Don't Get Good At What You Don't Want To Be Doing

I was leaving the Gladstone Hotel recently when the title on a flyer caught my eye ~ Don’t Get Good At What You Don’t Want To Be Doing. The flyer was for a workshop put on by Morena Media to help artists get more clients. The title perfectly encapsulated what we are constantly telling our clients. Let me explain. The activities you do during the day fall into one of three categories.

Category 1 is for those activities you absolutely love doing. They are the ones you are extremely good at and are therefore fun and stimulating to do. They get your creative juices flowing and give you energy. You could work on these 24 hours a day and still not get bored. They are what you were born to do. Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach calls them your Unique Ability.

The activities that fall into category 2 are not as stimulating as those in category 1. But you don’t mind doing them and you do them pretty well. While your ideal world would be a world filled with only category 1 activities you recognize that this expectation is totally unreasonable. You find the time to do category 2 activities so they never pile up and cause you stress.

And then there are category 3 activities. You hate them and you are hopeless at doing them and so all of your procrastination talents fire up. They are left to be done “when I have nothing else to do”. They pile up on your desk constantly reminding you that you can avoid them today but sooner or later you will have to do them. They drag you down; they suck every ounce of creativity out of you; they cause huge stress; they make your life a misery.

It is the category 3 activities that you “Don’t Get Good At”. These are the activities that you must delegate. You must get other people to do them; other people who love doing them. Because there are people out there who love doing the things you hate doing. People whose Unique Ability is doing just these things. They love it; they are stimulated by doing them; and so they are really really good at doing them. I think the title on the flyer I picked up that day at the Gladstone Hotel says it so perfectly. Don’t get good at what you don’t want to be doing ….. find someone else to do it!

What was I doing at the Gladstone Hotel? Well, other than having a beer I was also checking out a “must see” photo exhibit called Building Stories 2010. Check it out at www.gladstonehotel.com/events.

Growth in sales can be harmful!

"Everyone knows that too few sales are fatal. But very few owner-managers understand that too many sales, made too fast, can kill a small business. Managing the growth in sales is another make-or-break condition of small business success." Written by Paul Resnik in his book the Small Business Bible.

Too many sales can be fatal? What is he talking about? Why does he think that? He thinks that because as we have seen in our years of helping hundreds of business owners he is right. Most business owners, especially in the early years of business, are challenged by too few sales and so it is impossible for them to imagine that too many sales would be a worse condition.

It is all about capacity. Every organization has the capacity to deliver their products or services in a timely manner. While in the small business world the same person is very often developing new business AND delivering to their clients they usually have the capacity.

Then the sales begin to grow. Slowly at first but as time passes the speed of growth picks up until the unfortunate day arrives. The company no longer has the capacity to deliver on all the sales. And this is what happens:

• You can no longer deliver in a timely manner
• Quality plummets
• The customers are disgruntled and start going to the competition
• Referrals stop
• In the rush you forget to invoice customers
• The panic causes stress and lack of sleep and is harmful to your health
• There is no time to collect Accounts Receivables

And on it goes until the sales have declined and the business is in serious trouble. This is why growing a business is more, much more, than just increasing your sales. You have to also build the capacity and the infrastructure. You have to hire and train people. Develop and document processes. Identify and manage the Key Business Indicators. In short you have to manage the whole business. That is a far bigger job than just increasing the sales.

Business Successes

The Toronto Star recently ran a couple of Toronto business stories that caught my eye. One of them because it is all about second hand golf balls. The other because a nifty invention was quickly taken up by Wal-Mart. They also caught my eye because they reminded me that business success doesn't happen overnight. Success requires complete faith in one's idea, staying very focused on that idea and not deviating down unrelated paths.

