Now that you know the importance of loving what you do, what are you going to do with what you love?
Nothing happens if you don’t take action. You have to do something to make things happen.
It’s one thing to love your craft, but you want to make money from it, don’t you?
Taking action is the second most important element of your guerrilla arsenal. This is what starts to bring your customers through the door and money into your till to pay the bills.
Who wants to know about you? Where do you have to go to get noticed? What do you have to do to get something going?
Today. Not tomorrow.
There are a plethora of websites and learning facilities to point you in the right direction. Look up your market segment on Google and it’s awash with opportunities.
But many people in small business are still stuck in a rut. Because taking action is so much harder to do.
I sit in on teleseminars from all over the English speaking world. It’s not unusual for me to be up at 2AM, dialling in on Skype to listen to yet more information about how to improve my small business.
The Question and Answer segments are revealing. 99.9% of small business owners who ask questions all suffer from the same affliction. Procrastination.
This is another common affliction. Gonna do! When I have time, I’m ‘gonna do’ this.
This is the excuse people give when they know they need to get off their derrières and do something.
Yes, yes, I’m 'gonna ring' that company, next week, 'when I have time'.
Sound familiar?
There is no, ‘when I have time’. There’s only ‘YOU MAKE THE TIME’.
Sometimes we’re too scared to take action. We get paralysed with fear that what we’re doing isn’t right. Sometimes we just don’t know what to do.
But remember this. If you don’t take action to make something happen, you’re starving your business to death.
Another reason we don’t take action is our expectations are unrealistic.
For instance, in today’s overloaded with information society, it takes 8.4 approaches before a potential customer has any idea as to who you are.
When do most people give up?
95% of small businesses down tools after the first approach. Less than 5% go on to make the 9th approach and score a victory.
And these courageous and persistent men and women are refining their approach with every attempt. They’re not sending or phoning with the same material every time.
They’re modifying it a degree at a time, to keep it fresh and to make sure they’re getting noticed. And they’re learning as they go.
And brushing off the rejections. Rejections are part of being in business. Accept them and keep moving forward. You’re not going to please everyone.
With that sort of persistence, someone is going to ask you to back off. And of course, you will. You don’t want to be a pest.
But listen to this. This is the reward for taking persistent action. By the time you’ve made your 9th attempt, probably 40% of the people you’ve contacted will become a customer. Maybe not immediately, but I promise you, they will eventually come on board. Or recommend you to someone who will.
Why? Because you’ve given them time to get to know you, like you, feel confident in you and trust you to do business with.
How perfect is that?
And the 95% who didn’t persist with taking action are slowly starving themselves out of business.
No one said being in business was easy. It’s not. Lauren Bacall is famous for her comment about old age. “Old age ain’t for the faint hearted”. And neither is business.
Procrastinating and not taking action is the biggest reason a business fails. To be successful, you have to do something every day to make things happen.
No one is immune from procrastination. But I’ve put a system in place to make sure I give it the brush off when I think it’s rearing its head.
When I know I'm deliberately putting something off, that I know I can do, I ask myself a series of questions.
1. What's my intention? In other words, why am I doing this or why do I
need to do this?
2. Will doing this take me closer to my intention?
3. What do I need to do to get this done? In other words, what actions
do I need to take to complete the task?
4. When I finish this, will I be closer to my goal, or further away from
it? (Repetition never hurts!)
5. Is what I need to do, right now, too hard? Probably not.
6. So why aren't I changing the hour I’m in now?'
Every time I go through this sequence, I do the task and it gets me closer to where I want to be.
It hasn't failed me yet.
If I have a challenge, where I'm not sure I know what I'm doing, I ask
myself a different series of questions. They are:
1. What's my intention? What’s my goal? Why do I want to do this?
2. To do this, what skills do I need?
3. What skills do I have?
4. What skills do I need to learn or acquire from someone else?
5. What policies and procedures do I need to put in place to make this
happen?
6. What can I do right now, to change this hour, and start making things
happen?
Have you heard of changing the hour?
It’s a great concept. You can’t change the hour that’s just passed, but you can change the hour you’re in now. Just simply by doing something, now, that will take you one step closer to your goal of being a success in business.
All success comes in small incremental steps. “Take it by the yard and it’s hard, take it by the inch and it’s a cinch” is an American saying, but very true.
What will you do right now, to change your hour?
Being a Guerrilla From The Bush I’ve learned that changing the hour is crucial to my success. And yours too.
Tell me what you’ve done to change your hour and move your business forward.
I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.
Take care,
CAROL
To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.
The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use. Have a look and see for yourself.
Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.
A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.
1 comment:
'Procrastination is the thief of time', as the saying goes, and isn't this the truth? Benjamin Franklin is credited with the quote: 'Lost time is never found again'.
Some years ago I attended a half day seminar on marketing and part of the afternoon was devoted to 'how to construct a media kit'. Being new to writing and publishing I had no idea of how to do this, hence my attendance. There were 20 attendees, and various media people spoke on how to construct a media release, and the 'protocol'. Within a couple of days I put my workshop knowledge to use, and found it was worth attending.
The person who organised the seminar had said at the seminar and she was available to critique our work. I contacted her and armed with my first attempts, we met for coffee. I showed her my work, and listened to her frank advice. I was amazed when she told me that out of 20 people who attended there were only 2 people who had constructed a media kit! 'What!, Why attend?', I thought. 'What a waste of an afternoon'. Some time later I met a person who had attended. She said that she was 'too busy' to make a media kit, but was 'gunna'.
Have you ever come across humans called 'Gunnas'? I used to live next door to a family of 'Gunnas'. They were 'gunna' do x,y or z when......and there were various 'whens' and 'ifs' ie:
'when the kids grew up'
'when I'm not working full time'
'when we move'
'when I have some time to myself'
'when we....'
'when I....'
and the 'if's'
'If we win the lotto'
'If the weather improves'
'If the government....'
'If the...
'If, if if, if'
Similarly I know a lady who, during the last two years has been 'gunna': start a small business, create an online shop for her collection of antiques, have a garage sale, travel, lose weight, move home and learn how to cook Thai. What has happened? 'Nothing' Why? It has, as far as I can see, 'nothing' to do with money, time, but a lot to do with motivation and drive (or more precisely 'lack of motivation and drive').
This is not to say people have to take crazy risks or put themselves in jeopardy, but why say you're 'gunna' do something and then never get around to doing it?
How many 'gunnas' do you know?
'Procratination is the thief of time'
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