Today, I’m going to show you how to avoid creating an incorrect, damaging impression of your business. This is critically important, so let’s dive in.

You’re a professional. You have a superb business. You offer an excellent service. And you care passionately about your clients.

My question for you today my friend, is this: How clearly does that message come across in your marketing?

Greed, need or deed?

Think for a moment about the marketing messages you receive, from emails and social media updates, to advertisements, cold calls and direct mail, etc. Every marketing message is based on one of the following three motivations.

1. Greed motivated: I want your money. Buy my stuff.
2. Need motivated: I need you to buy from me. Please, please buy my stuff.
3. Deed motivated: There’s something that I believe will help you, so I created it for you.

Greedy marketing repels people. Greed is one of those universally disliked attributes. It’s ugly. It’s selfish. We avoid greedy people and greedy businesses.

Needy marketing also repels people. As soon as the marketplace thinks a provider desperately needs sales or needs money urgently, it sets alarm bells ringing. “What if they’re going broke!?!” These alarm bells make people way less likely to buy from them.

Deed driven marketing attracts people. It makes us feel positive toward the person or brand behind it. It’s an easy message to connect with. Deed driven marketing is about sincerely wanting to help the people in your marketplace with the products or services you provide. It attracts their attention, makes them feel good about you and creates a powerful connection between you.

IMPORTANT: Here’s where the challenge comes in. Many small and medium-sized business owners who are deed focused, have no idea how greedy or needy their marketing looks. And it’s seriously hurting their business.

A couple of very common examples

One common example is the use of freebies, such as free initial consultations. These are widely used by service providers, who dabble with their marketing and have no idea how much damage they’re doing to their reputation.

When you attach zero value to your time, you send a damaging, toxic message to prospective clients. The marketplace knows that the best service providers are busy professionals, who have no need to give their time away for free. So, if they see a provider offering freebies, it tells them that the service provider is under-employed, getting too few referrals, in need (needy) or all three! This keeps the service provider in a negative loop, as the best clients are repelled and freebie hunters (who grab anything that’s free), are attracted to the free consultation like moths to a flame.

Another common example is special offers.

These can also come across as needy or greedy when handled incorrectly. And that’s exactly how the vast majority of small and medium-sized business owners handle special offers. They put their offers together, outside of a professional marketing strategy. In doing so, they can cause the marketplace to think there’s a so-called fire sale going on. Equally, the use of special offers can train your marketplace to wait for the next special offer, which makes it hard to sell anything at the regular price. This eats profits and it’s totally avoidable.

In short, it pays to be highly intentional regarding how you market your business. Always look at the bigger picture from an outside perspective. Make sure you’re projecting yourself as eager to help, not greedy or needy.

Image: Sarah Kilian

I made a couple of epic mistakes when I started out in business. Here they are, along with a powerful lesson that you may find useful.

I was prompted to write this after a talk I gave to a group of young entrepreneurs. One of them asked me a great question. They wanted to know; what was the most valuable lesson I learned, from my first year in business?

The answer was easy.

I remember it well.

Because it was so painful.

Sincerely wrong

My answer began with a quote from Jim Rohn:

“Sincerity is not a test of truth. We must not make this mistake: He must be right; he’s so sincere! That’s because, it’s possible to be sincerely wrong.”

I explained that during my first year as a business owner, I’d made 2 extremely bad decisions. I made them based on feedback from a couple of people I trusted. I was in my twenties at the time. They were 20 or 30 years older than me. They were also good, genuine and sincere people.

Making decisions based on their advice seemed sensible.

It wasn’t. Oh man. It really wasn’t!

One of those decisions lost me an amazing opportunity. Another cost me a fortune and almost left me broke. I quickly learned that I had to be a lot more discerning, regarding who I went to for important advice. It was around that time that I discovered the above quote from Jim Rohn.

From that point onward, I decided the best source of business advice was from people, who’d already achieved what I wanted to achieve. I’ve followed that rule ever since and have never once regretted it.

