Each Day

Erica Marshall muddyboots.org

I've written a few posts here about what I can do for a small business.
I probably write less about what I am doing. Today is one of those days where I am simply teary about the kinds of connections I make in the work and how it all somehow meshes together to create this amazing thing I call my life.

People come to me with a vision. Maybe they are in it or maybe it's just a dream. For me to do what I do best, I have to understand and actually feel their passion. I get drawn into the details of this thing they want so badly to do. I see it from behind their eyes, or nearly so. I get the excitement of their dream to propel that dream forward.

It's a morphogenesis state I'm in when I immerse myself in the lives and visions of my clients. To say "vision" is to say that we are looking into the future. It's that balance of being clear about exactly where we are and where that vision is going to take us. That's the line I walk. That's the "space I keep" for each and every person I work with.

I cannot tell you how many times I say, "If you really want to do this, I'm here to help you make that happen". I will take them through the steps to get them there, but ultimately it's about a client's commitment to their own dream.

Ultimately, I'm coming to a place where I think that we should all have mentors for everything we want to do. It takes a measure of humility to come forward and say, "I don't know how to do this. Will you show me?" I honor those people who can come to me and ask and listen and work with me. I value their dreams and visions for what they see as possible and I ask them to dream it even bigger. For all of us.

What is it Again?

image by Kevin Zim

The question that I find myself asking people a lot lately and gets asked of me in return is:

What is this?
What is this thing you have that you want to sell to people?
What is the reason you feel compelled to do this?
What makes this important to others?
What do you have that no one else has?
What are you bringing to this table of commerce?

I deal in ideas more than objects. Ideas are still things. When ideas stop being things, like the flow of so much information, it starts to get abstract. New rules apply. It all gets way more complicated. Except for this:

What do you value?
What do others value?

Nothing changes because we're in the "Information Age". We still mean that we need to find a way to quantify things. There are enumerable ways to quantify this ether in which we communicate our ideas. Don't let it get the best of you. The clicks, the impressions, the bytes.

There are mathematicians who understand things we cannot see. Too complex for the rest of us. That doesn't mean those things don't exist, but our ability to grab those concepts or not is very much the basis of our ability to function and succeed with our business. How long ago was the dot com crash? And still, especially in marketing and social media we are getting lost again in vague notions that we are banking on to build our businesses.

Sometimes we need to hire and trust people who understand things that we cannot. Just make sure that from time to time, you ask yourself those basic "what" questions. Keep the spirit of those questions alive when you're talking SEO, or numbers with a CFO. It's still stuff. Hopefully it's stuff that you really care about, are even passionate about. That's what makes you an entrepreneur. No one's making you do this. Remember the passion. Keep that with you.

The Security of a Paycheck...

image by Tyson Crosbie

...NOT!
Is that what we're learning in this recession? It's been at least 20 years since I read about the nature of the "Modern" business world. Our country is still suffering from the non-education of our workers. A person learns a job and the incentive to pick up new skills can be nil. It's been said that the responsibility of the Employer in today's business world is to give their employee the opportunity to have a job for "some period" of time. The responsibility of the individual is to learn as many new skills as possible to jettison them into the next job.

Even though this was stated as the new world of business some decades ago, it clearly has not been adopted in many failing industries. So, when I ask people what they have to lose by striking out on their own, they talk about that paycheck security, or that Health Insurance security.

At this time when we have been debating the heck out of the current state of healthcare, I was recently interviewed by BusinessWeek about just this topic. If you're not starting your dream business because of needing health insurance, we really do have a crisis. This is something that I've heard very little debate about. Considering the fact that our government touts our ability to innovate and the power of the Entrepreneur, this surprises me.

Inasmuch as I don't really like posting rants, this one is a long time coming, people! To say that you see the future is all about the Entrepreneur is just great, if you give us the incentives to do our thing. The New York Times sees yet another trend, the Accidental Entrepreneur. Given the right support from mentors like myself and our society, there may still be an upside to the downturn in our economy.

Here's hoping!

What Should You be Asking?

Sometimes my personal experiences of doing business fall right into my lap as blog posts. As I have said many times, we all need a mentor. This one is as much about me as it is you.

The question I would like to hear more of my clients asking is: What do I need to do to make my business more successful?

Often my initial sessions with folks focus on things that they feel have gone wrong in the past months or the past years. What I hear a lot of is:

• I guess people don't really want the good stuff any more because they're rather shop in a big store.
• Everyone wants something for nothing!
• All I do is work and I feel like no one gets how much work goes into what I do!
• Things just aren't the way they used to be...

What pattern do you see here? I see blaming outside sources.

Another way of looking at all of their situations is:

• How can I find the people who want the good stuff I make?
• People value what they pay for. How can I rise to the level of getting those folks to pay me?
• How can I tell the amazing story of what I do that will build my brand and what I do?
• Things change all the time. How can I be light on my feet to RESPOND to the constant change?

See the difference? One is taking responsibility and one is blaming. I know this isn't a couple's therapy session here, but finding a solution is what I'm all about. I can hear your pain about what's not working and how that's hard for you. I am about making the changes to get you where you want to go.

Change takes work. Having your own business takes an enormous amount of work. The upside is that when everything is going well, you made it happen. It cannot be a one way street: When things go poorly it's everyone else failing you and when things go right, you're a star. Nope. You get both sides, that's the deal.

How am I Different?

I spend hours talking to my clients about one of the basics of Marketing: Differentiating. I ask how they are different than other people who seem to be doing the same stuff.

15 years ago when I started working as a consultant, I really didn't think very much about that for myself. My main focus at that time was setting up financial systems and processes for very small companies and I didn't have much competition in my market.

Now, as a business mentor I have plenty of competition. I started this blog as a way for you to all get to know me. I ramped up my social media marketing and published articles elsewhere as well. In all this flurry of activity, I've been following many other folks who market themselves under this or a similar label. As I've ready their advice and watched their approach, it's been hard for me to pin down exactly what it is about me that's different. I was, like my clients, in that moment, unable to see the forest for the trees.

When posting a comment on small biz on Linkedin, it came to me: I've come from a family of entrepreneurs. It's all I've really ever known!

Many professionals enter the world of consulting after leaving the corporate world. That, for the most part is my competition. I have in fact worked in the corporate world, as a GM, CFO, CEO, all on a contract basis. The "lure of the paycheck" has never really worked on me. It's taken me quite a long time and many conversations for me to realize because from childhood, my vision of the world was shaped by the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

My first business at around age 7 was to collect wildflowers and make miniature arrangements and sell them door to door in my neighborhood. I remember this clear as day, but honestly cannot explain it given my self proclaimed identity as an introvert. (Uh, until recently...)

My first "real job" at 17 was helping this woman, who had been away from her brownstone for 10 years, renting to grad students. I keept her cool and calm and sorted through 10 years of her life and organized a sale. It was exciting and I felt like I was using all my abilities. When I headed off to college late that Summer, it was confusing in comparison. It seemed to unfocused to me.

So here I am, all these years later, telling you a bit more about how I might be able to figure out your situation and help you along the sometimes rocky road of small business. I'm not matching it to a certain business model or "ideal". Instead, I'm finding a way for you to do what you want to do and have it support you. It's what I know, down to my bones.

Shall I be corny for a moment? Your dreams are my business. Bring them to me and let's see what we can do.

Tides

Is it just a tidal change that will reverse itself naturally or a drought on the way?

Yeah, I get that we're in a recession. But your business will have it's own tides in addition to the tides of the greater marketplace. How do you tell your own from the ocean's tides? To some extent you can't. That is, if you haven't been keeping really clear records of your sales income from previous periods.

Most likely you may know exactly what you're sold in the past, but to whom and why are two more questions you may be less clear on. When you wrote your business plan you were asked to project income in different market sectors and income in different price points. Then you projected that further down the line for 3 or more years. Have you gone back and looks at those budget vs actual numbers?

When there's a crisis afoot in business, folks can be very quick to make changes. After all, agility and flexibility is what it's all about. But, if you don't go back and take a really close look at what's going on, putting your assumptions aside, you may be moving in the wrong direction.

Moving your whole fleet of products to take advantage of a little change in wind direction is a very expensive ordeal. It maybe a passing trend and perhaps holding right and developing the good thing you have to make it better might make more sense. Just like the captain of a ship, one needs to keep on eye on the horizon and the icebergs to your side. It's not an either/or proposition. Both must be done, simultaneously.

How well do Captains sleep? Maybe not so well, but such is the life of someone navigating the ever changing tides of business

Creative Business

Next Monday, July 20th, I'll be doing a tele interview for the blog Woman on Quilts at 5pm PDT. The focus will be creating and business. Call in and have the opportunity to ask questions on the many different facets of this topic!