Business Strategy

17 Sep 2012

Finding a Business Coach (or Consultant)

By |2017-04-04T15:43:12-06:00September 17th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Mindset and Motivation|

For many of our early years in business I have to admit I did not really believe in hiring a business coach or consultant.

I think it was a mix of:

  • Seeing it as an expense and not an investment,
  • Not really trusting others as much as myself,
  • The belief that I could figure things out myself (eventually).

When we finally did break down and enthusiastically hire a marketing and sales coach (consultant) we had a pretty iffy experience. Sure the guy was pretty decent in his field.

The problem was he was more concerned about maximizing the revenue from us and not […]

11 Sep 2012

The Irrelevant Entrepreneur

By |2017-04-04T15:44:19-06:00September 11th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast|

In my last post (What the Flu Taught Me About Business) I talked about why it is necessary to think like an entrepreneur and make yourself unnecessary to your business’s success (at least for a period of time).

Many aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners will be tempted to take a very dangerous shortcut.

The Shortcut

It goes something like this. “I can’t handle all of the work I have to do” or “I don’t like doing these parts of the work.” The really forward thinking (i.e. brilliant strategic) ones will go “I create more value doing X than Y so I […]

9 Sep 2012

What The Flu Taught Me About Business

By |2017-04-03T11:35:40-06:00September 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast|

The flu means fever, headaches, body aches, sore throat, upset stomach, bloating… (I won't go into all the details, you get it).

Usually the having the flu means it is very difficult to work, often for several days. And even when you can finally think straight, it often means another few days at home to avoid passing it on to coworkers or clients.

Clowns

Even Clowns Can See Better Days

What happens to the work you normally do when you are sick? 

What is the impact […]

20 Aug 2012

Selling Without A Plan – Do You Have One?

By |2017-04-03T11:35:47-06:00August 20th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

Today I was part of no less than two discussions around closing and why it doesn't always happen. The similarities with my own recent experiences caused me to consider things a little deeper. I've been making these very mistakes at times. 

Snoopy
You've got them seeing Snoopy. Now what?

The Big Event

By big event I mean a product demo, major sales call, public speaking, a seminar, a teleseminar, a webinar or any other event where you are bringing people in to feed your sales pipeline.

In many cases you are very focused […]

15 Aug 2012

Finding “Your One True Purpose” (For Now)

By |2017-04-03T11:35:59-06:00August 15th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Mindset and Motivation|

Marry talent and passion and you have found your life calling.

Do what you love and nothing can stop you. Eternal happiness will be yours.

This is what some believe. What some have told me.

Your one true purpose.

Passions Evolve

I don't know about you, but my passion for things changes over time.

Sometimes I am really passionate about something at the outset but lose interest over time. Other times I have had lukewarm enthusiasm for something at the start and passion has built over time.

Passion is also a choice that is influenced by others in your life. Were you ever part of a band […]

9 Aug 2012

Your Story: Communicating Value First

By |2017-04-03T11:36:09-06:00August 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

We are in the process of building out our new Manifast website. This is not the Manifast tool which is already quite mature and powerful, but our marketing website. 

There are so many ways you could do it.

This is our approach.

Story
Communicate the Value First

Seth Godin talks often about telling a story; best story wins. Chet Holmes talks about focusing on a core story with market driven data in "The Ultimate Sales Machine". Bob Burg and John David Mann talk […]

1 Aug 2012

Pivot: Strategic Plans Need to Adapt Quickly

By |2017-04-03T11:36:23-06:00August 1st, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast|

We started out thinking that our Manifast strategy would be to use our business expertise to build a great software product. It would educate and "coach" businesses to work on the business. Business advisers, coaches and consultants would use Manifast to enhance how they work with clients and the pairing would benefit all.

We launched the product publicly in January 2012. 

By March we shifted our marketing focus to working with business advisers who would in turn use Manifast to work with their clients. We would still encourage Do It Yourself (DIY) companies to use the tool as well.

More recently […]

26 Jul 2012

Little Things Matter: They Add Up to Big Things

By |2017-04-03T11:36:36-06:00July 26th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

I recently caught some of the speakers at Susan Baroncini-Moe's Guinness World Record attempt at the longest uninterrupted web cast. As of this writing she is allegedly the new record holder.

I happened to win a free copy of a book for being quick on Twitter (live Tweeting quantity). My closest competitor did taunt me mid way through (her mistake). Not that I am competitive.

It just arrived the other day in a standard brown envelope. Upon opening the envelope I saw this:

BizInBlue
Susan also […]

16 Jul 2012

Wake-up! People ARE Your Strategy

By |2017-04-03T11:36:46-06:00July 16th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

It is not customers first. It is not employees first. It is not shareholder or owners first.

It is people first. 

Take care of all the people and you are halfway to a successful business. 

You can have the most brilliant strategy on paper. You can invent a killer product or service. Without the right team you are dead in the water.

StormBrewing
Are you waiting for lightning to strike or doing the hard work of building your team?

HR is Not A Function or Silo

First the term […]

9 Jul 2012

Defying the Gurus- Don’t Pigeon-Hole Me

By |2017-04-03T11:36:59-06:00July 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing, Sales|

Marketing wisdom and search engine optimization techniques suggest narrowing the definition of what your product does so that it falls into one (or a few) categories and search terms that people would use to find it.

I get that people search for things based on what they already know.

What if your product or service defies easy categorization? For example, lots of musicians don`t fit nicely into one genre. What if your product or service spans multiple categories?

We built Manifast to help people to build their dream business and in so doing, […]