Professional development Archives | Page 4 of 179

Some useful ideas. Plus an outstanding opportunity for your business

June 8, 2020 by Jim Connolly

I have a couple of important ideas to share with you today, regarding your competitors and some things you need to look out for.

Then, I’ll tell you about an outstanding opportunity that could be right under your nose.

Are your benefits as powerful as they were?

I’d like you to think about the major benefits of hiring you or buying from you. That’s because it’s possible those benefits are not as strong or attractive as they were, before the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, if you were one of the only providers in your industry offering client sessions via video, that won’t be the case any more. If people found your fees or prices were attractive or competitive, that may no longer be the case either. We’re seeing providers in many industries lowering their prices and others aggressively price-slashing. So make sure your strengths are as strong as they were, by paying attention to your competitors.

That leads on nicely to the next idea I’d like to share with you.

Fewer, but stronger competitors

One thing we’re likely to see accelerating over the coming months, is the number of businesses that are either merging with, or being acquired by, better-resourced competitors. This would result in a smaller overall number of competitors to your business, but stronger competition. We saw this a lot during the last recession.

Take some time today to research what your direct competitors are doing. All of them. Even those who have been slow to change over the years. They too are now being forced to adapt.

The more you know about the current shape of your competitors and wider marketplace, the better equipped you are to make decisions. Crisis always brings change. It’s up to you to adapt accordingly. Because doing more of what used to work may not be an option for much longer.

And on a much brighter note…

The opportunity you need could be right under your nose

Amid the challenges out there, it’s really important to be aware that there are also outstanding opportunities. I see examples of this every day. Some are from business owners in the industries most effected by the coronavirus.

Where do I start, Jim?

Be part of the solution, my friend!

This means looking for one of the gaps in your marketplace. These gaps are newly created wants or needs. And they usually present themselves as problems that need solving. They may not be obvious, but they are there.

When you identify a gap, test it. Do the research. Get the numbers. Ask for feedback. If everything stacks up, get to work on how to service that need (solve the problem), in a way that’s valuable to the community you serve and profitable to you.

Is it easy?

No.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely.

It’s a love thing

June 6, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Photo: Shutterstock.

Business is all about people. This is true whether you sell to consumers or to companies. After all, it’s a person who decides to hire you or buy from you.

With that in mind, here are a few ideas to help you connect a little deeper with the needs of the people you serve and your wider marketplace.

People love to talk: Give them a story that’s worth sharing with their friends and contacts, and that’s exactly what they will do. It’s how all word-of-mouth recommendations happen. For inspiration, look to the brands, products and services you’ve recommended in the past. Determine what it was that made them worthy of your recommendation. Then figure out how you can adapt that into your business, products or services.
People love to succeed: Look for ways to help your clients and your marketplace hit their targets or achieve their goals. Ideally this would be through the services or products you provide. That said, if there’s a book, newsletter, idea or article, etc., which you found useful, share it with them or recommend it to them.
People love to be valued: Consider how good you are at showing your appreciation of other people. Even something as simple as a thank you note can make a huge difference to how someone feels. This is especially the case when they’re not expecting it.
People love to feel safe: Focus on ways to make your clients and prospective clients feel more secure and comfortable. The way you apply this will differ depending on your industry or profession. However, when it comes to buying from you, risk reversal is universally effective, if it applies to your industry and you do it correctly. I talk about it here, (in point number 3).
People love to save time: Look for opportunities to help your marketplace get more done in less time. This includes looking for ways to speed up the process of hiring you, buying from you and doing business with you.

Stay safe.

Be stingy with your time, but not your ideas

June 5, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Photo: Shutterstock.

Laura emailed me with a great question. She wanted to know why I give so many ideas away for free.

I’ve chosen to share my answer with you, because I believe it contains a really useful idea.

The contribution mindset

I see it like this:

If you own 3 bags of gold and you give 1 of them away, you are left with 2 pieces of gold. Give all 3 bags of gold away and you’re left with nothing.
However, if you give someone an idea, you still have just as many ideas as you had before. Plus, you have just enriched the other person. Even better, you may have just made a new friend too.

Scaling generosity

The key is to find a way to share your ideas, which scales. In other words, a way to be generous with your ideas that doesn’t leave you with too little time to do the things that you need to do.

If you give an hour of your time away to 10 individual people every day, you have just lost 10 hours of your time. It doesn’t scale. It’s unsustainable. You’ll soon end up broke.
However, if you give an hour of your time to your community every day, in a way that reaches 10 people or 10,000 people you have still only invested 1 hour. Blogging, newsletters, vlogging and podcasts are just some of the ways you can achieve this.

We must be stingy with our time

It’s important to remind ourselves that the clock is ticking. We only have a limited supply of time each day. But when it comes to helping people, by adopting the right strategy we can choose to be generous. We can choose to contribute to the success and happiness of others.

Being generous with our ideas is always important. But especially so in times like these, when so many others really need our help.

Playing to your strengths as a small business

June 4, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Photo: Shutterstock.

Have you noticed the growing number of multi-billion dollar corporations, which are now trying to act like small, compassionate businesses?

I was thinking of this earlier, after reading an interview with the CEO of a major company. He explained the changes they were making, in response to the pandemic. Interestingly, he’s told his workforce they need to stop acting like a corporation and instead, do what’s right and communicate it in a human way.

Let’s ignore the subtext, that until now this corporation has not been doing the right thing.

Instead, let’s focus on why a multi-billion dollar corporation suddenly demands it’s employees to do what’s right and be more human. And the lesson this has for you and your business.

