Saturday, September 03, 2005
Business skills = Life skills (Courage to explore)
Here's another life skill that is also a crucial business skill. One of the biggest obstacles that I've seen hamper attempts to start a business is business owners' fear of exploring outside of their comfort zone. I've described in previous blog entries numerous traps that are easy to fall into. Most of them stem from that fear.
There's no way around it. When you start a new business, you are stepping out into territory you've never explored. Even if you've started businesses in the past, each one is still new territory because every business you start will force you to learn new things and overcome new obstacles.
And wishful thinking that we can somehow bypass all this exploration and jump straight from our starting point to a point where we suddenly enjoy all the success we hope for is as unrealistic as is thinking that we can find a way to magically transport ourselves instantaneously from New York to Los Angeles. Just as a physical journey requires us travel one step at a time toward our destination, the journey from our business startup to established, successful business requires that we travel one step at a time toward that desired destination as well.
There's no avoiding it. Yet I've seen so many people starting small businesses (and I've had to fight this in myself) with an unwillingness to venture beyond what feels safe and familiar. Dreams get lost as we fiddle with minutae that keep us in our comfort zone and protect us from those big, bad new experiences that we're unable to predict and have solved before we even encounter them.
Believe me, I've seen in my life what retreating into a narrower and narrower world, trying to protect yourself from all unpredictibility, can do—and it's not pretty. And doing so in business is just as self-destructive of your dreams of success.
Exploration is a basic part of life. It's what enables us to grow beyond what we currently are into what we are capable of being. And the courage to explore the new world we embark into when we start a new business is what enables us to grow our business—and ourselves—into everything we hope they will be.
Jeff
Here's another life skill that is also a crucial business skill. One of the biggest obstacles that I've seen hamper attempts to start a business is business owners' fear of exploring outside of their comfort zone. I've described in previous blog entries numerous traps that are easy to fall into. Most of them stem from that fear.
There's no way around it. When you start a new business, you are stepping out into territory you've never explored. Even if you've started businesses in the past, each one is still new territory because every business you start will force you to learn new things and overcome new obstacles.
And wishful thinking that we can somehow bypass all this exploration and jump straight from our starting point to a point where we suddenly enjoy all the success we hope for is as unrealistic as is thinking that we can find a way to magically transport ourselves instantaneously from New York to Los Angeles. Just as a physical journey requires us travel one step at a time toward our destination, the journey from our business startup to established, successful business requires that we travel one step at a time toward that desired destination as well.
There's no avoiding it. Yet I've seen so many people starting small businesses (and I've had to fight this in myself) with an unwillingness to venture beyond what feels safe and familiar. Dreams get lost as we fiddle with minutae that keep us in our comfort zone and protect us from those big, bad new experiences that we're unable to predict and have solved before we even encounter them.
Believe me, I've seen in my life what retreating into a narrower and narrower world, trying to protect yourself from all unpredictibility, can do—and it's not pretty. And doing so in business is just as self-destructive of your dreams of success.
Exploration is a basic part of life. It's what enables us to grow beyond what we currently are into what we are capable of being. And the courage to explore the new world we embark into when we start a new business is what enables us to grow our business—and ourselves—into everything we hope they will be.
Jeff
Friday, September 02, 2005
Business skills = Life skills (Understanding others)
People who want to start a business online often look to learn specialized business skills they feel they need in order to succeed. And certainly, there are some special skills. But some of the most important ones are simply the same skills you need to get through life, just applied to a business setting.
First off is the ability to empathize with others, to see things the way that they do. This is every bit as essential in business as it is in the rest of life. Now for a business on the Internet, this might not seem so critical. The Internet offers both site owners and searchers a great deal of anonymity. As a matter of fact, many people find starting a business on the Internet more appealing than starting a brick-and-mortar business specifically BECAUSE the anonymity of the Internet gives them the feeling that they'll be freed from the need to deal with other people.
But let me tell you... that simply isn't so! The absolute first things you need to do in starting a business online is to discover what needs people have and then to find a way to offer them a solution to those needs, in a way that pays you in accordance with the value of what you offer them.
That means getting into their heads and understanding their wants and needs. And the need to understand them doesn't stop there. Once you have determined what solutions your business will provide them, it's again essential to get into their heads and figure out what obstacles lie hidden between them and completing the sale.
In other words, an Internet business is no place for someone who wants to build a wall between themselves and the rest of the world and get paid for doing that. Those who can't train their minds to see their needs from the same perspective that their potential customers see them are doomed to failure.
