Category: Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship Leadership Uncategorized

5 Dream-Killing Qualities of Unsuccessful Entrepreneurs

Movies and novels tell us that the story of success goes something like this: Person has an innate talent. Person has a business idea. Person faces some obstacle. Person’s talent and the strength of the idea overcome said obstacle. End credits. That’s great for Hollywood, but here in this world, it’s a little different. Real success is a longer story, one that involves the purposeful cultivation of certain qualities, and the discouragement of certain others. Knowing which is which can mean the difference between black and red, no matter the talent or product.

A more realistic story of success goes something like this: Person has a big-picture view of what success means to them personally. Person calculates the long-term goals needed to live that notion. Person commits themselves to the presence of mind required to develop the right qualities and shed the wrong ones. Slowly, steadily, success comes—not in a dramatic moment of triumph, but as the accumulation of a million little decisions informed by good habits.

Obstacles come and go, but the hero of our story has already overcome the biggest of them all: the qualities and habits of mind that breed failure. Here are a few of them.

1.  Inflexibility

The inability to move is the inability to take your business where it needs to go. The inability to change is the inability to grow as an entrepreneur. The inability to switch direction is the best way to find yourself and your business lost. The entrepreneurs who succeed are the ones who respond to problems with flexibility. They don’t double down on what doesn’t work, and they don’t let their ego extend their sense of commitment to going down with the ship of a bad idea.

There’s a fine line between sticking to your guns when you know you’re right, and going full Captain Ahab. It’s important to remember that you’re serving customers; you have to cater to them, not bring them around to your way of thinking. It doesn’t mean abandoning your own values or opinions, but being a good realist. It means considering all the possibilities, even the possibility that you need to change. It means bowing to the evidence, and going where the hard truths take you.

For a great example of flexibility, look at Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, formerly best known for their record “megastores.” You won’t see those anymore, but you will see Virgin, having branched off and diversified enough to survive the collapse of the CD industry. For the opposite example, see Blockbuster, and their too-little-too-late attempt to move from storefront rentals to DVD by mail—while Netflix was moving from DVD by mail to online streaming.

2. Short-Term Thinking

Looking for quick success? Want to be an overnight millionaire? I can’t say that it’s impossible, but it’s really, really, really unlikely. So unlikely in fact that it’s not worth trying. Immediate success in business is like winning the lottery; it happens to some people, but it’s not going to happen to you. You wouldn’t consider the daily purchase of a Powerball ticket to be a serious business plan. You shouldn’t consider building just one product and “cashing in” to be one, either. Realistic success takes time and patience. It’s a long game, one that requires years of development and minor adjustments. It requires the willingness to do a million things wrong in order to get a few things right, and build on those few things until they become a lot of things.

Great writers, for example, know that they’re not going to just sit down and write a classic; they write thousands and thousands of pages that they throw in the trash, refining their game bit by bit until they produce something great. Yes, occasionally a bad fan-fic writer taps out a bestseller on her Blackberry, but 50 Shades is the exception that proves the rule, not a business model.

3. Lacking Focus

This quality is the flip side of the “inflexibility” coin. While refusing to budge when it’s time to budge is bad, refusing to give each idea and task the focus it deserves is just as deadly. Constantly flitting from thing to thing, idea to idea, product to product is how entrepreneurs fail by being too flexible. Or more accurately, too flighty.

Whatever you’re doing, do it fully, with 100% of your attention and effort, before moving to the next thing. Be disciplined with your scheduling, and give yourself the time to do each task completely. I’ve written a lot about the scourge of multi-tasking, a supposed skill that really boils down to doing several things badly at once. Don’t multi-task, and don’t do anything halfway. Every endeavor (even those that ultimately fail) deserves your all.

4. Poor Problem-Solving Skills

Business is never a straight road. It’s a maze full of puzzles and obstacles and—above all—the unexpected. Being able to work out solutions, think creatively, and innovate your way out of tight spots is a must. Solving unexpected problems with calm, clarity and a commitment to your overall vision is just as necessary a skill as any industry-specific one.