Big companies and corporations have shareholders to please. That means profits come first. Everything has to scale for minimal friction and maximum yield, making it an impersonal way of operating. In normal times, this works spectacularly well for corporations.

But not today

Today, corporations want to send out a signal, “we’re in this with you and want to help”. They cannot be seen to be profit-first machines. Bragging about their huge, 1st quarter results, or surge in their share price, is no longer a smart move… not when many people and businesses are struggling to survive. So, they now want us to see them as going the extra mile. To think of them as being kinder and putting people before profits. Of course, it’s a tactic. A way to position themselves positively and build their brand. A calculated play, designed to attract attention, win customers and drive their profits up.

The big players have the financial resources to market heavily, pushing the message of how caring they are. They’ll have the top PR companies positioning them in news stories as generous and kind.

Companies make multi-million dollar marketing investments like that, based on the very best data. They know how important a human-focused message is.

What this means to you

Small businesses are perfectly placed to make short, medium and long-term gains, because of the very human way they do their day-to-day business. This is something the corporations and big companies are paying a fortune to try and fake, because they know it’s worth it.

You, however, can simply be yourself.

Your client relationships are exactly that, relational, (rather than purely transactional).
Your business always supports local charities, not just when disaster strikes.
Your customer service is flexible, compared to the rigid customer service policies that large companies are forced to adhere to.
There’s almost always a direct connection channel between the small business owner and their clients.
Your clients know that their importance to you is many times greater, than it is to the large companies they buy from.

It’s always a good idea to play to your strengths. And many of the strengths your business has today, come from its size. This means reminding yourself that your business isn’t just like a huge company, only smaller. And embracing the many benefits of being smaller, more agile and maybe most importantly of all… more human.

Stop worrying. Seriously. Stop it

June 3, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Photo: Shutterstock.

Here are some things you need to know about worry, including a more helpful alternative.

Worrying doesn’t make things better. In fact, it’s counter-productive and serves only to make things worse.
Worrying is a horrible waste of your time, and time is your most valuable resource. No one ever looks back and wishes they’d spent more time worrying.
Worrying is infectious. It spreads from you to everyone you connect with; family, friends, clients and your marketplace.
Worrying causes you to operate sub optimally. It poisons your thinking and causes you to make bad decisions.
Worrying puts your mind into a fear focused state. This makes it harder to find the answers you need and easier, to miss valuable opportunities.
Worry is a liar. The vast majority of things we worry about, either never happen or when they do happen, were nothing like as bad as we thought.
Worrying causes you to feel worse… and worse and worse.
Worrying is the lowest possible use of your amazing imagination. When we worry, we use our mind as a movie theatre, which plays the worst case scenarios of whatever we’re worrying about, over and over again. Instead, change the movie. Use your mind to create a movie of the outcomes you want, the solutions you need and the people and things you are grateful for.

A more productive way forward

Once we’re aware that something is worrying us, it’s time to switch on our resources.

It starts with reminding ourselves that we get to choose what we focus on. At any point, we can move our focus from what we’re worrying about, to the solutions open to us. We can list the people whose help or advice we need and reach out to them. We can then decide what action to take and when to take it.

These are difficult times for small business owners. That’s for sure. Thankfully, although we can’t control external circumstances, we absolutely can control how we choose to respond to them.

List building: How to build a list that builds your business

May 28, 2020 by Jim Connolly

People often ask me for tips on how to build a bigger list. They want more subscribers; more readers, more listeners, more viewers, more followers, etc.

The short answer is simple. It’s this.

Create useful content, which is worthy of people’s attention and make it really easy for them to subscribe.

If you do that, you’ll attract more people and because your content is useful, many of them will subscribe. Think about it. That’s the exact process, which motivated you to subscribe to every list you’re on. Something attracted you, you found it useful, you subscribed.

This begs the question: If the answer is so simple, why is it so darn hard to build a large and valuable list?

Here’s the slightly longer answer.

The advice is simple. The process is tricky

There’s some tricky stuff between you and that massively valuable list you want.

Finding something useful to share, on a regular basis, is tricky. Remember, if you just churn out the same stuff as others in your industry, you won’t attract subscribers or retain them. This means you’ll need to be willing to do some research. You’ll need to become a regular note-taker. A collector of ideas. It’s interesting work, but if you’re not already someone who studies and takes notes, it can take a while to transition.

Finding the time to create content is also tricky. You’re already busy, right? Developing content around all that interesting material you have, takes time. That time is easy to justify when you have a huge list. It’s harder to justify, when your hard work is being consumed by just a small number of people. You’ll need to push through the tumbleweed and crickets of the early stages. And I know from personal experience, that can be a real challenge. I explain why here.

Summoning the courage to publish your stuff is tricky. Why? Because if you do it right, you’ll attract critics. Someone once told me that we have a choice to make. We can either be criticized or be ignored. If we’re being ignored, we’re invisible. That’s not good for any business.

The alternative is to not only expect criticism, but to welcome it as a positive sign that we’re no longer being ignored. Don’t set out to attract critics. Set out to be useful and worthy of attention. But see criticism as an inevitable part of becoming visible and successful.

Note: Here’s why people criticize you and how to deal with it.

Once you know what’s involved, building a valuable list is pretty easy.

And the rewards are huge

Picture this: Just imagine what a difference it would make to your business, if you were in regular contact with thousands of prospective customers. Not via advertising, which is usually seen as an unwelcome interruption. But via a subscription to your content, which people proactively requested because they WANT to hear from you. It’s almost impossible to overstate just how valuable your subscribers are.

The opportunity is amazing. And it’s right in front of you. Right now.