But those who learn to tune into others will always come out ahead—just like in the rest of life.
Jeff
People who want to start a business online often look to learn specialized business skills they feel they need in order to succeed. And certainly, there are some special skills. But some of the most important ones are simply the same skills you need to get through life, just applied to a business setting.
First off is the ability to empathize with others, to see things the way that they do. This is every bit as essential in business as it is in the rest of life. Now for a business on the Internet, this might not seem so critical. The Internet offers both site owners and searchers a great deal of anonymity. As a matter of fact, many people find starting a business on the Internet more appealing than starting a brick-and-mortar business specifically BECAUSE the anonymity of the Internet gives them the feeling that they'll be freed from the need to deal with other people.
But let me tell you... that simply isn't so! The absolute first things you need to do in starting a business online is to discover what needs people have and then to find a way to offer them a solution to those needs, in a way that pays you in accordance with the value of what you offer them.
That means getting into their heads and understanding their wants and needs. And the need to understand them doesn't stop there. Once you have determined what solutions your business will provide them, it's again essential to get into their heads and figure out what obstacles lie hidden between them and completing the sale.
In other words, an Internet business is no place for someone who wants to build a wall between themselves and the rest of the world and get paid for doing that. Those who can't train their minds to see their needs from the same perspective that their potential customers see them are doomed to failure.
But those who learn to tune into others will always come out ahead—just like in the rest of life.
Jeff
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Different directions
Sometimes I look back on the original intent of this blog and wonder if I've gotten off the subject I originally intended to cover. After all, my original intent was to give an inside look at the steps I was taking to start my business after building other people's businesses online.
A couple of things made that seem less feasible in retrospect, though. For one, I couldn't really give inside details of the consulting work I was doing on my client's sites, for confidentiality reasons. For another, as eager as I was originally to reveal all the inside info on my progress building my business, I quickly started to question whether it was really wise to reveal sensitive info like sales figures or specific traffic data. And for a third thing, detailing all the grunt work I was doing often gave me the feeling that I was doing nothing more than keeping a rather boring diary of mundane work.
So I've gradually shifted toward discussing those things in general terms. What's developed, though, has been something quite different than I expected. I've found myself largely sharing insights about starting a business rather than the nuts and bolts. Now, whether you find that useful or not, I don't know. But it's where my passion has been leading me, so I guess that's the direction it will continue to go.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how the skills needed to start and run an online business are remarkably similar to successful life skills in general. In the interest of brevity, I won't launch into that tonight, but starting tomorrow night, I want to take a few nights to share my findings on that with you. I hope you'll find it useful.
Jeff
Sometimes I look back on the original intent of this blog and wonder if I've gotten off the subject I originally intended to cover. After all, my original intent was to give an inside look at the steps I was taking to start my business after building other people's businesses online.
A couple of things made that seem less feasible in retrospect, though. For one, I couldn't really give inside details of the consulting work I was doing on my client's sites, for confidentiality reasons. For another, as eager as I was originally to reveal all the inside info on my progress building my business, I quickly started to question whether it was really wise to reveal sensitive info like sales figures or specific traffic data. And for a third thing, detailing all the grunt work I was doing often gave me the feeling that I was doing nothing more than keeping a rather boring diary of mundane work.
So I've gradually shifted toward discussing those things in general terms. What's developed, though, has been something quite different than I expected. I've found myself largely sharing insights about starting a business rather than the nuts and bolts. Now, whether you find that useful or not, I don't know. But it's where my passion has been leading me, so I guess that's the direction it will continue to go.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how the skills needed to start and run an online business are remarkably similar to successful life skills in general. In the interest of brevity, I won't launch into that tonight, but starting tomorrow night, I want to take a few nights to share my findings on that with you. I hope you'll find it useful.
Jeff
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Learn from my mistake
Among the work I did today, I submitted One Stop Web Support to four sites that I had always gotten decent traffic and good links from. Since I had had good history with these four sites, I didn't bat an eye when I found that their prices for considering my submission had gone way up.
As I saw the price on each one, I thought, "I can handle the price increase; the site's been good to my clients." And I paid. Come to the end of my submissions, though, I realized that I had paid 50% more than I had planned to. And while I had always felt comfortable with what I had paid before for submissions to these sites, I question whether they're worth it at the increased prices.
