a lack of heart-centered planning approaches.
And I had the realization that it was possible to skim my article and come out thinking: “I don’t ever need to plan, I can just follow my heart in the moment, and be okay.” Well, that’s not really true.
So, here’s what I have to say about planning:
When business planning becomes necessary Read this article.
Listen to the podcast- around seven minutes.
Are you ready to experience the freedom of planning?
How to Integrate Two or More Businesses
Running more than one business at a time… oy!
Do you feel like you’re running five or more businesses, because of the skills you have? Solomon’s solution was to cut the baby in half. Is there a better answer than going crazy, or chopping up your business?
It has to do with how you define your business in the first place. Read this article.
Offering a Guarantee Without Losing Your Shirt
You may be offering a guarantee, but nervous about it. Or perhaps not offering one at all. What if a bunch of your clients ask for their money back?
Sluuuurrrrrppppp… there goes your business, down the drain.
What makes a guarantee safe for you? Read this article.
Why You Don't Need A Business Plan
For a truly micro-business, or being self-employed, a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
A formal business plan can be over 100 pages, full of all kinds of strange things like ‘competitive market analysis’ and ‘financial forecasting.’ Ugh.
You know who reads business plans? Banks and funders. You know who writes business plans? Businesses who are looking for significant capital funding.
Not you. So, relax, forget about the business plan. Instead, read this article.
The Real Reason Success Is So Elusive (Hint: It's Not Fear of Success)
I’m guessing you spend a certain amount of time daydreaming… Daydreaming of what it will be like when you hit ‘the big time.’ When your finances are really abundant. When you become well-known in your field. When you make that next big step, whatever it is. Dreams of lolling around on silk sheets with peeled […]
Is Your Answer to "What Do You Do?" Missing Two Critical Words?
In the United States, the Boy Scouts of America have a reputation for helping little old ladies across the street. Isn’t that nice?
You would think so, but what if these strapping young men in blue uniforms were grabbing unsuspecting elderly women, and slinging them over their shoulders? Imagine thousands of our honored elders being bodily forced across streets, with cries of “Put me down, you big brute!”
Doesn’t seem so nice, does it?
Yet, many people in business are flinging their resistant customers across streets every time they answer the question, “What do you do?”
They are missing two words.
Which two words will prevent you from hurting the person you are talking to? Read this article.