Are you on Holiday?

Sometimes what I do is just ‘putting on lipstick’. Your Thing might be like that too?

My Thing is that I ‘find’ people’s Things–I don’t create them/make them/invent them as they are already there. But what I do (as an outsider, which makes it a lot easier) is to ‘see’ what people don’t see for themselves. And then the next stage is usually to tidy it all up and ‘put on lipstick’.

When you can tightly package what you do and can explain it easily then you’ll sell more of it.

Much as many of us don’t want to think what we ‘do’ can be put into a box, actually if you do that you’ll sell it much more easily.

When you wrap up what you do and present it to people in such a way that they ‘get it’ quickly, easily and can clearly see if it’s what they need, they are much more likely to buy it.

We’re often discouraged from talking about money as it’s not good manners, and I’m still quite the fan of not ‘banging on about’ at every opportunity. For example, I’ve never been one to market what I do in terms ‘work with me and you’ll make lots of money’. But you want to make sure that, after all your costs and expenses, there is at least enough left over to pay you–the business owner–a salary or wage AND ideally that there is extra for putting back into the business or taking as a bonus.

Get ready for an overload of metaphors. This whole blog is a giant metaphor for business as far as I see it, with lots of lessons and smaller metaphors along the way. Hold on tight (I was)!

So I need to clarify what I am going to write about… it’s about my circus skills (or lack thereof). It’s about me ‘learning’ the Trapeze.

What your Thing isn’t is as important as what it is. Sometimes it’s expected that when you’re good at something you’re good at ALL of it. Take Marketing (for an example close to my heart!): I LOVE ideas, strategy, plans, visions, creative concepts, copy and the communication side of Marketing. Do I love the stats, […]

If you don’t want to tear your hair out with your marketing, I’d highly recommend you only focus on people with their hands up (or at the very least on people who have them hanging loosely by their sides!).

And then there are the other people–the people who have their hands firmly pressed down against their sides. Under no circumstances are they interested in your Thing. Not now, not ever. They just don’t get your Thing, they don’t want your Thing, they don’t need your Thing. Your Thing is not for them. So don’t market to them!