I made the mistake of considering expenses in a vacuum, without comparing them against expected return or others ways I could spend that same money. I went strictly on my past positive experience with the sites and now am left wondering if those submissions will give me a return on my investment.
Always consider two things when faced with an expense:
Among the work I did today, I submitted One Stop Web Support to four sites that I had always gotten decent traffic and good links from. Since I had had good history with these four sites, I didn't bat an eye when I found that their prices for considering my submission had gone way up.
As I saw the price on each one, I thought, "I can handle the price increase; the site's been good to my clients." And I paid. Come to the end of my submissions, though, I realized that I had paid 50% more than I had planned to. And while I had always felt comfortable with what I had paid before for submissions to these sites, I question whether they're worth it at the increased prices.
I made the mistake of considering expenses in a vacuum, without comparing them against expected return or others ways I could spend that same money. I went strictly on my past positive experience with the sites and now am left wondering if those submissions will give me a return on my investment.
Always consider two things when faced with an expense:
- Is the dollar amount of return I can realistically expect from this purchase greater than the dollar amount (and the dollar value of my time in using it) I am devoting to this purchase?
- Does this purchase provide the best return on the money I'm putting into it or is there another use for it that will provide a better return?
If your answer to both is "yes," you're making a good use of your resources. Analyze the value of each purchase. Don't simply slide into a purchase because it seems to be the thing to do.
Jeff
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Mixed feelings
Not much to say tonight. It was a tense day. Just as I reach a critical point in getting my own business started, my client is now talking about a big, and long-term, expansion project on his sites. Not that I'd sneeze at more contract work, but it does leave me in a bit of quandry of how to devote 40+ hours a week each to multiple sites. I've toyed with subcontracting some of it out. Hopefully, I'll have a little time to come up with a plan of action on this.
But, with a number of pressures filling the day, I can't think of anything wise or insightful (or even crabby) to say today. Bed sure looks good right now!
Jeff
Not much to say tonight. It was a tense day. Just as I reach a critical point in getting my own business started, my client is now talking about a big, and long-term, expansion project on his sites. Not that I'd sneeze at more contract work, but it does leave me in a bit of quandry of how to devote 40+ hours a week each to multiple sites. I've toyed with subcontracting some of it out. Hopefully, I'll have a little time to come up with a plan of action on this.
But, with a number of pressures filling the day, I can't think of anything wise or insightful (or even crabby) to say today. Bed sure looks good right now!
Jeff
Monday, August 29, 2005
Distractions
Man, it's getting hard to stay focused. My mailbox has gotten clogged lately with suggestions from one person or another that I do business with urging me to check out this new free training video or that new forum. I've also come across some new tools that look like they might be a good fit for the type of people who visit my site.
But the reality is that I can't afford the time to test all these great things out. Job #1 for me right now is to grow traffic. I've spent a lot of time building up useful content for people at the neglect of promoting the site. And I'm gratified to see a lot of key indicators growing: traffic keeps growing, average time on site per visit is way up, people bookmarking the site or signing up for the newsletter are growing.
But I'm to the point where I need to focus on reaching out to others and letting them know what's available for them instead of continually building more content and leaving the search engines to do all the promoting for me.
Search engine traffic is only one tool in the promotional toolbox. And its time to start using more of them. It can be easy and comfortable to sit back and hope that people will stumble upon you, but that's not what business is all about. It's about getting out there and building relationships. It's the scary part of business, the part that we'd all too often avoid.
But without that effort to put yourself in front of the people who could benefit from what you have to offer, all you have is a vanity site.
So the great new tools will have to wait for a while. There's a whole lot of gettin' out there to do.
Jeff
Man, it's getting hard to stay focused. My mailbox has gotten clogged lately with suggestions from one person or another that I do business with urging me to check out this new free training video or that new forum. I've also come across some new tools that look like they might be a good fit for the type of people who visit my site.
But the reality is that I can't afford the time to test all these great things out. Job #1 for me right now is to grow traffic. I've spent a lot of time building up useful content for people at the neglect of promoting the site. And I'm gratified to see a lot of key indicators growing: traffic keeps growing, average time on site per visit is way up, people bookmarking the site or signing up for the newsletter are growing.
But I'm to the point where I need to focus on reaching out to others and letting them know what's available for them instead of continually building more content and leaving the search engines to do all the promoting for me.
Search engine traffic is only one tool in the promotional toolbox. And its time to start using more of them. It can be easy and comfortable to sit back and hope that people will stumble upon you, but that's not what business is all about. It's about getting out there and building relationships. It's the scary part of business, the part that we'd all too often avoid.
