A thought provoking statement over on Start Up Donut advising you to base a business on something you enjoy.
Here are 10 reasons not to do that:
- Creating a distinction between work and play is important to give your life balance
- Picking from a pool of 3 or 4 subjects may focus the mind, but might mean you don’t consider some other great opportunities
- Just because you enjoy something does not make it commercially viable
- When you are at work…are you working or playing?
- It can be hard enough to find time to spend with your family and friends as a business owner already. This can be exacerbated if you are having too good a time!
- Conversely, if you live and breath one subject you can easily become sick of it
- If you screw up your business, you could end up not enjoying your hobby
- You are more likely to make decisions with your heart and not your head
- Eventually running most businesses (that succeed a bit) is less about the service you provide and more about administration and management. You may end up neglecting these if you enjoy the subject too much or conversely you may end up resentful of the business because it no longer feels like your hobby.
- Profit and success create passion and motivation and gives you a reason to get out of bed, and pick up the phone. Without these, you’ll need one hell of a hobby to keep plugging away.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t turn a hobby into a business, I’m just saying that I value my work and hobbies too much to mix them.
thomas valaitis success strategies
How many entrepreneurs out there spend all their time looking for the quick wins in their new or existing business? You know, the type of actions or concepts that generate loads of profit very quickly with very little effort.
How many of these do you think you find every 10 years?
Perhaps a couple if your smart, perhaps a couple if you’re lucky.
I wonder if you’d do better to look for some slow burner, sure thing type wins. Not necessarily more easy and it will definitely take longer.
Probably a lot less stressful, probably a lot more reliable, probably a lot more profitable, probably a lot more sustainable.
thomas valaitis success strategies long term strategies, make money quickly, quick wins
Interesting (ish) article over on Reuters about auditing your image. 2 Things really leaped out at me:
- “…remember that it is usually not in employees’ best interests to point out any problems they might end up being assigned to fix or for which they might be blamed.”
If this describes your office culture…well, good luck anyway (shudder).
- “A confused mind always says no.”
That’s a really good point, how hard do you try to make sure the most common questions that occur to your customers are taken care of before they are asked? (The point is that I guess they don’t always get asked). How clear is your message?
thomas valaitis reputation, staff, success strategies blame culture, clarity
There is almost certainly a gap in any established market for somebody who does something amazing or makes something amazing.
There aren’t many gaps left in most established markets for somebody who does something average or makes something average.
That’s bad news for most of the businesses I seem to encounter.
Great news for you I hope!
thomas valaitis marketing, success strategies gap in the market
Don’t mistake an ability to criticise your idea or your business with business acumen.
Loads of people can look at your idea and tell you what’s wrong with it (and so an industry of “life & business coaches” was born!)
Very few people can start with a blank sheet of paper.
Even fewer people can start with a blank sheet of paper, and a commitment to get the job done. If you started your own business, you probably are one of them. Well done.
Incidentally, there’s a lot of value to be gained from people who can look at an idea and tell you what’s wrong with it. Just try to avoid the ones that are “dining out”.
thomas valaitis success strategies business coaches, creativity, ideas
step 1) it is essential that you create an environment that makes the exit as simple as possible. You want to leave a secure and tidy operation behind you with no loose ends.
step 2) decide who must remain in the business to make the transition a success, and consider how they will feel about your exit
step 3) pick up your keys and leave. Perhaps at this point you may like to go for a drink and dream about having a business that somebody would want to buy.
thomas valaitis success strategies
Definitely go to the person with the massive house and big shiny car.
Everybody else just talks a good story.
thomas valaitis success strategies
Have you ever laughed so hard that you actually stopped making a sound, like a negative crescendo?
Maybe that’s why your phones are a bit quiet. Perhaps your customers are so desperate to take up on your product or service, that they are unable to speak. Alternatively, perhaps you need to look at your marketing strategy.
thomas valaitis success strategies
It’s very easy to sell something if you believe in it.
That’s because you’re not selling it, you’re telling people about it.
Telling people about a product/service is fun, exciting and empowering because you are presenting solutions that might improve lives.
Selling stuff is crap.
thomas valaitis success strategies believe, selling tactics
Well, I think so anyway.
The problem is that people associate christmas (or thanksgiving) with turkey so that’s what they buy. They buy without thinking. Goose still sells very well, but it will never capture a statistically signficant slice (sic) of the market.
It’s very hard to get people to try something new, and even harder to get people to break habits. You’re asking people to think about things they don’t consider optional.
Seth Godin has some good ideas about concept penetration, but you’d better have a bloody good concept if you are going to try.
Be honest with yourself: are you asking people to think in a different way in order to use your product?….is your product better than a big tasty goose?
thomas valaitis success strategies