The golf ball article explains how Knetgolf.com's "elaborate Markham factory holds five million cleaned, sorted and bagged golf balls ready to be exported. About 30,000 recovered golf balls are processed daily in Markham and along with another 50,000 at the firm's Arizona facility. The balls are cleaned, sorted by brand and grade and repackaged." The thought of this many golf balls is mind boggling! To read the article go to: Small Markham company is on the ball

The nifty invention story is all about glowsticks and Halloween. To quote from the article: "So when Sydney asked him to make her a glowstick Halloween costume two years ago, he was happy to sit down at his desk and fiddle his way to a colourful answer. Those first simple costumes attracted attention from friends and neighbours, so Shields ran with the idea to sell them online last year. He finally dove full time this year into a new business that has snagged a fast deal to market them across Canada with department store giant Wal-Mart." To read the article go to: Wal-Mart loves dad's bright idea

CATS comes to the Books n Brew

At our recent Books n Brew we all met at the Hot House Cafe, had a few brews, and discussed Stephen Lundin's book CATS - The Nine Lives of Innovation. The overall consensus ~ the book's content is good and helpful but the use of cats is irritating! 


As Cheron Long-Landes (www.bodyfood.ca) wrote: Yes, I did find some good tips and information and have made notes of some of the ideas .... BUT it really bugged me that there really was no senses in the meaning of the word CATS. I honestly feel, had he parallelled how cats live or even made up an acronym, I would have accepted the frequent use of CATS. Having said that I'm glad I read the book!


Mette Keating, owner of InDeVision (www.InDeVision.com) and creator of "The Office Alive" Program, kindly "volunteered" to write this blog about the book. Thank you Mette!

CATS is definitely one of the better books that I have read lately.  Read it and use it to spark the curiosity and creativity within every employee and inspire innovation approaches to ordinary everyday situations.

Challenge yourself with these CAT Nips below:

Nip 1.

Think of a time when you were devastated by the comments of a thoughtless critic.

*What was your idea?

*What did the voice of judgment say?

*How did that feel?

*What did you think but not say out loud?

*What did you say?  What did you do then?

*Did you fight back or give up?

*What are the long-term effects of this drama if it is played over and over again?

*How can you stop the drama from playing in your life?

Now find someone to talk about this with, and see what his experience has been with critics.

Nip 2.

Try something that has the potential to instantly create spaciousness in your life.  When you find yourself evaluating or judging, redirect your attention to curiosity and wonder.  Try to see the same thing with the open interest of an infant.  The world looks different when you simply see it and don't judge it.

Nip 3.

Can you think of some personal examples of workplaces that seem, by the very nature, to breed fun and innovation?

*Ask yourself this question: "When do I have the most fun at work?"

*Now ask yourself: "When am I most innovative at work?"

Nip 4.

What are the names of the primary content files you have accumulated?  For example, you might have files for management, motivation, research design, metallurgy, leadership, astronomy, physics, math, change ... name yours.

*Do you have a Mind Map for each of these?  Make one, and keep it updated for the rest of your life.

*Prepare a place to keep neat ideas?

*Review your Mind Maps each week?  Do it.

Nip 5.

Consider putting yourself in situations that will stretch your boundaries:

*Travel, but without a tour group.  Have a personal experience.

*Read biographies of people in a variety of fields.

*Hang out with those who are not at all like you.

*Observe life!

*Try things just for the sake of experiencing them (legal things).

*Look for ways to walk in someone else's shoes.

Nip 6.

Here are some things you can tell yourself when you are stuck:

*How fascinating!

*It's not the end of the world, for goodness sake!

*I will live another day to tell the story.

*Let's backtrack and see what went wrong.

*It could have been a lot worse!

*Hmm, what can I learn from this episode?

*Adversity builds character.

*Five years from now, how important will this seem? 
  
Visit Mette's web site to see the fantastic work she does to make workplaces come alive! www.InDeVision.com

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

To Tweet or not to Tweet. That is the question put to us on a regular basis by our business owner clients. Should Twitter be a part of their marketing strategy, they ask. Like everything in life there isn't a yes or no answer! The place to start is your target market. Where and who is your ideal client? According to a recent Toronto Star article the Solutions Research Group has identified the Canadian Twitter demographics to be:

• 42% are aged 18 to 34
• 28% are 35 to 49
• 17% are 50 and older
• 13% are 12 to 17

So if your target market is consumers in the 12 to 17 age group then you may think twice. Not to say some businesses are not using Twitter well by announcing upcoming events or the introduction of new products. The Toronto Star article (September 26th Business Section) cites evidence that Twitter does have a growing following of businesses. And it quotes Keith Macarthur, Roger's head of social media, who can see Twitter becoming a great tool for their customer relations.