But without that effort to put yourself in front of the people who could benefit from what you have to offer, all you have is a vanity site.
So the great new tools will have to wait for a while. There's a whole lot of gettin' out there to do.
Jeff
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Favorite Bookmarks
It's Sunday and time for me to share some of my favorite bookmarks with you again. Let's look at some of the bookmarks I've saved out of need rather than out of really, really enjoying them.
They're sites on the technical side of running a website. Now it's not that I don't like these sites, but just that I much prefer the creative side of webmastering over the technical side. That said, here are some sites I've bookmarked because they've proven so useful when I needed answers or tips on technical matters.
Web Developer’s Virtual Library
The WDVL is an essential tool to visit when you want to learn how to use some new technology. They have an incredible library of tutorials as well as news tips and up-to-the-minute info on anything on the technical side of running your website. I won't pretend to be frequent visitor to this site, but when I need to know something, this is where I go.
Big Nose Bird
Call me a sucker for sites that bring a quirky sense of humor to webmastering, but I enjoy this site. It's largely a library of free scripts. I wonder sometimes if anyone is still running it. The copyright date hasn't been changed since 2002. But I've always found some good scripts for free there.
Granted, as I've adopted 1Shopping Cart and SiteBuildIt! with their large collections of built-in functions for the sites I run, I've had very little need for independent scripts, but Big Nose Bird is where I turn first when I need something that 1Shopping Cart and SiteBuildIt! don't carry.
Plus, I enjoy their tutorials, tutorials written in everyday language instead of geek-speak.
SitePoint
SitePoint is a news and tips site that I'm fairly new to, but that looks like it might combine the more accessible tone of Big Nose Bird with the up-to-date information of WDVL. I haven't found the kind of tutorials on SitePoint yet that I've found on WDVL and, to a lesser extent, Big Nose Bird, but the tips are good and written in a way that even I can easily understand it. Definitely a site worth keeping an eye on.
Accessify
Meeting the needs of those who have special challenges is becoming more and more important as the Web matures. I'll admit I haven't put as much into this aspect of my site building as I wish I had. I tend to rely mainly on writing valid code and avoiding a few red flags that I know about. But I really need to dig more into accessibility matters in web design and this is the best place I know of for that.
Its forums focus specifically on accessibility issues on the web and is the best that I know of.
Jeff
It's Sunday and time for me to share some of my favorite bookmarks with you again. Let's look at some of the bookmarks I've saved out of need rather than out of really, really enjoying them.
They're sites on the technical side of running a website. Now it's not that I don't like these sites, but just that I much prefer the creative side of webmastering over the technical side. That said, here are some sites I've bookmarked because they've proven so useful when I needed answers or tips on technical matters.
Web Developer’s Virtual Library
The WDVL is an essential tool to visit when you want to learn how to use some new technology. They have an incredible library of tutorials as well as news tips and up-to-the-minute info on anything on the technical side of running your website. I won't pretend to be frequent visitor to this site, but when I need to know something, this is where I go.
Big Nose Bird
Call me a sucker for sites that bring a quirky sense of humor to webmastering, but I enjoy this site. It's largely a library of free scripts. I wonder sometimes if anyone is still running it. The copyright date hasn't been changed since 2002. But I've always found some good scripts for free there.
Granted, as I've adopted 1Shopping Cart and SiteBuildIt! with their large collections of built-in functions for the sites I run, I've had very little need for independent scripts, but Big Nose Bird is where I turn first when I need something that 1Shopping Cart and SiteBuildIt! don't carry.
Plus, I enjoy their tutorials, tutorials written in everyday language instead of geek-speak.
SitePoint
SitePoint is a news and tips site that I'm fairly new to, but that looks like it might combine the more accessible tone of Big Nose Bird with the up-to-date information of WDVL. I haven't found the kind of tutorials on SitePoint yet that I've found on WDVL and, to a lesser extent, Big Nose Bird, but the tips are good and written in a way that even I can easily understand it. Definitely a site worth keeping an eye on.
Accessify
Meeting the needs of those who have special challenges is becoming more and more important as the Web matures. I'll admit I haven't put as much into this aspect of my site building as I wish I had. I tend to rely mainly on writing valid code and avoiding a few red flags that I know about. But I really need to dig more into accessibility matters in web design and this is the best place I know of for that.
Its forums focus specifically on accessibility issues on the web and is the best that I know of.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
