Mistakes

There's this trick that jugglers play sometimes: when performing their most difficult routine, they may drop a ball or two on purpose just to "sell" the audience on the difficulty of the task. Then, they try again and it comes out perfect. Applause.

In business we don't need to fake mistakes, because even if we aim for perfection mistakes will happen (they come with the territory when we're trying to do something worthwhile).

Fortunately, mistakes are also great opportunities. While perfection may be taken for granted or go unnoticed, people pay attention to (and remember us for) the way we fix our mistakes.

It's OK to drop a ball once in a while. What really matters is what we do next.

Image credits: Calliope_Muse

Experts

Americans have a fascination with experts. In part, I think, this is due to our quest for convenience and instant gratification. It's also a way to deflect responsibility: if something goes wrong "it's not my fault: the expert said it!"

It's perfectly OK to know our limitations and to ask for help when we feel stuck. That doesn't mean, though, that we can abdicate our responsibility to think and do our homework.

We don't need to know all the answers, but we must at least be able to ask a few good questions.

The Limo

A few days ago I was on my way to JFK riding on one of those comfortable Lincoln Town Cars, popular with car services in the city.

Trying to make small talk with the driver I asked him how many cars did the car service own. "A lot, more than seventy", he said. Then he paused for a moment and said something that bothered me: "We (meaning the drivers) are making them rich."

Hearing the driver badmouth his employer was uncomfortable, but what bothered me more was his implication that running a business is easy and performing a job is hard, when more often than not it's the other way around.

Running a business entails putting money on the line, becoming comfortable with leverage and risk and, especially, dealing with the pressure of having to find customers every day. Compare that to just having to show up and drive...

Risk and reward, supply and demand. Sounds pretty basic-and it is. Unfortunately, too many people are still stuck in the entitlement mentality.

Image credits: Luke Roberts

Amateurs Sell. Professionals Sort

When it comes to marketing, what do you usually do? Do you spend your time trying to convince people to buy (selling) or finding people who want to buy (sorting)? Big difference...

Amateurs sell. Professionals sort.

Trying to convince people to stop buying brand A (the competition) and start buying brand B (yours) by bombarding them with facts, features and benefits sounds reasonable, but it doesn't work.

If people don't have (or don't think they have) a problem with what they're currently using, they won't even listen to you.

Marketing is not the business of changing peoples' minds. It is the art of finding people who want to buy what you have to offer (and they won't buy until they have a problem). What problem are you trying to solve with your features and benefits? Are you sure it's really a problem, or are you just shouting in the wind?

Doing Less With Less

The phrase "you have to do more with less" has become the rallying cry during tough economic times.

I don't particularly like it, though, because I think it's misleading. It sounds as if we're being asked to work harder, when what we're really expected to do is work smarter.

Rather than doing "more with less" we need to become experts at doing "less with less". Less low-impact work, less busywork, less mindless we've-always-done-it kind of work, so we can focus only on high value, high return activities.

If you have less, do less. Just make sure they're the right things.

The Cola Wars

Interesting article: Pepsi and Coke are at the brink of a new marketing "cola war". Pepsi has announced a $600 million marketing investment while Coke says they've slated $650 million for brand building initiatives.

So, more than a billion dollars will be spent between two companies trying to convince people to drink more glorified sugar water.

Yes, promoting a crappy product is expensive.

If you're an entrepreneur, spend your money making a really good product so you don't have to spend a fortune later trying to convince people to buy it.

The Five Question Business Plan

In its most simple form, a business plan is just the answers to five basic questions: why, how, what, who and when.

In brief:

Why: As in "why are you in this business?" This is your purpose, your mission. It has to be deeply aligned with your personal values, otherwise you're going to be miserable.

How: As in "how do you plan to accomplish that?" This is your strategy, the path you've chosen to fulfill your mission. It has to be deeply aligned with your strengths and skills, otherwise you will most certainly fail.

What: As in "what exactly do I have to do?" These are the actions, the tactics, the things you have to do to execute your strategy. They are the day-to-day of your business.

Who and When: This is the execution. It's when you establish ownership and accountability. Without execution nothing happens.

Two very important points:

1) You have to do all five, and, most importantly

2) You have to start with Why

How To Give Praise

Praising others for a job well done is a powerful motivator. The key to do it right is to make it short and not to include any qualifiers.

For example, telling someone: "Great first quarter! Now let's make the second quarter even better", is not the right way to praise. Neither is: "Great presentation, but perhaps next time we can make it a little bit shorter".

This is much better: "Josh, that was a great presentation. Thank you."

If you want to praise somebody, just do that. If there is something minor that they could have done a little better (and there always is) mention it some other time.

It's easy and very effective. Try it.

Image credits: Articularnos.com

Selling The Idea Before The Execution

This is a powerful tip from a book I just read called The Art of the Pitch by Peter Coughter: sell the idea before the execution.

I'll give you an example: suppose you're a graphics designer trying to sell a new business card design to a real estate agent. You want to do something different, so your design doesn't include the customary agent's picture.

If you show the agent your new designs up front, the first question she's probably going to ask is: where's my picture? You can try and explain why you didn't include it, but at that point it will sound more like damage control than a genuinely good idea.

If instead you first sell her on your theory that agents' pictures in business cards are ineffective, unoriginal and overdone, then it's just a matter of showing her your designs so she can pick one.

Our best ideas are usually the most controversial ones, so they need to be sold first. If we do that, selling the execution becomes easy.

What Do You Recommend?

One of my pet peeves is hearing this conversation:

Waiter: what would you like to order?

Diner: uhhh, I don't know, what do you recommend?

People usually do this not because they're feeling adventurous, but because it's easier to burden someone else with the decision.

It wouldn't be a big deal if this happened only in a restaurant setting, in the context of ordering a meal. The problem is that small habits like this are often indicative of how we make more important decisions.

Making decisions (and acting on them) is hard work, that's why so many people just go through the motions, letting others decide for them.

If our default reaction when facing a decision is to ask others "what do you recommend?", then let's not complain if what we get is not what we were expecting.