The problem as I see it is that the business Tweets are crowded out by the hundreds of innocuous messages like "I have just eaten the best ham sandwich ever" or "On the way to work I saw the coolest shoes". Furthermore we have to wait for the qualified "followers" to find us and want to follow us. I always prefer more proactive marketing strategies myself. As Adrian Davis, President of Whetstone, wrote in a recent blog "these (social media) are focused on quantity of connections rather than quality".

We have a model we use when working with our clients: "While you are doing one thing, you can't be doing another thing." This is particularly true for small business owners who do not have armies of people to delegate work to. So if you are focused on getting Twitter up and running as an effective marketing tool you are not doing some other maybe proven marketing activity. Not to say you shouldn't try but keep in mind that Twitter is yet to prove itself as an effective marketing tool.

Social media is here to stay. And it's fun. But is Twitter the right marketing tool for business? Is Twitter worth the investment of our scarce resources - time and money? Will Twitter enhance the very core of quality marketing - relationship building? I don't think so. But it is time for some serious debate on the benefits of the social media for businesses. To start the debate I bring your attention to two excellent articles on the subject.

This one was written by David Baker, founder of ReCourses - David's article
And this comes from Adrian Davis, President of Whetstone Inc - Adrian's article

So think about it. Will Twitter and all the other social media become the future marketing miracles for us business owners or will they fade into the sunset. No, they are not going to fade away! I'm just not sure what form they will take. And I'm not sure if they will become an integral part of our marketing tool box.

Join the debate. Leave a comment or email me at nick@yourplanningpartners.com.

The Perfect Business

We at Your Planning Partners believe every Canadian business owner should have the opportunity to build the Perfect Business. But what is a Perfect Business?

The Perfect Business supports the life style you and your family want. This covers everything from personal income through to life balance. It means the business is not consuming every minute of your life. It means your family and/or friends are not complaining about your constant absences or starting to exclude you from family events. It means you are receiving an income commensurate with your role and responsibilities.

The Perfect Business is one you enjoy passionately. You love the nurturing, the leading, the guiding that successful businesses need. You get great delight in seeing your people grow professionally. You get excited every time a new customer comes on board. You are proud of your business.

The Perfect Business has value so one day, when you are ready, it can be sold. Yes it might be far away over the horizon but the reality is there. One day you will not be around to run the business and you cannot take it with you. Or, more likely, one day you will be wanting to do something else; retire or start another business or take up stamp collecting. Whatever it may be you will still need an income. Your business is your retirement income.

So in short the Perfect Business:

1. Supports the lifestyle you and your family want
2. You enjoy passionately
3. Has value so can be sold

What are your thoughts about the Perfect Business? Leave a comment to this post or email me at nick@yourplanningpartners.com. Have a good week building your Perfect Business!

Books n Brew

Rob MacGregor, owner of Koyana Inc ("We Save Software Projects In Crisis!" www.koyanainc.com) selected the Books n Brew book and led the lively discussion that took place about what we as small business owners can learn from it. The overwhelming consensus about the book ~ What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith; it is a must read for all small business owners.

Here is a surprised Rob winning one of the door prizes from Anne Sowden. The prize ~ the book Executive Image Power of which Anne is one of the contributing authors (www.hereslookingatyou.ca).

Other door prizes:

• 30 minutes of remote IT support from DigitalFire (www.digitalfireinc.com) won by Martha Dove (www.marthadove.com)
  
• Copy of the next Books n Brew book Cats The Nine Lives of Innovation presented by Your Planning Partners and won by Jonathan Roberts (www.zzeem.com)