You probably already know that there’s always bumps in the road. Rather than seeing them as storms you have to endure, try to see them as opportunities to refine your problem-solving skills. See them as useful reflections of what needs improvement, and as launching pads to further success. The alternative is frustration, and too much of that will burn anyone out.

5. Ungenerosity

Being stingy with your time and resources may seem like a safe way to stay in the black, but it’s a long-term business killer. There’s a difference between being careful with your resources and being a miser. That doesn’t just apply to money; it applies to content, advice, and support for your peers.

Again, content marketing is the art of giving. It’s not the art of trading, at least not in the short term. You don’t expect a specific return for every blog, video, or webinar you produce. You simply trust that months and years of offering value will add up to a huge amount of trust and credibility, and it’s that you can use to sell your product. It all starts with being generous.

To succeed in business, you have to work on yourself. Employ good habits to make yourself more competent, more present, more mindful, and more realistic. The qualities you develop are what you’re investing into your business, as much as any amount of time or money.

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Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Uncategorized

5 Actions to Take While Business is Slow

Every business has its busy times, and its slow times. Holidays, seasonal downturns, the occasional zombie apocalypse; all of these can lead to a natural decline in sales. This is not the end of the world (except for the zombie thing). In fact, it’s an opportunity. Time you don’t spend keeping up with high sales volume is time you can devote to that which otherwise wouldn’t get much.

When sales are naturally slow (due to predictable market forces rather than a slump), you can make improvements to your business that will make the high times even more profitable. Rather than trying to boost sales through the slow season by doing promotions or events that few will attend, use the time to make your business even stronger. It means taking a more complex approach to scheduling, but if you can maximize the value of your down-time, you’ll be that much more successful.

Here are five of the most effective ways to make the most of a slow day, week, or month:

1. Take a break

Seriously. Time off is important, not just to your personal well-being, but to the health and growth of your business. If you can schedule it during a typically slow period, all the better. Entrepreneurship is a full-time job, but even the independent business person needs to let off the gas and allow themselves to forget about work from time to time. When you come back, refreshed and invigorated, you may even outperform your pre-vacation self.

2. Train

Yourself, your employees, or both. Professional development is key to the long-term success of any business, so any opportunity to focus on improving everyone’s skill set is a bonus. Identify the weakest aspect of your own business game and focus on that. Maybe you could use a crash-course in web design. Maybe you could take a public speaking course. Maybe you could bone up on your tech. Whatever it is, take the time you have and do it. For your staff, you can do team-building exercises or experimental projects. The options are myriad.

3. Fill Your Content Bank

If you read this blog regularly, you know that content marketing is my favorite kind of marketing. Content production, however, takes time. Lots of it. So when you have some to spare, it’s always a good idea to get ahead of the workload. Write as many blogs as you can and store them up for later release. Film instructional videos. Create infographics. Record podcasts, like the $100 MBA Show, which I like to pre-record and batch as far in advance as possible. Write emails for your marketing campaign. Get all your content locked and loaded for when business is back on the upswing.

4. Product Development

While you’re waiting for your current product to sell, make a new one. Write an e-book, design some software, create a new tutorial course, or simply consider what else a customer who buys your product might want. Or simply modify an existing product, add upgrades or new features, or create a supplemental companion product. Use the extra time to really explore the furthest reaches of your imagination.

Brainstorm (alone or with your team) without the pressure of having to create a product. Consider even the weirdest ideas that occur—one of them might turn out to be a great outside-the-box innovation. Time spent at the drawing board is never wasted.

5. Improve Your Website

One thing any business website needs is constant refreshment and renewal, perhaps better described as “new reasons for people to visit.” When business is naturally slow, consider a redesign. Study your analytics to see what aspects of your site are under-performing, and revamp around the goal of improving the numbers.

Alter the design, the flow of your pages, or go all-in with whole new site built from the ground up—it’s a perfect excuse to have a grand launch event to kick off the next busy cycle.

Identifying “Slow” Periods

Planning the productive use of slow periods is a game-changer, one that can give your business an extra edge. However, you’ll need to be able to anticipate those periods accurately. You’ll have to study the patterns of your industry, and your business in particular, to identify where on the calendar you can take the action of your choosing.

For example, most of the West experiences a slowdown in non-retail business around the end of the year, what with the big holidays. However, New Year’s in China is a good month or so after the ball drops in Times Square. Most people don’t alter their purchasing habits between semesters at Universities—but college students do. Every market, especially the more niche markets favored by entrepreneurs, has its own unique cycles.

Scheduling around predictable slow periods means taking a more nuanced, complex approach to your calendar. That might seem difficult at first, but the reality is that not every day, week, or month should look the same—not if you’re syncing your actions with the flow of business. Refer to your analytics and identify the slowest sales week for your business. Highlight that week for the upcoming year, and devote it to one or two of the suggestions listed above. When the week is over, you’ll be glad you did.

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Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Uncategorized

The Face of Your Business: Do You Have to be Well-Known?

Does the success of your business depend on how well-known you are? Does your profile really make the difference between black and red? Is the modern model of entrepreneurial independence more about the person than the product? Can you run your business from behind the scenes, if that’s where you’re most comfortable? Is a whole paragraph devoted to reiterating a single question really the best way to start a blog post?

I have an answer for most of those.

Many a great business runs largely on the strength of its “face,” a charismatic founder whose personal charms and apparent sincerity woo customers straight to the checkout page. Tim Ferriss, Jason Zook, and Michael Port are great examples. Their businesses are inseparable from the force of their own personalities and unique outlooks, to the point where their customers’ trust in their product is a reflection of their customers’ trust in them. But is a strong personality a necessary ingredient?

The Need For A Face

While the strength and value of your product is the bedrock of your biz, marketing is something you have to always be doing. Marketing, in a nutshell, is the act of connecting with your customers—and connecting with your customers is best accomplished by introducing yourself along with your product.

Some people are reluctant to take this approach. Some shy away from the limelight, and want their product to be the star of the show. Unfortunately, no matter how great your product is, expecting your audience to Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain makes it harder to sell. This is because today’s consumers (especially the younger ones) are used to knowing the story behind the product. This generation likes to know how the sausage is made, right down to the fitness regimen and personal hobbies of the pigs. An unwillingness to interact with the audience can even be misinterpreted as an attempt to hide something.

Consumers don’t just want to shop; they want to connect. From Rockefeller to Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg, the personality (or the perception of it) defines the business. We’re social animals—try as we might, we see everything in terms of interpersonal relations. From sports to politics to marketing, it’s simply impossible for the public to divorce their feelings about…well, anything from their perception of the people behind it.

Building Your Reputation

The biggest misconception about being the face of your business is that you have to somehow “craft” an identity with which customers can relate. Some entrepreneurs even fear that who they are isn’t “good enough” to make a favorable impression on an audience. This is a complete misunderstanding of how good, honest marketing works. It’s not about being something you’re not. It’s about doing something your audience appreciates. If you consistently provide something valuable to your audience, the only thing you have to “be” is yourself.

If you’re known as a giver, as a font of something useful to people, you’ll build the kind of personal capital that can be converted to sales. This is the essence of content marketing. Master self-marketer Seth Godin once said that the fastest way to grow a business is to become famous. You don’t have to walk the red carpet, but earning the gratitude of a wide audience and popularizing your authentic self can do more for your business than any number of pop-up ads. Eventually, people will find out about your business by researching you: not the other way around.

The key is positive familiarity. Noah Kagan sells software, but when people think of AppSumo, they think of him just as much as they think of the product. Kagan makes a purposeful effort to stay in front of his audience, speaking, presenting, touring, and dealing personally with customers. This isn’t because he couldn’t have someone else do this. It’s because he knows that familiarity with him as a person underpins the strength of his brand.

Doing the Work

While not everyone is comfortable being in the public eye, I have to strongly recommend coming out from behind the scenes. Be well known, in a positive way. Be known for your honesty, for your expertise, and for your refusal to put on a facade. Be known for being yourself, and be trusted for what you deliver. I know from experience the difference this approach makes; a substantial portion of our customers agreed to try our products because they felt like they “knew” Nicole and I well enough to put some faith in us.

Of course, it takes a long time to build that kind of reputation. With rare exceptions, it takes months and years of networking, public speaking, writing, and generally producing content. That investment of time and effort is part of the cost of doing business. Carving your public image through consistent work takes time, but it pays off. Blogging, producing videos, offering instruction—these are the bricks with which you build the audience’s image of you.

We live the Internet age. The distance between producers and consumers has narrowed drastically. If you’re not putting yourself out there, you’re not giving the audience what they need to trust you. Sharing the story behind your business, your motivations and your perspective is a huge part of what helps people decide to choose your business. Modern consumers don’t just think about the product; they think critically about its origins and the merits of the company’s overall mission. You are a part of—a massive part of—what you’re selling.

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Business School Design Entrepreneurship Uncategorized

The 3 Tech Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs

Advanced technology can be intimidating for new entrepreneurs. While the stereotype of millennials being born with smartphones in their hands has something to it, that doesn’t mean we’re all programmers or coding experts (or even millennials, for that matter). The inescapable need to be wired in to today’s online techno-scape can be a hassle for people who aren’t confident in their skills. Unfortunately for them, tech skills are becoming a requirement, even for brick-and-mortar businesses.

Fear not, though. Anyone can learn the basic tech skills that most businesses require. Even if you’re not exactly Richard Hendricks, you can do it. Even if you can’t program a VCR, you can do it. Even if you’re a person who still owns a VCR, you can do it. The key is to learn just the few most important, basic, widely-applicable skills that apply to pretty much any industry. They’re not too hard to learn. Once you’ve got them down, running your business is as easy as updating your Myspace page (first tip: do not have a Myspace page).

Full disclosure: some of the following recommendations include recommendations for products and services. Some of them have been sponsors. One of them is our own company. However, we haven’t been paid to mention any of them in this article. They are products and services we genuinely use, and we sincerely think you should, too.

1. Editing and modifying your website. Every. Business. Needs. A. Website. Even if your business isn’t an online business, your business needs to be online. That doesn’t mean you have to be a web designer (you can just pay one of those), but you should be able to update your own website when and how you choose. Otherwise, you’re surrendering too much control to whoever’s running it.

The key to a successful website—one that converts browsers to customers—is that it stays active. New blogs, new pictures, new videos, new anything keeps your website alive and interactive. Otherwise, it’s just a virtual flyer. You’ve got to know how to share the experience of running your business with your audience, and that means being able to get in there and add, subtract, or otherwise modify your site. The good news is that this doesn’t take that much skill.

You can hire someone to create your website, but part of the service they provide should be some basic training in how to do simple updates without being at the mercy of their schedule. Alternately, you can sign up for a ready-made website template service like SquareSpace, which gives you complete control of your site while doing most of the work for you. You can also create a WordPress site and use OptimizePress. You can even get a crash-course in how to run a website on Lynda.com. The resources are there, so take advantage of them.

2. Using Google Apps. Google has bestowed upon us a wealth of great business applications that everyone should be using. They’re mostly intuitive, they perform beautifully, and they do everything short of showing up to your house and doing your laundry. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, it’s all there, and it’s easy to learn how to use.

Google Calendar in particular is fantastic for scheduling, especially since the calendar can be shared among multiple employees to coordinate schedules and avoid conflicts. Sheets works like Excel, only better, and is perfect for budgeting and inventory. Any other “paperwork” can be created and shared via Google Docs, on which I’m writing this very blog.

The best part? All of it is completely mobile and accessible from any smart device. Simply set up a Gmail account, and Google’s own tutorials will show you the way.

3. Hosting webinars. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: webinars are the best way to make sales conversions. Whatever you do, whatever product or service you sell, a good webinar can establish the kind of credibility that breeds unparalleled customer loyalty. I’m not just saying this because we created our own webinar platform—quite the opposite. We created WebinarNinja because we love webinars so much.

Whichever platform you go with, you won’t regret putting on a webinar. At the very least, webinars are proven to build email lists like nothing else. As long as email marketing remains demonstrably the most effective kind, that’s something of a big deal. Learning how to host one isn’t hard, either. With some basic presentation and public speaking skills, expertise in your field, and some good intuitive software, anyone can do it. Webinar Ninja in particular features extensive tutorials.

As an entrepreneur, your job is to grow. That doesn’t mean just growing your revenue and growing your business. To do either of those, you have to grow as a business person. You have to grow in experience, in wisdom, and definitely in skills. Taking the time to learn, read, take classes, and to otherwise add skills to your arsenal is the difference between growth and stagnation. These three skills are a great place to begin, and they’ll open the door to even more growth down the road.

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Entrepreneurship Uncategorized

The “Lifestyle” Business: Real or Myth?

If you’ve waded into the world of independent business, by now you’ve heard the stories (and maybe seen the ads) of “lifestyle” entrepreneurs. These tantalizing tales tout an approach to business that’s centered on living the dream—usually a dream of a beach, a laptop, an incredibly short workday, and the universal jealousy of all humanity. These lucky so-and-so’s travel the globe, soaking up the various rays available in the picturesque locales from which they post the photo evidence of their special brand of success.

The question is: is any of this real?

As someone smarter than I once noticed, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. That doesn’t mean that the lifestyle business is total BS, though. It just means that what you see in the blog post or on the self-empowering advertisement is leaving out a few less glamorous aspects. Deciding whether to trust in the picture these businesses paint requires a certain measure of cynicism, and the will to ask yourself what kind of “lifestyle” is really right for you.

What Are They Again?

Lifestyle businesses are those that free you from the more traditionally scheduled, location-bound grind that characterizes so much of modern work. It’s defined by a lot of freedom, both in terms of time and travel, as well as a certain vague sense of having gamed the system or having “hacked” life in general. It’s enticing, partly because it’s wonderful, but mostly because the person touting it is trying to sell you something.

Thing is, the elements that characterize the lifestyle business are attainable. Depending on the type of business you want to run, you can make frequent travel a staple of your life. My partner Nicole and I travel extensively while still managing the far-flung remote team that powers our online company. Both ourselves and our employees have flexible schedules, and none of us ever find ourselves staring at a clock, waiting to be released from a cubicle. We’re more free than the vast majority of white-collar office employees, and frankly, it’s as wonderful as it sounds.

But that’s not the whole story.

The privilege of all that freedom comes with a heaping helping of responsibility. Because we’re not clocking in or out, it’s up to each of us to self-discipline in order to keep production on schedule. When we travel, we have to make sure that we’ll have everything from a quiet room to reliable Internet access in order to stay on top of things. We have to accommodate the diverse needs and schedules of team members from Atlantic City to California to the Pacific Islands. While we often walk in the park, it’s not always a walk in the park.

Too Good To Be True?

Some entrepreneurs are selling the lifestyle as a product. So we’re absolutely clear: there’s nothing wrong with selling a product that legitimately seeks to help other entrepreneurs build the life they want for themselves (we here at the $100 MBA would be in a pretty awkward position otherwise). That said, if the product being sold is a promised result as opposed to a set of tools or a base of knowledge, those red flags can’t be raised high enough.  Working an hour or two per day? A beach, a laptop, and not a care in the world? To quote a great philosopher, c’mon now. Nobody builds a successful, sustainable business with minimal effort like that. If anyone has, and can prove it, feel free to take over this blog.

If the lifestyle approach is being marketed to you in a way that makes it seem glamorous and easy, there’s something amiss. Real business is work. It can be fulfilling, and it should always feel worth it, but it’s work. Those who sell the dream but refuse to acknowledge the dream’s price are not to be trusted, no matter how refreshing their Mai-Tai looks.

For example, they may only work a few hours a day now. More than likely, they got to that point by working 12 hours a day for years to begin with. They may travel the globe, but have to stay put for 6 months out of the year. They may live full-time in an exotic, tropical locale, enjoying the fruits of global connectivity, but that’s probably because the cost of living is so low in those locations that a meager salary by American standards goes a much longer way for those willing to do without certain first-world comforts.

Defining Your Lifestyle

Independence in business comes down to what you want, and what your own personal idea of a worthwhile “lifestyle” is. In business, the more time and effort you put in, the better your results will be. That means following your passion and finding the work you want to do, even when it’s hard. It doesn’t mean finding some magical path to Easy Street.

The freedom we entrepreneurs seek isn’t easy to obtain. Otherwise, everyone would do it. What matters most isn’t some fantasy of an easy-breezy existence, but the privilege of doing work that you care about, and earning enough to be satisfied on your own terms.

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How Hard Are You Working?

Let’s talk about effort. Usually, when someone gets an “A” for it, that’s just a nice way of saying they’ve failed to achieve their goal. That may sound a little harsh, but the danger is real. Starting and running a viable business isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen by accident. Most people know it requires hard work. What many don’t realize, though, is that it can’t be just any hard work. It requires the right kind of hard work—the kind that’s measured in results, not sweat.

This issue is hard to discuss. To suggest that someone’s business isn’t making it because they’re not working hard enough dismisses a whole host of other factors, some of which are beyond anyone’s control. While hard-working people do fail in business, it’s obviously not because they’re not working hard. It’s often because they’re not working hard correctly.

Work That Works

While there is a minimum amount of effort required to make a business work, not all effort is created equal. Different kinds of effort yield different results. Efficient effort powers a successful business, while inefficient effort creates fatigue, frustration, and little by way of profit. That statement may have caused your Obvious Alarm to dance itself off the shelf, but knowing the difference is trickier than you might think.

Mainly, it comes down to your use of time. The same number of hours used in two different ways can produce wildly different results. That’s not to say that 5 hours spent working hard is better than 5 hours spent half-assing it. We know that already. It’s not to say that 5 hours spent on top-priority work is better than 5 hours spent on less important things—we know that, too. It’s to say that 5 hours applied in a consistent, focused manner is better than 5 hours spent busting your hump without a specific goal in mind for those 5 hours.

For example, if you were to take a 5-hour period in which you worked on your blog, your web design, and your product development, all while catching up on emails, answering phone calls, and keeping an eye on analytics, you would be working very, very hard. You would also be wasting a great deal of that effort. 5 hours spent multitasking is a productivity killer. Any time spent multitasking is a productivity killer. Overwhelming yourself with a heaping handful of various tasks with divergent goals is unlikely to move your business forward. You’ll put a dent in each broad goal while only “moving the ball” a yard or two.

Imagine instead 5 hours spent blogging. 5 hours devoted single-mindedly to writing a week’s worth of quality blogs, as part of a well-scheduled overall production strategy, would do more for your business than 10 hours of doing whatever comes up. 5 hours alone, without an Internet connection, simply zoning in on a week’s worth of writing would mean two things: vastly better blogs, and the complete removal of something from your very crowded plate.

Of course, 5 hours of focused work will feel different from 5 hours of multitasking. It may even feel easier. It may seem like not-as-hard work. The frazzled multitasking might make you sweat, but it’s the focused, mindful work that’s more effective. It’s the classic definition of working smarter as opposed to harder: calmly knocking tasks off the list one at a time instead of flailing in multiple directions without an endgame in mind.

Measuring Hard Work

Are you doing everything you can? Are you working as hard as you can? The answer is more complicated than how tired you are, or how little free time you have. Hard work shouldn’t be measured in human suffering. It should be measured in terms of consistency and results. Instead of asking how many hours you’ve put in, ask what you’ve gotten out of those hours.

Chart your progress in terms of production. How much closer to your yearly goal did you get this quarter? How much closer to your quarterly goal did you get this month? How much closer to your monthly goal this week? Your weekly goal today? If you’re simply “working hard” by tiring yourself out, the answers to those questions may be sobering.

The scary truth is this: there are entrepreneurs who give it their all, who put in 12 to 16 hour days, and still fail. They put in the work, but it’s unfocused, and most importantly it’s out of context. What you’re doing with each hour should fit into a grander scheme for how you plan to realize a specific set of sub-goals, within another set of sub-goals, maybe even within another set, in service to your overall mission.

Consistency is Key

Rather than asking yourself how much sweat you’re putting in, or even how much time, ask yourself how consistently you’re working week after week. How consistently you work will have a far greater impact on your business than how much you work. One, two or three hours of work every day, consistently, will move you closer to your business goals than the same number of hours spread scattershot over the course of the month. It’s also more effective than the massive but unsustainable level of effort many new business people put into their goals at the outset, only to taper off as the weeks go by.

Again, working a moderate amount of hours consistently may not feel as “hard” as going all-out does. You may not feel as stressed. You may not feel as drained. But your productivity in the long term will reflect this smarter approach to working hard. That’s because real progress in business requires one thing that only consistency can build: momentum.

Momentum propels business in a way that sheer effort never can. It’s the difference between pushing something forward and rolling it: one is definitely harder, but the other goes way, way farther. By working consistently, you build and sustain a momentum that becomes multiplied by its own energy. It’s less stressful, but it takes a level of commitment that can sometimes be more of a challenge than “harder” work done inconsistently.

The reality is that no matter how smart, well-intentioned, or even hard-working an entrepreneur may be, no independent business can succeed without the right brand of hard work. It’s simply the price of admission. Honestly assess the amount of work you’re doing, but also the way you’re doing it. With the right understanding of the concept, your hard work will yield the results you deserve.

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Entrepreneurship Uncategorized

Staying Authentic in Business

There’s a sad story I often hear. An entrepreneur starts a business. To make it grow, he projects a certain image. He strives for credibility with his audience by telling them what he thinks they want to hear. After a while, the entrepreneur realizes something: he’s no longer himself. His personality, his ideals, his character are all changed. Or, he’s so far from the person who started the business that he feels like two people: one real but forgotten, one successful but artificial. For the sake of his business, he’s become…phony.

In the quest for success, we run the risk of becoming something we’re not. Of course the journey changes us. Of course we grow and evolve as our business does. That’s natural, but when we become something alien to ourselves, we know instinctively that something’s wrong. How can we avoid that fate? How can we keep the momentum of business from propelling us away from our authentic selves?

There is a way. It comes down to consciousness, mindfulness, and a purposeful choice to build our businesses around the truth. It’s good for us, and it’s good for the bottom line.

Start with Authenticity

If you’re just starting your business, it’s important to make an early commitment to authenticity. That means introducing yourself, and not some version of yourself, to your audience from the start. Very often, new entrepreneurs are tempted to put on a show, to wear a persona that they think will be more marketable than their honest selves. The irony is that this usually has the opposite effect.

The urge to create a business persona is based on one thing: the fear that you aren’t good enough. The notion that we’re somehow inadequate drives us to concoct an idea of someone our audience will trust, and then pretend to be that person. Think about that. No one can actually read the minds of any group and know what they want to hear (though some marketers claim to). More importantly, do you really want the audience you’d gain through manipulation? Do you really think you could sustain it if you did?

Start as yourself, uncompromisingly and unreservedly. Whatever audience you attract will be an audience that trusts the real you, and that’s worth more than all the artificial persona-marketing money can buy. As someone smart once said, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. From what I’ve seen, that hasn’t stopped some people from trying— but the cost to their well-being is high, and the profits don’t last for long.

Embrace Your Shortcomings

Part of being authentic is recognizing, acknowledging, and being honest about your flaws. The first mistake people make when crafting a business persona (besides doing so at all) is to project perfection. Someone who claims to have complete mastery, flawless skills, or complete expertise is taking their customers for a ride. It’s much better to be forthcoming about your imperfections— both for your business and for your peace of mind.

Does this mean you should celebrate your weaknesses, or accept limitations that you could potentially overcome? Of course not. But pretending your weaknesses don’t exist is a fool’s errand, and it’ll cost you credibility. Honesty, on the other hand, has two positive effects. First, it paints you as trustworthy, and makes consumers more likely to believe what you say about your product. Second, it forces you to identify the aspects of your game that need improvement.

It can be awkward, even painful to publicly acknowledge your weak points. But trusting in your authentic self is well worth it. Customers ultimately want to buy from someone to whom they can relate. Perfection isn’t relatable to anyone. The way to build real brand loyalty is to deliver real value while being a real person.

Choose Authenticity

Authenticity is no accident. It’s something you consciously choose, and constantly rededicate yourself to. It requires mindfulness, a practice that’s been gaining steam in the West over the last few years. Linked to and supported by secular meditation practices, mindfulness is very simply the act of paying attention to everything— including your mental and emotional states.

It means reminding yourself to be authentic. The temptation to fake it, or give your business over to a persona, can be a subtle one. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re doing it! Sometimes we can even convince ourselves that the persona is authentic, because we want to feel both honest and better than we really are by letting a few carefully crafted “flaws” show— while still hiding our true selves.

That’s why it’s so important to consciously make the effort to examine (and reexamine) your motives. The support of friends and family is helpful. When you’re speaking to your audience (or writing to them), ask yourself: Would I say this to someone who really knew me well, and would they recognize it as coming from the real me? You can even ask directly. Show friends your videos, your blogs, your pitch. Ask them: is this me? Is this genuine? They might know better than you do.

Be a Sensei, Not a Guru

One of the most tempting personas an independent business person can create is The Guru. Descended from the mountaintop, The Guru has an almost mythical level of expertise. Their wisdom is unfathomable to the customer, who is asked to trust in their brilliance. Follow me, says The Guru, and I’ll make your dreams come true.

Bullshit. You know that your customers are responsible for their own dreams. What you offer them is tools, and support, and the benefit of whatever experience you’ve accrued. That’s good enough, because it’s all anyone can offer. You can’t solve the customer’s problem; you can identify it, and offer something to help them solve it. No more. Anyone who claims otherwise is wearing the mantle of fake authority.

Rather than proclaiming yourself the messiah, keep it 100. You do have something valuable to offer customers, you do know more than they do, and you can help them— without the self-aggrandizement. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who tell their audience how they’ve learned what they’ve learned, how much they still have to learn, and how valuable their mistakes have been.

Rather than being The Guru, be the Sensei. The term “sensei” literally translates to “someone who has gone before you.” That’s it. Not “expert,” not “magic genie,” not even “teacher,” though that’s how teachers are addressed. The concept is that some of us have traveled a little further down the road than others, and can share their experience in a way that’s helpful. It doesn’t imply status so much as value.

Authenticity is an intangible, but it’s as important to your business prospects as it is to your personal ones. By truly being yourself, you not only free yourself from the burden of a lie, you guarantee that your approach, and your product, will be as unique as you are. That’s not just healthy, it’s a solid business strategy.

Tell the truth, and you can sell the truth.