You’ve done all that you can. You’ve covered the angles. You’ve set the players in motion. You’ve launched your product. You’ve opened your doors for business.
What do you do next? Sit and wait.
Doing nothing and being still are not the same things. Sometimes we unintentionally get in our own way.
You’ll see. When you’ve done what your supposed to do, everything else will take care of itself.
Shipping. A phrase coined by the marketing guru, Seth Godin, and recently exercised by a good friend of mine, Randy Redhead a.k.a. Prime Red.
He recently released his new project “Letters from the Architect” on Bandcamp, and today, officially launched the music video for his single “Billion Dollar Business!”
Shipping is never easy and Prime Red can testify to this. The project had been stewing in his brain for months and during production, he came across numerous frustrations and moments of fatigue. Never did I hear him mention, “letting this one go”.
As you can see from the support of friends, family, trusted colleagues, and new fans — Prime Red has inspired and motivated so many people around him, inspiring what they have coined #theresistance. Music and sound that stays true to the artist and that resists the duplication, simplification, and vapid creations found in music today.
Big Ups! to the man who ships his project, shares his passions, and lights the path of those around him, thereby lighting his own!
Check out Randy Redhead and his projects at:
Bandcamp: Primered.Bandcamp.com
&
Twitter: @PrimelabsQW
Billion Dollar Business [Official Video]
Fight or flight? That’s the question I pose to you and one that you should ask yourself. Especially in business! For the most part, in my experience, “businessmen” have a cool detachment from their work. We try not to get over emotional and always think things through, or so I thought.
I have recently experienced a flight response from a past team member I worked with. They were given an assignment which may have been a bit over their head, but instead of facing the challenge head on or doing what they could, they have chosen to drop the project all together.
So I have tried to figure out why that response. Let’s look at several factors of motivation:
1) Money? There was significant compensation.
2) Time? Maybe.
3) Resources? They had the tools they needed: software, hardware, etc.
4) Know-how/skill set? This is where I believe the response stemmed from.
People have a tendency to protect themselves when they aren’t confident in their abilities. Instead of stepping into a visible project and dealing with the discomfort, we hide. No amount of money could make us step into that zone of notoriety.
In my particular field, we work in teams. If you have the opportunity to take the ball, then I say take it and go as far as you can while remaining transparent and candid.
In that way the team benefits from your forward progress.
What factors or situations have you encountered that have given way to a flight response in business? For yourself? Maybe, a team mate?
We have all been there. Your are assigned a task that you really don’t want to deal with and seems to big to tackle. So you do what many people do, you procrastinate.
Laura Vanderkam wrote a great article on Bnet.com on 5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating. Here is her advice:
Nothing feels greater than shipping a project that you have spent months developing! Today was a great day as the crew at evolveALOUD and I flipped the switch and brought a new website live. You’ve heard the phrase well oiled machine but I have something better, A Fully Involved Team!
I was given an article by a friend and business associate of mine called ‘The 8 Characteristics of Ideal Business Partners.’ Point #3 is what I want to illustrate on that piece which is: The passion to become the best at what they do. This is what my team has demonstrated over these past few months and I am very grateful to be working with a high caliber of people!
It’s amazing how a few extra minutes can enhance a customer’s experience.
There are 3 levels of service you can give to your customer:
(Anything below avg is never to be considered)
I was chatting with a service agent looking to reset my password on an account. The agent reset my password as requested(avg service). Then, asked if I would like them to stay on the line, while I logged-in, to make sure I had no issues (memorable service). Lastly, before the call ended, they asked if there was any thing on my account or on the website that I would like to review(outstanding service). I never felt rushed.
All of this took place within a 5min time span. My issue was resolved in 1min (password reset), true service was delivered with the remaining time.
What could a few extra minutes do for your business? What about your life?
I learned in martial arts that a force can be redirected through gentle movements that will take it off its course/target over a distance. The same way a fist can be moved to miss a target, so can your focus be side-tracked through the gentle influence of your friend’s, family’s, and co-worker’s ambitions for you.
It is easy to head-off and avoid or overcome those direct oppositions that stand in the way of what you want to accomplish in life, but what about those who care for you? Those who have their best intentions for you? Those who have their own vision of what you should do or where you should be within a company?
It is important to remind yourself of your yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals EVERYDAY in order to keep yourself on target.
Remember, like in martial arts, a small adjustment or influence may not appear to affect you in the present, but over time you will have missed your target completely!
Groupon has had wild success since its inception and earlier this week businesses and media were trying to make sense of this new e-mail tool. Forbes has recently donned Groupon with the title “fastest growing company…ever.” There have been a growing number of success stories from many businesses that have seen a surge of new clients when they execute a Groupon campaign offering discounts to the customers who sign up for their daily emails.
Cited from the Harvardbusiness.org article Groupon: Is Google Making a $6 Billion Mistake? the Boston barbecue chain Blue Ribbon BBQ offered $15 worth of BBQ for $7. More than 16,000, people bought the deal which gave the chain a revenue return of $250,000 in less that 24 hours.
But is Groupon right for every business? There is an unaswered questions that a business needs to consider before investing in a Groupon Campaign: