​My adult daughter has a group of “best friends”. They are actively working to decrease self-negativity in their conversations. If someone says a line such as, “I am stupid.” while in the group, she is rewarded with playful arm punches as a reminder that words can hurt.

Megan recently told one of her friends, “I am unhappy with my body and I want to lose ten pounds of fat.” After her friend punched her, she protested because she did not feel her statement was self-demeaning. She stated a fact and expressed her proposed solution. She did not say, “I am a fat pig and completely useless.”

My daughter is thin, so most people would wonder why she would want to lose ten pounds of fat. Do I think she could lose ten pounds of fat? Yes… she keeps stealing all my chocolate and has some small “love handles”. Someone seeing her in any clothes other than a bikini might think she has a warped body image, however she enjoys competing in beauty pageants and she does some modeling where her chocolate weight will be noticed and judged.

Acknowledging your weaknesses and working to improve them is not negative, however when people think of self-improvement, they often focus their attention on their weaknesses. This can quickly lead you down the rabbit hole of beating yourself up about past failures or make you feel like you have too many weaknesses to overcome.

While negative self-improvement can send you in a downward spiral, unrealistic positivity is just as damaging.

Unrealistic positivity is when you ignore your weaknesses even if they are severely hindering your progress. Megan also belongs to a few “positivity” groups on Facebook. When she asks for ideas to help her overcome a weakness she is often met with ostrich advice or advice that does not offer a solution.

She recently posted in a group, “I am very creative and start lots of projects, however I have trouble completing them. How do I overcome this bad habit?” The advice ranged from, “It is not a bad habit; just accept it as part of you.” to “Team up with or hire someone who is good at follow through.”

Megan just finally graduated from a 1-year massage program after four years. Her lack of follow up IS a bad habit. She feels the weight of those unfinished projects and it affects her positivity. She is working very hard this year to complete several projects and massage school was the first project on her list. I am proud of her for pulling her head out of the sand and saying, “You can not expect others to do tasks they are not required to do.” Yes, the massage school was partially to blame for the extra time, however her lack of follow through probably added two of those four years.

The advice to team up with or hire someone who is good at follow through is not necessarily bad, however as she starts her massage business once she gets her license, she will be starting without clients and it may take a year or two to have a consistent enough cash flow to realistically hire an assistant. She needs to find ways to keep herself motivated in the start-up phase and that is why she was asking for help.

Megan also asked one of the groups for tips on getting rid of negativity and instead of replies such as, “I turn on my favorite jam when I feel negative.” or “I hit the gym and do 20 minutes as fast as I can on the stair master.” she received replies such as, “It is all mindset, just change your thoughts.” Of course, none of the mindset replies offered any suggestions as to how someone would actually change their mindset.

It is important to stay positive, focus on your strengths and work through or around (not ignore) your weaknesses.

Positivity alone is not enough to drive success. You can create an excellent vision for your personal life or business and stand in front of your mirror and recite your vision each day. What do you have a year later? A perfectly memorized vision and an awareness of where every freckle on your face is located.

You can recite, “I will lose 10 pounds of fat.” every day until you are blue in the face, however if you never work out or stop eating all your mom’s chocolate chances are in a year you will be reciting, “I will lose 15 pounds of fat.”

Add action steps and be proactive with your positivity and you will start to see your vision come to life.

Until next time…

Have a great day
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!

I still hear people say, “My product is for everyone.” It may be true that anyone COULD use your product, however everyone does not WANT to use your product and, therefore your product is not for them. Trying to chase every prospect that could use your product is a sure way to never see a profit in your business. How can you possibly develop effective marketing strategies and tools without knowing exactly who you should be talking to?

I came across a story I think explains this concept very well. There are two hunters; one has a shotgun, the other a rifle. Some ducks fly overhead and the hunter with the shotgun jumps up and shoots wildly at the whole bunch. He thinks since he has a shotgun he should be able to hit one of the ducks. But he did not wait until he saw the ducks, and he shot too soon. He completely misses the whole bunch, and the ducks veer off towards the hunter with the rifle.

The hunter with the rifle stands quietly watching the ducks fly overhead. He sets his sight on the biggest, fattest duck in his scope, holds his breath and fires. He does not miss, and he gets to eat roast duck for supper that night, while the hunter with the shotgun goes hungry.

You can think of your marketing the same way. There is an old marketing saying: "Target everyone and you target no one". If you simply fire wildly at the whole market using a shot-gun effect, you are liable to miss everyone. However, if you research your target market and take aim at it with carefully thought-out marketing strategies, you are liable to hit your target again and again.  

Does it make more sense to you to fire wildly at the whole bunch or to take careful aim, one shot at a time? Yes, your target is smaller, but every shot is going to count! Which means, the chances of hitting your target are that much greater.

So how do you go about defining your target market? You could start by asking questions. Brainstorm. Talk to friends, family, neighbors. Are they interested in your product or service? Would they buy it? Why or why not? You need to know who your best target is. Get down to the bare-bone details. You want to know them well.

If your business has a consumer target market, you will want to know:
     • Are they women, men or both? 
     • How much money do they earn?  
     • What do they do for a living?  
     • What level of education do they have?
     • How do they spend their extra cash  
     • Are they married, single, divorced?
     • Do they have children?
     • What kind of lifestyle do they lead?
     • What are their attitudes and beliefs?
     • What are their interests?  

If your target market is business to business, you will want to know:
     • Type of industry
     • Annual sales
     • Number of employees
     • Their location
     • Who makes the decisions

Once you have finished, you should have a good idea who your target market is.  You might even want to go one step further and write a statement defining your ideal target market client.   

Here is an example for a weight loss product.  “Our typical client is a young, married mother in her late twenties to mid-thirties looking to lose post-pregnancy weight.”

Finding your target market will help you identify marketing strategies that will work, and it will focus your marketing message because you will know exactly who you are talking to.

Until next time…

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!

​Do you have a crystal-clear, finely-polished Why statement for your business? I know you hear everywhere you need to have a compelling vision and mission statement to share with the world. (Vision and mission statement are simply other terms for a Why statement.) If you have those, kudos to you, you are a step ahead of most of us. I know too many people who spend years trying to craft the perfect Why statement. They stall their business growth because they think they can not move forward without that crystal-clear vision.

Do you really need to have a Why statement for your business? The proponents of creating vision and mission statements tout the advantages as defining your company’s direction, deciding your core business model, creating an image of the future, focusing your business decisions, setting tracking parameters and more. With all those benefits you should obviously drop everything and get your Why statement set in concrete, right?

I am going to let you in on a little secret… your vision and mission will change. If you are in business for any length of time, your vision and mission will change multiple times. I started my business because I did not want to go through the interview process in a depressed job market. That was my Why for Now and I went with it. I did not want to cure cancer, leave a legacy for my children or make one million dollars - I simply did not think I was hirable in the job market. Four years later I still do not have a perfect Why statement, yet my business keeps growing.

Why? Because I do not let the lack of a “perfect” Why slow me down. Do not let it slow you down either. If your Why for Now is that you are a stay-at-home mom and you want more interaction with adults, go with it. If your Why for Now is that you want to have a side-business because your profession is unstable, go with it.

How do you define your company’s direction, decide your core business model, create an image of the future, focus your business decisions, set tracking parameters and more without a Why statement? A business plan lays out all this information. I know you may be thinking you need to be chained to a desk for days compiling your business data into pages of text, spreadsheets and projections for a business plan to be effective. However, that is simply not the case.

I have designed the One-page Business Plan to be a yearly process, so you only need to create a Why for the coming year. What is the big goal you want to achieve during the next 12 months? That is as far as your Why for Now needs to reach. I do my One-page Business Plan during the second half of December or early January each year to coincide with the tax year. At least 95 percent of my monetary transactions have been completed by mid-December, so I have pretty accurate data to access for my plan. If you are not currently working with a business plan when you read this, do not wait for December. Your plan year can range through whichever dates you choose.

My 2018 Why for Now is a wheelchair-accessible van. That is why I am working this year. Take the time to choose your Why for Now and get your business plan in place. I offer a training called Creating a One-page Business Plan which walks you through a step-by-step process to get your plan in place, however there are other programs available from other instructors so choose someone you would like to work with.

A written business plan is an essential tool to enable you to grow your business. Quit wasting time creating an elaborate Why statement and start planning to grow your business.

Until next time…

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!