My original approach failed me in 2 important ways

Firstly, their geographical proximity to me was not a useful way to determine the value of their feedback. I rely on experts today, who are located all over the world.

Secondly, they were knowledgeable, but they were not entrepreneurs.

• One was the branch manager at the bank where I opened my first business account.
• The other was the practice manager at my accountant’s office.

They remained salaried employees for the remainder of their careers; never actually going into business for themselves. They operated from the employee mindset.

They saw risk in everything. They’d advise me against doing anything, unless there was a guarantee, in advance, of success.

Business doesn’t work like that.

In fact, life doesn’t work like that. And it never has. Otherwise no one would ever start a business, or get married, or start a family, or buy a new home, or travel the world or do anything. Success comes from minimising risk. Not from avoiding potential risk. Both of the people advising me were sincere. But the advice they were giving me, as Jim Rohn said, was sincerely wrong.

Who is currently influencing your decision making? That’s a question worth considering. Especially if your business isn’t making the progress you want or need.

Image: Jametlene Reskp

The breakthrough result you’ve been waiting for is closer than you think. Here’s a trusted and proven way to make it happen.

I was prompted to write this, after someone emailed me with a request. His email opened with; “I need a major breakthrough, Jim!”.

In short, he wanted me to personally introduce him to someone who’s very wealthy and a friend of mine. The unknown emailer apparently has a proposal, which he’s sure my friend “will want to be in on”.

• Let’s ignore the fact that the person he wants me to introduce him to is not a friend of mine, but an acquaintance instead.
• And let’s also ignore why on earth I would personally recommend a total stranger to anyone.

Instead, let’s look at the mindset the emailer is using.

Because although his email was certainly unusual, a lot of business owners adopt a broadly similar approach.

Allow me to explain.

The thing about major breakthroughs

When looking for a major business breakthrough, the temptation can be to focus on a massive home run… a home run, which will save you years of effort and land you in the big time.

“If I could just get 20 minutes with (insert name of famous billionaire), maybe they would back my idea”.

That’s one way to succeed.

However, major business breakthroughs don’t tend to happen like that. There will be exceptions, but they’re called exceptions for a reason. They’re exceptional.

Instead, major breakthroughs are almost always the result of lots of mini breakthroughs. And the process is tried and tested. It follows the same, proven path.

• You decide exactly what breakthrough you want to achieve and put a plan together.
• You chunk your plan down into a series of steps (mini breakthroughs).
• You then apply intelligent activity to each step.
• You carry on taking steps forward, until you’ve achieved your major breakthrough.

Recommended reading: How to know if you have a winning idea.

It’s far less glamorous than scoring lunch with Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban and being handed their full financial backing. But it’s far more likely to actually happen.

One of the best kept secrets in business, is something I call reduction. It’s a strategy I share with my clients and today, I’m going to share some of it with you.

Less can be more

Ineffective business owners strive to do more and more.

They focus on productivity hacks, growth hacks, life hacks and short-cuts. As an unavoidable result, they become increasingly busy, increasingly stressed, increasingly frustrated and increasingly disappointed.

Thankfully, there’s a smarter way forward.

The most effective business owners use a very different approach. They’ve discovered that the biggest wins come from doing fewer things. Less is more.

For example:

• Fewer unfinished projects, leads to more clarity.
• Fewer social media interruptions, leads to more focus.
• Fewer repeated errors, leads to more progress.
• Fewer dodged decisions, leads to more respect.
• Fewer missed deadlines, leads to more trust.
• Fewer hours wasted, leads to more productivity.
• Fewer angry words, leads to more happiness.
• Fewer broken promises, leads to more belief.
• And fewer excuses, leads to more achievement.

If you find yourself stressed, working long hours and making too little progress, don’t add even more to your workload. All it will do is create additional stress.

Instead, focus on reduction. Because with the right strategy, less can be more. So much more.